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2003 July
The influence of combat experience on military cyborg design
The CRS-built T1 is the first of the Terminators and the only series to be designed by humans. Subsequent series were designed by machines.
Barely qualifying as a Terminator, the T1 is non-Turing qualified, all-metal and moves on a track-laying mechanism. It is more an autonomous gun system than a Terminator.
The T1 was built around the venerable Vulcan minigun that first saw combat in helicopters over the jungles of Vietnam. It has a minigun afixed to each "arm", with a large store of ammunition in its massive tracked base.
First combat for the T1 (T1-2, T1-7, T1-8, T1-14 are known to have engaged) was on Judgment Day. Strangely enough, they initially fought under the control of a TX against a T101. Being tracked and semi-intelligent, the T1 was no match for the agile and highly motivated T101, despite the T1's overwhelming superiority in firepower.
While Skynet served as the prototype for the brains of the machines, the T1 and successor models were their bodies. Though they were crude, the significance of this series cannot be over emphasized.
Nothing is known of the T10 as no examples of this series have appeared in our timeline. Its existence is interpolated from the gap in the sequence T1, T100, T1000.
It is likely an unsuccessful series that did not see widespread deployment. It might also be an alternate designation for the rubber-skinned 600 series of which little is known except that they immediately preceded the T100.
The T100 series is the first of the cyborg Terminators and is in some ways the most successful. Nothing is known of what should be the first model, the T100. Only what is presumed to be the second model, the T101, has been seen in this timeline.
The T101's human appearance arises from its basic function - to infiltrate human resistance groups and kill them.
Unlike the T1, the T101 does not deploy with a fixed set of firearms (pun intended). Instead of bolted-on Vulcan miniguns, the T101 has a pair of human hands that can fire any gun designed for human use - pistols, shotguns, grenade launchers, machine guns.
Inheriting the massive skeletal structure of the original T1, the T101 looks more like a professional body builder than an average human. The T1's large size was retained as the T101 would often have to fight outnumbered and unarmed against the resistance groups it had infiltrated.
The T101's family lineage can be seen in the T101's preference for the Vulcan rotary minigun. A minigun looks natural in its hands, causing the young John Conner to comment, "It's definitely you."
The T101 is overbuilt and can continue to function when crippled or even severed at the waist. This is because its legs are an add-on to the original tracked T1 skeleton and the two systems are well isolated.
Aside from it's physical strength, the T101 is known for it's mono-maniacal mission focus. Once programmed with a mission, it cannot be deflected from fulfilling it. The only way to stop it is to destroy it.
This combination of die-hard motivation and inherent structural strength is the basis of the T101's success. Heavily damaged T101s have been known to complete their missions against technologically superior Terminators.
Despite it's legendary status, the T101 is far from perfect. It's fuel cells are insufficiently protected and can destroy the T101 if ruptured. This weakness appeared in the CRS T101s and did not exist in the original Cyberdyne T101s.
More damaging, the T101 was simply too massive to succeed in its primary mission - infiltrating human resistance groups. Its large size aroused suspicion, and once awareness of this model spread, made it easy to identify. Different faces could be fixed on to the T101 but its body was always large.
Later version T101s varied slightly in appearance and functionality. The reason for the aged appearance of later versions is not known. It could be due to unexpected side effects in the timeline, caused by repeated attempts by humans to change the future and avoid Judgment Day. It should be noted that our timeline actually encompasses two separate T101 models, one built by Cyberdyne and the other by CRS after the Cyberdyne timeline was terminated by the Connors.
The T101 is also known as the Arnie model due to its resemblance to an American President.
In a revolutionary design change, the T1000 was made out of mimetic metal alloy, more popularly known as liquid metal. This was a development of the alloy nitinol which exhibited shape memory and would automatically revert to it's original shape when heated.
Liquid metal was necessary as the T1000 was designed to mimic the body and face of any human. This made it a better infiltrator than the T101.
Liquid metal made the T1000 a deadly unarmed fighter. Human resistance fighters would let their guard down when confronted with a weaponless human-looking T1000, only to be killed with the various edged weapons that a T1000 could form out of its liquid metal arms. Together with increased strength, this allowed the T1000 to be physically smaller, more average-human in size, yet deadlier, than a T101.
As a side effect, the T1000 could absorb damage and regenerate more quickly than the T101. It could also pour itself through openings too small to admit a T101, giving new meaning to the term "infiltrator".
The successful T101 software was upgraded for the T1000, with one notable modification. The T101 had a disturbing tendency to crack one-line jokes and this was removed from the T1000. The T101 could already mimic human voices so this capability did not have to be added for the T1000.
