Deception City: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 5)

T
his 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.

DECEPTION CITY

Copyright © 2015 by Xiphos Press

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, 2015

Cover art by Maria Montreuil

• @mitchelltjacobs
  
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N
OVELS

Black Wolf: A World at War Novel

Howl: A World at War Novel

Fang: A World at War Novel

Werewolf: A World at War Novel

N
o sight
. No scent. No sound.

The waterfront lay blissfully quiet under the virtual night sky, dark save for small sections bathed in pools of light. An occasional group of guards passed through the area, eyes peeled for any sign of activity, ears open for the sound of rumbling motors. They wouldn’t be caught off guard by an amphibious landing.

Unfortunately for them, their enemy tonight wasn’t above the waves. Instead, they were lurking below.

Zach’s head broke the surface near the edge of the water, right next to a concrete pier, followed by the rest of his squad. Perfect location, he thought to himself. Their position placed them right between two of the lights, giving them a clear area to move inland. Now they only needed to get up on top of the pier and avoid the guards.

He made a hand signal to the others. One shape climbed up the pier, followed by another. Zach held his breath, waiting, hoping that they had timed their ascent right. The seconds seemed to tick by like hours.

Then a rope descended down into the water toward them. Zach grabbed onto it first and hauled him up, followed by the remaining five members of the team.

As soon as they were up top they sprinted for the nearest source of cover, a small abandoned building lost among the towering cranes and warehouses lining the docks and harbor. Once inside and safe they went to work.

The first thing to go was their wet suits and rebreathers, stacked in a corner next to a bundle of explosive charges. They wouldn’t be cheap to replace, but the extra weight would slow them down and Zach doubted they would be able to recover them after they were done.

Next went the cases they had been carrying on their backs. Everyone opened theirs up and took out the gear contained inside. Water would ruin most guns, so the only option when performing an underwater infiltration was to break them down, put them in watertight cases and carry them to shore inside.

Zach pulled out his carbine and reassembled it, then fitted the under-barrel grenade launcher. He withdrew the ammo pouches next and fitted them to his webbing. Finally, he grabbed his backpack and strapped it over his shoulder.

Everyone else finished uncasing and preparing their weapons: Gavin’s submachine gun, Nora’s burst rifle, Danny’s machine gun, Selene and Xavier’s assault rifles, Javy’s carbine and Miko’s sniper rifle. Everyone was armed to the teeth with extra ammunition, grenades, knives and extra blocks of explosives.

With one wordless signal Zach directed them out of the building and into the heart of the port. They didn’t speak, not even in whispers, because none of them needed to. All of them were veterans of World at War Online. They knew their roles, knew what needed to be done, and didn’t have to be ordered around. In fact, outside of Miko, who was a law unto herself, every one of them was a commander.

But before they had been commanders, before the Hydra Alliance, before the war with Ragnarok, before any of that, they had been fighters in a small band, and they had become very proficient at their jobs, capable of doing any job on the front lines. That was why they were here, deep in enemy territory, just an eight member team against the might of a huge enemy task force.

The odds seemed to be stacked completely against them, but there were more factors to take into account than simple numbers. Their unit, operating under the callsign Fang, had plenty of ways to turn the tables in their favor.

No sight. No scent. No sound.

The first, as always, was stealth. Black Wolf Company still lagged behind their counterparts in Redd Foxx Company regarding that skill, but they were still rangers and could hold their own against all but the very best. Training had honed them to a keen edge, and combat experience only made them sharper.

Zach held up his hand as he spotted movement ahead. Quickly, silently, the squad melted further into the shadows. A quartet of Ragnarok guards walked past, idly chatting, completely unsuspecting. After all, there were defenses on the shoreline and boat patrols on the lake. What could possibly get through to them in the middle of their base?

Zach trained his gun on them, sending a silent signal to the others through the communications system as he did so. The squad moved into action at once. Three of them covered the other angles in case more enemy troops decided to show up. The other four broke cover. Within a second the patrol had knives in their backs. Fang Squad dragged the bodies into a dark corner and hid them.

