« Transformers Timelines text story » Of Masters and Mayhem
"I don't control the raptors. It's a relationship. It's based on mutual respect."
"Life Finds a Way"
Publisher	Transformers Collectors' Club (online exclusive)
First published	May 13, 2016
By	Matt Frank
Illustrations by	Matt Frank
Colors by	Gonçalo Lopes
Color assist by	Paul Hanley
Continuity	Of Masters and Mayhem
Page count	27pp

Marooned on a planet with hostile inhabitants, Fractyl falls in with a strange group of Transformers, who might be the only other Cybertronians left...

Synopsis

On a distant planet, Predacon geochemist Fractyl wakes up inside a stasis pod to the damaged capsule's computer screaming in his auditory circuits, warning him about the build-up of energon radiation. As he comes to, Fractyl remembers what happened: when something or someone named Thunder Mayhem attacked Cybertron, annihilating it. Fractyl had managed to get into a stasis pod onboard one of the evacuating ships during the cataclysm, but was jettisoned into space after the destruction of the ship, causing him to crash into this unfamiliar place. The Predacon reads out the information on the planet's surroundings given to him by the pod; with the presence of energon, he figures it must have had some contact with Cybertronians. Unfortunately, their readout doesn't give him much aside from warning him about the dangerous amounts of energon, and all his own scanners can tell him is that there's a massive presence of organic life. As energon radiation begins to seep through the damaged pod, Fractyl has the pod activate stasis lock so he can compensate his circuits for energon radiation. And as he goes under, he watches as dark, unfamiliar shapes gather around the pod...

When Fractyl wakes back up, he finds himself restrained, the prisoner of a group of large insectoids. The leader of the group, the "shaman," begins a speech towards his fellow insectoids; Fractyl's onboard translation software struggles with the language, but he can tell that they are preparing to kill him, and that they seem to have encountered Cybertronians before. The shaman is handed a green crystal by one of his attendants, and he holds it up towards Fractyl, ready for the kill. Fortunately for Fractyl, the ceremony is soon interrupted when a loud shriek distracts the insectoids, followed by several of them being rushed and dismembered. Fractyl can only watch as the insectoids arm themselves, as three strange reptilian-avian creatures take down the tribe non-lethally. Eventually, only the shaman and his attendants are left; the shaman moves behind Fractyl, holding the green crystal up to where his spark chamber would be, causing the three to pause. Luckily for Fractyl, there's evidently more than just these three to save him, as a shot rings out from the forest, disarming the shaman. The three allow the insectoids to escape, and the seeming leader of the pack frees Fractyl from his restraints. Initially confused, Fractyl is amazed when these three seeming-organics speak Cybertronian—because they are fellow Transformers! The Predacon tries to ask them questions, but the largest of the group silences him with a loud roar, as the sniper rejoins the rest of them. With all of them there, the leader of the group, Thrashclaw, introduces herself and the others: the smallest of the group, the excitable Shred; the stern, untrusting sniper Slice, who quickly deduces that Fractyl is a Decepticon of some kind; and the muscle of the group, the taciturn and loyal Gnash. Fractyl takes an interest in Gnash, noticing the damage to her exterior, with Thrashclaw noting that her missing skin is the least of what's happened to her. Fractyl peacefully surrenders, noting to himself that without a Cybertron left, there's little need for factions, but the amused Thrashclaw tells him that they can talk about it on the way back to their ship, before the insectoids—or Vespoids, as they call them—come back in force. Besides, they're not Autobots or Decepticons; they're Raptoricons!

