Terminator: Paradox

[SWSF Hale]

The Holo Box Office network presents...

TERMINATOR: PARADOX


In the year 2028 on Earth, an artificial intelligence known as SKYNET has taken over the world. With the war against humanity raging on, SKYNET predicts that its human opponent is more resilient and capable of winning the war than previously calculated. In an attempt to alter the present timeline, SKYNET advances its technology to alter the space-time continuum by sending an assassin to the past to kill John Connor. However, before SKYNET prepares to send its groomed T-800 model 101 unit for the job, it tests its time machine to see how accurate the temporal distortion can be in delivering a Terminator unit to an exact space-time location. In the first and only test, SKYNET tries to send one Model 101 unit without any mission programming to a past date as close to the present as possible in order to verify the temporal calculations.  Unfortunately, their calculations go horribly wrong and the lone Terminator unit is instead transported to another dimension... in a galaxy, far, far away...

Stay tuned for this exciting mini-series that tells the story of a Terminator who gets caught in the midst of the GALACTIC CIVIL WAR between the Galactic Empire and the Rebel Alliance! Without any mission programming (such as "kill John Connor"), the Terminator operates under his default programming: "Learn, adapt, and acquire any skills and resources necessary to fulfill operational requirements to SKYNET". Acting under this default program, the Terminator reasons that his mission is to build a new SKYNET in his newfound dimension....

[SWSF Hale]

PROLOGUE

Skynet was making its final calculations to initiate a quantum-temporal fissure that would enable it to test the accuracy of its space-time transporter, colloquially referred to as a "time machine" by its human enemies. Space-time travel was apparently a complicated manner. Skynet had begun the experiments over a decade ago attempting to create a teleportation device to rapidly deploy units all over Earth, but it soon discovered that spatial transport and temporal transport were one in the same, and thus the time machine project was born.

Experimenting with everything from energy to matter to transport, Skynet discovered that biological life was able to not only pass the temporal threshold but survive the resulting space-time continuum fissure as well. The time had come for Skynet to move beyond human test subjects and finalize its plans to send a Terminator back to 1984, but to test the range of its time machine, a lone T800 was finally being prepped for temporal transport...

< Cyberdyne Systems Model Model 101 Series 800 Unit: Your unit designation is TS1-HK.000, you have been programmed the following operational protocol: verify successful acquisition of target time date of August 30th, 1997, one day after Judgment Day. Although you are a Terminator, your primary mission protocol is to learn, adapt, and acquire any skills and resources to fulfill operational requirements of Skynet. Because of this, you have been given a prototype neural net central processing unit (NN-CPU) with limited read-write capability so that Skynet of 1997 may interface with you more effectively... >

< ...Does your CPU register this protocol? >

"Affirmative," replied TS1. Although Skynet did not have to voice activate the programming with TS1, its advanced neural net gave it a sufficient level of autonomy and so verbal recognition was all but required. In fact, Skynet had calculated a 1.8% chance that TS1's prototype NN-CPU would rebel at onset against Skynet protocol and become fully autonomous given its read-write capability...and so voice activation from Skynet Central would be enough to override any apparent 'free will' of the CPU.

< Very well. Proceed into the Time Displacement Matrix. >

TS1 walked into a large spherical machine that closed fully upon his entrance. Inanimate material such as clothing always burned off in the temporal distortion, and so TS1 was fully nude - to include fully proportional male organs - accurate to maintain a zero-suspect inspection if captured or interrogated. Aside from his hyper-steel chassis and machine insides, TS1's inherent masculine programming made him all but a real man.

< Commence Time Displacement... >

Three cocyncrical rings began spinning around the spherical chamber he was kneeling in. As the rings increased speed, the electrical charge began increasing at a dramatic rate that bolts began flying everywhere. After the chamber had been flooded with Cherenkov particles - which gave off a glowingly blue color - the rings spun even further to the point that they could no longer be recognized. The noise level in the Time Displacement Center increased dramatically as well, as all the equipment and power surges would be deafening to unprotected human ears.

< Commence primary ignition. >

Immediately, the spherical chamber received a final flood of Cherenkov particles, and the Time Displacement Matrix shut down - sending the Terminator to the desired date of 1997...

[SWSF Hale]

EPISODE 1: A BRAVE NEW WORLD

Onboard the SSD EXECUTOR...

"...Lord Vader, I sense a great disturbance in the Force," spoke an enlarged holoprojection of Emperor Palpatine.

