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Chapter 21: The Mists Of Battle
The next two years were marked by fierce battles and huge losses on both sides, but Skynet was starting to lose ground. While John and Tyler organized and re-orgarnized, structured and restructured the growing Human Resistance, the confidence of the resistance fighters and the civilians in the human victory grew and grew. John lead Tech-Com. Tyler lead IntelliTech. Their combined forces dealt blow after blow to Skynet’s forces, and it responded by increasing the output of armed units, intensifying the hunt on the remaining humans, reinventing itself and its units.
From things as small as instating a military uniform for the refs[1] to as big as reinforcing bunkers and bases, the Human Resistance had become a well-oiled machine. Civilians volunteered for the most menial of all jobs to take the load off of the refs, now that the humans looked like they could be winning and they were more than willing to help out where they could.
Catherine walked up to her commanding officer for confirmation of a tactical strike he had ordered on a prisoner transport just south of Century. Colonel Tyler Devlin stood at his desk, his fists leaning on the rough surface of the top while he checked the big wall screen for the latest recon updates which flashed up every so often.
“A.T. Alpha and Bravo are in position, sir,” she said firmly.
“A.T. Charlie?” He asked slowly.
“They caught fire, sir. One of the Rooks. The safety was off, the weapon went off by accident and revealed their position,” she answered.
“Which team is the closest?” The look on his face was darkening.
Assault Team Charlie was Sergeant Owens’ team for the night, and one of the Rooks on the team tonight was the Colonel’s daughter.
She looked at the last charts: “That would be Foxtrot, sir. Delta is the closest after them.”
”Deploy Foxtrot. Tell Jenkins to move closer but let him sit tight at fifty,” he instructed her. “Alpha and Bravo should sit tight.”
“Yes, sir.”
She hurried back to her desk and gave out the new instructions to the involved assault teams, with the exception of assault team Charlie. No matter how hard she tried, she could not connect through to team leader Owens to tell her reinforcements were on their way.
She glanced at Tyler who was studying the plans of the raid on the prisoner transport again. He was looking at the options, trying to find a way to bring down the body count.
“Delta in, Jenkins here,” she heard over the line. “We will move to fifty and sit tight. Delta out.”
“B-One in. Affirmative, Delta. Foxtrot in, Delta will move to fifty. B-One out.”
“Foxtrot in. We have a visual of Charlie,” another voice reported over the line.
“B-One in. Update on situation?” She asked fearfully.
“Charlie is surrounded.”
“Assessment?”
“The only one to save them could be the Devil. Foxtrot out.”
“Alpha in. We heard. We can be there in four,” a woman’s voice reported in before Catherine could react.
“B-One in. Ma’am,” Catherine switched from speaker to headphone. “Sit tight.”
“Is he staring at the wall screen?”
Catherine looked over her shoulder: “No, ma’am. He left the command center.”
“Alpha’s moving in,” the woman said matter-of-factly.
“Ma’am? He won’t like it,” she muttered.
“It’s his kid in the crossfire,” the woman responded.
“I’m sure he’s well aware of that fact, ma’am,” she stated, looking up when the door to the command center was opened again.
In walked Tyler, dressed in his standard combat uniform. She smiled faintly. Despite the instated military uniform dress code, he had to differ from the rest.
“Uhm, ma’am. It looks like he’s gonna go solo,” she quickly added before he would be within hearing range.
“Goddamnit!”
“You want to tell him to sit tight, ma’am?” She asked.
“Like he’ll listen.”
“Probably not, ma’am. But you said it yourself… It’s his kid in the crossfire.”
She looked at him while he uploaded the necessary information to his communication system. She had always thought that he had to be the craziest son of a bitch who had ever walked the earth, but in the past two years his insanity had grown and grown. He was known to walk the day, which came down to him going out during broad daylight and made him an easy target but he always came home.
The most wondrous of his changes was that he could sustain injuries that would kill any other human and completely recover from it within a few days. A deep wound one night would be a new scar the next. She knew that he had almost died two years ago, only surviving by a miracle.
During his down-time on Base he was an entirely different person too. Before he could go on rants about the stupidity of the troops, but now he was laidback and did not let the pressure get to him. The few times he had looked like he could blow a fuse, he had gone out only to return a few hours later with a few metal skulls and a handful of chips.
She had asked Sarah about those changes a few times but the only answer she had ever gotten was a slight shrug of the shoulder. All the while Sarah had to know what had happened to him. Sarah and Tyler were recon partners, best friends, lovers, and for some reason Catherine thought that they were something of husband and wife too.
A wedding and marriage weren’t the same thing as in the old world. In the old world there would have been a lot of buzz, a big ceremony with the exchange of vows and rings. In the new world it was as simple as the exchange of dog tags. Marriage in the traditional way held no more meaning, no more painful divorces, just returning the dog tags and it would all be over.
