#nizziverse

[sepublic]

            When initially fighting the Decepticons, humanity attempted to face them head-on in open battlefields and the like, testing the full might of their most powerful engines and weapons in a contest. This was a mistake; Human technology was no match for Cybertronian armaments, and your typical Decepticon footsoldier was more agile, durable, and hard-hitting than any tank. Battles in Mission City, Shanghai, Egypt, etc., made this clear.

         But as Sector 7, and then NEST, gathered experience, advice, and teamwork from the Autobots, eventually the best strategies were figured out. So by Dark of the Moon, humanity knew better than to tackle the Decepticons in open confrontation; That would only get them killed. Instead, it accepted its limitations, and opted to make the most of what its puny little form might entail against these giants.

         It became David vs Goliath; Instead of bringing the Decepticons’ attention, humans would take advantage of their small size to sneak up on unsuspecting enemies who normally towered over them, planting small energon-powered explosives and other debilitating traps. Focus on speed to evade their enemies, since durability was otherwise wasted. While the Decepticons focused on their more obvious Autobot enemies, human snipers would support from afar to take out their optics and other key points. Guerilla tactics were key.

         When it came to the Battle of Chicago, the humans didn’t arrive en masse; They sneaked in, using their size, and the fact that the architecture was built for them, to exploit various routes the Decepticons weren’t aware of or were ill-equipped to prepare for. In short, humanity realized the folly of fighting the Decepticons on their own terms and expectations; Let humanity take the fight to them in a way they didn’t expect, by using their rules. Let humans fight in the way that embraces what sets them apart from their Cybertronian counterparts.

         In essence, one could say humanity learned that to fight a Decepticon… one must fight like a Decepticon themselves, relying on trickery, deception, subterfuge, and stealth. They turned the Decepticon values of the underdog trickster against them, and like the Functionists they originally opposed, stuck to the roles their tiny little bodies were most equipped for. For those Decepticons who realized the poetic irony, it was quite a humiliating and frustrating realization, as those they disregarded as insects realized just how difficult it could be to hit such a microscopic target, from their experiences with their own insects.

         Cybertronians might be able to study the technology of their enemies to use against them, but humanity adapted by studying the tactics of the Transformers to use against them, understanding how they operate and think, and exploiting the blind spots of that vision. No need to use your own strength when you have the Autobots; Turn their massive size and power, even their own Energon-based technology, against them! Decepticons may have had ruthlessness and military prowess, but the Autobots had allies and the home advantage, now that both groups were one and embraced Earth. The Autobots worked with those who best understood this alien battlefield, those whom many of them fought for to begin with, to win.

[strangeduckpaper]

The early days of the Cybertronian Civil War were a confused mess as Megatron seized power and killed Sentinel Prime, with Orion Pax rising as Optimus Prime soon after, but as allegiances were declared and battle lines were drawn, the Decepticons held the initial advantage.

Megatron controlled much of the military & expansion fleets and enough of the Winged Moon’s communication suites for Soundwave to gain the immediate upper hand in information and electronic warfare. Plus, while Optimus Prime was an inspiring leader and incredibly capable squad commander, he was unprepared for leading an entire faction, and Megatron proved the better general. The Autobots were to be a resistance, relying on lightning strikes and subterfuge for most of the war, even in cases when they could engage the ‘Cons ship to ship and soldier to soldier.

But the Autobots had a surprising amount of public support, even as more and more Cybertronians fled the crossfire. The major colonies, always wary of Cybertronian hegemony, also provided tacit support and recruits, which alongside increasing numbers of Decepticon defectors would swell the Autobot ranks, while the Decepticons found themselves stretched thin to maintain colonization efforts while fighting off the Autobots and other alien races.

But regardless of who held the advantage, Cybertron still suffered. Neutrality became a less and less viable option, and soon Cybertronians were forced to choose a side, flee, or die. Refugees fled a planet in a near constant as the planet burned in the fires of war. The massive artificial extensions and latticeworks of the planet itself began to suffer, (A concept borrowed from @sepublic‘s Nizziverse) the artificial gravity generators breaking down through inattention and collateral damage, forcing more and more layers to be either jettisoned and/or cannibalized for war material.

