War Core Wednesday! War Core 2, Chapter 15.

Chapter 15.

“It sounds like this is going to be a very different fight, and it seems like the GCA has given our cores a way to interact before the battle begins,” Hugh advised, pushing the system prompt information out for the others to review. The techs had connected his core to a simple data stream, and it allowed Hugh to share any system information he wished. He could edit the data to remove anything he didn’t want them to see, but for the most part, he wanted his advisors to have all the information they could get.

“Information is coming from the GCA rather quickly, but for now, I think you’d better see about joining the other selected cores so you can start to work together and formulate a plan based on what we know so far. All your advisors are here, just contact us if you need anything. In the meantime, we’ll be working on some logistics, and continue testing out all the combat pods. The GCA sent a notice that we may need an extensive number of pods for this expedition,” Admiral Nix advised.

The combat bay activity had died down, Hugh noted as he returned his point of view to his core. Whatever checks the marines and techs had been making were finishing up and only a few of the pods must have failed the inspection and they were being worked on by swarms of techs. Malfunctioning combat pods weren’t going to be a problem in this battle. There would be more than enough problems for him to deal with, but so far, he hadn’t had any maintenance issues, something that usually wasn’t the case in a real battle. Leaders typically had to plan for not only combat losses but also losses due to mechanical failures.

True to the system prompt, Hugh saw a new tab open up when he reviewed his core information. The tab was labeled Interaction Matrix and had a counter showing 5/6 next to it. Hugh figured it was likely the number of cores currently connected to whatever meeting was going on. He needed to join them but was distracted when Maddison walked over to his core, plopping down in one of the chairs that had been left nearby for the techs to use as they worked on his mechanical prison.

“Hey Maddison, are you doing okay?” Hugh asked, noting the young woman wasn’t nose deep into her phone this time, a very unusual occurrence for her.

“Yeah, well, no, well, I don’t know,” Maddison said. She looked a little worse for wear like she hadn’t slept in a while and needed a shower, a meal, and a long rest.

“What’s going on, I’ve got a few minutes if you want to talk. It’s not like I get a whole lot of conversations these days about anything other than combat,” Hugh offered.

“Thanks, Hugh, we’ve all been working hard without a lot of breaks and I suppose that’s the problem,” Maddison said.

“That’s kind of the way of life in the military. Now that the cat is out of the bag about the whole ‘earth is under attack by aliens’ thing, I’d think they could get you some more help and give you a break,” Hugh said.

“I signed on to help, and I really did believe in our work, even if I didn’t feel right that we hiding what was going on. Now that everyone knows, Admiral Nix has offered me a retirement package if I want it. I don’t even need to have my mind wiped anymore,” Maddison said.

“I don’t know, that offer sounds pretty good to me,” Hugh added.

“Oh, no, Hugh I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to point out your condition,” Maddison stammered. Hugh was locked into this fight, but that didn’t mean he begrudged her the option of leaving while she could.

“Not a problem, I’m in this for the long haul, but my condition isn’t your burden. You need to do what’s best for yourself Maddison,” Hugh advised.

“It’s weird, you know. I’m getting a pretty good payout for the work I’ve done, and the government is going to give me a free ride for school whenever I do leave. The weird part is, I don’t know if I want to leave. I mean, what happens if they replace me with some noob that gives you bad advice?” Maddison said.

“You’ve been a big help to me, and I don’t think I would have made it without your gaming advice. I’ve seen this dilemma before with soldiers coming back from deployment. They want to go home more than anything but feel guilty about leaving their comrades behind. I’d love to have you here to help, but if you feel it’s time to leave, I’ll support that too. Now, I need to get to work, but I hope we can talk again soon. Sometimes, I just need to talk about stuff that doesn’t have to do with war and aliens,” Hugh said.

“Thanks, Hugh, that helped. Get to work big guy, you need to show those Dinobots who’s boss,” Maddison said. Hugh chuckled at her reference, the geek culture was strong with this one.

