Werewolf: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 4) (2 page)

Selene was going to ask why when the first shells hit.

BAM! BAM!

She felt the earth below her shake, and they were over half a mile away from the blasts. Four of the tanks had been thrown into the air and scattered about like they were toys. Another spun listlessly, its right track blown clean off. The surviving three continued to push forward, which surprised her. Selene thought they would have retreated in the face of such devastating firepower.

Hydra's new artillery was a 155mm gun, discovered during their campaign in Indianapolis. The weapon was large, bulky, time consuming to produce and difficult to load, but it packed a wallop. As far as they knew, Ragnarok had nothing comparable. At least, in theory. There was one particular danger that was making everyone very nervous.

“They used them?” Selene asked.

Miko shrugged. “Bryce deemed it worth the risk,” she said. “And that's his decision.”

“Still...”

“They need to watch the skies, yes,” she said. “He's well aware of that. But we aren't completely helpless.”

“We hope,” Selene said. “Hard to take out an aircraft when we don't have good tracking equipment or radar.”

Ragnarok's greatest trump card was their aerial units. Selene had no idea where they found the schematic, but a pair of fighter bombers had appeared from nowhere. In one moment, the balance of power in the region had changed completely.

Hydra didn't have anything that could match Ragnarok's equipment. They had utility planes, but those would be useless in a dogfight. Their attack choppers wouldn't be any better either, and so Ragnarok had a way to dominate the skies.

One result of their appearance was the increase in the number of antiaircraft guns on the battlefield. Autocannons and heavy machine guns were sometimes ignored before, but now they served as an integral part of Hydra's anti-air defense. Several self-propelled guns had been purpose built, mounting quad autocannons or machine guns in a swivel mount. They weren't great by any stretch of the imagination, but they did provide some form of protection. And they needed it.

“Crap.”

Selene looked over at Miko, who was staring through her scope. “What?”

“That explains why they're not retreating.”

Selene picked up her binoculars and took a look. There were more tanks advancing now. At least a dozen, probably more. And behind them were platoons of infantry.

“OK, that's bad,” Selene said. She activated her radio to call in the warning to Hydra Command.

It was almost unfair.

Hoplite Platoon emerged on the enemy's right flank, throwing their entire unit into confusion. Moving rapidly, they tore into the Valkyries with guns blazing.

Nora aimed her right arm and pulled the trigger. Three Ragnarok soldiers fell, riddled with bullets. She shifted her aim slightly and gunned down two more, then aimed her left arm and fired off three autocannon shells. The heavy trying to aim an RPG at her was thrown into a tree like a rag doll.

The rest of her platoon was wrecking havoc on the Valkyries. Their enemy simply had no counter for something of this nature. The exoskeletons were extremely hard for infantry to combat, especially when they were caught off guard. Bullets were useless, and heavier weapons could be easily dodged by a skilled pilot.

They would probably be having a harder time in an open field battle, or if they were facing enemy armor. But here in the forests they could use all of their strengths. Their speed and mobility meant that they could pop in and out of cover, firing off a few shots each time and moving on with little fear of retaliation.

Still, the Valkyries weren't amateurs. Nora thought that they would rally, and that could end up being a problem. The exoskeletons could dodge a few rockets or RPGs, but a whole slew of them fired at once could pose a serious problem. Doubtless someone on the other side would think of that as well.

But by then it would be far too late.

*              *              *

“All troops, Hoplite Platoon has the enemy reeling. Advance and crush them!” Anna ordered.

Danny grinned eagerly. “Right, let's do this!”

Liz gave him a look. “Hold off, killer. Let's make sure we do this right.”

“Time's a wasting,” Danny said.

“We'll be fine waiting a minute. We won't be fine if we stumble into a crossfire, or something like that.”

“OK, so do you want to take your units in the lead, and we'll provide cover for you?” Danny suggested. “Once you get close enough to engage we can move up and really start to lay the hurt on their line.”

“Sounds workable,” Liz agreed. “Make sure that you cover our backs.”

“Wouldn't dream of doing otherwise,” Danny replied.

Liz turned around and started to jog toward her own troops. “The signal to move up is Fang. Trouble is Foxfire,” she called back.

“Got it.” He activated his radio. “Bravo Wolf, provide overwatch for Redd Foxx. Move up on the signal Fang.”

“Copy that,” his three squad leaders replied.

“One question. Are we sure that Redd Foxx should be taking the lead against the Valkyries?” Xavier asked. “They don't quite have the hand-to-hand skills that we do.”

“Positive. They'll be fine,” Danny replied.

“Someone's whipped,” Javy commented.

Danny paused for a moment. “That's so not true.”

“Exactly what someone who was would say.”

