Forward Unto Dawn

by TheWizardofOzbourne

Triple Crossover, TSCC/Halo w/Star Trek: Voy/DS9/TNG elements. Trapped in a universe similar to our own, Cameron and John Henry struggle to return home. To do so, three gifts, each from another universe, will get them home and entangle them in a war they thought they knew. Eventual Jameron and MC/Cortana. Updated! 08/14/2024 CH52 Posted!

34. Terminators vs Spartans

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

A/N: Double length!

Chapter 34: Terminators vs Spartans

February 10, 2558

USS Voyager

0506 hours

Accepting the strange revelations had not been difficult for Kelly. What had was the changes she'd seen in John. He was their steadfast, do-what-ever-it-takes, de-facto leader of the Spartan-IIs.

Those things had not changed, but something had. She could still not reconcile his reasons for finding Cortana, she could not understand why he had such a connection with an AI that he'd spent only a few sparing months with.

She wasn't jealous or anything, but his actions disturbed her. He was her rock. He was the reason she'd kept going after every loss the Spartans and humanity had endured.

Banishing these distracting thoughts from her head wasn't easy, but she had to. There was still so much to learn in such a short period of time. This ship, for starters, not to mention her new teammates. It hadn't taken long to catch up with her Spartan II comrades, but Six and Allison Young were a different story. Kelly had experience with both Beta-class Spartan IIIs and Spartan IVs, but these two were different from them.

Six was rated Hyper-Lethal, which had surprised Kelly, and she was a survivor of Reach. Those two aspects alone spoke to the Spartan's skill and luck.

Then there was Allison Young. She was the alternate version of the woman whom Cameron was based on. She'd been tortured by the enemy they faced and survived. The young woman had been turned into a Spartan IV and had shown to be quite capable in combat. Her experience against with Terminators would prove invaluable as the Spartans trained together.

Kelly was hoping for a sparring session with both of them after she'd gotten new armor. Her Mk. VII had been damaged beyond repair and Cortana didn't have the specs. That meant that she'd be outfitted with the enhanced Mark VI that Red Team sported.

After walking through the armor room's doors, she found Cortana and Commander Miranda Keyes waiting for her.

"Commander, over here." Miranda motioned for the older woman to join them. Kelly quickly moved to meet them as Cortana grabbed something from a container nearby.

"Put this on," Cortana told her before turning back to Miranda. "We should have the barracks done by 0900. Once we move the personnel out, we'll be able to start disassembling the Spirit of Fire."

"Are the holographic generators in place?" Miranda asked, knowing that the majority of the heavy lifting would be done by holographic arms.

"They were the first things we set up," Cortana explained as Kelly continued to change.

Miranda nodded before responding. "Who'll be training me while your working?"

"The Doctor and John Henry know Voyager just as well as I. They can teach you everything you need to know about this ship."

The Commander seemed pleased. "Good. If I'm going to take this ship into combat, I'll need to know everything." With that, Miranda left in search of the cyborg.

Kelly silently wondered how Miranda's mother, Doctor Halsey, would react when she found out her daughter was alive. It was something Kelly didn't plan on missing out on.

"Need any help, Commander?" Cortana crossed her arms in amusement as Kelly struggled with one of the airtight zippers. The Spartan glared at her for a moment before finally getting the stubborn suit closed.

"No." She deadpanned in response before finally facing her. "Where's my armor?"

Cortana frowned at her tone. "Do we have a problem, Kelly?" Her hands moved to her hips as well.

The Spartan breathed deeply and exhaled through her nose. "No, I just don't understand why John cares so much about you."

"Awww...jealous are we?" Cortana's shit eating grin was firmly in place.

Kelly's eyebrows shot skyward. "Jealous? He's like a brother to me!" She was incensed at the implication, "I'm worried about him. I've known him for forty years and I've never seen him do something that reckless!"

Putting all joking aside, Cortana's face became serious once more. "Life changes people, Kelly."

"Not him, not the Chief. Even after everything went through he stayed the same," she shook her head slowly.

The AI crossed her arms, "But he did change," she reminded her, "and so did I."

Kelly waited for her to continue, but Cortana looked apprehensive.

"When we were paired, we quickly found out we worked well together, but it was more than that to me. When I realized what he'd gone through since he was young, I wanted to take care of him, just like he took care of me. When Reach fell and Halo happened, that bond only grew and it kept growing."

Kelly could see the emotion behind Cortana's words, but she still couldn't quite grasp the uniqueness of their relationship and why it had changed them.

"I'll take your word for it," Kelly said finally before changing the subject, "Where do I get my armor?"

Allowing a small smirk to flit across her face, Cortana guided Kelly to the same place Alice had stood just two days prior. Watching the Spartan's face as a white Mark VI EVA variant was created and assembled in front of her eyes was priceless.

The Spartan herself could only stand in mute shock as the complex armor was custom built onto her frame in less than two minutes. The entire time she could hear Dr. Halsey's voice in her head whispering at how amazing this ship's technology truly was.

When it was finished, Kelly stepped toward a seemingly pleased Cortana. "Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Kelly stayed silent for a short moment before finally finding the words. "I'm not sure what you two are, but know this," the woman's tone dropped to a threatening growl, "if you hurt him in any way, I'll take you out."

Cortana met the woman's masked glare, "I'd rather die."

"Good." Kelly spun on her heel and left.

Despite the threat, Cortana was glad that John had someone besides herself that cared about him as much as she did, albeit, in sisterly way.

If anything ever happened to her again, he'd be taken care of.

---

Speaking of the Master Chief, the green clad warrior had just finished an early meal with John Connor, who was walking alongside him. The Spartans were to begin training against Terminators soon and they were all anxious to get started.

"We've been discussing our Terminator intel for over an hour, what are your thoughts on tactics?" Connor asked as they entered a turbolift.

The Spartan faced him, "I don't know." His admission didn't come easily, "T-888s would have been easy to defeat in combat."

"But..."

"But Catherine Weaver is not a T-888."

Connor could only smirk. "That's always the first impression with her kind: disorientation. You don't know how to defeat them, nothing seems to stop them."

The Chief saw no need to respond to that statement directly and continued, "Skynet has better tech now, and it will put that technology to use."

Connor nodded, "And we don't know what it will or will not include."

"Exactly. That is why adapting to the Covenant took so long: we didn't know how to respond."

Finally, the arrived at the Holodeck. "That's what were here for." Connor gestured to the door, "Once you get a better understanding of Skynet and its troops as they were, then maybe we'll understand what they'll become."

The doors slid open and the Master Chief walked in. Connor followed as Fred and Linda gathered around them.

"Where's Kelly?" The Chief asked, but his words were wasted.

"Right here, Chief," she said as she quickly strode into the room. "Are we ready?" She asked to deflect any questions on her seeming tardiness.

Connor answered, "The program is loaded, I'll launch it when you're ready." He said as he put on the ODST style helmet and checked his Type 3c phaser rifle.

"What's the plan?" Linda asked softly, her question directed at the Chief.

"Connor will advise while we engage the enemy." He told them as he brought his new Spartan phaser rifle to bear. The other three Spartans did the same.

John Connor received a nod from the Master Chief, "Computer, activate holoprogram Connor-101."

Being used to the War Games room on Infinity, Blue Team didn't find the holodeck all that different from it's UNSC counterpart, save the fact it took up far less space.

The grid around them vanished as the holomatrix activated, leaving a devastated landscape in it's place. It was much colder than it had been and the sun hid behind uncomfortably familiar clouds of a nuclear winter.

"A sight for sore eyes..." Kelly drawled.

She was the only one who commented on the scene's eerie familiarity. They'd seen many cities ruined by Covenant glassing beams though this one was far more intact.

"Where are we?" The Chief asked as Connor eye's swept the landscape.

"Los Angeles," he turned to the Spartan briefly.

Connor knew the Spartan's were already surveying the landscape and evaluating what little intel they had. He also knew they were doing it better than him, but he had the advantage of experience in this world.

However, the Spartan's also had better hardware, both mechanically and biologically.

"Linda," He said over the comm, "HKs and Terminator's are easy to spot even for normal humans, but Aerostats are small and quick scouts, see if you can spot any with you're optical scanners."

Her helmet held the most advanced scopes and image processors in the UNSC, they'd give her the advantage.

