Binaltech Backstory
The fiction provided herein is a summary of the booklets accompanying the Binaltech
toy releases. There has been no official storyline for Alternators on any Hasbro
material, though the American Mazda website cited the Binaltech storyline and
the Nemesis Prime exclusive had a story featuring Dr. Arkeville.
In the year 2003 the Autobots and humans have formed an alliance, leading to the formation of the Earth Defense Command, humanity's first step towards space with the creation of a lunar colony, and the construction of Autobot City, still in progress. Meanwhile, on Cybertron, Megatron had stepped up his campaign, and many Autobots had to return to their home planet to join the fight. However, a small group, led by Ultra Magnus, remained behind on Earth to defend the planet against the Decepticons forces still working there, led by Starscream.
When the Combaticon Swindle unleashed a modified version of the Cosmic Rust plague, many Autobots fell to it (including Smokescreen, Bluestreak (Silverstreak), Sideswipe, Tracks, Sunstreaker and Trailbreaker) and were damaged beyond repair. To revive the Autobots, the EDC initiated the Binaltech Project, which saw assorted human car manufacturers produce new bodies for the damaged Autobots, powered with electro-cells. Bluestreak was the first, but due to some instability problems with his personality, he was forced to undergo several tests before he was cleared. Subsequently, the project provided bodies for Smokescreen, Sideswipe (with a TORQ 3000 operating computer from Quantum Labs), Hound - who volunteered to undergo the BT process because of his love of earth and humans (his body co-built by Hybrid Technologies Corporation), and Tracks, able to switch his colouration from blue to yellow. These new Autobots were able to defeat the Decepticons, and force them off the planet.
However, in the shadows, a secret cabal known as the Concurrence had formed, with prominent members such as Count von Rani and General Garrison Kreiger, with financial backing from industrialist Shawn Berger Jr. and eccentric big gamer hunter, Lord Cholmondeley. Another member of the group was former Decepticon ally, Doctor Arkeville, who was soon contacted by Starscream with the intent to form an alliance between the Decepticons and the Concurrence. Combining his Hypno-Chips with the Insecticon Bombshell's Cerebro-Shells, Arkeville took control of several workers in the Binaltech Project, thus providing some Decepticons with new, more powerful bodies that could take on the Binaltech Autobots. Hence, while Symultech Industries believed themselves to be building a new body for the Autobot, Sunstreaker, they actually created a new form for the Stunticon, Dead End. And while the Central City Institute of Technology thought they were constructing the new body for Trailbreaker, it was in fact occupied by Swindle (who had managed to pull some tricks and move himself to the top of the list, even though there were more injured Decepticons than he) Unable to access the electro-cell recharge facility, the Decepticons instead used stabilised exponential generators as their power sources.
To counteract this development, the Autobots launched a new offensive in the form of Project Genetronic Translink, headed by old Autobot ally, Chip Chase, which involved the displacement of a Transformer's Laser Core to subspace, from where it could control multiple bodies via Translink Ports. Smokescreen underwent this process, becoming Smokescreen GT, and now able to control up to four bodies at once. Also, despite having not been affected by Cosmic Rust, Jazz underwent this process, and in his new body can now control a red duplicate of himself nicknamed Zoom Zoom. Jazz then proceeded to participate in Operation Carwash, a secret project intended to uncover the depth of the Decepticons' involvement in the BT project.
Meanwhile, EDC top agent Dashiell Faireborn had infiltrated the Concurrence's headquarters in the Lunar Colony, learning the truth, and transmitting a message to Ultra Magnus before being forced to flee to escape capture.
At the same time, across the galaxy, the war was not going well on Cybertron. The Unleashers, a primitive telepathic alien lifeform, was turned on the Autobots by the Decepticons, and infected the minds of the Dinobots, driving them insane and turning them into rampaging savages, forcing the Autobots to take them out of commission. Afterward, Grimlock regained consciousness and vowed to do anything to return to the battle. Hence, Wheeljack took him to Earth, where his mind was implanted in the newest Binaltech body, combining the best aspects of all the previous bodies constructed. Grimlock hated it immediately, but made the best of it.
But elsewhere, the seeds of the past were beginning to bear fruit. Staffers of the defunct government program, I.I.I. (Triple I), unearthed a mysterious capsule from a prehistoric layer of the planet, and dubbed it Schrödinger's Box. In actuality, the capsule was the flight recorder from the craft of the Decepticon/Predacon, Ravage, who had travelled back into Earth's prehistoric past and been destroyed during his involvement in the Beast Wars. The flight recorder contained an encoded copy of Ravage's personality and memories, and when the I.I.I. staffers managed to communicate with this consciousness, they agreed to give him a new body in exchange for his future knowledge. A new body was constructed in a fake BT project, and the copy of Ravage's consciousness was implanted in it. To truly bring him to life, however, the present-day Ravage - currently in EDC custody - was stasis-locked into cassette mode and permanently implanted into the new body's cassette deck, thereby providing the body with a Spark. Ravage overcame the failsafes in his body and equipped himself with weapons and then, realising that his participation in the Beast Wars had failed to change history, he killed the I.I.I. staffers and set out on a mission to alter the future.
