War Core Wednesday! Book 2, Chapter 4.

Here's a peek at a level five and level nine human light mech. The M-22 has  improved armor, speed, and firepower over the previous T-7 light mech. 

Chapter 4.

Captain Cartwright decided to add to the Ximkas troubles, capturing their sole resource gathering point with one light mech with the other keeping tabs on the enemy combat forces. The enemy light mech held its position at the command post, providing cover for the construction drones that were working on repairing the damage that Hugh’s forces had inflicted. Only two construction drones were completed and after a third was done, the factory stopped working. A second light mech was completed, and then that factory also went silent.

“Looks like they’re out of resources, except for what the command post produces. Let’s get built up and start hammering them,” Hugh called out. He pulled up his current information, trying to decide whether to upgrade or just build the max units he could and throw them at the enemy while they were still weak.

Current Battle Information:

Command post, level 1. (Unit points, 195/250). Upgrade to level 2 requires 500 resources.

Resources: 196.

Units:

Construction drones: 25/25.

Combat units:

Infantry mechs 20/20.

Weapons teams 1/1.

Light mechs 2/2.

Defensive Garrison: 10/10.

Other Structures:

Barracks, level 0.

Light mech factory, level 1.

Available structures:

Signal tower (1/2). A signal tower requires fifty resources to construct and provides 50 unit points.

Hugh ordered the second signal tower, wanting as many unit points as he could get without having to wait for enough resources to upgrade the command post. He also readjusted his construction drones, assigning one squad of five to each of the resource gathering stations with one remaining at the command post. While they waited for resources to build up at the stations, some would gather up the last of the battlefield wrecks. While they didn’t know how many resources an enemy light mech required to construct, he had to bet it was significantly more than his own T-7’s given the range and armor advantages the enemy had. By the time Hugh had built the second signal tower and maxed out his forces, the Ximkas would likely only have one additional light mech constructed and maybe a drone or two.

“Any suggestions as far as our force composition goes?” Hugh asked his two commanders.

The lack of a reply let him know the GCA was filtering their responses. He would have to go with what he knew from their intel briefings. While they had a significant range advantage, the Ximkas light mechs had a lower rate of fire, especially at level one. His T-7 didn’t have enough armor to survive a direct hit, and the Ximkas rarely missed. Hugh wanted the speed of his T-7 to close the gap, but his infantry would be more likely to survive in sufficient numbers to take down the enemy. His infantry would also need an upgrade, the level zero units weren’t fast enough for what he wanted, so Hugh queued the barracks to upgrade to level one.

When the second signal tower was completed, he would have three hundred unit points to work with. Hugh decided on going with a force of light mechs to distract the enemy, counting on them to keep the enemy’s attention long enough for his infantry to get a good start on closing the distance. He would scrap the current machinegun team; they were a prime target and taken out before they would be able to get into weapons range. The twenty unit points they tied up would be better served at supporting four regular infantry. His final buildout would be a force of four light mechs and thirty-five infantry. Those along with his construction drones would max out his unit points.

“I’m assigning each of you a position to launch your attack from, let me know if you need any changes,” Hugh advised. The commanders had a few suggestions, Tran in particular wanted to spread out his infantry in sections of five with each group a fair distance from each other. That would require the enemy light mechs to take time to shift their aim between groups and every few steps they gained brought them that much closer to bringing their weapons to bear.

With all the resources coming in from four gathering stations, it didn’t take too long to max out his forces. In the time it took them to build and then position them for the assault, the Ximkas had built a third light mech and another eight of the construction drones. Some of the construction drones must have been the Ximkas equivalent of a defensive garrison force, the intel folks had never been able to quite nail down exactly how that worked for his opponent. The repairs on the enemy command post were not quite complete, the drones only doing what was necessary and funneling all available resources into building more combat forces.

“Begin the assault when you’re ready,” Hugh ordered. He was a bit anxious to see how this fight panned out. Watching the Ximkas on the Canadian feeds was one thing, being the actual fight had a much different feel.

