Lost Light
This article is a featured article, and considered to be one of the most informative on this wiki.
- The Lost Light is a starship from the IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Originally a vessel owned by a group of neutral Transformers, the Lost Light is now the starship utilized by Rodimus and about 230 other assorted Transformers on a quest to find the mythical Knights of Cybertron.
Though apparently unremarkable by Transformer standards, the ship is quite large - described by Ultra Magnus as 15 miles in length, and 10 miles wide, and large enough for an entire extra chamber to be attached to it in secret without anybody onboard noticing. It contains numerous habitation suites for its crew, various offices and workshops for those who require them, a bar redubbed "Swerve's" after the ship's launch, and a large oil reservoir where introspective bots sometimes go to ponder. The ship's hangars carry at least half a dozen shuttlecraft, including the Leading Light and Rodpod. Rodimus upgraded the Lost Light's armament with a batch of proton missile launchers after a visit to Hedonia.
The Lost Light is a "hop ship" which utilizes insanely advanced quantum engines to travel almost instantaneously across vast distances, though those distances can be limited by the amount of power available to the ship. (You don't want to be standing next to these engines when they activate, as they break the laws of physics in ways that can be very unhealthy.) On top, the ship carries a group of "fuel quills", essential to its operation. Deep within its bowels are the ship's fuel furnaces, powered or at least partly dependent upon nucleon rods, and manned by the Pyrobots.
The ship was known by its previous owners as the Unitrex-1.
Fiction
IDW Generation 1 continuity
The Unitrex-1 was constructed in the city of Unitrex five million years ago, the first ship oufitted with new experimental generator on board. A crew had been selected for the vessel, including the Duobots, but before it could launch, it was infiltrated by two very unexpected visitors: a time-travelling Rodimus and Cyclonus, who had come from five million years in the future and wound up stranded when their time machine ran out of power. Seeking to recharge the device, Rodimus used Perceptor's knowledge of future quantum science to upgrade the Unitrex-1's generator so that it could perform the task, in the process retroactively creating the very first quantum generator. As he worked, Cyclonus fought off the ship's sole guard, blasting him with a Sparkeater Gun and locking him in one of the ship's chambers. Once the time case was fully charged with quantum energy, a reaction between the case and generator caused the unmanned U1 to quantum jump away through time and space, its fate unknown to anyone. Predestination: An Expert's Guide No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases
Eventually, the Unitrex-1 was discovered drifting near Vela Pulsar by a group of Mortilus-worshipping NAILs who had left Cybertron during the war. Twenty Plus One Finding the guard, who had mutated into a ravenous Sparkeater, they kept it alive and docile using turbofox meals. The Chaos of Warm Things
The U1 was among the NAIL ships that returned to Cybertron at the end of the war. It was purchased by Drift (with the help of Pipes and Riptide) during the Festival of Lost Light for one billion Shanix from its former owners and renamed the Lost Light after the festival. Twenty Plus One Rodimus was unaware of any of the ship's history when it was given to him as a present from Drift. ...And the Damage Done
Rodimus decided to use the ship after he was denied the use of Omega Supreme in his quest to find the Knights of Cybertron, a group from Cybertron's ancient past. He intended to follow a map discovered in the halves of the now empty Matrix of Leadership by Perceptor and Rewind, hoping that the knowledge and power of the Knights could be used to bring Cybertron into a new golden age. Rodimus gave a rousing speech on the day prior to the launch, intending on swaying the varied Transformers currently inhabiting and feuding on Cybertron to accompany him. While Prowl predicted Rodimus would fail to convince anyone to leave with him, at least 200 answered the call. After being checked and cleared by a diligent Red Alert, the passengers boarded the Lost Light, along with a "weapon of mass destruction" brought on board by Ratchet, an unconscious and crippled Tailgate, and mysterious cargo smuggled aboard on Prowl's orders.
The ship launched on schedule, but something went wrong. As the Lost Light lifted off, it was rocked by an explosion and quantum jumped before it was ready. The last that was seen of the ship from Cybertron was a massive fireball; it was assumed that all aboard were killed.
