Fang Squad had been tasked with destroying Ragnarok’s torpedo stores, which were vital for their naval power. They lacked the ability to create larger shops like the Hydra Alliance could, but they could tip the scales with smaller craft carrying heavy firepower. In their case, they had discovered a torpedo schematic. After some trial and error, they had fitted the weapons to motor boats and used them to launch attacks on Hydra’s patrol ships.
They hadn’t scored any kills, but that was mostly down to skilled maneuvering by the ship’s captain and a healthy amount of luck. Their effect was immediately apparent, and Hydra had become very wary about deploying their ships to anywhere but extremely safe sectors. At the very least, they couldn’t take them in close to enemy territory without running a severe risk of coming under attack.
But that only mattered if Ragnarok could keep supplying their naval forces with torpedoes, and their production capabilities already had plenty of other concerns on their hands. If they had to replenish them all at once they would be forced to decide which supplies were most important.
Plus, that would free up Hydra’s patrol ships for other missions closer to enemy territory, and that would be critical for the upcoming fight. They’d need every advantage they could muster against a skilled and ferocious enemy.
“My charges are set,” Xavier said.
“Set,” Nora told him.
“All set,” Javy added.
Selene and Gavin confirmed theirs as well.
“Let’s get moving,” Zach ordered. “All units, fall back to the extraction point as planned.”
Simple enough orders, he thought as they exited the warehouse. It was in the execution where they became difficult. The alarm was still going off, blaring into the night air. He could hear the faint sounds of shouting coming from all directions. If the enemy didn’t know they were here, they knew now.
Still, they had to find them first. And once they did, they’d have to corner and kill them all. Even with a huge numbers advantage, that wasn’t going to be easy.
Zach pulled out the detonator and activated his radio. “Detonating series one. Fire in the hole!”
He pressed the button, and a moment later the first set of charges went off along their ingress route. That would likely confuse the enemy, since Fang was headed in a different direction. At the very least, it might induce a little panic.
Two shapes plopped down in front of them. “Took you long enough,” one of them said as they fell into formation.
“OK, I’ll stand on overwatch next time,” Zach said as they continued to run.
Danny grinned as they passed under a light. “Can you do it?”
“Sure I can.”
“I’ll bet.”
“Could we focus on not dying first?” Miko warned.
Zach took a glance at his HUD map. They had about two hundred yards to go before they reached the extraction point. That could be a short distance, or it could take forever depending on the level of opposition.
“Contact, contact!” Selene warned, just before she opened fire on something moving to their rear. Javy and Nora joined in.
Zach took one look at the situation and loaded a grenade into his launcher. He made a quick estimate as to the distance, aimed and fired. The remainder of the enemy squad was blown off their feet by the blast. Were they all dead or incapacitated? Zach knew they didn’t have time to check.
“Let’s MOVE!” he shouted out. “Use any and all firepower to cover our escape.”
Fang Squad sprinted toward the shore, hounded by enemy troops all the way. Even caught on the back foot and completely confused, the Ragnarok troops were tough opponents. But they didn’t quite know what they were up against, so Zach’s team exploited that to its full effect. They fired on full auto to pin them, threw grenades to distract and disorient them. And then Zach played their last trump card.
Night turned into day as he triggered the explosives and sent the storage warehouse sky high. Even from this distance, protected by the buildings between locations, the shockwave was notable. Fire from the enemy side suddenly died off for a moment.
“Heh, they’re surprised,” Javy commented.
That wouldn’t last long, though. Fang Squad rushed the last hundred yards to the shoreline, the enemy in hot pursuit.
“We’ve got company,” Selene said. “I hope we timed this right.”
Zach glanced back for a look. Sure enough, scores of enemy troops were surging toward them, silhouetted by the inferno burning behind them. His squad took the time to snap off a few shots, dropping several, but they couldn’t hold off an enemy force this size.
But they didn’t need to. Zach grinned to himself as he heard the signal over the radio.
And then the harbor lit up.
The first wave of enemy troops was caught completely off guard, scythed down by the literal torrent of bullets. The others scrambled into cover, trying desperately to avoid being killed as well.
That gave Fang more than enough time to make their leap into the second river craft waiting for them. Zach put his gun on safe, slung it over his shoulder and immediately went to one of the stations.
“Everyone on the guns,” he ordered, manning a pair of .50 caliber machine guns himself. The others complied quickly.
Zach laid into the enemy positions on shore as the pulled away, targeting anything and everything that looked remotely threatening. He heard minigun fire and other machine guns going off around the boat. Tracers streamed toward the enemy. And then in a moment, they were away.
Zach felt his heart pounding in his chest. “Good work everyone,” he said.
“Still have to get past the lake patrols,” their pilot warned.
“Piece of cake,” Danny said.
“We did a number on that, didn’t we?” Gavin said, looking back toward the inferno on shore.
“One small step,” Xavier said.
Zach nodded in agreement. “One small step on the way to bigger things.”
2
PLAYBOOK
“I heard you guys had some fun last night?” Liz said.
