Carnage City: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 6) (7 page)

“OK, so what’s the most practical option?”

“Build a fort around the base of the tower with packed earth and rubble, and set up machine gun nests and trenches,” Paige told her. “Doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Maybe make them like the redoubts we have north of Lerna Bastion.”

That was an apt comparison, Nora thought. The redoubts weren’t anything special, just small bases with a network of trenches and pillboxes, with a battery of heavy guns in the center. They weren’t anything fancy, but they could slow or even halt an enemy attack until reinforcements arrived.

They could do something similar here, except the tower had the potential to be much more powerful than a trio of 155mm guns. With a combination of height, a strong garrison and artillery it could devastate any incoming attack from a long way off, maybe even before the enemy had a chance to shoot back.

“So… maybe I’m getting ahead of myself here, but how are we going to get this all installed?” Nora asked. “We’re going to have to build it in the middle of a combat zone, and Ragnarok lines are about a hundred yards away. Even if they don’t launch an attack, you can be sure that we’ll have enemy snipers paying us a visit.”

“Yeah, that could be trouble. Well, we usually use Mules for construction work, but maybe we’ll switch to a Ram instead. That should at least take care of the sniper problem, and it’s not that much of a stretch since they’re the same chassis.”

“Are you going to be able to see well enough to work?” Nora asked. The Ram’s enclosed cabin had a much smaller field of vision than the opened topped Mule.

“Oh yeah, we’ll be fine. And you’ll be keeping overwatch over us, right?”

“Right,” Nora confirmed. The snipers had been the only unit not to take a severe beating in the last fight.

“OK, that’s perfect. We’ll look into emplacing guns in the tower, maybe placing some platforms at the corners to put them on. We’ll want to cover all angles.”

“Even toward our own lines?” Nora asked.

“Well, in case you get cut off,” Paige said. “Then you can defend yourself from all sides.”

“Until we run out of ammunition, that is, but I see your point.”

“We could see about digging a tunnel between this place and somewhere further back behind the lines,” Paige suggested. “That way if you get cut off you’ll still be able to get supplies and reinforcements, though that’s more of a luxury right now.”

Nora nodded. It would certainly be nice, but right now her main concern was trying to fend off an attack coming within the next few days, not holding out against a lengthy siege. Besides, once they gathered their strength the entire alliance would be on the move again, trying to take the Cudahy District in a final push.

They had over half the district in their hands now, along with several options to break through the enemy’s lines. They had the sewer route discovered by Selene, an amphibious landing along the shoreline, or a possible thrust from either Dragon or Magic Battalion’s positions.

But their enemy wasn’t going to give up their ground without a difficult fight, and Nora was certain they’d make good on the message they had sent to Zach. They’d be back to take this place, because whoever controlled it could dominate the battlefield.

They reached the roof, patrolled by a few snipers and a crew centered on the antiaircraft gun still present. It was the standard type sold in Old Chicago, yet another schematic sold off by a company in need of cash, so getting more ammunition for it wouldn’t be much trouble.

Nora imagined they’d need it eventually, because Ragnarok was probably going to dive bomb them sometime in the near future. When that happened she at least wanted some way to fight back, even though the structure would hold up against anything they could hit it with.

“Ah, what a view,” Paige commented as she emerged. She quickly grabbed at her patrol cap as a hard gust blew past them. “A little breezy up here, but hey, you can see for miles.”

Nora walked to the edge of the roof and took a peek toward the enemy lines.

“Putting yourself at risk, huh?” Miko’s voice said.

“Yes. I guess it’s your job to guard my back.”

“Well, guess I won’t have to do that much today. Their side of the lines is completely dead. Apparently they’re licking their wounds from the attack yesterday, although we’re not much better off.”

Nora didn’t reply as she continued to look over Ragnarok’s positions. Only half the district to go, but how long would that take? And after they had won this place they still had more districts to take. Some were owned by Ragnarok, and some still remained in the hands of the NPC garrison, but both would pose stiff challenges.

