Terminator: Return of the Fallen

Part XXXXVIII

Allison and I spent the entire night talking. I promised to give her and her boy all of the spare rations, blankets, and medicine that I could find. After all, I am a Terminator; I do not need to eat or sleep a lot. In the morning, the British woman named Lena came to get me. Apparently, there had been some very disturbing developments on the other side of the English Channel.

SkyNet has been assembling a massive invasion fleet in France to attack England. Dozens of transports and aircraft carriers are preparing to descend on the United Kingdom, and swarm us with an overwhelming force. If this fleet manages to link up with the SkyNet forces already in England, we will be overrun. We must stop that fleet at any cost. I come up with a plan to save the day.

The plan is simple, we gather as many planes as we can find and sink that fleet before it can set sail. We will use the Eurofighters to draw out all of the enemy's aircraft, while the Tornados fly in low and destroy their ships with plasma warheads. In order for this plan to work, our Eurofighter force will have to be at least double the size of our Tornado force. We must trick SkyNet into thinking that the Eurofighters are the main body of the assault, and that the Tornados are just a diversion or a feint. Unfortunately, we do not have that many Eurofighters.

"It is a good plan, Major Zacks", replied Colonel Merril, "but we simply do not have the aircraft to pull it off". One of my best traits is also my worst: I am stubborn as a mule and I do not know how to give up. This plan is going to work, even if I have to fly all of the planes by remote. Remote....THAT'S IT!

"The Jimmy Carter is still in the area, correct?"

"It is. Why?"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Jimmy Carter equipped to launch drones?"

"Drones? Drones can't fight Hunter Killers".

"No, but they can be modified to resemble a Eurofighter on a radar screen". The Colonel smiles at me. I think my plan is about to be approved.

"Jolly good, old boy. We attack tomorrow, and you will be leading the Eurofighter force. Good luck and God speed". I salute the Colonel, and then leave the Command Center to brief my men on the attack.

This attack will take place using aircraft from different squadrons across England. I will be leading them all in one of the largest diversionary attacks in history. If it works, the Resistance in England will live to fight another day. If it fails, then we are all going to die anyway. We might as well go down fighting. Besides, I am a pilot; I live in the air and I should die in the air.

Though we are incredibly outnumbered, we do have a few tricks up our sleeves. Our planes are faster and more manoeuvrable than the Hunter Killer. We also have John Henry's latest invention: a new kind of energy canon that will be strapped to the undersides of our planes. These canons have never been tested in combat before. I can not wait to see what these shiny new guns can do against Hunter Killers. If we are destined to die in the skies over Europe, we will die taking as many of those metal bastards with us as possible.

The night before the big assault, Catherine and I walk over to the infantry barracks. If this is my last night alive (more or less), then I want to spend it with the closest thing I have to a family. Allison and her son are glad to see me, but Allison nearly freaks out when she hears about tomorrow's battle plan.

"Are you insane? This is a suicide attack!"

"It is also our only chance to save the Resistance here in England. We have to do this Allison".

"The HKs have plasma rifles now; you are going to get yourself killed".

"Well, if we all have to die someday, I would like to die doing what I love the most: flying". Allison has tears in her eyes, so I place my arm around her shoulders to comfort her. "I'm going to be all right, Allison. Don't worry about me".

"Promise me. Promise me that you will come back".

"I promise, on my honour as an officer, I will come back".

After our emotional conversation, I kissed Allison on her forehead and headed back to my barracks. Before every battle, Catherine and I go through a little ritual: first, we make love to ease the tension we feel. Then, we sleep curled up next to each other, feeling safe and secure in each other's arms. In the morning, we eat our rations, kiss each other goodbye, and promise to be back for dinner. It is time for me to climb into the cockpit and lead my men into battle.

From bases across England, Eurofighters take off and fly in formation towards the French coast. We form up into a massive division, with my plane as the lead aircraft. The Tornados will take off shortly after the Eurofighters. If everything goes according to plan, the Tornados should reach France after we have drawn out every Hunter Killer in the area. All that we have to do is keep the enemy aircraft occupied so that the Tornados can fire their plasma tipped Exocets and sink their fleet without being intercepted. As we fly over the English Channel, I look down at the water and I wonder: will this be my last flight?

The Jimmy Carter launches its drones, which have been modified to emit the radar signature of Eurofighters. Our diversion appears to be working, as the skies fill with HKs. Judging by the sheer number of HKs, they must have launched all of their carrier based aircraft and their land based aircraft. I order all of my planes to lock their missiles on the incoming wave of HKs. We lock onto one aircraft per missile, to ensure maximum destruction.

"All right everyone, launch missiles on my mark. Three! Two! One! FIRE! FIRE! FIRE!"

We simultaneously fire all of our missiles, sending dozens of HKs plummeting into the English Channel. Now to keep these guys occupied so that the Tornados can do their job. I order all of my planes to attack the enemy formation, punch through their lines, and box them into a kill zone. We serve back and forth to avoid the enemy plasma fire, and then fire our own energy canons. To my surprise, the new canons can actually shred a heavily armoured HK with one blast. I inform my pilots to fire one burst at each target and then move on to the next one.

