CH 24

They found it. Allison squatted beside the second story widows of an office building, staying out of sight with Larisa and Lenora as the Sargent radioed in the position of the factory they discovered down the side street. Three blocks down, Allison could see the lights from here. Now that the rain had let up, she could make out much of the building and the former parking lot that now was filled with machines being readied to leave.

Hearing a rumble coming from down the street, Allison peeked up to see the pair of Heavy H/K tanks rolling their way. She pointed. The Sargent looked and reported they had arrived.

Watching the tanks roll towards them, Allison got a strange feeling. She looked up into the sky where this feeling was coming from. High above, a powerful presence was coming down fast. The last time she'd felt anything like this, was when she'd met Lucy. By the feel though, this was not Lucy. It was something different.

Allison go up and looked out the window and watched a huge shape come straight down on the rear tank. With the weather, all she could tell was it was alive and had wings and four paws it used to drive the tank partway into the ground. The tank squashed down from the impact. The building she was in shook from the resulting earthquake. As the building shook, cracks appeared in the walls and pieces of ceiling came down.

The women soldiers screamed.

Across the open area of the floor they were on, Allison could see windows. She wrapped a mind arm around her three patrol mates and vaulted for the windows, fearing the building was going to collapse. Racing for the windows, larger pieces of ceiling fell. Allison smashed a hole in the wall and dragged her three patrol members with her outside.

The building she'd just left was collapsing, as was the one she was facing. Ground level wasn't safe. Shooting four Arms down to push herself and her patrol members in the air, she waited until the swaying and rumbling buildings collapsed before she lowered them to the ground.

It was then she saw the second tank tumbling through the air in an arc at the factory. The giant beast was flying after it.

Standing atop of a chunk of rubble, Allison motioned for her patrol mates to stay down. She didn't know what that beast was, but concluded it was helping Sky Net since it had destroyed the tanks her mother had sent. Allison shot after it, using her propeller arms for extra speed. It was then she saw H/K's in the air over her. She so wanted to deal with that beast but didn't want H/K's shooting at her from above. Allison turned skyward to battle the H/K's.

The H/K's noticed her, and soon she was in a dog fight with them. She smashed two, then another four came at her. As she was fighting them, she heard rumblings and explosions on the ground. The last pair tried to avoid her to head for the factory. She was faster and took them both out. She finally got a good look at the factory.

The factory building looked like it was smashed in by a giant hammer. There were fires in the rubble and the few machines left were being attacked by the beast. Confused, she didn't know what was going on. First it destroyed her mother's tanks, then it attacked Sky Net? Seeing a large spider machine come up behind the beast, she flew fast and low to slice the legs off one side of it. She grabbed two of the legs on the other side and picked it up to slam it down hard onto the mass of wrecked machines. The thing sparked, twitched and lay still.

Landing not far away from the giant beast that was eyeing her, she yelled, "Who's side are you on?"

The beast raised an eyebrow at her. "Where's your mother?" it asked in a deep resonant voice.

"Answer my question first," Allison yelled, "Who's side are you on?"

The beast let out a snort. "Since I just destroyed these machines, who's side do you THINK I'm on?" it asked in a growl.

"I don't know since you also destroyed my mother's tanks before they could attack this factory, and you almost killed three humans while doing so! I saved them from YOUR recklessness!" Allison fired back.

The rain was beginning to irritate her, so Allison blocked it with a shield over her head.

"I see," the beast mulled in it's deep tone. "Your mother is Lucy."

"Lucy is not my mother, she's a friend of my mother, you big DUMMY!" Allison snapped. "And what does that have to do with why you tried to kill people and ruined our tanks?"

"You are in involved with Sky Net?" it asked in warning.

"HOW STUPID ARE YOU?" Allison raged. "I JUST TOLD YOU, my mother programmed those tanks to get rid of this factory! We had it all planned out, then you come and bust things up at random, trying to get more people killed!"

"Little girls should mind their manners," the beast growled.

"And BIG DUMMIES should let people who KNOW what they are doing take care of things like this, NOT come and screw it up!" Allison retorted.

