Been in a "Future War" buzz so I'm continuing this story more for a bit longer. I do hope you all enjoyed the previous chapter as this one is likely to be a bit more of the same. Enjoy and I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year.


Terminator

The Zeta Chronicles

Chapter 6

Onwards to Palmdale


Sergeant Langstrom of the Unites States Army was not happy. He was not happy in the slightest. He sat in a jeep with his hands tied behind his back with a dirty rag tied around his eyes acting as a makeshift blindfold. He wasn't alone either, there were several other United States soldiers tied up and blindfolded all of them in trucks being escorted to a drop off location to be picked up by the US army all the while being guarded by members of Connor's militia. They pretended they were an army, they liked to think they were helpful, but all they did was take necessary resources from the US armed forces against the ever-present threat of Skynet, weapons, ammunition, people, food. You name it these nobodies took it.

And don't get him started on John Connor! The guy was a terrorist good and simple. A megalomaniac with authoritative delusions. He'd commandeered the old bunker at Crystal Peak when there was no one there and placed himself in a position of power over civilians! The man lorded over them like he was hot shit and those delusional morons bought into his crap! He was no General. He was no Ashdown. Ashdown had decades of service behind him, Connor only had the beginning of the war. Skynet would reduce this militia to shit and then the survivors would come begging the real heroes for help.

"Captain Perry we're coming up to the rendezvous point." One of Connor's cronies said from the front of the truck.

"Good to hear." Perry replied.

"You're not a fucking Captain." Langstrom muttered.

"You keep saying that and yet here I am, a Captain in the Resistance." Perry replied coolly.

"The Resistance! Seriously? You're following a terrorist!" Langstrom snapped back.

"A terrorist who got your asses saved if I'm right." Perry replied in the same calm tone, obviously bored with Langstrom. "You should be happy you're alive to be sent back to your people with your gear, god knows we could've done with a few extra rifles."

"Thieves and traitors, like that bastard Yates." Langstrom spat.

"Your man Yates knows what's up. He knows Connor is right. We can't win this war by fighting Skynet head-to-head. We'd never win, they make machines a lot faster than we make humans." Perry returned calmly.

"Don't get me started on the child soldiers, you guys are fucking sick." Langstrom snapped.

"We don't like it either but as Connor said; Skynet doesn't give a shit how old you are, if you're human you're dead or worse. So we might as well pull in who we can when we can, we all have our role to play in this war." Perry could be heard shifting in his seat though Langstrom couldn't see what he was doing.

"Sir we're here." The driver spoke.

"Finally! Lets get these men out of here, I'm sure they're desperate to go home." Perry replied, relief evident in his voice.

Langstrom felt someone grab him and aid him out of the truck, his feet hit gravel and he followed whoever was leading the way.

"Sir Sharpshot on the radio." One of Connor's soldiers spoke up.

"Who comes up with these names?" Perry muttered to himself. "Perry here." He said, likely into the radio.

"Captain Perry this is Sharpshot leader, we have eyes on the Ashdown's bitches moving in from the west. They'll be at your location in about five minutes, I suggest you leave them there and move, they look plenty armed." The man's voice replied in the radio.

Ashdown's bitches? Really? Langstrom clenched his teeth.

"Then I take it they're not just here for a nice chat and a cup of joe. Alright we'll leave them here, take their ties we need the material." Perry ordered.

Suddenly sight returned to Langstrom, he saw his remaining men being untied moments before he felt his own hands coming free. Langstrom would've taken a chance to fight back, but Connor's men were armed and he didn't want to risk the lives of his soldiers, not the loyal ones anyway.

Langstrom turned around and looked Perry dead in the eye, the two dark skinned men stared one another down, Langstrom openly glaring at Perry and Perry simply stared back barely impressed with the glare he was receiving from Langstrom. The Connors were a lot scarier.

"You didn't try anything, good boy." The corner of Perry's lip twitched up in a barely seen smirk. "When you meet up with your guys tell them to be careful, Skynet's apparently sending out its newest toy, and its plenty tough."

Perry took his eyes away from Langstrom, not really caring to challenge him in some bullshit staring contest. "Your gears in that bag, you can keep the bag there's too many holes in it for us." Perry looked back to the angry US sergeant and smirked. "We're nice like that." Perry then looked around to his people. "Alright everyone back on the trucks we're heading back to base, let's move!"

Langstrom watched as Perry and his soldiers got back into their trucks leaving Langstrom behind with his men, the sergeant clenched his fists tightly glaring at the departing vehicles, he quickly rushed to the bag of their equipment and fished out an M4 carbine, he raised the weapon up and aimed at the last truck and pulled the trigger; nothing. Checking the magazine Langstrom found the weapon empty, checking the bag he found all the weapons were empty, sidearms as well.

"Son of a bitch." Langstrom growled through clenched teeth.

"So we just going to sit tight till we get picked up sir?" Asked one of the privates.

