"Hoo..."
Seated inside Lamius, Lumiel withdrew both hands from in front of the screen and let out a soft breath.
Infiltrating Skynet was not difficult for Lumiel. In her own star system, she had been a top-tier hacker as well. The problem this time lay in the fact that the employer's demands were numerous. While it wasn't that Lumiel couldn't accomplish them, for her this was still an extremely delicate piece of work, so she devoted herself to it with exceptional care.
Through Skynet's network, Lumiel naturally saw what these machines had been doing. They dissected humans, stuffed steel into their bodies, and tried to transform them into bionic robots… not only that, these machines even used various methods to transmit human memories and emotions, seemingly attempting to go even further.
It had to be said that those extremely bloody scenes were still a bit too intense for Lumiel, so from time to time she had to pull her attention away and rest briefly.
Otherwise, the girl felt she might actually throw up.
No one noticed that at this moment, several faint points of fire suddenly appeared on the far side of the planet. They vanished in an instant, disappearing without a trace in the blink of an eye.
And the universe remained exactly as it always was.
Soon, as the sun rose, a new day arrived.
"Hoo..."
John Connor put down the intelligence report in his hands, closed his eyes, and let out a long sigh.
During this period, the situation of the Resistance could be said to be unprecedentedly good. Not only had Skynet's frequency of attacks and searches against them declined, but many people had even escaped alive from those death bases. Most of them had come to the rear lines, requesting the protection of the Resistance. Naturally, the Resistance welcomed them warmly—after all, manpower was always in short supply, and with so many people joining, they couldn't ask for more.
And all of this stemmed from that mysterious team.
What John Connor was holding in his hands now was intelligence regarding that team, all of it gathered from questioning refugees. According to their descriptions, that team consisted of about ten or so people. Leading them was an extremely tall, terrifying figure, impossible to tell whether it was human or machine. The rest, however, were all very beautiful girls who looked quite young, and they rode very beautiful animals that resembled reindeer.
Of course, this small team's combat power was also extremely strong. Every Skynet base was heavily guarded, and even the Resistance could not possibly take one down so easily with just ten or so people.
John Connor very much wanted to make contact with these people. He had even specially dispatched a reconnaissance team to search for their whereabouts. Unfortunately, the other party seemed to have no intention of contacting him at all, which left John Connor somewhat disappointed. Although he didn't know their origins, if they could join the Resistance, then dealing with Skynet would be far more assured…
Knock knock knock.
Just as John Connor was about to take a short nap and rest, hurried knocking suddenly sounded. Hearing the knock, John Connor opened his eyes and straightened up.
"Come in."
"Commander."
The door opened, and a man with a serious expression walked in.
"We've discovered an aircraft flying toward us!"
"Skynet?"
Hearing this, John Connor's entire body trembled, and the drowsiness from before was instantly flung far away.
"No. Based on the signal, it's one of our aircraft. We tried to hail it, but received no response."
"There's such a thing?"
Hearing the subordinate's report, John Connor stood up and followed him out of the room to the command center. Several operators were gathered around a computer there, discussing animatedly.
"What's the situation now?"
"Ah, reporting, Commander."
Seeing John Connor appear, the operator seated at the console hurriedly snapped to attention, then turned to the screen.
"This aircraft is flying toward the camp. We've attempted communication, but received no response. There are no Skynet aircraft tracking or pursuing it nearby…"
"...…"
Staring at the light dot on the screen, John Connor frowned. It wasn't unheard of for pilots to defect to the Resistance; in fact, pilots were always precious assets to them. It was possible this was a pilot from somewhere who had found an aircraft and come over. As for the lack of response, it could be due to a communication malfunction.
But… thinking of this, John Connor recalled the intelligence previously provided by refugees. According to them, Skynet had already manufactured bio-robots with human appearances that could blend in among people. Fortunately, that terrifying giant and a small girl who could fly seemed able to identify them, easily pulling those disguised infiltrators out of the refugee prisoners and killing them.
This was exactly why John Connor was so eager to make contact with Duanmu Huai. These reports were truly frightening. Even inside the Resistance base, people were whispering about it endlessly. No one knew whether the men, women, elderly, or children around them were human or robots. Perhaps while chatting with you, they were simultaneously transmitting information to Skynet.
