Axiom Nexus

This article is about the city of grudging peace and relative harmony. For the human weapon of death and destruction, see Axiom Gun.

The name or term "Nexus" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Nexus (disambiguation).

A city "unlike any other in the multiverse", provided Alex Milne doesn't do any other cityscapes.

In one of the oldest dimensions in the multiverse, one Cybertronian city, Axiom Nexus, is a hub for travelers from other dimensions and a sprawling megapolis that has grown to encompass almost the entire planet. According to New Arrivals Coordinator Silverbolt, it is a city "unlike any other in the multiverse". The city maintains its relative harmony through strict adherence to the principle of "Dux non Intruitus": all Megatrons, Primes, miscellaneous other faction leaders, and MacGuffins from other universes are considered illegal... although this hasn't stopped some from bending the rules, and more than a few sneaky offworlders have managed to circumvent the ban.

Some travelers arrive here by their own design. Others, however, arrive by accident, and must be processed and given identification bolts. These "offworlders" are seen as inferior throwbacks by many of the proud and technologically advanced TransTechs, and permission to travel outside the borders of Axiom Nexus to the rest of its native Cybertron is granted to a very scant few. As such, its inhabitants have a culture all their own, composed of markets and gangs and ... well, a lot of markets and gangs.

Notable locations within Axiom Nexus include:

• The Blue Deployer, a seedy bar run by the equally-seedy Cryotek
• Widow's Cafe Cybertronian, a resting spot for the downtrodden run by Crystal Widow
• Swindle, Swindle and Swindle, a black market parts shop run by a trio of Swindles
• The Heap, a subterranean landscape of dumped dimensional detritus buried outside the reach of the law

Fiction

TransTech

Axiom Nexus: Giving characters their first fictional appearances since 2008.

Owing to its unique position in the multiverse, the Cybertron of this reality acted as a kind of convergence point for multiple different universal streams—unlucky dimensional travellers could, under the right set of circumstances, simply fall through unspace, slip through the dimensional cracks, and arrive in this specific universe. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/05/14 The first such dimensional travellers arrived in the city through pure accident; in the past, the population of Cybertron simply assumed that the retroactively named "Early Travelers" were aliens and deported them offworld. Rook - Axiom Nexus News, 2015/05/06 One group—the Waruders—arrived underneath Axiom Nexus from a universe in the Cymond cluster; they established a subterranean nest where they built up their numbers while feeding off the planet's abundant supplies of Cybertonium before going into prolonged hibernation. Cybertron's Most Wanted Following the defeat of the Liege Maximo and the ascent of Optimus Prime to office, the numbers of dimensional travellers quickly increased. Soon, the native Transcendent Technomorphs learned the truth about these arrivals—they hailed not from other planets, but from other dimensions entirely. After establishing a Ministry of Dimensional Science to investigate these other Cybertrons, the TransTech set up a system of "bleed filters" to monitor the multiverse and redirect lost travellers to dimensional gateways within Axiom Nexus. Rook - Axiom Nexus News, 2015/05/06

