Shayna from Jackal Company raised her hand. They were one of the newest companies in the alliance. “Where are you going to get the boats in the river?”
“We have a deal with Ronin,” Robbie said. 'We'll give them a cut of the overdrive we capture in exchange for using their territory. We can launch from the west bank just above their base, and no one will be the wiser.”
“Ronin is also going to try to launch an offensive while Ragnarok is busy dealing with us,” Zach said. “Their plan is to try to take Fort Baldr so they can control both sides of the river. I think we should give them some help.”
There was a considerable amount of murmuring after that comment, and it was completely expected. Many of them didn't like Ronin Company either, and they were adverse to cooperation with them.
“Do we honestly need to help them? Why should we spend our money and ammunition helping them for nothing in return?” Cody asked.
“Yes, we do need to help them,” Liz spoke up. “They're slowly being strangled by the Ragnarok presence in the area. Regardless of what you think about them, they're a thorn in Ragnarok's side and we should do everything we can to make sure they keep it up. Every player they have fighting Ronin is one less that they have to use against us.”
“So you basically want to use them as our cannon fodder?” C.J. said.
“While I wouldn't quite put it that way, yes, that would be accurate,” Liz said.
“It's not like we have to provide front line support to them either,” Gina said. “Say we sent Bravehart to help them. They would only have to act as artillery support. That would give them the edge in the battle, and we wouldn't have to put ourselves at any real risk.”
“I'd be fine with that,” Bryce agreed.
“And anyhow, regardless of how well it goes the attack will draw their attention to the south. That will probably buy us a lot more time, and we're going to need that. We don't want this to turn into a disaster like the time we tested out the armored company,” Anna said.
“I would suggest that we mount two simultaneous operations,” David said. “One will be your raid, and one will be in support of Ronin Company. Does everyone find that agreeable?”
There were no arguments.
“Do you have a name for your operation?” Bryce asked Anna.
She smiled. “The name is going to be Robber Baron.”
It felt completely odd. Every time she had been in the field, Nora had always been with Black Wolf. Not this time, though. Anna was going into the battlefield by river craft, and as her second it was her job to go along with her.
Robber Baron would consist of two parts. Black Wolf Company would perform an air assault on the Ragnarok stronghold. Gunships would strafe the enemy troops that were outside on guard. They would be followed by the troops transports, who would drop their charges right on top of the compound. There was also a small dockyard facing the river. Redd Foxx would attack from that direction, supported with fire from their transports. Once the enemy garrison was dead they would load up the transport boats with as much overdrive as they could carry. They would throw the rest into the river.
Their flotilla of five craft sped up the river. All of them were heavily armed. Hephaestus had mounted six machine guns on the boats, along with a recoilless rifle on the front. It gave them formidable firepower. The only downside was the fact that it took ten people to drive the boats and man all the weapons. All of them were crewed by Redd Foxx members; all of Raven was currently acting as pilots in the air assault platoon. Two of the boats would remain fully crewed while the rest made landfall, providing the all-important fire support. Her boat was one of them.
Anna's voice cut in on her thoughts. “Wolf 2, can you contact the rest of them to make sure they're ready?” she asked.
“Copy, Fox Lead,” Nora responded. “Wolf Lead, Alpha Wolf, Bravo Wolf, do you copy? Wolf Lead, Alpha Wolf, Bravo Wolf, do you copy?”
“Copy,” Danny's voice crackled over the radio.
“Copy,” Zach said as well.
Selene activated her radio. “I copy, Wolf 2.”
“Fox Lead advises that we're ready to go,” Nora replied, her voice crackling. Apparently they were close to the maximum range of the standard radio.
“We're two minutes out from the jump off point,” Zach said. “About four minutes from the landing. Work on that timetable.”
“Copy, Wolf Lead,” Nora said. “We have word that Ronin has started their attack on Fort Baldr.”
“Good. Wolf Lead out.”
Selene made one last check of her assault rifle before they reached the point of no return. Hephaestus Company was amazing, really. Even in the midst of building dozens of vehicles they had found the time to concern themselves with the ranger company's weapons. Garrett and Jayson had devised a new assault rifle, carbine, machine gun and submachine gun for them. They were based off the standard models, but they had been modified to weigh less and be easier to handle. The tradeoff was a slight decrease in range, but they considered that to be a necessary evil. With their guns weighing less they could carry more ammunition, which was invaluable for operating behind enemy lines away from any real means of resupply.
Selene tuned her radio to the rest of the riders on her chopper. She was tagging along with the other half of Ethan's squad, and had her normal companions; Mara, Kelsey and Jade, along with Riley. The transport choppers were working in pairs, each pair carrying a full squad between them. They would stick together during the landing and then would circle above trying to provided limited fire support. All of the helicopters had a chin mounted machine gun, though it was small caliber and didn't carry a lot of ammunition. The specialized attack helicopters would provide most of the fire support from the air.
