TRTSS6: The Termination Agenda! – By DS Wynne
Disclaimer: R1/2, SM, ST and other genres belong to their respective owners.
Note: This is a multi-genre story.
Special Note: SPOILER WARNING ALERT! "Terminator Salvation" will be mentioned for the next few chapters. C&C are welcomed.
Part 14
The front corrections officer managed to crawl up towards the gate booth, in spite of the pain he was feeling at the moment…thanks to being shot in the knees. Thirty minutes after being shot, a pair of women, one redheaded while the other was blond (with an unusual hairstyle) had ridden up. The blond, the bigger and more athletic of the two, had ignored him while she had opened the gate. She then turns towards the guard, asked what had happened, apologized upon learning whom had shot him, had gotten yelled at by the redhead, responded to her by asking if she was in the monthly cycle sarcastically, tossed a wad of bills in the lap of the guard, and then got back on her motorcycle before driving into the parking lot facility of the state prison hospital.
Then, the corrections officer manages to crawl up on his stool and leans on counter. With much struggle, the corrections officer picks up the receiver…
"Emergency!" the guard yells into the receiver. "We got a break in-!"
The guard notices that the phone had been pulled out of its jack, either by the muscle-bound stranger or the Amazon.
"Ah, son-of-a-!" the guard began to say, as a beige "Buick" crashes through the gate…with a police officer hanging on the back bumper. The guard could only stand there in utter shock at the ridiculousness of it all…
"Ranma, is this true?" Sarah yells, as Ranma loads up his guns for him, Ranko, Sarah and Usagi to use, while Bob drove as Ginger protected John with her body in the front seat.
"What?" Ranma said with amazement, as he took aim…
BLAM-BLAM!
Hollow-point rounds were the best means of disrupting the T-1000's ability to maintain cohesion.
"NOW is NOT the time to explain everything, especially since WE don't know ANYTHING!" Ranko said, as she took aim…
BLAM!
Ranko shoots at one of the T-1000's arms, which had morphed into hooks in order to attached to the car. What was left was now stuck in the car itself.
"Humph!" Sarah said, as she took aim…
RATATATATATATATATATATATATAT-!"
Sarah discharged her automatic pistol in rapid secession, causing the T-1000 to look like Swiss cheese…
"Sarah, I don't know you, but I can tell you that Ranma is in the dark…obviously," Usagi said, as she took aim with her modified shotgun, called a "Dragon Slayer"…
CHK-CLAK!
BOOSH!
Headless, the T-1000 falls off the back hood of car, as Bob speeds up.
"Huh," Usagi said, as she sees a piece of the T-1000 stuck in the hood of the car. She then picks it up.
"You don't know what you are doing-" Ranko began to say. However-
"Ranko, Bob and I came back in Time for the express purpose of combating T-1000s," Usagi said, as her eyes glowed…
ZARK!
"What heck was that?" John asked.
"I created EMP effect, using my bio-electricity, to neutralize the programming built into the nanites that make up the T-1000 series," Usagi said, as she placed the now-inert hook into a bag.
"What are you going to do with it?" Ginger asked.
"Examine it for properties that could be useful to the Resistance, of course."
"How would that help?" Ranko asked.
"Remember the 'Time Trax Program'? Same deal."
"Ah."
"What does she mean by…'Time Trax'?" Sarah asked.
"'Time Trax' was a time-travel operation that allowed people to travel through Time, but exactly 200 years past and future," Ranma said. "But Usagi is referring to the fact that she could pass along information through various means in plain sight, such as local newspapers and other forms of periodicals, in the form of notices in the Classifieds. This is usually done in code as a precaution."
"But how would that arrangement work in this situation?" John asked.
"As of 1997, most means of communications are 'frozen'," Bob says, as he drives down the street without turning on the car lights…since he was using his night-vision apparatus. "The Human Resistance forces would access information from the past that had been archived in the form of 'microfiche' or other data storage devices from abandoned information centers."
"Like newspaper companies," Ginger said.
"Exactly. Such a means of relaying information would not be suspected by SkyNet until it was too late to develop an effective means of countering this procedure."
"And by then, the Resistance had learned to use other avenues to do the same thing," Usagi said, as she leans back in her car seat. "If I can reverse-engineer the T-1000's capabilities, then we might have a means to compromise this series of Terminators, as we have the others…thus far."
"What do you mean?" Ranma asked.
"For some reason, the T-1000 has developed a frightening sense of autonomy, which makes them effective infiltration units. Heck, even SkyNet is wary of this model, otherwise, there would have been more made."
"Why would that be the case?" Ranko asked.
Usagi turns to look at Ranko.
"Because it is afraid that the more advanced its creations are, the more likely those same creations will turn on IT," Usagi said. "Sounds familiar?"
"Unfortunately, yeah, it does," Ranko said, as she turn to look into the darkness…
Later, at one of the safe houses that Ginger had acquired over the years…
"John has been tucked in," Sarah said, as she enters the bedroom she has decided to share with Ginger, until the whole affair regarding Ranma's wife Usagi has been sorted out.
"Oh?" Ginger said, as she turns off the television set. She was watching the news concerning the escape from the Pescadero State Hospital. So far, there wasn't any mention of any details concerning the escape…
"Yeah, and 'Bob' is watching over him," Sarah said, as she groused.
"What?"
"I don't trust that 'thing' to watch over my son," Sarah said, as she sits on one of the twin beds that were in the room.
