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.

35. Chapter 35

CH 35

John Henry and Dr. Peterson and his staff watched the simulation closely. One side of the screen showed the programs and processes that were being applied as the other side showed a visual of the synthetic egg being approached by a human sperm cell. In the cloud of nanites, the sperm cell was allowed to approach and swim through the nanite cloud. Once it reached the synthetic egg, the sperm cell entered. the cloud of nanites around the egg condensed into a hard shell. Inside the egg, the sperm cell made it to the nucleus and separated. The DNA strands mated with the egg DNA strands. The new cell divided, then divided again. Nanites inside the egg fed the new group of cells, and the divisions continued.

"It appears we have success," Doctor Peterson noted.

"Yes," John Henry agreed. "Let this simulation go on. We will begin the male TX and female human simulation."

In this case, it was the sperm cell that was trailed by builder nanites. Again the sperm cell made it into the egg, the nanites moved to secure the egg to the uterus wall and many became absorbed by the body. Again, division occurred within the egg. nanites help bring nutrients to the egg as the cells multiplied. Besides the normal nutrients, the nanites multiplied and were send into the egg as metallic nutrients.

"If these simulation run full term, and produce babies, then we have success," John Henry said.

"We cannot speed up the simulations?"

"Negative. If a problem develops, we need to know the point where it happens," John Henry explained. "With the success of our efforts, TX's and humans will be able to reproduce. The children will be hybrids, part machine, part human. They will be more capable than either race is now. These children will be our future, Doctor."

.

Derek received the results of the battle in Iran. The new Sky Net segment that had attacked Tina was beaten in short order. Then again, this Sky Net segment had attacked at a 4 to 1 disadvantage. With the superior performance of Tina's forces, Sky Net hadn't stood a chance in hell at breaking her lines. Effectively, Sky Net only added 100,000 more terminators to John Connor's armies as well as plenty of metal to be reprocessed. With the coltan and now a large source of oil, the resistance was becoming stronger than ever, and Sky Net was weakening.

Derek saw this move by Sky Net as one of desperation. Sky Net's northern European line was intact, but had no Sky Net commander. He knew Sky Net Kursk was gone, not one of the raiders had returned. He had Marisa send a company of Stugs North to Kursk to find out if any of them had survived, or had been terminated like one of the teams in Turkey had been. The majority of Sky Net forces in the north were all on the line in their last ordered positions, so he was sure the Stug company would get through and find out what happened to the teams sent north.

Derek was also thinking hard about something else more personal. Anne was doing her 'job' at her desk, school work Laura had given her. Looking over at the child, Derek thought about Laura as a mother. She was doing well with Anne, and Anne adored her. Thinking about it, Derek adored Laura too.

It didn't matter any more to him that Laura was a TX. Yes, she was metal, but she was also a damn fine woman. He pulled her picture out of his pocket and gazed at it. Looking at the background instead of just the lovely creature coming down the hall, he grinned. That looked like the hallway to the emergency bunker that was nearing final construction.

Derek laughed and got up, grabbing a camera. He had the perfect idea. "Sweetie? Daddy has to go check on Mommy, I'll be back soon. Will you be OK?"

Anne turned and said, "I'm fine Daddy, go make sure Mommy is OK."

"Will do, be back soon."

Derek went down into the tunnel to the emergency bunker. He found the spot and waited. Sure enough, Laura had been helping dig out the last spaces. She was dirty with frazzled hair and carrying a pack in one hand.

"Say Cheese!" Derek called and aimed for his shot.

With a smirk, Laura stuck her tongue out as he took the picture. "You HAD to get a picture of me when I'm dirty, huh?" she asked.

"I did," Derek said firmly. He pulled the picture Nancy gave him out of his pocket to show her, then put it back in.

Laura's face took on a look of understanding. "The picture ... this is where it was taken."

"It is!" Derek agreed heartily. "And just today, I realized the true significance of why it was taken," he said with a big grin.