On the way back, Shred happily fills Fractyl in on their personal history. Back in the war, Shred was a former Autobot who monitored Decepticon frequencies while stationed in Iacon, and heard about the exploits of Thrashclaw and Slice, twin Decepticon mercenaries. Enamored, she tracked them down and begged to join the two. She and the others are much less willing to talk about Gnash's origin, however. Shred also explains that they came out to this planet during the exploratory push—something that Fractyl doesn't quite believe, soured on the concept of trust by his time with the cons—and found the strange bio-technology that allowed for them to adopt these bestial forms, using DNA scanners to replicate some of the predators on this word, which shields them from the energon radiation. Nowadays, they spend more time in beast mode than not. The avian-reptiles, however, don't appear to be native; the planet seems to have served as some kind of alien research facility, seeded with energon and having 400-plus species imported here, all for some unknown purpose—and whoever these aliens were, they're long gone now. The Vespoids, meanwhile, are natives-empathic insects who had encountered Cybertronians even before the Raptoricons, one that clearly didn't go well. Shred pesters Fractyl about his origins too, and while he shares much of his past, he consistently avoids talking about Cybertron, unwilling to tell possibly the only remaining members of his people that their homeworld is gone. Eventually arriving back at the Raptoricons' ship Velocity. On board, Fractyl takes a moment to rest, but as it turns out, he isn't the only one with suspicions—Thrashclaw quickly begins questioning what happened to Fractyl's ship, knowing that he's hiding something. Fractyl doesn't get a chance to answer, however, as the ships computer alerts that the Vespoids have burrowed their way under the ship, ready to attack! Slice is quick to blame Fractyl for the ambush, but Thrashclaw orders her to stand down...even though she finds it suspicious as well. Ready for action, Thrashclaw orders the others out, and tells Fractyl that if he knows whats best for him, he'll help too.

Rushing outside, the Raptoricons convert to robot mode with a shout of "fossilize," and Fractyl watches as the powerful four take on the Vespoids. In particular, he takes an interest in Gnash, his sensors finding that she's both brimming with excess energon and...something else. As the Vespoids begin hurling red ember-like bombs, Thrashclaw orders Fractyl to the take off the Vespoids on the ships. The Predacon takes to the skies, and although the Vespoids can't feel pain (much to his relief), he quickly manages to take out most of them. Fractyl is quickly distracted once more, however, when his scanners notice that Gnash's previously high energy readings are rapidly fading, collapsing from a lack of energy. Both Shred and Fractyl go to assist the fallen Raptoricon, but both are quickly taken out by three larger, winged Vespoid warriors. Grabbing Gnash, the three insects fly off with her, and the rest begin to retreat, having apparently succeeded. Having stayed long enough in robot mode for the energon radiation to overtake them, the 4 convert back to their alternative forms. Thrashclaw orders Shred to go to the restoration chamber, and tells Fractyl that he'll be accompanying her and Slice on the rescue mission for Gnash. However, the geochemist finally begins to piece together what's bothered him about Gnash; taking out the green crystal weapon the shaman tried to use on him earlier, the now-confident Predacon demands for more information on Gnash's background, and for access to any lab equipment—while they go to rescue Gnash, he wants to confirm a theory he believes could help them all. Thrashclaw demands to know why they should trust him, and Fractyl, no longer able to hide it, reveals that Cybertron has been destroyed. The three are distraught, but Shred, quickly realizing that they may very well be the only Cybertronians left, stands up for Fractyl, offering her help. With little over choice, the two Raptoricons reluctantly leave him behind, off to save their sister.

Inside the Velocity, Fractyl studies over the shards of green crystal, along with a Vespoid limb and the restoration chamber's log. Fractyl deduces that Gnash was damaged in the protoform stage, hence her odd energy readings, and points out that she uses the restoration chamber more than the other Raptoricons. Realizing that the energon they gave her wasn't doing enough, Shred sheepishly tells Fractyl the truth: they weren't here as part of an exploratory mission, but rather to track down a powerful energy signature for their contractors in the Kolkular Powerbase. However, when they found Gnash's protoform inside the laboratory, she came online, and Shred, wanting to protect her, convinced the others (already growing weary of their mercenary jobs) to stay and protect her on this planet, believing they could eventually return to Cybertron one day. Fractyl tries to console Shred, but is interrupted when he energizes some natural energon, causing a reaction within the green crystal-for it is also energon! Shred notes that it grows around the natural energon crystals, and that for whatever reasons, the Vespoids use it for materials and for food. Scanning the Vespoid limb, Fractyl finds another revelation: the "greenergon" is a part of the insectoids DNA! Shred wonders what this has to do with Gnash, but as it dawns on her, Fractyl tells her to scan the area for the greenergon frequency, believing he has a solution...

