Commando City: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 7) (22 page)

“Then get Karen to do it. That's one of the reasons she's on the council, right?”

“Shouldn't that be your job? She's still technically a part of Black Wolf, right?”

Nora nodded. “Right. But I think respecting her position as a company commander takes priority. She did earn it, after all.”

“Of course. Could you do it anyhow, though? I don't want to have anything get lost in translation, and you're the best one to explain everything.”

“In that case, I can't argue.” She looked down at her wrist menu to check the time. “Hopefully she's on right now. I'll try to get her on the line.”

“Sounds good. We'll go back to sifting through data. The plan doesn't work if we don't know where their bases are, after all,” Anna said.

“Fun times,” Liz added.

Nora watched them leave, then headed toward the Gazelle to activate the long-range radio. The ball was rolling. Now they needed to make sure it moved in the right direction.

“
A
lpha Wolf
, we have incoming planes headed north northwest,” the call came over the radio. “They should be over your position in about three to five minutes, depending on what route you take.”

“Understood Liz,” Selene replied. “We'll keep our eyes peeled for them.”

She quickly dispersed a signal to the rest of her units, then settled in to wait for the enemy to arrive. Selene knew that Nora was still trying to get her plan pushed through, and they had no timetable of when that might happen. Poor Karen had been given the task of acting as their main spokesperson to the military council, and she didn't envy her one bit. Karen was a good leader and a perceptive strategist, but throwing anyone into that kind of shark tank would be tough on them. Would she persevere? Selene thought she would, but she didn't know how long it might take.

But they couldn't stand by and wait until it happened, otherwise they'd be here until the sun exploded, or rather until they stopped maintaining the servers. They might not have the go-ahead for the full offensive they wanted, but they could at least start laying the groundwork for it.

They could get all the forces they wanted, but without knowledge of the enemy's airbases the entire plan would be doomed to failure. Such information couldn't be left to chance, so Selene had ordered most of the units under her command into the field as scouting units.

Various squads had been deployed around the western edge of Milwaukee, deep within the forests at varying distances and directions. All of them were grouped under platoon commands, who carried long-ranged radios to contact their units within the Shorewood District. Whenever one of them spotted an enemy dive bomber unit leaving the city they would contact the field units, who would then observe the direction they were heading. Selene's units also did the same thing in reverse, watching the skies for bombers headed toward the city. It gave them even more data on where they were coming from, and also allowed them to warn Magic Battalion, who could plan accordingly.

So far they had narrowed down the location of one base to a specific area, but they had a lot more to do. Preliminary evidence suggested they had two or even three main strips in use, and Ghost had to make sure they got them all in one go. Even though wiping out one base would be a victory, it wouldn't have nearly the same effect as taking out the entire force. And once they launched the attack, that was it. Ragnarok would certainly disperse their air force to prevent another such raid from crippling them.

“Alpha Wolf, we hear incoming engines coming from the southeast,” Gavin said. His squad was closest to the city.

“Acknowledged. Make sure you get all information. Speed, heading, altitude if that's possible.”

“Roger.”

Even basic radar would have made everything so much simpler, but they didn't have access to those kinds of tool. Their technology was so schizophrenic, Selene thought to herself. They had advanced technology like polymer-shell small arms, helicopters and holographic displays, but many of their their electronics were completely out of date. They lacked things like radar, fire control computers, guidance systems and gyrostabilizers. Many of their armored vehicles would have been only cutting edge in the 1940s, and at this point they were over a century obsolete and would be completely outclassed on a modern battlefield.

That was the real world, though. In here they were on equal footing with their most advanced foes and far ahead of everyone else. And while gathering schematics was still secondary to defeating Ragnarok at the moment, their enemies were in the same position. Besides, given enough time and effort they could usually come up with solutions to any problem.

That was where they were right now. If they didn't have the tech to pull it off they'd use manpower and smarts to find a solution. And while it might take longer to do, they'd get the results they needed in due time.

She looked up as she heard the drone of engines approaching from the southeast.

“They're passing over us,” Ethan said.

