Head Games

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Beast Wars: Uprising
"Head Games"
Publisher Transformers Collectors' Club (online exclusive)
First published March 16, 2015
By David Bishop & Jim Sorenson
Illustrations by William Mangin
Cover Jesse Wittenrich
Continuity Beast Wars: Uprising
Chronology circa 2384
Page count 30pp

Buzzclaw is recruited for a mission into Fortress Maximus.

Synopsis

The past—Buzzclaw is fighting in the Games. Pitted against Armordillo, his situation looks grim; while he is out of ammo, the Maximal still has plenty. He manages to find a rusted metal spike which he hopes to use as a javelin. The Predacon launches a desperate aerial attack against his opponent, but is hit by a missile mid-flight. Badly damaged, Buzzclaw accepts his fate... only for Armordillo to trip and skewer himself on Buzzclaw’s javelin, still in his grasp. The Predacons are declared the winners of this Game.

The here and now—Buzzclaw spends his days in The Proton Blaster, where he coasts on his past victory, entertaining whoever will listen to his story. Today it is Ser-Ket, though she is quickly losing interest. His companion brings up that Buzzclaw's match might have been fixed, as Lio Convoy revealed many were when he interrupted the last Game. Buzzclaw vehemently defends the legitimacy of his victory, but with no more money to spend on drinks for himself of his companion, fails to keep her from leaving.

Ser-Ket is about to head off to meet some friends when a projectile explodes in the street before her. She rushes back into the bar, where the vid-screens report that the "unprovoked" attack came from the Resistance. The bar's patrons begin to panic, one of them getting blown to bits as he tries to flee from the establishment. Ser-Ket turns to Buzzclaw for leadership, who blurts out that they should barricade themselves in. To his surprise, the rest of the patrons follow his orders. The lot of them start to drink, and wait out for the whole thing blow over. Buzzclaw finds he is enjoying himself greatly, his waning sense of self-worth now returning thanks in part to the engex he is drinking, and in part to the adulation the others heap onto him. Despite this, he gives the others to okay to leave after Ser-Ket asks if it is safe to do so. Most of the patrons depart, leaving Buzzclaw alone with Ser-Ket and Cybershark. The latter divulges he is a member of the Resistance. With a few choice words to stroke Buzzclaw's ego, Cybershark manages to convince both him and Ser-Ket to ally themselves with Lio Convoy’s freedom fighters.

Buzzclaw’s first undertaking as resistance fighter is to infiltrate Fortress Maximus, the living prison. Along with Bighorn, Cybershark, Ser-Ket, Survive, and Corahda, his mission is to liberate allies of the revolution held within the cyclopean Builder. Lio Convoy, leading another group, provides them with cover fire.

The others in Buzzclaw’s team begin to scale Fortress Maximus, while Buzzclaw himself is tasked with watching their flank in his aerial mode. Though he manages to deal with Bulge and Windsheer, more Builders swarm out of Fortress Maximus and attack the rest of his squad. Corahda splits off from the group to take on an incoming brigade, but dies as he's overcome by their numbers. Buzzclaw rejoins his team, and they finish the climb up, and into, Fortress Maximus. All the while, strange errant thoughts invade Buzzclaw's mind...

Inside Fortress Maximus, the infiltration team must contend with more Micromaster patrols. In the heat of battle, and thanks to Maximus's shifting innards, Buzzclaw is separated from the others. Wandering about, he eventually finds his way to a room containing three black obelisks. The voice he had previously heard in his head starts to converse with Buzzclaw here, and taunts him with the tortured shrieks and panicked dialogue of the rest of his team. Maximus begins to peel away at Buzzclaw’s confidence and self-worth, then segues into a history lesson; the titan explains how he helped bring the Maximals, Predacons, and Cybertron’s current status quo into existence. As Maximus speaks, Buzzclaw is gradually brainwashed to act as his agent, and is sent out to lead his fellow invaders into a trap.

However, as soon as Buzzclaw presents himself to his former allies, Cybershark stabs the Predacon with a silver canister, killing him and forcibly retrieving the coordinates to Cerebros's control room. Though Ser-Ket is bewildered by this turn of events, Survive explains to her that this isn't the first time the Resistance has made an attempt on Fortress Maximus. Previous efforts failed because the Builder had managed to brainwash members of their parties, just as Buzzclaw was under Maximus's thrall before his death.

Once in Cerebros's control room, the Resistance fighters retrieve the Gran Cyberdroid housed there, and execute the other two, Plasma and Kord. With the psychic weapon that was Cerebros disabled, the team accesses Maximus's systems, and frees the political prisoners held within him.

Back at Resistance HQ, Ser-Ket demands to know why Lio Convoy sacrificed her friend without ever telling her of his plan. Lio Convoy sadly answers that they couldn't risk her tipping Buzzclaw off, and that the political prisoners they rescued were too important to leave incarcerated. Ser-Ket storms off, and Lio Convoy is left to muse that they all do what they must for their cause.

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals Predacons Builders Others

Quotes

“Hi, I’m Buzzclaw, Champion of the Games.” [...] “And I can fly, I guess.”

—Buzzclaw fails to make a great first impression

“I am Plasma, but I’m also Galen, and Spike, and Daniel. I am Cerebros, who is Zebres, who is Emissary. I am male, and I am female. I am compassion and horror. I am my own father, grandfather, son. I am Gasket and Grommet, who are Cog, who is Koka and Onomisu. I am wisdom and grief. My wife is my mother is the daughter of my enemy is bonded to my opposite. I am human and Nebulon, Cyberdroid and Macromaster and Megamaster. I am death and I am life. I am Fortress Maximus! WE are Fortress Maximus. We are–”

—Plasma's speech is cut off midway

Notes

  • Like the previous story, "Head Games" has blocks of Cybertronix text between scene transitions - in this case, the thoughts of Fortress Maximus, with Gran's data reports in red, Kord's status checks in blue, and Plasma's rambling literary quotations and cryptic references in green.

Errors

  • The depiction of Fortress Maximus's eye on page 21 doesn't really jibe with the descriptions the text gives of him being ludicrously huge compared to the Resistance members.
  • "Hear" is used in place of "here" in the sentence "This Fortress Maximus is no more a Builder than the transport that brought you hear is part of you."

Continuity notes

Transformers references

Real world references

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