pfarland
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Terminators and Xenomorphs

Tue 30 Nov 2021, 05:10

I have a question for the hive mind (pun intended). Would Terminators (T-800, fully skinned) attract a Facehugger and/or Xenomorph? Would the flesh covering deceive them?
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Angelman
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Re: Terminators and Xenomorphs

Tue 30 Nov 2021, 14:58

There's no right or wrong answer to this, so you get to decide what works in your setting! Reportedly, though, xenos get puzzled by and tend to ignore synthetics as long as they aren't given cause to attack them. That doesn't answer your question, of course, but it is the closest we have to an analogue. In short, whatever you want, works, mate!
"And the rain sets in,
it's the Angelman.
I'm deranged".
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pfarland
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Re: Terminators and Xenomorphs

Tue 30 Nov 2021, 20:59

You're probably right about no right/wrong answer. I know they ignore/get confused by synths, I'm just wondering what people feel and think since you do have that living covering.

The reasons for this is a play by post PvP RPG I want to get going. One grand GM to coordinate and work the setting. Terminator vs. Xenos vs. Predators vs. multiple different human teams.

Terminators use the Time Displacement Device to not only travel into the future, but also sidestep into an alternate reality looking for advanced tech. Human Resistance follows them with the goal of stopping the Terminator from completing their mission and building a TDD to travel back.

Xenos (possibly GM or single player). Human teams not only W-Y Security, but also a Colonial Marine team to shut them down.

Predators, well, they're just hunting of course. Maybe a human team that is tracking them, maybe another company.

Hopefully, I can get this together, as well as keep as many players in the dark as possible.
"Load up, strap in, lock and load, and save the last bullet for yourself."
 
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InHarmsWay
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Re: Terminators and Xenomorphs

Thu 02 Dec 2021, 04:59

I don't think facehuggers would attack them. They may be covered in flesh, but they don't have a heart beat and lungs for breath, so a fachugger would probably mistake them for a corpse. An adult would probably attack them though.
 
ErikModi
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Re: Terminators and Xenomorphs

Wed 08 Dec 2021, 16:54

This is complicated.

In the first film, the intent was that the Terminator's flesh coating had a limited life, that it would die and decay relatively quickly after being applied to the Terminator. Hence, as the film goes on, in addition to the damage from gunfire the Terminator takes, the skin just starts rotting on its frame, leading to the memorable complaint about the smell and the Terminator's legendary response.

In the second film, the Terminator states when asked that the wounds in its flesh coating would heal, and later films show Terminators keeping their flesh coating intact and alive indefinitely, and even aging as time passes. This indicates that there is a very good facsimile of biological processes at work, since the tissue would need the same organic support that human tissue does to stay alive.

A Terminator is coated in more than just skin. The skin has hair follicles which can grow hair, sweat glands, the eyes produce moisture (if not tears per se) and the mouth creates saliva. Underneath the skin are facsimile muscles, as you can see muscles moving beneath a Terminator's skin (naturally, since they are played by human actors who have the internal arrangement common to all humans). Kyle describes them in the first film as having "sweat, hair, bad breath, everything."

It would be my contention that inside of an 800 series Terminator is a life support module for its flesh coating, a combined heart/lung/stomach that circulates blood through the skin. Organic blood vessels attach to the endoskeleton at certain points where the piping from this module exits the endoskeleton, allowing this blood to flow through the flesh coating and to and from the module. The Terminator breathes in reasonable facsimile of a human to oxygenate the blood, and can consume probably very simple nutrition to cycle nutrients through the blood as needed. Now, we never see a Terminator eat, so I would imagine the module starts topped off with sufficient nutrition to keep the skin alive and allow it to heal for some time before needing to be replenished.

This is an insanely complicated system that could probably only be designed by an omnicidal AI.

As this relates to Aliens, I think that a Terminator with a flesh coating would confuse them. On the one hand, they have enough life signs, thanks to the living tissue and everything that goes into maintaining it, that they appear alive and thus a viable host. On the other, beneath that flesh coating, they're far more robotic than traditional Synthetics, probably sending up some alarms in the Aliens' senses that this is not alive.

So I'd go with whatever is more dramatic. An egg may open in the presence of a Terminator, the facehugger may leap out at it, but then scuttle off as it suddenly realizes this isn't a viable host. A Warrior might attempt to subdue a Terminator for implantation, only to wonder why a tail sting had no effect. A Drone might cautiously and oddly curiously approach and investigate a Terminator, trying to figure out what this thing is and why it seems and seems not to be a viable host. Or they might skip all that and conclude this thing is strange enough to be categorized as a threat that must be neutralized as quickly as possible.

If you've seen the 40th Anniversary Short Film Alone, a lone facehugger kept approaching a lone android, because despite realizing on the first encounter that Hope was not a viable host, it kept defaulting to the instinct to find a suitable host, and Hope was close enough that it kept getting near her but not attacking because there was no point. I can imagine a facehugger in a similar situation being even more confused by a Terminator.
 
pfarland
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Re: Terminators and Xenomorphs

Wed 08 Dec 2021, 18:52

It would be my contention that inside of an 800 series Terminator is a life support module for its flesh coating, a combined heart/lung/stomach that circulates blood through the skin. Organic blood vessels attach to the endoskeleton at certain points where the piping from this module exits the endoskeleton, allowing this blood to flow through the flesh coating and to and from the module. The Terminator breathes in reasonable facsimile of a human to oxygenate the blood, and can consume probably very simple nutrition to cycle nutrients through the blood as needed. Now, we never see a Terminator eat, so I would imagine the module starts topped off with sufficient nutrition to keep the skin alive and allow it to heal for some time before needing to be replenished.
According to some online info, Terminators have an analog to the heart and lungs, so you're pretty correct there. I personally would postulate that they could eat as well, potentially even supporting the nutritional needs of the flesh covering. It would be too easy to stop "people" going into a resistance haven and have them eat a snack otherwise.

You've made a lot of great points. And I also now have a visual of a group of Terminators being followed be a small pack of Facehuggers.
"Load up, strap in, lock and load, and save the last bullet for yourself."
 
ErikModi
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Re: Terminators and Xenomorphs

Wed 08 Dec 2021, 19:12

I would imagine the could at least mimic eating, though I'd think this life support module is designed to work with more simple and easily-digested food to support their organic systems. With as complex as all this already is, it seems to me that being able to fully extract any kind of food a human might eat might be beyond the capabilities. I also have the idea, more in an Alien context, but a surviving Terminator having a "tell" of only being seen eating something like applesauce or protein drinks to make people suspicious but not obviously so.

But if you want to lean in to the idea of Skynet covering all the possible bases of Infiltration (except for the dog thing it could never quite work around), then sure, a Terminator can sit down to fine meal with no problems.
 
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Angelman
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Re: Terminators and Xenomorphs

Wed 08 Dec 2021, 19:12

It is also worth noting, (unless I'm completely mistaken), that we don't really know how the Xenomorphs sense and detect humans and other creatures. Perhaps it's a simple as smelling skin and blood and flesh, in which case the Terminator dermis might fool the Xenos. But what if they hunt by hearing the human heartbeat? A Xeno would probably not be fooled by a flesh-covered robot skelleton in that case. Or what if the Xenos detect pheromones? Can they litterally smell fear? Which would exclude a Terminator. Or, intriguingly, perhaps they hunt by brain waves, or something even more esoteric.

These questions quickly become very complicated, so the best you can do, as has been stated before, is to just pick whatever first your taste and brings the most drama to the table.
"And the rain sets in,
it's the Angelman.
I'm deranged".
--David Bowie, I'm Deranged

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