Disclaimer: Fallout 2 is a Role-Playing game published by Interplay and developed by Black Isle Studios. Marcus Wright, Blair Williams, Kyle Reese (et. al.) and the many Terminator variants are fictional characters directly borrowed from the Terminator franchise. There might be references to other video games and movies - such as Advance Wars: Days of Ruin and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles - and I do not claim them as my own. It is my fault alone if I ever portray existing fictional characters out of their normal fictional selves or if I ever create plot holes that are not present from the existing worldview of each and every game.

With that, any similarities to people, places, things and events, real or fictional, -- other than those mentioned -- are purely coincidental.

A/N: This is a crossover. I repeat, a crossover. To those of you who are fans of Fallout, Terminator, Advance Wars and/or Resident Evil and would not like to have the pristine consistency of each game/movie/novel untouched, please leave immediately. A warm welcome to those who would join me in my insane odyssey.

Fallout Chronicles: Terminatrix

Prologue

August 29, 2077
Cyber Research Systems Division

War. War never changes.

"What do we have Lieutenant Anderson?" General Robert Brewster asked the lanky boy sitting in front of the computer. It was past midnight when he received the distress call. The Cyber Research Systems, CRS for short, have just detected a new virus that's causing widespread outages in the global digital network.

"A tricky computer virus, sir. It's infected more than half of the civilian internet as well as some secondary military apps."

"What about our primary defense nets?"

"Still clean, the firewall is holding up, sir." The geek went on inputting commands on the keyboard quickly.

A private, with a memorandum on hand, appeared beside General Brewster. "Sir, the Pentagon proposed we use our AI to search and destroy the virus."

General Brewster did not throw a glance at the paper delivered to him. "How is it, Lieutenant?"

"Whatever it is, it's starting to gain access to tertiary classified data, sir!" The geek started to sweat. This was no ordinary problem.

The general grunted. "The connection. It will put everything under the control of a single computer system, right? If we connect Skynet we might be able to stop it in a matter of few minutes, yes?"

"The most intelligent system ever conceived..." The private who delivered the memo added quickly, "sir."

"With all due respect, sir. I'm not sure Skynet is ready." It was Lt. Anderson, "It will bring us out of the loop. And we haven't determined the cause of the virus, yet. Its nature is still unknown."

"I believe we could trace it, them, whoever they are, after the threat is eliminated." The General pulled a swivel chair and sat beside the geek. "Right now it is imperative that we protect the US Defense mainframes."

"I can assure you that Skynet has more than 90% chance of protecting our computer systems from this viral attack. However it needs to utilize a large network of computers. Should anything go wrong..."

"What could possibly go wrong? It's a revolutionary computer program capable of making real-time strategic decisions," General Brewster said.

A female private shouted from her workstation addressing Lt. Anderson, "Sir, satellite signals from Alaska are being scrambled. We've lost contact to three other bases. Pentagon's on the secure line."

It's the chairman, Lt. Anderson mouthed and gave Gen. Brewster his own receiver.

"Mr. Chairman. This is General Brewster."

Static crackled before a grandfatherly voice boomed. "I'm hoping you already have a solution."

"I understand the urgency, Mr. Chairman. But I was informed that Skynet might not yet be ready for a system-wide connection."

"That's not what your counterpart here told me." The distressed murmurs of other people could be heard in the background, "They say we can stop this damn virus."

"Mr. Chairman, I need to make myself very clear." Gen. Brewster spoke in the most serious tone he could manage. "If we link Skynet, the program will be in control of your military. That's a large network of computers that includes our missile defense systems and all of the computerized hardware we have--"

The Chairman cut him off, "But you will be in control of Skynet."

"That is correct, sir."

"Then do it." Came the abrupt reply. The dial tone followed and the general turned to the lieutenant.

"Yes, General Brewer?"

General Brewster nodded. "Bring Skynet online."

"Skynet Defense System Activated. We're in." Lt. Anderson informed the general. "We're past the firewalls. Skynet is fully operational processing at 100 petaflops. It should only take less than a minute to find the virus and kill it."

"Let's pray to God this works." General Brewster said, focusing on Lt' Anderson's monitor. It was then that the lights at the whole station started to flicker. The computers rebooted.

"What's that? A power failure?" General Brewster asked.

"Sir!" A private called out, "Something's wrong. The virus has infected Skynet!"

"Oh no!" Lt. Anderson responded immediately and checked his computer. He then declared, alarmed. "Skynet is the virus! It's sentient! In one hour it will initiate a massive nuclear attack on its enemy!"

"What enemy?!" General Brewster got up on his seat and tried to make something out of the computer screen.

"Us, sir." Lt. Anderson said, not moving a muscle.

"Do something, lieutenant!" The general grabbed the geek by the collar.

"I can't, sir. From what I can deduce, Skynet must have spread beyond its original computing base. It easily penetrated almost every machine network in the world. What appeared to us as a virus creeping through our system was Skynet utilizing and expanding its Global Digital Defense Network." The Lieutenant dropped his back to his chair. "It has command over all military hardware and systems and the entire nuclear weapons arsenal!"

The general spat and cursed.

Lt. Anderson continued explaining, "By sending Skynet after the virus, we were practically commanding the program to kill itself. Since it had become self-aware, it had already labeled us as a threat to its existence." Lt. Anderson slumped in his chair, "There is nothing more that I can do."

"Shut it down." General Brewster bellowed, "That's an order!"

When Lt. Anderson did not budge, the general decided to input the command on his own.

"No!" Lt. Anderson tried to stop the General when he realized what his superior was about to do. But then again, it was already too late.

Connecting to Central Command, Lt. Anderson gave his last words, "This is Lt. Anderson, Cyber Research Systems Division. Skynet's command and control has broken down. I repeat, Skynet's command and control has broken down. Nuclear launch sequence ordered at 2:14 AM Eastern time. Primary targets are Russia, China, and North Korea. Countdown is now at 55 minutes. Call for Vault evac. I repeat, call for immediate Vault evac."

The world was plunged into an abyss - a great cleansing - an atomic spark struck by the self-aware computer program Skynet. But it was not, as some had predicted, the end of the world. Instead, the apocalypse was simply the prologue to another bloody chapter of human history. Man had succeeded in destroying the world, but war - war never changes.

Machines rose through the ashes of nuclear fire, their war to exterminate mankind raged and lived on.