War Core, Chapter 27.

Chapter 27.

Hugh wasn’t sure what to do next, he didn’t feel comfortable jumping into any of the games. The entry fee would eat into his few remaining points, and he had a good idea that the results would be embarrassing given his inexperience. He left the restaurant, a bit sad that he was full, the act of eating made him feel human. A less pleasant reminder of his humanity was the need to use the restroom. Just outside the restaurant, Hugh stopped and looked around for one. Opening his interface, Hugh found there wasn’t anything like a public restroom and he would need to go back to the old hospital room he’d arrived in. He supposed it made sense that they wouldn’t have public restrooms, after all, given the hundreds of different species on the station, there was likely no way to account for all of them in a single restroom that would take up valuable space. Incorporating them into the arrival chambers that were already setup for that particular race was the logical option.

“Move, lesser creature, or be moved,” A voice screeched out at Hugh, causing him to jump. He had been too focused on his interface and didn’t notice the seven-foot-tall dinosaur looking creature barreling down on him. In his shock, Hugh just stood there, which seemed to enrage the creature.

“Oh, sorry, didn’t see you coming,” Hugh mumbled trying to get out of the angry dino’s way. It looked like an oversized version of a velociraptor, but more lizard-like and without any of the bird features the creatures from earth had.

“Don’t you dare speak to one of the Ssath, face the penalty for your presumption,” the dino guy shouted, leaping at Hugh with claws outstretched. The impact knocked Hugh over, and a second later, the pain hit.

“No,” was all Hugh was able to feebly reply, looking down to see his insides spilling out over the floor of the station. His vision dimmed and the last image he saw was the Ssath creature tearing strips of flesh from his body and swallowing them down.

Things went dark, but Hugh could still think, but his mind was no longer in the body the GCA had built for him. The pain was thankfully gone as well. His clock was also gone, and he couldn’t tell how long had passed since the attack by the Ssath. Valery had warned him the place wasn’t exactly safe, but he hadn’t thought there was a danger of being eaten right in the middle of a public area by a dinosaur guy. His thoughts were interrupted by system prompts.

Your physical form has been destroyed; combat among the physical war cores is prohibited. An investigation into the matter is commencing.

Investigation complete. No hostility was instigated on your part, but inattention, and a failure to promptly mitigate the conflict will be considered for the final adjudication.

The Ssath known as Warmaster Hssim assaulted the Human known as Major Hugh Logan without true cause. Hugh lacked situation awareness and failed to avoid conflict with the Ssath. Hssim is judged to be 90% at fault for the incident. A total of 5% of the liability is judged to be based on cultural difference and will not be included in the calculation. Hugh will accept negligent responsibility of 5% for this illegal incident.

Penalty and renumerations will occur as follows.

Hssim will pay the primarily affected party a penalty of 200 reward points. The penalty will be offset by 10% to account for both Hugh’s negligence, and cultural misunderstanding. Hugh has been awarded a total of 180 reward points. Hssim’s leave will be terminated, and he will be placed back into his core immediately.

Major Hugh Logan will be reconstituted and allowed to participate in the remainder of his leave. Due to his partial negligence, Hugh will not be reimbursed for the time his reconstruction takes. Remember to adhere to section 123.23.a.44 of the War Core behavior guide. No personal combat is allowed on station at any time. This judgement is final and there is no option to appeal.

Wow, that was, unexpected. Hugh waited for his body to be rebuilt, wishing he had a clock right now to see how much of his leave was being taken up by the reconstruction. He knew there were all kinds of aliens on the station, but he didn’t exactly expect murderous and hungry ones to be prowling about. Hugh would have to ask back home where the Ssath section of space was and if they ever fought against the human cores. While he was still new, Hugh wouldn’t mind a chance at some payback. Until then, he would have to just enjoy the fact that the little incident had netted him another one hundred and eighty reward points, even if he did have to be killed and eaten to get them.

