Welcome to Graysville

A tennis ball came bumping across the dimly lit hangar floor, Vera shot off like a rocket and catches it before the third bump and runs to the person who threw it. Mathilda said, "Wanna grab some food?". The question didn't quite make sense to Major Green, obviously she wasn't asking him out on a date because there was nothing flirtatious in her voice. "Not quite hungry yet, Mathilda, it's only an hour since the kitchen closed. What do you have in mind?". "I was thinking about this idea that the Grays are looking quite well-fed lately and I'm also tired of eating junk half the time so I ran this past the Field Marshal and he said we don't have enough warm bodies to send a major assault on a mere hunch. I did get permission to take someone along on a two-man scouting mission though.", she explained. "So you're asking if I want to come along? The answer is yes. I have already got some rest in preparation for being on the night watch on the perimeter defence, but I think Lieutenant Stevens can handle it alone. We meet at defence tower Bravo in twenty minutes." Twenty minutes later also coincided with dusk. Major Green watched as darkness shrouded Serrano Point in gloomy shadows. Skynet knew that the Resistance was here and three major assaults later also had found out that dislodging the Resistance from Serrano Point took more than it currently had. Lieutenant Steven's idea of building king-size version of the terminator plasma rifles and then powering them straight from the nuclear reactor had kept this place safe. That idea and the lives of countless Resistance fighters to capture and defend this place. The seismographs that every nuclear plant has in order to detect earthquakes had forewarned the resistance that Skynet had tried digging itself in. Mathilda walked up to him and nodded that she was good to go. It was going to be a dirty job, walking and crawling through the remains of old sewers, cable tunnels and subterranean waterworks of the Old Life towards the Gray camp. The Major sighed, knowing that the clean days of humanity were long gone. It was a struggle working your way through tunnels that had seen nuclear blasts unsettling the very ground thy were built in, machine wreckage and dark shapes on the ground giving testimony to underground battles fought, won and lost. Both the Major and Mathilda had been to Graysville once before, when following Grays taking some people they had captured, although that time they had arrived overground. Through binoculars they had watched a machine at the gate by some sort of transport vehicle. The injured, the elderly and the children were loaded on the transport, everyone that Skynet had no use for. Now they were about 20-30 minutes walk away. Time to go top-side as the Grays had started to put all kinds of booby traps in the tunnels in the vicinity of their camps. They came to a man-hole in the roof of the tunnel. Silently Mathilda indicated that it was time to exit the netherworld. With practiced movements The Major assembled the mini periscope which had until now had been strapped to the side of his backpack. It became a narrow tube about as tall as a man. Mathilda had her rifle at the ready and the Major extended the periscope up the man-hole. Nothing, no shouts, no running steps. No grenades coming bouncing down the man-hole. The Major bent down and pressed his face against the eye-piece of the makeshift periscope, twisting the periscope around and scanning the surroundings above. He decided it looked quiet enough to risk sticking his head up. The periscope was quickly dismantled and the Major scaled the old rusty ladder leading out into the open as quietly as he could. The world above consisted of what once had been a road but now heaps of rubble lined the edges of it, they were the remains of the buildings that had once lined the road. Mathilda and the Major started running cautiously towards the nearest two-story building that was still standing, maybe they could get a better view from one floor up. Access to the roof of the building turned out to be easy so Mathilda took her position up there, the moonlight that before had forced them to struggle through the netherworld to avoid detection now came in handy when close to their target. "Time to split up" the Major said and Mathilda nodded. They had done this in the past, the Major sneaking up close to their reconnaissance target and Mathilda providing cover with the sniper rifle. They both took a sweep with their magnifying visors across the area. "Do you see that odd shape near that building over there?" Mathilda spoke softly. "It looks a bit like a machine but it's hard to make out" she continued, while the Major swung around and looked in the same direction. "I see it too, it could be worth a look". The Major started to work his way down to the ground level again, the strange machine behind the building to his front left, Graysville somewhere to the front right and Mathilda keeping an eye and rifle on things behind him. Perched on another of the endless heaps of rubble, he took a quick glance at the big machine with the night vision mode of his visor. The shape and nature of the machine was perfectly clear now, even though it was something he had not expected to ever see again. It was the chopper they had left with the Troglodytes, only now it looked different with strange pieces of machinery having been bolted on to it. A figure was standing right next to it, absolutely still. It had to be Seven, the reprogrammed metal from Whidbey. "It's the chopper we left at Whidbey, Mathilda. They've rebuilt it and flown it over here for Connor knows what reason. Their metal is guarding it". An explosion was heard from his right