Deception City: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 5)

by Mitchell T. Jacobs

  “But that’s a relative term,” Nora argued. “Spectre’s been with us for months, and we all know that Neil can command. It’s not like we’re handing over to control to one of the novice companies like the ones in Magic.”

  “I agree, but people always have a reason to be nervous when you put someone new in charge,” Liz said. “Maybe we should do it, just to get people used to the idea. You never know when we’ll need to be prepared for something like that.”

  Nora nodded and looked back out the window. Flexibility was one of their battalion’s strengths. In the past, Ghost Battalion had been forced to form ad hoc units or improvise solutions on the fly, and they had managed that with aplomb. They could react to rapidly changing situations on the fly. Coupled with their mobility and fighting skill, it made them an extremely dangerous fighting unit.

  But there were always ways to improve, and if they became complacent their advantages might be lessened or even disappear entirely. No, they needed to keep their keen edge, whether that was additional training, improvements to their command structure, or new equipment. The Typhoons were a good start, but they could always do more.

  Then again, they could only do so much when hamstrung with certain orders. Ghost Battalion’s current role as line infantry certain didn’t suit them. They could do it, and they had plenty of experience in urban combat, but like many of their platoon and squad leaders, Nora believed it was a waste of their abilities.

  If units like Dragon, Rogue and Knight were hammers or axes, then Ghost Battalion was a sword, built for precision strikes. They could be pressed into service as a primary weapon, but their best use was to find the weak points in the enemy’s defenses and exploit them, using their speed and raiding prowess. Ragnarok had lost several times because they simply couldn’t deal with Ghost’s rapid advance. They could be on top of the enemy and in their face before they even had time to react.

  Those advantages went away while they remained dug in along the front lines, and everyone in the battalion knew it. Danny, Selene and Gray, in particular, continually insisted that they should be replaced by another unit and moved into the reserve. Gray openly stated that he believed the replacement unit should be Magic Battalion, and Danny had quietly told her and Zach that he agreed as well.

  But that certainly wasn’t going to go over well with certain parties. Magic Battalion itself was the obvious one, along with Ghost, due to how hard they had fought for Green Bay. But others within the alliance wouldn’t be pleased with ceding territory to the enemy without a fight, even if the troops could be better used elsewhere.

  They needed some convincing, and that was what she and Liz were headed south for. None of them liked the idea of giving up Green Bay, but when weighed against the possibility of losing the entire campaign, the choice was obvious. They’d trade territory for troops, placing them where they’d be most effective. Only a fool would insist on holding unimportant territory at all costs while risking the rest of it.

  Like real world conflicts, warfare in World at War was like gambling. Players needed to know when they had the advantage, when they needed to take risks, and when they needed to fold and cut their losses. In this case, they were probably better off folding and living to fight another day.

  It might seem obvious, but convincing the military council of that would be tough sledding. They knew they could get Anna and Karen on their side, but the others remained dicey. David and Gina might be able to be swayed because of their good relationship with the rest of the original five, but on the other hand they might not want to hand over a city with large port facilities to Ragnarok. Cody and Bryce wouldn’t want to give up anything to their enemies without a fight, and Nora didn’t have a good read on Shayna.

  Lex would probably be the biggest problem, since Magic would be the ones giving up their prize. Many units had a stake in Green Bay, but to Thorn and Myrmidon Companies the city was their holy grail. They had spent months only dreaming of capturing the place until Hydra had finally helped them to achieve their goal. Even under determined enemy attack they had helped their prize, and now they would be asked to abandon the place. Nora could imagine just how painful that could be. She had her own experiences in the city that stuck in her memory.

  Green Bay had cost Nora her treasured powered exoskeleton, sacrificed in a desperate last stand to cover her unit’s retreat. Nora could no longer command her platoon, and anyhow, there wasn’t any point. After seeing their vulnerability firsthand command withdrew the rest to Indianapolis, only to be used in absolutely dire situations.

  The northern campaign had cost them so much equipment and time. Not only her exoskeleton, but their first patrol ship, Charon, still lay at the bottom of the harbor, a victim of a dive-bombing attack by crack Ragnarok pilots. Their battalion had spent hours digging fortifications and repairing the damage to the wall, and now they’d simply have to give them up.

  But was there really time for sentimentality in the middle of a war, even one inside a virtual reality? Most people would say that it was just a game and they shouldn’t take it so seriously, but was that really true? Many sports teams focused on becoming better with little fanfare or nostalgia for the past. It could be the same in music, and Nora had seen plenty of musicians that constantly drove forward, never looking back.

  And their enemy wasn’t showing any signs of that weakness either. If Ragnarok was doing what she thought, then they had fought a difficult battle to breach Milwaukee’s walls and take the district, only to turn around and use it as the bait for a trap. No sentimentality there, only a brutal calculus that could turn into a deadly situation for Hydra.

  “If this goes through,” Liz said, “we’re going to be fighting a lot, and fighting hard as well.”

