Turbulence.

Danny braced himself against the side of the aircraft as it jerked violently, trying to keep his balance.

“What's with the rough ride?” he asked over the radio. “Is there AA fire?”

“No, it was just a wind gust,” the pilot answered. “You should be fine once we're over the landing zone.”

Danny certain hoped so, because if not they might be in serious trouble. Hard won experience had shown him that heavy winds could scatter paratroopers over a wide area, separating units and dramatically lowering their effectiveness. Even if they made it to the ground in one piece, he could effectively lose half his unit or more before the fighting even properly started.

But then, those risks were already known to them when they decided to take this route. Ghost Battalion was trained for air assault, rapidly deploying from helicopter transports backed up by gunships and sometimes artillery. It had proven to be effective in many battles, but there were weaknesses as well.

Initially they had to rely on their diminutive Hornets, small and agile, but not exactly built for transport. Troops had to ride outside on bench seats, exposed to the elements and enemy fire. The influx of the new Typhoons with proper troop cabins helped, but they still couldn't carry certain types of equipment.

More importantly, helicopters flew slower than fixed wing cargo transports, giving the enemy far more advanced warning. As a result, Ghost Battalion had decided to add to their capabilities. With many of the new cargo aircraft coming online they elected to train their troops as paratroopers, giving them the ability to rapidly deploy the battalion by air, along with heavier equipment.

It wasn't just a whim either. Ghost Battalion had a specific target in mind: the airport district inside Milwaukee. Currently held by NPC troops, control of the airfield would be critical in the Hydra Alliance's efforts to take the entire city. Ragnarok Company hadn't tried to invade it yet, but no one wanted to take the chance that they'd be able to grab it from right under their noses. If they were going to take it, they were going to take it now.

The previous few months had also colored their opinion. After the long, grueling fight for the Cudahy District the alliance was eager for a quick, decisive victory to turn the momentum in their favor, and this might be the ticket. Danny could sympathize with that feeling. Black Wolf Company had taken a beating over the course of the fight for the territory, stuck defending a tower against hammer blow after hammer blow. He, like everyone else, wanted to strike back at the enemy and hit them hard.

This was where they would do it. The NPC garrison might not be Ragnarok, but it would give them an opportunity to get back on the offensive. They could dictate the pace of the fight and regain the initiative.

Plus, with the airfield in hand they could move their helicopter and fixed wing forces closer to the front lines, giving them more options when it came to air support. Ragnarok still had an edge when it came to air superiority fighters and close support aircraft, but moving more planes closer to the front would certainly help Hydra. Right now they were based south of Old Chicago, giving them limited endurance. But the longer they could stay over the battlefield, the more effective they could be.

“How long until we're at the drop zone?” he asked.

“Five minutes,” the pilot responded.

Five minutes. Danny checked his machine gun and then leaned back against the side of the transport's cargo hold. They'd have a serious fight on their hands soon enough.










“The first wave is five minutes out from the target,” Liz said.

Nora looked down at the holographic map table in front of her, studying the display showing the airfield district. They didn't have the information they would have liked, but it would be enough to sustain them until their troops were able to get on the ground and assess the situation.

At least, they hoped so, but they had little choice in the matter. Performing reconnaissance on an enemy held district was hard enough in the first place, but with third party interference it became impossible at times. Recon planes couldn't stay aloft for long before being chased off by enemy fighters, helicopters were vulnerable to antiaircraft fire, and the infantry scouts didn't have many good places to infiltrate, since there were no true gaps in the walls surrounding the district.

That meant relying on photographs taken during the course of relatively high-speed passes, and those weren't terribly detailed. They still had a general idea of the enemy's strength, positions and armaments, but they had to fill in some of the blanks with guesses.

Ghost Battalion could improvise on the fly, though, and they needed to get their hands on the airfield. Ragnarok couldn't be allowed to gain a forward airbase, and they needed to kickstart their own offensives. That meant taking a leap of faith.

