That had to be faced. It would gather all available forces in the region, and annihilate Devaux and his militia. Whatever else Skynet faced, that unknown enemy must have no support by the time it came here. It would encounter the war computer's defenses at full strength.
As always, Skynet's enemies would be destroyed.
JUNE 13, 2036
Ramsey Devaux had tried to sleep for an hour in his trench, dug seven feet into the snow and dirt. The fighting went round the clock, for Skynet never slept. He woke to the sounds of shouts, barking dogs, and a nearby explosion. Through it all, filling in the silences, was the sound of a bitter, snow-filled wind. He had chosen the warmest time of year to attack Skynet—and a symbolic moment. The push into these mountains had been designed to coincide with the fifteenth anniversary of Judgment Day, back in June 2021. A victory might have fallen almost on that anniversary. That was now a hollow hope. In theory, this was summer, but the temperature was icy.
His aide, a spike-haired woman in her early twenties named Adams, crawled over to him, holding a plastic lamp fueled by a tiny power cell. "It's intensified again," she said. For a time, the bombardment had let up; now Skynet was at it again. There was another explosion.. .and yet another. Then the sounds of antiaircraft fire and the electronic mechanisms of laser rifles.
Only hours before, Devaux had spoken to Hiro Tagatoshi, one last time before trying to sleep. Hiro had told him the latest extraordinary news—that Vila Nova do Sul had held against the machines. Skynet's attack force had been crushed, with no prospect of reinforcements.
Devaux retrieved his laser rifle. "What's happening out there?" he asked Adams.
"Terminators, transporters with endos, H-Ks," Adams said. "The whole lot. It looks like Skynet was onto us. It's hitting us as hard as it can before we can attack it."
The bombardment sounded serious. Missiles screamed from the sky, then exploded on the ground. The air was thick with the noises of back-blasts, firing mechanisms, high explosives, some of them close by, making the ground shake.
Devaux stroked his beard as he tried to work it out. "Yeah, it's going to finish us off." Had they been betrayed, or had Skynet tapped their communications, as it had done so often in the past? More likely, it had simply used the data available from its sensors and made a logical deduction—that the human forces planned to go on the attack. There was no need for it to wait until dawn to step up the pressure. With their infrared vision, its war machines functioned equally well at night.
As a series of missiles hit, not far away, he knew that more were dying—he could easily be next. The force that Hiro had promised would not be here for at least ten hours. For now, Devaux and the North American militia were on their own. Could they hold out for that long? His militia had smashed against Skynet's mountain fortress like a wave breaking on a cliff. The cliff had survived, and the wave had been shattered. Most of their trucks, skimmers, and heavy laser cannons were gone. Many endos had been destroyed, but thousands of men and women had also been lost.
"We'll have to bombard their landing zones," he said. "Don't let them unload endos. Mass defense against the H-Ks. They can't get close if there's a thousand guns firing up at them everywhere they move."
Adams looked at him blankly—not confused, but waiting to hear something she didn't know. All his aides and lieutenants had been over this so many times, until their tactics were second nature. No orders were needed—it was what they'd all trained for.
"Forget it," he said.
Just then, four missiles fell, exploding close by. There were cries all round him—shouted orders, screams of pain. This was it. The last battle. It would be fought in these mountains, and he would not give an inch.
His heart pumped hard with adrenaline. He would call Vila Nova do Sul. There was more that Hiro could do.
VILA NOVA DO SUL
A hand shook John awake. "What is it?" he said. This was the most comfortable bed he'd slept on for weeks, after a battle that had left him shaken, but almost unhurt. What minor cuts and bruises he'd taken seemed to have gone.
Outnumbered and outgunned, for once, Skynet's forces had finally crumbled with little loss of life. The streets above were full of smashed machinery, and the Resistance had ordered the Terminators to go through it and destroy anything that looked dangerous—any endos or other machines that still had fight in them, even after being turned into junk.
