Chapter 18: The Pursuit (Part Two)
Kayden finally drove the truck out of the dirt road and onto the main road.
The usually pristine and well-maintained tarred main road was now littered with a few broken-down vehicles and parts from destroyed vehicles. It was obvious to Kayden that the battle must have raged on in this section of the road for a while before the Resistance army had managed to push the defense line of Skynet's defending machine army to retreat back towards the area in front of the of the main entrance of Skynet's Core complex.
So, when Kayden drove the truck onto the main road, they had fortunately driven the truck into the section of the main road which was on the outskirts of the battlefield. Even luckier for them, they were now on the Resistance army's side of the battlefield.
But Kayden was still anxious to leave the area as fast as possible. So, he did not release his foot from the gas pedal even for a single second, and he maintained the high speed of the truck even though doing this result in some of the passenger at the back of the truck screaming when the truck suddenly bounced around a little as it left the dirt road to climb onto the main road.
Besides, Kayden could see in the camera video feeds that some of Resistance soldiers at the rear of the battlefield had anxiously raised and aimed their weapons towards the truck when they saw it suddenly burst onto the road some distance behind their battle line from out of the woods.
"Humans! Humans here! We're humans!" Kayden cried out, extending his head out through the driver side window and waving his free hand around wildly.
He did this hoping that the Resistance soldiers would see him and realize that he and everybody else in the truck were humans and not the enemy.
"Everybody at the back, shout with us!" Serena hollered out at the former prisoners at the back. She then poked out her head and also joined Kayden in waving her hands shouting, "Don't shoot! We are humans!"
And so, multiple shouts came from the back.
"Don't shoot!"
"Help us!"
"We are humans!"
"Former prisoners!"
Their actions seem to have gotten them the results they had hoped for because Kayden saw the soldiers lower their weapons, obviously deciding to not attack and to also allow them to drive the truck away and escape from the area.
"Whew!" Kayden and Serena both released sighs of relief.
"That was intense! Your fellow Resistance soldiers are too suspicious." Kayden said.
"Yeah. It's not really their fault though. They have good reasons for their actions."
Just then, Kayden saw one of the huge machines which had waded forwards and had entered deeply into the midst of the Resistance forces battleline fighting the Resistance soldiers — a huge bipedal robot which release shots from the high-energy plasma cannon on top of its shoulder — turned towards the main road far ahead and focused on the Kayden's truck which was driving away.
Kayden watched as 3 much smaller objects dropped down from the body of the huge robot — which his HUD identified as a Harvester robot. The 3 objects were soon revealed to be 3 Moto-Terminators — robots that are usually stored within the bodies of Harvester robots and which looked like sleek self-driving motorcycles.
The Harvester fired its plasma cannon randomly and repeatedly at the Resistance soldiers hiding around it — especially those at the back of the battleline. This created enough chaos which served as cover for the 3 Moto-Terminators sneak their way through the Resistance defense line and out the back to chase after Kayden's rapidly escaping truck.
"This is bad! These little guys are bad news! Drive faster!" Serena cried out from beside Kayden. She had also noticed their three new pursuers.
"F*ck! Not this again! Can't someone just escape from this place in peace!" Kayden complained, punching the window frame in annoyance.
He then turned and gave nod to Serena.
Serena nodded back at him, obviously understanding his intention. "Don't worry. Just focus on your driving. I will take of them."
She then repeated her previous act of opening the door on her side and hanging from it to wait for the 3 Moto-Terminators to get within her shooting range.
Kayden returned his focus to driving the truck while also watching the Moto-Terminators through the camera feeds.
The Moto-Terminators sped along the main road after the truck, rapidly cutting down the distance between them and the truck. They were some pretty agile little f*ckers, easily maneuvering around and avoiding the obstacles on the road as they quickly gained ground on the truck.
