Commando City: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 7)

by Mitchell T. Jacobs

  “Is it an either or proposition?” Selene asked.

  “No, not necessarily,” Yusuf answered, “but in many cases it is. We're going to have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to build and fly this thing, and that might be time better spent with other things. We might be better off trying to come up with a new tank design, or something like those assault rifles we built for you.”

  “OK, I get that,” Selene nodded. After an initial adjustment period she and the rest of the company had taken to the new bullpup design. It was lightweight, powerful, compact and accurate out to a significant range, perfect for commando work.

  “So it all depends on how fast we can analyze it and then get them mass produced. And then we have to find out if they're really any better than the Gales, and that's totally up to Perseus Flight.”

  “Yeah, not my area of expertise either,” Selene replied.

  She was about to say more when a sound made her pause. It sounded like a low growl, coming from somewhere in the brush. And then she heard it. A deep howl, loud, reverberating, almost like it was shaking the air itself.

  “Um, Selene?” Ethan's voice cut in over the radio link.

  “Yeah, I hear it,” she replied, gripping her assault rifle. “Keep an eye out.”

  “Oh, must be it's back,” Yusuf commented like nothing out of the ordinary was happening.

  “It?” Selene asked. Another series of howls joined in, these ones having a much higher pitch.

  “Yeah, there's a boss monster of sorts that hangs around this area. We call her the Alpha Wolf. She must have respawned from the last time we killed her.”

  His statement was met with laughter from the rest of her squad commanders.

  “Looks like you might have some competition,” Gavin said.

  “Yeah, yeah, just hope it doesn't decide to chomp on you,” she retorted. “How do we take care of it?”

  “Shoot it?” Yusuf said.

  “Obviously. I mean, what's its attack patterns? Things like that?”

  “It likes to come out and attack as part of a pack,” Yusuf said. “It can leap pretty far, and it likes to pounce. Oh, and it's the size of a bus. Don't try using recoilless rifle shells on it, though. It'll dodge them.”

  “Wonderful,” she muttered, half to herself.

  And then she had no more time to talk, because a dozen fen wolves suddenly appeared out of the undergrowth, charging toward them with fangs bared.

  The air around her rang with gunfire. Selene toggled her own weapon back to semi-auto and took aim at one of the incoming, wolves. She held her gun steady for a moment, then squeezed the trigger.

  Her target flinched from the impact and slowed, but didn't fall. No matter. Selene's first shot had stunned it enough, and she followed up with two more. This time the wolf tumbled to the ground and lay still.

  No time to celebrate her triumph, though. Another wolf crossed her field of vision, and she struggled to compensate for its speed. Selene wasted a pair of shots before she finally scored a hit on its leg, slowing it down and causing it to limp. The wolf suddenly fell dead as someone else shot it up.

  “Keep them at a distance,” Selene warned the rest of her troops.

  “Yeah, no kidding,” Logan replied over the radio link. “You think we want to fight those things in close quarters?”

  They might be forced to at some point, but for now Alpha Wolf Platoon seemed to be holding out fine. Even with their diminished skills they kept the enemy at bay with carefully placed shots.

  But then the low howl sounded again, audible even over the din of gunfire. And then something huge leaped out of the trees, coming right toward her.

  Selene and everyone else around her dove in every direction as the boss slammed to earth, trying to pin them under its massive bulk. It missed, but the impact shook the ground beneath them.

  She rolled to her feet and took aim, switching her rifle to full auto with one practiced motion. Selene unloaded the rest of her magazine into the gigantic beast, but the creature barely even flinched.

  Yusuf was right. The boss monster was huge, at least the size of a bus with monstrous, pronounced fangs the size of her arms. Anyone on the receiving end of those would be dead before they could even realize it.

  More of her troops trained their guns on the boss and opened fire, but the creature quickly leaped away into the undergrowth, out of sight.

  “Do you want us to burn away the brush?” Gavin asked her over the radio link.

  “Wait. We don't know what else it out there that we might disturb, and we don't want to flush it out. Not at a time like this.”

  Many types of creatures weren't immediately hostile, but would become so if they were disturbed. Selene hadn't seen any so far, but setting fire to the area around them was a good way to stir them up. One wrong move and they could have hundreds of monsters swarming their position alongside the boss.

  “Watch yourself,” Yusuf warned. “One of the things I noticed the last few times was that it likes to make a straight charge out of the undergrowth, and it's pretty much impossible to stop then.”

  Selene heard the brush to her left suddenly crack, and then another loud howl filled the air. She looked on with a mixture of awe and horror as the gigantic creature charged out and grabbed one of her troops, crushing him in its jaws. Bullets seemed to do nothing to it.

  And for some reason, Selene lost her cool. She advanced forward, blazing away at the thing's head with her assault rifle on full auto. Her gun clicked empty, and she quickly changed magazines.

  But her actions caught the attention of the boss monster, and Selene suddenly realized she had just made a terrible mistake. The gigantic fen wolf reared back, preparing to pounce at her.

