Werewolf: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 4) (17 page)

“Do we really need more than small ambush teams right now?” Javy asked.

“We do if we want to go after their mining operations,” Selene said. “They're going to be heavily guarded, especially after all the attacks on their patrols.”

“And we have to be really careful,” Liz cautioned. “I'd be willing to bet that they're going to send recon aircraft up here soon.”

That wasn't a trifling threat, either. If Ragnarok tracked the raiding parties back to their base they would know Hydra had their hands on Green Bay. Once that happened they would hit them with everything they had, and Ghost Battalion would be completely screwed.

And so, they were taking numerous precautions. The two river craft turned off the main river and floated in toward the shore, about three miles south of the city. From their the team would disembark and travel the rest of the way on foot. It was slower, but it would protect them if they were being tracked. Ragnarok might think their base was here, and not in the city itself.

Danny wasn't sure that Ragnarok wanted to approach the city any closer than they had to, either. NPC garrisons were notoriously trigger-happy, and inexperienced troops would probably get slaughtered. Getting close without drawing attention required specialized stealth troops, and Ragnarok's units were probably in the south.

The unit reached shore and headed north on a rough pathway. They stayed alert, weapons at the ready. This area was supposed to be safe, but none of them wanted to take any chances. Who knew what kind of predators might be lurking in the undergrowth?

“Well, this was fun, at least,” Liz commented as they walked.

Nora agreed. “Yeah, it's a nice change of pace, being able to get out of the suit and fight with my boots on the ground.”

“Or actually get to fight at all,” Will said.

“But didn't this strip your company of all its officers?” Liz asked.

“Ryan, Ethan and Logan are still up in the city,” Zach said.

“Those three can take care of themselves,” Miko added.

Zach nodded. “Yeah. Plus, Karen's up there too, and she's good enough to lead a multiple platoon effort. It gets them extra experience running larger units, too.”

“Experience is good,” Liz agreed. “Hopefully this leads to us being able to assemble faster.”

“Turn us into the rapid response force, huh?” Danny said.

“That is the purpose of rangers,” Will said.

“We'd need another battalion before we can really do that,” Nora said. “We do way too much frontline fighting for us to constantly move around.”

“We're doing it now just fine,” Gavin pointed out.

“And now we're stuck here for the time being, since there's no battalion to take our place.”

Danny frowned. “I know they're skeptical about it, but would Thorn and Myrmidon be a good base for another battalion.”

Zach shrugged. “That would mean them joining the alliance, and I don't see that happening at this point. They're way too independent right now.”

“So were the Legion Pact, and they joined,” Miko pointed out.

“They really didn't have much of a choice,” Zach said.

Xavier spoke up. “Neither do Thorn and Myrmidon, if you really think about it. They have one district in Green Bay. They'll have both given time. How are they going to hold a city that size with just one hundred troops?”

“NPC garrison?” Javy ventured.

“How are they going to pay for it?” Xavier pointed out. “There's only one way to get to Old Chicago, and that's by water. And guess who controls the fleet?”

“Expanding off that, they're going to have no manufacturing capabilities without us, either,” Nora said. “I don't think a lot of us realize just how advanced our industry is, but outside of Ragnarok Company, who can touch Hephaestus's capabilities? They're going to have no way to get ammunition or credits without us.”

“So we hold all the cards,” Gwen said. “The question is, how do we want to play our hand?”

“I wouldn't be too rough about it, to be honest,” Danny said.

“Why?”

“Because people don't like it when it's done to them. And I think it's better to get people with incentives, not threats. Sure, the Legion Pact joined us. But it was because we offered them a place. We didn't threaten them, and they felt like they were making a choice.”

“Even though they really didn't have one,” Gavin pointed out.

Danny shrugged. “Well, sure. But as long as they have the illusion of choice it makes it much easier for them to swallow. I think we're impressing them, anyhow. The way we operate is really eye-opening to them, and they might want to be a part of it.”

“Back to the nasty politics of the game,” Miko commented.

“Yeah, it's all illusion and slight of hand in here,” Danny said. He though he saw Zach frown. “What?”

Zach shook his head. “Nothing.”

“So you think they'll come around?” Liz asked.

Danny nodded. “I think they will. And we'll be much stronger for it. But let's make sure that it happens.”

“Taking the rest of the city would be a good start,” Gavin commented.

It would indeed.

CHAPTER 14

Daredevil

“We're advancing,” Xavier said over the radio.

“Good,” Selene replied. “Keep it up, but don't stretch yourselves too thin. We don't want to put ourselves in a position where we're vulnerable to a counterattack.”

“Understood. Will do,” Xavier said.

Selene looked back down at her wrist menu map, assessing the situation. The task of commanding the fighting in the western district had fallen to her today. She had a mix of troops from several companies, including Black Wolf, Redd Foxx and Barghest, along with a few volunteers from Myrmidon Company.

