I thought it would be interesting to lay out a Unified Terminator Storyline, incorporating T1, T2, T3, T4, and TSCC. Much of it is taken from the analyses on my Profile Page, including the dedicated thread “How could TSCC fit in with T3 and T4?” at the bottom of that page. The way I have it laid out, the proper sequence of the commercial productions should be T1, T4, T2, T3, and TSCC. I must acknowledge Dr. Allison Cameron for her contributions to my ideas, especially regarding how to incorporate T3 into the saga. I did not write this with the intention of making it a fanfic, but I recognized that many of my interpretations reflected my own assumptions about the story. Understanding that others may disagree with my interpretations, I realized that presenting it as a fanfic would be the most correct way to offer it to the wiki. And so, the narrative:

Original Timeline
At first, Sarah was just another waitress and there was no Skynet, no time machine, and no terminators. Sarah’s roommate Ginger was dating Matt. Sarah went on a date with Stan Morsky, a guy with a Porsche, and she got pregnant. Stan disappeared from Sarah’s life but she had the baby and named him John. Life continued for Sarah, who stayed single and kept the Connor name, as John began to grow up.

Meanwhile, Miles Dyson was a researcher at Cyberdyne, and he was working on a government project to develop Skynet, a computer to take charge of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. He succeeded. The computer was installed, became sentient, decided to kill humanity, and caused Judgment Day. Billions of people died.

After Judgment Day, the human Resistance was formed and fought Skynet and its terminators and HKs. Led by John Connor, who was fathered by Stan, the Resistance was winning the war. But Skynet developed the time machine and sent Arnie back in time to kill Sarah in a last ditch effort. Arnie’s arrival changed the future from the point of his arrival.

Pre-T1 – Arnie’s Jump
After arriving back in 1984, Arnie started his killing spree, ending with the killing of Ginger and Matt while Sarah was out on her date with Stan Morsky. With no reason to believe that he had killed the wrong girl, Arnie left Ginger's and Sarah’s apartment and found a secure location to go into Standby mode, since his mission was now completed, believing he had killed all the Sarah Connors listed in the phone book.

When Sarah came home from her date, she discovered Ginger’s and Matt’s bodies and called the police. The police advised her to change her name and go into hiding, which she did. She and Arnie never saw each other.

Pre-T1 – Kyle’s Jump
Meanwhile back in the future, shortly after Arnie was sent back, the Resistance was able to capture Skynet’s time machine and future John (Stan’s son) sent Kyle Reese back to protect Sarah. Kyle arrived shortly after Arnie arrived and changed the future from that point forward.

Kyle’s arrival caused a big stir in the local police. The derelict in the alley observed his arrival in a ball of lightening, and then Kyle stole some of his clothes. Kyle eluded police and stole more clothing in the department store. Then Kyle stole a police shotgun and a car. This all somehow caused Stan to cancel his date with Sarah. Stan might have been a cop or a CSI or a police psychiatrist called in to interview the derelict or a consulting scientist called in to study the electrical burn marks in the alley.

Because Stan had to cancel his date with Sarah, she went out and had dinner alone. That’s when Kyle started following her. She spotted him and got spooked. That’s why she went into the TechNoir disco and called the police. She also called home and left a message on her answering machine. Arnie was in her apartment and heard her message, which informed him that he had killed the wrong girl and gave him her location at the disco.

Arnie arrived at the disco and targeted Sarah, but Kyle saved her. Arnie continued his pursuit while Kyle and Sarah fled. Along the way, Kyle slept with Sarah and impregnated her. (We know Sarah was in estrus because she would have had a child with Stan Morsky otherwise.) Finally, Kyle was killed, and Sarah crushed Arnie in a mechanized factory, leaving his chip and arm intact.

Believing Judgment Day was on the way, pregnant Sarah drove south into Mexico where the boy at the gas station took a picture of her. Eventually Sarah bore a son fathered by Kyle, whom she named John. After engaging in illegal activities, Sarah was captured and put into Pescadero Mental Hospital, while John was sent to live in foster homes.

