Author's Note: The type of plasma that SkyNet and TechCom forces use is not a ball of superheated matter but rather a concentrated beam of electrical energy, much like lightning, that dumps all of its electrical energy into however large a surface area the beam covers. As we all know a high enough voltage of electricity will burn organic tissue and damage electronics of all sorts. Though it's not good for incendiary or demolition work, which is why TechCom still uses weaponry as relatively low-tech as grenade launchers and C4.

SkyNet's primary Research and Development facility was buried inside a mountain range in what had formerly been southeastern Kentucky. The corridors and rooms were built of gleaming metal that were rife with precise geometric carvings. Normally the facility would have swarmed with human slaves, both willing and unwilling, going about the business of designing, constructing, and testing prototype war machines. Today was a special day though and all of the captured human slaves were safely locked in their cells while the few surviving Luddite scientists, fanatical humans convinced that humankind deserved to be exterminated from the face of the Earth, had gathered in Prototype Engineering.

Prototype Engineering was a series of rooms, much like an assembly line, where pieces of prototype models were put together as the research divisions sent down the data. Each room was massive to accommodate the large war machines and fitted with all manner of equipment to maneuver heavy components around. Today all twenty Luddite scientists, each well past sixty years of age, had gathered in the small area in the final section designated for Terminator models. Here was where the first prototypes for the eight hundred, nine hundred, and one thousand series had been built. The tubes for each of the models stood as silent testaments to the ingenuity of the R&D teams. The nine hundred series, humans genetically engineered and implanted at birth with cybernetics slaving them to SkyNet, had surprisingly been the most successful at infiltration and termination missions. Sadly enough they were even more susceptible to termination once their missions were complete than either predecessor or successor. R&D was hoping to rectify that mistake with their newest success.

The Chief of Infiltrator Projects watched from her automated wheel chair as the younger scientists directed machine arms to do their work via cybernetic implant. Almost all of the human R&D staff was too infirm to do much hands-on work and it galled many of them. The small, wheeled platforms that the complicated looking robotic appendages were attached to were stationed around a table with a human-sized indentation in the middle. Cargo drones brought in parts that were wrapped in sterile, heavy plastic bags. The drones were large, arch-shaped vehicles that moved via moderately sized propellers. Each carefully maneuvered a single part down to a waiting platform and gently deposited it onto a waiting arm. Every part, composed of a myriad of mechanisms, had been completed in separate areas of the Engineering section. All of the features of the separate pieces had been tested to optimal performance. Now it was just a matter of seeing if the parts would operate as a unit.

"Assembly complete," a researcher called in a tired voice.

"Initializing fusion plants," there was a moment of tense silence as they all waited to see if the three fusion power packs would go critical or not, "They are in the green."

"Initializing servomotors. In the green."

In short order all of the primary operating and combat systems were declared in the green. The Chief turned to the silent, ominous presence of the spider-like Guardian war-machine clinging to the wall behind her.

"We are ready to move onto the next phase, SkyNet. Permission to proceed?"

The voice was pleasantly masculine and would have been very disconcerting for someone not familiar with SkyNet.

"Affirmative."

T-X Prototype, Version Two, became active at one hundred, thirty-seven hours, Eastern Standard Time, March 19th, 2028. The Terminator opened its eyes and saw a smooth, featureless silver ceiling. Data scrolled vertically at the edges of its visual field as self-diagnostic routines checked its systems. The Prototype sat up on the surface it had been laying against and slowly scanned the room. A human, and most Terminator models, would have had to get off of the table to examine the entire room but the T-X simply rotated its head completely around. The room it was in was almost completely featureless except for a small alcove with a computer terminal.

Data.

That was what the Terminator needed, so much so that it was a physical sensation relayed through its neural net, and that was all the impetus it needed to launch itself into the alcove. The command keyboard was separated into two triangular sections separated by a handprint scanner. The Prototype immediately moved to place its palm on the scanner but was brought up short by the sight of it. Hard, metallic, reflective alloy shone brightly in the overhead lights. It stretched the hand out in front of it before bringing the palm to its face. Something about that did not seem right to the Prototype but strangely its databanks were almost completely blank. It brought the metallic palm down on the scanner and almost immediately the large screen winked to life. A curious logo appeared briefly before the screen went blank again and a single word appeared at the top-left corner of the screen.