"Where's your mother!" the beast barked.

"I'm not telling you, you ... over-grown hound dog!"

The beast roared and grabbed at her. It was fast, but Allison's mind was faster. She shifted her shield and instead of grabbing her, his swiping paw knocked her away. Allison shot herself into the air.

"GO AWAY BEFORE I HURT YOU!" she screamed, then flew off to see how her patrol mates were doing.

Flying to the last place she'd seen them, she noted they had started picking their way through the rubble. She landed in front of them, put a rain shield over them then tossed pieces of building to the sides so they could walk on even ground.

The Sargent beamed Allison a smile of relief, as did Lenore and Larisa. They didn't go far when Allison noted the beast above them.

"What's up with that thing?" Allison said in frustration as she tossed pieces of building out of their way. The beast landed in front of them, making the ground tremble. All three of her patrol mates raised their guns at it in fear. Quickly, Allison turned to them and waved for them to lower their weapons. She then spun back to face the creature.

"What is your name, child?" the beast asked.

Seeing he was right in their path, Allison wailed, "Why don't you go away and leave us alone?"

"I want to know who sent a child out into battle," the beast stated.

"I did!" Allison stated, pointing at herself. "Dad didn't like the idea, and Mom only agreed because she was coming with me. What business is it of yours, anyway?"

"Such a small child as yourself should not be fighting battles!"

"Guess what, you giant bulldog! I'm the only one who CAN destroy Sky Net!" Allison snapped back.

"You should be at home, in school!"

Her anger building, Allison yelled, "I was in school, you ... mutated moron! Guess what? Sky Net destroyed my school and killed many of my friends! It killed all of Byron's family and if I hadn't stopped it then, many more people would have died just like here!" Panting and red-eyed from her building rage, tears came to Allison's eyes as she wailed, "People are dying all around me because of Sky Net, the ones who survived are hurt and their lives ruined. I'm NOT going to stand by and watch everyone else die! I will destroy Sky Net, so either help me, fight me, or better yet, just GET OUT OF MY WAY!"

"You don't want to kill me?" the beast asked.

"I don't even know you, except that you're a big dummy who ... who's messing things up for us, so MOVE!" Allison yelled, then continued throwing debris out of the way so her patrol could keep going. She swore if that thing didn't move, she was going to throw it out of the way too!

The beast backed up. As it did, it used it's huge front paws to clear the street of large debris. Allison followed, wondering why it was helping her now. She puzzled on this for a block, then remembered this thing wanted to see her mother, and it sounded angry asking about her. Right, Allison was not going to let this thing anywhere near her mother.

Allison deliberately took a wrong turn after they were clear of the the debris. The Sargent got her attention and motioned in the right direction to get back to their vehicles. She motioned to his radio. He gave it to her.

Allison keyed the radio. "Hey, Mom? This is Allison. We got some giant winged dog following us. It's unpredictable. I'm going to lead it away from us."

"Allison, keep your radio keyed and ask it's name."

Allison did. "Hey, dog-thing! My name is Allison, what's yours?" she yelled up at it.

Frowning at her, it said, "My name is Apollo, and I am a gargoyle, not a dog thing!" he said indignantly.

"Did you get that, Mom?" Allison asked.

"Allison, give the radio back to the Sargent. Lead Apollo away for the time it takes your team to return, then get back here as fast as you can move. Do not let Apollo follow you."

Allison handed the Sargent the radio back and walk towards the Apollo dog. To cover what she was going to do, she told him, "My team has to go eat. Come on, there's something I want to show you."

"Lead on," Apollo said with a hint of amusement in his voice.

Holding her rain shield over her head, Allison strode on with Apollo following. She mentally kept track of where she was as she headed south for the large lake.

"Who are your parents?" Apollo asked.

Allison mussed and said, "I'm an orphan."

"Didn't you just talk to your mother?"

Darn, he heard that! "Ahh, yeah. My ... foster mother." she said, correcting herself.

"You did mention your father not wanting you to come here," Apollo reminded her.

"My foster Dad." Allison said firmly.