And then came Simanzi.

A battle over the Crucible, Cybertron’s largest raw material processing and reclamation center, spiraled and spiraled and spiraled into one of the most devastating battles in the war, fought in concert with a frenzied battle to claim superiority over the Winged Moon. In addition, both battles heralded of dozens of lesser atrocities, such as the Autobot’s Forced Flood, The Decepticon’s semi successful massacre of Simanzi’s remaining Neutral population, the destruction of the Titansparks and the ensuing Titanfall which saw the subspecies rendered almost extinct.

And then the Winged Moon exploded.

Accounts vary, but the general consensus is that was the Decepticons that, accidentally or purposefully, damaged a vital component within the moon’s energon processing centres, a final blow to the already damaged systems. The resulting detonation sundered the moon in two, the (fortunately) smaller piece falling to Cybertron alongside its namesake wings and shattered tether in a series of cataclysmic impacts along its southern hemisphere.

The damage was utterly catastrophic, wounding the planet’s cybersphere beyond repair, and it’s said that Cybertron itself screamed in anguish. Optimus Prime certainly heard it, as his dominion over the Matrix of Leadership allowed him to sense the distress of none other than the AllSpark itself.

Knowing that the future of Cybertron itself hung in the balance, he launched a mission to the planet’s core. Megatron, discovering his goal, set off in pursuit, resulting in a running battle that would end as Alpha Trion activated the ARK protocol, jettisoning the Spark of Primus into deep space and destroying any indication of it’s destination.

The battle would be recorded as a Decepticon victory, but Cybertron itself once again proved the loser. Its surface had been savaged, its soul ripped out and half of the Cybertronian population lay dead as a result. A death knell had been sounded, the planet rapidly becoming both uninhabitable and even actively hostile to even the hardiest lifeforms.

And so it was abandoned, the Autobots evacuating the planet and officially ceding to the Decepticons, though they would maintain control of Luna-2 and the remnants of the Winged Moon, and both sides would retain bases to harvest its remaining raw materials.

In other circumstances, the catastrophe might have ended the war, forcing the combatants to confront just what their war had cost them. But ideology and mutual blame trumped reason, and the battle became a rallying cry instead, of victory for the Decepticons, of hope for the Autobots, and righteous vengeance for both sides on behalf of their dead planet.

And the war raged on...

[sepublic]

I was initially going to disregard Rise of the Beasts for the Nizziverse, since I saw its story as irreconcilable with my own take on Unicron (both of which ignored the Bayverse’s), and only selectively adapt certain characters and bits from that film…

But I’m actually considering (very loosely) adapting Rise of the Beasts to function as Transformers 6 for the Nizziverse, since that film was never made for the Bayverse. In a meta sense, Rise of the Beasts IS Transformers 6, and even stars Unicron as the overarching threat, after The Last Knight set it up (even if those two are definitely different continuities).

At the very least, I’ll probably use RotB as a prompt and inspiration to figure out the general details of Transformers 6; I guess this makes Noah and Elena the human protagonists (rather than being split up between Transformers 1 and 2 respectively as I considered), and Scourge and his Terrorcons could be mercenaries working for Shockwave, who ultimately bring about the birth of Unicron. Mirage will look like his Bayverse self, or maybe he’ll be his RotB appearance in Dark of the Moon. I could also make Dino and Mirage into separate characters, too…

Not so sure about adapting the Maximals, since a part of me wants the Nizziverse to end in a way that sets up the possibility of its own Beast Wars sequel, but we’ll see. I’ve already had fun imagining traditional Autobot and Decepticon takes on Beast Wars characters, and even planned to do this for Protoform X. Of course, X already had an established personality before the events of the G1 Beast Wars, so that could still work out… I dunno. A lot of characters could’ve been those who were successfully rebuilt into Maximals, like what happens with Ravage; But I also prefer the perspective of a new generation.

