Perceptor (G1)/2005 IDW continuity
Read about the adventures of Perceptor in the IDW Generation 1 continuity!
IDW Generation 1 continuity
In the time preceding the Great War, Perceptor worked for security control for Sentinel Prime's government. Megatron Origin #2 In the earliest days of the war, Perceptor was part of Jetfire's science team when they were sent to search the former location of the Toraxxis mega-refinery for signs of energon. His colleague Ratchet believed something to be living in the crater, but Perceptor assured him the odds of life existing in the high-pressure underground environment were very low. Fallout When they discovered a lake of energon in the caves, Perceptor found unstable particle anomalies within it, and indeed something proved to be very wrong when Ratchet fell in and was turned into a growling beast who mindlessly attacked Perceptor. He calmed down, but the team was in turn attacked by actual monsters who against Perceptor's earlier conclusion were native to the tunnels. Fleeing to another cave, the scientists stumbled onto the dormant form of a much larger monster, seemingly sealed away since ancient times. Underworld After reporting their findings to Optimus Prime, Perceptor shared some new low odds with Ratchet—this time, the odds of their survival if the giant monster was to wake up. Prey During a major Decepticon assault on Iacon, Perceptor reported to Optimus Prime that the city's coolant plants had been ruptured, causing extensive flooding and acid rain. Primacy #3
At some point during the war, Perceptor fought alongside Ultra Magnus, Springer, and Wheelie. Unfortunately, like most other bots, he had a tendency to overlook Wheelie, due to the latter's small stature. Spotlight: Wheelie
More than five hundred years ago, Perceptor was one of the cross-factional scientists consulted by Thunderwing when he first identified Cybertron's failing energon resources. Stormbringer #1
In the 21st century, Perceptor led an expedition aboard the Ark-17, along with Springer and others in a mission to rescue an insane Kup from Tsiehshi. The old Autobot was deranged from his ordeal, and attacked any rescuers who came down to the heavily-irradiated planet. Perceptor voiced concerns to Springer that he was needlessly risking lives in an effort to recover one Autobot. Luckily, the force field specialist Trailbreaker soon arrived and recovered Kup without any further loss of life. Spotlight: Kup
Perceptor later served on the Autobot Orbital Command Hub, working as a peer to acting-commander Silverbolt. He appeared to know Blaster of old, and welcomed the communications officer back from his long absence. Perceptor helped Blaster with his investigation into who tried to assassinate him years ago, the attack which prompted his disappearance. Spotlight: Blaster
Serving With Kup: Sniper
After Jetfire and the Technobots recovered and improved upon the unstable Pretender technology, Perceptor worked with Brainstorm at the Kimia Facility to apply a variation of the tech to help repair Kup. Overseeing the operation, Prowl also had Perceptor secretly install subroutines into Kup that would allow Prowl to have control over the old codger. Though Perceptor opposed this, he followed his orders. Perceptor also was assigned to Kup's unit to keep a supply of cy-gars handy to keep Kup sane. Everything in Its Right Place
Perceptor later accompanied Kup on a mission to rescue some captured Wreckers and was badly injured during the operation, but was saved by Drift. Spotlight: Drift After healing from his injuries, Perceptor decided to make some upgrades to his body, making him more useful as a warrior. He gave himself a near-impervious breastplate, aiming arm stabilizers and a monocle-like targeting optic. He demonstrated these to great effect, taking out Monstructor in one blast during a rescue of Hot Rod. Lost & Found
Sporting a decidedly dour demeanor, Perceptor obtained a modicum of prominence on Kup's team. Perceptor opted to become more directly involved in deeply discomfiting the Decepticons... until their inopportune crash-landing on Cybertron. All Hail Megatron #5 When some swarms of Insecticons made an appearance, he once again displayed his disturbing targeting proficiency, inflicting immediate and conclusive damage on one scout with only minimal effort. All Hail Megatron #6 All Hail Megatron #7
