The Terminator Files Forum

1) Power plants detectable.

Doesn't take much to run a few UV bulbs. If they're running cars they've got plenty of gas. Gas generators will do the trick. Seems like inspecting all the rivers and canals around the world for underground pipes trailing off to hidden facilities could be more work than even Skynet is capable of. On the other hand there are ways around that. You can always bring the water in by hand. It's manpower intensive, but these facilities would have to be relatively small and scattered anyways. It's doable.

2) Resistance gathering forces.

It'll take time to convince everyone of what's actually going down. Part of survival in a post apocalyptic enviorment is being able to defend yourself. I'm sure any survivor could put up some level of resistance, they're just not going to have the explosives and mines of an organized militia type force. Although if Skynet is so vulnerable this early on, makes you wonder why Conner didn't just hire his own group of mercs before the war. Train them, wait for the bombs to fall and then hit Skynet where it hurts and end the war early.

3) ASATs

Who said anything about ASATs? The F-15 was designed with the capability to shoot down satellites. The Chinese have tested aircraft launched missile systems with similar capabilities. It's just not something anyone tends to advertise or complain about, because we're not technically supposed to have that capability.

4) HK

Well, hunter killer is appropriate. Skynet is trying to wipe humanity out. The HK with its height is an ideal ground unit to make up a force designed that mission. Figure they're using some type of grid search pattern. HK's cover most of it. Aerial units fill in the gaps and offer fire support. The unit is heavily armored. Obviously the Resistance designed or captured a high grade explosive to hit it where it's weak on the underside. Just like any anti-tank mine. I doubt RPG's would be effective against it. And considering what T1 showed of it responds almost instantly with accurate fire and it seems the sensors cover a very wide arc around it.

And all that's required is the perfect virus. It needs to have a long incubation period, but not so long that a person is more likely to die of other causes. It needs to be an airborne virus that can survive for long periods of time outside the host in a variety of conditions. It needs to have a long contagious period prior to the onset of symptoms. It must be debilitating and fast-acting so that the infected do not have the opportunity to "go out in a blaze of glory".

That sounds like a pretty tall order for a machine entity that did not successfully achive the ability to create living tissue until late in the war. There's no telling what obstacles might make such a virus difficult or impossible to create. And there's still the matter of a delivery system. The Earth is a pretty big place. Skynet might not have the ability to easily and reliably attack human settlements on the other side of the planet. That's assuming Skynet can detect them in the first place. There are a lot of places on the planet for people to hide. It's easy to fall back on satellite surveillance, but as the search for Osama bin Laden--or even Saddam Hussein for that matter--has shown, there are still plenty of low-tech ways to avoid high-tech surveillance. Skynet may not have to differentiate between good and bad humans, but it will have a much larger area to search. And once again, the Resistance has a vested interest in preemptively stopping such attacks whenever possible. It's going to do everything possible to figure out Skynet's plans, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that an aircraft spraying something into the air at low altitude is a bad thing.

I'm sure Skynet has plenty of reasons to try biological warfare, but that doesn't mean such warfare is some easy-to-develop secret weapon that will ensure complete annihilation so long as Skynet thinks to use it. Lots of inconvenient problems tend to get in the way of the perfect solution. I'd rather think of Skynet as an intelligent machine entity that can only accomplish so much with limited resources in the middle of a war, instead of a perfect machine that inexplicably refuses to use the methods that will result in the easiest, most sure-fire victories.

I always felt biological weapons wouldn't be an avenue Skynet would pursue lightly. People are pretty simple. If we've got food for a week, we're worried at all about going to the store. We tend to think short term in most respects. It's logical to assume an AI like Skynet could be thinking centuries down the road. It's machines are totally recyclable. After plasma weapons it only expends renewable energy, maybe power cells, as opposed to thousands of brass shell casings and either lead or steel bullets, not to mention the chemicals. Biological research doesn't further Skynet it being an artificial being. The products have a relatively short shelf life and then they're gone. Raw materials expended. Chemical weapons specifically are only effective against large groups of people. Biological, it's like we've seen above. Difficult to create a disease or virus that will be totally effective. Then there's the problem of infecting someone. You've got other concerns. Biological weapons are so terrifying now because it's not uncommon for someone to be in New York now, and half the way around the world in a single day. Something that becomes infectious before it shows symptoms can spread long before you're able to get a lid on it. Based on what we've seen on the future war I believe that humanity has adopted a cell like structure. Which resistance units operating in specific areas until told to move. With Tech Comm forces floating around for large strikes. There's isn't a real opportunity for a virus to spread out of control. You wipe out a unit, but you won't get them all.

