Before:

2027

Blue flickers of plasma arced from the barrel of her primary weapon as she opened the door to her room. She sprinted down the short hallway, joined by two Resistance soldiers.

They rounded the corner…

Jessica stopped in her tracks, blue-eyes widening in fear, an uncontrollable panic surged through her. The other Resistance soldiers halted, almost dropping their weapons.

Jessica clamped a hand to her mouth, falling to her knees on the cold concrete floor.

John Connor was holding the body of his son, calling out the boy's name in anguish. John slumped against the wall, the sobs left him unable to breath.

Jessica shook her head, crying in denial. The tears streaming down her shocked face. She reached out to take the boy in her trembling arms. John allowed her to take his son and he leaned back against the wall, lost in his own misery and sadness.

The TX cradled the boy in her arms, kissed his cold forehead as if the act of her touch could bring him back to her. Tears fell as she gazed into his once vibrant blue-eyes that just hours ago were full of life.

She did not need the data to tell her the truth.

For the first time.

She screamed in anguish.

NOW:

Lexington, Kentucky 2019

The CRS building rose over the other buildings that surrounded it. The glass and metal exterior shone like the moon, illuminated by lights below. Thomas Haden cleared one of the steel security walls, and dropped into an uncovered employee pathway, a ghost in the night. He glanced at the illuminated hands of his Breitling Aerospace Evo Night mission watch, a very expensive gift from his wife. Seven minutes till ten. He had told Asher back at the car fifteen minutes. He had used up six. Now time was running out.

He reached into his black combat vest and removed a block of C4 explosive. There was enough explosives in his backpack to take out the whole entire building and research labs. If he had any doubts about the operation. Now was not the time. He swallowed nervously and slipped the C4 back into his vest. He moved on, weaving his way through the maze of shrubs and trees.

The Cyber Research Systems site was chosen by the parent company that owned it. Kaliba Enterprises promised that state of the art development into artificial intelligence and cyber systems research would bring the top scientists in their fields to Lexington and make life in the city better. There were those that believed the city's homeless and impoverished would reap the benefits of this new ground breaking technology.

But there were also those that were against the use of this developing technology. These conspiracy theorists believed that some sort of government black project was going on and that the end of humanity was at hand. The Judgment Day Prophecy as it was called on the internet, would be the end of the world by a rouge computer program called Skynet and it's eventual defeat by a man called John Connor. The mother of John, Sarah Connor, was already a wanted fugitive for the destruction of a CyberDyne Systems computer factory in 1984 and once more in 1995. This time Sarah, John, and a unknown individual wanted for questioning for the murder of seventeen police officers, killed a man and blew up the building.

The FBI put Sarah and her son on the Most Wanted list and a few months all leads went cold as if the trio had dropped off the face of the earth. From testimonies of police officers that responded to that night back in 1995 strange occurrences happened and the case files classified by the DOD.

Non of this was a problem for Thomas as he could care less. He had been recruited by a contact that worked for Kaliba Enterprises Internal Security. He had served with the Army in Iraq and Afghanistan as an demolitions officer. As he was told by his contact, who better with the knowledge of bringing down a major structure and blaming it on Sarah Connor,

Thomas followed the route he had planned in advance, timing his steps with the security guards. They were hired by some private firm months ago when the construction of the complex was being finished. These were Blackgate soldiers, a contract group used by the CIA.

For over thirty years Blackgate was created in response to the destruction of Cyberdyne Systems factory back in 1984. The Department of Defense and other alpha bit agencies saw it fit to deploy the group of former military and mercenaries for hire into operations that remained classified until this day.

Thomas knew that Blackgate could also be used in political situations. The group claimed they weren't political and being used as such violated the terms of any contract with whoever hired them. He knew of several private security firms that operated in the United States and overseas to the highest bidder. Some senators in Washington were even rumored to use them for what ever ill gotten gains money could afford. There were even a few in Congress that wanted to put a ban on the use of such firms.

When Thomas finally reached the wall leading to the west employee entrance into CRS, he pressed his back up against the cold metal and peered around the corner. A Blackgate guard was making his rounds on the other side of the vast plaza and disappeared down a flight of steps to the lower section. Without hesitation, he darted towards the employee entrance and ducked inside.

The Blackgate officer in charge that night walked towards the employee entrance. Thomas quickly moved behind him and delivered a blow to the back of the man's head. He crumpled to the ground. He made sure the guard still had a pulse before moving on and taking the man's security card.

He walked up to the security reader installed to the right of the employee entrance and slid the card in the reader. The lock emitted a soft electronic tone as the locks disengaged and the door slid open. Thomas stepped through and glanced at the array of security cameras installed at almost every point of access to the labs. It was no concern to him as the cameras were hacked into playing a recurring loop at any guard station.

He would not be seen.

Thomas turned to his right and walked down a flight of steps that led to one of the labs subbasement levels. It was here he knew that the main laboratory would be devoted to developing the artificial intelligence stored on server farm installed below. The AI being worked on was a relic from the past, the work of Miles Dyson converted into use for Kaliba.

Building schematics marked the location of the main lab in the center of the vast underground complex, but to those on the outside the plans appeared to be a parking garage. According to rumors the main lab housed everything that was needed to allow the AI to literally plug into anything that had a connection to the internet.

There was a conspiracy theory going the net that the work of Miles Dyson was moved to another top secret location before Sarah and John blew up the one lab back in 1995. What was destroyed in the explosion were copies of the prototype program and two other items. Some even thought that Miles had thought of this plan in case of an event like this. The software engineer was a brilliant mind for his time and did not want to see his life's work undone by those that opposed it.

Those that worked with Dyson knew that he was devoted to creating a better future for humanity. The man was purely innocent and was just a pawn of the mentally unstable Sarah Connor. Sarah managed to achieve a cult like status in the last few years as all sorts of theories surfaced about her and her son, John.

Some saw John Connor as a savior. Some saw him as a threat and literally worshiped the artificial intelligence that Miles Dyson created like a some type of god.

Recently, there had been bounties put out for Sarah and John on the dark web, millions of dollars offered by mysterious backers. Proof of John's and Sarah's deaths were needed before the money would be transferred via an offshore bank accounts. Probably shell companies created by the government or Kaliba themselves.

Thomas did not care either way. Sarah and John were both rumored to be dead, killed in a bank explosion in 1997. He knew that who ever posted the bounties feared that if the two some how survived, the AI would still be a target and it was moved to this out of the way location. Lexington, Kentucky was the middle of know where for Thomas.

Adam Decker, one of the lead programmers for the AI, was buried in his work. The middle aged engineer stared at the complex code displayed before on the monitor. There was a serious flaw that was present in the run-time executable and Adam was lost in the display of letters and numbers. He raised his head up from the screens and saw Thomas standing on the other side pointing a Beretta Nine Millimeter gun at him. A C4 explosive was in the other man's hand. The LED timer counting down.

Thomas stared Decker in the eye and raised the gun.

TERMINATOR: RISE

Shattered Destiny