The last month had been a tug of war, each side gaining and losing ground street by street, inch by inch. It couldn’t go on for much longer. Every day that Hydra delayed meant more time for their enemies to prepare, and more time for other foes to appear. There might be only two dominant factions around Old Chicago, but they would eventually run into players from the other hubs, and who knew what would happen then?

They had to hold this place. It would give their alliance a staging point to launch their final, critical thrust toward the central capture point. And so they’d do everything in their power to keep their hands on it.

Even if that meant pouring in considerable resources and being tied down in a brutal city fight.

“
H
eave
!”

Danny gritted his teeth and yanked on the rope with the rest of his crew, trying to pull a load of equipment up the elevator shaft. Hephaestus Company was still trying to fix the elevators, so right now the fastest way to get supplies to the upper levels was to haul them up by rope.

They could have waited for the elevators to become operational, but Zach, Selene and Nora had insisted on bolstering the defenses as soon as possible, and Danny agreed with them. Even though the fighting for the tower had been fierce, Ragnarok had only suffered relatively light casualties during the battle. In fact, most of their losses had been suffered at the hands of Crimson Eagle during the fight along the rest of the line. If they wanted to, Danny was sure they could muster the strength to launch a counterattack.

And while Black Wolf had a strong position right now, they all wanted to make it even stronger. That meant bringing up the necessary equipment to turn this place into a fortress bristling with guns, even if they had to lug it up the stairs or elevator shaft with sheer muscle power.

Their payload hovered into view, part of the chassis of an anti-tank gun. Getting them up and ready was their top priority, because Ragnarok had armored units operating in the city.

Even without the guns Black Wolf wasn’t helpless against the tanks. They still had a supply of recoilless rifles and shells, capable of destroying a tank with just one good hit. They had power, good range and a host of troops that knew how to use them.

But they had their weaknesses as well. Foremost among them was their backblast, enough to severely injure or even kill anyone standing behind the weapon when it was fired. The shockwave would reflect off walls too, making it impossible to fire inside of a building without risking serious injury or death to anyone in the same room. That meant the crews had to operate outside, leaving them very vulnerable to shellfire, snipers and even bursts of machine gun fire.

The firer need to re-aim every time they reloaded as well, making shots even slower. By contrast, an anti-tank gun could remained fixed on a target as it was reloaded, reducing the time between shots. Even a second or two could be absolutely critical in a fierce fight.

“OK, set her down,” Danny ordered as they pulled the chassis out of the elevator shaft and onto solid ground. A few seconds later and they were able to relax for a moment.

“Jeeze,” Javy said, “why does it seem like we always get stuck with the heavy lifting jobs? Can’t Selene’s platoon do some of it too?”

“They’re lugging cable and stuff from the supply depots,” Danny told him. “Once they’re done with that they’ll be helping Hephaestus get the elevators and phone lines in working order. Look on the bright side, at least you won’t have to dig ditches like them.”

Javy cracked a smile. “Well, when you put it that way I really can’t complain. Heck, I’d take playing with the big guns over that any day.”

“Glad to hear.”

“One question that I haven’t gotten an answer to, yet,” Javy said. “Are we going to have a hospital or infirmary here? Or, more like a medical treatment center?”

Danny shrugged. “Haven’t heard anyone saying anything about it. Why?”

“It’s just something I think we should look into. Since we’re focused on one building we can move the wounded somewhere they can get treatment and then get back in the fight.”

Danny hadn’t thought much about it before now, but it made sense. Ever since the updates had been implemented battlefield medicine had risen in prominence. Many wounds that would have been fatal in the old game were now only debilitating, enough to take a player out of the fight, but not enough to kill them immediately. If they received immediate medical attention they could often cheat death.

And given the fact that most player skills outside a selected few reset when someone was killed, that was a godsend. It made medics valuable too, which often diverted them from combat. Now, they were usually too busy trying to treat the wounded.

“Hey, if you think that it’s a good idea then bring it to Zach and Nora. I’ll back you on it,” Danny told him. “Is that going to take away some of your fun, though? You might get stuck inside the hospital instead of fighting.”

“The update helped take care of that,” Javy told him. “Now there’s a lot more skill involved in it.”

“Yeah, I heard something about the overhaul, but does it change things that much?”

