AN: Okay, there's something close to a logical ending coming, at least for this stage of the War. I'm working toward what could be a plausible, if open ended ending to this story. Consider it a Volume one.
Kate looked around through her net. Nothing but bare metal walls. She was inside the H/K, Carla pushed up against her in the confined space, a row of offline Terminators hanging neatly in a line next to them. No windows, little room, and Sarah's wails echoing off the steel walls.
Kate gave Sarah her most reassuring whispers; as the Machine moved.
"Why are we alive?" Carla demanded. "They can't possibly need us for slave labor again. They have enough of the humanoid Terminators by now, surely. Machines don't take prisoners. Why are we alive?"
Kate shivered. "They need us for something." She said finally. "Something that they don't care about processing us for. They didn't burn a bar-code into Sarah. They didn't check us for bar-codes either... They don't care who we are; or about keeping track of us later."
Carla shivered too. "He'll come after us, right-"
Kate clapped a hand over Carla's mouth and gave her a sharp look. "No names, while we're in the machine."
"Yes Ma'am."
Kate didn't let it show on her face, but showing the machines who was in charge between the two of them was bad enough. "We're renegades now, you don't Ma'am me."
"No ma'am." Carla smirked.
Unarmed, bleeding, a Terminator hunting him like a shark, Connor almost felt at home.
Connor pulled himself painfully into the garage, Kyle half holding him upright. The Terminator was getting closer.
Connor rushed with a snail's speed to the side of the entrance, pulling on the rusted chains. Kyle quickly divined his intent, and started yanking on the chain too, until finally it came loose, and the roller door to the Service Station Garage smashed down, the Terminator on the other side.
WHAM! WHAM! The machine was quickly smashing away at the roller door; the corrugated metal was bending inward with every hit.
Connor glanced around. One or two vehicles here too. They were not rusted, protected from the elements by the garage... They were up on blocks, in various stages of repair. No good for an escape.
"We gotta get out of here!" Kyle cried out.
Connor licked his lips. "Kyle, find one with a battery in it. Hurry!"
Kyle didn't understand, but did so. He went first to the car on blocks, and lifted the hood. nothing. Then to the jeep on the hoist; looking from underneath. "Here!"
WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!
Connor fought to his feet, boosted Kyle up to the Jeep, and the boy climbed in the drivers seat. "The sun visor!"
Kyle checked, and the keys dropped into his lap.
"Start it up!" Connor ordered, and started hunting for jumper cables. In a mechanics garage, they were not hard to find.
Barely able to stand, Connor lifted the jumper leads, attached them to the Jeep battery, and held out the other ends.
Kyle turned the key. The grinding sound of an old ignition filled the thick air.
WHAM! CRUNCH! The Terminator finally fought his way through the roller door, and started marching into the garage.
Kyle worked the key again. More harsh grinding.
The Terminator came into view of its quarry, and resumed its inexorable march toward Connor...
Teeth bared, fire in his eyes and hatred in his heart, Connor roared. "Come and GET ME!"
Kyle was slamming on the steering wheel, almost bending the key in the ignition. More harsh grinding, a thick sound as something caught...
Skeletal hands reached out, close enough to strangle. Connor lunged into its reach with the jumper cables. The contact points bounced off the metal...
Kyle turned the ignition, and miraculously, the jeep started up...
...and a sudden electrical buzz snapped for a moment, the Machine jerking in inhuman spasms. Its limbs flashed around and smashed Connor in the face, drawing blood as a wide gash opened, from his cheekbone to his hairline.
The engine died again, and the machine dropped. Connor fought to get back up, holding his face closed; and stood over the twitching Machine, glaring down furiously at it.
After a long silence, Kyle leaned out of the jeep. "Is it... dead?"
Connor nodded. "Yeah. It's done. I think it has a backup power source though. We'll need to make sure it stays down."
"I saw a power saw in the back of the garage. We can take it apart." Kyle whispered.
"No. I need it intact." Connor explained to Kyle. "This is a Service Station. It must have other tools."
"You're hurt." Kyle said sharply.
"I've had worse."
Whickham came to the LA underground. The full tour brought him to the tech-Center. Gould was taking him through the current projects that Connor had assigned them to. Not the least of which, was the effort to reprogram Terminator CPU's. There were a row of small chips lined up under glass, some under magnifiers, some being dismantled, one or two wired into computers.
Whickham looked at the dissected one. "Can you put that back together again?"
West didn't flinch. "Probably not. We're running some chemical tests on that one sir. It hardly matters because the CPU wasn't Skynet Active."
"Skynet Active?"
"All it's directives were deleted. Connor had us experimenting with reprogramming them."
"Any luck?"
"A Terminator CPU is a learning computer. It's very smart. Frankly sir, I don't think we have the processing power with any of our computers to rewrite an entire Machine Brain."
"There's nothing we can get from them?"
"Oh no, plenty of things. Background information is put into every Terminator Chip, we have five more to compare against. Terminators have detailed files on every subject."
Whickham checked closer. "Four."
"Sir?"
"According to the manifest, you have five CPU's from destroyed or captured Terminators, but there are only four here. Where's the fifth?"
"Inside one of our computers I think. Connor had the idea to only write over the commands and not the programming." Gould explained. "We've got the fifth hooked up right now."
Connor pulled the CPU out of his pocket and handed it to Kyle. "Hold onto that. Don't lose it."
"What is it?" Kyle asked.
"A CPU. The Terminator brain." Connor told him.
Kyle suddenly held out the thing with only two fingers, as far from his body as he could, as though an unclean thing. "Where did it come from?"
"I... liberated it on our way out." Connor gave Kyle a quick look. "Um… Stealing is wrong."
"Yessir."
Connor managed to get the power for the electric drill working from the jeep battery. The electric drill wasn't set with the right drill bit for the job, but after a while, the hatch came open, and Connor reached into the Terminator skull with a pair of needle-nosed pliers.
"Now what?" Kyle asked.
"We need to fix the Machine."
"You want to wake it up?" Kyle screeched.
"Yep." Connor looked closer. "Looks like the electrical charge burned out the CPU, which we replaced. One or two circuits are fried. This is a service station; there should be heavy duty fuses for vehicles in here."
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Seventeen Days
Kate shivered as the machine came to a halt and the hatch below them opened. The steel net they were in dropped them both in a large open floor. Kate struggled to keep her arms straight beneath her, so that Sarah wouldn't be crushed under her weight.
Before she could get upright, the sound of steel on steel came marching up to them. Carla and Kate were quickly flanked by two Terminators each, and marched away from the landing zone as the flying H/K geared up its turbines and returned to the sky.
Sarah was screaming bloody murder and jangling every human nerve. Kate shushed her daughter desperately, looking around discretely. The place was covered with dirt on the outside, pristine once they were led into the facility. Nothing but clean polished metal. No doors, no cameras, no signs, no directories. The whole thing was built by Skynet. Machines were marching back and forth, only some of them carrying obvious weapons, the others carrying odd equipment like tools and diagnostics and circuit testers, as well as other things Kate couldn't even guess at.
After a while, the corridor they were being marched down widened and Kate got a look at the heart of the area. It was an assembly line. Row after row of machine hands, only a very few of them were actually humanoid, but all of them had the same style. Chrome finish, pneumatic working parts, and glowing red sensors.
