Commando City: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 7) (3 page)

She just hoped they'd have enough time to properly regroup before the next battle, because their casualties were enormous.

They might be advancing at a far more rapid pace, but this city was still a meat grinder.

“
N
ice place
you've got here,” Zach commented as he surveyed the captured district.

“Yeah. You see what we can manage when you're not here?” Danny said.

“Sorry, I had to do work,” Zach said. “And it was time sensitive.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Danny said with a grin. “Guess you're the only unlucky one that has to live in the real world now.”

“I'm also getting paid a lot more, so there,” Zach shrugged.

“What were you working on?”

“Can't tell you that. Disclosures and everything.”

“Figures. So, is this going to be a problem from now on? We're going to have to operate without our company commander?”

Zach frowned, trying to think of the best way to phrase his response. “It might be, and we might need to look into other solutions,” he said. “I might need to step aside as company commander if it gets too hectic, but that's speculation right now. I don't actually know how busy I'm going to be.”

“Right. Any thoughts on who gets to be commander?”

“You and Selene can duke it out. Or maybe I'll give you both performance reviews?”

“Hah, that means I already have a leg up. At least I was able to get on the ground and fight.”

“Be fair, that was more luck than skill.”

Danny's handling of the situation on the ground certainly wasn't all luck, though. Faced with heavy losses from the beginning and with little outside help he had managed to rally the company and expand the landing zone, saving the rest of the battalion countless casualties as they dropped.

It had cost them too. According to Nora Black Wolf had lost two thirds of their troops during the battle, and they would need time to get back up to strength. That meant retraining their skills in other areas away from the front. It weakened the main effort, but it would also be a change of pace from their normal activities. Black Wolf had hardly performed operations south of Old Chicago since the alliance had captured Indianapolis, and he knew many of his troops wanted to do something different. This was a game, after all, and monotony wasn't entertaining in the least.

“Have you cleared out the entire district?” he asked.

“Barghest is still sweeping the underground bunkers, but almost all of them are clear,” Danny told him. “This place wasn't very heavily defended. I guess we can thank Ragnarok for that little gift.”

Zach nodded. Ragnarok had attempted to take the district with a small force but came under heavy fire from the enemy garrison and was forced to withdraw. Most of their veteran troops had been needed at the front lines, fighting in the Cudahy District and along the front stretching south of Madison. They couldn't afford to waste time with a sideshow, and when they failed there was no point in continuing.

Their loss was Hydra's gain, though, and Zach was happy to take the break. Ragnarok's air force remained troublesome, restricting their aerial movements outside the city. They still could perform operations with their helicopters, but they had to be very, very careful. Otherwise, the enemy could easy get the jump on them, and if that happened they stood to take heavy losses.

But with the capture of the airfield they might be able to turn the tables on the enemy a bit. One of the Hydra Alliance's biggest problems was the fact that they didn't have effective air cover. They had a sizable unit, Perseus Flight, but they flew the standard Gale fighters, fast and agile but unable to take much punishment. Worse, their range was a bit lacking, and Hydra's airfields were located south of Old Chicago. Even if they could get their entire air force overhead they could only stay there for a limited amount of time.

In contrast, Ragnarok was operating close to their bases around Madison and could loiter over the battlefield for much longer. And to make matters worse, their planes were based on a schematic found outside of the hub city, which meant they were much more powerful. Hydra still hadn't been able to fully diagnose their capabilities, but they were tough, fast, sturdy and packed a significant punch.

Worse, the enemy pilots had been honing their skill for months. Dive bombing was one of their best skills, allowing them to place bombs on target with pinpoint accuracy. It remained practical for now because neither side had access to good antiaircraft weaponry at the moment. How long that would last was anyone's guess.

Zach was currently working on another project at Elysium Visions, World at War Online's designers, but he still had his ear to the ground and knew another expansion was coming in the future. Just like the last update, it would probably radically change the way they fought. Air combat would certainly make a radical shift. But for now, none of that mattered.

