Broken Windshields

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« Beast Wars: Uprising
"Broken Windshields"
Publisher Transformers Collectors' Club (online exclusive)
First published February 19, 2015
Written by Jim Sorenson
Illustrations by Jesse Wittenrich
Continuity Beast Wars: Uprising
Chronology circa 2384
Page count 25pp

Lio Convoy sets an uprising in motion.

Synopsis

As Quickstrike and Stinkbomb compete in the Mebius Arena, Lio Convoy watches them from the shadows but does not intervene as Quickstrike manages to win, simply through the fact that Stinkbomb's weapon is too damaged to fire. Lio Convoy returns to the Gladiatorial Administration Bureau in Thetacon, and though the two Builders on guard hassle him for his papers, they let him through and he heads up to see The Administrator, Eject. Discussing how they'd gotten the idea of the Games from the humans, Eject tells Lio Convoy that it has been decided that the Game after next is to be a "Cull" of prior champions, and that he wants Lio Convoy to ensure that the Maximal side wins by a landslide in the remaining Game beforehand, so as to create a more level—and so more exciting—playing field.

Lio Convoy heads home to the Maximal ghettos in Glibax by ground, but on the way spots what appears to be a shooting star and makes the unconventional decision to investigate. He encountered a strange newcomer, whom he takes to the Nyon Coliseum in order to conceal her from the authorities. Her ire is raised when he mentions he is the balancer in the Games and she rails at the unjustness of the system that makes the Maximals and Predacons fight for the amusement of the Builders.

Lio Convoy spends some time ruminating on her words, and several days later when he comes across two MCSF officers, Polar Claw and Snarl arresting someone, he intercedes and assaults both of them. Heading to Nyon while listening to underground broadcasts, he looks for the bot whom he had left there, but fails to find her. Driving into the wastes of Cybertron, he is instead found by her—a conversation with her and the two bots she's teamed up with, Scylla and B'Boom, reveals she is named Blackarachnia. Blackarachnia shatters Lio Convoy's windshield, revealing the energon matrix inside, and announces he is the key to freeing the planet.

With the next of the Games drawing close, Eject worries about the unusual absence of Lio Convoy, however the Maximal makes contact from the Dodecahex Arena where the Game is due to take place and Eject again instructs him to make sure the Maximals win this round. As the Game begins, the Builder Supersonic commentates for the audience, introducing the Game's contestants before signalling Game start. Even as the first Maximal and Predacon move in to fight, Lio Convoy uses an Angolmois Blaster obtained from the rebels to assassinate Supersonic. Blackarachnia and her team meanwhile invade the broadcast center and take control, training the cameras on Lio Convoy so he can give a speech. He reveals that the Games are rigged, even as he is attacked by the Builders Sunrunner and Tailwind, and plays a recording of Eject giving the order to fix the match. He shows off the energon matrix he carries, hidden inside him after it was used to create the Maximals and Predacons, calling on his brethren to rise up against the Builders. As a result of the event, civil war breaks out over the next few days, with the Builders finding themselves turned on by their own creations.

However, Eject, appealing his death sentence to the Builder Assembly, reveals that he has thought of a way out of this: a sample of Lio Convoy's CNA, which could be used to create a clone infused with the power of the energon matrix, giving them the ability to make a whole new army. Ratbat is intrigued at the idea, and tells Eject the "ball is in his court".

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Maximals Predacons Builders

Autobots

Decepticons

Others

Quotes

"PROOF? You want my, what was it, Personal Registration Of something or other? I threw that away decades ago when I left this scrap pile of planet behind for what I thought was the last time. I've spent years, YEARS fighting against tin-plated tyrants and those who would stand on the backs of others. And do you know what I learned? I learned that the worst of the worst were those who perpetuated the so-called minor injustices of the present for the 'greater good,' better tomorrows that never seem to materialize. So don’t sell me your smog about how noble it is that you're compromising your principles because you don’t want to upset the scrapplet cart."

—Blackarachnia


"Stand down right now or you'll face a charge of resisting, and you don't want that. And you, move along or you're next."
"Then, tool of the Builders, it would appear that I am next."

—Snarl and Lio Convoy

Notes

It is being brought.
It is being brought.
Oh, he's doin' somethin'...