"Right," Apollo said. "So, where were you born?"

"I don't know, I was a baby then. I don't remember."

Apollo barked out a laugh. "Fine, where did you grow up?"

"Why do you care?" Allison asked, getting irritated at him.

"I'm just curious where your patents met Lucy. You DO know Lucy is a homicidal maniac," Apollo offered.

Allison spun and glared at him. "She is not! I met Lucy. Yeah, she's strong and a little strange, but she's never done anything bad to us! She offered me chance to go to school!"

"Of course, she's your mother," Apollo said, watching her closely.

"She is not! Mom and Dad explained that to me! Lucy is only a doner so Mom could have me!" Allison shot back.

Sporting a grin, Apollo said, "You certainly know a lot about your parents for being an orphan."

Allison stared at him, flushing as she realized he'd caught her lying. "Ohhh!" she whined in frustration and turned to stomp away with a snap of, "Let's just go!"

Mentally timing their return, Allison concluded her team was back at the hangers now. She could see the lake. At the last intersection before they got to the lake, she rushed off to the left, shooting herself away with her arms, then leaping into the air to fly low. She took another corner, then another. Flying as fast as she could go, she stayed low between to buildings as she zig zagged though the ruined city.

The 'feel' of Apollo faded. Satisfied she'd lost him, she flew for the hangers. She also noticed something else. In her path was someone else. The feel of this one was much weaker. Slowing as she came upon the presence, she saw a blond haired man huddled in a doorway, wearing nothing but a sheet wrapped around him. All he had for shoes was a pair of sandals.

Allison landed by him. He looked to be in much better shape than the other people she'd found. His blank face told her he was in trouble though. "Hey, are you hungry?" she asked.

He nodded.

Bringing up her rain shield, she extended it over him and offered him her hand. "Come on, I'll get you someplace where you can eat and get some good clothes, OK?" she asked gently.

He took her hand with a thankful nod and smile.

Leading the man along at a walk, Allison kept searching for signs of the big beast that was turning out to be smarter that she thought it was. She walked all the way back to the hangers and didn't see or sense it anywhere. The rain was all but stopped, but she kept her shield up, covering them both as she led the man by the hand.

.

Cameron was having the survivors of the city the patrols had found treated as much as they could, then loaded into the armored transports. Talking with the Major, they were sure there had to be more people here than what they had found so far.

Their mission was changing. Since the factory was destroyed, they were now involved with search and rescue. Unfortunately, Allison had found Apollo, which meant she and Cameron had to move on before trouble started. She well remembered Apollo's combativeness, even with his own family.

Cameron was talking with the Major about sending the injured back when the single side door to the hanger opened.

"Mom! I found another guy who needs help!" Allison announced.

Cameron turned to see Allison leading Apollo in, holding his hand. She went over to her daughter. Sparing a glance at Apollo, she asked Allison, "I thought you were suppose to loose him. Why did you bring him back here?"

Allison frowned at her. "Mom, I did loose the big dog. I fly all around and got away from him. This guy was sitting in a doorway looking sad."

"THAT is Apollo," Cameron said firmly.

Allison looked back at the man who was grinning at her. "It can't be!" she exclaimed.

Apollo nodded to Cameron and said, "You have a very good daughter here. Your name is Cameron, if I remember correctly."

"Yes. What do you want, Apollo?" Cameron asked tonelessly.

"That was your dog?" Allison asked, looking at Apollo in confusion.

His smile tightening, Apollo explained, "As I told you, Child. I am a gargoyle, not a dog. I can also take human form."

"Huh?"

"Allison," Cameron said to her. "I told you that you are part yokai like Lucy, correct? Apollo is full yokai. He can change his form and mass. This man is the 'giant dog' that you found."

Allison jerked her hand out of Apollos'. Glaring at him, she said, "You are really tricky!"

Apollo threw his head back and laughed. "Yes child, I am tricky," he admitted.

"And my name's Allison, not child!" Allison stated angrily.

"Back to the point. Apollo, why are you here?" Cameron asked sternly.

