Lost Light
- The Lost Light is a starship from the IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.
Originally a vessel owned by a group of neutral Transformers, the Lost Light is now the starship utilized by Rodimus and about 230 other assorted Transformers on a quest to find the mythical Knights of Cybertron.
Though apparently unremarkable by Transformer standards, the ship is quite large - described by Ultra Magnus as 15 miles in length, and 10 miles wide, and large enough for an entire extra chamber to be attached to it in secret without anybody onboard noticing. It contains numerous habitation suites for its crew, various offices and workshops for those who require them, a bar redubbed "Swerve's" after the ship's launch, and a large oil reservoir where introspective bots sometimes go to ponder. The ship's hangars carry an unknown number of shuttlecraft, including the Leading Light and Rodpod. Rodimus upgraded the Lost Light's armament with a batch of proton missile launchers after a visit to Hedonia.
The Lost Light is a "hop ship" which utilizes insanely advanced quantum engines to travel almost instantaneously across vast distances, though those distances can be limited by the amount of power available to the ship. (You don't want to be standing next to these engines when they activate, as they break the laws of physics in ways that can be very unhealthy.) On top, the ship carries a group of "fuel quills".
The ship was known by its previous owners as U1.
Fiction
IDW Generation 1 continuity
Millions of years ago, before the war, Rung owned a model of the Lost Light, or at least a ship of the same model. Post Hoc
The Lost Light was found empty and abandoned at Vela Pulsar by the original NAIL owners, who christened it U1. Twenty Plus One A Sparkeater was kept contained in the Lost Light by its original owners. It was kept docile by turbofox meals. The Chaos of Warm Things
The Lost Light was among the NAIL ships that returned to Cybertron at the end of the war. It was purchased by Drift (with the help of Pipes and Riptide) during the Festival of Lost Light for One Billion Shanix from a group of Mortilus-worshipping NAILs. Twenty Plus One Rodimus was unaware of all this as he was given the ship as a present from Drift. ...And the Damage Done Rodimus decided to use the ship after he was denied the use of Omega Supreme in his quest to find the Knights of Cybertron, a group from Cybertron's ancient past. He intended on following a map discovered in the halves of the now empty Matrix of Leadership by Perceptor and Rewind, hoping that the knowledge and power of the Knights could be used to bring Cybertron into a new golden age. Rodimus gave a rousing speech on the day prior to the launch, intending on swaying the varied Transformers currently inhabiting and feuding on Cybertron to accompany him. While Prowl predicted Rodimus would fail to convince anyone to leave with him, at least 200 answered the call. After being checked and cleared by a diligent Red Alert, the passengers boarded the Lost Light, along with a "weapon of mass destruction" brought on board by Ratchet, an unconscious and crippled Tailgate, and mysterious cargo smuggled aboard on Prowl's orders.
The ship launched on schedule, but something went wrong. As the Lost Light lifted off, it was rocked by an explosion and quantum jumped before it was ready. The last that was seen of the ship from Cybertron was a massive fireball; it was assumed that all aboard were killed. When he learned of the event some while later, Orion Pax thought even with the Lost Light's "destruction", Rodimus and his crew were still alive. Syndromica (1)
The ship's fate was far more complicated, however: its hyper-advanced quantum engines malfunctioned, narrowing its choice of destinations not to a single point in space, but to two points in space. The ship responded by arriving at both points, having created a quantum duplicate of itself, and everyone and everything onboard. slaughterhouse Part 2: The Road Not Taken
Lost Light A
The jump placed the Lost Light over its intended destination, but also caused one of the rear thrusters to explode. Rung was lost in the explosion.
The Sparkeater that none of the Autobots knew of broke out during their journey, killing Shock before going on a hunt for the "brightest spark" on the ship: Animus. Rodimus had the rest of the crew locked in their quarters and, using Animus as bait, lured the Sparkeater to the engine room, where he mashed it into a generator when the Lost Light did its next quantum jump. Unfortunately the bold captain miscalculated, and his head became emeshed in the generators as well, killing him. The crew held a funeral according to spectralist rites, and launched Rodimus's body space aboard a coffin made from the ship's engine casings.
No longer feeling beholden to Rodimus, Drift made a confession to now-commander Ultra Magnus: secreted below the lowest level of the ship was a hidden chamber, a "slow time" cell, in which a captive Overlord was suspended.
Meanwhile, Rewind began keeping a travelogue of the ship's adventures, and Crosscut finished his play Information Creep, announcing its debut performance in his newly opened playhouse space.