in the Graysville direction and the Major saw the metal guarding the chopper starting to scan his surroundings. It dashed up on top of another heap of rubble, now only a grenade throw's distance away from the Major who now ducked. "Mathilda, are you watching this? Can you see the metal?" he whispered into his mouthpiece. "Yes I can, I have a good clean shot right now" she replied. "Wait", he ordered. He heard the metal starting to run and dared a quick look "it's moving away from me, I think it's running over to Graysville to whatever is happening there". The Major reinserted the pin into the grenade he'd been holding and returned it to his grenade collection in his chest pocket. His mouth was all dried up, his heart was beating and the shotgun felt as if it weighed a ton in his hands and started to cautiously make his way towards the chopper with the odd bits on it, he knew that he was exposing himself but curiosity was eating him alive. "The metal is definitely running over towards Graysville, so the coast is clear right now ... infrared shows no warm bodies near you", Mathilda reported. He started working his way towards the helicopter from rubble heap to rubble heap and before long he was standing right in front of it. The side door had even been left open, "That metal must have been in a real hurry" he thought.He flipped his visor to night vision. On the right side of the helicopter was a large metal frame with a cable winch and a tube shaped object attached to the cable hanging inside the frame. Then he was starting to notice the rank smell which was slightly unpleasant but yet strangely familiar to him. He dared a peek inside the helicopter, and inside the cargo hold was yet another, but much bigger winch attached to a mechanical arm near the rear loading ramp. Nets were stowed away against the wall and the cargo bay had several large wooden crates that smelled even more strongly than the outside of the helicopter. Near the front was a console with a screen and thick cables that were leading out to the outer winch. "I'll be damned" he thought, it all fits: The machinery, the smell, the nets. "Mathilda, they've turned our precious assault chopper into Connored flying fishing boat!". * crackle crackle * The Major jumps two feet into the air as he hears a voice in his headset. "What on all earth?" he was thinking when Mathilda interrupted him in a whisper: "I think our man in the moon is trying to contact us, Major!". He began falteringly ... "Yes, Oliwav, this is Major Green of Serrano Point operations, we're down in the rubble out in hostile territory. We haven't heard from you in a while and we were getting real worried!". He was starting to pant from jumping out of the fish-trawler helicopter and running across to the nearest cover in combat gear. Another voice in his headset: "That Lt Stevens in the Serrano Point watchtower has been eyeing up Alison a lot lately, he're really cute so I'm going to have to make a move soon. Her hair really IS very pretty". The Major shook his headset: "Mathilda, was that you thinking aloud again about that young lieutenant?". "Shut up Major and not a word or I'll fix a chip port in your head" she retorted managing to sound like she meant it even though she was whispering. "Calm down, that lieutenant is a fine man" the Major continued also in a whisper trying to whisper, keep himself from bursting with laughter and simultaneously scanning his surrroundings for Grays or even worse, metal. Another muffled explosion was heard over at Graysville. "What's happening over there?". "Major, we've got incoming!" "So talk to me then, woman! What's coming?" "It looks like a mix of Grays and that Whidbey crew, they're fleeing. About 8-10 people, Three endos are chasing them.You're actually running towards them right now and the crew is about 150 yards out from your position the endos are 100 yards behind them. The people are headed straight for the chopper but the endos are going to catch up with them at this rate. If you're high enough, look to your 2 o'clock and you'll see them." The Major poked his head around the end of the rusty old bus wreck perched on the side this particular little hill of rubble. He saw them too now, a humanoid figure running with springy steps carrying a human on his shoulders, holding his burden down with one hand and a plasma rifle in the other. Every now and then, he would stop and fire his plasma rifle at the endos to slow them down, then turn and effortleslsy catch up with the humans fleeing for their lives. A plasma burn on his face ended in exposed gleaming metal. It was the same metal that had suprised them over at Whidbey what seemed ages ago. So much seemed to have happened since. "Major, run towards your 4 o'clock there's a building there with a storm drain next to it, follow the storm drain a hundred steps and then take a right, will bring you back to my positiono." Mathilda's voice spoke in his earpiece. "Not going anywhere, we're going to take those shiny endos out when they get closer." he replied and hoped that the enemy of his enemy were going to turn out to be friends. "You're going to risk your life over a couple of Grays, Major? We could pop them all and take the chopper, that's the sensible thing to do or else I'm outta here!". Her attitude wasn't uncommon for former woman captives of the Grays. Her behaviour was though, instead of withdrawing to "safer" duties inside the Serrano perimeter she had made a habit of visiting her former Gray "home" and sniping from maximum range at anything and anyone that moved. The one time that Green had tagged along he noticed that she didn't kill at first, she only wounded and waited for someone to try and come out to drag the