Literally, in the case of several of their units.

“Are all units in the second wave at the staging area?” she asked.

“They are,” Liz confirmed.

“And they're ready to go at our signal,” Anna added.

Nora nodded. They were trying something very different today. Normally the battalion's officers would take part in the assault alongside their troops, but the air drop might ruin those plans. Even if the pilots performed flawlessly the troops would probably be somewhat scattered, and that could mean their leaders might be killed in the opening stages of the battle.

To counter that possibility several of Ghost Battalion's senior officers stayed behind in the Cudahy District, coordinating the battle from their headquarters in the tower Black Wolf Company had defended for several weeks against repeated Ragnarok assaults. Command on the ground would fall to the platoon commanders: Selene and Danny for Black Wolf, and Jana, Will and Gray for Redd Foxx. Karen would have operational command within the district, with Neil acting as her second.

They would attack in two waves. First, Barghest and Black Wolf would drop in by parachute, supported by helicopter gunships and mortar fire from the neighboring district. Then, once they had secured landing zones, Redd Foxx and Spectre would arrive by helicopter. Once the entire battalion was on the ground the could sweep over the enemy in short order.

Nora just hoped they didn't have armor, because their battalion couldn't bring in many heavy weapons. The best they had to offer were recoilless rifles and grenade launchers, and that might not be enough against some of the heavier tanks.

But they were committed at this point, and now the only thing she could do was to make sure everything went smoothly. That meant observing the flow of battle and directing the troops, even though she might not have a direct hand in the fighting. She had done it plenty of times before, but most of her recent experience had been on the battlefield. Nora wondered if she'd end up longing for action before they were done here.

That wasn't her job right now, though.










“One minute out.”

Selene glanced over her shoulder at the troops in the hold and gave them a hand signal. Just like they had trained numerous times, her platoon stood up and hooked their static lines to the cable running down the center of the plane. Once the ramp in the back opened they would step out one by one, their chutes opening once the ripcord reached its limit.

There hadn't been any accidents during training, but a controlled jump and a combat jump were two different things. The only unit in the entire battalion that had parachute experience under battlefield conditions was Bravo Wolf's third squad, and that had been a stealth infiltration under the cover of darkness. This time they were jumping during the daylight hours, and they'd be under heavy fire from the ground.

They did have some advantages. Bravehart had targeted many of the airfield's antiaircraft guns with their heavy artillery, cutting down their numbers significantly. They'd have Raven Flight with them as well, able to provide cover fire even in the face of stiff resistance. And they were dropping an entire battalion onto the enemy within a relatively short period of time, giving them the ability to bring overwhelming force to bear right out of the gate. That could prove critical when it came to winning the fight.

But still, one good shot could take out a plane and kill almost thirty troops in the blink of an eye, and that made her nervous. The new Colossus transport could carry thirty six troops in the hold, and Hydra Command had ordered Ghost Battalion to use them. The smaller Sparrow transports might be a little less vulnerable, but they would need to have fifteen of them to deliver the entire first wave. With the Colossus, they only needed five.

She just hoped that all five of them survived.

“Thirty seconds.”

Selene tensed with anticipation, watching the light board hanging in the rear of the plane over the ramp, still red. The ramp itself opened up, and she felt the rush of wind coming into the cargo hold. Once the board went green they'd make their exit as quickly as possible.

She wondered if she should say anything to her platoon, but elected not to as she looked around. They were nervous at the prospect of their first jump, and Selene couldn't blame them. She had similar feelings, and anything she might say to them might actually make them worse.

So the only thing left for her to do was to stand and stare, waiting for the light in front of her to turn green. Once they were on the ground they'd be ready to go, just like always. It was a matter of getting on the ground, however…

And then she had no more time to think, because the board suddenly went green. The line in front of her stepped toward the back of the plane, and she followed them off the ramp, straight into the blue.

