War Core Wednesday! War Core 3, Chapter 2.

Chapter 2.

Hugh’s point of view joined the simulation, and while it did a good job with visuals and sound, it felt weird. There was no sense of being linked directly into the command post and instead of doing things with a thought, he had to focus and concentrate with the interface controls to make anything happen. It would be an exhausting session, but despite the problems, he enjoyed the simulation and competing against his fellow cores.

“You there Hugh?’ Maddison asked over the comm system.

“Roger that, what’s your situation?” Hugh asked as he looked over his command post, units, and the starting structures assigned to him.

“I’m on the southwest of the map, where did they drop you?” Maddison asked. Hugh’s map was mostly blank, the fog of war covering anything his units couldn’t see. Based on the compass set on the side of the map interface, he was in the northwest corner.

“Just above you to the northwest, let’s get eyes out there while we work on our economy, I don’t think they gave us enough starting forces to make an early rush,” Hugh said.

“Cool, I’ve got a pair of construction units out to scout. I still don’t think these are correct for the Ssath,” Maddison lamented. Hugh agreed, their knowledge of the Ssath was limited, despite the long campaign they had fought against them. During the campaign, both sides had a set number of forces and didn’t have a traditional command post, which meant that they had no idea what type of unit the Ssath used for basic construction and repair. The simulation team had eventually settled on using the small mechs the Ssath used occasionally as ammunition. Since they were agile and had opposable thumbs, they fit the requirements, and to make up for their lack of ranged weaponry and small size, the simulation gave him two of the diminutive mechs for only one unit point.

“I’ll do the same, I’m also going to push out my combat units. The Canadian core is a bit more cautious; he likes strong defenses before pushing and I would expect Javier to fight a bit like I do, with a focus on a strong economy and upgraded infantry. Shout out if you run into any problems or spot an opportunity,” Hugh said.

“Sir, this is Sergeant Hallan, we’ve connected to the units, but we’re going to have some acclimatization issues until my soldiers get the hang of these things,” the sergeant called out as the combat pod operators connected in.

“No worries, Sergeant, the interface is much easier in a real battle, the simulation isn’t quite dialed in yet. Get your feet under you, form up into sections and push out to see what’s around us. We need some resources if we don’t want to fall behind,” Hugh ordered, suppressing a laugh as several of the simulated Ssath infantry mechs fell over as the new guard and reserve soldiers tried to figure them out.

It was made even more difficult for them as they joined in the simulation as individuals, not cohesive units, the thought being they needed to get at least a few soldiers of each unit some seat time in the combat pods. Hugh didn’t know how effective it would be but agreed that having a few soldiers in each unit pass on what they learned here was better than nothing. The sergeant got the soldiers under control and began to move them out from the command post, giving Hugh some time to see what he had to work with as well as review his immediate surroundings.

His command post was joined by a barracks and a light mech factory. There was also a separate upgrade center, the simulation designers were unsure how the Ssath upgrades were purchased and decided on a single upgrade structure for everything. It was an expensive structure to make up for the universal nature of the building, so having one included in his initial offerings was a good bonus. Two dozen construction drones moved about the base, the little mechs looked like scaled-down versions of the velociraptor-like infantry mechs he had to work with. They never seemed to stop moving even though Hugh didn’t have anything for them to do just yet.

His command post was nicely positioned in the far northwestern corner of the map, high rocky cliffs formed the borders of the battlefield and limited the avenues of approach for an enemy attack. The base was on a low rise, giving him a good field of vision over the grassy open fields in front of him. A low wall, about shoulder high on an infantry mech, surrounded the base, anchoring into the vertical cliffs at the edge of the battlefield. There was enough open space to build several structures and if the battle went on long enough, he figured he could have his construction drones rebuild the wall further out if needed.

The interface took a bit of fiddling, but it eventually gave him a decent approximation of the review screen the GCA system provided in a real battle.

Current Battle Information:

Resources: 250.

Structures:

Command post, level 5 (unit points: 262/600). Further upgrades are not possible for this simulation.

Barracks, level 5.

Light mech factory, level 5.

Upgrade center, level 5.

Units:

Construction drones: 24/24.

Combat Units:

Infantry mechs: 30/30.

Light mechs: 4/4.

Defensive garrison: 0/30.

Available Structures:

Medium mech factory: This structure requires 750 resources to construct, and the starting level of this structure is level 4.

Signal tower (0/6): A signal tower requires 50 resources to construct and provides 50 unit points.

He didn’t dig into upgrades just yet, for now, Hugh wanted to focus on resource gathering and building up a combat force. Maddison would certainly be min-maxing upgrades and he’d piggyback his choices off what she suggested, this type of simulation was more in her wheelhouse, as it didn’t feel much like the real thing to him. Another quirk was the reduced number of defensive garrison troops, there were only about half of what he would expect for a level five command post. Hugh queued up enough construction drones to bring his total up to thirty, glad for their reduced unit point cost.

The medium mech factory was too expensive for the time being, and building more signal towers was a waste until he neared the unit cap. For now, Hugh ordered up more forces, adding a second platoon of light mechs and bringing his infantry count up to fifty. It drained him down to fifty resources, which made the troops finding a resource area his top priority.

His units were a mixed bag, the Ssath infantry mech was great in melee, but he felt the simulation detuned the shoulder-mounted rifle too much. The Ssath weren’t known for being sharpshooters, but they were more than competent in his experience. The light mechs at level five had a heavy machinegun caliber weapon over one shoulder and a rifle caliber one over the other. Both mechs were identical as far as looks went, with the light mech being about 50% larger than its infantry kin. Their armor was modest, with the light mech having extra plating over critical areas. Upgrades could fix some of the deficiencies, but for now, he would have to fight his forces with a focus on getting them into melee range where they would shine.

