Ch 4
Everything had been done that they could do. John kept telling himself this as they watched the early morning sun raise up over massive dark clouds that were attempting to put it out. It was seven AM, and the bombs had fallen until 3 AM. He got word that one generator on the river was on line, the other would be finished by the end of the day. He also go a phone call from Catherine Weaver. She wanted to verify the line was working and let him know the Serrano point nuclear power station was hit. They were operating on the emergency generators.
John immediately dispatched his team that had helped him convert petrol engines to hydrogen, and send the three unused electrolysis units with them to convert Weaver's generators before they ran out of fuel.
Cameron was on her way to the mountain lookout to get ready to launch the drones.
At nine, word came in from the road watches that they had all survived and were covered up in anti-radiation clothing. A few cars had gone east, but nothing was going west as of yet.
John went down to the assembly area to see the hundred men gearing up, Derek moved through the ranks, ensuring everyone had their gear. John got up on the table in the front of the room. "If I may have your attention," he announced.
Upon noticing him an 'Attention!" was called. Everyone snapped upright.
"I wish I had a rousing speech like General Patton, or like the President in Independence Day. All I have is the truth," John told them. "Soon, you are going out to fight an enemy worse than anything man has ever seen before. You are doing it for the survival of the human race. Man lives or dies depending upon our success. Last night, we got hit with nuclear weapons. Many of them. The air outside is hot with radiation, ensure you have your protection on. The sky is dark with radioactive clouds, and to say it looks bleak, is an understatement."
John paused briefly then added, "I have heard courage is the lack of fear. That's bullshit. Only a fool would go into battle and not feel fear on some level. Courage is not the lack of fear. What courage is, is engaging the enemy, taking fire and doing your BEST to destroy the enemy even though you are quivering in fear and shitting yourself. Using that adrenalin to push on and keep going, despite pissing yourself and screaming out your terror! Yes, you are going out onto the most dismal battlefield anyone has ever conceived of. If you can conquer your fear and turn it against the enemy, then you win! Humanity wins!"
John looked at the faces of his men and said, "You can do it. Listen to your officers, follow your training and believe in them, and yourselves. When the time comes, turn your fear against the enemy, turn it into courage. I know you can do it. Good luck men, Humanity is counting on you."
It was dead silent as John stepped down, then fists raised and cheering sounded.
.
Cameron launched a drone, a single engine remote control plane. Looking down on the landscape, she noted smoke and flame covered the cities she flew over. Skirting the cities, she found groups tending to each other and masses of people fleeing. Flying head of them, she also found roads blocked and men set up behind the barriers, pointing guns in the direction people were coming from. A car approached the barrier, they shot until it went off the road and crashed. She dove down from above, aiming right behind the men who stood in a line. That picture went out as the drone crashed and released it's 3 pounds of C-4. She got another drone in the air.
Flying high, she went right to the outskirts and found another line of men shooting down people trying to flee. This plane only had two pounds of explosives when it crashed right behind them.
A third plane in the air, and Cameron checked the first two sites. At one, around the blackened circle on the road, a few wounded men were desperately fighting the mob who came at their sides, throwing rocks and whatever weapons they could pick up. Flying over the other site, all the men were dead, survivors from the city had their guns and were moving on.
Cameron launched her last two planes as the third went north over the highway. To one side of the road full of cars that were stopped, she noted a fuel truck was surrounded by a group bearing guns. They were siphoning fuel out to fill up the tank of their 4 wheel drive that the roof had been cut off and had armor on it's sides. She dove her third plane straight down into that vehicle.
The last two planes, she found a small convoy on a secondary road. One box truck, lead and followed by hastily armored vehicles. Men were all around the vehicles, watching to the sides. She dove one plane down on the box truck. Keeping the other high in the air, she watch it hit.
The explosion was tremendous. The truck disappeared in the fireball as men flew away to the sides. The vehicle in front flipped over, on fire, the one behind was pushed back, loosing it's hood. Once the big ball of flame rose into a small mushroom cloud, she scanned the scene below. If not dead, every man was wounded, on the ground. She flew her last plane away, she wasn't going to waste it on few wounded men.
