War Core 2, Chapter 50.

Kind of appropriate that we get the climax of the battle for War Core Wednesday.


Chapter 50.

“Bob, can you hear me?” Hugh called out. As he expected there was no response, at all his strongpoints, the Krixnas helping to defend emerged. They were following the typical programming for when a core had been destroyed in this campaign, blindly charging the nearest foe. Ssath cut them down in droves, suffering few casualties in return. The only benefit was that it bought more time for Hugh’s troops to fire on the foe. A few of the strongpoints had been compromised when the Krixnas exited the structure, allowing nearby enhanced Ssath infantry an open door to leap inside and wreak havoc.

The command post and Krixnas core defending ring 4 of the city have been destroyed. Any remaining forces will be forced into automated operation mode.

Hugh was moving to help the strongpoint near his old factory but spared a few seconds to see what had happened at ring four. The command post was a smoking ruin, Ssath now overrunning the surviving Krixnas defenders who were blindly attacking. Stephan had linked up with his main army and they were pushing toward the ruins of the Krixnas command post, gunning down any Ssath in their way. His forces hadn’t had things all their way, though, and he was down to around sixty infantry, and only a few light and medium mechs, including a flak unit and the flamethrower mechs. A single heavy was still in the fight, keeping near the battered Maus that was Stephan’s avatar.

“Stephan, what’s your status?” Hugh asked, unsure whether or not he would get a reply.

“We’re killing Ssath, as many as we can before they drag us down. Hold them, my friend, time is on our side this time,” Stephan said, cutting the comm line as his forces engaged another group of Ssath. Hssim’s avatar was back on its feet, but moving more slowly, surrounded by defenders.

“Sir, we’ve lost three strongpoints, along with the factory, but the rest are in the clear,” Brubaker advised.

“I’m heading to clear out the Ssath near the factory ruins, take your other teams out of the strongpoints and make your way here, it looks like the Ssath avatar is heading our way,” Hugh ordered, noticing that Hssim was slowly stomping his way on a path directly toward Hugh. Unlike the other Ssath, Hssim’s avatar wasn’t fooled by Hugh’s camouflage upgrade. Hssim had given up trying to run down Stephan, the blow the German core had given him left the Ssath avatar too slow to pursue, leaving the job of taking down Stephan to the hordes of Ssath still inside the fourth ring.

The battle had been going for some time and a check on the timer showed that just over fifteen minutes were left. Hugh’s figured the smart choice would be for him to run, avoiding the Ssath while he let the clock count down. But despite the fact the enemy avatar was limping along, the other Ssath troops weren’t, and there were more than enough of them to overrun Hugh and his remaining forces unless they did something to even the odds.

Turning his mech around, Hugh made his way to the edge of the city, hunkering down behind the ruins of a building. His artillery mechs were in the open, trying to outrun the approaching Ssath. The pod operators for both mechs had volunteered to stay in the dangerously exposed position between the rings to keep providing fire support for the Germans. Blasting away at their attackers in direct fire mode, the powerful guns were still racking up kills. There were so many Ssath that even the poor accuracy in that mode meant a missed shot still usually hit something.

“I’ll try and snipe their larger mechs, then we’ll pull back into the city. Brubaker, have your infantry get some ambushes ready, here’s the path I’ll try to take,” Hugh said sending over his proposed retreat.

“Let me make a couple of adjustments to your path, that way we can try and run them through any minefields that are still active. I’ll shoot you my ambush positions once we get there,” Brubaker added.

The marine commander had adjusted Hugh’s route through the city, using nearby minefields to help cover his flanks, while Brubaker’s troops dug into buildings on the likely path of Ssath attack. Some of the proposed troop placements looked strange at first, but then Hugh realized that Brubaker was counting on the Ssath to try and encircle him with fast units, setting his men in positions of likely travel where they could surprise them. He was going to run the Ssath through a gauntlet of plasma fire and mines, taking them out while they waited for the timer to finish.

“Enemy in range, ready to fire,” the solder in one of the main battle mechs next to Hugh said.

“Concentrate on the heavy mechs, then the mediums once we run out of targets,” Hugh ordered. The fleeing artillery mechs were drawing the enemy right across his guns. If he could rid the enemy force of its heavy firepower, Hugh’s infantry and main battle mechs would have a much easier time against the more lightly armored foes. The force leaving the city had four heavy mechs in it, along with a score of medium mechs and a couple of dozen light mechs. Over two hundred Ssath infantry, some of them the enhanced models, had joined with Hssim as he moved to assault Hugh’s ring.