Later, when the Autobots fled from the Swarm, they had planted some explosive charges to several bridges in order to cut off their pursuers. When they passed one of the bridges, Kup ordered Perceptor to shoot the charges, which he did with two small hand-blasters. However, he was taken out by a dart fired off by a Swarm (who got blasted for its effort). All Hail Megatron #8 He was soon back on his feet, helping the other Autobots set up a defensive turret at their base. This saddened Ratchet, who would rather have had the "old" Perceptor help him and Wheeljack repair Optimus Prime. All Hail Megatron #9 After almost getting overrun by the Swarm, Perceptor and the other Autobots were rescued by Omega Supreme, who carried them all to Earth. All Hail Megatron #10
The Wreckers
Perceptor was still by Kup's side three years later, by which time both of them had joined the Wreckers. Last Stand of the Wreckers #1
When they stumbled upon the injured former Wrecker Impactor, Perceptor checked up on him and found a deterrence chip embedded in his skull. He soon had to switch mindsets from scientist to sniper again, though, as the Wreckers were sent to liberate Garrus-9 from Overlord's clutches. During the initial attack, Perceptor shot down Decepticon jets while hanging upside-down from the Autobots' drop pod. Last Stand of the Wreckers #2
After their drop pod had crash-landed inside Garrus-9, Perceptor and his team found themselves surrounded by Decepticons and confronting Overlord himself. Overlord killed Rotorstorm right in front of them and told the Wreckers to surrender. Perceptor calmly ordered Pyro to protect the stowaway Verity Carlo, while he, Ironfist, and Topspin launched themselves at the Decepticon. Overlord easily thrashed all of them, and upon hearing that there were Wreckers in another part of Garrus-9, offered freedom to any other Decepticon who brought him the head of a Wrecker. The Wreckers beat a hasty retreat as a mob of Decepticons started after them, and Perceptor managed to delay them by sniping and detonating a spare fuel tank they had brought along.
Perceptor and Topspin had to take a moment to deal with a shaken Ironfist’s anxiety over Rotorstorm’s death, then set to finding their main objective; Aequitas. Perceptor located the chamber in which it was housed and a ravaged Fortress Maximus, who had been made into a "living lock pick" for the door. Perceptor had the access codes and got everyone in, revealing Aequitas to them. Last Stand of the Wreckers #3
Perceptor explained what Aequitas was to the others, and he quickly set to work on trying to find an access terminal for it. When he finally did locate it, he discovered a problem; Aequitas was protected by a “suicide lock”. Perceptor told the others that someone had to willingly donate their spark to bypass it, and it couldn’t be him, as he was the only one who could operate the supercomputer. After some argument, Ironfist agreed to be the sacrifice, only to be beaten to the punch by Topspin. With Topspin’s death, Perceptor gained access to Aequitas’ system. He copied the hard drive and uploaded it into Ironfist for safekeeping. As Decepticons began to break through the chamber’s door, Perceptor pointed out he could kill them all by triggering their deterrence chips through Aequitas.
Pyro and Verity were against this, as it meant Impactor would die as well, but Perceptor denied Verity a vote and looked to Ironfist for the tie-breaker. Ironfist, having learned the truth of Impactor’s crimes from the Aequitas upload, glumly cast his lot in with Perceptor. Last Stand of the Wreckers #4
Verity continued to argue against it, arguing that the Wreckers as idealized by Ironfist would never take the easy way out. Perceptor changed his mind, deciding that Verity was right and they’d simply fight their way out. Pyro volunteered to stay behind and buy them time to escape, and once the door was breached, Perceptor and Ironfist slipped by the Decepticons. At Ironfist’s prompting, they headed to Garrus-9’s armory.
