Chapter 3

"Dissention In The Ranks"

At around noon, the APC and the Tiger tank pull into a pair of vehicle ports behind the nightclub. The marines are found passing black trash-bags with unknown contents to one another, tossing them into a pile beside the vehicle bays. A pair of automated sentry guns sat on either end of the wide alley. "What the hell is that smell...?" Linda chokes out as she emerged from the personnel carrier. Thomson climbs out of the forward hatch on the tank's driver's side, his LEDs contracting to the size of a pin as he notes the leaning pile of bulging trash-bags. Just then Gorman rounds the corner of the tank with a lit cigar in his mouth. "Need a big favor Tommy boy..." The lieutenant said, ashing his cigar over a tin garbage can. "You say it as if I have a choice..." The endoskeleton mumbles as Gorman begins. "Thanks to Bud's awe-inspiring reenactment of fuckin Hellraiser,the F.O.B is ass-high in rotting cadavers. Now-, the boys did the hard part last night, scraping Eric Stark's teeny-bopper army off the walls... So all we need 'you' to do, is acquire 10,000 gallons of hydrochloric acid so we can dissolve the human mulch in all these trash-bags..."

The lieutenant finished as one of the cyborg's pin-sized LEDs dilate in annoyance. -"What!? Fraggo that shit, just burn the fuggin things...!" The T-830 retorts, crossing his arms. "Oh yeah, great idea Crippletron. Screw covert-status, let's just make a big fuckin fire so Mr. Stark can send us a care-package of rabid, bomb-totting, teeny-boppers, for wiping out his main training facility..." Gorman replied in a sarcastic tone. -"Well where the hell am I supposed to find ten-thousand gallons of acid!? Better yet, how the frak am I supposed ta transport it!? Fleet's in Colorado Springs by now...!" The endoskeleton snapped, struggling with his hinged elbow-joints and actuators-, again... Upon freeing his arms, the T-830 chucks his helmet over the top of the tank in frustration, grunting "fucking elbow-joint assemblies..!"

The lieutenant squares up on the Terminator, poking its chest-plate with his index finger as he mocked, "Hey, I'm not worried, you're a T-830, that's plus-30 I.Q points over the T-800! I'm sure you'll figure 'something' out..." Snatching the cigar from the lieutenant's mouth, Thomson retorts, -"Oh die from cancer already you egghead, lama-tongue, pre-Madonna muthafucka...!" Gorman grabs the cyborg's rear clavicle-linkage as it starts for the tank. "Pre-Madonna motherfucker what...?" The lieutenant asks in an over-patronizing tone as Thomson looks over his shoulder in reply. "Sir..." -Shoving away from the soldier's grasp and climbing up the front of the tank's hull. "That's my boy, go get-em tiger...! That was a Pun by the way..." The lieutenant mocks, tipping his patrol-cap to the cyborg before heading inside. "Whatever you say..! Rosie-cheeked, goofy-footed, PMS 'n wanker-motherfucker..." The T-830 grumbled, climbing into the open hatch and slamming it shut.

After activating its cloaking-field generator, the tank starts for the end of the alley, it's twin electric-motors buzzing in unison as the vehicle rounds the corner, crumpling a parking meter as it sped off. With a smirk on her face, Linda silently grabs an M.R.E off the table in the vehicle bay, taking it back inside the APC for some privacy. As soon as she slides the hatch shut, the nubile woman bursts out in laughter to the point of tears. "I cannot believe 'that' just happened...! I love that kid!" She blurted out, quickly regaining her military composure as a marine briefly opens the hatch to toss Thomson's helmet inside. "Hey Anderson, what did Gorman mean when he said 'main training facility..?'" Linda asked as the marine replied, "the lieutenant found training manuals in the penthouse suite and a small shooting range in the basement. Stark doesn't know yet and we plan to keep it that way until we're ready to announce ourselves. Take care of yourself Denmother." The soldier finished, sliding the hatch shut and resuming his work.

In an industrial park just north of the suburbs, the charcoal-gray battle-tank comes to a halt in front of a small, vacant, office building. "Seems as good a place as any..." The terminator mumbles, driving up on the curb and pivoting the tank left and right until it was parallel with the building. Powering down the twin-electric motors behind him, the T-830 slouched in the driver's seat, still aggravated about the confrontation with his superior officer. "Only ten-thousand gallons...? Well by-golly sir, why didn't-chya say so..! I'll just break into every collage campus in the state and steal their supply of hydrochloric acid... Oh wait, I can't-, because half of the city is a smoking crater as of 2 years ago, So no...! Who's that jackass think he's kidding..? I can only collect enough to fill one of those 3ft deep little kiddy pools at best..." The T-830 muttered in a mocking tone as he talked to himself.

"Well, guess I have no choice but to overnight a shipment off the 'inter-web' and charge it to your bank-account-, sir..." Thomson mocked in a southern accent as he logged onto the web. Suddenly, as he types his search into 'Google shopping' a metallic thud is heard from the engine bay behind him, then another from under the floor lining. Minimizing the internet window, the endoskeleton takes notice of the red, highlighted, area on the tank-icon at the bottom-center of the screen. "Rear-impact sensor triggered but no penetration... What-, somebody shot a potato-gun at the back a ma-tank...?" Thomson mumbled, jerking the half-installed MG-3 out of its journals and climbing out the forward hatch. With caution, yet seemingly unconcerned about public exposure, the T-830 quietly slides off the front of the hull, stepping lightly towards the back of the cloaked tank with his weapon shouldered.

