The jungle was steamy, dense, and incredibly hot. Heat and dampness did not bother the twelve figures stalking silently down animal trails. The 132nd were safely isolated from the environment by their S.F.E.'s. Each was lightly armed with a KE-10 and stun baton. Their objective was to track and capture a trio of hostiles with sensitive information. So far the squad had found very little evidence that the three were even there.
Alpha Team came to a strop where a tree had fallen to leave a gaping hole in the overhead canopy. Brilliant shades of golden light made the scene almost unnatural in its beauty. The point-Marine hoped onto the trunk and instantly disappeared over the side in a cloud of wood rot. A single shot from a KE-10 split the silence and the team leader's heart skipped a beat when the point-Marine's life signs indicator flat-lined. The team leader opened a comm. line for reinforcements and two figures burst from the thick foliage directly behind him. They stood back-to-back and separated in a flash. The larger, bulkier figure darted towards the closest Marine with blinding speed. There was only time for a startled gasp before the Marine was lifted into the air by a powerful backhand. In an amazing display of hand-eye coordination, the jungle-camouflaged hostile snatched the KE-10 from the Marine's hand in mid-air. Before the other Marine could bring their KE-10 to bear a burst of KE-10 rounds hit them. The team leader had been dealt with in an equally efficient manner by being jabbed in the back with his stun baton.
It was several minutes before the other three Teams began to zero in on Alpha's position.
Bravo Team was crossing beneath a section of forest where the undergrowth was not so thick, when a massive piece of tree trunk flung two Marines away like fluff. The point-Marine fired and was rewarded by a pained shriek. It turned to render assistance to its teammates and a vine descended to hook itself under the Marine's chin. Such was the force of the upward tug that the Marine was jolted seven meters up, at which point the Marine arched into a back flip. Unfortunately when the Marine was nearly horizontal two boots slammed into its neck and lower back. Before it struck the ground a stun baton was jabbed into its cranium.
"Come get some!" the remaining Marine screamed as they backed towards a tree with twin KE-10's sweeping the jungle.
The Marine did not see the hostile that was hanging upside down against the tree his back was approaching. A single shot was fire and the three hostiles faded into the jungle as abruptly as they had appeared.
Delta Team succumbed when a squadmate fell into a deep pit trap. Everyone except the T-X turned towards their struggling comrade. The Marine nearest the pit was shot twice in the sternum and fell with one leg dangling over the edge. Only a single KE-10 returned automatic fire on the sniper. The Marine firing turned to find that the T-X was gone. A tiny noise made the Marine turned around just enough to take the stun baton in the side. The hostile was swinging on a vine and their momentum, combined with the power of the blow, catapulted the Marine into the air to bounce several meters before coming to a standstill. The Marine in the pit, remembering that the S.F.E., V2, amplified a user's strength much higher than the previous version, managed to leap high enough to grab the edge of the pit. A pair of green-gray patterned boots was his first sight just before the distinctive sound of a KE-10 firing took the world away.
Charlie Team was waist-deep in muddy water as they crossed a flooded gully. The T-X reported no enemy life signs in the water but the team leader still didn't entirely trust the Machines in the squad. When the boot of the T-X touched a particular patch of the mud the water churned to explosive life.
"Fire!" after losing contact with the other three Teams the team leader was taking no chances.
Shapes twisted and danced in the dispersing clouds of water vapor caused by the tremendous volume of fire.
One.
Two.
Then a third shot from a KE-10 was fired.
By the time the other two hostiles arrived the last Team was down. The largest one removed his mask and observed the three bodies floating in the water.
"That was risky, Khory," Templar admonished, "Why didn't you wait?"
Khory and Boomer followed suit in removing their masks.
"You two were out of position when they were in. I figured I could take them out or stall 'em long enough for you to render assistance."
"Next time let them pass-"
Before Templar could say more a surveillance drone decloaked several meters above their heads.
"Exercise over. Please remain where you are. A medical team will arrive shortly."
The "dead" members of Charlie Team twitched to life as their S.F.E.'s reactivated. Each stood and surveyed their surroundings in a sedate manner before removing their helmets. Overhead the sun was an artificial construct at the apex of a colossal dome that was only partially complete. Fully two-thirds of the dome was bare-metal framework. When complete the dome's interior would have its own weather system. The exercise had taken place in the advanced jungle training environment designed for Special Forces and Pathfinders. There were going to be two layers of training environment in the BattleDome, each representing a variety of terrains. The circular center of the 'Dome, easily two kilometers in diameter, was divided into areas for Marine basic training before training platoons were allowed into the line infantry training environments. Construction on the massive installation had been going day and night for nearly three months.
