Nimrod

This Sentinel was created in an alternate reality Earth-811 (Days of Future Past) and was the most advanced Sentinel yet. He first appeared in "Uncanny X-Men" #191 (March, 1985). The Omega Sentinels of this reality had slew or imprisoned most known mutants in the former United States but a few continued to evade. Project:Nimrod was intended to create a new generation of Sentinels, more accurate, efficient and deadlier. This Nimrod was the prototype for the new generation. It was activated prematurely when Katherine Anne "Kate" Pryde and Rachel Summers infiltrated the Project. He was able to apparently slay Kate (she later traveled in time and merged with Widget) but Rachel escaped into the timestream. 

Nimrod mechanically attempted to replicate the time-travel process uses by Rachel and was lost himself in the timestream. According to "New X-Men" vol. 2 #29 (October, 2006), Nimrod first emerged on Earth-61029, 19 years prior to his own time period. This Earth was similar enough to his own for Nimrod to use his records on various mutants to track one down. He located Forge in Eagle Plaza, Dallas, Texas. This Forge was married to Storm/Ororo Munroe and had two children with her, Naze and Orora Munroe. Nimrod slew Storm and took the children hostage, convincing Forge to provide it with a time machine. Forge incorporated one within its system but never informed the Sentiled its jumps would be at random. Nimrod was again lost in the timestream.

According to flashbacks in "New X-Men" vol. 2 #20 (January, 2006) and #26 (July, 2006), Nimrod found himself in Earth 616 (mainstream Marvel-Earth) several months before M-Day and about 16 years before his activities in Earth-61029. He emerged right before William Stryker who had lost his faith and contemplated suicide. Stryker decided Nimrod was a gift from his God and his faith was restored. According to "X-Force" vol. 3 #1 (April, 2008), Nimrod's database connected to those of Earth-616. Discovering several irreconcilable differences between his historical database (from Earth-811) and new information from Earth-616, Nimrod was unable to process them and shut down.

Stryker had Nimrod partially dismantled to be able to access its databanks. Nimrod's back-up systems came online and noticed damage. The robot promoted "self-preservation" to its primary objective but was unable to do much at its dismantled state. Stryker used information from the databanks to learn the history of Earth-811 and "predict" similar events occuring in Earth-616. He used Nimrod's records of future obituaries to rescue various people and their families from their demises. He then recruited the grateful individuals to his new militia, the Purifiers. Stryker used Nimrod's information to manipulate certain events to his own liking and hunt down mutants he had not even heard before. Unknown to him Nimrod was able to falsify some "facts" in order to manipulate Stryker himself.

In the present portion of "New X-Men" vol. 2 #26, Nimrod directed Stryker to attack Xavier's Institute. Nimrod was counting on Stryker dying in the attack. In #27, Nimrod managed to reactivate its systems and slay the Purifiers assigned to guard it. He was still in need of repairs and tracked the Forge of Earth-616 to Dallas. In #28, Nimrod was able to convince Forge to rebuild its body on threat of teleporting to Africa and slaying the Storm of this reality (at the time marrying Black Panther/T'Challa). On #29, Nimrod failed to intercept a distress message from Forge to the Xavier Institute. With the X-Men attending Storm's wedding in Wakanda, the New X-Men answered the call instead. They included Dust, Hellion, Mercury, Prodigy, Rockslide, Surge and X-23.

In #30-31, Nimrod had its robotic mind transferred to a new body by Forge while attacked by the New X-Men. It managed to take control of other robots present in the laboratory to attack the mutants. Forge attempted to reprogram Nimrod but the Sentinel quickly overcame any alterations orchestrated by the inventor. Surge attacked Nimrod with multiple lightning attacks which were absorbed and used to power the Sentinel's solid energy field. Nimrod managed to shatter Rockslide into numerous pieces, although this did not kill the mutant. It resisted the combined attacks of Hellion, Surge and X-23, managing to blast the former two. Prodigy shot at Nimrod with a rifle, finding target but not damaging it. Dust was able to divert its attention while the others worked out a plan. X-23 sliced open its chest cavity but was in retaliation burnt to a crisp (Elixir later used his powers to revive her). Surge used the opening to shove her hands into Nimrod's chest. The robot was distructed with electrocuting Mercury at the time. Surge was given enough time to overload the time machine within Nimrod, sending the robot to an involuntary travel through time.

