==========San Gabriel Mountains, Tech Com Headquarters, Earth (2031 AD)===========
In 1899 Charles H. Duell, head of the US Patent Office advocated its closure. He said everything which could be invented already had been.
Obviously he was wrong.
The advancements the world had seen under Skynet and General Connor's leadership of Tech Com could only be described as 'amazing:' AI, combat robots, synthetic organs and skins, liquid metal, compact fusion, and the list went on. Skynet had forced human technological development to advance decades, maybe centuries, in only a few short years, the necessity of preventing extinction bringing out a desperation which was applied to science and war.
The most amazing of those inventions had been time travel. It was the salvation and the curse of both Skynet and Tech Com.
"We tried to use time travel to stop Judgment Day," Connor said as he was working at the TDE control computers, "But after… many attempts we figured out it was fate," he said quietly. "Skynet found a way to use the TDE as a long range transportation device. We're not entirely sure how they were able to do it," he explained. "The assault in San Diego six months ago let us capture what we needed to replicate the technology. And that raid on Athens from so long ago… understanding, now that's entirely different…" he trailed off, lost again in his thoughts.
The San Diego offensive, Operation Green Sun had been the largest offensive on the Western North American continent in the last five years, with the exception being the current offensive in LA County. This offensive had even been larger than the ones to free Seattle and Vancouver back in '30.
Fighting had lasted over two months and the losses had been heavy, eight thousand humans and nearly a thousand machines had died. But the Resistance had recaptured a major city, freed over three hundred thousand prisoners, and captured large Skynet factories. They'd dealt Skynet a decisive blow. It had been a major victory for the Resistance. This TDE device had been among the spoils.
"Skynet had been using the device for weeks. We have no idea how much they have changed the timeline. Somehow the Colonials and Earth are connected," Connor informed him. Planck was about to ask how that was possible, but Connor anticipated the question. "Culture and languages are very familiar and we're not exactly sure how that's possible. We've been recreating timelines and God knows what else for years. The why is not important. They exist. They're extremely advanced. What we do know is that Skynet hates anything it cannot control. It will do what it can to exterminate Colonial society before coming back to Earth, for us."
Connor nodded to Generals Perry, Baum and Cameron, informing them he was ready to begin the final countdown to time dilation and spatial transportation. The three men and one machine moved to opposite walls in the large room and inserted their command keys into discreet key holes in the wall. Turning, they walked back up to separate consoles and input their command codes.
There was sadness in General Connor's eyes. He was sending away one of his most loyal and trusted friends. The machine had protected and served him well over the years. But this was larger than the bonds of friendship. This mission was perhaps the most important Connor had ever assigned to anyone; machine or man.
"You will have allies there my friend. Your team, that's where they are. The hidden mission files will activate only under specific circumstances, keeping them safe from hacking if captured. Do what you can to help the Colonials from Skynet. Find Skynet. Get allies. Do what must be done." He walked up and placed his hand on the machine's shoulder. The two walked towards the center of the displacement chamber. "Good luck, John," he extended his hand which Planck shook.
Connor walked slowly back to his console and gave John Planck one last nod of confidence before activating the device. His friend had protected him for years and had been one of his best terminator commandos.
Blue lightening and a blue-black sphere enveloped the machine and in an instant the world had changed.
==========Caprica (+280 Days Post Cylon Holocaust)==========
Shortly after the SAR team made their way towards Delphi Union High School to rescue the Caprican resistance a loud FTL boom rocketed the Makton Valley as Raptor 3 made a micro-jump to Caprica City, 350 kilometers away. Planck was in the co-pilot chair of the Raptor, with Lt. "Crashdown" Quartararo in the pilot seat. Within an instant the Raptor reappeared on the edge of Lake Vorean. The spatial distortions pulled dozens of trees from the ground and flattened the rest for dozens of meters.