The troops were organized into three platoons. Xavier commanded A Platoon, which was advancing along the shoreline. B Platoon under Jana protected their flank and drove toward the southwest. C Platoon, commanded by Logan, held the area around the bridge to the south and held fast, trying to keep the enemy in their sector busy.

Their goal was to first take the shoreline, giving them access to all of Green Bay's port facilities. Once they had those under control, they could send supplies directly to the battlefield instead of funneling them over the bridges.

While that was being secured other units would head southwest, trying to secure more of the city and reduce the size of the front they had to cover. Eventually they hoped to envelop the stadium from three sides and pound it into submission.

All they needed to do was maintain steady progress. And while this was all going on, they could continue to raid Ragnarok patrols and supply convoys near Madison.

Everything seemed to be going well, but Selene felt troubled, and she wasn't exactly sure why. For some reason, it felt like they were moving too slow. In her mind, they could take the district within a few hours if they assembled enough troops and made one hard push. But Anna, Zach and the rest of command had decided on this course of action, and she would need to see it through to the end despite her misgivings.

It wasn't like she objected to the plan, either. Selene saw the wisdom in the decision; it allowed Ghost Battalion to keep its options open, and it meant they could attack Ragnarok at the same time.

Maybe it was because she wanted to be in the thick of things, fighting between the edge of failure and stunning success. Her favorite moments in World at War had come when their backs were against the ropes and they were forced to improvise. Then, more than ever, she felt most alive in this world. There simply wasn't the same rush from easy wins.

Plain and simple, Selene had become a daredevil. Only the toughest challenges would do. That was probably why she had ordered so many missions that the rest of her platoon thought were suicide. The thrill of facing almost certain death beckoned to her.

But was it making her a worse leader? She was worried that her judgment was being hurt by her thrill-seeking. One of these times they were going to stumble into a situation where there was no escape, and they would end up getting slaughtered. She couldn't necessarily help that, either, but she was worried that it would happen in a situation that could have been avoided.

And then there was something else that Zach and Nora had mentioned in conversation. Elysium Visions had brought in a psychiatrist to conduct interviews assessing their mental state after being in the virtual world for such a long time. After one such session, they had said something that bothered her.

“It's all just a facade,” Zach had said. “Your avatar might just be a front to disguise the real person behind it.”

Nora had agreed with him. “You can put out all the things you want people to see, and hide the ones you don't. And that might be happening here as well.”

For some reason, that thought bothered her immensely. And it made her think more about the interviews she had with Dr. Lee.

“What might you do differently in the virtual world that you wouldn't in real life?” Dr. Lee had asked her.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I mean in the general sense. Would you act the way you do in the virtual world in the real world?”

Selene had thought about that for a moment. “I'd probably say no. There's too many consequences in the real world that don't exist in the virtual world.”

“So you wouldn't act that way in the real world due to societal pressure?”

That question had confused her. “I'm sorry, but I'm not quite sure what you're getting at.”

“Societal pressure,” Dr. Lee had explained. “Certain actions are deemed unacceptable by a society, even though in and of themselves they aren't strictly considered to be good or bad.”

“Like, moral relativity?” Selene had asked.

“Not quite. It relates more to small things, points of etiquette that differ from society to society. For instance, slurping is considered rude in American culture, but acceptable in many Asian cultures. Slurping in and of itself isn't good or bad, but the context of the society makes it so.”

“So, there's certain societal pressures that don't exist in the game world? And that's influencing how I behave?”

“Quite possibly,” Dr. Lee had confirmed. “How do your actions differ from the ones you would do in the real world? Skip the major ones like killing. Those are points of morality, not societal pressures.”

“Umm. I'm a lot more of a risk taker in the virtual world than I am in the real world,” Selene had explained. “I'm willing to do things that have a high probability of getting myself and my comrades killed.”

“Why do them?”

“Probably because there's no risk of death in the virtual world. I wouldn't do a lot of the daredevil stunts in the real world because I don't want to run the risk of killing myself. But I can do it in the virtual world because I'm immortal there.”

“So the virtual world provides you a safe haven to do things you normally wouldn't try?”

“Yes, I guess you could say that,” Selene hand confirmed.

“Do you think that it allows you to do what you truly wish you could do? Dr. Lee had asked.

That question had bothered her the most. Selene mulled over it constantly. Many people called the virtual world escapism, but was it more than that? Was it wish fulfillment, allowing players to be what they wanted to be? And then there was that word that Zach had used.

Facade
.

Was it all fake? Was everyone in the world truly genuine, or were they all just masks, embellished for the benefit of those around them?

The more she thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense, and the more it bothered her. The fact that she knew several of her virtual world comrades in real life only seemed to make it worse.