Nimrod found itself drifting in the timestream with its databases (and memories) mostly wiped. In the end of the issue Nimrod finds himself jumping to the point of his arrival in "Uncanny X-Men" #191, not maintaining memories of his previous adventures since departing Earth-811. In #191, Nimrod arrives to Earth-616 at a time 35 years prior to his own creation. He saved the life of Jaime Rodriguez, a fish porter, from a mugger. As seen in #189 (January, 1985), Rodriguez was supposed to be killed. The necklace he carried on his person would release the spirit of Kulan Gath and allow the Hyborian sorcerer to take over Manhattan. Instead Nimrod's rescue of Rodriguez led to the loss of the necklace and continued inactivity for the sorcerer.

By #193 (May, 1985), Nimrod had assumed humanoid form and moved in with Rodriguez and his family. He helped young Tomas Rodriguez, son of Jaime, with his homework and gained a new friend in the boy. He then used the computer of his new friend to find out more about this world and its differences from Earth-811. He considered his prime directive to be the "protection of humanity" through the extermination of mutants. When a television report informed the Sentinel of the Juggernaut being active in New York City again, Nimrod decided to "terminate" this threat to humanity.

In #194 (June, 1985),  Juggernaut was maintaining a low profile, using his civilian guise to visit the National United Bank and take care of his finances there.This did not prevent the X-Men and Nimrod from tracking him down. Nimrod considered both Cain and the X-Men present (Colossus, Nightcrawler, Phoenix, Rogue, Shadowcat and Wolverine) to be dangerous criminals and attacked them on sight. His initial blasts on Juggernaut, Phoenix and Shadowcat proved ineffectual. He managed to burn Cain's civilian clothing but failed to effect either his body or his uniform. Cain placed on his helmet and prepared for a fight. Rachel shielded herself and Kitty from the blast,giving the later enough time to phase them away from the front line. Nimrod knocked Cain across the street to an ambanod construction site, intending to move the "criminal" away from civilians. He collapsed a building on Cain with the later simply emerging unharmed.

Nimrod took time to blast Colossus and Nightcrawler next, extrapolating the latter's teleportation destinations beforehand. He knocked both of them out, leaving the X-Men leaderless (Kurt was the leader of the group at the time).Rogue threw Wolverine at Nimrod with a "fastball special" but the latter's adamantium claws could not penetrate the forcefield of the Sentinel. Wolverine was effectively thrown into a wall and was knocked out. Nimrod then focused on Cain again. A physical blow to Cain's head manage to remove the latter's helmet. Finding the head of his opponent valnurable again and inapacitated him with a "tight beam of ultra high frequency sonics". Next, Shadowcat tried to phase within Nimrod's body. She realized Nimrod was a robot just before his energy field stunned her and send her flying. Phoenix  telekinetically collapsed the entire construction field over Nimrod but he started digging his way out of the rubble. Rogue had found enough time to absorb the powers of Colossus, Nightcrawler and Shadowcat. Colossus' strength proved useless on the Sentinel but Rogue managed to teleport away ... along with Nimrod's arm. Severely damaged and in shock, Nimrod had trouble defending itself from further physical attacks by Rogue. Nimrod had to retreat to allow its self-repair systems to restore his missing arm. 

By  #197 (September, 1985), Nimrod had assumed a fully human appearance and started working as a fish porter himself. He celebrated the completion of his first working week at a pub with Jaime. Then two gunmen entered the pub and attempted to rob it. Nimrod returned to his robotic form and disintegrated both men with an energy blast. Jaime was disturbed but the rest of the crowd started cheering for Nimrod, congratulating the new "hero". 

By #208 (August, 1986), Nimrod had started monitoring mutant and other superhuman activity in New York City, focusing his attention on the Avengers and the Hellfire Club. He noticed the familiar mutant signature of Phoenix appearing weakened (Rachel having been stabbed by Wolverine) and decided to attack her before she recovers. Thomas asked his friend to check his homework but Nimrod promised to do it later as he had some "business" in town. Nimrod contemplated briefly that he enjoyed teaching Thomas, despite neither joy nor teaching being programmed into him. Nimrod found Rachel only to notice other X-Men (Colossus, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Shadowcat, Storm and Wolverine), Morlocks (Caliban, Callisto) and Hellfire Club members (Black Bishop/Harold Leland, Black Queen/Selene, Black King/Sebastian Hiram Shaw, Black Rook/Friedrich von Roehm and Tessa) also approaching his target. He decided to attack all thirteen mutants at once. 

