Howl: A World at War Novel (5 page)

Nora brought her gun up to her shoulder and aimed down the sights. She focused on her target, the soldier nearest to her with the yellow x above her head. A ten second countdown appeared in the lower right corner of her HUD. They would all fire when it reached zero.

She hoped that Liz's hunch was correct. They were probably far enough away from any enemy patrol, but if they weren't they were going to have a swarm of angry NPCs descending upon them. And that wasn't taking into account what would happen if they messed up their shots. It only took a split-second for one of the enemy to trigger the alarm.

Seven. Six. Five.

Nora put her finger on the trigger and relaxed. She was a good shot, but this was so much different that the other times she had fought. She had time to think about what she was going to do, and for some reason that seemed to put extra pressure on her. In her previous fights she was simply a soldier in the battle, firing off shots in the rolling chaos of battle. Now, she needed to act with far more precision.

Four. Three. Two.

Her weapon would help her, at least. Nora had carried the assault rifle she had received when she had first joined the game for months. She hadn't changed anything, save for replacing parts that had worn out. Right after the war with Ragnarok began, though, she had switched to a burst fire assault rifle, with a slightly longer barrel. It was less versatile than her previous weapon, but it also had a bit more range and was very, very accurate at short to medium range. A three round burst could put anyone down, especially with a headshot.

One. Zero.

The sound of three guns firing broke the calm. The four enemies fell, two shot in the torso, one shot in the head and one with an arrow sticking out of the base of his neck. Liz was becoming extremely proficient with the bow, almost to the point that it was terrifying. Nora couldn't quite hide the smile that started to creep over her face.

“What?” Liz asked her.

“
Nothing,” Nora said, shaking her head.

“
Danny must have given you plenty of practice,” Selene commented.

Liz couldn't quite hide her own smile. “Come on, let's keep moving.”

Selene and Miko took the lead again, heading toward the center of the battledome. Nora took a few seconds to look at the area map in her wrist menu. Sure enough, they were starting to get close to the objective. The question now was what was there, and what was guarding it.

She glanced over her shoulder to check on the progress of the second team. They were behind them by about thirty yards, making slow but steady progress. Once they got to the objective they would plan and reorganize accordingly.

Selene's voice suddenly cut in on her thoughts. “Liz, Nora, rally on my position. We have our objective in sight.”

Nora followed her instructions. She found Selene and Miko sheltering behind a pair of tangled trees. Ahead of them was a large clearing with a compound in the center. It was surrounded by a tall chain link fence, with a single entrance on their side. A guard tower stood next to it, and it looked like it was armed with a twin heavy machine gun mount. Nora could see a number of enemy troops patrolling the interior of the compound. There were also a few large stacks of ammo crates. They were the objective, judging from the marker hovering above them.

“This may be a bit complicated,” Liz commented.

The guard tower was going to be the biggest problem. Miko could snipe the gunner, but to permanently put it out of action they needed explosives, and Zach was the only one with them. He would need to get close to use his grenade launcher too, and that meant exposing himself.

The second team came up behind them. “Do you have a plan?” Zach asked as he arrived.

“
We're figuring out one,” Liz said.

Nora saw Danny surveying the scene in front of them. “I think I might have an idea,” he said.

“
This was the worst idea ever!” Nora exclaimed as she sprinted past her teammates. Danny was right behind her.

“
We took out the objective,” Danny said.

Nora reached the end of the line, turned and knelt down. She fired a burst at the horde of approaching enemies. “We have to live through this to complete the challenge, remember?”

They had stormed the enemy compound head on, using the element of surprise to take out most of the guards before any of them knew what was happening. The problem was that the alarm had been sounded, and now they had every single patrol in the dome bearing down on them.

Their only way out of this was to conduct a fighting retreat. They had split into four pairs and were gradually falling back, leapfrogging the teams behind them and then turning around to provide cover fire. Danny's machine gun was invaluable right now. The amount of firepower he was throwing out was enough to make even enemy NPCs pause for a moment, and he knew how to exploit it for its full effect.

Robbie and Selene passed by them and took up their position about ten yards to their rear, slightly staggered to one side so there was no chance of friendly fire. Anna and Zach came next, followed by Liz and Miko. They were in front now, and it was time for them to fall back. Nora stood back up and sprinted for the rear of the line. Danny was close behind.

Bullets cracked past her face, some coming so close that she swore she could feel the rush of air from them. It was probably her imagination, but the volume of fire coming at them was intense. They were facing at least a platoon with quite a few heavies mixed in.

It was a minor miracle that none of them had been shot yet. They had taken cover behind any rocks and trees they could find, but again the sheer volume of enemy fire should have hit at least one of them. Nora chalked it up to their ability to lay suppressive fire on the enemy. The question was, how long could they hold out?

