War Core Wednesday! Book 2 chapter 2.

Chapter 2.

Hugh felt his mind being drawn away from the conference room. Like his previous pre-battle negotiations, his consciousness found itself seated at a table, the system controlling the negotiations seen as a blurry figure at the far end of the table. There was a slight pause, which Hugh interpreted as the Ximkas making their demands.

The first stage of the Ximkas Hegemony invasion of system px51a2 has begun, the attacker is making the following demands.

Ximkas Demands:

1. A maximum command post level of 1.

2. No air units.

3. No combat pod support.

4. Command post starting level of 0.

5. Restricted resource flow.

6. No additional starting structures.

7. No pre-fight battlefield recon.

8. A large starting force.

While Hugh hadn’t fought the Ximkas before, he had studied the Canadian core’s continuing campaign against them. The Ximkas fielded no infantry-type units, and the theory was that their race was naturally as large as a light mech. Typically, they would field a pack of these larger but slower units and send them out to destroy the outlying resource centers and then the command post. Their units were slow but much more heavily armored than others they had fought. With the Ximkas having excellent long-range weapons, sniping them before retreating wasn’t an option, though they did tend to fixate on a target and the Canadian core had some success in drawing their focus to one area then rushing in a second force to attack them from multiple directions.

The Canadian core was a defense expert, his points had been spent along those lines and he could develop trenchworks and fixed defenses to rival those seen during World War 1. Hugh didn’t have the benefit of those defenses and would have to rely on another strategy, one that required him to have a variety of units and a rapid development of his forces. He structured his demands based on the type of battle he wanted to fight, betting that the system would make this a standard battle format, given the two cores hadn’t faced each other yet.

Human Demands:

1. A maximum command post level of 10.

2. Air units available.

3. Combat pod support.

4. Command post starting level of 5.

5. Enhanced resource flow.

6. Additional starting structures.

7. Pre-fight battlefield recon.

8. No starting forces.

Hugh waited anxiously as the system began its deliberations. The consensus among the cores was that for the first battle, the system gave a higher priority to the attacker’s demands. His biggest concern was the starting forces, the Ximkas held an advantage in the early stages of the battle as their heavily armed and armored units dominated most fights until the humans researched multiple upgrades and brought their medium and heavier mechs online.

The air threat was also important, the Ximkas mechs held limited hardpoints for weapons attachment and some of those valuable points would be taken up with anti-air weaponry to counter the threat. Even if Hugh never created an air mech, the threat would dilute his foe’s firepower, giving him a slight edge. The Ximkas didn’t have air units, other than some higher-tier flying battle stations that were quite impressive, but costly to build.

A battle parameter decision has been made. The following will be in effect for this fight. You will be fighting on the planet Paradisio111.

1. A maximum command post level of 4.

2. No air units.

3. Combat pod support is active.

4. Command post starting level of 1.

5. Normal resource flow.

6. No additional initial structures.

7. Pre-flight battlefield recon is active.

8. A modest starting force is assigned to each core.

War Cores, prepare for battle.

The battle negotiations ended, and Hugh was hurled into space, stars flashing by as he approached the world their fight would take place on. Using the travel time to his advantage, Hugh planned out his first moves. If this did turn out to be a standard battle format, he would send any available forces out to take what resources he could find, while also sending out recon and harassment teams. The Ximkas were tough but slow. If he could keep their limited numbers rushing back and forth to defend resource sites, it would buy him time to research and build up a powerful force to make a decisive attack against the enemy command post.

His view began to focus on a single solar system, a total of three planets orbited a dull orange sun. Hugh was drawn to the second planet, another pock-marked ruin of a world, but like the other battlefields, this one contained a small rectangle of lush greenery. This was where they would fight. Hugh wondered once more why these battles were even fought. If the system could restore life to worlds just to host a battle, couldn’t they just create more habitable systems and eliminate the need for conflict entirely?

Your pre-battle reconnaissance will begin, you have five minutes until the battle commences. This a standard elimination battle, destroy your foe’s command post to emerge as the victor.

Hugh found himself flying over a completely flat landscape. The rectangular battlefield was only broken up by a few patches of forest, the trees having an orange spongy bark and yellow leaves. It looked like fall colors, but somehow Hugh knew this was the way they always looked. The trunks of the trees were thick, and it would make those patches of ground difficult for heavier units to maneuver in. His infantry would work well inside, but sadly, there was only a small grove on either side of the battlefield, just past the command posts.

Flags marked out critical locations, two on each side of the mirror image battlefield. One was fairly close to the command post, opposite the forested areas, and the others were near the center, dangerously close to each other. Those would be Hugh’s first targets if he started with enough forces to overcome the AI-controlled defenders. When the Ximkas moved to take them, his forces would just fade back and try to retake them once the army had passed. He was going to make this entire fight a headache for the Ximkas and once he had them dancing to his tune, he would strike their command post. Of course, he had to hold off their attack long enough for his tactics to work, a difficult task based on the battle replays he had watched.

While the battlefield was flat, the line of sight was broken up by the occasional farmlands that grew crops of tall plants that resembled skinny bamboo. It would provide concealment, but not cover and the Canadian core had shared that the Ximkas seemed to have excellent targeting devices and were rarely fooled by something as simple as hiding inside some overgrown plants. A final inspection of the battlefield revealed several resource crates strewn about, about the average number. These he also tagged for later retrieval by his drones. The Ximkas drones were nearly as fast as his own and had minor combat capability right out of the box, so he would stick to his side of the map for crate gathering purposes.

When the timer hit zero, Hugh was pulled toward his side of the battlefield, where the command post nestled up against the edge of the battlefield. Both sides would at least have their rear area protected by the battlefield limit, if a unit crossed the limit of the battlefield, it would shut down. Rumor had it that units shut down in this manner had an extremely high casualty rate for their operators. His mind linked with the command post and Hugh opened his information tab to see what he had to work with.

