War Core, Chapter 32.

Chapter 32.

By the time the last of Hugh’s light mechs walked off the assembly line, he had a hundred and twelve resources remaining. His drones and picked clean the debris fields and there was nothing else in this little valley for them to exploit. The question now became whether he should focus on upgrades or on expanding his forces. He really wanted the secondary machinegun for the light mechs but doing that would eat up all his resources to only unlock the upgrade and not leave him enough to refit his existing mechs. Instead, Hugh decided to boost his infantry performance, going with the heavy barrel and improve heat sink mechanism. That left only twelve resources remaining, enough to at least print up some replacement grenades if needed.

“Major Logan, the armor has arrived,” Captain Cartwright said, the leader of his armor forces taking control of the first mech to activate.

“Welcome to the fight, Captain Cartwright. We’re in a checkpoint assault fight and we’ve just completed the first stage of the battle and are moving toward what we think is the path leading toward the second stage. We have one platoon of infantry, a machinegun team, and your platoon of four light mechs at our disposal,” Hugh advised.

“Got it, sir, we’ll be ready to go momentarily once all my soldiers are connected,” Cartwright advised.

While he waited, Hugh considered the option of scrapping some of his construction drones, he needed the numbers to gather up the scattered debris, but now that the task was complete, he really didn’t need more drones to try and protect. Scrapping a single drone netted him two resources, not a bad return given their low cost to produce. He kept one squad of drones active and scrapped the other four. That gave him enough resources to add the basic targeting package to his infantry. With only two resources remaining, it was time to move on and find out what stage two of this strange battle would require.

Hugh gathered his troops and ordered everything except for a single drone to move toward the newly discovered pathway. Leaving behind a single drone might give him the chance to continue construction if the enemy got lucky and all his other drones were somehow lost in the fight. The forces were arranged with a squad of infantry supported by a light mech in the lead, a squad assigned to each flank and the rest arranged around his vulnerable construction drones. He wasn’t sure what to expect when the first infantry mech reached the pass through the mountains and a new prompt appeared.

Warning. One of your units is about to leave the zone. Once a unit leaves this area, you have five minutes to complete the withdrawal of all your forces. Once a unit leaves, there will be no option to return, and any units that do not make it to the next stage within the time window will be lost. Make sure you’ve built all the units and purchased all the upgrades you intend to purchase before leaving. While you will lose the use of any buildings once you pass through, any upgrades purchased will persist through the entire battle, as will any remaining resources.

The soldier who had stepped into the pathway quickly turned around and returned before the countdown could start. It looked like leaving behind a construction drone wasn’t going to be a viable option, so Hugh ordered it to hurry up and join its fellows. With one final look about, Hugh saw no reason to remain behind. He ordered his forces up the narrow pass, really hoping that there no ambushes along the way.

While the Krixnas didn’t ambush him, something else did. Near the mountain peak, the path narrowed further, a quick shout and cursing was heard over the open comm channel. Moving his view around the long, strung-out column of troops Hugh saw one of the infantry mechs at the end of the formation being dragged into a small cave that had opened in the side of the mountain. The stony arm that grabbed him, crushed the soldier’s mech, disconnecting him from the fight.

“Anyone see what happened?” Hugh asked.

“I did, sir, that cave appeared like magic and some rock giant looking guy stepped out and grabbed the trooper in the back of the formation. I can’t see him, but I can hear the monster rooting around in there,” A soldier replied.

“Want me to toss a couple of frags in there and clear that thing out?” Tran asked. Hugh considered it, there might even be some rewards inside. No, everything they found wouldn’t be beneficial. Of all the options available to him, sending troops into a dark unmapped tunnel filled with rock creatures seemed a bad use of resources.

“No, we continue on, we’ll have enough on our hands with the Krixnas, I don’t want to lose forces fighting stuff in a cave that has no bearing on our mission,” Hugh ordered. The other officers said a few words to remind the troops to stay on their toes. These were good soldiers, but even good soldiers could lose their edge after marching for so long on a winding trail. As they crested the peak, the second stage notification was received.

The second stage of the battle for control of es1423 is initiated. For this stage the aggressor must successfully make it to the objective marker at the northern end of the zone. Beware of hostile indigenous life forms that have be roused by your presence.

