The Last Gallon (17 page)

Everyone was going roughly the same speed so catching the General was proving to be very difficult. Vanessa volunteered to slow them
down and Mark agreed that it would be the only way to catch up with them. She did a couple strafing runs with her machine guns blazing and forced the group to take evasive measures. The fleeing crews took shots at her and forced her to retreat for a moment so she wouldn’t get hit.

Vincent’s tanks made up valuable ground on the command group and were finally in range of the Abram’s main gun. Vincent coordinated with Vanessa and they fired a salvo together, her with a Hellfire and Vincent with the 120mm smoothbore gun. The rearmost vehicles exploded in a pair of fireballs which sent the rest of the convoy scattering like roaches when a light turns on.

Another pair of coordinated attacks and Santa Anna’s crew was halved. He had his vehicle floored and was trying to weave back and forth to avoid being hit. Vanessa shadowed him and plinked at him with her 50 cals while Vincent took care of the rest of his command.

It wasn’t long until Vincent had his command unit surrounded and he sent one of the Bradleys forward to force him to halt. His APC ground to a halt with a puff of smoke and a cloud of dust around it. The General emerged with his hands up as if he was going to surrender.

Vanessa hovered above the command tank to watch for funny business while the cache’s tank crews deployed to take the General into custody. Twelve men surrounded the tank with their M4s at the ready. The General reached down to his waist and pulled out a revolver with a swift motion. Vanessa thumbed her fire button and sent a dozen half inch bullets into the man before he could even get the gun at the ready. The battle was over and the new Alamo would not fall.

Back at the cache the troops returned before night-fall to report that any organized resistance had been mopped up. There were some stragglers running around but it was decided that there was nothing that they could do to harm the cache or its inhabitants. The night watch would keep an eye out and dispatch anyone around the perimeter that looked shady.

The battle was not without costs, 32 men and 4 pieces of equipment were destroyed and another 47 were injured though most was superficial or non life threatening. The Zetas lost nearly 800 men and almost the entire complement of armor and equipment. It was a devastating loss for their organization and Mark knew they were not going to take kindly to it.

The mess hall was packed with celebrating soldiers and support personnel. A couple kegs were tapped and the mess crew grilled up
steaks for everyone thanks to the locals donating a dozen cows. Mark invited the town’s folk to come celebrate but warned them that there were still some troops on the loose. Most declined but said they would take the crew up on the offer once everything was completely stabilized. Mark told them that day was a long way off but he would do what he could.

The process of building civilization out of chaos was a tiring affair. Mark almost preferred war to the daily mess of civil issues. It was a job that had to be done and he and his fellow committee members did the best they could to keep the majority happy.

The
cache had become the capitol city of what everyone agreed to dub The United Conservative Alliance or UCA. They had formed a committee that consisted of the family, Vincent, Vanessa, Timothy, Simone, and the mayors of the cities they vowed to protect. Important matters were passed through the committee and what they decreed was considered law. It provided a basic structure of a government while allowing their people to have some influence on the situation.

The UCA was a relatively stable region; raiding parties avoided them due to their projection of strength and battle history. The defeat of the Zeta army was repeated in stories throughout the continent and each time the battle became even more one sided. The weapons that the UCA possessed were feared and very few of the organized groups would dare to even poke at them.

The corporation and Zetas were two exceptions. The Zetas continued to lick their wounds but would regularly harass the UCA by performing annoyance raids on the UCA and Zeta border towns. Mark was forced to send armored units from the cache to the border to protect their people from rape and pillage.

The corporation continued to make empty threats to Mark. They were quite sore over Mark’s defection and vowed to wipe him off the face of the Earth. It became a weekly occurrence for him to get calls from
Mechacorp officials telling him what they were going to do to him. Mark eventually got fed up with it and went down to the silo with a video camera. He painted New York City on one of the nukes and filmed it. During the next week’s call he interrupted the threat and showed them the footage combined with some footage of the destruction of Memphis. The message was received loud and clear and the harassing calls stopped.

