Author: Mitchell T. Jacobs
Date: 2014-05-22 04:00:00+00:00
Description: The revolution continues. Step into the virtual reality of World at War, and join the fight. Become part of the great factions struggling for supremacy, or forge your own path. Builder, fighter, highwayman, commander: what will your role in the struggle be? War. The struggle between the Hydra Alliance and Ragnarok Company continues. Battles rage in the forests, over the plains, even in the skies. With each passing day, the strength of both sides grows. But who will triumph this clash of juggernauts? Black Wolf Company knows that their alliance will never be able to defeat Ragnarok. Their only
Publisher: Xiphos Press

HOWL

A World at War Novel

By Mitchell T. Jacobs

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

HOWL

Copyright © 2014 by Mitchell T. Jacobs

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Printed in the United States of America

First Printing, 2014

HOWL

To Drew and Maria

CHAPTER 1

Grab and Run

“Alpha Wolf, what's going on?”

Selene took a second to respond. She leaned out around the wall she was sheltering behind and fired a burst at a Ragnarok trooper peeking out of cover. They fell, shot in the head.

“Alpha Wolf, are you OK?”

“Wolf Lead, we have a problem,” Selene said. “Ragnarok's here in force too. I guess they found out about the schematic and want in on it.”

There was silence at the other end of the line for a moment. “OK, I guess these precautions were a good idea. Can you keep pressing forward? I'll send Danny up to support you, and Nora's on the horn with Cody right now.”

“I'll do my best, Zach, but we've got a three way melee on our hands here,” Selene answered. Black Wolf had originally come here on a scouting mission, looking for the schematic that was rumored to be contained within the walls of an old abandoned shopping mall. What they had found was a well guarded fortress, bristling with machine guns and filled with enemy NPCs. They had forced their way in through the south entrance, only to find that Ragnarok troops were fighting their way in through the east.

Ragnarok. What had started as petty squabbles had ignited into a full-fledged war, with the massive Ragnarok Company on one side, fighting the Hydra Alliance on the other. Black Wolf was a founding member of the alliance, and had shouldered a considerable portion of the fighting in the early days. Ragnarok had been driven out of the area south of Old Chicago, but they still had significant holdings in the north, and were a powerful force.

“Alpha Wolf, we're going to make the jump across the middle of the mall. Alpha 3 is going to give us cover fire.”

“Copy that Ethan. I'll have Alpha 1 cover you as well.”

That had been one of the biggest changes in the past three months. Black Wolf had been a small company of twenty-two members when the war started; they now had over fifty. Many of them were newer players, but they had rapidly become an important part of the company. Frequent battles had taught them how to fight.

“Watch it, they have a heavy with a machine gun in the phone kiosk,” a voice warned.

“Thanks, Lone Wolf. Hear that, Ethan?” Selene asked.

“Yeah. We'll have Joe try to blast him out with his grenade launcher,” came the reply.

“Don't bother.” A loud shot rang out from the second floor. “She's down.”

“Thanks Miko,” Selene said. The influx of new recruits wasn't the only change. The veterans were becoming even more skilled fighters in their own right.

Miko, for instance, had gone from a raw new player to an extremely fearsome sniper. She could shoot with the best of them, but her real forte was her stealth abilities; Miko could fade in and out of the battlefield at will, like a ghost. She had taken the time to practice with the stealth experts from Redd Foxx Company, and the time spent was paying off. She had become so good, in fact, that she existed completely outside the normal chain of command. Instead of being a part of a squad, she operated alone under the call sign Lone Wolf.

“Alpha Wolf, we're going to push up through the second floor. We'll give you cover fire and from above and keep Ragnarok from returning the favor.”

“Copy that, Bravo Wolf,” Selene said. “Don't get yourself shot, Danny.”

“Haha,” Danny replied humorlessly.

That was another change. With the increase in the number of members, Black Wolf's organization had undergone a drastic overhaul. The company was organized into two platoons. Selene was the commander of Alpha Wolf Platoon, and Danny was in charge of Bravo Wolf Platoon. Zach was still the overall commander and Nora was his second. They had taken the Wolf Lead and Wolf 2 call signs, respectively.

“Alpha Wolf, we're across the middle. We can cover you,” Ethan said. “I think I see a door to the mall security office, but we should probably have backup before we try.”

“You're clear,” Miko said.

“Alpha 1, Alpha 3, head across the middle. Alpha 1 first, then Alpha 3.”

“Copy that, boss,” Gavin replied. He was the most experienced squad leader in Alpha Wolf Platoon.

“Got it, Alpha Wolf,” Logan said. He had come in the first wave on new recruits, and had proven to be well liked and a good leader. He was a natural choice to command the third squad.

“Bravo Wolf, are you up top to cover yet?” Selene asked.

“Alpha Wolf, this is Bravo 1. We'll be in position in a second. Bravo 2 and Bravo 3 are going to guard our flank,” Xavier said.

“Copy that, but we might need a squad to take care of the enemy NPCs. We've driven them back, but you never know when they might start making a counterattack.”

“Got that. Danny, who do you want in reserve?”

“Keep Karen in reserve. Have Javy's squad cover you from the east,” Danny said.

Danny's choice of Karen for a squad leader had been unexpected and had raised a few eyebrows. She was a relatively junior member of Black Wolf, having only been a part of the company for around two months. It was a gutsy call, but Danny's choice had considerable merit, Selene had to admit, even if she would have been leery of making the same decision. Karen may have been a new recruit, but she was smart, tough and an effective tactician. Her squad had bonded very quickly and were performing well.

It helped that Bravo Wolf had two very skilled squad leaders to back her up. Xavier and Javy hadn't originally been earmarked for leadership responsibilities, but they had proven their mettle leading small fireteams, which had translated well when they led squads.

“Alpha Wolf, we're across,” Gavin said.

A loud boom combined with a clanking noise echoed from above. Someone had fired a recoilless rifle. “Xavier, what's going on?” Selene asked.

“Ragnarok's trying to make another push from the east side of the mall. I had Izzy fire off a round to make them think twice. He took out an RPG heavy with his shot as well.”

“Copy that, Bravo 1. Alpha 3, get across the center,” Selene ordered. “I'll be with you.”

“Got that,” Logan said.

“Alpha Wolf, Wolf 2 just called me. Marauder is going to loop around the east entrance to try and hit Ragnarok from behind. We grab the schematic and hightail it out of here,” Danny said.

“Got that,” Selene said. She moved forward to join up with Alpha 3. They were taking shelter in the remains of a restaurant.

“We're ready,” Logan told her.

She nodded. “Let's go.”

Miko buzzed in. “Selene, it looks like the NPCs are coming back for another round. I count about twenty of them coming in from the west side of the mall.”

“Did the rest of you hear that?” Selene asked.

“We're with her, so yes,” Xavier confirmed.

“Right. This is why we have a reserve in place. We'll take care of it from here,” Danny said. “Go grab the schematic.”

The sound of gunfire from up top started to pick up. Selene saw Karen's squad move into position on the second floor, taking cover in a blasted jewelry store in the southwest corner of the cross.

“Go!” Logan ordered. His troops leaped to their feet and sprinted across the middle of the mall. Rounds came flying at them from both sides, but enemy fire was relatively light. Their cover was doing a good job.

They made it across without losing a single person. Selene found Gavin and Ethan standing next to a door that said employees only. She joined them.

“Is this it?”

“This is the most likely place, unless you want to sweep the entire mall,” Gavin shrugged.

“How do we do this?” Ethan said.

Selene activated her radio. “Everyone, this is Alpha Wolf. We're at the entrance to the mall security office, and I think the schematic is in there. I'm going to take Alpha 1 and Alpha 2 and search the place. Alpha 3, hold this area. We'll try to be as quick as possible.”

“Copy that, Alpha Wolf,” Danny said.

“Alpha Wolf, be advised that David's force is fighting Ragnarok reinforcements. We need to be very quick about this,” Zach said.

“Got that,” Selene said. Hydra had another force up here in the north, to provide protection for the search party. Sacred Sword, Crimson Eagle, Grizzly and Bravehart Companies were grouped into a task force under the command of Sacred Sword's David. They were acting as a blocking force, guarding the road leading to Old Chicago to prevent any reinforcements from reaching the mall. Doubtless the Ragnarok scouting force had asked for backup by now.

“Gavin, your squad's going in first,” Selene said.

“Right.”

Selene had an underslung shotgun attached to her assault rifle. It had take precious skill points in order to use, and it cost a fortune, but it had been worth it when they needed to get through locked doors. She cocked it and blasted the lock away. Lyla, Alpha 1's medic, yanked open the door and the rest of her squad stormed in. Selene followed behind them.

They descended down a flight of stairs, into the basement level of the mall. The tunnel at the bottom of the stairs branched off in three directions; one heading north, one heading east, and one heading west. The northern branch was short, and she could easily see to the end. Compared to some of the other underground places she had dealt with, this was relatively clean and well lit. The concrete floors and walls were in good condition, and there were florescent lights hanging from the ceiling every ten yards or so.

“There's a lot of area to explore,” Gavin commented.

“Search the northern branch first, Give me two of your squad, and we'll hold here while you search. Ethan, take your squad west.”

“Lyla, Chris, hold here with her,” Gavin ordered. “Everyone else, let's clear this place, fast.”

Gavin's squad took off down the northern branch, opening doors and storming rooms. Ethan moved down the western branch with his squad, though there was only one door in sight on his end.

“Wolf Lead, how much time do we have?” Selene asked.

“Bravo Wolf is holding them off,” Zach said, “but if you can step on it that would be good.”

“We also need enough time to get away before all of Ragnarok shows up,” Nora said.

“How much can they really bring, though? They still have to fight us on the other fronts, and then there's Ronin's group as well.”

Hydra was the strongest opposition to Ragnarok, but it wasn't the only one. Ronin Company had tried to form an anti-Ragnarok alliance several months before the war started, but squabbling and infighting had derailed the entire thing. Now Ronin was a much smaller alliance against Ragnarok.

Selene hadn't been privy to the meeting that had taken place, but by all accounts it had gone very poorly. Part of the problem was Ronin's leader, Levi Kanagi. He inspired loyalty in his own troops, but he was also a control freak and often rubbed other company commanders the wrong way.

She didn't think much of that approach. Selene wasn't one to undersell herself; she knew very well that she was one of the better players, with experience from the World at War beta and several months of hard fighting. But at the same time, she was aware of her shortcomings. She was well rounded, but there were others that had skills she didn't possess. Many times she had been a subordinate in task forces that combined squads from several companies, and she had been perfectly content to play her role. Organization was key to this game, and Selene wasn't about to do anything to upset that balance. Besides, she liked being on the front lines, and being a commander would mean that she might get stuck in a command post.

“Nothing this way,” Gavin said.

“Nothing our way either,” Ethan said. “There's three rooms we've searched, and then there's another stairwell that goes up, but I think it goes to the west side of the mall, which puts us right in the middle of the NPC garrison.”

“OK. Come back this way, and we'll go east.”

“You'd think that the schematic would be in the middle of the mall,” Lyla commented.

“That would be too easy,” Chris said.

Selene nodded. “That's one thing you can say for the designers. Everything seems very well planned out, and none of the dungeons are predictable.”

“Makes it tough on us,” Lyla said.

“It also makes it a lot more interesting,” Chris added.

Gavin came back from his branch. Ethan's squad was just a minute behind them.

“Let's go,” Selene said. “Gavin, you're in the lead again.”

“I think we should go first,” Ethan cut in.

“How come?” Selene asked.

“This tunnel branches off to the east. If it's anything like the western branch then there's probably another entrance. And if Ragnarok figured that out, then there's a pretty good chance we're going to end up in a nasty firefight. We'll probably want Leigh up front.”

“Point taken. You have lead,” Selene said. It was a good observation. Leigh was an engineer and was carrying a flamethrower. She wasn't much use in an open battle, but in the confines of a tunnel she would be absolutely lethal.

They pressed forward. The tunnel was straight, with a few doors on the north side. “Ethan, keep moving forward. I'll have Gavin's squad clear out the rooms,” Selene ordered.

“Roger,” Ethan said.

Selene stopped for a moment and buzzed Miko. “Lone Wolf, can you see what Ragnarok's doing up there?”

“They're holding position,” Miko said. “And they're not being very aggressive. They seem to be grouped around a small hallway, but I can't see what's at the end of it.”

“Do you know how many of them there are?” Selene asked.

“Around thirty,” Miko said.

“Crap!”

Gavin gave her a quizzical look as he prepared to search another room.

“What?” Miko asked.

“They had more troops than that to begin with. There's no way that thirty troops could throw out that amount of firepower.”

“What are you thinking?” Miko asked.

“Never mind, just keep watch.” She switched channels. “Ethan, Gavin, I think that Ragnarok found their way down here. We might have some company pretty soon.”

“Roger,” Ethan said, though he sounded like he was distracted. Selene could see that his squad had stopped. They were grouped around a hole in the wall. Four of them moved in.

“Cover! COVER!” she suddenly heard one of them shout. A second later there was a series of loud, heavy-sounding bangs.

“Alpha 2, what was that?”

“I'm not sure,” Ethan said. “Terra's fireteam went first, but I can't see them. We're next to a parking garage or something.”

“Terra, you there?” Selene asked as she switched channels.

“Yeah, but we're pinned down in cover,” she said. “I think we found where the schematic is, 'cause there's an auto-turret with an autocannon mounted on the ceiling. It's right in front of a door.

“Can you take it out?” Selene asked.

“It looks like it's armored, and we don't have great weapons for dealing with that,” she said. “We don't have enough space to fire the recoilless rifle unless we stand in the middle of the garage, and that's suicide.”

“Think you can hit it with a grenade launcher?” Selene asked.

“Maybe, but that's going to be tough. And I think we're going to have to use armor-piercing rounds,” Terra warned.

“Alright,” Selene said. Jade was the only one in the platoon with a grenade launcher, and she only had a few armor-piercing rounds. They were extremely expensive, and they had very limited use. Most of the time it was better to carry the more common high-explosive ones.

The cannon suddenly fired again. Selene had been on the receiving end of four autocannons once; her entire team had been wiped out. It had sounded like a massive sewing machine. This cannon fire much slower, but it sounded like it had a lot more power as well.

“It's not firing at us,” Terra said. “Crap. I think Rangarok is coming in from another part of the garage.

The cannon fired again.

“I'm moving in,” Ethan said. The rest of his squad went through the hole in the wall.

“Us next?” Gavin asked.

Selene nodded. “Let's try to get as many troops in there as possible while that thing is distracted.”

Selene went in first, followed by the rest of Gavin's squad. Ethan's squad was in cover behind broken down cars and concrete barriers. She noted how thick the cover was. The cannon could probably penetrate anything short of a half dozen cars lined up in a row.

“Do you see them?” Selene asked as she slid in next to Terra. From her position she could see that the entrance to the garage was covered in rubble.

“They're over on the south side of the garage. The cannon is focusing in on them. I think they tried to hit it with an RPG,” Terra said. “I'd take the opportunity to destroy it, but I think they have us outnumbered.”

“Let's see if we can get some help,” Selene said. “Raider Lead, Raider Lead, are you in position?”

The line was silent for a moment. “Alpha Wolf, we're about to come in through the east entrance,” Cody said.

“We're in a basement parking garage,” Selene said. “Ragnarok's here too. There should be a hallway up on your level that branches off of the main mall. I believe that there's a stairwell at the end of it. If you can come down then you can ambush them from behind.”

“Sounds good,” Cody said.

“There's a computer controlled autocannon down here,” she said. “Tell us right before you come down the stairs, and we'll blast the thing.”

“Make sure you time it right,” Cody said.

The cannon fired again.

“Jade, load up an armor-piercing round. Hit the turret on my signal,” Selene said. “We-”

The auto-turret suddenly exploded.

“Crap! Ragnarok took it out with an RPG!” Terra said.

“Switch plans. Fire! Fire on them!” Selene said. Her platoon complied. “Cody! Ragnarok took down the auto-turret!” she shouted over the din of gunfire. “We need backup now!”

“Copy,” Cody replied tersely. A second later, the ceiling shook.

“No sense of subtlety,” Gavin said.

“Terra, follow me with your fireteam. We're going to try to get the schematic. The rest of you, cover us,” Selene said.

“You're not going to have enough time to get the door open,” Gavin warned.

“I'll take care of that,” Jade said. She loaded up a grenade into her launcher and fired.

“Cover us!” Selene shouted as she fired a burst and then sprinted for the open doorway. It had been blasted off of its hinges by an armor-piercing round. Terra followed close behind her, firing off bursts with her machine gun. Leo, Riley and Gabby followed close behind.

Selene charged and shoved the door aside with her shoulder. She stumbled, but caught herself. Sure enough, there was a schematic sitting on a table at the end of the small room.

“All leaders, we have the schematic, but we're pinned down,” Selene said.

“Do you need help?” Logan asked.

“Negative. Marauder should be coming,” Selene said. “Help them clear the top floors so we can get out of here quick.”

There was an explosion, and several friendly markers on the radar disappeared.

“Alpha 1 is down!” Lyla said. “I'll try to patch him up, but he's hurt bad.”

“Understood,” Selene said. She tossed the schematic over to Terra. “Keep that safe at any cost. If you're the only one who manages to get away with it in hand, so be it. It's still a victory.”

“What are you going to do?” Terra asked.

Selene didn't answer. She fired off the remains of her magazine and reloaded. Then she crouched, getting ready to sprint.

“You're not going to try it,” Terra said incredulously.

“Give me as much cover as you can, but if you need to, barricade yourselves in here until Marauder shows up.”

“You're crazy,” Riley said.

“I'm coming across! Cover fire!”

Selene sprinted across the open area of the parking garage. Bullets came her way, but they were off target, and then they stopped. Ethan was leaning over a concrete barrier, blazing away with his machine gun. Selene jumped into cover behind a car.

“Jade, Mara, Kelsey, rally on my position,” she ordered.

The three made their way over to her. Jade was an engineer, with dark brown skin, black hair cut into a bob and a set of armor plates to protect her chest and shoulders. Mara was a soldier, like Selene, tall with long brunette hair and pale skin. Kelsey was an assault, short and thin with mid-length blonde hair. Selene had taken to using them as a fireteam whenever she needed one.

“Ethan, give us some more cover fire on my signal,” Selene ordered. “Us four are going to assault their main line.”

“Really? A suicide mission?” Kelsey asked.

“They have a lot of firepower. If we don't take it out we're in for a world of hurt,” Selene said. “We're going to get within grenade range and then we're going to let them have it.”

There was a loud, distinctive crack. “Alpha Wolf, they have a sniper,” Ethan warned.

“That puts a damper on things,” Selene said.

“Alpha 1, do you know where that came from?” Jade asked.

“See the red SUV? I think the sniper is inside of it.”

Jade loaded a grenade into her launcher. “Well, that's easy enough.” She fired off the round, and the SUV wasn't there anymore. Shrapnel flew everywhere. One piece slammed into the side of the vehicle they were sheltering behind.

Another explosion went off. “Well, that just made them angry,” Ethan said.

“Cover us. NOW!” Selene ordered. Her team charged out of cover and raced across the empty space between the two lines. Selene was the first to reach the concrete barrier in front of the Ragnarok positions. She got into cover and then opened fire on full auto.

“Should be good enough,” Mara said as she joined her. Kelsey and Jade were a split-second behind her.

“Start tossing them before they figure out why we're here,” Selene said. She grabbed a grenade off her belt, pulled the pin and lobbed it toward the Ragnarok positions. The rest of them followed suit.

“Alpha Wolf, can you hold your fire? We're about to come down,” Cody said.

“We're lobbing grenades,” Selene told him. We'll throw another round, and then you can storm the place when they go off.”

“Got it,” Cody said.

“Ethan, Marauder is coming down the stairs. Make sure to watch your fire.”

“Copy that, Alpha Wolf.”

Selene took another grenade off of her belt. “Is everyone ready?” The rest of them nodded. “Throw!”

Four grenades flew toward Ragnarok's line. Selene didn't watch them. There was too much risk of being shot in the head. Then a series of four explosions went off.

There was a deafening wave of gunfire in front of them, that grew louder and louder. And then there was silence.

“Clear!” a voice shouted.

Selene stood up. “Took your time getting here,” she commented.

“I'm sorry, I'll let them shoot you up next time,” Cody said. “Do you have the schematic?”

“Terra does,” she said.

“Good, because we need to go. Ragnarok is pushing David's group really hard.”

She nodded and activated her radio. “Good job, everyone. Now let's get out of here.”

CHAPTER 2

First Founding

“You're kidding me,” Zach said.

“It's a schematic for a small helicopter,” Yusuf said. “Not the biggest thing, but it'll be useful nonetheless.”

“Can you build it?” Zach asked.

Yusuf grinned. “Can you fly it is the better question.”

Zach nodded as he looked around. The scent of metal, fire and smoke filled the air. Hephaestus Forge was busy, churning out ammunition, vehicles and weapons to feed the war effort. Lerna Bastion's stocks were remaining steady, but they were still busy. The fighting was tearing through equipment at a frightening rate.

“I'm guessing that it runs like the other vehicles in the game, so provided we have someone who knows how to fly a helicopter we can train others to fly as well,” Zach said. “Do you know what it's supposed to be used for?” He hadn't looked over the schematic yet.

“Well, there's seating for two inside the cockpit. But there's the option to mount bench seats on the stub wings, so you can put up to six people on them as well.”

“I assume there's seat belts?” Zach said.

“That would be a safe assumption,” Yusuf confirmed. “There's also four weapons mounts on the stub wings, so we can turn it into a gunship if we want.”

“Is it armored?”

“Yeah, but it's a helicopter. It's not going to stand up to withering fire,” Yusuf said.

“So we have water and air capabilities now,” Zach mused. Redd Foxx Company had come across a schematic for a fast river craft when they were exploring the south. Hephaestus had built two prototypes, but they hadn't found much use for them yet.

“The question now is how do we use them?” Yusuf said.

That was certainly something that needed to be considered. Hydra's original objective had been to capture a large city so they could be free from Ragnarok encroachment, but the fighting had derailed those plans. Most of Hydra's strength was needed to defend their territory. Redd Foxx was still scouting to the south, but right now the prospects seemed doubtful. They simply didn't have enough troops.

Hydra had grown over the last few months, recruiting more players into the existing companies as well as welcoming several new ones. Their strength was nearing a thousand members. They were large, but Ragnarok was much, much bigger, with almost three thousand members. But something interesting had happened in the past few months. Before the war, Ragnarok had been absorbing other companies at will. Hydra itself had been formed in order to resist its encroachment. But ever since the fighting began, Ragnarok had been unable to take over more than a few. Zach guessed it was because their forces were stretched as well. Pulling troops away from the fight with Hydra or Ronin could spell doom for them on one front, and the smaller companies now knew that they could ask for help. Hydra had aided a few companies in order to weaken Ragnarok's position, and now they were very wary.

“Any ideas?” Zach asked.

Yusuf shook his head. “Not my area of expertise. Maybe the rest of the council will have some ideas.”

Zach's wrist alert went off. He activated his radio. “Wolf Lead.”

“Zach, can you get up to the council room at headquarters? Anna, Liz and Robbie want to go over something with us,” Nora said on the other end of the line.

“Alright, I'll be there in a minute,” Zach said. “I've been summoned,” he told Yusuf.

“Have fun. I'll see what else I can dig up on the chopper,” he said.

Zach left the Forge and headed for the four story building in the center of town that served as Hydra HQ. He wondered just what the others wanted. Anna was the commander of Redd Foxx company, and Liz was her second. They had formed a close bond with Black Wolf, and Zach liked working with them. He didn't know Robbie nearly as well. He was the commander of Raven Company. They were newcomers, and only had around twenty members. Black Wolf hadn't worked with them much.

The HQ was abuzz with activity as he entered. He passed Lee of Crimson Eagle on the way to the stairs and gave him a friendly greeting. Then it was up to the fourth level. Zach hurried down the halls and reached the double doors. The rest of them were waiting inside, seated at the long table.

“Sorry to grab you on such short notice,” Anna said. She and Liz were still dressed in their field camo, he noticed.

“No problem,” Zach said. “What's up?”

“We were having a brainstorming session, and I think we might have something,” Nora said.

Zach took a seat next to her. “What were you brainstorming about?”

“The two schematics we found,” Liz said. “They're going to be very useful.”

“How much do you know about them?” Zach asked.

“We know that we have a river craft and a helicopter to work with,” Anna said.

“Why was I the last one to find out about the helicopter?” Zach asked.

“We thought you looked it over on the way back,” Liz said. “I mean, it stands to reason that you'd want to know what you found.”

“Well, we were a little busy.” Ragnarok had dogged them all the way back to the heart of their territory, trying to get the schematic. For once they had been outnumbered, but they had been determined all the same. They had finally given up once David's task force had shown up to support them.

Anna laughed. “That's true. We've been in enough hairy situations ourselves where the only thing you can do is grab whatever you came for and run.”

“So what are you getting at?”

“We've lost sight of our objective,” Anna said. “We should be making a drive toward Indianapolis, but most of our forces are fighting up north. And we can't do the scouting by ourselves. We're good, but there have been times where we're run into trouble and don't have the fire support we need.”

“So, what do you want to do about it?” Zach asked, still not sure what she was getting at.

“We have an armored cavalry company already. I think we should make a ranger company as well. It would be Redd Foxx and Black Wolf,” Liz said.

“Ah. Exactly what are you talking about when you say a ranger company?”

“We'd be light infantry, suited for reconnaissance, raiding and the like. We're experienced enough to fight out of armored vehicles if we need to, but I think our main form of transport should be boat and helicopter. We can get where we need to fast, and we'll be able to bring heavy fire support with us,” Liz said.

“I didn't hear Raven mentioned,” Zach said. “What's their role in all of this?”

“They don't have a lot of troops, but I think they can be good chopper and boat crews,” Anna said.

“Yeah, I think that's where we'll serve best,” Robbie said. “We haven't exactly been helpful.”

“There's only so much that you can do with twenty troops. Believe me, we know all about that,” Zach said.

“And what they can do is very important,” Nora added. “I think the mall raid would have gone much smoother if we had the choppers. It makes us a lot less vulnerable going to and from the battle zones as well.”

“That's the choppers, but the what about the boats?” Are they really going to be all that useful?” Zach asked.

“The White River goes right through the center of Indianapolis, and there's quite a few reservoirs as well. And did you see how many guns it can carry?” Anna pointed out.

That was definitely the selling point. Despite the fact the it would be limited to water, the sheer number of guns it could bring to bear was staggering. The craft had seven weapon mounts, and could carry ten troops in addition to the four crew. Facing down a pair of them would be completely horrifying from the other end.

“I think it's a good idea,” Zach said. “It's going to take some time to get going, though. The helicopters need to be built, and then we need trained pilots. And how are we going to structure the company? Who's going to be in command?”

“Whoever fits,” Anna shrugged. “We've never had trouble getting along in the past. It's not like we're in the real world army.”

“Point taken,” Zach said. “At the very least, I think we need to do some training. The battledome would be a good place.”

“You just want the prestige title,” Nora said.

“Hey, if we're going to be rangers we might as well get the title,” Zach shrugged. “It would be a good way to test new recruits as well.”

The Old Chicago battledome was a place that anyone could train in without fear of death. If you were killed, you simply failed the challenge you were trying to complete without losing any experience points. You didn't gain any experience points either, but it was a good place to learn how to shoot and to try new tactics. There were also high level challenges to complete, which allowed winners to wear titles on their uniforms. They didn't actually serve any purpose other than bragging rights, but they were a source of pride and were highly coveted.

“So, should everyone in the company have to complete the ranger challenge?” Nora asked.

Liz nodded. “I think it's a good idea. We're going to have to do a lot of fighting cut off from support, so it makes sense that everyone should be able to do it.”

“What happens if they fail?” Robbie asked.

“Then they don't make the cut,” Liz shrugged. “We can form them into a reserve group, and they can keep trying until they make it.”

“That's a bit harsh,” Robbie said.

“Everyone needs to be able to pull their weight,” Liz replied.

“Plus, you can complete the challenge as a group,” Nora said. “We should test by squad. That's how we're going to be fighting, so that's the way that we should succeed as well.”

“Just one problem,” Liz pointed out.

“What's that?”

“Anna and I don't have squads.”

“Neither do we,” Nora said. “So let's see, there's us five, Danny, Selene and Miko that don't have squads. That gives us eight people. More than enough to make a good squad. And we even cover all the classes.”

“That sounds like it'll work,” Liz agreed.

“I seem to remember getting shot the last time we were in the same squad,” Zach said to Anna.

She laughed. “And I got good experience for patching you up, so I'm not seeing the downside.”

Zach laughed as well and shook his head. “Well, I can't complain too much. We should be able to take care of the challenge just fine.”

“Why do I get the feeling that this is going to turn into one of super teams that should crush everything, but doesn't 'cause they can't get along,” Robbie commented

“Why, are you going to be a problem?” Liz asked sarcastically.

“Nope, just seems like the plot of every single team movie,” Robbie laughed.

“Good thing we're not in one of those movies,” Zach said.

“Do you have time later to do some training together?” Anna asked.

“Unfortunately, no. We have plans,” Nora said.

“Um, so do I,” Liz said.

“What do you have going on?” Anna asked.

“Same thing as us,” Zach said.

Anna smiled. “Ah. Danny's included, I assume?”

“That would be correct,” Nora said.

“Great, announce it to everyone,” Liz muttered to no one in particular.

“Wait, so are you dating one of their members?” Robbie asked.

“Sort of.”

“Sort of? Oh good lord, it's like I'm in high school all over again,” Robbie said. “And here I thought I was done with all the drama.”

“OK, so maybe we're in a romantic comedy,” Zach said.

“So apparently we're the normal, stable couple in all of this?” Nora commented. “That's reassuring.”

“I can totally see it now,” Anna laughed. “Are we going to lose the battle challenge because you and Danny have relationship problems and can't get along?”

Liz rubbed her hands over her eyes. “I hate you all right now,” she said. Zach could see that she was trying to keep from laughing.

“I think we can get some training done tomorrow,” Nora said. “We have plenty of time, unless Hephaestus figures out how to build twenty choppers overnight.”

“One thing though. Are we going to have enough fusion batteries to power them?” Robbie asked.

“Good question,” Zach said. Pretty much everything that ran off of electricity was powered by fusion batteries. They were convenient and easy to operate, but they were going through scores of them in a single day. Two warehouses in town were filled to the brim with drained batteries.

“I really wish there was a way to recharge them,” Anna said.

“There was that thing in the power plant to the east,” Liz offered.

“I wish there was a way to recharge them that isn't smashed in a million little pieces,” Anna revised her statement. Redd Foxx had run into a monstrous mutated spider lurking within the plant. They eventually had to blast it with recoilless rifle rounds, and had destroyed large sections of the plant in the process. The schematic there was thankfully intact, but the other possible salvage definitely was not.

“But the fact something that looks like a charger exists makes me think that we can recharge the batteries,” Nora said. “That would solve our problems.”

“Until then, we're going to have to buy them,” Zach said. Thankfully they had the money to do so. Hydra had two main sources of income: bullets and overdrive. Even with the high demands of their forces, they still had enough ammunition to sell in the markets of Old Chicago. They also were the only ones who could produce overdrive, the best combat stimulant on the market. Black Wolf had discovered it early on in their adventures, and had used it as their trump card. They had amassed a huge treasury from the profits, and it had kept Ragnarok at bay. They had been too afraid of being cut off from the supply.

Doubtless Ragnarok was buying some of the goods they were selling on the market, but they had judged it was a fair trade. Yusuf had astutely pointed out that they were essentially trading bullets and stimulants for the supplies they needed to run their armored forces.

But still, giving their enemy the means to fight them was galling, even if it did serve them well in the long run. Several of the more militant council members were unhappy, particularly Cody of Marauder, C.J. of Crimson Eagle and Lee of Storm Hawk. Gina of Grizzly Company, one of the founding members of Hydra, was also unhappy, though she was more reserved about her displeasure.

That was why Zach felt their mission was so important. If they could capture a large city, they could operate a market outside of Ragnarok's influence. Lerna Bastion was an excellent fortress, but it lacked the capability to operate a market. They had the space, but everyone was leery of letting outsiders into their stronghold. Betrayal meant that a player could be killed anywhere without consequence for twelve hours, even in safe zones, but Zach suspected that any Ragnarok infiltrator wouldn't care in the slightest. Lerna Bastion was more than a thorn in their side: it was a huge boulder, blocking their path.

The bastion was the toughest fortress in the region, built by Hephaestus engineers. There had been several improvements from the original fortress. The wall around the town was now twenty feet thick, made out of compacted earth and covered in pillboxes and bunkers. The ditch in front of the wall was dug ten feet deep and fifteen feet wide, and was strewn with barbed wire and landmines. Heavy weapons emplacements lined the walls and the buildings near the edge of town. Ragnarok had tried to launch an attack on the bastion at the beginning of the war, with almost two thousand troops. They had outnumbered Hydra by almost four to one, and they had been slaughtered. Such was the power of the fortress.

“What do you think?” Nora asked.

“Huh?” Zach said, snapping back to the discussion at hand. He had completely zoned out.

“Structuring the alliance. Every single company seems to be turning into specialists,” Nora elaborated.

“True enough,” Zach said. They had found it was more efficient for different companies to specialize. Bravehart, for instance, specialized in fire support, and operated 81mm and 120mm mortars. They were dominated by artillery specialists, though they still had front line squads to guard their mortar teams. Likewise, Marauder was tailored for up close and personal fighting, but still had snipers and long ranged heavies to provide support. Overall, though, they were specialized for a specific combat role.

“I think the larger companies need to be able to fulfill a bunch of different roles, even if their specialization is in one,” Liz said.

“I do too. Never know when you're going to need certain skills,” Nora agreed.

“Taking this place comes to mind,” Anna commented. The battle for Lerna had been fierce. Hydra had lost almost three quarters of their troops in the attack, most of them due to a self-propelled antiaircraft gun that had appeared near the central capture point. It had been a hard lesson, but an important one. They had to improvise on the fly, and the four companies had cooperated admirably. Black Wolf, Grizzly, Redd Foxx and Sacred Sword had done what they needed to do in order to win the battle, and they did it without prejudice or favoritism. That ethos had carried over to the alliance, and was still an important part of their culture.

“I think everyone's capable of performing multiple roles if they need to. The class restrictions hurt, but that's to be expected,” Zach said. Artillery, minesweeping, explosives and other specialized skills needed to be learned with skill points. That forced players to specialize, but in a pinch everyone could at least serve as infantry.

“Yeah. It was just a thought I had,” Nora said. “It might be easier to operate if we have a clear structure.”

Zach agreed with that assessment. Organization was Hydra's greatest strength. They had excellent weapons and seasoned troops, but they would be nothing without organization. Zach had done some work on the communications systems for World at War, and he knew how to exploit them to their advantage. Knowing where everything was on the battlefield could be more powerful than a squad of veteran troops. It had allowed them to operate effectively. Even under fire and suffering casualties, Hydra troops still understood the importance of cooperation. It made them like their namesake: cut off one head, and two more would appear.

“Are we going to try to get the ranger company approved at the next council meeting?” Zach asked.

“I don't think we need to bother with that,” Anna said. “I'm going to send everyone a message, and then we can take a vote that way. I can't imagine there would be any objections.”

“Sounds good,” Zach nodded. Messages could be sent both in game and to the World at War app, which could be accessed in the real world through a computer or a phone. It allowed them to bridge the gap between the two worlds. In fact, it was almost like crossing from one dimension to another.

Nora opened her wrist menu and looked at the clock. “We should probably log out so we have time to get ready for tonight. See you later, Liz.”

Nora touched a few buttons in her holographic wrist menu, and suddenly she wasn't there anymore.

“See you tonight, Liz, and see you two tomorrow,” Zach said.

“Later,” Anna said.

Zach opened up his menu and logged out.

He sat up in his chair and took the neuro-helmet off. Nora was already up, arching her back as she stretched.

“I'm so glad we exercise,” she groaned as she leaned to one side. “Can you imagine how fat we'd be if we didn't?”

“Not something I really want to think about,” Zach said. He had run track in high school, and he still enjoyed it.

Nora stopped stretching. “Well, time to get ready.” She pulled a Chicago Cubs hat out of her bag. “This is going to be great.”

Zach stood up and headed for his room to get his jersey. “Definitely,” he said.

CHAPTER 3

The Spartan Way

“Why am I a Cubs fan?” Danny groaned out loud.

“That was pretty brutal, huh?” Javy asked.

“Yeah, it was,” Danny said. “I don't know why I even bother getting excited.”

“That didn't look pretty, but what happened?” Selene asked. “I didn't get time to check the game log.”

“They had their annual meltdown last night,” Danny said. “They had a three run lead at the top of the ninth, but then Ignacio walked two runners. And then the Reds hit a home run.”

“Ouch,” Selene said.

“That wasn't the worst part,” Nora said. “Shin Riku hit a double in the bottom of the thirteenth inning with no outs. Know what happened next? Groundout, strikeout, strikeout. No runs.”

Danny leaned back in his chair and groaned again. “Fifteen innings. I'm so tired now.”

“You three look it,” Miko commented.

“How are you holding up?” Gavin asked Zach.

“When's football season?” Zach said with a shake of his head.

“We are such masochists,” Danny said. At this rate, the sun was going to implode before the Cubs won the World Series.

“Don't doze off,” Xavier warned.

“Don't worry. I'll just hype myself up on coffee,” Danny said. In truth, even though he was tired he was fully awake. They were at another interview session with Dr. Richard Unger, a sociologist studying World at War at the behest of the game's creator, Elysium Visions.

Danny hadn't thought much about the sociological and psychological implications of World at War to begin with. It was odd, considering that he was a philosophy student in the process of completing his doctorate, but to Danny the game had simply been entertainment. It was good entertainment, all told. Along with Zach and Selene he had been a beta tester, and he had enjoyed everything about the combat system. But that had changed once they started to experience the open world. It was no longer a matter of soldier against soldier. World at War may have ostensibly been about fighting, but in reality it was a political game at its core. It was like Carl von Clausewitz had said: war was simply a continuation of political policy by other means. But what were their political ends in the virtual world?

Dr. Unger had picked up on that and had posed a question to them. Was their war with Ragnarok based on a duel of ideologies? Dr. Unger had posed the theory that they saw themselves as democratic, while Ragnarok was authoritarian. Thus, they gravitated toward conflict because of their clashing ideologies. Hydra espoused freedom while Ragnarok emphasized control.

Danny had disagreed with that conclusion. To him, they lived in a world like the one described by Thomas Hobbes: life was nasty, brutish and short without a powerful authority to oversee everything, and both groups possessed such authority, even though they did so in different ways. Ragnarok's leadership was extremely centralized, centering around their company commander, Lucas Otrar. To all appearances Hydra was much more egalitarian, but to Danny they were simply two sides of the same coin. Hydra's council still had ultimate authority over the alliance, even if it was slightly more decentralized.

And anyhow, Danny didn't see the conflict as one about ideology. Hydra wanted freedom from Ragnarok's oppression, to be sure, but the conflict came from something else. It wasn't about ideals, or about a lofty abstract concept. It was the same as two cavemen beating each other with sticks. It was simply about dominance.

But then again, every single competition was about that. Sometimes you won, sometimes you lost, and sometimes you watched your team's season go down in flames and wished you had been raised a White Sox fan.

The door behind him opened. “Good morning, everyone,” a familiar voice said. Danny turned to greet Dr. Unger as he took his seat.

The doctor set his notes down on the table in front of him and opened them up. He had a paper notebook, not a tablet or a holographic display. Danny often wondered about that. Maybe it was just nostalgia.

“We'll get started, then. I've been compiling reports on your actions for the past few months, and many things had caught my interest. There was the idea of a battle between ideologies, as you remember, though you were fairly quick to debunk that notion. But one of the other things I noticed was your apparent use of psychological warfare.” He looked over at Miko. “In particular, I noticed that you seem to specifically target enemy commanders for assassination. Is there a reason why, besides the obvious?”

“Killing commanders disrupts an enemy's ability to coordinate their actions,” Miko said. “Not having a strong central command hurts anyone, but it really hurts a big force.”

“It also forces them to post a much bigger guard at their headquarters,” Nora said. “That hurts them as well.”

Dr. Unger nodded. “But that also invites retaliation.”

“We took the idea from Ragnarok, actually,” Danny pointed out. “They were the ones that started using it.”

“I imagine it must be very demoralizing to be a victim of those types of tactics,” Dr. Unger said.

“It's not much different from being blasted by an enemy mortar or RPG team,” Javy said. He had been killed a few times leading his squad.

Miko frowned. “I'd disagree, actually. You can chalk up a lot of kills to the random chaos of battle. But having someone come assassinate you makes it feel like you're being specifically targeted. And that can make people really nervous.”

“So you perform assassinations because they cause a specific type of intimidation?” Dr. Unger asked.

Miko shrugged. “That seems accurate.”

“I think it's just one part of psychological warfare,” Danny said. “We do a lot of things to intimidate or confuse the enemy.”

That was one significant weakness that human players had compared to NPCs. Players were generally much better shots, had better abilities and were able to come up with plans on the fly better, but they also had the weakness of human psychology. NPCs could be confused, tricked or suppressed, but as virtual constructs they weren't capable of feeling fear. In contrast, human players were vulnerable in many respects. They could guess enemy plans wrong, they could be intimidated by the volume of enemy fire coming at them, and their judgment could be skewed by their own prejudices and perspectives.

That was what made communication such a vital part of the game. Zach had been one of the main designers of the game's communications systems. At first glance it didn't seem like a significant advantage, but at second blush it was a huge one. It wasn't like there was any secret knowledge, but he had understood better than anyone the need for players to exercise coordinated teamwork. That was what truly separated the elite companies and alliances from the rest of the pack.

“Is there anything in particular that you push for?” Dr. Unger asked.

“Confusion,” Danny said. The others nodded in agreement with him.

“Can you elaborate?”

Danny leaned back in his chair. “During the battle around Lerna Bastion, there were a few small teams operating outside of the walls. They really didn't amount to much, but they were really important in turning the tide of the battle.”

“I think that a lot of it had to do with intimidation and surprise,” Selene said. “We took out an artillery position manned with a couple of platoons with just a four person team. They didn't see us coming, and we were able to take advantage of the shock factor to get in and accomplish our goal.”

“There was another team from Redd Foxx in the forest as well,” Zach said. “The same thing happened. They wee able to take out the enemy headquarters because they caught the enemy by surprise. Once that happened, the enemy had to retreat because they couldn't coordinate their efforts.”

Dr. Unger nodded. “I see. That certainly fits with the idea that was posited to me by one of the head designers. There seem to be many emergent mechanics.”

“Pardon, but what exactly does that mean?” Xavier asked.

“Emergent mechanics. Emergent gameplay has always been a part of games, even dating back to board games. Even the simplest mechanics can lead to very complex situations once the human element is introduced. Take, for example, chess. At its core the game is very simple. Each piece has its own specific moves it can perform, and you must capture the enemy king. Simple, at its core. But pit two humans against one another and several mechanics start to appear. What should my opening move be? What will my opponent do? What is he doing right now? Is this a trap? Many things like that start to appear.”

“That really didn't occur to me,” Danny said.

“You are all a very good example of this, in fact. Take your selling of overdrive, for instance. The mechanics surrounding it are quite simple. You can produce something from a schematic, and there's an auction system within the game. Simple, really, but by thinking outside of the box you managed to leverage that into a monopoly.”

“Smart thinking on her part,” Danny said, nodding toward Nora.

“Thanks,” she said.

“Your war against Ragnarok is an example as well. It has all the makings of an epic narrative, but it simply came about because of the human element within the game. The ambitions of a few people collided, and suddenly it spiraled into an all-out war,” Dr. Unger said. “It's also interesting to note that the emergent mechanics seem to be amplified by the fact that it's a virtual world.”

“How so?” Zach asked.

“Players seem to be pushed to invent solutions to problems much faster,” Dr. Unger said. “We think it may have something to do with the lack of disconnect between their virtual world avatars and their real world selves.”

“So it's because the game seems to trigger their survival instincts?” Danny asked.

“That would be one way to put it,” Dr. Unger said. “Players that frequent much more dangerous areas seem to be most affected.”

That was a rather sobering thought, Danny thought to himself. It was in line with some of his theories about the game. For how advanced everything seemed in World at War, they were really back in the Stone Age. The players were scattered into small groups, trying to fight for their own survival against a land filled with predators and brutal competition from others. They were completely primitive.

Maybe that was the appeal of the game. It gave them an outlet for the visceral nature that all humans possessed. Even given the great strides in knowledge and technology, humans still had the beast lurking within them, and it felt good to let it out once in a while. Danny himself enjoyed combat for its primal thrill. That was one of the greatest thrills of violent games. They allowed you to unleash the beast within a contained environment. But what happened when the filter between the real and virtual world disappeared?

It was a disturbing thought, to say the least.

“So you want us to take the ranger challenge?” Danny asked. They were getting a late lunch at the Belfast Manor Pub.

“I think it's a good idea,” Zach said. “We need to have some way to make sure that everyone is up to par.”

Danny nodded as he looked over the menu. “True enough. Still, though, that seems to favor Redd Foxx over us.”

“You don't have to use stealth skills,” Nora said. “All you need is to complete the objectives.”

“That's like saying I don't need a parachute to go skydiving,” Danny argued.

“Well, go ask Liz for some training,” Nora shrugged.

“Are we going to be tested individually?” Gavin asked.

