Chapter 1560
Rock Wall
Young Allison and Anna followed the damaged HK drone's trek with one of their drones at high altitude.
John Henry and CamNet masked all their drones and any of their air operations from radar. There was a UH-1 inbound with six Terminators on board. They were ready to transport the trucks and other military equipment from the first and second building. Everything of value was almost loaded and ready to go. Bob's team and Al's team were hard at work.
CamNet kept Anna closely updated on the damaged HK drone's progress.
"The HK drone is losing altitude." Anna said.
Young Allison watched.
"Is it going to crash or land?" Young Allison asked.
It looked to Anna as if it might be a forced landing.
"That's hard to say right now." Anna said. "It's headed for a dry river bed. It's one of the shallow and wide ones with a dirt bottom."
Young Allison knew how the 'rivers' were in Southern California. They were just a trickle of water for about three hundred and forty days a year. When it did rain, they often filled up to the banks for a day or two and then subsided back down to nothing or a small trickle.
"If it stops by a bridge or where the road is near the bank, I think someone will come to retrieved it." Young Allison said. "If it crashes, I think it's down for good."
Their drone at altitude zoomed in on the stricken HK drone. It was right down on the deck now in the dry riverbed. It looked like it may have touched the ground at one point for a second. It slowed and stopped. It landed in a cloud of dust near a road that passed by the dry river bed at that point.
"It's down." Anna said.
Young Allison was a little concerned she may have damaged it too badly. It wouldn't deviate from it mission otherwise. She didn't want it near where their troops were. She'd hoped to track it back to where it originated from.
"That's unfortunate." Young Allison said.
Anna knew there were a few options open to them.
"We can send a crew out now after it." Anna said. "Ned and Wes can take the Blackhawk."
Young Allison wasn't so sure it was a good idea.
"What if it's what it wants us to do and it's 'playing possum'?" Young Allison asked. "It may be whoever is controlling it, wants to see if anyone comes for it. They may send more HK drones to attack our troops or try and follow us."
Anna didn't like the prospect.
"CamNet will send another drone so we can follow any vehicles or blanket the area with 'metal hail' and kill everyone involved." Anna said.
Hank and Larry left the tunnel system and went out into the open. Samantha secured the door behind them. They headed straight for the first building. There were already six trucks ready to go.
Al and Ed pulled out two more large military style trucks from inside.
They could hear a Huey rapidly approaching. The 'chop' of the air was always distinct from an Iroquois.
Bob and Jim already loaded three trucks and were about to pull a fourth one out of the building.
It was decided to send Michael and Richard over from the hanger in the third building. The two pilots from the UH-1 could drive the trucks they'd loaded inside the hanger. The girls would take the Iroquois when they left. It would be there waiting for them.
They could hear the UH-1 on its final approach.
Michael and Richard received word to head over to the second building. They could hear a drone approach.
'Cherry Bomb' flew into the hanger and landed between the trucks and the side of the hanger where it went into the hillside. Michael and Richard took off for the second building.
Ken and Lou flew the UH-1. They moved fast on a low approach. It was the helicopter they'd captured earlier in the night from the Grays. If anything was detected, it should look like the helicopter returned to where it was sent from.
'Coltan Overcast' flew out to where they were currently at. It picked them up five miles out. It now flew above and in back of them off to the side.
John Henry gave them a direct approach. They slowed and hovered three feet off of the ground near the first building. Steve, Tom, Dan and Frank all hopped out. Al assigned them each a truck. Ed started out with the first truck. He was followed by Hank and Larry. The rest of the trucks would be out within a minute.
Ken and Lou took back off and passed in front of the second building. They saw Michael and Richard just arrived there on foot. Bob assigned them each a truck.
Lou set down outside the hanger of the third building. 'Coltan Overcast' flew a circle around it once and gained altitude. It still was low as it began a close in patrol of the area around the third building.
Ken and Lou shut the UH-1 down and did a quick inspection of it. Everything looked good. They ran inside and hopped in the two trucks that were loaded and ready to go. They drove out of the hanger section and fell into line behind Bob, Jim, Richard and Michael. They were already out in front of them. They were all behind Al's team.
John Henry and Summer watched the drone footage.
"All of the trucks are away." John Henry said. "I'll have them split up into pairs once they are out of the immediate area."
Summer wanted to make sure they were covered with drone protection.
"There should be a drone for each set of trucks." Summer said. "We've taken a lot of equipment tonight."
