Journeying across space and time to carry out the greatest heist in history, Cannonball and the Star Seekers clash with the Cybertronian Knights in the far future of Cybertron.
Synopsis
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
Quotes
Notes
Continuity notes
- This story takes place in the Wings Universe, Fun Publications's version of the Generation 1 cartoon. The Star Seekers apparently intend to only travel forward to the pre-Beast Wars era of peace on Cybertron, but instead wind up overshooting it and arrive instead in the post-Beast Machines time period, after the planet has been rendered technorganic.
- In commemoration of BotCon's 20th anniversary, this story also loops around to the beginning stages of the original BotCon storyline, "Reaching the Omega Point", by concluding with the birth of Shokaract. Just as the Wings Universe is only a near-identical version of the Generation 1 cartoon, however, only a near-identical version of the "Omega Point" storyline exists in the Wings Universe continuity; while the events of the story probably took place pretty much exactly as we saw them in those original BotCon comics, there are some continuity points that don't quite line up (most notably, the Hunter was a Predacon from a Megatron-ruled Cybertron evading Maximal rebels on a desolate future Earth, rather than a monstrous pirate who was transwarped there), though other bios and blurbs published as part of the convention fiction take pains to reconcile as many points as possible (such as Tap-Out's status). The distinction is further cemented by Tornado's Personal Journal, which includes some log entries by this story's Apelinq describing the events of the 3H stories as occurring in "another place" and "another time", and happening to "another me".
- The Star Seekers' Tidal Wave is visually based on Armada Tidal Wave. The story gives no indication that the ship is anything more than just a ship, with nothing to suggest it can transform like its Armada progenitor, though a poster by Sakamoto sold at BotCon 2014 did feature a robot-mode Tidal Wave.
- Axer appears among the ranks of the Star Seekers, in reference to his Aligned counterpart, who joined the Aligned version of the Star Seekers in the Exiles novel.
- In 2011, it was discovered that "Big Rescue Force", the half-formed combiner that could be partially built out of the Rescue Force, had actually been canonized in a 1993 European sticker album, and he makes his first in-story appearance here. In keeping with that, the same scene canonizes the other half-formed Autobot combiner from 1992: the unnamed, incomplete 'bot that can be formed from the Motorvators, who so lacks in combiner kibble that he is here rendered with swords instead of hands.
- Offering a hint of how far into the future the Star Seekers have jumped, a Maximal symbol is just about visible on a building on Galadria.
- Flamewar is paid in energon chips and Cyber Keys.
- The Delta Prysmos outpost incorporates a space bridge structure based on Decepticon Headquarters, as well as the Gasoline Base, fire station and Airport Base Micromaster Stations. The remaining station, the construction station, is on Cyberion, along with the Rocket Base.
- Alpha Trizer homages the unreleased Snarl redeco 3H Productions mocked up as a potential Alpha Trion toy; his name references the Autobot Master Warrior Toraizer. Add in the revelation at the story's climax that he's actually a future version of Cheetor, and it's three big cats rolled into one!
- Blackarachnia appears in Primal Prime's portrait in her Universe body.
- The power packs the Star Seekers use to reactivate Unicron's head resemble small AllSparks.
- At the story's end, Apelinq notes that it is 2984 Earth time, a solid millennia since the Autobots and Decepticons awoke on Earth. He also offers up a few alternative dating schemes, using the six-digit system that was employed on his War Journals waaay back in the day (those were dated to stellar cycle 316, this story takes place in cycle 473), referencing the new calendar Monacus adopted after the deposition of Lord Gyconi (in the Generation 1 cartoon episode "The Gambler"), and the calendar of the planet Skuxxos (homeworld of the Skuxxoid, named in The AllSpark Almanac II).
Real-life references
- The Delta Prysmos system refers to the planet Prysmos from Hasbro's Visionaries franchise, with Apelinq even referring to it as a "tempest of solar radiation", a key plot point in the Visionaries mythos. In a further reference, the Autobots' outpost, Galadria, is named after the lone female member of the heroic Spectral Knights from the series.
- Among the Autobots on Galadria is a 'bot based on Bonaparte Tulcas, the third "Deluxe Vehicle" from the Dorvack toyline who, unlike Whirl and Roadbuster, didn't make the jump to the Transformers line.
Other trivia
- This is labelled Timelines #10, but the last issue was labelled #8. There have been ten issues published, but we got two #1s, the second being labelled the first of a second volume that has continued its numbering until now.
Covers
- BotCon Edition: Photography of the Ape-Linq, Alpha Trizer, Flareup, Hunter and Flamewar toys in a space battle, composited by Lanny Lathem.