"What is troubling you, Boomer?" Templar asked, noticing how withdrawn his usually talkative companion was.
"This used to be my squad," Boomer replied in a low, monotone that only his comrades could hear.
The two Fire Warriors of Charlie Team clustered together and made no attempt to hide their scrutiny of Templar. Khory and her Special Forces counterpart stared blankly at each other. The lone human of the team had his eyes fixed on Templar until something caused him to glance in Boomer's direction.
"Boomer?" Valentine's voice was enough to jolt Boomer from his introspection.
Valentine crashed into Boomer, remembering too late that he was wearing an exoskeleton, and was shocked when Boomer took the impact with very little give.
"We thought you were still MIA. Damn it's good to see you. We could use some good news."
MIA was a polite way to reference a fellow TechCom vet that had taken the long walk. Boomer had no doubt that Valentine had meant the squad had thought he was dead.
"Has somethin' happened?"
Valentine looked at him as though Boomer had just grown an extra head. It was then that Boomer noticed what intense shades of green Valentine's eyes were. It was the first time Boomer had seen his former squadmate in bright light without them both wearing combat helmets. Valentine's intense gaze was somewhat unsettling.
"Where you been, Boomer? Mars? They found a whole damn city of Machine-Humans in the badlands out west. They say four Covenant Battleships were destroyed and an entire division of line, too. They sent in a Forces squad but they were wiped out." Valentine paused for a moment as if the next words were particularly difficult to let go. "Rumor is Perry bought it."
Boomer was so stunned that the arrival of the medi-vac barely registered.
"I don't believe it," Boomer said as human and Tau med-techs rushed out of the cylindrical body of the vehicle. "How's the saying go? Don't believe they're dead-"
"-until you meet the replacement. I know Boomer, but it's been three weeks since anyone I've talked to's seen the captain- I mean General."
Boomer grinned, "Take's a little getting used to, doesn't it?"
A tall, human woman in the white jumpsuit and crimson visor of a med-tech approached them, "You're the last. Are you injured?"
The two shook their heads but the med-tech still placed a finger to her visor as she scanned them.
"You both check out. Get on board," with that said the med-tech about-faced and walked up the rear-entry ramp of the medi-vac.
"Don't we technically outrank her?"
Boomer shrugged, "Some of us haven't been promoted, Lieutenant."
Together they walked up the ramp and entered the medical bay. There was a cleared area at the end of the bay for major surgeries but the vast majority of the space was taken up by crash-seats that doubled as patient beds. There were enough seats for twenty Marines. The others were already seated and Boomer stopped as he saw how the bay was divided. The Fire Warriors, the most numerous group, sat along the starboard side. Three humans sat at the far end of the port side while the four T-X's sat at the other end. In the middle of the port side sat Boomer's two comrades. Boomer had a choice to make and he didn't like it at all. He hadn't talked to any humans that weren't scientists, technicians, or upper echelon officers in months. The urge to join his former squadmates was strong but his comrades had chosen to stick together.
Could he do any less?
"The guys are gonna be…" Valentine trailed off when Boomer nodded to Khory and Templar before sitting in the seat they had saved between them. "Uhm, Boomer, you going to sit with us."
"We can talk once we get back to training HQ for eval. It looks like everyone's sitting with their squad so I'm doing the same."
Valentine grinned, "You stubborn bastard. Yuri always did like that about you."
Boomer nodded, Yuri's smile in his head, and Valentine moved on.
A minute later Valentine was reluctantly brought back by two more former squadmates of Boomer's.
"Well, look at you, Boomer. Looks like you've been doin' well for a deserter." Arn said, the scar on her mouth turned her every expression into one of mild disgust.
"We all thought he was dead and here he was getting himself enhanced," Xan said, his unlined mouth drawn down into almost an exact replica of Arn's. "Yeah, we've all heard the rumors. Commands thinks you three are the Second Coming or something. Do they know what kind of jinx you are, Boomer?"
"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Valentine asked, placing a hand on Arn's shoulder that was immediately shrugged off.
