War Core 3, Chapter 1.

Chapter 1.

“We have a joint forces session scheduled for after this meeting, Hugh, you’ll be working with the Canadian core George Lucin and one of the Mexican cores, Javier Parejo. Intel, any new threats to be aware of?” Admiral Nix asked. Hugh’s attention, which had been wandering up to this point, zeroed in as Markum gave the intel briefing. Despite clashing when the man had first joined the team, Hugh could tell he was working hard to get them the best intel that he could.

“Nothing new on the radar, the Ximkas, and the Ssath are locked out for the time being, and given the loss of the Krixnas homeworld, the only other potential attacker in Hugh’s sector is the Yaelar. Not much is known of them, their territory butts up against several of our cores, but they are widely regarded as being non-invasive. We haven’t spent many resources to check them out since they’ve never presented themselves as a threat, but what we do have indicates they are powerful and will respond decisively if attacked. If we leave them alone, they should leave us alone,” Markum advised.

“What about the Krixnas, how are they settling in?” Maddison asked.

Like many of them, Maddison was fascinated that an entirely new species had found a home in their solar system. It had only been a month since the battle for their homeworld, and reactions among humanity had been a mixed bag. Some people were delighted to have the now seemingly benign Krixnas nearby, but others were worried about betrayal and an attack directly on earth from their former enemies turned ally. Hugh didn’t think they presented a risk. From what little interaction he had with their cores, they didn’t seem to honor their agreements, and were genuinely grateful for humanity opening up a planet for them to survive on as a species. Without humanity, they would already be dead or facing certain death inside a Ssath hunting preserve.

“The Krixnas are doing fine, the various space agencies are trying to piece together a satellite network to keep an eye on them, but I’m not sure if the tech is there yet to accomplish this,” Admiral Nix advised. It was funny, humanity could send its cores to battle almost instantly across the universe, but that was due to the GCA supplied war cores, not our own advancements. Humanity had learned, but there were no great breakthroughs based on what they had learned from observing the GCA tech, at least not yet.

“I should also point out that our performance against the Ssath may be helping us out with some of the other, more aggressive species. It should be no surprise that the Ssath were feared by many, and the fact that you fought them to a standstill has given potential enemies pause,” Markum added.

“We know the Ssath will come at us again, but we’re doing everything we can to prepare for that. If other enemies want to hold off, that’s just a bonus, but part of me wishes that a few would try something so we can gather some influence points. We have a long way to go if we want to recover what the last battle cost us,” Nix said. It was true, they had burned through most of theirs to secure a fighting chance in the last battle. The Ssath had also poured an insane amount into the fight, but they had no idea how long the Ssath had been fighting in this GCA organized war, so it was likely they had stockpiled a substantial number of points.

“Hugh, are you ready for the skirmish?” Maddison asked. Hugh and the other cores who had fought the Ssath had been in high demand, playing the opposing force in simulations against the other human cores. It wasn’t even close to the real thing, but the gaming simulation the techs had cobbled together gave them a chance to theorycraft ways they could stop the Ssath. So far, Hugh and the other cores playing the Ssath army had an impressive win ratio, which didn’t exactly bode well for Earth. The others were learning, and hopefully, they would be ready to mount a defense once the Ssath were able to strike again.

“I’m ready, but I do have some concerns about the AI interface the techs had worked up. The Ssath, when not in my direct control, operate too similarly. We have no guarantee this Hssim will be the core that engages us the next time, and until intel can confirm the way other Ssath cores fight, we might be doing ourselves more harm than good in assuming that every enemy core can be baited the same way Hssim was,” Hugh offered.

“I’ll see what I can do to spice things up, but no promises for the short term,” Maddison replied. She was on the international team working to develop the simulations they were relying on to hone their skills. The gamers on the teams had some good ideas, but while the battles resembled some of the games played here on earth, there was enough of a difference to make relying on simulations a bit risky.

“Any word on our new Air Force liaison?” Hugh reluctantly asked. They were all still feeling the loss of Tremaine, and whoever command sent over had some big shoes to fill.

“There are a few candidates, and I can review their files with you later if you like. On a similar subject, I thought you’d like to know that a new German core has been selected to replace Stephan Wagner,” Nix advised. Stephan and his troops had voluntarily sacrificed themselves to give the others a fighting chance in the last battle. Without that sacrifice, Hugh wasn’t sure he would have survived the battle.

“Any info on who the core is?” Hugh asked. The GCA selected the cores in some manner they hadn’t been able to figure out. Some were obvious choices, former military, or those will applicable skills. Others were a bit more obscure, like the gamer chosen before Hugh. The young man had gone insane and in doing that, doomed many of the soldiers under his command.

“We don’t have all the details yet other than her name, Gisela Schmidt. From what I hear, she’s going through initial training and, so far, her sector is quiet,” Admiral Nix said.

“Let me know when she’s ready, I’ll be glad to help out in any way I can,” Hugh offered. His own training had been truncated, the Krixnas spending influence points to hamper him with a reduced training program. It had made for some rough early fights, but he had pulled through in the end.

