The Inexorable March

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"I did the right thing, didn't I? It all worked out, in the end."
""In the end?" Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends."
"The Inexorable March"
Publisher Transformers Collectors' Club (online exclusive)
First published December 28, 2016
By Jim Sorenson and David Bishop
Art Guido Guidi
Continuity Beast Wars: Uprising
Chronology 2390 - 3501
Page count 23pp

In the wake of the Grand Uprising, Cybertron tries to pick up the pieces.

Synopsis

Stiletto calls for order among the gathered representatives of Cybertron, twenty five solar cycles after the destruction of the Grand Mal, the Grand Uprising, the Fourth Great Cybertronian War is over. All agreements have been made and accounts settled. She declares it Unity Day. Once the applause dies down, she promises that as the chair of the newly minted Cybertronian parliament to do her best and maintain the peace. She states that while she has no illusions the peace will last forever, every moment they maintain it is a victory.

One solar cycle later
Bisk's been having a grand old time to himself, exploring the ancient tunnels beneath Cybertron, now that the MOBs chasing after him have gone. Already he's found all kinds of neat encounters, and puzzles, not to mention giant rats, leeches, bats, and those weird nigh-invulnerable sentry-things. Drawing on his experience with the MOBs, he manages to create a distraction for the sentries and slips by. After a decacycle, and an encounter with the giant spider endboss, he's found the final dungeon, and the loot inside: A strange golden disc, covered with runes. Pocketing it, Bisk has a feeling he's got a lot more adventures ahead...

One deca cycle later

Galvatron, now alone in his hidden base in the Rad Zone, stands triumphant over his work: Three remastered Vehicon drones. He thinks of his former partners, Doomshot, Krunix, and Nucleon, whose expertise helped bring him his triumph, but who sadly had to go. The future belong to him, and his Vehicons. Of course, Galvatron has no use for puppets, especially not if someone steals his generals just as he did. So, using the three sparks he has to hand, Galvatron brings them to life. As Tankor, Thrustor, and Jetstorm activate, Galvatron, already formulating plans within plans, promises they will do great things, and laughs...

One orbital cycle later
At the new Constructicon training ground, Buckethead speaks to the potential Constructicon recruits, to replace her fallen comrades. She's not looking for wannabe-entertainers, she's looking for hard 'bots, and smart ones, and preferably ones who can hold their drink. After getting them to transform, she already determines some who won't make the cut. She's not looking for 'bots who want to break things, but for those who want to build. On the post-war Cybertron, Devastator is needed, especially by those who want to build things. She's almost tempted to call it off. No-one will replace Bone Crusher, Hightower, and Long Haul. But then she sees the hope on their faces...

Later, former Throttlebot Wideload is beaming with pride. He's made the team, along with Road Hauler, and Steam Hammer. The ceremony swearing them in is closing, with a speech from Hot Rod himself, something Wideload finds odd, given Hot Rod was the reason he'd left the Autobots, so long ago. His train of thought is broken at the sight of his old C.O., Goldbug, watching from the stands. Overcome by emotion at seeing the 'bot whose last words to him had been to call him a traitor, Wideload says hello, and gets a musical reply back. Then, he helps form the new Devastator, a smarter Devastator, who drinks in the cheers of the Builder crowd, determined to do them proud.

One stellar cycle later
In Shockwave's secret lair in Ultrix, an elderly Deluge finds himself with a visitor, his "son", Rampage. The decaying scientist knows from the off Rampage is there to kill him, but that the proto-former has questions he wants answered first, such as "why?" Deluge answers with Unicron. It had been the height of the Great War when the Chaos Bringer arrived, and all Cybertronians had united to fight it off. And most of them had died, but there were some who managed it, a few with unique sparks. Those sparks had inspired Deluge's curiosity. Using the war, he acquired living specimens to study their nature. And he was so certain he'd been close to a breakthrough when peace had been enforced, and with that it had been declared "unseemly" to experiment on folk. But as time passed, and the Maximals and Predacons had arrived, Point One Percenters had just stopped appearing, and the Cybertronian race became quieter. Reasoning a cataclysmic event would one day happen again, Deluge took it upon himself to try and create new ones all the same. And those two were Rampage and Trans-Mutate. He asks after Rampage's "sister", only for Rampage to state she is none of his concern. But still, he reasons, the two of them were all that was needed. Rampage is appalled at the suggestion that the Vehicon Apocalypse justifies what Deluge did. Deluge shoots back that what he did was give Rampage power, and he should be grateful.

Rampage retorts that he'll never know the sheer hell he put Rampage through. Though Deluge wants to, he realizes his drink has been poisoned. cyber-venom. Even as he suffers from the effects, he congratulates his creation on his choice of revenge. A cyber-venom death from a 'bot like him would take mega-cycles. Rampage, however, has other plans, and shoots him point blank. Deluge dies thanking him.

