War Core Wednesday! War Core 2, Chapter 14

Chapter 14.

“Major Logan, please report to the briefing room,” the PA called out as soon as Hugh returned to earth. The combat floor was a hive of activity as marines were assisted into their combat pods by more techs than Hugh had ever seen at one time. Just what was going on here if they were loading marines and soldiers into the pods before he was even called to battle?

Hugh moved his point of view into the briefing room, finding it packed as well. Captain Brubaker, their new Marine liaison, was there along with another new addition to his military advisors. The latest addition was a young woman in one of the new Space Force uniforms. She was seated at the table and next to Mr. Smith was a very uncomfortable-looking man in a rumpled suit. The man kept shuffling through a sheaf of papers and tapping at a tablet. I took Hugh a moment to recognize the new guy as Markum, their intel analyst. He looked rough, unshaven, and completely exhausted.

“Admiral, I’ve made it back,” Hugh announced. The space force captain and the new guy in the suit jumped a little when Hugh’s voice came out over the speaker.

“Welcome back Hugh, I assume you were granted leave again after the successful campaign?” Admiral Nix asked.

“Yes, sir, I came back early when I heard there might be trouble with the Ssath,” Hugh replied.

“Trouble is an understatement. Before we begin, let me introduce Captain Lewis, our Space Force liaison. Her people have been doing good things with learning the ins and outs of space combat, and she’ll be working with you for this deployment since it looks like it’s going to require the whole gamut of combat expertise,” Admiral Nix said. Hugh and Lewis introduced themselves, but they could both tell Nix was ready to continue.

Time is of the essence. Mr. Smith here will give you a quick rundown on what’s happening. Please ignore any system prompts for the moment until we have a chance to finish the debrief,” Nix advised. Hugh followed orders, pushing aside the slew of system prompts that had started to appear.

“First, congratulations on a quick and victorious campaign against the Ximkas,” Smith said.

“Thank you, but before we dig into this, how bad were our losses?” Hugh asked. He never wanted to forget the price of his actions; these weren’t games he was playing.

“We had only one loss in the last fight, a very good casualty rate,” Smith said.

“Good, unless you’re the one that died,” Tran replied. Smith nodded solemnly. Hugh knew the man understood the cost and wasn’t making light of it, he was justifiably happy that the losses had been fewer in this last campaign than they had been in most of the other fights.

“I suspect the losses are due to the campaign victory bonus and the fact we finished the fight relatively quickly,” Hugh said. The battle in the canyons had the potential to bog down into a costly slugfest, but he had gained momentum early and never let up on the throttle until the Ximkas were beaten.

“We can only hope that trend continues. Now, let me tell you what’s been going on while you were away,” Smith said, shuffling through notes before starting again.

“Almost immediately after you left, earth’s central command started getting notifications from the GCA. It appears the Ssath are on the move and have initiated a claim for control of the Krixnas homeworld, a world we are obligated to help defend,” Smith said.

“What about the moratorium we had in place. The Ssath aren’t supposed to be able to attack again until almost a year from now?” Hugh asked. He knew the answer from the Krixnas he had met but wanted to see if Smith had any additional details.

“The Ssath burned what must have been an absurd number of influence points to buy down the timer on the invasion lock. We weren’t even sure that was possible until it happened. In response to their invasion, Earth is being tasked with providing additional forces to help defend the Krixnas homeworld,” Smith said.

“How much time do we have before I leave? I’m assuming that I’ve been the one chosen to help defend the Krixnas,” Hugh asked.

“You’re going as soon as we have everything organized. You’ll see in your system notifications later that this is going to be something entirely different from any battle that our cores have faced before. You have experience fighting against the Krixnas, I’m not sure how much it will help, but you know their fighting style and can help us integrate their forces into our overall defense plan,” Smith said.

“May I interrupt?” Markum asked. Smith nodded for him to speak.

“I was supposed to keep this under wraps, but I don’t see how hiding the information can be of any use. Hugh, one of the Ssath cores specifically asked for you to be their opponent. They spent an ungodly amount of influence points to push the issue, and if we don’t include you as our core, we’ll face several heavy penalties from the GCA. We have no idea how they even knew of your existence, let alone why they are were willing to pay heavily just to have you in the fight,” Markum stated.

