Werewolf: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 4)

by Mitchell T. Jacobs

  “That's good.”

  Nora motioned for the others to follow her. “Let's head over to the bridges and get everyone dug in.”

  “What's chain of command?” Danny asked.

  “Nora, you're the acting company commander until otherwise stated,” Zach said.

  “Same for you, Liz,” Anna said. “I probably don't need to bother telling you this, but make sure to coordinate with everyone, and keep the others in the loop.”

  “You really didn't.”

  “No, I didn't. Just in case, though,” Anna said. “Well, wish us luck. This might be the most boring or most interesting part of the day, depending on how well or poorly this goes.”

  “Good luck,” Liz said.

  “Don't have too much fun,” Nora called back.

  “I'm really tempted to switch places with you right now,” Zach said. “Maybe I'll do it.”

  “I think I'd rather stroll across the bridge and try to take the other side by myself,” Nora said. “Commander.”

  Zach shook his head and followed Anna and Karen inside the building. “Know where we're going?” he asked.

  “Just follow me,” Anna instructed.

  Zach looked over at Karen. “How did your guys do in the fight?”

  “Fairly well, I'd say,” Karen replied. “Though we didn't do a lot of the fighting. Actually, most of it was done by Black Wolf and Redd Foxx.”

  “Makes sense, since they were in the first two waves,” Anna said. “I'd expect that you saw your fair share of combat, though.”

  “Oh yeah, we ran into some pretty heavy resistance coming down the west side of the district. But nothing too bad. Not like Center City or Decatur.”

  “I'm not sure how anything could be worse than Center City,” Zach said. “I don't foresee us going in without a plan ever again.”

  “Or accidentally blowing up a stockpile of poison gas,” Karen said.

  “Eh, I could see something like that happening again,” Zach replied. “You never know what's lurking inside one of these places.”

  “In that case, we should be careful what we do until we've scouted the entire district,” Anna said. “On the off chance we're sitting on top of a bomb, or something of that nature.”

  “OK, that might be a little paranoid, even for us,” Karen said.

  Anna shrugged. “Just saying.” She turned a corner and stopped in front of a pair of doors. “Here we are.”

  The trio stepped inside. The rest of the company commanders were present, save for Robbie who was back at Sturgeon Bay. Zach glanced around the large table in the center of the room. Neil was there, along with Paige for the Hephaestus contingent. Lex and Evy stood front and center.

  “Thanks for joining us,” Lex said.

  “Before we begin, were you aware that the bridges to the west were left uncovered?” Anna asked.

  Zach tried to hide a grimace. He saw Neil and Paige give Anna a surprised look. So much for dancing around the issue and playing nice.

  “They're uncovered?” Lex asked with a look of surprise on his own face.

  “They're covered now,” Anna said. “Black Wolf is currently holding the bridges, and both Redd Foxx and Barghest are moving to support. I thought that Thorn Company would move toward the bridges, but obviously there was some confusion.”

  “I never received any directions like that,” Evy replied defensively.

  Anna shrugged. “That wasn't meant to be accusatory. There was a miscommunication, and we didn't do what we need to. It happens, and we live through it. I'd just like to fix it now before it causes any trouble later. So, were the orders not clear?”

  “Your orders were to secure the western flank against an enemy counterattack,” Evy said. “Which we did.”

  “I meant the bridges by that,” Anna said. “Guarding the western flank includes guarding it from attacks coming across the river.”

  Karen spoke up. “Still, those orders were kind of ambiguous. I can't really fault her for getting them mixed up.”

  “Doesn't help that neither company has really worked with us before,” Zach added. “I mean, I know how to read the subtext of your orders because I've been working with you for so long, but they definitely wouldn't.”

  “OK, so I need to clarify things more when I give orders,” Anna said. “I'll take it under advisement to make sure nothing like this happens again.”

  “It won't,” Lex said quickly. “We'll do our part.”