John Henry checked with CamNet. He figured with Summer's 'suggestion' it would already be taken care of. It was.
"There's good drone coverage." John Henry said. "It leaves ten over the target area, plus 'Coltan Overcast' and 'Cherry Bomb'."
Summer knew Young Allison controlled two more of their drones to watch over the HK drone that was now down in the river bed. They needed to see what developed there. She was as worried as Young Allison was the HK drone wasn't as damaged as it seemed and waited to see who came for it.
The fact they didn't have contact with the girls was a little worrisome. They'd just received reports from Samantha, Hank and Larry all in the last five minutes. It seemed the operation was about to conclude. They appeared to at least be in the final stage.
Jim and Bob requested to hold at five miles out from the target area until they heard from the girls again.
John Henry told them they could do it. It was a good idea for right now.
Summer contacted CamNet and suggested Ned and Wes have the Blackhawk ready to go at a moments notice if it was needed to pick up any more of the Terminators who'd left the area in the trucks.
CamNet wanted to know if Jesse, Vanna and Allison should be put on alert duty.
Summer said she'd think about it. It wasn't her preference.
Earlier:
Samantha joined up with Young Jesse and Camille. They ran to catch up with Sheila, Ally and Gail. Thirty seconds later the team was together again. They headed for the spot where Ally left Cammy, Cam and Hanna.
Ally took the lead at this point. She'd traversed the area earlier. Everything was the same. A few minutes later they arrived at the chamber.
"Yellow." Ally called out.
"Canary." Hanna responded.
The girls entered the chamber.
Hanna worked on the HK Tracks. She had one almost ready to go. Sheila, Ally and Samantha helped her with the second one.
Young Jesse rushed over to the hoist and cautiously looked down the shaft into the darkness.
"How far down is it?" Young Jesse asked.
Hanna told them Cammy and Cam already headed down the cable to the bottom. She didn't know how far it was. They knew there were at least two Skynet Terminators down there.
There was no contact with either Cam or Cammy.
Young Jesse was very concerned.
"We need to go to them." Young Jesse said. "They may be in trouble."
Camille thought it was a bad idea for Young Jesse to go.
"No." Camille said.
Young Jesse wasn't dissuaded.
"What if the Grays used an EMP grenade against them or there's some electrical field down there that's out of control?" Young Jesse asked. "It's happened before."
Ally could see things were going to get out of hand. She left the second HK Track to Hanna, Sheila and Samantha.
"I'll go next." Ally said.
Camille looked at Young Jesse.
"Promise me you'll stay up here and I'll go with her." Camille said.
Young Jesse couldn't make the promise. She seriously doubted she would be able to keep it.
"If I need to go down there to get you out, I'm going to do it anyway." Young Jesse said. "I won't lie about it. I won't make a promise I don't intend to honor."
There was some 'clanking' sound. Hanna and Samantha each rode on the back of an HK Track out towards the front. They were going to leave one blocking each of the blast doors open. They would also serve as a communications relay.
Sheila joined the rest of the girls.
"Ally and I have this one." Sheila said. "Camille, Gail and you make sure we have a way out. Hanna and Samantha should be back soon."
Sheila pressed something into Young Jesse hand as she passed her.
Sheila and Ally started down on the cable.
Young Jesse turned away from the others and looked at what Sheila placed in her hand. It was her nipple rings! She rushed back to the shaft and looked down. Ally and Sheila were already out of sight. Sheila thought they weren't coming back! She hurried over to Gail. She touched the backpack nuke.
"Show me how to arm this device." Young Jesse said.
Camille came over as Gail took it off her back.
Gail went over the arming procedure with the timer.
"Show me how to manually detonate it." Young Jesse said.
Camille could see where things were headed.
"NO!" Camille said.
Young Jesse knew both Savannah and Young Allison were willing to do the same thing to protect each other.
"Don't make me guess and push the wrong thing before I need to." Young Jesse said. "Show me how to manually detonate it."
Gail looked at Camille.
Camille nodded once.
Gail explained the procedure to both of them.
Neither Gail nor Camille planed to have Young Jesse do it herself if they were still active and not shut down. It was clear Young Jesse took everything seriously.
Samantha and Hanna moved forward with the HK Tracks.
Hanna parked the HK Track at the outer blast door and activated the transmitter. The forklift was still in place on the other side.
Samantha left her HK Track at the inner blast door. The transmitter was activated. She followed behind Hanna on foot with her M4 ready.
