Black Block Consortia

The Black Block Consortia is an organization from the IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

The Black Block Consortia used to be part of the Galactic Council. They're a lot more aggressive than their parent organization.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

According to Wipe-Out, the Black Block Consortia seceded from the Galactic Council but kept the same philosophy, i.e. exploiting unsuspecting inhabited worlds for resources as part of a protection racket against the galaxy's mechanical races. The Council was...displeased at losing some of their market share and the two factions began a turf war. An Axe to Break the Ice

Upon encountering thousands of Ammonites on the planet Hydrophena, Ultra Magnus asked if they were affiliated with the Galactic Council or the Black Block Consortia. In reply, they attacked him. Into the Abyss

The Consortia were involved in a three-way battle with the Galactic Council and the Decepticon Justice Division over the wreckage of the duplicate Lost Light near Ofsted XVII. Births, Deaths, and Interventions

At some point, the Black Block Consortia discovered a Transformer civilization founded by Prion, one of the thirteen lost Titans. They attacked the planet and wiped out almost every mechanical life-form, leaving Nickel as the sole survivor. The Permanent Revolution When visiting the site, Sentinel Prime called them merciless as he explained to Optimus Prime what had happened to the planet. White Light

Needing space in the Benzene Cluster for his God Gun, the Grand Architect bred a series of technorganic sleeper agents, Animals and had them infiltrate the Black Block Consortia, turning the organization into a puppet state. Farsickness

On Troja Major, Anode and Lug had a run-in with Consortia troops after breaking into a coffin-filled compound. After one of the coffins turned out to be a disguised Transformer, the Black Block arrived, demanded that the two hand it over, and then gunned it down anyways when they refused. Anode and Lug escaped with the help of Wipe-Out. Elsewhere, the three briefly wondered if the Black Block Consortia were the ones hunting down blacksmiths but dismissed the possibility because the mech they'd killed hadn't been a blacksmith and they hadn't simply shot Anode with it. Wipe-Out also explained to his time lost friends what the Consortia was. An Axe to Break the Ice The Consortia took possession of the corpse before the Infinite healed himself from death. Flame later recovered the Infinite and "had words" with the Consortia. Chasing the Infinite

As the Functionist avatar of Primus was soon to arrive, the Architect ordered the Consortia to war with the Galactic Council over ownership of Benzene. The fighting was so intense that the planet Frayus had to be evacuated. Filling the Blanks

When the Protectobots caught up with the Lost Light, Getaway claimed the ship's radio silence was to avoid alerting the Consortia to their presence. Mirage questioned this, believing the region of space belonged to the Galactic Council whereupon Atomizer explained the Consortia was massing on the far side of the Benzene which made them an obstacle on the Lost Light's quest to reach Cyberutopia. Full Circle The two organic armies eventually made planetfall on Frayus to continue their feud only for Nickel's Decepticon cell to arrive on the planet with Liokaiser beating back the organics. Journey's End

After her run in with Flame, the Catharsian Mengel fled to Agonizer. The Consortia troops on Troja Major eventually caught up with Mengel and messily ended her as part of the Architect's tying up of loose ends. The Ties That Bind

After Mederi had been transported to the sterilized Benzene, the Consortia troops surrounded the crew of the Lost Light, having been unwittingly dragged along via the rift in the Warren. Before they could fire however, Rodimus and Nautica convinced the Architect to spare them and he invited them aboard his Worldsweeper. Farsickness

When the faux-Primus arrived, it was flanked by a fleet of Functionary-crewed warships. Alongside the Infinites and the Phantom Fleet, the Consortia moved to engage only for their ships to prove woefully weaker than those of the Functionaries, being quickly destroyed. The Unremembering

The Functionist Universe

In an alternate timeline, the Black Box Consortia had been at war with the Functionist-controlled Cybertron for two million years. In order to make peace, it was publicly claimed that the Functionists sold Luna 2 to the Consortia, The Custom-Made Now but that would ultimately emerge as a lie told by Six-of-Twelve to cover up his secret retrofitting of the moon into giant harvester unit. Bad Moon Rising

Six-of-Twelve's genocidal attack on the city of Adaptica using the moon was covered up as a Consortia attack to absolve the Council of guilt and keep the populace in a perpetual state of xenophobic fear. This Machine Kills Fascists

Notes

• The Black "Box" spelling originated as a typo that James Roberts decided to keep as a distinguishing marker between the two timelines.
• A footnote in Lost Light #4 describes the Black Box Consortia as "galactic peacekeepers/extortionists".
• Considering Anode's unfamiliarity with the group, the Consortia likely split from the Galactic Council sometime in the last 500 years before 2017.