[sepublic]

            When the Allspark was located, both Autobots and Decepticons sent out a worldwide signal to all agents across the globe, urging them to converge no matter how unlikely it seemed one could make it in time to help; Every bit counted, and they needed to fortify the Allspark’s position now that it had been discovered.

         Despite this precaution, the battle for the Allspark finished before most could arrive, with only those nearby able to show up in time to influence the tide of war. While the Allspark was lost, the Autobots made an ally in the human race through Sector 7, which was eventually reformatted into the global NEST organization. As part of this joint Human-Cybertronian alliance, the Autobots relayed the location and identities of all their agents on Earth.

         Coincidentally, various stories of vehicles being stolen or disappearing had sprung up across the globe, around the exact moment the Autobots and Decepticons sent their global summons. The Autobots vouched for themselves, and NEST’s data on their agents, cross-referenced with the missing vehicle reports, identified many of these lost machines to be Autobots who had answered the call, recklessly abandoning their posts in the mad race for the Allspark. As was protocol, all of these Autobots activated holoforms when driving on their own, giving the illusion of many vehicles being commandeered by unknown thieves.

         All other cases unaccounted for were clearly Decepticon agents who had also been in hiding, and thus also abandoned their posts to pursue the Allspark. Ordinarily this would be a dead giveaway as to the identity of several Decepticons… But the Decepticons realized this strategy as well, and accordingly swapped alt-modes to blend in once more. But while they mostly evaded the radar, the locations of disappearances still provided a starting point to work off of; There was a chance some Decepticon agents hadn’t strayed too far from their stations, and knowing their general areas greatly narrowed down the list of places to search.

         (It’s worth noting that some Decepticons managed to sneak back into their stations after the battle in Mission City was reported a loss, before anyone could notice their absence. Onslaught might be one of these examples, as someone stationed at a fairly abandoned military garage at the time.)

        I’m thinking all of this may segue into the beginning of Revenge of the Fallen; Investigations in the Shanghai province due to multiple missing vehicle reports leads our protagonists to Sideways, whom they corner only to be surprised when it turns out Scavenger is with him, too. This makes them privy to the Constructicons’ presence and some sort of project they’re working on, and by following this lead the Autobots eventually learn about the Fallen’s plan.

[sepublic]

            Continuing off of a brief tangent from my previous post, let’s be real… Cybertronians wouldn’t really have gender, because they’re giant robots. They/Them pronouns would be the default and probably the only thing they have; In regards to the Nizziverse especially (as these posts always are), they’d probably disregard She/Her and He/Him with disdain!

         After all, they would see those pronouns as associated with the biological sexes, which are of course an icky organic association. And what is the point of the sexes? To sexually reproduce, and Cybertronians look down on sexual reproduction because it’s a highly unpredictable, unreliable game of chance. You can only do so much to influence the odds, but in the end it’s totally out of your hands. Not only is the nature of sexual reproduction gross to them, but its mechanics hilariously impractical; Not at all like the controlled perfection of Cybertronian design, with the only true limits to idealizing a form being the builder’s imagination!

        This does lead me to an amusing image tho, of some Cybertronians praising the practice of organic cultures experimenting with pronouns, on the basis of this being the closest they can get to ‘transcending’ their fleshy limits or whatever. Diversity win, the killer robots draining your planet of energy support trans rights!!! But preferably if it’s They/Them, It/Its, neopronouns, etc.

[sepublic]

So for the Nizziverse's version of TF1, we have that scene where Megatron bargains to our human protagonist for the Allspark... I've thought over it, and I'm gonna change the terms of his offer;

Instead of offering to spare just our protagonist, Megatron offers to spare Earth itself; All of it, the people, the animals and plants, the resources, etc. Just give me the cube and I'll leave you all alone.

And it's tempting!!! Especially in this precarious position the protagonist finds themselves in. But in the end... They have to say no. Because regardless of whether Megatron is being sincere or not*, whether the protagonist believes he's being sincere...

