Carnage City: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 6) (2 page)

Players on the front lines with skills learned in the real world were also extremely valuable. Zach, their company commander, knew communications systems better than anyone. And Kelsey was a civil engineer in real life, which could help them immensely in an urban maze like this.

“OK, so if this goes straight then we’re going to come out eventually, and it’s going to be on the Ragnarok side of the lines,” Jade said. “Now the question is, where will that be, exactly.”

“If I had to guess, the shore,” Kelsey told her. “That’s the easiest spot for it to drain out.”

“I’d hate to see what kind of pollution that would cause,” Mara said.

“Well, maybe there’s a retaining pond or something. But I’m guessing the lake shore.”

Selene nodded. “In that case, we need to be careful. They’ve been patrolling the lake shore like crazy ever since we launched the amphibious assault.”

They continued forward through the dark corridor.

“If this leads out to the lake shore,” Jade began, “you’d think that they would have found it and used it to get behind our lines.”

“Maybe they’re too occupied with something else?” Selene suggested. “Most of the troops in the district were on the attack, and they moved their reserves to the west for the flanking maneuver. That doesn’t leave many reserves.”

“They could have sent a fireteam through,” Jade replied.

“That cuts both ways,” Kelsey said. “We haven’t taken the time to do it either, up until now.”

“Still… What if something’s keeping them from getting into the tunnels?”

“Something like a physical obstacle? Or something with teeth and an appetite?” Mara asked.

“I’m thinking the second is far more likely.”

“If we get close to the exit, try not to use your guns unless we absolutely have to,” Selene warned. “I know we have suppressors, but the noise is still a dead giveaway.”

They fitted the attachments to their weapons to avoid deafening themselves in the close-quarters environment, but there was no disguising the distinctive sound of a gun being fired. It would be much quieter, but anyone with a decent amount of experience could identify it, and then they were hosed.

“Great, so we’re going to have to kill whatever’s guarding the entrance with knives. How’d we get stuck doing this, again?” Jade asked.

“Like we haven’t been in worse,” Selene replied as she fitted her bayonet to the end of her carbine.

“Yeah, true.”

They continued through the tunnel for some distance until they reached a gradual curve. One glance at the map told Selene everything she needed to know. They were well behind enemy lines, about to emerge at the lake shore. If this spot was undiscovered, they might have their breakthrough.

And she could see daylight ahead as they rounded the bend. Just a little further…

Something about the size of a basketball burst out of the water, and Selene almost pulled her trigger out of reflex. Instead, she restrained herself, stood her ground and then met the thing in midair with a lunging thrust, spearing it clean through.

More shapes emerged from the water and came after her, probably because she was in the lead position and the closest target. The moved fast, but Selene responded faster. She made a wild sweep to clear the first corpse off her bayonet, then swept back to catch the incoming attackers with a brutal cut. Selene felled three with one sweep, then hit another with a straight thrust. The rest fled into the water and disappeared.

“OK, guess I was right,” Mara commented. “But what the heck were those things?”

Four lights converged on a corpse laying on the walkway in front of them. The creature looked like a large frog, round, bulbous. It might be considered cute, except for the nightmarish maw filled with rows of fearsome-looking teeth.

“The creature designer must have had the easiest job in the world,” Jade said. “Just take everyday creatures and give them teeth and a nasty personality to match.”

Selene only half-heard that. She was too focused on the light looming ahead of them. It seemed bright, but not as bright as she would expect. After all, it was the afternoon…

But as they emerged from the end of the pipe, she realized why. Almost the entire area around their exit was surrounded by boat wrecks, blocking off light in many directions. One was even piled on top of the wrecks, providing more concealment from above. Ragnarok might not even know this place existed.

The wrecks formed a barrier, to be sure, but they were climbable. Selene could see spots big enough for a person to fit through. They couldn’t lug heavy weapons with them, but light infantry could make it.

And that made this a perfect spot for Ghost Company. She took a few pictures with her wrist menu camera, then turned toward the others.

“We’re heading back,” Selene said.

“Now?” Kelsey asked.

Selene nodded as she ushered them back into the tunnel. “We know where this comes out, thanks to the map. We know what’s at the other end, and we can study the photos I took. But we don’t want to get caught, otherwise our surprise is gone.”

