Terminator: Return of the Fallen
Part XXXXIV
I woke up to the sound of my cell phone ringing. God, it feels like I just climbed into bed. That T-1000 really took a lot out of me. Whoever this is had better have a damn good reason for waking me up, or I am going to start pulverizing things.
"Hello?"
"Charley, you're still alive. Good". It's John Henry. "Get everybody to a bunker, now!"
"What the hell? Do you think you can tell me what is going on before you start issuing orders?"
"The enemy has seized various military bases. It has begun!" Oh shit! I hang up the phone, get dressed and grab my weapon.
"EVERYONE WAKE UP! EVERYONE GRAB AS MANY WEAPONS AS YOU CAN CARRY AND PREPARE TO EVACUATE! MOVE IT!" I am grabbing ammunition cartridges and grenades as everyone else begins to walk into the hallway. Sarah, wearing sweatpants and a tank top, is the first person to speak.
"Care to tell me what this is about?"
"J-Day has started. We're pulling out". People start to panic. We all thought we would have more time. We were wrong. "HEY! Pull yourselves together. Catherine, I need you to get us transportation to the nearest missile silo. We will hold it to the last man". John disagrees with my assessment of the situation.
"No we won't. Weaver, I am ordering you to disobey the Captain".
"What do you suggest, General? That we all hide while the world burns around us?" Even if he orders me to run, I am going to stay and fight. No more running.
"There are hundreds of nuclear missiles. Even if we held a single missile silo, it would not make a difference. But, if we could crash the internet...."
"We could crash SkyNet and end this before it goes nuclear. Brilliant! General, I take back every bad thing I ever said about you". I pull out my cell phone and call John Henry. "J.H.? We need transportation to the Pentagon. NOW!"
"We are a little busy here, Captain".
"John has a plan to terminate your brother before he blows up the world".
"Excellent. I'm sending you a private jet. All of our military units have their hands full".
"I don't doubt it. We'll be at the airport within the hour. We have to hurry or none of this will matter". Behind me, I can hear Sarah shouting orders.
"Take as many ammunition cartridges and grenades as you can fit in your pockets. Everyone carries a plasma weapon. Weaver, get Savannah someplace safe".
"I'll have her brought to the basement of my office. It's fairly deep, and should survive a nuclear blast".
"I want to stay with you".
"Savannah, I need you to trust me. You need to stay in the basement no matter what happens. Like playing hide and seek. Ok?"
"Ok, mommy". Catherine's heart must be breaking, but the Pentagon is no place for a small child.
The car picks up Savannah and drives her to the office, as we all head to the airport. We hop on the plane and fly to Washington. The city is in the same condition as yesterday, rife with panic. A convoy of black cars takes us to the Pentagon.
"Cameron, you take John to John Henry. No matter what happens, he must get to that room and help J.H. crash the internet. Everyone else, head to a checkpoint and hold it as long as you can. Once SkyNet figures out what we are doing, it will come down on us like a ton of bricks".
We split up and head to our positions. Before we depart, we clip walkie-talkies to our clothes so that we may communicate with each other. Cameron and John run inside the Pentagon to reach John Henry and end this before it gets out of hand. I start to chat with the human security guards that are manning my checkpoint. We have a nice conversation, right up until the moment they are slaughtered by Gatling guns.
Without warning, an army of T-600s and T-888s descend on my position. The T-600s are armed with Gatling guns while the T-888s have a variety of automatic weapons. They have AK 47s, M16s, Uzis and various other guns. As their bullets bounce off my armour, my plasma rounds pulverize their skulls. I mow down wave after wave of Terminators with my plasma rifle. The majority of attackers are T-600s, but there are many T-888s as well.
We are all using the latest plasma rifle developed by John Henry. Unlike previous weapons, these ones use ammunition cartridges that can be easily replaced. As soon as my current cartridge has been depleted of energy, I eject it from the rifle and insert the next cartridge. Though my flesh is torn and my clothes are ripped, I stand my ground and blast everything that moves in the head. I love these rapid firing plasma weapons. Even though I have destroyed many Terminators, Catherine informs me that the battle is not progressing in our favour.
"Charley, if you can hear me, the Terminators have overrun several checkpoints. They are breaking through". Well that's just great. What else can go wrong?
"Ok, new plan: everyone fight your way to the room where the Johns are. We must stop them from reaching that room at any cost".
Reluctantly, I abandon my post and begin to charge towards John and John Henry's position. Along the way, I encounter squads of Terminators that have broken through our defences and I blast them all in the head. In one hallway, I destroyed twenty Terminators. After heavy fighting, I finally reach the room. Dozens of Terminators lay slain in my wake.
The others have probably gone through the same hailstorm of bullets and metal that I have. Sarah, Reese, and young Sarah are now wearing full body armour. Cameron is shot to hell, but she is still functioning. Catherine does not have a scratch on her; one of the advantages of being a T-1000 series Terminator.
"All right people, listen up. This is our Alamo, we hold the line here. Terminators up front, humans in the back. Shoot everything that comes this way".
The wall in front of us explodes, and an army of Terminators comes pouring through the opening in the wall. We take up our positions and blast them to oblivion. Every Terminator that comes through the opening is greeted by a hailstorm of plasma fire. Catherine, Cameron, and I are in the front, absorbing the bullets so that they do not reach the humans. Sarah, Reese, and young Sarah are standing a few feet behind us. Anything that gets through our fire is blasted by them. The bodies of destroyed Terminators are starting to pile up, as wave after wave assault our position only to be slaughtered by our superior firepower.
