In the Beginning...

A human hacker logs into the Decepticon mainframe and reads an overview of the Autobot/Decepticon war.

Published in: Transformers Annual 1987
Followed by: To a Power Unknown

Writer: Simon Furman
Art: ?
Colouring: ?

Characters: Adam Reynolds

Synopsis

Teen hacker Adam Reynolds mis-dials while trying to reach his local bank and instead reaches the Decepticon Mainframe Computer. A fluke results in him typing the correct access code, and he reads in amazement the history of the Autobot/Decepticon war.

However, Adam inadvertently triggers a security system when he tries to access a file his code doesn't give him access to. The Decepticon Mainframe Computer sends a 1,000,000 volt surge down Adam's phone line, destroying his computer and burning up his printouts. Adam would have been killed -- except this cat startled him back from the computer a moment before it exploded.

Adam is not dissuaded. He wonders if there's an Autobot computer online somewhere...

Items of note

• Optimus Prime's bio includes the tidbit that he wanted to train as a medical officer before the war broke out and he signed up to fight.
• The story includes two instances of 'Cybertronian dates,' but like every such instance, it provides no conversion ratio, and is inconsistent with every other instance.
• Adam Reynolds would return in "The Saga Of The Transformers - So Far!" in the Transformers Annual 1989.