Without a verbal order Black Wolf and Barghest broke cover and started to advance on the airfield. As they reached the outskirts Zach suddenly realized just what they had stumbled into.
The land surrounding the airfield wasn't flat or empty. It looked flat and empty from the air, but now he realized that was because of the camouflage netting suspended above it all. Below the netting was an entirely different story. A mass of trenches zigzagged everywhere, teeming with tight turns, machine gun nests and strongpoints. Antiaircraft guns covered all sections of the airfield, making it suicide for Raven Flight to try to support them.
His alert buzzed. Zach quickly opened up his menu and found a gameplay alert in his message.
Fortress capture point, it read. Differing from normal capture points, fortress capture points are not guarded by a single boss. They are protected by a garrison force of elite troops along with heavy fortifications. Players are advised to use specialized weaponry in order to deal with these difficult locations.
“Oh great,” Zach said. He got on the radio. “Did you guys see the new message.”
“Yeah,” Anna said.
“This changes nothing,” David said. “We storm the place and kill anything that gets in our way.”
“Easier said than done,” Karen replied.
“We fight our way through,” David insisted. “I'm not saying that it's going to be easy, but our troops are good-”
His voice suddenly cut off.
“David?” Zach asked.
“Sorry. Orcrist just lost one of its tracks. It may have gone over a mine,” he informed them.
“That puts our armor at risk,” Anna warned.
Zach made a split-second decision. “We're punching through with the infantry. Karen, sweep toward the northern end of the trenches on this side. We'll take the south.”
“Roger.”
Zach relayed the order to Danny and then roused Alpha Wolf Platoon. “Gavin, your squad is in the lead. Ethan, you're next, and Logan, you're rearguard. We may have to split up inside the trenches, so use your own initiative. Just stay in touch.”
“Can we go over the top?” Gavin asked.
“Do you want to try going over the top?” Logan asked him incredulously.
“Stay low,” Zach ordered.
Black Wolf fought their way into the trenches, using every trick they knew to gain an advantage. They needed every single one of them. Their enemy was skilled, tenacious and knew how to defend this ground. They used corners to their advantage very well, setting up ambushes around every bend. Alpha Wolf lost three troops to their tactics before they began tossing grenades around every corner.
Zach knelt down next to the corpse of a dead enemy soldier and looked it over. Ethan's squad was in front now, taking over for Alpha 1. Gavin knelt next to him as he looked.
The enemy's gear was high quality. He had a submachine gun of a make and model that he didn't recognize. Gavin quickly snatched it up and then stripped the corpse of its extra ammunition for good measure.
“Like the look of it?” Zach asked.
Gavin examined one of the magazines. “Looks like it shoots different ammo than mine. Maybe .45 caliber? It's bigger than what I use.”
“That means more recoil,” Zach said. “Are you sure you can handle the switch in the middle of a battle?”
“Oh, sure,” Gavin replied. “Besides, stopping power is a lot more important than accuracy in this environment. It's kinda hard to miss at ten feet when you're firing on full auto.”
“True enough,” Zach shrugged. He continued to examine the body.
The rest of it was unremarkable, though the helmet was of slightly different design from the rest of the garrison. But something on the shoulder caught his eye. Zach rolled the corpse over and examined the unit patch.
“Airborne,” he read aloud.
“That would explain the elite troops,” Gavin said.
“We need to keep pushing,” Zach said. “Don't let up.”
“Got it.”
Zach moved up and joined Ethan's squad. “Let's go,” he ordered over the din of gunfire.
Ethan nodded back and motioned his troops forward. One fell to an enemy burst rounding the corner, but the rest didn't let up. Zach moved to take the fallen trooper's place. After all, there weren't many orders to give out. They had to take this place or die trying.
He found himself in a long corridor that looked like it went straight through to the airfield. For a minute Zach thought they had a breakthrough, but his hopes were immediately dashed. Enemy paratroopers came pouring out of the side passages and started laying down a barrage of fire. Zach barely managed to get down in time before the bullets started flying over his head. Another trooper wasn't lucky and was hit several times, though Zach couldn't tell who it was in the confusion and the darkness.
Machine gun fire flew over his head from behind.
“Stay down,” Ethan ordered over the radio link. He stepped forward, gun blazing to keep the enemy pinned.
Zach decided to help him. He quickly loaded up a round in his grenade launcher and shot it off into the enemy ranks. It wasn't his best attempt, not by a long shot, but in the confines of a trench it didn't matter. Enemy paratroopers were thrown into the walls and onto the trench floor, dead. Many more were stunned.
“Move forward! Move to the side trenches!” Ethan ordered his squad.
Zach joined them. Ethan had made a sound tactical decision. In the center trench they were out in the open and exposed. Ethan wanted his troops to take some of the side trenches branching off the main corridor, depriving the enemy of their cover and giving Alpha 2 cover of their own.
But the enemy wasn't about to let them have their former positions without a fight. As Alpha 2 reached their target area the enemy paratroopers charged.