Being close to flying out of range, Cameron flew her plane back, watching roads for any more roadblocks or armed men shooting at people. She did see something on the road, headed for a city. T-400's marched in a line of ten. She wasn't sure how many she could take out, but dove at the center of the line to get as many as possible.
Cameron wished she had more drones.
.
"General!" Derek yelled down the hall. "A long line of terminators spotted, marching west on 66. The will pass a few miles in front of us!"
"John came out and asked, "How far away?"
"Four miles and closing."
John though about the topography and said, "Wait until they pass, the follow them from a distance. Use the .50 cal's on them, they aren't worth salvaging. Only send half your men after them. The other half, move to the highway."
"We're on it!"
The phone in his office rang. John jogged back to answer it. 'Connor." he said.
"John, I got two roadblocks, a truckload of Grays stealing fuel, one of their ammo trucks, and dropped the last drone on a line of T-400's heading for a city. I don't know for sure the damage I did to the T-400's," Cameron explained.
"T-400's aren't the smartest," John reminded her. "Even if you didn't disable all of them, I am sure they stopped to search for where the attack came from. Your attacks will give some people time to get away, you did good, sweetie."
"We need more drones," Cameron said.
"We don't have any more," John said sympathetically. "Bring the control units back, we may be able to rig something up."
"On my way." *click*
John grinned as he put the phone back on the hook. Cameron was in terminator mode.
.
Cameron had stopped at the Way Point station to phone John and let him know her status. Heading for the door, she saw a mob outside. They were not yelling, but grumbling. Upon seeing Cameron come out, one woman yelled, "Hey we want to go home!"
Cameron asked, "Where do you live?"
North end of LA, Brewster street."
"It's not there any more,' Cameron stated. "Los Angeles, Pasadena, every city has been hit with nuclear weapons. The Serrano nuclear plant is gone. Outside, the air is radioactive and so are the thick, dark clouds that contain nuclear fallout. Your neighbors are dead, your homes have been blown apart, the remains are on fire. I just came from a mountain top lookout post and saw it. There are fires and thick smoke for as far as you can see. Forest fires have also been lit off from these explosions. There is nothing left on the surface. There is no place for you to go, so I am asking you all to cooperate. Our survival now depends upon us. This is your life now. Get used to it." She then left at a jog to return to the bunker.
.
John watched the T-400's troop by on a surveillance camera. Seeing the last of the line, he pointed and said, "A triple eight, or 800."
"800," Derek said, beside him also watching the camera. "800's are ticker than the triple eights. It's probably there to guide the 400's. We need to take that out first."
John nodded absently. "I counted thirty. If you can tazer that 800 and shoot down all the 400's at the same time, you'll have a short fight. I imagine the other force Sky Net send is similar."
"Yeah. That is if the 400's will go down first shot," Derek replied in a mussing tone.
"If possible, tazer the 800 first and get it's chip pulled. That will make the rest of the fight a little easier," John told him.
"If we can."
"I should be going with you" John said.
"No," Derek said immediately. "You're the General, John. Besides, if something happens to you, I don't want to be running from Cameron for the rest of my life. I figure give them a mile head start, then sneak up on them once they deploy."
"Make sure they don't see you until you want them to," John told him.
Derek nodded then went over to his Lieutenants. "All right, get the men up here, we're on. Remind them, no noise. Let's go!"
At the main entrance doors, John had an 'airlock' set up a the top of the stairs with a small air cleaning unit inside. Derek's 'highway' group packed in first. The inner dooor with view ports was shut and the outer door ws opened. After the men ran out, the last man shut the outer door. The air cleaner ws turned on. John watched the surveillance camera as the men crept out towards the road, made sure the Sky Net forces were gone, then jogged across the road and moved due south.
After ten minutes of the air cleaner running, the inner door was opened and the ret of Derek's men got in.
