#tlalak

[askvectorprime]

Dear Vector Prime, I'm familiar with Rhinox's cameo and offscreen death in Armada, but what were Cheetor, Airrazor, Terrorsaur and Predacon up to around that time and in the aftermath?

Dear Beastlier Bonder,

Those individuals all had stories of their own, and their various fates never intertwined. Nevertheless, I shall attempt to provide summaries of their activities.

Cheetor, as Galvatron stated prior, was a member of the Wreckers. Cheetor was known for his stealthy abilities, and for the ego that came from multiple successful infiltration missions. Sadly, like many of the Wreckers, he met his end at the hands of the Decepticon Skywarp, who severed his thrusters in flight mode and sent him falling to a lethal crash.

Airazor was one of the most loyal and professional of all Autobots, which made her forced betrayal as a result of shadowplay all the more traumatizing. While in their thrall, she was driven to help the Decepticon generals Deadlock and Thrust in poisoning the waters of Tlalak, leading to the planet's downfall and a defeat for the Autobots. She underwent counseling for this after the Unicron Battles with Red Alert, and mostly recovered by the time of the search for the Planet Keys, but she would always bear scars from this incident.

Terrorsaur was a member of the Decepticon rank and file, who never accomplished much despite his relative level of skill—something that you can likely attribute to his arrogance. Nevertheless, Terrorsaur fought in the Unicron Battles, survived, and reluctantly entered an era of peace with the Autobots afterward. Still believing himself to be destined for greater things, he attempted to join Scorponok and his Terrorcons, only to be rebuffed due to not being one of Megatron's so-called "elite warriors".

Predacon ignored the matter of Unicron's emergence, so caught up was he in his drive to "evolve" Cybertronians into techno-organic beast modes. When Scorponok and his Terrorcons entered the scene, he found them a subject worthy of intense study. It wasn’t until the hunt for the Cyber Planet Keys that he became an active thread, assuming the form of an Animatronian theropod and staging an uprising on the Jungle Planet. He got so far as challenging Scourge, only to meet his end at the hands of the dragon bot's axe blade.

[askvectorprime]

Dear Vector Prime, what was Armada Thrust's military career like before the events of the anime?

Dear Squidhead Scrutinizer,

Thrust's military career began well before Megatron's uprising. He was the star student at Cybertron's foremost military academy… or would have been, if not for his classmate, Dogfight. Though Thrust could do things like recite the legendary Barricade's strategies from memory, Dogfight had him beat in every practical facet of combat. To eliminate his competition, Thrust arranged an "accident" for Dogfight, and graduated with the top grade, his teachers none the wiser.

After graduating, Thrust rose rapidly through the ranks of Cybertron's defense force. He became chief tactical officer to Sentinel Prime just as Megatron began his rise to power. Here, Thrust again saw an opportunity, and betrayed Sentinel to Megatron, leading to the Autobot leader's legendary defeat at the Straits of Yuss and assuring Thrust a place at the Decepticon warlord's side.

From then on, Thrust became the Decepticons' leading tactical coordinator. It was he that arranged the sacking of the largest Mini-Con settlement in Tesarus, diverting Autobot forces by leaking false intelligence to them about a supposed all-out attack at the frontlines.

After the Mini-Cons escaped aboard the Exodus, Thrust began making plans for Decepticon invasions of alien planets. He organized the takeover of the Tlalakan homeworld, where he helped the Decepticon general Deadlock poison the planet's oceans and eliminate 75% of the population. More worlds fell to Decepticon control thanks to Thrust's strategies, furthering his reputation, with many believing his study of Cybertronian astrology to be the key to much of his victories.

Thrust's greatest victories, however, were on the planets Orga, Duke, and Vector, which all inhabited the same sector of space. Here he managed to bring all three worlds to their knees with almost no Decepticon casualties, by sending infiltrators to each world to orchestrate false-flag attacks that stoked resentment between them—until they erupted into interplanetary conflict. Once their military power had been mostly exhausted, Thrust ordered a three-pronged assault that swept through the battered defenses.

You know the rest: not longer after, Thrust was called to Earth, where he would again see an opportunity to further his own goals. This time, things didn’t go so well for him, and he was killed by Unicron. A key flaw of Decepticonism: you can only deceive so many, before you have nobody left to trust when everything unravels.

