Chapter 702

I Just Do

Sheila gave Cam an M4 and her vest.

Cam went after the Terminator that climbed into the HK Tread.

Sheila went after the Terminator who headed towards the loading dock. She closed in on him. He was out of Taser range. He started to fire the M249 towards the loading dock.

She immediately opened up on him with her M4. It seemed to take him by surprise that there was someone behind him and shooting at him. The Coltan rounds from her M4 tore into him. He instantly spun around to fire on her. She'd become his immediate threat, not the carnage that was happening out on the loading dock.

Sheila got off one more burst before she needed to duck behind some machinery. Bullets ripped into metal and ricocheted all around her. She didn't look forward to any more cosmetic damage to her sheath since her cheek had been sliced open. She really wished she would've had more time to 'work' on that Bitch who cut her..

"You better not mess up my sheath." Sheila muttered.

She heard more firing and peeked around the machine. The Terminator was taking hits. Others on her team joined in. He turned to face them. They were now the new threat.

She saw that he was distracted. She pulled her Taser and ran forward. She fired at him and scored. He took the juice and went down.

Sheila touched her cheek and found additional metal exposed. She wasn't happy about that. She moved to the Terminator and pulled his chip. She went back in search of Cam. She was very displeased that her face took so much damage today. She'd been damaged before but not usually on her face. She really hoped to take another Grey prisoner now. Someone was going to have to 'pay' for this.

Dan's team moved through the building from the office area. They took down Grays as they advanced. His team met up with Ed's team who came from the direction of the loading dock area. That was the main force of the Resistance Terminators. They'd arrived in their own version of a Trojan Horse. It was one of the Skynet box trucks that was captured and now full of Resistance Terminators in the back. The Grays opened the doors to the building and they literally walked right in as they killed the Grays.

Steve and Ally joined them. They'd come from the direction of the east side of the building where the rail siding was located. They now compromised a force that had cleared the north, west and east sides of the building. That only left the south side to deal with.

Ally felt that she possessed an overall picture of the interior of the building based on Cam's previous descriptions. She knew Cam needed their help.

"Cam reports two HK Treads are in the southwest corner." Ally said. "Dan, have your team sweep everything back to the rail car loading area in case we missed anything. Ed, bring your team and follow Steve and me. We need to help Cam. We can't let one of those HK Treads go active."

Ally was unaware of the new damage Sheila received. They knew there was still at least one Terminator out there and he was in an HK Tread. That was bad news for everyone.

Seconds ago:

Al shut down the HK Track assembly line. He saw Sheila fire at a Terminator. He saw Sheila take heavy fire on her location from the M249 the Terminator carried. He opened fire on the Terminator drew his attention. The Terminator turned and fired on him. He saw Sheila rush forward and Taser him. She pulled his chip and then headed back in the direction Cam reported the HK Treads.

Al decided to remain where he was and double check to make sure everyone was down for good. He also needed to make sure every HK Track was offline.

Frank checked the office area and found nothing else. He heard two loud reports during their assault that came from outside. He looked out the window and the two guards that were on patrol were laying there, both of their heads were mostly missing. He went outside and drug them inside the building.

"Thanks, Frank." Jim said over his com. "I took them down from across the street."

Jim and Kyle we're in a firing position across the street from the old newspaper plant. It was their job to cover the north and west side of the building. They were to eliminate any threats that attempted to enter the building. That's what they'd just done.

In the Command Center they were soon aware there was a new disturbing development at the old newspaper facility. It was a problem they'd encountered before. Their communications were cut. They lost contact with everyone around the old newspaper plant.

"We've just lost communications in the target area." John Henry said. "Everything is down."

John thought about it and what Cam just reported.

"That was soon after Cam reported finding HK Treads." John said.

John was glad they made plans for everyone before the assault started. There were plans and backup plans. He knew their Terminators would follow them and prevail.

"They all know what to do." John Henry said. "They should have the HK Treads disabled soon."

John envisioned one HK Tread alone wrecking the entire building.

"I hope so. Those things can do a lot of damage." John said.

John hoped Cam played it safe as she took down the HK Treads. He knew she would have help soon. He was painfully aware she was in grave danger facing two HK Treads alone.

Young Allison and Allison were together in the Young bunker monitoring the operation at the old newspaper plant and the old steel mill.

Allison was able to follow everything fairly well until suddenly there was nothing on her screens. She wondered if it was a malfunction of some type. She didn't know what to do so she immediately alerted Young Allison.