Linda spent several seconds moving her head back and forth as she focused on different part of the landscape stretching for over a mile in the distance.

"I see one, 1.7 klicks south by southwest." She marked the location on their HUD's.

Connor was impressed. That was exactly where he'd hidden it. "Anything else?"

"Three, four man squads of T-888's are within my viewing range. None have noticed us yet."

Connor nodded and kept any compliments to himself. They'd had enough of that and he doubted they'd appreciate it.

"They're optics are good, but they're not nearly as advanced as your helmet's." he explained, "That's why they use HK's and Aerostats."

Linda nodded, "That'll likely change." She pointed out softly, noting Voyager's impressive scanning abilities.

"Exactly, but will their tactics change?"

It was an easy question to answer. "Not likely, their scouts will just be used at greater distances."

Connor knew they were well versed in tactics, he just wanted to see how well they understood the machines. It was then that he remembered that they'd sometimes been mistaken for robots.

It was then that Fred spoke up, "What is our goal, exactly?"

"Survive in an enemy stronghold," he said flatly, "we haven't been spotted yet, but we will. Your armor may partially mask your IR signature, but it's not exactly inconspicuous. It's only a matter of time."

Kelly wanted to retort about their ability to disappear even in MJOLNIR, but the Chief signaled her down.

Connor sensed that the Spartan's were anxious to get moving. "Master Chief," the Spartan turned his attention to him, "we proceed at your discretion."

He nodded and turned to Kelly, "Scout ahead, find the best path into the city outskirts."

Kelly acknowledged over the comm and sprinted down into the valley. She was soon out of sight.

They kept a low profile until she returned twenty minutes later.

"There's not much cover on the surface." She told them after ducking behind their cover, "We'll have to descend to the east where it's more wooded, then we can use the sewers and tunnels to reach the city."

The Chief approved, but Connor kept silent for the time being.

"Be wary of booby traps in the tunnels." The former Resistance fighter advised as they made their way down. His voice held a hint of personal experience.

He received four confirmation lights from the Spartans as they quietly continued.

They reached the outskirts of the suburbs within an hour without spotting any machines. Kelly stayed ahead as an advanced scout while Linda kept vigilant of targets farther out with her scope. Fred hung back to make sure nothing was following them.

When they finally reached where the public sewer lines began, Kelly ripped open the nearest cover after checking it for traps.

Dropping into through the manhole, she rapidly swept the dried sewer for threats. The others followed when none were found.

Connor stayed in the rear behind Fred so he could watch the Spartans as they proceeded to the center of the city.

Hours passed without any spoken words, only hand signals and HUD indicator lights flashed between Blue Team. Connor stayed quiet, offering nothing for the time being.

He wanted them to adapt on their own. He wanted to see how they reacted in a completely unknown situation. There were things he'd purposefully kept from them, things worse than simple booby traps that would test the Spartan's skills.

After they'd been walking for nearly two hours in the tunnels, they came to a larger branch, one that still held some water.

"We proceed left." The Chief said after referring to his HUD's map. "Kelly, scout left 100 meters. Fred you go right."

Two lights winked on his display and the two Spartans departed.

The Chief looked at the water warily, as if realizing something. He briefly turned to Connor, who didn't move or say anything, before he activated his comm. "Check the water!"

But his warning came too late.

A loud crash and splash echoed down the tunnel from the right and left almost simultaneously.

"THEY'RE IN THE WATER!" Fred shouted openly as he wrestled with a snake like robot the was trying to skewer him. His shields had saved him the first time, but they were down nearly half after the powerful machine had knocked him into the sewer wall.

The Chief and Linda both sprang into action as they shot the Hydrobots attacking their teammates.

Linda shot the one attacking Fred through it's spine in three locations in rapid succession. It went limp and shut down.

John-117 vaporized one of the two attacking Kelly while she outmaneuvered the other. She grabbed it with her bare hands and snapped it in two.

After tossing the two pieces away, she sent Connor a glare.

He ignored it and kept searching the water for more. He knew there was supposed to be at least four.

The Spartan's followed his lead and searched for ripples or red lights under the water.

Connor, having tracked them many times, found the last one sneaking up on the Master Chief. He raised his phaser and destroyed it.

"Those were Hydrobots." Any further explanation seemed redundant.

"Any other surprises?" Kelly asked sardonically as the Chief moved to take point.

"It wouldn't be training if there weren't." He responded openly as he began moving down the sewer once more.

The question had been rhetorical, Connor knew, but he wanted them to understand that he wasn't going to give them all the answers.

Chief motioned for silence as they moved deeper into the sewer.

As they continued their slow, steady pace, all four members of Blue Team wondered what other surprises John Connor had in store for them.

---

Elsewhere, Derek was quietly contemplating the previous evening while he watched Allison, Six, and Red Team duke it out against machines in an identical environment to the one John and Blue team were in.

Learning that Six was the sister of the famed Master Chief didn't really impact, nor surprise him. Six had enough raw talent and courage to equal the Spartan, all she lacked was his leadership skills and greater experience.

He was kind of surprised none of the humans had noticed sooner.

As he watched her move with her team, he couldn't help but frown at the feelings she invoked in him. Both physical and emotional.

He felt like a damn teenager all over again.

She was different than every women he'd known over the years. He'd known every kind from bubbly to stone cold. Six was something entirely new and yet familiar at the same time. Her training as a Spartan III had made her, and her S-III brethren, into something special.

They were tough on the outside, nearly the perfect soldier, but still had this...innocence about them that they shouldn't have. Bred killers weren't supposed to be innocent at all. He'd know, he'd done his fair share of killing.

Machine's weren't the only threat after J-day.

Derek sighed and rubbed his eyes as he tried to clear the emotions from his head, but it wasn't working.

Unlike the Derek John had known before he'd jumped to the future, Derek had never met Jesse. This being because the Resistance had never reached the level it would have under an older John Connor who'd lived through the horrors like he had.

He'd never had anyone close. Of course there were the one-night stands and short stints with a few that caught his fancy, but he never tried to get close to any of them. He felt vindicated by that when each and every one of them had died, usually not long after he'd moved on.

Now, though, he wanted more, and he hated the timing.

It wasn't as if their odds of survival had increased much. Ellison had already died and nearly John too, and the real action hadn't even begun yet.

He'd tried to extinguish the spark of interest, but to no avail.

She had him hook, line, and sinker, and she didn't even know it.

---

Cortana was working in tandem with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five different AI's over the last day getting the UNSC Spirit of Fire ready for disassembly.

Barracks had been replicated and constructed. Kitchens, mess halls, gyms, weapons lockers, warehouses, bathhouses, training areas and various other facilities had to built before they could start on the refit.

Now, the buildings were complete and the Spirit of Fire was currently having everything that wasn't part of the ship removed, tagged, and stored.

Not wanting to waste time, Serina, who specialized in starship maintenance and refitting, had determined that the weapons systems were ready to be removed even though the crew was still moving munitions, supplies, and even tanks out of the monstrous ship.

Everyone had agreed, and the coordinated effort began to remove the 22 massive deck guns using the Holographic Matrix Array.

Nearly everyone had been cleared out of the ship when the final gun was removed and set aside. Next came the ATFA missile turrets, which took up another half hour or so of time.

Serina made sure the Spirit and her crew were ready for a component to be separated while Cortana used the Array to detach and maneuver the pieces away from the ship. That was where John Henry took over and sorted the components based on their reusability or lack thereof. Cameron, Seven, Kalmiya, and Professor Anders spent their time refining designs of individual parts to be used in the refit.

As the last of the crew moved out, Serina began shutting down the Spirit's fusion reactors and switched to external sources of power to keep the main computer and other electronic functions online for the time being.

Cortana had devoted a great deal of her processing to the task, but a small part of her wandered Voyager's networks keeping an eye on things in-house. Especially the Master Chief.

He and Blue Team had melded back together like they'd never been apart. She'd felt massively relieved when they'd come through yesterday. Not only were they valuable assets, they were critical to getting the Chief back into his normal niche.

Despite the bond she and John had, it wasn't the only one the Chief had. Time had strengthened and hardened the bond between fellow Spartans, especially Blue Team, into something she'd rarely seen among humans. If it wasn't for the fact the Spartans were soldiers, she didn't doubt John would have pulled a similar stunt for them to what he'd done for her.

However, she also knew that the Chief felt differently towards her that he did Kelly, Linda, and Fred.