[askvectorprime]

Dear Vector Prime, what happened to Elita-1 and the Female autobots in G1? In 2001 the Decepticons took full control of Cybertron and we never see or hear from the female Autobots again. Did they all die too?

Dear Female Fan,

Quite fortunately, they did not! By the time that Megatron returned to Cybertron, Elita and her group of rebels had already received an advance warning of the incoming threat and pre-emptively withdrew their forces to reconsolidate and rebuild. While many Autobots fled to the newly-established Autobot City on Earth, Elita’s team organized a civilian evacuation to the recently-liberated planet of Tlalak; correctly assuming that Megatron would besiege whatever planet Optimus Prime occupied, she made the decision to take those who could not, or would not, take up arms somewhere far away in the hopes that they would not be found.

With Seaspray having already opened up diplomatic channels with the citizens of the planet, Tlalakan leader Alana agreed to open their borders to Cybertronain refugees, including a number of civilians, pacifists, and other noncombatants fleeing Megatron’s tyranny. Over the next few years, this refugee camp became the city of “Iacon Minor”, an sun-drenched island metropolis that sprawled over one of the planet’s uninhabited archipelagos. Many ‘bots, including Elita herself, adopted new alternate modes to better traverse the watery planet, while hydroengineering specialists Riptide, Subsea, and Wavelength devised a method to tap the planet’s geothermal “smokers” for cheap, clean energy.

The Autobots on Tlalak clashed repeatedly with the Seacons, soldiers specifically re-engineered to retake the world which had once belonged to the Decepticon Empire, but despite their ferocious combined form they were never able to best the Cybertronian-Tlalak alliance. 

After the events of 2005, Alana commissioned a massive granite statue of Optimus Prime, which still stands in the center of Iacon Minor.

[askvectorprime]

Dear Vector Prime, what can you tell us about Viron's version of Cannonball?

Dear Cannonball Crewmate,

I'm going to assume by that question you mean Cannonball the 8th. After purloining the pseudonym from his predecessor, the perilous pirate began a period of piracy and plundering that had previously been un-purviewed. From the sapphire seas of Tlalak to the imperial sties of Skuxxis, no relic, treasure, or cargo was safe from the thieving servos of Cannonball and his Dread Pirate Crew. However, they bit off more than they could chew when they attempted to steal Neo Fortress Maximus itself from Optimus Prime and his crew, and Cannonball was fended off for the first time in his criminal career. Though Cannonball continued to menace the spaceways, the incident made him dead set on acquiring a titan of his own someday.

[askvectorprime]

What were the names of the star systems and civilizations destroyed by Cyberverse Sky-Byte?

Dear Extinction Enthusiast,

Your question is a morbid one to be sure. The Sky-Byte of this universal cluster is a foul warrior indeed, lacking the integrity of Spark and good nature that has distinguished his various counterparts throughout the multiverse. This particular iteration was most infamous for igniting a supernova that destroyed seven civilizations almost simultaneously: the Cygnans of Cygnus Seven, the Nibarians of Nibari, the Tlalakans of Tlalak, the Vespoids of Chicxulania, the warring Thraal and A’ovan who coexisted on Na’conda, and the Clonemasters of Tharkaros II.

Such devastation; trillions of lives lost, millennia of art and science and culture destroyed in an instant... I am sorry, but merely listing these names does not convey the sheer scope and horror of Sky-Byte’s monstrous actions. All of these civilizations had only just begun to venture beyond their homeworlds... who knows how they could have changed the galaxy for the better?

[vo-kopen]

Never forget

In the original Transformers cartoon there was a race of giant alien Mesoamericans* who teamed up with the Autobots to liberate their aquatic planet, and their race, planet, and leader were all named (according to the Transformers wiki) for Tlalocan, an Aztec afterlife for water related deaths. (citation as always needed)

Also one of the rebels fell in love with an Autobot a vice versa, and we had a Very Special Message about love. 

*They were aliens so they were not really Mesoamericans. Buts kinda like how the Kree in Marvel are often described as “space Romans.”

Sorry if this came across as rude, I just wanted to talk about Tlalak and the Tlalakans. Next time I might talk about the Titans of Saturn’s moon Titan (not related to the ancient Transformers called the Metrotitans) or I won’t. Not sure.