The mortars on top of his mechs coughed out rounds into the enemy infantry while Hugh unloaded all five shells in his magazine at the nearest enemy heavy mech. Like earlier, it took all five rounds to take down the shields and punch through the armor of an enemy heavy mech, with the final round detonating inside and making the heavy mech a mobility kill, not completely out of the fight, but unable to move. That was more than good enough for him. The other mechs with him took down two more of the heavies, the powerful 105mm guns doing good damage at this range.

Both his artillery mechs were down, and the horde of Ssath was separating into three columns as they approached the fifth ring. Light mechs and infantry were evenly spread between the two outer columns, they were the ones Hssim would use to pin him in. Everything heavier, including the avatar was going straight toward him, the hammer to the infantry’s anvil.

“Final rounds, then let’s get moving,” Hugh ordered, sending his final shot at one of the heavy mechs, the shot dropped the shields but left the mech untouched. The fire from his other mechs damaged the last mobile enemy heavy, but they were too tough to take down without multiple hits in the same area.

“Sir, something’s happening with the enemy avatar, it’s picking up speed,” one of his soldiers called out. Zooming in as he could, Hugh spotted small drones circling around the Ssath avatar. Occasionally one would hover near the damaged knee joint, firing off some beam into the damaged area. They were repairing Hssim on the fly, fixing up the knee so he could rundown Hugh’s avatar.

“Brubaker, are you ready yet?” Hugh asked.

“The ambushes closest to you are ready, the others should have time to get in place before you arrive,” Brubaker advised.

“Their avatar is picking up steam, so keep those anti-armor missiles ready,” Hugh replied. Stopping his mech at an intersection. The five-round magazine was reloaded and along with the main battle mechs in support, he would sting the lead enemy forces before continuing his retreat.

It was a pair of Ssath medium mechs that showed up first, both were left shattered and burning hulks once Hugh and the others were done with them. They turned to retreat when a Ssath heavy showed up, its main guns blazing away at Hugh. The shields over his mech popped, and he could feel burning plasma dig deep into his mech. He was still able to move, despite the pain, weaving past a building as two of the main battle mechs supporting him peeled off to engage the enemy heavy.

Hugh activated the self-repair boost ability. The pain began to lessen as his automatic repairs were sped up by 200% for the next minute. His drone dispenser was gone, as was his mortar mount. He had avoided getting any of his legs damaged, which would have meant guaranteed destruction. The armor was completely gone from the rear of the avatar, and some of the internal damage was to a module that would hamper the reload speed for the main gun until it was repaired.

His defenders fell, the two main battle mechs did take down the final Ssath heavy mech before they were knocked out by more enemy medium mechs. Another intersection was ahead, where Hugh planned to make another stand, but with the damage to his mech and with his shields down, he would skip it. Back at the fourth ring, Stephan’s advance had ground to a halt, and the Ssath were in the process of surrounding the survivors. The German had done a number on the enemy, and while they still outnumbered his troops, they were severely depleted.

“They hit the edge of the minefield, tear into them!” Brubaker called out. The lead Ssath infantry column to the north had started to turn toward Hugh’s position, ready to cut him off. Their path led them through the edge of one of the minefields protecting a strongpoint. Explosions threw Ssath mechs around while a few tentacle mines dragged others to a stop. At the same time, a reinforced squad of marines opened fire, their anti-armor rockets swatting down the nearby light mechs while they also walked a line of grenades down the leading edge of the enemy advance.

Hugh finally got a closeup view of his infantry’s new rifles when the grenades ran out. The twin-mounted rifles fired bursts, the larger caliber of the upgraded rifles having little trouble defeating the armor of the Ssath infantry and even putting the hurt on enemy light mechs. Before the return fire picked up, most of the squad fell back, a single pair of infantry covering the rest of the squad’s escape. On his map, Hugh could see the survivors being directed to a position further down the path where they could execute their next ambush, as long as the enemy kept to the plan. Normally, Hugh wouldn’t put much faith in the enemy doing what you wanted them to do, but they had to move within a certain area if they wanted to have a chance at catching Hugh’s avatar before the time ran down.

