The Mission to Skynet Central was a mission taken by John Connor in 2018 in the New Timeline. In it, he infiltrated Skynet Central with Marcus Wright to save Kyle Reese and to stop the completion of the T-800 program.
Prelude[]
On July 25, 2004, Skynet becomes self-aware and thought the humans as their "enemy," and initiated an attack on the humans by starting a nuclear strike on America, Russia, and other regions, killing over a billion people on that day. Shortly after the event known as Judgment Day, the remnants of the world's military, whose surviving officers formed the Resistance, with General Ashdown in charge.
For years, the Resistance have been using tactics like Airboune Helicopter assaults and "Hit and Run" attacks, but have been for years, outnumbered by the Skynet machines. Others like John Connor had doubts about winning the war. But by 2018, the Resistance attacked the Skynet VLA, where they were led by General Olsen and John, and then discovered the creation of a new Terminator series known as the T-800, but all except John were killed. But by the time John went to confront Resistance Command for sending them on what he and his Resistance unit thought was a "suicide mission", he realizes the only reason they were sent on that mission was because Command discover where there might be a turning point in the war. They discovered a flaw in the communications protocols of the Terminator, allowing them to temporarily shut the machines down, where they thought can finally end the war, once and for all.
Meanwhile, Marcus Wright, a former deceased human on Death Row turned Terminator, came online and got close with Kyle Reese and a kid named Star, but they soon got captured by Skynet forces and got sent to Skynet Central. Marcus, with the help with Blair Williams, goes to the Resistance to rescue them, but gets captured by them instead when they mistake him as one of Skynet's forces. But, he soon convinces John to let him go to not only rescue Kyle, but also the other human prisoners there too.
The Resistance had intercepted a Skynet signal they believed would end the war, and planned to launch an attack on Skynet Central. On the day of the attack, John urges General Ashdown to delay the attack, but the Resistance's leader would not agree and ordered Connor removed from command from his base. Instead, Connor made a final impassioned plea to his fellow Resistance leaders to halt the attack and turn against General Ashdown, so he can rescue the prisoners. Not long after, he would capture and reprogram a Moto-Terminator to allow faster transport to San Francisco's Skynet Central.
The Mission[]
Infiltration[]
Marcus makes his way to the Skynet perimeter in San Francisco and confronts a turret, which identifies him and allows him safe passage. Meanwhile, upon arrival at the ruin of the Golden Gate Bridge, Connor watched and waited for the agreed upon signal from Marcus. Upon making his way into the core building of Skynet Central, Marcus interfaces with Skynet's database by synchronising with his CPU. He orders the turrets at the north entrance to stand down and then transmits Kyle's location to John, who is waiting on the outskirts of town. When the signal came-the location of Reese, Connor infiltrated the city and reprogrammed several of the lesser machines. He then accessed Skynet Central and begin his search for Kyle. Afterward, Marcus researches his death and the activities of Dr. Serena Kogan prior to that, learning that she also succumbed to her cancer and that her work at Cyberdyne was adopted by the US Air Force. The stress of maintaining the connection overwhelms Marcus, rendering him unconscious.
Meanwhile, John releases the cages holding the human prisoners and, believing he found the teen, was attacked by a T-RIP. John immediately fires a burst of gunfire into its chest, but this does nothing to slow it's advance as it grabs him by the scruff of the neck and hurls him across the room. John smashes the butt of his rifle into the T-800's face with little effect, and the machine responds by once again throwing him across the room. Marcus awakens in a diagnostic chair, his damaged flesh fully repaired and his clothes replaced with white garments. Upon happy to see he is "human" again, Skynet appears to him in the form of Serena on the screen and welcomes him "home", and then goes on to explain his purpose as the perfect infiltrator and his mission to find Kyle and lure John to his death, all the while showing him CCTV footage of John fighting the T-RIP, a prototype T-800 Infiltrator, with Model 101 living tissue. Skynet also reveals that the communications trap the Resistance has setup to end the war is really a Skynet trap so that the machines can locate and destroy Resistance Headquarters, along with General Ashdown and the rest of Resistance Command with it. Sickened by his use as a pawn, Marcus tears the CPU from the back of his head and snarls at Skynet that he will save John.
Skynet offers him the chance to serve the machines, stating that he's no longer bound by the human condition, but Marcus proclaims that he is human and destroys the glass screen before hurrying to John's aid. Meanwhile, Connor manages to retreat to a loboratory where a disoriented T-600 was firing it's mini-gun aimlessly due to sabotage. The T-800 follows him and encounters the flailing T-600 and swifty tears it in half. John blasts it twice with his grenade launcher, burning off it's flesh sheath and revealing the chrome endoskeleton beneath. John was able to break away by blowing a hole into the floor of the facility which the machine fell through and continued after Kyle. He soon found him at an execution chamber, but there was no time to relax as the T-RIP was already coming.
