Terminator: Resistance
Chapter Thirty Five: North Division
All right, so Rivers had carried out Commander Baron's last orders and delivered the data storage module to North Division, once they cut him down from that snare that is, and then the Sergeant spent the next couple days in their infirmary. Exhaustion and dehydration from the journey on foot from what used to be South Division to there, on top of the wounds Rivers had received during the battle of the observatory, had earned him a nice restful stay in a hospital bed that was actually pretty comfortable, but then the time for resting was over.
As soon as the Sergeant was able to get on his feet, he was escorted up to the command room for a meeting with John Conner, the Supreme Commander of the Resistance, himself. In his late 40's by the look of it, with a long scar across half of his face, the gruff and professional man welcomed him to North Division, while offering his condolences for the loss of both Pacific and South. He noted that Rivers was damn hard to kill, smacking him on the shoulder and then congratulating him for bringing in that data module.
"I don't know how you did it, Rivers, but you did." Conner said, pointing to one of the flickering monitor screens. "See that? That right there is the new coordinates to Skynet's main defense grid."
Well, the Stranger, whoever he was, had really come through. The Sergeant was sure that now that the mainframe had been found again, that Conner was going to send him with the team to attack it, but no, the Commander had something else in mind for him. Something a lot bigger and more important. Back at Dr. Mack's secret laboratory, the doctor had mentioned and given a brief description of Skynet's TDE technology, and now apparently Rivers was going to get a chance to see it firsthand. Because while he had been trying to find the mainframe, North Division had been sending its own recon team to find the Time Displacement Equipment.
"I know you're not a hundred percent yet, Rivers, but this is important." Conner continued. "Skynet is planning to use the TDE to send three Terminators into the past, so that they can still fight even if the mainframe is destroyed… and we need to stop them from sending any more after that."
The Sergeant didn't understand how he could know all this, but from what the Commander was saying, Skynet's plan was to send those machines to different time periods in order to prevent the Resistance from ever being a threat. The first Terminator was a T-850 like the one he fought, sent back to 1984 in order to kill his mother, and the second one was an advanced prototype called a T-1000, programmed to kill John himself as a child in 1995. The third one was Skynet's backup plan, another T-850 sent back just a few months in order to kill an insignificant Private in Pacific Division before he could deliver the mainframe's coordinates to Conner.
"So, that's why it was after me?" Rivers asked. "To stop me from giving you that data module? But what about the Stranger? He's the one who gave me the module, how does… how does he fit into this?"
"There's no way we can stop the first three Terminators in time." The Commander explained. "So, we're going to send three of our own soldiers after them, and the first one sent to 1984 has to be Kyle Reese. I know Baron wanted you to kill Dr. Mack, but I'm glad you didn't, because we need his help to combat the T-1000 in 1995… trust me, that thing is far too much for any Resistance soldier."
When asked about the third one to be sent back, Conner simply replied that he had a theory about that, but not until the operations were complete… he wanted to be sure, whatever that meant. A couple hours later the briefing was started, with the entire division preparing to attack Skynet on both fronts, first the mainframe to draw the machines' attention, and then the TDE once security was lax. Rivers would have thought that the time equipment would have been the diversion, since the mainframe was more important, but the Commander had other ideas. H told them that smashing Skynet was worthless if they allowed any more Terminators to be sent back, and before he knew it, the Sergeant was getting geared up for battle once again.
If given the choice, Rivers probably would have preferred the solo infiltration missions that he used to be given, since at least then the machines didn't know he was coming, but now… hell, now there was no way for them not to notice. A hundred soldiers on each mission, each supported with helicopters and pickup trucks with guns mounted on the back to combat the Aerial HK's, along with a special surprise. Somehow without Baron finding out, Conner had sent his own men to extract Dr. Mack, and now he had been in North Division's base in order to work on two very important projects.
The first one was another Infiltrator, a T-850 like the others, but this one having lighter skin and short hair. Was Conner planning to try and reprogram an Infiltrator like Dr. Mack wanted to? This didn't seem like a very good idea, especially after what he heard happened years ago with that T-600, but then Rivers was distracted by the second project: An HK Tank that was just sitting there inside the base's garage, being welded and worked on by what looked like civilians who were now testing its targeting system.
