Jack Cabe

by Timothy Nguyen

  He shouted to his soldiers, “Come on, let’s press our advantage while we can!” Behind him, nearly 60 of the rebels from the Inner City were fighting alongside him, and though many of them were scared for their lives, they steeled their hearts and pressed on at Stan’s command. On the other side of the battlefield, Jack was doing the same, leading about 60 rebels in an attack that would -hopefully- force Aerotec to take their lumps and retreat. Luckily for the Resistance, most of Aerotec’s forces were consolidated around the frontlines now, which meant that the new recruits wouldn’t be thrust directly into hell.

  Stan charged across the scorched red sands with his men with a war cry on his breath. Suddenly, he dropped to the ground behind a partially destroyed heavy artillery cannon platform before ordering his own soldiers to get down with a harried cry. But a few of them didn’t make it down in time and were shredded when a small squad of roaming Inquisitors opened fire. The young men's bodies fell to the ground in mangled and torn chunks. Stan popped up from behind cover and took nine quick shots, three to the torso of each lead Inquisitor. His own assault was followed quickly thereafter by his more experienced men, and within moments the threat was gone. He rallied the troops and they surged forward once again.

  They may have survived for now, but nonetheless, Stan saw the stupidity in his and Jack’s plan: Sixty people under one person is excessive. Maybe it looked good on paper, but it was too much, especially with semi-dependent rookies like these.

  Stan barked to his second and third-in-command, “Locke, Robertson, we need to split up. Let’s each take 20 people and spread out. We can’t keep all sixty of them cooped up together like this, it’s comical and stupid."

  Locke laughed, “That it is buckaroo, that it is. We’ll do it, ain’t that right Andrew?”

  The younger man shrugged, “Er... I suppose. You do know I’m just a medic right?”

  Stan chuckled with morbid humor, “Yes, but the point is that you and Locke are the two people here that I trust most, and you're both perfectly capable leaders. Go on and choose your twenty.”

  ...

  On the other side of the battlefield, a young raven-haired girl grabbed her short rifle off of the wall of the trench and ducked down into a small tunnel. It was one of many that the Resistance had dug to make use of the many orphaned children in the Outer City, but this one was special in that it wended its way all the way to the true frontline.

  I survived on the streets all these years, I can survive a little war. I have to make Stani proud. he didn’t rescue a coward….

  Maria crawled through the trench tunnel. She was scrappy and undeniably brave, but her childish impulsivity might cost her. Child soldiers weren’t unheard of in the Resistance, in fact, many children worked as messengers and scouts, but it was frowned upon. But no one batted an eye when she popped out of a hole in the side of the main-line trench and joined in with the onslaught. She ran fearlessly into battle and hunkered behind the charred remains of tanks before taking expert shots at Inquisitors.

  ...

  Goliath argued with himself in the safety of the bunker while the sounds of battle crept ever nearer with each passing second. He was furious, CEO Land had sent another “Do Not Disturb” order and a threat: Goliath would be shut down and replaced if he didn’t achieve any progress in the next 24 hours.

  There's no artillery left, three-quarters of the army are gone, the algorithms can’t decide who’s in charge despite me being the one in charge, we haven’t had any aircraft in weeks, and he expects me to be able to pull this off? Idiot. I’d rather die fighting.

  Goliath gave his body a command and two chainguns deployed out of the sides of his arms. The massive automaton chuckled with mechanical and maniacal laughter. Perfect. Goliath gave the bunker a self destruct command -which was of course denied- and exited the ruined edifice.

  ...

  Now that’s a big robot. Maria lay at the brim of a crater near the bunker, and she kept a close eye on the massive droid. He was easily two meters tall and probably bumped his head on every single thing inside the bunker’s hallways. Maria had a chance to either tell the Resistance about this or she could try and kill it herself.

  But it has machine guns, Maria, freaking machine guns!

  She argued with herself, So?

  So? THEY’RE HUGE!

  So? I can do this.