Vicious hand-to-hand combat ensured, made even more chaotic by the arrival of reinforcements for both sides. Zach barely registered Gavin's squad coming to their aid. He was too busy fighting.
Zach lashed out with his trench knife and caught an enemy paratrooper in the throat with the spike. He grappled with another enemy but was unable to bring his weapon up again. All around him the swirling melee was taking its toll. Black Wolf was skilled at close quarters combat, but their foe was as well, and they also had the advantage of numbers.
The enemy he was grappling suddenly fell backward, dragging him along for the ride. Zach moved to stab with his trench knife, but his foe was already dead, killed by someone else in the chaos.
“Black Wolf, back!” Gavin's voice shouted down the link.
There was some confusion, though to their credit they complied, firing off their guns to keep the enemy at a distance. As soon as they broke off someone pushed through the mass of humanity to the front ranks. He bumped into Zach, and it immediately became clear what he was carrying.
Enemy paratroopers turned into torches as the flames raced down the corridor. It blocked Black Wolf's line of advance for the time being as well, but it bought them several well needed minutes of respite. Zach took the opportunity to reestablish lines of communication with the other commanders.
Danny was having similar problems, though his platoon was still driving forward. Karen was in a similar position, but Barghest was slightly better off because Sacred Sword was drawing considerable numbers of the enemy to their front.
As for the other companies, their progress was mixed. Redd Foxx was pushing through slowly but surely, but Sacred Sword was locked in a stalemate. They had breached the outer line, but now they were stuck in a trench to trench battle with a huge number of the enemy.
Then there were their last two trump cards.
“You're close to the exit,” Miko said over the radio link. She had take up a position on the roof of one of the building and was guiding them through the maze.
“How far?” Zach asked.
“About fifty yards,” Miko replied. “Once you get past the flames you're right at the beginning of the actual airfi
eld.”
“OK, thanks,” Zach replied.
Out of the frying pan and into the fire. As bad as the trenches were, the airfield was going to be far worse. At least there was some semblance of cover in the trenches, but out on the open ground the best cover they had was blades of grass. They desperately needed some form of heavy support.
Zach tried to contact Nora but received no answer. That probably meant she was out of radio range, which also meant that it would be a while before she returned. Once again it would be up to the infantry to win the fight.
The flames were beginning to die down. Zach opened up his menu and scrolled through to the maps of the district. He found the one focused on the airfield and brought it up on his display. Even from the air the enemy antiaircraft guns were evident. Using the map, Zach could pinpoint their locations and relay their positions to the heavies. From there they could destroy the targets with recoilless rifle rounds from a distance.
He needed to be accurate in his assessment. An antiaircraft mount was capable of shredding infantry, and they wouldn't get second shots if they missed. Cover wouldn't be especially helpful against guns with that kind of power, but there was no cover at any rate.
Zach marked and then sent the coordinates to Danny and the squad leaders. “Once we're out of the trenches, have your recoilless riflemen take out these emplacements,” he ordered. “If we can do that then Raven Flight can give us air cover.”
“Not going to be easy,” Danny said. “To get into firing range for some of them we'll need to cross the open ground, and that might be suicide.”
“We have to do it,” Zach said. “There's really no alternative.”
“What about Nora?”
“I can't find her,” Zach said. “If we stay in the trenches we're going to lose. We need some way to break through, and this might be our only option. If we wait for her it's going to take too long.”
“OK, we'll try.”
Ethan tapped him on the shoulder. “So you need something killed?”
“Yes,” Zach replied with a grin. He noticed that Ethan now had a recoilless rifle across his shoulder. He must have switched weapons with someone else.
“Let's get this done, then,” Ethan said. “I mean, we can't lose to Marauder and the rest of them, can we?”
His enthusiasm was infectious. Zach gave him a confident nod and them signaled Alpha Wolf forward. They emerged from the trenches and took up prone positions in the grass.
Ethan made his way forward to a clear space and turned toward the nearest antiaircraft gun. It hadn't moved yet. Zach watched as someone loaded a shell into the back of the rifle and clapped Ethan on the shoulder, signaling that the weapon was ready. Two seconds later there was a burst of flame and the shell streaked away into the darkness.
BOOM!
Zach flinched from the brightness and then turned his attention back to the scene before him. Ethan's shot had been right on the money. The blast had turned the gun into scrap. But there were still more than a dozen guns left to deal with.
Moving quickly Ethan and his loader shifted their aim and prepped the weapon for another round of firing. Another jet of flame leaped out of the back of the rifle.
BOOM!
Zach turned away with a smile, wondering why he was even watching. Ethan was by far the best anti-tank gunner in Black Wolf. Anything that fell within his crosshairs was dead.
But then the shells started howling around them.
Zach threw himself flat as the night lit up. Hundreds, maybe thousands of shells screamed toward them from all directions. The enemy had found their range.
They were trapped, he realized. The air was filled with shrapnel. Each mount had four autocannons attached, and together they could throw out a blistering amount of fire. Coupled with proximity fuses that caused the shell to burst in the air, they were an extremely deadly weapon.
