Burning Bridges

The third story in the Beast Wars: Uprising prose series, "Burning Bridges" is the first to not focus on the Resistance, instead telling the story of a Maximal cop and her struggle with PTSD. This story showcases one of the great strengths of Beast Wars: Uprising: making one sympathize with characters on all sides. This one was released several months after "Head Games", on the 13th of August in 2015.

The title refers to both the literal burning down of the Melpomene Bridge in the story, and Stiletto "burning her bridges," alienating herself from her partners, and them alienating themselves from her in turn. It's derived from the phrase "burn one's bridges," which originally was used in a military sense, where an arm would burn bridges over rivers to prevent their enemies from crossing, but since has gone on to be used as a more general idiom. The cover features Stiletto in jet mode, with the burning Melpomene Bridge in the background; it was illustrated by Josh Burcham, who provides all the other art in the story.

Section 1: Some background for the characters: Stiletto was a fiction-only Maximal created by Ben Yee, Pete Sinclair, and Jake Isenberg for the Beast Wars prequel prose story, "The Razor's Edge". In that story, she was characterized as quiet and reserved Maximal built for speed and stealth, not showing much emotion and, if we're being honest. something of a one-dimensional character. This flat characterization is used here to give her a much more complex backstory, depicting her as a sufferer of post-traumatic stress disorder—and one who, by the end of the story, isn't magically cured, instead continuing to learn to cope with it. Her physical abilities and skills—her speed enhancements and knife expertise—also come from the original story. She's depicted as a "virtual redeco" of Generations "Thrilling 30" Windblade with a new head; the original Stiletto didn't have her alt-mode describe, but she's a confirmed jet now. Though she's described as purple in the story, artist Josh Burcham colors her as mustard yellow in the illustrations.

Overshoot, meanwhile, was created by Greg Sepelak and Trent Troop as a member of the Maximal Command Security Force for their animated Beast Wars prequel, Theft of the Golden Disk. He didn't appear in the short proper, but did appear as part of a group shot of the MCSF in the retail edition of BotCon 2006's "Dawn of Future's Past", and got a short bio in issue #13 of the Transformers Collectors' Club magazine. There, he was characterized as a crack shot, who was only serving on the MCSF because he was protoformed to do so. He hoped to finish his service soon so he could pursue his love of theater. While the theater bit isn't present in this incarnation of the character, the desire to finish up his time on the force and move on to a normal life informs much of his characterization here. He's identical to his original appearance; a "virtual redeco" of Cybertron Clocker, with a new head based on Machine Wars Skywarp/Thundercracker, and a color scheme loosely homaging Armada Wheeljack. He transforms into a race car.

Overcharge was an e-HOBBY-exclusive toy from The Transformers "Collector's Edition" line of reissues and redecoes, made from The Transformers Blitzwing using the Diaclone color scheme the toy originally had. They were characterized as military drones, created using Decepticon technology by the Quintessons, transforming from robot, to Mitsubishi Type 74 tank, to MiG-25 fighter jet. The bio further hinted a connection between the Quintessons and Blitzwing, who was inexplicably shown to have vague memories of the Quintessons in the Sunbow The Transformers cartoon season 3 opener, "Five Faces of Darkness". A few years later, the Legends manga would claim that Blitzwing was a former Overcharge drone, but this story opts for an alternate explanation-instead describing them as his "younger brothers", perhaps indicating that Blitzwing's vague memories of the Quintessons were from an "alien abduction"-style experience. At any rate, they certainly aren't alive. Their bios indicated that they were the latest in a line of "Terrorbots", the name Quintessons give to their military drones. This is also one of the few mentions of the Quintessons in the Beast Wars: Uprising stories, and they appear to be one of the few races humanity allows to interact with Cybertronians, presumably due to their historical connection; they were depicted as the creators of the Cybertronian race in the Sunbow The Transformers cartoon, and while Primus has mostly replaced them as creator of the Transformers in modern fiction, they're still closely connected to Cybertron. If Overshoot's words are to be believed, they seem to be doing pretty well these days, with their home planet Quintessa still energized. "Squids" is a fairly common derogatory nickname for the Quintessons derived from their appearance, though I'm not sure where it came from. Overshoot's second reason for their name is a little meta-joke; for a toy meant to represent an army of drones, they are VERY expensive.

