Chapter 879

History Repeats Itself

Sheila was unable to find anything of value or usefulness in the cab of the truck. From what paperwork she did find, it was evident the truck was stolen. They would have John Henry backtrack where it was stolen from and see if that turned up any additional leads. So far the initial report was that it was stolen from North Las Vegas three weeks ago. That information didn't tell them very much.

Cameron spoke of her plan to use the truck as a 'Trojan Horse' to gain unchallenged entry into the facility. They would try to get the two HK Tracks reprogrammed and use them to make the initial entry into the building from the loading dock.

It seemed like a good plan. The trouble was that they still didn't know what they would need to face or what was inside of the building. That information was all one big question mark.

John didn't want Cameron to rush anything. There was no need to do that, at least not yet. He was worried Cameron wouldn't listen to anyone. Then again Savannah was there and she seemed to be able to 'reach' Cameron. He was a little concerned about the minor spat that occurred between Cameron and him. She basically told him that if he didn't like her plan that she would just go in alone. He knew that wasn't a good idea. It seemed that she'd already done that enough times already. She didn't need to do it anymore.

"I don't like the way this is headed." John said.

John Henry thought the fact that there hadn't been any shooting so far was a good sign.

"It hasn't gone hot yet." John Henry said.

John thought that 'Yet' was the key word in that statement. He hoped Savannah's presence would be the 'voice of reason' for any suggestions that she made to Cameron.

"Savannah may have been able to get Cameron to reconsider." John said. "I think it should remain a team effort. I'm sure that Savannah will agree."

John Henry understood Savannah could be a moderating influence on Cameron. It still didn't change the fact that Cameron's instinct was to take the most direct route possible.

"'Terminator style' is to go in the front door." John Henry said. "It's in her programming."

John was aware that there wasn't a whole lot that he could do about that. He did want to try to give them every advantage possible. That would include trying to get someone inside to take a look around to let them know what they would face. They needed to do a few things first before they would be able to do that.

"Let's see if we can get a look inside or at least disable or loop the outside cameras." John said. "Then maybe Ally or Steve can take a peek. I don't like going in blind with an HK Track driving around inside of the building."

John Henry wasn't so sure but there was only one active HK Track inside. They usually operated in pairs to give each other mutual support. Based on the drone images that he looked at, he could see that the building was very large. That alone would seem to indicate that there is more than one HK Track roaming the aisles.

"There may be more than one active." John Henry said.

John looked a little more disgusted than he had a few seconds ago. The more that he heard, the more he understood that they didn't have any control over what was about to happen.

"That sounds like more good news." John said somewhat sarcastically. "It was just what I needed to hear."

John Henry's interpretation of the telephone conversation between a Gray inside of the warehouse and with Dan posing as one of the Grays with the truck, was that the Terminator affiliated with the warehouse wasn't at that location currently.

"It's possible the Terminator associated with this group isn't present." John Henry said. "The one Gray indicated they may be in Reno."

John was still a little wary about the telephone conversation. There's been a few times when the response seemed to be delayed a little more than it should have been. He wasn't sure they actually pulled it off with the phone conversation. If that were the case, it was bound to trigger a series of negative events associated with it.

"That might be a ploy too." John said. "Like Savannah said, they may have missed a key word or code word in the phone conversation. The Grays may be expecting an assault. The fact they tracked the truck shows they're paying attention to what's happening around them."

Based on that interpretation of events, John Henry was worried that there may be a little bit more in store for the team that was about to arrive than they'd anticipated.

"Then we must consider the possibility that whatever HK equipment they have there may be activated including any HK drones." John Henry said. "It's a very large building and could have dozens of pieces of HK equipment inside of it."

This was all information John would have rather not heard but he needed to because it was all relevant to what was about to happen. None of it appeared to benefit the team.

"You're just full of good news." John said.

John Henry thought John could be correct. There was little chance of changing Cameron's mind. Maybe Savannah could do it. Maybe Cameron could convince Savannah her plan was a good plan. There was no direct threat. The bottom line was that they still didn't know anything that was happening inside of the building nor exactly what they would need to face once they were in the building.

