Werewolf: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 4) (25 page)

He activated his radio. “Wolf Lead, this is Bravo Wolf. Come in.”

“I hear you, Bravo Wolf,” Zach replied.

“What's the status of the main crossing?”

“I haven't been able to reestablish communication with them, but Logan just respawned at HQ. He says they're fighting the Valkyries, and they're in the trench.”

“Not good,” Danny said.

“Right. He's not sure how much longer they're going to be able to hold out.”

“Still want us to reinforce?”

“Yes. There's a good chance you'll either be cut off or caught from behind if you don't,” Zach told him.

“Copy that,” Danny said. He turned back to his troops. “Let's MOVE!”

Zach looked around the command center. “We really need get our defenses in the city ready. Ragnarok's going to break through no matter what we try.”

“Still, I want to bleed them as much as possible before they get here,” Anna said. “I'm worried that they'll be able to hit
Charon
in the harbor when it returns, and I don't want to lose the supplies.”

“So if we can hold them off for a couple more hours that should give us enough time,” Lex said. He, Karen and Robbie had joined them around the map table.

“Provided we can hold them off for that long,” Nora said. “They're playing for keeps this time.”

“I haven't been in radio contact with Evy or her officers,” Lex said. “How bad is it?”

“Bad,” Zach informed him. “Ragnarok's commander has a good plan. They hit the positions with an artillery bombardment, then hit them again with dive bombers while their troops closed in to their starting positions. Then they suppressed our defenses with automatic grenade launchers and heavy machine guns while their troops advanced. And they're using the Valkyries, to boot.”

Nora frowned. “I know that Alpha Wolf has been honing their close combat skills, but I'm still not confident that they can match the Valkyries. And, pardon me for saying so, but I'm not terribly confident about Thorn's chances either.”

“None taken,” Lex said. He looked back down at the map. “And we thought we had it tough before. I don't think we've ever faced a coordinated attack like this before.”

“We've only faced one,” Anna said.

Zach nodded. “Yeah. And we had our armored battalion and an infantry battalion fighting alongside us.”

“At least they don't have tanks this time,” Nora offered.

Zach groaned. “Please don't say that. We have no clue what else they might have up their sleeves.”

“And how are they going to get heavy vehicles across the swamp?”

“With the way things are going, nothing would surprise me now.”

“I don't think that will be a problem,” Anna said. “The only good road is in the eastern side of the swamps, and it's impassible right now.”

Redd Foxx had ambushed an armored convoy on the road at almost point blank range. Their heavies killed six tanks and dozens of trucks with their recoilless rifles, jamming the road with debris. They couldn't have made a better roadblock if they had planned it, and Ragnarok wasn't going to move it anytime soon. Anyone trying to shift the wrecks came under withering sniper and machine gun fire from the surrounding brush. Zach didn't rate anyone's chances against Redd Foxx in a swamp very highly.

And that was the saving grace of the battle at the western crossing. As hard as they were being hit, Alpha Wolf and Thorn were tying up valuable resources.

Delay, delay, delay. That's all they could do right now. But as long as they held steady, they could win. They might lose the tactical battle, but strategically they would come out on top.

He just hoped Black Wolf would come out alright.

An engineer leveled her carbine, and for a split-second Selene thought it was all over for her. But then she flopped over, riddled with bullets.

A hand clapped her on the shoulder. “Come on!” Gavin urged her.

They fell back through the communication trench, stopping occasionally to fire back at the enemy.

Their time was up. Despite the best efforts of herself and her troops, the Valkyries had stormed up the ridge and forced the Hydra troops out of the first trench. And they showed no signs of letting up.

On some level, Selene had to admire their ruthless efficiency. Faced with with relentless fire from the defenders, they didn't even flinch. Their first assault units had taken heavy casualties, but they kept pressing forward, putting pressure on their opponents. The follow-up waves finished the job.