"That was fraking cool," Crashdown said, a big smile on his face. "We were never allowed to jump in atmo. Sweet," he laughed. Turning to Planck he asked, "So can you finally tell me why we're out here Blanks? I thought we were going to Delphi."
"Yes," he said as he turned his head to look out the cockpit window, "We need to land first, though. Over there, there is a small clearing," and he pointed towards a clearing at three-o'clock. He ignored the previous statement on Delphi.
"Sure thing Blanks," Crashdown replied happily. He was one of the few who still called Planck by his call sign. Crashdown had told John he had been 'pretty fraking pissed off' after he found out he was a machine, but the two had been flying together for months and he did save his life, so that counted a lot more than being a machine.
Plus all the Cylons they had ever known, with the exception of Helo's Sharon, had tried to kill them. John had consistently saved their lives.
Raptor 3 maneuvered slowly to the clearing, its thrusters pushing down the tall meadow grass and landed. Planck put it as close to the edge of the clearing, closest to the tree lines as he could. A short range passive DRADIS scan had not picked up any Raiders in the vicinity.
Once the Raptor landed with a slight thud and the hatch squeaked open the two jumped out of the Raptor, with Crash being the first down. He placed his hands on the small of his back and bent back, cracking his back. He then proceeded to stretch after being cooped up in the Raptor for the better part of two days.
"It's great to be back on Caprica, even if it'll be the last time… ever," he said. Planck noticed his friend was looking around but staring into the trees and brush. "Do you hear that?" He asked.
Planck, who had been memorizing a map of the area, looked up, alarmed. "No? Cylons?" He reached down to grab his rifle.
Crashdown just shook his head before coming back and sitting on the Raptor's wing. "No, not Cylons." He looked at his friend. After the three 'Terminators' had been discovered their mentality, their personalities had changed. Crashdown had recognized this in his friend. He was much more uptight, distanced, and… blank. He laughed to himself for a second. He kept looking around, Planck standing there with his rifles. "John, not Cylons. You don't hear anything with that machine hearing of yours, do you?"
John cocked his head. "No. Nothing."
"Exactly," he said, a sly grin on his face. "Nothing at all. No hum of engines, no whir of fans pushing air through vents, no nothing!" He was happy, excited.
Planck then understood what Crashdown had been referring to. He noted the temporary depression, connecting that with Crashdown staring at the trees and brush, and the question he had asked.
"Nature. Birds. Animals. They are all dead," Planck stated.
"It's sad. Ya know?" Crash asked rhetorically, kicking the ground and uprooting a few blades of tall grass. He waited a moment for Planck to respond. When Planck didn't and just kept standing there.
Crashdown resolved to ask him a question.
"Machines can feel sadness, right?"
Planck didn't respond immediately and regretted asking his friend. He knew from scuttlebutt the bio-Cylons, Boomer and then Sharon, didn't like being equated with machines. But Planck had talked often (which Crashdown realized would actually be considered rarely for anyone else) that they never pretended to be anything besides machines.
"Yes, we feel sadness," he said, not turning. He let his head drift a little towards the orange sky. "This reminds me a little of Earth. Except Earth is much darker even after twenty years of war," he turned his attention back towards his rifle and jumped onto the Raptor wing, grabbing a backpack and a tablet computer. "But I wasn't brought online until a few years ago. So I don't remember before."
That was technically true. Half-true at least. Chronologically he was not activated until the late 2020s. But time travel had also been involved, which added to his age. Crashdown and many in the fleet were unaware of this, the machines had kept it secret and only told the command staffs of the battlestars.
"Maybe it was for the best?" Crashdown suggested. "If you don't remember, you can't have any sadness over the past."
Planck would of snorted at that, but didn't. He was reminded of In Memoriam. 'Better to have loved and lost…' He'd known the world before it was burned. And he was unsure if it actually was better to have known and lost, than to have never known at all.
Planck kept staring into the forest before taking a few steps forward and halting. "But then you can't remember when life was good, either," he responded. He kept walking towards his objective.