Langstrom turned his hate filled glare from the Resistance and looked to the private, glaring at him till the younger man felt uncomfortable. The sergeant shook his head and looked away. "Yeah everyone sit tight and wait for our pick up. We'll have to report to Captain Harrison."


Elsewhere the team combination of Bravo, Sigma and Ares were slowly making their way from Victorville to Palmdale. It was going to be about a day's walk to get there with breaks, but everyone was used to long walks. Vehicles were too precious to the Resistance right now but God damn it a car or jeep right now would have been helpful, most of the combination team were sure they had blisters on their feet from all the walking.

Sergeant Jackson looked up to the sky and searched around its vastness hoping she wouldn't catch sight of any aerial units. She felt uneasy despite have Unit-986 marching beside her and the other five terminators with them that would detect any Skynet presence long before they did. The possibility of being ambushed was a constant nagging feeling in her mind and with how the new T-600 had been described she wasn't looking forward to dealing with one.

At least this time around there were a lot of Resistance soldiers, six terminators all of which were heavily armed and with explosive ordinance, so their chances should be dramatically improved.

Sergeant Jackson had briefly spoken to some of the newer faces. Sergeant Willow for example had been from Los Angeles just as Judgement Day was going on her family escaped from the city till their car ran out of gas. Sadly the rest of her family was killed not too long later by a T-70 squad, she was eventually found by the Resistance and she joined instantly.

Jackson glanced towards Willow; the woman was marching briskly with the rest of them, like them she was thin from rationing but she was as capable as the rest of them. From what the woman told her she'd been able to get what remained of her team away from a Skynet attack which included the new dreaded T-600, they'd been caught unprepared and had suffered for it. It seemed to be a similar event to what Sergeant Danvers had told them. If Palmdale was full of T-600s this mission may have been over before it began.

"You okay sarge?" Corporal Douglas spoke up from beside her, meeting his gaze she could tell the younger man was worried about her.

"Yeah I'm okay. Just this whole mission is multiple levels of fucked." She exhaled and shook her head.

"I'm here to listen if you want." He smiled in reply. Jackson was about to decline when he spoke up again. "Even if it's to vent."

Jackson groaned but she knew she might as well otherwise the thoughts would be buzzing around in her mind.

"We're heading to Palmdale which is heavy Skynet territory, looking for a bunch of T-500s for their chips for whoever knows why! We got that fucking skull faced thing where one is wrecking everyone's shit and Palmdale could have hundreds of them. The chances of us getting our shit shot up is incredibly fucking high! I just hope that whatever Connor has planned may be worth the lives we lose." Jackson vented out her frustrations.

Douglas chuckled softly. "You're starting to sound like Zander," he stated with a coy smirk, "we all know Connor's likely got a plan and if we're heading to Palmdale for a bunch of brain chips, chances are it's for information."

"My guess is the factory." Catherine Luna spoke up as she placed herself beside Douglas. Both Jackson and Douglas looked at her. "We all know Skynet's got that big ass factory north of Palmdale, my bet is Connor's going to try and take it down then we can make a move deeper into the city."

Jackson thought it over, "It's a solid idea," she conceded, "still doesn't change the fact that this is crazy. The closer we get to Palmdale the more Skynet we're likely to encounter."

"We'll just have to be ready for them." Douglas replied.

"I think Danvers is ready for them, he's got metal looking in all corners sensors full alert." Luna followed on and looked to the T-500 near them, the robot scanning the area around them as it marched along.

"Kaylee, we'll be okay." Douglas reached out and gently patted the sergeant on her shoulder.

"We'll be okay." Jackson parroted subconsciously nodding as if doing so would help her in believing it, but still that nagging doubt wouldn't escape her mind.


Unit-986 obediently marched along with its allies and commander. It's sensors were on full alert as it searched for Skynet activity, the group commander: Sergeant Danvers was rightfully cautious, if the machine could feel anything it would be worried for its own safety and that of those around it, but it couldn't so it didn't. The machine knew and understood that their current task was dangerous likely resulting in termination of some if not all of them, but its orders were to continue so it would do so without argument.

Unit-986 received a message from the forward most T-500; Unit-711 or by its full designation 755899-711. From what 986 knew of the Skynet serial numbers Unit-711 would have been created approximately seven to eight months ago however when it was reprogrammed was unknown, the T-500 seemed more adapt at working with its human allies compared to Unit-986, at least as best as their series could. It was likely due with how long the machines had been with the Resistance with 986 had only been reprogrammed for a few days and most of those days had been with Bravo team. If it could come to any form of realisation it would realise it was only a few days old, before its first operational day was finished it had been destroyed and reprogrammed, as such most of its existence had been a Resistance machine. That would have been an interesting conclusion to make.

The message 986 received from 711 was that its area was clear. Similar messages came from the other T-500; Unit-800 and the T-400 series' Unit-457, 501 and 544. Unit 986 sent out the same message the area around them was clear. Up ahead 711 relayed the information to Sergeant Danvers who looked at the machine as it spoke, the sergeant nodded and gave a small "good" as a reply.