John had gained some heavy sleep. He'd dreamt of returning to his own world, of what awaited him there. He still had the images in his mind of Charles Layton, Oscar Cruz, Rosanna Monk—the people who'd invented Skynet. In this world, he guessed, they'd all died on Judgment Day, in June 2021. But two of them awaited him in his own world, in the past. In that reality, Charles Layton, the Chairman of Cyberdyne's Board, had been killed. Rosanna Monk, the genius behind Skynet, had renounced the program. But Oscar Cruz, Cyberdyne's President, was still alive.. .he and his other scientists. In John's own world and time, the struggle would have to go on. It still haunted his sleep.
Cecilia and Fiedler were in the same position, of course. They would have to return to Skynet's World and report back to General Connor. They, too, might have troubles ahead.
The hand that had woken him belonged to Jade. "I am sorry," she said. "You slept for an hour."
"Okay," he said grudgingly. Hiro Tagatoshi and his people had given everyone medications to help them get short, intense sleep.
"There have been developments," Jade said. "We have to go to Colorado right now."
"Why? What's happened?"
"What we feared. We have heard from Ramsey Devaux. Skynet has intensified its attack on his positions. Do you understand what that means?"
"They could get wiped out...like, in no time."
"Yes."
"We're going in the big transporter?" he said. "You don't want to try the time vault?"
"You and I will use the megatransporter. You can try to sleep on the way."
"Yeah," he said. "I like my chances of that."
"Every moment helps, John. You will be going into—"
"I know—a battle zone. I've lived through that before." After some sleep, and with the nanobots in his body, he felt surprisingly good. He could do whatever it took. When they'd first arrived in Skynet's World, it had been in the Colorado Rockies, where General Connor's forces had battled it out with the Skynet of that world. He'd survived that, and he'd survive tonight. Get a grip, John, he thought to himself. He still had his limits. Best not to forget them. "Anyway," he said to Jade, "what's this stuff about you and I will use the transporter?"
"Some will fly the skimmers, and we will send some of the Terminators ahead of us."
"You mean with the time vault?"
"Yes. It is a freezing night there, John. It is better that even I not arrive by the time vault. But the Terminators will obey Devaux and his people. We will send the T-l000s and the others that are ready. Now, John, please prepare. No more discussion."
"Yeah," he said. "No problemo"
John soon worked out what Jade had meant by the Terminators that were "ready" to travel through the time vault. In addition to the two T-l000s, only one T-799 and three T-800s were sufficiently undamaged for the spatial displacement, their hyperalloy endoskeletons still enveloped completely in living flesh. He knew that Terminators' flesh could be repaired, but (here was no time for that.
Hiro Tagatoshi entered the code to send the six Terminators to the mountains of Colorado. On his screens, the T-799 and the T-800s resembled naked, flawless human beings, but the two T-l000s were in their silver-chrome form, and had taken a more elongated shape than human to enclose weapons within their polyalloy material. The remaining, damaged Terminators had been sent to work up on the surface, arming the H-K with missiles, packing the megatransporter and the available skimmers with more supplies. They had been dressed, like all the Other fighters, in military uniform, with body armor for additional protection, helmets, and webbing crammed with ammunition and grenades
.
The screens showed the curling, roiling energies that John had seen before. Then the Terminators vanished from the time vault.
With that done—and no glitches—it was time to move out. Sarah, Jade, Cecilia, Fiedler, and about forty of the best fighters from Vila Nova and the Amazon enclave were here. Despite the wound she'd suffered, Cecilia looked okay, more angry than anything else. The rest of them just looked determined. Many of these fighters were enhanced; they'd be a good match for Skynet's machines. Everyone was well-equipped and heavily armed. All the same, there were so few of them. They had to make a difference in a battle fought by thousands of men and women, against hundreds of endos and other war machines.
Hiro and his daughter embraced. "Our hopes are still with you," Hiro said. He stood back from Jade, and gave a wry smile. "We are always putting weight on your shoulders."
