Aequitas
- Aequitas is an Autobot supercomputer from the IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Aequitas is a giant non-sentient computer that serves as the judge and jury for the Autobot prison Garrus-9, its culpability drive devoted entirely to calculating... guilt. In the courtroom of its chamber, it is given the evidence and testimony surrounding a case, then judges the suspect's very spark to see if it's found wanting, and whether or not the prisoner deserves rehabilitation or the mercy of spark extraction.
It also has one serious hell of a password-bypass security system that makes one hope the bosses are really good at not forgetting their passwords.
Fiction
IDW Generation 1 continuity
The many trials of Autobot war criminals using Aequitas sickened everyone who heard them, to the extent that Chief Justice Tyrest ruled that the records would be kept secret until after the war. Last Stand of the Wreckers #5
After discovering that Garrus-9 had fallen to the Decepticons, Prowl had Ultra Magnus relay a new objective to Springer: Aequitas, a name both 'bots recognized. Prowl didn't want the Decepticons getting access to a potential propaganda goldmine like the records of countless Autobot-committed atrocities. Last Stand of the Wreckers #5 Last Stand of the Wreckers #2
Springer then brought it up again while debriefing the Wreckers on their mission objectives. After the first objective of rescuing the trapped Autobots from the now Decepticon-occupied prison, the second objective was not to kill the ringleader Overlord, but to find Aequitas, as it also being trapped among the Decepticons was a Very Bad Thing. Last Stand of the Wreckers #2
After the Wreckers infiltrated the prison, Perceptor's team made their way down to Aequitas's chamber, where it was protected by walls rendered impenetrable by vibrating at a special frequency. Topspin and Pyro were curious as to what Aequitas was—since only Perceptor seemed to know—wondering if it was "a Prime-killer [or] a spark eater".
Perceptor, meanwhile, wondered why the Decepticons hadn't been trying to break in, only to discover they had been, by using a dismembered and comatose Fortress Maximus as a "living lock pick". After detaching Maximus from the door and inputting the appropriate access codes, the chamber door opened to reveal Aequitas to the curious Wreckers. Last Stand of the Wreckers #3
When Perceptor revealed that Aequitas was a supercomputer, and that their mission was to download its contents, the other Wreckers were all less-than-impressed and advocated simply leaving before the Decepticons broke in. Still, Perceptor moved to initiate the download in spite of the protests, explaining to a questioning Pyro the computer's purpose.
Unfortunately, he soon hit a snag—the computer was password-protected, and everyone who knew the password was out of commission. Instead the computer would have to be rebooted via its alternate method—that of lethal spark donation from a completely willing and non-coerced subject.
Since Perceptor was needed to operate the computer, and Topspin and Twin Twist's branched spark meant that a sacrifice from Topspin would kill them both, that left Pyro and Ironfist. Pyro was decidedly unhappy about this, pointing out that he had better and more glorious plans for his eventual death than being a redshirt sacrifice to a computer, and that Ironfist should do it, as he had, as a laboratory-bound inventor, led less of a "worthy" life.
After a moment of personal reflection, Ironfist was willing to agree to be the sacrifice. Until Topspin spoke up, revealing that he knew through his link that Twin Twist was about to be tortured to death elsewhere anyway, so he would rather have them go out with a measure of dignity.
The computer accepted Topspin's spark and rebooted itself. Perceptor then downloaded the contents of the computer into Ironfist's brain and wiped the computer's hard drive, and the knowledge of the truth in Aequitas's banks shook Ironfist's psyche.
By then, the Decepticons were about to break into the chamber. Perceptor noted that Aequitas could be used to activate the deterrence chips and kill all of the ex-prisoners, which would include their pursuers... and Impactor. It was a put to a vote: Perceptor voted yea, Pyro voted nay, and Ironfist used Aequitas's data to pass judgment by proxy that yes, Impactor deserved to die. Last Stand of the Wreckers #4
Although Verity convinced the Autobots not to use the deterrence chips, Ironfist used Aequitas' information to figure out the remote detonation code. Loading a gun with thousands of the chips which Springer used to shoot Overlord, Ironfist used the code to detonate the chips. The backlash from this rendered Ironfist unconscious. When he came to, Overlord was defeated. On the trip back to meet up with Ultra Magnus, Ironfist created a single copy of all of Aequitas' information. Sadly, Ironfist died from a terminal injury incurred in a lab accident, and the copy was handed over to Prowl. After a discussion with Ultra Magnus on the possible damage that could be caused if the Autobot rank-and-file knew what sort of monsters lived in their ranks, Prowl was left alone; Magnus said he thought it would be a disservice to both of them if he considered Prowl likely to destroy the copy and looked at it himself first.
Then Prowl contemplated exactly what to do with the Aequitas dataslug, and started to apply some...pressure Last Stand of the Wreckers #5
Notes
- Did Prowl really destroy the data chip or did he preserve it after all? Even Roche and Roberts don't know! [1]
- Aequitas is a Latin word referring to the concept of fairness between individuals, as well as the name of the Roman goddess of fair trade and honest merchants.
- This wouldn't be the first time in Transformers fiction a computer required someone's life force be sacrificed to it in order to activate it after the primary method was lost.
