Cybertron (Dreamwave Comics)
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[edit] Physical Characteristics
As in the Marvel Comics, Dreamwave's Cybertron is presented as being the size of Saturn. Like the cartoons, however, it is orbited by two moons, each of much denser composition than the planet itself, to allow for functional gravity. Notable landmarks are frequently derived from the Transformers Universe profiles and toy Tech Specs, having appeared in neither the cartoon or comic, and include the Sea of Rust and the Sonic Canyons. The planet is divided into regions identified as "Orbital Torus States".
[edit] History
In the 21st Century reimagining of the Generation One universe by Dreamwave Productions, Cybertron's history was beheld as being more complex than previous incarnations, but was never truly fleshed out due to Dreamwave's bankruptcy.
As with Marvel Comics, Cybertron was the body of the light god, Primus, who in this continuity was one of twin heralds sent by the extradimensional force known as "The One" to explore the burgeoning universe. Primus's brother herald was Unicron, but he was an imperfect being and fell to evil, cutting a destructive path across space. Both heralds possessed the ability to transform from gigantic robots into planet forms, but while Unicron switched freely between his, Primus opted to remain in planet mode permanently, to remain connected to the universe on a planety level, passing his transformation ability on to the thirteen beings he created from himself - the Transformers. These first thirteen Transformers, led by Prima, the first, manned Primus's weapons and defences in the battles that followed against Unicron, but one of their number turned to the evil god's side, dubbed "The Fallen" for his betrayal, and was banished with his defeated master through a black hole.
With the threat of Unicron temporarily gone, Primus settled his planetary form into orbit around Alpha Centauri and proceeded to birth an entire race of Transformers to populate the planet. To hide from Unicron, Primus shut down his higher consciousness functions, but remained subconsciously connected to his creations through the mega computer, Vector Sigma, and its guardian, Alpha Trion.
Roughly nine million years ago, the Council of Elders that rules Cybertron began a series of violent underground gladiatorial games, using them to distract the planet's inhabitants while they quietly cordoned off areas of Cybertron in order to hide some undivulged secret from the people - some greater secret in Cybertron's past, and the truth of their origins, which they blanketed with religion and fairy tales. When one of the gladiators, named Megatron, realises the council's scheme, he ventures into the forbidden areas and learns the secret truth, which spurs him into his own course of action. Using the games to identify like-minded individuals, Megatron assembles a dissident faction that he dubs the Decepticons, and arranges a planet-wide uprising to mask his activation of Cybertron's long-deactivated planetary engines, used in eons past by Primus to move his body around the universe, intending to transform Cybertron into a mobile war world. War was formally declared when the Decepticons took the city-state of Kaon as their base of operations.
8.2 million years ago, Megatron successfully killed the Autobot leader, Sentinel Prime, leading the council to appoint a data archivist named Optronix to the position of leadership. Chosen by the Matrix and infused with its power, Optronix became Optimus Prime, but was almost willing to abandon the planet and leave it for the Decepticons until a subterranean battle with Megatron, coupled with visions of the future from the Matrix, stirred him on to fight for freedom. As this battle raged, the Decepticons attack Iacon, which was levelled when the treacherous Starscream activated the mechaforming program design to rebuild Cybertron into a war world.
Just under a million years later, the disappearance of Optimus Prime and Megatron in an early test of the "Spacebridge" matter-transport system heralded the beginning of a period known in Cybertron history as the "Dark Ages". The Autobots - with command shared between Ultra Magnus and Fortress Maximus - and Decepticons - now led by Shockwave - splintered into numerous factions of their own, including Springer's Wreckers, Grimlock's Lightning Strike Coalition, Starscream's Predacons and Ratbat's Ultracons. Previously down-graded to non-combat status, the combining "Special Teams" began to take sides in the conflict. The activation of the Spacebridge liberated the Fallen from his prison between dimensions, who set about kidnapping Grimlock, Jetfire, Blitzwing and Hot Spot, planning to use the genetic potential in their Sparks to awake Primus, in order to alert Unicron to his location. An Autobot/Decepticon alliance stopped his plot, and Primus himself destroyed the Fallen.
Six-and-a-half million years ago, the Dark Ages came to an end, but half a million years later, a new age began when the Autobots, Decepticons and Ultracons were about to enter into a peace treaty, only for the ceremony to be attacked by Starscream's Predacons... and Megatron, who had returned from his exile on the planet of Quintessa with an army of clones at his disposal. The "Age of Internment" began as Megatron seized the planet in a stranglehold, but an Autobot rebel group were able to locate Optimus Prime, and Megatron's army was successfully defeated.
With groups of Transformers fleeing Cybertron due to dwindling energy reserves, the situation only went from bad to worse four million years ago with the detection of a massive asteroid bearing down upon Cybertron. Optimus Prime led a contingent of his best warriors aboard the Ark to attack and break up the asteroid, the framents of which would be transported away by an orbital Spacebridge network, only to be attacked by Megatron and the Decepticons following the completion of their task. Crippled, the Ark flew through a Spacebridge portal and was teleported into the Sol system, where it crashed on prehistoric Earth.
Over the next half-a-million years, attempts were made in vain to conserve energy on Cybertron, leading to the creation of Micromaster technology, which was refined in a joint scheme, but it was too little, too late. Cybertron's energy reserves completely dried up, and Transformers all across the face of the planet simply began to stop functioning, often in mid-battle. Cybertron became a dead, lifeless world as it entered a pre-programmed period of hiberation and repair that would later be dubbed "The Great Shutdown".
And so it was for nearly three-and-a-half million years, until, about 1,000 BCE, Scourge, one of Unicron's heralds, located the planet and reactivated Shockwave, planning to observe him. However, when Shockwave was attacked by a squad of Sharkticons - perhaps left over from the Age of Internment - Scourge came to his aid, only to be shot in the back and dissected by Shockwave, who learned many secrets through his study of him. Through the use of internal power absorbers, Shockwave successfully reactivated the planet's populous and re-energised Cybertron, uniting both Autobot and Decepticon together under him, with Ultra Magnus as his second.
In the Earth year 2003, Shockwave travelled to Earth and had Optimus Prime and Megatron's forces - reactivated in 1984 by a volcanic eruption - arrested as war criminals. Starscream jettisoned Megatron on the return trip to Cybertron, but Prime was later able to escape and team up with a rebel group who had deduced that Shockwave was planning an invasion of Earth. Through his study of Scourge, his capture of Alpha Trion, and what data he had been able to pry from Vector Sigma, Shockwave had learned that Earth had a key role in the destiny of the Transformers, and he aimed to discover what that was, only to be stopped by Prime and Ultra Magnus before he could, returning the planet to Autobot control.
While a group of Autobots, along with Starscream, battled Sunstorm, Shockwave's rogue clone of Starscream who had also learned of Earth's secret, on Earth, Megatron recuperated on the planet of Junk, and then returned to Cybertron and subjugated Shockwave. Joined by Starscream, who had also deduced many of the secrets regarding Earth, Cybertron's history and the origin of the Transformers that Megatron and Shockwave both shared, the three players were in place to strike, but unfortunately, Dreamwave's bankruptcy and subsequent closure meant that this story was never resolved.