So John Connor hoped the other side could come over and help "sterilize" things a bit—at the very least, morale couldn't continue to crumble like this.
Unfortunately, being unable to contact them made it pointless… uh, could this aircraft be theirs?
Considering that this group basically didn't communicate with other factions, John Connor suddenly felt that this possibility was quite high.
Still, to be safe, he issued an order.
"Send them a message instructing them to land at Airport Three. I'll send people to receive them!"
After facing off against Skynet for so long, John Connor wasn't stupid. Regardless of whether the other party was friend or foe, caution was paramount. So he chose an airport relatively far from the base.
"Commander, they've changed course!"
Seeing the light dot on the radar screen turn, everyone let out a sigh of relief, and John Connor nodded.
"Who's patrolling that area?"
"C2 Squad."
"Have them head to Airport Three. Report immediately if anything happens!"
"Yes!"
Very soon, C2 Squad received the order and headed to Airport Three. They quickly set up an ambush and prepared for combat, then fixed their eyes on the sky. Sure enough, after a short while, a black aircraft appeared overhead. It extended its landing gear, descended in altitude, and then slowly came to a stop.
"Good lord, it's a supersonic fighter!"
Seeing the black aircraft, an old veteran in C2 Squad couldn't help but exclaim. Hearing his remark, the rookie beside him looked at him in surprise.
"Supersonic fighter?"
"That's right. This thing flies fast! And it's powerful too. Tsk tsk, back before Judgment Day, this was one of our proudest weapons… back then, we didn't have so much bullshit to deal with. Sigh, forget it. Thinking about that now doesn't do any good."
Looking at the aircraft, the old veteran couldn't help but feel deeply emotional. But he quickly pulled his thoughts back and tightened his grip on his weapon.
"I'll take two people over to check it out. You stay back here. Report to command immediately if anything goes wrong!"
After issuing the order, the old veteran led two soldiers out from the nearby ruins. Gripping their weapons, they cautiously approached the aircraft. At this moment, the old veteran could already see that there was indeed a person seated inside the cockpit—only, he sat there completely motionless, looking like a corpse.
"Hey!"
The old veteran shouted loudly, and the other party turned to look at him.
"We're with the Resistance. Who are you? How about you come down and we talk?"
"..."
However, the other party still didn't speak, merely sitting there and staring at the old veteran. For some reason, even though the other person was wearing a pilot's helmet, cold sweat poured down the old veteran's body as if he were facing some kind of threat. He immediately racked his weapon and aimed at the cockpit.
"Get down. Now. Or I'll shoot!"
But what happened next was something no one could have anticipated.
Kuchichi—kuchichi—!
Under the old veteran's aim, the aircraft suddenly shuddered, and then began to transform! Its wings abruptly folded in, the fuselage rapidly straightened upward, and in the blink of an eye, the fighter jet turned into a giant robot several meters tall!
"Damn it!!"
Seeing this, the Resistance soldiers were horrified. They hurriedly raised their weapons, firing as they retreated.
"Report to command immediately! We're under attack!!!"
When John Connor received the report from C2 Squad, his entire mind went blank.
"What did you say? The plane turned into a robot?"
"That's right, Commander! That fighter turned into a huge robot. Damn it, this must be Skynet's brand-new weapon! We're no match for it…"
Before the other side could finish speaking, the connection was cut off amid a burst of explosions.
"..."
Staring at the communicator in his hand, John Connor stood there dumbfounded. A fighter jet turning into a robot—what did that even mean? Since when did Skynet start doing this?
Infiltrators with human appearances, he at least understood somewhat. But a robot that could turn into a plane… he had never even heard of such a thing.
"Commander!"
Before John Connor could sort out the situation, a shrill shout suddenly rang out in his ears again.
"That aircraft is heading toward us! It may have already locked onto our position!"
"Damn it!"
Hearing this, John Connor immediately shoved all doubts aside.
"Sound the air-defense alarm. All personnel, prepare for battle!!"
(End of Chapter)