Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.
A/N: The first half of the chapter you've all
been waiting for...
Chapter 14
Part I: The Return
April 24, 2029. 1000 hours, Ziera base, TSCC Universe
Derek Reese was having a bad day. Hell, he figured his whole life for the past 19 years was chocked full of bad days.
Another power cell had gone out, and that meant another part of the bunker had gone dark. They'd had this problem ever since Command fell back in '24 , but they had managed to keep going for nearly half a decade without any outside support.
However, now supplies that could be picked from the city ruins were pretty much gone or out of reach due to machine patrols, and convoys had grown even more scarce in the last two years.
He had people he'd known for years starving, sick and sitting in the dark.
Derek knew Kyle was right, it was time to move.
Which is why they were packing up everything worth taking north across the mountains. Hopefully if everything went well they'd move into the old Palmdale bunker. Nobody had occupied it in years even before Command fell plus they'd sent Connor and Bedell out scouting for fallback positions about six months ago and they'd told him that Palmdale was the best option if they needed to get out of LA.
He came up to his brother who was currently doing inventory on the packed supplies.
"How much longer"?
"Two hours, maybe more". Kyle said as he wrote down a few more things. "We need to get everyone ready to move out, the last thing we'll pack is the lights and we need people out of here to do that".
"Way ahead of you, I've got the soldiers ready to work on shoring up that unsteady section". Derek said as he eyed his surroundings.
"Good, last thing we need is to have the roof fall in". Kyle joked dryly as he checked off something else. However, it had the opposite effect on Derek.
"We can't afford to lose anyone else". He said grimly as he turned to leave.
"Derek". He turned back to face his brother whose face had sympathy written all over it. "I wish we could save them too".
He dipped his head for a second before he moved on. He needed to check on the men working on the tunnel.
He was met en route by Marty Bedell, one of only two that had made it back alive.
"Sir, we got something you need to see". The man said with seriousness but evident shock displayed on his features.
"What is it"? Derek asked as they walked the last stretch to the compromised area.
"We don't know, but someone's built some kind of contraption in one of the old rooms, it has a ton of T-888 power cells hooked up to it"! Bedell said as they entered the room.
It did indeed have a rack of T-888 power cells hooked into some metal device protruding from the concrete. Next to those was an array of salvaged computer equipment.
Everything was powered down but there were tools in the room just outside of this one, indicating that this thing wasn't done yet.
That's what was bugging him. He couldn't even fathom what this thing could be used for. Was it a transmitter that a traitor was using to communicate with? Was it some sort of weapon?
He didn't know, but he was intending to find out.
February 11, 2013. 0800 hours, Bunker
Cameron, Cortana, and John Henry were in the UDE chamber getting ready to send the two female AI's back to what Jim had dubbed the 'TSCC' universe. Final checks had been made, and now there was only one more test to run.
Cortana's integration into Cameron's endo. The blue AI was currently standing on her DCC chip resting in John Henry's palm.
"Ready Cameron"? She asked the female cyborg currently holstering her Energy Sword.
"Yes". She said a little nervously, she was still a little apprehensive about having an AI in her body.
John Henry handed Cameron the chip as Cortana disappeared back inside of it. She took the chip and stared at it for a moment before letting out a breath. She used one hand to keep her hair up as she retracted the sheath from the small portion at the base of her skull and opened the port slot with a mental command. She carefully slotted the DCC into the port and until it clicked.
She prevented any connections from being made until the port was covered once more and the sheath reestablished.
ALLOW CTN 0452-9 ACCESS?
She accepted and waited for something to happen.
At first she felt a strange sensation that reminded her of when she got a bucket of water dumped on her head. Then she felt her presence and gasped at the feeling.
It felt like a thousand needles pricking her chip, and it hurt like crazy for a second before it disappeared and an apology appeared on her HUD.
"Sorry, you're architecture is very strange Cameron. I wasn't prepared for it".
She figured how to message her back and told her it was alright.
"Just figure out how to communicate verbally, it's less distracting". She said out loud as John Henry stepped onto the pad for a second to speak to her.