“Yeah, he's whipped,” Xavier agreed.

“Just do what we need to,” Danny said, rolling his eyes.

Intervening in the mess below might have been a very bad decision.

Selene had seen the mass of enemy troops moving below them and decided to do something about it. She called up Ethan's squad and ordered them to take out as many enemy tanks as possible. They were at the extreme edge of the range for their recoilless rifles, but they needed to do something to help their comrades below.

Ethan was the best anti-tank gunner in Black Wolf, and he managed to make two kills with three shots. Meanwhile, Miko continued to pick off targets of opportunity.

But their resistance sparked a flurry of interest, and Selene's unit suddenly found themselves facing down scores of enemy troops, backed up by a pair of tanks.

The rest of Alpha Wolf quickly moved to reinforce, but that still didn't make the odds much better. Alpha Wolf barely had thirty troops, and they had no real armored support.

Still, their situation wasn't hopeless. They had a strong position, dug into the edge of the forest on top of a low ridge. They had heavy weapons, and flanking them was going to be difficult. Enemy troops pushing into the forest from the north would probably run right into Barghest or Bravo Wolf.

Selene leaned out from behind her tree and fired off a burst at the advancing enemy. She didn't see if she hit anything, because the deluge of return fired force her to take cover again.

“Little hairy,” Selene commented to Miko, who was right beside her.

Miko seemed to be ignoring her. Then she spoke. “Yeah, that works. Hold one one second.”

“Huh?”

Miko leaned out from her side of the tree and looked down her scope. Then she pulled back and spoke a set of coordinates. It suddenly dawned on Selene that she was calling in an artillery strike.

“Is-”

“It's the 75s,” Miko said. “Unless they really screw up, we should be fine.”

“Hopefully.”

“Well don't jinx us!”

“Knock on wood,” Selene said with a smile. She tapped the tree.

Miko leaned around the tree, aimed and took a shot. “OK, I hope that's enough. Knocking on a fake piece of wood.”

“Technically my words are fake too, so they should equal out.”

Miko shrugged. “The fun of being in a virtual reality.” She stopped as if she was listening to something. “Alpha Wolf, brace for impact!”

Selene ducked down. Just in time, too, because the shells started to rain down.

“Not good,” Zach said, looking over the map with Anna.

“We've stopped them, at least,” she offered.

“At what cost?”

“We can replace our losses. And we've managed to completely rout the Valkyries,” she pointed out. “They're falling back now, along with the rest of the force.”

“Smart move.”

“I'm guessing that they don't want to run the risk of being hit from the flank,” Anna agreed.

“So we've won. Wonderful, it's a Pyrrhic victory. We can't replace our losses fast enough.”

Anna looked at him. “Machines, no. But machines aren't what makes us great.”

“So we're going to have to take the lead up here again,” Zach deduced.

“Probably.”

Zach grimaced. Black Wolf had been forced into hard situations before, but this might top them all.

CHAPTER 2

Aftermath

Eight. Far later than he had thought. Zach stood up out of his chair, stretched and then put his neuro-helmet back on the shelf. The battle had lasted for over four hours, and yet it seemed to have gone by so quickly.

His phone vibrated on the end table, and he reached over to grab it. Nora had sent him a text message.

Off yet?
it asked.

I just logged off
, he replied.

His stomach growled, and Zach decided to head into the kitchen to get something for dinner. That was one drawback to World at War that was rarely discussed. The world was so absorbing that some players spent hours upon hours inside, neglecting to eat, drink or sleep. He had heard reports that some players had stayed logged in for over two days.

Zach couldn't imagine doing, that, mostly because he would have to forgo eating. Right now he felt like he was starving, and it was little more than an hour past when he would normally have dinner. He probably couldn't stand going eight hours without eating, let alone forty-eight.

Zach opened up the refrigerator and thought for a moment, then decided on grabbing some bacon and eggs. He was in the process of warming up a griddle when his phone started buzzing. Nora was calling him. He answered and put her on speaker so he could continue cooking.

“What's up?”

“How much longer did you stay on?” Nora asked him.

“About an hour and a half,” he told her.

“Any flareups?”

Zach tested the griddle, then laid several strips of bacon across it. “No, Ragnarok fell back without any real problems.”

“So why the extra time?”

Zach hesitated for a moment. “We may have a problem.”

“Virtual or real world?” Nora asked.

“Virtual,” Zach said with a slight smile. He still hadn't gotten quite used to the fact that he needed to clarify which world he was talking about.

“OK, so what kind of problem? And is it raining outside?”

“Huh? Oh, no. I have you on speakerphone, and I'm cooking bacon,” Zach informed her.

“Mmm, bacon,” Nora commented. “Probably better than what I had.”