victim to safety. Then the rescuer would become a casualty too, wounded and screaming in pain, the rest of the Grays having to listen to their helpless comrades' howls of pain while they slowly bled to death and the un-wounded too frightened to do something about it. They never caught on to the fact that she could hit targets further away than a kilometer consistently. Consequently they looked for her in the wrong places and with the power of that rifle even endos weren't safe from her desire for revenge. She had worn the inhabitants of that Gray camp down, kept them on their guard and kept them holed up indoors in the miserable excuse for an existence that Skynet allowed them. In the end the Gray camp wasn't a camp anymore, she had made it their prison, so they started packing to move further away from Serrano. That was the chance she had been waiting for. When they moved, an entire squad of Resistance fighters who were former captives were waiting in an ambush and slaughtered them to the last. Gunfire shook the Major from his drifting thoughts. "Focus, focus ... we can do this ..." he thought and tried to calm his breathing down. Pursuers and the pursued were getting closer, the sounds of gunfire, shouts of pain were increasing in force. He could hear the steps of running panicked humans clearly now, the metal shouldn't be much behind. He pulled out a grenade and pulled the pin. "Mathilda, no time to argue now. I know how you feel about the Grays, I'm giving you an order. You can always shoot them later if you wish, but I want to know what's happening here before you do. The path they're coming is not so wide, I think I can knock them to the ground with a grenade. Take them out while they're down. Have you got a clear line of fire?" "Yes, Sir. Mostly clear" came the instant reply. Mostly is the best you can hope for anyway. The fleeing group passed the Major's position behind the bus wreck, they didn't see him as he rose and threw the grenade at the running terminators he dropped to the ground again as the shockwave from the grenade blast roared through air, he grabbed the shotgun and perched his head around the corner as a metalling clanging noise gave testimony to Mathilda's sniper skill. The first terminator never got off the ground, the second terminator was halfway through rising from the ground when her second round found its target. The third was only a few steps away and looking in Mathilda's direction. "Major, the third was blown away from my line-of-sight, can't see it." With the shotgun at the ready the Major rushed out and started firing, aiming low to try and damage its plasma rifle before it swung around and turned him into charcoal. The DU rounds of the shotgun made it kick like a horse, but he was still too far away to do real damage to the terminator itself. It worked, when the terminator fired its plasma rifle at the Major's head, nothing happened. The terminator then dropped the weapon and ran backwards at full speed towards a plasma rifle of a fallen terminator lying on the ground. The terminator and a second grenade from the Major reached the rifle simultaneously. A second detonation rocked the rubble path and sent the remaining terminator rolling across the ground. The Major dashed across to it and finished it off with what remained in the magazine. "Seven is moving towards you, coming back the same way he went. I don't have a clear shot." The Major started to walk in the same direction the fleeing group had moved and then saw Seven walking towards him around bend after a short while, no longer carrying his wounded burden but still his plasma rifle. Still no clear line-of-fire for his resident sniper. He ordered her to regroup somewhere closer when he saw that Seven's plasma rifle was lowered. That could change. "Hello, Captain Green. Thank you and the lady with the long rifle for destroying our pursuers.", Seven started. "What happened here, Seven? I saw the chopper, you've converted it into a flying trawler right? Sonar for detecting fish and nets for catching it." "Yes. With the demise of humanity your fishing armadas went as well. Consequently the oceans are now full of fish. We caught more than the humans at Whidbey could eat ourselves and decided to try and trade the surplus with the Grays, they have things we need. Unfortunately Skynet terminators showed up during our negotiations and they apparently didn't like the idea that the Grays wouldn't be dependent upon Skynet to feed them." "Is there anything left of the Gray camp?" "We lost two good people down there and some of the Grays sided with us to allow us to escape. They are probably dead now. I need to go, we have people that need urgent medical attention." "Hold it, I propose a trade to you", the Major said. "Green, you have nothing to offer us Troglodyets but ammunition and death in your Resistance base. We have enough of the first and aren't intrested in the second." The Major had trouble not to wince at the uncanny stare of Seven's exposed red eyepiece. "Hear me out, Seven. You have a fine stronghold at Whidbey but I saw your sickbay and the handiwork of your surgeons when I picked up my Sgt Sully. It is true that a lot of our people at Serrano end up dead, but we have expert field surgeons and better facilities than you do. Your wounded people will get care a lot faster so our sickbay is the best option they have. We want two hundred pounds of fish for every person we treat. What's it going to be?" "Yes. Come along. Your sniper woman can come too." with those words, Seven turned around and started walking towards the chopper. "We're getting a ride back to Serrano ..." he began, but she cut him off "I heard most of it and I'm on my way". Seven and the