Carnage City: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 6)

by Mitchell T. Jacobs

  Nora shrugged. “Maybe advertising? I’m kind of surprised we don’t have billboards and announcements floating around Old Chicago, to be honest. It’s a space where people frequent. Why wouldn’t they use it to advertise?”

  Zach shifted next to her uncomfortably.

  “Well, someone knows something,” Gavin said.

  “No comment,” Zach replied, stone-faced.

  “Do you know anything?” Miko asked Nora.

  “Nope. It was just a guess,” she shrugged.

  “Always nice to have someone with insider information,” Selene said.

  “Please don’t prod me for it. I really don’t want to get fired,” Zach replied.

  Their conversation ended as the door opened and Xavier stepped through, followed by Danny. They both had a pitcher in each of their hands.

  “Happy Birthday Javy,” Danny said.

  “Jeeze, alcohol poisoning anyone?” Gavin said with a smile.

  “Of course not. We’ll help, of course.”

  That got a smile out of Nora. No matter how busy her life got, with these kind of friends there would always be time to sit back and enjoy herself.

  4

  TOWER

  Despite being in the virtual world, Danny felt slightly disoriented from last night. Then again, why wouldn’t he feel this way? His brain remained the same whether it was in the real world or the virtual one, so why would he expect anything different?

  Xavier nudged him. “You feeling OK?”

  Danny nodded. “Still not completely recovered from last night, but I’m fine. Not like I’m going to puke or pass out at any moment.”

  Xavier nodded, then made a thoughtful face. “I wonder how that would work. Getting sick on the outside while you were in here, I mean.”

  “Well, I think that would activate the distress protocols in the neuro-helmet, so you’d immediately log out,” Danny said, trying to remember what the owner’s manual had said. Full virtual world MMOs were relatively new, but full immersion technology had been around for a while and had numerous safety features installed. No possibility of being trapped in the game like so many books and movies liked to imagine.

  “Is this going to screw with your fighting ability?” Xavier asked.

  “Told you, I’m fine. I don’t feel the greatest, but I can still handle my duties.”

  “Ah, OK. But if you get killed, don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  Danny grinned at him. “Your concern is appreciated, but I’ll take this gamble. Who knows how much fun I’d miss if I sat around on the sidelines?”

  “True.”

  Danny turned to the rest of the assembled platoon leaders and called them to order. Aside from his normal compliment of troops, Zach and Nora had loaned him Gavin’s squad as well. Alpha Wolf was still exploring the tunnels, but the limit space meant that only so many troops could be used at a time. Some units were better off being used elsewhere.

  Their surroundings weren’t much, just an abandoned shop a hundred yards behind the front line. It would serve, though. They didn’t need anything fancy for the briefing he was about to give them.

  “OK everyone,” he began. “We’ve been given a special mission by request of front command in this city. Please note that they consider this very important, and our success is extremely vital in order to keep our offensive on schedule.”

  “Gosh, I didn’t know we had a schedule,” Javy said. “And if we did, I thought we’d be behind.”

  “Plans change, but as of now we’re on schedule,” Danny told him. “Command knows the conditions we’re fighting under and has taken them into account.”

  “We can only hope,” Javy shrugged, and a few others murmured their agreement.

  Danny nodded, then looked over at Miko leaning up against one of the walls. “Our target is a building near this section of the front that dominates the landscape. Our peerless scout has more information about it.”

  “Thanks, I’m flattered,” Miko said. She straightened up and strode forward, then opened up her wrist menu and activated the projector. “Where do you want me to begin?”

  “Wherever you think is good,” Danny told her.

  “OK then.” She brought up a projection of the building so everyone could see. “Here we are. As you may notice, calling it a building might not do it justice. The structure is fifteen stories tall and serves as an observation point, stronghold and sniping platform. Anyone on the upper floors can pretty much have their way without any fear of retaliation.”

  Danny made a mental note of that statement. He had heard similar things when Dragon Battalion had called him with the requests. Officers, heavy weapons specialists and other important personnel had suddenly dropped dead, victims of a single deadly shot from a lurking sniper. And from forensic evidence gathered by the medical specialists, the only angle they could have come from was on top of that building.

  Naturally, they had to take it. They could have just blasted it from a distance with their artillery, but Hydra Command had deemed it a strategic asset, and Danny had to agree. Its height would allow them to see almost the entire district, allowing them to guide artillery fire and spot incoming attacks and enemy movements from a huge distance.

  Come to think of it, that might have been the reason why further advances into the city had been so difficult. If Ragnarok could see them from miles off, then how could they hope to achieve any sort of surprise?

  Plus, Danny didn’t feel like hiding from shadows, running from building to building to avoid being sniped. It didn’t matter if a sniper was actually up there either. Now that they had made the threat known, Hydra had to take it seriously.

  But if they took the tower then they could turn the tables back on the enemy. Easier said than done, though, because Ragnarok certainly knew its strategic value and would doubtless defend it fiercely.

  Miko continued. “The structure has been spared the worst of the bombardments, so it’s relatively intact. We don’t want to bring the thing down unless we’re sure we can’t capture it.”