Light blinded him as his eyes adjusted, Hugh found himself back in the same hospital room as before. After fumbling around a bit until his new body was calibrated with his brain, Hugh dressed himself and checked his remaining time. It wasn’t good, the reconstruction had taken a while and he only had two hours left. What should he do now? He was a little reluctant to leave, worried something else might be hankering for a bite or two of human meat.

Not letting his apprehension control him, Hugh forced himself out of the room and down the corridor leading to the station proper. With two hours left, the first thing he intended to do was enjoy a last meal and then maybe do some window shopping. He didn’t have time to get into a core trial and didn’t want to participate in any of the competitive games just yet. With a wary eye, Hugh returned to what he now though of as “his” restaurant. This time, taking a page from Valery, he ordered a meat lovers pizza and a root beer to go with it. The meal reminded him of an old hole in the wall pizza place he used to frequent in high school.

It didn’t take long to eat, his new body had woken up hungry, leaving Hugh some time to shop. The shopping level was just like it had been earlier, but this time, Hugh passed by the closer shops, choosing to peruse the more out of the way places in a search for any unique offerings. A few others seemed to have the same idea, as a smattering of cores wandered through the area. It wasn’t until the fifth shop that he visited, that Hugh found something noteworthy. The item was expensive, but it might just be too good to pass up.

Drop Beacon of the Vanquished. This unique upgrade to your command allows you to call a force of AI controlled mechs down at any point within view of one of your units. The forces called in will be randomly selected from units that your previous foes have used. To be included in the random unit pool, a race must have been previous defeated by you in battle. The units will vary in quantity and quality based on the level of your command post. This item can only be used once per battle and requires an airfield for it to function. The upgrade will automatically be included on your command post once it has reached level three. The purchase price for this item is 750 reward points.

*Note, this is a unique upgrade and once purchased by a War Core, will no longer be offered for sale.

Hugh wanted that beacon, badly. It would be a powerful addition to his forces in just about any battle other than something low-level where he didn’t have an airfield. To drop a force of attackers on the head of the enemy at any time would be devastating. He wasn’t sure how many units would drop down, or the quality of those units, but even the distraction factor alone would be worth it. Sadly, he didn’t have the funds causing Hugh to hit the purchase button several times out of frustration.

Insufficient reward points available. Credit has been offered to complete this purchase. If you choose to accept this offer, the price of the upgrade will be raised to 1000 reward points. Hit the purchase button again to accept the terms of the loan.

Woah, this was new. He could still buy the item but would have to go into debt to do so. Everything he had heard from Valery told him to not spend his money foolishly, but this was a unique find and he would never have the opportunity again. Not being a complete idiot, Hugh read the fine print, but there wasn’t anything waiting there to bite him. The only negative was the price increase which amounted to pre-paying the interest on the loan. Buying it would also make sure it didn’t fall into the hands of one of his foes. Not quite sure if he was making a mistake, but also not wanting to miss out on a powerful upgrade to his core, Hugh hit the purchase button again.

You have purchased the Drop Beacon of the Vanquished. It will be available in any battle once the requirements are meant.

A debt has been incurred; any reward points you earn must first be used to pay the negative balance.

Current reward point balance: -465.

There it was, a negative balance. How many battles would he have to win to dig himself out of that hole? It was done and buyer’s remorse wouldn’t help anything. At least he knew the cost upfront. A credit card would have done some arcane calculation to add interest each month, with the GCA they told you how much everything would cost more up front and that was it. Valery hadn’t mentioned you could go into debt, but it might have been restricted information, or something just offered for unique items. To test his theory, Hugh tried to buy another crate of ammo, but this time, there was just the insufficient funds prompt and no option to borrow further.

By the time he completed the purchase, only forty-five minutes were remaining on his leave. Hugh made his way back to the restaurant; thankful he had purchased the meal plan earlier, given his lack of funds. He was still full, but since the body was about to be destroyed anyway, opted for a chili dog and fries.