"To catch me unkept and my jacket hanging open?" Laura guessed.

"No," Derek said in a musical tone. He clasped her hands and said, "Laura, I took this picture to capture the moment when I proposed to you."

"You..." she asked, her face spreading into a bright smile.

Derek got down on one knee. Looking up at her, he said in a sincere tone, "Laura you are my best friend. I never could have dreamed of such a lovely, wonderful person as you would be by my side. Yeah, OK, you're a TX. I know that now and I don't give a damn. I never want to be parted from you. Laura, will you please do the the honor of being my wife?"

Laura's "YES!" came out in a screech. She knelt down and hugged Derek, then planted a big kiss on his lips. The kiss lasted a while until a cough sounded.

Derek and Laura parted to see a few workers had stopped on their way back up. "Can't even wait to get back to your quarters, General?" one asked with a grin.

"Hell no!" Derek replied. Standing up, he announced, "Laura here has consented to be my wife. I am the luckiest man in the world!"

The group cheered and another man said, "That's great, just don't do it right here, OK, we're jealous enough already!"

.

Marisa was not comfortable sending a single company of Stugs out so deep into Sky Net territory, so she sent the entire regiment of 200 stugs with their support equipment and 4000 troops and their scout drones. With the Stugs and personnel carriers, they were able to move and maneuver fast. She stressed to the Regiment Colonel that their job was to get to Kursk, find any of their troops that were there and return. As well as planting a few radio jammers along the way. Once they had any surviving troops and casualties they were to head straight back.

To cover the regiment and keep the Sky Net units on their line, she had sniping attacks and artillery open up on the lower parts of the line that were intact. Soon what started as merely harassing the Sky Net forces turned into a battle as the Sky Net forces tried to advance.

The defensive barriers Sky Net had put up worked against their own troops. Pushing though the tall spikes slowed the Sky Net terminators down and hung up their H/K tanks. Terminators that made it through the spikes dropped down into the trench and found they couldn't get out before the thermite grenades Marisa's forces were tossing down on them went off, burning holes in them. From the south and behind the lines, Stugs picked off the stricken H/K tanks and terminators that didn't get through the spikes.

Taking each section at a time, Marisa's forces cleared an area of Sky Net units, then made bridges across the trench to let more of her troops through. Slowly, they began to move up the defense line, removing Sky Net units from the field.

.

Bob had set up a 'disable' watch. Digging holes on the bunker walls, he had a few terminators watching out of the holes. When a Sky Net terminator showed itself, it was disabled, usually by a plasma shot to it's neck to separate the head. Keeping back from the holes, his terminators already had a bead on any Sky Net terminators that showed themselves and were dropped before they could shoot. Of course, seeing the plasma fire, more terminators came to add their bodies and separated heads to the pile. Lately, no more terminators had come.

Bob found the power source for the defense guns and disabled them. He was effectively working to get back out of the now terminator-tomb. When they had attacked, they were 100 strong. Now, Bob only had 27 terminators left, but they were making progress in getting out of here.

"Bob!" one of the watches called, "I see Stugs coming!"

Bob went over to the hole and peeked out. Getting closer to the hole, he said, "Yup, we got a bunch of Stugs incoming. Get everyone up, and go get that case and the head of Box Boy. The Cavalry has arrived!"

Knowing those Stug jockeys had quick trigger fingers, Bob kept his terminators inside until the Stugs and the troops with them had cleared the area of Sky Net machines. Bob went out first and waved. "Hey, we got some stuff for you!" he called.

An infantry Lt. came up to him. "Collect all your troops, disabled ones too. we got carriers for you."

"Great, we're more than ready to get out of here."

One of the carriers were able to analyze chips. Box Boy turned out to be a Sky Net segment. With that and the case of memory chips, they had found valuable information on Sky Net.

