Chapter 1563


Don't Get Caught


Young Allison watched the drone footage of the UH-1 set down two miles away from the damaged HK drone. It sat in the dry riverbed. Randy exited and started towards the location the downed HK drone was at. The UH-1 lifted back off and headed out a little further.

Randy ran at 'Terminator speed' and covered the ground very quickly. When he was a quarter of a mile out, he slowed and paused.

Young Allison thoughts were interrupted. She was given the feed of 'Coltan Overcast'. She saw Young Jesse blow it a kiss. She didn't have any audio. It made her wonder what all of it was about. Maybe the kiss was for her. She could see how Savannah was captivated by her. Her lips were full and beautiful.

Anna made a cough sound.

Young Allison knew Anna didn't cough. It was for her benefit. She quickly switched back to the drone footage which looked down on the damaged HK drone and Randy.

"Make sure there's nothing moving through the dry riverbed in either direction." Young Allison said. "The sun will be up very soon. This needs to play out by then."

Randy carefully made his way forward the last quarter mile.

Anna monitored all their drone feeds.

"I have a flatbed tow truck approaching the downed HK drone on the side road." Anna said. "It's three miles out. It just made the finial turn to reach the cut off for the road which runs along the wash. There's a car on the back of it already so it didn't seem like our target at first."

Young Allison looked at the images.

"Keep a look out for anything in the air, especially low to the ground." Young Allison said. "I don't trust Skynet on any of this."

Randy moved within a hundred yards of the damaged HK drone.

The HK drone faced away from him. It was the approach they used. There was a slight cloud of dust which formed around the HK drone.

"The HK drone is powering up." Anna said.

Young Allison suspected the ploy.

"I knew it was playing possum." Young Allison said. "Get ready for a gravity shot if Randy can't stop it."

They watched Randy raise his M4 and take the shot with his 'sticky shocker' round from the M203 unit blow the barrel.

The shot was good and the HK drone powered back down.

"The flatbed tow truck is one mile out." Anna said.


Randy ran and closed the distance. He moved right up to within fifty feet of the HK drone. He moved to the side of the dry riverbed. He wanted the driver and the passenger to exit the flatbed tow truck. It would give him a clean shot with his silenced M9.

The flatbed pulled up a minute later. He heard two doors open and close.

"I thought you said this thing was turned on." The first voice said.

"They said it would be." The second voice said. "We were supposed to dump this car we picked up and it was supposed to fly onto the back of the flatbed."

"Call HQ and see what they say." The first voice said.

Randy poked his head out some. He wanted a clean shot. The driver of the flatbed held a phone. He began to fool with it.

"Son of a Bitch…." The second voice said.

"What's wrong?" The first voice asked.

"I made the call and they answered but when I went to talk, my phone went dead." The second voice said.

"Let me try mine." The first voice said. "It's dead too."

"Let's see if we can winch this thing up." The second voice said.

The two men walked over to the inactive HK drone.

Randy didn't know for sure if they were Grays or someone working for the Grays. They didn't seem too surprised at what the HK drone was. He figured they were Grays or would be soon enough.

The men went down the side of the dry river bank. As soon as they reached the HK drone he fired twice. Both men fell. He moved out from his place of concealment among some rocks and approached the men. They were both terminated. There was no one else in the truck either.

"The Iroquois is on its way." Anna said.

Randy could hear it thirty seconds later. It moved fast right up the riverbed.

In another thirty seconds the UH-1 hovered right above the ground next to the downed drone. It kicked up some sand and small rocks.

Randy tossed the two dead Grays inside and made sure the cable was ready to attach the HK drone under the UH-1. It was soon taken care of. The UH-1 lifted up four feet more and drifted over the top of the HK drone. He secured it and climbed up on top of it and inside the UH-1

Brian looked back and saw Randy was in. He gave him 'a thumbs up'. He lifted the HK drone as Randy strapped in. He started down the riverbed back the way he'd come. The drone was only six feet off the bottom of the dry riverbed as they flew away at low altitude. The eastern sky was brighter now. The sun would be up soon.


