Howl: A World at War Novel (3 page)

“
Good question,” Zach said. Pretty much everything that ran off of electricity was powered by fusion batteries. They were convenient and easy to operate, but they were going through scores of them in a single day. Two warehouses in town were filled to the brim with drained batteries.

“
I really wish there was a way to recharge them,” Anna said.

“
There was that thing in the power plant to the east,” Liz offered.

“
I wish there was a way to recharge them that isn't smashed in a million little pieces,” Anna revised her statement. Redd Foxx had run into a monstrous mutated spider lurking within the plant. They eventually had to blast it with recoilless rifle rounds, and had destroyed large sections of the plant in the process. The schematic there was thankfully intact, but the other possible salvage definitely was not.

“
But the fact something that looks like a charger exists makes me think that we can recharge the batteries,” Nora said. “That would solve our problems.”

“
Until then, we're going to have to buy them,” Zach said. Thankfully they had the money to do so. Hydra had two main sources of income: bullets and overdrive. Even with the high demands of their forces, they still had enough ammunition to sell in the markets of Old Chicago. They also were the only ones who could produce overdrive, the best combat stimulant on the market. Black Wolf had discovered it early on in their adventures, and had used it as their trump card. They had amassed a huge treasury from the profits, and it had kept Ragnarok at bay. They had been too afraid of being cut off from the supply.

Doubtless Ragnarok was buying some of the goods they were selling on the market, but they had judged it was a fair trade. Yusuf had astutely pointed out that they were essentially trading bullets and stimulants for the supplies they needed to run their armored forces.

But still, giving their enemy the means to fight them was galling, even if it did serve them well in the long run. Several of the more militant council members were unhappy, particularly Cody of Marauder, C.J. of Crimson Eagle and Lee of Storm Hawk. Gina of Grizzly Company, one of the founding members of Hydra, was also unhappy, though she was more reserved about her displeasure.

That was why Zach felt their mission was so important. If they could capture a large city, they could operate a market outside of Ragnarok's influence. Lerna Bastion was an excellent fortress, but it lacked the capability to operate a market. They had the space, but everyone was leery of letting outsiders into their stronghold. Betrayal meant that a player could be killed anywhere without consequence for twelve hours, even in safe zones, but Zach suspected that any Ragnarok infiltrator wouldn't care in the slightest. Lerna Bastion was more than a thorn in their side: it was a huge boulder, blocking their path.

The bastion was the toughest fortress in the region, built by Hephaestus engineers. There had been several improvements from the original fortress. The wall around the town was now twenty feet thick, made out of compacted earth and covered in pillboxes and bunkers. The ditch in front of the wall was dug ten feet deep and fifteen feet wide, and was strewn with barbed wire and landmines. Heavy weapons emplacements lined the walls and the buildings near the edge of town. Ragnarok had tried to launch an attack on the bastion at the beginning of the war, with almost two thousand troops. They had outnumbered Hydra by almost four to one, and they had been slaughtered. Such was the power of the fortress.

“
What do you think?” Nora asked.

“
Huh?” Zach said, snapping back to the discussion at hand. He had completely zoned out.

“
Structuring the alliance. Every single company seems to be turning into specialists,” Nora elaborated.

“
True enough,” Zach said. They had found it was more efficient for different companies to specialize. Bravehart, for instance, specialized in fire support, and operated 81mm and 120mm mortars. They were dominated by artillery specialists, though they still had front line squads to guard their mortar teams. Likewise, Marauder was tailored for up close and personal fighting, but still had snipers and long ranged heavies to provide support. Overall, though, they were specialized for a specific combat role.

“
I think the larger companies need to be able to fulfill a bunch of different roles, even if their specialization is in one,” Liz said.

“
I do too. Never know when you're going to need certain skills,” Nora agreed.

“
Taking this place comes to mind,” Anna commented. The battle for Lerna had been fierce. Hydra had lost almost three quarters of their troops in the attack, most of them due to a self-propelled antiaircraft gun that had appeared near the central capture point. It had been a hard lesson, but an important one. They had to improvise on the fly, and the four companies had cooperated admirably. Black Wolf, Grizzly, Redd Foxx and Sacred Sword had done what they needed to do in order to win the battle, and they did it without prejudice or favoritism. That ethos had carried over to the alliance, and was still an important part of their culture.