Selene plummeted toward earth for a second until her chute deployed and slowed her descent. So far so good. Now they had a battle to fight on the ground.

She just hoped she survived the fall.










Chutes were already blossoming below as Danny stepped off the ramp of the Colossus. He felt a sudden jerk as his own parachute deployed, and then he was drifting, falling lazily toward the ground wherever gravity and the wind would take him.

The Hydra Alliance had access to ram-air parachutes which could be controlled, but they were impractical for such a large jump. Having so many paratroopers descending at once would only invite collisions if they could all maneuver a significant distance. The circular canopies they were using weren't especially controllable, but that was fine for their purposes, and they were also much cheaper to manufacture. That was important when they had to provide over one hundred and fifty of them on short notice.

But it also meant they were dropping completely helpless until they reached the ground, with no way to avoid enemy fire. Danny tried not to look down, because at this point it would do him no good. He could only watch helplessly as the enemy took potshots as they descended.

He looked down anyhow.

Danny could see flickers of light coming from the ground, sparse at the moment. He knew it wouldn't last, though. The enemy would be roused soon enough, and once they started putting up heavy resistance anyone still in the air was probably a goner.

Four hundred feet. They had to descend four hundred feet before they touched the ground, and then they had to get out of their harness before they could properly fight. All the while the enemy garrison would be having a field day, almost like shooting clay pigeons.

He was glad they were fighting NPC troops. If this had been Ragnarok it would be far, far worse.

But then an explosion went off below, and a concentration of enemy troops went with it. Danny watched a dark shape zoom off, small but distinctive. Raven Flight's Hornet gunships had joined the fray.

They couldn't fly close for fear of getting tangled with the paratroopers or blowing them off course, but the diminutive helicopters could still provide cover as they descended. An antiaircraft gun blew into fragments, the victim of a fast rocket attack.

But the helicopters couldn't get everything, and with such wide open spaces below the paratroopers would likely be extremely exposed as they landed. They needed to move quick and get into cover quickly once they touched down. Until his boots hit the earth, though, all he could do was watch and wait.










Selene's first impression of parachuting into a combat zone wasn't a pleasant one. Her platoon had the misfortune of making their jump right on top of an antiaircraft position, which started blazing away at them as soon as their chutes opened. Several troops around her were killed as they floated down helplessly in their harnesses. She herself barely managed to avoid a series of shots that ripped past her.

Once again, Raven Flight had saved them. The antiaircraft gun giving them so much trouble suddenly blew apart in a spectacular fireball, blasted by a brace of rockets from one of the Hornet gunships. Others made strafing runs with their miniguns, scattering the enemy infantry starting to form up to repel the attack. The might not have killed many, but the pilots had at least bought them some time.

But floating down on a parachute wasn't fast by any stretch of the imagination. Selene felt completely helpless dangling from her canopy, but there was nothing she could do about it at the moment. She didn't want to draw her pistol for fear of dropping it, and her assault rifle was strapped tight to her chest to ensure it would stay with her during a rough landing.

Fast roping from a helicopter might have been faster, but that would have exposed their transports to withering fire from the ground. They had to hover in place while disgorging troops, making them easy targets for any enemies with decent aim. Hydra Command had deemed the maneuver too risky, likely to cost them a significant amount of materiel in the process.

So instead, the helos would remain relatively safe making their fast attack runs. Meanwhile, the paratroopers were the ones that had to play the role of clay pigeons, she thought sourly. Nighttime might have been a safer bet, but this was when they could get most of their players online, so they would have to make do for now.

She just hoped they could get on the ground before the enemy really started coming after them. Even with fire support from Raven Flight it was going to be hairy once they landed.

The ground inched closer and closer, though not nearly as quickly as she would have liked. Another burst of machine gun fire tore through the air, killing one of her platoon members to the right. Selene tried to maneuver herself away with her chute's risers, but its limited mobility only allowed her to move a few feet. The bullets kept whipping past her, too close for comfort.