Was it love? Possibly, likely, but what kind she was unsure. She loved him, there was no doubt about that, but she'd always been emotional. Emotions were part of her nature as a Smart AI, especially one created from a living human brain.

The Chief was, for a lack of a better word, stunted when it came to emotions. He had them, dealt with them, but he'd never really explored them. He was always too busy with the mission, the next objective, or his fellow Spartans.

But, what about all that down time he'd had in quarantine? Doing nothing for several months was not something that Spartans did even if they were ordered to. They'd find something to occupy their minds if not their bodies. This is likely what had happened to the Chief. Had he dwelled on her often? It seemed so, he did risk his life to yet again save her holographic arse, but now that he'd found her, he'd been distant.

Granted it had been shock to find her perfectly whole, and then he'd had everything else dumped in his lap, she really couldn't blame him.

Pulling from her thoughts for a moment, she responded to Serina and detached the first section of armor plating from the Spirit's hull.

She needed to speak to him later, privately. They had a lot to work out, and not a lot of time to do it. She didn't know how he'd react to it, but she knew she needed to get him to open up.

---

Cameron's neural net processor was double-timing with all the things she needed to accomplish. It occurred to her that she'd never taxed it as hard as she was now. Being part of the design team meant that she was devoting a great deal of power to keep up with Kalmiya and Seven and Professor Anders. She wasn't the smartest cookie in the cookie jar, but she wasn't dumb, either.

Her primary task was to be a kind of balance for the three eggheads cooking up all the designs that would go into the Spirit of Fire. She made sure that each and every feature was feasible and within their means.

Kalmiya would normally be doing the same for Doctor Halsey, but she was letting her more creative side out now that the TX-3 had proven a success.

Cameron, who's creativity was limited in comparison to the other three, was exceptionally logical. More so than even Seven of Nine or Kalmiya. This meant that she could keep things organized and on task while the others dreamed up ideas and solutions.

In other words, she was kind of like the ultimate assistant/secretary.

It may seem demeaning work, but she was a Terminator; she was designed to destroy, not create.

"Routing plasma conduit E-24 along corridor 24-10 might be disrupted by the MAC Cannon when fired. We should route it down two more decks to be safe." She pointed out after Kalmiya modified the pathways of one of the plasma turrets they'd be installing.

"She's right." Anders confirmed after running the math through her head. Seven shook her head in agreement. Kalmiya looked a little abashed at the mistake, but it had only been her first revision, and she hadn't taken the increased power of the MAC into consideration. The increased magnetic field would interfere with the plasma containment, and cause a breach.

Such was Cameron's job, and it kept the project's progress running smoothly.

As the they began revising the design, Cameron let part of her mind drift away from the task at hand to focus on John. She hooked into Voyager's network and opened a port to the holodeck.

She felt a small tinge of pride at seeing him teach some of the best soldiers in existence how to fight machines. If John wasn't as in tune with Terminators and Skynet as he was, the Spartans might have done better learning on their own. That wasn't the case, and she grudgingly agreed that his two years in the post-apocalyptic future had helped in ways she might not have been able to in the more Utopian past.

Thinking about John led to a more personal line of thought, their relationship, and she wondered if she'd have time to spend with him after he and Blue had run through the simulation.

If she could find the time, Cameron knew John would be tired, so she'd have to plan accordingly...

---

Commander Miranda Keyes was again at the helm of the Delta Flyer, this time it was Doctor whom was teaching her how to fly it.

Originally, he hadn't known the difference between an impulse vent and a warp nacelle, but he'd learned over time to make himself more useful to the crew of Voyager.

They were cruising high above the Ark, but just below the Halo debris field.

She was running through various evasive maneuvers to teach her how to use the Delta Flyer's unique and powerful design.

Four hours in, and the Doctor was smiling at her progress. She could nearly feel his beaming pride from the pilot's seat.

Miranda had always been a natural pilot and a quick learner. It was part of the reason she'd had such a successful military career before the age of thirty.

"Excellent!" He praised as she performed another maneuver successfully. "Now lets see how you handle close quarters." He pointed upward towards the Halo debris.

A worried frown crossed her features. "Isn't it a little soon?" She was still getting the hang of everything, dodging asteroids was not what she was expecting for her second day of training.

He shook his head. "You've learned more in the last day than most cadets do in their first semester. Your experience and natural...abilities convince me that your ready for more."

She was already an experienced pilot, not the best mind you, but she could definitely fill the roll on any UNSC starship if she needed. She'd piloted many small spacecraft during her career, perhaps he was right.

"Alright, how deep do you want me to go?"

"All the way through." He instructed, and she almost flinched, but caught herself and nodded.

She pulled on the sticks and aimed the nose into the debris field and throttled back to a speed she was comfortable at.

The Doctor sat down and watched silently as she began making the Delta Flyer dance through chucks of metal and rock. There were a few close calls, but she caught them all without the autopilot's aid and safely brought them through to the other side.

By the end of it, a satisfied smirk was plastered on her face. She caressed one of the joysticks with her thumb; she was deeply enjoying the agile craft. Miranda hoped that she'd get to meet the designer one day and thank him for the experience.

If they all lived through this that was.

The Doctor didn't let her rest long before making her pilot back through the debris at high speeds, forcing her to further meld her actions and mind with that of the Flyer until she was flying it as comfortably as she would a Pelican.

When they finally set back down inside of Voyager's shuttle bay, the Doctor gave her a knowing look before transferring back to the ship's systems. "Tomorrow, tactical training." And then he was gone.

She genuinely laughed at his demeanor before leaving the craft herself. Feeling immensely relieved and in raised spirits, Miranda decided that maybe, just maybe, they had a fighting chance.

---

Few things in existence could make Kelly genuinely loose her cool, and she rarely added anything to the list, but those damned Hydrobots were starting to get on her nerves.

Whomever had set up this part of the program, and she suspected it was Connor, had send in hoards of them to block their progress in any direction. To make things worse, these things were undoubtedly reporting their position.

It made her wonder why they hadn't been pounded into dust by one of Skynet's larger weapons. When she voiced her question, it was Connor who answered.

"We're traveling under the streets, Skynet would have to blow through them to take us out directly. If it did that all the time, there wouldn't be any infrastructure left for it to use."

"Meaning Skynet would have to devote resources and time to repair them." Fred concluded as he took out another Hydrobot.

"Exactly," Connor commended before adding, "but everyone has their limits." He said before looking down a smaller side tunnel. "This leads under one of the skyscrapers, we should get above ground before Skynet sends in the heavy artillery."

Kelly looked to the Chief, whom simply nodded in agreement. It was then that she understood that he'd been teaching them about Skynet's habits. About what it would do at one point or another, not just to simply throw them through the Terminator version of the gauntlet.

Upon exiting the sewer in the sub-basement of the ruined building, Kelly quickly scouted the area, but found nothing.

Connor once again deferred back to the Chief letting him decide how they proceeded.

The Spartan marked points on his map showing where he wanted them set up in preparation for the coming attack. Kelly was tasked with scouting the block around the building while Fred watched Linda's back as she knelt on the top of the ruined building with her scope planted firmly in front of her face-plate. The Chief remained on street level with Connor; they set up traps and blockades for Terminators to slow them down while also constructing a well protected cover for themselves that would protect from both advancing machines and assault from HK's above.

They didn't have to wait long for Kelly to comm in.

"They're coming from the south." She said while studying the advancing troops. "They're not bi-pedes. They're on tracks with twin mini-guns."

Chief looked at Connor for explanation.

"T-1s and T-2s. Early models designed for mass killing, not infiltration."

The Master Chief saw the logic in having such early models attack first from a training perspective. He also understood that Connor had turned this into an survival game.

They were just going to keep coming until they were all 'dead'. Just as that thought cycled through his head, Connor flipped his safety off.

He was planning to fight alongside them.

"Linda, take them out." He said, and not a moment later, her phaser rifle rang out. He knew it wouldn't be long before air support came in and tried to eliminate her.

"I'd give them thirty seconds." Connor said as he knelt down behind the massive concrete slab.

The Chief nodded, though he'd estimated twenty-five. As soon as his mental countdown hit zero, he ordered Fred and Linda to get below.

While the HK's could, in theory, bombard the building until it collapsed, they did not possess enough fuel to do so. They would have to do it in multiple waves, something that would be a waste of precious fuel, and a missile would not guarantee their death.