“Good.” That meant the estimates were correct, because she had placed her platoon along the most likely exit route.

They were getting closer.

Selene heard the bombers approaching, but some of the sounds weren't normal. She realized why as they came over the horizon. Through a clearing in the trees she could see the formation through her binoculars. Most of the planes carried on normally, but a few lagged behind, some trailing smoke.

Magic certainly wasn't taking the air raids lying down. Over the last week the number of damaged planes flying back was increasing steadily, and it looked like that wouldn't change anytime soon.

“Maybe we don't even need to bother raiding,” Logan commented from beside her, looking through his own binoculars. “They're taking pretty heavy losses.”

“Not heavy enough,” Selene replied. They certainly wouldn't help, but Ragnarok had a strong industrial capability as well and could afford to replace moderate losses.

Plus, even if they were taking serious losses in the Jones Harbor District, that didn't help Ghost Battalion much. They didn't have any antiaircraft weapons other than single machine guns, and they had no way to get any more. They might be able to jury-rig something together, but that probably wouldn't be very effective or mobile, which limited their utility on the offensive.

Even so, it was good to know that not everything was going Ragnarok's way. Coming under air attack without any way to effectively fight back was one of the more frustrating experiences in the game, and Selene was glad some of the others could do something about. Even if their kills remained limited the enemy had to be wary.

She watched the planes zoom by overhead, taking note of their heading. Others would get their altitude and count the number passing by. All that information would be valuable in determining how to go about raiding the airfields.

But she remained a bit uneasy over the whole ordeal. Zach's instructions to her were straightforward, but Selene wondered if she could pull them off. There was so much to be done, and she had never taken the lead in an operation of this size or scope. She could lead a platoon or even a company just fine, but a task force? The last time she had done that was at the Ghost Line below Green Bay, and the plans consisted of holding their positions and shooting everything that moved.

Maybe she didn't have to do it all by herself, though. Even with half their troops in the Shorewood District the battalion had plenty of good leaders with extensive experience. They might be able to offer some insight based on the reconnaissance data that had been gathered so far.

It was worth a shot. That meant another meeting, though, Selene thought ruefully. She wondered how Zach, Nora and some of the others could stand it. Give the choice she would rather be out in the field doing something, much like she was now.

But the situation wasn't going to fix itself, and until they got everything set Selene had work to do.

“
W
e may have a problem
,” Selene told the others when they assembled back at the tower command center.

“Are you talking about the number of airfields?” Blake asked, looking over information in his wrist menu.

She nodded. “Yes. All evidence suggests that there's at least two of them, probably three. And if we want to take them all out at once, that means splitting our forces.”

“That means we can't concentrate our forces. Leading to the possibility that we're not going to have enough to take out any of them,” Gavin said.

“Yeah, that's my biggest worry. I've deployed some of our scouts to assess what they have for defenses, but I'm guessing they're not going to roll over and die for us. It's not like Ragnarok's going through considerable pains to keep them hidden.”

Most flights returned home in a relatively straight pattern, making only minor adjustments before they landed. Apparently Ragnarok didn't think it was worth going through a ton of trouble to keep their locations a secret, but that probably meant they were heavily guarded as well. The real question was, what kind of defenses did they have?”

Antiaircraft guns were a certainty, and they could easily be turned against ground troops with horrifying results. She remembered shredding Ragnarok attackers with one during the desperate street fighting at Green Bay, and didn't imagine her troops would fare much better against one, let alone several at the same time.

They could have anything else in place as well, ranging from bunkers and trenches filled with infantry to artillery and tanks. Anything beyond simple infantry would cause serious problems for the attacking force, mostly because they would lack most heavy weapons and fire support. Her troops could bring along their helicopter gunships, but with so many antiaircraft guns ringing the field they'd have to be very careful how they used them.

Or maybe she was overestimating things. Ragnarok always had a numbers advantage going back to the beginning of the war, but that lead had shrunk and then gradually evaporated. Now, while they still had more troops than Hydra, the gap had closed for the advantage to be minor at best.