Activating the interaction matrix gave Hugh a jolt. One moment he was in the combat bay and the next he was sitting at a large conference table. There wasn’t any of the odd flying through space that he had experienced when transferring to a battle, but that could have just been a result of the cores being near each other. He wasn’t sure what he expected with the experience but sitting at a conference table with five other people in various military uniforms wasn’t it.

“Welcome Hugh, my friend, it’s good to see you again,” Valery said to him. It was Valery, the Russian core, but while he looked like the man Hugh knew, there was a ghostlike quality to his appearance. Looking down at himself, Hugh could see he was in a body of sorts, only this one was a digital projection, not a flesh and blood creation.

“Where exactly are we?” Hugh asked.

“We’re not really sure, but probably it’s a virtual space of some kind. For all the GCA’s technology, they could have at least upgraded our appearance a bit,” A very elderly man said from across the table. The man had on a German Army uniform but something about the uniform didn’t seem quite right to Hugh. Around the table was his friend Valery, the elderly German, a woman in a British Navy uniform, a young man in an Australian Air Force uniform, and a balding middle-aged Japanese man in what looked like ancient Samurai armor.

“I know Valery, but I suppose I should introduce myself to the rest of you. I’m Hugh Logan, a former IT guy and discharged Army officer that had only been in the service for six years. I’ve been a war core a short time and have fought the Krixnas and the Ximkas. My specialization is in resource efficiency and infantry mechs,” Hugh said. The others greeted him and then Valery told the group his story.

“I’ll go next,” the woman in the Royal Navy uniform started. “I’m Felicia Rose, a retired Royal Navy radar tech. I was snatched up in 1978 and have fought a variety of foes since then, but never faced the Krixnas. I didn’t specialize at first, just spread my points around, but eventually, I focused on naval and space combat. The two aren’t used much in our battles, as you all know, but when it does come up, I tend to dominate the foe. I should also point out that whatever you focus on, it seems the GCA will structure the battles to emphasize what you and your foe have chosen to dig into,” Felicia said.

“My turn, I’m Tucker Holden, and I was nabbed to become a war core just after flight training in 1963. It’s probably nobody’s surprise that I’m specialized in air mechs along with some economic upgrades,” the Aussie said.

“I will go next if you don’t mind,” the old German man said, looking over to the guy in the samurai armor.

“Please, go right ahead, sir” the man replied politely.

“Danke, it appears I may be the oldest one present and I have to apologize for my uniform. The GCA seems fascinated by units from World War 2 and has chosen to represent me in my Whermacht feldgrau instead of the officer’s uniform from my time in the Bundeswehr. My name is Stefan Wagner, and I was taken as a war core in 1971. I served as a tank gunner during World War 2. I remained in military service after the war and eventually was promoted to Hauptmann and commanded a platoon of tanks until I was forced into my current situation. My specialties are medium mechs with some upgrades to support units as well,” the man said before sitting back down.

“Hello everyone, I’m Jiro Masaki and I’m not from the military. I was just a normal businessman when I was taken in 1986. Maybe it was my fascination with ancient history, or my love of anime, but whatever may have been the trigger, the GCA decided to make a war core. My specialization was primarily economic upgrades for my core, and then infantry,” Jiro said.

“It looks like the GCA has placed us together based on our skills. We have someone with space combat, infantry, heavy mechs, medium mechs, air mechs, and Hugh here has fought against the Krixnas we’ll be defending,” Valery stated to the group.

“Who will be in overall command?” Stefan asked.

“I’m sure our governments will work something out, but once we deploy, we’ll be on our own. Having a chain of command worked out amongst ourselves wouldn’t be the worst thing. I’ll take myself out of the running since I’m really new at this,” Hugh offered.

“Are you offering to take charge, Stefan?” Valery asked.

“No, I have no desire to lead our expedition. I would say you, Felicia, and Tucker are the most experienced among us. One of you would be best,” Stefan offered. Hugh was surprised by his decision; the elderly German had been doing this longer than the rest of them. Looking closer, Hugh thought he could see a weariness in Stefan. The man had seen too much and didn’t want to shoulder the burden of command.