In the end, they can't say yes; Because what about other people? What about other worlds? Megatron will use the Allspark to restore Cybertron... So he can then win the war and direct all of Cybertron towards invading other planets. This is the first story arc, so it's here that through the protagonist's eyes, we learn that the Autobots came into existence, that they're doing all of this, for other worlds; Because some Cybertronians said, "We should care about other worlds and other people." Everything Optimus and co. does, they do for humanity.

So I want the protagonist to be touched by that (especially with Jazz's recent death), to take that to heart, and reciprocate by doing the same; They're going to fight not just for their world but others' as well. They're going to fight for worlds and people they might not ever encounter in their lifetime, but it doesn't matter because those people still exist.

They turn down Megatron's offer; Sorry, the Allspark ain't up for sale. Our hero will just have to secure Earth's safety the hard way. Cue Megatron declaring them "So unwise..." and going for the kill, only for Optimus to finally arrive with his own argument. And given actions speak louder than words, he's got some very specific actions in mind for Megatron.

*I think Megatron WOULD honor that promise, up until a certain point; Like yeah if he was given the Allspark, he'd have the luxury to keep his end of the bargain. But if push came to shove, if Cybertron suddenly needed Energon ASAP and there weren't any other available worlds to colonize... Well, Megatron would remember his motive of Cybertron first, and prioritize that over his agreement. It'd be a last resort but he'd still do it.

[sepublic]

I'm still workshopping how I intend to adapt The Last Knight for the Nizziverse, but I imagine 'Quintessa' will be re-imagined into Quintus Prime, her staff into the Emberstone, etc. And that gets me to the actual point of my post;

There's probably gonna be that whole confrontation where Quintus chains down Optimus and accuses him of starting the war, and in the re-imagined context of the Nizziverse... There IS still basis for Optimus to argue Megatron started the war, on account of being the aggressor towards all of the worlds that Cybertron colonized; There was always a war, contrary to what Decepticons might claim, and they're only really griping about the Autobots joining the fight on the other side to bring that war to Cybertron, where it all started and was coordinated from... They really don't appreciate the taste of their own medicine, it seems.

But I've already explained how by this point, Optimus is more than used to accusations by Decepticons who aren't actually going to listen to logic and facts, he's done trying to defend himself with those when it obviously proved insufficient, hence the need for war. So instead of pointing fingers at Megatron, it's more probable that Optimus is just gonna own it by telling Quintus something like, "Yeah I DID start the war, what're you gonna do about it?"

A lot, unfortunately.

[sepublic]

            Actually it’d be hilarious if the Universal Greeting was a thing in the Nizziverse, and humanity was an inexplicable outlier for being the only civilization to not know it. That, or… the Nizziverse’s version of humanity IS fully aware of it, and aside from the one scene this is brought up (and treated like a completely normal and natural thing, with no exposition nor audience surrogate that feels left out), it’s never explained or elaborated on ever again.

        By the way, the Nizziverse version of the Universal Greeting sounds less like the actual words “Bah-weep granah-weep nini bong” and more akin to… You know how when machines make a high-pitched noise, we describe it with the onomatopoeia of ‘beep’, even though there is no B or P being pronounced? The Universal Greeting, as it’s written down, is basically just the onomatopoeia for a bunch of robotic, computer, and tech noises that can best be described by those words, but there isn’t really an exact fit, at least not in human tongue.

[sepublic]

For the Nizziverse, energon doesn’t have a liquid form (though the term ‘liquid energon’ does exist in application to liquids with an energon potential, like fossil fuels or running water), it’s only energy. So Cybertronians don’t exactly bleed energon the way living creatures do, with drops and the stuff. Instead, it’s more of a light show, like when a cable is broken and produces sparks;

This is how a Cybertronian ‘bleeds’. Speaking from a Doylist perspective, this imagery is of course meant to invoke that of dripping, spraying blood, while still being distinctly machine. Organic beings find a disturbingly beautiful quality to Cybertronian gore, and tbh Cybertronians themselves don’t fully disagree, since they associate the distinct magenta of Energon with good things. It isn’t like how organics can be wary of red, because Energon usually exists, is made, and is consumed as it is outside of the body.

