So this is part one of two, this one was all one chapter, but this bad boy was going to end up being like 10,000 words so I split it.
It's kind of fitting because these two chapters are going to answer a lot of big questions so … enjoy.
Silent Night
2024
The naval ship shook causing the groaning protest of rusted metal echoing through the dark and dank bowels of the engineering deck of the decrypted old aircraft carrier. The lights buzzed on and off as a large power surge rushed through the dated circuitry.
The flickering lights gave little help to a wounded young soldier that was dragging himself with one arm away from a gorgeous half naked girl who had a dead look in her eyes as she dangled motionlessly from one of the engine turbines, tangled and constricted by loose hanging chains. Her skin torn all over her back and chest exposing shined newly polished metal underneath.
The young soldier grunted in extreme pain with every push as he dragged his battered body, pulling himself across the grimed floor. His breath ragged, he turned over on his back and opened his palm, revealing pieces of a sleek advanced looking chip. He felt something leaking from his right eye, though he had lost vision from it. He sneered in hatred at the lifeless teenage girl as if she had offended him greatly.
The searing pain from his cauterized stump that use to be his left arm to the numbed leaking in his blinded right eye, lead Ryan Connor to believe he was going to die that night, and God as his witness he took the machine that dared to imitate his mother down with him.
As he was mustering his strength, a familiar voice called weakly from inside the room.
"Help me … please, somebody … help." The voice was so pained and scared that it put out the flame of vengeance in the young soldiers heart and urged him to spend the last of his strength to aid the feminine voice.
He dropped the broken chip to the ground. Then, Ryan used his forearm and elbow to drag himself into the room. There in a heap next to a metal table lay an exact replica of the girl dangling outside.
Allison Young had tears leaking from her scared doe eyes as she lay paralyzed from the neck down. Her painful whimpers urged Ryan forward till he was under the metal table where she lay.
"It's going to be okay." Ryan said as comforting as the pain would allow him to transfer through gritted teeth.
"I don't want to die." Allison said through painful sobs.
"No … you're not going to die …" Ryan shook his head, swallowing hard. Allison whimpered softly as he pulled closer to her.
"I …never got to see him." She admitted to the beaten soldier that was her same age. "Have you seen him?" She asked the confused soldier.
"Who?" Ryan gritted finally looming over her.
"John Connor" She answered.
It amazed Ryan how in the light of all she had been through, his mother (or future mother) could only think about his dad, a man she had never met before.
"Yeah … I've met him." Ryan said looking her over. Noticing that from the way she talked and the way she was perfectly still, she seemed to have a spinal injury.
"What's he like?" Allison asked in tears.
Ryan felt the bottom drop out from under him when it dawned, that she was paralyzed and most likely wouldn't make it out alive.
"Please … what's he like?" Allison begged him. Ryan cleared his throat of emotion.
"He … uh … he's tall and muscular." Ryan said in deep heartache. "He has … spiky hair and green eyes. There is a strength about him …you trust him." He said as he watched the light began to fade in the girl's eyes.
A strange panic began to set into Ryan's gut. He wasn't sure what would happen to him if she died. Would he disappear? Would a reality form where he never existed? Whatever would happen, he didn't want to find out.
"Hey! Look at me … look at me, you're not going to die. You just got to hang on … alright!" Ryan started to feel his strength leaving him as he tried to get Allison's fading attention. When it was apparent that his encouragement wasn't working, Ryan begged.
"You can't die … He needs you! You're the only one that can save him! Please … I need you!" Ryan said trying to control the urge to take her in his arm. Allison looked at him with sudden calmed eyes. Her face lightened and she sniffled gently.
"We have the same eyes." she observed, a loving smile was frozen on her lips as her soul departed.
"No … no, no, no … you can't leave. Please don't go!" Ryan's tears mixed with the leaking blood. Her death brought a crushing feeling on top of him that he had never felt before. Through the years of searching, he never gave up hope that his mother was out there. But now with her dead body under him it zapped not only his strength, but his will.
