Fang: A World at War Novel (World at War Online Book 3) (10 page)

“
Isn't the attack up top Marauder's job?” Danny asked.

“
We're switching the plans. Marauder will follow behind us, but I want to take advantage of the confusion right now. We'll help clear the way for him.”

“
Sounds like a suicide mission,” Danny commented. “Good luck. I'll relay the change to Cody and the rest.”

“
Thanks,” Zach replied. He moved over toward Ethan. “Let's move up.”

“
Got it,” Ethan grinned. “We don't get any of the easy jobs, do we?”

Zach grinned back. “Let's go have some fun.”

One hand motion later and the rest of Alpha Wolf Platoon started moving into position. Enemy troops peered over the edge of the platform above, but were quickly driven back by relentless fire from Bravo Wolf Platoon. A pair of them fell onto the track below, riddled with bullets. Definitely the handiwork of Danny, Zach thought to himself.

“
Logan, move your squad up the stairs and take the platform,” he ordered. “We'll be right behind you.”

“
Copy.”

Zach watched Alpha 3 break out of cover and launch their assault. One of them was hit by a stray bullet and fell, but the rest quickly stormed up the stairs and started to lay a hail of fire on the enemy positions on the main platform.

“Move! Move it!” he heard Ethan yelling at his squad. Alpha 2 sprinted up the staircases to join their comrades fighting up top. Alpha 1 was right behind them.

The cover on the platform was better than he had hoped. There were benches on both sides. They weren't great, but it was better than standing out in the open. One of Logan's heavies had gotten behind one and was pumping machine gun fire down the passage.

They couldn't stay here forever, though. Even with the cover their position was far too exposed. Enemy reinforcements coming from up top could lay a hail of fire on them while advancing down the staircases leading from the surface.

The rest of them knew it as well.

“Ethan, Logan, give us some cover,” Gavin said. “We're going to head to the base of the stairs.”

Zach spoke up. “Ethan, have your squad ready to leapfrog them,” he said. “Move up the stairs into the main station.”

“Do we have enough troops to deal with that?” Logan asked over the radio.

“
Well, we'll find out soon enough,” Ethan said sardonically.

Zach nodded. No guts, no glory. “Alpha Wolf, let's move.”

Someone buzzed him on another channel. Zach answered as the rest of Alpha Wolf carried out their orders.

“
Wolf Lead, this is Raider Lead. Wolf Lead, come in,” Cody said.

“
I hear you, Raider Lead,” he responded.

“
We're moving up toward your position. How are things coming on your end?”

“
We have the platform leading up to the above ground levels. We're trying to take the stairs right now. Light casualties,” he replied.

“
Copy that. We'll-”

The sounds of gunfire suddenly came drifting down from up above. Zach turned in time to see three members of Gavin's squad fall. Even from this distance he could tell that they were dead. Then another one was hit, though they were still alive.

“Crap!” Gavin said through the radio. “We need backup, now! We just lost Lyla!”

She was Alpha 1's medic, so without her there was no chance of treating casualties. But the most important part was the fact that Alpha 1's strength had been cut in half in a few seconds. There were enemy troops in force up top as well.

“Raider Lead, we need backup now,” Zach ordered. “Heavy opposition up top. Heavy opposition up top in the main station.”

“
Copy. We're coming,” Cody responded.

Zach looked down to see squads of Marauder troops moving toward the stairs. They would turn the tide, but Gavin's squad needed help right now.

“Alpha Wolf! Let's move!” Zach ordered. His squads charged forward toward the bottom of the stairs with him in the lead.

Famous last words, Zach thought to himself. This seemed like one of those times where he would get himself killed. But there was little else to do. Marauder was going to have a hard time pushing into the upper levels of the station if the enemy pushed them back. And despite their place as stealth troops, Black Wolf was made up of tough fighters.

Zach reached the bottom of the stairs and trained his carbine upward. A shape moved up above, silhouetted by the light streaming through the windows. He fired.

The enemy fell, but more took its place. Bullets cracked by his head. Someone fell on him from behind, spoiling his aim and causing his next shot to go wild. Zach turned to help whoever had hit him up, but they were face down, stone dead.

