Carnage City: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 6) (15 page)

Nora caught his attention. “If they keep falling back we’re going to be completely cut off.”

Zach nodded. “Cody? We’re holding for now, but if everyone’s falling back we’re going to end up getting cut off. What are your orders?”

“Hold position for now.”

That didn’t surprise him in the slightest, but he felt the need to point out a few things anyhow.

“If we’re going to stay here make sure you hold the other end of the supply tunnel,” he warned. “Otherwise this is never going to work.”

“Copy that. It’s well behind where we’re going to reestablish the main line.”

Zach could at least be thankful that Paige had insisted upon extending it that far. Otherwise, they’d have no way to get reinforcements or ammunition.

“And we can’t hold out forever, even with resupply,” he said. “We don’t have enough troops.”

“We’ll be back before you know it. This is just temporary, like the last time.”

Maybe, Zach thought, but Ragnarok was making far greater gains than they had during the last counteroffensive. If they couldn’t form a stable line they might very well be thrown back out of the district completely.

“Zach,” Nora said, interrupting his thoughts, “we have trouble. Looks like Ragnarok’s massing to reinforce the attack on Crimson Eagle’s position.”

“Hold on a minute, we’ve got a situation here,” he told Cody.

One glance at the map table told him all he needed to know. A large Ragnarok force made up of both infantry and tanks was advancing down one of the main routes, headed straight for the crumbling Crimson Eagle positions.

“That’s a lot of troops,” he commented. “They’re going in for the kill.”

“Given the number of troops they’ve poured into the offensive, I think it’s pretty safe to say that they’ve committed their reserves,” Nora said.

And with the amount of enemy forces pressing in on their lines, Hydra was in for a world of hurt. Crimson Eagle might be able to pull away from the forces they were currently fighting, but once the reinforcements arrived they were completely screwed. And once they went, the entire front could suffer a catastrophic collapse.

“This is pretty dire.”

“No kidding,” Zach said. He thought for a moment, trying to come up with something, anything they could do to stop the bleeding.

They could order Black Wolf to abandon the tower and launch a desperation assault on the enemy column, but even if that worked it would only prolong the inevitable. Worse, it meant handing over the technology here to the enemy, and Zach wasn’t about to give Ragnarok any more advantages. But what else could they do? What else…

Something on the map caught his eye. “Cody, there’s a huge number of enemy forces closing in on Crimson Eagle’s position. Have them fall back.”

“Who’s taking care of the reinforcements?”

“We’ll handle that. Just make sure you reestablish the line, or we’re all dead.”

“Copy that. Good luck.”

Nora looked at him quizzically. “We’ll take care of that. With what troops?”

“I just need a squad.”

“Oh, this I have to see. What are you going to do, take on their entire army with just eight to ten troops backing you up?”

“Not exactly,” Zach told her. He flipped the switchboard and picked up the receiver again. “Danny, can you spare a squad?”

“I can if it’s an emergency, but we’re going to be hard pressed if you take them away.”

“Sorry, this is definitely one.”

“Then I guess we don’t have a choice. Take Javy’s squad.”

“Copy that. Have them meet me on the ground floor, and tell them to bring as many explosive charges with them as they can reasonably carry.”

“I don’t want to know, do I?”

“Probably not.”

“OK then, I’ll just hope this works then,” Danny said before hanging up.

“Explosives.” Nora commented.

Zach grabbed his weapon and headed for the door. “Yeah. This is either going to work spectacularly, or it’ll turn into a complete disaster.”

S
elene frowned
, peering toward the enemy forces making their way through the buildings and rubble in front of them. Or rather, at the enemy forces currently entrenching themselves there. Why? That didn’t fit at all with what Ragnarok normally did. Either they’d sustain the assault, or they’d retreat once they figure out they couldn’t win.

But she had never seen them just stop and entrench themselves in the face of the enemy. Perhaps someone else could give her some insight from a different vantage point, but without a phone line that mattered little to her right now. She couldn’t spare a runner to gather the information, even if they did have it.

At least the relative lull in the fighting allowed Alpha Wolf to catch their breath and prepare for the next onslaught, but Selene wondered how long it would actually last. All she knew was that the enemy’s odd behavior was making her uneasy.

“All units, all units, please respond. This is Wolf 2.”

Selene perked up as she heard the radio come back to life. Had it already been thirty minutes?

“Alpha Wolf, reporting,” she said, confirming along with the rest of the company.

“What’s your status?” Nora asked.

“Holding, but the enemy’s acting weird,” Selene told her. “They just stopped and dug in in front of us.”

