War Core Wednesday (on a Thursday), War Core 3, Chapter 20.

Sorry it's a bit delayed, yesterday was a busy one and I fell behind.

Chapter 20.

Another passageway greeted them as they left the training zone. This time, instead of another steel-lined compartment, Hugh could see natural light coming around the corner. They readied their weapons and sent Private Burnette ahead to scout things out. He peeked around the corner, then cautiously walked forward. Their mechs were pretty low-tier, but the strange, humanoid designs moved much smoother than the normal combat mechs he was familiar with. Burnette wasn’t gone long before he returned and waved them forward.

“It’s like a desert, only instead of brown and red sand and rock, it’s kind of blue and brown. There’s lots of cover, and I didn’t detect any movement, at least nothing was moving close to the tunnel,” Burnett said. Hugh led them forward, only to have Sergeant Marthman insist on taking point. Once again, Hugh felt guilty that these men were forced to risk themselves to protect him.

It was late afternoon according to the position of the strangely hued sun that beat down on them, and as soon as the last of them left the metal passageway, a rumble below the ground was felt. The passage slowly lowered itself into the ground, loose sand and rock dropping down into the hole it left. There wasn’t going to be any turning back in this fight. They positioned themselves behind a large collection of rocks, scanning the area.

An indicator in his HUD told Hugh where their main objective was located, far to the north, near the peak of a mountain rising in the distance. Toward the mountain, the terrain became more rugged, the sand giving way to solid rock. There were lots of outcroppings and fallen boulders to create ambush points for any enemies they might encounter, but so far, they hadn’t spotted any sign of opposition. To the west, a narrow canyon lay, and at the end of the canyon, was the flashing marker of an optional objective.

“The mountain is our target, the objective is somewhere near the peak, but I’m also getting a hit from that canyon to the west, there’s an optional objective there. Any ideas on whether or not it’s worth our time to pursue it, or should we drive toward the primary objective and finish this thing as quickly as possible?” Hugh asked.

“I don’t like wandering that far from our main objective, but we should probably check out the optional one. Maybe checking one out will tell us if future offerings are worth it,” Marthman suggested.

“I agree,” Dalven added. Burnette just shrugged his mech’s shoulders, having no opinion on the matter.

“Into the canyon we go, Burnette, take point. Marthman, you join me about fifty yards behind Burnette, and Dalven can watch our backs,” Hugh ordered. Marthman and Burnette had the same type of mech, so the sergeant insisted they trade off who was on point every once in a while, to spread the risk out. Dalven mentioned that the Yaelar mechs generally had good sensors, but at this low a tier, the difference between his and the human mechs was likely negligible. In the future, as the tier increased, he might make the better scout for their unit.

Scanning for targets, they moved at a brisk pace. Given the GCA warning on the dangers of being left behind if they delayed too long, none of them wanted to push their luck. After an hour of walking, Burnette motioned for them to halt, taking a final look before rejoining them near the canyon wall. There wasn’t much in the way of cover here, the canyon floor was flat and comprised of soft sand. Other than the occasional rock that had fallen from the sheer walls of the canyon, there was nothing to hide behind for the team.

“Sir, I’ve got a debris field up ahead. It was too far to make out any details, but it looks like a big group of mechs bought the farm there,” Burnette said.

“Did you spot what types of mechs they were?” Hugh asked.

“Negative, sir, I figured you’d want to know before we got too close,” Burnette said. There weren’t any alternatives, they had to push forward if they wanted to explore the optional objective, which they were closing in on.

“We move forward as a group, let’s go,” Hugh ordered. They walked forward in a line, weapons ready. Just like Burnette had said, there was about a score of mechs littering the canyon floor. They were torn to bits and melted, but unlike inside the training area, there was no sign of spiders or their webs. The mechs were Ssath units, and the damage to them was extensive, not a single mech was still in one piece, whoever had done this to the Ssath, had done so either without taking casualties or felt they had more than enough time to drag away their losses.

