War Core 2, Chapter 21.

Chapter 21.

The enemy tried two more assaults on Hugh’s line before they realized his defense wasn’t going to be brushed aside so easily. Each push was made by larger numbers of enemy infantry mechs, and Hugh was only able to hold them back by unleashing counterattacks by his light mechs. The line was thin, much too thin to hold back a determined attack. A quick check of his available forces confirmed his fears.

Current Battle Information.

1. Infantry mechs (288).

2. Light mechs (43).

3. Air mechs (7). Estimated arrival time 55 seconds.

His air mechs were almost here, and Hugh could really use them. Their combat capability was marginal but having eyes over the enemy was crucial. If he could see where they were massing for an attack, they could shift forces to meet them. So far, the Ssath hadn’t shown any air units, and he doubted at this low-level stage of the campaign, they would have any dedicated anti-air units. As long as they kept out of small arms range, his air mechs should have little trouble.

“Sir, the air force has arrived, sorry for the delay,” Tremaine called as his seven air mechs roared down, transforming into their ground mech forms as they landed near his avatar.

“Welcome to the fight, I need some eyes out there to see where the Ssath are going to strike next. Keep out of the fight, I need intel more than another gun at this point. How many birds do you need to pull recon duty?” Hugh asked.

“Three or four should be able to get it done, I’m assuming you want me to scout over the Krixnas lines as well?” Tremaine asked.

“Exactly, I’ll send you the comm channel for their core, you can reach him directly and pass on any information you can. I’ll assign four of your mechs to recon duty and the other three I’m going to have help with the escort duty for the transports we need to protect,” Hugh ordered. With the air mechs watching over the slow-moving transports, Hugh felt comfortable pulling half the infantry mechs off escort duty, freeing up two squads to join the line.

The air mechs took off again, and Hugh was able to get a bird’s eye view of the battlefield. Ssath were massing in two locations for their next push, directly across from the city and at the point where Hugh’s forces tied into the Krixnas troops. Checking on the evacuation progress, the first group of transports was nearing the edge of the battlefield and should be safe shortly. Groups two and three were making slow progress with the third group still not having reached the main highway. The overall evacuation of the city was up to 67% and it looked like a steady stream of transports would have the place cleared out before too much longer.

“Major Hugh Logan, I regret to inform you that I do not believe I have sufficient forces to hold back the attack your air mechs have revealed,” the Krixnas core advised, the translation function in their cores giving his ally a strangely stilted way of speaking.

“If I can support your forces in one of the attacks, do you think you can hold?” Hugh asked.

“Perhaps, I will shift more forces to defend in the city if you can help my forces with the attack that is near to your position,” the Krixnas said.

“Will do, I’m on my way now,” Hugh advised. He realized that he had never asked the core what his name was. David had told him on the station that their species uses scent to differentiate among themselves, and now that he thought about it, being a core must be especially hard for a Krixnas, cutting off one of their most important senses.

The air mechs overhead showed that the Ssath were almost ready to make their push. Nearly two hundred infantry and a half dozen light mechs were forming up to assault where the human and Krixnas lines met. The Krixnas had about thirty or so mechs defending that area, and Hugh had a reinforced squad already positioned near;  it wasn’t going to be enough.

First, Hugh released the two squads of Krixnas that had been supporting his defense. There were only sixteen of them remaining, but the Krixnas could use every mech they had to hold back the forces about to attack the city. Thinning his lines, Hugh shifted over another two squads of infantry and most of the light mechs to support them. It wasn’t that much, but it would have to do. He wanted to send more of the light mechs to bolster the defense, but he still needed to be able to respond to other threats along the line.

The attack started with a short artillery barrage, and an air mech that was circling over the Ssath lines finally got a good look at what exactly had been shelling them during the battle. He saw a big mech, walking on four legs, the mech version of a sauropod of some type. Atop the dino mech’s back was a large, armored box, housing a short, barreled cannon that belched out the rounds that had been plaguing his forces since the start of the battle.

“Sir, they don’t have much to support their artillery, do you want me to strafe those things?” The pilot observing him asked. It did look like an opportunity, the Ssath had their combat forces oriented toward the main line, while the artillery was lurking further back. From what he could tell, the artillery mechs didn’t have any type of secondary weapons and would be vulnerable until the Ssath could move infantry over to defend them.

