The Last Gallon (16 page)

As soon as the Armadillo pulled up Vincent stormed over to the car and slammed his fist on the hood. As Mark got out of the car Vincent slammed him up against the door pillar and started swearing and screaming about his crew being slaughtered while his family screwed around in safety. Mark was shocked but after seeing the site of the battle he really couldn’t blame Vincent for being so pissed.

Mark tried to talk some sense into Vincent but he was not going to listen. He just kept ranting while slamming Mark against the side of the car. Karen
Wiseman finally hobbled over and grabbed Vincent’s arm as he was about to punch Mark in the face. “Vincent, calm down” she said while Vincent tried to lunge at Mark. “VINCENT CALM THE FUCK DOWN” she demanded and twisted his arm around his back.

Vincent’s anger switch was switched off by Karen’s actions and a calm look returned to his face. Karen let go of his arm and patted him on the shoulder. She began to explain why Vincent was wrong. “If he had not left maybe he would’ve been killed in the attack. Then none of us would have found that cache, we would have just died by Zeta
hands for no goddamn reason Vincent. He had to go, he HAD to go.” She explained.

Mark stayed quiet even though he had plenty of opportunity to interject. He didn’t want to set Vincent off again and would calmly wait until he had completely returned to a sane state of mind before opening his mouth. Karen worked on him for a few more minutes and he finally nodded and began to weep. The pain of losing so many friends had finally sunk in and he could no longer hold back. Mark grabbed him into his arms and tried to comfort him. Vincent did not resist and Mark let him cry in his arms for several minutes.

When Vincent regained composure he was a different person. He was back to being that charismatic leader that people would follow even if it meant certain death. He started organizing the survivors, ordering mechanics to make repairs necessary to get the equipment on the road, ordering corpsmen to tend to the minor wounds so those people could make the trip. It was amazing to see and Mark was proud to be the man’s friend. He really was one of the most dynamic, powerful and compassionate men he had ever met.

Once all the orders were given Vincent turned back to Mark and smiled. “I am really sorry about that” he said sheepishly as if he was afraid Mark would hate him. Mark smiled and patted him on the shoulder “Buddy, I deserved it, I
understand why you were upset and I would be too. It’s all water under the bridge. Let’s get on with the next chapter in our lives. I think you will like it.” Vincent gave Mark a curious look and Mark confirmed his suspicions. “It is all we hoped for and more” he told his friend.

A few hours later the convoy was ready to move with the help of several people from the town and
militia from the guard facility. Mark offered some of the militia folk to come move into the cache and several seemed like they would be interested to do so in the near future. Mark told them how to get in touch with him when they decided to come out.

Mark led the battered convoy out of town. Several of the people who helped out lined the streets to wave and cheer them on. A woman up ahead suddenly stepped out in the middle of the road to halt them and Mark told Joey to be on the ready in case something happened. Something did happen but it wasn’t at all what they expected.

The woman’s son came out of their house with a beaten, tattered, and torn American flag. It was the first one Mark had seen in years and it instantly brought a tear to his eye. The boy approached the car to hand the flag over to Mark but he motioned back in the convoy a bit.

The boy approached Vincent’s
Humvee and presented the flag to him. Vincent, also with a tear in his eye, exited the vehicle and fastened the flag to his antenna. He and the boy then saluted the flag while the crowd cheered. Near the back of the crowd a deep bellowing voice started singing “Ohhhh say can you seeee” and the entire convoy shut down and sang the anthem alongside him. Mark couldn’t contain the tears of pride and joy that welled up inside him after hearing the national anthem for the first time in years. He decided right then and there that Athena was right and he would do everything in his power to return his nation to its former glory.

The convoy rolled to life with a renewed sense of purpose. Once they were out of town Mark got on the
mic and talked on an open channel about the cache and what they had discovered. He could hear several gasps of surprise and excitement as he described the firepower they had on hand. He could also hear the excitement they displayed when he told about the library and museum.

What had started out as a horrible and horrifying day had turned into a joyous and prideful night. When the convoy rolled in Mark had called Kara to make sure dinner would be ready and there would be access to the parking garage immediately.
She delivered with the accuracy that only a Kara could provide. As they made their final approach to the cache the giant bay door rolled open and the convoy rolled right in and parked in the few empty bays that were available inside.