And the closer they got, the more the two women could see the Assembly line. It was building Terminators. Raw parts would come in one end, the machine arms taking them one by one and putting them on the conveyor. The further down the line it went, the more parts would be added to the whole. From somewhere on a level above, another assembly line put the Terminator skulls together, and they would each be lowered to the chassis. Eyes were slotted into place. Arms were fitted to shoulders. Hands were brought together, one finger working after another.
No lights overhead. None were needed. No pause, no alerts, no breaks. None were needed.
Kate could feel the pulse of this place vibrating her. It never wavered.
As they came past, Kate could clearly see the constantly moving machine that slotted each CPU into place, and every skull that passed her suddenly came alive, its red eyes moving, studying her, though they had no arms and legs.
And as they were marched past the machines, Kate could hear different sounds. The low moans and sobs of human prisoners. She looked up sharply to look for them, and found that ringing the assembly line, set into the wall, near the second level, but far above them now, were cages, made of steel bars. Each was the size of a phone booth, and in each one, a human prisoner.
Near the entrance to the factory were two empty cages, and Carla and Kate were shoved into one apiece. A large machine arm came from the assembly line, slid itself through the cage like a forklift, and lifted the whole cage up to the wall where it was connected mechanically, keeping the cage and it's occupant away from the factory floor.
There was a narrow gantry, barely six inches across ringing the wall, and Terminators with weapons moved methodically around it, heedless of the risk, sure footed on the extremely narrow path; watching the ring of moaning humans hanging their legs through their small cage rooms as the skeletal machines were created far below them in the dark.
"Welcome to Skynet Hell." Someone in the next cage croaked.
Connor checked again. "The burned out transistors have been replaced... looks like the power cells are intact... All that's left is the CPU."
Kyle was shaking.
John looked at him, smiling softly. Even the smile made his face burn across his wound. "Kyle, it only takes one. I wouldn't mind if you wanted to go right now."
Kyle licked his lips, and then planted his feet, raised his chin defiantly. "I'm with you."
Connor held the small chip in the needle-nose pliers, took a deep breath, and inserted the chip. The Machine came to life, its eyes filled with a sudden red glow.
John stepped back quickly.
Kyle let out a little cry as the machine stood. This was a Terminator. A Death-Dealer. A Chrome Skeleton with unholy red eyes. And they had just woken it up!
The machine turned to face Kyle; then Connor. It took a step forward. Another. One hand reached up finish screwing in the cover for the chip.
Kyle started backing up slowly. Connor was frankly amazed that the kid hadn't run yet.
Connor stood, unmoved, unafraid. "Report."
The Machine paused.
Searching for Skynet Control.
Error. CPU set to Read Only. No External Control Signal.
Malfunction. Need input.
The Machine spoke. "Who are you?"
Connor held out his arm, and rolled up his sleeve; the bar-code was visible.
The Machine was silent, processing.
Identify Target: bar-code: 473249.
Target Identified: John Connor.
John Connor.
John Connor.
ERROR. Missing File.
Run System Check: 100/100. No Errors.
Run CPU Check: 100/100 No Errors.
Run Memory Check: 100/100 No Errors
Review Mission Directives...
Processing...
"What is your mission?" Connor demanded.
The Machine spoke. "To Follow the Directives of John Connor."
"...far out." Kyle whispered; soft as a psalm.
Connor let out a breath like he'd been holding it for a hundred years. "Then pay attention Tin Man, because I have a few Directives for you."
Sarah had fallen asleep finally, and Kate was glad for it. She and Carla were staring with growing horror at the next level down. They were the only ones watching. All the other human prisoners were apparently beyond caring.
Looking at the level below, Kate suddenly realized why the machines didn't care to check her bar-code. They didn't need to keep track of her. What they needed from her and Carla and Sarah was... something else.
One level above the entrance, one level below the ring of cages, was apparently a laboratory. And the experiments... were performed on humans. Half a dozen machines with their nimble skeletal fingers were working on a human being, studying it carefully as they dissected it, diodes sending mild electrical shocks into the body, making the limbs jump like something in a high school laboratory.
And then Kate realized why. One of the bodies was moving, and when it stood, its eyes were open and glowing red. Kate looked closer at it, and saw the pale deathly color of the skin. Another Terminator had the skin of a human face stretched over its skull; with wires extending into the steel chassis, stretching the skin into expressions.
It was horrifying in its precision. It was evil in its ruthlessness. It was a detestable to look upon. It was something unholy and unclean being created.
"What are they doing?" Carla moaned in horror.
"Trying to upgrade." Kate said with grim prophecy. "They're trying to graft human flesh on a Terminator body. Make a machine that looks like us."
Carla let out another long low moan. "Looks like us? That's... That's just evil. The things they did to our people, now they wanna wear our skin?" She gagged slightly. "That's... just obscene."
Kate could not tear her eyes away from the laboratory. She just kept staring down, looking from one Terminator to the next. His face wasn't there. She was looking for their late bodyguard, the one that had saved her life, protected her and her husband, but he wasn't down there.
It seemed Skynet wasn't succeeding. The machines that had human faces had no clear expression, the surgical scars clearly visible, the skin hanging at odd places looking like Frankenstein's monster made reality.
Nevertheless, they continued. One machine was measuring reflexes in human limbs, another was skinning a human corpse, another was assembling the skeleton and lining the tendons between the bones, disembodied limbs were being measured and strung up to electrical wires...
"Kate..." Carla moaned. "Is that Danes? Is that Danes' body?"
Kate looked. "Oh no..."
"I won't get taken." Carla hissed. "I love your husband Kate. I trust him. But if he's not here soon, I won't get put on that table. I won't. You aren't getting bits of me floating around in jars of formaldehyde."
Kate nodded, holding Sarah close. "You got a way out?"
Carla slipped her hands out her jacket and opened her hand. Four small pills. "One advantage to working in the Medical wing."
Kate stared at the pills. "He... John started issuing those to deep range recon."
Carla nodded. "Now I know why. Nobody should have to be on that assembly line down there. Kate... It'll work for Sarah too. You just have to grind it up a little. It won't take much. It's quick and it's painless."
Kate was pale. "How the hell did it come to this?" She whispered and rolled her head back against the wall. The huge room was warm, she was still for the first time in almost two days and her body knew better. She was asleep in minutes.
"Connor's mines worked. The invasion was checked for a time. But the H/K's have nothing but huge treads. They can work their way over the landslips, especially without us there to stop them." Noah reported. "Our scouts tell us that they've reduced their speed, and extended their patrols before they reach strike range. They're expecting another attack, and they're being careful."
"I have no problem with this." Whickham put in. "The longer they take to get here, the more preparations we can make. Due to the layout of the streets, we can't make use of mortar units brought from San Jose for the close quarter battle, and with them in the open; it would not be difficult for Skynet to hit them. For this reason, I can't bring them all up. It would leave San José defenseless, and when Skynet sees where they are, it'll send its flying H/K's that way before we can get them back." He paused for a moment to let that sink in. "Colonel Walters."
Walters stepped up. "The current strategy is to have the Mortars at the edge of the city and have them open fire on Skynet as soon as they get in range. Sniper units will work to give them as much cover as possible, but we have to believe they will get past them and into the city." Silence. "Colonel Noah."
