The New World

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Screw Klo, first he's got a new Transformer race to create.
"The New World"
Publisher Transformers Collectors' Club (main story: online exclusive; prologue: published with Diamond Edition of "Games of Deception")
First published July 25, 2007 (online at the Transformers Collectors' Club)
Writers Greg Sepelak and Trent Troop
Illustrations Greg Sepelak
Page count 18pp

The Mini-Cons are charged with rebuilding Cybertron... but some are not content to simply give up the world they've built to others.

Synopsis

The Last Autobot leaves the Mini-Cons with their charge: the re-creation of Cybertron in his absence, using the fragments of Primus's power that remain within them. Without their guidance, the world will tear itself apart; with it, Cybertron will be reborn, and the darknesses of its depths vanquished. Teams of Mini-Cons work together, clearing the underground tunnels and passages of roaming mutants. The work is nearly at an end, and Broadside finds himself wondering what psychopathic bots like the Predator Attack Team will do when the murderous work is finished.

Enjoying a relaxing evening at Maccadam's Old Oil House, Knockdown happens to overhear a fragment of an ominous back-room conversation between Broadside and some others. His suspicions aroused, he reports it to his commander, Hacksaw. Hacksaw believes him but advises him not to worry about it, fearing that it could lead to trouble if the report spreads. But he decides to join Broadside's security watch that evening.

Mini-Con leader Modus Prime is touring an energon refinery, with Broadside and the Heavy Hauler, Urban Renewal, and Clear Skies Teams as security. As he assesses the plant's damage, something moves in the shadows... As Hacksaw approaches the plant, explosions rip it apart. Hacksaw awakens from a blackout to find chaos as the Mini-Cons struggle to salvage and rescue their own. But a clear picture emerges: along with many others, Modus Prime is dead.

Broadside and a few others have survived. Wide Load and Sledge (the same 'bots that Knockdown saw with Broadside in Maccadams) haul the corpse of a Bulk to the surface, claiming they were attacked by the Autobot. Strongarm says it could be any number of things, including radiation or a madness like that of the mutants—an explanation that Broadside instantly seizes upon. Citing fears of contamination, he orders the corpse destroyed immediately. Hacksaw steps up to challenge his claim of leadership, but while they argue, Sledge and Wide Load obediently destroy the corpse, and with it all evidence.

Hacksaw later calls a meeting of his most trusted Mini-Cons: the Clear Skies Team, the Dinobots and the Night Rescue Team. Panic and chaos are beginning to spread, especially at the thought of the Autobots returning to find this "madness disease" running rampant. Hacksaw has suspicions about Broadside, and Strongarm speaks up to back him up—he recorded images of the "corpse" before it was destroyed. It appears to be a cobbled-together non-being—a prop. Steel Wind interrupts the discussion to announce that something is disrupting the return-home beacon calling the Autobots back to Cybertron.

Hacksaw goes to investigate, solo. At the top of the massive, jury-rigged tower, Hacksaw finds the Dirt Digger Team wiring up something to change the tower's broadcast. Hacksaw confronts them, and a fight breaks out. Hacksaw beats all three of them, but as he demands answers, Broadside arrives, only too happy to provide them.

Broadside fears the return of the Autobots, worried that the Mini-Cons' usefulness will be expended, and they'll be re-absorbed by Primus, their own lives lost. Hacksaw counters that Primus wouldn't do this, but Broadside cites the poor Mutants they've been ordered to kill. He also tells a short tale of Scorponok and Zarak, whose remnants he found and whose combined mind he plundered, a leader who he claims wanted a better life for his people. Claiming the same for himself, he fights Hacksaw and soon gains the upper hand. When Hacksaw refuses to join him, he lets him fall to his death. Broadside tells off the Dirt Digger Team for their failure, and sends them into hiding underground. Later, Broadside speaks to an assembled crowd, telling them his version of Hacksaw's "tragic" death. To avoid further spread of the "madness disease", he's quarantining the whole planet to off-worlders, including the Autobots.

In the middle of his speech, however, some of Hacksaw's allies broadcast a video of Broadside letting Hacksaw fall. Caught red-handed, Broadside can only offer the truth of his own convictions: Cybertron should belong to the same Mini-Cons who have rebuilt it from ashes. Many in the crowd agree. Broadside makes his escape as fighting breaks out in the crowd, amid growing cries of "Our world!"

Quotes

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Mini-Cons Mutants

Notes

  • Cameos in the "Games of Deception" Diamond Edition (prologue): Thunderpunch, the Last Autobot, Rapture, G.B. Blackrock, Optimus Prime
  • Cameos in main story: The Last Autobot (flashback), Scorponok & Zarak's remains (mentioned but not seen).
  • The story is set in 1992.
  • The New World occurs after Marvel US #80 and before the Fun Publications Classics comics. Like all Classics fiction, neither the Marvel UK material nor the Generation 2 comics are included in its universe, despite its use of the former's Mutants.
  • Unlike many of the other text stories published by the Transformers Collectors' Club, this was (and is) made available to non-members.
  • In the Marvel comic Still Life!, Hi-Q/Optimus Prime pleads with Grimlock not to kill a fallen demon, because all life is precious. The Mini-Cons, under Modus Prime, were created for the purpose of wiping them out with no quarter.
    • The only one to question this is Broadside, who calls it a mission of genocide. It is a factor in his disillusionment with the Mini-Con cause.

Transformer references

  • The mutants are a borrowing from the UK Comics.
  • Likewise for Maccadam's.
  • Scorponok and Zarak died in the great battle with Unicron.
  • Hacksaw occasionally lapses into pronoun-less Dinobot-style speech: "Terrorsaur, you are stupid violent beast." "No, but makes sense anyway."
  • "'Til all are one" is a common Autobot mantra.
  • Ankmor Park would reappear in "Wreckers: Finale Part II". The name is derived from Terry Pratchett's writings.
  • Other Cybertronian locations mentioned include the Memnon Overpass and Gygax.
  • The Dirt Digger team use a Data-Con for their dirty work.
  • Most of the Mini-Con teams are based on the Classics Mini-Con toy 3-packs. However, none yet have allegiance here. Several fiction-only teams are added to the mix as well.
  • Broadside forms his Demolition Team here, but they are never mentioned by name. Sledge and Wide Load both appear as members of other fiction-only teams, which are subsequently destroyed.

Real-world references

  • Snarl invites the mutants to "come out and plaaaaaay-ee-aaay!", quoting a famous line from The Warriors.
  • Overbite mugs (ha!) with the severed face of a mutant ("Hey, look everyone! I'm a mutant! Booga-booga-booga!") Far Side-style.
  • The neon sign at Maccadam's refuses to stay lit properly, in the tradition of dive bars everywhere.
  • "Sector Spellos" is in homage to voice actor Peter Spellos.
  • One assumes, based on the name, that the Urban Renewal Team tears down nice old things and replaces them with horrible new things.
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