War Core 2, Chapter 29.

Chapter 29.

Hugh and Jiro adjusted their lines, integrating the defensive spheres into their plan. David pushed the data over showing where he intended to double the number of spheres around the first ring. It would still be a pitiful number given the size of the perimeter they were defending, but every bit would help. For now, their Krixnas ally continued to gather resources, focusing on the ones that the human mechs had spotted in the outer ring. While it took longer for them to drag the resource crates all the way from the outer ring to the center of the city where David’s command post was located, it would help to ensure they didn’t lose valuable resources when the defenders were inevitably pushed back.

After the first few crates were returned, David pumped out more infantry mechs, cutting off the reinforcements once he reached fifty. With the greater numbers, the gathering was moving at a much better pace. Hugh cut Tremaine loose to scout further from the city, he was happy for any delay the Ssath gave them, but he didn’t like when they did the unexpected. Despite being commanded by what he assumed were experienced commanders, the Ssath easily gave in to their bloodlust during a battle. It was a weakness he would have to try and exploit if the opportunity arose.

“Sir, we’ve got contacts, lots of them,” Tremaine called out excitedly. One of his wildcat mechs, scouting toward the south had spotted the enemy, only it wasn’t what Hugh had been expecting. Instead of a ground-based army of Ssath mechs marching toward the city, it was a swarm of air mechs heading their way.

“Get me a good count, and then take them out,” Hugh ordered. Expecting the same type of fights that they had experienced before; Hugh had pushed his air mechs out in every direction looking for enemy ground units, and that focus on ground units was coming back to bite them as it became apparent that only a pair of his air mechs were close enough to engage the enemy.

“I’ve got twenty-one heavy air mechs, look like bombers or transports of some type. In addition, we have a dozen smaller mechs escorting the big boys. Just look at these things’ sir,” Tremaine said. As the range closed, Hugh saw what could only be described as mech versions of giant Pteranodons. The larger ones rivaled the size of the transports that had brought Hugh’s forces to the city and the smaller ones were closer in size to his fighter mechs.

“Engaging the escorts, we’ll pull them away and give everyone else a shot at the heavies,” Lieutenant Cooper advised as she led her wingman dove straight at the smaller enemy fighter-sized mechs, which were forming up to protect the enemy heavy air mechs. Hugh and Jiro’s other air mechs were rushing back to the city, but they were going to be late to the party unless Cooper and her wingman could slow the enemy down.

Having a slight altitude advantage, the pair of human pilots poured on the power, speed was life in air combat. A barrage of plasma bolts fired from enemy fighters, the round coming from where the mouth would be on a live Pteranodon. The range was still too long and the pair of F4 Wildcats easily avoided the first volley, holding their fire until they could be assured of a kill. Having missed their first shots, the enemy fighters continued to pump out blasts, their targeting improving as the range closed.

It shouldn’t have been a contest, the human air mechs were outnumbered six to one and it would only take a single powerful plasma blast to destroy them. Hugh wasn’t sure who or what was sitting in the combat pods that were controlling the enemy mechs, but his were flown by experienced air force officers who lived for this kind of fight. Never staying in one place too long, the human pilots juked the incoming fire, until, finally, the pair of heavy machineguns in the air mechs wings began to chug out bursts of fire, each one slamming home into their targets.

Ssath air mechs were larger and more heavily armored than Hugh’s, but even their upgraded armor couldn’t withstand burst after burst of the fifty caliber, plasma-enhanced rounds. One Ssath fighter exploded as the bursts hit something critical, and another lost control, spiraling toward the ground. The two human mechs burst through the packed Ssath fighters, continuing their dive toward the deck and refusing to try and mix it up in a dogfight against superior numbers. Ssath started to pursue, only to quickly give up the chase and pull back into formation around what Hugh was thinking of as their bomber mechs.

Twice more, Cooper and her wingman burst through the Ssath formation, shooting down three more enemy fighters. Their fourth pass proved disastrous as the Ssath fighters pulled in tighter to the heavy air mechs they were protecting. When the human mech’s approached, the heavy enemy mechs lashed out with several defensive weapons integrated into the hull. This, combined with the fire from the surviving Ssath fighters, blew the two human machines from the sky.

