Chapter 806

Six Covered

Cameron specifically assigned everyone a target that they would be responsible for. After the Terminators rebooted, they would all know their targets and what they were supposed to do and when. She didn't want any confusion or any of the targets not immediately dealt with. There should be enough time to deactivate all the HK equipment if nothing else.

They were nearly ready to initiate the attack process.

Timing would be important. Everyone's targets were preselected. One of their group would be assigned to each of the 'hidden' targets, while the remainder would assault the structure itself. To breach and enter the structure was going to be the more difficult job if other things worked out as planned. There were at least two Grays known to be in the building. They would know that the attack was underway and be ready to fight before their troops arrived.

Savannah was worried they didn't have enough Terminators to do everything in the time they thought they would have. She didn't know if her plan was going to work. She didn't want to be caught with their troops out in the open if it didn't.

"That uses both members of Steve's team and five of our team. That only leaves two of us for the assault on the structure." Savannah said. "We need Gail and Sheila. We should bring them up."

Cameron didn't see the need for that at all. It would take time have Gail or Sheila come to their location without being observed. She wanted to act now. She'd done similar things multiple times on her own. There was no reason she couldn't do it alone again.

"I can do it alone." Cameron said. "The two drones will back me up."

Savannah wondered if the drones would be damaged by the double EMP blasts. The drones might not be able to back Cameron up. It wasn't a good plan without any knowledge of what would work and what wouldn't. Everything should have been tested first in a controlled environment and not tested under combat conditions. It all seemed to be an unnecessary risk to her.

"I can't do the reprogramming at the same speed as you or our other Terminators can. If I could, I would stay and work on an HK Track to free Cammy up." Savannah said. "I'll accompany you, Cameron."

Cameron tried to think of a better solution for Savannah. She wanted her out of harm's way. So far she couldn't come up with one.

"The Grays know they led Steve's team here, they don't know we're here and onto them. We're a much bigger force than they should be expecting. John Henry hasn't blocked communications yet, so they don't know an attack is imminent. They aren't sending out any calls or a warning." Cameron said. "They clearly think that they have the upper hand and they're going to come out the victors when the assault takes place."

Cameron wondered if they'd already done that and were 'playing it cool'. This could be to draw all of them out for some bigger play they didn't know about yet. She didn't want to mention it to Savannah but she figured that the Grays already planned what they were going to do to her chassis if she was among the Terminators they were able to capture. She suppressed a glitch impulse as the thought crossed her mind that it probably wouldn't be the first time either. As far as she knew, that already happened the first time she was captured.

John listened to all the final preparations as they were made.

"We have the element of surprise." John said. "I think this is a good plan."

John Henry made sure everything was ready to go on his end. His actions would be nothing new. They would be what was normally done at an attack site.

"I'm ready to jam communications as soon as the truck starts to move towards the structure." John Henry said. "Our drone will make its high speed strafing run to make sure all the targets are active and online. CamNet will fire the special weapon from the large drone as soon as our other drone is clear."

John recapped the plan for everyone. He wanted everyone to stick to the plan, including Cameron. He hoped that Savannah's presence would ensure that.

"Once the extended shut down time has expired for our Terminators, they will each engage the target preselected for them." John said. "Cameron will enter the main structure backed up by Savannah and two drones."

Savannah wanted better protection for Cameron. In this instance, she thought she would be more useful at the helicopter. That would free up two more Terminators to assist Cameron.

"I think we should have Gail and Sheila backup Cameron." Savannah said. "I should be at the chopper. I can watch it and operate it on my own."

Cameron didn't want Savannah alone and unprotected. She didn't want to wait any longer either. They knew where the enemy was. There is no need to wait for anything else. She was driven to attack under those conditions.

"I want to do this now." Cameron said. "We need the Iroquois protected as well. We may need a quick extraction."

John figured all the Terminators would be protected by their extended standby period. He didn't know how safe any of this was going to be for Savannah. She'd already been exposed to massive amounts of energy in the last few days. There was no way to know what the long term effects on her were going to be because of that.

"Where will Savannah be during the EMP blast?" John asked. "I don't want her exposed to more violent energy, especially after the Serrano Point episode."

Cameron believed she'd found the perfect vessel to protect Savannah. Much of the area where they currently were at was originally farmland.

"We have located a concrete lined cistern. It once was used for irrigation purposes." Cameron said. "It has a heavy concrete cover as well."

Cammy took Savannah to the concrete cistern.

