War Core, Chapter 7.

Chapter 7.

“Very well, Admiral, even if it was done against my will, I’m in this fight. We need to get moving, the time is counting down,” Hugh said, noticing they had only twenty minutes remaining before the battle began.

“Good call soldier, now, let’s get to work and make these crunchy aliens regret invading,” the admiral said.

“Really, crunchy? They’re called Krixnas,” Maddison chimed in.

“Hey, if you two are done arguing, maybe somebody can tell me who everyone is and what you’re going to do to help me win,” Hugh asked.

“Good call Major Logan,” Smith replied. “I’ll do a quick introduction since time is limited. Admiral Nix is the senior military commander for our group, he’ll also join in when a mission requires a naval or marine component. Captain Tran and Cartwright are our infantry and armor commanders. Captain Tremaine is here to help with any missions requiring air power. Maddison was brought on board as a technical advisor. She’ll provide some strategy related suggestions given the battles you fight in have some resemblance to various games,” Smith finished.

“Good to meet you all, now, what’s going to be different in a real battle vs. the training missions I just completed?” Hugh asked.

“They will develop pretty much the same as you experienced, save for typically lasting longer and having more units involved. Since both you and the Krixnas core are new, we shouldn’t see anything too crazy for a while,” Smith replied.

“Define crazy, what does that entail?” Hugh asked. Maddison peeked up from the game she was playing on her phone to answer.

“How about a multi-stage battle including air, sea, land, and space elements. Or how about a battle where you work with other War Cores from Earth, or a free for all with several aliens looking to control the same system,”

“I suppose I’ll have some time before we have to deal with that, what about the Krixnas? What kind of creatures are they and how do they fight? Hugh asked.

“They’re an unknown and we haven’t fought them before. Choosing a restricted training program for you as their perk was a bold move and shows some forward-thinking. Most cores would grab something that gave them an immediate advantage, such as a starting force of mechs or more resources. This enemy is looking to put a roadblock in front of you and get some early wins. If they win enough battles early on, their new core will have substantial upgrades to make things difficult for us,” Smith replied.

“Don’t forget to mention that we’ll have a better idea of what they look like once you face their infantry mechs. The infantry mechs for a race tend to generally reflect their physical appearance,” Captain Tran said.

“That brings up another question. What determines the types of mechs I can build? In my training sessions, I was up against the same types of mechs I was fielding, who determined the names and abilities of my units?” Hugh asked.

“The GCA pulled that from our world when we were first contacted. It looks like they perused our historical records, and you’ll find that our mechs all resemble something from around the time of World War 2. The explanation we were given was that the equipment from that era had the widest variety of designs lent themselves well to mech conversion. Somehow the T-7 was chosen for our tier one light mech, it resembles the real-world prototype light tank that was developed before the war,” Captain Cartwright added.

“That is odd, but it just might make things a little easier for me. If a mech resembles a particular old vehicle we can deduce where it should fall in our order of battle,” Hugh said, finding that discussing units and vehicles was a good distraction from the emotions he was going through.

“What happens if, make that when, we win a battle?” Hugh asked. Maddison looked up from her phone, surprising Hugh as she answered his question.

“When that happens, you’ll be given reward points. Once you acquired enough reward points your core will increase in power. You’re a level zero core now, but at higher levels, you’ll start with more units, more resources, and prebuilt structures. When you win a fight, you’ll also have a chance to receive perks, which you’ll choose from a limited selection of at the end of the fight. In special circumstances, you can sacrifice advantages to get a larger reward. The more complex and dangerous the battle, the greater the reward we can win,” Maddison said. He supposed a gamer would be the perfect person to dig into the details of leveling and loot.

“What happens if we lose?” Hugh asked.

“We take a higher percentage of casualties. Also, we lose control of more space. When everything else is taken, Earth would be up for grabs. Should we lose there, humanity will be erased from the universe and the victors will take our planet. That’s why it's so important we hold the enemy back. We’ve lost too much already,” Admiral Nix answered.

