War Core 2, Chapter 42.

Chapter 42.

“Everyone, it looks like the clock is ticking, do what you can to improve your defenses before the Ssath arrives,” Valery called out to the cores. The countdown for the Ssath arrival had started as soon as the portal flared to life, and they had just over 28 minutes remaining before the Ssath showed up.

“Hey, has anyone heard anything from Felicia?” Tucker called out. Nobody had, which gave Hugh a bad feeling. He had expected her to be here for the final battle, and even though she had a very limited force, the infantry would be useful in this battle.

“No, I don’t think we will. I hope nothing permanent has happened, but I don’t think we’ll know until we get back home. We can only pray that she is already there, awaiting our return,” Jiro replied.

“How is everyone doing on resources?” Hugh asked the others, curious to see if there were any differences between each section of the city. They had all found a similar number of resources, with both Hugh and Stephan getting a big bonus for the mining city battle they had won. The outer ring of the city where Valery was setting up had far more of the resource crates than the other rings, which was helping to alleviate being saddled with the biggest area to defend.

“Well mates, I’ve got control of the skies, and my mechs can travel anywhere in the city and even out a decent bit from the outer ring. I am going to need to borrow someone’s factory so I can build me some replacements,” Tucker advised. Hugh could see his aircraft taking off from the area near the portal, the two dozen or so mechs at his command splitting up into pairs to fly cover over the city.

“You may use my factory, there’s a lot for me to do, but I doubt the Ssath will get to my ring for some time,” Stephan offered.

“Tremaine, do you have any issues with Tucker taking overall command of the air war?” Hugh asked.

“No Hugh, I was actually going to suggest something similar. It would be more efficient if we pool our air mechs for this type of fight, given how they can operate a bit more freely than the ground mechs. Oh, and I should mention that our air mechs are unable to land and engage in ground combat outside of our assigned ring, but we’re good if we stay in flight,” Tremaine replied.

“Tucker, would like to take overall command over our air mechs? I’ve only got five of them, but my air commander agrees that it would be better if we coordinate,” Hugh told the other cores.

“Good idea, does anyone have an objection to me taking over the air war?” Tucker asked. Everyone agreed, and while the other cores didn’t have much in the way of air power. Hugh had five mechs, Jiro had two, Stephan had four. Valery had the largest army out of all of them and that included eleven air mechs. With the resources Tucker had been given, he was able to build another seven mechs, giving them an air force consisting of fifty-three air mechs.

“I’m granting access to my feed for all of you, I suggest everyone do the same so we can keep track of how the battle is progressing,” Tucker advised. Hugh granted the other cores access, but he was a bit too busy right now to look over how they were getting along. More resource crates had been discovered and now that the timer had started up, so too had the trickle of resources flowing into the factory. It was a pathetic amount, only a single point every few minutes, but he was willing to take whatever the GCA was going to give him.

With the extra resources from the crates, Hugh tried to decide on what to build. Fixed defenses would be nice, but he didn’t want to spend resources to build minefields or turrets until his mech numbers were replenished. Each crate held fifty resources and with the ones they had discovered so far, Hugh had another two hundred and fifty resources to work with. He ordered up another platoon of main battle mechs as well as an infantry squad.

“Brubaker, how many troops do you think you’ll need to effectively defend the strongpoints?” Hugh asked.

“I’d like to have a platoon in each, but a couple of squads should be able to fight effectively from them given our infantry upgrades. A single squad might be able to handle things until the enemy begins to flank the position and we have to defend more than one direction,” Brubaker advised.

“Okay, I’m going to shoot for two squads for each location once we get the resources. I’m up to ten main battle mechs so we’ll split those up into fireteams of two. Each fire team can work to support two strongpoints. The light mechs I’m going to scatter around the areas of the city between the strongpoints, they’ll patrol there under stealth, spotting and taking out anything that the strongpoints aren’t in a position to engage,” Hugh advised. His artillery mechs were placed in the open area between his ring and Stephan’s. They were vulnerable to air attacks, but the artillery needed to be clear of the buildings for their cannons to work effectively. A pair of flak mechs were nearby to cover the arty, and the other pair slowly patrolled around the city ring.

