Chapter 458

Temporal Tricks

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Cameron's Future Timeline:

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Cameron followed up on the intel. Everything up to this point was a strike out. Now it looked like she'd found something conclusive. She'd found something that was hidden. It worried her some that it wasn't hidden that well either.

She wondered what she would find on the other side of that hatch. She knew it wasn't going to be anything good. It was 'time to face to music'. She was here to find and terminate Skynet. Things didn't get done thinking about them.

Cameron was about to pry open the hatch when she heard and then spotted a patrol of Terminators headed her way.

'Damn.' Cameron thought.

She was sure she'd tripped a sensor somewhere. They must have 'made' her. She didn't want to get spotted before she made it inside the facility. Now everything was in jeopardy. This mission could be over before it started.

Cameron carried plasma grenades, Thermite grenades, a satchel charge and her plasma rifle. She also packed a few special surprises.

She readied a plasma grenade as she moved to a defensive position. They would attack her head on. That was how Terminators operated. The plasma grenade would disable three or four of them and she would take down the rest with her plasma rifle. She hoped her damage would be minimal.

She was angry this was about to go hot from the start. Some additional troops would be good now if she needed to fight her way into the base. She was alone.

The patrol stopped by the hatch. They barely glanced at it and continued on their way. They didn't even check the hatch to see if it was secure. The repetition became routine for them and they were used to the same thing.

Cameron was glad none of them noticed her footprints, which they now obliterated with their own. They were complacent and sloppy. They probably did the same things numerous times a day for months on end. She decided to follow them and see where else they went. They might give her a better option or she may slip inside with them. They may also inadvertently show her the locations of other entrances or defenses.

She noted there were no female Terminators among them. She really started to wonder about that. She wondered if Skynet sent them all into the past. It seemed many of the Terminators they'd encountered were female. She was sure that was because they were better infiltrators. They possessed certain 'assets' that allowed them to better infiltrate and manipulate targets. That is probably why none were around, at least that she witnessed.

That would have been her function if it was carried out as planned by Skynet. She would have used her female attributes to get close to Future John and terminate him and as much of the senior Resistance as possible. Maybe she did and that was what Future John erased. There was a glitch impulse that shot through her left hand. She needed to refocus.

Cameron followed the patrol. They split into two groups. She instantly became wary. They might be trying to flank her. She decided to follow the larger group. She would keep an eye and ear out for the smaller group to make sure they weren't working their way around her. They could be trying to box her in. They would probably try and capture her. They would reprogram her and turn her over to the Grays as a 'Metal Whore'. She was ready to rupture her power cell first. It would take out all of them.

The three that split off were almost out of sight. Some of them carried tools. She heard some screeching metal noise from where they'd gone. She wondered what that was. It sounded big. She'd only seen what looked like 'rock' in that area. She'd viewed all the reconnaissance images that were taken as well and detected nothing on them. This new turn of events would need a better look.

Cameron let the first group move on and then went to investigate where the three others went. There must be something there. It was something mechanical.

She was almost to the spot when she heard an HK drone approaching. It sounded low. It shouldn't be one of the Resistance drones. They'd purposely kept them out of the area. She was behind some boulders when it passed in front of her. It looked like it was about to land. This was an interesting development.

Cameron moved up as saw that the Terminators worked on an open 'hanger door'. It looked like 'rock' but it must be metal. The HK drone went inside the opening. They left the hatch open as they attempted to adjust the door itself or the control mechanism. All three of them moved to a spot away from her direct line of sight as she closed in on their position. There were a few pounding sounds coming from that area now. She needed to keep situational awareness. There were still other Terminators out there.

So far this looked like what she was after. She needed to play it cool and not get caught. She needed to get inside unnoticed and find Skynet. She would send for Bob and Rob along with the 'package'. The fact HK drones could fly inside would make the delivery of the 'package' that much simpler. She'd figured she would need to carry it in.

Cameron heard the rest of the patrol returning from behind her. She was cut off. They were going to spot her any second. The only place to go was inside the hanger door. She quickly ran inside. As soon as she entered she heard the screeching noise again. The door closed behind her. The HK drone that entered was already gone from sight. A conveyor belt type system moved it away. The landing pad was cleared and ready for the next HK drone to arrive.