His forces moved, out. They had staged themselves just out of range of the enemy, so as soon as the mechs made their first few steps, the enemy reacted. The three Ximkas light mechs moved a short distance from the command post, spreading out to use their bulk to provide the command post with some cover from incoming fire. The back of their stinger-like tails glowed as the first blasts of plasma fired out. Unlike his units where the rounds he fired were like a bullet or cannon shell, this was like a short blast from a fire hose. Hugh would have thought the shape of the blast would prevent it from having much in the way of range, but the blast held together and streaked across the battlefield.

Cartwright’s soldiers were already reacting, juking their T-7’s as they bravely continued their advance. Two of the three blasts hit, taking out half Hugh’s force of light mechs in the first volley. The surviving pair finally entered extreme range, firing off a single volley from their main guns while they continued to close. Both rounds hit the same Ximkas mech, burning into the armor, but failing to penetrate. They got off a second volley with similar results before the Ximkas fired again. Hugh watched the last two of his light mechs crash to the ground, the heavy plasma blasts of the scorpion tail weapons obliterating the thinly armored human mechs.

His infantry hadn’t been idle during the initial stage of the battle, they had been closing in at their maximum speed this whole time. The Ximkas reacted to the new threat, taking aim while waiting for their weapons to reload. All but two of the construction drones moved beside the light mechs and readied their own smaller laser weapons. A blast of plasma from each of the enemy light mechs left three infantry destroyed, but Hugh still had thirty-two to continue the assault. In addition, his factories were already working on building replacements for his losses.

Another volley from the Ximkas mechs brought Hugh’s infantry total down to twenty-nine. According to his estimation, the enemy light mechs would only get one more volley off before Hugh’s infantry reached extreme range for their weapons. His calculations were accurate and Hugh was down to twenty-six infantry when his soldiers began to fire. The extreme range and moving at top speed seriously hampered their accuracy, but his troops were still scoring hits given the volume of fire they were putting out. His infantry would be able to get off five or six rounds before the enemy light mechs were able to fire again.

His rifles stripped away armor with each hit, but the Ximkas scorpion mechs were tough and soaked up the punishment, continuing to take out his troops with each blast of their powerful main guns. His hit rate continued to climb as the range closed, the rifles starting to deplete the armor enough where there was a chance of penetration. The construction drones now added their fire to the mix and laser blasts reached out toward his attacking forces. He was doing damage, but not enough to win, at least not with this wave.

“Shift fire, concentrate on the designated target,” Tran ordered to his troops. All the weapons concentrated on a single light mech, shots pelting the mech like hail as Hugh’s troops were slowly brought down by the enemy fire. By the time the last infantry mech was down, the targeted Ximkas unit was smoking and lurching when it tried to walk, something important had been damaged, but not enough to take it out of the fight.

“I’m afraid this is going to be a long grind,” Hugh advised his commanders.

“Understood, sir, maybe think about some armory and machine shop upgrades. When my infantry finally closes in, the grenades could be a big help. That and some accuracy upgrades might get the job done,” Tran suggested. It was a good call, and in between unit production, Hugh queued up the armory and machine shop. While the upgrades would slow his unit replacements, they could prove invaluable.

While all the work was going on and his forces gathered for the next push, Hugh kept an eye on the enemy. The war core controlling the Ximkas forces decided to spend resources to repair his damaged mechs, which would delay them building any additional troops and, hopefully, give Hugh enough time to launch his second attack. If the enemy got more forces on the ground, Hugh would have no choice but to play an even longer, more grindy battle, trying to upgrade his factories before the enemy could build up enough forces to take back some of the resource gathering stations.

The Ximkas light mechs were repaired, and the construction drones did some more work on fixing the command post before Hugh’s troops were ready for round two. His troops moved out, in the same manner, that they had before, but this time, they had some upgrades. The level one barracks armory had unlocked the heat sink, grenades, and basic targeting package. His infantry now had a ten percent accuracy and rate of fire increase. It may not sound like much, but when multiplied by the number of mechs he was fielding, it should make a difference in the fight.

The fight started out the same as the last skirmish. Hugh’s T-7’s charged in, distracting the enemy light mechs while the infantry advanced. When his infantry finally made it into range, they opened fire, scoring more hits than last time, the upgrades enabling them to get an extra shot before the Ximkas light mechs could respond. Every round was focused on the same enemy light mech, and by the time Hugh was down to fourteen infantry, the enemy machine exploded. Whatever went critical had enough of a blast radius to also take out a pair of their construction drones. His troops shifted fire to a second enemy unit, hoping to do as much damage as possible before they were destroyed.

