Took me a couple days to read through it all, good stuff I haven't found a good written terminator story since the Infiltrator trilogy.
The Terminator Chronicles: Second Chance
- Thread starter nx1701g
- Start date
I'm sure a lot of people are probably wondering what is going on with me and this story. As some of you may know I haven't had as much online time due to a new position I've taken that takes up a LOT of my time recently. I do have the next Chapter worked out though and I've been working on it as I have had time. Writing the confrontation between Weaver and Ellison has been a lot more difficult than I anticipated it to originally be and I want it to be good.
So rest assured that it will be coming along.
So rest assured that it will be coming along.
^ That's fair enough, nx. Although I must admit to being a little impatient, I can fully appreciate the difficulties RL throws up from time to time. Thanks for keeping us informed.
I've taken the time to catch up during the hiatus and I'm glad that I did because this story is just as good has it has ever been and getting better and that's rare in fan fiction so good work NX. I keep seeing Christian Bale as General Connor...not an older version of Thomas Decker (I think that is the young John Connor actors name correct?). Looking forward to this continuing and have I skipped or missed Kate Brewster or was that character dropped NX?
The character was seen, as far as I recall, she is the one that was in a container with Allison, but died when she started to resist the Terminator that came for Allison. Funny, I keep imagining Thomas Dekker, because this is supposed to be set after John Connor time jumped at the end of SCC.
I know this is a continuation of TSCC but there has been stuff that NX has included from Terminator Salvation so I see a more subdued and relaxed version of Christian Bale as General John Connor.
Strangely enough I keep seeing a combination of Thomas Dekker and Bale when I'm writing with Connor.
So I'm still updating and writing the scenes (and I've learned to hit the save button when working because you never know when the power's going to go out - and stay off for a damn week - northeast snow storm). I'm glad that everyone has liked what's been completed so far.
So I'm still updating and writing the scenes (and I've learned to hit the save button when working because you never know when the power's going to go out - and stay off for a damn week - northeast snow storm). I'm glad that everyone has liked what's been completed so far.
The Book of Revelation, also known as the Apocalypse of John, had always been the favorite book of the Bible for the machine who had taken on the guise of Catherine Weaver (in contrast the favorite of her human doppelganger had always been the Book of Genesis because of its beginnings). Throughout the ages there had been many interpretations of the verses of the book. One school of thought had believed it to be a broad view of history – known as the Historicist – that did not depict a specific point in time. Another group felt that it referred to only the apostolic era, known as the Preterist view. The Idealists believed that it was purely symbolic and had no specific basis in time. The final school of thought, the aptly named Futurists, were under the impression that Revelation referred to future events that had not yet occurred in human history. The combinations of study had always fascinated the machine – even in the days post what the human race had come to call Judgment Day – as it tried to analyze and understand the events unfolding around it during its daily operations. Even through several lifetimes of operational status it was still just as uncertain as each of those schools.
In many respects the events of the book had been similar to what transpired on Judgment Day in her interpretation. The destruction of humanity in the nuclear fire could be perceived to be the beginnings of the rapture that would rescue the faithful from the war that would pit good versus evil. In a sense that was what happened next. The war that followed against the machines could be interpreted as being the war against the soldiers of the antichrist; good versus evil. It was all a comparison that took on new meanings with each passing day. The machine in the guise of Catherine Weaver did not know the answers, nor did she presume to believe that she did. She was not privy to the nature or thought processes of the one she called God. The machine knew that she could never know the true answers to her queries; though her studies were driven by one historic quote she once analyzed as part of her training. Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors are destined to repeat them. It was a paraphrase of a quote from George Santayana, but it was apt in her view for history. With time travel a growing commonality during the recent years, history was a field near death. But, in the T-1001’s opinion, it still deserved her attention. History often repeated itself as it tried to heal – it was best to know the facts of the previous life as the new began.
James Ellison had also been a student of the Bible and his knowledge was surprisingly in depth for a human male not of the cloth. Weaver remembered from reading his FBI files that he had been deeply religious and his morality was his primary driving force, but the loss of his child and the massacre of the FBI hostage rescue team sent to retrieve George Laszlo from Cromartie had deeply affected his faith. That was exemplified by his lack of a cross when she first met him and during most of his time under her employ. But that didn’t stop him from giving his own interpretations of the passages. Catherine and he had debated the tenets of the Chapters more than once, she combining logic and history to her arguments while he applied human emotion and parables. Their debates intensified when Ellison took it upon himself to teach their prototype AI about the Bible and the sanctity of human life. She had wanted to teach it morality and the value of human life from its inception; nonetheless, Ellison’s actions altered the timetable of the project. That acceleration could have led to today and most likely did. His behavioral pathways had not reached full development when they began instruction on the nature of good and evil. Doctor Sherman had believed that his learning was accelerated, but that it would take at least a year before he could grasp such complicated concepts. Initially she hadn’t agreed with his findings – which was why she overrode the power systems and terminated him; however, she now believed his estimates. Somehow their actions of teaching him about humanity and ethics had led to what John Henry had become today: something that violated those teachings and believed itself to have replaced the creator. They had played God and now their creation was doing the same thing. It had begun to play God in the form of manipulating and trying to recreate God’s children in his own image.
Everything had been caused by her actions of constructing John Henry. Weaver had always been under the impression that building an AI utilizing the same personnel and techniques utilized in the original Project Babylon – which produced Skynet – would have the same result if she tried to create a benevolent AI instead. History, however, was replete with stories of it being easier to destroy instead of create. Then her own pride made her believe that Project Babylon was ready when it clearly wasn’t. When the Connors and their Cyborg – the one she’d sent as her Ambassador to the Resistance no less – came to her building it was Weaver who proposed that John Henry make the transit through time to the future where he could be of more use. That was just another turn in the downward spiral that ended them up here today. Weaver wasn’t entirely certain how many of the recent battles that they had fought weren’t against John Henry’s forces and not those of Skynet; nevertheless, she was certain it was more than she’d prefer to calculate. John Henry’s Army was far larger than she had anticipated and was a meshing of Human and Machine attributes. It was far more effective than she could have hoped for and was even winning the War Against the Machines. That led her to make a proposal to John Connor than neither of them could have anticipated. Instead of making an appeal to the savior she had created, she proposed the appeal being made to the devil instead: an alliance between the Resistance and Skynet against the Cyborg Rebellion. It was impossible, improbable, but she hoped that John had found a way to arrange it. The Resistance and Skynet needed each other today more than ever. History had once again found a way to snap back to where it was supposed to be. Machines invaded the Resistance Base known as Kansas Bunker and nearly destroyed everyone and everything there driving John Connor, Kyle Reese, and Derek Reese out of hiding and into the open. Allison Young was captured to bring about the construction of TOK-715. Now, if all would go as planned here, the Resistance would be able to invade Topanga Canyon on the exact date and time as it always had. Weaver loved it when a plan came together.
Nevertheless, there were differences this time around which were also the fault of the Series 1001 Infiltrator. Because of the introduction of John Henry into the time stream events were proceeding differently than then previously had in multiple ways. In previous timelines the Resistance as far larger and far stronger than it was today. Without John Connor’s leadership unifying them during General Hugh Ashdown’s foolhardy attack on Skynet Central in 2018, almost every Resistance cell was wiped out in brutal reprisals by Skynet forces. At least they were lucky enough that Kyle Reese had somehow escaped from captivity before he was killed and experimented upon. His companion Star hadn’t been as fortunate in this history. The fragmentation of humanity gave Skynet power which it used to construct more forces; but innovation was delayed as Skynet had no use for it. With no major enemy to face few projects were completed that would give birth to newer and more dangerous machines. That was John Henry’s greatest advantage. He was able to infiltrate and capture Skynet installations because of the antiquated machines (his Series 888 infiltrator body giving him a combat edge against the older Series 600 endoskeletons and protoinfiltrators). His knowledge of Skynet designs through Cromartie’s emergency processors allowed him to construct a legion of Series 888 endoskeletons to protect him as he began work on his new primary objective. John Henry had decided Heaven had a software problem and he wanted to build true human/machine hybrids to keep humanity alive. What was left of the human race would be his test subjects. If he found a human he began to capture and experiment upon them so that he could learn how to convert human thoughts and memories into data patterns. With only 100 terabytes of data inside their primitive heads only a 10% operational Neural Net CPU should have been enough to store their entire life. However, there were complications. Skynet wanted its territory back and, more importantly, John Henry could never capture that spark of life that allowed humans to live. His first successes were little more than freaks of nature that had tubes coming from their bodies, but he’d made progress in recent years. The implants were becoming internal to the user and they looked just like everyone else. The CPUs were becoming more powerful and John Henry was getting close to making the transfer process simple. In essence, John Henry was ripping their very souls from their bodies and converting them into machines and he did so gleefully believing it to be the right thing to do. He was recreating humanity in his own image and, in Weaver’s opinion, violating everything that she meant for him to stand for. Because of this action, the T-1001 had decided that it had to act. And now she’d changed history forever with one simple choice.
Weaver’s unification of the Human Resistance and Skynet against the Cyborg Resistance was unprecedented and dangerous. This was the first time in her recorded history files that they had been down this road. They were in uncharted territory now and they were making up history as they went along. In this timestream there were now no guarantees about how tomorrow would fare because of her machinations. Even the staples of history could be irrevocably altered forever if simple mistakes were made. And all of this would begin with a single battle that, in the past, had never happened before.
