Terminator: Final War
Prologue
Okay, you've all seen the Terminator movies, and maybe read the books. You know that Skynet is the bad guy, and that John Connor is the only hope for mankind. You also know that the series hasn't been finished yet. As in, no one has won the war yet. But I intend to change that here. You will not know who has won until you have read this document.
1
John Connor looked out over the vast plains and shivered. It wasn't the nuclear winter that chilled him, though. It was the endless plateau of dead bodies, both human and mechanical. Sighing, Connor thought about how much this war was costing both himself and all of humankind.
"General, sir, we have a report for you," said Barnes, Connor's lieutenant.
Connor stared expectantly, and Barnes began again.
"A large group of T-800s is heading due south, and one scout said that we have reason to believe that they're headed by a handful of T-1000s. Our R&D Department has developed a new kind of laser that was reverse-engineered from the Terminators themselves. It may prove to be more of a godsend than you yourself, Connor."
Connor had heard this many times over the years, and the worst one was when General Ashback's R&D Department had supposedly discovered a kind of signal that would shut down all Terminators in range. However, it just turned out to be a way for Skynet to track down the nuclear submarine known only as Command. This had led to the destruction of the sub, and Connor took on the position as General. By now, the only thing Connor really trusted was the good old weaponry the Resistance used to use. But, of course, the Resistance needed strength, not comfort for the General.
"What is south that the Terminators may be heading for?" asked Connor.
"Nothing," said Barnes slowly. "That's the weird thing about it. We took out the only Skynet base there three years ago, and it hasn't made any attempt to rebuild. But now we get this huge mass of Terminators going straight there."
"Do we have any Resistance members there? Any at all? Because, don't forget, Skynet wants all people dead, not just most. It won't leave any person alive, not even the youngest kid, nor the oldest grandparent."
"But why would it send such a large platoon? It makes no sense."
"Get me Lieutenant General Marcus Wright. Now."
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"Sir?" Wright's voice was low and gravelly, and almost made Connor's sound high pitched.
"We have scouts that have seen large clusters of T-800 Terminators moving due south. Seeing as you are part machine, you can slip past all of their defenses without breaking a sweat. We need you to get ahead of them and find out what they're going for. Can you do that?"
"I think I can, sir. What kinds of guns will I get?"
"I thought we just established that you don't need to defend yourself against Skynet."
"It's not Skynet I'm worried about," explained Wright.
Connor understood. "We can get you a LaserTech 3000 Model. The best there is, reverse engineered from the enemy itself. You won't need anything else."
Connor led Wright into an adjacent room where Kate was overseeing the construction of a second LaserTech.
"John, are you sure we should trust this stuff with our lives? Remember what happened we jumped on a new weapon too soon…"
"Kate, we have no choice. Almost all of the Resistance is gone, obliterated. Our weapons have almost no effect on the new T-1000s, and I know you can figure out that Skynet is working on a newer model. One that will be entirely unaffected by our weapons. We are so close, so close to being gone… forever… that I don't know if them finding us through this thing will make any difference. At all."
Kate looked at Connor, and smiled. "We will make it through this, John. Humans survived the Word Wars, didn't they?"
"Yes," came the dulled reply, "But then our adversaries were only human."
Kate's smile faded into oblivion as she thought of the truth in that. And then she was smiling again.
"Anyhow, there's something I want you to see."
She led Connor down a hallway to a maintenance closet. Her smile widened. When she opened the door… There was a mop, a broom, and some ammonia. Nothing else. Has Kate finally lost it? Connor asked himself. Kate reached into the closet, and pulled out a glass tube. So she wasn't crazy.
"Do you know what this is?" she said excitedly.
"No, I don't. Do you?" he monotoned.
"This," she held up the rag that was contained in the vial, "Is the new Kyle Reese."
Thoughts of Kate completely losing her sanity returned. But then Connor looked closer. There was a bloodstain right in the middle of the rag. A stain from Kyle Reese.
Seeing the look on Connor's face, Kate laughed, then spoke. "Yep. This is gonna be your dad in just nine months." She laughed harder. "Of course I'm just kidding… Why would we need two Kyle's? But it's backup… Just in case, you know…" she drew an imaginary line across her throat. The meaning was obvious.
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Meanwhile, Marcus Wright was moving quickly towards the mass of Terminators. He didn't have to worry about them seeing him or trying to terminate him. All he had to be scared about was what happened when he finally got there. Would he snipe them off? Try to hack into the leaders' CPUs? He really didn't know.
The hot desert heat and the gritty sand were both contributing to his loss of motor functions. His gears started grinding, his CPU was getting disrupted, not to mention the fact that the T-1000s were on full alert. Didn't matter much to him, though. Not at all…