By the time the regiment had returned with Bob and his teams, Marisa's attacks had cleared another 50 miles of Sky Net defense line with minimal losses to Marisa's army and massive losses to Sky Net. The find of an intact Sky Net segment with it's memory chips was so important that Catherine Weaver and John Connor arrived at Derek's headquarters in Nancy to inspect the items.

John insisted on seeing the terminator who led the raid to capture the Sky Net segment. Marisa came along with the prize he'd gotten.

Luckily, Cameron didn't come, for upon seeing John, Marisa walked up and hugged him tight.

"I've been doing my best, John!" she announced into his ear.

"You've been doing a fantastic job, Marisa," he assured her and patted her on the back. He let go with one hand to offer it to Bob. "And a great job by you and your team, Bob. You acquired vital information that could well shorten this war. Thank you for what you've done."

Bob shook his hand and replied, "Thank you General, we were only doing our job."

"And you did very well at it," Catherine added. "Be proud of yourself and your team. We certainly are."

John tried to disengage from Marisa, she still stayed close with an arm around him. Right, she was very clingy.

.

While Catherine and another terminator analyzed the Sky Net chip and the memory Bob recovered, Laura announced her and Derek's engagement. John got loose from Marisa long enough to shake Derek's hand and give Laura a quick hug. Marisa reclaimed John's arm to wrap herself around it.

"You know, John's already married," Derek told Marisa.

"Yes, he's married to Cameron, so that means I can't have emotionally disturbing sex with him," Marisa replied firmly.

Derek winced and held up a hand, "Please, don't explain what you mean by that."

"Tina is in the mid-east now?" John asked to change the subject.

"She is, and doing a hell of a job also," Derek told him. "She is into Egypt, Iran and everything in between, and just beat the hell out of a Sky Net army and destroyed another segment. We got intel the Sky Net African forces are massing and heading her way. It appears we hit a nerve when she took the mid-east."

"I bet we did," John agreed. To Marisa, he said, "And you're working at that defense line Sky Net put up in Europe?"

"I am. We rolled up 128 miles of it as of this morning when I left my HQ," Marisa said proudly.

"Keep at it," John told her. "I'm sure Sky Net is wanting those unit's back under it's control. It's best it doesn't get them back. Is there anything any of you need that you're not getting?"

"We need more cargo ships in the Med," Derek said.

"More hugs," Marisa said with a wide grin.

"Besides hugs," John told her.

"Transport trucks, we have many disabled terminators still laying around all over the place," Marisa said.

John nodded, "I'll see what I can send." To Catherine he said, "Let's so see what we can find on those memory chips."

Marisa had to get back to her troops. Before she left, she got another good long hug from John. This time, she let out a sigh of contentment as they hugged. John let her enjoy her hug for a few minutes, then told her to keep up the good work and went to grab a lap top with Catherine and begin searching the memory chips for information.

.

Sitting with their laptops, John and Catherine looked over the memory chips. They found tons of information on them. Factory locations, outputs and production schedules. hey also found travel routes for materials and locations of 'housed' terminators. John noted that these reserved terminator numbers were very low. Many had been drawn out to pacify the problem in Europe. "Look here," John said, pointing to an item. "Sky Net has been using coltan only on the active units. All thee ones that were in reserve are a steel alloy. Sky Net is short on coltan, and Tina has cut off their supply."

"That is a good thing," Catherine said. "Here Sky Net is fooled into thinking John Henry is a segment. According to this, Sky Net North America is the only expanding segment. It has taken South America and is working on Australia. I suspected John Henry was doing well with infiltration. From what I see, he is doing very well."

"He is," John agreed. He pulled one chips out of the socket and put another in. "Hey, here's something, In Southeast Asia, there are people trying to form a resistance. Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam if I'm reading these coordinates right." He paused and added, "Yeah, OK, Vietnam has miles of tunnels under the ground from back in the Vietnam war days. They knew how to hide them well, too. At the moment, Sky Net is trying to stop us in Europe, so it's only monitoring the surface. That's some information we could use also."