“That makes sense. They’re sending most of their strength against Crimson Eagle and Marauder, which means they’re probably trying to bypass the tower.”

Selene felt her heart sink as she heard that.

D
anny heard it as well
. “That means we’re probably going to get cut off.”

“They’re trying to reestablish a line further back, but Ragnarok’s hard on their heels with more reinforcements incoming. Zach is trying to stop them.”

“With just one squad?” Danny said with a frown.

“I know, I know, but he said he could do it. What exactly he’s doing, I don’t know.”

Danny couldn’t imagine it either. What could he do with just one squad and explosive charges? They could set booby traps or mines, but unless the enemy was moving slowly they wouldn’t have enough time. But what…

And then the earth started to shake.

“
O
oh
, that’s going to hurt,” Javy commented with a grin as they watched the carnage unfold.

Zach grinned back as well. “I’m glad this worked, otherwise I’d have really looked like an idiot.”

Gigantic chunks of building rained down on the road, smashing into the Ragnarok column. Infantry, light vehicles, even tanks were simply crushed by the hail of debris. Survivors further back tried desperately to scramble away.

But it was futile. Zach pressed another button and set off the next series of explosions.

Blasts tore through the supports of another tall building, this one eight stories. Zach’s unit had placed charges to undermine the supports and cause the structure to lean toward the road. One it reached the point of no return, gravity did the rest.

This time the entire building fell in one piece, smashing into the Ragnarok force like a giant concrete flyswatter. One minute the boulevard was filled with Ragnarok troops, and the next there was nothing but rubble.

“You don’t get credit for all those kills, do you?” Javy asked.

Zach shook his head. “Nope, those count as environmental kills. All the same, though.”

It would stop the offensive and give the rest of their forces enough time to regroup. But that was only part of their problem, Zach thought as he gazed back toward their own tower. Now Black Wolf would have to hold, completely surrounded by their most formidable enemy.

He certainly hoped they were up to the challenge.

“
T
ough luck
, huh?” Liz commented the next day.

Nora nodded and leaned back in her chair. “Yeah, we seem to get the short end of the stick as always.”

“I’ll say. I’m surprised you guys weren’t overrun.”

“That’s probably because they didn’t focus on us,” Selene said.

Nora nodded in agreement and took a sip of her coffee. The shop was surprisingly subdued for a weekend, though she didn’t mind that in the slightest. At least they could all hear each other talk.

“Zach’s fireworks display might have helped too,” Miko pointed out.

“Why, what did he do?” Anna asked.

“We had an enemy column of reinforcements headed for Crimson Eagle’s positions when they were trying to fall back,” Nora explained. “If they reached the front lines there was a good chance the entire company would have broken. So Zach took a team out, wired a couple of buildings with explosives and then brought them down on their heads.”

“Improvisation wins again,” Liz said with a smile.

“Yeah, except now we’re trapped behind enemy lines with only a tunnel for supplies. And if they launch another offensive we might lose that too,” Selene replied.

“You always seem to get the fun ones,” Anna commented. “Or maybe they just like to come find you, for some reason.”

“We’ll trade,” Miko told her.

“That would be up to Hydra Command though, and I’m not sure they’d want to move us right now. But we could always asked about it.”

“And how many weeks is it going to be before they make a decision?” Selene asked.

Anna smiled disarmingly. “Oh come on, we’re not that bad.”

Maybe not, Nora thought, but the military council didn’t necessarily move fast either. It was better than having every single company in the alliance debating an issue, but having members from all the different battalions sometimes made cooperation difficult. What was good for one battalion might not be good for another because they were deployed in different situations.

“We’re going to need to have another battalion meeting, at the very least,” Liz said. “There’s a lot to discuss.”

“We might only be able to send one representative,” Nora told her. “Our situation might not allow us to take any more off the front lines.”

“That bad, huh?”

“We’re surrounded.”

“That’s not even the worst part about it,” Selene added. “The worst part is that Ragnarok won’t let up. There’s fighting every day, and the lulls aren’t very long either.”

“How are they able to keep that up? You’d think the attrition would be getting to them eventually.”

“Well,” Miko said, taking a sip of her tea, “they brought a lot of troops in the last assault.”

Nora spoke up again. “That’s an understatement. I went back over some of the data from the battle. They had at least the equivalent of three of our battalions committed to the assault, with possibly another one that didn’t make its move once we reestablished the line.”

“Hm, that’s interesting,” Anna said. “That means they’ve taken most of their reserves away from other parts of the line and put them into Milwaukee.