His troops swept their ring of the city, looking for any additional resources. By the time the countdown reached ten minutes, they had located another three crates, giving them an extra 150 resources to work with. Hugh built three more infantry squads, allowing Brubaker to allocate them to the various strongpoints.

“Does anyone have artillery that can support my troops?” Valery asked.

“I do, let me see what kind of range we can get for you,” Hugh replied.

“We do not have such weapons,” Mike replied.

“Neither do I,” the other Krixnas answered.

“Oh, I should tell you that I’ve been calling this Krixnas Ivan, he doesn’t seem to mind,” Valery added.

“I am known by the moniker of Mike by your people,” Mike replied.

“Good to meet you both, but I’m sorry to say, I didn’t invest in any artillery mechs, either” Jiro said.

“I have a single battery, but I’m pretty far back here at the center of the city, so we’ll have to test their range,” Stephan advised.

“I have a battery as well, when you’re ready, we’ll check the max range on them,” Hugh offered.

“Very good, we’ll start with Stephan,” Valery said.

“I’ll push them forward as far as possible and then fire at max range,” Stephan advised. A short time later, two artillery mechs, which were based on Stephan’s medium mechs, walked into the open space between rings five and six. Stopping close to the limit, both mechs fired off a single round. The glowing blue plasma shell arcing over the city, the comm chatter quiet as everyone watched to see where they would hit.

There wasn’t too much risk, Hugh knew that like with his artillery, Stephan could see an estimated impact point. At maximum range it was a pretty wide area where the shell could land, and he wouldn’t have fired if it was going to be too close to Valery’s troops. The shells landed about two hundred yards in front of the outer ring.

“Fire a few more just to make sure of the spread, Hugh, can you choose another sector to try out your weapons on? I don’t want to waste too much time dialing things in,” Valery ordered. Hugh’s mechs followed Stephan’s lead, moving out as far as they could into the open space between rings four and five. It gave Hugh’s mechs enough range to hit about the point where Valery’s medium mechs would engage the enemy.

“Da, that is good, I’ll have my commanders work with your artillery to preplan fire missions,” Valery said. Not liking that the vulnerable artillery mechs were out in the open, Hugh ordered the two flak mechs that had been covering them to move up and continue their watch over the artillery. Depending on where the Ssath attacked from, they might have to move around the ring to engage their targets, and he didn’t want the artillery to move out of air defense range.

“Bob, how are we doing on the strongpoints?” Hugh asked, looking over the preparations.

“We have completed three of the positions and two more should be done shortly. Progress is going smoothly, and everything should be complete soon after the Ssath arrive,” Bob advised.

“Good work, coordinate with Cartwright once you’re done with the strongpoints, he’ll want some fighting positions dug out for the main battle mechs, that way, they’ll have some cover when they move up to support the defense,” Hugh ordered.

The completed strongpoints were impressive, the buildings that Brubaker had selected were transformed into small fortresses. Hugh could see the wall thickness was nearly triple that of the surrounding buildings and additional reinforcing pillars on the interior would protect them from collapse when they did start to accumulate damage. Firing ports were being adjusted, the original layout wasn’t optimal for Hugh’s infantry, and Brubaker had a few tricks up his sleeve as well to improve on their defense.

With his preparations going as well as he could hope, Hugh took a look at Valery’s efforts, impressed at what the Russian commander had done in the time they had been allotted. His army was now more than triple the size of Hugh’s and a quick question confirmed that there had been many more supply crates scattered in the outer ring than Hugh had found in his. It made sense that the hardest to defend location would be the one most supported by resources. The GCA loved to tweak things almost like a game designer would in order to make things “fair”.

