“You got Redd Foxx ashore,” Gina said. “I assume they have enough supplies with them?”
Zach nodded. “Yes, we made sure of that.”
All of their transport craft had been laden down with ammunition and other essential supplies, and Redd Foxx had brought it all ashore when the landed. Before destroying the river craft to prevent their capture, they had also stripped them of weaponry and other salvage. The force in the Lake Park had a significant number of machine guns, along with enough ammunition to keep them going for a while.
“If they have a strong base of operations they can fight a guerrilla war until you're ready to strike back. Hit the enemy wherever they're weak, keep them on their toes, that kind of thing,” Gina said.
“That's one of the reasons I had them go in,” Zach confirmed. “But Ragnarok can get reinforcements, and the garrison respawns right in the district. Killing them is going to only do so much.”
“It keeps them tied down,” David spoke up. “And if Ragnarok has to divide their forces it dilutes their effort. We've made plans for fighting smaller battles. I doubt they anticipated having to fight both you and the NPCs for the district.”
Zach frowned. “We needed more recon work. Aerial photos didn't show us any signs of them being in the district, and that intelligence failure is costing us big time.”
“We'll keep that in mind. But right now we have to focus on winning the fights in front of us,” David said. “I'll give you your orders for now. You're still tasked with securing the Shorewood District, but take it slow. Try to find a way into the district without taking heavy casualties, and then do what you do best.”
Zach felt like dishing out a nasty retort, but he bit his tongue. There was no point in arguing right now, and like it or not he wasn't in a position to make demands.
“I'll do what I can.”
“Thanks. And we'll try to get as much support to you as we can,” David said. He straightened up and headed for the door.
“Good luck,” Gina said before following him out.
Zach looked down at the display for a moment, then opened up his wrist menu. At this point he couldn't think straight. Some time in the outside world might help him focus.
* * *
“Man, it's been a while,” Gavin commented before taking a drink.
“Or never, in my case,” Javy added.
No one felt like being in the virtual world right now, so a night off was in order. Selene, Miko and Nora had decided to go out, so that left the rest of them with nothing to do. They elected to hang out at Zach's apartment and drink.
“Drowning our sorrows,” Danny commented lightly before taking a swig of his own drink. “I mean, how screwed up does that sound? We're drowning our sorrows because we got completely destroyed playing a video game.”
“Well, when you put it that way it sounds lame,” Javy said, elbowing.
Zach shrugged. “Well, is it any different from drowning your sorrows when you lost a big game out here?” He gestured to the TV. “Or because we have to watch another bullpen meltdown?”
“Hey, that's a pastime. Watch the Cubs and drink yourself blind to dull the pain.”
“You're making me really glad I'm not much of a baseball fan,” Gavin said.
“You could be a White Sox fan,” Xavier suggested.
“Yeah, I could also walk out in front of a bus,” Danny snorted.
“Funny, I thought that was most similar to being a Cubs fan.”
Zach couldn't quite hide his smile. “He's got you there.”
“Some fan you are.”
“Hey, I'm a fan, but I'm a realist. Somehow, some way the season's not ending well, and I've got a front row seat to the train wreck. At least I don't have season tickets.”
“Why don't you?” Xavier asked. “That seems like something you'd do.”
“Too busy. I have my other job to worry about as well, and that's going to end up eating most of my time outside of the case study,” Zach explained. “Believe me, despite my griping I'd love to see every game, but it just isn't possible right now.”
“How's that going?” Gavin asked. “The project, I mean.”
“About average. This time around they have a defined template thanks to the World at War design, so they can reference that instead of having to build everything from the ground up.”
“Any idea how long it'll be until it's ready to launch?” Javy said.
Zach took a drink before responding. “It's going to be years. Probably at least another one before any real news starts getting out, and then it all depends on how it's progressing. It's a fantasy based one, so that means a different combat system. There's debate on whether they want to add magic, or if it's going to be too much.”
“Too much how?”
“It's one of the problems you deal with when you're making deep immersion virtual worlds,” Zach explained. “You can't make things too outlandish, because the brain is conditioned for the outside world and can't handle extreme changes. So for example, if you made it so that you walked on the sky and had the ground above you that would cause problems because it screws with perception.”
“So it's about a frame of reference?” Danny asked.
“Yeah, that's the way I might put it,” Zach agreed. “It has to fit within that frame of reference, otherwise your brain can't handle it.”
“So how do you determine what is and isn't too outlandish?” Xavier asked.
“Testing, I imagine,” Gavin offered. “Of course, when you're dealing with brain chemistry then things can get screwy pretty quickly.”
Zach nodded. “We try to pare down the ones that definitely don't work, but we do have to test some of the others. That's why we're in the case study, actually. A lot of our medical data is being used as a baseline.”
“So have you seen our data?” Danny asked. “Should I be worried you know all my deep, dark secrets?”
Zach laughed. “Nope, I don't look at the raw data. That's for one of the others to sift through. I see the results, but I don't know where they came from or who experienced them.”
