Days of Sky Net

by keithallen

sequel to the 'day' series. John Junior and his crew have gone home. Now, John Connor faces the coming of sky net, and the rush to prepare for it. Knowing when J-day will arrive and having the time and knowledge to prepare for it, John is in a better position than humanity originally was. But then again so is Sky Net. Forget the 'genre', as always, I'll go all over the place.

23. Chapter 23

CH 23

Reading Marisa's reports, John noted her style of attack that was working out very well for TX's and humans. First the scouts went out to find Sky Net units. These scouts would only spot the units, then pull back and report. Once she had locations, she got some forces beyond them, then had a show of some snipers in front of them. The snipers would get their attention, then the units in back would take them out. Using this method, Marisa was into southern Portugal, past Seville in Spain and Colonel Smith was 50 miles up the southern Spanish coast. So far they had found very few other live humans, but plenty of wrecked military equipment to scavenge off of. A single artillery canon had yet to fire a shot. They were following ten miles behind the 'line', in groups, waiting for something to shoot at.

Marisa's units were small, 15 to 20 members each with a Stug. Her plan was to keep her units small until they ran into 'serious' Sky Net forces of more than a single terminator, or a few at a time. Colonel Smith also reported a huge increase in the morale of his men now that they were out and fighting and winning against Sky Net instead of hunkering down inside the Rock.

Southeastern Spain was now a safe place to dock ships for reinforcements and supplies. northernmost Morocco had been over flown, and showed no signs of Sky Net. A couple bombs had landed there, blasting the area, but if Sky Net forces had been there, they had since moved. A few TX's were sent there just to ensure Sky Net didn't come back to try and close the straights of Gibraltar from the African coastline.

John sent another 10,000 troops to reinforce Marisa, along with another 50 Stugs. When she ran into Sky Net's army, she was going to need them.

In the south, General Jacobson was being hampered more by terrain that Sky Net. His only engagement so far was finding a long column of terminators and H/K tanks coming up the middle of Mexico. They did have a dozen H/K's for cover. He saw them in time to close off a pass at the northern end and bracket the pass itself, with Stugs hiding towards the southern end. That battle had been large, but surrounded and their H/K's shot down, the Sky Net forces tried to charge ahead and took a 'horrible beating'. It took Jacobson two days to finish off the last of the Sky Net units, but he did it was minimal losses to his own forces. He did use tons of ammunition, including artillery shells to blast the trapped Sky Net forces in the pass into scrap.

The message General Perry sent from the north wa also good. He'd sent an expedition up into Alaska to reclaim the oil wells. The force of mostly Stugs and carriers had found Sky Net units buried in snow. The facilities were intact, and using metal detectors, they destroyed most of the Sky Net units that didn't have a chance to fight back. The pipeline would be operational in another three weeks, was Perry's estimate.

.

During a meeting with the civilian leaders of the major cavern systems and his generals, another large concern was brought to John's attention. The lack of babies. His mother spoke for the people who had been studying the population problem. In a firm voice over the conference table, Sarah told John, "Right now, we have a crisis, John. There are not enough children. By the best count, there are only 7, 400 children we know of in all of North America. The human race is going to decline badly in the near future. The rise in populations we know of is due to finding and healing survivors. You have done well in fighting Sky Net, but our death to birth ratio is way too high."

John looked at his mother and said, "But, once we get rid of Sky Net, I'm sure more families are going to form and we will get somewhat back to normal."

"Not according to what we're finding," Kathy Brewster said. "Women are joining the Resistance army also, and every one that does, is focusing on fighting Sky Net. John, you have done well. No one will deny that. For every baby born, six humans die on the battlefield."

"We all know this war is no where close to being over, and our populations will be declining," Sarah explained. "At first, we didn't have the food and shelter. Now, we do, but we need more children, many more to keep our civilization from driving itself extinct."

The way Sarah was saying it was like telling John it was up to him to make women have children. He shrugged and asked, "What are we suppose to do about it? MAKE women have children?"

"I would love to have a child," Laura said wistfully and cast a tiny smile at Derek, which he returned.

"But you can't," Jesse Flores stated, "Because only human women can get pregnant."

John swore the temperature in the room dropped ten degrees as Laura, Cameron, Maria and Heather, one of General Perry's TX's glowered at her.