When he learned of the event some while later, Orion Pax thought even with the Lost Light's "destruction", Rodimus and his crew were still alive. Syndromica (1)
The ship's fate was far more complicated, however: its hyper-advanced quantum engines malfunctioned, narrowing its choice of destinations not to a single point in space, but to two points in space. The ship responded by arriving at both points, having created a quantum duplicate of itself, and everyone and everything on board. The Road Not Taken
On-course Lost Light
The jump placed the Lost Light over its intended destination, but also caused one of the rear thrusters to explode. Rung was lost in the explosion. Perceptor and Brainstorm found that the reason for the explosion was that Ore had been standing close to one of the quantum generators when they were activated, and was mashed into it.
The Sparkeater that none of the Autobots knew of broke out during their journey, killing Shock before going on a hunt for the "brightest spark" on the ship: Animus. Rodimus had the rest of the crew locked in their quarters and, using Animus as bait, lured the Sparkeater to the engine room, where he mashed it into a generator when the Lost Light did its next quantum jump. Unfortunately the bold captain miscalculated, and his head became emeshed in the generators as well, killing him. The crew held a funeral according to spectralist rites, and interred Rodimus's body within a coffin made from the ship's engine casings.
No longer feeling beholden to Rodimus, Drift made a confession to now-commander Ultra Magnus: secreted below the lowest level of the ship was a hidden chamber, a "slow time" cell, in which a captive Overlord was suspended.
Meanwhile, Rewind began keeping a travelogue of the ship's adventures, and Crosscut finished his play Information Creep, announcing its debut performance in his newly opened playhouse space. slaughterhouse The Road Not Taken
Unbeknownst to the crew, Brainstorm was a Decepticon sleeper agent (though he was not dedicated to the Decepticon cause). The Road Not Taken Our Steps Will Always Rhyme For reasons unknown, he deactivated the slow cell to unmask Overlord's energy signature and then summoned the Decepticon Justice Division to get rid of him. In exchange, the Division agreed to leave everyone else alone to maintain Brainstorm's cover. The DJD caught up with the ship near the lectureworld of Ofsted XVII and entered to find Drift was there... at which point they decided they had to kill him too and, well, once they had started they just couldn't stop. The Road Not Taken The Permanent Revolution
Rewind was forced to film the entire slaughter, with Tarn promising they'd spare Chromedome if he did. The captive Overlord was indeed killed, as the Division gleefully sawed his head off. Storming the ship's bridge, they annihilated the command crew. Tarn dispatched Ultra Magnus with a single blast; one of the DJD subsequently pulled his inner Minimus Ambus form out of the Magnus Armor. Perceptor, Mainframe, Swerve, and Whirl were killed off in nearly the same moment. Some of the deceased had their brain modules yanked out by Helex and placed in their mouths; others were forced to transform to vehicle mode before being executed and their transformation cogs harvested to feed Tarn's transformation addiction. The mounting casualties included Pipes and Red Alert (killed by Helex), Cyclonus (blasted by Vos, wielded by Tarn), Cosmos (killed by Tesarus), and Dipstick and Chromedome (killed by Kaon). slaughterhouse The Road Not Taken
In a final act of cruelty, Chromedome was forced to erase his memories of Rewind or die—Chromedome chose death. Rewind was abandoned and went into shutdown. The Road Not Taken
17 months later, a massive battle occurred around the derelict ship and on the surface of Ofsted XVII between the Black Block Consortia and the Galactic Council over the quantum engines. When the Decepticon Justice Division arrived to find them, both organic factions teamed up and kerbstomped the DJD; two of their number were left damaged and helpless on the planet's surface while the others fled. The Lost Light itself was ripped to pieces, its quantum foam left drifting through space among its shattered chunks, while Rodimus's coffin broke free and drifted away. The Permanent Revolution Births, Deaths, and Interventions
One month later, the Lost Light and its deceased crew were erased from existence when crew members from its quantum duplicate arrived and shut down its quantum engines. The sole remnants of its tragic journey were Brainstorm's briefcase... and Rewind. The Road Not Taken
Off-course Lost Light
