Micro-Aggressions

The fourth story in the Beast Wars: Uprising prose series, "Micro-Aggressions" is the shortest story in the series, only 16 pages long. This story focuses on two characters who fought in the Great War, former comrades who now find themselves on opposing sides: Hot Rod, in command of much of the Micromaster forces, and Grimlock, Maximal leader of a Resistance cell. This story was released after another gap following "Burning Bridges", coming out on the 2nd of April in 2016, shortly before BotCon 2016, where Hot Rod and Grimlock's original voice actors, Judd Nelson and Gregg Berger, were guests.

The title comes from the term "Microaggression," first created by African American psychiatrist and Harvard professor Chester Middlebrook Pierce, which describes brief, daily exchanges that, whether intentional or unintentional, communicate negative and derogatory messages towards marginalized groups, which fits both the general themes of Beast Wars: Uprising, and also fits with Hot Rod and Grimlock, formerly massive robots who have downsized to become a Micromaster and a Maximal, respectively. The cover is by Christopher "IKY" Colgin, who would go on to be the "main" artist for Beast Wars: Uprising, devising the bodies used by characters even outside of illustrations. It features Hot Rod and Grimlock facing off one another, while Galvatron is reformatted from Cop-Tur in the background. Colgin provides the rest of the illustrations for the story as well.

Section 1: Bladez and Pincher are two more of the Monster GoBots from the GoBots series showing up as Predacons in this universe, after Creepy appeared in "Broken Windshields" and Vamp was mentioned in "Head Games". Bladez was one of the latter toys in the GoBots toyline, and the only one of the Monster GoBots to not show up in the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon; he had a vaguely crab-like tank mode. Pincher, meanwhile, was one of the first three Monster GoBots in the toyline and show and turned into a monstrous jet fighter. Pincher's speech patterns replicate the strained, hissing voice that Peter Cullen gave the Renegade in the cartoon; Jim and Dave would give the Monster GoBots individual speech patterns to help tell them apart in future stories. Posts from the Facebook version of Ask Vector Prime had revealed that these Monster GoBots were the actual GoBots, hailing from the version of the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon universe being affected by the Cataclysm, as seen in "Withered Hope" and the Spatiotemporal Challengers prose stories; starting here, there are several hints as to their otherworldly nature, first with Bladez referring to Cybertron as "a miserable world."

The Neurospan Bridge was seen in issue #3 of IDW Publishing's Autocracy mini-series, where it was located between Iacon and Kaon. Another appearance by acid rain as a natural phenomenon on Cybertron; it was first seen being artificially created back in the Sunbow The Transformers episode "Divide and Conquer". We meet Grimlock for the first time here, after he was mentioned as one of the prisoners freed from Fortress Maximus by the Resistance back in "Head Games". The original Beast Wars Grimlock toy was one of the few characters in the toyline who was actually meant to be the original Generation 1 character: "In another era when wars were waged between Autobots and Decepticons, Grimlock was a stalwart defender of the heroic Autobot cause." As such, that's reflect here, with him having implanted his spark in a Maximal body. Grimlock's description in this story (and his depiction in the story's illustrations) has him as a virtual retool and redeco of the Generations Thrilling 30 Autobot Springer toy, with a new head. The Beast Wars: Uprising incarnation of Beast Wars Dinobot (or Dynobot, as he was known), was also depicted with the Springer body (as seen in "Alone Together: Prologue"), and since the Beast Wars Grimlock toy was a redeco of Dinobot's, it's very well fitting. Grimlock's face is noted to have ornamental teeth on his mouthplate, seemingly in homage to both Beast Wars Grimlock's Velociraptor skull mutant head, and the depiction of Grimlock's mouthplate in several different comic series, including his Cybertronian mode in Dreamwave Productions' The War Within and his appearance in IDW Publishing's Spotlight: Shockwave and Spolight: Grimlock. Grimlock's personality and mannerisms in this story follow the way he was depicted in the Marvel The Transformers comics, especially under Simon Furman's pens: intelligent and ruthless despite his speech quirk, and willing to go to extremes to do what he believes is right.