They couldn’t conceal them forever. They might be able to trick the AI, but human players were an entirely different story. Their Ragnarok enemies weren’t stupid, and they’d soon realize one of their patrols was missing. But Fang’s efforts would buy them a bit of time, and every second mattered in a situation like this.

Zach signaled for the squad to move forward, putting Gavin and Xavier up front. They could deal with sudden threats in a blink of an eye. Next went himself and Nora, followed by Selene and Miko, with Javy and Danny bringing up the rear. The group had firepower to spare, but Zach didn’t want to use it unless they absolutely had to. Even with suppressors, the sound of firing weapons would be a dead giveaway. The Ragnarok troops might not be able to pinpoint their exact location, but they’d know something was afoot. Once that happened, all bets were off.

Black Wolf Company had become proficient raiders alongside their partners in Ghost Battalion, Redd Foxx, Barghest and Spectre Companies, capable of hitting their enemy anywhere at any time. Even places deep in enemy territory weren’t safe from their strikes, and that put fear into enemy hearts.

But with that fear came alertness and caution. Ragnarok had been on the receiving end of many Ghost Battalion raids, and they definitely didn’t want to fall victim to any more. If roused they would respond quickly and with overwhelming force. Zach and the rest knew one thing: Ragnarok didn’t mess around. If given the chance they’d get their hands on the enemy and crush them with everything they had at their disposal.

That hinged on one element, though. In order to bring that force to bear they had to find their target first, and rangers were particularly difficult to pin down. They had their stealth abilities, but if those failed they had yet more tools at their disposal. Everyone in Fang carried a set of charges, prepared by Zach before the mission. At certain points he directed them to set the explosives. If needed he could set them off individually or in a series.

He could have handed off the detonator to someone else, but habit made him keep it himself. It was a holdover from the previous version of World at War Online, where certain tasks could only be performed by particular classes. Explosives, for instance, could only be used by engineers. That extended to types of equipment as well. Under the old system he couldn’t even pick up a machine gun or sniper rifle.

But the newest version of World at War had changed all that, bringing a massive overhaul to the game world in the process. Classes were gone, replaced by skill advancement known as the sync system. Zach didn’t know all the details, but under the new system anyone could learn any skill or use any equipment. Their proficiency depended on their experience with said skill or object, mirroring learning in the real world. The longer you shot a particular gun, for instance, the better your aim became.

Even with the changes, most players stayed within the class roles they were used to. Part of the reason was habit and practicality: even though anyone could potentially perform any role, the ones that had been doing it for months were naturally better than those just starting out.

The second was due to a gameplay quirk: when the game transitioned from the old version to the current one, players were given a head start in certain skill categories based on their class. Zach had started out with a significant boost in his explosive skills, while Miko’s sniper rifle proficiency was almost maxed out from the start.

Gavin made a hand signal. Everyone faded back into the shadows as a lone enemy moved past them toward the docks. They could probably kill off him without much effort, but that might be more trouble than it was worth. The more enemies they killed, the greater chance someone would miss them and realize something was up. And the last thing they wanted was to get themselves killed.

That was one of the most significant changes in the new version of World at War. Death had become very cheap in the old system, little more than an annoyance. It dropped experience points a bit, but that only really influenced skills. And since skills were hardly used by the tougher fighting companies, death became little more than a slap on the wrist. But the update had gone to great lengths to correct that issue, and it had succeeded. Perhaps a little too well, in fact.

When killed a player would respawn as normal, but under the sync system their new body would be an imperfect clone, without all the acquired skills of the previous body. Players could upgrade their clone respawns to hold more skills, but there was a cap on how much could actually be transferred. Weeks or even months of experience could be gone in a flash.

The player base was divide on whether they liked the change or not, but everyone agreed on the widespread effect: death was no longer cheap, no longer just a little inconvenience. Now everyone took great pains to avoid being killed, though death was still inevitable at some points. The game
was
called World at War, after all.

