The Transformers Trilogy

The Transformers Trilogy
Cover of the 2004 omnibus Hardcover (SFBC exclusive)
Publisher	ibooks, Science Fiction Book Club
First published	2004
Written by	David Cian, Scott Ciencin
Continuity	Dreamwave Generation One continuity
ISBN	ISBN 0739445626 ISBN 978-0739445624
Page count	565

In 2003, capitalizing on the recent success of the Dreamwave Transformers comic book Prime Directive (#1 in sales for the year), ibooks released The Transformers Trilogy of novels.

The Trilogy includes:

• Transformers: Hardwired by Scott Ciencin
• Transformers: Annihilation by David Cian
• Transformers: Fusion by David Cian

The three books form a continuous narrative that takes place in the missing year between Prime Directive and Dreamwave's follow-up miniseries War and Peace.

All 3 novels were collected into a hardbound omnibus in 2004 for the Science Fiction Book Club.

The short story "Two for the Price of One" by Brandie Tarvin in the 2004 anthology Transformers Legends seems to be set in the same continuity. Since this story takes place after Megatron's return to power, which had just started when Dreamwave went belly-up, it represents the last known point on the Dreamwave timeline.

Plot Summary

Hardwired

During a battle in Tokyo, Japan, Megatron and three Autobots (Optimus Prime, Jazz and Bluestreak) vanish in a beam of light, having been abducted by powerful aliens known as the Keepers. They are forced to battle each other and other alien creatures in gladiatorial games for the Keepers' amusement. During these skirmishes, Jazz is forced to kill Bluestreak to protect some humans who were also kidnapped from Earth.

Back home, Starscream has assumed control of the Decepticons and taken over the city of Las Vegas. By making some small deals with the human population, he secures their compliance with the new order. The United Nations declares a state of emergency and decrees that no one try to liberate Vegas from the Decepticons. Grimlock manages to gather a private army with the covert help of the President of the United States, however, and recruits Bumblebee and Prowl to help him overthrow the Decepticons. Meanwhile, Spike Witwicky has become involved with a secretive secret agent named Franklin Townsend, and a series of spy games with a network of Transformer worshippers known as the Followers.

In Vegas, Spike and Franklin confront a human agent of the Keepers just as a crystal key is activated to bring the Keepers to Earth. The lost Transformers return, along with the missing humans and an assortment of aliens. Unfortunately, the Keepers themselves also arrive on Earth, and Bluestreak is being used as one of their host bodies.

Annihilation

The war for Las Vegas is only barely interrupted by the alien invasion, and Optimus Prime unites his Autobots to retreat to a safe distance outside of town. In his weakened condition, Megatron also finds it more difficult than usual to retake his throne from Starscream, and he is forced to relinquish command of the Decepticons. This doesn't stop him from going into exile, however, and convincing half of Starscream's forces to join him. Knowing the danger the Keepers pose, Megatron and Prime meet outside of Las Vegas to formulate a plan of attack.

Starscream's rule comes to a quick end as the Keepers set themselves up inside of Vegas, and scoop out his mind to make him another host body for their essence like Bluestreak. The remaining Decepticons are taken prisoner by the Keepers. The united Autobots and Decepticons lay siege to the Keepers, freeing their comrades and attacking the aliens. Spike learns that Franklin has been a sleeper agent for the Keepers all along, and is heavily wounded fighting for possession of the crystal key.

A chance uncovering of pure liquid energon underneath Las Vegas gives Optimus Prime the opportunity to end the conflict. He feeds the energon directly into the Matrix, and unites his power with the other Autobots, diverting an American-fired nuclear strike and apparently destroying the Keepers and Franklin Townsend entirely. This happy ending is interrupted by Megatron, who demands payment on a favor Prime owed him from the Keepers' world. His price? The Matrix itself.

Fusion

Optimus Prime reluctantly gives the Matrix over to Megatron, knowing it will weaken the Autobots tremendously but also believing there is no way a Decepticon can use its power against them. Megatron outsmarts Prime, however, by giving the Matrix to his reprogrammed Omega Sentinel, a Cybertronian robot far closer to an Autobot by design than a Decepticon. Using Omega Sentinel he lays waste to the White House and confronts the President over his attempted nuclear strike on Las Vegas and the Transformers.

Before the Great War can truly start up again, it becomes clear that the Keepers are not truly dead. Their agent, Franklin Townsend, returns and takes control of the former hosts, Bluestreak and Starscream. He then confronts Allister Greaves, the genius inventor behind the Followers, and forces him to help construct a portal with the crystal key to bring the Keepers back to Earth from beyond the Void. This threat, combined with the President's clearly hostile intentions towards all Transformers, force Megatron and Optimus back into an alliance yet again. The united Cybertronians battle the American military in the Nevada desert and, despite their deconstructionite weapons, the humans are unsuccessful in deactivating the Transformers.

