Mederi
The ancient moon known as Mederi is an artificially constructed planetoid, the pattern for several other Mederi Centers specializing in various forms of medicine. The original Mederi is not where life-forms go to get better, however... rather, the planet operates as a euthanasia clinic, sending its patients into utopic dreams to ease their passing from this world.
Fiction
IDW Generation 1 continuity
According to Ratchet, Mederi was supposedly constructed by the Omega Guardians many millions of years ago, predating the rise of Cybertronian civilization. The planet was built on the same "spiritual ley-line" that Troja Major's Howling Town capitalized off of. The planet came to be known as a "chameleonic wellness station" fuelled by telepathic aliens hooked up to a machine within a chamber called Ward Zero; when travelers came within range of the planet, the telepaths would read minds and reshape the holomatter environment to the patient's liking. Terminally ill patients travelled to Mederi so that they could "die happy." You Are Here
Over an unspecified period of time, other Mederi Centers sprang up; the seventh such center was stationed near the planet Caminus. An Axe to Break the Ice
Some twelve million years ago, the Knights of Cybertron, suffering from an outbreak of atrophosia and seeking the nearest medical center, supposedly stumbled across the planet. The telepaths determined that the Transformers, tired, scared, and dying from illness, wanted to return to Cybertron but still discover new worlds, and resolved these conflicting desires by creating a "perfect" Cybertron for them to inhabit, which would come to be remembered in Cybertronian legend as the mythical "Cyberutopia." Never realizing the truth of their paradise, and euphoric to the point of forgetting they were dying, they encoded a map to Mederi into the Matrix of Leadership and sent it home so that others would be able to find their way there. And then, presumably, they all died. You Are Here
Hundreds of people have died on Mederi since then, deliberately or no. One of them was Axe. Their corpses were stored in one of at least ten morgues. You Are Here
After the end of the war, over 200 assorted Transformers aboard the Lost Light set out to find the Knights of Cybertron, guided by the map within the Matrix. How to Say Goodbye and Mean It The Vis Vitalis undertook a similar quest, following the same map as it gradually revealed itself to Thunderclash in his dreams. Little Victories
 Spoiler warning: Plot details for Crucible (Part 2): Lūstrāre follow. |
Getaway and the crew of the Lost Light eventually found their way to the planet, which appeared to them as a representation of Cyberutopia. Journey's End As the crew had no concrete expectations of what to expect from the promised land, the telepathic illusion soon collapsed and revealed the planet's true nature to them. The Lost Light then came under attack from the forces of the Grand Architect, with Getaway managing to smooth talk his way into the being's good graces allowing his crew to be turned into sparkeaters as a sign of his loyalty. Lūstrāre
Shortly afterwards, the Decepticon Scavengers warped to Mederi while trying to escape Scorponok's forces, but were tricked into thinking they'd landed on Garrus-9 due to their desire to reach the prison. You Are Here Shortly afterwards, Team Rodimus arrived on the planet after an accident in the Warren, following an inexplicably lucid Ten's instructions to guide their ship to a nearby Mederi facility to cure an unspecified illness Ratchet had contracted. As Team Rodimus believed that they had died from exposure to compressed space, Mederi created an interpretation of the Afterspark for them to inhabit while they began the process of "ascending": in reality, the program was killing them off, one by one. Metastasis The Autobots were able to escape the simulation thanks to Ratchet discovering Ward Zero, forcibly destroying Mederi's fuel supply and detaching the telepaths from their machine. They and the Decepticons (with Nautica) independently realized the planet was trying to kill them. When they came together, they discovered Mederi's link to Cyberutopia, and as the Transformers took stock of their situation, they were set upon by the mutated Lost Lighters. You Are Here
Salvation came in the form of Grimlock, First Aid, Riptide, Thunderclash, and Wipe-Out who'd been tracking the Lost Light. While one group went off to dock with the commandeered ship, the rest barricaded themselves inside Ward Zero to try and find a cure. A Dance Before Dying
Using Mederi's files, First Aid was able to render the sparkeaters into stasis and bring them inside for treatment. As the doctors went to work, the telepaths again spoke as one, first "saying" the symbol of the Knights of Cybertron's coat of arms before counting down from one thousand. When the countdown reached its end, the assembled Transformers found that a massive crack had opened in space, the blazing rift stretching across the stars and dwarfing the planet. Lūstrāre
Notes
- Though Mederi's datalogs specify that it's supposed to "kill you gently — and with your full cooperation", it apparently attempts to kill anyone who enters its field of influence without realising. Considering the planet has no actual medical personnel to keep track of visitors or patients, it can be deduced that the system is not a very good one.