“That’s what I thought as well,” Nora agreed. “They’re going for broke inside the city.”

“That leaves them pretty open to being sucker punched from the western end of the line,” Selene pointed out. “We might want to take advantage of that.”

Liz shook her head. “We’re not going to be able to do much, honestly. The forests over there are pretty thick, so we’re not going to be able to use armor. And we’re not going to be able to sustain an offensive with just light infantry either.”

“We could add Barghest and Spectre to the mix,” Selene said.

“Wouldn’t they be better off continuing to raid Ragnarok’s supply lines?”

Nora had to agree with that as well. An offensive could take the pressure off the fighting in the Cudahy District, but continued raids on the enemy convoy routes could also do that while simultaneously depriving the enemy of important supplies. Plus, Ragnarok could afford to give some ground in the west. Small forces could fight a delaying action, buying time for the main army to finish off Hydra’s forces inside Milwaukee.

Sometimes, Nora thought, even with all their preparation and caution, they still didn’t quite give the enemy the proper amount of respect they deserved. Ragnarok had begun their existence using unsubtle tactics and sheer weight of numbers to win their battles. But even back in those days they had always maintained a corps of skilled, experienced veterans. Now, as they cannon fodder gained more experience of their own, they had become formidable indeed.

World at War Online was truly a massive game with significant elements of strategy to go along with individual tactics, and the organizations that could master that would be the ones to come out on top. Wins and losses on the ground level meant little unless they contributed to a larger plan, but that could be an advantage as well. A tactical loss could end up as a strategic victory if it allowed other units to complete their objectives.

“I think we should keep things the way they are,” Nora said. “We have two battalions in the city, plus us. That should be more than enough.”

Anna took a drink before replying. “That’s true. But if you need extra breakthrough troops then you’ll probably need reinforcements. If Ragnarok moved their reserves to the east, that means we can do the same.”

“Something to think about when we have our meetings,” Selene said.

“Until then, let’s just enjoy it out here,” Miko said. “I’d like some new shoes.”

Nora smiled. “Wouldn’t we all?”

“
S
o
, how was your day out?” Zach asked when she met him at his apartment.

“Great, actually,” Nora said. “I have a couple of new sundresses to wear. What did you do all day?”

Zach glanced back over at the room he used for his office. “Work. I took the time to look over a bunch of pre-production information and tried to organize it into something coherent.”

“And were you able to?”

“I hope so. But it’s going to be a long process anyhow. Several years, probably.”

“Mm. That’s a lot of time.”

“No more than you’re committing,” he pointed out.

“Point taken. So, are you ready to log back on?”

“Did you bring your gear with you?”

“Of course.”

A few minutes later they were ready to log into the world.

“See you on the other side,” Zach told her.

Nora leaned back in her seat and activated the neuro-helmet.

The interior of the tower’s command center materialized in front of her. Zach was already there, looking over the holographic map table along with Selene and Danny. Nora moved to join them.

“Anything interesting?”

Zach shook his head. “Doesn’t look like it. Ragnarok’s probably trying to consolidate their positions around the rest of the district. They probably think they can deal with us later, since for all they know we’re cut off without any good prospects of reinforcements or resupply.”

That last statement made her think. If Ragnarok didn’t know they had a link to the outside world, then they could completely underestimate Black Wolf’s capabilities. She tried to put herself in the enemy commander’s place, wondering how they would go about dealing with this kind of an obstacle.

Even without knowing the extent of the defenses, Ragnarok had to know this place was a formidable fortress. Despite the last attack being only a feint to simply hold the defenders in place they had committed a significant number of troops, along with armor. They had to know that storming the fortress would take hundreds of troops with artillery, air and armor support, possibly more than they could spare.

But if the defenders could hold such a place with small numbers, they couldn’t very well launch an attack either. Black Wolf would have its hands full just defending the entire perimeter, where attacks could come from all sides. If Nora had to take this place, she wouldn’t even bother actually trying to capture it by force. Instead, she would simply besiege the fortress, preventing any resupply or reinforcements to the defenders. The most aggression she would show would be to launch a series of limited assaults, steadily draining the fighting power of the enemy until they ran out of troops or ammunition.

That kind of plan would be perfectly reasonable in normal circumstances, but in this situation it would be completely useless. As long as they held the tunnel they could continue to replace their losses and replenish their ammunition indefinitely.

And if Ragnarok didn’t realize that, they could be drawn into a long, grueling battle with few prospects of victory. Black Wolf could by the rest of the alliance time to launch a counterstrike, possibly dealing a permanent deathblow to enemy forces inside this district.

