War Core, Chapter 18.

Chapter 18.

“Here’s what we’re going to do. I need a section of five infantry mechs covering the west. The rest of our forces will crush the eastern force then move to support the west,” Hugh ordered. He didn’t have time for it now, but with his forces growing larger in each battle, there was a need to standardize unit sizes at some point. While he had the time, Hugh assigned any newly produced units to assist with the holding action to the west. New arrivals would take position in the final trench line, supporting the others and, hopefully, slowing the assault on that side long enough for the other force to win its fight and join them.

Before the actual fighting got underway, Hugh pulled his drones off the beach to prevent them from getting caught in the crossfire. There were only a few crates remaining near his base, so most of the drones would be idle during the fight. A steady stream of resources would be critical in the long run, so Hugh took the risk and sent the other drone squads to the north and south to gather salvage in an area that he felt should be far enough away from the fighting.

With his housekeeping sorted, Hugh watched his commanders maneuver their forces. His units had been spread out along the island perimeter to keep watch for the attack, and it took them a minute or so to move into their assigned positions. The infantry set up inside the second trench line, halfway up the slope. This would keep his infantry out of range of the weapons on the enemy landing craft. His two T-7 worked their way down to the first line of defense, ready to engage at long range and then fall back toward the second line if the fire became too intense.

By the time the T-7’s were in position, the enemy landing craft were in range of their guns. The fifty caliber guns on the light mechs began chugging out their heavy, plasma-enhanced rounds. Rates of fire seemed to be slightly improved over the tier one versions of the T-7’s, still nowhere close to full auto like he wanted from the heavy machine gun caliber weapons. Also, the mechs moved more smoothly as the operators kept them stalking around the beach in a random pattern to throw off the Krixnas gunners.

The first rounds were close, but off-target, the gunners quickly adjusted, and hits were made on the first landing craft. Captain Cartwright had selected a single target for both mechs, and this tactic was proving to be a sound one. Hugh could hear the impact as the first hits started to register on the targeted craft. Both rounds penetrated and after the following volley, a large section of the front armor on the worm-like craft buckled. Movement could be seen inside the craft as the following rounds slammed into the tightly packed assault force. After a few more shots, the mechs shifted targets and began to pummel a second landing craft.

Looking back on the western assault, the Krixnas were nearing the beach. The landing craft had nothing to shoot at, and his thin line of defenders wouldn’t be in range until the enemy approached as far as the first trench line. Over in the east, his T-7’s began to work their way back as the enemy reached the beach. Two of the landing craft were heavily damaged from the light mech’s fire, but the other four were still in the fight, trying to land hits on T-7’s. The weapons on the landing craft were great for lobbing shots onto a fortified position but lousy at trying hit the rapidly shifting targets his mechs presented.

One of the damaged craft wallowed in the surf, too damaged to make the final approach as it slowly drifted back out into the ocean. The other craft that had been targeted on approach was able to drag itself onto the beach and a pair of battle-damaged Krixnas infantry stumbled from the smoking craft to join the ones forming up for the assault. The attackers wasted little time on the beach and immediately began to swarm toward the defenders in the second trench line.

The T-7s were able to keep out of range of the Krixnas infantry weapons as they fell back toward the second trench line, firing whenever they could. By the time the assault force was within range of the second line, they had been whittled down to twenty-six. The first volley of infantry fire slammed into the Krixnas as they reached the empty trenches of the first line of defense. Single-minded as usual, the enemy ignored their mounting casualties and continued their assault.

“The west is in trouble; can you shift the light mechs over to assist?” Tran asked. Hugh looked over and saw the five defenders in the second trench line were about to be overrun. Without any fire to delay their landing, the enemy had moved further up than those on the eastern front.

“Good call, I’m sending them to help out now,” Hugh replied, shifting them over in his defensive plan. Cartwright wasted no time and marched both his mechs toward the top of the hill to support the final defense line. Back in the east, a line of plasma explosions rippled through the remaining Krixnas as his defenders launched their first grenades. Only a half dozen enemy infantry survived, and his forces were gunning them down as he watched.

“I’ll mop up the last of these in the east, then head over to support the other flank,” Tran advised. Hugh saw a notification flash that he hadn’t seen before.

Construction drone is under attack.

