Sentinels
Omega - Hunter Killers

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History

The Sentinels are large semi-humanoid robots designed to locate and either capture or kill superhuman mutants. The creator of the Sentinels was the noted anthropologist Dr. Bolivar Trask. Although Bolivar Trask's principal field was anthropology he also had considerable talents in biophysics, cybernetics and robotics.

Trask first became aware of mutants when he learned that his son Lawrence ("Larry") was a mutant with precognitive abilities. He then embarked on a private anthropological study of the rapidly increasing emergence of superhumanly powerful mutants in the world. He became convinced that these mutants were the first of a newly evolving race of humanity and that they would use their powers to dominate the world and enslave humanity.

Thus, three years before his death, Trask founded a small group of researchers, led by himself and his now adult son, Larry, to compile evidence that superhumanly powerful mutants posed a threat to humanity. Then, using his considerable fortune, Bolivar Trask hired a large team of cyberneticists, roboticists, and engineers to construct the first Sentinels for him, following his basic ideas and designs. Bolivar Trask first publicly revealed the existence of the Sentinels in the course of live televised debate on the subject of the alleged "mutant menace" to humanity between himself and the geneticist and Professor Charles Xavier, secretly a mutant and the leader of the mutant team X-Men.

To date there have been six different models of the Sentinels plus some variants on an alternate Earth, including: the Mark I through Mark VI Sentinels, the Prime Sentinels, plus the variants the Tri-Sentinel and the Omega Sentinels.

Mark I Sentinels are Bolivar Trask's original Sentinels. Because neither the Trasks nor any of their employees were as skilled as such roboticists as Doctor Doom and Machinesmith, they created machines whose workings they could neither entirely comprehend or control.

The robots were sent to capture the mutants of the X-Men, but as the Sentinels were programmed to protect humanity from mutants, their logic led them to conclude that they could best do so by taking control of human society from the "imperfect" humans whom they considered to be their physical and intellectual inferiors. As a result, one of the Sentinels attacked Bolivar Trask as he tried to give some of them orders, and they kidnapped him. Trask was brought to the fortress he had had constructed for the Sentinels as a headquarters, where the X-Men were also being held captured captive.

There, the principal Sentinel, known as the Master Mold, attempted to force Trask to construct an army of more Sentinels, with which they could conquer the human race. Using a "psycho-probe," upon the X-Man called the Beast, Trask realized that he had been wrong, and that not all superhumanly powerful mutants would inevitably use their abilities against humanity. Trask sacrificed his life in destroying the Master Mold. Most of the other Sentinels were also destroyed in the ensuing explosion.

The Mark II Sentinels were for a long time the most powerful and nearly invincible Sentinels devised. They were designed and constructed under the supervision of Lawrence "Larry" Trask after his father's death. While some Mark II Sentinels, such as the "leader," designated Number Two, were constructed from the remains of some of the original Sentinels, many new ones were also built. Larry Trask wrongly blamed the X-Men for his father's death, and determined to have the Sentinels capture and imprison them and all other known superhuman mutants. When the medallion that his father gave him to suppress his mutant abilities was removed from Trask's neck, the Mark II Sentinels realized that Trask himself was a mutant. No longer believing themselves to have a human master, the Sentinels captured Trask and became their own masters. The X-Men succeeded in destroying several Sentinels, and finally convinced Number Two that the Sentinels should seek out and neutralize the principal cause of human mutation, rather than mutants themselves. Number Two led the remaining Sentinels off towards the sun, the source of mutation-inducing radiation on Earth.

But while orbiting the sun, the Sentinels concluded that since they lacked the means to destroy the sun, the mutant problem had to be attacked by a different means. The solar heat and radiation somehow caused Number Two to become capable of killing humans in order to safeguard the Sentinels' overall goals. It also somehow developed the ability to create space warps. Number Two led the Sentinels back to Earth where in the Great Australian Desert, they devised a means of triggering and controlling solar flares. The Sentinels intent was to create a solar flare that would sterilize all of humanity, thus preventing mutants (and normal humans, as well) from being born. The Sentinels would then artificially create a new human race that would be incapable of mutation. The hero team Avengers halted these plans, and all of the remaining Sentinels were deactivated or destroyed, and buried within a mound in the desert.

After the death of Larry Trask, ownership of the plans for the Sentinels fell under the control of the United States government. Dr. Steven Lang was placed in charge of a federal investigation of mutants that was intended to discover how mutations bestowing superhuman powers came about. Unknown to his employers, however, Lang had a fanatical, irrational distrust of superhuman mutants. He used his position to gain access to the Trask notes and designs, and then approached the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club, which at that time was called the Council of the Chosen. The Club provided Lang with the money he needed to construct new Sentinels and to create an orbiting space station headquarters, unaware that Lang's real intention was to destroy every superhumanly powered mutant he captured. Lang's Sentinels captured the X-Men, but his space station and the Sentinels were destroyed in a battle between the robots and the X-Men.

(Lang was left a "mindless vegetable," although he had imprinted his brain patterns in the computer-brain of his own 30-foot tall Master Mold. Master Mold attempted to continue his mission, but it was defeated in an encounter with the monstrous Hulk and left for dead.)