Another editor is doing extensive changes to this article right now, and is requesting that all other editors hold off on any edits until their work is finished, in order to make sure nothing important gets lost.

Continuity notes

  • This story is the first piece of Beast Wars: Uprising fiction to place actual emphasis on the titular revolution. Originally mentioned back in 2009 in the profile for TransTech Blackarachnia in issue #25 of the Transformers Collectors' Club magazine, the universe would be mentioned on and off in the intervening years, before finally appearing for the first time in the 2014 Collectors' Club magazine storyline, "Alone Together". Over the intervening years, the circumstances and history of the universe have changed; while originally presented as a version of the Maximal/Predacon era where the war still raged, the universe as presented in this story (and indeed, for the rest of the series), is one where the Maximal and Predacons are second-class citizens under the former Autobot and Decepticon elite, now known as the Builder's. Lio Convoy's role in the Games, meanwhile, was set up in his profile in issue #61 of the Collectors' Club Magazine, which also introduced his weapons and inbuilt Matrix.
  • Eject's role as the Administrator of the Games was set up in his tech specs for his Timelines toy, released as part of the second Transformers Figure Subscription Service.
  • Blackarachnia's profile in issue #25 had explained that she, along with a few other Maximals and Predacons, had used transwarp to escape Cybertron, ending up in the multi-dimensional hub city of Axiom Nexus, where they aligned with the evil Shattered Glass version of Alpha Trion. Alpha Trion's assistant, Topspin, transplanted her and the others sparks into their Transcendent Technomorphs counterparts. Eventually escaping from the TransTech universe, she last appeared in the "Reunification" storyline, back on Alpha Trion's Cybertron. She's still in her TransTech counterpart's body for the first half of the story, but switches back to her original form about halfway through.
    • Notably, Blackarachnia's backstory is never explicitly laid out this, nor in any future stories. Her dimension jumping is only briefly mentioned in passing, and her TransTech body is merely described as "alien" in nature, never given much attention. She hints at her friends death and her subsequent betrayal of her commander (Optimus Primal), mentioned in her profile.
  • Eject notes that the Cybertronians are still stealing humanity's best ideas "four centuries on"; having made first contact with them back in 1984, this places the modern point of the Beast Wars: Uprising timeline in the late 24th century C.E.
  • Lio Convoy is aware of previous rebellion groups; Cheetor established the first, as mentioned in Blackarachnia's profile, while "Alone Together: Prologue" saw Rattrap and Botanica's efforts to create a new one.

