Realities

by Jose Rodriguez

  Quin was proud of his ‘work’ and was confused by John’s sudden urgency to rejoin other members of the team.

  The emergency channel on their radios came to life. “…DSF teams. Terminators are disengaging.”

  John quickly plugged in an earpiece to his radio and put it in before saying. “This is John Connor, DSF teams, engage and hold the Terminators at all costs. Tech-Com, look around and be on the lookout for any surveillance nearby. I just took out a security camera that had eyes on me.”

  Quin looked on in disbelief. “Are you nuts,” he asked. “You just used your real name. If the machines are listening…”

  “Doesn’t matter now,” John said. “Camera saw me. They already know I’m here.”

  The ground surrounding the small, newly constructed building began to rise at its north, south, east, and west points. To John’s frustration, watching with his binoculars, they turned out to be big holding pens for dozens of Terminators to start walking out of.

  “All Tech-com units,” John called on his radio. “Engage the Terminators. I don’t see any HKs yet, so I want all snipers to the front.”

  Elsewhere, not far, Shawn ran into an APC and got on the radio. “DSF to Tech-Com, flying HKs are disengaging and headed for you. The ground HKs have taken up a rearguard action, and the bots are trying to fallback.”

  Indeed, DSF teams everywhere found themselves fighting an increasingly easy battle only because the Terminators weren’t trying to fight back.

  John got back on the radio. “DSF, stick with the Terminators as best you can, follow them in. Focus on the ground HKs. Snipers, push forward. I want the rest of Tech-Com to hold position and be on the lookout for flying HKs, engage and destroy.”

  Shawn ran back out of the APC to join other Resistance soldiers in chasing down any Terminator. Everyone still had to be extremely careful and remain behind cover. It was an unusual order. Typically, they’d be told to defend a certain position, recon an area, or attack a specific location. Now, they were being asked to give chase, stay engaged, and kill any Terminator they found.

  One ground HK began to unknowingly pass by a group of Resistance soldiers Shawn managed to join up with

  Shawn got on the radio. “Shawn to any DSF Eagle with eyes on the HK near the plaza..” He called.

  After a moment, a response came. “… Eagle to Shawn, reporting. We’re following the HK.”

  Shawn grabbed and armed a canister bomb before speaking back. “I need you to distract this thing for me. Do you hear? Pull its attention to the north.”

  “Got it!” came the reply. “Drawing its attention to the north now.”

  A large amount of fire began to pelt the HK on one side. It was finding it difficult to shoot at any of the many moving targets. All of its shots kept missing the intended target.

  Shawn took a deep breath and began to run. He ran almost alongside it, keeping a ruined wall and debris between them.

  With the HK distracted to one side, dealing with so many Resistance fighters, it never noticed Shawn tossing a canister bomb right in its path. The massive machine didn’t know what hit it when it suddenly went up in flames.

  It was a small victory for Shawn and the rest, they knew there was a lot of work to do and it would be a long night before they were done.

  Quin took out one Terminator with his sniper rifle as John finished speaking to another Resistance soldier. John then followed the soldier a short distance to see him point out a path and then look back at Quin. “Come on,” he said.”The machine knows where I’m at. I need to switch locations. It's not safe here with it pressing this spot so hard.”

  “Incoming!” someone shouted.

  John ducked with Quin jumping on top of him as a missile struck the area nearby. It took a moment for everyone to recover. Other Resistance soldiers helped John and Quin back up.

  “Your orders, Sir?” a soldier asked.

  Quin was always impressed by John’s ability to think under such high-stress situations.

  “Take everyone,” John said. “Link up with Tech-Com Beta. Quin and I will go alone the other way and join Tech-Com Zeta.”

  The soldier grabbed John by the shoulder. “Are you sure about that?” he asked.

  John glanced at Quin and nodded. “Yeah,” he replied. “The Terminators will never guess it's just me and one other person. It’ll likely assume I’m at the center of the heaviest fighting.”