Kelly sprinted back into the room and took her place in the rafters just before Linda and Fred came thundering down the stairs.

Both took high positions opposite of the front entrance to the building. The rest had been blocked off by debris.

They listened as the sounds of treads got closer, and then just as the first one came into view, they opened fire.

---

Catherine Weaver was a veteran of two human/machine wars. She'd fought her fair share of both humans and machines, and since her current adversaries were currently a bit of both, John Connor had seen fit to put her in charge of the machine forces in this simulation against Blue Team.

In essence, she was Skynet.

The Spartans didn't know she was in control of them, and that was the true test. How they'd react to a fully sentient, nearly indestructible shape-shifting metal demon.

She knew not to underestimate them, they had survived the Covenant and much worse. So when they took care of everything from the T-1s up to the T-800s without having to move from cover, she was not surprised.

However, once the heavily armored and more intelligent T-850's entered, the Spartans were forced to change tactics.

Kelly used her still-superior speed to out maneuver and confuse the machines while the others picked them off with carefully placed shots. Apparently Connor had warned them about the infamous T-800 series fuel cells.

Next came the more durable, faster, and smarter T-888s. These weren't as easily fooled as their predecessors, but they were still not as fast as Kelly, nor as accurate as Fred and Linda's well placed shots, but the machines were beginning to use their dead comrades as shields and cover against the Spartan's phaser onslaught.

Deciding to make things more interesting, Weaver dropped the last wave of T-888s on top of the building and allowed them to make their way down to the Spartan's strong hold.

She was only somewhat surprised to see Fred-104 cutting his way through them with duel Energy Swords while only taking minor hits.

Kelly's speed and Linda's rapid and perfect aim continued to devastate her troops while Connor and the Chief drew their attention.

It was impressive for the situation they were in, and Weaver had no doubt that they'd continue to eat through the ranks until their weapons became less effective and their strength and durability was matched.

Perhaps the T-900s would pose more of a challenge.

If not, well, then it was her turn.

---

Fred sank one of his blades into yet another T-888 while blocking another round from its buddies plasma rifle. His shields were low and he didn't want to let them fall. They'd already fallen several times and his armor marked the hits. Since this was just a simulation with the safeties on, it would merely simulate armor damage.

As he pulled out the blade and shoved the dying machine aside, another rushed forward: an unexpected move. It's metal fist slammed into Fred's shields, draining them and sent him stumbling backward. His armor took a few more hits before he regained his senses and blocked the incoming fire. He jumped backward and slammed through the weakened concrete into the next floor. The move bought him enough time for his shields to recharge and to rethink his tactics.

"Blue two to Blue one, they're getting bolder. Keep an eye out for rush attacks."

"Affirmative, Blue two." John answered in his ear as Fred hid, waiting for the machines to come for him. He noted that only thee of the remaining five had come for him, that meant the rest were going for the others.

"Blue four, two slipped by. Be on guard."

He received an acknowledgment light from Linda a fraction of a second later. Then Fred left his cover and rushed the closest one. Two rounds hit his shields before he disarmed the machine, literally, and cut its head in half. Using it as a shield, he put his left hand's sword away and pulled out his phaser rifle. He threw the disintegrating machine at one of it's buddies, knocking it down while Fred took care of the other. The pinned machine threw its dead companion off before trying to reacquire its target but said target terminated it before it could even raise its plasma rifle.

He didn't spare them another look, confident they were dead, and took off after the other two. He saw no sign of them until he reached the same level Linda was on. She was fighting them hand to hand, her rifle, and theirs, smoking ruins on the floor.

The machines had gone for the weapons first, a new tactic he noted. While Linda was a fantastic sniper, she wasn't nearly as good as he at close quarters combat, and this was the first time she was going up against Terminators like this.

She kept them at bay, but they were beginning to adapt by the time he arrived. One grabbed her wrist and clamped down like a vice on the softer part of the armor, eliciting a barely audible grunt from the red headed sniper.

The other was about to go for a punch to the skull, but she blocked it, barely. By the time she made it over to her, she'd thrown one off, but the other was about deliver another blow. It didn't get the chance as Fred ripped through it with his phaser rifle before cutting the other to pieces.

"Thanks." She said as he tossed her his rifle. He took out his swords and activated them.

"I'm going in." He said over the comm before leaping down to the floor below where the Chief and Connor were being kept quite busy. "Need a hand?" He asked calmly as he diced the machine closest to 117.

"Cover Connor, I want him upstairs watching Linda's six."

Fred nodded and went to assist the young soldier who was doing quite well for a normal human. "Get going, I got your back." He said before Connor sent him an affirmative signal through his HUD.

Connor slipped into the back after firing a few more shot and then went up stairs.

After a few more minutes, the last of the T-888s fell.

Kelly limped over to Fred. "Damn injury sim." She said aloud. One of the machines had landed a lucky shot while her shields were down, making the simulator force her armor to fake damage to its muscle layer. "Twice in a day, I must be getting old." She joked while she loaded in a fresh mag.

"Doubtful." Fred said as the Chief looked outside.

"Cut the chatter." He said before looking up at Connor. "What's next?"

"T-900s." He stated quietly, "I've only faced one, but they're faster, smarter, and more durable."

"The trend continues." Kelly remarked sarcastically. "Any weak spots?"

"They're fully encased in armor, no gaps. The chip is our best bet. Don't puncture the plasma reactor up close; you'll end up fired."

Linda, who was still up above, was eyeing the street through a broken window. "Incoming, 2 o'clock."

Everyone reload their power cells and got in position.

"Blue three," the Chief turned to the Rabbit, "Distract them."

"Aye, sir." She said and took off.

"Blue four," He addressed next, "breach a few of their reactors before they get here."

"Understood."

"Blue two, you're with me." He finished just as Linda's rifle rang out. It took two shots on level 13 to penetrate the durable armor protecting the plasma reactor, but soon Linda was lighting them up and causing chaos in their ranks.

The T-900s quickly scattered to avoid any more collateral damage from exploding comrades. Kelly used that to her advantage as she silently took out T-900s who were suddenly alone.

In less than a minute, nearly half of their number was decimated, but the remaining troops were already adapting.

Kelly tried taking on another loner, only for two to come from behind while taking out her target. Their plasma rifles made short work of her shields, and she barely had a chance to block their shots with the dead machine in her hands. She tossed a frag grenade and threw their buddy at them simultaneously, giving them multiple threats to contend with.

However, she underestimated their intelligence. One slapped the body aside while the other dived for the grenade and tossed it out of range. Kelly was forced to run for cover as they peppered her armor with plasma.

Alarms blared in her ears as her armor vented boiling hydrostatic gel.

Had this not been a simulation, Kelly's back would have received third degree burns from the heat transfer alone. It wouldn't be the first time it had happened to her.

"They're learning quickly." She relayed before rethinking her strategy. She wasn't about to let two tin-heads out think her.

It wasn't long before both were sparking piles of scrap, but by then, the main force had attacked their base.

Kelly seethed at the deception. She'd meant to distract them, but they'd turned the tables and done the same to her. She took one of the dead 900s and tossed it near the front entrance and opened fire on it's chest cavity.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" She yelled over the comm just a few seconds before it exploded.

While it didn't actually kill any of them, it served as revenge by knocking several off their feet and distracting the rest.

"Good work, Blue three. Keep them busy" The Chief commented before ordering her to keep pecking their rear.

Their numbers were slowly dwindling, but they were advancing too. Kelly now had her own small squad to deal with, and with her armor damaged, it made the task harder for her to accomplish in a timely manner.

Connor and Linda were taking them on from above, but it wasn't long before some of the T-900s began climbing the side of the building.

"Linda, Connor, they're coming up after you." Kelly warned from outside.

The sniper was about to switch her aim to the windows, but Connor touched her shoulder. "I got 'em." He said before unleashing a volley at the windows, blowing them out and destroying their frames.

The came up one by one, and Connor fried them as they did. It was easy considering they had the tactical advantage in weaponry, and Connor knew it would be different when they faced Skynet's upgraded troops in the future.

Down below, the Chief and Fred had their hands full with all the machines and other hazards that they and their dead, potentially explosive brethren posed. They had to keep their shot and slashes extremely tight and calculated. One mess up could end their 'lives' and the simulation.

