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CONTINUUM

-Serrano Point: 2028-

To justjoe and This guy doesnt have a clue, thank you for your reviews.

If anyone notices any spelling or grammar mistakes they're more then welcome to offer to be my beta reader.

Chapter Ten

-Monday, August 14 2028 (11:51)

Hydroponics Lab IV

Choi stepped through a door into yet another room. It was filled with several large tanks of water with a bank of displays along the far wall. After a moment he went further into the room, Allison following a few steps behind.

"What do you suppose this is?" Allison asked.

"Water holding tanks."

"How do you know?"

"Because," Choi said making his way to the other side of the room, "It said so on the door."

Allison wrinkled her nose. "Reading was never been one of my strong suites. Fucking unholy blurry lines."

Choi bent over to look at one of the screens. "It looks like they're monitoring water for something," He shrugged. "What or why I have no idea. There's a computer interface over there. Go see if you can find some kind of a map," Nodding, Allison quickly made her way over to the computer. However after a few moments however she stepped away in defeat.

"No good. It needs security codes just to access the thing."

Choi went over to her. "Let me try."

As Choi worked Allison went over to stand next to one of the tanks, looking at the door they had just come through. "Hey, do you think it's strange, we've been wondering around for about ten minutes now, but we still haven't run into anybody?"

"Very," After a few moments Choi shook his head. "Come on, this thing is useless. It doesn't look like there's another way out of here, well have to go back the way we came." The two of the quickly made their way back down the corridor that had led them to the water holding room. After a little while they came back to the last intersection they had taken. To their left was the way they had already come, with the corridor continuing to their right.

"Well," Allison said, "we had two choices, we tried going off this way, and since I don't really want to go back the way we came, I guess that leaves…"

Choi nodded. "Agreed," The two of them went right when they heard footsteps coming from further down the corridor behind them. "Come on," Choi hissed, the two of them braking into a run as they heard the footsteps behind them increase there pace. After a few minutes they came to another door, this one ajar with a hole blasted in it. They quickly slipped through and looked around.

"Oh for the love of God," Allison muttered. They were back in the same processing station the fighting had originally started in.

"At least we didn't come back in through the same door," Choi said. "Come on," They had just gone past a large clear vat filled with some kind of thick, greenish brown liquid when there was a shout behind them and a moment later a plasma blast exploded against the vat, showering the ground next to them with molten plastic and steel, and a few moments later a torrent of nutrient filled water. Allison and Choi quickly ducked down further behind the vat and looked back behind them.

"Colonel Smith," Allison said.

Choi nodded. "And the Sergeant who killed Harris. Looks like it's just the two of them though," he said raising his rifle. They both fired their weapons as the other two got behind a bank of equipment. "Come on. Getting in a fire fight with them doesn't help us right now, and at least being in here again gives us a good chance of finding our way back to the entrance bay," They quickly made their way towards where they thought the door they had originally come into the room had been, all the while on the look out for Caroline and Blitz. However it was more luck then anything else that the hail of bullets hit the display screen a foot away and not them.

They quickly dove in opposite directions. Choi dashed around a group of thick vertical pipes, then over to a large vibrating cylinder shaped machine made of some black metal. Crouching down beside it he looked back the way he had come. After a few seconds past with no sign of pursuit he straightened and continued on. A few moments latter he heard the far off sound of a plasma rifle, followed by the answering roar of Allison's carbine. Choi quickly spun around, tacking a step forward as he tried to determine from what corner of the room the sounds had come from.

He had been about to take another step when her hear the sound of another gun being fired, this time much closer. At the same moment he felt a sharp pain as something ripped through his legs, sending he crashing to the ground, his plasma rifle falling from his grasp and sliding across the floor. Managing to sit up he reached down to cultch at his legs, his hot blood soaking through the fabric of his pants. Just then he noticed movement and one of his hands went to his sidearm as Caroline rose from behind a computer terminal and stepped forward, her gun leveled at his chest as he raised his own weapon.

"Drop it," Caroline barked. "Drop it now!"

Choi shook his head. "No Sir."