Unbeknownst to the crew, someone deactivated the slow cell, unmasking Overlord's energy signature. The Decepticon Justice Division caught up with the ship near the lectureworld of Ofsted XVII. Finding the captive Overlord beneath the ship, they gleefully sawed his head off. slaughterhouse Part 2: The Road Not Taken
Then they killed everyone on board.
Storming the ship's bridge, they annihilated the command crew. Tarn dispatched Ultra Magnus with a single blast; one of the DJD subsequently pulled his inner Minimus Ambus form out of the Magnus Armor. Perceptor, Mainframe, Swerve, and Whirl were killed off in nearly the same moment. Some of the deceased had their brain modules yanked out by Helex and placed in their mouths; others were forced to transform to vehicle mode before being executed and their transformation cogs harvested to feed Tarn's transformation addiction. slaughterhouse
As the DJD slaughtered their way through the ship, the mounting casualties included Pipes and Red Alert (killed by Helex), Cyclonus (blasted by Vos, wielded by Tarn), Cosmos (killed by Tesarus), and Dipstick and Chromedome (killed by Kaon). They forced Rewind to film the entire slaughter, saying they'd spare Chromedome if he did, only to kill him anyway. Only Rewind was left alive. slaughterhouse Part 2: The Road Not Taken
Subsequently, a massive three-way battle occurred around the derelict ship and on the surface of Ofsted XVII, between the Black Block Consortia, the Galactic Council, and the DJD. The DJD didn't fare as well as they might have; two of their number were left damaged and helpless on the planet's surface. The Lost Light itself was ripped to pieces, its quantum foam left drifting through space among its shattered chunks. Births, Deaths, and Interventions
The Lost Light and its deceased crew were erased from existence when crew members from its quantum duplicate arrived and shut down its quantum engines. slaughterhouse Part 2: The Road Not Taken
Lost Light B
The jump placed the Lost Light over an unknown planet somewhere in space and caused one of the rear thrusters to explode, resulting in a fire and a hull tear in one of the hangars on the upper decks. Before the tear could be sealed, 40 Autobots were ejected through the breach. Rodimus ordered the Lost Light to be set down on the planet's surface so the lost Autobots could be recovered. How to Say Goodbye and Mean It Perceptor and Brainstorm found that the reason for the explosion was that Ore had been standing close to one of the quantum generators when they were activated, and was mashed into it. By the time the rescue mission was done and the Lost Light left the planet, Skids joined the crew while Hyperion and Polaris had been found dead. Hangers On
The Sparkeater that none of the Autobots knew of broke out during their journey, killing Shock and Animus before going on a hunt for the "brightest spark" on the ship: Rung. Rodimus had the rest of the crew locked in their quarters and, using Rung as bait, lured the Sparkeater to the engine room, where he mashed it into a generator when the Lost Light did its next quantum jump. The Chaos of Warm Things
The crew then had a celebration at Swerve's recently opened bar and Rodimus ordered Rewind to give Tailgate a history lesson about the Great War. Life After the Big Bang
Ultra Magnus would later teach Tailgate the Autobot Code while Ratchet, Drift, and Pipes investigated on significant life declining in Delphi. Meanwhile, Red Alert told Rung he was hearing noises below his room in the Sparkeater chamber that was vaguely recognized as "me...kill" over and over again. Later on, Ratchet and his comrades returned with new crew members including Fortress Maximus. How Ratchet Got His Hands Back
Despite attempts to give him therapy, Maximus shot a bunch of crew members before taking Rung and Whirl hostage so he could demand the ship be taken back to Cybertron. Swerve and Rewind, who had been replacing rivets on the ship's hull, attempted to shoot him through the window, but accidentally injured Rung instead. Elsewhere, Red Alert used the deceased Ore's drill arm to find the source of the noise he had heard earlier. Drilling through the floor of the Sparkeater chamber, the lowest level of the ship according its schematics, he found a hidden chamber in which a captive Overlord was suspended, begging to be killed. Interiors
An encounter with the Galactic Council on Theophany led to the discovery of a slumbering Metrotitan beneath a razed and deserted Crystal City. Upon being set free by the Lost Light's crew, the Metrotitan teleported the Light away from Theophany. Theorizing that the Decepticons were behind it, Rodimus decided to take the Lost Light near the Argon Nebulae, where Decepticon activity had been reported. You, Me, and Other Revelations
The Decepticon group that the crew engaged turned out not to be linked to the disappearance of the Circle of Light, several members of the crew were injured fighting the group- including Rewind, causing Chromedome to agree to work with a mysterious individual. Before & After
The ship later stopped at Hedonia where the crew got some much needed R&R while testing out Brainstorm and Rung's new holomatter avatars. Cybertronian Homesick Blues While there Skids, Whirl and Rewind met two other races of transforming beings -the Ammonites and their enemy the Terradores. The meeting ended with Whirl killing the leader of Terradores.