"That was uncalled for," John said heavily. To his mother, he asked, "Seriously, Mom, how do we coax women to have kids? It's not like I can decree something like that."

"I believe what Sarah is trying to say is that everyone needs to know the importance of having children," Cameron offered. "John, you are doing well in stressing everyone working together and defeating Sky Net, but you do not speak much on forming and raising families. Perhaps you need to speak more on how important families are."

John did think that was a good idea. Before he could agreed, Jesse Flores said, "Yes, and leading by example would be a big help."

John frowned at her. "What are you saying?" he asked in a challenge.

"I'm saying people look up to you and follow your lead," Jesse said firmly. "They see their hero John Connor doesn't care about having children, but focuses on fighting Sky Net. Look around you, John. Your metal there helps you to defeat the enemy, but she can't bear a child. Same with Derek's metal..."

"Hey!" Derek snapped. "I don't see you having any kids either," he growled at Jesse.

"At least I'm capable," Jesse shot back with a sneer.

John noticed Laura wore a blank face as she stared at the table. Cameron's terminator glare was fixed square on Jesse. This was getting personal. "All right, ENOUGH!" He said in a shout. "Let's get back to the problem. We need children, not arguments." He eyed Jesse, then Derek to be sure they were not going to keep arguing, then said, "Mom, you're saying we need some kind of incentive to help families form. I think helping out say, with pulling the parents out of combat duty for a year to establish themselves may help?"

"Keeping the mother out of combat unless the situation is dire would help also," Kathy said. "And as Cameron said, letting people know how important having a family is, is vital. I have also noted that even though TX women have all the organs, not even Catherine Weaver knows why they cannot conceive. Right now, that would be at least another few thousand women who could bear children if we discover why."

"They are metal, that's why they can't have kids," Jesse stated flatly.

Kathy waved a hand at Jesse. "And what are you?" she asked harshly.

"I'm completely human," Jesse stated. "Unlike some here."

"No, you're not," Kathy said, correcting her. "Not any more. You, me ... everyone alive here today is no longer completely human." Katy stated. Stabbing a finger on the table, she said, "We all have been treated with nanites so we can function in a radioactive environment. I have been studying these things. Nanites do heal, they also harden. In X-ray studies I've done, I found the average person now has an average of 20% metallic substances in their skeletal structure. You know what that means? It means YOU are part metal! Yes, right now the ONLY difference between you and Laura over here is she was built and has a computerized brain, you were born. That's it!"

Jesse screwed her face up and barked back, "You lying ... QUACK! I am not part metal!"

"You are. All of us are," Kathy stated.

Sarah tried to say something, but Jesse shouted over her with, "You are a lying bitch!"

"FLORES!" John yelled as he shot to his feet. "YOU are relieved! Guards, take Colonel Flores into the dinning hall and hold her there."

Jesse then snapped at John, "You are choosing metal over your own flesh and blood!"

"No, I am choosing reasoning over being pig-headed," John snapped back. "Take her out of here, I'll deal with her after we are done here."

Jesse scowled and fumed but left willingly with the guards.

In the quiet after Jesse was escorted out, Sarah looked at Kathy and asked, "What are you talking about, we're becoming part metal?"

Kathy Brewster shrugged and explained, "Just what I said. The way I figure it, it's evolution. The last big change in humankind was 230,000 years ago. That is when our DNA changed for whatever reason, and we became Homo Sapiens. Now, due to circumstances, we are changing again. I don't know what you want to call us, but by technology this time, we are changing again. To deal with our environment we need nanites in our systems. Those who do not have them are slowly dying off, either to radiation directly or diseases we can't defend ourselves against due to being weakened by radiation. Not to mention the birth defects that will be caused in those who do not have nanite protection. This is fact. I can't tell you what we will be once this war is over and we settle into what we are becoming. All I can tell you is we will come out of this war different that what we began as. The purely Homo Sapien strain of humans is over. "

"You're saying that one way or the other, Sky Net IS killing off all humans," Derek stated.

"As we know ourselves, yes," Kathy agreed. "That does not mean we will all die, only change to fit into our new environment."

"That's a strange way to evolve," John said in a musing tone.

"Agreed, but that is what is happening. Everyone must change to survive," Kathy told him.