To accommodate the surge of new arrivals, the TransTech established at least nine segregated "offworlder zones" in the city spread over forty levels. I, Lowtech The highest levels featured reasonably pleasant standards of living and boasted features like artificial weather; Gone Too Far the lower levels, which ringed the Heap, were slums ruled by squabbling gangs and various criminal empires. I, Lowtech The city of Axiom Nexus hosted two separate governments: a primary government made up of TransTechs, and a separate offworlder government run by licensed volunteer guilds. These included the Acclimation Guild, which helped new arrivals get used to the city, Withered Hope and the Freelance Police Legion, an adjunct of the Axiom Nexus Security Administration that enforced the laws in the offworld zones; . Gone Too Far despite utilizing autonomous Vehidrones to bolster their numbers, security in the offworld zones was stretched thin at the best of times. TransTech-owned corporations like RoboCo did business with both TransTechs and offworlders and often hired them for menial labor. I, Lowtech Once they'd been processed and fitted with identification bolts, new arrivals turned loose in the offworlder zones. The "lowtechs", as they were disparagingly termed by the TransTech, were forbidden from leaving these zones; those who tried could be tracked and remotely destroyed by the planet's security grid. Withered Hope Intelligence Director Starscream drafted the original "Dux non Intruitus" legislation that forbade parallel-universe Optimuses, Megatrons, Starscreams, and any other faction leaders from entering the city--Rook - Axiom Nexus News, 8/5/2015 these undesirables would be stopped on arrival and forced to submit to a routine matrix check before being returned to their home dimension. Bee in the City Withered Hope While it was quite easy to arrive in the city by accident, leaving was another matter entirely—thanks to Starscream's restrictive legislation, prospective emigrants had to navigate a maze of red tape to acquire the correct visas, Rook - Axiom Nexus News, 8/5/2015 and depending on the circumstances the TransTech might not even send them home to the right universe. Withered Hope

The first dimensionally-displaced Mini-Cons to arrive in the city were originally misidentified as Micromasters until the discovery of the Mini-Cons from the Aurex cluster. Rook - Axiom Nexus News, 2015/05/09 Many Mini-Con arrivals failed the Ambus Test used to gauge the sentience of mechanical, until the Mini-Con Sprite campaigned for increased awareness of Mini-Con rights. Under the belief that all sentient beings held certain inalienable rights, Ambus Test was subsequently phased out and replaced with the more inclusive Turtler Test. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/16 Despite this, some TransTech were prejudiced against the Transformers from the Iocus clusters and viewed them as a kind of joke. Ask Vector Prime, 2015/08/17

At some point, the recently arrived offworlders Jackpot and Hubcap were framed for the murder of anti-TransTech rabble-rouser Gutcruncher. They were eventually absolved of all charges thanks to an unwitting taped confession from Cryotek's thug, Black Shadow and returned to their native dimension. Gone Too Far

Gutcruncher was not the only offworlder with such ambitious designs: one of the city's most notable inhabitants was Alpha Trion, who'd been deliberately banished from his native universe by the evil Optimus Prime. Trion gathered a group of acolytes dissatisfied with the status quo and convinced them to help him in his quest to return home—a group that included Topspin, who possessed the power to manipulate sparks. TransTech Blackarachnia's profile At some point, Topspin used this power to depose RoboCo CEO Bulletbike by implanting his Spark into the body of an offworlder. I, Lowtech

The Caretaker supercomputer sent Breakaway, Landquake, and Skyfall across dimensions to Axiom Nexus to meet the fourth member of their group. Transcendent: Part 1 There, they met Alpha Trion, who attempted to win them over to their side by lying that the TransTech were deliberately abducting Cybertronians from across the multiverse to experiment on them. Transcendent: Part 2 Eventually, Trion and his team launched a direct attack on the city's Transwarp Complex and used it to travel back to Alpha Trion's home universe, dragging including Skyfall, Breakaway, and Landquake along for the ride. Transcendent: Part 6 Also around this time, the Optimus and Bumblebee from a different universe wound up in the city with Sari Sumdac, but soon returned home after a brief misadventure. Bee in the City A multiversal cataclysm in Primax 207.0 Epsilon led to Optimus Prime bending the city's strict rules to commission a group of Matrix bearers known as "the Convoy". Invasion Prologue Their first appearance in Axiom Nexus provoke outcry, but High Chancellor Optimus Prime explained that the evil Ultra Magnus's multiversal villainy and the Alternity defeating the Hytherion necessitated an active response by the TransTech. After some tension, even the TransTech Decepticons accepted the Convoy's existence, reasoning that Convoy members were restricted to Axiom Nexus and Cloud World and were thus not around to incite the offworlders. Rook - Axiom Nexus News, 2015/05/08 High Commander Megatron later proposed his own "Megatronus Squad", but Senate Speaker Ratbat pointed out that most Megatrons couldn't be trusted. Rook - Axiom Nexus News, 2015/05/13