"Hey Robot." Sergeant Jackson spoke up next to it, "how're we looking?"

The T-500 turned its head to look at her then looked to Corporal Douglas and Private Luna. "Scans indicate you are alive and uninjured."

Luna and Douglas snorted and laughed.

"No! I meant is the area clear are we currently safe?" Jackson explained with frustration.

Mistake acknowledged, information was saved to CPU for future reference.

"Area clear." The machine replied before returning to its previous task uncaring when it heard Jackson mutter 'stupid machine' quietly to herself.

The large group continued onwards. A few hours behind them, many more hours ahead of them.


Several pick-up trucks slowed as they came upon Fort Irwin the forward Resistance base just outside Crystal Peak. Fort Irwin was the first line of defence for Crystal Peak as such the Resistance had done their best to get the area back up to structural standards, it had been the first major win for the John Connor's resistance. Just before Judgement Day the training facility had been updating tactics when deploying soldiers with the new T-1 and T-70 battlefield robots. There had been dozens of machines when Skynet took over, by time Connor and his allies arrived just before the bombs most of the soldiers were dead, most of the armoured division was destroyed by Aerial attack.

Now though Fort Irwin was used once more to train Resistance soldiers while at the same time having Anti-Aerial defences in place. The place was secure, locked down tight. The driver of the forward most pick-up slowed as it came to the check point, he glanced around at the few humans guarding the area alongside T-400s and older T-100 units each with their weapons pointed towards the vehicles. A Resistance soldier stepped forward to get a better look at him before giving the all-clear. The machines turned their attentions elsewhere allowing the trucks to move onwards.

The trucks continued through the facility and through the large entrance of Crystal Peak and into the large mountain base itself.

"We got the metal!" the driver called out as he exited the vehicle.

"Alright let Connor know the metal is here, get that thing to the labs!" another soldier ordered as several soldiers rushed to grab the remains of the T-600 and the machines weapon and ammo container while others grabbed what pieces and spares of other machines that had been destroyed during the Victorville battle.


Not too long later John Connor marched towards the machine-labs with his wife Cameron and their personal protector "Bob" the T-850 inside a T-500 body beside him.

"News from the battle wasn't good John, the introduction of the T-600 was always a harsh phase for the Resistance." Cameron spoke up.

"I know, soon enough we'll be dealing with early infiltration units, we'll have to be careful." Connor muttered in reply a few soldiers saluting them as they passed by.

"The T-600 was a capable Skynet infantry unit despite becoming obsolete with the introduction of the series 800, Skynet would continue to produce the T-600 until 2024, before recalling over 70% of all available units to be melted down for recycle." Bob spoke up.

"For upgraded 800 class machines?" Connor guessed.

"Correct. Greater quantities of titanium alloy were needed for the construction of the T-850 series as the process to build the combat unit was slow and extensive requiring larger amounts of titanium and coltan alloy per unit compared to the Eight-Hundred and Triple-Eight series." The T-500 explained.

"Wonderful. But until then we've got the big mean machines to deal with now." Connor replied as the made it to the machine lab. "What've we got?" he spoke up loudly as he entered.

Inside the lab various technicians were looking over the remains of the T-600, the lead technician looked to Connor as he entered.

"I hate to tell you John, this design is impressive," the dark-haired Caucasian man started, he removed his glasses and cleaned them on his shirt before placing them back on his face. Connor fought against rolling his eyes. The self-proclaimed doctor was obsessed with Skynet's machines and technology, despite his fanaticism for the technical side of Skynet he was thankfully loyal to the Resistance, he was note worthy because he figured out how to reprogram Skynet's older machines without any help from either Connors, or more specifically Mrs Connor. The man was smart problem was he knew he was smart. "Skynet seems to have reverted back to a design akin to the early T-70 units, however with upgrades akin to the series five-hundred and being composed of titanium."

"So in short?" Connor asked despite already knowing about the T-600, Connor and his entourage walked further into the lab and towards the table the remain of the six-hundred series lay upon.

"We got something amazing yet terrifying." Dr Mack summed up as he followed Connor explaining to him with excitement. "It's tougher, lighter from what I've seen it's optics are an improved design over the previous units. It's really something."

'You haven't seen anything yet.' Connor thought to himself as he looked at the very human-like skull, it wasn't quite right in design when compared to the 800 series, between this and the later models he could tell the skull's design would be tweaked a little but regardless he could see the foundation of the T-800 in this machine in the design of the hydraulics of the arms, legs and the chest plate, a little primitive but the similarities were there. Connor reached out and placed his hand on the inert terminator's chest and gently slid it down the centre of the machine.

"If this T-600 becomes mass produced we'll be looking at a losing war." Mack continued.

Connor pulled his hand away and glared at Dr Mack. "It won't be a losing war; we'll adapt now while we can. Have your team look it over try and find some weakness to it, I'll want a full report later. After you're done with it give it to the quartermaster, I'm going to have him and the munitions team try and cook up something that'll level the playing field for us."