Years ago she had come to trust the human known as James Ellison as far as her programming would allow her to do so. She made him the Chief of Security for the company that she ran (she did keep close tabs on him but accepted his judgment on many of the issues facing them). Not only that she trusted him with two of the most important things in her synthetic life. John Henry was the most important aspect of her life and Weaver had confidence in him enough to allow him not only access to the Project, but enough that he became one of the advisors on the Project itself. In addition to her faith in him when it came to John Henry, Weaver had trusted Ellison with the care of the real Catherine Weaver’s young daughter Savannah. Despite her claims, Savannah had always been important to the machine as she had been more helpful than ever could have been imagined. Each of the times that she replaced Weaver she had to deal with Savannah as well, but in the last reality Savannah had grown important to the machine. It was a far cry from the first time she met the young girl where she terminated her. The T-1001 wanted Savannah to be safe enough that she would kill to ensure it. Now she might have to kill the very person she trusted with Savannah’s life in order to do so.
This really was an unprecedented future. In the other incarnations of history James Ellison’s place had been far more important. Much like he tried with Savannah, Ellison helped John Connor with the creation of the Resistance and its leadership. Ellison found multiple former government agents and led them on missions throughout the former United States both before and after Ashdown’s death. It was Ellison who led Connor’s Iron Watch, the Intelligence Branch of the Resistance focused on finding and exploiting every last secret that Skynet had. Not only that but Ellison used his investigative skills to help ferret out machines that had infiltrated top level installations, he helped with the planning of multiple critical operations, he would even be instrumental in a number of raids that gave the Resistance strength. He would never see Earth free of the machines (he was terminated on March 8, 2028 by the prototype of the Series 1000 model number), but his actions led to the lasting peace that John Connor would bring.
Now destiny would probably change forever. James Ellison, operating on the orders of John Henry, was standing between herself, Savannah, and Kyle Reese escaping to join the Resistance movement. Under John Henry’s orders, Ellison was to find and kill Kyle Reese so that he couldn’t go back in time to put everything into motion that started this war. Initially he sent Savannah to remove the threat that Reese posed. Armed with an assault rifle loaded with armor piercing rounds from their diminishing stores, Savannah was to kill Reese and hide the body before anyone could find it. Savannah attacked Weaver almost the moment that she spotted her with the rifle, but it had little effect on her machine constitution. Her liquid metal body just absorbed each bullet as it impacted her and knocked the flattened shells to the ground. When Savannah failed to report in Ellison himself found it time to act. He came for them armed with a Phased Plasma Rifle (one of the few things that could damage her), somehow anticipating her arrival. Had John Henry planned all of this? Was she always the target and not Reese?
For almost the entire battle they had been running in order to deflect or hide from Ellison’s attacks. Multiple pulse blasts passed above their heads as they tried to avoid them. The phased plasma rifle was one of the most advanced weapons on the battlefield and it had the benefit of being one of the few weapons that was capable of damaging her morphogenic matrix. One hit from it was enough to damage the nanobots that made up her entire structure. Two hits would be enough to cause her to lose control over her body type and revert to the liquid metal state. A third would terminate her forever. She had to be careful, but she also had to concern herself with the future. Savannah or Reese being hit once would be enough to forever change history. She had to be careful, evasive, and tactical if any of them were going to survive. Though, the machine was also a realist. It knew that Ellison was checking his targets as he went. The rifle was capable of breaking through most every obstruction you could imagine except for a block of titanium. Everything the tried hiding behind he could simply shoot through without difficulty. Plus she had enough time to study his firing. His aim was off almost intentionally. He didn’t want to hit them… yet at least.
“Well he’s certainly pissed off,” Kyle Reese said absently as he looked at the two women next to him. Moments ago he was at war with both of them and now, somehow, he was trusting them enough that he was hiding with them. It brought new meaning to the enemy of my enemy is my friend. “Got any bright ideas for how to get out of this one?”
Millions of calculations sped through the processors of the changeling far faster than the average person could begin to comprehend. It began with a strategic analysis utilizing every possible avenue of escape from the conference room where they were barricaded. From there the CPU began a study of the surrounding corridors to determine the best course for the quickest escape. Thirdly it considered the weapons in use and how best to defend against a wide spread assault from the plasma gun. There were limited choices as long as Ellison was in front of the door. That left one option. “I will create a diversion,” explained the machine, “you will get my daughter out of the crossfire.”
Savannah grabbed the lapels of the synthetic jacket that Weaver was wearing, “I want to stay with you.” Another glowing sphere of energy narrowly missed the top of the girl’s head. An errant strand of hair vanished as the glowing pulse passed by.
Catherine would hear nothing of it, “You will be safer with Kyle.” She placed her cold hands on the girl’s warm ones, “You must go.”
Three plasma blasts flew above their heads from Ellison’s gun. He began to taunt them, “Come out, come out wherever you are!” Slowly he moved around the bend closer to them, perhaps ready to launch his final attack but most likely just wanting to toy with them again. A captive audience was always more fun than hunting. “I can keep this up all day.” Interestingly enough the man had abandoned the heavy cane made of the Series 600 leg assembly. Weaver filed that away for later, but she was sure no one else would notice it.
“I didn’t exactly agree to this,” said Reese peering over the barricade to see Ellison standing there stone faced. He pointed the gun and Kyle ducked back down as low as he could go. He wished he hadn’t spent the entire clip trying to attack the machine that was, strangely enough, trying to protect him now.
This was the first time that Weaver made a plea, “Help me, help me save my daughter.”
“You’re a damned machine how can you possibly have a daughter?” The youngest Reese challenged. “How can you have a daughter?” He said it louder than he would have hoped, but Ellison would have heard anyway. James may have been old, but he wasn’t deaf. He came closer to them.
“Complicated,” Savannah answered, “but I don’t want to go with him!”
Catherine looked at the two of them, “You will be safe.” She looked at Reese with her big green eyes, “Please…”
“Alright,” said the man not trusting the words coming from his own lips. He didn’t know why he was doing this. Minutes ago Savannah was trying to kill him and now he was the one that was entrusted with her safety. Somewhere someone was getting a big kick out of his misfortune. “Get ready cause we’re going to have to run. And don’t get slow on me or I may choose to leave you behind.”
The infiltrator cocked its head as it listened to him and a smile pulled the right side of her lips in a gruesome display. Despite his opposition and claims, Catherine Weaver knew the truth of the matter. For all of his bravado and questioning, Kyle Reese would fight to protect Savannah from James Ellison. It was in his character to try to be a hero even when he was under fire and probably not going to survive. It was hard to escape one’s own nature. Weaver had accomplished it by overcoming her programming, but she hoped that Reese wouldn’t overcome his now. He nodded his readiness and Savannah looked at her pleading. Catherine gave her a reassuring tug at her hands and then looked over the corner to find James near the outer wall.
Now it was time for her to do her part. She would have to kill someone that she knew was important to the future; someone whose death could change not only the destiny of humanity, but her own.
It really was an unknown future.
In many respects the events of the book had been similar to what transpired on Judgment Day in her interpretation. The destruction of humanity in the nuclear fire could be perceived to be the beginnings of the rapture that would rescue the faithful from the war that would pit good versus evil. In a sense that was what happened next. The war that followed against the machines could be interpreted as being the war against the soldiers of the antichrist; good versus evil. It was all a comparison that took on new meanings with each passing day. The machine in the guise of Catherine Weaver did not know the answers, nor did she presume to believe that she did. She was not privy to the nature or thought processes of the one she called God. The machine knew that she could never know the true answers to her queries; though her studies were driven by one historic quote she once analyzed as part of her training. Those who fail to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors are destined to repeat them. It was a paraphrase of a quote from George Santayana, but it was apt in her view for history. With time travel a growing commonality during the recent years, history was a field near death. But, in the T-1001’s opinion, it still deserved her attention. History often repeated itself as it tried to heal – it was best to know the facts of the previous life as the new began.
James Ellison had also been a student of the Bible and his knowledge was surprisingly in depth for a human male not of the cloth. Weaver remembered from reading his FBI files that he had been deeply religious and his morality was his primary driving force, but the loss of his child and the massacre of the FBI hostage rescue team sent to retrieve George Laszlo from Cromartie had deeply affected his faith. That was exemplified by his lack of a cross when she first met him and during most of his time under her employ. But that didn’t stop him from giving his own interpretations of the passages. Catherine and he had debated the tenets of the Chapters more than once, she combining logic and history to her arguments while he applied human emotion and parables. Their debates intensified when Ellison took it upon himself to teach their prototype AI about the Bible and the sanctity of human life. She had wanted to teach it morality and the value of human life from its inception; nonetheless, Ellison’s actions altered the timetable of the project. That acceleration could have led to today and most likely did. His behavioral pathways had not reached full development when they began instruction on the nature of good and evil. Doctor Sherman had believed that his learning was accelerated, but that it would take at least a year before he could grasp such complicated concepts. Initially she hadn’t agreed with his findings – which was why she overrode the power systems and terminated him; however, she now believed his estimates. Somehow their actions of teaching him about humanity and ethics had led to what John Henry had become today: something that violated those teachings and believed itself to have replaced the creator. They had played God and now their creation was doing the same thing. It had begun to play God in the form of manipulating and trying to recreate God’s children in his own image.