“Oh yeah it does. Before you just had to do a simple task like wrap bandages or something, and that counted as using your healing abilities. Now we have to do things like perform actual battlefield surgery and the like.”

“Jeeze, that sounds pretty nauseating.”

“It’s not that gory. If anything, it’s like a puzzle,” Javy told him. “You just have to figure out what you have to remove, what you have to clamp off, what you have to sew up, that kind of thing. It’s actually pretty pulse-pounding, once you really get into it.”

“OK, so you’re playing doctor while the rest of us play patient. So you’re telling me I have to lie there and hope that you can pull off everything correctly?”

“Isn’t that what we always do?”

“Point taken,” Danny replied. “That’s an interesting way to think about it, though. Even if you have the skills you can still mess up. A lot like shooting, I guess.”

“I think that’s a pretty good comparison,” Javy agreed. “Besides, what would you rather have? Would you rather just die every time someone shot you, or would you rather have the chance to live through it and keep all your skill points?”

“Well duh.”

“My point exactly.”

Danny watched as the rest of their crew began rolling the chassis into position next to one of the windows. They were on the fourth floor, giving them plenty of height to target the enemy without having to train the weapon at too steep of an angle.

They’d have four guns up here once they were done, along with a ring of trenches and pillboxes surrounding the base of the tower, a pair of 75mm guns facing the enemy lines on the sixth floor, and a battery of 81mm mortars on the roof. When Black Wolf Company’s strength was added to the mix, this place would pose one formidable obstacle.

But all that preparation would take time, and Ragnarok might not give them what they needed. In that case, they needed to prioritize. The elevators were the top priority, not only because they’d allow faster troop movement, but because they would also make it much easier to bring up the loaded of ammunition they needed to feed into the guns.

The anti-tank guns were their next priority. Danny knew that many of the others feared the prospect of being confronted by a flame tank. He wasn’t exactly eager to do so either: a machine like that could cause huge amounts of carnage. But even standard tanks could be dangerous, able to stand off at a range where targeting them with a recoilless rifle was dicey. Even if they could hit it at the edge of their range, the crews would have to expose themselves to enemy fire.

Once those were completed, the final step would be to install long-range artillery, giving them the ability to immediately reach out and hit anything in the district. In fact, they might even be able to hit targets in some of the other districts as well.

“Danny,” Xavier’s voice said over the radio. “Are you guys all set up there?”

“We are. We’re wheeling the carriage into position right now.”

“Good to hear. Could you drop the line back down the elevator so we can get the gun up next?”

“Will do.”

Together he and Javy lugged the set of cables over to the elevator shaft and carefully lowered them down. Simply dropping them might be faster, but Danny didn’t think that whoever was at the bottom would appreciate being smacked in the face by a steel cable descending four stories. Besides, they might end up damaging the elevator shaft itself if they weren’t careful.

“OK, we’re dropping the line,” Danny said. “I assume you have a plan to keep it from getting damaged on the way up?”

“Yeah, it’s wrapped in padding,” Xavier said. “Plus, the way the hoist system works you should be able to pull it up the center of the shaft just fine.”

Their Hephaestus team had devised an ingenious lifting system, using a pair of pulleys anchored to sturdy metal bars, which were then extended out over the center of the elevator shaft. The pulleys could also roll from side to side once a lock was disengaged, allowing the crews to bring their cargo much closer for unloading. Once the steel cable was in place, a team could pull a load up with minimal resistance and then bring it into the main building.

It worked for compact loads, but Danny wondered how it would fare when they dealt with something like a long gun barrel. Wrestling it out of the elevator shaft might be quite the undertaking, and if someone slipped it was a long way down to the bottom.

“OK, I see the cable,” Xavier said. “Give us a few minutes to get the barrel hooked on.”

“Roger. We’re not going anywhere for a while.”

“That’s an understatement,” Javy quipped.

“What does that mean?”

“Well, come on, look at how much of a beating we’ve taken. Even if we want to go fight somewhere else, are we really in fighting shape?”

“I’d say we’re good enough to put up a good fight, but not quite at our best,” Danny said. “Marksmanship is going to be the biggest thing, but if everyone set their specializations right then there shouldn’t be much of a problem with a lot of the other skills.”