The chow hall smelled of a hearty beef stew and another artisan bread recipe that Kara had baked via the recipe books on hand. Vincent’s battered army ate up every bit of the 55 gallons Kara had prepared in the industrial kitchen. Once dinner was complete they showed everyone to their bunks. Several were quite giddy to be sleeping on a mattress and not the cold floor of their vehicles or the hard floor of the earth.

Vincent stayed up with the family and Mark gave him the grand tour. When they were just about to pack it up for the night Vincent’s radio crackled to life. “Viper one this is Cobra niner over” the voice said. Vincent’s eyes lit up as he responded. He gave them coordinates and within minutes the security system alerted them to the perimeter being breeched. Vincent had the bay doors lifted again and a Bradley drove down the ramp and parked in the last empty spot.

Mark and the family stood by Vincent in eager anticipation waiting to see who their visitor was. When Timothy and Simone stepped from the back doors of the vehicle the entire group ran to greet them. Vincent, Mark, and Kara showered Timothy with hugs and kisses while Joey did the same with Simone. Cindy looked a little perturbed
until Joey introduced her as his girlfriend. Simone smiled a big smile and was truly pleased to meet the young girl.

The group retired to one of the private suites and cracked open a case of beer to enjoy the reunion and catch up on the adventures of Timothy and Simone. Apparently their rescue party came at the perfect time; in fact, almost immediately upon their arrival Timothy’s barge was attacked by missile and destroyed. He and Simone had
swum to shore and were about to hoof it until the Bradley driver waved them over.

Outside, along the road outside the quarry the boys on the motorcycle gave each other high-fives. “We are going to get so many whores for this mi Amigo” the younger one said to the older one. He just smiled the biggest grin you can imagine as he kicked the old
junker to life and they rode off into the night towards Little Rock.

Over the next few weeks word of the cache and what the crew was trying to create was spread throughout the area. Vincent’s remaining forces arrived along with droves from the neighboring cities. There were already over 3,000 people living in the cache and close to 2,000 of those were combat ready.

Vanessa took control of their new air wing and piloted a Little Bird regularly on patrol. She was afraid to step up to the bigger aircraft until she felt she was proficient again. She was training a couple other would-be pilots and felt confident that she could get four helicopters in the air if need-be.

Timothy and Simone had taken charge of defensive systems for the facility. They placed 4 MLRS loaded with MGM-140B guided missiles atop the quarry. They could strike over 100 miles away. They also placed a pair of M109 artillery units
for short range attack. Multiple machine gun and mini-gun nests rounded out the top of quarry defense system.

Vincent refitted his crew with M1A2 tanks and new Bradleys. He currently had 6 Abrams crews and 6 Bradley crews ready to go at any
given moment. Another four of each were in reserve along with a complement of nearly 300 soldiers from his and various volunteer outfits.

A phenomenon that had been occurring was the locals coming to the cache and asking for their protection in return for fighting men or farming land. Mark was always happy to accept new recruits but he continuously made it clear that they would not be conscripting soldiers; their army would be completely voluntary. This made the number of recruits go even higher as young men finally had the means to protect their families.

It did not take long until the group had a nearly 50 mile circular radius they had sworn to defend. It seemed to grow daily but Mark didn’t see it as a problem. They had such sophisticated weapons and the command center had eyes everywhere once they had deployed the mobile radar nests that were contained within the cache.

Vincent had returned to Jonesboro only a day after the battle so he could properly bury
his dead in a friendly place. He created the first new national cemetery on the property of the cache. They had a moving ceremony and everyone in the facility plus some officials from West Plains attended. Mark truly appreciated the care and concern Vincent displayed for his men both living and dead. This act also seemed to attract many a new follower. They knew if they laid their lives down that it would be done for a reason and a purpose, not for an immediate need or a random whim.

While the group fortified their location and expanded their reach the Zetas were mobilizing the biggest force they had ever brought to bear on anyone since the wars. Their star spies had located the cache when they followed Timothy’s Bradley and had informed El
Jefe of the exact location. The leadership did not trust him to pull off the mission after the Jonesboro debacle but they were using his land and resources to build the strike force that was going to assault the cache.

Their equipment consisted mostly of confiscated Mexican Army units.
Panhard VCR APCs were the biggest part of the force. They were armed with a single 50cal machine gun and could carry 12 soldiers. They also had a dozen French ERC-90 fighting vehicles. The 90mm cannon could do some serious damage to all but the heaviest of tanks. They rounded out their arsenal with a couple dozen BMP-1 APCs. The Russian work-horse had seen many a battle and some of the equipment on-hand looked like it may have participated in a good number of them.

