Warp gate
Warp gates are teleportation devices which generate spatial portals that allow users to traverse vast distances in the blink of an eye. Similar in concept to the Decepticons' space bridge technology, warp gates were (usually) created through the alliance of the Autobots and humankind.
Fiction
Generation 1 cartoon continuity
The Battle of the Star Gate
Warp gate technology began life as the Trigger, a huge manned space station developed in the late 1990s by the allied forces of the Autobots and the American government using Cybertronian technology. First Conflict
The Transformers cartoon
By 2005, warp gate technology had been refined down to a single, flat portal, through which travelers could simply fly, requiring no vehicle or launch mechanism to make the trip. Numerous gates were installed through the galaxy to facilitate interstellar travel, including one at the fringes of Earth's Solar System, beyond Pluto. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 3
Informed of the existence of the Earth Defense Command space platform, Galvatron led his forces through a warp gate in the vicinity of Thrull, to emerge through the Pluto gate and attack the station. Five Faces of Darkness, Part 3 The Quintessons placed a warp gate in the Angarrix sector, and used it to abduct Sky Lynx, ensnaring him with an energy beam and dragging him through the gate. The Quintesson Journal Upon usurping leadership of the Decepticons, Scourge led them through "warp gate 09-A" to launch an attack on Earth. The Burden Hardest to Bear
Marvel Generation 2 comic
Grimlock's squad of Autobots were equipped with "personal warp gates" while chasing down the cyberformers from the Cybertronian Empire. War Without End!
Unicron Trilogy cartoon continuity
Armada cartoon
The Unicron-Cybertron warp gate is a concealed warp gate linking the lower levels of Cybertron to the nethermost regions of Unicron. It is used by Unicron's minions to pass covertly from Cybertron to Unicron without giving away the Devourer of Worlds' super-secret hidden location. (Psst! He's disguised as one of Cybertron's moons!)
The gate is situated in the middle of a corridor in a seldom-traveled section of Cybertron which was long ago converted into a "fused organic" state. The gate is invisible until you make physical contact with it, and unless you knew it was there, it would be all too easy to stumble through it and find yourself stranded in the bowels of Unicron, surrounded by deadly bot-spiders.
It is strongly implied that the gate is unidirectional (Cybertron-to-Unicron),[1][2] though circumstantial evidence favors Unicron's minions being able to reverse its function to return to Cybertron.
The fused-organic section of Cybertron where the gate is located is notably atypical, and its transformation is likely a result of slow "leakage" through the gate over a long period of time. Though the gate's exact age is unclear, at least one lifeform (the bot-spider) seems to have migrated through it over the years. The warp gate may date from the original transportation of the Mini-Cons to Cybertron 4 million years ago.[3]
While pursuing Thrust, Starscream and several others passed through the Cybertron-Unicron warp gate and had to fight their way up to Unicron's surface to escape. Portent
The Autobots subsequently blocked the warp gate with a large rock, either to prevent its use or merely to prevent people from accidentally wandering through it. When High Wire and the Street Action Team realized their presence was needed to aid Optimus Prime and Galvatron (who had traveled to Unicron by more conventional means), the Autobot Red Alert unblocked the entrance, allowing them and the humans Rad, Carlos, Alexis, Billy and Fred to travel to Unicron's interior. Union
Cybertron cartoon
Vector Prime possessed the ability to open Dimension gates by slicing the fabric of space/time open with his sword, Rhisling, first doing so to send Landmine to Earth in the opening days of the Unicron Singularity crisis. Fallen He would later be responsible for creating the gates that would send the Autobots the colony worlds of Velocitron and the Jungle Planet—in concert with Optimus Prime, whose Matrix of Leadership helped stabilize the gateways—and was generally on hand to generate a gate whenever the Autobots needed one. Landmine Search Vector Prime's gates had the appearance of a glowing green slash-mark in the air itself, which, when stabilized by the Matrix, widened to reveal a view of the target location on the other side of the gate's rippling surface.
Megatron, empowered by the Armor of Unicron, was also capable of creating dimension gates, although his could apparently only lead into and out of his fire dimension, requiring that it be used as a stopover on any trips the Decepticons made. Fallen These circular portals resembled swirling vortexes of flame; extinguishing these flames would result in the portal closing. Critical
In one dramatic instance, Vector Prime opened one of his dimension gates across one of Megatron's, and their interaction caused the fire dimension to collapse in on itself. Cybertron
Timelines
After suffering a disastrous failure on Combatron, Brushguard asked Megatron to open a dimensional portal for his stranded team, but Megatron angrily refused and told them to wait for a decacycle for rescue by conventional space travel. Force of Habit
Beast Wars: Uprising
In 13 SCA (or 1997), the Autobots helped the humans build their first warp gate at the edge of the solar system, allowing humanity to colonize other planets. Micro-Aggressions
Notes
- The Animated space bridge bears a strong resemblance to the Warp Gate's design.
Foreign names
- Japanese: Warp gate (ワープゲート wāpu gēto)
References
- ↑ Despite the dangers Starscream and company encounter through the gate in "Portent", none of them attempts to pass back through it, instead fighting their way up through many layers of Unicron's defenses.
- ↑ Before stepping through the gate in "Union", Rad comments that this is a one-way trip.
- ↑ The Mini-Con birthing chamber was the same location (apparently inside Unicron, not Cybertron) where the Autobots were cocooned in the alternate timeline of the unawakened Mini-Cons in "Drift."