Seeing everyone was quiet, Sarah spoke up and said, "Now we know we're all going to be part metal, how do we encourage more people to have children?"

.

In Barcelona, the T-888 known as 4362 analyzed the data on the system communication errors. Not only the errors themselves, but the timeline the errors began occurring. Sky Net had given it a broader range of mental ability. It and it's brother T-888's had reasoning power.

Although free humans had been declared all but gone down on the extreme southern tip of the area, the timing of the comms errors matched Sky Net's plan to move on the remaining humans on that southern most mountain that was mostly surrounded by water. 4362 had a theory. If the humans knew if the pending attack, they would attempt to foul it. A device to corrupt communications would do that. Although there was no proof the humans took such an action, it was a reasonable theory until proven false. That also meant humans somehow had gained the ability to listen to Sky Nets comms.

In the server building were Sky Net was, 4362 presented it's theory to Sky Net. It proposed two actions. One, shift communications to another band, and two, send a local force with 4362 as the head to go find out for sure if its theory was correct. Sky Net agreed.

Not knowing what it was going to face, 4362 collected 1000 terminators , followed by 200 H/K tanks, and 20 H/K aerial units. A pair of flying H/K's would lead, the others would follow to the sides in a standard guarding range comms between units still functioned, just not any comms that depended upon satellites.

4362 wanted to keep a close watch on it's forces, so it rode on an H/K tank to keep a good view of the scouting units in the air out on front. Traveling at a jog, the fastest speed the H/K tanks could move, 4362 took it's forces down the coastal road to the mountain that was at the tip of the peninsula.

It never made it. 60 miles out from Barcelona, missiles rose up and destroyed it's scout H/K's. Humans were not where they were suppose to be. Noting where the missiles had been shot from, 4362 had it's terminators break ranks and form a broad line from the water's edge to a half mile inland, and had the four lead H/K tank target the area the missiles came from. It sent another 20 H/K tanks behind the line of terminators to assist where needed. As the 4 H/K tanks shot plasma at the launch points, 4362's line moved forward. Traveling the three miles to where the burning plant life was, one vehicle and some human corpses burned. It was obvious humans were no longer concentrated on that southern mountain.

Other flying H/K's then reported being fired on. Off to the right, 4362 saw an H/K explode and fall from the sky, then another. The others were shooting Plasma down onto humans and their machines. Three more H/K's fell. A report told 4362 a mass of humans were attacking from that direction with plasma weaponry. Right after that report, plasma fire from ahead was answered by terminators on the line. Viewing this, 4362 saw small vehicles firing at the terminators. Terminators were firing back, and their plasma bolts were skipping off the outsides of the mahcines, not penetrating.

If 4362 called the remaining flying H/K/s back, the human there would be able to attack the line. If it send out the H/K tanks at the line, then once the remaining H/K flying units were downed, then the humans wold proceed. If it didn't support the line of terminators, it was only a matter of time before holes appeared in it's line.

4362 ordered all terminators to quickly with draw, and the H/K tanks to form a line east of where the flying H/K's were fighting to keep the humans in front of it. Humans with machines capable of shooting plasma, and having protection from plasma had not been in it's calculations. If it was to defeat these humans' it had to reconsider it's plans.

A few more terminators were lost during the withdraw. 4362 recalled the flying H/K's to plan how to use them the best. Humans had been waiting for it. 4362 did not know how they knew it was coming, but they had. Humans could hide on land. They could not hide in the water. 4362 put terminators between the H/K tanks to form a solid line that curved back on the right side to prevent humans from trying to come around from the side again. It also sent it's remaining 12 H/K flying units out to sea at a very low altitude to circle around behind the humans, and destroy them when they attacked again.

Watching it's H/K's fly out over the water, 4362 notice movement much higher up. Six more H/K's were descending. At first 4362 though there were patrol units coming to help. right above it's units, these H/K's fired down on 4362's. Caught underneath the strange H/K's 4362's had no way to fight back with bottom gunnery pods, and were not able to get away. The fight was outside the effective plasma range of the H/K tanks. Another alert, and 4362 found more flying units, the propeller type airplanes humans used, coming down in a steep dive to shoot more missiles down on it's lines, hitting H/K tanks. These pulled up and away after they had shot their missiles, staying high in the air. More humans from in front also fired plasma and missiles into it's ranks.