All in all they had nearly 60 armored vehicles. They also ha
d a couple dozen troop trucks that could put several hundred soldiers in action as needed. It was going to be a tough force to fight for most of the current groups’ active in the country. The Zetas had no idea the level of equipment and technology the group had at its disposal.

Zeta General
Allessandro “Santa Anna’ Dominguez was in charge of the assault. He was known throughout the southeast as a ruthless commander. His units spread terror from Texas to Miami as the cartel claimed its land and resources after the collapse of America. His newest task would help spread Zeta influence in the middle of the war torn country. Their plans would extend their reach all the way to the Socialist Republic of Canada and drive a wedge between New China and the corporate owned lands of the northeast.

Simone and Karen were standing watch in the command
center on a quiet Sunday when the south quadrant radar started going crazy. Karen sat staring at the radar and repeated “dot, dot, dot ,dot” over and over as the contacts appeared on their scope. “95 vehicles approaching at approximately 40mph, range 115 miles” she informed Simone who stood as watch captain. Simone dialled Mark’s suite immediately.

Minutes later Mark stood looking at the scope. Simone asked “Should we fire? We can hit them from here with the MLRS.” Mark wrinkled his nose, what if it was friendly? It’s a long shot but stranger things had happened throughout their
journeys. Mark shook his head no, “Get Vanessa airborne to identify the targets, we can make a decision once we have visual. Make sure her Little Birds have Hellfires” he ordered. Simone nodded and called Vanessa and told her to scramble 2 birds.

15 minutes later Vanessa and Larry Partridge from the former Missouri Air National Guard were in the air heading south. The Little Birds quickly reached a cruising speed of 150mph. They would be over their targets in about half an hour. The little gunships were equipped with twin 50cal machine guns and a pair of Hellfire missiles each; they packed a hell of a punch for such a tiny chopper.

About 20 minutes into the flight Vanessa got her first visual. It was quite obvious that they were not friendlies. “Baby Eagle to Raptor’s Nest, we’ve got Zetas approaching. Light to medium armor plus several hundred infantry. Request to engage.” She didn’t even need to wait for an answer because the column below started firing their 50 calibre machine guns at her. The group had a strict self defense doctrine and she was now obligated to return fire at them.

Vanessa and Larry split up, Larry would work from the back and she would work from the front. They would approach from the same side to avoid any chance of colliding with each other.
Vanessa quickly dispatched the lead vehicles with Hellfires and Larry focused on troop transports with his twin machine guns. It was like shooting fish in a barrel but he had no issues doing so after previously witnessing the brutality of the men below.

The damage to the column caused a traffic jam and all the other vehicles had to stop and fan out to avoid collisions with the others. “Raptor’s Nest to Baby Eagle: Engage at will” Simone’s voice ordered. Vanessa laughed and responded “BE confirms contact” immediately. She continued “We’ve got them stopped, recommend loading in some unguided
MGM-140s into the MLRS.” Vanessa heard Simone chatting with Mark and responded “Negative, guided versions are loaded and will be on their way shortly, we recommend bugging out.” Vanessa responded in the affirmative and she and Larry turned west to circle at a safe distance to witness the destruction of the highly lethal cluster munitions laced missiles.

Once in a safe location and circling the two pilots watched as the large missiles came to bear on the convoy. All four MLRS fired their dual missiles and the 8 weapons came in directly on the column, one after another. The lighter vehicles stood no chance against the small munitions and the exposed troop trucks were simply devastated. Once the carnage was over the two pilots swooped
back in to take shots at the survivors. Vanessa noted that the heavier armor was not affected at all and recommended loading with anti-tank loads for the next salvo. The base acknowledged.

The convoy was in a panic and started to fan out all over the highway and the shoulders to get away from the burning vehicles and damaged road. The panic caused collisions which further jammed up their progress. It was a nightmare on the ground and the sound of munitions cooking off and people screaming drowned out the orders of officers trying to get their men calmed down.

The helicopters swooped in with their guns blazing catching the soldiers off guard again. They had just began to come out from any cover they could find following the missile attack and were now pinned down again. They fired back at the birds but the little devils were small and quick enough to avoid any major damage.