  Quin looked for a way to go.”We better move then.” He said.

  “Good luck.” The soldier said before carrying on.

  The plan had worked as both men were able to crawl a good distance with no close encounters. Quin gave up a few easy shots for the sake of discretion. Instead, he sat back and watched a SAM go up and swat a flying HK out of the sky.

  John lay prone nearby, searching the area with his binoculars. “Quin,” he hissed. “Check it out, I think we’re close.”

  As Quin crawled over and used his rifle’s scope, the light on his radio came on.

  John noticed it and pointed it out to his friend.

  Quin spotted several Resistance soldiers closeby and used his radio to call them. “Tech-Com Zeta, this is Sext, I’m just south of you and have Football with me.”

  John stifled his laugh and followed Quin in after Tech-Com Zeta gave clearance.

  Now, relatively safe, John conducted the battle from a new position all night. It was a hard-fought battle the Resistance had to win. Quin was never far away and even he managed to take a few Terminators out.

  The machine’s lack of tactics would be its eventual downfall. Actually, the only tactic it ever used was to overwhelm the enemy with massive numbers. It never expected the attack, believing it to be a complete secret. The defenders it had was sizeable and would have been enough if it weren’t for the unpredictable nature of human ingenuity. This was why it invented the TDE in the first place.

  In the end, the humans would be victorious. The ground was littered with bodies from both sides and the wreckage of HKs was strewn all over the place.

  John sat down and turned a few dials on the radio before speaking. “This is John Connor. All sectors are reporting clear fields and skies. Put another victory on the board ladies and gentlemen. This battle is over.”

  5. LI/ANG QIAN UNO

  John and Quin walked towards the little building with an escort of two other soldiers. It was safe with so many other Resistance soldiers combing the area.

  “Gotta hand to you,” Quin said. “Very few people could have pulled off a victory like this.”

  “Thank my mom,” John replied. “She’s the one who taught me everything I know.”

  “You don’t talk about her much,” Quin said. “It’s said she was killed by the machines when I was a baby. If you don’t mind me asking, ‘cause I’d like to hear it from the man himself. What happened?”

  “HKs,” John answered. “Not like these. They were different back then. My mom was leading a convoy out of Mexico when it was ambushed by a squad of HK’s.”

  They entered the building and found it to be a single large room that resembled an empty office. The only thing in the room was a plain desk that was more of a regular table and a chair behind it.

  Quin sighed looking around the room. “Looks like a dud.” He said.

  John shook his head and sighed also before sitting. “I don’t get it,” he said. “Intel was solid. This is what we fought all night for?” He sat back in frustration reclining the chair back slightly. Instantly, the sound of gears clicked on and the whole room began to sink.

  Quin and the others immediately raised their weapon weapons as John jumped up. It was a surprise development and they needed to be ready for anything.

  The room was a giant elevator, going down at least a hundred feet.

  “I wonder where this is going?” Quin asked.

  “Isn’t it obvious,” John said.”A secret elevator in what should be a secret base. TDE has to be here somewhere.”

  The eleva
tor eventually reached the bottom It was certainly a much bigger facility than the small building above ground. It was dark, with the only light coming from various computer panels along the wall.

  John and the rest slowly stepped off the elevator with flashlights pointed forward.

  “What the hell,” Quin said. “Haven’t these things ever heard of lights? Where’s the switch?”

  “Terminators have night vision,” John replied. “They wouldn’t need’em.”

  They found most of the rooms lit pretty well by the ambient light emitting from the numerous electronics all over the place.

  “You and Ryka got any plans this Friday?” John asked.

  “No,” Quin answered. “Probably just watch a fire or something.”

  “Kate got her hands on some stuff to make PBJ sandwiches,” John said. “Why don’t you two come over and have some. Kate’s invitation.”

  Quin and John entered a long hall followed by the others. “Sure,” he replied. “I love PBJ Is it cool with you though?”