  “Oh, yeah we are,” Nora agreed. “Since we’ll be the reserve I imagine we’ll have to plug holes in the line every time we appear. Plus, if they want something blown up behind enemy lines or an air or amphibious assault, there’s really only one option.”

  “Which means that we’re going to get killed a lot as well,” Liz replied. “We can minimize the casualties, but the nature of our skills means we’re going to be put in extremely dangerous situations nine times out of ten.”

  “Is that really any different than before?”

  “It is since they’ve implemented the new system. Most of our battalion should be able to adapt to the changes, but it might get too frustrating for some. You spend hours or weeks training your skills, you go into battle and then an artillery shell lands on you before you can fire a shot and all that work goes to waste.”

  “Yeah, that could be frustrating,” Nora agreed. “But it could also be prevented by being careful, and by paying attention to specializations. Plus, once we get enough money we can get our hands on improved clones.”

  “How long would they last, under intense combat conditions?” Liz asked. “Sure, we’d be able to afford the initial batch, but if we’re losing dozens or even hundreds of troops a day? We’re never going to be able to fund that. We’d have to go back to the lesser clone models eventually.”

  “Right.” Nora looked back out the window. “I wonder if that was planned. I mean, to try and simulate real world conditions, where we wouldn’t have an infinite amount of troops.”

  “That’s possible,” Liz agreed. “And a bit ingenious if that’s what they’re shooting for. Everyone has infinite lives, but an alliance’s supply of veteran troops will be eroded if they’re constantly fighting.”

  “And that could be a serious problem for both sides. I think we would have been a lot more reluctant to take some of our risks if we had such a tough penalty hanging over our heads. Of course, Ragnarok would be in the same boats.”

  “Maybe that’s why they’ve added some more special forces units to the mix.”

  Nora frowned. “Wait, you think they added some of the other units to make up for the losses the Valkyries are going to sustain?”

  Liz nodded. “Fenris and Ymir started to be
come a lot more prominent when the update came out. I think Ragnarok knows the stakes and is doing everything it can to keep its fighting strength up, no matter how many losses they take.”

  “Should we be doing the same?”

  “Do we really need to do more? We already essentially have an entire battalion dedicated to special operations,” Liz pointed out.

  True enough, but Ghost Battalion was frequently being pressed into frontline service which would erode their numbers of veteran troops. They couldn’t help that, because casualties on the front lines remained a certainty. You couldn’t expect anything else with that amount of lead and explosives flying around.

  “Doesn’t do us much good if we’re stuck holding trenches,” Nora replied. “And that’s what we’re here for, right? To get ourselves off of the front line to where we’ll have the greatest impact.”

  Liz bit her lip. “Some of the others might not like it.”

  “Hm?”

  “Some of the other battalions might not like the idea. Besides the obvious ways, I mean. Some of them might take our request as a statement that we’re too good for the front lines.”

  “That’s stupid.”

  “People believe stupid things all the time,” Liz shrugged. “I agree it’s a dumb concept, but the way our alliance is structured we have to be aware of the politics. And hurt feelings play a big part in that.”

  Nora cracked a smile. “Probably why they sent you and me on this job. Can you imagine Gray or Danny trying to play nice with some of them?”

  “Danny can make nice when he wants to,” Liz said. “But yeah, Gray has no time for fools.”

  “So we should probably avoid that. Maybe appeal to their sense of pride? Point out that we’re not built for sustained front line combat like they are?”

  “Make them seem like they’re tough. Good call,” Liz agreed.

  “And I think we should emphasize the good we’ll do once we’re able to be mobile again. I’m sure that the others don’t like getting shot at with heavy weapons. We could lessen that by attacking the supply lines.”

  “Or we could perform large-scale raids behind their lines,” Liz added. “Magic might not be able to threaten their resource areas, but that’s because they have to hold back so much of their fighting power to hold Green Bay. If we brought the whole battalion to bear and went scorched earth on them, we could seriously lay down some hurt.”

  And that would certainly catch their attention, Nora thought. Ragnarok couldn’t ignore hundreds of troops rampaging deep inside their territory, destroying mining operations, blowing up infrastructure and generally causing chaos.

  “Or there’s the third option,” Nora said. “We stay inside the city, but we go on the offensive to break the deadlock. There has to be some way past their front lines, whether that’s with our own transports or something else.”

  Liz frowned. “You think there’s another tunnel system under Milwaukee.”

  “You’re from Milwaukee. Is there a subway system or something like that?”

  Liz laughed. “Oh, they’ve been talking about that for years, but they’re never going to do it. There’s no need for it, and it’s way too dangerous to try. Part of downtown is built on drained swampland, so you can imagine what might happen if they start digging underneath that.”

  “But that’s in the real world,” Nora said. “There’s no reason why they wouldn’t change that here.”

  “I still don’t think they have a system,” Liz replied. “They seem to like to stick to real world inspirations. Now, I could see there being a sewer system we could use, but that might present its own problems.”

  Nora could imagine. Any extensive network of tunnels was probably crawling with chilus, ryches and other monsters. And if they ran into Ragnarok down there they could have quite the battle on their hands.

