And yet, she could feel the atmosphere around her. Alpha Wolf was one of the most veteran platoons in the entire alliance and had seen plenty of combat, but there was still a sense of uncertainty, of nerves. Everyone remembered how the last jump had gone, and even with all the preparations and precautions in place it was hard to wipe the memory from their minds.
“Two minutes until drop,” the pilot spoke over the radio link.
Selene took a deep breath and then made one last check of her kit. No matter how they might feel, they were committed. They just had to make the leap and hope for the best.
* * *
“Think we can pull it off?”
Danny frowned at the question. “Of course we can pull it off. Why would we even be trying this if we couldn't pull it off?”
Javy shrugged. “Well, there was that one time in Green Bay...”
“That was different,” he said, though he could see the point. Hydra Command hadn't been hesitant to put them in situations where victory was impossible, so long as they occupied the enemy. They'd been sent to take Green Bay to threaten Ragnarok's holdings in the north near Madison, but Hydra Command had never expected them to hold it. Their enemy had been too numerous, too overwhelming.
“Look on the other side, though,” Danny said. “We managed to hold Green Bay when no one else thought we could. Sure, we had to abandon it eventually, but when it counted we pulled it off.”
Javy laughed. “And it only took a full-scale mutiny to do it. Are you planning on doing that again?”
“Well, according to Zach there was some grumblings about just that, but they're not planning on it. We just have to do our jobs and take this place.”
“Easier said than done,” Xavier chimed in. “Although with our insanity I really shouldn't be surprised about anything we pull off.”
Danny grinned at him. “See, what's there to worry about?”
“One minute until drop,” the pilot suddenly broke in.
“Well,” Javy replied, “there's that.”
* * *
“Looks like Spectre has the drop zone secure,” Anna said, looking at her wrist menu map. “That was fast.”
“Compliments to them,” Liz said.
Nora nodded and looked down at her own menu. “Honestly, we shouldn't be that surprised. Both them and Barghest have been gaining a lot of ability lately. And that's good, isn't it?”
“Maybe we won't get stuck spearheading every assault,” Zach said from his spot leaning against the side of the hold.
“Right,” Anna nodded. “And we could also look into adding more companies to the mix, since we can consider the newbies veterans now.”
Nora felt a bit of happiness from that. She had helped with the founding of the company and temporarily served as a senior officer until the others gained enough experience to take over. Now they were coming into their own, able to equal the abilities of the founding companies.
She was about to say something else when the radio link started going wild.
“Ghost Command, Ghost Command, please respond. Ghost Command, this is Spirit Lead. This is urgent. Please respond.”
Anna frowned and replied. “Go ahead.”
“We've got trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“I haven't completely verified it yet, but… Wait. One second.”
Nora could hear radio message over her own link, and noted the sounds of intense gunfire in the background, along with shouts and a few explosions. Was the enemy counterattacking already? And if they were, what were they doing to make that kind of racket? NPC troops weren't pushovers, but she didn't think they'd be putting up that tough of a fight.
“Neil?” Anna asked. “What's going on?”
“We're coming under heavy fire from unidentified hostiles. They're not NPC troops.”
Anna frowned again. “Not NPC troops?”
“I think they might be Ragnarok.”
A stunned silence filled the hold. The quartet looked at each other.
“Are you sure?” Anna asked.
“Like I said, they're unidentified, but it fits their style. I don't think it's line infantry either. They act like special forces.”
“Try to hold the drop zone until we get there. If-”
The pilot's voice suddenly cut in. “Enemy contact. Enemy contact. Taking evasive maneuvers. Taking evasive maneuvers.”
Nora barely had time to brace herself against the side of the hold before the Colossus banked violently to port.
And then everything went wrong.
* * *
Selene barely had time to grasp what was happening before a series of holes appeared in the fuselage. Several of her troops lined up and preparing for their jump were killed instantly, and others were thrown off balance by the sudden shock.
She went to steady herself against the side of the hold, but then the Colossus lurched to the right, sending her flying and knocking the breath from her lungs for a moment. Selene desperately tried to regain her bearings.
The Colossus shuddered again, and this time a huge chunk of the upper roof blew away. Even over the chaos unfolding in the hold, the howl of wind and the drone of the engines, she could hear the fuselage start to groan. From the sound of things, it was going to have a hard time taking the stress.
And then something streaked overhead, blocking out the light for a moment. It took a second, but Selene suddenly realized what had passed by them.
Despite the wild motion of the plane, she steadied herself and opened up her wrist menu, then activate the open channel.
“All units, all units, we have enemy fighters in the area. All units, we have enemy fighters in the area. Abort the drop. A-”
She never got the chance to finish her sentence. More shells slammed into the Colossus, tearing out huge chunks of siding and causing carnage. A few Selene braced herself for another impact, but then the world around her started spinning.
The wind whipped around her, and Selene suddenly realized she wasn't in the plane anymore. As she struggled to right herself, objects started falling past her. Debris, pieces of kit, bodies…
The Colossus was raining down around her in pieces. And if she didn't get her chute opened in time, she was going to make a very nasty smear when she hit the ground.