Anna watched one man from the truck make the call from the drone footage.

CamNet allowed the call to go through before she killed the phones.

"Did CamNet get a location?" Young Allison asked.

Anna checked with CamNet.

"Yes." Anna said. "There's a drone headed there now."

Young Allison watched the Grays get terminated and the Huey arrive. The bodies were taken care of. They were loaded into the helicopter. The procedure went smoothly to attach the HK drone to the helicopter and the UH-1 was away.

"It looks like they made it away OK." Young Allison said.

Anna monitored everything.

"Maybe they haven't yet." Anna said.

Young Allison looked over her screens.

"What do you have?" Young Allison asked.

"Trouble…." Anna said.


Sheila watched the Gray in the room from outside the doorway. It looked like he monitored something. She didn't know what it was. There appeared to be a number of security screens. They were all nothing but 'snow'.

She moved a little further into the room. There was no one else in it. The room may have been the security center, or at least a secondary one. It was blinded right now from the jamming field John Henry put in place.

It didn't look like any of the monitors showed the lower level they were on. It was a good thing for them, even if it was an oversight on Skynet's part. It was clear Skynet felt secure down there.

Sheila moved up behind him to snap his neck.

A phone rang.

She paused and backed up.

"Hello." The Gray said.

Pause.

"Harrison's on his way." The Gray said.

Pause.

"Is the 'Metal Bitch' still offline?" The Gray asked.

Pause.

"That's too bad." The Gray said. "I was hoping to 'do' her."

Pause.

"I know, right…." The Gray said.

Pause.

"Don't get caught." The Gray said.

The Gray hung up the phone.

Sheila snapped his neck as he adjusted his 'junk' in his pants. She tucked him away behind the console and disabled the phone.

She exited the room and went the same direction Ally and Cam went. She wanted to link up with them.


Cam and Ally followed the Gray who'd said he was going to make a personal report to the male Terminator. He was referred to as 'Robby The Robot'. There may be a problem with the female Terminator. They referred to her as the 'Metal Bitch'. It seemed to be a pretty standard reference to female Terminators.

They watched him enter a room with large computers inside.

"It looks like the 'clean room'." Ally whispered.

Cam nodded. She moved up to a small window in the door and peeked one eye into the glass.

There was a male and a female in there. They both looked like Terminators. They were both active. There was the Gray who'd entered and another Gray in there working at a keyboard. She watched him hang up a phone.

Sheila caught up to Ally and Cam. They hadn't gone far. She didn't want to spook them.

"I'm behind you." Sheila whispered. "I don't want to get zapped."

Cam motioned for her to stay where she was to watch their six.

"Let's wait a minute and see if anyone will come out." Cam whispered. "If either of the Grays exits, we'll take them out."

Cam and Ally backed up into another dark alcove. Sheila moved back a little further the way she'd come from.


Hanna went after the Gray Cammy indicated she should follow. She trailed him to a room near the end of a hall. He went inside. She moved up to the door and listened. There was no talking but she heard some kind of activity in there.

She moved to the room on the end and listened. It was quiet there. She opened the door and looked in. The room was dark. She didn't detect anyone. She entered the room and closed the door. She didn't close it tight. She wanted to monitor what happened in the hall.

The room contained computer gear. It looked like it was older. She wasn't sure it was a good thing. If this was previously some version of Skynet, it appeared to have been around for awhile. It wasn't hooked up. She looked out into the hall again and went back to the computer gear. There were some hard drives in some of the computers. She quickly removed them. She went back to the door and looked. The door to the other room was open. She stashed the hard drives in her gear and quickly exited the room. She moved to the open door and was about to look in.

The Gray she'd followed was standing there. There was a look of surprise on his face. He opened his mouth to call for help. She quickly grabbed him by the neck and crushed it before he could scream.

There was another Gray in there with his back to her.

He heard the commotion and turned to look.