The jump placed the Lost Light over an unknown planet somewhere in space and caused one of the rear thrusters to explode, resulting in a fire and a hull tear in one of the hangars on the upper decks. Before the tear could be sealed, 40 Autobots were ejected through the breach. Rodimus ordered the Lost Light to be set down on the planet's surface so the lost Autobots could be recovered. How to Say Goodbye and Mean It Perceptor and Brainstorm found that the reason for the explosion was that Ore had been standing close to one of the quantum generators when they were activated, and was mashed into it. By the time the rescue mission was done and the Lost Light left the planet, Skids joined the crew while Hyperion and Polaris had been found dead. Hangers On
The Sparkeater that none of the Autobots knew of broke out during their journey, killing Shock and Animus before going on a hunt for the "brightest spark" on the ship: Rung. Rodimus had the rest of the crew locked in their quarters and, using Rung as bait, lured the Sparkeater to the engine room, where he mashed it into a generator when the Lost Light did its next quantum jump. The Chaos of Warm Things
The crew then had a celebration at Swerve's recently opened bar. Rodimus ordered Rewind to give Tailgate a history lesson about the Great War. Life After the Big Bang
The ship was damaged when it unexpectedly struck a piece of space debris. After some quick repair work by Chromedome, Brainstorm and Highbrow (oh, and Trailbreaker was there too), the debris - actually a thumb belonging to the legendary Metrotitan Metroplex - was brought aboard. This new cargo attracted the interest of Lockdown's Titan Hunters, who arrived and boarded the ship while the entire crew was accidentally frozen in place by one of Brainstorm's inventions. Only quick thinking by Trailbreaker (still active due to his forcefield's protection) kept the Decepticons with making off with the Metroplex fragment. The Reluctant Specialist
Ultra Magnus would later teach Tailgate the Autobot Code. Meanwhile, Red Alert told Rung he was hearing noises below his room in the Sparkeater chamber; Rung recognized the sound as a slowed-down voice saying "kill... me..." over and over again. Meanwhile, Ratchet, Drift, and Pipes investigated a significant decline in survival rates at the Delphi medical center; Ratchet and his comrades returned with new crew members including the freshly reactivated Fortress Maximus. How Ratchet Got His Hands Back
Despite attempts to give him therapy, Maximus - traumatized by his defeat and torture at the hands of Overlord - shot a bunch of crew members, before taking Rung and Whirl hostage so he could demand the ship be taken back to Cybertron. Swerve and Rewind, who had been replacing rivets on the ship's hull, attempted to shoot him through the window, but accidentally injured Rung instead. Elsewhere, Red Alert used the deceased Ore's drill arm to find the source of the noise he had heard earlier. Drilling through the floor of the Sparkeater chamber, the lowest level of the ship according its schematics, he found a hidden chamber in which a captive Overlord was suspended, begging to be killed. Interiors
The Lost Light finally reached its first major destination, the planet of Theophany, where the crew expected to find the Circle of Light. Instead, however, all that remained was the razed and deserted ruins of the Circle's Crystal City. The Galactic Council's enforcement ship, The Benign Intervention, also appeared on the scene, giving the Autobots one hour to explore the planet's surface. Rodimus's exploration team discovered a slumbering Metrotitan beneath Crystal City... but Chromedome's attempts to hack into the behemoth's mind caused it to reactivate and fire a blast of energy into space, damaging the Benign Intervention and incurring the full wrath of its troops. The Lost Light was contained in an incineration shell and was seconds away from total annihilation when Rodimus's team freed the Metrotitan, who in turn teleported the Lost Light and her crew away from Theophany. Theorizing that the Decepticons were behind the destruction of Crystal City, Rodimus decided to take the Lost Light near the Argon Nebulae, where Decepticon activity had been reported. You, Me, and Other Revelations
The Decepticon group that the crew engaged turned out not to be linked to the disappearance of the Circle of Light. Several members of the crew were injured fighting the group - including Rewind, causing Chromedome to agree to work with Drift on the Overlord project. Before & After
The ship later stopped at Hedonia, where the crew got some much needed R&R while testing out Brainstorm and Rung's new holomatter avatars. Cybertronian Homesick Blues While there, Skids, Whirl and Rewind met two other races of transforming beings - the Ammonites and their enemies, the Terradores. The meeting ended with Whirl killing the leader of Terradores.