That was the mark of disciplined and highly motivated troops. Many troops would stop and take cover if they came under heavy fire, but that only made the attack stall out and left them vulnerable to be picked off. By pressing forward they were able to push the defenders back and end the fighting much quicker. That meant they would take less casualties overall, even though the first wave would suffer heavy losses.

But her troops weren't finished, not by a long shot. They still had the second trench line, and they could fall back inside the two communication trenches. The Valkyries had to cross through either the open ground above or the straight trench, which left them very vulnerable to return fire.

Even with those advantages, Selene wasn't sure that they could hold. She couldn't get a clear picture in all this chaos, but from what she could gather they had lost over a third of their troops. The Valkyries had also suffered, but they had more troops to begin with.

She brought her rifle up to bear and aimed a shot at an enemy heavy trying to push his way down the trench. Selene caught him in the shoulder with a round, and then shot him through the chest with another.

There was no use worrying about the numbers right now. There was nothing she could do about it, anyhow. She would line them up and shoot them down one by one if she had to.

Gavin fired off another burst beside her. “Loading!” he yelled.

“What happened to the rest of your squad?” Selene shouted out over the racket.

“All dead!” Gavin told her.

“When we get back to the second trench, find Alpha 3 and take command of them,” she ordered. “Logan got shot as well.”

“Roger. Reloaded!”

Crack!

Selene threw herself flat as she heard the sound of a bullet passing by her head. She immediately scanned the other end of the trench, looking for where it came from.

There. An enemy soldier lay prone on the trench floor, taking careful aim at her. She tried to maneuver her assault rifle, but Selene could tell that she wouldn't get it around in time.

It had been a good run, at least.

But then the soldier convulsed and died.

Selene looked at him, confused.

“So, I guess you owe me one?”

She snapped her head around to see Danny striding down the trench, machine gun at the ready. More troops were following behind him.

“Man, you timed that right,” Gavin said.

Danny grinned. “I aim to please.”

Selene looked at him. “When did you get here?”

“We were ordered to withdraw and reinforce your position,” he replied. “It looked like you needed some help, so we're pushing back through the two trenches. Spectre's handling the other one.”

Selene stood up. The tide of battle might be turning back in their favor.

“It's gonna be tough.”

Danny grinned again. “Maybe. Since when is anything ever easy for us?”

Selene grinned back. “Alright. Let's take back our trench.”

Zach breathed a sigh of relief. “They managed to push the Valkyries back out of the trench and forced them to fall back,” he said.

“Good news, at least,” Anna said. “But can they hold it any longer?”

“No. They lost over half their strength in the fighting, and it looks like Ragnarok might have another go at them. No way they can hold off the next attack, especially because they're starting to run low on ammo.”

Anna frowned. “I don't like it, but have them fall back to the city. We'll make our next stand at the walls.”

Zach nodded and relayed the orders.

Nora opened up her wrist menu and looked at the time. “
Charon
is due back in a couple of hours.”

“Good news, at least. We can replace all the ammunition we've shot off,” Anna said.

Karen straightened up. “I'm going to get my company ready for the next attack.”

“We're not even sure when it'll come,” Lex said

“Knowing Ragnarok, they'll have an assault plan,” Karen said. “They've stormed plenty of strongholds. And they took Madison, so we probably don't know all their tricks.”

“Redd Foxx should probably fall back as well,” Nora said.

Anna nodded. “Right. Could you give those orders out to Liz?”

“Sure thing.”

“I know my choppers aren't going to be much good,” Robbie said. “Where do you want my company?”

“You're fighting on the ground?” Karen asked.

“As long as the enemy has air superiority we are.”

“Cover the eastern district with Myrmidon and Redd Foxx. Barghest, Black Wolf and Thorn with hold the western district. I'm going to form up Spectre and Hephaestus as our reserve team.”

Karen frowned. “Hephaestus?”

“They've been training,” Nora said. “And while I wouldn't rate their skills highly, they can plug a hole in the line, at least.”

“Truth be told we probably weren't the best battalion for the job,” Anna said. “But we were the one that was available.”

