Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur

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"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 occur after the events of the BotCon 2014 comic "Hoist the Flag".

Having been taken prisoner by the Cybertronian 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 seemingly vanished, Tornado resolves that they will have to free the captain and the rest of the crew themselves.

Eventually, the Star Seekers are able to make their escape, and Tornado downloads a chunk of the prison's database on the way out. Whilst mostly unremarkable, there is one hidden gem amongst the files: surveillance footage of Waspinator's cell. Cannonball recognizes that the star charts the Predacon has scrawled across his walls are in fact a map to the undying spark of the notorious Decepticon Starscream, and the crew quickly sets out to find it, believing it to be the key to untold wealth.

The journey takes them through the Unknown Sector, uncomfortably close to Old Quintesson space now controlled by the territorial Mutants, and where all normal navigation instruments are rendered useless by the great number of black holes in the region. Despite the Navigator's unease with travelling through the Unknown Sector blind, they eventually reach a planetoid. To endure the gravitational forces on the last lap to the planetoid, Ferak concocts "Electro-Magnetic Refracture", which creates a magnetic field allowing for safe transport. The ride is nevertheless bumpy, but they manage to arrive at the planetoid in the middle of seeming nothingness and the captain takes a small party to the body.

The landing party locates an empty stronghold, but Cannonball takes his dagger and chips away a wall, revealing a message in Ancient Cybertronian: "Beyond this wall is to know treachery. Beyond this wall is to know betrayal. Beyond this wall is to know immortality." Tornado blasts a wall, revealing a decayed Quintesson, who claims to have partnered with Starscream to plunder the planetoid for riches and power, but ended up being betrayed and left for dead. He promises to reveal where Starscream went if Cannonball takes him back to the ship. Once there, the Quintesson is ceremoniously left in the brig, where he lies motionless after entering.

The Tidal Wave is essentially stuck where it is and odd things begin happening on board, such as crewmembers acting strangely and trashing rooms. Tornado decides to investigate for himself and spies, via hidden camera, on Flamewar speaking with Lockpick, who is holding a Spark Containment Chamber that Ferak was working on. Ferak comes up with using forestonite to supercharge the engines and escape the black holes, but as the plan is about to commence, Flamewar shows up on the bridge with Starscream's spark! The spark is quick in its work and knocks out all of the crew on the bridge, other than Cannonball and Tornado. Flamewar reveals that she plans to use the Tidal Wave and its crew in her ambitions to resurrect the Decepticon Empire. Just as Tornado realizes that Starscream had used the Quuintesson as a Trojan Horse to escape the planetoid, Flamewar throws a container at Cannonball, allowing Starscream to enter his body and take over. The process mutates Cannonball's body into a form similar to Starscream's and expels Cannonball's spark, which is then trapped in the Spark Containment Container. Tornado is hit with the realization that the Lockpick talking to Flamewar wasn't Lockpick, but Starscream making a deal with Flamewar to take out Cannonball in exchange for freedom from his prison.

With Cannonball out of the equation, Flamewar and Starscream gather the Star Seekers and give them three choices: Stay with Cannonball's spark on the planetoid, die, or join Flamewar in her mission to bring the Decepticons back to their former glory. A third of the crew decide to remain with their captain, loyal to the end. Ferak and Tornado are much more pragmatic and elect to go with Flamewar. The Tidal Wave leaves the prison thanks to the remaining forestonite and Starscream flies off to parts unknown. Flamewar becomes the next Cannonball and asks Tornado if he brought any useful files from their escape from prison, to which he responds affirmatively.

The first file Tornado pulls up is Apelinq's journal entry for the first time he met Flareup. At the Training Academy, Apelinq has come to bring Flareup, a promising new cadet to the Cybertronian Knights. Primal Prime is also there, ignorant that Ginrai has already asked Flareup. Primal Prime asks the cadet to join the Wreckers, but Flareup informs the commander that she has already accepted Ginrai's invitation to join the Knights. Another journal entry bemoans the Knights being forced into a meditation session with Alpha Trizer, the ancient sage who founded the Knights. Tornado finally finds some interesting facts in a journal entry that contains logs from the Rodimus Major. It starts with Buzzsaw's pranks on the crew, but it is eventually revealed that the Wreckers fell into a spatial anomaly at the Dark Nebula while trying to investigate a Predacon colony. Tornado thinks the colony would be of interest to Flamewar...

