It's been a long time since I made a new chapter of this story. My own fault really, life seems to have a way of distracting me these days. I hope I continue to entertain, and you all continue to enjoy.


Terminator

The Zeta Chronicles

Chapter 5

Victorville


Private Catherine Luna blinked the sweat out of her eyes, grimacing at the slight sting before pushing through the discomfort and focussed once more on the road ahead. Sergeant Jackson had decided they all had to double time it towards Victorville just in case there was another Skynet ambush.

Victorville was usually an ongoing warzone, while still in Resistance hands and had been for a while, Skynet attacks were continuous and with the sudden knowledge of the T-600 given by Bravo team's T-500, there was no telling how much effect these new infantry units would have against Resistance groups in Victorville.

"Victorville is close." Jackson announced as the team enclosed on the outskirts of the city.

Already as they ran through the outskirts they could hear gunfire coming from deeper in the city, unlike L.A. Victorville was mostly intact, the region deemed unimportant by Skynet and was saved from the worst damage by the nukes, however that didn't stop the super-computer from taking over the penitentiary located just outside the city and use it as a staging area for a death camp, that was until John Connor led his, rather small, resistance and saved the people inside. Sergeant Jackson had been one of those people saved from Victorville, this place still had plenty of bad memories for her.

Gunfire roared up sporadically, there was the seemingly endless fire likely coming from Skynet units intermingled with odd bursts of fire likely coming from Resistance groups.

"We're heading towards the gunfire, aren't we?!" Michael Zander yelled as they ran.

"Yes!" Jackson yelled back.


Deeper into the city they ran, rushing towards the ongoing battle. When finally the sounds seemed so close did they finally slow down, the human member panting as they regained their breath with the T-500 still front of the group. Jackson ordered everyone to move out from the street and towards the houses. The Resistance members pressed themselves tightly against the outside walls of any undamaged houses, with the T-500 doing the same with extra ordering from Sergeant Jackson.

"Sounds close Sarge." Camila Vasquez spoke up as her brother Alejandro looked around.

"You're right, it does. Around the next corner maybe?" Jackson wondered then looked to Unit-986. "Robot poke your head around the corner and look down the street." She ordered.

"Affirmative." The robot replied then marched towards the end of the house and looked down the street, putting its whole body in view.

"Oh for … GET BACK HERE!" Jackson ordered with frustration. The T-500 obeyed and returned to her. "And what did you see?"

"Skynet forces are firing upon various position, unknown number of Resistance operatives; Skynet units consist of T-500s, Arachnid Assault Drones, T-100 units."

"Not seen one-hundreds for a while sarge." Corporal Douglas commented.

"Usually used in bigger assault these days." She replied with a grimace. She paused to think, they needed to move and draw fire from their allies while they still could. "Alright get into the buildings and move into position behind the Skynet bots, make sure we're spread out to make it harder for them to pin us all down," she looked to Camila as she recalled Sergeant Miller giving Camila a few spare pipe bombs for the mission, "pipe bombs?" she asked not needing to elaborate.

The Latina nodded enthusiastically, a large grin spreading across the young teens face. "Si boss, I got three bombs on me."

Sergeant Jackson nods, that would give them an advantage. Those pipe bombs could give off a pretty big bang for their size. "Alright everyone follow me," she looked to the robot, "fire only when I give the order." She said staring straight in its bright red optics.

With that Sergeant Jackson led Bravo team between the houses and inside via a collapsed wall, gunfire was still coming from the Skynet forces. When they saw the number of machines it caught them off guard. Their T-500 had neglected to mention how many machines there were and there was a lot. Possibly around twenty or thirty machines. Whomever was fighting them were likely moving through the collapsed buildings. The enemy T-500s were starting to move into the buildings as the Spider Drones and T-100s fired at the buildings towards the unseen Resistance fighters.

Jackson had the Vasquez twins set up in one building, the wall facing the Machines had partially collapsed providing enough cover for them.

"When I start shooting, you let those bombs loose, got it?" Jackson ordered.

"Got it boss." Camila replied enthusiastically as her brother Alejandro crossed himself and silently prayed to God. Jackson herself didn't believe in God, not anymore.

Zander and Murphy were set up in the building next to the twins.

"When Camila throws those bombs open fire, I'm giving the orders for weapons free, but chose your targets, got it?" Jackson instructed; the others nodded with understanding.

Luna with Douglas were set up in the house's garage, hidden behind a car and finally Sergeant Jackson and Unit-986 were in the building next door, she looked to the T-500.

"When they start shooting in our direction keep your head down, Connor would prefer you not to be destroyed and we're going to need you for Palmdale, understood?" Jackson's ordered rather than asked, she didn't know the technical know-how of these robots, didn't know or care how smart they were, she just hoped the machine didn't get itself wasted.

"Affirmative." The T-500 replied.

"Alright, on my mark open fire." Jackson ordered and looked out from their cover. The Spiders and T-100s were moving further down the opposite street all facing in one direction and firing, they were losing time. "Fire!" She ordered.