Grimlock lands a few mechanometers away from Bladez and Pincher, another use of the unit of measurement from The Transformers episode "City of Steel", seen previously in the other stories. I'll probably stop bring it up now, as it is a recurring thing. Bladez swears by the "Master"; this is the Master Renegade, the founder of the Renegade faction, as seen in the Challenge of the GoBots five-part mini-series, "The GoBotron Saga". The Monster GoBots were his creations and servants. Magno-clamps are a fairly generic-sounding piece of technology that's been used in several pieces of fiction, but this is likely in reference to the pseudo-canonical sequel novella to the Marvel Generation 2 comic, Alignment, where Grimlock was noted to have magno-clamps in his feet. The G-Virus gets explained near the end of the story, so we'll wait till then to go more in depth. While its name is quite similar to the mutagenic T-Virus from the Resident Evil video game series, Jim notes that he believes it was simply a coincidence. Bladez aims his fists at Grimlock when he grabs Pincher; in the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon, nearly all GoBots are armed with built-in hand lasers.

Bladez mentions Hornet when he's about to object to Pincher; Hornet was another Monster GoBot, one of the later three released in the toyline who snuck their way into the end of the cartoon and the movie, GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords. He transforms into a flying tank-like vehicle. Hints of what the G-Virus is, right off the bat. Grimlock gives Pincher and Bladez a data cylinder, which is probably a smaller version of the Cybertronian data cylinder seen in the Prime episode "T.M.I." We've had hints of the Human Confederation in the stories leading up to this one (where it was called the Human Confederacy). Scorp was another of the three original Monster GoBots, who turned into a scorpion-like vehicular form.

We have our first section break, which I'll come back to at the end. It's the information on the Cybertronian data cylinder Grimlock gave to Pincher and Bladez, which will inform us a lot of background information about the humans in Beast Wars: Uprising.

Section 2: We get our second main character in this story: Hot Rod, former leader of the Autobots. At the time of the Grand Uprising, he's undergone the Micromaster upgrade; a Micromaster Hot Rod was sold with the Star Convoy toy in 1990's Return of Convoy toyline. Although his backstory isn't delved too much into here, it seems that, at least briefly, he was Rodimus Prime; in future stories, we'll learn more about what lead him to being a fairly low-ranking figure, looked down upon by the full-size Builders. Recognizing the horrors the Maximals and Predacons experience at the hands of the Builders, he believes that slow change and compromise is the way forward...and while Grimlock ends up as coming off as more of a villain, Hot Rod is not really a hero either.

The Gasoline Base was one of the four Micromaster Stations from the 1989 range of figures in the original The Transformers toyline, sold with Decepticon Micromaster monster truck Greasepit. The Station didn't actually have a name beyond the descriptor of "gas station"; when it was sold in Japan in the Zone-era of the toyline, it was rebranded as the Autobot Gasoline Base, with Greasepit becoming the Autobot Glasspit. The idea of Micromasters being looked down upon by full-size Transformers was brought up briefly in previous stories, but this time we really touch on it. Crumplezone (a Micromaster version of the Armada Mini-Con) was mentioned as leading a security team at Fortress Maximus in "Head Games"; it's noted here that the Micromasters in that story were on quarter rations, serving as a retroactive justification for why (in Jim's eyes) they went down so easily.

The Cannon Transport Thoroughfare is the Cannon Transport, the 1990 Micromaster Decepticon Combiner Transport that came with Micromaster Combiners Terror-Tread and Cement-Head. The two could split their combined dump truck alternate mode and connect to separate ends, and the transport could either split into two battle emplacements for Terror-Tread and Cement-Head to pilot, or turn into a battle station. The Dai Atlas Exchange is named for the Powered Master Autobot leader from Zone, who could either turn into a jet, a drill tank, or a Micromaster base; the Dai Atlas Exchange is presumably based on that mode, and not actually alive. The Anti-Aircraft Base was the big Decepticon Micromaster playset of 1990, transforming from a tank with a detachable "scout unit" vehicle (piloted by Blackout and Spaceshot, who we'll get to in a second) into...an anti-aircraft base. The Autobot Sky Hyper base/vehicle was released in Zone, a redeco of the Decepticon Micromaster Base sold with Skyhopper in the American toyline in 1989; it transformed from a helicopter to a base, and came with Deadwheeler, a Micromaster redecoed from the Lamborghini Countach Free Wheeler, member of the 1989 Micromaster Autobot Sports Car Patrol. The Autobot's Rocket Base was the centerpiece of the Micromaster range of toys for the 1989 year of the original toyline; a rocket launching pad and rocket that transformed into a massive defense base. It came with Countdown, who we'll get into in a bit. The Star Convoy, the nerve center of Hot Rod's command, is named after Star Convoy, the upgraded version of Optimus Prime whom the Micromaster Hot Rod was sold with in Return of Convoy; Star Convoy transformed into a futuristic truck and a Micromaster base, the latter of which this non-sentient building is based on. The "unfortunate name" bit is probably obvious; one of Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime's defining characteristics in the third season of the Sunbow The Transformers cartoon was that he didn't feel he could live up to the legacy of Optimus Prime...although this remark will become slightly problematic later thanks to the contentious-at-best "origin story" "A Change to the Agenda". We'll get to that when the time comes, though. Micropolis was the name given to the Micromaster city seen in the commercial for the 1989 Micromaster transports by Ask Vector Prime. It might be taken from the Micropolis deluxe playsets from the Mego Micronauts toyline (a property now owned by Hasbro which has crossed over with Transformers a few times now). The gimmick of the Micromaster stations, transports, and bases was that they were all inter-connectable, allowing kids to make giant playsets for their Micromasters to drive around on.