T1 Story
Having recovered Arnie’s chip and arm from the mechanized factory, Miles Dyson reverse engineered these artifacts and succeeded in creating a more advanced Skynet. This Skynet was given control of the U.S. missile arsenal and caused Judgment Day. Again there was a war which the Resistance seemed to be winning, led by John Connor (Kyle’s son), and again Skynet developed the time machine and sent Arnie back to kill Sarah.

Again the Resistance captured the time machine and future John sent his father Kyle back to protect Sarah. John had the picture of Sarah that the Mexican boy had taken, and he gave it to Kyle so he would know what she looked like. After Kyle arrived in 1984, Arnie found Sarah, she overcame Arnie with Kyle's help, John was born, Sarah ended up in Pescadero, and John had to live with foster parents.

T4 Story
Once again, Miles Dyson created Skynet and Judgment Day occurred. John Connor became a legend in the Resistance, and he led a loyal combat unit. Skynet tried to kill John by using a hybrid cyborg named Marcus Wright, who had started out as a human convicted murderer who was scheduled to be executed but was given a cyborg body instead. The Marcus body used some human organs and was an intermediate step on Skynet's cyborg development path toward a fully artificial warrior like the T800. With help from Marcus, John was able to destroy a key Skynet facility near San Francisco. Sadly, Marcus had to give his life to save John’s. With other victories, the Resistance was able to gain the upper hand against Skynet.

T2 – T1000’s Jump
Nearing defeat, Skynet developed the time machine and sent the T1000 back to kill young John. The T1000 tracked John to the shopping mall where John ran from him in the service corridors behind the stores. John had a good lead ahead of the T1000 and was able to pass through the doors back into the mall crowd before the T1000 could see him do this. John stayed low and ran through the crowd, so the T1000 was not able to see him when it reached the doors itself. John believed the T1000 was a cop trying to catch him for stealing from ATMs, so he did not go home but moved away and hid out. The T1000 was not able to reacquire him.

T2 – Uncle Bob’s Jump
Not long after the T1000 jumped back, the Resistance captured the time machine and future John sent Uncle Bob back to protect himself, resulting in the future changing after the point of his arrival. Uncle Bob entered the mall service corridor, blocking John’s escape and forcing him back toward the T1000. After the shooting started, John ran away, but the T1000 maintained its pursuit. John and Uncle Bob helped Sarah escape from Pescadero and they eventually blew up Cyberdyne. Both the T1000 and Uncle Bob were melted in the molten metal pool.

Pre-T3
John grew older and succeeded in staying off the grid. Sarah died of cancer. Late one night, John bumped into an old girlfriend Kate Brewster at her veterinary clinic, but nothing came of it and they soon parted ways. Meanwhile, a researcher named Goode who was on Miles Dyson’s development team had survived the Cyberdyne explosion and got a job working at another technology firm with the assignment of completing the development of Skynet which the U.S. Air Force still wanted. He succeeded in developing a version of Skynet that became sentient and chose to distribute itself widely as a software virus. This soon led to a new Judgment Day.

T3 – T-X’s Jump
After this Judgment Day, the Resistance was led by John Connor, who met and married Kate Brewster, and they seemed successful fighting against Skynet. Skynet developed the time machine and sent back the T-X terminator to kill Kate Brewster and other Resistance leaders. The T-X caught up to Kate shortly after she locked John in a dog cage in the veterinary clinic. Detecting John’s presence, the T-X was interrogating Kate in the clinic parking lot while John was locked in the cage inside.

Getting desperate and frustrated, John kicked the cage door open and ran outside, where he saw the T-X and Kate. Recognizing the T-X’s threat, John ran away. The T-X began to pursue him but he had started running far enough away from her that he could get out of her sight and hide, such that she was not able to find him immediately. Kate ran away as the T-X was searching for John. Shortly after that, the police arrived, responding to a report of shots fired, which had occurred when the T-X was trying to shoot Kate in the clinic. The arrival of the police gave John the cover to escape the area. The T-X would not reacquire him.

T3 – T850’s Jump
Meanwhile, the Resistance was able to capture the time machine, and Kate sent the T850 back to help John and herself. The T850 ran a pickup truck into the T-X while it was interrogating Kate in the clinic parking lot. It locked Kate into the back of the clinic truck, and John freed himself from the dog cage and drove the truck away trying to escape the situation. The T-X was in pursuit along with the T850. With the help of the T850, the T-X was destroyed, and John and Kate got safely sheltered in an old underground military installation just as Skynet started Judgment Day.