“Huh, that's a lot more mundane than I thought it might be.”
“So what are they going to have in the game?” Javy asked.
“Sorry, but I've probably already said too much. I leak anything major and they're going to mount my head on a pike. Or more likely they'd bronze it and put it in the middle of some sculpture.”
“That sounds like them,” Danny grinned.
“I know, doesn't it?” Zach laughed back. Elysium Visions always seemed to have a flair for the dramatic.
“You can't even give us hints?” Javy said.
“Not with the kind of nondisclosure agreements they'd draw up,” Xavier said, taking a drink. “I wouldn't want to get on the bad side of one of those.”
Javy shrugged. “OK then, is there anything else you can share with us that won't get your head mounted on a stake?”
Zach leaned back in his chair and thought for a moment. “Aw, what the heck, this is coming out in a few weeks anyhow. Though I'd prefer if you guys kept this quiet for now.”
“Oooh, sounds juicy,” Danny said. “What do you have for us?”
“Another World at War expansion, actually. This one's going to focus on the air, or at least that's what they tell me.”
“The air meaning what exactly?” Gavin asked. “There's a lot of things that could include.”
“Well, weather's going to be a lot more dynamic,” Zach told him. “They've wanted to implement a system like that for a while, but the amount of work they needed to do would have delayed the game for years. Hence why they made a basic system and then added this on later.”
“So it'll rain and snow now?”
“Yeah, but it might not mirror real world conditions. Old Chicago isn't going to be a million degrees below zero during the winter like it is in the real world.”
“Good news,” Xavier said.
“Is that it, though? Seems anticlimact
ic to have so much secrecy about a weather program,” Gavin said.
Zach shook his head. “No. There's another part to it too. They're focusing on aerial warfare, particularly fixed-wing aircraft. Propellor driven planes are going to be a thing of the past when it comes out, and the jets are taking over.”
“Which might shift the balance of power in our favor,” Danny said. “When's this coming out?”
“The winter.”
“Huh, pity. That could have really helped us out right now.”
“We'll find another way,” Zach said. “We-”
Crack.
Every head turned toward the TV to watch a hit go streaking out of the park.
“And the meltdown continues,” Danny said. He lifted his bottle. “Well, there's only one thing to do now.”
Zach nodded. “I'll drink to that.”
16
Conundrum
“Well,” Anna said as they watched their troops digging in, “at least we're a bit better off than we were before.”
“That's not saying much,” Liz replied.
Nora sat on the top of the Gazelle, idly cycling through her wrist menu display. Their situation definitely wasn't as bad as it had been before the battle. They now had about one hundred twenty troops, plentiful ammunition and a significant number of heavy weapons. Their position in the Lake Park, while not especially strong, sat under cover and gave them a defined area to fortify. Once they managed to emplace themselves they'd be very hard to dislodge.
But that was only one small part in a whole host of problems. They still didn't have any good way to get reinforcements, since the closest beaches would come under withering fire from garrison troops dug in around the hospital. They had to deal with both the NPCs and the Valkyries, and focusing on one could leave them vulnerable to getting blindsided by the other.
Worst of all, they didn't have enough troops to do much good, in her opinion. Orders from the military council had come through, instructing them to raid for the time being, but Nora wondered how effective that would actually be. Ragnarok still had a straight connection to several of their districts, so their losses could be back in the fight in no time. The NPCs respawned at a relatively fast rate, which meant they'd always be plentiful.
And no matter how hard they tried, Ghost Battalion was going to take casualties. In an urban environment with all its twists and turns death could be waiting around every corner, and even their stealth skills might not be able to prevent the worst.
So under their current orders they could be stuck fighting battles for no gain, steadily sapping their strength while the enemy called up reinforcements.
Nora knew why they were doing it. Everyone did. The longer they fought and the more pressure they exerted, Ragnarok would have to allocate more troops and resources to Shorewood. That deprived the main front of desperately needed support, and dramatically increased Hydra's chances of success. Already, their efforts had been wildly successful.
But Ghost Battalion was suffering greatly for it. Assets that had taken over a year to build up were being whittled away in the span of a few weeks or even a few days. Eventually they might be left without much of their rapid deployment ability, which would severely hurt their efforts in the future. Without their helicopter, air or water transport they'd just be light infantry, perfectly capable of fighting, but understrength and under-gunned.
“What's our endgame?” Nora said aloud.
The other two turned toward her.
“The endgame is to take the district, of course,” Anna said.
“Yes, like the endgame of this entire thing is to win the war and stomp Ragnarok. But that's pretty vague. I mean more specifically, what are we aiming to do here?”
“Again, our objective is to take the district.”
“Nora does have a point, though,” Liz replied. “We can say that our endgame is to take the district, but is that even feasible at this point? How are we going to get enough troops here to do that? And once they're here, how are we going to take out two enemy forces at the same time.”
“That's our job to figure out,” Anna said. “Digging in is a good start. Getting into the district doesn't do us any good if we immediately get pushed back out.”
