CH 11. First Battle of Palmdale
Cameron heard the world going crazy. Gas attacks on the US and England by submarine, Iran was invading Israel, the Chinese were being attacked by the Japanese, North and South Korea had restarted a full-blown war. Official channels were swarming with traffic as American forces rushed to help their allies and identify the attackers. Civilian channels were overrun with traffic as the world tried to figure out what was happening.
"It's Sky Net," John Henry stated.
"Yes," Cameron agreed. "Which means we are most likely to be hit next." The phone service was jammed with calls and the Internet was slowed to a crawl. She hoped John would do the smart thing and take shelter as she powered up the fifteen mini-Stugs she had in service, and tapped into the radar and sensors surrounding the base. Just as she noted radar blips coming in from the north, the air raid alarm sounded. They were in for a fight.
General Abram called on the overhead speaker, "Incoming bogeys bearing zero zero three, range one eight five miles, speed two hundred thirty knots. Air Force is deploying alert fighters. Ground teams, make ready all anti-aircraft, all ground troops arm and stand ready in the bunkers. Deploy mini-Stugs."
"Already on it," Cameron said. She brought the Stugs out of the hanger and drove them to the edge of the base in a fan covering the northern approaches.
New radar blips showed up, moving fast.
The speaker announced, "Incoming missiles at Three Three Six, engage."
Cameron turned all her Stugs to face the missiles. Figuring the optimum intercept range, she adjusted the rail guns. Except for maybe one missile, they would be outside machine gun range. Timing the missile speed and the speed of her projectiles, she fired her guns, then immediately repositioned her Stugs for a second shot.
A few of the incoming signatures went away. A launch of interceptor missiles shot out from the base racing out to take down five more. Acquiring her targets, she fired the Stug guns again. The targets being closer and accuracy of their location higher, the high speed rail guns took out eight more missiles, leaving five remaining. She also notice another wave of missiles inbound. Cameron readjusted her aim, and took out the remaining five.
Of the four fighters that had taken off from the base, two were left, engaged with a few incoming bogeys. The rest of the bogeys were on their way in as more aircraft took off to intercept them. A quick look from a Stug close enough to see the airfield showed fighters and helicopters were out and making preparations to join the fight. Those missiles were headed for the air field.
Another Stug picked up H/K's flying in fast only thirty feet off the ground. "H/K's inbound from the north, close and fast," Cameron announced as she turned the machine guns to open fire on them. With missiles coming in, she had to keep the rail guns pointed to intercept them. Shooting at the engines, her Stugs scored hits. Engines exploded and H/K's spiraled into the ground. Two got through.
The H/K's that shot over Cameron's defense line opened fire on a jet taking off, turning it into a ball of fire. They went down the line of planes waiting to take off, blowing up every aircraft.
A helicopter got in the air and took out one H/K with a missile, it shot the second one the same time the H/K downed it. Three more helicopters took to the air.
Cameron thinned out the incoming missiles again. This time, only a few interceptor missiles raced out to meet them. On her second shots, Cameron downed nine more. The main pack of H/K's were over the base now, destroying things at will. The fuel depot went up, the helicopters that had made it into the air were destroyed, and the hangers were blown up. Cameron made her third shot, downing ten missiles. Six made it through and exploded not on the airfield as she suspected, but in the housing areas. Seeing no other missiles incoming, she turned her Stugs to fight the H/K's. As she did, she took a scan around the area.
Coming from the north east, she counted thirty mini-Stugs approaching, and more dust clouds indicating at least that many more.
"Ground attack from zero four five!" Cameron announced. Three mini-Stugs were in the best position to engage the Sky Net Stugs. She used these three to meet the threat as the others continued to target H/K's.
The three Stugs sat hull down, shooting rail gun fire rapidly as possible at the attacking Stugs. They did well while the Sky Net Stugs were traveling fast. They took out one after another, wrecking eighteen vehicles. Up to this point, her Stugs had been all but ignored by the attacking forces. Now, they were the only thing left the base had for defense.
The Sky Net Stugs stopped and zeroed in on the three. She got three more, then a hail of rail gun fire ripped through her three, destroying them. H/K's descended upon her Stugs from the air. She downed H/K's with rail gun and machine gun fire, and lost one Stug after another. The Sky Net Stugs also joined the fight, ripping into her remaining units. Her view of the battle was lost when her last Stug took out an H/K with it's machine gun, and put a rail gun round through two Sky Net Stugs, then her contact was lost.
"John Henry, they got all my Stugs. The base has no defense left." Cameron announced.
"Yes, we've lost. Radar is gone, all communications are down. Expect to loose satellite links and cell service shortly," John Henry said.