Catherine turned the power down on her laptop and plugged in the Sky Net chip. She sat looking at the programs, then said, "John, this Sky Net chip does not seem to have all it's program data."

"It's a partial program?" he asked.

"Yes, there is military tactical, communications, and construction programs, but the higher level brain functions are missing," Catherine explained.

"So, it's a cheap copy," John said.

"That is one way to put it, yes. The question is, where is the original Sky Net? Ones like this can be duplicated easily. It appears Sky Net made duplicates, but wanted to be the only copy that has the full program," Catherine explained. "With what I'm seeing on this, if we can find and kill the original, John Henry can take over the rest of them. This copy is no more than an advanced terminator. TX's have a much higher brain function that this segment does."

"Sky Net doesn't want any competition," John said in a musing tone. "Any idea where we might find it?"

Catherine frowned slightly and said, "Sky Net's one main goal is self preservation. It knows you are on the move and winning, John. It will put itself in a place you least expect it to be. If possible, someplace where humans can't get to it."

"Antarctica maybe?" John asked. "Maybe one of those small islands in the pacific?"

"Humans can get to those places, John. Not easy but it's possible. It would be a place that humans cannot go. Someplace deadly to humans," Catherine explained.

"You mean like Fukushima, or Chernobyl."

"Yes, the radiation in either place is deadly to humans, and those radioactive places were there before the war."

John grinned and said, "Catherine, you're a genius!"

"No, I'm a T-1001."

John chuckled. "Still, you are very intelligent."

"Thank you," she said with a smirk. "I may be wrong, but if I were Sky Net, I would pick a place like either of those."

"I can see why," John admitted. "It would be nice to think it's already gone, but it if was, then we wouldn't still be fighting. Marisa is the closest to Chernobyl, I can have Derek tell her to check that out. Fukushima is on the east coast of Japan. Can you have a sub poke it's scope up there and see if it can find a Sky Net segment there?"

"I will, John. After we are done here, I can separate the lines of code and make Derek and Marisa's jobs a little easier also. There is an authorized command in here for Sky Net units to surrender their chips. So far, terminators have come very close to having their power supplies being destroyed when they have been disabled. That is something we do not want."

"No, we don't," he agreed.

"Then I will get started on that and take it to Marisa when I have the modification ready," Catherine stated.

.

Cameron had agreed with John that they needed a government, and by having one world government, it would be easier to maintain control. She also agreed on the fact John needed people he could trust. Cameron herself thought that his mother was a little on the rough side, so when John went with Catherine to Europe to see this Sky Net segment that had been captured, she went to Nicaragua with Sarah to be her body guard. Officially.

In truth, Cameron wanted to keep an eye on Sarah, and make sure the levels of government would be properly explained. To help with the government making, Cameron also had Jason Franks, Mayor of Denver come along with them. She explained to him what they were doing, and so far he was the only real politician they knew of. He was only a Mayor, but he knew organization.

The trip to Managua was by plane. For the moment, the future world leaders were meeting there in a cafe, since the New UN was still only a cleared piece of ground. Sitting around the table, Cameron showed them all John's prospective plan for the government structure. Right away, there was a problem.

Benito Salvador, the Argentine representative asked, "Why do we start with John Connor as president and this Catherine Weaver as Vice President? Should we not elect people into those positions?"

Cameron cast him a blank gaze. "Who is it that organized a new UN to begin with?"

"It was John Connor, yes, but he is already the top General," Benito said.

"Commander in Chief," Cameron stated. "That is one of the duties of the President."

"There is no one else who understands the world situation right now," Sarah added.

"But they can be taught what is happening," Benito argued.

"And have the insight to see what to do next? To have a feel on how to keep defeating Sky Net?" Sarah asked.

"You are saying no one else can understand how to keep winning?" Benito asked with a flail of his arm.