“We'll just improvise as always,” Zach said. “Nothing more than that.”

Selene headed toward the docks with her reformed platoon. The Hydra forces had slipped away from the front lines during a lull in the fighting. Doubtless, the enemy would be close behind them, but they had the walls to slow them down. In the mean time, Alpha Wolf would help unload the supplies from
Charon
.

Zach and Nora were waiting for them near the docks.

“Good job,” Zach said. “You guys bought us a ton of extra time.”

“Do you know whether they took Indianapolis?” Selene asked.

“Not yet,” Nora told her. “We haven't had time to ask, truth be told. But I'd be willing to assume yes.”

“So all we need to do is hold out for a couple more days,” Zach said.

Selene looked at him. “A lot easier said than done. My guys are exhausted.”

“Yeah, I'm guessing that Ragnarok feels the same way. There's probably not going to be another battle until tomorrow.”

“Yeah. Well, the supplies aren't going to unload themselves,” Selene said. “Let's get to it.”

Nora suddenly started looking around. “What's that noise?” she asked.

It took Selene a second to register her comment. Then she heard it. A low howl, coming from above. She looked up and saw a blur descending from the heavens.

“Oh, crap. COVER!”

Alpha Wolf immediately dove behind anything that would give them shelter. The other two didn't register the threat as quickly Selene grabbed Nora and Ethan dragged Zach to the ground.

She braced for the inevitable shockwave. A second later, the bombs hit.

CHAPTER 22

Endgame

Shells screamed overhead, and Black Wolf cowered inside their pillboxes and bunkers. Ragnarok had reached the walls last night but thankfully didn't attack. Apparently they wanted to save up their strength for one properly planned thrust.

Zach grimaced as he was showered with dirt again. The bunkers on the wall were much better than the improvised ones at the swamp crossing, but they still probably couldn't take a direct shell hit.

Their situation could accurately be described as dire.
Charon
was at the bottom of Green Bay harbor, taking with it a huge load of supplies and ammunition, along with their heaviest gun. Without it, all they had on hand was the three 120mm mortars. Ragnarok had them outnumbered and outgunned. Even with four hundred troops, Ghost Battalion would struggle to cover the length of the walls.

And worst of all, the battalion was dead tired from all the fighting from the previous two days. They could and would still fight as hard as possible, but the fire had gone out of them. They lacked the same edge they had on the first day, and most of that was due to actual physical fatigue.

But if they were suffering from it, Ragnarok probably was as well. Their forces were facing a tough fortress, and they had probably spent a ton of resources on the offensive as well.

Ghost Battalion might be able to pull this off. Maybe. Zach wasn't exactly optimistic about their prospects, but he would fight them no matter what the odds were.

But this was the endgame. He knew it, they knew it and everyone else in the battalion knew it. Anna had given explicit orders. All company commanders were to join their units on the front lines and fight beside him. She would stay behind with a small control team to coordinate the defense, though Zach could tell she wanted to be out there with them. If this was going to be the battalion's last stand, everyone wanted to go down fighting alongside their comrades.

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

Zach could feel his teeth rattling from the shockwaves. Just how much ammunition did Ragnarok have left? The bombardment had been going on for fifteen minutes, and still there was no sign of it letting up.

He should be pleased. If Ragnarok was spending so much on what was essentially a throwaway objective for Hydra, that meant their southern holdings were safe. Indianapolis was now completely under Hydra control, and their forces were moving north along the rail line. They would be ready to strike within a day or so.

But Zach felt nothing but fatigue as well. Strategic objectives meant very little to them when they were about to be destroyed. The rest of the Hydra Alliance had won great victories, while they were about to suffer one of the worst defeats in the history of the alliance. No matter what purpose it served, it was still demoralizing.

That was why the company commanders were out here, to provide a morale boost to the troops. If nothing else, they could appeal to their sense of pride. Ghost Battalion might be understrength, under-supplied and underarmed, but they had more guts than anyone.

