It took a moment for Jack to recognize that it was his turn to talk. This guy’s a lunatic…. Well, at least he’s a smart lunatic. “Well, TC, we would like to see if you could dissect an Inquisitor for us, maybe tell us whatever information you can glean from it if you can."
“Seriously? That’s it? I am the king of my field, and you just want a robot decrypted?” TC said it with obvious displeasure while feigning true offense. He quickly returned to his peppy personality, “It's an intriguing thought, so I’ll supply you with weapons and all of the other things, but only because I feel charitable. I haven’t been able to step outside of this place in forever, but if you can get me an Inquisitor I’ll dissect it and- Do you hear that?” TC put his hand to his ear as if he was listening for something, and his face donned an intensely worried look.
Within a moment, the squeal of an electronic engine could be heard. Within another moment, a massive explosion rocked the building. Jack bolted up and grabbed his gun from its sling, while TC just sat there shocked, “Son of a… The bastards are bombing me now!”
“TC, I think you’re gonna have to leave this place, especially if you’re getting bombed from the sky. We can temporarily set you up in our HQ, there’s plenty of space, and you’ll have a lab as soon as we can make you one. Come on!” Jack radioed down to his men in the living room, thankful that they hadn’t been killed already. According to what they said, a portion of the building was now obliterated, and more fighter-bombers were on their way, probably.
“Oh bollocks! I ain’t leaving without my stuff!” TC shouted just before another explosion rocked the building, this one much closer now. Were they bombing the entire damn neighborhood?
TC amended his decision, “On second thought, you’re right. I just need to grab my miracle box of useful things before I leave. It's just a box of computery bits, nothing less, it’s just over there, in the lab.”
Jack was hesitant, but allowed it, “Alright TC, just please for the love of God hurry up.”
TC made his way into the lab and grabbed various odds and ends as well as two large metal cases. He had just stepped out of the lab when a bomb directly hit the house, blowing a hole in the laboratory but barely missing the man himself. He scoffed, “Shoddy bastards can’t even aim. Idiots.”
A firefight erupted downstairs, prompting TC to begin rushing, “We should probably be going now before their bastards wipe out our bastards. Come along!” TC grabbed a cane and shoved one of the boxes into Jack’s hand as if he was a porter or something.
This guy really is insane… Jack escorted TC down the stairs and into the living room, where three resistance soldiers were facing off against an incoming horde of Inquisitors. Luckily, they were assisted by what was left of TC’s homemade defense system, but that was quickly failing.
TC grabbed something out of his pocket and handed it to Jack, “That’s an EMP grenade, oughta buy us some time to make our daring escape. Just click the button and toss it. If it fails, I’ll bash them over the head with my cane.” Jack grabbed the grenade and activated it before tossing it directly into the horde without a second thought. They all fell a few seconds later, their circuits frozen or something.
I’m going to go insane… Jack called out to his men, “Alright men, let’s move out! Get to the alley, and from the alley, we go home! Go, go, go!” The resistance rushed out of the building and onto a side-street just as a bombing run leveled the building and everything in it. A wall of fire rose behind them, and a rush of fire radiated from the building as it collapsed.
TC let a single tear fall, "All of those years of research, wasted... This won't be the last the bastards hear of me."
Chapter 21
Meanwhile, Val and Stan were leading their teams up to a clearing in the slums, at the center of which sat a large building. This was one of Aerotec’s two logistics centers for the Outer City of New Columbia, and a blow to it would be devastating for Aerotec’s business in the Outer City. Val would be leading the charge on the facility by taking the entire force of 8 to a rear loading bay. The time for simple propaganda was over. Now was the time to act.
Val whispered in the cold night air, “Alright, we all know the plan, so I won’t recap. Right now, we’re seeing a few guards about, but since it’s night most of the guard force is going to be inside. Let’s get a move on it," Val whispered some further instructions to the group, and they began their assault. They cut a hole in the fence surrounding the facility and crawled over to the other side. Once they were through, they dashed behind a nearby vehicle for cover The resistance leapfrogged between vehicles until they reached empty space. In front of them, the facility loomed like a massive landmine.
Stan pulled Val to the side, “How do you want to do this? I can plant explosives out here or in there, but I’d prefer that we stick together.”
Val didn’t even hesitate in her response, “Stan, you can support me until we make it to the office, then you start planting the explosives. Let’s do this, insane as it is.” She smiled warmly, and they relayed the instructions to their respective units.
They dashed across the last bit of open space and into one of the many loading bays before hunkering down beside a large pile of boxes.
Stan worried within his head. Where was everyone? There really should be more guards. This can’t possibly be good. Aside from the sound of what could be assumed to be a few mechanical loaders and a few guards, the cavernous warehouse was eerily quiet. It immediately put everyone into a state of unease.
Val nudged Stan's shoulder before speaking to everyone in a low whisper, “Let’s get going, I can see the stairs up to Mana’s office. The lack of people is a good thing guys, it means we don’t have to fight our way in or out, so let’s get going. You can go ahead and start planting the bombs, Stan.”