“Any other new business? I’ve forwarded you all a copy of Hugh’s training schedule. If you need anything from him, try to keep the schedule in mind, he’s going to be busy training with the other cores for a while,” Nix told the group. Hugh had altered the schedule to give him plenty of one-on-one time with his commanders, they were already a close-knit group, but he wanted to make sure they kept their edge. His commanders and the highly trained troops under them were the lynchpins to victory. Other species were warlike, but humans seemed to adapt to a battlefield better than most of those he fought against.

The weekly meeting adjourned, and Hugh moved his consciousness back to the combat bay. His war core sat there, a dark metal combination of prison and coffin. A team of techs was working on the core, attaching leads to it so he could interface with the computer systems that they used to do simulations with the other cores. They had tried and failed to find a way to link their cores directly in order to have more realistic battles, but nobody had figured it out yet. At least with the current system, they could interface soldiers with the training, getting them familiar with the overall feel of the battle, even if the VR devices they used to connect to the simulation were a poor substitute for the interface in their combat pods.

“Hey Hugh, Valery was called into action, the D’kahn are feeling frisky despite the thrashing you gave the Ssath,” Maddison said.

“I wouldn’t call it a thrashing, they won the campaign, and we only got the consolation prize,” Hugh admitted. In his mind, they had failed, losing the Krixnas homeworld they were trying to defend. The fact they won a secondary objective that allowed the Krixnas to survive was nothing to sneeze at, but given their losses, he couldn’t count it as a success.

“It doesn’t matter what you think, the way the media is portraying it, you guys crushed all opposition without breaking a sweat,” Maddison said, flopping into a nearby chair and pulling a VR headset on.

“Of course, I didn’t break a sweat, I’m a big metal box,” Hugh replied.

“No whining,” Maddison said. At one point, she had been trying to decide whether to call it quits as an advisor but had decided to say on and do what she could to help. She had taken it upon herself to make sure that Hugh didn’t slip too far into depression over the situation he had been forced into.

“Do I have to fight two cores on my own?” Hugh asked, wondering if another core had been added to help play the opposition force for the Ssath.

“No, the techs think they worked out the bugs and I can join you as the second core. We get to teach these noobs a lesson today,” Maddison said with confidence.

“Ha, the Canadian and Mexican cores are no joke, both have been fighting for longer than I have,” Hugh admitted.

“No way they’ve fought as many battles as I have, at least inside a game. Besides, we’ve got the OP units. Ssath driven by us are going to be unstoppable,” Maddison said.

“What about combat pod support if we don’t nix that from the game parameters?” Hugh asked, curious who would be piloting the individual mechs in the simulation.

“A little of everything. Command has decided to start rotating National Guard and Reserve units through to give them some experience,” Maddison told him. It wasn’t a bad idea, if they got called to active duty, they wouldn’t be jumping in blind. Poor substitute that it was, the simulation at least gave them a feel for how the battlefields the GCA created differed from what they were used to.

“Let’s jump in, it’s almost time. Do you want to handle pre-battle negotiations, or do you want me to?” Hugh asked.

“I’ll do if that’s cool, I know you’re supposed to be the one training and whatnot, but I’d like to take a crack at it,” Maddison said.

“No problem, I don’t think the simulation does a good representation of the GCA process for negotiation, so I’m not losing out on anything,” Hugh replied. The negotiations were weird, and despite analyzing all the battles humanity had participated in, the exact way they decided on the parameters was still a mystery.

Hugh could feel the connection linked to the side of his war core. For the most part, the box he was in consisted of sleek metal with a composition they couldn’t figure out. On one side, a variety of interface connections were mounted, a concession by the GCA to allow cores to interact with the others around him. It felt restricting and the information flow was like trying to drink a thick milkshake from a tiny straw. A loading screen appeared as he linked with the simulation.

Combat Simulator, v1.24.

Connection established with the designated lobby. The following cores and human personnel are now linked. Team designations are as follows.

1. Hugh Logan, Team 1, Ssath empire.

2. Maddison James, Team 1, Ssath empire.

3. George Lucin, Team 2, Canadian war core forces.

4. Javier Parejo, Team 2, Mexican war core forces.

Submit your pre-battle negotiation preferences.

Hugh left the negotiations to Maddison, the scenario they were playing was already going to be capped at level five, and they had plans to ramp up the level of their campaign as they progressed. The idea was to give them units with modest ability to start and let them get a feel for facing progressively more powerful Ssath weapons. Hugh didn’t feel they had the Ssath units dialed in correctly, and it was an ongoing process to fine-tune the simulation.

Battle parameters have been decided.

1. Maximum command post level, 5.

2. No air units.

3. Combat pod support is active.

4. Command post starting level is 5.

5. Normal resource flow.

6. Additional starting structures will be provided.

7. No pre-battle recon.

8. A modest starting force is assigned to each core.

Battlefield is being loaded, please wait.

Hugh could feel the excitement build. He genuinely enjoyed battling against the other human cores and was always surprised to see how varied their approach to battle was. While he had watched the Canadian core in a fight against the Ximkas, he hadn’t met or played against the Mexican core yet. He figured they would have a slight advantage since he and Maddison played together in their downtime, and the other cores would be working together for the first time.

War Cores. Prepare for battle.