Episode 213: Vice
Bravo team was setting up the device, following Eric's instructions on what goes where while John and Cameron kept watch in the hallway. Sarah was staring at a feed of the building's security cameras. After he was done, Eric opened a locker and pulled out three rod devices.
James Ellison took one, and so did another security team member. Ellison fiddled with it, confused. "What is this?"
"Oh..." Eric pressed a few keys on the larger device's control panel before continuing. "It's a Tesla Enhancer; basically it just expands the range of the EMP so that it will flood this entire floor. The main server network is down here, as well. Off site backups can't be accessed without a signal from the computers here, so that data will become useless and we needn't worry about it."
"Where should I set it up?"
"Go down the hall, take your first left and any of those rooms will do. Of course, halfway down the hall would probably work best."
Ellison nodded, taking the device out of the room for set up while the other person went right down the hall rather than left.
Eric took his closer to the elevator before taking out a hand-held radio. "Clear."
Ellison's voice rang through the device after Eric's. "Clear."
No response from the other man, so Eric talked to Ellison again. "No response from Johnson."
"Get Cameron to check it out."
Eric did so and Cameron began walking down that hall, her M16 at the ready. She found Johnson, his body lying dead on the hall floor. After examination, she'd determined that his neck was broken, so she reached for her radio. "Security breach. There's a machine here."
Suddenly, she was being picked up and thrown down the hallway.
A brief look identified her attacker, a nondescript machine, disguised as a nondescript man. She rushed him, pinned him against the wall, and pummeled his body with swift, hard punches. Suddenly, Eric rounded the corner, holding the same strange looking device which had been used to incapacitate John Connor and John Henry in the Zeira Corp. office.
Eric reached under Cameron's arm to touch the device to the machine and pulled the trigger. It convulsed briefly before falling, limp on the ground. Cameron opened up the CPU port and pulled out the chip. "We're safe now."
Eric pocketed the device and walked back into the T-600 Diagnostic Room to finish the setup of all of the equipment. He opened a laptop and called up the display of a computer simulation. "I've put the data in, and according to this, it should cover the entire floor, Server Farm and all."
Eric opened a panel on the wall and John looked confused while asking, "What's this?"
"A protected compartment. You should put all unshielded devices in here, like those hand-held radios and your cell phones."
Everyone put all of their electronics equipment inside, and when they were finished, Eric sealed up the vault.
John took Cameron's hand as they slid against the wall, bracing themselves for the strange feeling of statically charged air. John was still worried about what may happen to her, but she seemed fine even after the last time.
Eric initiated the pulse, the device spun up and soon let out a large blue glowing light, which spread partially into the halls but nearly stopped until the enhancers activated, buffering the pulse and allowing it to spread through the entire floor. All of the computers and other electronics let out a shower of sparks and even the main power lines were fried, causing the few lights that were on to go out.
Eric was able to unlock the manual release of the vault and began handing out flashlights while Bravo team pulled out manual tools and began removing the CPU Port cap on the T-600 unit. Once their was light on them, the job was happening a lot faster, and while that was going on, Sarah and Cameron began setting up both the machine and human body for a Thermite burning.
Sarah looked at Cameron for what Cameron sensed as 5.73 seconds, prompting the machine to start a conversation. "Is something wrong?"
"No, quite the opposite." She used a flat head to pry off the lid of a canister of Thermite and began sprinkling it over the machine. "You kept your promise. I'm glad."
"You knew I would."
"Actually, no... I didn't. I wasn't sure." She lifted a flap on her tactical vest and pulled out a flare, igniting it and holding it over the Thermite. "But if you hadn't, this could be you."
Sarah let the flare go, causing both bodies to be engulfed in a searing flame. Cameron stared a few seconds before turning around, stopping briefly to say, "Maybe." and then continuing to the other room.
Sarah let out a brief, single chuckle with a smirk on her face and followed Cameron.
The rest of the cleanup had proceeded smoothly, and by 8 AM, the scientists in the employ of Zeira Corp. had managed to successfully reintegrate John Henry's chip with his body, and the mechanical CEO was now functioning perfectly.
Ellison was in his office, skimming over slips of paper and post-it notes, looking for one in particular. He'd found it, a single green post-it note with a phone number on it, which he lay in front of him on the desk as he picked up the phone and dialed the number written.
A gruff voice, sounding as if it hadn't had any good sleep in a long time, answered. "Yeah?"
"Agent Charleston."
"Is it that time already? Listen, I need a shower, some coffee, just got up, an all night stakeout."
"Looking to take a cut from your latest bust? You must be hurting bad. I mean it's been two months since the last drop. Money's real tight when you need your fix."
"Look, man, don't talk to me like that. I'm doing this to help you. You know I take your money to keep cops and feds off your back so you can continue doing what you do with no one breathing down your neck."