Unfortunately, we can not keep this up indefinitely. Eventually, we will run out of ammunition and we will be overrun. I am down to my last cartridge. It is time to do something incredibly stupid. If it works, then I just might be able to buy John and John Henry enough time to end this. If not, then I will fall with the people that I love.
"Hey, Cameron! Catch". I throw her my weapon, and she catches it. "Use it in good health". I charge the oncoming horde of Terminators and engage them head on. Behind me, I can hear Catherine yelling.
"Charley, get back in formation! This is crazy, Charley get your ass back here!" I have never heard her speak like that before. She really does love me. I run towards the onslaught of Terminators, throwing as many plasma grenades as I can. Six foot tall Terminators are blown to bits by the exploding plasma weapons. The moment that I throw my last grenade, I engage the Terminators in hand to hand combat.
I crash into the enemy lines and backhand, punch and kick everything that is in front of me. Every time that I encounter a T-600, I knock its head off. The T-888s are another story altogether. I can not destroy them in hand to hand combat, but I can slow them down. I hit them as hard as I can to knock them down. When one gets by me, I grab it and pull it to the ground. This buys the others enough time to reload and blast the metal bastards before they can get up. Unexpectedly, I notice that one of the plasma rifles is changing its angle of fire. Someone is moving out of formation. As I punch a T-888 in the face, I look over my shoulder to see Catherine running towards me.
Catherine charges at the Terminators, firing her rifle at their heads. She destroys as many as she can before running out of energy. Then she drops her plasma rifle, turns her arms into blades and begins to decapitate the Terminators. T-600s can be destroyed by decapitation, but the T-888 can function even without its head. This is odd, since I have destroyed dozens of these things by shooting them in the head. Then I realize that I had always destroyed the right half of their skull, where their chips are.
"Catherine, their chips! Stab them in their chips!"
She does, and the T-888s begin to drop dead. I handle the T-600s while she takes on the T-888s. Anything that gets past us gets shot in the head by the others. The Terminators are like an endless tide. Wave after wave comes at us, each one as determined to break through as the last. I knock the head off of every T-600 I encounter, while Catherine stabs the chips of the T-888s. As the battle progresses, we realize that we need to pick up the pace. It is only a matter of time before the others run out of ammunition.
"Catherine! Fighting retreat! Everyone else, toss your grenades".
We lean forward as we run, so that the grenades sail over us and into the mass of machines. The entire opening erupts into a fireball, as the current wave of Terminators is obliterated by the exploding grenades. The next wave has been thrown into complete disarray. We are now out of grenades and nearly out of plasma ammunition. Time to go for broke. I look at Catherine, and she understands.
We turn around and charge the next wave of Terminators. We both reach the opening before the Terminators, and block their path to the others. Just as before, I handle the T-600s while she stabs the T-888s. If this is how I go down, then I shall fall fighting side by side with the woman that I love. One by one, we slay everything that stand before us. Countless T-600s and T-888s lie dead around us, yet they continue to attack. There are just too many of them. This is a battle that we can not win.
Suddenly, all of the T-600s stop dead in their tracks. The T-888s, realizing that they lack sufficient numbers to carry out the assault on their own, begin to retreat. I try to chase after them, but Catherine grabs me by the arm and pulls me back through the opening.
"We can not possibly destroy them all. They will have to wait for another day". I hate to admit it, but she is right. Hopefully, others will not pay the price for our inability to act. A door opens and John and John Henry walk out to meet us.
"We did it, it worked!"
"What the hell just happened?"
"John realized that, instead of trying to shut down the internet, we should try to overload it. Any machine will malfunction if it is overloaded, and my brother is no exception".
"What happened to the T-600s?" John comes up with an explanation that makes me want to jump for joy.
"After we had overloaded the World Wide Web, it crashed. Obviously, these machines were unable to cope with SkyNet being taken off line and they shut down. Hopefully, the rest of the Terminator army did the exact same thing".
"SkyNet is offline? We won?"
"Yes, we won". It takes a minute for the news to sink in. When it does, I grab Catherine and begin to twirl her around the hallway.
"YAHOO! WE WON! WE WON!"
Sarah gives Reese a huge, passionate kiss. Young Sarah and Allison are jumping up and down cheering, as Cameron and John hug each other. We did it! We saved the world! Our celebration is cut short, when the Terminators in the room hear the sounds of gunfire outside of the Pentagon. I would recognize that sound anywhere: it is the sound of M82s firing in unison. We all rush outside to discover that all of the T-888s have been destroyed, and the building is now surrounded by men carrying M82s. One man approaches us and calls out my name.
"Which one of you is Captain Zacks?" Well, this is unusual. I step up and introduce myself.
"I am Captain Charles Zacks of the Resistance". The man snaps to attention and salutes me.
"Lieutenant John Tipper, at your service. General Connor sent my unit here to help you defend the Pentagon. It seems we arrived just as the battle was ending".
"Your help is still appreciated, Lieutenant. You kept all of these machines from escaping to kill another day. Good job".
We salute each other and shake hands. Then, we all head back inside the Pentagon to disassemble the T-600s. Well, the humans disassemble the T-600s, but Catherine, Cameron and I rip them apart. There are many units and it takes us a few hours, but we eventually destroy all of the disabled Terminators. After the T-600s have been completely destroyed, we all depart and return to our respective headquarters.
By the time we return to the Safe House, I discover that the internet has already been restored. The email icon on our laptop is blinking. I click on it, just out of curiosity. The message is brief and simple. It says: Today, you won the battle. The war continues.