“No, it's going to be by squad,” Zach told them. “That seems like it's the best way to do it, since the individual squads are going to be the basis of the force.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“We figure the best way to handle transportation is by how much a helicopter or boat can carry,” Nora said. “Boats can carry ten, and helicopters can carry up to six, although that's pretty cramped. But we're planning on having one boat or two helicopters per squad.”

“Plus, we can do a lot of damage with just one fireteam, like I said earlier,” Zach said.

Danny nodded in agreement. “We did a lot with just four of us. It would also work well, since we can deploy teams to different areas where they're needed. It'll make it much more efficient.”

“But we still have to pass the ranger challenge,” Gavin said.

“Yeah, that's going to be the sticking point in all of this,” Nora admitted. “I mean, I definitely think we can do it, but Danny is right as well. Redd Foxx is much better suited for this type of thing.”

Danny thought about that as they ordered. Black Wolf was capable of stealth, but not on the same level as Redd Foxx. Then again, he wasn't sure that anyone could match them. Miko seemed to be able to; she had done a lot of training with Liz and Gwen. Maybe it was time for them to do so as well.

“Who's going first?” Xavier asked.

“Who wants to go first is the better question,” Zach said.

Xavier, Gavin and Javy looked at each other. “Fine, I'll take my squad first,” Xavier said with mock indignation.

Selene spoke up. “Um, what are people without a squad going to do?”

“We're forming a squad of our own,” Zach said. “Us five without squads, plus Robbie, Liz and Anna.”

“You get two actual stealth experts? How's that even fair?” Javy asked.

“We have six people who aren't stealth experts as well,” Zach offered.

“Hey, hey, hey. Five people who aren't stealth experts,” Miko pointed out. “I'm perfectly fine.”

“It's not like you can't screw up having stealth experts either,” Selene said. “Remember what happened when we were scouting Lerna?”

Zach groaned. “Is everyone going to keep bringing that up?”

Xavier laughed. “Thanks for reminding me. That's definitely a fair point.”

It could also end up being a serious problem, Danny thought to himself. They had a lot to work on.

You are KIA.

“Not again,” Danny groaned to himself. He was so glad that deaths in the battledome didn't count.

He sat up. The simulated forest in front of him suddenly disappeared. Liz was standing in front of him about thirty yards away, holding a compound bow in her left hand. Danny could see a quiver of arrows on her back.

“You're trying way too hard,” she commented.

“Are you using me for target practice?” Danny asked incredulously.

She shrugged. “I need to get used to firing a bow, and this is the perfect time to do it. Kill two birds with one stone.” She slung the bow over her shoulder. “Like I said, your biggest problem is that you're trying to hard, and that's making you too tense. You're not moving as smoothly as you should be, and that means that you're more likely to make noise whether you realize it or not.”

“So how do I fix it?” Danny asked.

“Practice,” Liz told him flatly. “A lot of practice, and a lot of getting killed while you learn. You should have seen our battledome records when we first started.”

Danny laid back down on the floor. “This is going to get really frustrating, isn't it?”

“Well, I'm having fun,” Liz offered with a laugh.

“That's so comforting.”

“You're also a heavy. You're never going to be as good at stealth as other classes. It's just the way the build works. Plus, stealth is different from silence. Remember that.”

Danny frowned and sat back up. “Aren't silence and stealth pretty much the same thing?”

Liz shook her head. “No, and silence can actually be harmful to stealth. Like in the middle of a gun battle, who's going to hear you step on a twig? It's better to just step on the twig if it allows you to move faster.”

“That sounds really complicated,” Danny said.

“Well, it is,” Liz told her. “It's an art form, just like shooting or driving. You need to have a feel as to when you can speed up and when you need to slow down. You have to know when you can take risks and when you need to be cautious.”

“That seems like it's going to take a long time to master,” Danny said. “We really don't have the time.”

“I really don't think you need to master it,” Liz said. “Anna wanted you in the ranger company for a specific reason. You know how to fight when outnumbered, and you know how to get out of tight situations. We'll handle the stealth work, and you act as the heavily armed backup.”

“Why not have Sacred Sword, then?”

“Because they're a front line company. And I personally think that we work best with you guys. Don't say that out loud, though.”

Danny nodded. “That's reasonable.”

Liz drew her bow again. “Let's go for another round. I'll give you five minutes. Disappear into the brush, and I'll try to hunt you. I'm not going to take it easy on you, however.”

“Darn,” Danny said, though in truth he wasn't disappointed at all. He needed some way to get better, and training against an expert was certainly going to help.

“Forest, same as last time,” Liz told him. “Battledome, activate,” she said. “Terrain, forest.”

The forest appeared again, though it was different, randomized from the last time they had fought. Danny faded into the brush, trying to move as quickly and as quietly as possible. He wanted to set up a position where he could ambush her.

About three minutes into the countdown he found it. There was a gnarled, twisted tree surrounded by brush and vines. It was perfect for him, providing a firing point with good concealment. He quickly got behind it, making sure to disturb everything as little as possible. Liz had a knack for spotting anything that was out of place.

He sighed inwardly as he settled in. In many ways he felt that he was inferior to her, even through he was a player with plenty of accomplishments. He was considered to be one of the expert heavies, handy with a launcher or deadly with a machine gun. He could cover as well as anyone, and could put fear into the hearts of the enemy with a few calculated bursts. But matching up against Liz just showed him how vulnerable he was. She could move through tree and brush like smoke, with nary a disturbance, and be on top of him in a flash. All his ability was no good against someone of her skill. It seemed like she was overpowered.

No, that wasn't it, Danny thought to himself. She was plenty vulnerable if she was caught out in the open. She could blunder into a minefield without noticing, and in a straight fight she didn't have the staying power of a soldier or a heavy like him.

Teamwork. That was what this game was all about. You lived or you died as a team, with no exceptions. Even so-called loners like Miko knew very well that they operated as part of a larger force, and they responded accordingly. Teams could cover weaknesses and augment strengths. That was probably why he felt so vulnerable right now.

Something was moving in front of him, about sixty yards away through the trees. It was definitely humanoid in shape, and they had put no other NPCs in this simulation. It was Liz.

Danny looked down the sights of his machine gun. One well aimed burst would shred her, and he finally would have a win to his name. He would need to time it perfectly, though. She was moving from cover to cover very efficiently, leaving him with just a small window to hit her.

He had wondered what it was like to be facing Redd Foxx from the other side, and now he knew. Danny was very glad that they would be working together. But he was going to take this victory. He aimed and moved his finger toward the trigger. He timed out her movements so he could make the perfect shot. Liz ducked behind a tree. Danny gripped the trigger and wait for her to emerge...

Nothing.

Danny kept looking down his sights, confused. She should have emerged from behind the tree by now. There was no way that she could see him; his hiding spot provided far too much cover. Where was she.

He felt the hair on his neck stand up, a second before the blade of a knife was suddenly at his throat.

“Oh come on!” he exclaimed.

“This was a good spot,” Liz commented. “You probably would have gotten a lot of people.” She sheathed her knife. “Battledome, I forfeit.”

“You're letting me win? You know how humiliating that is?” Danny said.

“I think it's fair,” Liz shrugged. “You would have caught most people.”

“I wanted to catch you,” Danny said. “We're going another round, and so help me if you forfeit.”

Liz smiled back at him. “Suit yourself.”

CHAPTER 4

Ranger

“How much further do you think we need to go before we're ready to take on the ranger challenge?” Nora asked. She thought that she was doing well, though she wasn't exactly sure how well.

“From what I hear, you're getting there,” Anna said. “Selene is picking up on it really fast, and Gwen and Will think you two are getting much better as well. What are you thinking about Danny, Liz?”

“He's doing well. He just needed a little encouragement,” Liz said.

“Do I even want to know what encouragement means?” Zach asked.

Nora poked him. “You're horrible.”

Liz gave him a well-deserved scowl. “It's not like that. I gave him a win by forfeit.”

Zach laughed. “Oh, that must have gone over well.”

“It got him motivated,” Liz said.

“And that's what we need, among other things. There's a lot to get done, though,” Anna said.

The rest of the council had approved the plans for the ranger company, but there were still many obstacles to overcome before it was functional. Everyone had to pass the ranger challenge, since there was no point in forming the company if it was full of players that couldn't make the cut. They needed to build their vehicles, and once they were built they needed to train the crews and the troops themselves on how to operate from them. And lastly, they needed their leaders to organize all the moving parts into one well-oil machine.

Dr. Unger had been right about emergent mechanics, Nora thought. Combat ability was important in World at War, but just as critical was the ability to make all the separate parts of an organization move together. That was where they came in.

Nora knew that she was a competent soldier, though she wasn't nearly as good as many of the others. She could hold her own on the battlefield, but her real skill was in logistics and command. Many players never thought past their next battle, and that was fine with her. But someone needed to provide them with ammunition for their guns and money to buy equipment, and that's where she had come in. Black Wolf Company had become rich because of her idea to create an overdrive monopoly, and that wealth had spread to the Hydra Alliance as well. No company could function without money, and they had plenty.

But logistics was only one half of the puzzle; the other half was command. Your troops could have the best equipment and be well seasoned, but without an effective command structure they wouldn't be nearly as effective. Nora had often heard others talking about coordination and teamwork, but command went beyond that. Command gave separate elements direction and a single purpose. It was like building a clock; if the gears weren't properly aligned it wouldn't work right, if it worked at all. The front line troops would win the battle, but it was the job of the commander to put them in the best position in order to do that.

Nora wasn't an accomplished commander by any stretch of the imagination; like her battlefield skills she was competent but unspectacular. She was a good organizer, however, and would work well as a second in command. The leader would choose strategy, and she would work to see that it was carried out. That was how she and Zach had formed an effective command team.

That was in the heat of battle though. There were plenty of other ways that a commander could help their troops, and proper organization was one of them. That was why they were meeting now.

The Rangers would be formed into four platoons, with two from Black Wolf and two from Redd Foxx. Danny and Selene would have command over the Black Wolf platoons, while Gray and Liz would be in command of the Redd Foxx ones. Zach would be in charge of Selene and Danny, while Anna would have command over Gray and Liz. But what was most interesting to her was the organization at the top. In addition to her command of Redd Foxx, Anna had been selected to be the commander of the Ranger company.

It had been a natural choice. Anna was well-versed in commanding forces operating behind the front lines. Zach, who was the only other real choice, pushed for her to take the commander's role. Nora had agreed with that, but there was something else that surprised her. She had been selected to work as Anna's second in command.

Zach had suggested it, and the idea had shocked her for a moment. She had always assumed that she would be continuing as normal, serving as his second within the command structure they had been using for months. It made sense though, and she was more than happy to do what she could to help Anna. Nora was less enthused about the prospects of having to take command in the field if Anna was killed in action, but it was a distant worry at the moment. Her overall command would only really come into play if the whole company was deployed at once. Otherwise, command would be on the shoulders of the squad and platoon leaders.

“Are we going to assign specific vehicles to specific squads?” Zach asked. They would need to consult any final decision with Robbie since he wasn't here right now, but they could get a plan in place.

“I'm not sure we would need to,” Nora said. “Everyone should be able to operate with any crew just fine.”

“But familiarity is always a good thing,” Liz pointed out. “Like, for instance, the helicopter crews. If we assigned them to specific squads then they could learn their tendencies and how the like to operate. That might be an edge that could help us out at some point.”

“I think that idea has some merit, but they also need to be flexible. There's going to be some times when we're going to have to mix and match crews,” Nora said. “Of course, I'm also not going to be one of the front liners, so I'm not sure how much my opinion should count.”

“Maybe we should test it?” Liz offered.

Anna nodded. “That makes sense. We could try a couple of ways to see whether the squads like one or the other better.”

“We're going to have a limited amount of helicopters, anyhow. They kind of complicated to build, but the worst part is that they go through fusion batteries like crazy,” Nora said. “There's no way we can supply both ourselves and the armored cavalry.”

“And they take priority,” Anna said. It was true. Their armored cavalry was their best weapon, and they needed it to be in top fighting shape.

“Is that really going to be a problem?” Zach asked. “I mean, we're not going to do many actions that have more than a platoon. If we are using the full company then we might as well use Mules to get there.”

“What if we're doing stuff behind enemy lines? Like a large raid, for instance?” Liz asked.

“Then we're not going to be able to do that,” Zach shrugged.

That was yet another obstacle in command and logistics. The economy in World at War operated on scarcity. Even with their vast wealth and resources, Hydra simply did not have the money to buy everything they needed. The need for ammunition was the factor that hamstrung everyone. Without ammunition you were dead in the water, and that meant you always had to buy it.

Hydra had the advantage of Hephaestus Forge. It gave them the ability to produce all the basic ammunition they needed, but the forge also required a huge number of fusion batteries to run. The ammunition presses and the furnaces didn't power themselves, after all.

Nora leaned back in her chair and ran a hand across her scalp. Anna was right. They had a lot to do.

Thunk.

The first guard fell without a sound, an arrow sticking out of the base of his neck. The second one barely had time to start turning before Nora was on him. She stabbed him through the side of the neck and cradled his body as he fell. Not a sound. Perfect. She turned and signaled the rest of her squad forward.

It had taken more than a week of intensive practice, but they were finally ready to take on the ranger challenge. Everyone else had managed to pass, though some had to try two or three times before they had succeeded. They were the last ones.

The challenge was to eliminate a target at the center of the forest and then escape without any losses. The woods was crawling with patrols, and they had no idea what kind of target they were attacking, save for the fact that it needed to be blown up with charges. Their skills would be tested to their limits.

They had divided up into two teams. The first consisted of her, Miko, Selene and Liz. They would scout ahead and identify where the enemy patrols were. The second team had Zach, Robbie, Anna and Danny and would provide fire support once they ran into trouble. Their plan was to reconnoiter the area around their target, then hit it hard and fast. If there was a good opportunity to infiltrate they would take it, but otherwise it was far too much of a risk to try to sneak in. They would attack, hoping the shock of the initial assault would catch the enemy off guard. Once they had destroyed their target they would fall back and leave the area.

Selene and Miko moved up ahead of her. They were using silent weapons to avoid drawing attention to themselves, so the only one that could use a ranged weapon right now was Liz. Normally it wouldn't be much of a problem; even though weapons would make a lot of noise, the trees would serve to muffle and distort it, so it would be more difficult to tell where it was coming from. The problem was that they didn't know how far the enemy had spaced their patrols, and they didn't want several descending on them at once. Their recon work would help them to determine that.

Nora had been chosen to be in the vanguard team, but she still felt like she was inadequate. Liz and Miko were experts, and even Selene seemed to be much better than her at stealth. Liz and Anna had insisted she be in the vanguard, though she wondered whether it was because the others weren't quite up to par. Danny was passable, though still definitely the worst, and Robbie and Zach were only marginally better. But that still didn't explain why Anna wasn't in the first team.

Maybe it was because they felt that Redd Foxx needed to adapt as well. They would be working with players that didn't have the stealth skills they possessed, and they needed to learn how to adapt to those changes. Not all of those changes were bad, either. What Black Wolf lacked in stealth they made up for in firepower and battle craft. They would add a formidable backbone to the ranger company, and they were all grateful for that.

Anna had told her that she was especially happy about the changes. It would allow her troops to be far more aggressive because they would have heavily armed backup infiltrating alongside them. Other companies such as Sacred Sword had to trail behind because they would give away Redd Foxx's position, which could cost them precious seconds. But her scouts would be moving up beside their support now.

No, that wasn't right, Nora thought to herself. They were all her troops now, and she was Anna's second. She had to get used to that before they went out in the field.

Nora and Liz moved forward as Selene signaled them to move. That was a good sign. They had run into two patrols, but they were a good distance apart from one another. That meant they couldn't provide a lot of support to each other, and the vanguard team could pick them off before anyone was the wiser. On the other hand, it also meant that they needed to keep moving. If an enemy patrol stumbled on the rear team they were done for. If Zach was shot then they didn't have anyone to trigger the explosives.

No sight. No scent. No sound.

That was Redd Foxx's mantra, and it was a solid piece of wisdom. Nora often repeated it to herself as she moved, and she wasn't the only one. She knew that Miko did it as well, and she was pretty sure that Selene had also picked up on the practice. It was good to remember it as they pushed forward. They needed to pay attention to every move, because anything could give them away. The sight of a moving shape, the scent of burning powder or sweat, the sound of a snapping twig, any single one of them could spell doom.

No sight. No scent. No sound.

It wasn't simply a skill, however. There was no specific process for being stealthy. It was an art form, not a science, and you had to feel what you were doing. Everything had to be natural, smooth. That was what Gwen had emphasized during her training, and it was still something she struggled with a bit. She was trying to be stealthy. Instead, she should just be stealthy.

Nervousness and tenseness had no place. Nora moved from shadow to shadow, flowing like liquid. It wasn't like she completely vanished. She simply melted into the background of the forest, too insignificant to take notice of.

Liz held out her arm in front of her and signaled a stop. Nora took up a position behind a large tree and surveyed the area in front of them. Sure enough, there were four enemies in front of them. Two were soldiers, one was an engineer and one was an assault.

Liz waved Miko and Selene up to their position. She opened up her menu and pressed a few buttons. Symbols appeared over the heads of each of their enemies, made visible by their HUDs. It was a feature that had been in the game from the beginning but they hadn't taken advantage of until now. Locations, objects and persons in the game would could be market with a symbol which would show up for certain people once they were within visual range. In this case, the symbols were visible for their team only. There were four of them in all, and they signified who they were supposed to shoot.

Nora brought her gun up to her shoulder and aimed down the sights. She focused on her target, the soldier nearest to her with the yellow x above her head. A ten second countdown appeared in the lower right corner of her HUD. They would all fire when it reached zero.

She hoped that Liz's hunch was correct. They were probably far enough away from any enemy patrol, but if they weren't they were going to have a swarm of angry NPCs descending upon them. And that wasn't taking into account what would happen if they messed up their shots. It only took a split-second for one of the enemy to trigger the alarm.

Seven. Six. Five.

Nora put her finger on the trigger and relaxed. She was a good shot, but this was so much different that the other times she had fought. She had time to think about what she was going to do, and for some reason that seemed to put extra pressure on her. In her previous fights she was simply a soldier in the battle, firing off shots in the rolling chaos of battle. Now, she needed to act with far more precision.

Four. Three. Two.

Her weapon would help her, at least. Nora had carried the assault rifle she had received when she had first joined the game for months. She hadn't changed anything, save for replacing parts that had worn out. Right after the war with Ragnarok began, though, she had switched to a burst fire assault rifle, with a slightly longer barrel. It was less versatile than her previous weapon, but it also had a bit more range and was very, very accurate at short to medium range. A three round burst could put anyone down, especially with a headshot.

One. Zero.

The sound of three guns firing broke the calm. The four enemies fell, two shot in the torso, one shot in the head and one with an arrow sticking out of the base of his neck. Liz was becoming extremely proficient with the bow, almost to the point that it was terrifying. Nora couldn't quite hide the smile that started to creep over her face.

“What?” Liz asked her.

“Nothing,” Nora said, shaking her head.

“Danny must have given you plenty of practice,” Selene commented.

Liz couldn't quite hide her own smile. “Come on, let's keep moving.”

Selene and Miko took the lead again, heading toward the center of the battledome. Nora took a few seconds to look at the area map in her wrist menu. Sure enough, they were starting to get close to the objective. The question now was what was there, and what was guarding it.

She glanced over her shoulder to check on the progress of the second team. They were behind them by about thirty yards, making slow but steady progress. Once they got to the objective they would plan and reorganize accordingly.

Selene's voice suddenly cut in on her thoughts. “Liz, Nora, rally on my position. We have our objective in sight.”

Nora followed her instructions. She found Selene and Miko sheltering behind a pair of tangled trees. Ahead of them was a large clearing with a compound in the center. It was surrounded by a tall chain link fence, with a single entrance on their side. A guard tower stood next to it, and it looked like it was armed with a twin heavy machine gun mount. Nora could see a number of enemy troops patrolling the interior of the compound. There were also a few large stacks of ammo crates. They were the objective, judging from the marker hovering above them.

“This may be a bit complicated,” Liz commented.

The guard tower was going to be the biggest problem. Miko could snipe the gunner, but to permanently put it out of action they needed explosives, and Zach was the only one with them. He would need to get close to use his grenade launcher too, and that meant exposing himself.

The second team came up behind them. “Do you have a plan?” Zach asked as he arrived.

“We're figuring out one,” Liz said.

Nora saw Danny surveying the scene in front of them. “I think I might have an idea,” he said.

“This was the worst idea ever!” Nora exclaimed as she sprinted past her teammates. Danny was right behind her.

“We took out the objective,” Danny said.

Nora reached the end of the line, turned and knelt down. She fired a burst at the horde of approaching enemies. “We have to live through this to complete the challenge, remember?”

They had stormed the enemy compound head on, using the element of surprise to take out most of the guards before any of them knew what was happening. The problem was that the alarm had been sounded, and now they had every single patrol in the dome bearing down on them.

Their only way out of this was to conduct a fighting retreat. They had split into four pairs and were gradually falling back, leapfrogging the teams behind them and then turning around to provide cover fire. Danny's machine gun was invaluable right now. The amount of firepower he was throwing out was enough to make even enemy NPCs pause for a moment, and he knew how to exploit it for its full effect.

Robbie and Selene passed by them and took up their position about ten yards to their rear, slightly staggered to one side so there was no chance of friendly fire. Anna and Zach came next, followed by Liz and Miko. They were in front now, and it was time for them to fall back. Nora stood back up and sprinted for the rear of the line. Danny was close behind.

Bullets cracked past her face, some coming so close that she swore she could feel the rush of air from them. It was probably her imagination, but the volume of fire coming at them was intense. They were facing at least a platoon with quite a few heavies mixed in.

It was a minor miracle that none of them had been shot yet. They had taken cover behind any rocks and trees they could find, but again the sheer volume of enemy fire should have hit at least one of them. Nora chalked it up to their ability to lay suppressive fire on the enemy. The question was, how long could they hold out?

They were less than a hundred yards from the extraction point. They just needed to get there and they would have passed the challenge. She wasn't sure the enemy was going to let them, though, and they would all fail the challenge if any one them were killed.

Anna buzzed them all. “We're close. Use everything you have at your disposal to keep them away. That means bullets, arrows, grenades, whatever.”

Nora reloaded her gun and started to spray bursts into the brush. She had four magazines left after this one, and she was going to use them for all they were worth. An explosion went off in front of her, followed by another that was much closer. Someone behind her had thrown a grenade, and Zach had also launched one.

It was their turn to go now. Nora and Danny got up and started to sprint for the rear.

“Nora, Danny, get to the extraction point,” Anna ordered them. “We're going to keep falling back. Once you get into position, signal us and we'll make a break for it.”

“Copy,” Nora acknowledged. They took off for their objective. The gunfire behind them was still extremely intense when they reached it.

“We're in position, but I'm reloading,” Danny said as he fed a fresh belt into his machine gun. “Fall back now, and I'll be able to lay down some sustained fire on them.”

“Got it. Fall back! Fall back now!”

A series of explosions went off in the direction of the rest of the squad. Nora guessed that they had all thrown grenades to mask their retreat. It took them only a few seconds to reach them. Robbie and Selene came first, followed by Liz and Miko. Both teams got over the objective line. Zach and Anna were last.

“Come on, come on,” Nora muttered to herself. The enemy fire was getting too close.

Zach suddenly fell forward, and for one crushing moment Nora thought they had failed the challenge. But the message didn't appear in front of them, She could see that he was still alive, trying to drag his way forward. Anna was trying to help him up, heedless of the bullets.

“Help her. I'll cover,” Danny said tersely. He started to fire long bursts at the enemy lines.

Nora got on her feet and ran over to Zach and Anna, crouched down to avoid the storm of bullets whipping through the air. Her rifle was slung over her back; there was no point in firing right now. She reach his side and grabbed Zach under his right arm. Anna grabbed his left arm, and they hauled him up.

“Go,” Anna said, and then they were off. Zach was trying to move, though he wasn't doing much to help. Nora and Anna had to manhandle him forward, with only Danny there to give them cover fire. The rest of them had passed the point of no return.

“Now or never. I can't hold them off,” Danny's voice said through the radio with a steady but urgent tone.

“Last few yards!” Nora said. She and Anna redoubled their efforts. It would hurt so much to come this far and then lose, mere yards from the final objective. The distance closed. Ten yards, five yards, three, two...

The trio collapsed as they crossed the objective line. Something heavy suddenly landed on Nora's back. But the message appeared on her HUD as well. Challenge completed.

“Sorry about that,” Danny said as he rolled off them. Nora turned around and saw that he didn't have his gun. It was sitting past the objective line in the now empty battledome.

“You left your weapon?” Selene asked.

“Hey, they didn't say I had to have it when I crossed the line,” Danny shrugged. He walked over and picked it back up.

They were in rough shape. Other than Danny everyone was either kneeling or lying flat on the hard floor of the battledome. Nora rolled over and stared at the ceiling.

“That was bad,” she said.

“And that's just the first rank,” Liz said. “There's ten levels.”

Nora didn't want to think about what those might entail right now. They had the title now. Ranger.

CHAPTER 5

Robber Baron

Everything was ready. Everyone had passed the ranger challenge. Their transport was built and everyone had been properly trained. The command structure was in place. All that was left was to test them in a real combat situation, and Zach though they had the perfect target.

'We've been given some information by our contacts with Ronin Company,” Anna was detailing to the rest of the council. “Apparently Ragnarok is using Crimson Eagle's old stronghold to store supplies, especially overdrive. It's the cheapest place to put it.”

Ragnarok's main base was in Old Chicago, but storage space within the city cost a considerable amount of money to rent. Storing outside of the city ran the risk of having the goods stolen if they weren't guarded, but it cost nothing. Ragnarok could also feel secure in the fact that their storehouse was miles behind the front lines. Any time Hydra had tried to drive further north they had been repulsed. Ronin Company didn't have enough troops to do anything about it either, and that was it for the major players in the Old Chicago region.

Ragnarok was going to be in for a very nasty shock, however.

“According to Ronin scouts the area around the base isn't heavily guarded,” Zach said. “Most of their strength in the area is concentrated closer to the front line, in two locations. They call them Fort Baldr and Fort Odin.”

“Keeping with the Norse theme?” Bryce of Bravehart Company commented.”

“No worse than us naming this place Lerna,” Gina said.

Zach continued. “Anyhow, we sent out some feelers to Ronin, and they did some more scouting. The base isn't held by very many troops. They only have about twenty players there at the most, and they're more for loading and unloading stock,” Zach said.

“That seems awfully risky,” C.J. of Crimson Eagle said. Several others nodded along with him; Lee of Storm Hawk, Aaron of Band of Brothers, Tyler of Ironfist and Mike of Archangel.

“I think the logic is that the two forts will fend off any attack,” Anna said. “Anyone going after their storehouse would need to get past the forts first, and that's a tough proposition. They have mortar teams and pretty sizable garrisons inside them. Ronin has tried to sneak past them and they got slaughtered.”

“But given the fact you can get behind their lines with the helicopters, a raid is plenty feasible for us,” Yusuf mused.

“Yes, but we're going to need more than that,” Nora spoke up. “We have enough helicopters to transport the entire company, but we want to used some of them as gunships so it's going to be much less. And we want to be able to carry stuff as well.”

“As a lot of you are probably aware, the base is right next to a river,” Zach detailed. “Our plan is to send half of the company in by helicopter and half in by boat. We'll take the base, load up all the overdrive we can and then leave before Ragnarok has time to mount a response.”

Shayna from Jackal Company raised her hand. They were one of the newest companies in the alliance. “Where are you going to get the boats in the river?”

“We have a deal with Ronin,” Robbie said. 'We'll give them a cut of the overdrive we capture in exchange for using their territory. We can launch from the west bank just above their base, and no one will be the wiser.”

“Ronin is also going to try to launch an offensive while Ragnarok is busy dealing with us,” Zach said. “Their plan is to try to take Fort Baldr so they can control both sides of the river. I think we should give them some help.”

There was a considerable amount of murmuring after that comment, and it was completely expected. Many of them didn't like Ronin Company either, and they were adverse to cooperation with them.

“Do we honestly need to help them? Why should we spend our money and ammunition helping them for nothing in return?” Cody asked.

“Yes, we do need to help them,” Liz spoke up. “They're slowly being strangled by the Ragnarok presence in the area. Regardless of what you think about them, they're a thorn in Ragnarok's side and we should do everything we can to make sure they keep it up. Every player they have fighting Ronin is one less that they have to use against us.”

“So you basically want to use them as our cannon fodder?” C.J. said.

“While I wouldn't quite put it that way, yes, that would be accurate,” Liz said.

“It's not like we have to provide front line support to them either,” Gina said. “Say we sent Bravehart to help them. They would only have to act as artillery support. That would give them the edge in the battle, and we wouldn't have to put ourselves at any real risk.”

“I'd be fine with that,” Bryce agreed.

“And anyhow, regardless of how well it goes the attack will draw their attention to the south. That will probably buy us a lot more time, and we're going to need that. We don't want this to turn into a disaster like the time we tested out the armored company,” Anna said.

“I would suggest that we mount two simultaneous operations,” David said. “One will be your raid, and one will be in support of Ronin Company. Does everyone find that agreeable?”

There were no arguments.

“Do you have a name for your operation?” Bryce asked Anna.

She smiled. “The name is going to be Robber Baron.”

It felt completely odd. Every time she had been in the field, Nora had always been with Black Wolf. Not this time, though. Anna was going into the battlefield by river craft, and as her second it was her job to go along with her.

Robber Baron would consist of two parts. Black Wolf Company would perform an air assault on the Ragnarok stronghold. Gunships would strafe the enemy troops that were outside on guard. They would be followed by the troops transports, who would drop their charges right on top of the compound. There was also a small dockyard facing the river. Redd Foxx would attack from that direction, supported with fire from their transports. Once the enemy garrison was dead they would load up the transport boats with as much overdrive as they could carry. They would throw the rest into the river.

Their flotilla of five craft sped up the river. All of them were heavily armed. Hephaestus had mounted six machine guns on the boats, along with a recoilless rifle on the front. It gave them formidable firepower. The only downside was the fact that it took ten people to drive the boats and man all the weapons. All of them were crewed by Redd Foxx members; all of Raven was currently acting as pilots in the air assault platoon. Two of the boats would remain fully crewed while the rest made landfall, providing the all-important fire support. Her boat was one of them.

Anna's voice cut in on her thoughts. “Wolf 2, can you contact the rest of them to make sure they're ready?” she asked.

“Copy, Fox Lead,” Nora responded. “Wolf Lead, Alpha Wolf, Bravo Wolf, do you copy? Wolf Lead, Alpha Wolf, Bravo Wolf, do you copy?”

“Copy,” Danny's voice crackled over the radio.

“Copy,” Zach said as well.

Selene activated her radio. “I copy, Wolf 2.”

“Fox Lead advises that we're ready to go,” Nora replied, her voice crackling. Apparently they were close to the maximum range of the standard radio.

“We're two minutes out from the jump off point,” Zach said. “About four minutes from the landing. Work on that timetable.”

“Copy, Wolf Lead,” Nora said. “We have word that Ronin has started their attack on Fort Baldr.”

“Good. Wolf Lead out.”

Selene made one last check of her assault rifle before they reached the point of no return. Hephaestus Company was amazing, really. Even in the midst of building dozens of vehicles they had found the time to concern themselves with the ranger company's weapons. Garrett and Jayson had devised a new assault rifle, carbine, machine gun and submachine gun for them. They were based off the standard models, but they had been modified to weigh less and be easier to handle. The tradeoff was a slight decrease in range, but they considered that to be a necessary evil. With their guns weighing less they could carry more ammunition, which was invaluable for operating behind enemy lines away from any real means of resupply.

Selene tuned her radio to the rest of the riders on her chopper. She was tagging along with the other half of Ethan's squad, and had her normal companions; Mara, Kelsey and Jade, along with Riley. The transport choppers were working in pairs, each pair carrying a full squad between them. They would stick together during the landing and then would circle above trying to provided limited fire support. All of the helicopters had a chin mounted machine gun, though it was small caliber and didn't carry a lot of ammunition. The specialized attack helicopters would provide most of the fire support from the air.

“All leads, this is Raven 1. My squadron is going in for their attack runs,” Robbie said. His choppers, Ravens 1-6, were armed with a battery of heavy machine guns. They wanted to add rockets or grenade launchers, but Hydra hadn't discovered a schematic for them. They might be able to use the automatic grenade launchers that Ragnarok possessed, but they would need to reverse engineer one from a working example, and that was easier said than done. Any time their weaponry was in danger of being captured Ragnarok would simply blow it up, and she could hardly blame them for that. Hydra had done the same thing with disabled vehicles that they had no hope of recovering.

Selene could see the base ahead of them, along with the swarm of helicopters approaching. It had a low wall, about six to eight feet high. There were platforms and towers so Ragnarok troops could patrol the walls and keep watch. It wasn't especially heavily guarded, though; Selene could only see three towers from her vantage point. Ahead of her flew the helicopters assigned to Danny's troops. Bravo Platoon was going in first. The attack helicopters started their strafing runs.

This was going to be quick and brutal.

“Form up! Form up!” Danny urged as the helicopters landed inside of the base. He quickly unbuckled himself and dismounted, hefting his machine gun as he did so. Half of the platoon had already landed and was laying down cover fire, though there wasn't much response from the enemy. The strafing run had stunned them, and many had fled into the interior of the main base.

The first wave of helicopters took off and the next ones landed. Danny toggled the channels on his radio and started to give orders. “Bravo 1, Bravo 2, take your squads and storm the main building. Strike while they're still reeling. Bravo 3, form a perimeter around the landing zone so Alpha can get in safe. Copy?”

“Copy,” Xavier and Javy said.

“Copy, but what about the dockyard?” Karen asked.

“That's Redd Foxx's job,” Danny told her.

“Alright. Copy.”

Danny switched channels to Selene. “Alpha Wolf, this is Bravo Wolf. I sent Xavier and Javy to storm the central building, but there's still hostiles on the walls. Could you take care of them when you land?”

“Will do, Danny,” Selene confirmed.

Normally the first wave would have done it, but Danny felt that taking the central building as quickly as possible was critical. Ragnarok was plenty resourceful, they weren't one hundred percent sure what they stored here besides overdrive. He didn't want to give them the time to rig up an improvised bomb if he could help it.

“Bravo Wolf, we have movement at the river front,” Karen said. “No accurate count on numbers, but they're hostile.”

“Hold position,” Danny said. They were in a tight spot. The landing area needed to be held, since their air support couldn't do strafing runs with them in close proximity. But that left them out in the open exposed to enemy fire once they moved up. It was a predicament, indeed.

Then he heard the motors.

The guards on the riverfront didn't stand a chance. They barely had time to turn their heads before Redd Foxx was on top of them, guns blazing. It was totally opposite of everything she had ever seen out of them, but it was completely devastating. One moment there there several squads at the docks; the next moment the pitiful few survivors were scrambling to find cover.

With little else to do Nora was manning a machine gun, firing at any target she could find. It was oddly satisfying, in a way. She was normally a precision shooter, and it felt good to cut loose and blaze away.

Three of the boats moved closer to shore and disgorged their passengers. Nora could see Liz at the front, leading them in a sweep of the outer building around the shore. In the skies above more helicopters descended, bringing Alpha Platoon with them. There was gunfire, movement, but there was nothing intense.

They had done it. They had caught Ragnarok completely by surprise.

Crack.

Even inside the cockpit, surrounded by the rush of air and the engine noise the sound of a sniper rifle was distinct.

“I don't see any more targets,” Miko said through the radio.

“Keep searching,” Zach said. Out of the many crazy ideas they had come up with, this had to be the most insane. Zach was flying in a helicopter with a Raven Company pilot, with Miko sitting on a bench seat on the starboard side. She had rigged a harness to steady her sniper rifle with the aid of Paige from Hephaestus Company, and was using her elevated position to find and pick off targets.

Sniping from a helicopter was fairly commonplace in the real world, but this definitely wasn't the best vehicle to do it from. The small mass of the chopper meant there was less inertia to absorb the vibrations from the engine, so there was noticeable movement. Miko was also extremely exposed, and it was fairly easy to see that she was sniping. That would probably attract all manner of fire once the enemy figured out what they were doing. Then again, it was probably worth the hassle.

“I still don't see anything,” Miko said. “Selene's platoon swept the walls, and Liz has the shore pretty well cleared out. No clue what's going on in the main building, but it's not like I can really do anything with that.”

“We'll see if there's anything else to do,” Zach said. He opened up a channel. “Bravo Wolf, Bravo Wolf, what's your status?”

“We have the area outside secure,” Danny responded. “Selene took a squad in to support Xavier and Javy. I can still hear some firing, but we should have this entire place secure in a few minutes.”

“Copy that, Danny. Get in contact with Anna and Nora. We want to be quick about getting the overdrive.”

“Sure thing,” Danny said. That was where Robber Baron got its name. They were going to steal as much overdrive as possible, give Ronin their share and then put the rest back on the market. The price would skyrocket since Ragnarok would need to replenish their stocks. That would also take valuable funds away from other things that Ragnarok needed to fight. It would definitely put them on the back foot.

Danny wasn't as optimistic as some of the others in Hydra were. He knew that even with the string of victories they had won, there was no way they could beat Ragnarok in an all-out war. The best they could hope for was a stalemate and an uneasy peace, because their enemy had too many troops and too many resources to call upon.

Ragnarok had gained a reputation for using hordes of low level troops, but they had veterans too, and they could match up against anything that Hydra had to offer. They had heard other things from their contacts inside Ronin. Reports were fuzzy at the moment, but they knew that Ragnarok was deploying an elite unit against them, consisting of only veterans. The Valkyries, they were known as, and they were deadly. They hadn't run into them yet, but Danny had the suspicion that an operation like this was going to attract a lot of attention.

But he still had a job to do. “Wolf 2, Wolf 2, come in. This is Bravo Wolf,” Danny said.

“I read you Danny. What's up?”

“Can you get the boats up to the docks? We're almost finished clearing out the base. We'll get the crews ready to load everything up.” He saw Liz and a few other Redd Foxx members emerge from the dock area and waved them over.

“Will do,” Nora told him.

Danny looked back at the main building. Now the rest was up to Selene.

She had to give them credit, at least. Taken off guard by the initial onslaught, cut down in droves, driven back into a corner and hopelessly outnumbered, the few remaining Ragnarok troops had fought ferociously, refusing to give an inch without bloodshed. Between the four attacking squads the Ragnarok defenders had killed nine troops and injured a further five. Her troops had finally resorted to storming the last room the enemy was holed up in, but that cost them two more dead.

“That's not good,” Leigh said as she knelt by a mass of wires and boxes. “There's about thirty boxes of explosives here, and it looks like they were trying to rig up a bomb to take us with them.”

“Blow yourself up to take the enemy squad with you,” Selene said to herself.

“The squad?” Leigh said. “They might have been able to take out three quarters of the company with a bomb this size.”

“Good to know,” Selene said in a matter-of-fact tone. She activated her radio. “All leads, the central building is secure. We've taken fairly heavy casualties, so we need some help moving the overdrive supplies to the boats.”

“Copy that. We're on our way,” Liz told her.

“Selene, we're in the main storeroom,” Xavier cut in. “You might want to see this.”

Selene motioned for Leigh to follow her. She passed Lyla and Javy treating casualties in the main hallway. Others were stripping the dead bodies of ammunition and other vital equipment. World at War was funny in that way. Even if you were killed you could still get your equipment back as long as you have a friend to grab it off of your corpse.

Xavier peeked his head out from a doorway. “In here,” he told them. Selene and Leigh followed behind him.

“What the heck?” Leigh said as she entered the room. Selene's thoughts echoed that sentiment. The room was huge, and it was packed from wall to floor with crates of overdrive. Selene was trying to remember if they had even produced this much. They must have, since they were the only ones with the formula, but it was still mind-boggling. Ragnarok must have been hoarding the stuff for months on end. Even if they used every bit of transport space they had they wouldn't be able to carry all of it.

“We're never going to be able to move all of this in time,” Xavier said.

“Do what you can,” Selene told him. Her mind was racing, trying to come up with a solution. “Hey Leigh, you said that the bomb they were trying to make could blast this entire place?”

“Yeah,” Leigh answered.

“Do you think that you could finish it up and rig it with a remote detonator?”

“Yeah, that's doable. Though it would help if I had a few others with me.”

“Grab who you need, and let us know how it's going. We're going to load up as much overdrive as possible while you're doing that,” Selene said. Ragnarok was going to get one heck of a parting gift.

Even from his altitude he could feel the shockwave from the explosion. Zach was forced to shield his eyes as the entire world lit up in front of them. Once second the base was in front of them, and the next all that remained was a smoking pile of rubble.

“Jeeze, did they use enough explosives?” Miko commented. “I could feel the heat up here.”

“C.J. might not be happy,” Zach said,

“C.J. will be plenty happy,” Miko said. “For him it means that Ragnarok doesn't have their dirty hands on their base anymore.”

“True enough,” Zach said. He looked around at the swarm of helicopters joining up with them. Down below Redd Foxx was motoring back down the river.

Anna's voice cut in. “Great job, everyone. Let's head for home.”

“Roger that,” Zach replied to her. Mission accomplished.

CHAPTER 6

To the South

“I'd say our mission was a success,” Liz said.

“I would agree with that,” Selene replied. They were having an informal meeting in Black Wolf's base, going over the aftermath of their raid. Ragnarok was reeling from the attack. The loss of so much overdrive had forced them to pull back their forces and focus on rebuilding their shattered economy. The pressure was off of Hydra and Ronin for the time being.

Speaking of Ronin Company, their attack on Fort Baldr had been a success. Despite heavy casualties they had taken the fort with the support of Bravehart's mortar fire. They now had a position across the river, right in the heart of Ragnarok territory. Ronin was grateful to them for their support, and they were prepared to fight like furies to defend their new position.

Ronin would need that determination, Selene thought to herself. The fort was isolated, a threat to Ragnarok's main power base outside of Old Chicago, and a stain on their reputation to boot. They would try everything in order to take it back, and that suited Hydra just fine. Ronin would take the brunt of the fighting for the time being, leaving Hydra free to do what they needed in the south. It would suck for Ronin, but was that really their problem?

“From what I've heard Ragnarok is beefing up their garrisons in the north,” Zach said.

Anna confirmed that. “They have to guard against the possibility of a raid, even if it's miles behind the front line. That cuts their effective troop strength down by a lot.”

“Still, they're hard fighters,” Selene said.

“Yeah, Xavier and Javy said that they did a number on you all,” Danny said.

“OK, so we know that we can pull off a raid as long as we're well coordinated. We've forced Ragnarok into a defensive position. What's our next move from here?” Zach asked.

“We're going to let the main forces take over responsibilities in the north,” Anna said. “Our concern is in the south.”

“How close are we to Indianapolis?” Nora asked.

“Distance wise? We're very close,” Anna said. “We've taken all of the towns and outposts between there and Lerna. If you're talking about how close we are to actually being able to take Indianapolis, we're a long way out.”

“How long are you talking?” Danny asked.

“At least two months,” Liz said. “Maybe even more.”

That certainly wasn't good. That would give Ragnarok enough time to recover and replenish their supplies. There was also no guarantee that they would be able to take the city even after two months. They would still suffer attrition against Ragnarok, and they had no idea what they were facing inside the walls. She voiced as much to the others.

“First we have to scout the place, and that might be difficult,” Anna said. “If you think our walls are formidable, the ones around Indianapolis are even stronger. They're at least twenty feet high, and they're pretty thick as well.”

“Do we even have anything that could damage them?” Nora asked.

Anna shook her head. “We might as well be throwing rocks at them at this point.”

“Could we use the helicopters to get inside the walls?” Danny asked.

“That's assuming the garrison doesn't have antiaircraft guns,” Zach said. “And considering the size of the city the garrison has to be pretty large. Even if we bring in half the company we would need to immediately take a gate and pour in resources. And we'd have no margin for error.”

“This is sounding an awful lot like the slaughters from the World Wars,” Nora commented.

“Then the thing that's going to save us is good recon work,” Selene said. “There has to be a way into the city other than bashing down the walls. We just have to be able to find it.”

“That's going to be extremely dangerous scouting,” Liz said. “It's going to be very tough to get inside the walls, and once we're inside the city is huge. There's going to be a lot of deaths trying to get the information we need.”

“We'll need that information, though. That's the only way to make up for our lack of numbers,” Selene said.

“I think we can do it,” Liz shrugged. “But I also think it's going to be very hard.”

“First things first, we need to have a base to operate out of,” Nora said. “The biggest problem is that we don't have a place to launch our boats from. We haven't pushed far enough east to get to the reservoirs and rivers.”

“We could take one of the towns on the White River. That would also put our choppers closer to the city,” Anna suggested.

Selene saw Zach frown. “We could do that, but we would have to spend time taking the town,” he said. “That costs us time, and I'm not sure we have enough troops to spare to do it. I've talked to Cody, Bryce and Gina and they want to keep at least a platoon of us up in the north. And they want chopper support as well.”

That was why Robbie wasn't with them right now. His wing of six attack helicopters was providing close air support to a push by the armored cavalry, although their value was much more psychological than physical at this point. In order to minimize the risk from enemy ground fire Robbie had ordered his pilots to fly low and fast when they attacked. Their attack runs could be hit or miss, but having something come out of nowhere to hit you from above was intimidating.

Anna nodded. “Right, and that's a fair point. Ragnarok might have increased security up north, but we should still have some of us operating in small raiding teams. Even if we don't do any real damage it will keep them on their toes.”