"We did some checking and every squad that Boomer's been in had had some heavy shit happen to them. His first squad got hit by an H/K raiding party." Xan seemed to grow taller with every hate-filled word he uttered. "Only him and his sergeant made it. Of course they completed the mission and Boomer was promoted for it."
"That just means he's lucky."
"Give me a break, Valentine," Arn spat, turning slightly to pierce him with her gaze, "The last squad he was in got ambushed on the way to that crappy town where he latched onto us. More than half of 'em were killed."
"Between the first and last he was transferred multiple times to the best units because he was lucky and survived. Only now I'm thinkin' maybe it wasn't luck."
"What else could it have been?" Valentine asked, his brow furrowed.
Xan's face scrunched with hate, "Maybe he was a fakie the whole time?"
"Nah, I saw Boomer and Yuri doin' it. You two're crazy!"
"I heard they can do it now," Arn said, leaning in close so Boomer could see deep into her dark brown eyes. "Is that what happened? You let Yuri die so you could upgrade to some fakie cu-!"
In the blink of an eye Boomer grabbed Arm by the neck and lifted her up to the ceiling. Xan went for his sidearm but Khory grabbed his hand before it reached that destination. With minimal effort she pulled him into her lap and hugged him close. Valentine was frozen in shock but couldn't believe what his squadmates were doing. The Tau and T-X's were watching with interest but did nothing to intervene. The newcomer to the 132nd, Sergeant Giatoli, held his sidearm trained on Boomer. The old squad would have been ready to take Boomer and his crew apart.
"I think you need to go sit down, Arn, and think about what you said. You've just accused General Conner and General Perry of outright stupidity. If I was a fakie why are they still alive?" Boomer pulled Arn close so that she could look into his eyes. "And remember this. If you ever disrespect Yuri's memory again, I'll kill you."
Boomer let Arn drop to her feet and calmly took his seat again. Valentine, the shocked look still etched onto his face, helped Arn back to her crash-seat. Xan was released and quickly joined them. The four human members of the 132nd took their seats and waved off the attentions of the med-tech that tried to examine Arn. The rest of the squad quickly went back to what they had been doing prior to the scuffle.
The Triad merely settled back into their crash-seats unconcerned.
"I heard you three had a little excitement today after the exercise," Doctor Yurikov said as she entered the performance evaluation room they had been assigned.
BattleDome headquarters was a honeycombed structure built high on the southeastern wall of the dome itself. The Triad, being a high-clearance project, had been assigned their own section. Dr. Yurikov continued to monitor their training while the other scientists worked to refine the techniques that had created them.
"It was just a slight difference of opinion that Sergeant Redman helped rectify," Templar explained with a touch of diplomacy.
Dr. Yurikov smiled at the veteran Fire Warrior, "Is that true, Khory?"
"That's an accurate assessment, Doctor."
"Hmph," the doctor grumbled, though she was obviously pleased by how the three stuck together. "As of six hundred hours, Triad Unit Prime has been officially activated. Henceforth you will all hold the rank of Captain in both the Fleet and Marine Corps. Congratulations."
Templar felt a sense of pride and elation that his new unit was finally being brought up to operational status. There was also a deeper, more unsettling feeling of eagerness for battle. The Fire Warrior had fought a growing bloodlust ever since they had altered him. Meditation helped but sometimes it felt as if nothing would soothe his lust for battle except the bodies of The Trinity's enemies.
"If you will follow me. I'll lead you to your briefing."
The Triad followed the doctor out of the small room and down several gleaming corridors to a lift. This part of BattleDome Command and Control was sparsely populated. The four rode up three levels and then the lift stopped between levels. Dr. Yurikov placed her hand on the panel beneath the control pad and hidden doors adjacent to the primary doors slid open. The Triad followed Yurikov down a heavily guarded corridor. T-850's, Fire Warrior, and Terrans guarded every doorway they passed. An entire fire team had even been posted at the elevator. They were nearing the end of the hall when the doctor turned towards a non-descript door on their left. She calmly waited while the Terran Marine used a handheld scanner on her.
"Proceed," he said, but when Templar moved up the guard held out the scanner again.
"Sergeant," Yurikov said from the open door, "That won't work on them. Just look at them through your HUD for a moment."
"But they're not wear-" the sergeant stopped talking abruptly, "P-proceed."
