"To SKYNET, human stubbornness made no sense. They fought when logic told the synthetic intelligence that they were beaten. They relentlessly poured out of the rubble like a bacterial plague, their patterns of counterattack clever and difficult to predict. And humans reproduced at an alarming rate, their sexual appetites evidently fanned high by the threat of total annihilation. Even though it took at least eight years before the human young could be made ready for battle, they were beginning to outpace SKYNET's manufacturing capabilities. And they were quickly learning to find the soft spots in the metal vanguard, decimating SKYNET's army of killing machines. Soon, there would be more human soldiers than non-human. The hyper-computer had miscalculated gravely on something it was still furiously analyzing: human will. So far, it had not come to a conclusion. And the War was grinding into its thirty-first year...."
-Frakes, "Terminator 2: Judgment
Day" the novel.
SMALL ARMS, SUPPORT
WEAPONS
AND FIELD EQUIPMENT
OF THE EARLY
21st CENTURY
______________________________________
- an in-depth overview of the
technology used by the humans and by the Machines -
Tactics and Operational Doctrines
Miscellaneous Data Fragments - bits of damaged data shedding some light on many different subjects. Found in 04282031 in one of the third largest tertiary data caches, SKYNET facility, Level 45-D, Cheyenne Recovery Project.
Sapper Teams and Machine Hunting in the ruins - "The ruins of mankind's civilization were the play ground of a very dangerous, very final game where the stakes were the highest. As SKYNET's automated robotic killing machines moved through the ruins, demolishing every place that humans might find refuge or hide, there were dedicated teams of humans moving through the ruins hunting the machines."
Jerry-Rigged Weapons and Captured SKYNET Technology - "One of the primary suppliers of high energy weapons to the Resistance was SKYNET (a well known fact that disturbed and angered the Artifint), through combat attrition, outright theft, and sometimes by other clever means. A large portion of SKYNET's advanced weapons are often captured by Resistance fighters, repaired, modified, and returned to service against the Machines. The advanced technology employed by SKYNET was far ahead of what the Resistance could produce, and sometimes beyond even their best scientists and technicians ability to understand."
Small Arms and Light Support Weapons
Plasma Weapons - an overview - "Energy weapons had advantages over the more archaic projectile weapons in that their lethality could be provided with smaller amounts of raw materials. Ammunition storage for energy weapons was very compact, even for the first crude plasma guns which SKYNET began its extermination crusade against the human race with and the storage capacity for energy weapons only increased, sometimes exponentially, over the years and decades that followed."
Model LAPPG18A2 LA3PG Light Anti-Personnel Plasma Gun - "SKYNET filled its need for a light anti-personnel plasma gun with the M18A2 series weapon system, built on late 2nd Gen / early 3rd Gen plasma weapon technology.. Compact and high powered, the M18A2 served as the main high energy weapon system for many of SKYNET's integrated anti-intruder perimeter and installation defense systems as well as the primary offensive ranged weapon of the smaller series of HK units like the scuttlers and the runnerpods, among others."
Model M20-A Plasma Pistol / Plasma Carbine - "The design of the new series plasma weapons was such that the core configuration could be graduated in size either up or down the production scale. A 30% smaller weapon was achieved by modeling the system in a smaller scale. The traditional bullpup configuration was discarded and total weapon balance was moved forward in the design by repositioning the fuel / power cell forward of the pistol grip and firing actuator assembly."
Westinghouse Model M-25A1 Plasma Rifle - "When SKYNET leveled the world, personal energy weapons were available in large percentages to the American military forces and to a much lesser extent to the Russians and the Chinese. It wasn't a matter of "if" high energy weapons would replace traditional projectile weapons on the battlefield so much as it was a matter of "when" and America seemed to have the lead not only in research but thanks to the sharing of reverse engineered technology through DARPA, industry giants Westinghouse and General Dynamics were already ramping up production of their combat and support high energy weapons to replace the traditional Colt M16 and the Browning M2HB HMG."
Westinghouse Model M-30 Plasma Carbine - "The weight distribution of the M30, divided into three major components of feed/action, accelerator system and discharge array, was almost evenly balanced gaining the M30 some favoritism among Resistance members and its human users. The M30 also had a reputation for being doggedly reliable and of having a willingness to take severe abuse and still function. However, the M30 had one reputation that wasn't so well received ..."
Westinghouse Model M95A1 Phased Plasma Rifle - "The M95 series of weapons were produced by SKYNET exclusively for the ground mobile Endoskeleton units. The M95 was heavier than either the M-25 series or the M20 series and as such, it was not a popular weapon with the Resistance (as few humans could heft and carry the eight kilogram mass of the plasma ejector). The handgrips were purposely designed more for the Endoskeleton units, thus making the M95 series even more awkward to use by humans (this last mod in a fit of growing paranoia that humanity was using SKYNET's own technology against it, a reality in and of itself)."
General Dynamics RSB-80 Heavy Plasma Gun - "The RSB-80 was long and heavy, nearly two meters in length and weighing in at over 40 kilograms fully fueled, the RSB-80 excelled as a light support weapon and was used in a variety of different models and chassis combinations produced by SKYNET. The rapid cycling Type 3 Level VII containment bottle gave the plasma bolts a greater integrity hand-off field envelope, producing a much stronger bolt over a longer distance."
Explosives and Demolition Assets
M83 Pincer Grenade HCC (heavy canister charge arrayed anti-tank mine) - "The M83HCCs arming sequence is designed to be simple and straight-forward; a large handle on the top of the canister is pulled 5cm upward and twisted 180 degrees in a clockwise rotation to afford a 10 second mixture rate of the two binary explosive liquids. Twisting the handle ten degrees further allows more time in mixing, in 5 second increments, up to a full minute. Notches on the rim of the arming cap allow the user to dial-in the correct arming time sequence using the arming handle, even if by feel alone."
Equipment
Flexy Sight - "This compact yet powerful vision enhancement and tactical data assimilation system offered thirty power digital telescopic zoom with microprocessor controlled high definition display as well as low-light, infra-red, and thermal imaging. A modulated Superconudyne variable spectrum targeting laser gave accurate range readings as well as acted as both a laser aiming device and a target painting designator."
Satchel Pack Terminal - SPT - "One of the most used items of any Tech-Com operative, Tech-Com team or Salvage team is the sight of a SPT (or two or four) being carried into the field and being deployed on site."
Map Sheet - "Dowling reached his gloved hand down into the side pocket of his fatigue pants and pulled out his snap map; two black polymer tension keepers with a rolled up semi-liquid optics impregnated smart cloth stretched between them. He tapped the snap map once on his leg then pulled it open where it locked rigid, becoming a 30cm by 30cm tablet. He tapped the rigid snap map again and it glowed to dull illuminated life."
Model 10B PMFVRL "Mag-gogs" - "The introduction and implementation of solofilament barriers to SKYNET's installation defense systems was an early cause of casualties and concern for the Resistance. Often, a soldier would run afoul of solofilament before they knew it with nearly always fatal results. Since solofilament could be strung among the ruins by very small spinner machines which were equally hard to detect, the threat of solofilament existed both on and off the battlefield as well as around most of SKYNET's installations."