War Core 2, Chapter 41.

Chapter 41.

“Let’s start pushing the infantry through the factory,” Hugh ordered. Captain Brubaker already had the troops queued up, and from the comm chatter, the men were excited to see how their newly upgraded mechs performed. Hugh knew the threat of a 55% casualty rate was weighing on them all, but like the true warriors they were, they put it in the back of their minds and got to work.

“I have been advised that a total of fifteen of my people will be available to work on any defenses you need,” Bob told him.

“Let’s get everyone’s input on how we can best defend this place,” Hugh said.

“Sir, These buildings look pretty sturdy, but they’re not going to stand up to artillery pounding on them or direct fire from a heavy mech,” Brubaker advised. Hugh wanted to use the height advantage the large structures provided, but not if it increased the risks to his troops.

"Humans, I believe we can assist with that. We can construct additional structural reinforcements to help the building resist collapse and provide cover for specified areas. Turning the structures into a strongpoint is time-consuming and labor-intensive, so we could not transform every building, but perhaps some structures that are in critical locations can be upgraded?” Bob suggested.

“That sounds like a plan, we’ll pick out the ones we want to be reinforced. We don’t have the numbers to man the entire line, so a series of strongpoints might just be our best option,” Hugh said. Walking forward, he looked out over the open space between their part of the city and ring four. It was wide enough, but the fast-moving Ssath could cover the distance in less than a minute. While they were out in the open, he needed to maximize the destruction his troops could cause.

“I will assign a group of my workers to begin on that task. Do you wish to see the additional defenses we can construct?” Bob asked.

“Absolutely, what can you do for us?” Hugh asked. Bob pushed over the information to Hugh’s interface, expanding on the data and offering Hugh some additional options.

Krixnas Defensive Structures:

The construction of the following defensive structures requires a single work party ten minutes to create. A Krixnas work party is typically 5 mechs, and if the work party is understrength, time delays may occur.

1. Minefield. Each standard minefield consists of a belt of mines laid out in a twenty-foot long by five-foot wide area. A minefield requires 10 resources to create.

2. Fighting positions. A complete entrenchment with overhead protection for either a squad of infantry or a single mech of larger size. Fighting positions do not require additional resources, the workers can easily utilize the materials around them to perform their tasks.

3. Defense turret. An armored turret that houses a single Krixnas tentacle laser weapon. Inaccurate and with a low rate of fire, this weapon can still be useful to supplement your defenses. A defense turret requires 10 resources to construct.

4. Heavy defense turret. A larger and more heavily armored version of the basic turret, the heavy turret features three tentacle lasers that are focussed into a single beam through a targeting device. More accurate and with triple the firepower, the heavy defense turret has a slower rate of fire than the standard turret and requires 50 resources to construct.

5. Hardened strongpoint. This option significantly reinforces a single strongpoint, adding multiple firing ports, murder holes, and making the structure resistant to plasma fire. The upgrade will also reduce the chance of collapse. Unused parts of the structure will be demolished to provide the resources necessary for this upgrade, but spending an additional 25 resources will greatly speed the process as well as improve the protection offered.

“Well, it looks like we have access to two different automated turrets, a minefield, and a couple of options for cover. My thoughts are that we reinforce a series of buildings, turning them into strongpoints. We use the main battle mechs to support each strongpoint and the light mechs we’ll have running in stealth mode to ambush any potential breakthroughs and to paint targets for our other units,” Hugh told his commanders, pushing Bob’s information out to each of them.

“Sir, with the size of the ring and the time it’ll take to build things, I think we can identify ten good candidates for the strongpoints. We’re hurting on numbers so I think we can only occupy them with an understrength squad in each. It’s not ideal and we’ll need more infantry if we want them to be effective,” Brubaker advised. This city that the GCA that was manufactured for the battle was only a fraction of the size of the actual city it was based on but was still far too much area for them to effectively defend. Hugh looked at his available units, wishing there was more to work with.

Order of Battle:

1. Infantry mechs (83).

2. Light mechs (12).

3. Light mech anti-air variant (4).

4. Main battle mechs (6).

5. Main battle mech artillery variant (2).

6. Air mechs (5).

“We can move the main battle mechs in pairs, which will give us three teams we can use to reinforce any area that needs it,” Cartwright said.

“It looks like air mechs aren’t as restricted as the ground forces, we can operate anywhere within the city and the surrounding area,” Tremaine advised. Hugh watched the flight of air mechs scream overhead. They were fast, and deadly in the hands of his pilots, but with only five of them, Hugh worried there wouldn’t be enough to keep the Ssath air units off of his ground units. To assist them, Hugh spread out his four flak mechs around the ring. Since they were based on the light mech chassis, they could quickly relocate if needed.

When concentrating on the open space between his ring of the city and the final ring where Stephan’s forces were forming up, Hugh could see a bright red glow, indicating how far his troops could maneuver before they were considered in violation of leaving their ring too early. It looked like they could maneuver up to halfway between the open spaces separating his ring from the others.

“Human war core, we have located a supply cache of resources, my workers will bring them to the factory complex where you can spend them on defenses or produce additional units,” Bob advised. Hugh watched as one of the Krixnas work teams emerged from the city, bringing the standard resource crates that the GCA seemed to use in all the battles to the factory.

Without a command post, Hugh would be unable to process any battlefield wrecks as salvage, but whatever the GCA had placed in these crates was refined enough for the factory to use. Intrigued at the chance to build new forces, Hugh made his way back to the factory where new options opened up for him. It turned out there was also a very welcome reward for his fight at the Krixnas mines.

