Issue 1 cover
Issue 2 cover
Issue 3 cover
The Terminator: Hunters and Killers is a three part comic series published in 1992 by Dark Horse Comics.
Synopsis
The story begins with human resistance leader John Connor mounting a successful campaign against the monstrous supercomputer Skynet and its army of cyborg Terminators. But Skynet retaliates by sending its Russian counterpart MIR on a mission to track down a Typhoon class nuclear submarine and use its deadly arsenal in a last-ditch effort to quash the Connor rebellion and restore dominion over humanity. The Russian counterpart to Tech-Com is centered around the Spetznaz (Special Forces warriors) operating out of Kamchata under the command of General Yegorov seeking out hidden pockets of humanity remaining in eastern Siberia and teaching them how to fight against the machines. Sergeant Larissa Bandera is the Spetznaz soldier who first detects the unusual behavior of terminators around Anatoly Golytsyn that refuse to terminate him as a restricted target. MIR has been tracking Anatoly for many months.
MIR and Skynet are operating at odds, with Skynet responsible for the "Self Awareness" subroutines in the Russian defense network making it a software based artificial intelligence, and holding it hostage under the threat of termination by an embedded virus that will delete MIR's AI subroutines if it fails to comply with the Skynet directed plans for obliteration of humanity. MIR seeks the nuclear sub in order to win its independence in a covert war against Skynet and assert it's dominance over the destruction of humanity. Skynet seeks the weapon in order to eliminate the last human threat posed by John Connor's cells in America. Skynet originally transferred and deleted all nuclear codes from MIR prior to giving it self-awareness as a self-protective measure and refuses to share them with its unruly subordinate. Humanity seeks the sub in order to destroy the "software based" entity MIR in coordination with the Connor's final strike against Skynet's hardware core. To achieve the reprogramming of the missiles, both MIR and the Spetznaz need the expertise of Anatoly Golytsyn, a former ISA agent and missile technician is the only remaining keeper of the required codes. Failure to eliminate MIR with a widespread EMP over Russia will result in the escape of MIR into the worldwide communications network once it's keeper, Skynet is destroyed. With no central core to destroy, the threat of MIR would be around forever. General Norman Effron is the liaison sent by Connor's Tech-Com to coordinate their efforts. The Alpha and Beta Pavlichenko units battle on board the sub and Larissa interrupts the fight, shooting the Alpha model, however the damage caused by the fight allows the MIR protocols to attempt to reassert control. After attacking Larissa, but hesitating to terminate her due to continued personality conflicts, it is interrupted and shot by Golytyn while executing a final override of the Pavlichenko personality. Golytsyn baits the terminator into the sub's fast-breeder liquid sodium reactor core and destroys it and himself in a rupture of the +2000 degree liquid sodium.
Notes
- In 1995 the story was turned into a digital comic.
- The story introduces the TS-300 (Terminator/Stealth) Series as a new weapon in the Terminator arsenal discovered during one of these Spetsnaz rescue/raids.
- The description of MIR as a purely software-based intelligence, existing in a network with no central core to destroy, anticipates the Skynet described at the end of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
- The Hunters and Killers comic rather presupposed that Skynet, unlike MIR, did have such a core instead of being substrate-independent software.
Known Terminators
Series TS-300
- Model Alpha / Zhdanov Unit @@@-xx (terminated by Sergey Pavlichenko)
- Model Alpha / Igor Unit @@@-xx (terminated in raid)
- Model Alpha / Irina Unit @@@-xx (terminated in raid)
- Model Beta / Sergey Pavlichenko (faulty) (Destroyed by Anatoly Golytzyn)
- Model Alpha / unknown blond female
- Model Alpha / Pavlichenko Unit RSP-01 (destroyed by Larissa Bandera)
- Model Alpha / Chikirizov Unit @@@-xx (destroyed by Russian Resistance)
- Model Alpha / unknown male Unit @@@-xx (destroyed in HK crash)
Series 800
- Model HK / Unit E3D6 (no infiltration sheath)
- Model HK / Unit C93B (no infiltration sheath)
- Model HK / Unit E6D3 (no infiltration sheath)
- Model HK / Unit B7F5 (no infiltration sheath) (destroyed in HK crash)
Series HK
- HK23RF / Transport HK Aerial unit
- HKxx@@ / HK "pocket-tank" (visibly similar to Skynet full-size HKs, but sized comparable to T-1s)
Russian Resistance members
- General Yegorov Spetsnaz Commander
- General Norman Effron American Tech-Com liaison
- Captain Sergey Pavlichenko Spetsnaz Team Leader (captured and replicated by MIR)
- Sergeant Larissa Bandera Spetsnaz "Zhakvahichi" (capturer/tracker)
- Khavitski Spetznaz Tech-Com (communications)
- Padorin Spetsnaz Technician
- Kirov Spetsnaz
- Tobenkiv Spetsnaz
- Anatoly Golytsyn former KGB/ISA member, Nuclear missile tech
- Korolev