Some time later, the ship encountered the legendary Thunderclash and his ship, the Vis Vitalis. Much to the dismay of Rodimus, Thunderclash also turned out to be in pursuit of the Knights of Cybertron and required the Lost Light's quantum engines to repower his ship. Thunderclash's second in command Paddox turned out to be a group of combined Ammonites; he was neutralized by Swerve and Rung, and the two ships departed with Thunderclash promising to inform the Knights of Cybertron of Rodimus' sacrifice if he encountered them first. Little Victories
During one of Chromedome's cerebral incursions into Overlord's mind, the Phase Sixer escaped from his slow cell on the bottom of the ship's hull Remembrance Day and went on a killing spree through the ship that left Ultra Magnus critically injured. The combined efforts of Chromedome, Fortress Maximus and Rewind forced him back into his cell, which was jettisoned from the hull and destroyed - though at the cost of Rewind's life. Under Cold Blue Stars After Overlord's rampage, a mass funeral was held for the half dozen casualties of the attack. Meeting with Rodimus, Drift agreed to take the fall, allowing himself to be banished for allowing Overlord on board. The Gloaming
Shortly after the funeral, Ultra Magnus suddenly sat bolt upright from his medibay bed, levitated to the shuttle bay, and departed the Lost Light aboard a stolen shuttle. Rodimus set the ship on a pursuit course, arriving at a huge dimensional portal. Passing through it, the crew made a discovery beyond their reckoning: the long-lost Cybertronian moon, Luna 1.
The ship remained in orbit while a small crew went to the surface to investigate. Soon, however, the Lost Light was invaded by an army of the giant golden robots known as Legislators, The Fecund Moon who teleported aboard and soon overran the crew despite their best efforts, taking them captive, while Rodimus's surface team was likewise captured by the forces of the unhinged Chief Justice Tyrest, who had set up shop on Luna 1. House of Ambus The ship was liberated when Tailgate shut down all the Legislators by repealing the code of law that controlled them, though the ship was left in thoroughly trashed condition; stopping Tyrest's schemes also resulted in the destruction of Rodimus's half of the Matrix - along with its crucial map.
Eager to put the depressing detour behind them, the crew of the Lost Light soon departed from Luna 1, leaving behind Red Alert and Fortress Maximus to keep watch over the rogue moon. Having lost their guide, the next plan was to find and join forces with Thunder Clash. This Calamitous Life The Sound of Breaking Glass An effort to get the Circle of Light survivors to join the quest did little except persuade them to go find Thunder Clash themselves. Little Victories
Some time later, Rodimus's guilt over the Overlord incident got the better of him, and he came clean to the crew about his role in the fiasco. Invoking the Crisis Act, he had the ship's crew vote on his leadership. Though the majority favored him remaining in command, a large minority voted against him, a fact he tried to keep in mind by carving the vote results on his palm. Burning Bright
The Lost Light next answered a distress call from none other than Orion Pax himself, materializing above Pax's ship in time to rescue it from the gravity well of Gorlam Prime as it collapsed into a Dead Universe portal. The Skyroller was brought into one of the Lost Light's shuttle bays and its small crew was happily welcomed aboard, but the mood changed when Starscream contacted the ship, wanting to speak with Cyclonus about Cybertron's growing Dead Universe problems. Dark Dawn The Lost Light remained in orbit over the planet-consuming portal while Pax and a small team prepared to enter the Dead Universe and confront the source of its latest upheavals, with Pax, Magnus and Rodimus killing time in Swerve's while Brainstorm readied protective fields for them. After Pax's crew departed, the Lost Light made ready to pursue war criminal Jhiaxus - only to be pulled off course, literally, when the fragment of Metroplex began levitating and pushing against the ship's bulkheads. Deducing that Metroplex was calling his missing piece home, Ultra Magnus made the decision to change plans and take the ship to answer the call.