  “I know you will,” Anna answered him. “And this falls on the rest of us as well. Troops can't perform if they don't have clear orders to follow. It's my job to make sure that it happens, and I didn't do it as well as I could have today.”

  “So, back to the point of this meeting?” Neil suggested. “Otherwise, what are we standing around here for? There's a ton of work to be done.”

  “I agree,” Karen said. “We need a resupply pretty soon, or we'll run of of ammunition in the next fight.”

  “We're trying to determine how we want to divide up the district, that's all,” Lex said. “We'll divide up the buildings between our companies and your alliance.”

  “We don't need much,” Anna said. “We need a stronghold building for each company, and a central building for the alliance itself. I'd also like to have some waterfront and an industrial building or two for resupply, but that's up to you. And I'd like to have the strongholds near the south wall, but again, that's up to you.”

  “You played a major part taking this city,” Lex said. “I think that you should have some say in how it's divided up. It's only fair, after all.”

  “But this is your city,” Zach pointed out. “We're just using it as a base to launch attacks on Ragnarok. Our real strongholds are in Indianapolis, so we're not going to cause arguments about the ones up here in the middle of nowhere.”

  “Again, I'll state our preferences,” Anna told them. “But the decision is yours, and we'll stick to it. With a few exceptions, of course.”

  Evy asked the obvious question. “Those exceptions being?”

  “Well, the waterfront is one. We need to make sure we have a working dockyard so we can get supplies from the south. We need an airfield, too, for the choppers. And we'll need a small industrial sector, at least. Otherwise, Hephaestus is here for nothing.”

  “And I'd rather we didn't waste our time up here,” Paige said. “We want to be doing something useful that helps this front. Otherwise, we could be in the south.”

  “OK, I'll definitely follow your lead on those areas,” Lex said. “You do have a lot more experience doing these things.”

  “But we want to keep our independence,” Evy said. “We don't want to become just a puppet of Hydra.”

  Anna nodded. “Oh yeah, I understand. And it isn't uncharted territory for us, either. We have plenty of experience working with an outside alliance. We've done several joint operations with Ronin Company.”

  “Also, keep in mind that our main goal is to keep Ragnarok busy up here,” Zach said. “And we really don't care how we do it. If we don't get anything out of this besides that, it's fine.”

  “Anyhow, it leaves an alliance with a strong position on their northern flank,” Karen said, “and they can't ignore that. Neither can a lot of people in Old Chicago.”

  “Yeah, who knows? You might end up leading your own alliance, given time,” Zach said.

  Lex nodded. “Well, I wouldn't hate that.”

  Anna spoke up. “That's in the future. Here and now, our job is simple. We find the enemy. We kill them. Then we fade into the shadows.”

  “Like ghosts,” Neil said with a smile.

  Zach couldn't help smiling himself. He could feel the energy crackling through the room. Ghost Battalion would walk into their enemy's back yard and punch them straight in the mouth.

  And they were going to enjoy every second of it.

  “Another one down,” Zach said. The group had gathered at Selene and Miko's apartment for pizza to celebrate their victory.
>
  “We haven't even started yet, even,” Gavin said, grabbing another slice out of the box. “There's a whole lot of fun waiting for us.”

  “A whole lot of action as well,” Miko added. “I don't think they're going to be too happy to see us.”

  “And there's a big mess of things to untangle in the process,” Nora said.

  Zach shrugged. “Well, we can deal with that later. We won, and I'm just going to be happy about that tonight.”

  Danny raised his glass. “I'll drink to that.”

  Everyone joined him. And Zach couldn't help the smile spreading across his face.

  CHAPTER 13

  Hunters

  The enemy never knew what hit them.

  A patrol of Ragnarok troops advanced through the thick forest. It was large, with about thirty members. That was more than enough to win most firefights decisively, and they seemed confident. However, the brush and undergrowth forced them to stay relatively close to the path and restricted them to a small area.

