It was already getting dark the next day. John and Quin were in a small APC with other soldiers. There were only a dozen of them sitting, crammed inside one truck.
"Picked a name yet?" Quin asked.
"No," John answered. "Not really, but if it's a girl, either Janelle or Kyla. If it's a boy, probably Todd or Kyle."
"Excited?" Quin wondered out loud.
John looked over at Quin with eyes like a deer caught in headlights. "Nervous as all hell," he replied. Even now, I'm questioning if it's a good idea to bring a kid into a world like this. Then I remind myself that someone has to carry on after all this."
The APC slowed to a stop in an alley between two large buildings, one half blown to bits, and the other, abandoned. Everyone stepped out, securing the area as John emerged.
"Kinda a small group of soldiers," Quin said as he stepped out.
Suddenly, the radio on the APC came to life with the sounds of battle. "All DSF teams are engaged. Holding positions." A voice said.
John looked at Quin. "We'll be fine," he said. "As long as the Distraction Strike Forces do their part, we should be joined by at least five other teams."
"For just a minute there," Quin said. "I thought it would just be us, one team."
John smiled and shook his head. "You should know me by now," he replied. "I'm not that crazy."
"You're the paranoid one," Quin said. "Always playing your cards close to his chest 'cause he's afraid of any intel falling into the machine's hands."
John shrugged as he moved from cover to cover with Quin. "Well," he whispered. "I had to tell someone in order to pull this off."
Quin looked through his scope to check for any trouble ahead. He looked at John and used a hand gesture to indicate that it was ok to go on.
John motioned for the rest of his team to move up.
"There are rumors, but I always wanted to ask you," Quin said. "What did you do before the war?"
Looking ahead to the next cover, John answered before moving on. "Nothing."
It wasn't the answer Quin was expecting and left him perplexed, and without clarification until he could join up with John at the next cover. "Nothing?" he asked. "I thought you'd tell me something like, you were always a soldier or did security or something."
John moved on before responding.
At the next cover, both men settled in a bit. Quin again quickly looked through his scope before motioning to the others that everything was clear.
"I didn't do anything," John said, almost regretfully. "I was a drifter, a hobo, nomad."
Quin then noticed that John appeared lost in thought. "Nomad sounds kinda cool," he said.
John scoffed at Quin's remark. "Trust me," he said. "It's not."
"Could have been worse," Quin said. "You could have been a straight-up bum."
John chuckled. "I practically was," he said. "Sometimes I wonder what kind of life I could've given Kate if this war never happened."
"I think she's happy with you no matter what," Quin said. "Ryka talks with her a lot. Talks about having the baby and plans the two of you have."
John closed his eyes and began whispering to himself. "Focus, focus, focus."
"Come on," Quin said. "There are some stairs right over there. Let's find you a good lookout point."
John followed Quin to the second floor. He used his binoculars to scan the area outside, as Quin used the scope on his rifle. It would have been a nice building if it was all there.
"I see one," Quin whispered. "About a hundred yards out, ten o'clock."
John looked in the direction Quin indicated. He spotted a Terminator holding its position as it monitored the area.
It was an obviously newly constructed building, resembling a trailer home in size.
"Isn't it obvious," Quin asked. "Little building like that out in the middle with no other structure around it for a hundred yards?"
"Intel, says it's there," John said. "Take'em."
John continued looking at the Terminator as Quin took aim. He could swear the killing machine turned its head to look directly at him as a bullet tore through its skull, causing it to collapse into a heap of metal.
"Got'em," Quin said, "Area seems clear now."
John set the binoculars down in disbelief. "It saw me." He said.
"Nah,' Quin said. "It was just looking in your direction."
John shook his head. "No, it knew I was right here." He said. The feeling he then had made him so uncomfortable he turned his head to look around. Along the wall near him, he spotted one of those domes that cover security cameras. He quickly spun his rifle around to shoot it while getting up and grabbing Quin to then run back downstairs.
Quin was proud of his 'work' and was confused by John's sudden urgency to rejoin other members of the team.
The emergency channel on their radios came to life. "…DSF teams. Terminators are disengaging."
John quickly plugged in an earpiece to his radio and put it in before saying. "This is John Connor, DSF teams, engage and hold the Terminators at all costs. Tech-Com, look around and be on the lookout for any surveillance nearby. I just took out a security camera that had eyes on me."
Quin looked on in disbelief. "Are you nuts," he asked. "You just used your real name. If the machines are listening…"
"Doesn't matter now," John said. "Camera saw me. They already know I'm here."
