Carnage City: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 6)

T
his is a work of fiction
. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

CARNAGE CITY

Copyright © 2015 Xiphos Press

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing, 2015

D
ark
, dank, and cramped. That’s what the storm drain tunnels under Milwaukee felt like. Selene pushed herself forward, constantly checking her wrist menu compass to make sure they were headed in the right direction. The twists and turns could result in them getting lost if they weren’t careful.

“Everyone keeping up?” she asked over the radio link.

Three voices confirmed. Selene wasn’t in her normal command position. The sewer tunnels were small, often only big enough to allow one person at a time to pass through. Under those conditions, there was no way a company, a platoon or even a squad could operate effectively. Instead, the task of fighting through the underground maze would be left to small fireteams, no more than four or five members apiece.

It decentralized command, but at this point Selene didn’t feel like that mattered at all. Like the rest of Ghost Battalion, Black Wolf Company had a high degree of initiative and free-thinking within the lower ranks. As rangers, the lower ranks often had to improvise plans and work in smaller groups away from their upper level commanders. It cut both ways as well, because the platoon, company and battalion commands had learned not to micromanage too much. Instead, they usually only issued broad directives and left the nuances to the front-line commanders.

Selene took a glance back over her shoulder at the other three members of her unit, Mara, Kelsey and Jade. It had been a while since they had worked together like this. Months, close to a year, even.

“Mapping,” Kelsey said. “We get pulled off the front lines and put in the strategic reserve, and then we’re back inside the city doing mapping.”

“Hey, it’s better than actually sitting there on the front lines,” Mara argued. “I really don’t want to end up getting sniped again.”

“Then you’re probably in a good spot,” Selene said.

“Why, because you’re the first one getting shot?”

“I was more thinking because we’re underground, but sure, we’ll go with that too,” she replied.

Jade glanced down at her wrist menu map. “OK, so we’re looking for ways to get behind Ragnarok’s front lines. Wouldn’t they have scouted these and prepared defenses?”

“That’s what we’re here to find out,” Selene told her. “Better to figure that out now when we’re doing recon than later when we’re trying to launch a full-scale attack.”

“But if we tip them off now, that might ruin our chances.”

“We’re only going to get one shot with this anyhow,” Kelsey pointed out. “As soon as we try it, they’re going to figure out where we came from and take the appropriate precautions.”

Selene nodded. “Right. Which is why we’re going to make sure we do this right, if we choose to go this way.”

Encountering Ragnarok Company patrols or booby-traps remained a constant danger while they searched the tunnels. There was also the possibility of hostile creatures roaming the depths, ranging from heavily-armored chilus, to swarms of ryches, to monstrosities they had never discovered before.

And those possibilities made this kind of work very, very dangerous. There was little to no cover within the tunnels. Explorers had to use their gun lights in order to navigate, highlighting their positions for anyone to see. At the most, two people were capable of fighting in either direction due to space constraints. All in all, it made for a deadly environment, and casualties would be inevitable.

They needed to do it, though. The Hydra Alliance needed some way to break the deadlock in Milwaukee. They had initially made good gains, breaking through a gap in the southern wall and flooding into the Cudahy District, but then found it to be an elaborate trap. Their Ragnarok foes had quickly turned the tables, first stopping the advance into the city with a devastating counterattack, and then trying to cut them off from their base in the south with a flanking maneuver.

The second stroke had failed due in no small part to hard fighting from Sacred Sword Company and Bravo Wolf, but it left the entire front in a deadlock. Both sides had to find some way to break the stalemate.

And the key to Hydra’s success might lie with Ghost Battalion. They had been replaced on the front lines by Magic Battalion, fresh from their withdrawal from Green Bay. It meant that Hydra lost a valuable city, but it also meant that they could focus their forces along a more important front. And most importantly, it freed Ghost Battalion from front line responsibilities, allowing them to perform other operations that suited their strengths.

Ghost Battalion had new toys to work with as well. For months they had to use the small Hornet helicopters as transports, capable of carrying a half-dozen troops outside on bench seats. They did their job, but the occupants were exposed to enemy fire and the helo itself couldn’t bring along any fire support.