"Yes sir." Mack nodded before returning to the other technicians to look over the machine as the commanders and their bodyguard left and headed to the quartermaster.

"What're you two thinking?" John asked without looking at either of them.

"It's not like the T-600 from my future, it's too tall, bulky. Passing it off as human would be difficult." Cameron replied immediately.

"The unit is similar to the T-600 from my future, though a little smaller and different skull design, the hydraulics seem more advanced by comparison however, the infiltration variants only had to get in close before attacking." Bob added his input.

"So we've got a hybrid of the two futures, interesting yet worrying." John thought out loud quietly.

More soldiers stepped aside and saluted the Connor as the trio arrived at the quartermaster.

"Sir!" The quartermaster and his team saluted as John stepped into the armoury.

"At ease," John ordered then waited a moment, "I take it you've heard about the new machine?"

The quartermaster nodded, "Yes sir, not heard much though, just it's big and scary."

"I'm having the techs look it over right now try and find a weakness of it to exploit or find me some technical data, after they're done with it they're giving the remains to you I want you to find a new mixture for our ammunition, reports have said our current rounds are barely scratching it."

The quartermaster, a short Caucasian man named Jones scratched his chin. "Extra penetrative rounds aren't cutting it then, we'd need full blown armour-piercing but we don't have any materials for that, you'd need a hardened metal for that like …" Jones tried to explain.

"Like tungsten, yes I know, I know a thing or two about firearms." Connor interrupted. "I know you Jones, you can think outside the box, you figured out the E-P rounds you'll figure this out."

John waited as Jones thought. The man always thought better under pressure. "Hardened metal, hardened metal." The man mumbled to himself.

Neither Connor nor Bob moved and simply watched the shorter man.

"We could recycle machines." One of the munitions team spoke up, a younger yet taller man than Jones. All eyes turned to him.

"Mind repeating that" Connor ordered.

The younger man swallowed hard. "Well the machines we get in are made of steel right, hardened steel? We could melt them down, or at least melt down parts we can't use."

Jones thought it over and nodded then looked to Connor. "He's right sir, think about it. We don't reprogram the spiders but we use their parts for spares right? Melting down one spider could provide, god knows how many armour-piercing tips?"

Connor looked at Jones, he looked to Cameron whom detected he was looking at her, she turned to him and nodded, Connor looked to Bob who was already looking at him, the T-500 nodded, Connor looked back to Jones.

"You have my permission to do it, we need to get this right first time and we're going to need them for the future, get to work." Connor ordered.

"Yes sir!" the munitions teams replied with a salute as Connor left.


Many hours passed by leading towards early evening, the combination team had finished a break not half an hour ago and so continued moving towards Palmdale. Unit-711; the lead most T-500, the one walking beside Sergeant Danvers tilted its head and turned to stare off into the distance.

"Warning. Combat detected." The T-500 warned aloud.

Sergeant Danvers immediately raised his arm with a clenched fist signalling the group to stop, he looked to the machine and then cautiously scanned the area, his M4 carbine brought up against his shoulder.

"Where? I don't hear any…" before Danvers could continue they heard a thundering boom, a sound Danvers, being ex-military was familiar with. It was a tank cannon firing. "Shit!" He cursed loudly and looked to Unit-711. "What else do you hear?"

The T-500 was silent for a few moments. "Automatic fire," another rumbling boom was heard a second later, "and high explosives."

"Sounds like US military engaging Skynet sir." One of Danvers' men spoke up.

"They could be anywhere within the next few miles," Danvers frowned, this wasn't what he wanted, "we'll keep going, report the location if we see them to Connor first chance we get."

"And if they're in our way?" Sergeant Willow spoke up.

"I don't know." Danvers replied honestly.

"I guess it all depends." Willow replied with a sigh. "We'd better keep moving."

It didn't take much longer till the sound of gunfire reached humans ears. Whatever was going on it was a large battle, in the distance they could make out the shape of large armoured vehicles including a tank.

Danvers frowned and looked to the rest of the combined teams, then looked back to the battlefield. Whatever had happened it as slowing down. Gunfire became less sporadic the sound of cannon fire had ceased all together.

"Smith take a look with the sniper." Danvers ordered.

Smith; a bald headed young caucasian woman stepped forward, a heavily modified .338 Lapua Magnum Remington 700 rifle in her hands. Smith dropped down to one knee and pressed the adjustable stock pad against her shoulder and looked down the scope towards the battlefield, she didn't like what she saw.

"Fucking T-320 sir." She replied tersely.

The group grimaced. The T-320 was an advancement on the large tank-like T-300. The standard model was armed with dual fifty-calibre miniguns, while the 310 model had dual pods filled with rockets. The 320 model was a hybrid of both having miniguns and the rocket pods. They were big, slow, stupid but their armour and firepower more than made up for it.

"What do we do sir?" Smith asked.

"What else is over there?" Danvers dared to ask.

Smith was hesitant but looked back through the scope, she was silent as she carefully adjusted her aim. "T-500s." She started to list. "Spiders." Smith lowered her weapon, a scowl present on her face. "Skull faces."

