Worldsweeper

grandarchitect

Taking patriotism to the nth level.

The D-Class Worldsweeper, P-6 model is a famous model of Decepticon warship mimicking the Decepticon insignia, earning them the informal name of "Symbol Ships". Their distinctive design was used to represent Decepticon power and dominance as they cruised the skies of conquered worlds. These sizable vessels typically carry a variety of accessories including Cybernought battle suits.

Fiction

IDW Generation 1 continuity

The Worldsweepers saw action during the height of the Decepticon offensive, and were associated with the heyday of the Decepticon Empire. The Decepticons stationed at least one Worldsweeper over every planet in the Constellate. Noted Decepticons like Shockwave and Sixshot have commanded their own Worldsweepers in the past. Who's Afraid of the DJD? Starscream regarded the Worldsweepers as having enough firepower to destroy whole planets on their own. Stranger Eons

During the war, a fleet of Worldsweepers known as the "Phantom Fleet" went missing in the Dark Nebula. Anomie The fleet turned up after the war in the possession of the Grand Architect, who used them to conduct experiments and move his forces around. Their speed left something to be desired, though. Animals An Axe to Break the Ice

Circa 2009, after Scorponok and Flame had been recruited by the Architect, Kill All 'Cons they utilized the interspacial network of portals known as the Warren to teleport Grimlock onto their Worldsweeper and tortured him so they could acquire the Magnificence, concealed in the Dinobot's chest. Their prize secured, the two left the now brain damaged Dinobot in a stasis pod within the Worldsweeper. The Ties That Bind The same ship was later designated to transport a collection of experiments from a decommissioned facility on Corritan. Chasing the Infinite Organic blood from an experiment eventually bled into the ship's fuel supply, polluting it and causing it to crash on the planet Clemency. Rules of Disengagement The Worldsweeper and its cargo were subsequently written off. Chasing the Infinite

In 2012, the scuttled ship was discovered by the Scavengers who discovered the aborted experiments within and the stasis locked Grimlock. Rules of Disengagement Under threat from the Decepticon Justice Division, the Scavengers staged an ambush near the Worldsweeper using the circuit speeder-spiked Grimlock as bait. During the ensuing battle, Crankcase took control of one of the ship's Cybernoughts, but when the D.J.D. left the field of conflict to pursue bigger fish, the Scavengers abandoned the Worldsweeper and left Clemency in the Weak Anthropic Principle. Who's Afraid of the DJD?

Just before annexing Earth into the Council of Worlds, Optimus Prime had a series of visions, including the scene of a crashed Worldsweeper dwarfing a burning White House. Once Upon a Time on Earth

After the war on Necroworld, Drift had a vision of the Phantom Fleet being led by Pharma along with several sparkeaters bearing down on him, Rodimus and Grimlock. Some Other Cybertron He later confessed this to Ratchet when Team Rodimus passed a building-sized statue of Primus in the Functionist Universe. Anomie

Working in the Grand Architect's service, Scorponok and his bots tracked down Anode and Wipe-Out on Troja Major using a Worldsweeper. An Axe to Break the Ice Flame led a team to the planet's surface and retrieved the Magnificence on Scorponok's orders. Chasing the Infinite

Its prize secured, the ship later landed on Confluence and deployed an army of "Treecons" to guard it in anticipation of attack by an unidentified enemy. When the Scavengers bumbled into it, hunting down the Magnificence themselves for the Curator, they were captured and imprisoned aboard. The Ties That Bind The unexpected presence of Nickel proved the group's salvation with her medical knowledge being able to diagnose Grimlock's condition that allowed the group to escape captivity. When Scorponok was on the verge of killing them all, Nickel used a pre-recorded voicemail message of Tarn's voice that paralyzed Scorponok allowing the Scavengers to steal the Magnifience, along with Scorponok's Firstborn, and flee. The Scavengers made their way to ship's transmat suite to try and escape to Garrus-9. Though they managed to escape the craft, they were forced to leave Grimlock and the Firstborn behind. Kill All 'Cons Grimlock managed to escape the ship but was left adrift in space until an Autobot ship picked him up. A Dance Before Dying

Robo-pants to be darkened.

As a result of having seen the future, the Grand Architect knew exactly when an alternate universe's Functionist Council would launch their invasion of his timeline and mobilized the Phantom Fleet to confront their foe in the Benzene Cluster. Before that could happen, the Lost Light and her crew were taken as prisoners aboard the Architect's flagship. When the time came for the Functionists to arrive, it transpired that the Architect had inadvertently opened the doorway for their invasion. Farsickness Undettered, the Architect simply decided to use his God Gun to force the invaders back into their realm, ordering the Phantom Fleet, along with the Infinites and the Black Block Consortia, to distract this new menace until the God Gun recharged. Before they could, the Functionists began using their avatar of Primus to destroy the duplicate Cybertrons necessary for the weapon. The Return of the King Engaging the Functionist recon ships, the Worldsweepers attempted bombing runs on "Primus", only to be caught in the shockwave of a Cybertron's destruction, destroying them. The Unremembering

Anticipating that a large existential threat would one day rise, Starscream sent out Bludgeon to rally all the scattered Decepticon cells of the galaxy into a massive fighting force he dubbed the "Decepticon Vengeance Division" which made significant usage of Worldsweepers. When Unicron began consuming the Cybertronian colonies, Starscream ordered his new fleet to contain and destroy the monster-planet at G Nebula 89. Unknown to Starscream and the DVD, Bludgeon was secretly loyal to Unicron, with the DVD failing to make a dent in the Chaos Bringer who warped them all into his service, mutating the ships and their crew into Maximal-like forms, bringing them to Cybertron to serve as his heralds. When Bludgeon's Worldsweeper opened fire on Carcer, Victorion attempted to destroy the craft only to wind up facing off against Monstructor. Stranger Eons Our Finest Once Unicron had destroyed Cybertron, the Worldsweepers quantum jumped to Jupiter and destroyed the Sanctuary Station. Road's End

Notes

• The Worldsweeper bears an obvious resemblance to the temporary Decepticon base from "Enter the Nightbird" as well as the more obscure Destron Mark from Transformers: Mystery of Convoy.