Noah stepped up. "The defenses Connor organized are about as efficient as anyone is going to get. We've added a few more permanent barricades, and laid out support teams to provide sapper units with cover fire and quick resupply for ammo and weapons."
"Will that be enough?" Halloway asked.
"Almost certainly." Noah said without missing a beat. "I don't see how we could possibly fail."
Silence.
Lori raised her hand like she was in school. "I'm no farmer, but I can smell manure a mile away."
Whickham chuckled. "Noah exaggerates. The simple fact of the matter is that Skynet is coming slowly because it's making damn sure it gets this one right. They're going to wear us down; plain and simple. All we have to do is outlast them."
A shiver seemed to go around the room.
"Is that really the best plan we've got?"
"If anyone has a better one, now's the time." Whickham volunteered.
There was a long silence, as everyone traded looks, hoping somebody had an idea.
"Where is Colonel Connor?" Lori asked quietly in the silence.
Dead silence. Lori was the first one, who wasn't in the CIC that day, to ask the question out loud.
"Connor has left the base on a priority mission." Walters said evenly. "Due to its sensitive nature, it is not to be discussed, either here or with anyone else. That is all that will be said on the matter."
"A priority mission? And he took his wife and six month old daughter with him?" Lori pressed.
Dead silence.
"Sarah and Major Connor have gone to San Jose for their own safety until the current crisis is resolved." Whickham interjected smoothly. "Kate elected to stay with her daughter due to the fact that my own men had sufficient medical personnel for the duration."
Lori nodded slowly. "I see."
A series of uncomfortable looks went back and forth around the table. Nobody believed it. But nobody wanted to say that they didn't believe it, leaving Whickham holding the cards.
Whickham broke the silence and got everyone back on track. "Skynet hits us in forty hours. We have that long to make LA impregnable. Dismissed."
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Eighteen Days
Kate and Carla spent some time trying to talk to their fellow captives without success. None of them wanted to talk to anyone. The ones that hadn't lost their minds already had at least given up. They didn't even scream when taken off the wall and brought down to the laboratory.
The smell was foul. Kate hadn't been able to change Sarah in over two days, the humans were provided stale rations but no water, there were no bathroom facilities, and the constant mix of assembly line rhythm and crackling electrical discharge down below was making her stomach bounce in time with the mechanical arms. Kate could time it with her eyes shut.
Whirr. A machine torso was pulled upright. Bzzt. A pair of legs was welded onto it. ZZZZ! A pair of arms were screwed in pneumatically. Crack! Crack! Body armor riveted onto the torso. Clang Clang Clang. The Machine would drop off the assembly line and march away. A new Terminator in the world every five seconds. She slept when she could by counting them. One Terminator made, two Terminators made, three Terminators made, four...
At every hundred Terminators made, they turned as one, and marched out in formation toward the door, off toward the front, or for patrol, or whatever else they were programmed to do. She could see a machine terminal. Every two or three hours, a machine would come over to the Terminator and interface with the assembly line. The Terminator commands were entered by interface with other Terminators so that the uplink to Skynet wasn't needed. Kate understood why. Skynet was letting the factory run autonomously, so that the signals would not draw Human attention.
Worse than that, was the fact that the machines did not sleep, did not pause, and there were now fewer than five humans in cages before Carla.
Carla had stopped looking at the laboratory, and instead swung her legs through the bottom of the cage, trying to sit on the bars as comfortably as she could. Every few minutes she would take the pill out of her pocket and look at it, then glance up the row of cages.
Another hundred Terminators marched out. Carla clapped her hands over her ears and screwed her eyes shut at the sudden addition of marching to the endless cacophony. "Don't they ever stop!" She almost screamed.
Kate reached through the bars to the next cage and shook Carla gently. "Hang in there." She urged her friend.
Carla didn't open her eyes. "Not putting my face on a Machine. Not dissecting me." She was repeating it over and over like a desperate mantra.
"It won't happen." Kate promised.
"And the smell! Oh my god the stench of that laboratory!"
"Actually, I think that's Sarah." Kate pushed gently. "C'mon Carla, snap outta this. If I lose you, then I am alone in this hellhole with my daughter. You hear me?"
Carla rolled her head back miserably and got herself under control. "Sorry Kate... This won't mean anything to you, but Dex was right. I miss bread baking so much."
A shadow fell over them, and Kate looked up. Another Terminator had joined the two guards on the nonexistent pathway that passed along the rim of the cages. It had come directly to her. It did not carry a weapon, had a few scuff marks visible on the polished chrome skin...
Kate looked up at the machine glared down with bright red eyes.
"Kate..." Carla whispered. "Take the pill."
"Identify yourself." The Machine demanded.
Kate glared back defiantly. "Go to hell."
"Do it now!" Carla hissed. "Hurry before it can stop you!"
"Identify yourself." The Machine repeated.
Kate gripped the bars, slightly manic. "Do it now Kate, Take the pill now before it figures out what I'm telling you!"
A chrome skeletal hand flashed through the bars and snapped around Kate's wrist, yanking her arm out. The bar-code was visible.
"Kate hurry! Before it takes Sarah down there with you!"
That thought hit Kate in full and she fumbled with her free hand to find the suicide pill in her pocket, trying not to drop Sarah at the same time.
The Machine scanned her bar-code for a moment; then spoke. "Don't be afraid, Kate."
Kate and Carla felt their jaws drop in pure disbelief. It was John's voice. Coming from the machine.
"I'm sorry I'm not there with you. We'll be together again soon." the Machine continued. "The Machine delivering this message was told to give it to you directly, and only if Skynet was not watching. They don't have security cameras, because every set of Terminator eyes is recording. At the first sign of trouble, they send a signal to Skynet through the command relay, and it sees through all their eyes at once, and sends whatever memory file Skynet calls for. Without that, the machines work autonomously. I can't come yet. I wish I could tell you why, but you can never be sure about Skynet; so for now you just have to trust me. Keep Sarah safe, and keep your head down. I can't promise that they'll keep you alive if you try to escape; so you just hang in there. If Carla is with you, do what you can to stay together."
The Machine paused, reached out one cold steel hand, and cupped Kate's dumbstruck face gently. "Love you wife."
The Machine went silent, and turned to walk away, heading back to the lower level, leaving the two human prisoners dumbstruck.
"Love you." Kate whispered after it automatically.
Stunned silence.
Kate turned around and leaned heavily against the cage. She fought not to throw up. It had touched her. It had touched her face. The god-forsaken monsters that had killed her first baby; killed her father, killed Scott, and one had just stroked her face gently. Her husband by chrome proxy.
"You okay?" Carla asked, watching her as she dry-heaved.
"I just had a tender moment with a Terminator Carla, how the hell do you think I am!"
"How did he do that?" Carla whispered reverently.
Despite herself, Kate looked back down below for 'her' Terminator. She saw it making its way toward the Assembly line... where the CPU's were kept being programmed before being installed in Terminator heads.
Kate smiled with brutal regained calm. "He's John Connor."
Colonel Noah had command of the outer edge of the city. She was admittedly a little surprised at how sudden the difference between city and wasteland came. The smaller buildings, most of the highways, and the suburbs had been swept clean completely by the blast. Only the skyscrapers had any real chance of standing at all in the first place.
Walters was behind her, at the secondary defensive line. Both commanders had seen combat in any number of hot-zones, but there was some kind of numb horror that came from setting up your defenses for a losing battle on a carpet of human skeletons.