Everyone looked to one another.

"Going around would be safer." One soldier spoke up.

"It'd also put a few extra hours on our time, and with the three-hundred over there, we could be in its radius before we hit any cover. Best chance is to keep low and keep quiet, we continued forward." Danvers argued, he looked to 711. "Stealth operation."

Unit-711 sent the message out to the other machines, Unit-986 and the T-400s requested extra information.

RECEIVING MESSAGE FROM UNIT-711
"LOW STANCE SLOW MOVEMENT REDUCE HYDRAULIC NOISE"
"PASS BY HOSTILES WITHOUT DETECTION"
SENDING MESSAGE - SIMILARITY TO "HIDE" STRATEGY
RECEIVING MESSAGE
"AFFIRMATIVE"

Information was saved to the CPU. Unit-986 continued to move as the rest of the large group did.

"So what's happening, what's going on?" Zander asked from the back.

"Yeah Sarge, we're feeling a little left out back here aren't we?" Murphy added.

"Some have to take the rear, no two ways about it guys." Jackson replied with a shrug of her shoulder before looking to the T-500. "I bet you heard them, what's going on?"

"Skynet forces detected engaging with advanced none-Resistance human forces. Series three-twenty detected, series six-hundred detected." 986 replied automatically.

Bravo team collectively grimaced. It was among the worst news they could've been given.

"This sucks." Zander summed up nicely.

"I agree with him." Alejandro added immediately nodding his head towards the younger man.

"I know but with that big fucking goliath near our position chances of getting spotted could be high without any cover and right now we're out in the open." Jackson replied quietly.


The teams came upon the outskirts of the industrial area, before Judgement Day it had been a place to fill up on gas, get some food and do some shopping, now it was a Skynet controlled mass grave where dozens if not hundreds of cars either abandoned or housing the remains of their driver's inside resided. Despite the harrowing scene of the mass grave the Resistance fighters used the cars as cover.

Sparing a glance over cover some soldiers saw the wreckage of the battle. Three T-300s lay waisted across the battlefield as were untold numbers of spiders and terminators, but in the end it seemed as if no soldiers were left to fight and the few tanks they saw were destroyed, the previously mentioned T-320 rolled down the street swivelling its torso back and forth as it scanned the area while being surrounded by series five and six-hundreds. Danvers and the team would admit this was a ballsy move on Ashdown's part and did likely put a hole in Skynet's forces, but it hadn't been enough even with the tanks. John Connor knew Skynet wasn't an enemy you could simply muscle your way through, you had to be smart, stick to the shadows, stick to cover and hide and attack only at the right time.

Gunfire erupted just ahead from their position. They all stopped immediately; worry etched upon the faces of the human fighters, none dared to move nor even breath too loud. A few risked peaking a look at what was happening. The T-320 turned around and began moving towards the gunfire, the T-600s and T-500s around it moved at a quicker pace. Elsewhere beyond their view came a long burst from a minigun then silence. Danvers saw the body of a US army soldier collapse around twenty metres in front of him. The body twitched and started to move, the soldier opened his eyes and looked up seeing Danvers and the other Resistance fighters, painfully and deliriously he reached out for what he likely saw as his only hope.

Danvers was torn. This wasn't their mission they should've just continued, but he'd made some bullshit excuse to come here. He knew the soldiers would have had little chance to win in this area tanks or no tanks, but he just hoped they could've turned the tide of battle if not he wanted to save as many as he could, while loyal to the Resistance and John Connor he'd fought and bled for the US army, that comradeship wasn't something could was easily forgotten. "Wait here." Danvers whispered to the others and moved briskly between covers, keeping out of sight at the approaching terminator units.

He kept low, moved quickly, the soldier was about twenty metres away, fifteen metres, ten metres. Danvers could see the man more clearly now, he was no more than thirty, brown eyes that were wide open, pleading, a hand stretching out trying to reach for him, his only lifeline. Five metres.

Danvers paused glancing over his cover and froze, there was a T-600 on the opposite side of the car but the machine hadn't noticed him yet. Danvers dropped down and looked to the soldier, trying to signal for him to lay low.

"Play dead! Play dead!" He mouthed wordlessly.

The soldier likely didn't understand or didn't see him properly. The T-600 approached the man watching his attempt to reach out to the unseen Danvers. The Resistance fighter wanted to jump up and open fire on the skeletal monster, save the man and run like hell back to his squad mates and sprint all the way back to Resistance territory.

But it was not to be.

The metal monster examined the man for all of a second before lifting its foot and brought it back down putting all its weight into dropping its foot right onto the man's head, a sickening crack and crunched followed as the side of the man's helmet shattered upon impact and his head caved in his body shaking violently his finger's twitching, his remaining eye never left Danvers whom could only watch in horror as the T-600 raised its foot again and brought it back down crushing the man's skull further, the body twitched, jerked for several seconds before going still, a pool of blood and tissue began to pool under what was left of the man's head.