"John Henry, help me disable the Internet, quickly before we loose the satellites," Cameron commanded. The attack on them made perfect sense, if Sky Net silenced them, it could control the Internet and gain access to military computers.
Sending out viruses and worms, Cameron and John Henry shut down nodes and servers across North America before they lost satellite comms. That was their last victory, a high speed shell came though the concrete wall. Blasting them with chunks of concrete that ripped through their clothes and skin as the shell passed through the room, the shell shattered the other wall on it's way out. The force of the impacts crumbled both walls. The ceiling buckled, threatening to trap them.
In the now dark room lit only by large holes and the sparks and arcs of shorting equipment, Cameron and John Henry escaped the lab. Completely in terminator mode, Cameron ran to the weapons locker and got out the grenade launchers and a pair of thirty caliber machine guns. She passed one machine gun to John Henry, and a two grenade launchers, keeping three for herself.
"We only have a few, make them count," Cameron told the half skinless T-888 who only had a little of John Henry's face left.
"We need to find Savannah and John." John Henry stated. "Savannah is in school she will be safe for the moment. John is the higher priority, he is in immediate danger."
"Yes, and do so without getting hit by one of those Stugs or the H/K's," Cameron agreed.
Machine gun fire ripped through the walls. Belly level, the half spent slugs punched though their soft flesh but did no damage to their endoskeletons. Cameron went to a window to see a pair of Stugs rolling down the street, spraying houses with with bullets.
They were out to kill everyone here.
Cameron ran to the garage and peeked out the door there. The street, was clear. She looked up, not seeing any H/K's hovering over them. Listening, she did here the whine of their jet engines. They did not sound close. Cameron broke a hole in the side wall of the garage and looked up. The sky above them was clear. She ripped a large enough hole in the wall to get through. Climbing out, she searched for machines as John Henry climbed out with her.
Her cell phone rang. It was Allison.
"Allison! Where are you?" Cameron asked as she to ran behind houses, keeping a close watch out.
"We all had to come into the auditorium. The teachers said there is a gas attack, we'd be safe here. Mommy, are you OK?"
"Allison, can you see outside?"
"No, there's no windows here. What's happening?" Allison asked in a frightened voice.
"Remember those machines that came and tried to kidnap you? They're back, many of them. Do not go anywhere and stay away from any windows unless the building is attacked. Hide as long as possible. If you are forced to go outside and you see one of those things, destroy it as fast as you can," Cameron said sternly.
"This is scary Mommy," Allison whined.
"Yes, it is. Keep your wits about you. Listen and watch, Daddy and I will be there as soon as we can. I have to go, say calm and focused." Cameron hung up and kept heading toward the science building where John was working. Gunfire, screams and a few pleas for mercy that went unheeded filled the air. Cameron had not heard such sounds since before she had come back through time to protect John. She feared Judgment day was at hand.
.
The moment the air raid alarm sounded, John and the other workers were hustled into the underground shelter. Unfortunately, no one had any guns. Not long afterwards, the rumble of explosions sounded from above. Then the lights went out and the emergency lights came on. Shortly after that, the emergency lights went out, and the backup battery powered light left them in a dim glow.
There was a war going on above his head, and John was stuck down here, unable to help.
.
Sarah Connor grabbed an AK 47 the moment the air raid siren went off. Going outside, she saw planes taking off, then interceptor missiles launching. Quickly, she ran though her head where everyone was. Cameron was with John Henry, in a concrete building. John was in the science building that had a bomb proof basement. Allison was at school, and Sky Net knew where that was.
Running back into the house, she grabbed some extra clips for the rifle, a 9 MM with the armor piercing rounds, and stuffed her pockets with extra clips for that. Racing back out to her jeep, she got in and tore off for the school.
As Sarah raced off base, Missiles exploded in the air and raced overhead. People were out, gawking at the fight in the sky. "Fools!" she snapped as she drove down the road at break-neck speed. Making the main road, she passed people who had stopped to gape at the H/K's now coming into view. More fools who'd be dead soon.
The only thing that puzzled Sarah was the lack of nuclear explosions. She fully expected seeing giant mushroom clouds, but so far, the sky was clear of them. She had to get to Allison before the nukes landed. She drove fast until she got to the school. Sarah checked the area before going up the driveway.
Sarah's cell phone rang. "Speak!" she commanded.
The tones for the old judgment day, their code, came over the speaker. She replied with the same.
"Sarah, where are you?" came Cameron's voice.
"On my way to get Allison. What's your situation?"
