 As the new series begins, the surviving Beast Wars Maximal team (Optimus Primal, Silverbolt, Rhinox, Rattrap, Cheetor and Blackarachnia, although Rhinox and Silverbolt are missing) return back to their homeworld, but the planet is completely devoid of life. Additionally, the team can't remember anything from after they returned to Cybertron. A new race of Transformers, known as the Vehicons, have taken control of Cybertron and will stop at nothing to destroy the Maximals. The Maximals find themselves stuck in their original beast forms, and with no ability to transform into their more powerful robot forms. Optimus Primal is then summoned by an ancient supercomputer called "the Oracle". The Oracle's cryptic messages foretold of a great change to come for the planet of Cybertron. It "reformats" Optimus and the Maximals in order to better equip them to face the threat to Cybertron, that being a virus that had been engineered by the rogue Predacon Leader Megatron. It was revealed that Megatron had escaped during "Transwarp Space" from the past of the Beast Wars and had arrived in an unspecified amount of time before the Maximals exited Transwarp Space. Thus, Megatron had conquered the entire planet with his virus and extracted the sparks of the entire Maximal, and presumably Predacon, race. The Vehicons were shown to be a race of drones, automated and controlled by Megatron from the former Maximal Citadel. Without sparks of their own, the Vehicons at first proved to be easily defeated by the Maximals as the strain of multitasking (running the entire planet and controlling the Drones) proved to be difficult for Megatron. Megatron thus took three captured sparks and created three Vehicon Generals to take command of their respective drones; Jetstorm to command the Aero-Drones, Tankor to command the Tank-Drones and Thrust to command the Cycle-Drones. It was later revealed that the sparks used to create these Generals were all known to the Maximals, two of which being former comrades and being forced by Vehicon programming to battle their friends, the other being the only Predacon, other than Megatron to survive the Beast Wars. The Maximals discovered Jetstorm, Tankor and Thrust were really Silverbolt, Rhinox, and Waspinator, respectively. After having his memories awakened by Rattrap, but still being influenced by the Vehicon programming, Tankor uses Rhinox's scientific mind to rebel against Megatron, with the aim of taking over Cybertron for himself. Apprehending and reprogramming Megatron's Diagnostic Drone, Tankor discovered the Oracle and learned of the existence of the Key to Vector Sigma, a device which could transform organics into "technomatter", Tankor faked his demise and allowed Megatron to learn of the Key's existence. Megatron sought to use the Key as a weapon to destroy the Maximals, however Tankor used the Oracle to arm Optimus Primal with control of the Plasma Energy Chamber, a device that could destroy technomatter. Tankor then set up a showdown between Megatron and the Maximals in which he intended to seize control once they destroyed each other, however, Megatron had hard-wired a fail-safe into Tankor's body which caused him to shut down when Tankor tried to harm Megatron. Megatron and Optimus Primal both unleashed their weapons against each other and Cybertron itself was nearly destroyed, but the Oracle managed to intervene and prevented any harm to come to Cybertron. Megatron, Primal and Tankor were apparently temporarily destroyed, however because of their link to the Oracle itself; they were each given the opportunity to choose their own destiny. Optimus Primal chose to return and carry out the will of the All-Spark. Rhinox was freed from the hard wiring that made him Tankor and he thus chose to rejoin the Matrix in atonement for his misguided deeds as Tankor. Megatron chose to separate the organic elements from his body (his driving desire since returning to Cybertron) and succeeded in doing so, however his spark was trapped in the wrong half and he became a totally organic Transformer known as Savage/Noble. His intended form, that being an enormous battle station in the shape of an altered version of his head (and able to transform into an alternate form of a powerful spaceship) was released on auto-pilot into the sky above the Maximal Citadel. As Savage/Noble, Megatron tricked the Maximal Nightscream into believing Noble to be another survivor of Megatron's virus and used the Maximals to gain entry to the Citadel where he was able to extract and free his spark from his organic-based form (the body lived on as a beast who followed Nightscream around but showed only animal intelligence) and Megatron was able to interface with his battle station form and remotely took control of Cybertron once again. The Maximals discovered an organic "Liquid Core" and a chamber containing fossilized bones, and were able to awaken Silverbolt (from within the body and programming of Jetstorm) and reformat him into a Maximal once more. However, his experience as Jetstorm turned him bitter, and Silverbolt lost his charismatic chivalry that had been his main character trait. Having lost two of his original Generals, Megatron used the sparks of two new Cybertronians (that were said to be the greatest generals in Cybertron History,) and thus two new Vehicon Generals were created: Obsidian and Strika. The Maximals also gained another member when an exploration ship returned to Cybertron in answer to a distress beacon set up by survivors of Megatron's virus before they were all hunted down by the Vehicon Drones (with the exception of Nightscream of course). Having adopted an alternate form based on the dominant life-form of the planet she was sent to explore (that of a sentient plant) the newcomer called herself Botanica. This character proved to be of much interest among the fanbase as nothing like her had ever been seen in Transformer Shows before. Botanica proved to be very powerful, and became central in Optimus Primal's plan to reformat the entire planet, and introduce organics to Cybertron. The Maximals then learned that the sparks of the former inhabitants of the planet were being held within the massive battle station that was Megatron's new body. After launching an attack against Megatron in which the Maximals were nearly defeated, Nightscream witnessed the death of Savage/ Noble by Megatron and, in a rage, was able to depolarize Megatron's spark and force it from its battle station shell. The Maximals then gained control of the battle station and thus control of the displaced sparks as well. Megatron was forced to inhabit an off-line Diagnostic Drone as his Vehicon Army mounted a massive attack in an effort to reclaim his former base. Megatron's forces were able to deplete the power reserves of the battle station and force it to crash; then the Vehicon's vast numbers overwhelmed and defeated the Maximals, extracting their sparks and adding them to the collection in the process. However, before his capture, the Maximal Cheetor was able to use the antigravity engines of the battle station to launch Obsidian and Strika into orbit around the planet. The only Maximal that was left to face Megatron was Optimus Primal, but to Primal's dismay, Megatron had taken a new form: one based on Primal's own former "Optimal Optimus" body, but stripped of its organic components. Megatron then released all of the captured sparks and absorbed them into his own (causing his form to swell in size) in order to form one perfect being. Megatron then blasted a hole to the core of the planet, exposing the organic liquid core. Megatron separated Optimus from the Oracle, reformed the Key to Vector Sigma, and began to convert the organic core into technomatter. Once completed, Megatron intended to transfer his own consciousness into Cybertron itself, turn it into a perfect technosphere, and use Cybertron as weapon to conquer the Universe. However, the Oracle managed to reconnect with Optimus Primal, giving him the power to escape. Primal then interrupted the conversion process and tackled Megatron, knocking them both over the edge and into the organic core below. Primal said "The Great Transformation awaits, Megatron. Prepare to be... reformatted." As they hit the core, Primal unleashed the reformatting process, releasing the sparks that were absorbed within Megatron and apparently turning the entire planet into a technorganic sphere. The Maximals awoke in their own bodies while the population was reborn into the new bodies of the reformatted Vehicon Drones, including Waspinator who returned to his original form (but with Thrust's head, and only the size of a real wasp). Waspinator's final words recall an end to the previous series: "Wazzpinator never gets what Wazzpinator wants." |