“Roger that Val, come along fellas,” Stan led his men away and Val began pressing towards the office. Both teams moved by creeping between stacks of crates and deactivated machines, with Stan’s group pulling explosives out of their packs and placing them every few meters. Luckily enough, they had managed to not run into anyone or anything yet, but surely that would all change soon enough.
...
Val’s team reached the stairs. They had begun their ascent when Val looked out across the facility and froze with trepidation, “Oh no…” She quickly thumbed on her communicator and tried to get Stan’s attention. That wasn’t the sound of mechanical loaders they had heard, but it was some sort of mechanized guard unit.
“Stan, Stan please pick up. Stan this is very, very urgent. Please pick up!” There was nothing but static on the other end of the line. Is Aerotec jamming our signals? This couldn’t end well, but they had a job to do. Val tried the door, which was of course locked. She set to work picking it open.
...
Meanwhile, Stan was on the opposite side of the facility. His crew snuck between boxes, dashing out only to toss the remote explosives into package trucks and machinery. The bombs were rather small, and the explosion they would make would be comparable to a large grenade at worst. Alone, not too bad for the facility, but together, in the hundreds like this, they would be devastating.
Stan had just rounded the corner of another box pile when he heard his communicator buzz. He put it to his ear.
“Hello? Val? What is it?” Nothing but static answered him, putting him a bit on edge, “Hopefully it is nothing, but just in case we should work our way back across and towards the office. Let’s move moi mal'chik.” He said to his men, and they began their slow and arduous trek to the other side of the facility.
...
Val and crew had busted their way into the office to find that Mana was in fact home, asleep in the chair behind his desk. Val signaled her fellows to search the office and pulled out a large handkerchief. She snuck up behind Mana and drew the handkerchief around him like a garrote, bringing it down on his throat and waking him up in a violent manner.
He flung his hands around in a desperat
e attempt to save himself, but the other resistance soldiers quickly restrained him and soon he was bound to his chair. Val blew a bit of her hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear before she leaned over the front of the desk across from him, looking rather menacing to the middle-aged and grotesque man. She purred venomously, “We have some questions for you Mr. Mana.”
“You’ll never leave this facility alive if I’m dead,” Mana wheezed out, probably about to die of a heart attack either way, “I’m not telling you resistance brats anything.”
Val laughed to herself and pulled a knife off of her belt, “Are you sure about that Mr. Mana? Or do I need to give you some.. encouragement,” She said it seductively while she leaned over, right before stabbing the knife into the desk, right between his fingers, “Tell us what we want to know and I won’t chop your testicles off like the filthy cur you are.”
Passion filled her eyes, a deadly fire just waiting to burn everything to the ground: years of working under the iron boot heel of Aerotec, years of dreaming about slitting the throats of every last one of the bastards, years of pain finally come to fruition.
...
Stan and his men were working their way toward the office again from the opposite side of the facility. They had just rounded a corner when they came face to face with one of the things that had been making the sound of a mechanized walker. Stan forced everyone to halt in their tracks.
His eyes widened at the mechanization's armament, “Now those are some big guns. Everyone back away slowly. I do not think it has noticed us yet,” He spoke slowly as if he was an adventurer in an old movie looking at a Tyrannosaurus. A small light on the head of the massive walker was glowing a soft blue, and the design was rather reminiscent of something out of one of those really old sci-fi movies.
Stan continued, “I think that is what Val was trying to contact me about. Probably. Let’s go around, it will probably stay in this area. Hopefully,” Stan had his men sneak around it, and oddly enough it didn’t attack, for now.
...
“Listen here Mana, I don't have a lot of patience right now, and I would very gladly just start chopping bits of you off. I might even relish it. If that doesn't sound like your idea of a good time, then you can tell us what we want to know and you can walk out of here with all of your giblets intact if I’m satisfied. So start talking," Val gave her ultimatum, her words like barbed arrows implanting themselves in Mana's mind.
Mana cracked almost immediately. It turned out that cowardice and fear of bodily harm can, in fact, be more powerful than company loyalty. Who would have thought?
“What do you want to know?” Mana sighed guiltily, or perhaps fatalistically.
“Give us the location of the prison outside of the city, as well as the names and locations of your drug suppliers. After that, we have a few more questions.”
Mana sighed again and started talking, “Fine. the drugs come through an official Aerotec pipeline from the port. Along with most of the other goods Aerotec ships in, it goes through a primary distribution point in New Columbia proper, at the intersection of Barrows and Cliffdyne. The place is run by a good friend of mine, a smart kid by the name of Edgar Phaxi. I don’t know anything beyond that.”
Val noticed that Mana had only answered half of her question, “And the prison?”
“What prison?” He sat back for a moment before realizing she was serious, “How in the hell do you know about that?” Had Andrews blabbed? Andrews would never have…
“Your friend Andrews was very talkative and knew more than we thought,” She replied with a simple shrug of her shoulders.
