War Core, Chapter 2.

Chapter 2.

His uniform didn’t fit all that well, and the supply section in the underground base didn’t appear to keep a large stock of gear that was the right size for an out of shape older soldier. Hugh learned from the supply clerk that he was only the second one to come here for a full kit, all the others transferred from their active-duty units will full gear, only needing an item or two that had worn out. They also pushed him through administration, going over his pay, setting up direct deposits, and filling out the mountains of paperwork that the military required its soldiers to complete. Once finished and toting around a pair of duffel bags that were nearly too heavy for him to carry, Hugh was shoved into medical.

Unlike supply, medical was much larger and better equipped than Hugh would have thought. There were no patients other than himself, which was kind of eerie considering the place could handle nearly a hundred, what were they preparing for? The doctors and nurses ran test after test and drew what he felt might be a gallon of blood. Once again, nobody would talk to him other than to ask medical-related questions. The mystery guy was waiting for him in the lobby of medical once he was finished.

“Now that you’ve been put through the wringer, it’s time to hold your briefing. I apologize for how much you’ve been kept in the dark, but I’ll think you’ll understand once we’re done,” he said as Hugh was led downstairs among all the empty pods. After seeing the tech emerge from one earlier, it was clear people were supposed to go inside them, but for what purpose? He was led past the row of machines and into a small meeting room with a video screen and an old DVD player.

“Have a seat Major. According to the wishes of the Galactic Conflict Authority—GCA for short—we are required to have you view this before we can proceed. It's fairly short and once it’s over we can talk,” the guy in the suit said as he pressed play. Hugh wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but the thing on the screen was not it. An insect-like face began to chirp as its sounds were translated into English.

Greetings, honored member of humanity. You have been selected based on the approved sequence of variables to become a War Core for the human government known as the United States of America. Perform well in your tasks to improve your War Core’s chances for success. Analysis of your abilities and talents shows an average baseline chance for successful integration into the War Core unit. There is only a modest three percent chance of total mental collapse when you are joined to the core.

The Hive World of Krixnas has laid claim to the section of human space controlled by the Earth nation known as the United States of America. The Krixnas are a relative newcomer to the galaxy as is your own race. The initial calibration tutorial has been completed and passed by the Krixnas War Core and they have gained an advantage against you. They have selected a restricted training program for the newest human War Core. When this transmission ends, a countdown timer will begin Once thirty of your minutes have passed, you must be prepared as a War Core to begin your truncated training session. Failure to begin training before the allotted has expired will result in the forfeit all systems claimed by the Krixnas. The countdown begins now.

“Okay, that really wasn’t very informative, what is going on…and what is your name anyway,” Hugh said in a panic. Had he seen an alien just now? What is this whole War Core thing it was talking about? Was this all some kind of hoax or a psych experiment?

“As you just heard, time is very limited. I apologize for not giving my name earlier. The GCA can monitor all that we do, and if I had tried to begin to debrief you earlier, the timer would have started, and the results would have been disastrous for Earth. As far as my name, I’m Mr. Smith, a CIA analyst that has been assigned to you,” the suit said.

“Sure, you’re Mr. Smith, like in a bad spy movie. Let me guess, your first name is John?” Hugh said with sarcasm, beginning to believe his ‘this is all a hoax’ theory.

“No, it’s Norman if you must know, and yes my last name is really Smith. Now, Major Logan, we have only a short time to get you into the War, so now would be a good time to ask any questions,” Smith said.

“Okay, let's start with what a War Core is and why am the guy who has to be one, whatever it is?” Hugh asked, curious but convinced this was all some psych experiment for the military.

“I should start back a bit with a brief history I suppose. Back at the end of World War 2, the US and the Soviets went on a nuke testing spree. The energy signature of those tests combined with our fledgling space programs caught the attention of others in the galaxy. It seems that when a world attains a level of technology that the GCA deems high enough, they are brought into the fold. Not only are we brought into the fold, but we’re given our share of the universe to do with as we see fit, take a look,” Smith said, pulling up what looked like a star map on the tablet he had with him. Hugh could see Earth as a blue dot with green representing the portion of space that had been allocated to humanity. There had to be thousands of solar systems and who knew how many worlds represented there.