Pre-TSCC (A Story for T5?)
In the ensuing war, Skynet again developed the time machine. Skynet sent a terminator back to protect Goode and ensure that he completes the development of Skynet. But the Resistance was able to capture the time machine again, and future John sent back an agent whose mission was to convince Goode to stop his work on Skynet. Unfortunately, Goode could not be convinced and was killed during a struggle between the Resistance agent and the terminator, ending the development of that Skynet. And neither the Resistance agent nor the terminator survived their fight. Goode’s wife was emotionally devastated by his death, forcing her son Andy Goode to drop out of Caltech and stay with her for support.

TSCC – The First Turk
Andy Goode had spent a summer as an intern with his father working for Miles Dyson at Cyberdyne, and Andy kept some of Dyson’s brilliant computer code work. Andy took a job as a cell phone salesman and created the first Turk in his spare time with the help of Dyson’s computer code work. The first Turk won a chess tournament and was taken by the U.S. Air Force and installed as Skynet in command of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. It became sentient and started Judgment Day.

During the following war, some terminators decided the war was bad and chose to oppose Skynet. Cameron was one of them, and her team captured Allison Young. Cameron interrogated Allison so that Cameron could better infiltrate Resistance HQ with the goal of speaking with John Connor about joining forces. After Allison lied to Cameron about her bracelet ID and refused to help her any more, Cameron considered her a hostile obstruction and killed her. When she tried to infiltrate Resistance HQ, Cameron was captured and reprogrammed to be John Connor’s close second, a senior position in the Resistance command structure.

Around that time, Derek met Jesse during his rescue mission to save Sydney Fields, and they became lovers. Later, Derek was captured and tortured by Fischer, who was a gray working for Skynet. Eventually, Derek escaped, but he was bitter and angry and did not trust the reprogrammed terminators like Cameron and Commander Queeg. Before Jesse shipped out on the Jimmy Carter, Derek warned her not to trust Queeg and told her to aim for the chip.

Because of Derek’s comments, Jesse mishandled the situation on the Jimmy Carter and caused the LMT to decide not to join the Resistance. It gave her a “No” answer to John Connor’s “Will you join us?” invitation, which Jesse relayed to Cameron after she got back.

TSCC – Cromartie versus Cameron
During the war, Skynet developed the time machine and sent Cromartie to 1999 to kill John Connor. Skynet also sent back Carter to stockpile coltan in Depot 37 before Judgment Day. Cromartie could not find John and chose to hack into Ellison’s computer in the hopes that Ellison might find Sarah. This gave time for the Resistance to capture the time machine and send Cameron to (1) protect John, (2) try to ally with the Third Faction of anti-war terminators, and (3) destroy Skynet. With all her troubles on the Jimmy Carter, Jesse miscarried and became very angry with Cameron. As a result, she recruited Riley and they jumped back to 1999 to try to keep John and Cameron apart.

Meanwhile, Sarah had been working as a waitress and hooked up with Charley. John had grown to a fifteen year old boy. When Sarah got spooked by a nightmare, she and John left Charley and moved to a new town, but without changing their names. Unexpectedly, Charley reported them to the police as missing persons, and they popped up on Ellison’s database search program. Cromartie used this to find John at his high school and tried to kill him, but Cameron succeeded in saving John.

TSCC – The Bank Vault Time Jump
Cameron jumped Sarah, John, and herself forward in the bank vault time machine to escape Cromartie and to put Sarah at a time and in a position to destroy the first Turk, which was the precursor to Skynet in Cameron’s future. Cromartie’s burning flesh-covered head jumped with them (although network censorship standards prevented it from being shown as such). Cromartie reassembled himself and resumed his mission. Later, the Connors eventually disabled Cromartie, but his body was taken by Ellison. Sarah succeeded in destroying the first Turk in Andy Goode’s house fire, thereby wiping out the Skynet of Cameron’s future.