“Son of a-" Mana cursed when he realized how grave his situation was, "Fine, but if I tell you about the prison, you don’t kill me right?” I’m dead. If they got Andrews to talk…
Val answered him, “Sure, why not. Now get to talking before I chop off those sausages you call fingers.”
“Alright alright! They take all of their political prisoners there, they manufacture elite Inquisitors there, and it’s run by the human Inquisitors. That’s all I know, besides the coordinates.” He, of course, coughed up the coordinates, and he was hoping to go on living.
Val spoke in a clipped and lethal manner, “Alright Mana, I won’t kill you. Aayla will though.” A young woman approached him and stabbed him through the back with a stiletto, severing his spine and piercing his heart. It was a quiet -if gurgly- death. Oh well.
That was when the sirens started going off.
...
“That can’t be good,” Stan and his men ran the remaining distance to the stairs and met Valerie and her crew as they made it back to ground level. As soon as they were united, both teams began moving towards the exit.
“How’d it go Val, did you get what we needed?” Stan huffed between harried breaths.
“Yeah, but I think his vitals may have been linked with the security system. Did you get the bombs planted?” The sirens were growing ever louder, and Stan could hear the slight edge of panic in Val's voice.
“We got them all planted, saw a massive robot-" Their discourse was immediately interrupted by one of the massive robots, the light atop its head glowing blood red. Stan sighed, "Of course they couldn’t be friendly giant robots with chainguns. Why would they be? TAKE COVER!”
The resistance soldiers scrambled to cover behind a deactivated loading machine, and somehow none of them were hit by the robot’s weapons.
“Stan, how do we expect to kill that thing?” Val was suddenly very worried by the reality of their situation, though if she had to she would probably try to climb her way up the thing and shoot it in the head.
“Honestly? I have no clue," Stan admitted, but he tried to stay hopeful, "But if we all work together, if we all stay calm, we can do this. It is big, dumb, and slow. Its guns are mounted to it, rather than being individual weapons, meaning it has to turn its whole big, dumb, slow body to fire at us.”
“Stan, you are not suggesting that we just run past it,” Val stared at him incredulously, “It’d mow us down as we ran past!”
Stan just shrugged, “I don’t see you making any better suggestions. I mean, I have grenade, but I'm not-”
“How about we throw the grenade and run when it explodes?” One of the resistance soldiers interrupted, trying to be helpful.
Stan shrugged once more, “Kallic, that is good idea, I admit. What do you think Val?”
Val sighed in resignation, “Do we have any other choice, Stan? Let’s do it," she turned to the rest of the soldiers, "Everyone, as soon as that grenade goes off, we run for the door, got it?” The squad nodded their understanding.
Stan readied the grenade and tossed it, counting down the seconds, “Three, two, one," The grenade exploded, sending shrapnel into the robot and distracting it, and it swiveled its body to face the blast.
“GO!” Stan yelled, and the resistance forces ran out of the building. They didn’t stop running until they were safe inside the Outer City slums again.
Stan and Val hunkered behind the corner of a shanty, panting with the thrill of the escape. Stan spoke after he caught his breath and calmed his nerves, “Like I said Val: big, dumb, and slow. And to top it all off, about to be very, very, very destroyed. Ready?” Stan held the remote detonator in his hand.
“Blow it Stan.” She commanded with a look of child-like anticipation on her face. He flipped the switch, and within 5 seconds an entire half of the distribution facility was up in broiling flames that rose high into the black night. The battle was won.
Chapter 22
Jack was sitting in the office of the warehouse with his feet up on the desk and his hands on his head while he stared at the ceiling. On the way back here they had killed another Inquisitor squad and TC had removed the lead Inquisitor's transponder or whatever, and he now had the entire droid on an operating table in his makeshift laboratory and was dissecting it bit by bit.
This is madness… He heard the door to the office open and two very
familiar footsteps entered.
“Hey Val, hey Stan,” he spoke almost like he was depressed, or so fed up with the situation that he just didn’t care anymore.
Val put her pack on the floor with a bit of a confused expression on her face, “Well I see you got Mr. Rhoades. Why are you so glum?”
Jack just laughed to himself, “It’s a long story, but the short of it is that Mr. Rhoades is an absolute lunatic. His smarts are there, but… well, you’d have to meet him to understand. The reason I’m so morose is mostly a case of 'loss of sanity by association'. How’d it go with Mana?”
Stan offered his view of it since he was ready to meet Mr. Rhoades, “Well, at least half of the facility is destroyed, and we have some very promising information from Mana that includes the exact coordinates of the prison, the name of his supplier, and a general direction we can move in. Also, Aerotec has massive robot guards now.”
“How massive?” Jack sighed as he sat up properly.
Val responded, though she didn't think that the size of a single robot was awfully relevant to the crisis at hand, “About as tall as a small house or a doublewide trailer, I’d say five meters tall and about as wide as a truck. They have chainguns, but they’re pretty stupid.”
Jack laughed to himself, “Of course they are. Ah well, everything dies eventually. Dale said that Maria and his little girl are good friends now, so that’s nice.”
Jack Cabe Page 9