Countdown, as previously mentioned, was the Micromaster packed with the Rocket Base; he turned into a moon buggy. Drillbuster was an Autobot Micromaster drill tank sold with Roadfire in Zone. Blackout and Spaceshot were the Micromaster Combiners sold with the Anti-Aircraft Base, combining to form a B-1 Bomber jet. While their profiles in Dreamwave Productions' More than Meets the Eye series of guidebooks gave them male pronouns, that's outright ignored for this incarnation of Blackout and Spaceshot, who are sisters. This is the real start of a trend of making previously male characters female, first glimpsed at with Plasma back in "Head Games".

More on the "micro-scale gestalt" in a second. The Forever Vaults were a location previously mentioned in passing on the Club's Tornado - Decepticon Saboteur Facebook page. It's explained here to be a fortress containing some of the most deadly Cybertronian weapons of war, along with other hidden artifacts. The Madmachine was a giant horseshoe crab-like Decepticon weapon that emitted electromagnetic beams that crippled both machines and Transformers, seen in The Headmasters episode "The Great Cassette Operation". The VX Bomb, meanwhile, was an explosive used by Ginrai to defeat Overlord in the tenth chapter of the Super-God Masterforce manga. First Aid, the Protectobot, is mentioned here as tending to Cop-Tur in the Micropolis infirmary; we'll get back to this later. Road Police, meanwhile, was a member of the Turbo Team from Operation Combination, who turned into an Acura NSX police car, and who formed the chest of the team's combined form of Sixturbo. He was previously mentioned in the Cybertronix section of "Broken Windshields", investigating illegal syk usage by retro-rodeo player Ironlunge.

Cop-Tur was the Micromaster partner of the Club's 2010 free membership incentive figure, Dion. A redeco of the Universe toy for Armada Mini-Con helicopter Jolt, he was based on the Renegade helicopter Cop-Tur from GoBots, although instead of being evil and something of a dolt, he was an intelligent Autobot engineer. The micro-scale gestalt's identity can be pieced together by all the clues laid out: he's affiliated with the Monster GoBots, is described as "monstrous," and knows someone else named Cop-Tur, causing him to spare the Autobot Micromaster. He's Monsterous, a Renegade combiner from the GoBots toyline, made up of Renegades with monstrous vehicle modes (with Fright Face as the chest and head, Heart Attack as the hips, Weird Wing as the left arm, South Claw as the right arm, Fangs as the left leg, and Gore Jaw as the right leg). He never showed up on the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon, being released too late. They were never specifically called Monster GoBots, but their packaging mentioned how they came from the Antares Star System; in the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon, the Monster GoBots resided on Antares III with the Master Renegade. This version is a native of the "Cataclysm" GoBots timeline and are actual GoBots. An alternate version of Monsterous was seen hailing from the version of the Challenge of the GoBots cartoon from the Facebook Renegade Rhetoric page. There, they were actually Predacons from the "Aligned" continuity, who were recruited by Cy-Kill while he was exiled to Axiom Nexus. Monsterous was unsure if their home universe's Cop-Tur had also come to this Cybertron as a refugee, hence his hesitation at killing the Micromaster Cop-Tur.

Another trend starting with this story: characters who share names with those already introduced will have their names altered, preventing two characters from having the same name. Black Out is a Micromaster version of the Mini-Con radar tank from Armada, Blackout, who was partnered with Demolishor. He's noted to be red, white, and blue; these are the colors of Blackout's upgraded Powerlinx form. Search, his partner, is based on the original version of the Mini-Con Blackout, since Search is his Japanese name. SIGINT stands for "signals intelligence," which is a real-world concept.