We slice through their ranks like switchblades, decimating everything in our path. However, the Hunter Killers are not concerned with their losses. They still outnumber us 10 to 1, and they are perfectly willing to sacrifice nine of theirs to kill one of ours. As I dart through the skies, destroying target after target, I spot two Eurofighters being trailed by HKs. I swing around, attack the pursuing HKs like a falcon in the dive, and destroy them. I order my men to watch each other's backs, because we are our own best defence up here. The skies are filled with blue flashes as both sides attempt to obliterate each other with energy weapons. It would be beautiful, if they were not trying to kill us.

At one point, I have an HK on my tail that I can not shake. At the same time, Union Jack is having the same problem with another HK. We turn our planes and head straight towards each other. At the last moment, we bank in opposite directions, placing the pursuing HKs in perfect firing positions. We fire our energy canons and simultaneously destroy both attacking HKs. The speed and agility of our aircraft gives us a distinct advantage during dogfights. I am conducting manoeuvres that would impress an aerial acrobatics team, and I am shredding every HK that gets in my way.

Though my pilots are all watching each other's tails, I am still losing men. Many planes explode as enemy plasma fire rips them apart. One unfortunate soul ejected from his plane after it was hit. An HK tore him to shreds with its plasma rifle before he could even open his parachute. I destroyed that HK, as well as four others that were in the area. Unfortunately, I had to watch two other pilots perish in their parachutes. I ordered my remaining men to stay in their planes no matter what happened. If they were hit, they were going to die whether they ejected or not.

Our kill ratio was at least five to one, but we were losing too many planes. It was time to change our strategy. I ordered all of my pilots to form two groups. The first group would charge the enemy, punch through their lines, and then run like hell. The second group would hang back, wait for the first group to be chased by the enemy, and then fly to the rescue. This new tactic worked for a while. My planes would dart through the skies, blast as many HKs as possible, and then retreat into the waiting jaws of my second group of aircraft. The foolish HKs fell for this trap in wave after wave. Countless HKs were ripped apart by our canons. Then, they began to chase us in greater numbers. Our strategy had to change once again, or we were cooked.

This time, I ordered my planes to form up into three groups. Two would strike at the enemy's flank, while the third group would attack straight up the middle. After the third group had punched through the enemy's center, it would dive down and hopefully get the enemy to chase them. The two groups attacking the flanks would dive down and rip the enemy apart. I lead the third group in the attack up the enemy's center. We fly in, quick and agile, and blasted everything in our path. Then, we all dove towards the water and the foolish HKs chased us. As they were diving to destroy us, the other planes managed to surprise and destroy them. Unfortunately, it did not take the HKs a long time to adapt to our attacks. They began to divide their force into three groups as well, one per each of my groups. We were starting to take heavy casualties.

It was time to make one final strike, and pray to God that we survived it. I ordered all of my planes to regroup, drive straight towards their center, and then fire at will. We were to rely on our speed and manoeuvrability to evade destruction. It was a basic fire and manoeuvre strategy, but I was out of ideas at this point. I tore through their formation, manoeuvring through their fire while decimating them with mine. Either their vehicles were too slow to get out of the way, or they were not trying to escape our fire. We fly in groups of three, blasting everything in our path while protecting each other from attack. As plasma bursts flew off in every direction, and I manoeuvred my way through their formation while blasting every HK that I came across, I could not shake the feeling that this was it.

All of a sudden, the HKs began to fall back. They broke formation, which gave us more room to manoeuvre. As I shot through the sky like a dart, destroying countless HKs, I realized that they were not retreating at all. They were regrouping. The HKs were forming a massive wall of aircraft to crush us in a single sweep. This time, they were packed two tightly for us to outmanoeuvre them. It was literally a massive wall of aircraft. We could not win, but we were not going to retreat. Victory or death!

Suddenly, dozens of missiles shot up from the water. The missiles spread out through the enemy formation, and then detonated. Without warning, the entire formation of HKs dropped into the English Channel. It was the most amazing thing that I had ever seen. It was also the most bizarre thing that I had ever seen.

"How the hell...?"

"Say hello to the latest toy to come out of Command: EMP missiles. Time to bring your boys home, Major. Mission accomplished".

"You heard the lady, boys. Let's head for home".

After we had landed, I discovered that over one third of my pilots were unaccounted for. Lena asked if I wanted to send a search party to look for them, but I told her not to bother. If they were not here, then they were dead. Yet, their sacrifice had not been in vain. The Tornados had managed to release their Exocets while the HKs were preoccupied with us, destroying the entire invasion fleet. With that fleet out of commission, the British Resistance would live to fight another day.

Later in the day, I learned that Connor has sent our remaining missile submarines to attack SkyNet facilities throughout Western Europe. Their main shipyards, factories, and airfields had all been vaporized by nuclear missiles. Because we had essentially destroyed all of the enemy's aircraft in the area, the submarines were able to fire missile after missile without being sunk. By the time that SkyNet had scrambled HKs from the east, the submarines had slipped away into the Atlantic. Though our victory had been a costly one, it had seriously crippled SkyNet's ability to fight in Europe. We might have just turned the tide of the war. Though we still have to fight the enemy units in England, I am confident that we will defeat them. We can and will win this war, I just know it.

After hours of debriefings, Catherine and I slipped away from our barracks and headed towards the infantry barracks. When we reached the barracks, we immediately began looking for Allison. We found her, and I crept up behind her as silently as a mouse. Then, I stood behind her and poked her in the sides.

"EEEE! Don't do......you!" Allison threw her arms around me.

"I told you I'd be back".