Chapter 1042: Encountering the T-1000 Again
Translator: Sean88888 Editor: Elkassar1
As soon as Sheyan thought of that, he immediately called Dr. Dolittle to inform him of what he found. Dolittle agreed with Sheyan’s judgment and also provided him with a very important clue — if the T-1000 wished to replenish its energy reserves and repair its injuries in this era, it must do so in an environment with plenty of electricity.
In addition, ordinary electric power was far from being able to meet the T-1000’s needs. It must perform an ultra-high-compression with a method that the humans in this era had not mastered yet before the electric power could be converted into an energy form that it could use.
Based on Dr. Dolittle’s hypothesis, the ultra-high power compression instrument that the T-1000 could make with the current world’s technological level would produce a huge waste in power due to the lack of the proper materials. Therefore, its signs could be easily identified by monitoring the flow in the power grid.
However, at the moment, the T-1000 was probably still in the process of producing its own pirated version of the ultra-high power compression instrument and had not been able to recharge itself yet. As soon as the flow in the power grid showed an abnormal fluctuation, Dolittle would promptly inform Sheyan.
Sheyan took the chance to make a series of preparations. In his plan, in order to achieve the highest degree of completion in his mission, he still needed to fulfill some external conditions. Even so, there was a truth to the saying that plans could never keep pace with the changes. Sheyan felt that he only had 50% confidence in achieving the highest degree of completion.
He was actually making a gamble, because in truth, to get some liquid metal now was really no longer a problem for Sheyan with the human and material resources at his disposal. That was to say, he already had ways of completing the mission for sure, but he would not achieve the highest degree of completion. On the contrary, if he insisted on trying to achieve the highest degree of completion, there was a 50% chance of losing everything.
Sheyan liked to take the steady route and had always played it safe, so he would have normally chosen the former option. However, he already had ways of acquiring dark gold equipments, so of course he would like to use this mission to fight for a higher grade equipment.
After Sheyan took care of all his business, news finally came from Dolittle. An anomaly had occurred in the power grid flow, the location was a newly built wave power station in Los Angeles.
(TL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_power )
This new type of power plant used the energy from the constant beating of the waves to generate electricity. It was economical and environmental friendly. Once built, the only operational cost it would incur was the replacement of worn equipments. In the days of Skynet, due to the extremely severe environment, the technology of wave power was used in a large scale.
The reason the T-1000 went there must be because it was not familiar with thermal power plants and such, so it had selected a familiar plant to operate.
Since it was a wave power station, it was, of course, built on the seaside. After confirming their target, Sheyan and the rest rushed to the location. Their previous effort must have exhausted 20%-30% of the T-1000’s energy reserves. If they let the T-1000 recharge itself, that effort would go to waste.
Due to the ebbing of the tide, wave power stations were often built offshore (if they were built directly on the shore, how would they generate electricity at times of low tide?). Therefore, the group needed to travel by boat. For Sheyan, the T-1000’s decision in choosing this place was akin to it giving up the home court advantage!
Looking from a distance, the wave power station was like a beacon standing tall in the coastal waters, like it was a guiding light in the dark. But Sheyan noticed that the colour of the sea here was a faint crimson, as if there was blood mixed into it. It was a frightening sight, bringing dread to those who laid eyes on it! When the rest saw the bloody waters, they instantly heightened their vigilance for fear of falling into the T-1000’s trap.
However, this phenomenon was not that surprising to Sheyan and Sanzi. The pollution near the city of Los Angeles was quite severe, so quite often, an explosive reproduction of algae would occur, resulting in a “red tide”. This phenomenon should be the spectacular sight they were seeing now.
It was currently early morning, so there was not a soul on this deserted beach other than them. There were only the abandoned beach umbrellas laying chaotically all over the beach and some abandoned houses that had faded in colour thanks to the sunshine and sea breeze. They painted a desolate scene.
Sheyan and the rest boarded an old motorboat on the dock and drove straight towards the wave power station. The construction technology of the wave power station was derived from the construction of offshore oil platforms, so it was essentially just the combination a few offshore drilling rigs.