“I think I know why, but it’s a long story and from what you’re telling me, it’s one I don’t think we have time for. Can I assume you now think that the Ssath are worth spending resources on investigating?” Hugh replied, still a bit annoyed at the intel analyst’s attitude at their last meeting.

“Very well, I had that coming, and I wanted to publicly apologize to all of you. I downplayed the Ssath threat and thought I knew what was important. From here on out I’ll do my best to help you in any way that is needed,” Markum replied. Hugh gave him credit, it was hard for anyone to admit they were wrong, and in their earlier exchange, the man most definitely didn’t seem like the apologizing type.

“Thank you for that Mr. Markum, apology accepted. I look forward to working together to stop this threat,” Hugh said.

“Back to the task at hand,” Smith started. “We’re sending you into the fight, Hugh, but you won’t be going alone this time. You’ll be going as part of an expeditionary force of six cores, including your own. In addition, the Krixnas have had several of their cores reactivated to participate in their planet’s defense,” Smith advised.

“That’s a lot of cores, how many Ssath will we be facing?” Hugh asked. The Ssath had been at this longer than the humans and their cores must have been well ahead of them as far as upgrades go. Hopefully, the GCA took that into account when they set the number of defending cores.

“I just got word on this, right before our meeting started. It turns out we’ll be fighting against just one opponent, all our cores and the Krixnas are going up against a single Ssath core, and that’s what has us worried,” Smith said. Hugh and the entire room were silent, absorbing the newest revelation. One core against six human and who knew how many Krixnas cores. Just how powerful were the Ssath that a single core could take on that many?

Something Valery had told him back on Harmony Station popped into his head. Valery had said the GCA often balanced fights against more experienced and upgraded cores by adding additional participants. He had said it was like a professional boxer going up against a normal guy on the street. To make things fair, they allowed that guy to bring a friend into the ring. Valery had mentioned that he would still bet on the pro boxer. In this case, with this many cores, Hugh feared it would be more like a professional boxer going up against a bunch of toddlers.

“So, what happens now?” Hugh asked, breaking the silence.

“For now, the team will work on getting everything ready for the fight. We’re calling you the Earth Expeditionary Force, and there’s a lot of moving pieces. From what I hear, all the basic information about the battle should be in your system prompts. Take some time to review and then rejoin us when you’re done,” Admiral Nix ordered.

“Roger that, sir, I’ll get to work,” Hugh said, still a little overwhelmed with the coming fight. True to the warning, there was a lot of information to weed through, but he knew it would be important, the GCA wasn’t big on fluff.

The Ssath invasion of the system known as Krixnas Prime has been initiated. Due to the target of this invasion being a species homeworld, and the aforementioned homeworld being a protectorate of another species, a specialized process will be enacted for this invasion. The Krixnas will have a number of their surviving war cores reactivated to defend their world and you have been selected as one of six cores to participate in the battle on behalf of the earth.

Unlike previous battles, in this campaign, you will control a limited number of forces and will not have access to a traditional command post. The unit point limits for each core will be transmitted separately in a later update. As you progress in the campaign, you will have the opportunity to upgrade and repair your units. Depending on your performance, additional forces may also be recruited. The Ssath have claimed this homeworld as a hunting preserve and should your efforts fail, the Krixnas race may face extinction.

The battles for control of this system will take place in various environments and through multiple stages. A suitable replica homeworld has been created for this conflict and battle outcome projectors have been placed around the actual homeworld to replicate civilian casualties and infrastructure damage. The performance of your forces will have a direct impact on the survivability rate of the Krixnas non-combatants.

To facilitate coordination among the participating earth cores, an interaction matrix has been installed in your core and will now appear in your menus. Coordination among Earth’s forces and the Krixnas forces has been blocked by a restriction purchased by the Ssath. Once the battle begins, this restriction will be lifted. Timing for the start of this battle is still under negotiation. Once a decision has been reached between all parties, you and the other cores will have a limited time to prepare and make your way to the battlespace.

The stakes for this fight were about as high as they could be. For the first time, Hugh’s actions and those of the other earth cores would determine the fate of not only the soldiers under their command but also the fate of innocent civilians. There was a lot of work to do, and Hugh didn’t think the Ssath was going to give them much time to prepare.