John was nervous. Even though the odds were with them with surprise and pure numbers from what he could see, he still agonized over what could happen out there. Even a flesh wound had the potential to be deadly in a radioactive environment.
After the attack platoons left, the drivers and the support team left to get in their trucks. One went down the road, slow. The other left cross country, each with two SUV's behind it.
Marching feet came up the corridor. Cameron appeared in full battle gear, sporting a .50 cal machinegun. With he was the ten man of the guard force who were toting rifles and grenade launchers.
"We're ready, John," Cameron said flatly. "I left the remote controllers in your office."
Seeing Cameron was ready to fight, John said, "You go out only if we see more Sky Net troops coming down the road. No need to contaminate anyone we don't need to."
"Agreed." she said simply.
Yup, she was in terminator mode. Stiff and to the point.
.
Derek and his men walked quickly intil the point man crouched and raised his fist. The men stopped and knelt. Derek hunched over and ran up to the front of the pack. The point man came back. Pointing, he said, "We've caught up with them, about a mile ahead. The shorter, silver one is in the back."
"Count?"
"It's looks like they are all there, Sir."
"Continue point. Take a good look around. When you can't see them any more, wave us on. We move at a walk."
"Right, sir," the man said and crept back up to his position.
Derek and his men followed the terminators for another six miles. The point man gain knelt and put his fist up. He waved once in a 'come here' motion. Derek went up to him in a couch.
"What do you got?" he asked.
"They stopped below the next rise, it looks like they are spreading out."
Derek crept forward until he could see over the hump. Up ahead about 70 yards away, the terminators had spread out ten feet apart. The 800 stood on the road. Whoever came over that knoll was going to get hammered. The 800 was also too far away to use a tazer. The range of those things was 40 yard at best. Derek backed up back below the top and motioned his men forward and to stay low. They crept up and gathered around him.
Speaking softly, Derek asked, "Can everyone hear me?" They all nodded and moved a bit closer. "The 800, the silver one is the one we want to disable. They hear very, very well. They will hear breathing if you're close enough. I need a volunteer to creep up behind it to within 30 yards and tazer it. Everyone else will set to shoot, but no one fires until I do. So, who's my volunteer?"
One man raised his hand. "I'll do it." It was Randal, a 18 year old from John's school.
Derek nodded. "Leave your rifle. That thing will pick up any noise, so go slow and as quiet as you possibly can. Do not make any noise until you fire that tazer, then hurry and get it's chip out. Everyone else, make a line at the top, quietly and just high enough that you can see them. Pick the target straight ahead of you and wait, finger on the trigger. You hear me shoot, open up on them. No noise until then. Deploy."
Derek crawled back up and got the 800 in his sights, square on the back if it's head.
Randal laid his rifle down and slowly crept over the top on his hands and knees. It was an agonizing wait as Randal slowly crept on towards the 800. Derek could feel sweat running down hi face. He blinked to get sweat out of his eyes. In the dim day, it looked like show was beginning to fall. It wasn't snow, Derek knew, but radioactive fallout. Breathe it in, and you were a dead man. Roll in it, and you were a dead man. Even walking in could be lethal, and not fast either. He'd seen too many loose their hair, their teeth and bleed for no reason until they either choke to death on their on blood, or died slowly as their body fell apart.
Randal made 20 yards and stopped. The sound of an engine coming froze everyone. It wasn't smooth, but chugged, like a cylinder was bad. Randal moved on a little faster in his crawl. Derek's mind cried for him to keep it slow, just because there was another noise, didn't mean the 800 couldn't hear him. They were capable of separating incoming noises. The 800 lifted it's gun, the 400's got ready to shoot.
"Easy," Derek whispered as loud as he dared, praying no one would shoot.
A dark car topped the knoll and the terminators opened up on it, shattering the windows, ripping up the hood and flattening the tires. Randal jumped up and took a few running steps and aimed his tazer. He shot as the 800 turned. Derek had a bead on the 800's right eye and shot the same time the 800 did. Randal flew back, the terminator's head recoiled back. Everyone opened fire.