  “So, building storming then?” Gavin asked.

  “Right. Though as you can see, there’s going to be a lot more to it than usual. For one, it’s a lot bigger than the places we normally tackle. For two, it’s vertical. And we know it’s also heavily defended.”

  Ryan looked around. “So we have a reinforced platoon here. Is that going to be enough to take the place?”

  “You’d think so, but we can’t be sure unless we actually try it,” Miko told him. “Dragon’s been trying to determine how many enemy troops are actually in the building, but it’s next to impossible.”

  “What’s our best guess?” Gavin asked.

  “At least a platoon, maybe more.”

  That response elicited a frown. “And we have to go up against that with just a platoon of our own? I’m sorry, but right now I’m not seeing how we’re going to pull this off. How are we even going to get close, if they have snipers?”

  Danny spoke up again. “That’s what we’re here to work out. We know how many troops we have to work with. Now we just have to find a way to make this happen.”

  “OK, let’s lay out what we do know first and go from there,” Xavier said, practical as always.

  Danny nodded and opened up his wrist menu to take notes. “Right. So like Miko said, we know the building is relatively intact, well-defended and is fifteen stories tall. Now, what can we assume about it?”

  “Something that tall has to have elevators in it, right?” Ryan said. “Whether they’re working or not, I don’t know, but who would build something like that with just stairs?”

  “So, elevators.”

  “Are out of the question,” Miko said. “Do you want a repeat of our last elevator incident?”

  “Just bring a flamethrower along and we’ll be fine,” Javy said lightly.

  “I’m pretty sure that we’re not going to find an elevator shaft full of chilus this time, but on the other hand I’m not too sure h
ow useful the actual elevators might be either,” Danny said. “My guess is, even if they are intact, they’re not powered. I haven’t seen power in any of the buildings here except for what we’ve installed, actually.”

  “To be fair, that’s because we’ve pretty much blasted everything in our path to rubble,” Xavier pointed out.

  “Right, but unless that tower has a self-contained supply I’d say the entire thing is moot.”

  “They have some sort of power up there,” Miko broke in. “There’s searchlights mounted on the roof. From what I can tell they’re the fusion battery powered ones, though it’s difficult to see exactly when you’re looking right into the light through a scope.”

  “Why not look for them during the day?” Javy asked.

  “I did. They move them back toward the middle of the roof, I’m guessing.”

  “Ah.”

  “So we have an enemy dug into a prepared defensive position with clear lines of sight during the day and searchlights by night, plus whatever night vision gear they might have,” Gavin summarized. “I’m still not seeing how we’re going to be able to pull this off with just a platoon.”

  Danny looked over at him. “Give me your honest opinion. Do we need the entire company for this?”

  Gavin shrugged, then nodded slowly. “I’m going to have to say yes. The building is too tough for just thirty of us to handle, especially going up against that kind of garrison. But isn’t that a moot point?”

  “I’ll talk to Zach,” Danny told him. “The tunnels might give us options, but this landmark is way too important for us to ignore. If we need the troops then I’m sure he’ll make sure that we get them.”

  “Going back to the inside of the building,” Miko continued, “if the elevators aren’t operating than we only have one choice for ascending.”

  “Stairwells,” Ryan said. “Those are going to be fun.”

  Would they ever, Danny thought to himself. One or two sets of stairs were bad enough. When over a dozen were added to the equation, the prospect of fighting their way up became very daunting. Most provided no cover for the attackers, meaning the assaulting force would have to charge upward, completely vulnerable to a hail of bullets. The defenders could also roll grenades down the stairs, letting the force of gravity inflict carnage.

  Judicious use of automatic fire, flamethrowers and their own grenades could help them push through, but they would still take heavy casualties, especially against determined defenders.

  And that would be another problem. Danny already knew that Ragnarok would fight hard, but once the assault began the defenders would be trapped on the upper floors with no prospect of escape. He held no illusions about what would happen after that. No one ever surrendered in this world, and Danny knew they would have to kill every single defender fighting tooth and nail to make the besiegers pay.

  “OK, so we have to storm the building by going up the stairwells, unless we can find some other way up,” Gavin said. “Which I’d suggest we consider, at least.”

  “Could we land teams on the roof by helicopter?” Javy asked.

  Miko shook her head. “No. Ragnarok is one step ahead of us. Scouts have seen them moving AA gun parts into the building, which probably means they have at least one of them on the roof.”

  “So that’s out,” Xavier said. “What about going up the sides?”

  “What, you mean rappelling?” Ryan asked. “That sounds like suicide.”

  “If we can’t do it on the exterior, could we do it in the elevator shafts?”

  “That still leaves us pretty exposed as we’re climbing,” Ryan argued. “We might be better off trying to get the actual elevators working.”

  “Which would require combat engineers,” Danny said. “Hephaestus might be able to provide them for us, but I don’t think we’d actually have time to use them. We have to take the structure before reinforcements arrive.”

  “So we’re just going to have to storm ahead into withering enemy fire, because we have no choice,” Gavin summarized. “Like I said before, we should have the entire company with us. We might run out of troops otherwise.”

