Jack Cabe

by Timothy Nguyen

  “As you say, Valerie. Mr. Connally, Little Mr. Connally, you two come with me, we can discuss your joining with the rebellion in my office.” Stan led Seamus and Anthony into the office and shut the door, and Val took Jack’s hand in hers before leading him to the room they shared with Stan.

  ...

  “Jack… I’m worried about you,” she sat him down on the edge of one of the beds, “You’re rushing headlong into danger with what seems to be no concern for the ramifications. You could have been killed out there, and it seems to me that you don’t even care,” Val reprimanded him for his recklessness, hoping that she could get him to see sense.

  “Val, it’s not like we have a choice about how much danger we put ourselves in, I mea-” Jack was cut off by Val.

  “No, listen to me Jack,” she took both of his hands in hers as she sat down, choking back tears, “I know the risks. But that doesn’t mean you have to rush headlong into them! I can’t stand the thought of you going out one day and never returning. Can’t you see that? After everything we’ve been through together… Jack I..”

  Jack held her hands in his and spoke gently, “Val, I know, and I’m sorry. I feel the same whenever you go out too, but I just have to accept that. You know I’d die for you, and nothing will ever change that. But we have to keep fighting, whether we want to or not, there’s no-”

  Val stopped him mid-sentence, "This isn’t about the fighting Jack. I need my best friend in the universe alive.”

  …

  Stan sat in the wooden chair across from the Connallys with his hands steepled and his tone serious, “Alright, so what is it that you can bring to the table, Mr. Connally? What are you hoping to be able to do for us?”

  Seamus wiggled in his seat, slightly intimidated by the large Russian, “Well Mr. Vulkov, we can be your eyes and ears in and around New Dublin, we can help with recruitment, and we can work as regular infantry if you need it.”

  “Ah, I see. I am glad to welcome you to the Resistance then,” Stan smiled broadly and laughed heartily, drastically changing his tone, “Welcome to the Resistance, Mr. Connally! We’re glad to have you!”

  Seamus sighed, glad that Stan wasn’t such a hard man after all, “Well Mr. Vulkov, we’re glad to be here. Anything you need?” He offered his services gladly. The New Dublin crew was ready to see some action.

  “Yes, actually. See, we’re planning this attack, but we don’t exactly have the men or supplies to go through with it. If you can help us get supplies, we can start training as many men from your crew as we can,” Stan said this matter-of-factly.

  Seamus smiled and took the Russian's hand, “I’d be glad to help, Mr. Vulkov.”

  …

  “Val, I’m not suicidal or anything, but someone has to do the higher risk missions, and I have a squad with me when I go. I love you dearly, and you’re practically my family with all that we’ve been through, and I wouldn’t trade you for the world, but someone has to do these missions.” Jack tried to defend himself, even if she was right. He had been going after the highest risk missions he could and did so with minimal support, and he had come back injured from two of them and had nearly been captured on another.

  “Jack, please be safe. At least wear some armor or something. I know I can’t stop you, but I can at least try to protect you,” she said this as she unwrapped his leg and pulled out a medical kit, “Will you do that for me? Just to give me some peace of mind?”

  “I’ll see what I can scrounge up, but I’m not stepping down from the dangerous assignments. Especially the assassinations. I know you understand, and I know it sucks, but the sooner we can defeat Aerotec, the sooner we can stop thrusting ourselves into danger. Hell, maybe we’ll even lead normal lives,” Jack took her hand in his, “I promise, I’m not going out there because I want to die. I’m going out there to forge out a future for us and the rest of the people who are suffering under Aerotec, even if that future has to be forged with blood and iron."

  Val sat there quietly, contemplating his words. He's going to get himself killed.

  Jack took immediate notice of Val's quiet, and attempted to assuage the fear in her mind, "I’m not just fighting for the people Val, I’m fighting for us too, the two street rats who had to fight off thugs just to eat and jumped at the chance for a job in the mine once we could figure out how to apply. I’m fighting for us, and people like us, and maybe even a future for us. A homestead for each one of us, you, me, Stan, living the old American Dream,” Jack waxed eloquent, then yelped as Val cleaned his wound.

