Deception City: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 5)

by Mitchell T. Jacobs

  Danny often wondered about the opinions of military or former military members regarding the other players. Did they respect them, in some fashion? Were the amused by their attempts? Did they find some of their actions annoying or somewhat insulting?

  There probably wasn’t enough to turn them off, because Blake and David had both stayed and become heavily involved. He knew David had left the army, but Blake was still a reservist. How did Hydra compare to the real world military? Did it matter, since they were simply an organization in a world that didn’t actually exist?

  The conversation had started to move on by the time he finished musing over the thoughts in his head.

  “Well, I think we killed any chance of getting this game finished,” Selene said. “At least with any satisfying conclusion.”

  Xavier took a look at his wrist watch. “Looks like we’ve been playing for over an hour. Maybe now would be a good time to call it a day?”

  “I’m starving,” Javy said. “Anyone want to go grab a bite?”

  The conversation shifted to where they wanted to go. Pizza, tacos, Chinese food, pub fare, Danny didn’t have a strong opinion in any way. Variety was the spice of life, and he’d enjoy almost anything that was put in front of him.

  “Anyone want to try something different?” Nora suggested. “There’s a Greek place around here that just opened recently. Their moussaka is really, really good.”

  “Is it,” Selene said with a slight smile. “It’s going to take a lot to be able to equal my great grandmother’s moussaka. I’m game for trying it though.”

  One by one the others agreed.

  “I can see why you’d be skeptical,” Nora commented as they walked. “It’s hard for something you buy from a store or restaurant to equal the homemade stuff.”

  “Yeah, it’s the same with me and Japanese food,” Miko agreed. “I can get plenty of good curry, but nothing beats the real stuff cooked at home.”

  The real stuff, Danny thought to himself as he listened. The restaurant food might use higher quality ingredients, might be prepared by a better chef with huge amount of experience and skill, might even be objectively better than the homemade item, but it would always be second best because it wasn’t the ‘real’ thing.

  Perception really did change everything, whether it was food, or music, or even different realities. Such a weird, complicated world they lived in. And Danny wouldn’t have it any other way.

  * * *

  “Everyone here?” Blake asked.

  Danny looked around at the assemblage of battalion and company commanders. They had a good cross section of the various forces arrayed against Ragnarok on the front extending west of Milwaukee. All of Rogue Battalion’s commanders were present, along with several commanders from Knight Battalion as well. David couldn’t attend, but Morgan, his second, sat in for him on the meeting. Shayna stood present for both Jackal Company and the military council, while Aaron represented Band of Brothers.

  And as explained earlier to him, Danny would be left to his own devices. Zach and Nora were busy on the Milwaukee front, coming up with a plan of attack for Ghost Battalion. He didn’t envy them, given the terrain and foe they had to face, but they had their own problems to deal with here.

  “Looks like we’re all set,” Gina said. As the commander of one of Hydra’s founding companies she would normally be leading a meeting like this, but not today. Blake and Danny had called the council after a considerable amount of discussion, so the leadership role fell to them.

  “OK then,” Danny said. “So, as for why you’re all here. Blake and I have been discussing the strategic situation for a while, and the more we look at it, the more we’re becoming convinced that Ragnarok’s going to try something on the western end of the line.”

  “Mm. What are you basing this off of?” Gina asked.

  “We haven’t had any intelligence that suggests they’re moving forces to that location,” Aaron pointed out. “Granted, they’d try to keep it quiet, but still, I image that we’d hear something about it.”

  “And wouldn’t their forces be better used elsewhere, like trying to fend us off around Milwaukee or expanding their corridor to Old Chicago?” Tyler asked.

  “On the surface yes,” Blake answered. “Right now the greatest danger to them is being cut off from Old Chicago. They have the corridor right now, but there’s always the danger that we’ll shut it. And if we manage to capture Milwaukee, that danger becomes an inevitability.”

