Parts

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"Parts"
Publisher	ibooks
First published	November 30, 2004
Writer	Donald J. Bingle
Continuity	War Within / G1 (Unique)
Page count	20

Prowl is an insensitive prick. Also, meet Geosensus.

Synopsis

While searching for energon deposits, Geosensus discovers Megatron's underground death matches. He watches the grisly battle between Grabber and Sting, and is confronted by Megatron himself. Megatron presumes Geosensus to be a volunteer for the death matches and thus a potential Decepticon recruit, and so he immediately "adopts" Geosensus, speaking to him in a manner both brutal, commanding, and strangely personable. When Geosensus reveals his pacifist nature and asks "Why would a Cybertronian need weapons on Cybertron? We have no enemies here...", Megatron grows enraged and tries to kill him. Interrupted by the arrival of police units, he settles for brutally mangling Geosensus before making his escape.

Before going off-line, Geosensus manages to send an emergency beacon to the Autobot commanders. The Decepticons promptly attack and devastate Kaon. While Geosensus's warning couldn't help the Autobots repel that attack (Optimus Prime will later sadly assert that nothing could have), it does give them time to evacuate many civilians to safety, and so Prime always looks favorably upon Geosensus after that.

Millions of years later, the Great War in full sway, Geosensus joins the Autobot crew aboard the Ark. En route to Earth, Prowl objects to Geosensus's presence among the crew, because he not only won't fight but also won't transform into robot mode and thus can't socialize and bond with teammates. Optimus counters that Geosensus made that choice millennia ago and in the meantime is fulfilling a valuable function.

When the Ark crashes on Earth, Geosensus is the first Autobot to be awakened by Teletraan I, and promptly sets about exploring the planet for energy. He marvels at the extreme abundance of carbon-based fuel sources, and in general enjoys himself greatly as he takes core samples and electromagnetic readings. His enjoyment is interrupted when he is attacked by newly-awakened Decepticons. Out of sheer desperate self-preservation he transforms into robot mode for the first time in millions of years and kills one of the Decepticons with frenzied flailing punches. Geosensus is horrified at having destroyed his fragile sensory equipment and fighting a member of his own species. He has little time to reflect on this, as the surviving Decepticon continues strafing him from the air.

Hoping to find reinforcements, Geosensus runs back towards the Ark, where Optimus Prime and Prowl have been awakened. When they see a Decepticon and an unknown robot approaching their base, the two Autobots assume they were under attack. Prowl kills the Decepticon, and Optimus Prime kills Geosensus.

On examining the wreckage they learn the truth, and Prime is shocked and despondent. He tries to think of how to explain this to the other Autobots, but Prowl insists he should do no such thing. Prowl reasons that with the Autobots already on the defensive and now stranded on an unknown world, they can not risk losing morale as well. His argument is that just as Geosensus had chosen to give up so much in order to specialize as a fuel scout, the lowly archivist Optronix has chosen to give up being a normal flawed Transformer by accepting the Matrix of Leadership and becoming Optimus Prime. The Autobots need an icon of heroic and infallible leadership more than they need a fuel scout. Besides, it is unlikely any of them had even noticed Geosensus, a loner who was always in his alternate mode and often underground. Optimus Prime, humbled, eventually agrees.

Prowl recycles some of Geosensus's body parts and covers up all evidence of the killing, and swears that if it ever comes to light he himself will take the blame for it.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons
Geosensus (1) Optimus Prime (6) Prowl (7)	Grabber (2) Sting (3) Megatron (4) Shockwave (5) Aerial Units (8)

Continuity

Written fairly smoothly into the War Within subset of Generation 1. Since the whole point of the story is that there is a conspiracy afoot to cover it up forever, it ends up "fitting in" pretty well—if you take seriously that type of reasoning.

Notes

• The time periods are described using a scale "BG1" — Before G1. The gladiatorial matches, for instance, take place 8.7 million years BG1. This appears to be yet another instance of a Transformers Legends author borrowing material from the contemporary Transformers: The Ultimate Guide.

• Titles often get the article before them capitalized: The Ark, The Prime. Teletraan I is spelled "Teletran-1".

• Megatron's tank mode is said to have a mouth that spits and drools oil as it speaks.

• The descriptions of the flying Decepticons on Earth are confusing. They are alternately described as "probes" and "aerial units" with varying color schemes, yet Geosensus is still devastated by having killed one. Perhaps the author was thinking of the Diagnostic Drones that also appeared in War Within, or the reanimated Seekers who would come to assist Megatron in other Dreamwave fiction.

• Now that you know the truth, Prowl has to kill you too.