A YJA Moment: Sentinels

Since the beginnings of Weapons Plus, there were two competing factions vying for dominance in the nascent agency.  One of them, who would later spear-headed what would be known as Task Force X, saw metahumans a resource, a potential weapon to be used against the enemies of the United States.  The others looked at those with superhuman powers with fear and sought to eliminate them once and for all.

For many years scientists floated the idea of using robots in order to fight metahumans.  Autonomous vehicles would not risk human lives and would theoretically be able to go toe-to-toe with the most powerful mutants and their abilities.  There were design issues that arose regarding control, mobility, and weapon systems.

The control issues would be solved by the use of Artificial Intelligence.  While Weapons Plus' research stagnated, the designs of Dr. Henry Pym would have success, creating the android Ultron.  Over the years, the battles between Ultron and the Sword would allow Weapons Plus to acquire vital fragments of Ultron's source code, allowing them to develop a satisfactory-intelligent operating system for their weapons platform.

The remainder of the issues would actually come from alien technology, specifically the robot aliens known to the heroes of Earth as The Transformers.  A  thought-dead Cybertronian leader known as Sentinel Prime came to Earth to help the Autobots leader Optimus Prime fight their enemies, The Decepticons.

In truth, Sentinel Prime had betrayed the Autobots on their home planet of Cybertron, allowing the Decepticons a tactical advantage.  On Earth, he attempted to usurp leadership from Optimus in order to allow Megatron to conquer Earth.  In the end, Sentinel Prime was revealed to be a traitor during the Decepticon assault on Chicago.  After a duel with Optimus, Sentinel Prime was defeated and his spark was extinguished.  The Autobots left the remains of Sentinel Prime with the rest of the Decepticons defeated that day.  That was a mistake.

Much like Ultron, agents within the United States government retrieved the corpse of Sentinel Prime and used his advanced Cybertronian technology to construct the first anti-metahuman weapons platform.  While full transformation was not able to be replicated, the new giant android had advanced weapons, self-healing armor, and sensors that could detect the tell-tale emanations of metahumans.

When completed, these new Sentinels were field-tested in a daring attack on the Xavier School for Higher Learning, a known training center for metahumans.  Although the fight resulted in the destruction of the test Sentinels, vital information was gathered.

With the anti-mutant forces of Weapons Plus become the core of the new organization of Orchis, the next generation of Sentinels are being designed that will turn the tide of their crusade once and for all.