Not seeing the point of not shifting the body anymore, Supporting himself by placing his hand on her cold exposed abdomen. Ryan leaned down and kissed her temple.
"Please forgive a son, who's failed his mother." He gasped defeated. Suddenly his hand slipped off the smooth skin of her belly causing him to collapse face first onto her neck. Unable to get up he weakly turned his head and watched as a river of blood began to trickle from his eye down her lifeless chest.
Ryan wasn't sure how much time had past, but his vision began to blur. As things were fading, the sounds of quick purposeful foot falls enter the room. With the last of his strength, he turned himself over staring up at the dark canopy of the bottom of the metal table.
There was a sudden loud scraping and light flashed in his eye as he felt the rush of air and the loud crash of the metal table hitting the wall across the room.
Squinting, Ryan saw the outline of a familiar Angelic face that he just watched die. Her skin shimmered in the light as her brown eyes stared into his one.
"It's … not possible, I smashed your chip. I killed you." He stammered up deliriously at the young woman's cold face. She reached a hand out and Ryan closed his eye's awaiting it to wrap around his neck. But instead it cupped his cheek. Her hand was warm as it stroked him gently. The touch was comforting and familiar as it moved over his face studying every bloodied feature, every disfigured injury. Her face was contorted in unmachine like sadness for a moment, then to determination.
"Come on Cowboy, We're going home." Cameron said maternally. He felt hands grip his tattered overcoat and pull him off the ground and into the air. He blacked out as he felt his limp body being carried away.
***
2029
The outside of the Medical building was being used as a triage with the main building being used for surgery. People where rushing in and out with medicine and equipment.
Ryan entered the building in the early evening. He had spent most of the morning and afternoon in a defensive position just in case the Machines decided to counter attack. When it became obvious they didn't plan to, He took whatever was left of both companies and lead them back to the Command Post. His clothing was synged and a scorch mark marred his left cheek, but due to a genetic disposition to luck, Ryan was largely unhurt.
The sweet sickly smell of burnt human flesh mixed with the metallic of fresh blood numbed his senses as he walked into the Field Hospital. His brown Motorcycle Boots made distinctive thuds as he walked on the wooden boards of the blood soaked floor. He passed table after table of wounded soldier, Some where grunting in pain, some where unconscious. Ryan moved out of the way of a nurse, who rushed to the side of a screaming teen who just woke up to find his leg amputated.
Eventually he found who he was looking for.
Barnes was laid out on one of the main surgical tables. His eyes where closed but he was groaning loudly and shifting his head. Lauren was standing over him, her long mousy brown hair was a tangled mess and she wore an apron that was covered with blood. When she saw Ryan she gave a small sigh of relief.
"We had to drug him. The pain might have caused him to have a heart attack." Lauren addressed the young Officer who nodded in response. Ryan looked Barnes over; he had scorch marks all over his body. His right arm had most of the skin cooked off, with his bones and joints appearing where his fingertips and nails should be. The entirety of his left leg was black and crusted over, making it smell much to the likes of over roasted meat. At the alien presence standing in front of him, Barnes opened his eyes to get a better look at who it was.
"What it do, Cowboy?" Barnes sighed out in a drugged daze. The comment made Ryan smile slightly to see him still himself somewhat.
"Hey, Barnes." Ryan nodded.
"How'd it go, Rye … you save my …boys?" Barnes asked semi conscious.
"Some of them …" Ryan answered clearing his throat. Barnes shook his head.
"Another metal for your stack, huh?" Barnes asked with a half smile.
"Yeah, another goddamn metal for the Connor family …" Ryan sighed. Barnes looked up at him seriously.
"How … How bad?" Barnes sounded desperate.
"Don't worry about it …" Ryan shook his head.
"Don't you patronize me, boy. Give it to me straight." Barnes breathed out causing Lauren to place a hand on his chest to calm him.
"Seventy-five percent … Company B has less then twenty soldiers." Ryan answered some what hesitantly. Barnes looked like someone had punched him in the gut and he lay back down on the table.