“Have we found anything useful? Any schematics? Equipment? Anything we can use?”

“I'm not the one to ask about that,” Danny told him. “Plus, I'm not going to screw around with stuff we just found either. What happens if we break it? I'd rather have the Hephaestus engineers take a look at it first.”

“We do have our own engineers, you know.”

“Yeah, but do they really have the expertise of Hephaestus Company?”

“Point taken,” Zach said. He rated his own engineering skills fairly highly, but even those weren't up to par with the dedicated specialists.

“That's one thing we have to worry about though,” Danny said. “If there are valuables here we don't want to let Ragnarok get their hands on them.”

“They won't,” another voice joined in, and they turned to see Nora walking up.

“Did Selene come with you?”

“No, she'd on the practice range, plugging away at targets with some of the rest, and they didn't look happy so I didn't even bother approaching them.”

“Can't say I blame them. Getting killed in your harness before you even hit the ground has to be frustrating,” Danny said.

“Is it really different from getting shot down inside the plane, or getting a shell dropped on top of your head?” Zach pointed out. “Both of them end with you dead without being able to even face the enemy.”

“OK, fair enough. So, Nora, what was it you were saying about the valuables? We need to do something about them.”

“We will, provided you find any.”

Danny swept his hand around. “Well, this is an airfield. I'd hope that there was at least a few things we could use. Although Bravehart certainly did a number on everything aboveground.”

“Still leaves the underground,” Zach pointed out. “And we have no clue how big the complex actually is or what they might have inside.”

“No, but we can find out,” Nora said. “Anna and Liz are still back at HQ. We can track the teams sweeping the base with the holographic map table and coordinate them in real time.”

“The wonders of a networked battlefield,” Zach nodded.

That was the difference between the major players in the region and everyone else. Fighting ability among the elite companies was relatively even across the board, but the strongest alliances knew how to coordinate them properly, using communications to make sure they were in the right place to have the greatest effect. All the ability in world meant nothing if their units weren't in the right place at the right time.

“Again, if we do find something then how are we going to keep it safe?”

“That's why I brought a helicopter transport instead of an ATV,” Nora said. “If we find something it's going onto the helo and then we're lugging it straight to Waukegan.”

“And if we can't?”

“Well, we'll be adding more NPC guards within the next few days. Until then we're going to be hanging around the place as defenders.”

“All of us?” Zach asked.

“You'll have to talk to Anna about that,” Nora said.

“What, you haven't said anything to her about that?” Danny spoke up. “I don't know how effective we're going to be after the beating we took. Shouldn't we be at Lerna Bastion or Indianapolis training?”

“I didn't really have time to say anything. Everything was moving too fast,” Nora told him. “Plus, that's not my decision. I'm not company commander.”

“I guess I'm going to have to talk to her about that, then,” Zach nodded. “I know we can do training around here if we have to, but I think it would be better for the company if we were able to retrain away from the front lines. Going up against nature instead of players might be a good change of pace.”

“Huh, for everyone but you,” Danny said. “Nature seems to have a way of killing you.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. It'll still be good practice without having bullets flying at us. Unless you want to stand around one of the districts shooting at tin can targets?”

“I think I'll take my chances with the fen wolves and chilus. Though I think everyone would appreciate it if you didn't make us do anything especially dangerous. The goal is to get us back into fighting shape, not to repeatedly get us killed.”

“You say that like you don't trust me.”

“Well, the last few missions you've gotten us have been pretty much suicide. When's the last time we weren't facing overwhelming odds or certain death?”

“Never, since the beginning. And as I recall, you were one of the ones that was for our crazy little stunt on opening day.”

“Yeah, I blame you guys for rubbing off on me,” Nora said. “I join up with you and my sense of self-preservation goes right out the window.”

“But how boring would it have been without us?” Danny replied with a grin. “Anyhow, I'm going to see how they're faring with the sweep. See you guys later.”