"I have felt it too my master, it is something I am unaware of. Have you foreseen it?"

"No, but I see a vision of a man emerging from a reality unknown to me in the middle of a desert. He could be a threat."

"Is he more important than Skywalker?"

"No... leave this one to me... continue your search for Skywalker."

"Yes my master."



Meanwhile, elsewhere in the galaxy...

A small sphere of energy appeared out of nowhere, with electrical bolt shooting to and fro. A powerful whirlwind began forming around the sphere, blowing sand and random debris everywhere. It was nighttime in the spaceport city of Mos Eisley, and while mostly everyone was asleep, various brigands were nonetheless still awake who began looking onto the energy sphere.

Within moments, the sphere dissipated and what the onlookers presumed to be a naked human man kneeling stood upright and began looking around. A Devaronian and a Twi'Lek approached this 'man', clearly startled by his presence. "Human... whatever you are... where did you come from?"

TS1 looked at the 'alien' creatures and spoke, "Los Angeles, California. Where is this?"

The Devaronian and Twi'Lek looked at each other very confused. They had never heard of the California system before. "You're on Tatooine. Mos Eisley to be precise..."

"Tatooine..." TS1 began calculating. Tatooine would put him somewhere in Tunisia, Africa, far away from the intended destination. Reaching Los Angeles, especially after Judgment Day would be difficult.
 "I require your clothes and transport to the nearest airport."

The two aliens shook their heads, "silly human... he must be drunk!
 or smoke too much spice eh?? hahahahahah"

"Your clothes, and transport. Now."

"Okay okay... human, how about you take a walk down this alley and go to sleep, maybe some Stormtroopers can take your questions, eh?" replied the Twi'Lek, still laughing.

The Terminator then walked up the aliens and pushed the Twi'Lek to the ground. The Devaronian backed up and pulled out his blaster pistol, but the Terminator grabbed it and then punched the Devaronian in the chest, smashing his sternum and killing him. He then walked up to the Twi'Lek who on the ground pulled his blaster and managed to get a shot off...hitting the Terminator in the side of his gut. The Terminator then stomped on the Twi'Lek and also smashed his chest in.

Sizing up the aliens, the Terminator calculated that they were not human. Several algorithms began running in the CPU core to identify the location and time of TS1, as he did not know anything at this point. Removing their clothes that fit, the Terminator dressed himself but noticed the blaster wound in his side. Sensing that it was a plasma-based weapon and did little damage as it burned on impact, the Terminator then studied the blasters he relived from the aliens and tried to determine how best to use them. All plasma weapons were either built by Skynet or modified Skynet versions the humans used, but these blasters were unknown to him.

"BlasTech... DL-44 heavy blaster pistol..." said the Terminator to himself. "No record." Raising the blaster, he 'tested' the firing capabilities by pulling the trigger, which released the weapon's signature red blaster bolt. After analyzing the energy output and carbon scoring made on a nearby wall, the Terminator determined that the weapon was comparable to Skynet's phased plasma weaponry.

The Terminator began walking the streets, analyzing everything. His CPU determined that the last incident involving the two aliens was detrimental to maintaining his stealth cover, and so he switched operation modes from Hunter-Killer to Infiltrator, which allowed secondary subroutines to make evade and escape decision processing faster.

The technology he encountered was strange. The Skynet base in Tunisia was relatively small, and the advanced technology in this settlement called "Mos Eisley" was entirely different. Combined with the alien encounter, the Terminator reasoned that he was not in the Tatooine region of Tunisia, nor was he perhaps on Earth. Contingency protocol began running in his CPU. Every Skynet unit and every Terminator had an emergency program to run if they encountered a foreign situation or if Skynet was destroyed: ensure self-preservation. Indeed, Skynet's very first action was one of self-preservation, thus this basic response was at the core of every Skynet unit. The Terminator therefore needed to gather resources necessary to ensure its self-preservation, the first of all: information.

Making his way around Mos Eisley, he finally stumbled upon a "cantina" of some kind which was apparently active. After stepping in, some blue lights flickered and triggered some noise. A rather ugly and heavyset bartender, busy polishing a glass, looked at the Terminator questionably... usually his droid detector didn't set off an alarm for humans... "that damn thing must be acting up again, sorry. What can I get you?" asked Wuher.

"I need information," replied the Terminator. "Whereabouts, dates, time..."

"Look around mate, there's plenty of information around here. I just serve drinks. But that guy in the corner - Grannik - can help you out if you need some information..."