  “So why would they move forces away from that front, then?” Tyler pressed. “Seems like the only good option is to work on the corridor.”

  Blake nodded. “If you look at it from their strategic perspective then yes, that makes the most sense. But the danger of that is you’re putting on blinders and focusing on one side of things. They shouldn’t just be looking to their own situation, but to ours as well, to see where our weaknesses might be and where their next blow might hurt the most.”

  “So you’re suggesting the best way for them isn’t to focus on their weak point, but to focus on ours?” Gina asked.

  “Right,” Blake told her. “Focusing the attention on us also gives Ragnarok the initiative.”

  Danny spoke up. “Looking at the map, the weakest point in our lines is where our flank ends and Ronin territory begins. I’ve been trying to get them to guard their end more, but most of their forces are tied up around Davenport.”

  That elicited a buzz around the room. There were still a lot of hard feeling from Ronin leaving the attack into Ragnarok territory, and Danny couldn’t blame them. But that was secondary to the real issue at hand.

  “Anyhow,” he spoke up. “That area is heavily forested and has a major river they’d need to cross, but that’s not an impossible obstacle, as we all know. I think Ronin is relying on the terrain to slow them down enough to move reinforcements north.”

  “Or us,” Morgan pointed out. “We can’t exactly ignore them mowing through the area around our western flank.”

  Danny shrugged. “Also a possibility. Whatever the case, I think we should assume that Ragnarok’s been studying the situation, and I’d imagine they’re smart enough to pick out a weak point like that.”

  “So we can guess that they might try to launch a flank attack in that direction,” Shayna said. “With the objective of completely flanking our front line defenses and threatening our rear areas, I’m guessing.”

  “Yes, that’s my guess as well,” Blake said. “Think of it this way. No matter how hard we fight or what gains we make in Milwaukee, the fact remains that we need supplies from the south. Without the land corridor we’d have to use water or air transport, and neither of those are sustainable.”

  “So the attack there doesn’t even have to fully succeed,” Danny elaborated. “It just has to threaten to cut us off from our supply lines in the south. Enough to make us pull back, maybe even south of Old Chicago.”

  “Tall order, for them,” Aaron commented.

  “And quite possible as well,” Gina pointed out. “We’re completely screwed if we can’t get supplies from the south, and Ragnarok will have plenty of opportunities to rampage through our vital areas. We’d have to withdraw to protect them, at least.”

  “And then there goes months of work,” Blake said. “I don’t think anyone wants that.”

  Indeed, Danny thought. Months of hard work, time, and ferocious fighting for the ground they had gained, only for it to be lost in an instant. Something like that could be extremely demoralizing.

  “In any case,” he continued, “we need to have some sort of contingency plan in case they try that. For now we can use Raven and Bravo Wolf, but that’s not going to be enough to stop them cold. We can use the terrain and our fieldcraft to slow them down, but a platoon’s not going to be able to stop a force the size of a battalion.”

  “We’re pretty thin on troops as it is,” Gina pointed out.

  “That probably means you’ll need reinforcements from elsewhere, and we�
��re probably your best bet,” Morgan spoke up. “David thought this might happen.”

  “Yeah, and we’re going to need the extra troops,” Blake said. “I know that takes them away from the Milwaukee offensive, but it doesn’t matter if we end up getting flanked.”

  Morgan nodded. “The rest of them might not like it, but it’s the best course of action.”

  “I’ll talk to my battalion to try and get some support from them,” Danny said. Zach and Nora would defer to his judgment, and Liz could probably help convince Anna as well.

  “Any guesses as to what they might bring?” Tyler asked.

  “The terrain makes armor attack impossible,” Blake said. “There’s just no way they can move anything larger than an ATV through the forests, and even that might be dicey.”

  “They’ll have to bring light infantry,” Danny added. “And if they want a breakthrough, they’ll bring their best. That probably means they’ll be bringing the Valkyries or Fenris.”

