Skywatch

2019-05-24T16:07:37Z

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:''Skywatch is a [[human]] organization from the [[2005 IDW continuity|2005 IDW portion]] of the [[Generation 1 continuity family|Generation 1]] [[continuity family]].''
[[File:Skywatch Logo.png|upright=1.4|thumb|Keep V/atching the skies!]]
'''Skywatch''' is a government organization who deals with [[Transformer|Cybertronian]]s. It has changed a lot throughout the years.

Originally a covert organization bent on investigating the Cybertronian presence on Earth. Skywatch would collect offlined aliens and attempt to control them to their advantage. Eventually, the Cybertronian presence became common knowledge following an [[The Transformers: All Hail Megatron|alien invasion]] of Earth, and Skywatch was reworked from the ground up. It became a military force working under the [[United Nations]], using reverse-engineered Cybertronian technology to aggressively hunt down and detain the aliens, who were deemed enemies of humanity.

But as time went on, some Skywatch agents learned that the [[Autobot]] side of the Cybertronians were really not hostile at all, and a secret alliance was formed between them. For a time, until the Autobots returned to a reborn [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]], they worked together to capture the [[Decepticon]]s hiding on Earth.

==Known members==
*[[Campolongo]]
*[[Collins (G1)|Collins]]
*[[Emily (G1)|Emily]]
*Corporal [[Joe Henderson]]
*Colonel [[Gordon Horiuchi]]
*[[Ayana Jones]]
*Lieutenant [[Daniel Klonowski]]
*[[Kloss]]
*Lieutenant [[Larsen]]
*[[Lopez]]
*[[Maria (G1)|Maria]]
*[[Kyle Pennington]]
*[[Joshua Red]] (former head)
*[[Sandra (G1)|Sandra]]
*[[Schwalbe]]
*Doctor [[Weston]]
*General [[Sparkplug Witwicky|Daniel Witwicky]] (current head)
*Major [[Spike Witwicky (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Spike Witwicky]]

==Known contacts==
*Major [[Arkurin]] in [[Zyargy]], [[Brasnya]]
*[[Joe Colton]]
*[[Merklynn|Garrison Kreiger]]
*[[Centurion (IDW)|Centurion]]

==Skywatch units==
[[File:Crashsuitsandtransports.jpg|upright=1.1|thumb|[[Cobra|Crashing through the sky, comes a fearful cry!]]]]
*[[Crash suit]]s
*[[Skywatch transport aircraft|Transport aircraft]]
*[[Skywatch gunship|Gunships]]
{{--}}

==Fiction==
===2005 IDW continuity===
In [[1985]], at [[Mount St. Helens]] in [[Oregon]], Skywatch excavated a [[Laserbeak (G1)|giant condor robot]], a [[Ravage (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|giant jaguar robot]], and a [[Bugly (G1)|giant insectoid robot]] from a volcanic eruption the year prior. Group leader Joshua Red believed this discovery would finally give them the funding they required. {{storylink|Spotlight: Soundwave}} {{storylink|When Eagles Scream}} Some time later, the group discovered an abandoned extraterrestrial bunker located inside the mountain, which they renovated and refurbished into a sizable research facility. {{storylink|When Eagles Scream}}

In the following years, Skywatch gained a base in [[Washington, D.C.]] disguised as a derelict building. They possessed a secondary base in [[Carson City]], [[Nevada]], which appears to be a disused warehouse, and appears to be a new base. Yet another base exists in [[Salt Lake City]], [[Utah]], which appears to just be for storage. {{storylink|Escalation issue 5|Escalation #5}}

Circa [[2006]], Skywatch's Mt. St. Helens facility would become the nexus of [[Project Hot House]], an initiative aimed at combining nearby samples of [[Ore-13]] with a [[Talisman (G1)|alien object]] unearthed by the [[Adventure Team]] in [[1984]]. Adventure Team veteran [[Joe Colton]] and government contact [[Merklynn|Garrison Kreiger]] partnered with Joshua for the experiments, hoping to develop a viable weapon to counter the upswing of alien activity on Earth. As part of these experiments, Skywatch scientists successfully reactivated the insectoid robot, which promptly broke containment and attempted to escape.