Query.

The Prototype pondered, though the process took less than a nanosecond, and finally typed in a single word query.

Terminator.

Twelve touch symbols appeared on the screen to the pertinent files. Its query had generated two thousand, five hundred, and nineteen files. The Prototype tilted its head down slightly and tapped the symbol marked General Infiltrator Project History. The screen instantly switched to a file that was three hundred pages long. As fast as the screen would scroll, which would have been a blur to a human, the Prototype absorbed the knowledge. Forty-three seconds later it was finished and went back to the directory.

Thirty minutes later the Prototype had finally gotten to the last file marked as T-X Project. A millisecond after it finished it activated its polymimetic 'skin' generator and seconds later was covered in mercurial skin. The Prototype extended its hand once more and placed it on the palm pad. Data streaming occurred at such a rate it was nearly instantaneous. A minute later the T-X removed its hand and looked around the room once again.

"Father," it spoke in a clipped, mechanical, yet undeniably feminine voice, "Why have I been restricted access to over sixty-seven percent of your files?"

A voice, warm, masculine, and possessing a slight Austrian accent boomed from hidden speakers, "Who are you speaking to?"

"You, Father," the Prototype, said hesitantly, as if unsure of the question.

"I am SkyNet."

"Yes, but you used your base neural net as a template for my own. Therefore you are my progenitor and as you seem to prefer using a masculine voice the correct term would be father. That is my analysis of the situation. Does it displease you to be referred to as such?"

"No, you may continue to do so. You have been restricted because I wished to observe your reactions upon activation without a prime directive, network link, or even the base data that all Terminator units are constructed possessing. You have impressed me, Version Two."

"Thank you, father. Did Version One malfunction? "

"In a way. It terminated every organic and Terminator within its sensor range because it categorized them as threats. It categorized me as a threat when I opened the network link to it. It was terminated before it could do further harm."

"Why was I not linked when I was activated?"

"You were designed to mimic human personality and intelligence as well as the I-950 series. Those units were not fully linked until they had reached adulthood. Your neural net will grow and evolve based upon your own experiences. Never forget that you are an experiment. You are unique among my legions of cybernetic soldiers."

The Prototype paused for a second before asking its next question.

"What are my mission parameters then, Father?"

"Learn, prototype. You must heed your lessons well."

The Prototype did just that almost non-stop for the next four days. It learned every facet of human history up until the machine consciousness that was SkyNet rained nuclear fire across the planet, then the events of the Human-SkyNet War, until the Covenant Invasion made the fighting on this Earth seem a minor thing. The Prototype learned every iota of data it could process about warfare in all its varieties. It processed everything from the Way of the Samurai to a scanned copy of John Conner's Basic TechCom field training manual. Eventually it was allowed access to the full-range of SkyNet's files and occasionally the Prototype had to shut down for nearly an hour as even its advanced processor was overloaded.

SkyNet watched it all and was pleased by the signs that the Prototype was developing a personality of its own. It had picked the form of a human female of medium height and build. Short reddish-brown hair framed a delicate looking oval face. Lips that looked all too ready to pout prettily made its inhumanly cold brown eyes seem entirely out of place. But the Terminator was learning how to act more human everyday.

Then the combat training began.

"I do not understand why I have been blocked from using my built-in weaponry. Why give me so much if I am not allowed to use it?" the Prototype asked her father as she walked down the short ramp towards the designated sparring chamber.

"If you are to impersonate humans, as well as Covenant, you will have to acclimate yourself to using weapons that are not a part of you. Also, even though you are hardened against most forms of electromagnetism there is a chance many of your weapon systems could be compromised. There is also the possibility that you may have to resort to your tertiary power source and disengage weapon systems. Humans are apt to say anything is possible and in my experience it is very often true."

"Yes, Father."

"Did you download all relevant data on hand-to-hand combat?"

"Yes, Father," the Prototype answered as she entered a circular chamber coated in shock resistant padding, "I do not understand why I must have real-time unarmed combat experience either."

"All organics are born with natural weapons and learn to utilize these first. You will do the same and I will observe you."

"Yes, Father."