The term "bulk" is a slang term that the Mini-Cons use for normal-sized Transformers, as seen in the Linkage manga. Fortress Maximus was taken offline in the previous story, "Head Games". I've talked about empties and Nucleon before, but since they're only mentioned a few times every other story as opposed something like the MCSF, I'll go over them again. Empties were seen in the original The Transformers Marvel comics, Cybertronians so low on energy that they only barely functioned, with their mental faculties slowed and often unable to transform. Nucleon was the substance that turned Transformers into Action Masters, as detailed on the blurb for the 1990 range of The Transformers toys; it was further detailed in the Marvel The Transformers comic. The Melpomene Bridge is named for Melpomene, the Muse of Tragedy from Greek mythology. On page two, we have our first illustration: Overshoot and Stiletto standing on the walkway, observing the Overcharge drones.

Betabear, Stiletto's former partner, is an interesting case. He's not based on any pre-existing Beast Wars character, but rather a normal-sized Transformer from the pre-war days who was part of Clench's gladiator team who seemed to have some sort of tank-like mode, seen in IDW Publishing's Megatron: Origin mini-series. He was created by Eric Holmes and Alex Milne. This use of a normal-sized Transformer as a Maximal or Predacon would happen a few more times later on the series; presumably, Betabear was chosen because of his beastly name. Peptex was mentioned by Bludgeon in IDW Publishing's Spotlight: Orion Pax. Lio Convoy assassinated Supersonic and began the Grand Uprising back in "Broken Windshields". Engex is an intoxicating beverage (i.e. beer) first seen in the prose story published in the trade of IDW Publishing's Last Stand of the Wreckers mini-series, "Bullets", and it would go on to appear in More than Meets the Eye; an engex bomb is presumably the equivalent of a Molotov cocktail. Not sure if the term "micron" (apparently a unit used to measure energy) comes from anywhere. Metallikato is a Cybertronian martial art, first mentioned in1989 Decepticon Pretender Bludgeon's tech specs.

Hics are a unit of measurement that were first mentioned in the Marvel UK The Transformers prose story "The Magnificent Six!", published in the Transformers Annual 1991; "ten hic stare" is equivalent to the phrase "thousand yard stare", a term referring to the blank, unfocused stare of soldiers emotionally detached from battles around them, ultimately derived from the 1944 painting by war correspondent Thomas Lea, Marines Call It That 2,000 Yard Stare. "Spiderbots" was the Japanese name for Beast Wars Tarantulas' arachnoid drones seen throughout the Beast Wars cartoon, though I wonder if it's also referring to the SpiderBots, natural Cybertronian pests from War for Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron. Buzz flies were mentioned in Wings Universe story "The Coming Storm: Part 2". The Noisemaze production-type tactical bombers are Quintesson built versions of the "Noisemaze Mass Production Type Version", warriors of Planet X identical in form to Cybertron Sideways (whose name was "Noisemaze" in Japan) seen briefly in the Cybertron cartoon, transforming into alien jet fighters. The Guardminders were drones seen in Super-God Masterforce, based on Scorponok's city-bot partner Fasttrack, who were all identical save for their leader, who was based on the Fasttrack redeco that came with BlackZarak, "Black Roritchi"; they all transformed into assault vehicles. Dropkick was a Decepticon pick-up truck from the 2007 live-action Transformers toyline; various pieces of media, mostly video games, depicted him as not being one Transformer, but multiple Decepticon drones, alongside others like Swindle, Payload, and Dreadwing. Dropkicks will actually appear in-story later on.

Kalis was first seen in issue #164 of the Marvel UK The Transformers comic. Overshoot's tale that the corpses of dead Builders still try to climb the chasm references that issue, where Kalis was overrun by "zombies" thanks to the machinations of rogue Autobot scientist Flame. Altihex, meanwhile, first appeared in the Dreamwave Productions mini-series The War Within. Nuclo-titanium was mentioned in the 3H Productions Reaching the Omega Point prose story "Covenant". Durabyllium has been mentioned throughout multiple pieces of Transformers media, starting with issue #19 of the Marvel The Transformers comic. Frizz-rats were mentioned in the Wings Universe prose story "Flames of Yesterday".