[sepublic]

I just realized that it’s neat I’ve compared the KSI sentries to Frankenstein’s monster, as resurrected mish-mashes of Cybertronian corpses. Because they’re led by Galvatron, who is also the same… And I remember seeing some analysis in Galvatron’s name, which linked the Galva- prefix’s meaning of electricity to how electricity is sometimes used to reanimate dead bodies. Not only does this reflect G1 Galvatron as a reborn Megatron, but it also applies to his Nizziverse counterpart, and electricity is what brought Frankenstein’s monster to life in the adaptations! Cue Joshua Joyce/Henry Masterson cackling “It’s alive!!!” when Galvatron goes online for the first time and actually, finally works after repeated failures. Just don’t tell them what made Galvatron work this time…

[sepublic]

So I rambled in a previous post about how the KSI sentries turning on their creators is almost like the dead rising from the grave to take vengeance; After all, the KSI sentries are made from the harvested material of dead Cybertronians, many of them Decepticon. They're basically reanimated corpses, Frankenstein's monsters, and Galvatron is another example of a ghost possessing a new body.

With that in mind, I realized there's something that could be done with the Dinobots; Age of Extinction begins with dinosaurs specifically being turned into the metal that makes Transformers... We have Transformers who turn into Dinosaurs. And nothing is made from this connection, surprisingly.

I think there's a fun theme we could play with here; The Decepticons are not the only ones coming back from the dead, reborn as KSI sentries. There's also the dinosaurs themselves; All that's left of them are their fossils, transmuted into metal, which I like to think are scanned by/fused with the Dinobots to make them become Dinobots by granting them their famous alt-modes to begin with.

This would explain why they transform into prehistoric earth creatures, and the almost skeletal appearance of their beast bits; There's an almost demonic hellfire vibe to them, like demons coming from beneath the earth to punish sinners in retribution. They've burned and suffered and now they want to spread that searing pain to those responsible for landing them there.

In a way, it's the dinosaurs, the first inhabitants of Earth, who are coming back from the grave through the Dinobots to take their revenge upon the Decepticons; They were sacrificed for Cybertronian purposes, recycled to make new Cybertronians, just like the Decepticons who became KSI sentries. The Dinobots carry the spirit of the deceased and their anger upon those who wish to continue those same evils that contributed to their and others’ extinction.

The Decepticons are trying to prevent what they believe is an oncoming extinction of their race; Meanwhile, the remains of those who WERE rendered extinct by them are coming back to haunt them, just as the KSI sentries haunt their human/Autobot creators. It's ghosts fighting ghosts. It's the perfect thing to counter Galvatron's new army.

...There's just one problem; I mentioned in an even earlier post that I'm removing the constant retcons of Cybertronians having been on Earth since the beginning; Their first contact was the Allspark crash-landing on Earth, shortly followed by Megatron, and then other Cybertronians showing up later down the line to scout Earth for Energon.

This creates a dilemma for me, as there's no room for dinosaurs to have been transmuted into alien metal, if they were already long dead by this point. I did consider the idea of a seed detonating and transmuting some nearby fossils into metal, which provides the basis for Grimlock and co. to scan them and become Dinobots. But there isn't that same meaningful vengeance from beyond the grave if the dinosaurs weren't actually killed off by Cybertronians; I guess there's some anger about their graves being desecrated, but that's about it.

Maybe I'll roll with the idea; These fossils are underground. They're detected via sonar imaging, but somebody detonates the first seed in that area anyway, and sabotages an archaeological discovery of the past to pave the future. You could of course compare it to corporations destroying the environment and who knows how many fossils for the sake of industry.

And that also ties into the idea of Extinction in this arc, because the Decepticons are worrying so much about THEIR extinction... But can they keep up this current form of existence, without wiping out other species in the process? So who is going to become extinct here? Does anybody have to be? Two species, humans and Cybertronians, competing; One by arming themselves, the other by reformatting. What does it mean to be extinct if there are survivors? Some argue the dinosaurs didn't actually go extinct, they merely evolved to adapt and survive...