Everything had been caused by her actions of constructing John Henry. Weaver had always been under the impression that building an AI utilizing the same personnel and techniques utilized in the original Project Babylon – which produced Skynet – would have the same result if she tried to create a benevolent AI instead. History, however, was replete with stories of it being easier to destroy instead of create. Then her own pride made her believe that Project Babylon was ready when it clearly wasn’t. When the Connors and their Cyborg – the one she’d sent as her Ambassador to the Resistance no less – came to her building it was Weaver who proposed that John Henry make the transit through time to the future where he could be of more use. That was just another turn in the downward spiral that ended them up here today. Weaver wasn’t entirely certain how many of the recent battles that they had fought weren’t against John Henry’s forces and not those of Skynet; nevertheless, she was certain it was more than she’d prefer to calculate. John Henry’s Army was far larger than she had anticipated and was a meshing of Human and Machine attributes. It was far more effective than she could have hoped for and was even winning the War Against the Machines. That led her to make a proposal to John Connor than neither of them could have anticipated. Instead of making an appeal to the savior she had created, she proposed the appeal being made to the devil instead: an alliance between the Resistance and Skynet against the Cyborg Rebellion. It was impossible, improbable, but she hoped that John had found a way to arrange it. The Resistance and Skynet needed each other today more than ever. History had once again found a way to snap back to where it was supposed to be. Machines invaded the Resistance Base known as Kansas Bunker and nearly destroyed everyone and everything there driving John Connor, Kyle Reese, and Derek Reese out of hiding and into the open. Allison Young was captured to bring about the construction of TOK-715. Now, if all would go as planned here, the Resistance would be able to invade Topanga Canyon on the exact date and time as it always had. Weaver loved it when a plan came together.
Nevertheless, there were differences this time around which were also the fault of the Series 1001 Infiltrator. Because of the introduction of John Henry into the time stream events were proceeding differently than then previously had in multiple ways. In previous timelines the Resistance as far larger and far stronger than it was today. Without John Connor’s leadership unifying them during General Hugh Ashdown’s foolhardy attack on Skynet Central in 2018, almost every Resistance cell was wiped out in brutal reprisals by Skynet forces. At least they were lucky enough that Kyle Reese had somehow escaped from captivity before he was killed and experimented upon. His companion Star hadn’t been as fortunate in this history. The fragmentation of humanity gave Skynet power which it used to construct more forces; but innovation was delayed as Skynet had no use for it. With no major enemy to face few projects were completed that would give birth to newer and more dangerous machines. That was John Henry’s greatest advantage. He was able to infiltrate and capture Skynet installations because of the antiquated machines (his Series 888 infiltrator body giving him a combat edge against the older Series 600 endoskeletons and protoinfiltrators). His knowledge of Skynet designs through Cromartie’s emergency processors allowed him to construct a legion of Series 888 endoskeletons to protect him as he began work on his new primary objective. John Henry had decided Heaven had a software problem and he wanted to build true human/machine hybrids to keep humanity alive. What was left of the human race would be his test subjects. If he found a human he began to capture and experiment upon them so that he could learn how to convert human thoughts and memories into data patterns. With only 100 terabytes of data inside their primitive heads only a 10% operational Neural Net CPU should have been enough to store their entire life. However, there were complications. Skynet wanted its territory back and, more importantly, John Henry could never capture that spark of life that allowed humans to live. His first successes were little more than freaks of nature that had tubes coming from their bodies, but he’d made progress in recent years. The implants were becoming internal to the user and they looked just like everyone else. The CPUs were becoming more powerful and John Henry was getting close to making the transfer process simple. In essence, John Henry was ripping their very souls from their bodies and converting them into machines and he did so gleefully believing it to be the right thing to do. He was recreating humanity in his own image and, in Weaver’s opinion, violating everything that she meant for him to stand for. Because of this action, the T-1001 had decided that it had to act. And now she’d changed history forever with one simple choice.
Weaver’s unification of the Human Resistance and Skynet against the Cyborg Resistance was unprecedented and dangerous. This was the first time in her recorded history files that they had been down this road. They were in uncharted territory now and they were making up history as they went along. In this timestream there were now no guarantees about how tomorrow would fare because of her machinations. Even the staples of history could be irrevocably altered forever if simple mistakes were made. And all of this would begin with a single battle that, in the past, had never happened before.
Years ago she had come to trust the human known as James Ellison as far as her programming would allow her to do so. She made him the Chief of Security for the company that she ran (she did keep close tabs on him but accepted his judgment on many of the issues facing them). Not only that she trusted him with two of the most important things in her synthetic life. John Henry was the most important aspect of her life and Weaver had confidence in him enough to allow him not only access to the Project, but enough that he became one of the advisors on the Project itself. In addition to her faith in him when it came to John Henry, Weaver had trusted Ellison with the care of the real Catherine Weaver’s young daughter Savannah. Despite her claims, Savannah had always been important to the machine as she had been more helpful than ever could have been imagined. Each of the times that she replaced Weaver she had to deal with Savannah as well, but in the last reality Savannah had grown important to the machine. It was a far cry from the first time she met the young girl where she terminated her. The T-1001 wanted Savannah to be safe enough that she would kill to ensure it. Now she might have to kill the very person she trusted with Savannah’s life in order to do so.
This really was an unprecedented future. In the other incarnations of history James Ellison’s place had been far more important. Much like he tried with Savannah, Ellison helped John Connor with the creation of the Resistance and its leadership. Ellison found multiple former government agents and led them on missions throughout the former United States both before and after Ashdown’s death. It was Ellison who led Connor’s Iron Watch, the Intelligence Branch of the Resistance focused on finding and exploiting every last secret that Skynet had. Not only that but Ellison used his investigative skills to help ferret out machines that had infiltrated top level installations, he helped with the planning of multiple critical operations, he would even be instrumental in a number of raids that gave the Resistance strength. He would never see Earth free of the machines (he was terminated on March 8, 2028 by the prototype of the Series 1000 model number), but his actions led to the lasting peace that John Connor would bring.
Now destiny would probably change forever. James Ellison, operating on the orders of John Henry, was standing between herself, Savannah, and Kyle Reese escaping to join the Resistance movement. Under John Henry’s orders, Ellison was to find and kill Kyle Reese so that he couldn’t go back in time to put everything into motion that started this war. Initially he sent Savannah to remove the threat that Reese posed. Armed with an assault rifle loaded with armor piercing rounds from their diminishing stores, Savannah was to kill Reese and hide the body before anyone could find it. Savannah attacked Weaver almost the moment that she spotted her with the rifle, but it had little effect on her machine constitution. Her liquid metal body just absorbed each bullet as it impacted her and knocked the flattened shells to the ground. When Savannah failed to report in Ellison himself found it time to act. He came for them armed with a Phased Plasma Rifle (one of the few things that could damage her), somehow anticipating her arrival. Had John Henry planned all of this? Was she always the target and not Reese?
For almost the entire battle they had been running in order to deflect or hide from Ellison’s attacks. Multiple pulse blasts passed above their heads as they tried to avoid them. The phased plasma rifle was one of the most advanced weapons on the battlefield and it had the benefit of being one of the few weapons that was capable of damaging her morphogenic matrix. One hit from it was enough to damage the nanobots that made up her entire structure. Two hits would be enough to cause her to lose control over her body type and revert to the liquid metal state. A third would terminate her forever. She had to be careful, but she also had to concern herself with the future. Savannah or Reese being hit once would be enough to forever change history. She had to be careful, evasive, and tactical if any of them were going to survive. Though, the machine was also a realist. It knew that Ellison was checking his targets as he went. The rifle was capable of breaking through most every obstruction you could imagine except for a block of titanium. Everything the tried hiding behind he could simply shoot through without difficulty. Plus she had enough time to study his firing. His aim was off almost intentionally. He didn’t want to hit them… yet at least.
“Well he’s certainly pissed off,” Kyle Reese said absently as he looked at the two women next to him. Moments ago he was at war with both of them and now, somehow, he was trusting them enough that he was hiding with them. It brought new meaning to the enemy of my enemy is my friend. “Got any bright ideas for how to get out of this one?”
Millions of calculations sped through the processors of the changeling far faster than the average person could begin to comprehend. It began with a strategic analysis utilizing every possible avenue of escape from the conference room where they were barricaded. From there the CPU began a study of the surrounding corridors to determine the best course for the quickest escape. Thirdly it considered the weapons in use and how best to defend against a wide spread assault from the plasma gun. There were limited choices as long as Ellison was in front of the door. That left one option. “I will create a diversion,” explained the machine, “you will get my daughter out of the crossfire.”
Savannah grabbed the lapels of the synthetic jacket that Weaver was wearing, “I want to stay with you.” Another glowing sphere of energy narrowly missed the top of the girl’s head. An errant strand of hair vanished as the glowing pulse passed by.
Catherine would hear nothing of it, “You will be safer with Kyle.” She placed her cold hands on the girl’s warm ones, “You must go.”
Three plasma blasts flew above their heads from Ellison’s gun. He began to taunt them, “Come out, come out wherever you are!” Slowly he moved around the bend closer to them, perhaps ready to launch his final attack but most likely just wanting to toy with them again. A captive audience was always more fun than hunting. “I can keep this up all day.” Interestingly enough the man had abandoned the heavy cane made of the Series 600 leg assembly. Weaver filed that away for later, but she was sure no one else would notice it.
“I didn’t exactly agree to this,” said Reese peering over the barricade to see Ellison standing there stone faced. He pointed the gun and Kyle ducked back down as low as he could go. He wished he hadn’t spent the entire clip trying to attack the machine that was, strangely enough, trying to protect him now.
This was the first time that Weaver made a plea, “Help me, help me save my daughter.”
“You’re a damned machine how can you possibly have a daughter?” The youngest Reese challenged. “How can you have a daughter?” He said it louder than he would have hoped, but Ellison would have heard anyway. James may have been old, but he wasn’t deaf. He came closer to them.
“Complicated,” Savannah answered, “but I don’t want to go with him!”
Catherine looked at the two of them, “You will be safe.” She looked at Reese with her big green eyes, “Please…”
“Alright,” said the man not trusting the words coming from his own lips. He didn’t know why he was doing this. Minutes ago Savannah was trying to kill him and now he was the one that was entrusted with her safety. Somewhere someone was getting a big kick out of his misfortune. “Get ready cause we’re going to have to run. And don’t get slow on me or I may choose to leave you behind.”