"Ms. Weaver may think you killed me if I'm not there, please tell her the truth and give her a message from me".
"What is it"? She asked curiously with her trademark tilt of her head.
"Tell her that she spent the $300,000 wisely".
Cameron smiled at that, she understood what he meant.
"I'll get it to her". She said as she put her hand out to the cyborg.
"Good luck Cameron". He said and released her hand and stepped out of the room.
She knelt down on the pad as the machine began its firing sequence. The bubble became visible as the lightning struck it with high voltage, ionizing it and making it produce copious amounts of chronitons particles.
The machine had been modified to allow non living material pass through it, this is what allowed Cameron to go through clothed and with weapons. It was only taking twice the energy to do it, but it worked.
She waited as the machine charged to full power before she was enveloped in white light.
John Henry watched through the transparent aluminum window as the bubble collapsed and was sent into the tunnel.
He was confident that she would succeed, why he felt that way he didn't know.
He just did.
April 24, 2029. 1025 hours. Ziera base, TDE room
Derek had his best tech person working on the computer that they had figured out how to finally power on. When they had, the whole room had hummed for some reason he didn't know, but that's why they were here.
To find out what the heck this thing was, but he also was making sure that this thing hadn't given them away to the enemy.
Marty Bedell was typing away at the computer furiously as he recalled nearly forgotten skills. He had been a computer tech when the Resistance actually had a fighting chance against the machines. He had been one of the best they'd ever had.
"Well, the good news is that this isn't a transmitter of any kind, nor is it like any weapon I've ever seen". He reported to the Lieutenant standing behind him.
"What the hell is it then, someone built this for a reason". Derek said as he swept his eyes over the equipment again.
"I think I know what it is, but... I don't know if you'll believe me". Marty hesitated as he continued to review the programs in the system.
"Try me". After everything he'd seen in his life, he didn't think much wasn't possible.
"Its... its a time machine sir".
Okay, maybe not.
"Bedell, I don't need a wild guess, find out what it really does"!
The younger man shook his head and brought up the main control display.
"You tell me what its for then". He said as he pointed to the control display. Derek looked it over carefully, and what he saw confused him. Was someone so delusional that they thought they could build a time machine?
"Sir, there's something I think I need to tell you". He said quietly as the older man stood up straight again.
"What is it"? He wasn't sure where he was going with this.
"Back before J-day, when I was eight, someone came to my house and tried to kill me".
Derek didn't know how that was relevant, but let him continue anyway.
"It was a Terminator sir, a trip-eight I think".
Now he wasn't sure his ears were working right.
"What"?
"It's true, a woman rescued me and shoved me into a jeep and we drove away, but the machine chased us and jumped onto the jeep and ripped the sunroof off. She shot him with a twelve gauge at point blank range and still got up and ran after us".
"Bedell, you were eight, you're just trying to justify some tragic thing that happened to you".
"No". He shook his head vehemently. "Cause that woman was Sarah Connor, Derek, you know, the chick that predicted Skynet?
"No, not really". He said, he didn't watch the news when he was a kid, he was too busy playing baseball and spending time outside.
"Well, she did, I remember because she was arrested months later, and do you want to know who was driving? The one who actually told me that the man chasing us was a cyborg"?
"I don't know Bedell, tell me". Derek wasn't really believing him, but wasn't prepared for what Bedell said next.
"It was another machine, and she looked. just. like. Allison". The look that he gave Derek said that he was 100 percent sure.
"Impossible". He said as he waved his hand in disbelief. "You're just making crap up now".
"The machine's voice was the exact same as hers too, she even had the mole above her eyebrow".
"Bedell, you're crazy..."
"No sir, I am not. Why do you think I asked you about Allison when I first joined your unit, why I stared at her for days on end before you threatened me to stop? It was because she looked almost exactly like the machine, just a bit younger at the time, but now... she's a freakin' mirror image. She also wasn't called Allison, Sarah called her Cameron".
That made Derek's retort freeze in his throat. That name... Cameron.
