Black Wolf

by Mitchell T. Jacobs

  She scowled. “Why can't anything we do go according to plan?”

  Zach strapped his helmet on his head. “Where would the fun in that be?” he asked and headed for the ATVs

  Zach pushed his ATV as fast as he dared to go. “David, Gina, Danny, I'll be there in about two minutes. Is everything in place?”

  “We have the shells, but the tank is giving us trouble,” David replied. “It took out one of the fireteams that was shadowing it.”

  “It acts like it's performing a sweep of the town,” Danny said. “If it starts to force its way down the main road we're in trouble. The only place we can get a good shot on it is from the roof tops, and it can elevate its gun high enough to hit teams on the roof.”

  “I still think that we can take it out with grenades,” Gavin said.

  “Even if you're right, that's got to be our last resort. Because if that doesn't work, then we're out of options,” Zach said.

  “I have three heavies left, plus your two,” David said. “I'm going to set them up in positions on the roofs along the main road about four hundred yards apart. That should help draw the tank down the street. I'll have you set up the bomb right after the first heavy.”

  “OK, but keep in mind that your heavy will probably get hit by the blast if he's not in cover,” Zach warned.

  “If we're setting off the bomb that means she's already dead,” David said.

  “OK, good point,” Zach said. “Put Danny and Ethan as the last two heavies. They've had the most practice and are probably the best shots.”

  “Will do,” David said.

  The town loomed in front of them Zach could see a group gathered just inside the beginning of the main street. He slowed his vehicle and pulled up beside them. It was Gina, David and a few others standing alongside one of the loaded ATVs.

  Gina greeted him. “Know what you're doing?” she asked.

  Zach dismounted and went to open the parts box on the back of his ATV. “Yeah. This is where not being a specialist comes in handy.”

  Zach had built his class to be a generalist engineer. While he might not have the skills in mine sweeping, explosives, building or crafting like a specialist would, he could do any of them, albeit much less effectively. He opened his parts box and rooted around for wire and a wireless detonator. His plan was to wire all the shells together in a bundle, then bury them in the middle of the road, warheads facing up. When the tank rolled over it he would trigger the IED. If all went according to plan, the blast would penetrate the thin armor of the tank's underbelly and kill it. And it needed to work, since they would spend their reserves of anti-tank ammo.

  “How long do you think it will take?” David asked.

  “It's going to be around fifteen minutes, and then I'm going to have to bury the thing. If you can dig the hole that will help speed up the process a bit.”

  David grimaced. “OK, we have entrenching tools. How big is the bomb going to be?”

  “It's going to be the size of this crate,” Zach said, tapping the shell container mounted on the back of Gavin's ATV. “The thing that's going to take the most time is wiring the shells together. Once that's done it's just a matter of connecting the detonator and burying it.”

  “Alright, I'm going to have Bear 6 use hit and run on the tank to try to keep it busy,” Gina said. “Bear 7 and Fox 3 are following the path that Redd Foxx took through the woods. They'll try to reinforce them.”

  “Zach, are you in place?” Liz asked.

  “Yeah, I'm in the process of rigging up the bomb,” Zach said as he worked.

  “Alright, be advised that Bear 1's group is being hit hard. They're holding, but they're taking heavy casualties.”

  “Tell them we'll need around twenty minutes to take the tank out,” Zach said.

  “OK, but they may need reinforcements,” Liz said.

  “Understood, but keep in mind Redd Foxx needs reinforcements too, and we have only two squads left in reserve,” Zach said.

  “I know. I'll remind them of that,” Liz said.

  It took him another ten minutes to wire the bomb together, and he could hear the sounds of gunfire all the while coming from the south and east. The sounds coming from the south sounded especially intense. And occasionally the sound of something louder, like a massive sewing machine, cut through the air. It was the quad mount on the tank, Gina had told him. The thing fired so fast that it could essentially tear anything short of another tank in half from the sheer amount of lead it threw out.