  She finally spoke gingerly, “Yeah Jack. That’ll be wonderful. But it can’t happen for us if you get yourself killed trying to achieve it. So please, for the love of all things try not to die out there,” She finished patching up his leg, “C’mon, let’s go figure out what Stan and Connally have gotten up to. Hopefully, they haven’t burned the whole place down.” She smiled weakly, still worried about Jack but willing to put it aside for now. Hopefully she wouldn’t regret it.

  …

  He stood at the edge of the balcony with a champagne glass in his hand. The wind ruffled his coattails and short brown hair. He spoke a command into the crisp air, “Reginald, come here boy.”

  A young man of about 16 or 17 years approached him, “Yes Master Land?”

  “When you look out on that city… Tell me, what do you see?” Land asked the servant, his voice tinted with morbid curiosity.

  “Well sir, I see the white-walled buildings of New Columbia mostly, and beyond that, a bit of a rusty brown smudge broken by buildings. I think those are the tenements. Beyond that, there’s that mountain that the mine is in, surrounded by more of those ugly slum houses, but honestly, it’s mostly a blur at that distance sir.”

  Land laughed. “Well, that’s one way of putting it. I see a well of people who are undeserving of the kindness I’ve shown them, the jobs I’ve given them, and the patience I've had with them. I see worthless garbage rallying behind some street-rat orphan from Luna. They don’t see the wonders I’ve done for them. Tomorrow, that brown smudge will run red with Cabe’s blood, and all will be restored to its rightful order. No more slums, no more resistance, no more Cabe.”

  “Sir, if you say it, it will be done,” Reginald didn't quite have an opinion on the matter yet, in all honesty.

  “And I say that Cabe must be destroyed.” The 48-year-old spun on his heel, and tinkling shards of broken glass fell from the balcony, where the jagged stem of the glass sat perfectly still on the railing.

  Chapter 25

  It had been one day since the New Dublin Militia had been inducted into the Resistance, and already things were looking up for the rebellion. Several other local militia groups had made contact after the propaganda blitz, and now the rebellion numbered in the hundreds rather than the tens. Stan had everyone gathered around a map of New Columbia, and was discussing the plan for when Aerotec inevitably attacked with the rest of the rebellion's high command.

  “Alright people, we have enough weapons now thanks to the contribution of the Scottstown Militia, but we don’t know what kind of weapons we’ll need. Luckily, TC has come up with some sort of ionized plasma bazooka thing that ought to help us against armor and mechs. We are going up against a technologically and numerically superior enemy, so we have to fight dirty," Stan explained while trying not to sound too cynical.

  When he was finished, Jack chimed in, “Essentially, the idea is to make the Outer City into the nine circles of hell. As soon as we get word that Aerotec is moving on us, we all rush to whatever front it is that they’ve opened and we make them fight for every house and every room. We’ll make Stalingrad look like a walk in the park. Only retreat if there is no possibility of turning the battle around, and we’ll all be right there with you."

  One of the lower commanders raised their hand.

  "Yes, Commander?" Jack gave him leave to speak.

  The man spoke timidly, "What makes you three think that we can win this? I mean, it's not like
we aren't fighting the most powerful entity we've ever known."

  Jack smiled, "To put it simply Commander Tinoco, we have a massive hometown advantage. Sure, Aerotec probably has holographic maps of the territory, but we live in it. We know all of the holes we can dash into, we know which walls we can punch through for an ambush, and we know how to move from one side of the city to the other without showing our faces to the sky once. They have to familiarize themselves with the land first, and we’ve been familiar with it for years. If we play smart, we can’t lose. Everyone knows what the enemy looks like," Jack finished with confident ease.

