Disclosure

« Transformers: Universe featuring The Wreckers #3 »
The Wreckers versus... TENTACLES!
"Disclosure"
First published	July 31, 2004 (OTFCC 2004)
Story	Rob Gerbracht
Script	Rob Gerbract
Pencils	Guido Guidi
Inks	Vince Russell, Chuck Gibson
Colors	Blond
Lettering	Simon Bowland
Continuity	3H Beast Wars continuity

Heading to a new world, the Wreckers meet a Quintesson, who gives them a shocking history lesson.

Synopsis

Text Prologue
In a War Journal entry, Apelinq voices his worries over the abstract, mystical nature of their mission, and the still-enigmatic Primal Prime, who despite his heritage lacks the experience which brought previous Primes to true greatness.

Main story

Prime, can't you shut up for five seconds? We're having a moment here.

Ramulus and Tigatron find Apelinq lamenting their recent losses. Tigatron counsels acceptance of their destiny; Ramulus is more interested in payback on their betrayers. Elsewhere, the Autobots are still helping the locals recover from the loss of the Divine Light; CatSCAN reports that Rotorbolt and Fractyl are both stabilized. Nearby, Primal Prime struggles with his own doubts, but finds faith in the Oracle and his predestined path. Prime announces liftoff at dawn the next day, and says that the Oracle has given him their destination. Rodimus and Apelinq are both losing patience with the mysteriousness of their mission.

The next morning, Glyph announces her intention to remain behind on Archa Nine; she has nothing further to offer the Wreckers. Tap-Out is reluctant to leave her alone... until CatSCAN offers to remain behind as well. The two share a short, sad farewell as the Wreckers board their ship and lift off, headed for a new star system.

On New Quintessa, the Quintessons and Cryotek hold negotiations in a techno-garden (adorned with an oddly barbed growth). The Quintessons demand that Cybertron be delivered to them forthwith. Cryotek assures them that though the Oracle no longer functions, Cybertron's recent reformatting leaves the planet ready for them to take possession. Oh, and he's not done with the Wreckers yet, either...

Skywarp lands the Wreckers' ship on an icy world, not far from the only reading on the planet. Prime orders an immediate deployment, overriding Apelinq's call for caution—"Every moment lost is a moment used against us." Miles later, they find a Quintesson who introduces himself as Al-badur. Despite tensions, the Quint agrees to give a short history lesson.

The Quintessons once worked for Unicron, searching the galaxy for the whereabouts of Primus. The Quintessons, however, saw the chance to use Primus's "dimensional landing" for profit. They moved onto Cybertron, and created various barriers between the power of Primus and the "children" Primus sought to protect. Their first attempt at control of Primus was the Plasma Energy Chamber, and the resultant creations were uncontrollable. Later attempts centered on controlling Cybertron itself, and Vector Sigma—"the ultimate physical embodiment of your fabled Primus". They created a shell program to conceal Vector Sigma's power and guidance from its creations; thus Cybertron became a profitable enterprise. The Quintessons who had controlled Vector Sigma warned the rest of Primus's true power... and were suitably rewarded, banished through space and time. Al-badur long anticipated the rebellion of their creations; the proof stands before him now.

Apelinq and Prime share a stunning realization—the Oracle is the very shell program created by the Quintessons. Vector Sigma itself spoke to Primal Prime, however, breaking through the Quintesson shell, that the Wreckers might keep the Divine Light out of Quintesson hands. The Wreckers bargain with Al-badur: he will tell them of the Divine Light's origins, if they get him off this Primus-forsaken planet.

The bargain is made in good time: a horde of Sharkticons arrives and attacks, attempting to reach Al-badur. The Wreckers make quick work of them, however. At the shuttle, Al-badur is repulsed by Tigatron, who "reeks of the Vok". The Vok's existence is "an aberration to our kind and yours", the Quintesson explains, and warns that they will eventually shatter the Maximals' delusions of friendship. Al-badur is further surprised to find a Decepticon among the crew; Skywarp explains that he's returning a favor—Decepticon honor. After lift-off, Al-badur explains the Divine Light is a prism that grants direct access to Primus's power, channeling it into the crystal's bearer. Apelinq recognizes the circuit patterns of the weapons they recovered from the Sharkticons—he last saw them in a research facility on Cybertron two stellar cycles ago.

On the other end of the galaxy, Devcon is having a drink and a cyber-wench aboard Spaceport CSSB-16. He has been tracking Cyclonus, but it looks like things may be more than he can handle alone, so he's asking for help—from the Dinobots.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

• Characters mentioned but not seen include: Spittor, Sonar, Packrat, Cyclonus, Fractyl, Rotorbolt, Primus, and the Vok.
• Characters mentioned in the profile section but not seen include: Optimus Primal.
• This issue contains "Primeval Dawn Part 3" as a back-up story.
• The issue was one of several first made available at OTFCC 2004.
• This issue retcons the Oracle as a Quintesson construct... making the basic premise of Beast Machines nothing more than an evil plot to ruin Transformers forever. Fanwank much?
• Cryotek's vaunted "second strike" on the Wreckers turned out to be pretty weak — a pack of Sharkticons that they obliterate in about ten seconds.

Continuity notes

• Al-badur was originally mentioned in "Madman's Paradise", where he was noted to have been banished to an iceworld, as shown here. His narration of the Transformers origins heavily references the original The Transformers cartoon, including the Plasma Energy Chamber from "The Rebirth", the Trans-Organics from "The Dweller in the Depths", Cybertron as a factory world during the reign of the Quintessons from "Five Faces of Darkness", and A-3's rebellion from "Forever Is a Long Time Coming".
• The tattered survivors of the Dinobots include T-Wrecks, Triceradon, Dinotron, and Terranotron. The "unpublished" fourth issue of Wreckers would have revealed that Airaptor, Rapticon, and Magmatron all died in combat with the Dweller, while Striker simply disappeared into thin air. The Universe comic picks up Striker's fate: he was abducted by Unicron, and converted into one of his Generals though he was later liberated.

Transformers references

• The idea of the Quintessons being connected to Unicron originates from their The Transformers Universe profiles, itself derived from an origin for the aliens from an earlier draft of The Transformers: The Movie

Real-world references

• One of the patrons at the bar in the final scene appears to be Image Comics character the Savage Dragon, created by Erik Larson.

Errors

• In the opening War Journal entry, Apelinq claims that it has been "deca-cycles" (or "months") since he passed command of the Wreckers over to Primal Prime. This is a rather outlandish claim since that event would have occurred during the second season of the Beast Machines cartoon, a season that was rather tightly knit in its episode-to-episode continuity. So tighly-knit that there is no way that that season's events could have possibly spanned multiple months (let alone one). Nor could several months have passed between the end of the cartoon and the start of this story since it takes place around the same time as the final scene of the cartoon's series finale. Ergo, Apelinq's "deca-cycles" claim is nonsense.
  • A later statement in "Wreckers: Finale Part II" would seemingly attempt to retcon this away by reducing the amount of time this Wreckers series spans to be just a few days—"barely a Cybertronian week"—instead of "deca-cycles".