Skyquake (Prime)

The name or term "Skyquake" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Skyquake (disambiguation).

Skyquake is a Decepticon from the Prime portion of the Aligned continuity family.

Ain't he unglamorous?

Skyquake's loyalties are unlikely to be questioned anytime soon. A Decepticon guardian sent to protect Earth's energon stocks, he is completely loyal to Megatron. He will not only obey every order, he will follow them until Megatron says otherwise, regardless of the passage of time. He also possesses a rather short temper and is not beyond backhanding anyone who frustrates him (including superior officers).

His split-Spark twin brother is Dreadwing.

It will be a shame to crush you, bug, but it is my duty.Skyquake, "Masters & Students"

Fiction

Prime cartoon

Voice actor: Richard Green (English), Frank Welker (English, "Shadowzone"), Masami Iwasaki (Japanese), Tilo Schmitz (German), Ángel Amorós (Spain-Spanish), Dado Monteiro (Brazilian Portuguese)

"Now is coward-killing time!"

Dreadwing considered Skyquake a brother, as they were twins, and shared a split spark, allowing them to sense each other, even across the galaxy. Loose Cannons

Millennia ago, during the great war, Megatron tasked Skyquake with assassinating Optimus Prime at the Battle of Technahar but Skyquake failed to carry out his mission. He was later one of a number of Decepticon guardians sent to Earth by Megatron when the planet was seeded with Energon.

In the modern era, he was sought out by Starscream, who needed a strong presence to inspire his troops into believing his reign would be a successful one. However, Skyquake was less amiable to the idea, firmly announcing both his loyalty to Megatron and his lack of faith in Starscream's claims of Megatron's death. Before the pair came to blows, Optimus and Bumblebee appeared on the scene. Skyquake reminded Prime of their encounter during the Battle of Technar, but Optimus still offered both Decepticons a chance at peace. Starscream showed some interest, as long as Optimus bowed to him, causing a frustrated Skyquake to belt him aside and attack Prime. Bumblebee threw himself into the fray but proved more of a distraction than anything else. He did manage to buy Optimus the time to realize Skyquake still lacked a vehicle mode.

I'm okay.

Using the canyon they were battling in to their advantage, the Autobots managed to corner Skyquake. Unfortunately, Agent Fowler appeared in a high-tech military jet, which Skyquake immediately scanned.

Skyquake quickly dominated the battle until Bumblebee threw himself on the jet and, as Skyquake tried to shake him off, ripped out his internals. Bumblebee jumped onto Fowler's plane as a heavily-injured Skyquake crashed into the ground. After Skyquake closed his optics for possibly one last time, Prime sadly noted how things might have been different, before burying the Decepticon. Masters & Students Dreadwing sensed his brother's emergence from stasis and later death. Loose Cannons

I am not burned, just scorched. Wait...

Some time later, Starscream attempted to resurrect Skyquake using the chunk of Dark Energon that he ripped from Megatron's chest. It worked, and Skyquake rose as a zombie, however a GroundBridge incident transported him to a strange alternate dimension along with the Autobots' human friends Miko Nakadai, Jack Darby and Raf Esquivel. After discovering that he couldn't harm the Autobots, who were still in the real world, Skyquake began pursuing the three kids. They managed to find Starscream's arm, left behind during the battle, and used it to shoot Skyquake. This merely resulted in his arm coming off and chasing them. It followed them back through a rescue portal created by Ratchet and briefly assaulted Starscream before he shook it loose. It ran after him again but Starscream GroundBridged himself away. The rest of Skyquake continued to roam the shadowzone and made a vain attempt to repair himself with Starscream's lost arm. Shadowzone Megatron wasn't happy about Starscream using the Dark Energon shard that was previously merged with his Spark to bring Skyquake back, among other things. Rock Bottom