“They did better than we could have hoped,” Hugh said, praising the pair of pilots, and at the same time wondering if they had survived.

“The Ssath machines seem to be equal to our own, but with more powerful weapons. Our only saving grace is that our pilots seem to be much better,” Tremaine said, pushing his analysis of the fight over to Hugh.

The Ssath should have easily won the encounter without sustaining the losses that the human mechs had inflicted. For some reason, the enemy fighters were reluctant to pursue too far from the large mechs they were protecting. Whether it was a case of foolish and inflexible orders, or just inexperienced pilots, Hugh couldn’t guess. Their thrust profile was slightly better than Hugh’s mechs, despite their armor being heavier.

Captain Tremaine had gathered his other fighters while Cooper had been thinning the enemy numbers, seven human air mechs had climbed about five thousand feet above the enemy formation and once in place, began their attack. The attack was going to be too late though, the enemy bombers were even now making their way over the city, ready to unleash whatever weapons they carried in their bomb bays.

His ground-based mechs were out of range and couldn’t do anything to stop the air attack. The huge perimeter Hugh had been forced to defend would play to his advantage as the bombs fell, his mechs were spread too thin to allow more than a pair of them to be destroyed in a single blast. If he still had lungs, he would have held his breath as the bomb bay doors in the bottom of the enemy mechs opened. Large oval bombs dropped from the enemy mechs. The target didn’t seem to be his units or the Krixnas command post. Instead of the obvious targets, the Ssath seemed to be carpet bombing the city in a random pattern.

“Sir, I don’t think those are bombs!” Cartwright shouted as the sides of the bombs peeled back, revealing a Ssath infantry mech inside. Parachutes deployed, bleeding off the speed of freefall.

“Form into squads and engage. Jiro, send some reinforcements to the Krixnas command post, that has to be their objective,” Hugh ordered. He didn’t know if he outranked Jiro, but if the other core wasn’t going to take command, he would.

“Sounds good, Hugh, I’ll secure the command post and push toward your forces,” Jiro replied. The enemy mechs were going to be scattered all over the southern half of the city that Hugh’s forces were defending, most would land over the second and third ring, but a few were unlucky enough to drift over the first ring where Hugh’s forces were deployed.

Not wasting a moment, his mechs fired at any Ssath in range while at the same time forming up into squad-based units instead of the small teams that he had been forced to place around the first city ring. Moving his avatar to join a squad of infantry, Hugh led them toward the second ring where the Ssath were landing unopposed. Normally, dropping airborne troops on top of a defended city was suicide, but mechs didn’t have to worry about getting injured in the landing and as soon as they touched down, they were ready to fight.

“Major Hugh Logan, I am pulling my units back to the command post, but it will take time and I will need some assistance to survive this attack,” David called out. Before Hugh could reply, his attention was drawn back to the skies as one of the enemy bombers exploded.

A second enemy bomber fell to the combined fire of several fighters, but Hugh’s forces were also taking a beating. Tremaine was choosing to concentrate on the bombers still dropping their payloads. One of the Japanese air mechs was already down, but Hugh was amazed as the second flew directly toward a bomber, its single gun firing away, but it wasn’t going to be enough to take out the heavy enemy mech.

Just when Hugh thought Jiro’s air mech was going to collide with the bomber, it changed. Retro thrusters burned as the mech transformed from a modern jet fighter design into a humanoid mech. With the crunch of metal, the transformed air mech landed on the back of the enemy bomber, one hand digging in for a solid grip while the other thrust the sword it held deep into the enemy air mech. The plasma-enhanced blade cut through the armored hull with only a little trouble.

A few sword blows and a small hole in it the enemy air mechs frame weren’t going to take out the mammoth bomber, but Jiro’s air mech wasn’t trying to hack apart the fuselage, he was trying to create an opening. Once the hole was large enough, the transformed air mech leaped into the enemy mech and began hack at the Ssath filled bombs waiting to drop. The single machinegun completed its transformation, now mounted over the mech’s shoulder, it began to spray the interior of the enemy aircraft, adding to the chaos.