“I’m out, mate. I’m a flyboy, not an expeditionary force leader,” Tucker offered.

“Valery, why don’t you take overall command, and I’ll jump in during any space actions we may have to undertake,” Felicia offered. Hugh didn’t want to see two leaders, it would only create confusion on the battlefield, but what Felicia offered was a reasonable accommodation that wouldn’t leave any feathers ruffled.

“Any objections?” Valery asked. Everyone confirmed they were fine with the decision.

“Hugh, why don’t you give us a rundown of the Krixnas, how they fight and what your thoughts are on integrating them into our forces,” Valery asked.

“Sure, I’ve only fought them on two campaigns, but I did meet one of their cores when I was on Harmony Station just a short time ago,” Hugh advised.

“Interesting, I can’t recall any of the other species interacting with our cores directly before. Tell us about it, if you wouldn’t mind?” Stefan asked. When Hugh thought about the Krixnas core he had met, something about it reminded him of the elderly German soldier. Of course, they looked nothing alike, but there was a similar demeanor there, they were both beings that had been ground down by constant battle.

“It was odd, they aren’t exactly pretty, as I’m sure you saw in your briefing information. From what the Krixnas said, they operate in almost a hive-like social structure and differentiate each other by scent, not visual cues. Their infantry and construction units serve double duty, but they are very dangerous and capable in melee. Their tentacles will melt right through armor, but the laser weapons they fire from them at longer ranges were wildly inaccurate compared to our weapons. The light and medium mechs were pretty much just larger versions of their infantry units. They had more armor and firepower, but that was the only real difference,” Hugh offered.

“How did they fight?” Stephan asked.

“The core I was up against wasn’t stupid, but they did seem somewhat inflexible when forced with an unusual situation. That may be where integrating them with our forces will help, humans seem to be able to react to changes in enemy tactics better than the Krixnas,” Hugh told them, another memory triggered at that point. “Oh, I should also point out that their infantry mechs did have the use of a strange device that focused their tentacle lasers into a more powerful beam. It was kind of like an anti-tank rifle, increasing range, accuracy, and damage,” Hugh added.

“Hopefully, they bring all that and more to the party,” Tucker said.

“I didn’t see any heavy mechs or their air, naval, or space units. Our campaign was limited to lower-level engagements. Now as far as working with the Krixnas directly, the one I met seemed thankful we were living up to our commitments and I don’t think we’ll have any trouble with them rejecting our aid,” Hugh told the group.

“Has anyone fought these Ssath directly?” Jiro asked.

“Well, not in a mech battle, but I did have a run-in with one on Harmony Station. It kind of, well, killed and ate me,” Hugh admitted.

“What?” Valery asked, the others around the table looked at Hugh with shocked expressions on their faces.

“Yeah, one of them was stomping down the corridor and I was too lost in my interface to notice. He took offense at that and just went at me. Let me tell you, these guys in the flesh are no joke, and they really do look like dinosaurs. I can attest to their teeth and claws being deadly enough,” Hugh said.

“That’s crazy, but it also answers why you were selected. I doubt too many folks have had that close an encounter with any of the aliens we’re fighting against. What happened after it ate you, I can see it didn’t kill your core or anything like that,” Tucker said with a laugh.

“I’m glad that my getting eaten by an alien dinosaur was entertaining for you, Tucker,” Hugh said, not really offended, he laughed with the others. “There was some kind of adjudication session that went on where the GCA reviewed the interaction and punished the Ssath by ending his leave early. I was found partially at fault for not deescalating the situation, but I kept my leave and was even issued some reward points that I assumed were taken from the Ssath that ate me,” Hugh added.

“I suppose that’s one way to boost your reward point level,” Tucker added. They didn’t get to discuss further before a GCA prompt appeared in front of them all.

Final conflict parameters have been decided. War Cores, prepare for battle.