War Core, Chapter 36.

Chapter 36.

When they returned to the command post, the remainder of Hugh’s forces were built and ready to go, along with replacements for the casualties he had taken while securing the bonus objective. He had fifty infantry mechs, a machinegun team, eight T-7 light mechs, and four of the AI-controlled M4 Sherman medium mechs. It was an impressive force; the only question now was what the Krixnas had available to repulse his attack. The AI-controlled Sherman’s led the way. Hugh had limited control over them and was forced to use the simple attack move command designating the Krixnas core as the objective. Opening up his interface, Hugh activated the hypervelocity ammo he had acquired. One crate of ammo was allocated to the medium mechs and one to his T-7’s. As the ammo activated, a counter appeared near each unit, showing that each mech had four shots with the upgraded ammo.

A pair of enemy light mechs shadowed their force, giving Hugh a bit of concern that they might have a force hidden away, waiting for him to leave his command post unguarded before they struck. It was probably paranoia, and he needed everything he had to push the attack on the enemy core. Just in case, he had his barracks produce infantry until the remainder of his resources ran out. It would only amount to five infantry mechs, but it gave him at least a little extra firepower over the dozen garrison units left to hold down the fort.

They reached the midpoint of the zone, with no indication of any Krixnas forces. The enemy command post was visible in the distance, and like in the previous zone, they had dug a pair of trench lines to assist in its defense. As the range closed, Hugh could spot some movement along the trench line, but the distance and cover made it too difficult to gauge numbers accurately. He activated the range overlay, glad to see the main guns on the medium mechs had double the range of his T-7’s. Hopefully, the enemy didn’t have anything that could compete with their range, and he could pick off foes from a distance.

Just before they reached main gun range, one of the medium mechs halted and began to lurch to the side. A blue glow flickered over the mech as the mech’s shield fended off one of the tentacle mines that the Krixnas used. The mech to its side fired a burst from its coaxial machinegun, taking out the mine before it could burn through the shield. Hugh ordered the line to halt, allowing the mech a few seconds for its shield power to recharge. Appearing as a blue bar next to the unit in his overlay, Hugh watched as the shield energy slowly replenished. It was taking too long though, and he needed to keep moving.

Hugh continued the advance, smiling a bit when he realized the coax machinegun had fired an actual burst, not a single shot like his weapons had been doing previously. That was a huge improvement and confirmed his forces would become quite deadly as the battles expanded into higher-level engagements. It would also mean adjustments to his strategy as enemy abilities improved alongside those of his units.

Twice more, the medium mechs were attacked by mines. One of his T-7’s was a mobility kill as it stepped on one that the Sherman’s had missed. A pair of infantry were the final casualties before Hugh was free of the minefield. Whether it was a lack of resources or a lack of time, the minefield was only thinly strewn with the weapons. The sharp crack of the main guns going off drew Hugh’s attention. They were firing at a trio of Krixnas mechs that had risen from the ground to engage his advance units. The shots glowed a brighter color than normal as the hypervelocity ammo went to work.

The new Krixnas mechs were just slightly larger than his M4 medium units, telling Hugh this was what passed for a medium mech in the Krixnas army. Unlike the Frankenstein mechs he had faced earlier, these were fully operational and possessed weapons unlike any of the other Krixnas units. A pair of mortars were mounted on the rear abdomen section of the mech, and they were already lobbing plasma shells toward his forces.

Looking like scaled-up versions of their other mechs, the face tentacles of the Krixnas medium mechs didn’t wave around wildly, instead, they were placed inside a helmet-like device. Hugh could still see the individual tentacles glowing away, but they were funneling their energy through the helmet into a pair of short, barreled openings. Bright laser beams emitted from the openings; each beam was the focused power of several face tentacles.

The focused beams were more accurate than the frantic blasts of the other units, but the range was long, and only one pair of beams connected with a Sherman. Blue energy glowed briefly before the Sherman’s shield overloaded. The beams then burned into the hull, his AI-controlled units were too stupid to sidestep and try to avoid the damage, instead, they stood still and returned fire, and his return fire was just as devastating as the focused lasers of the Krixnas.

A main gun plasma shell slammed into a Krixnas mech. The enemy medium mechs didn’t seem to be shielded and the upgraded round had enough oomph to punch through the armor, exploding deep inside the enemy mech. Stumbling a few more steps on its multiple legs, the Krixnas medium mech collapsed to the ground, the hole from the main gun hit smoking as something burned inside.

The other Krixnas fired on the wounded Sherman, avenging the loss of their comrade as the Sherman melted down under the combined fire. Hugh’s other medium mechs continued to send rounds at the Krixnas, accuracy improving as the two forces closed in. A second Krixnas fell, followed closely by a second Sherman. The final Krixnas medium mech went down to a pair of main gun hits, but not before dropping the shields and severely damaging one of its attackers.

