#transformers surge

[nukeli]

Since it's established in at least one of my fan continuities, Transformers: Surge, that the transformers actually need to "breathe" or they'll overheat (like computers) and either get brain/organ damage or die, no one is born able to fly in space.

Their first forays into spaceflight would propably consist of strapping air tanks and extra fuel tanks on a jet bot, and that would propably end badly. Nevermind the re-entry, that's a lot of heat and then you're propably going to hit the ground really hard.

Not sure who should be the first bot(s) to try to do this (and propably die) during the war. Does anybody know any relevant TF characters?

[nukeli]

Transformers: Surge — Blitzwing

City: Polyhex Kaon

Faction: Decepticon Alliance

Altmode: Cybertronian fighter-bomber/light tank

During the early war, Blitzwing and Astrotrain were orphaned sparklings from the Autobot city Polyhex who were taken into government custody, only to be used in the first triple changer experiments under the theory that sparklings' more malleable bodies could be made to develop a second vehicle mode. The experiments were traumatic for both of them, and caused Blitzwing to develop Disassociative Identity Disorder. The experiments eventually produced results, but the boys used their new abilities to escape and defected to Kaon where they told the Decepticons everything and let them run tests in exchange for energon and a place to stay. This enabled the Decepticons to find a way to turn adult bots into triple changers, the first two being Shatter and Dropkick. Astrotrain was drafted into the Decepticon alliance's space force because trains are pretty useless, while there was disagreement on whether Blitzwing should be put in Kaon's air force or infantry, but the air force got him eventually. As the war got more and more apocalyptic the city divisions started breaking down, new units were assembled from random survivors, and that's how Blitzwing meets Lugnut and Clobber.

As his name implies, the jet was Blitzwing's original altmode (Astrotrain's was a train).

Blitzwing's alters are named Icefall ("Icy" for short, but he doesn't like that), Hotwash, and Randomizer.

Blitzwing was so young that he picked up a kaonian accent, Astrotrain was older and didn't.

[nukeli]

Torn between three options in my fan continuity.

Clobber could be Lugnut's budded baby that looks identical to him.

On the other hand Lugnut and Clobber could be identical twins, which could lead to two options: either Lugnut dies in the war due to his fanaticism, or Clobber dies in the war (perhaps because of something Lugnut did?) which is one of Lugnut's motivations to join a post-war terrorist organization of former Cons who aren't happy about the treaty pardoning everybody for everything and anything done during the war.

[nukeli]

TF Surge: Ratchet

City: Iacon

Faction: Neutral

Altmode: Van, with ambulance modifications

Age: Equivalent to somewhere in her 40s or 50s

Ratchet is a member of the Cybertronian equivalent to Doctors Without Borders, and was in the Kalis mountains helping civilians in the aftermath of Tarn's and Vos' nuclear exchange when Cybertron's other eleven citystates sided with either city because of old pacts and alliances, and the entire planet quickly plunged into total war.

In Cybertron's warlord era, after both sides' leadership was MIA and presumed dead aboard the Arc and the Nemesis, the alliances' armies disintegrared, and most of Cybertron's population was dead, Ratchet refuses to join any of the warlords. During this time, a kaonian deserter named Deadlock saves her from Straxus' thugs when they try to force Ratchet to treat the warlord, and Ratchet reluctantly teams up with her.

Ratchet doesn't know if her younger sister Red Alert, who had joined the Autobot medical corps, is alive or dead.

[nukeli]

Should I retitle my fan continuity "Nightmares and Flare Guns"?

I don't remember where the current title, "Surge", came from, but the word isn't very relevant to the story. My new idea on the other hand evokes WWI, at least to me, which suits the concept and atmosphere of a morally vague and anthologyish story about a WWI-like apocalyptic war.

Though I intended to have a canon-typical title, and canon continuities tend to have one word titles after "Transformers"...

[nukeli]

TF Surge: Tigatron

City: Kaon

Faction: Neutral

Altmode: Nitrotiger

Before the war, Tigatron was a conservationist who liked to hike. Now, he's a draft dodger hiding out in the same crystal forests, nearly destroyed by artillery and chemical weapons. His only companion is a nitrotriger named Snowstalker, which he'd rescued from exotic pet trade but which had been too old to be returned to nature. The two of them hide from Autobot or Decepticon soldiers who sometimes show up or try to chase them out to protect the mountain forest and its wildlife from further damage, but while Tigatron has taken up a rifle, he still refuses to kill because he doesn't have much else left besides his convictions.

[nukeli]

Transformers: Surge – Inferno of Fomikon

City: Helex

Faction: Decepticon Alliance

Altmode: Ant

Age: Equivalent to 17-18

Motivated by rabid nationalism in a time where almost everybody else has grown disillusioned, fully buying into Helex's culture of glorious battle and glorious death, and thirsting to kill all foreigners and anyone on his own side who he perceives as disloyal (conscientious objectors, deserters, anybody who seems to sympathize with the enemy, questions orders, or defies their superiors in any way), Inferno would fit in better as a member of the Justice Division than as the infantry conscript he is.

Despite his obvious derangement and enthusiasm for killing people with a flamethrower, Inferno is weirdly nice to other Helexians and to a lesser extent bots from other Decepticon Alliance cities. Or maybe it actually makes sense for this type of person. Most bots in Inferno's unit are terrified of setting him off, and try to hide their fear to various degrees of success.

Might have a crush on his older commanding officer, Megatron of Cryotek, and follows his every order fanatically. However, Megatron is definitely not interested in the obviously deranged and possibly underage pyromaniac.

Inferno becomes the last casualty of the last day of the Great War on Cybertron. He decided to attack the Petrexians they'd been fighting despite a just-announced truce, and was shot down while his unit watched from the trench. No one was in any hurry to get up there to retrieve his body.

[nukeli]

TF Surge: Punch

Faction: Autobot Alliance / Decepticon Alliance

Rank: ?

City: Iacon

Altmode: Car

Punch is an Autobot spy sent to infiltrate the Decepticons, conduct sabotage and relay information. However, stationed in a Tesarusian unit, the initially sure of his mission Punch begins to realize that beneath Cybertron's ancient grudges, the Decepticon are just people like the Autobots, fighting for their cities, their families, and for their own lives as everything becomes more and more hellish. Questioning the entire war and increasingly conflicted between his duty to his city and the Autobots and his bonds with the bots he went through hell with, Punch tries his best to avoid making the choice, like he could somehow be a good soldier to both sides. He stays with the Decepticon unit at the end of the war, justifying himself with the lack of explicit orders, able to claim anything about his background because the war destroyed almost all records. But secrets like this can't be kept forever....