But they were Ghost Battalion, and the odds never seemed to faze them. Again, what was one more crazy gamble among the others they had taken and managed to pull off?
Anyhow, they could count themselves somewhat fortunate. At least they would be able to concentrate their forces rag-tag as they might be. He felt sorry for the troops scattered by the chaotic drop.
Zach wondered how long they would last.
11
Regroup
“This is going to be tough,” Anna commented as they poured over the map in front of them. “We don't have a lot of spots we can feasibly punch through to get to the shore.
Nora had to agree. One look at the map told her their task looked nearly impossible. Zach might want them to assist an amphibious landing, but their options were limited at the moment. If they had sufficient forces Nora would have suggested an attack on the Marina, since that would put them closer to the Jones Harbor District when the rest of the alliance broke through. It would also allow them a safe anchorage to unload supplies.
But given the fact that Spectre had run into heavy resistance at the veteran park drop zone, Ragnarok troops were probably in the south end of the district as well, making an attack there a dicey prospect.
It was maddening. The Ghost Battalion troops that had managed to land remained scattered, some only in pairs or fireteams, many not even from the same units. While they could cause confusion, they were essentially useless as a fighting force until they were able to join together in a coordinated effort.
And then there was them. The command staff was stuck in the southern end of the Shorewood District rallying as many troops as they could. So far they had only managed to join up with five, all from Barghest. With so little force at their disposal they could do nothing but keep moving and hope for the best. If they enemy found them and decided to crush them, they were finished.
If the Gazelle went, then their last hope would go with it. The vehicle had the only long-range radio capable of reaching Cudahy and beyond. Troops within the district could communicate using their own personal radios, but without the set in the Gazelle they had no way to talk with the rest of the battalion attempting to rally and come to their aid.
Right now the best they could do was to unify their remaining forces, pick a target and throw themselves against it. With planning, timing and a bit of luck they might be able to create a bridgehead for the rest of the battalion to use.
But they had two foes to deal with. Nora's group had already run across NPC patrols. With the Gazelle it had been easy enough to fight them off, but each encounter meant using more valuable ammunition, and no one knew when or how they were going to get more. In fact, they had taken to scavenging from the dead, taking every bullet, grenade and munition they could get their hands on.
It would slow their losses, but it wouldn't be enough. They had to reestablish some manner of getting supplies, otherwise they would be combat ineffective within a week. But what could they do? Helicopter and parachute drops would come under air attack, and the lake shore wasn't secure enough to perform drops yet.
And they needed to be careful about the skies too. Enemy pilots often circled above the district, performing dive bombing runs on certain targets. She guessed they were strongpoints, places that the NPC garrison and Ragnarok was duking it out. Nora and her group hadn't come under attack yet, but if they were spotted she was certain all manner of hurt would come raining down on them.
Trapped in the middle of a hostile district, separated with tenuous communications, limited supplies and meagre fire support. They had been in tight spots before, but Nora couldn't think of one quite this bad.
“We're going to have to do something,” Liz spoke up. “Otherwise we're going to run out of supplies.”
Anna looked down at her map again. “I know, but what? We're probably going to get one shot at it, so we need to make sure we're right.”
“Discussing plans?”
Nora looked down from her perch on the Gazelle to see Allen standing below.
“We are. Care to join us?” Anna asked. “We could always use a fresh opinion.”
“I'll see what I can do,” Allen said as he climbed up with them. “I can't promise anything, though.”
Nora looked back down at her wrist menu map. “The marina. That's probably the best place to take. It gives us the best spot to bring in supplies and troops.”
“But then we have to deal with the Ragnarok problem,” Liz pointed out. “Spectre might be able to help us a little, but they're not exactly in a good spot either.”
Spectre Company had been forced to retreat south from the drop zone, taking refuge in a large building where the Milwaukee Art Museum would be located in the real world. That gave them a spot close to the lakeshore, but they were essentially surrounded, cut off and running low on supplies. Neil reported that his troops had been forced to sneak outside during lulls in the fighting to take ammunition off enemy corpses.
Danny's platoon was somewhere in the center of the district, south of the university and north of the hospital. Most of his troops had made it down alive, but their impromptu jump had scattered them over a wide area. They were in the process of regrouping, but right now she couldn't count on them to do much.
Barghest had scattered as well, and Nora wasn't even sure how many of Alpha Wolf had survived their plane going down. That left them thin, very thin, and extremely vulnerable.
“Are we set on getting part of the lakeshore?” Allen asked.
“It's our only way of getting supplies in,” Liz said. “There's no land route, and you saw what happened when we tried to come in by air. The lake is our only real option at this point.”
“OK, so that narrows it down to spots along the lake. Let's try to narrow it down some more. How many spots will be good for unloading?”
“Right now? Probably the marina and maybe the area north of the lake park,” Liz said, circling the two areas with a swipe of her finger.