The following few seconds were vital in the fight. Jackson aimed her M4 and fired at the nearest Spider Drone. Extra-Penetrative 5.56 munition pounding into its less armoured back. Unit-986 raised its SAW and held down the weapon's trigger firing into the same unit as Jackson. The long barrage of munitions tore into its weaker steel armour, the machine spun its torso around towards the new attackers and took aim just before an explosion to its side knocked off its targeting systems, another Spider Drone to the left had been damaged, its legs useless and the armour below its torso torn away, Jackson acquired the kill shot as a round pierced through the torn armour plate and through vital parts of the Drone's internals, the machine slumped before its red eye dimmed. The rest of Skynet's forces adjusted their fire away from their previous target and to a new one just as the rest of Bravo poked out from cover and fired at the machines.

The robots returning fire pushed Bravo back into cover. The T-100s rolled closer as the fired a suppressive barrage at the buildings; 7.62NATO rounds pounded against the dilapidated walls forcing the resistance warriors to reposition. The Spider Drones, marched towards their newest targets, optics scanning for any sign of movements.

There was a blur of movement by an open door on the far-right building, the machines had just enough time to aim before the figure vanished behind cover once more. The forward T-100 lit up as it rolled over an explosive, its head blowing from its torso while the rest of its body blew apart violently scattering shrapnel around it some of it indenting into its fellow machines.

Following the explosion came another onslaught of fire from the buildings though now from different positions, the Resistance fire now further spread out. A T-100 to far the left of the Skynet formation rolled to a stop, its red optics flickered briefly before dying, its armour repeatedly pierced by Resistance fire.

Murphy ducked back down with Zander as the Spider Drones fired on their position.

"We really could have done with some bigger toys eh?" Murphy grinned at Zander who hastily reloaded his M16.

"Yeah, no fucking duh!" The thirteen-year-old stammered back, causing Murphy to laugh.

"You're doing fine bud! Keep it up and you might live to see fourteen!" Zander joked and moved position, placing himself by a shattered window, the machines hadn't spotted him yet, to his glee he raised his M16 and looked down the scope firing off a quick burst at Spider's optic. Though not destroyed, the Spider spun in his direction and fired back before forcing to adjust its aim once more when Zander fired at the same machine.

Another explosion roared across the battlefield, though it came from the buildings behind the Skynet forces, a wall of one of the many buildings blew outwards sending tiny fragments of rubble and chunks of steel across the street.

Unit-986 had its head down and kept cover as ordered while bullets whizzed past its location, it had registered several hits to its steel chassis and a glancing strike to a neck hydraulic, though the damage was negligible. Before it sat Sergeant Jackson, a fierce look on the dark skinned woman's face as she pulled out another magazine from her M4 and replaced it with another. From the machine's count this was her third spent magazine and the Bravo team were equipped with five each with one magazine already loaded into their weapons. Its own weapon's munition had rapidly depleted, having less than half of the weapon's full capacity left.

The machine stood back up, hefting its SAW with one hand and aimed at the closest target, a T-100 that was firing at another position away from itself. The T-500 opened fire aiming for the T-100's head and torso plating. The primitive unit spun around towards the T-500 and counter attacked with a vast barrage of 30 calibre fire. The T-500 registered a few shots to its torso and to its right shoulder before it moved out of the way, its armour was still holding, there was no damage to its internal systems yet.

More explosions rocked the battlefield coming from further down the street behind the Skynet units.

Camila lit the wick of her final pipe bomb and waited for the flame to burn further towards the explosive.

"Throw it! Come on don't hold on to the damn thing!" Her brother yelled at her in Spanish.

"Give it a sec, give it a sec." Camila replied slowly in Spanish, a large grin on her face as she watched the flame burn through the wick.

After another few seconds Camila stood up and threw the bomb towards the Skynet machines. The explosive hit the floor and bounced another foot before rolling across the floor and right under a Spider Drone. The unaware machine was firing on Luna's and Douglas' position when the explosive went off, destroying the machine's legs and damaging it's internals, the Spider barely made it an extra two steps before power left it and the machine toppled over crashing into the tarmac.

Luna cursed in Spanish as laid prone behind a car, bullets tearing into the husk's chassis, she didn't know if they went through but she wasn't risking it, beside her Douglas was reloading M4 carbine and glanced around his cover before pulling his head back.

"And? What can you see?" Luna asked over the sound of gunfire.

"Two T-100s, three Spiders left," he panted heavily keeping his head down as bullets whizzed past their location.

"Damn it!" Luna cursed in Spanish before switching back to English. "We could do with more explosives." She poked out from cover and fired at the Spider that was getting uncomfortably close to their position.

"Aim for that Spider!" Jackson ordered the T-500 as she took notice of the machine getting too close to where Douglas and Luna had been.

Without audibly responding Unit-986 rose from cover, aimed at the Spider Drone and fired sending a large burst of 5.56 extra penetrative round into the machine's side before the T-500's weapon stopped firing.

"Ammunition depleted." The robot announced then turned its gaze to Sergeant Jackson glanced up to the Drone which eventually slowed to a stop its red eye dimming, but there was another Spider just beside it moving closer.

"Alright we need to move, follow me!" she got up and rushed out of the room, Unit-986 quickly followed behind her. Jackson pressed the stock of her M4 carbine into her shoulder as she ran out of the building, daring a glance to the battlefield, she could see another T-100 had stopped moving but its weapon systems were still online, while another was already firing elsewhere.