“All leads, this is Raven 1. My squadron is going in for their attack runs,” Robbie said. His choppers, Ravens 1-6, were armed with a battery of heavy machine guns. They wanted to add rockets or grenade launchers, but Hydra hadn't discovered a schematic for them. They might be able to use the automatic grenade launchers that Ragnarok possessed, but they would need to reverse engineer one from a working example, and that was easier said than done. Any time their weaponry was in danger of being captured Ragnarok would simply blow it up, and she could hardly blame them for that. Hydra had done the same thing with disabled vehicles that they had no hope of recovering.
Selene could see the base ahead of them, along with the swarm of helicopters approaching. It had a low wall, about six to eight feet high. There were platforms and towers so Ragnarok troops could patrol the walls and keep watch. It wasn't especially heavily guarded, though; Selene could only see three towers from her vantage point. Ahead of her flew the helicopters assigned to Danny's troops. Bravo Platoon was going in first. The attack helicopters started their strafing runs.
This was going to be quick and brutal.
“Form up! Form up!” Danny urged as the helicopters landed inside of the base. He quickly unbuckled himself and dismounted, hefting his machine gun as he did so. Half of the platoon had already landed and was laying down cover fire, though there wasn't much response from the enemy. The strafing run had stunned them, and many had fled into the interior of the main base.
The first wave of helicopters took off and the next ones landed. Danny toggled the channels on his radio and started to give orders. “Bravo 1, Bravo 2, take your squads and storm the main building. Strike while they're still reeling. Bravo 3, form a perimeter around the landing zone so Alpha can get in safe. Copy?”
“Copy,” Xavier and Javy said.
“Copy, but what about the dockyard?” Karen asked.
“That's Redd Foxx's job,” Danny told her.
“Alright. Copy.”
Danny switched channels to Selene. “Alpha Wolf, this is Bravo Wolf. I sent Xavier and Javy to storm the central building, but there's still hostiles on the walls. Could you take care of them when you land?”
“Will do, Danny,” Selene confirmed.
Normally th
e first wave would have done it, but Danny felt that taking the central building as quickly as possible was critical. Ragnarok was plenty resourceful, they weren't one hundred percent sure what they stored here besides overdrive. He didn't want to give them the time to rig up an improvised bomb if he could help it.
“Bravo Wolf, we have movement at the river front,” Karen said. “No accurate count on numbers, but they're hostile.”
“Hold position,” Danny said. They were in a tight spot. The landing area needed to be held, since their air support couldn't do strafing runs with them in close proximity. But that left them out in the open exposed to enemy fire once they moved up. It was a predicament, indeed.
Then he heard the motors.
The guards on the riverfront didn't stand a chance. They barely had time to turn their heads before Redd Foxx was on top of them, guns blazing. It was totally opposite of everything she had ever seen out of them, but it was completely devastating. One moment there there several squads at the docks; the next moment the pitiful few survivors were scrambling to find cover.
With little else to do Nora was manning a machine gun, firing at any target she could find. It was oddly satisfying, in a way. She was normally a precision shooter, and it felt good to cut loose and blaze away.
Three of the boats moved closer to shore and disgorged their passengers. Nora could see Liz at the front, leading them in a sweep of the outer building around the shore. In the skies above more helicopters descended, bringing Alpha Platoon with them. There was gunfire, movement, but there was nothing intense.
They had done it. They had caught Ragnarok completely by surprise.
Crack.
Even inside the cockpit, surrounded by the rush of air and the engine noise the sound of a sniper rifle was distinct.
“I don't see any more targets,” Miko said through the radio.
“Keep searching,” Zach said. Out of the many crazy ideas they had come up with, this had to be the most insane. Zach was flying in a helicopter with a Raven Company pilot, with Miko sitting on a bench seat on the starboard side. She had rigged a harness to steady her sniper rifle with the aid of Paige from Hephaestus Company, and was using her elevated position to find and pick off targets.
Sniping from a helicopter was fairly commonplace in the real world, but this definitely wasn't the best vehicle to do it from. The small mass of the chopper meant there was less inertia to absorb the vibrations from the engine, so there was noticeable movement. Miko was also extremely exposed, and it was fairly easy to see that she was sniping. That would probably attract all manner of fire once the enemy figured out what they were doing. Then again, it was probably worth the hassle.
“I still don't see anything,” Miko said. “Selene's platoon swept the walls, and Liz has the shore pretty well cleared out. No clue what's going on in the main building, but it's not like I can really do anything with that.”
“We'll see if there's anything else to do,” Zach said. He opened up a channel. “Bravo Wolf, Bravo Wolf, what's your status?”
“We have the area outside secure,” Danny responded. “Selene took a squad in to support Xavier and Javy. I can still hear some firing, but we should have this entire place secure in a few minutes.”
“Copy that, Danny. Get in contact with Anna and Nora. We want to be quick about getting the overdrive.”
“Sure thing,” Danny said. That was where Robber Baron got its name. They were going to steal as much overdrive as possible, give Ronin their share and then put the rest back on the market. The price would skyrocket since Ragnarok would need to replenish their stocks. That would also take valuable funds away from other things that Ragnarok needed to fight. It would definitely put them on the back foot.
Danny wasn't as optimistic as some of the others in Hydra were. He knew that even with the string of victories they had won, there was no way they could beat Ragnarok in an all-out war. The best they could hope for was a stalemate and an uneasy peace, because their enemy had too many troops and too many resources to call upon.
