TFCC - Hoist the Flag

Art by: Hayato Sakamoto and Josh Burcham

Story by: Marty Isenberg

Written by: Jesse Wittenrich

Editor in Chief: Brian Savage

Creative Director: Lanny Lathem

Letters by: Jesse Wittenrich

Cover Art by: Marcelo Matere and Thomas Deer

Managing Editor: Pete Sinclair

Plot

The Star Seeker's ship, the Tidal Wave, travels through a time-space portal, and their engines begin to overheat. Cannonball wonders where they are, because they're slightly off--course, but still continues on his mission to conquer Cybertron during a time of peace, which he believes is now, and they attack the Galadria space bridge outpost, in the Delta Prysmos sector, where they join forces with Flamewar to help them in their mission.

On Cyberion, the Knights of Cybertron (a new group not the mythical ones) are contacted about the attack, and set off to deal with the Star Seekers under the guidance of Alpha Trizer.

The Star Seekers use the space bridge to reach Outpost Galadria, which turns out to be Unicron's long dead head, but Cannonball plans to use the head to attack Cybertron, and steal all it's Energon, allowing them to conquer it easily. Devcon, who has stowed away contacts his fellow Knights to warn them about the attack, when he is discovered and attacked by Hunter and Scorponok, however Hunter wanders away before he can do anything else, having heard something.

Before Scorponok can hurt Devcon however, the Knights space bridge in as well, and attack the Star Seekers. During the battle, Alpha Trizer reveals himself to not be just an old man like he pretends to, but in fact is Cheetor, having merged with Alpha Trion, giving him power and knowledge.

During the battle, Unicron's head has been moved to Cybertron's orbit, and has begun draining the planet, but it in fact doesn't take in anything, as unknown to the Star Seekers, the planet has been turned Techno-organic in the past, and therefore no longer uses Energon. The Star Seekers and arrested and taken away.

Elsewhere, Hunter is on a planet where he hears a voice telling him to take the Matrix of Conquest, and it turns him into Shokaract, and he awaits Omega Point....

Characters

Autobots/Maximals

Alpha Trizer/Cheetor - Lion

Ginrai - Truck Cab

Apelinq - Flying Monkey

Flareup - Motorcycle

Devcon - Stealth Bomber

Volt - Car

Electro - Pick Up Truck

Other Knights

Rook - Sports Car

Battle Unicorn - Unicorn

Bonaparte Tulcas - Tank

Sky Garry - Spaceship

Autoceptor - Car

Ironhide - Humvee

Roulette - Muscle Car

Meanstreak - Dragster

Under-3 - Lion Head

Big Rescue Force - Gestalt

Motorvator Gestalt - Gestalt

Windmill - Helicopter

Red Guy Killed by Flamewar

Tread Bolt - Jet Killed by Flamewar

Strafe - Jet Killed by Flamewar

Autotrooper - Police Car Killed by Flamewar

Rodimus - Car (Imagination)

Optimus Prime - Truck (Imagination)

Primal Prime - Flying Monkey (Picture)

Blackarachnia - Spider (Picture)

Optimus Primal - Gorilla (Flashback)

Alpha Trion (Flashback)

Star Seekers

Cannonball - Van

Scorponok - Scorpion/Jet

Olin Zarak - Head

Brimstone - Flying Gun

Flamewar - Motorcycle

Hunter - Spaceship Turned into Shokaract

Ferak - Space Jet

Tornado - Gun

Chairman - Captain's Chair

Axer - Muscle Car

Eclipse - Rabbit

Rockhopper - Penguin

Navigator

Squirm

Dread Pirate Crew - Cars and Flying Cars

Others

Shokaract - Crab

Unicron's Head

Notes

• The cover for this version is of course an homage to the poster for the 1986 Transformers movie
• This whole story acts as a celebration of Botcon, and Transformers in general including references to older stories, and showcasing VERY obscure characters and toys.
• The Tidal Wave ship is based on the Tidal Wave toy from Armada
• The Ultimate Universe book the Navigator uses is a pop-up book, much like the real world "Transformers: The Ultimate Pop-Up Universe" book
• Cannonball apparently likes Flamewar's flaming paint job on her breasts....that perv!
• Amongst the currency used for Flamewar's services, Cannonball pays up with Cyber Keys. Presumably they're just jewels in this universe and not "magic mushrooms"
• Ginrai's colours and occasional burning hands are probably both a reference to his "burning justice" mode, common to Japanese characters, and also to distinguish him from Optimus Prime (as the two would be identical otherwise)
• Primal Prime and Apelinq being separate by this point in time implies that a different set of events happened to those of Wreckers: Finale, as they should have fused into Sentinel Maximus and then sent to the Aurex universe by now.
• How did no-one notice that one of the Dread Pirate crew members was just Devcon in a mask?
• The date is given as 2984 (1000 years from when the Ark was woken up on Earth) this is the latest date given for the Beast Era so far (with most estimates putting the Beast Era at about 2300 or so)
• When Hunter touches the Matrix of Conquest he turns into the original Shokaract toy, rather than a new version (and also leads into the Omega Point storyline once again).