We've reached our first Cybertronix section-specifically, Maximal Cybertronix. As revealed later in the story, its excerpts from the Quintesson's poorly translated instruction manuals. We'll go over the translation at the end. The section's graphics are made up of images from Blitzwing's/the Overcharges' instruction manuals, including the diagrams of Blitzwing's robot, jet, and tank modes, his sword, his guns, his three missiles, and the Terrorbot insignia. The borders are based on Blitzwing's stickers; on the left are the ones that go on his jet mode's intakes, while on the right are the ones for his tail fins.

Section 2: A mandala is a geometric symbol found in various religions like Buddhism, Hinduism, and Shintoism. More related to this story, 19-20th century Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung believed that mandalas reflected to the wholeness of one's self, inverting that idea on its head here, with the Predacon Secret Police taking Stiletto's memories away from her to "cure" her. All the Overcharges take their designations from license plates seen in media from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In Unit 381-PCE's case, it takes its designation from the licenses plate for Agent Coulson's hovercar "Lola", seen in the television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which ran from 2013 to 2020 In Beast Wars episode "Nemesis Part 1", Megatron insulted the deceased Tarantulas, calling him a "spawn of Unicron"; later fiction would take this literally, but here its used with the original intention of just being an insult. Unit NCQ-21218 takes its designation from the licenses plate for Melinda May's mother's car in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., as seen in the season one episode "The Only Light in the Darkness".

Section 3: Acid rain was first seen being artificially made on Cybertron in the Sunbow The Transformers episode "Divide and Conquer", and has gone on since to be depicted as a natural phenomenon. Cyber-steel was mentioned in Classics prose story "At Fight's End". Ultrix was seen in issue #9 of IDW Publishing's Autocracy mini-series. Crystal City was seen in Sunbow season 2 episode "The Secret of Omega Supreme"; seems it managed to survive past the Great War in this universe. The "MTS" is the Mass Transit System; seen last time in "Head Games", it was originally seen in Sunbow The Transformers season 2 episode "Desertion of the Dinobots, Part 2". Cybertron was established to have two moons back in The Transformers: The Movie. Might just be a generic term here, but the empathy chip was a piece of technology from the sci-fi animated comedy series Futurama, which ran from 1999 to 2013. The Maximal Flying Corps are a new creation here, presumably named for the Elite Flying Corps that Swoop once belonged to, first mentioned in Marvel UK The Transformers issue #46.

Section 4: Here's another first that will happen a fair few times throughout the series: the use of characters from Beastformers, or Battle Beasts as it was known in America, repurposed as Maximals and Predacons. In particular, Sea Panic was one of the Laser Beasts from 1988, who was a cyborg anthropomorphic humpback whale. Scrud is a fake swear word introduced in the 2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon. Torus States are a type of Cybertronian city-state, introduced in Dreamwave Productions' The War Within.

Aura is another first; the repurposing of vehicles and other concepts from M.A.S.K., another toyline owned by Hasbro involving transforming vehicles. In her case, she's named after the Aura mask belonging to Gloria Baker, and is based on her vehicle, the Shark, a show-only vehicle that turned from Porsche 928 to a submarine. Jim says that she'd be based on Reveal the Shield Special Ops Jazz, with her head retooled to look like the Aura mask, and his "speaker" accessories retooled to look like her submarine propellers. Sledgehammer is based on another Beastformers character; in his case, the Autobot-aligned elephant Elephan, whose name in the Hasbro Battle Beasts toyline was Sledgehammer Elephant. Stiletto addresses Sledgehammer as "Sledgehammer of Peptex"; the idea that a Transformer's full name is "[x] of [city]" originates from IDW Publishing's comics. Wolfang appears to be the Maximal wolf released in the first year of the Beast Wars toyline in 1996; however, when his leg gets cut off, it goes from blue to red. In the 2007 Beast Wars Telemocha Series toyline, Wolfang was redecoed as a Predacon with the same name. Over on Facebook's Ask Vector Prime a few days earlier, Vector had dropped hints that we would learn more about the Predacon Wolfang in the story "Trigger Warnings", and we would indeed...about a year later. "Hopped up on the nucleon" is equivalent to "hopped up on the reefer," slang referring to those who use marijuana, ultimately derived from the 1936 "morality tale"-turned-exploration film Reefer Madness. The Pax Cybertronia was the peace treaty that set up the laws on modern Cybertron, as mentioned in Beast Wars episode "The Agenda (Part 1)". Energo-swords were the weapons used by the original Dinobots, minus Swoop, who had a thermal sword. Forging is one of two main types of Cybertronian creation in the IDW Publishing comics continuity, which involves Transformers emerging from the living metal of Cybertron's surface after Vector Sigma releases sparks, introduced in the works of James Roberts.

