Fang: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 3) (17 page)

“
This explains why you never heard gunfire,” Liz said.

“
Yeah, that would.”

“
I'm rather disappointed that I didn't think of that possibility before now,” Liz said.

Nora nodded. She noticed that Liz was still carrying the compound bow she had taken a liking to a few months back. It was nearly silent, even better than a suppressed pistol, and the arrows packed a fairly good punch. She used it for eliminating stragglers or sentries, and it had proven to be very effective.

The crossbows explained how the enemy had killed. The stalkers had shot their victims with them, which would have never been heard over the sound of gunfire. The targets and their comrades had no way to know what was happening. The ones who were shot had died before they could figure out what killed them, and the ones left behind had no bodies to study when the stalkers had dragged them away.

Karen came on the line. “Nora, are your guys OK?”

“We're fine,” she replied.

“
OK, good. Selene showed up with part of Red Platoon. We're going to assemble at the ramp and then head up top.”

“
I copy that,” Nora said. “The rest of Red Platoon just linked up with us. We also have some fireteams from Redd Foxx with us as well. We'll meet you there.”

“
That's good news. See you in a minute.”

Nora turned to the troops milling about. “OK everyone, we're headed over to the ramp where we'll meet up with the rest of Barghest. Then it's up top to see what we're facing.”

She motioned them forward. Now, maybe they could do something. They had the troops and they had the space.

Liz jogged next to her. “I think this might be under another district,” she said.

“I was thinking that too,” Nora said.

“
Which means that there's probably more of those things running around. Like, a lot more.”

“
We might run out of ammo,” Nora mused. “At the rate we're going there's no way we can take out thousands of stalkers.”

“
What about getting it airlifted in?” Liz suggested.

“
That sounds like it's a good way to get Raven Flight shot down,” Nora said.

“
Oh come on. Does anything you've seen so far make you think that they're even remotely capable of operating something as complicated as an antiaircraft gun?”

“
It's a moot point anyhow,” Nora told her. “Raven Flight left for Lerna Bastion today.”

“
Crap.”

Nora agreed with her. “That was probably the best way to get supplies or reinforcements to us, and now that's gone. Oh well, I guess we'll have to make due with what we have.”

Karen and Selene were waiting for them at the bottom of their ramp.

“
Sounded like you ended up in quite the scrap over there,” Selene commented as Nora and Liz approached.

Nora nodded. “Yeah, if they hadn't shown up, then we were in serious trouble. We must have killed one hundred of them or more.”

“OK, that makes our fifty seem pretty lame by comparison,” Selene said.

“
We're heading up the ramp as soon as we're ready,” Karen said. “I've just gotten off the line with the rest of the commanders. Black Wolf is headed here as fast as they can, but they have to come up from the lowest part of this place. Spectre is moving as well, though they took heavy casualties in their fight. Redd Foxx is clearing out the last pockets of resistance, and then they'll join us.”

“
What do you want us to do, commander?” Nora asked.

Karen couldn't quite hide the expression of pride at that remark. “We're going to push up to the surface and establish a foothold. If we can take advantage of our momentum we might be able to exploit the chaos and take the district now.”

“Makes sense,” Liz said.

Karen turned toward her. “Can I put your troops in the vanguard? I need them to act as scouts for us.”

“That's our specialty,” Liz agreed. “I'll get right on it.”

Karen turned toward Selene as Liz moved away. “Red Platoon is going to lead the charge, since you guys have done the least fighting and are freshest.”

“Got it,” Selene said. She left to assemble her platoon.

“
And Yellow is going to be in the rear, for now,” Karen said.

Nora nodded. “We all could probably use a minute or two to catch our breath.”

“Noted, and you're going to be the reserve. I'm hoping that the others will catch up to us soon enough, but if they don't then we're going to have a lot of fighting to do by ourselves.”

Nora checked her kit to make sure she was ready for a fight. Her ammunition was depleted, but she still hand enough.

“I'm ready when you are,” Nora told her commander.

Karen nodded in appreciation. “Thanks. Now let's give Barghest something to be proud of.”

“Something for us to be proud of,” Nora agreed.

With the Redd Foxx scouts leading the way, Barghest Company pushed out into the streets of the alien district.