"They had us pinned …hittin us all over … then just as you got there …they bombed us …goddamn robots …bombed us." Barnes said bitterly looking up at the ceiling with a slurred accent as the drugs began to take effect.
"Barnes …" Ryan started, but Lauren gave him a strict look, but it was too late.
"What …?" Barnes looked up at him. Despite Lauren's silent protest Ryan answered.
"Skynet … Skynet didn't drop the bombs on us. It was Eiling, he ordered the Air Strike on your position." Ryan said cleared his throat of emotion as the look Barnes had of pure betrayal made him feel truly sick to his stomach.
"My … My Command …one hundred and fifty …they're gone." Barnes began to mumble as the sedative finally took hold.
"I need to start, Rye." Lauren said with a sad sigh. Ryan nodded and gave Barnes a clap on the shoulder and made his way outside.
***
Ryan walked out of the Hospital and stood at the entrance.
The space between the Command Bunker and the Field Hospital was filled with surviving wounded and dying that no doctor could help.
He sighed sadly placing his hands on his hips looking out at what was left of his Command. A pain in his heart remained from his visit to the man that had been like family to him since he could remember. It hurt his soul to see such a broken and betrayed look on Barnes's face after learning about Eiling's air raid.
"Ryan …" Sidney came up to him as he stared out at the wounded.
"Hey …" Ryan cleared his throat and wiped his glassy eyes with his jacket sleeve before turning and giving her a smile.
"The rest of the Battalion is headquartered at an old mission a couple of miles down the road near some woods by the river." She reported professionally. Ryan seemed to be lost in emotional thoughts for several beats.
"Alright … give word to the officers … to get who's ever able down there." Ryan ordered scratching the back of his raven haired head. Sidney saluted and after a small comforting smile she left her Commanding Officer to himself again.
Ryan watched her leave, then began to walk amongst the wounded, navigating through them, avoiding the medics and nurses that where checking patients or comforting the dying. Every once in a while a dazed soldier would give him a salute.
As he was reaching the end of his inspection a wounded soldier caught a hold of his black fatigue pants. Ryan looked down to see a young man in his teens that had several cauterized wounds on him. He had stormy grey eyes and black hair. He looked familiar, but Ryan couldn't tell why.
"Sir … Oh, sorry." He said straining as he made a quick salute. Ryan knelt next to him and returned the salute.
"What can I do for you, Private?" Ryan asked compassionately taking the boys hand.
"Permission to be dismissed from my duties; so, I can find my family, sir?" The teen asked sternly as to sound as much like a hardened soldier as possible. Ryan looked into his eyes for a moment and had a feeling he knew what he meant.
"Do you know where they are?" Ryan asked tilting his head.
"A very good idea, sir …" The young man said looking to the sky for a moment. Ryan gritted his teeth trying to hold back the tears that where threatening to fall.
"… Permission granted." nodding his head. The teen's face lightened for a moment and he looked Ryan in the eye with eternally grateful smile.
"Thank you, sir." He saluted slowly before lying back down on the grass and looked up to the sky. Ryan watched as the soldier's breathing stop.
"Rest easy …" Ryan closed the boy's eyes with his gloved hand and slapped his chest friendly. Ryan waved a near by Medic that was making his rounds. Ryan spied something in the young man's hand and picked it up.
In a snap photo was the same teen sitting next a familiar beautiful round faced girl with long curled hair. Both looked like they were closely related. Ryan lowered his head sadly as he griped the photo of Alex and her brother as they smiled into the Polaroid camera arm in arm.
Ryan breathed harshly as he watched the orderlies throw a blanket over the body and carry it away.
Unable to hold his emotions in check he walked till he was alone in a secluded area away from everyone. He tiredly pulled off the headset still sitting on his head and sat on the burnt over turf like grass and watched the sun began to set on the quiet day.
"Three commands lost in four days … pride of the family." Ryan said out loud counting his losses in the past several days. He sniffled tiredly and shook his head staring at the headset. Tears streamed down his left eye glancing at how happy the siblings where in the picture. After a moment he sighed gathering himself back and pocketed the picture.