The Terminator drops his aim as he rounds the corner, clenching his free hand in a fist as he stared down at an unconscious boy with bruised cheekbones and a broken nose. With a low sigh, the endoskeleton notes the shimmering image of a skateboard trapped under the vehicle's chassis. "Really... A fuckin skater-, get's close-lined by a cloaked Tiger tank? -Now there's an interesting headline... Ever heard of school you little webble-wobble-dipshit...!?" Thomson scolds, panning around for any witnesses before carelessly dragging the boy by his upper-jaw and roughly tossing him in a ditch across the street. Then, jogging back and scrambling under the tank, the T-830 frees the skateboard from between two torsion-bars.

Cursing under his breath as he emerges from under the chassis, the cyborg sets his MG-3 on the curve. Then, effortlessly, the T-830 snaps the board in two, chucking both halves down the alley and into a dumpster. "Cheeky little prick..." He grunts, snatching his weapon off the curve and climbing back into the cloaked tank with an inward sigh. Carelessly throwing his weapon to the back of the chamber, the Terminator plops down in front the display monitor, resuming his search on Google. After a few minutes, the internet window is minimized automatically as the impact sensor on the face of the turret is triggered. The endoskeleton cants his head in confusion as the bore-sites on the maingun go dark. "What the hell, a solar eclipse..?" The T-830 mutters in annoyance, twisting the axis on the adjacent joystick to no avail. Reaching under the navigation console, Thomson grabs a chromed .50cal Desert Eagle, slowly inching open the forward hatch and rotating his view until he notices a pigeon perched in the primary bore-sites.

"Alright, listen here you... I happen to like pigeons so I will let you off with a warning; I'm am ape-shit pissed-off and the next time you block my bore-sights, I'm gonna rock your world." The endoskeleton says, reaching up and fanning the animal away. Then, climbing back inside and shutting the hatch, Thomson leans over the navigation console, resuming his online purchase. After another minute or two, the cyborg completed the transaction, plopping down in the driver's seat with a sense of accomplishment. Upon minimizing the internet window, the T-830 is taken aback with aggravation as a giant, bobbing, pigeon head obstructs the screen. Grabbing the joystick again, the Terminator fires a short burst from the co-axial machinegun, snickering as the bird scrambles out of the bore-sights and flees from the vehicle.

"Yeah, automatic weapons go off in New York all the time, I'm sure nobody's gonna notice that..." Thomson mutters sarcastically, panning the turret left and right for any civilians as he drew up a portable radio. "Denmother, this is your favorite tin-man in the whole wide world speaking... I am pleased to report that the ten-thousand gallons of hydrochloric acid will ship tonight, arriving as early as tomorrow morning. Courtesy of Gorman's bank-account... Psyko over and out..." The endoskeleton finished, breaking out in a loud, maniacal, cackle of laughter. His self-gratification is abruptly cut short as the cloaking field generator begins to howl, producing an error code onscreen. "Awe, don't tell me it's raining..." The Terminator sighs, inching open the forward hatch and immediately noting the seething sound of boiling liquid. Throwing the hatch open, he clenches his fists in frustration as iridescent-blue sparks arced off the hull on the passenger-side of the tank. Panning up, he notices a horde of pigeons perched on the roof of the small office building, their rear-ends aimed over the edge as they defiled the steel-beast with fecal matter.

"Really...? Seriously...? Do you furry fucks have any idea how rare it is to find an intact German Tiger I battle-tank...! This is blasphemy..!" The cyborg yelled as if the gang of birds could understand him anyway. In a fitting rage, the endoskeleton disappears into the hatch, bringing the tank's cloaking-field offline as he straps himself in. Then, rotating the turret to face the horde of pigeons, Thomson squeezes the trigger, recoiling in surprise as the maingun fires off a round, converting the birds into a pink, feather-strewn, vapor-cloud and blasting-out a section of the roof. "Nooo... Dammit..!" He hissed with a sarcastic hiccup of laughter, "I did not just do that..." He added, panning right to look at his joystick. "I totally forgot I remapped these controls yesterday. Thumb-trigger is for the maingun, primary trigger is for the co-axial machinegun..."

Before he could figure out what to do next, the battery of tiny microphones networked throughout the tank's hull, pick up the faint echo of sirens. Bringing the twin-motors back online, the endoskeleton presses down on both throttle pedals, moaning in regret as he neglects to re-center the position of the turret. The tank drags its jutting cannon through the face of the building, leaving a gaping chasm in the structure as the vehicle continued up the sidewalk. "Yeah, that's right Gorman-, fuck covert...!" The cyborg barked, veering off the sidewalk as he re-centered the turret and continued to flee the scene.

When Cody and her aunt got home, Olga's car was gone, and a black limo remained parked in front the house. -"Hey Maggie you win Publisher's Clearing House or something...? Insurance company payin you back for the drive-by..?" A neighbor called as she stepped out of the car. A bit eerie of an intimidating man standing just right of her front door in a black tux, she ignores the bachelor's comment, though the phrase sounded just about right. Taking the child's hand, Maggie approached her residence, being surprised as the suit opens the door for the two like that of a butler. "Cody!" A blond, petite, woman calls, coming out of the kitchen with open arms.

"Do you have a kiss for mommy?" the woman asked as Cody backed away in shock, clinging to her aunt for security "Jenna...? Uh, hi, this is..." Maggie was at a loss of words as she gawked at her sister, who she hadn't seen or heard from in six years. Bud drove up and parked across the street in his stolen T-Rex Dodge Ram pickup, noting the unidentified limo and listening attentively through the planted bug as Maggie continued to converse with an unknown couple. Nearly an hour later, After Cody softened up a bit, the mother and father she hardly knew seemed to overwhelm the child with gifts until she'd had enough, -"no more gifts..." The child said, seeming entranced by the reflective wrapping paper scattered about the family room.