The buildings here were a mess. Most of them were crumbling or decaying. Everywhere there were missing roofs, smashed walls and piles of rubble. And most of them were teeming with stalkers.

Nora had almost immediately given up on the idea of getting a break when the first wave hit them. There were hundreds of mutants, most of them armed with some sort of crude melee weapon. They fell upon the Hydra force from all sides and forced a fight.

As in the tunnels, grenades and flames were their friends. Nora emptied one of her pouches in the span of a minute, causing complete havoc with every throw. The enemy was so tightly packed that even poorly aimed throws caused carnage. Each blast killed or maimed several of the enemy, maybe even dozens. The flamethrowers were even more deadly, torching scores of stalkers with each blast.

Even so, Barghest started to take casualties. There were just  too many of the enemy to fend off.

Nora smashed the butt of her gun into the face of a stalker and then shot it as it fell. Another swung its axe at her. She parried the blow, catching the handle on the grip of her carbine and then shoving it aside. The sheer power of the blow was staggering, and Nora almost lost her grip on her weapon. She recovered in time to put a bullet in this one's head as well.

“We may have bitten off more than we can handle,” Allen said as they met up in the middle of the fight.

“
Yeah, tell me about it. Get used to it, though. Suicide missions and million to one odds seem to be our calling card. If you want to join Black Wolf you'll get a whole lot more of this.”

“
Joy.”

Nora lined up her sights and put a bullet through the head of another stalker. There was no mistaking it right now. They were in a tough spot, and even if they managed to pull through they were going to come out severely mauled. They would be in no shape to take the district after this fight.

Yet despite that threat, Nora was enjoying herself. She hadn't been in a fight like this in quite a while, where there was so much on the line and the chances of success were very doubtful. It thrilled her.

“
Just hold out a little longer,” Karen said over the radio.

Nora wondered what she had up her sleeve, but then she found out in a hurry. The stalker attack coming from the rear suddenly crumbled, thrown back by a vicious and brutal assault. Scores of them were dead before they even realized what was happening. Scores more managed to comprehend their doom before they were cut down as well.

A voice came over the radio. “Looks like we got here just in time. Man, you guys sure know how to pick the interesting ones.”

Nora smiled and answered back. “We sure do Danny. Sure do.”

Black Wolf had joined the fray.

CHAPTER 17

Spot Check

Barghest had given quite the account of themselves, Zach thought as he surveyed the carnage in front of him. Hundreds of stalkers lay scattered about the streets, stone dead from a variety of causes. There were casualties from Barghest as well, but their kill ratio was off the charts.

“
Impressed?” Danny asked him.

“
Yeah, it's hard not to be,” Zach told him. “This would have been tough for
us
to deal with.”

Danny glanced behind him. “Looks like the rest of Redd Foxx is coming.”

Zach turned and motioned for Anna to come join them. “Looks like we've kicked yet another hornet's nest.”

“
Seems to be a common thing with you guys,” Anna commented. “Keep in mind that we're it.”

“
Command isn't sending help?” Danny asked.

Anna shook here head. “There's no help to send. Knight Battalion has been skirmishing with Ragnarok, and all of Rogue Battalion is up there helping them. Dragon Battalion is tied down either scouting or securing the districts, which means we're pretty much it.”

“Tall order for us,” Danny remarked. “Three hundred of us against thousands of stalkers.”

“
Almost doesn't seem fair for them,” Anna said. “I know that they have us outnumbered, but we have a lot more firepower.”

“
And we're missing a lot more firepower as well,” Danny said. “We have no assault guns, no air support, no recoilless rifles, most of our snipers are carrying shorter ranged pieces, and we don't have any heavy machine guns.”

“
Since when has that stopped us?” Anna asked.

“
OK, I'll concede that point, but still, this is going to be really tough on us.”

Anna nodded. “Right, and we're not completely alone. Bravehart is moving some of their artillery and mortars. Once they're in place we'll be able to call down fire support on the enemy positions.”

Zach looked over at the sounds of gunfire in the distance. Barghest Company was continuing to push forward, trying to sustain their momentum.

“
We have aerial photos of this place, don't we ?” he asked.

“
Yeah. I don't think that they've been studied, but we have a basic idea as to the layout,” Anna said.