“Go for it, shut them down,” Hugh ordered. The pilot wasted no time, pulling his air mech over and diving for the nearest group of artillery mechs. Some kind of alarm was given and the mechs started to separate, making it hard for the air attack to hit more than one at a time. Unfortunately for the Ssath, the artillery mechs were painfully slow, allowing the air mech to leisurely fly among them, firing off rounds whenever the gun was ready. Hit after hit landed, but these were about the size of a heavy mech, and while not heavily armored, they could take some punishment before being put out of commission.

One mech collapsed on its side, the pilot, now joined by another that Tremaine had pulled off recon duty, began to focus on the wounded mech. After their third pass, the artillery mech finally exploded into a pile of debris. The pair of aircraft got several more passes in before a small swarm of infantry mechs began to close in.

“Pull out of range, you’ve done well, men. Even if you don’t get another shot in, you’ve pulled a good-sized force from the line, and disrupted the barrage,” Hugh told his pilots. They had shut down one artillery mech, but the others had continued to fire, each battery of sauropod artillery now covered by at least a squad of infantry, preventing his air mechs from getting more attacks in, but also depriving the enemy of over fifty mechs that could have joined the assault.

The two assaults were now well underway and the Krixnas didn’t look like they were going to hold out for long. His reinforcements had made it to the second attack before it kicked off and, for now, they were holding the enemy back with the firepower of the T-7’s supporting the defenders. Hugh’s forces had a slight advantage at range, their weapons, and the combat pod operator’s skill was winning the long-range fight against their Ssath opponents. When the fighting got into melee range, the Krixnas would throw in, able to fight the Ssath on nearly equal terms.

Enemy light mechs weren’t up to their previous tricks and Hugh didn’t see any of the tiny mechs being launched by their weapons. Instead, the weapons were also functioning as grenade launchers, each blast tearing holes in Hugh’s line. Losses on both sides were mounting, but Hugh was going to run out of troops before the Ssath did. He pulled another squad of infantry and a platoon of T-7’s from the line, bolstering his forces, but leaving the rest of his line dangerously thin.

“Sir, I’ve got two more enemy groups forming up, it looks like the Ssath are going to hit us at multiple points,” Tremaine advised. From the air mechs, Hugh could see small groups of forty or so infantry mechs, supported by a single light mech forming up to attack. Similar forces were starting to hit the Krixnas line, causing it to collapse and the battle turning into a free-for-all inside the city as his allies were pushed from the line.

“Major Hugh Logan, my forces cannot hold the enemy back. I have been ordered to remove my core’s presence from this command post. Once I do, my units will become much less effective. I advise you to make appropriate plans. A rally point has been sent to your interface,” the Krixnas core advised. Hugh could see a point, nearly thirty miles to the west, designated as the rally point for all three human cores in this area. Were things going this bad at all their landing sites?

“It looks like our lines are coming apart, get ready to pull back. We’ll do a fighting retreat and cover the transports as best we can as we fall back. Remember, those are just transport mech props here on the battle planet, but losing one means death to real-life civilians on the Krixnas homeworld,” Hugh ordered. The second group of transports was nearing the edge of the battlefield and, presumably, safety, but the final group was only halfway down the main highway and were moving at, what seemed to Hugh, a snail’s pace.

“We’ll need to move soon, or the Ssath will turn our flank,” Brubaker warned. It was true, the Krixnas core had gotten out of Dodge and his units were now just AI-controlled targets that the Ssath was cutting through with ease.

“Fall back, let’s disengage and give them a bloody nose at the same time,” Hugh ordered. The marines hated to retreat, but when they had to, they did so with as much aggression as they used in the assault. Hugh started with the infantry, pulling back half of them a hundred yards, they then provided cover fire while the other half retreated. The whole time, his faster T-7 mechs added their fire support, rushing to any areas that looked like they were going to be overrun.

The smaller Ssath assaults started just as Hugh’s forces began to retreat. Smelling blood, the Ssath pushed hard, and keeping an organized retreat going was becoming more difficult by the minute. On the far-right flank, a trio of Ssath light mechs opened up a breach in the lines with their grenade launchers, and only a pair of T-7’s were available to turn back the attack. His whole line was in danger of collapsing and despite the risk, Hugh had no choice but to jump in personally with his avatar.

It was an eerie feeling moving toward the fight, ready to get personally stuck in while at the same time, trying to direct the rest of the battle. His avatar was the single most powerful mech at their disposal, but it was also the one they couldn’t afford to lose. If Hugh were taken out now, it would be a disaster. But there just wasn’t anything else he could throw in the breach, the pair of T-7’s were already being swarmed under by Ssath infantry.