"Yeah, it's just I don't like dirty cops even when they're helping me."
"You don't have to like me. Just tell me where and when."
"When's whenever you're ready. Where is under a mailbox on 319 Ohio Street. White, unmarked envelope with an address, room number, and key card in it. Just be careful whenever you get to that hotel. Last time I was there, an entire SWAT team got taken out by one of those... Things..."
"Yeah, but what about house cleaning? Those maids would get their hands on it."
"Paid them off. Just get there and keep everyone off our backs."
"I'll make sure the Connor case goes cold."
"Yeah, whatever gets you your H."
"Ellison, I got a problem. Don't judge me."
"Whatever. Get there, get the cash, your fix, and keep the suits and blues off of us."
"Yeah." Ellison placed the phone back on the receiver and began sifting through reports. His phone rang and he absentmindedly answered it. "Ellison."
"Hello, Mister Ellison." The voice was John Henry's.
"Uh, hey, boss." He sat up and listened intently.
"I've been monitoring the calls. I heard that."
"Haven't you always known what we do?"
"Yes, but please use your personal phone to do it. If I weren't erasing all traces, they could track this back to Zeira Corp."
"Yeah, sure."
"Thank you." A simple click and a dial tone resounded after that, so Ellison placed the phone back where it was. He looked out the window in front of him and bore witness to the graying sky. It was likely going to rain today, but he just went back to his reports, thinking nothing of it.
Sarah and Cameron were in the living room at noon, awaiting Geller, who was off looking for another target, someone or some company that may have backup files of all of Wilson's work. Sarah couldn't find any outside of CRS that Eric or Kaliba really trusted. There were manufacturing companies, but nothing outside of that.
What was more important was any work on the chips rather than the endoskeletons. It was likely that Kaliba already had the 250,000 endos, but no chips to work it. Their information hotline would soon grow cold, though, because as of her last conversation with him, Sarah had learned that Eric was quitting CRS and getting a small apartment in Hollywood.
John was just getting up at a few minutes after noon, stumbling into the living room and essentially falling onto the couch beside of Cameron, taking her hand when he was comfortable. As soon as he was, his phone rang, which he pulled from his pocket and answered. "Yeah?"
"It's Ellison. John Henry has something for you to see."
They were now in the basement, being led to a laboratory by James. They stepped inside to see John Henry and some lab techs adjusting pieces on this arrangement of chrome red and silver plates of metal, with tubes, wires and various other mechanical pieces shaped vaguely like a human.
John Henry made one final adjustment to a piece and turned around to face John. "Hello. This is the TARPE. Tactical Assault and Recon Powered Exoskeleton, Mark III."
"TARPE? This is Perfect Metal..."
"Yes, our latest development. I've called you here for a test."
John chuckled. "You want me to... Use it?"
"Yes. Is there a problem?"
"No... How do I... ?"
Sarah butted in, "Wait, what are you talking about, a test?"
"I've detected a temporal incursion. A machine. I've been tracking it, and I figured it would be a good way to test the TARPE, Mark III."
"How do we know it's the enemy?"
"We don't. This is something about which John must inquire."
John nodded. "So, what do I do?"
One of the technicians pulled open a large panel on the wall and there was a dark suit hanging there, with a circuit texture pattern barely detectable. "This is a bio-suit. It serves two purposes. It can detect your bio-signs and nerve impulses, allowing it to sense your intended movements and your vitals, while it also provides an anti-chafing surface against the metal. It's skin tight, so you'll have to go somewhere to put it on."
John nodded and left for the bathroom of this level, quickly coming back with the bio-suit. He walked over to the powered exoskeleton, guided by the technicians. They turned him around and instructed him to insert his hands into the metal, mechanical gloves. "Now what?"
"To initiate the activation sequence, rotate your fists outward and bring them toward your chest." John did so, and as soon as he began to move his arms inward, lights came on, parts began moving, and the plates began locking together rapidly and quickly, all over his body until finally the the helmet and mask slid over his head and face.
For a few seconds, there was darkness until a bright light shot into his eyes, beaming the image and HUD directly into his optic nerve. He felt as if there were no mask, until a voice came through and new symbols on the HUD began popping up, minimizing into the lower corners. "Hello, user, begin registration sequence."
"John Henry?"
"No, I am TARPE OS Mark Three. Name?"
"John Connor."
"Creating vitals pattern, converting into health percentage bar." Suddenly, there was a wireframe depiction of his body, as if it were a hologram floating in front of him, and it began filing away in the lower left hand corner, one layer at a time. First the skin, then the muscles, then the circulatory and nervous systems before the skeleton and organs. A bar on the upper center appeared, with a number to the side indicating "VITAL SIGNS – 100%"
It then began to do the same thing for the suit's integrity, overlaying his vitals bar in a different color and changing the words to "TOTAL – 100%."
"Now what?"