Selene got on the radio. “Raven Flight, we're getting slaughtered out here. Can you do anything about the ground fire?”

“We'll try, but we can't cover everything,” Robbie replied.

“Focus on the smaller stuff. The larger guns can't target us well, but the machine guns are causing the most damage.”

“Understood. Will do.”

Danny's voice cut in over the radio. “How are you guys making out?” he asked.

“It's bad,” she replied, trying to converse to keep her mind off of their predicament. There was little she could do anyhow.

“How bad?”

“We're getting shot up, and a bunch of my platoon are already dead. Don't know how many yet, but it's more than a few.”

“Dang. Looks like you got a bad spot. We're coming down a little south of your location, and it's mostly clear our way. There's craters all over the place, so it looks like the artillery took care of most of it.”

“Yeah, we weren't that luck. I-”

And then she had no more time to talk, because everything suddenly went wrong. Selene felt a hot stab of pain, and then her vision went black. She couldn't feel the air whipping around her or the pull of her harness.

Then the message flashed up in front of her, confirming her fears.

You are KIA.

“Oh, come on,” she muttered before blowing out a frustrated breath.

Dead before she even hit the ground. Hopefully the rest of the battalion would fare better.










Danny fell and rolled as his feet hit earth, attempting the maneuver that he and the others had practiced many times during training to prevent injury. As soon as he came to a stop he struggled out of his harness, then prepared his weapon for combat.

Unlike most times he was traveling light, using an assault rifle with a reinforced barrel as a light machine gun of sorts. It couldn't provide sustained fire like his normal weapon due to the fact it could only use thirty round magazines, but it was the best trade of weight to firepower they could manage.

The rest of Bravo Wolf formed up in short order.

“Xavier, Javy, Ryan, take a head count of your squads,” he ordered.

A few seconds later they confirmed that none of them had been killed during the ride down. What a difference a few hundred yards made, Danny thought to himself as he surveyed the area. Every single one of them had made it while Alpha Wolf was getting torn apart just a little further to the north.

“Advance north up the field. Let's try to expand the landing zone so that the follow on waves have an easier time. Xavier, you're on point.”

“Copy that,” came the reply, and within a few moments they were heading down the length of the airfield, guns at the ready.

Danny lagged behind by a few steps and got on the radio. “Wolf Lead, Wolf Lead, can you hear me? Wolf Lead, please respond.”

It felt odd to contact Nora using that callsign, but she was the one in charge of the company right now, so that title went along with the responsibility. He only hoped she had some sort of contingency plan in place, because right now he didn't even know if Alpha Wolf would be capable of fighting once they landed. They might have to fold themselves into Bravo Wolf if their casualties were bad enough.

No response. “Wolf Lead, Wolf Lead, are you there? This is Bravo Wolf, please respond.”

“Sorry Danny,” Nora said after a moment. “It's taken me a while to get used to the new callsign. What's up?”

“My platoon is on the ground, but Alpha Wolf's getting hit hard. Selene got killed before they even landed, and it sounds like they're getting pounded.”

“Understood. Try to establish contact with the survivors and get them organized. I'll leave it up to you whether you want to consolidate them into your platoon or keep them as a separate unit.”

“Copy that. We'll try to expand the landing zone so that Barghest has a better chance. Oh, and our landing zone is relatively clear. You might want to tell them that.”

“I will, but we might not be able to change much at this point.”

“Right. I'll be in touch. Bravo Wolf out.”

Danny switched channels. “Alpha Wolf, please respond. Gavin, Ethan, Logan, are any of you still alive? Alpha Wolf? Please respond.”

He just hoped he'd get some sort of answer.










“That's going to be a problem,” Anna said as Nora explained the situation to her.

“I know, but there's not much we can do about it right now,” Liz spoke up. “We're just going to have to take the casualties as part of taking the district.”