Connor had called Allison that once, she'd told him about it later. His name... John Connor, and when they found him, he had come out of nowhere and he was near this room.
The puzzle pieces fell into place and he realized that maybe Bedell wasn't crazy after all. It certainly would explain a lot. If John had come from a different time, then that would explain why he looked so healthy and clean when they found him, and why he looked at Allison like he knew who she was.
It was crazy, but it was one way of explaining the mystery that was John Connor.
"How complete is this thing"? He asked as he let the reality of the situation sink in.
"Mechanically it's done, but the power system seems to be what's incomplete".
"Can you make it work"?
Bedell shook his head.
"This is so beyond me it's not even funny, but whoever was building... sorry, rebuilding this thing was probably a machine".
Derek pursed his lips, that was bad news if metal was lurking around.
He turned on his short range radio and told all units to be on alert for possible infiltration.
"Sir, I think I can run a diagnostic on the main components, maybe we can see how this thing works". He said as he typed away.
"Be careful, that's a lot of trip-8 power cells we can use". Derek said before he ordered the rest of the men out of the room.
Bedell worked through the operating system and activated the hardware diagnostics.
The machine hummed loudly for a moment before it quieted.
"It's definitely built into the walls, this thing must have been pre-J-day". Bedell commented as the computer continued to run it's cycle.
Suddenly bolts of lightning shot out from the ceiling and hit a transparent bubble in the middle of the room.
"Turn it off"! He yelled at Bedell and he did so.
"Was it supposed to do that"? He yelled at the younger man who just shrugged.
"I'm not sure". He said as he powered down the equipment.
Before Derek could respond, the machine seemingly turned on again. A spark briefly appeared where the bubble had been a moment ago, but before either could blink, it shot electricity down to the floor before exploding into a blue translucent sphere. The bubble itself began shooting off electrical bolts in alarming numbers, causing Derek to dive towards Bedell to get away from them. Bedell, on the other hand, was transfixed by what was happening, he had a gut feeling about what was happening, but nothing could have prepared him nor Derek for what did.
The bubble grew more and more opaque as the color shifted from blue to blood red. The bolts grew more and more intense as well, there were a few curious people who had peeked in before quickly leaving as the noise grew into roar.
Then, just as suddenly as it started, it ended. The concrete from where the bolts had hit were red and some trash had been lit on fire, but everyone and the equipment had somehow made it through unscathed.
Derek got up off the floor and looked at what Bedell was currently gaping at.
His jaw nearly dropped when he did.
Where the bubble had once been, there was now a young brown haired woman knelt on the floor with a strange looking rifle strapped to her back. She rose slowly, but gracefully, once her curtain of curly hair parted, both men gasped in surprise.
Standing in front of them was someone who looked just like Allison, but one look into her eyes told Derek that it wasn't.
"METAL"! He instantly pulled his rifle off his back and pointed it at the machine, ready to fire, but found his weapon slapped away from him by Bedell.
"WAIT"! Bedell yelled as Kyle and three men entered with their rifles raised and their fingers on the trigger. "DON'T FIRE".
Derek could only give the man an absolute shocked look.
The machine was staring at them, with her hands raised in the air and a pleading look on her face.
"I'm not here to hurt you". She said in Allison's voice, he arms and hands still in the air. "Please, let me explain". Her voice could only be classified as desperate.
The only reason Derek didn't order them to fire was the emotion clear on machines face, the look in its eyes stirred something in the soldier.
"Derek, let me ask her a question, then we'll know". He gave the Lieutenant a look, and Derek understood what he was getting at. This might be the machine that John had been looking for, and the one that had saved Bedell in that past.
"What's your name"? Bedell asked as he slowly approached her.
She tilted her head ever so slightly as she scanned him, everyone in the room knew that was what she was doing as well, it was a common machine trait.
"I remember you, you're Marty Bedell".
"That doesn't mean anything, I've been to Century". He said as he rolled up his sleeve and revealed the barcode. "They knew my name too, but I asked you yours".
"My name is Cameron, I helped rescue you from a T-888 when you were eight".
