War Core Wednesday! War Core 3, Chapter 23.

Chapter 23.

A doorway on the far wall opened to reveal a continuation of the canyon they were in. Directly in front of Hugh were three structures, a command post, a barracks, and a smaller third building that was new to him. Hugh waved the team forward, their mechs stomping onto the rocky soil of the canyon floor, small puffs of dust were seen wherever their feet landed, and he worried for a moment that there might be another sand demon lurking somewhere nearby, but if the soil here was sturdy enough to support the enormous structures of a base, it was likely too much for the monsters to move through.

Your progress is halted here as your opponent enjoys their time advantage. When the timer finishes counting down, you may link up with your base. Do you wish to review the parameters of this battle while you wait? Y/N.

Their mechs all went idle, and Hillman’s even fell onto its side when his mech froze with a leg still hovering in the air as he prepared to take his next step. A quick check showed that comms between them were also out. There would be no coordination between the team before the countdown finished. The clock had started at six minutes, which didn’t seem like too much of an advantage unless the enemy command post was just around the curve of the canyon. He could see about five hundred meters from their position before the canyon turned to the right. With nothing else to do, Hugh accepted the chance to review the battle parameters.

In the final stage of this trial, the structures under your control are all operated automatically. The factory will produce mechs that will march toward the enemy core on the most direct route possible, engaging any hostiles in their way. Your command post and barracks will slowly improve over time, and you will be offered various options to guide their development. A third building, the personal armory will be available to your team for upgrades to all pod-controlled mechs. Resources for these upgrades are gained slowly over time, but you will receive a boost when your team destroys enemy mechs or damages their structures.

Unique structure control cube detected, The Hive of the Widow. To activate this structure, find an appropriate interface somewhere inside the canyon. Do this quickly, the interface is vulnerable and may be destroyed by your opponent's forces if they reach it before you do. Other structures may be found inside the canyon, defeat their defenders, and claim them for your use. Remember that if any of your pod-controlled mechs are destroyed, the operators will also be terminated. If your personal mech is destroyed, all your pod-operated mechs will be terminated.

So, it was going to be like his initial tutorial, where he had limited control over the mechs produced. The tutorial units weren’t controlled by combat pods, and other than the soldiers under his command, neither would any of the new mechs he produced. Hopefully, when he interfaced with the command post it would at least give him the simple options he had in training, the ability to order units to attack, retreat, and defend. The heavy lifting for this fight was going to be on the shoulders of his team, but to engage the enemy directly would also increase the risk of losing someone.

Hugh didn’t know who his opponent was just yet. He assumed it would be a Ssath, but that wasn’t guaranteed, the universe was full of species that wouldn’t hesitate to destroy humanity if they could. He tried to plan for the battle, but there were too many unknowns right now, and the countdown timer was about to finish. With a jolt, power and control were returned to his mech. Hugh opened a comm channel to the team as he rushed toward the command post.

“Did you guys get any messages from the GCA?” Hugh asked. If they were already up to speed on the type of battle they were facing, it would save some time.

“Roger that, sir, I got a rundown of the battle parameters, did everyone else?” Sergeant Marthman asked. The rest of the team confirmed they knew what they were facing.

“I’ll activate the structures, Sergeant, take everyone except for Burnette and start scouting. We need to find the location for our Hive of the Widow before the other side takes it out,” Hugh ordered. He wanted at least one soldier with him, which would still leave Sergeant Marthman with most of their firepower. As Hugh stopped at the command post, the others pushed past, moving deeper into the canyon. Their comms held up fine as they walked around the bend, the GCA gear didn’t seem to be affected by line-of-sight issues. He hadn’t worried about it too much, but it would be right up the GCA’s alley to spice up the fight by cutting off comms.

Command post active. All structures are Level 0.

Progress to level 1, 0%

Barracks production will now commence. Defensive garrison troops will be produced first. Improve the level of your base to increase the production rate and the effectiveness of the units it produces.