Their arrival did not attract the attention of the people staffing the wave power station. There were none of the expected greetings, shouts or interrogations. Although the lights on the station were brightly lit, the whole place was as quiet as a cemetery.
Under Sheyan’s skillful control, the motor boat moved like a fish swimming in the sea even though it was so old that it was almost breaking apart. Of course, the exhausted roar of the engine and the thick black smoke it emitted were not things that could be covered up by Sheyan’s skills.
When they were about to board the wave power station, a man suddenly opened the hatch door and ran to the platform. When the man saw the old, broken motor boat driven by Sheyan, he looked like a drowning man who saw a straw he could clutch on. He ran frantically in their direction while waving his hands and shouting wildly. He soon reached the edge of the platform but he did not look like he had any intention of stopping.
But at that moment, a strange thing happened. Something large unexpectedly protruded from a spot on the platform behind this person. That cold and extreme vicious T-1000 then appeared behind the unfortunate man.
With no sound and no warning!
The unfortunate man was still waving wildly and shouting incoherently at the group of contestants.
“Help! Help! There’s a homicidal maniac here…AAAAAARRGGHHH”
Before he could finish, the T-1000 had stepped forward, grabbed him by the neck with both hands, and lifted him up effortlessly. It then casually flicked its wrists to throw the man away with force!
The unfortunate survivor could not even make a sound as he was thrown over twenty meters away before rolling for about ten meters further. By the time he stopped rolling, his head was twisted behind his back and his tongue was lolling out of his mouth. He was probably dead.
Sheyan noticed that the left shoulder of the T-1000 seemed to have a clear electric leakage. Blue electric charges would flash across it from time to time. It seemed that the information they obtained previously was correct. This slightly increased the chance of success of his plan.
When the boat landed, the T-1000 actually raised its hand to make a throat-cutting gesture at Sheyan. It then quickly moved out of their sight and disappeared into the darkness. The lights on the platform started to go out one by one.
The T-1000 had suffered a loss under Sheyan’s team in the previous meeting between them, so this time, it was smart enough to make use of the darkness to create an advantage for itself. From this, one could see the craftiness of this ferocious robot. The average person’s IQ was not a match for its AI at all!
Unperturbed by the dark environment, Sheyan walked forward in large strides. He dared not bring too many people with him this time because once the T-1000 felt overwhelmed by its opponents and found that it could not escape, it would self-destruct, causing all their efforts so far to go to waste. In truth, the strength of Party Ace alone was enough to plunge the T-1000 into despair.
Therefore, Sheyan only brought along Melody this time. From the moment Sheyan decided to try to achieve the highest degree of completion in this mission, he knew that the fight between him and the T-1000 was doomed to be a battle of attrition.
The smell of blood assaulted his senses. Sheyan ignored the numerous corpses around him and strode to the inner area of the power station. He was not anxious to start the fight with the T-1000. A 3D topographic map of the power station, with certain areas brightly highlighted by Dr. Dolittle, appeared on his retina.
These highlighted areas were possible areas where the ultra-high power compression instrument manufactured by the T-1000 could be placed in. For both Sheyan and the T-1000, these areas would be highly-contested land.
So when Sheyan went straight to one of the areas, the T-1000 had rushed up in silence through the darkness. It would have appeared suddenly without warning if it was not for the occasional electric charges emitted by the injury on its left shoulder, which was sustained when it descended through the time displacement sphere.
The muscles all over Sheyan’s body hardened like iron in anticipation of the T-1000’s attack, containing in them a powerful strength which could burst out anytime. Sheyan still remembered how badly he had lost in the previous close combat exchanges with this steel monster charging at him. After the last confrontation, he had thought hard and came up with several countermeasures!
The T-1000 started the fight with a punch!
The punch was not too fast, but it was steady and contained a great force. It looked like it could evolve from the offensive to the defensive at an instant. But when the fist had gotten close to Sheyan, it rapidly dissolved and quickly solidified into a sharp blade, stabbing straight towards Sheyan’s throat!
Sheyan dodged the fierce blow, after which he suddenly bent down. His black hair covered his eyes but outlined the sneer at the corners of his mouth.
Sheyan’s first attack was a kick at the Terminator’s knee!
(TL: Bonus chapter coming later.)