Within a matter of months the UCA spread to include a land-mass that reached from St. Louis in the north to Memphis (or the Mississippi River to be exact, nobody wanted Memphis) and the outskirts of Little Rock. The territory continued along I-40 to Fort Smith then direct north to Joplin MO. It then followed along I-44 back up to St. Louis.

The city of Little Rock desperately wanted to belong to the UCA but remained under Zeta control. Mark was in meetings with the mayor and prominent city members but told them they would have to revolt before he would provide assistance. It was his policy not to be an aggressor but would happily come to the defense of anyone who desired it. The officials would not commit to such an action so Mark told them they either needed to shit or get off the pot. They were still squatting so far.

The UCA had a policy of loaning out any equipment its citizens needed to improve their land or living situation. The rules stated you could check out any equipment you needed provided you maintained it and ret
urned it in a similar condition. The policy seemed to be working well and the land around the UCA was flourishing with crops and livestock. The infrastructure was also vastly improved over post-war conditions. Cities would rent the construction equipment and rebuild roads and bridges that were damaged during battles.

The group also provided seeds to help farmers restart their farms. The people of the area were growing fruits and vegetables never seen in Missouri, Arkansas or Oklahoma. In return for the seeds they returned some of their crops to the cache to help feed its residents.

The UCA defense force was deemed mandatory for 16 to 21 year-old men and women. At 16 they would report to the cache and be trained in a non-combat support role. Once they were 18 they were trained in defensive combat and would serve in that role until their 21
st
birthday. In their final year of service they would also be taught a trade so they would have a productive future.

The offensive army was strictly voluntary. Again Mark felt that anyone who would be involved with raids or attacks on enemy territory should be a committed soldier. Obviously the border lands
defense forces saw real action they would never be asked to do anything but defend their towns and people from attack.

There was no shortage of volunteers. In fact they had so many that they allowed some of the
defense force to retire at 20. It seemed to be a good balance and the cities had no problem providing their youth for training as they were returned home with weapons and the means to protect their homes. The defense force required no travel except to the cache for occasional training.

One level of the barracks was dedicated to offensive force personnel, another level was for auxiliaries and the third level was for any civilian that wanted to live there. They would trade work for protection. The population of the cache was currently near 7,400.

Scholars from throughout the region would visit the cache’s vast library and museum to work on innovations and restoration of technology. St. Louis was building the first new factory since the wars. They were going to produce farm equipment. Mark requested a small armor production line to be built as well. The owners of the facility agreed and when the line was started up they would produce a dozen new tracked medium armored vehicles a year.

The cache’s ammunition factory was live and producing various calibres of ammunition. They only ran the facility one day a week to keep the shelves full. It could be put into full production at any time but they had millions of rounds on the shelf and were concentrating on wildcat rounds for hunting and experimental development.

The lever gun and bolt action section of the armory had been distributed to the people of the UCA. Everyone was issued a long-gun and a side-arm that was over 21 since all the younger folks already had an M-16 issued. People close to the border were issued military weapons while those further inland got sporting and hunting arms. Every household was armed and this caused the number of raids to drop significantly.

Mark had received word from Athena congratulating him for his discovery and his newly formed alliance. She informed him that she would gladly join as long as he secured the land between Memphis and
Athenia. Mark told her he would be glad to do so but was very leery about returning to Memphis. She understood and told him she would be waiting and was willing to send 200 men to meet him in the middle. He told her he didn’t want to force anyone into an alliance and would allow them to choose. Such methods took much more time but free will went a lot farther than force and led to much more comfortable times of peace. Athena commended him on his humanity and told him she was eager to see him and Kara again.

Six months after the birth of the UCA and the shaky peace was still maintained. Life moved on at an incredible pace and the cities and towns of the alliance flourished. Goods and services were being exported to the other regions and the UCA had become loose allies with the Coal Barons. They had free trade and relied on their energy while providing food and goods to their people.

Simone and Timothy married and had a dual ceremony with Joey and Cindy, both of whom served in the
defense force even though they were not required due to their positions on the council. They felt it was important to be examples for their people and the people adored them.