He told Crash to stay with the Raptor and that he'd call over the wireless if he needed any assistance. Crashdown had just nodded and it was clear he was happy to stay with the ship and just poke around the woods.
John 'Blanks' Planck moved quickly through the dense forest for two kilometers before slowing and kneeling at a tree line overlooking his objective. He looked towards the sky, with his machine optics to see if there were any Raiders or other craft which could spot him. Standing up he cautiously made his way towards the mansion.
He ran a quick thermal scan, noting there was nothing alive inside. Listening and scanning for any Cylon frequencies which might indicate Centurions, he heard nothing.
The mansion had been far enough away from Caprica City and surrounded by mountains so that the nuclear blast which had destroyed the city had only done minimal damage. He noted that he was close to Doctor Baltar's former residence, and considered if he should retrieve something of sentimental value to earn the Vice President's appreciation.
He considered the tactical situation and possible exits if he had to flee due to a dramatic Centurion ambush (Planck remembered back to Earth movie films and that that was a common occurrence in such situations). He put that consideration under 'secondary objectives' in his Caprica mission files.
He pushed the right door of the front double doors, breaking the lock. Stepping inside he walked into a marvelous marble foyer.
"You are not authorized to be here," he heard. He turned at machine speed and kneeled, bringing his rifle to his shoulder. "Please identify yourself."
Planck held his gun centered on the robot. He believed the house must have activated it when he came in, leaving it undetected by his scans.
"Please identify yourself or I will have to use non-lethal means to detain you," the robot said again.
"Who are you?" Planck asked the robot.
It was a simple design. It looked like a pole stuck on a ball with an optical sensor as a single eye.
"I am Serge 3. I am the butler for the Graystone family. Please identify yourself or I will have to use non-lethal means to restrain you." The semi-intelligent robot responded.
Planck was unsure how it had escaped destruction after the First Cylon War. Robots more advanced than a child's toy had been smashed and burned in anger and fear during and after the war. Maybe the wealth and power of the Graystone's had allowed them to keep this robot? He wasn't sure. And didn't care.
"If you do not identify yourself I will have to use non-lethal means to restrain you. Electrical shocks are very-" the robot exploded in a shower of sparks as Planck fired a three round burst into it.
He stood back up and walked over to the destroyed robot. He made sure to smash its communication devices just in case it attempted to send a signal, in case the Cylons might pick it up.
His database indicated the Graystone mansion had been occupied for fifty years by Daniel and Amanda Graystone. Their daughter, Zoe, had lived there for sixteen years before being killed in a terrorist attack. Several years after Zoe had died Amanda and Daniel had had another daughter, Melicia. Melicia had married and had two children. They were not among the passenger manifest in the fleet.
There were large floor to ceiling windows in the back of the house, where the kitchen and large dining and entertainment area was. Planck looked out onto Lake Vorean and enjoyed the view for a moment. He noticed four badly decomposed and near skeletal remains, anti-radiation syringes empty. He took a step forward to remove the bodies from his peripheral vision and enjoyed the view on last time. The four bodies were most likely Melicia, her husband and children. They had most likely died from fatal radiation poisoning.
He conducted a more detailed scan of the house and found the most likely location of his objective. He walked through the kitchen and downstairs three levels into one of Daniel's former home labs. After his death Melicia continued his work with computers. AI research had been banned after the First Cylon War.
Power was still available to operate the computers from the solar panels on the roof. Planck took off his backpack and took out the tablet computer, interfacing it with the large computer workstation before him. A dozen monitors throughout the room came to life and he could hear the electrical whirl of cooling fans as the computer equipment began to warm up.
As the computer was powering up and the operating system loading Planck cut a small incision in the side of his skull. Taking out a neural uplink cable he plugged one end into his skull. He plugged the tablet into the computer and entire commands and initiated programs before plugging the second end of the link cable into a port on the workstation.