  And then it howled, almost like it was in pain. That was when Selene realized a significant number of her platoon was beside her, closing the distance with their own guns blazing. Even something as tough as a boss monster couldn't stand up to that kind of barrage. The fen wolf fell to the ground, shuddered once, and died.

  “Man, are you trying to commit suicide?” Gavin asked her as the area went quiet.

  “I guess frustration just go the better of me,” she replied. “No big deal.”

  No big deal. But was that actually true? Her actions might very well have gotten her killed, and then it would be back to square one. Could she really claim it was frustration with a straight face, or was it something deeper?

  “That should be it for now,” Yusuf said, cutting in on her thoughts. “The attacks usually stop after we kill the boss.”

  “Got it. Alpha Wolf, hold the perimeter to make sure we don't get any more surprises.”

  As the rest of her platoon acknowledged and went back to their positions, Selene went to a knee, brooding. What had she been thinking, charging the boss by herself? Was she starting to go mad with frustration?

  And if she was, could she keep in under control when it counted?

  4

  Look Before You Leap

  Nora couldn't quite describe the way she felt when she heard the news.

  Ghost Battalion's commanders had been called before Hydra's military council to discuss a future operation. That in and of itself didn't surprise her, since they might as well hash out the details while the unit was resting and refitting. As soon as they were ready to fight they could be thrust into the new operation, saving them time and sustaining their momentums gain through their previous victories.

  No, it was the scope of the plan that surprised her, along with everyone else in Ghost, judging by their reactions. Even Karen and Anna, who were on the actual council, looked unhappy. That certainly didn't bode well, she reflected, because if their representatives didn't believe in the plan then why should the rest of them?

  “So let me get this straight,” Neil said, outspoken as always. “You want us to mount another airborne assault on an enemy-held district, only this one is much further to the north, away from our lines of support.”

 
; “There's a little more to it than that,” David replied. He seemed to be heading this particular council.

  “You do realize the kind of casualties we took and how delicate these kind of operations can be,” Zach spoke up. “My company's Alpha Platoon lost half their members, including their commander when they drifted over an antiaircraft position. That left us having to secure a drop zone with less than fifty troops, and we took heavy casualties. Why will this be any different?”

  “And there's another problem with this,” Nora spoke up, opening her wrist menu and activating the projector. “You want us to take the Shorewood District? That's not even connected to any of our holdings.”

  “That's part of the plan,” Bryce spoke up. “Our aim is to take as many districts within the city as we can within a short amount of time. The Shorewood District is still held by the NPC garrison, which means it will be much easier to capture than if Ragnarok had control.”

  “Does that even matter?” Neil said. “There's two districts in between us and our holding in the south, and both of them are held by Ragnarok. Are you just going to waltz over them like they're nothing?”

  Nora knew it wouldn't be that easy. Aside from the brutal fighting they had experienced in the Cudahy District, she had also experienced fighting in the Jones Harbor District, when Black Wolf had performed a raid to destroy a critical warehouse. She knew the district would be swarming with enemy troops and NPC guards, making prospects of a rapid assault daunting at best.

  “The St. Francis district is lightly held at this point,” David said. “Ragnarok used up most of their reserves fighting us in the Cudahy District, so they're pretty much spent for now. They have to replace their losses, and that's going to take some time.”

  Maybe, Nora thought, but could they really count on that? One of the reasons their enemy's last offensive had failed was the stubborn resistance, especially by Black Wolf at the fortified tower they called home for nearly a month. Only about a hundred of them had held out against overwhelming odds, stalling the attack and buying time for the rest of the alliance to counter.

  Veteran players could use the terrain effectively, making their numbers count and allowing them to delay a much larger force. Could it happen here? Nora thought so, because their enemy had plenty of elite troops of their own.

  And if that happened at the wrong moment, Ghost Battalion could become trapped in the northern part of the city, surrounded by enemies and with no prospects of relief.

  “In their defense,” Anna spoke up, “we need to sustain our offensive, and a parachute assault is a good way to get right in the face of the enemy before they can properly react.”

  “Then why aren't we doing it somewhere else? Like, say for instance, the St. Francis District? That's somewhere we can attack where we'll have support nearby.”

  “Because we can't afford to take too long capturing Milwaukee, and we need some way to break the deadlock and get us moving,” Cody replied. “Unless you want to spend months upon months slugging it out with Ragnarok while the alliances from other hubs start encroaching on our territory. They might even decide to sucker punch us while we're fighting in the north, and then where will we be?”

  That was becoming a serious concern. Groups from several of the southern and eastern hubs had already made contact with the Old Chicago region, and she knew that many of them were keen to expand. The Dallas region, in particular, seemed to be a serious prospective threat. Their major alliances had called a ceasefire, seeking to expand their territory in other directions. Might they end up colliding with the Hydra Alliance and sparking a conflict? If so, they'd be in serious trouble, because they couldn't afford to fight a two front war. As it was, Hydra was having trouble sustaining their efforts solely in the north.