Simone was expecting their first baby in a few months. She was the honorary director of security after her performance in the battle for the cache and subsequent foiled attacks. She had a real knack for reading and interpreting the radar signals. She said she had to stay busy while Timothy was gone.

Timothy had moved east to start a river Navy. He had several small boats that he had helped convert. Mark dubbed him Admiral Timothy after he commissioned his first armored trawler. He had some plans to build a shipyard but told Mark he would wait until the UCA reached the Atlantic or Pacific Ocean. Mark kept telling him that would be a long time coming but Timothy was convinced they were only a year or two out.

Kara had taken command of the auxiliary staff and particularly enjoyed helping the kitchen staff. She felt she was the first official cache cook and on occasion headed up a meal for the entire facility. Mark told her she didn’t have to do it but she said she felt like she was the nation’s mother. Mark couldn’t argue and told her she looked damn good for a mother of nearly a million.

In the evenings Mark poured over the library in search of documents containing the location of the other Recivilization Caches. He had a thought that if he could obtain several of the units he could re-unite the country by means of the caches. If the UCA’s model worked in other locations like it did here the areas could lace together and form an unbeatable alliance. He thought it might be a pipe dream but Athena’s words continued to echo in his head.

Post wars America:

UCA Territory:

Toyota Atlantic- Race series using small, formula 1 like cars with 4 cylinder engines. A prep series for young drivers.

WRC- World Rally Championship- Cross country racing across the world using highly specialized versions of compact cars.

AWD- All wheel drive

IED- Improvised explosive device, pipe bomb, homemade bomb

M249 SAW- Light machine gun, 5.56mm, belt fed but can use standard M-16/AR-15 magazines

M4- Short version of M16
, current carbine with 14.5” barrel

MRE- Meal Ready to eat, military ration, emergency food

Regeneration- Hybrid braking system that turns motors into generators for recharging batteries. The drag slows the car down

P220- Sig Sauer 45acp pistol

22TCM- High speed, light weight round. Marketed by Armscor. Rifle speed in a pistol

Armadillo or the
dillo- Nickname for the car

HUD- Head’s up display, military technology usually reserved for aircraft

ACOG- Military scope by Trijicon. Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight

Lortab
- low grade opiate, hydrocodone

Shamrocks- Irish gang in Boston

MAC-10- Low cost Uzi ripoff made of stamped metal

Oxy- higher grade opiate,
oxycodone

School girl gang- national gang of women who dress like school girls

SUB-2000- Kel Tec novelty submachine gun. Folds in half to store in small spaces

Libero
- Defensive specialist in volleyball

LMG- Light machine
gun, SAW and RPK are examples

RPK- Heavy AK47

MP5k- H&K Submachine gun, popular with police and military in the 90s

XM307- Experimental 25mm grenade launcher

AP- Armor piercing

AR- Civilian semi-auto M-16 clone

HE- High explosive

Bradley IFV- Light tank or heavy APC, US modern troop carrier and fighting vehicle

Hummer- Humvee- Army truck

Deuce & a half- 2.5 ton truck, standard army troop carrier for years

CWII- Civil War II, refers to the first unrest

RWII- Revolutionary War II, when the military revolted the CW became a revolutionary war

CIWS- Close in weapons system, a large bore Gatling gun usually mounted on ships.

SCAR- FN infantry weapon.
Available in 7.62 and 5.56mm versions.

Trireme- Greek ship with three sets of oars per side

TOW- Small anti-tank missile, wire guided

RPG- Russian small anti-
armor weapon, unguided

MLRS- Multiple
launch rocket system, tracked rocket launchers with devastating firepower

M-60- Vietnam era main battle tank

M-1- Modern era US main battle tank

M113- Vietnam
era troop carrier

Polaris A3- Decommissioned nuclear missile.
Used to be sub mounted. Carried 3 200 kiloton warheads on a single re-entry vehicle

Panhard
VCR- French armored personnel carrier used by the Mexican army

ERC-90- French light tank

BMP-1- Russian APC, same era as M113

Hellfire- Small air to ground missile, can be configured in many ways