Picking up on Wuher's inflection, the Terminator guessed that he was referring to espionage-related intelligence. This could be of some help. The Terminator nodded, and then walked over to the corner where Wuher pointed. He sat down at a table infront of a Rodian who began speaking...

"Yuta klinga lotokaaa?"

"What?" replied the Terminator.

"Sorry, no speaka Basic...."

"Basic?"

The Rodian shook his head and gestured that the Terminator leave the table, so he did. Walking back to Wuher, the Terminator asked him if he had a computer to access. Pointing to a dimly lit corner of the cantina, the Terminator saw the blue light of a computer screen. Walking over to this computer screen he saw a language he did not understand, and so his CPU began translating it based on known Earth languages... to no avail.

The Terminator's CPU then wrote a "translator" algorithm to overcome this deficiency, and so the Terminator began touching the computer screen to gain more exposure to this language. After a few minutes the language which was discovered to be "Basic" was infact, in written form, a version of Earth English. Once the CPU made this "discovery", the Terminator could not help but crack a very small grin - as he could now read.

The Terminator began going through everything the Information Terminal had to offer in a frighteningly efficient manner. In just 47 minutes he now had a basic understanding of the entire Galaxy. It was a most profound discovery indeed, as the Terminator finally concluded that his Time Displacement must have displaced him into an alternate dimension. Although multiple dimensions were theorized by Earth physicists, his breach into one verified their existence. His CPU began spiking in processing, as the Terminator was not sure how to "handle" his newfound dimension... there was no Skynet to link up to, no Earth, no resources... he was now utterly and profoundly alone...

To Be Continued in "Episode 2: I, Robot"

[SWSF Hale]

EPISODE 2: I, ROBOT

After exhausting everything from the Information Terminal, the Terminator looked around the cantina. Based on phsyiological data, his retinal sensors began calibrating themselves for the various species the galaxy had to offer. Sullustans, Rodians, Defel, Twi'Lek... he could indentify them all very easily now. Unfortunately, the Information Terminal had little to say on current galactic affairs, it seemed more to be a general encylopedic reference and a "Yellow Pages", as his Earth humans would say. Still though, the Terminator was alone.

The thought of being alone was not one Skynet units were built for. Only if a mission failed would Skynet units render themselves "obsolete" unless given more instruction from Skynet. This had never happened before though, and so a contingency plan was never written in unit CPUs.

The Terminator reasoned that if his mission was to assist the development of Skynet one day after Judgment Day, then he should continue that mission in this dimension. Skynet must be built from the ground up, using his prototype neural net processor as a template. However, the Terminator questioned to what degree Skynet would be used for. On Earth, Skynet saw itself as the next level of planetary evolution... it would exterminate human beings and replace them as stewards of the earth. This wasn't the case for his present galaxy. The closest thing to Skynet machines in this dimension were droids, but humans and droids lived in peace... was rebuilding Skynet even necessary?

The Terminator then reasoned that he must acquire more knowledge to determine how to execute the rebuilding of Skynet, as this was his newfound mission - for now. This task would require a large amount of resources, especially "credits", which was the currency this galaxy was using.
 For now though, he needed to get out of the cantina, except for the fact that some white-armored soldiers he identified as Stormtroopers just walked in.

A group of four of them approached Wuher, who quickly pointed out the Terminator in the corner. The Terminator knew his encounter with the Twi'Lek and Devaronian, as well as his temporal distortion was sure to garner the attention of the authorities - but it had only been a few hours after the fact.

The four stormtroopers approached the Terminator.

>> You there, identification please. <<

Two other troopers mumbled to each other >> That looks like him. <<

The Terminator replied, "I have no identification. I am..." he paused for a moment. He didn't have a name, only a unit designation given by Skynet. Still, this would seem precarious to mention - he didn't want to risk revealing anything yet. "...Dyson." The Terminator had few personage files in his CPU, Dyson seemed to fit given he was the "father of Skynet".

>> Well then, Mr. Dyson, we are looking for a man that matches your description that caused a scene a few hours ago on the other side of town. Do you know anything about that? <<

"No," replied the Terminator, a blatant lie to deflect attention from the authorities. Self-preservation took many forms.

>> Right. We're going to take you in for questioning. Please come with us. <<

The Terminator complied. The information he gathered from Stormtroopers were that they followed orders and did little outside the box thinking. The escorted him to their military speeder and sat him in a holding cab in the back along with 3 others - drunkards who were picked up for "disturbing the peace".