Jenna's loving gaze shriveled in a manic frustration and the woman snapped, "-there's still something wrong with her isn't there..?" Caressing the child's dirty-blond, shoulder-length hair, Maggie replied, "-no, she's fine-, just a little different, and she's definitely not deaf. Her condition is called Autism, she's considered high-functioning by medical standards." She finished, setting Cody on her lap as she continued. "Six years ago you dropped Cody on my doorstep and disappeared without so much as a phone call. You must realize how much of shock this is to me." "-well I'm here now and in good health thanks to Eric..." Jenna replied, seemingly oblivious to the point Maggie was trying to get across. "-It may take her a long time to get use to you..." Maggie said with a sigh, resting her eyes on Cody. "You mean like a day..? I don't see anything wrong with that, everything's gonna be fine, isn't it Cody..?" Jenna retorted as Maggie's expression seemed to harden with frustration.

-"Go watch cartoons in my room..." Maggie whispered, kissing the child on the cheek and letting her scamper off. Then, with an angry glare, the nurse begins, "You're not taking her from me, she isn't ready for such a huge change in her life like this. I've been here from the beginning, I'm all she knows, you can't just barge in here and blow up her world like it's a walk in the park." -"No it's not fair Cody's my little girl you can't keep her from me..!" Jenna snaps, breaking out into a manic episode of sobs and crumpling to the floor. At this point, Jenna's husband Eric, throws an arm over her shoulders calling, -"Dulia ..? Pack our bags were leaving..." And helping Jenna towards the exit. He then adds as he's starting out the front door,

-"leave this alone, for your sake and Cody's..." After shutting the door with a sigh of relief, Maggie went looking for Cody and found the TV in her bedroom running but no child. "Cody?" She called softly, looking under the bed and finding nothing. She then looked up at the gargoyle sculpture mounted on the opposite building next door, pointed at the window. Something sat uneasy with her as the situation seemed to rectify itself. On pure instinct and adrenaline Maggie sprinted for the front door, ripping it open to find the limo driving off with Cody gagged in back window. Maggie ran after the limo screaming and cursing at the top of her lungs before stopping to pant in the middle of the street. Then, clenching her hair, she made for her Ford Taurus, lighting up the tires as she sped to the nearest police station.

After speaking with a marshal for nearly an hour, and turning up with no immediate solutions, the only option was to return home and let law-enforcement take its effect. When she came home she checked her answering machine in hope that the NYPD turned up any leads. There was one message; -"Hi Maggie this is Cheri, I know where Cody is, meet me at the restaurant south of the subway station, and can you bring some cash?" Now throbbing with anticipation, Maggie immediately left for the restaurant, knocking over her mailbox as her Taurus fishtailed onto the uneven pavement and headed uptown. By the time Maggie got to the location, traffic had lightened and it began to rain. Thunder rattled the glass windows as she entered the restaurant, finding Cheri sitting at a table near the cash register, vigorously puffing on a cigarette and fidgeting. Maggie set a ten-dollar bill in front of Cheri and sat down.

"This is all you brought? I can't get out of the city with this..." Cheri said in disappointment as her expression sunk in worry. "Cheri please, tell me what you know about this 'Eric Stark'..." Maggie replied, leaning forward attentively. -"Well do you believe in the Devil..?" Cheri asked in a low voice. "Not literally..." the nurse replied, now a bit thrown by the comment. "Well 'he' does... It's kind of a religion but like none at all, they can predict the future and even make things happen to people. They started acting weird this year, killing kids born on this special date, boys, girls... 'The Slater of The Innocents' he calls it," Cheri finished, her eyes watering at the corners as she took a puff of her cigarette. "What do you mean..?" Maggie asked trying to grasp the situation.

"Cody is special, and he wants to turn her to his 'Lord' so he can use her power to overthrow the world. This would shift military and political support from all over the world to the Umbrellian Empire. Cody is meant to lead people to God, but if guided incorrectly, can cause an era of destruction beyond you can imagine..." Cheri concluded. "Cheri" Maggie said, in a low voice, noticing the surveillance camera over the bar as it rested on her position. "I haven't got much time, where is she..?" Cheri turned to the front windows, spotting a group of Eric's acolytes making for the entrance. "You promise to get her out of there..?" Cheri asked, reaching into her coat-pocket. "Yes..." Maggie retorts, feeling an onset of adrenaline. Then, dropping a .38caliber revolver on the table wrapped in an address, Cheri adds, "Then you're going to need this!" -darting out the back door as the acolytes chased after with hammers, knives and 2 by 4s. After Maggie was sure the raving horde hadn't seen her, she snuck out the back-door after them, terrified for Cheri's safety. The restaurant owner now spooked, closed early, knowing that the cultists would be back for his head soon.