  Val stepped up to the plate now with the hope of calming some of the new commanders' fears, "We can win this, but we have to be smart about it. No open engagements without cover, no fighting if you know you can’t retreat if you have to, and no suicide charges. We don’t have infinite resources, and we don’t have infinite bodies to throw around. Now-” A young man rushed into the room, turning the heads of the 20 or so people inside.

  “It’s started. They’re moving an armored column into the east side along the main highway, and they’ve bombed our former hideouts nearby. New Atlanta is ablaze.”

  Jack clapped his hands and grabbed his pistol from his belt, “Good job kid. You heard him, people! Let’s move out! Time is of the essence and we need to strike back fast. Give them resistance, and we’ll take care of the rest!” Jack grabbed a microphone to the intercom system and began a speech while the other commanders rushed to their units.

  “People of New Columbia, my brothers and sisters in arms, Aerotec has come for us at last. Let’s show them that we will not bow down to the threat of tanks and aircraft and the threat of scary machines and robot soldiers. Take up arms and listen to your commanders, because it is do or die today. But do not hesitate, because we will last through the terrible night, and our triumphant shout will rise in the morning! To arms! The day may come when we lie broken and defeated, but it is not this day! Fight for your homes and fight for your futures! God save us all!” As soon as he finished, he put down the microphone and rushed with Val and Stan to grab their men and weapons.

  “So the plan is to lure the Aerotec charge into the outer city, while you two ambush them from the sides at 0300?” Jack questioned, finally considering how he was about to be on the frontline of said distraction.

  Stan shrugged, “Well, that’s the plan, but not every plan survives first contact with the enemy. Hopefully, Aerotec has underestimated us enough to believe that the one attack will suffice, since that road leads directly through the heart of the city.”

  “Cool enough I guess, at least you two get the suits, and I get the other plasma gun TC made that hopefully won’t explode. Val’s taking the South and you're taking the North right?” Jack continued as he grabbed a large, vaguely rifle-shaped weapon from a box.

  “Exactly, this way we have a resistance leader at each prong of the attack. It’ll keep our soldiers’ morale high, and a motivated man with a sharp stick can win the day, as I once heard.” Stan explained before he started strapping into one of the skeletal exo-suits TC had made. It was less like an exosuit and more like a metal stick figure.

  “Alright, but let’s hurry up and get a move on,” Jack urged, and within a few minutes the Resistance was mobilizing, and within thirty minutes they were taking up their positions in their crucible. This wasn’t going to be some skirmish with a few Inquisitors at the mine, no, this was a war now. And war has a heavy price.

  …

  Jack ordered the nearby burnt and rusted hulks of abandoned cars to be dragged into the roadway to form a barrier. Luckily, the Aerotec advance was going to be quite slow, even without the Resistance bugging them constantly as they moved. They had maybe 30 minutes to prepare since they were this far away, but it was a relatively small force compared to what they had expected. Only about a thousand men, three tanks, and a couple of mechs. Luckily, this force was also dumb enough to move as a concentrated group.

  The resistance soldiers -about 200 of them- reinforced the cars with whatever large scrap they could find, and evacuated as many people as they could out of the vicinity of the battlefield before taking up position in their homes.

  Within thirty minutes, they had pulled enough vehicles into the road to serve as a barrier to anyone trying to pass, and they were pretty well-entrenched into the surrounding buildings.

  Jack spoke over a rudimentary universal communicator, “Listen up everyone! At any moment, that column of death is going to appear on our horizon, and we have to face it whether we like it or not,” The march of hundreds of metal feet began to reach their ears, the steady drumbeat of the dogs of war, “We will not be cowed by terrorism. If Aerotec wants a fight, then we’ll give them a fight! They have come to reap our very lives, to destroy our homes, and to annihilate every last trace of liberty! So we will make our stand!

  Do not take one step back. We will survive, and we will thrive in spite of Aerotec’s plans. Every Inquisitor we destroy is a step closer to victory, and every tank is a battle won. Stand with us, and we will begin tearing down the columns of Aerotec’s heavy roof, and they will be buried in the tomb they built to be their castle. Today we fight for our future and the future of every generation after us! To your positions!”

