War Core 2, Chapter 26.

Chapter 26.

“Sir, Sergeant Mendez is down, I see four of his squad survived to reinforce the second ambush point,” Lieutenant Cooper advised. Hugh was watching the battle, but part of his attention was drawn away by the preparations they were making for the final defense of the village.

The strange structures had been torn apart to build some bunkers for his forces. He didn’t know if tearing down a structure here would mean that a similar structure on the Krixnas homeworld would be destroyed, but he was pretty sure the Krixnas would be fine with having their home destroyed if it helped to save their life. Three bunkers were being constructed in a semi-circle around the road that led up to the village. The steep mountainsides in every other direction should prevent the Ssath from scaling up, and with Cooper keeping watch, he was pretty confident that they only had one approach to guard.

Each bunker was cobbled together from the concrete-like material the Krixnas used to build with. Having a hundred Krixnas civilian drones to do the construction work meant that they should be done before the Ssath arrived. Every minute that the two squads he had sent to ambush the Ssath gave him, made Hugh’s position stronger. He needed the heavy fighting positions for his troops but did have the Krixnas mechs construct a much simpler bunker structure further behind the line to protect the civilians from stray fire.

Hugh checked on the second ambush. The Ssath had lost some of their engineers, and it seemed they were concerned enough at losing more to slow down their pace. Instead of a team of engineers clearing traps they were now probing forward with just a single infantry mech. As it approached the second ambush point, a tripwire activated a nearby plasma grenade, destroying the mech. The enemy column was only delayed for a moment as a new sacrificial victim was sent forward to perform duty as a mine sweeper.

Hugh could see that Mendez’s second squad had deployed six grenade traps out there, and by the time the Ssath pushed through them, the traps had netted him three Ssath killed and one partially damaged by a close blast. Not that many casualties, but it delayed the assault. Things were going well unit the Ssath forward scout spotted the human ambush and before long, the mortar mounted on the Ssath light mech went to work.

The Krixnas drones helping the first squad only had a limited time to work, allowing for hastily scratched-out defensive positions. During the time the second squad had waited, the Krixnas had done a much more thorough job with their defenses. Each marine has a completed personal foxhole to fight from and anything short of a direct hit from the mortar would be ineffective. Ducking down, the marines would be in full cover and protected from stray plasma fragments, that functioned almost like superheated shrapnel that would easily burn through the infantry armor.

For now, the Ssath seemed content to hold off on another costly assault, waiting to see if the mortar barrage had the desired effect of driving Hugh’s forces back. A second light mech stepped forward, adding its mortar to the barrage. The Ssath had another four light mechs, but those all appeared to be armed with a pair of heavy rifles over their shoulders instead of a mortar or grenade launcher.

“Sir, we’ve got more guests joining the party, looks like another couple of squads of infantry and two big mechs, and I have no idea what they are,” Cooper advised.

Since he had his sole air mech focusing on the battle at hand, Hugh didn’t get much warning about the second group of Ssath, until they had closed in on the main enemy force. Looking over the large mechs accompanying the second group, Hugh got the impression that these were supply haulers of some type. Looking like the artillery mechs the Ssath had used in the first battle, these had large metal crates bolted to their sides instead of any visible weapons. They were also missing the bulkier armored plates that signified a unit designed for up close and personal work.

“Anyone have any ideas on what those big boys are?” Hugh asked, pushing the image to the soldiers not currently engaged in the fight.

“Sir, could that be the sensor tower thingy the Ssath are supposed to build here?” A private asked.

“I agree, sir, the Ssath are restricted on units and levels just like we are. While I’m sure they have all kinds of upgrades we haven’t seen, I doubt the GCA would let them have heavy mechs when the largest we have access to are light mechs,” Cooper offered.

“I think you’re both right, but just in case, if those things approach the battle, make them your priority targets,” Hugh ordered.