"I just lost everything at the newspaper plant." Allison said. "There's no audio or visual anymore. Everything is gone."

Young Allison knew what the problem was because they'd dealt with it before more than once.

"It's the Skynet jamming field we've encountered in the past." Young Allison said. "CamNet will try to blast through it. She will try to overload whatever is doing it."

Young Allison was aware that normally when they'd experienced the Skynet jamming field they had drones in the air that could stay outside of its effect and look down and see what was happening from off to the sides. Everyone was inside of the building right now and there were no drones in the air. They really we're deaf and blind right now. One thing was for sure though, they certainly weren't dumb. There was a plan and a backup plan and she knew that all the Terminators would follow it.

Allison could see that there was nothing that she could do right now. She thought that she would check on the others during this time and make sure that everybody was doing OK.

"Let me check on mom and the girls real quick." Allison said. "Everything I was watching is out for now."

Young Allison didn't want any of them to worry. She knew that her mom and Jan were the two that would most likely be worried. She knew that Summer wouldn't be.

"Tell them to stay calm, everything is under control." Young Allison said. "I don't want any of them to worry."

Allison was pleased to be a part of this operation. It wasn't something that she normally did. She wondered if maybe she should do a little bit more.

"I'm on it." Allison said and left.

Young Allison looked to make sure Allison was away and couldn't see her. She used a touch screen to draw a small heart shaped 'smiley face'. One just like it appeared on the other side.

Young Allison felt a little lonely without Anna by her side. She wanted to 'reach out' to CamNet. CamNet previously reached out to her in this manner. It was a way for them to have a form of 'personal contact'. They could both feel that simple act drew them closer together.

CamNet reached back to Young Allison.

They both disappeared when Allison returned.

Young Allison knew she shouldn't do this during the operation but she just felt a 'need' to do so from inside of her. It helped reassure her that everything was normal or as normal as it could be. She missed Anna and was worried about her. When CamNet 'touched' her back, it made her feel better.

Allison sat down back at her station. She looked at Young Allison for a few moments and then turned away without saying anything.

Young Allison wondered if Allison may have actually seen what occurred. She certainly wasn't going to ask her.

The diversion Cameron wanted to happen happened. It was right on schedule in the correct area. She would have expected no less from Cammy - 'herself'.

The loud CHOP – CHOP – CHOP of the UH-1 grew even louder on the west side of the old steel mill. All eyes would be in that direction as Cammy slowly came over the hill and made a lazy circle before continuing along on her way back to the airport. She didn't pass over the old mill but kept to the western perimeter. The Iroquois was painted for a fire fighting service so it should seem as if they were on patrol. By not overflying the old mill, it shouldn't make anyone suspicious. The distinctive sound of the Iroquois alone would draw everyone's attention.

Cameron and Anna were ready to move when the diversion occurred. They low crawled under the fence where runoff water previously eroded away the dirt in one area. Cameron pulled up on the bottom of the fence a little to give Anna more room.

As soon as Anna was through, she held it up some for Cameron. They made it to the first building before the chopper completed its lazy circle. There was no alarm.

Cameron was sure they weren't spotted.

That didn't mean that they weren't spotted and a response was being put together currently. Time would tell soon enough.

Right now Cameron and Anna were in.

Cam knew she needed to hurry. Once the HK Tread became active it could level the entire building. If both of the HK Treads became active, they were really screwed. From what she could see, both of them were armed and ready to enter the fight. They were normally programmed to work in conjunction with each other for a more effective response against the enemy. Right now she was the enemy that the Terminator spotted who went into one of the HK Treads.

She ran and reached the HK Tread the Terminator entered. She fished in her satchel for the 'sticky shocker' and stuck it on the side of the HK Tread. It just started to move. It abruptly came to a halt.

She knew the Terminator would try to figure out what went wrong with it. If he couldn't get it operational, he would exit it and fight on foot. Cam moved around the back of the HK Tread to fire on the Terminator when he got out.

Much as Cam feared, the other HK Tread began to power up. She didn't have any idea if anyone was inside of it or if its autonomous control was activated by the first one.

Sheila was still upset about the new damage to her face. She could hear the HK Tread go through its startup procedure. She ran to where Cam was at. She thought that Cam would have better cover by using the HK Tread that she'd disabled as a 'shield'.