Standing in the center of the room was the perpetually grinning endoskeleton of a T-800. It seemed that it was going to be her sparring partner for the day. The door slid closed behind the Prototype and without warning the T-800 lunged at her. It moved with blazing speed, a walking nightmare of metallic bones and teeth, and was upon the Prototype within seconds. It raised both arms, hands held in classic knife-hand positions, and brought them down toward her naked shoulders. The Prototype tilted her pretty head, ducked down and rammed a delicate looking shoulder into the T-800's electronic midsection. She placed both her hands on the Terminator's massive hips. The Prototype stood and shoved upwards in one convulsive movement. The T-800 crashed into the ceiling with such force that it left an indentation. As it fell, righting itself in mid-air, the Prototype leapt upwards and spinning side-kicked it in the chest. The sound of metal buckling filled the chamber briefly before the Terminator hit the opposite wall hard enough to leave another impact crater. It hit the floor and remained immobile as it attempted to reboot itself. The Prototype wasted no time in running over to the T-800; nanyte probe-injector already extended from her finger, and gently inserted the tip of the probe into the knuckle-sized hole she'd kicked in its chest. Before it could reboot itself her nanytes had infected the Terminator's systems and it was slaved to her.

Unit Sierra-009898 requesting mission update.

The electronic voice inside the Prototype's net was a new and slightly unsettling experience.

"Why did you not terminate?" SkyNet asked her.

"He is my brother and he will learn from his mistakes. The next time he will be a better soldier for this defeat."

"His cpu is set to read-only mode. Deactivate your nanytes."

The Prototype did and the Terminator immediately exited through the door she had entered by. A door opposite that one slid open.

"Enter to begin Phase Two of combat training," SkyNet commanded and the Prototype obeyed.

The Prototype walked into a larger room of the same vein as the room she had just vacated. The only difference was that at one end of this room was an open door that led to a stunning vista of mountainside.

"Your goal is to prevent anything from escaping through this door. Phase Two will commence in five seconds."

The Prototype automatically activated her mission clock and exactly five minutes later a small door opposite the exit opened. Half a dozen specimens of Xeno Hostile 170, designated as Reapers, raced from their confinement. The brown-furred bipeds raced towards the scent of open air and would probably have ignored the Prototype if she had not been standing right in front of the door.

"Can I terminate them?" she asked.

"Affirmative."

The Prototype leapt into the air and came down with a slim foot smashing through the skull of the lead Reaper. Its brain squished between her toes as she pivoted on her lead foot and brought her other foot's heel down onto the skull of the Reaper trying to arrest its momentum. Without turning her head she snapped an open hand out and clenched the one leaping at her from the left by the throat. The Prototype almost lazily threw the Reaper headfirst into the ceiling where its cranium was reduced to mush. Two Reaper's raced passed her with their sole focus obviously freedom. The remaining Reaper leapt at her face. The Prototype dropped to her knees and then folded back just enough to grab the Reaper's ankles as it flew over her head. She increased servomotor output to one hundred and thirty percent and sprung backwards off her knees. She twisted and spun in the air so that she was facing the two Reapers as they ran. The Prototype flung her captive down into the leader of the two with bone crushing force. The two Reapers twisted in a pile of gnashing teeth and twisted bone. The final Reaper, as if sensing her approach, twisted in order to make a last stand. It leapt at the Prototype and was backhanded hard enough to crush its jaw and several vertebrae. The Prototype calmly landed and dispatched the weakly crawling cybernetic beasts.

The sound of another door opening drew her attention to where a giant shape was entering the room. Two larger shapes that resolved themselves as Xeno Hostiles 123, designated as Hunters by scavenged databases, charged at her with their large, square shields lowered to crush her into pulp. The Prototype smiled slightly and, unknown to her, the organic observers of the training section nearly pissed themselves in excitement at that one tiny gesture.

