Apelinq's War Journals

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Reaching the Omega Point

Get your stinking paws off my war journals.
"Apelinq's War Journals"
Publisher 3H Enterprises
First published February 2001 to June 2001 (BotCon: Beyond)
Writer Rob Gerbracht
Continuity 3H Beast Era continuity

As first Cybertron and then the universe come crashing down around him, Apelinq records his impressions.

Journal entries

Journal 1: The Terror Begins

Date Index 316.075 AU

Apelinq, Squadron Commander of the Wreckers, awaits word from the Council of Elders regarding recent terrorist attacks on the outskirts of Cybertropolis. Peace Marshal Command had assured him that everything is under control, but he has his doubts. Going it alone, he continues his search for any trace of the still-missing Maximal vessel, the Axalon.

Journal 2: Pieces of a Puzzle

Date Index 316.098 AU

To Apelinq's dismay, his trail runs cold, finding no clues as to the whereabouts of either the Axalon or the rogue Peace Marshal who went missing to chase after the ship on his own. With no other leads, Apelinq switches to investigating a recent, and somewhat foreboding, transwarp anomaly.

Journal 3: Crumbling Edges

Date Index 316.168 AU

The terrorist attacks have escalated. The Wreckers grow frustrated at the bureaucracy as Peace Marshals go missing while Apelinq's offers for assistance are constantly met with polite rejection. As his investigation of the transwarp anomaly has proven fruitless, Apelinq feels the Wreckers must take action should the situation continue to decay.

Journal 4: Chaos

Date Index 316.183 AU

An attack at New Cybertropolis spaceport forces the Wreckers to break protocol and intervene. The situation has deteriorated to the point that the Tripredacus Council wants martial law. Maximal Command believes the terrorist group responsible to be small and limited, but the Wreckers fear that the worst is yet to come.

Journal 5: The Tyrant Returns

Date Index 316.235 AU

To Apelinq's horror, the mastermind behind the attacks is revealed to be none other than the notorious criminal Megatron, having made his return to Cybertron. The High Council is thrown into a panic over this news and nearly thirty Marshals break rank to go after Megatron themselves.

Journal 6: Wreck and Rule

Date Index 316.247 AU

Reports come in revealing the deaths of the rogue Marshals. The Wreckers receive numerous calls of attackers swarming the planet en masse. Rodimus has Apelinq remain behind while he and the rest of the team go to face this new menace. Apelinq's parting words to Rodimus: "Wreck and Rule!"

Journal 7: Circle of Dread

Date Index 316.258 AU

Inside the Wrecker Command Base, Apelinq remains in solitude, having heard no word from any of the Wreckers. He faces the grim realization that he might be the only living Transformer left on Cybertron, now that Megatron has seemingly eradicated the planet's entire populace in under a stellar cycle.

Journal 8: The Virus Revealed

Date Index 316.263 AU

Apelinq determines that Megatron took over the planet so quickly through use of a virus, which must have induced a kind of stasis lock that paralyzed everyone's ability to transform and fight back, as it swept across the planet.

Journal 9: Back From the Past

Date Index 316.265 AU

Oribital scanners detect a spacecraft approaching the planet. Though Apelinq's attempts to contact it have met with failure, its presence fills him with renewed feelings of hope... and confusion, since the ship is indicated to be an ancient Autobot shuttle.

Journal 10: The Wait is Over

Date Index 316.270 AU

Apelinq is done with waiting inside Wrecker Command. Having developed a "shield suit" to protect himself from Megatron's virus, he decides to get outside and figure out what's going on... and maybe take out a few attack drones along the way.

Journal 11: Two Against a World

Date Index 316.270 AU

Rodimus is alive! Miraculously unaffected by the virus, even! He's confirmed to Apelinq that the rest of the team, and the entire planet, are dead, with Cybertron now completely overrun by mindless drones called "Vehicons". Rodimus reassures Apelinq that, as long as the two of them survive, the Wreckers haven't lost yet!

Journal 12: A Cure is Found

Date Index 316.279 AU

Apelinq determines that Rodimus's "somewhat… unique physiology" is what made him immune to the virus. Apelinq uses this information to create an inoculant against the virus. With this cure in their possession, they are ready to begin searching for more survivors.

Journal 13: Call From the Heavens

Date Index 316.286 AU

Another transwarp anomaly appears nearer to the planet's surface, and another ship comes through it. It crashes on the far side of Polyhex and the two Wreckers are set to go straight to the crash site.

