The 5 Rookies

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"The 5 Rookies" 5人の新兵 (Gonin no Rookie)
Publisher	Kodansha
Published in	Comic BomBom
First published	March 1999
Cover date	April 1999
Script	Shōji Imaki
Artist	Shōji Imaki
Continuity	Beast Wars manga

The notorious One-Man Army is assigned to instruct a group of rookies.

Synopsis

On a battlefield in space, Big Convoy, the One-Man Army among the Maximals, disregards his commander's orders to recon, rushing into a Predacon fortress planet and blowing it up with his Big Cannon. The shock wave of the blast causes damage to the Maximal Army 7th Fleet. Crow Convoy, Big's commander, is extremely furious as the shock wave caused his transformation circuitry to malfunction. Personal injury aside, Crow Convoy notes that Big Convoy's crimes include going against orders, destruction of property, and insubordination. Before Crow Convoy can finish dressing Big Convoy down, Great Convoy interrupts, berating Big Convoy for his over-zealous and destructive attitude. Thus, Big Convoy is demoted and sent by the Convoy Council to the planet Gaia as an instructor as punishment.

After arriving on the planet Gaia, Big Convoy lies around on the job, sitting in the trainee ship Gung Ho parked in orbit all day, and lets the rookies repeatedly carry out simulation battles on the planet.

Due to the monotonous training, the rookies get bored. Longrack, one of the trainees, asks Big Convoy to let them have more complex training. Big Convoy refuses, turning off the communicator. When NAVI asks him if it is okay to ignore the rookies, Big Convoy replies that he did so to protect them. Longrack, impatient, then proposes that they should do something more exciting—making an adventure to the abandoned Galvaburg II and see what they can find. Thus, the rookies start to make their way to the ship.

Upon arriving at the base, the rookies find a dead dinosaur, who smells extremely rank due to decomposition. Another carcass has a strange flower growing on it. However, after turning their backs on them, the rookies don't see the corpses start to move and transform. Longrack eventually notices and tells the rest they are dealing with Guiledart and Saberback, two of the most important high-ranked Predacons.

Naturally, the rookies are powerless against Guiledart and Saberback. All of the rookies despair, except for the hungry Heinrad, who says it's "dinnertime". Colada agrees with him, stating if they want to dine, they have to survive the situation. His words encourage the rest of the rookies, so they decide to charge at the enemies. Fortunately, Big Convoy shows up, attacking the Predacons with his overwhelming firepower. He tells the rookies to go back to the ship, as it's dinnertime. Guiledart and Saberback are knocked down by Big Convoy and crash into a wall. The wall collapses, revealing the "Black Ball" hidden inside.

The Maximals retrieve the Black Ball and Big Convoy orders it brought back to headquarters for further examination. However, the Black Ball suddenly activates the ship's warp engine. No one knows where the destination will be...

To be continued...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals	Predacons	Others
Big Convoy (1) Break (4) Colada (5) Heinrad (6) Longrack (7) Stampy (9) NAVI (8) Crow Convoy (2) Great Convoy (3)	Guiledart (10) Saberback (11) Magmatron (13)	Black Ball (12)

Quote

"It'll be no surprise if you get sentenced to death. Caw caw caw."

—Crow Convoy, laughing just like a crow, is happy to see Big Convoy get penalized for what he has done

"Is it okay to do this without instructor's permission?"
"Somebody who takes daytime naps a lot doesn't have any right to comment on this."

—Stampy shows concern that Colada shuts down

"This body seems to be the Predacon soldier stationed here."
"Well, you can ask Colada, who is also a reptilian... OH, I was just kidding! Just kidding!"

—Stampy is replied to by Break who gets threatened by Colada

"The f— f— flower attacks, and the dead body— THE DEAD BODY wakes up!! What should we do now? The military academy didn't teach us about this!!"

—Longrack panics

"Da...Damn! They are good at runnning!"
"They didn't run at all."

—Break's high assessment of his attack is disputed by Heinrad

"Okay. This unexpected benefit was all because of your voluntary investigation, so—ONE HUNDRED BEAST MODE PUSH UPS!"

—Big Convoy puts on a nice face to his punishments

Notes

Continuity notes

• It is confirmed that Big Convoy has amnesia. He doesn't remember any thing before he woke up in a snowstorm in the finale of previous issue. Big Convoy will regain his memory in the sixth issue, "Double Cross".
• According to a conversation between the trainees, it is usually required to study in a military academy to become a Convoy, though Big Convoy is an exception.
• The Predacons use their dead modes because they expect an elite unit to come to the Galvaburg II.
• Upon thinking he would die, Stampy apologizes to his mother. His bond with her will be elaborated on in "Mortal Combat! Twenty Thousand Meters in the Sky".
• Upon thinking he would die, Colada mentions that he can't die because he has unfinished businesses. This unfinished businesses will be revealed in "A Battle Fought Alone".
• It is unknown whether the Black Ball has been in the Galvaburg II since the reign of Galvatron or even gave him the information about the Angolmois Energy.

Trivia

• Though ranked as a Convoy, Big Convoy is under Crow Convoy's command.
• The relationship between the Maximal Army 7th Fleet in this issue and the Maximal Seventh Space Fleet from the Beast Wars II issue, "Demolish the Superdreadnought Tank!", is unclear.
• The flagship of the Maximal Seventh Fleet is the Nanatsunoko, literally meaning "the seven children".
• Morbidly, the organic part of a dead Transformer in the Beast Era might actually decompose, smelling foul just like a normal creature.
• The fake-dead modes of Guiledart and Saberback are gimmicks of their toys.
• When charging at the Predacons, only Longrack is in beast mode.
• The weapons, such as pistols or rifles, carried by the rookies in this issue seem to be contemporary 20th century weapons from the real world. The box of bullets they use reads "practice run ketchup bullets" (練習用ケチャップ弾 Renshū-yō kechappu-dan) and "safe!" (安全! anzen!).