Commando City: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 7) (13 page)

“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.

S
weat 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.”

Danny rubbed his chin. “Well, that depends.”

Nora didn't like the look on his face. “Depends on what?”

“It depends on whether the enemy's going to let us through, or if we have to fight our way through.”

And that was going to be the biggest problem. Could they regroup before their enemies gathered their strength and crushed them?

“
H
ostile contact
in the left corner building.”

Danny hunkered down into the rubble and took aim, trying to find where exactly the enemy lurked. He could see the building fine, but bursts of machine gun fire wouldn't do any good if they weren't placed on target. Even suppression fire had to land
somewhere
near the enemy, otherwise what was the point?

He activated his radio. “Xavier, I can't see anything. Are you sure they're there?”

“Positive,” came the response. “There was movement inside the building on the first floor, and there's no friendly markers on the minimap, so what else could it be?”

Danny noted that as well. His initially small unit had gradually picked up stragglers over the past few days, expanding from a group of six to over a dozen. But friendly units would always show up on the minimap displayed on his HUD, and he saw nothing to indicate any were present.

If there was anyone in the building ahead, that meant they were definitely hostile. The question was, how many of them were there? And even more importantly, which faction were they from? Danny knew not to underestimate the NPC garrison troops, but they were still a step below Ragnarok. And from the sporadic reports that Spectre had managed to send out, they were definitely from the Valkyries. Neil had sent everyone a picture of a dead Ragnarok soldier with the unit's emblem emblazoned on his shoulder.

Danny didn't fancy screwing around with them if he had all of Black Wolf backing him, never mind just a dozen of his platoon. But they had to keep moving forward toward the southern end of the district, because that's where the important fighting would take place. And right now, he had the largest organized force that wasn't completely surrounded at the moment.

“Any idea how many of them there are?” he asked.

“Hold on a second. I'm sending Andy up top to get a better look.”

“Buzz me when he gets there,” Danny instructed. Having a sniper with some elevation would give them a much clearer picture of the situation. The flip side was that, if they needed to scramble in a hurry, they might be forced to leave him behind.

“If there are hostiles, what do you want to do?” Xavier asked. “Do we try to neutralize them, or do we try to avoid them?”

“Hold on a second.”

Danny opened up his wrist menu and activated the map display. His force was currently north of the hospital complex, one of the places within the district that had a significant garrison presence. If they pressed too far forward or caused too much commotion they could have all manner of enemies bearing down on them in a short period of time.

But stealth wasn't an obvious option either, because Danny remained uncertain that they could sneak past the enemy under these conditions. Urban warfare normally suited their skills, but Ghost Battalion lacked the detailed information about the area they usually possessed. That meant, for instance, they knew nothing about what might be on the next street over, and that could prove dangerous. His unit might end up stumbling right into an ambush if they weren't careful.

He wished that they had been given more time to prepare. Ghost Battalion could have landed scout teams along the shoreline, much like they had done in Eagle Creek. They
should
have done that. At the very least, they would have discovered Ragnarok's presence in the district and could have made plans to deal with that. They might not even be here right now, if the situation had been judged to be impossible.

But that didn't mean anything to them. Whatever they could have or should have done was for future study, not for agonizing over when there was a battle to fight on the ground. Their task was to salvage something out of this disaster.

That meant linking up with as many of their comrades as possible and heading into the southern part of the district. With a limited amount of ammunition at their disposal and an unknown amount of enemies, Danny had to be judicious about how he used his troops.

“Andy's up top one of the buildings near the intersection,” Xavier said.

“OK then.” Danny switched channels. “Andy, what can you see?”

“We're looking for hostiles, right? Because I don't see anything in there right now.”

That was disquieting. Danny felt a distinct sense of unease creeping over him. He didn't think Ragnarok would have penetrated this far north, not without dealing with all the enemy troops located at the hospital. But he hadn't run into NPC troops utilizing stealth abilities before, and he was skeptical of their existence.

