Seismic-shock warhead

Seismic-shock warheads are Cybertronian weapons. One single warhead has the power to blow up an entire planet.

Fiction

Dreamwave Energon comics

During the war, Ironhide was captured by the Decepticons and forced to built seismic-shock warheads for them. He did, but when the warhead designs were verified, the Decepticons left Ironhide alone to design and implement the bunker casements. It was through that that he could retake the Decepticons' advantage. By equipping the doomsday bunkers with echo cavity, a tritanium-lined resonant space that could redirect the shockwaves to pulverize the warhead on a subatomic level, if the warheads would ever be activated, they would have no effect on their surroundings.

The bunkers were code-locked for sound; only a specific combination of tones could grant access to the warheads. Megatron had the warheads installed in and around key extraction points, so that if the war would not go his way, he could initiate Cybertron's destruction while getting himself and his troops underway to set up base on another planet. Evidently, he never got to doing that.

Ten years after the war, Ironhide was temporarily forced back into servitude by Tidal Wave, who wanted him to help excavate one of the doomsday bunkers to obtain a warhead for Scorponok. Ironhide led him to a spaceport nearby where one of them was stored and uncovered it with the appropriate tonal key. As this happened, Tidal Wave revealed that Scorponok intended to blow up Earth to get to its Energon. Ironhide faked to comply to remove the warhead from the rest of the structure, but instead activated the warhead, declaring to Tidal Wave he'd rather blow up Cybertron than be responsible for the deaths of innocents. Tidal Wave in return declared him an idiot and left quickly through a portal. At that point, Jetfire appeared and Ironhide explained him why he didn't need to worry.

Some time later, Ironhide relayed the entire story to both Jetfire and Rodimus. When they asked him why he didn't return sooner to destroy the warheads if he had designed them to be harmless, Ironhide admitted he felt ashamed of cooperating with the Decepticons and that he feared his Autobot colleagues wouldn't trust him anymore if they knew. To that, he added he realized now that secrecy wouldn't do any good and that he would no longer hide from the consequences of his deeds. Jetfire commended him for this. Aftershock