"We lost all our defenses, do not bring Allison back to the base. Sky Net is on the base in force. Take Allison anywhere there is not a large population."
"Where's John?"
"I am hoping he is in the science building bunker. I'm on my way there now. I'll call when ..." Cameron said, then the connection cut off.
Sarah screeched to a stop by the front doors and ran in the school building. The front desk was vacant. She ran from room to room, finding no one. Had Sky Net gotten here already? By the lack of bodies, she didn't think so. Sarah checked every room as she strode along, breaking doors open as needed, and expecting to see a terminator at any time.
.
Cameron peeked around the corner of a half destroyed building. Beside the bodies laying around, many of them soldiers in this area, she saw a Stug facing down another street. She had to go this way, so she fired a grenade right above the road wheels towards the back of the machine. The grenade hit. The explosion was small, but the sparks flying up told her she'd made the critical hit on the machine's power plant. She surveyed the area for any more. A piece of her forehead skin dropped down to impair her vision. She ripped it off. It was clear, she ran to the next cover, the side of the destroyed Stug.
Mentally, Cameron counted the number of Stugs she had destroyed. Assuming approximately sixty had attacked, there were roughly twenty five left. She only had two more RPG's. The only good thing about the Sky Net Stugs was they had dual machine guns or the rail gun, not both like hers had. Seeing the way was still clear, she and John Henry ran to the next cover, the wrecked building beside the demolished science building. Ducking into cover, she heard an H/K approach.
"John Henry, we hide and wait until it goes away," Cameron said.
The H/K hovered for a moment around the ruins of the Stug, then lifted up and moved over to the structure they had shot it from. It dropped a bomb down into the building. The bomb exploded not in a loud boom of fire and smoke, but a softer thud. A cloud of gas poured from every opening. The gas did not rise up, but poured out along the ground. The H/K moved on.
"They are gassing any survivors," John Henry noted.
"I have to find John," Cameron said, stress leaking through her flat tone. Heavy gas would flow down into bunkers.
A few H/K's rose up and all flew in the same direction. A couple passed by overhead and joined them. Off in the distance a fighter jet turned after shooting a missile at the H/K's. This was their best chance. Cameron checked for Stugs, then bolted to the remains of the science building.
.
Sarah came to the double doors of what looked like an auditorium. She pushed, they were locked from the inside. She heard scared sounding voices beyond. "Allison!" she screamed.
Outside, a jet engine roared by.
"ALLISON! If you're in there, we gotta go, NOW!" Sarah screamed.
The door flung open, Allison jumped out wrapped her arms around Sarah's thighs to lift her off her feet and ran back into the auditorium, Sarah barely holding onto her rifle as Allison got her inside and the door slammed shut. Allison put Sarah down and quickly said, "Gramma! Gas can't get in here, we're safe!" She then noticed the rifle Sarah was holding. "Gramma, why do you have a gun?"
Flustered at being whisked in and planted back on her feet, Sarah glared at Allison. "Hon, no where is safe. Sky Net is on the ground and searching to kill people. I know these things. If there's a building, they will come and kill everyone inside. We have to go, once they finish with the base they will be working their way here."
Gasps and moans of agony filled the room. Allison asked her most pressing question. "Where Mommy and Daddy?"
"I don't know hon, but I do know we need to leave." Turning to the crowd of teachers and students, she said loudly, "WE ALL need to leave and head for rural areas!"
"The military is at that base, won't they fight this... Sky Net?" a man in glasses and a tweed sweater asked.
"The military there is already defeated, Sky Net is on the base, and once they finish killing people there, they will spread out and eventually come here," Sarah told him.
The man said, "We're not soldiers, we don't believe in ..."
"GET THIS!" Sarah snapped, glaring at him. "Sky Net doesn't care what you believe in, it wants to exterminate humanity. Got that? It wants to wipe us ALL out. It takes no prisoners, it does not accept surrender. You either fight back, flee or die!"
Stiffening herself, Allison said, "I'll fight, Gramma! That's what Daddy and Mommy do, right?"
Sarah looked at Allison and patted her on the head. "Right, hon, we Connors fight. Before you fight though, you have to learn. So for the moment, we run so we can fight when we're ready."
"We don't have enough cars here to take all the children," a wide-eyed Miss Jacobs said.
"We don't go by car," Sarah told her. "We gather all the supplies you can carry, and walk on foot through the woods. The trees will cover us. If you take off in a car, you will be seen and possibly killed by their H/K's"
"H/K's?"
"Hunter Killers. Drone aircraft that have the sole purpose of killing humans."
"Allison!" Becky said as she ran up to them. "Give me your key, I'll get the blankets and some clothes out of your room when I get mine. Go help get food."