Scared to death and now without a firearm, Cheri ran her ass off, thinking to herself over and over, "get to the train-get to the train, you'll be safe there..." Cheri finally got to the subway station after several blocks of slipping and sliding in the rainy urban jungle but there was no train... She screamed as one of the guys dove for her, just missing her legs as they carried her to safety. Unfortunately she is cutoff as additional acolytes poured in from the stairwell on the far side of the platform. Tackling the young girl to the cold, hard, cement, the horde of acolytes begin to beat and flog her. Maggie had just entered the station from the other end, taking aim at the angry mob as they festered around Cheri, violently defiling her figure like hyenas upon a carcass. Feeling an onset of nausea, Maggie began to hallucinate, gawking at the dragon-like spirits clinging onto the backs of the mob like puppet masters, their jet-black metallic images smearing across the cityscape as she reached for her cell phone. As a result of calling instead of shooting, Maggie is knocked on her face, as an acolyte brings a steel-pipe across the back of her head. Rolling on her back, the nurse dizzily fires several shots at the looming figure, letting the gun fall from her limp hand, as the acolyte comes down on her chest with the blunt-end of the pipe. The blow was paralyzing, it rendered her useless, she could only watch Cheri fight to stay alive.

On the other side of the tile-lined station, Cheri tried to escape, staggering about in a drunken fashion as her body gave way, pulling her to the ground. She kicked and screamed as the cultists strung her up and struck her with 2 by 4s full of nails and glass, cutting little elaborate patterns in her thighs with hunting knives and murmuring in old Latin. In all the confusion, Cheri turns away from the nightmare below her, drawing back in fear as the wall next to her comes alive. A glossy, transparent, humanoid swiftly took up a position behind one of the acolytes, letting out what appeared to be a set of chromed talons from its wrist and taking aim. Right when they were going to behead the young girl, Poe de-cloaks, stabbing his wrist-blades into the executioner's lower back and letting out a victorious roar, ripping the spine out of the man's back with a sickening crunch. Before the others could react, the subway stairs are completely demolished as an APC careens through them, skidding to a stop just short of the edge of the platform.

As its pair of 20mm Vulcan cannons train on the group, Bud is seen rushing out of the subway-tunnel with a Benelli M4 auto-shotgun, his eyes giving off an iridescent glow as he took aim. Without warning, the Terminator fires a magazine's worth of 12gage buckshot, sending the acolytes scrambling for cover as the pellets sent shards of tile twisting in the air. Suddenly the APC opens fire, its Vulcan cannons deafening in the tile environment as several of the cultists are stripped of their flesh in a matter of seconds. After the guns spool to a halt, the APC's door slides open, Demetri sprinting out of the rig and snatching Cheri off the ropes. The Nemesis turned to find additional enemies staggering down the haphazard of subway stairs armed with 12gage shotguns, Desert Eagles, Berettas, and other stabbing weapons. While shielding Cheri from site, Demetri drew up his rusted, stainless-steel stinger launcher, pausing briefly as its internal dispenser cycled a missile. The acolytes open fire, keeping well out of the APC's field of view as they riddled the Nemesis full of tiny holes.

Without warning, Demetri fires a rocket into the foreground of the assailants. The blast is deafening, taking out a set of florescent light panels and kicking up a cloud of asbestos and viscous red paste. The APC fires another short burst, the muzzle glare illuminating a pair of acolytes low-crawling in the foreground under the smoke. The titan gawked at the dragon-like clouds of iridescent black smoke as they straddled the disembodied cadavers and pressed onward with the skirmish. At that point the Nemesis was in a panic and thought only of Cheri's safety. "Vamanos muchacos..!" Demetri yelled, handing Cheri over to Poe just as the asbestos settled and additional dark figures began creeping onto the platform from both the stairwell and the subway tunnel opposite the APC. Inside, Linda frantically loaded another pair of magazines into the Vulcan cannons, peering into the bore-sites and panning the turret around to find dozens of heavily-armed acolytes moving in from the blackness of the subway tunnel. The group of freedom fighters were completely outnumbered, outgunned and surrounded. Suddenly clatters of gunfire erupt from somewhere behind the enemy fire-line, disrupting the flow of troops.

The lights dim as a nearby explosion rocks the tunnel, the monotonous growling of a tracked vehicle reverberates from somewhere above the subway station. A pair of acolytes stagger around the corner of the stairwell on the far side, taking aim at something at the head of the stairs. The growling subsides into a bassy idle, a shadow slowly creeping over the pair of gothic troops as they aimed their AT-4s anxiously. Breaking the eerie silence, the two fire, the shadow quickly retracting as the pair of rockets scream up the stairwell. Suddenly the two teens are converted into a cloud of vaporous blood as a shaped-charge impacts between them.

As their charred cadavers slide about on the bloodstained cement, the Tiger tank slides down the subway stairs, kicking up tile and wire-frame as it continued through an empty, passing, train. The collision stops the glass and steel traincars on contact, the tank's trolleys arcing as the vehicle attempted to dislodge itself from the wreckage. At this point, a pair of acolytes take aim with their AT-4s. The two fire just as the tank lurches away from the mangled subway car, the inertia from the resulting blast swaying the chassis backwards and sending debris crashing down on the rest of the interlinked cars. Quickly throwing aside his restraints, the T-830 sets the tank's A.I to 'sentry mode,' ripping the hull-machinegun from its unlatched journals as the vehicle rotates to face the firefight outside.

The acolytes scatter off the platform and onto the electrified tracks, recklessly firing over the wall of cement with under-barrel grenade launchers. Slowly backing towards the stairwell, 40mm grenades bouncing off its forward-armor like steel tennis-balls, the tank trains its turret on the panicked teens, regardless of them being out of its field of view. The small clusters of explosions and machinegun-fire are drowned-out for a moment as the tank fires a deafening burst from its maingun. The air seems to bend for an instant as the shaped-charge impacts against the far-side of the tunnel, the kinetic energy from the blast crushing the grenadiers into crimson mulch. Taking advantage of the chaos, Thomson bursts from the forward-hatch with his weapon blaring, several acolytes twisting to the floor with neck-wounds as the endoskeleton sprinted for a nearby pillar. With his back to the pillar, the T-830 tracked a group of acolytes through a wall, as they rushed down the stairwell behind the tank.