“A lot calmer than I was expecting,” Jade said.

Kelsey glanced over at her. “Why, what were you expecting?”

“A heavily-armed welcoming party?”

They might not have encountered anything like that, but that didn’t put Selene at ease. Not at all.

She had a feeling that this was the calm before an epic, violent storm.

“
M
an
, could this have gone worse?” Miko commented over the radio.

Zach gritted his teeth and fired a burst at the approaching enemy force. “We’re not all dead yet.”

“Yet. Keep your head on a swivel, Mr. Commander. There’s bound to be at least one sniper somewhere, and I might not catch them in time.”

“Thanks for the advice.” Zach switched radio channels. “Danny, how’s it coming on your end?”

“No go this way,” came the reply. “We might want some artillery support soon, otherwise this could get really ugly really quickly.”

Zach looked down at the map in his wrist menu for a moment. No go here. This area was too well defended for them to make a significant breakthrough. Bravo Wolf Platoon had managed to sneak past the enemy lines, but Ragnarok had responded quickly with an overwhelming force. Now they were faced with the choice of either trying to cross back over the lines under heavy fire, or staying put and hoping they could hold out.

Three hundred yards. Just three hundred yards from their own lines, but right now it might as well have been three hundred miles. The Cudahy District was a mess right now, torn apart by the constant barrage of shells and other munitions. City streets had been cratered by artillery, buildings severely damaged or reduced to rubble, and once straightforward routes turned into winding nightmares.

They could use the terrain to their advantage, but that cut both ways. Black Wolf could utilize their infiltration skills to fade into the ruins, but any commander worth their salt was going to have an ambush prepared for them when they tried.

“We’ve got hostiles trying to flank us on our left,” Xavier’s voice said over the radio, unflappable despite all the chaos.

Zach glanced in that direction. He wasn’t really a part of any unit, and had nominally attached himself to Javy’s squad when the shooting started. But though his main role was as company commander, he was no slouch on the battlefield either.

His glance counted an enemy squad moving to flank their position, centered on the ruined husk of a small four story building. He spied someone moving with a bulky piece of equipment on their back as well. Zach knew exactly what she was carrying: flamethrower.

“All units on the south side of the building, be warned that there’s a flamethrower,” he announced over the radio.

“Give me a second,” Miko said. “Ah, there she is. I assume you want her dead?”

“Please.”

Zach loaded up a grenade into his underslung launcher as well. He didn’t think that Miko would miss, but there were other enemies to kill as well.

He couldn’t hear the shot over the cacophony of gunfire, but the flamethrower operator pitched over violently, shot straight through the chest. Snipers could hit targets over a mile away under the right conditions. In this environment, with distances of a few hundred yards or less, sniping was like shooting fish in a barrel.

Of course, the minimized range came with its own set of problems. An RPG came streaking in overhead and slammed into the top floor of the building, sending small pieces of masonry and dust showering down. While the reduced range made kills easier, it also allowed the enemy to retaliate much easier.

“Miko, you still alive?” Zach asked.

“Alive and kicking,” came the reply, though she sounded quite perturbed. “I’d like whoever’s doing that to be dead soon, though.”

“Coming right up.”

Zach brought his carbine up to his shoulder and adjusted the launcher sights. The weapon kicked hard into his shoulder as she squeezed the trigger.

Bam!

The grenade landed right in the center of the enemy formation, sending bodies sprawling in all directions. Was the flamethrower permanently out of commission? Zach thought that was a good bet, but he’d need to keep an eye on it, just in case. At least the flanking maneuver had been taken care of.

“Zach,” Danny said.

“Yeah?”

“What’s our decision? Stay and fight, or try to find ourselves an opening?”

Zach had no immediate response. Extracting themselves from this mess would be difficult because the enemy was right on top of them. On the other hand, they had a limited amount of ammunition with no ability to get any more. If this lasted much longer they might be reduced to fighting with pistols and knives.

“Can you make a radio call?” he asked.

“Yeah, Ryan has things pretty well in hand over at this side,” Danny confirmed.

“Get on the line with Crimson Eagle and Marauder. See if they can make a push up toward our position.”