Dreadwing was drawn to Earth after feeling his twin's death, where Megatron and Soundwave confirmed his loss. Dreadwing swore the Autobots would pay for offlining his brother, though his attempts to gain revenge were unsuccessful. Loose Cannons Starscream encountered Dreadwing at the Antarctic, but at first mistook him for Skyquake before being corrected. When Starscream obtained the Apex Armor, he prepared to reunite Dreadwing with his twin before Dreadwing blew a hole in the ice, into which Starscream fell. Optimus Prime expressed his remorse for his part in Skyquake's death and extended the same offer of a place in the Autobot ranks to Dreadwing. Triangulation Megatron used the oath Dreadwing swore on Skyquake's demise to get him to open the coffin of a Prime, rather than simply opening it himself. Alpha/Omega

While Megatron was using a cortical psychic patch to interrogate Starscream, Dreadwing finally learned his brother's ultimate fate, roaming the shadow dimension as a zombie, and was more than a little upset. Patch As a result, Dreadwing turned the Forge of Solus Prime over to the Autobots before attempting to avenge his brother by killing Starscream. However, it was Dreadwing who met his end when Megatron intervened in Starscream's favor. Regeneration

Toys

Prime

Meet the Heavy.

• Skyquake (Cyberverse Commander, 2012)
  • Series: 2/010
  • Japanese ID number: EZ-18
  • Accessories: Two blasters (combine to form Tornado Cannon)

Part of the fourth wave of Prime Cyberverse Commander Class toys, Skyquake is a redeco of Dreadwing, with new weapons, and transforms into a modified F-35 Lightning II. He features translucent plastic on the center of his jet/his back and cockpit-chest, allowing him to be illuminated by the larger Cyberverse sets. He comes with two translucent orange blasters, and both weapons feature multiple 3mm posts, with one blaster additionally featuring two 3mm post-holes. This allows them to be held with his hands or mounted onto his arms and wings in different ways, store on Skyquake's back, combine with other Cyberverse weapons, as well as combine with each other to form a "Tornado Cannon" that resembles a mini-gun, and can be held with both hands.

Oddly, the instructions and the official Hasbro stock photos for the toy completely ignore the fact that the "Tornado Cannon" consists of two smaller weapons, and consistently depict it as one single weapon.

• More information on Cyberverse Skyquake at TFU.info

What was that, Sandvich? "Kill them all"? Good idea! Hahahaha!

• Skyquake (Voyager, 2012)
  • Series / Number: 01 / 007
  • Accessories: Pulse cannon/light-up Shatterwave blaster, sword

Part of the pretty-much-never-hit-US-retail fifth wave of Prime: Robots in Disguise Voyager Class toys, Skyquake is a redeco of Dreadwing. He comes with a pulse cannon (retooled from Dreadwing's cannon to have a new barrel) and sword, both of which can be mounted (via 5mm posts) onto his forearms and hands, underneath either of his wings, onto a port behind the cockpit canopy, or onto his robot mode back. The sword itself features an additional peg on its hilt, and the cannon has a peg-hole on its translucent side. When a lever behind the cannon is pulled, the LED inside the weapon housing lights up red and swivels up, and the cannon hinges over towards the front of its base, transforming into a longer-barreled "Shatterwave blaster", all while being illuminated at the barrel by the LED as a sort of "Energon glow". As with other Robots in Disguise Voyager Class toys, the deployed weapon cannot lock into place.

His stock photography depicts him with much brighter translucent orange plastic, as well as silver paint operations on his shoulder-pads and jet fuselage that were omitted on the final product.

Notes

• It's a lucky thing Agent Fowler provided a jet with arm and leg kibble underneath for Skyquake to scan!
• While crash-landings have rarely been fatal to Transformers in past series, Prime executive producer Jeff Kline has stated that "When we kill a character, we kill a character."
• Coincidentally, both Skyquake and Dreadwing were introduced in the 6th episode of their respective seasons.
• This incarnation of Skyquake is the first to appear in a transformers T.V. series

Foreign names

• Japanese: Skyquake (スカイクエイク Sukaikueiku)