We already have one - it's called influenza. 1918 influenza (a.k.a. the Spanish flu) would be perfect and laboratories around the world have plenty of samples to go around. Breeding viruses is much more simple than preventing them from doing so. I don't see any problem for Skynet there. Finally I'm not postulating that viral weaponry should be the only solution, but just one of many. Diversity of your arsenal is a key to victory. Keep your enemy guessing every time he sets foot in your facilities. Let's not forget the fear and paranoia factor that's associated with viruses. I know robots are scary, but it's only a matter of time before you get used to endos stalking the battlefield. Invisible killers you never get used to.

I dunno. Despite how dangerous the flu can be, it doesn't seem to drive people into a panic.

Anyway, as a more-or-less localized form of attack, biological warfare would be more effective than bombing suspicious piles of rubble. I just jumped because whenever chemicals, viruses, or even post-Judgement Day nuclear weapons are mentioned, there always seems to be the assuption that such weapons are the key to the complete eradication of humanity, and that Skynet is somehow foolish for not using such methods. I'm sure Skynet has tried it all, but I don't see a reason for people to focus on those kinds of warfare. Poisons, plagues, and nukes are staples of fiction--I can see that stuff anywhere. But killer machines are comparatively rare, and it's even more rare to see them done well. If I'm going to watch Terminator movies, I want to see Terminators. If I want to see canisters of deadly biological agents, I'll watch '24' or any number of movies focused on such a threat.

Yeah but then John Connor gets into the same problem Sarah ran into, everyone thinks you're crazy! Enrique Salceda was skeptical of Sarah after all those years. Even though she brought Uncle Bob with her, she didn't prove he was a Terminator. Even though in the original script she proved to Enrique by firing a gun at Uncle Bob and Enrique started to help her. in the final film this wasn't needed because Enrique and Sarah had a comradery that couldn't be broken. As for how he might have acted or helps after the bombs fell, no one knows. Supposedly Salceda was killed by the T-1000 offscreen [and in storyboards] after it went thru John's tapes from the foster home it took[see special edition], as this would explain why Robert Patrick shows up at Dyson's home for no real reason, and far too late to protect Miles.



Even a battle-hardened soldier like Kyle Reese, couldn't get used to it, couldn't fully shake the fear and shock of seeing the Endoskeleton rising from the flames. Knowing full and well, that you can't stop it. "it can't be reasoned with. It can't be bargined with. It doesn't feel pity or remorse or fear. And it absolutely will not stop. Ever! Until you are dead."



There's nothing better than having "boots on the ground." You can only, and the pun is fully intended, "bring the rain" for so long before you need to march in the troops. Once Skynet had the perfect machine that could eliminate its targets, execute its programming, and follow a target anywhere and anyplace it could go, Skynet knew it could win. All it had to do was have the command and control, manufacturing capabilities, and the amount of material resources to do so until the attrition rate was to high for the humans combat against. Fortunately for us, the Resistance knew this and targeted those specific faucets of Skynet's rather than facing each Terminator one on one.


Also, more or less back on topic from what I had first posted. Here's a conceptual drawing closeup of the "Ogre Tanks" we were discussing as well as some scenes from the acutal show for comparision.










I also want to venture a guess that when Kyle Reese mentions "Centaur Patrol," that he may have been referring to the Ground Hunter Killer Tanks from T2 and T1. Any one else agree with the "Centaur" moniker for them? Somewhere, I'm not sure where, but some source material (not just Christopher Shields http://www.goingfaster.com/term2029/ ) had referred to them as Goliath Tanks. Was this in the old Skynet/Future Shock Bestheda games?

Another point is that John Connor would only have been 12 years old once Judgement Day struck. There probably aren't going to be a lot of mercenaries who are willing to work for a middle-school kid and his crazy mother.


I don't have the ability to check right now, but I'm pretty sure the HK tanks were indeed called Goliaths in Future Shock and Skynet. There actually was a tank-type enemy in the game, so apparently Bethesda came up with the Goliath name in order to distinguish between the tank unit they created and the HK Tanks we know from the movies.

That's true, lol. And imagine the kind of people you would find who would say yes to it!

Hmm, so what can we attribute the "Centaur" reference to? I may make a separate thread about this...