“Not a bad haul, enough room for humanity to expand for the next ten thousand years. Up until we were added to the galactic fold, Earth and its portion of space had been off-limits to the rest of the interstellar civilizations. This GCA organization runs the show and has tech far exceeding what any of the other known civilizations can create. Once we joined the big kid's table of the galaxy, all bets were off. Any and all comers could lay claim to a sector of Earth space and take it for their own.

“It may or may not surprise you to find out that the other races that inhabit the universe are for the most part, xenophobic jerks and would like nothing better than to wipe us off the map and take all we have for their own. Before the GCA stepped in to normalize things, countless worlds were destroyed by war. Habitable planets and rich resource systems are few and far between, too many were being destroyed so the GCA set up a system where the various spacefaring races could still fight over control but also limit the destruction of productive planets. That’s what a War Core is, an interface for a human to fight battles on other worlds to save our territory. We were new to this type of warfare and failed miserably at first. Here is what we still hold onto today,” Smith said pulling up the green sphere of Earth’s control once again. As Hugh watched, red swaths were taken out of it, places he assumed we had lost in prior battles.

“So, this has been going on for how long?” Hugh asked, beginning to believe this just might be real, that or Mr. Smith was one hell of an actor.

“We had first contact with the GCA in 1953. Every nation on Earth was contacted at the same time. Supply containers housing the War Cores and other tech we needed to participate in the galactic conflict were passed out and 112 people were selected by the GCA to become the first War Cores. Nearly every advanced nation, and a few that weren’t so advanced, were ordered to participate. It was strange, first contact pretty much ended major wars among the nations, but caused a non-stop conflict with other worlds instead,” Smith said.

“What are you trying to pull, we’ve had plenty of wars since then, from Vietnam to the Middle East,” Hugh replied, his skepticism returning.

“True, but the one thing we haven’t seen is conflict between the major powers. Look at the dates, the contact with the GCA occurred during the Korean war, in July of 1953 to be exact. That contact prompted the armistice to be signed. Every war since then has been on a smaller scale. I’m ashamed to admit that we used these fights to provide cover for the losses our forces are taking in the galactic conflicts. The GCA wanted to prevent further destruction of useful worlds with their intervention, they never mentioned anything about trying to prevent the loss of life. They want war to have consequences, and those consequences are in part, the loss of good men and women serving in the various militaries on Earth,”

“No way, there’s news footage and all kinds of videos documenting these conflicts. While I never deployed myself, I know dozens of people who fought overseas. While you can doctor video, you can’t doctor memories, Hugh argued.

‘That’s where you’re wrong. We, with the help of GCA tech, can and do alter people’s memories when we must. Soldiers who participate in this program have their memories adjusted to fit a reasonable explanation for why they were deployed. It’s a horrible thing to do, but it saves the world from tearing itself apart if they find out that aliens are real and we’re fighting against the rest of the galaxy,” Smith replied.

“And you want me to believe that nobody ever spilled the beans about this? Not likely,” Hugh said with confidence, folding his arms in disgust.

“Oh, I’m not saying people haven’t tried, and extreme measures are taken to keep that information from getting out. The Earth faces annihilation, it’s enough of an incentive to keep a lid on things—barely. Ask yourself, if someone told you this story or posted it online, even with some video evidence, would you believe it?” Smith asked. He was right, there were so many kooks out there that Hugh would have just figured it was yet another crackpot internet conspiracy.

“Why not just make the news public? That way you could have everyone working toward the same goal,” Hugh asked.

“That would be ideal, but every indicator we have is that release of this knowledge would cause chaos across most of the world. Can you imagine the response people would have to find out that there are aliens and that we’re at war with them? While they may accept that, perhaps even rally together to fight a common threat, what do you think happens when they find out we’re losing this war. We need to turn this fight around, we need to retake what we’ve lost or at least show that we have a good chance of success before we reveal this secret to the world,” Smith said.

It was a shock to realize that based on the map, we were losing. Humans were good at war, weren’t we? You would think that humanity would be kicking the aliens back and even taking their territory for our own. Were we that far behind the curve compared to the rest of the galaxy? It wasn’t hard to image the world tearing itself apart when it found out we were on the losing side of a war of extinction, maybe it was best to keep a lid on things until the tides of war turned back in our favor.