Journal entries

Mentioned characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Star Seekers Decepticons Autobots Maximals Others

Present crew

Former crew

Squadron X

Other

Wreckers (present)

Wreckers (future)

Cybertronian Knights

Other

Cybertronian Knights

Wreckers (future)

Other

Notes

Continuity notes

  • As part of the Wings Universe, Tornado's Personal Journal takes place in a continuity nearly identical to the Generation 1 cartoon. The Wings Universe also contains the "Dawn of Future's Past" comic, nearly identical versions of the Beast Wars and Beast Machines cartoon, and similar events to the 3H The Wreckers comic. Tornado's Personal Journal also acts as a companion story to the BotCon 2014 comic "Hoist the Flag".
  • The Autobot fighter that tries to apprehend Tornado and Ferak is a Vanguard-class Deep Space Interceptor, the same class as the famed Ark.
  • Cannonball the First appeared in "A Team Effort".
  • Devcon was a member of the Wreckers, paralleling his role in The Wreckers portion of the 3H Universe comics.
  • Olin Zarak references the Decepticons' arrival on Nebulos, which occurred in the cartoon episode "The Rebirth, Part 1".
  • Rodimus Major died sometime in the past, paralleling the events of "Wreckers: Finale Part II".
  • In addition to Apelinq's journal entries being a new version of Apelinq's War Journals, Apelinq keeps having visions of events in the 3H Reaching the Omega Point storyline and the Hunter for yet to be specified reasons.
  • Apelinq notes that Alpha Trizer is technically prehistoric as he predates the loss of the Cybernet Space Cube archive unit. This appears to be an explanation for how no one seems to know anything about Alpha Trizer's background despite the Beast Machines cartoon occurring only a few centuries earlier, a relatively short span of time for a Transformer. Apelinq also states that Alpha Trizer has been around for as long as anyone can remember. This seems like a weak explanation, however, as several characters in the Journal and its companion piece "Hoist the Flag" were alive in the era of the G1 cartoon, long before Alpha Trizer presumably came online: Devcon, Ironhide, Strafe, Volt, Electro, and Rook.
  • When Apelinq was a protoform, he was told stories of Alpha Trizer being a member of an elite team of ancients whose battles crossed time and space.
  • As in the Beast Wars cartoon, Cybertron does not have active contact with Earth in the future era. Apelinq is only aware of Earth as a "fabled planet" from Cybertronian texts. What does that mean, then, for Electro and Volt, two Earthborn Autobots?
  • In the Wings Universe, Tap-Out died in million of years earlier in "The Coming Storm: Part 6", but he is alive in the post-Beast Machines era. This appears to not be an error, however, as he acknowledges in-story that he has "already been dead once". While the cause has yet to be specified, resurrection is hardly unprecedented in the Transformers franchise.
  • Following the background events of the Beast Machines cartoon, Wings Universe Thrust is now calling himself Waspinator once more and has somehow re-acquired a regular Predacon-sized body. It would appear that after Beast Machines, Waspinator came into contact with Starscream at least once more as Waspinator knows the location of Starscream's prison in 2984.
  • The Mutants controlling former Quintesson space also parallels the events of "Wreckers: Finale Part II".
  • Forestonite has heavily featured in the Wings Universe, beginning with the BotCon 2010 comic "Generation 2: Redux".
  • In the logs of the Rodimus Major, Night Viper notes how he does not trust Buzzsaw because of the previous team's experience with "former" enemy agents. This probably refers to a parallel version of Cyclonus's actions in the 3H The Wreckers comic.

Transformers references

Real-life references

Errors

  • It may or may not be an error, but Apelinq lists one of the lesser challenges than mandatory meditation as Terrorcons swarming Cybertron's cities. This seems more like a reference to the Terrorcons of the Unicron Trilogy or Aligned continuity families, of which there were hordes, than to the G1 Terrorcons, of which there were only 5.
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