Some time later, the ship encountered the legendary Thunderclash and his ship the Vis Vitalis, much to the dismay of Rodimus, Thunderclash also turned out to be in pursuit of the Knights of Cybertron and required the Lost Light's quantum engines to repower the ship. Thunderclash's second in command Paddox turned out to be a group of Ammonites and was neutralized by Swerve and Rung, the two ships departed with Thunderclash promising to inform the Knights of Cybertron of Rodimus' sacrifice if he encountered them first.Little Victories
Overlord was next released from a slow cell on the bottom of the ship's hull Remembrance Day and started to rampage around the ship until he was forced into his cell by Fortress Maximus and the cell was removed from the hull- at the cost of Rewind's life. Under Cold Blue Stars After Overlord's attack, funerals were held for the casualties of the attack and Drift was banished for his role in allowing Overlord onboard. The Gloaming
Shortly after the funeral, Ultra Magnus suddenly sat bolt upright from his medibay bed, traveled to the shuttle bay, and departed the Lost Light. Rodimus set the ship on a pursuit course, arriving at a huge dimensional portal. Passing through it, the crew made a discovery beyond their reckoning: the long-lost Cybertronian moon, Luna 1.
The ship remained in orbit while a small crew went to the surface to investigate. Soon, however, the Lost Light was invaded by an army of giant golden robots, Remain in Light 1 of 5: The Fecund Moon who soon overran the crew despite their best efforts, taking them captive. Remain in Light 2 of 5: House of Ambus
Crew
(Crew members who died during the voyage of Lost Light A are marked with asterisks.)
Initial Crew
Its crew at launch includes:
- Ammo
- Animus (deceased)
- Aquabat
- Aquafend
- Aquastar
- Atomizer
- Blades*
- Blaster*
- Bob (departed)
- Boss
- Brainstorm*
- Brawn
- Chromedome*
- Cosmos (departed)*
- Crosscut
- Crosshairs
- Deftwing (deceased)
- Dipstick*
- Doubletap
- Drift (nominal third-in-command, now exiled)*
- Fizzle (departed)
- Gears
- Grapple
- Highbrow*
- Hoist
- Hound*
- Huffer*
- Hyperion (deceased)
- Inferno*
- Jackpot*
- Lancet
- Landmine
- Lockstock
- Mainframe*
- Ore (deceased)
- Perceptor*
- Pincher
- Pipes (deceased)*
- Pointblank
- Polaris (deceased)
- Powerflash*
- Powerglide (departed)
- Rad*
- Railspike[1]
- Ratchet*
- Red Alert (departed, former director of security)*
- Rewind (deceased)
- Rodimus (Co-Captain, former Captain)*
- Rollout*
- Rung*
- Shock (deceased)
- Siren
- Slapdash
- Smokescreen*
- Spoke
- Sprocket
- Steeljaw
- Strafe*
- Sunstreaker (departed)
- Sureshot
- Swerve*
- Toaster[2]
- Toxin
- Trailbreaker/Trailcutter (deceased, former director of security)*
- Tripodeca (deceased)
- Turbine
- Ultra Magnus (second-in-command)*
- Waverider
- Xaaron
Additions after launch
Joining the crew after their journey is underway:
Additions after return to Cybertron
Joining the crew after their return to Cybertron:
Games
Transformers Legends
The Lost Light was exploring a distant planet when it came under attack by mysterious forces. Nightbeat and Windblade went to investigate and faced off against the Ammonites along with a group of Decepticons from another starship. Into the Abyss
Notes
- According to Roberts in an online interview, Fireflight intended to join the crew of the Lost Light but was talked out of it at the last minute by "someone with a vested interest".[4]
- At least one member of the Lost Light crew was the result of artist error. In issue #16, a misdrawn Chromedome was transformed into the unofficial TFCon fan-character "Toxin" by colorist Josh Burcham via an edit to the character's lineart and colors. Additionally, a scripted appearance for Generation 1 Landmine in Spotlight: Trailcutter was drawn instead as Energon Landmine, although this wiki currently treats this as an appearance for the G1 character.