That changed how she had to look at things. Troops and heavy weapons were desperately needed at the front, especially after all the casualties that the Hydra Alliance had inflicted at Cudahy and St. Francis. Every single soldier and weapon they put on guard duty was one less they could use at the front lines, which made having an elite force stashed back there highly unlikely.

More probable, they were using NPC guards to provide security, better than nothing, but not exactly inspiring either. If that was true Selene was confident they could roll over the airfield defenses without much trouble. But then what? They'd still have to do it quickly, otherwise the planes could get off the ground and spoil their one chance.

She suppressed the urge to sigh deeply. So many things to account for, and if any one of them was wrong the whole mission might come crashing down around them in failure. Selene didn't envy Zach or Nora right now. In fact, she wondered how they were able to deal with all of these things on a daily basis yet stay sane.

“OK,” she said. “Given that they're not being cautious, they're probably defending their airfields pretty heavily.”

“Or they've gotten arrogant,” Ethan pointed out. “That could also be a possibility.”

“Right, but that's not one we want to count on. If we do and we're wrong then it's going to end badly.”

Blake leaned over the map table beside her and started cycling through the display. “Even if they're defending the airfields pretty heavily there's a limit to how many troops they'd be able to deploy. I'm guessing no more than a platoon at each, because any more than that seems way too wasteful.”

“NPC troops,” Robbie spoke up.

“They're not going to do them much good, other than giving them warm bodies to slow us down,” Blake replied. He leaned over and frowned. “Or maybe they're only using a screening force at each and have a central reserve. That could cause more problems.”

“So you're thinking they'd put small garrisons of NPC troops at each airfield and then put a reserve force of player troops at a central location?” Gavin asked.

“That might be the best way for them to maximize a limited number of troops,” Blake nodded. “I can't say for sure about whether they'd try it or not without more reconnaissance, but it's as good of a guess as any.”

“Actually,” Robbie cut in, looking over something in his wrist menu, “I'd say the idea has a good amount of merit. If we look at the estimated troop strength around each front it accounts for over three-quarters of Ragnarok's total membership. The rest of them are probably handling rear area duties, but that doesn't leave very many to guard the airfields in any case. So if they had some way to use their numbers more effectively they'll probably take it.”

“We'll need to make sure before we make any plans,” Selene cautioned.

“Of course,” Blake said. “But that might give us some opportunities we might not have in the first place. We could draw them out with a feint, for instance.”

Selene wondered how well that would actually work. In most situations launching a feint to draw out the enemy reserve was a viable tactic, but in this case speed was essential. They had to catch the enemy planes on the ground, and attacking piecemeal might give them enough time to change their fusion batteries and get in the air. At the very least, those conditions might force them to launch an all-out assault right from the start in order to get the conditions they wanted.

Unless…

Selene looked down at the holographic map table for a moment as they others continued to discuss possible courses of action, her mind turning. And then it hit her. Of course.

If their units launched a simultaneous assault on the three airfields they would probably thrown the enemy into complete confusion, and force the commander in charge to make a decision. Either they split up their forces to defend each field, which would drastically lessen their effectiveness, or they would concentrate on one field while sacrificing the other two.

And it wasn't just about the choice of how many troops to commit. Every moment the Ragnarok commander had to think about it gave Ghost Battalion precious seconds to carry out their mission. Selene knew that, given the proper armament, her troops could inflict severe damage within a short period of time, and that would only put more pressure on the opponent.

“Sounds like a plan,” Ethan commented after she finished her explanation.

“Only part of a plan, though,” Blake said. “We have to make sure all three attacks actually work. That means figuring out how we're dividing up the forces, establishing a chain of command, figuring out what kind of firepower we're going to be bringing along, those kinds of things.”

“We should probably have separate command sections for each mission,” Robbie suggested. “I'd put a ground commander and an air commander for each of the airfields and give them autonomy.”

“Naturally,” Selene agreed. “We're not going to be able to have tight coordination once we begin the attack, so it should be up to the commanders in the field how they deal with the situations on hand.”