Chapter 553

Slip Inside

John was worried they were overextended everywhere. None of the operations were planned ahead of time. There was no backup plan.

"Beautiful…." John said.

Cameron ignored John. Cammy was outside one of the hangers. She wanted to know what she'd found so far.

"Cammy, what do you have?" Cameron asked.

Gail and Cammy were about to move around the end of the hanger. They already tried several doors and they were all locked. She peered around the corner of the hanger.

"Trouble…." Cammy said.

Cammy spotted a five man patrol that moved back inside the perimeter. They were headed for where they were at.

Gail thought they should use caution for now. Cammy looked like she wanted to attack. They needed to get Cameron out first before it turned into a firefight.

Cammy and Gail soundlessly moved back along the side of the hanger wall to the back of the building.

Some of the men complained that it was a hassle and a waste of time and effort to even go out on patrol. Nothing was ever there or happened anyway. They said that everything was always the same.

The squad leader told them to shut up or the 'Man' would be down on all of them.

The suggestion of the 'Man' brought a round of rude comments and name calling. That was only after they'd all looked around to make sure the 'Man' wasn't within earshot.

The Grays waited outside a door that Cammy checked only a few minutes ago. One of the men talked into a radio or walkie talkie. He looked irritated and frustrated.

"I can't reach Johnson." One man said.

"It's probably the cheap equipment these clowns keep giving us." The leader said. "Keep trying."

The men in the group began to look nervous.

"The 'Man' will come around here any minute." Someone said. "You know how upset he gets when someone messes up. They must get fired the same day because we never see them again."

Cammy and Gail listened and knew the men might not actually be Grays but they worked for them. They were collaborators by extension.

"I'm not waiting for the 'Man' to ream me." The leader said. "Let's go check their sector. This is probably a waste of time. I don't want the 'Man' on my rear end. That guy gives me the 'creeps'."

The five man team headed out towards the direction where Jesse and Savannah were. It was the same area that Gail and Cammy arrived from. They were aware that Jesse and Savannah engaged a five man patrol that was now only three strong.

Gail saw the Grays action for the threat that it was.

"Jesse and Savannah are in that direction." Gail said to Cammy. "That's the direction we came from."

Cameron was worried about Savannah and Jesse now. They needed to deal with a five man patrol already. Now there was another one headed their way.

"Gail, follow them out, watch out for the Terminator." Cameron said. "If you want Cammy to go as well, you may take her."

Gail appreciated the offer. She knew that they needed to back up Cameron as well.

"Thank You, Cameron." Gail said. "Cammy needs to back you up. I'll stay as well if you need me."

Cameron was worried more about Savannah and Jesse than she was herself. The mention of the Terminator bothered her. If the Grays expected him, he should have been there.

"Gail, Jesse and Savannah can use your assistance, go." Cameron said. "Keep an eye out for the Terminator."

Gail was really worried about Jesse and Savannah. They'd already needed to deal with one patrol and now another one was headed their way. So far they were the only ones making contact with the hostile forces. They only knew that two of the five were down so far. She would need to move clandestinely to avoid detection.

The three remaining men of the five man patrol moved around nosily in the brush. It was clear they no longer took the task seriously. It was routine to them and nothing more than a hassle and inconvenience to them. They neared the position of Jesse and Savannah.

"I think we can take them." Jesse whispered.

Savannah wanted to take them down. She'd been able to take the other two down because they'd lagged behind. That was just a few minutes ago. Their bodies were just off the trail the patrol followed.

"It is only a matter of time until they find the two that won't be returning with them or spot the SUV." Savannah whispered. "If there's one patrol, there'll be more. Stay alert."

Jesse silently nodded.

Savannah looked at the patrol's spacing. She wanted to draw them into an unobstructed field of fire.

"I'll lure them over so we can take them down." Savannah whispered. "I'll take the first one. You take the last one and then we both will hit the middle man."

Savannah selected something on her phone.

"Wait here, Jesse." Savannah whispered. "I'll be back."

Before Jesse could say anything, Savannah was soundlessly gone as if she'd never been there in the first place.

Jesse looked around; suddenly Savannah was back but a few feet off to her right. Savannah nodded at her. The bait was in place. Now it was time to draw the targets in.

The remaining three men of the patrol moved closer to Savannah and Jesse.

They heard a sound. The men paused for a moment and looked towards where the sound came from.

"What's that?" The first man asked.

"I don't know." The second man said.

"Listen." The third man said.

"It's over here." The first man said.

"It sound's like a – baby." The second man said.

"It must be some kind of animal." The third man said.

"If it's a small animal, its mother will be near." The second man said.

"Where's Johnson at?" The first man asked.

"You know that slacker." The third man said.

The 'crying' of the baby grew louder and louder.

"That's got to be a baby." The second man said.

"Out here?" The first man asked. "This is the middle of nowhere."

"Ramirez isn't around either." The third man said.