He loaded up a grenade into his launcher and fired it into the upper reaches of the station. At the very least, he hoped that he could scatter some of the enemy troops.

“
We can't stay here,” Gavin said.

Zach nodded at him. “Alpha Wolf! Push up the stairs into the station and take anything out that gets in our way. Form a perimeter so Marauder can get up the stairs without any trouble. Aye?”

“Aye!” came the response back.

“
Let's move!”

Logan's squad went first, firing as they went. Another one of their members went down, but they managed to reach the top of the stairs relatively intact. He signaled the rest of them forward.

Ethan's squad moved up next, having a much easier time of things since they had allies up top providing cover fire. His squad started to fan out across the station above.

Zach looked back at the Marauder troops hurrying across the platform to Black Wolf's position. There were a lot of them, at least forty to fifty. More of them were on their way.

“You can withdraw your squad,” Zach told Gavin.

Gavin fixed him with a look. “No way. We're seeing this through to the end.”

Zach shrugged. “Suit yourself, and head up top. I'll bring Marauder with me.”

He turned and greeted the first squad to reach him, lead by Cody.

“How are you doing now?” Cody asked him.

“
Still pretty hairy, but we can win this,” Zach told him. “My guys are forming a perimeter up top. “No sure how long they can hold out, so they need reinforcements pronto.”

Cody gave him a devilish grin. “Well then. That's what we're here for.” He turned to his waiting troops. “Marauder! Let's crush 'em! Are you ready?”

“Hakkaa päälle!” came the reply.

Marauder had borrowed the old Finnish battle cry as their own: hack them down. They would certainly do that.

“Let's go!” Cody ordered. He charged up the stairs with the rest of Maruader Company in tow.

Zach went up with them. There was still a lot of brutal fighting to do, but for the first time in a while he felt relief. Now their victory was in sight. Now they had the upper hand.

CHAPTER 10

Underworld

Crack!

There was a collective shout of dismay, followed by a deathly silence. Then the boos started.

Nora wasn't among them, but she sat watching miserably as the batter rounded the bases. The others weren't so quiet.

“Really? REALLY?” Danny was saying in disbelief.

Zach had his head in his hands. Selene just groaned.

“Eh, probably not the time to gloat,” Liz said.

Nora looked over and gave her an icy smile. “Not really, no. Although I'm not sure why we're all so shocked.”

The Cubs were at it again. Up by two runs, fighting for a spot in the playoffs, things looked like they were well in hand against the Brewers. The pitcher had given up a single in the top of the eighth inning, but had struck out the next two batters.

Then everything collapsed with one pitch.

The batter had crushed it, blasting the ball over the center field fence. With it went the Cubs' hopes of a quick victory. Now they would have to win in the last two innings, and their offense wasn't exactly inspiring any confidence.

“
Seven scoreless innings, and once again the bullpen's going to blow the game,” Danny groaned.

“
Would help if the offense could score,” Selene muttered.

“
When's football start?” Zach said.

Nora looked back over toward the mound. “Come on guys, they can still pull it out.”

“Glad you're so optimistic,” Danny said.

Liz snorted. “Oh please. At least your team has a shot at the playoffs. Mine's in contention for the number one pick in the draft.”

“And yet they're somehow not rolling over and dying like they were supposed to.”

Crack!

“Are you serious?” Selene asked in disbelief.

Nora caught a glimpse of the ball. “It's going foul.”

Indeed it was. It landed in the right field seats, just outside of the foul pole. Barely.

“
I'm going to have a stroke,” Danny said.

“
Maybe we should have drank more,” Zach commented ruefully.

Clunk.

Another ball flew up in the air and landed in the stands behind home plate.

“
Better,” Selene said. “Maybe they'll be able to fight their way out of this mess.”

Nora watched the pitcher rear back, then hurl the ball. From her vantage point in the stands near third base it looked like it was going outside of the strike zone. But then...

The batter swung and missed, and the stands erupted in cheers.

“
Nice curve,” Zach said.

“
It had some bite to it,” Nora agreed. She had played softball in high school and had watched it often as well, so she had a great deal of appreciation for good play.

