Chapter 1626

Moon

The Metal girls at the live fire shooting range didn't need any training with any of the weapons or vehicles. They didn't want to create an issue. They all accepted the attendant to ride along with them and 'instruct' them on how to operate the vehicles and fire the weapons. They made sure the attendants all could see they were very proficient at everything they did with minimal 'instruction'.

The girls were all given time to drive the armored personnel carriers. It wasn't too hard for them to do since they all drove the tank in the parking lot at the indoor shooting range. If anything, it seemed the acceleration was much better with the APC than it was with the tank. The tank was much heavier since it was better armored and larger.

Ally, Laura, and Holly-Cam were in a M113 with a Mark 19 grenade launcher.

Cammy, Mary, and Tricia were in an APC with an M134 minigun.

Sheila and Leticia were in an M113 which was equipped with an M60 and an M249. They were both considered machine guns.

They were taken to the shooting range where they all tried each of the weapons between the three armored personnel carriers. They could hear the loud report of a cannon nearby. They were told it was Young Jesse and Hanna-Camille. They all wanted to get over to where they were at and see what the heavy fire power looked like.

After everyone tried all the various weapons, they loaded back into their M113s and headed for the firing range with the tank.

Sheila and Ally both got a little aggressive with their driving.

The instructors were informed anything the girls broke or damaged would be paid for several times over. They didn't think it would hurt to be able to purchase a little extra equipment if necessary. There were more APCs on the way from a Southwest Asian country. It seemed like free money to the country since the equipment was given to them. It was given by a nation which was willing to borrow money, and then give it to them for free. They could turn around and sell the old weapons and equipment as they were given additional new equipment for free.

Hanna-Camille and Young Jesse practiced driving the tank and firing the cannon. They knew the rest of the girls were nearby and would arrive soon.

Young Jesse wasn't sure she would want to be in a tank on the battlefield. It gave good protection against small arms fire. It also seemed very restrictive to her. With the proliferation of anti-tank weapons now available, from handheld units, to 'Kamikaze Drones', a tank seemed more like a target to her than an asset. There were plenty of videos online of a large Eastern European country which attacked a smaller Eastern European country. It seemed to her a lot of armor ended up as scrap metal alongside of the road where it was pushed out of the way after it was destroyed. She would much rather be in an aircraft over the battlefield, where she could pick her targets, and how to attack them.

It made her think back on the A-37 Dragonfly, or Super Tweet, they viewed at Castle Air Museum. With eight hard points and a minigun, she could really wreck havoc on the battlefield with different types of rocket launchers and missiles. It was small and maneuverable. It would allow her to get in close and personal. She needed to refocus as she could hear the sound of tracked vehicles in the vicinity.

It wasn't long before Hanna-Camille and Young Jesse could see three APCs approaching. It appeared as if they were racing.

"I bet Sheila and Ally are behind what's going on." Young Jesse said. "Savannah has told me all about their antics."

Savannah also informed her Sheila and Ally were madly in love with each other but would never admit it, especially in public.

The three armored personnel carriers neared the firing range at a more sedate speed.

Two of them pulled up on the right side of the M60 tank. One pulled up on the left side of it.

It was immediately clear they could concentrate a lot of firepower on a location if they chose to.

The girls all greeted each other again. They entered the tank in pairs. They practice driving it around the armored personnel carriers and firing the cannon.

Young Jesse and Hanna-Camille tried the weapons on the other armored personnel carriers.

They were able to fire a wheeled cannon. Another hit was the Vulcan M61 20MM cannon.

There was a separate revetment nearby.

Sheila took Leticia over to it. There was something specific she wanted to try.

Leticia watched as they brought it out and double checked it.

"This unit is heavy." The attendant said. "It weighs forty five pounds. It looks like it's about half of your weight."

Sheila knew she wouldn't have a problem. It could weigh ten times as much and not give her any trouble.

"I've got it covered, love." Sheila said. "Let's get it strapped on."

She couldn't help but think about other things she 'strapped on' before.

Leticia watched as Sheila effortlessly handled the weapon and strapped it to her back. There appeared to be several canisters associated with it.

"It looks very dangerous." Leticia said.

Sheila smiled as she made a few more adjustments.

"Danger is my middle name." Sheila said.

Leticia was pretty sure so were about twenty other names.

"What is it?" Leticia asked. "It reminds me of scuba tanks."

Some of the other girls begin to drift over. They heard about the new weapon. They understood it operated a little differently from the actual weapon itself for the purpose of the range. It would give them a crude simulation of the actual weapon.

Sheila laughed.

"I can guarantee anyone who I use this on, would wish they were in a location where they would need scuba tanks." Sheila said. "Things are going to heat up around here."