Zach could feel that, beneath the fatigue, beneath the exhaustion and near-despair. If this was going to be their end up here, then they would make it worth remembering. Ragnarok was going to have to pay for every inch of ground.

He felt the most pity for the Thorn and Myrmidon Company troops. Their prize was under attack and about to be snatched from their grasp. After months of little hope and bleak prospects, the light at the end of the tunnel suddenly appeared. But that light was about to disappear in an instant, and there was almost nothing that they could do about it.

That was something that could motivate the rest of the battalion, though. One way or another, all of them had been in the same boat. And while they might not have been able to help themselves, they could at least try to help someone in the same situation. That was worth their time and effort, even if it proved to be futile.

The shelling lifted, and Zach activated his radio.

“All units, report your status.”

Luckily they had taken no casualties. The bunkers had done their job. But Ragnarok would be closing in fast, using the bombardment to cover their advance.

They probably didn't know that Ghost Battalion didn't have any artillery with them. Most of the shells had fallen further back toward the center of the city, right where the artillery would be placed. That might have saved them.

Or it might have only given them a brief respite. They were in for a brutal infantry fight.

He activated his radio again and tuned it to reach every member of his company.

“Black Wolf, head to your positions and stand by to repel infantry!”

Ragnarok was here.

Nora idly cycled through her displays, tracking the various movements of units in the western sector. She was inside her exoskeleton, concealed within a building to provide protection from air attacks.

The battle was starting, but she wasn't going anywhere for a while. The rest of Hoplite Platoon was back with their units, but she had been singled out as a special reserve. From her location in the western sector of Green Bay she would provide backup to any part of the line that was faltering, using her combination of firepower, armor and agility to stem any attacks.

There was little worry of her running out of power or ammunition. She would need to restock once either got low, but there was a supply cache less than a mile from any part of the wall. She could move there and be reequipped within a matter of minutes, ready to rejoin the fray.

But despite her awesome power, she felt alone. The rest of Black Wolf was out there, fighting against the overwhelming odds side by side. She had no comrades, and belonged to no unit. Nora was well and truly alone.

Or maybe that wasn't true. She didn't belong to any particular company right now, but she belonged to the battalion as a whole. Every single one of them was her comrade, and she would fight alongside them until the very end.

She looked back at the map as something caught her attention. Several units along the Black Wolf front were now engaged. Nora could only hope that they would be alright. The rest was up to them.

“Suppression fire!” Danny ordered. He propped his machine gun against the battlement and fired off a long burst.

His platoon's machine gunners went to work, laying down a hail of lead on the advancing enemy soldiers. Others worked in tandem to try to take down the advancing Ragnarok troops. Soldiers fired off semi-auto shots or short burst, trying to kill the enemy at a distance. Engineers launched grenades. Snipers took careful aim, targeting heavy weapons crews or officers. Assaults added to the suppressive fire, or manned emplaced weapons. And the medics tried to keep everything in order, treating any wounded that fell.

Danny had no idea what kind of damage they were inflicting on the enemy. There was too much confusion, and there were too many of them to get an accurate reading. The only thing they could do right now was fire and hope for the best.

“We have a launcher team moving up,” Xavier warned. “Over by that rock outcropping.

Danny looked around. “I see 'em,” he said, and shifted his aim.

This time Danny squeezed off tight burst, trying to be as accurate as possible. An automatic grenade launcher would be devastating if it got into position. They could angle their attack and send plunging fire straight down onto the defenders' heads. With no protection from above, Bravo Wolf would be sitting ducks.

Danny activated his radio. “Snipers, concentrate on any grenade launcher teams. We're dead meat if they get a bead on us.”

A second team tried to move up. Danny started to take aim, but then they were blow sky high. He grinned. Why didn't he think of that before?

“Anyone with a recoilless rifle, use them on the grenade launcher teams,” he ordered.

Hopefully that would make the more cautious. But Bravo Wolf needed to be careful. If an armored vehicle showed up while they were reloading, it could get very ugly.