Rampage leaves the burning laboratory, and the twisted remains of Deluge's last experiments on some captive Vehicons, behind. As he gets clear, Trans-Mutate gets back in contact, asking if it's done. He confirms it is, but when she asks if he thinks it'll make a difference, he bluntly replies it won't. But it had to be done. Trans-Mutate, still thinking of the data she'd found on the experiments, can only agree.

One decade later
At Dinosaur City on Metascan Omega, Longrack's told he's got an incoming call. Dinosaur City is flourishing, not just home to Cybertronians, but visitors of all kinds, including tourists. The Maximal can't help but feel pride at what he's done. Watch officer Randy calls in, saying they've caught someone coming through customs, but he's cut off before he can say who. Before Longrack can demand his call comes back, he sees some newcomers: Three strange, skull-like aliens descending. The Vok have arrived. They declare that Metascan Omega was never meant for mortals, and the Cybertronians are going to have to prove their "cosmic worth", or else.

Panicking, Longrack tells Dnavi to call everyone and anyone she can. As he wonders who else to call, a newcomer asks if he can help, and then Longrack realizes what Randy had been trying to tell him.

Lio Convoy has arrived too.

One century later
The human ship The Problem of Infinities is under attack from the Shi-Lai, who are dramatically violating the Treaty of Prysmos, and taking a pounding. Captain Una refuses to surrender. Psychal crewmember B-Tom informs her they'll be getting a call in seventeen seconds. Salvation comes in the form of a ship disabling one of the Shi-Lai in one shot. It's Cybertronian, the Rusty Mace, captained by a mech named T-Wrecks. Crewmember Ne'll is dubious of Cybertronian rescue, but Una tells her to roll with it, before telling T-Wrecks they owe him one. T-Wrecks asks if they're willing to repay that right now. His ship's moment of heroism has gotten it a little beaten up. Deciding there are some things a little more important than regulation, Una assures him she'll send someone over, just so long as it's not a trick.

That someone is Ne'll, who quickly determines it's not a trick, as she sees (and smells) the damage done. She's quickly introduced to the chief engineer, a bot called Rapticon, and is surprised to find he's... interesting. She quickly finds Rapticon's intelligence and unorthodox methods intriguing, the two quickly establishing a rapport as they discuss human culture and history. And then they're interrupted by the realization they've finished repairs. In their moment of triumph, Ne'll wonders what she's doing. Cybertronians and humans are enemies, have been for centuries, even after the last few decades...

And then she and Rapticon make history.

One millennium later
On the edge of the Triangulum Galaxy, the Terrastar bursts into existence again, breaking the Convoy Council's decree about departing the Milky Way. Not that the Maladroid crew care about that sort of thing. Just as the ship's captain, a 'droid named Lockjaw, starts talking about their new freedom, crewmech Ragtop detects they've been followed. Acting quickly, Lockjaw orders them to hide behind the nearby planet. None of them are going back home. As the ship moves, Ragtop expresses his opinion: They're all gonna die.

The Commandron colony ship Hyperborea emerges into realspace, in hot pursuit of the Terrastar. Ship captain Astral Knight is uneasy, what with that hold full of crystalline control crystals filled with memory engrams, but his orders are clear. Going extra-galactic risks bringing the attention of things "beyond mortal ken", as Rhetoric Convoy put it. Science officer Deep Blue detects their target going over to the nearby planet, a gorgeous thing of blue and green, with two moons orbiting it. A quick glance at his console suggests there's something... off about one of them. And more pertinently, he's detecting angolmois, which is alarming given how far out they are. He orders Blue to contact the Terrastar, but there's no response. As they 'round the moon, the ship comes under attack, and not from the Maladroids. Deep Blue complains as the ship's blasted. They're just a science vessel! As Astral Knight orders them to fight back, they're hailed by the locals, who call themselves the Skriix. They're not too happy about the visitors. Energoa and its sacred Mother Computer are theirs, and these intruders dare contaminate it with their impure technorganic bodies. So naturally the Skriix are going to kill them.

The Commandrons aren't taken with dying, and fight back, but they can't tell if they're even damaging the attacking ship. Another shot takes out the stasis hold, and sends them plummeting down to earth. Astral Knight orders all the crystals launched in orbit, where they'll be safer than they will on a crashing ship, with a Skriix closing fast. Then, they read the Terrastar attacking the other ship, their crew hailing to say they're helping out while the Commandrons set down for repairs.

