Werewolf: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 4)

by Mitchell T. Jacobs

  “That's insane,” Gavin said.

  “Yeah, tell that to them.”

  “How the heck are we supposed to get supplies? The only thing we have to get them here is the Charon, and that's not going to be enough,” Gavin said.

  “Plus, we really don't have enough troops to fight Ragnarok in their own back yard,” Gwen said.

  Zach spoke up. “Well, it's a moot point anyhow. The military council won't let it happen for the time being. Karen and Anna are no's, and David's on our side as well. Cody and Bryce want to keep their focus on Indianapolis.”

  “As it should be,” Gavin said.

  “So we're fine.”

  “So long as Ragnarok doesn't find out we're inside Green Bay,” Danny said.

  Zach nodded. “And that's what all the deception is for. Now come on. Let's strip the dead and get out of here.”

  A few minutes later the unit headed toward their extraction point, laden down with plundered ammunition and supplies. The didn't need it right now, but if they could increase their stockpiles back in the city it could prove useful later. As Gavin had said, their only lifeline was Charon, and it might not be enough.

  A pair of river craft were waiting for them along the shore of a lake, concealed in a sheltered cove. The teams climbed aboard and headed north for the shelter of Green Bay.

  “How far have they gotten into the western district?” Danny asked the others. He spoke through the radio so he could be heard over the noise of the engines without shouting.

  “They're across both bridges,” Liz said. “Karen managed to get five platoons assembled last night and they smashed their way across the north bridge. They have a pretty good foothold over there.”

  “But it's not going to be easy,” Gwen added.

  “What do you know that we don't?” Nora asked. Most of Black Wolf had taken the previous night off.

  “Gray took a scout team across as well,” Liz informed her. “They penetrated pretty far, but then they ran into the boss.”

  “Already?” Danny asked.

  “It's another fortress capture point, like the one in Decatur,” Gwen said. “This one might be worse.”

  “How so?”

  “It's the stadium,” Liz told him. “It's been heavily fortified, and it dominates the area. We're going to have to hit it with everything we have just to get close.”

  “Or we could just wear it down over time,” Nora suggested. “We still have the mortar battery, and we have Charon's main gun. If we bombard them for a week or so we should be able to weaken their defenses in at least one spot.”

  “That's assuming they don't repair everything,” Liz replied.

  “It worked for us in Eagle Creek.”

  “Yeah, but Eagle Creek wasn't a fortress capture point,” Gwen said. “We don't know if it will repair itself faster.”

  “And we really don't have the time to waste finding out,” Zach said. “We need to have our troops out here raiding, not fighting the NPCs inside the city.”

  “We could ask for some temporary reinforcements,” Danny suggested.

  “Out of the question,” Liz said.

  Selene agreed. “Yeah, I don't think we should be doing anything to weaken the south right now.”

  Danny frowned. “Then we're going to have to come up with something good for up here.”

  “And it's not the end of the world if we don't take the district quickly,” Zach said. “I'd like to, since it gives us a lot more to use against Ragnarok. But if we can't we still have the base we need, and that's what matters most right now.”

  “Do we really need more than small ambush teams right now?” Javy asked.

  “We do if we want to go after their mining operations,” Selene said. “They're going to be heavily guarded, especially after all the attacks on their patrols.”

  “And we have to be really careful,” Liz cautioned. “I'd be willing to bet that they're going to send recon aircraft up here soon.”

  That wasn't a trifling threat, either. If Ragnarok tracked the raiding parties back to their base they would know Hydra had their hands on Green Bay. Once that happened they would hit them with everything they had, and Ghost Battalion would be completely screwed.

  And so, they were taking numerous precautions. The two river craft turned off the main river and floated in toward the shore, about three miles south of the city. From their the team would disembark and travel the rest of the way on foot. It was slower, but it would protect them if they were being tracked. Ragnarok might think their base was here, and not in the city itself.

  Danny wasn't sure that Ragnarok wanted to approach the city any closer than they had to, either. NPC garrisons were notoriously trigger-happy, and inexperienced troops would probably get slaughtered. Getting close without drawing attention required specialized stealth troops, and Ragnarok's units were probably in the south.

  The unit reached shore and headed north on a rough pathway. They stayed alert, weapons at the ready. This area was supposed to be safe, but none of them wanted to take any chances. Who knew what kind of predators might be lurking in the undergrowth?

  “Well, this was fun, at least,” Liz commented as they walked.

  Nora agreed. “Yeah, it's a nice change of pace, being able to get out of the suit and fight with my boots on the ground.”

  “Or actually get to fight at all,” Will said.

  “But didn't this strip your company of all its officers?” Liz asked.

  “Ryan, Ethan and Logan are still up in the city,” Zach said.

  “Those three can take care of themselves,” Miko added.

  Zach nodded. “Yeah. Plus, Karen's up there too, and she's good enough to lead a multiple platoon effort. It gets them extra experience running larger units, too.”

  “Experience is good,” Liz agreed. “Hopefully this leads to us being able to assemble faster.”