The same could be said for how Cybertronians are reformatting themselves with the Maximal program. They still live on, maybe it's the spirit that matters; You could even say the KSI sentries ironically embody that. Most of them are made from Decepticon metal, but there's plenty of Autobot in there too... Yet they nevertheless carry the Decepticon 'spirit' by being Galvatron's soldiers and serving his goals, and integrating with the remnants of previous generations.

The Dinobots carry the 'spirit' of their fossils, that animalistic will to survive that Earth's species have always had, and defend humanity after Optimus proves he’s the strongest; It’s Survival of the Fittest and these animalistic Dinobots have followed that rule since the beginning. They’ve got more in common with Earth’s creatures than they may initially realize or care.

By realizing that some things remain the same, people can accept what does change; Some, like Drift, have managed to find peace in this. Others are digging their feet in, trying to maintain the past. And now the past, another world's at least, is coming up to punish those people. Are we moving on too quickly from the past to embrace the future? Is it right to completely sacrifice the past, like the fossils, for the future of humanity's innovation through KSI?

Maybe when the Allspark landed on Earth, it did so during dinosaur times, and the fallout of its impact is what transmuted live dinosaurs into metallic fossils. I intended upon shortening the timeline quite a bit, but this might actually reconcile some things, and it does tie into how G1 began in dinosaur times, too. This does go a bit against the lore of the Chimera Cube containing power, but maybe the crash-landing jostled it a bit. I guess Sector 7 found the fossils near the Allspark, but didn't really do anything with them until by the time of Age of Extinction, and might not have intended to...

But because of somebody, possibly Shockwave (in reference to the Aligned continuity), the Knights of Kaon -led by the brutal Grimlock- ended up scanning and fusing with these metallic fossils, who are now compatible with their biology thanks to transmutation, causing them to be reborn as the Dinobots!

I suppose there are benefits to setting up the Dinobots as early as the first arc, with a brief mention of the surrounding environment, lifeforms included, being transmuted by the Allspark's crash landing. I'm not sure if I really want to stretch the time scale out that far though, but there's also the other suggestion I came up with; KSI does a test run with a seed and sacrifices a lush environment, and whatever's below, for their metal.

[sepublic]

Sector 7 is sometimes referred to as SecSev in the Nizziverse.

[sepublic]

Y’know what, I’ve decided that in the Nizziverse, some Sector 7 agent posted schematics of the Ghost I (the experimental craft reverse-engineered from Megatron’s alt-mode) on the War Thunder forums to prove some point. It existed there for like a second before being taken down, and OP was merked.

[sepublic]

            I realized I haven’t even considered the idea of religion for Cybertronians in the Nizziverse, which is of course a mistake; There’s no way a fully-fledged society of people wouldn’t have some form of spirituality, after all. Especially when this is the case in other continuities to pull from.

         So obviously, the Covenant of Primus is a thing, and some of it is definitely true; The thirteen Primes and their artifacts exist, and are relevant forces in the current day. I’ll leave some details, such as the idea of Primus and if they are Cybertron, created it, etc., more ambiguous for now.

         The Functionists likely drew upon devotion to Primus as a justification for expanding Cybertron, equating this to a form of worship, increasing the holy ground in their universe, etc. Some Cybertronians claim it is their divine right to conquer the cosmos for Energon. And when the Functionists were overthrown, religion played a part on both sides, with different takeaways from the Covenant of Primus. This of course follows through into the Autobot-Decepticon war, and so forth.

         Of course, when Cybertronians make contact with humanity and vice-versa… A lot of cultural ideas are going to exchange, and this absolutely includes religion, no matter how hard one could try to prevent that. You’d have some Cybertronian missionaries preaching the Covenant of Primus to curious humans, already fascinated by an alien culture. You’d have Cybertronians converting to a lot of human religions, too.

         Like imagine; Some Decepticon soldier who accepted the pardon and is now without a purpose, living a meaningless life, with Cybertron declared a lost cause. They discover Buddhism and it provides the answer they’ve been looking for; The Decepticon attachment to the material world of Cybertron was no different than how many humans are attached to material concerns. This creates suffering, much more explicitly in the case of Cybertronian invasion for Energon; The Autobots were right, by letting go of Cybertron, this helps everyone release the bonds that tether them to their planet and this plane of existence.