They were less than a hundred yards from the extraction point. They just needed to get there and they would have passed the challenge. She wasn't sure the enemy was going to let them, though, and they would all fail the challenge if any one them were killed.

Anna buzzed them all. “We're close. Use everything you have at your disposal to keep them away. That means bullets, arrows, grenades, whatever.”

Nora reloaded her gun and started to spray bursts into the brush. She had four magazines left after this one, and she was going to use them for all they were worth. An explosion went off in front of her, followed by another that was much closer. Someone behind her had thrown a grenade, and Zach had also launched one.

It was their turn to go now. Nora and Danny got up and started to sprint for the rear.

“
Nora, Danny, get to the extraction point,” Anna ordered them. “We're going to keep falling back. Once you get into position, signal us and we'll make a break for it.”

“
Copy,” Nora acknowledged. They took off for their objective. The gunfire behind them was still extremely intense when they reached it.

“
We're in position, but I'm reloading,” Danny said as he fed a fresh belt into his machine gun. “Fall back now, and I'll be able to lay down some sustained fire on them.”

“
Got it. Fall back! Fall back now!”

A series of explosions went off in the direction of the rest of the squad. Nora guessed that they had all thrown grenades to mask their retreat. It took them only a few seconds to reach them. Robbie and Selene came first, followed by Liz and Miko. Both teams got over the objective line. Zach and Anna were last.

“Come on, come on,” Nora muttered to herself. The enemy fire was getting too close.

Zach suddenly fell forward, and for one crushing moment Nora thought they had failed the challenge. But the message didn't appear in front of them, She could see that he was still alive, trying to drag his way forward. Anna was trying to help him up, heedless of the bullets.

“Help her. I'll cover,” Danny said tersely. He started to fire long bursts at the enemy lines.

Nora got on her feet and ran over to Zach and Anna, crouched down to avoid the storm of bullets whipping through the air. Her rifle was slung over her back; there was no point in firing right now. She reach his side and grabbed Zach under his right arm. Anna grabbed his left arm, and they hauled him up.

“Go,” Anna said, and then they were off. Zach was trying to move, though he wasn't doing much to help. Nora and Anna had to manhandle him forward, with only Danny there to give them cover fire. The rest of them had passed the point of no return.

“
Now or never. I can't hold them off,” Danny's voice said through the radio with a steady but urgent tone.

“
Last few yards!” Nora said. She and Anna redoubled their efforts. It would hurt so much to come this far and then lose, mere yards from the final objective. The distance closed. Ten yards, five yards, three, two...

The trio collapsed as they crossed the objective line. Something heavy suddenly landed on Nora's back. But the message appeared on her HUD as well.
Challenge completed
.

“
Sorry about that,” Danny said as he rolled off them. Nora turned around and saw that he didn't have his gun. It was sitting past the objective line in the now empty battledome.

“
You left your weapon?” Selene asked.

“
Hey, they didn't say I had to have it when I crossed the line,” Danny shrugged. He walked over and picked it back up.

They were in rough shape. Other than Danny everyone was either kneeling or lying flat on the hard floor of the battledome. Nora rolled over and stared at the ceiling.

“That was bad,” she said.

“
And that's just the first rank,” Liz said. “There's ten levels.”

Nora didn't want to think about what those might entail right now. They had the title now. Ranger.

CHAPTER 5

Robber Baron

Everything was ready. Everyone had passed the ranger challenge. Their transport was built and everyone had been properly trained. The command structure was in place. All that was left was to test them in a real combat situation, and Zach though they had the perfect target.

'We've been given some information by our contacts with Ronin Company,” Anna was detailing to the rest of the council. “Apparently Ragnarok is using Crimson Eagle's old stronghold to store supplies, especially overdrive. It's the cheapest place to put it.”

Ragnarok's main base was in Old Chicago, but storage space within the city cost a considerable amount of money to rent. Storing outside of the city ran the risk of having the goods stolen if they weren't guarded, but it cost nothing. Ragnarok could also feel secure in the fact that their storehouse was miles behind the front lines. Any time Hydra had tried to drive further north they had been repulsed. Ronin Company didn't have enough troops to do anything about it either, and that was it for the major players in the Old Chicago region.

Ragnarok was going to be in for a very nasty shock, however.

“According to Ronin scouts the area around the base isn't heavily guarded,” Zach said. “Most of their strength in the area is concentrated closer to the front line, in two locations. They call them Fort Baldr and Fort Odin.”

“
Keeping with the Norse theme?” Bryce of Bravehart Company commented.”

“
No worse than us naming this place Lerna,” Gina said.

