The first machines gifted with artificial intelligence were created in man’s own image. Each
generation were increasingly accurate reflections of the human figure, with arms and legs and faces,
but as the joys of the Second Renaissance gave way to the horrors of the Machine War,
the nature of the machines began to change. No longer built to serve their human masters but
instead drive them towards extinction, their constructs turned increasingly alien. Some
were strange amalgamations of forms once found in nature, others were completely without precedent.
Beneath the ruins of mankind’s cities, a multitude of such machines now work tirelessly to sustain
their supremacy over the world. Yet few are feared by the human resistance, so much as the Sentinels.
The body of a Sentinel superficially resembles that of a squid and other cephalopods. They
feature a single bulbous, protruding “head” dotted with 17 forward mounted sensors
and at least 4 others mounted dorsally, all of which typically glow with a red hued light.
Beneath this main structure protrude a number of grasping mandibles,
while 15 long serpentine tentacles extend from behind it. These tentacles mostly end in curved
retractable claws which can reconfigure themselves into additional types of tools or sensors.
These claws constitute a Sentinel’s primary armament,
able to pierce through most forms of armor or rapidly shred an unprotected human being.
When these claws alone are insufficient, Sentinels are also equipped with a single
high power laser cutter, the sustained output of which can vaporize stronger materials.
At longer ranges, Sentinels can deploy tow bombs. These are vaguely insectoid in shape,
and might be mistaken as a Sentinels larva, but are in fact a kind of guided munition.
Through the use of what is likely an advanced form of hoverpad technology,
Sentinels can glide through the air seemingly without effort.
Their top speed is well in excess of the typical hovercraft utilized by the human resistance yet
they are also capable of remaining aloft in a fixed position. When maneuvering
through challenging terrain or confrontations with external threats, Sentinels can thrash and contort
their tentacles extremely rapidly, enabling sudden and continuous changes to their line of movement.
Multi-purpose constructs, Sentinels perform a variety of roles within the
greater artificial intelligence of the machines. Their original
purpose was to assist in construction, manufacturing and maintenance services,
and they can regularly be found performing these duties throughout the machine’s civilization.
However, during the war against humanity and the periodic guerrilla conflicts that occured after,
Sentinels proved to be especially capable at conducting search and destroy missions.
Before the eventual truce, small groups of Sentinels were routinely deployed to ruined
sewers and other places favored by the human resistance. Here they would actively seek out
the Resistance’s fleet of hovercraft, or simply lie in wait for any kind of human activity.
Against more heavily defended targets, primarily the human city of Zion, Sentinels were deployed
in enormous swarms. These vast formations could move in perfect synchronization,
delivering a critical strike at a precise point. The exact history of the Sentinels has been
lost to human records, but was likely first constructed between 2090 and 2139.
It was almost certainly the product of the Machine nation known as 01, and intended to replace a far
more humanoid model of construction droid produced within human territories. If this information is
accurate, then it can be assumed Sentinels were heavily involved in the construction of
the first Machine City on Earth. Whatever their origins, they were among the models mobilized
to destroy the armies of the United Nations and they performed this duty with great effectiveness.
With a truce now in place, the vast Sentinels fleets have returned to their original function,
maintaining the global machine hegemony. It is a hegemony that cannot exist if the Matrix is
dissolved however, and it might only be a matter of time before the Sentinels are mobilized again.
One for every human left on Earth.