Section 3: Here we meet the members of Grimlock's Resistance unit. Snapper was a Predacon snapping turtle from the first year of the Beast Wars toyline in 1996. Barbearian, meanwhile, is a bit more complicated. The 1996 Maximal polar bear Polar Claw was initially supposed to be colored as a grizzly bear. In the catalog included in the "Optimus Primal vs Megatron!" two-pack, the toy was given the name Grizzly-1, while in solicitations sent to magazines, it was called Barbearian. For BotCon Japan 1998, Polar Claw's toy was released in its original colors as Grizzly-1, with his partner Nightshriek, a bat that transformed into his bear mode's right front limb. Grizzly-1's tech specs noted that when he used his mutant head, he became the hyper-aggressive Barbearian. Mach Kick was a Maximal horse from Beast Wars Neo; his admiration of Grimlock likely stems from his Neo cartoon counterpart's hero worship of Big Convoy. The Man Terror is the Beast Wars: Uprising version of Manterror, a Predacon praying mantis from the second year of the Beast Wars toyline in 1997. The Man Terror's brawling, maniacal personality seems to stem more from his profile in the Beast Wars Sourcebook from IDW, rather than the stealthy ranged fighter described in his toy's tech specs.

Section 4: We learn why Grimlock was imprisoned in Fort Max in "Head Games": aside from transplanting his spark into a Maximal protoform: he tried to smuggle a bomb into the Builder Assembly. Hot Rod notes that Cybertron has been at war for eleven million years; the Sunbow The Transformers episode "Forever Is a Long Time Coming" established that eleven million years ago, the first war on Cybertron started when A3 (AKA Alpha Trion) and his Autobots rose up against their Quintesson masters, and has been raging on and off ever since. Once again, while Hot Rod is the protagonist of this story, he's not fully a hero; he hopes to make progress slowly, allowing the underprivileged to be trampled by the Builder machine, looking past the Builders pitting Resistance POWs against one another. "Strike as hard as possible, as quickly as possible, and at the target that will do the most damage" feels like a paraphrased quote from Grimlock in a Simon Furman comic, but I'm not sure which one if any. The previous game was stopped when Lio Convoy assassinated Supersonic in "Broken Windshields".

Section 5: The Tesarus Arena is in Tesarus, a city first mentioned as one of the original five cities to fall to the Decepticons in issue #4 of IDW Publishing's More than Meets the Eye. MCSF, again, stands for Maximal Command Security Force. The original Manterror toy was armed with ion disks that he shot out of his praying mantis arms. We don't find out what happens to Barbearian, but it's likely he dies.

Section 6: K-9, the commander of the MCSF in the Tesarus Arena, was a Maximal German shepherd released in the second year of the Beast Wars toyline in 1997. His command of the Maximal police stems from the fact that German shepherds are used as police dogs in canine (or "K-9") units. Blitz is the Generation 2 Decepticon Chance Vought F4U Corsair Ransack, using his European name. He was a member of the Rotor Force, toys with rotor projectiles. Presumably, either the Deluxe Insecticon locust has the Ransack name, or a continuity import of one of the others, whether they be the Armada Mini-Con jeep, the Cybertron Decepticon motorcycle, or otherwise. Blackout reports on the landmine explosion at position NGS 549627; this was the designation of the star that the planet of the Overlords orbited, from English writer Arthur C. Clarke's 1953 science fiction novel Childhood's End. The most basic class of Micromasters sold were the Micromaster Patrols, which were a team of four Micromasters, themed in some way.

Section 7: The two Micromasters Snapper and the others encounter are Power Punch (fighting the Man Terror) and Direct-Hit (fighting Grimlock). The two are Micromaster Combiners, combining to form a cannon transport, and were members of the 1990 Battle Squad. The idea that Micromaster Combiners feel each other's pain is something new to them, but it's not a new concept in Transformers in general; it tends to happen with "twin" characters, like the Jumpstarters in IDW Publishing's Last Stand of the Wreckers. Hot Rod's acrobatics in this story is inspired by his counterpart's meteorite surfing in IDW Publishing's Spotlight: Hot Rod. When I first read this story, I noticed how it described Blackout has a green face, when on the toys it is Spaceshot who has the green face. I thought at first this might have been influenced by Dreamwave Productions' More than Meets the Eye guidebooks, which accidentally mixed up the names of Blackout and Spaceshot. However, it might also be a reference to the back of the box art for the Anti-Aircraft Base, which shows Blackout with a yellow-green face. Snapper is able to retract his neck, like a turtle into their shell, which of course his main-universe counterpart turns into. His toy's gun has three barrels, indicating that Snapper's pre-beast body hadn't quite been picked yet, as we'll eventually see...