Section 5: Nothing new here.

Section 6: You probably know who Sunstreaker is. Simultronics are a type of drug first seen in IDW Publishing's Spotlight: Blurr. The term "Harlem sunset" comes from the 1940 crime novel Farewell, My Lovely by American-British novelist Raymond Chandler, meaning a fatal wound caused in a knife fight. Bighorn previously appeared in "Head Games"; rather than the "Cybertronian-ized" body the art depicted him as, he's depicted as a "virtual redeco" of Prime: Beast Hunters Deluxe Class Bulkhead with a new head, as seen in the illustration on page 13. Mechanometers were a unit of measurement mentioned in Sunbow season 2 episode "City of Steel", having previously been mentioned in the other stories. IFF is a real-world term meaning "identification, friend or foe."

Vampire is based on another M.A.S.K. vehicle; in his case, the Vampire touring cycle that turns into a Turbo Jet, which came with Floyd Malloy. He's depicted in the art on page 14 as a "virtual redeco" of Combiner Wars Legends Class Groove, with a new head, inspired by the likes of Dracula. He's a mnemosurgeon; mnemosurgery first appeared in IDW Publishing's More than Meets the Eye. "The Razor's Edge" also compared Stiletto's speed to Blurr's; looks like he's one of the few remaining 1984-86 characters alive in the modern era.

Section 7: The final Overcharge, 8RE-2Z1, takes its designation from the license plate of the car Agent Coulson drove to the crash site of Mjolnir in the post-credits scene of 2010's Iron Man 2.

Section 8: Mech-fluid is basically Transformer blood, mentioned several times in the Beast Wars cartoon. Technohawks appear to be an all new Cybertronian species created here. I'm sure you know what Constructicons are. The Pit is the Cybertronian version of hell, first mentioned in the Beast Wars cartoon. The idea of a secondary speaker for an alternate mode appears to be new here. On page 20, we have our fourth and final illustration: Stiletto defending the unconscious Overshoot from Bighorn.

Section 9: Lio Convoy's command module might owe something to the omniglobes, sphere-shaped cells that Optimus and Megatron used to receive massive amounts of data during the Great War, as seen in issue #7 of More than Meets the Eye. The Targetmaster Extirpation would be gone into more later in "Trigger Warnings"; we'll focus on it more in the annotations for that one, but for now, extirpation means "to remove or destroy entirely". The Darksyders, named after the fan-given name for Megatron's ship in Beast Wars, were first mentioned in "Alone Together: Prologue", as the group who ambushed Optimus Primal's squadron and killed Rhinox and Silverbolt, causing Cheetor, Rattrap, Blackarachnia, and Nightscream to go rogue, as originally told back in the first piece of Beast Wars: Uprising fiction: Blackarachnia's profile in issue #25 of the Club magazine. They'll appear a lot more later on. Vos was first mentioned in the Marvel UK prose story "State Games". B'Boom was one of Blackarachnia's first Resistance recruits, seen in "Broken Windshields"; presumably, the "BA" he mentions is her. It might be a coincidence, but B'Boom's toy was released in Japan as Beast Wars II Apache, who was Lio Convoy's second-in-command, hence his high ranking in the Resistance. The Cortex is where Lio Convoy used to work under Eject, as seen in "Broken Windshields".

Section 10: A quick aside, I'm really glad that Stiletto's PTSD wasn't magically erased by the end of the story. In the hands of another author, I feel like that would have been the case.

Cybertronix section: Translated, it reads:

Purchasing the internment era Terrorbot triple con-

version heavy combat support units to thank. This unit was

designed to function best under virtually all condi-

tions. It is possible to provide reconnaissance

aircraft mode, engage in one-to-one airmobile, pro-

viding ground support, or to engage in strategic bombing.

Meet Armored Cavalry functions it is its low profile

in the background mode, so that spot enemy, it can

engage infantry capabilities in something like the

Not much to go off of here, but it's basically thanking the customer for their purchase, and listing out the Overcharge's functions. We know that humanity has cordoned off Cybertron from the rest of the universe in the modern period. Jim noted that he originally wrote it normally, then ran it through Google Translate into Japanese, then back into English once more.