Hanna dropped the Gray she'd just terminated and did the same to the other Gray. She went and looked back in the hall. It was clear. She moved the two Grays into the end room and stashed them out of the way. She locked the door as she exited.

She went back into the room she'd just killed the Grays in and searched it. It looked like a communications room. Everything was locked up. She left it as it was with the lights on and closed the door. She went back the way she'd come. She wanted to link back up with Cammy and Samantha.


Samantha went the way Cammy instructed her to go. It was a dark passage. There were two rooms. There was one on each side. She listened outside of each one and then checked them. They were empty. It looked like some consoles were recently removed. She wondered if it was some of the stuff which ended up at the mine.

She wasn't sure what was wrong with this location. It seemed like a good one and it was bunker buster proof. Then again they were all down there now and apparently undetected so far. She went back out to the main hall. The elevator shaft was to the right. The hall led the other way.

Samantha paused and listened. She was pretty sure the elevator was on its way down. She was about to go look. She spotted Sheila down the hall to her right as she faced the elevators and Hanna was at the far end of the hall.


Cammy wanted to find Skynet. She went the direction the Gray who'd passed by earlier came from. There was a distinct hum the further she moved along.

She came to a door. It was locked. She looked at the keypad. She didn't have time to fool with it. She was pretty sure the power source was inside the room.

Cammy pushed on the door to force it open. She wondered if the door was wired to an alarm. She decided it didn't matter. They needed to get the operation concluded. She pushed the door open. It was a metal door. It bent before it opened.

There was a medium sized large power cell in there. It hummed and gave off a throb pulse sound. She looked over the control panel and tried to see how to shut it down. She felt a 'tingling' sensation throughout her chassis every time it throbbed. She could see the room was insulated with some type of foil material. It was probably to protect the electrical equipment and the Terminators.

There was a sound behind her. She turned around and a Gray stood there with his side arm pointed at her.

"Intruder…." The Gray shouted.

He fired at her. She dodged out of the way. The projectiles struck the instrument panel and the power cell. When it happened, an alarm went off. It was loud and could most likely be heard everywhere down there. The gunshots would have been heard as well.

There was a bright flash. Cammy felt paralyzed for a second.

She was able to get off one shot before she fell to her knees. She struck the Gray and he fell over backwards.

There was a strong vibration and the pitch of the power cell changed. She could visibly see it vibrate now. She looked at the smashed control panel. The bullet holes in it seemed to indicate there'd be no help from it.

She was able to stand in a second. The control panel began to smoke. The throb of the power cell increased. There was a 'hiss' sound where the bullet impacted the power cell. There was another bright flash of light and she was paralyzed again. She fell to the floor.

Cammy experienced something like this before. She needed to get the Metal girls and get out. She needed to get out of the room first. The further they could get from those pulses. The less affected they would be. The pulses would continue to grow in strength as the power supply became critical before it ruptured and exploded.

She made it out into the hall. There was another pulse. She fell to the ground. She saw Hanna lying on the ground as she tried to go back the way she'd come. She could only manage to move on her hands and knees. It appeared it was all Hanna could do too.


Sheila, Ally and Cam all heard what sounded like a gunshot. It was bad news. An alarm sounded. A second later they all felt a pulse of energy. They were momentarily paralyzed. They all staggered but remained upright.

Cam read the reports from Cameron about another encounter like this.

"We need to get away from here, now." Cam said. "If we don't, were going to get stuck down here."

Ally wanted to take down the clean room first.

"Let's finish the job." Ally said.

They all felt another pulse of energy. They were all paralyzed for a second.

"It didn't seem as bad." Sheila said.

Cam knew it would fluctuate and vary. The pluses would be worse sometimes and less others. They would also seem to have a cumulative effect.

She looked in through the little window. No one inside seemed affected. There must be some kind of insulation.

"We need to go." Cam said.


Camille made her move to follow the Grays. Gail dropped in on her six. They didn't know how many Grays there were. They'd encountered only small groups so far.