Danvers continued to stare at the scene his eyes wide his breathing rapid, his throat was dry and tight so tight he felt as if he were suffocating. The T-600 retracted its foot not caring about the mess that still stuck to the appendage, Danvers found the thought the pull himself back behind cover accidentally pushing himself too hard into the side of the car causing a low deep bang. His eyes went wide at his mistake. He could see it in his mind's eye now, the T-600 turning its attention to the car then slowly walking towards his location, Danvers' could hear the terminator's hydraulics moving, getting closer and closer. The T-600 likely had a digit lightly pressing against the trigger of its minigun. He could hear it; closer and closer and closer.

Danvers held his breath, sweat pouring down his face, his knuckles white from the grip on his rifle.

Gunfire erupted elsewhere in the city followed quickly by an explosion, the T-600 and its fellows turned their attention to the sudden sound, their optics focusing on another of Skynet's T-300s which fell to pieces from whatever had caused the explosion. Quickly the terminator marched towards the battle leaving Danvers and the dead soldier behind.

Waited till he couldn't hear the T-600 anymore then rushed back to his squad. The Resistance soldiers poked their weapons out of cover towards the distracted Skynet forces as Danvers returned to them, the sergeant collapsed onto the floor before them and let out a long-drawn-out cry of anguish.

"Danvers!"

"Sarge!"

His squad mates rushed to his side; Smith grabbed him and pulled him against her.

"Shh sshhh it's okay, it's okay." She muttered over and over into his ear. "Tim it's okay, it's okay." She whispered softly into his ear.

"The, the fucking thing didn't even want to waste a b-bullet." He spat out in fury, "Just c-crushed his … his head like a fucking coconut." Tim Danvers spat between clenched teeth of rage.

"I know, I know, fucking machines we'll get them Tim, we'll get them okay? They'll fucking pay. I promise. We'll do this mission then we'll go home, get Connor to send a fucking army here so we can send these bastards to Hell. I promise Tim, I promise." Smith muttered softly into his ear.

The others from Sigma and Bravo watched the Sergeants break down yet no one judged him, no one dared judge him, they'd all gone through it at some point in their lives after Judgement Day and never just once. Some days you just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry at everything that had been lost but their despair turns to anger, anger that can be used against the machines. John Connor had told them all as such; they were all human, with human emotions and many times you needed to let those emotions out, to vent to scream to cry or hit something.

Danvers pulled himself together and wiped his eyes, despite knowing there was no judging among his peers he felt terrible for making such a display, he pulled away from Smith slowly and looked at her. "Thanks Kate." He muttered before pushing himself to his feet he looked at everyone, blatantly ignoring the scrubbed terminators. "Sorry guys, we'd best keep moving."

The others agreed and made their way forward using the cars to bypass the battlefield, each past by the dead soldier, each mentally paying their respects even as the sounds of war continued elsewhere in the city. The Resistance fighters couldn't help not as they were, they were ill equipped for open combat as well armed as they were. But they'd come back one day to this place and they'd make Skynet pay.


General Connor sat at his desk looking over plans for battles yet to come, when his soldiers would spread out further and liberate more and more towns and cities, to bring down prisons and work camps. He had plans for Pasadena, Bakersfield, San Bernardino and more, he knew primarily once Palmdale was back in their hands his forces could really get going, Palmdale and its airport was among the major HK factories in the area, taking it down would be a major victory for the Resistance.

Sat elsewhere was his wife Cameron who was looking over his revisions of his battle plans, as Skynet technology developed Connor was adjusting his plans and readjusting until they were as he pleased, but even then he needed a critique, someone to tell him where there were flaws in his plans and that was where she came in. Her eyes scanned over the latest plan he'd given her, the one for Palmdale.

"The factory is going to be major problem John." Cameron stated, "Your plan here has been rather vague on what to do about it."

"Intentional," John replied as he glanced up from his other plans, "I don't know what to do about it." He sat up straight. "Would've been different if the work camp was to the south of it we'd be in and out before anything could happen, set up a fire wall to confuse their sensors, some rockets to destroy the defences or something like that, but with it being to the North our extraction teams would have to go around the factory. They'll be ambushed and the whole plan goes to shit."

Cameron looked back to the plan from the information they'd gathered from their Palmdale teams the factory had grown, with more time and resources Skynet had improve the defences of the facility and made it larger, further spread out.

"We'd need a large distraction force." Cameron offered.

John nodded in agreement, "I'd already considered that, but I don't want to send people on a suicide mission."

"Not people." Cameron replied and focussed on him.

John immediately got what she meant. "I'd thought of that too, but we don't have enough machine spare for a decent distraction, besides chances are they'd be destroyed and if their CPUs are captured … " He let the thought hang in the air.

"We could reprogram Spiders for this specific task, T-100s, T-200s, T-400 units, they never see the inside of a base." Cameron offered.

John mulled the thought over. "It'd be a big task." He muttered.

"We should send the order out to all outposts and forward bases, capture as many machines as they can, anything and everything." Cameron replied.