Lured to the battle by a false distress beacon, [[Sgt. Savage]] teamed up with [[Centurion (IDW)|Centurion]] and [[G.I. Joe (team)|G.I. Joe]] to rein in the out-of-control robot. It transpired that the entire escapade had been a ruse designed to lure the time-displaced Savage — his body saturated with Talisman energy — to the facility, using his body as a living battery to activate the alien object. The ensuing surge of Talisman power was sufficient to vaporize the insectoid robot's body, but not without sending Savage another decade into the future. {{storylink|When Eagles Scream}}

In [[2007]], in [[Eureka]], Nevada, Skywatch took over the excavation of a [[Shockwave (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|giant purple robot]] and [[Dinobot (G1)|several giant dinosaur robots]]. {{storylink|Escalation issue 5|Escalation #5}}

Following the end of Project: Hot House, the active condor and jaguar robots had been relocated to Skywatch's Washington facility. {{storylink|Escalation issue 6|Escalation #6}} Following the [[Brasnya]] conflict, Skywatch deployed to the battlefield with intention to use the jaguar and condor robots (which had undergone "conditioning") to find the other Transformers. There was no possibility of this blowing-up in their faces. {{storylink|Devastation issue 1|Devastation #1}} And then it blew up in their faces when their robots went AWOL, responding to an alien signal from a [[Soundwave (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|blue, secondhand microcassette recorder]], right as giant robots starting trashing American soil. {{storylink|Devastation issue 4|Devastation #4}}

Due to the [[Reaper]]s' attack on [[Decepticon]] headquarters, Skywatch decided to activate the most advanced of the "Eureka-6": [[Grimlock (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Thunder Lizard-1]]. {{storylink|Devastation issue 5|Devastation #5}} When their scientist, Weston protested he couldn't "process" TL-1 this quickly, Joshua Red explained they had no choice — they were at war, it was going to get worse, and "we can't rely on ''anyone'' coming to our aid!" Thunder Lizard-1 was transferred to the Carson City base, which was a dark, bare warehouse at the time. {{storylink|Devastation issue 6|Devastation #6}}

Soon after, the base was now a high-tech hangar-cum-control center, designed solely for processing and activating the Thunder-Lizards. This appears to have been hurriedly put together, as Skywatch did not have time to make proper signs for all their doors and had to scribble the names of several rooms down in pencil, with [[Spotlight: Grimlock|a reminder to make a better sign]].

Weston was worried that the techniques used to program the robot, knocked out in a few days, would blow up in their faces; Red ignored his concerns, focusing on the need for Earth to have an asset against the enemy robots. So, inevitably, ''this'' experiment blew up in their faces as well. A [[Kloss|mole]] secretly working with the [[Machination]] interfered with the re-activation process and Grimlock (or Thunder Lizard-1) regained control of his functions and broke out of the base. Agent Red ordered the scientists to figure out what went wrong and to begin preparations for the other "Thunder Lizards" to be deployed. Even though Grimlock's reactivation was sabotaged, Agent Red still learned nothing. Idiot. {{storylink|Spotlight: Grimlock}}

In a shocking development, when the "Thunder Lizards" were quite easily reprogrammed and worked perfectly, Red began to show suspicion that something was up. When the lost Thunder Lizard-1 appeared in Fallon, Skywatch mobilized to isolate the town, cut communications, and send in their robot teams... {{storylink|Maximum Dinobots issue 1|Maximum Dinobots #1}} who caused greater damage and had their neural nets go wonky. In a further example of his new-found brain cells, Red realized this meant enemy action was going on, and so went to have a chat with [[Shockwave (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|the sixth Eureka robot]]. {{storylink|Maximum Dinobots issue 2|Maximum Dinobots #2}} Rather than try and usurp his will, Agent Red had placed a bomb in Shockwave's head which would explode in 24 hours if a signal was not transmitted. This was how much time Shockwave has to hunt down the seekers and the Thunder-Lizards. Shockwave seemed compliant, until he chillingly stated that he could lay waste to a substantial portion of the planet in 24 hours, leaving Agent Red and his team to worry. {{storylink|Maximum Dinobots issue 3|Maximum Dinobots #3}}