* * *
Zach heard the call go out over the radio and quickly opened up his wrist menu to determine their position. They were still over the lake, headed toward the drop zone. The next series of transports was right behind them. One of Barghest's planes was too close to abort without having to make a turn over the city, but the rest of them could probably pull out.
“Should we abort?” he asked.
“If there's fighters and opposition on the ground, we have to,” Anna said.
That would mean leaving most of the first wave to die, but the couldn't afford to take heavy losses. Not when their chances of success had plummeted so rapidly.
“If we're going to do it, we need to do it now,” Liz said.
Zach was still mulling over their options when his own choice was made for him. He felt impacts, a bit of pain, and then his vision went completely black.
“Oh, come on,” he groaned as the red letters flashed up in front of him.
You are KIA.
* * *
Nora saw his death, but they had bigger concerns at the moment. Anna immediately got on the radio and started broadcasting to the rest of the battalion.
“All units, mission is compromised. Abort and return to base. Abort and return to base.”
“Doesn't help us,” Liz commented as she glanced out one of the windows.
Nora looked as well. Sure enough, an enemy fighter was streaking toward them, guns blazing. One of the engines took several hits and started smoking.
“There's no way we're getting out of this without getting shot down,” Liz said. “We have to drop.”
“What good are we going to do with just a few of us?” Nora asked.
&
nbsp; “Well, then we at least have to get on the ground so we can destroy the Gazelles. Do you really want to hand them over to Ragnarok? There's no guarantee that they'll be destroyed in a crash.”
“Fine then.”
“Let's go,” Anna said. She contacted the pilot and instructed him to lower the rear ramp.
Like it or not, they had to make their jump as soon as possible. If they survived that long, Nora thought grimly.
* * *
“We've lost Alpha Wolf,” Xavier said, looking at his wrist menu. “Should we abort?”
Danny thought for a moment, his mind racing as he tried to figure out a solution. The order to retreat had gone out, but given their current position he doubted they would make it out of the combat zone alive. The Colossus might be relatively fast compared to a helicopter, but it was a fat, lumbering target for a fighter. More than likely they'd all be killed as they tried to flee over the lake.
That left them with only one choice.
Danny activated his radio and contacted the pilot. “Open the ramp.”
“We're not over the target yet.”
“Open the ramp anyhow,” he insisted. They were at least over dry land.
This wouldn't be ideal, but they had little choice. It was either jump now and hope for the best, or continue on in what was essentially a flying coffin. He activated his radio again.
“As soon as the ramp opens up, get out as quick as you can,” he told the rest of his platoon. “Once we're on the ground, form up as best as you can and we'll go from there.”
Enemy fighters hadn't targeted them yet, but at this rate it was only a matter of time. They needed to get out of the plane and on the ground, fast. Some of them were going to get hung up on buildings and other obstacles, but jumping now at least gave them all a fighting chance.
The ramp started to go down, too slow for his liking. That was probably just because of nerves, though. Danny glanced out the window. Still no signs of fighters, but that could change in a hurry.
The rest of Bravo Wolf stood to attention, restless but not panicky. There would be no mad rush out of the aircraft, at least, and he was thankful for that. If they could keep their cool, then they could attempt to rally no matter the situation.
But there was no more time to think. As soon as the ramp locked into position, he gave the order.
“Bravo Wolf. Let's MOVE!”
* * *
Tossing, tumbling, turning. Selene struggled to right herself in midair, buffeted by the wind, air resistance, gravity and her own momentum from being tossed clear of the transport. If she couldn't gain at least a bit of control over her descent then she was probably going to get tangled in her chute when she deployed it. Once that happened there would be no going back, and all she'd have to to look forward to was more retraining.
Selene flapped her arms in desperation, trying to generate a bit of momentum to stop her wild rolls. It didn't completely work, but she managed to get enough control to slow her rotation. That allowed her to find her rip chord.
She grasped it and waited for the right moment in her rotation to open up her canopy. Once wrong guess and it would be all over.
She pulled.
Selene heard the sound of unfurling fabric, then felt a sharp tug as the shoot deployed and slowed her fall. Once glance up confirmed that everything worked properly. She saw no tangles and no holes in the canopy.
But that was one problem out of many. Another glance around the skies made her realize that few of her troops were falling with her. She counted only three or four in her immediate area, with more drifting down much further away.
The fighters had killed a substantial number of her platoon in the hold of their transport, and the resulting disintegration scattered the survivors even further. Even if over half of Alpha Wolf had survived, they'd be useless as an effective fighting force. Who knew how long it would take for them to reassemble?
And who knew how long they'd even last on the ground, Selene realized as she neared her landing. The sounds of intense gunfire filtered up toward her. She could see two units exchanging shots with each other, and one of them had friendly markers over them. That was probably Spectre's pathfinder force.
But then an awful realization hit her. She was coming down on the wrong side of the lines. And if anyone decided to look up in the next few seconds, she was going to become a bullet sponge.