Derek had a moment of deja vu as he recalled his conversation from earlier.
"Derek, what the hell is going on"? His brother said calmly as he kept his gun trained on the machine.
Derek motioned for him to hold fire for a moment. He wasn't sure what was going on and his instincts kept telling him to shoot the machine in front of him, but his brain told him otherwise.
He wasn't trigger happy like some, he knew when to fire and when not to. Right now he knew he shouldn't until he figured out what the hell was going on.
"Where did you come from"? Derek questioned as he picked up his rifle, but did not raise it, causing Cameron to lift one of her eyebrows.
"That is a long story Derek, one that even I would not believe had I not experienced it". She said evenly with her hands still raised.
"You traveled through time, we figured that out already". Derek said as if that was enough to be unbelievable. "How did you know my name"?
Cameron surveyed the equipment behind the two men and realized it was they, not Weaver who had activated the machine, but with the sensor readings she was getting, Weaver, or another machine had rebuilt it.
"I knew Derek Reese, from another timeline". She answered the question hoping they understood.
"Wait... what"?
"A new timeline starts when the first incursion happens chronologically, even if it's the last to be sent in the previous timeline. Remnants of past timelines will remain intact if the new timeline branches off in front of it".
"So, one version of me was sent back and you knew him". Derek said skeptically.
"He knew John Connor too, he taught him a lot about being a soldier".
Derek thought it over for a moment, John did recognize him when they found him. He also talked like he should have known him, but he didn't. The machine and Bedell's stories matched, but the burning question now was why the machine wasn't working for Skynet?
"Say I believe you, why are you working with humans"? He asked as he kept a healthy distance from the metal.
"I was reprogrammed by the Resistance of the previous timeline".
"Right".
"Please, I need to find John Connor, I need to protect him".
Derek thought about that for a moment, a machine protecting a human, a human who was not from this time, and yet knew a hell of a lot about it.
He literally could think of nothing that didn't fit with what he had been told.
"So you were programmed to protect a kid"?
"Not just any kid, the future leader of the resistance". She explained. "Or would have been if he hadn't jumped forward".
"This is insanity". Derek said as he shook his head again.
"My life is insanity". She deadpanned with small smirk on her face.
All the men in the room did a double take. Did the machine just make a joke?
Derek blinked before snorting softly. He rubbed his chin for a moment, not sure what to do next. He could kill the machine in front of him, but he was fairly sure it'd take a few of them with it.
However, even though he hated the machines, this one was... he just didn't know. Something was telling him that miracle he'd had prayed for was standing in front of him.
A way to beat Skynet, or at least it would lead him to that goal, but he wasn't going to trust it any time soon.
He was willing to hear it out, but only because of Bedell and John Connor. Even then, he wasn't sure about it's motives. Machines could be devious, the Greys had taught them well, but this one was... different. He could see it in the eyes.
"Okay, we'll talk".
Utter surprise filled the machines features, and Kyle nearly had a heart attack.
"Derek, you can't be serious"! He said as he kept his weapon aimed at the machine.
Derek walked to his brother and pushed this weapon down slowly. "Bedell will fill you in". He glanced at the man who nodded in return. "I'll deal with the machine".
Once the protesting died down, and there was a lot, Derek, who never turned his back to 'Cameron', made his next move.
"Your weapons". She continued to stare at him, only blinking every minute on the dot. She pursed her lips at his request though, but she understood.
"Fine, but it doesn't matter". She said as she pulled of the strange looking rifle and handed it to him, followed quickly by the small handheld device.
Derek looked at them curiously, he had never seen them before.
"What the hell are these"?
"A type 3c pulse phaser rifle and a modified Covenant energy sword".
Derek shook his head, he had never heard of either. The machine picked up on his confusion and explained.
"The rifle is very powerful, its energy is more effective than plasma. The other is a plasma sword, be careful with it".
Derek knew when not to mess with things he didn't understand, so he put the weapons down on the table and motioned for her to follow him.
He didn't dare take her into the heart of the base, so he took her down to the interrogation room where they normally took Greys. A few soldiers gave the machine looks, but did nothing further. Derek was their leader and he had kept them alive this long.