Outside the Vespoid hive, a city made of gigantic trees surrounding a sinkhole, Thrashclaw and Slice observe the insects, figuring that Gnash must be in the pit. Both of them know that no matter what they do, the Vespoids will likely overrun them—but if they don't try, they'll never see their sister again. The two old soldiers take a moment to nuzzle up against one another...and explode out of the jungle, letting the Vespoids know they're ready. Quickly converting to robot form as the Vespoids attack, the two manage to make their way through much of the group, though Thrashclaw notes that the bombardiers are holding back. When she reaches the sinkhole, she quickly realizes why—as thousands upon thousands of Vespoids stare at her, ready to come to the surface. Surrounded, Thrashclaw and Slice are prepared to make one final stand...when suddenly, both they and the Vespoids are distracted by a loud shriek. Up in the sky, a group of the flying reptiles carry a net full of the greenergon crystals, upon which Shred rides. Landing, Shred offers the crystals to the Vespoids as a peace offering, which the insectoids gladly accept. Shred quickly explains to her shocked comrades that the crystals are a form of energon that the Vespoids live off of, and that the Velocity had landed on a the largest natural vein of the crystals, hence the Vespoids' hostility. Pulling a salvage net out of storage, she and Fractyl went to the flying reptiles—one of which actually is Fractyl, much to their shock! He explains that he used the DNA scanner to give himself a beast form and communicate with the animals, promising them food in exchange for their help. Thrashclaw is amazed, but quickly remembers about Gnash, and prepares to fight once more...only for the missing Raptoricon to greet her sisters, none the worse for wear. Fractyl explains to Thrashclaw and Slice that her systems couldn't properly synthesize natural energon, and that she required greenergon—the Predacon theorizes that she wasn't damaged as a protoform, but rather, experimented upon. The Vespoids, as it turns out, were attracted to her because she gave off the same frequency as the greenergon, seemingly considering her one of their own. Gnash happily explains the bugs helped her feel better by giving her the greenergon she needed. The relieved Thrashclaw thanks Fractyl for what he's done, and makes peace with the Vespoids, offering them one of the crystals. Fractyl is proud that he managed to put an end to the conflict, having done something good for the first time in a forever. Finally beginning to feel at home, Fractyl's thoughts are interrupted as a giant ship lights up the sky, landing in the valley. Both the Raptoricons and the Vespoids gather as the ship's hull opens...from which the leader of the Wreckers, Impactor, emerges!

Having followed Fractyl here from the distress signal let out by his stasis pod, Impactor is able to provide better communication between the Raptoricons and the Vespoids, with the more advanced translation software obtained on Paradron . Gathered before the queen, the two groups make a truce, promising to provide the Vespoids access to the greenergon mines in exchange for some of it to be given to Gnash for fuel, along with a small amount for Fracytl's research. Fractyl elects to join Impactor and Counterpunch on their search for other survivors, and asks the Raptoricons if they want to come along. Appreciative of their new friend, the Raptoricons politely decline, knowing that they're now truly at home here, and bids the Predacon farewell. On board the ship, Impactor has Fractyl report to the ships onboard reformatting chamber, returning him to a fully mechanical form. As Counterpunch inputs the ships navigation with another set of coordinates leading to a Cybertronian signal, Impactor explains to the nervous geochemist that they need him and any others they can find, to take down their greatest enemy...Thunder Mayhem.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

Notes

• Characters who are mentioned but not seen include: Thunder Mayhem, Primus, Vice Grip, the Covenant, Thrashclaw's mentor, a "purple lunatic", and Megatron.

Continuity notes

• Fractyl is specifically said to be a Predacon of the Beast Wars type, something that makes him distinct from the normal variety of Decepticon. Both this story and a few of the following ones seem to imply that Predacons (and Maximals) were created as subgroups of the Decepticons and Autobots in the Of Masters and Mayhem timeline, rather than the post-war descendants of the two factions.
• Impactor picked up a more advanced universal translator on Paradron; he took Counterpunch there to be repaired, as seen in the Of Masters and Mayhem comic storyline chapter "Insight", and the previous prose story "The Truth We Make".