One quantum jump later, the Lost Light materialized at the bottom of a reddish sea, surrounded by unknown robotic entities Winners & Losers who soon engaged the crew in a massive battle, with the opening salvo blowing out the ship's bridge windows and flooding the bridge. During the fight, a small crew aboard the Rod Pod found their way to Metroplex himself, journeying into the Titan's head. Into the Abyss Finding him ill, they sought his brain (missing), then headed for his spark. No Exit Outside, the crew of the Lost Light was led in battle against the attacking Ammonites by Hound. Their foes suddenly turned and headed for Metroplex; the exploratory team was soon on the verge of being overwhelmed. The Dead Are Not Enough Finally locating Metroplex's brain, Ultra Magnus contacted the ship's bridge and had a portion of its power used to recharge Metroplex, revitalizing his depleted systems. Empowered once more, Metroplex teleported himself and the Lost Light back to Cybertron. Burning Bright
The Lost Light arrived over Cybertron with such force that it was unable to avoid a crash landing on Cybertron's surface. Metroplex went to work on the Necrotitan that was threatening the planet's inhabitants, at one point preventing the undead giant from damaging the ship. When Megatron managed to space bridge the thumb fragment out of the Lost Light's hold and reunite it with its owner, Metroplex was cured of the ailment that had disabled him, and quickly destroyed the Necrotitan. Finis Temporis
As the combatants basked in this victory, the Lost Light served as both a medical center - Ratchet patched up the wounded Megatron there, and Arcee was rebuilt into a new form - and as a place of relaxation, as Transformers from both factions found their way to Swerve's for drink and recuperation. Swerve himself nearly had a cerebral hemorrhage when Blurr showed up in the bar. This downtime was short-lived, however, as Shockwave's final endgame revealed itself with the arrival of 70 billion Ammonites and the incipient collapse of space-time. The Becoming
Amid swarming masses of foes, the Lost Light frantically lifted off, but soon set down again to discharge Megatron, Bumblebee, and a small team, with the intent of taking the fight to Shockwave. Black Planet After dropping off the strike team, the ship took to the air once again, its weapons picking off some 10,000 Ammonites as the battle raged. The Ammonite army spontaneously exploded shortly thereafter, and the ship's crew used the Lost Light as a battering ram to smash Monstructor - the last combatant still standing - into his component Transformers. They then dropped down in time to rescue the strike team from the collapsing singularity that resulted from the derailment of Shockwave's plans, and set down before Metroplex. The last to disembark were Optimus Prime and Megatron, the latter braced to unveil his new decision to join the Autobots... ...And the Damage Done
In the wake of the great battle, Atomizer oversaw having the ship's name painted on the sides, while Perceptor and the crew restored the ship to full function. The ship's departure was stalled, however, by the trial of Megatron. Towards Peace The Lost Light was used to transport many Transformers to Luna 2 for the trial. Words Hang in the Air
Six months after the defeat of Shockwave's plans, the Lost Light finally departed Cybertron once more. A number of new faces had joined the crew... including its new co-captain, Megatron! Towards Peace Among other changes, Swerve assigned the reprogrammed Legislator "Ten" as his new bouncer, Whirl was appointed as "Entertainments Officer", bringing on a large cache of Earth movies, and Bluestreak became the latest bartender at Swerve's.