She looked around. She was inside and didn't have any idea where this was or where it would take her. There were no Terminators apparent. She heard some more pounding on the closed door and it screeched open again. She moved into a corner. Another HK drone came in and landed. As soon as it was on the conveyor belt it shut down. The door screeched closed again behind her. The conveyor belt started to move. She ran to the HK drone and crouched behind it as it disappeared into the darkness. She wasn't sure if this was going from the frying pan into the fire. It was what it was. Her weapons were ready. She might have a few seconds advantage as the enemy wouldn't expect her to be there. The crew inside would probably be more complacent than the Terminators outside were.

The ride wasn't very long. It appeared everything was automated. She dropped off of the conveyor belt and moved quietly around the back wall. The HK drones were being serviced. She looked around the hanger deck. She saw there were dozens of them all fully armed. This was another assault force. She moved over to the one furthest away and disabled it. It would be the last one deployed. That meant it should be the last one found to have been tampered with. She removed the navigation data and the transponder.

She considered her options. She didn't want to disable the HK drones there. They could be as easily repaired as she'd disabled them. There was a better plan.

Cameron quickly moved from HK drone to HK drone and sabotaged them. They should fly for a few minutes before they crashed. She knew Duplicate Cameron did much the same thing before 'in some future'. She now possessed those files. She used several different methods to cause the malfunctions. On some she used both. She wanted them to fly out and crash. It would take them out of the fight.

Cameron continued deeper into the facility. She was unsure what she would find.

She reached a junction. One branch looked like it was used often the other branch appeared unused or to receive little traffic. She decided to check out the less used branch first. There must have been something there once for it to be there in the first place.

Her experience showed Skynet like to hide deep underground. There were thousands of underground mines around the country and hundreds in any given state.

Skynet would reinforce an old mine to help stabilize it. Most of the old mines were originally reinforced or supported by wood timbers. Those weakened or rotted over time. Wood was an organic substance and eventually would succumb to time.

Cameron hoped to find Skynet at the end of this tunnel. There was no visible power source on the outside of this area so there needed to be something inside that powered it. She knew that Skynet constructed larger power cells much like her own but capable of supporting larger installations. There was talk of some big enough to power an entire base. She doubted that was the case here. It was probably a series of smaller or a few medium sized ones.

There were numerous side tunnels that mostly went nowhere. Maybe at one time they followed a vein of ore of some type. Now they were just dead ends. Some were used for storage. The further she went through this branch system, the more she could see why it didn't seem used much.

Her olfactory sensors began to detect what would be considered a foul order. It grew stronger as she neared what looked like the end of this segment. She reached the final chamber.

There were a number of decomposing bodies. Some of them wore Skynet uniforms others wore Resistance uniforms. That didn't make a whole lot of sense to her. None of the uniforms showed bullet holes. It was most likely they were terminated by Terminators.

The various states of decomposition showed that they were not all killed at the same time. It appeared that some of them were more recent. This could be a facility where prisoners were interrogated and Grays disciplined.

None of the bodies contained any useful intel. There were several female bodies. They were either naked or the pants were missing on all of them. If there was still a shirt on a female it was ripped open. It appeared to her they were all assaulted before Termination based on that. That would indicate there was human involvement. Half of the females were in the hands of Scavengers at one point by what was missing from their bodies and healed. It furthered her resolve to take down any Scavengers she encountered. There was no reason females should be abused just because that was how they were born.

If she came across any Grays here she would personally terminate them. They were the ones who would have assaulted the females last. She was aware it was also an interrogation technique. It was possible a Terminator could have been used as well. There were many terror tactics available.

This section was a dead end. That seemed an appropriate description based on what was at the end of the tunnel. She carefully made her way out. She'd left a few strands of hair in various locations on her way in. None of them were disturbed. No one passed by.

She continued along the main passageway. It seemed anything was possible to find at this location.

Future John was very displeased that Cameron went off on her own. She was very adamant about doing it. He needed to carry out his part and not let her down.

He sent two forces of Resistance Metal out to the two sites they expected the counter attack to come from. Both locations were both under direct observation now.

They were worried about their base after the 'Big Battle'. Cameron figured that Skynet would still obtain some intelligence on the Connor compound. Skynet may have operatives out in the field. They'd established LPs but those could always be bypassed. Their main function was to watch for attacking HK drones. She made all her plans based on what Skynet could observe.

For all practical purposes it appeared as if most of the Resistance Terminators departed from the Connor compound. Future John at Cameron's urging quietly installed even more defenses inside their camp. They were all hidden. Most of the Metal actually returned through the escape tunnels and took up defensive positions around the camp. Everything was hidden. It would appear the compound was short staffed and under armed. It was all part of Cameron's plan.