Noah had the Mortar launchers lined up along the edge of the city. Tanks were lined up in a row also, turrets aimed out. Noah was at the lead tank, standing ready with the machine gun mounted on top.
And then they came.
At first it was just a noise carried on the wind, and then it was a low cloud of dust, hardly unusual in the icy wind. And then the cloud got closer and bigger, and the roar of engines became more obvious.
Noah could tell the men were getting tense. Connor was still absent, and nobody outside the Command Center Staff knew why, and those on staff had been ordered to keep it secret. It was... unsettling to the Underground. Connor had an almost mythic effect on his men, and to have him vanish on the eve of the biggest attack yet...
Nobody had come out and said that he'd abandoned a sinking ship and left them all to die, but they were all thinking it.
"Okay guys listen up." Noah said, loud enough to be heard. "This is usually the part where the CO has some words of inspiring wisdom. Something deep and powerful that makes us all ten feet tall. I've never given one of those speeches before, so I'll try simple honesty. This is going to be a tough fight. But it's not our fight to win. It belongs to all of us. When things get too tough here, we have a thousand guys back behind us to help out. That's what makes us strong. And speaking for myself, that's what makes me brave. I'll make you guys this promise. I won't let you down, if you won't let me down. Who's with me?"
A cheer went up.
Across the dirt between them and the Machines, an area too small to stand up to the shockwaves, and scrubbed to desolation by the wind and ice, the machines assembled. H/K's, big as buildings, their airborne counterparts, circling always, and small in the distance, the Terminators surrounding them.
Noah calmly keyed her radio. "General. We have engaged Skynet's Invasion force."
"Roger that."
The mortars opened fire. There was a slight whistling sound as the shells came back down, and the explosions were clearly a good thirty feet short of Skynet's line.
"Shift your trajectory." Noah directed.
The Mortar teams aimed higher and fired again. This time the explosions were fifteen feet short.
"Shift your trajectory." Noah commanded.
The Mortar teams met her gaze. No chance.
Noah called in. "General, this is outer perimeter. The H/K's are out of our range."
Whickham was listening over the radio in the CIC.
He keyed his radio. "Are they advancing?"
"No sir."
Whickham took a breath, not looking away from the map. "What are you waiting for?"
The radio barked again at the sound of Mortar fire.
"Negative Impact. Repeat, negative. They're definitely out of range."
"What are you waiting for?" Whickham hissed out loud.
"Incoming! Aerial H/K's! Crossbow teams, get ready! Lock bandits!"
"Jammers!" Noah's voice roared and suddenly the radio was blanked out by a squeal of powerful static. Static that went on, and on, and on.
Whickham was calm. The jammers would run as long as they were needed. There was no other option. Patience was a weapon too.
Finally the static faded.
"Report." Whickham commanded instantly.
"Missiles have been dealt with sir. Aerial H/K's have been routed, but we only got a few of them down. They've adapted to our laser guided missiles somehow. Marsden! Aim high!"
An explosion came over the radio.
"Have the ground H/K's moved?" Whickham called.
"No sir. Still no joy on the Invaders."
Whickham nodded, as though that was expected. "Noah, watch for ground forces!"
"Yessir, watch for-oh hell INCOMING!"
Out of the battlefield at the edge of the city, Noah looked to the ground for the first time since the flying machines moved in, and saw the reason the ground H/K's did not bother to move. They had their forces moving in. An army of Terminators in precise rank on rank came marching up toward the Mortars.
"Good call General!" Noah yelled into her radio. "All Mortar units: prepare to repel attack!"
The Terminators were moving in like a steel tide. Unstoppable, unrushed. The closer they got to the city, the more the debris forced them to clamber over things, and they rose into and out of view.
At the Mortar launchers, the Last Army started picking targets, gripping their weapons tightly.
The humans knew the precise moment the Terminators got into weapons range. They all began firing in the same instant.
The human army wasted no time returning fire. The air was suddenly thick with the smell of burning air as the closing distance between the humans and Terminators became thick with superheated weapons fire.
The tanks opened up in the same instant, the concussive blasts rattling the ground on both sides.
Whickham's voice came over the radio. "Shift your target to the no man's land between you and the H/K's."
The mortar launchers did so, and the Terminators marching started getting knocked down, one burst of explosive shrapnel after another.
With little cover at the edge of town, the humans were lying flat on the ground, weapons blazing outward, plasma-guns that could finally deal as much damage on Terminators as they could on humans. One Machine fell after another, and still they came.
And then they got closer, and suddenly the Machines had cover. The large human Tanks.
Noah looked up and saw machines clambering over her Tank like steel insects, digging their fingers into the Tanks' hard shell.
"Forward!" Noah ordered quickly, and the Tank roared to life, running over Terminator bodies, dragging them under the treads, the huge turret firing as fast as her crew could reload.
"HELP! GET ME OUTTA HERE!" Someone was yelling. "They... They're... get me out! Pleas-ULGH!"
Noah swiveled her turret around as the tank kept moving forward and blew the besieged Tank in question to flaming bits; taking six Terminators with it. A quick end for the crew was a mercy.
"Clear!" Her driver called; but the point had been made. The tanks were providing cover for the Terminators, who were way too fast and nimble.
"Bail out!" Noah ordered.
Her crew scrambled to get out the tank, and Noah could see others doing the same on other Tanks.
Some of them weren't so lucky, their armored vehicles being taken apart around them, pneumatic fists smashing into the crew even at their posts.
Noah dropped to the ground and bolted back for the Human line, getting to her men and quickly hugging dirt.
And still they came.
Colonel Noah was sudden death, blazing away with a rifle in each hand, balanced over her pack and she moved them both back and forth across the Machines.
"Priority Target Identified: TERMINATE ERICA NOAH!"
Noah gunned it down, feeling a spike of cold horror go through her.
Thoom. BOOM! Thoom. BOOM! Thoom. BOOM! Thoom. BOOM! The Mortars were firing as fast as their crews could reload, their defenders practically back to back with them, trying to gun the Terminators away. The Mortar Teams barely had to aim, the area before them filled with targets, practically shoulder to shoulder.
"Colonel, we are very close to being overrun!" Noah yelled.
"Are the H/K's moving?" Whickham demanded.
"No sir."
"Then get outta there Noah, fall back to the next line. There's not much more you can do there."
Over a good way to the left, Noah saw one of the Mortar teams get caught by Terminators, ripped apart by them.
"FALL BACK!" Noah roared, and the humans jumped up and ran for the city streets. The fire chasing them intensified, more than a few of them being gunned down from behind as they ran.
Once they got the city, the humans split up, heading up and down every side street. Mines had been laid out in the open, and Noah's teams sidestepped them as they ran. At every intersection, barricades had been built, guns pointing in every direction on every possible street. Noah and what was left of her Mortar teams ran to the barricades and clambered over them, where their reinforcements were waiting.
Weapons ready, Walters was waiting, and Noah grinned ferally at him. "Technology baby! The cause of, and the solution to, all a soldier's problems!"
"Amen." Intoned a few soldiers, gripping their weapons.
Walters bared his teeth, adrenaline pouring through every vein, as at the end of the street, away from the barricades, Terminator's appeared, glinting in the cold daylight.
"Priority Target Identified: TERMINATE ERIC WALTERS!"