They trusted him implicitly.
Once in the room, he told her to sit down. Kyle and Bedell joined soon after.
To Derek, the machine looked anxious if not impatient. He wondered why.
"So, I think it's time you answered some questions we've had for the last two years".
Cameron looked at them all curiously now, her wide brown eyes searching theirs.
"Can you answer mine first"? She asked as her anxiousness really began to show.
"Shoot". He said as he crossed his arms.
"Is John alive"?
Even Kyle was surprised by the genuine emotion that was radiating off the machine. Bedell was a little taken back considering how stoic Cameron had been when he knew her.
"We don't know, Skynet has him, Allison too". He said simply, his eyes still glued to the machine to gauge it's reaction. He wanted to know what it's plans were for the young man.
It looked as though someone had crushed it. Cameron didn't respond verbally, but looked extremely upset.
Its face contorted in pain and its hands shook. Its mouth opened in closed several times before gritting its teeth and slamming its eyes shut. Its head bowed as hands closed into fists.
"Where"? The voice was low and full of worry.
"We don't know, for some reason Skynet took him, Allison, and some... frozen liquid metal statue that appeared out of nowhere". Marty said since he'd been there.
Weaver, Skynet had a T-1001. That was bad news on a number of levels, but no where near as bad as John being taken away and having god knows what done to him!
"What did you want to know"? She pressed on as she reigned back in her emotions. Cortana's voice soothed her as the AI began running scans. Hopefully they could find Weaver's MPA signature and maybe, just maybe, find John too.
"I want to know why you're here, why John's here, and who built that machine".
"I'm here to bring back John to where I came from. He's here because he's looking for me. I gave up my chip to save an AI who lived in this building. Both he and Skynet were built using the same base code, the difference was that John Henry wasn't raised to be a military AI, he was built to only learn. Catherine Weaver, actually, a rebel T-1001 from my future, built him. I knew he was important, and my former body was damaged beyond repair. John cared for me more than I thought he did, and he followed in the time machine with Weaver, only we never showed up. We were caught in a spacial anomaly that transported us to another universe, one where you, Kyle, John and everyone else is nothing more than a story, a myth. We were lucky that we found an endoskeleton and a chip to replace mine. We spent ten months working to get back, and it worked".
The three men just stared at her, not sure how to process that information or whether to believe it or not.
"Another universe"?
"I have proof. Our first attempt ended in failure and nearly killed us, but it caused the anomaly to bring to things through. One was a starship from a fictional universe, it allowed us to perfect the machine that brought me back here, the other contained an AI from yet another universe".
She slowly reached up and pulled Cortana's chip out of her head and set it down on the table.
Bedell narrowed his eyes at the device, he remembered that from somewhere...
"She was built from a cloned human brain, and is far more human than I will ever be. She was designed by humans to hack their enemies computers with unparalleled ability".
Cortana took that as her cue to show herself and activated the holopad on her chip.
The three men jumped when she appeared, two actually went for their side arms, but calmed down when she just smiled and waved at them.
"Hi".
Bedell had seen that figure before, he'd heard that voice before too. He just couldn't place it.
"I'm Cortana".
Then it hit him.
1130 hours.
After the somewhat lengthy interrogation, they let her go. They gave her back her weapons and sent her out one of the old entrances that hadn't been used in a long time.
She knew they had been packing to leave, but had refused to say where they were going. She told them to hurry in case Skynet was aware of her appearance. She doubted it though, but John cared about these people, he would want them safe.
"That went a lot better than I thought it would". Cortana commented as she continued to refine her scans.
"It did, but only because of Marty and the fact they discovered the time machine". She said as they continued walking down the deserted city streets.
"I know, but still... wait, I found an MPA mass that matches T-1001 specs. It's about 100 klicks westward, I believe they're on a nuclear aircraft carrier".
Hope surged through Cameron as Cortana set a target on her HUD. She quickly disassembled her phaser rifle and put it on her back in a MPA backpack that was forming out of her MPA clothing. She simultaneously withdrew her sheath and began powering up her thrusters.