Transformers references

• Author Matt Frank is a huge fan of Beast Wars, and as such, there's plenty of references to be found in this story beyond just the protagonist, Fractyl, including
  • Stasis pods, stasis lock, and excess energon radiation are all concepts from the Beast Wars cartoon. The Raptoricons have employed the same measures as Optimus Primal's Maximals and Megatron's Predacons to shield themselves from the energon radiation; by using DNA scanners to replicate the local lifeforms, with the organic skin protecting them from the radiation. Notably, unlike the Maximals and Predacons, they didn't already have this technology, but picked it up on this world, with it being seemingly alien in origin. With the mention of the Vespoids having seemingly encountered Cybertronians, it might hint at just where this technology came from. Both the tech and the forms it creates are referred to as "beast warrior" technology, which is a very obvious reference.
  • Fractyl hopes that Vice Grip (one of the BotCon 1998 exclusive toys, a Predacon earwig redecoed from the retail figure Powerpinch) was one of the ones who were able to escape Thunder Mayhem's onslaught; the two were shown to be friends in the BotCon 1998 script reading, "Visitations".
  • The presence of natural energon and strange biotechnology seems to hint that the Vok, highly evolved aliens from the Beast Wars cartoon, are the ones responsible for the strange technology and energon anomalies on the planet, as well as the biological preserves. In the cartoon, they seeded Earth with natural energon and sent several strange artifacts to Earth, all part of some mysterious plan.
  • The Pit, the Cybertronian equivalent of hell first mentioned in Beast Wars, is sworn by several times throughout the story.
  • The beast modes allows for both the Raptoricons and Fractyl to access the instincts of their chosen forms, and in the latter's case, even communicate with animals of the same species. This merging of animal instincts with a Transformers' mind was seen throughout Beast Wars and its sequel series, Beast Machines.
  • Thrashclaw claims that the Velocity was part of the "big expedition push" a few megacycles back; the Axalon, the ship crewed by Optimus Primal and his Maximals, was initially on an exploration mission before being assigned to go after Megatron's Predacons.
  • Like the Maximals and Predacons, the Raptoricons have an activation code for transforming into robot form: "fossilize". Furthering the homage, Shred is said to have "maximized" into robot mode, after the Maximals' activation code. See "real-world references" below for more information.
  • The layout of Thrashclaw's robot mode (beast mode head as right arm, beast mode tail as left arm) seems to be inspired by Beast Wars Megatron's first, fully-organic Tyrannosaurus robot form.
  • Fractyl wonders if Gnash was damaged as a protoform, noting that he's seen the destructive effects those who were damaged at that stage can cause. Thus, it seems obvious that Gnash's distended limbs and her ability to generate blasts from her mouth are inspired by the character of Transmutate, a Maximal protoform who was damaged before being brought online, without a beast mode but with powerful psychic powers.
  • The Raptoricons have a "restoration chamber" on board the Velocity, another term for a CR chamber, the restoration device used by the Transformers in Beast Wars to repair damage.
  • Fractyl has furmanite-infused armor; he created the substance as a way to repel energon radiation in the BotCon 1997-exclusive comic, "Ground Zero".
  • Slice swears by the Covenant, a group of robots created by Primus as precursors to the Transformer race, seen in the BotCon "Reaching the Omega Point" storyline.
  • Thrashclaw thinks of her mentor while battling the Vespoids; a brown and blue, honorable bot (if somewhat thickheaded), who fell in with a "purple lunatic." This is obviously Beast Wars Dinobot, who served under Megatron before defecting to Primal's Maximals on prehistoric Earth.
  • Fractyl briefly reformat into his original BotCon 1997 toy form, before switching back to an upgraded version of his original form at the end of the story-that being his new Transformers Figure Subscription Service toy, allowing him to combine.
• Fractyl swears by "Primus below" several times throughout the story, and equivalent phrase to "Heavens above"; Primus was shown to be resting at the core of Cybertron in the Marvel The Transformers comics.
• While restrained, Fractyl is said to be "strung up like an insecticon about to be pinned into a giant glass display case," referencing both a form of studying insects in real life and the Insecticons.
• Fractyl's has trouble getting rid of his nervous ticks, noting that they stay around "like scraplets on an old Junkion ship," referencing the metal-eating parasites from the Marvel The Transformers comic and the refuse-based robots introduced in The Transformers: The Movie.
• While on the way back to the Velocity, Gnash picks up a stick and begins "gnawing on it like a Sharkticon", in reference to the bestial robotic servants of the Quintessons.
• The Raptoricons were sent to the Vespoid planet as part of an assignment from the Kolkular Powerbase; Kolkular was the capitol of the Cybertronian city-state Kaon, introduced alongside the city-state in Dreamwave Productions' The War Within mini-series.
• The Raptoricons refer to the flock of Pteranodon as "swoopers," in reference to the most famous Transformer with a Pteranodon alternate mode, Generation 1 Dinobot Swoop. See "real-world references" below for more information.
• Gnash speaks in the same way the Generation 1 Dinobots did in the original The Transformers cartoon, referring to herself in the third person.
• After exiting his ship, Impactor greets the Vespoids and the Raptoricons by using the universal greeting, from The Transformers: The Movie.

