Commando City: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 7) (15 page)

“What about top air cover?” Anna asked. “The one worry I have is that they're going to call in fighters or dive bombers, and we don't have an effective counter for them.”

“We're on our own for that, I'm afraid,” Zach said. “Perseus is committed to covering the St. Francis offensive, so they don't have anything to spare. We'll do what we can against them.”

An unsettling murmur filled the room, and Selene felt a sense of dread come over her. Not accounting for one of Ragnarok's most powerful assets did nothing to boost their confidence, already rattled by having to go up against the enemy's toughest units.

“We really need to invest in antiaircraft weapons, if we're not going to be able to take control of the air from them,” Liz said.

“Soon,” Zach replied.

“What the heck does that mean?”

“You'll find out later. Anyhow, we'll fight with what we have on hand. I'll send all section commanders the maps detailing our routes of attack. Disseminate them to your troops as needed. We'll be launching our offensive in two days. Until then, make sure you're ready to fight and don't get caught out in the open by the enemy. Any questions?”

There were none.

“Alright then. I'll signal you all in two days when we're ready to go.”

Selene made one last glance at the map table. She couldn't quite shake the feeling of dread coming over her. Once again they had to face their toughest nemesis in combat, and this time they might not have the necessary resources on hand. Divided, lacking firepower, vulnerable…

Could they really pull this off?

T
he weather
on Lake Michigan was clear, sunny, in sharp contrast to what was going on in the real world. Rainy weather had swept across the upper midwest, forcing everyone indoors. That suited them just fine, though because that meant there were no other obligations to contend with. They could settle the score with the enemy here and now.

Besides, even with the clear weather another storm was brewing inside the virtual world. The calm would be broken soon enough when the shooting started.

Zach could see a series of explosions to the southwest, throwing huge pillars of dust and debris into the air. Dragon Battalion had stepped up their efforts today in an attempt to keep Ragnarok on the back foot. After a heavy bombardment from the 155s they would assault several points in the enemy line, hopefully driving them back a substantial distance.

Meanwhile, Ghost would have their first chance at redemption. Their entire force of river craft sped up the lake, ready for the coming battle. Combining speed with heavy armament, they posed a serious threat to anything along the lakeshore.

He activated his radio. “All units, report.”

“Fox Lead.”

“Spirit Lead.”

“Black Lead.”

“Alpha Wolf.”

“Bravo Wolf.”

“Gazelle,” Anna finished, using her section's newly designated callsign.

“Everyone in position?”

The others confirmed.

Zach took a quick look at his map to verify that. Danny's platoon stood just to the north of the marina, ready to strike and open up a landing zone for the incoming amphibious assault. Meanwhile, Anna's section had gathered what troops they could and moved to support Spectre. They wouldn't be able to defeat the Valkyrie force around the art museum, but they could at least keep them busy.

And then there was his force, made up of Redd Foxx and the unfortunates who had been killed in the first attempt to take the district. With their airborne and waterborne firepower, they could lay some serious hurt on the enemy.

Even so, they needed to have good timing and coordination to pull this off. Their intelligence remained spotty, and none of them were quite sure how many enemies they were actually facing. They knew their relatively positions, and a rough estimate of their strength, but beyond that they hadn't been able to perform much scouting.

That would change as soon as they managed to get ashore and in a secure position, Zach thought to himself. Once they got a foothold they could send out patrols to assess their enemy's capabilities and adjust accordingly.

Enemies
, he reminded himself. They had to simultaneously deal with Ragnarok and the NPC garrison, and that could make things dicey. At the very least it would be unpredictable, and that could cause major problems. All battles were unpredictable to a certain degree, but good planning and reconnaissance could eliminate most of the guess work. But with two separate hostile factions within the district, they could do nothing
but
guess at their intentions.

One way to counter that was to take the initiative. Zach activated his radio.

“Danny, you ready?”

“Ready and willing.”

“OK then. We're five minutes out from the landing zone. Begin the attack!”

S
econds
after the order spread down gunfire shattered the relative calm. Bravo Wolf poured fire onto the enemy positions, gunning down anything and everything that showed its face.

Danny moved up and down the line making sure his troops were in place, armed only with a pistol. They had scavenged a considerable amount of ammo from ambushing NPC patrols around the lake park, but he didn't need to be wasting any of it. Not when he had a battle to run.