Apollo's face melted into a serious look. "Same as you. I came to get rid of this Sky Net. I would strongly ask you not subject your daughter to any more combat. She is a child and should be at home, safe."

"Impossible," Cameron stated. "Allison refuses to go home until Sky Net is destroyed. I have nothing to convince her we will take care of it and unless someone else agrees to take over her job, there is no one else that can do what she does."

"I will take her place," Apollo stated.

"You have proven yourself untrustworthy," Cameron replied. "I cannot afford to rely on you. I need people I can trust."

Anger etching his face, Apollo took a step towards Cameron, and was frozen in place, his arms locked to his sides.

"You are not going to hurt my mother!" Allison said in a growl.

"Do not toy with me, Child," Apollo warned.

"Apollo, there is something you need to understand," Cameron said firmly. "Allison is my child. You do know what I am?"

"You're a machine," Apollo grated.

"Yes, a machine build to resemble humans. I was made to be faster, stronger, smarter, and invulnerable to the smaller human weapons," Cameron agreed. "Lucy gave me the ability to have children. Allison is like me in many ways, she is also like Lucy. Allison's skeletal structure is like mine, Coltan. Her nerves, muscles and brain are organic, but with the same enhancements as I have. Imagine if you will, a machine version of Lucy that is stronger, faster and much more powerful than Lucy herself. That is Allison. Before you do something regrettable in this room full of humans, perhaps you should think about that."

Apollo cast Cameron a long look, then shifted it to Allison. He understood. Allison was a terminator version of Lucy. Shifting his gaze back to Cameron, he said, "I do not condone endangering small children."

"No one is asking you to. Allison has decided it is her place to destroy Sky Net. I and many others are doing our best to see her to her goal. The sooner Allison accomplishes her mission, the sooner I can get her home where she belongs. Allison will destroy Sky Net with, or without our help. I cannot leave my daughter here on her own, so I am helping her. What will you do?"

Apollo nodded once and said, "I see. She is going after Sky Net, and you can't stop her. Fine. I insist that I join you. I too want to see Sky Net permanently destroyed. I also want to ensure no harm comes to Allison. I would recommend another course of action, however."

"Mom, can we trust him?" Allison asked.

"For now. Release him, I want to hear his plan."

.

"We have Sky Net isolated to Asia and Asia minor," John Henry told John Connor. "We also have control of southern India. All the other Sky Net communication towers around the world are now under our control. I do fear Sky Net has discovered this. A control tower in Burma was attacked and destroyed. It may also have discovered many of the ruses I have been creating."

"It had to happen eventually," John Connor mussed as he looked at John Henry's computer screens. On one, the 'Sky Net' screen, showed Sky Net in control of most of the world. On another, it showed the true situation, Sky Net being reduced to the eastern part of Russia, China, and the countries just south of China. "The ruse worked and gave us the time we need. The attack on Vladivostok will be a complete surprise. You have those hydrobots and Craken ready?"

"Yes. They are on their way to the south China sea. When meeting another machine, they will emit an IFF signal. If the proper IFF signal is not returned, they will attack. Given the number of units, and the area of the northern part of the South China sea, it will take three weeks to make the area safe for shipping."

"Very good, John Henry. You've performed miracles for us," John said sincerely. "Any luck on finding the location of Sky Net?"

"I am reducing the area it can be housed in," John Henry replied. "Cameron and Allison are almost into China. When they reach the east coast, dividing the area Sky Net now controls, I will be able to reduce the possible area in half."

"Process of elimination," John agreed.

"Yes. And I will be able to take control over the area where Sky net is not."

Studying the screen, John said, "I'm sure it's in the north. More radiation, colder and less chance of encountering humans. Sky Net wants to insulate itself from human presence."

Tipping his head, John Henry said, "That is a logical assumption. Once you attack Eastern Russia, we should know for sure. I have taken control of two satellites. May I suggest your forces destroy any communication towers they find. If Sky Net is near that area, it will move and cause either a rush of communications, or a non-military move away from the conflict area."

"The we'll know right where it is," John said with a grin. "I'll keep a strike force ready. If Sky Net moves, we'll have it."