Maybe, but Black Wolf Company had been taking a pounding over the last few months, Nora reflected, and now they would have to pull a significant amount of their strength off the front lines to refit and retrain. The changes to the game's skill systems meant taking heavy casualties could severely deplete a unit's fighting ability for a long period of time.

Of course, that was true for the rest of the alliance as well, and Nora had the feeling that Ghost Battalion was buying time for the rest of the battalions to train and refit after the final battle for the Cudahy District. She didn't dare ask that question, though, for fear of starting a rumor that might end up causing problems. Everyone was a bit on edge after months and months of continuous fighting against Ragnarok, and the last thing they needed was more dissension.

Nora looked back down at the map table, trying to assess the situation. “Looks like they're advancing up the field at a steady pace. If what Danny says is true then they have a pretty large area for Barghest to drop into.”

“They're a minute out from the target area, so that should let them exploit the breach,” Liz commented, looking down at her wrist menu. “Once they're on the ground I'll signal the helicopter troops. If all goes as planned we'll have the field in no time.”

If all went as planned. The others sounded optimistic, but Nora had seen enough action inside Milwaukee to know that plans inside the city could be wrecked almost instantly. Too many bloody battles had made her cynical about their changes of coming out with dramatic victories like they had in the past. Instead, this was going to be a slow, brutal grind.

Nora activated her radio again. “Danny, Barghest is a minute out. How are you doing?”










Danny couldn't respond immediately. He ducked down as bullets streamed overhead, trying to stay behind whatever meagre cover he could find. Most of the airfield complex was situated underground, made up of fortified hangars and bunkers containing supplies, aircraft and munitions. The few buildings above ground had been completely flattened by the preliminary artillery bombardment, leaving little more than splinters and scrap metal.

That gave them wide-open areas to land in, but it meant pretty much everyone was a sitting duck. If he could take any comfort, it was that the enemy garrison faced a similar situation.

But still, laying belly down on the ground trying to make himself as small as possible certainly wasn't high on his list of things to do. He deployed the bipod on his gun and took aim at the enemy position ahead, then squeezed the trigger.

More of his troops surged forward, firing occasional quick bursts as they stormed the enemy position. Their ferocity quickly overwhelmed the enemy, minimizing the damage done,

But attacking a defended position over open ground was a daunting prospect no matter how quickly they managed to do it, and Danny noted that several of the individuals on his channel had gone silent. At this rate they wouldn't have enough troops to sustain a proper offensive without help.

“Danny, are you there?”

“I'm here, but a little busy,” he replied. “Please tell me that there's reinforcements.”

“Like I said, Barghest is a minute out. More like thirty seconds.”

Danny nodded. It would be more than that, because it would take several minutes for them to drop and get assembled on the ground. Meanwhile, Black Wolf was going to have to shoulder the load for now.

“Be aware that we're down to about half of our normal strength,” he warned. “Next time let's not drop right over a hot zone, OK?”

“Not my call this time, but noted. Do what you can.”

Do what you can. What could he do at this point? The only thing that Danny imagined they could accomplish was to widen the safe area around the landing zone, allowing the rest of the battalion to come in relatively unmolested.

Once again, they were going to take the brunt of the casualties buying time for the rest of their force. He supposed that was the double-edged sword of being Ghost Battalion's assault specialists. They were highly regarded, so they were always at the forefront of any operation.

It was better than sitting back and waiting for the enemy to come at them, though, and Danny appreciated being able to dictate the pace of the battle. Now, to keep everything moving.

“Black Wolf, report. How are you doing on casualties?”

“Bravo 1. We're taken a couple,” Xavier said.

“Same here,” Javy spoke up.

“We're still at full strength,” Ryan said.

Gavin spoke up next. “My unit's fine. Do you want me to detach some of my troops to bulk up the other squads?”

“No. Take the lead for now and try to form a perimeter. We need to hold off the enemy enough to let Barghest land.”

“Understood.”

Danny quickly glanced at his wrist menu for the time, then looked up into the sky. Sure enough, parachutes were beginning to open high above them and slightly to the south.