Ragnarok had gained a reputation for using hordes of low level troops, but they had veterans too, and they could match up against anything that Hydra had to offer. They had heard other things from their contacts inside Ronin. Reports were fuzzy at the moment, but they knew that Ragnarok was deploying an elite unit against them, consisting of only veterans. The Valkyries, they were known as, and they were deadly. They hadn't run into them yet, but Danny had the suspicion that an operation like this was going to attract a lot of attention.
But he still had a job to do. “Wolf 2, Wolf 2, come in. This is Bravo Wolf,” Danny said.
“I read you Danny. What's up?”
“Can you get the boats up to the docks? We're almost finished clearing out the base. We'll get the crews ready to load everything up.” He saw Liz and a few other Redd Foxx members emerge from the dock area and waved them over.
“Will do,” Nora told him.
Danny looked back at the main building. Now the rest was up to Selene.
She had to give them credit, at least. Taken off guard by the initial onslaught, cut down in droves, driven back into a corner and hopelessly outnumbered, the few remaining Ragnarok troops had fought ferociously, refusing to give an inch without bloodshed. Between the four attacking squads the Ragnarok defenders had killed nine troops and injured a further five. Her troops had finally resorted to storming the last room the enemy was holed up in, but that cost them two more dead.
“That's not good,” Leigh said as she knelt by a mass of wires and boxes. “There's about thirty boxes of explosives here, and it looks like they were trying to rig up a bomb to take us with them.”
“Blow yourself up to take the enemy squad with you,” Selene said to herself.
“The squad?” Leigh said. “They might have been able to take out three quarters of the company with a bomb this size.”
“Good to know,” Selene said in a matter-of-fact tone. She activated her radio. “All leads, the central building is secure. We've taken fairly heavy casualties, so we need some help moving the overdrive supplies to the boats.”
“Copy that. We're on our way,” Liz told her.
“Selene, we're in the main storeroom,” Xavier cut in. “You might want to see this.”
Selene motioned for Leigh to follow her. She passed Lyla and Javy treating casualties in the main hallway. Others were stripping the dead bodies of ammunition and other vital equipment. World at War was funny in that way. Even if you were killed you could still get your equipment back as long as you have a friend to grab it off of your corpse.
Xavier peeked his head out from a doorway. “In here,” he told them. Selene and Leigh followed behind him.
“What the heck?” Leigh said as she entered the room. Selene's thoughts echoed that sentiment. The room was huge, and it was packed from wall to floor with crates of overdrive. Selene was trying to remember if they had even produced this much. They must have, since they were the only ones with the formula, but it was still mind-boggling. Ragnarok must have been hoarding the stuff for months on end. Even if they used every bit of transport space they had they wouldn't be able to carry all of it.
“We're never going to be able to move all of this in time,” Xavier said.
“Do what you can,” Selene told him. Her mind was racing, trying to come up with a solution. “Hey Leigh, you said that the bomb they were trying to make could blast this entire place?”
“Yeah,” Leigh answered.
“Do you think that you could finish it up and rig it with a remote detonator?”
“Yeah, that's doable. Though it would help if I had a few others with me.”
“Grab who you need, and let us know how it's going. We're going to load up as much overdrive as possible while you're doing that,” Selene said. Ragnarok was going to get one heck of a parting gift.
Even from his altitude he could feel the shockwave from the explosion. Zach was forced to shield his eyes as the entire wo
rld lit up in front of them. Once second the base was in front of them, and the next all that remained was a smoking pile of rubble.
“Jeeze, did they use enough explosives?” Miko commented. “I could feel the heat up here.”
“C.J. might not be happy,” Zach said,
“C.J. will be plenty happy,” Miko said. “For him it means that Ragnarok doesn't have their dirty hands on their base anymore.”
“True enough,” Zach said. He looked around at the swarm of helicopters joining up with them. Down below Redd Foxx was motoring back down the river.
Anna's voice cut in. “Great job, everyone. Let's head for home.”
“Roger that,” Zach replied to her. Mission accomplished.
CHAPTER 6
To the South
“I'd say our mission was a success,” Liz said.
“I would agree with that,” Selene replied. They were having an informal meeting in Black Wolf's base, going over the aftermath of their raid. Ragnarok was reeling from the attack. The loss of so much overdrive had forced them to pull back their forces and focus on rebuilding their shattered economy. The pressure was off of Hydra and Ronin for the time being.
Speaking of Ronin Company, their attack on Fort Baldr had been a success. Despite heavy casualties they had taken the fort with the support of Bravehart's mortar fire. They now had a position across the river, right in the heart of Ragnarok territory. Ronin was grateful to them for their support, and they were prepared to fight like furies to defend their new position.
Ronin would need that determination, Selene thought to herself. The fort was isolated, a threat to Ragnarok's main power base outside of Old Chicago, and a stain on their reputation to boot. They would try everything in order to take it back, and that suited Hydra just fine. Ronin would take the brunt of the fighting for the time being, leaving Hydra free to do what they needed in the south. It would suck for Ronin, but was that really their problem?
Howl: A World at War Novel Page 6