“Enough questions, you need to get ready for the battle, you guys even skipped an important part. You skipped the battle parameter negotiations,” Maddison interjected.

“What negotiations?” Hugh asked.

“Okay, I’ll give you the rundown. Before a fight, the two sides offer their preferences for the battle. We don’t know the world you’ll fight on, but we can negotiate things like max command post level, restrictions on units, or even the availability of resources to an extent. The attacker makes the first bid, then the defender makes a counter. Sometimes, if things are way off, the GCA will start a second round, but usually, they end up picking a mix of what the two sides want. The GCA is the one making the final decisions, like they seem to do with everything,” Maddison said. As the clock ticked down, she had put away her phone and was focused on the task at hand.

“Don’t forget to tell him that the War Core is the only one allowed in on the negotiations. We can see what you’re doing, but can’t advise you once they start,” Smith added.

“Then what should I ask for in the first battle?” Hugh asked. Strangely, they seemed to defer to Maddison on this question. The gamer kid was more important than Hugh had initially assumed.

“My thoughts are that the Krixnas will try to go big. They know from the restricted training that you only have experience with small numbers of low-level troops. Because of that, they’ll try to pull you into a bigger fight with a wider variety of units to confuse you. For our bid, just go as low tier on everything as you can, though I would suggest you don’t opt for the no combat pod support option. Our soldier guys are really good at that stuff and will help you out immensely in handing the fighting units,” Maddison suggested.

“We’ll handle assigning troops and commanders to the combat pods for you. Eventually, you’ll get a feel for your subordinates and might want to request specific people for a particular fight, but for now, we’ll match who we think is best,” Admiral Nix added. The battle timer was down to the last couple of minutes, it was almost time.

“How long will I typically have between battles? So far, it’s been one right after another,’ Hugh asked.

“It varies, but usually at least a couple of days, sometimes weeks. Once you’re done with this fight, we’ll get a chance to dig more into strategies and what’s worked and failed for Earth’s War Cores so far,” Smith said as the countdown reached zero and Hugh found himself pulled into somewhere else.

Hugh found himself in a dimly lit room across a long table from a blurry figure. Somehow, he knew this was a representation generated by the GCA for the “negotiation” before the battle. Text flowed in front of him as the Krixnas first offer came in.

The Krixnas invasion of system es1422 is initiated. The attacker is making the following demands.

Krixnas Demands:

1. A maximum command post level of 10.

2. No unit type restrictions.

3. No combat pod support.

4. A command post starting level of 3.

5. Enhanced resource flow.

6. Additional starting structures.

7. No pre-fight battlefield recon.

It was about what Maddison had suggested. Hugh went with her advice to lowball everything in his counteroffer.

Human Demands:

1. A maximum command post level of 0.

2. No flying units.

3. Combat pod support.

4. A command post starting level of 0.

5. Limited resource flow.

6. No additional starting structures.

7. Pre-fight battlefield recon.

Hugh wasn’t sure what enhanced resource flow was and guessed it was the amount that normally trickled in for the command post. If that was the case, slowing down the resource gain would slow down the battle, giving him time to get up to speed if he was forced to fight against unfamiliar units. Having the chance to look over the battlefield before the fight would be amazing, so he had, of course, chosen the recon option. Knowing the terrain restrictions, dangerous areas, and hopefully even the resources available before the fight began would give him some confidence in his overall strategy for the battle. The GCA seemed to think about the offers before rendering a decision.

A battle parameter decision has been made. The following restrictions and advantages are implemented for this fight.

1. The maximum command post level is 3.

2. No flying units.

3. Combat pod support is granted.

4. The starting command post level is 1.

5. Normal resource flow.

6. Each combatant is granted a level 1 barracks.

7. Pre-fight recon allowed for a restricted timeframe of five minutes.

Battle world selected. You will be fighting on the planet Ryxilin 444. This is a land battle with varied terrain. Your pre-fight reconnaissance will begin when you arrive.