  They weren't stupid. The patrol commander was clearly experienced, because the Ragnarok troops advanced carefully with a quartet of scouts on point, probably their most veteran troops. The rest stayed alert, scanning everywhere for signs of an ambush.

  But there were plenty of places to hide in the forest.

  The last soldier in the patrol fell forward, an arrow sticking between her shoulder blades. Her comrade in front turned around when he heard her fall, then turned to shout a warning. Another arrow caught him straight in the throat.

  One of the troopers shouted, alerted to the ambush. The patrol scrambled off the path, trying to get behind cover. An assault fell to another arrow shot. Then the guns opened fire.

  Bullets tore into the Ragnarok troops, killing and maiming several. There was no place to go quickly, and at least six or seven fell to the hail of lead coming from the rear. The rest fell back in confusion, heading for cover. There was a dried up creek bed that would provide them with good protection from the onslaught. Most of them made it, though two more fell to the guns.

  But then the creek bed exploded.

  Danny grinned and looked down his sights. “Nice plan, Zach.”

  “Thanks,” came the reply over the radio. “I thought it might work.”

  Zach had planted explosive charges along the face of the creek bed, augmented by bags of nails, scrap metal and glass. When attached to a remote detonator, they made fearsome improvised claymore mines.

  The carnage in the creek bed was evident, though some of the Ragnarok troops looked like they were still alive. Danny wasn't going to give them an opportunity to do that for much longer.

  He pulled the trigger and raked the creek bed with machine gun fire. Beside him Gavin, Javy and Will added their own firepower to the mix. More bullets came scything in from the left, compliments of Zach's team of Xavier and Gwen.

  An engineer in the creek bed managed to get to her feet, priming her grenade launcher. Danny tried to shift his aim, but he wasn't quite fast enough. The engineer flopped over like she had been hit in the head with a sledgehammer.

  “Nice shot, Miko,” Danny said.

  “My pleasure.”

  Danny raked the creek bed again for good measure, though by this time he was certain everything in it was dead.

  “Cease fire,” Zach ordered, apparently thinking the same thing.

  “Advance?” Danny asked him.

  Zach answered over the radio link. “Yeah, let's go see our work. Liz? We're moving up. You can come join us if you want. Don't shoot us, at least.”

  “Gosh, do you really have to tell me that?” she replied.

  “Just in case, I mean.”

  “How the heck am I going to shoot you when I can't even see you?”

  “OK, fine. Forget I said anything,” Zach replied.

  Danny laughed as he walked. “You never know when an arrow will come flying out of nowhere, especially with you around.”

  “Just because you seem to be the victim most of the time,” Liz teased him.

  “Not lately,” Danny said.

  “Haven't had much time to go to the battledomes, huh?” Selene commented.

  “That's because my stealth skills are pretty good right now,” Danny retorted.

  “Well, I wouldn't quite say that,” Liz told him. “They're decent, at least.”

  “Gee, thanks,” Danny said, though in truth he knew his skills were on the low end of the scale.

  At least they were much better than when he had started. Danny was completely hopeless trying to sneak. Part of it was due to him being a heavy, and part of it was his own problems. He wasn't exactly light on his feet in the real world, either.

  He had learned, though. Liz had started training him in the battledomes of Old Chicago, and had promptly thrown him off the deep end, so to speak. She had challenged him to one on one fights, matching her stealth skills against his. Danny had lost, and he had lost frequently and embarrassingly. But slowly, he had improved.

  Not that losing to Liz all those times was something to be ashamed of. She was one of the founding members of Redd Foxx Company, and one of their best stealth operators as well. The fact that he had manged to get her twice was a great source of pride for him.

  Of course, she had over two hundred kills on him. Half of them were by knife. The other half were from the weapon that had now become her trademark, the bow.