Savannah looked at it. She felt a twinge of claustrophobia. She'd never been claustrophobic before but her recent encounters in tight spaces made her very nervous and uneasy being in them now. She understood it was a fear that she needed to master and overcome. It was actually something that happened within her head based upon a physical condition.

"You know what this reminds me of." Savannah said.

Cammy was just as concerned as she looked at the cistern.

"The steel tube we were trapped in at the mine." Cammy said.

Savannah wanted to make sure that Cammy understood how she felt.

"I'm very uneasy about this." Savannah said. "Are you going to put that cover on top?"

Cammy tilted her head slightly to the side. She wanted Savannah protected and the cover on top was the only way to insure that.

"Yes." Cammy said.

Savannah climbed down inside and Cammy moved the heavy concrete cover over. She paused before she put it on top.

"OK, Cammy, do it." Savannah said.

Cammy lifted the heavy cover over the cistern before the gap closed completely, Cammy offered some encouragement.

"I will come for you. It's only for a few minutes." Cammy said.

The lid was placed on top and Savannah was in total darkness. She felt trapped and wanted to get out. It reminded her of the pipe they were trapped in before at the mine. She needed to calm herself and hold it together for the team.

"I'm good, Cammy." Savannah called out.

Savannah's personal concerns were blocked from John and the Command Center by CamNet. She felt that was more of a private issue for Savannah and others didn't need to concern themselves with it.

John wanted to make sure Savannah was going to be able to get out of the cistern.

"Can Savannah get out on her own if something goes wrong?" John asked. "We don't want her trapped there."

Gail was very displeased she wasn't there in Savannah's place. She would personally make sure that Savannah got out, even if she needed to face all of the HK equipment alone. She knew that Sheila would accompany her.

"I will come for her." Gail said. "Sheila and I will come for all of them."

The UH-1 was another concern of John. If things went bad it may be crucial in the rescue of the troops at the target site.

"Is the Huey far enough out of the EMP blast zone?" John asked. "Is it far enough away to not be affected or damaged?"

Cameron forged ahead with her plan to make sure everyone was in position. She didn't need John to second guess her actions or abilities.

"Yes. Gail and Sheila will shut down also as a precaution." Cameron said. "Our Terminators are within striking distance of their targets. Savannah is secure. We're ready to go"

John Henry double checked everything on his end. He was good to go as well.

"I'm ready to jam communications." John Henry said.

Cameron was done waiting.

Steve would tie the steering wheel and wedge the accelerator on the truck. He would roll out of it near his target. Cameron gave Steve a 'thumbs up' and he took off in the truck. The operation was now underway.

"The truck is rolling." Cameron said. "Everything is ready. The operation has begun."

John Henry made sure that everything was smooth on his end.

"Communications are now jammed." John Henry said. "The drone is dropping in altitude fast. It's started its high speed run. The gun is hot. The targets have all been selected."

Cameron watched the truck pop up from a shallow depression in the landscape and head toward the building. She watched Steve slip out of the truck near his preselected target as the truck continued on.

They could all hear the drone coming as it screamed down from the sky.

The minigun roared to life as their drone made its high speed pass. It fired at and hit all five of the hidden targets as it strafed the building and continued on its way. It never slowed. It needed to make a run for its life. It needed to get away before the EMP detonated.

The truck passed between the other two hidden targets on its way toward the building. They were HK Tracks. They were the only two targets the drone couldn't engage in its single high speed pass.

The whine of hidden HK drone power plants could be heard starting as well as the clanking of HK Tracks. All of the Skynet equipment powered up and came to life. It was all active. It was clear to them that the attack was on and they needed to defend the building.

John Henry tracked their drone to get it away from the target area. Everything was all set to happen only seconds apart. It all went down as planned so far.

"Our drone is almost clear." John Henry said. "CamNet will fire the missile in three seconds from my 'mark'." John Henry said. "Everyone get ready to shut down."

There would need to be some travel time for the missile even though it traveled faster than the speed of sound. They wanted to give the manned drone as much time to get clear as possible.

"Mark." John Henry said. "It's six seconds until detonation."

The HK equipment began to act exactly as they'd predicted and planned.

Four HK Tracks rolled up from their concealment and appeared above ground. Two of them opened fire on the speeding truck. The other two searched for the drone that attacked them. They all spun in circles as they searched for targets.

Two of the hidden HK drones started to lift off. The third HK drone was a second behind them.

The Resistance Terminators all shut down. They all went into timed standby.