"Fire!" Walters roared, and mounted guns everywhere burst into explosive action.
Kate woke up, and realized to her horror that Carla was the next cage with someone in it. She hadn't even heard the other cages being taken down. Carla was next. She looked over, and Carla wasn't moving, eyes closed, slumped against the wall of the cage.
"No!" She yelled.
"Whaaaat?" Carla yelped, sitting up very quickly.
Kate jumped at the movement, relieved. "Don't you ever scare me like that again!"
Carla glanced around quickly. "Wh- I'm next. I'm next? Kate! I'm NEXT!" Carla reached into her pocket and grabbed the pills. "No! Not happening!"
Kate reached through the bars, trying to catch her. "Carla. Hold it together!"
"Kate..." Carla was pushing her reaching hands away.
"That's an order!" Kate yelled through the bars.
Carla was frozen, the pill at her lips, when far below, everything, including the Assembly line, stopped. The sudden silence was jarring. The constant Assembly line was so constant it was practically white noise by this point, and the sudden absence of it was a loud roaring in their ears.
In the silence, Kate could hear what sounded a lot like an explosion outside, and then the sound of a Terminator voice saying something outside. She couldn't make it out, but the rest of the Terminators could; and almost a hundred Terminators reacted to it as one. "Priority Target Identified! Terminate John Connor!"
Kate sat up straight in her cage, as did Carla. The next unit of over a hundred Terminators was almost complete. They were assembled at the end of the Assembly line, and they did something truly incredible. They let the Terminators from the Assembly line and the laboratory run toward the door...
And then shot them all in the back.
Carla's eyes bulged halfway out of her head, and Kate smiled victoriously. Dead machines...
Silence down below for a moment, and then from the front door came John Connor, Kyle Reese at his side.
"Up here!" Called Kate.
Connor scanned his eyes up toward the higher levels and waved. "Is Sarah with you?"
"Yep! Carla too! We're okay!"
Connor let out a breath like he'd been holding it for weeks. "Get them down safely."
The Terminators immediately got to work. They worked the Assembly line, and the forklift arm came up and lifted the cages down, one at a time. The nearest steel skeleton put its hands through the bars and ripped them apart. Kate quickly stepped down and hugged John tightly. "How'd you get past the Perimeter guards?"
"I had reinforcements."
"How many?"
"I told you, they don't use internal cameras at their factories. They use the Terminator eyes and start uploading to Skynet when an alert is sounded. The machine I sent in set the assembly line to program a new Directive. This factory has been churning out my army for over a day and a half."
Kate pulled out of the hug a bit and started running her hands over her husband's face. "You're bleeding."
Connor ran a finger over the cuts. "I'll live."
"Looks nasty. How long have you had that?"
"I wrapped it up after you got taken, it's started bleeding again fighting our way in here. We've got more important worries now."
Carla let out a low growl. "Before we go, gimmie that plasma rifle."
Connor did so, and Carla stalked toward the stairs on wobbly uncertain legs.
"Where's she going?" Connor asked.
Kate bared her teeth. "Upstairs. There's something up there that... well. We know how it works out, but Carla doesn't." She let that one go. "How many Terminators you got on side?"
"Over Eight Thousand. These factories are busy. We've gotta move fast. I don't know if we can improvise anything with the trashed H/K's outside, but Skynet will have reached LA by now."
The Terminators marched over the city, gunning down anything that moved, making their way through the wreckage. The ones at the front made their way toward the barricades, firing steadily at targets they couldn't see. At the back of the wave, some machines started methodically disarming mines, clearing the streets for the advancing H/K's.
Overhead, the fighter jets were in pitched dogfights with the flying H?K's, who's twin turbine wings made it equally easy to hover and to fly at jet speeds. Without pilots, they could maneuver without fear of g-forces or blackouts, their guns swiveling, firing in every direction as they flew.
The fighter jets countered with strafing runs, coming in and swooping out as fast as they could.
One or two Terminators set off mines, other explosives were set off deliberately as they made it closer.
Snipers were placed in the wrecked city skyline, firing down from the buildings toward the streets. Barricades were set up in the intersections and mounted guns fired away, chewing into the Terminator ranks, knocking down one machine after another.
Behind the Barricades, firing steadily, Walters started to feel a spark of hope. If they could knock down the Terminators, their usual Sappers could hit the H/K's, and the fighter jets would nullify Skynet's flying Machines...
Walters started to wonder, if maybe, just maybe, they might survive this day...
"Greg!" Smitty yelled over the radio. "I need a replacement weapon fast! My gun jammed!"
Greg grabbed the rifle and rushed up the street, hearing plasma fire getting closer and more intense. "Smitty! I'm coming! What's the situation?"
"Hostile! Very very hostile!"
Greg smashed his way through a wrecked door into the building and made his way around the burned out walls and came around to Smitty's location...
And found a chrome death waiting for him. The Terminator was holding a rifle in one hand, and a bloodied radio in the other; Smitty dead at his feet, and a man-sized hole in the wall behind him, showing where he came in.
The Terminator swung its weapon around and blew Greg away. The supply man dropped, and the Machine stepped forward, picked the radio up off the body. A moment later, Greg's voice called into his radio, seemingly panicked. "Reinforcements! We need help here! We're being overrun! We're going to lose the perimeter."
"How many you need!"
"As many as you can send!" Greg's voice yelled into the radio.
"On our way!" Came the answer.
The Terminator dropped the radio and took Greg's rifle off the body, waiting with both guns in ambush for those reinforcements to come.
The rushing human soldiers came running into the street, when they were ambushed from the building door by the waiting machine, gunned down instantly.
The Terminator marched over their bodies, the barricades for the street now left defenseless from behind.
Marsden was still blasting away at the Terminators marching through the streets. The road was already full of debris, and now Terminator bodies were piling higher and higher...
Movement behind him...
Marsden spun and found himself face to face with a Terminator.
The last thing he saw, was the building sized H/K's moving into the end of the street, unhurried, unopposed, as the Terminators cleared out the road ahead, moving into the city, one after another.
The Terminators fired back, working as one mind with many guns, the barricades lighting up with the splatter of liquid flame, the air thick with ozone.
The barricades held up against the assault, when the air split with the scream of jet turbines, and flying H/K's came screaming in, blasting their missiles at the buildings, blowing them, and the sniper positions they held, apart before the F-18's could come in close enough to chase them away, overrun by the sheer number of opponents.
Terminator divisions split, some of them still marching the streets, other climbing into the wrecked buildings, smashing their way through walls to get around the barricades.
At the Perimeter, Walters was still blazing away, when the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Connor had told him to trust those instincts, and he turned around.
Light glinted off chrome steel, and Walters spun and drew his sidearm. "Watch your back!"
His men spun and reacted with shock at the Terminators coming from behind. Blasting in two directions, the Perimeter was becoming overrun. Walters whistled and signaled his men to fall back to the second line. "Team one to base; we have to get back to the next barricade! They flanked us somehow!"
"Roger that Team One. Get somewhere defensible."
"Perimeter teams! They're flanking us!"
Whickham stared at the map of the city. "How did you do that?" He asked quietly. "How did you get past the first line and we didn't know?"
"Base One, this is Team Two! We need reinforcements! Send whoever you can!"
With his men firing, their voices were barely audible over the radio, and Whickham played a hunch. Whickahm's hand flashed out and caught one of his men before he could go to answer the call for reinforcements. He lifted his radio again. "Davies. What was your sister's name?"