Jackson grunted and Luna slammed into her on accident at the back of the destroyed garage, with Douglas following behind her.

"SPIDER!" Luna cried out as the damaged Spider Drone stepped into their line of sight.

"Protect Bravo team" flashed on Unit-986's HUD and the T-500 stormed past the Resistance fighters to engage the Drone regardless of the fact its weapon was empty. The Spider Drone focussed on the approaching T-500, it took aim and started to fire, a second to slow as the T-500 got in close range, a couple of shot pounded harshly into the T-500's chassis before the machine was too close for the weapons to lock on and now too close to the Spider-Drone to see anything other than the Machine effectively blocking the Spider's view of the others.

Luna, Douglas and Jackson ducked behind the garage wall as the Spider started firing wildly, it tried to back away only for the T-500 to keep itself close, the bipedal machine raising its arms and slammed its fists down upon the Spider's chassis to minimal effect.

Luna could barely hear the repeated dull pounding over the sound of gunfire. She hazard a look around the corner seeing the almost ridiculous sight of the T-500 too close to the Spider for it's weapons to fire at it while repeatedly slamming its fists down on the machine's chassis. She did have an idea though.

"GRAB IT'S GUNS!" she yelled out as loud as she could. "ROBOT! GRAB! IT'S! GUNS!" she could only hope the T-500 could hear her.

The T-500 paused in it's futile assault, stepping forward again as the Spider Drone stepped back once more to try and shoot its reprogrammed brethren, the bipedal machine looked to the Spider's still spinning weapons which continued to fire endlessly. Unit-986 reached down to the Spider's chainguns before it could get a grip its hands became trapped between the barrels, the weapons froze sudden to a halt jerking the T-500's wrists nearly tearing its hands from their sockets.

WARNING
SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE DETECTED
WRIST JOINTS DAMAGED
HANDS INOPERABLE
COMBAT EFFICIENCY DECREASED BY 73%
SEEK REPAIRS IMMEDIATELY
PRIMARY MISSION: PROTECT BRAVO TEAM
REPAIR ORDER DELAYED

The T-500s pushed its arms further into the weapons which tried to spin block only by the T-500's arms.

Sergeant Jackson saw what'd happened, the situation was good enough for her.

"Spider's defenceless!" Was all she ushered, Douglas and Luna already knew what to do.

The trio of Resistance fighters rushed out of cover weapons at the ready and surrounded the Spider Drone as the T-500 kept it at bay and fired into the machine's chassis. E-P rounds finally tore through the Drone its power source damaged and like the others its red eye dimmed.

Once its termination was confirmed did the T-500 pull its arms back, its hands hanging loosely by their sockets with wires keeping them just barely attached.

"Significant joint damage, hands disabled, combat efficiency decreased. This unit cannot fire weapons." Unit-986 listed out to Sergeant Jackson.

"Son of a bitch." Jackson groaned with a shake of the head.

"Hey wait. You hear that?" Douglas spoke up, everyone looked to him and listened, but they couldn't hear anything. "It's quiet." It was quiet, there was no gunfire filling the air, no sound of hydraulics or tread moving across the ground.

"Hey uh Sarge!" Zander, having moved out from cover, called out as he looked to the others. "Machines are down, we got friendlies coming out of the buildings."

Sergeant Jackson looked to Zander then to Douglas then noticed the T-500s SAW on the ground before focussing back to the Corporal. "Douglas pick up the machinegun and follow me. Zander! Regroup out front!" she called out.


Bravo team regrouped, moving between the machines that littered the streets and walked towards their fellow Resistance fighters. A familiar face to Jackson stepped forward smiling despite the blood that dripped from him.

"Kaylee! Long-time no see!" The tall, nearly six-foot caucasian man with brown hair and a thick brown beard and moustache, stepped up to her with a large welcoming grin.

"David! Oh god am I glad to see you." Jackson rushed up to the man, and the pair embraced tightly.

Behind David came around another dozen Resistance fighters, two T-400s and a single T-500. The three machines had various signs of damage to their chassis but were otherwise fully functional.

David looked at her team, making a silent note of the T-500, but he continued to look between the faces a look of confusion dawning over his face.

"Hey uh, where's Alan?" he asked and looked back to Jackson. She, Douglas and Luna went quiet, mournful.

"He got it about a month ago in a Skynet attack." Jackson sighed. Alan had been the previous leader of Bravo Team a well-liked lieutenant, brave, smart, the type of guy who you'd believe could make the best of a bad situation. "It was a routine scouting mission while we were stationed in Barstow. Unknown to us Skynet was trying to push back into the city. There were several five-hundreds and before we knew it we were under heavy fire, pinned down between a rock and metal. The L-T made sure we got out, but he didn't make it."

David sighed. He, Alan and Jackson had been prisoners in Victorville when Skynet took control years back, they were good friends.

"I'm sorry to hear." David finally said solemnly. They took a few moments to remember the dead before Jackson spoke up.

"So, looks like we showed up just in time to save your sorry ass?" She joked with a sly grin on her face. David snorted and looked about the battlefield. "Can't think a few Spiders and T-500s gave you such a hard time."

David's face turned stern as he looked at her, she immediately felt the shift in the air.

