20 Chapter 20: End of the Pursuit

Kayden entered into a flow state.

He steered the truck to evade plasma cannon shot after plasma shot, controlling the steering wheel with the most efficient of touches. Kayden's HUD trajectory prediction feature assisted in plotting out a safe path through the bombardment of plasma cannon explosions — and the many wreckages lying around on the road — as he drove the truck onward.

Kayden was beginning to regain his confidence that he would be able to prevent his truck from being blown up while he looked for a way to shake off the HK-Aerial. But just then, his hope was dashed again, and he was brought back to earth about his seemingly rotten luck.

"I'm out!" Serena shouted.

"What?" Kayden shouted back; his attention still focused on dodging the HK-Aerial's plasma cannon shots.

"My gun is out of isotope! I can't shoot back at the HK-Aerial anymore!" Serena said.

Serena climbed back into her seat. She tossed the exhausted plasma rifles back onto the dashboard before adding a mutter, "The gun wasn't very effective against the HK-Aerial anyway."

Kayden check the camera feeds. Immediately, he discovered that the HK-Aerial had stopped dodging. Due to the absence of Serena's constant pestering shooting, it now had the opportunity to get a better aim and fire more accurate plasma cannon shots at the truck from relaxed positions.

Besides, its shooting rate would definitely increase.

The highest percentage probabilities of Kayden's HUD trajectory prediction pointers had also dropped down to average between 60 – 70%. This would definitely increase the chances of Kayden making a wrong choice of how to dodge the HK-Aerial's Plasma cannon shots and end up with the truck destroyed.

"Fuck! Wait a sec! I will think of something!"

Kayden knew that he had to think up a plan to lose the HK-Aerial as soon as possible. Although Kayden's driving skills was made it seem like he was completely dominating the HK-Aerial and was dodging all its plasma cannon shots with ease, Kayden knew that he could not maintain this state for very long. The HK-Aerial only needed a single successful hit to destroy their truck and kill all the normal human passengers inside.

So, while driving the truck, Kayden kept looking all around and searching for something — anything — he could use to solve the problem of the HK-Aerial pursuit.

And that was when he noticed something on the roadside, a little bit more than a hundred meters ahead.

Kayden immediately zoomed in his HUD vision field, and he saw that a team of three Resistance fighters were hiding among the wreckage on the roadside. The Resistance soldiers were injured, and so their mobility had been mostly compromised.

From what Kayden saw, the soldiers seemed to have been left with some weapons to use to protect themselves while they waited to be rescued or for the battle to end. They each carried their usual modified plasma rifles. The soldiers also had a damaged vehicle with them. The vehicle had a large anti-aerial plasma cannon mounted on it, and one of the soldiers was operating.

From time to time, the Resistance fighters would stand up from their hiding spot, take aim and shoot at any passing Skynet aircraft that flew too close to the area before hiding again among the wreckage. A still smoldering Skynet aircrafts were some testaments to the soldiers effectiveness.

Kayden watched the 3 Resistance fighters for a brief second, quickly obtaining a rudimentary understanding their skills, before he looked at the image of the HK-Aerial in the truck's rear mirror.

The beginnings of a daring plan forming in his mind.

And like always, his very helpful neural net processor detected his objective.

[PREDICTING THE FLIGHT PATH OF HK-AERIAL…]

Some words appeared on his HUD. The words were accompanied by a visual representation on his HUD showing the predicted flight path that the HK-Aerial would follow if it kept on pursuing Kayden's truck.

And so, Kayden stepped even harder on the gas to give the truck a bit more speed, and the truck sped onward at a high speed towards where the 3 Resistance soldiers were hiding.

'Just a little bit more.' Kayden thought.

But just then, Kayden looked straight ahead and he noticed that the about 50 meters ahead, the road was blocked.

Kayden just sighed in resignation. He no longer had the energy to even complain.

Kayden saw that a pile of wreckage about one-meter high was blocking the road ahead.

This road was only straightforward path out of this place, and he could not stop now to look for another road because they a HK-Aerial hot on his tail pursuing his truck. If he kept on driving forward, his truck would definitely crash into the wreckage, and the large wreckage, consisting of parts from both destroyed HK tanks and some Resistance vehicles, would surely cause severe damage to the truck and disable it.

Realizing that slowing down or stopping the truck now would result in certain death of all the truck's occupants and still riding on the high he obtained from using his newly discovered 'Trajectory Prediction' ability, Kayden decided to go all in and fully trust in his abilities.

"Everybody hold on tightly to something. Make sure you don't sustain too much injuries or fall off the truck." Kayden shouted to the people in the back of the truck.

"What do you want to do?" said Serena. She seemed like Kayden's current facial expression — which must have looked like that of a crazy person — had made her a little worried.

"Don't worry. I have a plan." Kayden said. He even flashed Serena a smile, hoping to reassure her.