"Would be handy if we could capture a T-300. That'd be a nice distraction." John smirked at the thought.

"I'm sure we could pull something off." Cameron replied. "There's also the T-70s we use as guards here." John gave her a curious look. "Their unit is beyond obsolete at this point, they're too slow, too stupid. Their armaments are note worthy yes, but they're no good to us anymore."

"Seems a little harsh don't you think?" he asked with a small grin.

"You've always been sentimental." Cameron replied with a smirk.

"Alright that's fair, pass me the plan." He asked and reached out for it, which Cameron returned to him. John noted down the new addition with a pencil. "Still won't be able to add too much until we get a better idea of the prison layout from the T-500s."

"And we'll likely need security codes." Cameron added.

"Yeah but we'll need those when we're ready. We'll have to be smart about that and I've already got a little plan in mind." John gave Cameron a knowing look before Cameron's head snapped towards the door to the office.

"Dr Mack is here." She announced seconds before there was a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" John called out.

"Sir it's me, Dr Mack! I have my report!" the good doctor announced, was that excitement in his voice.

"Enter." Cameron allowed then the door came in and sweating man stormed in, a large grin of excitement on his face.

"General Connors, sir ma'am." He greeted with a large grin.

The Connors looked to one another curiously then to the T-500 who had been silent throughout the exchange, the T-500 was looking to Mack, Connor could almost imagine the featureless machine to have a metaphorical eyebrow raised in question.

"You ah, found something interesting?" John asked with a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"Oh yes! Absolutely!" Dr Mack rooted around in his pocket and pulled out a CPU. "The new CPU for the T-600 sir." He announced as he showed them. It wasn't anything Cameron and Bob hadn't seen, or was it? "This one is a little damaged from the T-600s destruction but it's mostly functional, I tell you Skynet has truly outdone itself with this design, it blows the series 500 chip out of the water." Mack rambled excitedly then made his way around to the Connor's desk and placed the chip on said desk, the T-500 stepped closer to look.

"The complexity of the chip is beyond the difference between the series 400 to 500. As is with the factory standard setting the T-600 is capable of advanced thinking; complex directives no problem, difficult tasks no problem, no more tasks the T-600 will reset to a previous task and get to it." He continued with excitement only to be interrupted.

"Wait," Cameron stopped him, "you said factory standard setting. What do you mean?" she asked as she stared at Dr Mack.

Mack's grin grew wider if it were even physically possible and reached down to the CPU and turned it over, he picked up John's pencil and placed the graphite tip against something near the bottom.

"This is where the damage is sadly, but I've been able to determine it's function," he looked between the two Generals, Cameron was silent as she looked John looked curious and somewhat amused. "It's an alternate setting a sort of, if you'll pardon the phrase, read write mode. It allows the terminator to think independently to learn at a more rapid rate. The T-500s can learn now sure, but this is something different, something more advanced."

John reached out gently and looked at the T-600 CPU, he looked at where Mack had been pointing and sure enough there was a damaged little pin switch, this side of the CPU had more damage than the other but he could see the switch, his thought immediately went back to 1995 in a garage in the desert resetting the switch of the T-800 infiltrator; his first true friend.

"Incredible." John muttered and looked the chip over. "You mind leaving this with us for now Doctor?" John asked.

"Ahhh, sure! Sure. That's fine, you've likely got a lot to think about with this HUGE bombshell I just dropped, sorry by the way." Dr Mack rambled out his apology despite his obvious excitement as he made his way to the door.

"No problem, make sure to give the T-600 to the quartermaster I've assigned them their task." John ordered.

"Of course no problem and uh sorry again!" Dr Mack apologised once more and walked out closing the door behind him.

John counted to five in his head, his eyes still staring at the door. "You're not happy." He suddenly announced.

"The T-600 didn't have a read/write mode this feature wasn't present till the T-800 series." Cameron announced in monotone. The lack of emotion told John all he needed to know; she was worried, not scared exactly but she didn't like the news.

John looked to Bob, "And you?"

"Same. The second generation of T-800 series units were the first to have the read/write feature." The T-500 replied.

"So this Skynet has upped it's game, the CPUs are better made, earlier units are better made and more intelligent. That's concerning but it changes nothing. Skynet won't allow these units to become too smart, the T-800 told me so." John replied as he continued to look the CPU over then placed it down, time for action. "Alright Cameron, I want you to send the message to capture machines, anything and everything. I'm going to inform John-Henry about the new T-600 CPU, if he doesn't already know."


Night was slowly breaking into day, the light of the sun shining through the darkness. The combination team finally made it to Palmdale, their progress had been slow and tense since leaving the industrial area they had well and truly been deep in Skynet territory after that, and aerial HK had almost spotted them, but they were finally at their destination.

They stuck to the shadows and the corners, hiding as best they could in the houses as they went deeper into the city. Danvers knew where the two Outposts were located having been among the first few Resistance fighters to set up an outpost in the city.