Meanwhile, the Binaltech Project continued. After the creation of several prototypes, a new body was constructed for the Omnibot, Overdrive, armed with his Omniblaster and a Durabyllium shield. As a result of restrictions imposed by his role of humanitarian support, however, Overdrive's body had its in-built weapons removed. Overdrive, having experiences in dimensional travel, soon began to notice reality fluxes that resulted from sabotages acts committed by Ravage, and warned the Autobots that someone from outside the timestream was attempting to alter history.
Ravage's next action saw him infiltrate the facility producing the thirteenth Binaltech body, which was attempting to utilise Transmuter technology to shape a new BT body based on Jazz's scanned data. Ravage, however, implanted Shockwave's personality component and redesigned data into the car, causing it to take his form and restore him to life. Subsequently, Ravage hijacked Wheeljack's shuttle as it returned to Cybertron and landed it in devastated Decepticon territory, where he located and reactivated the Kronosphere, a time-travel device previously developed by Shockwave. Ravage employed the Kronosphere in the midst of the deciding battle between Optimus Prime and Megatron's forces - whereas in the original timeline, Prime's forces withdrew to their bases on Cybertron's moons (thereby setting up the scenario at the beginning of Transformers: The Movie), Ravage, unthinkably, succeeded in altering history by using the Kronosphere to trap Megatron and his forces in a time-space rift, thereby changing the outcome of the battle. But Ravage knows that soon, a great darkness is coming which the Autobots must face alone. And when all is laid to rest, Megatron will return!
Unfortunately for Ravage, he is eventually captured by the Autobots thanks to efforts from Overdrive and Wheeljack, and is intensely interrogated until he finally reveals the details of his mission, including how all but Optimus are expendable, as the Autobot leader has the tool needed to defeat Unicron upon the Chaos Bringer's arrival. Despite Ravage's tempting explanation that his plan may allow some of those Autobots destined to die in the original timeline (dubbed 'Prime Time' by Wheeljack, with the current, altered timeline being classified as 'Ravage Time') to survive, his plan is deemed too audacious and dangerous to be allowed to happen, and with Unicron already making his way to Cybertron, Optimus goads Ultra Magnus to accompany him in a shuttle to take the planet-eater down, while he ordered Skids to initiate Operation: Distant Thunder, a plan to prevent Ravage's time manipulations by sending a copy of Wheeljack's memory tracks, using a time warp created from manipulating the energies of the Earth location known as Dinobot Island, to a point in history preceding Ravage's changes, alerting their past selves of the threat Ravage's plans pose to their future and hopefully stop him before he could proceed with them. With any luck, if their plan succeeded, Operation Body Shop (the Binaltech project) would be able to smooth over any bumps in future history and abort most of the tragedies in the original timeline, without anyone being the wiser. Just as Skids sent the datatracks, however, sensors indicated a massive Decepticon platoon headed their way, a platoon that could jeopardize this one, desperate attempt to set right what Ravage had disturbed.
Meanwhile, during the assault on Unicron, Optimus Prime is wounded and the
Matrix passed on to Ultra Magnus. In his darkest hour, Ultra Magnus communicates
with the Matrix and unleashes its power, destroying Unicron in the process.
Even with Unicron out of the way, Shockwave has disappeared and the danger of
freeing Megatron and his forces are greater than ever. Back on Operation: Distant
Thunder, Skids and his team barely repel the Decepticon squadron and manage
to send the datatracks into the past. Almost immediately, multiple warpholes
open up around the Earth and it almost appears as though Skids failed until
the silhouette of an Optimus Prime-looking robot extends his hands and a huge
light orb engulfs the planet and dispels the warpholes. The Black Optimus informs
Skids that he has succeeded, that is, succeeded in preserving one particular
timeline. The incomprehensible powers of Black Optimus have preserved and detached
the current timeline from the original, much to everyone's shock and dismay.
Taken back to the EDC base in Antarctica, the Black Optimus is questioned, answering
every one of their queries with some reluctance. He informs the Autobots that
within him is a spark from the future, bestowed to him by a being known only
as the The Protector, in an effort to preserve this particular timeline. Furthermore,
the Binaltechs will make their ascension into the Alternity and be the genesis
of great beings who will oversee the safety of multi-dimensional galaxies. Surprising
everyone, Optimus Prime awakens and confronts Black Optimus, who now reveals
that he is tired of his guardian role and opens a portal, manifests a Decepticon
insignia and ejects the spark, while automatically leaping into the portal of
unknown destination. Overdrive, with his multi-dimensional capabilities, confirms
the restoration of the parallel timeline, Prime Time, and reveals the many differences
(among them, the death of Optimus Prime and the leadership of Rodimus Prime).
Just then, Jazz detects numerous mobile fortresses on Cybertron, presumably
heralding the return of Megatron. Optimus Prime vows that to obtain the future
that the Protector seeks, they must defend the present and preserve the Binaltech
project, spurring the Autobots to resume their duties. Meanwhile, in a secret
lab, Dr. Arkeville, succeeds in using subspace translinking to transplant an
ancient and ravenous spark into Black Optimus, birthing the being known only
as Black Convoy!