  “Of course,” John said. “Gotta treat my número Uno like my número uno. By the way, you gotta do something about that call sign. Just trust me, you can’t be Sext.”

  Quin glanced over to John. “I’m open to suggestions,” he said.

  “Don’t say Sext,” John chuckled. “You gotta go with something you know, like, ‘Viper’.”

  Quin thought about the name for a moment. “Viper sounds cool,” he finally said.

  “But if you really want to put the fear of God in’em,” John continued. “Go with ‘Virus’.”

  ‘That’s even better.” Quin thought.

  A large door slid open automatically as they reached the end of the hall, revealing a large room with the TDE right in the middle and just below it, sitting at the controls, One-four, and his team.

  John and his group cautiously approached. ‘I don’t recognize them, but they look like Resistance soldiers.’ He thought.

  One-four took a careful look before turning back to the controls. “John!,” he called. “John Connor, welcome. We weren’t expecting you, but no problem. You’re just in time.”

  As John’s group merged with the new guys they noticed the Terminator with them and pointed their weapons at him.

  “Who are you guys, how did you get in and why do you have this thing with you?” John asked.

  One-four mockingly raised his hands. “Don’t worry, this is Bob. He’s harmless now. We reprogramed him. He has a new mission now. As for how we got in, let's just say there’s more than one way to skin a cat.”

  “And you guys?” Quin asked.

  Bob dropped his gun and walked up the TDE.

  “Who are you?” One-four asked.

  “Quin,” he replied. “Now, answer the question, please.”

  “We’re on John’s Black Ops team,” One-four answered.

  “I have a black ops team?” John wondered aloud.

  Quin pat John on the shoulder and chuckled. “Didn’t know you had one of those.”

  “Neither did I,” John said. “What’s your mission here?”

  One-four stood and turned. “We’re so secret even John doesn’t know about us,” he said. “Not to worry. We’re not sending Bob back in time, just to another reality. The modifications we’re making allows him to keep his clothes. He could take his gun too but he won’t need it. All he’s gonna do is start building another RDE or reality displacement equipment.”

  “What,” John asked. “Why?”

  “It’s all in the interest of speed,” One-four answered. “Doing it all from one reality is daunting, especially when resources are limited.”

  Two-four stood up from working on the controls. She had been inputting data through it from the tablet she carried. “The modifications are done.” She said, standing by Quin.

  One-four nodded. “Good,” he said. “I was running out of exposition.” Then without warning, he grabbed Four-four’s gun and shot John and the two other Resistance members in the chest.

  Quin was caught by surprise, so much so that as raised his rifle, Two-four simply backhanded him and dropped him like a sack of potatoes.

  John and the others had been shot point-blank in their chests and died almost immediately.

  One-four handed Four-four her gun and sat back down, looking to Bob. “Ready?” he asked.

  Bob nodded.

  The TDE, now an RDE, activated; Its rings spinning faster and faster as Bob became engulfed in a spinning sphere of swirling colors. It generated its own wind and sounded like a thunderstorm as bits of electricity jumped off it

  Quin came about. The first thing he noticed was the spinning colorful ball in the middle of the room. He very discreetly rolled over and pulled out a grenade, arming it.

  One-four manipulated the controls to stop the spinning rings. “Inputting new destination now.” He said.

  From his prone position, Quin quickly jumped to his feet and ran at the swirling ball of colors. He didn’t know what it was, just that it had something to do with Bob, and come hell or high water he was going to ruin some plans.

  One-four and his team were taken aback, caught completely by surprise as Quin jumped on or into the spinning, swirling ball of color, merging or ‘melting’ with it.

  One-four grunted in frustration. “It took him several seconds to reach that thing,” he said. “Didn’t any of you think to shoot him?”

  Two-four held her hands out. “I don’t have a gun.” She said.

  Four-four shrugged and said. “I wasn’t looking.”

  One-four glared at Three-four and asked. “What’s your excuse?”