In the confusion, 4362 directed defensive fire at the humans in front and the missiles coming down. Then a plasma shot came from behind. 4362 saw one of the small machines, then another, and another. The H/K tank under it was hit, making the power plant explode. 4362 was thrown off.

To shoot back at these small machines would be to become their next target. 4362 had to report back what they were facing. These were not beaten, weak humans. These humans were organized and bore effective weapons and tactics. At the moment, the H/K tanks were the targets from on front and behind. 4362 recalled all the terminators. Not to march or run back, but to stay low, cease fire and get through the small machines running around behind them. If they made it, they were to regroup with 4362 ten miles east of here.

This battle was lost, it was time to fall back and come up with a new plan.

.

Colonel Smith was giddy at the reports that the Sky Net units were retreating. The H/K tanks stayed to get pounded by Stugs, plasma and missiles, but all the terminators left standing had turned and ran away. The carrier air strike had finished the flying H/K's, and after the ground attack planes hit them from the air and Stugs got behind them, the Sky Net line couldn't stand the paddling, and retreated. It took his men another half hour to destroy all the H/K tanks. By that time, Marisa had come with more reinforcements.

Looking over the carnage his men had wrought upon Sky Net, Colonel Smith couldn't help but smile at his men's cheers of victory. They had just won a large engagement against Sky Net. He did loose some men and what was left of a TX was burning nearby, but they had beaten Sky Net forces so bad, the remainder of them had run away. It felt good.

"Colonel, do you need assistance?" Marisa asked as she came up to him.

Beaming her a smile, he said, "I am happy to say we do not. We set up and waited for them. After a sound paddling, the terminators left ran away. I do believe we taught them a lesson."

"Sky Net units retreated?" she asked, eyeing him.

"Yes, and it was a lovely sight to see," he agreed.

Marisa wasn't as happy. "If they retreated, then some learned the tactics you used. They will inform Sky Net and form a defense against it," she told him. "They will prepare better next time. You will have to change your tactics."

"Then we will," Smith said confidently.

"The fact some got away is not good news," Marisa stressed. "Up until now, Sky Net had no counter for our Stugs. Now Sky Net knows about them, they will develop a counter. That means we will loose many more Stugs. Possibly battles now also. We cannot afford to loose the forces we have."

"We did reduce their heavy equipment, and their air power," he said, motioning to the long line of burning H/K tanks.

"Here, yes. Sky Net has many factories, and we have yet to find one. Everything of Sky Net's here will be replaced. We cannot replace losses so easily," Marisa explained. "I have to get back to my own troops. Be wary, Colonel."

"I assure you, we will be fine," he said evenly.

Marisa left, feeling just the opposite.

.

4362 collected 326 terminators at the rendezvous. A small fraction of what they had started the day with. The percentages of stopping the humans from advancing was very small. The small machines were the worst threat. these things had to be fast. They had killed the H/K tanks by sneaking up behind them. Using it's reasoning power, 4362 determined that it may be possible to do the same to them, if they hid and let the machines pass by. The humans had also used deception, setting a force in front to draw their attention, then the real attack came from other directions.

4362 lead it's terminators at a run farther east, looking for a suitable place to set such a trap. Coming to a town, it slowed to a walk and studied the area. This town had low walls going into it. 4362 stopped and looked back at the road. It rose slightly to come into town. Plants were to both sides of the road. The stone wall was solid, no sensors were able to see through it. The buildings in the town were fairly solid. Walking on, 4362 noted the road dropped going out of town. It looked at the buildings again, and the road, then ran simulations in it's head about those machines coming into town. 4362 then walked back, noting where the side streets were, counting the streets, building windows and low spots. Forming a plan, it began directing terminators on where to be and how to position themselves. It also sent back a runner to inform Sky Net of what it had discovered.

.

Colonel Smith kept a picket force out beyond the battlefield as the majority of his small army collected ruined terminators that were scattered all over the place. The H/K tank hulls were being cut up for scrap. He did send for a freighter from Gibraltar to a port not far behind them so they could load the 600 plus terminator remains and the chunks of tank hull his TX's were cutting apart.

