Fang: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 3)

by Mitchell T. Jacobs

  Nora shrugged. The self-propelled antiaircraft gun had done a number on their forces, slaughtering scores of them. Only an improvised bomb created by Zach followed by Gavin and Ryan making a suicidal grenade attack had brought down the beast.

  “I'm sure we'll come up with something,” Nora said. She turned and watched Tusk Platoon approaching from the south.

  “I would prefer if it didn't involve death or near-death experiences for me,” Selene said.

  “Or if Miko needs to make another one in a million shot,” Nora added in. “Where is she, by the way?”

  Selene shrugged. “Over somewhere with the rest of Black Wolf. Karen detached her and she's helping them. Probably picking off heavy weapons crews, officers and the like. You know, the normal stuff.”

  “Probably,” Nora agreed.

  Miko was possibly the best sniper in the alliance, and her ability to influence a battlefield was uncanny. Other snipers could pick off targets at a distance, but she knew who to target and when to target them. Silencing a heavy weapons crew at the right spot in the line, killing an officer when it would damage morale the most, those were the things that made her so deadly.

  But were there any talents like that in Barghest Company? A week ago Nora would have said no, but time with them had changed her view somewhat. She still wasn't sure whether someone of that caliber would reveal themselves, but she found the prospect far more likely. They were learning, and soon enough they would be ready.

  “Tusk Platoon is headed through the gate,” Karen said, breaking in on her thoughts. “Red and Blue Platoons will continue to clear the walls. Nora, take Yellow Platoon and escort Tusk over to the right flank. Help them break the stalemate.”

  “Copy that,” Nora said, and then switched channels. “Yellows, form up on me.”

  They had proven their worth in battle. Now, it was time for them to prove that they had fangs that could equal the wolves.

  CHAPTER 13

  The Next Step

  The fighting for the Zionville District had been some of the toughest that Zach had ever faced. While Barghest Company was taking control of the gate, Black Wolf and Redd Foxx had tangled with a battalion of armored cavalry assembling to counter Dragon Battalion's push into the rest of the city. The battle had been intense and brutal. Heavily outnumbered and faced with dozens of armored vehicles, the two companies had nonetheless made a good account of themselves. Once again Ethan had proved to be an ace with a recoilless rifle, killing six enemy vehicles by himself. Even so, they had been hard pressed.

  Then the armored support had arrived from the south. Bolstered by their reinforcements, Ghost Battalion had launched a furious assault that completely broke the back of the enemy force. It had cost them about thirty troops, but in the end they were triumphant.

  But the district hadn't been done with surprises yet. As Dragon Battalion had approached the central capture point they came under attack from several snipers. They weren't of the run of the mill variety either; their aim was much better, and their weapons were stronger, capable of piercing brick walls, cars and even several troops packed close together with a single shot. After the battle they had found out their opponents were using .50 caliber sniper rifles designed for taking out light vehicles.

  Dragon Battalion had suffered heavily from the enemy bosses, with almost eighty killed. Once they had figured out their location the response was merciless; mortar fire and shelling from the assault guns, followed by grenades, machine gun fire and more grenades. One squad from Marauder had particular trouble with a building housing two snipers, along with a squad guarding the way up; their response had been to level the place with explosives.

  Despite heavy casualties, which was the norm in that kind of situation, Hydra had taken the district. Now they needed to move in and assess what they had on hand.

  So far their search had been reasonably fruitful. There wasn't much in the realm of super weapons or even powerful schematics here, but there were still plenty of valuables. While combing through the buildings they had found piles and piles of junk, most of it scrap metal. When melted down it could be shaped into anything they wanted, whether that was bullets, armored vehicles or something else.

  There was a large group that wanted that certain something else to be a rail link between Lerna Bastion and Indianapolis, and Zach was amongst them. To him the establishment of the link would be more important than building more armored vehicles. Once it was built Hydra could shift supplies and troops from north to south with both speed and efficiency. Even though the trains would take fusion batteries to run, they would be far more efficient than a convoy of Mules.

  He wasn't the only one who felt that way. David, in particular, was very adamant about creating a rail link to make transport more efficient. Ever since Hydra had moved its industry to the Eagle Creek District, Lerna Bastion needed to have all its ammunition and other supplies brought in from the south. That put a considerable strain on their transport pool, and there were many questions as to whether Knight Battalion could be sufficiently supplied if they were forced into extremely intense combat.

  But there were other issues to contend with. Like, for instance, the fact that even though Zach was an engineer class, he had no clue how to build a railway. That would require the expertise of Hephaestus Company, and they were busy.

  In fact, Yusuf was reiterating that point to him and the rest of the Hydra founders right now.

  “You really don't ask for much, do you?” he was saying. “You do realize how hard we have to work to keep you guys in fighting shape. You're burning through ammunition almost as fast as we can produce it.”

  “Well sorry, but avoiding death is pretty hard if we don't use bullets,” David said.

  Yusuf looked over some figures in his menu and sighed. “This isn't going to be easy. We're going to have to devote pretty much everything we have to the project. We'll keep the necessary skeleton crew on ammo production, but everyone else is going to have to be put on the railway project.”