Slower, the 400's turned as bullets slammed into them. Derek shot again as the terminator's head came upright and showing a red right eye. He shot again, and again as the terminator's head recoiled, aiming for the chin. This time the terminator fell.
The 400's were jerking and falling. His men kept up fire until they were all down. All was eerily quiet after barrage of gunfire. Even the fallout drifted silently down.
Loudly, Derek got up and announced, "Forward, keep your aim on them!"
They moved forward, rifles up. Derek didn't check Randal, by the blood on the round, he knew the kid was dead. He stayed locked on the 800. It was still, the right eye was flickering. Derek pulled out his knife and popped the chip cover and removed the CPU the light in the eye went dark. The CPU was intact. His last shot had gotten under it's armor and hit the power cord.
"Randal? Randal!" another man cried.
"He's dead!" Derek stated loudly. "Everyone, look! Look at him!" Derek announced pointing at Randal. "THAT is what happens when you don't follow orders! He did well, right up until he decided to stand up and run at that terminator. THAT sealed his fate! He panicked. He saw the car being blown apart and he tried to rush in. THAT killed him. Nothing we could do would have saved those people in that car. That's how it goes sometimes. By panicking, he got himself killed. DO NOT forget what you saw here. STAY calm and focused, NO MATTER WHAT! Your life will depend on it, and possible the lives of many of your fellow soldiers." Pointing to a man, he said, "You, go get the truck. Everyone, check each other to be sure your clothes aren't ripped."
As they were doing what he told them, Derek went up to the car now on the side, hot water leaking out of the radiator. Inside, the head of the blond who'd been driving was pillowed on the collapsed air bag, staring sightlessly at him. She was covered in her own blood. Beside her a young girl lay on the seat, also with many bullet holes in her.
It was a god-damned shame.
.
Trevor was leading is men towards the highway when an explosion lit the air in a fireball. They all immediately dropped and looked around them.
"LT?" a man asked.
"Stay alert," Trevor told him a he watched the sky. He heard a jet, then saw a streak of light shoot up. Another explosion about two miles away. This time he watched the wreckage fall. "We got air action. Keep moving," he told them.
They got up and continued their advance, watching all around them. From ahead and to the right, rapid gunfire sounded.
"Is that these terminators killing people?" a man asked.
Trevor pointed strait ahead. "Keep moving on our path, we need to get behind them," he announced.
There was a far off scream and another short run of gunfire that silenced it. The troop moved into a jog. Up ahead was the road. "Close up, and slow down," Trevor told them. Most listened.
'Three!" a man yelled pointing. Trevor saw a shiny form and a taller dark one. "Down!" He yelled. Machine gun fire came their way. As they dove into the dirt and light dust, bullets ripped though them. A man screamed, then another.
"Medic!" a man cried out.
The nearest medic was back with the truck. Having been discovered, Trevor announced, "Stay low, find cover and shoot back!" A still form of one of his men was not far away. Trevor crawled over to him, He was dead, but he was cover. Trevor put his rifle on the body and aimed. Being dark, it was hard to see long distance. He saw the flashes of shots, and aimed at the spot to fire off four rounds. His men were firing back. No one had any idea if they were hitting anything.
"Zek's dead!" someone cried.
More fire came in, his time from five different sets of flashes. Trevor put another few rounds onto the spot he saw the flashes from. He thought he saw something fall.
The fire was heavy from both sides. An RPG went shooting off into the distance. Something blew up. In the flash, Trevor saw a form coming at him. He shot two rounds at it then his gun clicked. Empty.
He reloaded and took aim again. This time it was a silver, skeletal figure with red eyes. Trevor shot round after round, The form staggered but kept coming and returned fire.
Trevor felt his shoulder explode in pain, then of all things, his ass. Jerking from the sudden pain, he lifted above his cover and was peppered with rounds from the 800. He didn't live long enough to se the RPG round slam into the 800 and spread it's parts over the field.
