Post-post-TRP

On August 5, 2042, after a 5 year resurgence, SkyNET is defeated once and for all on the slopes of Cheyenne Mountain. Hundreds of humans and thousands of machines perish in a battle that will become a seminal event in human history.

After days of brutal fighting, the Resistance breaches Cheyenne Mountain's fortifications and penetrates deep into the interior, suffering heavy losses with every inch gained. John Connor's demolition team eventually pushes through with a tactical nuclear device, coming face to face with the personification of SkyNET's machine intelligence. The team, and John Connor, perish in the ensuing conflagration, which destroys SkyNET's central processing.

This heroic act beheads the massive defense network at its central core, and at 8:58PM, SkyNET sends its last commands before shutting down. As part of a failsafe mechanism, SkyNET triggers the ultimate killswitch. A series of codes and viruses completely disable its power grids, factories, and plasma and fuel refineries, then destroying all network control nodes. SkyNET automatons and infrastructure, now disconnected from critical instructions, gradually deactivate core functions until they are completely inoperable.

Additionally, SkyNET launches its entire nuclear arsenal, detonating them high in the stratosphere above North America, Europe, and the Pacific Ocean.  Whereas SkyNET's nuclear holocaust in 1997 aimed to avoid nuclear power plants, electrical grids, industrial regions that would be critical to its maturation, the airburst detonations of August 5, 2042 were intended to incapacitate this very same infrastructure, as well as severely hampering any technology possessed by humanity. The resulting collection of electromagnetic pulses fried fuses, disabled fledgling energy sectors, and renders vehicles useless.

Much of  North and South America are devastated by the EMP, later called The Blackout.  Several communities in the interior which had been relying on eventual access to SkyNET fuel sources and electrical power would no longer be able to power critical equipment, and the EMP disables spotty telecommunications with the West Coast. SkyNET Machinery is torn apart, unable to be reactivated, and are recycled for fuel and scrap metal.  As fossil fuel sources run dry, and without the machinery to continue mining them, the North American interior further de-industrializes, and a pre-Columbian state returns to large portions of the continent.

The defeat of SkyNET thus creates a reset switch for most of humanity, which had been depending on being able to utilize SkyNET technology for reconstruction.  A process that would have taken decades with new technology will likely extend for centuries, as humanity pokes through the wreckage and try to salvage what remains.

The New Dark Ages (2050-2300)
Fearing a severe resource crisis, Resistance forces west of the Rocky Mountains order the immediate seizure of plasma weapons from civilians, who no longer need to defend themselves from machines. Salvage teams operate around the clock in Nevada, Utah, and Colorado trying to stockpile any SkyNET fuel they can find, sending it west to California. Other Resistance groups follow a similar pattern worldwide, as fossil fuels become unextractable. The wartime vulnerability of renewable energy sources means that these are never seriously invested in by the time of SkyNET's destruction.

Australia tries its best to assist its neighbors in Asia, but as it approaches the limits of its industrial capacity and population, forces around the world find diminishing support from the Resistance headquarters as the island nation tries to balance its own accounts.  However, contact continues between the scientists of the Great Powers, and the now coveted plasma fuel is allocated to highly secretive projects...

Human scientists struggle to find ways to reactive SkyNET machinery in formerly occupied areas, and the vast, city-sized manufactories, planned for years to be the harbinger of human reconstruction, lay dormant and decaying across the quiet, poisoned landscapes of the Great Plains, Mojave Desert, Western Europe, and Manchuria.

California Rising (2045-2200)
Masayuki Sakamoto, a immigrant from northern Canada, rises to prominence out of the rubble of Los Angeles as the leader of the now legendary Resistance cell, Tech-Com. Tech-Com was formed under the direct tutelage of John Connor as a research and development brigade, but as John Connor became involved in upper levels of human leadership, direct control of Tech-Com fell to Sakamoto, formerly a humanitarian medical officer.

Sakamoto's leadership coincides with a change in mission focus, from pure observation and analysis of SkyNET tactics and equipment, to a broader goal of uniting human forces in Southern California and utilizing SkyNET's infrastructure against them. While the Resistance in California had been a loose confederation of factions, they were never particularly unified except by John Connor's force of personality, and an endgoal of freedom from machine rule.  Beyond that, Resistance politics are plagued by squabbles over resources such as munitions and food, and factions are not always reliable. Seeing this, commanders in Bakersfield envision the cohesion and command structure befitting a unified regional power like the military forces in Australia, or the Chinese warlords.

At this point, Sakamoto is assigned the arduous yet unofficial task of bringing the multiple paramilitaries, Resistance cells and militias in Southern California under one banner. The loss of Connor as a direct commander created many difficulties, and Sakamoto struggled to maintain the Resistance's credibility among affiliated factions, many of whom felt little changes to their quality of life even after securing large portions of the region.