Alpha Wolf had been badly mauled as they fell into the drop zone. Logan's squad had lost several members, and only four members of Alpha 2 had hit the ground alive. Ethan himself had been killed in his harness as well, a victim of bad luck and circumstance. The survivors had been folded into Gavin's squad to make up for their losses. Ryan's unit had been allocated to cover the southern end of the landing zone, leaving Danny with a full strength platoon.

One platoon against an entire district's worth of enemies. He just hoped that Barghest could get on the ground and assembled fast, because if not they were going to be overwhelmed.

He activated his radio. “Lone Wolf, Lone Wolf, come in.”

“What's up?” Miko asked.

That was one thing in their favor. Miko had dropped in with Alpha Wolf and survived the killzone, and now she could provide them with valuable information as she ranged in front of their advance, pinpointing targets and taking out critical enemies, whether those were heavy weapons, officers or something else.

“How are we looking to the north?”

“Not great. There's a bunch of enemy infantry headed your way. Doesn't look like they're heavily armed, but there's several platoons, at least. No armor or artillery, though.”

That was good, because the last thing they needed to deal with was a tank.

“What about AA guns?”

“Doesn't look like they have anything heavier than machine guns.”

“Then that's our ticket. Stand by to guide some attack runs.” He switched radio channels. “Raven Flight, Raven Flight, this is Bravo Wolf. Please respond.”

“This is Raven 2. I hear you,” Blake's voice answered him.

“We need an attack run on a specific target. I'll patch you in to Miko's link.”

“Acknowledged. How many helos do you need? We still have to cover the landing zone.”

“We have a squad there as well. Give us two or four and we should be set.” Danny pressed a series of buttons in his wrist menu. “Miko, you still there?”

“I'm here.”

“Blake's in the channel with us. Guide them in on the enemy units coming at us.”

“Copy that.”

Danny logged himself out of that channel and opened up another one. “Black Lead, Black Lead, this is Bravo Wolf. Please respond.” He seemed to be saying that a lot today, he reflected.

“Go ahead,” Karen replied.

“How far are you from making your landing?”

“Just about a hundred feet or so.”

“Try to get assembled as soon as you can. We took a beating on the way down, and I'm pretty much fighting the entire district with just a platoon.”

“Got it. I called into command as soon as we jumped, so Spectre and Redd Foxx are on the way.”

That would give them enough strength to restart their push across the airfield. Danny hoped they would get here soon, because the longer it took the more time the enemy had to regroup and get into position.

Wooosh!

He felt a rush of air pass over him and looked up, just in time to see a quartet of Hornets zoom in overhead, guns blazing. Spent bullet casings started to rain down around him. One clanked off the top of his helmet, causing him to wince a bit.

“Good work,” Miko's voice cut in over his earpiece. “Danny, the enemy platoons scattered. You should be safe for a few minutes.”

“Got it. Hats off to Raven Flight,” he said.

A few more minutes. It didn't seem like much, but it would be enough to get the rest of their troops on the ground. And once that happened, he had no doubt they'd win.










Nora watched as the final unit markers appeared on the map table. Within a minute Redd Foxx and Spectre had disgorged from their helicopters and were spreading out in all directions, preparing to take the rest of the airport district. Once they managed to take the gate connecting to Cudahy an armored platoon from Grizzly would join the fray, adding to their firepower.

“Looks like we have the battle well in hand,” Anna commented.

“Yes we do,” Nora agreed.

It might not have been pretty or particularly elegant, but Black Wolf had accomplished their goals. Hydra would have another district by the end of the day, and after months and months of slow fighting they'd finally have a quick advance. They could start to put pressure on Ragnarok's air superiority, and depending on what they found inside the district they might be able to completely turn the tables on their enemy.

She just hoped they'd have enough time to properly regroup before the next battle, because their casualties were enormous.

They might be advancing at a far more rapid pace, but this city was still a meat grinder.