Hugh looked down the mountainside. The trail on this side widened out and was less steep than the narrow passage up. At the foot of the mountains, a canyon wound its way through the zone, the steep vertical walls were impassable to his forces. There would be no fancy maneuver here, just a march down what looked like perfect chokepoint to bottle up his forces. They were once again in what he considered the south of the zone, the end of the canyon was far to the north, but the canyon wasn’t a straight shot and zig zagged all over the place on its way to the finish line.

With a squad of infantry leading the way, Hugh’s mechs descended into the canyon. There was no vegetation in this area, just reddish-brown rock and dirt that reminded Hugh of parts of the Southwestern United States. The ground and the walls of the canyon were irregular, occasional large rocks would require his troops to scramble over or squeeze around. His units were level three, but mechs weren’t known for their agility. The column came to a halt just as they started out into the canyon.

“What’s up soldier?” Hugh asked the infantry mech at the front of the column, who had called the halt.

“They might have fooled us once, but not this time. Take a look at the canyon wall where my weapon is pointed,” the soldier said. Hugh looked at the area he was indicating. The rough eastern wall of the canyon seemed normal enough at first, but upon closer inspection, Hugh could see there was a gap around large section of it, the area suspiciously looking like a passageway that had been purposefully blocked with a stone to disguise an entrance.

“I see it, any suggestions?” Hugh asked. He relied on his own knowledge and that of his officers, but often, the grunt on the ground had the best solution.

“I bet that as soon as we approach, another giant thing is going to grab someone. Why don’t we ruin his day first, before he ruins ours? Let’s have a couple of soldiers flank the opening, then have one of the light mechs pelt the rock with their fifty cal. Once the giant moves the rock to try and grab the light mech, the soldiers at the opening toss in a pair of plasma grenades.

“I don’t have anything better, make it happen soldier,” Hugh ordered.

A pair of infantry moved forward, making way more noise than Hugh would have liked as they approached the hidden cave opening. The noise they made wasn’t enough to rouse whatever was inside, and the pair pressed up against the wall of the canyon, flanking where the opening would appear. A light mech then stomped forward, making more noise than usual. Shots began to hammer out of its main weapon, each plasma bolt chipping and melting away a small section of rock, but more importantly, it made a lot of noise while doing so.

Almost instantly, the rock covering the cave slid open like a garage door, the damage from the light mechs’ main gun had chipped away part of the rocky façade, revealing that it was there to hide the metal door it was bonded to. Inside the entrance one of the rock giants stood, the monster was nearly twelve feet tall, and its oversized fist was already lashing out at his light mech. The pair of infantry were momentarily stunned by the speed of the attack, despite anticipating it would happen. They recovered quickly and lobbed their pair of plasma grenades at the monster even as the light mech tried to back away, its fifty-caliber main gun opening up on the rock giant as it did so.

A pair of bright blue plasma blasts announced the grenades going off right at the same time the giant’s hand grabbed the mech and began to drag it toward the opening. Rock blasted from the creature as the explosions at its feet released their energy. Hot plasma burned deep into the stone; the monster silent as it collapsed dead to the cave floor. The light mech tottered over and landed on its side, the swipe by the giant had damaged one of its legs. Captain Tran ordered the rest of the infantry squad to join the two at the entrance, their weapons covering the dark opening, more grenades ready to go if needed.

“Can I get some repairs, sir?” Captain Cartwright asked, he had been piloting the damaged light mech.

“I only have a couple of resource points, but we’ll see if that’s enough to get you back on your feet. It turned out it was, a single support strut needed to be replaced. The mech wasn’t a hundred percent, but it could still move and fight.

“Take a look at that, sir,” Captain Tran said, indicating the rock giant.

Under the veneer of stone, it looked like a simple metal frame had been built, partially melted from the plasma blasts. Green smoke leaked from what Hugh assumed was the power supply for the unit, making him glad his troops weren’t physically here, who knew what toxins that thing was leaking out. The oddest part was at the center of the giant, Inside the center framework was a humanoid creature. The thing was smaller than a human and clothed in a set of metallic overalls with wires and tubes connecting it to the rock giant suit it wore.

“Some kind of primitive mech, one that takes a live operator inside for it to function,” Sergeant Landry offered. The creature was dead, and this brought up a whole lot of questions for Hugh. This world was normally lifeless, so were these strange humanoids brough here somehow, or did the GCA just print up bodies for them on site? Were they self-aware and intelligent, or just some kind of meat-based machine? Whatever their origin, they were attacking his soldiers, and while his soldiers may not be inside the actual mechs they were operating, they still had a chance of dying out here.