major started running back towards the helicopter, no reason to hang around with metal probably bearing down on Graysville to find out what's happened. Before long they reached the chopper, the rotors were already starting to turn. The crew Seven had with him had taken a beating: Three Trogs had made it out of Graysville. One unscathed, one in a serious condition with a wound in the abdomen and the third lightly wounded. Two Grays had made it out of Graysville, one was a wounded woman and one uninjured man. The able-bodied were helping and lifting the others into the chopper, a job that had a hope of success now that Seven was back and finished it. Groans and excited carried were mixed with the noise of the engines revving up. "Major, I'm just around the corner now should be approaching from the chopper's ten o'clock." The Major got the shotgun ready and started scanning the perimeter for her and shortly afterwards her familiar shape came running around a corner with the rifle at the ready. The Major was relieved to see her in one piece but trailing humans and then attacking when they got to their destination had become a favourite metal tactic of late. Not this time, though. They dashed up the rear loading ramp together, punched the close button then struggled past cargo crates and started working their way up to the front of the helicopter where Seven was already taking off. Walking around in a flying and swerving helicopter wasn't easy, they tripped on lose equipment on the floor. The people looking after the wounded were too busy to notice or care that two strangers were about to enter the cockpit. In the cockpit, Seven piloted the helicopter bare metres above the dark landsape, the infrared vision. The Major dropped down into the co-pilot seat, Mathilda hung back at the entrance, keeping an eye on the people in the cargo hold. "I think you had better let me fly the last bit Seven, we will be blown out of the sky unless they see friendly faces in the cockpit. Also I will have to blindfold you, I don't want you to see our facilities". "Ever suspicious, Major. Are you afraid that we'll sell that information to Skynet or Grays?". "No, Seven. I'm worried that Skynet will read your chip if they ever manage to disable you. Also, you Trogs will be our ... hrm ... guests but the Grays you have back there will be our prisoners. None of you will enter Serrano armed. The Grays will be locked up for their own safety ..." the Major paused to glance over his shoulder at the doorway where his scout companion was holding herself steady by hanging on to some pipes in the ceiling of the fuselage. Their eyes met. He continued, "... and you will take them with you when you leave. They can't stay." "We will leave as soon as our wounded are well enough for transport, we have no desire to stay." The distance that Mathilda and the Major had taken many hours walk and crawl through tunnels to get to Graysville the chopper covered in less than half an hour. Already wearing the night-vision goggles the major nodded to Seven that it was time then grabbed the controls of the co-pilot. Seven sat himself down where Mathilda had stood before and she got into the pilot's seat, but facing backwards. The major then radioed into the perimeter defence and explained that they would be returning not on foot but in a chopper with allies and prisoners. It took some convincing, but Lt Stevens finally agreed to let them land in their usual spot after he had sent a heavily armed contingent to the hangar just in case. NOT PUBLISHED IN THREAD BELOW THIS LINE The Major eased the chopper over the tank obstacles, bunkers and gun towers of the perimiter defence and onto the underground heli-pad. With the heli-pad landing lights on the lowest power, they fed just enough visual cues to the goggles to manouvre. The heavy overhead doors began to slide into place as soon as the wheels touched the ground. The engines were switched off immediately and the rotors would spin for a while longer driven by their own inertia. The chopper was now encased in the compact darkness of the large underground chamber. Mathilda and the major knew that the darkness would be far from empty. "We go first" he declared to the passengers on the way to the chopper's side hatch. As he stepped out, a voice rang out into the darkness: "Major, you have two friends who missed you. Won't you go and say hello?". Mathilda followed him and only a few meters from the parked choppers he saw his two dogs tied to a package on the ground. The dogs were happy to see him and jumped up to try and lick him in the face. "I missed you too" the Major said and in that instant, the underground chamber was flooded with light. Then he could see that the dogs were tied to a box of explosives and the detonator powered down. Troops emerged from behind the two heavy concrete shelters and a young Sergeant with a scarred face walked up to the major and said: "We had to make sure it was you." - "Yes, good work sergeant. There are people in the chopper. The Grays are to be locked up but not harmed, the Trogs will live in a corner of the hangar here and they have access to non-critical facilities under guard only. The wounded are to be taken to sickbay for immediate treatment. One of the passengers is a reprogrammed metal, it has been proven trustworthy so far." - "Yes, sir. Immediately, sir. What's that stink from the chopper?" - "Fish, sergeant. You're looking at an improvised flying trawler. We're trading treatment of their wounded for fish." Mathilda said nothing but the Major turned to her: "Good work tonight." With one of her rare smiles she replied: "My pleasure. Flying is fun." - "Yeah, it is. Let's grab some cockroach stew in the kitchen.".

