Black Wolf

by Mitchell T. Jacobs

  BLACK WOLF

  A World at War Novel

  By Mitchell T. Jacobs

  Mitchell T. Jacobs

  Copyright 2014 by Mitchell T. Jacobs

  Smashwords Edition

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  BLACK WOLF

  Copyright © 2014 by Mitchell T. Jacobs

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Printing, 2014

  Cover art by Maria Montreuil

  BLACK WOLF

  To Adam and Ryan,

  for all the tournaments we

  have and will continue to lose.

  CHAPTER 1

  On the Threshold

  BAM!

  The building shook, rocked by a barrage of enemy firepower.

  “Foxtrot Squad, how much longer?”

  “Just give us another thirty seconds,” came the reply over the radio.

  The building shook again. Zach could tell the front of it wasn't going to last much longer. The other side was toting heavy firepower. Grenade launchers, RPGs, and probably at least one sniper as well. His troops had all they could do to simply fire back.

  “Alpha, this is Golf Squad. We can loop around and hit the enemy from the back.”

  “Don't bother Danny. We'll have this taken care of in a few minutes.”

  “You sure about that?” Danny's reply came over the radio.

  “Positive,” Zach confirmed. He took a quick look at his eyepiece HUD. Normally, all soldiers would have a simple radar showing the location of their allies and any enemies that had been spotted, as well as a layout of the area if it was available. It could only track objects in close proximity. As captain he had access to the entire map of the area, and could see the location of any squad. From what he could tell they were in good shape. But then a large object appeared on the radar, and it was right in front of them...

  “Captain!” one of his troops shouted, but it was too late. The enemy tank sent a round through the weakened facade of the building. Zach barely had enough time to notice before he and his entire squad were vaporized.

  “Oh come on!” Zach said, now in a black void. A red lettered message flashed in front of him. You are KIA. Then another message appeared. VICTORY. “They made it!” Zach exclaimed to himself.

  The waiting lobby materialized in front of him. Now he was standing in a large white room with the rest of the players from the last game. All of them were wearing a variety of civilian clothes.

  “That was close,” Danny said as he walked up.

  “No kidding. That would have sucked if we had to keep fighting without the captain's tools,” Zach said.

  “You're welcome,” a voice said from behind them.

  “Yeah, yeah, we do most of the fighting, and you guys get all the glory,” Danny said.

  “You mean you all get shot, and my squad takes the objectives. Did you see how many troops they had dug in on the last capture point?”

  “It's true. Selene's squad has us both beat,” Zach said.

  “That's 'cause we had to work with all new people,” Danny protested, though Zach knew it was good natured. They had been doing it ever since elementary school.

  “Everyone has to work with new people. I'm pretty sure that us three are the only ones that know each other, and there's what, two hundred people?”

  Zach cut in. “It'll be less of a problem when the full game is launched. We get a group together, and we'll be able to have squads that know how to work with each other.”

  Danny nodded. “I can't believe it launches tomorrow. Are you guys going to be on for it?”

  “Of course,” Zach said.

  “Yeah, me too,” Selene said.

  “It's going to be so different from the beta. Having a whole open world is going to be so odd. I wonder how it's going to work.”

  “We point guns at people and shoot them. Everything else it there to support that,” Selene said. “Speaking of which, want to go for another round?”

  “I'm game,” Danny said.

  “Thanks, but I'm going to log off,” Zach said. “I'll see you tomorrow, though.” He opened the digital menu and logged out of the game world.

  Zach sat up in his chair and took off the neuro-helmet. World at War was launching tomorrow. Almost three years of hard work was going to pay off.

  He carefully placed his neuro-helmet on the shelf. Neuro-helmets had been used to create virtual reality for around four years now. They worked by sending information to the user's brain and interpreting the information it received back. The helmet design had been chosen because it was easy for someone to put on and it provided protection for sensitive electronic components.

  They had been used for social interaction over long distances and for simple puzzle games. Simply being able to play chess or marbles had been mind-blowing at first. Games where you could play tennis had been the pinnacle of virtual reality. And this was about to blow them all out of the water.

  Zach had done some programing work on the game, though it was nothing that would give him any special advantage. He had been in charge of creating the communication network within the game; the radios, the long range video and satellite feeds were all his work. He definitely knew how to coordinate and communicate better than anyone else, but as for weapons, tactics, and the like, he was at square one with the rest of them.

  But there had been nothing like World at War. It was a first person shooter, a genre that had been popular for online play for decades, but it was so much more. The beta had simply been a few unconnected areas to test and show off the battle system. World at War would be a complete world; there would be towns and cities to fight over, where arms and armor would have to be produced as well. Resources for creating ammunition, weapons and equipment would have to be gathered, and, outside of a few starting items, the items would need to be crafted by the players themselves. And players would be able to band together in organizations to take territory and establish virtual fiefdoms for themselves.