"Maybe that is one of them." The first man said. "They could be hurt."

"Let's check out that 'baby' and then we will look for the 'corn hole' clowns." The second man said.

Savannah and Jesse both raised their silenced pistols. The targets were about to enter the kill zone….

Sheila and Ally listened to the argument. It became more heated.

As they watched as a body 'flew' from the doorway and landed hard on the pavement.

They both backed up and made themselves a little lower.

In a flash a man came out of the doorway. It was a Terminator.

The Terminator advanced on the man struggling on the ground. He reached down and grabbed the man by the neck. He hoisted him into the air as he choked him. The man's left arm hung uselessly at his side. The man struggled to free himself with his right arm.

"Thank you, for your service." The Terminator said as he snapped his neck.

The Terminator looked around and carried the man away. He was headed for the 'bob tail' truck. Once the Terminator was blocked from their view by the big rig, Ally and Sheila dashed for the still open door. They reached it and looked in. There was activity happening deeper inside but not right there. They both slipped inside….

They wanted a closer look and they were about to get it. Sheila led the way. Ally looked back to make sure the Terminator hadn't spotted them.

Cameron checked to make sure she was alone. The Terminator would be a problem. Cammy and Gail were out there. Now there was more trouble headed for Jesse and Savannah. She'd told Gail to follow the patrol and take care of it. That meant none of that patrol would return.

She'd quickly looked in the other four trailers where she was earlier to see what was inside of them. Now she wanted to do a little more to the HK drones like she'd done in the trailer she arrived in.

Cameron opened the next closest trailer to the one the truck she'd arrived on was parked. She quickly moved down the row of drones inside of it to disable them. She checked the hanger again and then moved to the next truck. She repeated the process three more times….

All of the drones in backs of the trucks inside that hanger were soon disabled. She wanted to make sure if they could drive away with them at some point that the HK drones couldn't be 'contacted' or couldn't signal anyone. This would be a great boost to the air power of the Resistance. It would also make sure a 'threat' didn't arise behind her later on.

John listened to the reports as they arrived at the Command Center. What started out as a simple recon was now a multi-pronged attack that would soon involve all of their forces.

The reports didn't look good. Their people were strung out over a wide area and unable to reinforce each other.

"All of our people in the field are in danger." John said.

John Henry could see the operation was a little more involved and larger than normal. Everything seemed tied together so it would need to be dealt with at the same time.

"Everything is a risk." John Henry said.

John knew that but still there was more to it than that. Look at the scope of where they were now.

"How does a simple recon turn into a multi phased assault at three different locations?" John asked.

John Henry tilted his head slightly. He thought John overlooked the most active part of the operation. Jesse and Savannah were the ones that already took down two Grays and were about to take down three more. So far none of the Terminators actually killed anyone. Not yet anyway.

"It's actually four if you count Savannah and Jesse." John Henry said. "They're the ones in direct contact with the enemy."

John could have done without that reminder. He wondered why Bob wasn't with the girls. Savannah was with him earlier.

"Nice." John said. "Where's Bob at?"

John Henry checked the satellite map overlay.

"That's unknown, his com is off." John Henry said.

That didn't tell John anymore than he already knew.

"So either he's down or stalking Metal." John said.

John Henry would have like to have given a better answer. There wasn't one to give.

"Apparently…." John Henry said.

John wondered what would go wrong next.

"Beautiful." John said disgustedly. "Absolutely beautiful…."

Gail was worried about Jesse and Savannah. They were the only ones in contact with the enemy. Now there was a second group of five Grays headed in their direction.

She followed the men out. They opened a gate in the electric fence and left it open. It appeared that they expected to return very soon.

Gail wanted to avoid a shootout and alert the base. She decided to take the men one by one. She concentrated on what was in front of her, not what was behind her.

She moved up on 'tail end Charlie'. She walked right up behind him and snapped his neck. She held his dead body up and laid it in the bushes off to the side. She went after the fourth Gray.

Gail looked at the men. They never looked back too see what was behind them. They were careless. She didn't look back either. She had her targets zeroed right now.

There were only four left. She moved up and took the fourth man down. She snapped his neck. He was dead before he even knew he was in danger. He ended up in the bushes too.

She kept up her pursuit. No one threatens her Jesse….

Gail was afraid she might start to glitch, she was worried about Jesse.

She was afraid of the 'Day of Loss' being repeated….

The more Gail worried about what could happen, the more likely something would happen if she became careless. Maybe she was angry. The more she thought about what happened or almost happened to Duplicate Jesse the more unfocused she became. She just couldn't get the image of Duplicate Jesse as she turned away from her fight to come and assist her. Duplicate Jesse's love blinded her momentarily and she paid the price for that. Well, almost paid the price. Cameron fixed that whole mess.

She really wanted to terminate all of these Grays headed for Jesse and Savannah. They were all right in front of her.