Something streaked across the sky toward the building.

There was a blinding flash followed by the sound of a small explosion.

The three HK drones dropped back to the ground and the HK Tracks stopped moving.

The burning truck was disabled near the building. The HK Tracks decimated it as it passed by them. The truck served its purpose to get the last two HK Tracks online. Now they were all offline.

The battlefield was quiet.

Savannah waited in the darkness. She could feel the vibrations through the cement walls and hear the faint explosion. She knew all the Terminators were down. Hopefully the next blast would keep the Skynet equipment down and their Terminators would reboot shortly thereafter.

She counted the seconds. Each second seemed like an eternity. She soon heard the second small blast. She again counted the seconds until Cameron or Cammy should reboot and remove the cover of the irrigation cistern.

Savannah didn't like being 'trapped' inside the confined space. Cameron told her she needed to think about Vanna's baby inside of her. Cameron said she wanted her to stand down from operations as well to better protect the growing embryo. She understood Cameron's concerns and fears but they weren't her own. She believed that the human female body was capable of almost all activity through the majority of the pregnancy.

She remembered an incident she'd read about in the travels of Lewis and Clark on their journey across the North American continent. There was a pregnant Native American woman who tended to one of the horses as the group crossed the western side of the Rocky Mountains. Somewhere along the way she fell behind and they weren't sure what happened to her. A few hours later they spotted the Native American woman and she now carried a newborn infant with her. She still continued to do her job as if nothing had happened. The explorers were somewhat amazed at her resiliency. That story always stuck in her mind. Based on her last two pregnancies she believed she could be just as robust if she needed to be. She didn't believe she needed to stand down at all.

The seconds grew longer. It seemed it all took too long. Fears of being buried alive began to creep into Savannah's mind. She tried to think of other things related to the travels of Lewis and Clark to redirect her mind. She needed to fight her fears and concentrate on helping their Terminators.

It was past time. Savannah began to worry. Maybe she'd terminated all of their group as well. Then it would all be her fault. She did tell Cameron the theory should have been tested first. She felt she should have stuck with her instinct to do that. Cameron insisted that the tactic be employed immediately to assist their group in the current endeavor.

She was getting ready to put her back and shoulders against the cement lid to see if she could push it off that way. She knew she needed to get out of there and be ready to fight. She wondered if she would be all alone. It didn't matter; she needed to protect all of the Terminators. She checked her M4 and placed her upper back against the lid. She was just about to push.

A second later there was a grating of cement and the cover was lifted off.

Cameron reached down and pulled Savannah out. Savannah quickly checked her gear and started out with Cameron. They were headed for the building. She was extremely pleased to see that she hadn't terminated everyone in their group.

Seconds ago Cameron rebooted. She'd briefly wondered as she went into standby earlier if she actually would reboot or not. She figured if she did she did and if she didn't she didn't and it wouldn't really matter at that point. She came back online at the scheduled time and heard everyone check in with John Henry. They were all good to go. So far the plan worked perfectly. She briefly thought about leaving Savannah within the safety of the cistern as she attacked the building on her own. It was only because Savannah told her of her fears of being trapped in the confined space that she decided to open it and let her out. She was well aware of what it was like to be trapped and left only with your own fears. It was worse than the nothingness of termination. She brought Savannah up to speed as they headed toward their objective.

"Right now only our people are moving." Cameron said. "The test will be if the Skynet machines reboot as well. We still have a time advantage over them if they do, we need to hurry."

Cameron and Savannah headed for the building. She could see Savannah was a little off. She thought how the feeling of being trapped again must have weighed on Savannah right now. Savannah said nothing and kept up with her. She was pleased at her decision not to leave Savannah in the cistern for her own safety. The damage that would have been done to her mind would probably never go away entirely. She needed to make sure Savannah understood the nature of the threat that they were about to face.

"If there are Grays inside they will be unaffected." Cameron said. "I'm sorry about making you go below ground. I wanted you to have some protection. Cammy reminded me about any issues that you would have. I told her that we already discussed them earlier. There were enough EMP type blasts you were exposed to already at Serrano Point. You didn't need anymore."

Cameron again thought of Savannah staying behind there so the drone could carry her away. That act of valor left Savannah alone and to almost certain doom. Savannah's words brought Cameron back to 'now'.

Savannah had been worried. She also knew that she needed to face her fears head on if she wanted to defeat them. No one ever overcame an obstacle by running from it. She wanted to let Cameron know that she was good and ready for combat.