The photos had been taken from the air during the initial reconnaissance of the city, though they hadn't been updated in a while. The aircraft they had on hand were relatively slow and vulnerable, and they didn't want to risk such valuable resources to antiaircraft fire. But still, it would give them some idea as to where they were.

Zach contacted Hydra HQ in Eagle Creek and had them send the photos. He opened them up and started to scroll through them.

“
OK, so I think we're here,” Zach said as the others looked on. “I think this is the ramp to the under city, and this is the building over to our southeast. Which would put us right between them, on this street here.”

“
Send me a copy of them,” Anna told him.

Zach did so, and also sent a copy to all of the officers and squad leaders in the battalion.

Anna opened up her menu and started to scroll through the map. “OK, so if we're here then Barghest Company and Liz's platoon are driving up this street. That puts us more toward the western end of the district. They're moving south, so they're going to pass through the majority of the district. At least this one is fairly small compared to the others.”

Zach agreed. That would certainly make up for their lack of troops. But still, there was a lot of ground to cover.

“What's this thing?” Danny wondered.

“
Hm?”

Danny leaned over with his display open and pointed to a building on the map. “It's near the center and our vanguard force is headed right for it. There's something on the roof as well. Solar panels, maybe?”

“Looks like it,” Anna confirmed. “Wonder what they're for?”

“
That could be the central capture point,” Zach said.

“
Then we might want to alert them, because if they walk in unaware then they're just asking for trouble,” Anna said.

Danny scrolled through the rest of the map. “So, what are we going to do?”

“We still have the eastern half of the district,” Anna said. “I say we concentrate our resources on that building you just found. Barghest keeps pushing down the main road and we'll do a flanking maneuver down the east end.”

“
Then we'll converge on the center point, I'm assuming,” Danny added.

“
Yes, that would be correct. I'm hoping that we can catch the enemy in a pincer move and slaughter them. I don't want anything remotely close to a fair fight.”

World at War was a game about equal opportunity; everyone had the same opportunity to get ahead of their competition. If they couldn't, then that was their own fault.

“That should keep the enemy off Barghest's left flank as well,” Zach agreed. “OK, you've sold me on that plan. Want to dole out the orders?”

“
Naturally, since I seem to be the one that's supposed to be in charge of this thing,” Anna said.

“
Alright, I'll be ready on your signal,” Zach told her. He went to go get his troops organized.

“
Almost like old times,” Danny said with a grin.

Zach grinned right back. “Yeah. And win or lose, this is going to be interesting, at least.”

The stalker looked like it was a leader. It roared at him, uttering some sort of taunt in its own feral language, or so Zach imagined. Behind it the stalker's followers brandished their weapons and screeched their own taunts.

Zach ended that with one shot from his grenade launcher. The blast sent stalkers flying everywhere. The ones closest to the center of the blast were dead almost instantly. The stalkers further away were stunned or badly injured. A few managed to escape any harm, but then they were cut down by relentless fire from Alpha Wolf Platoon.

More stalkers came charging out of a building on their left flank, and Gavin's squad took the brunt of the attack. Dozens were killed before they even came to grips with the Black Wolf troops, mowed down by assault rifle and machine gun, blasted by grenades, torched by flamethrowers. Still, there were too many of them, and they closed the distance.

Another group of stalkers attacked Ethan's squad. Zach moved in closer to him.

“
Just keep firing no matter what. I'll watch your back,” Zach told him. Ethan just nodded back.

The stalkers broke over them like a wave, and Alpha 2 was forced into close combat. They lashed out, firing pistols, stabbing with knives, swinging axes and entrenching tools, bashing with clubs, anything to keep the enemy at bay.

Zach had gradually noticed the change in his company's demeanor over the past few months. Black Wolf had preferred to combat an enemy at range, using their marksmanship to win the day.

But that had all changed after their first confrontation with Ragnarok's Valkyries. During the battle their enemy had closed with them. Once they were within a stone's throw the Valkyries had hit them with a barrage of grenades and then charged. Black Wolf had fought hard to stave off the tide, but their enemy way simply too good. The Valkyries were well versed in hand-to-hand combat, and they had massacred Black Wolf.

Many of his troops had taken their loss almost as an affront. They had been considered to be one of the best companies in the Old Chicago region, and yet their enemy had put them down like an old dying dog. To them that loss was a stigma, and they wanted to erase it. They wanted to show that the wolves still had fangs.