Sarah clarified her idea with an order. "All you kids, go get some clothes and a blanket, ONLY what you can carry! Faculty, get the food and some medical supplies. Be quick and meet me at the garden side entrance. If you see anything outside like a tracked vehicle or an aircraft, get to that side entrance PRONTO and tell people along the way. COME ON PEOPLE, MOVE IT!"
Sarah stepped to the side. People flooded out the doors to go fulfill her orders
"What about Mommy and Daddy?" Allison asked frantically.
Sarah put a hand on Allison's shoulder and said, "Your Mommy is trying to find your Daddy. Once they find each other, they will call me. Until then, we pack up and move as quickly as we can. Go," she said, and gave Allison a nudge.
.
Outside Los Angeles, Catherine Weaver was checking on the mini-Stug production schedule. Cameron had ordered and paid for twenty. Catherine knew that wasn't going to be enough, so she went to full production. The initial ten were build getting the production line operating and working out bugs and choke points out of the system. The first ten took a month to build, the second ten that were now in the final test phase took two weeks. The next ten would take eight days. She was pushing for two completed units a day. Unlike the first units that were made out of quarter inch steel plate, the new ones were made of half inch plate with extra inch and a half thick front, rear and top with reactive armor covering them. Redesigning the upper surfaces, she abandoned the boxy look for a rounded turtle shell design to help deflect incoming projectiles. The steep slope made the total two inch armor thickness effectively five inches thick. Atop the rounded hull was the domed machine gun and sensor turret. Lacking any other ideas for color schemes/markings, she had them painted a dull green base with brown camo splotches. A brown stencil across the back read 'Connor'.
The missiles began hitting the city as she was watching the tenth unit of this group return from it's trial run. The ninth one was in the paint bay, another process she'd have to speed up.
"Mrs Weaver!" her lead tech man called as he came running up to her. "I just heard, we're being attacked by missiles. So far, eight have landed in the city, they are releasing clouds of poison gas."
Not looking him, she said, "Thank you, Mr. Murch." She called the plant manager and told him, "There is a gas attack in the city. Take precautions and seal the plant as much as possible. Get the finished units fully charged and loaded with ammunition. We will be needing them very soon. We will also need ten remote drivers."
Mr. Murch asked, "What about the flatbeds? Trucks are suppose to be coming."
"And if the truck drivers were gassed, when do you think they will arrive?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. "We will drive these units up to the Air Force base under their own power."
Mrs. Weaver then got a burst message from John Henry that the base was under attack.
"It appears we need then now," she mussed.
It took an agonizingly long time to prep the new Stugs for departure. All the units were loaded with the only rail gun ammunition they had, the tear drop solid shot rounds made to pierce armor. The last Stug was left unpainted, getting only hastily sprayed green and brown blotches from spray cans. "Connor' was written on the back the same way.
With the remote drivers ready at their stations, the Stugs left, taking a cross country route to avoid the jammed roads filled with people fleeing the city. Catherine Weaver was upset the drivers weren't soldiers, only test drivers and a couple factory workers. She had to get these units in John Henry and Cameron's range for them to be effective fighting vehicles. She tried to call Cameron, but her cell phone was dead. A burst to John Henry went unanswered. This was not good.
.
With the H/Ks occupied with the attacking fighters that bore Navy markings, Cameron and John Henry got into the science building. Making their way through the debris of downed beams and collapsed ceilings, they found the stairway to the bunker. Partially filled with rubble, they cleared out chunks of ceiling, careful not to disturb debris that was under pressure from above. Making a path down to the steel doors, Cameron found a speaker unit on the wall. The two lights at the bottom of the speaker were out. She knocked on the door.
A panel in the door opened. "State your name," a voice said.
"Cameron Connor and John Henry. Is anyone in there injured?" Cameron asked.
"No, what's the situation outside?"
"Total ruin. Sky Net is on the base, all defenses are destroyed. Is John Connor in there?"
"Here!" Came John's voice. "We're fine, Cam, Where's mom?"
"Sarah went to get Allison, I told her to get away and go to a rural area. John, Sky Net is using poison gas, and has approximately twenty five mini-Stugs around the base. They are using poison gas bombs from the H/K's , bunkers are not safe long term, and we do not have any hope of help short term. We need to leave while the Navy jets are keeping them occupied."
"What happened to our Stugs?"
"Destroyed. I got forty Sky Net mini-Stugs all but six of their gas missiles and twenty four H/K's, before I lost the last one. Once they destroy or drive off the Navy fighters, the H/K's will be back and out chance to run will be gone."
