T-800
| The name or term "Terminator" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Terminator (disambiguation). |
- T-800 units are Skynet-aligned cybernetic organisms from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Hailing from a war-torn future, Skynet's legions of mechanical T-800 Terminators are robots in disguise... but not in the way that you're thinking! In their base form, these mass-produced androids make up the bulk of Skynet's army, immensely durable soldiers capable of shrugging off most small-arms fire. What really gives them the edge, however, are their infiltration abilities: when sheathed in a layer of vat-grown artificial flesh, these robots are able to pass themselves off as living, breathing humans, right down to their synthetic blood. Although this trick is of negligible use against the Decepticons, it does allow them to be sent backwards in time to carry out "termination" missions without attracting undue attention.
Fiction
Transformers vs. The Terminator
The T-800s were created at some point after 1984, following the initial Decepticon invasion of Earth. To fight back, humanity united under Skywatch, an international anti-Transformer alliance, and developed the Skynet supercomputer network and an army of human-built, anti-Transformer hardware that included the T-800s. Although Skynet's robotic troops were versatile fighters, able to overwhelm the aliens with their numbers, their efforts proved insufficient and Megatron's forces eventually conquered the planet and destroyed humanity. Skynet only survived by feigning surrender, but secretly began constructing a time machine that would allow it to retroactively win the war. Enemy of My Enemy Part Two
By the year 2029, Skynet had completed its time displacement device as its dwindling armies of T-800s and T-8000s fought a losing battle against the Decepticons. A group of T-800 robots activated a specially-designed member of their kind—augmented in the organic flesh that would let him travel backwards in time—and brought him to Omega Base, Skynet's final stronghold against the enemy. The T-800 had only moments before the Decepticons caught on to the ruse and attacked, their onslaught effectively ending Skynet, Enemy of My Enemy Part One but not before this Terminator was able to travel backwards in time to carry out his final mission: destroy the Cybertronians before they could ever awaken, and ensure that Skynet itself came into being. Enemy of My Enemy Part Two
This Terminator arrived in the year 1984, in the city of Los Angeles, mere hours before the fateful eruption of Mount St. Hilary. The T-800 promptly disguised itself by killing a trucker and taking his clothes—in the process, inadvertently saving the young waitress Sarah Connor. After commandeering the man's truck, the Terminator kidnapped her and ordered her to guide him to the volcano in Oregon. The pair drove to Oregon and discovered that the volcano had already begun erupting; undeterred, the T-800 veered their truck off the road and drove it straight into the Ark, taking the time to shoot down a Sky Spy probe as he did so. Though the impact revealed to Sarah that her kidnapper was a robot, the Terminator drove their truck right into the heart of the Ark and prepared to kill the recently awakened Decepticons before they could jeopardize his future. Enemy of My Enemy Part One
Though outmatched and outnumbered by his foes, the Terminator's pre-programmed knowledge of Cybertronian weakpoints let him momentarily blind Megatron and hold his own against the Decepticons, withstanding attacks from Soundwave, Starscream, and Skywarp before Sarah Connor's attempts to escape Ravage led to her accidentally reactivating the still stasis locked body of Optimus Prime. Together with Bumblebee, the pair helped turn the tide and provoked the Decepticons into retreating, but the battle left many of their comrades dead or injured. Though reduced to his metal endoskeleton, the Terminator turned his wrath on the two Autobots before Sarah convinced him to stand down. The Terminator then explained the nature of his mission and the circumstances behind him traveling through time; Optimus Prime pointed out that, based on his story, the Terminator's intervention must have already changed history, and offered to help him stop the Decepticons here and now... a proposition that Terminator grudgingly accepted. Enemy of My Enemy Part Two
Notes
- The T-800 is, of course, the iconic eponymous character type from the Terminator franchise, portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
- Tesshō Genda and Ryūzaburō Ōtomo have dubbed the T-800 in Japanese.
External links
- Terminator (character) at Wikipedia