“
I think everyone's capable of performing multiple roles if they need to. The class restrictions hurt, but that's to be expected,” Zach said. Artillery, minesweeping, explosives and other specialized skills needed to be learned with skill points. That forced players to specialize, but in a pinch everyone could at least serve as infantry.

“
Yeah. It was just a thought I had,” Nora said. “It might be easier to operate if we have a clear structure.”

Zach agreed with that assessment. Organization was Hydra's greatest strength. They had excellent weapons and seasoned troops, but they would be nothing without organization. Zach had done some work on the communications systems for World at War, and he knew how to exploit them to their advantage. Knowing where everything was on the battlefield could be more powerful than a squad of veteran troops. It had allowed them to operate effectively. Even under fire and suffering casualties, Hydra troops still understood the importance of cooperation. It made them like their namesake: cut off one head, and two more would appear.

“Are we going to try to get the ranger company approved at the next council meeting?” Zach asked.

“
I don't think we need to bother with that,” Anna said. “I'm going to send everyone a message, and then we can take a vote that way. I can't imagine there would be any objections.”

“
Sounds good,” Zach nodded. Messages could be sent both in game and to the World at War app, which could be accessed in the real world through a computer or a phone. It allowed them to bridge the gap between the two worlds. In fact, it was almost like crossing from one dimension to another.

Nora opened her wrist menu and looked at the clock. “We should probably log out so we have time to get ready for tonight. See you later, Liz.”

Nora touched a few buttons in her holographic wrist menu, and suddenly she wasn't there anymore.

“
See you tonight, Liz, and see you two tomorrow,” Zach said.

“
Later,” Anna said.

Zach opened up his menu and logged out.

He sat up in his chair and took the neuro-helmet off. Nora was already up, arching her back as she stretched.

“
I'm so glad we exercise,” she groaned as she leaned to one side. “Can you imagine how fat we'd be if we didn't?”

“
Not something I really want to think about,” Zach said. He had run track in high school, and he still enjoyed it.

Nora stopped stretching. “Well, time to get ready.” She pulled a Chicago Cubs hat out of her bag. “This is going to be great.”

Zach stood up and headed for his room to get his jersey. “Definitely,” he said.

CHAPTER 3

The Spartan Way

“
Why am I a Cubs fan?” Danny groaned out loud.

“
That was pretty brutal, huh?” Javy asked.

“
Yeah, it was,” Danny said. “I don't know why I even bother getting excited.”

“
That didn't look pretty, but what happened?” Selene asked. “I didn't get time to check the game log.”

“
They had their annual meltdown last night,” Danny said. “They had a three run lead at the top of the ninth, but then Ignacio walked two runners. And then the Reds hit a home run.”

“
Ouch,” Selene said.

“
That wasn't the worst part,” Nora said. “Shin Riku hit a double in the bottom of the thirteenth inning with no outs. Know what happened next? Groundout, strikeout, strikeout. No runs.”

Danny leaned back in his chair and groaned again. “Fifteen innings. I'm so tired now.”

“You three look it,” Miko commented.

“
How are you holding up?” Gavin asked Zach.

“
When's football season?” Zach said with a shake of his head.

“
We are such masochists,” Danny said. At this rate, the sun was going to implode before the Cubs won the World Series.

“
Don't doze off,” Xavier warned.

“
Don't worry. I'll just hype myself up on coffee,” Danny said. In truth, even though he was tired he was fully awake. They were at another interview session with Dr. Richard Unger, a sociologist studying World at War at the behest of the game's creator, Elysium Visions.

Danny hadn't thought much about the sociological and psychological implications of World at War to begin with. It was odd, considering that he was a philosophy student in the process of completing his doctorate, but to Danny the game had simply been entertainment. It was good entertainment, all told. Along with Zach and Selene he had been a beta tester, and he had enjoyed everything about the combat system. But that had changed once they started to experience the open world. It was no longer a matter of soldier against soldier. World at War may have ostensibly been about fighting, but in reality it was a political game at its core. It was like Carl von Clausewitz had said: war was simply a continuation of political policy by other means. But what were their political ends in the virtual world?

Dr. Unger had picked up on that and had posed a question to them. Was their war with Ragnarok based on a duel of ideologies? Dr. Unger had posed the theory that they saw themselves as democratic, while Ragnarok was authoritarian. Thus, they gravitated toward conflict because of their clashing ideologies. Hydra espoused freedom while Ragnarok emphasized control.