His men stared at him in shock. Why was the General bringing that up in the middle of a pitched battle?
Silence from Team Two.
Whickham keyed his radio again. "Repeat, Team Two; this is Base One. What was your sister's name Davies?"
Silence.
Whickham swore under his breath and dialed the frequency. "Perimeter teams! The Terminators can mimic voices!"
His men swore a chorus of vile curses on the ingenuity of Skynet and snapped back to work, verifying though personal knowledge, who was still alive, and who had been replaced. Whickham's people were as tight as any combat unit ever made.
The numbers were not encouraging.
"BREACH!" Noah's voice yelled. "They breached the Perimeter! The H/K's have entered the city, repeat, they have entered the city!"
"Fall back to the Tunnels, now! Whickham commanded. "Sapper teams; strike and withdraw now!"
The noise in the tunnels intensified as human soldiers came rushing in from the outside.
"Is that everyone?" Whickham demanded as the rush of humans charging in suddenly dropped off in numbers.
Noah and Walters came charging in, firing back behind them as they ran down the tunnel.
Whickham nodded. If the two top lieutenants were in, they were almost certainly the last to leave a battlefield. "Hit the detonators."
Gould did so and the Tunnel exploded, and then instantly caved in.
There was sudden silence in The Underground, but for the echoes of the explosions and the sound of heavy breathing across hundreds of soldiers.
And then, after several seconds, came the unmistakable sound of digging.
Whickham and Walters traded a look. The next move was Skynet's.
Connor had made it from the factory back to the garage without too much trouble. A team of expert Mechanics working with pneumatic speed, not even needing tools, cannibalizing one car to reassemble another, and there was suddenly a single working vehicle, large enough to carry four passengers.
Kate was still fussing with Sarah, and Carla was trying to get Connor to hold still enough staunch the blood coming from his head. "This is a pretty nasty cut sir. Head wounds bleed badly."
"I know, but we don't have the time, and the med kit went with the jeep."
Kyle grinned. "I did that with my shirt."
"Not bad for a field dressing kid, but we use clean bandages for a reason." Carla groused. "Colonel, if that wound has been open long enough, you're almost certainly going to get an infection."
"Later!" Connor swore, calling out to the Machines. "REPORT!"
"Vehicle can be salvaged." One of the Machines called back.
"I'm not getting in a car with That!" Carla spat savagely, pointing at the Terminator.
Connor pushed her other hand away from his face. "No room for them anyway."
The Tunnel had stayed collapsed for hours, the time spent by the Soldiers setting up more hardware; by the civilians retreating deeper into the Underground, and by the Medics patching up the wounded.
"Doc, go help somebody who needs help okay?" Sherrin snapped.
"Sergeant, if you can't walk, then you really shouldn't..."
"I'm all right!" Sherrin growled at Rios. Just... just prop me against the wall and gimmie my gun back."
Rios growled back under his breath. "If there weren't so many people needing a doctor right now-"
The doctor left him alone and Sherrin pressed his hands into the dirt, trying to sit up straighter, and the gun lying across his lap; when a familiar voice sounded in his ear. "Hey."
Sherrin turned and found Lisa sitting next to him, not looking at him, leaning against the wall herself. "Lisa?"
"You don't look so good."
"I'm fine."
"That why you're against the wall?"
Sherrin smirked. "Skynet's digging. Somebody's gotta hold the wall up."
Lisa looked over a little.
Sherrin sighed. "I can't move my legs."
Lisa looked over sharply. "You shouldn't be here."
Sherrin glared. "Neither should you."
"Oh yes, I'm sure I'll be much safer hiding under the sink if Skynet digs its way in. If I'm gonna die, I want to be around people."
Sherrin hefted his weapon. "Me too. And I want to be fighting to protect them. May not be much, but I'm gonna be the guy who goes down swinging."
Lisa reached over to the row of dead soldiers, and pulled a rifle from someone's dead hand. "Well. Mind if I stay?"
Sherrin smirked. "No."
Lisa looked a little awkward. "I... I don't really know anybody from San Jose. And the guys from LA... They know I'm KP. They trust me, most of them like me too. But there's... There's always a wall between the guys in the Army who fight together, and the ones who don't."
Sherrin nodded.
Lisa made a quick study of her weapon. "Never checked out on the plasma guns. Aim and fire right?"
"Lisa, get out of here! This is ground zero here!"
Lisa set her jaw. "I'm stayin'."
Sherrin smirked. "You ever notice that when you get angry, that southern accent of yours comes in stronger?"
Lisa actually laughed. "So they tell me."
Silence. The steady pulse of mechanical movements as Skynet dug its way closer into the Tunnels.
"Doc says that it could be spinal cord shock. I could get my legs back in a day or two."
Lisa smirked. "Oh. Good."
Sherrin smirked back. "Yeah, for a second there I was worried."
Lisa felt something warm and looked down. Sherrin was holding her hand.
Sherrin looked away. "Sorry I gave you a hard time."
"S'okay. Sorry about the Creamed Corn."
"S'alright."
"I don't know your first name."
"I don't know you last name."
"We tell each other after?"
"Deal."
Silence.
Lisa laid her head on his shoulder, just wanting to feel a human touch at the end of her life. There had been no particular emotion, positive or negative in their little exchange. Just the two of them talking to fill up some time before it was over. "I still don't like you." Lisa said finally.
Sherrin put an arm around her. "Feeling's mutual."
"So. Aim and fire, right?"
"Aim and fire."
Connor gunned the engine. The Humans were watching their escort in open disbelief, as hundreds of Terminators, maybe thousands were charging along on foot along side. The Terminators could move more nimbly over uneven ground than the car, damaged and misfiring as it was from years of exposure and neglect.
Connor was rushing toward LA as fast as his damaged civilian car could move, with an Army of Terminators running mechanically alongside, with no concern for breaking bones, or wearing out, or tiring from the long run.
Kyle in the front seat, Kate and Carla in the back with Sarah, stared in open awe at their company.
"Hang On." Connor urged under his breath, the blood starting to drip into his collar again. "I'm coming. Hang in there."
The sound of digging got stronger, and suddenly there was a break in the rubble. The barrel of a rifle emerged and started shooting.
The humans fired back from behind their barricades, the break in the wreckage and rubble widening as one Terminator pushed through. It was cut down, another came, cut down, another came, the bodies of the Terminators still moving forward, as the living attackers behind them used them for cover to get in closer to their prey, the gap in the Tunnels still widening as more rubble was pushed aside.
Whickham and Noah were firing faster than anyone. Sherrin was over against the wall, firing quickly, Lisa holding him upright with one hand, shooting with the other.
The battle was joined and pitched and desperate, no escape, no surrender, nowhere to retreat, and still the humans were losing ground, the Machines using their own dead bodies as cover, some Machines simply standing in front of fresh attackers. Damaged machines had no qualms about being used as shield, some Machines blown in half still crawled toward humans, intending to take them apart with bare steel hands if needed.
The more that came in widened out as soon as they entered, making the human fire spread out away from the entrance, and more came in under the lesser fire.
A line was being drawn in wrecked Terminator corpses, as one after another was cut down at the edge of the Human kill zone. But the line of destruction was getting in closer to the cavern; the smell of burnt air getting thick, and matching with the sound of human cries as they were fought back further from the collapsed entrance, which was rapidly clearing out.