“OK, so that narrows it down to two spots. So we have to pick one or the other if we're going to make this work. Which one do we chose?”
“The northern one is the most obvious route,” Anna said. “Bravo Wolf is up there, even if they are scattered, and it gets us away from Ragnarok.”
“We think,” Nora corrected her. “We don't actually know how far they've penetrated yet.”
Liz circled another part of the map. “And here's the bigger problem I'd be concerned about. Choosing the northern landing zone puts us right next to the university, which is one of the NPC strong points. I don't know their targeting priority, but they might attack us. Actually, I'd probably say they will attack us.”
And that could be a serious blow to their efforts, Nora thought to herself. They could probably drive off the enemy unless they brought overwhelming numbers, but the fight would still weaken them at a time they could ill afford it. In fact, Ragnarok might be content to sit on the sidelines and wait. Once one side had triumphed, taking a beating in the process, they would swoop in and finish off the survivors.
Their best chance might be to go directly after the enemy, she realized. It meant a much tougher fight, but it also meant they wouldn't get blindsided by the stronger force. They could deal with the NPCs, but Nora wasn't in the mood to screw around with Ragnarok. Too many things could go wrong in a hurry with that.
“The marina is probably our best bet, once again,” she said. “I know it's going to be tough, but the other option is to fight and then have Ragnarok come finish us off when we're wounded and limping.”
“So you want to come out and punch them in the mouth right out of the gate,” Liz summarized. “OK, that makes sense. Question is, can we make this anything more than a suicide mission?”
“I don't think we can do it on our own,” Anna said, “but we might be able to do with with support from the rest of the battalion. If we plan carefully.”
“That means we're going to take pressure off the amphibious landing by launching a
strike from the land side, right?” Allen asked.
“Yeah, that's probably our best bet.”
Nora looked down at her map again. “Actually, that might be the best way to go about things without having to form up into larger units. If we all converge on the Ragnarok positions at the same time then we can at least get their attention. That'll clear things for the landing party.”
“Right, and-”
“Foxfire. Foxfire. Foxfire.”
That was one of their lookouts, signaling that an enemy patrol was heading their way. The quartet immediately stopped what they were doing and prepared for battle. Allen jumped down and headed back to the rest of the infantry unit, while Nora and the rest climbed into the Gazelle.
She took her position in the gunner's seat and went to work, scanning for targets through the periscope. Their lookout was positioned to the northwest, past a series of houses at the intersection of two streets. And given that…
Nora trained the gun in that direction and watched through the rangefinder as the rest of their tiny force moved up, hugging cover and preparing to meet the incoming enemy. It might be tempting to hang back and let the Gazelle do all the work, but that would only put it in more danger. One enemy soldier carrying an RPG would doom them, and the only way to stop them was infantry cover.
She appreciated their decisiveness. No hesitation, no hanging back, just business as usual.
“Lookout, what are we facing?” Anna asked over the radio link.
“NPC patrol. Looks like a squad armed with light weaponry.”
“Any anti-tank weapons? RPGs? Rockets?”
“Doesn't look like it, but I can't be completely sure. I don't see any tubes or that kind of thing.”
Anna looked down at Nora. “At least that means they're not carrying anything long-ranged.
And with the infantry cover, closing within grenade range of the Gazelle would prove difficult. But they could afford to relax or get cocky. They might be impervious to the enemy inside the IFV, but their comrades outside could be easily killed, and they couldn't afford to lose them. If they did run into enemy troops with anti-tank weapons they would need as big of an infantry screen as they could get.
“Coming around the corner,” their lookout warned. “They should be within sight in about five seconds.”
Nora aimed the main gun right where she thought they would emerge and put her finger on the trigger. Now it was just a matter of waiting…
She fired.
The first few troops had managed to turn the corner when cannon shells ripped into them. Nora's pair of shots took out three of them, continued on and left two sizable holes in the building behind them.
She fought the temptation to just blaze away with the main cannon. It could fire huge shells downrange, but against infantry more than one was overkill, and they had a limited number of rounds. Instead, she lined up shots on as many enemies as she could get to line up. The cannon was capable of punching through several bodies in a row, and she wanted to maximize that.
More troops fell as she heard the steady roar of a machine gun going off above her. Anna fired tight bursts at the remaining enemy with her pintle mounted machine gun, scything down most of them. The Barghest troops finished off the rest with accurate shots.
“Clear from this end,” Allen said.
“Looks like we're clear in all directions,” Anna confirmed. “We should probably move.”
The sounds of gunfire would definitely attract attention, even if the enemy couldn't hear it properly because of all the buildings. If they were especially skilled they might be able to triangulate the source of the noise.
Their best option was to move, and do it quickly. It was a lot like a sniper, Nora reflected as they started down the roadway. The ones with experience knew that they needed to move after every shot, lest they be detected and then ferreted out.
“How do you want us to proceed?” Allen asked over the link.
“Standard advance. Head in front of us as a screen. We'll cover you,” Anna replied.