While the battle had been going on between the medium mechs, the rest of Hugh’s forces caught up with the fight, pushing toward the two trench lines even as mortar shells from the trenches and the backs of the Krixnas medium mechs landed among them. The fire was much more intense than Hugh had anticipated, and Krixnas began to pop up from the first trench line where they began to employ a new weapon system.

Heavy beams lashed out from the trench line as the Krixnas got their version of a machinegun into the fight. Mounted on a tripod was a smaller version of the helmet that the medium Krixnas mechs used. Instead of two beams, the Krixnas support weapons only had one, and while it was less powerful than the ones mounted on the medium mechs, it was deadly to any infantry or light mechs it managed to hit. The weapons were also more accurate than the normal Krixnas face weapons, taking down infantry and light mechs one after the other.

“Sir, I don’t know if we can break through that firepower,” Captain Tran said, the advance further frustrated by another minefield just in front of the first trench line.

Hugh did the math, the Krixnas had to have sixty or seventy infantry in the first trench line, and at least a couple dozen in the second that were covering the mortars firing at him. Four of the beam weapons were deployed, but as he watched, a T-7 took one out. His Sherman’s were all down, they had attracted the lion’s share of the enemy fire. There were just too many enemies, no matter how good his troops were, they weren’t going to be able to break through the defenses, but pulling back now meant a slow death of attrition as the enemy rebuilt their forces while he was now completely out of resources.

“I’ve got one more trick up my sleeve, do you see any defenders by their command post?” Hugh asked his commanders.

“There’s about a squad’s worth wandering around the command post,” Cartwright advised. It must have been their version of the garrison force. Hugh needed to draw them away from the command post for his plan to have a chance.

“We need to punch through their lines and draw their garrison into the fight,” Hugh said.

“I’d advise against that sir, to advance into their trenches is suicide, our best chance is to stay at range and try to wear them down with our more accurate fire,” Tran warned. Hugh considered his argument, his troops were better shots, but the enemy outnumbered them and were fighting from prepared defensive positions. Now was the time to disclose his Drop Beacon of the Vanquished.

“I have a new ability I can use to drop a small unit directly on top of their command post. For that to succeed, we’ll need to draw away the garrison. Without them, the forces should be able to destroy the command post on their own,” Hugh said. There was quiet, and just when Hugh was about to assume the GCA was filtering their conversation, Captain Tran replied.

“Roger that sir, we trust your leadership on this. We’ll grab their attention away from the command post,” Tran said.

“I’ll lead with my mechs, push your infantry through the gap,” Cartwright added. Hugh felt relief, his commanders had pushed back, but hadn’t tried to usurp his authority, which was something he was concerned about given the risk he was about to take. The GCA had filtered attempts to mention the drop beacon back at base, but out here on the battlefield, he was given extra flexibility for some reason.

The troops took a few moments to reorganize, then the six surviving T-7’s surged forward, guns blazing, the infantry following directly behind them as they charged toward the first trench line. Instead of attacking over a wide front, the mechs moved in a wedge only twenty-five meters wide. It concentrated their firepower, sweeping defenders from the trenches immediately in front of them, but the further they progressed, the more the enemy fire would tear them apart from the flanks.

Another T-7 went down to a mine along with a single infantry mech. The narrow front did give the advantage of reducing the number of mines in the path of their attack. As they reached the first trench line, grenades swept away the last of the defenders in front of them. Instead of occupying the trenches to reorganize for the next push, his forces just continued the assault, ignoring the fire now coming in from all directions. Mech after mech was falling to the enemy fire, but his troops were also scoring kills, most notably, on the forces in the second trench line directly in front of them.

The gap between the two trenches wasn’t seeded with mines, making the approach a bit easier, but Hugh was horrified at the losses his men were taking. As the first grenades exploded in the second trench line, the garrison force finally reacted. It turned out there were nine of them, and they moved with the lack of coordination that let Hugh know these were AI-controlled units. Not knowing how long it would take, Hugh selected the enemy command post and activated his Drop Beacon of the Vanquished. A glow appeared in front of the command post, but nothing happened at first.

He was down to two T-7’s and sixteen infantry, all of whom were taking shelter in the second trench line, their primary objective complete, but the Krixnas now surrounded them, their troops moving closer and closer with each passing second. A sonic boom shook the battlefield and what looked like a flaming meteor dropped from the sky, directly toward the marker the beacon had placed. Hugh didn’t know if the Krixnas could see the marker, or if it was showing only in his interface, but they could see the approaching meteor-like object. Krixnas began to scuttle back toward the command post once it became obvious the object was heading there.