  “All of this is theoretical until we actually get permission to move.”

  Liz nodded. “Of course, but you know what? Talking over this shows that it gives us a lot of different options. We have one choice if we’re on the front lines. We have several if we’re freed up.”

  “Hopefully they can see that.”

  “One thing in our favor is that we do have good strategic minds on the council. Even if they have their own way of doing things, at least they’ll listen to other opinions.”

  True enough, but trying to convince them was still going to be a massive undertaking. Moving so many troops and so much equipment would take a considerable amount of time and effort, and that would give Ragnarok the opportunity to strike. They needed to have a contingency plan in place in case that happened.

  Liz looked out the window. “So, do you think Danny’s worries have merit?”

  “What, that Ragnarok’s going to cut around us to the west and trap us in Milwaukee? That’s going to be tough for them. They have a bunch of really rough terrain in the area, which means they can’t use their tanks.”

  “Since when has that stopped them? They went after us pretty hard in the swamps around Green Bay.”

  Nora had to concede that point. The terrain around Green Bay was impassible to heavy armor except for a few roads that could be easily plugged up. Ghost Battalion had forced Ragnarok to fight on their terms in a light infantry battle, but their enemy proved dogged and determined. They forced Ghost Battalion to retreat from their forward positions after a vicious, grueling battle and then smashed their way through the walls. Only the timely intervention of the invasion from the south saved them all.

  So Ragnarok was both capable of and willing to attack through difficult terrain in order to gain an advantage. At the moment it seemed unlikely given the fierce fighting around Milwaukee and the Old Chicago corridor, but their enemy might want the element of surprise. History was filled with examples of surprise attacks directed through terrain that one side thought was impassible. Anyone not on their guard could quickly become the victim of a complete disaster.

  They weren’t in danger of that, since several had already brought up the possibility and were working on plans to prevent that from happening. But how much could they really do at this point, with so many troops committed to the Milwaukee campaign? Ragnarok seemed to have the upper hand in this instance. Hydra could slow them down using the forests and rivers to their full advantage, but could they really stem the tide with their limited forces on hand? Nora didn’t like their odds at this point.

  The clock was ticking. No one knew when or where the enemy might strike next, but the faster Hydra moved, the faster they’d have more forces to stem the tide of the coming onslaught. Nora had no doubt that if an attack was coming, Ragnarok would use overwhelming force.

  “There’s the walls,” Liz noted.

  Nora glanced out the window to see Indianapolis approaching in the distance. Only a little while longer until they reached Hydra HQ.

  “Here goes nothing,” she commented. “I’d almost rather be getting shot at.”

  Liz gave her a half smile. “Don’t say that. I have a feeling that’s going to happen as well. And soon.”

  But how soon, Nora wondered?

  20

  CALL CENTER

  “Can you hear me?” Zach asked into the telephone receiver.

  “Copy that, we can hear you,” Bryce said on the other end of the line. “Are all the lines connected?”

  “They are for this cluster,” Zach told him. “Yours is the first check on the list.”

  “I hear you. Let me know when you have them all up and running so I can mark that off.”

  Zach hung up the receiver, then flipped one of the switches on the board in front of him and picked it up again. Once again, the connection worked perfectly.

  That pleased him greatly. Zach had taken this as a personal project, designing the telephone system between the front lines and the rear areas within Milwaukee. Hephaestus Company could have done it, but he didn’t want to overstretch their capabilities. They had enough problems to deal with right now, with vehicle
and ammunition production at the top of the list. If he could keep other issues out of their hair for the moment it would certainly help.

  And anyhow, Zach was the perfect person to design a network like this. He had plenty of experience with communications systems, and specialization in engineering skills. When combined they gave him the technical knowhow as well as the practical ability to create something of this nature.

  The system wouldn’t be comprehensive, because laying down wire to every single unit would be cost-prohibitive and take far too much time. Instead, they applied most of their resources to the most significant lines. Other sections wouldn’t be ignored, but they were given second and third tier equipment and structures.

  Zach was currently testing the main lines from the forward field headquarters to the central HQ in the rear. This particular link had three redundant lines, each with their own separate field telephone. If one of them was knocked out, the others would still work. His teams had also take the time to bury these lines deep underground, giving them protection from shrapnel and shell fragments. A direct hit could still sever the lines, but it eliminated the chance of freak accidents occurring.

  Zach could contact other companies and the artillery by use of another line, with cables branching out in almost every direction. All he needed to do was to pick up the phone, choose the line on the switchboard he had devised, and make the call. It saved them from needing a phone for each unit, saving them a considerable amount of money. Hydra was certainly wealthy, but their money supply wasn’t infinite either.

  He finished testing the main line and moved on to the artillery battery links. Hydra had dramatically reorganized their command structure, forming up field HQs at certain sections of the line. Each company sized formation had their own HQ, but the smaller units were consolidated with others to streamline the process. For example, Spectre had been folded into Barghest for organization purposes, though they still retained their individuality and would become fully independent when the situation changed again.