War Core 3, Chapter 5.

Sorry for the late post, War Core 2 launched today and I was tied up getting announcements ready. If you get a chance, please leave a review on Amazon, early reviews can really help during a new book launch. 

Chapter 5.

“Let’s set up a debrief with the participants,” Hugh said as they disconnected him from the simulation.

“Nice work, Hugh, we totally wrecked them,” Maddison added, leaving the pod she was using and walking over to Hugh’s core. The large rectangular metal war core unit had turned into her place to hang out, the young gamer having placed a small desk nearby with her gaming gear so she would have access to a direct connection to his core if they wanted to play by themselves. She could game with him anywhere and run a simulation from any of the combat pods, but Hugh was glad to have someone nearby, it reminded him that deep inside the metal prison he was trapped in, Hugh was still a human.

“Hugh, I need you to join us in the conference room and let Maddison know that she’s needed as well,” Admiral Nix ordered.

“Maddison, head over to the conference room once you let the other cores know we’re going to be delayed for the debrief,” Hugh said. It was easy enough to transfer his consciousness to the conference room, and when he arrived, the room was a hive of activity, several techs were monitoring various feeds on their computers while the intel analyst, Marcum, was trying to field calls on his cell phone while at the same time working away at his laptop.

“Admiral, I’m here, and Maddison should be joining us shortly, once she lets the others in our last simulation know that we’re going to be delayed,” Hugh said, finding he had to amplify the speaker output to be heard over the chaotic scene in front of him.

“Good, I think the other cores are being pulled into similar meetings as well, so don’t worry about missing the debrief,” Nix replied.

“What exactly is going on?” Hugh asked.

“All hell’s breaking loose, the Ssath kind of hell,” Admiral Nix said before being handed a phone by one of his aides. Normally, they kept the conference room attendees to a bare minimum, but this time, the place was swarming with techs, lower-ranked soldiers bearing messages, and civilians pouring over data feeds on their laptops. Hugh tried to remain patient while he waited for the admiral to finish whatever conversation he was having. From the look on his face, he wasn’t being given good news.

“Alright, let’s get this under control. Clear the room of everyone not on the advisory team. If your subordinates need to get ahold of you have them send a message to your computers. The situation is developing quickly, and we need to be ready to respond without panic,” Nix ordered. The room emptied out except for the usual suspects, Nix allowing a single Army Lieutenant to stay near the door to chase away any unwanted visitors.

“So, what exactly is the situation?” Hugh asked.

“Marcum let me know earlier that intel had picked up strange chatter from their channels to the other species. It looks like several that had planned to conduct operations against both the Ssath and humanity were being blocked in their efforts by the GCA. It might mean nothing more than the Ssath trying to keep others away from their prize, or it could mean that they’ve opened up the vaults and are spending influence to cut down on the grace period we were granted as they did with the Krixnas,” Nix advised.

“Can even the Ssath afford to do that? I’m sure they have a lot of influence points, but after pouring them into the Krixnas invasion, I’d think they would be more focused on building up their reserve again, don’t you?” Hugh offered, it was perhaps wishful thinking, and he really wanted more time to prepare for a Ssath invasion.

“We’ve run the numbers, well, as much as we can with the limited data at our disposal, and the Ssath should have quite a huge stockpile of points even after the expenditures for the Krixnas campaign. They’ve been fighting for a lot longer than we have, at least a century according to the latest intel. Over that time, and given their high victory ratio, it’s feasible they could buy their way past the grace period, but it would beggar them to do so,” Marcum advised.

“Tell me, how accurate are our estimates?” Hugh asked.

“Nobody knows for sure, we’ve spent very few points on intel after we thought the Ssath threat was on hold, wanting to save up what we could for upgrades, but I don’t think we’re too far off the mark. The real issue is that we never know how the GCA will react to unusual requests like trying to bypass a grace period,” Marcum replied.

“Well, given this is just a big game to the GCA, I think they’ll do whatever is the most entertaining without bending their own rules too much,” Maddison added.

“There’s no consensus that this is just a game to them, it’s a valid theory, I’ll grant you that, but I wouldn’t base our response on it being true,” Marcum said, a little of the arrogance he had displayed in the past reared its ugly head once more.

“Just you wait, you’ll see,” Maddison said, the smug look on her face telling everyone in the room that she was confident that her theory was correct. Hugh believed the entertainment theory to be the right one, it made the most sense from his perspective. Admiral Nix held up his hand, quieting the conversation as he concentrated on the phone call he was on.

“Okay, the Secretary of Defense just confirmed that the GCA has called the human representatives into negotiations with the Ssath empire. I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but plan on it not being good,” Nix said. Hugh discussed the last training session with the group as they waited for word on the negotiations, but their heart wasn’t in it, all of them were too anxious to have a productive conversation so the conference room became eerily silent, making them all jump when the admiral’s phone finally rang an hour later. He put it on speaker to keep from having to repeat what he had heard and potentially miss something important.

“Admiral, do you have your team assembled?” The voice on the other end said, a voice that turned out to belong to the Secretary of Defense.

“Yes, sir, everyone is here, go ahead when you’re ready,” Admiral Nix replied.

