Werewolf: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 4) (15 page)

“Give us a minute or two,” came the response.

Danny looked back over the sprawling battlefield in front of him. Even though the garrison was clearly on the back foot, they were still fighting hard. Justin had to dodge an RPG, then gun down his attackers. Others looked like they were trying to close with the exoskeletons and stick them with grenades.

It was quite the dangerous interplay, Danny thought to himself. The exoskeletons had to defend themselves from both the tank and the infantry, and that divided their attention. One lapse in judgment or foresight and their suit was toast.

Which was why Bravo Wolf needed to keep firing. They couldn't hurt the tank, but they could certainly blunt the infantry attack.

Danny set his machine gun up against the wall and fired. He raked the enemy, sweeping his gun from side to side. He couldn't tell if he hit any, but he forced several back into cover, and that was enough.

BAM!

A shell came streaking out of an alleyway and slammed into the side of the tank. It ground to a halt, but the turret started turning toward its attacker.

BAM!

Another shell hit the tank near the front of the turret, bending the main gun sideways. Danny was certain that the boss was dead at this point.

BAM!

If it wasn't before, it was now. A third shell smacked into the tank, and a few seconds later it shuddered.

“COVER!” Danny shouted down the link. He threw himself flat, and a second later the tank blew up. Even at this distance he could feel his teeth rattle.

“Everyone OK?” he asked as he picked himself up. Most of the enemy infantry had been caught by the blast.

“We're fine,” Ryan said.

“Same,” Xavier added.

“Glad we're inside the suits,” Nora said. “That might have been ugly, otherwise. We'll move into to secure the capture point.”

“We're right behind you,” Danny told her. He paused for a moment. “This seems...”

“Huh?”

“Oh, nothing. It's just that it seems anticlimactic, you know? This was nowhere near as hard as the other city fights we've been in.”

“Maybe,” Nora said. “Or maybe we're just that good right now.”

Danny grinned despite himself. “Maybe, though a lot of people might say that's a pretty arrogant statement.”

“Probably the same people that will never achieve anything close to what we've done,” Nora said. “Anyhow, let's just go get the capture point.”

“Right behind you.”

CHAPTER 12

Welcome Home

“Welcome to Green Bay,” Liz said as Zach and Anna stepped off the boat. “Or, the part that we own, at least.”

“Are we ready for another fight?” Anna asked.

Liz shook her head. “We pulled through with minimal casualties, but people are tired. Plus, we'd need to wait a couple more hours to resupply. We burned through a lot of ammunition in the fight.”

Zach looked around. “OK, so we have the eastern half of the city. We have our base. I'd say we're fine leaving the western half be for now.”

“Until they start sending forces to take back this district,” Liz pointed out. “I don't think we can afford NPC guards at the moment, either.”

Zach nodded. Hydra's treasury was stretched to its limit, and its resources need to go toward the fighting in the south. Once again, they needed to remember that they were a sideshow up here. It might not be glamorous, but they needed to make due with what they had on hand.

“We could organize another attack within the week,” Anna said.

Liz frowned. “I'm not sure that's going to be possible. We have lives, you know. We're able to get our attack forces together because we do it so infrequently, but there's no way we could do it every single week. I'd dare say that we'd be missing a third to half our strength.”

“And we need every bit of that,” Zach agreed.

Anna frowned. “That leaves us hanging in limbo, though. We need to have some sort of solution going forward, otherwise this could turn into a disaster.”

“Maybe we don't need to take everything in one go?” Zach suggested.

“I don't think we're going to be able to do that anyhow,” Liz said.

“No, that's not what I mean. I'm talking about taking the western district. All of our plan have relied on taking a district within a few hours. But what if we could do it over the course of several days, or even weeks?”

“How would that even work?” Liz asked.

“Well, say we establish a small foothold across the river today. We'd hold that area, then make a push from it tomorrow, then expand again, and so forth.”

“That might turn into a meat grinder,” Anna said. “At the very least, it's going to take a lot of time.”

“It'll still probably be easier than finding another time when we can get the whole battalion together,” Zach pointed out.

“I'd have to agree with that,” Liz said.

Zach nodded. “Plus, it means we'll use less troops over the long haul. We don't need to have huge attack forces. Just a platoon should be able to take and hold the ground we're covering.”

“Provided the enemy doesn't have some way to sneak behind our lines,” Liz said.