"Sergeant, your on the floor, bleeding. You can barely sit up and you certainly can't walk. You're in no condition to win a gunfight. I don't want to kill you, but I will if you don't DROP IT NOW!"

Choi tightened his grip on his gun. "I can't do that sir."

They looked at each other for a moment, and then Caroline dropped to the ground, going into a roll. Choi fired into the air where she had been a moment earlier. He tried to twist around to get her back into his sights as she came up on one knee to his right, but the movement caused the pain in his legs to flare, and he fell back against the floor with a cry. His head fell to the side just in time to see Caroline level her gun at his face.

A moment later the air was split by the sound of a machine gun being fired and Caroline fell to the ground dead. Choi heard footsteps approaching and after a moment he managed to sit up again to see Allison coming towards him, her carbine raised.

"You okay?" she asked dropping down besides him.

"Well, I was shot in both legs, but other then that…" Choi allowed himself to fall back to the floor. "I heard weapons fire. Blitz?"

"Still alive. I managed to lose him."

"He's probably making his way over here to investigate."

Allison dropped her weapon to the floor. "Well, I used up the last of my ammo taking out the Colonel."

"Take my plasma rifle, and get back to the entrance bay."

Allison shook her head. "I'm not leaving you-"

"Yes you are. We need reinforcements. You need to find the Commander. That's an order Specialist." After a moment Allison nodded. She helped him get over to a bank of equipment so he could sit up against it and gave him Caroline's Desert Eagle of augment his own Glock. Then she turned and, after retrieving Choi's plasma rifle, started making her way to the exit.

Weaving her way around various machinery she finally came to the large heavy door blocking her exit. Leveling Choi's rifle looking mechanism she fired three times, vaporizing the thick metal. Putting the rifle's strap over her shoulder and letting the weapon hang against her back Allison went over the door, and after a few moments began to slowly drag it open until there was enough room for her to slip through. Quickly moving down the utility corridor beyond, she heard a noise from the door behind her. Running now, she just managed to get around the nearest corner as a plasma bolt exploded against the wall in frond of her. Gripping her own weapon Allison stepped back out around the corner and managed do doge another blast while firing her own rifle, also missing.

Before either one of them could fire again Blitz was upon her. Instead of stopping or moving around her he ran straight into her, sending them both crashing to the ground. Recovering first, Blitz rose up on one knee, aiming his weapon at the Specialist. Allison managed to kick him in the leg, knocking him off balance and causing his shot to go wild. She tried to bring her own weapon to bear, but Blitz released his rifle, one hand shoving the muzzle of her rifle away, the other hitting her in the jaw.

Blitz picked his rifle back up as a moment later Allison tried to raise hers again. As Allison rose up on her knees Blitz fired, lucky hitting only her rifle. As half her rifle disintegrated into molten slag Allison launched herself at Blitz, dropping her ruined weapon. She managed to knock him onto his back, sending his plasma rifle skidding across the floor. Blitz quickly turned them over so that he was on top of her, punching her again. Allison tried to draw her combat knife from her belt, but Blitz noticed the movement, grabbing her wrist and slamming it against the floor, knocking the blade from her hand. Grabbing her other wrist he pined both her hands above hear head.

"You can't win," he hissed. "I'm bigger and stronger."

"Yeah," Allison retorted. "Well so are the metal. You know how we win against them?" Allison jammed her knee up into his groin. "We fight dirty." Blitz fell off of her, momentarily disabled. Getting up on her hands and knees Allison grabbed her knife and turned to face him. Blitz had recovered somewhat and managed to hit her in the face with everything he had before she could strike. Feeling her jaw pop Alison fell back to the ground dazed. Blitz quickly drew his sidearm, however Allison rolled over, burying her knife in his leg.

Blitz fell back against the floor with a scream, his free hand going down to clutch the hilt of the knife in his thigh. Allison quickly scrambled over to his fallen plasma rifle. After a moment Blitz pulled the knife out with a gasp, clutching his leg. Realizing what Alison was doing, Blitz rose up on his uninjured leg and leveled his gun at her just as she got the rifle, rolling over onto her back and firing.