“Looks clear, but let’s not get complacent and end up like the Ssath,” Hugh warned as they walked past the debris field. If he was in a standard battle, Hugh would be salivating at all the salvage lying about, but in this fight, it didn’t seem to matter, at least, not yet. After passing the remains of the battle, the monotonous sandy canyon floor continued, but the walls of the canyon began to narrow. They were getting close to their objective.

“Another debris field up ahead, looks like that’s our objective,” Hugh said as they approached a couple of makeshift buildings that had been constructed at the end of the canyon. More destroyed Ssath mechs littered the area.

“Major Logan, get up here, get off the canyon floor!” A voice shouted over open comms. Movement was seen just past the two buildings as a pair of human mechs waved them forward.

“Sir, those are our men, check the interface,” Sergeant Marthman said. He was right, the pilots were showing as men he had fought with during the battle over the Krixnas homeworld. He patched them into the unit comm link, making things easier for all of them.

“Get up here on the rocks now, there’s something in the sand killing everything,” the soldier said, panic creeping into his voice. Not wasting any time, Hugh waved his team forward, the two human mechs helping them onto the small outcropping of rock they were sheltering on. When one of your soldiers says an enemy was killing everything in the area, you didn’t stop and ask questions, you moved.

“What’s going on, who are you two?” Hugh asked.

“Private Hillman and Griggs, sir, our mechs were taken out while fighting the Ssath avatar, and then, we got that screen showing that we were going to be terminated. The offer to come here for a second chance was given and we accepted, of course. The next thing I know, I find myself here with Hillman, piloting this weird mech. Right in front of us is a company of Ssath, ready to tear us apart. None of us had weapons, so we did the only thing we could, we ran,” Griggs said.

“What attacked you?” Hugh asked, more worried about a dangerous mech that might be lurking nearby, than the story of their arrival.

“I’m not sure what it was, but something came up from below, right under the Ssath. A huge cloud of sand obscured whatever was happening, so we used that to cover our retreat. When we got here and started looking for something useful, and noticed that more Ssath had been destroyed here. Hillman said he could feel the sand moving so we ran for the rocks. We’ve been here ever since, and whatever is out there comes around every now and then,” Griggs said.

“We saw the remains of the Ssath further back in the canyon, but we’ve walked the entire length of the canyon and haven’t run into anything except you two,” Hugh said.

“I don’t know how that’s possible, but, uh, sir, what gives with the alien mech?” Griggs asked, the man more than a little nervous with the presence of a non-human unit. Since he hadn’t been with the unit after the battle for the Krixnas world, he wouldn’t have known it was a Yaelar mech.

“We have a truce with Dalven here. He’s from a species called the Yaelar, and while we aren’t exactly on good terms, were not at war. He’s held up his side of the bargain and we’ll do the same. What’s in the buildings?” Hugh asked.

“I’m not sure, every time we go out to check, the thing starts moving again like a shark in the sand. The doors are sealed and we didn’t have time to break through before that thing closed in,” Hillman told them.

“Standing here isn’t an option, eventually the GCA will shut us down if we linger. There was supposed to be an optional objective here, I’m assuming that it was you guys, but I also want a peek at whatever’s in there,” Hugh said, pointing toward the two buildings.

Looking closer, Hugh could see the buildings resembled those prefab structures that people sometimes used as an extra garage on their property. More importantly, he also noticed each building was placed on a concrete pad. Hugh was willing to bet that whatever it was that lurked under the sand, wouldn’t be able to get through the concrete any easier than it was able to get through the rocks where his team was sheltering.

“I’m going to make a run for the nearest building, cover me if something comes up out of the sand,” Hugh said, to protests from his men. He was tired of letting them take all the risk, and if part of their objective happened to be whatever was hidden inside the building, he would likely need to be the one to activate it. Rather than having one of his men take the short run to the building, and potentially warn the monster lurking below that he was coming, Hugh would go solo. His mech was well-armed and fully functional.