Personal Armory Resources: 0.

Okay, they were up and running. The enemy had a six-minute jump start on them, so they likely had produced their defensive garrison troops and were now pumping out mechs that were heading toward their base. He was confident that Marthman’s forces could handle any AI-controlled, tier zero mechs, the only wildcard was the question of how many pod-controlled soldiers the enemy had under their command.

“Sir, we’ve got a branch in the pathway, one heading north, and the other west,” what are your orders?” Marthman asked.

“It’s a risk, but we need to know what’s out there, leave Dalven where you’re at, he can join with me and Burnette, we’ll scout to the east. You and the others head toward the north. Try not to get too heavily engaged if you run into the enemy, if they’re too strong, fall back to the intersection and we’ll group up,” Hugh ordered, taking a quick look at the Personal Armory before moving out.

Personal Armory, Level 0.

Current Resources: 1.

1. Ammunition module, tier 0, 5 resources.

2. Minor repair module, tier 0, 5 resources.

3. Minor armor module, tier 0, 5 resources.

Hugh had no idea how the tier of the ammo and repair modules would affect them, or if the cost would increase as the armory reached a higher level. For now, he only had one resource point so there was no way to test it. At least he had gained a point, that meant the flow of resources was happening, despite it being painfully slow. It didn’t take them long to reach the intersection where Marthman had called them from, and it was hard to miss the hulking form of Dalven’s Ripper mech.

The canyon branch they were following led generally toward the west, but it wasn’t a straight line, twists and turns made for slow going as Hugh had them check each corner before proceeding. As much as he wanted to map out the battlefield, it would be foolish to rush right into the entire enemy force. The familiar crack of plasma weapons and the sound of metal against metal was heard down the canyon. They were heading toward a battle, and he wanted to see who was fighting.

Despite being almost double his height, the Ripper mech was quieter with Dalven at the helm. As they closed in on the battle, Dalven led their party, scouting each curve of the canyon. A round from a plasma pistol slammed into the side of the canyon, a stray shot the battle ahead, not something aimed at them. Hugh linked into Dalven’s sensor feed as he turned the final corner to see what was going on.

“Sir, we’re in contact,” Marthman called out, bad timing as Hugh tried to sort our two situations, opting to first pull up Marthman’s feed. Dalven hadn’t been spotted yet, so they had a few moments before his situation became critical.

“Send me your feed, we’re investigating a fight as well,” Hugh replied.

“Sir, it looks like the enemy’s AI-controlled units. They’re Ssath like we suspected. So far, they’re coming at us one at a time with a good gap between each mech, so it’s no problem to take them out, but we also found this,” Marthman said. The canyon path they were on had widened out a bit and dug out of the western wall was an alcove holding the ruins of a storage building. Given that the structure was covered in partially decaying mech webbing, Hugh figured they had found the right spot for his Hive of the Widow module.

“I’ll head over as soon as I can, this is likely the structure we were looking for. Hold off the enemy for as long as you can, if they destroy the structure, we’re out of luck,” Hugh ordered.

“Roger that, sir, we’ll hold them off until you can make it here,” Marthman replied, ending the comm connection.

“Hugh Logan, what do you make of this?” Dalven asked, waving Hugh over. Hugh tried to be as quiet as he could but given the chaos of the battle in front of him, his clumsy efforts weren’t going to be a problem. He was looking at another alcove cut into the side of the canyon, just like the one Sergeant Marthman had shown him a few moments ago. In this case, it looked like an old barracks that was partially collapsed, and strewn about were the remnants of several destroyed mechs of all types. In front of the building were a dozen or so AI-controlled mechs. Hugh spotted a couple of Ssath, human, Yaelar, Ximkas, and a few he didn’t recognize.