There was a dead Gray just inside the doorway she'd received hostile fire from.

She went past the doorway across to the far side. She didn't draw any gunfire. Gail moved up to the other side of the doorway.

Camille looked at Gail in the light. She was filthy. She was covered from head to toe with dirt and dust which clung to her clothes. It was the stuff which wouldn't brush off.

Camille spoke with Gail in a low decibel level only another Terminator could hear.

"There's a Gray back twenty three feet, five feet off on your side of the doorway." Camille whispered. "He's wounded. I didn't spot any others."

Gail and Camille knew the Gray waited for them to enter the doorway before he'd opened fire. He was sure to shoot at least one of them if not both. If he knew they were Terminators or not was another issue. He'd seen Camille was female if nothing else.

"Let's open up on him from out here." Gail whispered.

Camille nodded. She wanted things over and to get back to Young Jesse.

They both stuck their M4 around the corner and fired blindly at the spot Cam indicated. Gail fired low at ankle level and Camille fired at lower abdomen height. They were most likely to score hits that way firing blind.

They heard a muffled cry of pain.

They changed magazines and hit the bolt release. Camille entered the room. The Gray was sprawled on the floor. The area where he'd been was chewed up.

She moved forward into the room. She left Gail at the doorway to watch their six.

"It's clear." Camille said. "The Gray's terminated. There's no one else."

They exited out from the room and went back the way they'd come.

Gail felt guilty about leaving Young Jesse.

"Jesse told me if I didn't go to assist you, she was going to go." Gail said.

Camille thought it sounded like Young Jesse. She'd also heard the exchange.

"She would have." Camille said. "One of the drones is with her."

It still didn't make Gail feel any better.

They stopped by the hangar area and checked on everything there. They saw 'Coltan Overcast' was in the hangar and active. It flew slowly around the hangar area. Camille started the forklift and drove it inside past the inner set of blast doors. Gail followed behind her as she scanned both sides of the room.

Camille noticed 'Cherry Bomb' setting in the middle of the room. She didn't see Young Jesse. She noticed the drum of cable over the shaft was spinning. It wasn't pulling cable up it was playing it out. The elevator was going down!

She drove the forklift past 'Cherry Bomb' and hopped off of it. She ran to the shaft and saw the outer doors of the elevator were propped open and the 'package' was gone. She leaded over and looked down the shaft. There was no sign of Young Jesse, the 'package' or the elevator car.

"No!" Camille said. "I need to go after her. I can't let any thing happen to her."

Gail thought Camille was about to jump and grab the cable as it played out. She looked at the spool of cable. It was almost played out.

"Wait." Gail said. "It's getting ready to stop."

Three seconds later the cable slowed and did stop.

Camille looked down the shaft one more time and went over to the direct line for communication Samantha and Hanna took with them.

"She better be on this line pretty soon." Camille said.

Gail wasn't sure if she'd be able to get to it.

The lights all flickered once.

"What was that?" Gail asked.

It happened again a few seconds later. It became intermittent afterwards.

"We're losing the power." Camille said. "The elevator is going to get stuck down there."


Young Jesse was on top of the elevator. She didn't know how far down it would go. She could feel a pressure change at one point.

There was a slight slowing sensation and the elevator stopped with a mild jolt.

She looked over the front of the elevator. She could see a set of outer doors with a gap of dim light between them. She was at the bottom.

She briefly wondered of there was more than one lower lever. The mine was several layers deep.

She heard what sounded like a gunshot and then an alarm. It seemed like things just got worse. It looked like she was on the right level anyway. She took a deep breath. Her life was most likely on a timer at this point. So be it. Skynet needed to be stopped.


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Wow!

7,000,000 (seven million) words in less than six years.

I hope everyone has enjoyed the ride.

If anyone has any questions, they can send me a PM (Private Message).

We can discuss any issues in the proper forum.

How far will the story go?

There are many more chapters to post.

I appreciate everyone who's taken time to read the story.

Thank you for your support.

Nobody

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