“Whatever they are, they better learn to back off if they want to live. Sergeant Landry, take a squad in a short way and see what the cave has to offer. Don’t go too far, and if there’s any sign of trouble, head back. Everyone else form up a defense while we wait,” Hugh ordered.

“Are you sure you want to risk it?” Captain Tran said over a private channel.

“Yes, when it was just some monster living in a cave, I was fine with bypassing them, but these aliens are organized and intelligent, I’d rather not have a hundred rock giant mechs showing up behind us while we tangle with the Krixnas,” Hugh replied. The officers set up as good a defense as they could in the narrow canyon. Given the tight confines of their battlefield, Hugh was glad to have gone with upgrades instead of more units. A larger force would have just clogged up the canyon more, since only a few could be on the front lines at any time.

“I’ve got some light ahead,” Sergeant Landry said. Hugh watched as the cave they were in changed the further they went. The rough-hewn natural cavern giving way to purpose-built tunnels, reinforced with bracing and with light fixtures at regular intervals. His troops halted, a bit further in, going prone as they spotted a larger chamber, and movement, ahead. The large chamber was the size of a warehouse. Inside were three more of the rock giant mech suits, as well as a dozen or so of the humanoids trying to prepare them for battle.

“They’re ugly, but not too different from us,” Captain Tran said, monitoring the feed.

The humanoids were about five feet tall on average and had only a small torso. Their arms and legs were elongated, with the hands having six fingers each. Their faces were flat, with only a slit in the middle where the nose would be. A peach fuzz of fur covered their head and face, which featured an oversized pair of eyes, likely designed to see better in the dim caverns. Four of the humanoids wore the metallic coveralls with the attachment points on them indicating that they were likely the pilots of these mechs. The others wore a generic beige coveralls and had tool belts on, the tech support for the combat units. They moved with the somewhat jerky and uncoordinated movements of an AI controlled mech, reinforcing the possibility these were just printed up bodies being driven by the GCA.

“Sir, if you want to do something about them, I suggest you do it quick. It looks like the pilots are about to mount up,” Landry advised. One was already starting to climb into his mech, the others moving in that direction.

“Give them a bad day sergeant, they started this fight,” Hugh said. It was a bit strange ordering his units to attack living, breathing creatures, but all the evidence pointed to them being a flesh-based machine, not real individuals.

“Assigning targets, engage on my shot,” Landry called to his men, the wider passageway allowed seven of them a clear shot. After only a moments pause, Sergeant Landry’s shot rang out, the strange sound of the plasma weapons echoing in the chamber. The shot was a good one, the pilot that had climbed into his mech was hit right in the middle of his head. Whatever differences these aliens had from humans, they kept something important in their noggin, just like we did.

The other shots from the squad fired only a moment after the sergeant, their accuracy just as good as their commander. Seven enemy were down, including all the pilots. Giving off a high-pitched shriek, the remaining techs ran toward their tool chests, falling to the second round of shots before they did whatever it was that they were trying to do. Sergeant Landry moved his squad into the chamber, using what cover they could find as they swept it for any holdouts.

There was a large, rectangular machine in the center of the chamber, with six large cables leading off from it. If Hugh had to guess, it was some form of power supply for the rock giants stationed there. If so, he could count on six opponents. Given the three in here and the one they took out to get into the cave complex, that left at least two more for his forces to deal with.

“I’ve got a passageway to the east,” one of the soldiers called out.

“One north and south as well,” another added. The cavern looked like a staging area; Hugh figured that the passageways ended at more ambush points that opened into the canyon itself.

“These passages might actually be a safer route toward our objective. It looks like these creeps are dialed in to defend the canyon, if any are left, I doubt they would expect us to show up behind them. Any opinions?” Hugh asked his officers. The lack of responses told him their advice was being filtered for some reason. Was there a flaw to his suggestion that Hugh wasn’t seeing? Was the GCA just messing with him to get him to doubt his plan? There was no way to know for sure, and the one thing he did know was that all the defenses, at least from these so-called indigenous forces, seemed to be focused on the canyon.

“I think we risk it, scout out each tunnel to make sure we’re not leaving any hostiles behind us, and then keep heading north toward our objective. Scouts were sent out in pairs down each of the tunnels, while the rest of his forces waited here in the large chamber.