But that didn’t stop the veterans, who still retained their sense of poise and aggression. They understood the nature of the world, and they wouldn’t hesitate in the face of danger. Even if they were killed they’d always get a second chance. They could relearn their skills over time, even if that was a painful process. But they wouldn’t cower and run from danger. They had faced it too many times to be fazed by it.

Besides, what was the fun of the game without some risk taking? Fang Squad operated behind enemy lines for the sheer excitement of it all. They had other roles, leadership positions within the company and the battalion, but sometimes it was just fun to let loose and thrust themselves into the middle of danger. Selene had compared it to riding a roller coaster or climbing a mountain. The possibility of danger only served to heighten the thrill.

Plus, there was a sense of pride mixed in as well. Black Wolf considered themselves to be predators capable of making others cower at their mere mention. That went for Ragnarok as well, even though their longtime enemy carried a similar reputation. It didn’t matter. Ragnarok was the prey, and they were the hunters, and they would continue to make every effort to prove that.

Fang Squad made their way through the enemy held port, dodging the guards they could and killing those they were unable to avoid. Most of them were NPC guards, though there were a few players sprinkled in here and there. That didn’t surprise him. Ragnarok had a lot of ground to cover, and he suspected most of their players were out on the lake patrolling in boats.

Xavier halted them in front of a huge warehouse. Zach moved up with Nora, taking out his binoculars to survey the area. Stealth looked like it was impossible at this point. The area around the warehouse was bathed in light, and there were numerous guards around the area. All of them looked like NPCs, which would help, but only to a point. They might not be able to hold them off forever but they could delay them until reinforcements arrived.

But they had been expecting this. Zach made a signal, and a moment later Danny and Miko disappeared from the group, taking to the rooftops. Meanwhile, the rest of them prepared to move.

Zach took a deep breath to focus himself. They’d only get one shot at this, and they needed to do it right the first time. If they failed they could cause a severe setback to the alliance’s strategic plans. A lot of pressure rested on their shoulders, but that was what they were here for. They’d conquer this challenge, just like they conquered every one that had come before.

Danny signaled him first, then Miko. Everything was set, as ready as it would ever be. Zach paused for a moment, waiting for just the right opportunity. He wanted the guards to turn around on their patrol route before they went any further.

They had stealth, they had confusion, but Fang Squad was about to use the third weapon at their disposal: sheer firepower.

Zach brought his gun up to his shoulder and signaled the others authorization. A second later he heard the loud, sharp report of a sniper rifle. One of the guards crumpled over, stone dead. The others barely had time to turn around before the rest of Fang opened fire.

There were at least twenty guards around the warehouse to start. Eight of them fell in the opening salvo, cut down by the Black Wolf team’s accurate fire. Zach heard Nora laying down quick bursts with her rifle, saw a hail of bullets from Danny’s machine gun tearing into crates, concrete and bodies, felt his own gun kick as he fired semi-auto shots. He fired twice more, and then he was up and moving, charging toward their target.

Gavin and Xavier stormed ahead of him, cutting down anyone that tried to get in their path. Those they missed were dealt with by Miko and Danny, providing overwatch atop another building. The rest of the squad charged in behind him, expertly guarding the angles. It wouldn’t take long for the Ragnarok garrison to respond to the gunshots. Enemy reinforcements could show up at any moment.

Xavier reached the warehouse doors first and opened them up, covered by Gavin. Zach half-expected to meet significant resistance inside, but the place looked deserted. Maybe all the guards had been posted outside.

But then he rounded a corner and found himself face to face with a gun barrel.

Zach tried to get his own weapon up, but he even as he moved he knew it wouldn’t be soon enough. His foe had picked a perfect spot to lay in wait, invisible from almost everywhere in the warehouse except from this angle. He didn’t envy whoever had to force them out of this position.

Just as he thought the end was coming he saw the enemy soldier crumple over. Zach brought gun up and fired a pair of shots into the corpse for good measure.