Ally waited for word to move ahead to approach the door on the south side with the loading bays. She needed the cameras taken down or looped first.

She wanted to get in there before anyone noticed that the door wasn't tightly closed. If they closed it and locked it, that would make entry even more dangerous. She figured it would be dangerous enough going in there in the first place.

It did make her wonder if she'd been detected at some point. Maybe the fact that the door wasn't closed tight was because they wanted her to enter the building in that specific location. They would know exactly where she was at once she entered. If they didn't try to take her down immediately, they might wait a few seconds to see if anyone else entered with her or behind her. It wasn't a pleasant thought.

She knew that none of it mattered. She still needed to get into the building so she could find out what the girls were going to face when they arrived. If there was going to be an ambush maybe it was better if she were the one to trigger it herself. That would spare a lot of grief and damage to the rest of the team.

Al knew they were going to try and use the box truck as a 'Trojan Horse'. He decided to go down and back up Ally or Steve at this point. He would reinforce whichever one looked like they might have the best chance of getting inside unobserved. He didn't want to be the one to blow the operation.

He was mindful there was at least one active HK Track inside. He still carried the LAW rocket. He only had one. There was a pretty good chance that if he needed to use that one, that he would probably need a few more as well. Either way he would still be able to 'reach out and touch someone' if it were necessary.

Steve finished his inspection of the side doors on the east side for the rail siding. It wasn't what he hoped to find. He wanted to give the entire building an inspection.

"The side doors are all secured from the inside." Steve reported. "I'm going to move completely around the back of the building on the north side before I join Ally. I don't want to go in front of any of the cameras on the south side."

John Henry was concerned about the large roll up door on the back of the building. Any type of HK could come out of the opening once the door was open.

"There is a large door on the north side." John Henry said. "Be mindful that an HK Track or even an HK Tread could come out of it."

Steve figured that might include an HK drone as well. He decided not to mention that because he figured they all knew that already. That would actually be the biggest threat to any of their team but not for long. He knew that they had a dozen drones in and around the immediate area.

"Affirmative…." Steve said. "I'll use caution."

Facing HK equipment of any type was nothing to look forward to.

He needed to use caution and not be the one to trigger anything or blow the operation. He knew that everything inside of the building was an unknown at this point. Because of the reflective paneling on the roof for the sun and the heat, none of their drones could get a good enough scan as to what any potential target areas of the building they needed to look for. Without any detailed scans for heat signatures, they didn't even know how many Grays were inside of the building.

Cameron still wanted to use the 'Trojan Horse' tactic. It seemed like a sound idea to her. If everything worked as planned, they should be able to back right up to the dock and the enemy should open the doors for them to 'walk in'.

Savannah was now in the back of the truck with Cameron as the box truck returned to the warehouse.

Frank drove with Dan in the front next to him. From a distance they would look like 'Smitty' and 'Tito'. Dan wore the red cap 'Tito' wore before his head met 'Smitty's' head with crushing force. Since the cap was red, it helped hide the fresh bloodstain on it.

Cammy and Sheila worked on reprogramming one HK Track, while Cameron and Gail worked on the other one. Since they had enough time to work on the HK Tracks, they would be able to fully reprogram them to Resistant standards.

Savannah was mindful of the time. She knew that everything needed to be ready before they backed up to the dock. They still didn't know what they would face once the back of the truck was opened. She still hoped that they would be able to get some better information before they arrived. It seemed very important to her.

"We're only five minutes out." Savannah said. "We still don't know what we're about to face. We need better intel before we attempt to enter."

Cameron was confident that they would be able to pull it off. It wouldn't be the first time they'd used a technique like this one.

"This will work, Savannah." Cameron said. "We've done this before."

Savannah didn't think past practice mattered that much in this case. Every situation was different. She didn't want them to be overconfident, at least until they knew more about what was inside of the building.