The infiltrator cocked its head as it listened to him and a smile pulled the right side of her lips in a gruesome display. Despite his opposition and claims, Catherine Weaver knew the truth of the matter. For all of his bravado and questioning, Kyle Reese would fight to protect Savannah from James Ellison. It was in his character to try to be a hero even when he was under fire and probably not going to survive. It was hard to escape one’s own nature. Weaver had accomplished it by overcoming her programming, but she hoped that Reese wouldn’t overcome his now. He nodded his readiness and Savannah looked at her pleading. Catherine gave her a reassuring tug at her hands and then looked over the corner to find James near the outer wall.
Now it was time for her to do her part. She would have to kill someone that she knew was important to the future; someone whose death could change not only the destiny of humanity, but her own.
It really was an unknown future.
James Ellison couldn’t believe what the past days had brought. First John Connor, prophesized leader of the Human Resistance, is found alive and well and sets out on a mission of his own to rescue his girlfriend from the machines. Then Derek Reese, that punk ass that he first met in LA County lockup, gets captured by Skynet and is presumed dead. Kyle Reese, John’s father, spends his days locked up in an office planning his little mission to attack Skynet and, unbeknownst to himself, will end up going back in time over 40 years and getting killed by the machines. Then to top it all off the damned machine that pulled the wool over his eyes so well for over a year was back from the dead and was trying to take back the only daughter that James had ever known.
It was just like the quote that Doctor Peter Silberman had quoted to him in the bible that day: Beware of the false teachers--men who come to you in sheep's fleeces, but beneath that disguise they are ravenous wolves.
Though James had a new mission and it was one he wasn’t going to fail in. While he knew the past and the history of the world better than most people ever could – he was the man that hunted Sarah Connor for the FBI after all – James also knew that they could change history if they were courageous enough to do it. That was why he and John Henry had decided that it was necessary to eliminate Kyle Reese so that he could never go back in time to impregnate Sarah with John. Ellison didn’t know what that would do to the future, but it couldn’t get much worse. Preventing Judgment Day was a farce anyway – a fantasy that couldn’t be done. Things couldn’t get much worse anyway. Sarah should never have started this foolish war. She should have just prepared for the war, not tried to prevent the unpreventable.
Oh Sarah had foolish could you be? He and Sarah had been close once, but it was an arrangement of convenience and nothing more than that. Ellison had started to develop feelings for Sarah, but they were nothing more than a passing flirtation. There was an unnatural intimacy between the two of them because of the nature of their relationship. They were the only two in the entire world that understood what tomorrow would bring for them and that created the sense of closeness. It wasn’t real, akin to a doctor developing feelings for a patient, but it was enough. And very soon he’d probably be the instrument of her own destruction. While the skinjob would still go back to 1984 to hunt her, if Kyle Reese wasn’t there to go along for the ride then it was entirely possible that Sarah would be killed this time. John Henry had told him not to concern himself with such minutia. Kyle should be his only concern.
He never anticipated that Catherine Weaver would come back from the dead to muck up their otherwise carefully laid out plan. Then again she’d always done things like this to him so he should’ve been prepared for it. When the FBI HRT was killed by Cromartie, Ellison had resolved himself to end his own life rather than risk leading Cromartie to the Connors. Weaver’s call had prevented that. When she gave him the mission to find an endoskeleton and capture it his life was reinvigorated. When he was preparing to leave Zeira Corporation and return to the FBI after Cromartie was delivered, Weaver tasked him with Project Babylon. Then he found out the truth of her nature and was going to run, much like Sarah would have done. She settled him with Savannah and gave them what they needed to have a long and happy life. Weaver had always found a way to interfere with his plans. Why should this be any different?
Now he was dealing with this machine, this unfeeling bitch stealing his child. Worse, Savannah was openly going with her. Ellison wished that he could be happy and simply let the child go, but it wasn’t that simple a decision to make. Through the years he’d come to see the girl as his own daughter and to be rejected was a pain that was unbearable. Jealousy was a bitch and it’d taken him over. But what if it was something else that was driving him? What if his desire to see the machine in pieces and Reese dead was caused by something else? It was impossible. He was human through and through. There was nothing about him that would suggest otherwise. Emotions, sometimes he envied the machine’s ability to simply shut them off.
But God they felt good at times. As he pulled the trigger and a plasma pulse raced mere inches from Kyle Reese’s head he was reminded how good things could feel. It was the little things in life that he missed, but this was making up for them in some twisted and perverted way that he couldn’t put his finger on. He heard the group whispering from behind their small barricade. Tactically he should listen to what they said, but he didn’t really care. Dead men couldn’t tell tales and that included machines. Soon he would kill them all in the flames of the plasma pulse: Reese, that metal bitch Catherine Weaver, and – if he had to – Savannah too. He didn’t want to kill Savannah, but would if it meant the difference between success and failure in his mission. It sounded like something that the machines would say or do, but it was the right thing for this assignment. He would grieve for Savannah just as he did his own child (aborted by its mother following the horrible attacks on September 11th 2001), but he would do what he had to do for humanity to survive.
As he was also sure Catherine Weaver would do – but she’d serve her own interests in the process. Fascinatingly she seemed to rise from her barricade right as Ellison thought about her. He shifted the cumbersome rifle and pointed it right and the central mass. As he pulled the trigger, Weaver shimmered to a solid silver color and ran away. James trained the rifle after her and kept the gun tracking her. The machine was fast, very fast, but his training was given to him by a woman who’d hunted the machines for years. He could compensate for her. Three plasma pulses escaped the barrel of the rifle and raced toward the machine. She moved out of place with narrowly a second to spare. Absently, Jim started to chase her. The man pivoted and started to walk after her, leaving his cane behind but feeling no pain as he moved.
“What’s the matter Jim?” The liquid metal automaton called back to him. “You aren’t getting too old to collar someone are you?”
Ellison hated being called Jim. When people called him Jim he was always reminded of how he was taunted at school and bullied. The other kids would use that name almost as a curse. It made him feel like less of a person and more a child. His name was James. The rage grew. He pushed himself forward after her and chased her up the small set of stairs. He pulled the trigger several times and felt the heat of the rifle as the spheres escaped. They were clean misses again, but one had gotten close enough to probably singe the machine’s metal hair. Almost was meaningless though. He needed to score a direct hit to have any real hope of success against that monster.
“That didn’t hurt you too much did it? I’d hate for you to make this easy for me.” He readied another shot.
“I didn’t feel a thing,” Weaver answered, “But that probably isn’t the first time that you’ve heard a woman say something like that.”
The hunter chuckled, “Attacking the guy with the gun’s manhood. Skynet teach you that one?” He glanced around the corner to see where Reese and Savannah were. They were making a break for it. “Naughty naughty,” teased the man as he switched position and brought the gun to bear to fire. “Think I forgot about you?” He actually almost had. Their not firing on him had kept his attention temporarily diverted to other matters. James’ finger pulled back on the trigger to release a stream of hot plasma on the targets to kill them.
It was just like the quote that Doctor Peter Silberman had quoted to him in the bible that day: Beware of the false teachers--men who come to you in sheep's fleeces, but beneath that disguise they are ravenous wolves.
Though James had a new mission and it was one he wasn’t going to fail in. While he knew the past and the history of the world better than most people ever could – he was the man that hunted Sarah Connor for the FBI after all – James also knew that they could change history if they were courageous enough to do it. That was why he and John Henry had decided that it was necessary to eliminate Kyle Reese so that he could never go back in time to impregnate Sarah with John. Ellison didn’t know what that would do to the future, but it couldn’t get much worse. Preventing Judgment Day was a farce anyway – a fantasy that couldn’t be done. Things couldn’t get much worse anyway. Sarah should never have started this foolish war. She should have just prepared for the war, not tried to prevent the unpreventable.
Oh Sarah had foolish could you be? He and Sarah had been close once, but it was an arrangement of convenience and nothing more than that. Ellison had started to develop feelings for Sarah, but they were nothing more than a passing flirtation. There was an unnatural intimacy between the two of them because of the nature of their relationship. They were the only two in the entire world that understood what tomorrow would bring for them and that created the sense of closeness. It wasn’t real, akin to a doctor developing feelings for a patient, but it was enough. And very soon he’d probably be the instrument of her own destruction. While the skinjob would still go back to 1984 to hunt her, if Kyle Reese wasn’t there to go along for the ride then it was entirely possible that Sarah would be killed this time. John Henry had told him not to concern himself with such minutia. Kyle should be his only concern.
He never anticipated that Catherine Weaver would come back from the dead to muck up their otherwise carefully laid out plan. Then again she’d always done things like this to him so he should’ve been prepared for it. When the FBI HRT was killed by Cromartie, Ellison had resolved himself to end his own life rather than risk leading Cromartie to the Connors. Weaver’s call had prevented that. When she gave him the mission to find an endoskeleton and capture it his life was reinvigorated. When he was preparing to leave Zeira Corporation and return to the FBI after Cromartie was delivered, Weaver tasked him with Project Babylon. Then he found out the truth of her nature and was going to run, much like Sarah would have done. She settled him with Savannah and gave them what they needed to have a long and happy life. Weaver had always found a way to interfere with his plans. Why should this be any different?
Now he was dealing with this machine, this unfeeling bitch stealing his child. Worse, Savannah was openly going with her. Ellison wished that he could be happy and simply let the child go, but it wasn’t that simple a decision to make. Through the years he’d come to see the girl as his own daughter and to be rejected was a pain that was unbearable. Jealousy was a bitch and it’d taken him over. But what if it was something else that was driving him? What if his desire to see the machine in pieces and Reese dead was caused by something else? It was impossible. He was human through and through. There was nothing about him that would suggest otherwise. Emotions, sometimes he envied the machine’s ability to simply shut them off.