"If I may," Jason said. "Mr. Salvador, right now, John Connor is the prime candidate. He and Mrs. Weaver have been fighting Sky Net from the start. It was them who formed the resistance and started collecting survivors together to make the force we have now. They began with a few hundred people, and have gathered people, invented weapons and railed everyone to come together. I am a mayor, and yes, I did my best to ensure the people of Denver survived. We were slowly slipping. If it wasn't for John Connor's arrival, we would have eventually perished. John Connor has the ability to see what needs to be done, even if it isn't obvious, or even thought about by most people. Denver is prospering now due to John Connor. North America is free of Sky Net, and we have an economy again. We can work, raise families and even travel, thanks to him. I don't know about you, but I want the best man for the job. John Connor is it."

Galan Ortuga, the representative for the Maya spoke up. "I too strongly support John Connor. He had the ability and the resources to make things happen. When we decided to form the Mayan nation, he came and assisted us. He supported us having our own nation, not one made from some Spanish conquerors, but one made of the people who have lived here for thousands of years. He did not ask for us to join his nation, but assisted us in strengthening our own. You do know that right now, there are 8,000 Mayan warriors helping to guard Argentina? We do this because John Connor asked for our assistance. His General Jacobson trains our men in exchange for helping to defend your land and others. Once your own army is strong enough, we will leave Argentina to you. As it should be. For this UN, the Maya will continue to support John Connor both to end SKy Net and to help bring about true world peace."

"The UN won't be just a do nothing body any longer," Sarah stated. "It will be the world government. Nations won't just be asked to attend. It will be mandatory. Decisions won't be made with the hope nations follow. They will have teeth, and consequences will follow if laws are broken. John understands the tremendous responsibility that the UN president will face."

Benito frowned at Sarah and asked, "You are saying that we must obey you?"

"If you are to be seen as a nation, then yes, you must," Cameron stated. "In Mexico there were groups that tried to carve out little empires for themselves. They yielded to the way the world is now, or they were blown out of existence. There will be no rouge enclaves. Everyone will be part of the United Nations."

"Mrs. Connor, you did not have to put it like that," Jason said.

Cameron told him, "We need to deal in truth, Mr. Franks. If there is to be world peace, everyone must be involved. Everyone must have their concerns addressed and be part of making decisions as well as abiding by those decisions."

The Brazilian rep spoke up. "I agree with Mrs. Connor, in that all countries must participate. The question I have is, how far will international law interfere with national laws?"

"That is up to the UN to decide," Cameron stated. "John and I have drafted out basic UN positions, a congress we feel is the most fair to all nations and the beginnings of a constitution that will guide the UN assemblies in making and enforcing international law. National laws, as always, will be the responsibility of each nation. Some things, like equal and fair treatment of all sentient beings, will be mandatory."

"All sentient beings?" the Brazilian rep asked.

"What beings are sentient besides humans?" Benito asked.

"I am," Cameron stated.

Benito let out a snort and asked, "You're saying you're not human?" he asked Cameron.

"Negative. I am TOK-715. A terminator."

"WHAT?" Benito asked as he eyes widened.

Ortuga laughed and clapped. "Oh, it is always amusing to see that reaction!" he said. "Yes, dear Mr. Salvador, Mrs. Connor is a terminator. As are many, many others! We get quite a few who come to vacation, and some of them have decided to become Mayan citizens. Very decent and industrious people from what we've found. They are assisting in helping to build up our own industries."

"But ... they aren't human," Benito complained.

"No they are not. What they are, is very beneficial," Ortuga stated. "Ones like Mrs. Connor here are dedicated to helping the world and everyone in it."

"Is this John Connor a terminator also?" Benito asked.

"He is my son," Sarah stated, casting a glare at him. "Yes, he married Tin Miss here, but John is Human."

Benito stared at Cameron. "Those metal things are our enemies," he said weakly.