As the ship headed towards its next destination, it encountered a coffin floating in space. Megatron had it brought aboard; right about then, things began to disappear - a batch of nucleon rods, one of Swerve's Engex vats, bits of signs, doors, bulkheads, even whole crew members. Words Hang in the Air Rodimus was shocked when Megatron showed him the contents of the coffin: it was his own deceased body! His shock was soon compounded as the Lost Light itself began to disintegrate, more and more pieces vanishing into thin air. The crew evacuated aboard the ship's shuttles, as the Lost Light disappeared completely. Predestination: A Beginner's Guide Soon, all of her original crew would vanish as well, leaving only those who had joined after the return trip to Cybertron. Twenty Plus One
Those few remaining soon discovered the grisly remains of the quantum duplicate Lost Light, with Rewind as the only survivor among the murdered crew. Eventually, Nautica worked out what had happened, explaining how the two versions of the ship split during the original quantum jump. Once she directed Megatron and Rewind to deactivate the duplicate ship's quantum drums, the intact Lost Light and its vanished crew were restored to existence, while the shattered duplicate and its slaughtered inhabitants - with the exception of Rewind and Brainstorm's briefcase - ceased to be.
Celebration aplenty could be found on the restored ship... until Brainstorm arrived in Swerve's, opened his mysterious briefcase, and knocked everybody out. The Road Not Taken
Rung had brought a model of the Lost Light with him during the Autobots' trip through time, Stet and was casually putting it together during another stop in their journey at roughly four million years ago. He was observed by the local timeframe's Nightbeat and Quark Post Hoc - as well as Brainstorm, who - realizing he'd been followed back in time - promptly fled the scene. Stet
Crew
Initial Crew
Its crew at launch included:
- Ammo
- Animus
- Aquabat
- Aquafend
- Aquastar
- Atomizer
- Blades
- Blaster
- Bob
- Borer
- Boss
- Brainstorm
- Brawn
- Chromedome
- Cosmos
- Crosscut
- Crosshairs
- Deftwing
- Dipstick
- Doubletap
- Drift
- Fervor
- Fizzle
- Flex
- Gears
- Grapple
- Highbrow
- Hoist
- Hound
- Huffer
- Hyperion
- Inferno
- Jackpot
- Kindle
- Lancet
- Landmine
- Lockstock
- Mainframe
- Ore
- Perceptor
- Pincher
- Pipes
- Pointblank
- Polaris
- Powerflash
- Powerglide
- Rad
- Railspike[1]
- Ratchet
- Red Alert (director of security)
- Rewind
- Rodimus (Co-Captain, former Captain)
- Rollout
- Rung
- Shock
- Siren
- Skater
- Slapdash
- Smokescreen
- Spoke
- Sprocket
- Steeljaw
- Strafe
- Sunstreaker
- Sureshot
- Swerve
- Toaster[2]
- Toxin
- Trailbreaker/Trailcutter (director of security)
- Tripodeca
- Turbine
- Ultra Magnus (second-in-command)
- Waverider
- Xaaron
Additions after launch
Joining the crew after their journey was underway:
Additions after return to Cybertron
Joining the crew after their return to Cybertron or after their subsequent second departure:
Games
Transformers Legends
The Lost Light was exploring a distant planet when it came under attack by mysterious forces. Nightbeat and Windblade went to investigate and faced off against the Ammonites along with a group of Decepticons from another starship. Into the Abyss
Notes
- According to Roberts in an online interview, Fireflight intended to join the crew of the Lost Light but was talked out of it at the last minute by "someone with a vested interest".[4]
- At least one member of the Lost Light crew was the result of artist error. In issue #16, a misdrawn Chromedome was transformed into the unofficial TFCon fan-character "Toxin" by colorist Josh Burcham via an edit to the character's lineart and colors. Additionally, a scripted appearance for Generation 1 Landmine in Spotlight: Trailcutter was drawn instead as Energon Landmine, although this wiki currently treats this as an appearance for the G1 character.
- A panel in issue #2 of More Than Meets the Eye makes clear that the bridge is located at the front tip of the ship, in the huge band of windows. An observation deck is located there as well.
- Speaking of huge, the 10x15 mile dimensions of the ship given in "Into the Abyss" don't jibe with almost any of the artwork. While the ship is clearly big, the given size would make characters invisible alongside it, but they are commonly visible next to it throughout the Dark Cybertron event. When set down on a planetary surface, the ship's upper reaches, presumably 5 or more miles up, should fade off into the stratosphere. Its huge size certainly would not lend itself to the shuttle-like tasks that it undertakes in Dark Cybertron, either.