“Sir, pull back, I’ll use my air mechs to plug the hole,” Tremaine offered. If he could have pulled it off, it would be the right call, but his seven air mechs would be cut to pieces by the fire from the massed infantry and the thin armor on an air mech couldn’t stand much punishment. A section of infantry from the forces providing overwatch joined Hugh, as well as another light mech that had been pulled from the line.

Things were getting bad at the breach, the Ssath infantry were smart, and instead of rushing forward, they were attacking the retreating soldiers in the flank, widening the gap in Hugh’s lines. A five-round burst fired out from the avatar’s main gun, surprising Hugh. The range was longer than that type of weapon was normally capable of, and his upgraded avatar seemed to have better targeting systems than a regular light mech. A second later, both thirty caliber weapons added their fire, long seven-round bursts them tearing into the infantry while Hugh focused the main gun on the enemy light mechs and their deadly grenade launchers.

It was like ringing the dinner bell, as soon as the Ssath saw that the enemy avatar had entered the fight, every nearby mech charged toward him. He had hoped for this, in a way, the distraction he was providing was enabling his beleaguered forces to disengage and continue the retreat using fire and movement to hold back the foe. With only a second between bursts, one of Hugh’s weapons was always firing, and his shot placement was deadly accurate. Two of the three Ssath light mechs were already down, along with a pile of infantry. Hugh reversed his mech firing as the avatar walked back toward the friendly forces providing overwatch.

The mechs with him added their fire and together they held this entire section of the line as the last of his endangered troops either made it to safety or were pulled down by the Ssath. Plasma rifle rounds pinged off his armored shell, the avatar was made of tougher stuff than a normal T-7, but Hugh could still feel each impact and knew the armor was still too thin to allow him to stand in the breach for long. Pain mounted as the damage did, a spike of agony going through him when a lucky plasma grenade shot from the nearby enemy light mech struck, burning off the thirty caliber mounted on top of the turret.

There was one more thing he could try, using the Drop Beacon of the Vanquished. Focusing on his interface was hard, the growing number of hits on his mech made just about anything difficult, but he was able to activate the beacon and target the breach with it. After only a few seconds, a drop pod was seen hurtling toward the battlefield.

The Ssath ignored the drop pod at first, they’d been receiving reinforcements off and on during the battle and whoever was commanding these units was focused on killing Hugh and not staring at yet another approaching drop pod. Instead of landing behind the lines, this drop pod slammed directly onto the area targeted by Hugh. The resulting impact pulverized several Ssath units, causing the others to pause in their assault. With a series of bangs sounding out, the doors to the pod were opened and the forces inside charged out to join the battle.

“What are those things?” Brubaker asked. The commanders knew about his beacon ability, but these weren’t normal mechs that were walking out to engage the Ssath, these were biological units. They were the strangely snake-like Plenurians, and they must have been packed into the drop pod like sardines.

“Those things are Plenurians. They’re angry critters that the GCA threw at me in the campaign against the Ximkas. I didn’t think any biological units were in the mix of potential options, but they seem to be doing the job well enough,” Hugh replied. Indeed, the Plenurians were tearing into the nearest Ssath, the corrosive coating on their tentacles burning easily through the armor just as they had done to his mechs in the previous battle. With their hyper aggression, the Ssath were drawn into the fight, relishing a chance to go tooth to tentacle against a new foe.

“Fall back sir, we’re good,” Brubaker said. Hugh didn’t argue, ordering his avatar back toward the friendly lines at full speed, easily outpacing the few Ssath units that had ignored the fight with the Plenurians and stayed on the more important target. He had been so caught up in the fight that he hadn’t noticed the mechs fighting alongside him had all been destroyed. From the way their remains were piled up, they had tried to form a human shield around Hugh, trying to keep the fire off him as much as they could. Hugh felt a wave of guilt, they had been destroyed trying to save him, and he could only pray that the horrible system the GCA used to calculate casualties would spare these brave soldiers and marines.

“I think we’re out of the danger zone sir,” Brubaker advised as they continued to withdraw. The Ssath only kept up a halfhearted pursuit, the few transports they were escorting proved a less tempting target than the ones lined up and waiting to leave the city. A glance at the evacuation counter showed it at 77%. Other than the last group of transports that Hugh was protecting, it didn’t look like any other civilians would make it out. Somewhere out in space around the actual Krixnas homeworld, satellites were firing down on the real version of this town, killing the innocent that he hadn’t been able to protect. He had to do better, they all had to, or an entire species was going to be wiped out.