Black Wolf started to take heavy casualties, and there was nothing they could do to retaliate. Standing up or even kneeling was complete suicide. The recoilless rifles couldn't be fired while prone, and none of their other weapons had the range or power to do anything to the enemy.
Danny came on the radio. “Any ideas?”
“Try to crawl back to the trenches,” Zach ordered.
“We're going to have to leave a lot of casualties out here then,” Danny warned him.
“We're going to have to make that sacrifice. We don't have any other options.”
“Can we call for a quick strafing run from Raven Flight?”
“The only thing that's going to do is get them killed,” Zach replied.
“We're not going to get another chance at this,” Danny warned.
“Then we're just going to have to trust that the others can finish the job,” Zach said with some frustration.
“Or you can have faith in the rest of your company.”
Zach looked around. He knew that voice.
“Where are you Nora?” he asked.
“Coming right up behind you,” she said.
Zach turned to see the exoskeleton make a bounding leap over the last trench. Shells pinged off its shell. They might be effective against aircraft and unarmored troops, but against something like an armored exoskeleton they were rendered effectively useless.
“I thought command told you not to risk the suit unless you absolutely had to,” Danny said,
“I think this qualifies as one of those times,” Nora said.
She leveled her right arm and fired off several shots. One of the enemy guns went silent.
“Sacred Sword is breaking through to the north, and they're bringing their armor with them. Redd Foxx is headed up from the south. We still have plenty of fighting to do, but we can win this.”
“Right,” Zach replied.
The amount of firepower being thrown at them had lessened. Many guns had been knocked out, and others had turned to face the threats coming from the north and south. Now was the time to strike.
Zach opened up a channel to everyone in the two companies. “Black Wolf. Barghest. We've taken some losses, but we've weathered the storm. Now it's our turn to bring the thunder. Advance, and crush them!”
Battered, bloodied but still unbowed, they charged into the night.
It took another hour of fierce fighting before the district was under their control. Even with the support of Raven Flight and the reinforcements from Spectre Company, the airfield was a tough nut to crack. The paratroopers didn't give up without a fight, and Ghost Battalion had been forced to weed them out of every nook and cranny. Still, they had triumphed.
Zach leaded up against the wall of a hanger, completely spent from the furious battle. Over half of the attacking force had been lost. The fortress capture point had been much different from a boss. While a boss was a powerful an intimidating enemy to face, a fortress was more insidious. It wore them down bit by bit instead of destroying them in a few blows. It was as much a test of endurance as a test of skill.
Nora walked up and took a seat beside him. “Another day, another district captured,” she said. “We have four more of them to go.”
“Four more,” Zach repeated. “It feels like we've been at this forever.”
“Just a little bit more.”
Zach sat silent for a moment. “Barghest really performed well again.”
“I know, didn't they?”
“I think they're ready to stand on their own.”
“I think so too,” Nora nodded.
“Which means that I'm recalling you, Selene and Miko. You'll be back to your spots in Black Wolf.”
Nora looked over at her suit of armor sitting dormant under a hanger spotlight. The Barghest Company insignia was visible from their angle.
“I'm going to miss them,” she admitted. “But I'm glad I was with them. I rediscovered what I enjoy most about the game, and that's what's most important.”
“Fighting alongside comrades that you can rely on,” Zach finished for her. “That's something we all ca
n enjoy.”
Nora leaned on his shoulder. “That's why we keep fighting.”
Zach looked up into the heavens, watching the virtual stars twinkle in the night sky. It was indeed.
CHAPTER 24
Looming Threat
The railway was finally complete. After the capture of the Meridian and Decatur districts the Hydra Alliance had been able to pour their full might into shoring up their struggling economy. Now, merely two weeks later, they were poised to take a huge step in regaining their dominance of the region.
“So much work,” Paige said. “But so worth.”
“Oh yes,” Nora agreed. Several Hephaestus engineers were making the final preparations for new steam locomotive. From here it would take a load of ammunition north to Lerna Bastion, establishing the rail link between north and south.
That wasn't the only change. The new Forge in central city was nearing completion. Once it was operational Hephaestus Company would be able to churn out ammunition at an astronomical rate, leaving them far more time to build vehicles, research and invent.
And then there were her own changes. While still a member of Black Wolf, Nora had been put in charge of the armored exoskeleton unit, now organized into the formation Hoplite Platoon. She still needed to select the pilots, but their pipe dream was becoming a reality.
A sharp whistle pierced the air, and then the train started to move. Nora cheered along with the other onlookers. It slowly accelerated, pulling a dozen cars laden with ammunition behind it. And once again, thanks to the abilities of Hephaestus, the Hydra Alliance had another trump card in their back pocket.
“Well, onto the next project,” Paige said.
“No rest for the weary, huh?”
“No when there's so many things to play around with. There's plenty of schematics in the library I can try my hand at. I could help with the final stages of the Forge. Or I could work on the exoskeletons some more. We need to know as much as possible about them.”
“True enough,” Nora agreed. “And we need to plot our next move. The last four districts aren't going to roll over for us.”
Fang: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 3) Page 25