When their squad leader rounds the corner, the Terminator fires a burst into the teen's neck, the skull bursting as the corpse twists into the far-wall. His squadmate leans around the corner with an AT-4, Thomson firing a burst into the weapon itself and turning away with a snicker, as the missile cooks-off and the teen is blasted in two; his lower body splattering against the back of the tank with a fleshly, metallic, crunch. The tank sounds its maingun again, a shrapnel-cloud of cinder-blocks and tempered, steel- wireframe erupting at the center of the firefight. As the reverberating echo from the cannon subsides, the platform now shrouded in a cloud of asbestos, the rest of Thomson's crew wasted little time, as even then, more acolytes could be heard skulking about in the tunnels. "Time to go..." Bud droned, hefting Maggie onto his shoulder and entering the APC. Demetri took extra care as he entered, setting Cheri on an empty troop bench adjacent to the Vulcan cannon controls. Sliding the door shut, the APC heads for the undamaged stairwell on the far side of the platform. It's engines leaving a resounding echo that made the empty chamber feel crowded.

Shaking off the mild disorientation, the T-830 carefully makes his way to the idling battle tank, scornfully stepping around several glistening hunks of colorless meat. Climbing up the front of the hull and entering through one of the forward hatches, Thomson disables the vehicle's A.I, pivoting the chassis to face the stairwell and speeding- off to catch the APC. After a few blocks, Linda was forced to pull into an alley to treat Cheri as she began to violently convulse. As Demetri held the girl down, Poe struggled out of his medical kit. "Hey why'd you guys stop..? We still got a few on our tails." The radio barked as Linda drew up the receiver in reply. -"She won't stop kicking and screaming, she's delirious." Linda said as Cheri's screams turned into strangled whimpers and she began vomiting blood. "Shit, this looks like a punctured lung, I don't know how much of these injuries I can treat with only one med kit!" Poe called across the chamber, as the tank could be faintly heard pulling behind the group.

"Did you get that Thomson..?" Linda added, setting the receiver on the console and stooping down to assist the others. "Awe damn, looks like we've got company, I'll try and keep them off your backs, just get the gal stable enough for us to start moving again." Thomson replied, as the tank's bassy idle escalated to a groan. Outside, Thomson brings the tank out of the alley and into a break in the traffic, panning the turret left and right to find hordes of acolytes pouring in from both sides of the main-street. Suddenly clatters of gunfire erupt on either side of the tank, several rockets ricocheting off the face of the turret as the vehicle slides about in zigzags with its hull and turret MG-3s blaring. Traffic was quite dense at that point, civilians could be seen scrambling out of their vehicles and into adjacent stores and restaurants as red and white tracers were exchanged between the two sides and the tank. Once civilian traffic is at its minimal, Thomson fires a burst from the maingun, sending a blue sedan cart-wheeling out of its parking-space and landing on a group of acolytes.

As the autoloader chambers another round, Thomson is taken aback as metallic objects are heard rolling around on the hull. "Really...? Grenades...?" He said to himself, putting the tank in a brief spin and snickering as the grenades rolled off the hull and into surrounding cars and acolytes. Suddenly a cluster of explosions rock the cityscape, clouds of cadavers and asphalt shrouding the scene in a deathly gloom. The endoskeleton pans the turret towards the alley, taking note as the APC backed out and started up the main street in a reckless fashion. By now, Cheri had passed out, mumbling a prayer in her sleep, as Poe applied anesthetics to her more critical wounds and Bud slowly siphoned the blood from her nearly collapsed lung, with a piece of copper tubing. Suddenly she is startled awake again, as an M54 Smartgun falls from one of the gun racks, landing on her torso. The APC jolts violently, Demetri trying his best to secure Cheri with his massive hands as Linda regains control of the troop carrier. "What the hell was that..." Bud calls nonchalantly, tossing the Smartgun to the front of the chamber. "I think they're firing on us with shoulder-launched missiles, I just flattened a few parked cars!" Linda called back with an arched brow.

"We have to lose them, this carrier can only deflect low-velocity missiles." Bud said making his way to the front of the chamber and sweeping Linda out of the driver's seat. "Hold on..." He droned, fishtailing into a sharp turn and taking the APC off an overpass. The crew brace themselves as the carrier lands on the roof of a warehouse complex, careening through several floors of steel and concrete before violently tail-sliding onto a nearby side-street. Bud jerks the steering wheel left and right, struggling to stabilize the vehicle on the slick road. Suddenly, as they near an intersection, a brick building collapses, shrouding the four way stop in white smoke as the Tiger tank comes into view.

"Damn that thing is fast..." Linda mumbled, peering at it through the crystal-quartz side window. The group is startled again as a grinding machine-noise erupts from under their feet. "You guys are leaking some kind of yellow fluid, looks like that fall cracked the differential case..." Thomson said over the radio. The APC turned into an alley, scraping against the corner of the buildings as it forced its way into a courtyard. Its crew was taken by surprise when the Tiger tank collides with the rig, driving up the back of the APC, sliding down the front and halting several meters away. "Alas heathen! I have establishafied ma man-nuts-, butt-raped your APC…" Thomson barked over the radio. "That doesn't help at all jackass..." Linda sighs as she turns to face Cheri and the others. The young girl cried silently, tears of blood running down her temples to the nape of her neck as she started to convulse again. Thomson climbs out of the forward hatch on the tank, taking left and right before sprinting for the APC and entering through its side door.