The two had worked together so long, they didn't need to verbally communicate as they chose and destroyed their targets when the opportunity presented itself and providing cover for each other when required.

Despite their experience in the battlefield, the raw power of the T-900 was still something new to them all, and even though they were falling, they were making their mark on the Spartans.

Kelly's shield systems were on the brink of failing, Linda had taken a volley from one to the face scorching her helmet and face plate, and Fred had been punched and shot more times than he cared to admit, and his armor looked more silver and black than it did blue. The Chief fare the best of the Spartans with just a few plasma burns to his armor, his lucky nature once again shining through.

Strangely enough, it was Connor who'd taken the fewest shots. He had one graze on his right shoulder, but that was all.

As the battle raged on, the T-900s further adapted to the Spartan's tactics, forcing them to rethink them to keep the advantage. Fred, after taking a blow to the back, was forced to retreat from CQC and take up a defensive position across from the Chief using one of the many dropped plasma rifles. The air was too thick with plasma to run out now, the machines had finally perfected a blanketing pattern that kept openings to a minimum for the enhanced soldiers.

Linda was forced to keep back from the hole in the ceiling as the plasma fire intensified once Fred retreated. Connor had done so long ago and had taken up a position near the window trying to help Kelly with her predicament.

He managed to kill one of the few left for her to contend with before one broke off and laid down suppression fire, forcing him to retreat back into the room.

Kelly, thankful for the assist, took advantage of the distraction and shot the machine in the back of the head before sprinting as fast as she could away from them. She wanted to provide a distraction for the Chief and Fred, but the T-900s behind her were already pecking at her barely recharged shields. She needed cover to survive. She quickly climbed into the room where Connor and Linda were and got away from the opening.

That was when the Chief shouted a warning over the comm. "Their taking out the support pillars!"

Cracks in the concrete grew and the floor began to rumble. Linda grabbed Connor and jumped out of the building with Kelly hot on her heels. They were immediately met with Kelly's former assailants, but they were picked off by the trio before the could land many hits.

The room they were in collapsed into the floor the Chief and Fred were in, but the two Spartans had rushed the machines to get out the door before they were buried.

It had cost them though, Fred now sported a limp and the Chief's rifle had been destroyed by a plasma round. He calmly picked up a plasma rifle on the ground, checked it, tested it, and returned fire on the machines now making their way out of the building.

They quickly found new cover positions to protect themselves from the plasma onslaught, but it was clear they needed a better plan, one Connor wasn't going to give.

The Chief's brain ran overtime as he analyzed the situation. They needed something that would disable or destroy the machines in one blow without doing the same to them.

The answer was lying in Kelly's, Linda's, and Connor's hands. Their phaser rifles could be set to overload and explode, releasing a great deal of energy.

"Blue three," He commed openly, "Overload your weapon, use it as a grenade."

"Affirmative." Kelly replied and made the appropriate modifications rapidly.

As the weapon began overcharging, Connor spoke up. "We need to get out of here before that thing goes off. None of us will survive that explosion if were too close."

This the Master Chief knew and he already had an exit strategy in mind. "Into the sewers!" He ordered before blowing the manhole cover between the group. They quickly entered, Linda shielding Connor as they went.

Just as Kelly was about to enter, she threw the rifle and dropped in. Linda ran with Connor slung over her shoulder since he couldn't keep pace with them as they sprinted down the sewer line.

The explosion knocked them all down and nearly sent the ceiling down on them, but they survived the simulated explosion without registering any damage to themselves or their armor.

Connor was a little more singed now, but ODST armor was meant for this kind of life.

They made their way to the surface again, and Kelly scouted to see the results. There was now a thirty meter crater at ground zero, and there wasn't a functional Terminator in sight.

"Is that it?" Fred wondered aloud as they stopped at the edge of the smoking crater.

"No." Connor said as he looked around, "Now you face something far more powerful."

---

James Cutter watched silently as his ship was dismantled hull plate by hull plate, conduit by conduit at break neck speed. He'd used to marvel at how fast the UNSC could refit ships, but this put that feeling to rest.

After having watched for nearly half an hour, the door to his Ark-side quarters rang.

"Come in." He said as he turned from the window. The doors slide apart, revealing a tired, but high-spirited Dr. Ellen Anders.

"Captain, I have the latest design revisions you requested." She said and handed him a UNSC data pad.

He scrolled through the overview for a moment before saying anything. "Hmmm," he started as he rubbed his mustache in thought. "So we're keeping the MAC cannon? I thought we were replacing it with a plasma projector?"

"It'll be both, Captain. Cortana once used UNSC MAC coils to shape and direct plasma from a damaged Covenant cruiser's plasma turret." She explained excitedly.

Cutter raised an eyebrow at that. He'd hadn't heard that story yet. He'd have to ask about it later.

"What's it like working with Seven of Nine and Kalmiya?"

Her eyes lit up even more. "They're brilliant. It especially nice since my degree isn't in engineering."

She seemed to be enjoying herself, "Are they easy to work with?"

"We're a lot alike, Captain, especially Seven and I."

Cutter was glad for the good news. "I'm glad your getting along."

Anders put her hands on her hips. "You sound like my father, Captain." She didn't like being treated like a little girl. "I'm nearly thirty, not exactly a little girl."

Instead of being offended, Cutter merely smiled. "When you're a parent one day, you'll understand."

Anders raised a eyebrow as a smirk graced her Asian features, "If I ever have kids, Captain."

He could tell she was being serious and humorous at the same time. "The crew's settling in well." He redirected.

"I don't even know where my new quarters are." She said before pausing a moment, "What about you, Captain? I know the crew's excited about the upgrades, but what about you?"

"I don't know if excited is the right word." He drawled while sitting down in his chair. "Relieved's more accurate."

She sensed more to his words, "You don't mind the delay?"

He exhaled through his nose and looked out the window once more. "No, I just...I need to know if my family survived."

Anders watched as the captain's facade fell for the briefest of moments, she could see the underlying turmoil brought on by not knowing his families fate. Cortana never accessed the survivor manifests after returning with the Chief from Alpha Halo, she'd been dealing with her own problems at the time. Kalmiya had left too soon and had been confined to CASTLE Base anyway.

Waiting a month to gain access to those records was trying his patience, and his heart.

Her mouth set in a grime line as thoughts of her own family came to mind. "Captain, James," it was the first time she'd called him by his name, "I know what you're feeling...my father...we're from Arcadia. I know he wasn't on planet when we were there, but the Covenant came back. They destroyed everything..."

He pinched the bridge of his nose at his own thoughtlessness, "I didn't know."

"I never mentioned it before, Captain." She responded with a small, sad smile. "Like I said before, we'll get through this."

He again looked out the window at Voyager and then the Spirit of Fire. With such powerful weapons and allies, such a thing looked possible now. "We just might, Ellen."

She smiled and then left without saying another word.

Suddenly feeling better, Captain James Cutter poured a few fingers of Scotch and sipped them slowly as he began wondering what his daughter and wife could have been up to all these years after his disappearance.

He fell asleep ten minutes later with a slender smile on his face.

---

As Connor's words filtered through her helmet's speakers, Kelly's brain went into overdrive trying to figure out what threat he was throwing at them next.

The possibilities were numerous. A Harvester, like the one Alice-130 had faced? Or was it Cameron, the super-Terminator?

What was the one thing that might challenge Blue Team the most?

She was about to ask the Chief what his thoughts were, but he spoke before she could. "Catherine Weaver." He stated plainly, as if it were obvious.

Connor smirked underneath the ODST helmet and began moving off to the side. "Good luck." His tone slightly humorous a he moved off to the side and sat down against a concrete slab on the edge of the crater.

Kelly's cocked her head at his actions. "Sitting this one out?" Her voice held a modicum of sarcasm.

He depolarized his visor and gave her a sidelong glare. "My injured mom, a half scrapped T-800, and my 13 year-old self beat her predecessor. I don't think you need my help." He didn't tell her that killing the T-1000 had required a vat of molten steel, something they'd been fortunate to be in proximity too.

Felling only slightly abashed, Kelly turned to the Chief, silently awaiting his command.

"Linda, Fred, I want you both to stay up high and watch our backs." He said over the comm, so no one outside of his team could hear him, "Kelly, you're with me."