  “Right,” Gina said. “That's what we were thinking when we started this.”

  Yusuf frowned. “Let me make sure you're getting my drift. If you lose any vehicles, we can't replace them. If you burn through more than the standard supply of ammunition, we can't replace it. If you find a library full of schematics, we can't build them, because everyone is going to be on this project. That means research and development, the production lines, the miners, everyone.”

  “Alright, alright, we get it,” Gina said with her hands up.

  This was turning into a boardroom meeting, Zach thought to himself as the scene unfolded. They were meeting and everyone was trying to carve out their little niche in the grand scheme of things. They needed to work together as a team.

  Part of him wondered why they were so serious when they all knew that this was just a game. A very realistic and very intense game, but a game nonetheless. In some ways they were treating their alliance like a corporation, not like a social group. And Zach was somewhat worried about that fact.

  It wasn't that he necessarily despised the politics and haggling, because that was an important part of the game. But he had the niggling feeling that they were starting to overtake the fun aspect of the world, and that was to their detriment.

  Or maybe he was just being too sensitive about it. After all, he should be the last one to talk about how corporate the game was becoming, since he was getting paid to study it.

  “Do you think you'll be able to build trains based just on the designs of the subway cars?” Anna asked. “I mean, we may not want to sink too many resources into this until we figure that out.”

  “We think so,” Yusuf told her. “Theoretically, it's the exact same thing. We just have to build the engine and attach a power source to it. It could probably be any design of engine we want to try.”

  “Theoretically,” Anna repeated.

  “Yeah. I have faith in my theories,” Yusuf said.

  “Well, considering I
drive around in one of those theories I'm inclined to agree with you,” Connor spoke up.

  “Any idea on a time frame for the project?” Liz asked him.

  Yusuf sighed. “Look, I have no idea. We're flying blind here, and we have to invent everything from scratch. So until we do it, no, I don't have a remotely accurate time frame, so I'm not going to speculate.”

  David shifted in his seat uncomfortably. “So we're going to be sinking a lot of resources into a project, and we have no clue when it will be finished.”

  “That's what I've been saying,” Yusuf replied.

  “Whatever the case, I still think that it's worthwhile,” Zach said. “Ragnarok is still occupied fighting Ronin and the smaller alliances in the north. We still have Lerna Bastion as well, and that's not going to be easy to overcome. But if we can get the link we can make everything more efficient. Not just running supplies and reinforcements up to the bastion, mind you. We need somewhere to sell our goods, and if we can get them up to Old Chicago quickly then so much the better.”

  “Unless Ragnarok gets wind of what we're planning and tries to pound us into the ground during that time,” Gina said.

  “Could we pay off Ronin to keep them busy?” Morgan suggested.

  Nora finally spoke up. “With what? We're not exactly swimming in credits and resources right now, unless you want to fight by throwing rocks at the enemy.”

  Morgan shrugged apologetically. “OK, then how are we going to keep Ragnarok off of our backs?”

  “I think the best we can do is to sit tight and pray that Ragnarok doesn't come after us,” Yusuf said. “Though I'm not the one to make that judgment call, since Hephaestus Company isn't going to be the ones doing all the fighting. I guess it depends on how strong you think that Lerna Bastion is.”

  “That's your call, oh Knight commander,” Gina quipped at David.

  “I think that the bastion is strong enough to hold off a determined attack, even if we don't get many more reinforcements. For those of you that don't know, we've been spending our time digging out the rubble with engineering Mules and doing some building. Garrett has been helping, but most of the effort is being spearheaded by Reese. And I must say that he's doing a good job,” David summarized.

  Gina nodded happily. Reese was one of her engineers.

  David continued. “The Ragnarok attack might have actually helped us, because it gave us a lot of building material and space to work with. We've got everything you could want to build a fortress.”

  “But we have to take time to rebuild it, so how does the attack help us?” Liz asked. “Couldn't we have just demolished the buildings to get what we needed?”

  “We could have, but we weren't thinking like that. We saw a bunch of buildings that we could use as strongholds and storage areas. But they're vulnerable, especially to air and artillery attack. I think we should have paid more attention to the first attack on the bastion.”

  At the beginning of the war Ragnarok had launched an all-out assault on Lerna Bastion, trying to knock out their enemy with one swift and vicious blow. The fighting between the infantry had been extremely intense, but the real threat during the attack had been the artillery bombardment, which had rained destruction on all parts of the bastion.

  Zach, Selene, Danny and Nora had been in Old Chicago on business when the attack had started. By chance they had come across the guns while they were returning to the bastion and had launched a commando attack that destroyed them. They had thought that the lesson to be learned was the fact that they needed some way to counter enemy artillery, but they were wrong. The true lesson, Zach had finally realized, was that the buildings inside the bastion were very, very vulnerable.

  But he and the rest of the alliance had only fully realized that when Ragnarok had flattened the bastion in their next attack.

  “So you're constructing the bastion to be more resistant to artillery, I'm assuming?” Nora asked.