The private’s hunch was likely the right one, but while the GCA seemed to like to make things somewhat even, the Ssath had been fighting for a long time and who knew what kind of perks and upgrades their core had purchased over the years. So far Hugh had been lucky, instead of facing the core directly, which would likely have abilities to put his Drop Beacon of the Vanquished to shame, he had faced what he assumed were Ssath versions of his unit commanders. They fought well enough but didn’t have access to any special abilities or upgrades that a core fighting directly would have.

“Sir, I’ve got a second aircraft inbound, a large one,” Cooper called out. Tense seconds passed before it showed up in Hugh’s interface as a green, friendly contact. As it neared, he could see it was an air mech the size of a giant dragonfly. The mech swung around and approached from the west, away from the approaching Ssath forces. His interface lit up with a message once the craft began to make a landing.

The Attached Units upgrade forces are now being delivered. Typically, you’ll have these available at the beginning of a battle, but since the upgrade was purchased just before you began this fight, a slight delay has occurred. Normally, for this type of battle where the total number of your forces is restricted, your attached units would also be reduced appropriately. Due to the delay in their delivery, a full complement of Krixnas forces is being delivered for this battle as compensation.

The back of the dragonfly mech opened, and a full squad of ten Krixnas infantry mechs marched out. These were AI-controlled units, but Hugh was more than happy to see them. With its cargo delivered, the massive mech took off and flew away from the battlefield. The squad of Krixnas lined up in front of his avatar, waiting for orders.

“Assist the civilian drones with their construction efforts. Once the battle starts, divide your forces up to support my marines,” Hugh ordered. He didn’t know how complex of an order he could give, but there wasn’t an error message, and the attached troops went about their business without any delay. Unlike his infantry mechs, the Krixnas mechs served a dual-purpose role, both as infantry and as basic construction bots for their armies.

Checking in on the squad defending the roadway, Hugh could see that two of his infantry had been taken out by the mortars, and four Ssath light mechs were moving forward. His marines knew it was coming and they kept under cover until the light mechs were inside the range of their rifles. As one, the surviving infantry mechs stuck their weapons arms out from their foxholes and engaged the Ssath light mechs, who responded with fire from the pair of heavy plasma rifles on their shoulders.

The cover his marines were using gave the Ssath targeting troubles. The foxholes meant that only the arm-mounted rifle, head, and part of the upper torso needed to be exposed to engage. To throw their grenades, they had to expose more, and it seemed like that was what the Ssath were waiting for. The three infantry mechs closest to the approaching enemy stood and began to throw, only to be riddled with rounds from the heavy rifles on the Ssath light mechs. Not as heavy as the fifty caliber in his T-7’s, the weapons on the Ssath light mechs were considerably more powerful than the infantry rifles.

All three of his marines went down, unable to complete their throws. The limited mobility of his level three mechs prevented them from just lobbing the grenades from the bottom of the foxhole, and they had to stand up to toss them. Two more infantry mechs went down before one finally got a grenade out, the throw wasn’t exactly on target, the incoming fire throwing the marine’s aim off a bit, and the blast only tore into one of the mech’s legs.

Without construction drones, the Ssath wouldn’t have a way to repair the mech and it was forced to limp forward and drag the damaged limb if it wanted to move. Another pair of blasts finished off another undamaged mech, but by that time, the last of Hugh’s marines were down. He had lost fourteen marines in this second ambush, and had only taken out one light mech and damaged another. Even counting the Ssath infantry lost to the traps, it wasn’t exactly the results he was looking for.

The Ssath remained cautious, sending another single infantry unit out in front of their column, worried about further traps and ambushes. Sadly, Hugh had nothing left to throw at them, he needed every mech he had left to hold the village. Work had been completed on his bunkers and a squad of infantry was safely housed in each one, the Krixnas workers fashioning the entry doors at the back of each bunker to be narrow enough that a human mech had to slide in sideways. The bulkier Ssath mechs were going to have a tough time digging out his troops.