“We'll deal with that problem if it ever shows up,” Zach said.

Anna started walking toward the south and signaled for them to follow. Zach and Liz fell in beside her.

“Heading to the capture point?” Zach asked.

“That's where Lex and Evy are, right?” she asked.

Liz nodded. “Yeah, they're pretty excited about getting their hands on this place. I think they might be staking out new bases for their companies.”

Zach smiled. “Remember those days?”

Anna smiled as well. “Yeah, the novelty has worn off a bit for us, hasn't it?”

“Still, there's always some fun to be had trying to find a new base.”

Anna nodded. “Anyhow, back to the problem at hand. We might only need to use a few platoons, but where are they coming from? I don't think we're going to be able to assemble full units from any company, given the circumstances.”

“Who says we have to?” Zach asked.

“Where are we getting the units we need to fight?” Anna asked.

“We have a battalion based up here. We don't need to use them all at once, or even use the individual companies like we've been doing, really,” Zach said. “All we need to do is to get enough troops to form a platoon on at the same time. They don't need to be from the same company.”

“So you're suggesting that we form temporary units based on what players are online at that time?” Anna asked.

Zach nodded. “We'd designate a platoon commander, of course, and if we have several platoons operating at once we'd form them up into an ad hoc company. But this would be a lot more flexible.”

“Plus, it would be a nice change of pace, being able to run with people you don't normally fight with,” Liz said.

“My only reservation is that we need to have units to start raiding Ragnarok as well,” Anna said. “That is what we're here for, after all.”

“Well, couldn't this work for it as well?” Liz asked. “We'd collect intel, of course, and then we'd designate teams for the raids. But those teams could theoretically be made up of anyone from the battalion.”

“I agree,” Zach said. “Staying just within our own companies is way too restrictive, and I think we can do a lot more if we're flexible.”

Anna nodded. “I agree with that. OK, this is going to need a lot more work, but the basics sound good enough. I'll organize a roster of platoon commander so it's not complete chaos, at least, and I might set a restricted list of company commanders.”

“Might not sit well with some people,” Liz said.

“It also might not be necessary,” Zach said. “I'd put Selene or Danny in charge of a company in a heartbeat, even though they've never been a company commander.”

Liz agreed. “Same with Gray or Jana. There's plenty more that I'd put in charge, too.”

“I understand your point, but I want to avoid arguments that'll leave us standing around for hours trying to decide who's in charge,” Anna said.

“It'll work itself out,” Zach said. “It's not like we're at each other's throats.”

Anna paused for a moment, apparently listening to a message over the radio. “Do you have time for a meeting with the other commanders?”

Zach nodded. “Yeah, I have time.”

“Alright then. Follow me.”

Danny, Selene and Nora were camped outside the entrance of a grey brick building. They straightened up as he approached.

“Apparently there's a meeting going on?” Danny asked.

“So you gathered?” Zach questioned. “Did they not tell you?”

“They didn't include us,” Selene said. “Or any of the lower ranks for that matter, but it's not like it's a big deal. We have plenty of other things to worry about.”

“The ammo supply?” Zach asked.

“That's one,” Danny nodded.

“That's not all,” Selene added. “There's two bridges over the river, and they'd make a perfect place to launch a counterattack. But no one seems to be doing anything about them at the moment.”

Zach looked over at Anna, who shrugged.

“It must have gotten overlooked in the confusion,” she said. “Did you try to get in contact with me?”

“We contacted
Charon
, but you had already left by that time,” Nora said.

Zach frowned. “Wait, so is anyone actually securing the bridges?” he asked.

“We redeployed our platoons to cover both of them, but it's not going to be much if the garrison hits us with a determined attack,” Selene said. “They're tired, and they're running short on ammo at the moment.”

“And our heavy support is gone,” Nora added in. “Raven went back to base, and I don't dare use Hoplite unless we absolutely have to.”

Anna looked around at Liz. “How exactly was this overlooked?”

“We were on the east end of the district clearing out the last pockets of resistance,” Liz said. “I think Thorn was supposed to provide support on the west end, but it might not have been properly communicated to them.”

Anna nodded. “Yeah, that could be. I probably should have given them explicit orders to avoid any confusion. Oh well, we'll know better next time.”

“This time, though?” Danny asked.

Anna looked around at them. “Can you guys handle this?”

Liz nodded. “I'll get reinforcements over to them as soon as possible.”