The crunching of grass caught his attention as a slender female in fatigues sat very close to him and said nothing as she stared at what he was staring at.
"So I guess I have you to thank for last night's botch up in orders?" Ryan's tired and sad face hardened when he addressed the girl next to him.
"Yes …" Cameron replied simply. Ryan nodded his head bitterly at the girl's cold demeanor as they sat touching shoulders and thighs.
"So … are you here to kill me?" Ryan asked turning his head to the brown eyed girl. She turned and stared into identical eyes, there faces where inches apart.
"Yes …" she replied again. Ryan sucked in a breath and set his jaw.
"Why not do it now?" He said calmly looking once again at the sunset. Cameron continued to stare at him.
"Now is not opportune." She deadpanned her voice, but behind the machine posturing there was an air of confusion as if she wasn't sure about something.
"So when is this opportune moment?" He asked.
"You'll know it, when it happens." Cameron answer was short and ominous.
"Why tell me about it then …?" Ryan returned to the staring contest. This time the machine turned her head back to the sunset.
"I don't know?" She admitted. Ryan frowned at her.
There was a few quiet moments as questions swam in his subconscious.
"The diner?" Ryan asked after another quiet minute.
"A test of your strength" Cameron replied quickly.
"Then who put your chip back?" he pushed.
"You know who did it … and you know why." Cameron addressed him slowly. Ryan shook his head disbelievingly.
"No, she's not going to do it … it's not something you can program someone like her to do." Ryan laughed mockingly at the angelic looking young woman.
"She can … and she will. It's only a matter of time, but you have a choice. You can stop her before it happens." Cameron said almost like she was telling him instead of warning him. Ryan shook his head again, his youthful face turned hard.
"I won't do it … but then you know that already." The young soldier scoffed.
"Yes, you love her very much and that is why Skynet's plan will succeed, because you love." Cameron sounded almost sympathetic.
"What would you know about love?" He said dismissively.
"I know that one day such an emotion will blind you to your death." her words struck something deep inside Ryan that caused him to once again share look with the machine. There was a silent but fierce look in his eyes.
"I won't kill her." Ryan restated angrily.
"No, you won't. But, then, I'll kill you … and she'll kill John Connor." Cameron tone was foreboding with a very unmachine like anger, as if the outcome is not to her liking. Ryan wasn't scared in fact he grinned arrogantly at the machine's statement.
"And what do you think you're going to do with a dead Ryan Connor?" He asked confidently.
Cameron tilted her head and reached out and handed Ryan his rucksack. Shoved Inside was a torn strapless wedding gown.
Standing she answered him ruthlessly.
"I'm going to put your head on a pike and hang it from John Connor's door."
***
Sarah sat amongst the senior staff of Company C in an old church. The area was like something out of an old rustic painting with the old style mission church on top of a hill and the small Mexican village below. The inside was very beautiful with old Spanish architecture and stain glass windows. The entire holy sanctuary was decorated with a Christmas tree, tinsel, and lights on the inside.
The small town seemed to have been untouched by not only Judgment Day but the war itself, despite being spared from the horrors of war, the towns people where more then willing to show generosity to the 132nd, giving the soldiers shelter and sharing there food stores.
Sarah had been escorted there by several soldiers on charges of insubordination, but was released under Lefty's supervision. She had spent all day there in the 132nd new headquarters. For most of the day she had been quiet, not talking to anybody though some tried under the assumption that her fiancé had been blown half to Hell. However around late afternoon word reached back to them that Ryan was alive, which in turn returned Sarah to normal. However, the hours she spent mourning the young Connor made her question some things.
In truth Sarah wasn't sure why she felt such devastation. She had only been in Ryan's company several days and most of the time she gave him a hard time, which is typical Sarah Connor behavior toward anyone, but maybe it was the fact that he was a part of John and in extension a part of her that made her feel so guilty, so sad for not getting to know him better. Maybe she could have cut him some slack or shown him a little more compassion. But he was alive now and so she could focus on getting to John again.