"I know," she said, with her own sad smile. "But it has to be like that. I hope I see you soon, father."
Hiro turned to the rest of them. To Sarah, he said, "I hardly know how to address you. If not for what you did—"
"This world wouldn't exist," Sarah said. "Don't worry, I've heard it before." Then she laughed. "I'm sorry, Hiro. It gets tiring being the mother of the fu- ture. No offense meant."
"Still, if they'd listened to you, Skynet would never have been built. This could be a very good world. We would still have had our struggles.. .but it would be a good world, Sarah."
"I know," she said. "So they killed me in this world. Me and John together...still trying to stop Skynet."
In this world, John and Sarah had both been killed in a shootout in 2007. "At least you tried," Hiro said.
"Yeah, at least we did that. I know what you're trying to say, Hiro. I appreciate it."
Other leaders from Vila Nova shook their hands. A tall woman named Merrillee O'Driscoll wished them well. Then everyone was finished with them.
They took the elevator and stairs, then walked quickly to the megatransporter and the ten skimmers that Vila Nova was providing. Once they were aboard the transporter, Jade took command, ordering it to lift. It rose in the night, the skimmers following, then moving on ahead to provide an escort.
"This is it," Sarah said. Regardless what she was feeling inside, she showed no fear. They'd reached the culmination, the climax, of every battle she'd fought, the years of her life devoted to fighting Skynet.
"Yeah," John said. "I know." If they survived this battle, there might be others...back in their own world, their own time. Right now, this one was all he dare think about.
COLORADO
The Terminators arrived high in the Rockies, well above the snowline. For several feet around them, the energies of the space-time fluctuation flashed ice into steam. Using infrared and enhanced visual sensors, they surveyed the terrain, matching it against topographic and strategic data contained in their files. Their nominal destination point had been closer to the human forces, but there was always a margin for error in any space-time displacement. They were a mile from their destination point, higher up the mountain, behind Skynet's lines, looking down the mountain on a force of Juggernauts and endos. At maximum speed, they could soon cover the distance, then engage Skynet's machines.
Each of the T-l000s reached into itself and pulled out a laser rifle. Their bodies closed up and took a more human shape, still silvery and featureless. As the Terminators examined their options, an aerial H-K separated itself from the fighting farther down the mountain, and headed in their direction.
Skynet had sensed their appearance, and taken action.
It took a fraction of a second for the T-l000s to grasp the situation. Aerial H-Ks fought with laser cannons and high-explosive missiles. Laser cannons could damage them, but only the most concerted, continual laser fire could actually destroy them. They had little to fear from explosives—gross deformation of their structure would repair easily in mere seconds. But the T-799 and T-800s were more vulnerable. Resilient though they were, sufficiently large explosions, or well-aimed laser fire, could terminate them. For the sake of the mission, the immediate priorities must be to protect the four cybernetic-organic Terminators from attack, and to destroy the H-K.
The H-K kept its distance, launching three missiles, which dropped close to the ground, then hugged the terrain as they approached their target point.
In another fraction of a second, the T-l000s drew a series of inferences. They knew that the large aerial H-Ks of this world carried up to twelve missiles, usually firing them in salvos of four. That suggested this H-K had run short of missiles. Further, the other H-Ks in the battle were probably no better off, or Skynet would have deployed them. Finally, Skynet had ordered the H-K to take care. It was wary of its new enemy, probably unsure of what it faced.
Approaching from so far away, the missiles were easy targets for the T-l000s, even at high velocity. The liquid-metal Terminators easily calculated the missiles' trajectories, and fired as soon as they came within range. Firing laser bolts rapidly from their rifles, they intercepted the missiles, which exploded well short of their target. The Shockwave washed over the six Terminators harmlessly, as the H-K approached, now attacking with its laser cannons.
