War Core 2, Chapter 47.

Chapter 47.

“How do you want us to spend the resources, Hugh?” Cartwright asked.

“More infantry would be nice, let’s get five more squads, that way each strongpoint will get another section of infantry mechs to help out. For the other hundred and fifty, I’m thinking some more minefields are in order, as well as the upgrade for them. From what we’ve seen so far, the only Ssath counter to a minefield is to march troops across until you’ve triggered them all. With a deadlier field, we can really cut into their numbers and hold out longer,” Hugh replied, allocating the resources once there were no objections.

“Hey mates, we’ve finished off the Ssath fighters, but we’ve only got nine of ours remaining,” Tucker advised. As Hugh watched, a single fighter peeled out of formation and flew directly into the glowing portal. “Well, guess that makes it eight, I forgot that was one of Jiro’s birds,” Tucker added. The single air mech would be the sole survivor of Jiro’s force. Hopefully, the bonus of 5% survivability would apply to his troops.

“Mike, when the next attack happens, Hugh and I will support you with artillery as much as we can. Do you have any questions?” Stephan asked.

“No, I am preparing as best I can. Do any of you know if the Ssath can bombard us again?” Mike asked.

“I’m not sure, but if he can, it will happen early in the fight, just have your units ready to spread out if we see any signs of a bombardment,” Hugh offered.

“Stephan, how are your preparations going?” Hugh asked, having little to do as Brubaker worked on sorting out the new infantry as they were built, and Bob worked on upgrading the minefields.

“Just building up my forces as best I can. There is a weakness in the Ssath attack we should be prepared to capitalize on. When they are winning the assault, they leave themselves open to counterattack, focusing too much on the objective to the neglect of their rear and flanks,” Stephan said.

“I suppose it doesn’t matter much in this fight. By the time they’re winning, the defending core doesn’t have much to counterattack with. I’m going pretty heavily into mines, they didn’t seem to have any way to sweep them and the longer we hold off the attack, the more our ranged firepower advantage can be put to use,” Hugh replied.

“We shall see, Hugh, but I do agree that if the Ssath are going to bombard us again, it will be at the opening of the next fight. This little lizard of an opponent doesn’t seem the type to hold back any firepower,” Stephan said.

Everyone was quiet after that, the other cores just as likely lost in their thoughts and concerns as Hugh was. Even with the two victories under their belt, his casualty rate was sitting at 45% for the battle. Almost half the men under his command that were taken out in the fight will die. He could help that somewhat with the lethality mitigation certificate he had earned in the previous campaign, but it didn’t disclose how much of a benefit it would give him. In case he forgot in the coming heat of battle, Hugh went ahead and activated it.

Casualties will now be mitigated at the conclusion of this campaign.

That was all he got, unfortunately. As bad as things were for his forces, Stephan was facing a near-total death sentence. If Hugh and Mike held back the Ssath, the best Stephan could hope for was a 70% casualty rate, maybe 65% if he won his fight as well. At least the civilian evacuation wasn’t going that badly. The Ssath essentially ignored those fleeing from the second ring as they had focused on trying to push Jiro out of the third ring early.

Evacuation status.

Portal functionality: 100%

Ring 1: 100%.

Ring 2: 100%.

Ring 3: 100%.

Ring 4: 11%.

Ring 5: 0%.

Ring 6: 0%

Civilian casualties 8%.

The portal functionality was still a mystery, but Hugh was counting on it being something that the Ssath could attack directly, probably with air mechs, if they desired. Since the Ssath wanted some of their prey to make it out, Hugh figured destroying the portal was low on their priority list. Some of the escaping transports had been attacked, but that was due more to the aggressive nature of the Ssath than any particular plan.

Resources were now arriving at a rate of one every thirty seconds and Hugh gave Bob free reign to make another minefield whenever the total reached ten. The upgrade at 150 resources had been expensive, but thankfully, it didn’t affect the cost of the minefield itself. Hugh had a couple of other things that might help in the coming battle. He had the two turrets he had purchased back on Harmony Station as well as some hyper velocity ammo. Saving the ammo in case his avatar had to tangle with Hssim directly, Hugh did want to use the turrets since they needed time to construct.

“Bob, I have two human turrets in my inventory. If I place them down, can you work them into your minefield plan?” Hugh asked.

“I believe so, where will you place them?” Bob asked.

“That’s a good question, Brubaker, where do you think they’ll do the most good?” Hugh asked.

“Let’s see, what kind of turrets are we dealing with?” Brubaker asked.