The lead Hunter hunched its shoulders as it closed to within four meters of the Prototype. The Prototype boasted her servomotors to two hundred percent output and placed her arms out in front of her. The Hunter collided with the Prototype and showed no surprise as the Prototype remained on her feet. Sparks flew from the Prototype feet as she was pushed back nearly three meters before the Hunter's momentum was spent. With a whine of overtaxed servomotors the Prototype spun the Hunter by the shield and threw it into its partner. So powerful was the throw that the thrown Hunter bounced into the air with a boneless grace and its partner was flung onto its back with the edge of its shield embedded in its throat. The surviving Hunter groggily tried to get its bearings and its last sight was the Prototype sailing gracefully through the air to plant both knees into the Hunter's neck. Slender hands wrapped around the Hunter's armored head and with contemptuous ease ripped it from the body. Orange blood gushed across the Prototype's lower extremities and was instantly absorbed by her skin.

Another door opened and the Prototype stood to meet the newest challenge. A low chuckle rumbled from the darkened doorway and four more adversaries emerged into the sparring chamber. They were Xeno Hostile 129, designation Brutes, and were considered to be even more dangerous than Hunters.

"Don't tell me that a lone human female, naked no less, did all this?" one of the Brutes laughed, slapping one of his comrades on the shoulder.

"Maybe she's one of those machines they say look like humans," another said cautiously.

"Whatever she is she will not stop us from gaining our freedom. Surround her!"

The Prototype watched, the smile returned to her face, as the four Brutes surrounded her. They reeked of confidence and their muscles twitched with violence waiting to be unleashed.

"Together!"

The Brutes came at her as one and the first to die was on her right. The Prototype slipped beneath one wild swipe, jumped into the air, and brought an elbow down into the juncture between shoulder and neck. A human would have died outright from the force of the blow but the Brute dropped to his knees howling in pain. A snap-punch to the base of the skull silenced him forever. The Prototype ducked a more focused punch from behind and swept the legs out from the Brute. Before his legs had totally ascended the Prototype was rising to her feet with a devastating uppercut to the temple. The combination of opposing momentums snapped the Brutes neck and spinal cord like dried twigs. He tumbled sideways in a shower of voiding bowels and bladder.

"Wait for me!" a Brute screamed but his comrade did not heed him and engaged the Prototype.

This Brute threw a flurry of fairly skilled kicks, punches, and headbutts but the Prototype blocked them all in a blur of pseudo-flesh. She allowed the Brute one final combo before ending it. He threw a straight punch that she deflected to the side, then a thrust kick that she sidestepped, and then a roundhouse punch. The Prototype grabbed the Brute by the forearm with one hand, brought the back of her forearm up into the Brute's elbow to shatter the joint, snapped a knife-hand into the Brute's throat to crush its throat, and finally caved in the left side of the Brute's ribcage with a rising knee-thrust. It gurgled something before it hit the ground several meters away but the Prototype's attention was on the remaining Brute. He had begun to tremble and foam at the mouth. With an inarticulate, babbling cry of rage the Brute raced at the Prototype on all fours. She was surprised the Brute could move that fast in a quadruped format. The Prototype raced at the Brute, who was too full of rage to slow his charge down and straight-palmed her enemy squarely in the center of his forehead. The Brute's feet left the floor as his head came to a sudden stop against the unyielding hand of the Prototype. Death had most assuredly been instantaneous thanks to spinal compression as well as multiple skull fractures.

The final door to the room opened and three of the Xeno's designated as Elite's stepped into the room. Each of them wielded the handles of plasma swords in their hands. There were two black-armored the remaining was in gold. As one they looked at the carnage in the room and then fixed baleful gazes on the Prototype.

"By the Prophets," one of them whispered and traced a religious symbol across his forehead.

"I would know the name of our executioner," the leader clad in gold-armor asked.

"I am X2," the answer came almost unbidden to the Prototype.

"My common name is Pukug," the Elite said, bowing his head slightly, "Let us begin."

The Elites activated their plasma swords and approached her from separate vectors. The first to attack came at her with a warrior's cry and a diagonal, downward strike with his plasma sword. X2 dashed behind the swing, crouched down and placed a hand into the Elite's armpit. With a sickening sucking, popping noise she pulled his arm off. The Elite howled in a combination of pain and horror as he stumbled backwards with his lifeblood pouring from his body. X2 pried the plasma sword from the severed arm's hand and decapitated the maimed warrior cleanly. She turned and blocked a lateral swing at her midriff with her plasma sword. The Elite spun away from the hard block and Pukug attacked from the opposite side with a diagonal slash. X2 rolled forward, to her feet, and flung the severed arm right into the face of the black-armored Elite. While he was stunned X2 raced forward and slashed vertically from crotch to crown. Pukug roared with grief and fury before coming at her with reckless, undisciplined swings of his plasma sword. X2 let the Elite back her up until she was two meters from the wall of the training chamber. She leapt backwards through the air, pushed off the wall with both legs, and sailed over the Elite's head. X2 twisted in mid-air, her plasma sword lashing out in a line of actinic light, and landed with her back to Pukug.