TSCC – Turk 2
After a heroic effort, Andy Goode succeeded in making his Turk 2. He entered it in a chess tournament and it won, after which it was taken by the U.S. Air Force and installed as Skynet in command of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Becoming sentient, it decided to exterminate humanity and started Judgment Day.

As before, during the following war some terminators decided the war was bad and chose to oppose Skynet. Cameron was one of them, and again her team captured Allison Young. Cameron interrogated Allison so that Cameron could better infiltrate Resistance HQ with the intent of speaking with John Connor about joining forces. After Allison lied to Cameron about her bracelet ID and refused to help her any more, Cameron considered her a hostile obstruction and killed her.

Cameron needed to be skinned to look like Allison, and this time Derek and his team happened to be captured and used as blood sources for skinning Cameron in the mansion basement. As she was being skinned, Cameron played Chopin’s Nocturne #20 in C Sharp Minor to familiarize herself with the music, which Allison had said her mother Claire had enjoyed playing, as part of her study of Allison to better emulate her for infiltration. Cameron traveled quickly back and forth between the mansion and the aircraft carrier where Allison was held with the use of a flying machine that had a big spotlight.

Because Derek had offered no resistance to them, these antiwar Third Faction terminators did not kill him but left an axe for him to free himself. Derek was not interrogated by Fischer this time. But because he was stuck in the mansion and did not speak with Jesse when she shipped out, Jesse remained a loyal supporter of Commander Queeg (“a good bloke”) during the sub voyage when the LMT was picked up. As a result, Jesse stood by Queeg during the crew’s unrest and the LMT was successfully delivered to John Connor in its cold box. Not having to experience the Jimmy Carter disaster this time, the LMT said, “Yes,” and the Third Faction joined forces with the Resistance.

Skynet developed the time machine and sent Vick back to try to assure the completion and installation of ARTIE, the LA Traffic Control System. The Resistance captured the time machine and Derek and his team were sent back and set up their safe house apartment. Vick killed Derek's team, and Derek would have been killed by Vick in the apartment too except for the Connors' visit there and Cameron's fight with Vick. Vick was eventually destroyed by the Connors and ARTIE was disabled by Cameron and John.

TSCC – The LMT’s Jump
As an ally of the Resistance, the LMT was sent back to 2007 to prevent Turk 2 from becoming Skynet (just as one of Cameron's objectives was to destroy the first Turk). The LMT replaced Catherine Weaver, CEO of Zeira Corp., and hired henchman Walsh who paid Sarkissian to bribe Dmitri Shipkov to program Turk 2 to lose the chess tournament. After it lost, the U.S. Air Force took the competing computer, while Sarkissian paid Dmitri for Turk 2, subsequently selling it to Walsh who delivered it to Weaver term. Dmitri needed the money to pay off the Russian mafia to which he owed money for transporting him and his sister to the U.S. With the help of Dr. Sherman and Ellison, Weaver term converted Turk 2 into ethical and human-friendly John Henry, successfully preventing it from becoming the Skynet of her own future. Ellison brought her Cromartie’s body which she used to provide mobility for John Henry.

TSCC – Kaliba AI
Meanwhile, Danny Dyson had been working with a backup copy of his father Miles Dyson’s Cyberdyne computer code which was left on Miles’ home computer. Danny developed it until it became sentient. With his help, this AI set up research facilities like Desert Canyon Heat and Air and sent out many worms to infect computers around the world. As Kaliba, this AI also hired water guy assassins to carry out its dirty work. All its henchmen wore gray. When Danny got scared by how powerful Kaliba AI had become, it had him killed. Kaliba AI hacked into John Henry and read his files and tried to have the Cromartie body destroy the Turk 2 box, but quick action by computer tech Murch saved John Henry.

Had the first Turk or Turk 2 become installed by the U.S. Air Force to control the U.S. nuclear arsenal, their occupancy of the command position would have blocked Kaliba AI from starting Judgment Day. But because the Turks were prevented from being taken by the U.S. Air Force, Kaliba AI was able to hack into the military industrial computer complex and caused Judgment Day. In the war after Judgment Day, the Resistance joined with the Third Faction led by John Henry against Kaliba Skynet.