“What did you have?”

“I was horrible and ate an entire frozen pizza myself.”

“Jeeze. Sometimes I don't know how we both don't weigh three hundred pounds,” Zach replied.

“I have a good metabolism,” Nora said. “Of course, it's probably going to fail me in a few years, but hey, I'll enjoy it while I can.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“So, the problem?”

“Oh, right.” Zach flipped over the bacon before he continued. “Rogue Battalion took a beating during the battle. Over half their armored vehicles were destroyed or badly damaged.”

“That would be a problem,” Nora agreed. “Though it makes me wonder why Ragnarok didn't press their attack when they got the chance.”

“We're probably the reason, if I had to guess,” Zach said. “You guys, especially. We took the Valkyries completely by surprise and routed them. I'd guess that the commander was nervous that we'd collapse the flank. And the artillery was causing problems for them as well.”

“Bryce must be pleased with the new toys,” Nora said.

“I didn't talk to him, but Miko and Selene said the 155s were tossing around tanks like they were made of styrofoam.”

“That definitely sounds like Bryce will be pleased,” she said. “I'm guessing that Rogue is getting transferred away from the north?”

“Until they rebuild, yes,” Zach confirmed. He cracked open three eggs. “We all know that they can fight on foot just fine, but they're going to be limited out in the open battlefield. Hydra Command decided to put them in the south helping Dragon Battalion.”

“I see. So, where does that leave us?” Nora asked him. “I can't imagine that they're going to leave the north guarded by a single battalion, especially after the last few fights. That means we're going north, right?”

“That would be correct,” Zach confirmed. He flipped the eggs and then served them up on a plate a few seconds later along with the bacon. With a bit of deft maneuvering, he turned off the stove, grabbed the plate and his phone and took a seat at the kitchen table.

“Pretty tough position,” Nora said. “We have Raven, but we don't have any armor. Did Sacred Sword lose any of their assault guns in the battle?”

“No, but they only have four of them,” Zach said. “That's not going to be enough to stem the tide, especially if they decide they want to rush us.”

“So we're going to have to rely on our anti-tank gunners,” Nora mused. “At least Ethan will be happy.”

“He'll probably be less happy when he has to kill fifty tanks by himself,” Zach said. He took a bite of egg.

“Do we have a plan?”

“David wants to get our commands together tomorrow night. We'll meet at Lerna Bastion and go over a plan to deal with Ragnarok,” Zach said.

“Tomorrow,” Nora said.

“I know,” Zach said. “I told him I wasn't sure if we could make it or not.”

“It won't kill us if we have to miss one date night,” Nora said, though Zach thought he could hear a bit of disappointment in her voice.

“You sure?”

“I mean, it's work as well. We're being paid pretty handsomely to study this, so we should immerse ourselves as much as possible. This is just a part of that.”

“You're sure,” Zach repeated. “I have no problem telling him that we have plans and can't make it.”

“I'm sure,” Nora confirmed. “But we're not going to make many exceptions for it.”

“That I can agree with.”

“So, plans. Any clue what they're going to be? More raiding for us?”

“That might be off the table,” Zach said. “I think that they're going to be prepared for us this time, and that could mean walking straight into a disaster.”

“That's not going to leave us many other options,” Nora said. “Our battalion in a stand up fight? We're good fighters, but that's going to be tough when we don't have good heavy support.”

“Yeah, hence all the planning.”

“We seem to do a lot of it,” Nora commented.

“That might not be the worst thing in the world,” Zach said. “I actually think that the designers meant it to be this way.”

“What makes you think that?”

Zach chewed down a piece of bacon. “Well, fighting is pretty fun. It gets your blood pumping, you know? But too much of it might not be good for you. If the game was just constant fighting it would be a sensory overload, and I can't say that'd be good for us in the real world.”

“That's assuming that everything from the virtual world bridges over to the real world consistently,” Nora pointed out. “It could be lessened a lot by the disconnect.”

“I'm not sure how you would test that. Or if there's an ethical way to test it.”

“That might not be the best observation to make in our situation,” Nora said. “I think I liked it better when that thought didn't occur to me.”

“What, you mean that they're using us as lab rats? I know that they ran extensive test to make sure that the neuro-helmet didn't cause neurological problems,” Zach said. “They sank a whole lot of money into that.”

“They still might be doing it.”

“Now you're sounding like Miko.”

Nora sighed. “OK, OK, maybe it's just me being paranoid. I'll let you go. Enjoy the rest of your dinner.”

“Thanks, I'll see you tomorrow,” Zach replied.

That was, if meeting up with someone inside a virtual reality truly counted as seeing them.

Zach started to read through the reports again. “Well, this is worse than I expected.”