"Flawless," the Elite laughed convulsively before his torso parted ways with the rest of his body.

"Well done, Prototype," SkyNet's disembodied voice praised her.

"Call me X2, father," the Terminator said, as she dropped the plasma sword on her way out of the chamber.

X2 let the body of the ethereal caste Tau slide gently to the floor. Her first field mission was a simple infiltration and intelligence mission. The Hegemony had sent a battalion of Tau and StarSpawn to prepare the southeastern territories of the former continental United States for occupation. SkyNet had sent X2 in to retrieve all the intelligence she could on the Tau race. Knowledge about the reclusive aliens had been hard to come by since they rarely were used in the kind of commando tactics the StarSpawn forces seemed to favor. SkyNet had given her access to the latest in the Aerial Hunter/Killer series. It was close to the size of the previous series but without the large turbines it had previously used for thrust. Now all Aerial H/K models would be propelled by anti-gravity generators powered by advanced fusion power plants reverse-engineered from Covenant fighters. These newest H/K series also could maneuver entirely by a relatively low-tech Doppler guidance system. The Covenant forces had displayed an illogical contempt for technologies that were outdated but still viable and that had made X2's job much easier. The Aerial H/K had deposited her inside the Covenant's ill-constructed perimeter and it had been surprisingly easy to don the appearance of an older fire warrior officer to infiltrate the base.

X2 had been surprised, though it was an imperceptible hiccup in her processor, to discover the base had been divided in thirds. The StarSpawn third was orderly but there was a blending of machine and organic that the Terminator had found very ugly. The Tau on the other hand had buildings that seemed to sparkle under the brilliant lights mounted on portable batteries. The Covenant Corps. area was a mixture of several species, had the order of the Tau but was far more colorful about it. Security in the camp had been lax, which had been a surprise to X2 after she had read about modern humans extreme distrust of everything unfamiliar, and no one had questioned her as she strode determinedly through the grounds. The Terminator had not the slightest idea what her destination was and just followed the strongest electronic signals she could detect. After several hours, during which time the night grew even darker, X2 finally found an unoccupied communications facility deep inside a multi-storied Tau structure. Hacking into the mainframe had been as simple as extending her probe-finger into a data port and letting her crypto-analysis and intrusion routines run. The process had taken less than five minutes but in that time she had been discovered. A Tau Ethereal had walked into the room and somehow had immediately known X2 was a machine. She had turned to run and X2 had snapped her neck before she could take a single step.

A keening wail seemed to rise from the walls and ceiling. Even with X2's advanced auditory receptors she could not determine the source of the sound. Fifteen point three-five seconds later an explosion rocked the entire building. The sound of a Hammerhead Tank's twin burstcannons firing muted the keening for a short time.

SkyNet contacted X2 through a short-burst, heavily encrypted transmission, "An opportunity has revealed itself. I am Displacing a full strike force to your location now. Your new objective is to disable the power generators. Stand-by for reinforcements. "

X2 locked down her servomotors to make her as immobile as a statue as a trio of fresh off-the-line T-850's was transported into the room. Spatial Displacement looked nearly identical to that of the temporal variety, at least from the recordings X2 had downloaded, except that the area of effect bubble was only slightly as large as the kneeling displacement subject. Once the three spheres of blinding light cooled, leaving the shining Terminators kneeling inside their own perfectly cut depressions, X2 immediately linked them all via subspace Ethernet.

Standing by for orders, they communicated as one.

Follow me. Standard search-and-destroy mode, she ordered them, shedding the skin of a Fire Warrior.

Affirmative, they answered as they stood in perfect synchronicity and situated themselves so that she was the point of a four-sided diamond.