To their credit, the squad formed up and headed down the middle of the street, about thirty yards in front of them. Nora knew that had to be difficult. Instinct told most people to either shelter behind an armored vehicle or hug the cover at the sides of the street, but that would mean leaving the Gazelle vulnerable to anti-tank weapons, especially teams on foot. So instead, they provided a screen for the vehicle, even though it made them more vulnerable.
“Back on topic,” Liz said. “So we think the best bet is to go for the marina in a simultaneous strike?”
“That would be the one,” Nora said. “Of course, that's speculation at this point. We don't know what Ragnarok units are in the area, what kind of weaponry they're packing, how many of them there are...”
“We could always do recon work,” Anna said. “I know it's not going to be easy, but that's what we trained our stealth skills for.”
“Ah, recon,” Nora commented. “Brings back memories.”
“All the times we got stuck running for our lives?” Liz said.
“We came out OK.”
“You never got trapped on the roof of a building and then had to run for safety over the rooftops with a bunch of enemies firing at you.”
Nora laughed. “Yeah, because I never got trapped on top of a building in the first place. Aren't you the one that's supposed to have all the great stealth skills?”
“Things happen where they won't work.”
“Uhuh.”
“Are you really just going to sit here and make fun of my stealth skills?”
Nora cracked another smile. “Oh come on, it's not like I'm serious. The only one in our company that can come close to touching any of you is Miko.”
“I'd say Xavier's pretty good,” Anna chimed in. “So is Gavin. And you're not too shabby yourself.”
“Thanks.”
Liz cleared her throat. “Anyhow, we need to do recon before we can go ahead with the next phase of the operation. And that's going to be tough to do with a vehicle.”
“We could always switch places with three of the others,” Nora said. “They can hide in here and we can walk down the middle of the street.”
“It sounds so nice when you put it that way.”
“It would be really helpful if we could get a sniper,” Anna said. “Isn't Miko somewhere around this area?”
Nora nodded. “Yes, but she wasn't too specific about where exactly she was. It could be the next street over, or it could be several miles.”
“Still, we should find out. Can you call her on the radio?”
“I'll do you one better, actually. We're supposed to be playing basketball tonight, so I'll ask her then.” She looked down at the time. “Actually, I need to log off soon to make sure I get there in time.”
“You can do it now. I'll either move out of the commander's position or I'll get one of the others to take your place. Besides, we're probably just going to find a place we can hole up and hide for a while.”
Nora tapped her wrist menu. “OK then. See you soon.”
One button press later and she logged out.
* * *
Sweat poured down her brow as she ran across the court, trying to deflect a pass. Even after nightfall the summer heat still lingered, making it difficult to breathe at times.
Of course, that wasn't the only reason. They had all been cooped up inside because of the summer heat, and even with air conditioned gyms and the virtual world to occupy them, they still felt restless. All of them wanted to be outside enjoying the summer, because the cold and wind would be here soon enough.
And that meant, despite the heat and the atmosphere, both teams were competing hard.
Nora's outstretched hand missed the ball by inches, and Xavier plucked it out of the air above her. He pivoted and made a perfect jumper.
“You're slowing down,” he commented.
“It's hard enough to cover someone who's several inches taller than you and just as
fast.”
“Yeah, but you're still slowing down.”
“We all are,” Gavin said, hands on his knees and breathing hard.
Nora looked over at Selene and Danny and smiled. “Well, those of us that can show signs of weakness are.”
“I still think we should put them on the same team one of these times,” Zach spoke up.
“I have a feeling that wouldn't be as entertaining as it is now, but maybe.”
Miko grabbed the ball and held onto it. “OK, I think a water break is in order.”
No one else objected, and they headed toward the sidelines and their water bottles.
“Fun times,” Javy commented as they all guzzled water.
“Yeah, well, it's good to finally be outside. Even if it is a million degrees at night,” Danny said. “We've got a lot of stuff to do in the next week.”
Nora turned to him. “Speaking of that, where the heck are you guys? I can't really pinpoint you.”
“Oh, we're south of the university.”
“And I'm in the south, across the river from you,” Miko said.
“Anna wants you to join up with us, since we need to be able to scout the Ragnarok positions.”
“Huh, and that's on me, I guess. You can't just have Liz and Anna do it for you?”
“It's kind of hard to sneak up on people in a tank.”
“So your plan is to scout the shoreline for an attack, I take it?” Zach asked.
Nora nodded. “Yes, and then you're going to have to help us pull off the attack.”
“Isn't it fun when you can talk about things outside the virtual world,” Javy said. “It's like we're not even separated.”
“Yeah, until we all go back into the virtual world and it's like this was all a dream,” Danny said. “I'm guessing you want me to play a part in this too.”
“Yeah, since you're the one with anything resembling an actual fighting force,” Nora told him. “Can you try to head south to meet us.”
Commando City: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 7) Page 11