Zach had never been much of a leader when they had been growing up, but now he was a dynamic presence in the alliance, considered to be one of the best strategic minds in Hydra. Danny was always absentminded, but within World at War he was able to maintain a tight focus, and that reflected on his platoon. Nora, as well. In the real world she was an artist, a musician, but in the game world she was all about statistics and figures.

And then there was her. Selene had always been determined to be the best at everything, and she pushed herself to excel. But within World at War, she was simply content to be a part of the action, so long as there were challenges in front of her. Why was there such a drastic change in her demeanor?

In fact, why was it changing all of them? She wasn't the only one to notice it, either. Nora and Zach had noticed the disconnect, and it worried them greatly. Even Danny felt some concern. So what was going on?

Her radio went off. “Alpha Wolf, we've run into an enemy platoon,” Xavier informed her. “Might be a few minutes before we start moving again.”

“Copy that. Just do your best,” Selene told him. She drifted back to her thoughts.

What were the differences between their avatars and their real world personalities? Were they wish fulfillment? Were they a diversion from their normal lives? Or were they something more sinister?

She had heard the factoid before in college. People who used social media were less happy than people who didn't because they only saw a filtered view of their social circle. They could only see the good that their 'friends' wanted to show, or only the bad they wanted to allow. Selene hadn't thought much about that, until now. But the thoughts crept up on her.

It was disturbing, really. Many people's social lives consisted of meeting with people over the internet. But if that was the case, they were being presented with sanitized versions of the people behind the avatars. There were no rough edges to them, no flaws. But there were also no quirks, no little things that made a whole person. There was no humanity in those facades.

And worst of all, she might be doing it herself without even knowing. Maybe her actions in World at War were part of her subconscious wanting to be a daredevil. If that was the case, then it was trying to leave that impression with the others to maintain the facade.

That thought ate away at her, no matter how much she wanted to push it away. Could this really be called a virtual reality? Were there real people involved, or were there just puppets made to act like their puppeteers desired?

It sounded like such a stupid complaint when she could pull the plug anytime she wanted, but virtual reality was an uncharted territory. Could her actions in the game be messing with her mind in the real world? Was she living her life based on the facade she wanted to project into a world that didn't really exist?

And anyhow, why did she care about what everyone else in the virtual world thought, especially when she'd never meet most of them in real life? She already hung out with the ones she wanted to, and their opinion of her wasn't going to be influenced by her actions in a game. So why all the worry?

It was sad, really. So many people wanted to present themselves to the world over the internet, but by doing so they cut out huge chunks of their personality. They sanitized themselves to present the image they wanted, and in the end they all looked the same.

Maybe that was her problem, Selene thought to herself. Maybe instead of trying to be a daredevil as a part of her image, she should be a daredevil for its own sake. And she needed to present herself, flaws and all. That's what would make her avatar truly her own, not just a shadow of herself.

Xavier contacted her again. “OK, we've cleared out the enemy platoon. We have moderate casualties, but we can continue advancing. I'm not sure how much farther we're going to be able to reach, though.”

“Do you need reinforcements?” Selene asked.

“That would be nice, but I'm not sure where you're going to get them from,” Xavier said. “Unless a lot of players got online recently.”

“I'll see what I can scare up,” Selene told him. “Have you seen any antiaircraft guns around your sector?”

“No, I haven't. Not since the pair we destroyed a few days ago. I think that most of them are clustered near the airfield and the stadium, like Gray described.”

“OK. We might not be able to get you another platoon, but we could probably get you a helicopter gunship. Maybe two.”

“That would certainly help,” Xavier agreed. “Call me if you have something. I'm going to keep A Platoon moving forward otherwise.”

“Copy that, A Leader.”

Selene switched her radio channels and focused. Now wasn't the time for navel gazing. She had work to do as the commander of this operation, and she wasn't about to get distracted.

“Ghost Command, come in. This is Alpha Wolf. Ghost Command, please respond.”

Nothing. She tried again.

“Ghost Command, this is Alpha Wolf. Come in.”

A voice crackled over the radio. “Come in, Alpha Wolf.”

“What the heck are you doing answering radio messages, Miko?' Selene asked.

“I was in the command center when Anna logged off. I'm covering for her until Zach or Nora shows up,” Miko replied.

“Eh, that really doesn't sound like your area of expertise,” Selene commented.

“What's there to do? I take messages from people asking for help, then I tell other people to go there. It's really not that hard to do,” Miko said.

“Uh, it's probably a little more complicated than that,” Selene said. “Anyhow, A Platoon needs some help along the north shore.”

There was a pause. “Yeah, I can see their position right now. What kind of help do they need?”

“Anything you can get over here. Reinforcements would be nice. They took some casualties. Barring that, if you can get a helicopter gunship or two over there that would be very helpful.”

“I know there were some Raven crews around here somewhere. I'll see if I can get them up off the ground.”

“Thanks Miko,” Selene replied.

The thoughts still swirled around her, but Selene tried to push them aside. She could worry about them later. Right now, she had a battle to run.