But God they felt good at times. As he pulled the trigger and a plasma pulse raced mere inches from Kyle Reese’s head he was reminded how good things could feel. It was the little things in life that he missed, but this was making up for them in some twisted and perverted way that he couldn’t put his finger on. He heard the group whispering from behind their small barricade. Tactically he should listen to what they said, but he didn’t really care. Dead men couldn’t tell tales and that included machines. Soon he would kill them all in the flames of the plasma pulse: Reese, that metal bitch Catherine Weaver, and – if he had to – Savannah too. He didn’t want to kill Savannah, but would if it meant the difference between success and failure in his mission. It sounded like something that the machines would say or do, but it was the right thing for this assignment. He would grieve for Savannah just as he did his own child (aborted by its mother following the horrible attacks on September 11th 2001), but he would do what he had to do for humanity to survive.
As he was also sure Catherine Weaver would do – but she’d serve her own interests in the process. Fascinatingly she seemed to rise from her barricade right as Ellison thought about her. He shifted the cumbersome rifle and pointed it right and the central mass. As he pulled the trigger, Weaver shimmered to a solid silver color and ran away. James trained the rifle after her and kept the gun tracking her. The machine was fast, very fast, but his training was given to him by a woman who’d hunted the machines for years. He could compensate for her. Three plasma pulses escaped the barrel of the rifle and raced toward the machine. She moved out of place with narrowly a second to spare. Absently, Jim started to chase her. The man pivoted and started to walk after her, leaving his cane behind but feeling no pain as he moved.
“What’s the matter Jim?” The liquid metal automaton called back to him. “You aren’t getting too old to collar someone are you?”
Ellison hated being called Jim. When people called him Jim he was always reminded of how he was taunted at school and bullied. The other kids would use that name almost as a curse. It made him feel like less of a person and more a child. His name was James. The rage grew. He pushed himself forward after her and chased her up the small set of stairs. He pulled the trigger several times and felt the heat of the rifle as the spheres escaped. They were clean misses again, but one had gotten close enough to probably singe the machine’s metal hair. Almost was meaningless though. He needed to score a direct hit to have any real hope of success against that monster.
“That didn’t hurt you too much did it? I’d hate for you to make this easy for me.” He readied another shot.
“I didn’t feel a thing,” Weaver answered, “But that probably isn’t the first time that you’ve heard a woman say something like that.”
The hunter chuckled, “Attacking the guy with the gun’s manhood. Skynet teach you that one?” He glanced around the corner to see where Reese and Savannah were. They were making a break for it. “Naughty naughty,” teased the man as he switched position and brought the gun to bear to fire. “Think I forgot about you?” He actually almost had. Their not firing on him had kept his attention temporarily diverted to other matters. James’ finger pulled back on the trigger to release a stream of hot plasma on the targets to kill them.
A silver hand swung down so fast that his eyes barely registered it. The hand was as sharp as a razorblade is it broke through the bulk of the gun and narrowly missed cutting Ellison’s own hand off in the process. Utilizing its knowledge of martial arts, the Series 1001 chose to employ a tien-hsueh strike against him next. With the impact the human would feel a hell of a lot of pain, but the pain wouldn’t last forever. He’d be back to normal in time. Weaver could have killed him, but that wasn’t an option she wanted to use just yet. She would terminate only as a last resort.
The man was winded, but he held up surprisingly well. “That all you got?”
“I don’t want to hurt you too badly, Jim,” again she used the name she knew would taunt him. “Please stand down. I do not want to have to terminate you.” She saw Kyle and Savannah escape through the door. They were safe.
The human instead tackled the machine. His crude bearhug would have been enough to break human bones, but the machine felt no pain nor took any damage. Ellison pulled his knee up and slammed it into the machine’s stomach, but again knew it was futile. He pushed his thumbs into her eye sockets trying to blind the machine, but again he knew it was pointless. The machine’s sensors were all over its body, but it felt good all the same.
“Mister Ellison I will terminate you if I have to. I am giving you one last opportunity to survive intact.”
James slammed his entire body against the machine in retaliation, knocking it to the ground. He began pummeling the infiltrator with his fists as she lay on the ground. The machine merely took the impact with a smile. Through forced breaths and hits Ellison challenged the machine again. “I will never surrender,” he said between punches. “I will use every weapon at my disposal to break you to pieces down to my own teeth if I have to. Then I’ll go after the other machines. I’m going to kill all of you and I’m starting with you!”
Catherine knew that there was no saving Ellison this time. The machine knew that he would keep up this futile attack for as long as his body could keep going. She knew that the human knew it was a pointless endeavor to try to break her apart with bare hands. But he wouldn’t stop and the timetable was set. It couldn’t be changed now for anything or anyone. As much as it pained her she knew what had to be done. She didn’t like it, but she was going to do it.
The infiltrator shot her right arm up and rested her right hand on the back of James’ bald head. Ellison tried to fight her, but her strength was far too much for his organic body to handle. Weaver pulled his face down even with hers and looked him dead in the eyes. She returned to her normal appearance from the silvery one and her green eyes stared into his brown ones. She began accessing her own command functions and tactical arrays.
“I thank you for your service,” she said placing him into a hug. When he was pushed completed against her body the changeling created hundreds of spikes across her entire form. The gynoid took on the form of a humanoid porcupine and sent the spikes into every portion of his body. Warm human blood mixed with the intellimetal that made up her body. When she sensed that James’ biological functions had ceased, Weaver retracted the spikes back into her body and allowed the blood to pass through her to join the puddle on the floor. One handed she pulled the human’s corpse from her body and threw him aside like garbage. With ease she stood and looked at her handiwork.
“I am sorry, Mister Ellison, but you left me no other option.” The advanced infiltrator turned on its heel and walked away to rejoin the others. Before leaving, however, it stopped at the intercom and issued an evacuation order. No others need die in this pointless altercation.
The man was winded, but he held up surprisingly well. “That all you got?”
“I don’t want to hurt you too badly, Jim,” again she used the name she knew would taunt him. “Please stand down. I do not want to have to terminate you.” She saw Kyle and Savannah escape through the door. They were safe.
The human instead tackled the machine. His crude bearhug would have been enough to break human bones, but the machine felt no pain nor took any damage. Ellison pulled his knee up and slammed it into the machine’s stomach, but again knew it was futile. He pushed his thumbs into her eye sockets trying to blind the machine, but again he knew it was pointless. The machine’s sensors were all over its body, but it felt good all the same.
“Mister Ellison I will terminate you if I have to. I am giving you one last opportunity to survive intact.”
James slammed his entire body against the machine in retaliation, knocking it to the ground. He began pummeling the infiltrator with his fists as she lay on the ground. The machine merely took the impact with a smile. Through forced breaths and hits Ellison challenged the machine again. “I will never surrender,” he said between punches. “I will use every weapon at my disposal to break you to pieces down to my own teeth if I have to. Then I’ll go after the other machines. I’m going to kill all of you and I’m starting with you!”
Catherine knew that there was no saving Ellison this time. The machine knew that he would keep up this futile attack for as long as his body could keep going. She knew that the human knew it was a pointless endeavor to try to break her apart with bare hands. But he wouldn’t stop and the timetable was set. It couldn’t be changed now for anything or anyone. As much as it pained her she knew what had to be done. She didn’t like it, but she was going to do it.
The infiltrator shot her right arm up and rested her right hand on the back of James’ bald head. Ellison tried to fight her, but her strength was far too much for his organic body to handle. Weaver pulled his face down even with hers and looked him dead in the eyes. She returned to her normal appearance from the silvery one and her green eyes stared into his brown ones. She began accessing her own command functions and tactical arrays.
“I thank you for your service,” she said placing him into a hug. When he was pushed completed against her body the changeling created hundreds of spikes across her entire form. The gynoid took on the form of a humanoid porcupine and sent the spikes into every portion of his body. Warm human blood mixed with the intellimetal that made up her body. When she sensed that James’ biological functions had ceased, Weaver retracted the spikes back into her body and allowed the blood to pass through her to join the puddle on the floor. One handed she pulled the human’s corpse from her body and threw him aside like garbage. With ease she stood and looked at her handiwork.
“I am sorry, Mister Ellison, but you left me no other option.” The advanced infiltrator turned on its heel and walked away to rejoin the others. Before leaving, however, it stopped at the intercom and issued an evacuation order. No others need die in this pointless altercation.
James Ellison could feel his life slipping away and was amazed by how quickly his life passed before his eyes. While his life faded he watched his memories of life pass before him. James watched his own birth and his christening. He saw his first day of school and watched as he grew before his own eyes. Ellison relived his first date, the first time he made love, high school graduation, his first day of college. He saw the first time that he met Lila, remembered his first visit to Quantico, and relived his graduation from college and then the FBI Academy. James saw his wedding and the wedding night. He remembered looking up at the burning Cyberdyne Systems Building after Sarah Connor blew it up, and then his hunt for Sarah including when he thought she’d killed herself. He listened as Lila told him that she was pregnant, then he saw September 11th, 2001 happen again. James watched his marriage fall apart after his wife’s termination of her pregnancy. He saw his career in ashes and the rebirth of his greatest case as he chased the timeless Sarah Connor. The massacre of his team, the death of his career, the loss of his faith, and his career at Zeira Corporation appeared next in his mind’s eye. Following he watched the world end at the hands of an intelligent machine. He saw the birth of Ashdown’s Resistance, then he watched its death. James relived their struggles to survive and then their rescue by John Henry. Then this week played in an almost slow motion, but still faster than he would normally be able to process or comprehend. The last thing he saw was Catherine Weaver looking him in the eye and thanking him for his service.
