Ore-13

Ultra-Energon or Ore-13 is a potent form of Energon found in the IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Ultra-Energon, known to Earth-based Transformers as Ore-13, is a substance seemingly found only on Earth. Ore-13 can be purified, in the words of Ratchet, into "... baseline Energon, but with a twist. When applied directly to the systems of a Transformer via a modified delivery capsule, it grants that Transformer a phenomenal boost in overall capability."

Origins

Ultra-Energon is an artificial substance created by the Decepticon scientist Shockwave. He seeded a number of worlds with a potent "distillation" of Energon hundreds of thousands of years ago, designed to initiate a chain reaction which would produce Ultra-Energon ore in plentiful supply, giving him the balance of power when the Energon shortages he had foreseen became inevitable.

When Shockwave abandoned the Decepticons a few thousand years ago he headed to Earth, at the end of the last Ice Age, to continue the plan by stabilising the ore before it destroyed the planet. However he was ambushed by the Dynobots and left buried by a failsafe Grimlock had arranged that triggered a volcanic eruption in what is now Nevada. Spotlight: Shockwave

When Shockwave's absence was discovered by Megatron, he assigned Bludgeon to investigate Shockwave's plans, and Soundwave to spy on Bludgeon in turn. While Bludgeon discovered the full extent of Shockwave's plans he fed little of it back to Megatron—and Soundwave did likewise. Spotlight: Soundwave

Eventually, Cybertron was devastated by Thunderwing and left uninhabitable. Stormbringer Some time later, however, Bludgeon and his team returned to the planet in secret to begin work on restoring Thunderwing, and in preparation for creating their own bio-grafted exo-shells. To do this, they needed power, and so they proceeded to Earth in the early 1980s to mine "Ultra-Energon". Spotlight: Soundwave

Eventually, they succeeded in restoring Thunderwing with the Ultra-Energon. Soon the drawback of the powerful substance became clear: The infused Transformer was rendered far more powerful than ever, but the Ultra-Energon burned itself out far faster than normal energon, and the more power the Transformer drew on, the faster his super-powered "high" burnt away. It is unknown if this was simply an unforeseen flaw in Shockwave's plan or a more direct result of the Dynobots interrupting the stabilization process.

Given Shockwave's removal from the field at a critical stage, it is likely that all the other seeded worlds self-destructed, making Earth the only source of the Ultra-Energon ore. It is also possible that those worlds survived and were the targets Bludgeon set for Thunderwing, confusing "harvest the energon to rejuvenate Cybertron" with "BURN THE WORLDS SO OURS WILL BE REBORN!" due to being insane.

"Ore-13"

In the meantime, the presence of Ultra-Energon had been independently discovered back on Earth by a Decepticon infiltration team led by Starscream. It was dubbed Ore-13. After exhausting a vein of the ore beneath the original command bunker in Nebraska, Starscream built a second command bunker over a richer vein in Oregon. Although it was not enough to give Starscream any appreciable edge over Megatron, both Decepticons and Autobots believed Ore-13 could drastically tip the balance of their entire interstellar conflict. Infiltration

After Prime's arrival on Earth, he came into direct conflict with the Ore-13-enhanced Megatron and was nearly deactivated, surviving only by downloading his consciousness into his trailer section. However, realizing that Ore-13 was Ultra-Energon, he communicated its weakness to the other Autobots, who successfully ran Megatron down until Prime could return to his body to deliver a coup de grâce just as the Ultra-Energon high faded away. Retrieved by Skywarp, Megatron proceeded to purge his systems completely of the Ultra-Energon in a CR Chamber. Escalation

The forces of the Dead Universe specifically protected Earth from the Reapers Devastation due to its Ultra-Energon; their grand scheme was reliant on vast amounts of the energy, in which Earth was now rich. Spotlight: Doubledealer