So the majority of them had started practicing close combat when they had time. Zach knew that Selene had spent considerable hours in the battledomes fighting against practice holograms, trying to hone her bayonet skills.

Zach didn't know whether they had erased that stigma yet. He didn't know if they had equaled or even approached the skill of the Valkyries. But what he did know was that Black Wolf had become even more fearsome.

The first stalker to charge him received a face full of lead for its trouble. He shot another, then another. A fourth one managed to get close, but Zach got his gun around in time and shot it twice. On the third trigger pull his gun clicked empty.

There was no time to reload in the confusion. Zach swept aside a blow from a stalker with his carbine. As the creature stumbled he drew his pistol and shot it through the head. He quickly slung his carbine over his shoulder and pulled his close combat weapon.

Zach had picked up a trench knife, little more than a spike attached to a set of brass knuckles. The weapon was crude, but it was also deadly effective. He staggered the next stalker with a punch and then stabbed it through the neck with the blade.

Between them Alpha 2 managed to kill at least fifty stalkers before the rest of them broke and fled. Many more of them were cut down as they ran. There was no question of mercy in their minds; the enemy had to be exterminated in order to make this place safe for them. If they had to act savagely to do so, then so be it.

Black Wolf pressed on, clearing out any resistance they came across. All things considered, they were performing well. They were driving the enemy back, and their casualties were light.

“Wolf Lead.”

“
I hear you Fox Lead,” Zach replied.

“
Bravehart is in position,” Anna told him. “See that building with the billboard on top?”

“
Yeah, I see it,” Zach replied.

“
It's full of stalkers armed with crossbows. We're going to flatten it, so be aware.”

“
Copy that, Fox Lead.”

He relayed the alert to the rest of the company, though it was mostly a formality. They were too far east of the place to worry about anything but the worst stray shot.

The shells started falling. Zach could see chunks of the top floor coming apart from the blasts. Bravehart was doing their usual thing, landing shots with precision. Anyone inside of the structure was dead meat.

Another shell slammed through the roof and penetrated deep into the depths of the building. There was a moment of calm, and then the building blew apart. Masonry and roofing scattered everywhere.

“Fox Lead, what's our next move?” Zach asked.

There was no response.

“Fox Lead?”

Still nothing. There was no indication on his HUD that Anna had been killed.

“Fox Lead, are you OK?”

“
All troops on the left, put your gas masks on!” Anna's voice suddenly shouted in the link.

“
What?” Zach asked.

“
Just do it or we're all dead!”

Zach switched channels. “Black Wolf, put on your gas masks. Do it now!”

Every player had a gas mask as a part of their standard kit, but none of them had ever used it. There had been no need to do so. Zach wondered why they needed to now, but there wasn't time to waste. He yanked his mask out of its pouch and started to fit it to his face.

The view through the lenses was strange, distorted. Zach felt a bit disoriented as he tried to find his bearings. Then he saw what Anna had been talking about. A billowing cloud of yellow-green gas swept over them.

“What's going on?” Zach asked Anna.

“
Are you guys OK?” she asked back. She sounded shaken, he noted.

“
I don't know,” Zach told her.

“
Do a roll call,” she ordered him.

Zach did so and was stunned at the results. Almost half of the company was either dead from exposure or badly injured. Many of them hadn't been able to get their masks on in time, or had fitted them improperly.

“Are you sure?” Zach said to Danny as he tried to confirm the carnage.

“
We've been hammered pretty badly,” came the response. “The only saving grace is that all of the stalkers in our area are dead as well.”

“
OK, so this wasn't planned by them, then,” Zach said. “Try to get everyone together as best you can.”

Half the company. They were already short on troops, and now this had happened. He switched his channel.

“Anna, we've lost half our troops,” he told her.

“
Consider yourselves lucky then. We lost two thirds of ours,” came the response.

“
What happened?”

“
I think there were storage tanks or something of that nature inside the building,” Anna said. “Once it blew up then the gas went everywhere.”

“
What's our play now?” Danny asked. “We might not have enough troops to take this place now.”

Zach thought for a moment. “We still have Barghest and Liz's half of Redd Foxx. We can strip the dead of their ammo, so we're in no danger of running out any time soon. It'll be tough, but I think we can take this.”