"I know! That's why I'm worried. You should see your face right now. You look a little crazy."

Kayden did not reply to that. He focused his mind completely on his driving and the exhilarating feeling he was getting from using his new ability to plot a path of survival in the current high-speed and high-risk pursuit. Unlike what he had expected, he was starting to like this feeling; the feeling of using his abilities to survive on a knife's edge even if failure meant his death — okay maybe not the dying part.

'Five seconds until the truck crashes into the wreckage."

Quickly calculating the time until the truck crosses the distance and reach where the wreckage blocking the road was, Kayden then formed a plan to escape from their current dilemma.

And as the truck approached the obstruction, Kayden started a countdown in his mind.

'Five.'

Boom!

The HK-Aerial fired its plasma cannon. Kayden swerved the truck and dodged.

As Kayden drove the truck to speed towards the obstruction on the road, he maintained the current high speed of the vehicle. He had decided to not slow down the truck even a single bit. He even gave the truck another small speed boost.

'Four.'

Through the truck's rearview mirror, Kayden could see that the HK-Aerial was taking aim again at the truck.

'Three.'

Kayden ended the tactic he had been using — steering the truck in a zig zag motion — to make aiming at the truck more difficult for the HK-Aerial. He drove the truck forward in a straight line, making sure to position the truck in such a way that the survivors riding at the back would be highly visible to the HK-Aerial.

'Two.'

The HK-Aerial had successfully locked on the truck and was now accumulating energy in its plasma cannon.

The pointer on Kayden's HUD that marked the back of the truck showed a percentage probability of 90%.

A smirk appeared on Kayden's face.

'One.'

The truck reached the wreckage which had a slanting shaped. Kayden wanted to use a large fragment of destroyed HK tank as a ramp to gain some lift for the truck!

'Zero.'

"Now!" Kayden screamed like a mad man as stepped on the gas and the truck sped up the 'ramp' and flew into the air.

"Ahhhhhhhh!"

"Ahhhhhhhh!"

"Ahhhhhhhh!"

Many screams were coming from the back of the trucks. The people in the back had obviously been frightened by the shaking and rocking of the now airborne truck.

"This is so insaneeeeeeeeee!" screamed Serena.

She was currently sitting in the shotgun position beside Kayden at the front of the truck. She had a shocked expression on her face. She had obviously not expected that Kayden plan would be that crazy and wild.

Kayden who acted like he could not heard the many screams of his shocked passengers, heard the sound of the HK-Aerial firing a plasma cannon shot. It was soon followed by the sound of explosion.

BOOM!

But the truck did not explode!

'Phew, it missed!' thought Kayden, exhaling the breath he had held in.

The HK-Aerial's plasma cannon shot had passed under the flying truck and had struck the pile of wreckage. The resulting explosion had blown the wreckage pile to pieces. The extra boost of lift that the truck received from the explosion had helped the truck fly even higher and farther and it successfully flew over the obstacle of wreckage blocking the road.

Kayden then controlled the truck to land safely on the ground, and then, the truck sped onward and forward.

All that exciting action had finally attracted the attention of the hiding Resistance soldiers to the rapidly-approaching truck and the pursuing HK-Aerial.

Through his HUD's zoom function, Kayden could see them poking their heads out from among the wrecked vehicles that they were using as cover to launch surprise attacks at enemy aircrafts that came close enough into range. The soldiers were staring in openmouthed surprise at the truck that had been able to survive the HK-Aerial's fierce onslaught of plasma cannon fire.

'My driving skills must have shocked them silly.' Kayden thought, allowing himself to briefly feel smug before returning to a more serious state of mind.

This team of three Resistance soldiers way the most important part of his plan to finally get rid the highly dangerous and annoying HK-Aerial currently hot on his tail.

So, when Kayden saw the one among the Resistance soldiers who was manning their anti-aircraft plasma cannon rotate it and aim it at the HK-Aerial, he knew that his plan would most likely succeed.

Kayden now only had to make sure he used his truck as bait to lure the HK-Aerial to enter within the attack range of the soldiers' plasma cannon.

And with his driving skills which had been greatly augmented with his 'Trajectory Prediction' ability, Kayden managed to successfully lure in the HK-Aerial without his truck getting destroyed.

Kayden's HUD zoomed in on the Resistance soldiers and he saw they had aimed at and gotten a lock on the HK-Aerial with their vehicle-mounted plasma cannon. He could clearly see the man who was operating the plasma cannon pull the trigger to fire.

A satisfied smile appeared on Kayden's face.

'And now you die, you piece of metal junk!' Kayden thought.

A flash of light flew above Kayden's truck from the Resistance soldiers' plasma cannon and strike the HK-Aerial pursuing Kayden's truck from behind.

BOOM!

The HK-Aerial turned into a fireball for a brief second before it burst apart, and HK-Aerial parts rained down from the sky.

*****

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