The ambush on the other flank was carried out by a platoon of light mechs, His M-41’s appearing from out of stealth to hose down the lead enemy forces before retreating away. One of the mechs was hit by return fire from the Ssath, but three escaped, tearing down nine more enemy infantry in the process. With a shield snapping back into place, and the armor being slowly knit together, Hugh turned at his next ambush point, the two surviving main battle mechs with him were hiding behind a wall with just their main guns clear to overwatch the intersection.

“Goodbye Hugh, fight well, my friend,” Stephan called out. Looking over Hugh could see his friend’s fight was at an end, the last few mechs were being overrun and the Maus was nearly weaponless, trying to stomp on any Ssath that approached, with the single operational machinegun firing at anything it could.

Stephan wasn’t out of tricks just yet, though, and as the Ssath swarmed over him, two of the flamethrower mechs charged into the midst of the attackers, plasma flame pouring over each other as well as the enemy. A tremendous fireball erupted, engulfing the German force and most of the attackers. When the flames cleared, an unwelcome prompt appeared.

The human war core known as Stephan Wager has been destroyed, no further units remain in his army.

“He sure did a number on them, didn’t he,” Brubaker said. Despite being busy organizing the running ambush teams, even he was shocked at the pile of destroyed Ssath the Germans had heaped upon the battlefield. Hugh wasn’t sure what their exact kill count was, but only a handful of Ssath were left in the fourth ring after he was done.

“He fought well, those soldiers were fearless,” Hugh replied. His gun already sighting in on an enemy mech stomping its way into the intersection. Five more rounds saw another three enemy mechs destroyed while his remaining pair of main battle mechs claimed a kill each. This time, Hugh made it away clean, trying his best to keep ahead of the approaching enemy as the timer counted down to under ten minutes. The column to the south cut in, trying to catch Hugh, but once more, another ambush was waiting for them, a more unusual one, this time.

As the Ssath infantry charged down the street, the pair of flak mechs moved to block them, supporting infantry opened fire from the nearby buildings, grenades slowing the enemy advance. While his flak units could operate in direct fire mode, their accuracy was severely diminished. Of course, when you had the enemy packed inside a narrow two-lane road, accuracy was much less important.

“Flak you, lizards!” One of the flak mech operators called out over the open channel. A violation of protocol, but one that had most of the army laughing, Hugh included. Between the two flak mechs, there were a total of eight, 40mm anti-air guns. Each fired at nearly the rate of a machinegun and each shell exploded when it neared a target. The sound was deafening as the guns opened up and the Ssath went knocked away like a giant broom had swept the street. The fire continued without letup, and it wasn’t until the Ssath were finally able to send a force around to flank the pair, that the flak mechs went silent.

“I get the feeling that two combat pods are going to have a new slogan painted on them when we get home,” Cartwright offered. He had finished off the Ssath from the dropship and had four surviving main battle mechs, along with a reinforced squad of infantry. The commander had almost reached Hugh, giving him some welcome firepower to help if things got out of hand.

“They’ve broken through to the north sir, I don’t think we can hold them,” Brubaker advised. The ambush to the north hadn’t had the same success the flak mechs had achieved, a small group of enemy infantry had gotten behind the two infantry squads setting the ambush and had torn them up before they could do much. Nearly eighty enemy infantry mechs were heading toward Hugh, and there was little else he could do. He was cut off and the enemy would reach him long before the timer ran down.

“Four minutes left, but we don’t have that long. Clear a path for me, I’m not going down without taking a crack at the enemy avatar,” Hugh called out. Every mech in his army charged toward his avatar, desperately trying to fight their way through the Ssath. Hugh had one last ace up his sleeve, hoping that Hssim wasn’t expecting it. He activated the hypervelocity ammo for his avatar, the five rounds in the magazine instantly were replaced with a much deadlier loadout.

Cartwright’s force joined him just as the enemy medium mechs showed up, outnumbered, Hugh’s mechs fought like demons, charging the enemy units and blowing open a path for Hugh. Stepping into the intersection was Hssim’s avatar. The reinforced infantry squad that had arrived with Cartwright showered the avatar with anti-armor rockets as soon as it came into view. Every one of the marines had no trouble scoring hits on the monster-sized target. Only partially charged, the enemy shield dropped under the barrage, with the last few missiles gouging out divots in the battered replacement armor.