General Santa Anna barked out orders and eventually got his men calm enough to regain effectiveness. He ordered the column split into 8 parts and to fan out in 4 forward moving directions. The tactic of splitting the group into manageable portions worked well and the column was soon underway minus about 15 vehicles and a large number of infantry troops.

Vanessa and Larry made a couple more passes but decided to head out when the Zeta’s fire became more and more concentrated and effective. Vanessa’s chopper had a 5.56mm round penetrate the pilot’s bubble which left a perfectly round hole in the lexan. Luckily it did not strike the rotor on its way through nor did it hit any Vanessa parts on its journey.

As they exited the battle field a salvo of BATs fired from the MLRS came to bear on the convoys.
BATs, short for Brilliant Anti-Tank Munitions were smart bomblets that would discover and home in on what they deemed the biggest threat. 4 missiles containing 13 anti-armor munitions apiece chose to seek out the BMPs nearly wiping out the entire complement at once.

Back at base Vanessa and Larry debriefed and discussed refitting and going back out. Mark told them not to bother; the column had been reduced to almost half of its original size with the technology they had brought to bear on it.
Mark didn’t want to over-use their technology and end up with an empty storehouse within a matter of a few battles. He also didn’t want to show his complete hand at any point in the game. If he always kept his enemies guessing then they might question whether or not it was worth being wiped out by him.

When the convoy got in range of the artillery Mark had them fire 5 salvos. They were
able to take out two more vehicles but the main effect was to make them realize they were not just going to march in without any further resistance. At 4 times the BMP and ERC-90 effective range the M120 mortars opened up with several salvos of high-explosive rounds. Mark had guided munitions at his disposal but they were in relatively short supply as they were experimental units before the wars broke out.

Vincent and his tanks were stationed around and behind the enemy’s approach and once the mortars stopped firing it was his turn to open up. They closed in on the ragged attack force and proceeded to pick them apart. The French built ERC-90s could defeat modern
armor but the Abrams main gun outranged it by over double. Vincent told his tankers to be sure they stayed outside their range while engaging.

The Bradleys played the run and gun game after launching their TOW missiles at the beginning of the engagement. They could only fire while stationary so the plan was to launch and then rely on the chain gun from that point on.

Victor Sanchez was an Abrams driver and Vincent’s #2 tanker. He had already fired two salvos at a pair of BMPs that came into his crosshairs. He was scanning for another target when an ERC-90 barrelled through the woods at him. “Target 10 o’clock” his driver shouted out as he watched the French light tank level its gun at them. Victor’s gunner swung the turret into action and the two vehicles fired simultaneously.

The 90mm
armor piercing round struck the Abrams in the front left corner. It’s specialty round penetrated the armor and showered the driver with molten metal fragments. Victor heard his screams from the command position and began calling down to see if he was ok. He said he was hurt but functioning and quite pissed. Victor smiled and ordered the gunner to fire again. As the round exited the tank Victor shouted “Remember the Alamo motherfuckers!”

The crew of the ERC-90 would never remember anything again. The first round shredded the thin
armor and wounded or killed everyone inside. The second round just compounded the destruction and sealed the fate of the survivors in a firestorm of shrapnel and destruction.

The ambush went well and the cache’s infantry was sent out to mop up the mess and wrangle up survivors. The command tank of Santa Anna was still out there and Vincent was doing his best to track him down. Radar showed a group of 8 vehicles still together with another 10 or so milling about randomly. He ordered Victor to coordinate the destruction of the stragglers and he and 2 Bradleys would head out to meet up with Santa
Anna.

Santa Anna had seen enough, he was on the retreat. He knew he was a dead man if he returned to Zeta territory so he decided to run north and hopefully disappear into the free-lands or worst case, defect to New China. He and the rest of his command thundered up 17 to work their way around West Plains and towards the vast wilderness to the north.

Several of the locals who were loyal to Mark and his people called in the location of the fleeing general. Vincent pushed his crew forward, adjusting their direction with each new call in. Mark dispatched Vanessa to monitor or engage as necessary. Once she had a visual the chase was over but still had to play out.

Santa Anna’s command vehicle flew the Mexican flag and the Zeta flag. It was a AMX-VCI APC of French decent. It was converted from a troop carrier to a mobile communications and command platform. It retained the 20mm cannon of the normal model. The rest of the remaining convoy were in the
Panhard VCR APCs armed with only 50 caliber machine guns. When Vincent finally caught up it was going to be a quick affair.