Danny had disagreed with that conclusion. To him, they lived in a world like the one described by Thomas Hobbes: life was nasty, brutish and short without a powerful authority to oversee everything, and both groups possessed such authority, even though they did so in different ways. Ragnarok's leadership was extremely centralized, centering around their company commander, Lucas Otrar. To all appearances Hydra was much more egalitarian, but to Danny they were simply two sides of the same coin. Hydra's council still had ultimate authority over the alliance, even if it was slightly more decentralized.

And anyhow, Danny didn't see the conflict as one about ideology. Hydra wanted freedom from Ragnarok's oppression, to be sure, but the conflict came from something else. It wasn't about ideals, or about a lofty abstract concept. It was the same as two cavemen beating each other with sticks. It was simply about dominance.

But then again, every single competition was about that. Sometimes you won, sometimes you lost, and sometimes you watched your team's season go down in flames and wished you had been raised a White Sox fan.

The door behind him opened. “Good morning, everyone,” a familiar voice said. Danny turned to greet Dr. Unger as he took his seat.

The doctor set his notes down on the table in front of him and opened them up. He had a paper notebook, not a tablet or a holographic display. Danny often wondered about that. Maybe it was just nostalgia.

“We'll get started, then. I've been compiling reports on your actions for the past few months, and many things had caught my interest. There was the idea of a battle between ideologies, as you remember, though you were fairly quick to debunk that notion. But one of the other things I noticed was your apparent use of psychological warfare.” He looked over at Miko. “In particular, I noticed that you seem to specifically target enemy commanders for assassination. Is there a reason why, besides the obvious?”

“
Killing commanders disrupts an enemy's ability to coordinate their actions,” Miko said. “Not having a strong central command hurts anyone, but it really hurts a big force.”

“
It also forces them to post a much bigger guard at their headquarters,” Nora said. “That hurts them as well.”

Dr. Unger nodded. “But that also invites retaliation.”

“We took the idea from Ragnarok, actually,” Danny pointed out. “They were the ones that started using it.”

“
I imagine it must be very demoralizing to be a victim of those types of tactics,” Dr. Unger said.

“
It's not much different from being blasted by an enemy mortar or RPG team,” Javy said. He had been killed a few times leading his squad.

Miko frowned. “I'd disagree, actually. You can chalk up a lot of kills to the random chaos of battle. But having someone come assassinate you makes it feel like you're being specifically targeted. And that can make people really nervous.”

“So you perform assassinations because they cause a specific type of intimidation?” Dr. Unger asked.

Miko shrugged. “That seems accurate.”

“I think it's just one part of psychological warfare,” Danny said. “We do a lot of things to intimidate or confuse the enemy.”

That was one significant weakness that human players had compared to NPCs. Players were generally much better shots, had better abilities and were able to come up with plans on the fly better, but they also had the weakness of human psychology. NPCs could be confused, tricked or suppressed, but as virtual constructs they weren't capable of feeling fear. In contrast, human players were vulnerable in many respects. They could guess enemy plans wrong, they could be intimidated by the volume of enemy fire coming at them, and their judgment could be skewed by their own prejudices and perspectives.

That was what made communication such a vital part of the game. Zach had been one of the main designers of the game's communications systems. At first glance it didn't seem like a significant advantage, but at second blush it was a huge one. It wasn't like there was any secret knowledge, but he had understood better than anyone the need for players to exercise coordinated teamwork. That was what truly separated the elite companies and alliances from the rest of the pack.

“
Is there anything in particular that you push for?” Dr. Unger asked.

“
Confusion,” Danny said. The others nodded in agreement with him.

“
Can you elaborate?”

Danny leaned back in his chair. “During the battle around Lerna Bastion, there were a few small teams operating outside of the walls. They really didn't amount to much, but they were really important in turning the tide of the battle.”

“I think that a lot of it had to do with intimidation and surprise,” Selene said. “We took out an artillery position manned with a couple of platoons with just a four person team. They didn't see us coming, and we were able to take advantage of the shock factor to get in and accomplish our goal.”

“
There was another team from Redd Foxx in the forest as well,” Zach said. “The same thing happened. They wee able to take out the enemy headquarters because they caught the enemy by surprise. Once that happened, the enemy had to retreat because they couldn't coordinate their efforts.”