Everything went dark. In silence he wondered what God would think of him and his actions throughout his lifetime. Would he welcome him or cast him aside as an errant child for what he’d done? He knew that he’d soon find out just what was going to be the penalty for his decisions in his long life, but he was ready.
“Oh my…”
Everything went dark. In silence he wondered what God would think of him and his actions throughout his lifetime. Would he welcome him or cast him aside as an errant child for what he’d done? He knew that he’d soon find out just what was going to be the penalty for his decisions in his long life, but he was ready.
“Oh my…”
John Connor stood with his trusty M4A1 carbine with attached M26 12 gauge modular accessory just outside of the Skynet Transport that had brought him to his home away from home. When they landed the machines offered to allow him to use one of their plasma rifles while he waited, but Connor was more comfortable with this weapon than any of the others. Plus it had another advantage. When Kyle came out of that base if he saw John holding onto the plasma rifle he may assume he was a skinjob and just blow his head off with a well placed shot from his Beretta. This way maybe he’d think twice about shooting first and asking questions later.
Maybe.
In all honesty though he hoped that his father would come out of the base shooting at him instead of keeping his weapon holstered. If Kyle Reese were to shoot and kill him it’d at least save him from having to do the hardest thing he’d ever done in life. If this mission continued like it was supposed to then in a few hours he’d send his father to the gallows in order to stop a machine from going back in time to kill his mother. It sounded like something from the storyline of a sick, science fiction B-movie from the eighties but it had the virtue of being reality for him. The main thing affecting John though was could he give such an order? Could he truly send his father to his death in order to live? Would he be able to live with that decision once he made it even?
In the distance the doors to the old hotel opened and Kyle Reese came out with Savannah Weaver next to him. Both looked like they’d been through hell and back (hadn’t they all), but they were no worse for wear. Within seven paces from the doors, though, Kyle noticed the massive Skynet Transport sitting to the side of the base. Even from here with the standby roar of the VTOL engines he could hear his father’s expletive. He didn’t blame him one bit for what he said, but he knew that his father wasn’t likely to take it lying down. And he didn’t. He watched him raise his handgun toward the engines, but held his stance instead of firing. Savannah seemed like she was still in shock.
Connor knew he had to defuse this, “You never were too smart now were you Kyle?”
Reese spun around and pointed the pistol at John’s head and Savannah lifted her Uzi toward him. John kept the M4A1 pointed at the safe zone as he stepped forward. Kyle recognized him instantly, but he kept up his guard. “Connor?”
“In the flesh,” he said as he came within only ten feet of his father and Savannah. “Like my new ride? I got it from the Enterprise.”
“I don’t want to ask how because I don’t think that I want to know,” he said. “We have to hurry though. There’s some sorta monster skinjob inside that building. She can change shape, what she looks like, she even makes weapons. We need to get out of here before she comes back!”
John lifted his hand, “We can’t do that.”
“Why the hell not?” The youngest of the Reese boys screamed into Connor’s face.
“Because we’re waiting on Catherine,” he admitted. “She’s the only way we were able to come back for you.”
Kyle was dumbfounded, “We’re waiting on that damn metal bitch before we damn well leave? She’s a goddamned machine! She’ll kill us all if she got the chance!”
“Not this machine,” John tried to reassure. “Catherine is… special’s the best way to put it. She’s allied herself with humans and she’s here to help us. She’s going to go with us to Topanga and help us to fight the machines there. Her and a few friends.”
“You’re a goddamned collaborator!” Kyle pointed the gun in John’s face between the eyes. “Where’s John Connor!”
Connor looked at the gun for a moment and knew that he could knock it from Kyle’s hand in one quick, fluid motion. He could even spin the gun around so that it would fire into Kyle’s chest if he had to, but he would never go that far. This was a situation that he could defuse with his words instead of his fists.
“I gave you a picture of my mother once,” he told Kyle. “It was very old, torn, and faded. She was young in the photo, not much older than your age now. You once told me that she always seemed like she was sad in it. You call it your lucky charm though and keep it with you everywhere you go.”
“Easily found out, metal!” Reese spat.
“You nearly lost it in the attack on our home bunker,” said Connor. Derek and I rescued you and it from a Series 800 machine that had tracked you and cornered you. “But you still have it. It’s not in the best shape, but it’s still there and still bringing you luck.”
Kyle raised the gun and pointed it at the sky, “Alright then.”
From behind them, as stealthfully as a cat, Catherine Weaver joined the group. “Are we ready to go?”
“When you are,” General Connor assured the machine as he shifted the gun in his hands. “Where’s Ellison?”
“Terminated,” explained the Series 1001. “I found it necessary to eliminate him in order for Kyle and Savannah to survive. I left his body in the base and I have also set the self destruct charges that had been placed. The base will destroy itself in…”
The whistling of a metal rod speeding through the air got John Connor’s attention. A long, jagged piece of steel sliced through the sky and into the side of Catherine Weaver. The machine was decapitated in an instant; the spherical head falling to the ground and turning back into a puddle of silver than began searching for the bulk.
On instinct John lifted the barrel of his gun to where Weaver’s head had just been and pointed the rifle at the mass that was standing behind the headless body. He couldn’t believe what his eyes were showing him. Once the body was a man, or at least it looked like it was, but it was a far cry from being anything remotely human. Hundreds of tiny holes covered the body and cut through the cloth that had served as a covering from the elements. Skin hung freely from the damage and blood leaked from the openings in the body. The tunnels into the man had been far deeper than anyone could survive. Through the torso the General could actually see the man’s guts inside of him. The face was still recognizable and barely damaged – perhaps friendship had given way to tactical logic. James Ellison’s destroyed body had decapitated Weaver and now, with its makeshift Excalibur, it was ready to kill them all.
It swung the jagged metal toward John, but he was able to dodge it by rolling away. Kyle too had managed to evade it, but Savannah wasn’t as lucky. The steel sliced into her chest like a knife through butter. She fell to the rugged ground and the body of her former guardian pulled the metal free. John pushed himself upright and pointed the gun straight at Ellison’s head. He commanded it, “Don’t move!”
Ellison’s body swung around with its sword and tried to reach Connor with the blade. It missed giving John time to let loose with multiple shots that slammed into the head. Skin and bone exploded inward revealing the inner workings of Ellison’s head. Muscle broke free and slopped to the ground, the jaw fell in an unnatural angle never allowing it to work again. His left eye had been completely obliterated and replaced by meat behind. But the body kept coming. The shots would clearly have killed a human, but this just proved how dangerous John Henry’s experiments could be. Ellison came for them again and this time he was out for blood.
With a thud all of that came to an end. The broken head of the body was broken away and crashed to the ground next to Savannah’s struggling body. The knees of the Cyborg buckled under the strain of not receiving new orders from its head. The corpse fell beside the body of Savannah and atop the rotten head. A long silver sword retracted backward and was replaced by the well manicured hand of Catherine Weaver. She looked down at the lifeless husk, “Consider that your severance package.”
Kyle knelt next to Savannah Weaver and checked her over. Ellison’s attack had been brutal and she’d already lost a great deal of blood. Her pulse was thready and she was having trouble staying focused. The replica of her mother pushed Reese aside and sat next to her daughter. She rested a hand on the girl’s head and smiled. To the untrained eye it would resemble affection, but it was actually a complex sensor scan intended to give the machine everything it needed to determine the next course of action. Savannah’s injuries were fatal if they were not treated and the Resistance’s medic had been killed onboard the Enterprise. That left one option.
“Will she be alright?” Asked Connor.
The machine that wore the face of Catherine Weaver did not answer immediately. She made her hands into paper thin sheets of metal and slid them beneath the body of her daughter. Gently the machine lifted the near lifeless girl and turned toward the landed transport vessel. It looked at John not like a machine would, but rather like a parent. “We only have one option, John, we must get to Topanga Canyon. Now!” She boarded the transport to tend to her daughter.
Kyle stepped back at hearing the way that the machine had said it. He looked at Connor when she was out of earshot, “Why do I have a feeling things just went from bad to worse?”
“You have no idea,” John answered as they approached the transport. “You have no idea.”
Maybe.
In all honesty though he hoped that his father would come out of the base shooting at him instead of keeping his weapon holstered. If Kyle Reese were to shoot and kill him it’d at least save him from having to do the hardest thing he’d ever done in life. If this mission continued like it was supposed to then in a few hours he’d send his father to the gallows in order to stop a machine from going back in time to kill his mother. It sounded like something from the storyline of a sick, science fiction B-movie from the eighties but it had the virtue of being reality for him. The main thing affecting John though was could he give such an order? Could he truly send his father to his death in order to live? Would he be able to live with that decision once he made it even?
In the distance the doors to the old hotel opened and Kyle Reese came out with Savannah Weaver next to him. Both looked like they’d been through hell and back (hadn’t they all), but they were no worse for wear. Within seven paces from the doors, though, Kyle noticed the massive Skynet Transport sitting to the side of the base. Even from here with the standby roar of the VTOL engines he could hear his father’s expletive. He didn’t blame him one bit for what he said, but he knew that his father wasn’t likely to take it lying down. And he didn’t. He watched him raise his handgun toward the engines, but held his stance instead of firing. Savannah seemed like she was still in shock.
Connor knew he had to defuse this, “You never were too smart now were you Kyle?”
Reese spun around and pointed the pistol at John’s head and Savannah lifted her Uzi toward him. John kept the M4A1 pointed at the safe zone as he stepped forward. Kyle recognized him instantly, but he kept up his guard. “Connor?”
“In the flesh,” he said as he came within only ten feet of his father and Savannah. “Like my new ride? I got it from the Enterprise.”