Nora nodded. “Yeah. We managed to get past the outer defenses and blew up the warehouse they were using to store torpedoes. We got away without taking any casualties, too.”
“How’d you get there without anyone noticing?” Liz asked. “I’m guessing you used the new diving equipment?”
“That we did,” Nora replied. She took a drink of her coffee.
“To be fair, we had a ton of luck on our side as well,” Selene said. “It didn’t look like they were very prepared last night.”
Anna smiled from her end of the table. “That’s not luck, that’s planning. We knew that because of all the recon work we did as prep.”
“Like the saying goes, the harder you work, the luckier you get,” Nora agreed.
“What were you two doing last night?” Miko asked.
“Helping to solidify our holdings around Racine, Kenosha and Waukegan,” Liz replied. “As you can imagine, Ragnarok doesn’t want to let us have them without a fight.”
“We have another planning meeting tonight,” Anna said. “Anyone who wants to attend can do so.”
“I’ll pass,” Miko said.
“Yeah, I will as well,” Selene nodded. “But you three really don’t get a choice.”
“Chains of commanding,” Anna said.
Nora shrugged. Like the other two she saw her responsibilities as part of her duties as an officer of Black Wolf Company. Besides, unlike some of the others she was actually getting paid to play the game, although that might change sometime in the future. There were rumors floating about that a system for exchanging game currency and real world money was in the works.
But that was far in the future. They had plenty of problems to deal with in the here and now, and they also had lives in the outside world to focus on as well.
It was often easy to forget inside the virtual world, but continuously staying inside meant letting the outside
world pass them by. And there were too many things to be missed by doing so. For example, sitting around in a coffee shop like they were doing right now.
“Are we going to be moving soon?” Miko asked.
“Can’t say,” Anna said. “Of course, if you came to the meeting…”
“Pass,” she immediately replied.
The others laughed.
“What, don’t like sitting around talking strategy?” Liz asked.
“No, that’s fine. But I don’t like sitting around while everyone argues, and that’s what these things usually devolve into,” Miko replied.
“It hasn’t been that bad lately,” Anna said. “Go figure. Winning seems to chance everything.”
It had, indeed. The Hydra Alliance no longer felt the weight of the extreme pressure that had been pushing down on them for the past few months. Nora had felt it like everyone else. The Alliance had been forced to fight on multiple fronts, trying to hold off their Ragnarok foes while simultaneously taking Indianapolis. There had been several close calls, arguments and disputes that had threatened to shatter the alliance, and an impending sense of doom the whole time.
Ghost Battalion had narrowly avoided being completely massacred around Green Bay by an overwhelming Ragnarok attack. Only the timely intervention by an offensive to the south had saved them, but it had been enough. Now Ragnarok Company was the one feeling the pressure.
Not that Hydra had an overwhelming advantage, though. In the early stages of the offensive they had cooperated with Ronin Company and their comrades, but recent developments had broken down the partnership. Ronin’s contingent had been put off by the slow pace of the offensive, and had eventually decided to abandon them. Instead, they were focusing their efforts to take a city of their own.
Nora really couldn’t blame them, since out of the three alliances they were the only one without a city. Ragnarok had Madison, and Hydra had Indianapolis. If they wanted to be a major player in the region then Ronin needed one too, and the sooner the better. The rumor mill speculated they were going for Des Moines, St. Louis, or even the Twin Cities.
She wished them luck, because taking a heavily fortified city was no easy task, and Ronin lacked much of the heavy equipment that Ragnarok and Hydra possessed. They didn’t have long-range artillery or heavy armored vehicles, both of which had been critical to Hydra’s success in the urban zones. Even their capable troops might not be able to carry the day against tough fortifications, and they didn’t have many other options for support. Hydra wouldn’t be able to spare any aid, and even if they could they weren’t in the mood to after being abandoned in the middle of the offensive.
Still, the Hydra Alliance remained in a relatively strong position. They had driven Ragnarok Company back past Old Chicago, though their enemy still had a corridor to the main city. The alliance had holdings up and down the coast of Wisconsin, centered on the settlements in Green Bay, Racine and Waukegan. Their numbers had increased as well, enough to create a new battalion formed around Thorn and Myrmidon Companies. Given the moniker Magic, the battalion was based at Green Bay and presented a significant threat to Ragnarok’s vital holdings around Madison.
But Ragnarok was resourceful, and given a chance to recover they might find a way to turn the tables back in their favor. They still had a numbers advantage, though much less than had previously been the case, and the technology gap had closed. They had advantages in several areas and could equal Hydra in others.
So the only real option was to keep up the pressure, slamming their enemy with successive attacks to keep them on the back foot. Hydra finally had the advantage, and now they needed to exploit it.
“What happens when we stop winning?” Miko asked. “Do we go back to the same mess?”
“There’s a simple solution to that problem. Keep winning,” Selene said.
“Oh come on, that’s not even close to being realistic,” Miko argued. “We’re going to lose eventually, because Ragnarok’s not incompetent or stupid.”
“I really think it’s going to depend on what kind of position we’re in,” Anna said. “If we’re still in a strong one there will probably be a lot less dissent.”