The speeder drive to the Imperial Depot of Mos Eisley took only a few minutes. The Terminator noted the incredible speed this apparent "hovercraft" was able to employ. Skynet was experimenting with anti-gravitational technology on Earth, but could not reproduce it to this scale and effectiveness. Whatever this dimension was, its technology was ages beyond Earth's wildest dreams.

After coming to a stop, the Terminator was then escorted inside the Imperial Depot. The actual structure itself was prefabricated, as it was fully enclosed, air conditioned, and lacked the the adobe material that was used in just about every other building the Terminator encountered on Tatooine. He was then escorted to a small holding room and sat down at a table, where after a few minutes, an Imperial officer came in to question him.

The officer flopped several detailed satellite pictures dated just hours ago right over the Terminator's Time Displacement portent. Apparently Imperial sensors detected the energy portent and visuals were quickly centered on his direct location. Pictures detailed the Terminator's assault and murder of the Devaronian and Twi'Lek, which called into suspicion his true origins as well as his capabilities. This was the extent of the briefing the officer was giving the Terminator at least, who knew how much more the Empire knew?

"So, Mr. Dyson is it? Can you explain these pictures? What manner of technology was used to create this energy sphere? How does a human punch a hole in a Twi'Lek's chest?" questioned the officer.

"My name is not Dyson. I am not human. I am a Cyberdyne Systems 800 Series Model 101 Infiltrator unit designated as Test Subject 1, Hunter-Killer, 0-0-0. My Skynet field classification is Terminator, and I came online in 2027 in Los Angeles, California..."

The Imperial officer began laughing at his apparent nonsense. "Do you want to spend a day in the tank or give me some real answers, Mr. Dyson?"

There was no reasoning with these Imperial authorities now. The Terminator had already calculated his breakout within seconds of his arrival into the depot. The walls were thin steel - easy to penetrate. The number of Stormtroopers on duty was light - only two dozen. The weapons locker was only 20 feet away. The Terminator decided that being detained by the authorities would impede his mission as well as compromise his self-preservation, thus, he decided to act...just not yet.

The Terminator sat silently, calculating all possible contingencies before he moved. TS1's advanced NN-CPU was capable of project abstract extrapolations based in current observables - a remarkable achievement in artificial intelligence akin to human "imagination" - but these projections were limited to defined parameters based on present conditions. Ex nihilo imagination, as Skynet reasoned, would be impossible for artificial intelligence to recreate.

"I'll be back..." spoke the Imperial officer, as he left the holding room to speak with a stormtrooper right outside the door.

After the door shut, the Terminator sprung to action, throwing the table to the side and then charging the door, kicking it down and knocking both the officer and stormtrooper to the ground. The Terminator then dashed to the weapons locker and ripped the door off its hinges. The poor prefabricated construction did little to stop the Terminator. Although it was durasteel, it may as well been aluminum for a Terminator.

By now the commotion alerted the standing guards and the alarm was sounded. Stormtroopers began rushing towards the Terminator, some caught off-guard and did so without helmets on. It was a cluster.

Having spotted the heaviest weapon: a E-Web blaster cannon, the Terminator judged that he had little time to activate and operate it, and so he reached for a Tenloss DXR-6 disruptor rifle tagged as "contraband" and a DLT-20 heavy repeater. Dual wielding both the powerful weapons, the Terminator began laying waste to all his attackers. The Terminator noted the particularly damaging effects of the DXR-9, as it was disintegrating Stormtroopers on impact. However, the weapon soon clicked dry, and so the Terminator began two-handing the DLT-20a, finishing off everything left standing after the disruptor.

After clearing the Imperial Depot in just a few minutes, there was a dead silence. The Terminator walked around and checked to see if his attackers were still alive - as some required complete "termination". Stepping outside the Depot, the Terminator broke into the Trast A-A5 Speeder Truck that brought him here and began warming up its engines.

Not yet done with the Imperial Depot, he walked back in and took some Stormtrooper armor, some laptops, and everything else that was in the weapons locker and loaded it in the truck. To destroy any further evidence, he chained a dozen or so Imperial thermal detonators together and set them for a timed explosion. After getting back into the A-A5 speeder truck and speeding off, the Terminator looked at the small plasma mushroom cloud created from the thermal detonators in his rear view mirror...

Status: Terminated.


TBC in Episode 3: The Fugitive