"It wasn't these," He said cryptically and looked behind him, "follow me."

He marched off back towards the set of buildings he and his soldiers had come from with Bravo team following quickly behind him.

David led them through the buildings, each one looking worse than the previous, T-500 bodies littered the ground along with a few human corpses. Whatever battle had raged here had been quick and ferocious.

"Here it is, just over here." David announced as they stepped through a collapsed wall.

And then they saw it lying on the ground, half of its torso had been blown away, the right arm was missing as was the right leg, but the machine was still physically impressive to look that and terrifying to behold, what caught Bravo's focus was the skull shaped head with small hydraulics around the mouth.

"I don't know what the fuck this thing is, but it took down eight of my guys, three T-400s and a T-500 before we finally took it down, damn thing shrugged off our bullets and the pipe bombs only slowed it down." David raged and kicked the machine's inert head.

Jackson looked over the tall broad machine, nearly seven-feet-tall, a combat chassis different from what they'd seen, but had similarities to the old T-70s she remembered from the prison. A though struck her like a lightning bolt and she spun around to Unit-986.

"This is what you were talking about right?" She asked, but already knew the answer, Bravo's faces lit up with recognition and worry, David however seemed confused looking between his old friend and the damaged T-500. "This is the T-600 isn't it?"

"Affirmative." The T-500 replied.

"T-600?" David looked between the two, "So what is it like some specialist combat unit?" he asked.

"Negative." Unit-986 replied and looked to David.

"Nega …. What do you mean no?" He asked as his annoyance grew.

"Just what the bot said Dave, these aren't anything special." Jackson spoke up waving an arm in the T-600's direction. "It's just Skynet's newest thing, the five-hundred series' replacement, give it a couple of months and we'll be seeing a lot more of these on the battlefield."

David shook his head and exhaled sharply, "Son of a bitch."

"We can't keep fighting, we're going to lose." Zander spoke up in panic.

"Hey! None of that talk!" Jackson snapped glaring at the young kid.

"Yeah. Everyone thought we were fucked when the T-500s came out. But we adapted to them, we'll adapt to this thing." Douglas said in a calm reassuring manner as he patted the young teen.

David nodded in agreement to Douglas. "Kids right, we call Connor have him and his tech guys take a look at this thing and see what they can do about it."

"Still, we better be careful." Alejandro commented, fear still evident in his voice, his eyes never turning away from the T-600.

"As if we weren't already." Camila replied, worried but less so.

"So, armaments?" Jackson looked to David once more, the more they knew about this thing the better off they'd be.

David turned and pointed to a large black piece of metal, like the T-600 the weapon was in torn up shape, the end of the barrel or rather barrels had been shredded off with what was left buckled and twisted out of place, the underside of the weapon had also been busted open revealing the innerworkings.

"See that piece of scrap? Minigun." David knelt and picked up an empty bullet casing. "Firing 7.62 NATO by looks of it, standard ammunition though." Jackson would take David's word on it, the guy had been a cop in Victorville before the bombs or so he'd told her anyway. "Looks like a retrofitted T-100 minigun, or maybe an older T1. Same difference I guess." He muttered to himself in thought.

Jackson nodded then looked to the T-500 and recalled the damage to its arms.

"Hey David I need a big favour. You guys already know about our mission to Palmdale right?" David nodded. "Our robot got damaged; you think any of your guys can do a quick fix?"

Without moving David looked the T-500 over, he saw its damaged forearms and ruined wrists with its hands hanging loosely by its circuits.

"Sure, I think there's enough T-500s parts now laying around to fix it. I'll have some scavengers pick through the battlefield, bring back what they can, for now I'll have the bots do the heavy lifting for us." He looked to Luna and Bravo team. "Personally I think going to Palmdale is crazy, but … Connor seems to work with crazy." David then stood up and looked around to those of his team. "Alright pack up we're heading back to Alpha before Skynet thinks it's time for round two!"

The three intact Resistance machines picked up two T-500s one of which was the destroyed Resistance machine, while the last picked up the destroyed T-600.


The Resistance warriors packed up what gear they'd dropped and marched back to Victorville base "Alpha" an old Cinema retrofitted for the Resistance's needs. Usually the Resistance wouldn't pick such a large obvious target for a base, usually preferring smaller less conspicuous locations. But so far the old Cinema had been effective cover. They paused just a little across the road from Alpha base listening out for any Skynet activity, with none heard they quickly moved towards the cinema, he led them through the first doors and into the foyer. "Come on quickly." David led them past the old confection stands and towards a door that read "Employees Only". He knocked.

"This is Lieutenant David Kringle, D-N-2-1-5-6-2-4." He said quietly moment before the door opened allowing them entry.

"Isn't it a bad idea having a something so obvious be a base?" Zander asked as they entered the base itself.

"Yes, but it's not bad if you know what to do with it, not everywhere in the cinema is used by us, we've had Resistance areas blocked off at their obvious entrances. We've had Skynet patrols walking about the place, but our subterfuge has them fooled, for the time being anyway." David replied as he led them deeper. "Alright drop off your gear here," he said as they came to the armoury, "we'll get your mags loaded up, however Connor wants you guys with something a little heavier just in case." Bravo did so giving their weapons to the quartermaster and their assistance, before making their way deeper into the cinema after a short walk David spoke up again as they came to another room.