Hugh began to fly in space once more. The experience would have been almost enjoyable if he wasn’t doing it to get to a real battle. After a short time, a world grew into view. They were approaching what looked like another destroyed planet, only as he zoomed closer, he saw it wasn’t all destroyed. The selected continent was a wasteland save for a small patch of green. This green place was to be their battlefield. Arriving at the battlefield, Hugh found he could move about and the five-minute countdown timer for recon had begun.

Their battlefield was of modest size, if he had to guess, Hugh would say the place was ten miles long and four or five miles wide. With an overall rectangular shape, each side of the battlefield was a mirror image of the other. The lush greenery led him to believe it was the work of the GCA not a naturally occurring phenomenon on the dead world.

Dominating the center of the map sat the ruins of a small town. The buildings were of odd shapes and seemed to be constructed of concrete type material. Lots of hiding places made this the perfect ground for an infantry fight, and a nightmare for unsupported armor. There were no obvious resource gathering stations or caches in view, but Hugh did spot a few crates in the ruins that looked suspiciously like the storage crates used for resources in his prior battle. Making note of their locations, Hugh found he now had access to a battle map where he could jot down descriptions and notes.

A main road ran through the town and had been cleared of debris, but the side streets were mostly blocked with rubble. While he didn’t know the full capabilities of his larger mechs, he assumed they would have trouble traversing the rough ground of the side streets. A forest encircled the city, growing all the way up to the rubble. Only a mile or two thick, the forest did have a single, narrow road carved through it that ended at the edges of the forest. The main road through the city continued from one end of the battlefield to the other.

Toward the edges of the battlefield, the forest thinned and gave way to green rolling hills. Plants resembling weeds and small shrubs dotted the place and a large flat area at the extreme edge was where the command posts would sit. There was only a marker on each at this time, the GCA must not have wanted to give anything away about the other race by showing their opponent the shapes of their buildings. Each side had a resource gathering station placed midway between the command post and the start of the forest. Hugh was sure there would be some kind of defensive force to protect it, but for now, it wasn’t revealed.

He almost missed it, but right at the edge of the town, another indicator flag was placed on each side. Hugh wasn’t sure if this was a resource location or something else, but it was something he would need to investigate as soon as he was able to produce some infantry. Time was almost up, and Hugh made a final pass over the city, noting any additional resource crates he could find.

War Core, prepare for battle.

Time was up and Hugh was pulled toward one end of the battlefield. He could see that his command post, as well as a barracks, had been pre-built. Interfacing with the command post was beginning to feel natural for him at this point. The first batch of drones were under construction and his defensive force was queued to be built after they were done. He was starting with only 100 resources, a sum he assumed his opponent had to work with as well. Resources dropped to 75 as the command post reserved the resources needed for his initial drone fleet.

Knowing they would be important; Hugh queued another five drones to be built ahead of the defensive force. He didn’t think that the enemy would get any combat units over here to attack him that quickly, so delaying his defenders was only a small risk. Having the ability to gather resources faster would be important given the longer distances his drones would have to walk when returning them to his command post. With the initial buildout started, Hugh reviewed his status.

Current Battle Information.

Resources: 50.

Structures:

Command post, Level 1. Unit points (10/200). The upgrade to level 2 requires 500 resources.

Units:

Construction drones (10/10).

Combat Units: None.

Other Structures:

Barracks, level 1. The armory add-on may be constructed for 100 resources.

Available Structures.

Light mech factory, Level 1. This building requires 250 resources to construct.

Signal tower (0/2). A signal tower requires 50 resources to construct.

Hugh had enough resources to build eight infantry mechs, the level one versions required six resources for each. He queued them up, intending to use them for a little recon. It was time to see who these Krixnas were and just what their War Core was up to.