With the main enemy firepower cut by a third, Hugh’s infantry was able to stay in the fight longer than they had hoped. A pair even got close enough to lob grenades at the enemy mechs. One blast was off target, but the second blast melted down one of a light mech’s legs and obliterated a nearby construction drone. Replacements for Hugh’s losses had already been in production, the line of new units already marching across the battlefield to take up position for a third attack.

The Ximkas drones risked moving out onto the battlefield to gather the nearest of Hugh’s fallen mechs. By the time they had gathered the closest units, the first T-7 was nearby, making any further harvesting of debris impossible unless the enemy wished to take losses. This time the enemy had lost a light mech and three of their construction drones. The Ximkas command post was already working to build replacements for the construction drones, and Hugh figured that they were most like the defensive garrison units that did cost any resources to replace, other than the time it took to build them.

When Hugh replaced his losses, he still had close to three hundred resources in the bank. By the time the next attack was over, he should have enough to upgrade the command post to level two. That would give him another hundred unit points to work with, and adding twenty more infantry to the fight would surely break the stalemate. Before the last of his losses were replenished, the Ximkas started construction on a replacement light mech. That replacement unit must have cost them dearly, keeping them from fully repairing the heavily damaged unit that was still on the battlefield.

With only three legs, the damaged mech could function, but Hugh could see that there was significant damage to the mech’s armor. The damaged unit would be the focus of their next assault which started soon after. Hugh’s T-7’s were shot up quickly by the enemy, prompting Hugh to cancel their production and switch the unit points over to building more infantry. When the fire shifted to Tran’s infantry assault, Hugh noted that the damaged mech took a while to reorient its main gun, needing to be very careful with its balance. Even that little delay was enough to allow more of his infantry to close into range. Their first rifle rounds already peppering the damaged enemy.

The heavily damaged Ximkas light mech went down pretty fast, allowing his forces to concentrate on another defender, giving it a thrashing while they desperately tried to close into grenade range. Four made it into range on this attempt, their grenades landing in pairs on each of the surviving Ximkas mechs. Neither target was destroyed, but both were significantly damaged by the blast. The whole process began again, Hugh printing up replacements while the Ximkas expended their limited resources to get the damaged units repaired rather than focusing on building a replacement defender.

“Sir, let me head in as soon as I have three squads ready, I think I can get into range with them and do some damage before they get their repairs finished,” Captain Tran offered.

“Go for it, Captain,” Hugh replied, it was typically foolish to ignore these types of suggestions from an experienced officer like Tran. The early attack seemed to shock the Ximkas commander, who wasted valuable seconds in responding to the new assault. The two damaged light mechs began to fire on Hugh’s forces and this time, their accuracy wasn’t quite up to par. One of the enemy mechs must have taken damage to its targeting system, it was only hitting about half the time. His infantry closed into rifle range by the time the pair of construction drones swarming over the damaged unit was able to get it fixed.

It was too late for the Ximkas, six of Tran’s infantry were already hurling grenades, the explosions obliterating the light mechs. The enemy construction drones tried to put up a fight but lost to the reinforcing infantry that was even now joining the battle. The Ximkas command post was already at work building more armed construction drones, but Hugh’s forces were slowly tearing the building down with their fire. It took a while for the rifles to do that much to the oversized and reinforced building, but they had the enemy locked down.

A few construction drones were built, but each one was destroyed before it could get a shot off. The light mech factory also started production, but Hugh’s infantry was all within range and could shower plasma grenades on anything that walked out of the factory.

Congratulations! You have emerged victorious in the first stage of the battle for px51a2.

Post-battle calculations are commencing.

Base reward: 25 points.

Victory bonus: 100 points.

Observation bonus: 25 points.

Total points awarded, 150.

The points awarded have been applied to the outstanding balance on your loan.

War core termination calculation.

Base chance for termination is .0001.

Failure Penalty: None.

Multiple loss penalty: None.

Effectiveness rating: Average.

Effectiveness penalty or enhancement: None.

Observer rating: Above average.

Observer penalty or enhancement: None.

Bonuses to survivability: Victory enhancement active.

Combat pod lethality: Victory enhancement active.

Reward point total: -115/1000.