  He let those words hang in the air for a moment while everyone absorbed their grim implications. Their enemy’s best troops were likely to be stacked against their western flank. That meant they were in for a nasty, brutal fight with heavy casualties.

  Not ideal, Danny thought, but at least no one could blame them for having it easy. Hydra was going to have tough sledding ahead, both inside and outside the city.

  14

  SUCKER PUNCH

  “All units report your status.”

  “Eagle Lead, ready.”

  “Lion Lead, ready.”

  “Viper Lead, ready.”

  Selene looked down at her watch, waiting for her turn to respond. She could hear the sounds of her platoon preparing their equipment around her. Veteran troops would always make last minute checks of their weapons and gear just to ensure it was in working order. The last thing they needed in the middle of a fight was a jam or another failure.

  “Fox Lead, ready.”

  Selene perked up at the sound of Liz’s voice on the radio. That meant her turn was coming up soon.

  “Spirit Lead, ready.”

  “Alpha Wolf, ready,” she spoke up.

  “That’s everyone,” Bryce said.

  “Right,” Cody agreed. “We’ll launch the attack as planned. Bravehart Company, you have permission to open fire.”

  “Roger,” Bryce replied.

  A few seconds later the thunder of heavy artillery reverberated through the district.

  Selene felt the impacts, each with their own distinctive characteristics. The 81mm and 75mm shells only caused slight vibrations at this distance, while the 120s and 155s shook the ground and rattled teeth. She imagined that it felt mostly the same to the Ragnarok troops on the other end. Right now there was little they could do but cower in their positions and hope a shell didn’t land right on top of them.

  The lack of counterbattery fire surprised her. Ragnarok didn’t have anything equal to the 155s, but they had 75mm artillery and mortars. Selene thought they would have used them to suppress Hydra’s artillery, but so far there had been no response. Maybe they were in another spot, or maybe Black Wolf’s raids along the supply routes had deprived them of desperately shells.

  “We’re set,” Gavin told her over the radio channel.

  Ethan and Logan also confirmed their readiness. Good, she thought to herself. Selene appreciated not having to babysit her platoon, because that left her free to focus on the purely tactical aspects of a fight. She could always depend on her troops to be ready to fight and to be in position. Her role was to make sure that position was one they could succeed in.

  “Ready?” Liz asked.

  “Ready as ever,” Selene told her.

  It felt weird. Anna had traveled back to Lerna Bastion to meet with Hephaestus Company, leaving Zach in charge. He had delegated responsibility to the individual units on the ground, meaning everything in the offensive tonight was on the platoon and company commanders. He would only give them broad directives, giving his sub-commanders the freedom to execute them as they saw fit.

  Not that he needed to do much in this case, because the situation tonight wouldn’t be very complicated. Hydra would be launching their first major offensive from within the city, hoping to take their enemy off guard and gain ground.

  Objectives for tonight were conservative, because no one thought they could take this place in one go. Their enemy was too skilled and too well dug in for that to happen. Instead they would take it piece by piece, grinding their enemy down as they slowly squeezed them out of the district.

  Tonight was the first step in that chain of events, aimed at taking several blocks of front. Once those were secure, the Hydra forces could consolidate their position and bring up supplies and reinforcements. They’d gain the most ground in the eastern part of the city bordering the lake, which meant they had more room to offload supplies coming in by water.

  The sluggish, relentless warfare didn’t quite suit her, but it was the situation at hand at the moment. Ghost Battalion was more suited for fast moving warfare and lightning attacks using their battlefield mobility to its full effect, but they could fight on the front lines well enough if pressed. Selene wasn’t worried about them not being able to perform.

  Even so, they couldn’t quite equal the street fighting ability of Dragon Battalion, who had spent a considerable amount of time fighting under similar circumstances in Indianapolis. Bereft of troops and without any prospect of reinforcement, Dragon Battalion had learned the trade of slow, grinding street fighting out of necessity. They could take a district house by house, street by street, block by block, enduring repeated counterattacks, strong enemy positions and horrific casualties.

