War Core, Chapter 6.

Chapter 6.

Hugh’s vision receded from planet x345z2, and he watched the stars fly past as he waited to complete the journey back home. The beautiful blue-green sphere that was Earth began to draw near and he plunged into the atmosphere off the west coast of California. His view went dark and Hugh waited for the hatch to pop open on the War Core. His vision returned, but not to his body, Hugh found himself hovering over the top of the War Core pod.

“Major Logan, if you can hear me, please proceed to the briefing room you were in previously. Once there, you should have access to the speaker interface and can communicate with your team,” A technician shouted up at him from beside the War Core. This was weird, it sounded to Hugh like there was a problem with getting him out. A technical glitch of some kind would explain the swarm of techs going over the pod. He moved his view over to the briefing room he had used before. This time the room was larger, modular wall panels having been removed to expand the space.

A large conference table was in the room and around the table sat Mr. Smith, Nurse Hillman, some teenaged girl looking at her phone, two Army captains, an Air Force captain, and an honest to goodness Navy Admiral. Hugh tried to interface with a speaker box placed on the center of the desk, testing it out.

“Can everyone hear me?” Hugh asked.

“We can hear you, Major. Our time is limited, and we have a lot to go over, are you able to see and hear everyone in the room?” Smith asked.

“Yeah, I can see everything just like I can on the battlefield. I think there’s something wrong with the War Core thingy, it’s not opening. How long until the techs can get me out?” Hugh asked.

“No way, you guys didn’t tell him? Wow, that some next level cruel right there, especially after what happened with Derek,” the teenaged girl said before returning her attention to her phone.

“Lock it up Maddison, there was a very good reason…” one of the army guys tried to say before being cut off by Smith.

“Hold up Captain Tran, let me give the news to Major Logan,” Smith held up his hand for everyone to stop and Hugh held his questions, knowing he wasn’t going to like what he was about to hear.

“First off Major Logan, I am truly sorry for not telling you this before. The GCA prevented us giving a complete explanation to you prior to integration. We’re not sure why they don’t allow disclosure ahead of time, this was truly a cruelty you didn’t deserve. Understand that I would change things if I could. I would even go against the GCA rules if it wouldn’t potentially doom the entire Earth to destruction,” Smith paused, a look of pain on his face as he prepared to deliver some news that Hugh was sure wasn’t going to be good for him.

“Major Logan, when you were placed inside the War Core, you were uploaded entirely into the machine. I don’t mean just an interface; I mean your entire being. You are still you, but instead of inhabiting your flesh and blood body, you’re inhabiting the War Core. Sadly, we don’t know if there’s any way to bring you back to how you were before. I’m sure it’s possible, but it hasn’t happened for anyone yet,” Smith said.

Hugh didn’t know what to say, they just told him that he was now a…machine. How was this possible? How could they do this to him without his knowledge? How was he going to fix it? The room was quiet as they waited for him to absorb the enormity of what he had just been told. Hugh was angry and it took him some time to regain control over his emotions. He began to think about what this all meant for him. Sure, he was a bit of a loner and was going nowhere in life, but that didn’t give the government leave to shove him into a machine. The thought prompted a horrifying question.

“Where is my body,” Hugh asked flatly.

“Major Logan…Hugh, your body is gone, the War Core dissolved it when your transfer was complete,” Nurse Hillman replied. He could see tears in the corner of her eyes, all the others except for the teenager looked ashamed. His anger flared again, especially at Mr. Smith who was the one that dragged him from teaching his class all the way here.

“How. Dare. You. Is this no longer a free country. What gives you the right to steal a citizen away from his job and kill him so he can play your silly game!” Hugh shouted. The speaker on the table squealed out his voice at max volume, causing everyone to cover their ears in pain.

“Belay that nonsense soldier! The admiral shouted back. “You just got handed a bad deal, I’ll give you that, but don’t forget that at one point you did raise your right hand and swear to protect this nation from all enemies foreign and domestic. You were a soldier once, if only briefly, and being a soldier means you might just have to give up the most important thing…your life. We’re fighting a war against half the damn universe; a war we're losing. If that means we must sacrifice a soldier to save the entire planet from extinction, so be it,” the admiral said, his face turning red.

“I didn’t volunteer for this and I did my time in service and was legally discharged. There’s nothing in my contract that said you call me up again decades later to killme,” Hugh replied.

“There most definitely is a way to call you back up soldier. You were an officer, an officer retains their commission unless he resigns it, which you never did. An officer can be called up by Congress or the president at their discretion. Take a look at the last page of your orders soldier, it was signed by the President of the United States himself. You, young man, are most definitely in the Army now, get it together,” the admiral said.

Hugh didn’t know what to say at this point. He was furious that the government could do this to him, but what were his options? What was he going to do now? Should he sit out in protest, refuse to fight and try for the conscientious objector angle?

“Now, I know you’re going through a lot Major, the reason I’m being hard on you is because I’m pissed as well. You see, the last clown the GCA assigned to the United States as a War Core was a complete disaster. In their infinite alien wisdom, we were assigned a civilian, he was a top-ranked gamer in some type of game that was supposed to resemble these battles…”

“Real-Time Strategy, we’ve talked about this before,” the teenage girl Maddison blurted out, interrupting the admiral’s statement. The admiral gave her his best military senior officer ‘your life is about to become a living nightmare’ stare, but the kid just shrugged it off.

