War Core Wednesday, War Core 2, Chapter 17.

Chapter 17.

Looking at the countdown timer, there were still several hours until the human cores could participate in the battle. For now, all they could do was watch as the Krixnas attempted to stem the seemingly unending tide of Ssath ships that had appeared from deep space. They weren’t privy to how the Krixnas resources were gained, but Hugh had a feeling it had been a combination of some starting resources to build ships as well as mining. Two small structures surrounded asteroids that had been brought in close to the planet. Small shuttles and space-based automated worker drones of some type moved about the pair of asteroids as they brought the mined resources to a huge space station that orbited the planet. Partially finished ships were seen tied up to the station, but the progress on construction seemed slow, and Hugh doubted the ships under construction would ever make it to the fight.

At the station the human cores were based out of, Hugh could see construction activity going on, starships being built much more quickly than the ones at the Krixnas station. It was likely that the GCA was producing the ships they had ordered with their initial resources at a faster pace than those that had to be built with gathered resources like the Krixnas were doing. These ships looked identical to the types of ships Hugh had used in the simulation aboard Harmony Station. That must be the generic vessels that the GCA produced for all races, as both the Ssath and Krixnas vessels looked similar to the ones being built for the human cores.

While they may have looked similar, the Ssath ships held the advantage in firepower, Hugh realized as a swarm of missiles left the forty vessels in the Ssath vanguard. The bulk of the Krixnas fleet faced down the invaders, a total of Sixty ships had been gathered by their strange alien allies. While they held the numerical advantage against the first wave of Ssath, the Krixnas fleet was mostly made up of smaller ships, with only a single battleship and a half dozen cruisers. The rest of their ships were destroyers and smaller gunboats. The Ssath vanguard had six battleships and a dozen cruisers, while the rest were destroyers.

Shortly after the first wave of missiles were launched, a second wave flew out from the Ssath ships, with the Krixnas firing off their first volley in response. It appeared the Ssath had better ships, with perhaps some core upgrades to give them longer range and more firepower. Missiles began to hit, the Krixnas wisely placing the gunboats in the vanguard to absorb the initial volley. Point defense fire lashed out from the Krixnas as they began to thin the swarm of missiles heading toward them.

“They’re going to get quite a few hits, the Krixnas point defense isn’t all that great,” Felicia offered. She was right, Hugh watched as the gunboats began to wink out of existence with each hit. A battleship, cruiser, or even a destroyer would survive a single missile hit, but a gunboat had no hope. Unfortunately for their allies, each gunboat that was destroyed meant they lost a few more point defense weapons, allowing the second volley to start digging into the destroyers that had moved forward when the gunboats were no more.

The Krixnas were also getting their licks in, as a smattering of flashes appeared among the Ssath ships. A pair of destroyers and then a cruiser exploded as they ate several missiles each. Blasts of plasma now joined in the fight as the battleships closed to main gun range. The Krixnas fleet backpedaled, their thrusters reversing to push them toward the large space station, aboard which a swarm of smaller craft began to emerge. Zooming in, Hugh could see they were disc-shaped vessels, about three times the size of a human air mech.

“How good are the Krixnas air mechs?” Valery asked.

“I’m not sure, I only faced land units, but isn’t it odd that they have what look like flying saucers?” Hugh asked.

“Not really, the various species that don’t have an affinity for air combat would typically have some generic units created for them by the GCA,” Jiro offered.

“Generic or not, I think we’re about to get an idea of what air mechs can do against capital ships,” Felicia said. They watched the small craft, which numbered around one hundred, rapidly closed the distance to the Ssath fleet, passing by the surviving Krixnas space fleet.

It didn’t appear the Ssath had any air mechs of their own to respond to the threat, but their point defense seemed up to the task, wiping out several of the small mechs before they opened fire. A panel opened on each of the Krixnas saucers, revealing a single missile held inside. The missiles were much smaller than the ones used by the larger ships, but there were now nearly a hundred of them flying toward the Ssath. Instead of pushing in and raking the Ssath with their plasma weapons, the Krixnas air mechs retreated to the station, leaving Hugh to wonder how long it would take their allies to rearm the small craft for a second strike.

The Ssath then made their first mistake, and instead of focusing on one threat, the point defense diluted its effectiveness by firing at both the retreating air mechs and the incoming missiles. Hits started adding up, and by the time the air mechs had made it out of point defense range, nearly sixty of their missiles had penetrated the point defense to slam into Ssath vessels. The Ssath had managed to whittle the Krixnas air mechs down to half their initial number, but the effect of the strike was devastating, taking out a battleship, two cruisers, and a half dozen destroyers.