  It was the most ambitious undertaking in the history of virtual world games, and Zach sometimes wondered where the money to produce this had come from. But from what he had experienced already, the risk was going to be well worth it. The number of subscribers was going to be huge.

  He was going to have to make tweaks to the system, modify problems as they became apparent, but for most of the day he could be in the game world, observing how everything worked and just being a part of the community.

  It would all begin tomorrow.

  CHAPTER 2

  New World

  Welcome to World at War, the display in front of him read. You are now entering Old Chicago.

  Zach was eager to see the game world. World at War was set in a post-apocalyptic world of sorts, where humanity had been forced back into a few decaying and overgrown cities. Outside of them was the wilds, teeming with all manner of beasts, monsters and hostile NPC armies. The world itself was huge, scaled to one quarter of the size of the real world, but huge nonetheless.

  Chicago was the main hub for the central United States; there were other hubs in New York City, Miami, Dallas, Los Angeles and Seattle. Overseas hubs in Europe and Asia would be brought
online in time, and eventually the entire world would be able to play each other in one virtual reality server.

  Please choose your class, the display read. There were six classes in World at War. There was the soldier, the standard class that fought with assault rifles and provided the backbone of any army. There was the heavy class, carrying heavy weapons like missile launchers and machine guns. Both had the best protective gear as well. Then there were the lighter classes. The assault class used close range weaponry, and acted as scouts and urban fighters. The sniper class used sniper rifles, naturally. Then there were the two support classes. Medics healed downed teammates and provided status boosts to them as well. And engineers built obstacles, set traps and were equipped to take down fortified positions.

  Zach had always liked playing the engineer class. It had frequently been useful to be able to modify the battlefield with obstacles and traps, and it had meshed well with his usual position as a commander. He selected it. Eventually, he would be able to choose specializations, and there were also sub-classes that every class could select. Ten players could have the same basic class and yet play completely differently.

  He materialized into the game world. Zach and everyone else around him was clad in the same basic outfit, a dull gray combat uniform. All uniforms were made of nano-fabric, which meant that their coloring could be switched in the holographic wrist menu at the touch of a button. And everyone's vision could be toggled so they could see holographic displays of everyone's username.

  “Hey, Zach!” Danny shouted from behind him.

  He turned to see Danny, Selene and another player he didn't recognize walking toward them. It was a woman with an Asian complexion and pink hair, with the markings of a sniper class.

  “Hey Zach. This is my roommate, Miko. I convinced her to try this,” Selene said. She had soldier class markings on her uniform. “She'll run with our fireteam.”

  Fireteams consisted of three to four players, and were the smallest unit that players could join in World at War. Many of the missions against hostile NPCs were designed for a four person fireteam.

  “Good to meet you,” Zach said, extending his hand to her.

  “I'm not sure how much use I'm going to be. I'm probably going to be a terrible shot,” Miko said as she shook his hand.

  “There's an aim assist for the first five levels. It helps you to get used to firing weapons in the game,” Zach said.

  “Oh, good,” she said, looking relieved.

  “It's kind of weird, not having any health bar in an MMO,” Selene commented.

  “Well, everyone has a health bar, and everything has stats. It's just that they're all hidden, to give the impression of realism. Full sense immersion, the development team was calling it,” Zach told her.

  “What do we want to do first?” Danny asked. He was equipped as a heavy.

  “Well, if we go to the outskirts of Old Chicago there's mutant creatures and stuff in the ruins. We can kill them to get some credits. Or we can go to one of the practice ranges, or do a quest inside the city for money as well.”

  “I hear another or in there,” Selene said.

  “Well, I know that there's an NPC outpost about five miles south of the city. It might be tough for inexperienced players, but the three of us could probably tackle it, and it will be good experience for Miko as well.”

  “Cheater,” Danny grinned.

  “Hey, I took one look at a map someone in the design room showed me,” Zach said.

  “I'm sorry, what did I miss?” Miko asked.

  “He did some programming for the game,” Selene said.

  “Just the communications system,” Zach said.

  “So how about it? Are we brave enough to tackle something well above our level that's probably going to get us all killed?” Danny asked. “Our experience points don't go negative if we die, do they?” he asked.

  Death in World at War meant that you were transported back to the nearest hub and lost some experience points. The number lost would decrease if you kept dying frequently in order to curb frustration, but it was still a notable loss.

  “No. We're fine,” Zach said.

  “Well in that case, what's there to lose?” Danny asked. “Let's do something crazy.”

  * * *

  It took a five minute ride on the tram to reach the southern outskirts of the city. In the outskirts Zach's fireteam had passed dozens of other players killing mutant rats called ryches and feral dogs. They provided a bit of experience and their pelts could be sold for some money, but it would take a dozen of them to buy the smallest upgrade, let alone a decent weapon. They were after much bigger prey.