“Yeah,” David replied. “We're stuck. We're not getting any more armor since Rogue Battalion needs it, and it's going to be a while before they're back up to full strength.”

Zach looked around at the rest of the representatives present; there was himself and Nora for Black Wolf, David and Morgan for Sacred Sword, Anna and Liz for Redd Foxx, Neil for Spectre, Shayna for Jackal, Karen for Barghest and Robbie and Blake for Raven. The rest of Knight Battalion had left the decision making to their commander, and weren't in attendance.

“So, what are we going to do about Ragnarok?” Shayna asked. “We can't delay anymore. They're ready to fight, and they're ready to force that fight on us.”

“And we currently don't have the means to stop them,” Morgan added. “Not unless we can take Fort Baldr and Fort Odin.”

“Which are both deathtraps,” Neil pointed out. “I mean, I rate our fighting ability above Ronin's, but we're not going to be able to hold both forts against that kind of an assault.”

“Which means an open field battle,” David added.

“And we just revealed our best trump card,” Anna said.

“Didn't have much of a choice.”

Anna shrugged. “No, but it hurts regardless. They know Hoplite exists, and they're probably going to take some precautions the next time we fight.”

Nora spoke up. “Is raiding practical?”

David shook his head. “Ragnarok territory is swarming with patrols. Even if we were successful during the initial attack, we'd probably end up getting caught and slaughtered when we tried to extract ourselves.”

“Still, is it possible? That could draw a lot of enemy troops away from the front lines. Every patrol that's trying to catch us is a unit that's not attacking our territory.”

“But they still have enough troops to hit us at the same time,” Morgan pointed out.

“That's true,” Zach said, “but it'll still lessen the impact of their attack. And they're going to need as many troops as they can muster to take this place.”

Lerna Bastion was now the most formidable fortress in the Old Chicago region. In the early days it had been strong, surrounded by thick walls and solid defenses. It had weathered one strong attack from Ragnarok in the beginning of the war. But still, it wasn't invincible, and Ragnarok had flattened it with rocket artillery and airstrikes.

But the walls had survived the onslaught, and that formed the basis of the new Lerna Bastion. The lessons from the two attacks on the bastion had not been forgotten. The walls might be solid, but the buildings inside of them definitely were not. They were extremely susceptible to artillery fire, and the bastion would remain vulnerable so long as they existed.

It had been decided to move the bastion underground, placing it inside a complex of subterranean tunnels and rooms that would be safe from bombs and shells. There were still structures above the ground, but they were hardened and armored to resist enemy fire.

The initial digging had been slow, since most of the workers came from combat companies who weren't used to doing large scale engineering. Gradually, they became better and better, and now the crews could almost match the pace of Hephaestus Company.

Lerna Bastion still wasn't complete; not by a long shot. But it was ready to operate as a base, at least. The command center was in place, fully furnished with the necessary communications and electronics equipment. Several magazines had been dug, giving the base plenty of ammunition storage. Antiaircraft guns dotted the inner ring. They had a central armory, as well as a few smaller ones. There were meeting rooms, quarters for each company, and even a lounge or two.

The bastion was acquiring some extra teeth as well; a small team from Hephaestus Company was currently working up top installing a pair of rotating gun mounts. Once they were finished, they would be equipped with 155mm artillery pieces, giving the fortress the ability to reach out for miles.

Even Ragnarok's formidable might would be forced to respect a base this strong. If they wanted to get into the heart of Hydra territory, they needed to crack this place, and that would be very difficult. For as bad as this fortress was on paper, it was even worse when it was garrisoned with veteran, determined troops.

It wasn't just the combined might of Knight and Ghost Battalion, either. Hydra had a rail line running between Lerna Bastion and the Zionville district of Indianapolis. If need be, they could shift troops from the south to the north, and they could do it quickly. It meant that Ragnarok would have to plan very carefully, lest they find themselves in a battle that they couldn't win.

And that could work in their favor, Zach thought, if they could just play their cards right. It would be tricky, but they had pulled off high-risk gambles before.

“I think that we actually can raid,” he continued. “But we need to be unpredictable about it. If we resort to the strategies we used last time, we're going to get slaughtered.”

“So you're saying the large scale raids are impossible?” Karen asked.

“Most likely, yes. And raiding in the same locations probably isn't going to work either. They know what we'll try, and anyhow, they aren't as important to them anymore,” Zach explained.

“Them capturing Madison has really made things difficult,” Robbie said.

Zach definitely had to agree with that assessment. Ragnarok had access to an area with resources that were completely untapped, much like Hydra had in the area around Indianapolis. And while Hydra was still fighting to take their city, Ragnarok could concentrate their full effort on building the military might, and then aim it right at the south.