World at War had a tendency to throw curveballs at players, though, so they needed to be wary. Becoming arrogant or too focused on one possibility was a good way to stumble into an easily prevented ambush.

“Xavier, how are we deployed?”

“Spread out in the buildings facing the cross intersection,” came the response. “We're in cover, so we should be good if the shooting starts.”

“OK. Hold here until we get a better read on the situation.”

Danny looked at his map. They needed to get into the south, but the couldn't move too fast. They still had stragglers trying to link up with the main group, and leaving the area would make that much more difficult. It might be best to wait here for a little bit and try to gather as many as possible.

They'd have to be alert for enemy opposition, but Danny guessed this spot would be much safer than anywhere near the Ragnarok lines. As soon as the Valkyries figured out where they were they'd bring the hammer and try to crush them in one swift blow. He wanted as many troops and as much firepower on his side when that happened.

“Let's hold here for now,” Danny suggested. “Assemble at a point we can use as a base camp, and then let's try to get as many of the platoon here as we can. If we have to send out patrols to bring them in, so be it.”

“What about the enemy movement?”

“We'll deal with it when it comes our way. Until then, let's just stay alert but don't get panicky.”

“Understood. We shouldn't be too conservative, though. That's just going to let the enemy get the advantage and then jump us.”

“I know. But if we're going to do anything against the Valkyries we need to have numbers and weapons. And if we're going to get weapons, that means either finding a spot where we can smuggle them in or raiding an enemy cache. And since Ragnarok's probably not going to roll over nicely...”

“OK, point taken. But we can't play it too conservatively, because that's not our strength. Maybe if we had more armor or shock troops like the line infantry companies, but we're rangers. We should use our speed and stealth advantages.”

“Noted.”

Danny frowned as he went back to work trying to locate some of the other fragments of his platoon. Were they playing too conservative? He knew he needed to preserve his force, but there were other factors as well. Since none of them could be permanently killed, continually fighting and avoiding death here might actually hurt them in the long run. It would take them a while to refit and retrain, but the troops killed during the initial assault could be used on other fronts. In fact, Hydra might be able to use them to fill in spots along the front, freeing fresher troops for offensive operations.

But he didn't want to just give up either, especially while they were still alive and in a position to do something. Zach hadn't reported that the military council wanted to deploy them somewhere else, so as far as he was concerned Shorewood remained their target. And with that in mind, they needed to do everything in their power to try to take this place.

The first order of business would be to assemble the rest of his platoon. After that they could secure supplies by whatever means necessary, and then they'd launch their attack on Ragnarok's northern flank. With a bit of luck they might be able to relieve the pressure on Spectre around the art museum.

Danny activated his radio. “Javy, you there?”

Nothing.

“Bravo 2, this is Bravo Wolf. Please respond.”

“I'm here,” Javy replied after another moment.

“Good. How's it coming on your end?”

“Slow. I've been sweeping around the riverfront trying to pick up some of the smaller units, but it's been tough going. There's a lot of enemy patrols out and about, so we've had to dodge them or take cover.”

“Garrison?”

“Yeah, the tough parts of it. Guess Ragnarok stirred them up just in time for us to get the worst of it.”

“How many troops do you have in your squad now?”

“I've found a dozen right now. I know several of my guys got killed on the way down, but we've picked up a bunch of Bravo 3. Ryan got killed in a firefight two days ago.”

“Yeah, I'm aware. Have you linked up with all of the survivors from his squad?”

“We're still trying to sweep the area to make sure we got them all, but I think we might have.”

One glance at the map answered his next question. Javy was at least a mile from their position, separated by several streets filled with all manner of buildings. Anything and everything could be lurking there, but they needed some way to link their forces. Once that happened he'd have a full platoon at his disposal. Understrength, maybe, but a full platoon nonetheless.