“Baghest is finishing up their sweep of the riverfront of the district, so they can redeploy pretty quickly if needed,” Danny said. “I think we'll be fine once they reinforce us as well.”

“I'll see if I can scare up some support on the river from Raven,” Nora said. “What are you two going to be doing?”

“We have a meeting?” Zach said.

“Now?” Nora asked incredulously.

“About what?” Selene added.

“No clue,” Zach shrugged.

“It's about our next steps,” Anna said. “Mostly about how we're going to divide up the district. We did technically say that we'd give the city to Thorn and Myrmidon.”

“Couldn't this wait until we're not in danger of getting pushed back into the lake?” Selene said.

Anna shrugged. “Well, they want to make sure that we're going to hold up our end of the bargain. I can't exactly blame them, either. So we'll humor them for now. Plus, you guys are capable of handling the problems.”

“And you both get to go make nice,” Nora said with a smile. “Have fun with that.”

“Lex is a lot less annoying to deal with than Levi,” Zach said, referring to Ronin Company's commander. Both were affable, but Levi had a habit of pushing his own agenda too hard. Lex at least understood that compromise was sometimes necessary.

“Still don't envy you,” Danny said.

“Well, fine then. Don't you have a bridge to guard or something?”

“The bridges aren't guarded?” Karen's voice said from behind him.

Selene looked over at her. “They're covered, but thin. Can you get your company over there?”

“Already headed that way,” Karen told her. “I ordered them to go there after they've finished sweeping the district. It shouldn't take much longer. There wasn't much ground to cover.”

“That's good.”

Nora motioned for the others to follow her. “Let's head over to the bridges and get everyone dug in.”

“What's chain of command?” Danny asked.

“Nora, you're the acting company commander until otherwise stated,” Zach said.

“Same for you, Liz,” Anna said. “I probably don't need to bother telling you this, but make sure to coordinate with everyone, and keep the others in the loop.”

“You really didn't.”

“No, I didn't. Just in case, though,” Anna said. “Well, wish us luck. This might be the most boring or most interesting part of the day, depending on how well or poorly this goes.”

“Good luck,” Liz said.

“Don't have too much fun,” Nora called back.

“I'm really tempted to switch places with you right now,” Zach said. “Maybe I'll do it.”

“I think I'd rather stroll across the bridge and try to take the other side by myself,” Nora said. “Commander.”

Zach shook his head and followed Anna and Karen inside the building. “Know where we're going?” he asked.

“Just follow me,” Anna instructed.

Zach looked over at Karen. “How did your guys do in the fight?”

“Fairly well, I'd say,” Karen replied. “Though we didn't do a lot of the fighting. Actually, most of it was done by Black Wolf and Redd Foxx.”

“Makes sense, since they were in the first two waves,” Anna said. “I'd expect that you saw your fair share of combat, though.”

“Oh yeah, we ran into some pretty heavy resistance coming down the west side of the district. But nothing too bad. Not like Center City or Decatur.”

“I'm not sure how anything could be worse than Center City,” Zach said. “I don't foresee us going in without a plan ever again.”

“Or accidentally blowing up a stockpile of poison gas,” Karen said.

“Eh, I could see something like that happening again,” Zach replied. “You never know what's lurking inside one of these places.”

“In that case, we should be careful what we do until we've scouted the entire district,” Anna said. “On the off chance we're sitting on top of a bomb, or something of that nature.”

“OK, that might be a little paranoid, even for us,” Karen said.

Anna shrugged. “Just saying.” She turned a corner and stopped in front of a pair of doors. “Here we are.”

The trio stepped inside. The rest of the company commanders were present, save for Robbie who was back at Sturgeon Bay. Zach glanced around the large table in the center of the room. Neil was there, along with Paige for the Hephaestus contingent. Lex and Evy stood front and center.

“Thanks for joining us,” Lex said.

“Before we begin, were you aware that the bridges to the west were left uncovered?” Anna asked.

Zach tried to hide a grimace. He saw Neil and Paige give Anna a surprised look. So much for dancing around the issue and playing nice.

“They're uncovered?” Lex asked with a look of surprise on his own face.

“They're covered now,” Anna said. “Black Wolf is currently holding the bridges, and both Redd Foxx and Barghest are moving to support. I thought that Thorn Company would move toward the bridges, but obviously there was some confusion.”