.
The first convoy back brought good news. Once they had gone through decontamination in the airlock, and clogged the air cleaner, Derek cam in and told John, we got the 800 and all his buddies and only lost one man. The chip is intact."
"Good job, Derek," John said and shook his hand. "Let's get your guys back in here."
"The one who died, Randal, he's soaked with radiation bad," Derek told John. "He volunteered to sneak up on the 800, but panicked at the last moment and ran at it. I tried to take it down before it shot him, didn't make it."
"You did damn good getting the rest back alive, Derek. I'll make a commendation for him. We'll have to bury him outside," John said. He didn't like it but they could not chance a funeral inside with a contaminated body. "Has he got any relatives here?"
"A pregnant girlfriend."
"Shit!"
"Want me to tell her?" Derek asked.
John shook his head. "My job. See to your men, and get that terminator on it's way to Weaver."
Instead of six men in the air lock at a time, John reduced it to two at a time. The dust was still fresh, so air blew it easily off., and the filters didn't get plugged. The last six carried the T-800 in. After decontamination, the 800 was wrapped up and carried down to the tunnel entrance. Cameron volunteered to take it. She hoisted it over her shoulder and took it down to put in on a trailer, the went back up to get the other one when it came.
.
The second convoy to return had a far different result. 9 dead, 6 more wounded and they'd blown up the 800 to keep it from killing everyone. Captain Trevor was one of the casualties.
This decontamination went much differently. The healthy men tried to bring the wounded straight in. John refused. A pair of men in anti-radiation clothing were in the air lock and had to strip off the men's torn clothes and wash them down. It was a lengthy process. Two of the wounded died, and were left outside. The disheartened remaining troops, John had gathered with himself and Derek for a debriefing.
The sergeant who wasn't killed, explained what happened. A few other helped fill in the details. In short, they were loud, they did not approach carefully, and the explosions had alerted the terminators.
John rubbed his face. Derek was more vocal. "This mission depended upon stealth and surprise. You had neither. Frankly, you got lucky so many of you survived as did. So you know, the two wounded survivors are probably not going to make it. The radiation was heavy out there, and it got into their wounds. Once it's inside you, your chances to live become very slim. Sargent …. Baker, is it?"
"Yes, sir."
"You are now Lt. Baker. You did pick up all the guns, correct?"
"Yes, Sir, we gathered everything except for the bigger terminators. We brought the smaller silver one's pieces back as ordered. We pulled the chip and kept in with the head." Baker explained.
"Good job. I'll go tell the quartermaster you'll be getting a room up in the command passage. All you men, go get something to eat and rest. You earned it."
"I have to ask, Sir, what could have we done differently?' Baker asked.
John took this time to speak up. "Derek's men took out the same number of terminators and only lost one man. How he did that was to follow orders. He kept his men quiet, no talking, hand signals only. He snuck up behind the terminators, and only the panic of one soldier got himself killed. Terminators can hear and see much farther than us humans can.
When the explosions happened in the air, that alerted the terminators there was danger, so they began looking for it, and found you. At the first explosion, you should have gone to ground and verified if they were in sight, and which way they were looking. Send a single scout if necessary. What you do not do, is charge in not knowing where your enemy is, or what his attention is on."
"We screwed up bad," Baker concluded.
"I won't argue that," John told him. "Men died because of mistakes. I am hoping the rest of you will learn from those mistakes and they will not be repeated. Sky Net will find out that someone is around here now, so we will need to be even more careful. Keep that in mind."
The repeater for the sound power phone announced, "Hill top lookout here. People coming up the road from the west. One overloaded pickup truck."
John picked up his receiver and said, "This is John Connor, Captain Grammer, get some men outside and guide those people here."
"Armory guard here Sir, Captain Grammer is on his way to the main entrance."
"Entrance guard here, two men suiting up to retrieve the survivors."