“Roger. So we’re staying?”

“We are,” Zach confirmed.

Ragnarok had a small salient extending into the midst of Dragon Battalion’s lines, and Bravo Wolf was currently right in the middle of that. If they could just get a push up toward their positions they could eliminate the salient and be one step closer to taking the district.

Danny would take care of that problem. Now, he had to deal with the other one. Without significant firepower, they would be overrun within five to ten minutes. Ragnarok looked to be bringing up their reserves in a bid to crush the incursion.

Zach changed channels on the radio. “Battery 3, Battery 3, this is Wolf Lead. Please respond. I say again, this is Wolf Lead. Please respond.”

“I hear you Wolf Lead,” came the response.

“We need fire support,” Zach said, then fed his contact the coordinates.

“I copy. Do you want additional support?”

“Whatever you can spare.”

“I’ll see what I can do. Battery 3, out.”

Zach switched back to Bravo Wolf’s open channel. “Everyone, be advised that we’ll have heavy artillery fire incoming. Be prepared to duck and cover.”

At the very least they had 155mm fire coming, and they might have 75mm artillery, 120 and 81mm mortars as well, depending on what his contact at the battery decided. Ragnarok might have rocket artillery, mortars and 75mm guns, but he’d take Hydra’s diversity of firepower any day.

Now, they just needed to hold out until it came. Easier said than done, though, because right at that moment Ragnarok seemed to press its attack. Machine gun fire tore into the cover in front of him, punching into the rubble and forcing him to take cover.

“You have a pair of squads moving on your position,” Miko said from her vantage point in the building. “Looks like assault troops with light weapons, covered by machine guns. What do you want me to target first?”

“Take the overwatch,” he ordered.

“Copy.”

The fire coming from the enemy lines suddenly slackened off a bit, though it didn’t stop. Zach tried to peek his head out of cover and was immediately met with a hail of bullets. He barely made it back into cover in time. One bullet grazed his helmet, knocking him loopy for a moment before he regained his bearings.

“Sorry, they’re closing faster than I can shoot,” Miko said. “I’ll try to get the last gunner.”

“Thanks. We’ll do what we can from here.”

He caught Javy’s eye and pointed to their grenade pouches. Zach received a nod of acknowledgement. Javy and the rest knew what to do when pinned down.

“Miko, how close? Close enough for grenade lobs?” he asked.

“Not quite,” she said. “Looks like they’re stopping to regroup for a moment, before they make their final push.”

“Roger. Give me a signal when they start to move again so we can try to fend them off.”

“Will do.”

Danny buzzed in. “I've got C.J. and Cody on the line. They’re preparing an attack, but it’s going to be twenty to thirty minutes before they’re ready to go.”

Zach gritted his teeth. Bravo Wolf might not last that long, but he really couldn’t fault them either. This was little more than a spur of the moment decision, a chance to take advantage of circumstances that had appeared before them.

“You told them our situation, I’m assuming?”

“I did, and I impressed on them that we’ll need help fast. They understand, but they don’t want to go off half-cocked and leave their lines vulnerable.”

“Naturally,” Zach replied.

He could understand that sentiment. The Hydra Alliance normally liked to plan their operations. While they were perfectly capable of improvising on the fly, they generally liked to have some sort of preparation ready. They needed to have a fallback option in case things went south during this fight. If they didn’t a setback could prove to be a deadly error, possibly costing them the fight for the entire district.

But that put them in a bind. Right now he only had about thirty troops at his disposal, facing scores, maybe even hundreds of Ragnarok troops. What was supposed to be a simple scouting mission had turned into an all-out brawl.

Zach and Danny had only brought one platoon with them, partly because they were the only available troops and partly because they thought that was all they needed. Most of Ghost Battalion was committed to other areas. Redd Foxx was at the western end of the line in the forests, Barghest and Spectre were conducting raids behind enemy lines, and Alpha Wolf was exploring the sewer tunnels. That left Bravo Wolf for the above ground routes.

“Wolf Lead, Wolf Lead, this is Battery 3. Artillery fire incoming. I say again, artillery fire incoming.”

Zach nodded to himself and raised the rest of the platoon. “Attention everyone, we have shells inbound. Duck and cover.”