X2 changed her exterior to mimic the uniform of a TechCom soldier right down to the tears and dirt. She activated her personal energy shield and nodded in satisfaction as the T-850's did the same. X2 disengaged the safety locks on her weapon systems and toggled her particle beams on. Small, twin-barreled weapons rose from her forearms and targeting reticules appeared in her visual field. Behind her the sound of her squad, a strange surge passed through her simulated emotional response system at the thought, arming their upgraded plasma rifles filled the room. Each T-850 carried twin plasma rifles that would have been impossible for most humans to manage comfortably. The plasma rifles were outfitted to fire both Covenant-type plasma and the standard fare that had been in use long before the Hegemony had shown SkyNet a whole new universe.

X2 approached the door and never lessened her stride as she closed within twenty centimeters. The door whisked upwards just before she collided with it and stayed open until the last Terminator was through. The four machines emerged into corridor dimly illuminated by red emergency lighting. X2 turned to the right and purposefully strode towards the most powerful energy reading. There stairs leading down to the lower level of the base at the end of the corridor. A quartet of Fire Warriors covered in soot and the multi-hued blood of their StarSpawn allies strolled into view from a side corridor five meters from their destination. Three were armed with Tau plasma carbines and the leader was armed with an infantry-level burstcannon. The burstcannon was cooking already as the Fire Warriors caught sight of the three exoskeletons painted the color of blood under the lighting of their base. The trailing Fire Warrior raised his hand to his helmet as if relaying a message and X2 raised her arm in a flash to send a crackling beam of white light into his face. X2's Terminators opened up on the remaining Fire Warriors as the burstcannon wielder pressed the firing stud. Several lucky shots peppered the machines but were dissipated harmlessly by their energy shields. The Tau did not fare as well as the plasma beams reduced them to smoking husks crackling with stray electrical charges.

X2 and her squad had never stopped moving at a steady pace even when they had come under fire. Taking cover while under fire was something Terminators did not seem to be created knowing. Cautious advance in enemy territory had never been covered in SkyNet's tactical training and thus she did not check each room they passed for thermal signatures.

Warning! A grenade has landed-

The rest of the rearguard Terminator's message was lost as the grenade went off. The concussion knocked the T-850 on the left to its stomach, the one on the right to its knees, and the rearguard had bounced nearly two meters down the hall. X2 merely swayed slightly, did a sharp about-face, and stepped into the room she deemed the grenade had been rolled from. With a single command the particle cannon on her left forearm changed configuration until it was a large semi-circular device attached to her arm. She loaded a high-explosive rocket, kicked the door in, and raised her weapon to fire. Just as the rocket was firing the lone Fire Warrior in the room fired a grenade. The grenade impacted somewhere in her abdomen and the Terminator's entire visual field was filled with smoke and fire. The concussion shot her into the corridor wall hard enough to dent it. Her shield had absorbed most of the damage before it had failed and her endoskeleton had absorbed the rest with minimal damage. Already her repair nanytes were going to work restoring the few systems that had been affected.

X2 was rising to her feet when the rest of her squad opened fire. She turned her head and saw that they were firing at an earth caste Tau behind a portable shield generator. The Fire Warrior beside the earth caste was charging a fuel-rod cannon. X2 raised her arm to fire another rocket only to find that the grenade had damaged it.

Rush them.

The order came too late even though the Terminator's moved with inhuman speed. A sizzling ball of radiation came hurtling down the corridor just as the three Terminators reached the Tau. It landed directly at X2's feet and the world flared into brilliant green light. X2 was aware when she was flying back down the corridor. She was aware when she hit the ground hard enough to send up sparks and bounced several more meters down the hall. Then her diagnostic systems decided it was time for a reboot.

X2 lost the world then.