"A sequence of movement instructions will appear to form a perfect baseline for your movement patterns. Please follow them precisely in order to avoid bodily harm."
And so with every wireframe depiction of a specific movement, he followed it as exactly as possible before the suit finally indicated that the registration was complete.
John turned toward John Henry and watched as the targeting reticule moved over him, creating another wireframe model which filed away, layer by layer. There was also a complete radiation scan performed, the results of which filed away as most things did.
John spoke, which was exported through an advanced speaker mimicking the Terminators' method of talking, "Where do I go?"
"I'll download the data to the TARPE OS." After he'd performed that, the system compiled it all and created a serious of destination markers, both at the compass on the bottom of his field of vision and on the main field.
Somehow, the suit read exactly what he was thinking and displayed the closest possible address position to John's target.
He began moving the suit out of the building, and noticed that it moved as quickly and effortlessly as if he were floating. Suddenly, there was a schematic of a layer of the suit which indicated that he was partially suspended from the armor in order to minimize shock to his body when attacked.
"OS, how is it that you can predict what I would normally ask you?"
"The helmet surface," There was now a schematic. "Contains multiple neural sensors that can detect intent, not exact thought. It allows me to assist in regulation of the combat package, by locking onto your designated target, and also bringing up tactical data whenever desired, among other things."
John continued moving, leaving the building and arriving onto the street. "It will take me a while to get there..."
"Follow this path." There were now markers all around, connected, that were blue, indicating a direction. John noticed that the first one was on top of a building.
"How do I get there?"
"Jump. The suit has a maximum jump altitude of 15 meters, at a rate of 6 meters of ascent per second." There was now an arcing height diagram connecting his position to the next marker. The height of the building was 14.5 meters.
John began crouching down, and the suit began to calculate the necessary power. He thrust his entire body weight toward the marker, easily landing on top of the building. As he passed through the marker, it was deleted. John looked at the roof, noticing cracks. "Hey, how much does this thing weigh?"
"242 kilograms, or 533 point 519 pounds."
"Alright, probable distance to target?"
"2 point 52 kilometers." There was now a GPS display of the probable location of the machine.
John looked left to find his next marker. It was on top of a nearby building. John continued following the path until he was only around 10 meters from the proposed location. It was a hotel, which stored its records electronically. Because of this, the suit's systems were able to hack into it and pull up the list of tenants.
It initiated a facial comparison with images previously taken of the machine which had arrived in this time, indicating the room number. 1-02.
John nodded and fell down off of the roof, narrowly avoiding the pool, and began walking toward number 1-02. Without knocking or hesitating, he shoved his palm into the flimsy steel "security" door, which bent up in the middle as it flew against the back wall, bouncing off and landing on the bed.
The suit's advanced audio sensors detected a presence in the bathroom, and it began a multispectral scan. John could see the interior skeleton of a human, cowering inside. John walked over to the door, using the strength of the suit to rip off the door and throw it aside.
Inside was the man known as Agent Charleston, which John didn't know until the suit did a facial comparison and brought up his FBI credentials. Detecting his intentions again, the suit broke the seal on the mask of the helmet, which slid up and back, revealing John's face to the Federal Agent.
"What are you doing here, Agent Charleston? This room isn't registered to you."
"Off-official FBI business, s-s-son." He was shivering as he flashed his badge, and little did he know that prior to opening the mask, John's suit had initiated an isotope scan of the Agent, attempting to detect a nuclear power source or any other machine signs but inadvertently detecting the Heroin in his right pocket.
Barely more than a whisper to the Agent, the suit's notification of this to John could be heard loud and clear by the latter. "Isotopic scan indicated illegal substances in his pocket. My analysis indicates that it's Heroin. There also appear to be needle track marks, very fresh, in his dermal layer, and he exhibits all of the signs of a Heroin high."
"You've been doing Heroin here, haven't you?"
"How would you know that? Did Ellison tip you off?"
"No, and I'm not here for that. I'm here for the actual tenant of this room."
The suit detected the sound of an engine in the parking lot. Immediately, upon John's mental signal, it lowered the mask once again. The HUD quickly started up, and John scanned through the wall. Continual scans indicated the person approaching was actually a machine.
He turned toward the Agent, who was still cowering. "Stay here, don't make a whisper. John Henry, display weapons systems."
"I am TARPE OS-"
"No time for semantics. I'm going to call you John Henry." It was silent and then obeyed his previous order.
"This suit has the basic load-out. Two shoulder mounted Kinetic Rail Cannons, firing .45 caliber explosive slugs. Each side holds 75 slugs, totaling 150. Two forearm mounted micro-missile launchers, each having two missiles, therefore one reload each. In order to activate, raise your arm, with fists bent down in order to allow clearance of the missile. Mentally designate the target and continue to focus on it until hit."