  YOU AREN’T MARIYA OKTYABRSKAYA.

  Shush, I need to focus.

  Maria took careful aim, and she hoped to fire a round directly between the two main plates on the back of the robot, right about where the spinal cord should be. She held her breath with her elbow nestled in the red sand and ash, and she fired.

  The bullet pinged off of the Super Inquisitor’s armor, and he spun around menacingly. He found his assailant almost immediately.

  Goliath bellowed out in the unnerving mixture of human and robotic speech that was universal of nearly every Inquisitor, “Tsk tsk tsk child! Don’t you know to mess with people your own size? It’s a pity that you have to die like this.”

  Maria didn’t bat an eye at his threat and instead kept her eye to the scope. She fired again, and this time she hit Goliath in his thick neck.

  It still had no effect. He laughed, “Child! Are you listening to me? You’re going to die, and you can’t kill me!” Goliath raised one of his guns, and the barrels began whining as they revved up, “Any last words to make my day better?”

  “Only one,” Maria spoke with the same knowing pride as Stan.

  Goliath chuckled demonically, “And what is that? Are you going to sing me the ABCs?”

  She smiled, “Nope. I was going to say that you should act instead of talking so much.” She fired a shot directly into his photoreceptor and kept firing until her clip was all out.

  Goliath went thudding to the ground. His other photoreceptor scintillated with dimming light as he spoke, “You… little… whore….”

  Maria walked over to his carcass. “Whatever you say, mister. You’re the dead one,” she grabbed a pistol from the small of her back and pressed the barrel to the shattered eye socket, “Night night.” She fired a single shot as Goliath let out a guttural, almost demonic scream that was more human than robot. He was quickly silenced as the bullet scrambled what was left of his circuits.

  Chapter 47

  The moment that Goliath stopped responding, the entirety of Aerotec's forces fell into disarray as a result of completely scrambled and partially destroyed leadership. The overarching protocols within the remaining commanders forced an override of Land's Do-Not-Disturb order, and within moments an Inquisitor was rapping on Land's bedroom door.

  Land answered it angrily, still wearing nothing but his undergarments. "What? What do you want?"

  The Inquisitor, less of an Inquisitor and more of a protocol unit, responded in a clipped and proper voice, "Master Land, the military units are requesting orders. It would appear that command unit SI-75g has been destroyed, as well as approximately 60% of the overall command structure."

  Land's shoulders slumped. Was it that bad? How could it be that bad? They're... They're just rats! How? He groaned, "What are the estimated casualties?"

  The Inquisitor wasted no time, "Out of approximately one million operational units, only 200,045 units remain operational. Of the 2,000-"

  Land cut the droid off, "This can't possibly be correct, that's…"

  "All reports indicate that these numbers are correct sir. All remaining units are awaiting command." The robot chirped, and his processors were ready to transmit the necessary signals.

  "All forces should fall back to the city, establish fortified positions wherever possible, and evacuate citizens to the Inner City. Those are my orders," Land's voice was quickly deteriorating to a low groan. The protocol bot flickered for a moment as it transmitted the orders and turned to leave, but Land stopped him.

  He growled in the quiet, "Secure a ship for transport off-world. Preferably armored, and preferably with enough luxuries to
last me a year. I'm not afraid of running and coming back."

  The protocol Inquisitor was confused, "Sir, the only ships in orbit are freighters and a few small warships designed for space combat."

  Land frowned, "As long as it flies and won't be easily shot down."

  The droid beeped, "Very well sir.”

  ...

  On the sandy and blackened field of battle, the Aerotec forces turned tail and ran, and they were hounded the entire way back by Resistance forces. But three groups of Resistance fighters stayed behind and made their way to the bunker. The first people there were Stan and his platoon, and they arrived to see a young girl sitting on the destroyed carapace of a massive war machine.

  Stan saw her and immediately dropped his gun and let it hang from its sling, running towards Maria, "Maria! Moya Roza, you're okay!" He swept her up into his arms, the biggest smile he ever had plastered on his face. It took him a moment to remember that there was a big Inquisitor on the ground and he was standing in the middle of a battlefield, “Maria, did you kill this thing?”