* * *
The pallets started rolling down the ramp as bullets tore into the Colossus. Nora crouched low, almost complete prone as she tried to avoid the hail of firepower coming at them. The plane's lack of armor was becoming very apparent, and they probably needed to do something about that before the next mission.
That didn't do them any good now, though. More bullets rattled the fuselage, cutting through bulkheads and severing critical systems and cables. As the first Gazelle fell off the ramp, the rest of the load suddenly stopped moving.
“Hermes, the cargo belt's not working,” Anna said.
“Probably a system failure,” he replied.
“Can you get it restarted?”
“Not without repairing the system.”
Liz made a face. “Figures that our only engineer got shot in the opening round.”
Nora tried to think of a solution.
“Hermes, can you put the plane into a climb so we can use gravity?” she asked.
“I can try,” the pilot replied. “Keep in mind, though, if we lose power in the middle of it we're going to fall out of the sky like a rock.”
“Do it.”
Nora braced herself against the deck as the Colossus lurched up into the sky.
“As soon as they're out, follow,” Anna order.
“Understood.”
She watched the first pallet start to move, slowly at first, but then steadily gaining speed. For a second it looked like it wouldn't make it from the conveyor belt onto the ramp, but then the combined weight and momentum of the Gazelle did the rest. The vehicle fell out the back, followed by the supplied pallet.
And then it was their turn.
Nora got to her feet and made a mad dash for the exit. More bullets tore into the Colossus, some barely missing her as she sprinted the last few feet.
With one final effort, she pushed off the ramp and leaped into the sky.
* * *
He didn't know if it was good judgment or sheer luck, but Bravo Wolf managed to make their jump without any outside interference. No fighters came their way, and there wasn't even any incoming gunfire from the ground.
A quickly glance at his wrist menu map shed a bit of light on the answer. They were northeast of their designated drop zone, away from where the furious fighting was taking place. That meant they could get descend without much interference, but landing would be a much different story. One glance down told him that they were drifting toward ground crowded with all manner of obstacles and buildings. The only clear spaces to land in were the streets, but those would be a tough fit. One wrong move could send them slamming into the side of a building, a street light or a telephone pole.
It would have been relatively simple with a ram air parachute, but the main force wasn't that lucky. Even so, Danny tried to steer his parachute with his risers, though he could only affect his movement a slight amount.
The street loomed into view, and Danny directed his fall, trying to land right in the middle. It would leave him a sitting duck, but it didn't look like there were any hostiles in the area. Landing on pavement wouldn't be nearly as cushy as the grass fields in the wilds, but it was better than pancaking into the earth. He prepared to touch down as he made his final approach, almost textbook.
He failed to see the street light in his way, though.
Danny suddenly felt his momentum come to a dead halt, and then he started to swing back and forth. The force of the deceleration stunned him for a moment, making him black out for a second. When he came to he looked up and suddenly realized his mistake.
His canopy had becom
e ensnared in a tall light post, suspending him a half-dozen feet above the ground. Worse, several of the parachute chords had become tangled around his right arm, making it impossible for him to free himself. Danny couldn't maneuver his left arm well, and he couldn't reach his knife either.
All it would take was for one enemy to come along, and here he was, hanging in midair like a piñata. Danny tried to grip at the straps with his left hand, but pulling himself up at an angle proved to be impossible. He could barely even touch the chords, let alone get a good grip on them.
“Well, looks like you're in a fix,” someone shouted up at him.
Danny looked down to see Xavier standing on the street below. Several others were fighting their way out of their harnesses and forming up.
“Um,” he said with a sheepish grin, “a little help here?”
* * *
Selene was five feet off the ground when a Ragnarok trooper suddenly looked up. She shouted to her comrades, and then gun muzzles started training up into the sky.
Not good. Not good at all. Selene's mind raced as she tried to come up with some way to defend herself. She couldn't use her assault rifle, and her pistol wasn't going to do much good against a crowd like that. But what else…
Her hand grasped something on her harness. Grenade. Selene quickly yanked the pin and lobbed it into the middle of the enemy force. Most of the Ragnarok troops below saw it coming and dodged out of the way, but at least that meant they weren't shooting at her. As soon as she hit the ground she dove for cover.
Bang!
Had it killed anyone? Wounded them? Stunned them? Selene didn't know, but it wouldn't matter if she stayed this way. She ripped her harness off as quickly as she could manage, then armed herself with her assault rifle and took up a defensive position in a crater.
One glance at her minimap told her everything she needed to know. She had just landed on the outskirts of the Ragnarok line facing the planned drop zone. Spectre was right behind her, about fifty yards distant, but in these conditions it might as well have been five hundred. Ghost Battalion had chosen this location for its wide open spaces, and trying to move through them was tantamount to suicide with such heavy firepower being thrown around. She could hear machine guns spitting rounds down range, punctuated by assault rifle bursts and an occasional crack of a larger rifle.
Commando City: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 7) Page 9