That had changed now, thanks to the efforts of Hephaestus Company. A new transport helicopter, the Typhoon, was rolling off the assembly lines in Central City in large numbers, enough to transport the entire battalion by air. Unlike the Hornet, the Typhoon had an enclosed transport hold and could carry support weapons as well as troops, bring much needed fire support to an air assault. They also free up the Hornets for gunship duties, which they were much better suited for.

It gave Ghost Battalion unparalleled flexibility, allowing them to strike anywhere at any time over a wide section of front. And yet, here they were, crawling through the sewer tunnels instead of soaring in the sky.

Selene didn’t exactly mind, though. It always helped to have several trump cards up your sleeve. If they could discover a weakness in the enemy’s defenses they might be able to break through in short order. She knew most of the higher-ups in the alliance wanted to finish the fight quickly, because the longer this dragged on the more it would cost them.

Ragnarok and Hydra were fairly evenly matched, but months upon months of slugging it out could sap their strength and leave them vulnerable to others. Selene knew that Ronin Company and their alliance was making inroads around Davenport, and there was always the possibility of groups from the other hubs encroaching on their territory. Already, they had made preliminary contact with groups from Seattle, Los Angeles and Dallas, and doubtless more would follow.

And if crawling through the tunnels would do something to help break the deadlock, she would gladly do it.

“How much ground are we covering today?” Mara asked.

“About a mile’s worth of tunnels, if all goes according to plan,” Selene told her. “Think of this a lot like the tunnel system in Indianapolis. We want to know how many tunnels there are, where they go, and what might be lurking inside them.”

“Like a gigantic stalker city?”

“Yeah, like that,” Selene said.

Aside from a few feral animals on the surface, Hydra hadn’t encountered any hostile wildlife or humanoids within the city. That wasn’t going to last, though. Selene knew for certain that the city had a garrison, and the only reason they hadn’t encountered it so far was because Ragnarok had already cleared this district.

Ragnarok Company had taken a little less than half of the city, and doubtless they could expect attacks from the rest of the garrison into the districts they already controlled. That could be both a blessing and a curse for Hydra. On one hand, the attacks would force Ragnarok to divide their attention. On the other hand, once Hydra captured the ground
they’d
be the ones coming under fire.

And who knew what might be lurking down here in this vast maze? There was one way to find out, and that involved going in on foot. So like it or not, Ghost Battalion had to explore the tunnels because they were the only available force right now.

“I’m surprised we haven’t found anything yet,” Mara commented.

“Don’t make us push our luck,” Kelsey said. “It’s going to suck if we get caught in a fight.”

“At least we don’t die first,” Jade pointed out.

“No, we get to die a whole second later. What an improvement,” she replied dryly.

Selene smiled to herself as she pushed on ahead. Banter kept them occupied while they were moving through the dark, intimidating expanses of the underground, and she wasn’t about to stop them. Sound might travel, but so would their light. No sense in taking precautions that wouldn’t do them any good.

“Still,” Jade said, “A chilus is going to take up most of the tunnel, isn’t it?”

“Depends on the size,” Selene said. “I don’t think we’re going to find any the size of a bus down here.”

She definitely wasn’t looking forward to encountering one if they were down here, though. The mutant centipedes could clock in at anywhere from four to eight feet long, and many grew even larger. It wasn’t their size that was so intimidating. Rather, it was their combination of speed, toughness and killing power. Chilus were lightning-fast, could soak up bullets like a sponge, and were both venomous and capable of sheering someone in half with their mandibles.

They were extremely vulnerable to fire, but Selene’s unit didn’t have a flamethrower on them because of the cramped conditions. Instead they had to resort to the secondary method of dealing with the creatures, armor-piercing bullets. They were less effective than flames, but they would serve.

The biggest issue was that armor-piercing ammunition was expensive, but there was no helping it. Selene had brought along several magazines as well as regular ammo, and loaded her carbine with the stuff. She didn’t have time to switch magazines in such tight spaces, so any she had to use on other creatures was nothing more than an unfortunate loss.

