Journey's Eve

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"Journey's Eve"
Publisher	Transformers Collectors' Club (online exclusive)
First published	November 23, 2016
By	Andrew Hall
Illustrations by	Jim Sorenson and Jesse Wittenrich
Continuity	Shattered Glass
Chronology	2015
Page count	11pp

The fate of the GoBots rests in YOUR hands!

Synopsis

Deep within the Earth, a massive, powerful computer system rests, simultaneously watching over multiple worlds. Its attention is drawn to a team of GoBots attempting to find a way to save their homeworld, and while its incredibly advanced processors have had their abilities clouded by the recent dimensional instability, it sees the paths that lie before these brave adventurers, and the sacrifices they will need to make...

Outside the Autobot Ironworks Base in Oregon, Cliffjumper confronts the unfamiliar GoBots, interrupting their fight with Stepper. Treds, still shaken by the battle with Stepper, tries to explain that they've come to ask for the Autobots help, but the ever-suspicious Cliffjumper doesn't believe them, and BuggyMan's attempts to "help" do nothing but make Cliffjumper even more paranoid. Small Foot steps in and explains that her people are in great danger, and Cliffjumper is prepared to brush her off, but suddenly receives a transmission from Metalhawk, who requests for Cliffjumper to bring the GoBots and Stepper in, much to the small Autobot's surprise.

Cliffjumper leads the GoBots through Ironworks, currently undergoing repairs, to the conference room in the base's core. Inside, Autobot commander Metalhawk, a strange, human-like Pretender, greets the five, apologizing for the danger they encountered while approaching the base, explaining that the past few months have been quite tumultuous. Treds, finally shaken from his stupor, thanks Metalhawk for the welcome, but quickly demands to know where the rest of their team is, believing that Metalhawk might of had them imprisoned. Thankfully, this turns out to not be the case; Metalhawk has Wheeljack escort Path Finder, Man-O-War, and Bad Boy in. The GoBots are relieved to see that the others are alright; Man-O-War once again tries to dig at Treds, chastising him for letting the others get injured, but Treds brushes him off, and asks why they didn't call for them. Metalhawk apologizes once more, explaining that he suggested that Path Finder maintain radio silence in case of danger. Small Foot thanks him for his help, and Metalhawk promises that he will do all he can to help with their mission...but first, he would like to talk to their other, hidden guest. Small Foot watches as the entity she encountered earlier once again enters the room, making a form for itself: the diminutive yet powerful Solarbot, ever so slightly drained by the fight from earlier. Metalhawk greets Solarbot, having familiarized himself with the information provided on the strange being by Soundwave. Solarbot explains that he, too, has come here to save his world; still receiving information from his homeworld thanks to his light-based communication, Solarbot has become aware of the entity draining the energy of his home star. Interfacing with Soundwave, he used the Decepticon's communications network to find the GoBots, and upon interfacing with Small Foot, found through her nightmares that the same entity was draining GoBotron. Treds realizes that whatever is affecting their homeworlds, both of them are looking for something that can stop it. Wheeljack, having listened to the conversation, chimes in; he explains that his homeworld, the "Classicsverse", was almost entirely destroyed by the Ultra Magnus of this universe by causing a chain reaction in the Rarified Energon, destabilizing their whole reality. Wheeljack theorizes that the universes from which the GoBots and the Solarbot come from "orbited" the Classicsverse, and with the Classicsverse destroyed, their worlds have been destabilized as a result, allowing the unknown entity to drain their energy. Path Finder asks about the Rarified Energon, and Wheeljack explains that they know very little about it; as far as they can tell, it helps stabilize their universe, and possibly more, and they've had to keep the small amount they have out of both evil Decepticon and Autobot hands, as they cannot make it themselves. Solarbot, undeterred, suggests that the Autobots could use their technology to stabilize the Rarified Energon across the world and their universes; Wheeljack, fascinating, believes it would be possibly, but they would need a supercomputer far beyond what they have here at Ironworks to affect it across space and time. Reminded of an earlier adventure down in South America, Cliffjumper speaks up, explaining that he knows where they could find one...

Elsewhere in the Ironworks Base, Stepper sits alone and defeated in his cell. Stepper always felt alone whenever his partners were around, and created Nebulon as a means to give him company; now, for the first time in a long time, he is alone. Still, he shouldn't be for long; with the destruction of Nebulon, a beacon in his body has begun going off, alerting his real partner to his location...but his thoughts are distracted when his cell begins rumbling. An interdimensional portal sucks Stepper up, sending him across the multiverse, where he finds himself in a strange city inhabited by millions of different robots, organics, and more...

After listening to Cliffjumper's suggestion, Metalhawk considers it a viable one. However, due to the instability caused by their relocation in space-time, they cannot teleport there, and it would take too long to fly or drive to South America. Aside from that, the GoBots require more repairs than their regeneration systems can handle. Path Finder asks if the Autobots have any aerial transportation, and Metalhawk figures they could have a Micromaster Transport fueled up for them by tomorrow morning...but the craft can only fit five of them, plus the Autobot's pilot Skyklik. Solarbot explains that the can convert himself into light and have Small Foot carry him; with that in mind, Path Finder will have to choose who goes on the mission, and who stays behind. Wheeljack provides Path Finder with a transdimensional communicator prototype he invented after arriving in the "Shatteredverse"; it should theoretically allow them to contact their homeworld, and receive signals from other worlds. Metalhawk has Wheeljack take the GoBots to the medical bay, and tells them to get some rest for their journey ahead.