Cammy peered around the corner of the hanger. She watched Gail follow the Gray patrol away from the hanger area. She wanted to move back to the door the men waited at but didn't enter. She hadn't noticed them enter any code or do anything other that get ready to open the door. Something else caught her eye. She saw the Terminator come around the corner. She dropped back real slow. According to the men he should have been there earlier. Where was he at? What did he do different?

He went to the door and saw it was still locked. He looked around and then went inside.

Cammy didn't like it. She quickly moved away from where she was at and headed towards the second hanger. She'd learned from Savannah not to trust what she couldn't see. It was a human thing to expect a different result from what looked like a sure thing.

The wall burst outward where she'd been standing seconds ago. The Terminator suddenly crashed through it. He would have grabbed her if she hadn't moved. It wasn't in his nature to expect something other that what he saw and knew was there. There was no reason for his target to move.

He looked around and acquired her new position. He headed toward her….

Cammy knew she was in for a fight.

Savannah set a trap into play for the three men. They'd literally walked right into it.

Jesse watched them act as Savannah predicted. They both held silenced pistols.

Savannah glanced at Jesse and nodded.

Their silenced pistols coughed six times. The three men fell.

Savannah moved quickly and fired once each, into their heads.

Jesse noted the finality to Savannah's actions. She didn't shoot the Grays. She killed them and then killed them again. She made sure they were dead.

Jesse was ready to move on.

"We need to get out of here." Jesse said.

Savannah quickly checked over the three dead Grays for any intel. She looked down at the direction the base was at.

"You can take the SUV and go." Savannah said.

Jesse wondered why Savannah would stay here. It didn't make sense to her.

"What about you?" Jesse asked. "We're done here."

Savannah was pretty sure the fighting hadn't even started yet. She may have drawn first blood but the base was a whole other issue.

"Cameron and Cammy are down there." Savannah said. "Let me have your extra magazines for your pistol."

Jesse could see Savannah wasn't going to leave. She was going to the base. There was no way she was going to leave without her.

"I can't let you go alone, love." Jesse said.

John picked up on their conversation. He wanted to make sure they understood the new danger.

"Gail's tracking another five man squad headed in your direction." John Henry reported. "They know the squad you took down didn't report back in. That was because John Henry blocked their communications."

Savannah wanted Jesse out of the danger area. She figured that Gail would bring down the squad.

"Go now." Savannah said. "I'll wait for Gail. I don't want the SUV disabled if any of them make it this far."

Savannah retrieved her phone. She looked at the image of the baby crying on it. She'd asked John Henry for that image and to have it looped.

Jesse didn't like Savannah out there alone or Gail for that matter. She wanted to help both of them.

"I want to help Gail and then we can all go together." Jesse said.

Savannah understood Jesse's need to assist her Metal lover. She felt the same way about Cameron and Cammy. The need for stealth may be past if a group of Gray expected trouble or at least that something was off. It was time to hit harder and decisively.

"Use your M4 if you need to." Savannah said. "No more chances for anyone."

Savannah gave Jesse back one magazine for her silenced pistol. She also retrieved a Taser for Jesse from the SUV. She already carried hers.

Jesse looked around in the darkness and at the three dead Grays.

"We don't even know where they'll come from." Jesse said.

Savannah thought of where she'd encountered the first two Grays she'd killed in the patrol. They were careless and didn't do their jobs.

"I'll bet they come right up the path." Savannah said. "They're usually lazy and sloppy. You can cover the path from behind that tree."

Jesse looked over the location. She was about to look for an additional one. Savannah took care of that for her.

Savannah picked out a secondary hiding spot for Jesse and a third one as well. If Jesse needed to move, she would know exactly where to go. She would also know the three spots Jesse could be.

"If you have a clear shot at two or more of them - take it. No hesitation. The first burst at chest height, the second one at ground level."

Jesse could see the killer instinct in Savannah. She knew she'd been to a couple of futures. It was clear Savannah was a stone cold killer.

"It's just like that?" Jesse asked.

Savannah didn't have time to think about it. It was just the way it was. There was a job to do so you just did it.

"Yes" Savannah said. "The more of this I do, the less I 'feel' and the 'easier' it becomes. Cameron told me it would be like this. She was right."

Jesse killed plenty. She didn't give quarter either. If she took someone alive, they wished soon enough they'd been killed outright.

"OK, love." Jesse said. "Let's show them how we do it in the Outback."

Slip Inside

Life is full of choices
There are many things to decide
There are very few people
In which one can confide

Some people are more able
They are willing to provide
They have skills and talents
Which may be usefully applied

Some people are brutal
They would rather chide
They make the other one
Want to run off and hide

No one wants to hear remarks
That are mean, cruel or snide
Too many of those insults
Makes one wish they'd died

Everyone needs to remember
That most people have pride
One doesn't have to be a bride
To let the other one slip inside

Nobody