“Keep their attention, focus fire on any Krixnas heading toward the command post!” Captain Tran shouted over the open comm channel. Captain Cartwright was off the net, the last T-7 had been brought down, cutting him from the feed. The infantry mechs rose in the trench, ignoring the closing Krixnas as they expertly shot down any enemy that tried to go toward the command post.

The ground shook as the drop pod crashed to the earth. Hugh would have thought anything inside of the teardrop-shaped metal container would have been crushed to death given the force of the impact, but when the sides of the container dropped down, seven Krixnas infantry emerged. These were showing as friendly units in his and hopefully his soldiers’ interface. Wasting no time, the allied Krixnas began to shoot and tear at the command post. The building had been partially damaged by the crashing drop pod, an added bonus of the powerful ability Hugh had purchased.

The entire Krixnas force ignored Hugh’s troops and now tried to reach the command post and the attackers that were tearing it apart. If the appearance of units exactly like their own shocked them in any way, the Krixnas didn’t seem to care. His own forces were now free to reap a terrible harvest on the Krixnas, who gave up all thoughts of defending themselves as they charged to save their command post.

“It’s an old-fashioned turkey shoot boys, rack up the kills,” Sergeant Landry shouted. Hugh was glad to see his mech was still in the fight, leading the efforts of the eleven units that were still functional. The Krixnas were falling in droves as even the mortar crews joined in the rush to defend the command post. Hugh figured they had around forty or fifty surviving Krixnas, but the numbers were dropping fast as his troops serviced targets like it was a pleasant day at the range. Hugh had counted on this, damage to the command post inflicted horrible pain on the war core, and his opponent shouldn’t be able to do much more than shout for help.

The drop pod forces ignored the incoming Krixnas and their fire. Luckily, the drop pod protected them from some of the incoming fire, allowing them more time to tear into the enemy command post. The damage looked extensive, but the defenders were closing in. As the enemy got closer, Hugh’s forces exited the trench charging forward while still firing into the backs of the Krixnas, whose numbers were now down to just under thirty.

A pair of his drop pod troops were cut down by the inaccurate face tentacle fire. Another falling as the main body of enemy troops reached them. Continuing to damage the command post for as long as they could, his drop pod troops didn’t even try to defend themselves as the Krixnas tore them apart. They had almost done it, but despite the holes ripped in its structure, the building was still functional. It was then that a fresh string of plasma explosions erupted among the massed enemy. They had foolishly piled onto the drop pod forces, ignoring any tactics as they tried to prevent losing the battle to Hugh’s new trick.

Rifle fire tore into the surviving Krixnas as a few more plasma blasts from the last of the grenades added to the carnage. The thirty or so Krixnas that had reached the command post, less than a dozen remained. They tried futilely to engage fire Hugh’s troops, but he now had the advantage. The remaining Krixnas troops were operating strangely, just like AI-controlled units did, leaving Hugh to wonder if they had sub-commanders to help out like he had Captain Tran and the others.

His men took out the last Krixnas, turning their weapons on the damaged command post. A final Krixnas mech emerged from the barracks, but the fight was over before it could even do anything, a very welcome prompt appearing as Hugh watched the enemy command post collapse in upon itself.

Congratulations, you have emerged victorious in the first phase of the battle for system es1423. You have one of two victories needed to defend this system from the Krixnas invasion. War core post-battle calculations are commencing.

Reward point calculations:

Base reward, 25 points.

Victory bonus, 100 points.

Extended battle length bonus, 50 points.

Observation bonus, 25 points.

Total points awarded, 200.

War core termination calculation:

Base chance for termination: .0001%.

Victory Bonus Chance: Active.

Failure Penalty: None.

Multiple loss penalty: None.

Effectiveness rating: Above average.

Observer rating: Average.

Bonuses to survivability: Victory enhancement active.

Combat Pod lethality: Reduced lethality active.

Please note that all allocated reward points have been used to reduce the debt on your loan.

Major Hugh Logan, War core, Tier 2.

Reward Points, (-265/1000).

Congratulations, you have received a random victory bonus which grants you an additional minor perk. Please make your selection within twenty-four hours or before your next battle begins, whichever occurs first.

He was still in the hole as far as reward points went, but it was at least moving in the right direction. Hugh waited as his core flew through space on its way back to Earth. He didn’t know how long he had until his next battle, the Krixnas core had to be frustrated. Would his opponent’s frustration manifest as a rush to battle, or more time to calculate his strategy? The familiar and very welcome sight of Earth greeted Hugh as he headed toward the oil pier just off the coast of California where his core was housed. There was the typical momentary disorientation of returning home, but once that abated, it was time to get back to work.