Real world references

• The story's title is directly taken of one of Dr. Ian Malcolm's lines in the 1993 science fiction/adventure movie, Jurassic Park, and the 1990 novel it's based on; the quote is later paraphrased in the story by Counterpunch. There's plenty of references to both the original film and its sequels throughout the story:
  • The concept of a pack of four female Velociraptors led by a (mostly) blue leader is likely in homage to the Raptor Squad from the 2015 film, Jurassic World. The four represent the way that Velociraptors have been reconstructed over the years as paleontologists' understanding of the animals grew: Gnash represents the scaly, lizard-like Velociraptors as seen in Jurassic Park; Thrashclaw represents the early attempts at reconstructing feathered Velociraptors, mostly scaly with ridges of feathers on various pars of the body, similar to the animals as seen in Jurassic Park III; Slice represents the "coolified" version of feathered dinosaurs, still quite large but now covered in feathers; and Shred represents the most up to date image of the Velociraptor, small and feathery.
  • The dinosaurs are noted to have been imported to this planet, sharing no commonality with the native fauna, apparently as some part of a nature preserve, presumably taken there by the aliens before the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event. Slice notes that there seems to have once been grid patterns to keep the animals apart, but when the planet was abandoned, the animals ran wild; obviously in reference to the parks from the Jurassic Park films. Thrashclaw has nicknamed it "Bird-Lizard Park"—a bit on the nose, as far as Slice is concerned.
  • As the Vespoids surround them, Thrashclaw tells Slice to "hold on to [her] butt," the catchphrase of Ray Arnold from Jurassic Park.
• The Vespoids take their name from the taxonomic family that wasps belong to, Vespidae.
• Thrashclaw orders the others to transform by shouting "Time to FOSSILIZE these chumps!"; the activation code seems to be in reference to the 1997 cartoon based on a Mattel toyline, Extreme Dinosaurs (a spin-off of their equally Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-inspired Street Sharks series), where the main characters had the catchphrase of "let's fossilize 'em!"
• Aside from the aforementioned "swoopers", other names given to the dinosaurs by the Raptoricons include "tri-horns" (for Triceratops) and "long-tails" (presumably for some kind of sauropod). This, in turn, appears to be in reference to the names given to the dinosaurs in the 1988 animated film The Land Before Time; Pteranodon were called "flyers," Triceratops were known as "threehorns," and Apatosaurus were known as "longnecks".
• Before heading into the Vespoid nest, Thrashclaw tells Slice "half as long," prompting Slice to respond with "twice as bright." This is a paraphrased quote from Sun Tzu's The Art of War ("the flame that burns twice as bright burns half as long"), but the specific phrasing used by the story appears to be in reference to the 2011 video game, Infamous 2. A general audience might know the phrase better from its usage in the 1982 science fiction film, Blade Runner.
• Fractyl tells Thrashclaw that he didn't think "the odds would ever be in your favor" when she and Slice went off to confront the Vespoids, paraphrasing a line from the series of young adult novels, The Hunger Games.

Errors

• Gonçalo Lopes's surname is misspelled on the cover as Lopez, probably because of its phonetic similarity with the Spanish equivalent.
• On page 1, Fractyl's name is mispelt as "Fractyll" ("Fractyll struggled to recall what had happened before he went into stasis").
• On Page 12, a line reads as "Next thing he knew, all 5 of them we bursting out of the main hangar." The "we" should be "were".
• On page 15, Shred is accidentally referred to as a "former Maximal" instead of a former Autobot, as she is consistently referred to throughout the rest of the story.
• On Page 17, a line reads as "...as he broken down the..." which ought to read as "...as he broke down the..."
• On Page 18, Shred's line of "I had to convince Thrash and Shred to bring her on," should instead read as "Thrash and Slice".
• Likewise, on Page 18, Fractyl's line of "“I take it Thrash and Shred..." should instead read as "Thrash and Slice" since he's talking to Shred.
• On page 21, the third-person narration of Thrashclaw's thoughts mentions that the dinosaurs on the mysterious planet came from Earth; Earth doesn't have a name in this continuity, since it was never inhabited by humans; it would appear that Matt Frank did not know that when writing this story. Otherwise, the dinosaurs are simply noted to be non-native to the planet, with no mention of where they've come from.

External links

• "Life Finds A Way" at The Official Transformers Collectors' Club