"Stay behind the one where you are now." Sheila said as ran towards her.

The HK Tread lurched and started to roll. The treads made a loud clanking noise.

The HK Tread and its weapons turned toward Sheila. She was moving towards it and was determined to be the threat by the HK Tread.

"Not this again." Sheila said. "I'm really starting to get angry."

Sheila knew that one of the miniguns would be able to chew her up pretty good. She hoped to avoid that. The last thing she wanted was to lose a breast or both of them. She realized that it could be even worse if it was her secret spot.

Cam saw that Sheila was going to get lit up. She decided to act. She fired her M4 at the HK Tread. She tried to draw its attention and fire. Since she was the one actually shooting at it, it should see her as the bigger threat right now and try to engage her. The HK Tread she was behind would absorb most of the punishment. She figured she might be damaged anyway.

She was about to change magazines when the door on the HK Tread that she'd disabled earlier opened and the Terminator emerged. She dropped her M4 and tried to grab her Taser. He grabbed her and the Taser went flying. She twisted and broke free but he tripped her. She hit the ground and rolled back around. Her Glock was in her hand as she fired at him.

Sheila continued her run and was able to get in close before the HK Tread could re-target her after focusing on Cam. The emerging Terminator disrupted its shot. She was glad nothing else was damaged, at least not yet anyway.

There was still one active HK Tread to deal with as well as the Terminator that engaged Cam.

Cameron and Anna appear to have successfully breached the perimeter of the old steel mill. No alarm was sounded that they were aware of.

Cameron moved around the side of the first building. There were no windows at ground level. The doors were padlocked.

Anna moved to kick the door in.

Cameron and Anna were supposed to be on a recon mission right now. She wanted to remain undetected as long as possible.

"Wait." Cameron said.

Cameron pulled out a small screwdriver and rapidly unscrewed the latch.

Anna looked at the tool. She was a little surprised to see it.

"Is that something that you normally carry?" Anna asked.

Cameron looked at Anna and flashed her sly smile.

"I took this from the station we just left when I looked around." Cameron said.

They opened the door and the large building was empty, they retreated.

Cameron quickly put the screws back in the latch. She wanted to explain herself to Anna

"I did this in case they have a roving patrol." Cameron said.

Anna tilted her head slightly.

"They didn't before." Anna said.

CamNet piped in a new feed. The Grays just found the dead guard. It was the guard that Cameron killed earlier when she was with Savannah.

"They will now." Cameron said.

Everything for them just got twice as hard.

The Coltan rounds impacted into the Terminator's face as Cam emptied her magazine. She rolled away from that position and scrambled to her feet to use the HK Tread as a shield from the other HK Tread. She still expected it to fire on her. It only hesitated because the other hostile Terminator was in the way. That was no longer the case.

Sheila climbed onto the back of the other HK Tread as it spun around. She took out her 'sticky shocker' and activated it. She jumped away from it as she did.

The mini gun just became active but abruptly stopped as did all movement of the HK Tread. The heavy electrical charge did its job, for now.

Sheila looked over at Cam and she'd retrieved her Taser and fired. The Terminator was already down. She wanted to make sure he stayed that way.

Cam saw where Sheila was at and didn't want her to get jumped if a Terminator emerged from inside the other HK Tread.

"There may be another Terminator in that HK Tread, Sheila." Cam called.

Sheila drew her Taser and backed away from the door.

Cam removed the Terminator's chip and came to flank Sheila.

Al arrived a few seconds later.

Cam felt that they had the two HK Treads under control and the other Terminator, if there was one. There was one area she hadn't been able to inspect yet. She wanted Al to do that.

"We have this, Al." Cam said. "Make a sweep back to the rail cars. I didn't check over there yet from back here."

There could still be more Grays or Terminators moving in the area she hadn't checked yet. There could also be more items that they could appropriate and use for the Resistance there as well.

John and John Henry we're a little worried in the Command Center about the previous loss of communications.

In an instant, everything was back online.

"We have communications again." John Henry said.

John wanted a situation report immediately. A lot could have happened during the time the jamming field was in effect.

"Check in with everyone and see where anyone is needed. See if anyone is badly damaged." John said. "Cam, what's your situation?"

"Both HK Treads are disabled and currently being 'shocked'. Sheila took down one Terminator and the Terminator from inside the one HK Tread is disabled and deactivated. We don't know about the other HK Tread. It could have been on autonomous control in conjunction with the first one or there could still be a Terminator or even a Gray inside of it."

