Werewolf: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 4) (18 page)

CHAPTER 15

Undermining

No sight. No scent. No sound.

Nora's platoon crept toward their target, invisible within the forest. The enemy would never see them coming.

At least, she hoped they wouldn't. Most of Ragnarok's experienced stealth troops were in the south, fighting Ronin and Knight Battalion. The troops up north didn't have the survival skills that their veteran counterparts possessed.

But still, it would take just one pari of sharp eyes to spoil their plan. Getting cocky and underestimating their enemy could mean disaster. They needed to stay focused and stay sharp.

Nora moved slowly through a stand of trees, keeping a close eye on the Ragnarok picket force surrounding the ore field. Many of the guards scanned the forest with their binoculars, but all of them were stationary.

That probably meant their commander was inexperienced. Nora would have actively guarded the area, sending small patrols in sweeps around the perimeter to keep the enemy on their toes. Instead, the stationary positions made it easy for the rangers to get close.

Not that she was anything close to an expert stealth commander, though. Nora ranked herself far below any of the Redd Foxx officers, and barely equal to some of the others.

But this job had fallen to her. Ghost Battalion was making their final push in the western district, and most of their available strength was tied up there. Anna, Zach, Robbie, Neil and all the rest of the commanders were busy coordinating the massive assault.

Ragnarok couldn't be ignored, either. After all, that was why they had come north in the first place. The battalion didn't have nearly enough strength to attack Madison directly, and none of them wanted to get close to it, either. Ragnarok had long-ranged artillery, aircraft and armor, and Ghost Battalion simply didn't have the numbers or equipment to fight that.

What they could do, however, was disrupt the enemy's supply chain. Just like Hydra, Ragnarok need resources to manufacture its ammunition and arms, primarily ore. Up in this area, resources were plentiful, but their locations were isolated. Mining parties needed to travel a long way to their destinations, and that left them very vulnerable to attack.

Ghost Battalion had ambushed three mining groups over the past week, killing scores of enemy troops and depriving them of tons of ore they needed for the main front. This would be the fourth, and one of the smallest. But still, every hurt they inflicted helped their cause. It took away resources that Ragnarok needed for their war effort, and eventually they would have to respond. That would probably draw a few troops from the south away, and that could tip the balance in the Hydra Alliance's favor.

Even up here in the middle of nowhere, miles and miles from their comrades, they were still part of the team, and they would succeed or fail with them. Right now they were winning. Knight Battalion was still holding firm, fending off any and all Ragnarok attacks with occasional help from Ronin and its allies. More importantly, Dragon and Rogue Battalions had captured yet another district in Indianapolis, and were gearing up to take another.

Only two more to go, and Hydra's goals would be complete. They would have their city, one of the largest in the region, and would be able to impose their will on their enemies. Ragnarok might have Madison, but Indianapolis was three times its size. With its resources and industrial capabilities, they could fight Ragnarok on even terms. And it was very likely that Hydra would continue to grow, bolstered by the prestige of owning their city.

But that all depended on surviving long enough to take the last two districts. And so, the task of guarding the alliance fell to Ghost and Knight Battalions. Knight took the direct route, offering open battle to their foes.

Meanwhile, Ghost Battalion used its greatest strengths; mobility and stealth. Ragnarok definitely knew they were up here at this point, but they didn't know where they were coming from or when they would strike. That made them nervous, and Nora was ready to exploit that to its full advantage.

She silently opened up her wrist menu and sent a message. The platoon continued forward, hugging the ground. Nora could hear the occasional snap of a twig, but at this distance it really didn't matter. There was too much ambient noise for the enemy guards to hear them this far away. They needed to be quieter when they approached, but they could move faster right now. The less time exposed, the better. Of course, that was only true if the enemy was looking for them.

Crack!

There were shouts from the Ragnarok unit, and most of the troops began milling about, looking for where the shot had come from. Nora couldn't see it from her position, but she knew the enemy commander was almost certainly dead. Per her instructions, Miko had made the kill from somewhere to the west.

As she had hoped, the enemy sent most of their forces in that direction, looking for the killer concealed in the trees. Bad move, in her opinion, and that was probably because their commander was dead. If they were dealing with a lone sniper then sending an entire unit after her was overkill. The best counters were RPGs, artillery strikes or other snipers. Right now, though, they were sending a whole platoon after her.

And that left them very vulnerable to an attack from what was now their rear. Perfect for her unit to exploit.

Crack!

Nora smiled to herself. Miko wasn't taking the pragmatic course of action and fleeing. Instead, she was prodding the enemy more, goading them deeper into her end of the forest. But they had several surprises waiting for the Ragnarok troops.

A torrent of gunfire crackled on the other side of the ore field. Miko's support squad had joined the battle. Over half of the members were heavies armed with machine guns, giving them a huge amount of firepower. It would be more than enough to pin the enemy platoon in place.

And that's where her group came in.

Nora gave the signal, and her platoon broke cover. The few guards left at their end were quickly cut down. The rest of the platoon surged past them, mowing down anyone who got in their way.

To their credit, the Ragnarok troops tried to held their ground. They fought, but mostly, they died.

Nora brought her rifle up to her shoulder and took aim at an enemy sergeant trying to rally his troops. One burst to the chest, and his efforts were for naught. The rest of his comrades fell to a hail of fire from their right. Will was bringing a squad around from the south in a flanking maneuver.

That was another benefit to the raids outside the walls. Battalion command had decided not to risk the exoskeletons around the stadium, so Hoplite Platoon had been assigned to the raiding group. It was a welcome change from doing nothing, or even being inside the suits. They were powerful and fun to use, but they didn't quite present the challenges of being a foot soldier.