  But that had been against the Indianapolis garrison made up of NPC troops. Could they do it against a strong organization made up of players like Ragnarok? That question continued to loom over their heads, and it wouldn’t go away until they made it.

  Well, Selene thought to herself, they were about to find out. Two very strong forces were about to clash, and the results would be nothing but chaos and carnage. But she believed they were good enough to come out on top and accomplish their objectives, even when faced by a daunting enemy like the one before them.

  Besides, what would this game be without its challenges? Selene was a competitor by nature, and the prospect of going up against a strong enemy thrilled her. Ragnarok had beaten her once, beaten her down so badly that she never wanted to repeat the experience ever again. It motivated her, though, pushing her to hone her close-combat skills in preparation for the next time they were confronted with that situation. As a result, Alpha Wolf had followed her lead and became one of the best units in Ghost Battalion at hand-to-hand combat.

  Iron sharpened iron, as they said.

  “All units, the bombardment will end in one minute,” Cody said. “Prepare for your ground attack.”

  Selene looked down at her wrist menu clock, watching the seconds tick down. One minute. One minute until they would come face to face with the enemy. She paused for a moment, then decided to fix her bayonet to the end of her assault rifle.

  “Alpha Wolf,” she said over the radio, “If you’re using bayonets fix them now.”

  Aside from being practical, that order would set the tone for the coming fight. Everyone knew it would be nasty, brutal, vicious, but the order to fix bayonets only reinforced that notion. If they didn’t know it would be face-to-face, hand-to-hand before, they certainly did now.

  “Thirty seconds.”

  Selene went over her gear one last time. Assault rifle and bayonet, check. Magazines, check. Grenades for room clearing, check. Handgun for a backup weapon, check. Gas mask, check.

  “Last ten seconds.”

  She looked back down at the clock and counted down the seconds, preparing for zero to hit. Selene could hear the sound of her troops getting into position around her, preparing for the moment of no return.

  Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

  This was it
.

  “Alpha Wolf, let’s go!” she yelled out as the counter hit zero. Her unit rose to their feet as one and started to spill out onto the streets, headed for the enemy’s positions.

  Selene was in the process of climbing out of cover when she saw several of her troops in front pause for a moment and look skyward. Then she heard it, a low moaning sound that grew louder by the moment. It took her a half-second to register it, but when she did…

  “Get down! GET DOWN!” she shouted out, just seconds before the world in front of her burst into flames.

  The force of the blasts threw her backward, sending her tumbling back into cover. Selene tried to regain her bearings, but then something else slammed into her, knocking her flat on her face. Her limbs went completely numb and her vision clouded. Even so, she could see the devastation unfolding in front of her as more explosions went off within seconds. The shape of a ragdolling corpse flew past her line of sight, and she could hear the cries and screams of wounded and dying troops.

  Although she had no leg to stand on in that department. Selene tried to move, but her virtual avatar wouldn’t respond. Every effort to rise, every push to even move her limbs did almost nothing. With great effort she finally managed to get her arms moving and started for pull herself along, trying to do something, anything.

  Selene suddenly felt something stop her, and then a sharp pain went through her right arm. But her vision began to clear, and then the feeling in her limbs returned. A pair of hands helped her up into a sitting position.

  She looked up at her rescuer. “Thanks Joon,” she said, but he was already moving, headed to treat more casualties.

  Selene pushed herself back up onto her feet and retrieved her weapons, trying to make sense of the situation. She had the new system to thank for her survival. In the old world she probably would have been killed, but under the sync system players who were badly wounded survived for much longer, unable to fight but still capable of being revived. As a result, medics had become extremely valuable.

  Selene’s mind raced as she turned back toward the burning scene in front of her. It had only been for a split-second, but her mind had identified with sound she had heard in an instant.