The Krixnas fleet, now down to a battleship, three cruisers, and twelve destroyers, fell back and took up position behind the enormous station.  Surviving Ssath vanguard ships pushed on without hesitation even as a much larger fleet was seen following behind the initial attack force. Entering missile range with the station, Hugh was happy to see the station housed an impressive array of weapons. A dozen missile launchers opened up and large beam weapons began to fire as well, their range much greater than that of even the battleship guns. No doubt, the enormous station could house a more sophisticated sensor suite to track the enemy at a greater distance.

No quarter was asked or given, the Ssath ships pounding the station while they were picked off one by one from the Krixnas combined firepower. By the time the last of the Ssath advance forces were taken out, the station was showing at only 74% operational status in Hugh’s interface. The Krixnas ships positioned just behind the station had also taken more losses, the battleship was gone, and their fleet now consisted of a single battered cruiser and five destroyers.

The Ssath main fleet was closing in hard, and in addition to over eighty combat vessels, there were hundreds of transports following behind them. Swarms of air mechs circled to protect the attacking fleet. Instead of standing to fight alongside their space station, the remaining Krixnas ships instead flipped over, and their engines began to burn hard. It didn’t take a genius to see that the station would fall, and instead of joining its fate, the other ships were on a course that would bring them directly to the station Hugh and the other humans waited aboard. A system prompt appeared as the Krixnas ships opened the distance between them and the Ssath armada.

A small flotilla of Krixnas warships has joined your expeditionary force. These ships are no longer controlled directly by a Krixnas core and will be under AI guidance during their time with your fleet. You may assign them to escort duty or to attack and they will carry out their orders to the best of the AI’s ability.

“So, what do we do with these Krixnas ships?” Valery asked.

“Since they’re AI-controlled, I’d like to assign them to my force,” Felicia offered.

“Sure, you can use them better than the rest of us,” Tucker acknowledged.

“Thanks, I’ll have them assigned to escort my lead ships, that way they can absorb any initial fire and that will let the ships under the control of an actual combat pod stay in the fight longer,” Felicia advised.

“It looks like the station is about to go down,” Hugh said, bringing their attention back to the viewscreen in their conference room. A swarm of air mechs from the Ssath fleet had moved ahead of the main force. Point defense was having a field day, but the sheer number of attackers was overloading their system. Unlike the Ssath advance fleet, the core in charge of the Krixnas station has on the ball, keeping the point defense focused on the air mechs even after they launched their deadly missile cargoes.

“Why is he just letting the missiles through without any effort to stop them?” Hugh asked.

“I think that was for our benefit, just like sending the remnants of the fleet, the Krixnas core is trying to give us the best chance at success. Every air mech they shoot down is one less we’ll have to face. Using the point defense to protect against the missiles would just delay their inevitable destruction and allow more enemy air mechs to survive,” Felicia told the group.

It appeared she was right, the Krixnas station was being pummeled to dust, but before it fell, the station launched a final wave of air mechs, all of which targeted their Ssath counterparts. The Ssath were going to win the air mech battle, but their losses were going to be substantial. If they assumed the Ssath were working with a limited number of forces just like the humans were, each loss was one the Ssath would have a hard time replacing. The station kept up the fight for some time, the large structure having not only enough armor to rival a battleship, but also powerful shield arrays.

“There it goes, what happens now?” Jiro asked as the station finally broke apart, thankfully, most of the large debris seemed to be heading into space, but some of it would inevitably crash to the surface of the planet, hopefully not on top of any of the allied forces. Hugh then had a horrifying thought.

“Do you suppose the GCA will inflict casualties among the Krixnas civilians if debris hits the battle planet?” Hugh asked.

“I don’t know, but I would assume so. Remember as we make our approach to fire on any debris you can. Don’t lose your ships to do so, but we need to make every effort we can to keep the larger chunks from crashing into the planet,” Felicia ordered, the others nodded their agreement.

The next phase of the battle took quite a lot longer than Hugh would have thought. Ssath warships began to bombard the surface, even as defenses on the planet sprang to life and began to return fire. To make things even more perilous for their dino-like foes, stealthy satellites would occasionally maneuver next to a Ssath ship and detonate, doing considerable damage. Unfortunately, the Krixnas planetary defenses were minimal, as was the number of stealth satellites and once the last of the opposition was cleared, the Ssath moved their transports into position.