Three 'yes sir's rang through the Chief's helmet as the acted on his words. Fred and Linda took the two remaining phaser rifles while the Chief stuck with the plasma rifle he'd picked up. Fred handed one of his swords to Kelly, knowing she was a better swordsman than the Chief was.

Connor just sat on the sidelines watching intensely. He was very curious to see how Weaver was going to approach an enemy as successful and lucky as this one was.

After twenty minutes of nothing, he began to think she was trying to drive them nuts with boredom, but then he remembered that Blue Team had far longer waits in their career, it was he who was getting anxious.

Then, finally, something happened.

---

The T-1001 known as Catherine Weaver was not surprised when the last of the T-900s fell. She was proud that she'd been able to at least challenge the Spartans, though.

Now it was her turn to face them, or rather, the holographic avatar she was controlling. She was not overly confident, but she wasn't pessimistic either. She was facing the best soldiers made by man to date, and they had nearly four decades of experience under their belts.

But she was far harder to kill than they.

She slithered through the streets at nearly fifty miles-per-hour while sticking to the shadows and avoiding unstable debris.

Finally, she caught up to them. Blending into the rubble of the building the Spartans had defended moments earlier, she observed their defenses. She could see the Master Chief and Kelly in the middle of the street beyond the crater. John Connor was sitting off to the side, obviously not participating in the final act. That left Fred and Linda unaccounted for.

She did a little exploring in the surrounding area while being very careful not to tip anyone off to her presence. It took her twenty minutes to find the both of them, both cleverly placed in ruined buildings looking down on the Chief's position. Once she knew their positions, all she had to do was plan her attack before they caught on to her snooping.

Weaver was in the fortunate position of knowing her enemy's strengths and weaknesses, while they knew very little about her.

Linda was Weaver's biggest threat. Her superior sniper skills would make avoiding pinpoint accurate phaser hits nearly impossible should she be caught out in the open.

That was who she had to 'eliminate' first, and it wasn't going to be easy. She'd have exactly one chance to stun the Spartan, if it failed, she could expect a volley of high powered phaser rounds in her direction, ending the simulation.

Weaver may be a machine at heart, but she still had her own sense of pride and an aura of lethality she'd grown accustomed to.

She slowly, painstakingly sneaked up behind the Spartan's position with a large chunk of concrete floating on her semi-solid body. She'd been so quiet that even Linda's enhanced hearing hadn't picked her up.

Then, she launched the concrete at the Spartan's head. Linda heard Weaver's sudden move and spun around on her back to face her with phaser fire, but she played into Weaver's hands. Being prone had limited her mobility, and the Spartan didn't have enough time from when she registered the chunk to when it impacted upon her shields, to move.

The sheer force behind the throw drained her shields to zero and snapped her head back into the concrete floor.

Not badly stunned, she tried to acquire her attacker's position, but Weaver was already on her. Two strong tentacles of liquid metal wrapped around her weapon while a third wrapped around her windpipe. Her shield's down, only MJOLNIR's muscle layer and hydrostatic gel were protecting her neck from being turned into a pulp.

Linda had a tough decision to make: let go of the weapon to remove the tentacle around her throat, or be chocked into submission. She'd already signaled her team, but they wouldn't get here in time.

She made her choice and let go of the phaser rifle. Linda used her immense strength to claw through the liquid metal at her throat to break it's tightening grip. Weaver backed off momentarily, weapon in hand, before swatting a recovering Linda aside deeper into the building.

The Spartan slammed into a support column and managed to recover quickly, but Weaver had already enacted her next attack. She fired high level shots at the support columns and the ceilings in a rapid burst. The gaping holes left in the support structure meant the already weak structure collapsed instantly.

Linda had no time to run, no time to escape, and her shields were still recharging. She was buried in the rubble.

She might have been killed had the safeties not been on.

Weaver slithered out of the rubble unnoticed thanks to the dust cloud caused by the collapse. She lost the phaser rifle in the collapse, but eliminating one Spartan was a good start to this final round.

---

Kelly had made it just inside the lobby when the building began to shudder.

"Retreat!" The Chief yelled over the comm. Knowing what he meant, she dashed back outside just as the structure came down.

Smaller debris rained down around her as she ran to get clear of the falling building. By the time Kelly reached the Chief, she was covered in a layer of dust.

"Blue four, status." He called as he and Kelly swept the area with their weapons drawn and ready.

Instead of answering, Linda walked out of the rubble, literally walking through the holographic concrete remains. She pulled off her helmet and shook her blood-red hair loose. "Sorry, sir, but I'm out." She said with a subtle hint of self-disappointment before taking a seat next to Connor.

The Master Chief nodded slowly. He understood that being thrown into observer mode meant that Linda would have been critically injured or killed had the safeties not kicked in.

"Blue two, rendezvous with us, get out of that building." He wasn't about to lose another to the same trick.

"Already on it." He responded as he jumped out of the third story and slide down a large piece of concrete before landing on the ground not far from the the Chief and Kelly.

As Blue Team rethought their tactics, Connor glanced over at Linda. The Spartan's face was as still as stone, her pale complexion making her deep emerald eyes and blood red hair that much more striking. He could see her watching her teammates and the surrounding area almost simultaneously. Her eyes were moving that fast, darting between different parts of the simulated terrain.

It made him feel slow. If she had half his experience with the machines, they wouldn't have made the mistake of trying to draw Weaver in like they did. They might have even been able to 'kill' her.

Eventually, she noticed his attention. She turned her head and spoke softly. "How did you beat it?"

Connor knew Spartan's hearing was beyond exceptional, which was why he was reluctant to say with the rest of Blue Team so close.

"I'll tell you when this is over." He responded before turning his attention back to Blue Team.

Understanding the reason for his silence, Linda joined him in focusing back on her Spartan teammates.

It wasn't long before the action began.

Kelly scouted constantly and never stayed in one place for longer than second. Fred had his remaining Energy Sword drawn with his back to the Master Chief's.

As the Rabbit ran behind a nearby building and out of the line of sight, Weaver struck.

She was disguised as the rubble strew ground, and all she had to do to trip up the speedy Spartan was turn into her liquid form.

The only thing that saved Kelly from ditching it was her incredible reflexes and reaction time. She slid until he boots skidded the actual ground, that threw her off balance, but she used her falling, forward momentum to do a front flip and land on her feet facing Weaver.

"CONTACT!" She yelled over the comm as she activated her Energy sword.

By the time she'd finished her call, Weaver was rising up into a humanoid form. Sensing an opportunity, Kelly ran forward with her sword poised to strike. She brought the weapon down in an effort to cut the shape-shifter in two, but Weaver, amazingly, dodged the move. Kelly immediately turned around and tried again, only to bludgeoned in the head with one of Weaver's arms. She flew sideways as her shield alarm blared from the blow, but she wasn't stunned thanks to her shields absorbing the majority of the impact.

Kelly bounced off the wall of an adjacent building with a grunt before spinning back around in a defensive position, but Weaver was on her again.

The T-1001 slashed down with her sword-arms frighteningly fast, barely giving the Spartan enough time to block with the Energy sword, cutting Weaver's sword in two.

Because Weaver was controlling this holographic body remotely, she wasn't damaged, but the feedback made the pain real. She screeched from the sensation, giving Kelly more confidence in her course of action, but there was something she didn't know about T-1001s: the ability to control separate parts of themselves.

The part that had become severed lay on the ground as Kelly pressed her attack for a few more seconds, ones that Weaver successfully dodged and countered with minor blows of her own, but none affected the hardened Spartan's armor and only served to whittle down Kelly's recharging shields.

This duel lasted for four seconds before Weaver made her move. The severed part was still behind Kelly, and after the shock of separation had passed, Weaver regained control of it.

The LMT knew that Fred and the Master Chief would be here in less than five seconds, if she didn't get out of this duel soon, she might loose the battle.

The severed section liquefied and turned into a small snake behind Kelly, then Weaver called it to attack the Spartan from behind.

Just as the sliver was about to engage the Spartan, Weaver managed to bring Kelly's shields down. Just as the shields popped, the small snake attacked. It jumped up onto her back and quickly wrapped itself around Kelly's neck like a Boa Constrictor. To overcome the protective titanium weave and hydrostatic gel protecting her neck, the silver snake contracted with enough force to crush brick, which was just enough to close Kelly's windpipe through the armor.

