Howl: A World at War Novel (20 page)

Selene nodded. Both of them weren't on the friendliest terms with Hydra. Death's Head Company had several confrontations with Sacred Sword, all of them ending in violence. They were highwaymen, thieves, and had tried to steal from Sacred Sword's members. They usually ended up with bullets in their heads for their trouble.

The Kings were another matter entirely, and Black Wolf had a personal vendetta against them, if they could even be bothered to care. The Kings had preyed on new players north of Old Chicago, shaking them down for money and killing those that wouldn't pay up. Javy had been a member of the company, in fact, until he got sick of their methods and tried to leave. They had tried to kill him as well, but they had tried to do it in Black Wolf territory. There had been a fight, and Black Wolf had killed every single one of them.

There hadn't been any problems since, though she heard that Sacred Sword had run into trouble with them. She had laughed when she heard that Morgan had shot their leader several times when he started making threats. No one liked The Kings. Even their name annoyed her.

“Somehow, I can't see them letting those types into their alliance,” Danny said.

“
You'll do a lot when you need more troops,” Zach said.

“
Yeah, but there are some lines you don't cross even then. At least, I hope they have
some
standards.”

Selene watched as the crews shoved the grounded boat back into the water. “Well, it's their problem right now. And right now, this is going to be our problem.”

The shore was dark, illuminated by a few sparse lights. That was good, at least. They had night vision goggles, though their images were crude and they had cost a fortune. They would need them, though. There was no way to work other than turning on lights, and that would attract bullets like moths to a lamp.

Neptune 1 motored in close to the shore, its engines on the lowest setting possible to try to muffle any noise. Neptune 2 stood off shore a little further with every gun at the ready. Selene was ready to man her own station, a pair of .50 caliber machine guns on the stern of the craft. If they were discovered then quick thinking and firepower were the only things that were going to get them out of this.

Ahead of her Danny and Zach were putting poles into the water. They had been marked with tape set at every half foot, and they would use them to test where the bottom was. Nora was in the bow, looking through a scope. He job was to determine the distance from shore. From what Selene could tell they were about thirty to fifty yards away.

How long it had been since they had been on a mission together in the same squad? She didn't count the battledome challenge, since that was out of necessity. It had been a while. Months , in fact. Ever since Black Wolf Company had grown their roles had taken them farther and farther apart, and Selene missed some of the closeness of the early days. But that was the price of what they were doing. The larger they grew, the less central they became. Selene had gone from being the leader of a fireteam to the commander of a platoon. Danny had gone through that change as well. Nora was busy doing work with the alliance council, and Zach was their commander, with all the responsibilities that entailed.

She shook her head. From their humble beginnings with four players she never thought they would get this big. Now they were part of one of the most powerful alliances in the game, with hundreds of members. And sadly, she didn't know many of them all that well.

Being in such a large alliance was definitely fun, but one of the tradeoffs was the fact that there were too many people to get to know. It was kind of like social media; you could have hundreds, thousands of 'friends', but how many of them did you actually know? How many did you actually associate with on a daily, weekly, monthly or even yearly basis?

Maybe other people didn't have a problem with it, but to Selene it took away some of the magic of this world. There was a lot to enjoy here, but it didn't mean much if you couldn't do it with your friends, your true companions. Fighting alongside acquaintances just didn't have the same feeling.

It wasn't just other companies; Selene was loathe to admit it, but she didn't know a lot of her platoon all that well. She knew the ones who had been Black Wolf originals best. She knew the ones who had come in the second wave fairly well, but she was far more fuzzy on the ones that came afterward. Selene knew
about
them, but she didn't really
know
them. She didn't know their likes, their dislikes, their strengths and weaknesses, their tendencies. She was reliant on her squad leaders for that.

Maybe that was something to look into afterward. At any rate, they had a job to do right now.

The river craft slowed as it reached the shore and Gavin's squad jumped off, landing in waist deep water. They pushed forward as quickly as possible. Further up the shore Ethan's squad had already made landfall and was making its way up the beach. Logan's squad was just clearing the water. Three more craft were roaring toward the shore, carrying Bravo Platoon.

Their search had been a success. The reservoir was shallow where they had tested. Troops could wade in from about twenty feet off shore without drowning, and their transports could get within ten feet of the shore without the fear of running aground.

They knew their plan was practical. Now they needed to be able to pull it off. They were going in last; her and Danny, Zach, Nora and Miko. Once they launched the attack they would divide up so they wouldn't lose all their officers if the boat got hit, but right now they needed to practice disembarking.

Bravo Platoon landed ahead of them without incident. It was their turn. Their transport sped in toward the shore, then cut the throttle about thirty yards out. The craft continued forward.

“
Go!” Selene signaled. They went over the side of the boat. Selene leaped off without a hitch, but in front of her Danny tripped and landed face down in the water. Selene and Miko hurriedly pulled him back up. That was something she had noticed. Classes that were laden down such as heavies were having a difficult time with this.

They would need a lot more practice.