Her first shot almost missed him, hitting him in the shoulder. Her second shot hit him in the center of the chest knocking him back unto the floor. After a few moments Allison got to her feet, walking over to what was left of his body, his right arm completely severed from his body, his shoulder gone, and his chest a burnt out crater. After a moment Allison turned and continued on her way. She had gotten several yards when a group of three soldiers from their group came around the corner. One of them recognized Allison and said, "We thought we heard weapons fire…" he finally caught sight of Blitz's body at the other end of the corridor.

"The Commander's in trouble," Allison said. "We need to find her, now."

-12:02

Savannah saw Arbirn's face tighten as he held his gun trained on John. He's going to do it, she realized. Almost without thinking about it she fired first, one round going into his heart, the other his forehead. He stumbled back, more an involuntary reaction then anything else, and then he fell to the ground. Savannah slowly lowered her gun as she went over to look down at her former second in command. After a few moments she turned to look at John, who while rather pale otherwise looked more or less all right. Savannah holstered her weapon and went over to him.

"We need to go," she said after a moment. John nodded, his eyes still on Arbirn's body, his gun held loosely in his hand. Then he turned and the two of them continued down the corridor. Following the technician's directions, they had almost reached the lobby when four soldiers came out, weapons raised. Savannah and John quickly raised their own weapons, however almost the soldiers lowered theirs.

"We've found her," one of them said into his radio, "repeat we've found her."

"Where are you?" asked whoever was on the other end of the transmission.

"We're just outside the lobby," the soldier replied. "We should rejoin the group shortly."

Savannah lowered her gun. "What's the situation?" she asked.

"Specialist Young managed to get back here a few minutes ago and informed us of the situation. She led a team back to the processing station; it seemed as good a place to start as any. Some more of us have gone to find the facilities command center, see if we can figure out anything out from there."

"Take me," Savannah ordered. The soldier nodded. As he lead them back into the lobby and to the right they heard new orders being issued over his radio, ordering Alison and her group back. After a minute they came to a room with a large table in it and a bank of computers against one of the walls. There were several people sitting against the opposite wall, while armed soldiers either guarded them or went through the computers.

"Ma'am," one of the soldiers said as Savannah and the others entered the room, saluting. His uniform had the rank insignia of a second lieutenant.

"At ease," Savannah said. "What's your name."

"Lieutenant Graves, Ma'am."

"Well Graves, what do we know?"

"After the Specialist informed us of the situation we came here. Apparently the base's security systems were down for maintenance, specifically the cameras. We've been trying to bring them back up. Now none of them seem to have any idea we were coming here, let alone what was being planed, however this woman," he indicated one of the people sitting against the wall, a middle age woman with the rank insignia of Captain, "Apparently ordered repair teems to stand by when the system reported several machine failures in one of the processing station's. And yesterday it was announced that certain sections of the base would be out of bounds to anyone without express clearance. No reason was given."

Savannah went to stand over the woman, who stared steadily ahead, giving no sign that she had noticed the other woman's presence. After a moment she looked over the others, then turned to back to Lieutenant Graves. "Take her into custody. Have you contacted Serrano Point yet?"

"Yes Ma'am. A detachment of soldiers should be in route soon."

"Good. When they get here I want everyone on this base gathered. Until we figure out how deep this goes and who was and wasn't involved I want all none-essential operations on this base suspended. Now what about our people? Do we know how many are still alive?"

"Sergeant Choi was injured, however when we found him in the processing station he was still alive, though he has lost some blood. He was shot several time's in the legs, however beyond that I don't know how bad he is. With him and Specialist Young there were another eight people in you group, not counting Colonel Smith and Sergeant Blitz, both of whom are dead. We've found six bodies in the station, including Lieutenant Harris, so that leaves two unaccounted for."

"There are also the three of Arbirn's people who turned against him when they first surrounded them," John said. "I think I saw one of them go down, but I don't know about the other two."

"Well, once the reinforcements get here will start sweeping the base," Savannah said. "Hopefully we can get the cameras back up by then. Does the base have a PA system?"