“Good, I have news, but the situation is still developing. As you might have guessed, the Ssath are spending huge amounts of influence to buy down the timer on their invasion. Not only that, but they also are paying to bypass our outer systems, intending to strike at earth directly. While we aren’t exactly flush with influence points, we do have enough to try and stymie their efforts and buy ourselves more time by forcing them into additional fights before they reach our homeworld,” the Secretary said.

“Sir, is there no way to hold off the timeline of their invasion? Even a few months would be a big help with all the new units we’re cycling through the training program,” Hugh asked.

“I wish we could, but we’re like a part-time fast-food worker trying to outbid a billionaire at an auction. We’ve conceded the grace period in return for other benefits in the upcoming battle. Right now, we’re negotiating the route they’ll have to take to reach earth. Some of the team wants to force them into other species’ territory, which might delay them further, or who knows, maybe even stop them,” the Secretary offered.

“I don’t think that’s going to win us any allies if we point the Ssath at them, have we reached out directly to whoever it is we’re trying to drag into the war?” Hugh asked, mumbled agreements sounded out around the table.

“I’ve been assured the proper precautions have been taken, and our team will continue to do their best to give you and the other cores every advantage we can wring out of the negotiations,” the Secretary said. Hugh noted that he didn’t exactly answer his question, and had drifted into typical political doublespeak.

“Sir, when can we expect more details, and how soon until Hugh is called into the fight?” Admiral Nix asked.

“Both of those are unknown at this time, but from the way things were developing, it looks like we might even have to negotiate against them in stages, with everything changing as the campaign progresses,” the Secretary of Defense said, Hugh’s vision was interrupted by a GCA announcement. It looked like the first round of negotiations had been completed.

Notice to all human war cores from the Galactic Conflict Authority:

The Ssath Empire has expressed its desire to engage your forces in a battle for control of your home planet. While there is currently a grace period in effect, the Ssath Empire has exchanged sufficient influence points to override this restriction. While they have overridden the grace period, they have not spent sufficient resources to attack Earth directly and will be forced into a series of battles outside your home system.

Additional compensation has been offered by the Ssath Empire to prevent other species from initiating new hostilities until their campaign is settled. Current conflicts your cores are engaged in will continue, but with an expedited timeline for completion. New conflicts with other powers are hereby suspended until the Ssath invasion is completed.

The route decided upon by the two parties involved in the conflict has been provided to your leaders. Further negotiations are ongoing, but you can expect the first battles to commence shortly. Cores selected to participate in the upcoming battles will be notified at the appropriate time.

“Did everyone just get that?” Hugh asked, pushing the GCA notice out to the others in the room.

“I’ve got to go, I’ll check in later when we have more information,” the Secretary of Defense said, disconnecting the call to undoubtedly pepper the negotiation team with questions.

“So, it’s like we suspected, the Ssath are spending big for an early crack at us,” Admiral Nix said.

“I suppose it’s good in a way,” Markum began. “We knew they were going to come after us, and while we planned to use the time to train up our forces, wouldn’t it be better to fight early and force them to burn up their influence on rushing the timeline, rather than have them keep all those points to spend on units, upgrades, and penalties on our forces during a later battle?” Markum asked. Hugh hadn’t thought about it this way and had been focused on the fact that the war had come to them early.

“I think I might agree with your assessment if there was some way to verify that they were out of points. For now, we should plan on them having enough in the bank to throw at least a few surprises our way. We know at least one of their cores has it in for Hugh, so we should get ready to be pulled into the conflict early,” Admiral Nix said.

“Their core, Hssim, was tough, but I think we have a better feel for how he fights now. If it’s him, we can handle it. What I’m worried about is how many other cores will be involved in the conflict? We have no idea if Hssim was one of their best, or just some third-rate Ssath core,” Hugh said.

“It doesn’t matter, we’ll still beat them, no matter who they send,” Maddison said with confidence Hugh didn’t feel.

“Hold up everyone, here’s the star map showing where the route the Ssath has to take,” Nix said, pushing the data out to the group. For some reason, the GCA didn’t send it directly to Hugh, like they usually do.

The room went quiet again as everyone digested the map. Hugh could see the small area where the Ssath territory butted up against human space. The path they would be forced to take skirted Hugh’s zone, clipping through a system assigned to the Canadian core he had just skirmished with. After that, it took a shortcut through a Yaelar system. They didn’t have much information on them, but the negotiators were supposed to contact them before drawing them into the conflict, so they might have worked something out and gained a potential ally.

If they made it past the Canadian system and the Yaelar, their route took them directly at one of Hugh’s sectors, and then it went back into the Canadian territory, and finally, it would end up here, on earth. Remembering what the Krixnas had faced, Hugh was determined to stop the Ssath long before they reached his home system. There would be no GCA killer satellites blasting civilian targets under his watch. Despite their claim about using these battles to save planets and reduce loss of life, the GCA was sure quick to kill anyone they deemed a casualty.

Sector a188x21 has been selected as the initial invasion point by the Ssath Empire. The human war core known as George Lucin is being called upon to defend this zone. Under the terms of the conflict that were negotiated by both parties, all cores and their support personnel may view the battle as it occurs.

It looked like George was going into battle, Hugh hoped that their recent practice skirmish had helped in some way. For the first time, Hugh would have a ringside seat to another core’s battle, and despite the risk, Hugh wished that he could join the other human core. All he could do now was watch and learn, preparing himself for the coming fight if George failed to defend his zone.