Beast in the Machine

« Story of Binaltech Chapter 7 »
"Beast in the Machine" ビースト・イン・ザ・マシーン
First published	December 9, 2004
Story	Hirofumi Ichikawa
Continuity	Japanese Generation 1 cartoon continuity
Packaged with	BT-10 Grimlock

As the battle for Cybertron heats up, the Dinobots fall victim to a deadly Decepticon scheme.

Synopsis

As the Binaltech conflict continues on Earth, far across the galaxy, Megatron continues his campaign against Cybertron, seeking to fully conquer the planet. In the midst of a major battle, the Decepticons tip the balance in their favor with a psychic attack upon the most powerful troops in the Autobot ranks, the Dinobots. Using primitive, telepathic alien lifeforms known as Unleashers, the Decepticons assault the minds of the Dinobots, reducing them to savage beasts and turning them upon the Autobots. Reluctantly, the Autobots make the difficult decision to bring the Dinobots down, taking all five of them offline.

Studying Grimlock, Wheeljack isolates the psychic subroutine that had brought the bestial impulses of the Dinobots' dinosaur modes to the fore, but its removal proves difficult, even without the lack of medical supplies the current conflict is causing. Observing how Transformers with non-animal alternate modes were unaffected by the unleashers, Wheeljack deduces a means of using the Binaltech Project to bring Grimlock back online safely until a permanent cure can be found. Although less than happy at the prospect of losing his powerful alternate mode, Grimlock agrees to the procedure, and his brain casing is taken to Earth by Wheeljack for implantation into a new Binaltech body.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots

Notes

• This chapter of the Binaltech story was printed in the pack-in booklet included with the Grimlock Binaltech toy.
• Despite their resemblance to the psychic parasites from the Generation 2 comic book story "Primal Fear!", Hirofumi Ichikawa notes that the unleashers were an original creation not intended as a reference to anything else.
• The victims of the unleashers are referred to as "primitives", re-using the term from the Generation 1 cartoon episode "Call of the Primitives".

References

• Complete text of "Beast in the Machine"
• Translation of "Beast in the Machine" at FantoFan