"That's the problem." Savannah said. "If they are 'on to' us, they might expect it."

Cameron understood that was always a possibility. It seemed to her that if the Grays in the warehouse thought that was the case, that they might take more drastic preventative action against their team first.

"I think they would send out a drone if they thought we were about to set them up." Cameron said.

Savannah was a little worried about that possibility. The drones didn't necessarily have to come from inside the building either. They knew that the group possessed them because they'd just captured two of them when they cleaned out the two boxcars earlier in the day.

"Let's check." Savannah said. "John Henry, what's the status in the sky?"

John Henry kept a careful watch of the sky around the target location.

"The sky is clear for twenty miles around your area." John Henry said.

Savannah did a quick calculation of what she knew to be the maximum drone speed. Twenty miles wasn't that big of a cushion in time to prepare for an aerial assault. She wanted a little more space and time available to the team.

"I'd like you to double the search area." Savannah said. "Better yet, increase the search to fifty miles, immediately."

John was more than a little nervous at this point. He was already weary about Cameron's plan. Savannah's concerns worried him even more.

"Is there something we don't know?" John asked.

Savannah wondered what exactly was it that they did know. It wasn't much.

"It's everything." Savannah said. "I don't like it."

Cameron instantly became alarmed.

"What do you feel, Savannah?" Cameron asked.

Cameron was aware that it was Savannah's ORDER that got all of them out of the 'day care' structure in time.

They would have stayed while one of them tried to disarm the bomb otherwise. Based on the timing of the explosion, there wouldn't have been sufficient time to disarm it. They would have all been severely damaged by the force of that explosion, if not outright destroyed. They all would have suffered debilitating massive sheath damage.

Cameron gave Savannah the power to 'order' all of the Terminators, including herself. Savannah possessed the power to 'order' John Henry and his server, as well as CamNet.

She knew Savannah was the most powerful individual on the planet with that ability. Savannah possessed the ability and the power to be able to order and control John Henry's server and CamNet to do whatever she wanted done. Since they were in every computer system around the world, there was a lot that they could do for Savannah. It didn't bother her one bit. She believed Savannah would always do the right thing.

She knew that Savannah would NEVER send her or any other Terminator to their certain destruction as John DID with her. How could John do that to her? She was aware her hand now started to glitch.

Cameron knew Savannah would re-body any Terminator that was destroyed with their back up program or protect them with 'temporal management'. Savannah already used that technique to prevent a vital part of her sheath from being permanently destroyed.

"…Cameron…?" Savannah asked.

Cameron blinked her eyes twice and looked at Savannah.

"What?" Cameron asked.

Savannah still questioned the plan. She saw Cameron's hand glitch a few times too.

"This isn't a good idea." Savannah said. "Are you having a 'problem'?"

Cameron blink her eyes twice again in rapid succession. She still saw the image of what she looked like after John sent her in to get Sarah out of jail. She didn't think there was anything wrong with her. Her thoughts were no different from the thoughts that normally haunted her. There was nothing new anyway. She felt fine.

"I don't think so." Cameron said. "I'm fine."

Savannah was a little worried about the short time table they were on. She felt that it mattered.

"We have about four minutes to get this right." Savannah said. "That's not much time to prepare, especially if everyone isn't functioning properly."

Savannah didn't like Cameron's plan being so rushed. They still needed more information. She was aware that they could only delay the arrival of the truck for so long before it was going to raise some type of alarm. They weren't going to have time for a second chance.

Kyle and Sarah were out of their room now. Kyle went to assist Derek. Sarah went to check on Jan. She was pleased to see Claire there with Summer. When Sarah first entered the room, she locked eyes with Claire. There was more than a passing moment between them with that stare. There was a hunger in each of them that was stirred. This wasn't the time or the place for anything like that. They were both there for their girls right now. The girls were what mattered.