As Colonel Smith leaned up the battlefield, Four Stugs looked at a town by the sea 12 miles away. Two circled around the land side. A pair of TX's left the other two Stugs and ran low, bent over to get a close look at the town. Peeking over the low wall, one of the TX's saw a terminator crouched down behind the wall. He quickly pulled back and got the other's attention. They returned to their Stugs and gave the commanders the terminator's positions. The commanders radioed the other Stugs - terminators hiding in ambush in the town.

From the west side, the Stugs opened up on the low stone walls, blasting rock and crumbling the wall. The terminators rose up and fired back, exposing themselves. TX's and Stug canon picked off the 20 terminators who'd been hiding, then began shooting into houses. From the east side, the Stugs found terminators lying on the road leaving town, waiting in ambush, and shot them. Again, more terminators came out to return fire. The fire was too heavy, a pair of TX's were lost. The Stugs had to back off with much of their ceramic armor blown away. They kept the town in sight and radioed for help. For the moment, the Sky Net terminators held onto the town that was now beginning to burn from the plasma fire.

.

Marisa got a scout report from a squad up near Madrid. They found three factories and large fields of every kind of Sky Net machine east of Madrid. So far, 150,000 terminators, at least 50,000 H/K tanks, 20,000 flying H/K's, many tracked service trucks and mobile artillery were packed into large squares. The factories were producing, but so far, all the product was being parked in the fields beyond.

Marisa didn't know why Sky Net wasn't distributing the new machines, but she did know this was a big threat she had no effective way of attacking. She needed to talk to John to find out what he wanted to do about them. Until she got instructions, Marisa decided to make a wide circle around the area, planting mines and weakening bridges so they would not take the weight of the H/K tanks. It was the best she could to do contain them.

.

Sky Net Barcelona got the messenger informing it of humans attacking 'in force' only 50 miles away. Not having any luck at shifting the band of it's digital satellite comms, Sky Net chose to shift farther to use radio frequencies. It verified these communications worked, then send out a larger force to crush the humans and sent messenger terminators out to the Madrid area plants to inform it's units of the new communications.

.

Colonel Smith decided to recall the battered Stugs from around the town and set up artillery. Once they were in place, he shelled the town with a 'creeping barrage', that started at one end of the town and traveled to the other end, utterly destroying the place. He then send his soldiers in to remove whatever terminators remained.

.

4362 acted when the first shells began falling. The human were attacking again. Not wanting his terminators destroyed or surrounded, it made another withdrawal to the east. It also found a messenger returning to give it the communications frequency. 4362 found another 10,000 terminators and 300 H/K tanks were coming and 500 flying H/K's were available to it. This time it put 5000 terminators and 200 of the H/K tanks to the north to sit and wait while it drew the rest 4 more miles back. It grounded the flying H/K's until the humans advanced past the units to the north. The units 4362 kept near the road, it set up a similar line, but this time with more terminators behind the H/K tanks to protect their rear.

.

Once the town was a leveled burning wreck, Colonel Smith moved on around the town. He only went 5 miles and scouts reported another mass of Sky Net units up ahead. Sensing that this was Sky Net's 'last stand' in the area, he decide to engage. Running the Stugs around to the north, he set up his artillery and moved his men forward.

Riding in the command truck with Smith, Tina asked, "Sir, is this wise? We would do better to make them come to us."

Smith cast her a smile and said, "They are not attacking. That tells me they are trying to hold until reinforcements arrive. We do the same maneuver, keep them occupied until the Stugs get behind them and take out their tanks. Then we pummel them and this time, we keep at it until we get them all."

"Remember, Sir, they know about our Stugs now," she told him. "If they are standing their ground, they could have a counter for our Stugs."

"That would be rather fast, wouldn't it?" he asked.

Tina eyed him and said, "Sir, Sky Net does think quickly. It is very possible it has a workable solution. Do not underestimate Sky Net. I highly recommend stopping and keeping watch to see what Sky Net is going to do."

"And loose our initiative?" Smith asked in a scoff. "Tina, if we don't keep going, then Sky Net will regain it's balance."

"Please examine the situation closely before committing," Tina stressed.

The radio spoke. "This is Scout leader to Command. We have a line of 1000 terminators at point bravo 57, 90 H/K tanks have been spotted directly behind the line. The line of units is 1200 meters long. The beach area and beyond is clear."