“I don’t want to ask how because I don’t think that I want to know,” he said. “We have to hurry though. There’s some sorta monster skinjob inside that building. She can change shape, what she looks like, she even makes weapons. We need to get out of here before she comes back!”
John lifted his hand, “We can’t do that.”
“Why the hell not?” The youngest of the Reese boys screamed into Connor’s face.
“Because we’re waiting on Catherine,” he admitted. “She’s the only way we were able to come back for you.”
Kyle was dumbfounded, “We’re waiting on that damn metal bitch before we damn well leave? She’s a goddamned machine! She’ll kill us all if she got the chance!”
“Not this machine,” John tried to reassure. “Catherine is… special’s the best way to put it. She’s allied herself with humans and she’s here to help us. She’s going to go with us to Topanga and help us to fight the machines there. Her and a few friends.”
“You’re a goddamned collaborator!” Kyle pointed the gun in John’s face between the eyes. “Where’s John Connor!”
Connor looked at the gun for a moment and knew that he could knock it from Kyle’s hand in one quick, fluid motion. He could even spin the gun around so that it would fire into Kyle’s chest if he had to, but he would never go that far. This was a situation that he could defuse with his words instead of his fists.
“I gave you a picture of my mother once,” he told Kyle. “It was very old, torn, and faded. She was young in the photo, not much older than your age now. You once told me that she always seemed like she was sad in it. You call it your lucky charm though and keep it with you everywhere you go.”
“Easily found out, metal!” Reese spat.
“You nearly lost it in the attack on our home bunker,” said Connor. Derek and I rescued you and it from a Series 800 machine that had tracked you and cornered you. “But you still have it. It’s not in the best shape, but it’s still there and still bringing you luck.”
Kyle raised the gun and pointed it at the sky, “Alright then.”
From behind them, as stealthfully as a cat, Catherine Weaver joined the group. “Are we ready to go?”
“When you are,” General Connor assured the machine as he shifted the gun in his hands. “Where’s Ellison?”
“Terminated,” explained the Series 1001. “I found it necessary to eliminate him in order for Kyle and Savannah to survive. I left his body in the base and I have also set the self destruct charges that had been placed. The base will destroy itself in…”
The whistling of a metal rod speeding through the air got John Connor’s attention. A long, jagged piece of steel sliced through the sky and into the side of Catherine Weaver. The machine was decapitated in an instant; the spherical head falling to the ground and turning back into a puddle of silver than began searching for the bulk.
On instinct John lifted the barrel of his gun to where Weaver’s head had just been and pointed the rifle at the mass that was standing behind the headless body. He couldn’t believe what his eyes were showing him. Once the body was a man, or at least it looked like it was, but it was a far cry from being anything remotely human. Hundreds of tiny holes covered the body and cut through the cloth that had served as a covering from the elements. Skin hung freely from the damage and blood leaked from the openings in the body. The tunnels into the man had been far deeper than anyone could survive. Through the torso the General could actually see the man’s guts inside of him. The face was still recognizable and barely damaged – perhaps friendship had given way to tactical logic. James Ellison’s destroyed body had decapitated Weaver and now, with its makeshift Excalibur, it was ready to kill them all.
It swung the jagged metal toward John, but he was able to dodge it by rolling away. Kyle too had managed to evade it, but Savannah wasn’t as lucky. The steel sliced into her chest like a knife through butter. She fell to the rugged ground and the body of her former guardian pulled the metal free. John pushed himself upright and pointed the gun straight at Ellison’s head. He commanded it, “Don’t move!”
Ellison’s body swung around with its sword and tried to reach Connor with the blade. It missed giving John time to let loose with multiple shots that slammed into the head. Skin and bone exploded inward revealing the inner workings of Ellison’s head. Muscle broke free and slopped to the ground, the jaw fell in an unnatural angle never allowing it to work again. His left eye had been completely obliterated and replaced by meat behind. But the body kept coming. The shots would clearly have killed a human, but this just proved how dangerous John Henry’s experiments could be. Ellison came for them again and this time he was out for blood.
With a thud all of that came to an end. The broken head of the body was broken away and crashed to the ground next to Savannah’s struggling body. The knees of the Cyborg buckled under the strain of not receiving new orders from its head. The corpse fell beside the body of Savannah and atop the rotten head. A long silver sword retracted backward and was replaced by the well manicured hand of Catherine Weaver. She looked down at the lifeless husk, “Consider that your severance package.”
Kyle knelt next to Savannah Weaver and checked her over. Ellison’s attack had been brutal and she’d already lost a great deal of blood. Her pulse was thready and she was having trouble staying focused. The replica of her mother pushed Reese aside and sat next to her daughter. She rested a hand on the girl’s head and smiled. To the untrained eye it would resemble affection, but it was actually a complex sensor scan intended to give the machine everything it needed to determine the next course of action. Savannah’s injuries were fatal if they were not treated and the Resistance’s medic had been killed onboard the Enterprise. That left one option.
“Will she be alright?” Asked Connor.
The machine that wore the face of Catherine Weaver did not answer immediately. She made her hands into paper thin sheets of metal and slid them beneath the body of her daughter. Gently the machine lifted the near lifeless girl and turned toward the landed transport vessel. It looked at John not like a machine would, but rather like a parent. “We only have one option, John, we must get to Topanga Canyon. Now!” She boarded the transport to tend to her daughter.
Kyle stepped back at hearing the way that the machine had said it. He looked at Connor when she was out of earshot, “Why do I have a feeling things just went from bad to worse?”
“You have no idea,” John answered as they approached the transport. “You have no idea.”
'Oh my...'? Now where have we heard that before?
Another enjoyable chapter.
Another enjoyable chapter.
NX I'm convinced you should make the next Terminator movie pitch. You've got this franchise covered nicely. Another great installment.
It sat lifeless in the darkness of the world. An impassable wall made of the hardest mixture of concrete and steel that Skynet could develop, the northern defensive perimeter was capable of withstanding a wave of tanks rushing into it without nearly a scratch. As an added means of defense sentry posts were placed at equal distances along each wall. Originally these posts were outfitted with only high capacity .50 caliber machine guns; nevertheless, recent events had caused the necessity for something with bigger teeth. When the breakthrough into plasma weapons had been made Skynet outfitted each of its most important outposts with the phased plasma rifle gun banks capable of burning unhealable holes into the bodies of its enemies. There was the possibility of survival with the guns; no chance with them. As an added incentive for protection sentinels were on constant patrol along the outer perimeter waiting for an enemy to pop its head up from among the muck.
Unit 426 was one such sentinel. A Series T-1 battlefield robot, 426 was one of the only members of his model line still in active operation in the future war. In comparison to the rest of his line that were still in operation it was antiquated. T1s had been routinely updated with stronger armor and more capable weapons since the Resistance came into existence. 426 was not as lucky. The machine still had the same silver exoskeleton protecting his mechanical innards as the day that he rolled off the automated assembly line. His weapons emplacements were still the miniguns that he sported during his first hunt. The targeting system had been upgraded to become more sophisticated, but that was the extent of his enhancements.
Not that it cared. Series T-1 units could not feel emotion and barely had what was considered to be sentience. They had enhanced problem solving abilities and algorithms available to assist with extermination of humans, but they were not as capable as their cousins when it came to intelligence. In many respects T1s and T70s were more like pets that Skynet had kept around in low profile assignments. They were guard dogs that kept the livestock in their neat little pens and out of their master’s way. There were more impressive assignments available, more tactically stimulating jobs that it could be doing, but it was assigned to be here and here it would stay. It was the first line of defense for Topanga Canyon against any threats that would want to disrupt the great work. It would not fail as a protector.
Motion sensors inside of its body signaled an alert. A detailed program executed in a nanosecond swinging the battlefield robot around at the joint where the torso met the rubberized treads that allowed it movement. Twin gattling gun arms rose from the standby position to active mode and began coordinating for a firing solution. It was a tactic derived from human psychology, but it was still just as effective today. Skynet had intended those movements to make the unit appear bigger than its already massive frame was. Twin laser sights lit and began teasing the ground taking readings looking for the source of the motion.
Tracker alerts weren’t anything new for it to experience. When it was first constructed the motion tracker was a rear facing scanning system only and it was so sensitive that a moving piece of paper was enough to make it set off. Because of the false starts Skynet had diminished the sensitivity to a great extent in the first refit era, but that allowed for too much to get through. Eventually they found the right balance through trial and error. It would also be given a forward facing scanner in addition to the original rear facing one. Every once in a while though it would still have these false alarms. The rats were a common source of them as they scurried through the bones of the human animals killed on Judgment Day.
That was the case again today. A large rat, perhaps the size of a cat, scurried among the flotsam with a piece of what looked like flesh between its teeth. Tactical alerts denied its request to fire with override alerts and the machine entered into stand down mode Gun turrets lowered and when to standby and the machine resumed its survey of the area. Just as soon as it went into its relaxed state its big brother on the wall sprung to life. A larger version of its design, the gun emplacements attached to the towers normally started life as Harvesters and were salvaged to serve in the new role. The two plasma turrets spun around and pointed into the night sky in an active search mode. A third turret rose from behind the unit and began searching as well. Despite it being an ineffective unit for an attack from above, 426 restored combat mode and began watching the skies for any contacts.
Active spatial mapping wasn’t nearly as advanced as the thermal imagining that the emplacement was using, but it was still keener than a standard human eye. Still it was hard for the machine to make out anything of value in the haze. Targeting protocols searched with multiple reticules trying to find the source but nothing was coming up. It still did not feel jealousy toward its brother despite its disadvantage. Rather it sent a request to its superior requesting that the next generation upgrade, should one ever happen again, include either RADAR access or enhancements to the image mapping software.
