Alone Together: Prologue

As a Maximal team stages a breakout, one of their number encounters someone familiar.

Synopsis

On a dystopian Cybertron, a Maximal records an entry into his personal journal. On this Cybertron, the war never really ended; when the Autobots and Decepticons grew too old to continue fighting, the Maximals and Predacons were built in their place. These "Builders" encouraged hostilities between their descendants, and much to the Maximal's shame, he fell for it all. That all changed after one mission, where his utterly loyal commander led his squadron into a slaughter against the Predacon Darksyders. His friends Rhinox and Silverbolt were killed almost immediately, and when he was nearly killed himself, the rest of his squad turned on their leader. That day, he realized that there was no honor in this "war", and abandoned the cause. Now a renegade, the Maximal plans to free his Predacon friend, Dynobot, from the Ferromax Detention Center. Rattrap sets down his recorder, as he goes to join the others...'

Outside the Ferromax, Maximals Botanica, Jawbreaker, Gecko-Bot, and Trans-Mutate grapple up the side of the prison. Botanica has Gecko-Bot activate the Impercepton shield, hiding them from the guards. It doesn't hide them from Rattrap, however, who has already managed to get inside. Explaining to Botanica's soldiers that he faked his death and that he plans to broadcast after they free Dynobot, Rattrap leads them into the vents. Unable to use the shield in close quarters, Botanica activates a drone previously given to her by Rattrap, which hacks into the security cameras. Botanica is ready to push forward, but Rattrap holds her back, having far more experience than the younger Maximals, much to her consternation.

Eventually reaching the Maximum Security level, the Maximals go to free Dynobot from his cell. Trans-Mutate, however, is held up, when a voice from one cell begins to speak to her; the cell of someone familiar. The prisoner can tell there's something different about her, and that she's holding back her true strength. The other Maximals call to her as they escape with Dynobot; the voice urges her to go with them, but also to show them what she's truly capable of. The voice tells her not to worry about him; after all...

It won't be long before Trans-Mutate and Protoform X meet once again.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Your spark, it's not like the others. It speaks of your pain. Such sorrow; sorrow blessed with fury. It has a darkness I can taste."

—Protoform X

Notes

• Characters mentioned but not seen include: Alpha Trion, the "Boss-Gasket", the Darksyders, Rhinox, Silverbolt, Cheetor, Blackarachnia, and Nightscream.

Continuity notes

• The first proper fiction for Beast Wars: Uprising, the universe was first mentioned in Blackarachnia's profile in issue #25 of the Club magazine, which told the story of Blackarachnia's dystopian Cybertron, and the assault on her squad by the Predacons that got Rhinox and Silverbolt killed, and made Cheetor, Nightscream, and her defect. Rattrap was also mentioned as having been killed, but as he says here, reports of his death were greatly exaggerated. Protoform X, meanwhile, was first mentioned in Timelines Depth Charge's tech specs and profile.

Transformers references

• Jawbreaker and Gecko-Bot were chosen to appear probably due to the fact that they were practically the only two Beast Era characters in America who hadn't got fiction aside from their tech specs.
• Aside from Trans-Mutate and Protoform X, who both have their Timelines toy bodies, the other characters in this chapter all have Cybertronian forms that are "virtual" redecos of other toys:
  • Botanica is a virtual retool of Beast Hunters Soundwave, with a new head. Rather than the Ravage figure that release of Soundwave has, her drone is based on the original Prime Laserbeak toy.
  • Jawbreaker (originally a Transmetal 2 Maximal hyena from the Beast Wars toyline) is a virtual redeco of Beast Hunters Ratchet.
  • Gecko-Bot (a technorganic Maximal flying lizard from the Beast Machines toyline) is a virtual redeco of Beast Hunters Wheeljack, with the Prime Dead End head. Their impercepton shield is a virtual redeco of Wheeljack's Falcon Spear.
  • Rattrap is a virtual retool of Prime Rumble, with a new head and color scheme based on his Beast Machines incarnation.
  • Dynobot is a virtual redeco of Generations "Thrilling 30" Springer.
  • Torca (a Maximal orca/elephant Fuzor from the Beast Wars toyline) is a virtual redeco of Universe Onslaught with the BotCon 2010 Clench head.
• Rattrap refers to Botanica as "Struts", a mechanical (rather than botanical) spin on his nickname for her in the Beast Machines cartoon, "Sprouts".
• Rattrap mocks Optimus Prime's "freedom is the right of all sentient beings" motto.
• Rattrap mentions war slogans like "Once a Predacon, always a Predacon" (something he said a lot of times in the Beast Wars cartoon) and "Better dead than Pred" (something Cheetor said in "Dark Designs".)
• The Predacon group Rattrap and his squad fought are called the Darksyders, after the name given to the Predacon ship by the fandom and various pieces of ancillary media.
• This incarnation of Dinobot has his named spelt as "Dynobot," the Cybertronian name for the Generation 1 Dinobots as first established in Dreamwave Productions' The Dark Ages mini-series.

Real-world references

• Gecko-Bot believes Rattrap died on the road to Damaxus, referring to the story of the Conversion of Paul the Apostle from the Bible, where Paul, who persecuted early Christians, was converted to the religion. Bit on the nose, there.
• Rattrap claims that "reports of [his] demise were greatly exaggerated", a quote from Mark Twain.
• Botanica says "Like a leaf on the wind..." as she released the drone, paraphrasing a line from the film Serenity.

Proto-typical weirdness

• Not quite errors, but being an early installment in the Beast Wars: Uprising universe, several concepts and ideas here differ with later stories.
• As with all the pre-Sorenson and Bishop Beast Wars: Uprising stories, the Maximals and Predacons are presented as being soldiers fighting each other in a war, rather than their depiction as civilians who fought their proxy war in gladiatorial games.
• The concept of the Builders is first mentioned here. Rather than the co-faction group the later prose stories will present them as, the term "Builders" here appears to solely refer to the Autobots, with the Decepticons being mentioned separately in Rattrap's narration. Protoform X's profile (published in the same issue) is a bit more explicit on the matter, referring to the Builder's "fight with the Decepticons".

Errors

• The impercepton shield should probably be "imperception shield".