David poked his head into the room. "Guys we've got Bravo here! Their bot needs its arms fixing, you good for it?"

"If you can get use some spares sure, give us a little while." An older man's voice came from inside.

"Already planned ahead," he said to the man in the room before focussing on Jackson once more, "have your machine wait with our techs, they'll get it fixed up, you and your team can come with me to our humble little command room, I'll report to Connor about the T-600 we encountered." David instructed.

Jackson turned towards Unit-986. "Alright you go in there and lets these guys fix you up after that come find us there," she realised the machine would likely need directions and looked to David, "Where's the command room?"

"Just down the hall turn right first door on the left." He replied plainly.

"You heard the man, we'll likely stick there, or I will." Jackson informed the terminator.

"Affirmative." Unit-986 replied automatically then marched into the room beside them. Whatever the room had been was unknown the Resistance having stripped anything not of use and turned it into makeshift workshop, with wooden benches and power tools. Following Unit 986 marched in a Victorville machines.

"Whoa hold up! The fuck is that?" the same older man exclaimed as he laid his eyes on the damaged T-600.

David stepped into the room fully. "Skynet's latest toy, I want to see if you can find any weaknesses other than explosives or a fuck ton of munitions."

"We'll look best we can." The older man said as he warily eyed the disabled terminator.

"Good luck." David marched out of the room then glanced to Bravo, "Follow me, I'll make my report to Connor then we'll wait for the other teams to get here for resupply and send out some scavenger teams to look over the battlefield." The lieutenant led Bravo team down the hallway towards the command room.

"All in a day's work lieutenant?" Jackson quipped a dry half-hearted smile on his lips.

"Ain't it the truth?" David grumbled to himself and heaved a great tired sigh; the lieutenant rubbed his eyes as if doing so would rub the tiredness from his eyes.

The command room wasn't as large or grand as Crystal Peak's. The place looked more akin to an office that'd had a wall knocked down to make the room bigger, the main piece in the room was the jury jigged radio equipment otherwise there was the table and a few maps on the walls.

"Welcome to command," David snorted at the lack lustre sight. "Try and make yourselves comfortable."

Immediately he walked over to the radio and called into Crystal Peak telling them he needed to talk to either Connor or Perry, the woman on the other side of the line confirmed they heard him and were sending for any commander and told to wait, without missing a beat he turned to one of his subordinates organise scavenger teams to scrounge through the battlefield for spent casing or hauling back whatever machinery or weapons they could. Not long after organising that did a familiar voice speak up through the radio.

"Victorville Alpha this is Biggie-Man do you copy, over?"

David immediately made his way back to the radio and picked up the receiver. "This is Victorville Alpha, Top Dog speaking, we copy."

"What's the emergency Top Dog?" Biggie-Man, rather John Connor asked.

"Myself and a little welcoming party for the fireteams came under heavy fire from Skynet forces nothing out of the usual except for a new model we've never seen before." David tone alone told how serious the situation was. The other end of the line was quiet for a few moments.

"Top Dog I want details." Connor's severe tone spoke volumes.

"At first it was just a couple of Spiders and series five-hundreds, nothing we couldn't handle, then came a second group including a couple more five-hundreds and some older one-hundreds. Then we saw it," David paused and closed his eyes recounting the events not too long ago. "This big bulky skull-faced thing just marched towards us fucking minigun it was carrying just unloading on our position. The barrage destroyed two of our T-400s and damaged one five hundred, killed several of my men, our rifles barely had any effect on it so we had to fall back. Skynet five-hundreds and Skull-Face followed us into the buildings while the Spiders and T-100s kept us low, slowing us down. Thankfully Bravo turned up not long afterwards and distracted the Spiders and Rollers gave us chance to counter attack, a few more men were killed a T-500 was destroyed. But thankfully we blew the damn thing apart then moped up the T-500s."

Jackson looked to her team who lowered their heads, a silent prayer to the dead soldiers.

"I'm sorry for your loss Top Dog. It's hard to lose soldiers under your command, you have my sympathies for what they're worth." Connor replied regretfully. "How much of the new model remains?"

David chuckled grimly but he understood, General had to be pragmatic. "I thought you'd want to take a look at it, thankfully our explosives didn't obliterate it so we brought it in to study, you guys can come get it whenever you want, I've got some techs taking a look at it, also got scavengers out in the field grabbing what metal they can."

"I'll send transport to pick up whatever you can salvage, but the new model takes priority. If what you're saying is right we'll need to adapt our tactics and munitions to counter it." Connor replied, the line went silent, likely with Connor now getting transport ready for Victorville. "Do you need any additional supplies or personnel?"

"Negative on both we're fine here for now, we'll round up our dead and bury them later." David replied. "Anything else sir?"

"Negative on this end, sending the transport soon. And Top Dog, I'm sorry again about your men, Biggie-Man over and out." The line went dead.

"You think Connor knew about the T-600?" Luna suddenly asked.

"There's little Connor doesn't know. Unfortunately, we may be among the first to have to deal with it." David replied while scratching the back of his head. "We'll fix up what we can, fix up who we can, and then wait for the other teams to get here, hopefully they didn't encounter any T-600s."