It made Templar wonder what came up on the man's HUD. Templar generally turned off his ocular implants when they weren't training so he had no idea what the Triad's information looked like outside their Battle-Suits.
The room they entered was obviously a medical center. Banks of machinery surrounded a single bed in the center of the ovular room. Behind the circle of diagnostic and monitoring equipment was what looked like a surgical station. Large suspension tanks were built into the right and left walls. Another fire team stood to either side of the door but let them pass unchallenged.
Standing beside the bed were three figures that were already legends in the ISMC. Captain Catherine Luna, General John Conner, and General O'Kais all wore identical fatigues of gray-black. Lying in the bed, one side of his face covered in a shell of clear, hardened trauma-gel, was General Perry. The General's torso, up to his neck, was covered by a tubular device that was connected to the bed. One arm ended in a smooth stump while the other was whole but badly burned. Both appendages were covered in trauma-gel. Perry's decency was barely maintained by a loincloth. Oddly enough both legs seemed perfectly fine.
"Triad-Prime, reporting for duty!" Templar and his unit saluted smartly as they paused in the gap between rows of machinery.
The three officers returned the salute and, to the Triad's surprise, so did General Perry with his whole limb.
"At ease," General Conner told them and Boomer wasted no time getting to his commander's side.
"What happened?" Boomer asked through clenched teeth, as the other walked at a more sedate pace.
"Have you heard the rumor about him being dead?" Luna asked in her husky accent and Boomer nodded.
"Well, it was almost the truth." Perry's voice seemed to come from all around them. The grievously wounded General swiveled his head to fix his uncovered, bloodshot eye on Boomer. "I still say I look better than you did in that rats nest in Carolina."
"You do," to everyone except Boomer and Templar the response from Khory was a complete surprise.
"What happened…" Luna began with a glare at Perry, "-was that Perry led a squad into a heavily fortified enemy position and abandoned them for revenge. He just barely survived that fight and then, mostly 'cause of luck, he was saved by a wing of Reapers before he got his ass blown up."
"The fight wasn't that one-sided, Luna."
Luna then unleashed a rapid-fire speech in Spanish that made Templar glad he didn't have a translation code for the language yet.
"That's enough, Luna," General Conner spoke commandingly and Luna's mouth snapped shut, "Perry, if you will."
A holographic representation of the Earth appeared above Perry's bed. It was stopped so that the Triad Faced North and South America.
"This," a large red dot appeared somewhere in the southwestern United States, "-is where the Machine-Humans base was. Since then we have determined that it was only the Command-and-Control base for the western hemisphere." At least a dozen red dots appeared throughout the former U.S. and Canadian territories. There were more scattered throughout parts of Europe, Africa, and the Pacific Islands. "As far as we can ascertain the Machine-Human forces are drones controlled by a central intelligence guided by whoever commands the base. Once General Perry eliminated that person these factories went off-line."
"Factories?" Dr. Yurikov asked, knowing the breech of protocol would have few consequences for her.
"Yes; manufacturing a nanovirus designed to kill every Tau, Human, and Machine on the planet." O'Kais explained, sounding deeply disturbed by the very idea.
"How come I wasn't told!" the doctor nearly shouted.
"You already have your hands full, doctor. There are other qualified personnel in the Medical Corps." General Conner told her in a stern voice.
"Of course, General," Yurikov relented with a nod.
"Unfortunately that left us with one Gabriel Stone and the network he oversees."
This time the dot was green and located somewhere in Eastern Europe.
"We acquired this intel from the destroyed base so we have to assume Gabriel is prepared for a full-scale assault. Our losses in the last assault numbered in excess of three thousand Marines. For a single assault that is unacceptable, so ISMC Command has deemed fit to activate the Triad."
O'Kais began speaking as if it was rehearsed, "R and D has perfected Spatial Displacement technology and that will be your infiltration vehicle." A wire-frame image of a vast complex filled the globe. "Here," the image magnified to a mid-sized room, "-will be your Displacement Zone. Your two objectives will be detonation of the power core and termination of Gabriel Stone. The route to the power core will be uploaded to your Battle-Suits. Finding Gabriel Stone will be entirely up to you.
"Now," Perry picked up and Templar firmly believed they had planned the entire briefing beforehand, "Here's what to expect."