[[File:Agent Red Maximum Dinos.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.1|Agent Red practices positive thinking.]]
Agent Red later got word from one of his field units that they had reacquired Seekers One and Two from the coordinates Shockwave provided them with. He also learned that Shockwave was currently battling an "unidentified mecha" in another location. He told his tech to hold off transmitting the disarm code for the bomb in Shockwave's head, as he wanted all of their stray robots recovered first. If Shockwave recovered them all before the time was up, she should have let the bomb detonate instead. Shockwave later let Scorponok go and the Dynobots went after him, causing Agent Red to board a helicopter, wanting to see the battle first-hand, and told the tech to transmit the disarm code. As she did so, [[Soundwave (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Soundwave]] intercepted the code and cloned it for Shockwave, who in turn told Soundwave how to free himself. As Soundwave did, he reactivated Ravage and Laserbeak, who easily dispatched the Skywatch agents and escaped. Intending to blow him and Shockwave up, Grimlock activated a grenade that blew the building they were in sky-high, the blast narrowly missing Agent Red's helicopter. An unhappy looking Agent Red later walked away from the debris left behind by the day's carnage, with all of his captured robots having escaped. {{storylink|Maximum Dinobots issue 5|Maximum Dinobots #5}}

Following a large-scale Decepticon invasion of Earth, Skywatch was reformed. The [[United Nations]] took full control of the organization, reworking it into a military force focused on actively defending Earth from the Transformers. They put [[Sparkplug Witwicky|Colonel Daniel Witwicky]] in charge (apparently firing Joshua Red in the process) of the new Skywatch, and made his son [[Spike Witwicky (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Spike]] head of field operations. {{storylink|All Hail Megatron issue 16|The Man Of Steel}} The organization was overseen by the Joint Chiefs of the United States Army and worked with organizations across the world such as the [[Mossad]]. {{storylink|Scrapper (issue)|Scrapper}} Though ostensibly a global operation, [[Zilong Qian]] opined that Skywatch placed a disproportionate focus on defending the United States. {{storylink|New Cybertron Part 2: A Lonely Pillar on the Plain|A Lonely Pillar on the Plain}}

[[File:Skywatchgunship.jpg|upright=1.1|thumb]]
Through Spike Witwicky and some unidentified general, Skywatch came in contact with the Decepticon [[Swindle (G1)|Swindle]] and began illegally purchasing Cybertronian weapons and technology from him. It was a closely guarded secret, and almost all members of Skywatch were unaware, though likely at least one person in their top brass knew. {{storylink|Police Action Part 3: A Second Chance at Eden|A Second Chance at Eden}} Using companies such as [[Allodyne Logic Systems]], [[Dynomic]] and [[Darkmatter Logic]], they modified the "captured" technology into weapons for their own use, such as [[crash suit]]s. {{storylink|The Hanging Sword}}

Many Transformers were left behind on Earth following the invasion, and over the next two years, Skywatch worked hard to hunt down and capture them. When [[Breakdown (G1)|Breakdown]] attacked a power station, Spike's team incapacitated him and threatened to use lethal force, in a plan that brought [[Prowl (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Prowl]] out of hiding. Prowl was captured and used as bait for the other Autobots. When [[Hot Rod (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Hot Rod]] led a rescue team, [[Ironhide (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Ironhide]] was killed in the process. In response, a depressed [[Optimus Prime (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Optimus Prime]] resigned as Autobot leader and surrendered to Skywatch. {{storylink|...For All Mankind}} Spike's attempts at interrogating Prime went poorly, so he had [[Kyle Pennington|Pennington]] and [[Campolongo]] capture three additional Autobots in an attempt to make him talk. {{storylink|Things Fall Apart, Part 2: "A Rude Awakening"|A Rude Awakening}}

Meanwhile, Skywatch colonel [[Gordon Horiuchi]] disagreed with the organization's view on how all Transformers were bad. Him and his unit went rogue, secretly contacting the Autobots and offering an alliance with them. The plan was for the Autobots to help Skywatch capture Decepticons, thereby proving that they weren't so bad after all. However, the alliance quickly went sour due to Horiuchi's way of controlling the Autobots. {{storylink|The Hanging Sword}} The plan was canceled after the Autobots resisted and Skywatch command started noticing that Horiuchi's unit weren't operating at full capacity. Lieutenant [[Daniel Klonowski]] took responsibility for it all, and ended up losing his position at Skywatch. {{storylink|Wings of Wax}}