Aside from their armor-piercing ammo, they had reinforced body armor made of chilus chitin, manufactured by several of their hunter-inclined comrades, led by Gavin and Miko. Though not as tough as when it had been attached to the living creature, the plates still provided good protection. It was bulky and unwieldy, but in these tight spaces that tradeoff mattered little.

Still, she hoped that they wouldn’t need any of their preparations. Selene had fought in tunnels plenty of times before, but these particular ones seemed to be the most congested.

Something ahead caught her eye as her gun light passed over it. “Looks like the tunnel opens up a little further down.”

“Is it a storm drain?” Kelsey asked.

“Doesn’t look like it. There’s no light,” Selene observed.

“Then maybe it’s a spot where several drains converge into an outflow.”

“In that case, we should probably be careful where we step,” Jade suggested.

Selene agreed. Bumbling around in the dark was a great way to slip and fall, and if that happened who knew where they might end up? She didn’t want to lose this body because she tripped, fell and got swept away.

“OK, I’m going to slow down a bit as we head in,” she alerted the others. “Compensate accordingly. I don’t want to get shoved in.”

“Wouldn’t that be amusing,” Jade said.

“Not really.”

Selene slowed her pace, hoping that nothing was lying in wait for them where the tunnel opened up. If it was, this was going to be a very short expedition.

Nothing but darkness and a slightly larger chamber greeted them at the end of the tunnel. Selene swept her light around to survey the area. Kelsey had been correct. Several large pipes converged on a single chamber, which lead to an outflow at the far end.

“So, do we explore down the outflow, or survey the rest of the inflows?” Mara asked.

Selene glanced around at the direction of the inflows. “Looks like they cover areas stretching back toward out lines. We should check them out eventually, but I’m more interested in what might be down the outflow.”

“Sounds about right,” Jade agreed. “Though we might want to make sure, otherwise we could have a whole horde of unfriendlies popping up in the rear.”

Selene nodded and activated her radio. “Nora, you there?”

“I’m here,” she responded a few seconds later.

“I’ve found a chamber where a bunch of pipes converge. There’s also an outflow. My team is going to explore down that, but we want to make sure we survey the rest as well.”

“Copy that. I’ll send more teams down. How many pipes are there?”

Selene made a quick count. “Five.”

“Alright, I’ll send another two teams down. Maybe I’ll take a crack at it. How are the tunnels?”

“Dark, musty and crunched. I’m sure you’ll love it.”

“I’ll bet. Maybe I’ll stay up here.”

“What, lost your stomach for tunnels?” Selene teased with a smile.

“After Indianapolis I think we’ve had our fill of tunnels to last a lifetime.”

“Eh, what’s a few more. Anyhow, we’re going to explore the outflow and see where it leads.”

“Copy. Wolf 2, out.”

Selene carefully made her way toward the other side of the chamber, trying not to fall in the water pooling in the center. Even in the inky darkness it looked murky and foreboding. Something deadly might be lurking within.

Her team reached the outflow without incident and headed inside, sticking close to the right wall. They had little choice: it was either stick to the narrow concrete walkway on either side, or head down the middle in a fast-flowing stream of water.

“OK this looks like it might get us somewhere,” Kelsey said, looking at her wrist menu map. “If we go by the direction we’re headed and compare that to the map, it looks like we’re going to come out on the Ragnarok side of the lines.”

“Assuming that the tunnel stays straight,” Jade pointed out.

“I wouldn’t think it would change direction all that much. Slight bends, yes, but dramatic turns wouldn’t happen in a system like this.”

“Assuming they follow real-world logic,” Mara added.

That was very likely, Selene thought. The game designers seemed to like to stick with tried and tested models rather than massive deviations. If it was a certain way in the real world, than more than likely it would remain the same way in the virtual world.

“So, the civil engineer thinks that the tunnel is going to stay relatively straight? That’s good enough for me,” Selene commented.

They had a wide variety of professions within the alliance. Teachers, students, retail workers, engineers, scientists, analysts, lawyers, office workers, every one of them brought something useful to the table, and some brought critical knowledge as well, Hephaestus Company, for example, had a huge number of real-world designers, engineers and architects in their midst, which naturally aided their inventiveness and construction ability.