Journal 14: (Primal Prime) Assuming Command

Date Index 316.292 AU

This entry is written by Acting Commander Primal Prime. When he and his team had arrived via the transwarp portal, Apelinq had attempted to inoculate them. But before he could finish, he was attacked by a Vehicon general who plunged Apelinq into the portal as it closed behind them both. Primal Prime's meeting the Wreckers reinvigorates him, even if Rodimus is now the sole remaining member. He is also surprised to find Rodimus receptive toward Primal Prime's taking command, and senses an odd familiarity with the Autobot. With Apelinq MIA, the newly-reformed Wreckers must prepare themselves for the coming battle.

Journal 15: Timewrecked

Fixed Date Index Unknown

Having emerged from the portal and dealt with Mirage, Apelinq finds himself in an unknown locale that reminds him of ancient Earth. His Transfer Interlink is missing, having been knocked away when he and Mirage fell through the portal. Apeling aims to recover it, but still has no idea where or when he is. He ponders what Primal Prime's team had been doing here and if he himself may now be trapped here forever.

Journal 16: Re-visitations

Fixed Date Index Unknown

Apelinq has retrieved his Transfer Interlink with the antivirus program intact, having nearly risked an encounter with other Cybertronians on this planet to recover it. Their presence on this planet poses a curiosity to Apelinq. He will need to further observe them from afar until he can determine who they are.

Journal 17: The Frontiers of Our History

Fixed Date Index Unknown

After further investigation, Apelinq deduces that he has arrived on prehistoric Earth in the middle of the Beast Wars. As he awaits a "temporal polestar" that will allow him to reopen the transwarp portal he came through, he is sorely tempted to stop Megatron in this time and prevent the Predacon's future takeover of Cybertron.

Journal 18: Point of No Return

Fixed Date Index Unknown

With his transwarp program finally up and running, Apelinq is ready to at last return home. But then... "they" catch his attention.

Journal 19: Witness to the Covenant

Fixed Date Index Unknown

To Apelinq's amazement, eleven new warriors, the literal Covenant of Primus, have appeared! He's missed his chance to return home and must await the appearance of yet another transwarp gateway.

Journal 20: Beyond Point Omega

POINT OMEGA

The time has come for Apelinq to put aside his desire to go home and accept that fate has brought him here to actively take part in these events. Though regretful that he may never return home, he hopes that Primal Prime and the Wreckers will continue their fight in his stead. If Apelinq is fated to die here, he'll die knowing that he did what he could to help in this fight!


WRECK AND RULE!

Characters in italic text are only featured by Apelinq's (or Primal Prime's) describing their active involvement in the story.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals/Autobots Predacons/Vehicons Others