         You’ll have Cybertronians meditating. You’ll see a Vehicon providing rides to their Synagogue. A Seeker will make the Hajj. A human will participate in the debate regarding whether Cybertron IS Primus or not, and be more well-equipped for it than your average Cybertronian. People discuss whether Energon is kosher/halal, if it even qualifies for that consideration and if the source should be taken into account. An Autobot blends human and Cybertronian witchcraft together. Human and Cybertronian preachers will declare the other species soulless and demonic, tempting people from the real path. Optimus will shake hands with the Pope.

          Religious groups from both planets will see an opportunity in each other. Many won’t consider any distinction between human and Cybertronian converts, or even missionaries and religions themselves for that matter; The Covenant of Primus is on the same level as the Quran to both species. The boundaries will blur until you’ve got a Cybertronian arguing the holiness of Christ to a human who devoutly worships Primus. Till all are One, Amen.

[sepublic]

Credit to Youtuber Laszlo Ven for the idea; For the Nizziverse, I've decided to make the Driller's alt-mode a Rotary Snowplow engine. Trains, when fully equipped with a line of cars, are long and winding, just like the Driller, so the two translate back and forth from each other very easily! Not only that, but...

I've always wanted to include Astrotrain in the Nizziverse. He's known for having a space shuttle and a train engine for his alt-modes, and typically functions as a troop transport, being huge in other continuities besides G1 to accommodate his passengers. So keeping an enormous size in mind, it makes sense for Astrotrain's train mode to be the whole train and all of its compartments, and not just the engine...

So to make things simple, I've made Astrotrain and the Driller into the same character; Like Scorponok or the Cassettes, his robot mode is an animalistic creature, one suited to tunneling through the ground. His first alt-mode is a train with a rotary snowplow at the front, and as for his flight mode...

For the sake of simplicity, I'm thinking it'll just be an original, Cybertronian transport design. I'm not sure what it'll look like; It might be long and serpentine, just like Astrotrain's other modes, for the sake of simplicity. When coming up with characters and/or alt-modes, I want the transformation to be something that could be pulled off in real life, up to the complexity of a third party toy.

Given the shape of Astrotrain, I feel obligated to make his flight mode something that doesn't stretch his T-cog, so to speak. I have considered having his flight mode be achieved by having Astrotrain split into multiple segments, which then combine with each other at different connection points, like a combiner; Or maybe the entire length of Astrotrain can fold in on itself to become more bulky and less stretched out, to provide a more creative flight mode. Maybe Astrotrain's segments don't combine, but transform into an individual fleet of shuttles.

Given the Driller is now an adaptation of Astrotrain, that also means his colors will change, too; Instead of just a monotonous silver, it'll be gray and purple, with bits of yellow and red scattered throughout. He's fully sapient and capable of speech; Maybe when Astrotrain talks, a proper head will pop out of the mouth to have a conversation with.

Astrotrain feels like a good fit because again, Dark of the Moon has that whole Space Race motif going on; That's why I've included characters such as Cosmos and Blast Off, for example. Astrotrain probably landed on Earth somewhere in Siberia, scanning an actual rotary snowplow train for his vehicle mode, before using the tracks to transport Decepticons and resources for the cause. Being a Cybertronian in disguise, his train mode is capable of traveling off-rail. Since he was in Siberia, that made it convenient for Astrotrain to travel to Chernobyl as Shockwave’s backup.

[sepublic]

In the Nizziverse, Megatron isn’t referred to as the “Ice Man” by Sector 7 because he’s discovered while frozen in his alt-mode, a Cybertronian jet. Instead, I’m thinking he’s called the “Trident” because of the prominent three prongs protruding from his front; It differentiates Megatron from typical jet designs that later (independently) arose after the Trident’s discovery. And when Megatron was first encountered in that frozen cavern, the three prongs of his jet mode were visible, creating the appearance of a massive trident, perhaps one belonging to an oceanic god, encased in ice out at sea.