  Finally, he was done. Zach closed the top of the crate and made sure it was tight. “How's the hole coming?” he asked David.

  “I think it's done. Bring it down here.”

  Zach jumped on the back of the ATV. “Let Bear 6 know that we'll be ready to lure it down the street in a minute,” he told Gina.

  “Will do, but there aren't very many of them left,” Gina said.

  Zach sped down the street to David's group. Together they manhandled the bomb into the hole they had dug and quickly covered it.

  “You're holding the detonator, I assume,” David said.

  Zach nodded. “I'm going to be up with Danny. Start drawing the tank in and I'll be up on the roof in time to set the bomb off.”

  “Alright,” David said.

  Zach turned the ATV around and gunned the motor, heading for Danny's position on top of a three story building made of tan brick. He dismounted right in front of the door and shoved it open. The ATV was probably going to get blasted or crushed in that position, but that was the least of their worries right now. Zach found the stairwell and ran up the steps as fast as he could.

  “Took you long enough,” Danny said. “I sure hope we have enough troops left to take this place.”

  Zach noticed that he had a machine gun and several belts of ammo laid out beside him. “Where did you get that from?” he asked.

  “I lifted it off from a dead heavy,” Danny said. “It really sucked trying to haul both weapons up here, but it'll come in handy if we kill the tank.”

  A jet of smoke and flame shot out from a roof top ahead of them. Zach saw the heavy on top of the building take off in a panicked run for the other side of the roof. He leaped down onto the fire escape at the back of the building just in time. A storm of shells ripped half the third floor of the building to shreds. Part of the roof collapsed.

  Zach saw the tank start to roll down the street at a quick pace, guns trained upward. It was an intimidating sight. Miko's description had been correct; the tank had four small cannons mounted on the front of the tank, and a machine gun mounted on top. Zach also noted that it had side skirts, welded panels of armor mounted on its sides to protect the tracks. That would make it much harder to score a mobility kill, which was going to be their only other good option if the bomb didn't work. He swore he could see down all four barrels, even though they weren't quite pointed at his position.

  Another jet of smoke and flame went off from the second position. The shot had a bad angle and bounced off the turret before exploding. The second heavy tried to get down into cover, but wasn't so fortunate. The turret swung around and opened fire. Zach winced despite himself. The heavy, or what remained, fell off the roof. The tank's cannons had turned her into a messy pulp. Zach didn't envy anyone who had been on the receiving end of that firepower. It had seemed powerful on screen, but that was nothing compared to what seeing it in person was like.

  Still, the tank rolled on. The third heavy fired and got off the roof in a hurry. He had stood further back on the roof and was more successful. The shot missed the target completely, but he was able to get to the stairs much sooner. The tank tore up the roof, but Zach could see the heavy's marker still on his radar display.

  “Doesn't that thing ever run out of ammo?” Zach asked.

  “Believe me, we've been wondering that for the past thirty minutes,” Danny said. “Ethan, we're about to set off the bomb. Get ready to open fire, and do what it takes to make a kill shot. I'm going to fire as wel
l.”

  “Got it,” Ethan replied.

  “What, do you not trust my bomb-making abilities? Zach asked.

  “Do you really want to have to try this all again because you got cocky?” Danny asked.

  Zach peered over the roof to check the progress of the tank. “OK, it's coming. Stand up when you hear the explosion.”

  “Ready when you are,” Danny said.

  Zach watched the tank inch closer and closer. Just a little bit more... “Firing!” he shouted.

  Everything shook as the bomb went off. Zach had to steady himself against the roof to keep from being sent backward from the shock wave. The tank was wreathed in smoke, the side skirts and tracks blown off. Ethan stood up to fire, just to make sure it was dead.

  The turret suddenly swung around and opened fire. Ethan was scythed down in a hail of shells.

  “The tank's not dead! It's not dead!” Zach shouted into his radio.

