C788.H

The C788.H^[1], also known as "Long Hair" by witnesses,^[1] was a Terminator Series 800 Model 117 Version 1.4^[1]sent by Skynet in 2029 to New York in 1985 to kill Elise Fong, the biotechnician whose research was related to the living tissue. It found itself in an unlikely alliance with human bounty hunter Farrow Greene.

History[]

C788.H was a major asset in one of Skynet’s earlier experiments in time manipulation. It was inadvertently time displaced with its CPU in read/write mode, a computer oversight that actually allowed it to adapt and successfully complete its mission.^[1]

C788.H arrived in Gooseneck, New York and immediately armed and dressed itself at a nearby gun shop killing its owner, heading straight to Manhattan. Knowing that Fong was using the false identity of "Elizabeth Wu" at this point, the Terminator violently acquired her address by snapping a clerk's neck. C788.H arrived on Fong's apartment building and kicked down the door, finding her in the company of bounty hunter Farrow Greene, who immediately opened fire on it. The resulting firefight ended with Elise and Farrow gone, C788.H's living tissue sheath damaged. The Terminator retreated to a nearby hardware store, where it shaved its head and covered the damage with duct tape and a bandana.^[2]

Deciding on a new approach, C788.H commandeered a helicopter from news station WKKZ, forcing the pilot to fly over Manhattan while he scanned the street below. The Terminator identified Farrow's car and started following it until it arrived in Cameron High School, a deserted school campus. C788.H took a very direct approach, forcing the helicopter to crash against Farrow's parked car while it jumped on the school's roof: as he had expected, Farrow had captured Elise. C788.H began chasing both women through the school's deserted halls, fighting Greene for a second time in the school's gym. The Terminator chased Farrow Greene outside, just in time to see how Rothlake mercenaries took Elise captive. C788.H managed to kill one of the mercenaries, but wasn't able to stop Rothlake from taking Elise nor Farrow from slipping away.^[3]

Damaged by the heavy gunfire from the Rothlake men, C788.H retreated to a machine shop, killing a receptionist and a security guard, and started repairing itself with the tools at its disposal. Knowing that Greene knew who and where the Rothlake men were, it then drew a picture of her and started showing it to possible contacts of the woman, eventually finding her outside am Irish tavern. The Terminator chased the woman until they arrived to a construction site, where she buried it until several concrete slabs. Realizing that that was a battle she could not win, Farrow did the unthinkable: she proposed a temporary alliance. She would take it to Rothlake, together they would take them out, and afterwards they would resume their fight over Elise. Deeming the arrangement to be logical, C788.H agreed,^[4] although its analysis indicated a 72% possibility that Farrow would fail to honor her word.^[5]

Greene drove the Terminator to the Rothlake facility where she expected finding at least indications of Elise's whereabout. During their travel together, C788.H refused to explain his nature to the human woman, even telling her that what she already knew was enough to mark her as a second target for termination. C788.H expressed interest in Greene's high combat abilities, admitting that it was statistically possible that she could defeat the machine. It also explained that if Greene were to break their agreement, the Terminator would cause significant collateral damage during the subsequent pursuit.^[6]

Arriving on the Rothlake facility, C788.H stole an armored vehicle from patrolling guards and used it to ram the entrance gates, causing the alarms to go off. Using gunfire and tear gas bombs, C788.H cut a path through the mercenaries and cut the facility's power, allowing Greene to enter the area and cover him with a sniper rifle. C788.H killed a mercenary that was going to kill Greene and helped her up, to the woman's astonishment. The pair entered a laboratory, where they discovered Rothlake's remote-controlled androids, that quickly took them out via electric shocks.^[6] Having reverse-engineered the remains of a previous time-travelling Terminator to build their androids, the Rothlake men were very interested in getting their hands on an intact model. Alas, this was not to be: as soon as C788.H rebooted, it started taking down mercenaries and androids. Confirming that their arrangement was still in effect, the Terminator and the bounty hunter chased the mercenaries that were taking Elise Fong out of the facility. They forced their jeep out of the road, but Farrow unexpectedly swerved left, forcing C788.H off their vehicle. C788.H found itself pinned under the car and, realizing that as it expected Greene had broken her promise, it make a promise itself: that it would keep coming after Greene and Elise. C788.H then unpinned itself from the vehicle and, after killing King, the Rothlake CEO, and impersonating him to keep Rothlake off the case, it stole King's private plane.^[5]

C788.H chased the small plane that Farrow and Elise had stolen and forced it to crash. Plumetting into a water body close to a small town, the Terminator (now with significant chunks of flesh missing) proceeded to start killing the cops and firefighters that had shown up, knowing that this would attract Farrow. As expected, the woman soon summoned the Terminator by shooting her gun into the air and C788.H went to face their final confrontation. The Terminator soon won the upper hand, but the fight was interrupted by Elise, who ran C788.H over with a car. That was all the Terminator needed: crashing through the windshield, C788.H tapped Elise on the chest, rupturing her pericardium and fatally wounding her.^[7]

In that moment, Farrow sprung her ambush, detonating two propane bottles and causing a water tower to collapse on the Terminator. Now heavily damaged, C788.H could not stop Farrow from dragging its body to a railway. Before the incoming train terminated it, C788.H praised Farrow's worth and let her know that it had completed its mission.^[7] Farrow took C788.H’s remains to an undisclosed location—whether or not she destroyed them is unclear.^[1]

Personality[]

C788.H made extensive use of its psychology files to assess a human’s reliability and body language. The T-800 was able to suppress its termination protocols long enough to form a mutually beneficial alliance with Farrow Greene.^[1]

Notes[]

The unit's designation "C788.H" is a later establishment in The Terminator RPG.
When C788.H drew the portrait of Farrow Greene, he used the pencil to draw horizontal lines like a matrix dot printer would.