MASTER MOLD: Page 4 of 4

Part Seven: Operation: Zero Tolerance

The fact that two lines of Sentinel production would ultimately lead to the Earth being inherited not by the meek but by the robotic might lead the casual observer to believe that any line of Sentinel construction would be destined for tragedy. Perhaps this is the case, though perhaps not. At least one other Sentinel program managed to employ a Master Mold unit without it leading to catastrophe. While in the end the program was not considered a success and was abandoned as ill-conceived, it was not the Sentinel program itself but the amoral management thereof that caused the failure of Operation: Zero Tolerance.

The driving force behind this new project was an enigmatic individual known to many only as “Bastion,” whose greatest secret – unknown even to himself – was that he was once the merged Sentinels Master Mold & Nimrod, resurrected and reborn in flesh. Though lacking a past or any memory whatsoever of his previous lives, Bastion did possess the technical knowledge of Sentinel apparatuses. With these, Bastion was able to gain the attention of political rising star Graydon Creed, who in turn directed Bastion to a government program which would eventually evolve into Operation: Zero Tolerance. Accompanying the government technicians also assigned to the project, Bastion helped design a new Master Mold unit, which in turn manufactured the most advanced Sentinels yet ever designed. While Bastion indeed provided technology from the future timeline of Nimrod’s, he and the technicians worked to advance the concepts, in time designing and implementing a new direction of Sentinel technology, grafting its mechanisms into baseline humans and giving birth to cyborg Prime Sentinels.

During all of the time Operation: Zero Tolerance was active, the Master Mold unit never displayed any type of artificial intelligence, nor decision-making abilities. It merely seemed to function as the control center for the production of Sentinels, both standard and Prime. As a result, it was most likely incapable of ever breaking free of its programming to become a threat to its creators. Given that the personalities of Steven Lang (via Lang’s engram-programmed Master Mold) and the historical files of the Nimrod from the future timeline still existed in the subconscious of Bastion, it is most likely that Bastion, who seemed to pride himself on his intricate plans and machinations, wished to avert such a possibility.

Much like a comet is captured by the gravity of a star and fated to swing back no matter its apogee, so too did the fates conspire to bring Bastion to what he had abandoned. In his previous lives, Bastion had been an instrument for the destruction of mutants. Within a relatively short amount of time from his rebirth, Bastion found himself working for an anti-mutant organization, pressing the rules of humanity in the pretext of protecting it. Prior to his rebirth, Bastion had been an artificial entity, but afterward was one of flesh and blood. In this too, the orbit of Bastion’s life was to swing upon itself, returning him from the organic to the synthetic.

At what seemed the height of his success, details of Bastion’s illegal and inhuman actions had reached those of authority, causing authorization for Operation: Zero Tolerance to be immediately rescinded. In the wake of this, Bastion was imprisoned and studied. Curiously, though having boasted of being reborn of flesh and blood, Bastion had begun a startling transformation into something clearly not human. Using new abilities acquired via this metamorphosis, Bastion escaped his imprisonment and returned to the O:ZT base in New Mexico, where he activated the Master Mold unit.

Through a mysterious process, the Master Mold unit used whatever energy or lifeforce it contained to complete Bastion’s transformation, re-creating him in a new form that resembled one of his previous ones – that of Nimrod. Even more astonishing, the process returned the memories of Bastion, who now recalled his previous lives. The procedure finished, the Master Mold was rendered a lifeless husk, presumably unable to be used ever again. [Cable & Machine Man Annual 1998]

Conclusion To date, there have been at least five Master Mold units constructed – one by Bolivar Trask, one employed by Steven Lang, another “duplicate” of the unit containing Lang’s mental engrams, another by Bastion and a fifth constructed in Ecuador. While it is not clear if Sebastian Shaw’s line ever employed such a unit, it is clear from the future timeline where his breed of Sentinels took over the world that one would eventually be constructed. In the industrial age, quality control is the necessity of manufacturing the perfect product perfectly every time. So too must be the line of thought behind the employ of the Master Mold.