“Should we split duties between the north and south?” Zach asked.

Anna ran a hand through her hair and gave a thoughtful look. “Honestly, I think we should split the company in two for now. I'll take two platoons and handle the south, and you take two platoons and handle the north.”

“Who gets what is the next question,” Danny said.

“No disrespect to Gray, but your platoon had the better fighters,” Anna said to Liz. “I think you should be in the north.”

Zach made his own thoughtful look. “I'll put Danny in the north with me and have Selene handle the south.”

“Any reason why?” Danny asked.

“Have you watched yourself trying to sneak around?” Zach asked.

Danny laughed. “Fair point. And tangling with Ragnarok's best sounds like it would be a whole lot of fun.”

Selene was pleased with her assignment as well. Taking a city had been their top priority for months. The idea had predated the formation of the Hydra Alliance, in fact, and now it was finally in reach, distant as that might be. She wanted it to happen, and was now in a position to help push the process along.

Not that there weren't going to be any challenges. There were, and they were going to be rough. As Anna had already mentioned, the city was surrounded by walls, except for some of the sides that bordered large bodies of water. That wasn't going to be easy either, because the beaches were probably heavily defended, and they could only bring limited fire support with them. The river craft would be helpful close to shore, but once they moved into the city they had nothing like the backup an assault gun could give them.

The worst part was not knowing the forces that were against them. The NPCs in World at War had varying levels and intelligences. Outside of major settlements they tended to be low level and weak, with only their sheer numbers as a real advantage. The ones inside settlements were better, but they were still far behind the capabilities of even an average player. The only real trump cards they possessed were their bosses, like the armored vehicle they had run into taking Lerna. But reports were that troops from the larger cities were much tougher. They were better armed, fought with better tactics and acted smarter as well.

The one good thing was that they were used to fighting tough troops while they were outnumbered. The problem was that they had never tried to attack a fortress with numerous, tough troops.

This was going to be difficult, Selene realized.

Knock, knock.

“Selene, it's 4:30,” Miko's voice said, muffled by the door and her sleepy haze.

“I'm up,” she groaned back. They were supposed to meet Nora, Anna and Liz in an hour, and she had napped longer than she had planned on. She rolled out of bed, stretched and got dressed.

“How long were you on last night?” Miko asked as she exited her room.

“Till around one,” Selene told her. “There was a lot of organizational stuff that needed to be done, and then I decided that I wanted to do a little bit of hunting.”

“In the forest in the middle of the night? By yourself?” Miko asked.

“It was pretty fun,” Selene said. “I got a pair of fen wolves.”

“How many times did you die before then?” Miko asked.

“I didn't,” Selene said.

“Lucky break for you,” Miko shrugged. “Ready to go?”

Selene headed toward the door and grabbed her jacket. “Let's go.”

“Have fun hunting last night?” Anna asked as Selene and Miko took a seat at the table. Nora and Liz were already there as well.

“Tons,” Selene said.

“I'm honestly surprised that you didn't die a bunch of times,” Miko said.

“I told her she was crazy, but she insisted,” Liz said.

Selene nodded. “Not going to disagree with you there. But we've spent so much time going through all the bureaucracy and organization that it sometimes seems liked we've taken some of the fun out of the whole thing. Running through the woods in the middle of the night with a half dozen wolves chasing me just felt thrilling, you know?”

“Well, this is also our job,” Nora said.

Selene laughed. “I definitely can't complain about that.”

“How does that work, being paid to study the game?” Anna asked.

Selene leaned back in her chair. “Well, there's a lot of stuff that goes on. Most of our time is spent playing, but we also do a lot of interviews with the head of the whole research project. They're very big on societies in the game world and the like.”

“What, the collection of warlords and armed gangs?” Liz said. “I mean, we might technically be a cartel, but the point's still the same.”

“They seem to have much higher opinion about our motives than we do,” Nora agreed. “I think you're spot on. We're basically just heavily armed gangs fighting it out in a game world.”

“Put that way it sounds pretty bad,” Anna said.

“Maybe not,” Miko said. “It's not like it's a psychopath training simulator. It's probably nothing more than just a very realistic power fantasy. I have to admit, assassinating people is a lot of fun, but it's not like I'm going to start hunting down people in the real world.”

“You know some idiot pundit is going to go on a diatribe about how the whole thing is a brainwashing tool and is turning us into mindless killers,” Nora said.

“With the charts and flawed research and all?” Selene added.

“Not to mention ignoring all the research that contradicts it,” Anna said with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

“Sore topic?” Selene asked her.

“It's just a pet peeve of mine,” Anna said. “People using flawed methodology really, really annoys me. Plus, a lot of people tend to believe what they're told, even if it's stretching the truth.”

“I feel you,” Selene said. That made sense. Anna was a research assistant who had majored in psychology.

“As much as I hate to say it, some people might have a point, though,” Nora said. “It's not nearly as extreme as people make it out to be, but I do think the game affects us in subtle ways. I've noticed that my reaction times have gotten a lot faster.”

“But we're not all psychos because of the game,” Selene said. “It's just a place where we can go to have fun.”

“Oh, I definitely think that's true,” Nora agreed. “I talked about it a lot with Zach. I think that the game is influencing us neurologically. But I think that the amount it influences us psychologically is affected by how well anchored we are in the real world.”

“So you think we're just fine as is?” Miko asked.

Nora nodded. “Yeah. I think that it only really affects people who already have a tenuous grip on reality. The vast majority of people are fine.”

“Makes sense,” Liz said.

“Then again, we're dealing with uncharted territory here,” Anna said. “What you said supports the prevailing theory about games. Heck, I'd go as far as to say that it's proven fact at this point. But then again, there's not a lot of data on true virtual reality games. And there's no data on a virtual world game.”

“That's true,” Nora admitted. “I mean, that is the reason we're studying the whole thing.”

“I still think that you're capable of figuring out what's real and what isn't,” Liz said. “Like, we know how things are supposed to work in real life. And when they don't quite match up it's pretty easy to spot the difference.”

“Kind of like the uncanny valley?” Anna asked.

“Yeah, like that, but without the creepiness factor,” Liz said. “It's not like it creeps you out or anything, but you can tell it's not really real, if that makes any sense.”

“Like being able to tell the difference in taste between a natural and artificial sweetener?” Miko asked.

“Yeah, exactly. The fake one isn't bad, it's just that you can tell it's different.”

“The fake one in your example also gives you cancer, so I'm not sure that's the best analogy,” Selene said.

Liz smiled and shook her head. “You know what I mean.”

“Oh, no. I definitely get that, and I think you're right.”

“I think so to,” Nora said. “The only thing that stops it from going into the uncanny valley is the fact that there's people in it. They're the ones that add quirks and personality into the world.”

“Half our adventures came about because we're all maniacs,” Miko agreed.

“I guess that people are what make it a world,” Selene said. “Without them it would be pretty empty otherwise.”

Selene had forgotten why she hated bowling. Now she remembered exactly why. Yet another ball careened to the left. She managed to get three pins.

“Am I hallucinating this?” Miko asked as she sat back down beside her.

“Gah. Bowling was one of the only sports that I wasn't good at,” Selene said. “I just can't get the ball on target for whatever reason.”

“Well, at least you can hit some of the pins,” Liz commented as they watched Anna go. The ball barely made it half way down the lane before it went into a gutter. She and Selene were running neck and neck for last place.

“Well, you can always drink more and see if that helps your equilibrium,” Nora said. “At least that's the highly questionable advice some family members have given me.”

“Does it work?” Liz asked.

“Haven't tried it, but pretty sure that the answer to that is no,” Nora said. “Not that I'd really take advice from some of them.”

“You'd be much happier even if you are still missing,” Miko said with a laugh.

“Of course you would say that,” Selene said.

“What can I say?” Miko shrugged.

“Wonder what the rest of the guys are doing,” Selene said.

“They're at another Cubs game,” Nora said. “Still clinging to the hope that they might be able to sneak into the playoffs. Of course, they're playing St. Louis.”

“Yeesh. It wouldn't even be worth going to the game if they gave away the beer for free,” Selene said.

“This is when being a Yankees fan pays off,” Miko said.

“Bandwagoner,” Selene said.

“Hey, I'm actually from New York.”

Liz looked up and watched Anna throw her second ball. She managed to hit several pins this time. “Well, that's an improvement, at least.”

Miko stood up. “My turn. I'll try not to smoke you guys too badly.”

“Oh just go. You've been hanging around Selene too long,” Nora said with a grin. She and Miko were battling it out for the lead. Liz was having a middling but respectable showing, while Selene and Anna were trying to stay out of last place.

“You got six on the second ball,” Liz commented.

“Yeah, I'm slowly but steadily improving,” Anna said.

“Better than me,” Selene said. “Maybe I should take that bit of advice.”

“What advice?” Anna asked.

“Drink a lot,” Nora said.

“Not sure that's the best bit of advice, but OK,” Anna said.

Selene leaned back and sighed. “How long has it been since we spent an evening outside of the game world?”

“Jeeze, must have been a week and a half,” Nora said. “That sounds pretty bad once you think about it.”

“No worse than watching TV every night,” Liz said. “I mean, we're actually doing something.”

“Technically we're doing the same thing as someone watching TV. We're sitting there and observing. The difference is just in the sense of how immersed you are in what you're seeing,” Anna said.

“Yeah, but at the same time we've actually built something, even though it's in a virtual world.”

“You sound like you're taking pointers from Danny,” Selene said.

“It's a valid point, though,” Nora said, standing up. “And I guess it's my turn to go.”

The rest of them watched her go. She threw a hard ball down the center of the lane and hit the foremost pin right on the nose. Strike.

“Man,” Miko said.

“Oh gosh, I feel so bad for you,” Selene said sarcastically.

“Right, so where were we?” Nora asked as she came back. Liz got up for her turn.

“The value of stuff in a virtual world?” Anna said.

“Oh, that,” Miko said. “Are we talking about the argument that things in a virtual world have less meaning than something in the real world?”

“Yeah, that,” Selene said. “Not an easy topic to define.”

“Well, I think it's pretty simple,” Miko shrugged. “Things have a value that we assign them. Why's gold worth anything? It's just a pretty rock.”

“Put that way, I guess we really can't feel weird about spending a lot of our time in the game world,” Nora said. “I enjoy the time I spend there a lot, and I guess that's what's important.”

“At the same time, we can't stay in there all the time. You need some variation sometime,” Selene said.

“Definitely,” Nora said.

“Variety is the spice of life,” Anna added.

Miko snickered. “There has to be times you lose at something.”

Selene scowled with an air of mock-offense. She got up to take her turn. “Yeah, yeah, enjoy your victory.”

CHAPTER 7

Valkyrie

“I hear the game went poorly,” Liz said through the radio link. She was sitting on the starboard bench seat. Zach occupied the port one, while the helicopter cabin was occupied by two pilots from Raven, Rielle and Cole.

“That would be an understatement,” Zach said. “The worst part was the game was tied going into the seventh inning. Then the bullpen imploded again and they gave up seven runs.”

“I'm going to hear a lot from Danny, aren't I?” Liz said. “I'm not even all that interested in baseball. I'm more of a Brewers fan anyhow, truth be told.”

“Ugh, not the time to bring that up to him,” Zach said.

“Is that why you didn't bring him along,” Liz said.

“No, he took the platoon for a raid,” Zach informed her. “They got good information that there's a supply convoy moving valuables out from Old Chicago. They're going to catch them out in the open and blast them.”

“I'm surprised that you didn't send me along as well with my platoon,” Liz said.

“They'll be able to handle it themselves,” Zach said. “Besides, this is going to be important, and I need you here with me. I don't have Nora, after all.”

“Still need an adjunct, eh?”

“Hey, it gives me someone to counterbalance me so I don't make stupid decisions. And it gives me a more dignified air. Especially since you're from another company. That's got to mean something.”

Zach and Liz were flying to a meeting with the alliance led by Ronin Company. Ronin had decided they wanted to have greater cooperation with Hydra, and had put out feelers to see if that was possible. Many of the companies in Hydra were still wary of Ronin; after all, they weren't sold on the way they operated, or that they were capable of taking on Ragnarok for a sustained period of time. However, the original five members of Hydra were receptive to the idea. Anything that drew Ragnarok's attention was good for them, and they wanted to see what it would take in order for that to happen. Even Gina, who was one of the least enthusiastic about the possible cooperation with Ronin, saw the whole thing as a good chance to take. In her mind, Hydra could use Ronin like a shield, deflecting attacks away from themselves and letting another take the brunt of them.

They weren't going to bring it to the council's attention until they had a concrete agreement on the table that was agreeable. The sheer dislike for Ronin meant that any proposal made without actual plans was going to be stonewalled by some of the more obstinate companies. Zach couldn't exactly blame them for that either. Ronin was probably looking for an opportunity to exploit Hydra, just as they were doing the same in return. That was the ugly nature of politics in this game, and Zach wasn't terribly bothered by it. Coupling that duplicity with the amount of sheer dislike for Ronin meant that many companies would actively balk at the prospect of working with Ronin.

Much of that had to do with the rigid style of Ronin Company, along with the way that they were organized. Ronin was headed by Levi Kanagi, who controlled every aspect of the company. Ronin was equipped a certain way, fought a certain way and was organized a certain way. There was little room for flexibility in their doctrine, and that was because of Levi's hands on approach. Nothing was allowed to pass without his notice, and that had extended to trying to form an alliance. The unaffiliated companies might have hated Ragnarok, but they hated Levi's way of doing things just as much and refused to join, even with Ragnarok at their doorsteps.

Then again, they had simply formed up into their own alliance and hoped for a miracle. Black Wolf, Redd Foxx and Sacred Sword had been proactive and had put themselves in a good position. With the addition of Grizzly and later Hephaestus they gained a strong power base, which they had leveraged in order to bring the rest into the fold. Once Ragnarok had taken their strongholds they had little choice but to join Hydra or disband. That wasn't bad for them, though, since they gained access to a large treasury, armory, advanced technology and the greatest player-owned fortress in the region.

But Ronin was an entirely different story. They had managed to form their own small alliance, which was fighting Ragnarok for all it was worth. They weren't slouches either; The alliance included White Tiger, Dogs of War, Ascension and the recently formed Paladin, all of them good fighters. If this was a movie then they would be the true underdogs. For all the talk that they were outnumbered, Hydra had just as much power as Ragnarok. They were the two juggernauts in the region going head to head, while Ronin was simply struggling to stay alive. It was a minor feat in and of itself that they were still going and were a major thorn in the side of Ragnarok.

There thankfully hadn't been any major disputes between Ronin and Hydra. It was likely due to the fact that Ragnarok was such a threat; it would be a waste of time for them to fight each other when their real enemy was still strong. At the same time, their cooperation had also been limited. The attack on Fort Baldr was a good start, but there was plenty more that could be done.

Zach was especially keen on better cooperation with Ronin. Hydra didn't have any bases in the north; their territory extended no further north than the southern end of Old Chicago. If his troops were going to operate up in that area they needed a place to stage their raids from. They could possibly try to find a secluded place deep in Ragnarok territory, but that was inviting trouble down on them if they were discovered. They would probably have the Valkyries paying them a visit.

Cooperating with Ronin was probably the best option. It would give them a measure of safety, since any place they would be operating from would be guarded by Ronin troops. Coordinating with them would also be easier, which would make joint operations more practical if they wanted to do that. It would also serve to strengthen Ronin's position, which served in Hydra's best interests.

Even so, there were a lot of people in Hydra that were leery or even outright opposed to the idea. He had gotten approval for it anyhow by way of a loophole that Danny had suggested. The council had unanimously voted to authorize Zach's command to use any means at their disposal to disrupt Ragnarok in the north. Danny had astutely pointed out that cooperation with Ronin would fall under the umbrella of those orders, and so Zach was going to do everything in his power to make sure that happened. Others might not like it, but even the most obstinate among them admitted the value of the plan. There was simply too much to gain to let prejudices get in the way, as much as that might annoy some of them.

They weren't going to be the only problem. Zach liked Levi as a person, but trying to negotiate with him was like trying to get blood from a stone. He would probably have much better luck with some of the other company commanders, along with some of his subordinates that he would listen to.

That was their objective now. They were flying to meet with a couple of their representatives in an outpost in the western end of Ronin's territory, away from the fighting. As far as he knew, they would be meeting with three representatives; Rafael of Dogs of War, Tafari of White Tiger and Sam from Ronin Company itself. Levi hadn't been filled in on the details yet; they wouldn't bother until there was a solid proposal on the table.

“Hopefully this goes better than the last time we tried to negotiate,” Liz said, referring to the disaster at Ronin Fortress several months earlier.

“Are you thinking ambush?” Zach asked.

“We're in the middle of nowhere, so I don't think so,” she said. “I'm more concerned with us running into a brick wall with them.”

“Sam's a good one,” Zach said. “He's been our main contact through this whole thing. Tafari's the practical type, and he wants to do something to hurt Ragnarok. He'll go along as long as the plan is solid. As for Rafe, well, I'm honestly surprised that he hasn't jumped ship and joined us yet.”

“Still, this might be a tough sell,” Liz said.

“They need ammo, and we can produce that,” Zach said.

“Are we going to be able to produce enough is the question,” Liz said. “We're already pretty stretched trying to provide enough for ourselves and to sell on the market. Plus, if we give them that we're cutting down on the number of people that actually need to buy it. That's going to hurt us when we're trying to get fusion batteries.”

Zach grimaced to himself. He hadn't thought of that. “Well, what are your thoughts?”

“Would we be willing to give them schematic designs?” Liz asked.

“I thought of that. The problem is, if Ragnarok realizes that they're likely going to go after Ronin to get them. And while that might buy us some time, we'll eventually have a much more heavily armed enemy on our doorstep. We don't exactly have many throwaway ones we can offer.”

“I have a feeling that they might be insulted if we offered them anyhow,” Liz said. “They'd want the big guns, and I wouldn't want to give them up. My other suggestion would be to offer them aid in the field. Like, we'll agree to perform a certain number of raids for them in exchange for a base.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Zach said. It matched up with their objective of keeping Ragnarok off balance as well. Plus, it would help to prop up Ronin as well, which in his mine was going to be important.

“So do we want to offer only that?” Liz asked.

“Yeah, that seems like the best bet,” Zach said. “If they don't go for it we'll find another way. But I think it will work.” In his mind the exchange was worth it. The agreement would cost Ronin nothing and would gain them a force that they could use to attack Ragnarok's weak points.

“We're one minute from the landing point,” Cole said.

“Thanks Cole,” Zach said. “Ready for this?” he asked Liz.

“Just as long as there's no shooting, we'll be fine,” she answered.

“It's at the far end of Ronin territory. I don't think that's going to be a problem unless they betray us, and that's not going to happen. Whatever else you can say about them, they're loyal, and they take their word very seriously.”

The outpost below them was small, little more than a converted house and a garage surrounded by a log wall about eight feet high. There was a sizable courtyard in within the stockade, though, and that was where they landed. Three figures moved out to greet them as he and Liz unbuckled themselves.

One of them offered his hand, a soldier with Ronin's insignia on his shoulder. “Good to finally see you in person again,” Sam said.

“Likewise. It's been a little hectic down in the south,” Zach replied.

Tafari was up next. He was a heavy built for strength. He towered over the rest of them, and his dark skin looked like it hid a ton of muscle underneath. “Good to see you again,” he said.

“And good to see you too.”

Rafe was last. “Hopefully this goes better than last time,” he said as he shook Zach's hand. He was a sniper, medium height but thin.

“I can't imagine how it could go worse,” Zach said.

They finished introductions and headed inside the main building of the outpost. Sam lead them into one of the larger rooms. There was a table and a half dozen chairs inside. Sam, Zach, Liz and Rafe took a seat. Tafari leaned up against the wall.

Sam spoke up first. “Alright, so you want a base inside our territory,” he said plainly.

“That's correct,” Zach said. “We want somewhere closer to Ragnarok territory so we can strike further into it.”

Sam nodded. “I'm guessing that you want to have a base on the river, so you can also use it to launch boats out of. I think that it should be at White Tiger's fortress. That's on the river, and it's heavily guarded so Ragnarok isn't going to be able to pull sneak attacks.”

“Can Ragnarok get across the river?” Liz asked.

“We control the only crossings, so no,” Rafe said. “The only way they can take them is by using a lot of troops, and that leaves them vulnerable to you guys. They also have to cross the river before they attack, so they're penned into a small area where they're sitting ducks.”

“Do they have boats?” Zach asked.

“Nothing major. They can send small raiding groups across, but they're nothing we can't handle. Plus, they're pretty lightly armed. If you have a couple of your craft patrolling the river they're going to be pretty hesitant to cross.”

“We're willing to raid some places for you, in exchange for the base,” Zach said.

“Good. That's going to be a lot easier to sell,” Tafari said.

Zach looked at them, confused for a moment. “What, were you just going to give it to us for free?”

Rafe shook his head and grinned. “Well, I wouldn't exactly call it free...”

Tafari shrugged. “You're going to be raiding Ragnarok. That helps us no matter how you slice it, and that's what we need. I'm more than happy to help you however I can as long as you're hurting them.”

“Actually, there is something that you can do for us,” Sam said. “We've been scouting to the north of here. We've discovered an abandoned airfield that probably has a schematic but we can't clear it with anything less than a platoon. And we can't spare that many troops at the moment. If you guys could clear the place out and get the schematic for us, we would be willing to share. And that would probably fill your obligations of raids to us.”

“Sounds good, although we won't know how well we'll do unless we hear all of the details,” Liz said.

“The proposal is fine as is,” Zach said. “We'll recover the schematic in exchange for a base. I can't imagine that the place can't be cleared out by two platoons.”

“Alright, I'll make sure that it gets approved by Levi,” Sam told them.

“It's approved, since it's my base,” Tafari said. “We don't have an official alliance like you guys do, so it's still up to the individual company commanders to decide what to do. And I think this is a good idea.”

“Don't cause a rift in your alliance on account of us,” Liz said. “If they don't like it, then we'll do what we can. We'll find another way.”

“That's rather candid of you, considering we could force you to make a better offer if we wanted,” Rafe said. “Not that we would, but still.”

“Who said we'd negotiate with you?” Liz said. “We could just grab a place for ourselves.”

Both Sam and Tafari laughed. “She has a point there, Rafe,” Sam said.

“What do you guys need help with?” Zach asked. “Our objective up here is to keep Ragnarok busy. We're not picky about how we do it, so if we can help you in any way we'll be glad to.”

“Well, anything that weakens them will be good,” Sam said. “We're not going to be very picky.”

“It might be better if we didn't know,” Rafe said. “The best thing you can do is to cause confusion.”

They were being evasive, and Zach could hardly blame them. True, both sides wanted to cooperate, but neither was forgetting that they were part of separate alliances. They had their own interests and would exploit each other for those ends if they could. Right now they were cooperating because those interests intersected, but giving away valuable intelligence would be foolish. There could be a time when both alliances ended up in a war with each other. In fact, if Ragnarok managed to absorb Ronin then they could be in serious trouble if they new Hydra's secrets. They would have to instruct their troops about that before they moved to their new base.

“Well, that definitely works for us,” Liz said. “We-”

The world outside suddenly came alive. There was gunfire, a lot of it, and it sounded intense. Sam was immediately on his radio. “What's going on?” he demanded.

“This again?” Zach grumbled to himself. His alert rang. Rielle was on the other end of the line.

“Wolf Lead, we've got trouble,” she said. “Ragnarok's here in force, and they're gunning through the troops here pretty quick.”

“How did they get here?” Zach demanded, though he knew full well that she didn't have the answer.

“Don't know, but we're going to have to either run for it now or resort to Plan B.”

“Copy. We're coming out,” Zach said. He turned to the rest of the group. “We're leaving. Contact me when you guys decide.”

“Sorry about this,” Sam apologized.

Zach pulled his carbine off his back and jogged out of the front door, with the rest of them close behind. He got out just in time to see everything go south.

BAM!

The front gate was suddenly blown off its hinges, rocked by several explosions. A few seconds later troops started pouring in. Zach and Liz were forced to dive into cover as they opened fire. Several bullets came very, very close to hitting them.

“Crap, we lost Rafe,” Liz said, looking back. “Tafari looks like he got hit as well.” She peered up from her position and fired. A barrage of fire drove her back to the ground.

“Wolf Lead, I just lost Cole,” Rielle said. “I can't hold them off by myself.”

“They're here for the chopper,” Zach said. “Go with Plan B.”

“I didn't want to walk anyhow,” Rielle said.

BAM!

Another explosion went off. Small shards of metal started to rain down from the sky.

That was their Plan B. If their choppers were ever at risk of being captured, they were rigged with charges and a self-destruct switch. Even though it mean the deaths of the pilots it was well worth it. They couldn't risk Ragnarok being able to reverse engineer one of their best weapons.

And anyhow, they would be dead no matter what. There was no way they were going to get out of this alive. Ragnarok had too many troops and were through the gate already.

Sam sat up to fire and got a bullet through his head. Tafari managed to get off a burst at the enemy before an RPG came his way. Liz was thrown into Zach by the force of the blast. And then they had a half-dozen guns in their face. Rough hands knocked their weapons away and forced them up to their knees. The outpost was a wreck, and it looked like they were the only survivors.

Zach looked around at their captors. They were wearing Ragnarok colors and their insignia on their shoulders, an earth being engulfed by the world serpent, but they had an additional mark on their chest. It was a female warrior with wings, carrying a spear. A Valkyrie.

“Joy,” Zach said to himself.

The ranks in front of them parted, and a figure walked toward them. He had a sniper rifle slung over his back.

“Of course it would be you,” Liz said beside him.

The Wraith stopped in front of them and shrugged. “I'd like to know what you're doing here.”

“Just passing through,” Zach said.

“I bet,” the Wraith said. He made a sudden motion, and then there was a pistol in his hand. Others grabbed theirs as well. Liz was hit by a dozen shots.

“Was that really necessary?” Zach demanded, the anger rising in him. It was irrational anger, really, but he felt it all the same.

“Yes,” the Wraith said. “Or did you not know? Ivan, show him.”

One of his troops walked over and opened up the palm of Liz's hand. There was a grenade inside.

“OK, that's fair,” Zach admitted.

The Wraith aimed his pistol at him next. “What were you doing here?”

“Having a nice chat,” Zach said flatly.

The Wraith clicked his tongue. “Not the answer I'm looking for,” he said. “I could question you further, but that would just be a waste of both our time, hmm?”

Pop.

Zach fell backward, and the world went black.

You are KIA.

“So the Valkyries were there? That sounds really suspicious,” Anna said.

“Yeah, I know. It wasn't just a lucky guess. They were definitely there for the chopper. The problem is, I have no idea how they got the info that we were going to be there. None of the three leaders are the type that would sell us out,” Zach said.

He had called a meeting of the ranger company leadership to go over the situation. Word had trickled back to them that Levi and the rest of the alliance's leadership had approved the plan for their base. That was definitely going to help them, but the fight with the Valkyries had made him nervous. True, they had been caught by surprise and had been outnumbered. The problem was how quickly they had been crushed; they should have put up a much longer fight. The fact that they were being lead by the Wraith was also unsettling.

The Wraith. His name was Patrick Sharper, and he was the best sniper in the Old Chicago region, bar none. Even Hydra's best snipers like Miko and Jonas couldn't match his ability. This had been the second time the Zach had been killed by him; the first time he had been sniped from a distance. He was cold, calculating and intelligent.

The most intimidating thing about him was that he knew how to exploit every possible advantage on the battlefield. Miko had taken the time to study how he operated, and then had started to emulate it. For the Wraith killing was only a means to an end. His real objective was to disrupt the enemy and keep them from fighting effectively. Unlike other snipers, who would shoot anyone who crossed their scope, the Wraith usually only targeted leaders. His aim was to deprive the enemy of their coordination.

That made sense to Zach, and it seemed like it was very effective. Many snipers target heavies and other snipers, but a good commander could move troops around to compensate for losses. If the leader was taken out of the battle, however, the separate elements couldn't coordinate well. Veteran troops could exploit that kind of confusion and tear through an enemy line.

It looked like the Valkyries had picked up on their leader's personality, and that was why they were so intimidating. For all of Black Wolf and Redd Foxx's battle craft, the Valkyries could match them. Their only real advantage was the firepower they could bring in the form of close air and water support, but they would need to stay close enough to use it. If they were caught far behind enemy lines then it was likely they were dead meat.

Nora interrupted his thoughts. “Whatever the case, we have our base near the front lines.”

“Danny's not going to like this,” Liz said.

“Speaking of which, is he still on the raid?” Selene asked.

Zach shrugged. “He hasn't respawned back here, so as far as I know, yes.”

He wondered how he was doing.

CHAPTER 8

Interdiction

It was an odd feeling, watching a battle from above. Danny had seen plenty up close and personal. He had seen more watching blips on a screen, and had experienced a few times in a command vehicle. But it was nothing like what he could see flying above the battlefield in the cockpit of a chopper.

Xavier's squad had dropped off into the forest to the west side of the road and was advancing east toward the Ragnarok convoy. To the south Karen's squad had blocked off the retreat route and was laying down fire on the rear of the column. Javy's squad sat at the northern end of the road taking pot shots at the front of the convoy with their recoilless rifle.

The enemy couldn't mount a response. They were heavily armed for infantry, but they were mounted in trucks laden down with precious cargo. Few of the trucks were armed, and they had been quickly destroyed. The rest of the column had been penned in by the ambush and were being squeezed. And that wasn't even the worst part for them.

Danny watched Raven 3 swoop in below him, making a fast attack run with guns blazing. The speed of the attack made it somewhat ineffective, but it's value was very clear from his vantage point; troops on the ground were spooked by the bullets landing around them and would hug cover. This gave the troops on the ground plenty of time to advance unmolested.

He activated his radio. “Bravo 1, how are you doing on the trucks?”

“We have about half of them down, Bravo Wolf. Are you sure you don't want to save any of them?” Xavier asked.

“We don't have the space to carry any of the cargo. Just make sure that there's nothing left for Ragnarok to come and claim.”

“Copy that.”

Danny looked over the battlefield again, then changed the channel. He opened up a dual line to Javy and Karen. “Bravo 3, start pushing up from the south. Make them squirm. Bravo 2, stay in position.”

“Roger that, Bravo Wolf,” Javy confirmed.

“Copy, Bravo Wolf,” Karen said, the eagerness evident in her voice.

Out of anyone she probably had the best reason to hate Ragnarok. Before she had been a squad leader, before she had joined Black Wolf, before any of that she had been the leader of a small company. Their membership was small, with only around ten players, and they were all low level. They didn't stand a chance when Ragnarok had come calling. Danny had to give them credit, though. They didn't submit. When Ragnarok had taken their fortress they had tried to win it back, futile as their effort was. Once the forty eight hour time limit had passed and their company had been disbanded they had traveled south and asked to join Black Wolf Company.

Karen was definitely a natural leader, Danny had observed. She had a keen mind that could quickly analyze the changing situation of the battlefield. She was aggressive when she needed to be, cautious when the situation warranted, and most importantly could put fire in her troops. Almost all of Bravo 3 was made of up of troops from her doomed company, and they were effective. Danny would put them up against any other squad in Black Wolf; Gavin's veterans, Xavier's stalwarts, even a squad with all the Black Wolf originals in it. If things had been slightly different it could be her in charge of the platoon. It might be her in charge of the platoon, if they gained more members and the reshuffled the command structure.

Danny watched with interest as her squad went to work. She had a pair of heavies in her squad armed with a machine gun, plus a third with a recoilless rifle. One of them laid down cover fire on the rear of the column while the other nine moved up. The second heavy dropped prone about fifty yards ahead and started laying down cover fire as well; the first one got up and advanced forward.

Machine gun fire came out from one of the rear trucks, narrowly missing several of the squad. They quickly took cover behind trees and rocks. Danny was about to order Raven 4 to make a run on the truck, but that was completely unnecessary. The truck exploded into a million tiny shards of metal, and Danny suddenly burst out laughing, earning a quizzical look from his pilot Brooke. Bravo 3 had taken care of that problem quickly. No one would want to use a vehicle as cover, lest they be blasted by a recoilless rifle shell.

“Bravo Wolf, Bravo Wolf, please respond.”

“I copy you, Raven 5,” he responded. That was their bird on standby to the south.

“There's a Ragnarok team coming out from Old Chicago riding ATVs. They'll be on your position in about eight to ten minutes.”

“Copy that. Keep tabs on them and warn me when they're getting close.”

“Roger, Bravo Wolf.”

Danny changed the channels on his radio again. “Listen up, everyone. We're going to have company soon. Finish them off and do what you have to. Make sure there's nothing left for them.”

“Go to town?” Javy asked.

“Go to town, everyone,” Danny said. There was going to be a fireworks show soon.

He didn't have long to wait. There were half-dozen intact vehicles in the convoy. Three of them suddenly weren't there anymore, blasted by recoilless rifle shells. The remaining Ragnarok troops were forced back, fighting hard but poorly. They were definitely new recruits, Danny thought. The veterans would have killed far more of them. And they never would have clustered close together.

Raven 3 and Raven 4 zoomed in again on a strafing run. Danny saw several of the enemy go down. That wasn't the real benefit, though; it was the fact that they were pinned down and not firing. That gave his troops time. Far, far too much time.

The ground below lit up with explosions. Recoilless rifle rounds, hand grenades, launched grenades, the firestorm was intense. Danny almost felt sorry for the Ragnarok troops. There was nothing left of them except charred bodies and smoking burned-out wrecks.

Danny nodded approvingly. “Great job everyone. Let's get out of here before they know what hit 'em.”

“So you got executed by the Wraith?” Danny laughed.

Zach gave him an annoyed look and flipped over the turn card. It was a five of diamonds. “Pretty much, although it saved me the trouble of having to walk back to base.”

“Put that way, that sounds like a much better option,” Gavin agreed.

“How tough were the Valkyries?” Javy asked. He tossed in a bet.

Zach shook his head and called. “We didn't stand a chance,” he said. “Even with how badly they outnumbered us, we should have at least been able to hold them off for five to ten minutes.”

“How long did you last?” Javy inquired.

“About two minutes.”

Gavin shook his head and folded. “You know, I'm really glad that I've been assigned to the south right now. Even with the walls and the huge army.”

“Have you done anything?” Danny asked. He called as well.

“Not yet. Gray took a team south to survey the walls. They think there might be a way in like a sewer pipe or the like.”

“That would be the worst weakness ever,” Javy said. “Hey, we have fifty foot walls, more guns than God and a million troops on the walls, but you can go crawling through the sewers to avoid all of that.”

Danny nodded in agreement. “Even if they were a way in like that, I'd bet anything that it was heavily guarded.”

Zach dealt out the river card. It was the ace of clubs. “I'd bet that too, but we need some way in,” he said. “Ronin wants us to go grab a schematic for them in exchange for the base. Maybe that will be something we can use.”

“I'm not one to bank on us getting a miracle weapon,” Xavier said, watching the rest of the proceeds. He had folded on the flop.

“We have almost eight hundred minds. At least one of them should be able to come up with a plan,” Zach said.

“One that's not completely suicidal?” Danny asked. “We seem to have problems with that.”

“Hey, I can't guarantee that,” Zach shrugged.

They played out the rest of the hand. Javy won the pot yet again.

“And this is why I fold a lot,” Xavier said.

“Well, hopefully you can deal better than I could,” Zach said, handing over the deck to him. “I'm not having much luck today.”

“Well, I can't say I'm sad about what happened,” Danny said. “You had most of the Valkyries at your end, so our job was a walk in the park.”

“So says the guy that was flying around in the helicopter barking orders,” Javy said.

“Yeah, that's true. What happened to you fighting up on the front lines?” Xavier asked.

Danny shrugged. “That will come later. I will say that being able to see the entire battlefield from the air helps immensely. It's much easier to see what's going on and where to move people.”

Xavier nodded. “I did notice that your orders were much faster. That can come in handy later on.”

“Until they get antiaircraft guns,” Javy said. “It seems like it's turning into a pretty nasty arms race. We might not be able to stay ahead of them, either.”

“Speaking of that, have you talked with Shayna about the quests in Old Chicago?” Gavin asked.

“No, what about them?” Zach asked.

“There's huge areas of the city that are devoted to NPC quests. Like faction warfare between gangs, corporations and stuff. But you can earn schematics, weapons and the like by completing them,” Gavin detailed.

Danny looked up in surprise. “Say what?” he asked. He could see that the others were confused and shocked as well.

“Well, they're not especially powerful. Nothing like the stuff we've gotten by raiding bunkers and the like, but it's good stuff anyhow. We might be able to grab some useful things out of it.”

“How long do they take? The quests, I mean,” Xavier asked.

Gavin shrugged. “I have no idea. They don't seem to be the main point of the game. They're probably some sort of crutch to get lower level players going until they could expand outside of the safe zones.”

“Except we ran everything completely off the rails,” Danny mused. “Come to think of it, taking a stronghold on the first day had to throw the developers for a loop. Not to mention finding the overdrive formula. That probably helped Ragnarok out as well.”

“So someone spent thousands of hours designing this beginners system, only to have it ruined within a few hours by you guys?” Javy asked. “That's got to be completely demoralizing.”

“How did we manage to run it so far off that rails?” Zach said as he took a drink. “Everything just felt so natural.

The beta probably had something to do with it, Danny thought to himself. He, Zach and Selene had been beta testers and had extensive experience with the combat system by the time the full game had come out. When they had entered the game they had quickly formed into a fighting unit that was experienced and well-versed in how to fight, even without the aim assist. They had been strong enough to take out a small platoon dug into a fortified position with help from Miko.

That raised several questions, however. The biggest one was how the game was training them. It was natural that they would be better fighters because of their experience. However, that didn't just extend to their aim or their knowledge of their abilities.

It was most apparent in the way they fought. All three of them had noticed that they were far more aggressive than newer players, both in the tactical sense and the strategic sense. Sensible, conservative logic would have them performing NPC quests and killing low level monsters in the outskirts to slowly increase their level in strength. Instead, they had gone after a hard but valuable target right off the bat. And once they did so, they attacked in a forceful, vicious fashion. There was no sneaking, no trading shots with an enemy from long distance. He, Zach and Selene had hit the place head on, using their knowledge and abilities to win the day.

That was something that couldn't be taught, but had to be learned. There were a lot of things that were like that. Shooting was one of them, driving was another. Except for a class exclusive power, there were no abilities to activate. For all intents and purposes they could be fighting a real world battle.

Danny had wondered about that. Miko had been the first one to question the motives of Elysium Visions and their study, and Danny had given it quite a bit of thought. The most likely explanation was that they wanted to make virtual world training a practical reality. It was an attractive option, if all the kinks were worked out. Most of the costs would be up front in developing a training program, and it would require minimal maintenance. It could be used to safely train people in situations that would normally be dangerous; for example, they could send firefighters into a burning building without actually exposing them to danger. It could also let people exercise their creativity in a world free from limitations.

But then why did they choose to make a global war game? That was possibly the most complicated option out of any they could chose. The risk if it failed was immense. There was no danger of that now; World at War had millions of subscribers. However, the sheer amount of things that could have gone wrong boggled the mind.

Maybe they had someone on the outside lobbying for it to be this way. The money needed to develop the game was astronomical, enough that it was speculated that it would bankrupt the company if World at War failed. Maybe someone had offered to offset the financial risk if the game was built to their tastes. Who would it have been, though? An eccentric billionaire? The government? The military? Someone else?

Sometimes Danny wondered just what he had gotten himself into when he signed the paperwork agreeing to the study.

“Bravo 1, Bravo 1, how's it going on your end?” Danny lifted his machine gun up and fired burst after burst at the enemy. He was with Javy's squad fighting through the last area of a group NPC quest. The enemy had the outnumbered five to one, and were getting absolutely slaughtered. It wasn't even a battle; it was like mowing down grass. They had thought the enemy AI outside of Old Chicago was shoddy at times, but this was even worse. Was it that bad, or were they that good?

Xavier's voice crackled over the radio. “This is too easy,” he said. “We're fighting through a platoon, but they're not even coming close to doing anything to us.”

“This is really going to skew the kill counts in our favor,” Javy said. “I mean, I know they're just for bragging rights, but still.”

Danny laughed to himself. There was a kill counter on his HUD for the duration of this mission. His was well over twenty by now. None of them had even been seriously wounded, let alone killed. And it wasn't like they were all that heavily armed. They had no air support, no armored vehicles, no artillery, and few weapons heavier than machine guns. They were right. They had run the game so far off the rails that many important elements were now obsolete.

Danny shifted his aim and fired another burst. He watched Javy's squad push forward, gunning down anyone who got them in the way. He was curious about what kind of schematic would be their reward for the mission. It couldn't be that good, since the mission was so easy. On the other hand the amount of technology they had to produce was putting a severe strain on Hephaestus Company. Simpler weapons and equipment could be helpful as well, and would put far less strain on their production system.

“Danny, I think we have the area cleared,” Javy said. The gunfire had died out.

He stood up and looked around. There were enemies strewn everywhere. “Man, we stomped them.”

Javy and Ryan came walking up to him. “Man, I got fifteen kills out of that,” Javy commented with a grin. That was definitely unusual, since he was a medic.

“How many did you get?” Danny asked Ryan.

“Thirty two,” Ryan said. “Not that it's hard when they pop up in predictable patterns.”

Javy shrugged. “I see how this would be tough for new players. If you're attacking this with a couple of raw squads you run into this at the end and have a company of enemies firing at you. That would be pretty intimidating.”

“But we're too well trained to be bothered by it,” Ryan said. “I'm actually kind of glad that Karen didn't come along. We'd have to divide up the experience even further, and it's low enough as it is.”

Karen had taken her squad and was trying to complete the second level of the ranger challenge. Danny admired their enthusiasm, especially since it was only for bragging rights at the moment. There was no way he would be able to do it right now. Their original squad couldn't get together since they were all busy elsewhere. Danny could join another squad, but he felt like he was going to be a liability. Even though Liz was continuing to train him when they had time, he was still merely passable at it.

Xavier buzzed in. “We're going to go turn in the quest and get the reward. Want to come along?”

Danny looked at the other two. They shrugged.

“Go turn it in and meet up with us at the battledome. We'll join up with Karen and head south together.”

“Copy that,” Xavier said. “We'll let you know what we got once we turn it in.”

“Great.” Danny turned to Javy. “Let's go.”

“Well, this is better than I thought it would be,” Danny commented. The schematic they had earned needed to be decoded by an engineer. Leigh had done so on their way back down to Lerna Bastion.

Black Wolf Headquarters was deserted except for Danny's platoon. Zach was up north with Liz and her platoon, Selene was down in the south scouting and Nora was doing something with Anna. So far it was only Leigh, Ryan, Xavier, Javy and Karen in the briefing room going over the schematic. Yusuf was busy, but Paige was coming over to meet with them and to take the schematic to Hephaestus Forge.

The schematic was for a heavy machine gun firing .50 caliber bullets. It was too large to be carried by a single heavy, and would need to be operated by a crew. On the other hand, it would allow them to bring some heavier firepower to the battlefield. It probably could be mounted on vehicles and on the wall defenses as well. It might not be a flashy weapon, but it was plenty useful.

“So, we need two people to operate this?” Xavier asked.

“The person firing has to be a heavy, unless it's mounted on a vehicle or in a fixed position,” Leigh said.

“Wait, how does that make sense?” Ryan wondered aloud.

Leigh shrugged her shoulders. “Don't ask me, ask the people who designed this game.”

Karen frowned. “I don't think this is going to be good in the standard squad. We might want to form dedicated heavy weapons squads armed with just these.”

“Do we have the troops for this?” Xavier asked. “Our platoons could stand to be bigger now as it is. We don't want to dilute our front line fighting strength any more than it has to.”

Danny nodded. “Plus, we're light infantry. I think this is going to be more useful for the infantry companies. It'll be good for our river craft and choppers, though.”

Javy and Ryan looked up from across the table. Danny turned around to see Paige entering the briefing room. “Hi everyone,” she said. “So, you have a new schematic?”

Leigh opened up her menu and sent Paige the details. “Yeah, here it is. What do you think?”

Paige opened up the message and quickly read through it. “Looks simple enough. It's just another gun, and we produce plenty of those. Once we convert a line to producing this and one of the ammo lines to producing bullets we should be fine. And it's not like it's going to be hard to mount on a vehicle. Most of them had modular weapons mounts, so it's really just a matter of bolting it on. I imagine you want them on soon.”

“Have you heard the news, then?” Danny asked.

“That you're going after another schematic? Yup, I heard that, and I imagine you want the best weapons you can get your hands on,” Paige said. “We'll do our best to make sure that happens.”

“The scout force is going to need them as well,” Karen said.

Danny agreed. As hard as their mission was, how tough their opponents were, it was nothing more than a sideshow. They were buying time for the scout force to do their jobs in the south.

And their job was going to be tough indeed.

CHAPTER 9

Cruise

“Wolf 2, what's your status?”

Nora glanced out over the dark water before she responded. “It looks like we're clear, Fox Lead. I haven't heard anything from Alpha 1 or Gray 1. Haven't heard any gunfire either, so it sounds like we're pretty safe.”

“Copy that, Wolf 2,” Anna said. “Fox Lead out.”

Nora turned to the boat's pilot, Eli. “Keep your distance. We don't want to get lit up by the shore guns.”

“Got it,” Eli confirmed.

Nora went back to looking over the city with her night scope. She and Anna had devised their scouting plan for the city. They had deemed it far too risky to use their helicopters until they were completely sure that there weren't any antiaircraft guns where they were flying. Instead, they had set up a small base on the far side of a reservoir to the west of the city. This allowed them to use their river craft to reach parts of the city not guarded by walls. From there they could spread out and scout the rest of the city.

