It was a rainy day at a distant battlefield. Plasma bolts and bullets screamed across the battlefield. Explosions flared upon the landscape. Low-flying helicopters and APCs traveled along the outskirts of the battle. Near a ruined building, two dark figures in ghillie suits crawled around. When they reached a pile of rubble that served as the building's entrance, they stood to join their fellow Resistance members.
They both removed their hoods, one, a female went in a separate direction with the other soldiers. Her partner, Shawn O'Neil, followed another group of soldiers down a hall. There, they came to another room with some radio equipment and John Connor.
John was sitting in front of him. "Shawn, glad to have you back," he said. "Report."
Shawn stood at attention and saluted.
This made John chuckle but feel uncomfortable. "Calm down," he said. "Just chill, have a seat, and gimme your report."
Shawn visibly relaxed his body before sitting on the nearest rock. "Battle's in the bag. The pincer attack seems to be working. Right now it looks like we're dealing with a few automated defenses and light reinforcements from the base. We've taken out any aerial and tank HKs."
John stood and walked over to a map of the battle hanging on a wall and ran a hand across it. He thought studying it would make him look good, or at least belong. Since coming to this reality, he's had to adjust from a life of peace to living in a wartorn hellscape. It was all to be with Kate, besides Quin, no one knew he was from an alternate reality. Likewise, he was the only one who knew Quin was a Terminator. "Supplies are on the way," he said. "Standard convoy. Supply line is secured, arming and feeding us every day now."
"Sir," Shawn said. "Quin and I switched places only a few months ago, so maybe I'm just not used to the way you do things. The supply line is important, but I never knew you to be heavy on the logistical side of things. We have people for that. Quin would sometimes mention that you are a brilliant tactician."
John sat next to Shawn and gave him a curious look. "I usually just let my generals handle the fight."
Shawn, overwhelmed by John's presence, looked down at the ground and said. "But, then you might have two to four people with different ideas that clash."
John playfully smacked/grabbed Shawn's shoulder. "I just go with the best idea," he said. "Speaking of. What's your idea? What should be our next move?"
Shawn looked up at John in surprise. "Me," he asked, almost in wonderment. "Sir, I don't know if I should say anything. I mean, I already suggested this pincer attack…"
John rocked Shawn's shoulder back and forth. "C'mon," he interrupted. "You just said the battle was in the bag. You gotta have some idea of how to seal the deal. What would you do?"
Shawn gave it some thought for a moment. "I hear you liked to use your snipers," he began. "Tell them to press on hard and give them artillery support. Ten minutes later we'll blitz the facility on all sides with soldiers, APCs, and our helicopters. Hopefully, all of that sudden movement will be too confusing for the machines. Actually, the snipers and artillery will probably take out any remaining defenses at that point."
John pat Shawn's shoulder as he got up and moved to get on the radio. "This is Cupcake," he started. "Repeat, this is Cupcake. Snipers, move in with everything you have. I want artillery to support them. Hit the defenses hard for ten minutes then, everyone else, swarm in. APCs, helicopters, soldiers, all of you, hit the base on all sides. It's time to close up shop."
Shawn stood. "Find me after the attack, Sir," he said. "Also, I've been meaning to ask for a while now, so I hope you don't mind. Why the name change? Your callsign I mean."
John shrugged. "Quin suggested it," he answered. "Said it would confuse the enemy, why?"
The truth was that Quin told John 'cupcake' was always his callsign and to continue using it for consistency purposes.
Shawn raised his eyebrows. "Oh, it's confusing alright," he said. "But don't you think your previous callsign was a little less…questionable?"
John was careful with his next words, afraid he'd give himself away. He would now have to lie. "I'm remembering something else," he said, rubbing his head. "I did hit my head on that last mission with Quin. I probably forgot and he's pulling some sort of joke on me."
Shawn chuckled. "That makes sense I guess," he said. "Your callsign was 'Football'.
John blushed. "Football?" he asked.
Shawn nodded. "That's why I'm 'Coach'," he responded. "We use a lot of football terms as our callsigns when secrecy is of utmost importance."
John closed his eyes as he grit his teeth. 'Quin!' he thought.
Shawn chuckled again. "No biggie," he said. "We'll just change it back," He pat John's arm and turned. "C'mon, let's get us a base."