  In fact, most of her skill had been acquired at his expense. Besides training him, Liz had also taken the time to hone her own skills with her newly acquired bow. Danny wasn't sure about being used as moving target practice, but he couldn't argue with the results. Liz had become very, very good with the weapon, and it was especially invaluable for ambushes.

  Danny met up with Zach's team in the creek bed. Sure enough, there were no survivors. The explosives had done their job, and bullets had finished off the rest.

  “Well, our intel was good, at least,” Gavin commented. “Though Thorn Company would be in serious trouble if they ran into a unit this size.”

  “Probably helps that Ragnarok still thinks they're dealing with small underarmed raiding units,” Will said.

  “Which is still somewhat true,” Danny said.

  “Except the most important part. We're heavily armed small raiding units, and it looks like we're dealing with the rookies again,” Gwen pointed out.

  “I thought the scouts were veterans,” Danny said. “They seemed to know what they're doing. Plus, it looks like they were commanded reasonably well.”

  Gwen nodded. “Right. But the troops still panicked when they came under fire from the rear. Not as badly as some other times, and it looks like their leaders managed to steady them, but they did panic a bit.”

  Javy poked one of the bodies with his boot. “So rookies again?”

  “Makes sense,” Will shrugged. “It gets them experience in a backwater area. Would you really want to put your green troops up against Sacred Sword or Crimson Eagle?”

  “So they protect their rear areas from raiders and get their inexperienced troops some action to toughen them up,” Zach said from his end of the creek. “Must be nice to have that kind of numbers.”

  “Barghest Company worked out fine,” Miko said.

  Zach nodded. “Yeah, it did. But it could have ended pretty badly as well, and I'd rather be able to do something like this. It just seems much more efficient.”

  “Until some jerk decides to come in from behind and sucker punch you,” Danny grinned.

  Zach laughed back. “Yeah, there's that. I guess they're going to get a lot of schooling in how warfare works in this game.”

  “And for our part, we need to keep them off balance,” Liz said as she walked up with Selene and Nora in tow.

  “Well, they definitely know we're here,” Selene said. “Unless they lost all sense and forgot to check the kill statistics.”

  That was one major disadvantage. The kill tracking system told players who had killed them last, which me
ant Ragnarok would know Hydra was operating in the area. What they didn't know was where they were operating from, and that was their trump card.

  The area between Green Bay and Madison was wild, filled with expansive swamps and dense forests. Lakes and rivers sprawled throughout the landscape. Roads were almost nonexistent, and predators lurked around every corner. Moving a conventional force was difficult, if not impossible.

  But Ghost Battalion was nowhere near conventional. They were the most mobile force in the Hydra Alliance, and they could use every one of their skills here. The light infantry excelled in the rough terrain, and was able to cross areas where others wouldn't dare. They had experience dealing with vicious fauna, and could survive the harsh ecosystem. If they need to move faster they could ride their river craft, using the huge system of lakes and rivers as transportation routes. And they could deploy from their transport choppers almost anywhere.

  “Think they'll send special forces after us?” Xavier asked.

  “The Valkyries?” Zach asked.

  “Well, that's probably the first option.”

  “If we're threatening their rear areas they probably will,” Danny said. “Any alliance is screwed if they're cut off from their ore supplies.”

  “Then again, that pulls them away from the fight in the south,” Liz pointed out. “And Knight Battalion is putting up stiff resistance. They're not going to be able to break through without their best troops.”

  “So we put them in a catch-22 either way,” Nora said. “And that's really our goal up here, isn't it?”

  Liz frowned. “Some of the other might not see it that way.”

  Danny looked over at her, confused. “Wait, I thought that all of this was agreed upon?”

  “By us,” Zach said. “Ghost Battalion knows that we're just a distraction force. But some of the others see it differently.”

  “Is there a divide in the military council?”

  Liz shook her head. “No, according to Anna it's coming from the alliance council. Some of them think we can open up a true second front here, not just a diversion.”