Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur

	; Ravage isn't the only Decepticon who can use social media.
	"Tornado's Personal Journal"

Tornado passes the time aboard the Tidal Wave by recording his thoughts and arguing with you.

Synopsis

Squadron X mounts an attack on Torax Prime in an attempt to draw out the Wreckers, but quickly realize that their Autobot foes aren't coming—the Great War has ended. Fang, Triton and Crosscut all attempt to disobey Macabre's orders to stay put, and are summarily executed by the Squadron's leader. When Earthquake subsequently goes mad, blowing up himself and Macabre, Tornado and Ferak are left as the group's last surviving members.

The duo flee Torax Prime in a cobbled-together ship, but find themselves pursued in deep space by an Autobot fighter craft. The Decepticons are saved, however, by the timely intervention of the Tidal Wave and her crew of Star Seeker pirates. The ship's captain, Cannonball, agrees to take the pair aboard on the condition that they assist with an enigmatic heist he is planning.

Tornado and Ferak fall in with the crew's everyday pillaging and plundering, including one raid that leads them to a vault containing a parchment map that relates to Cannonball's grand plan. Ferak and existing crew-member Axor bond over their shared love of weaponry, whilst Tornado develops a distaste for Olin Zarak, a young Nebulan who inherited the Scorponok body from his father and acts as muscle for the ship.

The Tidal Wave passes into the Demon's Maw, a region of space rendered devoid of light by gas clouds. The crew pass the time in various ways, with Stormcharge and Turbolift hunting vapor-rats, whilst others listen to tales of the Star Seekers' history from the ship's ancient bartender, Thunderlane. Eventually, however, the monotony is broken by an attack by a vast space monster. Thanks to forewarning from the bartender's pet sonicondor, Ferrocious, the pirates are able to react quickly, but not before the creature swallows part of the Tidal Wave and several of her crew-members, including Thunderlane. The ship is nearly lost, but a cunning Cannonball has Master Gunner Brimstone hold fire until they are nearly inside the creature's mouth, allowing them to fire down its throat and send it running.

Leaving the Maw, the Star Seekers restock supplies on the planet Greengard, picking up Rockhopper, a near-Cybertronian who never leaves his penguin-like alternate mode, as a new maintenance technician at the same time. Not long afterwards, Cannonball makes a grand motivational speech for the crew, aided by the Chairman, a robot who acts as speech writer, teleprompter and—in alternate mode—the captain's chair.

Tornado settles back into everyday life on the Tidal Wave, bemoaning the noise as Eclipse, Cannonball's bestial tracker, Rolling Thunder, and Thunderclap tear through the corridors. Ferak continues to work on outlandish weaponry, whilst Tornado decides to dabble in the ship's black market, run by two of Brimstone's gunners, Cutback and Lockpick, the latter of whom contains a miniature Transwarp device thanks to chief mechanic Drydock. After dealing with a Trepdillian Lava Flea infestation courtesy of organic pirate Squirm, Tornado has the black marketeers procure an alien Sky Seer bird as a test of their abilities.

Before Tornado can make his next 'order' with Cutback and Lockpick, the Tidal Wave arrives at Ventax II, where Cannonball aims to loot more supplies for the upcoming heist. The diminutive Decepticon is smuggled into the planet's capital by ace pilot Skyduster, and proceeds to sabotage their defense grid and orbital scanners, allowing the Tidal Wave to move in for a full scale assault. Tornado is given a ride to the battlefield by one of Ferak's new transforming "Arms Minicon" weapons, where Scorponok steals a Ventaxan energy generator before the crew withdraws.

Back on the ship, Tornado makes his new request of the black marketeers: a Lukythian Warp Star, a self-firing bullet that would negate the perpetually jammed nature of the small Decepticon's weapon mode. Although Ferak unwittingly finds the device before Tornado can retrieve it, he lets his larger partner hold on to it on the basis that he'd likely be the one firing him anyway.

In preparation for the heist, Ferak and Scorponok carry out upgrades to the ship's Transwarp engines, whilst Arms Minicons are distributed to the crew. Cannonball locks himself away with the reptilian Navigator, and Tornado takes an opportunity to exact revenge on Squirm by coating his bedding in an attractant for Cannonball's tracker beast. Eventually, the captain reveals that the Tidal Wave will be spending a marathon six solar cycles in Transwarp, but their destination remains secret. Brimstone insists that the crew carry on as normal, and whilst boatswain Neurotoxin and Axor prepare their weapons, Tornado visits Ferak, who claims that his work on the Arms Minicons has given him ideas as to fixing the small Decepticon's alternate mode.

Some time later, once the Tidal Wave has entered Transwarp, Tornado begins noticing strange goings-on, such as Boltcaster repeating a sentence twice, and inexplicable voices and log entries in the communications system. Several of these mysterious log entries are written by somebody called "Apelinq"... To pass the time in Transwarp, Tornado has a nose around the ship's computer system, uncovering a secret surveillance system manned by Brimstone and Cannonball's log from the day he recruited the Hunter.

The following events follow after the events of the BotCon 2014 comic "Hoist the Flag".

Having been taken prisoner by the Knights, Tornado bemoans the crew's situation after their failed heist. He and recent recruit, Flamewar, discuss the fates of Squadron X and the great Decepticon leader Megatron, and the mercenary reveals a secret compartment within her calf containing a possible ticket to their escape: the Lukythian Warp Star. With Scorponok and Brimstone having absconded by Space Bridge to the Tidal Wave, and the Hunter having seemingly vanished, Tornado resolves that they will have to free the captain and the rest of the crew themselves...