"Okay guys, looks like we lost the bastards for now, but it won't be long before they trace that shit-storm we left downtown, to this alley." The T-830 said, taking a knee by the wounded girl and canting his head to look at Maggie. "She's still out...? Jese... Hell of a blow to the head." He added as Poe and Bud worked silently with the tools in the Yautja medkit. "We need you to scrub in, your endoskeleton is the only sterile pair of hands we can use." Bud droned, sliding a Bunsen burner at the T-830. Thomson holds his skeletal hands over the flame, waiting a moment for them to cool before starting at Cheri's wounds. Using a scalpel, Bud cuts open Cheri's side, allowing the endoskeleton to intricately stitch up the punctured kidney and stop the blood loss. Within 30minutes, the procedure was done and Cheri was fast asleep on the troop bench within the safety of the APC.

Sometime later, Cheri awoke to the smell of Hydraulic grease, it was sour and metallic like tar. The hissing of rain could be faintly heard beating against the outside of the hull. She turned to look at Thomson, who stood over her fiddling with a solenoid of sorts. The young girl looked him head to toe, seemingly unbothered at this point as she studied his articulated series of trailing-linkages, axial-motors and actuators, noting how each one of them allowed for humanlike movement. Setting the solenoid in a groove under his chest-plate, the endoskeleton knelt down to see if her pupils were dilating as she ran her fingers in and out of his eye-sockets and onto his cheeks and slightly yellow teeth. She gently probed at his jaw-pistons as they expanded and contracted, smiling as the cyborg continued to observe her. -"you're the man from the Ragna Rock... My avenging angel... I knew I wasn't seeing things..." She sighed, her eyes watering with tears as she thought back to that night.

"Ragna Rock...? I never got to set foot in the damn place, only saw the car ports. Gorman gave me a 'honey-do' list a fuckin mile long-, boy is he gonna get a surprise on his next bank statement... I wonder if it'll be tax deductable since it was work related…? Ya know I should fuck up his taxes too…" The T-830 trailed-off with a wheezy chuckle, slowly canting her head in several angles with his articulate hands. "Your voice is cute..." She whispered shakily, still fatigued from surgery. -"Bull-hovno..."-(bullshit)- Demetri snickered in the background, Thomson chucking a spent 20mm shell-casing at the giant's head. -"Silence monkey... I think the pubescent human may be onto a startling discovery..." -"what-, that your voice actually sounds like a dog, with its head stuck in a tire, getting fucked in the ass by a liska...?" The Nemesis mumbled tiredly as Linda chuckled under her breath.

-"A fox...? wow... You guys are bad..." She muttered, -rolling over in her sleeping-bag as she slumbered under the communications console. "Dude really...? You're fuckin Jay Leno after he got food poisoning, turned into a zombie and ate Shriek... Fuggin Buick on legs..." The endoskeleton mumbled as Demetri quivered with laughter, covering his face with his hat as he lay down the middle of the chamber. "I look nothing like Jay Leno." The giant said, his voice muffled under his hat. "That's because you ate fuckin Shriek... Now go-da sleep..." Thomson replied, fanning the giant down and resuming his attention on Cheri. "I'm not the same Terminator that took out the nightclub, that was Bud, I didn't even know what you looked like until the runnin at the subway station. Anyways, you really should rest, I have an inkling tomorrow's gonna suck."

The cyborg finished, pulling a thermal blanket over the young girl as she asked, "where is he, is he okay...?" Glancing over at Maggie, the T-830 took the woman's skin temperature, checking her bandages for additional bleeding around the head-wound. "Bud's fine, he's in one of the surrounding structures keeping watch with the Smartgun, I'll introduce you two tomorrow..." The endoskeleton replied, lying just forward of the Vulcan Cannon controls and going into a low-power state. Cheri felt a sense of safety in the company of her new friends. Carefully inching off the troop bench, the nubile brunet curled up next to the dormant endoskeleton. Festinated with the complexity of the machine, Cheri continued to study its construction. She noted the warm air bleeding from under its chestplate, and how its axial-drive motors were still warm to the touch. When the rain outside subsides, the girl finally falls asleep, comforted by the faint hum of electricity from the surrounding equipment.

Thomson woke up the next day to excessive vibrations that seemed to echo even in his powered-down state. He dilated his LED's and found Linda saying something that he couldn't make out because his sound driver hadn't fully loaded yet, resulting in temporary deafness. He panned around the chamber, finding Cheri gone and Demetri crouched just outside the carrier's doorframe with his stinger launcher. The T-830 assumed Bud was still on guard and dismissed concern for the T-800. About 2 minutes later, his auditory sensors came online, the cyborg flinching as the sound of Linda's voice came rushing into his cortex like thunder. -"Get up Thomson, someone sabotaged the engine and we can't fix it," Linda said impatiently. The T-830 scrambles to the open panel behind the turret fire-control unit, and quickly assesses the pair of engines. "So what am I looking at here...?"

