Faction Free

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"Faction Free"
Production code	Cyber Pass 52
Season	Follow the Leader
No. in season	1
Airdate	April 3, 2026–April 6, 2026
Written by	Simon Furman

The Dinobots and the Decepticons do some scheming.

Synopsis

"The Saga's Latest" (Part 1)

Grimlock complains to fellow Dinobots about how many fights they've had that end before they really start. Snarl points out that someone omnipotent always gets involved and messes things up. Sludge suggests they take a cue from the Terrorcons and start a splinter faction, but Slug argues that they already are one and that five bots is too small for a whole splinter faction. With Slug's help, Grimlock gets an idea: they get into a fight with a team that may be a little more powerful than them, then send for a C.O.M.B.A.T. Bot from Cybertron to become their sixth member. They agree that their opponent must be another combiner team, but rule out Predaking due to their familiarity with him, and ultimately settle on targeting Devastator.

"The Saga's Latest" (Part 2)

Megatron muses to Soundwave about his fatigue from dealing with the Terrorcons. Tarn proposes they wait until Sideways finds a weakness, but his leader is sick of waiting and Soundwave is suspicious that he's playing both sides. Megatron instead orders that they send a team to storm their base. He summons Bonecrusher and tells him to get the Constructicons ready to carry out the task. Soundwave and Tarn out the simplicity of the plan, prompting Megatron to change things up by having Sideways tell his "teammates" that the Constructicons have gone rogue in the hopes that the other Megatrons will try to recruit them (in the process also testing the loyalty of their mole). Then, they'll send in the Seekers!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons
Grimlock (1) Swoop (2) Snarl (3) Sludge (4) Slug (5)	Megatron (6) Soundwave (7) Tarn (8) Bonecrusher (9)

Gameplay

This event was an individual totaliser, meaning players earned points and unlocked prizes on their own as opposed to with their Alliance. In addition, every battle rewarded 10 points regardless of battle zones.

The top prize was a single Random Hunting Crystal, and due to the event having 10 prestiges, they could be earned multiple times.

Random Hunting Crystal contains a random color-coded Hunting Crystal that in itself contains their own set of prizes, with the most coveted prize from each Hunting Crystal being as followed:

• Blue Hunting Crystal: a combiner upgrade skip item.
• Green Hunting Crystal: a bot Ability upgrade skip item.
• Red Hunting Crystal: a bot research skip item.
• Purple Hunting Crystal: a building upgrade skip item.
• Yellow Hunting Crystal: a guaranteed non-duplicate standard Bot of a 4-star rating.

Besides these, Hunting Crsytals are also (and more likely) to give either Premium Crystals, Premium C.O.M.B.A.T. Chips, Spark, C.O.M.B.A.T. Spark or Combiner Spark.

Notes

Continuity notes

• Snarl bemoans the constant intervention of ultra-powerful entities and their stopping of big battles; the past few sagas have all had this happen with at least one of the Thirteen Primes.
• Sideways went undercover as a Terrorcon in the introductory dialogue for his Decepticon unit. Since his debut in the game's story, it has been strongly implied that he is loyal to a third party, such as Megatronus Prime and his new master.
• After Armada Megatron acted like his team didn't have a Primal Basilica in "Hide n' Sea", his counterpart refers to the Terrorcons here as being based in one.

Transformers references

• Sludge's splinter faction suggestion probably stems from the fact that the Dinobots have a long history of breaking from the main Autobot team and operating independently.
• The Dinobots also have a long history of being pitted against the Predacons, including in the Earth Wars game, where Grimlock, Slug, and their combined form Volcanicus' Decepticon counterparts are all members of the team (Razorclaw, Headstrong, and Predaking, respectively).
• By contrast, Devastator is treated as "old school" by the team, as they haven't really clashed with him as much in Transformers fiction, with their most major rivalry with the combiner being all the way back in the original animated series' first two seasons and accompanying movie.
• Megatron refers to the Terrorcons as "the enemy... within", referencing Simon Furman's first story for the Transformers brand, Marvel UK five-parter "The Enemy Within!".

Errors

• Sludge uses the phrase "take matters into our own talons"... but none of the dinosaur species that the present Dinobots turn into possess talons.
• Like in "All on Tape", the term "master plan" is rendered as one word.
• The word "masterful" is written as "master-ful".

Trivia

• Grimlock makes a little meta-commentary when he says that the game's sagas have gotten way too big for him, even noting that they may need a new writer. (Furman has been doing this for a decade now...)

External links

• Recording of "Faction Free" story dialogue by Hapokas112 on YouTube