“
So, can they do it with two innings left, is the question?” Liz said.

“
You're being a remarkably good sport about it all,” Zach said.

She shrugged. “When you root for the league punching bag, you tend to take these kind of things in stride. Plus, no one actually expects them to win, so I'll take what I can get if they do.”

“Besides, this gets us out and about, at least,” Selene said.

“
Speaking of that, how is your end going?” Liz asked.

Selene frowned. “A whole lot of searching. We're getting the place mapped, but we've been running into fights, and we still don't have a clue what's attacking us.”

“Yeah, it hasn't been great,” Nora agreed.

The further that Hydra pushed forward, the more they were pushed to their limit. By taking the station they had opened the path to another district in Indianapolis, but that came with its own problems. The surface around the area was the scene of fierce fighting. Dragon Battalion was spending most of its time fending off attacks from the NPC garrison. Redd Foxx had started to scout the district itself, but the work was dangerous.

That left Black Wolf and Barghest to scour the rest of the subway tunnels to find out where they went. That was all well and good for Black Wolf; they had a plethora of veteran troops that were used to fighting inside the tunnels. And even though they were in a hostile environment, they could thrive, using all their strengths and skills to their advantage.

But Barghest Company was a different story. They were solid, in their own way. Nora had worked alongside them long enough to know they didn't lack the ability to fight. But they were missing the skills that made Black Wolf so effective. They couldn't perform the stealth work that the rest of Ghost Battalion could, and they lacked the experience in close quarters battle that they others possessed. Yet Zach had been adamant, and Anna had reinforced his decision. Barghest Company needed to pull its weight, and was in charge of exploring the tunnels to the south.

It was a tough job. Maybe that was the point, to put the new recruits through the grinder to see who would come out the strongest. But the southern tunnels were probably the worst place to train them, in Nora's humble opinion. There was just too much down there that made even the veterans nervous. She felt it, Karen felt it, Selene felt it, and Miko felt it. Something about the place was just very wrong. The enemies that were hounding them throughout the corridors were like ghosts, impossible to find. Bodies had a tendency to disappear when they were around, never to be seen again. The only signs of a struggle were the spots of bronze-colored blood.

Miko had tried tracking them by herself, but had found nothing. Worse, the enemy had managed to get the drop on her and forced a firefight. Nora had to lead a strike team into the tunnels in order to extract her from her predicament.

That fact was extremely concerning. Miko was their best stealther, better than anyone in Black Wolf and as good as anyone in Redd Foxx. If their foes could discover her, then none of them were safe in spite of any precautions they might take. The might as well not bother with stealth work and simply focus on uncovering as much of the unknown as possible.

Maybe that was Ghost Command's reasoning behind their decision to throw Barghest Company into the crucible, since their lack of stealth skills wouldn't be a problem. Whatever the case, Nora and the rest of the officers still had a bunch of inexperienced troops on their hands, and they needed to whip them into shape quickly. The situation was far too tenuous. A successful attack from any quarter could bring Hydra's plans crashing down around them.

“Well, let's see what they can do now,” Zach said. “Who knows, maybe they'll be able to rally back.”

Nora looked back down at the field. The number six batter was coming up to the plate. Certainly not ideal for a team that was trying to fight their way out of a tie, but at least it meant that the top of the order would get to bat at least once.

The pitcher threw. Strike. Then he threw again. Ball. Then again. Strike.

“
He's doing pretty well,” Nora observed.

Then the next pitch came. It bounced low in the dirt and went wild. Luckily for the Brewers it didn't matter, since there was no one on base.

“OK, maybe I spoke too soon,” Nora said.

Liz shook her head. “Believe me, I really don't think you're a jinx or anything. This team is too far gone for that to have any influence.”

Thunk!

The batter came around with a smooth swing and drilled a ball right in the gap between third and shortstop. It bounced once on the ground, and...

And the third baseman made a beautiful diving stop, gathering the ball into his glove. He got up to his knees and threw a bullet toward first...

That sailed straight over the first baseman's head into the stands. The crowd cheered wildly as the batter took second base.

“And that would be why they're getting the first pick in the draft,” Liz said. “Suspect fielding, among other things. I don't even know why I'm disappointed.”