  “That's putting it mildly,” David said. “The bastion is going underground. We still have the walls, and there's going to be bunkers and strongpoints up top, but the critical parts of the place are going to be underground. That means munition storage, armories, the command center, and any production facilities.”

  “Just how long is it going to take you to build that?” Zach asked.

  “We're making good progress,” David told him. “So far we have ten rooms built with interconnecting tunnels in between them. It's going to be slow, since we don't have the expertise of Hephaestus for this kind of things. But people are enjoying it. They like the feeling of building something.”

  “See, now you understand why we like our jobs,” Yusuf said.

  Nora spoke up. “Crap. Speaking of the underground, I almost forgot about it in the confusion after taking the district. Did everyone see the report on what we found in the tunnels?”

  “I noticed that you called it an abyss,” Zach said. “Seems fairly melodramatic.”

  “Well, I'm inclined to agree with her,” Anna said. She had her menu open and was looking through the report and the attached pictures. “This doesn't look like the friendliest place on earth. We have no idea where any of those tunnels go or how long they are. This could really drain our manpower while we search the place.”

  “But we're going to,” Gina said in a tone that suggested she knew what the response would be.

  “Oh yeah, we need to. We have no idea what's under our feet, and the last thing we need is for something to come crawling out of the abyss at the worst possible moment,” Anna agreed. “Besides, we can take the time to regroup a bit after the district attack.”

  “Next question. Who's going to explore the place?” Connor asked.

  “Barghest Company has been assigned to the south tunnels,” Anna said.

  Morgan whistled. “Tall order for the new guys. Are we sure that they can handle it?”

  “Nora is probably going to be the best judge of that,” Liz said.

  “We can if we need to, but I'm not exactly comfortable with taking on a task this big with a new company,” Nora said.

  “Are they not up to standard?” Liz asked. “Because I thought they gave a really good account of themselves during the attack on the gate.”

  Nora shook her head. “It's not like that. They can fight, and they're picking up the finer points rather quickly. But still, I'm not sure I would take them on a bunker raid yet, let alone something like this. They just don't seem to have acquired that extra edge they need for the really tough situations.”

  “And we can't really expect that they're going to be first rate troops immediately,” Anna said. “The purpose of Barghest is to get the recruits that want to join the rangers ready. It's only natural that they're not going to be up to standard.”

  “Honestly, I think we need to do what we can to take care of this problem right now,” Nora said. “If that means we have to use a full battalion to search the place, so be it. It's too dangerous to leave alone right now.”

  Zach wondered about that. It was very true that Barghest Company was new, and that they weren't on the level of the rangers in Black Wolf, Redd Foxx or even Spectre. But he had heard the positive reports from both Karen and Selene, and they were encouraging.

  He wondered whether Nora was overreacting to rawness of the new recruits. Zach thought that they would learn, just like the rest of them had. Black Wolf had been at an advantage in the beginning because he, Selene and Danny had been beta players, but they still had to learn a lot about this world by trial and error. That was how this world taught lessons the best. And anyhow, the others like Miko, Xavier and Nora herself had begun playing with no advantages. The beta players had taken the time to impart their knowledge on the new recruits back then, and that was what they needed to do now.

  Maybe it was because she felt like they were operating on borrowed time. If so, then Zach could hardly blame her for that. One major delay, one slip-up and the whole thing could come crashing down around them. It was like playin
g a high-stakes game of poker; right now they had a strong hand, but if they misplayed it they stood to lose much.

  “So, what do we do about it?” David said.

  “Well, we'll have to run everything by the council,” Zach said.

  “Three of the council members are here, and I'm pretty sure that Karen would welcome any reinforcements we can give her,” Anna said. “She has confidence in her company, but she's not arrogant. She already spoke to me about adding scout teams from Redd Foxx, in fact.”

  Zach smiled. Once again, their choice was being validated. Karen was showing good initiative and confidence, going to her battalion commander first without consulting with him. It was what she should be doing, since after all, she was a company commander in her own right and was on equal footing with him. Karen had come a long way from the person who had refused to reform her original company because she saw it as her greatest failure.

  “Given the size of this place, wouldn't it be better to have as many troops as possible searching it? Not just for enemies, mind you. There could be important tech or other things down there,” Yusuf said. “And if not, well, then it might be the perfect place to hide things that we don't want anyone else to know about.”

  “We'd have to pull troops off the line from other places,” Gina said. “Given how badly we've been stretched that might not be the best idea.”

  Zach thought for a moment. “I think that Ghost Battalion can handle it. The passages may be narrow, but it looks like there's only a limited amount of space inside them. Bring too many troops along and we'll just get in each other's way.”

  “That strips us of our recon force for the tunnels,” David said.

  “Then put another company on it. Marauder, for instance. We really don't need to have stealth capable troops to do scouting, it only makes it easier.”

  “And can keep a whole lot of trouble from coming down on their heads,” David pointed out.

  “What, do you think there's anything in this world that has the stones to kill everyone in Marauder?” Zach asked. “All we need to do is to point them down the tunnel and tell them to kill anything that gets in their way.”