The endoskeleton asked, as he tediously probed at the pair of electric turbines, noting the abnormal surface-temperatures of both outer casings. "I woke up to the Tiger's guns, one of the hostiles managed to get the door open while we were asleep. He seemed interested in our computer network. I killed him before he could escape with one of our hard-drives, then kinda got a little hungry if you know what I mean..." The girl winked, as Thomson looked at her in reply, -"My sensors aint as good as Buds, but from what I can tell, something fried the terminal-boxes on both turbines, looks like they uprooted the floor-grates and shorted the power transformers with a metal pipe. Bastards work fast, no doubt they had a background in engineering. They knew exactly what to hit, this system is toast... And let's not forget the cracked differential case..." -"Shit!" Linda yelled, throwing a punch into the hull and causing one of the overhead light-panels to flicker.

-"Did you call 'any' of this into Gorman...? I know he's an asshole, but he's still good for when you need something…" Thomson comments, his voice echoing as he snaked his way into the crawlspace beneath the floor lining. "The lieutenant isn't answering his radio. In fact, other than our squad, I can't seem to raise anyone from our F.O.B on coms or GPS... It's like they just disappeared..." Linda replied in a worrisome tone. The T-830 emerges from a floor-grate towards the front of the chamber, seeming to struggle with something wedged in the crawlspace. -"We'll then, we have no choice but to return to base. We have to assume the lieutenant and the rest of the marines have been compromised, and mount a rescue effort." The endoskeleton said, standing to his feet. -"How the hell are we gonna do that..?" Cheri butted in, leaning around the doorframe and squinting into the poorly lit engine bay. "You, my little pincushion, should not be up and about after such a serious procedure. By the way, where the hell is Poe...?" The Terminator asked, getting up and peering out the doorframe.

"Poe...!" He called as Cheri replied, "He's on the roof keeping watch." -"Poe!" The cyborg barked again as the Yautja called, "Whadoya want..!? I'm keepin watch for bogies..!" -"Oh okay, just makin sure...! Don't eat a Chinaman n' go runnin off with the shits again...! I'm sure Maggie doesn't wanna get 2-Pac'd by another fuckin A.A gun...!" The T-830 called back in a patronizing tone. "Eat-it ya broke-dick can-opener...!" The Predator retorts in an equally patronizing tone, as Demetri and Linda fall back in laughter. "I love this kid, he's got jokes-, I think he should just behead Gorman for getting captured and then take the reigns as the new lieutenant." Thomson snickers, gently nudging Cheri with his elbow as she fought the urge to laugh as well. "Okay guys, all bullshit aside, the hardware between the hydrogen fuel cells and the turbines is toast for the most part. The passenger side turbine looks fine, but the driver's side is seized up, likely due to the fall yesterday." The Terminator says, sliding the dislodged floor-grate into place with his foot.

"Best case scenario we'll have to unbolt the motor-mounts and u-joints on turbine 1, toss it, and limp back to base on half the power." The endoskeleton adds, taking a knee in front the engine bay. -"Can't we machine new parts...?" Linda asked, leaning her weight on the gun-rack. "Machining new parts is a no-go without blueprints..." The T-830 said as Cheri began to fidget and twitch. "You mean you didn't commit the design to memory...?" Linda mocked, tossing a crumpled piece of paper at his skull. "I stole these turbines from one of Skynet's HK tank-factories a couple years back, a little before I met you. At this point I don't think it's worth our time due to our current predicament." The cyborg replied, glancing at Maggie as she slept peacefully on the troop bench, left of the door. "Wait, so you just wanna leave the engine here...? I thought that co-axial configuration required both engines to function...?" Linda asked, now a bit puzzled. "The engines are mounted on the axles in such a way, that in the event of a failure, one of them can be removed, while the other still drives the system. This differential is a Detroit-Allison locker, it'll turn both tires as long as the u-joints are reconnected "

The T-830 replied, noting Maggie's normalized skin temperature. "Our biggest problems are the fried transformers under the floor-grates, without them, power cannot be regulated and the hydrogen cells will likely burn the turbine after a time." Thomson concluded, as the group fell silent. -"Well how long will the motor last in an overpowered state...?" Maggie murmured as she awoke from cold sleep, the bandages around her head obstructing her view of the group. Kicking the engine-door shut, Thomson replies, "As far as I know, the turbine's internals are made of a hyper-alloy, with a half-percentage of Coltan ore, the same stuff I'm made of... Basically it can sit in a pool of burning jet-fuel for 3 weeks and be reused. However, the bearings in the shaft are only made of 550 stainless, the casing isn't too tough either. We'll be taking a gamble without at least one working transformer, and we aint all gonna fit in the tank..." -"Vysrat'sa..." Demetri grunts, rubbing the back of his head. "What are ya awe-fuckin about out here..?" The endoskeleton asks, leaning out the doorframe as he looked down on the kneeling giant.. The Nemesis hangs his head low, letting out a deep chuckle before adding, "it's about my eighteen wheeler... I was going to suggest we use it to sneak back to base undetected but... It was swept up in the wake of the Cirrus launch back in 98' " The giant replied as Maggie began to undue her bandages.

Linda stared at him blankly, starting to say something but being cutoff as Thomson adds, -"actually, if I recall correctly, you gave it to Dravis, it got hit by a tram, then blown up with an H-bomb..." -"don't remind me..." The Nemesis replied, Maggie cranking herself to a sitting position-, her eyes widening as she stared at the endoskeleton in shock. The nurse then glances at Cheri, and then back at Thomson again. -"That's a uh..." Maggie is at a loss of words, Thomson adding, "If the first words out of your mouth start with 'bionic,' and end with 'man,' I think I might bite off your index finger." The cyborg said in a sarcastic tone. "Maggie, you don't have to be afraid, I know he's kind of a-, 'scary'-looking robot, but him and his crew-, are here to help." Cheri smiled as the nurse clambered closer to the T-830 in awe, taken aback by his range of motion. -"He moves so much like a person..." She murmured, timidly running her fingers under his cheekbones.