"At least some are getting through" John said. "That's all men, go take a rest." He then got the list of those who dies and had to go see their family members to explain. The worst was going to be Kacey.
.
Claire was passing out the daily food rations to people near the Way Point station when she heard Cameron yell in a rough tone. "Everyone! Come look at this! Come on, you ask why you are down here, I will give you a perfect example!"
Claire, along with many others looked to see Cameron standing by the road. On the road was a golf cart and trailer. On a large flat rock were to metal skeletons. Well, one whole skeleton and pieces of another. Cameron was pacing back and forth as she yelled out to the people gathering around her.
"You see these? They are T-800 terminators!" she yelled, flinging an arm at them. "They were killing civilians. That is their job, to kill people like YOU. They are dead now, it took 14 men dying to get these two! Four-teen!" She screamed, "Gave their lives so you would not be killed by these things! If they ever got in here they would slaughter everyone! They have no emotion, they do not bargain or accept surrender, they do not sleep, all they do is track down people to kill! By staying here with our soldiers to keep them out, you remain safe. Now, I want to hear from ANYONE, how horrible it is to be stuck here. Come on, tell me how you want to go back to your homes that have been incinerated by nuclear weapons, to face these things." Walking in a circle, Cameron asked, "Come on, tell me NOW how badly you're being treated!"
Claire saw Cameron was upset. She paced like a caged tiger, glaring at the crowd. "ANYONE!" she yelled.
Claire made her way down to where Cameron was openly challenging anyone to dare speak up. No one was, they were staring at the terminators. She slipped through the last of the crowd to face an angry Cameron.
"Thank you," Claire said loud enough for others to hear. "Thank you for protecting us." She the stepped up and hugged Cameron.
Cameron let out a sniffle as she hugged Claire back.
Claire then addressed the crowd as Cameron clung to her. "You selfish assholes!" Claire barked. "This woman and the ones with her have done nothing but their very best to ensure you ungrateful louts get to stay alive and safe when millions outside are dying. She has literally given her LIFE to help everyone she can! While you have been bumbling along, going to your parties, vacations and activities, care free, she has worked her ass of doing nothing but making sure we can survive!" Seeing Sarah Connor watching them, she pointed to her and said, "Sarah also, has done everything possible to save us, and humanity. What did she get? Ridicule and abuse! Get this people! We are alive, possibly the last people alive for hundreds of miles around. The next person who bitches about being down here, where those metal monsters can't find us, I will slap the living SHIT out of!"
Cameron pulled back. Blank faced she said, "Thank you for supporting me."
"What are mothers for?" Claire asked with a smile.
Cameron's jaw dropped open. "Claire, I'm not Allison. I am a terminator. Inside I look like those things."
Claire cupped her cheeks and said, "You are in there, somewhere. Otherwise, you would be acting like those things. You would not be working so hard for others, you wouldn't have a boyfriend. You called me once, begging for help. I will not deny you again."
"I'm Cameron, not…"
"Cameron is a fine name," Claire said, interrupting her. With a grin she added, "It will also help keep you separated in my mind from baby Allison. Don't you worry about the riff-raff down here. We can handle them. Go do what you have to do, then go spend some time with John. OK?"
Sarah came down and said, "Cameron, go on, get those things where you have to go. Claire is right, you need to take a break."
Cameron looked at Sarah, then Claire. She nodded and went over to the terminators.
Claire and Sarah watched Cameron put the pieces into the trailer, then picked up the whole one and dumped it on. She then climbed onto the cart and drove away. The people in front of her wisely stepped quickly aside.
Stepping closer, Sarah asked Claire, "You do know Cameron is a terminator also, don't you?"
Claire eyed her. "She may be one, but Cameron is special. If you can't see that, I feel sorry for you," she replied.
.
Driving down though the next cavern and into the tunnel towards the train station, Cameron suddenly burst out in tears. She had no idea why, but she could not stop crying, or get the sight of Claire holding Allison out of her head. She cried most of the way to the train platform.