  Their team was well balanced, all things considered. Selene and Danny provided a good solid front for the team, able to dish out and take damage. Miko would provide long range fire support with her sniper rifle, and he would clear obstacles, help destroy fortified positions, and set traps as the opportunity presented itself. He was also leader of the fireteam, though in reality it didn't matter much. Selene and Danny were just as able as he was in leading a unit of this size. Their training in the beta had made them strong.

  Zach's team climbed to the top of a ridge overlooking the enemy outpost. It looked like a small national guard armory, decrepit and decaying in the post-apocalyptic world. There was a brick wall around the complex, with only one gate. There was one guard tower at the entrance, and it looked like it had a heavy machine gun or a belt fed grenade launcher. Tackling that was not going to be pretty.

  “How many soldiers can you count?” Zach asked Miko as she looked down the scope of her rifle.

  “I count sixteen,” she said. “There might be more inside the buildings. I think they all have assault rifles.”

  “Nothing too tough,” Danny mused.

  “Yeah, but that gun in the tower is going to shred us before we can get close enough,” Selene said. “If we can blow up the tower, this is a cake walk, but if not we're all going to be back at Old Chicago with nothing to show for it. You wouldn't happen to have a missile launcher on you, would you?”

  “Unfortunately, the heavy's starting weapon is a machine gun.”

  Zach thought for a moment. “How many rounds does your sniper rifle hold?” he asked Miko.

  “Three.”

  “Can you hit the gunner in the tower?”

  “I think so,” she said.

  Zach nodded. “Alright, here's the plan. Miko stays up here on overwatch. The other three of us go to that rubble over there,” he said, pointing to a spot that was just before the open ground of the outpost. “On my signal, Miko kills the gunner in the tower, and then takes out anyone who tries to man the gun. Meanwhile, we attack and get close enough to take out the tower. Once that happens, we can sweep the armory.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Danny said.

  “This is insane, but what's the worst that could happen?” Selene said.

  “This is actually a life or death game and if you die in here then you die in real life? And there's no way to take off the neuro-helmet without killing you?”Danny suggested.

  “Yeah, except they specifically have overrides built into the helmet to prevent that,” Zach said. “Let's get this done. Wait for my signal,” he told Miko

  “I'll do my best,” she said, though she didn't sound confident.

  It was for the best, Zach thought. She was the least experienced and weakest member of the fireteam, and she would probably feel inadequate if she was forced to rely on them. Making her a critical part of their operations would serve to bolster her confidence and give her more experience as well.

  He slid in behind Selene and Danny and toggled the radio controls on his helmet. “Ready?”

  “Ready,” the reply came back.

  “Go!”

  A shot cracked through the air. Zach saw the gunner in the tower fall. The other soldiers in sight started to scramble for their weapons. One tried to mount the stairs to the tower and was immediately shot. So much for Miko being w
orried about her aim.

  Selene and Danny stormed out of cover toward the main gate. Zach hefted his carbine and followed behind them. Selene was fast, slowing only occasionally to fire a quick burst at anyone who showed their face. Danny's approach was slower. He walked at a brisk but steady pace, firing long bursts from his belt fed machine gun to keep the enemy's head down. And then there was him. His carbine wasn't going to be effective at this range, so he didn't bother firing. The trump card was the under-slung grenade launcher, but Zach only had two grenades and was going to need to buy more later. He need to make the ones he had count.

  Selene gunned down an NPC soldier leaning out around the open gate with a beautiful head shot. Up ahead of them was the remnants of a building's wall, close enough to the outpost to put them in range to take out the tower. Zach made a headlong sprint and dove into cover alongside Selene. Danny followed and started to load another belt into his gun.

  “Once you're reloaded, hose the gates!” Zach shouted over the din of gunfire. The enemy soldiers guarding the fortress had gotten over the initial shock and were starting to launch a ferocious barrage at them.

  “I'm reloading,” Miko said over the radio. That meant that she had killed another NPC going for the gun. It was now or never.

  “Loaded!” Danny confirmed.

  “Loading!” Selene said as she ducked back behind cover, pulling another magazine from her carrier.

  “Pick off any targets of opportunity once you're reloaded!” Zach told her. “Danny... Now!”

  Danny propped his machine gun up against the top of the ruined wall and opened up on the gates with a long burst. The NPCs around the gate leaped back into cover, though two didn't make it before they were scythed down in the rain of bullets.

  Zach cocked his launcher and stood up. He took care aim at the tower and squeezed the trigger. The launcher kicked, and a split-second later the tower blew up in a shower of smoke, flame, and shrapnel. The way into the fortress was now clear.