The Symp-Phur drilling company discovered evidence of ancient Offworlder habitation in the deep underlevels of Cybertron—a part of the massive Waruder hive. Rook - Axiom Nexus News, 2015/04/2015 Not long afterwards, the Waruders themselves emerged from hibernation and attacked the surface dwellers. The interaction of their venom with the planet's Global Net caused a surge that shut down almost all TransTechs; fortunately, the combined efforts of the Diaclone, C-81's criminal gang, and some OZSA agents put an end to the invasion. Cybertron's Most Wanted Soon after the Waruder invasion, Axiom Nexus began losing contact with long-distance probes scattered across the multiverse; eventually, its influence had dwindled to just six primary universal clusters. Rook - Axiom Nexus News: Investigative Journalist Andromeda - Axiom Nexus News Reporter The official line from Senators like Ratbat was that this was probably just a temporary issue, even as the government began covering up each new loss of contact for fear of provoking mass civil unrest in the offworld zones. Rook - Axiom Nexus News: Investigative Journalist

Ten days later, the terrorist leader (Cy-Kill—who had been stranded in Axiom Nexus for some time after a mishap with a malfunctioning anti-phase-displacer-blaster Renegade Rhetoric bombed Shockwave's research and development facility, cheerfully admitted his involvement on his guest column, and fled back to his home dimension before Cheetor's men could catch him. Andromeda - Axiom Nexus News Reporter Renegade Rhetoric Soon after that, one of Alpha Trion's former lackeys Hammerstrike hacked a broadcast and proved that the Senate had deliberately covered up news that the Uniend cluster had gone dark. The offworld zones fell into violence and chaos as the inhabitants realized they might never go home; the Convoy had to be sent to quell unrest. Rook dubbed the phenomenon "the Shroud". Rook - Axiom Nexus News: Investigative Journalist

A few days later, Axiom Nexus lost contact with Primax but briefly regained contact with a Gargent base. High Chancellor Optimus Prime and Director Shockwave announced in a press conference that the universal walls had strengthened, rather than the universes lost, and while travel would be possible it was harder and would require new tech. As much of the city's technology involved dimensional phasing in some way, blackouts and unreliable machinery would be standard for a long while; offworlders could not be sent home but Axiom Nexus would expedite the visas of space-worthy bots so they could leave the planet. Prime appealed to Axion Nexus's proud history of adaptation and called for all factions to come together to handle the crisis. Subsequently, the newly returned Vector Prime, now a more or less mundane non-singularity Transcendent Technomorph, was asked by the government to participate in continuing efforts to regain Axiom Nexus's transdimensional sphere of influence. The authorities had identified the nine points in their universe where the multiversal walls were thinnest between Nexus 208.0 Epsilon and the nine most prominent foundational universal streams. With his rare physiology, knowledge of physics, and experience with organics, Vector Prime was assigned to go undercover on Nebulos, posing as a factory in order to monitor and attempt contact with Primax 984.0 Gamma. Ask Vector Prime

Over the rest of the year, Axiom Nexus appears to have liberalized somewhat in response to the Shroud; the offworld zones were now referred to as "former offworld zones" and Transformers from other dimensions appear to have been afforded a degree of social mobility. On New Year's Eve, the city was rocked by the apparent news that the entire multiverse had been completely erased; as it turned out, Waspinator had simply made a mistake when he'd phoned in a tip. 31/12/2016, Rook - Axiom Nexus News

Axiom Nexus still existed 10,000 years into the future, as Heinrad would travel backwards in time into the present day. Rook - Axiom Nexus News: Investigative Journalist

Games

Bot Shots Battle Game!

Axiom Nexus was one of the locations on Cybertron used as battle arena by car-type Bot Shots. It looked just like Cybertropolis. Bot Shots Battle Game!

Notes

Foreign names

• Japanese: Axiom Nexus (アクシオムネクサス, アクシオム・ネクサス Akushiomu Nekusasu)