  “Turn us into the rapid response force, huh?” Danny said.

  “That is the purpose of rangers,” Will said.

  “We'd need another battalion before we can really do that,” Nora said. “We do way too much frontline fighting for us to constantly move around.”

  “We're doing it now just fine,” Gavin pointed out.

  “And now we're stuck here for the time being, since there's no battalion to take our place.”

  Danny frowned. “I know they're skeptical about it, but would Thorn and Myrmidon be a good base for another battalion.”

  Zach shrugged. “That would mean them joining the alliance, and I don't see that happening at this point. They're way too independent right now.”

  “So were the Legion Pact, and they joined,” Miko pointed out.

  “They really didn't have much of a choice,” Zach said.

  Xavier spoke up. “Neither do Thorn and Myrmidon, if you really think about it. They have one district in Green Bay. They'll have both given time. How are they going to hold a city that size with just one hundred troops?”

  “NPC garrison?” Javy ventured.

  “How are they going to pay for it?” Xavier pointed out. “There's only one way to get to Old Chicago, and that's by water. And guess who controls the fleet?”

  “Expanding off that, they're going to have no manufacturing capabilities without us, either,” Nora said. “I don't think a lot of us realize just how advanced our industry is, but outside of Ragnarok Company, who can touch Hephaestus's capabilities? They're going to have no way to get ammunition or credits without us.”

  “So we hold all the cards,” Gwen said. “The question is, how do we want to play our hand?”

  “I wouldn't be too rough about it, to be honest,” Danny said.

  “Why?”

  “Because people don't like it when it's done to them. And I think it's better to get people with incentives, not threats. Sure, the Legion Pact joined us. But it was because we offered them a place. We didn't threaten them, and they felt like they were making a choice.”

  “Even though they rea
lly didn't have one,” Gavin pointed out.

  Danny shrugged. “Well, sure. But as long as they have the illusion of choice it makes it much easier for them to swallow. I think we're impressing them, anyhow. The way we operate is really eye-opening to them, and they might want to be a part of it.”

  “Back to the nasty politics of the game,” Miko commented.

  “Yeah, it's all illusion and slight of hand in here,” Danny said. He though he saw Zach frown. “What?”

  Zach shook his head. “Nothing.”

  “So you think they'll come around?” Liz asked.

  Danny nodded. “I think they will. And we'll be much stronger for it. But let's make sure that it happens.”

  “Taking the rest of the city would be a good start,” Gavin commented.

  It would indeed.

  CHAPTER 14

  Daredevil

  “We're advancing,” Xavier said over the radio.

  “Good,” Selene replied. “Keep it up, but don't stretch yourselves too thin. We don't want to put ourselves in a position where we're vulnerable to a counterattack.”

  “Understood. Will do,” Xavier said.

  Selene looked back down at her wrist menu map, assessing the situation. The task of commanding the fighting in the western district had fallen to her today. She had a mix of troops from several companies, including Black Wolf, Redd Foxx and Barghest, along with a few volunteers from Myrmidon Company.

  The troops were organized into three platoons. Xavier commanded A Platoon, which was advancing along the shoreline. B Platoon under Jana protected their flank and drove toward the southwest. C Platoon, commanded by Logan, held the area around the bridge to the south and held fast, trying to keep the enemy in their sector busy.

  Their goal was to first take the shoreline, giving them access to all of Green Bay's port facilities. Once they had those under control, they could send supplies directly to the battlefield instead of funneling them over the bridges.

  While that was being secured other units would head southwest, trying to secure more of the city and reduce the size of the front they had to cover. Eventually they hoped to envelop the stadium from three sides and pound it into submission.

  All they needed to do was maintain steady progress. And while this was all going on, they could continue to raid Ragnarok patrols and supply convoys near Madison.

  Everything seemed to be going well, but Selene felt troubled, and she wasn't exactly sure why. For some reason, it felt like they were moving too slow. In her mind, they could take the district within a few hours if they assembled enough troops and made one hard push. But Anna, Zach and the rest of command had decided on this course of action, and she would need to see it through to the end despite her misgivings.

  It wasn't like she objected to the plan, either. Selene saw the wisdom in the decision; it allowed Ghost Battalion to keep its options open, and it meant they could attack Ragnarok at the same time.

  Maybe it was because she wanted to be in the thick of things, fighting between the edge of failure and stunning success. Her favorite moments in World at War had come when their backs were against the ropes and they were forced to improvise. Then, more than ever, she felt most alive in this world. There simply wasn't the same rush from easy wins.

  Plain and simple, Selene had become a daredevil. Only the toughest challenges would do. That was probably why she had ordered so many missions that the rest of her platoon thought were suicide. The thrill of facing almost certain death beckoned to her.

  But was it making her a worse leader? She was worried that her judgment was being hurt by her thrill-seeking. One of these times they were going to stumble into a situation where there was no escape, and they would end up getting slaughtered. She couldn't necessarily help that, either, but she was worried that it would happen in a situation that could have been avoided.