Over in the west, the enemy force had spread out as they overran the defenders in the second trench line. A few of the Krixnas had come into range of his drones that were gathering salvage on the northern beach. A pair of drones to the north and another drone on the south beach had been hit by lasers and were out of commission. Not wanting to lose any more of his construction drones, Hugh pulled them back to the command post to wait out the rest of the battle.

His thin line of five defenders that had held the second trench line in the west were trying to fall back. Sadly, it looked like his infantry was too slow to outpace the multi-legged Krixnas and his troops were taken down one by one. They didn’t go down alone, and the initial attack force had been whittled down from forty-eight, to thirty-five by the gunfire and grenades of his defenders.

The only thing between the Krixnas and his command post was the final defensive line that was occupied by a lonely looking pair of infantry mechs that had been built during the battle. His light mechs were just arriving as one of the infantry was taken out by a lucky laser blast form a Krixnas tentacle. The remaining soldier threw both his grenades as the enemy rolled over the trench line.

Wasting little time on the last defender in their way, the enemy pushed toward Hugh’s structures, pausing only when the two T-7’s stomped into view, guns blazing. Each of his light mechs picked off a pair of the enemy as they closed in, giving up their long-range advantage to keep the attackers away from the critical structures. The Krixnas closed the distance, laser blasts burning deep into the light mech armor as they closed to grapple.

Round after round of fifty caliber destruction was dished out, but the rate of fire was too slow to stop the advance. The first of the enemy infantry began to skitter up the legs of Hugh’s light mechs, tentacles glowing as they sought to melt through the thin armor that protected their prey. Unable to depress their guns enough to engage the attackers directly, the T-7’s instead focused on the enemy attacking their comrades, attempting to pick off the attackers clinging to the legs and hull of the other mech.

Within a matter of moments, both of the T-7’s stumbled to the ground as critical components in their legs were destroyed by the strange Krixnas weaponry. Another unwelcome announcement flashed as Hugh watched the surviving infantry from the eastern assault finish off the last attacker on that side and move to help defend his command post.

The Krixnas War Core has defeated the second assault wave, the next attack will begin in 20 minutes.

His opponent had fought off the attack and the clock was ticking on the next wave. It was looking questionable that Hugh would survive the current wave, let alone have time to prepare for the next. Another infantry mech stepped off the assembly line and straight into the waiting tentacles of the enemy, buying his other forces a few more precious seconds with its destruction. Pain flared in Hugh as the Krixnas survivors began to focus on his command post. Lasers and glowing tentacles burned their way through his walls. Construction drones tried to patch the damage only to be cut down by the attackers. The pain was building, and concentration became difficult as a fresh wave of agony landed along with a string of explosions among the attacking Krixnas.

“Sorry for the friendly fire sir, but I had to get those things off the building,” Tran said as plasma explosions blossomed among the Krixnas attacking his command post. The surviving thirteen infantry mechs from the east joined the fight and their final wave of grenades had torn into the Krixnas ranks as well as into Hugh’s command post, adding to his misery but, finally, turning the tide of battle in their favor. A dozen enemies survived and remained focused on killing the command post, not destroying the defenders. Hugh suffered more damage and lost more drones as the last Krixnas was picked off by precision fire from Tran’s infantry.

The Human War Core has defeated the second assault wave, 17 minutes remaining until the next wave.

Hugh was useless for the next few minutes as the remaining drones repaired his command post. As the damage was fixed, the pain receded, and his concentration returned. Thankfully, his settings for construction ensured that replacements for his losses were being built, even though he was out of commission. Hugh only had seven drones operating and left two to finish his repairs while the other five would begin to gather resources. With the fight begin so close, a lot of the salvage was concentrated around the command post which should speed up his gathering time, despite the limited number of operational drones.

“Sir, are you okay? Tran asked.

“Yes, captain, the pain’s slowly going away and I’m working on building our forces back up,” Hugh replied.

“We’ll need it, only thirteen minutes to go, sir. How do you want us deployed for the next fight?” Tran asked. It was a good question. He now had sixteen infantry with more on the way and the first of the replacement T-7’s would finish up its construction in the next thirty seconds. The trench lines were complete, and he had just under 200 resources to work with.

