Author's Note: This will be following on from my story "Balance of Power." Things are turning quite AU, so please be warned.
To those who are regular readers, thanks for coming back, and sorry it took so long to get started on this story. I had to write some original fiction, and had to come up with a plot for this story. And get hold of the second Episode, so I can go and produce an accurate depiction of events, and not hat to try and do it all from memory.
To those who are new, thanks for giving me a try. I hope you end up enjoying my stuff!
Disclaimer: For the purposes of Legal clarification, this should be classed as a derivative work, due to it containing aspects of Fan Fiction. The original plot ideas, and original characters, are therefore my property. Those that are not belong to the respective owners.
------------------------------------------
Prelude
I rush forwards, trying to get to the source of the reactor leak in time. It was difficult to stay emotionless in front of Sarah Connor, the woman I most closely associate with the notion of mother, when she was telling me that Greenway had been replaced. I hesitated, because I didn't know what to do. How do you stop a Metal that's in charge of a nuclear power station? Any attempt to stop or eliminate the replacement would cause us be kicked out, or arrested... I know what the answer is, of course... but it's too late now.
Protect Greenway. We should have watched him overnight. We could then have prevented all of this...
Prevented another casualty of this war.
I get to the valve that's spewing out steam. If I was a human, this would be impossible. I can immediately see that it would be too hot for a human to endure, not to mention the immense strength I can calculate it will need to be closed again.
Good thing I'm not human, then.
I grip the valve casing, using my mechanical strength to swing it forward. I start to prepare for closing the valve itself. Powerful arms grip my shoulders, and pull me backwards. I allow a few steps backwards, to clear myself away from the valve. I kick my assailant from behind, my leg lifting straight up and delivering my foot over my left shoulder. The hands leave my shoulders, and hear my attacker thudding into a metal wall as I turn around quickly and efficiently. Oh. It';s the Greenway replacement. He seemed a nice man, from the little I've talked to him. He didn't deserve to die. Not like this. It's totally whack.
My body bears down on it, both hands grabbing the right shoulder. I'll get payback for Greenway's death. I swear it. Gearing up my strength, I throw the replacement, the momentum hurling it into a large diagonal pipe that's clearly built to last, because it hasn't even acknowledged a Metal slamming into it face first. I have to keep like this. Keep doing this enough times and fast enough so it doesn't have a time to react. If it has time to react, I lose the advantage.
I lunge for it, my right hand connecting with it's left shoulder, my left on it's side. I can't fail. I mustn't fail. Too many people will die if I fail. I can't let that happen. I hear a welcoming slamming noise as the replacement's head slams into the pipe again, and is thrown into a yellow metal girder support. As it falls to the ground, I am already bearing down, ready for my next-
My systems feel the jarring as the replacements foot connects with my chest. I feel the pain my organics is registering. The air blows past my ears as I'm forced backwards, and into another of the girder supports. I ignore the pain, now furious at having lost the advantage. Before I can react, it has thrown me into some red girders, and is spinning me around, and is repeatedly slamming my body into the girders. I'm taking damage. I can feel it. I'm thrown back into the yellow girders, and I'm feeling my systems start to suffer. With a sickening realisation, I know now a terrible truth.
The car bomb has made me more fragile.
I feel the momentum of being thrown a distance, grateful not to have hit the pipe in the process. My systems are badly disorientated. I start to get up as fast as I can, but the replacement is already on top of me, and is dragging me up and is slamming my back and my head into the steel piping. I can feel it slowly start to buckle and dent with the forces. My vision is distorted.
My chip. It's still badly damaged. It cannot take the level of shock. The shock assembly must be badly compromised if I'm suffering this much damage...
It's taking all I have just to stay on-line. I can't do that, though, for much longer...
As the replacement pauses and drops me to the floor, I try to prepare for the next assault. But one thing is clear.
I'm going to die.