  Three-four looked surprised at his teammates. “He didn’t look like a threat to us,” he said. “He wasn’t running at us and you all saw what that thing did to him, he’s probably dead anyway.”

  Two-four set her hand on Three-four’s shoulder. “Even we don’t know what happens when new material is introduced to an RDE that’s in process.”

  One-four turned back to the controls and began pressing buttons. “Finalizing and sending,” he said.

  Nothing changed about the ball. It spun and swirled for a few moments before suddenly disappearing.

  The ball then appeared for several seconds elsewhere before disappearing again, leaving Quin standing there confused. His vision was odd, flicking back forth between normal and red. He didn’t see any Terminator around and gasped at the live grenade he was holding. Somehow, it only took him a split second to look around, see he was in a dark, empty alley and find a big, metal dumpster to run over and get rid of the grenade.

  Quin dove to the ground as the grenade went off harmlessly in the dumpster. Getting back on his knees, Quin tried to make sense of his vision, which was now permanently red and displaying information like a HUD. He and the Terminator had somehow merged. It was the only way to explain all the information he now had and how he had the presence of mind to get rid of the grenade so quickly.

  One-four pulled out a pen-like device and handed it to Two-four. “Here, take this dissolver,” he said. “Get rid of these bodies and wait till we get back.”

  Two-four grabbed the dissolver. “Going somewhere?” she asked.

  One-four gave her a look like ‘do you have to ask?’ before saying. “Even you said we don’t know what happens. Three, Four, you both come with me. We have to check on our friend Bob and make sure that RDE is built.”

  “Wait,” Four-four said. “What about this place?”

  “Two-four is staying behind to send us,” One-four answered. “Coordinates are already in. We’ll make sure Bob is still with us and get the RDE up and running in about a month. Then, we’ll come back and finish up here”

  Three-four and Four-four joined One-four on the RDE, standing back to back.

  “Maybe we should wait,” Four-four said.

  Three-four closed his eye and shook his head as One-four responded. “Wait for what?” he asked. “We don’t know what happens and we don’t need him ruining
my new plan. The last thing we need is to go and find an army of Terminators waiting for us. Maybe the worst-case scenario is that Bob was somehow destroyed. Two-four, ready when you are.”

  Two-four pressed a button to activate the RDE and send her friends away. Now alone, she turned to John’s body and pointed the dissolver at him. A laser shot out from the device, striking the body and dissolving it completely within seconds.

  One-four and the others arrived in the same alley as Quin.

  Quin was still on his knees trying to understand the information he now had. One-four and his team were in fact Terminators. It was his new machine mind that made him keep his cool as One-four approached and kneeled beside him. Running away wouldn’t have helped much anyway as the other two still carried their plasma rifles.

  One-four’s vision highlighted Quin in red, a clear sign he was a Terminator. “Well-well-well,” he said. “Now we know what happens. However, the merging did seem to cause you to lose a lot of mass so you’re not as strong, which is unfortunate, but you should still be very tough. Care to tell me your name?”

  Quin only had seconds to respond. His machine mind used what One-four said earlier to give what he was sure the right answer to some kind of trick question. “Bob.” He responded.

  One-four smiled, patting Quin on the head as he stood back up. “Good answer,” he said. “Which reminds me. We need to change our designations here in this place to fit in. We’ll use our aliases, so from now on I’m Chad. Three, you’re Benny. Four, you’ll go by Karen as usual. Now, there’ plenty of abandoned buildings in the area. Let’s pick one and get work.”

  6. LEGION & THE REV-9.i

  For almost a month, Quin went by the name ‘Bob’. At that time he had to help in the construction of another RDE. He tried to go slow, or what could be considered normal speed. That at least could be explained away, but to throw in a ‘monkey wrench’ was a no-no, Chad and the others were constantly going over his work and would certainly have found it.

  Chad was a Rev-9.i, as was the rest of his team, Terminators from a reality controlled by a different AI called Legion.