Frequently cut off from support from the higher echelons of the global resistance, Sakamoto also turned to partnerships with unusual allies: rogue AI cores, disavowed from SkyNET after discovering sentience independently. Because Tech-Com's territory sat on top of coltan reserves, Sakamoto was able to negotiate access to their manufacturing facilities, as well as military assistance in California's greater campaigns against the main body of SkyNET. The coalition known as The Free provided special forces units of advanced model drones, while others augmented Resistance artillery batteries and transports.

Due to the questionable loyalties and pragmatic natures of these AI's, Sakamoto's diplomacy was seen as risky at best, suicidal at worst.  However, the plan demonstrated its worth repeatedly in the Southern California campaigns, and particularly in Operation Tempus in 2033, where Resistance-led humans and machines coordinated an attack against control nodes in the San Fernando Valley and succeeded in completely liberating Southern California from SkyNET control. The success of Operation Tempus changed the paradigm of the Resistance, and Tech-Com's influence skyrocketed in the region, and several groups soon joined the unified Resistance banner.

This atmosphere of cooperation was short-lived, however. SkyNET's mysterious disappearance in 2034 left a Resistance thoroughly unprepared for the task of reconstruction so abrupt. The Resistance in California, now reorganized under the Army of the Pacific, immediately encountered a

Like the rest of the world, California's militias were taken by surprise in the SkyNET Resurgence in 2036. However, the much more militarized southern portion of the state quickly received assistance from Australia and Sichuan Republic, which had freed themselves entirely of SkyNET. By 2037, it was clear that the deciding battles of the war would be fought in the American Southwest, and the world's militaries begin planning for the ultimate beheading of SkyNET. In the rebuilt military bases of Coronado and Camp Pendleton, thousands of soldiers from Asia and Oceania flood into Southern California, leaving a lasting impact on the culture of Los Angeles and the other staging areas.

Free California (2042-2300)
When the war ends, thousands perish in the Battle of Cheyenne Mountain, and California is devastated by The Blackout. Telecommunications are disrupted, the coltan mines shut down, and the region's power grid is indefinitely incapacitated. Limited contact is maintained with Australia and China, but it becomes clear that Sakamoto cannot expect any assistance from abroad.

The Australo-Chinese military buildup in California disperses across the landscape after the end of the war. While many integrate into American military units or settle into local communities, some turn to raiding for fuel and ammunition, turning their guns against their American allies in frustration.

In the ensuing chaos following The Blackout, Masa's questionable diplomacy pays off. The Rogue AI cores, revealing themselves to be unharmed by SkyNET's shutdown, help to restore order, though Sakamoto later learns that they have been disavowed by the global Resistance as a result. Within decades, the Resistance disbands as a coherent faction, gradually replaced by a loose coalition of nation-states, military dictatorships and paramilitaries that trace descent to the concept. With the threat gone, the need for a unified humanity erodes quickly.

In 2045, 3 years after The Blackout, Sakamoto and his allies form the Federation of Free California. Initially a loose, semi-formal conglomerate of cities in Southern California, agricultural communes in the northern forests, and fortified castle towns, Sakamoto's leadership in Southern California begins to consolidate its power with savvy diplomacy, humanitarian outreach, and a relatively powerful military bolstered by machine industry. By 2050, all of Tech-Com's Resistance partners have joined the FFC, or fallen under its control.

While California aims for peace, it also engages in decades of conflict, slowly securing its territory from remnant bands of Pacific Raiders and renegade military units, the twilight of lawlessness in rural California. Free California's bold expansionism gradually brings it into brushfire wars with groups in the Mojave Desert, though it is able to secure alliances with several desert paramilitaries and establishes a formal trade partnership with the Four Corners Republic, a coalition of militias and Indian tribes united under the former Navajo Nation.

The Free and other cores re-establish some of California's nuclear reactors and power grids a few years after the Blackout, and convert their own factories to assist in reconstruction, in exchange for California sharing access to the now dwindling Coltan and other critical resources. Plasma refining resumes by 2071, using more efficient methods designed by Dr. Peter Bishop and other former Tech-Com science officers in cooperation with The Free.  Human innovation is otherwise stifled, however, as California has never had the vast pool of pre-war educated scientists and engineers held by Australia. The reliance on machines for human development is viewed with controversy, as the long-term motives of the AI cores are still poorly understood.

The return of automated industry and increasing agricultural yields creates a higher quality of life in the region.  Specialized trades such as finance and law make a return as Free California institutes a coltan-backed currency and develops a written code of law. As the 21st century ends, Free California is developing quickly but its longevity is unclear.

On April 17, 2093, Masayuki Sakamoto dies at the age of 91, having led Free California for nearly 50 years.

As the years pass, the aging veterans of the War of the Machines slowly dwindle, claimed by old age.  In 2107, Callum Beth dies in Los Angeles at the age of 104, the last member of the original Tech-Com Resistance cell to have served under John Connor.