It was dangerous work, though. The waterfront was heavily guarded at points, and scouts in the city constantly had to dodge patrols. There were no good options if they were discovered. They could try to fade back into the city, but that was fairly difficult when the garrison was on alert. Fighting wasn't an option, since they were hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned. The only real option was to run for their lives, calling in support from their watercraft and then hightailing it out of there.

Several patrols had been killed, but the scouting would continue. The information they were bringing back was far too valuable. One of the most notable tidbits was the fact that Indianapolis was divided into districts separated by walls. From what they could gather each district of the city had its own capture point.

That was going to be very important for their plans. Instead of having to take the entire city in one sweep, which was going to be extremely hard with the numbers they could bring to bear, they would take it district by district. That way the would have time to rest and replenish their losses. It would also give them a base of operations close by, where they could respawn and restock between battles.

But that was a long way off right now. They had only explored two districts so far, the ones bordering the reservoir, and their intelligence on them was still spotty at best. Even if they had a good idea what was there, taking the place was a whole different matter. Hydra's greatest asset was their armor, and they had no way to get it across the reservoir or through the walls. There was a bridge over the waterway, but to Nora that just looked like it was a deathtrap. Their armored vehicles would be penned in, easy targets for heavy weaponry up on the walls. They didn't have enough boats to get a large enough force over the reservoir, and even it they did they might not have the weaponry to take the district. The few glimpses they had gotten of the enemy indicated that they were heavily armed.

Scouting during the daylight hours was completely out of the question. They had taken to landing their teams once it was dark out and leaving before the sun rose. That didn't leave them a lot of time, since the night cycle in the game was only about six hours. It wasn't like they had any other choice, though, unless they all wanted to be slaughtered.

“Neptune 1, Neptune 1, come in.”

It was Jana's squad, scouting inside the city. Nora got on the radio with her. In addition to commanding the boat squad on the reservoir she was also acting as their radio operator.

“Gray 1, I hear you. What's up?”

“We've been spotted. Requesting evac at the designated point,” Jana replied. “We'll be there in two minutes.”

“Copy that, Gray 1. We're coming.” Nora switched the channel to her squad. “Neptune, head for Point Whiskey for an extract. Don't bother with stealth.”

“Roger,” came the confirmation from the rest of the crews. They were a hodgepodge, made up of various members from Raven, Black Wolf and Redd Foxx. The boat pilots were both from Raven Company, though the guns were manned by anyone that was available. They were effective as a team, at least, and they didn't have the luxury of being picky anyhow.

Eli skillfully wheeled the boat around and sped off toward the eastern shore. Nora made sure that the machine gun mounted next to her station was ready to fire. She could see dark shapes moving around the rest of the boat loading and preparing weapons. Once they got to the shore they would need every gun they could muster. The only one who wouldn't be firing was the pilot.

“Neptune 1, Neptune 1, we're about thirty seconds out from the extract point,” Jana said.

Nora looked out over the dark water toward the rapidly approaching lights of the city. “We'll be there. Just hold tight.”

Thirty seconds.

Nora grabbed the handle of her machine gun and cocked the bolt. The craft were heavily armed with machine guns and a recoilless rifle mounted on the bow. It would be enough. It had to be.

Twenty seconds.

They were going to have to be quick about this. If they weren't then the enemy was going to light them up like a Christmas tree. They had already lost one boat when they had been caught in a withering crossfire.

Ten seconds.

Nora could see tracers now. A group was huddled behind a mess of crates and junk clustered at the end of a pier. That was going to be their extract point.

And then they were there.

“Gray 1, go, go!” Nora ordered. Then the night lit up.

It sounded like a half-dozen buzz saws going off at once. Tracers laced into the buildings and cover near the shore. The amount of fire coming from the other side suddenly died down. It wouldn't last, though, and they all knew it. Jana's squad was already sprinting down the pier as fast as their legs could carry them. Nora noticed that there were only seven members.

BAM!

The recoilless rifle on the bow fired, and a second later the face of a building exploded with a brilliant flash. Nora kept firing, trying to do what she could to intimidate the enemy. Or maybe the more accurate way to described it was that she was messing with their programming; she wasn't sure that NPCs could actually be intimidated.

She felt the boat rock as Jana's squad took running leaps and landed on the deck. They were the extract boat; Neptune 2 was providing cover.

“We're aboard,” Nora heard Jana say over the link and from behind her.

“Eli, go,” she ordered.

He revved the motor and sped off. Just in time, too, because the enemy on shore had regained their boldness and was laying down heavy fire on them. She didn't have a good angle on them, so she put her gun on safe and stepped away.

“How was it?” Nora asked Jana.

“Tough. We mapped a good portion of the section, but then we got caught and Vince got it pretty good. We're lucky that he was the only casualty.”

“You said you mapped it, though?”

Jana nodded. “Oh yeah. We got plenty. Not much for you to see now, but once we get back to base and lay it all out on the overhead map I think it'll make the picture a whole lot clearer.”

Nora certainly hoped so. The sheer amount of area they had to cover was staggering, never mind the fact that it was heavily guarded. They would need time to properly map the entire city, and it was time that they might not have. From what she had heard out of Zach the situation in the north was tougher than expected. Ragnarok was still fighting back, and they were fighting back with their best. It was very uncertain how long their northern forces could buy them.

One step at a time, Nora thought to herself. There was no sense in rushing this, because even if taking too long would be problematic, going off half-cocked would invite an even greater disaster. Hydra would certainly be outnumbered, and possibly outgunned as well. Their only advantage would be intelligence, and they would need that to be near perfect in order to succeed. They would have to keep putting themselves at risk to get it.

They were back at their field headquarters about twenty minutes later. It wasn't much, just a couple of tents, supply dumps and defensive positions. They weren't expecting anything this far south. The largest tent was currently serving as their command post. Nora and Jana headed in that direction as soon as they tied up to the dock.

The camp was relatively quiet. Except for a few guards and the scout teams almost everyone was either logged off or doing other things. Anna, Gray and Selene were here right now, though, and they were going to be the ones planning the operations. If Jana's information was as good as she thought it was then they would be able to make much more concrete plans.

“Heard that you guys ran into trouble,” Anna said to them as they entered the command post. It was sparsely furnished save for a map table and several large radio sets meant to boost the range of their personal sets.

“Yeah, that wasn't too pretty. We're going to have to take these kinds of risks if we want this operation to succeed,” Jana said. “At least Liz isn't going to get trapped on a roof like last time.”

Anna laughed. “Right, and I bet she's glad for that. Get your info on the map and I'll get Gray and Selene in here.”

Nora watched as Jana started to input the information from her wrist menu into the map table. That was the one notable thing about their HQ here; they had a holographic map table. Hydra had a total of two of them. One of them was here and the other was in their headquarters at Lerna Bastion. They were much easier to use than a paper map, and could track troop movements in real time as well. The problem was that they were obscenely expensive, and they hadn't been able to afford one until recently. This one had been paid for by all of the overdrive they had stolen during Robber Baron.

“Alright, we're here,” Gray said as he entered the tent with Selene close behind. He was a sniper, though unlike most he was tailored to fight at closer ranges, laying down fast and accurate fire on the enemy. Gray couldn't match a ranged sniper like Miko or Jonas in a one-on-one fight at long range, but his skills were extremely valuable as part of a squad.

“So, what have you got for us?” Selene asked.

“Well, we managed to scout the back end of some of the walls,” Jana said.

“Has anyone told you that's you're completely insane?” Selene said with a bit of admiration evident in her voice. “How did you manage to avoid that many guards? I know you guys are good, but wow.”

“We were careful,” Jana said. “And then we got caught and had to run for it.”

“Bet that was fun,” Gray said dryly. “For both of you, I should think.”

“Well, it certainly got the blood pumping,” Nora said. “I've missed being part of the action, so it felt good to go out there and fight.”

“Combat withdrawal?” Gray laughed.

Nora nodded. “Yeah, you might say that.”

Anna got them back on topic. “Back to the issue of the walls. What can you tell us about them?” she asked Jana.

Jana opened up the map table's menu and zoomed in on a section of the map. She rotated the view so they could see topographical features. The holographic images of the walls rose up like a diorama. “The walls are about twenty feet high and are thick. Really thick.”

“How thick?” Anna asked.

“Not entirely sure. We couldn't get on them to measure, but they're big. I'd say at least twenty to thirty feet thick.”

“That's completely insane,” Nora said.

Selene shrugged. “Well, unless we find a schematic for one of those massive railway guns we're not going to be able to knock them down no matter what we throw at them.”

Jana zoomed in further on another section. “It gets worse. From our vantage point it looked like there was artillery mounted on the wall. It's at least out in the open, so that's something.”

“How big?” Gray asked.

“Again, it was dark out, so I have no idea.”

“We haven't been fired on by any artillery,” Nora commented. “Does that mean it can only fire toward the north?”

“Or maybe they don't deem us as a significant threat,” Selene said. “Maybe the AI commander believes that ground troops can handle small scouting parties just fine.”

Well, it's not wrong if that's the case,” Jana said. “Those guards are really, really nasty. I don't even want to think about what kind of boss we'll have to fight off.”

Nora ran a hand through her hair as she looked over the projection of the wall. “I think we're going to have to risk one of our choppers in an overflight,” she said. “We're getting nowhere, and that's going to hurt us badly. We're starting to run short on time.”

“Do we know if there's antiaircraft guns in the city?” Selene asked.

Anna shook her head. “Unless Jana's team found some we have no idea.”

“Nope, didn't run across any,” she confirmed.

“What about other schematics?” Gray said. “I know for a fact that we can get schematics for small fixed-wing aircraft if we do enough quests.”

“Actually... we might not have to do that,” Nora said. “The schematic that Ronin wants us to grab is at an abandoned airfield. We're almost certain that it's some kind of aircraft.”

“That's... convenient,” Jana said.

“Yeah, it's also really heavily guarded,” Selene said. “They're going to have to use both platoons, and they're going to back them up with Bravehart Company's mortars.”

“Even if we do get something from that, the fact remains that we still don't know if we can operate safely,” Anna said.

“We're going to have to take that kind of risk,” Nora argued. “We can't afford delays. Ragnarok is getting stronger and stronger.”

“Maybe we should send one chopper over the city tomorrow during the daylight hours,” Gray suggested. “That should prove once and for all whether we can do it or not.”

“We might end up losing it,” Jana said.

Gray snorted. “That's a risk we have to take. I'll even fly as the copilot.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Selene said.

“Hey, it's your neck on the line,” Anna said. “As long as you're fine telling Yusuf why we're building another helicopter we're fine.”

“Wait a minute, how do Zach and Liz get out of that?” Gray asked.

“Because they didn't know they were going to be in danger and got ambushed,” Anna said. “You might as well be walking over the bridge with a target painted on your chest.”

“That's a completely different thing from what I'm doing,” Gray argued. “That's guaranteed to get me killed. I have a pretty good chance of surviving the overflight.”

“Hey, better hope so,” Jana said with a smile.

“I think we're rubbing off on you guys,” Selene laughed.

“That's probably true,” Gray agreed.

“We're not going to be able to to much more about this until tomorrow,” Anna said. “Do you have anything else to add to the report?” she asked Jana

“Other than the fact that the garrison is good, which we already know, nope.” she said.

“OK, let's pick up on this tomorrow,” Anna said.

“I'm not going to be on tomorrow night,” Nora said.

“Date night?” Selene asked her, looking amused.

“Yeah,” Nora said sheepishly.

“Have fun,” Anna told her.

“See you later, everyone,” Nora said. She opened up the menu and logged out.

The clock read 11:03.  That didn't seem late to Nora, since she had been up later for the past week. All part of the job, she thought to herself. She and Selene were doing a lot of the heavy lifting within World at War since they didn't have day jobs to go to.

She set her neuro-helmet on the end table next to her chair, then got up and stretched her legs. Five hours in the world had left her stiff.

At least she didn't weight three hundred pounds by now. Elysium had insisted that they stay in proper physical shape while performing the study. They wanted their test subjects to be solid both mentally and physically, since unhealthiness could lead to skewed test results. Nora imagined that there was plenty of people they could extract that kind of data from. It suited her anyhow. She had been a runner and a hiker since she was young, and she enjoyed doing them far too much to give them up. Staying healthy was just an added bonus.

There were less pleasant things to be done in the outside world as well. Dishes, for instance, needed to be washed. Nora walked over into the kitchen, fixed the drain plug in place and turned on the water.

There had been so many technological advances over the past half century. A complete virtual world existed, and she was still stuck washing dishes by hand. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same, she thought sardonically.

It all seemed so mundane, Nora thought to herself as she grabbed the sponge and started to scrub. Many activities in the real world seemed like they were so boring. But then why were they so much better within the game world? Nora had taken logistics as a skill when she had first started out. It had proved to be valuable, but it also turned her and many other people into glorified accountants. So why did it seem like it was so much fun in the virtual world?

Maybe it was the sense of escapism, Nora thought to herself. Maybe being able to become something you weren't was liberating, even if that other thing might be simply mundane for other people. It was all just a matter of perspective. That was probably why there were stories of royalty with everything they could ever want dressing up like commoners and roaming the streets. It allowed them the freedom do be something they weren't.

Nora's phone lit up on the counter top. There was a message coming through the World at War app. One of the most interesting parts of the communication system was that players could message each other even if they were outside of the game through the World at War app. They could also voice chat with others. It was an ingenious idea, Nora had to admit. It kept players plugged into the game even when they weren't logged in.

She pressed the button to answer the call. “Hey.”

“Hey. Did we catch you at a bad time?” Zach said at the other end.

“Nope, just doing dishes right now.” Nora looked over who else was on the line. Danny, Selene, Liz, Anna, Robbie, Gray. Danny, Anna, Gray and Zach were the only ones in the game. The rest of them were talking through the app.

“Oh, good,” Zach said.

“Sounds like someone got in trouble before,” Gray commented wryly.

“Hey, it was once,” Zach said.

“I bet it was,” Danny interjected.

Nora shook her head and smiled. “Surprisingly it was only once, and we don't talk about what happened. Severe bodily harm might follow.”

Selene let out a laugh. “Well, he certainly knows what that means.”

“Right. So anyway, we have our plans in place for the schematic raid,” Danny said.

“We just have one question. Can we borrow Alpha Wolf Platoon for the mission?” Zach asked. “The place is really, really heavily defended.”

“Well, I have no problem with it,” Anna said. “We're not going to be doing much the next few days. We can put off scouting the city for a few days. Plus, we all want to watch Gray do his best to imitate a clay pigeon.”

Nora burst out laughing at the comment. She could hear Selene laughing as well.

“What did we miss?” Danny asked.

“They're going to try to fly over the city,” Robbie said. “I'm going to be the pilot since no one else seems to want to volunteer, and you owe me big time if we die.”

“We'll be fine,” Gray said.

Anna got the conversation back on track. “When do you need them?” she asked.

“The day after tomorrow,” Zach said. “That's when we're launching the raid. They should make their way up north before then.”

“We would do it tomorrow, but someone had to go ruin it,” Danny said.

“Oh please. Go have a date night yourself,” Zach retorted.

“What, you don't think a battle is a fun date?” Danny asked innocently.

“Oh yes, running around with bullets flying at your face and explosions galore. Sounds like a girl's dream come true,” Liz said sarcastically.

“Are we talking about World at War or Danny at a Cubs game?” Selene asked.

Everyone else burst out laughing.

“OK, OK, we'll get Alpha Wolf Platoon up to you in time for the raid,” Anna said. “We'll send their choppers up with them as well. And Nora, I think you should be with them as well. Oh, and have fun tomorrow you two.”

“Thanks Anna. Good night everyone,” Nora said. She closed out of the app and finished up the dishes. There was certainly a lot to look forward to in the next two days.

CHAPTER 10

Twilight of the Gods

“Wolf Lead, Wolf Lead, this is Raven 1. We're starting our attack runs now.”

“I copy that, Raven 1,” Zach said. He switched channels. “Alpha Wolf, Bravo Wolf, Fox 1, we're commencing the attack now. Follow the plan and let's get this done.”

Zach looked down over the airfield in front of him. Raven Squadron dove in for their attack runs. The NPCs on the ground weren't pushovers, however. They were putting up a considerable amount of fire from their machine guns. It didn't look like they were radar controlled or anything, but it would be troublesome all the same.

That was where Robbie's insistence on fast attack runs would pay off. True, they wouldn't be as accurate as they would be if they flew slower, but they were also much less exposed. The gunners on the ground barely had any time to get a bead on them before they were gone. Raven Company had been practicing a lot as well. Zach noted that their aim had improved a lot since their assault on the Ragnarok base.

Choppers weren't their only ace in the hole. Bravehart Company was sheltered across the river with a pair of artillery pieces. Nora was with them, acting as a liaison. From his vantage point, high up and out of range of enemy guns, he could observe enemy movements and call down shells on their heads. They also had a battery of mortars, although their range was too short to hit the airfield. Zach didn't think they would need them, but it never hurt to be careful.

There was a particularly thick concentration of guns next to one of the hangers. Zach made a note of the location and started to call in the coordinates to Nora. “Wolf 2, Wolf 2, I have a target...”

“They're firing now, Wolf Lead,” Nora said.

BANG! BANG!

Nora watched with satisfaction as the gun crews moved to reload their weapons. This was what made Hydra such a deadly opponent. The synergy between forces was uncanny, and it made every single one of them all the more deadly.

“Wish we had more crews,” Bryce commented from beside her. “A battery of five of these would be nasty.”

“Why not bring Griffon along?” she asked.

“They were needed elsewhere. Plus, this should be enough.”

“I noticed that you brought along your mortars,” Nora observed. “Why keep them on this side of the river?”

“Zach's orders,” Bryce shrugged. “The reasoning seemed pretty sound. He wants them here to provide cover fire in case they have to make a run for it.”

Nora grimaced. “The Valkyries. They really have him spooked, don't they?”

“I don't think the unit was fully formed when we were fighting Ragnarok, but from the stories I've heard they're not ones you want to cross.”

“Stories can be exaggerations.”

“Or they can be heavily based in fact. I think it's prudent that we consider the second choice, otherwise it could really come back to bite us,” Bryce pointed out.

“Can't argue with that,” Nora agreed. There were times to take risks and times to be cautious, and this was the time to do the later. Too many resources were at stake here.

Bryce looked at his clock. “They're landing in thirty seconds. Makes me glad that we decided to specialize in artillery.”

Selene was unbuckled before the chopper's skids even hit the ground. She brought her assault rifle up to bear and moved forward into cover behind the remains of a shed. Machine gun fire from the choppers had sawed it clean in half. The rest of her group joined her; Riley, Jade, Kelsey, Mara and Colin.

“Lay down some cover fire for the rest of them,” Selene ordered. Most of her platoon had landed by now, but Bravo Platoon was still in the air.

Colin grunted and laid prone, shifting his machine gun to a good position. He opened up on the enemy, still staggered by the combination of artillery fire and strafing runs. Selene brought her own gun up to bear and opened fire.

This was definitely what she enjoyed, she thought to herself as she lined up an enemy in the crosshairs and pulled the trigger. Planning and strategy could be interesting, but there was nothing like the rush of battle. It was like playing a sport to her, and that's what made it so exciting. Selene would never ascend to high command; if asked she would refuse, because nothing beat being in the field.

“All Alphas, come in,” Logan's voice said.

“Here,” Ethan said.

“Here as well,” Gavin spoke up.

“What's up, Alpha 3?” Selene asked.

“My squad landed out behind some of the hangers. I'm going to take them around and try to hit the enemy from the flank.”

“Copy that,” Gavin said. “My guys are going up the center.”

“We'll stay back and provide you with some cover,” Ethan said. His squad included Selene's team, so she would stay with them. It was probably the proper place for a field commander of her rank anyhow.

“Don't take too many risks,” Selene said. “Remember, we have Bravo coming in, along with air and artillery support. Don't hesitate to call on them if we need it.”

The word's had barely come out of her mouth when a pair of explosions went off in front of them. Several of them ducked in surprise, Selene included.

“Whew, that was kind of close,” Logan said.

Selene immediately switch channels and got on the horn with Zach. “Careful where you're aiming,” she said.

“Sorry, I didn't see them making a flanking maneuver until it was too late,” he said. “I'll let you guys call in targets for now.”

Selene looked behind her at the approaching choppers and switched her radio channel. “Wolf 2, Bravo Wolf, do you copy?”

“Copy,” Danny confirmed.

“Copy that,” Nora said.

“We have the landing zone, and Logan's going to make a flanking maneuver through those hangers, Danny,” Selene said. “Nora, hold off on firing any more shells until we call for them. The last ones ended up really, really close.”

“You said they're going through those hangers? The one with the machine gun nest in front of it?” Danny asked.

“Yup, that would be the ones,” Selene said. There was another group of hangers and a control tower further down. That was probably where the schematic was located.

“Doesn't look like there's much over there other than the nest. Can they take it out? Once they do that I can drop all of Bravo Platoon over there to make an immediate push.”

“What about the troops at the far hangers?”

“I'm going to call in another strafing run from Raven,” Danny said. “That should keep their heads down long enough for us to get on the ground.”

“Alright, I'll relay that to Logan. Good luck,” Selene said.

Seeing enemy choppers suddenly dive out of the sky had to be absolutely horrifying if you were on the ground. It looked bad even from up here, Danny thought. And despite the fact that the NPCs here were a cut above the normal ones, they still didn't compare to what players could do. This place might be difficult smaller groups or low level players, but they had almost two hundred troops committed to this operation.

“Headed down,” their pilot said.

Danny had embedded himself in Xavier's squad and was riding on their first chopper. He activated his radio.“All Bravos, listen up. We're landing next to the hangers and will make an immediate push for the other cluster. Rock them, grab the schematic and let's get out of here.”

Despite their superiority he felt nervous. Something about this mission wasn't sitting right with him. He didn't know why, exactly. It was just a feeling he had in the back of his mind. His instincts were telling him that danger was afoot here, and it wasn't coming from the enemy NPCs.

Their chopper touched down in front of one of the hangers. Logan's squad had already cleared the area and had set up a perimeter. Danny unbuckled himself and jumped off the bench seat, but there was no real rush. Logan's troops had done a good job of clearing out the enemy. Danny hefted his machine gun and walked over to him.

“We're going to leapfrog you,” he told Logan. “Form up with the rest of Alpha once they move up here.”

“Got it,” Logan said.

Danny tuned his radio as the rest of his troops landed. “Alright, as soon as the choppers make their next attack run we're going to storm the last part of the airfield. Be ready.”

He looked up at the sky and watch a pair of choppers come swooping in, guns blazing. As soon as they were past his troops were on their feet and running. They would crush the enemy before they had a chance to respond.

“Do you see that?” Zach asked Cole.

“See what?”

Zach pointed into the forest below. “I think I see movement. There's troops moving down there, and I don't think they're ours.”

Cole looked down as he made another pass. “Yeah, I see them. Maybe they're NPCs?”

“Would they be that far away?” Zach asked. “I'd think they'd be closer to the airfield.”

“We can always call in a strafing run on them,” Cole suggested.

“Yeah, or an artillery strike. I want to make sure that they're actually hostile. Wouldn't want there to be friendly fire or-”

Something behind them gave a loud clank, and suddenly there were alarms blaring inside the helicopter's cabin.

“What the...” Zach said. The helicopter started to drop.

Cole wrestled with the controls. “Well, I think that answers that question.”

“What hit us?” Zach asked as he tried to render whatever assistance he could. They were staying airborne, barely, but the would need to land soon. They would probably need to blow the chopper up as well.

“We took one hit, and it was aimed,” Cole said. “There would have been a lot more noise if we had been hit by machine gun fire. And we wouldn't be talking now if they were using rockets or missiles.”

Zach felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. “Does that mean-”

Cole cut in on his sentence. “Yeah, that means we just got sniped. And there's only a few people who could pull that off. Brace for impact. This is going to be a rough landing.”

That could apply several ways, Zach thought to himself. He switched his channel to all commanders. “All commands, all commands, we have hostile forces coming in from the northeast. We believe they are from the Valkyries. I repeat, we're under attack from the Valkyries.”

“What?” Bryce exclaimed.

“OK, that's going to be a problem,” Nora said. “You sure we're safe over here?”

“Unless they have boats we're fine. Though I wouldn't put it past them at this point.”

Nora nodded and got on the radio again. “Wolf Lead, what's our move?”

Selene watched as the chopper came in trailing smoke. About thirty yards from the ground the engine suddenly died.

“Uh, Nora, you might have to take over,” she said. The chopper made a hard, ugly landing. The tail hit first and was torn completely off the rest of the helicopter. Parts of the fuselage buckled as they slammed into the hard surface of the runway. It looked bad, but then she saw two figures struggling to get out of the wreckage.

“I need medics. Joon, Lyla, head over there,” Selene ordered. She sprinted over to check on their status. Zach gave her a shaky thumbs up as she approached.

“You OK?” Selene asked.

“Yeah. We have bigger problems than that,” Zach said.

“The Valkyries?” Selene asked. “How close-”

Something triggered her combat instincts and she dropped down behind the cover of the wreckage. Zach dove down as well, but Cole was a split-second too slow. He fell, dead before he hit the ground.

“He should probably stop being your pilot,” Selene commented.

“Yeah. I have no idea how many we have coming at us, but it looks like a lot.”

Selene got on the radio. “Alphas, do what you can to hold them off. Logan, come back to us. Danny, how close are you to getting the schematic?”

“We have it in hand,” Danny said, looking at the notebook in Karen's hands.

“Can you get a chopper on your position?” Selene asked.

“Shouldn't be a problem,” Danny said.

“No,” Zach's voice cut in.

“Why?” Nora asked.

“They have the Wraith with them, and he's figured out how to snipe the engines of our choppers. Bring one in and it's guaranteed to get shot down.”

“Then what's our game?” Selene asked.

“Fade into the woods and head for the river. Split up by squad and scatter. Hopefully that should drive them away. Liz, you there?”

“I'm here,” Liz replied.

“Move to the designated point and provide rear guard. Danny, whoever has the schematic is to head straight for the river crossing with their squad. We'll worry about the rest of us later. Robbie, keep making attack runs on them. Bryce, are your guys set?”

“Set and ready.” Bryce told them.

“OK, let's move.”

Danny looked at his squad leaders. “You get all that? Good, let's go.”

He could hear intense gunfire coming from the east as soon as he stepped out of the control tower. A pair of choppers zoomed in overhead and made an attack run. The amount of firepower Hydra was bringing to bear in this operation was staggering, and they were using every bit of it against the Valkyries. Danny had never fought them before, though their reputation preceded them. Zach seemed especially jumpy about their capabilities, but he wasn't the type prone to exaggeration.

Danny felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. They might be in serious trouble.

Zach hadn't been joking when he had told them the Valkyries were tough. Gavin's squad, probably the best in her platoon, had been completely shredded trying to provide cover fire as the rest of them retreated over the airfield. Even with artillery and air support the enemy just kept coming, and they were laying down accurate and devastating fire.

Gavin, Lyla and Chris were the only survivors of the initial onslaught, and had formed up with Selene in an ad hoc fireteam.

“Who's covering next?” Gavin asked.

Selene shook her head. “We're getting clobbered. Just run for it and let the artillery take care of that.

A pair of Ravens zoomed in again, spitting death, but that only slowed the enemy down a little. Out in the center of the runway the helicopter blew up.

Selene might have waited for Ragnarok troops to cluster around the cover before she triggered the explosives, but she could see the logic to this as well. They were already well aware that the choppers were rigged to explode, and they might have engineers that could diffuse the bombs.

That was academic at this point. The enemy started to storm across the airfield in a huge mass, covered by machine gun fire. This wasn't a human wave attack done by amateurs. This was a calculated tactical move, and it was being performed correctly. There were too many targets for Selene's troops to engage, and many of them were forced to duck to avoid the cover fire.

“Fall back, fall back,” Selene ordered her troops. She lifted her assault rifle to fire a burst, but then a bullet smacked into a tree mere inches from her face. Splinters from the impact hit her in the face.

“OK, they're zeroed on us. Run.”

They had barely gone twenty yards at a full sprint when an RPG blew up in their original position.

“Right! Right!” Ethan was shouting. He propped his machine gun up between two trees and started firing into the woods.

Zach brought his carbine up to his shoulder and started firing as well. They had been outplayed badly. Ragnarok had beaten them to the punch and had the upper hand. Zach had believed the troops he had spotted from the chopper made up the entire Ragnarok force, but he was wrong. Dead wrong.

Running toward the river on the right flank, Ethan's squad had come under fire from a large force making their way through the forest. The Valkyries had flanked them, and all his force had was a pair of squads. Logan had moved his troops up to support them, but they still had taken a beating. Three of them were killed in the opening moments of the firefight, and the Valkyries kept coming.

They were fighting well and fighting smart. Their marksmanship was excellent, and their maneuver skills were top-notch as well, but they were backed up by a smart commander. They had closed the distance until they were within a stone's throw of Black Wolf's lines. It was a smart decision; now his command couldn't use their air support or artillery without hitting their own troops.

There was no getting away from them, either. Most of them would probably be shot in the back if they tried to run.

Zach loaded up a grenade and launched it into the enemy positions. There was nothing else to do. They would have to stand and fight.

“Keep moving! Keep moving and head for the landing!” Danny shouted in his radio link. “Karen, don't even think about turning around.”

“Got it,” came the response, though she sounded agitated. She wanted to turn around and fight, but her cargo was far too important to risk.

Danny switched channels. “Buck Lead, Buck Lead, fire at the designated points.” They would have one chance to shake the enemy on their tail. The Valkyries had sent in a force around the left flank and were coming at them hard and fast.

“Roger,” Bryce replied.

“Don't bother firing back. Just keep running!” Danny ordered his troops.

They took off through the forest, dodging trees and stumbling through brush. Danny could feel the bullets cracking around him, but there wasn't much else to do. Stopping to fire meant that the enemy would catch up to them and force them to fight.

BAM! BAM! BAM!

Danny heard the sound of explosions going off behind them. Bravehart's mortar fire was landing on positions they had pre-sighted. The fire coming at them started to die down.

“Keep moving,” Danny ordered. Ragnarok wasn't defeated. Not by a long shot. This had only bought them a little bit of time.

“Can you disengage?” Nora asked.

“No, we're stuck,” Zach said. The gunfire in the background sounded like it was extremely intense.

“I'll send Liz up to support you guys,” Nora said, looking over the map in her menu. “I'll also have Selene rally to you as well. You're getting close to the river front as well?”

“Yeah.”

“Try to fall back so you're close to the river.”

“We can't do that without artillery support, and they're too close,” Zach said.

Nora looked over at Bryce. “Can you hit them without hitting our own troops?”

“We can try,” Bryce said. “I'll er toward being too long.”

Zach spoke up. “Right, but what's-”

The line went silent for a moment. “You OK?” Bryce asked.

“Sorry, had to duck,” Zach told them. “What's our plan?”

“You're going to form a defensive position around the river front. With any luck, they'll think that you're trying to hold it long enough for us to get the schematic away.”

“While we extract it from another location,” Zach deduced. “Sounds suicidal, but that should work.”

She certainly hoped so. Everything depended on it.

“He's dead! Leave him!” Selene ordered. Chris had fallen to either a very good or very lucky shot coming from behind them. The Valkyries were closing in.

There was no way around it; they were getting completely massacred. Despite stubborn resistance, despite using every trick and exploit they could think of, their enemy was just too numerous, too skilled and too smart. It was hard to believe that these people came from the same company as the scrubs they had fought in earlier battles.

Nora had ordered them to form up with Liz's platoon and Ethan's squad, though she wasn't sure how much good three people would do. But there was nothing else they could do. Nothing else, but to keep running and fighting.

They were going to be slaughtered. Even the most optimistic among them knew how this was going to end. Between the survivors of Bravo 1 and Bravo 2 he had a little more than a squad left. They had found a strong position in a dried up creek bed and had hunkered down, preparing for the onslaught. They didn't have long to wait.

Danny fired burst after burst of of his machine gun, trying to stop the advancing horde in front of him. It didn't do much good; the Ragnarok troops knew how to use cover well.

Two Ravens buzzed in overhead, but their runs did little more than pin the enemy in place for a brief few seconds. Then they were up, making their push on the main line.

“Buck Lead, Buck Lead, we need you to lay down the fire curtain,” Danny said into the link. As intense as the fighting here was, it was only a sideshow. The enemy commander probably knew that as well. If Danny had to guess, he believed that they had pinned them in place with a holding force while the rest of the troops went after Karen's squad.

That was where the fire curtain would come in. Bravehart would lay down mortar fire around an area, making it impossible for the enemy to advance. It burned through ammunition like crazy, but right now that hardly mattered if they couldn't get the schematic away.

“Danny!” he heard Xavier shout over the din. He was pointing toward the Ragnarok lines.

He barely had enough time to look before a dozen RPGs came streaking toward them.

You are KIA.

“Zach, I can't reach Danny. I think he's down,” Nora said over the radio link.

“OK, not good,” Zach said. “We're being hit pretty hard.”

“Karen's approaching the landing area.”

“That's good. Concentrate on getting her away. Don't worry about us.”

Liz had moved up to support them and the remnants of Selene's troops had linked up as well, but they were still completely outmatched. Two of the three Ragnarok forces had joined up and were wreaking havoc on them. Zach had to retreat to the rear line to find enough breathing room to communicate with Nora, and even here it was still dangerous.

“I'll try to get you guys an extract once Karen gets away,” Nora said.

Zach heard something, and he looked up toward the front line. “Uh, we might not live that long,” he said. “They've just rushed us.”

The Valkyries weren't fooling around. Once they got close enough they had thrown a barrage of grenades at the Hydra lines and charged. Selene had been taken aback at the ferocity of the attack. Even at close range Hydra had always stood at a distance, firing at each other. Close combat kills were only for stealth. But it looked like the Valkyries had no use for that line of thought.

She smashed the butt of her rifle into an enemy soldier's face and shot him twice as he fell. All around her troops were shooting, punching, kicking, hacking, slashing, grappling, dying. Selene had ceased to have any influence on the battlefield as a commander. She was simply a soldier like the rest of them.

Someone came at her, a female assault wielding a tomahawk. Selene sidestepped her blow and tried to come in with a stab of her knife, but her opponent blocked. She grappled, using her strength to push her enemy backward. She slammed the assault into a tree and took the opportunity to stab. Her opponent let go. Selene shot her twice to make sure she was dead.

She turned around just in time to see the pistol.

You are KIA.

“Zach, we have reports from Bravo 3. Karen is away and is crossing the river right now.”

Zach breathed a sigh of relief despite all of the chaos and carnage going on around him. His troops were falling like leaves.

“Do you need extract?” Nora asked.

A bullet cracked by his head.

“Talk to Liz about that,” he told her. “I'm not going to make it.”

The words had scarcely left his mouth when a group of Ragnarok soldiers surrounded him. A few of them parted to let their leader though.

“Oh. This isn't going to become a recurring habit, is it?” Zach asked as the Wraith walked up.

“Where's the schematic?”

Zach shrugged. “I don't have it. By now it's half way to Lerna Bastion.”

“Guess you owe Yvonne five dollars,” one of the Valkyries said.

The Wraith fixed him with an icy glare. “Shut up, Ben.” He turned back to Zach and drew his pistol. “Well then, I guess there's no use for you again.”

“This is going to be a recurring habit, isn't it?” Zach said wearily.

You are KIA.

CHAPTER 11

On Wings of Eagles

The hard fight was still on their minds the next day when they met for another interview session.

“Man that was rough,” Javy said. “How many people did we end up losing?”

“How many people lived through that would be a better question,” Zach said. “We got wiped out pretty badly. I think Karen's squad was the only one that didn't lose anyone, and Liz's platoon was the only other unit that got away.”

He was glad that he had insisted on so many preparations before the attack. Without them it was likely the Valkyries would have taken the schematic off their corpses.

“That means Karen and Nora were the only officers from our company that lived through that,” Gavin said.

“Where were you at?” Selene asked Miko.

“I was covering the landing zone and went with them when they fell back,” Miko said. “Sorry I couldn't give you guys any help.”

Danny shook his head. “Not that it was going to help, anyhow. They knew what they were doing, and they were good.”

“They're pretty trigger-happy with their RPGs, I noticed,” Gavin said. “They tried to use them on us any time they ran into tough resistance.”

“Yeah, I noticed,” Danny said.

“I think we all noticed,” Xavier said. “They're pretty aggressive as well, and they know how to hug cover. They're going to be tough.”

“I also noticed that they got into close range with us as soon as they could,” Zach said. “That ruined our chances of using air and artillery support.”

“Someone's been reading military history,” Xavier commented. “I think I remember the Russians doing something similar during the Battle of Stalingrad.”

“I think the Vietnamese did it too,” Nora said. “If I remember my history classes correctly.”

“They rushed us and got into close combat,” Selene said. “I think that caught us off guard. They're a lot better at fighting in close quarters than we are.”

“It's not like we had to do a lot of it,” Zach said. “The only time's I've seen it used is when we've done stealth kills. Ranged weapons just seem like they're a whole lot more efficient.”

“Well, we might need to learn,” Nora said. “We're going to have a lot of close quarters fighting in the city.”

“But the NPCs we've run into haven't done any melee combat,” Javy said.

“Yet,” Nora pointed out.

Javy frowned. “OK, that's true.”

“Any clue what the schematic is?” Xavier asked.

“Last time I knew they were decoding the thing,” Zach told him. “The only thing that we know is that it's pretty high level.”

They looked up as the door opened and Dr. Unger entered the room. “Good morning, everyone,” he said as he took his seat. “We'll get started. It looks like you were all involved in a major battle yesterday. We noticed that the majority of your troops were killed in the ensuing battle. What's the situation with your group's morale after such a hard loss?”

“Well, we did get a schematic out of it,” Selene said. “I think I would count that as a victory.”

“I would too, since that was our real objective,” Miko added. “That's why I spent my time protecting the extraction zone instead of joining the battle. The schematic took precedence.”

Dr. Unger nodded. “Yes, that's understandable. But your fight was against another organization that will be your enemy in the future. Sustaining such horrible losses against them should have some negative effect on morale.”

Zach thought about it for a moment. “I think it might have an opposite effect, actually,” he finally said. “Everyone I talked to thought it was a tough loss, but they also thought it was a good battle. For them it was fun, and I'd have to agree with that.”

“I'd agree with that as well,” Xavier said.

“Me too,” Danny said. “It was a challenge. Winning is great and all, but sometimes you just need to test yourself, you know?”

“I think that proves that even though it feels so real, we all still realize it's a game,” Nora said. “Games get really boring when they're easy.”

“But then again, players don't like dying,” Dr. Unger said. “How much frustration are they really willing to take?”

“I think that's part of the appeal of it all,” Danny said. “If death in the game is just a slap on the wrist then you'll be willing to take insane risks. I wouldn't even call them risks, actually, if there's no penalty. The way it is now we have the freedom to do things we wouldn't dare in the real world, but there's a gambling element to them as well.”

Zach nodded. “I think that's what makes the world come alive. It's a form of escapism and gambling rolled into a single package. We bet the time we spend in the game every time we fight, and if we lose then we have to spend more time making it up.”

Dr. Unger nodded. “That would lead to the observation that several types of disorders could develop from this. Addiction, for example.”

“Wouldn't that be most likely to happen to people who are already predisposed to addictions?” Miko said.

“That's definitely possible,” Dr. Unger said. “There's other things that people may believe the virtual world is capable of influencing. Levels of aggression, for instance.”

“Isn't that going back to the old played-out argument that video games make people violent?” Gavin asked. “Hasn't that line of thought been debunked?”

“In general yes, though there are always fringe elements. There is some concern that a virtual reality game could be substantially different from regular video game, though. The extra level of reality makes people concerned that they could be far more influential on a psychological level.”

“That... that really doesn't make sense,” Danny said. “If that's true, then shouldn't the fact that I played football mean I'm more likely to randomly tackle someone on the street?”

Selene tried to stifle a laugh. “Now that I'd like to see.”

Danny continued. “I think normal people can tell the difference between different situations. Like, tackling is permitted in a football because it happens within the confines of a game. Certain rules have to be followed, and the tackling stays within the scope of the game and doesn't go outside. That's what I think is happening with virtual world stuff. People understand that the things they do are confined to the game world.”

“To take that analogy further, why aren't soldiers separated out from normal society?” Xavier pointed out. “If the conditioning that video games put out is so harmful, then why aren't people who are actually trained for killing allowed to be around normal people?”

“A good point,” Dr. Unger said. “And I think that's a good perspective to have on the issue. Now, let's move on...”

“So, what did everyone think about that conversation?” Danny asked as they were eating lunch. They had decided to get Japanese today.

“The one about the virtual world influencing our brains?” Miko asked.

“Yeah, that one.”

“Well, I think we already knew about that somewhat,” Nora said. “I mean, look at how much Miko, Gavin and Zach improved in our basketball games. Most of that was their reflexes getting better.”

“That's true. They're still terrible shots. Especially Gavin and Zach,” Javy laughed.

“Wow, you're brutal,” Zach said in jest. He was well aware of his limitations on the court.

“That's where it's changing us neurologically. But is it changing us psychologically?” Danny asked. “My first inclination would be to say no, but something in the back of my mind says it still could be possible, since the filter between the game world and and the virtual world is gone.”

“We've been playing at lot, and we seem to be just fine,” Javy said.

Zach thought about the question. Like Danny, he was on the fence about it. To him Javy's point was correct; they had probably spent the most time in the game world out of anyone, and they were suffering no ill effects. But then again, they were all well-adjusted people with lives outside of the game world. While World at War was a wondrous thing, it wasn't the only thing. There were other things to be enjoyed in the real world.

But a person who had completely immersed themselves in the game world could be molded psychologically by the situations happening around them. That was where the worries should be focused.

It was like the situations that he and Nora discussed. To her, the virtual world only had meaning once people were a part of it. As she put it, they gave the game a soul. Zach had agreed with that, but had taken it a step further. To him, people didn't exist in the game world; their avatars did. No matter how realistic it felt, the thing inside the game was an avatar, not their true self. It was simply a projection of the person on the outside into the game world, and that was where their soul was channeled through, so to speak.

But there might be the danger of being swallowed by one's avatar. If it became the focus of the person on the outside then it was possible they would concentrate on it to the exclusion of all else. If that happened, then the avatar in the game world was no more than an NPC. It would have lost its link to the outside world and would have no soul.

At least that's what he thought. It might become a problem in the future, but that was an issue for medical professionals to deal with. Right now his role was to provide data for observation, nothing more.

Zach looked down at the message on his phone from Yusuf. Come find me at the Forge, it read. Zach grabbed his neuro-helmet off the shelf and put it on. He sat down in his chair, pulled down the visor and activated the device.

Black Wolf headquarters was abuzz with activity, since they were still reorganizing after the battle yesterday. In light of what the Valkyries were capable of he wanted to make sure that his troops were prepared to fight. Selene's southern platoons were equipping themselves before they headed back down to do the reconnaissance work they were originally slated for.

Nora materialized beside him. “Did you get the message from Yusuf as well?” she asked.

“Yeah. I was going to head over there now.”

They passed by Selene and her officers who were going over something. Danny and his group were rooting through the armory, looking to replace the weapons they had lost in the fight yesterday. At least they had plenty of them to spare thanks to Hephaestus.

The streets of the bastion were busy as well. Mules and ATVs rumbled down the main routes while troops on foot went about their business. He had heard that the main forces were planning on launching a raid on Fort Odin to further distract Ragnarok. He hoped that they were taking the proper precautions. Zach had warned them about their encounter with the Valkyries, but he wasn't sure if they would show up, or how effective they would be against Hydra's more heavily armed troops. All the same, it was uncanny how one unit could force them to alter strategy.

“Still thinking about yesterday?” Nora asked from beside him.

“Yeah,” he admitted.

“Keep in mind that as much as they're forcing us to switch strategies, we're doing the same to them,” she said. “We should keep up the raids. They're using their most elite unit to fight us, which means that they're not being used against anyone else. That might give Ronin or our main forces the time to strengthen themselves.”

“That's actually really good strategy,” Zach said. “You seem to be picking up more and more as we go.”

“Still not totally confident in my ability to run a full battle if I have to,” Nora said. “I know what to do and how to do it, but I'm still not sold on my ability to get the job done right now. I'll just have to hope that Anna doesn't get herself killed.”

“I think you're fine at it, to be honest,” Zach said.

“Remember the battle for this place? You put Liz in command when you went up to the front lines.”

Zach frowned. “Did you feel slighted by that? I'm sorry for doing that if you were.”

Nora shook her head. “No, I think you made the right decision. But part of me didn't want to get passed over again, and that made me want to learn more so I can be better.”

“Is that why you have such a weird reading list?” Zach asked. He had seen several books on military history at her apartment. “Great, I accidentally gave my girlfriend a complex by passing over her for command in a video game.”

“That does sound pretty ridiculous,” Nora laughed. “Well, between my complex and you being terrified of the Valkyries we make a wonderful couple.”

“I'm not terrified of them,” Zach said.

“Then I don't have a complex either.”

“You do have that one bit of leadership down,” Zach said.

“What's that?”

“You're very encouraging.”

She smiled. “Good to hear.”

As usual, the area in front of Hephaestus Forge was busy with vehicles and personnel carrying materials and finished products to and from the factory. Zach sent a message to Yusuf and then went inside. Nora was right behind him.