CHAPTER 17

Stockpile

The numbers were staggering. The sheer amount on troops and materiel she had to sort through was immense. Nora, Yusuf, Paige and Liz had been tasked with taking inventory and making sure everyone was equipped and prepared for the attack on Indianapolis. She knew that they were well-stocked. What she wasn't prepared for was the sheer scale of it all.

“Alright, let's start with armored vehicles,” Yusuf said.

Nora nodded and looked through her menu. She had organized list of everything, courtesy of the logistics skill she had taken. “Alright, we have twelve M11 Bull assault guns.
Ursa Major, Kodiak, St. Michael, Gabriel, Orcrist, Glamdring, Reaver, Fury, Ironheart, Storm
and
Thunderclap
,” she said, listing off the various names they had been given.

“
Do we have enough Rams for the entire armored company?” Liz asked.

“
Yeah, we focused on building them up first,” Paige said. “I wouldn't want to go into battle driving Mules.”

“
You might have to,” Liz commented.

Hephaestus and Jackal were going to stay behind during the attack, defending Hydra's important bases and Lerna Bastion itself. Nora didn't think that they were going to be in any danger, but all it took was one mistake to ruin everything.

Paige laughed. “If we have to, then you'd better not fail. Because we'll probably end up being nomadic.”

Nora cycled through her tables. “We have seventeen M15 Rams. That's more than enough to carry the entire armored company.”

“What about Mules?”

“
We have about forty of them, though we're probably not going to be using a lot of them,” Nora said. “Bravehart borrowed six of them and converted them into mortar carriers. They're going to head into the city with the armored company to provide indirect fire support.”

Yusuf cycled through his own menu. “Speaking of them, between Griffon and Bravehart they have four artillery pieces, plus a bunch of mortars.”

Paige cycled through her own menu. “I took stock of our ammunition supplies. We're going to stop selling ammunition on the market over the next week so we have enough for ourselves.”

“
That's going to make the price skyrocket,” Nora observed. Yusuf had estimated that Hydra sent fifty thousand rounds of ammunition into the Old Chicago markets per day. Cutting that supply would cause shortages, especially for the smaller companies who had come to rely on the cheap Hydra bullets.

“
Yeah, well, we need them,” Paige shrugged. “If we keep up production like we have been we'll have around five hundred thousand rounds at our southern stockpile, plus the ammo needed for the recoilless rifles, artillery and the like.

“
How are we holding up on fusion batteries?” Nora asked.

“
We have enough to last us for a week without having to buy anymore,” Yusuf said. “They're piling up fast, however.”

“
How much money do we have? Do we have enough to recharge our stocks?”

“
I think we have enough to recharge about half our stock,” Yusuf said. “Even without selling ammo we still have the overdrive profits.”

“
I think we should recharge as many as possible,” Liz said. “The last thing we want to happen is for us to run out of them in the middle of the campaign.”

“
Speaking of recharging them, I noticed something that looks like a power plant inside the city,” Nora said. “That might be something.”

“
Isn't it in another district?” Liz asked.

“
Yeah, but we might be able to grab that district next,” Nora suggested.

“
We can't base our strategy around it. We have no idea if it operates, or what we need to do to operate it even if it does work.”

Yusuf agreed. “It might have merit, but we need to plan in case it doesn't.”

Nora nodded. “I agree. So, fusion batteries are in place but might be a little tight. Good to know. Anyhow, we have our choppers, river craft and our aircraft all set, though they might have limited use because of the defenses.”

“
How's that going?” Paige asked.

Liz shrugged. “We've taken out about half the guns in the city. They take about a week to be rebuilt, but we can forget about the rest. Going that deep into the city with raiding teams is suicide.”

“We're hoping that Bravehart and Griffon can take them out at range, but it won't be a complete disaster if they can't,” Nora said. “We can deal with having just infantry and armor support. We took this place with just infantry.”

“
They also didn't have a thousand troops here,” Liz said.

“
And we didn't have armor, so it evens out,” Nora said.

Liz nodded. “Yeah, at least I didn't get stuck scouting the place this time.”

“What, didn't want to get caught on the roof of a building again?” Nora asked. “Ethan was worried about that when they were hunting the AA guns.”

“
Yeah, I can't say I blame him,” Liz said. “Not fun.”

Nora turned back to Yusuf and Paige. “How long is it going to take to get everything down to the supply depot?”

“Probably a few more days. We're going to make sure everything is organized before we move it down there,” Yusuf said. “That will make it easier to move into the city when we need it. We sure could use you to help out.”

“
Sorry, but I'm not going to have internet access this weekend,” she told them. She was going up to her family's cabin with Zach for three days, hiking one last time before the cold weather set in.

“
Eh, too bad. We have a lot to get done.”

“
Who's going to be in charge of the forward depot?” Liz asked.

“
That would be me,” Paige told her.

Besides the depot on the far side of the reservoir, they were going to create an additional one in the city once they gained a foothold. The customized transport boats weren't just for infantry; after the beach had been secured they would be used to carry ATVs, ammunition and fusion batteries into the city. They would use the ATVs to move supplies up to the front lines where they were needed. Hydra might lose, but it wouldn't be on account of running out of ammunition.