“Keep the pressure on,” he announced over the radio. “Our objective is to secure enough of the northern face to let them come in without getting slaughtered. Don't try to do any more than that.”

“Huh, as if,” Xavier replied.

Danny was about to reply when a large caliber round whizzed by his head with an audible
crack
. He threw himself flat and rolled into the nearest cover, trying to figure out the source of the shot.

With the Valkyries across from him, Danny wasn't about to take any chances. He knew something that large could have only come from a marksman's guns. They had plenty of snipers in their ranks, and getting killed would only throw his unit into confusion. He needed to stay alive, no matter how ungainly he might look.

But he couldn't move. Not right now, not with an enemy sniper hunting him. Danny looked around, trying to find some means of escape. The troops around him continued to fire, apparently no worse for wear. Apparently the sniper wasn't going to take shots at them.

That meant one thing though: the enemy was targeting him specifically. The feeling of being vulnerable and hunted washed over him, and he made an involuntary shiver. Danny wondered if he had come under fire from someone like the Wraith, possibly the best sniper in the region.

On second thought, he hadn't. The Wraith wouldn't have missed the shot. But that still left him pinned down and unable to move.

Danny activated his radio. “Um, command, I'm pinned down here with a sniper targeting me. Be warned that progress might be slow.”

If they could move at all, that was.

“
S
nipers
,” Liz said over the vehicle's intercom. Nora imagined she was making a face right now.

“That's to be expected,” Anna said.

Nora nodded. The Valkyries were known for two things: their close combat ferocity and their snipers. Anyone facing them would come under accurate, withering fire that few others could match. Even veteran troops would buckle under such a precise onslaught. Heavy weapons crews and officers in particular took heavy casualties whenever they face the Valkyries.

But they couldn't afford to stand back and cower, because that just played right into their hands. A sniper could methodically pick off troops that hung back in cover. Charging out into the open might seem suicidal, but an aggressive stance could do much to neutralize their effectiveness. Having a dozen guns doling out suppressive fire could force the snipers to take cover and try an easier approach.

And then there were other ways to deal with them. For all their precision, a sniper wasn't going to do much against an armored vehicle like the Gazelle.

“Let's see if we can get their attention,” Anna said. “Neil, are your guys ready?”

“Roger that.”

Spectre had about thirty troops left in the art museum, short on ammo and surrounded by enemies. But with the attack on the northern shoulder many of them had been forced to shift to the upper part of the marina.

That left a prime opening for a breakthrough.

“Let's go,” Anna ordered, and a second later Liz shifted the Gazelle into gear.

Nora took one last glance around the outside. Allen's infantry squad flanked them, keeping pace with the Gazelle at a brisk jog. Alone they might not be able to do much against the enemy's numbers, but coupled with an IFV and the troops in the art museum they could pack a punch.

They needed to be careful, though. One RPG and they were toast. And it might not even come to that. Nora quickly ducked inside and closed her hatch, then moved to the gunner's periscope. No sense in getting her head shot off by a sniper, or even worse, by a stray bullet.

“Weapons free,” Anna said, manning the commander's chair. “Use as much ammunition as you need. Within reason.”

“Yeah, I'm not getting out to reload,” Nora said.

Right now they had about three hundred rounds for the autocannon stored inside the magazine, with more outside in crates. It sounded like a lot, but she knew they could burn through it very quickly in the heat of battle. Once that happened they would have to either fight with just the machine gun, or retreat to reload. Speaking of which…

“Shouldn't you get inside the turret?” Nora asked Anna. “You're likely to get sniped up there.”

“Someone has to man the machine gun.”

“We don't need it right now. That's what our infantry screen is for.”

“Oh come on, it's been a while since I've been able to fight while I'm not in overall command. Just let me have this right now, OK?”

Nora felt a smile spread across her face. “OK, I guess I can't argue with that.”

“Until she gets sniped, and then we're in for a world of trouble,” Liz said. “We're fifty yards from the front lines, by the way.”

Nora sighted her gun and prepared to turn at one of the intersections. Once they rounded the bend they'd come face to face with Ragnarok's troops.

“Here goes nothing,” Liz said, just before she turned the Gazelle left.