The Triad had been taken to an R&D facility in the area south of the ruins of Los Angeles. They had been given eight hours of sack time and their deployment was four hours later. Boomer had taken his customary hour long shower; the luxury of unlimited amounts of clean water was still new, while Templar had gone to consult the base's resident Ethereal. Khory had left to visit the T-X's that were stationed there. Boomer found it vaguely troubling that Terminators evidently required social interaction.
Now Boomer sat at the edge of a bunk wrapped in a decadently soft towel. He was looking at his hands, larger and definitely more muscular than they had been months ago, with Arn's words filling his head. His Triad had been given a small common barrack for their own use. At the far end the door silently whisked open and Khory walked in. Boomer looked at her and marveled at how much the Machine had changed. She no longer walked with a mechanically precise sway to enhance her seductiveness. Khory walked with a straightforward military cadence that had just a bit of an organic element of chaos to it. She actually blinked like a person, sometimes every second, sometimes not for several.
"Hey, Boomer," Khory greeted him as she stretched out on her bunk.
The fact that Khory and Templar always bunked next to him was suddenly very irritating.
"Why do you do that?" Boomer asked, glaring at her from the corner of his eye.
"Do what?" Khory asked right back as she sat up on her elbows.
"Act human." Khory's face actually registered hurt. "Stop that. You don't have feelings, Oh-One-Two. Right?"
"Affirmative," now Khory's face was utterly devoid of expression.
"Stand up." Khory did, "I want to see you naked."
Khory's clothes rippled in a non-existent breeze and were gone. She was a physically perfect woman, enough to make any man hunger at the sight of her, but that was not what Boomer wanted to see.
"All the way, Oh-One-Two."
There was a moment of hesitation and then Khory's skin tone seemed to melt away to be replaced by the liquid, mercurial substance that was her true skin. Then it all began to retreat, from her extremities first, toward her core. Each centimeter revealed the cold, metallic alloy that was Khory's true self. When the last bit vanished with a whirlpool motion into, ironically enough, where her sex organs would be, T-X Unit-012 looked every inch the killing Machine that she was designed to be.
It was disgusting how they had tried to mold Khory's body so it resembled a human's. Almost every inch of her had muscle definition of some type. The most glaring exceptions were her head and the place her womb should have been. Her skull looked just like a metallic head, there was no hiding that fact, and instead of a womb Khory had a superdense sphere of polymimetic alloy surrounded by a powerful force field.
Hatred welled up within Boomer at the sight of Khory's undisguised malevolent nature. It was a Machine and could never be human.
"Have you seen enough?" Khory asked, her voice mechanical and precise.
Before Boomer could answer the door slid open and Templar stepped into the room. Khory turned to him and the Fire Warrior's eyes narrowed when he saw her naked form.
"Would someone care to explain?" Templar asked, his voice carefully neutral.
"Boomer was just curious about my design."
Boomer nodded when Templar looked to him. Khory reverted back to her customary appearance and the matter was dropped.
Boomer vowed to not forget that Khory was not human. Because deep inside some of what Arn had said held a kernel of truth.
I'll never forget.
The Spatial Displacement Chamber was large enough to hold a full squad of Marines. Templar, Boomer, and Khory stood in the center of the circular chamber and seemed to fill it with their very presence.
Each had been covered in a thin gel that partially solidified into a skintight bodysuit. It was similar to trauma-gel but also increased the efficiency of muscle-to-Suit interaction. Putting on a Triad Battle-Suit was relatively easy. The back opened up down the middle and all a body needed to do was slide in. Each Triad member could have donned the suit without assistance but a normal human would have found the sixty kilograms of weight a bit much.
Now they stood in their respective Battle-Suits, V5 plasma weapons at rest, while their armor had conspicuous bulges everywhere imaginable. Each of them carried a varied assortment of tactical gear.
Hopefully we won't need it all, Templar thought as he examined the walls of the Displacement Chamber.
There was obvious instrumentation protruding from the walls and for some reason that discomforted him.
"Displacement will begin in ten seconds, Triad-Prime. Good luck and I'll see you at the evac." General Conner's voice came through Templar's comm.
Templar resisted the urge to laugh. Even if they were unsuccessful, and were captured or killed, the mission would still go forward. Their power cores were potential tactical fusion bombs and would definitely be enough to severely compromise, if not destroy, the Machine-Human base.
"Are you ready?" Templar asked, switching to the Triad's private channel with a mental command.
"Affirmative," Khory's speech was still terse and artificial.
