Tech-Spec Manual

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You don't even have clearance to read this caption.

The Tech-Spec Manual is a booklet given to new S.T.A.R.S. recruits as part of their membership kit. It contains a rundown of Cybertronian history, a technical guide to the Command Center, and bios of several Autobots and Decepticons. But no actual Tech Specs.

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Stats

  • Writer: unknown
  • Originally published: 1985
  • Illustrations: unknown

Synopsis

Some of this manual is written in the second person, addressing the reader as a new recruit of an Autobot-allied human organization. Thus, the booklet itself is considered here to be part of the fiction.

Section 1

Government: Rival military dictatorships
Currency: Food
Geography: Crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside

The booklet opens with a lesson on the history of Cybertron. The reader is told that the planet's origins are unknown, but "recently discovered data" has revealed that the inhabitants have been at war for "thousands of years." This long-running war has been fought between two sides: the Autobots (said to be peaceful, industrious traders) and the Decepticons (said to be trying to destroy the Autobots and turn Cybertron into a massive weapon). These two races had once been at peace, but the Decepticons had built up their war-making capabilities in secret before launching a devastating suprise attack known as "The Treacherous Attack of the Decepticons".

The damage sustained by Cybertron itself in the course of the war caused the planet to drift away from its orbit around Alpha Centauri. As it approached an asteroid belt, an Autobot ship was launched to clear a path. This mission was a success, but the Autobots were ambushed by a Decepticon craft that launched a boarding party. In desperation, the Autobots crashed their ship on a nearby planet, rendering everyone on board comatose. This planet would come to be known as "Earth".

The ship remained buried for four million years until an earthquake near Mount St. Hilary uncovered it. The ship's "computer-like brain", Teletran I, sensed "mechanical activity aboard the vessel" and began repairing everyone on board, Autobot and Decepticon alike. "She" thought that the mechanical vehicles and devices of the humans were Earth's dominant life forms, so she rebuilt the Transformers to resemble them. And so their battle continues on this new world.


Section 2

Will they let the wolf in? Not by the hairs on their chinny-chin-chins.

The next section details the workings of the Command Center, a room within the Autobot Refueling and Weapons Armory. The reader is told that he or she has access to it and that familiarity with it is necessary in order to aid in S.T.A.R.S. rescue missions to retrieve and repair wounded Autobots. An in-depth description of the Command Center's various components follows:

  • Repair Station: With a full suite of diagnostic and instructional devices, repair equipment, and spare parts, an Autobot in need of "repair, reprogramming, and/or refueling" can be serviced with ease. To aid in the process, the Tech Spec Card Catalog provides additional information on specific Autobots.
  • Communication Central: Here the reader is given specific duties, such as changing radio frequencies at assigned times to foil Decepticon monitoring attempts. The reader is told to write down all incoming and outgoing messages and store them the safe. The safe's ever-changing entry codes is said to be assigned by Optimus Prime himself. Communication Central's apparently-volatile power supply is regulated via the Central Control Panel, a complicated array of controls that requires constant attention. Everything from power surges to volume control to message decoding to the self-destruct sequence is routed through that panel.
  • Primary Entrance: Entering the Command Center requires passing through something akin to an airlock, starting with an initial hatch that lowers to be a ramp. S.T.A.R.S. personnel can open this hatch with their coded identification cards. Such access is overseen by the Security Sector, where a computer checks IDs against vital statistics and Tech Specs on record. If an entrant's identity cannot be confirmed, Autobots will be automatically alerted to detain and interrogate the suspect. However, if the identity is confirmed, the ramp will lower, and the individual can proceed to the next stage, the Hatchway. Here a voiceprint and handprint are required for further passage, and if the entrant fails this test, he or she will not only be trapped there, but can also be subdued by stun-radiation emitted from the walls. On the other hand, a successful voice and hand recognition will open the Main Hatch and allow full access to the Command Center.
  • Air Equalizers: Air quality in the Command Center is strictly regulated to ensure the least possible communications interference and corrosion from atmospheric contaminants. This is apparently a very strong concern, as any equalizer malfunction will trigger an evacuation siren. This evacuation is said to apply to Transformers specifically; it is unclear whether humans would be in similar danger.

Section 3

The final section presents brief bios of the Decepticons Megatron, Devastator, and Kickback; and the Autobots Omega Supreme, Snarl, and Inferno. These are accompanied by pictures of the Transformers with Power-Plan-esque callouts for various physical features such as the "Action stabilizer" in Inferno's knee and the "S-748 Retractable maneuvering device" in Snarl's sword.

{{#if: ||(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)}}

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Autobots }}{{#if:* Devastator (2) Decepticons }}{{#if:| Humans }}{{#if:| Others }}{{#if:| Misc }}{{#if:| Misc }} 
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}}

Notes

  • Like the rest of the S.T.A.R.S.-related fiction, this skirts the fourth wall in a way that makes its contents vaguely untrustworthy. All of the information is presented as the Autobots instructing their human allies, so its perspective is necessarily skewed. To what degree, the reader can decide for him- or herself.
  • The Cybertronian history presented here reflects the original setup of the Marvel Generation 1 comic, right down to Cybertron having once orbited Alpha Centauri and the Ark's location being related to the fictional Mount St. Hilary. However, the name "Teletran I" came from the cartoon, and later claims made in the S.T.A.R.S. flyers would make it difficult to reconcile this continuity with any other universe at all.
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