Transformers references

  • Gladiatorial combat has long been a part of the Transformers franchise, extending back to the Marvel UK The Transformers prose story "State Games", published in the Transformers Annual 1986.
  • Quickstrike's opponent is Stinkbomb, a Transmetal 2 Maximal skunk, released as part of 1999 range of the Beast Wars toyline.
  • Arena-cities in this story include: Mebion, a settlement mentioned in the tech specs of the e-HOBBY-exclusive Collector's Edition toy, Magnificus; Nyon, a city first introduced in IDW Publishing's Autocracy mini-series;
  • The Cortex, Eject's headquarters, is also known as the "Cyclonus Memorial Tower", setting up the dedication of buildings to the fallen 1984-1985 Autobot and Decepticons. It's located in Thetacon, a city seen in IDW Publishing's Foundation mini-series.
  • Various workers at the Cortex include security guards Barrage and Half-Track, Micromaster members of the Astro Squad and Battle Squad, respectively, from the 1990 range of figures from the original The Transformers toyline. Standard-sized Builders wired up in the building include Zoom Out (based on the Real Gear Robot Zoom Out 25X, from the 2007 live-action movie toyline) and Slog (member of the Pretender Monsters from the 1989 range of figures of the original toyline).
  • Eject's office doors are made out of fluoro-steel, an alloy mentioned in issue #28 of the original Marvel The Transformers comic.
  • Sports for which updates are displayed in Eject's office include: mecha-soccer, the Cybertronian version of soccer (or football, if you live outside the United States) originally mentioned in the Marvel UK comic's letters page; basketrek, the Cybertronian version of basketball mentioned in issue #21 of the Marvel The Transformers comic; pugilism; track-and-field; lobbing, the Cybertronian version of catch introduced in the Transformers: Prime cartoon; volleyblast, a new sport that is the Cybertronian equivalent of volleyball and is a light riff on the more trademark-friendly term fireblast that replaced "firepower" on modern Transformers tech specs; marksmanship; and retro-rodeo, the Cybertronian version of a rodeo show.
  • Sports memorabilia in Eject's office include
    • The Carnage Clamp of Scissor Boy (a Maximal earwig from Beast Wars II, a light redeco of the Beast Wars toyline's Powerpinch, a Predacon earwig from the 1997 range of figures).
    • The machete used by Killer Punch (a Predacon Styracosaurus from Beast Wars Neo) against Ultra Mammoth. Timelines Ultra Mammoth was a redeco of Beast Wars Neo Big Convoy sold as part of the first Transformers Figure Subscription Service, depicted in concurrent fiction as a Maximal version of the Autobot Ultra Magnus; here, they are seperate characters. Notably, Killer Punch's profile in IDW Publishing's Beast Wars Sourcebook noted that, among other conspiracy theories, Killer Punch believed that Ultra Magnus was actually a Decepticon spy.
    • The supposed Energon mace of Megatron, originally introduced all the way back in the Sunbow The Transformers cartoon episode, "More than Meets the Eye, Part 2". "State Games" depicted Megatron as a gladiator before the war, and as such, that history is mentioned here as well.
  • Lio Convoy's home is in the Maximal slums of Glibax, a city first seen in the Wings Universe prose story "Flames of Yesterday". Glibax is watched over by Longtooth, an Autobot Pretender from the 1989 range of the original toyline. He's depicted in the illustrations as being based off of Guido Guidi's designs for the character as seen in IDW Publishing's Robots in Disguise comic series, where he served as a news cameraman. The city is full of industrial equipment, including smelting pits, a variation of the smelting pool idea introduced in the Marvel The Transformers comics.
  • Lio Convoy remembers the former Cybertronian stellar polities of the Autobot Commonwealth and the Decepticon Star Empire, originally established in The AllSpark Almanac II (which writer Jim Sorenson was co-author of) as the modern nation-states (stellar-states?) of the Autobot and Decepticons.
  • The Maximal Command Security Force was introduced in the BotCon 2006-exclusive comic "Dawn of Future's Past", and was expanded upon in further Timelines stories, such as the animated short film Theft of the Golden Disk. The Predacon Secret Police, meanwhile, was first introduced in the Beast Wars season 2 episode, "The Agenda (Part 2)".
  • Blackarachnia uses the phrase "tall, dark, and [adjective]" several times throughout the story, which was something of a catchphrase for her in the Beast Wars cartoon.
  • The term "mechanimal" originates from the Wings Universe series of stories. Quite a fair few are seen in this story, including rustbugs (mechanical insects mentioned in issue #276 of the Marvel UK The Transformers comic); mecho-gnats (mentioned in issue #12 of the Marvel The Transformers comic); glitch mice (mentioned in the Sunbow The Transformers episode "S.O.S. Dinobots"); nosorons (the Cybertronian version of a rhinocerous. Animated Ramhorn was established to be a nosoron in The AllSpark Almanac II, which in term took the name from Beast Wars Rhinox's Polish name); electro-toads (mentioned in the Sunbow The Transformers episode "Atlantis, Arise!"); pneuma-lions (mentioned in "Flames of Yesterday"); zap-ponies (mentioned in the Wings Universe comic "Battle Lines, Part 4"); and machadrons (a beast mentioned in IDW Publishing's Spotlight: Arcee).