Sheila wanted to make it clear that she received assistance to bring down the Terminator she'd deactivated.

"I took down the other Terminator with a lot of help from Al." Sheila said. "We need to get this tin can open."

Ally and Steve arrived. They could both see that Sheila received additional damage.

"I've got this." Steve said. "Ally, attend to Sheila."

Sheila was a little worried about her appearance right now. She tried to downplay it. She'd viewed video files of what the sheath looked like on her chassis before it was repaired when it was originally captured. It was a total mess.

"It's just a few scratches, love." Sheila said. "I was a lot worse before my chassis received this HOT sheath."

Ally could see that Sheila didn't want to make a big deal about herself right now. She pulled out a Thermite grenade.

"Let's burn them out." Ally said.

Cam only saw the two Terminators. One of them was the one she saw earlier by the rail cars. She never saw anyone else go near the other HK Tread. It was possible that there was somebody already inside of it. They needed to find out one way or the other.

"I'm not sure anyone is in that thing." Cam said.

Sheila reached up and touched her face. She wanted some revenge.

"I hope they are." Sheila said. "I really want to say 'Hello'."

Sheila was itching for some payback for both of the injuries she'd received today. She really hoped they took a Gray prisoner somewhere. It would be even better if it was a female. She reached up and touched the stitches in her cheek. She wanted to finish what she'd started on the other one, the armless female. She'd planned to add another 'pearl' to her collection. She only kept the ones that were taken from a live 'donor'. She tried to think back where the knife came from that slashed her cheek open. She never saw it until she was cut. Her attention was focused elsewhere on the female at the time. She wasn't inaccurate when she told Ally that she'd been inattentive. Next time she'd make sure that the 'donor' was a little more incapacitated before the procedure. She figured a few broken bones would do it.

Allison turned her attention where Cameron and Anna were at since all of her monitors were blank that dealt with the old newspaper plant. That all changed in an instant. All of the screens flashed once and dozens of images reappeared.

"Everything is back online." Allison said.

Young Allison was worried about what the damage report was going to be. In a big battle, some of the Terminators always took damage. What mattered was the severity of it.

"Check everyone's position and make sure everyone is accounted for." Young Allison said. "I want to know if any of our Terminators are down."

Allison tried to remember where everybody was at. She'd lost her concentration during the lull.

"I lost track of everything." Allison said.

Young Allison named off all the Terminators and where they last were at when she'd looked at the screen before everything was lost earlier.

Allison was incredibly impressed that Young Allison was able to do that.

"How do you remember all that?" Allison asked.

Young Allison didn't think that she was gifted. She thought it was the result of all of her hard work and training.

"I just do." Young Allison said. "I've studied and trained very hard at all of this. I try my hardest at everything."

"Yes, you do." Allison said.

Allison was able to give her a situation report and damage report. It looked like that operation was done with the combat phase. It appeared they were ready to switch to the recovery phase and see what they could confiscate for the Resistance.

Young Allison thanked her for the update. She'd actually done one herself quietly and wanted to see how it compared to the one that Allison gave her.

"Thank you." Young Allison said.

Allison wondered how Cameron and Anna were doing. The last she remembered about that operation was Cameron thought that there would be a roving patrol out looking for them since the dead guard was found from the outpost up on the side of the mountain.

"What about Cameron's operation?" Allison asked.

Young Allison thought it would have been better if it was darker.

"It is just getting started." Young Allison said. "I wish it were later."

Allison looked at the images on the monitor.

"It's not." Allison said.

Young Allison knew that little deterred Cameron from achieving her objective.

"Then Cameron will do what she does best – terminate." Young Allison said. "The operation may already be blown and the fighting will start soon."

Allison wondered when the rest of the Terminators would assist them.

"It's just Cameron and Anna still?" Allison asked. "Who else is there to help them?"

"Nobody…." Young Allison said.

I'll Know

If I do something I shouldn't
And I don't let anything show
There is still someone who will know
I'll know

We can lie to ourselves
Pretend and make believe
Always in the end
Only ourselves we deceive

We can live with honor
Or be plagued with guilt
Destroying any trust or credibility
That may have been built

Greed, lust and lechery allow
Targets of opportunity to arise
Anyone can get hungry
First try to think what is wise

It's time to come clean
I know where you go
If you don't
I'll know

Nobody