A few months ago, after Tyler had gotten him into El Mercado in Boyle Heights to help prisoners escape, she had called Sarah to her desk to discuss a recon report that had worried her. When Sarah had leaned over to check the report on the small computer screen, Catherine could have sworn that it had not been ‘Gen. S.J. Connor, G-C-0-0-1-7-2’ on the little metal plate but ‘Col. T.J. Devlin, J-S-4-9-7-2-8’.
Nevertheless she had only seen it in a flash, or maybe it had been just wishful thinking. Before she had the chance to check it, Sarah had already tugged it away. Not that it would surprise her: Tyler and Sarah had been a couple for eight years now. Even if the definition of marriage had changed after the disappearance of the old world, it showed that they were genuinely committed to each other.
The past two years had brought another change, between Tyler and the O’Conlin – girl. He had tried to let go off the drill instructor attitude towards the girl and tried to act more like a father. In some areas the changes had been successful, in other areas they had been nothing short of a disaster. Tyler was a fighter, not a father, but at least he tried. Catherine’s father had never tried.
“Be safe, sir,” she said when it looked like he was ready to go out.
“Ryan,” he motioned her to come over.
“Sir?”
“Keep me informed on that area,” he told her, pointing at a northern area on the large wall screen.
She frowned: the area was nowhere near where A.T. Charlie was pinned down.
“You suspect something, sir?”
“I’m not sure yet,” he answered before checking his battlefield equipment one last time.
Tyler stood on top of a huge pile of rubble and slowly turned a full circle to take in the numerous battlefields all around him. Thick mists of battle reached for the sky. The sky was filled with droves of a.r.u.’s.
For a moment, he thought about hitching a ride, immediately dismissing it. He had gone out to save Sergeant Owens and her team, not to have fun.
He hooked his sunglasses up to his communication gear and read the latest input. No storm coming in the quadrant he had told Ryan to keep an eye on as of yet. It weren’t really sunglasses, it was a little invention he had worked on for a few months, designed to keep informed on the latest recon reports, added a few features and it had become a handy little thing. Switching from regular view to infra-red to nightvision to binoculars at one touch. Had the other Tyler taken the time to invent such helpful gadgets?
During the years of war, the thought of the other Tyler had begun to fade, but since he had been infected by the nanoattrioids, the other Tyler had been lurking in the back of his mind. He hadn’t gone on an insane rampage yet, but he felt like a ticking time bomb, ready to go off any second.
Forcing himself to stay cool equalled forcing the nano’s to keep calm and not rear their ugly little metal heads. So far he had managed not to go violently insane.
He would have headaches, like his mind was being severely shocked by currents of electricity, and he would go out, whether it being day or night, to kill a few metal heads with his bare hands. It brought down the increasing pressure on his mind, never leaving him completely. With the nanoattrioids deeply embedded into his brain and nerve system he knew that the machine would never leave him ever again.
“Lucy,” Robin motioned her team leader to come over to her side. “Ghost’s been signalling us with a flash light,” she pointed to a distant ruin.
Lucy heaved a deep sigh: “What she want?”
“She asked if hell has broken loose yet,” she answered. “I don’t understand.”
“It means that we fucked up,” Lucy snorted. “I should’ve known better than to bring a couple of Rooks… I never expected you would do such a stupid thing, O’Conlin.”
The harshness in Lucy’s voice sent a stab of sadness through her and she felt her lower lip tremble: “I said I was sorry,” she mumbled upset.
“Well, sorry doesn’t cut it,” Lucy grumbled. “Of all the Rooks, it had to be you, and now we’re fucked.”
The light flashed on and off, giving a new message: T_h_e_d_e_v_i_l_i_s_c_o_m_i_n_g.
She wrote it down quickly and read the words aloud: “The Devil is coming?”
Lucy snorted with contempt: “That’s our only luck tonight. Any other team catching fire, and he would have left them to die. We’re in luck,” she said sarcastically. “Daddy’s coming to bail you out.”
“Well, I didn’t ask him, did I?” She suddenly found her composure back and glared at Lucy.
“No, you didn’t. It’s just convenient,” Lucy answered haughtily. “But you know as well as I do that he’s not coming for us, but only to keep her from entering the fight.”
As quickly as she had regained her composure, as quickly it disappeared again: “You lie!” She exclaimed with a trembling voice.
“Of course I lie. That’s why I told your daddy to spend time with you, so at least you would know him… In my time you hated his guts because he was never there, because he was a hard and distant man who would not give you the time of day. He was the great and forever missed Devil, and you were just his kid. Always living in his shadow, always reminded of the man he had been… You fucked up, kid.”