The attendant made sure all of the girls were at a safe distance and gave Sheila the okay to approach the target area.

A tongue of flame shot out of the nozzle of the weapon.

The Metal girls were impressed. They all wanted to fire it as well.

The human girls were a little bit more wary. It looked dangerous. Using the firearms and cannons were one thing, having a tongue of flame directly in front of them was another thing.

"I've seen those in movies." Mary said. "I didn't think they still used them."

Ally did think it mattered for their purpose.

"It's an M9 flamethrower." Ally said. "They aren't used in modern warfare. I'll try it. You can too later on if you want. You can see how everything goes. If it doesn't blow up with one of us using it, there shouldn't be any trouble when it's your turn."

The human girls all looked even a little more nervous with her statement. The thought of being on fire seemed as painful as it did terminal.

Leticia moved up next to Sheila and tried it.

Hanna-Camille tried it.

Young Jesse did as well.

"This is so cool." Young Jesse said. "Even if it's a little hot, it's still cool."

The other human girls did as well when the Metal girl they were with tried it.

The girls finished up on the range and reboarded their armored personnel carriers.

They headed back towards the office building. They were all through with the practice weapons. The weapons were all out of ammunition anyway. The girls used it all.

"Where do we go from here?" Young Jesse asked.

The Metal girls all looked at each other. It seems like they were in a good location for some real life practice.

"Hopefully, it will be to find some live targets." Sheila said. "Las Vegas is ripe with the Syndicate."

Cammy agreed. She felt there was a score to settle from a couple of different time periods.

"It's also loaded with every type of vice, and everything illegal." Cammy said. "We can go after the ones who pedal it. They're the ones who create the problems for everyone else."

Young Jesse was ready to step it up if necessary. It would allow her to hone her skills in a real life situation. She needed to be prepared for the future.

"I'll go for some live practice." Young Jesse said. "They won't be alive for very long."

Leticia, Mary, and Laura all hoped Sheila and Cammy were joking. For some reason, they didn't think they were.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Temporal Mission:

Past Timeline:

November 26 1963

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Young Allison looked at the bleak landscape around them as they followed the railroad tracks on Route 466. Everything was a light gray color.

"I think they should have renamed the next location Moon or Luna instead of its actual name." Young Allison said. "Everything around here looks wasted."

Cameron looked around the area. She thought there would need to be craters to have the same appearance as the Lunar surface.

"Monolith is an unusual name for a community." Cameron said. "This isn't a community. In this case, it was named after the original company name of the cement factory and associated mine. All of the environmental damage in this time period is from the production of cement."

Young Allison liked how the railroad tracks were right next to the road. She knew it was double track all the way through Tehachapi until they reached the area known as Cable. It was when the tunnels started. There were originally seventeen of them. She saw a sign which indicated Route 466 was also known as East Tehachapi Road on the section they were now driving on.

"Can you see any trains coming?" Young Allison asked.

Cameron looked ahead towards the community of Tehachapi. She decided to use the geographic terms in relation to the terrain, rather than the railroad designation. The east and west designations could become confusing based on a geographic area.

"There's an eastbound train coming." Cameron said

Young Allison was a little surprised when Cameron dropped it back into second gear and got on the gas. Cameron shot around two other cars. She noticed the railroad tracks crossed over Route 466.

Cameron went over the crossing. She could see the headlight of the locomotive approaching. There was no oscillating light. She knew it wasn't a Southern Pacific train. They went out of their way to put safety lights on all of their Mainline locomotives. A sizable amount of their switchers were equipped as well, especially the ones which would start delivery in a few more years. The last of the SW1200 units, and all of the SW1500 units would be so equipped.

They cleared the crossing with time to spare. The cars they passed didn't make it. They needed to stop for the train.

The air horn sounded loudly alongside them. The railroad tracks now parallel them on their right side.

Young Allison could see there were several SD24 units on the head end. She counted four of them. The original paint scheme was often referred to as the 'Zebra Stripe' variant. It was originally black with white stripes. It was replaced by black with silver stripes. The units in front of her were painted with a yellow nose and rear end. She remembered the paint scheme was referred to as the 'book end' paint scheme in later years. There was a large yellow frame stripe. There was a thin yellow stripe which ran down the side of the locomotive above the name. 'Santa Fe' was in large yellow billboard letters on the side of it. She thought it looked much better than the earlier Santa Fe F Units they saw.

She didn't really care for the stylized blue and yellow 'Warbonnet' scheme used later on. She understood it was a nod to the red and silver passenger scheme for the locomotives. It was still a decade away.

The train consisted mostly of boxcars with a few of the other types of cars mixed in. It didn't take long for them to spot the caboose.

"I counted seventy five cars." Young Allison said. "I don't think it looped itself. If it did, it was just barely. I saw a few of the boxcars and some of the flat cars were fifty feet in length."