Current Battle Information:

Command post, level 1. (Unit points, 175/200). Upgrade to level 2 requires 500 resources.

Resources: 150.

Units:

Construction drones: 0/5.

Combat units:

Infantry mechs 20/20.

Weapons teams 1/1.

Light mechs 2/2.

Defensive Garrison: 0/10.

Available structures:

Barracks, level 0. The level 0 barracks require 100 resources to construct.

Signal tower (0/2). A signal tower requires fifty resources to construct and provides 50 unit points.

Lined up outside the command post were two squads of infantry, a machinegun team, and a pair of light mechs. It was a good-sized starting force, which made him wonder what his opponent had been given. How many of their mechs equaled the value of his force, or did they get an advantage in this fight that he didn’t know about? The only way to find out was to send his recon teams into action.

“Major Logan, the infantry are dialed in, what are we looking at?” Captain Tran asked. Captain Cartwright also announced his soldiers were in control of the two light mechs.

“It’s a standard kill the command post format and both sides have been allocated a starting force. I want to get a jump on resources, send the light mechs out to recon both the resource stations on our side of the map, then get eyes on the enemy. Captain Tran, send a squad to capture each resource station then stand by for further orders once we get a look at what the other core is doing. While you’re doing that, I’ll get things building up here so I can send you support as soon as possible,” Hugh ordered. He assigned each unit to their tasks, leaving the driving to the soldiers manning the combat pods. He left the machinegun team back at the command post, for now, wanting some extra firepower on hand to support his garrison forces.

While his forces moved out, Hugh ordered another four squads of construction drones and assigned the first squad to build the barracks. After the drones finished rolling off the assembly line, his defensive garrison forces should start being built. Thankfully, those didn’t cost him anything in the way of resources or unit points. This was offset by the generally poor performance of the AI controlling them. No combat pod could link with a garrison soldier. They were free units, and poor performers or not, Hugh was glad to have them.

Once his barracks was completed, he would save resources to start construction of the light mech factory. He assigned the first five construction drones to the barracks' construction. Once the second squad of drones was created, they would be assigned to crate gathering duty, starting with those closest to the command post. There weren’t that many crates out there, but there should be enough nearby to fund the light mech factory once the prerequisite barracks were built.

“It looks like we have five infantry mechs at the first resource gathering station. Will engage once in range,” Cartwright said over comms. Hugh almost ordered him to wait for the Tran’s infantry, but if Cartwright thought he could take the defenders down without losses, he would let the officer try. Cartwright only had two light mechs with him, but they far outranged the infantry mechs guarding the resource gathering station.

The resource gathering stations looked like an old-fashioned oil pump. Chugging happily away, resources would be slowly gathered and packed into crates which Hugh’s construction drones would cart off to be processed at the command post. They produced resources slowly, at about the same rate as his command post naturally did, but it was a steady stream of income. Each of these neutral objectives was protected by random mechs that were hostile to both sides. If left alone and not captured, a portion of the resources would be siphoned off to reinforce the defenders, making an early assault and capture desirable.

Controlled by a simple AI, the defenders took a second to react when two of their numbers fell to the powerful fifty-caliber main guns of the T-7 mechs. The three remaining infantry mechs tried to close with the T-7’s who backed away to keep the range open. At this resource station, the infantry defending it were the same as his garrison troops, but the system could mix things up, creating units resembling his foe, or even pulling troops from the designs of other alien cores to use as the template. Two more volleys thundered out from his light mechs, cutting down the last of the defenders.

Captain Cartwright didn’t stop to capture, the point, leaving it to Tran’s infantry who were already on their way. The faster light mechs moved out toward the second resource gathering station, the one near the border between the two opponents. Once the infantry arrived and captured the point, Hugh assigned a squad of construction drones to begin harvesting operations. Not much time had passed so there were only a couple of partially filled crates. The crates would fill to a max of fifty resource points, but Hugh typically had his drones return once they held ten or more. With five drones harvesting one resource gathering station, it would provide a more steady flow for him to work with.

“Second resource gathering station is in sight, looks like it’s already under attack,” Cartwright called out. Hugh shifted his focus from organizing his construction drones and zoomed in on the pair of light mechs. The Ximkas mechs were slow, too slow to have reached the station this quickly. It looked like it wasn’t their combat mechs that were attacking, it was a slew of construction drones. The Ximkas construction drones walked on six legs and had an armored chassis. They featured a small laser weapon mounted on the top of the drone, along with several tools that could be used as melee weapons in a pinch.

A dozen of them were fighting it out with the five infantry mechs guarding the site. One defender was already down, but Hugh could see that several of the construction drones sported damage from the rifle fire. The construction drones didn’t appear to be piloted, Hugh’s weren’t either, and both sides just stood there blazing away. The infantry mechs had more powerful weapons and better targeting packages, but the construction drones outnumbered them.

“What do you think Cartwright?” Hugh asked.

“The Ximkas are going to take the station, but they won’t do it without losses. My mechs can clean up the survivors and reclaim the station for us if you’d like. I’m confident we can win, but the mechs might be scuffed up a bit in the fight,” Cartwright advised. Hugh weighed the options. He could wait for the infantry squad that Tran already had on the way to reinforce the light mechs, but that would take time. If the construction drones were destroyed, it would put a serious dent in his opponent’s ability to expand. The Ximkas had taken a big risk sending this many over to his side of the map, they were probably not expecting Hugh to be this aggressive and already have units at the border.

“Take them out, Captain,” Hugh ordered. The first shots between his forces and the Ximkas were about to be fired. These were the first shots, but they wouldn’t be the last.