A tennis ball came bumping across the dimly lit hangar floor, Vera shot off like a rocket and catches it before the third bump and runs to the person who threw it. Mathilda said, "Wanna grab some food?". The question didn't quite make sense to Major Green, obviously she wasn't asking him out on a date because there was nothing flirtatious in her voice. "Not quite hungry yet, Mathilda, it's only an hour since the kitchen closed. What do you have in mind?".

"I was thinking about this idea that the Grays are looking quite well-fed lately and I'm also tired of eating junk half the time so I ran this past the Field Marshal and he said we don't have enough warm bodies to send a major assault on a mere hunch. I did get permission to take someone along on a two-man scouting mission though.", she explained.

"So you're asking if I want to come along? The answer is yes. I have already got some rest in preparation for being on the night watch on the perimeter defence, but I think Lieutenant Stevens can handle it alone. We meet at defence tower Bravo in twenty minutes."

Twenty minutes later also coincided with dusk. Major Green watched as darkness shrouded Serrano Point in gloomy shadows. Skynet knew that the Resistance was here and three major assaults later also had found out that dislodging the Resistance from Serrano Point took more than it currently had. Lieutenant Steven's idea of building king-size version of the terminator plasma rifles and then powering them straight from the nuclear reactor had kept this place safe. That idea and the lives of countless Resistance fighters to capture and defend this place. The seismographs that every nuclear plant has in order to detect earthquakes had forewarned the resistance that Skynet had tried digging itself in.

Mathilda walked up to him and nodded that she was good to go. It was going to be a dirty job, walking and crawling through the remains of old sewers, cable tunnels and subterranean waterworks of the Old Life towards the Gray camp. The Major sighed, knowing that the clean days of humanity were long gone.

It was a struggle working your way through tunnels that had seen nuclear blasts unsettling the very ground thy were built in, machine wreckage and dark shapes on the ground giving testimony to underground battles fought, won and lost.

Both the Major and Mathilda had been to Graysville once before, when following Grays taking some people they had captured, although that time they had arrived overground. Through binoculars they had watched a machine at the gate by some sort of transport vehicle. The injured, the elderly and the children were loaded on the transport, everyone that Skynet had no use for. Now they were about 20-30 minutes walk away. Time to go top-side as the Grays had started to put all kinds of booby traps in the tunnels in the vicinity of their camps.

They came to a man-hole in the roof of the tunnel. Silently Mathilda indicated that it was time to exit the netherworld. With practiced movements The Major assembled the mini periscope which had until now had been strapped to the side of his backpack. It became a narrow tube about as tall as a man. Mathilda had her rifle at the ready and the Major extended the periscope up the man-hole. Nothing, no shouts, no running steps. No grenades coming bouncing down the man-hole. The Major bent down and pressed his face against the eye-piece of the makeshift periscope, twisting the periscope around and scanning the surroundings above. He decided it looked quiet enough to risk sticking his head up. The periscope was quickly dismantled and the Major scaled the old rusty ladder leading out into the open as quietly as he could.

The world above consisted of what once had been a road but now heaps of rubble lined the edges of it, they were the remains of the buildings that had once lined the road.

Mathilda and the Major started running cautiously towards the nearest two-story building that was still standing, maybe they could get a better view from one floor up. Access to the roof of the building turned out to be easy so Mathilda took her position up there, the moonlight that before had forced them to struggle through the netherworld to avoid detection now came in handy when close to their target. "Time to split up" the Major said and Mathilda nodded. They had done this in the past, the Major sneaking up close to their reconnaissance target and Mathilda providing cover with the sniper rifle. They both took a sweep with their magnifying visors across the area. "Do you see that odd shape near that building over there?" Mathilda spoke softly. "It looks a bit like a machine but it's hard to make out" she continued, while the Major swung around and looked in the same direction. "I see it too, it could be worth a look". The Major started to work his way down to the ground level again, the strange machine behind the building to his front left, Graysville somewhere to the front right and Mathilda keeping an eye and rifle on things behind him.

Perched on another of the endless heaps of rubble, he took a quick glance at the big machine with the night vision mode of his visor. The shape and nature of the machine was perfectly clear now, even though it was something he had not expected to ever see again. It was the chopper they had left with the Troglodytes, only now it looked different with strange pieces of machinery having been bolted on to it. A figure was standing right next to it, absolutely still. It had to be Seven, the reprogrammed metal from Whidbey. "It's the chopper we left at Whidbey, Mathilda. They've rebuilt it and flown it over here for Connor knows what reason. Their metal is guarding it".