Claire asked if Summer could spend the night with Jan. Sarah thought that was a good idea. She knew how much Jan and Summer liked to be around each other. Jan didn't interact with other children very much. It wasn't that she tried to isolate Jan. It was her experience with her attempts to give John a 'normal life' that made her very wary of what happened with Jan. When they tried to live a 'normal' life, it always seemed that bad things happened.

Summer and Jan would watch a movie before their bed time.

Claire took Sarah aside and wanted to ask her about 'everything'.

"I saw Savannah was almost shot in the face a short time ago." Claire said.

Sarah looked instantly concerned. That was news to her.

"Really?" Sarah asked. "Normally we don't get to see things like that."

Sarah wondered why that was shown to Claire. It must have been done for a reason. She would look into it.

"Savannah is the only one John and Cameron will allow out on combat operations other than Terminators." Sarah said.

That was troubling information to Claire. She didn't quite understand why it was like that. It didn't seem very fair to Savannah.

"Why?" Claire asked.

Sarah could only state the obvious answer to the question. She was sure there were other layers or dimensions to the actual reason.

"Savannah's the only one Cameron will listen to sometimes." Sarah said. "Savannah protects Cameron from needless damage."

Claire understood the reasons but she wondered if there were still other issues in play.

"That doesn't make any sense." Claire said. "Does Cameron still have a 'termination wish'? I thought she worked all that out."

Sarah believed that Cameron was more focused than ever on part of her original mission. It actually seemed to be more of a vendetta at this point.

"She's driven impulsively to eradicate all forms of Skynet." Sarah said. "It's become very personal to her. It's no longer her function or mission. It is personal to her as an 'individual'."

That was very troubling news to Claire. She'd heard stories previously about what Cameron believed that she became. Maybe it was another roundabout way of 'self termination' to prevent that.

"Is that because she thinks she will become Skynet?" Claire asked.

Sarah was always troubled by that thought. She could see how that would eat away at someone.

"I don't know." Sarah said. "I still go out on a recon every now and then but John and Cameron won't let any of the rest of us become involved with any planned combat."

Claire thought of her earlier request to Hanna. It was the request to take her daughter's place and fight the battles herself.

"So even if I was to receive full training, Cameron wouldn't allow me to fight alongside of her?" Claire asked.

Sarah knew that the Reese brothers were already trained Resistance fighters and Cameron didn't allow them or her to be anywhere near any combat.

"It's very doubtful." Sarah said.

Claire felt that she had a valid case for her desires.

"I want to take the risk so Allison – Young Allison and Summer won't have to." Claire said.

Sarah didn't believe that was something that could be stopped as far as Young Allison was concerned.

"I think it is a pretty good bet that Young Allison will join Cameron and Savannah, when she is a little older. I don't think Jan or Summer will. I really don't know." Sarah said. "If Judgment Day occurs, all bets are off."

Claire was aware the training still went on anyway.

"You still train Jan as well." Claire said.

Sarah was very worried about the future if Judgment Day occurred. It was the things that concerned her of a personal nature that worried her the most. They actually sickened and her when she thought about some of them.

"Yes." Sarah said. "If Kyle and I are killed, I don't want the same things to happen to Jan that happened to Jesse, Vanna and Alli…, I'm sorry."

Claire felt a sick feeling in her gut at the mention of those events. It saddened her greatly to remember what Allison told her one time.

"I know they were all assaulted. For some of them it was many times. For others it was only a few…." Claire said. "Allison apologized to me for those things. It wasn't her fault. I don't even know how they all cope with that."

The brutality and savagery of it all bothered Sarah. It really made her wonder what was wrong with some people. Why would they stoop so low? Why didn't females matter?

"Kyle told me it happened to all the females at some point. It was simply part of 'life'." Sarah said. "When some people think they are going to die they become animals, even some in the Resistance."

Claire wanted her daughter's protected.

"I want to move to the base." Claire said.

Sarah was actually surprised that hadn't happened years ago.

"I know you wanted that before." Sarah said.

Claire thought about it more than once.

"I'm not sure why it hasn't happened." Claire said.