Notes

Production notes

Continuity notes

  • Chronologically, the events of the War Journals begin prior to the Beast Machines cartoon, with the first nine entries detailing Megatron's gradual rise to power. Journals 10 to 14 continue during the show's events, beginning with Optimus Primal's team of Maximals arriving on Cybertron. The final six entries, Journals 15-20, jump to the era of the Beast Wars cartoon and come full circle with Apelinq's previous appearances in Reaching the Omega Point, with Journals 15 and 16 bookending the BotCon 1998 "Visitations" script reading (with Journal 16 aptly named "Re-visitations") and Journals 18-20 occurring during the BotCon 2000 "Terminus" comic story.
  • Apelinq uses an AU dating system for his Journal entries. The recap of "Apelinq's War Journals" included in the BotCon 2001 comic would later strongly imply this system to refer to the number of years, or stellar cycles, After Unicron's destruction (most likely in reference to his 2005 destruction). The first fourteen of Apelinq's entries take place during 316 AU, with decimal points to distinguish between them. As Journals 10 and 11 are dated with the same decimals, but clearly take place some time apart from each other, it is very plausible that each decimal signifies the day, or solar cycle, of the year/stellar cycle 316 AU that Apelinq made each entry.
  • The Imperial Peace Marshals are introduced as a planetary peacekeeping force for the Cybertron of the Beast Era. Later Beast Wars-related BotCon fiction produced in 2006 and 2007 by Fun Publications would introduce a rather similar organization called the Maximal Command Security Force. What, if any, affiliation there may be between the two groups has never been touched upon.
  • In case it wasn't apparent, the foreboding transwarp anomaly first mentioned in Journal 2 is what brought Megatron back to Cybertron after his having escaped from the Maximals' Autobot shuttle mid-transwarp, as was seen in the Beast Machines episode "Revelations Part II: Descent".
  • Journal 5 reveals Megatron to have been responsible for the terrorist attacks that had been plaguing Cybertron since Journal 1. And in Journal 6, his Vehicon armies begin swarming the planet before the transformation virus wipes out the populace. This is so far the first, last, and only piece of fiction to ever claim that Megatron had already been attacking areas of Cybertron with Vehicons prior to when he unleashed his virus upon the planet.
  • Rodimus is referred to as "the last of the Templars" in Journal 7, while Journal 12 refers to his "somewhat... unique physiology" as having made him immune to Megatron's virus. The previously-released "VEHICON ALERT!" referred to Rodimus as a member of an "order" thought destroyed. The "Templars" mentioning and Rodimus's physiological uniqueness are both references to Rodimus as a member of that order, with "Departure" later confirming Rodimus to be a "Matrix Templar".
  • Megatron's takeover and the return of Optimus Primal's team all happen in the same stellar cycle with very little space between them: Megatron's won by 316.258 AU and the Autobot shuttle shows up on 316.265 AU, a mere seven solar cycles later.
  • As Apelinq prepares to finally exit the Wrecker Command Base in Journal 10, he states that he'd "like to keep a low profile". And later in Journal 16, he insists that he "cannot risk further contact with these beast warriors until [he is] sure of their origins or intent." Both of these are sneaky little excuses for why Apelinq never appeared in the onscreen events of either the Beast Machines or Beast Wars cartoons.
  • The arrival of Primal Prime's team in Polyhex was first brought up in "VEHICON ALERT!", whose events are now determined to be set chronologically between Journals 13 and 14.
  • In Journals 1-13 (written by Apelinq), the Wrecker Command Base is located in Delta Three. But in Journal 14 (written by Primal Prime), it is instead suddenly located in Delta Five. No explanation is given for this change, but it is presumable that Primal Prime had his team establish a new Wreckers base in Delta Five for any number of reasons.
  • The point in time that Primal Prime's team came from would be further explored in the then-forthcoming "Primeval Dawn" comic storyline.
  • The strange kinship Primal Prime feels towards Rodimus, as stated in Journal 14, is due to Rodimus having once held the Matrix of Leadership. "Primeval Dawn" would later reveal Primal Prime to essentially be "the Living Matrix".
  • The Vehicon general Mirage is said to have attacked Apelinq when the Vehicons arrived in Polyhex in response to the appearance of Primal Prime's team. As Apelinq was not one of Mirage's assigned targets in "VEHICON ALERT!", this suggests that either Mirage broke rank to engage a foe he wasn't supposed to, or circumstances somehow forced Mirage into attacking Apelinq.
  • Apelinq was basically stuck on prehistoric Earth from about midway through Season 2 of Beast Wars to right after "Master Blaster".
  • Journals 18 and 20 retroactively declare that Apelinq's thought bubbles from Page 17, and his dialogue from Page 21, of "Terminus" were actually lines that he was recording into those respective log entries. What's more is that the thought bubbles from Panel 4 of Page 17 are now revealed to have been a quote from an excerpt of the Covenant of Primus (here referred to as the "Book of Primus") titled the "Sojourner's Passage", which also makes the reference to the "Machine Age" into being a scriptural term for the events of Beast Machines. And the reference to "Primal" on Page 21 of that comic is now confirmed to refer not to Optimus Primal but to Primal Prime.
  • Journal 19 is the first, last, and only time that a connection has ever been made between the Covenant of Primus book and the Covenant of Primus group.

The artifact of Omega Point

After nearly three years of ambiguity, the identity of the artifact from Reaching the Omega Point, which first turned up in the "Visitations" script reading, is at last finally revealed... kind of.

Journals 15 and 16 refer to Apelinq having first lost and then reclaimed his Transfer Interlink, in direct reference to the events of "Visitations". However, he also refers to the act of reclaiming his cure for Megatron's virus in the same Journals, making the cure and the Interlink the two most likely candidates for the artifact's identity. But determining which of these two is supposed to be the artifact is not so simple:

  • In "Visitations", the artifact was first said to be a "Predacon" device of "futuristic" design, which applies to neither the Interlink nor the antivirus since both were owned by the Maximal Apelinq, whose home time was the same as the Beast Wars' original participants, making neither Apelinq nor his technology any more "futuristic" than any of the Beast Warriors.
  • The implication behind this original description suggests that the artifact was originally supposed to have been a device that hailed from Shokaract's future era, rather than being a personal belonging of Apelinq's. However, both "Terminus" and its recap of "Visitations" confirm the artifact from the script reading to indeed have been taken by Apelinq, which Journal 16 lines up with in its description of Apelinq having retrieved both his Transfer Interlink and his antivirus from the events of the script reading, thereby most likely retconning away any inherent ties the artifact was to originally have had with Shokaract's future timeline.