“Do we have a spot that we're going to put the depot?” Liz asked.

“
Do we want to go over that now?” Nora asked.

Yusuf shrugged. “Might be a good time.”

“Then we're going to need the map,” Nora said, standing up. The holographic map projector was in the command center. She headed out of the conference room and across the hall, the others in tow.

The table was already in use. Zach, Anna, David and Bryce were looking over the map. They greeted Nora's group.

“Trying to figure out where to put the depot?” Anna asked.

“
It was that obvious?” Paige asked

She nodded. “Well, the person who's in charge of the thing is here, along with my adjunct, our logistics expert and our production company commander.”

“OK, I'll admit that's pretty obvious,” Paige said. “What are you guys doing?”

“
We're getting the little details of the amphibious assault all set,” Zach said. “You might want to join us, if you're here about the depot.”

The others made room around the map table, though it was so big that it wasn't much of a problem. Nora saw that they had several sections of the shoreline marked. The section of shore they had explored was labeled Red Beach.

Zach started to explain the plan. “Alright, see the section labeled Red Beach? Griffon and Bravehart are going to hit it with a ten minute bombardment. As soon as it lifts the ranger company goes in. Black Wolf will be the first unit to land in the city, followed by Redd Foxx. We'll taken and hold the beach, and then form a perimeter. Once that happens the larger transports will bring in the second wave of troops. Marauder will make landfall and head straight for the gates. Part of Sacred Sword will be coming across with them. They'll help us to hold the beach while the third wave comes in.”

“
When can we establish the depot?” Paige asked.

“
It's going to be a while,” Zach said. “The most efficient way to get supplies across the reservoir is to use the transports, and we need them to get all of our troops across.”

“
Can we use the bridge?” Yusuf asked.

Anna shook her head. “The first priority is the armored company. After that maybe, but there's the danger of traffic jambs. Plus, landing supplies by boat puts them right where we need them.”

“I don't think we have to be all that fast anyhow,” David said. “We'll be carrying enough ammunition to supply us for quite a while. I can't see us needing to resupply unless the battle goes several hours.”

“
Which it could,” Yusuf said.

“
Sure, but I'm guessing that you can get everything across in an hour. That gives us plenty of room for error.”

“
Who's guarding the depot, is the next question,” Paige asked.

“
It's going to have to be your guys,” Zach said. She was going to take half of Hephaestus Company south to act as laborers.

“
We're not the greatest at fighting,” Paige said.

“
Which is why you're going to be in the rear,” Anna said. “We really can't spare any combat troops.”

“
Question. What's the heaviest vehicle that one of the transports can carry?” Bryce asked.

“
An ATV,” Yusuf answered him.

“
Yeah, the mortar carriers will need to go with the rest of the armor support,” David said. “I don't like it, but the bridge is the only way across.”

“
Which is why taking the gate is so vital,” Anna added. “We're all dead if we can't.”

“
Are you sure Marauder is up to the job?” Paige asked.

“
I take it you haven't seen them in action?” Liz said.

“
No, I'm not the fighting type,” she said.

“
Well, put nicely they're ferocious. Some people would say that psychopath is a more accurate term, but regardless they're really good at storm attacks and the like. I think they can handle whatever is guarding the gate,” Liz said.

“
How are we coming for air support?” Nora asked.

Anna frowned. “There's still eight AA guns we can't get to, and that's going to ground Raven Flight until we take them out. We're going to have to take out some of them on the ground.”

“Yeah, we're going to be busy taking out the gun towers and then making the bombardment,” Bryce said. “We'll get to them when we can, but it will be faster for everyone on the ground if they can take them out.”

“
Well, we've been able to fight without air support before,” Liz shrugged. “I don't see why we can't do it again.”

“
Are we going to have a command post?” Nora asked.

“
Like last time?” Zach asked. “No, there's way too many moving parts this time, and we're going to need every person we can get on the front lines. There's going to be a command post, but the control is going to be looser. It was so tight last time because we hadn't worked together much and we couldn't afford to make mistakes.”

“
I imagine that it would take a lot of fusion batteries to run a command post like that again, considering we're eight times bigger,” Liz said.

“
Yeah, that's another reason,” Zach agreed. “But we've worked together a lot. We know each other, and we know we can rely on each other. Everyone knows their job. If we have to make changes to the plan on the fly, then we can do it on an individual level.”

“
Who's going to be the overall commander?” Paige asked.

“
That would be me, by process of elimination,” Bryce said. “Since I'm going to be the only one on the other side of the reservoir, they decided that I should be in command.”

“
Oh, you're plenty qualified,” Anna said. “You commanded fine during the attack on Lerna Bastion.”

Bryce smiled. “Yeah, there was that. But you guys are going to be the ones that are going to make it happen.”

“That's how it always is,” Zach said. “The commanders on the front lines are the ones who end up getting the job done.”

Nora nodded. It was up to the unit commanders to win the battle, but it was their job to put them in a position to win. And right now, everything was falling into place.

“
Is everything in place?”

“
Yes, everything's either in place or is getting there. You're not going to turn into one of those psycho control freaks, are you?”