Zach continued. “Anyhow, we sent out some feelers to Ronin, and they did some more scouting. The base isn't held by very many troops. They only have about twenty players there at the most, and they're more for loading and unloading stock,” Zach said.

“That seems awfully risky,” C.J. of Crimson Eagle said. Several others nodded along with him; Lee of Storm Hawk, Aaron of Band of Brothers, Tyler of Ironfist and Mike of Archangel.

“
I think the logic is that the two forts will fend off any attack,” Anna said. “Anyone going after their storehouse would need to get past the forts first, and that's a tough proposition. They have mortar teams and pretty sizable garrisons inside them. Ronin has tried to sneak past them and they got slaughtered.”

“
But given the fact you can get behind their lines with the helicopters, a raid is plenty feasible for us,” Yusuf mused.

“
Yes, but we're going to need more than that,” Nora spoke up. “We have enough helicopters to transport the entire company, but we want to used some of them as gunships so it's going to be much less. And we want to be able to carry stuff as well.”

“
As a lot of you are probably aware, the base is right next to a river,” Zach detailed. “Our plan is to send half of the company in by helicopter and half in by boat. We'll take the base, load up all the overdrive we can and then leave before Ragnarok has time to mount a response.”

Shayna from Jackal Company raised her hand. They were one of the newest companies in the alliance. “Where are you going to get the boats in the river?”

“We have a deal with Ronin,” Robbie said. 'We'll give them a cut of the overdrive we capture in exchange for using their territory. We can launch from the west bank just above their base, and no one will be the wiser.”

“
Ronin is also going to try to launch an offensive while Ragnarok is busy dealing with us,” Zach said. “Their plan is to try to take Fort Baldr so they can control both sides of the river. I think we should give them some help.”

There was a considerable amount of murmuring after that comment, and it was completely expected. Many of them didn't like Ronin Company either, and they were adverse to cooperation with them.

“Do we honestly need to help them? Why should we spend our money and ammunition helping them for nothing in return?” Cody asked.

“
Yes, we do need to help them,” Liz spoke up. “They're slowly being strangled by the Ragnarok presence in the area. Regardless of what you think about them, they're a thorn in Ragnarok's side and we should do everything we can to make sure they keep it up. Every player they have fighting Ronin is one less that they have to use against us.”

“
So you basically want to use them as our cannon fodder?” C.J. said.

“
While I wouldn't quite put it that way, yes, that would be accurate,” Liz said.

“
It's not like we have to provide front line support to them either,” Gina said. “Say we sent Bravehart to help them. They would only have to act as artillery support. That would give them the edge in the battle, and we wouldn't have to put ourselves at any real risk.”

“
I'd be fine with that,” Bryce agreed.

“
And anyhow, regardless of how well it goes the attack will draw their attention to the south. That will probably buy us a lot more time, and we're going to need that. We don't want this to turn into a disaster like the time we tested out the armored company,” Anna said.

“
I would suggest that we mount two simultaneous operations,” David said. “One will be your raid, and one will be in support of Ronin Company. Does everyone find that agreeable?”

There were no arguments.

“Do you have a name for your operation?” Bryce asked Anna.

She smiled. “The name is going to be Robber Baron.”

It felt completely odd. Every time she had been in the field, Nora had always been with Black Wolf. Not this time, though. Anna was going into the battlefield by river craft, and as her second it was her job to go along with her.

Robber Baron would consist of two parts. Black Wolf Company would perform an air assault on the Ragnarok stronghold. Gunships would strafe the enemy troops that were outside on guard. They would be followed by the troops transports, who would drop their charges right on top of the compound. There was also a small dockyard facing the river. Redd Foxx would attack from that direction, supported with fire from their transports. Once the enemy garrison was dead they would load up the transport boats with as much overdrive as they could carry. They would throw the rest into the river.

Their flotilla of five craft sped up the river. All of them were heavily armed. Hephaestus had mounted six machine guns on the boats, along with a recoilless rifle on the front. It gave them formidable firepower. The only downside was the fact that it took ten people to drive the boats and man all the weapons. All of them were crewed by Redd Foxx members; all of Raven was currently acting as pilots in the air assault platoon. Two of the boats would remain fully crewed while the rest made landfall, providing the all-important fire support. Her boat was one of them.

Anna's voice cut in on her thoughts. “Wolf 2, can you contact the rest of them to make sure they're ready?” she asked.

“
Copy, Fox Lead,” Nora responded. “Wolf Lead, Alpha Wolf, Bravo Wolf, do you copy? Wolf Lead, Alpha Wolf, Bravo Wolf, do you copy?”

“Copy,” Danny's voice crackled over the radio.

“
Copy,” Zach said as well.

Selene activated her radio. “I copy, Wolf 2.”

“Fox Lead advises that we're ready to go,” Nora replied, her voice crackling. Apparently they were close to the maximum range of the standard radio.