Kelly instantly reacted to the threat while maintaining her guard. She reached up with one hand and dug her armored fingertips into the softer liquid metal. Unfortunately, Weaver could deal with a slightly distracted Kelly and ducked under a slightly miscalculated swing before launching her full body mass at the Rabbit. Under such weight, Kelly lost her balance and fell backwards still clutching the sword. Weaver pinned the arm holding the plasma based weapon before using her body to undo the locks holding her MJOLNIR armor in place.

The result was a catastrophic loss of power to the muscle layer that enhanced Kelly's strength, not to mention her shields.

As fast as all this had happened, the Fred and the Master Chief had closed the distance.

"Heavy stun!" The Chief told Fred, whom rapidly switched his weapon to a lower setting and opened fire. Weaver, feeling the disruption to her holographic avatar, stole Kelly's Energy Sword and retreated before any permanent damage was done.

Kelly coughed as her airway was opened once more. "Damn, she's fast."

Hearing that from the fastest human alive impacted her two remaining teammates. They quickly helped her up and re-secured her armor.

Knowing they were still in an enclosed space, the Chief motioned for them to get moving back into the open. Unfortunately, Weaver saw the opportunity, and reengaged.

She launched out of the shadows while simultaneously activating the Energy Sword. Her target wasn't Kelly or the Chief, but Fred. The expert Close Quarters Combat specialist and the only other one with a plasma sword and a phaser rifle.

Fred, blocked the strike with his own sword and tossed his phaser rifle to Kelly. Weaver was relentlessly in her strikes against Fred, but he kept pace and allowed his self to be pushed back while the Chief and Kelly backed away from the shape-shifting menace.

Sensing the growing distance between herself and the other two Spartans, Weaver knew they were going to fire. She dodged Kelly's lethal level 13 shot, but was impacted by the Chief's first plasma round.

The T-1001 was designed to absorb a great deal of heat before beginning to malfunction, it was their primary defense against plasma weapons. The prototype T-1000 had been unfortunate to fall into a vat of molten steel, which contained far more energy than a single plasma round, and it still had taken several seconds to fully disable and then destroy him.

Weaver was not only more durable, she was faster and smarter.

She waited, in microseconds, for Kelly's phaser rifle to cycle before she acted. She locked the tines of their Energy Swords forced them upwards, leaving Fred exposed to her attack for a brief moment. She headbutted him with the force of a small wrecking ball, stunning him slightly, and then swung him around into the path of Kelly's fire.

It was the fastest move she'd ever pulled off, and when Fred was fatally struck in the back, knocking him into observer mode, she felt a sense of pride at the accomplishment.

Using Fred's 'death' as an opportunity, she launched past the Spartan, grabbing his fallen sword, and charging Kelly at break neck pace. She blocked shots from the Chief and Kelly with the swords before she was on top of the female Spartan.

Kelly dodged the double strike and shot Weaver with a high level shot, vaporizing part of her and scatting most of her.

Thinking the battle nearly over, Kelly got off of her knees and prepared to destroy the rest, but Weaver recovered faster than she anticipated. In the span of a half a second, Kelly watched as a liquid metal hand recovered, sword in hand, and then launched itself at her like a spike. She tried to dodge, but the arm was extending so fast she didn't have the time to move before it 'impaled' her.

Instead of killing her, it knocked her into observer mode.

The holographic sword hovered buzzing as her physical body interfered with its projection field.

As small smile of victory formed on Weaver's otherwise featureless silver face, Kelly sighed in defeat.

The Master Chief paused his fire for a moment, realizing his chances of defeating her had just dropped to almost zero. It wouldn't be the first time he'd faced such odds, and he planned on winning anyway he could.

He turned his weapon to the unstable structure adjacent to them and fired, temporarily burying Weaver, and then ran as fast as he could away from her.

To have any chance, he needed to fight her on his own grounds, in open territory. He could not wrestle her, punch her, crush her, or melt her into submission with anything he had at his command, not before she killed him anyway.

His motion sensors picked up a signal behind him, closing fast. He didn't need to turn around to know who it was. He ran up a large chunk of concrete, spun around with the plasma rifle, and fired in her direction full automatic. He landed several hits, slowing her down momentarily.

The Master Chief crossed the crater as she began the chase once more, allowing him to gain the high ground. At the top, he spun again, aimed, and fired. Even Weaver could not avoid all of them, and she was hit several more times but not stopping. She grabbed chucks of concrete for use as cannon fodder as more of the Chief's round crossed her path.

Finally, she closed the distance and launched herself at him.

During that moment, the Chief knew he'd lost any chance of defeating her in a traditional way, but he was still determined to win.

Quickly, and covertly, he removed his hand from the trigger and slide it back until it made contact with the iridium magazine. He squeezed it until he heard the barely audible crack of it's containment shell breaching.

As Weaver's snake form launched itself at him, he raised the rifle and threw it at her like a throwing knife. It impacted her mid-air, dampening her momentum and making her fall ten feet short of the green armored Spartan.

The Chief, having studied the simple, yet devastatingly powerful plasma rifle, knew he had less than three seconds before the cell lost containment. He turned and ran as hard as his booted feet would take him before he was swept off his feet by a deafening explosion.

He watched as his body was carried towards a concrete wall at tremendous speed while the blast blew his shields and made his back feel like it was on fire.

As he was bracing himself for the impact, the simulation froze.

He found himself suspended in mid air in the middle of the paused explosion for a second before the entire simulation ended.

Since they'd been separated by mere illusion and not actual distance, John-117 found himself in rather close proximity to the others as he floated to the floor safely.

The real Catherine Weaver disengaged from the interface elsewhere inside the ship as Spartan Blue and John Connor regrouped.

Connor eyed the Spartans as they each took off their helmets, save the Chief.

Kelly, still looking disturbed after her encounter with Weaver, was the first to speak. "Is this what you faced?" She said in disbelief as she turned towards Connor, who grunted at her words.

"No, not like that, but considering that most people were malnourished, under-equipped soldiers without your protection, it might as well been. That's why we lost so badly early in the war. We had to adapt, just as you will." He explained before turning to the Master Chief. "Good thinking with that power cell."

The Chief merely dipped his head in a slight nod.

Fred looked like he wanted a rematch, even Connor picked up the slight twitches in his hands.

Linda looked contemplative while Kelly continued to look on the edge of being shell shocked by the experience.

Just as the silence was settling in, Weaver walked through the doors. The Spartans immediately tensed, earning a raised eyebrow from the T-1001.

"John," She was speaking to Connor, "I believe we've made our point." Her eyes met Kelly's.

"I think so too." He responded before cracking a smile, "Not many people can take down a four man Spartan Team, glad you haven't gotten soft in the last few months."

Weaver feinted being offended. "I don't go 'soft'."

Connor shook his head and looked to Fred, whom was looking at Weaver with a great deal of respect. "You'll get a rematch." He told him, snapping Fred's attention to him, "but for now, it would probably be better if you spent some time familiarizing yourself with the ship. It might be our battle ground one day." He told them, slightly unnecessarily, mind you, but he want them to know they were on the same page.

The Chief took the cue and ran with it, "Blue Team, hit the showers. We'll meet in mess at 1200 hours."

The chorus of 'yes sirs' was in near unison before Blue Team left the room.

Connor exchanged a few more words with Weaver before leaving himself, leaving just Weaver and the Chief in the room.

"You did well." She said with a small amount of respect laced in her Scottish brogue. "Better than any one else I've ever faced."

The Chief didn't answer immediately, only when they'd left the holodeck, did he say something. "We've never faced anything like you."

"Nor I, you." She responded with the same level of respect as earlier. "You are everything our fiction portrayed and more. Now we have a fighting chance."

Looking at her, he thought of the way the battle had gone. "If there's one thing I've learned, a fighting chance is all we need."

---

As Blue Team made their way to S-deck, they began discussing their experiences over their team-comm.

"We haven't been beaten that badly since boot." Fred groused as he rolled his shoulder. While Reach had arguably been worse, that had been an entire fleet, led by the feared Thel Vadamee', who later became the Arbiter. However, they'd never been so badly beaten by a single entity.

Linda responded quickly, "We're used to fighting solid targets; we're going to have to rethink our tactics."

The CQC specialist only 'hmmed' his approval as they entered the turbolift.

Kelly stayed uncharacteristically silent.