John did so, awaiting for the machine to arrive in the doorway. Once it did, he designated the machine, causing the targeting cursor to focus on it, and the missile was away. It made contact, exploding and causing most of the doorway wall to turn into a gaping hole.
The machine had been blasted back to the poolside, with almost all of its skin and clothes burnt off or turned into a crisp which flaked off as the machine rose up, badly damaged.
Its right arm had been blown off, and its chest was badly dented. John rushed it, holding it down with all of the suit's weight and force. "What is your mission?"
It struggled over and over, unable to move even in the slightest. John looked into its two red eyes, attempting to convey to it somehow that struggling was futile. This suit was made to outclass even a machine in perfect condition.
It eventually resigned, starting up its speech synthesizers. "To terminate John Connor and other specific Resistance targets."
John was almost ecstatic. He could actually do something about them now, and so he tested this. He grabbed the shoulder joint of the machine's remaining arm, and just his grip crushed it enough to make it immobile. He pulled once, with 1/20th fluid pressure, causing a few bolts and parts to break off, yet the arm remained intact. He upped the pressure, to 1/10th, and with one good pull, ripped the arm off, throwing it aside. He stood up, bringing down his foot on the machine's midsection, crushing the servos and spinal column.
While keeping his foot down, he proceeded to pull away the entire lower body, sliding it behind him. He stood back to sadistically watch the machine move its shoulder blades and head, trying to do something. In order to add insult to injury, he instructed the face mask to move up again. "Look at me. I'm John Connor. Your mission is my termination."
It simply focused on him, its glitching HUD indicating that John was a priority target and that he was to be terminated, yet it could not accomplish its mission.
Even though he was obtaining pleasure from this, John began to remember that despite their different missions, this machine is exactly as Cameron is underneath her skin. She's only more compact, and it was then that he began to feel something like remorse, despite this machine's desire to kill him.
He wanted to end it all right now. But he realized that he had no Thermite, no flare with which to light it. How would he destroy this endoskeleton?
Sensing John's intentions, the mask slid back on and indicated, through diagrams yet no audio that the left arm had a repository of Thermite, enough to cover one endoskeleton, and the right arm had a removable flare.
Apparently, John Henry and his team had foreseen most issues when designing the suit. So John began collecting all of the parts, bringing them over to an empty dumpster he'd found. The machine was still active, still struggling, so before placing its torso into the can, he placed it on the ground, sighing before stomping hard onto its head. Most of it flattened, and parts broke off, but it was definitely offline now. John collected every last piece, every last scrap, which the TARPE OS had tracked for him to make it easier, and dumped it in with the rest into the can.
He held his arm over it, allowing the Thermite to slowly sift out as he moved back and forth down the length of the dumpster. After that was done, he opened the port on the other arm and pulled out the flare, lighting it.
He watched as the metal melted into a husk, and then into vapor. He activated the mobile phone application service, or MPAS as it was called and sent a text message to everyone's phone. It was time to get back to Cameron, he'd realized, after all that had happened.
*Okay, so here's this chapter. I was really eager to get to have John test the suits. The last one we saw was just a Mark I. That's the one which Geller was in. It's a very primitive version with limited systems and power, not to mention limited protection. The Mark I was also the one Derek was in the process of constructing in the shed, and the ones the Resistance, with their limited resources in the future war, were building. Derek was given details, although we never hear about this, on what Perfect Metal was or is, and was sent back to get into contact with Zeira Corp., although he obviously didn't know about them, to fund more advanced versions of the suit that would be more useful.
And I want you to tell me something in reviews. Do you think it would be a little too much to add these:
An electromagnetic barrier on the suit. Not really a force field, but it would generate an EM field that would slow down incoming bullets to nearly a halt. I got this idea from reading about something that happened in a Tape factory (tape as in Scotch Tape, not recording Tape) where three rollers of plastic film created so much static that they actually made it impossible to move through the inspection corridor under the rollers. Or would this be too advanced? Tell me what you think. Also, because it mostly reflects bullets, you can't fire from inside the field, either. Also, the wearer of the suit has to raise their hand up at all times to have it active, so it can't be used in a fist fight with a Terminator, either. Please say if you think it's too advanced or not.
Ablative Armor emitters, using Poly-mimetic (T-1000 material) alloy. Several emitters attached around the suit that cover it with this alloy, which then hardens and adds protection. Either this or some kind of quick drying ceramic.
A portable Poly-mimetic alloy suit. It's basically something that looks like one of those touch night lamp things that you can put on any wall, except with more lights and doodads. Anyway, when you put it up to your chest and activate it, Poly-mimetic alloy covers you and becomes a suit. Most of the limitations are: no guns or missiles, just stabbing weapons, and not much in terms of strength upgrades. It's just something to have if you need protection and can't get to your TARPE Mk III or something.
Tell me what you think. Thanks!