Times of Trouble - 03 by Russell Blackford

Author:Russell Blackford [Blackford, Russell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-03-11T00:00:00+00:00

COLORADO SEPTEMBER 15, 2029

Seen from the Black Hawk's windows, snowcapped granite mountains stood ranked for mile after mile under the gray sky of a perpetual winter. Many years before, prior to the smoke and dust of Judgment Day, the Rockies had been full of life, with pine trees and mountain scrub, birds and mammals in great variety. Antelope, deer and black bear had lived here. Elk had wandered on the lower slopes, and the lakes, streams and rivers had run with fish. Once, the sky would have shone azure blue, streaked with high, white clouds. Now, everything was dead. No sign of life appeared in the air, on the rocks, or amongst the fallen snow—only the dark lines of a few roads that General Connor's militia kept open for supplies.

Violet lightning flashed between two jagged peaks, then there was a huge rumble of thunder, like the voice of doom, rolling over the steady thrum of the chopper's blades. Up front, Ramirez piloted them, with one of his Spanish comrades in the copilot's seat. Five people sat in the rear hold: John, Sarah, Jade, Gabriela, and General Connor—with John and Jade manning the laser cannons. Since Anton's death, Jade had spoken little, except when involved in the rounds of meetings to plan the campaigns against the warlords and the rogue war machines. Otherwise, she'd been almost unresponsive, though she seemed happier—or less unhappy—now they were doing something. John imagined she might almost relish an H-K attack right now. It would give her something to do with her superhuman skills.

At his booted feet, General Connor kept the forearm and hand that they'd removed from the T-1000 back in New York. In his backpack, John had the nanochips that they'd taken from the H-Ks and endos they'd fought in Virginia a week before. General Connor had sent them back with a large team to bury the dead, find the CPUs that had controlled the H-Ks, and destroy the base that H-Ks had operated from. Here in Skynet's mountain, they had the technology to read information from the CPU chips. That might help them root out the last war machines.

The Black Hawk descended, and John braced himself for the impact. Fortunately, the damage it had sustained in the battle against the H-Ks was all superficial or minor. In places, its walls had been burnt, pierced, and dented, but there was nothing wrong with it mechanically. They headed for a landing zone part-way up a mountain that was capped by a snow-streaked peak of granite. Seen from the air, the snow on the mountain formed strange shapes where the slopes had been cratered by nuclear explosions, both on Judgment Day and in the months thereafter, when some of the remaining U.S. forces had hit back at Skynet with tactical nukes. Skynet, of course, had survived everything that was thrown at it.

The chopper's landing skids touched with the slightest bump; the Black Hawk shook, then stabilized. General Connor stood first, and they followed him out of there.

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