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

by Mitchell T. Jacobs

  You are KIA.

  He respawned a few seconds later at Battalion Headquarters. Zach decided to check on the situation in the command center.

  “So, they killed you?” Anna asked as he entered.

  “Yeah, they got me,” he confirmed.

  “Do you know how?”

  “Haven't checked,” Zach said.

  He opened his wrist menu and cycled through the kill statistics. They confirmed his fear.

  “Well,” he said, “it looks like the Wraith is on the prowl.”

  “It's him,” Miko said.

  “It has to be,” Selene agreed. The word had spread down the line that Zach had been killed by a sniper. He would be back soon enough, but until that time, she was the next command. And that made her a prime target for the Wraith as well.

  Selene dropped below the battlement. “Well, that means I'm staying down for now.”

  “You're in command right now, right?” Miko asked.

  “Yeah, I am.”

  “Can I request a special assignment?”

  Selene wondered what exactly that entailed. “Anything particular you have in mind?”

  “I want to go hunt him down,” Miko told her.

  Selene frowned. “That's going to be tough. And it takes you away from the main fighting. You might be better off staying here picking off heavy weapons crews.”

  “The Wraith is going to do a heck of a lot more damage than heavy weapons or soldier can do,” Miko argued. “If he shoots our commander at a critical moment that could be the end for us. It'll give them enough time to get over the wall in the confusion.”

  Selene nodded. “OK, you have a point. Good hunting.”

  Miko pulled the hood of her camo cloak over her head. “Thanks,” she said, then disappeared into the chaos.

  Selene opened up her wrist menu. No time to waste. The battle could hinge on the next few minutes.

  “Wolf 2, Wolf 2,” Selene called through the radio, using Nora's normal callsign.

  “This is Wolf 2,” Nora replied.

  “Move toward our positions,” Selene ordered. “Ragnarok's close to breaking through, and we need some way to stem the tide if that happens.”

  “Roger, I'm moving now,” Nora replied. “Should I focus on your position?”

  “I'm in overall command right now. Zach went and got himself killed a minute ago.”

  “Ugh. Well, I'm on my way.”

  “Thanks. Alpha Wolf, out.”

  Selene was going to chance a look over the battlement, but the situation became immediately apparent when a grappling hook landed right beside her.

  “Just great,” she said, fixing her bayonet.

  Ragnarok was finally close enough to scale the walls, and they weren't very high, only fifteen feet tall. Close combat seemed to be a running theme for the past three days, and they were about to get their fill again.

  Selene toggled her radio. “Black Wolf, stand by to repel!”

  She met the first Ragnarok trooper with a bayonet thrust.

  “Cover my back!” Danny ordered as the Ragnarok assault troopers swarmed over the wall. He could fight in close combat if he was pressed, but that would take away the firepower of his machine gun. It was much more efficient to have someone cover his back while he picked off targets.

  “I've got you,” Javy said from behind him.

  “Thanks!” Danny shouted over the din of battle.

  He went back to his gun, raking the squads of Ragnarok troops trying to climb up the wall. Several fell to his bullets, but there were more behind him. One got a bead on him and fired. Danny tried to duck back at the last moment, but he only half-succeeded. The bullet grazed him across the cheek, sending him tumbling to the ground.

  “Danny!” Javy shouted from behind him.

  “I'm fine!” he said, scrambling up from his prone position. He could feel blood and the side of his face burned, but he needed to keep fighting. They were about to be completely overrun.

  Nora hurried toward the battle as fast as her exoskeleton would allow her to move. The filtered sounds inside the suit were almost serene, but the radio chatter was most definitely not. Black Wolf was taking the beating of a lifetime, and Barghest and Thorn weren't faring much better.

  She tried to contact Selene. “Alpha Wolf, Alpha Wolf, are you there?”

  “I'm here,” she confirmed.

  “I'm a minute out from the wall,” Nora told her. “What do you want me to do?”

  Selene hesitated for a moment. Their position on the was becoming completely untenable. She imagined having to plug one gap, not a tidal wave as the entire unit collapsed. But try as they might, Black Wolf Company couldn't hold off the enemy.

  She hated to do it, but there was no choice. Plan A had failed. She could only hope that Plan B proved to be more successful.

  “Give us cover fire, as per the Last Chance plan,” Selene said.

  “Copy that, and will do.”

  Selene opened a channel to every other Hydra commander in the city. “Attention everyone, this is Alpha Wolf. Our line has been broken, and we are falling back. Initiate the Last Chance plan.”

  She received confirmation, most importantly from Karen and Evy. Their units would be flanked if they didn't fall back as well.

  There was nothing else they could do right now. Selene blazed away with her assault rifle, then shouted out the order.

  “Fall back! Fall back!”

  Nora watched Bravo Wolf flee the walls, pursued all the way by Ragnarok troops. Several were shot in the back when they retreated down the stairs.

  No more of that. The last troops had started to descend, and her line of sight was clear. Nora lifted her right arm and pulled the trigger.