“Marksmanship is pretty important, though.”

“Heh, to some people maybe. Me, I’ll get by spraying bullets.”

“I’m sure the supply guys will love your for that.”

“Hey, I’m a heavy,” Danny said. “Always have been, always will be. It’s my job to waste a ton of ammo.”

“Touché.”

“And that has nothing to do with our stealth skills either,” Danny said.

“What, you’re nonexistent ones?” Javy grinned.

“I’m perfectly fine.”

“Yeah, like an elephant.”

“Elephants actually walk very quietly, so there,” Danny retorted.

“Whatever. I get what you’re saying, but would you really want to get caught in a fight with second-rate troops who are still trying to get back on their feet?”

“Wouldn’t be ideal, but we could deal with it. But yeah, staying put right now might be the best idea. We can retrain our skills, and marksmanship is a little less important in a defensive position.”

“Always looking at the bright side of things,” Javy said cheerily. “Makes me almost forget about all the suicide missions you seem to like to send us on.”

“Haha, you’re such a comedian.”

Danny’s wrist alert went off, and at first he thought it was Xavier telling him that the next load was ready. But instead Zach’s voice greeted him on the other end of the line.

“Danny, how are you guys coming?”

“Good. We’re just finishing up getting one of the guns emplaced.”

“That’s good to hear. Are you at a good stopping point?”

Danny frowned. “We’re in the process of bringing up the barrel and getting the gun put together, but after that happens, yeah.”

“OK. Finish up with that, and then get your platoon together. We’re sending three Mules to pick you guys up.”

That certainly surprised him. “What for?”

“We need crews for the guns, right? Bravehart’s going to train you how to operate them.”

“All of us?”

“All of you. We need everyone to have at least basic knowledge in case we suffer heavy losses during some of the fights. You don’t have to be experts, but you guys should at least know how everything works.”

“Right. We’ll be there in a few.”

It might be outside of what they normally did, but Danny could see the wisdom in the decision. Troops that could perform a multitude of roles were extremely valuable. On the other hand, that was probably why Black Wolf kept getting themselves thrown into the fire.

Oh well. If one thing could be said for their elite status, it was that their days in the virtual world were never boring. Black Wolf would always be somewhere, doing something important in the thick of the fighting.

“What was that about?” Javy asked.

“It’s our lucky day,” Danny told him. “We get to go learn how to fire that thing, as soon as we get the rest of it up here and assembled.”

“No kidding.”

“Nope,” Danny said with a grin. “I’m thinking this is going to be pretty fun.”

B
AM
!

The sound of an anti-tank gun reverberated around the clearing just south of the city. It didn’t have the teeth-rattling power of a 155 or even a recoilless rifle, but Danny had been assured the weapon would do its job.

“Alright, alright,” Bryce said as he watched the ad hoc crews work. “You’re getting it. Load, aim, fire. Once you’re able to do that smoothly, we’ll start speeding up the rate.”

Danny stood on the sidelines with him and Zach, partly because there were a limited number of crew slots for the pair of guns, and partly because he wouldn’t have been much help anyhow. Bravehart and Griffon Companies were the artillery specialists of the alliance, and Danny was content to let them go to work.

“So, are they going to be enough to stop a tank?” Zach asked.

“Oh yeah. You’ve placed them on what, the third level?”

“Fourth, actually,” Danny told him.

“That’ll work just fine. They’ll have trouble dealing with the frontal armor, but side and rear armor are a different story. And the shells will slice through top armor pretty easily.”

“We can adjust the elevation of the guns, right?”

Bryce nodded. “Oh yeah, that’s pretty simple. Normally the guns only elevate upward, but the guns being issued to you are basically flipped upside down, so they can be trained downward. Now, there’s a limit to it, but if they get to a point you can’t fire on them then you could just use grenades.”

“Easier said than done,” Danny said lightly. “You’re not the one that has to charge the thing.”

“Eh, as long as you have good aim it should never come to that.”

BAM! BAM!

“They’re looking good,” Danny commented as he watched the novice gun crews work. “Of course, what do I know?”