Silent Strike
| ||||||
| "Silent Strike" | ||||||
| Production company | Allspark Animation | |||||
| Airdate | February 26, 2020 (UK) | |||||
| Writer | Gavin Hignight | |||||
| Director | Jean Texier | |||||
| Animation studio | Boulder Media Studio | |||||
Optimus Prime leads a strike team of Autobots on a mission deep into Decepticon territory to destroy a dangerous artifact.
Synopsis
In an unknown patch of an alternate Cybertron, Astrotrain waits in the rain, closing the doors on Dead End's face as a source of amusement. As another way to drive the grumpy Decepticon to amuse him, Astrotrain manipulates his seats just as Dead End tries to sit, drawing threats until they get a call from Megatron, who comes towards them with a Matrix of Leadership in hand. Being chased by a volley of missiles, the Decepticon leader gets hit, taking out one of his optics, yet remains undeterred. Megatron, Shrapnel, Kickback, and Bombshell retreat aboard Astrotrain, who departs for universes unknown. In the present, Megatron addresses his troops and makes one statement very clear: the time of their reckoning is nearing inch by inch.
At the border, Lockdown and a Decepticon soldier notice a cloud of dust from the Autobot side. Upon realizing it to be a stampede, they retreat in fear. It turns out to be a distraction ordered by Optimus Prime, who leads a strike team into Croaton city with the goal of destroying Megatron's Matrix. Sneaking past the border with the help of Wheeljack, they set off to stop Megatron and retrieve Windblade's mind shard from the alternate Matrix.
Inside his Matrix, Megatron finds that the other Primes inside are refusing to help him fight off the threat he is facing. He leaves frustrated, but as he does, a manifestation of Windblade generates. Following his failure to round up the help of the Primes, he sends Sky-Byte to work on the shields and finds Astrotrain has completed his dimensional ray, now in a smaller hand-held version sizable for standard Cybertronians. Not much can be said for the Insecticons, however, and the Decepticon Warlord storms off with Wild Wheel to find them, all while Laserbeak observes from afar.
As the Autobots continue their infiltration, Soundwave and Shadow Striker observe Laserbeak's footage. Still struggling to grasp his strategies, they search for answers. Megatron grows furious after finding out that the Insecticons have built a makeshift craft and are bailing out on his plans, with Shrapnel justifying their actions are because "the Other One" cannot be stopped and is only after Megatron. Megatron and Wild Wheel do nothing more as the Insecticons flee Cybertron, their departure distracts some guards long enough for Whirl to get the drop on them. The other Autobots proceed to muscle their way through, while Soundwave and Shadow Striker threaten Dead End for answers. Refusing to comply with the two, the Decepticon makes a break for it with his peers in hot pursuit, straight into the Aubtobot infiltration team and ingesting a corridor battle.
In the cityspeaker chamber, Sky-Byte manages to get the shields at 86%. But as beams start to come through the roof, Megatron pushes him to raise it to mask their location, cutting Prime's team off from the other Autobots. Fighting their way through Soundwave, Dead End, and Shadow Striker, they make it to the next section only to be barraged by Alphastrike and more Decepticon soldiers. Another battle begins, and the Autobots end up surrounded. As Prime's group makes a break for Megatron, Whirl and Grimlock deal with the Decepticons trying to stop them. As Optimus and Megatron argue, mysterious new troopers teleport around both parties and surround everyone at gunpoint.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
| Autobots | Decepticons | Others |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Quotes
Notes
Continuity notes
- The opening flashback reveals how Megatron got his own Matrix and left returned to his universe aboard Astrotrain in "The End Of The Universe IV".
- Teletraan-X is mentioned in this episode, having last appeared in "Battle For Cybertron IV".
Transformers references
- The army of Decepticons teleported in at the end of the episode are of course instantly recognizable as being based off of Tarn, the zealous leader of the Decepticon Justice Division. Considering what we learn of where they come from next episode, he'd probably appreciate the compliment.
- Whereas Shrapnel has easily been identified by his G1-inrpised color scheme, the other two Insecticons are identified as "Bombshell" and "Kickback".
- The fact that all three of them share the same body-type could be a reference to the Prime cartoon, where all the Insecticons in that show shared the same model as Hardshell.
- When the Insecticons cut their losses and fly off, it is a reference to the original cartoon, where the treacherous Insecticons often acted as a rogue splinter faction.
Real-world references
- TBA
Other trivia
- TBA
Animation and technical errors
- TBA
Foreign localization
- TBA
Home video releases
- TBA