You have acquired the first of the resources to found inside the 5th ring of the city, search for others to use in building up your forces.

Congratulations! For your actions in defending the Krixnas mining city, you have been awarded 500 resources to use in the final defense of the capital.

Current resource balance: 550.

Production options:

Units:

1. Krixnas work team: 50

The work teams consist of five Krixnas infantry mechs, and while specialized for construction efforts, these mechs retain their standard Krixnas infantry skills.

2. Infantry squad: 50

3. Light mech platoon: 100.

4. Light mech flak battery (2 air defense mechs): 100.

5: Air mech flight: 150.

6. Main battle mech platoon: 200.

7. Main battle mech artillery battery (2 mechs): 200.

Upgrades:

These upgrades are a one-time cost and will affect all current and future structures.

1. Minefield: Replace the standard Krixnas mines with a mixed field consisting of tentacle mines, high explosive, and armor-piercing weapons. This upgrade can be purchased at any time, but it does take some time for the work squads to install upgrades for minefields that have already been placed. The resource cost for this upgrade is 150.

2. Defense turret: Replace the Krixnas tentacle beam weapon with a twin-mounted plasma rifle based on those used on your assault infantry mechs. Accuracy, rate of fire, and damage are all improved. This upgrade can be purchased at any time, but it does take some time for the work squads to install upgrades for any turrets that have already been placed The resource cost for this upgrade is 250.

3. Heavy defense turret: Replace the Krixnas tentacle beam weapons with a 37mm cannon and coaxially mounted 30 caliber machinegun. Accuracy, damage, and rate of fire are significantly improved. This upgrade can be purchased at any time, but it does take some time for the work squads to install upgrades for any turrets that have already been placed The resource cost for this upgrade is 350.

He had a decent supply of resources, but they would go quickly. First off, Hugh ordered another two squads of infantry, that way, each building they were turning into a strongpoint could have a full squad defending it. There was a lot of work to do and only three work teams of Krixnas to do it. As much as he wanted to supplement his forces, Hugh purchased four more work teams. That left him with two hundred and fifty resources until they could find more of the hidden caches. There was mention of a trickle of resources coming in, but for whatever reason, that hadn’t started yet, leading Hugh to believe it would activate only once the battle began.

“Okay, we’ve got some resources, and I’m giving Bob some more work teams as well as a couple of extra infantry squads. As soon as your troops are done with their upgrades, get them to work on hunting down any additional resources, this is our chance to rebuild our numbers and improve our defenses,” Hugh ordered. The first few infantry squads were already through the process so they entered the city, exploring the various buildings as they looked not only for resources but also for good firing positions for when the Ssath showed up.

His extra workers were needed now, so Hugh halted the upgrades and repairs on his existing forces while the additional Krixnas work teams were created. It was kind of bizarre seeing Krixnas units produced in a human-looking factory, but despite being prior enemies, the Krixnas and his soldiers didn’t seem to have any trouble working together. Bob assigned five of his work teams to upgrade the ten buildings they had chosen to harden for their defense, Hugh spent the last of his resources to purchase the hardened defense point upgrades for all ten buildings. He wanted his troops as safe as they could be, and as an added benefit, the improved construction time would help Bob to finish all the structures before the battle began.

The remaining pair of Krixnas work teams did some basic demolition work, clearing lanes of fire for his mechs, and building fighting positions between their strongpoints. He didn’t have the troops to occupy them just yet, but he would rather see them built now than try to hastily construct them after the battle started. When the main battle mechs went through the upgrade progress, Hugh followed them into the factory. The upgrades didn’t take long to complete, but the factory was a bit smaller than the others he had used on this campaign, only having a single assembly line. Giving his newly upgraded avatar a test drive, Hugh found his speed and agility had improved by a decent amount.

“Bob, do you have anything that needs demolishing? I want to try out my new main gun upgrades,” Hugh asked.

“Yes, this structure is scheduled to be demolished to clear up the sightlines for the troops inside the nearest strongpoint,” Bob told him. It took Hugh a few minutes to find the indicated building, but the time gave him a better chance to examine the city they were defending. The buildings were pretty close together, with a two-lane road breaking his ring up into three distinct sections. The outermost section housed the smallest buildings with the largest being in the center and rearmost sections.

Bob and his work teams were working on the second row of structures, turning the ten best candidates into mini fortresses. The smaller buildings between them and the open space separating them from the fourth ring were being leveled. Hugh’s target was a two-story industrial structure of some sort. He lined up his 105mm gun, making sure there wasn’t anything important in his line of fire.

“Firing,” Hugh called out to warn everyone nearby his avatar. The cannon gave a hearty crack as each round was fired. With only a half-second between shots, until the magazine was quickly depleted, Hugh’s target crumbled under the plasma shells. With a few extra rounds sent into the rubble to test the reload speed on an empty magazine, Hugh was done.

“Not bad, Hugh, can we get that upgrade for all our main battle mechs?” Cartwright asked.

“Put it on your Christmas list if you want, but I don’t think the GCA is going to give us any further mech upgrades for this campaign,” Hugh replied.

“We’ve found a couple of more resource caches, how do you plan to…” Brubaker started to say, his statement cut off as bright light and the crackle of thunder sounded over the city. Looking toward the city center, Hugh could see the portal was complete and operational. A notification appeared as the sound slowly faded and the light dimmed to a modest blue ripple over the portal.

The portal to the new Krixnas home has been activated. Evacuation transports have begun to move and the Ssath main army will arrive in 15 minutes. War cores, prepare yourselves for battle.