"David are you going to be okay?" Jackson asked as she stepped closer to her old friend.

"Me?" he asked and looked at her, a tired weary smile on his face, "Yeah, yeah I'll be fine. Not the first time I've lost soldiers," he sighed once more, "never gets any easier though."

They fell into a solemn silence for what seemed longer than it really was. Finally David cleared his throat, put on a strong face and looked to Bravo.

"Anyway once my men get you bot fixed I'll show you a place you can rest, hopefully the other teams won't be much longer."

"What if they're dead?" Zander asked gaining everyone's attention.

"Then we're going into Palmdale on our own." Jackson replied.

Camila looked to Zander and elbowed him in the arm while glaring at him. "Don't fucking talk like that man, Jesus." She grimaced. "Fuckin' pessimistic shit."

"Sorry it was the first thing that came to mind." Zander rubbed his arm as he apologised.

"Regardless we'll be heading to Palmdale before the day is out." Jackson stated then looked to David. "Any idea how long they should be?" she dared to ask.

"Thankfully yes. Outpost Six and Delta said they were heading our way, so they shouldn't be much longer." David replied.

Outpost Six and Delta were in Los Angeles itself not too far deep as much of it was heavy Skynet territory, but it was a foot hold the Resistance had fought for. Given the distance David was likely correct the other two fireteams shouldn't be too far behind them.

With that Bravo found a place in the command room to rest. Sitting on the floor with their backs resting against the walls. Alejandro dozed off quickly, Douglas and Jackson sat with one another going over their thoughts on recent events, Luna sat beside Camila and Zander and Murphy sat beside them, the latter four all lost in their thoughts.

Within the hour they heard the familiar buzz of hydraulics moving, Jackson turned her head to the entrance of the command room as a T-500 stepped into view it scanned the room before its optics focused on Sergeant Jackson.

"Sergeant Jackson, hydraulics repaired all systems fully operational." The T-500 spoke mechanically.

Jackson took it that the T-500 was theirs as it spoke directly at her.

"Wonderful." She said sarcastically and pushed herself back up to her feet with a groan. "Someone wake up Alex, we'll find somewhere else to rest."

Camila obliged shoving her twin and forcing him awake with a snort. "Come on, we're going to rest elsewhere."

Jackson led her team out of the command room, and out of the hallways and into one of the theatres, the large screen itself still seemed to be intact as were many of the chairs, some had been taken out from their original place to make room for Resistance equipment, but there were enough left to sit down.

"Hey someone put on Transformers!" Murphy called out loudly.

"One, shut up! Two, don't. That movie sucked!" Douglas shot back.

"I remember that movie." Camila grinned, "My papa was able to get the DVD pirated from one of his friends. Fucking love that movie."

"You would," Sergeant Jackson rolled her eyes, "nothing but yelling and explosions."

"Hell yeah, and robots fighting robots!" Camila grinned for a moment before it dawned on her the similarities of their situation to the movie, they were fighting robots in a long war that just seemed to keep going and going.

Everyone else seemed to come to the same conclusion and grew silent, everyone found a chair to sit in, not minding the Resistance soldiers around them, Unit-986 stayed standing and on alert in case of threats.

"The action was alright I guess." Jackson suddenly spoke up making others in her team laugh softly.

"I never saw it." Zander admitted.

"Didn't miss much." Douglas muttered in reply as he closed his eyes.

"Wonder what Michael Bay is doing now." Murphy thought out loud.

"Probably recording everything he sees and editing it into a movie blockbuster." Douglas replied.

"Or he could be giving Skynet ideas." Camila chuckled.

Jackson groaned. "That's all we need," she paused for a moment, "an HK that can transform." That got a laugh out of Bravo and even some of the other resistance members that overheard their conversation. Soon enough Bravo drift off.


Lieutenant David Kringle stood in the tech room watching the work before him. Some techies were fixing up Resistance machines; the destroyed T-400s were back online but they'd used up the last of the 400 series spares. The older machines were becoming a rarer sight on the battlefield likely not even produced in factories anymore, the T-500s were seen the majority of the time as infantry units and now with this newer T-600 model having come out. David's eyes zeroed in on the dark coloured machine donning the Grim Reaper's face, he expected its eye to light up a demonic red and come to life at any second but no the machine was dead, or destroyed, whatever.

David believed in John Connor, everyone in the Resistance did, it was why they followed him and not that ass clown Ashdown, it was Connor who saved them, it was Connor who cared but even so how could they fight against an enemy that got tougher and tougher? The T-600 was just the next step in the enemy's evolution and this thing was tough. Taking down one had been difficult but taking on five? Six? A dozen? Ridiculous. He silently prayed that they could find some weakness to it or failing that, maybe Connor would find something. Connor usually did, he seemed to have a way with machines like no one else did.

David's attention was brought to an older man, a handyman before the war, the guy had dabbled in all sorts of things, decorating, circuitry, plumbing, guy used to be a mechanic in Victorville. Karl was his name.

"David I got good new and bad news. What do you want first?" Karl asked as he wiped his hands on a dirty piece of cloth.

"You know me, bad first." David replied, his shoulder slumping as he awaited what felt like a death sentence.