The main battle mechs moved to screen Hugh from the enemy medium mechs that were pouring in behind Hssim. Cartwright’s troops opened up, targeting Hssim’s avatar with 105mm rounds even as they ignored the return fire tearing into their ranks as they tried to sort out which mech was Hugh’s, his camouflage still working to confuse anyone but Hsssim.

His mechs shattered the exoskeleton armor on the enemy avatar, revealing the already damaged armor behind it. Hugh gave silent thanks to Stephan’s Maus for the work it had done previously as he lined up his shot on what he thought looked like a weakened area. Unlike his normal ammo, the hypervelocity rounds streaked forward at a blinding speed, slamming hard into the armor. The first shot sheared off a plate of armor, the second round dug in a bit before detonating. Hssim staggered even as he returned fire on Hugh.

The shot from Hssim’s main gun went slightly off target as his mech staggered under Hugh’s fire. Even off-kilter, the huge round slammed into the side of Hugh’s avatar, dropping shields, and tearing through two of his legs. Collapsing to the ground, it took Hugh a second to bring his gun back to bear on the already damaged section of Hssim’s mech. His third, fourth, then fifth round of the magazine was fired, each shot hitting the damaged mech, digging deeper before detonating. The final round exploded and Hssim screamed in outrage as his avatar fell, his lighter weapons still lashing out at Hugh. Secondary explosions ripped the avatar apart, Hssim finally going quiet as a massive final blast launched the avatar’s head a dozen yards from the body.

Hssim was down, but that didn’t stop the Ssath, they reverted to AI control, blindly attacking, heedless of their own losses as they tried to get at the human forces. Cartwright maneuvered his mechs around Hugh’s crippled avatar, blasting into the attacking units. A wave of Ssath infantry flowed in from the north, the surviving human infantry mechs charging to meet them. Hugh slid his avatar on one of the functioning legs, bringing his secondary weapons to bear, the machineguns tearing apart any Ssath infantry that got too close.

Poorly controlled by the AI or not, they were overwhelming Hugh’s small force. An enemy infantry mech launched itself at Hugh, and a blast of fire from his turret-mounted machinegun shattered it before it could land. One of the main battle mechs covering him fell, leaving a gap for the enemy to charge through. His avatar was just another medium mech to the AI-controlled Ssath scanners, thanks to the camouflage upgrade, but the dinos were hardwired to attack wounded prey, which perfectly summed up the condition of Hugh’s avatar at the moment.

The timer was counting down, one minute left, he had to survive for one minute. Hugh activated his second charge of hypervelocity ammo, this time selecting his secondary weapons. Empowered shots poured from his machineguns, mowing down the enemy infantry while Hugh used his main gun to fight off the enemy medium mechs that were still in the fight. Cartwright only had three main battle mechs still operational, but they were doing a great job at placing themselves between the enemy medium mech’s guns and Hugh’s damaged avatar. His machineguns were glowing red, then white-hot as they fired the upgraded ammo. Before the machinegun barrels started to melt, the hypervelocity ammo ran out and the enemy infantry began to close in once more.

Congratulations, you have held the Krixnas capital for the required time. All Ssath forces will stand down as your mechs exit through the portal. Mobility function for all damaged mechs will be restored. Exit the battlefield before the time expires, any mechs remaining after the timer expires will have a casualty penalty added to all mechs under their core’s control.

The timer had finally run down to zero. Another five minutes would have likely seen Hugh overrun, but they had done it. His avatar began to sway as the GCA worked its magic to repair it. Wobbling a bit, Hugh was able to stand just a few seconds later as replacement legs grew on his mech. He looked around, the Ssath had all gone inactive once the timer had run out and the battlefield was finally quiet. The quiet was disrupted as the surviving human mechs gathered around him.

“Fall in, we leave together,” Hugh called out. The normal elation he would feel at winning the battle was dampened by the losses they had all suffered and concern over how many pods would have red lights on them when they finally got back. The battered survivors marched toward the portal. Less than a hundred mechs left the Krixnas world, and Hugh shared the evacuation results as they left.

Evacuation Progress:

Portal functionality: 100%

Ring 1: 100%.

Ring 2: 100%.

Ring 3: 100%.

Ring 4: 100%.

Ring 5: 100%.

Ring 6: 100%

Civilian casualties 19%.

The Krixnas had lost their homeworld, but at least they would survive as a species. As Hugh stepped into the portal, he waited to see if he would live or die based on the GCA’s whim.