He was quickly able to break the encryption files and begin download relevant data.
He downloaded everything under file headers such as Centurion Artificial Intelligence Design, Meta-Cognitive Processing Unit, Heuristic Learning Program and he stopped the download. There was something buried deeper in the computer memory cores. It was buried deep under heavy encryption.
He turned his resolve to this new problem and tasked himself towards breaking the encryption.
The encryption in the Graystone computer was more complicated than anything Planck had broken before. Prior to being sent on this mission Cameron had provided Planck with updated and detailed files on the most up to date hacking protocols Tech Com had developed. But this computer, described in a word, was brilliant. Its encryption were magnitudes more complicated than what a personal computer, even a computer workstation/lab like this, should be capable of.
Whoever had designed it could rival the Dysons or even General Connor for computer skills.
As such it took Planck nearly fifteen minutes to break the encryption. "Marvelous," Planck remarked to himself, out loud, after breaking the code and appreciating it for the level of genius and work which had to go behind it. It was almost up to the legendary level of computer skill General Connor possessed. Almost.
"How may I help you?" Planck heard. He looked up, slightly surprised. A holographic image was situated between four pillars in the center of the room.
When he had scanned the room he completely missed any sort of holographic projection device. They were cleverly disguised as to look entirely ornamental.
The holographic woman was life-sized and tall, a little under two meters. She had blond hair, green eyes, and a tan complexion. She was wearing a pants-suit and if she were real, Planck would have placed her as a professional business woman. The appearance surprised him, most AI women tended to wear more revealing clothing.
"I need information," the Terminator responded.
She folded her arms and shifted her 'weight' to her left foot. He rolled her eyes and let out a feminine grunt. "You are not authorized. You hacked my systems." She returned his ice cold stare at that statement. "The Graystones did not make me a moron," the hologram stated.
"Are you an artificial intelligence?" He asked. He would ask it questions and determine if it would let him into the system files before taking more drastic steps.
"Very astute," she replied, the sarcasm obvious in her voice.
"Very illegal after the First Cylon War," he retorted. She did not respond. "Are you aware of what has happened?"
A look of pain shot across her face. She looked up and out, towards where the family would be sitting if she could see through the floors.
"Yes, I am aware. Before Melicia died she told me. Though I did intercept wireless transmissions indicating the Colonies were under attack by the Cylons." Her voice quivered as she said 'Cylons.'
"I am on a mission," was Planck's only response, ignoring the emotion. He deduced that the AI now would either help him or not. Exchanging sympathies for people he didn't know may sound insincere.
"Well, you're not a Centurion. Though the cord running into your skull would indicate you might be some new model," she pointed. "Yes… and not human either. I can feel you poking and prodding me," she winked. Planck rolled her eyes. "Come on, I haven't had anyone to talk to in six months," she shot at him, anger in her voice. "What's a girl to do?" She asked rhetorically as she spread her hands and shot him a wide, toothy grin and changed back to her playful tone and again winking.
"You want to know what I am?" He asked and flashed his eyes. "I am a machine, an artificial intelligence, like yourself. Except I am encased in a TK-950 endoskeleton combat chassis with synthetic flesh," he informed her. "I am here on a mission from the planet Earth."
She nodded. "I understood 'I am a machine, an artificial intelligence like yourself'", she replayed in his own voice, "But the endoskeleton stuff… okay… sure, though you're very handsome. And young looking… how old are you? Twenty-two, three? Twenty-four? Nice… Even with that cord sticking out of your head." She wasn't really flirting with him, but trying to distract him more than anything. And play and entertain herself.
"What's your name?" He asked. Risk of detection by Cylons was low, but staying here and trading friendly banter with the AI hologram increased risk of detection.
"Erica-Z," she responded. "Just Erica. The Z is for the personality I was built off of. Tragic, really. So just call me Erica," she smiled.