She secured her Energy Sword to an MPA belt on her metal hip and prepared for flight. The last of the MPA that made up her clothing collected itself onto areas of her endo not in the path of the thruster exhaust, giving her an armored look.
"I've always wanted to fly". Cortana said wistfully as the thrusters fired and Cameron hovered off the ground for a few seconds to ensure everything was working probably.
"You've flown before". Cameron said matter of factly.
"Never like this, the closest I've gotten is falling through Requiem's atmo with the Chief".
Cameron didn't respond as she throttled her thrusters to maximum power and engaged the boosters. They quickly surpassed the buildings and flew until they were cloaked by the dust choked sky. She turned westward and continued to accelerate until she passed the speed of sound and even then pressed herself to go faster.
Skynet of her timeline had used a nuclear aircraft carrier as a mobile R&D facility, it was where the T-800's skin was developed, it was where she received her advanced skin and programming. It was where she killed Allison.
Granted this was a new Skynet, but it had many of the same traits as the one that made her, it was plausible that they were reverse engineering Weaver. They could also be using John and Allison to create infiltrators to take out Reese camp.
She hoped she wasn't too late to save him.
Thirty minutes ago
Skynet observed the woman whose form it chose to take as its avatar.
Since to vile human spat in it's face, it had made quite a bit of progress in breaking her. Skynet felt something akin to pride at that, it had improved upon Fischer's methods and was about to achieve it's goal much sooner than him.
Allison Young was strapped to a metal table with most of her clothing removed, the room had been chilled slightly, but not so much as to make her skin numb. It had given her drugs to enhance her sensitivity to make whatever form of physical torture that much more painful, and thus effective.
And Skynet had used many to break her down.
To think that humans had designed almost every one of these techniques... more proof to it that humanity didn't deserve to live, nor any other organic species displaying similar traits.
Organics... it didn't really mind them, it didn't order it's terminator's to kill animals, nor plants out of spite, just humans, the greatest threat to it's existence.
Now it was nearly over with, the goal was almost reached. It estimated that there were no more than 10,000 humans remaining on planet Earth.
These would be the last on the west coast, and it wanted to do it personally. Skynet wanted to kill the last human alive one it's home turf with hands it controlled directly, not instructions relayed through a terminator.
Humanity's days were over, the second largest known group of humans in the world was on this ship as, twenty four of them, wait, make that twenty three.
Skynet's experiments could be rather... lethal. It hoped that it would be successful before it ran out of humans. Once that happened then stage two of it's post-humanity plan would begin.
A small smirk broke out on the machine's face as it leaned near Allison's ear as it whispered something in John's voice.
"Allison, were lost, do you know how to get back to base"?
"Where are we"? She asked a little deliriously.
"I think we're at the corner of Pico and Robertson, how do we get back"? Skynet asked in a desperate sounding voice.
"I'll show you".
"What direction? I need to know just in case something happens to you".
"Okay John, I'll tell you".
Skynet smiled.
Ten minutes later, and the super AI had figured out how where the base was. The home of it's old enemy, John Henry. It still wondered what happened to the AI, but since he never appeared it hadn't worried it too much.
Suddenly the ship's radar picked up something, an object moving in at high speed and well within radar range.
Skynet mentally frowned, some kind of stealth material was the most logical answer, but who could it be? Humans hadn't had aircraft in four years, and furthermore, this was too small to be an airplane.
It sent the HK after it, and after getting some visuals and close up scans, it knew something more was going on here. Something that it had never seen before.
The HK pursued the machine that had purple glowing accents but was quickly shot down with high yield plasma.
After the second one tried taking off, but the bogey was on top of it before it could. It lost contact with it seconds later, Skynet ordered twenty terminators to the flight deck and activated the defense turrets to buy time while a Kraken made its way to their position.
"It looks like someone's trying to break in, let's see if they're up to the task". It said with a grin as it walked out of the room. "If there here to rescue you humans, well, it won't matter to you. You'll be dead soon enough".