It was strange, but when she thought that Ryan was dead, the need to find John began burning in her like a white hot flame. It was a frustrating sensation, like if she didn't get to John soon she might bust.
"Sarah" A southern accent called to her. She turned back to the conversation she had lost at the table she was sitting at with George, Eric, Alice, and lefty, in front of the Altar. "Now think on this a moment …" lefty said seriously.
Sarah put on her best humored listening face.
"Say you're the only human on the planet … after several years wouldn't you feel a tad bit lonely … I mean wouldn't you want someone to be with you, like a companion?" He asked. Sarah frowned not sure what he was getting at, but then she hadn't been paying attention either.
"Umm … I guess so … sure?" she shook her head giving the question a quick thought.
"See, look any sentient being eventually wants a compatible mate or companionship of some sort, so why wouldn't Skynet be any different?" Lefty argued to everyone else.
"Because, Skynet's a computer." Eric said with a sigh tossing down his cards.
"But a sentient being none the less … so why wouldn't it just create itself a mate?" Alice piped in.
"See … more support." Lefty grinned smugly.
"Alice doesn't count; she doesn't even know how to read." Eric scoffed, earning him a hand gesture from the girl that Sarah wasn't sure what it meant, but was pretty sure it was suppose to be insulting.
"Speaking of mates and loneliness, I remember this time during the Topanga Campaign. There was this one girl who had two boyfriends each in a different squad in Company B and she would spend time with each one while the other was on patrol. When one was off then she go have sex with the other and when the other was gone she have sex with the other guy … it was damnedest thing to see." George's story caused some in the group to laugh.
"Dammit, George what the hell does that have to do with anything we're talking about!?" Lefty smiled but addressed his CO with a stern voice.
Sarah gave a distracted smile and turned her attention to several trucks that drove up the dirt road. When the trucks arrived in front of the church, she saw tattered and worn soldiers jump out of the vehicles.
Her attention was drawn away from the stain glass, when the older Priest who had been gracious enough to let them use the church and the hill walked out to greet the newly arrived soldiers with a first aid kit and a pale of water.
When the sound of groaning engines and indistinct yelling ceased with a large slam of the double doors Sarah returned her focus to the people in front of her. Apparently the conversation had shifted to Frankenstein to which everyone (including Sarah) got lost in the analogy used by the old Captain.
When Alice's illiteracy came back up the sound of the double doors opened again and closed slowly. From the corner of her eye, Sarah saw the old man walk by. However another presence made it way toward the table with distinctive thuds. Sarah ignored it, because messengers and couriers had been in and out for several hours now.
"Ah, Ryan, you're just in time, we're just discussing the existential loneliness of sentient beings." Lefty addressed the figure behind Sarah. She immediately snapped her head toward the recipient of the greeting.
Ryan looked tired and ate up. His gun/utility belt was over his buttoned up Leather jacket that was scorched and synged. Along with his stubbly left cheek and bandana. His Plasma Rifle hung behind his back and the rucksack she abandoned was over his shoulder.
"Is that right?" he said with fake interest.
"We were trying to discuss the idea that Skynet might attempt to create another sentient mind as a companion, However George refuses to accept it." Alice stuttered out nervously in an attempt to sound intelligent.
"This is true and I here by order them to drop such traitor like dialog in a sanctuary such as this." George announced.
"Well … George, lots of beings who can think for themselves feel lonely sometimes …" Ryan explained tiredly.
"Not George, How can he be lonely when his ego is with him all the time?" Lefty addressed the man. Ryan shook his head and stuffed his hands in his Jacket pockets.
"Captain Phillips, for all our sakes I will end this conversation here and now!" George stood as if he was going to make a grand gesture.
"Awesome …" Ryan stated flatly.
"There are some of you that believe Robot's can fall in love … there even might be some of you here that would actually marry a Terminator, but I dare the man to step forward and claim that John Connor would willingly marry a Machine!" George walked around the table addressing each member penitently before stopping and throwing an arm around Ryan's shoulder as if it gave his claims validation. For the first time since leaving Ryan and Sarah shared a look followed by Ryan rolling his eyes to the sky in annoyance.