Shortly thereafter, Perceptor and the others arrived outside, where the remaining Wreckers were fighting Overlord. As the Decepticon held Springer up with one arm, Perceptor sniped his hand off, forcing him to drop the Wreckers’ leader. But Overlord managed to tear Springer’s face off and blast Perceptor into unconsciousness before finally being defeated by Ironfist, Verity, and the revived Impactor. Last Stand of the Wreckers #5
After the liberation of Garrus-9, Perceptor resumed working at Kimia for a while. Alongside Xaaron, he would later rejoin the main Autobot force as it headed towards Cybertron on board Omega Supreme. Together with Ratchet, he scanned a surrendered Megatron for any hidden weapons or bombs, but found nothing. Ratchet was worried about an old legend that their prisoner had the ability to draw antimatter from black holes, but Perceptor dismissed this as "stupid" and deemed Megatron safe. Chaos Theory #1
During the Autobots' battle with D-Void on Cybertron, Optimus Prime used the Matrix of Leadership and Vector Sigma to "reset" the entire planet into a primordial state, an event that probably even Perceptor couldn't explain. Once it was all over, Prime had Perceptor and Rewind examine the core of the Matrix, which had been split in two in the process. Together, they found that the artifact was a complex synthetic structure, designed to be split open to reveal a message from the ancient Knights of Cybertron. Along with this message was a star map, which the Autobots assumed showed the way to Cyberutopia. The Death of Optimus Prime
Joining the Lost Light
Hoping to find the Knights of Cybertron using the Matrix map, Rodimus asked for any willing Autobots to join him on the Lost Light. Perceptor was among those who volunteered, but an explosion during launch caused the ship to quantum jump to an unknown point in space. How to Say Goodbye and Mean It As the crew set the Lost Light down on a nearby planet, Perceptor worked with Brainstorm to inspect and repair its quantum generators. They found Ore jammed into one of them, but Perceptor didn't want to make an official statement until he had done numerous tests. Hangers On Later, a Sparkeater was unleashed aboard the Lost Light. Rodimus cornered it by an engine block and ordered Perceptor to quantum jump, mashing the Sparkeater into the quantum generator. The Chaos of Warm Things
Perceptor attended an award ceremony for Chromedome, Brainstorm and Highbrow after they'd heroically repaired a hull breach. The Reluctant Specialist Shortly thereafter he was sent on a scavenging mission to the planet Deimus, but the shuttle ended up crashing and causing overheating coils to melt his legs into the floor (or the ceiling, since the craft ended up upside down). When his crewmate Hoist ran into an illusions of Tarn, Megatron, Shockwave, Sixshot, and Overlord on the surface of the planet, Perceptor theorized that Deimus was protected by a phobia shield, a device that caused Transformers to see their worst fears. As they were attacked by an illusory Metroplex, Hoist carried Perceptor to safety before knocking him unconscious to keep the phobia shield from accessing his mind. The Waiting Game
While attending Tailgate's Act of Affiliation ceremony, Perceptor got word that Ore had mysteriously come back to life. Worried that the quantum generators might trigger another random jump if he panicked, he advised that they avoid telling Ore about his condition for the time being. You, Me, and Other Revelations In an attempt to repair the damage to the psychiatrist Rung's brain, Rewind gathered Perceptor, Blaster, Siren, Gears, and Sunstreaker together in Swerve's bar to tell a story, indicating that they had all shared an adventure at some point in the past. The attempt was unsuccessful, possibly due to the overbearing volume of Siren's voice. An Intimate Beheading Perceptor then participated in the battle with a rogue group of Decepticons discovered on Temptoria. Before & After At one point he helpfully explained to a curious Swerve why the Lost Light's initial disappearance looked like an explosion from the outside, but Swerve didn't understand a word of it. Cybertronian Homesick Blues
Having found that it was impossible to copy or even memorize the star map within the Matrix, Perceptor reported his discovery to Rodimus, who much to his annoyance forced him use layman's terms. Their conversation was cut short when the alarm alerted them that somehow Overlord was loose on their ship, causing both Autobots to rush into action. Under Cold Blue Stars Signal to Noise He later rushed an injured Tripodeca into Swerve's, now repurposed as a triage centre, and set him down as Hoist got to work on him. He then left to continue fighting Overlord. No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases
When Ultra Magnus's dying body disappeared after the fight with Overlord, the Lost Light followed his signal through a space warp and miraculous came across the long missing Luna 1. Perceptor did the initial scans of the planet's surface for Rodimus and got back what he was sure must be flawed data: despite an utter lack of signs of settlement or civilization, lifesigns registered in the neighborhood of ONE BILLION inhabitants. Perceptor joined the away team with Rodimus as they set off to investigate the moon, only to have an enormous hot spot ignite when they touched down. Perceptor's methodical, scientific ways shrieked in conflict with Brainstorm's impulsive curiosity, as the weapons engineer started harvesting a Point One Percenter spark right there on the field. The discussion became academic when a team of Decepticon Titan Hunters suddenly arrived and attacked. The Fecund Moon
The Autobots were soon overcome by the Hunters and brought before their unexpected leader, Chief Justice Tyrest. House of Ambus They were incarcerated in a cell for "harboring a criminal suspect", a charge that more light was shed upon after the arrival of their crewmate Skids, captured and dropped into Star Saber, new Enforcer of the Tyrest Accord. The Divided Self Turned out Prowl had tapped Tyrest for some light shadowplay-enforced treatment, and sent Skids and Getaway of Special Ops to deliver it via nudge guns. They were stopped and Getaway captured as Skids escaped to the Lost Light, ensuring Tyrest's antipathy towards the crew. Learning that Tyrest planned to eliminate all Cybertronians who were constructed cold using his "universal killswitch", Perceptor and the crew escaped their cell and confronted the chief justice. Unfortunately, he managed to incapacitate the heroes and triggered the killswitch. Arm the Lonely After Tailgate surprised and disabled Tyrest's incapacitator, Perceptor rigged up a defense to the killswitch. By linking up Rodimus and his half-Matrix to the sparkcode frequency targeted by Tyrest's device, he succeeded in reinstating the code and preventing the deaths of a major percentage of the Cybertronian race. This Calamitous Life In the aftermath, Perceptor managed to adapt Tyrest's communication equipment to their purposes, and finally make contact again with Cybertron. And... Starscream?!? The Sound of Breaking Glass
Continuing to work with the communicator, Perceptor later picked up an incoming call from Starscream. Dark Dawn As the crew debated whether to chase after Jhiaxus or track down Metroplex, Perceptor was in favor of the latter, convincing Ultra Magnus to follow the Titan's signal to Hydrophena. Winners & Losers As they arrived and were faced with a group of robots, Perceptor offered his theory as to where they came from, and was parroted the entire time by Brainstorm. Once their identities were revealed as hostile Ammonites, he set out on board the Rodpod alongside some others, leading to their discovery of Metroplex nearby. Into the Abyss Entering the Titan's body, the crew tried to explore him only to get lost within his labyrinthine insides and find themselves where they started. And then the Rodpod blew up. No Exit After interrogating the Ammonite who sabotaged it, the team was approached by Chromia and Nautica, The Dead Are Not Enough guardians of Metroplex's brain. Interrupted by more Ammonites, Perceptor and several others stayed behind to fight off the intruders while the others made it to the brain. Burning Bright After Metroplex warped back to Cybertron, Perceptor relocated to the brain room where he got to watch the defeat of the Necrotitan and listen to Brainstorm's dumb jokes. Finis Temporis
A brief celebration and reunion with the other Autobots ensued, but was interrupted by the arrival of an army of Ammonites summoned by Shockwave. The Becoming Bumblebee tried to organize an evacuation, but Perceptor warned that there was nowhere to run, as evidence was suggesting Shockwave was trying to end the entire universe. Black Planet The Lost Light was able to take out some ten thousand of the invaders, but as Perceptor pointed out, it didn't even make a dent in the seventy billion-strong army. Nevertheless, it all worked out in the end. ...And the Damage Done He continued to serve on the Lost Light under the command of a reformed Megatron, Towards Peace and evacuated alongside everyone else when the ship suddenly began disappearing piece by piece. Predestination: A Beginner's Guide Perceptor ended up disappearing himself, along with most of the crew. The remaining Autobots stumbled upon a quantum duplicate Lost Light in ruins, where all aboard had been slaughtered by the Decepticon Justice Division. The duplicate Perceptor had been shredded alive by Tesarus. slaughterhouse When the duplicate ship's quantum engines were shut down, the missing crew members reappeared, Perceptor included. The Road Not Taken