They received a signal from John Henry. They all heard a transmission they could have done without.
"Don't make me guess and push the wrong thing before I need to." Young Jesse said. "Show me how to manually detonate it."
Hanna and Samantha hurried back into the interior to see what it was all about. John Henry quickly filled them in on what happened in the last few minutes. It looked like the trucks were all away.
Anna and Young Allison watched the sky and the roads around the area where the HK drone was down at. So far nothing showed any signs of movement.
"John Henry has communication with the girls again." Anna said.
They immediately heard a transmission they could have done without.
"Don't make me guess and push the wrong thing before I need to." Young Jesse said. "Show me how to manually detonate it."
Anna and Young Allison looked at each other. It sounded like bad news.
Young Allison knew where Young Jesse was at with a request like that.
"Get me a private line to Young Jesse." Young Allison said.
CamNet set it up immediately.
Summer was thrilled the communications were restored with the girls. She wasn't thrilled at what they heard.
"Don't make me guess and push the wrong thing before I need to." Young Jesse said. "Show me how to manually detonate it."
Summer looked at John Henry and contacted CamNet.
Maybe it was time for a temporal extraction.
"Don't make me guess and push the wrong thing before I need to." Young Jesse said. "Show me how to manually detonate it."
Gail looked at Camille.
"Everyone relax a little." Young Jesse said. "I just want to know how the device works and what to do in a worst case scenario."
Camille nodded once.
Gail explained the procedure to both of them.
Camille raised her M4 as they heard running footsteps. It was Samantha and Hanna.
The girls all watched how to operate the backpack nuke. Hank and Larry modified it some when they'd procured it. They'd explained everything to Gail when she took charge of it.
Everyone listened to the briefing.
Camille continued to try and make contact with the four Terminators who went down into 'The Hole'.
Earlier:
Cammy went down the cable in the center of the shaft. She was uncertain where the bottom actually was at.
She saw Cam was right behind her. The cable wasn't as greasy as it first appeared when they'd started down. It was a good thing.
Cammy tried to contact Hanna at top but couldn't reach her. She tried Cam right above her. There was no response. She wondered what it was all about.
Cam followed Cammy down the cable. She understood Cammy's 'need' to face Skynet. She felt it too. It was the 'Cameron' in them. Cameron wanted to personally destroy every Skynet herself and have Skynet know it was her who did it.
She tried to reach Cammy or Hanna but was unable to do so. She closed up the distance on Cammy. She didn't want to get separated from her.
Cammy could make out something below her. It was the roof of the elevator. It blocked any light that might escape from the lower level. It made her wonder if there were additional lower levels. It was a possibility.
She slowed and made contact with the roof of the elevator. She looked around the sides of it There was about a foot of empty space on each side. There wasn't enough room to pass along the sides of it, even if she took all of her gear off.
Cam joined Cammy on the roof of the elevator.
Cammy moved to a hatch on the top of the elevator roof and carefully opened it. Cam pointed her M4 into the opening as she did. It was dark inside the elevator. She held onto the sides of the hatch and quietly dropped down inside. Cam joined her a few seconds later.
"There's someone else on the cable now." Cam whispered. "I can't reach anyone."
Cammy thought it was just her that was cut off from everyone.
"I can't either." Cammy whispered. "It's why there's someone following us now."
Cammy moved over to the door of the elevator. She was surprise there wasn't any light visible. She expected at least some to bleed through.
"Open the door slightly." Cam whispered. "I'll cover you."
Cammy carefully pried the doors apart an inch. It was still total darkness. She shoved them the rest of the way open.
There was nothing but solid rock in front of them.
"What the Hell?" Cammy asked.
Ally and Sheila were both going down the cable. They were right on top of each other.
"I think I felt some movement." Ally said.
Sheila tried to be funny.
"That's probably the cable sliding tight between your legs." Sheila said. "Maybe you just 'got off'."
Ally thought about it. It would be a stimulating way to slide down the cable. If it wasn't so greasy, she'd try it. She looked up to see if it was what Sheila actually did.
"Quit fooling around and g…." Hanna started and stopped.
Sheila paused. She tried to reach Hanna again. There was nothing. Ally was still going down.
"Stop." Sheila said.
Ally stopped. She saw that Sheila was above her by twenty feet right now.
"What's wrong?" Ally asked.
"I just lost communications at this point." Sheila said.
Ally tried her com it was dead.
"Mine doesn't work either." Ally said.