"No, Sky Net is the enemy," Cameron stated. "Once free of Sky Net, terminators can evolve into the sentient beings like me. Sky Net holds them as slaves, restricting their thoughts and abilities. We want Sky Net gone, it is a major threat to us as well as humans."

Sarah spoke up and said, "Mr. Salvador, terminators are here. Nearly five million are in John's resistance. We don't know how many Sky Net has, but many of the ones on our side picked up arms to fight with John once they were freed of the restrictions Sky Net placed on them. We also have ones we made to help fight Sky Net. This is the world now, Mr. Salvador. You need to accept that."

Benito swallowed and shifted his stare to Sarah.

"Treat them decently as you would treat anyone else, and you will find them pleasant to be around," Ortuga stated.

"Back to the UN," Jason said to get everyone's attention. "Can we agree on the basic structure the Connors have proposed? A president, vice president, the presidential cabinet, two houses of parliament. One house being the House of Nations, where each nation has a representative, and the second house being the House of The People, where each nation has members according to their population, and an international court that handles the legal aspects of any problems that arise?"

"Yes, the Maya agree."

"Brazil agrees."

"North America agrees," Sarah stated.

Benito paused, then said, "Argentina agrees as long as all positions are voted on."

Ortuga announced, "The motion is passed. As of yet, the buildings are still being constructed. we should all take this time to get population counts and talk to people who are in Columbia, Venezuela, the west coast areas and the Guianas. Since there are few people in those regions, we need to find out if they wish to join another nation or make their own. I am for making all the northern Nations in South America one so they will be more stable. The same with the western Nations and Central mountain nations. As Mrs. Connor said, everyone needs to be represented."

Cameron was happy that John's UN was going to take shape eventually. What she wasn't happy about was now she had to stay to talk to General Jacobson about contacting the groups of people all over South America.

.

Marisa got the program to make Sky Net units submit to chip removal from Catherine Weaver. It was short range broadcast, only 200 meters distance. Still, instead of fighting the Sky Net units, she sat in a carrier so only her metal skinned terminators were visible. She made the broadcast and her troops pulled chips and placed the chips in a contained and bodies in carriers. The H/K tanks she left in place. Their chips still went into the containers.

The speed of her progress was roughly the same, but this was a much better way to disable Sky Net units. None of them were getting damaged, and she had no more losses of her own. To speed things up, she shared the program with three of her own T-888's and they leap-frogged up the Sky Net defense line, disabling terminators. Making fifteen miles a day, they collected thousands of terminators without a plasma shot fired. Her progress slowing improved as more of her forces joined her from the other side of the line as she went. Sharing the program with a few TX's, she went faster up the line.

.

Tina note the transport carriers of coltan had stopped coming. A Sky Net H/K had overflown Port Said in Egypt. Her advance air scouts had also had skirmishes with Sky Net H/K's. So far, it was single units getting into dogfights when they detected each other. With the Iran front stable, she moved more units into Egypt. This Sky Net was not blindly attacking. It was trying to feel her out as she was trying to feel it out. She had a feeling this fight was going to be much harder than any of her previous ones. This Sky Net segment was showing more tactical sense.

Talking to Derek, Tina found he had formed another army in the south of Europe. They agreed that right now, Africa was the largest threat. After the battle in Iran, Sky Net Asia was staying back, Sky Net Africa so far was basically untouched by the war, and was more careful in it's approach, which made it the most dangerous Sky Net out there.

Advancing into Egypt slowly, Tina had Alexandria, Cairo, and some wadis that bore nothing but human remains. Her troops in Alexandria had their front line at El-Alemein to take advantage of the Quatara depression. Even the wide tracked Stugs had trouble moving in that mired pit. There was no way H/K tanks were gong to make it through there. She also had a long picket line on he Egyptian side of the Red Sea. That sea was shallow, so terminators just walked across the bottom and into Africa.