Section 8: Grimlock's sword "appears" in his hands; presumably, he was storing it in subspace. In the cartoon and comics, there would be the occasional odd instance of a character's gun appearing in a flash of light in their hands, which fans in the 90's created an explanation for: subspace storage pockets, where guns, melee weapons, and other accessories were stored while unused by a Transformer, along with mass for those who either shrink or grow when transforming. In modern times, this idea was canonized in the various stories from the Club. Christopher Colgin provided the image on page 11, showing Grimlock and Hot Rod fighting, heavily wounded. No hidden secrets in it, as far as I can tell. Grimlock's gun shoots galaxial rockets; one of the weapons for the original toy of Grimlock was a Galaxial Rocket Launcher. Hot Rod's hypocrisy shines through here. Hot Rod notes how the Aerialbots, the Protectobots, and the Constructicons have all downsized. In the Universe toyline, the Micromaster Sixteam combiners Sixwing, Sixturbo, and Sixbuilder from Operation Combination were released with altered decos as new versions of Superion, Defensor, and Devastator. Those toys are repurposed as new Micromaster forms of the Generation 1 teams. With that in mind, we can go back to First Aid as mentioned earlier in the story; his new Micromaster form is based on Universe First Aid, a slight redeco of Operation Combination ambulance Sireen.

Hot Rod apparently downsized 70 years ago, long after Grimlock was imprisoned. The idea of Megatron creating the Decepticons as a way to overthrow the Cybertronian government is a recent idea, seen in the "Aligned" continuity and IDW Publishing's comics, though we know from later stories that Megatron also created the Decepticons simply to conquer in the Beast Wars: Uprising universe. Grimlock's line, "And you never go too far enough, 'Chosen One'!", is paraphrased from "A Head in the Polls", an episode of the animated sci-fi comedy Futurama. Hot Rod/Rodimus Prime was first called the Chosen One (the one who was destined to use Matrix of Leadership in the Transformers' darkest hour) in the Sunbow The Transformers episode "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1".

Section 9: Not sure if solar-concrete is from something. I imagine it's akin to solar panels. The Builder that Snapper aims at with the G-Virus is recognizable from his description (orange-and-black tiger stripes, wings, and an empurata-style lens head) as Fearswoop, a Walmart exclusive Decepticon MiG-29 Fulcrum from the Revenge of the Fallen toyline, redecoed from the 2007 Transformers movie toyline's Dreadwing, and based on Generation 2 1995 Cyberjet Hooligan. The original Fearswoop (the 1993 Europe/Australasia exclusive Decepticon Trakkon) was seen in "Broken Windshields", using his Dutch/French name "Black Omen." Empurata is a concept from IDW Publshing's More than Meets the Eye comic, a barbaric punishment from pre-war Cybertron under the Functionist Council and the Senate, which punished criminals by removing their heads and hands, replacing them with faceless, singular optic "faces" and claws. This gave an "explanation" to characters like Whirl and Shockwave for their non-humanoid forms. We get a bit more info on what led to the Cybertronian race being confined by humanity, in addition to what the "ghost" of Cerebros said in "Head Games": Galvatron's insane, genocidal attempts to conquer Earth led to the rest of the Cybertronians suffering. Galvatron's depiction as an insane individual comes from season 3 of the Sunbow The Transformers cartoon, the warped mind of Galvatron after abusing time travel in the Marvel UK The Transformers comic, and the insane Galvatron II from Simon Furman's run on the Marvel US The Transformers comic. Snapper refers to him with the epithets of "mad tyrant" and "Spawn of Unicron"; the latter is an insult hurled at the deceased Tarantulas by Megatron in the Beast Wars episode "Nemesis Part 1". Of course, here it is used literally.

And now...well, I suppose we'll have to talk about something unavoidable. A few months after this story was published, the 70th issue of the Collectors' Club magazine was shipped to Club members in August. In it, an "origin story" for Beast Wars: Uprising was published; a photo-comic called "A Change to the Agenda", which posited that it came into being when Megatron successfully assassinated Optimus Prime in an alternate version of the Beast Wars season 2 finale, "The Agenda (Part III)". Before being erased from existence, however, Blackarachnia got her revenge by using her cyber-venom on Megatron, offlining him as well, and utterly changing the timeline. Howwwweevvverrrrrr, this presents several problems. For one, it's an unnecessary origin story bolted on to Beast Wars: Uprising, connecting it to the cartoon when it didn't need to, and making the universe "wrong." Additionally, it's published in a magazine that only Club members get, versus the free online prose stories. And, specifically to this story and the other previous ones, the biggest problem it presents is that Optimus Prime and Megatron were killed before the Autobots and Decepticons were awoken in 1984. Previous stories mentioned Optimus and Megatron as existing closer to the present day. Earlier in this story, Hot Rod's unfortunate feelings about the Star Convoy's name is obviously supposed to be a result of his perceived inability to live up to Optimus Prime, who was his predecessor. And most importantly, Galvatron is reformatted from Megatron, as stated here. The idea of Unicron recreating Galvatron from the dead body of Megatron stretches belief. For the most part, the stories would ignore "A Change to the Agenda", vaguely referencing it sometimes, but all in all, I don't blame them for not using an origin story forced upon them mid-way in the story that contradicts what they already wrote.

