T-800

T-800 units are Skynet-aligned cybernetic organisms from the Generation 1 continuity family.

Inspired by Shatter, but better in every... wait, hang on a second.

Hailing from a war-torn future, Skynet's legions of mechanical Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 Series 800 Terminator Units 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

"Where is Alice?"

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

Sonya Blade?

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 the Terminator grudgingly accepted. Enemy of My Enemy Part Two

After Arcee, Ratchet, Velocity and Wheeljack had been reactivated, a process that the Terminator had not aided in, the T-800 found himself placed under Arcee's watch who took him to the Ark's armory for new weapons. After replicating a Cybertronian firearm scaled to his size, the Terminator helped himself to a handful of Cybertronian explosives, surreptitiously scattering them around the mountain's perimeter before Bumblebee and Sarah Connor called the Autobots to a Cyberdyne Systems facility under attack by the Decepticons. Facing off against Refraktor, the T-800 hurled his last explosive at the Decepticon's face whereupon he detonated all of his pilfered bombs, both killing the Decepticon and detonating the Ark. It was then that Starscream cornered the android, having worked out the truth of his existence and threatening to undo his timeline by exterminating the Cyberdyne Systems staff. Enemy of My Enemy Part Three

An entire army of new lab assistants.

Though a quick scan confirmed that all of Starscream's hostages were expendable to Skynet's creation, the T-800 agreed to work with the Seeker. Riding in his cockpit, the android watched the SIC gun down Soundwave before he was launched at Megatron. Even with Cybertronian weaponry at point-blank range, the Terminator was no match for the Decepticon leader who contemptuously hurled him back at Starscream, the crash downing both. Pinned beneath his ally, the Terminator was tended to by Sarah Connor before Starscream, having overheard the unit's promise to finish its anti-Cybertronian mission, reverted to robot mode, the transformation sheering off the Terminator's legs. Before the Seeker could destroy the T-800 however, he was shot by a still alive Soundwave whom the Terminator and Sarah turned their own artillery on, finishing him. Tossed from Autobot to Autobot, the Terminator was then hurled by Arcee into Megatron's open wound, firing his weapons directly at the tyrant's spark and destroying him. The victorious Autobots soon returned to the Ark only to discover the Terminator's duplicity, Arcee cursing him, but Optimus took the opportunity to propose a truce between Autobot and Decepticon, musing that the unit had ultimately fulfilled his mission of stopping the Cybertronian war.

Left within Megatron's spark chamber, the Terminator's burnt remains were recovered by Skywatch who used his corpse to reverse-engineer a new line of T-800 robots, overseen by a new version of Skynet cast in Megatron's likeness. Enemy of My Enemy Part Four

Notes

• The T-800 is, of course, the iconic eponymous character type from the Terminator franchise, portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger. To wit, Sarah Connor refers to the T-800 as a "psycho German" prior to learning of his nature as a cyborg. (Schwarzenegger is actually Austrian.)
• Tesshō Genda and Ryūzaburō Ōtomo have dubbed the T-800 in Japanese.

External links

• Terminator line of robots at Wikipedia
• Terminator at Wikipedia
• T-800 at the Terminator Wiki