The ship doesn't manage to set down gently. And as they crash, they notice another ship falling through the sky, the Terrastar. Astral Knight thinks to himself on how he's out of his depth. He's not qualified to deal with a new world, hostile aliens, a weird moon, a dangerous power source, some mysterious ruins and a band of criminals all at once. But he vows to try his best to get his crew home.

Little does he know.

'Til all are one.

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals Predacons Builders Others

Vehicons

Terrans

Maladroids

Commandrons

Quotes

Notes

Errors

Continuity notes

  • Galvatron is working on some Vehicons he grabbed during the events of the previous story. He's also disposed of his Cyberdroid partners-in-crime, as he was planning to do during his appearance then. Or has he? Note that there are three Cyberdroids, three Vehicons, and Galvatron's somehow managed to "acquire" three sparks from somewhere, and that the previous depiction of the Vehicon generals had them given life by purloined sparks. Hmm...
  • Buckethead's segment has her looking for new Constructicons to replace the fallen Bone Crusher, Long Haul, and Hightower, who all died of injuries sustained during the climax of "Derailment" while in their combined Devastator form.
  • Wideload's internal narration mentions Rodimus Prime had something to do with his leaving the Autobots. Sorenson previously intimated in a discussion on Uprising that Hot Rod's time as Prime was something of a failure, and led to his low standing among the Builders as shown in "Micro-Aggressions".[1]
  • Deluge notes that cyber venom has brought down many a great mech, a nod to Megatron's poisoning in "A Change to the Agenda".
  • Longrack, and the city formerly known as Trypticon, make a reappearance resolving what happened to them at the end of "Intersectionality", along with all the other crew members of the Dinosaur.
  • Lio Convoy departed off-planet at the conclusion of "Derailment".
  • Una returns, last having been seen in "Cultural Appropriation". A crewmember aboard the Spooky Action at a Distance in that story, she has since been promoted to command of her own vessel. Sadly, it seems humanity as a whole didn't share her desire to try and make nice with the scary robots, and are still mistrusting of them at first.
  • Ne'll is surprised to find the Rusty Mace using an old tachyon gate system as a backup propulsion system. Back in Intersectionality, Una and Chak discussed the Cybertronians still using it, having figured they'd moved on by the 24th century, and T-Wrecks does note theirs is old.
  • The super-advanced humans of the Uprising verse, previously able to steamroll Decepticon armies as per "Micro-Aggressions", find themselves on the receiving end of an ass-kicking due to a resource-sapping conflict between the human Celestials and Traditionalists. The divides among the Terrans were set up in earlier stories.

Posterity notes

  • The translated cybertronix sections of this story are a revisionist history report on the Uprising... one written by someone who blames that nasty, horrible Lio Convoy for pretty much every bad deed, like starting his rebellion by executing people on live TV, wiring innocent troops into k-bombs to force the Builders to surrender, using combiners, forcing beast modes on people, trying to weaponize Targetmasters, trying to unleash bio-weapons in an innocent sports event of some kind, and every cyber-kitten stuck up a tree, the villain. Maybe the Vehicons were a logical response to such fiendishness, eh??
  • In the writer's jabs at "simplistic" takes on Lio Convoy as a hero and visionary, it's implied a lot of his murkier acts had been airbrushed out or were never spoken of by firsthand witnesses. Certainly Lio Convoy's self-imposed exile, done as he was exhausted and realised he was too divisive a figure in peacetime, is remembered as him wisely ensuring he could not become a dictator; the events of "Trigger Warnings" are only known due to MCSF logs being dug up; and there's merely "strong evidence" about Grimlock's G-Virus plan, rather than eyewitness accounts. All of this leads to future generations being puzzled by various events and how/why they happened.
  • The Maximal Command Security Force (MCSF) is retroactively known as the Maximal Commando Separatist Faction.
  • The cybertronix text goes further on the Terran Confederation's decline, saying mankind would eventually fall into a new dark age and infighting: "the Fall of Man".
  • The Monster GoBots are wrongly remembered as a Resistance group, their alien origins only rumour.
  • As to what becomes of Galvatron and his generals, the cybertronix text refers to the Vehicon Apocalypse as the First Vehicon Apocalypse.
  • Historians seem confused as to Lio Convoy's nature, mistaking him for part-Vehicon, or thinking his triple-changer form came after the Uprising. Mention is made of him taking a Titanmaster partner named Moon.
    • On the other hand, it's noted that he never evidenced triple-changing abilities over the course of Derailment, and he does get partially converted into a Vehicon. It is entirely possible that Lio Convoy was, indeed, part Vehicon following his ordeal. Due to the issues of unreliable narrator present in the history, it's difficult to know for sure.
  • Lio Convoy isn't the only one tarred. "Black Arachnia" gets blamed for the murder of Supersonic, and for trying to capture "Oversurge", who is misremembered as a Titanmaster, when she'd been after Twirl, and hadn't know about Overrun to begin with. "Ciphershark" is remembered as a callous black-ops director who cared nothing for the people under his command. (Well, in all fairness...)
  • Elsewhere, Protoform X gets remembered as a polarizing figure, everyone swearing up and down there was no way he could've survived the K-Bomb blast, or that there was possibly more than one of them. A fellow calling himself Rampage is quoted as swearing up and down that there never was a Protoform X, and the Resistance just draft some unfortunate soul and called him that to cover up their crimes. Hmm.
  • Tarantulas is remembered, but somehow has wound up being remembered as Lio Convoy's chief science officer, and liaison to the Predacus (note the spelling) Secret Police.
  • Optimus Prime gets a nod, but by the time of the writing, he's just barely remembered as a mythical figure who might not ever have existed at all. And they can't even remember he was a Prime in the first place, calling him Optimus Convoy.
  • The Grand Uprising has become known as the Unification War, which is a reference to Pax Cybertronia, the final issue of The Transformers ongoing comic from IDW Publishing.
  • At the conclusion, we learn the name of the author, and it's Hatchet. Explains a lot (a Hatchet job is an unfavorable treatment or work of criticism designed to destroy a reputation.)
  • The author is a professor at Sistex University
  • The paper is intended to be presented as a lecture at the Heinrad Institute for Historiographical Science on the anniversary of U Day, some 10,000 years after the conflict