"Roger, Scout leader," Smith replied. "This is command, artillery open fire on Bravo 57. All Stug squads, begin end run."

Tina got up on top of the command truck. Seeing Lily, she called the TX over and up to her.

"Yes, Tina?" Lily asked.

"Keep a close watch out, ears and eyes," Tina told her.

Lily nodded and got down. Seeing a tree, Lily ran over and climbed it.

.

Smith listened to the battle communications. At first all was going well. Sky Net's front line was being shelled and the Stugs were making their way around to the north. Then came a frantic call.

"Command, we got fliers, tons of them coming down on us!"

"We can't get our barrels up high enough to shoot back!"

"Weave, damnit!"

"Command, we're..."

"Get under cover!"

"This is artillery, We're getting attacked from the North! Terminators and H..."

Lily yelled from her treetop position. "TINA! Flying H/K's coming, hundreds!"

"Command! A whole mass of terminators popped up, we're getting pounded by ... thousands of them!"

Tina shouted down the truck's hatch. "Colonel, we have a mass attack from the air!"

Smith keyed him mike and ordered, "Shoot the fliers down, then attack those terminators!"

The sky was heavily dotted with black forms racing at them. Tina knew they were in trouble. A few missiles streaked up to down some H/K's the H/K's shot a rain of plasma down on the troops as they flew closer. Tina also saw H/K tanks behind them, destroying the artillery. A plasma bolt struck the truck beside theirs, blowing it up. Tina brought her plasma canons out and shot skyward, hitting an H/K's engine, then another one. A plasma bolt from above hit the back of their truck. The fuel tank exploded, pitching her to the ground. She rolled and got to her feet to shoot a third down, then a fourth. All it did was clear space for more to come in. Screams and cries of pain filled the air.

Tina ran close to the overturned truck and fired one plasma bolt after another. Plasma bolts shot up from ground level and rained down just as hard. Another TX shooting up at the H/K's was hit, melting down her hard and into her torso. Her body dropped, one arm falling off as he remains burned. Horizontal plasma bolts were now also incoming. An ammo carrier went up, shaking the ground with an explosion and sending a large fireball into the air.

Tina knew they were trapped. To stay here meant death. They could not go back they way they came. She yelled as loud as possible, "RETREAT INTO THE WATER, NOW!" Spiriting around the truck, she saw pieces of the tree Lily had climbed into was burning. One of Lily's legs was smouldering on the ground. Tina shot for the ocean as fast as she could run, dodging side to side. She noted a few others following her. Racing into the surf, Tina dove in to hide her infrared signature as fast as possible. water boiled up to her right. Crawling as fast as she could go, she got ten feet of water over her, then stood up.

Tina collected other TX's together as she saw them. She then had them look for any others who'd gotten to safety. As white light from plasma shots and orange lights from fireballs lit the water's surface, Tina managed to find 37 TX's, Some missing arms or arms and shoulders. They shorted out and shut down. Tina had them carried. When it was clear no others were coming, she led them back west. After walking a mile under water, Tina had them wait and walked up to poke her head out of the water.

On land, Terminators were shooting down terrified men who tried to surrender. H/K tanks were everywhere and Flying H/K's commanded the sky. She got down and went back to the few she was able to save, and walked away from this horrid mistake.

.

Marisa contemplated her position. She'd been scouting and expanding into the areas where there was no, or very little Sky Net. Finding the factories, she left scouts to watch the mass of Sky Net units there to know if they moved. She expected they would, but had no idea which direction they would go in. Once all the traps of proximity detectors/claymore mines, bridge damage and road pits were set that could be, she moved away from the area. She was expecting at least some of the mass to move as she waiting for General Connor's recommendations.

What she was not expecting was to have a scout report from her south that they had found a Stug with battle damage carrying several TX's fleeing from the coast. The report was that a large Sky Net force had obliterated Colonel Smith's command.

This was bad news. If there was nothing left of Smith's forces, then Gibraltar was wide open to attack. John was counting on Gibraltar as a main supply base. Marisa kept the core of her army more to her west and used fluid maneuvers. She didn't use it to batter her way through an area. She gave coordinates to the scout party that found the Stug, for them and the Stug to meet her. She then took off to go find out exactly what happened.