She stared at Lucy in shock. It was true that she had a difficult relationship with her father. He was indeed a cold and distant man, especially when you had done something wrong, but she knew that he had his good qualities too. He had taught her a.r.u.-surfing. He would come and tell her about the old world from time to time, despite the fact that he wasn’t a man of many words. He would limit what he said to a minimum but challenged her at the same time by using difficult words that could be considered outdated in the new world.
“I thought you were my friend,” she mumbled confused, keeping her eyes on the distant ruins in case there would be a new message from Ghost.
“I am your friend. On Base. But out here, it’s an entirely different ball game, girly. I cannot in good conscience let a team get wiped out because we’re friends. So listen and understand: in the field, I’m your team leader and on base I’m your friend. Is that understood, Rook O’Conlin?”
“Yes, Lucy,” she muttered intimidated.
She caught the eyebrow rise Lucy sent her and she immediately corrected herself: “Yes, Sergeant Owens.”
She looked at her mentor and smiled shyly. Could he tell? Could he tell that she had a teenage crush on him? Or was he oblivious to it?
She had known him since her first stay in Century after she had been caught trying to find some food for her family. He had called her Alley in a such a heart-warming and fatherly fashion in an attempt to comfort her.
Nevertheless she was only 16 and he was already 32. Twice her age. He had seen so much already, lived through so much already. Just like the man who had helped her escape from Forrester.
But unlike the man who had jumped ship with her, he did not scare her. He was a withdrawn man, who would have a brooding look on his face almost all of the time, and she always wondered what went on in his mind, what decisions he was contemplating. It had to be so hard to make decisions about life and death, about loss and victory, in a place like this. She couldn’t hardly remember anything from the old world, and what she could remember came to her in shards of dreams and nightmares.
It had to be extremely lonely and difficult to be John Connor. She looked at him again and felt countless butterflies fly nervously in all directions in her stomach. Underneath all the scars hid a handsome man, a caring man whose life had been determined by the future he had been told about by people who had come back through time to protect him and his mother.
His mother, the legendary Sarah Connor, sounded like a person to fear and never to say no to, but she had gone missing in action days after Judgment Day. His good friend, Colonel Tyler Devlin, hardly ever stopped by at Home Plate and defied his orders every chance he got. She knew that something had happened between John and Tyler, that had caused a rift between them on a personal level. She had asked John about it but he had never given her a straight answer, only that he had done an unforgiveable thing to Tyler.
“What the hell?!” Lucy exclaimed when two explosions close by threw her back against the rubble wall. “Everybody alright?”
“Yeah,” Robin, who had been only three feet away from her, coughed.
“I’m alright,” Private Lamont breathed a little to her left.
One by one the members of her team confirmed that they were fine. Thick smoke rose to the sky and she could hardly see anything. She could hear the distinct sound of metal colliding with metal. It could not be a h.c.c.u.[2] gone good, could it? There were a few infiltration units on Base, shut down, waiting to be reprogrammed by Colonel Devlin, all T-600’s. Rubber balls.
The smoke thickened as the wind blew it over them, and she thought that she could make out a huge form coming through the mists of battle. Quickly she pointed her plasma rifle at the figure, only to discover that it was Colonel Devlin holding his plasma rifle in one hand, a metal bar in the other.
“Sir?” She asked impressed.
“Like you didn’t know I was coming,” he growled. “Situation update?”
“We managed to hold the cans off, sir,” she quickly answered. “But we’re surrounded on all sides.”
Sarah lowered her binoculars and sighed annoyed. The bellowing smoke made it impossible to see what was going on at Charlie’s sector. She had seen him approach and assess the situation. Now it was impossible to see what went down.
“You okay, ma’am?” Corporal Lee asked concerned.
“I’m fine,” she grumbled, bringing the binoculars to her eyes again.
“What the hell is going on down there?” Corporal Lee enquired.
“How the fuck should I know? It’s a goddamn smoke screen,” she growled annoyed.
“It’s him, isn’t it, ma’am? The Devil, he who walks the day?”
“What is this? Twenty questions?”
“Sorry, ma’am,” he muttered intimidated.
She didn’t have the patience for this. He was out there, trying to save team Charlie. It should have been so easy. Just a standard raid on a prisoner transport. In and out. He had stayed in to analyse recon and battle reports since whispers in the tunnel had said that Skynet was up to something. This would not have happened if he had been there right from the start.
She wanted to blame Sergeant Owens because she had seen who the Rook was who had messed up. O’Conlin was his daughter, and she felt it was her duty to keep an eye on her if he wasn’t around.
She shook her head wearily. Of all the Rooks on Owens’ team, it had to be O’Conlin who had made that costly mistake.
“No, Reese,” John answered darkly.
