Instead of sending a single T-1000, or T-X unit, the same resources could be used to send 50 or so drones each consisting of a small blob of mimetic polyalloy wrapped around a simple weapon and maybe a power cell (20th century pistol or hand grenade equivalent would do, but say a small plasma cannon with a horrible charge time and the ability to self-destruct as a backup). These would be programmed to imitate pigeons, crows, owls or similar common avians depending on the local terrain. Based on the size of the T-800's CPU I don't think Skynet would have to compromise on intelligence, though it might have to compromise on sensors and endurance (but you don't need 100 year endurance for a single assassination mission). Anyway, 50 of these things radiate out from the start point, doing visual search and probably hacking any wireless networks in range to dig up current data on the target (e.g. the police car data terminal the T-1000 used in the first film used a wireless network Skynet grade tech should be easily be able to crack). Once the target is located, they regroup, covertly track the target for a while (preferably from a few hundred feet up) then do a swarm attack at the optimum moment. Potentially they could even join together into a humanoid form temporarily to mimic a human for infiltration/interrogation purposes, though their strength would presumably suck compared to a standard terminator.
It probably wouldn't make for good cinema (though surely Hitchcock's 'The Birds' would've been cooler with shapeshifting cyborg exploding plasma-armed antagonists
), and it's certainly not a foolproof strategy, but frankly I'd bet on that over the chances of any of the standard terminators completing a temporal assassination mission.(yes, title is a reference to this)
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- PeZook