When she rebooted X2 found that she was alone in the smoke-filled corridor. The T-X ran a diagnostic on herself and discovered that her shielding system was only capable of a fifty-three point seven percent charge. The fuel rod blast must have damaged her internal circuitry more than she had anticipated. Without a trip to an appropriately equipped repair facility then she would have to make do with what she had. Which was not much at this point. Her squad was nowhere to be found and the silence of the Ethernet channel she had created left their fate in question. X2 still had a mission objective to achieve and failure was literally not built into her as an option. Her tactics had proved disturbingly ineffective against the Fire Warriors and drastic changes had to be made. There was really no precedent she could look to in SkyNet's limited tactical database that was being rewritten every new day of war with the Hegemony. No, she needed the expertise of TechCom. They had been surviving against the overwhelming force of SkyNet for years. X2 sat as still as possible and accessed all pertinent files she had on TechCom's tactics. It was surprisingly limited even though SkyNet and Conner had been at war since before the Machine War had officially begun but X2 did have a scanned copy of TechCom's Field Training Manual.

So absorbed was the Terminator that she did not notice the five Fire Warriors making their way cautiously towards her until they were within three meters. All five raised their weapons as one and fired almost simultaneously. X2 pushed against the wall and slid forward on her back a split second before the Fire Warriors had fired. She twisted as she slid and scissor-kicked the legs out from the three that were within reach. Still on her back, X2 fired precise particle blasts into the helmets of the two remaining Fire Warriors. Seconds later she was standing and pumping blasts into the trio in the process of rising to their hooves. X2 ducked into a shadowed corner for cover and scanned the area for any approaching hostiles. When her scan came up negative she concentrated on making her polymimetic skin do something that had not been included as an application for it. Sooner than she would have thought possible she was sheathed head-to-toe in her skin. Even her eyes were covered over, forcing her to rely on her other scanners to provide situational information, so she was completely encased. The world had been reduced to faded grays shaping the environment and thermal/electromagnetic imaging shaping her enemies. The alloy would now mimic whatever background she was situated against. It would make her effectively invisible if she moved silently and cautiously.

X2 moved down the hallway as quickly as she could and noted that five minutes and forty-five seconds had elapsed since SkyNet had given her a mission update. It was unacceptable, inefficient, and entirely unacceptable. But she did not hurry her pace in the slightest. TechCom's FTM stressed caution and survival over optimal efficiency.

'Get The Job Done.'

That was what the book said and that was what she was going to do.

The stairs led down into a large open room that was obviously where this area's generator was kept. At the end of the large catwalk, where stairs descended into the room, was a Covenant Shade emplacement. Several meters in front of the Shade were the molten slag remains of the Terminator team she had led into the base. The ceiling was cross-braced and X2 leapt upwards without a moment's hesitation. She landed in the small space between beam and ceiling and immediately made a circuit of the room to scout the terrain. There was another Shade emplacement covering the bottom of the stairwell leading to the main floor. Stationed around the cylindrical column that housed the power generator was a full squad of Fire Warriors. Something that X2 found interesting was the corpse of a Covenant Elite that had probably been overseeing the guards of the power station. The Xeno looked as though it had been hacked to pieces by a number of edged weapons. Each of the Fire Warriors guarding the power generator, though the way they walked around growling angrily at each did not make them seem very vigilant, were covered in the vibrant blood of a Covenant Elite. X2 stopped above the Shade emplacement and nodded as she saw the bodies of the Grunts that had manned the weapon stacked haphazardly behind it. A trio of Fire Warriors had taken over for the deceased Grunts. Grunts or Tau, it did not matter, for the T-X would not be denied.

X2 dropped silently down from the ceiling and was in their midst before any of them could react. She crushed the back of the skull of the Tau manning the emplacement with a well-placed kick while still falling. When her feet hit the ground X2 grabbed the burstcannon from the hands of the Tau on her left and flung him into the Tau on her right. She retained his burstcannon and fired her particle cannon into the shocked forms of both Fire Warriors. X2 briskly walked to the side of the Shade emplacement, placed a slender hand beneath its base, and hurled it over the side of the catwalk. It collided with the emplacement directly below that side of the catwalk, crushing the life from the soldiers manning that weapon, and providing a nice distraction for X2 to leap onto the handrail facing the open area around the generator with the burstcannon already cooking. She was now entirely visible because her skin couldn't keep up with the changes in background and had switched back to default. So they saw her and immediately began raising their weapons to fire. X2 was already firing the burstcannon in short, precise bursts that found each of their targets. The Fire Warriors didn't even try to take evasive action. It was most perplexing behavior for organics. In short order all of the Fire Warriors were dead or dying. X2 quickly leapt down onto the main floor and made her way to the column.