Bravo Wolf hit the deck just before a series of explosions went off in front of them. The ground shook as massive blasts threw debris, earth and bodies into the air. Few things could survive a direct hit from such a large shell.

But the size of the blast radius meant that they had to be dropped relatively far from their positions. While the artillery fire could devastate large swathes of ground, it would leave anyone near their location unharmed. That was good for them, but by now there had to be some enemy troops closing the distance.

Miko confirmed that. “Zach, we have enemy troops continuing to crawl toward our positions. I’ll try to pick off as many as possible, but they’re going to get through.”

“Copy. Do your best.”

That left them with little choice. They couldn’t stand up to fire because of the blizzard of shrapnel and debris flying around, but they couldn’t just sit here and wait either. Ragnarok was very proficient at hand-to-hand combat, and with a significant numbers advantage they could probably overwhelm Bravo Wolf.

“Grenades?” Javy asked over the radio, trying to be heard over the din of battle.

“Grenades,” Zach confirmed. “Start chucking them, but be prepared for hand-to-hand.”

Javy gave the order to his squad, which quickly spread down the line. Zach remained confident that their unit could pull through this and earn a victory. All they needed to do was hold out under fire for a little longer.

He grasped at one of the grenades on his belt, pulled the pin and then made a blind lob toward the general direction of the enemy. Zach heard an explosion go off, but from his position he had no way of telling what kind of damage it might have done. At any rate, he wasn’t about to stick his head up and risk having it shot off. He would just have to keep fighting and hope his tosses were doing enough damage.

Zach threw another grenade, then another. Normally Hydra troops only carried three, but the urban conditions forced them to increase the number on their person. Grenades were useful for clearing rooms or reaching around corners, and running out of them at the wrong time could be a death sentence. As a result, many troops carried six or even eight.

He had five, since he also needed to carry specialized grenades for his launcher. At the moment, though, those were useless. Zach couldn’t stand up to aim it properly, and blind firing almost certainly meant overshooting his intended target. He might be able to fire it at a steep angle, almost like a mortar, but one slip-up and he’d accidentally bring a shell right down on his own head.

Lobbed grenades would have to do. And once they became impractical, it was time to switch to pistols and close combat weapons.

“They’re ten yards from the lines,” Miko warned. “Careful about-”

Something bounced off his back and landed on the rubble pile next to him. Without even thinking, Zach grabbed it and hurled it back as quickly as he could manage.

“Watch for incoming grenades,” he warned.

If Bravo Wolf could throw them, then so could Ragnarok. And if one landed in just the wrong spot…

Bam!

Another explosion went off behind them, near the base of the building. An overthrow, probably. Thankfully it missed them all, but one with better aim was sure to cause carnage.

And then the artillery bombardment suddenly lifted.

It took Zach a few seconds to realize it. He scrambled up, toggling his carbine to full auto. If they could just bring enough rifles to bear, they might be able to hold off the enemy…

But a Ragnarok trooper appeared over their barricade of rubble, and then all hope of that was gone. Zach shot a burst, catching him straight in the chest. The trooper fell, but more piled in behind him.

Zach pulled the trigger of his carbine, raking the assault enemy soldiers with gunfire at point-blank range. He killed an additional three, but that was mere droplets in a huge wave. His gun clicked empty just as another one made a lunging tackle, slamming him into the ground.

He struggled against his adversary, trying to get some distance. A silvery shape flashed in front of him, and Zach made a desperate kick. He caught the Ragnarok trooper in the stomach, sending him reeling backward slightly. The blade missed his face by mere inches.

But it was enough. Zach had lost his carbine in the struggle, but he yanked out his pistol, racked the slide and pulled the trigger twice. His enemy reeled backward and flopped on the ground. Dead? Zach thought so, but he shot him through the head one final time to make sure.

Another enemy was on him in a flash, thrusting at him with a bayonet. Zach somehow managed to dodge to the side. His foe’s momentum carried him forward, right into his pistol. Zach shot him in the face with one bullet.

He shot and hacked his way through the brutal melee, interspacing shots with slashes, stabs, elbow strikes, kicks, anything to gain the upper hand. The tide of Ragnarok troops wasn’t overwhelming, but his section certainly had its hands full.