"You lead and I'll follow." Savannah said. "I have your six covered."

Cameron saw even if Savannah was a little unsettled that she was still in the fight. She was ready for combat. She was a little bit worried what they would encounter once they breached the building. They didn't know if there were two Gray's inside or two hundred.

"If there's return fire, I want you to seek cover and wait for the rest of our group to come." Cameron said. "We don't even know if any of this will actually work."

Savannah was still self conscious about her plan since it was untested before it was implemented.

"I said it was only a theory." Savannah said.

Savannah didn't like their group being the test subjects.

Cameron and Savannah closed in on the building. They were almost there.

Moments ago:

The Command Center monitored all the events as they were put into play.

John lost the feed from drone footage he was watching.

"Is the drone still transmitting?" John asked.

John Henry was aware that he lost coverage but he didn't know it was because CamNet cut the coverage to mask what actually occurred when the second EMP was fired.

"Yes, we lost coverage for a few seconds." John Henry said.

John wasn't sure if the drone that attacked the Skynet targets to get them online was going to be able to make it away or be taken down. It was a gamble they needed to take.

"Was the drone damaged?" John asked.

John Henry was only aware of the irregularity that occurred for a few seconds. All data transmission was lost as well. They'd been momentarily deaf and blind.

"No, the video feed was inactive along with all transmission from our drone for ten seconds." John Henry said.

John was also worried about the manned drone that fired the EMP missile.

"What about the large drone?" John asked.

"It was affected as well for sixteen seconds." John Henry said.

John Henry wondered about the interruptions in the drone transmissions and data. That was unlike anything they'd encountered before. CamNet didn't respond to his inquiries. CamNet only said everything worked now and to drop it. He would try and look into it at a later date. He didn't want CamNet to lock him out now. He wanted the Command Center to remain part of the operation and not be left looking at blank screens as CamNet took over everything.

John knew that their troops only had a certain amount of time to act and deactivate the HK equipment before it came back online.

"What about the Skynet equipment?" John asked.

"It all appears inactive still. Our Terminators will make sure the seven pieces of Skynet equipment outside the structure remain deactivated." John Henry said. "Cameron and Savannah have entered the building. Our two drones have moved in for close support."

John wanted to see more of their troops finish up with the deactivation of the Skynet equipment. He wanted them to backup Cameron in Savannah. He really didn't see how much support two drones outside of the building were going to be able to give Cameron and Savannah inside of the building.

Gail and Sheila rebooted.

Sheila opened her eyes. She was a little disappointed.

"It looks like we survived." Sheila said.

Gail felt that since her assignment was changed from being the pilot of the manned drone that she should have been able to support the team on the assault of the building. She wasn't sure why that wasn't allowed to happen. It wouldn't have taken her that long to reach the rest of the troops on foot.

"We should be there helping Savannah. Cameron is endangering her again." Gail said. "I don't like being sidelined."

Sheila understood why she was being punished. She didn't see why Gail needed to be as well.

"It's my fault." Sheila said. "I'm sorry."

Gail was currently highly agitated about the entire situation.

"Cameron can't keep doing this to Savannah." Gail said.

Sheila could see that Gail's personal feelings affected her objectivity about the operation.

"You have it 'real bad' for her, don't you?" Sheila asked.

When Gail looked at Sheila, her eyes glowed red.

"There's nothing wrong with caring about someone." Gail said angrily.

Sheila felt they were probably already enough people angry at her, she didn't want another one on top of it.

"Relax." Sheila said. "I don't want you angry at me as well."

Gail didn't want to sit around and wait. She wanted to have everything ready.

"Let's get this bird checked out and fired up." Gail said. "I want to be ready to go in an instant. I want this copter 'burning and turning'."

The two Metal girls checked over the helicopter and fired the turbine, the rotor soon started to turn. They double checked everything to make sure that the helicopter was fully functional. They were ready to lift off and provide an extraction if necessary.

Now came the hardest part of any operation. They needed to sit there and wait.

She Doesn't Know

As our love was budding
Really starting to grow
You extinguished the flame
Darkening a heart's glow

I'm not blind
You rub it in my face
Maybe it makes you feel good
To cause me disgrace

Into my deepest feelings
You jab your elbow
Our growing love
You carelessly forgo

You think I'm 'not good enough'
I'm the one you displace
Feelings for me you erase
I'm the one you replace

Make all your dirty plans
As away my love you throw
Don't for a second think
She doesn't know

Nobody