With their links, Hugh was able to review the other cores' orders of battle. It was strange to see that the human cores could have such different styles of units while the Krixnas cores were almost carbon copies of each other, with Ivan at ring two having a slightly larger force due to a few more supply crates than the core at ring four had to work with. Valery’s force was formidable, but the real question was whether or not it could deal with the horde of Ssath that were getting closer by the second.

Order of Battle:

Human war core known as Valery Akalov.

1. Infantry mechs (277).

2. Infantry mechs, Conscript variant (140).

3. Infantry mechs, Guards Sapper variant (30).

4. Light mech, ZSU 37, anti-air variant (8).

5. Light mech, BM-31 artillery variant (8).

6. Medium mech, T34-85 (44).

7. Heavy tank, T-55 (34).

Valery had an interesting unit mix, with a total of three infantry types and no standard light mechs at all, just a few variants. His regular infantry was about what Hugh expected for a tier ten unit and was equipped with a rifle, grenade launcher, and even a bayonet for melee. His guard sapper infantry was more heavily armored and in addition to the equipment the standard infantry carried, Hugh could see a large pack on their back. Digging deeper into the mechs information, the packs could deploy mines, place heavy explosives, or house a plasma flamethrower weapon. If the Guards Sappers were Valery’s elite troops, the Conscripts were obviously his cannon fodder. Lightly armored, the conscripts had an almost sickly appearance. A simple plasma rifle was their only weapon and from its specs, the weapon was tier five at best.

His only light mechs were all support variants, with eight anti-air units similar to his own, and eight artillery mechs. The artillery mechs didn’t have a cannon mounted on them, instead, the unarmored chassis only contained a series of tubes that fired long-range, unguided rockets. With twelve fat rocket tubes, the little mechs could throw a lot of firepower in their initial volley, but Hugh was willing to bet that their reload cycle was painfully slow.

The medium mechs that Valery used were well armored and had a powerful main gun, supplemented by several light and heavy machineguns. A shield generator and reactive armor rounded out its protection. The real star of Valery’s show were his heavy tanks. The T-55’s walked on eight legs, and with all the upgrades that Valery had lavished on these mechs, they still could keep pace with the smaller units they fought alongside. A huge 120mm gun provided the main firepower, and the mechs sported four secondary heavy machine caliber weapons. In addition to the other firepower, each heavy mech was surrounded by a flock of small drones, similar to the ones Hugh was now mounting on his avatar.

Valery’s avatar was an even larger version of the T-55, the mech nearly glowing from the layered shields protecting it. Where Hugh’s main battle mech featured a single 105mm main gun, Valery had a dual mount 120mm turret on his avatar. With an extra pair of machineguns and a score of drones to support it, the Russian avatar wasn’t one that Hugh wanted to mess with. He also wouldn’t want to stand out as much as Valery did on the battlefield, the intimidating mech was sure to draw the Ssath like flies to honey. Of course, Valery knew this, and Hugh was sure he had planned accordingly.

Defenses for the outer ring of the city were a bit different than Hugh’s approach. The outer ring was comprised of what must have been individual dwellings. The buildings were divided into three sections separated by a two-lane road. Valery had the conscripts, supported by half of the medium mechs, occupying the outer buildings while his regular and guard’s troops were holed up in the final row of structures, the center ring appeared undefended. Hugh figured the outer ring forces would fall back and put up a fight in the second row of buildings, getting cover from the better-equipped units to their rear.

Valery had his artillery mechs in the open area between the first and second rings, with his air defense mechs scattered around to provide cover. The outer two rows of buildings were untouched by the attached Krixnas construction mechs, Valery had instead focused their efforts on the final row, reinforcing them against incoming fire. The smaller size and less hearty construction of the first ring structures meant they couldn’t be turned into the fortresses that Hugh’s forces were occupying, but the Krixnas were doing good work with what they had at their disposal. In addition, a dozen of the Krixnas defensive turrets had been built to support the main bulk of Valery’s army, with more under construction.

If they had another hour and more resources, Valery could have turned his ring into a real meat grinder. The only trouble was that the time was almost up, and given the clouds of dust in the distance, it looked like the Ssath were already on their doorstep.