“Have fun cleaning up the mess of reprocessing my body after that one, GCA,” Hugh said to himself. Of course, it wasn’t a member of the GCA that cleaned the War Core machines, it was done automatically, but a man could dream. Wandering around and looking at the various races was exciting, but at ten minutes remaining a warning prompt appeared in his vision, telling him to report back to the hospital room. The penalty for not reporting on time would lead to him being banned for the next three leave passes. Warnings of harsher punishments for further offenses, made the decision to return somewhat easier.

“Well body, I’ll be back soon, and someday it’ll be for good,” Hugh told himself as he laid on the hospital table. The table retracted slowly into the core, no need to climb into a cramped hatch for this version of the machine. Sweat beaded his brow as the straps constricted over his body. This time, there wasn’t any pain as his mind was pulled into the War Core almost instantly. That didn’t necessarily make the process any easier, serving as a final reminder that he wasn’t fully human anymore.

We hope you have enjoyed your stay on Harmony Station. The GCA looks forward to welcoming you back again in the future. You will now be returned to the War Core residence of record.

With that, Hugh felt himself fly across the galaxy. Instead of being awed by the majesty of the universe around him, Hugh felt melancholy. There was hope that he could recover his body at some point, but the mountain he had to climb in order to do so seemed insurmountable. One and a half million reward points were required. How may battles did that represent?

An old military history story popped into his mind, a story about the American heavy bomber pilots in World War 2. The life expectancy of a bomber and her crew in the early part of the war was somewhere between 8-12 missions. With morale dropping among the crews as they saw their job being a death sentence, a new program was instituted. Any crew that could complete twenty-five missions would be pulled from combat operations. They had a goal to hit, and the mere fact there was a light at the end of the tunnel helped improve morale. As crews and their planes began to reach their goals, they would often rotate home on publicity tours. Hugh had his own goal now, one that would likely take more than twenty-five missions, but one he was determined to reach.

Earth appeared in the distance, and Hugh could feel himself drawn back to his home world. He was hurtling toward that small oil platform off the California coast, and just as he hit the water, Hugh could feel his mind link with the War Core below. As he settled in, an announcement was heard over the base intercom.

“Let’s all welcome Major Logan back from his first victorious campaign, well done soldier,” Admiral Nix said. Hugh was surprised to hear clapping and cheering throughout the base. His vision returned and could see soldiers standing next to their combat pods, cheering. They were cheering for him and Hugh wasn’t sure what to feel. He had figured that many of the soldiers would be angry at him for the various mistakes he had made, but instead, their approval looked genuine.

“Did you want to say a few words, Major?” Admiral Nix asked over direct comm to his core.

“I’m not one for speeches, but sure,” Hugh replied. He was linked into the station-wide comm channel. It was silly, but he felt a bit nervous, like standing up in front of the class as a child.

“Thank you all, I appreciate your support, but don’t cheer for me, cheer for yourselves. This is our victory, and make no mistake, it took all of us to win against the Krixnas. I’ve made many mistakes, but we won, not so much from my skill, but from yours. The Krixnas are deadly, but nothing is deadlier than a trained human soldier with a weapon in their hand. Whether that weapon is a rifle, or a mech controlled by a combat pod, we have the deadliest warriors in the galaxy and before we’re done, aliens will think long and hard before deciding to mess with Earth. Well done soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, and even the coasties that might be hiding out there. It’s an honor to lead you into battle,” Hugh said.

“Well said Hugh, I know this was a bit over the top, but troops insisted. We needed a win, we needed one badly, and you delivered. Well done soldier,” Admiral Nix said. “Take a moment then join the rest of us in the conference room, we have work to do.”

The admiral was right, they had work to do and just maybe, the next battles wouldn’t start until after he had time to consult with his team. Hugh needed to get better at his job, he needed to do it for those men and women out there that who had just cheering for him. They risked everything to fight, to follow his orders, and Hugh was more determined than ever to make sure he did the best he could to keep them alive.