Battle of the Asteroid Belt

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Summary

From Midway Gate Station 0-8, Carlos reports an unknown ship approaching Asteroid City. Hot Shot suspects its the unknown assassin. Communications with Asteroid City are being jammed, and Prime suspects the enemy has set up a base nearby.

Alpha Q reports Starscream's approach to Scorponok, and warns him not to mess things up again. Scorponok is pleased to learn that the Autobots and Megatron may be headed there too.

In Asteroid City, Megatron demands more energon from his Terrorcons. He gives Demolishor a drubbing for not finding more, wondering if his time among the Autobots affected his work habits. Demolishor notes that they should have stayed at Lunar City, but that it's fortified now. Scorponok arrives and reports that Optimus & co. are headed for Lunar City. Megatron harshly asks Scorponok where he got the information; despite not sounding very convinced, Megs leads some troops off to attack Prime there, while leaving Scorponok to carry out the Asteroid City ambush as a test of loyalty.

Alpha Q is pleased by this turn of events, and orders Scorponok to ensure Megatron's safety so Alpha Q can continue to use him.

The Autobots arrive in the asteroid belt. Kicker directs the search effort; he and Ironhide note that Prime's been very much on his guard since the assassination incident on the moon.

The Decepticons arrive at Lunar City and attack. The Omnicons evacuate the mines in a panic.

Kicker identifies a particular asteroid. Hot Shot suddenly says something about Unicron and opens fire. After a moment, the others join in.

Starscream meets with Scorponok, wondering why everyone keeps calling him "Starscream". Scorponok tells him that he's a warrior under his command, and that's the end of it.

The Autobots aren't having much luck shooting the asteroid, which returns fire when Hot Shot goes to investigate. Alpha Q's ship emerges, but when the Autobots start to pursue, Starscream attacks. Prime holds him off, demanding answers. Starscream tells him he's under the command of Alpha Q, "supreme ruler of the universe".

The others run into Scorponok, who makes short work of Jetfire and is ready to take on the rest. When the Autobots powerlink to engage, the ship departs, warping away, leaving Kicker adrift in space and freaking out, flashing back to his childhood.

Prime learns that Alpha Q's mission is to revive Unicron, but Alpha Q contacts Starscream and has him retreat before he reveals anything further. The Decepticons arrive and watch how Scorponok handles himself against the Autobots.

Prime retrieves Kicker, while Hot Shot, Inferno and Ironhide move in to rescue Jetfire. Hot Shot distracts Scorponok, while Prime and Ironhide get in close, and manage to capture Scorponok. They ask him who he's working for. Megatron arrives, and they teams trade words. The Autobots realize there's an energon seam nearby, which the Decepticons gleefully detonate, setting the whole asteroid off. Both teams retreat. Kicker freaks out, then passes out, as the fragments explode around him. The Autobot rescue him.

The Autobots return to Earth, regretting that they couldn't save Lunar City. Prime reports to Primus that they've destroyed Unicron's fortress home. "Meeka" finds Kicker, who vents about his own freak-outs and failures on the mission. Meeka reassures him and offers advice. They watch as the city's population starts returning, and a ship emerges from the space bridge. Alexis welcomes Dr. Jones to Ocean City, who responds in his own unique fashion.

Meeting with the Autobots and the city's population, Dr. Jones proposes the creation of energon towers to protect Blizzard City, Desert City, Jungle City, and Ocean City, creating an impenetrable global energon grid.

Stats

Original airdate:

Written by:

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Autobots	Decepticons	Humans	Others
		Regulars Guests

Other Notes

• This whole episode is just confusing as hell. Who went where when? What are the Autobots shooting at? Where did Alpha Q's ship come from? Where did it go? What happened to Lunar City?
• Dr. Jones comes across as rather unhinged, laughing hysterically after greeting Alexis, and touting the virtues of his energon tower grid against anyone "who dares attack us!!"

Pain count

• "Uh?": 13
• Stock footage: 3
• We need/they want energon: 5
• It's time to: 4

Continuity errors

• Why is the unknown ship between "Mars and Lunar City", instead of "Mars and the moon"?

Keywords

From Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki, a Wikia wiki.