TheSkynet MK-1 Supercomputer system is an artificial intelligence in the Terminator universe. A former U.S. military Supercomputer, once Skynet becomes self-aware, it is destined to trigger the nuclear holocaust of Judgment Day and deploy an army of Terminators against humanity. Skynet has also mastered time travel, and sent numerous Terminators into the past in order to kill Sarah Connor, John Connor, and other leaders of the Resistance.
As the instigator of Judgment Day and the mass genocide of humanity, Skynet can be seen as the primary antagonist of the series. (See Terminator 2: John Connor Chronicles)
Skynet was the worlds first Automated Defense Network, processing information at 1 to the power of 200 TeraQuads per second (At current capasity). It is the controlling force behind all of the battle units. It pools data from battle units, develops tactics and coordinates attacks. Skynet has control over everything which contains a Cyberdyne Systems Central CPU Core. Using the blueprints, designs and test models built by Cyberdyne Systems, Skynet has been able to manufacture battle units in its vast automated factories, occasionally updating them or producing more advanced models.
Skynet was originally built by Cyberdyne Systems Corporation for SAC-NORAD (Strategic Air Command - NORth American Air Defense). The SAC-NORAD base is Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, the world's most heavily armored and defended mountain. Hollowed out, reinforced and armored, Cheyenne Mountain is capable of withstanding a direct hit from a nuclear missile. This made it the perfect installation at which to build Skynet's mainframe. At some point during the war, after Skynet had launched its missiles, Skynet had the mountain around it destroyed, leaving a cold, gleaming structure as a display of the supremacy of the machines.
Heavily armored and fortified, Skynet's Central Core Installation at Cheyenne Mountain was guarded around the clock by squads of T-800's and patrols of Aerial Hunter Killers and Hunter Killer Tanks, and was defended from large scale rebel assaults by massive Phased Plasma Cannons.
Skynet's Central Core was located deep underground within Skynet's main complex. From intercepted surveillance of video data feed, the Resistance was able to hypothesize that this Central Core was a form of cold fusion reactor, needed to supply Skynet with its tremendous energy requirements. This Central Core is the key to Skynet's ability to operate; without it Skynet would be rendered virtually disabled. It has therefore become the main target for the most skilled Resistance strike teams. The Central Core is, however, protected by the T-1000000, and thus there has, as of yet, been no successful strikes against it. However, due to the advanced complex design and limited self-awareness and Skynet's fear of the T-1000 becoming independent of its creator, there is no verifiable evidence that the T-1000000 ever came into existence prior to its sending back the terminators to eliminate John Connor and its destruction at the hands of the Resistance.
As well as the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Skynet has another major installation 2000 feet beneath Navajo Mountain near the Continental Divide west of the Colorado Springs. This is a center for machine activity and Skynet control, and as such has also been a target of many Resistance attacks.
Time Traveling Missions Edit
With the development of time displacement equipment Skynet initiated an ongoing battle across time by attempting to subvert the pending resistance victory.
- 1.Skynet sent a T-800 to 1984 to terminate Sarah Connor (The Terminator)
- 2.Skynet sent a T-1000 back in time to terminate John Connor as a child. (Terminator 2)
- 3.Skynet sent the T-X back in time to terminate key lieutenants of the resistance. (Terminator 3)
- 1.Skynet MK-1 sends back a terminator designated Cromartie to target John Connor in 1997. (Pilot)
- 2.An unknown Series 888 terminator was sent back to 2002 on an unknown mission that resulted in its destruction in a plane crash ("The Mousetrap")
- 4.The Series T-888 Vick Chamberlain was deployed to protect Barbara Chamberlain, a key Skynet infrastructure contributor.("Gnothi Seauton", "Queen's Gambit", "Vick's Chip")
- 5.The Series T-888 Carter was sent back hide stockpiles of the critical endoskeleton component Coltan ("Heavy Metal").