Hugh wasn’t sure how the invasion force would be landed. He figured they might have some kind of shuttle that was able to enter the atmosphere and land. Instead, the bottom of the transports opened up and large, tear-shaped drop pods blasted toward the surface. Some flak fired up from a few emplacements not taken out in the initial bombardment, but only a few of the dropships were hit, and nearly all made it down to the surface without any trouble.

The Ssath invasion force has taken control of the orbitals around the battle planet. Surface bombardment may be ordered on any ground targets they can identify. Each fleet has a limited number of barrages they may unleash.

As the battle progressed, the surface of the planet changed color, their interface overlaid the surface in green to represent the areas under Krixnas control. Small splotches of red began to appear, representing the Ssath forces, and the progress they were making against the remaining Krixnas cores defending their world. Two of the red areas were highlighted in blue as another system prompt appeared.

The Krixnas have requested that the human expeditionary force land in a position to contain these two invasion points. You are free to follow a plan of your choosing, but additional rewards will be allocated for supporting your allies.

“Well, at least we know where our little fleets will be heading,” Valery said.

“Yes, those two locations aren’t that close, we’ll have to split our forces in order to hit both of them,” Felicia said.

“It seems the GCA is guiding us to divide our forces, but that doesn’t seem like a great idea,” Hugh offered. He wasn’t sure that normal tactics were valid in this crazy type of war, but he felt that the objection should be at least offered.

“Normally I’d agree with you, but the Krixnas have a better idea of the situation on the ground, and we should at least consider doing as they asked,” Valery countered.

“I think Hugh is correct, but knowing the GCA, if they ‘suggest’ something, it’s usually in your best interest to follow along with the plan,” Jiro said.

“Everyone knows that, but is this the GCA’s influence or just a desperate request by the Krixnas?” Tucker asked.

“We agreed that Felicia is in charge of the space forces and Valery is in overall command of the ground war, why don’t we let them decide,” Stefan offered.

“I can live with that, I’m not sure what the right path is, and I just wanted to bring it up for consideration,” Hugh replied.

“Very well, I’m in favor of assisting both locations, what are your thoughts, Felicia?” Valery asked. Felicia looked at the star map for a while before replying.

“Here is something that might work,” she said, drawing a projected course from the station they were at, to the battle planet. “We keep the fleet together to break through the enemy defenses over the first point. The cores selected for that target will drop their ground troops but leave their ships to follow along with the rest of the fleet. You might lose your combat pod control over them once you head to the surface, but even AI-controlled ships would help the fleet punch through to the second location,” Felicia offered.

It wasn’t a bad plan, kept them from dividing their fleet, even if it didn’t prevent their ground forces from being split up. Hugh supposed they wouldn’t always be able to fight together as a six-core unit. They had a whole planet to defend, and that meant, they would have to eventually separate their forces at some point.

“Any thoughts on what happens to our starships once the ground forces are landed?” Jiro asked.

“I have no idea, but what we’ve gathered isn’t enough to win the space battle, the Ssath outnumber us by too wide a margin. Sorry to say, the best our fleet can do is to get the ground forces safely on the ground and thin out the Ssath, which might limit their ability to bombard us,” Valery offered.

“Any objections to Felicia’s plan, and how are we going to divide our forces?” Stephan asked. Nobody spoke up with an objection, so they at least had a plan to work with.

“Valery, why don’t you decide which cores are assigned to each location,” Felicia said.

“Not a problem, everyone push your order of battle over to the table,” Valery asked. Hugh pushed his final buildout to the screen in the center of the table, watching as the other cores revealed their builds.

“Okay, why don’t we have my force, Tucker, and Jiro’s forces land at the first location and the rest of you hit the second one,” Valery offered. It was a good breakdown of forces. Both Felicia and Tucker had fewer ground forces, with Felicia focusing on starships as they agreed to earlier, and Tucker heavily favoring air mechs, which might be needed to help fight their way through the blockade of Ssath ships that were sure to try and stop them.

“That sounds good,” Felicia said, and the rest of them agreed. With everything finalized, the drydocks at the space station they were on began to hum with renewed activity, working even faster to produce the forces they had purchased. Calculating the build rates, Hugh realized they would finish up right about the time that their expeditionary force would be allowed to join the battle.

Hugh and the others discussed strategy while their fleet and ground forces were being constructed. Felicia went over their formations and how she planned to respond to the most likely moves made by the Ssath during their battle for control of the orbitals. So much was still unknown, but at least they would be able to work together and have a few plans in place ahead of time.

“I don’t know what we’ll face down there, but I do know it’s time to teach these dino aliens not to mess with Earth!” Valery said to the group as the countdown timer ticked down the last few seconds.

Human war cores, prepare for battle.