Nora traversed the turret, looking for potential targets. Right away an enemy infantryman crossed her field of vision, but she refrained from pulling the trigger. He only had an assault rifle and posed no threat to them. She needed to focus on bigger prey, something that could…

There. Nora pulled the trigger as soon as she saw the tube, sending a burst of cannon shells down range. The enemy trooper, or rather, what was left of him, fell to the ground. Two others standing behind him met similar fates as the high-impact rounds cut through them like paper.

“Keep an eye out for RPG crews,” Anna warned.

“On it already.”

“That goes for everyone.”

Nora sighted the gun again, searching for more targets. She spotted the forms of several enemy trooper sheltering behind a low brick wall and made an adjustment, then pulled the trigger again. The Gazelle's cannon made a steady chugging sound as more shells punched through the brick wall. Anyone behind it was dead meat.

“Make sure there's no friendly fire,” Anna warned, and a second later Nora saw Allen's squad moving up, firing tight bursts at the enemy in front of them.

The Gazelle started forward as well, moving in support. Nora decided to take a risk and opened up her hatch. It meant exposing herself to enemy fire, but it also gave her greater peripheral awareness. Besides, if the was a sniper in the area they would have probably already shot Anna.

The battle may have sounded loud from inside the turret, but that was nothing compared to the din outside. The difference almost overwhelmed her, but Nora quickly regained her bearings and went to work, scanning for more targets.

It didn't look like she had much to worry about right now, though. Allen's squad continued to drive forward, backed up by bursts of machine gun fire from Anna's pintle mounted gun. Their opposition looked to be in full retreat as well. That felt gratifying, but Nora tempered her enthusiasm. They had clearly caught the enemy on the back foot, and she guessed they were falling back to a strong position.

How far back would they go? Nora didn't know, but for now, they were advancing.

D
anny was still trying
to figure out how to free himself from his predicament when the gunfire suddenly stopped. It took him a moment to comprehend what was happening, and another moment before he worked up the courage to stand up.

“What the heck?” he said, mostly to himself. Then his squad leaders started chiming in.

“The enemy's falling back along my section,” Logan reported.

“Falling back along mine as well,” Javy said.

Xavier confirmed it wasn't just isolated. “They're falling back here. Maybe they think they're in a bad position?”

That was probably the only good explanation, because moments before they had been laying down a withering fire at Bravo Wolf. But did they really think this was that bad of a spot? From the start Danny didn't think he'd be able to drive them off. He only hoped to hold their attention long enough for reinforcements to get ashore then start squeezing them.

But he wasn't going to pass up an opportunity like this. The northern half of the marina was clear, paving the way for the amphibious assault. Now they needed to make sure it stayed that way.

“All units advance on the marina,” he ordered, then switched channels. “Assault force, objective is clear. I say again, the objective is clear.”

S
elene heard
the news and immediately signaled her section to begin their final approach. A half-dozen river craft gunned their motors and sped toward the shoreline. Four more craft lead the way, armed to the teeth with machine guns, miniguns and cannons. Anything trying to stop them on the beach would come under a withering hail of lead.

But if Danny's words proved to be correct they'd meet no serious opposition. That bemused her a bit. The Valkyries were known for giving them tough fights, so why would they pick up and run at the first sign of trouble?

Selene had the uncomfortable suspicion that they were walking into a trap, but they couldn't afford to hesitate and hang back. If they did then they might miss their one chance to take their objectives.

The just had to hope that speed, firepower and bloody-minded determination would overcome anything the enemy threw at them. Selene gripped her weapon in anticipation for the coming fight. Only another minute or so.

Their vanguard made a sharp turn, placing their boats parallel to the beach, and opened fire. Anything that looked like it might be a fortified position or a strongpoint received special attention. Bullets, cannon shells, anything and everything they could muster streaked over the water and into the targets. She could see thousands of tracers filling the air in front of them. It looked like nothing could survive that.

But then, they might be firing at nothing, and even if there were enemy troops in the area some of them would survive. She had seen more than enough combat to know that troops could survive incredible punishment if they dug deep enough.

That was where they came in. Ragnarok might be able to survive a bombardment or a hail of suppressive fire, but there weren't any cures for a bullet in the head or a knife in the throat. They'd clear their foes out inch by inch, building by building if they had to.

She activated her radio. “Vanguard, we're headed in.”