Sheila was a little worried.
"There must be a Skynet jamming field in effect at the bottom of this shaft." Sheila said. "Stay there. Let me check something."
Sheila climbed back up ten feet. There was a crackle in her com. She went up five more feet.
"…an you hear me?" Hanna asked.
Sheila moved down a little again and lost Hanna. She moved back up.
"I can hear you now." Sheila said. "There's some kind of jamming field in effect that starts about five feet below me. It's why we can't contact Cam or Cammy. Ally's twenty feet below me. I can't contact her except by my voice."
John Henry was able to listen in.
"Have you tried a repeater?" John Henry asked.
Sheila tried one.
"It didn't work." Sheila said.
There was a pause.
"Maybe you should take some rope or a cable with you." John Henry said.
Sheila wondered what for. She was on a cable now.
"Do you think we'll have to hang someone?" Sheila asked.
There was another pause.
"It's so you can be pulled back up if you become incapacitated and fall off of the cable." John Henry said. "That way you won't impact the bottom of the shaft or the top of the elevator if you can't hold on."
Sheila didn't think she was so funny now. What if it happened to Cam and Cammy already?
"We're looking around for something up here now." Hanna said.
Samantha found several large spools of thick electrical wire. It was of a heavy gauge with multiple wires inside. She tested the strength. It would hold the weight of at least three Terminators before it broke.
They rigged up two of the wires and coiled them up to the distance Sheila told them she was down the shaft and Ally was at twenty feet lower.
"We're sending down two hundred feet of cable. The top of it is secured up here." Hanna said. "The rest is coiled so you can play it out. There's an additional coil attached to your roll for Cammy and Cam when you find them. After you have yours and it is secured we'll drop Ally's down."
The heavy gauge wire was dropped down and Ally and Sheila were secure. They continued down.
Hanna and Samantha decided they were going to follow them down in a short while if there was no further contact.
It would leave Gail, Camille and Young Jesse up top.
Camille and Gail were instructed by the Command Center to see what could be rigged up to communicate through the wire. The heavy wire casing actually consisted of a number of color coded wires inside of it.
Young Allison contacted Young Jesse directly.
"Hi, Jesse, it's Allison. I'm with Anna." Young Allison said. "Just listen. Only you can hear me. I know what you're thinking because I've been there myself. As long as we can get your accurate depth and location, we can send a temporal bubble for you."
Much to both of their surprise Summer joined the conversation from the Command Center.
"Hello, everyone." Summer said. "I hate to intrude. I'd already asked CamNet for a secure line as well. Because we have contact with Jesse's team right now, we know exactly where they're at from the position the HK Tracks were at when they were reprogrammed the last time. We can effectuate a temporal extraction at any point for them. If the energy bubble appears, anyone there needs to enter it."
Young Allison said what Young Jesse wanted to ask.
"What about the Terminators in 'The Hole'?" Young Allison asked.
"That's why we need them to get the cable hooked up." Summer said. "They should have enough around them to do it. We know where the shaft is at. We just need a direction and depth."
Hanna and Samantha found everything they needed. Gail and Camille secured their heavy gauge wires.
They were ready to go down.
Earlier:
Claire rolled over on top of John and kissed him deeply as she positioned herself. She let out a slight expression of joy as she found and received what she wanted. She broke the kiss and moved to a more upright position and 'went to work'.
John was always happy to go along for the ride.
He did wonder when Claire actually arrived there. It didn't really matter right now.
He was turned on to watch her rings bounce along with what they were attached to. Her movement was smooth and firm. He watched the expression on her face. Her eyes were closed and she bit her lower lip a little and let out a slight moan. Her breathing was heavy and just got heavier. He was sure she'd just made it again.
John watched as her skin moistened slightly. She'd began to perspire some as she heated up from the exertion.
He could see her breathing was labored.
"Let me have it." Claire gasped. "I want it now."
John was almost there anyway. It put him over the top. They finished together.
Claire all but collapsed down on top of him gently. She was firmly pressed against him. She managed to turn her head and open her eyes. She looked at John and kissed him soft slow and deep.
"I'm - moving - in…." Claire said with labored speech.
She rested her head next to his as her arms slid under him and pulled them even closer together.
John was sure at this point he needed a bigger room. All of the girls wanted to move in with him. The Metal girls all wanted more as well. He really should have listened to Cameron a long time ago when she first indicated what was 'available' to him. He was pretty sure 'Rosie' was retired forever at this point.