Voin

"Today's mission is for you all to go to the Brain Slug planet."
"What are we going to do there?"
"Just walk around not wearing a helmet."

The octopus-like aliens known as the Voin are a fiercely individualistic race—an issue not helped by their strange culture and ethics, which makes the inner owrkings of their society something of a mystery to all but the most experienced Cybertronian diplomats. Though the Voin are a naturally aquatic race, individual Voin can operate on land by using "slaved organics" to act as their hands and feet, directly controlling these genetically-engineered beings from their sealed bubbles of water.

Fiction

2019 IDW continuity

I'd like to be under the sea, in an octopus's garden in the shade.

Prior to the Great War, the Cybertronian race had been in contact with the Voin for some time, long enough to have dedicated diplomats, specialists trained to understand their strange morals. Cybertronians without stubstantial training were discouraged from prolonged interaction with the aliens, with several guides warning that it was possible to inadvertently diverge sensitive information or make deals without their knowing it. Nautica, head of Cybertronian xenorelations, had spent more time than any other Transformer working with the Voin in their native environment. Nautica: Home

The Voin were one of the many alien species that immigrated to Cybertron, taking up residence in Iacon's Xeno-Quarter. The World In Your Eyes Part Five The Ascenticon visionary Termagax owned a dead Voin. The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Two Several Voin ambassadors were aboard Sentinel Prime's Titan during the First Senator's tour of the colony worlds. Nautica: Home

One evening, an unlicensed Voin scavenger, operating in the remote badlands beyond Iacon, apparently witnessed the murder of Brainstorm. The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Five Shortly afterwards, the same Voin encountered the young Cybertronian Rubble before Windblade arrived and scared off the organics with her weapons. The World In Your Eyes Part One

When the Cybertronians learned of Brainstorm's murder, the Voin became a target of interest for both Security Operations and the Ascenticons in the hopes that it knew something about the murder. The World In Your Eyes Part Two Unfortunately, the fragmented nature of Voin society made it hard for officer Prowl to work effectively with their community, The World In Your Eyes Part Three an issue compounded by the fact that all Voin looked alike. The World In Your Eyes Part Five

Although Prowl eventually determined that he would have to go outside the law in order to find the missing Voin, The World In Your Eyes Part Five it was the covert Ascenticon sympathizer Barricade who found information on the Voin from one of its black market contacts, Headlock. The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Three Rather than report his news to Prowl, however, he instead reported it to Soundwave, who, in turn contacted Shockwave, leader of The Rise, to silence this potential witness. The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Five

By pure coincidence, Rubble encountered the same Voin again while wandering through the Xeno-Quarter; hoping that he could make a difference to the ongoing investigation, the little Cybertronian pursued the alien deeper into the tangled streets of the district... but, by the time had caught up with it, Ascenticon operative Quake had already found and murdered the alien, shattering its watery tank and crushing the cephalopod in his fist. As soon as Quake noticed Rubble, he chased after the newborn and killed him, too. The World In Your Eyes Part Five

Along with Rubble's, the Voin's corpse was brought to a laboratory for an autopsy. Greenlight, a xenobiologist, was called in to examine the cephalopod where she noted it had been crushed to death, though she remarked that such an act had been superfluous, considering that the organic had been as good as dead the moment its globe had started to fracture. The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part One

On learning of what had transpired on Cybertron, Nautica worried about the effect the Voin's death would have on Cybertron's Voin community, as some deaths meant more than others in their culture. Nautica: Home