Kayden had already pushed the truck's speed to just above 300 miles per hour, and he could even claim that the truck was performing admirably. The truck could go very fast and it was also durable enough to withstand direct collisions with most of the smaller obstacles on the road without sustaining any damage. But the Moto-Terminators just too fast and agile.
Kayden was aware that he could push the truck to go even faster, but he was not sure whether his less-durable human passengers could safely handle that speed.
And so, the Moto-Terminators that had been manufactured with the ability of pursuit in mind as their main purpose were able to finally come close enough to get within shooting distance of the truck.
As soon as the Moto-Terminator in the lead came within range, Serena began shooting at it. The Moto-Terminator skillful maneuvering helped it dodge her first few shots, but another one of her plasma gunshots finally struck it and blasted a large hole into the front part — which was where its CPU was located — of the Moto-Terminator. The Moto-Terminator crashed to the ground with its rotating wheels slowly coming to a stop.
Bang!
A plasma shot from one of the two remaining Moto-Terminators who had managed to get closer to the truck. The plasma struck the side of the truck, resulting in some screams from the people in the back.
The other Moto-Terminator tried to shoot at Serena but the truck swerved to the side and it missed its shot.
"Whoa! Thanks!" Serena exclaimed.
"You are welcome." Kayden replied.
He had been watching what was happening through the camera feeds. And so, when he noticed the two Moto-Terminators' sneaky actions, he had tried to steer the truck to dodge the plasma shots. He was successful, and even though the first plasma shot did manage to hit the truck, the truck's armor prevented it from causing any significant damage to the truck — it only scared his passengers shitless.
The shooting battle between Serena and the two Moto-Terminators continued for another ten seconds with Kayden assisting her by steering the truck to dodge some of the Moto-Terminators gunfire. Serena manage to land another successful shot a Moto-Terminator, and thereby reducing the number of Moto-Terminators in pursuit to one.
But just as Serena was about to take out the last Moto-Terminator, it swerved away from her side and moved towards the driver's side.
"Damn it! It has gone over to your side of the truck now! I can no longer get a clean shot at it!" Serena shouted.
Kayden checked his camera feeds, and he saw that it was as Serena had said. The last Moto-Terminator had dodged away from Serena side of the truck to his side in an attempt to prevent Serena from shooting at it as it got even closer to the truck.
"I see it! Keep watching from your side in case it moves back to your side. I will try and see what I can do from my side." Kayden said.
As Kayden watched through his camera feeds to make sure the Moto-Terminator was still pursuing them from along his side of the truck, he grabbed the only remaining plasma rifle from where he had placed it on the dashboard, and while still steering the truck with only his left hand and he extended out his right hand which was holding the gun through the window, and pointing the plasma rifle backwards, he aimed at the Moto-Terminator, while he used the camera feed to guide his aiming.
"Wrong move coming over to my side, you little shit." Kayden whispered under his breath. And as he pulled the trigger of his plasma rifle, he added "Go to hell!"
Kayden's plasma shot hit the motorcycle-like robot and it crashed to the down.
All three pursuing Moto-Terminators had finally been taken down successfully.
BOOM!
Just as Kayden was about to celebrate the victory, Kayden heard a large explosion go off.
The sound seemed to come from the sky, so Kayden immediately check one of the camera feeds that monitored the aerial view. Through it he saw a large fireball falling down — amidst a rain of metal junk pieces — from the sky at the outskirts of the battlefield. A short distance behind it was the aircraft that had just shot it down. It was one of Skynet's self-flying, AI-controlled killer aircrafts. It was an HK-Aerial.
The HK-Aerial circled around the wreckage of the downed Resistance combat aircraft for a few seconds, but when Kayden thought that it would turn back and return to the battlefield to continue its battle with the remaining Resistance aircrafts, the HK-Aerial paused for a second amidst its turning motions before quickly turning to face towards the main road. Its red eyes glowed brighter for a second as it discovered Kayden's escaping truck.
It immediately flew towards the truck.
"Oh, come on! JUST GIVE ME A F*CKING BREAK!"
*****
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