Unhappy with how the brass saw him as an "army man" only capable of violent action, Spike continued to try and negotiate with Optimus Prime. {{storylink|Things Fall Apart, Part 3: "Seasons in Flight"|Seasons in Flight}} One particularly deep conversation with Prime got him thinking about whether or not the Autobots were truly the enemy of humanity. {{storylink|Things Fall Apart, Part 4: "Enemies of the System"|Enemies of the System}} Later that day, Skywatch learned of a battle between [[Menasor (G1)|Menasor]] and a number of Autobots in the [[Petrified Forest National Park]]. Having thought things over, Spike made the decision to release Optimus Prime so that he could help his people. After Decepticons were defeated, [[Bumblebee (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Bumblebee]], the new Autobot leader, decided to negotiate with Skywatch. While he wasn't particularly trusting of the humans, Spike convinced him to form a mutually beneficial alliance between their forces. The Autobots would no longer have to hide from the humans in a cave, instead being granted access to the Skywatch [[New Mexico]] base, while Skywatch would in turn have access to their technology and aid in capturing Decepticons. {{storylink|Things Fall Apart, Part 5: "Earthworks"|Earthworks}}

When Colonel Witwicky found out, he was not happy with his son's decision. He didn't trust the aliens and feared what would happen if they found out what Skywatch had been doing in "[[Section 82]]". In addition, [[Allenby|General Allenby]] would be even ''less'' happy if he found out that Spike had willingly released Optimus Prime, so they had to base the entire alliance on the lie that Prime had escaped on his own. Spike's co-worker [[Sandra (G1)|Sandra]] did not enjoy being part of this deception. {{storylink|All His Engines}} After Spike and his father conspired together and lied to Allenby about Prime's "escape", he went AWOL and executed the Decepticon [[Scrapper (G1)|Scrapper]], covering it up to keep it secret from the rest of Skywatch. {{storylink|Scrapper (issue)|Scrapper}}

With the new alliance firmly in place, a team of Autobots and Skywatch members were sent to investigate a spaceship crash in [[Las Vegas]]. They fought with the ship's occupants, [[Galvatron (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Galvatron]] and his troops, until they learned that the real danger was a [[zombie]] virus they had brought with them. {{storylink|The Transformers: Infestation issue 1|The Transformers: Infestation #1}} Skywatch lost some men in the battle, but the zombie mastermind [[Britt]] was eventually defeated and the zombies sealed away. {{storylink|The Transformers: Infestation issue 2|The Transformers: Infestation #2}}

Four months after the formation of the alliance, [[North Korea]] revealed that they had employed their own Transformers: the [[Combaticon (G1)|Combaticons]]. Before Skywatch could move out to take care of them, the [[President of the United States]] announced that ''any'' country collaborating with Transformers would be treated as possessors of weapons of mass destruction. Bad news for the secret Skywatch-Autobot alliance. {{storylink|International Incident Part 1: "The Land Ironclads"|The Land Ironclads}} Still intent on defeating the Combaticons, a Skywatch team traveled to Korea with a several Autobots ordered to disguise themselves by remaining in [[alternate mode|vehicle mode]] at all times. This reflected poorly on their battle capabilities, and the Combaticons got away. {{storylink|International Incident Part 2: "Ranks of Bronze"|Ranks of Bronze}} To allow the Autobots access to their robot forms, Skywatch hacked the spy satellites watching the area, which Sandra considered to be crossing the line regarding obfuscation. {{storylink|International Incident Part 3: "Hawk Among the Sparrows"|Hawk Among the Sparrows}} When Pennington opened up a satellite for Skywatch use in order to witness the battle himself, Sandra's morality overcame her and she shut off the satellites' encryption, revealing the Skywatch-Autobot alliance to the world. {{storylink|International Incident Part 4: "All My Sins Remembered"|All My Sins Remembered}}