The ground surrounding the small, newly constructed building began to rise at its north, south, east, and west points. To John's frustration, watching with his binoculars, they turned out to be big holding pens for dozens of Terminators to start walking out of.
"All Tech-com units," John called on his radio. "Engage the Terminators. I don't see any HKs yet, so I want all snipers to the front."
Elsewhere, not far, Shawn ran into an APC and got on the radio. "DSF to Tech-Com, flying HKs are disengaging and headed for you. The ground HKs have taken up a rearguard action, and the bots are trying to fall back."
Indeed, DSF teams everywhere found themselves fighting an increasingly easy battle only because the Terminators weren't trying to fight back.
John got back on the radio. "DSF, stick with the Terminators as best you can, follow them in. Focus on the ground HKs. Snipers, push forward. I want the rest of Tech-Com to hold position and be on the lookout for flying HKs, engage and destroy."
Shawn ran back out of the APC to join other Resistance soldiers in chasing down any Terminator. Everyone still had to be extremely careful and remain behind cover. It was an unusual order. Typically, they'd be told to defend a certain position, recon an area, or attack a specific location. Now, they were being asked to give chase, stay engaged, and kill any Terminator they found.
One ground HK began to unknowingly pass by a group of Resistance soldiers Shawn managed to join up with
Shawn got on the radio. "Shawn to any DSF Eagle with eyes on the HK near the plaza.." He called.
After a moment, a response came. "… Eagle to Shawn, reporting. We're following the HK."
Shawn grabbed and armed a canister bomb before speaking back. "I need you to distract this thing for me. Do you hear? Pull its attention to the north."
"Got it!" came the reply. "Drawing its attention to the north now."
A large amount of fire began to pelt the HK on one side. It was finding it difficult to shoot at any of the many moving targets. All of its shots kept missing the intended target.
Shawn took a deep breath and began to run. He ran almost alongside it, keeping a ruined wall and debris between them.
With the HK distracted to one side, dealing with so many Resistance fighters, it never noticed Shawn tossing a canister bomb right in its path. The massive machine didn't know what hit it when it suddenly went up in flames.
It was a small victory for Shawn and the rest, they knew there was a lot of work to do and it would be a long night before they were done.
Quin took out one Terminator with his sniper rifle as John finished speaking to another Resistance soldier. John then followed the soldier a short distance to see him point out a path and then look back at Quin. "Come on," he said."The machine knows where I'm at. I need to switch locations. It's not safe here with it pressing this spot so hard."
"Incoming!" someone shouted.
John ducked with Quin jumping on top of him as a missile struck the area nearby. It took a moment for everyone to recover. Other Resistance soldiers helped John and Quin back up.
"Your orders, Sir?" a soldier asked.
Quin was always impressed by John's ability to think under such high-stress situations.
"Take everyone," John said. "Link up with Tech-Com Beta. Quin and I will go alone the other way and join Tech-Com Zeta."
The soldier grabbed John by the shoulder. "Are you sure about that?" he asked.
John glanced at Quin and nodded. "Yeah," he replied. "The Terminators will never guess it's just me and one other person. It'll likely assume I'm at the center of the heaviest fighting."
Quin looked for a way to go."We better move then." He said.
"Good luck." The soldier said before carrying on.
The plan had worked as both men were able to crawl a good distance with no close encounters. Quin gave up a few easy shots for the sake of discretion. Instead, he sat back and watched a SAM go up and swat a flying HK out of the sky.
John lay prone nearby, searching the area with his binoculars. "Quin," he hissed. "Check it out, I think we're close."
As Quin crawled over and used his rifle's scope, the light on his radio came on.
John noticed it and pointed it out to his friend.
Quin spotted several Resistance soldiers close by and used his radio to call them. "Tech-Com Zeta, this is Sext, I'm just south of you, and have Football with me."
John stifled his laugh and followed Quin in after Tech-Com Zeta gave clearance.
Now, relatively safe, John conducted the battle from a new position all night. It was a hard-fought battle the Resistance had to win. Quin was never far away and even he managed to take a few Terminators out.
The machine's lack of tactics would be its eventual downfall. Actually, the only tactic it ever used was to overwhelm the enemy with massive numbers. It never expected the attack, believing it to be a complete secret. The defenders it had was sizeable and would have been enough if it weren't for the unpredictable nature of human ingenuity. This was why it invented the TDE in the first place.
In the end, the humans would be victorious. The ground was littered with bodies from both sides and the wreckage of HKs was strewn all over the place.
John sat down and turned a few dials on the radio before speaking. "This is John Connor. All sectors are reporting clear fields and skies. Put another victory on the board ladies and gentlemen. This battle is over."