Cameron figured if they had a set of helpers, which they would cut off in Tehachapi, they probably would have just looped themselves.

"I think it was close." Cameron said. "Southern Pacific generally runs longer, slower, freight trains. Santa Fe tries to run shorter, faster ones. It allows the Southern Pacific trains to stay on the mainline and not take the sightings as often."

She wondered if the Santa Fe trains were generally shorter because they knew they would be given the siding on the joint trackage by the Southern Pacific dispatchers when it was time for a meet.

Young Allison could see they were almost to the small city of Tehachapi.

"Tehachapi isn't very far from Monolith." Young Allison said. "I think we've only gone about a mile and a half since we passed it. It doesn't look like the surface of the moon around here anymore either."

There was a lot of cross traffic ahead through the community. It was the way a lot of the Routes were until they were converted into freeways. A freeway was usually a death blow to the small communities along the way. They simply got left in the dust. Life passed them by on the Interstate, at a high rate of speed.

Cameron was aware the wind blew to the east near their location. If it would normally blow to the west, everything towards Tehachapi would be covered with the same gray cement dust. It wasn't. It was the reason most of the eyesore wind turbines were situated to the east of Tehachapi later on when they were installed.

Young Allison could see there was at least one more train up ahead. It appeared to be stopped. There were several tracks alongside them now. She spotted something else directly ahead.

"I see the tracks for the wye still go across the street." Young Allison said.

Cameron knew they would remain in place for another decade.

"The location of the wye shows up in satellite photos in modern times, even after it's been gone for half of a century." Cameron said. "You can see the giant water tank up ahead. It was moved here from Soledad Canyon after the 1952 earthquake toppled the original one which was here. The water tank still remains in modern times. It's part of a small city park. It is painted a light gray color with the city name on it."

Young Allison observed it before. She saw it from the air on more than one occasion as well. The water tank was little more than a fancy billboard in modern times.

"I know it was often referred to as the Tehachapi Earthquake." Young Allison said. "I think it was about 7.3 on the Richter Scale. A 7.3 shaker is a pretty sizable earthquake, even if this was a remote area a decade ago. I know it was felt all throughout the Southland."

Cameron hoped to be able to explore some of the damage which was still quite visible after the earthquake. It would be much more visible in 1963 than it was in modern times.

"Skynet attempted to trigger 'The Big One' more than once." Cameron said. "They never pulled it off."

Young Allison quickly glanced over at Cameron. She was aware Cameron used nuclear weapons more than once on her own to bring down a Skynet mainframe deep in the earth. Savannah and her also did the same thing. Summer was heavily involved in one of the episodes. She wasn't physically there, even if she orchestrated it.

"Whenever we used nuclear weapons to stop Skynet, it proved quite successful." Young Allison said. "It was the only way to be sure."

Cameron suppressed a glitch impulse. She was almost terminated several times when she needed to use nuclear weapons. It always bothered her how Savannah stayed with her when she couldn't use the energy bubble to escape because of sheath damage. Savannah said she would never abandon her. She didn't, even when it appeared both of them were about to be terminated. She needed to push the thoughts from her mind. There was much more local traffic on the highway now.

"Tehachapi Airport is just on the other side of the tracks." Cameron said. "The train is blocking it from our view."

Young Allison flew over it several times. She'd never landed there.

"It's a short runway." Young Allison said.

The train stopped at Summit was a Southern Pacific train.

"I think they're going to cut out one set of helpers." Cameron said.

Young Allison looked over at the locomotives on the point as they neared.

"I can see there are two SD9 units." Young Allison said. "There are four GP9 units behind them. I can see there's a crew in the lead locomotive as well as in the third locomotive. I think the two SD9 units are front end helpers."

Cameron agreed with the assessment.

"I think they're going to stay on the point until they reach Mojave for the extra dynamic break ability they will be able to lend to the train on the downhill segment." Cameron said. "It looks like a long train to me. There could be a mid train helper as well as a rear end helper."

Young Allison figured they'd find out soon enough. She looked at the giant water tank as they passed it. There was a set of mid train helpers. It was two more SD9 units. There were two more SD9 units cut in just ahead of the caboose. It was the rear end helper.

Moon

No one wants to be
The one others try to lampoon
They would rather face them
With their own harpoon

Often from criticism and ridicule
No one can always remain immune
To be able to do so
They would need to be in a cocoon

Sometimes one wants another
To be near them and croon
When they actually do
It's the wrong tune

Out of a rough shape they create
The results are what they've hewn
The pieces left behind
Across the landscape are strewn

They never get what's wanted
No matter how much they prune
They would have better luck
If they tried to catch the moon

Nobody