“Tick, tock, Major Logan, time’s running out, anything else I can try to answer for you?”

“I suppose I need to ask why me?”

“Easy enough, the GCA has information on everyone. They plugged in the parameters of what they want for a War Core and poof, your name comes out. I hate to tell you that you’re not something super special, or the chosen one of humanity. The people selected usually have the bare minimum of a skill set to figure out how to fight. Sometimes the choice works out great, like the guy they have in Russia, and the Japanese participant. Sometimes it turns out poorly, like the last American candidate,” Smith admitted.

“Ok, what am I actually going to do?” Hugh asked.

“First, you’ll be placed inside the War Core which is essentially a bigger and more powerful version of the pods you saw the techs working on in the main room. Once part of the War Core, you can be sent to any battlefield in the galaxy that needs our attention. During a conflict, your consciousness will merge with a command post that the GCA has set up for you. From the command post, you can view the battlefield as well as build structures and fighting units. The restrictions put on us by the GCA prevent me from telling you more, it’s part of the penalty the enemy has placed against us. Truly, Major Logan, I’m not trying to be vague. If I tell you any more than I’m allowed, there would be dire consequences, and the GCA sees and hears everything,” Smith said.

Hugh was still not convinced, but the possibility this whole thing was real seemed more likely by the minute. The sheer number of resources and the effort it would have taken to build a huge complex under the Pacific Ocean meant that whatever was going on was serious. The timer kept counting down, showing only eighteen minutes remaining. Once he was placed in the War Core thingy, he would find out if it was real. Hugh tried to think of any other questions that could be answered given the restrictions placed on them.

“What gives with all the pods out there, are they some kind of discount War Cores?” Hugh asked.

“Not quite, give me a moment to check,” Smith said, typing away on a small tablet he had pulled from his suit coat. The silence was uncomfortable as the CIA man waited for a reply.

“Good, okay, I’ve got permission to give you a limited rundown of the combat pods, which is what we call the other pods in the main room. During the battles, you will command units created by your automated factories. When you have a high enough level, and this whole business about levels will make sense once you get started, you will have the option to place portions of the forces under the command of others. You’ll always be in overall command and can override any units you produce, but others can direct them tactically in combat. To that end, we have various combat veterans skilled in the different types of units, ready to assist you,” Smith tried to explain. Hugh could tell he was weaving around some restriction that the man was desperately scared of violating.

“Got it, I think. What do we do now? I’m out of questions, at least ones that you can answer. Will the restrictions be gone once I go through this mysterious training session?” Hugh asked.

“Yes, restrictions will be lifted after your first training session which I hear is a fairly basic familiarization mission. It won’t teach you much, but when you complete it, I should have more flexibility in what I can reveal. Please understand, I wish I could give you all the information and let you choose whether you want to accept this responsibility. With the GCA in control, I just…” Smith got quiet and man almost had tears in his eyes as he looked at Hugh.

“Are you okay?” Hugh asked.

“I’m so sorry, I just wish I could tell you everything, but so much would be at risk if I did,” Smith looked ashamed, the look was enough to bring Hugh’s anxiety level back up again.

“Now, follow me and we’ll get you set up in the War Core,” Smith said as he stood and opened the door to their small meeting room. Back out in the main room, they walked past the rows of combat pods and toward the corner where a true behemoth of a pod waited. This must be the so-called War Core; it was twenty feet tall and resembled a giant refrigerator with wires and tubes sticking out.

“Why is this thing so huge compared to the other combat pods?” Hugh asked.

“This thing has to connect instantaneously to the GCA battlefields strewn across the galaxy. It and the others in Earth’s possession were delivered to us by the aliens, while the combat pods are made here on Earth. The combat pods are much less complex and use the War Core for their connection to the battlefield. For this mission you’ll be on your own, no combat pods will be used,” Smith replied as a nurse walked over to them and several techs made some last-minute adjustments to the War Core.

