Commando City: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 7) (28 page)

She could see enemy infantry moving toward their position on foot and dropped to one knee to steady her aim. It would be a difficult shot at this range, but she wasn't going to let Ragnarok close the distance unscathed. Selene brought her rifle up to bear, let out a breath to calm herself and squeezed the trigger.

Her fist shot went wide, but Selene adjusted her aim. The next one caused the leader soldier to flinch, followed by another round that put him down for good. Quick as a flash she maneuvered her assault rifle onto the next target and took her out with a series of three shots.

Having spent most of the previous months conducting close-quarters combat, Selene finally had the opportunity to use her bullpup assault rifle in a field battle at long range. She appreciated its accuracy, while also remaining compact and maneuverable. It might not be quite as good as a dedicated assault rifle fitted for open field combat, but it was an effective jack of all trades.

Selene spotted movement out of the corner of her eye, and a second later she realized an enemy heavy weapons team was setting up a machine gun, preparing to pour fire on her troops at long range. She adjusted her aim and fired a series of shots, but her rifle didn't have the reach or accuracy at such a long distance. That wouldn't be a problem for the machine gun, though, and on open ground they'd be sitting ducks.

She started to get on the radio, hoping that one of the Hornets could get there in time. It would be close…

But then one of the crew members flopped over like they had been run over by a bus. The other two barely had time to react before they were cut down in the next few seconds by another pair of shots.

“Thought you might need a little help,” Miko said over the radio.

Selene couldn't help breathing a sigh of relief. “Yeah, no kidding. Thanks.”

“Don't mention it. Although you owe me a beer later.”

“OK, that's a lot more reasonable than your usual drink requests,” Selene replied. She turned her focus back to the battlefield.

Over half the enemy dive bombers sat destroyed, blown up by rockets or recoilless rifle shells. Apparently their charges wouldn't be necessary, which pleased her a bit, but Ragnarok wasn't done. More troops started surging forward from the far end of the field.

She activated her radio. “Stay sharp everyone. Looks like their reinforcements have arrived.”

Selene was about to say more when a shadow zoomed overhead, then another. Before she knew what was happening, a Hornet plummeted out of the sky.

“Fighters, fighters,” Blake said over the radio, his voice steady but concerned.

Her worst fear was coming true. Ragnarok must have kept a few fighters further back at their bases around Madison, and they were finally arriving to the fight. Her own air support had just lost their critical advantage.

“
E
nemy reinforcements are inbound
,” Brooke warned over the radio. “They have armor with them.”

Zach didn't need the warning, because a shell screamed by them and impacted a few dozen feet to the right of the Gazelle, churning up earth and forcing him to duck down for a second.

He turned to see a pair of tanks moving across the field, supported by infantry.

“What do you want me to target?”Avery asked.

Zach hesitated for a moment. The dive bombers were their priority, but if they didn't do something about the incoming tanks…

“Keep focusing on the bombers,” he ordered. “That's the main priority.”

Zach wasn't sure how well the autocannon would fare against heavy tank armor, especially without armor piercing rounds. The Gazelle carried a few, but the shells were expensive to produce and overkill against a plane, so they didn't have enough for sustained combat.

“Understood,” Avery answered, then continued slugging away at the dive bombers.

He wasn't just going to let the tanks have their way, though. The gunships were out of rockets, so that option was out the door, but they were far from helpless here.

“Gavin, shift two of your recoilless rifle teams and have them target the incoming tanks. And step up the attack. We're running out of time.”

“We're moving,” Gavin replied tersely.

Zach maneuvered his machine gun and began firing at the

Ragnarok infantry advancing with the tanks. A few fell, but most continued to press forward using the vehicles as cover.

Boom.

Another geyser of dirt and smoke shot up behind them, closer this time. At least the enemy was targeting them instead of going after their heavy weapons teams, but if they took out the Gazelle that would severely diminish their force's firepower. But with the number of targets they had to take care of…

“Brooke, can you have one or two of your gunships do a strafing run on the tanks?”

“We're out of rockets.”

“I know. Just use your miniguns.”

“Roger. Will do.”

A second later a pair of Hornets zoomed overhead, guns blazing. Bullets sparked harmlessly off the tanks, but the shots forced the commanders to duck down inside the turrets to avoid being hit. The infantry following behind wasn't so lucky, and several fell, scythed down by the hail of lead.

But the tanks continued to trundle forward, and Zach started to get very, very nervous. Would they be able to-

His world went black for a moment, and Zach struggled to regain his bearings as he came to. It took him a second to realize what had just happened. A tank round had scored a direct hit on them, traveling so fast that it went through both sides of the Gazelle before it had time to explode.

“Everyone OK?” he asked over the radio link, dreading the answer.

“I'm still here,” Avery said.

“Chris?”

No response.

“Chris, you still there?”

Again, no answer. That could only mean the round had killed him on its way through.

And that left them as a sitting duck in the middle of open ground. Zach looked back at the enemy in time to see the tank barrel pointing at them, preparing to fire.

They only had one real choice at this point.

A
brilliant explosion
lit up the sky, and a Typhoon plummeted to earth in pieces. Selene looked up at the aerial battle unfolding above, feeling an icy stab in her stomach as she did so. Their carefully-laid plans might be going down in flames along with Raven Flight's helicopters.

She didn't have time to look on in horror, though. “What's our status? How many bombers are left?” she shouted down the radio link.

“We still have quite a few,” Ryan responded. His squad was in the lead, moving up to get a better angle on some of the reward planes.

Selene gritted her teeth and crouched down, trying to come up with some sort of solution. They could order the gunships to withdraw, but that would strip them of a critical part of their firepower. More enemy troops were arriving by the second, and without enough support her units would be pushed back before they could destroy the rest of the planes.