“I purchased some upgrades when I bought them, so figure a fifty cal with a reduced rate of fire and light armor on the turret itself,” Hugh answered.

“Good, there’s no way to know for sure where the Ssath will push when they get to our ring, but I think we should drop them to cover the strongpoint nearest the factory. It’s about the only valuable thing we have, so the enemy will naturally try to take it out to prevent reinforcements from coming into play during the fight,” Brubaker offered.

Hugh agreed, placing the turrets near the factory where their field of fire would cover the rear of the nearby strongpoint. Bob would have to clear out a few obstructions, but nothing that would take too much effort. Time ticked by, and every time had another ten resources, Hugh queued up an additional minefield.

“Thank you for the additional forces, human war core known as Hugh Logan,” Mike said. Hugh looked over at Mike’s factory to see a platoon of main battle mechs under construction. It looked like the Allied Force ability had kicked in for Mike even though it had already done so for Ivan. At the same time, Hugh’s factory activated, and he could see that there were three squads of Krixnas infantry being produced.

Mike was the last Krixnas commander on the battlefield, so that might be why the GCA finally triggered the ability for Hugh. After he thought about it, there was another Krixnas core on the battlefield, but it was the one in charge of the construction units like Bob’s. Since that core didn’t seem able to communicate, have a command post, or an avatar, it likely didn’t count as a direct combatant.

Hugh placed the new Krixnas under Bob’s command to integrate them into the workforce. Once the battle for ring five started, Brubaker would divvy them up among the strongpoints to reinforce his defenses. If Mike could hold the fourth ring, Hugh might get enough resources to add more to his forces. With the resource influx improved to one every thirty seconds, Hugh would have more than enough for mines, and would use any windfall from a victory to pump up his combat power.

The battle for the 4th ring of the Krixnas capital begins. From this point forward there will no longer be any reprieve between battles, but the defending cores will receive a bonus to their survivability rate should they emerge victorious.

Artillery smashed into Mike’s outer structures, his Krixnas scrambling to their assigned positions as the Ssath began their assault. The countdown started on the timer, they had to hold for ninety minutes to win the fight, a combined total for all three of the remaining rings. Mike had amassed a sizeable force of infantry and they had dug themselves in. Each squad of infantry also had what passed for a Krixnas anti-armor weapon. Hugh had seen something similar in his last campaign against the Krixnas. The device would allow multiple tentacles to fire their beam weapons, concentrating the fire and pumping it through a single barrel to improve accuracy and power.

The Ssath had used the delay to organize their attack a bit better, this time attacking across the entire ring. It spread their forces, but they were numerous enough that they would be able to break through somewhere. Mike couldn’t cover the whole perimeter and like the fight with Jiro, it would likely devolve into small pockets of resistance fighting it out on their own. Mike’s command post was in about the same location where the factories were for the humans, on the border of the inner ring. Several defensive positions had been dug in around it, and Mike had placed all of his light mechs, the allied force main battle mechs, and various fixed defenses to support it.

The position around the command post was as strong as Mike could make it and if any Ssath tried to circle around the open area between rings four and five, Hugh could bring them under direct fire from the main battle mechs he had dug in as close as he could get to the border, Bob’s Krixnas scratched out hull-down positions for them as well as for Hugh’s avatar. Their mortars had decent range and the medium mech operators were tied into Mikes comm channel, ready to add extra indirect fire to any Ssath that neared the command post. Hugh’s light mechs also helped, keeping a screen of targeting drones up to improve their accuracy.

Having the enemy right next door opened more options for Hugh to help out. When the attack reached his ring, Stephan could do the same. Hugh was sure that Stephan’s avatar and its impressive firepower would be quite the surprise to any Ssath that showed themselves in the open area between his ring and Stephan’s. Eighty-eight minutes to go and counting.

The Ssath infantry was covered closely by light and medium mechs. Their heavier units hung back a bit, ready to move up and blast any stubborn defenders, but not allowing the Krixnas any free shots at them. So far, the Ssath avatar was content to hold back, likely trying to repair the damage Jiro had unleashed on it. Mike’s troops opened fire, their tentacle beams exhibiting their normal lack of accuracy. The anti-armor contraptions did much better, targeting the light and medium mechs, they landed hits with almost every shot. When they fired, the heavier weapons drew the attention of any Ssath in range, making things hard on the anti-armor teams, but relieving some pressure on the other infantry.