“Major Logan, I’ll need a final DNA sample before you enter,” the nurse said, a forced looking smile was plastered on her face. She held a device over his arm and Hugh felt a pinprick as the machine drew a blood sample. “Everything’s good here, I’ll need you to remove any metal objects or jewelry in your possession,” the nurse said. Hugh saw she had a Navy uniform, the nametape showing Hillman. In fact, he didn’t realize this before, but the place was full of military from all the branches, not just the Army. Whatever this War Core experience turned out to be, it was most definitely a joint forces venture.

“Follow me, Major, I’m sorry but it will be a tight fit. Your records didn’t show anything about you being claustrophobic, but that won’t matter once the War Core is activated. Thank you for your sacrifice sir,” Nurse Hillman said, a sad look on her face. He didn’t know what to make of that comment. The War Core was a tight fit, his out of shape gut made getting inside a bit awkward and embarrassing. In addition to the tight fit, the interior was dark, the only light inside was coming in from the small hatch he had just scrambled through. He wasn’t sure what he expected the interior to look like, but the polished metal slab he was laying on was going to hurt his back like crazy after a few minutes. Why didn’t something that was supposedly as important and advanced as a War Core have comfortable seating?

“I’m going to close the hatch now,” the nurse said, flipping the switch that started the automated process that slowly closed and sealed the big machine around him.

“Woah, hold on a second, how long is this training thing going to take, it’s not exactly the most comfortable place inside here,” Hugh protested as the hatch continued to close, he could just make out the voices of Smith and Hillman as the hatch slid shut.

“You didn’t tell him? How could you do that to the poor man?” Hillman said.

“I had no choice, the GCA had some hard restrictions on this one. If I told him he was about to…” the hatch sealed with a hiss, cutting off the conversation. A dim light came on inside the machine as it sealed, the source of which he couldn’t see. The entire interior was a slick steel cylinder and there was nothing to interact with.

“Okay, what happens now?”Hugh whispered to himself. A whine reminiscent of a jet turbine spooling up was heard as the War Core did whatever it was supposed to do. Straps shot out from the interior walls and slid around his body, tightening to a painful degree. Hugh tried to call for help, but the strap over his chest compressed his rib cage, refusing to allow air into his lungs. An excruciating pain erupted from his head as several things started to drill into him. He felt blood flow into his eyes as the world went dark.

War Core integration complete. Earth subject, Major Hugh Logan, has been accepted as the sole operator of this unit.

The download of the operator’s mind is 100% complete.

Disposal of biological refuse is commencing.

Interfacing with GCA hub…

Connection established, loading first-time user protocols.

Restrictions detected; truncated training subroutine will initiate. Loading into an acceptable training world. Connecting War Core to planet Kuros 18b.

War Core, prepare for battle.

The pain left Hugh as he saw the system prompts his head. This didn’t look good, what had happened to him inside the War Core? His vision went dark again, and he had the sensation of movement, and watched as he flew through the stars. His approach slowed and centered on a single, sickly looking red star. Hugh was moved past the star, narrowly avoiding a planet baking in the sun’s heat. He headed toward a new planet, one further back from the sun, one that should have been smack in the middle of the goldilocks zone for supporting life but was now a pockmarked ruin. Something bad had happened here in the past, his thoughts triggered a response from…somewhere.

Inquiry accepted. Planet Kuros 18b was destroyed in the first wave of intergalactic conflict before the ascension of the GCA. It is used as a training site for new War Cores and is a reminder of the dangers of unrestricted and uncontrolled warfare. Two trillion lives were lost on Kuros 18b and an advanced spacefaring race was wiped from the galaxy forever.

Hugh could see the image of a green and pink world, great structures rising from its surface, the inhabitants were a strange race that looked like a mix of a butterfly and a lizard. Whatever the people that lived here were once called; their name was lost to the past. Only these few images remained of what this world had once been. The image changed to the pockmarked and dead world that had seen earlier. He flew toward the planet, his pace slowing as he approached a small factory structure set in the middle of a rock strew field. When he touched the factory building, his view changed and a new message from wherever these were coming from appeared.

Integration into your command post is established, familiarization training will now commence.

The building cap for this scenario is level 0. Restricted construction options are in effect.