Sarah thought there might be a 'trigger' to Cameron's plans.

"I'm willing to bet that once Young Allison is a little older it will." Sarah said.

Claire wondered if Allison and even herself were a factor in Cameron's decision. She expressed multiple times that she was willing 'to be with' John and produce offspring for John and Cameron.

"Is Cameron trying to protect the 'Natural Order'?" Claire asked. "Does she want Allison away from John until Young Allison is 'ready'?"

Sarah wasn't aware of the scope of Claire's offer to Cameron for the 'use' of her body for basically anything Cameron wanted it used for. She was aware that 'Allison' needed to be the 'right Allison'.

"It will be Young Allison once she's older." Sarah said. "She's the one that Cameron wants for John and Savannah. The 'Natural Order' is very important to Cameron."

Claire couldn't deny that statement based on her personal experience.

"I was there, Sarah. I saw it and I lived it for almost a year." Claire said. "It was the four of them. Future Allison and Future Savannah were lovers before they were involved with Future John and Duplicate Cameron. Look at Vanna and Allison. They were together in the other future. I think history repeats itself."

Sarah could see that there was some beauty in that. She didn't think it was anything negative.

"It seems to have a way of doing that." Sarah said.

Claire told Sarah that Jesse and Vanna both now could help Riley nurse Precious.

"I noticed that they were both 'bigger'." Sarah said. "I thought something 'else' was in the works. I know Allison is pregnant again, she is still a long way off."

Claire looked away from Sarah.

"Oh no." Sarah said. "Is Allison still…."

Claire was worried about Allison. Things just didn't seem to work out for her.

"She is but she's not doing well." Claire said. "I don't even know how many times this is anymore. It was too painful to keep track of all the failures."

Sarah knew that all the girls from the future experienced reproductive problems. It seemed to be one area where Skynet was more successful with its 'attacks' on humans.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know." Sarah said. "I know Riley was touch and go."

Claire knew that she was a backup for Allison through Cameron's actions. Everything was still under wraps. Cameron explained to her that the baby she carried could still be needed elsewhere. That's why no one was to know she was pregnant with Allison's baby.

"I don't know what will happen with Allison." Claire said. "I do know that Cameron will make sure it happens for Allison, one way or another."

"Where are you sleeping tonight?" Sarah asked.

Claire hadn't made any definite plans yet. She knew what she would like to do.

"I'm not sure yet." Claire said. "Maybe one of the girls will be free. If not, Hanna still has a room here, even though she doesn't use it anymore."

Sarah could see why Claire was popular among the girls. They all wanted to spend time with her. She was very pretty. Rumor said she was very driven and passionate in bed. She thought about it as she looked at Claire, if she was still unattached, she would want to be with Claire too….

"...about, Sarah?" Claire asked.

Sarah let her mind drift and answered what she thought was the correct answer.

"The girls are doing fine here." Sarah said.

Claire was confused by Sarah's answer.

"What?" Claire asked.

Sarah decided to redirect the subject.

"I hear them working on Derek and Riley's room. I've needed to fabricate a few things in my life. Maybe we should give them some advice or pointers on the construction." Sarah said. "I'm sure we could offer some 'tips' on what they're doing."

Claire wasn't so sure about that.

"Nobody likes a nag." Claire said.

Sarah shrugged her shoulders.

"That sounds like even more reason to put our two cents worth in." Sarah said.

Claire and Sarah both laughed.

History Repeats Itself

Anyone can stumble and error
It's easy to make a few mistakes
It depends what happens next
If they hit the gas or the brakes

What's the new trajectory
Where will it ultimately lead
Will it do anything more
Than make another's heart bleed

It's inevitable that sooner or later
It will all blow up and be exposed
Are the feelings really new ones
Or just the old ones superimposed

When it all starts to fall apart
Everyone claims they'll change
They could have done that already
Doesn't the lack of that seem strange

Some are given another chance
It's always still about themself
Will it really surprise anyone
When history repeats itself

Nobody