Time passed. Snipers took down the few remaining Terminators and marked the defenses with IR lasers for the artillery.
John boarded a helicopter to move in. As predicted, the remaining defenses had already been taken out.
The building, a newer construction, sat in the middle of a field surrounded by ruins. It was large but entirely one level. Being in the middle of a field made it easy to approach from all sides with APCs and helicopters.
After the helicopter landed a short distance from the building., John stepped out and ran with an escort to find a way inside
Shawn was huddled with a group of soldiers by the entrance. They were under fire by plasmablasts coming from inside. "I'll admit," he said to John. "This was a tough nut to crack, but you'd think Skynet would've been better defended on the outside."
"You won't hear me complain," John said. "What's wrong? Let's end this."
"We can't enter," Shawn answered. "It's weird. A Terminator is guarding the entrance."
John was visibly confused. "What's so weird about that?" he asked.
"It's not very characteristic of them," Shawn replied. "They're typically bold and fearless. This one's playing it safe it seems, hiding behind cover. Not very Terminator-like."
One of the soldiers suddenly tried running in but was struck down the instant he moved.
Dismayed at the sight of the dead soldier, Shawn told himself there had to be some way in.
Another soldier tried to run in, only to be struck down as well.
Shawn closed his eyes as he rapidly began to think.
"We can't get through!" A soldier cried.
Shawn's eyes shot open as he came up with the only solution to break the current stalemate, and said. "Everyone, hold your position." Then running off like a mad scientist who'd made a grand discovery, he jumped into the passenger seat of an APC. "Take me to the nearest cache of supplies, hurry!" he urgently said to the driver.
The APC burned rubber as it took off at high speed. Within two minutes it managed to reach its destination.
Shawn jumped out and ran to the cache\s quartermaster. "I need tape and a chaff canister,"
he said, digging through the supplies already there. "I have to hurry, Connor's waiting for me."
Upon hearing John Connor's name, the quartermaster hurried to a shelf to start searching. He quickly found an item Shawn needed. "Here's the chaff canister!" he exclaimed, running back to hand it over.
Shawn found the tape and grabbed the chaff canister before hastily returning to the APC. "Take me back, hurry!" he cried.
As the APC sped down the road, Shawn took a grenade he had and wrapped the tape around to hold it with the chaff canister. Normally used in helicopters, the canister wasn't big at all. In fact, it wasn't much bigger than the grenade it was now attached to.
Shawn essentially made a chaff grenade. As soon as the APC stopped, he quickly got out and ran back to rejoin the soldiers still in a stalemate with the Terminator.
"Where'd you go?" John asked.
Shawn took a deep breath. "I hope to God this works," he said, pulling up his neck scarf to cover his nose and mouth. "Everyone, wait here five seconds. Then follow me in if I'm still alive. Don't forget to cover your nose and mouth."
John and the rest began to cover themselves with some sort of face mask as Shawn said a quick prayer before arming the grenade and tossing it toward the Terminator.
One second after it exploded, Shawn ran in, and to everyone's surprise, the only plasma fire that could even be heard came from him as he took down the defending Terminators.
John and the rest waited as told before rushing in after Shawn. Now inside, he found a half dozen Terminators lying in heaps of metal near the entrance.
Shawn pulled down his mask. "It should be ok now," he said. "The chaff only hangs in the air for a few seconds."
John removed his mask. "What happened?" he asked. "What did you do?"
"Th chaff must have screwed with their targeting system," Shawn answered. "Just as I hoped it would."
John kneeled beside one of the dead Terminators. They resembled the T-800, having a more slender frame and four arms."You say it wasn't acting like a normal Terminator," he said. "Certainly not for infiltrating. What are you thinking?"
Shawn kneeled alongside John. "Like a bodyguard maybe," he replied. "And perhaps these have different programming."
John looked at Shawn with a grin. "There's only one way to find out." He said.
Shawn nodded and stood back up with John.
"You guys," John said as he pointed to the nearest group of soldiers. "Load one of these Terminators up for transfer to base. The rest of you, let's start searching for Skynet."
"What are we looking for?" a soldier asked.
"You'll know it when you see it," Shawn answered. "The mainframes will be in a very cool room. If you're freezing, you're probably there. Once you find it, radio it in so we can set charges around it."
"All of you," John said. "Move out!"