Back to the story: Dark Energon is the lifeblood of Unicron, as established in the "Aligned" continuity, the opposite of normal Energon as created by Primus. Hot Rod uses the metaphor "got me in hot lava," a Transformer way of saying "got me in hot water." And obviously, "from your vocodor to Primus' audio receptors" is "from your lips to God's ears."

Section 10 (Epilogue): Here we check in on Cop-Tur...and meet a returned villain. Cop-Tur's slow conversion to Galvatron is like something out of a zombie movie, with his internal repair systems (his immune system) failing to work as his body slowly is infected with the G-Virus, flickering in and out of consciousness. First Aid is mentioned again. Fixit, meanwhile, was an Autobot ambulance from the 1989 Micromaster Rescue Patrol. Eject is noted to have come to the Forever Vaults, checking out Cop-Tur's research with the G-Virus. He mentioned back in "Broken Windshields" to have stored Lio Convoy's CNA away for his Galva Contingency, and presumably, it was at the Forever Vaults. More hints to what his plans are. Cop-Tur's profile noted how he was an expert at engineering new bodies. Cop-Tur considers using some kind of "hover-jet" to help create a Micromaster gestalt; the combiner kibble for Operation Combination Sixwing, Sixturbo, and Sixbuilder could be combined to create aircraft, which could be piloted by one of the combiner components; they were the Sky Sweeper, the Falcon Wing, and the Beat Jet, respectively. And so, the G-Virus reformats Cop-Tur into a new Galvatron...a Micromaster version of the Predacon leader Galvatron from Beast Wars II, who turned into a dragon and a drill tank. The cover shows that he is a virtual redeco of the Voyager class Optimus Prime from the Prime: Beast Hunters toyline, with a head based on the Beast Wars II original. The white Micromaster Galvatron shoots is either First Aid or Fixit. Even small, Galvatron displays incredible power.

And now, for the Cybertronix. Once again in the Maximal font as seen in the Beast Wars cartoon, it translates into a timeline of human history on some kind of interface. We'll do it from left to right. On the top left corner, the interface says "POWER LEVEL 83%". Below that, it reads "DEVICEv ON"; I assume the "v" there was meant to be a colon. The percentage changes a few times throughout the story, going lower as time goes on. It's down to 82% after section 3, 81% after section 6, and 80% after section 9. We'll come back to the middle in second. On the right facing side, it says "ENTRY .1", which changes with every section (.2, .3, .4, .5, .6. .7, .8, .9, and .0). Below that, it reads "DATA READOUT OK". On the bottom it says "RESENATOR" (presumably meant to be RESONATOR?), "ICON", "ACTIVE", "INTERPLANETARY Syborg" (no idea on that), and the square root symbol over "RECTIFIER". The setup of the thing seems to be based on SOMETHING, but I have no idea what. I thiiiiiink the interface might be based on the stickers inside the GoBots Thruster toy, the Renegade spacecraft, what with the Monster GoBots connection. Not sure, though.