Flying over the road, Marisa's carrier got her to the rendezvous point. Coming up the road towards her was one of her Studs with the scout party riding on top. Behind it was a blackened Stug missing much of it's ceramic armor. This one had so many TX's on it, she could easily see them falling off. The top of the Stug where the hatch was had three TX's standing up in it.

Marisa went over to the battered Stug and said, "Report, what happened?"

The TX's climbed down, except for one who was missing a leg and another was missing from her belly down. A couple others were missing an arm.

A whole TX that was only missing most of the flash on her left side explained the battle, and as far as she knew, only they, and the TX's that fled into the ocean had survived. Colonel Smith's command had been wiped out.

"Damn!" Marisa spat. She had warned Smith to be careful. He'd went ahead and attacked without knowing where all the Sky Net units were and got them all killed. She had no choice but to redistribute her forces and beg John for help.

.

4362 looked over the bodies. It got his attention that some were not human. One corpse that was smouldering, only the hips and legs left of it, bore metal actuators and a metal frame. He stripped this one's flesh of to find it had been a terminator. Tipping his head to the side, he found no logical reason why a terminator would cover itself in flesh and fight for humans.

This was not the only one. 4362 found other parts of bodies that had been terminators. A flesh covered terminator leg, Another lower body that identified as a t-888 design. To be sure that all the bodies were not terminators, he stripped the flesh off other corpses and found human bone. This was puzzling. Humans were not strong enough to control terminators. Were some terminators controlling these humans? Until he had an answer to this puzzle, he had the area surrounded so he could study this oddity more and consult with Sky Net on why this had occurred.

.

Talking with John Henry, John Connor learned that Sky Net was now using radio frequencies for communications.

At his command center in the Cheyenne mountain complex, John Connor faced the monitor John Henry was on. "You can understand the Sky Net code?' John asked.

"Yes," John Henry said and on the side of the screen, lines of computer code came up. "It is simple ASCII coding. It appears Sky Net is split into many segments. It is using this code to reconnect the isolated duplicates of itself back together. There are eight that have identified themselves. I have a much better picture of what Sky Net is doing now," John Henry explained.

A world map replaced John Henry's face on the screen. Red dots appeared on the map. "Spain, Germany, Russia, China, India, Ireland, England, Africa are where the Sky Net segments are. Sky Net should have a segment in Australia also, but it is not n line," John Henry said. "Either it has not gotten the frequency, or it has ceased to exist."

"We can only hope it has ceased to exist," John replied with a crooked grin. "Have you gotten any information on what Sky Net is doing now?"

John Henry explained, "I have. Since there is no contact with Sky Net Australia, Sky Net is shifting the fleet it is making in priority from contacting the Sky Nets in North America to Sky Net in Australia. When the communications came back on line, I radioed Sky Net as Sky Net North America and reported all is pacified. It has shifted priorities. Except for two places, Australia and Spain, Sky Net had pacified the other continents. There is minor human resistance in Africa and Asia, but the only confrontations is in Spain. Sky Net Europe reports armed conflict by 'significant numbers' of humans that have been eliminated."

"Any details on the Spanish report?" John asked, wondering if Marisa's forces had been defeated.

"The location of the battle was on the Spanish southern coast. It appears Sky Net has many ruined Stugs to inspect, as well as portions of TX's it refers to as unknown terminators to analyze," John Henry told him.

"FUCK!" John spat. "So Sky Net will be able to duplicate TX's now?" In his mind, the terminator in his dream just smashed him with a left hook. This was a devastating blow.

"Unknown. It will take time to study. Eventually, Sky Net will copy them," John Henry said firmly.

John rubbed his forehead. "That's a blow we can't afford to take," he grumbled.

"Yes, an advantage lost," John Henry agreed. "Sky Net knows there is another entity that is producing terminators. At the moment, the suspected entity is John Connor, but it does not know where, how, or what factories you are using. That will buy us some time."

"Not much time, I'm sure," John said, very unhappy an learning this. He rubbed his head in thought and said, "John Henry, you are playing at being Sky Net North America?"

"Yes, I thought it appropriate to keep Sky Net from sending forces this way."

"Good thinking, that was the right thing to do," John told him. "Can you convince Sky Net you will send a force to Australia to search for Sky Net Australia?"