An explosion was heard from his right in the Graysville direction and the Major saw the metal guarding the chopper starting to scan his surroundings. It dashed up on top of another heap of rubble, now only a grenade throw's distance away from the Major who now ducked. "Mathilda, are you watching this? Can you see the metal?" he whispered into his mouthpiece. "Yes I can, I have a good clean shot right now" she replied. "Wait", he ordered. He heard the metal starting to run and dared a quick look "it's moving away from me, I think it's running over to Graysville to whatever is happening there". The Major reinserted the pin into the grenade he'd been holding and returned it to his grenade collection in his chest pocket. His mouth was all dried up, his heart was beating and the shotgun felt as if it weighed a ton in his hands and started to cautiously make his way towards the chopper with the odd bits on it, he knew that he was exposing himself but curiosity was eating him alive. "The metal is definitely running over towards Graysville, so the coast is clear right now ... infrared shows no warm bodies near you", Mathilda reported. He started working his way towards the helicopter from rubble heap to rubble heap and before long he was standing right in front of it. The side door had even been left open, "That metal must have been in a real hurry" he thought.He flipped his visor to night vision. On the right side of the helicopter was a large metal frame with a cable winch and a tube shaped object attached to the cable hanging inside the frame. Then he was starting to notice the rank smell which was slightly unpleasant but yet strangely familiar to him. He dared a peek inside the helicopter, and inside the cargo hold was yet another, but much bigger winch attached to a mechanical arm near the rear loading ramp. Nets were stowed away against the wall and the cargo bay had several large wooden crates that smelled even more strongly than the outside of the helicopter. Near the front was a console with a screen and thick cables that were leading out to the outer winch. "I'll be damned" he thought, it all fits: The machinery, the smell, the nets.

"Mathilda, they've turned our precious assault chopper into Connored flying fishing boat!".

* crackle crackle *

The Major jumps two feet into the air as he hears a voice in his headset. "What on all earth?" he was thinking when Mathilda interrupted him in a whisper: "I think our man in the moon is trying to contact us, Major!".

He began falteringly ... "Yes, Oliwav, this is Major Green of Serrano Point operations, we're down in the rubble out in hostile territory. We haven't heard from you in a while and we were getting real worried!". He was starting to pant from jumping out of the fish-trawler helicopter and running across to the nearest cover in combat gear.

Another voice in his headset: "That Lt Stevens in the Serrano Point watchtower has been eyeing up Alison a lot lately, he're really cute so I'm going to have to make a move soon. Her hair really IS very pretty". The Major shook his headset: "Mathilda, was that you thinking aloud again about that young lieutenant?".

"Shut up Major and not a word or I'll fix a chip port in your head" she retorted managing to sound like she meant it even though she was whispering.

"Calm down, that lieutenant is a fine man" the Major continued also in a whisper trying to whisper, keep himself from bursting with laughter and simultaneously scanning his surrroundings for Grays or even worse, metal.

Another muffled explosion was heard over at Graysville. "What's happening over there?".

"Major, we've got incoming!"

"So talk to me then, woman! What's coming?"

"It looks like a mix of Grays and that Whidbey crew, they're fleeing. About 8-10 people, Three endos are chasing them.You're actually running towards them right now and the crew is about 150 yards out from your position the endos are 100 yards behind them. The people are headed straight for the chopper but the endos are going to catch up with them at this rate. If you're high enough, look to your 2 o'clock and you'll see them."

The Major poked his head around the end of the rusty old bus wreck perched on the side this particular little hill of rubble. He saw them too now, a humanoid figure running with springy steps carrying a human on his shoulders, holding his burden down with one hand and a plasma rifle in the other. Every now and then, he would stop and fire his plasma rifle at the endos to slow them down, then turn and effortleslsy catch up with the humans fleeing for their lives. A plasma burn on his face ended in exposed gleaming metal. It was the same metal that had suprised them over at Whidbey what seemed ages ago. So much seemed to have happened since.

"Major, run towards your 4 o'clock there's a building there with a storm drain next to it, follow the storm drain a hundred steps and then take a right, will bring you back to my positiono." Mathilda's voice spoke in his earpiece.

"Not going anywhere, we're going to take those shiny endos out when they get closer." he replied and hoped that the enemy of his enemy were going to turn out to be friends.

"You're going to risk your life over a couple of Grays, Major? We could pop them all and take the chopper, that's the sensible thing to do or else I'm outta here!". Her attitude wasn't uncommon for former woman captives of the Grays. Her behaviour was though, instead of withdrawing to "safer" duties inside the Serrano perimeter she had made a habit of visiting her former Gray "home" and sniping from maximum range at anything and anyone that moved. The one time that Green had tagged along he noticed that she didn't kill at first, she only wounded and waited for someone to try and come out to drag the victim to safety. Then the rescuer would become a casualty too, wounded and screaming in pain, the rest of the Grays having to listen to their helpless comrades' howls of pain while they slowly bled to death and the un-wounded too frightened to do something about it. They never caught on to the fact that she could hit targets further away than a kilometer consistently. Consequently they looked for her in the wrong places and with the power of that rifle even endos weren't safe from her desire for revenge. She had worn the inhabitants of that Gray camp down, kept them on their guard and kept them holed up indoors in the miserable excuse for an existence that Skynet allowed them. In the end the Gray camp wasn't a camp anymore, she had made it their prison, so they started packing to move further away from Serrano. That was the chance she had been waiting for. When they moved, an entire squad of Resistance fighters who were former captives were waiting in an ambush and slaughtered them to the last.