“So panic breeds misery, which breeds discontent, which puts everyone at each other’s throats,” Miko said. “I’m so glad I only have to work with people that I get along with.”
“We get along with everyone just fine,” Nora said. “We just occasionally butt heads.”
“Sure. Like that whole dispute about us staying to fight at Green Bay?” Miko commented with a smile.
“Yeah, that didn’t sound too good,” Selene agreed.
“That was Zach, not me,” Nora said.
“I might have helped a bit,” Anna said sheepishly. “But they got over it. I think.”
“Well that’s encouraging,” Liz snarked.
“I haven’t had anyone flip out on me, so I think we’re good,” Anna said.
“Anyhow, enough about that,” Liz said. “Let’s talk about something else.”
“How’s work going for you?” Selene asked.
“The mad scramble has finally died off,” Liz said. “I’m definitely thankful for that. How is yours? Still doing the interviews and things like that?”
“They’re starting to do a lot of neurological tests,” Selene said. “Testing perception, processing ability, that kind of thing. I think they want to find out whether they can use the system as some kind of training tool, but I haven’t heard anything concrete.”
“Why go through all that trouble when you could just do that in a controlled lab environment, I wonder,” Anna said.
Liz shrugged. “Who says they haven’t? Maybe they already went through the controlled phases, and they want to run tests under real world conditions. That lets them account for things that won’t show up in a lab environment.”
“Wouldn’t they account for them in the initial tests?” Miko asked.
“Well, yeah, they try to, but something always seems to pop up out of the blue,” Liz said. “Better to learn about that under real world conditions.”
“Which makes us lab rats again,” Miko said. “Not exactly a comfortable feeling to have.”
“Not quite,” Liz corrected her. “This wouldn’t be on the mass market without thorough safety testing. If something went wrong with a system like that it could bring a multi-billion dollar company to its knees.”
“On a happier topic,” Anna cut in, “have you been doing anything with your cello, Nora?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I’ve been keeping up with practice. I’m actually considering an audition with the Chicago Philharmonic in the late spring.”
“That’s cool,” Miko commented.
“What are you going to do if you get in?” Anna asked.
Nora shrugged. “That’s definitely not a given. There’s plenty of other players that have a shot, same as me. I actually don’t think I’ll get in, but I feel I have to try at least once in my life.”
“But what if you do?” Anna said. “Doesn’t that change a lot?”
“Well, yeah, I’d have to cut down playing World at War a lot,” Nora said. “I do practice quite a bit already, but I don’t think that would cut it if I was a professional.”
“Wouldn’t that mean you’d have to give up working the case study?” Selene said. “There was something in the contract about having to play for a minimum amount of hours per week, barring extreme circumstances.”
“Probably,” Nora said. “But that’s just a ‘what if’ at this point. I don’t think I’m going to have to deal with that problem anytime soon.”
“I’ve heard you play,” Liz said. “You’re good.”
“Everyone knows your good,” Miko agreed.
Nora smiled. “Well thanks, but on the other hand none of you are professional musicians judging my work. No offense, but they tend to have much higher standards.”
Miko took on an air of mock offense. “And we’re just lowbrow peasants, is that right?�
��
“Yeah, we’re uncouth peasants with no appreciation for the finer things in life,” Selene said, carrying on the joke. “We like sports, not art like real cultured people do.”
“Hey, I like baseball as much as any of you,” Nora said. “It’s more that they’re going to be a lot harsher on me, and I don’t think I’ll get past them.”
“But if you make it, what then?” Anna asked again.
Nora sighed. “I really don’t know,” she answered. “It’s definitely a hard decision. But that’s getting way too ahead of myself, thinking about that. First I have to make it, and that’s going to take a lot of practice and hard work.”
“Think it’ll interfere with our planning?” Liz asked.
Nora took another sip of coffee before answering. “Not really. It’s like balancing a day job with practice. Heck, it is balancing a day job. Only this is a lot more fun.”
“Zach’s going to be very lonely,” Selene joked.
“Oh come on, we see each other every single day. And like I said before, none of it is going to matter unless I actually succeed. There’s a lot of stuff going on between now and then.”
“Time flies surprisingly quickly between now and then,” Anna cautioned.
Nora conceded that point, but right now that prospect remained in the distant future. She had other things to concern herself with right now.
* * *
“Black Wolf’s raid on Ragnarok’s naval stores has cleared the way for the next phase of our operations,” Anna said, standing in front of the assembled council of company commanders.
Nora watched intently with the rest, seated next to Zach, Liz and Robbie from Raven Company. Everyone had their eyes fixed on the holographic map projected in front of them.
Representatives from every battalion occupied the large briefing room: Knight, Dragon, Rogue, Ghost and Magic. Nora had picked out quite a few prominent members. David and Morgan of Sacred Sword, Gina from Grizzly, Cody of Marauder, Crimson Eagle’s commander C.J., Bravehart’s Bryce, Aaron of Band of Brothers, and dozens more. Everyone had their role to play in the upcoming fight.
Deception City: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 5) Page 2