  Her minigun growled, sending a torrent of lead through the enemy massing on top of the wall. There was no place to go, and they were tightly packed. Nora couldn't have devised a better slaughterhouse if she tried. Dozens, scores perhaps, fell. She lifted her left arm and laid in with the autocannon as well. Even more Ragnarok troops fell, and Bravo Wolf made it to safety.

  “Thanks Nora,” Danny said over the radio.

  “Stay alive,” she told him.

  Alpha Wolf descended in the confusion, and Nora took the opportunity to kill any more Ragnarok targets that dared to show themselves. In this position she was effectively unstoppable.

  BAM!

  Nora stumbled as something slammed into her left leg. Her mind raced as she struggled to regain her footing. What had just happened?

  Her confusion was quickly answered. An RPG came streaking at her from the wall. Nora dodged to the side, but her left leg was sluggish, almost like the systems had been badly damaged.

  She landed and raked the enemy heavy with minigun fire, cursing her stupidity as she did so. She had gotten distracted and didn't notice the RPG flying right at her. By some miracle she wasn't dead, but her suit was hobbled.

  “Alpha Wolf, are you clear?” Nora asked.

  “We are,” Selene confirmed. “Are you alright?”

  “Not doing so hot, but I can still fight,” Nora said. “I'm going to fall back, though.”

  “Roger. Good luck.”

  Nora gritted her teeth and limped away from the walls.

  “They've signaled Last Chance in the western district,” Anna said over the radio.

  “I heard,” Zach replied.

  “This might be the endgame.”

  “I'm pretty sure it is,” Zach said.

  He looked down at his wrist menu, They had been fighting for over two hours, and it didn't look like the battle was going to slow down anytime soon. How much longer could they hold out? Time was a factor, along with actual physical fatigue.

  But they had to keep fighting. Every minute they bought here was another minute for their forces in the south to get into position. This might be their best opportunity to win the war against Ragnarok.

  The southern bridge lay ahead of him. Zach jogged across, followed by a ragtag unit he ha
d thrown together at headquarters. They came from all the different units in the western sector, and like him they had been killed in battle.

  Zach wasn't sure how effective his unit was going to be. He had troops from Black Wolf, Barghest and Thorn, and the squads themselves were extremely mixed. Even troops from the same companies came from different platoons and squads, so there was no familiarity.

  But Ghost Battalion was nothing if adaptable, and Thorn Company had gained flexibility in order to survive this long. They might not be equal to a proper platoon of Black Wolf or Redd Foxx troops, but they could do their best to hold their own.

  Besides, they were about to engage in house to house fighting, and chaos always reigned there. Everyone knew what to do and what was expected of them. They would find some way to come out on top.

  But first they had to get there, and the others had to hold out.

  “Squad moving at your eleven!”

  Danny took aim and pulled the trigger. His bullets smacked into the first enemy soldier and cut him down. The second in line, an engineer, was hit in the leg and fell. He saw a medic moving up to assist and shot him too. That was probably bad form in the real world, but in here a medic was as dangerous as any other trooper, and there were no laws of war.

  The rest of the squad moved toward cover and started to lay suppressive fire. Danny was forced to duck back into his building. He placed himself behind the thickest wall he could find.

  BAM!

  “Bravo Wolf, the enemy is down.”

  Danny perked up. “That you, Ethan?”

  “Yeah, it's me. We took out the enemy squad with a recoilless rifle round. You want to hold this intersection?”

  “For as long as possible,” Danny said. “It'll force them to focus on this area.”

  “Copy that.”

  Danny returned to his original firing position and checked his ammunition belt. About half left, and he had three more boxes. He needed to be judicious about how much he fired. It was going to be very difficult to resupply in this confusion.

  Ragnarok was well inside the walls right now, but that was only part of the battle. Now they needed to capture the rest of the city, and that meant fighting Ghost Battalion house to house.

  The Last Chance plan took advantage of the terrain and masked their own weakness in numbers. The defenders wouldn't try to form one continuous line; they didn't have enough troops. Even if they could form a line, it would be thin with no reserve. Ragnarok would be certain to break through, and once that happened it was all over.

  Instead, Last Chance focused on guerilla fighting, playing to the strengths of the rangers. They could move around the district using their stealth abilities, hitting the enemy from every direction. If they were caught in an unfavorable position they would withdraw.

  Ghost Battalion would have to cede ground, but that was acceptable in the name of victory. It served to prolong the battle, and at this point, that was all they could hope for. There was no way they could mount an attack that would drive Ragnarok out of the city. All they could do was fight and hope that they withdrew when the southern battalions launched their offensive.

  “Another squad, coming at our one,” Avery said over the radio. He was on the roof, spotting with his sniper rifle.

  “Copy,” Danny replied.

  Xavier had been killed at the wall, leaving Danny in charge of Bravo 1, but that suited him just fine. There was no way to coordinate all the moving pieces of Last Chance on the company level, and so it would fall to the squad leaders to maintain some semblance of order. He could be on the front lines, fighting and directing traffic in a small area. Javy and Ryan were both capable of doing the same.

  “They're being reinforced, it looks like,” Ethan said.

