Title: Akin
Author: gega cai
Pairings: Derek Reese (centric)
Rating: PG
Warnings: Spoilers for S1 of TSCC Episode "Queen's Gambit" and on.
Summary: Young Derek Reese will do anything to survive and find his brother, Kyle, who he lost to the machines years ago.
Disclaimer: Characters and other likely inventive scenarios based on the world created by James Cameron, William Wisher Jr., and Josh Friedman.

Author's Note: Set in 2019. Next Chapter coming soon!

Akin
Chapter 2

Derek instinctively reached for his rifle when the barrel in his face lifted a few inches higher between his eyes. Derek raised his hands. If it were a machine, he'd be dead. Now the question was who was this person and who were they with? Why would they want to risk their lives --but Derek's thoughts were interrupted when the armed man's voice spoke from behind his pointed rifle.

"Stay still and stay low, kid." He lifted his rifle away from Derek's face as he stood against the unfolding scene behind him. Within minutes, the unknown men in gray-blue combat uniforms had rounded up all of Derek's companions. One by one they were lined up and pushed down to their knees as a dog was led around them. Derek understood: they were checking for metal among them.

"They're scavengers. This one says he's their leader, Sir," a female's voice called out. Derek looked up and saw her point at Rook. Dee had dropped her head. Apparently, Rook assumed the worse and claimed to be the leader. While Derek and his group were planted on their knees, weaponless, the uniformed group were working in groups around them: a couple were surveying a hand-made map of the camp, while several were hidden within some distance as lookouts. One man, who was probably the same age as Dee, approached Rook. The man appeared surprisingly fit. Derek could tell his hair was shaved short under his cap. His features were soft except for a few deep scars, one prominent down his jaw and neck. His uniform was a little different from the others. Instead of a jacket full of pocketed ammo, rations, and weapons, he wore a simple button up gray-blue shirt that was tucked into his cargo pants of the same color. Only his dark boots, leg guards, and a belt that carried his ammo and small handgun broke up the plain color. His shirt read a number on the flap of the breast pocket: CN-01585.

"On your feet," he demanded. Rook rose to his feet and stared straight ahead, ready for anything. "What is your name?"

"Rook," he answered.

"Rook, my name is Walsh. I am in command of this unit. I understand that you are here to survive. Unfortunately, we can not have you compromising our mission. We are here to free those people and destroy this camp. Either join our fight or get out of the way." Rook looked at the man dumbfounded but it was Derek that felt offended. These people must be out of their minds.

"How do you expect to free those people without getting them and yourselves killed?" Derek called out. Walsh turned to face Derek and smirked.

"The same as we've done before..."

"My name is Derek," he looked around at all of Walsh's men who were staring him down, waiting. "You've got a lot of nerve making us think you can just destroy a Skynet camp like it's nothing to go up against. Those people may be already dead in your eyes because they do what the machines tell them to do before they're next, but you can't put their lives in danger because you want to be a hero."

"Maybe not, Derek. But, there are those of use who refuse to let what is happening to all of us continue. Now, either you help us or leave. I'm sure something of this salvage yard may remain when we're all is done here. What difference does it make if you pick off from the dead of a few more that died fighting? One of you must know the camp well enough to squeeze in unseen. We could use your knowledge to get to where we need to go."

There was a long pause. Walsh and his men waited as Derek and his companions looked back and forth from each other. Finally, Dee spoke, "I'll join you. I've been here before." Derek felt something in the pit of his gut. He didn't know it at the time, but it was fear and gratitude. He already knew that he would join the fight. Knowing Dee would help them get through the camp gave him hope. Rook looked over at Derek and both nodded in agreement: They were both staying to fight.

"Good. You can all get up and get suited," Walsh pointed to the female soldier. "Follow her."

It was a short while later that Derek found himself carrying at least thirty pounds of ammo and weaponry. He felt ridiculous because the weight was almost impossible to carry. He decided to ignore his body's protest and pay attention to the woman, Simmons, explain their plan of attack. She explained how the extermination camps ran off of digitized machinery on specific schedules. If the inner system was compromised, a back up system would kick in and alert Skynet of a possible problem. The goal was to get to local command, offline the system, and in a series of remote charges, blow up the damn camp before more of Skynet arrived.

"What about the people?" Derek asked.

"Skynet allows them to sleep so that they can fulfill their task. When they're asleep, the machines and the system goes into, um, what they call sleep mode. It's still active but runs on less power. I guess it needs its sleep too. If the people listen carefully and follow orders, we can have them out of this damn place before the machines even know we've set up the charges. I've done this a few times and the only people that get killed, other than us, are the ones that assume we're machines taking them to the furnaces. It can get difficult and we make tough decisions so they do not compromise the mission."

"Tough decisions?" Dee asked.

"We let them stay behind and continue the mission as planned."

"You can't be serious?" Rook protested. Simmons dropped her head before explaining, "No one wants anyone to get hurt. But, to take a man, woman, or child against their will and have them scream for their life will endanger everyone in the camp. The machines will notice. Trust me, I give them the choice to stay or go with us. But, we don't tell them where or what we're doing. There are infiltrators among them. They're programmed to do as everyone else and follow the group. That's what the dogs are for. When everyone is out, the dogs let us know which ones are metal. At that point, things start to happen fast and you should be prepared for a surprise attack."

"Infiltrators? You mean those shitty rubber bots? You can spot those a mile away."

"You're right. But, we've done this enough times and the resistance has grown to allow Skynet to upgrade. We've lost a lot of good soldiers the past few months against these new models. We don't really know what they're capable of yet. It's just best to point and shoot at anything that starts killing us all."

"Simmons, are we ready? It's time," Walsh appeared.

"We're ready, Sir."