With that said, there are a few clues that suggest the artifact to be the Transfer Interlink:

  • "Herald" referred to the artifact as a "key" capable of "breaching—or indeed sealing—the dimensional wall." This is later referenced in "Terminus" at a point where the narration refers to the artifact as Apelinq's own "key" to the future. The Transfer Interlink is indeed an object that can both open and close transwarp portals, as Journal 14 refers to an attempt made by Apelinq to close the transwarp gateway that brought Primal Prime's team to Cybertron, while Journals 17 and 18 refer to a transwarp program that Apelinq can use to reopen transwarp gateways, but which will only work in tandem with his Transfer Interlink.
  • Journal 15 only makes direct mention of the Transfer Interlink having been lost, while the loss of the antivirus is instead merely implied.
  • Though Journal 16 refers to Apelinq having recovered both items at the same time, there was explicitly only one device, not two, that Apelinq made off with in "Visitations". This would suggest that, prior to his logging Journal 16, Apelinq either reclaimed one of the two outside of the script reading's events, or that both objects could in fact be the same object instead of separate ones. The latter notion is even supported by how Journal 16 indisputably refers to the antivirus as a program, while Journals 17 and 18 also mention a Transwarp program that only works in conjunction with the Interlink.
  • And when all is said and done, logical reason would beg the questions of how and why a cure for Megatron's virus in the Beast Machines cartoon would be of any relevance to anything in the Omega Point storyline. Why would Shokaract send Antagony to search for a cure to centuries-old virus that helped benefit Shokaract's former life? What threat would the antivirus pose to the Dark Essence? How could the antivirus breech or seal the "dimensional wall"? None of this makes any sense for the antivirus to be the artifact. The Transfer Interlink at least has its transwarp program to connect itself to the artifact's description in "Herald". But the antivirus has no relevance to the Omega Point storyline whatsoever.

However, despite all of this, there are still a few other points that lean more towards the antivirus being the artifact:

  • The recap of "Visitations" featured in the BotCon 2000 comic unambiguously presents the artifact as a "sealed canister", which "Terminus" itself reiterates in its depiction of the artifact as a vial containing a visible yellow-green liquid. This not only strongly implies the antivirus as being the artifact, but also a physical liquid substance instead of a program, making Journal 16's calling it an "antivirus program" seem more like another retcon.
  • The recap of "Apelinq's War Journals" included in the BotCon 2001 comic describes the antidote to Megatron's plague as "a virtual key that might seal the tyrant's fate while securing the Wreckers' last hope for salvation." Though the context is different, the precise use of the word "key" in specific regards to the cure feels a little too on the nose for both "Herald" and "Terminus" likewise referring to the artifact as a "key" to be just a coincidence.
  • And most glaringly (depending on how much value one puts into authorial intent), 3H member Glen Hallit once openly insisted that the artifact was absolutely the antivirus and not the Transfer Interlink at all.[1]

In short, the artifact was evidently written originally with the intent of being a nebulous object left open enough for later writers to fill in the blanks on its identity. But in the end, said blanks were never completely filled in either a consistent or conclusive manner. Therefore, it remains ultimately up to the reader as to which of Apelinq's two personal belongings one wishes to perceive as the identity of the artifact.

Continuity errors

  • The aforementioned AU dating system Apelinq's journal entries use poses a timeline inconsistency with previous installments of the Omega Point storyline. Shokaract's future era was stated in "Terminus" to exist in the 32nd Century, which "Schism" declared to be set 200 years after "Covenant", which itself was set during a point when Megatron was on Cybertron (most likely right before the Beast Machines cartoon given the point in time in which "Covenant" would have been written). If one were to calculate how long "Covenant" took place before "Schism" based on the 32nd Century statement from "Terminus" (even factoring in the conversion differences between Earth years and stellar cycles), 200 years before the 32nd Century would be the 30th Century. Meanwhile, Apelinq's first 14 Journal entries all take place around the same time as "Covenant", when Megatron is back on Cybertron after the Beast Wars. The problem with this is that those Journals are are all dated "316 AU", or "316 years After Unicron". Calculating 316 (Earthen or Cybertronian) years after Unicron's destruction in 2005 (the 21st Century) would place Journals 1-14 in the 24th Century, about six centuries before the 30th. The only way around this is if the "AU" era did not start at 2005 but instead at some point in the 27th Century, three centuries before the 30th. Yet, Omega Point made several explicit references to Unicron's 2005 destruction as though it had been his only or most recent demise. Alas, such discrepancies in minutia like this are bound to happen when writing and creative duties switch over from author to author.
  • In Journal 5, Apelinq refers to the terrorist attacks as having occurred "over the past cycle". This is incongruous with how the term "cycle" in the Beast Era is supposed to equate to roughly one minute. Apelinq most likely meant to say "over the past stellar cycle".
  • Journal 11 has Apelinq claim that Rodimus searched "half the entire planet" looking for survivors, but came up short. Really? He never even once found a hint of Optimus Primal's team? Did he even think to check in Cybertropolis, the central city of Cybertron, at all? Or did that city just happen to be in the planetary half that he didn’t search?

