Key to Vector Sigma
| This article is about the Key itself. For the episode that introduced it, see The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 1. |
- The KtVS is an object in the Generation 1 continuity family.
The Key to Vector Sigma was an ancient device that was connected to Vector Sigma and allowed a Transformer to activate the ancient intelligence. It appeared as a small remote with an overdeveloped power circuit and had the ability to control the robotic guardians that remained in the lower levels of Cybertron that guarded Vector Sigma.
Fiction
Generation 1 cartoon
By the 20th century, the Key was present in the hands of Alpha Trion on Cybertron until his home was attacked by the Decepticons who gave the key to Megatron in his quest to imbue five cars with intelligence. Megatron would face some resistance from the guardians below but learned that the Key could reprogram them. He would activate Vector Sigma and give life to the Stunticons. The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 1
When he returned to Earth, Shockwave informed him that the Key possessed a different power on Earth which was capable of destroying it. Megatron accidentally learned, while studying the Key, that it was capable of transforming matter into metal. He began the process of transforming Earth into another Cybertron but was defeated by the Autobots. Silverbolt would later destroy the Key after he forced Megatron to drop it which reversed its effect on Earth. The Key to Vector Sigma, Part 2
Beast Machines cartoon
Using the Diagnostic Drone, Rhinox/Tankor was able to obtain the code that formed the basis for the Key and construct hardlight copies of it. Arranging for Megatron to find it on a fake "Tankor" corpse (after the fake tested it on Nightscream, which proved it to be not only successful, but contagious) in the hope that he would destroy all organic and techno-organic life on Cybertron - including Megatron himself, who still possessed his dragon beast mode.
Eventually, after Tankor gave Optimus Primal the key to activate the Plasma Energy Chamber in an attempt to force Megatron's hand, both Megatron and Primal activated their doomsday weapons, apparently disintegrating all three of them, but (thanks to a last-second change of mind from Primal) leaving Cybertron intact.
Primal would be resurrected by the Oracle shortly afterward, while Megatron would survive in a purely organic form. Rhinox, however, was lost to the Allspark.