“
We're two minutes out from the jump off point,” Zach said. “About four minutes from the landing. Work on that timetable.”

“
Copy, Wolf Lead,” Nora said. “We have word that Ronin has started their attack on Fort Baldr.”

“
Good. Wolf Lead out.”

Selene made one last check of her assault rifle before they reached the point of no return. Hephaestus Company was amazing, really. Even in the midst of building dozens of vehicles they had found the time to concern themselves with the ranger company's weapons. Garrett and Jayson had devised a new assault rifle, carbine, machine gun and submachine gun for them. They were based off the standard models, but they had been modified to weigh less and be easier to handle. The tradeoff was a slight decrease in range, but they considered that to be a necessary evil. With their guns weighing less they could carry more ammunition, which was invaluable for operating behind enemy lines away from any real means of resupply.

Selene tuned her radio to the rest of the riders on her chopper. She was tagging along with the other half of Ethan's squad, and had her normal companions; Mara, Kelsey and Jade, along with Riley. The transport choppers were working in pairs, each pair carrying a full squad between them. They would stick together during the landing and then would circle above trying to provided limited fire support. All of the helicopters had a chin mounted machine gun, though it was small caliber and didn't carry a lot of ammunition. The specialized attack helicopters would provide most of the fire support from the air.

“
All leads, this is Raven 1. My squadron is going in for their attack runs,” Robbie said. His choppers, Ravens 1-6, were armed with a battery of heavy machine guns. They wanted to add rockets or grenade launchers, but Hydra hadn't discovered a schematic for them. They might be able to use the automatic grenade launchers that Ragnarok possessed, but they would need to reverse engineer one from a working example, and that was easier said than done. Any time their weaponry was in danger of being captured Ragnarok would simply blow it up, and she could hardly blame them for that. Hydra had done the same thing with disabled vehicles that they had no hope of recovering.

Selene could see the base ahead of them, along with the swarm of helicopters approaching. It had a low wall, about six to eight feet high. There were platforms and towers so Ragnarok troops could patrol the walls and keep watch. It wasn't especially heavily guarded, though; Selene could only see three towers from her vantage point. Ahead of her flew the helicopters assigned to Danny's troops. Bravo Platoon was going in first. The attack helicopters started their strafing runs.

This was going to be quick and brutal.

“Form up! Form up!” Danny urged as the helicopters landed inside of the base. He quickly unbuckled himself and dismounted, hefting his machine gun as he did so. Half of the platoon had already landed and was laying down cover fire, though there wasn't much response from the enemy. The strafing run had stunned them, and many had fled into the interior of the main base.

The first wave of helicopters took off and the next ones landed. Danny toggled the channels on his radio and started to give orders. “Bravo 1, Bravo 2, take your squads and storm the main building. Strike while they're still reeling. Bravo 3, form a perimeter around the landing zone so Alpha can get in safe. Copy?”

“Copy,” Xavier and Javy said.

“
Copy, but what about the dockyard?” Karen asked.

“
That's Redd Foxx's job,” Danny told her.

“
Alright. Copy.”

Danny switched channels to Selene. “Alpha Wolf, this is Bravo Wolf. I sent Xavier and Javy to storm the central building, but there's still hostiles on the walls. Could you take care of them when you land?”

“Will do, Danny,” Selene confirmed.

Normally the first wave would have done it, but Danny felt that taking the central building as quickly as possible was critical. Ragnarok was plenty resourceful, they weren't one hundred percent sure what they stored here besides overdrive. He didn't want to give them the time to rig up an improvised bomb if he could help it.

“Bravo Wolf, we have movement at the river front,” Karen said. “No accurate count on numbers, but they're hostile.”

“
Hold position,” Danny said. They were in a tight spot. The landing area needed to be held, since their air support couldn't do strafing runs with them in close proximity. But that left them out in the open exposed to enemy fire once they moved up. It was a predicament, indeed.

Then he heard the motors.

The guards on the riverfront didn't stand a chance. They barely had time to turn their heads before Redd Foxx was on top of them, guns blazing. It was totally opposite of everything she had ever seen out of them, but it was completely devastating. One moment there there several squads at the docks; the next moment the pitiful few survivors were scrambling to find cover.

With little else to do Nora was manning a machine gun, firing at any target she could find. It was oddly satisfying, in a way. She was normally a precision shooter, and it felt good to cut loose and blaze away.

Three of the boats moved closer to shore and disgorged their passengers. Nora could see Liz at the front, leading them in a sweep of the outer building around the shore. In the skies above more helicopters descended, bringing Alpha Platoon with them. There was gunfire, movement, but there was nothing intense.

They had done it. They had caught Ragnarok completely by surprise.