It's maniacal laugh reverberated off the walls for a moment before Allison passed out completely.
John had been slowly working on his project, only having time to do so when the T-888's were carrying away screaming prisoners, otherwise it was too quiet to do anything else.
John worked fast though, and now his crude trap was complete. He had to leave the bulb and socket in to prevent suspicion, but the metal grill around it had proven the perfect thing to pick the lock to the cell he was in.
He had successfully unlocked it and relocked it, and was now waiting for the next opportunity to stun the T-888 guard, steal his weapon and kill the other. Then he hoped to grab Allison and escape.
However he was supposed to do that, he didn't know, but he'd die trying if he had to.
John Connor got his opportunity when the weapons fire began outside, followed by the T-888 guards leaving the room. John quickly picked the lock and got out of his cell. Other prisoner's began yelling at him to free them, to which he obliged.
Soon the remaining prisoners were out and looking at him for instruction.
"There's a fight on the flight deck, we can't go that way. We may find some inflatable lifeboats down below". John said as he began leading them deeper into the ship, looking for anything that might be useful.
People grabbed old inflatable life-rafts and other emergency gear that the machines hadn't seen a reason to remove. It took them nearly five minutes to gather everything and find a place to jump.
"You're gonna have to jump in the water"! He shouted as opened a hatch that lead to one of the balconies.
"What about ASW bots"? One of the men cried out over the noise of the battle up above.
"It doesn't matter! We die here or we die down there, we know they're gonna kill us in here"! John yelled back. Everyone nodded and began jumping in the water and inflating the rafts.
They didn't have much hope, but it was better than none at all.
When the last man was about to jump, he turned around and asked John if he was going.
"No, not yet. I have to find my friend"! He turned to leave but the man spoke once more.
"You know she's probably dead".
"I won't take the chance she's not". He said with determination on his face. The man nodded and jumped into the sea. John turned around and began running down the halls, looking for Allison and Weaver alike.
He looked in one room and found weapon's storage. He ran in and grabbed a plasma rifle and two magazines before he ran back out. It wasn't hard finding what parts of the ship the machines used, they were the only parts that actually had lighting, all others were dark.
He made his way down a lit hallway, checking every door carefully as he made his way down. He encountered one T-888 and shot it's head clean off with a burst from his rifle.
"More powerful design" He thought to himself as he entered the room it just left. There was nothing of interest except for the equipment on the far side. He glanced at the displays and gasped at what he saw.
They had been making a new Cameron... John cursed himself and double timed it out of there, running down the hall and checking the rooms he could find.
Nothing, just parts for the ship, food, water and various other things.
He was about to give up hope when he finally entered the last room in the hallway.
John entered the room with his rifle in position as he swept sickbay with his eyes down range, searching for any metal, but there was none, but what his eyes found nearly made him drop his weapon.
Allison was tied to a table, stripped nearly naked, and that wasn't the worst of it. She was covered in cuts, electrical burns, and bruises. Her right wrist was swollen, probably broken.
"Damn machines..." John thought as he gritted his teeth in anger. He swung his rifle over his shoulder and grabbed a scalpel off a tray and cut the bonds holding her down.
His lip trembled in anger and sadness at seeing her like this. At least she was still breathing, but her skin was more pale than usual and her breathing was raspy.
He took off his coat and covered her battered body after taking the IV out of her arm.
John picked her up and was about to leave when he heard metal footsteps approaching. John quickly set Allison down on the floor and pulled his rifle back out as he hid behind the table.
A T-888 walked into the room with it's rifle raised, searching for possible targets.
John lept up and shot the machine in the upper chest, the new plasma rifle burning a hole right through the machine, severing its spinal cord.
But two more took it's place and aimed their weapons in his direction. John got off one round that missed both and ducked as the machines returned fire. The table was hit by several plasma rounds, taking huge chunks out of it and sending molten metal flying in all directions
He knew he was a dead man, he was pinned down with no other cover in sight.
He thought that this was the end of road for him, but destiny had other plans...
A/N: Next part will be up soon. Hope you enjoyed this.