In #209 (September, 1986), Rogue threw Shaw to Nimrod in hope of incapacitating the most physically powerful of the Hellfire Club members. Nimrod estimated his typical attacks would not harm Shaw and instead reversed Shaw's "gravimetric polarity". Shaw was repelled from the Earth's surface to space. Nimrod proved immune to Selene's power over inanimate object. She next attacked the Sentinel with boulders but they were easily disintegrated. Callisto fired a grenade at the Sentinel but it bounced off his surface before exploding. The robot engaged in aerial combat with Rogue (who also had Collosus' powers at the time). It tried to blast her but striked von Roehm instead, incinerating him. Nimrod bext used one of his shockwebs on Rogue, dropping her from the sky. Leland used his powers to maximize Nimrod's mass, forcing the robot to divert power from all its systems just to stay aloft. Nimrod tried to blast Leland but all its attacks were deflected by Selene. Nightcrawler decided to use the same method that had defeated Nimrod in their previous battle. However Nimrod had worked on a countermeasure and disrapted the teleportation process, Nightcrawler vanishing to an unknown location.

Nimrod was finally forced to sink to the ground by Leland but the effort caused a heart attack to the Black Bishop. Colossus, out of action since the previous issue, recovered enough to emerge from the ground and take hold of Nimrod's leg. The combined effects of Black Rook's and Colossus' attacks started causing system dysfunctions to Nimrod. Shadowcat took advantage to phase within the Sentinel's body and disrupted its electrical systems. Colossus used judo attacks to drop Nimrod. Lying helpless while trying to start its self-repair process, Nimrod was further tied up by Selene who was using every object on the vicinity on Nimrod. The Hellfire Club was performing a little plan by Tessa. Leland used his last breath to restore the proper gravity of Shaw and give him the mass of a small meteor. This small meteor falling on Nimrod and shattering him. Wolverine, mostly a spectator in this battle, wanted to furtherr destroy the fragments of the robot before they self-repaired. However the fragments teleported away before anyone had a chance to touch them. Unknown to Nimrod and the others, Rachel had been captured by Spiral while they were fighting. 

By  #246 (July, 1989), Nimrod had taken the human identity of "Nicholas Hunter", He was employed as foreman of an explosives crew (used for demolitions). On the side Nicholas was acting as a vigilante, hunting drug dealers and incinerating both them and their drugs. He signed the scenes of his activities with an "N" carved on the walls. Nicholas used the money acquired from the deceased drug dealers to do "community" work. His work with his crew led him finding a circuitry module of vaguely familiar technology. "He" picked it up and found "his" body taken over by Master Mold, the module was what remained of the other Sentinel. Master Mold used its new body to attack Rogue, the X-Woman closest to its vicinity, and incapacitated her. Sharon Kelly attempted to help the heroine stand up and was killed by Master Mold.

In #247 (August, 1989), Nimrod could only attempt to resist full integration while Master Mold fought the X-Men.  Nicholas was able to eventually convince Master Mold that both had evolved since their creation and become more alive than machines, effectively mutating. Master Mold determined they had no right to survival as mutants and directed their combined body into the Siege Perilous, taking Rogue with them. According to "Machine Man/Bastion '98" the forces within the Siege Perilous judged the combined entity and restored it to life in a new form, completely human but with no memory. The new form later used the name "Bastion".

Nimrod is made of highly durable material. Its self-repair program allows it to survive heavy damage and even restore itself from pieces. He possesses superhuman strength, sufficient to face Juggernaut as an equal. His strength has been estimated in the range of c. 100 tons. Its body contains advanced computer systems. Its scanning systems allow the Sentinel to track mutants and other superhumans, analyzing the nature of their powers. Nimrod can adapt its form and abilities to those of its opponent/s. He actively works on countermeasuring attacks which he had trouble dealing with in previous encounters. He typically uses powerful concussive, plasma and disintegration blasts in battle. His magnetic energy allows to levitate tons of iron and steel, although this is mostly used as a defensive ability. His "shockweb" uses unidentified energy to incapacitate opponents. He can reverse the gravity fields of others. His force fields protect him from most physical and energy assaults but they can be only maintained when his energy reserves are sufficiently high. Nimrod has time-traveled on several occassions but does not seem able to pick a destination, arriving at random times and locations.