Hugh didn’t have time to follow that single battle and turned his attention back to the overall fight. Data was flowing in, and it looked like each bomber was able to hold twenty Ssath infantry mechs. His air mechs had shot down one bomber before it could drop anything and two others, including the one Jiro’s air mech was fighting inside of, were only able to get about half their troops down before being attacked. That left him with 380 enemy infantry mechs to deal with, his ground troops thinned the numbers as they dropped, dropping the enemy total down to around 350. It was a lot of Ssath to deal with, especially with them being dropped into the middle of the city where the close-quarters fight favored their combat style.

The only thing working in his favor was that the Ssath weren’t as organized as his forces. Hugh and the other cores had time during the enemy descent to gather into small kill teams while the Ssath were scattered over the landscape in ones and twos. The enemy wasn’t wasting any time, their forces coalescing as they all pushed toward the command post. It appeared that the lack of a sensor station had prevented the Ssath from locating the command post before their drop, but now that they were on the ground, the Ssath infantry had the location dialed in. At first, Hugh’s troops had a field day, gunning down lone Ssath mechs before they could put up a real fight. As the minutes dragged on, the Ssath gathered into larger groups and his kill teams struggled to take them down as casualties mounted.

“They’re pressing my defenders, please send assistance,” David said over the command channel. Hugh could see the Krixnas infantry fighting desperately against the flood of Ssath. In the previous fights, the Krixnas gave as good as they got in melee against the foe, but these latest Ssath mechs were tearing them to pieces. Instead of the normal one-to-one kill ratio, the Krixnas were losing two or three for every Ssath they brought down. The enemy commander must have bought more upgrades since their last fights.

To Hugh’s surprise, a new pair of mechs walked out from the Krixnas command post. Instead of the tentacle-faced infantry mechs he expected, two of his M4 medium mechs emerged, main guns already firing at the attacking Ssath. Somewhat jerky movements and slow rates of fire told Hugh these were the AI-controlled Attached Forces units his ability had granted to the Krixnas commander. The units Hugh had been promised from the ability still hadn’t made their appearance, and he could really use them now.

“We’re on our way,” Jiro replied, pushing his avatar into the fight, covered by a pair of Hugh’s M4’s and two squads of samurai infantry mechs. It was a long way from the outer ring where they were positioned to the command post at the center, and Hugh didn’t know if they would make it on time.

Hugh’s avatar gathered forces as they moved, and he now had a pair of light mechs, a squad of his marines, and one of Jiro’s donated infantry mech squads. After reaching the second ring of the city, it didn’t take long to run into the first groups of Ssath. His avatar blasted a path through the dozen or so enemies that were forming up, his heavy weapons having no trouble taking down the light infantry mechs. The supporting units saw to any leakers, overwhelming the enemy with superior numbers and firepower.

Against the Ssath from the last fight, he would have had little difficulty, but these latest enemy mechs were going down hard, even when overwhelmed by numbers, they fought to take at least one attacker down with them. Only Hugh’s main gun and fifty caliber weapons were assured kills, his infantry had to land several hits on a Ssath to get the job done. Grenades also proved effective, clearing out enemy lurking in buildings for an ambush, but more than once, friendly fire damaged one of his units in the blast.

City battles were chaos and there was little Hugh could do to control the overall fight. He ordered everyone to push toward the command post and kill any Ssath they spotted. His little assault force became a focus of enemy attention once they realized one of the mechs was a human avatar. It was an unexpected way to draw the enemy away from the command post, and most of the Ssath near him gave up on the Krixnas core and instead were filtering through the streets and alleyways toward Hugh’s strike team.

“I’m in a bit of scrap over here,” Jiro called out. Hugh could see the other human avatar was facing the same level of attention that Hugh was. Jiro was fighting like a madman, his avatar flowing with skill and precision, each sweep of his naginata would leave a destroyed Ssath behind, while the light cannon on one shoulder and the machinegun on the other, focused on threats outside of melee range.

The supporting troops were going down quickly, bravely throwing themselves into the fray to protect the valuable avatars. The operators of their pods were good, but the Ssath armor was thick, their ranged weapons were accurate, and their teeth and claws were death. Hugh needed to do something if he wanted to survive the fight. Though he was loath to use his Drop Beacon of the Vanquished so early, it seemed the only option. Targeting a clump of Ssath approaching David’s command post, Hugh activated the beacon, he could only hope the troops summoned would keep his ally alive.