“
The Cubs still have to hit with a runner in scoring position,” Danny said, “and that seems like it's a disability for them tonight.”

“
Milwaukee's relief pitching isn't exactly the thing inspire any faith,” Liz replied.

The tension in the air was palatable as the batter stepped into the box.

“Just need a single,” she heard Zach say.

The pitcher reared back and threw a bullet. Strike.

“Whew, nice location,” Nora commented as she looked up on the instant replay screen. “Lower outside corner.”

Another pitch. Ball. Then another. Ball.

“Good plate discipline,” Selene said.

Nora nodded in agreement. One of the pitches had looked like it was going over the heart of the plate but then dropped at the last second. She might have swung at that, but then again, she wasn't a professional.

The pitcher reared back again and threw a pitch. It was hard to tell from this distance, but it looked like it was low. But the batter swung anyhow.

“
What's he doing?” Danny asked incredulously.

Crack.

He made solid contact, driving the ball toward the gap between first and second base. The second baseman reached for it, but the ball was too high. Wild cheers broke out as the ball rolled into the gap between right and center field and the runner on second came home.

“
Came through in the clutch,” Zach said with a laugh.

“
Now they just need some insurance,” Nora said.

The Cubs didn't get that insurance. They didn't need it, because their closer came through in the top of the ninth inning, and the fans went home happy.

Nora had enjoyed the night outside of the game world. Playing World at War was tons of fun for her and the rest, but their lives couldn't be spent entirely inside a virtual world. There was too much outside of it to enjoy, and Nora wasn't going to let it all pass her by, even if being inside the game world was her job.

But now it was back into the world, back into the grind. They had tunnels to explore, and a mystery to solve.

Karen had called a meeting of the Black Wolf officers seconded to Barghest Company: Nora, Selene and Miko, who was now officially sporting the rank of sergeant. It was up to them to decide where they would go next, and how they would deal with the threats from the shadows.

“I don't know what to do, honestly,” Miko was saying. “I've never had problems tracking something like this, and the fact that they found me is weird.”

“
I think we can rule out the possibility that they're human NPCs,” Karen said. “We're dealing with some sort of monster, and it looks like they're highly intelligent.”

“
We're not even sure how they kill,” Selene said. “No one seems to remember how they died, and we have no corpses to study. Are they even using firearms, or is it something else?”

Karen frowned. “OK, what's your take on this? Because all the logical assumptions are going by the wayside.”

“Well, maybe we're fighting something that has better technology than we do,” Selene suggested. “I mean, it's not out the question that they have a schematic that we have no clue exists.”

“
OK, then what could they be using that would provide a good explanation for what's happening, then?” Karen asked her.

“
Maybe something like active camouflage?” Miko suggested. “Maybe that's why it looks like we're fighting nothing. Something like that would be very hard to see in the dark as well.”

“
Then explain the bronze-colored blood,” Karen said. “I'm not seeing how anything human bleeds that kind of color.”

“
They have to be humanoid,” Nora finally spoke up. “How else did all of the bodies in the meat locker end up on the hooks? And how were they able to drag the bodies away?”

“
That room could have been put there just for atmosphere,” Selene suggested.

“
In my experience, the developers didn't put anything in this game just for atmosphere,” Nora replied. “Everything is put there for a reason.”

“
OK, so they're humanoid,” Selene said. “That still doesn't change a lot. Who's to say they aren't something like mutants, or something of that nature?”

“
That's what we're going to have to find out,” Nora shrugged.

“
And that's the major problem,” Miko said. “We have no way of tracking them.”

“
I think we need to abandon stealth,” Karen spoke up. “It's getting us nowhere. They want to hide in the dark? Fine, we'll make the dark disappear. We have floodlights that we can carry with us. That should make it harder for them to just sneak up on us.”

“
So we advance in force and dare them to come at us?” Selene said. “That could be a very good or a very bad idea.”

“
Honestly, I'm willing to try anything at this point,” Nora spoke up. “This is just getting really frustrating. Nothing is getting done right now, and they could use a fight. And if we run into serious trouble maybe Hydra Command will be more sympathetic to our problems.”