“Can you finish up there and try to meet up with us?” Danny asked. “We're starting to run short on time, and I want to make sure we don't get jumped by the enemy when we're separated.”

“I can, but it might be slow going. Like I said, there's enemy patrols all over the place so it's going to be slow going?”

“If I could say something?” Xavier cut in.”

“Go ahead.”

“What if we cleared a path from our side? We could probably afford to send out a fire team in your direction to scout a clear path. If we can't make it the entire distance then we can at least get partway.”

Danny thought about that for a moment. “OK, but then we run into the same problems they have. We have to make sure we don't run into enemy patrols from our end either.”

“Right, but we can also take up positions to cover their route while they try to get back here,” Xavier elaborated. “I'm not saying that we should escort them the entire way. I'm saying that we should find a waypoint between here and there. We send a team there to provide cover.”

Danny nodded. “OK, that sounds like a far more feasible plan. Javy, when will you be ready to go?”

“Give me ten more minutes. I'm going to do another radio call to make sure that we got everyone that's still alive, and then we'll start heading toward your position. Could you send me the coordinates?”

Danny did so. “I'll also send you the coordinates for the waypoint when we figure out where exactly that's going to be.”

“Thanks.”

He switched over to a private channel between himself and Xavier. “So, where are we going to put it?”

“Probably about halfway,” Xavier suggested. “There's quite a few crossroads between here and there, so our best bet is to pick one and hold up there. Kind of like we're doing now.”

“OK.”

“And I'd suggest taking the entire unit with us too. If we're going to stay in one spot then this is probably too exposed. We're better off taking cover in the Lake Park, since we might also be able to run in supplies there.”

Danny didn't think the second option was possible, given how exposed the beach around the park was. Anyone trying to land there would attract the attention of all manner of foes, and more than likely withering fire would be called down upon them. But the Lake Park itself had some promise, being forested and somewhat out of the way. If he had his choice he would have rallied the entire battalion there, but their scattered nature made that impractical.

It would serve as a place for his platoon to assemble, though. They just needed to get there first.

T
he streets looked
to be deserted, but Danny remained wary as his force advanced down the boulevard. Xavier's observation of movement at their last stop had put him on edge, giving him the ugly suspicion that someone was following them.

Could it be NPC troops of a type that they hadn't encountered before? Or was it a Ragnarok scout force, shadowing them but not engaging for whatever reason. Either possibility made him nervous, like something would go wrong any second.

“We're clear,” Xavier said over the radio, leading the vanguard team. “There's a five story building at the southeast corner of the next intersection, and that's about halfway to the target area. I'm thinking that might be a good strongpoint.”

“Secure it then. I'll bring up the rest of the troops to reinforce you,” Danny told him.

He spotted the building with one quick glance down the street, a tan brick structure with plenty of windows. It certainly wasn't a fortress, but it would give them cover and a vantage point.

Besides, their aim wasn't to fight, not with their limited troops and ammunition supplies. Danny would stand and brawl with the enemy if they had to, but ideally they could get away without firing a shot.

He activated his radio again. “Javy, we have our target. I'm going to send you coordinates.”

“Understood. Be warned that we may have started something.”

Danny didn't like his ominous tone. “What the heck does that mean?”

“There's a bunch of NPC patrols around this area, and I don't know why,” Javy replied. “It might be because of the skirmishes we've had with them, but it might be tough to get through without being spotted.”

“Are they heavily armed? Do they have armored support?”

“No to the second. They're armed pretty standard. I see assault rifles, submachine guns, RPGs, that kind of thing. Nothing horrendously dangerous, though I wouldn't be surprised to see one of them carrying a flamethrower.”

“OK. Try to get through to us. If you have to fight your way out, do it. We'll provide cover for you.”

“Roger that.”

Xavier cut in after Javy left the conversation. “Getting a little bold, are we? Or should I say suicidal?”

“It'll be fine,” he said. “And weren't you the one complaining about me being too conservative?”

“This might be going too far in the other direction.”