Power Station Alpha
- Power Station Alpha is an energy generator from the Generation 1 continuity family.
The first tangible result of a United States government-funded project, Power Station Alpha is the prototype for a revolutionary new kind of solar/nuclear power station that is designed to solve the nation's energy shortages. The station is mobile, due to its ability to convert into an aircraft. The ambitious mind behind this visionary project is senator Barbara Larkin, who fought a hard battle to get the project approved. Or at least, so goes the official version. Power Station Alpha's real story contains a lot more Cobra and if ever it could've solved energy shortages, it would've been Cybertron's under Decepticon rule.
Fiction
Marvel Comics G.I. Joe and the Transformers
One way or the other, Barbara Larkin came in contact with Cobra and made a deal with them. She would have a new type of power station designed and built. Though the power station would inherently not be a good idea because of the destructive potential it would have if it would make its way into the wrong hands, the project would get money to Larkin's homestate and generate a good number of jobs. Cobra's task then was to steal and destroy the power station, covering Larkin's tracks. What Cobra would get out of this is unknown, but because the power station had always been intended to be destroyed, the architects, in league with Larkin, had not taken proper fail-safes or substantial precautions in the design, leaving Power Station Alpha with considerable weaknesses. Ashes, Ashes...
Power Station Alpha was built inside Fort Lewis. The project caught the attention of the Washington population, concerned individuals of which started a protest against what they believed to be another nuclear disaster. At some stage, G.I. Joe was called in to regulate Fort Lewis's security as long as Power Station Alpha would be housed there. A day before the first test launch, Hawk escorted Barbara Larkin and three congressmen to Fort Lewis, past a large group of protesters. While Hawk and one congressman expressed their belief in Power Station Alpha, the two other congressmen remained convinced that the harm Power Station Alpha could do outweighed its potential benefits.
Meanwhile, at Autobot Headquarters in Oregon, Optimus Prime sent out Bumblebee to keep an eye on Power Station Alpha. In the Autobots' opinion, the power station was the most sophisticated construct humanity had come up with to date, and they feared that the Decepticons would try to steal it. Back in Washington, the Dreadnoks Ripper, Torch and Buzzer were getting bored with waiting amidst the protestors for orders to steal Power Station Alpha, so they decided to do the job on their own. Because they didn't know about or expect G.I. Joe's presence at Fort Lewis, they failed miserably and had to make a run for it. These events were monitored by both Cobra Commander on Cobra Island and Megatron at the tropical island base. Cobra Commander was furious because now the Joes knew of Cobra's interest in the power station, which would make stealing it a lot harder, ánd Serpentor was likely to make use of this failure to usurp Cobra Commander's leadership position. Megatron, in contrast, now was convinced Power Station Alpha was a worthwhile object to try to obtain. He ordered Bombshell to create a special cerebro-shell that would work on Power Station Alpha's main computer and sent him and Dirge to implant it.
Bumblebee arrived at the end of the day, leaving him a full night to admire the beauty of Power Station Alpha. When the power station was rolled out for launch the next day, everything was running smoothly until the Decepticons arrived. To get Bumblebee out of the way, Bombshell cerebro-shelled a a young boy among the protesters and got him to walk into Power Station Alpha's path. Bumblebee blew his cover to save the child from being crushed. As the Joes worried about the damage they might cause to Power Station Alpha if they fought the robot, Larkin insisted that it would be better to destroy the power station than to let if fall into wrong hands. So, the Joes shot Bumblebee to pieces and then had to deal with Superion when he came looking for his comrade. Blood on the Tracks
Power Station Alpha was brought to safety deeper inside the base while the Joes dealt with the robots. With Megatron growing loonier by the minute, Shockwave took over in stealing the power station. Remote-controlling it through the cerebro-shell implanted earlier, Shockwave flew Power Station Alpha their way. Power Struggle