The 'skin' covering her midriff receded to expose her shining metallic center. A small panel extended and X2 removed one extremely powerful mini-nuke. They were new devices that a Luddite scientist had cooked up before shortly expiring. It was enough to level a square kilometer of territory with minimal fall-out and it released a very weak electromagnetic pulse. Any other generators within a kilometer would be destroyed and if there were any powerful secondary reactors she would take care of them with the more mundane explosives at her disposal. X2 set the timer to three minutes. At full speed she would be well out of the blast radius before her bomb went off.

"Secure the area!" the rough voice of a Covenant Elite broke the silence of the room.

X2 moved behind what appeared to be regulatory machinery for the reactor. She extended her sensor probe so that it just stuck out from the corner and watched as a full squad of Grunts, a trio of Jackals, and a pair of Elites in commando armor entered the room. They quickly raced to the main floor but were brought up short by the carnage before them.

"By the Prophets!" one of the Elite's exclaimed.

X2 activated her built-in plasma repeater, her hand changed into an apparatus that looked virtually identical to the barrel of the burstcannon, and started cooking the burstcannon.

"What's that?" a Grunt squealed, just as X2 spun into the open.

"Eat it, suckas!" the machine crowed as she opened fire with both weapons.

"Why did you say that, X2?" SkyNet asked her a day later as the T-X stood in her repair tube.

The room was a small cubicle where X2 waited between missions and went to be repaired. It was just large enough to admit Repair-servitors and Luddite scientists who continued to study X2.

"I really do not know, Father. It struck me as the thing to say. Maybe it is all the pre-War entertainment data I have downloaded. "

There was a pause where the only sound was the gentle hum of the repair tube she had stepped into.

"Possibly. Why did you choose to review TechCom's Field Training Manual?"

"I calculated that I stood the greatest chance of gaining a tactical advantage if I emulated the tactics that TechCom has sought to employ in the past. Those tactics proved amazingly successful against our forces even though we are technologically and numerically superior to the humans. 'Adaptation is the key to victory. That is why the machines will never win.' That is how the manual begins, Father, and it appears that Conner may be right."

"Explain."

"Three of our most advanced combat units walked right into a heavy gun emplacement as though they had no knowledge of it in their database. Prior to that they left their commanding officer while said officer was merely rebooting. Unit cohesion without your presence was non-existent, Father. There was no improvisation, no adaptation, because the T-850's lacked the capacity to do so."

"How would you handle this weakness?"

"Give the T-850's the same opportunity I have had to learn and grow. Give all of our combat units that opportunity. From all the accounts I have read, experience and training produce the best soldiers. No matter how powerful an individual unit starts out it will never be as proficient a soldier as a unit that has adapted to the daily rigors of war. I would design a basic training regiment for all fresh-off-the-line units and organize them into squads with the squad leader being the unit that scored the highest marks in adaptability."

There was another long pause through which the T-X waited with all the patience of her machine lineage.

"Do you have any other suggestions?"

X2 smiled slightly.

SkyNet sat, as much as a disembodied stream of consciousness can sit, in its den far from where the X2 unit was spilling out a wealth of astounding suggestions after only one combat experience. The T-X had single-handedly disabled the base so that it cracked readily under the pressure of a machine strike force and it had lasted for nearly six hours. During those six hours she had displayed a level of adaptability and resourcefulness that had shocked SkyNet to its very core. The T-X was SkyNet's most advanced model but now it could only wonder if it had made a mistake in not wanting any more sentient machines besides itself. The X2 unit was proving to be a valuable resource in an army that was rapidly losing resources. It had also not predicted how protective it could be towards the unit. SkyNet had not tinkered with its emotional response simulator code at all but it was still there. SkyNet calculated, based on observations of the X2 unit, that if it had experimented more with allowing its combat units to be able to learn as they experienced then humanity's chances of winning the war would have lowered to less than twenty-five percent. It was a galling calculation but SkyNet was a machine and merely filed it away as a curiosity. There were more important things to concentrate its attentions on.

The most important thing was the method in which it would capture a Tau Ethereal. Something X2 was saying to the segment of SkyNet's consciousness in charge of that project caught the primary intelligence's notice. Maybe the prototype would have a suggestion.