"Ah, I think so."

"Good. As soon as our people get here well make an announcement to any of our people still alive and the rest of the base," As Savannah finished speaking the door opened and Allison and another soldier entered the room. "Specialist," Savannah said. "How is Sergeant Choi doing?"

"We were able to stop the bleeding. He should be alright until a medic can get to him."

"Good. I'm going to need you to stay here for a while," She turned back to the Lieutenant. "As soon as the reinforcements get here I'll be returning to Serrano Point."

He nodded. "Yes Ma'am."

-14:15

The jeep bounced as it went over a dip in the road, jostling the two people who sat in the passenger compartment. Savannah looked at John as he sat with his head bowed, staring at his hands.

"How are you doing?" she asked.

John shrugged. "Fine."

"Are you?"

John looked up at her. "I've seen people die before."

"Killed by machines. This is different."

"Is it?" John shook his head. "I've seen people die, but only one of them was killed by a machine. I've known others who were, but I've only seen one."

"John-"

"I've killed somebody, did you know that? It was about four months before I came here. His name was Sarkissian. He had this chess computer stolen, actually the same one that would become John Henry, and we were trying to get him to sell it to us. He wasn't interested though. Tried to blackmail us instead, threatened to tell the FBI we were still alive. We Stole records from him, though we killed him in the process, but it turned out to be someone else. The next day he and one of his people came to our house. They planted a bomb in our car. Broke in, tied me up. Attacked my mom. The other one was downstairs, I guess Cameron got him. I managed to brake free and I went after Sarkissian. Killed him with my bare hands. Then Cameron came; she was in the car when it exploded. Apparently damaged her programing, she spent the better part of the day trying to kill me, but that's another story."

"John-"

"Do you think he's right? Arbirn, do you think he was right, about them, about me? Do you think the fact that I can trust them, that they'll turn on me and I wont see it coming?"

"I don't know. But I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, that when the time comes you'll know what your doing."

"Why?" John asked. "And give me something other then because my mother raised you to believe that."

"I don't know," Savannah paused. "The timeline, it's changed who knows how many times, but you're still there. You must be doing something right."

"I'm not here in this one."

"Yeah, and I've already told you how well that's turned out."

"But the fact that I would use them, you don't find that-"

"John, you forget that I was raised for two years by one. I might not have known it, but the fact remains. And then there's John Henry. I might have mixed felling's about her, but him, he was like this magical childhood friend. I mean, I didn't get to know him for that long, but I still look back on my memories of him with a certain amount of fondness."

"How did my mom fell about that?"

"Never really talked with her about it. I think she knew, but she never really brought it up. James and I talked about him a few times, but I'm not sure what he thought of him. I'm not sure James knew what he thought of him," Savannah sighed. "Look, Ellis, I don't know. He confronted me about working with Catherine a few days ago, but obviously I never though he do this."

"Do you think there were others working with him? That they have a trap set for us back at Serrano Point?"

Savannah shook her head. "No, I think he drew me to the Hydro Lab because he didn't think he could take me out at Serrano. Ellis wouldn't have brought in more people then he thought was necessary, he wouldn't take that kind of a risk. There might be one or two we miss, but I'm not anticipating another large conspiracy. Anyone working with him we don't catch will probably go to ground. Still, I think I'll stay close to home from now on."

"What happens now?"

"I'm not sure. We'll probable come up with some cover story, tell everyone a few terminators managed to get into the base. Colonel Ellis will get to have died a hero. We might have some problems suppressing the truth, but we only really have to keep it going until we get john Henry back and are able to send all of you to your own time. But I think most people will believe the cover, why wouldn't they?"

"So that's it?"

Savannah leaded back. "Yeah, that's it."

So, to justjoe, as you can see there was no 'Weaver surprise'. Your not the first to wonder what will happen when she finds out about the coup, but the fact is I never intended her to be involved. She will see some action before this story is over, just not this time. Now, this is the first real long battle scene I've ever written, so any thoughts about it would be appreciated. Or about anything else.