  • Scraplets are small, metal-eating parasites originally seen in the Marvel The Transformers comic.
  • MCSF members in Glibax include Polar Claw, a Maximal polar bear from the 1996 range of the Beast Wars toyline, and Snarl, a Maximal lion from the Beast Machines toyline. Snarl is described as being in the black-red-and-yellow colors of his toy as released in the Universe toyline. The unnamed Maximal they harass in this story is Noctorro, a Maximal bat/bull Fuzor from the 1998 range of the Beast Wars toyline.
  • Stasis cuffs were introduced in the Animated cartoon.
  • Noctorro tries to access Autopedia when being arrested, the Cybertronian version of Wikipedia seen in the profiles included in several issues of the IDW Publishing mini-series, Last Stand of the Wreckers.
  • This story makes use of mechanometers, a unit of length mentioned in the Sunbow The Transformers episode "City of Steel".
  • Acid rain on Cybertron was seen originally as an artificial phenomenon in the Sunbow The Transformers episode "Divide and Conquer", with later fiction depicting it as a naturally-occurring weather pattern.
  • The Nyon Coliseum is overseen by Black Omen. This the Decepticon Trakkon Fearswoop, released exclusively in Europe as part of the 1993 range of figures in the original toyline, using his Dutch/French name.
  • Cybertron's sun, Hadean, was originally mentioned in the pseudo-canonical Alignment, a novella written by Simon Furman which tied up several plot points of the Marvel Generation 2 comic. It was later canonized in The AllSpark Almanac II.
  • Blackarachnia's Maximal body is not visually depicted in this story, but it's clear from the depiction given by the story that she's a "virtual redeco" of Generations Thrilling 30 Chromia toy. A lithograph released at BotCon 2016 would confirm this.
  • Blackarachnia's small revolutionary cell includes Scylla (one of the Beast Wars II Space Pirate Seacons, a squid redecoed from the Generation 1 Seacon Tentakil), B'Boom (a Maximal baboon from the 1997 range of the Beast Wars toyline), Break (a Maximal penguin from Beast Wars Neo), Retrax (a Predacon pillbug from the 1997 range of the Beast Wars toyline), and Longhorn (a Maximal bull from the Beast Machines toyline). Scylla and B'Boom are also "virtual redecoes/retools" of pre-existing toys: Cybertron Thunderblast and Revenge of the Fallen Brawn, respectively.
  • Blackarachnia mocks Lio Convoy's outlook as being "that "transform and transcend" scrap"; "transform and transcend" was one of the mantras of the Oracle supercomptuer from the Beast Machines cartoon.
  • Lio Convoy's Energon Matrix originates from the original Beast Wars II version of the character; while the cartoon depicted it as a mere status symbol with some vaguely-mystical abilities, its depiction here is more in-line with the Creation Matrix from the Marvel The Transformers comic. Like the Creation Matrix, the Energon Matrix seen in this story can bring new Transformers online, having been built by humanity for this purpose.
  • Blackarachnia met Scylla in the Predacon ghetto of Burthov, an area of Cybertron introduced in IDW Publishing's Defiance mini-series.
  • Supersonic has both an Autobot insignia and a Decepticon insignia, referencing how his original Japanese cartoon continuity counterpart was both at different points in his life.
  • Each of the members of the Maximal team in the games shown is intended to be a counterpart to a Maximal from the Beast Wars and Beast Machines cartoons, appearing in reverse order to their counterparts' appearances in the show.[1]
  • Night Viper debuts as a Predacon in this story though his previous appearances were always as a Maximal. This is because Hasbro originally planned to make Night Viper a Predacon who joined Optimus Primal's anti-Megatron Maximals but for unspecified reasons, possibly that a "heroic" Predacon in Beast Machines would have been too complicated for a toy bio, the Predacon background was dropped and Night Viper was made solely a Maximal. Over a decade later, this Predacon origin was picked up and used by the authors of this story.
  • Override is a G1-continuity import of the Cybertron Autobot while Rot Gut is a G1-continuity import of the Prime Predacon. Zapmaster, Six-Speed, and Flat-Out are imports of the Unicron Trilogy Mini-Cons of the same names.
  • Starting a trend for the Uprising prose stories, each section of the story is broken up by a small graphic, on which a Cybertronian language will be displayed, with further hidden information. This time, it takes the form of the sports ticker in Eject's office, displaying the "Maximal" form of Cybertronix, the Cybertronian language introduced in the Beast Wars cartoon. There are two tickers, one in red and one in purple, and with all sections added up throughout the story, it gives us some further insight into Cybertronian's current sports culture:

Real world references

  • The story's title is a play on the broken windows theory of criminology, a...controversial-at-best theory that states that visible signs of criminal behavior in an urban environment leads to further, more serious crimes.
  • Lio Convoy's Solipsistic Staff comes from the philosophical idea of solipsism, where one can only be sure that their mind exists.
  • The premise for Beast Wars: Uprising was obviously inspired by The Hunger Games franchise. Meta-fictionally, Eject notes that this is true for the series as well, with the Builders having modeled the Games after the film series, having intercepted transmissions of them from Earth. Eject notes that he's only recently seen the second movie, Catching Fire, which was only recently picked up by Cybertron.
  • Eject's speech is peppered with sports phrases; aside from more generic ones like "slugger" and "first base", terminology he uses includes "sticky wicket", a term originating from cricket, and
  • Noctorro speaks in a vaguely Eastern-European accent, as various comical depictions of Dracula and other vampires tend to be.
  • In the Beast Wars cartoon, several locations, objects, and other concepts were named after members of the Transformers fandom. This story makes use of that, with Polar Claw mentioning Grid Khajidha, from a member of this very wiki.
  • The underground broadcast Radio Free Cybertron is mentioned. It is named after Radio Free Cybertron, the first Transformers podcast and one of the first podcasts in the world, which was named in-turn for Radio Free Europe, a United States-funded organization created during the Cold War, which broadcasted to Eastern European countries under the Soviet Union's control.
  • In keeping with her history as a pirate, Scylla speaks with a stereotypical pirate "accent", and has an eyepatch. B'Boom's speech patterns are inspired by "surfer dudes/bros", while Break speaks entirely in hashtags.
  • Blackarachnia calls Lio Convoy "little lion man", referencing the song of the same name by English folk rock band Mumford & Sons.

Notes

  • The first section of the story was printed as a preview in issue #61 of the Collectors' Club magazine.
  • Most cities on Cybertron have almost completely fallen into ruin, becoming synonymous with the arenas that now dominate them.
  • Throughout the story, mention is made of a class system organized by the English alphabet, which goes from class A to at least a class J. This system isn't mentioned again until "Not All Megatrons".
  • Although not an error at the time, Lio Convoy demonstrates a mystifying lack of knowledge about humanity, considering future revelations about the Uprising universe. He doesn't even recognize the word "Earth" when Blackarachnia says it, and apparently has no idea why Cybertron doesn't travel to other stars anymore, like the Builders use to. Compare that to later stories, where the Cybertronian Navy regularly patrols the limits of the Allowed Zone under the watchful eye of the Human Confederacy ("Intersectionality"), the average proto-former knows the arrogance of humanity ("Cultural Appropriation"), and Galvatron is widely know as "History's greatest monster" because he challenged humanity and lost, and Cybertron paid the price ("Micro-Aggressions").
  • A more minor retroactive "error" is the description of Glibax here as having equatorial climate, whereas the map of Cybertron presented in "Safe Spaces" shows the city-state is among the northern most polities, with only the polar city of Iacon being further north.
  • Beginning with this story, Jim Sorenson starts a trend of alternate name spellings in Beast Wars: Uprising for the many Cybertronians who share a name. Thus in this story, Crosscut the Japanese-original Autobot gets "Cross-Cut" while offscreen, Crosscut the UK-original Decepticon presumably keeps his original name rendering. However, due to being added in at the last minute, Beast Wars Scavenger does not have a different name in line with Uprising convention despite Beast Machines Scavenger already having that name rendering.
  • This story also establishes another Uprising trend developed by Sorenson: when a character has different and distinct secondary toy and/or body concept, that concept is characterized as a distinct individual. Thus, Megalligator in Uprising is neither the original Megatron nor the Predacon Megatron and Ultra Mammoth is a separate individual from Ultra Magnus.

Errors

  • Gladiatorial is misspelled as "Gladitorial" in reference to the Gladiatorial Administration Bureau.
  • Micromaster is spelled "Micro Master".
  • Glibax is misspelled as "Gilbax" on three occasions.
  • The Maximal Command Security Force is variably spelled "Forces" or "Force".
  • Technically, Blackarachnia should be more than twice the size of Lio Convoy in her TransTech body, but is described as being only slightly taller than him at most.
  • Scraplet is misspelled as "scrapplet", although its use in this story is as part of a pun on the phrase "upset the apple cart".
  • Terragator is misspelled as "Terrorgator" twice.

References

  1. ↑ Post by Verity Carlo on The Allspark Forums, 2015/08/14
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