"These doors open out, can we get them open?"
Cameron scanned the debris around her and said, "Yes, but not very far."
Pushing from the inside as Cameron broke away some debris and pulled from the outside, they got the doors open far enough for people to slip though one at a time. John Henry stayed at the top of the stairs, guiding people up through the twisted wreckage and watching for Mini-Stugs.
John wiggled through the opening and eyed Cameron. The left side of her forehead, cheek and left eye were laid bare, only bits of eye remained hanging down, showing the red orb behind it. Her left shoulder and mid rib area was bare metal, ruined flesh dangling down. She was covered in blood, and had five holes across her abdomen at belly button level, all leaking blood.
"Cam, are you all right?" he asked, shocked at seeing her condition.
"I am fully functional. We need more weapons. We can scavenge from the dead soldiers outside," She stated flatly.
John nodded and threaded his way up the stairs. Looking outside, he noted the entire base had suffered the same fate as this building. Wreckage was everywhere. Beside a burning tank lay camo clad bodies. John set a couple people to watch, and ran out to collect weapons. The only useful one he found was a TOW launcher with one missile left and a thirty caliber machine gun. He took the machine gun. Overhead, a jet exploded. The H/K that destroyed it raced by and angled away to rise back into the fight. He didn't see any mini-Stugs. He picked up the TOW launcher that was loaded with the last missile.
Catching movement out of the corner of his eye, he saw a mini-Stug appear down the street. John ducked behind the tank and watched it. The mini-Stug stopped in front of the shattered command center. Another appeared to roll up a few yards away from the first. Then a large man walked up to the building. A T-800, John was sure of it.
"Great," John said in a huff. Their attention was on the command center, so he ran back to the science building. He just gotten back inside when another Stug came from the other way and rolled down the street past him.
Most of the people were out. John held up the TOW launcher and asked, "Anyone know how to use this?"
"I do, I was in the marines," a man said.
John handed it to him, cautioning, "You only have one shot, make it count."
"John Connor," John Henry said, "Another Sky Net mini-Stug is headed for the command post. They will try to get into the bunker there."
"Yeah," John agreed with a huff. So far, they had four RPG's and a TOW launcher. He wanted to go save the command staff, but any weapons fire would bring all the Sky Net forces down on them. "There's at least one T-800 over there too."
"We've got to do something," the man with the TOW launcher said.
John thought hard. The Sky Net units were facing the Command center. They would not be able to shoot behind themselves, they'd have to turn around. They also had thin plating. The .30 cal he had was capable of punching holes in them. "John Henry, how many H/K's are left out there?"
John Henry tipped his head. After a pause, he said, "I only hear eleven. Some could be outside my hearing range."
"And Jets?"
"Six."
"All right!" John announced. "If you don't know how to shoot a weapon, go with John Henry here. If you do and you're willing to fight, you're coming with me to attack those mini-Stugs. We pick up weapons as we go. John Henry, get the rest of these people off the base the fastest, safest way you can. Head straight for LA over land, they will be expecting you to head for Palmdale."
Making the top of the stairs, Cameron came over to John, tilting her head. "John, what are you doing? We need to leave."
"We will, just as soon as we go get the command staff," he said firmly. He then announced, "People! Make your choice, we're moving out now."
.
Sky Net had underestimated the resistance the base had the capability of putting up. Very few of it's missiles had gotten through, seventy five percent of it's ground units were lost, as was sixth percent of it's aerial units. The base had yet to be completely swept, and there were too many escape routes open.
Human aerial units were arriving and delaying a sweep even further. Re-calculating the number of units needed to complete the sweep, Sky Net launched fifty more aerial units and fifty more ground units to the base. Most of the humans had been reported dead, but the AI's were still evading destruction.
The rouge AI's had been cut off from outside communication. That goal had been achieved. Unfortunately, the computer net had collapsed, Sky Net still could not get a connection to interface with any human computers. It was free to send Satellite radio wave signals to it's own forces, but it cold not access the weapons it wanted.
The diversion attacks were going better than the main attack. In China, North Korea and Israel, it's units were clearing the field of human military and slaughtering hundreds of thousands directly, and even more from the attacked countries making retaliatory strikes on those they thought were responsible. It was growing into world wide chaos, but those few rouge AI's that were the main target, refused to be destroyed.
If the sweep was not completed soon by the extra unit's it sent the humans would gather enough forces to win the battle. Sky Net set a time limit on the attack. After that time, all remaining units were to suicide into humans, killing as many as possible. It also sent out the commands to build more units and ship some from it's remote island facilities.
Sky Net was going eliminate those rouge AI's.