The closest of the two buildings was only about twenty-five steps from the nearest rock, not that long of a run. Making sure that the two armed soldiers and the Yaelar had their weapons up and ready to provide some cover fire, Hugh leaped off the rock and began to run. For whatever reason, the ambusher hadn’t attacked while his team approached the rocks, but nothing was holding it back now. A ripple in the sand was seen moving rapidly toward him from back in the canyon.

He was going to beat the monster but getting inside the secured building had been the problem for Hillman and Griggs. Unlike the other two, his mech was armed. Almost as soon as he had jumped off the rock, Hugh opened up on the building’s door with his new beam weapon. Griggs told him that the door seemed secured around the access panel, given how it rattled in the frame when he had tried to force it open, so that’s where Hugh focused his fire.

The weapon over his shoulder gave a low hum as it activated, and a green beam struck the access panel. It cut through the metal access panel like a hot knife through butter. Hugh was impressed but burning through thin metal doors wasn’t quite the same as burning through a heavily armored mech, so he would reserve his final judgment until he tested it in an actual fight. Lowering his shoulder, Hugh slammed into the door, the partially melted latch giving way almost immediately, his mech fell on top of the now destroyed door and slid into the building. The ripples in the sand were close, but they slowed and then withdrew back into the canyon as Hugh lay on the hard concrete floor. Thankfully, the floor was apparently enough to keep out whatever was lurking outside.

“I’m in, let me check this place out,” Hugh told his team. Automatic lighting turned on, bathing the interior in its yellowish glow. The place was almost empty save for a pair of crates stowed off to the side, and a big, heavily armored exoskeleton standing in the center of the floor. The chest of the mech was open, revealing a cockpit that was obviously built for either the human or Yaelar to operate. As Hugh approached, the system identified his find.

Congratulations, you have accomplished the secondary objective. In addition to rescuing two of your soldiers, you have also discovered a Taskmaster Assault Mech. This mech features dual heavy weapons mounts, two secondary weapon hardpoints, and a universal ordinance launcher mounted to the rear of the mech. The Taskmaster is fully modular and can be upgraded substantially by purchasing or discovering new weapons, armor, and chassis enhancements. It should be noted that this mech can only sync to a single operator, choose its pilot carefully.

The Taskmaster mech looked mean just sitting idle. It was painted a desert camo color and instead of arms, it had heavy weapons mounts. Unfortunately, both mounts lacked weaponry at this time, but the crates stashed near the wall might help him solve that problem. Armored plates were crudely bolted all over the machine, and overall, it was about double the size of their current mechs. It looked like something that could take a lot of punishment and still stay in the fight. The operator would find it a tight fit inside, but Hugh didn’t think any of his team would turn down the chance to pilot it.

As he suspected, the crates held at least some weaponry for the Taskmaster. There was a heavy machinegun that could be mounted where one of the arms would normally be, and an assault rifle caliber secondary weapon that could mount over the shoulder. Ammo was provided, but once he locked the ammo crate into place, both weapons were only half full, the heavy machinegun with 250 rounds, and the lighter weapon had 150.

“You guys seeing this? Who gets to drive?” Hugh asked, pushing the Taskmaster’s data to the group.

“Check out the other building, sir, hopefully, there are more of these Taskmasters for us over there,” Sergeant Burnette suggested.

“Good call, let me make an entrance,” Hugh said. The other building was only about twenty yards away from the one he was in, and since the door was facing him, Hugh started to burn through the access panel from the safety of the first building. When he had cut halfway through the panel, the door sagged in its frame. Instead of another Taskmaster mech, waiting for its pilot, Hugh saw that the building was full of spider mech webs. Those webs were vibrating like crazy as shapes stirred in the dark corners of the place.

“I think we got company, Griggs and Hillman, get over here and get this mech armed and ready to go, the rest of you, get over here and cover that door, we got spider mechs to deal with, lots and lots of spider mechs,” Hugh said as the number of shapes scuttling in the dark interior of the other building steadily increased.