Of course, there wasn't much of a challenge when you caught your enemy completely by surprise. Nora had a suspicion that they wouldn't be doing that for much longer. The Ragnarok veterans could hold their own and wouldn't be caught with their pants down like this. And the Valkyries might be able to return the favor and then some.

The gunfire gradually died away, and Nora quickly took stock of the situation.

“Still alive, Lone Wolf?” she asked.

“We're fine,” Miko replied. “No casualties on our end.”

“Will?”

“Same with us,” he responded.

“Terra?”

“We lost two.”

“Max?”

“Just one.”

“Justin?”

“No casualties for us.”

Nora nodded to herself, satisfied. “OK, let's sweep this area and make sure we found everything. Then we loot what we want and destroy anything we can't carry. Send me an inventory of everything you come across.”

“Roger,” came the response.

“Make sure we do it quickly,” Nora added. “They might have called for help during the battle. We could have recon aircraft flying overhead pretty soon, and I don't want them to track us back to base.”

She knelt down and opened up her wrist menu. Soon enough, information began flooding in. Ragnarok had a dozen trucks at the south end of the ore field to carry their precious cargo back to Madison. If they were anywhere else Nora might try to take them, but the roads leading back to Green Bay were extremely poor, and she didn't want to be spotted from the air. There were plentiful stacks of mining equipment, and a fair amount of small arms and ammunition.

They would take the ammunition. The rest of it would be stacked into the trucks, wired with explosives and then destroyed. It wouldn't bring Ragnarok to their knees, not by a long shot, but every cut they could inflict would hurt, and they would eventually start adding up.

“Do you care what we do with the bodies?” Miko asked.

“Strip them for ammunition and grenades, then just leave them,” Nora told her. “They'll serve as a warning for the next Ragnarok group that comes up here. Who knows? Maybe it'll hurt morale.”

“Wow, that's rather ruthless,” Miko replied.

“You should be one to talk,” Nora said. “How many companies up here still hate you because you sniped their leaders?”

“Hey, they got the message and stopped supporting Ragnarok,” Miko replied. “I'd say that's a success. And luckily I didn't target Thorn or Myrmidon.”

“That would be hard to do, since we didn't even know they existed back then,” Nora said.”

“Yeah, I guess so. Anything special, then? Do you want us to arrange them in a pattern or something? Maybe a big skull and crossbones?”

Nora shook her head. “You're joking, right?”

“Yeah, I am,” Miko said.

“Good, 'cause I was starting to get worried for a moment,” Nora replied. “Just take their ammo and leave them where they are right now. We don't have time to do anything more.”

“Copy that.”

They were rather ruthless, Nora thought to herself as she continued to mull over the data. Black Wolf had realized it early on when they were trying to establish themselves. Economic advantages were one way to gain the upper hand. In fact, Nora herself had been instrumental in orchestrating Black Wolf's monopoly of the combat stimulant market. That had given them a huge treasury and propelled them into a position of great influence. They probably wouldn't have their status right now if they hadn't taken that course of action.

But the ruthlessness had continued once the Hydra Alliance had been formed. Black Wolf, Redd Foxx and Sacred Sword had some to a mutual agreement. Grizzly and Hephaestus had joined willingly, enticed by what the alliance had to offer them. But many of the other members had come to them under less agreeable circumstances.

Bravehart, Marauder, Crimson Eagle and many of the others had been forced to join when Ragnarok had taken their strongholds. It had dramatically increased the size of the alliance, and it had been a calculated move on the part of their leadership. Hydra had decided to sit on the sidelines, letting Ragnarok take care of their dirty work. The calls for aid had gone unheeded under the pretense of neutrality, though by that time Hydra was already preparing to fight Ragnarok.

It had all worked out in the end, and that was all well and good. But it displayed an amount of ruthlessness that might be considered sociopathy in the real world. Nora had thought about it before, and she wasn't the only one. There had been a considerable amount of discussion within the research group as to whether their actions had been ethical or not.

It seemed like a silly question. Ethics and morality didn't really apply to a virtual world, especially one where there were no laws and no rules. Ethics could be whatever people wanted them to be. But in relation to the standards of the real world, their actions in World at War made some of them uncomfortable.

It was probably because they had a hard time divorcing themselves from their in-game avatars. It was easy to act amoral inside most video games because there was a sense of distance. A player could act unethically and think nothing of it because they were separate from the person performing the actions. The screen separated the player from the avatar, and it separated the player from any responsibility for their actions.

But in a virtual reality, that line vanished. Even though all the people inside the game world were technically just avatars, it didn't feel that way. If felt like you were interacting with true flesh and blood people, and it felt like
you
were there, not just a representation of yourself.

That made their actions all the more worrying. For, even though they considered some of their actions immoral, they did them anyhow. Was it because, deep in the back of their mind, they still thought of the virtual world as fake, despite its realism? Or was it because they were free to act here, with no consequences for their actions?

It was a troubling thought, to say the least. Nora had often heard it said that every human had a beast lurking inside of them, and every human feared it to some degree. That was where the legends of vampires and werewolves came from. People feared that the beast inside would overtake them, and that fear manifested itself in their stories and legends.

Nora wasn't afraid of turning into a monster in the real world, nor was she afraid of it happening to anyone else. Everyone she knew inside World at War seemed to be well-adjusted, and not the type to go on a murders spree because of something they experienced inside the virtual world.