Of course, if Ragnarok did know they possessed the tunnel then they could be in serious trouble. In that case they might very well storm the tower with overwhelming force, and while they would suffer horrendous losses Nora had no illusions about her own company’s chances of success. If Ragnarok slammed them from every side at once they were dead meat.

“The tunnel is our trump card,” she said. “Whether it's going to be good enough I don't know, but we might be able to surprise them with it.”

“I think so as well,” Zach replied. “The problem I see is that we're going to have to constantly be on guard, and I'm not sure we can maintain a large enough force here on a constant basis. If they decide to jump us at an inopportune time we could be in serious trouble.”

“Most of the fighting takes place in the evenings and on weekends,” Nora pointed out.

“True, but they might be able to cobble together an assault force when we're least expecting it, and by the time we're able to get our reinforcements here they could already be inside of the tower.”

“So you're worried about a repeat of our attack on the tower, only the positions are reversed?”

“Pretty much.”

Nora looked down at the table again. “We have a bunch of advantages that we didn't have before. The fortifications, for example.”

“Those only do us good if we have troops inside of them,” Selene pointed out. “If we don't then they're little more than decoration.”

“The minefields, then. They have to pick their way through them, and even if the don't take casualties they'll have to slow down in plain view. That'll give us plenty of time to call in reinforcements.”

Danny touched the holographic display. “One problem with that, though. Not all the approaches are mined. We only did the ones facing the enemy lines to save time. They'll figure that out soon enough and move to exploit that.”

“We can always lay more,” Nora said. “We have plenty of mines in the armory, right?”

“The problem is getting them planted without getting shot, which is going to be pretty hard,” Zach said with a frown. “They're about a hundred and fifty yards away from the tower on all sides, which means anyone with a clear line of sight is in range. And it's basically a shooting gallery for snipers.”

“Too bad we didn't have something like a minelaying APC or the like,” Danny said.

“Even then it's within RPG range. Plus, if we start losing a ton of troops but don't show any signs of our position weakening they're bound to get suspicious.”

That statement made Nora frown. “So we're going to have to be careful to maintain a ruse. That probably means we can't call in reinforcements through the tunnel except for Black Wolf troops that get killed in combat.”

Selene shrugged. “If we brought in someone like Redd Foxx or Barghest we could probably convince them that they snuck through the lines.”

“But that takes out assault troops like Crimson Eagle or Marauder,” Danny pointed out. “That's a pity, because they'd be really hard to force out of a position like this.”

“Well, maybe we could use it to our advantage anyhow,” Selene said.

Nora looked over at her. “How so?”

“We're going to have to take back the ground we've lost, which means a counteroffensive. The tunnel is a perfect way to get a ton of troops behind enemy lines, which will definitely help break them.”

“Provided they don't find out first,” Danny said. “I have a feeling they'd decide to cut their losses and just flatten this place if we started sending hordes of troops through.”

Nora wondered if Ragnarok
could
flatten this place, even if they wanted to. Structural surveys by Hephaestus Company told them that the tower was extremely strong, able to survive an onslaught of enemy fire, ranging from artillery shells to rockets, up to air-dropped bombs. In fact, even though Ragnarok had dive bombers they'd be of no use against this place. Their bombs would simply bounce off the solid concrete roof.

Nevertheless, she didn't want to tempt fate either. None of their enemy's present weapons could take down this place, but who knew what they might be hiding up their sleeves? Hydra had barely scratched the surface of their schematic cache, and she imagined Ragnarok was in a similar position.

Zach spoke up. “That's something to keep in mind for now, but first things first, we have to hold this place before we can even think about using it to launch a counteroffensive.”

“I still think adding more landmines to the perimeter will help us a lot.”

“Again, problem being we're in range of enemy fire, and we can't afford to take senseless casualties.”

“We could always plant them at night,” Selene suggested.

Danny shook his head. “They'll hear digging, though, which will make them curious. And they have night vision equipment like us, so it won't take long for them to start sniping us like it was broad daylight.”

“Then we need a distraction,” Selene said.

“What do you want me to do, walk down the middle of the street with a mariachi band?”

Everyone else smiled.

“While that would be distracting, I was thinking of something a little more subtle,” Selene said.

Nora nodded. “That would mean a stealth infiltration. Probably by no more than a squad.”

“Whose squad, then?”

“Someone who can be stealthy,” Zach said. “And since I have to put one of you in charge of the operation, that leaves me with one choice.”