"Bad news is this new model is too busted up to find a general weakness, some exploit but from what I can see the thing is well armoured, hydraulics are slick, joints are well designed. Unless Connor's specialists can find something this thing is going to be a pain in the ass to deal with, sorry David." Karl listed off in a regretful tone.

David nodded and gently patted Karl on the arm. "No need for sorry it's what I expected really," he felt that would've been the case, Skynet was good at ironing out weaknesses in the newer models, but he had to be strong push down the bad and look towards the good, speaking of, "alright hit me with the good."

Karl perked up a little, "Well from the looks of it our rifles were digging into the machine's frame, sustained fire would've taken it down eventually. Maybe its time we start outfitting teams with heavier ordinance as standard?"

David considered that; it was a good idea at least, maybe they could work on their explosives, make a bigger bang. Before David could think too much Karl continued.

"Also we were able to get the bots repaired and back online, so there's that at the very least," Karl looked back to the now standing T-500 and T-400. "I just wish people were as easy to fix." He muttered.

"If we were Karl then we wouldn't be as special." David replied and nodded to the machines, "Connor's right about using them. Skynet makes thousands probably even millions of them, we take them and make them fight for us, they get broken we just use spare of give them a new body. They're expendable, replaceable, not like us, we're special."

"You been practising that in the mirror?" Karl smirked causing David to laugh.

"Was it good?" David asked a humorous grin on his face.

"I'd give it a two-and-a-quarter out of five on the Connor scale." The handy-man replied.

David shook his head muttering a quiet "jackass" before his attention was pulled to a young private.

"Sir!" The young girl saluted, "A scavenger has reported squads Sigma and Ares have arrived."

"Oh thank god." He saluted the girl. "Take me to them private." He ordered and followed the girl out of the room.

David met with the squads just in the foyer of the cinema, upon laying his eyes on them he noticed their exhausted looks, some of them were wounded. He felt like something heavy dropped into his stomach. A caucasian man stepped forward; he seemed a little over six-feet tall maybe six-feet-two, he had untidy shoulder length hair and beard that matched his hair. He looked exhausted and had a minor wound on his left leg.

"Sir, I'm Sergeant Danvers leader of Ares Squad." Danvers put his hand out in greeting which David shook immediately.

"I'm glad you're here." David said with relief.

"Not all of us." Danvers' expression soured as he pulled his hand away, his tired eyes becoming unfocussed.

"I'm sorry, what happened?" David asked trying to look the man in the eye.

"We encountered something new." A caucasian woman stepped forward, short blonde hair barely to her shoulders and standing around five-feet-four, like Danvers and the others she looked like she'd been through Hell; a tired look on her face, bruises and cuts on her body. "Sergeant Willow, Sigma." She introduced herself.

She and David shook hands briefly.

"Something new?" David asked with an angry frown. "Didn't happen to have a skull face did it?"

Danvers and Willow looked to one another then back to David.

"You seen one?" Willow asked tersely.

"We did, it killed my men and destroyed two of our bots, but we got it and brought its remains in. Connors getting people to pick it up. Follow me inside get yourselves some food, rest and whatever medical supplies we can spare."

David led the squads deeper into the cinema and into their tech room.

"It's in here." David said and led Ares and Sigma inside, "is this it?" he asked motioning to the metal bench.

The teams gathered around the machine, each one of their expressions told a similar story, David didn't need to ask at that point, their looks had confirmed it.

"From what I've been told by Bravo team who were told by their T-500, this is the T-600 the newest kid on the block, better than the older model in everyway even smarter." David watched them not knowing if they were listening. "They've been online for a few months, replacing the other bots as guards and security at Skynet locations now they're out in the battlefield, just wait a few more months and we'll be seeing nothingbut these."

All eyes turned to David, some eyes showed nothing but anger, some showed determination others showed fear. David didn't blame anyone for any emotion shown.

"Connor will figure something, I'm confidant of it and if not. We'll just keep blowing the fuckers to pieces." David stated confidently.

"Yeah we'll figure out something." Danvers replied then ran his fingers through his unkempt hair.

"Alright medical is this way." David continued before leading them into one of the theatres, right where Bravo team was resting, the T-500 ever vigilant to threats.

"After you're done here get some rest anywhere you can, your mission to Palmdale is still a go." David instructed them then left.

"Understood." "Sure." Danvers and Willow replied respectfully, they understood their missions and would see it through.

Over the course of the next two hours the Victorville medics saw to the wounded of Ares and Sigma. The scavenger teams sent by David had scoured through the battlefield retrieving bullet casings, chain links from used ammunition belts, belts of ammunition taken from the destroyed Skynet machines, and destroyed T-500s. Connor's teams had arrived in large pick-up trucks with fresh extra-penetrative munitions, explosives and other essential items in exchange for the T-600 and whatever T-500 parts Victorville gave.

While there Connor's team had further dismantled a few of the Spider Drones and T-100s taking whatever the trucks could carry then hastily left again for Crystal Peak.


Private Catherine Luna yawned as she awoke in one of the theatre's folding chairs. The young 16-year-old stretched then looked around her. The only other person of Bravo that was awake was Corporal Douglas, and he seemed to be talking to a taller man. She raised a brow then turned her attention to their robot. The machine still stood in place, still scanning the area.