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Transformers references

  • The cover for this story is based on the cover of the first issue of Marvel's Transformers comic.
  • In keeping with Uprising's trend of not re-using character names, Deluge is an amalgam of the Generation 1 Autobot and the Generation 2 Decepticon, with the tongue-in-cheek justification for this being that he defected midway through the war. Similarly, Wideload is an amalgam of the Generation 1 Autobot Throttlebot and the Classics Decepticon Mini-Con, and Sledge is an amalgam of the Constructicon-colored Energon Decepticon and the Classics Decepticon Mini-Con.
  • Bisk's questing into the depths of Cybertron utilize elements from both the G1 cartoon and the Headmasters anime: the Centurion droids and worker drones from "The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 1", and the assorted creatures from "Birth of the Fantastic Double Prime".
  • Looks like Bisk found a Golden Disk! The plot device of the original Beast Wars finally makes its own inevitable appearance. Going by the runes, it seems to be the one originally belonging to the Vok, rather than the one from the Voyager probe. Mention is made of one rune changing as he watches it, a reference to a moment from "Before the Storm" where one of the runes on the disk changes on-screen.
  • Deluge names drops the Swarm, the Star Harvester, the Hate Plague as Cybertronian-related crises, along with the previously mentioned Rending and the Underbase. He also blames the Unicron Truther movement on Information Creep.
  • Ne'll and Rapticon's discussions name-drops Sector Seven, the Intelligence and Information Institute, Skywatch, and Unit:E, all government agencies from previous Transformers fiction, and perhaps not incidentally all but the last of them have been opposed to Cybertronians in general.
  • The final segment is one great big gloriously blatant homage to the very first episode of Beast Wars, with the fleeing ship of criminals, the pursuing science vessel commanded by an inexperienced captain, the crashing, though there are a few key differences. Instead of begin shot down by the criminals, the government-sponsored ship is shot down by the Skriix, who take the place of the Vok, being a liiiitle bit more tetchy about the Cybertronians touching "their" stuff.
  • The Cybertronians of the 34th century are weary of going beyond their galaxy thanks to a run-in with the Ammonites, the tiny, multi-formed, infinitely combining faction of Stentarians from the IDW G1 comics.
  • The Commandrons are all G1-continuity imports of characters from the Aligned video game Transformers Online, and those guys all got Anglicised names in 2015 and 2016 by... Jim Sorenson, on grounds that could make them easier to end up in fiction!

Other franchise references

Real-world references

  • The propaganda service Predacus Today is named for Russia's Russia Today (now rebranded RT).
  • Goldbug's response to Wideload is "You can go your own way...go your own way", referencing the song "Go Your Own Way" by Fleetwood Mac. The narration specifically mentions to Lindsey Buckingham as the singer.
  • The cybertronix text states mankind would eventually go through a period called the saeculum obscurum, Latin for "dark age".
  • Operation Staple Gun, where over 700 Cobra scientists are given work with U.S. intelligence agencies, is a reference to both Operation Paperclip and Japan's notorious Unit 731: both are moments where the United States took in Axis nation scientists and turned a blind eye to their wartime acts.

References

  1. ↑ Post by Jim S on the Allspark Forums
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