Gunfire shook the Major from his drifting thoughts. "Focus, focus ... we can do this ..." he thought and tried to calm his breathing down. Pursuers and the pursued were getting closer, the sounds of gunfire, shouts of pain were increasing in force. He could hear the steps of running panicked humans clearly now, the metal shouldn't be much behind. He pulled out a grenade and pulled the pin.

"Mathilda, no time to argue now. I know how you feel about the Grays, I'm giving you an order. You can always shoot them later if you wish, but I want to know what's happening here before you do. The path they're coming is not so wide, I think I can knock them to the ground with a grenade. Take them out while they're down. Have you got a clear line of fire?"

"Yes, Sir. Mostly clear" came the instant reply. Mostly is the best you can hope for anyway. The fleeing group passed the Major's position behind the bus wreck, they didn't see him as he rose and threw the grenade at the running terminators he dropped to the ground again as the shockwave from the grenade blast roared through air, he grabbed the shotgun and perched his head around the corner as a metalling clanging noise gave testimony to Mathilda's sniper skill. The first terminator never got off the ground, the second terminator was halfway through rising from the ground when her second round found its target. The third was only a few steps away and looking in Mathilda's direction.

"Major, the third was blown away from my line-of-sight, can't see it."

With the shotgun at the ready the Major rushed out and started firing, aiming low to try and damage its plasma rifle before it swung around and turned him into charcoal. The DU rounds of the shotgun made it kick like a horse, but he was still too far away to do real damage to the terminator itself. It worked, when the terminator fired its plasma rifle at the Major's head, nothing happened. The terminator then dropped the weapon and ran backwards at full speed towards a plasma rifle of a fallen terminator lying on the ground. The terminator and a second grenade from the Major reached the rifle simultaneously. A second detonation rocked the rubble path and sent the remaining terminator rolling across the ground. The Major dashed across to it and finished it off with what remained in the magazine.

"Seven is moving towards you, coming back the same way he went. I don't have a clear shot."

The Major started to walk in the same direction the fleeing group had moved and then saw Seven walking towards him around bend after a short while, no longer carrying his wounded burden but still his plasma rifle. Still no clear line-of-fire for his resident sniper. He ordered her to regroup somewhere closer when he saw that Seven's plasma rifle was lowered. That could change.

"Hello, Captain Green. Thank you and the lady with the long rifle for destroying our pursuers.", Seven started.

"What happened here, Seven? I saw the chopper, you've converted it into a flying trawler right? Sonar for detecting fish and nets for catching it."

"Yes. With the demise of humanity your fishing armadas went as well. Consequently the oceans are now full of fish. We caught more than the humans at Whidbey could eat ourselves and decided to try and trade the surplus with the Grays, they have things we need. Unfortunately Skynet terminators showed up during our negotiations and they apparently didn't like the idea that the Grays wouldn't be dependent upon Skynet to feed them."

"Is there anything left of the Gray camp?"

"We lost two good people down there and some of the Grays sided with us to allow us to escape. They are probably dead now. I need to go, we have people that need urgent medical attention."

"Hold it, I propose a trade to you", the Major said.

"Green, you have nothing to offer us Troglodyets but ammunition and death in your Resistance base. We have enough of the first and aren't intrested in the second." The Major had trouble not to wince at the uncanny stare of Seven's exposed red eyepiece.

"Hear me out, Seven. You have a fine stronghold at Whidbey but I saw your sickbay and the handiwork of your surgeons when I picked up my Sgt Sully. It is true that a lot of our people at Serrano end up dead, but we have expert field surgeons and better facilities than you do. Your wounded people will get care a lot faster so our sickbay is the best option they have. We want two hundred pounds of fish for every person we treat. What's it going to be?"

"Yes. Come along. Your sniper woman can come too." with those words, Seven turned around and started walking towards the chopper.

"We're getting a ride back to Serrano ..." he began, but she cut him off "I heard most of it and I'm on my way".