Anyway, the text in the middle of each, when translated and combined together, with slight edits for readability, says: "A brief history of the human race: 2.5 million Before Ark: Humans begin using tools. 35000 BA: Humans master fire. 5000 BA: Humans invent writing. 168 BA: Humans use electricity to transmit information. 71 BA: Humanity perfects concept of the assembly line. 38 BA: Humanity builds its first computer. Stellar Cycle of the Ark: Cybertronians first (with minor exceptions) become active on Earth when the Ark is unearthed by volcanic action 1 SCA: Humanity builds its first AI. 8 SCA: Humanity establishes permanent presence on Mars. 13 SCA: The Autobots and a major Earth power jointly construct Warp Gate in outer reaches of SOL system. Humanity begins to spread to the stars. 19 SCA: The Earth Defense Command is formed from the G.I. Joe Star Brigade to deal with Cybertronian threats. 30 SCA: AI becomes ubiquitous on Earth. 33 SCA: Humanity develops non-invasive direct neural interface; an attack on the Human colony world of New Earth prompt the EDC to declare all of human space off-limits to ANY Cybertronian. 39 SCA: Human Singularity occurs; human technology quickly outpaces Cybertronian technology. 39 SCA: Decepticons capture an Autobot shuttle and use it to gain access to airspace of Human colony world Xin Shanghai; they cause severe loss of life before being repulsed. 42 SCA: The Autobot vessel Star Arrow, after being attacked by Decepticons, limps to Human colony of Tamil Duniya and is destroyed as it enters their airspace. 45 SCA: Humanity reorganizes itself into Human Confederacy; the EDC becomes the Confederated Terran Colonial Fleet. 47 SCA: The Scouring of Nebulos prompts the humans to declare the Autobot/Decepticon war over. Armistice is imposed. Cybertron limited to nine existing colony worlds. 49 SCA: Galvatron launches massive invasion fleet at the borders of the Allowed Zone. It is annihilated by the CTCF. Allowed Zone shrunk in half; five colony worlds are outside of the zone, and are given 10 Earth days to evacuate. After 10 days, all life on these worlds is sterilized. 70 SCA (est): Humanity conquers death through unknown means. 80-90 SCA (est): Humanity splits into three major branches; biologicals, circuitry-enhanced, and psychals. The unaugmented are considered second-class citizens. second-class citizens. 130 SCA (est): Humanity embarks on the Eutychus Project, bringing back to life every human who had ever lived."

Whew! So, let's go through this. BA stands for "Before Ark", obviously referring to the awakening of the Autobots and Decepticons onboard the Ark by the eruption of Mount St. Hilary. Modern day evidence suggests humanity first began using tools around 2.6 million years ago. 35,000 years before 1984 places the mastery of fire in the Bronze Age, when humanity in the Fertile Crescent began using the metal. 5000 years before 1984 is the 31st century, in which the first known form of human writing, Sumerian cuneiform, was invented. 168 years before 1984 is 1816; the first working telegraph was invented by English scientist Francis Ronalds that year. 71 years before the Ark is 1913; the moving assembly line for the Ford Model T was first implemented in October of that year. 38 years before the Ark is 1946; the first electronic general-purpose digital computer, ENIAC, was revealed to the public that year.

So, the Stellar Cycle of the Ark, as mentioned, is when the Transformers first wake up on Earth. It's noted that there are minor exceptions to this; in the Sunbow The Transformers cartoon, the Insecticons landed separately from the Ark in modern day Indonesia, as seen in "A Plague of Insecticons". Meanwhile, in the Marvel The Transformers comic, when the Ark detected Shockwave's activity after the Decepticon landed on Earth, it reactivated the Dinobots to deal with him, as seen in the comic's first story arc. 1 year after the Transformers wake up, humanity builds its first artificial intelligence in 1985; this is TORQ III, a supercomputer created by Quantum Laboratories that was reprogrammed by Megatron, seen in the The Transformers episode "Day of the Machines". Humanity landed on Mars in 1992, setting up permanent residence; the EDC were shown to have a Mars base in The Transformers episode "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 3". In 1997, the Autobots and a major Earth power (the United States of America) built a Warp Gate on the edges of the solar system; this is the Trigger, seen in the 2003 manga The Battle of the Star Gate. In 2003, the Earth Defense Command was created; they were an organization seen protecting Earth in the third season of the Sunbow The Transformers cartoon. The Japanese series Kiss Players established that they were found in 2003. They were formed from the G.I. Joe Star Brigade; the Star Brigade was a space-themed subline of the G.I. Joe toyline in 1993 and 1994. EDC officer Marissa Fairborne, a prominent guest star throughout the third season of the cartoon, is the daughter of G.I. Joes Flint and Lady Jaye, as hinted at by her name, and the appearance of an illusionary older Flint as her father in "The Killing Jar". In 2014, artificial intelligence becomes common on Earth. In 2017, humanity develops a non-invasive neural interference. And now, we hit the breakdown of human/Cybertronian relationships...

