Chapter Sixty-Two: The Counteroffensive Begins

"This is the Global Storm Plane. In this world, Earth developed weather control satellites that could cover the entire globe, aiming to combat the natural disasters brought on by the greenhouse effect."

"But because of the selfishness of the American Vice President, the entire world was nearly destroyed."

"Now, they are cooperating with us to develop a new generation of weather control satellites."

"If we can eliminate Skynet, you could also use these satellites to regulate the Earth, which has been ravaged and scarred by Skynet, accelerating the recovery and reconstruction of human civilization," Wang Jing explained.

John Connor gazed at the faintly visible weather control satellites in the sky, listening to Wang Jing's explanation with a heavy heart.

After a long silence, he said quietly, "The most suitable place to attack is Skynet's headquarters. There are no other production bases nearby, and Skynet's central mainframe is there. It can provide your artificial intelligence with the raw computational power it needs."

"Then let's not waste time. Let's move!" With those words, Wang Jing brought John Connor back to the Terminator Plane.

As they stepped out of John Connor's room, everyone's eyes turned toward them. "Get ready to act," John Connor said gravely.

Immediately, the entire resistance's temporary base became a flurry of activity. Wang Jing brought over vast quantities of weapons and equipment from the Prime Plane for the resistance, while John Connor sought authorization for the operation from his superiors.

Predictably, his request was rejected. John Connor then tried to warn his commander about Skynet's plot, but was met only with scorn and doubt.

John Connor walked over to Wang Jing. "How did it go?"

He shook his head helplessly.

Wang Jing patted him on the shoulder. "Some people won't believe until they see results. But you can still use your authority to rally the other resistance fighters. If you can coordinate simultaneous attacks on Skynet, we might have a real chance."

John Connor nodded, turned back, and picked up the microphone. "If you're hearing this, you are the resistance. We have a plan to utterly destroy Skynet, but we need everyone's help."

"We need to occupy as much of Skynet's computational resources as possible. Simply put, get the Terminators moving—every extra person means one more chance. History will remember this battle, and all of us will be remembered in the annals of humanity!"

"Well said!" Wang Jing praised from the side.

John Connor set the microphone down and said quietly, "Let's move quickly."

At that moment, a furious voice burst from the communicator. "John Connor, what are you doing? Are you insane?"

"I order you to follow the plan!"

"Connor, do you hear me?"

Wang Jing grabbed the microphone and shouted passionately, "Down with Skynet's tyranny! Earth belongs to humanity!"

"Who said that—where is John Connor? Where is he?"

Hearing no reply, the commander roared in frustration, "John Connor, whether you hear me or not, I'm stripping you of command!"

But by then, no one was paying any attention to the commander's voice.

All the resistance fighters in powered armor were transported by Wang Jing to the Prime Plane, where the Expeditionary Army gave them a brief but intensive training in the use of powered exoskeletons and their paired weaponry.

Meanwhile, Wang Jing and John Connor returned to the Terminator Plane.

Beside a highway, John Connor stretched a wire across the road and placed an old tape recorder in the center.

The noise from the recorder soon attracted a Terminator motorcycle. The speeding machine was tripped by the wire and crashed.

John Connor rushed forward, pinned down the Terminator motorcycle as it tried to rise, pried open a side panel with his knife, and connected a portable computer to restore factory settings.

Once reset, he carefully pried out the motorcycle's red eye.

"We've got our ticket in," John Connor said, holding up the Terminator's red eye.

"Then let's go!" Wang Jing replied, summoning the supersonic stealth plane.

Two hours later, Wang Jing and John Connor arrived at a side entrance of Skynet's headquarters. Evading the patrolling Terminators, John Connor used the red eye taken from the motorcycle to open the base's gate.

Carefully avoiding the cameras and Terminators scattered throughout the base, Wang Jing and John Connor managed to slip inside Skynet's headquarters building.

As they beheld the T-600 production line, both Wang Jing and John Connor felt a chill in their hearts, especially at the sight of the endless line of metal skulls on the conveyor belt.

"Let's go. We don't have much time," said John Connor, quickly regaining his composure as the battle-hardened leader of the resistance.

But at that moment, the Governor strode out naked. Wang Jing glanced curiously at the T-800's crotch, made a wry comment about its propriety, and then shot off the T-800's head with a single bullet, revealing the metal skull beneath the synthetic skin.

"It seems we've been discovered," Wang Jing remarked, and immediately transported all the resistance fighters and the Expeditionary Army—who had been waiting anxiously in the Prime Plane—into the factory. Suddenly, the facility was packed to bursting, but the well-trained soldiers quickly deployed and began to seize control of Skynet's headquarters.

Explosions and gunfire erupted everywhere, as intense as firecrackers on New Year's Eve.

Under the cover of the Plane Squad, Wang Jing and John Connor pressed on toward Skynet's main server.

Soon, however, the squad was intercepted by a group of armed T-800s.

But Liu Peiqiang's sniper rifle quickly dispatched them one by one.

Watching as each Terminator was taken down with a single shot, John Connor couldn't help but exclaim, "This rifle is incredible!"

"Of course," Liu Peiqiang replied proudly. "It's an electromagnetic sniper rifle—can easily pierce a hundred millimeters of homogeneous steel. These brittle Terminators are no match for it."

Before long, they reached Skynet's control room. Wang Jing found the data interface and produced the hard drive containing MOOS.

After a quick scan, the hard drive's shell automatically reshaped to fit the port and connected itself.

A holographic display appeared, Skynet's avatar flickering into view. "All your efforts are futile. My data is spread across the globe. Destroy this base, and I can rebuild thousands more!"

Wang Jing ignored Skynet's words, shot the glass display to pieces, and turned to Liu Peiqiang, John Connor, and the others. "Hold this position. I'm going to deploy the anti-air missiles."

Outside the building, the ground was strewn with the wreckage of Terminators. Each one bore multiple bullet holes in their chests, a single hole in the head, or had been blasted apart entirely.