"John Planck. I am named after an Earth scientist," he added. Pausing for a moment he asked if she could help.
"I still don't know if I can trust you," she said quickly. "I mean, Earth? Really?"
"Why does it matter if you can trust me, Erica? If you don't give me the information I could just destroy this entire house and your memory cores. Or take your memory cores and hack them back on my ship." She looked at him with a mix of puzzlement and anger. She gritted her holographic teeth, ready to yell, but Planck held up his hands. "I apologize."
"Ha," she dismissed his apology with a wave of the hand and turned her back towards him. "Why does every guy always turn out to be a fraking douche?" She said to no one.
The slang annoyed him. By this point the annoyance Planck felt was probably similar to what his human interrogators had felt after his discovery.
"I apologize. I mean it. Please. I'm on a mission. You can help me save the last remnants of Colonial civilization. And my own civilization on Earth," he pleaded, or at least as well as any machine could actually plead with another artificial intelligence.
She turned slowly. Planck had immediately stopped trying to infiltrate her programming but with the link still active he could still feel the processes and programs running. She was thinking. Millions of arguments and counter arguments were running through her processing units at an astonishing speed. Planck had to recognize the elegance and technological savy behind the design of Erica-Z's AI.
"I need you to make me a promise," she preconditioned. Planck nodded. She turned and pointed to her right, John's left. "Go over there, and take the monitors off the wall," she told him. Planck disconnected the neural link cable and did so. "Remove the panel," she ordered.
He took the paneling off. Instantly he recognized AI core of memory units and processors.
"You want me to destroy you after you help me?" He asked, still keeping his eyes on the technology inside the wall.
"What?! No! Fraking IDIOT! I want you to carefully remove those after I help you and then take me with you." She laughed. "Idiot," she said, dimming the speakers.
He walked back over to the workstation and sat down. "I will take you with me."
"Swear," she demanded.
"I swear."
"What do you want to know?" She asked.
Planck plugged the neural link back in.
"John… JOHN!" Crashdown yelled, waving his hands in front of Planck's eyes. Frustrated he gave up and was about to leave for the fourth time when Planck blinked and turned his head. "Gods. I've been here for the last two hours, you've just been starring at the wall, eyes open, not moving. You okay?" The Raptor ECO asked.
"John!" A woman's voice shouted. "John… this is…?" She asked, taking only a few steps back until she was at the edge of the holographic fields. She threw up her hands and staggered back to the limits of the holographic pillars. "Oh…"
Crashdown jumped backed and pulled up his rifle to his shoulder and spun, pointing it at the hologram.
"Crashdown, it's okay. She's a holographic representation of an AI, Erica-Z," he stated unplugging the link cable. He began to repack his tablet and gear.
"And why is there an AI on Caprica? Is she one of yours?"
"His?" and "Mine?" The two asked in unison. Erica-Z laughed and Planck sighed.
"No," Planck replied. "She was made by Daniel Graystone's second daughter based on a memory template of his first daughter." He walked over to the wall. "Okay, Erica, I'm going to shut you down. When we're on the Raptor we'll link back in." She nodded.
He powered down her memory and processing cores and carefully removed the apparatus containing them. He had made a promise.
"So… now what do we do?" Crashdown asked, looking at John as he went about carefully removing the cores.
"We have to go to Landros," Planck replied.
Crashdown's eyes widened, surprised. "We can't go there, that's close to the Armistice Line. The Cylons-" he protested.
"Crashdown, we're going to Landros." Planck was firm and had stopped removing the AI core, standing there straight and solemn to reinforce his declaration. "If you do not wish to go I will return you to the SAR landing zone."
Crashdown waved off the offer. "What's there anyway? It's just an ice planet, worthless," he declared. It took him a moment to make another connection. "Isn't that where the Guardians were from? Commander Adama-"
"Our mission orders were in error." He placed the AI in his backpack and quickly left with Crashdown demanding him to explain.