“As I was saying, we had high hopes for this whiz kid. Now, for that clown, you can say we were on shaky legal ground forcing him into the War Core. But the choice then was the same one we faced with you. Do we put the rights of one man above the lives of every human on the planet? You need to understand that our choice was to follow the GCA rules or sacrifice the entire Earth. So yeah, we violated that kids’ rights to save the world. Instead of ripping the aliens a new one with his game skills, the kid melted down and went psycho, spent an entire week doing nothing but screaming. Eventually, the GCA pulled the plug on him after we forfeited a dozen systems to various races,” the admiral said.

“That wasn’t Derek’s fault, you forced him into something he wasn’t ready for,” Maddison replied angrily.

“Fine, it wasn’t his fault that he was a weak-minded fool. Don’t forget the cost of his actions,” the admiral said. The girl deflated when the admiral mentioned the cost, turning her attention back to her phone.

“You see Major Logan; you did sign up for this in a way. Sure, it wasn’t what you might have chosen, but if you quit on us now, there is a price to pay. There will be a price to pay even if we fight, but at least by fighting, we can try to mitigate the loss and have a chance to eventually defeat our enemies. The GCA changed war, changed it to protect the rare and valuable planets that were being destroyed by conflict. They didn’t change it to save lives, but to save valuable resources,” the admiral said, looking to Mr. Smith for a moment who gave him a small nod.

“I should inform you that the Russians sacrificed several hard-fought gains to give us a chance at another War Core. They sacrificed lives to have you as a War Core. In fact, take a look at what was paid for you to become what you are,” the admiral said, pulling up a video on the display screen.

The image was of rows and rows of combat pods, like the ones here, but Hugh could notice subtle differences. As the camera zoomed in on a combat pod, the Russian flag was seen displayed on the side of it. Pods began to open, and soldiers staggered out. Some were cheering and others just plodded along like zombies, assisted by the nearby techs. Once the soldiers had left and the floor quieted down, several teams of medics carrying stretchers arrived. It was then that Hugh noticed that not all the pods had opened, nearly a dozen remaining closed. The techs punched in codes and forced the pods open one by one. Once the pod was open, the medics unhooked the soldier inside, placing them gently on the stretcher. It was obvious to Hugh the soldiers were dead.

As they were being carried out, several officers stepped into view. The Russian officers had the haggard look of men who had just been through the wringer and Hugh could see in their eyes that these men had just been in the same fight as the troops that had died. As one, they raised their hands in salute, holding their position until the last soldier was taken away. The lights dimmed as the few remaining techs left, their gruesome task done for the night. In the darkness, a voice sounded softly in Russian. A translation appeared at the bottom of the screen, but somehow Hugh could understand the words, could feel the pain and loss in them. He was hearing the voice of a fellow War Core.

“Goodbye my comrades, goodbye until we meet again in a better place. The world may never know your sacrifice, but I will remember. I will remember you always my brothers,”

“That was Valery Akalov you just heard, the Russian War Core. That video was after the days-long battle they won to grant America another chance at a War Core. Every time we fight, there is a random chance that a soldier commanding a one of our mechs will be killed in real life if their unit is destroyed. The GCA doesn’t reveal their methods for determining how and when it happens, but we do know that the casualties are worse when we lose, much worse.

“That’s why I snapped at you soldier, that’s why I want to you in this fight. You did well in training and have what it takes to lead our efforts. I want you to fight because when you don’t, good men die. When a War Core spends a week screaming insanely instead of leading his forces, even more men die,” the admiral concluded.

How did he respond to that? Hugh was still angry over what happened to him, but he knew that it wasn’t Mr. Smith or the others behind it all, it was this mysterious GCA. He was a victim; his body had been killed and he was now his mind was locked into this War Core box. It wasn’t the fault of Mr. Smith, or any of the officers in the room. The others didn’t want to do this to him, they were forced to do it. If he were honest with himself, Hugh realized that he would have made the same decision if he were Mr. Smith.

Right now, being angry about his predicament wouldn’t change anything, it could only hurt him as the time before the next battle ticked down, the first of his battles that would really count. As far as he could tell, he had two options, try to quit, which would likely result in the GCA killing him for good, or he could fight. If he quit, that would just mean another person would have to go through the same things that had just happened to him. Between those two options, quitting and fighting, Hugh would fight. Perhaps when they won enough battles, he would discover a way to rebuild his body. If alien tech could allow him to participate in fights across the galaxy, surely, they could rebuild and plug him back into his body?

He wanted the soldiers he fought with to survive the ordeal, the better he performed, the more he could save. Hugh had been screwed over by the whole galactic system, but he would do what he could to make things right. He didn’t ask for this fight, but he would win it. He would win it to save his fellow soldiers, to honor the sacrifice of the Russians that had given him this chance, and he would win it for even the small chance at a new body. The aliens had foolishly brought this fight to him, and he was determined to make them pay for that mistake.