  Danny nodded. “OK, I’ll get in contact with Zach and Nora and tell them that. Let’s try making plans assuming that we have an entire company to work with, along with fire support.”

  “We’ll have to rely on speed and aggressiveness,” Javy said. “Carbines, submachine guns, grenades and the like. Machine guns might not be all that useful at short range. We might want to equip the heavies with flamethrowers or carbines with drum magazines. Or maybe something else, if the rest of you can think of anything.”

  “Flamethrowers are probably our best bet, though they’ve go their own problems we need to be aware of,” Xavier pointed out. “They’ll temporarily block our advance, and if we’re not careful when we’re fighting vertically we’ll drop flaming fuel on our own heads.”

  “Maybe we should have more people bring along shotguns?” Ryan suggested.

  “We have some of the underslung variants in the armory, but a lot of the troops don’t like to carry them. They throw off their balance too much,” Danny said. “Might not be too much of a stretch for heavies, though, since we’re used to lugging bigger weapons around.”

  Even though the class system had been eliminated since the update, players still defaulted to the roles they took before the changes. Some had branched out a little, but most stayed with what they were familiar with. Danny had experimented a bit himself, but ultimately went back to being a machine gunner.

  “OK then,” Danny continued, “we have a lot to work out. Let’s get it done so I have something concrete to give to our esteemed leaders.”

  * * *

  He met with the rest of the Black Wolf officers later that day.

  “Mm,” Nora said as she looked over his notes. “Taking Alpha Wolf out of the tunnels is going to delay other possible routes of attack, maybe significantly.”

  Danny nodded. “I know. But Gavin doesn’t think we can do it without the full company, and I’m inclined to agree with him.”

  “I’ll trust his opinion on that,” Selene said.

  Zach looked over the report one more time. “Are we estimating that there’s at least two stairwells inside the building? Because if there’s only one we can only send so many troops up at the same time.”

  “Yeah, judging from the size of the building there has to be more than one. Of course, we have no way of knowing that for sure until we actually get inside, but to me that’s a pretty safe bet.”

  Zach nodded, then looked at the others. “So, what’s our plan of attack going to be? Alpha Wolf takes one stairwell and Bravo Wolf takes the other?”

  “Seems like our best bet,” Nora agreed. “Though we’re going to have to be flexible. If there’s five or six stairwells instead of two or three, we really can’t just leave them alone. We have to cover them all.”

  “And we have to go up against at least an enemy platoon that has gravity on their side as well,” Selene said with a frown. “This is going to be tough.

  “It is,” Danny shrugged, “but what else can we do about it? The tower’s a strategic position, and we can’t wait for other forces to get here. I’m honestly surprised that they haven’t been using it to call down massive artillery strikes on our positions.”

  “Probably compliments of Barghest and Spectre,” Nora said. “From the reports we’ve been getting, they’ve been taking out dozens of truck convoys. That has to be hurting their supply situation.”

  “Yeah, but all it takes is for one to slip through, and then we’re completely hosed,” Danny pointed out. “Plus, the faster we take this place, the better we can aim our own artillery. Can we really spend months fighting over one district?”

  “We may not have a choice,” Zach said sardonically.

  “No, but I agree with Danny,” Selene said. “We probably should have fought harder to keep it, to be honest.”

  “It got lost in the confusion of ha
ving the radio cut out during the counterattack,” Nora said. “In hindsight maybe we should have, but at the time it was our only good option.”

  “And now we’ve got a fortress to take.”

  Danny leaned back in his chair. “Look on the bright side, though.”

  “What?”

  “At least there’s only a platoon in there, not a company,” he said with a grin. “Yet. We’re going to get one shot at this before we have to take it down with artillery.”

  “That’s not going to be easy, either,” Zach pointed out. “The entire thing is made of concrete. That’s going to cost us valuable shells.”

  And those couldn’t be easily replaced. Hephaestus Company could churn them out easy enough in their Indianapolis factories, but getting them to the front was an entirely different matter. Hydra could transport them north by rail, but just south of Old Chicago they needed to make a decision. They either needed to put them on a ship, or load them on a convoy to cross the disputed corridor around the northwest end of the city. Both caused a severe bottleneck.

  And while the 155s could be used for demolishing the tower in the event of an emergency, they were better off being used on enemy troop concentrations, headquarters and supply depots. If Black Wolf could take the building it would hand them a significant advantage.

  That could be worth a high price, even up to the near-annihilation of their company, so long as the managed to take the building. It could take them a while to recover, but if they paved the way for further success, it might be worth it.

  Even so, Danny wasn’t terribly optimistic about their prospects in the coming battle. He remained confident that they’d win, but they’d probably take heavy casualties in the process. And after the dust settled, all bets were off.

  “We’ll do what we have to,” Selene said simply. “If we have to advance up a bunch of stair under withering fire, so be it. If we have to fight them up close with pistols and knives, so be it. We’ll find a way to win.”

  Brave words, and Danny agreed with every one of them. But at what cost would they be accomplished?