Soundwave

Profile: Soundwave remembers the glory of Planet X, the great destiny meant for its people. He remembers the shining steel plains of the hypergas foundries, the soaring domes of the cities, the blazing cones and glittering clusters of giant thrusters and prodigious planet-busting weaponry. He remembers those who fell before its might, whole worlds subjugated and made slaves, moons and stars carved to pieces and fed into the vast World Furnaces that powered his home. But most of all, he remembers the bright and blazing star it became in the moment before its destruction, consumed by its own energies, and all because of the resistance of Gigantion.

Before the radioactive cloud of vapor that had been Planet X had even ceased tainting the Giant Planet sunrise, Soundwave and the other survivors were plotting their revenge. Their sunless slave worlds were in rebellion, and they were too few to retake even one. The vast knowledge base of Planet X had been lost forever, but some few among the survivors were scholars. They pooled their knowledge to determine what they had might serve to deal with the Giant Planet as their world have been dealt with.

The learning of Planet X ran deep, especially in matters of conquest and destruction. Among their surviving lore they found common threads of the story of an ancient power; a being whose might dwarfed even that of Planet X. The surviors scattered across the cosmos in search of more information about this creature, at whose hands they now felt their revenge would be manifest.

For thousands of years, Soundwave dwelt in the most dark and forbidden places of the galaxy, slowly uncovering more information. He linked the existence of the Mini-Cons the Giant Planet held so dear to the creature he sought, traced the long relationship of the Transformers to it, discovered a long lost home world ¡¦the birthplace of his kind. And eventually, he found a name: Unicron.

It was Soundwave who brokered the deal with the planet eater. A million years of servitude for the promise that at the end, the Giant Planet would be utterly destroyed and every last thing on it crushed.

It has been nearly that long now. An eon of service that has come easily to the embittered few who survived the destruction of Planet X. They have learned much in that time, and each of them have been marked irrevocably by the taint of Unicron. Most of them have cracked under the strain of serving too close to the dark energies of the world-robot, developing strange verbal tics, erratic behavior and irrational mood swings. They have suffered, yes, and waited a long time, but soon, revenge would be theirs.

Abilities: Soundwave is a skilled fighter, though combat has never been his primary function. During the heyday of Planet X, he was an information specialist, tasked with infiltrating the societies of target worlds, identifying important individuals and key locations to be eliminated in initial strikes. As such, his combat systems are designed around the idea of speed, stealth and sabotage rather than front line combat.

In vehicle mode, he is capable of limited transwarp flight, though his warp motivators are not capable of folding space to the extent necessary for time travel. Redundant reflex processors powered by independent quantum hyperlink relays give him an uncanny reaction time to most threats, making him a supreme pilot and a deadly opponent.

Deployed under his wings in vehicle mode is a pair of seismic nukes, designed to exploit weakness in any target against which they are used. Typically, these weapons are launched against enemy structures or used to cause disruptive earthquakes or volcanic eruptions, but they can also be used in a more limited tactical fashion against groups of individual enemies.

In robot mode, he fights two handed. In one hand, he carries a harmonic wave cannon that can play havoc with its targets¡Ç internal systems, as well as generate a shrill detonation modulated to unnerve and annoy enemies. His other hand grips his particle feedback blaster, a much more direct weapon that sets up sympathetic vibrations in its targets, creating a sudden, total breakdown in vulnerable mechanical systems.

Lastly, housed in a armored compartment in his chest is his companion Laserbeak. Though it is often referred to as a Mini-Con, Laserbeak in fact bears no relation to these diminutive robots. It is instead little more than a drone endowed with a small fraction of Soundwave¡Çs personality encoding. Lasebreak maneuvers using a set of micro-turbine ion stream engines, giving his flight acceleration a characteristic whine. He also sports a cloaking device, multiple retractable tools used for bypassing electronic security and a pair of cutting lasers within his optical sockets.

Because of their unique connection, Laserbeak and Soundwave are able to communicate instantly over great distances via a means that is not yet understood.

Weaknesses: Soundwave is poorly armored, and must therefore rely on his quickness to avoid destruction in combat. Despite his minimal armor, he can withstand a fair amount of damage, since his most vital systems are encased in an armored core in his upper chest. His wings, which present large, attractive targets in both robot and vehicle mode, serve little function aside from drawing fire.

His connection with Laserbeak offers him a slew of advantages, but also serves as one of his most acute weaknesses. He is highly protective of the tiny drone, and will put himself in grave danger to protect it.

Despite his longtime status as a spy and saboteur for Planet X, he is a poor communicator and acutely uncomfortable interacting with others. He hides his discomfort behind a bizarre manner of speaking and moderately erratic behavior, which can lead to confusion among his allies.

Finally, he is far too trusting of Unicron. His long standing association with the evil robot has done little to convince Soundwave that Unicron will almost certainly betray them once the Giant Planet has been destroyed. This may be largely because Soundwave so single-mindedly pursues the destruction of Gigantion that he refuses to see that Unicron¡Çs ultimate goal is the destruction of the entire universe, Planet X survivors included.