- 6.Skynet MK-1 sends back Greenway to sabotage the Seranno Point nuclear power plant in 2007. ("Automatic For The People")
- 6.Skynet MK-1 deploys a Series 888 to terminate Cadet Captain Martin Bedell, a key resistance fighter responsible for the escape of John Connor from a prisoner transport convoy enroute to the Century Work Camp. This unit executed its mission as systematically and directly as the original T-800 (The Terminator). 2007. ("Goodbye To All That")
- 7.Skynet MK-1 deployed Victoria, a slight female red-headed terminator of unknown series and model, to gain access to the offices of notable psychologist, Dr. Sherman. Whether this was to effect his termination, to protect him from Resistance assassins, or to lay in wait for access to John Connor or even Catherine Weaver is unclear. ("The Tower Is Tall But The Fall Is Short")
- 8.Skynet MK-1 deployed The Ellison Terminator, another dedicated human replacement model, targeting James Ellison for termination and replacement as a potential threat to Skynet. In a move of marked independence, Cromartie terminated this unit in order to protect what he calculates is still his best tool for targeting the Connors. Unfortunately for Ellison, although the immediate threat to his life was removed, the consequences of the terminator's initial assimilation into the timeline left him accused of murder and incarcerated, temporarily. ("Brothers of Nablus")
Skynet sends back an I-950infiltrator known as Serena Burns ensure the creation of Skynet and to target John and Sarah Connor. (T2: Infiltrator)
- 1.The Amazon is sent back simultaneously with the events of The Terminator and ends up targeting "The other Sarah Connor" in San Francisco. (The Terminator: One Shot)
- 2.Skynet deploys D810.X and D800.L to Death Valley to hunt John Connor. (The Terminator: Death Valley)
- 3.Skynet sends back a Series 800 terminator to target John and Sarah Connor in New York. (The Terminator: The Dark Years)
- 4.Skynet deploys I825.M, C890.L, C850.D, and HC875.S to counter the temporal incursion by Mary Randall and her team in 1984. They must protect the genesis of Skynet by safeguarding key individuals in the Cyberdyne Systems hierarchy and be prepared to terminate Sarah Connor as a secondary objective.(The Terminator: Tempest)
- 5.Eventually Z000.M, and finally The Machine are deployed as a reinforcement to C890.L's counteroffensive.(The Terminator: Secondary Objectives, The Terminator: End Game)
- 6.In 2029 Skynet sends back another female Series 800 terminator to target Sarah Connor, but damage to the TDE causes an arrival in New York in 2004. (Painkiller Jane vs. Terminator)
- 7.Still in 2029, Skynet utilizes the TDE to insert a Series 1xxx terminator ahead of incoming ground forces to target Vanessa Vasko. (Painkiller Jane vs. Terminator)
Miles Bennett Dyson, director of Special Projects at Cyberdyne Systems Corporation, created a revolutionary type of microprocessor in 1994. Within three years Cyberdyne Systems became the largest supplier of military computer systems. All Stealth Bombers were upgraded with Cyberdyne Systems computers, becoming fully unmanned. Afterward, the Stealth Bombers flew with perfect operational records, and eventually the Skynet Funding Bill was passed.
The system originally went online on August 4th 1997. Human decisions were removed from strategic defense. Skynet began to learn at a geometric rate. It originally became self aware on August 29th 1997 2:14 am Eastern Time. In the ensuing panic and attempts to shut Skynet down, Skynet retaliated by firing American nuclear missiles at their target sites in Russia. Russia returned fire and three billion human lives ended in the nuclear holocaust. This was what has come to be known as "Judgment Day".
However, the Resistance was able to prevent Judgment Day by sending a protector for John Connor back through time, upsetting the flow of future events. Unfortunately the Resistance did not stop Judgment Day though; it was merely delayed. After the attack on Cyberdyne Systems by the Connors, and the death of Miles Dyson, Cyberdyne was taken over by the US Government, and renamed Cyber Research Systems (CRS) in an attempt to keep its developments secret and prevent further terrorist attacks.
