Free Howl: A World at War Novel by Mitchell T. Jacobs Page A

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