  Maria beamed with pride, “Yep! I killed him with the rifle you gave me Stani, got him right in the eye! The idiot wouldn’t stop talking, so he was a perfect target. I’m kind of surprised no one got him before I did.”

  “First of all, that was a very bad idea, and you shouldn’t be out killing bad guys alone, second of all, I am so proud of you!” Stan laughed and took her hand in his, “Just promise me that you won’t try to do this alone just to impress me, okay? I don’t want to lose you like I did everyone else. But nonetheless, I am very, very proud of you. Why does this have to be so confusing?”

  “It’s okay Stani, I understand. I’ll find other ways to make you proud.” Maria smiled with what Stan could only assume was mischief in her eyes.

  Stan waved his hand to dismiss the thought, “Bah, I am proud enough! Any more and you’ll kill me of an overdose!” Their reverie was interrupted by Jack’s platoon arriving at the bunker.

  Jack meandered over and waved to Maria, “Hey munchkin, what are you doing here?” he took notice of the Inquisitor but didn’t immediately connect Maria to it.

  She responded joyfully, “I killed the Inquisitor Uncle Jack! Then the rest of them ran, and then you guys showed up.”

  “What?” Jack looked at Stan, who gave him the proud look of a father. Jack’s eyes darted back to Maria, “You killed that by yourself?”

  “Yep.” she spoke matter-of-factly as if it was a perfectly reasonable thing to have done.

  Jack shrugged, “I guess I need to promote you or something.”

  “Really?” Maria said, her voice rising with excitement, “A promotion?”

  Stan chuckled good-naturedly, “Well if I had an official rank to promote you to I would. I guess my pride will have to do for now, and you’ll get announced as a hero. Maria Vulkov, driver out of the Aerotec horde and Hero of New Columbia! How’s that?”

  Maria giggled with joy, but Stan had her start heading back to the headquarters with the promise of a medal and recognition as soon as the war was over. As soon as Maria was out of sight, Jack and Stan made their way into the bunker and sat down around a table. They barely had time to exchange pleasantries before a shadow obstructed the late evening light that was coming from a large hole in the western wall. Jack and Stan turned their heads.

  “Miss me, boys?” Val entered through the jagged opening with a stride full of confidence and grace. “I’m glad you two made it out alive,” she planted her hands on the table, “It’s a wonder considering the hell you two went through. I suppose you guys want updates?”

  Jack mumbled something of a yes, and Stan simply nodded and asked her to enlighten them.

  She carried on, “So, here’s the short of it: we’re winning. But it won’t last long if we don’t keep up the fight in some way, either by making friends with our neighbors and fortifying the absolute hell out of the Outer City or by pursuing Aerotec with what forces we have. Considering the mass exodus of Aerotec military personnel and civilians, I say we take the first option so that we can organize ourselves.”

  Stan shrugged, “Well, I suppose that is the best option. I don’t know how bad it is, but from what I could tell, Aerotec is mostly running on fumes. I haven’t seen a drone in weeks, and the only mechs that I’ve seen appear to be repurposed construction models. If we can get the support of the neighboring districts, we don’t run the risk of being outflanked, and fortifying ourselves as best we can will stop Aerotec from making any immediate moves.” He ruminated aloud, hoping someone might challenge the idea, or at least poke holes in his logic.

  Jack shrugged, “Well, it’s a better idea than I can think of. The only problem is going to be getting the other districts on boar-” The communicators on their belts began ringing,

  “I swear to god, if that’s someone from the other districts, I’ll look into being a prophet or something.” Jack pulled the communicator off his belt, and put it to his ear, “Hello?”

  “Jack? I see you’re back from the front,” it was TC, “We have some blokes on the mainline asking to speak to either you or whoever’s in charge around here: a Ruan fellow from Land’s administration and some blokes from the other districts.”