Across from Hugh was a small force of three Ssath infantry mechs, and from the way they were moving and fighting, these had to be pod-controlled units. The Ssath were making short work of the AI mechs defending the ruined building, but it wasn’t all going their way. A lucky shot or two got through, but nothing that would debilitate the Ssath units. There were three in Hugh’s team, and three Ssath, but was it worth it to risk everything here, fighting over a ruined building? If the other option was pulling back and leaving whatever benefit the structure gave to their Ssath opponent, it just might be worth the risk to stop them.

“We need to take out the Ssath. They just have infantry mechs, and while the Ssath could have more upgrades than we do, they don’t have a Yaelar in a Ripper mech. Burnette and I will open fire from here with our rifles, doing what damage we can while Dalven charges in to engage at close range. Most of the AI-controlled mechs are focused on the Ssath but be ready to deal with any that turn our way,” Hugh ordered.

Hugh almost expected an objection from Dalven, given that he was assigned the riskiest task, but the Yaelar seemed fine with the plan. Hugh had chosen a plan that used their mechs in a way that focused on their strengths. Burnette and Hugh came around the corner and into view before going prone and looking for a shot. The Ssath had reduced the AI units to six by now and were in melee with the remainder. A Ssath reared up to bite the mech in front of him when both Hugh and Burnette sent a burst of fire into it. Hugh managed three hits, and Burnette must have gotten a similar number before the Ssath mech collapsed, using an AI-controlled, Ximkas mech as cover.

Dalven made his move, running around the corner and charging the mess of battling mechs. He kept to the right of the canyon, giving Hugh and Burnette clear shots at their targets. A few rounds snapped out from the Ssath, shoulder-mounted weapons, but the pistol-caliber weapons were notoriously inaccurate at longer ranges, especially when mounted on lower-tier mechs. Hugh kept up his fire, hearing the soldier next to him doing the same. He didn’t get too many clear openings, but he was landing the occasional hit, and given the types of weapons they were using, every hit reduced the Ssath's ability to fight.

More than once, they hit the AI-controlled units, but those were already on their last legs, easily outclassed by the Ssath. Realizing that Dalven was bearing down on them, two of the Ssath rushed to meet his charge, shoulder-mounted weapons firing away, landing more hits as the range closed. Dalven’s mech weathered the pistol caliber hits well, at least nothing seemed to be critically damaged yet, but that could change at any second, so Hugh shifted his fire to the Ssath charging Dalven, leaving Burnette to finish off the Ssath they had already damaged.

“One down,” Burnette called out. Hugh glanced over to see that the private had finished off the damaged Ssath mech that had been trying to hide behind cover. It had been popping up to fire its weapon and each time it did, Burnette had drilled it with his rifle. A few hits to the mech’s head had finally dropped it for good, leaving only the two Ssath charging at Dalven.

The pair of Ssath was only twenty feet from Dalven and they looked like they were ready to leap onto their prey when the Yaelar unleashed the double-barreled weapon mounted to his arm. A swarm of pallet-sized plasma balls flew out, shredding both attackers with hundreds of hits. Dalven stepped to the side, slashing with his oversized claw as the mechs stumbled past him. The claw took the head from one Ssath, and fire from Hugh and Burnette finished off the last, not that Dalven needed their help, the shotgun blasts had probably done more than enough damage to destroy both enemies.

Quiet descended over the area, as Hugh and the others waited for further attacks. If the Ssath were operating under the same restrictions that Hugh was, they had just taken out three of the pod-operated mechs. There was no respawn and Hugh doubted the other core had that many more of them. The ruined structure might also be a prize, it was time to check it out. As Hugh approached an interface screen appeared offering him control of the area.

The Ruined Barracks has been captured, do you wish to repair this facility or exchange it for additional resources?

Resources sounded good, but he was more interested in the structure, they were likely key to winning this fight.

Ruined Barracks has been activated. Please select a mech type for it to produce.

1. Human.

2. Ssath.

3. Ximkas.

4. Yaelar.

5. Krixnas.