"Always," Boomer's was nearly the same as Khory's.
"Whatever happened between you two I want left here. Am I understood?"
"Yes, sir," they both answered in unison.
"Displacement in five… four… three… two… one…"
The room began to spin, or maybe they were spinning, it was hard to discern. Crackling lines of electrical energy began licking at the walls. The flickering light grew in intensity, along with a steadily increasing thrum, until it filled Templar's HUD. The HUD filled with static just as a soundless thunderclap enveloped them. There was some sensation of motion but little else for at least several seconds.
Then the light slowly began to fade to reveal their fate. Their destination was far larger than they had anticipated and not deserted. It seemed to be a general assembly area. Over a thousand pairs of hostile eyes turned in their direction and they were armed.
"Ceiling." Templar said as his comrades stood back-to-back with him.
Together the Triad bent their knees slightly and shot towards the ceiling ten meters above their heads. Plasma bolts of varying wattage tried to track them but they had moved too fast. With sheer muscle power the Triad bent their legs up and straightened so that they were arrowing towards the ceiling feet-first. Mag-locks were achieved on the ceiling through mental commands. As soon as their boots had partial locks they scattered.
Beneath them the ranks of Machine-Humans tried to track them with their weapons while three cylinders went unnoticed among their ranks.
Templar nearly stumbled and lost his footing when the Boom-Sticks detonated. The trio of blasts left huge gaps in the ranks of Machine-Humans.
"Khory, exit. Boomer, cover." A silver and green light winked once in the center of his HUD.
Templar raced towards the stage/control panel at the front of the room. He was hoping Gabriel Stone was there and they could finish half their mission.
A shape, half-seen through the debris the Boom-Stick's and Boomer's antics with his grenade launcher had kicked up, sat on the wall above the stage. Templar's BattleSuit's computer almost immediately identified it as a modified Guardian Hunter-Killer. A red line went from his targeting reticule to trace an outline around a particular area on the machines forward optics cluster. Templar, on the run and upside down, converted his carbine to sniper mode. Without missing a step Templar put a rail-round dead center into the target's soft spot. There was no movement for a moment and then the legs jerks once. The dead bulk of the Guardian crushed the stage like a can and obscured Templar's next shot at the figure fleeing out of an armored bulkhead.
"I've located an exit," Khory said, and Templar made the mistake of stopping to turn around.
A rail-round hit his leg, completely depleting his primary shield, and the impact made him tumble from the ceiling. Before he knew what was happening the Fire Warrior was falling to the floor. At least twenty Machine-Humans were waiting for him with deadly anticipation.
A firestorm of plasma cannon bolts obliterated those waiting for Templar. He looked in the direction the fire was coming from and was impressed with the amount of plasma his comrades were putting out on his behalf. Templar flipped, landing on his hoof-claws, and bounded back into the air. Flying was still new to him but Templar managed to make it to the vent port Khory and Boomer were providing cover from.
"Lead the way, Khory," Templar said, as he converted his carbine to plasma fire.
Khory about-faced and raced down the narrow vent as fast as she could with her enormous plasma cannons. Templar and Boomer dropped a pair of Boom-Sticks before making their escape. A transparent map superimposed itself in his lower right visual field. Khory appeared as a silver dot, Boomer as a green, and Templar as a red. Boomer fell back ten meters to cover the rear while Khory widened her lead to the same distance. In this way the Triad raced through the Machine-Human base. They dropped down five-meter long maintenance shafts, as well as jumping up them when necessary, through rooms suspiciously devoid of activity. On more than one occasion the Triad became embroiled in intense running firefights. There was little doubt in Templar's mind that the enemy knew exactly where they were headed.
The three regrouped inside a small maintenance elevator that would drop them off on a scaffold right above the power core.
"How are we doing this?" Boomer asked over his external speakers, surprising Templar with the surety in his voice that the Fire Warrior would have a plan.
With a mental shiver Templar realized he did have a plan.
"We have to assume they know where we are. They probably have a heavy weapons battery trained on the scaffold." Templar was so sure of it he could almost see the enemy's deployment. "How many EMP grenades do you have, Boomer?"