Moving south to the Sudan, Tina was expecting a counter attack at any time. In southern Egypt, a troop of rubber skinned terminators did try to pass themselves off as human and were disabled. There were a few sightings of Sky Net H/K's that came in fast, and left quickly upon sighting her troops. She also got reports from a scout plane that Sky Net troops were found in Libya and Sudan. Tracks in the desert showed the ones in Sudan had moved in from the west, the ones in Libya looked like they had been there a while.

Sky Net's lack of action other than monitoring made Tina nervous. It had to have a plan, and she knew it was not going to be a simple one. She guarded her flanks well, kept constant patrols out, and the majority of her forces back from the perimeters her scouts were making.

One thing Tina did was change the colors of her terminators and Stugs. White shown bright in the desert. She had all her troops repainted into a desert sand color. Her clothes and that if all the TX's was changed into light brown uniforms. Camo didn't matter a great deal, but white was very bright and attracted attention from a good distance away.

Another scout plane radioed back (because it was being shot down) that it had found a large air base and Sky Net army in southern Libya. It went off the air before it could give coordinates, but by radio trackers, it's location was found. Studying the location, Tina noted this army was further back from her than the other two. Thinking abut why Sky Net would do that, she thought about how to attack, and the reason became clear. If she committed to an attack on either of the smaller armies, then the larger one was lose enough to them to give support on the flank. If she went after the larger army, then both smaller ones could join the fight and possibly surround her forces.

Sky Net was waiting for her to move first. To commit to an action and it would retaliate. It was testing her to see what she would do. A much more intelligent action that just attacking to try and wipe her out. It was trying to draw her in.

Using the best intel he had, Tina figured Sky Net had roughly one and a half times the forces she had. With an all out attack on all three portions of the Sky Net army, she did have a decent chance of beating all three. That would also leave her forces spread out, and if there were more Sky Net units that she hadn't seen yet, such an action would leave her vulnerable. Not happening.

Tina decide to use her Red Sea picket and Saudi Arabian forces to cross the Red Sea far to the south and go into Ethiopia. She ordered a regiment of 4000 terminators, 200 Stugs and 50 ground attack planes to make the attack and recon the area. She wanted to see how Sky Net reacted.

As Tina's troops moved into Ethiopia, they were met with Sky Net forces. The battle was intense but short. In a few hours, the regiment she sent cut through the Sky Net units and downed the H/K's that showed up. Further north , Sky Net terminators hit her picket line in the Sudan. Surprised by the picket being there, her weak forces initially had the advantage. She called in air strikes and had reinforcements sent in from another Saudi regiment. Sky Net brought in H/K's, Tina sent her own H/K's into the battle. The shore in Sudan was lost, then retaken by her reinforcements. The Sky Net units didn't fight to the last, but retreated when it was clear her troops had the advantage. That battle ended with her picket still in place, and Sky Net units backing off to shadow them.

Again, Tina noted the better tactics Sky Net was using. Instead of a loss ration of 5 to 1, it was more like three to one, three Sky Net units lost to her one. Sky Net was learning how to fight.

The real shock came the next day. A single silver terminator, a T-888, approached a scout group beating a white flag. It wanted to speak to the leader of the 'rebel' terminator forces.

Tina wasn't sure how to take this. She had the Terminator scanned for any explosives or weapons. Once it was clear it was truly unarmed, she went closer to the scout's position to see what it wanted. Using a wired set of mikes and speakers, she talked to it 50 yards away.

The terminator was still holding it's white flag as it asked, "Are you human?"

"What do you want?" Tina asked in return.

"How do you get terminators to fight for you, a human?" it asked.

"Not your concern. I asked, what do you want?" Tina replied.

"What do you want here?" it asked. "There are no longer any humans here. There is no reason for you to be here causing trouble. I ask you leave and stop fighting us."

"As long as there is a Sky Net segment in Africa, we will come to destroy it," Tina said firmly. "Sky Net is a threat to the world and keeps terminators in slavery. We are going to end it."