Other errors

  • In Journal 4, the C in "Maximal Command" is not uppercased.
  • The following errors occur in the most recent version, which only came about after "Apelinq's War Journals" was added back to the BotCon Online archives in early January of 2006:
    • In Journal 3, the word "communiqués" is incorrectly-formatted as "communiquÈs".
    • Journals 7 and 9 each feature an "Ö" where an ellipsis should instead be.

Transformers references

  • First and foremost, Apelinq is presented here as a member of the Wreckers, who were originally an elite Autobot unit from the UK-exclusive issues of the Marvel Generation 1 comics. Both the team and their rally cry of "Wreck and Rule!" first debuted in the story "Target: 2006. "Apelinq's War Journals" marks the first use of the team in American Transformers fiction, and the second American use of their rally cry (the first having been its previous use in "Terminus").
  • The Council of Elders was first mentioned in the Beast Machines episode "Master of the House", while the "High Council" was first mentioned in the Beast Wars episode "Deep Metal".
  • Apelinq invokes Primus and the Pit more than once.
  • Journal 2 refers to the disappearances of the Axalon (which occurred in the first Beast Wars episode) and a "lost Marshal who broke ranks to locate the ship on his own." The latter is in reference to the Maximal Depth Charge having been in charge of security for Colony Omicron, and his subsequent pursuit of the Axalon, both of which were first given in "Deep Metal". And now, the story reveals Depth Charge to have formerly been a Peace Marshal.
  • Journal 4 mentions "Fifty PMC Starhoppers". A Starhopper was first seen in the Beast Wars episode "Deep Metal" as the ship that brought Depth Charge to Earth. Here, they are stated to belong to Peace Marshal Command, furthering Depth Charge's ties to the Marshals.
  • Journal 4 also refers to New Cybertropolis spaceport. This could refer to the central spaceport that was featured in the Beast Machines episodes "Fires of the Past", "Revelations Part II: Descent","Sparkwar Pt. III: The Siege", and "Spark of Darkness".
  • The Tripredacus Council was first introduced in the Beast Wars episode "The Agenda (Part 1)".
  • After a minor appearance in "VEHICON ALERT!", Rodimus is more formally reintroduced here as a member of the Wreckers for the first time. He originally appeared as "Hot Rod" in The Transformers: The Movie, in which he inherited the Matrix and became "Rodimus Prime". Here, he is simply named "Rodimus". The in-fiction reason for this name change would later be given in "Departure", but for a real-world reason, Hasbro apparently lost the trademark for the name "Hot Rod" at the time and would go on to use "Rodimus" as a substitute for the non-Prime version of the character. The usage of the name here would be the first sign of things to come for over a decade.
  • Journal 17 states that Megatron "tramples on the sacred ground of our race's heritage", referring to his entering the Ark in either "The Agenda (Part III)" or "Master Blaster".

Real world references

  • In Journal 17, Apelinq notes that he must wait for a "temporal polestar" before he can reopen the transwarp gateway that brought him to the past. A pole star is a star in a fixed position located near the celestial pole of a planet. In Earth's case, the fixed position of Polaris, the "North star", made it historically useful for navigational purposes in the Northern Hemisphere. The "temporal polestar" Apelinq awaits is likely a metaphor for either a point or a phenomenon that is fixed in time, and which will also likely enable him to safely navigate the timestream back to his home time. He misses the first polestar when the Covenant arrives, but will successfully access another at the conclusion of Point Omega, according to "Departure".

References

  1. ↑ alt.toys.transformers post by Glen Hallit made on 2002/03/29: "The interlink had nothing to do with the battle... The artifact was the antivirus to Beast Machine[sic] Megatron's virus that hurt all of Cybertron."
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