After the second Brotherhood of Evil Mutants' attempted assassination of Senator Edward Kelly (who was undertaking a public investigation of the possible menace posed by superhumanly powerful beings, especially mutants), the Office of the President inaugurated the secret and illegal "Project Wideawake," to investigate, and if need be capture, any superhumanly powerful mutant who the project directors believe may possibly pose a threat to "national security." The overall director of the project was special agent Henry Peter Gyrich of the National Security Council. With Senator Kelly as a special consultant to the Project, along with Sebastian Shaw, who, unknown to the government, is himself a mutant.

Shaw Industries which Shaw owns and heads, was licensed by the government under heavy secrecy to construct Sentinels for use by Project Wideawake and by the Department of Defense. Shaw produced three models of Sentinels, Mark IV, V & VI, with new design modifications. Without the knowledge of the government, Sebastian Shaw had used Sentinels to attack the X-Men in his role as the leader of the would-be world-dominating Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club.

Two other known models of Sentinels were created in the future of an alternate Earth. In this alternate reality, the second Brotherhood of Evil Mutants succeeded in assassinating Senator Robert Kelly. As a result, a presidential candidate was elected on an extreme anti-mutant platform, and his administration unleashed Sentinels, giving them a broad mandate to eliminate the mutant "menace" permanently. The Sentinels did so by taking over the United States and the rest of North America, and killing or capturing virtually all superhuman beings, whether they were mutants or not. Captured mutants who were not killed were incarcerated in concentration camps called "mutant internment centers."

During this time a new model of Sentinel was created, the Omega series, which were especially designed for hunting and killing superhuman mutants. The specifications of the Omega series are unknown. Like other Sentinels, they have tremendous strength are highly resistant to damage, and can fly using propulsion units in their feet. Omega Sentinels can fire energy blasts from their palms, and form non-metallic "catchwebs" from their fingers in order to imprison opponents. Omega Sentinels contain self-repairing systems. Like Mark II Sentinels they can analyze an opponents abilities and adjust their weapons systems to deal with his or her powers.During the Sentinels' reign in this alternate reality, "Project Nimrod" created the most advanced version of a Sentinel robot possible using that reality's technology. The product of Project Nimrod, the Sentinel called Nimrod, traveled to the prime reality, where it hunted superhuman mutants before becoming a crime-fighter and eventually died in battle with the X-Men and a revived Mark I Master Mold. (Nimrod and Master Mold would later return as a composite being named Bastion.)

Later, the Asgardian god of mischeif, Loki, created a "Tri-Sentinel" as a last defiant act of vengeance against various heroes of New York. The Tri-Sentinel, a merger of three prototype Sentinels created by Shaw Industries, was commanded to destroy a nuclear facility on Long Island, the resultant explosion of which would destroy New York City, but the robot was destroyed by the hero Spider-Man, who at the time wielded the cosmic powers of Captain Universe.

The Tri-Sentinel was later rebuilt by the organization known as the Life Foundation in an attempt to replicate the robot for a state-of-the-art security force. Teaming up with the young hero Nova, Spider-Man managed to get inside the Tri-Sentinel and activate its' fail-safe device, which deactivated a shielded box containing Antarctic Vibranium - an synthetic form of Vibranium that is capable of melting metal. The Vibranium began melting the robots' components, but the Tri-Sentinel was determined to repair itself. The Tri-Sentinel eventually overloaded itself with the effort and exploded.

Months later, a time-travelling mutant named Fitrzoy came to the prime reality. In establishing his role as a villain, Fitzroy later brought Sentinels from his version of the future-- Sentinels which were designed on the merger of Nimrod and Master Mold. Fitzroy used these Sentinels to destroy various people associated with the Hellfire Club, including the former White King, Donald Pierce, and the White Queen's young mutant team, the Hellions. Fitzroy and his Sentinels were later defeated by the X-Men and the Hellfire Club.

Later still, the psychic being known as Onslaught activated Sentinels that were in storage from Project Wideawake. Onslaught used the Sentinels in his attempt to seize control of New York City, laying waste to the city and battling many hero teams, including the X-Men and the Avengers. With Onslaught's defeat, the Sentinels were presumably returned to storage.

Almost immediately afterward, the being Bastion, now connected with the United States government, initiated Operation: Zero Tolerance, which activated a much more advanced type of Sentinel, the Prime Sentinel. These Sentinels were actually humans who had been fitted with cybernetic nanotech implants which, upon activation, transformed the humans into armored beings with powerful weapons systems. These altered humans set up as "sleeper" agents, unaware of their natures until a signal from the OZT base activated their programming. These Sentinels were used by Bastion to capture Professor X for his own purposes, as well as attack various mutants associated with the X-Men across the country. Bastion and his Prime Sentinels were eventually defeated by the X-Men with help from the government agency SHIELD, who shut down Operation: Zero Tolerance.

Some of the left-over technology used to create Prime Sentinels were used by SHIELD in recreating the robot Machine Man into X-51.