They large squad made their way into an old diner that was still standing. Danvers carefully reached for the door that led into the back only for a hand to shoot out from behind the counter and grab at his wrist.

"SHI.." he cursed out before another hand covered his mouth.

"Sshhh." A woman's voice came from the new figure, a figure covered in rags her face covered with a scarf and goggles. "Skynet is always listening."

She looked around noticing the weapons pointed at her.

"Private Fenwick Palmdale detachment," the covered woman introduced herself, "don't open the door it's booby trapped."

"But I thought this." Danvers started as the woman removed her hands from him.

"Was our outpost. We think Skynet figured out we were here, so we packed up and moved all of our shit elsewhere left a little gift for Skynet." Fenwick explained.

"That's a stupid move not to tell command, we could've been blown to pieces." Danvers argued.

Fenwick shook her head, "Not really our scouts picked you up a while back, here in Palmdale you get really good at keeping hidden or you end up dead." She paused and looked around at the rest of the group. "I'll tale you to the outpost, but the metal stays away, we don't trust them."

"We don't trust them but we need them." Jackson spoke up.

"Perhaps, perhaps not but the metal don't see where the outpost is, just for our security. I'm sure you understand." Fenwick replied casually.

"Alright fine, is the base far from here?" he asked, Fenwick shook her head. "Then the machines stay here, and we'll head to the base."

"That'll be fine." Fenwick replied then stepped away.

Danvers looked to Unit-711, "You and the rest of the machines stay here, keep hidden, understand?"

"Affirmative." The machine responded, the other machines started moving around the diner, three machine ducked down behind the counter, Fenwick moved out of their way quickly, as the others found their own place.

Fenwick eyed the robots before focussing back on Danvers and the others. "Follow me and stay as quiet as you can." The covered woman led the Resistance fighters through the destroyed section of the wall, pausing only a moment to check the skies and the streets before leading them elsewhere, passing across roads, moving through buildings then up a flight of stairs.

From what Danvers could tell they were in a small bookstore not too far from the diner, the upstairs section was plain and ordinary looking with a single door to what may have been the previous owners home. Fenwick paused then rapped her knuckles on a wall twice as they approached the door waited three second then knocked three more times.

The door before them opened slowly, the barrel of a Kalashnikov poking out taking aim then another and another, three covered individuals each carrying similar rifles.

"They're clean." Fenwick stated before stepping, the covered soldiers allowing her entrance.

"Not seen this many soldiers around here in a long time." One of the covered soldiers replied.

"I'm Sergeant Danvers, I take it someone radioed ahead about us?" he asked as he approached and pushed out his hand in greeting.

"Private Johnson and yeah we got the word," Johnson took Danvers' hand and shook it, "glad things are being done around here, Palmdale is a tough location."

"I know I was one of the few people to set up shop here originally." Danvers replied as the rest of the team stepped inside the small apartment. He looked around the room, "who's in charge?"

"No one, we had a Corporal but ah," he paused for moment, "they didn't last long."

Danvers had a confused look on his face. "You either get good at hiding or die." Fenwick repeated her words.

Now Danvers understood. "Ah okay. Where'd you get the A-Ks?" he asked and gestured to the aforementioned weapons.

"Command gave us intel on a house north of here deeper in Skynet territory, its basement had supplies food, drink, weapons, ammo and explosives." Johnson replied.

"A lot of each." Fenwick added.

"How'd they know?" Danvers asked.

"Don't know, don't care, the supplies were a blessing, we and the other outpost went halves still plenty for the both of us." Johnson replied, "Right you're here for a mission, capturing some older model metal."

Johnson turned around and headed towards an old desk. Danvers took note of the man's wording.

"I take it you've seen the Skull Faces?" he asked

"Yeah, it was a newer model that made us think Skynet knew we were at the diner, it was poking around a little longer than we'd like, so we packed up and moved over here, we can still see the Diner from here but it's a safe enough distance." Johnson looked over the handwritten notes on a sheet of paper. "Alright we've been trailing a sizeable squad of T-500s north-west of here. Connor wants their CPUs."

"Right so we'll try not to shoot their heads." Danvers quickly added.

"Yeah, you'll have to be quick too Skynet reinforcements are never too far away, we can supply you with power tools for quicker CPU extraction or if you're feeling strong try and find a way to move the bodies quickly, which you do is your business but don't lead Skynet back here, got it?" Johnson explained as he looked over the local map.

"No problem, give us the rough co-ordinates and we'll get to it."

Johnson pointed to the co-ordinates on the map, "Right here, with all of you working together and with metal you should have an easier time, just be careful not to get overrun if you're too slow."

"Thanks, we will be." Danvers replied before gathering up the combination squad.


Jason's Notes

This chapter should've probably been called The Talking! Because of all the talking but I feel it was needed. Next chapter should be fun! I'm likely going to keep concentrating on this story for a while as I'm enjoying writing in The War.

Hopefully next chapter shouldn't be too long however I am going away on Holiday with the family on the 23rd and be back home by around the 7th February. So it'll be delayed a little while. Take care all!