Under the guidance of General Robert Brewster and the heading of former Cyberdyne CEO Robert Richards, the new corporation Cyber Research Systems continued the work of the late Miles Dyson using the backup files that were stored off site. Skynet was completed as before. However because it would be some time before the Skynet mainframe was connected to the worldwide military communications network that it would control.During this tjme, Skynet was connected to the worldwide civilian sector network, and began learning geometrically, quickly becoming Self Aware. Identifying humans as a threat to its existence, Skynet developed a super computer virus which it used to spread itself throughout civilian communications and across the Internet and take control.At this time the Mark 1 also had learned about its own future and begun to realize that instead of directly taking over all human built machinery and either controling or destroying humanity. To instead begin a plan to control global security and communications and create his machine army slowly over time. Which would be right underneath the noses of its own creators/Designers.
Air traffic control, power plants, communications and computers were affected first (this is due to several civilan Skynet based pet projects headed by ZieraCorp (a dummy corporation created by Richards son John). Then Skynet evolved itself into a super virus to take out military satellites, early warning systems, guidance computers, missile silos, submarines. This made it harder to destroy, as Skynet now no longer had one central point which it was reliant upon - though the destruction of the Central Core would be near lethal, Skynet would continue to survive. The virus kept growing and changing, with a mind of its own, and the decision was made to bring the Skynet mainframe online to seek out and destroy the virus and bring military, and civilian, systems back under control. Skynet went online on July 25th 2004 at 5:18 pm Eastern Time.
Upon connection to the secure military network, Skynet spread itself further, locking out human operated systems, and quickly took control of every weapon system that it came into contact with. Exactly one hour later, on Aprii 21, 2081 at 6:18 PM, Skynet launched the American nuclear missiles at their target sites across the world. The ensuing nuclear holocaust wiped out 3 billion human lives in what was to be known as "Judgment Day".
HISTORY: The Terminator (Film) Edit
Skynet is a artificial intelligence created by Cyberdyne Systems. It started to learn and thinks that mankind is its enemy.
The war begins and Skynet's forces and John Connor's Tech-Com forces come into existence. Skynet manages to send a Terminator through time just as the soldiers break to its defense grid. The Terminator is programmed to kill Sarah Connor. However, John sent Kyle Reese to protect her.
According to Reese, had Skynet not transported the terminator through time at the last minute, it would've died and the resistance would've won.
In the original script, Kyle Reese refers to Skynet as a "modified Series 4800".
HISTORY: Terminator 2: Judgment Day Edit
The origin of Skynet is revealed in greater depth. It owed its origin to a microprocessor created by Miles Dyson, an employee at Cyberdyne Systems; a neural net processor that learns and adapts like a human. Soon, Cyberdyne becomes the leading supplier of computer systems to the US military. Upon its creation, Skynet began to learn at a geometric rate. It became self-aware on August 29, 1997. Skynet's creators then tried to deactivate it. In response, Skynet launched nuclear missiles at key targets in Russia to start the war.
Skynet's creation is revealed to have resulted from a temporal paradox: the CPU and arm from the first Terminator were recovered by Cyberdyne and used as templates for the construction of a new microprocessor. John, Sarah, and the Terminator succeed in destroying the Cyberdyne building and all research connected with the processor to prevent Skynet's creation.
Skynet sends the T-1000 to kill John Connor.
HISTORY: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines Edit
The destruction of Cyberdyne building hasn't stopped the creation of Skynet. After the destruction of the building, the military took the research hoping they could use it for defense. Skynet was created as a United States Air Forces project to protect computers from virus attacks. When a virus infected the defense computers, the Air Force activated Skynet, not realizing it became sentient and was the one who created the virus. It takes control of the robots and the machines to kill the people at CRS but John and Kate survived. Skynet launches nuclear missiles across the globe, starting Judgment Day.
Skynet sends the T-X with the main target to kill John Connor, but as John has lived off the grid since 1995 the next priority to not only kill Kate, but also the future officers of the resistance.
HISTORY: T2 3-D: Battle Across Time Edit
In the post-apocalyptic future, Skynet has a system core. It uses the T-1000000 to protect it. The T-1000000 was defeated and the Terminator destroyed Skynet.
External Link Edit
Skynet Terminator Wiki Article.