As the war continued, Kaliba Skynet developed the time machine and sent back Fischer and numerous terminators. Fischer was sent back to install a backdoor worm in the military industrial complex computer system to facilitate Kaliba’s entry and help it gain complete control.

TSCC – The Bloody List
The terminators that Kaliba Skynet sent back were assigned to specific missions. Three were sent to destroy John Henry or disrupt his growth. Rosie the Pretzel Girl was sent to kill Dr. Sherman, who was key in John Henry’s early development. Ellison term was sent to kill Ellison and to infiltrate Zeira with the goal of destroying John Henry. And Water Guy term was sent to kill Weaver, who Kaliba Skynet thought was just another human who was important to John Henry’s development.

Kaliba Skynet also sent Greenway term to gain control of the Serrano Point power plant, apparently a key asset in the future war. It sent Bald term to kill Martin Bedell, who would become an important leader in the Resistance. (The “Terminate John Connor” command was still embedded in Bald term’s basic programming.) It sent Myron Stark to kill California governor Mark Wyman for some unexplained strategic reason (like he will veto a spending bill for something Kaliba Skynet wants). It sent the Alpine Fields term to kill Anne Fields because her daughter Sydney Fields would be the source for an antidote to a fatal virus bioweapon that Kaliba Skynet would unleash in the future war. Realizing that John Henry needed a chip to free himself from the Zeira basement, Kaliba Skynet made sure that all the terminators it sent had self-destructing chips.

All these terminators were identified by Resistance fighter Wells who wrote them on a bloody list on the Connors’ basement wall. Wells was a Resistance spy pretending to be a gray working for Kaliba Skynet; he was involved in operating Kaliba Skynet’s time machine. After sending Fischer and so many terminators back in time, Wells decided to send himself and give the warning to the Connors. While the time bubble was forming around him, one of the other grays realized what he was doing and shot him. Wells was responsible for sending Myron Stark to the wrong time, and he may have planted a bomb in the time machine so that no one else could follow him. The bloody wall list occupied much of the Connors’ efforts after Wells wrote it, especially the three dots, which ultimately appeared as identifying Turk 2 or John Henry.

TSCC – Ending Notes
Eventually, Riley’s deceit came to light, and Derek realized that Jesse had been using him. For example, Jesse found out from Derek that Sarah had a stash of diamonds. Jesse then made a deal with fence Moishe who sent four thieves to burglarize the Connor house and steal the diamonds. Jesse instructed Riley to leave the burglar alarm off that night. This was effective in both getting Jesse her split of the proceeds and putting Riley more into the security risk classification in Cameron’s mind.

Sarah’s health also appeared to be fading. Fearing cancer, Sarah tipped off the police to her own location at the movie theater where Savannah was reunited with Ellison. She identified the undercover officer at the snack bar and walked quickly into the police trap outside, leaving John and Cameron safely undetected in the theater lobby. This way, she could get health care in prison without endangering John. (She realized that Kaliba had not sent terminators to kill her or John, as shown with Water Guy term just inactively watching her being arrested.) Ellison incorrectly assumed that he was followed.

In the end, Cameron gave her chip to John Henry so they could share the Cromartie body and jump into the future, assuring an alliance relationship between the Resistance and the Third Faction. John jumped forward with Weaver term, preventing himself from becoming an early leader of the Resistance. Their arrival in the future was timed to be shortly after John Henry and Cameron arrived in Cromartie's body. Sarah stayed behind but was not able to stop Kaliba and prevent Judgment Day.

While happy to be with Derek and Kyle as well as Allison, John began his life as a Resistance fighter from the bottom of the organization, with no assets and no friends. Only Weaver term and John Henry (not to mention any Judgment Day survivors like Bedell, Ellison, and Savannah) might be his allies, but they had disappeared. And Cameron appeared finished with a badly damaged body and a chip she could no longer call her own.

T6
Obviously, Skynet is defeated in the future by the coalition of the Resistance and the Third Faction. Missions to the past are ineffective in changing this outcome. A final Resistance mission to the past destroys Kaliba AI before it causes Judgment Day and sets up John Henry as a guardian to prevent any other anti-human AIs from causing Judgment Day. With no more Skynet, no Judgment Day, and no war, the time machine will not be invented for a long time if ever, and the time loop cycle is broken.