  “Keep in mind that going too fast is also going to cause problems,” Karen cautioned. “If we don't do this right then we're setting ourselves up for a pretty bad loss, and that let's Ragnarok have the initiative back. I'm pretty sure we don't want to give that to them, if we can help it.”

  No, Nora agreed silently. Their enemies had held the initiative for far too long, and she preferred being able to dictate the terms of a battle, whether it was on the tactical, operational or strategic level.

  “We have to weigh the risks of taking too long versus the casualties we might take,” David spoke up again. “I know it's not an easy decision, but I think it's a risk we're going to have to take.”

  “Let me say this,” Zach said. “Do we actually have a choice in this matter? If it comes to a vote there's enough of you to overrule us, right?”

  Nora made a quick count in her head. Cody, David, and Bryce were in favor of the plan. Shayna hadn't spoken, but she usually followed David's lead. She couldn't get a proper read on Gina, and Lex was a mystery to her as well.

  So that left four for and two against, with one likely siding with the yeas and two swing votes. And judging from their silence, Nora guessed they were willing to go along with the plan. If they were opposed, she would have expected a lot more resistance.

  “We'll put it to a vote if we have to,” Bryce said, “but we'd like to get you on board with us this time.”

  “That's a tough proposition if we don't want to go along with it,” Neil said.

  “There's not going to be a mutiny this time,” Anna cut in, giving him a stern look. “We might not agree on the methods chosen, but we do realize that it might be our best option, regardless of what we believe.”

  “Agreed,” Zach said. “Like it or not, we have to find some way to keep pushing forward. My only real problem with this is that it might be too ambitious. What's going to happen if you can't break through St. Francis and Jones Harbor in time? I don't think Ragnarok's going to be charitable enough to just give us ammunition.”

  “That's why we chose the Shorewood District,” David said. “Since it's along the lake front we can send in supplies by boat. We can also parachute them in, or deliver them by helicopter.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Robbie finally spoke up. “That's going to be a lot of flying over enemy territory, and Ragnarok still has air superiority. It's pretty likely that if we try to perform supply runs during the day we'll end up getting jumped.”

  “Same goes for the lakeside resupply,” Liz said. “There's a reason we use the land route most of the time. All it takes is one dive bomber patrol in the wrong place at the wrong time and our entire resupply stock is at the bottom of Lake Michigan.”

  Nora looked down at her map again. “And then there's another big problem. If we're dropping that far north, where's our heavy support coming from? We can't bring anything heavier than a recoilless rifle or light mortar with us, so how are we going to deal with tanks and artillery effectively? It's out of range of our guns in Cudahy too.”

  “Close air support,” Bryce informed her.

  “Again, Ragnarok has air superiority, and putting a bunch of helicopters above the city for an extended period of time is just asking for trouble,” Robbie pointed out. “I'm honestly surprised they didn't try to jump us during the last capture. And I know Perseus Flight can provide us with some cover, but they're not going to be able to protect us completely.”

  Plus, even if Raven Flight was able to range about the battlefield with complete impunity, the heaviest firepower they carried were rockets, powerful enough to destroy many targets, but lacking the sheer punch of a 155mm shell or a 120mm mortar. She didn't think they'd be able to parachute in artillery either, even the lighter 75mm guns. The best they could hope for was to bring along a few 45mm anti-tank guns, but those could only be used for direct fire.

  “If you can capture one of the beachheads we might be able to get heavy support ashore,” Gina finally spoke up.

  “Who's going to unload that? Are there even docks along that part of the lakeshore?” Neil asked. “This seems to me like there's a lot of questions and very few answers.”

  “In all honesty, if we do try this we're going to have to rely on
our light infantry to carry the day,” Anna said. “And it's going to be tough, but I think we can do it. We have experience fighting in urban areas without significant heavy support, and we know how to take out fortified positions and armor with just light weaponry.”

  Maybe, but having those assets in their back pocket for when they were needed gave them a bit of leeway. Now, relying only on their skills and the light weaponry they brought with them, they'd have to perform flawlessly. One significant mistake and they'd be in serious trouble with no way to turn the tables.

  At least in other situations they could call upon the artillery or their air support to try to get them out of a jam. This far away from their main forces, though, they would be completely on their own. And while Ghost Battalion was experienced in fighting away from the main body of Hydra's forces, this just seemed like they were asking for trouble.

  “So are you for or against this?” Neil asked with some annoyance in his voice.

  Nora looked around at some of the others. “You know what? I think we need to talk this over within the battalion before we go any further.”

  Zach nodded in agreement. “At least we'll be able to come up with some possible solutions before we actually decide whether this is the path we want to take.”

  Anna stood up, followed by Karen. “OK then. Sorry about this, but we're going to meet privately. I'll contact you when we're done,” she told the others.

  “Suit yourself,” Gina said with a shrug. “If we're going to do this then we need a good plan, so you have no objections from me.”

  The military council might not have any objections, but the rest of her comrades certainly did. Nora could feel the atmosphere around her as they exited the council chambers. There was almost a palatable sense of unease around here. Were they getting sent on yet another suicide mission? She didn't know, but the thought wouldn't leave her mind.