Warp gate

There is nothing wrong with your TV set. We control the vertical. We control the horizontal...

Warp gates are teleportation devices which generate spatial portals that allow users to traverse vast distances in the blink of an eye. Similar in concept to the Decepticons' space bridge technology, warp gates were (usually) created through the alliance of the Autobots and humankind.

Fiction

Generation 1 cartoon continuity

The Battle of the Star Gate

Warp gate technology began life as the Trigger, a huge manned space station developed in the late 1990s by the allied forces of the Autobots and the American government using Cybertronian technology. First Conflict

The Transformers cartoon

By 2005, warp gate technology had been refined down to a single, flat portal, through which travelers could simply fly, requiring no vehicle or launch mechanism to make the trip. Numerous gates were installed through the galaxy to facilitate interstellar travel, including one at the fringes of Earth's Solar System, beyond Pluto. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 3

Informed of the existence of the Earth Defense Command space platform, Galvatron led his forces through a warp gate in the vicinity of Thrull, to emerge through the Pluto gate and attack the station. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 3 The Quintessons placed a warp gate in the Angarrix sector, and used it to abduct Sky Lynx, ensnaring him with an energy beam and dragging him through the gate. The Quintesson Journal Upon usurping leadership of the Decepticons, Scourge led them through "warp gate 09-A" to launch an attack on Earth. The Burden Hardest to Bear

Marvel Generation 2 comic

Grimlock's squad of Autobots were equipped with "personal warp gates" while chasing down the cyberformers from the Cybertronian Empire. War Without End!

Unicron Trilogy cartoon continuity

Armada cartoon

The Autobots take a warp gate from Cybertron to Earth.

Warp gates were the primary means of transport utilized by the Autobots and Decepticons when they came to Earth to search for the long-lost Mini-Cons. The technology did not require an exit portal to be constructed at the desired location in order to function; the Transformers simply stepped into a large circular portal on Cybertron, and individually materialized on Earth. First Encounter The system was delicate; when Smokescreen unexpectedly entered the gate moments after Optimus Prime and his team had departed through it, he wound up emerging in an entirely different region of Earth. Prehistory

While on Earth, both factions used short-range warp technology to get from place to place, which allowed them to travel to any point on Earth, and even to its moon. Metamorphosis This version of the tech featured an automatic recall, which allowed a traveller to warp themselves back to base when the time came. Base Comparatively, the interstellar warp technology did not apparently posessess this "recall" feature; in order to return to their homeworld, the Autobots and Decepticons had to construct spacecraft to ferry them there. Threaten Depart Once back on Cybertron, they discovered a secret subterranean warp gate on the planet that linked Cybertron to the monster planet Unicron. Portent After Unicron was defeated, Hot Shot and Jetfire returned the Autobots' human friends to Earth via warp gate. Evidently, this time, they had someone standing by on Cybertron to reopen the gate, allowing them to return to their planet the same way minutes later. Mortal Combat

Cybertron cartoon

Vector Prime possessed the ability to open Dimension gates by slicing the fabric of space/time open with his sword, Rhisling, first doing so to send Landmine to Earth in the opening days of the Unicron Singularity crisis. Fallen He would later be responsible for creating the gates that would send the Autobots the colony worlds of Velocitron and the Jungle Planet—in concert with Optimus Prime, whose Matrix of Leadership helped stabilize the gateways—and was generally on hand to generate a gate whenever the Autobots needed one. Landmine Search Vector Prime's gates had the appearance of a glowing green slash-mark in the air itself, which, when stabilized by the Matrix, widened to reveal a view of the target location on the other side of the gate's rippling surface.

Megatron, empowered by the Armor of Unicron, was also capable of creating dimension gates, although his could apparently only lead into and out of his fire dimension, requiring that it be used as a stopover on any trips the Decepticons made. Fallen These circular portals resembled swirling vortexes of flame; extinguishing these flames would result in the portal closing. Critical

In one dramatic instance, Vector Prime opened one of his dimension gates across one of Megatron's, and their interaction caused the fire dimension to collapse in on itself. Cybertron

Timelines

After suffering a disastrous failure on Combatron, Brushguard asked Megatron to open a dimensional portal for his stranded team, but Megatron angrily refused and told them to wait for a decacycle for rescue by conventional space travel. Force of Habit

Beast Wars: Uprising

In 13 SCA (or 1997), the Autobots helped the humans build their first warp gate at the edge of the solar system, allowing humanity to colonize other planets. Micro-Aggressions

Notes

• The Animated space bridge bears a strong resemblance to the Warp Gate's design.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Warp gate (ワープゲート wāpu gēto)
• French: Couloir intergalactique (European dub, "Intergalactic Corridor"), Porte astrale (Canadian dub, "Astral Gate")

See also

• Blastizone
• Infraspace
• Inner space
• Limbo
• Teleportation
• Void