“But I feel he will be a real asset to my crew,” Derek stated firmly. “Palters has proven that he can handle himself in battle.”
“He’s a packrat,” John grumbled. “What the fuck does he know about battle? Only because he happened to be there and helped you and your brother out because you’d gotten yourself into trouble at the Hills again.”
“Theo Palters is a good kid, sir,” Derek said convinced.
John shook his head. How could he ever explain to Derek that Palters would be the one who would bring down the secret Base of IntelliTech because of a crush? That Palters would betray all who lived at IT Base in exchange for his life? That Palters would kill his mother and leave his friend to fight for his life again?
“Are you still seeing Baxter?” He asked.
“Yes, sir,” Derek grinned sheepishly. “I asked her to wear my dog tag but she said that she needed time to think about it.”
“Then no, you cannot add Palters to your team.”
“But, sir, I don’t understand. With all due respect, sir, but what does have Palters have to do with me seeing Robin? Did something happen between them?”
“Not yet,” John answered cryptically. “Not for another two years,” he added in an inaudible whisper.
“Sir? Are you asking me to choose between my girlfriend and someone who could be a damn fine fighter?”
John took a deep breath and slowly nodded: “I guess I am.”
He knew that he was forcing another chance in the course of the future, but he had to. If he didn’t then in two years IntelliTech Base would fall, his mother would die and the Devil would be reborn. Without Robin Baxter to catch his eye, Theo Palters would not follow her to the secret base and he could never betray them.
“Sir, you cannot possibly ask that from me,” Derek exclaimed frustrated.
“Fine, add him to your team, keep Baxter as your girlfriend, but know that I will hold you responsible for what happens from now on,” John said calmly, already having made up his mind.
He knew his Uncle’s stubborn streak. He had seen it when he had still been a teen. There was only one way to stop this part from the future from happening. He knew that Tyler knew the name of the traitor of IT as well, and he would tell him of the latest addition to Reese’s team. Enemy fire, friendly fire, the line wasn’t always clear.
Robin listened at the door for a few seconds. Her father had called off the entire operation and they had returned home just about an hour ago. She had heard Lucy take the blame for what had gone wrong, but guilt had started eating away at her. She was the daughter of Colonel Devlin. She was expected to do the right thing.
Now she had to make sure that she wasn’t interrupting something. It was something she had learned in an embarrassing way when she had walked in on her father and his girlfriend on a late morning. It had been one of the most embarrassing moments in her life. Just like now she had wanted to talk to him about something she had done wrong.
She checked again: only low voices, talking. Hesitantly she knocked on the door and waited for the gruffly spoken “Enter!” from either one before opening the door and entering the room.
Her father was sitting on the bed, shirtless, while Sarah was tending to his new set of wounds. She winced when he hissed of pain.
“Serves you right, Ty,” Sarah chastised him. “Stop taking on taking tin cans with a metal rod.”
“All work and no play makes Ty a dull boy,” he quipped. “Whaddya want, kid?” He asked, turning towards her suddenly.
“Sir, I don’t know what Lucy told you about what happened,” she answered, looking at the floor.
“Sergeant Owens said that Rook Tanner got startled and pulled the trigger. That it was her fault because she should’ve warned you beforehand.”
“It’s not true, sir. It was me who pulled the trigger, sir,” she whispered.
She kept staring at the floor while she waited for his reaction.
“I see,” he said after a long moment of silence.
His voice was flat, without any emotion.
“I’m sorry, sir. I thought that you should know before-”
“You know that your stupidity just bought me another ticket to Century, don’t you? That at least forty people might die because you were stupid and didn’t think,” he interrupted her. “What the hell were you thinking, Robin? Your goddamn team could’ve been wiped out. Haven’t you learned anything the past few years?”
Tears welled in her eyes: “I’m so sorry, sir,” she said with a trembling voice. “I know I messed up and I’m so sorry.”
“Sorry’s just not good enough, kid… I’m sending you to Home Plate. Maybe C can teach you a thing or two because you obviously don’t want to learn anything from me,” he growled furiously.
“Sir? Dad?” She pleaded with him.
“Dismissed, Rook O’Conlin.”
She wanted to protest. She wanted to beg him to let her stay, to promise him that she would never mess up again, but it would all be to no avail. After wiping the tears from her eyes, she saluted him, turned around and left his room in a hurry.
“Weren’t you a little harsh on the girl?” She heard Sarah ask when she stood still for a second while trying to decide what to do next: pack her things or talk to her friend Lucy, hoping she could comfort her. But Lucy had been less than friendly towards her out on the battlefield, and she did not expect any sympathy from her friend on base. So she turned and headed towards her room.
[1] Resistance fighters
| Chapter 20: Like Father, Unlike Daughter | Chapter 22: History Repeats Itself |
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