Optimus Prime and Megatron bring Devastator and the Omega Sentinel to Greaves' farm to stop construction of the gateway. They manage to break Franklin's hold over Bluestreak and Starscream, but the gateway is ultimately opened anyway. His mind cleared by the Matrix, the Omega Sentinel sacrifices his life to press the Keepers back through the portal, giving his allies time to once and for all destroy the crystal key, leaving the gateway to the Void permanently closed.

The alliance comes to a close, with Optimus Prime reclaiming the power of the Matrix. And the war...continues...

Human Characters

Listed in order of appearance

• Isolde Holden
• Hugo Fortuna
• Franklin Townsend
• Candyce Simmons
• Chris Killah
• Joe Chuckry
• Tom Hyroon
• Rhona Jay
• Iolus Monk
• Craig
• Janie Whitmore
• Paul Whitmore
• Hendry Whitmore
• Paul Charteris
• Wendy
• Melony Dodds/Harcourt
• Vic Mellors
• Vern Fox
• Antoine Debussy
• Dave Langer
• Ben Fellows
• Paul Buckley
• Joe Torres
• Ryan O'Brien
• Ginny O'Brien
• Butch
• Phil Brodaker
• Glynnis
• Kimberly
• Jamal
• Bethann
• Buckingham
• Bernie Kalus
• Simon
• Jenny Dodds/Harcourt
• Chuck Cherwonowitz
• Darren Norbert
• Sheila Thompsom
• John Kelly
• Carl Lomax
• Allister Greaves
• Stuckey
• Elisa
• William Backes
• Wolfe
• Betsy
• James
• Christoff
• Michelle Grajkowski
• Susan
• John
• Bill
• Andrews

Oddities/Errors

• While the nuclear explosion in Prime Directive took place in San Francisco, The Transformers Trilogy moves it to Los Angeles for no apparent reason.
• Several parts of the novel would later become continuity errors as the Dreamwave universe was fleshed out by later comics. In particular, the Decepticons' ranks on Earth swelled considerably in the novels to include references or appearances by Shockwave, the Insecticons, Reflector, and Omega Sentinel. The third novel, Fusion, did some damage control by destroying Omega Sentinel and tossing in a quick explanation for Reflector's presence, but the (albeit brief) references to Shockwave and the Insecticons on Earth were never dealt with.
• Starscream referred to his home city-state on Cybertron as Centurion, making his Las Vegas stronghold "Vegas Centurion". In the Marvel comics, Starscream came from the city-state of Vos.
• Similarly, Megatron's home city is said to be Kaon, while he came from Tarn in the Marvel comics.

Fan Reaction

Most Transformers fans were disappointed by these novels.

Scott Ciencin (writer of the first book and part of the second, though uncredited) left many readers cold with a mix of sex, gore (Her severed spine jutted from her torso, and entrails uncoiled and slowly snaked out from her body, slippery and eager to stretch out and relax.) and faux-edgy pop culture references. In addition, Ciencin's actual knowledge of Transformers was visibly limited, consisting of what appeared to be hasty perusals of some sources — his description of Bumblebee, for instance, was clearly derived from a cursory glance at his Marvel The Transformers Universe profile, presenting him to be blue and yellow (a result of the limited colour palette of the comics), rather than the correct black and yellow. Energon is described as a silvery-gold liquid (before the Energon series depicted it as such), and presented as the power source of the Matrix.

David Cian's portion of the trilogy, which dropped the shock tactics and seemed better-researched, was much more positively received.

I was really proud of the two TF's novels I wrote - not because they aspired to be great literature (they weren't), not because they were error free (they weren't), but because the fans reacted so badly to the first book and seemed to like what I did with the next two. I had helped, in my mind, "save" a series of novels involving characters and a universe I cared about.David Cian, February 13, 2007 [message board post]

The Trilogy takes much of its tone from the first Dreamwave miniseries Prime Directive, which also featured gratuitous gore, nuclear missiles, government conspiracies, a vague sense that Transformers had little sense of free will, and an angsty, indecisive Optimus Prime under the illusion he's engaged in a cosmic struggle of robot vs self. He uses the Matrix twice.

The Keepers baffled fans by being extremely, extremely similar to the Quintessons in method, technology, outlook, relationship to the Transformers, and (to some degree) appearance. Ciencin seems to have simply been unaware of the Quintessons' existence when he created them.

On a positive note, The Transformers Trilogy is one of the few stories to explore the long-term impact of Transformers' interaction with human society.