His alert buzzed. Head to the prototype wing, the message read. Zach and Nora made their way through the massive factory, trying to stay out of the way. They passed by smelting furnaces, ammo presses churning out bullets of every size and assembly lines for small arms. Over in one of the vehicle assembly bays he could see a helicopter being built. It was probably meant to replace the one they had lost yesterday.

Zach and Nora reached the door to the prototype wing and stepped inside. It was much calmer that the organized chaos of the main factory floor. Out there it was industry; in here they were more focused on analysis and invention. Yusuf was standing over by a workbench. He motioned them over.

“Did you get it decoded?” Zach asked. He could read most schematics due to his class, but this one was far too high of a level. Only engineers specialized in crafting had the skills to decipher it, and Zach had built his character as a generalist, good at all aspects of an engineer but proficient at none.

“Yeah, and it's pretty interesting,” Yusuf said, motioning them forward. “Just look at it.”

U-1 Sparrow, the schematic read. It detailed plans for a twin engine airplane. From the look of things it had room for two crew plus some space in the back.

“So we're going to be the first ones with an actual air force?” Zach asked.

“I've heard rumors that several companies are nearing the end of a quest line that gives them a schematic for aircraft,” Yusuf told him. “But even if that's true these designs are a cut above them anyhow.”

“Hmm. There's no antiaircraft defenses in Indianapolis. At least, no one fired on them when they tested it,” Nora said. “Could we equip one of these with cameras and do reconnaissance with it?”

“Probably, but where are you getting the camera from?”

“We could always buy photo equipment from the vendors in Old Chicago,” Zach suggested.

“That's yet another expense. I'm not sure how long we can keep it up,” Yusuf said. “Did you look at the power requirements?”

“No. What's the damage.”

“Four per engine.”

Zach frowned. “Then we're not going to be able to operate very many of these things. Maybe one or two.”

“I think the helicopters can do what we need,” Nora said. “If I'm allowed to be greedy, I want one or two of these for the south equipped with photo reconnaissance equipment. That's probably going to be the most efficient way to map the entire city.”

“It's going to take some time to get them up and running,” Yusuf said. “We can build them here, but we have nowhere to launch them from. We have the airbase to the east, but that means we'll have to disassemble them and take them there by land. Plus, we need to have trained pilots to fly them, and there's bound to be accidents while people learn.”

“We've got to have some real world pilots,” Nora said. “The learning curve is going to be much less steep for them.”

“I actually think that's far more likely than getting people who know how to fly helicopters, since a lot of people fly for fun,” Zach said.

“Well, we'll have to ask around then,” Nora said.

“Could we equip this as an attack aircraft?” Zach asked.

Yusuf shrugged. “Sure we could, but the heaviest weapons we have right now are machine guns. That's not going to be very effective against ground targets. Not any more than the choppers, at the very least.”

“Maybe we should make plans for an attack craft and then wait to see what else we can dig up?” Nora suggested. “If we can't find anything outside the city, at least we have Jackal doing the quests in Old Chicago.”

Yusuf grimaced. “We're starting to strain our production capabilities to the limit. There's only so much ore we can mine and refine in a day, and a majority of that has to go to bullets.”

Zach nodded, thinking. That was going to be a problem. Hydra's power base was built on their superior technology and industrial capabilities. If they started to lose that edge then they were in serious trouble. This was the worst possible time for it to happen as well. They were going to have a hard time splitting their forces between the north and the south.

“Can we make another production line?” Nora asked.

“That's definitely possible, but we need people to run it and materials to build with,” Yusuf said. “I'm also concerned that we're running through fusion batteries so fast. We need them to power the assembly lines and furnaces, and you guys need them in the field. I'm not sure how many more vehicles and lines we can add before we're over our practical limit.”

“There has to be some way to recharge them,” Zach said.

“Well, there is,” Yusuf told him. “Problem is, it's really expensive. It's cheaper if you bring a certain ore along, but I've never even seen it.”

“That probably means it's in the middle of nowhere,” Zach said.

“Most likely surrounded by dangerous monsters and such,” Nora said. “Otherwise this would be way too simple.”

Zach sighed. “So we're going to have to go back to basics. We rely on small units and our troops on the ground over our technology. Our infantry is what's going to win us battles.”

“That's how we got so far,” Nora said. “I don't see how that's so bad. We wanted a challenge, right?”

Yusuf grinned. “It'll be interesting, all right.”

Zach smiled as well. They were right. Even though it was going to be tough, it was going to be a lot of fun as well. And that was what was really important.

CHAPTER 12

Melee

One enemy fell before her blade. Then another. Then another. She drew her pistol and fired off a pair of shots at another out of reach.

Five. Six. Seven. Eight.

But then she was thrown down onto the hard deck of the battledome. A message flashed up on her HUD. Objective Failed.

“Maybe you should turn down the difficulty level?” Miko suggested from the sidelines where she was observing.

Selene stood up and shook her head. “I'm going to beat this no matter what,” she said insistently. “Simulation, start.”

Ten enemies armed for combat in close quarters materialized. Selene kept her knife out and charged at them.

Their failure against the Valkyries had rankled. She knew that it wasn't rational. Hydra had built themselves around the firepower they could bring to the battlefield. Whether it was recoilless rifles, armored vehicles or air support, they could lay down a devastating amount of hurt on the enemy. It was natural that they were far less proficient at close combat.

She disabled the first enemy with a slash across the ribs followed by a stab to the neck. One.

It stood to reason that the Valkyries were so proficient at it because of Hydra. They were using close combat as a way to negate their firepower advantage. And while Black Wolf might have been slaughtered in the last battle, that was because they had been caught off guard. If they were faced with a more even fight then they could probably carry the day.

Two more enemies loomed in front. One came in with a downward stab. Selene sidestepped and slashed her enemy across the throat. Two. Without skipping a beat she pushed aside the falling body and made a lunging stab into the next enemy's ribs. Three.

That sentiment didn't sit well with her. Nothing about this game was balanced or fair, which was why it appealed to her. Valor and reliance on one strategy could only carry them so far. In World at War, victory went to the smartest, the most adaptable, the most prepared. They had to be ready to confront any situation that they might be faced with. Hoping to fight in optimal conditions wasn't going to give them victory. They had to evolve or perish.

Selene drew her pistol and shot a pair of enemies that were too far away for her to reach. Five. Six.

Part of this was personal for her. People had seen her achievements and thought she was incredible, but in truth they stemmed from something else. Whether it was academics, sports or anything else, her success came from one source. Deep down, more than anything else, Selene hated losing.

She sensed someone coming from behind. That wasn't going to work this time. Selene stepped to the right, then pivoted and stabbed in one fluid motion. She caught her enemy square in the chest. Seven.

Selene brought up her pistol to fire again. But something hit her in the back and she fell to the floor again. Objective Failed. She slapped the floor in frustration.

Miko walked over to her. “Well, you're getting there. But I think you're missing a few things,” she said as she pulled her up.

“What are you thinking?” Selene asked.

“For one, I noticed that you're spending a lot of your time moving so you can reach the target. You might want to use your assault rifle with a bayonet. That will give you a much better reach.”
Miko handed Selene's weapon over.

She nodded and clipped the bayonet on “OK, that's a good point. What's the second point?”

Miko drew her own knife. “You're fighting alone. There's no way you can take out this many opponents without someone watching your back. And isn't this completely unrealistic? You're always going to be fighting as part of a unit.”

Selene nodded. What a stupid error, she thought to herself. She had been so focused on trying to erase her failure that she forgot the most important part of their ethos: teamwork.

“If you want to have another go, I'm happy to fight alongside you,” Miko said. “Never know when I might need it.”

“Aren't you going to use something with a longer reach than a knife?” Selene asked her.

“I'm always going to be carrying my sniper rifle, and that's probably the worst weapon to try to use in close combat,” Miko said. “Plus, I'm almost always going to be far away from the front lines. If I have to fight like this then things have gone very badly.”

“OK, fair enough. Ready?”

“All set.”

“Simulation, start.”

Ten enemies appeared in front of them again.

“Be aggressive. I'll cover your back,” Miko said.

Selene grinned, gripped her assault rifle and charged forward. Her first enemy took the bayonet straight between the ribs. One.

She pulled it back and whipped the rifle around in an arc. The enemies trying to press closer were forced to back off. One took a deep slash across the chest. Two.

Another enemy came in with a knife in a downward slash. Selene sidestepped, knocking her enemy's arm aside as she moved. She followed up with a sweeping slash across the throat. Three.

Two more were standing further back. Selene had breathing room now. She switched her assault rifle to full auto and fired a burst at them. Four. Five.

Another enemy came rushing in from the right. She whipped the butt of her gun around, almost like an elbow strike, and smashed it into the side of her enemy's head. She finished off the staggered trooper with a bayonet thrust. Six.

She heard shots come from behind her, but there was no time to turn and look. An enemy came at her swinging a climbing axe. Selene brought her rifle up and blocked the downward swing. She kicked her enemy in the gut, causing it to stagger back. One pull of the trigger later and her opponent was down. Seven.

“One left,” Miko said from behind her. Selene turned around to see the last enemy fall, a knife buried in the side of its neck. The message flashed up on her HUD. Objective Completed.

Miko sheathed her knife and turned around with a grin on her face. “See, that was much better, wasn't it?”

“Yeah, I'd say so,” Selene agreed. “I feel a lot better after that.”

“Are you going to take the time to train the rest of your platoon?” Miko asked.

Selene shrugged. “I want to, though I'm not sure when we'll get the time. We're trying to step up the scouting in the city before we run out of time or resources.”

“Shouldn't that be less of a problem now that they can recon from the air?”

“Yeah, but we still have to explore stuff on the ground. Anna and Nora want to use air recon to figure out the places where we need to send ground teams in. It'll make us more efficient, but it still will take time.”

Miko nodded. “Yeah. And I have a feeling I'm going to get called on a lot in the north, since we have other options down there.”

“Yeah, I'm not sure what to think about that. On one hand, I hate losing. On the other hand I like challenges as well.”

“That's probably not the greatest combination,” Miko said. “I could see where it could get really frustrating.”

Selene nodded. “Yeah, but the south is going to be frustrating as well. There's very little room for error with the ground recon teams.”

“I don't envy you guys. Not one bit,” Miko said.

“Careful what you say, because you may end up being assigned to the south,” Selene said.

“No offense, but I really hope not.”

Selene nodded. “Know what? I really don't blame you.”

Nightfall. That meant they were ready for another recon mission, and Selene was going to lead her troops in tonight. They were going to observe the area north of the bridge that crossed the middle of the reservoir. There hadn't been much scouting of the area before, but they had some extra help. This time they had intelligence from choppers that had made low passes over the city.

The observation crews had spotted an area along the shore that was less defended than the rest of the area. It would give them the perfect place to land.

Two boats glided through the darkness, their engines on low power to muffle most of the noise. Tonight was going to be unusual. Selene had decided to take her entire platoon on the mission. It increased the risk of detection, but it also meant that they could cover more ground. Alpha 1 and Alpha 3 were split into their fireteams of four. They would be the ones scouting the city, observing troop concentrations, making note of enemy positions and trying to find weak points. Alpha 2 was going to dig in around the landing area. In the past it had been very difficult to extract troops trying to retreat under fire. Done this way they could give them cover as they fell back.

Jana's team had observed that the city was divided into districts, though from her perspective she couldn't tell how many. The scouting runs from Raven Company shed more light on the situation. Indianapolis was divided into nine districts, each separated from the other by walls. Each district had a capture point, which meant that they could take control of the city bit by bit. The problem was deciding where to strike first.

Hydra's strength was its armored units. No matter how skilled the ranger or artillery companies were, the armored forces would always be the alliance's trump card. If they wanted to win the battle then they would have to use them to their full potential.

The problem was that there was no good way to get them inside the city. The walls around Indianapolis were too thick to knock down with what they had on hand. There were areas of the city that weren't covered by walls, but they bordered bodies of water, and Hydra didn't have the ability to transport large vehicles over them.

Anna had thought the bridge might be a possibility, and Selene had to agree with her assessment. It crossed the reservoir and was easily big enough for APCs and assault guns to cross. They had surveyed it and found that it wasn't rigged to blow. Nora had been more pessimistic about their chances, though. She had argued that the bridge was going to be a death trap, funneling their vehicles in where they would be sitting ducks.

After several hours of discussion they had come up with a plan that suited everyone. The bridge was definitely going to be a useful piece in the upcoming battle. Selene had suggested launching the initial assault by boat and helicopter on the shoreline spearheaded by the ranger company, since they had the most experience in those type of attacks. Once they had secured the beachhead they would send more troops in by boat to help with the followup attack. Their goal would be to take the gate and outer walls, allowing the armored company to cross the bridge once they were captured.

That was going to be their plan. Now they had to find out if it was feasible.

The landing area was deserted. The three craft motored up to the beach and unloaded their troops. They moved quickly to secure the area.

“Ethan, set up shop in that house in front of us,” Selene ordered. Besides providing security for their extraction point, Alpha 2 was going to coordinate the actions of the scout teams inside the city. The had brought along a boosted radio set that allowed them all to talk over greater ranges. They could also relay requests back over the reservoir to their main HQ. There was a pair of choppers on standby if they needed the cover fire.

Selene moved up with Alpha 2 and helped to get them situated. “Alpha 1, Alpha 3, Scout 1, Scout 3, can you hear us?” she asked through the radio. All teams responded yes.

She settled down next to the radio set. “Alright, let's get this done.”

“I think my idea is possible,” Selene said the next day when they were gathered for a meeting. The scouting mission had gone off without a hitch. The maps that Raven had provided them were crude, but they were also very helpful. Logan's team was able to get very close to the gate without being spotted.

“Do you think we're going to be able to storm the gate?” Nora asked.

Selene nodded. “Logan scouted the area. The walls are going to be really tough from the front, but if we can get in behind them then they should be easy enough. I think it's a good idea if we get specialized assault squads from Sacred Sword, Marauder or Crimson Eagle. They should be equipped to fight up close and personal while they're taking the gate. They're heavily defended, but they lose most of their advantages if we're behind the wall.”

“It seems odd that they're not defending the shoreline,” Gray said.

“Maybe they're covering it with artillery? Or maybe they have troops that will move up there once an attack starts?” Nora suggested.

“That shouldn't matter if we're quick about it,” Selene said. “All we need to do is to take and hold the beach. Once we do that we can land our troops and then make a quick push for the gate.”

Anna looked over the contents of her report again. “What I'm more concerned about is the number of enemy troops that you think are present. You say between eight hundred and a thousand? That's pretty high, especially when they're the ones defending And from what I've heard, they're a cut above anything we've faced.”

“I think we can deal with them if we use our artillery and air support,” Selene said.

She saw Anna frown as she shifted through the data in the holographic map projector. “You say you saw antiaircraft guns there? That's going to be a problem. We're going to have to make sure that we pinpoint where every single one of them is and then take them out. Otherwise, our air support might be grounded.”

“I wonder why they're not firing on us when we overfly the city?” Gray said. “You'd think that they would want to stop recon flights.”

“Maybe they're programmed that way?” Nora suggested.

“Whatever the case, we can be sure that they're going to start firing if we start attacking. And our choppers have almost no way to defend themselves.”

“Hmm. If we took them out early, would they be rebuilt?” Selene asked.

“Artillery is out of the question right now. That will just bring counter fire from the guns up on the walls,” Anna said.

“I know that's not an option, and airstrikes probably aren't one either,” Selene said. “But what if we sent raiding teams in to destroy them? Like, maybe a few days before the battle?”

“Dangerous work,” Anna said.

“Sounds like fun,” Gray said with a grin. At least she had someone on board.

“Do we know if that will even work?” Nora asked.

Selene shrugged. “We'll never know unless we try.”

“Maybe we try a test run?” Anna suggested, “We can destroy one of the guns to see how long it takes to be replaced.”

“I'll take a team to do it,” Gray said. “I seem to be turning into the crash dummy anyhow.”

“Well, since you're offering,” Selene shrugged. “If we're going to do this we might have to push it through the council. We'll need to have our troops trained for the assault, at the very least.”

Nora ran a hand through her hair. “That might end up being a problem. We'll have to weaken our front line garrisons, and that means Ragnarok will be able to attack us again.”

“Is Ronin enough of a threat to them?” Gray asked.

Nora shrugged. “It's hard to say. From what I've heard from Zach and Danny they're not especially forthcoming about their strength. We think that they have enough to at least make Ragnarok cautious, but we're not completely sure.”

That was going to be the biggest problem. Right now Hydra had to split their forces between north and south. If they wanted to launch a successful attack then they were going to need to use almost all their strength. That would mean their northern holdings were going to be very threatened if Ragnarok figured out what they were doing and launched an attack.

Most of their northern holdings weren't all that important; they were just outposts and points for launching attacks. The only critical areas they had to protect were the ones around Lerna Bastion, but they would also be undermanned during the attack.

Risks needed to be taken, though.

That was the lifeblood of Black Wolf, the first company to be founded in the Old Chicago region. Other companies had taken weeks to come into being. They had been founded on the first day thanks to an insane plan that Zach had hatched. Her, Zach, Danny and Miko against a force four times their size that was in a fortified position. No matter. They had been aggressive, and it had paid off.

It went even further than that. They weren't the first ones to discover a schematics, but they had been the first to tackle and especially difficult bunker. It cost them half their number, but they had come away with the formula for overdrive.

The risk-taking had even extended to the beginnings of the Hydra Alliance. Black Wolf, Redd Foxx and Sacred Sword had believed they could take a town, even when they had no idea what they were up against. Their enthusiasm had been infectious, enough to convince Grizzly to join them. They had Lerna Bastion right now because of that. So why were they so cautious right now?

Maybe it was because they were a major power in the region right now, and they felt like they had more to lose if they failed. They had taken most of their risks trying to gain an advantage. Now that they had one, they were adverse to doing anything that might jeopardize it.

Then again, their advantage was little more than a paper tiger at this point, Selene thought. Hydra had no way to get any bigger at this point. If they added more members then they would put more strain on their logistics system, and that meant their technological advantages would be gone. And even if they doubled in size they would still be smaller than Ragnarok Company.

As much as they didn't want to admit it, they were still second best, still trying to gain that advantage. The people that thought Lerna Bastion was that advantage were wrong. It had weathered an assault from Ragnarok before, but Ragnarok was growing stronger every day. Right now they were like a turtle, safe and sound inside their shell. Eventually, though, someone was going to come along that could crack that shell, and then where would they be?

The more things changed, the more they stayed the same, Selene thought to herself. Their choice was to either make a gamble, or to die a slow death as Ragnarok squeezed the life out of them. She knew which one she would choose.

“Ronin isn't going to be able to anything other than staying on the defensive,” Nora was saying. “They don't have the troops to do much else.”

“Sure, we know that, but do they?” Anna asked. “They don't have to win. They just have to distract Ragnarok long enough for us to take the city. Or at least most of it. It could even be good for us if they ended up losing, as long as they don't get immediately crushed. We can absorb their members once they're forced to disband.”

“Don't let any of the others hear that,” Gray commented. Over half their companies had come from an alliance known as the Legion Pact. Ragnarok had crushed them, which suited Hydra fine. They had swooped in like vultures, picking the bones of the Pact and bringing their members into the fold.

“Anyhow, we're not in the best position to judge Ronin's abilities. We should lean on Danny and Zach for that kind of information,” Nora said.

“Do we really want to trust them to do what we want them to?” Selene asked. Ronin had great fighting ability on the tactical level. It was the strategic level that bothered her. Levi and the rest of the leadership might be too ambitious for their own good.

“We can rely on Levi being a stubborn ox,” Anna said. “Once we figure out how to put it in his head that taking the battle to Ragnarok is a good idea, we should be golden.”

Selene leaned forward over the map table and smiled. “Man, we are playing this nasty. Manipulation, psychological warfare and the like.”

“Hey, if they're open to it I don't see why not,” Anna said. “Besides, it's not like a monopoly or hoarding are any better.”

“Whatever we decide, we need to do it relatively soon,” Nora said. “If we're going to shift our forces south then we need to make sure that Ronin is up to the job of contesting the north. If we're going to use the strategy that Selene came up with we need to get it past the council and we need to make sure that everyone's prepared for their roles. I'm most concerned about the assault teams.”

“David always has his troops in order,” Gray said. “As for Marauder, just point them at the thing you want dead and it'll happen.”

Selene looked over the map again. “We have a lot of recon work to do as well.”

“At least the recon aircraft is getting close to completion,” Nora said.

“That will help,” Selene nodded. They would need every bit of it they could get.

CHAPTER 13

Sleight of Hand

The message from Hydra command was clear. They were to do everything possible to shore up Ronin's position in the north so they could threaten Ragnarok. That meant raids, recon and whatever other aid they could render. That also meant a lot more coordination with Ronin forces.

Danny was glad that most of their interaction was with White Tiger. Tafari was fairly easygoing and was well aware of the situation. As much as they wanted to stand on their own two feet, their alliance didn't have the technology and manpower to do so. Any help was welcome, no matter the source.

His platoon had been hard at work, sailing up and down the river and roaming the skies, raiding supply convoys, picking off patrols and causing general havoc. Liz's platoon was even more deadly at times; with Redd Foxx ability to infiltrate deep behind enemy lines without being detected, they could pop up and achieve complete surprise. You could hear a chopper or a boat coming. But with Redd Foxx, the first sign you were under attack was when the bullets started flying. Sometimes you didn't even get that kind of warning.

One of their favorite new tactics had been to launch an attack from the air on a convoy. They would land a few squads to hit the convoy, supported by strafing runs. Once they had done some damage they would retreat, letting the Ragnarok forces think they had driven them off and that they were safe. They would continue up the road, convinced that they were home free, and would run straight into an ambush of Redd Foxx troops. Five convoys had been completely annihilated this way.

But raiding convoys was only going to do so much. It would make Ragnarok's supply situation more problematic, but they still had a huge number of troops in the north. They weren't going to be destroyed just because they were getting less bullets and overdrive. Someone would have to drive them out.

That was their role. Zach was working with Sam and Tafari, trying to come up with a way to strengthen Ronin's hold on their positions. If they could steal some of Ragnarok's territory they would do so as well.

Zach's biggest concern right now was running into the Valkyries. Danny couldn't blame him; he was concerned as well.

For all the talk about how good they were, the reality was even worse. Danny had taken the time to observe them during the last battle when he wasn't running for his life. They were definitely elite troops. The Valkyries knew how to negate Hydra's advantages and play to their own strengths. They dealt with obstacles in a quick and brutal fashion; he had a front row seat that showed their love of RPGs. They knew the value of cover, knew how to stay on top of an enemy and give them no respite. Calling them a challenge was putting it very lightly.

There was one weakness, though. They couldn't be everywhere at once. If Danny end up with the Valkyries on his tail that meant they weren't hurting Ronin. That would be small comfort if he ended up dying every time they fought, but it was something, at least.

Danny wondered if they had a main base that they operated of, and where that was. That would be a way to get their attention. He wondered just how well they would fight if Hydra caught them by surprise. It could be like throwing cherry bombs down a woodchuck hole. Or it could be like sticking your arm in a badger's den.

Whatever the case, their job was distraction, nothing more. The only other thing they had to gain up here was experience. From the sound of things, they were in for a tough fight when they moved back south. He wanted to forge his troops in the heat of battle up here. If they could take on the Valkyries, they could take on anything the city threw at them.

His alert buzzed. “Danny, are you around?” Zach asked at the other end of the line.

“Yeah, I'm here,” he responded.

“Could you come find us in the main meeting room? Liz is already here.”

“On my way,” Danny confirmed. He left the Hydra base and made his way over to the White Tiger stronghold. No one gave him much notice as he entered. Their novelty had worn off, it appeared.

Zach, Liz and Tafari were already seated in the meeting room as he entered. Danny took a seat.

Zach spoke up first. “Alright, we've been talking with Sam and Rafe. Ragnarok really doesn't like the fact that they hold Fort Baldr right now, but there's nothing they can do about it. They want to make sure that the same thing doesn't happen to Fort Odin. But Ronin wants it bad.”

“We all do,” Tafari said.

“You guys really need to come up with a name for your alliance,” Zach shrugged. “It's hard to refer to it otherwise.”

Tafari laughed. “Ah, can't argue about it when it's true.”

“Anyhow, they want to seize the fort. Ragnarok has beefed up their defenses, but it's nothing impossible. I've already sent word to the council. They've authorized us use of the armored company, Bravehart, Griffon, Jackal and Sacred Sword.”

“Jeeze. That's a lot,” Danny said.

Zach nodded. “I know, which is why I don't want to screw this up. I think we're only going to use the infantry and artillery companies. We don't want to waste our armored vehicles attacking a fort.”

“Do you have a problem with us reserving our best forces?” Danny asked Tafari.

He shook his head. “I'll take whatever help you're willing to give us.”

“Our plan is to use Bravehart and Griffon to pound Fort Odin with mortars and artillery. Jackal will be there to provide security for them, and to support the main attack if they need it.”

“What about Sacred Sword?” Danny asked.

Liz spoke up. “That's where we come in, actually. We've noticed that any time the Valkyries have responded to us they've come from the direction of Old Chicago. We think that they're based there unless they're on a mission. And they're going to be our biggest problem.”

“What, not the thousands of troops they can call upon?” Danny asked. “Yeah, they're a very tough unit. But they're not as bad as having five hundred enemies suddenly descend upon us.”

“That's where the armored company is going to come in,” Zach explained.

“I thought you said we weren't going to use them,” Danny pointed out.

“In battle, no. But we're going to put them at Fort Baldr, and we're going to make sure that Ragnarok knows that.”

“Ah, I see,” Danny said. That would definitely give them pause. Normally they could move troops from other garrisons south to support Fort Odin, but with the armored company in the area the situation would be very uncertain. He could hear the questions they would be asking themselves. Where was Hydra going to strike? What were they after? Was the attack on the fort just a diversion?

Questions like those would freeze them in place. Only a few units could respond, lest they have a powerful force wreaking havoc behind their lines. And if they could only use a few units, Danny was pretty sure which ones they would choose.

“So I'm guessing our job is to fight the Valkyries?”

Zach nodded. “Your job is to make sure they don't make it through to relieve the fort. It's going to be your platoons, plus Sacred Sword. I'm going to be in command of all Hydra forces in the north. Danny, I want you in command of the blocking force, with Liz as your second.”

Danny frowned. “I'm flattered, but what does David this of this? Shouldn't the command role go to an actual company commander?”

“David agreed to it already,” Zach said. “He suggested it, actually. We're the ones who have experience fighting the Valkyries. That means you two are best qualified for the job.”

“Why me and not her, then?”

“When's the last time you were an adjunct?” Liz asked.

“Uh, never?”

“Exactly.”

Danny turned to Tafari. “How many troops are you going to have attacking the fort?”

“Our full strength that we can put in the field,” he said. “We still need to have troops guarding our strongholds and forts, so that cuts down on the numbers a bit. We still have about three hundred troops that we can commit.”

“How big is the garrison at Fort Odin?”

“Around two hundred,” Tafari said. “They may have increased the size after we took Fort Baldr.”

“You're putting an awful lot of faith in Bravehart and Griffon,” Danny said.

“Well, it's not like we have too much of a choice,” Zach said. “Aaron really doesn't want to take part in it, and C.J. is pretty iffy on it as well. I'm pretty sure that Cody would have a brain aneurism if we asked him.”

Danny burst out laughing. “I could totally see that happening.”

“We should be fine,” Tafari said. “We've become experts at storming fortified positions.”

“You should join us, then,” Liz said.

Tafari shook his head. “I'm flattered by the offer, but my duty is to the other members of the alliance.”

“How strong is the garrison? Are they veterans or scrubs?” Danny asked.

Zach shook his head and gave a rueful smile. “They're pretty good quality, and that might be our fault. Remember, the forts were built to protect Ragnarok's territory from attack, mostly by us. They've had strong garrisons ever since we pushed them out of the south, and our raids have probably made them even stronger.”

“Still, they're not invincible,” Tafari said. “We'll have fire support from you guys, and we have our own veteran troops storming the fort. It's not going to be easy, but it's definitely doable.”

“Has Levi given approval to these plans?” Liz asked.

“Not yet, but he will,” Tafari said. “He's not stupid.”

“Can I ask you a bit of a personal question?” Danny asked him.

“Sure.”

Danny hesitated for a moment. “Why are you guys following Levi? I mean, I understand loyalty and all, but he seems to rub a lot of people the wrong way. How do you stick with him?”

Tafari gave a crooked smile. “Yeah, I've heard that before. I can see how he'd upset some people. He's someone who's very set in his ways. But he's not the dictator that a lot of people want to portray him as. Does he want control? Yeah, he does. But not like people say.”

“Could you... elaborate?” Danny asked. “I'm sorry if this is a bit personal.”

Tafari shrugged. “Nope, it's a perfectly valid question. Some of this is conjecture, but I think that Levi sees himself as a necessary evil. In order to fight Ragnarok we can't have any hesitation, and in his mind the only way to prevent that hesitation is to have a single central authority. He's chosen to be the bad guy and is trying to be that authority. But he's not a dictator. He listens, he takes suggestions. Levi might have final say, but he's not the only decision maker.”

Danny grimaced. “It's surprising how much your perspective changes once you hear the other side of the story.”

“But doesn't our alliance disprove his theory?” Liz asked. “We're run by a council, and we've hurt Ragnarok badly.”

“How long will that last before disagreements and politics start tearing it apart, though?” Tafari asked. “That's Levi's concern. The intentions are good, but without a strong authority it could all go bad very quickly. And then the end is nasty, brutish and short.”

“Hobbes?” Danny asked.

Tafari shrugged. “That's part of Levi's theory.”

“Then his theory is wrong. Hobbes doesn't say that people have to be governed by one person with all the authority. He says that people need to be ruled over by a strong centralized authority, which our council qualifies as such.”

“That's a bit of a nitpick.”

“He's currently getting his doctorate in philosophy,” Zach explained. “That kind of nitpick is pretty important to him.”

Tafari laughed. “OK, point taken.”

“And it's a fair question. But I think we'd be stronger if we all joined forces. Why not join Hydra?”

“You mean other than the fact that Cody would have a coronary?” Liz asked.

“Oh, he'd be fine once we found something for him to kill,” Danny said.

“We like our alliance as it is,” Tafari shrugged. “Do we want more cooperation with you guys? Yeah, I think that would be great. But we don't want to give up what we have right now.”

“Fair enough,” Danny said.

Tafari stood up. “Well, I need to head to Ronin Fortress for the company command meeting. Time to get this all approved.”

“Have fun. Thanks for putting up with me,” Danny said.

“No problem,” Tafari said. He left the meeting room.

Danny started to get up, but his alert buzzed. There was a message from Zach. Danny gave him a quizzical look, then opened it up.

Don't sabotage our meatshield,” it said.

Danny laughed and typed a message back to him. Man, you're mean, it said. That was the type of world they were in, though.

“Here it goes,” Danny said. He swung his club forward and got a solid hit. His ball banked off the wooden angle and curve. It went in. “Hole in one!” Danny said, pumping his fists in the air.

“I guess that makes up for you putting it in the water obstacle on the last hole,” Nora said.

“Oh, you're just jealous, Ms. I'm in Last Place,” Danny said.

“Just wait until we get to the windmill,” Zach said.

“Just how bad is it?” Liz asked.

“Not that bad,” Danny said.

“Not that bad? If we timed you we might need to use a calendar,” Zach said.

“Five dollars says I make it through at par or better,” Danny said.

“Sorry, but I have a policy of not being a thief,” Zach said.

Nora laughed. “Oh, that's harsh.”

“Fine then. I'll prove you wrong anyhow,” Danny said.

They moved on the the next hole, a green with a loop. Liz lined up for her shot. She hit it through the loop without a problem, though her shot was slightly off target and missed the hole. She put it in with her next shot.

Zach went next. He hit the ball squarely, but like Liz his shot was slightly off target. He completed the hole in two shots as well.

Nora made a hard shot that was off target. She hit the edge of the loop, causing the ball to ricochet back. Her next shot was more on target, though again it was still wide of the hole. She finished a shot over par.

Then it was Danny's turn. He carefully lined up his shot, trying to make sure everything was line up.

“Any day now would be good,” Zach said.

“You're trying to throw me off,” Danny said.

“I can't help if my words have side effects,” Zach shrugged.

“Fine, I'll take even longer.”

Liz poked him with her club. “Just go.”

“Alright, if you insist.” Danny shot. His putt was right on target. It went through the loop at the perfect angle and velocity. Hole in one again. He could hear the others groan behind him.

“Whose idea was this?” Nora asked.

“Trust me, it'll be worth it once we get to the windmill,” Zach said.

“What, just because you guys need the virtual display? Maybe we should play virtual world golf next time?”

“I'm pretty sure I'd rip my neuro-helmet off in frustration and smash it,” Liz said. “And then where would we be?”

“That's not even possible,” Danny said.

“I'd find a way.”

“We need to go outside sometimes,” Nora said. “I'm not going to spend my entire life in the virtual world.”

“How do you know what's real and what isn't?” Danny asked.

Nora groaned. “No philosophy puzzles tonight.”

Danny laughed. “Just kidding. None of those crazy discussions tonight. I'm fine with just relaxing.”

“Yeah, I can agree with that. Sometimes the game world can seem a bit overstimulating.”

That was definitely true, and there was a lot to be said for peace and quiet. Even though World at War was great fun, Danny still took the time to enjoy less action-packed entertainment. His love of reading was still as strong as ever, and he still spent a lot of time reading the writings of various philosophers.

“Are you two planning another cabin trip?” Liz asked.

Nora sighed. “We don't know. I'd like to do one before it gets too cold to hike. But there's a lot of stuff going on in the game, and we can't just walk away from that right now. It is our job, after all, and I think they're going to be very interested in what we're doing.”

“A lot of it depends on the timing of everything,” Zach says. “If we're behind schedule, then it's not going to happen. If we're ahead, then we'll probably end up going.”

The moved on to the next hole. The green was dotted with various hills. Danny made a trio of good shots and scored par. The rest of them struggled and took at least five to finish the hole.

“Whose idea was this?” Nora asked again.

“Windmill,” Zach reminded her.

It was up next, and Danny was going to conquer it this time. He lined up his shot and swung.

“Just how bad was it?” Selene asked with a laugh. It had been a while since all of Black Wolf had been assembled at their headquarters, but they were all there making their last minute adjustments to their weapons and gathering ammunition. They didn't want to put any strain on White Tiger's supply situation if they could help it.

“Took him nine shots to get it through the windmill,” Zach said. “The worst part about it was that every single shot was right down the middle. They all would have gone through if he could time it out right.”

“Why do you have so much trouble with that one hole?” Selene asked him.

“Because it's cursed?”

“Only for you,” Zach said. “The rest of us got through in three shots or less.”

“OK, maybe it is cursed for me.”

“Danny's weakness. Windmills,” Selene laughed.

“Well, I haven't seen any around here, so I should be safe,” Danny said. “Luck and skill will be on my side.”

They would need to be. Danny's force was prepared. Between Sacred Sword and the two ranger platoons he had over a hundred and fifty troops to work with. None of them were slouches, either. Sacred Sword was considered to be one of the top companies in the entire region; in fact, they were arguably the best pure fighting company in Hydra as well.

Besides the regular troops, they would have an assault gun backing them up on the coming battle. Orcrist was one of the first of the M11 Bulls specifically built for the infantry instead of the armored company. In the future they hoped to have at least two assault guns assigned to every infantry company, but for now Sacred Sword was going to be the test bed.

There would be air support as well. Raven Company was going to provide them with cover up top, using their fast attack runs to attack the enemy. They had yet another card up their sleeves. Hephaestus had built two U-1 Sparrows, and one of them was going to be in the air for them, tracking the positions of enemy troops and relaying the information down to them. It would fly high enough that machine gun fire couldn't reach it, meaning that unlike the choppers it was effectively invulnerable.

Despite all this, he felt nervous. This was going to be his first time commanding a force of this size in the field, and he was understandably tense right now. His troops couldn't afford to fail, and he was going up against the toughest opponent imaginable. The enemy had good leadership, excellent soldiers and was fighting on their home turf.

He had the suspicion that the Valkyries would have some sort of countermeasure for everything that Hydra could deploy against them. They had proved it with their hugging tactics in the earlier battle, and Danny was sure that they could do it again. He wondered just how bad the battle could be.

No, he thought to himself. Get those thoughts out of your head. Hydra was strong in its own right, and they had many tricks they could use against the enemy. It was up to Danny to make sure he implemented those tricks properly.

CHAPTER 14

On Top of the World

The view from up above was spectacular. Nora had been in the choppers before and though the sight was impressive. But that was nothing compared to what she was seeing now from the cockpit of a true airplane.

Hephaestus had managed to build two Sparrows in a short period of time. One was assigned to the northern front, where it would be used for observation and coordination. Aside from the aircraft themselves, Hephaestus had jury-rigged some tracking equipment, using vehicle mounted scopes and monitors. Using them, they could zoom in on a target on the ground. The images they could get weren't the clearest things, but they were better than nothing.

Nora was flying in the other Sparrow right now, along with a crew made up members from several different companies. There were the two equipment operators in the back, Dustin and Calvin from Hephaestus Company. Their role was to use their equipment to take photos of targets on the ground. Then there was her, acting as the commander of the whole thing. And finally there was the pilot Austin, a member of Jackal Company.

Nora activated her radio and addressed the others. “OK guys, we're going to follow the plan as discussed earlier. We'll start at the southern end of the city and make back and forth passes. Our aim is to try to get a general overview of the entire city. We can come back later if we need more details on certain areas.”

“We're going to need to make quite a few passes,” Dustin spoke up. “We want to be zoomed in enough that we can at least make out the targets on the ground, so that will reduce the amount of area we can cover in a single sweep.”

“How many do you think?” Nora asked.

“About twenty. It might seem like a lot, but it'll probably save us having to come back again,” Dustin said.

“Austin, is that doable? Nora asked.

“Yeah, we'll be fine, provided we don't have to do any extravagant evasive maneuvers. But since we'll probably be running for our lives if we do, then it shouldn't matter.”

“OK, but let's not push it if there's any doubt,” Nora said. There was no way she was going to be responsible for losing their aircraft because they ran out of power.

“Speaking of going down, why don't we have any parachutes?” Calvin asked.

“Because we don't need them?” Nora said.

“So what happens if we get hit?”

“Hey man, do you really want to walk back to base? Because I'd rather pay the experience penalty,” Dustin said.

“Might be something to look into, at least,” Calvin said.

“Then you have a project for yourself.”

Austin laughed. “Man, you guys have no faith in me. I'll get you through safe and sound.”

“For some reason that's not too comforting.” Calvin said.

Nora smiled to herself. Their banter was calming everyone's nerves. Despite the fact that they really had nothing to lose, everyone had been nervous for their first real mission. Maybe it was because they were using something that was an unknown. Or maybe it was because of the defenses below. They thought that they would be ignored, but there was always a chance that they were wrong. If they were, then they were inside a big flying target with no defenses and no way out.

Whatever they were facing, they would have to bite the bullet and get on with it. Their recon work was far too important to delay any longer. Hydra was preparing an attack on the city, but there were still many questions to be answered. What was the effective enemy troop strength inside the city? They would need a solid number to go on before they made their move. How were the defenses organized? What was in each section of the city, and which sections would be more important to capture first? Did the enemy have weapons that could be used to bombard other parts of the city?

All of those questions needed to be answered before they could make their final plans for an attack. Nora thought that Selene's idea had potential, but it was in the planning stages at best. They would need a lot more information before they knew that it was feasible, and she was not about to go into it half-cocked.

Nora had one major concern: what would happen if their plan ran into a snag? Would they be able to adapt on the fly, or was their plan too reliant on timing? If it was the later then she wasn't sure it was sound strategy; they stood to lose a lot if something went wrong.

“Alright, we're lined up,” Austin said. “I'll try to keep us flying in a straight line. If you guys could get a little overlap on the pictures then we'll have a little more room for error.”

“Got that, and will do,” Dustin said.

There wasn't much for her to do now that they were in the middle of their run. Nora looked down out of the cockpit to the city below.

She had never appreciated the sheer size of it until now, but Indianapolis was huge. Its formidable walls snaked in various directions, guarding the city from attack. Where there were no walls there was water. Even from this altitude Nora could see strong points, towers that looked like they had artillery mounted on top. Those would have to be suppressed before they attacked.

But out of everything, she was most interested in the area contained within the walls. Everyone thought that Lerna Bastion was big, but it was dwarfed by the sheer expanse below. It definitely could fit in any one of the sections. There were building of every size below; houses, schools, offices, shops, malls, factories. She thought she saw a power plant in one of the sections, which might be very useful. It would be a coup for them if they could recharge fusion batteries there.

Hydra would have more space than they knew what to do with once they captured this place. Indianapolis stood astride the White River, so they would have easy access to boat transport. There were plenty of open spaces to base their choppers, and the highways around the city were still relatively intact. They would have everything they needed here to become the strongest power in the region. They might end up as the strongest power in the entire world.

It was so large. A thought crossed Nora's mind as the Sparrow came in for another pass. How were they going to govern a place like this? There was still plenty of space left in Lerna Bastion, and this was more than ten times the size of it. Would they be able to control the city? How were they going to govern something this size? And how were they going to defend it if someone else decided they wanted it and came calling with an army?

Maybe there were other options. Despite Ragnarok's best efforts, there were still hundreds of independent companies in the Old Chicago region, ranging from a few members to several dozen. That was one bright side of the entire war. Many of the smaller companies who didn't want to join an alliance were free to go about their business right now. Ragnarok would have tried to absorb them several months earlier, but now they were too busy. Ronin and Hydra were occupying their attention, and the smaller companies could thrive while the three big players pummeled each other.

The smaller companies might not be eager to join right now, but they probably would be more willing to listen if Hydra had more to offer. Other than strongholds, there were three commodities that were always in high demand in World at War; fusion batteries, ammunition and combat stimulants. That didn't take into account the technological advances that they possessed as well. Hydra had control of all three commodities to some degree, but capturing Indianapolis would put them over the top. It might be easy to refuse if all you were being offered was a stronghold and some bullets. It would be harder to resist if the alliance was offering to give you tanks and helicopters if you joined up.

But then again, that could mess with the current balance of the Hydra Alliance. Every incoming company would have a representative on the council under the current charter, which meant they could have over one hundred members by the time they were done. Getting anything accomplished would be next to impossible.

Maybe there were other solutions. They could offer to rent strongholds within the city at a discounted price, so many of the companies based in Old Chicago would come south. Maybe they could offer a partial membership, where they would be obligated to defend the city against attack in exchange for discounted prices on goods. Or maybe Hydra just needed to hire a horde of NPC guards. Whatever the case, there were a lot of decisions to be made on that front as well.

Nora sighed inwardly. Danny had once made the comment that World at War wasn't really a game solely about fighting; it was a game of politics. Military might and economics were just extensions of trying to put your political policy in place. And while that might not have meant much when you were in a company with only ten members, when you were in an alliance that line of thought meant a lot. Only the amateurs focused solely on the battlefield. The more experienced among them fought battles elsewhere; at the negotiation table, in the markets, through what they could plant in their enemy's mind. In a game that marketed itself as a pure fighting experience, there was a lot of subtlety and nuance to be found.

“Halfway through. How's it hanging back there?” Austin asked.

“We're doing good,” Calvin said. “A lot of good images.”

“It's going to be a pain to input this all into a map table, though,” Dustin added.

“Believe me, it's going to be a lot less painful than doing the recon on the ground,” Nora said. “We're not getting shot at right now.”

“I'll refrain from making any jokes about Hephaestus,” Austin said.

“Says the person who's flying the plane we built,” Dustin said sarcastically. “Talk about ungrateful.”

“Hey, I do what I can.”

Nora looked back down over the city. This was so much faster than scouting on the ground, and that was going to be extremely helpful. Hydra was on the move. They had too much to do and too little time to do it.

“Hats off to Hephaestus Company,” Gray said. “This info is better than anything that we'd be able to come up with, even if we had a couple weeks.”

Nora cycled through the holographic map table to make sure that everything had been entered correctly. It had been quite the process trying to get everything in place. First they had to photograph the entire city, which took more than an hour. After that they headed back to the airfield and landed, then unloaded their cargo. After that they needed to develop the photos, which took several more hours. After that was done they had transported them all south by ATV, and after that Nora had spent several more hours scanning every single photo into the table and arranging them into a map. It had certainly been a pain, but the results were well worth it.

Anna looked through the display when Nora was done. “Huh, you even have the heights of everything,” she said.

“That's from the map table,” Nora said. “Probably why it cost a fortune. It asked me what time we took every single photo and calculated the heights by using the shadows and the angle of the sun. From what I can tell it's pretty accurate. They match up with what we've explored.”

“That's actually pretty cool,” Selene commented.

Anna looked up at her. “OK Nora, you've been in the air, and you've seen the most of out of these photos. What do you think?”

Nora made a few swipes on the map table and zoomed in on the section adjacent to the bridge. “Well, there's a lot going on. I had Gavin, Terra, Lyla and Ethan look over the photos of this district while I was inputting the rest. If you look over here, that's the location of one of the antiaircraft guns that Selene's teams found. Look around the rest of the district and there's around twenty of them scattered about.”

She saw Anna make a face. Selene shook her head, and Gray whistled. She continued on.

“We've also found that there are a couple of towers in every district that have heavy artillery mounts. They're fixed so that they can only fire on targets outside the city, but they're heavier than anything we can get our hands on. I sent the pictures to Bryce. He thinks that they could wipe out our force here in a couple of shots.”