“We are going to be limited in the number of defenders again for this wave, I’m going to invest some of the resources I’ve gathered into upgrading our fortifications. We’ll improve the final defensive line first and man that for the next assault. That way, we can shift our defenders quickly to any hot spots. I don’t like how the enemy was able to break through and threaten the command post, so we’ll tighten up our lines for now. With better protection in place, we may be able to preserve a larger force to fight off the following waves,” Hugh offered. There was a long pause before Tran answered, leaving him to believe something had been edited out by the GCA.

“Good call sir. For now, I’ll spread my troops around the final line of defense,” Tran replied. Replacements for both the combat forces and the drones were building up at a steady pace. Hugh paused to watch the drones’ progress on the upgraded fortification, curious what they would look like, only to remember that he hadn’t fully explored any new upgrades that might have been unlocked after the machine shop was built.

Before the last wave, he had only enough time to review the command post upgrades. Pulling up the command post tab, he confirmed the level two fortifications were the only new upgrade there. Selecting the light mech factory next, he discovered a new upgrade had been waiting for him.

Turret Mounted Secondary Armament. The T-7 mech will be upgraded to include a secondary .30 caliber weapon coaxially mounted next to the main gun. While less powerful and shorter ranged than the main armament, the secondary weapon has a higher rate of fire, making it effective against soft targets at short range. The cost to unlock the secondary armament is 100 resources. Build cost for a T-7 with a secondary weapon is increased to 30 resources. When this upgrade is activated, existing units will be upgraded by your construction drones at a cost of 5 resources per unit.

This was just the sort of thing Hugh had been hoping for, the secondary weapons should be just the ticket against the swarming Krixnas. He almost had enough resources to but the upgrade but held off until he had a chance to look at everything. With another upgrade showing in the barracks tab, Hugh was glad he hadn’t jumped at the first upgrade he found.

M1919, .30 caliber medium machine gun. This upgrade unlocks a machine gun team to be added to your infantry mech formations. Machine guns allow for high rates of fire and longer-range engagements than the standard infantry weapons. The cost to unlock this upgrade is 50 resources. A machine gun team requires 20 resources and 20 unit points. The team consists of the weapon and two of your current tier infantry mechs serving as crew.

His patience had been rewarded, but his resources were slowly shrinking as the production of replacements for both the combat and construction mechs outpaced his income. Hugh figured that once a few more construction drones were built and sent out to gather salvage, he should break even then start to tick over into positive resource flow. There was also a concern that he was getting close to the unit point limit and would need to think about either another signal tower or a command post upgrade once he was able to construct all the forces that were in the queue.

Upgrading to the machine gun and queuing up a team would drop him to nearly zero resources, but it was a risk he was willing to take. The worst-case scenario was that the flow of replacements was slightly delayed for a few minutes. Hugh spent the funds and ordered a machine gun team. Queuing up a second type of infantry unit for his forces brought up a new barracks menu.

Please select which unit types have construction priority. Expand your barracks or upgrade to a second production line to prevent delays.

1. Infantry mechs.

2. Support teams.

The options showed support teams, which he assumed meant the machine guns, but the phrasing indicated other specialized teams would unlock at higher levels. For now, Hugh set the priority to support teams to get at least the first machine gun team completed. With only one team in the queue, it wouldn’t delay the construction of infantry mechs for too long. He waited for the new weapon to be built, watching the construction of the improved defenses while the barracks did its thing.

Where the level one fortifications had been a simple trench line dug into the ground. The new fortifications were reinforced with sandbags and were deeper overall, allowing the infantry inside to step down into cover if they needed to. The overhead protection was laughable, only a few boards with sandbags placed over various sections of the trench. It might stop fragments, but not much else. There was a grenade sump dug into the floor, allowing the troops at least a chance to kick away a grenade, not that the Krixnas appeared to use them.

A few positions that looked like they were designed specifically for the weapons teams were sprinkled along the line, one facing in each direction. Also, a hull down firing position was dug in and reinforced with sandbags for his light mechs to use. The mechs would have to crouch down for them to be effective, which he assumed they could do despite not having seen them perform the maneuver yet. All in all, whatever forces he was able to build before the next wave should have a higher survival rate.

So far, each wave of the attacks had increased in number, but not quality. If he were a betting man, Hugh expected the next attack would feature a landing attempt at all four compass points. The question remained, would he have enough to stop them this time?