"You know there's just this feeling I get when I remember that if something happens to Perry your in command here." Ryan said with a hint of sarcasm. George seemed to have missed the tone of his voice.
"Thank you"
"No problem"
He walked back to his seat when the Priest came up to the young Officer with a bucket.
"¿Agua?" The old man offered a tin cup.
"Gracias" Ryan took the cup.
"How's Barnes?" lefty asked as Ryan gulped down the water.
"… He'll live … probably lose an arm and maybe a leg." Ryan sighed tiredly with a pang of sadness as he placed the cup back in the bucket and nodded in thanks as the Priest left.
"I'm sorry about not being there, last night." Alice said genuinely remorseful. Ryan waved her off.
"It wouldn't have mattered, one way or another, babe … it would take more then a Regiment to hold that valley." Ryan scrubbed his face. Alice smiled and gave a small content sigh at being addressed as 'babe".
"We heard what you did to save Barnes and his Command … it was one Hell of a job." Eric said raising a flask.
"Not really, I only pulled out about sixteen and some wounded before Eiling's "Guardian Angels" sounded the trumpets." He replied bitterly. There was a quiet silence that hung over the group as the events of that night was still hard to swallow for everyone.
"Want to sit?" Alice asked after a moment.
"No … I just came for my orders seeing that Perry is still not here yet." Ryan motioned to George.
"How many are left in Alpha and Bravo?" he asked the Captain.
"I have forty-eight and Bravo has about a platoon's worth. But we're all pretty shot up." Ryan responded.
"Split Bravo into squads and reinforce Alpha with them. I'm placing you in reserve in the town tonight, but we may need you in the morning especially if Skynet decides to launch a counter strike." Sarah was surprised because this was the first time she heard George actually sound anything remotely like a Soldier. "Also I would like to inform you that your attractive fiancé … is currently in the Stockade, so to speak." He motioned to Sarah who glared at George who still was bitter at her for running out on there kiss, which she was still trying to block out. Ryan frowned in confusion at fiancé, but pressed on in the conversation.
"What did you do?" He snorted at Sarah.
"She went Ape shit on Eiling after he gave the orders for the Air Strike." Lefty chuckled fondly giving her a rub on the shoulder. Ryan gave her an interested, but weary look.
"I think you and him are going to have a large disagreement one day." Ryan smiled sarcastically. Sarah nodded with raised eyebrows. "She's isn't in any sort of major trouble is she?" Ryan asked her. Sarah shook her head with a shrug.
"No … we have just kept her around, because she's nice to look at." Lefty winked at a glaring Sarah.
"Well if that's case, then I'm going to go set up in town. I'll send word when I get my own HQ going." Ryan said tiredly.
"Sounds like plan, Captain." George sighed at his cards.
"With your permission, Major?" Ryan saluted. George smiled wirily and returned it. But instead of leaving, Ryan walked up and leaned over Sarah's shoulder. "When you're done here … come find me." He whispered and gave her a small kiss on the temple, like John would do sometimes. Sarah smiled in surprise and watched him leave the church alone.
There was a silence that hovered over the table for a moment as everyone stared at there cards awkwardly.
"So, lefty … how many of your Prom dates were Robots?"
"Meh …"
***
It was nightfall when Sarah finally made it out of the church and into the cold darkness. She had her arms wrapped around herself as she listened to the crackling of gravel under her combat boots. Using the light of the full moon, she hiked down the hill toward the small Mexican town below.
She observed that the town had a sort of Deljalo feel to it. It was small and old looking with a mix of adobe and stone buildings. When she reached the out skirts she walked by several shacks that some of the residents were using as housing.
Sarah got a strange almost tight feeling in her belly as she watched family after family bury there prized possessions in the dirt floor of the shacks and packing up others. She knew that it meant only one thing. The people knew that the Machines were on their way.
Trying to post part two tonight …
Wish me luck ;)