"Awe-, she called you a cute widow-woebot." Linda teased as Thomson's LEDs slowly swiveled to face Cheri. "The next time you fall asleep, I'm ripping your stitches... Now you've got 'her' makin fun-a me!" He adds with a wheezy chuckle as Demetri chimes in, -"He's an obsolete model... Like Macintosh Power-Pc's from the 90s... What a skatul'a..."-(pussy)- -"Ruin my moment in the sun and mark my words hulk, I will crash the Auriga on you..." The cyborg retorted, flicking yet another spent 20mm casing at the giant's head. "Well-, I guess if you wanted to hurt me, you wouldn't have bandaged my head... -You were kidding about the index finger thing right...?" Maggie asked as the cyborg gave a shrug in reply, -"sweetheart you are too damn sexy to have yo index finga bitten-off. I'll make you a deal, call me a bionic-man again, and I'll bite Demetri's index finger off." -"I've got a finger you can bite-off you little zadubenec..."-(dickhead)- The giant retorted as Thomson tossed his head back in laughter, "awe poop, I walked right into that one... I suppose if I had a butt-crack you'd break your foot off in it too right?" The endoskeleton shot back as Maggie shook with laughter, despite the situation with her niece.

"Hey wait a minute..." The nurse said, standing up and peering down at the Nemesis as he fanned himself with the bill of his hat. "I know that voice, stand up..." She said, stepping out of the troop-carrier to face the giant. "You're the Merkava victim I bumped into at the hospital..." The nurse said, her expression softening with pity as she looked over his goulash features. -"You are incorrect Ms. O'Connor, Demetri was abducted as a child and placed into the Nemesis program by the Umbrella Corporation." Bud chimed in, as he rounded the back-corner of the APC with his Smartgun. Cheri's face brightens with excitement as she rips the sunglasses off the T-800's face, surprised to find a pair of brown eyes staring back at her. Bud is a bit puzzled by the girl's behavior as she lifts up his undershirt and probes along his abdomen. "I don't understand, where's all the metal...?" She asked, probing the biker's hairline as she explored further. "I'm a cybernetic organism, metal endoskeleton surrounded by living tissue..."

The T-800 replies setting his weapon on the ground. "A what...?" The girl asks as Thomson interrupts, -"he'll explain later, right now we need to get this turbine off the rig. Linda and Maggie.? -you two should be able to handle the task with those socket-sets I brought out." -"I don't know the first thing about being a mechanic..." The nurse objected in a nervous tone. -"it's easy cuteness, all your doin is removing all the bolts on the turbine marked '1' Linda can coach you." The T-830 reassured, turning to the Nemesis. "Demetri, we need you on watch with that Stinger-launcher of yours incase Stark's finest show up, the APC's guns will be offline while the girls tinker with the system, so you're their go-to guy for defense." -"Easy as pie comrade... I'll head up to the roof and relieve that little koh'ut-blaster." The giant replied, tipping his hat to Maggie, before starting across the small courtyard.

"Umbrella may have taken his body, but not his charm. That voice..." The nurse commented, flustered as she headed inside to start on the turbine. "-Me, Bud and Poe are gonna take the tank back to that industrial park uptown, I saw some heavy machinery in one of the factories that might have the parts we're lookin for, wheels up guys..." The endoskeleton finished, starting towards the tank on the far side of the courtyard. -"Cheri, you need to rest while the antibiotics in your system take effect, you'll need your strength if the camp falls under attack. Take this..." Bud says, handing the girl a stainless-steel handgun. -"It's huge..." The girl murmured as she fiddled with the weapon. "It's a .45 Longslide with laser sight and two-phase trigger. First phase activates the laser, second phase fires the weapon..." The Terminator said guiding her hands around the weapon. "It's loaded with hollow point rounds, the magazine holds eight, aim for the head..." The T-800 concluded, Cheri blushing as he ran to catch up with Thomson.

Now inside the Tiger Tank, gazing at the display screen, the T-830 sat patiently, snickering as Bud climbed up the front of the hull. "You know she likes you right...?" The endoskeleton asked as the T-800 pulled the forward hatch shut. "Everybody likes me..." The Terminator replied, starting to undo the journal-latches on the hull machinegun. "No I mean romantically Bud..." The endoskeleton replied, admiring his desert eagle as he leaned back in the driver-seat. "I'm a Terminator, I'm incapable of returning the same affections... I'm neither anatomically compatible. Your hypothesis is illogical..." The T-800 replied, gently sliding the MG-3 out of its journals and lifting its receiver-cover for inspection. "Dude-, don't be such an Eeyore, you're a learning computer, that means you can potentially learn 'anything...' Besides, you don't need an erection to please a woman..." The T-830 replied as faint thud is heard from the ceiling.

"I don't follow..." Bud drones, closing his weapon's receiver cover and setting the gun aside. "You've got fingers, elbows, lips, a tongue and a chin... Trust me, you're anatomically compatible..." Thomson replied with a snicker, sliding his handgun under the navigation console. -"Hey Poe..!? You commin in or what..!?" The endoskeleton called through the hull, canting his head to one side. "I'll ride fireman...!" The Yautja replied, pounding the hull twice as to give the driver the all-clear. Thomson brought the turbines online, activating the cloaking field before putting the vehicle in motion. The Tiger tank crept out of the alley unnoticed, pivoting its turret in both directions before merging with the light civilian traffic and speeding off to the industrial park.