“This just keeps getting better and better,” Gray commented.

“There's also six barracks in the district,” Nora pointed out. “Going off the estimates we've gathered off of other barracks people have encountered, I'd estimate that there are between one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty soldiers in each one.”

“So seven to nine hundred?” Selene said.

“There's probably more. Your estimates might be right on target,” Nora said.

“So is your plan even going to be possible?” Gray asked. “There's an awful lot that we have to deal with.”

“I still think we can pull it off.”

Nora frowned. “It's going to take a lot of planning, but I think it's possible.”

“How are we going to deal with twenty antiaircraft guns?” Gray asked. “That pretty much kills any hope of air support.”

“Well, we're fighting in an urban environment,” Nora said. “While air support would be helpful, it probably isn't going to be extremely effective. Assault guns and APCs will probably be more useful as backup.”

“Plus, we're not going to be able to use it anyhow if we end up in close quarters with the enemy,” Selene pointed out. “We'll just need to rely on our fighting skills, and we have plenty.”

“The biggest problem is going to be the two towers with the artillery on top. If they start blasting the armored company while they're assembling or trying to cross the bridge we're toast.”

“How are we going to take them out without air support?” Gray said.

“Artillery, though they're going to need to be right on target,” Anna suggested. “I'm pretty sure they're going to get counter fire if the guns live through the first few shots.”

“That was my original plan,” Nora told them. “Our choppers don't have anything heavier than machine guns on them anyhow, and I don't think that's going to be enough to take out artillery. We can kill the crews, but I don't want to risk it.”

“Actually, some of the Hephaestus Company engineers had a crazy thought,” Gray said. “They suggested mounting a battery of recoilless rifle tubes on the stub wings and rigging up a trigger mechanism. They don't think the choppers could carry more than six, but it would give the much heavier firepower.”

“That's an interesting thought,” Anna commented.

“That's a pretty useful thought, actually,” Selene added. “Might be good to have a couple if we run into a tank again.”

Anna nodded. “Ah, yes, the capture point boss. Do you have any idea what it might be?”

Nora shook her head. “No, and I have a feeling that they don't want us to find out.”

“We'll just have to plan for whatever they might throw at us. It can't be that bad,” Gray said, sounding a bit optimistic.

“Uh, I seem to remember both of us getting killed by the one in Lerna Bastion,” Selene said. “How many of us didn't end up getting killed by the boss?”

“Me,” Anna said.

“Me as well,” Nora said.

Selene scowled. “It really doesn't count if you were in the headquarters then entire time.”

“What do you have to complain about? You got free drinks out of the deal.”

Selene laughed. “That's true. I'm pretty sad that Zach stopped making those offers.”

“I'm pretty sure he would be broke and we'd all have cirrhosis of the liver by now,” Nora said.

“Back on topic, I still think we'll need air support to take the district, no matter how ineffective it might be,” Anna said.

“I think we can get it,” Nora said. “It's going to take a lot of recon work and a lot of coordination, but I think we can clear out all the AA guns in the area.”

“You're talking about raiding them? That's going to be pretty hard, especially if they have a thousand troops in there,” Gray said. “Not that I'm against that kind of challenge, but it might be tough.”

“That's one possibility. The other possibility is that we use our artillery to blast them. If we pinpoint where they are then we can have Griffon and Bravehart hit them with artillery strikes. We'll need to be accurate, though. I'm not sure we want to rely on photos from the air, 'cause I'm not sure they're completely accurate.”

“We could find out whether they're accurate or not,” Anna suggested. “Send in teams and have them pinpoint the location of a few guns. If they match up with the information we have now, then we'll know that the aerial photos are accurate.”

“That will work too,” Nora said, wondering why she didn't think of the idea herself. It was an obvious one, really.

“We've got some light at the end of the tunnel,” Selene said.

“If that's true, then we're going to need to take a plan in front of the council,” Anna said. She turned to Nora. “I assume we're going to base it off of Selene's plan. Is there anything you wanted to add to it after looking over the new map?”

“I have a full plan sketched up, based around Selene's idea,” Nora said. “I think it's pretty sound.”

“Let's hear it, then.”

Nora opened up her menu and found her notes. She didn't want to forget any of the details. With a few swipes she adjusted the map table so it only focused on a single district.

“Alright, I think that an amphibious assault over the reservoir is the best idea, given the fact that the other options are trying to take the wall in a frontal attack or trying an airborne assault with all the antiaircraft guns in the city. I also agree that we should be the ones making the first landing, since we have the most experience. I think that Black Wolf should make the initial assault, since we're better equipped for a frontal attack.”

“Makes sense,” Gray said.

Nora adjusted the zoom on the map. “Two blocks in from the shore there's a wide boulevard that stretches about a mile, and it's bordered by houses and apartments on the beach side. After we take the shore the rangers should move there and set up a defensive line. That will keep the enemy away from the shore while the rest of our forces land. Marauder, Crimson Eagle and Sacred Sword will be coming across.”

“That's a lot of troops to transport by water,” Anna commented. “Are we sure we can do it quickly enough?”

“Thanks to Hephaestus, yes.” Nora cycled through her menu and brought up a set of plans that she had been given. “I talked to Yusuf about the problem, and he and Garrett came up with a solution. They're going to build specialized craft like this to get the follow on wave over the water.”

The design was based on their river craft. It consisted of a pair of boats joined together by a central platform, like a catamaran. It was a simple and crude design, but it would serve its purpose well enough.

“How many people can it carry?” Selene asked.

“Thirty.”

Anna nodded. “Well, that's more than enough room.”

“We're going to need to do it in two waves. I think we should send Marauder and part of Sacred Sword over in the first wave. Marauder storms the gate and Sacred Sword helps to hold the landing area. Once Crimson Eagle and the rest of Sacred Sword come over in the second wave we can start pushing into the city. Hopefully by then the gate will be captured. Once that happens we'll signal the armored company. They'll cross the bridge and then help us take the city. Sacred Sword's assault guns will be going across with them as well.”

“What about the guns?” Gray asked.

“While all this is going on, Griffon and Bravehart will be bombarding the city. They'll take out the artillery first, then move on to any AA guns we haven't destroyed before the battle. Once they're gone we can send in the choppers. If we can get them down quickly enough then I think we can use the transport choppers as well. We can load up squads from the ranger company and drop them behind the enemy lines to flank them.”

“The pilots are going to have to be careful that they don't stray over other areas of the city,” Gray said.

Selene agreed. “I don't think their strategy of fast attack runs is going to work. There's too much risk of them going too far and being shot up. They're going to have to hover more, and that's going to put them at risk.”

“They came up with the fast attack run strategy because we didn't want to risk the choppers if we could help it. This is what we were saving them for,” Nora said. “Anyway, that's the plan. It's mostly in place, though we might need to make a few adjustments. So what does everyone think?”

Everyone was silent for a moment. She thought that might be a bad sign.

“And you were worried about taking command if I got killed?” Anna said. “This is as good of a plan as any I've seen. I don't think there's much more we can tweak. We just need to do our recon work and make sure everyone's ready.”

“And we have to make sure our northern front is secure,” Gray pointed out.

“That's Zach's job,” Anna said.

It was Zach's job, his and Danny's and Liz's. All of her planning meant nothing if Ragnarok could stab them as soon as their back was turned. They would need to make sure Ronin and its allies could take the fight to Ragnarok.

And they were in for a hard fight.

CHAPTER 15

Sound and Thunder

Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.

Danny could hear the thunder of guns in the distance. Bravehart and Griffon were blasting Fort Odin with everything they had. He had seen both companies in action, though not at the same time. The amount of fire either company could throw out was impressive. Working together, their combined strength must have been staggering. Danny almost felt sorry for the Ragnarok troops caught in the bombardment. Almost.

He activated his radio. “Watchman, Watchman, this is Bravo Wolf, over.”

“Bravo Wolf, this is Watchman. I read you loud and clear,” came the response. Watchman was the callsign for their Sparrow, circling above and tracking the movements of any enemy troops coming out of Old Chicago.

“Anything to report?”

“Nothing but the normal traffic. We'll keep you posted.”

“Understood. Bravo Wolf out.”

“Nervous?” Liz asked him.

Danny shrugged. “You were in the last battle. You know why.”

She nodded grimly. “Yeah, this is probably going to be ugly. But at least we have Sacred Sword to back us up.”

That was going to be their saving grace. Redd Foxx and Black Wolf were as tough as anyone in World at War, but Sacred Sword was built for front line fighting. They were experienced, battle-hardened and savvy, led by veteran commanders. They were large as well, with about ninety members. And while the rangers would put up a hard fight, Sacred Sword would help to put some real backbone in the line.

Aside from the power of their soldiers and their heavy weapons teams, they also had their assault gun to back them up. Orcrist was armed with a 75mm artillery piece, the same weapon that Griffon and Bravehart were using on Fort Odin. When used for direct fire it had a much lower range, but it was deadly to tightly packed infantry, and could blast through most cover.

Would it be enough to hold off the Valkyries? Danny thought so, but the prospect made him nervous all the same. They were so tough and unpredictable. Or maybe they were in his head, and he was overestimating their abilities. In any case, he couldn't let that influence his judgment.

David walked up with Morgan, his second. “Alright, we're set up according to the plan. Are we still following it?”

“Unless anything changes, yes,” Danny said.

Sacred Sword's three platoons were spread out in a line, with Gio on the left, Staci on the right and Morgan in the center guarding the highway. Orcrist was in the center, since that was the only place it could really maneuver. The ranger company was being held in reserve. The Black Wolf platoon was under the command of Xavier, going by the callsign Zulu Wolf for this mission. They would act as a general reserve, plugging holes in the line if they appeared. Liz's platoon was going to wait until the battle started. Once the enemy was engaged and they had a clear picture of what they were doing, Redd Foxx would fade into the woods and then attack one of the flanks. Danny hoped that the surprise would allow them to roll up the enemy line.

It had worked against other Ragnarok forces in the past, but would it work against the Valkyries? They were diehards, and there was a good chance they would stand their ground and fight, even if they were being slaughtered. But then again, there was no harm in trying. The only other option was to slug it out with them, and Danny wasn't optimistic about their chances. Sure, they would probably win, but the Valkyries could do a heck of a lot of damage before they went down, which Hydra couldn't afford to take. This whole front was only a sideshow to their real objective, after all, and they needed to preserve their forces for the attack on Indianapolis.

“Everyone seems really nervous,” Morgan said. “I know the rumors say the Valkyries are really tough, but are they really as bad as they say?”

“They might be worse,” Danny told him. “We got absolutely massacred by them when we grabbed the schematic.”

“Then again, we might be overestimating them,” Liz said. “I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that they caught us by surprise last time, and that we were trying to get away. We'll probably have better luck with them if we stand and fight.”

“Still, they're really tough,” Danny said.

Liz shrugged. “That's to be expected. But everyone seems to be focusing on the fact that we lost most of our troops. We won. We got the schematic, and then we got away with it.”

“Besides, they're not the only ones who are really tough,” Morgan said. “You say they like close quarters? Well, we'll be happy to oblige them.”

Danny nodded. He was being far too pessimistic. “Watchman, Watchman, do you see anything?”

“Nothing yet,” came the reply. He thought there was a hint of annoyance in Watchman's voice. Maybe it was time to lay off.

“Nervous?” David asked.

“I asked him the same thing,” Liz said.

Danny shrugged. “It's the waiting. Once we get in battle I'll be fine.”

The guns continued to thunder in the distance.

Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.

*              *              *

The bombardment was ferocious. Zach was up with the forward teams from Griffon and Bravehart, watching them fire their mortars at Fort Odin. Their speed was incredible. Once they had zeroed in on a target a single team could put four or five shells on it in the span of a minute. Multiply that by the number of teams here, and there was a lot of hurt raining down on the Ragnarok troops inside the fort.

These weren't even the heavy ones; they were 81mm mortars. The 120s were further back laying down their own barrage, and further back from them were the big guns, the artillery. He looked over at the area where the shells were falling. Fort Odin was a sheet of flame. Nothing could survive that kind of bombardment.

At least, that's what it looked like. Zach knew better. The fort had plenty of areas where the enemy could take cover, completely safe from their fire. For as impressive as everything looked, the fact remained that their artillery was at the light end of the scale. It was deadly, but it could be shrugged off by well-made fortifications. And Fort Odin was definitely a well-made fortification, with thick walls and a tough citadel.

The real purpose of the bombardment was to force the enemy into cover, giving Ronin, White Tiger and Dogs of War time to get close enough. By the time the bombardment lifted and the defenders were able to get back on the wall, the attacking force would already be close. Zach also hoped that they could destroy some of the heavy weapons that had been placed on the wall. Ragnarok had .50 caliber machine guns and automatic grenade launchers, and Zach knew from experience that both were deadly. They had started their attack with little warning, so he hoped that Ragnarok had been forced to leave their guns on the wall to seek shelter. If they took out even half the number then that would help a lot.

He found Bryce watching his troops fire off their ordinance. There wasn't much else for him to do up here at the moment. Both Bravehart and Griffon were well trained and experienced, so they required little direction.

“Beautiful, isn't it,” Bryce said.

“Not quite the word I'd use, but yeah, it is impressive,” Zach said.

Bryce shrugged. “Well, there's a lot to those feelings. Having Ragnarok come and take your stronghold out from under you leaves a lot of resentment. I'm not sorry to say that it feels good to see them on the receiving end.”

Zach nodded and looked back toward Fort Odin. In a few minutes the bombardment would lift and the infantry would begin their attack. Hopefully Ragnarok was stunned enough that their resistance would be less intense than they had run into in the past. At any rate, he was glad that it would be companies outside of Hydra taking the casualties.

“There's a lot of people who have personal vendettas against Ragnarok, come to think of it,” Zach said. “I mean, my company didn't like Ragnarok, but it was never particularly personal for anyone. It was just something that ended up happening.”

“Yeah, the former Pact members have a pretty personal grudge against them,” Bryce agreed. “We spent so much time getting established, and they took it all away from us just like that.”

“We'd never be where we are today without you guys.”

“I know, and quite honestly, I think it's for the best. We're a united front, after all, and we're making them sweat at the very least. But still, they tried to take our symbols and pride from us and make us conform. That's something that I can't forgive.”

Zach nodded. More explosions thundered on top of Fort Odin. “I can see that.”

“But we shouldn't let that mess with our heads, is that what you want to say? Don't worry, we won't let it happen. We want payback, sure. But we're not going to dwell in the past. The Legion Pact is dead, and nothing that we do is going to bring it back. Now we do what's best for Hydra.”

“Good. And I think that Ragnarok is going to regret what they did. We would have never had the strength to take a proper city by ourselves. But with you guys, I think we can do it. And that's when we become the superpower in the region.”

“Yeah, and we'll do it the right way. Calm and under control.”

Zach started to say something, then paused for a moment. “Actually, I think that having a bit of fire behind you is a good thing,” he said. “We've been prepared to fight Ragnarok from the beginning, but our fight has been cold, calculated. It's all very logical and matter-of-fact.”

Bryce nodded. “That's a good thing, right?”

Zach looked back over toward Fort Odin. The bombardment was beginning to let up. It was time for the main attack. “To a point, yeah. But while that may be good in a strategy meeting or in headquarters, sometimes there's just something missing if your troops in the field feel that way. Anger and a thirst for payback drives them to fight harder, you know?”

“Yeah, I've seen quite a bit of that,” Bryce said. “One of the reasons I think Marauder is so effective is because they fight angry. Controlled, mind you, but angry.”

Zach nodded. “I think we have some of that in Black Wolf now. I'm glad that Karen and her group joined up. That made it pretty personal for us.”

“She's the one with the company that got crushed by Ragnarok?” Bryce asked. “Got to admire her resolve, at the very least. Refusing to yield even when they have you broken and defeated.”

“Yeah, and I'm pretty flattered that she ended up choosing us,” Zach said.

“Honestly, it's not surprising,” Bryce said. “A lot of us have notoriety, but most of us would kill to have your reputation.”

Zach shrugged. “Is it really all that?”

Bryce laughed. “Oh, where to start? You were the first company founded. Everyone who's been in the game long enough has heard about the stunt you guys pulled the first day. You're the catalyst for the alliance, and you control the overdrive markets.”

“We've had a lot of help,” Zach said.

“And you're still the face. Maybe it's like you're the quarterback, if you want to use an analogy. You get all the attention, even if other people had a lot to do with the success.”

“Ugh. Anyhow, they wanted to join us. Karen took it pretty personally, I think. She felt like she failed the rest of her troops.”

“Not much a small company can do against something the size of Ragnarok,” Bryce said. “Except for you guys, which is why you're so famous.”

Zach grinned and shook his head as he thought about it. “Withholding drugs. That's go to be the worst way to make yourself famous. Glorious last stand? Heroic attack against all odds? Nope, we're famous because we told the addict that he couldn't get his fix if he didn't do what we told him.”

“Hey, whatever works,” Bryce laughed.

“Well, Karen felt like she failed, regardless. I refused to let her in the company to begin with. I told her to reform her old company, and we would give them what they needed to succeed. The stronghold, the weapons, whatever. But she refused.”

“Man, she must have taken it really personally,” Bryce said.

“Yeah, she told me that she thought she wasn't up to the job. She needed to follow instead of lead. So they joined our company as rank and file troops.”

“You said that made it personal for you guys?”

Zach nodded. He could hear gunfire coming from the direction of Fort Odin now. “We never liked Ragnarok before. Having her group in Black Wolf just gave us an excuse to have a real vendetta against them, you know? You stepped all over our comrades, so we're going to make you pay. That kind of thing.”

“She has squad command though, right? How did you convince her to take that?”

“I didn't. She ended up in Danny's platoon, and he told her that she was leading Bravo 3. Didn't ask her. Told her.”

“And did that go over well?”

Zach shrugged. “It seems to have gone well. She's been very successful.” His radio buzzed. Danny was on the other end of the line. “This is Wolf Lead.”

“Wolf Lead, this is Bravo Wolf. We're about to be engaged by Ragnarok troops coming out of Old Chicago.”

“Need anything?”

“They have more troops than we expected, but we should be able to handle it. I just wanted to alert you. ”

“Thanks, and good luck,” Zach said. He switched out of the channel. “Speak of the devil. Ragnarok's about to get a taste of what they sowed.”

Something was wrong. Very wrong. Watchman had reported around three hundred Ragnarok troops moving out of Old Chicago, twice the number that had been expecting. They could probably handle them, since half would be their less capable regulars, but it was a troubling development nonetheless.

The second sign that something was amiss was when the battle started. Ragnarok was hurrying down the highway, apparently trying to get to Fort Odin as fast as possible. They were completely unprepared for the ambush ahead of them.

Morgan's platoon had cut down the forward units before they even knew what was happening. The troops behind them had panicked and scattered into the brush, laying down heavy but ineffective fire. That suited Sacred Sword just fine; Gio and Staci pushed their platoons forward on the flanks, forcing the enemy into close range firefights. It was an area where the Valkyries excelled, but the enemy here was taking heavy losses. Sacred Sword was having their way with them. Then Morgan's forces pushed their way down the center, supported by Orcrist. The sudden attack coupled with the appearance of armor threw them back even further.

Danny hadn't even bothered to send Redd Foxx or Black Wolf into the fight yet. Sacred Sword was dealing with Ragnarok just fine, and adding more units at this point would only serve to create confusion. But even though they were clearly winning, he felt uneasy. Where were the Valkyries?

Whatever the case, he needed to report this development. Danny had the nasty suspicion that the enemy had a surprise prepared for them. “Wolf Lead, Wolf Lead, we've engaged the enemy. They are not the Valkyries. I repeat, we're engaged with enemy troops that are not the Valkyries.”

The other end was silent for a moment. “Do you have any idea where they are?” Zach asked.

“No, which is why I'm worried,” Danny said. “Is there any chance that they left through the southern end of Old Chicago and are going to try to come up on your rear?”

“We would have heard something from our NPC guards,” Zach said. The way south went straight through Black Wolf territory, and the NPC guards were programed to attack anyone without clearance. They would get alerts if a fight broke out.

“They could have avoided them,” Danny said.

“Well, that's what Jackal is here for,” Zach said. “I'll admit I'm not comfortable that we don't know where they are, but there's no use worrying about them until they show . We have precautions in place.”

His alert buzzed again. Watchman was calling him. Danny switched channels so both he and Zach could hear the report. “Watchman, what's up?”

“We've spotted enemy troops moving south, about eight miles north of your position. About two hundred or so,” Watchman said. “They seem to be in a hurry.”

“Do you think they're springing a trap?” Zach asked.

“No, they're acting like they've been caught by surprise, actually. They're headed south pretty fast.”

“Same as the force coming out of Old Chicago,” Danny said to himself.

“You have an idea?” Zach asked.

“Maybe, but regardless we need to do something to stop it. I still have the ranger platoons in reserve here. They haven't fought yet. I'll move them north and block the enemy.”

“Sounds good,” Zach said. “I'll send Raven Flight your way for support.”

“Thanks. If you can get Ronin to hurry, that would be good,” Danny said. “Bravo Wolf out.”

Liz glanced at him. “We're moving?”

“Yup, let's step on it. We want to get in position so we can ambush them.” He switched channels. “David, there's a force coming south. I'm taking the rangers to hold them off, so I'll leave you in charge here, naturally.”

“Sounds good, and good luck,” David said. There was a lot of noise coming from the direction of the front lines, but it was nothing they couldn't handle. Sacred Sword was built for slugging matches with tough enemies.

Danny hefted his machine gun and tuned his radio to the rest of the rangers. “OK guys, we've got some action. Let's move!”

Danny's discovery had been an unpleasant surprise. Zach knew the Valkyries were capable of making raids deep into enemy territory; after all his first confrontation with them had taken place miles away from the their holdings. He thought that Jackal could protect them if they ran into trouble, and Bravehart and Griffon weren't helpless either. They had a large force of troops here, enough to fight the enemy on even terms if they came charging at their rear lines. But it never hurt to be sure.

Zach had been trying to contact Nora for several minutes. She was too far out of the range of their personal radios for a direct link, but he thought he might be able to bounce the signal around a bit. They had a boosted radio set with them; from here he would relay a signal to Black Wolf's former headquarters, and from there the signal would be bounced from boosted set to boosted set until it reached their southernmost base. At least, he hoped it would go that way. He could also message her, but he was worried that it would take too long.

“Nora, are you there? Nora? Are you there?” Nothing. He tried again. “Nora, this is Zach. Are you there? Are-”

A voice answered, backed by a considerable amount of static. “I'm here.” There was a pause that lasted for five seconds. “Yeah Zach, I hear you,” Nora said again.

“Sorry, I'm using a relayed channel. I think there's about a five second delay,” Zach said.

There was silence, then a response after five seconds. His assumption was correct. “OK. What do you need?”

“Danny thinks that the Valkyries might be moving through our territory hit us with a sneak attack from behind. Can you get your Sparrow up in the air to do some recon work?”

Silence. “Can't you use your choppers to scout the area?” Nora finally asked.

“I had to send them with Danny as fire support,” Zach said. “I'd use our Sparrow, but Ragnarok is sending a lot of troops at us from different directions.”

There was another pause, longer than five seconds this time. “I'll try to, yes,” Nora said. “Be warned that it will take about twenty minutes or so.”

“That's fine, I just wanted insurance. Thanks Nora.”

“No problem.”

Zach thought for a moment, then switched channels. “Shayna? Move your troops to the rear and get them in position to defend against an attack coming from the south. We're not going to have any trouble coming from the north. Ronin's already in the fort.”

“From the south? Is there something I don't know about?” Shayna asked.

“Just call it a hunch.”

“Understood. Jackal Lead out.”

Beside him Bryce activated his own radio. “Kurt, I'm going to put my guys on alert for an attack from the rear. We can't do anything while Ronin's in the fort, anyhow. You'll do the same. OK, good.” He switched channels. “Bravehart, we might have company coming from the south. Be prepared.”

“It's just a hunch,” Zach said, trying to convince himself as well.

Bryce shrugged. “Never hurts to be careful.”

Zach nodded. There was no use focusing on phantom battles right now. There were plenty of real fights that they had to win.

Let them get right on top of us. That was the order Liz had given out. The troops coming from the north had a vanguard force in front to scout for them, consisting of a dozen troops or so. Redd Foxx and Black Wolf had hidden themselves well, in dips in the ground, under leaves, behind trees and small rises.

The enemy moved forward, looking for ambushes and any other threats. It was agonizing to watch them, hoping that his troops wouldn't be discovered. They came closer and closer. And then, his troops struck.

Up and down the line the enemy scouts fell. Some were tripped and then stabbed. Others passed trees and suddenly had a Hydra trooper jump on top of them. One particularly unlucky scout got an arrow right in the throat. Knives were king here.

As soon as the scout were down the rangers moved into their defensive positions. Danny had two possible plans he might put into action. In the first one, they would stand and fight. The rangers would hug cover and duel the enemy at range, relying on their marksmanship and firepower to carry the day. The second plan would rely on their stealth and maneuver skills. If he chose it the rangers would fall back, fading in and out of the forest. They would use hit and run attacks to disrupt and confuse the enemy.

It was a matter of how they wanted to tackle the enemy force. If they wanted to deal with them all at once they would choose the first plan. If they wanted to divide them and take them out piece by piece they would choose the second. It would depend on how the enemy reacted.

Danny decided he would go with the first plan. If the second one looked like it was a better option then he was confident that his troops would be able to break away and disappear into the forest.

He looked up as he heard noise. Squads of Ragnarok troops were moving up through the forest. Danny was surprised that they hadn't used the road, but then again the might have heard what happened to the force coming from the city. They were being careful, at least. But they weren't being careful enough. And they weren't the Valkyries either. Just where were they?”

It didn't matter. That thought was for Zach to handle right now. What's your battle? That was the tagline for World at War, and for Danny his battle was right in front of him. It was time to fight it.

Ragnarok was getting close, about fifty yards away. He opened up a channel to the entire force. “Light 'em up.”

Danny cocked the bolt of his machine gun and looked down the sights. The forest erupted around him. He took aim at an engineer with a carbine and grenade launcher and fired off a burst. He caught him right in the chest. He swiveled, looking for targets and firing off bursts as he saw fit. Ragnarok troops were being scythed down like wheat. These weren't the Valkyries. These weren't veterans, and they weren't even average players. They acted like they were new players, the cannon fodder Ragnarok liked to use to add numbers to their attacks. What was going on here?

Ragnarok had them almost four to one, but they were reeling, hit hard by the ferocity of the ambush. The had made sure to take out the scouts with stealth kills, but experienced commanders would often keep in radio contact to ensure their scouts were actually still there. They had withdrawn a distance as well, about eighty to a hundred yards away from the Hydra line. They were probably trying to reorganize, trying to steel themselves against the nasty surprise that had popped out of the trees. But it was also a huge mistake.

“Joe, Leigh, smoke 'em,” Danny ordered. A few seconds later a pair of grenades flew toward the enemy line. They started to belch orange smoke when they landed. “Raven Flight, do you see the smoke?”

“I see it,” Robbie said.

“Make an imaginary line between the two spots of smoke. Ragnarok's along that line. Strafe them. And don't bother being careful. They're scrubs down here.”

“Roger.”

Danny watched the choppers of Raven Flight zoom in for their attack runs. This time he actually felt sorry for Ragnarok.

Despite their worries the attack had gone off without a hitch. Hydra's bombardment had gone perfectly, and Ronin had stormed the fortress without too many unforeseen problems. They had lost a quarter of their troops, but that was to be expected. It could have been far worse. Zach was pleased with their results.

With Fort Odin in Ronin's hands Hydra no longer had any territory that bordered Ragnarok. They could still launch attacks from Old Chicago but that meant running into the teeth of Hydra defenses in the north. And with Ronin pressing on their doorstep, attacks like that were very unlikely. They had done it. They had secured the north and clear the way for an operation against Indianapolis. They should have all been completely satisfied.

Instead, Danny was extremely agitated, and Zach was troubled as well. True, they had won, and had put Ragnarok in a tough strategic position. But it was that second fact that gnawed at them so much. Losing both Fort Baldr and Fort Odin meant that Ronin's alliance was now in a much stronger position. It had to be clear to them that Ronin and Hydra were cooperating as well. So why didn't they use their best unit? What were they up to?

Zach shook his head ruefully. Maybe the Valkyries had something else going on. Whatever the case, their mere existence was enough to influence the battle. Jackal, Griffon and Bravehart had spent a nervous hour waiting for the inevitable attack. Zach had been completely surprised when it didn't happen. The question kept popping into his head again and again. Why?

“Hey Zach.”

He looked over to see David and Morgan walking toward him. “Great job, you guys,” he said to them.

“You don't seem happy about it,” Morgan commented. “You and Danny. You really wanted to tangle with the Valkyries, huh?”

Zach shrugged. “On some level, yeah. But the bigger issue is the fact that they didn't show at all.”

“Maybe they were busy elsewhere?” David suggested.

“That was my thought. The problem is, what could be so important that they'd risk losing one of their most important forts?”

Morgan stroked his chin thoughtfully. “So you're saying they might have something up their sleeve?”

“Or they've found something that's worth it. Like a schematic, for instance?” David said.

“That's what I'm afraid of,” Zach said.

“Even if they have something, they got caught with their pants down here. And no schematic is going to be worth losing the fort.”

“It might be later,” Zach said. “The designs themselves aren't overpowered, but someone smart can exploit them. Take the overdrive, for instance.”

“It's still going to take some time,” David said. “By the time they can do anything we're going to be inside Indianapolis.”

And whatever Ragnarok did to Ronin wasn't their problem. That was the part that he left out.

Zach glanced over their shoulder to see Liz and Danny walking up. Danny still looked agitated.

“I heard you guys really did a number on the Ragnarok forces coming down from the north,” Zach said.

“It wasn't much of a fight,” Danny said. “We lost four people. We counted over one hundred corpses, and there's probably more. Raven Flight was giving chase after they retreated.”

“Wasn't much of a fight?” Liz said. She sounded satisfied, at least. “They had us outnumbered four to one and we slaughtered them. I don't care that they were the cannon fodder. That was way too much fun.”

“Hey, someone who understands my line of thought,” Morgan grinned. “Sometimes it's just fun to see how overpowered you are.”

“I bet Karen had fun,” Zach said.

Danny finally smiled. “Oh, did she ever. I had her lead an assault on the enemy line. She broke them, and man, was she ruthless.”

“I imagine.”

Danny frowned. “But they're not the Valkyries. Where were they?”

Zach shrugged. “We may never know. I know it bothers you. Heck, it bothers me a lot. But the fact is that we won. We did what we needed to do, and we put a dagger at the throat of Ragnarok.”

“Yeah,” Danny said. He looked up over Zach's shoulder. “Well, I should get everyone settled.”

“Me too,” Liz said.

“Yeah, I think there's something I should do,” Morgan added.

David shook his head. “Well, I won't leave you.”

“What?” Zach asked. He looked over his shouldered and saw them. The Ronin alliance's commanders were headed toward them Tafari, Rafe, Sam. And Levi. “Oh.”

CHAPTER 16

Back Together

“Alpha Wolf, we're in position. Ready to go on your signal.”

Selene nodded. Everything was falling into place. “Copy that, Alpha 3. Alpha 2, are you in position yet?”

“Give us a few seconds and we'll be there,” Ethan told her. “We'll be as quick as possible.”

“Copy that.” Selene had asked for two volunteer squads, and those two had stepped forward first. They were going to test the theory about the antiaircraft guns.

The guns had a few guards posted around them, as well as their crews. Selene was pretty sure that her troops could waste them without any trouble, but that would alert the garrison and cost them precious seconds. And while it wouldn't be an absolute disaster if they were killed, now was not the time to start losing weapons and ammunition that they would never get back. Hephaestus had enough equipment to produce as it was.

She had decided that they would take them out at a distance, using recoilless rifles. The flip side was that they would have to use them outside to avoid injuring themselves. That was the weakness of the system; they were powerful, but they forced the user to expose themselves. And since they needed to have a clear line of sight to hit their target, that meant they would have to use them from the roof of a building.

There was a real risk that they could be caught on the roof when the enemy responded. It had happened to Liz when she had scouted Lerna Bastion, and she still hadn't lived it down. Ethan had put two teams up on the roof, and had posted the rest below to hold the area. Once they fired they would make a run for it, covered by Logan's squad, and then her entire force would be extracted by boat. It was ambitious, audacious and completely suicidal; a perfect job for Black Wolf.

“Neptune 1, we're ready to go. Be ready for the extract.”

“Roger, Alpha Wolf.”

“Alpha Wolf, we're in position,” Ethan said.

“Alright.” Selene opened up her menu and tapped a few buttons. She sent a ten second countdown marker to everyone in her force, plus the crews of Neptune 1 and Neptune 2. “Be ready to go when it hits zero.”

Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six.

Selene clicked her assault rifle off of safe. The operation was well planned, but still, this was going to be tight.

Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

If this worked though, they were going to need to do a lot more of these, and they would be further inside the city. They needed to get used to them whether they liked it or not.

Zero.

Selene heard the sound of two recoilless rifles firing, followed by a pair of explosions. It sounded good, at least.

“Target's down. We're getting out of here now,” Ethan confirmed. Alarms were starting to blare throughout the city.

“OK, let's go then,” Selene ordered. “Neptune 1, we'll be at the extract point in two minutes.”

“Copy that, Alpha Wolf,” came the response.

Selene looked over at Logan. “Be ready to run as soon as Ethan's squad gets clear.”

“Roger that,” Logan confirmed. “I'm not getting left behind.”

They didn't have long to wait. About thirty seconds later Ethan's squad came sprinting down the street. The rest of them got out of cover and joined them, running for the landing zone. They needed to get out of here before the garrison arrived.

They reached the landing zone without incident. Their transports were waiting there for them. Selene leaped aboard Neptune 1, followed by Ethan's squad. They shoved off, with Neptune 2 close behind.

“Company,” she heard Colin say. There were enemy troops moving along the shore.

“Don't bother firing unless their fire starts getting close,” Selene ordered. “No use in wasting ammo.”

Their craft speed off into the darkness toward home base. Now all they could do was to sit and wait. They would find out if this idea had merit very soon.

The results were good. Three days had passed and the gun was still not repaired. In the mean time they had taken out four more. The ones further inside the city would be far more difficult to take out, but at the very least they could reduce the number of targets they needed to take out later.

That was one of their tasks leading up to the start of the battle. The other, more important one was to train for the amphibious assault on the beach. They had enough boats to get all of the ranger company across the reservoir in one wave, thanks to the hard work of Hephaestus Company. The landing would happen in two stages. First, the beach would be hit with a short bombardment from mortars and some artillery. It was at the extreme edge of mortar range, but it would still help to clear out any defenses. After the bombardment lifted they would land. Black Wolf Company would spearhead the assault, since they were more suited to a frontal attack. Redd Foxx would follow behind them and help to secure the beach.

The first assault was going to be absolutely vital. They needed to be able to offload quickly, lest they be caught out in the open with no cover. They would need to train, and they would need to train hard.

Selene watched as the boat in front of her sped into the shore and ran aground. The troops aboard quickly jumped off the bow and advanced forward.

“So, what do you think about that?” She asked.

“How hard is it going to be to get the boat back into the water?” Zach asked from his spot toward the rear of the boat.

“That's something we'll have to find out.”

“Is the hull going to end up damaged? 'Cause we might end up destroying some of our craft that way.”

“We'll have to see, but they're pretty solid. I think we 'll be fine as long as we do it right,” Selene said.

“That's an awful lot of ifs,” Zach commented.

“Well, that's one idea. We just need to figure out which one to use.”

“Are there docks along the shore?” Danny asked.

“Yeah, we've been using them to infiltrate and for extract. The problem is that they're really exposed, and we'll be launching our attack during the day.”

“Could we wade in?” Zach asked. “We wouldn't have to risk the boats that way.”

“We have no idea how deep the bottom is,” Nora said.

“Could we find out?”

Selene frowned. “That's going to be really hard. “We'd have to do it in the middle of the night, and I still have the suspicion that we're probably going to get shot in the process.”

“Still, we need to know for sure,” Danny said.

Selene sighed. “Yeah, we do. Do you know if they sell diving equipment in Old Chicago?”

“Would you know how to use it even if they did?” Zach asked.

She shrugged. “It would help, at least.”

“Who's going to draw suicide scout duty?” Danny asked.

“Gosh, I wonder who,” Selene said sarcastically. “Unless you're volunteering.”

“I'd love to, but we just got done fighting Ragnarok when they had us outnumbered four to one, so I'm up for a less dangerous assignment now.”

“Oh please, you were complaining that they were cannon fodder,” Zach said.

“Are you volunteering?” Nora asked.

“I'm not a scout. Are you?”

She shrugged. “If Selene wants me to come along, then I'd be happy to.”

“Sorry, but that's not going to happen. She's the strategist for this whole operation, and she should use the time to plan,” Selene said.

“Sure, side with her,” Danny said.

Selene thought for a moment, then pushed him over the side of the boat. “How deep is it?” she asked.

Danny flailed around a bit as he tried to get his bearings, then started to tread water. “Wow you're mean.” He swam up and pulled himself back into the boat.

“You have to admit that was pretty hilarious,” Zach said.

Danny grinned. “Yeah, I can admit that, but next time you can take the swim.”

Selene smiled. It had been far too long since they all had been working together. “OK, I'll take a team out tonight, and we'll test the depth close to the beaches.”

“Do you have a specific team planned?” Danny asked.

“No, I was going to ask for volunteers.”

“Mind if I volunteer? I'd like to see this place for myself.”

“Sure.”

“Actually, I'd like to come along as well,” Zach said. “It's been forever since we ran in the same fireteam.”

“Well, since you guys are going I think I should come along, at least as Miko's replacement,” Nora said.

“Speaking of which, what has she been doing?” Selene asked. “She's been missing a lot.”

“Not a clue,” Danny said.

“She's been present,” Zach told her. “And she's been busy. She's still in the north, headhunting.”

Selene nodded. “Ah. What have we created? She went from a lost nobody to one of the best assassins in the game. I'm guessing she's gone after Ragnarok?”

“Them and a few others,” Zach said. “There were a few companies that were collaborating with them. Collecting resources for them and such. Ragnarok thought we wouldn't notice because they were so far north. They stopped pretty quickly, once she started offing their commanders.”

“Dude, we're pure evil,” Danny laughed.

“You need to add a bit more of a cackle to that, then,” Selene said. “That's just how this world works.”

“Yeah. No heroes to be found here. Everyone is either a psychopath or a sociopath. Or a combination of the two,” Danny said. “And we're definitely not immune to it either.”

“We're not that bad,” Zach said.

“This is coming from the person who refers to Ronin as a meatshield?”

“Well, they are a meatshield, and that's really not our fault,” Selene said. “I mean, if they would just cooperate then they wouldn't be in that position now, would they? But no, they need to have control over everything.”

“Plus, we've given them support. They wouldn't have the two forts without us. And we got a high level schematic for them as well,” Zach pointed out.

“Which they can't build because they lack the manufacturing capability,” Nora said. “And even if they had it, they don't have an airfield.”

“Not our problem,” Zach shrugged.

“Not our problem at all,” Selene agreed. This really was a cold, cruel world, and sometimes they were little better than armed gangs. But maybe it would change. Then again, it was liberating to escape from the rules of society.

“Do you think they can hold off Ragnarok?” Nora asked. “I know they can delay them for a while, but for how long?”

“It depends how much they pour into the forts,” Zach said. “I have a feeling that they want to hold them at all costs.”

That would help Hydra a lot, Selene thought to herself. It could also end up bleeding Ronin's alliance white. Fort Odin and Fort Baldr were strong, but neither of them had the power that Lerna Bastion possessed. And Ragnarok had been able to threaten it at the beginning of the war, before the Valkyries were fully formed, before they had grown even larger, before they gained experience.

Ronin had been able to fight and resist because Ragnarok was always battling on several fronts. At first it was against the Legion Pact, and one they had been subdued Hydra had attacked them. But the two front war was over now. Ronin was the only one facing them, left to take the full fury of their retaliation. Levi and the rest of them might have severely overplayed their hand. It was very likely that they were going to get crushed. Selene just hoped they would delay Ragnarok long enough for Hydra to get their business done.

“How long can they really hold out?” Selene asked.

Zach frowned. “Well, I'm not sure. Our support had one unintended side effect. Taking Fort Odin and Fort Baldr gave them a lot of credibility around Old Chicago. There's talks that several companies are interested in joining their alliance.”

“How large?”

He shrugged. “I haven't heard numbers. I've just heard a few names. One of them is Death's Head. The other one is The Kings.”

“Them?” Nora said. “Any respect I had for Ronin and the rest of them goes out the window if they let them join up.”

Selene nodded. Both of them weren't on the friendliest terms with Hydra. Death's Head Company had several confrontations with Sacred Sword, all of them ending in violence. They were highwaymen, thieves, and had tried to steal from Sacred Sword's members. They usually ended up with bullets in their heads for their trouble.

The Kings were another matter entirely, and Black Wolf had a personal vendetta against them, if they could even be bothered to care. The Kings had preyed on new players north of Old Chicago, shaking them down for money and killing those that wouldn't pay up. Javy had been a member of the company, in fact, until he got sick of their methods and tried to leave. They had tried to kill him as well, but they had tried to do it in Black Wolf territory. There had been a fight, and Black Wolf had killed every single one of them.

There hadn't been any problems since, though she heard that Sacred Sword had run into trouble with them. She had laughed when she heard that Morgan had shot their leader several times when he started making threats. No one liked The Kings. Even their name annoyed her.

“Somehow, I can't see them letting those types into their alliance,” Danny said.

“You'll do a lot when you need more troops,” Zach said.

“Yeah, but there are some lines you don't cross even then. At least, I hope they have some standards.”

Selene watched as the crews shoved the grounded boat back into the water. “Well, it's their problem right now. And right now, this is going to be our problem.”

The shore was dark, illuminated by a few sparse lights. That was good, at least. They had night vision goggles, though their images were crude and they had cost a fortune. They would need them, though. There was no way to work other than turning on lights, and that would attract bullets like moths to a lamp.

Neptune 1 motored in close to the shore, its engines on the lowest setting possible to try to muffle any noise. Neptune 2 stood off shore a little further with every gun at the ready. Selene was ready to man her own station, a pair of .50 caliber machine guns on the stern of the craft. If they were discovered then quick thinking and firepower were the only things that were going to get them out of this.

Ahead of her Danny and Zach were putting poles into the water. They had been marked with tape set at every half foot, and they would use them to test where the bottom was. Nora was in the bow, looking through a scope. He job was to determine the distance from shore. From what Selene could tell they were about thirty to fifty yards away.

How long it had been since they had been on a mission together in the same squad? She didn't count the battledome challenge, since that was out of necessity. It had been a while. Months , in fact. Ever since Black Wolf Company had grown their roles had taken them farther and farther apart, and Selene missed some of the closeness of the early days. But that was the price of what they were doing. The larger they grew, the less central they became. Selene had gone from being the leader of a fireteam to the commander of a platoon. Danny had gone through that change as well. Nora was busy doing work with the alliance council, and Zach was their commander, with all the responsibilities that entailed.

She shook her head. From their humble beginnings with four players she never thought they would get this big. Now they were part of one of the most powerful alliances in the game, with hundreds of members. And sadly, she didn't know many of them all that well.

Being in such a large alliance was definitely fun, but one of the tradeoffs was the fact that there were too many people to get to know. It was kind of like social media; you could have hundreds, thousands of 'friends', but how many of them did you actually know? How many did you actually associate with on a daily, weekly, monthly or even yearly basis?

Maybe other people didn't have a problem with it, but to Selene it took away some of the magic of this world. There was a lot to enjoy here, but it didn't mean much if you couldn't do it with your friends, your true companions. Fighting alongside acquaintances just didn't have the same feeling.

It wasn't just other companies; Selene was loathe to admit it, but she didn't know a lot of her platoon all that well. She knew the ones who had been Black Wolf originals best. She knew the ones who had come in the second wave fairly well, but she was far more fuzzy on the ones that came afterward. Selene knew about them, but she didn't really know them. She didn't know their likes, their dislikes, their strengths and weaknesses, their tendencies. She was reliant on her squad leaders for that.

Maybe that was something to look into afterward. At any rate, they had a job to do right now.

The river craft slowed as it reached the shore and Gavin's squad jumped off, landing in waist deep water. They pushed forward as quickly as possible. Further up the shore Ethan's squad had already made landfall and was making its way up the beach. Logan's squad was just clearing the water. Three more craft were roaring toward the shore, carrying Bravo Platoon.

Their search had been a success. The reservoir was shallow where they had tested. Troops could wade in from about twenty feet off shore without drowning, and their transports could get within ten feet of the shore without the fear of running aground.

They knew their plan was practical. Now they needed to be able to pull it off. They were going in last; her and Danny, Zach, Nora and Miko. Once they launched the attack they would divide up so they wouldn't lose all their officers if the boat got hit, but right now they needed to practice disembarking.

Bravo Platoon landed ahead of them without incident. It was their turn. Their transport sped in toward the shore, then cut the throttle about thirty yards out. The craft continued forward.

“Go!” Selene signaled. They went over the side of the boat. Selene leaped off without a hitch, but in front of her Danny tripped and landed face down in the water. Selene and Miko hurriedly pulled him back up. That was something she had noticed. Classes that were laden down such as heavies were having a difficult time with this.

They would need a lot more practice.