  “What?” Nora exclaimed. “How can it still be alive?”

  “I don't know, but it shredded Ethan. We're-”

  “GET DOWN!” Danny shouted in his ear. Zach felt a hand grab his shoulder and pull him down, a split-second before a burst of machine gun fire flew over their heads.

  “MOVE IT! MOVE!” Danny yelled, dragging him to the stairwell. The giant sewing machine sound ripped through the air. In the span of a second half the roof was gone.

  “I'm going to try to hit it from the street,” Danny said as they descended down the stairs. Holes suddenly appeared in the wall above them and showered them with shattered masonry.

  “It knows where we are,” Zach said.

  “We have to try. We-” The wall beside him suddenly exploded in a wave of shattered brick, and Danny wasn't there anymore, torn apart by the cannon fire. They were running out of options.

  “Liz, Nora, we're going to have to call a general retreat. There's no way we can kill the tank. It's too strong.”

  “Are you sure?” Liz asked.

  “I don't see many more options. We-”

  The sound of cannon fire cut through the air again. Zach braced himself for the end, but it never came. Confused, he carefully looked around the hole in the wall. The tank's turret was pointing at another angle, firing around the base of the building where the third heavy had been. And then, the tank exploded.

  “Who did it? Who did it?” David asked. “None of my team hit it.”

  “All my heavies are dead,” Zach said. Then he saw it. Gavin and Ryan came jogging out of the smoke waving at him.

  Gavin buzzed in. “Told you my idea would work,” he said.

  “Believe me. I'm glad I was wrong,” Zach said. He switched his channel to the entire task force. “Attention everyone. We've killed the tank, but we've still got a battle to fight. Stick to the plan, and let's take the capture point.”

  Gavin was waving him forward. Zach grabbed his gun and charged toward them. Toward the capture point. Toward victory.

  CHAPTER 15

  Panzerkrieg

  “Well that was wonderful,” Liz commented as she stepped off the back of Nora's ATV.

  “You didn't even have to fight,” Anna said. She had dirt and blood all over her, products of the desperate holding action she and the remnants of Redd Foxx had fought. With Fox 1 and the remnants of Fox 5 she had managed to hold off an attack from about thirty to forty enemy soldiers until help arrived. Without them, it was likely that Zach would have been shot planting the bomb. At the very least, Gavin and Ryan's suicide run at the tank would have been shot to pieces.

  “It was getting pretty close to that point,” Liz said. “Over half of the screens in the headquarters aren't being used because the squad were wiped out.”

  The battle had taken a grim toll. Not counting the controllers back at HQ, they had around fifty troops left after the battle, down from almost two hundred they had begun the battle with. Snipers and heavy weapons teams had taken their toll, but almost three quarters of the casualties had been caused by the tank.

  Nora dismounted and looked over at the still smoking hull of the tank. “So, that's what gave us so much trouble, huh?”

  Zach looked at her. “You seem to be the only one that always manages to live through something like this.”

  “What kind of answer is that?” Nora asked with a laugh.

  “Eh, just an observation. Yeah, that's the thing that gave us so much trouble.”

  “It appeared just as we started to go for the central capture point,” Anna said. “We had no clue it was here before, and I have no idea where it came from.”

  “Maybe it's a boss of some sort? Like, it serves as the guard for the capture point of the town,” David suggested.

  “That makes sense. I also noticed that moving toward the center seemed to spawn several more enemy squads,” Gina said.

  Liz frowned. “That probably means that there's probably going to be things like that guarding other capture points, and it did a number on us.”

  “Yeah, but keep in mind it caught us by surprise,” David said. “Now that we know bosses appear around capture points, we can be better prepared for it.”

  “We also can deal with that later. Let's do what we came to do and loot the place,” Gina said.

  “Uh, how well have we swept the area for mines?” Zach asked.