As Hugh predicted, the Ssath were taking casualties, but easily overcoming the more lightly defended areas of the city ring, encircling the more heavily defended areas, content to use some forces to hold them in place while the rest of the army moved toward the true target, the Krixnas command post. The minefields that Mike had scattered throughout the ring were working well, snagging, and delaying the main push toward the command post.

“Target, enemy medium mech in the open, engaging,” one of Hugh’s main battle mechs warned. A second later, the 105 mm main gun fired with a sharp crack, the shell blasting through the shield on the enemy medium mech to slam into the armor. The explosion tore out the armor and damaged the enemy mech, leaving it limping and vulnerable to a follow-up shot.

“Nice shooting, if the Ssath poke their snouts out in the open, punch them with a 105mm fist,” Cartwright ordered to his main battle mech crews, an order that Hugh heartily agreed with, his avatar’s main gun also scanning for targets. He was dug in directly across from the command post and wasn’t going to let anything get a clear shot at Mike.

The Ssath were fighting through the Krixnas lines, pushing back the defenders as they closed in on the command post. More and more fire cracked out from Hugh’s mechs as the Ssath tried several times to rush the command post from behind. Their hull-mounted automated mortars were also chugging out round after round, throwing indirect fire into any concentrations of Ssath that Mike could point out.

Ssath artillery mechs moved closer, unleashing a never-ending barrage on the command post area. Mike had a shield to help protect the structure, and a squad of infantry to repair any damage, but the fire was wearing away his defenders, despite how dug in they were. The Ssath had a dozen of the giant artillery mechs, and a couple of smaller ones that might have been flak units protecting them. So far, Tucker had kept his remaining fighters back, wanting to wait for the surviving enemy bombers to make their play.

“The enemy attack is bunching up, a perfect time to launch a counterattack,” Stephan said to Hugh.

“I have something that might help, it’s called the Drop Beacon of the Vanquished and I can land a dropship full of troops anywhere we need to,” Hugh offered.

“I think a swift strike can sweep up their artillery, then move to take the Ssath encircling Mike from the rear, a single dropship can’t do that, but my army can,” Stephan said.

“Don’t be crazy, we’re doing well enough, we’ll hold,” Hugh told his friend.

“No, we both know the Krixnas will fall quickly, even with your troops in support. You have a much stronger position, but they have more than enough troops to push through your defenses as well. My army can break them, and then you and Mike can sweep up the remnants,” Stephan said with determination.

“The risk isn’t worth it, all the soldiers that you lose in this fight will be killed back home,” Hugh argued.

“Tell me, Hugh, what is the average age of your soldiers?” Stephan asked. Hugh thought it an odd question from the German core at a time like this.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Hugh snapped back, frustrated at Stephan’s apparent death wish.

“Humor me, I promise you it is important,” Stephan told him.

“I don’t know for sure, somewhere in the mid-twenties, I’d say,” Hugh replied, not sure where Stephan was going with this.

“The age of my warriors is considerably older for this fight; the average age is well over ninety. You see, Hugh, back on earth the combat pods aren’t filled with young Bundeswehr soldiers, no, they are filled with soldiers of another army, those few that remain. Knowing their time was nearly at an end, the old veterans came forward when they learned about the war going on deep in space that we’re fighting on these strange worlds. These are old men who were decrepit and waiting to die in a retirement home or hospital. Most of them can’t even walk anymore, but you don’t need to be a fit youth to fight inside a combat pod, do you?” Stephan advised.

“No, but that seems, well, ghastly to be frank. How can you just load your elderly into the combat pods? How are they even able to fight effectively, you don’t need to be physically fit, but you do need to know how to fight and follow military protocol,” Hugh asked, confused over what was going on with Stephan’s forces.

“Yes, you do need to know how to fight, and all these men do, or did some time ago. The soldiers in my pods are the last remnants of the Wehrmacht, each and every one is a veteran of World War 2. Some are even men I served with in the past. They are all here for various reasons, but all are committed to the fight, and committed to die, if necessary, so that our younger soldiers may have another chance at life. In this case, some of those younger soldiers are the men under your command. Take this gift we are offering and honor our wishes without complaint,” Stephan told him.

It wasn’t what he had expected to hear, but Hugh would let the matter rest, despite his conflicting feelings on the subject. Were the GCA-designed combat pods somehow able to even help compensate for failing minds? Hugh knew they were being manufactured on Earth, unlike the war cores, but did the people building them know exactly what the pods could do, or were they being produced in some kind of GCA-supplied factory they had delivered to earth? Hugh never thought about that before and would have to look into it when, and if, he returned home.