They separated after exiting the lift and went their own way to their quarters. After entering her room, she pulled off her helmet and set it on the mannequin designed to hold her armor. She stepped into the machine and let it pull the parts off of her. Soon she was left with just the body suit.

She untied her hair and let if fall to her shoulders; she could almost hear Chief Petty Officer Mendez lecturing her on its length, but she'd always had a rebellious side.

The tedious part was stripping off the bodysuit; it hooked into her body in more ways than ten. Normally it took a team to put it on quickly, but after all these years, she knew the process well.

After a few minutes, the suit was off and folded on the table. It would need to go through a sterilization cycle before she put it on again.

She stood there for a minute examining her body, the brand new body the nanites had forged for her. Where old scars and burn marks had marred her body, only unmarred flesh remained.

Kelly had never considered herself beautiful nor ugly, but even she had to admit that her flawless body had a strange sense of beauty to it. Even though it had erased her 'history', the tale of her life as a recruit, survivor, and soldier, it had made her better.

Her reaction time had decreased again and some of the minor aches she'd acquired over the years were gone. Her vision, hearing, and other senses were once again as sharp as they had been when she was 14 and a brand new Spartan.

Perhaps even sharper.

Even at her best, Kelly had not been fast enough, strong enough, or smart enough to defeat Skynet's finest.

It made her feel like inexperienced trainee she was all those years ago.

These feelings and thoughts continued to cycle through her mind as she stepped into the sonic shower. The soothing vibrations lifted any contaminants off her skin and hair, leaving her feeling refreshed.

During that time, she realized that beating Weaver shouldn't be her goal. Adapting naturally to an unknown mechanical threat should be. Connor and others from that universe understood this well.

After exiting the shower, she opted not to put her armor back on for the moment. It was unusual for her not to wear the armor, it was basically a second skin to S-IIs, but for the moment she just wanted to relax and let herself think.

She pulled on her off duty uniform and some shoes before leaving her quarters with the intent of meeting up the rest in the mess hall. When she entered the turbo-lift, she found Cameron inside.

The cyborg tilted her head upon seeing the armor-less Spartan. They hadn't met yet, but they knew who the other was.

Neither said a word as Kelly swiftly stepped into the elevator and called out for deck 2.

In the short time it took to reach deck three from deck four, Cameron's destination, Kelly found herself wondering what kind of abilities the cyborg had. She knew she was a Terminator who'd grown beyond her original programming to become the autonomous protector of John Connor.

She also knew she was one of the founding members of this team. She and John Henry had been the ones who'd put Cortana back together.

"Cameron." She started, earning the cyborg's level gaze.

"Yes?" Her soft voice would have seemed innocent had Kelly not know who and what she was.

"What are the chances this Skynet will make a T-1000 series?"

She cocked her head again as the thought ran through her processor before pursing her lips slightly. "I am not sure, though it may employ a few, I doubt it would make many of them. They are more vulnerable to energy weapon attacks and are hard to upgrade, much less control."

"So they're more trouble than their worth?"

Cameron nodded as the turbo-lift door opened. "Perhaps we can use that to our advantage," she said before turning down the hall and leaving Kelly to her thoughts. Machines had never been a complicated issue for a Spartan. They either used machines, protected them or destroyed them, but they never had to understand them like they did the Covenant or Insurrectionists, as living, thinking enemies.

Neither of them had used AI like the UNSC had and only the occasional Monitor and the Prometheans gave them much trouble, but they were not a pure AI entity, they were derived from human or other organic minds and did not have the level of autonomy Skynet did.

Terminators, despite being birthed by vastly inferior technology, were turning out to be far more troublesome than she'd first thought.

---

After her brief conversation with Kelly, Cameron finally made it to her destination: John's quarters.

She'd talked to Weaver before coming here and she knew that the Spartan's had gotten their heads handed to them by the shape-shifting Terminator. She also knew that John had fought along side them until Weaver had entered the scene.

She had no doubt that John was tired after keeping up with the super-soldiers.

Not bothering to chime the door, she walked right in to find John bare-chested with a towel around his waist. He'd just taken a shower and was sitting at the table reading over reports from various people. He was stitting rather stiffly, and she could see a few bruises developing on his body. Nothing major, of course, and she wouldn't get worried over them.

However, the way he was sitting was. He hadn't been used that kind of exertion for months, and his body was telling him he'd gone a little soft.

The cyborg quickly thought of a solution before John even had a chance to acknowledge her.

"Hey, Cam..." He tried to turn his head, but Cameron's hands were already on his shoulders.

"Shhhh... relax, John." And with that she slowly began to massage his shoulders. He let out a strained moan at her ministrations, her pseudo-flesh covered tritanium digits made short work of the knots in his muscles.

He sighed in relief when she stopped a minute later.

She gently led him to the bed and made him lay down on his stomach before removing his towel, allowing her to work over every strained muscle and overworked joint.

John would hiss when she dug into a particularly soft spot, but he never protested or told her it was too much. John knew he didn't have to be tough around her. She knew him better than that.

As she continued to massage his back muscles, the closeness to him triggered a new line in her multi-tasking processor.

Especially since he was without clothing.

Despite looking and sounding like a human female, Cameron was far from it. Her brain did not process information the same way, she didn't have the natural hormones or even a biologically based body.

She was AI, built out of highly advanced, self-learning code planted into an equally advanced learning-capable neural net processor. Her body, her third body, was a hyper-alloy combat chassis with built in shields, long range-sensors, and on-board weapons. She also had three new co-processors to off-load nearly all of the tedious processing that came with enhanced abilities, especially the sensors.

All in all, she was very different from the person she'd vowed to protect, whom she'd grown to love in her own special way.

Despite things looking up for them, a relationship between them had been slow going, not that she minded. Now that she and John were being more honest and open with each other, it gave them a chance to really get to know one another before diving into a deeper relationship.

Some people required years before they were ready to marry, some not. Sometimes, often times, people get married not realizing that they don't really know their partner, often leading to divorce.

Cameron and John had already gone through the tumultuous stage of their relationship after she'd gone bad. It was only time and each other's actions that slowly mended that wound before she'd left with John Henry.

Now, despite Skynet's growing threat, Cameron and John got along great. Their relationship smooth, but tenuous. It was new, and the bounds and dynamics that came with her being a cyborg left John, and she, being cautious.

Yes, they'd kissed, they'd gone on dates, and they'd even had sex, but Cameron knew well enough to know that these were only part of a devoted relationship, aka marriage, ceremony and license be damned.

For this relationship to work, they'd have to change to better fit their other, but not so much that they stop being who they are. They had to know each other on such a level that the other's actions would never be mysterious even if they were surprising.

So far, they'd gotten most of it down, but she and John still didn't know each other well enough to be 'as one flesh' as a pastor would put it.

Eventually, John fell asleep despite her continued ministrations; he'd been that tired. After she was satisfied that his muscles were well on their road to recovery, she slipped off her shoes and jeans and laid down under the covers with him.

She watched him silently while continuing to do other tasks, but part of her just observed him, thought about him, wondered about him as he slept.

Cameron worried about him too, she'd seen today that Spartans, far better soldiers than John could ever be, had been utterly devastated by Catherine Weaver. While she didn't doubt John's innate and uncanny ability to understand how the machines worked and how to fight them, she was worried that Skynet would create something so advanced that even he would not escape its grasp.

If that happened, if he died, Cameron was not sure she'd be able to process another cycle before crashing. He was the entire reason she was alive, from creation, to reprogramming, to the explosion: he was the center of her universe, the core of her being.

She couldn't imagine life without him, or the hope of seeing him again.

It was inevitable, she knew, death waited for no one. Humans caught up in a war especially, but if he died of old age, perhaps she'd be able to move on knowing she'd done everything right, that they'd spent as much time with him as possible. It was a fleeting thought process she quickly killed. She didn't want to think about it right now.

Despite the speed at which she thought, she didn't perceive reality much differently than humans, otherwise beating Terminators would be far harder than it already was, and she found herself watching him and thinking about him far longer than she'd planned, but it was worth it.

Cortana had understood, and so Cameron remained with him until the morning.

---

A/N: Yes, I know, it's been six months. My new job I got in December, in tandem with college and other distractions, have kept me from writing as quickly as I used to. Writer's block also plagued me for awhile, I was unsure how I wanted to end this chapter.

I am rather pleased with how it turned out.