Whickham was with them too, on the front line, blasting away at the invaders, Noah on his left, furious as a lightning strike. One machine after another, but the plasma fire in the air getting heavier and tighter as they were driven back.
One machine came charging in, not caring that it was being torn down by the human's fire... It was carrying a bandolier of grenades, the bloodstains making it all too clear where it came from. The machine in question was hit, again and again, and fell forward, throwing the whole bandolier toward the barricades.
"TAKE COVER!" Someone yelled...
And with a sudden explosion, the fortifications were ripped apart. Bodies flew, human and machine alike. The sheer roar of the explosion made the huge cavern shake, rattling eardrums and smashing bodies into the dirt.
"Fall back!" Whickham roared.
At the edge of the main chamber, they knew it was over. once the machines made it into The Underground, there was no going back. The Tunnel was the only focal point, the only way to keep them all out, and once they made it in, there was nowhere else to block them.
Every other soldier knew it too, trying madly to check the advance and failing. The Tunnel was a shooting gallery, the human barricades being chewed up inch by inch, the Terminators getting knocked down, and replaced by the next line...
The entrance cavern was filled with Machines, making their way through the tunnels, some of them pausing to finish off the defenders, most of them searching through the Underground for the hiding humans...
They were losing; they were being driven back inch by inch, ground out of their places; pushed toward the walls, targets without cover...
The Machines pushed the humans back toward the centre of the cavern, the rest of the machines coming in already heading down other tunnels looking for hiding humans.
"They're in!" Someone was yelling. "They're in!"
And then from every radio, carried by every soldier, there came a familiar voice. "My Machines! What is your Primary Mission?"
The humans actually paused for a microsecond, as a thousand mechanical voices answered in perfect union, heard over every radio feed. "To ensure the survival of human beings."
The Terminators currently gunning down the Human population froze, the shooting on both sides stopped.
"You are about to fail that mission!" Connor roared, loud enough that in the sudden silence, his voice echoed from every radio, bouncing off the walls throughout the entire Underground.
And then...
The invading force of machines was suddenly narrowed, as the Terminators charging in the tunnel were suddenly checked.
And then, another swarm of machines came swarming in through the main entrance, searching for the invaders, each of the newcomers charging, weapons blazing.
Amazed, the humans froze, their weapons aiming back and forth, pulling tighter to each other, trapped in brain lock as the machines smashed at each other; pneumatic fists smashing through metal necks and faces in the tight quarters. Both fighting units worked in flawless unison, striking with inhuman speed and accuracy. The watching humans, weapons poised, but uncertain who to shoot at, watched in awe, unable to tell the difference.
It didn't matter. The Machines knew who was who. The newcomers worked in a team, one knocking down an enemy hand to hand in the tunnel, the next from his side snatching up the spare weapon and taking up the fight, gun in each hand.
The counter attack swarmed into the underground, the air rang with the noise of steel on steel, the air thick with electrical discharge and the smell of burning metal. Some humans, suddenly frozen, superfluous as the war continued around them, not knowing where to go or who to fight, clapped their hands over their ears at the cacophony.
And in the lead, directing the counterattack, plasma rifle in his hands, was John Connor, wounded, lit by the fire light, weapon blazing with quick and deadly strikes.
"Defend the auxiliary tunnels!" Connor roared, and his machines split up to go hunting.
Kate came in quickly, weapon in one hand, medic-bag over her shoulder. Carla was with her too, both of them making a beeline toward the nearest wounded.
The defending humans were quickly overtaken, outpaced by the rushing Machines, as the branching tunnels filled with the noise of combat as Skynet's invaders were taken from behind.
And then as one, every machine still standing in the cavern froze solid, and turned toward Connor.
The one nearest to The Colonel stepped forward and made the report. "Invaders in the Tunnel have been terminated. Auxiliary tunnels clear."
Connor took that in and glanced at the human soldiers, who were frozen, as though moving would somehow break the magic spell that they were all under and set off another massacre. For the benefit of those listening, Connor asked a question he knew the answer to. "What is your secondary objective?"
"To destroy Skynet installations and Skynet forces." They all responded in unison, their mechanical voices echoing off the walls.
Connor pointed at the Tunnel Entrance. "You will find your targets waiting for you outside."
With perfect unison, Connor's Machines turned and charged for the tunnel again, running faster that humans could, unconcerned that they would collide with each other, guided by pure machine precision as they left the Underground and charged the surface.
Stunned silence in the Underground.
Whickham was staring at Connor. Checkmate.
Connor hefted his rifle and looked to the human soldiers, including Whickham. His face was covered with soot and blood; his eyes were fever bright, and not entirely healthy. "What the hell are you gawking at?" He roared at his audience. "This isn't over yet!"
Without so much as glancing in the General's direction, the humans roared back with renewed hope and took up the charge, following Connor back toward the surface.
Sherrin couldn't follow, much as he wanted to. Lisa, who hadn't left his side, grinned brilliantly at him.
The tide of battle had turned in the most unbelievable way possible, the electric smell of superheated plasma and burning metal filled the air; as the battle moved away from the people, away from the Underground, back closer to the H/K's; tearing apart machine after machine. Getting in closer, unconcerned for their own safety or survival; the 'friendly' Terminators started smashing the invaders hand to hand with pneumatic force, while the humans watched in silent awe as their enemy turned on each other...
Turned on each other at the orders of John Connor.
At the base perimeter, Connor and Whickham were the only ones not firing from behind the barricades, watching the battle openly, unconcerned.
Gould grinned at Whickham. "So that was the 'priority mission'? To get reinforcements from Skynet? That's brilliant!"
Whickham couldn't answer. He finally turned to face The Colonel, knowing beyond doubt how much Connor had changed the rules to this particular game.
Walters and Noah had taken the lead in the renewed charge, heading back toward the broken down barricades, snatching up the mounted guns as the Invasion was routed away from The Underground.
"Colonel Connor! General Whickham!" Noah's voice yelled. "The H/K's are retreating! They're leaving LA! Repeat, they're retreating! Do we pursue?"
Whickham lifted his radio. "Negative. Skynet's realized we can take over their bases now, so they're salvaging what they can; sending their forces to defend their own factories."
Connor lifted his radio too. "Agreed. Let them go. We've got heavier weapons for offense now."
Every soldier, every civilian, from every base; everyone who heard it... The reaction was more or less the same.
"They ran!" someone croaked in disbelief, saying it for all of them. "They... They ran away from us. Skynet ran away! SKYNET RAN AWAY!"
Connor met Whickham's eyes. There was no smugness, no triumph. There was no need.
"They didn't run from us! They ran from Connor!"
Yes. Whickham told him silently. This one goes to you.
The news spread faster than wildfire, growing louder and louder, till it was a battle-cry. "CON-NOR! CON-NOR! CON-NOR!"
Connor raised his weapon in the air and gave a roar of victory. It was a war cry taken up by every voice in the Last Army.
And then Connor dropped. Collapsed like a puppet with cut strings.
"MEDIC!" Thirty or so voices screamed in the same instant; a crush of bodies rushing forward to see if he was all right.
Kate pushed her way through them to her husband's side, Whickham right there next to her. They traded a heated look, before the general broke the gaze first, and signalled his men to collect Connor quickly; and get him back inside.