Seven and the major started running back towards the helicopter, no reason to hang around with metal probably bearing down on Graysville to find out what's happened. Before long they reached the chopper, the rotors were already starting to turn. The crew Seven had with him had taken a beating: Three Trogs had made it out of Graysville. One unscathed, one in a serious condition with a wound in the abdomen and the third lightly wounded. Two Grays had made it out of Graysville, one was a wounded woman and one uninjured man. The able-bodied were helping and lifting the others into the chopper, a job that had a hope of success now that Seven was back and finished it. Groans and excited carried were mixed with the noise of the engines revving up.

"Major, I'm just around the corner now should be approaching from the chopper's ten o'clock."

The Major got the shotgun ready and started scanning the perimeter for her and shortly afterwards her familiar shape came running around a corner with the rifle at the ready. The Major was relieved to see her in one piece but trailing humans and then attacking when they got to their destination had become a favourite metal tactic of late. Not this time, though. They dashed up the rear loading ramp together, punched the close button then struggled past cargo crates and started working their way up to the front of the helicopter where Seven was already taking off. Walking around in a flying and swerving helicopter wasn't easy, they tripped on lose equipment on the floor. The people looking after the wounded were too busy to notice or care that two strangers were about to enter the cockpit.

In the cockpit, Seven piloted the helicopter bare metres above the dark landsape, the infrared vision. The Major dropped down into the co-pilot seat, Mathilda hung back at the entrance, keeping an eye on the people in the cargo hold. "I think you had better let me fly the last bit Seven, we will be blown out of the sky unless they see friendly faces in the cockpit. Also I will have to blindfold you, I don't want you to see our facilities". "Ever suspicious, Major. Are you afraid that we'll sell that information to Skynet or Grays?". "No, Seven. I'm worried that Skynet will read your chip if they ever manage to disable you. Also, you Trogs will be our ... hrm ... guests but the Grays you have back there will be our prisoners. None of you will enter Serrano armed. The Grays will be locked up for their own safety ..." the Major paused to glance over his shoulder at the doorway where his scout companion was holding herself steady by hanging on to some pipes in the ceiling of the fuselage. Their eyes met. He continued, "... and you will take them with you when you leave. They can't stay."

"We will leave as soon as our wounded are well enough for transport, we have no desire to stay."

The distance that Mathilda and the Major had taken many hours walk and crawl through tunnels to get to Graysville the chopper covered in less than half an hour.

Already wearing the night-vision goggles the major nodded to Seven that it was time then grabbed the controls of the co-pilot. Seven sat himself down where Mathilda had stood before and she got into the pilot's seat, but facing backwards. The major then radioed into the perimeter defence and explained that they would be returning not on foot but in a chopper with allies and prisoners. It took some convincing, but Lt Stevens finally agreed to let them land in their usual spot after he had sent a heavily armed contingent to the hangar just in case.

NOT PUBLISHED IN THREAD BELOW THIS LINE

The Major eased the chopper over the tank obstacles, bunkers and gun towers of the perimiter defence and onto the underground heli-pad. With the heli-pad landing lights on the lowest power, they fed just enough visual cues to the goggles to manouvre. The heavy overhead doors began to slide into place as soon as the wheels touched the ground. The engines were switched off immediately and the rotors would spin for a while longer driven by their own inertia. The chopper was now encased in the compact darkness of the large underground chamber. Mathilda and the major knew that the darkness would be far from empty. "We go first" he declared to the passengers on the way to the chopper's side hatch. As he stepped out, a voice rang out into the darkness: "Major, you have two friends who missed you. Won't you go and say hello?". Mathilda followed him and only a few meters from the parked choppers he saw his two dogs tied to a package on the ground. The dogs were happy to see him and jumped up to try and lick him in the face. "I missed you too" the Major said and in that instant, the underground chamber was flooded with light. Then he could see that the dogs were tied to a box of explosives and the detonator powered down.

Troops emerged from behind the two heavy concrete shelters and a young Sergeant with a scarred face walked up to the major and said: "We had to make sure it was you."

- "Yes, good work sergeant. There are people in the chopper. The Grays are to be locked up but not harmed, the Trogs will live in a corner of the hangar here and they have access to non-critical facilities under guard only. The wounded are to be taken to sickbay for immediate treatment. One of the passengers is a reprogrammed metal, it has been proven trustworthy so far."

- "Yes, sir. Immediately, sir. What's that stink from the chopper?"

- "Fish, sergeant. You're looking at an improvised flying trawler. We're trading treatment of their wounded for fish."

Mathilda said nothing but the Major turned to her: "Good work tonight."

With one of her rare smiles she replied: "My pleasure. Flying is fun."

- "Yeah, it is. Let's grab some cockroach stew in the kitchen.".

mr_green	Latest page update: made by mr_green , Jun 19 2009, 6:29 AM EDT (about this update About This Update Edited by mr_green view changes - complete history)
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