  And then there was something else that Zach and Nora had mentioned in conversation. Elysium Visions had brought in a psychiatrist to conduct interviews assessing their mental state after being in the virtual world for such a long time. After one such session, they had said something that bothered her.

  “It's all just a facade,” Zach had said. “Your avatar might just be a front to disguise the real person behind it.”

  Nora had agreed with him. “You can put out all the things you want people to see, and hide the ones you don't. And that might be happening here as well.”

  For some reason, that thought bothered her immensely. And it made her think more about the interviews she had with Dr. Lee.

  “What might you do differently in the virtual world that you wouldn't in real life?” Dr. Lee had asked her.

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “I mean in the general sense. Would you act the way you do in the virtual world in the real world?”

  Selene had thought about that for a moment. “I'd probably say no. There's too many consequences in the real world that don't exist in the virtual world.”

  “So you wouldn't act that way in the real world due to societal pressure?”

  That question had confused her. “I'm sorry, but I'm not quite sure what you're getting at.”

  “Societal pressure,” Dr. Lee had explained. “Certain actions are deemed unacceptable by a society, even though in and of themselves they aren't strictly considered to be good or bad.”

  “Like, moral relativity?” Selene had asked.

  “Not quite. It relates more to small things, points of etiquette that differ from society to society. For instance, slurping is considered rude in American culture, but acceptable in many Asian cultures. Slurping in and of itself isn't good or bad, but the context of the society makes it so.”

  “So, there's certain societal pressures that don't exist in the game world? And that's influencing how I behave?”

  “Quite possibly,” Dr. Lee had confirmed. “How do your actions differ from the ones you would do in the real world? Skip the major ones like killing. Those are points of morality, not societal pressures.”

  “Umm. I'm a lot more of a risk taker in the virtual world than I am in the real world,” Selene had explained. “I'm willing to do things that have a high probability of getting myself and my comrades killed.”

  “Why do them?”

  “Probably because there's no risk of death in the virtual world. I wouldn't do a lot of the daredevil stunts in the real world because I don't want to run the risk of killing myself. But I can do it in the virtual world because I'm immortal there.”

  “So the virtual world provides you a safe haven to do things you normally wouldn't try?”

  “Yes, I guess you could say that,” Selene hand confirmed.

  “Do you think that it allows you to do what you truly wish you could do? Dr. Lee had asked.

  That question had bothered her the most. Selene mulled over it constantly. Many people called the virtual world escapism, but was it more than that? Was it wish fulfillment, allowing players to be what they wanted to be? And then there was that word that Zach had used.

  Facade.

  Was it all fake? Was everyone in the world truly genuine, or were they all just masks, embellished for the benefit of those around them?

  The more she thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense, and the more it bothered her. The fact that she knew several of her virtual world comrades in real life only seemed to make it worse.

  Zach had never been much of a leader when they had been growing up, but now he was a dynamic presence in the alliance, considered to be one of the best strategic minds in Hydra. Danny was always absentminded, but within World at War he was able to maintain a tight focus, and that reflected on his platoon. Nora, as well. In the real world she was an artist, a musician, but in the game world she was all about statistics and figures.

  And then there was her. Selene had always been determined to be the best at everything, and she pushed herself to excel. But within World at War, she was simply content to be a part of the action, so
long as there were challenges in front of her. Why was there such a drastic change in her demeanor?

  In fact, why was it changing all of them? She wasn't the only one to notice it, either. Nora and Zach had noticed the disconnect, and it worried them greatly. Even Danny felt some concern. So what was going on?

  Her radio went off. “Alpha Wolf, we've run into an enemy platoon,” Xavier informed her. “Might be a few minutes before we start moving again.”

  “Copy that. Just do your best,” Selene told him. She drifted back to her thoughts.

  What were the differences between their avatars and their real world personalities? Were they wish fulfillment? Were they a diversion from their normal lives? Or were they something more sinister?

  She had heard the factoid before in college. People who used social media were less happy than people who didn't because they only saw a filtered view of their social circle. They could only see the good that their 'friends' wanted to show, or only the bad they wanted to allow. Selene hadn't thought much about that, until now. But the thoughts crept up on her.

  It was disturbing, really. Many people's social lives consisted of meeting with people over the internet. But if that was the case, they were being presented with sanitized versions of the people behind the avatars. There were no rough edges to them, no flaws. But there were also no quirks, no little things that made a whole person. There was no humanity in those facades.

  And worst of all, she might be doing it herself without even knowing. Maybe her actions in World at War were part of her subconscious wanting to be a daredevil. If that was the case, then it was trying to leave that impression with the others to maintain the facade.

  That thought ate away at her, no matter how much she wanted to push it away. Could this really be called a virtual reality? Were there real people involved, or were there just puppets made to act like their puppeteers desired?

  It sounded like such a stupid complaint when she could pull the plug anytime she wanted, but virtual reality was an uncharted territory. Could her actions in the game be messing with her mind in the real world? Was she living her life based on the facade she wanted to project into a world that didn't really exist?