Previously Cameron noted the occasional HK drone flights and knew Skynet gathered intel on them. She made sure the HK drones got plenty of wrong intel.

Future John and Cameron wanted to set Skynet up. There would be a lot of surprises when Skynet attacked again. They slowly built up a supply of many small antiaircraft missiles at each of the sites where they believed the counter attack would originate from. Those Skynet forces would be decimated in minutes with few of the HK drones getting through. The goal was to destroy them as they left their hiding places.

The general location where Cameron went and currently was at was the suspected main target. A force of Resistance Terminators would make a show near the facility that she'd entered. That wouldn't happen until she sent word. She didn't want them to enter this facility if she could pull her plan off. They waited to hear word from her.

Future John was worried. He knew Cameron wanted to do something drastic before the Resistance Terminators needed to commit to a drawn out battle. It would be costly on both sides if it came down to that.

Duplicate Cameron wasn't about to sit around. She was 'Cameron'.

"John, I'm talking over defense of the compound." Duplicate Cameron said. "I've updated with Cameron and I'm 'her' as well as 'myself' now."

Future John sure hoped so. That would make his Cameron even better than she already was. He looked forward to 'try out' this updated version of 'Cameron'. That was if they all survived what was sure to follow.

Cameron was reluctant to share everything with Duplicate Cameron as they updated. It became apparent to her why Cameron blocked some files and ask her not to open them yet. There were some very disturbing things on her chip now.

"I should've gone in Cameron's place." Duplicate Cameron said. "Now that I have the updates from her, I know how much she needs to return back to her John."

Future John could have done without that information. Now there was another worry for him. He wondered if Duplicate Cameron would leave him for Past John. That is what Cameron would do if she survived her mission. If she didn't survive, Duplicate Cameron would leave him instead.

There was something else Duplicate Cameron found. It was something that kept Cameron going whenever she wanted 'out'. It was Savannah. She also knew how much Cameron needed to return to Savannah.

Future John could picture his world falling apart.

"She wouldn't listen to me." Future John said. "I guess that means you won't either - now."

Duplicate Cameron knew the anguish Cameron went through to bring the females from the past to the different futures. She did it and gave up the very things she wanted.

"John, you must protect your family. You are a father with two wonderful wives and two beautiful children." Duplicate Cameron said. "Cameron wanted those children for herself and Past John. She sacrificed for you, for US."

Future John knew that everyone sacrificed for - HIM. It actually bothered him greatly that they did. He just hoped that no one said it. His family couldn't be his only concern. The Resistance depended on him.

"I have to think of the Resistance too, Cameron." Future John said.

Duplicate Cameron was aware now of new survival protocols. She would need to watch over Future John herself. If things turned bad there were contingencies.

"We will be together at all times." Duplicate Cameron said. "You must not go off on your own. John, if you see an energy bubble appear anywhere near you, you must step into it."

Future John already knew that. Cameron wanted the equipment updated but she couldn't do it herself.

"Cameron said that too." Future John said. "She recruited some of our Terminators under her direction to modify both of our TDEs. She told our technicians what to do and how."

Duplicate Cameron found detailed battle plans for talking down Skynet. Each plan was numbered and Cameron would contact her on which plan to use and when. There was a lot going on or there would be soon.

"We'll need to use both of them." Duplicate Cameron said. "As soon as I get some information from Cameron, I'm giving specific instructions to the 'bubble techs'."

Duplicate Cameron now possessed the information on where the Duplicate girls were at in case they were needed. They would be a little older than the girls here were because of the different temporal activity. There were 'Cameron' clones there as well. She could also get a hold of the other Duplicate Cameron and Duplicate girls in River's future. She hoped one day she could meet River as herself, in place of the other Duplicate Cameron…. She felt the love the other Duplicate Cameron did for River. She wanted to feel 'whole' and complete too.

Duplicate Cameron and Future John made sure everything was ready. Now it was all up to Cameron.

They both knew Cameron was going to try and do it - alone.

Tricks

Is anyone really
Who they project to be
Usually in a short time
The true person one will see

Everyone is always greedy
They want the most for less
The typical flip side of that
Is they'll end up in distress

There's a lot of hoopla
Followed by hocus pocus
It all directs away from the truth
Making it difficult to focus

One sees a perfect picture
They think they're getting that
Instead it is what the have
They soon realized everything fell flat

Remember it's only on Route 66
Where one can get their kicks
The reality of the situation is
Everyone is full of tricks.

Nobody