“Here's my problem,” Nora elaborated. “Our orders are to raid, right? But if we don't go about it the right way we might end up undermining ourselves. We're going to take losses, and both our enemies can replace theirs easier than we can.”
“Right,” Liz nodded. “So to me, it becomes a question of whether our targets are worth it or not. I don't think just going out and ambushing patrols is going to do us much good unless it's being done for a specific purpose.”
“So we make sure our targets are right,” Anna said. “We don't target troops, we target specific installations and strongpoints. They're in the same boat as us, they can afford to replace bodies better than equipment.”
Nora looked down at her wrist menu again. “Now, the question is what's going to hurt Ragnarok most? I think they're the most dangerous opponent.”
“Maybe, but they're focused around in the south,” Liz said. She opened up her own menu and looked at the map. “They had a really strong position around the hospital, so if Ragnarok wants to come this way they're going to have to get through there first. That might give us enough time to go after the northern half of the district. Actually, the capture point is at the university, so we might be able to take the district that way.”
Nora frowned. “What happens if we capture the district but there's enemy players still inside?”
The other two looked at each other.
“Good question,” Anna said. “I think it'd be safe to assume that they'd stay here even after all the NPC troops vanished.”
“So even if we capture the district we have to make sure that we perform a sweep of the district to drive the Valkyries out,” Nora said.
“Seems like it,” Liz agreed. “And if we take heavy losses fighting the boss, we might not even be able to hold the place for long.”
“Actually, that might be their endgame,” Anna commented. “As strong as the Valkyries are I don't think they can take this place by themselves. They're just a company, after all. But if they let us do most of the fighting and we wipe out the garrison they can come in and pick the bones of what's left.”
Nora clicked her tongue. “That sounds like it might be plausible.”
“And if that's what they're aiming for it's going to be tough without reinforcements. Even if we get them they might be able to dig in and cause problems for months.”
“So, do we take out Ragnarok or focus on the NPC garrison first? That's the real question,” Anna said.
Nora looked over at her. “Well, what does our battalion commander think? You're the one giving out orders.”
“What do I think? I think our best bet is to take out the NPC garrison first. If we take the university then we also have the northern beachhead to bring in troops. That'll help stabilize our position. And remember, Magic Battalion's in the process of taking Jones Harbor. Once they connect we'll be able to bring in reinforcements over the land route as well.”
“But if we screw this up then we might be handing this place over to Ragnarok on a silver platter,” Nora pointed out. “There's a lot of ifs going on in these plans. How do we know that they're going to take the district in time? It took us months to capture Cudahy.”
“They're making good progress,” Anna said. “They almost have complete control over St. Francis, and they have about a quarter of Jones Harbor, even with all the street fighting.”
“But the more space we take the less they have to defend. That means they'll be able to concentrate their forces, and at the very least it'll slow things down. I'm sorry, but this is sounding really, really risky.”
“So what would you want us to do? Nothing?”
“That might be the best bet,” Nora admitted. “Withdrawing sucks, but I don't think they can take the district even after
we leave. They had too few troops and too many other fights to deal with at this point. We might be better off going back to raiding their supply lines from Madison.”
“The military council wants Shorewood, though,” Anna said. “And I agree with some of their concerns. We need to wrap up the campaign and redeploy our forces before some of the other hubs start to threaten our positions.”
Nora wondered how exactly that was going to work. Even if they only pulled a single battalion away from the north that would significantly weaken their forces, and they'd have to protect the entire city from Ragnarok attack. How were they supposed to supply and garrison this place? Had they not thought that far ahead?
In the back of her mind, Nora wondered if they had acquired blinders somewhere along the way. Two of the Hydra Alliance's primary strengths had been reconnaissance and logistics, allowing them to punch far above their numbers. They could utilize their troops effectively, deploying them where they'd be most needed and amply supplying them. But now they seemed to be focused on winning the city to the exclusion of all else.
That had the potential to cost them big in the long run. To Nora cities were merely a means to an end. They provided a safe haven and a place to produce necessary equipment. There was a prestige factor as well, but to her that was only a minor point. Having possession of a city didn't mean anything if it couldn't be properly defended, or severely drained an alliance's resources by simply existing.
Ghost Battalion had fought long and hard for Green Bay, but when it had become a liability they had been able to make the tough decision to withdraw and leave it to its fate. The decision seemed to be paying off. Magic Battalion, having been freed from their duties up north, had heavily reinforced the main front, allowing Hydra much greater flexibility. Their arrival had been one of the main factors in turning the tide.
But were they about to repeat the same thing here, only on a much larger scale? Even if they took the city, they needed to expend a considerable amount of resources getting it back into working order and defending it. Milwaukee didn't have the industrial capabilities of Indianapolis, so most supplies would have to be shipped north. The entire alliance couldn't defend two cities at once by themselves, so they would need to pay for NPC guards, placing even more strain on their treasury.
Commando City: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 7) Page 16