His four T-7’s, as well as his avatar, were hull down in dugouts behind the three bunkers. They would provide heavy fire support, as well as help defend the bunkers if the enemy tried to breach them from the rear. There were firing ports to the rear, but they didn’t cover everything, the bunker design was a simple box shape which was all they could do with the time they had.

Krixnas workers pulled back into their designated bunker, as far from where the fighting would take place as they could get. His AI-controlled Krixnas infantry squad was hidden in a stand of strange plants that he figured were stand-ins for some kind of food crops that appeared on the real Krixnas homeworld. The allied infantry would be safe from casual observation and could rush forward to reinforce Hugh if needed, or quickly respond to any threat to the civilian mechs, who he didn’t think could do much to defend themselves.

“They’re approaching the village, a squad of infantry in the front, the light mechs on their tail, and the rest of their infantry stacked up behind them,” Cooper advised.

Mortar rounds started to drop right where the road met the village, the Ssath attempting to suppress any resistance to their initial rush. Right behind the barrage, the surviving light mechs stomped out, they hesitated once in view, their operators probably shocked to see fixed defenses waiting for them. Hugh’s troops didn’t wait, they opened up on the Ssath, the combined firepower tearing apart the lightly armored mechs.

Dinosaur-like infantry charged forward, getting cut down in droves as they tried to reach the bunkers. His mechs had a slow enough rate of fire, that it looked like quite a few of the Ssath would make it through the fusillade. Hugh had positioned his avatar right behind the center bunker and his weapons were firing almost non-stop, preventing at least that area from being overrun. His light mechs were banging out rounds, but not nearly as fast.

The first Ssath circled the outer bunkers, looking for an easy way inside. They were met by plasma grenades thrown through the firing ports. Blasts of plasma tore into the confused Ssath, but his troops also found out the openings worked both ways as one of the enemy infantry mechs, this one having a strange bulge along the spine of the mech, shoved its face in front of a firing port and began to blast fiery plasma inside.

“Sir, they got flamethrowers in some of the mechs!” Several of his marines shouted as another of the flame-spewing Ssath attacked the second bunker. Only Hugh’s bunker in the center seemed safe, as the count of functional infantry mechs dropped quickly.

“Everyone, priority targeting on any Ssath infantry with this structure on their back,” Hugh ordered, pushing an image of the flamethrower Ssath to all his troops.

T-7’s marched forward, pushing into the enemy swarm as they tried to pick off any Ssath showing the deadly upgrade. His light mechs found that marching aggressively toward the Ssath was a bad call, as the enemy infantry saw the juicy targets heading their way and gave up on their attempts to rip their way into the bunkers and instead turned their attention to the attackers. Without melee capability, his light mechs were helpless once the Ssath caught up. They tried to help each other by picking off the Ssath clinging to the sides of their allies, but it didn’t take the enemy long to tear apart the lightly armored mechs.

Hugh was running out of troops and options, so he activated the Drop Beacon of the Vanquished, targeting the landing pod right on top of the two mortar-carrying enemy light mechs that had just moved into view. This time, the Ssath realized the incoming drop pod wasn’t friendly, and they tried to get out of the way, allowing one of the mortar mechs to survive as the other was crushed flat from the impact. Panels blew out on the drop pod and his reinforcements entered the fight.

This time it was only two mechs, the familiar scorpion-turtle shapes of Ximkas light mechs moved out of the pod, engaging the nearby Ssath mortar mech with the powerful plasma beams mounted on the flexible scorpion tail attachment that gave them their distinctive look. Ssath infantry toward the rear of the attack redirected themselves to the new threat, and whoever was in command seemed confused as to which threat he should engage first. The Ximkas mechs were about the same level as his own, which meant their rate of fire was limited, but each blast of the powerful weapon was a sure kill on anything the Ssath had brought to the fight.