"So. Not dead."
"Not dead." Sherrin started to say weakly, sweating from his injuries, the adrenaline falling away. He was about to keep talking when a shadow fell over them, and he looked up in surprised horror. Lisa didn't even bother to look. She threw herself over Sherrin's body, giving him cover with her own.
A machine glared down at them, taking in the two of them. "Class two damage to back. Second degree burns across lower vertebrae. Superficial shrapnel damage to Spinal Cord. Surgical intervention required to prevent permanent paralysis. Recovery time requiring care: six days. Full recovery: one month. You will comply."
Beat. Lisa raised her head and looked at Sherrin's gobsmacked face. The Terminator was going to operate on him?
Carla stepped around them. "Your bedside manner sucks. Go! Get outta here. I can handle this."
"I calculate a twenty seven percent chance that the operation will require meta-human precision." The Terminator responded.
Carla grit her teeth. "Sherrin?"
Sherrin considered, wavered. Then passed out.
Carla jumped forward and helped Lisa lower him down, lowering him awkwardly to the ground.
"Twenty nine percent." The machine corrected itself.
Lisa bit her lip and nodded at the machine. "Let him do it."
"Not him, Lisa. It." Carla growled. "Not him. IT."
Lisa looked around. A few Terminators were reassembling the Tunnel, rebuilding the barricades. "This is incredible. I thought we were finished. I never thought I'd be glad to see Machines coming in."
Carla set her jaw harder. "They're Machines. They kill. Kill us, kill them, they kill. It's what they do. It's all they do."
Lisa finally noticed the white-knuckle grip Carla had around her med kit. "Carla? You okay?"
Carla was shaking with something. Fear, exhaustion, anger or madness, Lisa couldn't tell. "I'm fine."
Z Plus Two Years Two Hundred Nineteen Days
A crowd gathered outside the Medical Wing. Some were checking up on their family or friends, a fairly large proportion of them waiting for word on Connor.
The wounded were treated quickly. Every Terminator in the Underground had detailed files on human anatomy, and were more than accomplished surgeons themselves. A lot of humans, like Carla, had declared that they would rather die than have their lives saved by Terminator surgeons. But a lot of them were willing to have their injuries treated by anyone who could help; and having the Machines turn on their own had demonstrated quite effectively which side these particular Machines were on.
Even so, it was a difficult night, with so many injuries, the dead taken outside, too many for burial; the funeral pyres burned for a very long time, the Terminators burning the bodies all night.
Kate operated on Connor personally.
Kyle, Carla, Walters, Whickham and Noah were all gathered around the entrance to the small Post Op room. They were all trading ugly looks.
Kate came out of the Post Op ward, and pulled off her gloves. "And that Kyle, is why we use clean bandages. He got a blood infection of some kind. That and the blood loss took its toll and once the adrenaline wore off from the battle..."
Whickham's face did not react at all. "Will he live?"
Kate looked spitefully at him. "Yes."
Chet looked sadly at Kate. "Good." He said sincerely. "I'm glad."
Kyle kicked the General in the shin hard. The two-star glared down at the boy, who glared right back.
Kate didn't smirk. "He needs rest, and antibiotics. You're all expelled. Get out! All of you. Except you Kyle."
Carla smirked and saluted. So did Kyle. The crowd started to disperse, feeling better that their Hero was going to be okay.
Kyle waited behind. "Ma'am?"
"Kyle, I'm needed here; and we lost Schwartz and Danes."
Kyle nodded. "I'll stay with Sarah."
Rios stormed in at that moment. "Major Connor." He snapped. "The wounded are freaking out. You don't ask a chrome skeleton of death to save your life. We can't have our people treated by Terminators!"
"They know what they're doing."
"I know that. I also know I don't care. And neither do most of the people in our Pre-Op. Major, the wounded that can still talk have made it clear that they'll wait for human surgeons, even if it kills them."
Walters nodded. "I'm getting the same thing from the cleanup crew. Nobody wants them in our base."
Kate growled. The fight had been over for less than... She shook her head. She couldn't fault them for wanting the Machines to stay far far away from them. "I'll tell John. But he has authority over them, not me."
John's eyes opened slightly, painfully, and focused on the door as Kate came in.
Kate came over very quickly. "Hey. You're awake. Good. How you feeling?"
John didn't answer. His vision was blurring as his eyes rolled in different directions. His face hurt. He tried to sit up.
Kate pushed him back into his cot. "Lie still. You're sick." She pulled over a bowl of water and a cloth. "Your fever broke about half an hour ago; but there's still a long way to go."
"How long since...?"
"About sixteen hours. Skynet's not coming back." Kate promised him, wiping down his face gently with the wet cloth.
"Mm. Feels nice." John slurred.
"I told everyone you're... well, a lot better than you really are. I'll see to it that Whickham will leave LA soon."
"...know?"
"Nobody knows we were running. Our guys in CIC know, but were under orders to shut up. The official story is that you were on a secret mission."
"...won't work..."
"Worry about that when you can see straight." Kate told him, wiping down his face again.
There was the sound of mechanical footsteps, and then, into the light stepped a Terminator.
"Aagh!" John yelped, trying to move and failing, before memory caught up. "Oh."
"Yeah. That's the general feeling on the matter." Kate nodded. "They're starting to make people nervous. And without you... I'm sorry John. I tried to hold it together for you but-"
"M..." Connor swallowed. "Machine."
The Terminator stepped forward. "Ready."
"Trans'er comman' to Major Kate Connor."
"Understood." The Machine said mechanically, not at all concerned that it was taking orders from a barely conscious man. In a heartbeat, the Machine turned away from Connor; toward Kate. Connor meant nothing to it.
Kate shivered. The Machines were taking orders from her now. She resolved to give the power straight back to John the second he could stand up. She didn't like the way its eyes were following her.
John licked his parched lips. Kate quickly collected her canteen and pulled John upright. She held his fever-hot body against her own to prop him up as she poured sips of water into his mouth. Connor fought to swallow them, some of it dribbling down his sweat soaked shirt.
Kate looked at him with open sympathy, stroking his hair. She hadn't seen him like this since her first night in Crystal Peak. They were supposed to be there now. They were supposed to be in their room in Crystal Peak, mourning the loss of LA to Skynet.
Somehow, he'd done it. Again. Somehow, he'd saved them all. Again.
John had passed out again. Kate laid him back down and pulled the blanket back over him. Her hands were shaking with relief. He was awake. He may not have been terribly coherent, but he'd regained consciousness. The worst was past him now.
And with that knowledge came guilt. She had effectively locked herself in here with him; paranoid about letting anyone else near while he was unconscious. She didn't really believe that Whickham would order him killed in his sleep, but couldn't be sure about all his people... And while she had held vigil over her husband, the other wounded waited for doctors...
The Terminator was looking at her expectantly.
Kate struggled. "Have the rest of the Friendly Terminators move outside the base and begin cleanup there. And you stay here personally. Guard this room. Protect him. Nobody from Colonel Noah's hierarchy is to come near him."
"Affirmative."
"And for god's sake don't kill anybody!" Kate called over her shoulder.
AN: I have various other fics that I have been neglecting in order to keep this one rolling out; so I wonder if I should find a natural stopping point for this one and take a break from it for a while.
Reviews will make me get back to it faster.