But the helicopters were almost completely helpless against the enemy fighters, even if there was only a pair of them. What could they hope to accomplish by getting shot down one by one? It might be better to take a small victory and live to fight another day than risking grievous losses trying to win it all.

They wouldn't get a second chance at this, though. What were they going to do?

Selene made her decision and got on the radio. “Blake, withdraw. You're not going to do any good up there.”

“No.”

The reply stunned her for a moment. “You're not going to do us any good getting shot down.”

“Better than if we turn around and flee. We're not fast enough to outrun them.”

“You can't fight them!”

“Watch me.”

Selene looked up to see a fighter make a pass at Blake's Hornet. To her amazement he threw his helo into a skid, moving rapidly to the left and making the fighter overshoot. A burst of gunfire ripped past the Ragnarok plane, who broke off and came around for another attempt.

Blake dodged the incoming fighter again and made a quick turn, faster than any fixed-wing aircraft could ever manage. Another burst from his miniguns clipped the enemy's wings and made it veer off, wounded.

Then her blood ran cold. The second fighter swooped in for the kill, coming in at Blake's blind spot. She started to radio him a warning, though she doubted he could react in time.

But in her haste she missed the second helo arrive on the scene. So did the fighter, judging by its flight path. It stayed in its dive, heedless of the second foe until a barrage of rounds tore through the air directly in front of it. One second the plane was screaming down in a dive, and the next it flew through the cloud of lead. Even from this distance Selene could see huge chunks of material breaking off the plane, and then…

BOOM.

The fighter exploded, scattering debris across the sky and the ground below. Selene couldn't help but smile at the sight. Classic Raven. Their teamwork and piloting skills had just taken down an enemy that had them completely outclassed on paper.

She was about to relay her congratulations when the second Hornet shuddered violently and then fell from the sky, its rotor completely shattered. The first Ragnarok fighter zoomed by, still in the fight despite the loss of its partner.

“Pick up the pace!” Selene shouted to the troops around her. She signaled them to start moving toward the rest of the parked dive bombers.

They had to destroy them, and the recoilless rifle crews were taking too long. The explosive charges would have to do the rest, and they needed to do it quickly. Time was running out.

Z
ach barely managed
to abandon the Gazelle in time before another shell slammed into its side. This one didn't pass though and exploded in the center of the hull. He saw a geyser of flame and shrapnel shoot out of the commander's hatch, followed by the gunner's hatch blowing off a second later. Avery was certainly KIA right now.

He wasn't in much better shape, though, apart from being alive at the moment. Zach was stuck out in the open facing dozens of enemies and two tanks with nothing but a pistol. So much for having the upper hand, he thought. Maybe he should stick to being a commander, since every time he stepped on the front lines he seemed to get himself killed in the most inglorious ways.

BAM!

One of the tanks suddenly blew up, its turret rocketing into the air from the force of the explosion. As the second tank tried to find their assailant another round streaked in.

BAM!

The second tank slowed to a crawl and then stopped completely, black smoke pouring out of a hole in the lower hall. Zach kept his wits about him and crouched low to the ground, then sprinted toward the relative safety of his own lines.

“Huh, couldn't keep it going?” Gavin commented when he found him.

“No, once again I seem to be the bad luck magnet,” Zach said. “How are we coming on the dive bombers?”

Gavin pointed. One plane took roared down the runway and got into the sky, chased by a barrage of firepower. The next managed to lift off as well, but the third ran into a blizzard of minigun fire from a pair of Typhoons waiting at the far end of the runway.

And that was it.

“That's two out of what? Twenty? Thirty?” Zach said.

“At least.”

He glanced back over his shoulder at the approaching Ragnarok reserves, starting to rally despite the strafing runs and the loss of their tanks.

“I think we're done here,” Gavin said.

Zach nodded. “I think so too.” He activated his radio. “Brooke, we're going to fall back to the extraction point. Can you cover us while we break off.”

“Will do. I'll send the Typhoons your way as well.”

Seconds later the Hornets dove in, guns blazing. Zach watched them for a moment, then turned and followed the rest as Gavin ordered them back. Time to go.

B
ullets zipped
around them as they pressed forward. Another Typhoon fell out of the sky in flames, victim of the final fighter that continued to prey on the hapless helicopter still circling above. Right now retreat might have been the most prudent option.

They wouldn't take it, though. All of Selene's composite unit had gone down fighting against Ragnarok in the Shorewood District, and they were going to make sure they won this time, even if that meant walking straight into a wall of lead.

The two soldiers next to her fell, but the unit continued to push forward, firing as they went. A few of the surviving gunships made strafing runs when they were able, cutting down a few of the enemy.

But there were too many, and Selene knew her unit had no chance of driving them all off, not with half their air support gone. The best they could do right now was to take out the remaining bombers, about a dozen in number.

“Charges!” she ordered as they reached the first plane. Selene quickly tossed hers to one of the engineers, then resumed firing to try to slow the enemy advance. A bullet nicked her across the face and caused her to flinch, but she continued to fire despite the danger.

“Charges set!” the engineer called.

They pressed forward to the next plane, then then next, dropping off charges as they went. The next planes pilot was still inside and leaned out with a pistol in hand, but Selene quickly shot him before he had a chance to fire.

Selene called out to the rest of the unit. “Are the charges set?”

“We're set,” Ryan said. “We need to get to a safe distance-”

His statement was suddenly cut off as Ragnarok poured on more bullets, killing several and forcing the rest of them to the ground. One bullet nicked her across the thigh, causing a lance of pain to shoot up her leg.

She looked across at the enemy force closing in on them, then back at the forest behind them. They'd never make it back in time, not without seriously risking their chances of setting off the charges.

It only took a second for her to make her decision. “Engineers, we're not getting a second chance at this. Set off the charges now.”