Public opinion quickly turned against Skywatch; within days, protesters had gathered outside their New Mexico base and an assassination attempt had left Bumblebee grievously injured. Then things got even ''worse'' as the Decepticons returned to Earth, shot down the plane carrying the Korea team home, crippled the New Mexico base and freed all Decepticons in their captivity. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 1: The Demolished Man|The Demolished Man}} The base was evacuated, but the affected Skywatch troops and Autobots were attacked by [[Megatron (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Megatron]] before they could regroup at [[Omega Supreme (G1)|Omega Supreme]]. The Decepticon leader effortlessly defeated the Autobots and killed many of the humans. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 3: Woken Furies|Woken Furies}} Most of the Korea team survived the plane crash and made it to shore, where Optimus Prime confronted and drove away Megatron. However, [[Jazz (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Jazz]] was forced to kill a [[John Powell|human policeman]] who was threatening the Autobots, which didn't do any favors for the reputation of Skywatch or the Autobots. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 4: Burning Chrome|Burning Chrome}}

The Skywatch forces and the Autobots finally did reach Omega Supreme, who became their new base. Megatron then surrendered himself and was imprisoned at the same location, where he revealed to Optimus Prime that Spike had killed Scrapper in cold blood, claiming it as a reason why he shouldn't trust Skywatch so easily. {{storylink|Revenge of the Decepticons Part 5: Enemy Mine|Enemy Mine}} Six weeks later, [[Hot Rod (G1)/2005 IDW continuity|Rodimus]] arrived at the base with news that Galvatron had conquered [[Cybertron (planet)|Cybertron]]. Most of the Autobots elected to return to their home planet to fight this new threat, leaving only Bumblebee, Prowl, and a few others behind with Skywatch to investigate Scrapper's murder. {{storylink|Space Opera—Final Tableaux: Orphans of the Helix|Orphans of the Helix}}

While that Autobots were doing their thing, Spike and Skywatch had to try to explain why the Autobots had dropped a satellite on a research facility (actually an attempt to destroy Megatron) and left the planet without any explanation. {{storylink|Police Action: Part 1}} The revelation that Skywatch had been working with Cybertronians for quite some time caused irreparable damage to the organization's reputation, leading to chaos among Skywatch command and ultimately to their funding indirectly getting cut off. In the meantime, Prowl's investigation led to finding Sandra and bringing her in to be questioned about Spike. But just as evidence began to pile up, Spike happily confessed that yes, he'd killed Scrapper, and no, he had no regrets. {{storylink|Police Action Part 2: Only Forward|Only Forward}} Prowl was left to think about what to do with this information, since if it went public it would only further demolish human-Autobot relations. However, the entire investigation turned out to be irrelevant after a Skywatch attack on [[Ben Simpson]] led to the capture of Swindle, who revealed that he had been supplying Spike and Skywatch with Cybertronian tech all along. This caused Jazz, who had trusted humans the most and been agitated ever since he had to kill one, to snap and contact General Allenby, informing him about Spike's crimes and announcing that the partnership between Skywatch and the Autobots was over. He recorded the conversation, had it spread throughout human news media, then destroyed the Skywatch base in New Mexico in hopes of erasing as much of their information on Cybertronian technology as he could. In the aftermath, Spike went on the run as an international fugitive, the Autobots left Earth for good, and things probably didn't look so good for Skywatch. {{storylink|Police Action Part 3: A Second Chance at Eden|A Second Chance at Eden}}

After the Autobots left Earth, pressure from other nations prompted a major restructuring of the Skywatch charter, laying the foundations for [[Earth Defense Command]] under the command of [[Marissa Faireborn]]. {{storylink|Earthfall Part 1: Hello Cruel World|Hello Cruel World}} {{storylink|New Cybertron Part 2: A Lonely Pillar on the Plain|A Lonely Pillar on the Plain}} The EDC was later decommissioned in favor of a newly international [[G.I. Joe (team)|G.I. Joe]]. {{storylink|New Cybertron Part 2: A Lonely Pillar on the Plain|A Lonely Pillar on the Plain}}

===''Beast Wars: Uprising''===
As part of [[Operation Staple Gun]], 731 [[Cobra]] scientists, engineers and technicians were offered amnesty and quietly sequestered into, among other groups, Skywatch. Both [[Rapticon (BM)|Rapticon]] and [[Ne'll]] became familiar with the history of these events. {{storylink|The Inexorable March}}

==Notes==
===Foreign names===
*''Japanese:'' '''Skywatch''' (スカイウォッチ ''Sukaiuotchi'')

[[Category:Human organizations]]
[[Category:IDW (2005) factions]]
[[Category:Skywatch| ]]
[[Category:United States of America]]

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