Despite its success as an infiltrator, the T1000 did not fare well in the rare instances it was pitted against the less advanced T101. Its main weakness was its liquid metal construction, which could absorb enormous amounts of physical punishment, but was ultimately less robust than the solid skeleton of the T101. Note that this is structural strength, as the T1000 is otherwise stronger than the T101.
It was rare for the T1000 to come up against the T101 because a T101 had first to be captured intact and then reprogrammed by the human resistance and turned against its own kind. However, the cost of failure to the machines for one critical T1000 versus T101 mission was too high. A new Terminator was required.
Learning from the failure of the T1000, the TX was designed to combine the versatility of the liquid metal T1000 with the robustness of the old tried and true T101. A solid skeleton in the form of a conventional combat chassis was combined with a liquid metal shell.
A solid skeleton was now seen as essential. In one encounter with a T101, the limited explosive power of a grenade was sufficient to push a T1000 to the edge of destruction. In contrast, in a similar encounter between humans and a T101, the T101 was crippled but not destroyed by a more powerful homemade pipe bomb.
Combining a solid skeleton with liquid metal meant that the TX was less plastic than the T1000 and could not mould itself into arbitrary shapes or pour itself through small openings. This was considered to be a worthwhile design trade-off.
The TX is the first known Terminator to make use of nanotechnology. Its hands are nano machines that can transform into a variety of firearms including its favored plasma gun. It can even control other machines.
Unfortunately, like the liquid metal technology in the T1000, this revolutionary technology ultimately proved to be too fragile for the extreme combat encountered in Terminator versus Terminator missions. In a final encounter between a TX and a T101, only the basic combat chassis of the TX survived a helicopter crash. Both its liquid metal and nanotechnology systems were destroyed, leaving the TX to fight the T101 with brute mechanical force.
Because the TX is more robust than a T1000, this time the T101 did not escape lightly (unlike a previous encounter between a T101 and a T1000). It could only destroy the TX (creatively making use of its flawed CRS fuel cell) by destroying itself in the process. Final victory went to the T101 as in doing so it still managed to accomplish it's mission.
While they can mimic any human form, both the TX and the T1000 have a default configuration in which they are most capable. Belatedly realising that humans are less willing to kill females of their species, the default configuration of the TX is that of an attractive young woman. The previous Terminators were male in appearance as most of the human resistance fighters they were designed to mimic were male.
Aside from its gender, from outward appearances there is little to distinguish the TX from the T1000. The TX is commonly mistaken for a pure liquid metal design similar to the T1000.
The meaning of "X" in TX is disputed. One interpretation is that it denotes "experimental". This implies that the TX was deployed before it's development was completed. Presumably due to the urgency of the machines' strategic situation.
Since the TX was the first Terminator designed to destroy other Terminators (especially T101s), an alternative explanation is that TX stands for Terminator eXterminator. It would then represent a fork in the design tree, separate from the numeric T series which are designed to kill humans.
The machines have/will lose the war against humans. Their only hope is to use their superior assassination capability in the form of Terminators.
While humans can defeat machines on the battlefield, they are less able to defend against assassination attempts especially those that involve time travel. They are however, able to reprogram Terminators to help them in this.
Human resistance fighters have so far been known to reprogram only T101s. Because of their familiarity and past success with this model, it is likely that they will continue to use reprogrammed T101s to counter other Terminators, no matter how advanced. They might have no other choice. Once it was realized that humans were reprogramming T101s, it is likely that later series Terminators were built with protection against such subversion.
Against all expectations, the obsolete T101s continue to defeat more advanced Terminators. The machines cannot send a T101 against a human reprogrammed T101 because this would only result in stalemate with both equally matched T101s destroying each other. Which would mean victory to the humans as the assassination would have been stopped. The machines have to gamble with newer and better Terminators, so far with no success.
The above analysis assumes a simple mechanical cause and effect with regard to Terminator combat. If one Terminator defeats another, it is assumed to be because of the superiority of the hardware/software combination of the victor.
However, an alternate interpretation is possible.
In all cases, the humans have won. In the one case where the T101 opposed humans, it lost. In cases where it has sided with humans against other Terminators, it has won.
It was the machines that first tried to change the future, because they had lost the war. It is possible that the T101 is superior to other Terminators only when it sides with humans. Because the machines oppose the true destiny that will inevitably prevail.
Document version 1.0 2003 July 14. Copyright (c) 2003 Yuen Kit Mun. All Rights Reserved. This document may be freely distributed - forwarded via email, placed on a website, inserted into an encyclopedia or Ph.D. thesis etc - as long as no words are modified, inserted or deleted, including this copyright notice.