War Core Wednesday!

I've finished the outline of War Core book 2, Expeditionary Force and here is the introduction. I also have an illustration of Hugh's new tier five light mechs that we'll see later in the story. The fist image is a standard tier five mech and the second is one with upgrades (secondary weapons, improved armor, and grenade/smoke launchers).

Introduction.

He could feel it, the rage simmering just below the surface. Instead of the rush of the blood fury, only disappointment followed. His transformation, the one that had not only cursed him but also elevated him above the rest of the pack, was a mixed bag. He was on top of his world, the most revered warrior in the history of his race, but at the same time, he was prevented from the rewards that position should have granted him. Instead of participating in the red feast of victory, he was forced to remain here, locked inside the very thing that granted him his power.

Hssim shook a head he no longer possessed, and instead focused back on the battle at hand. His opponents were fighting hard, but the end was in sight. He had too many victories under his belt, too many GCA created advantages for this foe to overcome, despite the help the system had granted him. It appeared that the last of this assistance was now entering the battlefield as fiery columns streaked across the sky. Cursing the fact his new form couldn’t excrete the pheromones of command, Hssim was forced to issue verbal instructions to his underlings.

“Drop pods incoming, take two claws of our heavy mechs to meet them,” Hssim ordered.

He never deigned to learn the names of his underlings, though he felt he could recognize the way this one handled his force. Ten of the behemoth mechs peeled away from the final attack on the enemy command post and stomped toward where Hssim estimated the drop pods would land. They would need support, depending on the type of forces that disgorged from the pods, so Hssim reinforced the heavy mechs with four claws of infantry support. The fast raptor mechs assigned to the task leaped onto the heavy mechs, but instead of using their clawed feet to dig into the prey, they sought out the hooks welded to the surface of the giant mech for just this purpose. They would ride into battle atop their larger brethren.

His main force was approaching the twin trench lines constructed to protect the opponent’s command post. Beams of energy lashed out from the enemy positions, and far too many of them latched onto his units, the twin beams of each weapon burning through enhanced armor with little effort. Had their numbers been more equal, Hssim might have been in trouble, but he would never let his opponent get that much of an advantage over him. His forces had performed to their usual perfection throughout the campaign, outmaneuvering and outfighting every effort the foe made to defend himself. Time and again, he had destroyed the enemy command posts. Time and again his claw had grasped victory.

“Leader, a secondary force is emerging from underground,” one of his units reported. As the main body of his force began to encircle and probe the enemy lines, a new force had emerged from an underground bunker just inside the distant tree line. The enemy counterattack consisted of a score of light mechs and twice their number of infantry. For any other core, this might spell disaster, but Hssim had done this for too long and had developed weapons to counter such simple tactics.

He sent a command to his support weapons team. These weapons were rarely constructed by Hssim because of their propensity to destroy both friend and foe, but his time, the long-range support weapons should have enough time to land their volleys on top of the new attackers before they closed with his main army. From inside the besieged lines of the enemy, the outgoing fire increased as the last of the reserves exited the factory complex. This would be it, the last of his foe’s resources were now depleted and he had thrown everything into this final attempt to stem the advance of Hssim’s unbeatable army.

Missiles flew from the launchers mounted back at Hssim’s command post. The support batteries were inefficient and used far too many resources for what they did, but in the right situation, they could be devastating. Each missile had consumed more resources than a heavy mech would have cost. Speed and their special payload were the reason for their cost, and the reason Hssim had only built ten of them. Beams from the enemy reached out toward the missiles and Hssim cringed as two were burned from the sky. The other eight roared over the enemy counterattack, the thin skins of the missiles bursting apart as they scattered their payload across the enemy forces.

The counterattack faltered as tiny mechs landed on and around the enemy. Plasma enhanced claws teeth bit into their targets, burning through armor with their touch. His long-range firepower consisted of units called “small teeth” by his people. One of these units only came up to the knee of an infantry raptor, but just like their living kin, the small teeth and claws were vicious when in a group. The system had granted him the weapon after one of his victories and it amused Hssim to watch the vicious little mechs go to work. They seemed to move at double the speed of any other mech, but that also was their downfall. Small teeth only functioned for a limited time, so they needed to get their damage in quickly to be effective. Once their time was up the small teeth would collapse where they stood, useless save for collecting them as salvage.

To their credit, the enemy didn’t panic, this Madrix commander was too experienced to falter in his efforts. The twin beams of the enemy infantry weapons burned his small teeth from the light mech’s first, then tried to assist each other. This close, the Madrix were insanely accurate with their beams and small teeth fell by the score, many before they could do more than scratch the surface of the light mechs. The enemy infantry mechs suffered more, but in only a short time, the last of the small teeth had been destroyed.

Despite being destroyed so quickly, his small teeth had done their work, taking half of the infantry and three of the light mechs out of the fight. More importantly, they had delayed the counterattack long enough for several claws of Hssim’s infantry to move into position. His level six infantry fired plasma bolts as they closed into melee range. The Madrix put up a respectable defense, but his units were too close and once in range, they leaped upon the enemy mechs, using their ripper jaws to tear apart the foe as plasma-enhanced claws on their feet tore through armor like paper.

The counterattack was stopped, but it had cost him his ranged support and too many of his infantry to do so. Hssim watched as the last of the enemy drop pods landed, only to find his heavy mechs standing ready to blast them apart. He was taking casualties, but Hssim had more than enough to continue his assault against the enemy command post. Before his forces could close with the first line of trenches, the enemy fled back to their second, and final, line.

Hssim held back his forces, giving the enemy time to make to make it safely to their defensive positions while his specialized infantry inspected the first line of trenches. As he suspected, several explosive devices had been placed, ones that would have done enough damage to stop his assault if he had blundered into them. Not wanting to waste more time, Hssim sacrificed his engineer units, commanding each to fire upon and detonate the devices. When the last balls of plasma from the explosives dissipated, the final assault commenced.

Madrix were masters of ranged warfare, and while Hssim’s troops were more than competent with their ranged weapons, they excelled in tearing apart the enemy up close. Horrendous casualties were taken, but once the battle became claw to claw, his forces were unstoppable. A hiss of triumph was heard over the comms channel as the last defender fell and the command post was destroyed.

Hssim knew there would be a big celebration tonight. The red feast of meat and blood would be enjoyed by his victorious troops, those that emerged from their combat pods alive, that is. Sadly, Hssim would only be able to watch, no longer possessing a body to enjoy in the gorging to come. It was small consolation, but he would enjoy a much more sedate victory feast aboard Harmony Station when his leave commenced.

Despite catering to most species, the GCA was unable or unwilling to provide live prey for him to kill and consume. The only time he had experienced that pleasure was when Hssim had feasted upon the body of the human war core. While he had faced some punishment for his actions, the effort had been worth it. For that one moment he had felt alive, he had been the predator once more, a predator that took the bloody flesh of his foe and didn’t fight with metal mockeries of his old form.

The memory of that moment was sweet, and with this latest victory under his belt, Hssim would execute the next phase of his conquest. One that would take him through the remains of a weakened foe and then into human space. It was a path that would eventually take him to the human homeworld of Earth. Once that was conquered, he would have enough reward points to finally return to his body and become a true Ssath once more. He could then partake in the great feast as the conquered humans were hunted and harvested to the last. Their world would become one for the Ssath to rule, one for a renewed Hssim to take as his own.