  Chapter 48

  TC returned to the mine as soon as he could tell that the Aerotec forces weren’t coming back any time soon, and he was running through administrative this and armaments that while he waited for Jack, Stan, and Val. Several calls had come in from multiple districts -maybe even all of them- and a man in torn and tattered business attire had shown up at the American District’s southeastern border claiming to be a high-level Aerotec administrator of sorts. Now, TC was looking after the guest.

  He bemoaned his situation internally, I'm supposed to be designing weapons to turn the tide, not sitting here babysitting. Why do I get babysitting duty?

  The door suddenly opened and quickly filled with the forms of Jack and Val. Apparently, Stan was off taking care of his men and making sure they got what they needed.

  Jack sat down across from the man and turned to TC, "Go call the other district leaders back and tell them to come and meet me in person, and ask them to bring translators if they don't speak English. I don't want proxies."

  TC shrugged, happy to get away from the room, "As you say, Mr. Cabe. After this, I'm going to my lab." TC left the room, and Val closed the door behind him before she took a seat herself.

  The man -an Asian business-type with a long mustache à la Confucius- sat silently for a moment with his hands in his lap. His jacket was riddled with holes and torn, and it was clear that he hadn't been in this clean state a few hours before.

  Jack spoke, beginning the interrogation, "So, you're Mister Ruan, I presume?"

  The man nodded and opened his mouth to speak with perfect English, "I am Thánh Ruan, a rather senior administrator with Aerotec and her subsidiaries."

  Jack asked his next question rather harshly: "What kind of administrator Mr. Ruan? There's a lot of difference between Land's personal secretary and the lobby desk clerk." Jack hadn't had time to clean the grime and blood off of his body, and he hadn't slept in what felt like weeks, so he was feeling harsh.

  Ruan paused for half a second then answered, "Transportation and Logistics. I was the Senior Coordinator for Aerotec Upper Management. I have my files in that briefcase over there if you need to see them. My mobile computer too."

  Val walked over and grabbed the case, "This isn't going to blow me up or anything is it?" She laughed as she handed it over to Jack.

  "No, it won't. Luckily." Thánh's eyes were those of a man who had come through hell and just wanted it to be over. He spoke slowly and sadly, "If anyone in this room deserves to be blown up, it's me. The… the things I helped orchestrate. I just want to help."

  "Hmm…" Jack opened the briefcase, and after a moment he closed it, certain of the man's verity, "Tell us what you know, and let us know what we can do for you."

  Ruan put his
head in his hands and spoke clearly -if haltingly, "I know how to get to Land. I was… I was in charge of a very secret operation for Aerotec upper management, and I know just about every way we can get into Land’s tower covertly. Even the main supply lines. I’ve been keeping up with your Resistance, and I.. Well I’ve done things that I’m not too proud of, and I want to atone.”

  Jack smiled, “Alright Mr. Ruan, we’ll take you up on it. If you can get us close to Land, you’ll be considered a hero. There won't be any questions asked about what you’ve done unless they’re pertinent. Now,” Jack stood up, “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take this down to our little intelligence apparatus and see what they can do. Val will take care of you from here.” Jack excused himself, and left the room, losing his professionalism immediately and smiling broadly. A way to Land? Yes, please… This could turn the entire tide of the war if we can act on it. The keyword is 'if'...

  ...

  Val sat down across from Ruan, and spoke softly, “So, Mr. Ruan, would you like to tell me your story, and any other information you might have that we ought to know?”

  Ruan looked at her with a confused look, “Who are you exactly?”

  She answered him calmly, “I am Valerie Ballew, the second in command of the Resistance at large. You can speak freely here. Please, do not hesitate to tell us anything that might be remotely related to the information you gave us or your partnership with us,” she smiled warmly, “No one’s going to stone you for any crimes in your past, as long as you’re willing to fight the good fight and change your ways.”

  Ruan sat up a little bit straighter, “Then I guess I will start with what changed my mind about your whole Resistance.”