The thing was spot on, a soldier operating the cannons by remote, and making short work of a large target painted on a brick wall… as well as the wall behind it. There were bound to be HK Tanks there to protect the TDE, so this friendly Tank, designated Big Bertha, was going along with Rivers. Thankfully, the Sergeant wasn't in overall command this time, since North Division had plenty of officers and ranks above him… good, being a Sergeant was nice and all, but sometimes it was just so much easier to be just another soldier.
Body armor, helmet, weapon, grenades, it seemed like only a few seconds passed since the briefing, when it had actually been hours, and now Rivers was getting ready to roll out again. This time the whole journey didn't have to be done on foot, instead him and a dozen others packed into the back of transport trucks that would deliver them to their insertion point. This meant a couple hours sleep, which was great, but then the nap was over when the trucks stopped, and suddenly someone was yelling for them to get the hell out.
Following the others in front of him, the Sergeant jumped down onto the broken concrete of Los Angeles, looking up as the last rays of red sunlight faded from the sky, and then hearing the first explosion. Having traveled there in loud obvious trucks, no one was surprised that Skynet saw them coming, but it was still painful to see a rocket slam into the side of one of those vehicles, sending burning soldiers flying in all directions as a result of the explosion. The only way to avoid sharing that fate was to keep moving forward, so that's what they all did, using burned up vehicles and partially intact buildings for cover as the whole group advanced toward the TDE.
Unlike the human soldiers who dove for cover and returned fire from concealed positions, Skynet's T-800s did nothing to try and protect themselves, just marching forward while shooting until they couldn't attack any more, but damn there was a lot of them. Shiny metallic skeletons were marching out of every nook and cranny in order to meet the attacking force, and their Aerial support wasn't very far behind. Just as Conner planned, the Resistance didn't send in their own aircraft until after the HK's started to search for targets with their powerful lights, distracting them so they couldn't move out of the way before a missile slammed into its engines.
The turbine shattering apart like glass, the nearest Aerial was seen spiraling out of control when the flash of light from the missile faded, crashing into the remains of a building and crushing half a dozen T-800s along with it. It didn't always happen this way, though, since Skynet had experience battling these old helicopters and trucks, and just as many of them were crashed and burned as the Aerials, but the important thing was that the Resistance was able to keep advancing toward its target. After all, the massive complex that housed the TDE was visible in the distance, but there was a long way to go… and there were Tanks waiting for at the building's perimeter.
WHAM! Something made the ground shake, causing Rivers to almost lose his balance, and then the screaming started as a barrage of rapidly firing violet plasma rained down on his comrades. It was that big Walker thing, using some kind of jet booster, the monster just slammed down into the center of the battlefield, and now it was annihilating everything in its path. Soldiers, trucks, helicopters, even if they had the firepower to match the walking monstrosity, nothing could get close enough for a counter attack, or at least that was that Skynet believed from its tests in Pasadena and at the campus.
This time, however, the Walker was stopped in its tracks as Big Bertha was rolled out, and now the friendly Tank was firing both of its double barrel cannons right into the Walker's face. The new model HK tried to turn and counter attack, but by then its torso armor had already been compromised by plasma fire, giving it systems and inner components no protection against the Tank. He knew that he should have kept going, but Rivers couldn't help stopping to watch as the Walker, which had defeated him twice in the past, was finally destroyed in a small explosion after it fell over sideways.
"Yeah, fuck you, Walker!" He yelled before resuming the advance. "Or whatever the hell you're called."
Wow, and attack like this was a hell of a lot easier with a hundred soldiers with him, instead of that few dozen at South Division… hey, why did North Division have so many more soldiers than the others? Pacific Division barely had any at all… probably why a single Infiltrator was able to wipe them all out. Well, now Rivers was getting some proper payback, with the Resistance advancing farther and farther while the T-800's fell broken onto the cracked streets. But then the ground rumbled again, making the Sergeant think that another Walker was landing, until he saw the light coming from the massive complex where the TDE was stored.
"Skynet's activated the TDE!" A voice yelled through the radio. "They're about to send the first Terminator through! We're too late!"