  Danny nodded. “Good. It means we have their attention.”

  They would sit at the crossroads taking blows and occupying the enemy. Now it was up to the others to hit the weak spots.

  If the situation hadn't been so dire, Nora probably would have laughed. The looks on the enemy's faces had been priceless. One minute they had been walking down the street, and the next the brick wall to their left had exploded.

  Nora had hidden herself inside an abandoned building, waiting for the right moment to strike. When that time came she had bashed down the wall with her exoskeleton's augmented strength. One of the enemy troopers was hit by a fling piece of debris and killed instantly. Other others starred in shock for a moment, then frantically tried to aim their weapons.

  Too late.

  Nora laid into them with her minigun and autocannon, mowing them down like weeds. None of them had a chance to even fire, let alone hit her.

  As soon as they were down she quickly moved off the street, or rather as quickly as her crippled leg would allow. The RPG had done considerable damage, and it severely restricted her ability to move. She couldn't run, and she could barely jump. But it had been enough to get her back to a depot where she refueled and rearmed. She had enough ammo and power to fight for a while.

  Nora slunk back into the shadows and looked for another target.

  “We have Ragnarok troops moving around to the south,” Andy said from atop the roof of the building.

  “Roger. Keep an eye on them,” Selene replied.

  That was it, then. Alpha Wolf was completely cut off and surrounded, except for Ethan's squad. Selene had no clue where he was. It was probably for the best, though. There was no way they were going to get out of this one. All they could do was make one last stand.

  But they had one surprise left. A Ragnarok platoon started moving up the street toward their position, supported by cover fire. No hesitation there. They wanted to storm into Alpha Wolf's lines as soon as possible. But that played right into their hands.

  Selene activated her radio. “Fire!”

  To her right, several troopers pulled back a camouflaged tarp. The enemy had just enough time to register what was happening when the antiaircraft gun opened fire.

  Four autocannons fired down the street, chewing through walls, cloth and flesh. Selene had been on the receiving end of an antiaircraft gun before, during the battle for Lerna Bastion, and she knew what kind of hurt it could dish out. Within ten seconds the enemy platoon was completely broken.

  But Ragnarok wasn't finished. Not by a long shot. More troops surged up the street, this time being careful to hug cover. She heard calls for medics all around her.

  Gavin slid in beside her. “I just got a message from Zach. He's coming in our direction with a platoon, if we can hold out for a few more minutes.”

  “Doesn't look good, but we can try, at least,” Selene said.

  Gavin started get back up. “OK. I'll-”

  His words were cut short. Gavin flopped over, stone dead.

  Sniper. That was the only way he could have been spotted. There was no way to see them from the street, unless they stood directly in the window. That meant they were in a position with an angle on the room, probably where the could see through the busted roof.

  And that probably meant she was next.

  Selene looked around for cover, but there was none. The only shelter was the stairwell, and that was too far away.

  She ran anyhow, though she knew full well it was a futile gesture.

  This was it for her.

  “Should we fall back?” Ethan asked.

  Danny had to duck to avoid a hail of machine gun bullets. “With these guys right on our backs? There's no way we can do it with just two squads.”

  “Stand and fight?”

  “More like stand and die, but yeah,” Danny said.

  “You're not very motivational,” Ethan said.

  “You're welcome to go out and try to find Selene,” Danny offered.

  Ethan laughed. “I'll pass, thanks.”

  There was little else to laugh about, though. They had at least a hundred, probably more in front of them, and they had no way to escape. Javy and Ryan were picking at the enemy's flanks, but their units we
re too small to inflict enough casualties. And worst of all, they were running low on ammunition.

  Danny fired in controlled burst. After this, he had one box left. Once that was gone he was stuck with a pistol.

  And with no way to withdraw, his unit was about to be cut to pieces. If that happened, there was a good chance Ragnarok would take the bridges and cut off the rest of the defenders from the east side of the city. Once that happened, it was only a matter of time before the rest of the city fell.

  If they could only stay alive long enough to fall back and resupply. But that wasn't happening. They were about to lose.

  “Bravo Wolf, you there?”

  “Nora, is that you?”

  “It's me. You need help?”

  “We need to fall back. We're running out of ammo,” Danny told her.

  “Well then, let me take care of it. Get ready to move.”

  Danny alerted his troops and chanced a glance out across the street. To his utter shock, he saw an exoskeleton limping down the middle of the street.

  “What are you doing!?” he exclaimed.

  “Fall back now,” Nora ordered. She lifted her right arm and sprayed the area in front of her with bullets.

  “You can't possibly-”

  “NOW!” she cut him off.

  “Right. Good luck.”

  Nora didn't answer him. Her targeting systems identified a whole host of threats in front of her. Several, perhaps a dozen RPG teams were getting into position, and she couldn't kill them all. Oh well.

  She blasted away with her minigun and autocannon, trying to keep the enemy suppressed while her comrades made their escape.

  There would be none for her. The damage to her leg was critical and worsening by the second. The power was draining out of the suit, and her ammunition stocks were being depleted. She would probably have to abandon the suit in the next ten minutes anyhow.