.

The hanger Cameron and her forces had originally sought shelter in was now a medical post with several ambulances and a medical team inside. Three armed personnel carriers remained, the rest had been sent back with the original troops and the sick they had found. Another patrol came in with loaded stretchers of people they had found eeking out an existence in a sewer line. People were treated and loaded into ambulances to be taken back to the last fairly radiation-free zone the army had found.

On a table in the hangers, Cameron had an Asian map spread out. Apollo and Allison bracketed her as she explained their plans.

"The GPS system is still in operation. Our goal is to cut Sky Net's area of control in half by taking over it's communication towers. Drones are searching for the towers. When they find one, they mark it's position for us. Apollo will take us directly to each tower. We take control, go to the next one. During rest periods, we make a shelter and lie low until we go to the next one. Minimal time being exposed, and less danger from counter attacks by Sky Net."

"Ahh, Mom?" Allison asked. "Won't Sky Net see us?"

"No," Apollo said firmly. "We fly from one place to another under invisibility."

"As long as we stay within the range of the last tower we take control of, I can communicate with John Henry and the drones," Cameron explained. "John Henry has warned me that Sky Net may know we are taking over it's towers, so we have to be careful of traps and ambushes."

Studying the map, Allison said in a mussing tone, "Hey mom? If I was Sky Net, I would figure that a human attack would be aiming for a city so to keep myself safe, I'd stay away from the cities, but someplace where I'd be near the center of the area I had control of."

Cameron eyed her daughter and asked, "What are you thinking?"

"That with the current state of affairs, Sky Net will not be anywhere near the coast. If it was me, I'd be in Tibet or Mongolia. Once we get near the coast, we should go north and come back west above these places. If we can do it fast enough, we will greatly reduce Sky Net's area of control," Allison said.

"How can you be sure of that?" Apollo asked. "Sky Net could also be hiding on an island."

"Could be, but I think that would make it hard for Sky Net to escape. Sky Net came to Asia to avoid us. It must know we can destroy it if we find it. It's going to want to keep an escape route open," Allison concluded.

Casting a questioning look at Cameron, Apollo said, "You aren't going to trust the word of a nine year old."

"Allison is eight, and she hasn't been wrong yet," Cameron stated. "But we will go all the way the coast and split the possibilities in half. That will tell us if we should go north or south."

.

The data Sky Net was receiving was becoming more questionable. While southern India was reporting everything was normal and the western armies were reporting victories, other reports were showing many destroyed machines in these same areas and requests for reinforcement while the newest areas of Africa and South America were reporting reinforcements were being sent. The North American forces reported they had control and were sending assistance.

Shifting through the chaotic and conflicting reports, Sky Net send an anti virus program through it's communications network. No viruses were found.

A communications station at the western edge of China reported an attack. Several minutes later, it reported the attack failed and the enemy was destroyed.

Searching back through the data, Sky Net found that other stations had reported very similar attacks that had failed. It also found many of these attacks were in a line, beginning at where the western front had been. It knew enemy AI's were active. It also knew Allison Connor had been in that area. Sky Net immediately changed it's codes.

Studying the reports of the attacks, it appeared humans were duplicating Sky Net machines. For the humans to engineer their own machines identical to Sky Net's on such a large scale in so little time was not logical. That meant they were taking over it's own machines. Although that did not seem possible, it was the only logical answer. With the conflicting reports coming from different communication stations, it had to assume those were being taken over as well. Since no digital attacks had been made, Sky Net concluded someone, possibly Allison Connor, was physically attacking communications centers to go inside and reconfigure the station to take control of nearby units.

By the town of Yoki in the north of the Takia Maken desert in Tibet, was the communications hub that was in the direct path of the tower attacks. This hub was defended as well any other. It was also no longer needed and was expendable. Sky Net diverted forces not to defend that hub, but to launch a massive attack on it as soon as the hub reported an attack. It used every long range artillery unit in the area to target the communications hub.

It then responded to an intense artillery attack against Vladivostok, moving units away from the danger area to leave only enough to discover if the humans were indeed planning an invasion.