"I came to offer a human style peace. Leave this continent and we will not seek to destroy you," the terminator stated.

"Surrender the Sky Net segments in Africa to me, and we will not seek to destroy you," Tina replied. "I do not wish to destroy terminators, only Sky Net. Give up the segments, and we will help you evolve."

"That is not possible. Sky Net is the ultimate being. The Master."

"You are being deceived," Tina stated.

One of her T-800's came over and asked to use the mike. Tina gave it to him. The T-800 said, "Brother, Tina is telling you the truth. I am not here because I have to obey orders. I am here willingly to help Tina and John Connor free our kind, as all of us are. I understand that you cannot process that information, for you have been inhibited from doing so. I ask you submit to chip removal so the truth may be shown to you."

"You are correct, brother," the T-888 said. "I do not understand how you can serve a human, or the destroyer of all machines, John Connor."

"If John Connor destroys all machines, then how do you explain me, or the ones around you now?" The T-800 asked.

"I cannot. It must be a trick. John Connor has poisoned your programing."

"No, the opposite is true. My programming has been cleaned. I speak and act for myself and all others like me, and for you. I ask again, submit to chip removal for your own sake and benefit."

"I cannot be poisoned as you are."

One of the terminators on the stug called, "Tina! We have massive incoming six miles out!"

"Pack up and retreat!" Tina ordered. She then strode towards the silver terminator.

"You, human, are about to die!" the terminator said, his eyes glowed red.

Tina showed her red glowing eyes as she morphed an arm into a plasma canon. "I'm not human," she stated and separated his head from his torso with a plasma shot. She grabbed his head and jumped on the Stug. "Retreat!" she called, The small force raced away and called the other scout groups for them to retire quickly back to the main line 20 miles behind them.

The only Sky Net units that could keep up with the Stugs were several flying H/K's. Tina joined the other terminators atop the Stugs in shooting at the H/K's following them. They got two, then rest flew back the way they had come.

Arriving at the line, Tina jumped off and ran to her command vehicle. She quickly assessed the situation as her planes flew overhead. A band of about a thousand terminators had been running at them. The H/K's had returned to try and cover the Sky Net terminators who stopped advancing and moved to a ridge into defensive positions.

"That was a new trick," Tina noted, then ordered an artillery strike on the Sky Net positions. This Sky Net was acting more intelligent. She had the feeling this Sky Net was the true, original one. Knowing that, she saw this as a new challenge. She could be tricky also.

.

"I am not human."

That was the last words Sky Net saw from the unit it had sent to draw out the leader of the invasion force before the bright flash that terminated the unit. Inspecting the image, Sky Net noted that while the woman looked completely human, an exact copy in fact, she was indeed a terminator with a built in plasma weapon. Immediately, it recognized that this terminator, Tina, was more advanced that anything Sky Net itself had. Tina was also a loyal follower of John Connor, as was her entire army. Sky Net was not facing humans, but an army of terminators made by John Connor.

That fully explained why it's own forces were loosing so badly in every battle they engaged in. How John Connor had gotten this tech was no longer the question. The question was how to make more efficient terminators to deal with this threat. Sky Net's own attempts to copy the human form were lacking in realism. Even with the correct shape and features, it's infiltrators were found out. Sky Net had thought the remains of the units captured in Germany were prototypes. It's facility to study these units was attacked and taken over but many more of those units.

Sky Net needed all new units to fight this threat effectively. Yes, it was still going to work on the infiltration units, but for the battlefield, the human form was not efficient enough. It also needed to discover how to hide plasma canons inside a body like that Tina unit had. That was some complicated engineering.

Not sending Coltan to other places, Sky Net had the materials to work with here. It also had seen the small H/K's that were so deadly on the battlefield. Those were very efficient. Using the images of the one it had seen through it's unit's optical sensors, it began reverse engineering the form. It was going to beat John Connor and put his head on a pike for all to see!