Dr. Unger nodded. “I see. That certainly fits with the idea that was posited to me by one of the head designers. There seem to be many emergent mechanics.”

“Pardon, but what exactly does that mean?” Xavier asked.

“
Emergent mechanics. Emergent gameplay has always been a part of games, even dating back to board games. Even the simplest mechanics can lead to very complex situations once the human element is introduced. Take, for example, chess. At its core the game is very simple. Each piece has its own specific moves it can perform, and you must capture the enemy king. Simple, at its core. But pit two humans against one another and several mechanics start to appear. What should my opening move be? What will my opponent do? What is he doing right now? Is this a trap? Many things like that start to appear.”

“
That really didn't occur to me,” Danny said.

“
You are all a very good example of this, in fact. Take your selling of overdrive, for instance. The mechanics surrounding it are quite simple. You can produce something from a schematic, and there's an auction system within the game. Simple, really, but by thinking outside of the box you managed to leverage that into a monopoly.”

“
Smart thinking on her part,” Danny said, nodding toward Nora.

“
Thanks,” she said.

“
Your war against Ragnarok is an example as well. It has all the makings of an epic narrative, but it simply came about because of the human element within the game. The ambitions of a few people collided, and suddenly it spiraled into an all-out war,” Dr. Unger said. “It's also interesting to note that the emergent mechanics seem to be amplified by the fact that it's a virtual world.”

“
How so?” Zach asked.

“
Players seem to be pushed to invent solutions to problems much faster,” Dr. Unger said. “We think it may have something to do with the lack of disconnect between their virtual world avatars and their real world selves.”

“
So it's because the game seems to trigger their survival instincts?” Danny asked.

“
That would be one way to put it,” Dr. Unger said. “Players that frequent much more dangerous areas seem to be most affected.”

That was a rather sobering thought, Danny thought to himself. It was in line with some of his theories about the game. For how advanced everything seemed in World at War, they were really back in the Stone Age. The players were scattered into small groups, trying to fight for their own survival against a land filled with predators and brutal competition from others. They were completely primitive.

Maybe that was the appeal of the game. It gave them an outlet for the visceral nature that all humans possessed. Even given the great strides in knowledge and technology, humans still had the beast lurking within them, and it felt good to let it out once in a while. Danny himself enjoyed combat for its primal thrill. That was one of the greatest thrills of violent games. They allowed you to unleash the beast within a contained environment. But what happened when the filter between the real and virtual world disappeared?

It was a disturbing thought, to say the least.

“
So you want us to take the ranger challenge?” Danny asked. They were getting a late lunch at the Belfast Manor Pub.

“
I think it's a good idea,” Zach said. “We need to have some way to make sure that everyone is up to par.”

Danny nodded as he looked over the menu. “True enough. Still, though, that seems to favor Redd Foxx over us.”

“You don't have to use stealth skills,” Nora said. “All you need is to complete the objectives.”

“
That's like saying I don't need a parachute to go skydiving,” Danny argued.

“
Well, go ask Liz for some training,” Nora shrugged.

“
Are we going to be tested individually?” Gavin asked.

“
No, it's going to be by squad,” Zach told them. “That seems like it's the best way to do it, since the individual squads are going to be the basis of the force.”

“
What do you mean by that?”

“
We figure the best way to handle transportation is by how much a helicopter or boat can carry,” Nora said. “Boats can carry ten, and helicopters can carry up to six, although that's pretty cramped. But we're planning on having one boat or two helicopters per squad.”

“
Plus, we can do a lot of damage with just one fireteam, like I said earlier,” Zach said.

Danny nodded in agreement. “We did a lot with just four of us. It would also work well, since we can deploy teams to different areas where they're needed. It'll make it much more efficient.”

“But we still have to pass the ranger challenge,” Gavin said.

“
Yeah, that's going to be the sticking point in all of this,” Nora admitted. “I mean, I definitely think we can do it, but Danny is right as well. Redd Foxx is much better suited for this type of thing.”

Danny thought about that as they ordered. Black Wolf was capable of stealth, but not on the same level as Redd Foxx. Then again, he wasn't sure that anyone could match them. Miko seemed to be able to; she had done a lot of training with Liz and Gwen. Maybe it was time for them to do so as well.