In 2017, an attack on New Earth causes the EDC to declare any human colony off-limits to all Transformers. New Earth was seen in the Challenge of the GoBots episode "Quest for New Earth". In 2023, the Human Singularity occurs, evolving human technology beyond that of the Cybertronians. The Singularity was mentioned in "Head Games", named for the real-life concept of the technological singularity, a hypothetical point in time at which technological change becomes uncontrollable and irreversible. That same year, the Decepticons captured an Autobot shuttle (presumably the kind seen in The Transformers: The Movie) and used it to attack the human colony of Xin Shanghai. Xin Shanghai is a transliteration of the Mandarin 新上海, which means "New Shanghai"; Shanghai is a municipality in China. In 2026, the Autobot spacecraft Star Arrow tries to land for aid on the colony of Tamil Duniya, only to be shot down after entering the planet's airspace. The Star Arrow was an Autobot starship seen in the Club's Cybertron prose story, "The Dark Heart of Sandokan". The Tamil are an ethnic group, native to India, along with some other parts of Asia, like Sri Lanka and Malaysia. Duniya, meanwhile, is a Hindi word (दुनिया) meaning "world".

In 2029, Earth reorganizes into the Human Confederacy, with the Earth Defense Command becoming the Confederated Terran Colonial Fleet. The CTCF MIGHT be named for the Terran Confederacy and their Colonial Fleet from the 1998 video game StarCraft. In 2031, the Scouring of Nebulos (mentioned in "Head Games") occurs, causing humanity to impose the Armistice on the Cybertronian race, and blockading them in a nine world Allowed Zone. In 2033, an attempted attack on the Allowed Zone borders by Galvatron results in a highly-aggressive response by the CTCF, who then shrink the Allowed Zone, forcing Cybertronians to evacuate five of their colonies, which, after 10 days, are sterilized. Approximately 2054, humanity somehow becomes immortal, which we learned in "Head Games". From 2064 to 2074, humanity is believed to split into its three modern branches: biologicals (normal humans, who are treated as second-class citizens; hypocritical, much?), circuitry-enhanced, and psychals (those with augmented psychic abilities, born naturally). The "second-class citizens" bit accidentally repeats twice, which covers up part of the last sentence, which reads in full: "130 SCA (est): Humanity embarks on the Eutychus Project, bringing back to life every human who had ever lived, with the exception of the most heinous criminals." So, in approximately 2114, the Eutychus Project begins, bringing back to life all humans except the most heinous criminals; those like Adolf Hitler, or, in the world of Beast Wars: Uprising, the Witwicky family, considered traitors for aiding the Autobots. The Eutychus Project is named for Eutychus, a young man mentioned in the New Testament of the Christian Bible in the Acts of the Apostles. Residing in Troas, Eutychus fell asleep, falling out of a three-story window and dying. However, St. Paul embraced the boy, insisting he was alive, and bringing him back up the stairs, where he was miraculously revived. Presumably, the Eutychus Project is connected to the Lazarus Society mentioned in "Head Games", also named for a man miraculously resurrected in the Bible.

At TFNation 2017, a printed, annotated edition was made by Jim Sorenson. It included notes on the thought processes of Jim and Dave behind the story (the use of toy features, Jim wanting to be sure that characters used their vehicle modes, Jim's love of insane Galvatron, etc.) It also came with a new piece of art by Christopher Colgin, showing off Snapper and Barbearian's arm-wrestling match. Snapper was drawn in his body seen in later in "Cultural Appropriation", a virtual retool of Generations Fall of Cybertron Decepticon Brawl with a new head. Barbearian, meanwhile, was a virtual retool of Titans Return Hardhead, with his head modelled on Grizzly-1/Barbearian's mutant head. View the image at the bottom of the page.

Some little easter eggs: Snapper has a drink with the energy creature Kremzeek on it. Kremzeek was a Decepticon creation, seen in the Sunbow The Transformers "Kremzeek!" The can is modeled specifically on the drink that Ironhide and Prowl had with Kremzeek on it, from issue #3 of Dreamwave Productions' Transformers: Generation 1 ongoing, the concept which has become a recurring easter egg in comics since. To the left of it is the graffiti of Sideways scribbled on the walls of the Atlantis by Coby, Bud, and Lori in the Cybertron episode "Escape". On the wall to the right of Barbearian is some graffiti in the Predacon Cybertronix font. It reads "THE SEEDS OF THE FUTURE LIE BURIED IN MY AFT", a, heh, rude paraphrasing of "the seeds of the future lie buried in the past," the mantra of the Oracle from Beast Machines. And to the left of Snapper, are some claw marks; they match up perfectly to the claw marks left on a wall by one of Sector Seven's previous AllSpark mutations from the 2007 live-action Transformers movie, from the scene with the Nokia AllSpark Mutation (Specifically, the bit where Epps goes "Was Freddy Kreuger in here?", to which Glen responds, "Freddy Krueger has four claws, that's only three. That's Wolverine, man!"). In the film's tie-in Sector Seven alternate reality game, the AllSpark Mutation was given the designation AX9-8946-09SU-1.