Luna sometimes wondered where this whole war was going. When would it end? How would it end? Would Skynet win? Would they? If they did, would humans just go back to killing other humans? But then humans wouldn't "go back" to anything, humans were still killing humans. She'd seen gangs back in Mexico taking what they wanted from those with less than them, hoarding everything they could get or steal. When she and her parents had heard Connor talk over the radio they'd moved down to L.A. as quick as they could and doing their best to hide from Skynet but that hadn't ended so well.

Luna realised she'd been staring at the Terminator before turning her eyes away and looked around more, there were a more people on the seats snoozing, some looked like they had recent wounds, minor though thankfully.

"Fuck this." She muttered to herself and pushed herself up then made her way to Douglas.

As she approached Douglas caught notice of her and smiled.

"This is Catherine Luna, a good friend and good soldier." Douglas introduced her to the man.

"Hey there," the man greeted and put his hand out to her which she grabbed and shook, "Sergeant Danvers; Ares squad."

"Nice meeting you sir." Luna replied and pulled her hand away.

"The sergeant here was just telling me about his squads encounter with a T-600, wasn't pretty." Douglas informed her and shook his head.

"The lieutenant told us the same thing. Tough mother fuckers." Luna replied.

"Yeah, hopefully Connor comes up with something or we're in all levels of fucked." Danvers replied, "Either Skynet pushes us back or Ashdown comes to the rescue, I don't envy either scenario."

"Ashdown may be the only hope." Douglas pointed out regretfully. "Rather him than Skynet."

"True but believe me he's not fond of rescue operations unless it's officers." Danvers replied with a snort of disgust.

Douglas and Luna focused on him. "You know him personally?" Luna asked.

Danvers looked to her. "Before the war and well, I guess just as it started after Judgement Day, I was a private in the army. My squad were told to recon the area just east of here, but was when Victorville and Barstow were still heavily Skynet territory. Anyway we came under fire from T-70s and T-1s with Aerial Scouts as air support. My squad never stood a chance, we fell back and radioed for rescue, long story short we were told to destroy the radio and that we were on our own we destroyed the radio, four of my squad ended up dead and the rest were taken to the Victorville camp; like yourselves if I've heard right." Douglas and Luna nodded in agreement. "Well as you know a few years later Connor and his teams come sweeping in at night, cut the fences, destroy the defences and we're home free."

The trio remembered the event well, when Connor's Resistance took down Victorville camp and saved hundreds if not a thousand of people.

"I knew then and there that John Connor was the real deal. Believe me if Ashdown is our saving grace I'm not looking forward to it." Danvers concluded.

"Connor will probably have a plan. He's Connor he always does." Luna added.

"He always does." Douglas parroted.

"So did I miss anything while I was asleep?" Luna asked.

The two men caught her up on what'd happened, mostly with Connor's squad retrieving Skynet's machine part and delivering essentials.

It was at that moment that David walked into the room, he zeroed in on the trio and made his way to them.

"Sir." They all saluted.

"At ease, alright listen it's mission time, get everyone woken up grab a bite to eat and get your gear you're all heading to Palmdale together." David instructed them. "I'll be instructing you on what you're doing once you leave here. Get to it."

Within a few minutes, Bravo, Sigma and Ares were awake, eaten just enough to stave off hunger and met with David in the theatre.

"Alright everyone you know the broad idea of your mission, you're to capture as many T-500s coming out of Palmdale as you can, capturing their CPUs is the key. Now I don't have to tell you how hot it's going to be in Palmdale especially with this new model showing it's ugly face. Sadly we can't do anything about it right now except for blow them to shit with explosives. Crystal Peak radioed ahead to Palmdale outposts to track down and keep an eye on any T-500 squads they could, so you'll be heading to Outpost-Eight and they'll give you what information you need." David paused a moment to let the information sink in. "Given you're heading into Skynet territory some of you will be equipped with heavier ordinance for this mission gifted to us lovingly by the General himself," that caused a few chuckles among them, "go to the quartermaster and good luck, dismissed."


At the quartermaster were three T-400s and two T-500s awaiting them, each armed with a SAW with a two-hundred round box and a brass collector on the opposite side of the weapon, the quartermaster explained how Connor was leaving these machines for the mission, and were under command of whom ever the conjoined teams agreed upon, which was Danvers.

The teams were equipped with the usual assortment of AR-15 rifles with several magazines others were equipped with a SAW like the robots. Camila grinned with excitement once the quartermaster retrieved an M79-grenade launcher and took the weapon as her own, along with a bandolier of grenades. Some were even given shotguns with penetrative slugs.

"Alright everyone, let's head out." Danvers said as the large group left the cinema and started their trip to Palmdale.


Jason's Notes

Hey everyone, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Wanted to bring the threat of the T-600 to light especially during these earlier stages of the war without really showing it in action. So I think I did, okay! As I've previously stated the size f the T-600 is just short of 7 feet (so shorter than a T-400) making it a little shorter than its Salvation counterpart, but it is more intelligent here well, you'll see that it is. See you soon!

Also you'll likely not have known, but previous chapters have been updated. Enjoy!