It was time to add to the Ssath commander’s problems, Hugh thought as he signaled the Krixnas allied squad into action. They moved toward the Ssath swarming the nearest bunker, and the Ssath responded with glee, glad to give up on digging out any surviving human mechs, for a chance to go claw to tentacle with a foe they could easily reach. As they charged, Hugh shifted one of his thirty caliber weapons onto that group, the bursts tearing into the Ssath, destroying, and damaging most of them before they reached the AI-controlled units.

With a crash he could hear over the battlefield, Hugh watched as Ssath and Krixnas slammed together and started tearing into each other. The Krixnas mechs were hampered by the clumsy AI, but the plasma-enhanced tentacles had little difficulty landing hits on the frenzied Ssath. Taking stock of the battlefield as his automated weapons continued to tear into the nearest threats, Hugh could see that all his light mechs were down, and the infantry in the outer bunkers well also completely wiped out. Nine infantry mechs were still in the central bunker, their accurate fire taking down Ssath after Ssath.

The Krixnas allied squad was nearly torn down, but Hugh’s the thirty-caliber machinegun targeted on that group had a field day in mopping up the Ssath survivors of the vicious close-quarters fight. Both the Ximkas mechs from the drop pod were still fighting, firing as often as they could even as some Ssath began to chew, blast, and claw at the unusually heavy armor on the Ximkas machines. Hugh continually moved his avatar, his presence on the battlefield seemed to attract any nearby Ssath, even as his superior weapons systems tore apart any that charged toward him. So far, damage to his avatar was light, but as more of his forces were eliminated, the surviving Ssath seemed to zero in on him.

“Sir, I’m beginning strafing runs,” Cooper announced as her mech flew by, the single fifty caliber weapon mounted on it banging out a few rounds to take down a pair of enemy infantry before she pulled up and started to turn for another pass.

“Do what you can to keep them off me, I think we’re winning as long as my avatar doesn’t get taken out,” Hugh said over general comms. Fire from his units shifted as they focused on anything threatening Hugh. A quick count showed all the enemy light mechs were down and the Ssath infantry numbers were hovering just over thirty and dropping by the second. An impact shifted his avatar, a Ssath dino using its chainsaw teeth to rip into his armor, the accompanying pain distracting Hugh. A blast from the Ximkas tore the enemy machine from him, but the close blast also further weakened the armor in that spot.

Hugh shifted his mech around to the front of the surviving bunker, allowing the infantry inside a better field of fire than the limited ports facing to the rear. He also called the Ximkas to close in, using their armored bulk to protect his back. Plasma rifle fire and long bursts from all three weapons on his mech held the enemy back. The Ssath had been scattered out dealing with all the different threats, so instead of crashing into the avatar in a single deadly wave, they came in dribs and drabs, groups small enough for his forces to handle.

Smoke curled from the barrels of his weapons as the last Ssath crashed to the ground, and the very welcome victory prompt appeared.

Congratulations on your victory, you have completed the following objectives.

1. You have successfully defended the Krixnas village from the Ssath attack. Upgrade points awarded, 1.

Bonus objective completed: At least 50% of the Krixnas civilians must survive the battle. Upgrade points awarded, 1.

Bonus objective completed: All Krixnas civilians must survive the battle. Upgrade points awarded, 1. Completing this objective has upgraded your Attached Forces ability.

Bonus objective failed: Have at least 50% of your forces survive the battle.

2. You have prevented the Ssath from establishing a sensor array at this critical location. Upgrade points awarded, 1. Completing this objective has the added benefit of reducing the pre-battle recon available to the Ssath core during your next battle.

The next stage of the battle for the Krixnas homeworld will begin soon. Air transportation will arrive to ferry your surviving forces to the next rally point where you will rejoin the rest of your core’s army.

He had won this round, but his forces had taken yet another beating. A few more victories like this and he wouldn’t have an army left to fight with.