A New Century (2100-2200)

California spends the opening years of the 2100's consolidating its power, but also expanding its territorial reach into the forests of Oregon and the Mojave Desert of Nevada. California's formal allies have grown to include the Navajo of the Four Corners Republic, and Cascadia, the descendants of Tech-Com's close affiliates in British Columbia and Washington.  It also maintains its extensive network of allied machines, even the mysterious hoarders of Legion in northern Oregon, and maintains diplomatic communications with groups as distant as the Black Hills Coalition in the South Dakota badlands.

California is largely energy independent by the middle of the century, though these gains are not guaranteed to be sustainable. With the reactivation of limited plasma refining and the advent of plasma-driven ground vehicles and nuclear power, demand for fossil fuels emerges chiefly from the agricultural sector, which often continues to employ 20th century farming implements.  At the beginning of the century, most citizens of California have at least limited access to electricity. Vehicles are strictly controlled, however, and are only largely used by the logistic sector and the military.

The agricultural sector is growing, and although erratic climate conditions plague farmers for decades, average yields approach 20th century levels by 2150. For the first time in decades, no one perishes from starvation. Many families and small communities continue to grow their own food in horticultural plots and wartime hydroponic labs, but as food becomes more readily available from the fledgling market economy, this practice gradually only remains with homesteaders in Northern California and Nevada.

While the nation as a whole is miles ahead of much of the world, it is still plagued by many issues. Poor sanitation, substandard living conditions, dangerous labour conditions and heavy pollution claim many victims, compounding the number of lifestyle ailments and preventative diseases: 40% of the population still has no access to reliable running water in 2095. A large migrant population of formerly nomadic refugees struggles to adapt to life as industrial workers, farmers, and warehouse jockeys- jobs which are also being filled by machines.

Trust in the government waxes and wanes as promises to improve the quality of life for many Californians fall flat or are conversely fulfilled. Rebellions and dissent are quickly put down by the military in remote areas where government support is felt the least.

There is also widespread distrust in the nation's alliances with sentient machines, which are seen as unreliable and scheming against California's interests.  The proliferation of humanoid utility drones for use in reconstruction and industry, as well as the unchecked production of vastly more intelligent T-8xx series among independent AI cores.

While California's government publicly responds to this distrust by limiting the use of utility drones in the industrial sector, the military continues to augment its forces with machines, mostly produced by its allies.

Picking Through the Ruins
A large portion of military efforts seek to reactivate decaying SkyNET infrastructure across California and Nevada. An indirect result of these missions is the reactivation of the Hoover Dam in the Mojave Desert in 2103, and the establishment of solar arrays around Las Vegas.  However, human scientists and independent AI cores alike scratch their heads at miles of unresponsive SkyNET machinery, which still cannot be repurposed except for scrap. Manufactories in California are kept under armed guard, though there is heavy political pressure to allow these ruins to be harvested and the raw materials re-introduced into the economy.

California's military maintains a small fleet of reprogrammed Hunter-Killers for special purposes, though these chassis are aging and gradually entering obsolescence as human aircraft and armoured vehicles perform better and in larger numbers. A small contingency of scientists in Arizona also experiment with MIR automation modules in repurposing century-old airframes from the pre-war Davis-Monthan aircraft boneyard, at least some of which are still airworthy with repairs. As of 2100, California's air force still maintains 2 B-52 strategic bombers, now well over 150 years old, for high-volume ordnance delivery against hardened targets, though it scarcely has the fuel for them.

Dark America (2100-2300)
California still does not have a clear connection to the millions living east of the Rocky Mountains, which have yet to establish communication.  Land routes across the Rockies are unclear, and SkyNET had deliberately erased all human infrastructure in the Great Plains in order to create city-sized manufactories and plasma refineries. A large wall of coltan, concrete and titanium effectively cuts the continental United States in half, preventing California from aiding in the reconstruction in these areas.

Several administrations float the idea of exploring areas to the east, but the sheer expense of funding and properly protecting such an endeavour provides repeated discouragement. A single aerial reconnaissance survey in 2173 reveals significant but pre-industrial human occupations in western portions of Texas. Popular and political support for a trans-continent mission gradually builds,

The Eastward Expedition (2203-2206)
At the onset of the 23nd century, Californian leadership orders an exploratory mission deep into the North American interior, with the goal of documenting, and building alliances and trade agreements with, the numerous pre-industrial chiefdoms, nomads, republics, and kingdoms that have since emerged beyond the Rocky Mountains. Politically, the mission also serves to distract the public from growing anti-machine sentiment, depletion of industrial materials, failing food supplies, severe climate change and overcrowding in urban areas, which dominate public discourse.

Charles Seilgim, great-great-great grandson of General Brett Seilgim, is chosen to lead the expedition alongside Colonel Elizabeth Clive, the great-great-great-great granddaughter of famed diplomat Frederick Clive.