CHAPTER 17

Stockpile

The numbers were staggering. The sheer amount on troops and materiel she had to sort through was immense. Nora, Yusuf, Paige and Liz had been tasked with taking inventory and making sure everyone was equipped and prepared for the attack on Indianapolis. She knew that they were well-stocked. What she wasn't prepared for was the sheer scale of it all.

“Alright, let's start with armored vehicles,” Yusuf said.

Nora nodded and looked through her menu. She had organized list of everything, courtesy of the logistics skill she had taken. “Alright, we have twelve M11 Bull assault guns. Ursa Major, Kodiak, St. Michael, Gabriel, Orcrist, Glamdring, Reaver, Fury, Ironheart, Storm and Thunderclap,” she said, listing off the various names they had been given.

“Do we have enough Rams for the entire armored company?” Liz asked.

“Yeah, we focused on building them up first,” Paige said. “I wouldn't want to go into battle driving Mules.”

“You might have to,” Liz commented.

Hephaestus and Jackal were going to stay behind during the attack, defending Hydra's important bases and Lerna Bastion itself. Nora didn't think that they were going to be in any danger, but all it took was one mistake to ruin everything.

Paige laughed. “If we have to, then you'd better not fail. Because we'll probably end up being nomadic.”

Nora cycled through her tables. “We have seventeen M15 Rams. That's more than enough to carry the entire armored company.”

“What about Mules?”

“We have about forty of them, though we're probably not going to be using a lot of them,” Nora said. “Bravehart borrowed six of them and converted them into mortar carriers. They're going to head into the city with the armored company to provide indirect fire support.”

Yusuf cycled through his own menu. “Speaking of them, between Griffon and Bravehart they have four artillery pieces, plus a bunch of mortars.”

Paige cycled through her own menu. “I took stock of our ammunition supplies. We're going to stop selling ammunition on the market over the next week so we have enough for ourselves.”

“That's going to make the price skyrocket,” Nora observed. Yusuf had estimated that Hydra sent fifty thousand rounds of ammunition into the Old Chicago markets per day. Cutting that supply would cause shortages, especially for the smaller companies who had come to rely on the cheap Hydra bullets.

“Yeah, well, we need them,” Paige shrugged. “If we keep up production like we have been we'll have around five hundred thousand rounds at our southern stockpile, plus the ammo needed for the recoilless rifles, artillery and the like.

“How are we holding up on fusion batteries?” Nora asked.

“We have enough to last us for a week without having to buy anymore,” Yusuf said. “They're piling up fast, however.”

“How much money do we have? Do we have enough to recharge our stocks?”

“I think we have enough to recharge about half our stock,” Yusuf said. “Even without selling ammo we still have the overdrive profits.”

“I think we should recharge as many as possible,” Liz said. “The last thing we want to happen is for us to run out of them in the middle of the campaign.”

“Speaking of recharging them, I noticed something that looks like a power plant inside the city,” Nora said. “That might be something.”

“Isn't it in another district?” Liz asked.

“Yeah, but we might be able to grab that district next,” Nora suggested.

“We can't base our strategy around it. We have no idea if it operates, or what we need to do to operate it even if it does work.”

Yusuf agreed. “It might have merit, but we need to plan in case it doesn't.”

Nora nodded. “I agree. So, fusion batteries are in place but might be a little tight. Good to know. Anyhow, we have our choppers, river craft and our aircraft all set, though they might have limited use because of the defenses.”

“How's that going?” Paige asked.

Liz shrugged. “We've taken out about half the guns in the city. They take about a week to be rebuilt, but we can forget about the rest. Going that deep into the city with raiding teams is suicide.”

“We're hoping that Bravehart and Griffon can take them out at range, but it won't be a complete disaster if they can't,” Nora said. “We can deal with having just infantry and armor support. We took this place with just infantry.”

“They also didn't have a thousand troops here,” Liz said.

“And we didn't have armor, so it evens out,” Nora said.

Liz nodded. “Yeah, at least I didn't get stuck scouting the place this time.”

“What, didn't want to get caught on the roof of a building again?” Nora asked. “Ethan was worried about that when they were hunting the AA guns.”

“Yeah, I can't say I blame him,” Liz said. “Not fun.”

Nora turned back to Yusuf and Paige. “How long is it going to take to get everything down to the supply depot?”

“Probably a few more days. We're going to make sure everything is organized before we move it down there,” Yusuf said. “That will make it easier to move into the city when we need it. We sure could use you to help out.”

“Sorry, but I'm not going to have internet access this weekend,” she told them. She was going up to her family's cabin with Zach for three days, hiking one last time before the cold weather set in.

“Eh, too bad. We have a lot to get done.”

“Who's going to be in charge of the forward depot?” Liz asked.

“That would be me,” Paige told her.

Besides the depot on the far side of the reservoir, they were going to create an additional one in the city once they gained a foothold. The customized transport boats weren't just for infantry; after the beach had been secured they would be used to carry ATVs, ammunition and fusion batteries into the city. They would use the ATVs to move supplies up to the front lines where they were needed. Hydra might lose, but it wouldn't be on account of running out of ammunition.

“Do we have a spot that we're going to put the depot?” Liz asked.

“Do we want to go over that now?” Nora asked.

Yusuf shrugged. “Might be a good time.”

“Then we're going to need the map,” Nora said, standing up. The holographic map projector was in the command center. She headed out of the conference room and across the hall, the others in tow.

The table was already in use. Zach, Anna, David and Bryce were looking over the map. They greeted Nora's group.

“Trying to figure out where to put the depot?” Anna asked.

“It was that obvious?” Paige asked

She nodded. “Well, the person who's in charge of the thing is here, along with my adjunct, our logistics expert and our production company commander.”

“OK, I'll admit that's pretty obvious,” Paige said. “What are you guys doing?”

“We're getting the little details of the amphibious assault all set,” Zach said. “You might want to join us, if you're here about the depot.”

The others made room around the map table, though it was so big that it wasn't much of a problem. Nora saw that they had several sections of the shoreline marked. The section of shore they had explored was labeled Red Beach.

Zach started to explain the plan. “Alright, see the section labeled Red Beach? Griffon and Bravehart are going to hit it with a ten minute bombardment. As soon as it lifts the ranger company goes in. Black Wolf will be the first unit to land in the city, followed by Redd Foxx. We'll taken and hold the beach, and then form a perimeter. Once that happens the larger transports will bring in the second wave of troops. Marauder will make landfall and head straight for the gates. Part of Sacred Sword will be coming across with them. They'll help us to hold the beach while the third wave comes in.”

“When can we establish the depot?” Paige asked.

“It's going to be a while,” Zach said. “The most efficient way to get supplies across the reservoir is to use the transports, and we need them to get all of our troops across.”

“Can we use the bridge?” Yusuf asked.

Anna shook her head. “The first priority is the armored company. After that maybe, but there's the danger of traffic jambs. Plus, landing supplies by boat puts them right where we need them.”

“I don't think we have to be all that fast anyhow,” David said. “We'll be carrying enough ammunition to supply us for quite a while. I can't see us needing to resupply unless the battle goes several hours.”

“Which it could,” Yusuf said.

“Sure, but I'm guessing that you can get everything across in an hour. That gives us plenty of room for error.”

“Who's guarding the depot, is the next question,” Paige asked.

“It's going to have to be your guys,” Zach said. She was going to take half of Hephaestus Company south to act as laborers.

“We're not the greatest at fighting,” Paige said.

“Which is why you're going to be in the rear,” Anna said. “We really can't spare any combat troops.”

“Question. What's the heaviest vehicle that one of the transports can carry?” Bryce asked.

“An ATV,” Yusuf answered him.

“Yeah, the mortar carriers will need to go with the rest of the armor support,” David said. “I don't like it, but the bridge is the only way across.”

“Which is why taking the gate is so vital,” Anna added. “We're all dead if we can't.”

“Are you sure Marauder is up to the job?” Paige asked.

“I take it you haven't seen them in action?” Liz said.

“No, I'm not the fighting type,” she said.

“Well, put nicely they're ferocious. Some people would say that psychopath is a more accurate term, but regardless they're really good at storm attacks and the like. I think they can handle whatever is guarding the gate,” Liz said.

“How are we coming for air support?” Nora asked.

Anna frowned. “There's still eight AA guns we can't get to, and that's going to ground Raven Flight until we take them out. We're going to have to take out some of them on the ground.”

“Yeah, we're going to be busy taking out the gun towers and then making the bombardment,” Bryce said. “We'll get to them when we can, but it will be faster for everyone on the ground if they can take them out.”

“Well, we've been able to fight without air support before,” Liz shrugged. “I don't see why we can't do it again.”

“Are we going to have a command post?” Nora asked.

“Like last time?” Zach asked. “No, there's way too many moving parts this time, and we're going to need every person we can get on the front lines. There's going to be a command post, but the control is going to be looser. It was so tight last time because we hadn't worked together much and we couldn't afford to make mistakes.”

“I imagine that it would take a lot of fusion batteries to run a command post like that again, considering we're eight times bigger,” Liz said.

“Yeah, that's another reason,” Zach agreed. “But we've worked together a lot. We know each other, and we know we can rely on each other. Everyone knows their job. If we have to make changes to the plan on the fly, then we can do it on an individual level.”

“Who's going to be the overall commander?” Paige asked.

“That would be me, by process of elimination,” Bryce said. “Since I'm going to be the only one on the other side of the reservoir, they decided that I should be in command.”

“Oh, you're plenty qualified,” Anna said. “You commanded fine during the attack on Lerna Bastion.”

Bryce smiled. “Yeah, there was that. But you guys are going to be the ones that are going to make it happen.”

“That's how it always is,” Zach said. “The commanders on the front lines are the ones who end up getting the job done.”

Nora nodded. It was up to the unit commanders to win the battle, but it was their job to put them in a position to win. And right now, everything was falling into place.

“Is everything in place?”

“Yes, everything's either in place or is getting there. You're not going to turn into one of those psycho control freaks, are you?”

Nora laughed. “Oh come on, I'm not that bad.”

“We'll be fine. We're going on this trip so we can relax, right?” Zach said over her speakerphone.

“Yeah,” Nora opened up her dresser drawer and started to sort through her selection of t-shirts, trying to decide what to pack. They would be gone for three days, and she was probably going to sweat while they were hiking, mild weather or no. She decided to pack six of them.

“You're still thinking about it, aren't you?” Zach asked.

“Aren't you at least a little bit nervous?” Nora asked.

“It's a game,” Zach said. She thought he sounded unconvincing, however.

“For us it's more like a work project.”

“OK, that's true,” Zach said. “Now you're starting to make me a little nervous.”

Nora opened up her closet and grabbed a pair of hoodies. “Sorry, but there's just too many things that could go wrong right now, and all of them are going through my head.”

“That's one of the disadvantages of this being our job,” Zach agreed.

“Well, I'd probably be just as nervous anyhow. Maybe more so. If this doesn't work then we just threw months of our time down the drain.”

“That really doesn't sound like you,” Zach said. “What happened to the person who thought that if she had to quit playing today, she would remember all the adventures she had?”

“That's still true,” Nora said. “But I don't want to fail. We put a lot of hard work into it.”

“Yeah, I don't want to fail either. I've put hard work into it. We all have. But we had a lot of adventures getting to this point as well. That fight against the Valkyries? That was a slaughter, and it might have been the most fun I've had in the game. It was just so thrilling. And I think everyone else had fun with that as well.”

“Selene didn't.”

Zach laughed. “Selene had plenty of fun. She just hates losing.”

“Does anyone actually like losing?” Nora asked.

“Yeah, but it's just disappointment for some. For people like here they take it as a personal offense,” Zach said. “You've seen her play basketball. Heck, she's part of the reason I was so good at track in high school.”

“Yeah, I can see it,” Nora said. She had never liked losing, but if she did lose she tended to move on quickly. She just worried about if beforehand.

“This is going to be a blast no matter what happens, win or lose. But we'll win.”

“Ah. Do you have another inspirational speech up your sleeve this time?” Nora asked.

“What, the one where I make up stuff on the spot? That's Bryce's job this time. I'm getting shot at.”

“You got shot at last time,” Nora pointed out.

“That was after everything went wrong. I was supposed to sit in the command post directing traffic, and somehow I managed to get stuck trying to make and blow up a bomb while I had a tank trying to kill me,” Zach said.

“At least you didn't die,” Nora said.

“Yeah, that's more than I can say for Selene or Danny.”

Nora continued to pack. “I still feel kind of nervous,” she said.

“Well, maybe this will help you to forget. When your legs are burning you don't think about much else,” Zach said. “Everything will be fine. We've got plenty of other reliable people.”

Nora laughed. “Right.”

The air was mild, pleasant. There was a gentle breeze rustling the canopy above, and a hundred bird calls filled the air. It was so far away from the hustle of the city. So far away from the chaos, from the virtual world, from the questions about the meaning of emerging technology. Everything there came and went so quickly. In this wilderness the trees had been here for years, decades, centuries, and would continue to be here for years to come.

It was kind of sad really. People were so absorbed in fads, grasping for the newest fashion or gadget to come out. They focused on whatever the market was offering them, and they forgot that this was out here. Like she had said many times before, people were so focused on moving ahead, running in the rat race that they forgot many of the small things in life.

It was too bad. The night life, the glitz and the glamor, they had their allures, but there was something to be said for just sitting back in a chair, drinking coffee and watching the sun creep up over the trees. Or for taking a walk through the forest.

She heard Zach grunt behind her. “Tired?”

“Nope, feeling good,” Zach said. “It's just that we're at the worst part of the trail.”

Zach and Nora were climbing the lake trail, which stretched for around eight miles. They were on the fourth mile, where the slope became very steep. It had been hard to do early in the year, when they had been out of shape from being stuck inside during the cold Chicago winter. Now though, they were in good shape after a summer of basketball, swimming and hiking, even with the amount of time they had spent inside World at War.

“This is probably going to be the last time we'll be able to see this before winter sets in,” Nora commented.

“Yeah, I definitely want to enjoy it while we're here,” Zach said. “I have a feeling that we're going to end up very busy.”

“Well, the change of season has one thing going for it. I'm not going to feel as guilty about spending so much time inside the game world when it's snowing and freezing outside.”

“Eh, it's like any other job,” Zach said. “I remember going crazy looking out the window when it was a beautiful day out and wondering what I was doing cooped up inside.”

“At least you don't have that problem now.” She pushed herself up the hill toward the top. They were getting close now.

“Take the time to stop and smell the roses. Way too many people forget about that,” Zach said.

“That's just what I was thinking about.”

They reached the top of the trail and stepped off a bit, to the cliff that overlooked the lake. Zach took a seat on a large rock. Nora joined him.

“Speaking of smelling the roses,” he said.

Nora nodded silently. Even with a whole virtual world to explore, there was so much to discover in the real world as well.

CHAPTER 18

Poker Face

We might have a problem on our hands.

Selene had sent him that message on Sunday, and Zach still had no clue what it meant. He had tried to contact her, but she had responded that they needed to talk inside the game world.

A million possible disasters went through Zach's mind. What was going on? Was Ragnarok on the move? Did something happen in Indianapolis? Would they need to delay the attack?

We might have a problem on our hands.

He wished that Selene had elaborated more. Something, anything. Zach was really starting to worry.

Whatever the case, he was going to find out soon. Zach took his neuro-helmet off the shelf. He sat down, put it on and activated the system.

Zach materialized inside of Black Wolf HQ and immediately headed for the board room in Hydra Headquarters like he had been instructed to. Nora would meet him there, along with a few others.

The bastion wasn't as busy as other days. Many of their forces were out in the field, either training or getting themselves set up for the attack on the city that would take place next weekend. They would field the largest force Hydra had ever assembled at one time, and they would use it to do something no one had done before; to take a city. At least, he hoped they would.

Selene and Nora were waiting for him in the board room, along with Danny, Liz, Gray, Anna, Gina, David, Yusuf and Robbie. That was an interesting mix, Zach noted to himself. It was all of the founding members of Hydra, along with the officers from the ranger company.

“So, we have a problem? Zach asked. “I'm guessing it's a pretty big one, judging by the people here.”

Gina spoke up first, looking visibly annoyed. “The attack on Indianapolis might be compromised.”

“What?” Zach said, trying to keep his voice under control.

Danny moved to settle his fears. “The attack itself isn't compromised. We're on schedule, and everything is running smoothly.”

“Except for one thing, is that it?” Zach said. He wasn't looking forward to finding out what that one thing was.

Liz sighed. “Ronin reached out to us. As expected, people noticed that something was up when we stopped selling ammunition in the markets. So, Sam and Tafari contacted us and asked us a few questions. Everything was fine, but then it ended up spiraling out of control.”

“You're being pretty vague,” Nora said. “Just how bad is it?”

“Well, Levi ended up getting involved,” Anna said.

“And?” Zach asked in an annoyed tone.

“Well, you see, well...”

“Oh, fine. If you guys aren't going to give him a straight answer then I am,” David said. “Levi thinks we're holding back ammunition because we're preparing for an offensive, which is true. You can't hide the kind of buildup we've been doing. But he thinks that we're preparing for an offensive against Ragnarok.”

“OK fine, what's the problem with that?” Zach asked. “That might even help us. If they think we're coming after them then Ragnarok is probably going to be cautious.”

“Because when we launch the offensive that's never going to happen, Levi wants to cooperate with us,” Gina said with scowl. “I don't know why he chose to do it now and not when it would have been useful.”

“Does he want control like always?”

Anna shrugged. “Surprisingly, no. I'm not sure why.”

“It's because they know how strong we are,” Robbie said. “Levi's smart enough to know that we're stronger than Ronin, and that we have no incentive to follow his lead. He knows that he has to use us as partners, not subordinates.”

“I'm still not seeing the problem,” Zach said.

“I'm not either,” Nora added.

David continued. “The problem is that he's enthusiastic about our prospects of dealing a death blow to Ragnarok. Apparently the attacks on Fort Odin and Fort Baldr went so well that he thinks our combined forces can crush Ragnarok.”

“What, 'cause they won two battles after we blasted the place to ruins before they attacked? And we held off a battalion of reinforcements? Is he crazy?” Zach asked, his voice rising.

“Flushed with victory, I'd call it,” Gray said.

“I think crazy is a pretty accurate term, actually,” Selene said.

Danny nodded. “Even if we get every single troop we can muster, which means leaving ourselves with no guards at our most important strongholds, Ragnarok still outnumbers us by over three to one. And Ronin isn't going to be able to make up the difference.”

“I think he sees our shiny toys and thinks that will win the day for them. Armor, choppers, the like,” Liz said.

“There's no substitute for veteran infantry, and Ragnarok has plenty,” Nora said.

“Yeah, I know,” David said. “But Levi thinks it's possible. He has quite the ambition, let me tell you. Has grand battle plans drawn up and everything. He suggested some of them to us.”

“And how many people had strokes when he made those suggestions?' Zach asked. He could just imagine the fit of rage Cody would have flown into.

“None, actually. No one else in the alliance knows about this. We kept it within the original five. Plus Raven, obviously,” Yusuf said. “We'll tell them later, but we don't want word of this trickling back to Ragnarok.”

“I'm still not seeing the problem here,” Nora said.

“You told him to take a hike, right?” Zach said. No one answered. “Right?”

“Uh, that's one of the problems,” Anna said. “If we told him that we weren't planning on making an attack on Ragnarok, then they're going to want an explanation. And if they're not satisfied by the one we give them, then Ronin is going to start digging. If they figure it out there's a good chance that rumors might filter back to Ragnarok, and then we run the risk of having a knife shoved in our back.”

“So what did you do?” Nora asked.

Again, no one answered for a moment. Zach started to have a sinking feeling. He was really starting to get annoyed as well.

Once again, David provided the answer. “OK, when Levi contacted us we told him that we couldn't make any decision about it at the moment. We said that we needed approval from all of the original members to authorize an attack of that scale, and that you were on vacation in a place where there was no internet access. We needed the company commander. Not a replacement. The actual commander.”

“So he's still waiting for an answer?” Zach asked.

“Yeah, and we're going to have to give him one soon. They're going to find out that you're back on sooner or later.”

“Wait, so you told him that you needed approval from the five original members? Despite the fact that  our charter says something completely different?” Nora asked incredulously.

“Hey, he has no clue how we run our alliance,” Danny said. “He believed it.”

“Um, our charter isn't exactly a secret. They're going to find out that we duped them sooner or later,” Nora said.

“Will that be before or after they find out we were using our forces to taken Indianapolis instead of going after Ragnarok?” Robbie asked. “Or are they just going to ignore the fact that we have our hands on a city?”

“OK, you have a point,” Nora admitted.

Zach tried to keep himself from groaning. They had put him in quite the quandary here. Just how were they going to dig themselves out of this mess?

“Can we contact Levi?” Zach asked.

“Yeah. Do you have a plan?” David asked.

Zach nodded. “I think so. I'm going to take the lead. Play along with me.”

Anna opened up her menu and pressed some buttons. “Levi, are you there?”

There was silence for a moment. Then Levi's face appeared on the monitor at the far side of the room.

“I am. Are all of you present?” he asked.

“Yeah, I'm back,” Zach said.

“Hope your trip was good,” Levi said sincerely.

“Thanks, it definitely was,” Zach said. Whatever else could be said about Levi, it was hard for Zach to hate him. He was a good person, at the very least. It made what he was about to do much harder. Zach felt slightly guilty.

“You've heard the details of my proposal?” Levi asked.

“I have,” Zach said.

“And are you interested in them?”

Zach made a great show of pausing and sighing. “Well, there's a bit of a problem,” he said. “I'm assuming you made your guess after we stopped selling ammunition in the Old Chicago markets?”

“Yes,” Levi responded. “I assumed that you were building up your stocks for an attack on Ragnarok.”

“Well, that assumption is incorrect, unfortunately. We have other reasons,” Zach said. “What I'm about to tell you is completely confidential. You cannot speak of it under any circumstances.”

He could feel the tension in the room. Several of the others tried to hold in involuntary gasps. You all think that I'm actually going to spill our secrets, he thought to himself.

“Understood,” Levi said, apparently oblivious to the others. Either that, or he had a really good poker face. Zach thought it was the later, because Levi definitely wasn't stupid.

“We shut down our ammunition production line for the time being and we're going to be using just our stockpile for the time being.” Zach said. “We had to switch production to mortar and artillery shells. Our aid to you completely depleted our stocks.”

“How long will it take you to restock?” Levi asked.

“It's going to be a while,” Zach admitted. “Our warehouses are completely bare.” That was true, at least. There were few shells in the bastion right now: they were all in the south, stockpiled for the massive battle that was about to unfold.

Yusuf spoke up from beside him. “I would say at least two to three weeks.”

Levi shifted uncomfortably. “Is there a possibility that you could commit other forces?”

Zach shook his head. “I'm sorry, but we're not going to commit our troops to a fight with Ragnarok without proper fire support. Most of our forces that have been fighting in the north need refitting. They've taken a beating and aren't in top fighting shape.”

“I see,” Levi said, sounding quite disappointed. “Then my offer to you is irrelevant at this point.”

“Yes, sorry about that,” Zach said. “Maybe in the future?”

“I'll keep that in mind. Thank you all for your time,” Levi said.

Zach breathed a sigh of relief after Levi had ended the video feed. “OK, let's never do that again, alright?”

The others were grinning at him.

“I don't know, that was pretty entertaining,” Gray said.

“Nice bluff you had going there,” Anna said. “It sounded like it was pretty convincing.”

“No thanks to any of you,” Zach said sarcastically. Yusuf cleared his throat. “OK, you're exempted,” Zach added. “The rest of you, though.”

“What, you were handling it just fine,” Gina said. “I didn't want to do anything to mess it up.”

Zach frowned. “I'm not sure what everyone is so proud of. I may have just cost us our last friend.”

“Maybe not,” Danny said.

“What do you mean by that?”

“There's cooler heads in Ronin's camp. Sam, for instance. Or Tafari.”

“They're not the type to blab either,” Liz said. “I think if we told them we were planning something, but didn't tell them what, that would go a long way toward minimizing the hurt this causes.”

“That still carries a risk that they might say something that compromises our plan,” Nora said.

“Yeah, but on the other hand we might make ourselves another enemy if we don't do anything,” Gina shrugged. “I'm fine with telling them. But what does everyone else think?”

“I'm for telling them,” Yusuf said.

“Me too,” Anna said. “From what little I've interacted with them they seem like decent types.”

“Yeah, they're tight lipped, and they know when not to push boundaries,” Robbie said. “I was really surprised. I was never asked anything about the choppers while we were based up there. We guarded them, and no one even came near the hanger.”

“Yeah, I'm for telling them as well,” David said. “Trust is a pretty valuable commodity in this world, and we don't want to throw it all away.”

Zach nodded. “Alright then. Let's see if we can get them on the line.” He opened up his menu and sent a message to both of them, telling them to contact him via radio.

He didn't have to wait long. Both Sam and Tafari responded quickly, and Zach put them up on the screen. He was glad that they had a boosted communications set in their headquarters so they could talk in real time. Otherwise, they would be stuck with a delay, and that would get annoying very fast.

“Sam, Tafari, you there?” he asked.

“I'm here,” Sam said.

“Here as well,” Tafari answered.

“Are you guys in a spot where you can talk privately?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, what's up?” Sam asked.

Zach paused for a moment. “I just got off the line with Levi.”

“And you told him that you guys are running out of shells, and won't be able to support us for quite a while,” Sam said. “Yeah, we heard about that too. Levi was quite disappointed.”

“But the whole thing is just a deception, right?” Tafari said. “I mean, it does sound plausible, but I hardly think you would put yourself in such a tough position on our behalf.”

“Uh, right,” Zach said. He should have known that they would see through his ruse.

“Why the deception?” Sam asked.

“Believe me, I wish I could tell you, but I can't. There's too much as stake here, and we can't risk a security breach. But I wanted to tell you guys about the deception anyhow. I really don't like pulling the wool over your eyes, but I don't have much of a choice here.”

“It must really be important, huh?” Tafari asked. “Well, you helped us out in our time of need. We can return the favor by not prying.”

Zach nodded in appreciation. “Thanks guys. I hope I can tell you about it soon, and I'd really like to work with you again.”

“The feeling is very mutual,” Sam replied. “Good luck with whatever you're up to.”

“Thanks again,” Zach said. He closed out of the message.

“Well I'd say that went better than expected,” Selene commented.

“We might be using them as a meatshield, but I still respect them a lot,” Zach said. “I'd really like to have them in Hydra, but they're too loyal for their own good. Too bad, really.”

“I still don't understand how Levi managed to get others to go along with him,” Gina said. “I mean, there's always going to be some people that are going to listen to you, but that many?”

Danny spoke up. “I think it's because people can look past how he rubs people the wrong way. Or maybe that's part of his appeal. Maybe they think that they have a leader who will do what needs to be done, and who isn't going to tiptoe around others to do it.”

“I think it also has a lot to do with their loyalty,” Zach said. “They probably thought that he was the best bet when we had several groups trying to form alliances to take on Ragnarok, and once they were in they stayed out of loyalty. Even though Ronin might not be the best option anymore.”

“Then what about Paladin?” Gray asked. “Why did they join them instead of us, for instance?”

“Maybe it's about credibility?” Liz suggested. “White Tiger, Dogs of War and Ascension have made quite the name for themselves in the north. That might attract other people to them that normally wouldn't be interested.”

Gray shook his head. “Where Black Wolf, Sacred Sword, Redd Foxx and Grizzly wouldn't. Uh, no offense Yusuf. And Robbie.”

“None taken,” Yusuf said with a smile. “We seem to attract a particular niche of player.”

“Hey, I'm just flattered that I got invited to this meeting,” Robbie said. “We are the newest company around here.”

“Still, we have a fortress. And armor. Stuff like that,” Gray said. “It's hard to believe.”

“Maybe people want to be with an underdog,” Anna said. “And unfortunately, we don't qualify as one.”

Zach nodded. “OK, enough about that. Let's get back to the important business. Are we ready?”

“Yes,” David said.

“Yes. We're ready,” Gina agreed.

Anna nodded. “Well, we've been training for quite some time.  The rangers are ready to storm the beach, and we're ready to take the fight to the enemy after we do so. Hopefully it won't end up like last time.”

“We won,” Liz said.

“Half of us here died,” Gray said. He had been one of the first victims when the enemy boss had shown up.

Zach saw Nora frown. “Do we have any idea what kind of boss we might run into around the capture point? That's the one thing that could totally destroy our operation.”

“I would guess an armored vehicle of some sort, but that's just because it makes sense to me,” David said. “I really don't have a clue as to what they might be hiding.”

“We'll be fine,” Gina said. “We have plenty of trump cards to play. We have artillery. We have the assault guns. We have your rangers. We have some of the best regular infantry in the game, and we have naval and air support. We'll be ready for whatever they throw at us,” she said.

“We thought that last time,” Liz said. “Then the tank showed up.”

“We beat it,” Gina said.

“You didn't get killed by it,” Danny said.

“Hey, at least you got to shoot at it with an actual weapon that would hurt it,” Selene said. “We had to attack it, and you know how many shots we got before it wiped us out? One.”

“I killed it,” Zach offered.

“No you didn't,” Danny said with a scowl. “If you had then I wouldn't have died during the battle.”

“OK, I crippled it.”

“There, that's better.”

“Back on topic,” Anna said, redirecting them to the matter on hand as always. “We're ready. We could launch the attack right now, honestly, but we want to do it on a weekend, of course.”

Zach nodded. That would give them all plenty of time to partake in the fighting. “OK, we're ready. Do you guys believe we can win this? Answer honestly.”

“Yes,” David said.

“Yes,” Robbie said next.

Anna and Liz nodded. “Yes,” they both answered. Gray gave a thumbs up alongside them.

“I have full faith in you guys,” Yusuf said.

“Oh yeah, we can,” Gina said, her voice bursting with confidence.

Selene, Danny and Nora all nodded yes.

That was comforting. It was one thing for a commander to believe they could do it. It was another for the troops to believe. Zach had faith in them all. They would do it. They would conquer.

He spoke up again. “One last thing. Can we adapt if something goes wrong?”

“Remember who we are,” Gina said. “What's our motto?”

That was right. They were the Hydra Alliance.

Cut one head, and two more will appear. That was the power of the Hydra. Just when you thought you had killed it, the creature came back even more deadly than before.

That was their strength. That was their ethos.

Cut one head.

CHAPTER 19

Calm Before the Storm

“Can you believe it's all going to start tomorrow?” Miko said.

“It'll be good having you fighting alongside us again,” Danny told her. “Though I bet you had fun offing some people.”

“Yeah, it was fun. A little nerve-wracking at times, but still a lot of fun.”

“And I'm pretty sure the attack is going to be the topic of discussion,” Gavin said.

“Yeah, naturally.”

“I have a feeling that we're going to get asked a lot about what we're going to do afterward,” Nora said.

“What's there to do afterward? We control the city, and then we put everything in place to run it,” Javy said.

“Says the person who doesn't have to bother with the bureaucracy,” Nora said with a smile.

Danny thought about it for a moment. “What are we going to do once we take the entire city? The place is so huge.”

“Well, I've been toying around with some plans,” Nora said. “We might want to try to recruit more companies into the fold. Or, we could form some new ones.”

Danny shook his head. “I figured. Trying to shove Karen out the door, huh?”

“Hey, if she wants to form her own company again I say we let her,” Zach said.

“Then my platoon's under strength,” Danny said. He gave a slight smile. “What am I saying, she deserves it. She might be the best leader I have. No offense to you two,” he added, addressing Xavier and Jay.

“Hey, neither of us has lead a company,” Xavier said.

Danny grinned at them. “Who knows, maybe you'll be next.”

“I don't think numbers are going to be a huge problem. We have about two hundred applicants that want to join the various companies, but we didn't want to do it yet. Unit cohesion, and all,” Nora said.

“Who has the biggest number of applicants?” Selene asked.

Nora frowned thoughtfully. “I'd have to look, but it's pretty evenly split. Sacred Sword, Grizzly and Redd Foxx have quite a few. We have about twenty people asking. Then there's ones for Marauder, Crimson Eagle and Bravehart. Everyone has a few. Actually, Raven has the most applicants.”

“People want to fly,” Zach said. “That makes sense.”

“Maybe we want to form a dedicated air force?” Gavin suggested. “We could form another company that's trained for choppers and airplanes.”

“That might be a good idea in the future, but I don't think we have enough now to warrant that,” Zach said. “We're at the limits of what our industrial base can support.”

“Until we take Indianapolis.”

Danny wondered about that. “Even when we do capture the city, can we get enough materials to support our production capabilities?”

“I actually had an idea about that,” Miko said. “I talked with Paige a bit when we were modifying my sniper rifle. What if we paid a flat price for basic materials like vulcanite ore? Like, around the average cost that people get in the Old Chicago markets.”

Danny leaned forward, interested. Basic resources could be sold for cash to NPC corporations within Old Chicago, but the price fluctuated. The more players sold, the lower they were paid.

“Would that be profitable for us?” Selene asked.

Miko nodded. “We're going to have to crunch the numbers a few more times to make sure, but yeah, it should be. Between the amount of time we spend mining and the cost of the fusion batteries we need to run the Mules, we'll break even. And that's not counting how much ammo we'll be able to produce.”

“What about imposing a tax to buy and sell?” Xavier suggested. “Like if you sell something above a certain price, there would be a one credit tax on it. Alliance members would be exempt, naturally.”

“Wouldn't people just buy and sell in Old Chicago?” Javy asked.

“Not if we made ammunition cheaper in Indianapolis because we don't have to transport it,” Xavier said.

Danny nodded. It was a good idea. “Plus, that could be a way to increase our numbers.”

“A lot to think about,” Nora said.

“A ton to think about,” Zach said. “But not right now. First we have to take the place.”

They all looked up as the door opened. Dr. Unger stepped in as usual. But behind him was the president of Elysium Visions, Anton Starvos.

He had met with them a few times. President Starvos had been there when they were recruited for this study, and he sometimes joined in the interview sessions to ask questions and impart some information. It seemed strange at first that the president of a multi-billion dollar corporation was taking the time to interact on the ground level with them, but to Danny it made perfect sense. World at War was his brainchild, after all, his baby and his gem. The enthusiasm in his voice was clear every time he spoke about it. Thus, it was natural that he wanted to be involved with watching the digital society evolve.

“Good morning everyone,” Dr. Unger said. “President Starvos will be joining us today. He's very interested in the endeavor you are all about to embark on.”

“We thought so,” Gavin said.

President Starvos smiled. “I really wouldn't expect anything less from you. I think it's abundantly clear why I wanted to be here right now. But I must say, I'm impressed by your audacity. That, and the way you've managed to assemble everything so quickly.”

“We've had plenty of help,” Zach said.

“True enough. I know very well that an undertaking of that size requires the hard work of a lot of people. But you were the ones to initiate the first meeting, were you not?”

That was true, though it had been more of a consensus between Black Wolf, Redd Foxx and Sacred Sword. Redd Foxx and Sacred Sword had already been working together, and Black Wolf had done little more than formalize the relationship.

“How do you plan to command such a large force?” President Starvos asked. “Naturally, a larger force will be much more difficult to command and control.”

“Mission based tactics,” Nora said. According to her she had been reading a lot of military history, trying to become a better tactician and strategist. Danny thought it was working quite well.

“Can you elaborate?” Dr. Unger asked her.

Nora nodded. “Every unit is given their objective. It's up to the unit commander's discretion as to how they fulfill that objective.”

“Ah, I remember reading that the Germans used a similar system during the Second World War,” President Starvos said. “I will say though, those kind of tactics require very discipline troops.”

“Yeah, it requires a lot of initiative and creativeness,” Nora said. “But we have plenty of that. Most of our troops are veterans.”

“We've been interested to note that higher level players aren't necessarily the best fighters,” Dr. Unger observed. “Is there a particular reason for that you can thing of?”

“Maybe it's the quality of opponents they're up against?” Xavier suggested. “They might be used to fighting low level NPCs.”

“I think the quest system might skew it,” Javy said. “We got a lot of experience points for completing missions inside the city, but the enemies were way too easy.”

Danny spoke up. “I think there's several things that go into it,” he said. “Quests are one of the fastest ways to increase your level, but all that does is to give you more toys to use. I can't even remember the last time I used my class power.”

“Do you have a reason why you don't use it?” President Starvos asked him.

Danny shrugged. “It takes too long to activate. And skills that we naturally learn instead of leveling up seem more useful. Driving, shooting, the like.”

President Starvos nodded. “I see. That was an issue that came up in game design. Several of the designers were for learning skills naturally, like you said. It seemed like a less arbitrary system. But others were concerned that it would feel to unfamiliar to the average player, and that it would push away new players.”

“There was a learning curve,” Miko said.

“Yeah, it was a pretty steep one at that,” Gavin said. “I'm really glad that some of the systems were in place, like the auto-aim.”

President Starvos nodded. “Yes, and some of them are quite helpful, I agree. But the amount of skill use in the top half of players is abnormally low. Like you mentioned before, naturally learned skills seem to dominate, and we're looking for a solution to the problem. We may have it, though it will drastically alter how the world operates.”

He leaned forward. “You're the first ones outside of the development team to hear about this, and I would very much appreciate if you kept this confidential. We are currently working on a massive patch for World at War. Levels are going to be eliminated. Classes are going to be heavily revamped and effectively eliminated. There are going to be no weapons restrictions based on specializations. Anyone will be able to learn how to perform any role, as long as they are willing to take the time.”

The room went completely silent for a moment. Everyone was stunned.

“Um, won't eliminating classes take away some of the individualism for each player?” Danny asked. Pulling such a massive change after the game was launched was mind-boggling.

President Starvos nodded. “There was great concern about that from the development team as well. But we believe that we have a solution. The basic roles that each class performs will still be there. Your class is a heavy, am I correct?”

“Yes.”

“Any one of you could carry a machine gun, for instance, but it would be in your best interest to split up roles. Combined arms are what triumphs, after all. So a player who was a heavy before the patch will still be able to have their role as a heavy, and so on and so forth for the other classes.”

“Aren't you concerned that someone could learn how to perform every single role and then turn themselves into a one man army?” Selene asked.

“Says the person I would peg to become one,” Zach commented.

Danny laughed to himself. He could definitely see that happening. “I'd think there's enough balance in the game to keep that from happening.”

“There is,” President Starvos said. “True, one person is able to turn the tide of battle if they are especially skilled. But they're not invincible. They can be taken out by concentrated fire, or by artillery strikes.” He turned and looked at Miko. “Or a skilled sniper.”

“Yeah, that's possible,” Miko said. “Though I'm not the most skilled in the region. Not by a long shot.”

He smiled. “Oh, I'm not quite sure about that. We've been keeping track of your exploits for quite a while, and I'm not ashamed to say that I would be completely terrified if I was a commander and you were on the other side.”

“So everything will be learned naturally?” Zach asked.

“Yes, that is our aim.”

Danny thought about that for a moment. In game terms that was a stunning change, but in another sense it was absolutely staggering as well. Right now World at War was still a video game, with abundant game elements everywhere. Once the patch went through, those elements would disappear. World at War would no longer be a game set inside a virtual world. It would be a virtual world.

Or maybe he was just over-thinking things. Was there really a distinction? Wasn't it already a true virtual world? Why would removing game elements make it any more legitimate?

President Starvos continued. “I imagine this must be a huge shock to you all, though it will take several more months to implement.”

Nora spoke up first. “It's a surprise, sure, but does it really affect us? We tend to use just natural skills.”

“Hey, I like hawkeye,” Miko said. “Although, it wouldn’t be earth shattering for me if it suddenly disappeared.”

“I'd imagine it will hurt the companies inside the city the most,” Zach said.

“They will have to learn. But they will have plenty of warning, and they'll learn how to survive,” President Starvos said. “People will step up to teach them, and to lead them. Maybe you will some of the ones to do so.”

Danny started to realize just how important they were becoming to the world.

The pass came rocketing toward him. Danny plucked it from out of the air and laid up a beautiful accurate jumper.

“Nice shot,” Nora said as their team sprinted back down the court.

“Thanks,” Danny said, but now the real challenge was starting. The other team had both Selene and Xavier. That was the tradeoff for having three basketball players on his team. They got Nora, himself and Javy, and the other team got the two tallest players. This was going to be tough.

Gavin had the ball. He had gotten much better. All of them had, in fact. There were no more embarrassing misses, awkward dribbles, that kind of thing. But still, the edge went to the people who actually played.

Danny shifted over as Gavin passed the ball to Miko. His team was trying to play a zone, aiming to keep Xavier and Selene away from the basket. He moved again to block off Selene as she caught a pass, but then she made a sudden movement. The ball sailed right by him, and he slipped. On his back, Danny saw Xavier dunk the ball.

Zach helped him up. “Man,” Danny said.

“We're still winning by a point,” Zach said.

Javy had the ball now. Their team pushed down the court, guarded in a man-to-man defense. Danny had Selene covering him.

To his left he saw Javy toss the ball over to Nora. She faked like she was going inside, then leaped and threw up a jumper. Xavier tried but failed to keep up. It clanked against the rim but still went in.

“Man, people are really biting on fakes,” Danny said. “Me included, I should point out in all fairness.”

“Well, we've gotten a lot faster. That means we can be a lot more aggressive,” Javy said. He was gone in a flash, stealing the ball from Miko as she made a pass and charging down the court. He made a layup.

Danny shook his head and smiled as he watched him go. They had indeed.

“That was a really good game again,” Xavier commented.

“Yeah,” Selene said unconvincingly.

“Well, we know why you're not happy about it,” Danny said with a grin. “But come on, it was a pretty good one.”

“I noticed that you're not gloating like you usually do,” Miko observed.

“Well, we don't want any bad blood before tomorrow,” Danny said, still grinning.

Selene started to smile as well. “What, do you think I'm going to hang you out to dry?”

“Eh, you never know,” Danny said. “Never hurts to be safe.”

“Gosh, thanks for the vote of confidence.”

“I'll back you up,” Gavin offered.

“Thanks,” Danny said.

They were taking the evening off to relax before the big battle tomorrow. As far as he knew, a lot of other were doing the same. Their various groups were going out on the town, taking the time to unwind outside the game world. There were others that were also playing around inside World at War, getting everything ready and just fooling around as well.

Their group had chosen to play basketball, then head to the Belfast Manor pub for drinks and dinner. They had requested one of the side rooms, outside of the main bustle of the bar area. It was much easier to hear and to talk in here without having to overcome scores of other voices. There were also no TV screens in here. The Cubs were playing tonight, and Danny was pretty sure that he would end up with a massive hangover if he tried to watch the game.

He sat silent for a moment, listening to the chatter around him from the others. It felt odd to him in some way. There had often been talk about whether true relationships could be formed in a virtual world. That question had been the topic of discussion over the course of several interview sessions with Dr. Unger. It had been a puzzling question, with no clear answer.

Their group was a pretty good case study on the whole topic, though. Zach, Danny and Selene had already been close before World at War had come out, so there was nothing to be gleaned from that. Miko had been friends with Selene for a while, so it was natural that she was able to become a part of the group very quickly.

But the others were a much better example. Xavier, Gavin and Nora had joined later, and they had been accepted with open arms. The three of them had responded agreeably as well, and they had formed the strong core of Black Wolf Company. It had been easy to accept Javy when he had stumbled upon them. All of them had formed a fairly tight bond. Was it because they had been with each other in both the virtual world and the real world?

No, that couldn't be it. They had formed close bonds others that they didn't see in real life. Their alliance with Redd Foxx and Sacred Sword was an example; they had a tight relationship long before they started hanging out with Anna and Liz in real life. They were close with Grizzly and Hephaestus, and they put great trust in other companies like Bravehart, Crimson Eagle, Storm Hawk, Archangel, even Marauder. They had never met in real life, but the bonds were close all the same. Danny literally felt like he could go into battle beside them, and he had full trust in all of them.

And it wasn't just a matter of trust either. Hydra had an ethos, a cause that they all fought under. True, they all fought for fun. There was no point in playing a game if you weren't having any fun. But it also went deeper than that. Their battles were simple in nature, fought for dominance, but they were backed by Hydra's creed; cut one head. None of them ever fought alone. Teamwork and trust was their strength, and they had won many a battle through those principles. As soon as the enemy though they had beaten back one company, another would appear to turn the tide of battle. It was inspiring, and Danny took a considerable amount of pride in his part in that.

So was it real, or did it have lesser meaning because it happened in a virtual world? He thought that the idea of virtual reality carried an unfair stigma. People said you couldn't form a real relationship, a real friendship in a world where everything was just data, but to him that was just condescending. They would say that a virtual world romance was doomed to fail and had no meaning, but they would glorify a romance that was carried out by letter. What was the difference, Danny thought? Why did something new carry such a stigma?

Whatever, he thought to himself. The commentators, the pundits, they could say what they wanted. They could deride their experiences in the virtual world as nothing more than escapist fantasy, and he would simply ignore him. He knew better. They were his friends, his true friends and comrades. And he would be going into battle with them tomorrow.

They could say what they wanted. Their words weren't going to take this away from him.

CHAPTER 20

Red Beach

It was finally here. Several months of planning, weeks of scouting, vicious fighting up north and uncertainty everywhere they turned. All of that had lead to this point, and they were ready. Hydra was going to take the final steps to secure a city.

Zach stood in the field headquarters, taking it all in while he still had time. It would be chaos soon enough. Off to the north at about five hundred yards he could see Bravehart and Griffon making the final preparations with their artillery. The armored company was assembling behind him. They would head toward the bridge once the bombardment began, and then would wait until Marauder had signaled that the gate had been captured. Raven Flight was preparing as well, waiting for their chance to influence the battle. And ahead of him the infantry was assembling.