The speed of his mechs seemed to be off, they were faster than the human equivalents, but not even close to what he remembered them being in real life. He and the other cores had complained about it in their previous training matches, but so far, the techs had only made a minimal bump to the base speed of the Ssath units. Tucker was sure the techs had been told by the upper command to keep things a bit easier. In Hugh’s opinion, it was doing his troops a disservice, sure the Ssath were terrifying in battle, but giving your troops a false sense of their capabilities was going to lead to an unpleasant, and potentially fatal shock when they met the real Ssath for the first time.

“Debris field up ahead, guarded by those zombie mechs, sir,” Sergeant Hallan advised. Hugh was glad to see the sergeant had done his homework, recognizing one of the many different types of GCA-generated defenders they might run into. The mechs guarding the critical areas of the battlefield weren’t particularly difficult to handle but pushing them out could cause unnecessary casualties that a core couldn’t afford early in the fight.

“Assemble what you need and take them out, we need those resources,” Hugh ordered, purposely avoiding telling the sergeant what to bring to his assault. He wanted to see how the soldier handed the task, it would be a good after-action point to bring up. Wandering around the pile of battlefield wrecks that made up the debris field were a half dozen shambling infantry mechs. No two were alike, as they occasionally found a choice bit of scrap that they added to themselves. While the threat was low, if the field was left alone for too long, the defenders would multiply and upgrade to the point that taking control of it would be a challenge.

Sergeant Hallan gathered a squad of his infantry with two light mechs in support. It was a good call, enough power to overwhelm what was in front of him, but not too much that he hampered their scouting of the rest of the battlefield. The only mistake Hugh could see the sergeant making was holding back at extreme range and firing with just the heavy weapons on the pair of light mechs.

“Close in, Sergeant, that’s where the Ssath shine. When in a human infantry mech, you want to use your ranged advantage, here, you need to get in quick and tear them to pieces,” Hugh ordered.

“Roger that, sir, we’re on it,” Hallan replied, the sergeant was a professional and took the correction in stride, charging his troops forward.

The zombie mechs responded to the first incoming rounds of fire, one of their number dropping and the others returning fire with a mishmash of ranged weapons. Hugh’s troops took a couple of hits, but nothing critical before they crashed into the enemy. The men operating the Ssath mechs didn’t have the deadly grace that a Ssath operator would have, but they got the job done, tearing apart the zombies with ease. Sergeant Hallan had to clamp down on their chatter, the men were getting a little too into the simulation, growling and hissing their versions of dinosaur noises over the open comm channel as they fought.

You have captured a critical point; the debris field is now yours to harvest.

Hugh send ten of his construction drones to get to work at hauling in the salvage, while also patching up any damage his units had taken in the fight. Other than a missing arm on one infantry mech, they had little to repair. The zombie mechs were slow and clunky in melee, making for an easy first fight to help break in the new soldiers. Other troops tagged a resource crate for retrieval, adding to their haul. So far, he had uncovered the immediate area around his command post, the open field only had a single debris field and resource crate to harvest. A road leading from his command post pushed deeper into the battlefield, cutting through a forested area that might make a good ambush point and would likely also hide more resources for him to gather.

“Hey Hugh, I think I recognize this map,” Maddison called out.

“What do you mean? They’re supposed to be random,” Hugh replied.

“Yeah, they are as far as where stuff is placed, but I think the designers cut some corners by reusing popular gaming maps. The competitive gaming maps are known for being balanced so using them as an overall template makes sense. Now, the real question is, do we exploit this, or play it fair?” Maddison asked.

“Normally, I’d say play it fair, but given that the Ssath mechs have been nerfed, I think using anything to our advantage is fair game. What did you have in mind?” Hugh asked.

“I’ve got a couple of construction drones moving to confirm my suspicion. At least those little guys can move like they should. Well, anyway, if this map is similar to the one used for the game, there should be a portal or a tunnel or something that can allow you to move your troops instantly to the enemy side of the map,” Maddison advised.

“Where exactly do you think we’ll end up if we use the portal?” Hugh asked, a plan already forming up in his mind.

“It should be about midpoint between the enemy bases along the western border of the battlefield,” Maddison advised.

“Great, here’s what we’ll do, keep progressing as you would for a normal battle, but focus on getting your troop numbers maxed out, build signal towers, and don’t mess with upgrades. Half of everything we build will be sent to the portal, but only shuttle them over to the portal if you think they can’t be seen. Once we have a good-sized force built up, we’ll bait them into attacking toward our side of the map. When the bulk of their army is too far away to respond in time, we’ll jump through the portal and focus down one of the enemy bases,” Hugh advised.

“Cool, I like it, just be careful they don’t find the portal before we’re ready. Aggressively skirmish on the flanks to keep their attention. Which core do we take out first?” Maddison asked.

“Let’s go for the Mexican core. George, the Canadian core, spent most of his core upgrades on defensive structures and I’m sure his base is going to be a tougher nut to crack. If we take out Javier early, we can isolate the survivor and cut him off from resources. It will turn into a grindy fight at that point, but we’ll win,” Hugh advised.

“Devious, I like it, just what a Ssath would do to an opponent,” Maddison said, giving an evil laugh.

“That’s right, it’s time to teach our opponents that the Ssath don’t fight fair,” Hugh confirmed, looking forward to the coming carnage.