But until that happened, they would use every method at their disposal to hold the line.

Crack!

Selene saw the soldier fall and admired her friend's handiwork for a second. This was the first time in quite a while that Miko had fought on the front lines, and it was easy to forget just how capable she was. Everyone knew she could snipe with extreme accuracy at long ranges, but they forgot how quick she was on the draw when pressed. Her ability to acquire targets and gun them down was uncanny, especially with a bolt-action rifle.

Selene didn't have her range or her precision, but she was plenty capable in her own right. She toggled her assault rifle to semi-auto and fired off three shots. One hit an enemy heavy, causing him to stumble. She didn't see if the other two hit anything.

“I'm surprised they didn't try a night attack,” Miko commented. She looked down her sight and fired off another shot.

“I'm not, actually. If they attack at night they can't use their fighters for air superiority or close air support. And we can use our choppers just fine. So doing it during the day cancels out one of our best assets,” Selene pointed out.

Miko banged off another shot. “But still, attacking during the daylight hours is a huge disadvantage for them.”

Selene reloaded her assault rifle, then fired off a shot. “Well, maybe they're on a tight schedule.”

“You mean, they've stripped their southern defenses of troops for the attack? But they have a lot more troops than our alliance does,” Miko said.

Selene spotted another target and fired. “Yeah, but they can't be everywhere at once. And that still doesn't account for the ones they'd need to defend against Ronin, not to mention the small companies.”

“So if we can just hold them off for a day or so we'll hurt them bad during the counterattack,” Miko summarized.

“If,” Selene said. “We'd better do it.”

Zach looked down the sights of his grenade launcher and pulled the trigger.

THUNK.

The grenade exploded in the midst of a squad trying to move up, killing and wounding several. All things considered, Black Wolf was giving a good account of themselves. The Ragnarok troops assaulting the walls were taking heavy casualties.

But they couldn't hold off the enemy forever. There were too many of them, and they were too skilled. Despite Black Wolf's best efforts to counter, the enemy had managed to get a grenade launcher in position. It raked a section of wall to his left, killing several of his troops. More importantly, it weakened a section of the wall defense, giving more Ragnarok troops the opportunity to push forward.

Zach loaded up another grenade as quickly as he could managed. They were burning through them at an alarming rate, but it couldn't be helped. If Ragnarok got over the wall there was a good possibility that they wouldn't be able to seal the breach. They simply did not have the reserves available.

He brought his carbine up to his shoulder again and pulled the grenade launcher's trigger.

THUNK.

More enemies fell to the blast. Zach tried to get another grenade loaded.

Something hit him square in the chest like a sledgehammer. Zach felt himself being thrown backward, and then the world around him went black. The message flashed in front of him.

You are KIA.

He respawned a few seconds later at Battalion Headquarters. Zach decided to check on the situation in the command center.

“So, they killed you?” Anna asked as he entered.

“Yeah, they got me,” he confirmed.

“Do you know how?”

“Haven't checked,” Zach said.

He opened his wrist menu and cycled through the kill statistics. They confirmed his fear.

“Well,” he said, “it looks like the Wraith is on the prowl.”

“It's him,” Miko said.

“It has to be,” Selene agreed. The word had spread down the line that Zach had been killed by a sniper. He would be back soon enough, but until that time, she was the next command. And that made her a prime target for the Wraith as well.

Selene dropped below the battlement. “Well, that means I'm staying down for now.”

“You're in command right now, right?” Miko asked.

“Yeah, I am.”

“Can I request a special assignment?”

Selene wondered what exactly that entailed. “Anything particular you have in mind?”

“I want to go hunt him down,” Miko told her.

Selene frowned. “That's going to be tough. And it takes you away from the main fighting. You might be better off staying here picking off heavy weapons crews.”

“The Wraith is going to do a heck of a lot more damage than heavy weapons or soldier can do,” Miko argued. “If he shoots our commander at a critical moment that could be the end for us. It'll give them enough time to get over the wall in the confusion.”