They had a mighty force here; Crimson Eagle, Sacred Sword, Marauder and Band of Brothers. They would be the muscle during the initial push into the city, taking vital streets and building and capturing the all important gate. Their plan was doomed if they couldn't get armored support, and they had chosen the best for the job. Marauder was considered to be wild by some, but they were ferocious on the attack, showing no quarter and giving the enemy no rest. They were perfect for a role where speed and aggression were of the essence.

Sacred Sword was the most numerous of the companies, and would provide the backbone of the attack. David's troops were stalwarts, dependable, unflappable, steady and disciplined. They could hold a line or storm an enemy position with equal skill.

Crimson Eagle didn't have quite the reputation that Sacred Sword possessed, but they were still a very formidable force. Their strength was on the attack, where they fought in a furious but controlled fashion.

Band of Brothers had nothing to truly distinguish themselves, but that was their strength. They could attack, defend, fight at range or up close, and they could be relied to do any of those well. Elite units might get all the attention, but they were nothing without the backing of the main line units.

And then there were the ranger units, Black Wolf and Redd Foxx. By now they were considered to be one of the elite units of the Hydra Alliance, on equal footing with the armored company. The might not have the staying power of the main infantry, but they were skilled fighters, savvy, smart and fierce. It was their job to storm the beach, and they would certainly do it well. The enemy would never know what hit them.

Black Wolf Company was going to be the first Hydra unit to step foot in the city, and he would be going with them, helping to command and coordinate.

His alert buzzed. Bryce was on the other end of the line, addressing all the company commanders.

“Everyone, this is Buck Lead. We're going to start the bombardment in five minutes. All company commanders, please respond so I know that your communication systems are working properly.”

The radio started to come alive with responses.

“Sword Lead,” David responded.

“Bear Lead.”

“Angel Lead.”

“Fist Lead.”

“Hawk Lead.”

“Raider Lead.”

“Eagle Lead.”

“Band Lead.”

“Griffon Lead.”

“Raven Lead.”

“Porter Lead,” he heard Paige say. She and her workers had been formed into a temporary unit known as Porter Company for their reference.

“Fox Lead.”

It was his turn. “Wolf Lead,” he said.

Bryce responded. “Alright, I hear you all loud and clear. Fox Lead, Wolf Lead, get your troops assembled and embarked on your transports. Head for the middle of the reservoir. Head for Red Beach once the bombardment lifts. I'll signal you when that happens.”

“What's the signal?” Anna asked.

“The signal is 'Rangers lead the way', OK?”

“That's a bit long,” Zach commented.

“I though it was appropriate.”

“I'll signal once we make our final run toward the beach,” Zach said. “Code will be Alpha Green.”

“Copy that Wolf Lead.”

Zach headed down toward the shore.

“Coming along with us?” Javy asked. Bravo 2 was making their way into their transport.

“Yup,” Nora said as she stepped in with them.

They had decided to divide up their leadership so that they wouldn't lose all their officers if one boat sank. Zach would be going in during the first wave with Selene's platoon, riding with Alpha 1. Selene would ride with Alpha 2, and Danny would ride with Bravo 1.

It was the first time that Black Wolf would be fighting together in a long time, and Nora was grateful for that. She had liked working with Anna, but there was nothing like the familiarity that her own company brought.

Nora's role in all this was as a liaison. Command on the ground would be divided up into several levels. At the bottom was the squad level, where the sergeants would direct their squads. The next level was the platoon, where the lieutenants would control the movement of their squad leaders in accordance with the situation. Then there was the company level, where the captain would direct the actions of the entire company and coordinate them with other units. Finally, there was the army level, where the officer in charge of the operation would control the flow of the entire battle.

Nora touched the rank pins on her shoulder. That was another thing that Hydra Command had decided upon. Officers would have proper ranks so that there would be a clear chain of command. Some commanders would be given a field promotion for the duration of an operation.

Bryce, for instance, had the rank of colonel for this operation since he was in overall command, though his normal rank was a captain. Anna was a major, since she was the commander of the ranger company. Gina was a major as well. Zach retained his rank as a captain, and Selene and Danny were both lieutenants.

She was a lieutenant as well, but her role wasn't as a commander. Nora would coordinate Black Wolf's movements with the other companies. That would give Zach the opportunity to exercise tactical command without being distracted. She would also take field command if he was killed or disabled, though she really hoped that didn't happen. She had never even been a squad leader, and there were better choices for it. Danny, Selene, Xavier, Karen, Gavin, Javy, all of them had experience commanding forces in battle. But they would be on the front lines fighting, and Zach had insisted.

Beside her Javy activated his radio. “Bravo 2 is loaded.”

Nora looked across the reservoir as they pushed off from shore. It was time to go.

“Coming with us?” Selene asked as Miko walked up.

“Yeah, Zach told me to attach myself to a crew for the trip across. This just seems right.”

“Well, it's good to have you along again,” Selene said. The rest of Ethan's squad was filing aboard their transport. “What are you going to be doing?”

“Support,” Miko told her. “Ranging ahead, scouting. Taking out important targets if I see them. That sort of thing.”

“I'm glad you're along for the ride,” Selene said. It had been far too long.

She saw Miko smile. “Yeah, I am too.”

Danny had seen bombardments before. Bravehart and Griffon had always put on a show. The one they had performed at Fort Odin had been the most impressive he had seen. But this was in another league entirely.

Red Beach was covered in smoke and flame. He could hear the thunder of artillery behind him, the abrupt bangs of the mortars firing and the larger blasts of the field guns. There was noise coming from in front, booms, bangs as the entire scene in front of him exploded. It looked like there was no way anything was going to survive the bombardment. He knew better, though.

No matter how impressive it looked, some of the enemy would find a way to survive. They were going to run into resistance on the beach, and they would have to crush it. Not that he was ungrateful for the fire support, however. Every enemy that Bravehart and Griffon killed was one more they wouldn't have to deal with.

And they weren't even going to take the worst of it. Alpha Platoon was going in first. Danny silently wished them luck.

“Rangers lead the way.”

Zach looked out over the water toward Red Beach. Shells were still falling, but the bombardment would end in around thirty seconds. It would take them about a minute to get across the rest of the reservoir.

“Acknowledged, Buck Lead,” he responded. “Code is Alpha Green.”

His craft took off at full speed for the beach, flanked by two others. Zach made one last check of his carbine and took a deep breath. So it would begin.

Nora watched from her boat as the three craft in front made their way to the beach. The distance was disappearing fast. Only a few more seconds and they would land.

“Nervous?” Javy asked.

“I'm just hoping we don't screw this up,” Nora said. “If we win, I don't care what else happens. All of us can get killed as long as we take the district.”

Javy laughed. “That's one advantage to this being a game.”

That was right, Nora thought as she looked back toward the beach. This was a game. And the game was about to get thrilling.

“GO! GO!”

Alpha 2 leaped over the side of their craft into waist deep water. As soon as they were clear the boat's gunners opened fire on the buildings along the shore, aiming for loopholes, windows, anywhere an enemy might use to fire at them. There was no return fire. The bombardment must have done its job.

Regardless, Alpha 2 pushed onto the beach as fast as their legs could carry them, urged on by Ethan and Selene. The defenses along the shore might be gone, but reinforcements would be on their way. They needed to establish a strong position before that happened.

Bullets suddenly came at them, fired from the second story of a partially destroyed house. Alpha 2 didn't even stop to fire back. It took discipline to keep pushing ahead while being shot at, but this wasn't the place for them to start a firefight. They were too exposed out here with no cover. It was better to move fast, move aggressively and storm the enemy position. They would tangle with the enemy once they had a better spot. Plus, they weren't completely helpless out here.

The enemy fire died out as their transport sent a recoilless rifle round through the window. The enemy gunner didn't reappear.

Selene saw Alpha 1 and Alpha 3 landing further down the beach. Logan's squad had landed along a section with jagged rocks. They took cover behind them and started firing. Apparently there was heavier resistance down that way. No matter. They had to do their own job first.

“OK Bravos, let's move!”

Danny could see the assault unfolding in front of him. Alpha 2 was pushing up the beach with no problem. So was Alpha 1. Alpha 3 looked like it was pinned down in a firefight. Thankfully they had cover, but they were still in a tight spot. That was right where Karen was going to land too.

“Bravo 3, Bravo 3, come in,” Danny said, thinking quickly.

“I hear you, Bravo Wolf,” Karen answered.

“Change of plans. Land along my section of beach, then move up and launch a flank attack on the troops that have Alpha 3 pinned down. No sense in putting yourself through the grinder.”

“Understood, Bravo Wolf.”

He tapped his pilot on the shoulder. “Shift over to the left once you drop us off. Give those guys there some fire support,” he said.

The pilot gave a thumbs up in acknowledgment, then relayed the order to the rest of his crew.

Danny looked back over his shoulder at the rest of the boats. He could see the Redd Foxx craft trailing behind them, waiting for their turn to unload their troops. Further back in the distance he could see the large transports carrying Marauder and Sacred Sword, waiting for a clear beachhead.

Well, it was their job to take it. Selene looked like she had the situation well in hand except for the left flank, but she still could use help. There was no sense in being too stingy with their forces.

Danny switched channels and contracted Nora. “Wolf 2, this is Bravo Wolf. Once we get ashore, relay this message to Alpha Wolf. Bravo Platoon will take the right flank once we push off the beach. They should take the left flank.”

“Copy, Bravo Wolf. I'll let her know,” Nora responded.

Beside him, Xavier gripped his assault rifle. “Looks like fun times out there.”

Danny looked down at his machine gun and grinned. “Only the best for us.”

Zach felt the kick of his launcher as he lobbed a grenade through the window in front of him. The enemy had a machine gun mounted here, positioned so it could threatened most of the beach. Cover fire from their transports had forced the gunners to duck, but they still had managed to wound one of Gavin's troops. He and Zach had grabbed the wounded soldier and dragged her into cover. Joon was patching her up.

I don't even remember her name, Zach thought to himself, but now wasn't the time to think about that. They had to get off the beach quickly.

Boom.

The grenade went off. As soon as they heard the noise Alpha 1 was on their feet, charging hard. They stormed into the building, throwing grenades in the doorway to cover their entry.

Zach stood up and ejected the spent grenade cartridge. He looked over at Joon and the soldier who was now back on her feet. Mira, that's what her name was.

He motioned forward. “Let's go.”

It had been a colossally stupid idea, and yet it had been so much fun.

Alpha 2 had run into resistance. An enemy squad had holed up in a single story house along the shoreline. Their transport had fired its recoilless rifle at it, but the weapon had done little to suppress them.

Alpha 2 was in cover, but it would only protect them for so long, and they need to get off the beach fast. Selene and Miko had made a completely impulsive decision. Covered by the rest of Alpha 2, Selene had fixed her bayonet and had charged into the building with Miko in tow.

The charge had apparently caught the enemy off guard. Selene was able to kill three of the enemy before they could even think about responding. Another had managed to get his pistol halfway out before he took a blade between the ribs. Miko shot two coming from another room, and then Selene had gone straight for the enemy sergeant.

He had been alert and far more skilled at close combat than his subordinates. Selene had been surprised when he drew a machete and started swinging. She came close to dying a couple of times, had to use every ounce of skill that she possessed, but she had been hardened by her training in the battledomes. Dodging, blocking, twisting, striking, she had stayed alive and had finally found an opening. The sergeant had taken a bayonet to the chest, followed by three bullets.

The last soldier had attacked he as she was finishing off the enemy sergeant, but Miko was covering her back well. A stab of the knife and a few shots later they had cleared the house out.

“We're safe. Move up,” Selene ordered.

“Roger,” Ethan confirmed.

“Well, that's my excitement quota for today,” Miko said. She took her sniper rifle off of her back and pulled her hood over her head. “I'm going to go see if I can give Logan's squad some help.”

“Keep in touch,” Selene said. That was a useful suggestion for herself as well. “Wolf Lead, we've pushed off of the beach. What are your orders?”

“Alpha Wolf, head to the main line and hold there. We'll back you up soon,” Zach ordered. Black Wolf was going to dig in on the beach side of a wide boulevard, and he wanted to make sure they got into place as soon as possible.

Danny's platoon was pushing up the beach. Karen was starting to make a flank attack, relieving the pressure on Logan's squad. Once they were all clear they would organize themselves properly and push on to their objective points.

Zach turned around to see Bravo 2 moving up the beach with Nora in tow. He waved them forward.

“Push forward!” Danny ordered his troops, though they needed little encouragement. Xavier's squad moved up the beachhead with no opposition. Selene's platoon had done a good job clearing out the resistance that had managed to survive the bombardment. Javy's squad had already moved off the beach and was pushing toward their planned defensive line. To his left Karen was launching a fierce flanking attack on the enemy pinning down Logan's squad.

Danny watched Bravo 3 go to work. He saw Karen put a hand up to her ear as she activated her radio. A few seconds later a half dozen machine guns opened fire on the building that was giving resistance, courtesy of their naval support. Her squad took advantage of the confusion to close the distance. They stormed inside, and suddenly Alpha 3 wasn't pinned down anymore.

Danny turned forward and followed the tail end of Xavier's squad. He had done enough observing for now. They still had a long battle to fight.

“You say you're secure?” Zach asked.

“Karen's squad just got Logan's squad out of their predicament. I'm going to assemble my platoon on the left flank of the defensive area,” Selene said.

“Make sure that Danny knows,” Zach said.

“He already does. He's the one that suggested we do it this way, actually.”

Zach nodded with satisfaction. “OK, we'll join you soon.” He looked over at Nora. “We secured the beach faster than I thought. Signal over to the transports that they can come in as soon as possible.”

“Got it,” Nora said. “Redd Foxx is making their landing right now. Any instructions for them?”

“Other than the normal orders? No, we're fine,” Zach said. “We're well ahead of schedule.”

This was good. Very good, in fact. Zach didn't know whether the defenses were thinner than they had originally thought, or if the bombardment had wiped them out, but they had been expecting much tougher resistance and had planned accordingly. Now, with their troops in place ahead of schedule they could do even more to gain the initiative and swing the battle further in their favor.

He had been worried they would get caught on the beaches and forced to fight off the inevitable reinforcements from weak positions. Since they had managed to get into their desired line, which was very strong, they would probably be able to hold off the enemy indefinitely. That would give Marauder plenty of time to take the gate, and the line would be further reinforced by Crimson Eagle, Band of Brothers and Sacred Sword. Once they had the gate under control and the armored company was in the city they could push forward in one massive fist, crushing any resistance that got it their way.

They were clearly winning right now, but Zach cautioned himself against being too satisfied. They had been winning during the battle to take Lerna Bastion as well. They had been crushing the enemy, in fact, but that had all changed once the boss showed up. They had gone from a triumphant victory to the verge of a devastating defeat within the span of a few minutes, and they had barely made it through. Was that going to happen here?

No, Zach thought, it wouldn't. The boss had caught them by surprise. This time they were expecting it. And once it showed up, they would do everything in their power to kill it.

He looked up as Anna made her way into the building they were sheltering inside. Liz was with her.

“Good eye. This looks like a pretty good spot for a command post,” Anna said.

“Yeah, it does,” Zach said. “We're going to move forward to the main line.”

Anna nodded. “Alright. Gray and Jana are headed up their with their platoons. Liz is going to stick with me and help to direct traffic. I'll keep track of things, but consider yourself the field commander of the ranger company. My troops already know that they're to report straight to you.”

“Got that,” Zach said. “Good luck with the traffic control.”

“Thanks. I'm probably going to need it,” Anna said with a rueful smile.

“Alpha Wolf, Alpha Wolf, we have an enemy platoon coming in from the east. It's right in front of us,” Gavin said from his position at the right end of the line. He was tasked with holding down one of the flanks.

“Composition?” Selene asked.

“Mostly soldiers and heavies. It looks like there's an engineer with a flamethrower. I'll-”

“Alpha 1?” Selene asked. Gavin had suddenly stopped talking as the same instance that she heard the crack of a sniper rifle.

“Sorry,” he said again. “They did have a flamethrower, but he just got sniped.”

“Compliments of Miko,” Selene said.

“Well, I'm very appreciative,” Gavin responded. “Oh, that looks like it riled them up a bit. They're coming.”

“Tell me if you need help. Redd Foxx is starting to arrive,” Selene told him.

“We should be fine as we are, but if you can spare a squad we'll be golden.”

“Will do.” She switched channels. “Gray 1, can you shift a squad over to the right flank?”

“Roger that. I'll send Nick's squad over,” Gray replied.

Her radio beeped again. “Alpha Wolf.”

“Alpha Wolf, this is Alpha 3. There's an enemy platoon... No, make that two platoons moving down the center. They'll be on us in  about a minute.”

“Sit tight Logan. Redd Foxx is moving up, and Sacred Sword should be here shortly. Who's your neighboring squad?”

“It's Javy.”

“OK, make sure to coordinate with them. Hold tight and help is coming.”

“Copy,” Logan replied.

Selene went back to directing traffic.

Danny already had his troops in place when the first wave hit. That was good, because the enemy was coming at them hard. He could see several squads in front of him, and clearly there were more. Two, maybe three platoons of infantry. And that wasn't the only problem.

“Bravo Wolf, we have a tank moving in on us,” Karen said in a firm but worried tone.

Danny had chosen to place himself on the third floor of a three story building. It gave him a high vantage point to observe enemy movements, and he was also afforded a degree of good cover. He brought up his binoculars and looked toward the area that she was indicating.

There was a tank. No, it wasn't, Danny realized as he took a closer look. It was smaller, and it wasn't tracked. Instead it was mounted on eight large wheels. An armored car would be a more accurate description, Danny thought to himself. It didn't look like it was heavily armored, but it's armament caught his attention. The vehicle had a turret, and mounted on the turret was a long autocannon. It roared to life and fired several shots at Karen's position.

Danny activated his radio. “Marco, you see that?” he asked the heavy that he had posted on the roof.

“Yeah, I see it.”

“Waste him.”

“Copy that,” Marco replied, and a few seconds later a well-aimed shot rocketed down toward the enemy vehicle. It blew apart in a shower of shrapnel and flame.

“That should take care of it,” Danny said to Karen.

“Copy, Bravo Wolf,” she responded. “I think that put them on the back foot. We'll...” she trailed off for a moment. “Bravo Wolf, I think they're preparing for an assault. We-”

Karen's words were cut off by a sudden barrage of fire. Danny was forced to duck down as hundreds of bullets slammed into the face of his building. He grabbed his machine gun.

“All Bravos, prepare to resist a general assault,” Danny said. They were going to have a lot of enemies coming at them in a moment. Not a few squads, not even a few platoons: a whole company was coming after them, judging by the volume of fire. This was going to get very hairy.

He switched channels. “Wolf Lead, how long until Sacred Sword gets here?” he asked. “We're coming under attack by a company size force, and we think they have armor support.”

“Sacred Sword is coming,” Zach said.

“ETA?”

“Soon,” Zach replied. “We're being hit all across the line. Dig in and do the best you can.”

“Copy that, Wolf Lead,” Danny said tersely. That was something he could do.

The fire stared to slacken. Xavier, Javy and Karen all signaled him, warning him of the impending infantry assault, but he ignored them. He knew very well what was coming.

Danny opened up a channel to his entire platoon. “Alright people, this is where we win or lose. Armor is top priority if it appears. So are RPG teams and flamethrowers. Crush 'em.”

He stood up and leaned out of the window, bringing his machine gun up to bear. An enemy platoon was starting to move across the boulevard.

Danny lined up his sights and pulled the trigger.

Danny and Selene were reliable commanders in the field. So were all the sergeants. That was good, because under the circumstances there was no way for them to exercise central command. They were too busy fighting to do anything else.

Nora had gotten on the roof of her building along with Avery, Logan's sniper. She figured that her rifle would be more useful from a higher vantage point.

She and Avery had formed up an improvised team, each covering a certain arc. When the situation warranted they would call the others attention to their area.

Both of them were able to lay down rapid, accurate fire. Nora had her burst assault rifle, while Avery was carrying a semiautomatic sniper rifle. It had lower range and accuracy compared to the standard bolt action gun, but it had a bigger magazine and could be fired quickly if needed.

“Platoon coming in to my side,” Avery said

Nora shifted her aim and focused on a machine gunner, setting her sights on his chest. Head shots would cause more damage, but at this range she wanted to be sure she could get a hit. They had plenty of ammunition for the time being, but their supply wasn't infinite. She pulled the trigger twice and the enemy heavy fell.

She aimed at an engineer with a grenade launcher next, but she fell, hit by someone firing from below. There were plenty more targets in front of them, though. Nora shot a soldier who had stood up to take a shot.

“Down! Down!” Avery said from beside her.

Nora threw herself behind cover on the roof, just before a bullet passed overhead with a loud crack. That was definitely from a marksman's rifle.

“Did you see where the sniper is?” she asked.

“I eyeballed him, but I'm not going to be able to get a good shot,” Avery said.

Nora activated her radio. “Wolf Lead, Wolf Lead, this is Wolf 2. We're pinned down. Be warned that the enemy in front of us has a sniper.”

“Already aware of that, Wolf 2. Lone Wolf is hunting him now. I'll let you know when you're clear.”

“Copy that,” Nora said. She gripped her rifle. “Try to see if you can spot him after the next shot,” she said.

“What are you planning?” Avery asked dubiously.

Nora didn't answer. She pushed herself up into a crouch and then moved along the length of the roof, staying in cover. Whatever the danger, she couldn't just sit here and wait. The rangers needed every gun they could muster to hold off an attack of this ferocity.

She popped up, quickly took aim and hit an enemy assault trooper crossing the boulevard square in the chest. She ducked back down, but there was no crack. Maybe the sniper had moved, or maybe Miko had taken him out. She still wasn't in the position to take risks until she knew for sure. Nora moved again, popped up and opened fire.

The enemy attack was getting closer, pressing harder. There was little else to do right now. Nora would continue to fire until the enemy assault broke, or until she was shot.

“Target destroyed,” Ethan confirmed. From the roof of his squad's position he had manged to take out three enemy vehicles threatening the right flank with a recoilless rifle.

He might be the best anti-tank gunner in Black Wolf, Selene thought to herself. His actions had bought them some breathing space, but they weren't out of the woods yet. Not even close.

An enemy platoon was still pressing on the flank. Selene had tried to rally as much support as she could spare, but she still had to hold her own section of line. Miko was gone, hunting a sniper around Logan's position. Gray and Gavin were going to have to hold out a bit longer.

“Alpha Wolf, we have another platoon coming down on us. We could really use some support,” Gavin said.

“Understood, but we're still waiting for it,” she responded. What was taking them so long? They had a golden opportunity here, and they were squandering it.

They had been lucky that they had been able to take the beach so fast. If they had been caught there by a force this size they would have been slaughtered. Here, in a strong defensive position, they could hold out for a while, but they couldn't do it forever. Logan's squad had already lost two, and Gavin and Gray were starting to take casualties as well.

“Another one,” Ethan said over the radio link. “Should be easy enough. The wrecks are restricting its movement.”

“Don't expose yourself too much. We can't afford to lose you,” Selene said.

She leaned out of the window in front of her and put a semi-auto shot through the head of an advancing NPC soldier. More shots forced her back before she could fire again.

By her estimation they had about fifteen minutes before they were overrun. Their backup had better get here fast.

“Buck Lead, Buck Lead, this is Wolf Lead. Buck Lead, please respond.”

“Go ahead Wolf Lead,” Bryce answered.

Zach ducked as an autocannon shot ripped through the wall above him. Another came through, then another. Then they stopped. Someone must have killed the enemy vehicle.

“Buck Lead, my troops are under attack by an enemy force of about 200-300 troops, backed up by armor support. We need backup now.”

“Sacred Sword is in the process of landing,” Bryce said.

“Then tell them to step on it!” Zach snapped. “We can't hold out much longer.”

“Copy that Wolf Lead.”

Zach grimaced. They weren't kidding when they had said that the troops here would be tougher. Even with his veteran troops, they had about fifteen minutes before the enemy burst through their line and took back the beach. Once that happened the operation was over.

“Wolf Lead, Wolf Lead, come in.”

Zach perked up as he heard the voice. “Sword Lead, I read you.”

“We're moving up, Wolf Lead,” David said. “I'm sending Morgan's platoon to the right flank. They'll help to jump start Marauder's push toward the gate. Staci's platoon will cover the other areas. Where do you need support?”

“Everywhere,” Zach said. “I think we can hold out in the center, but the flanks are taking the greatest beating.”

“Copy that. I'll send her over to the left flank and I'll put Gio's squad in the center once he gets here.”

“Any estimate on time?” Zach asked.

“They're coming across now,” David said. “Anna sent half your boats back to pick them up. The transports are headed back to grab Crimson Eagle and Band of Brothers as well.”

“Good news. Thanks David,” Zach said. He breathed a sigh of relief. They still had a battle to fight, but the danger had passed. That had been close. Too close.

They had come just in time. The right flank was starting to falter when Sacred Sword had suddenly appeared behind them, moving up to reinforce them. They brought Marauder with them, and the enemy assault buckled and then broke as they launched a ferocious counterattack. The pressed on toward the gate in the ensuing confusion.

Selene took a deep breath and sat back against the wall. The enemy had fallen back, discouraged by their stubborn resistance. The first phase was over. They had their beachhead. Now they had to take the city.

CHAPTER 21

One in a Million

“Good job, you guys,” Anna said. “You probably fought the toughest battle.”

“How's the push for the gate going?” Zach asked. He and Nora had moved back to the beach during the lull in the fighting. Crimson Eagle and the rest of Sacred Sword had moved up to reinforce the front line. Band of Brothers had spread out to the south, covering Marauder from the rear as they assaulted the gate.

“They're clearing out the last pockets of resistance, but the gates are open and the armored company is crossing the bridge right now.”

“Good.”

Zach turned and looked back at the beach. Supplies were being unloaded from a pair of transports. Part of Griffon Company had crossed as well, bringing their 81mm mortars to provide fire support. The artillery on the other side of the reservoir was thundering as well, taking aim at enemy positions and the antiaircraft defenses. Once they were down Raven Flight would have free reign over the district.

“We're going to be part of the push into the city,” Anna said. “Our role is to be the vanguard. We find and engage the enemy. If they're too tough, then we call for backup.”

“What's the plan for the armored company?” Nora asked.

“They're going to wait for us to engage before they move. Gina's hoping that our attack draws in a lot of enemy forces. Once that happens, they'll sweep in and hit the from the rear.”

“Isn't that going to be tough to pull off inside a city?” Zach asked. “I mean, there's only a certain number of ways they can get places.”

“That's what their infantry is for,” Anna shrugged. “It may work, it may not work. But regardless, they should have enough troops to achieve a breakthrough even if they can't perform a flanking maneuver.”

“Understood,” Zach said.

Liz had been on the radio the entire time they had been talking. She finally spoke up. “Good news. They're going to lend us a couple of assault guns. Gina told Ursa Major and Kodiak to detach, and they're going to move up with us.”

That was good news indeed, especially with the presence of enemy armor inside the city. The rangers would have two assault guns, and Sacred Sword had a pair as well. They would be invaluable for taking out enemy strong points and destroying vehicles.

“How long until we begin the next attack?” Zach asked.

Anna looked down at her wrist menu. “About ten minutes.”

Ursa Major and Kodiak rumbled forward, and Selene felt her confidence building. She was sure that her troops would be capable of doing whatever was asked of them, but this kind of support would put them over the top. Now they had some serious firepower to back them up if they got into trouble.

Their whole force here was formidable, truth be told. Between Redd Foxx, Sacred Sword, Crimson Eagle and Black Wolf they had almost three hundred troops present, backed up by four assault guns, mortars from Griffon and air support from Raven Flight. The batteries on the other side of the reservoir were in the process of destroying the last of the antiaircraft defenses. Speaking of which, they had heavier artillery support to call on if they needed it as well.

Still, this wasn't going to be easy, not by any means. Then enemy inside the district was well-armed, well-trained and intelligent. They weren't on equal footing with human players, but their numbers and equipment could make up from that difference, and they weren't dumb by any means. After all, the rangers had barely held on by the skin of their teeth.

Her radio buzzed. Anna was on the other end of the line, broadcasting a general alert.

“All rangers are to move forward through the streets. Black Wolf will take the right flank, and Redd Foxx will take the left flank. Each section is going to have the support of an assault gun. Kodiak will go with Redd Foxx, and Ursa Major will support Black Wolf. You are to act as the vanguard force. Find, engage and destroy the enemy. If they're too tough, hold them in place until support from the infantry arrives.”

Selene adjusted her channel. “Hammer 1, Hammer 1, do you read me?”

“I read you loud and clear,” said Connor, Ursa Major's commander.

“Good. Glad to be advancing with you again.”

“Feeling's mutual, Alpha Wolf.”

Selene switched channels again and reported directly to Anna. “Fox Lead, we're launching our attack now.”

“Copy, Alpha Wolf. Good luck.”

Once their orders had been given there was little discussion to be had. This was a textbook case that they had practiced many times, and no one bothered to confer with the others. Everyone knew what to do.

Selene's platoon would take the lead in front of the assault gun, walking about thirty yards in front of it. That would mean they were still in range of its support, but they also were far enough ahead to intercept anti-tank teams that were trying to destroy it.

Bravo Platoon would trail the assault gun, providing protection for it from the rear. If the forward platoons ran into a tough spot they could also advance forward to lend them aid.

Ursa Major itself would be used to take out enemies holed up in fortified structures, and to take out enemy armor if that ran into it.

As an added bonus, they weren't walking blind. Raven 5 and Raven 6 were hovering above. They could provide air support, but their real value was their ability to track enemy movements, unobstructed by the buildings in the streets below.

“Let's move people,” Selene ordered.

They were ready. But she had a nagging feeling in the back of her mind that this place had some sort of nasty surprise waiting.

Danny had heard the talk. It came from the newer players, the inexperienced, even a few of the veterans, When they had repulsed the enemy push on the boulevard they thought that they had inflicted a crushing defeat, and that the city would fall shortly afterward.

He didn't share their enthusiasm. In his mind, the enemy hadn't been routed. Sure, they had been pushed back with heavy losses. But if they were fighting a player army he would have credited the enemy commander with knowing when to fold. They had been stuck attacking a strong position that had been heavily reinforced. The only sensible thing to do was to withdraw and regroup.

Well, they clearly had regrouped now, and they were coming back at them with a fury that Danny had never seen out of NPC troops. He had to credit them. They were fighters, and Bravo Platoon had to fight them house to house.

Black Wolf's formation had come apart when they had been attacked form the flank by an enemy platoon. Selene and Ursa Major were already engaged by an enemy platoon in front, so Danny had to react with extreme levels of improvisation. He had Javy's squad lay down cover fire for the assault gun, trying to keep the enemy anti-tank teams at bay. While they were doing that Xavier and Karen stormed the set of building that the enemy was using for cover.

From his position Danny felt somewhat useless. He had devised the plan and had given the orders, but once that was complete it was in the hands of the sergeants. For him there was little else to do but join Javy's squad in laying down cover fire. It was an area where he was very proficient, at least.

By sheer luck another squad from Marauder had been moving up the streets on the other side of the buildings. While Xavier and Karen stormed in from the front they attack from the back in a fury, tearing through a confused enemy that was suddenly surrounded. In about a minute it was all over.

Danny smiled grimly to himself. Another block, another tough fight. There had been plenty of those these past few months, and there were plenty more coming. But he was looking forward to them all the same.

Progress was good. The main thrust was pushing through the outer streets into the heart of the city. Crimson Eagle had come under attack by about two hundred troops. They had a hard fight on their hands, but they were occupying a huge chunk of the enemy while the rest of them pushed on. Reports were that Sacred Sword was sending a platoon to help flank and crush the enemy.

Nora looked through the other reports in her menu. Black Wolf was running into tough resistance, but they had backup from the right wing of Sacred Sword's force. They had also run into infantry from Marauder and Band of Brothers advancing from the gate area, and they had started to coordinate their actions with each other. Whenever Black Wolf was engaged along their right flank the other two companies would launch an attack on the enemy's rear. Several enemy platoons were decimated by the tactics.

Coordination. Teamwork. Cooperation. Those cornerstones of Hydra were essential to their success. The enemy was skilled, tough. They would have been difficult for many to fight, but Hydra was a unique animal. Any time one of their companies ran into trouble the others were there to bail them out. Infantry that were pinned down had an assault gun come to blast the enemy to smithereens, or had mortar fire dropping on the opposition's heads. Armor that was under attack from RPG teams had a chopper drop out of the sky, guns blazing, or was shielded by a curtain of fire thrown out by their support ground troops.

“The armored company is almost to the capture point,” Anna said. The initial plan hadn't materialized, but they were able to smash their way through enemy lines with brute force.

Once the reached the capture point they would only need to take and hold it for a certain period of time. When that happened the district would fall under the control, and they would win the battle.

But approaching the capture point meant that the area's boss would spawn, along with reinforcements. None of them had any idea what it could be, and that unsettled her. True, they were more prepared than last time, but the boss in Lerna had destroyed half the attacking force, and that was for a small town. She imagined that the boss here would be much more powerful, and she wasn't sure that even with their improvement that they would be up to the task.

Liz seemed to pick up on her mood. “It can't be worse than last time,” she said reassuringly.

“Famous last words,” Zach commented lightly, but there was truth to that.

This was going to turn out very badly, Nora thought. Then her alert rang.

“Attention everyone, we have an aerial contact over the city. I repeat, we have an aerial contact over the city,” Robbie said.

“They're at the capture point,” Zach said. They all knew what that meant.

Nora looked over at Liz. “Know how it could be worse than last time? If the boss could fly.”

Liz shook her head. “OK, maybe opening my mouth was a bad idea.”

Nora looked around at them. “So we know what it is. How are we going to kill it?”

How, indeed.

*              *              *

“What's that noise?” Ethan asked, and then they saw it. A helicopter, bigger than the ones they used, was flying toward the capture point. It was large and heavily armed, with a chin mounted cannon, chain guns, rockets and other weapons that Selene couldn't identify on the stub wings. She also noticed that it didn't have a tail rotor; instead, it had two counter-rotating rotors mounted to the main drive shaft. It looked like it was heavily armored as well.

“OK, that's not good,” Selene said. No sooner had she spoken when the thing opened fire. Dozens of explosions ripped through the area around the capture point. Selene couldn't see any of the carnage, but it sounded bad. Very bad.

“OK, that's really not good,” Selene said.

She saw Raven Flight make a run at the enemy chopper, guns blazing. It opened fire on them, causing them to scatter. All of them backed off but one. The pilot skillfully turned his machine, rotating around the enemy chopper in a circle. It was out of the firing arc of the enemy and could line up its own shot. The boss might be heavily armored, but it couldn't turn as fast. They had found a critical weakness.

Then the chin gun started to rotate. Selene watched in horror as the cannon shells tore the rotor clear off of the drive shaft. The chopper fell out of the sky like a stone.

No, not like a stone. It wasn't coming straight down. The momentum from its circling was forcing it to drop at an angle. And judging by the direction it was dropping...

She looked around. Her troops were transfixed by the sight, oblivious to the danger. “RUN!” she shouted. That broke them out of their trance, and they started to flee. But they couldn't outrun gravity.

A shadow fell over them as the wrecked chopper fell to earth, right on top of them.

Danny had seen what the enemy chopper had done, but that wasn't the only misfortune, not by a long shot. More enemy infantry had spawned as well, and they were taking advantage of the confusion to launch a counterattack along the right flank, splitting the attacking force into several parts. Bravo Platoon had been separated from Ursa Major and Alpha Platoon, and were cut off from the the thrust coming from the gate as well.

He did what he could, rallying his platoon along with stragglers from Marauder and Band of Brothers inside a small apartment complex that afford them clear fields of fire. Their position was strong, and they needed it. They weren't facing a platoon. They weren't facing several platoons, not even a company. Danny estimated that his forty troops were facing down a battalion, between three hundred and five hundred strong. By his best estimate they were going to be overrun in ten to fifteen minutes.

Danny did everything he could to stall for time. He radioed a desperate plea for fire support as the enemy stormed across the the streets toward his beleaguered position. The answering barrage was close, very close. Bravehart dropped several shells in front of their positions, shredding the enemy but forcing everyone inside to cower as shrapnel and shockwaves tore at the walls. That bought them a few more minutes.

He called for more strikes, for mortar shells from the beach, though he found himself arguing over priority with several others. Thankfully, Zach and Anna overruled them and got them the fire support they needed. More enemy troops were cut down in the ensuing barrage, but they couldn't hold them off forever. As soon as the mortar fire stopped the enemy surged across the street again.

Danny cocked the bolt of his machine gun and stuck it out the window. There was no question of orders right now. Everyone in the building knew that there was only one order to follow: keep firing until the end. Danny had no illusions about their prospects. They were all dead. He only hoped that their resistance would buy the rest of Hydra enough time to rally.

That was looking dubious right now though. The enemy chopper was still circling above, spitting out death.

“Selene, are you OK?” a voice asked.

She coughed and croaked out an answer. “Surprisingly, yes.”

The rest of her platoon definitely wasn't. Over half of them had been killed when the chopper had landed right on top of them, crushing some under its weight and shredding others with its still moving tail rotor. Others had been slammed by the fuselage and tail boom as it had skidded along the street. Selene had only been saved when someone had yanked her into an alley.

She turned to look at who had saved her hide. It was Miko.

“Talk about good timing,” she commented lightly, trying to keep her humor about her. She couldn't. “How are we going to take out that thing?” Selene asked despairingly.

Miko looked like she was lost in thought as she looked up at the dark shape, still dueling with the remnants of Raven Flight. “I think I have an idea,” she said. “But I'm going to need to get on top of one of the artillery towers.”

Selene frowned. Those were still in enemy held territory. But there weren't any better things to do at the moment. Her platoon had ceased to function as a useful fighting unit in the span of a minute. This was probably going to be the best thing that they could do to influence the battle.

“OK, I'll try to rally as many of the survivors as I can,” she said. “We'll head for the nearest tower, and you can explain your plan on the way.

“Actually...” Miko said. “Raven 2 and Raven 3 still have their bench seats, right? See if you can call them down here. We can land right on the roof of one of the towers. They should be clear after the bombardment.”

“That's crazy,” Selene said.

“Do you have any better ideas?”

“Nope,” Selene said. She activated her radio and hoped that Miko's plan was a good one.

News from the front lines was dire. The armored company had lost Fury, Thunderclap and six Rams to a rocket attack from the hovering chopper. Raven Flight had lost two craft. Their lines had been punctured in several places. Danny was cut off in a sea of enemy troops. He couldn't raise Selene over the radio. The left flank was holding steady and Sacred Sword was starting to rally the line, but the enemy had them on the back foot.

It was just like the situation in the battle for Lerna, Zach thought to himself. The boss was the key to everything. If they could destroy it, then everything else would fall with it. But were they going to be able to destroy it before it smashed their forces beyond repair? More importantly, just how were they going to destroy it?

Zach felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. There was no way around it. They were going to lose.

“Yes, that's right. I said fire on those coordinates,” Danny said.

“That's right on top of your position,” the Bravehart gunner on the other end of the line responded.

Danny leaned out the window and fired a burst. He cut down three enemies, but by now it was like trying to bail out the Titanic with a bucket.

“I know, but we're attracting the enemy like flies,” he said. “Fire on those coordinates, and don't worry if there's friendly fire. We're all dead anyhow.”

“Copy, Bravo Wolf,” the gunner said, sounding shaky.

Danny fired burst after burst at the tide of enemy soldiers, cutting them down in droves. Still they advanced on their positions. His officers down below were reporting heavy casualties; they were down to about twenty five troops. Not enough to stem the tide. Not nearly enough.

Then the shells started falling.

The enemy chopper drifted over the beach, and every gun in the area opened fire on it. Assault rifles, machine guns, guns mounted on the boats, even submachine guns and pistols, everything that could throw out bullets was firing at the boss. It didn't do them any good. With one single barrage the enemy chopper blew three boats out of the water, then continued on like nothing was happening. It was too strong.

They had been so arrogant, Nora thought to herself as she fired her gun uselessly at the boss. They had been so focused on getting their own air power in the skies that they hadn't even considered the possibility that the enemy here could have air power as well. Their hubris was going to cost them.

They had no way to stop it; no antiaircraft units, no guns, not even proper targeting equipment. It could shrug of anything they threw at it with impunity, and it could devastate their own units. It was over. They were little more than a corpse at this point, twitching but already dead.

Something in the sky caught her attention. A pair of choppers made a run at the enemy chopper, guns blazing. They broke off as it turned and fled toward the center of the city. The enemy chopper followed after them.

It was a brave attempt, but that was all they had left at this point. The only thing they could do was to go down fighting hard.

“Here it comes,” Selene said. The plan was iffy at best, but it was their only hope of success.

She had managed to rally a half dozen others to join them; Ethan, Gavin, Jade, Kelsey, Leigh, Riley. The others had been too badly injured to be any help. Lyla was fit, but she had far too many casualties to treat.

They had mounted up on Raven 2 and Raven 3 and had flown to the roof of a gun tower. Miko's hunch had been right, and there was no resistance to be had. They could never be too careful, though, and half their number was guarding the stairs. That left herself, Miko and Ethan on the roof.

The plan was audacious. Raven Flight had made a run at the enemy chopper and had baited it into chasing them. They had put themselves at an altitude that was level with the tower, and would pass by it at about one hundred and fifty yards. That was when they would strike.

They had two chances at it; Miko would fire at the cockpit, hoping to kill the single pilot. At the same time, Ethan would try to hit it with his recoilless rifle. If he got a decent hit she was certain that they would destroy it, but that was going to be far easier said than done. The chopper was moving fast, at hundreds of miles per hour. They had one shot at it, and that shot would be difficult in the extreme.

The battle was going to hinge on this moment.

Time seemed to slow. Raven 1 and Raven 2 streaked pass, performing evasive maneuvers to avoid being hit by the enemy's cannons. Then they were past. The boss was in front of them.

Ethan fired, drowning out the sound of Miko's own shot. It looked straight and true. The shell streaked toward the enemy chopper, right on target...

It missed.

It missed. Selene sank to her knees in despair. All that time and effort, and they had just lost the battle.

“Oh man,” she heard Ethan say, but his tone was of wonderment, not despair or frustration. Selene looked up.

The chopper was flying erratically, jerking upward as it moved forward. Its nose suddenly pitched upward, and then it spiraled out of control. Selene watched in amazement as it hurtled toward the ground and exploded into a million pieces.

The radios came alive with chatter. There was shock, wonder. Selene contacted Zach.

“I thought you guys were dead,” he said. “What just happened?”

Selene was grinning ear to ear. “We're up on one of the artillery towers. Miko just sniped the pilot with one shot.”

Danny had been too busy to notice the miracle in the sky. In between shells he popped his head out of the window, firing off shots at anyone who dared to show their face. They had killed scores, hundreds, but there were just too many to hold off. Now they were down to seventeen troopers.

His gun clicked empty. Danny grabbed another belt and tried to reload as quickly as he could manage. The artillery fire outside had stopped. They needed more firepower, and they needed it quickly. He slapped the gun cover back into place and cocked the bolt, then leaned back out the window.

Something was different, though. The enemy wasn't pressing them anymore. In fact, they were facing a different direction altogether. There was a furious firefight going on down there. And then the enemy broke, driven back by the a torrent of fire and a storm assault. He knew that style at once.

“Raider Lead, Raider Lead, you out there?” he asked.

“Roger, Bravo Wolf,” Cody replied. “We're making another push for the capture point. The boss is down.”

“Copy that. I don't have many troops, but we'll give you what support we can,” Danny said.

He didn't know how much they could do, but they could try. They had a battle to win.

Zach found them leaning up against the ruins of a destroyed Ram, exhausted. “Good work guys.”

Selene, Danny and Miko were too drained to answer him at first. Danny finally spoke up.

“That was rough,” he said.

“Want to know what's rougher?” Selene asked. “There's eight more of them.”

“And it's going to get tougher,” Nora said as she walked up. “The armored company took a beating. They're completely shattered right now. We can rebuild them, but it's going to be weeks, months.”

Zach nodded. “I wouldn't worry about it. Tech didn't win us this battle. Sure, it helped a lot. But we won because of ingenuity and determination.”

“We're going to need a lot more of that,” Miko said.

“We'll get it. That's who we are,” Nora said.

Zach looked out over the smoking district, the place that they had fought so hard for. It was indeed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mitchell T. Jacobs was born in Anyang,

South Korea and was adopted at an early age.

He currently resides near Ithaca, New York.

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Also by the Author:

Black Wolf: A World at War Novel

Hydra: A World at War Collection

Table of Contents

- Copyright
- CHAPTER 1 Grab and Run
- CHAPTER 2 First Founding
- CHAPTER 3 The Spartan Way
- CHAPTER 4 Ranger
- CHAPTER 5 Robber Baron
- CHAPTER 6 To the South
- CHAPTER 7 Valkyrie
- CHAPTER 8 Interdiction
- CHAPTER 9 Cruise
- CHAPTER 10 Twilight of the Gods
- CHAPTER 11 On Wings of Eagles
- CHAPTER 12 Melee
- CHAPTER 13 Sleight of Hand
- CHAPTER 14 On Top of the World
- CHAPTER 15 Sound and Thunder
- CHAPTER 16 Back Together
- CHAPTER 17 Stockpile
- CHAPTER 18 Poker Face
- CHAPTER 19 Calm Before the Storm
- CHAPTER 20 Red Beach
- CHAPTER 21 One in a Million
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Also by the Author: