The War Against The Machines is the future war that takes place after Judgment Day in 2004 in the new, altered timeline. It involved the human Resistance led by John Connor against the machines made by Skynet. It is sometimes referred to as War of The Machines, The Future War, or simply The War.
The War
On July 25, 2004, General Robert Brewster of Cyber Research Systems initiated an attack on a virus spreading throughout all computer networks with the project Skynet. Skynet became self-aware and thought the humans as their "enemy." A T-X sent through time activated the HK-Drones and Series T1s at the CRS Complex and they all started to kill all humans in sight. John Connor was contacted at Crystal Peak by the U.S. Military and he had stated that he was in charge there. Judgment Day happened on that day, after a T-850 sent back in time, and saved John Connor and Kate Brewster from the T-X at Crystal Peak.
Shortly after Judgment Day, the Resistance was founded from remnants of the world's military, whose surviving officers lead from a Los Angeles class submarine in the form of a leading council of Generals and Admirals, with General Ashdown leading them.
John had gathered the Resistance by 2018. The Resistance was heavily outnumbered by the Skynet machines. Connor had doubts about winning the war. The information he learned from his mother and father were not of much use in this new future.
By 2018, Skynet has deployed Aerostats to observe land, Hydrobots to patrol the waters, Harvesters and Mototerminators to gather humans, T-1s, T-7Ts, T-600s and HK-Aerials to search and kill humans. Human piloted helicopters and A-10 close support aircraft indicates that Skynet has not established air supremacy over the Resistance. Skynet created the Series 800 at around 2018 from stem-cell research done on humans.
The Resistance would soon discover the new creations of the T-800, when they attacked Skynet VLA, led by General Olsen and John, where all except John were killed. Then afterwards, the Resistance would discover from Command that they found a flaw in the communications protocols of the Terminator, allowing them to temporarily shut the machines down. This leads to plans of a worldwide attack. Meanwhile, Marcus Wright, a deceased human on Death Row turned Terminator comes online and gets close with Kyle Reese and a kid named Star, who both soon get captured by Skynet forces and get sent to Skynet Central. Marcus soon calls for help from the Resistance, but gets captured by them instead when they mistake him for an enemy for Skynet. But, he soon convinces John that his future father is in Skynet Central and they let him go so he can lead them there to rescue not only Kyle, but also the other human prisoners there. Just as John arrives to rescue Kyle and the human prisoners, he soon encounters the T-800 Terminator, activated for the first time. He then, meets his future father for the first time too, and rescues him and the human prisoners, but gets nearly killed in the process. Skynet Central is destroyed by the Resistance, while Resistance Headquarters is destroyed by the machines when they locate and destroy it, along with General Ashdown and Command through their communications trap. But Marcus gives his life to rescue John's life and dies in the process. It is through all this that, it can be assumed that John Connor is in charge of the Resistance.
Time Traveling Missions
Skynet
Resistance
- 2032 - Kate Brewster, John Connor's wife, captures and reprograms the same T-850 that killed him that year to protect him in 2004 from Judgment Day, and later a T-X sent by Skynet. The T-X was sent to kill John Connor's lieutenants including William Anderson, Elizabeth Anderson, Jose Barrera, Robert Brewster, and Kate Brewster.
Appearances
- Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
- Terminator Salvation franchise
- Terminator Salvation film
- Terminator Salvation: From the Ashes
- Terminator Salvation: Cold War
- Terminator Salvation novel
- Terminator Salvation: Trial by Fire
- Terminator Salvation: Sand in the Gears
- Terminator Salvation comic
- Terminator Salvation: The Machinima Series
- Terminator Salvation game
- Terminator Salvation: The Final Battle
- Terminator Genysis