Three hours later, Path Finder lies in the medbay, contemplating the journey ahead of her, worrying about what might happen. Knowing that she'll have to go to lead the mission, she wonders who the other four should be...and the transdimensional communicator suddenly turns on, as a voice from beyond tells her who to bring...

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Guardians	Renegades	Evil Autobots	Good Autobots	Others
Treds (2) Small Foot (5) Road Ranger (8) Path Finder (9) Man-O-War (10) Rest-Q (14)	Buggyman (6) Bad Boy (11)	Stepper (4)	Cliffjumper (3) Metalhawk (7) Wheeljack (12)	The Caretaker (1) Solarbot (13)

Quotes

“Mr. Jumper, allow the Buggy Man to reassure you. We most certainly are alien spies, and I am uniquely qualified to assist with the parasites you require.”

—The Buggy Man giving WAY too much information.

Notes

• Characters mentioned but not seen include Soundwave, Shattered Glass Ultra Magnus, Classics Ultra Magnus, Stepper's partner, Nebulon, Ricochet, the Seekers, Skids, and Skyklik.

Continuity notes

• The massive supercomputer sleeping underneath the Earth's surface goes unnamed this chapter, but it is very obvious that it is the Caretaker, a supercomputer created by Vector Sigma to assist Breakaway in guarding the Rarified Energon, seen way back in the "Crossing Over" storyline that introduced the "Classicsverse." Cliffjumper encountered it in that storyline, where it sent Breakaway to Axiom Nexus along with Skyfall and Landquake, while Cliffjumper was sent to the "Shatteredverse." It's location isn't specifically pointed out in this story either, only said to span a global distance, but it was shown to be somewhere in South America. Its abilities are limited thanks to the dimensional instability caused by Shattered Glass Ultra Magnus in "Invasion".
• Cliffjuper was last seen on Shattered Glass Cybertron in "Solar Requiem", having since been transferred to Ironworks Base.
• Stepper would next appear in the lead in stories to "Cybertron's Most Wanted".
• This story explains why the Cataclysm restarted in "Sunrise" in spite of the destruction of the Classicsverse, which was stated in "Withered Hope" to be the source of the Cataclysm: the GoBots' home reality is a universe linked to the Classicsverse, and thus when SG Ultra Magnus destroyed it in "Invasion", any linked realities were destabilized as well. Guess it really sucks to live in Gargent 984.08 Alpha, eh?

Transformers references

• The illustrations for this story were provided by Jim Sorenson and Jesse Wittenrich, who digitally altered the original boxart for the Autobot Mini Vehicles who became the G1 GoBots: Cosmos into Path Finder, Gears into Small Foot, Huffer into Road Ranger, Warpath into Treds, Powerglide into Bad Boy, Seaspray into Man-O-War, Beachcomber into Buggyman, and Hubcap into Rest-Q.
• The cover for the story homages the art on the back of the box for the original 1984 The Transformers toyline range, with the G1 GoBots floating in space with "motion blurs." The tagline on the cover ("It is a world gone chaotic, where things are not as they seem. It is the world of the GoBots...a world of Mighty Robots and Mighty Vehicles!") homages the text on the original 1984 pack-in catalog ("It is a world transformed, where things are not as they seem. It is the world of the Transformers...a world of Heroic Autobots and Evil Decepticons!") along with the main tagline for the original GoBots toyline: "Mighty Robots, Mighty Vehicles."
• Cliffjumper finds that the G1 GoBots look vaguely familiar for some reason; they're all based on the bodies of his former Mini Vehicle comrades.
• When Treds accidentally calls Cliffjumper "Cliffhanger," he claims that all Autobots look like red cars to him, but "not in a functionist way"; the idea of a caste system defined by alternative modes was first seen in the Transformers: Exodus novel as part of the "Aligned" continuity; the concept was given the name "functionism" in the writings of James Roberts for IDW Publishing's then-current comic continuity.

Errors

• After being spelt as "Buggyman" for the last two chapters (which, again, is supposed to be spelt as "BuggyMan"), BuggyMan's name is rendered as "Buggy Man" in this chapter, with a space. And, as normal, "GoBots" and "GoBotron" are rendered as "Gobots" and "Gobotron."
• Stepper refers to Ricochet as his brother, but that doesn't feel right. Ricochet has previously been established to be Jazz's brother, specifically created in an ember-splitting experiment by Optimus Prime, and throwing Stepper into that equation would be a rather sudden, weird, unexplained addition, plus Stepper's bio, published over a year prior to this story, identified him only as Ricochet's "former teammate."

Other trivia

• A day before this story was published, a cross-promotion on the Facebook version of Ask Vector Prime was published, promoting the story, with slightly different versions of the Tech-Specs for the GoBots, and a different "cover" inspired by the "Earthlings: THE S.T.A.R.S. need your help now!" pack-in flyer, with Path Finder in place of Overdrive.
• The members of the G1 GoBots who would go on their final mission in the next chapter would be determined by fan-vote via hashtags on Facebook from November 23 until November 31 of 2016—of course, there is no November 31st in the modern Gregorian calendar, something that the aforementioned cross-promotion with Ask Vector Prime slightly ribbed on.
• Included are tech spec bios for Path Finder, Small Foot, Treds, Buggy Man, Rest-Q, Man-O-War, Road Ranger, and Bad Boy.

External links

• Spatiotemporal Challengers Part 3: "Journey's Eve" at The Official Transformers Collectors' Club