"All segments are sending forces," John Henry replied. "It is mandatory except for Sky Net Europe. Sky Net Europe is to concentrate on solving the Spanish problem."

"Figures," John agreed. He frowned and said, "At the moment, we're occupied with Mexico and Spain. I can't spare any significant force to go to Australia. A few scouts, but nothing that is going to make any difference."

"Catherine Weaver has sent one of the small subs there to asses the situation in Australia and the islands to the north," John Henry said. "They will report their findings."

"Thank Catherine for me. I want to know what she finds out. Are you picking up and of our comms from Spain?" John asked.

"A few. Marisa is frugal with radio comms. She is still active," John Henry told him.

"That's good news at least," John grumbled. "It sounds like all of Sky Net Europe is coming after her." Pausing, he thought for a moment, then said, "Sky Net is most likely to head for Gibraltar. That is where it knows humans were at."

"Agreed, it should be evacuated."

John frowned in thought then said, "It will be, and I think I have got a place for them to go."

.

Marisa took reports as she waited for news from John. The mass of Sky Net units near Madrid had begun to move south west and were running into her traps. The ones on the coast road hadn't moved yet. A few at a time, Gibraltar could withstand a Sky Net attack. If all the mass coming from Madrid attacked, it would be pounded into a pile of rubble. She moved the core of her army farther south, only 50 miles from the coast, and drew her scouts from the north as they kept up setting traps in Sky Net's way. Once they got close, Marisa struggled to come up with a good plan to stop them. She just could not find a way to do that.

Then Marisa got a message from John. He gave her her orders, followed by a *hug* and a statement of 'I know you can do it'. It was a plan Marisa hadn't even considered. She hugged the message and got to work.

The first thing Marisa did was have radio receivers set to to search for and triangulate on Sky Net's radio messages. Once that was in progress, she raced down to Gibraltar and had everyone evacuate and the harbor cleared of ships and headed back to the US. The disabled TX's she found she sent back on the and the ones who were still 100% insisted on staying with her.

Figuring the angle the mass of Madrid units were coming from, Marisa sent scouts out between them and the coastal Sky Net units to clear a path. Sky Net was busy with it's radio traffic, and it didn't take long to figure out where it was coming from. Before Sky Net could get any closer, Marisa hurried her army to the northeast, between the two Sky Net forces, leaving the standard traps for them to find.

Once Marisa was sure they were clear of the Sky Net forces, she had her radio trackers set up again to verify the location of Sky Net. It was in Barcelona, which made sense why there were so many Sky Net units on the coast here. Marisa sent scouts to sneak as close to the city as possible and not give themselves away, then set up and triangulate Sky Net's position again. She knew she had once chance at this, she could not fail.

The artillery was set up at optimum range,encircled by three rings or protection. Some civil war canons and 160 MM canons made up the 250 artillery pieces she had to zero in on the building Sky Net was occupying. ll shells were the seeker shells. They had the coordinates of the building and a scout got a good picture of it. As Sky Net's massive army was beginning their solid river of plasma shot against the Rock, Marisa got into place to look over the city, specifically the building targeted and ordered, "Fire!"

The rumble of artillery sounded, then the building disappeared in a cloud of smoke as shells rained down on it. In the heavy smoke and flame, Marisa noted chunks of wall blasting out. She kept the bombardment up as H/K's took to the sky. Calling in the H/K's presence and number to the missile batteries, she watched them fly to their fate. 22 H/K's were racing at her. They fired at the missiles, the plasma bolts were splint when they hit the missiles, then the missiles hit the H/K's. The craft dropped three and four at a time. By the time they were overhead, only 9 were left. More missiles and ground Plasma fire took send the rest of them to the ground as burning wrecks.

Refocusing on the Sky Net building, Marisa node the smoke of explosions was much closer to the ground.

"Report status of Sky Net transmissions," Marisa ordered.

Her radio replied, "Sky Net transmission ceased as of four minutes, 32 point three seconds ago."

"This is Colonel Marisa. Cease fire, pack up and prepare to move due north. Scouts, blaze the trail."

While the bulk of Sky Net's units were attacking Gibraltar, Marisa headed off to destroy the factories they came from. Just as General John had told her to do.

She wanted so bad to hug him again!