Zach turned to Nora after he had left. “So, from someone watching the battle from afar, how do you think it went?”

“It went about as well as expected,” Nora said with a shrug. “It was our first major drop into a hot combat zone, and we were expecting casualties regardless. We knew the risks of making a paradrop in broad daylight, and we still took the district. I'd say that went about as well as expected.”

“Except for Selene's platoon dropping in right over an AA position,” Zach said.” And of all units it had to be hers. That's not going to sit well.”

“No kidding. Why do you think I didn't approach her before coming here?”

“Is it that bad?”

Nora shrugged again. “Probably not, but I really didn't want to tempt fate. And I can't blame her. It's like blowing out your knee in the first five minutes of a basketball game. She didn't even get a chance to do anything.”

“Is that speaking from experience?”

“Hm?”

“The part about blowing out your knee,” he elaborated.

“Eh, sort of. I didn't blow out my knee, but I broke my ankle in the middle of my junior year of high school.”

“Ah, so less severe but still along those same lines. And yeah, I get it. Losing hurts, but not even having a chance to affect the outcome hurts even worse.”

“Are you feeling any of that?” she asked.

“Why, because I couldn't be here?”

“Yeah, that.”

Zach thought for a moment, trying to figure out what to say. What did he feel, exactly? Ever since he had agreed to take part in the study this had become a major part of his life, and now that was in complete upheaval. How would he feel if he was taken away from more critical battles like the one fought today?

The new project had his interest, there was no doubt about that. Zach had agonized over the decision for a long period of time, and he was sure. Project Avalon, as it was currently known, stirred the passion within him, and he wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to play a major role in its development. But he could still feel a bit of pain that he wasn't alongside his comrades as they pushed on.

“I think I'm missing it,” he said, “but isn't it the same as being a commander? We've gone through this before, when we're behind the front lines running the battles and being in the thick of the fighting. Don't you sometimes miss just being a part of a small team? That's why we took the time to create Fang Squad, right?”

“OK, that I get. But you have to miss it.”

“Of course. But I'm doing other things that need my attention. It's like all the times that you've taken to practice the cello. Speaking of which, how are you doing with that?”

Nora grimaced. “Well, I'm getting there, though not as fast as I'd like. I feel like I'm not going to be prepared in time for the Philharmonic auditions.”

“Those are almost a year away,” he pointed out. “I know you're extremely particular about how you perform, but isn't that taking it a little too far?”

“Would you settle for second best when you were designing something in a game?” she asked.

“Not if I could help it.”

“And that's the way I feel. I might fail, but I'm not going to settle for second best. If I know I can do better then I'm going to make sure that I can show that, and I'll do every bit of work I need to accomplish that. No excuses.”

Zach was just about to reply when their wrist alerts went off.

“What's up?” he asked as he answered.

“Oh, you're on now?” Karen responded on the other end.

“Yeah, showed up just in time to watch the cleanup phase,” he said. “So what do you need?”

“Well, we've found some stuff sweeping the underground hangars,” she said. “Mostly spare parts and Gales.”

“Are they flyable?” Nora asked.

“That I don't know. You'd have to ask someone trained as a pilot, or an experienced engineer. I don't deal with that stuff. But they're not falling apart.”

“OK, so how many are there?” Zach asked with some interest. If nothing else they could save themselves from having to build more planes, even if they were of an inferior design.

“About a dozen. But there's a hangar that I think we need to have Hephaestus come look at.”

“What's in it?”

“See for yourself,” she said.

Zach's wrist alert went off again, and this time a photo message popped up. He opened it up to take a look, and…

“Oh, wow,” Nora said from beside him, looking at her own wrist menu. “That would be important.”

“We haven't found any schematics, but even without them this is pretty important.”

Zach agreed. The image in front of him was a plane, about the size of an average fighter with straight wings and a single tail. It looked unremarkable, save for one significant difference: the propellor was nowhere to be found. Instead, a nacelle sat under each wing.