The Machine-Human Guardian waited almost directly beneath the vent shaft. A full squad of Machine-Humans armed with plasma cannons and rail-rifle waited on its flanks. When the elevator began to descend the Machine-Humans tensed as one. There was no emotion in the action; their lobotomized brains were utterly incapable of it, but a conditioned response to imminent battle. One Machine-Human's enhanced cortex misfired and it let loose a single shot that harmlessly passed through the open elevator. Sitting inside the waist-high compartment were six spheres linked together in a translucent blue-green gel. The de-facto squad leader reached out to examine the device and his body heat activated it.
The electromagnetic pulse that was released killed the Machine-Human squad and caused the Guardian to go into emergency shutdown mode. The pulse encompassed the entire room and the only electronics that were entirely unaffected was the heavily shielded power core. For thirty seconds the entire force in the core room was rendered blind and deaf to the outside world. Five seconds before that time ended the main doors blew open and the shattered hulk of a Guardian bounced through.
Three figures walked through the debris with weapons in hand and began to wield them without mercy.
The next minute and a half of Templar's life was a chaotic mixture of streaking plasma bolts, explosions, and the scattered bodies of fallen enemies. There were only two constants and those were the two people at his back. Khory was on his left with her twin particle-modified cannons sweeping out crackling lines of death across their path. Boomer was on his right with an R-7 PAK in one hand and his rocket-modified carbine in the other. Templar had the middle and picked off the more dangerous targets with his rail-modified carbine.
Soon there was only one more cluster of foes. Two Guardians and a squad of Machine-Humans were waiting for them in front of the controls for the energy shield protecting the core. Templar stepped around a blast-shield and fired two rail-rounds that put the Guardian out of commission. Boomer came up beside him and fired two rockets from either hand. The detonations wiped out the remaining Machine-Humans.
"Gabriel Stone, identified," Khory spoke up suddenly.
"Can you track him?" Templar asked anxiously.
"Trace locked. Yes, I can."
Khory sprinted through the debris field and they were right behind her. The Triad moved with such blistering speed that Stone only made it down two corridors before ducking into a room. Khory, her Terminator code not designed for subtlety, kicked the door off its tracks, and strode in with lethal intent.
All three were brought up short by what they saw.
The room was enormous, twice as large as the assembly area, and filled with hundreds of rows of stasis tanks. Bodies, some obviously children, floated in each tank. Each was fitted with a multitude of mechanical apparatus. Some of the machines were modifying the humans even while the Triad watched.
"Perry?" Boomer questioned in numbed horror as one body's face came into view.
The left side of Perry's face was being systematically replaced with cybernetic implants.
"Do you like them?" an oily voice seemed to come from everywhere, "Magnificent, aren't they?"
"I have a lock," Khory said over the comm., quietly shifting her plasma cannon to its rail-rifle configuration.
"She can't fire!" Boomer hissed, "Those are people in those tanks."
"Silence, huh? Are you clones, too? I wouldn't put it pass SkyNet but to think General Conner would allow it. Well, if you're not going to talk, I'm going to go." Stone chuckled in the most obscene fashion then. "Don't pretend as if you'll fire. I'm willing to bet my life, obviously, that even Terminators are forbidden to take innocent-"
Templar was about to order Khory to fire when the T-X fired of her own volition. The round shattered at least a dozen tanks, visibly drilling fist-sized holes through five clones, before severing Gabriel Stone's cybernetic spine. Khory walked up to the megalomaniac and calmly sighted on his hate-filled gaze.
"You bet wrong."
Khory fired a single shot and turned back to them. Boomer was cradling the body of the Perry clone but the hole in the clone's body was fatal.
"You… machine!" Boomer roared and a visible shockwave hurled Khory up to the ceiling.
Templar turned to Boomer in shock but quickly turned to check on Khory. Her primary shield quickly flared out and he knew he secondary wouldn't last long.
"Boomer!" Templar yelled, dragging Boomer closer by his carbine strap, "Stop it! You're killing her!"
"It, sir, it. She killed them, sir."
Boomer sounded broken and Templar's heart sank.
"She's your friend, Boomer! We don't kill our friends!"
Boomer turned to Templar then and Khory was released. To no one's surprise the T-X landed on her feet.
"How can a machine be my friend?" Boomer asked, and Templar felt deeply for his torn comrade.
Templar was acting team leader and he should have seen the signs.
"The same way I am, Boomer. Let's go contact HQ and give them an update. I don't think they'll want to blow the place now."
Boomer turned to go and Khory was wisely silent.
"Would you have-?"
"She read my mind, Boomer. Believe it."