  “The main roads are clear. We'll avoid the alleys and the side roads we haven't swept until we have time to do so,” Anna said.

  “Well, where do we want to head first?”

  Anna pointed to a building in the center of town, a four story brick structure that looked like a town hall or courthouse. “Right there. It's next to the capture point, so there's probably something in it.”

  “We're going to need to get all of our equipment the the command post down here,” Nora said.

  “I already contacted Selene about that. They're going to bring down the reserve ATVs and load them up,” Zach said.

  “I bet she wasn't happy about that,” Nora remarked.

  “She was angrier about me getting them all killed. Though, I owe them all drinks the next time we go out, so she can't complain too much.”

  “Why wasn't I included in on this?” Nora asked.

  “Because you never die. Besides, what was going to kill you in the command post? A rogue angry monitor?”

  “Do Danny and Ethan get to benefit?”

  Zach sighed. “They weren't included in the original deal, but I'm probably going to have to include them anyhow.”

  Anna laughed. “Man, you're brutal. The commander pays in drinks for getting his subordinates killed, eh? I guess that's possible for a small company like yours, but I'm glad I don't have to do that.”

  “This is why I'm hesitant to add more members, mind you,” Zach joked. “Not because it would upset the balance of our company, or we're worried about spies, but because I'd have to pay for too many drinks in the real world.”

  “Isn't that admitting that you're a terrible tactician?” Liz joked back. “I mean, you'd be fine if you didn't get a lot of people killed.”

  “Again, that seems to be a special skill of ours. We usually go get ourselves in a fight that's way out of our league, and then half of us get killed in the process,” Nora said.

  “And yet you still never die,” Zach commented.

  “That's the advantage of being a glorified accountant and secretary,” Nora said. “You have three soldiers, but you usually use Xavier or Selene because they're tailored for fighting. Not that I'm complaining.”

  “We'd be nowhere near where we are now if we didn't take risks,” Zach said. “That's what got us the overdrive formula and now this town.”

  “And we're certainly glad for that,” Gina said.

  They reached the building and went inside. Ahead of them was an entryway with a high vaulted ceiling, stretching all the way to the fourth floor. All of their alerts went off as they entered. Zach opened his menu to see what the message was. He expected it to be an alert that this building
could be used as a company stronghold. It was not, much to his surprise. New discovery, the message read. Alliance base. There was a considerable amount of text below it.

  An alliance base allows several companies to create an alliance and share the use of the facilities contained within. An alliance base is considered to be a stronghold for each company that is a part of the alliance. In addition to company armories, storage and treasuries, there are also facilities that are shared by the alliance as a whole. The alliance may also set prices on all buildings contained within the base, including buying, selling and leasing.

  And there was more. An alliance must be formed by the commanders of at least three companies. The command structure of the alliance must be defined when it is founded. An alliance may be controlled by one overall commander, or a council. If controlled by an overall commander, all decisions pertaining to the alliance must be made by the commander. If controlled by a council, then all decisions must be approved by a majority vote.

  Zach looked up. “We're doing this, right?”

  “No reason not to,” Gina said. “Though, what structure are we going to use?”

  “Much as I'd like to be dictator, having a council seems to be more fair,” David said.

  “I'm for a council as well,” Anna said.

  “So am I,” Gina said.

  “Council it is, then.” Zach entered data into the form in front of him. He paused for a moment, thinking. “What are we going to call the alliance?”

  “What about Hydra?” Liz suggested.

  “Isn't that more of a villain's name?” David said.

  “Who says we have to be good?” Liz said. “It's a bunch of heads working together as one creature, so the name would fit as an alliance name.”

  “Cut off a head, and two more appear,” Anna mused. “I'll sign to that.”

  Zach typed it in to the form and marked his seal at the bottom. Then he sent it to the other three. “Any objections to being a part of Hydra?” he asked. No one spoke up. Anna signed first, then David. Gina hesitated for a second.