The T-800 Factory[]
After several quick actions, the humans managed to reach a Terminator Factory beneath the base where they were able to build explosives utilizing the power cells of the Terminators under construction. The T-800 stalks them for some time, eventually finding them waiting for an elevator which they believe contains their pursuer. Connor and Reese worked together to build bombs when the machine attacked Connor. The T-800 was hiding behind an assembly line of Series 700 Terminators, however, and sneaks up on them and knocks John and Kyle to the floor. Reese helped Connor by firing a rocket propelled grenade at the T-RIP and temporarily disabling it long enough for Connor to break free. Kyle and Star manage to escape into the elevator, while Connor remains behind, however, and the T-800 attacks him once again, disarming him of his launcher and smashing him to the floor. John tries to escape and confronts the machine upon a catwalk with a shotgun, but is unable to halt it's advance and is subsequently thrown down to the lower level where it grabs him by the throat and almost kills him. The machine began to kill the leader of Resistance when Marcus engaged the Terminator in head to head combat to provide a diversion. He tracked John to the Terminator Factory beneath the building and finds him in the grip of the T-RIP. Marcus charged the machine and tackled it to the ground, allowing John to crawl away. The T-RIP threw him off and headed back to John as the skin on Marcus' left hand was burned away by molten steel. Enraged, Marcus attacked the machine from behind and hurled into a pylon. He then picked up a piece of metal railing and started beating the T-RIP with it, but it caught his wrist and kicked him away. Seeing John working on T-RIP power cells to make an explosive, Marcus decides to sacrifice himself by allowing the T-RIP to beat him repeatedly with a cinder block. It scans his body and discovers his heart, identifying it as a vulnerability, and punches him in the chest with all of its strength. The blow is sufficient to stop his heart, and Marcus is terminated. The machine would make quick work of Marcus and continue after Connor, by tracking John to his last last known location, but found him missing upon arrival.It then resulted in using the voice of Kyle to distract him. Connor cautiously followed the voice, only to find the T-800 waiting for him.
The machine was temporarily disabled by John a short time afterward. He fired several times with his pistol, but the machine was not daunted. Connor spotted his grenade launcher on the lower level beside Marcus' body and so he jumped down, landing hard with the T-800 right behind him. John managed to grab the launcher and fired at the vat of metal above the machine, causing molten steel to cover the machine followed by a similar attack to a container of industrial coolant. Before it froze completely, however, the T-800 dug it's fingers into John's face, creating the legendary scar on his left side. Connor then proceeded to revive Marcus via CPR by pounding on his chest, which was unsuccessful, so he pulled two power cords from a nearby assembly robot arm, and used those as an Defibrillation on Marcus's chest. However, Marcus is revived by John, who uses a power cable to give him an electric shock while the T-RIP is encased in metal, but it is slowly breaking free from the metal coating. After Marcus is revived, the T-RIP broke completely free of the steel that was covering it, and impaled Connor through the chest in the heart with a steel bar Marcus had used earlier. This would prove to be its undoing, however, as Marcus jumps to his feet and breaks the steel bar, using half of it to decapitate the machine with ease and the skull assembly off of the machine's body. With the machine destroyed and terminated, Marcus turns his attention toward helping Connor up, who now acknowledges him as a friend. Marcus carries John out of the factory.
Resistance Intervention[]
After the destruction of Resistance Headquarters by Skynet, Kate Connor ordered the mission to Skynet Central to rescue John. Marcus and John are met by Barnes, who helps Marcus carry John to the helicopter where he is reunited with Kyle and Star, who too are rescued by the Resistance. When John is brought back by Marcus and Barnes, he is mortally wound. Kate orders Blair to land the helicopter on a safe spot and ask the surgeon team to stand by. Connor and the rest of the Group boarded the helicopter, which was flown straight to the main headquarters for immediate medical attention for Connor. As their helicopter flees the area, John activates the explosive, detonating and destroying Skynet Central, the Terminator's chip, and everything around it while flying back.
Aftermath[]
Back at a Resistance outpost, Kate tends to John's injuries and informs the others of his imminent death due to the damage suffered by his heart. John gives his jacket to Kyle and makes him and Star new members of the Resistance. With John on the verge of death and believing he deserved a second chance, Marcus tells Kate and everyone that he wants to take his heart and give it to John to save his life. He says his final goodbyes to Kyle and Star, and kisses Blair before undergoing the operation. In his final moments, he looks to John, who acknowledges his trust and gratitude towards Marcus with a respectful nod. By giving his life to save John, Marcus completed his original intention of donating himself to a better cause.
After burying Marcus' body, Kyle find a snapshot of Sarah Connor in the jacket given by John.
Later, Connor gives one more daily announcement telling everyone that the battle has been won, but the war is still on.
Appearances[]
- Terminator Salvation franchise