The Terminators fanned out to create a harder target, each looking for cover. Against weapons like this, even they could be damaged or destroyed. A series of laser bolts penetrated the bodies of some of the machines, as others found boulders or depressions for cover, tunneling into the snow. One of them, the T-799, collapsed into the snow as the H-K flew overhead, firing its cannons. Another, a T-800, staggered forward, falling on its face. One T-1000 was caught by dozens of laser bolts, penetrating and burning its structure, paralyzing it; the other took both laser rifles, one in each hand, and fired back unerring. Its laser fire pierced the H-K's armor, cutting off a wingtip. The H-K spun on its axis, lost control and plummeted into the snow—and through it to the granite underneath.
That was satisfactory. First blood had been drawn.
The Terminators conferred using human language, but speeded up ten times. To human ears, it would have meant nothing. The flesh had been burned from the torso of the fallen T-799. Its skull had been penetrated, burning out its CPU. Numerous servos had been damaged in the fallen T-800. It was no longer an efficient unit. The T-l000s that had been hit by the laser fire had already recovered, with only an insignificant loss of material. The surviving machines quickly determined the best tactical option. The T-1000 with the two laser rifles shot out the CPU of the T-800. It had contained data that might be valuable to Skynet.
Next, they would investigate the H-K's wreckage. Something useful might be salvaged.
At full speed, the remaining Terminators ran in that direction.
Two more H-Ks flew toward them.
Multiple sensors fed Skynet information. The data stream revealed the use of lasers by whatever had traveled from Vila Nova do Sul, using the time vault that the humans there had created. That meant that the humans were using organisms of liquid-metal, similar to the T-XA. There was no way to carry weapons such as that through the displacement field, unless enclosed in carefully tuned polyalloy nanoware. The liquid-metal organisms must have arrived with that unexplained fluctuation in the space-time field, when substantial mass had appeared out of nowhere.
More precise analysis of the data showed that the laser weapons had been two standard-issue rifles, the same as used by Skynet's endos and Terminators. Such weapons were powerful, but they had a shorter range than the laser cannons mounted on aerial H-Ks. Skynet sent a coded order to the two nearest H-Ks—to attack, but keep a distance. High in the air, out of firing range of enemy fire, they would pin down the enemy machines, inflicting maximum damage. Destroying polyalloy machines would be difficult, but not impossible. Skynet ordered a force of four transporters and one hundred endos to fly higher up the mountain. They could finish the job. It ordered two Juggernauts to turn and provide backup.
That would spell the end of these Terminators, or whatev
er they were. Then the human militia could finally be crushed.
Other data came to Skynet from the airspace over Brazil. A force of armored skimmers and rogue machines was headed toward the Gulf of Mexico. That must also be dealt with.
The T-l000s' sensors were multiply distributed through their entire bodies. As the liquid-metal Terminators ran to the wreckage of the downed H-K, they sensed the motions of the two H-Ks flying behind them, and immediately took evasive action. Their artificial intelligence modeled the firing patterns of the laser cannons, second by second. They reached the wreckage and took cover as the H-Ks flew overhead, then circled for another run. The other two Terminators lacked rearward visual sensors, but they imitated the T-l000s. All four Terminators took cover without major damage.
Quickly, both T-l000s extended tendrils through the wreckage, looking for what they could salvage. Some of the laser cannons were still useable, their power cells and internal mechanisms intact. They had found a source of weapons.
There was no external firing mechanism for the laser cannons, nothing like a trigger. They were activated by commands from the H-Ks CPU. For the T-1000s, that was not a problem. Each spread its circuitry into the structure of one of the cannons. They had files on Skynet's weapons from its own world; these were not greatly different. Within nanoseconds, they grasped the principles and their application. The circuitry and structure of the two-hundred-pound cannons fused with the T-1000s' arms. For the advanced, liquid-metal Terminators, two hundred pounds was not a heavy weight.
They gave their laser rifles to the two T-800s. As the H-Ks returned, the Terminators emerged from the wreckage, hefting their heavy weapons...and firing.
T2 - 03 - The New John Connor Chronicles - Times of Trouble Page 27