Mere seconds after the request was transmitted the reticules pinpointed the source. Visual scanners zoomed in to maximum and the Series T-1 identified the source of the alarms. A wave of fighters, database analysis identified them as two Hunter Killer attack fighters and three Hunter Killer troop transports, inbound. It did not understand the logic of the attack order. Allied vehicles were not a matter of concern but rather were welcomed by the maker as it meant new supplies and new humans for analysis and study. It could not comprehend why its brother did not stand down nor why it signaled an alert code to bring the sentries online.
Confounding the machine even more was the fact that the emplacement opened fire. Dozens of plasma bolts fired from the massive guns on the turrets arms and raced toward the flying machines. They immediately broke off and engaged evasive maneuvers to avoid the incoming spheres of energy. Instead of ceasing the attack, the turret merely kept firing at them not realizing it was firing upon one of its own. Perhaps it had a software malfunction which, though rare, would explain the erratic behavior. 426 sent a notification of the error to Skynet alerting it of this mistake and requested instruction wondering if it should fire on the emplacement, target the incoming transports, or resume the patrol route incase anyone tried to take advantage of the gap in their defense grid. It never anticipated the answer that it got.
Skynet ordered it to engage.
Bringing up the targeting protocols it pivoted upward and acquired a firing solution upon the inbound fighters. It lifted the General Electric .50 caliber machine guns and began firing the depleted uranium shells that it held inside its internal ammunition magazines. When it was designed, by humans, it was intended to be able to fire 3,000 rounds of ammo in the period of a minute. Skynet had improved upon that ability for its brothers, but 426 was still a subject of that figure. Like the phalanx system mounted onboard primitive United States Navy warships it sought to mainly eliminate any incoming projectiles that may damage the structure. The T-1 knew, despite its limited intelligence, it would not be effective in this fight but it knew what it had to do. It kept firing at the target while others moved into position to join it. Nonetheless it didn’t take long to run out of bullets. The Hunter Killers were simply too much for its systems to handle. If it had been outfitted with the plasma cannons like so many others it would’ve been able to keep up and would still be in this fight.
Deep inside of its processors though alarms sounded again. The machine’s targeting scanners locked onto six independent heat signatures having just detached from the Hunter Killer fighters and inbound toward its location. Normally it would’ve swung its guns around and fired in a suppressive barrage to prevent the missiles from getting through. With its weapons depleted that option was no longer available. The gun emplacement behind it managed to destroy one of the incoming projectiles, but the other five proved to be more elusive.
A plume of fire erupted like lava from a volcano where T1-426 had just been sitting. Flaming metal, debris, and dirt rained down on the ground around the protective border fence. Glowing red, fiery treads landing amid the middle of the ruins of yesterday. Then another explosion rocked the Topanga Canyon Compound as the remaining missiles detonated the massive sentry post. While it rained upon the barriers, secondary explosions inside the barricade began erupting too. Where once had been an impenetrable block now a gaping wound bled fire upon the ground around it. There was no fire brigade ready to storm out and douse the flames. Instead of evacuating remaining forces to seal the breach instead the computer controlling the outpost brought its children deep inside. It was preparing itself for a fight to the death and it wasn’t entirely sure which side would win this time. But the machine would go down fighting if today turned out to be its judgment day.
Unit 426 was one such sentinel. A Series T-1 battlefield robot, 426 was one of the only members of his model line still in active operation in the future war. In comparison to the rest of his line that were still in operation it was antiquated. T1s had been routinely updated with stronger armor and more capable weapons since the Resistance came into existence. 426 was not as lucky. The machine still had the same silver exoskeleton protecting his mechanical innards as the day that he rolled off the automated assembly line. His weapons emplacements were still the miniguns that he sported during his first hunt. The targeting system had been upgraded to become more sophisticated, but that was the extent of his enhancements.
Not that it cared. Series T-1 units could not feel emotion and barely had what was considered to be sentience. They had enhanced problem solving abilities and algorithms available to assist with extermination of humans, but they were not as capable as their cousins when it came to intelligence. In many respects T1s and T70s were more like pets that Skynet had kept around in low profile assignments. They were guard dogs that kept the livestock in their neat little pens and out of their master’s way. There were more impressive assignments available, more tactically stimulating jobs that it could be doing, but it was assigned to be here and here it would stay. It was the first line of defense for Topanga Canyon against any threats that would want to disrupt the great work. It would not fail as a protector.
Motion sensors inside of its body signaled an alert. A detailed program executed in a nanosecond swinging the battlefield robot around at the joint where the torso met the rubberized treads that allowed it movement. Twin gattling gun arms rose from the standby position to active mode and began coordinating for a firing solution. It was a tactic derived from human psychology, but it was still just as effective today. Skynet had intended those movements to make the unit appear bigger than its already massive frame was. Twin laser sights lit and began teasing the ground taking readings looking for the source of the motion.
Tracker alerts weren’t anything new for it to experience. When it was first constructed the motion tracker was a rear facing scanning system only and it was so sensitive that a moving piece of paper was enough to make it set off. Because of the false starts Skynet had diminished the sensitivity to a great extent in the first refit era, but that allowed for too much to get through. Eventually they found the right balance through trial and error. It would also be given a forward facing scanner in addition to the original rear facing one. Every once in a while though it would still have these false alarms. The rats were a common source of them as they scurried through the bones of the human animals killed on Judgment Day.
That was the case again today. A large rat, perhaps the size of a cat, scurried among the flotsam with a piece of what looked like flesh between its teeth. Tactical alerts denied its request to fire with override alerts and the machine entered into stand down mode Gun turrets lowered and when to standby and the machine resumed its survey of the area. Just as soon as it went into its relaxed state its big brother on the wall sprung to life. A larger version of its design, the gun emplacements attached to the towers normally started life as Harvesters and were salvaged to serve in the new role. The two plasma turrets spun around and pointed into the night sky in an active search mode. A third turret rose from behind the unit and began searching as well. Despite it being an ineffective unit for an attack from above, 426 restored combat mode and began watching the skies for any contacts.
Active spatial mapping wasn’t nearly as advanced as the thermal imagining that the emplacement was using, but it was still keener than a standard human eye. Still it was hard for the machine to make out anything of value in the haze. Targeting protocols searched with multiple reticules trying to find the source but nothing was coming up. It still did not feel jealousy toward its brother despite its disadvantage. Rather it sent a request to its superior requesting that the next generation upgrade, should one ever happen again, include either RADAR access or enhancements to the image mapping software.
Mere seconds after the request was transmitted the reticules pinpointed the source. Visual scanners zoomed in to maximum and the Series T-1 identified the source of the alarms. A wave of fighters, database analysis identified them as two Hunter Killer attack fighters and three Hunter Killer troop transports, inbound. It did not understand the logic of the attack order. Allied vehicles were not a matter of concern but rather were welcomed by the maker as it meant new supplies and new humans for analysis and study. It could not comprehend why its brother did not stand down nor why it signaled an alert code to bring the sentries online.
Confounding the machine even more was the fact that the emplacement opened fire. Dozens of plasma bolts fired from the massive guns on the turrets arms and raced toward the flying machines. They immediately broke off and engaged evasive maneuvers to avoid the incoming spheres of energy. Instead of ceasing the attack, the turret merely kept firing at them not realizing it was firing upon one of its own. Perhaps it had a software malfunction which, though rare, would explain the erratic behavior. 426 sent a notification of the error to Skynet alerting it of this mistake and requested instruction wondering if it should fire on the emplacement, target the incoming transports, or resume the patrol route incase anyone tried to take advantage of the gap in their defense grid. It never anticipated the answer that it got.
Skynet ordered it to engage.
Bringing up the targeting protocols it pivoted upward and acquired a firing solution upon the inbound fighters. It lifted the General Electric .50 caliber machine guns and began firing the depleted uranium shells that it held inside its internal ammunition magazines. When it was designed, by humans, it was intended to be able to fire 3,000 rounds of ammo in the period of a minute. Skynet had improved upon that ability for its brothers, but 426 was still a subject of that figure. Like the phalanx system mounted onboard primitive United States Navy warships it sought to mainly eliminate any incoming projectiles that may damage the structure. The T-1 knew, despite its limited intelligence, it would not be effective in this fight but it knew what it had to do. It kept firing at the target while others moved into position to join it. Nonetheless it didn’t take long to run out of bullets. The Hunter Killers were simply too much for its systems to handle. If it had been outfitted with the plasma cannons like so many others it would’ve been able to keep up and would still be in this fight.
Deep inside of its processors though alarms sounded again. The machine’s targeting scanners locked onto six independent heat signatures having just detached from the Hunter Killer fighters and inbound toward its location. Normally it would’ve swung its guns around and fired in a suppressive barrage to prevent the missiles from getting through. With its weapons depleted that option was no longer available. The gun emplacement behind it managed to destroy one of the incoming projectiles, but the other five proved to be more elusive.
A plume of fire erupted like lava from a volcano where T1-426 had just been sitting. Flaming metal, debris, and dirt rained down on the ground around the protective border fence. Glowing red, fiery treads landing amid the middle of the ruins of yesterday. Then another explosion rocked the Topanga Canyon Compound as the remaining missiles detonated the massive sentry post. While it rained upon the barriers, secondary explosions inside the barricade began erupting too. Where once had been an impenetrable block now a gaping wound bled fire upon the ground around it. There was no fire brigade ready to storm out and douse the flames. Instead of evacuating remaining forces to seal the breach instead the computer controlling the outpost brought its children deep inside. It was preparing itself for a fight to the death and it wasn’t entirely sure which side would win this time. But the machine would go down fighting if today turned out to be its judgment day.