  The Resistance took their places in windows and behind wrecked cars, on machine guns and rocket launchers, and listened to the steady drone of the Inquisitor march...

  Chapter 26

  Jack pulled a flag out of a bag and raised it over the rusty asphalt behind the fortifications, one of the same flags over they had emblazoned upon the Glittering Apartments. He planted it in the ground, its red banner standing tall and proud in billowing defiance. Jack recalled an old rallying cry from centuries past, We’ll rally round the flag boys, rally once again, shouting the battle cry of freedom... The Inquisitors came into view and paused at the site of the makeshift fortifications before continuing their march.

  “Patience, they can’t fire until they come into range,” Jack spoke slowly and calmly before he knelt beside the wheel well of an overturned car, using the vehicle as a prop for his rifle, "Everyone, keep your heads down, they can fire with accuracy, as we’ve all seen. That’s why we wait. Machine guns’ll open up first, and we'll rain hell afterward.”

  A shell whistled overhead, and an explosion thundered behind the allied lines, and already they could tell that this wasn’t going to be as quick or as easy as they had imagined. Jack hazarded a peek through a crack between the cars. Almost there, just a few more meters and they’ll be within range of the guns. Still gotta do something about the tanks though…

  Jack spoke into his universal comm, “Alright, anti-tank units, I need you to head along the sides of the road and get within sight of the tanks. Aim for where the hull meets the turret and fire as soon as they fire their next shot, and don’t leave until they’re destroyed or you’re out of ammo.”

  “Yes sir,” the other end of the line squawked, and two small squads moved out, equipped with rocket launchers and the new-fangled plasma shoulder cannon TC had rigged up. Things were about to get very hectic.

  “Alright, don’t open fire until they’re in range of the machine guns nearest us," Jack addressed the rest of his men, "On my mark, all machine guns open fire and don’t stop. Anti-tank units, tell me when you can take the shot,” Jack spoke calmly into his communicator and was met with a quiet affirmation. It wasn’t often that nearly a thousand enemy units walked directly into a trap. Dumb robots, I guess.

  The Inquisitors marched closer and it appeared that they had traded their dusters for simple fatigues the color of steel. Just a few more moments and the resistance could spring their trap.

  “We have visual sir,” the sound of the rocket launcher being set up on a windowsill could be heard as the anti-tank team spoke to Jack.

  Jack smiled as he spoke proudly into the communicator, “All units, execute.”

  Suddenly, the entire hundred-meter section of
the highway was awash with thunder and fire as hundreds of guns spewed fatal flame. The slow and steady thuds of the Scottstown machine guns, the quick pops of the infantry's rifles, the electric zings of the frontliners' plasma cannons, all of it combined to become hell’s grand symphony. Two massive cracks of lightning burst through the swirling and oily smoke, followed a split-second later by a rapturous cacophony of flaming thunder as the tanks exploded, their death throes enveloping hundreds of nearby Inquisitors.

  The smell of gunpowder wafted through the air as the first resistance salvo calmed to nothing.

  “Surely, nothing could have survived that. Even if there were survivors, they won't last long. Do you hear that?” Jack cupped his hand to his ear with a devious grin, "That's the sound of silence." He smiled as he looked out upon the destruction, the plumes of smoke rising from the shattered asphalt and the crumpled and fragmented carcasses of Inquisitors strewn about like so much confetti.

  The few meager remains of Aerotec's forces were quickly destroyed minutes later.

  …

  “Sir, initial reports from the frontline units were good, but they’ve turned… horrendous,” the man slid a paper onto Land’s mahogany desk, “Nearly every last unit was destroyed when they reached these coordinates. All that we can get back from the ones that lasted long enough was that there was a whole lot of gunfire, and maybe even some artillery.”

  Land steepled his hands and took a deep breath before speaking, his words laced with venomous threat, “Mr. Treble, would you please explain to me how the poor street rats that numbered in the tens last week now have artillery and enough firepower to clean a thousand advanced combat units clear off the face of the map?"