"Sarah, if Bob was a danger to John, he would have killed him already."
"Yeah, well…I still don't like it though."
Silence.
"So, what do you think of this latest development with Ranma?" Ginger said with a knowing smile.
"What do I think?" Sarah said, as she made a face. "I think Ranma and I need to make a decision…soon."
'You're not the only one to think that,' Ginger said with a sigh.
"Speaking of whom, where are Ranma and the others?"
"They are having…a reunion, of sorts…"
"Hoo-rah!" Usagi said, as she flops to the sound. Her glistening face turns towards Ranma…and Ranko, both of which were lying next to the Moon Princess on the mattress. The mattress in question was in Ranma's old van, which was stashed in the garage.
"This…is awkward," Ranko said.
"No kidding," Ranma said, as he turns towards Usagi. "Usa, when was the last time you were…intimate?"
"Since you went back in Time," Usa said, as she pulls out a cigarette to lit up.
"Since when have you begun smoking?" Ranko said, as she lean on her male self.
"Since you went back in Time. Sigh. I can't believe we haven't gone insane by now…"
"Usa, you've changed," Ranma said.
Usagi blew smoke out of her mouth, forming a heart, before producing another puff of smoke in the shape of an arrow…
"Usa?"
"Remember when all this began?" Usagi said, as she looked up. "We returned to Earth, only to find a world covered in ash and a radiation blanket. Japan…was 'gone', and we wouldn't learn until later that SkyNet specifically targeted everyone we knew, so that a potential threat was eliminated. Huh. I suppose being lost in space proved to be a benefit after all…"
Silence.
"Usa, we found survivors, some of whom managed to have been in space at the time of the nuclear holocaust," Ranko said. "In fact, we set up shop at the old 'Moonbase Alpha' in preparation for the eventual return to Earth."
Usagi turns towards Ranma and Ranko.
"And you two know perfectly well that we couldn't stand by without seeing if our people survived or not. So…we bolted."
FLASHBACK!
2018 CE: Moonbase Alpha.
"Idiots, all of them," Ranma said, as he stormed out of the command staff meeting.
Usagi, who was waiting for her husband out in the lobby, gets up from her seat. People based on Moonbase Alpha wore either the white jumpsuit for the medical and science fields, while the gray jumpsuit for every other occupation. Usagi wore the white jumpsuit.
"Even after the sensors indicated that SkyNet has amassed a machine army to eliminate the rest of humanity, Command STILL feels that it was not time to 'reclaim' the Earth."
Usagi sighed. She then looks at the planet that she left twenty years ago…
Usagi then turns towards her husband.
"Ranma, let's do it," Usagi said.
"Do what?" Ranma asked.
"If UN Spacy refuses to do anything about it, then we should do it Ranma," Usagi said with excitement.
"And leave all this lavishness?" Ranma said sarcastically.
"Ranma, I'm serious. If you don't want to come with me-"
"Whoa, easy there. I was actually thinking of the same thing myself-"
"Ranma, Usagi!" Penny Robinson said, as she and her younger brother William walks up to the Saotome couple briskly.
Ranma and Usagi turn towards Penny and William.
"What's up?" Ranma asked.
"Dad was able to get the Council to reassess the matter," William said.
"You do have a number of supporters who agree with your position, Ranma," Penny replied.
"Well, it doesn't matter," Ranma said.
"What do you mean?"
Usagi looks at her husband. Ranma glances back at his wife, who nods her head in consent.
"Penny," Ranma said, as he turns towards Penny and William. "I need you two to look after things for us."
"?"
On their own, the Saotome couple took a rocket, and blasts off from the surface of the Moon. Destination: Earth.
POOM!
The capsule begins to float back to Earth. The occupants inside hoped that its trajectory was being tracked…
"I still don't understand why we are going straight to the heart of SkyNet territory," Ranma said, as he checked his readings, after flipping up the visor of the helmet of his orange flight-suit.
"From the last telemetry, there is suppose to be a guy name John Connor, who is the head of the Human Resistance in the western United States," Usagi said as she flips up her visor.
"So? What's so special about this Connor guy?"
"Well, he's been given this…'Prophet' status, for being prescient about this 'war against the machine' business. In fact, he gives daily broadcasts about courage and stuff."
"Humph. If he was so prescient, why didn't he do anything about it BEFORE the nuclear holocaust," Ranma harrumphs.
"Ranma, that same logic, WE should have been aware of what had happened."
"Touché…"
Minutes later, Ranma and Usagi's capsule lands with a parachuted thud.
BAM!
"And there we go," Ranma said, as he unbuckles his seat. "This is your show, Usa."
"Thanks, Ranma," Usagi said, as she places a hand on Ranma's shoulder. "I…I don't think I would have gone on this little jaunt without your support."
"Hey, for better or for worst, yo," Ranma said.
"Humph…"
A short time later, the capsule, which can be used to return to the Moon if necessary, sinks into the Earth, as both Ranma and Usagi used Earth Bending to cover up their arrival.
"That's that," Ranma said, as he slings his pack. He and Usagi had changed into standard survival gear.
"Hopefully, we'll see some people we can deal with-"
VROOOM!
Two A-10 "Thunderbolt II" aircraft flies overhead.
"Ranma…?" Usagi asked.
"They look like they are on an attack vector," Ranma said, as he begins to move in the direction that the jets went. "Come on-!"
"Coming!" Usagi said, as she ran after her husband…
Tbc.