I've been looking forward to writing this chapter. Things are going to move fast from here...
Dust, smoke and fire billowed through downtown Mesa as an office building imploded from a cruise missile impact. Terminators, HKs and recyclers scattered. Then, from out of the dust, the Extinction Machine emerged. From its arms, its shoulders, its nose and the sides of its head, weapons fired: missiles, Vulcans, miniguns, .50 HMGs and a 40mm grenade launcher. The laser on its back flashed, destroying another incoming missile. A trio of birdlike HKP 330s charged, blasting with little effect at the ceramic armor of the Machine. The last of the missiles and a final burst from Vulcans destroyed 2. The third leaped at the larger machine. The head ducked and caught the HKP in midair, crushing it and letting what was left fall under the Extinction Machine's trampling feet. A squad of terminators regrouped around an immobilized HKT, firing heavy plasma weapons that were marginally effective against the Machine. They were shot to pieces with concentrated machine gun fire and short bursts from the AGL. A terminator, blown in two, crawled toward a dropped blaster, only to be crushed under foot. The Machine dropped to a crouch to duck under fire from the HKT's remaining cannon, skating onward on the wheels on its heels. As it reached the HKT, it rose and returned to a run. An outthrust arm tore off the cannon, and the jaws crushed its head.
The Extinction Machine dropped into a 10m-deep crater, and yet another missile sailed over it, to crash and explode before it could reacquire. The Machine dropped once again,avoiding the brunt of a blast that could have blown it off its feet even without a direct hit. The laser fired again, in a series of pulses. Blocks away, the remaining corner of a ruined tower fell, sheered neatly through. Miles away, the top of a mountain vaporized, and a little further off the S1S-T that had launched the missile was struck by a spray of molten rock. On Cass's radar screen, the target receded and vanished.
As the Machine emerged from the crater, three recycler warriors and a dozen workers attacked. A warrior's larger rail gun punched through one side of the head and out the other, narrowly missing Cass. One warrior and half the workers were cut down by a sweep with the laser. Another warrior damaged one of the Machine's arms with its pincer, before being caught and cut in two. The workers tried to dogpile the Machine, while the warrior clung to its head, pounding away with its pincer. The workers were kicked or swatted or simply stomped in short order, but the warrior held on, steadily pounding its way through the walls of the cockpit. But then a volley of .50 MG rounds struck it in the back. It fell, still kicking, and then was crushed with a single emphatic stamp of the Machine's foot.
The silent warrior called Curly, strode toward the Machine, holding a .50 cal machine gun at his hip. Even carrying it would have been an extraordinary feat for a human, and firing it without a tripod was obviously preposterous- but then, there could be no doubt that Curly was not human. The Machine dropped to the ground, and Cass climbed down from the cockpit. Curly was overtaken by Kate Connor, a commando and an eight-year-old boy carrying a teddy bear. "We reached the structure, but we're still preparing the final assault," Kate said. "He ran out while we were making our approach. He says his father is trapped inside. We need to get him somewhere safe. Can you evacuate him?"
Cass shook her head. "No, I will need to accompany you. But I can put him in the Extinction Machine; it will be a safer place than any other. Go, hurry! I can catch up."
As Kate, Curly and the commandos hurried off, the boy "spoke", in a voice too low for human ears: "Unit IX202C, it is time to come home."
"My name," she said, as she turned and placed her hands behind her head, "is Cassandra." In a hundredth of a second, Davey tossed aside his bear and drew his weapon, with a spark already arcing between the two prongs of a tuning fork. But she was just a little faster with the Ithaca Stakeout sheathed on her back. Davey fell, stunned less by the point-blank shotgun blast than by the power surge released by his own weapon as it exploded into so much very expensive piano wire.
Cass pumped a new shell and flipped a selector switch to semiauto. Before she could fire at Davey again, the bear came at her, flailing whirling blades where its hands had been. She fired twice, and the bear exploded, its spinning arms flying off to either side. She turned back to Davey, but he was already behind her. He grabbed her arm and pulled it straight behind her back, sidestepping another blast. The two cyborgs were of approximately equal strength and mass, but Davey's hyperalloy endoskeleton give the advantage of greater density, and more weight to apply to a point. He pulled her arm further back, until the had to arc her back and bend her knees to remain standing. He twisted, and she dropped the gun, but then she caught him by the wrist. Taken by surprise, Davey still had the presence of mind to grab the gun before she swung her arm more than 180 degrees clockwise, and him with it.
Davey bounced off the side of the Extinction Machine and landed, with Cass already rushing in. The pointed steel toe of her boot drove into his eye socket. He countered with a roundhouse kick that sent her sprawling face-down, then fired the last shell into a very precise point in the small of her back. He jumped back as arcs of electricity shot through and out of her body. Smoke and an ominous orange glow rose from the wound. He turned to run, too late. She rolled over and caught him between her legs, then lifted him straight off the ground, meanwhile clawing at her own back.
An impressive fireball flooded the crater.
Cass staggered to the Machine, where she paused to examine her left hand. The flesh had been burned off, and the metal and ceramic beneath glowed red. She opened the door and touched the seat, to see smoke rise from the upholstery. She slammed the door as close to shut as she could, and waited for the fire suppression system to do its work.
A commando, sent to investigate a possible plasma blast, was relieved to report that Cass was coming. He took notice of but gave little thought to the fact that she wore a heavy, ill-fitting glove on one hand.