Micronauts

This is Part Eleven in a series.

Let’s talk Micronauts.  We just discussed Centurions, which we said was going to use the Microman body, so why do we need the Micronauts?  Well, what we really want is the Microverse, because it’s going to explain a few things.  When Transformers mass shift, where does the extra mass go?  The answer is the Microverse.  While this extra mass is in the Microverse, the inhabitants harvest it for resources.  They’ve learned how to tell when this material is about to leave.  Them harvesting from the extra mass stored in the Microverse also explains why it is detrimental to Transformers to remain in their alt modes for extended periods of time.  If the extra mass remains in the Microverse for too long, it’s been broken down by the inhabitants and can no longer be recalled, potentially trapping Transformers in their alt modes.

We’re using the Microverse for more than that though.  We’re also using it as an initial means of Faster Than Light Travel.  Eventually, during the course of the Hasbroverse other means of FTL travel will be used by humans, as this will be rather dangerous, given that the inhabitants of the Microverse aren’t always friendly.  I’ve created a little diagram to help explain how this will work.

Our normal universe is the outer circle, the Microverse resides at a much smaller scale sort of at the center of our universe.  Let’s say points A and D are 10 light years apart, if you travel at the speed of light, it’ll take ten years to get from point A to point D.  Points B and C aren’t nearly as far apart as points A and D, and if the universe containing points B and C is small enough, as the Microverse is, that distance may be very short, comparatively to the distance between A and D.  In order for this to work, travel between points A and B, and points C and D, all go along a radius of the shared center of the two circles, and traveling or rather shrinking and growing along lines AB and CD isn’t constrained by the speed of light. For whatever reason, that shrinking and growing travel is close to instantaneous.  Thus, traveling from A to B, then B to C, and finally C to D, ends up being much faster than traveling from A to D.

This is the next step in the development of human technology from Cybertronian technology, using their mass shifting technology, which was already in use during the GI Joe series, to develop FTL travel to allow humanity within the Hasbroverse to spread to the stars.  This FTL technology comes with a few drawbacks though. The Microverse is somewhat unstable, or rather the routes through it are, as transformers are adding and removing mass from it at random intervals.  The societies within the Microverse are also somewhat hostile.  And it’s a very energy intensive travel method.  Eventually, a different FTL solution will need to be found.  But for the Hasbroverse’s early days of space travel, this will work.

So, to clarify the premise of this series, humans develop a new FTL technology that involves shrinking down into the Microverse where they encounter hostile extraterrestrial species, and danger wrought passages to the destination point, as mass from transformers pops in and out of existence along the route.  The natives of this universe quickly converging on the mass popping in from mass shifting Transformers to harvest it for resources.  Their main settlements all on the mass of Transformers that can no longer transform, either because they spent too long in their alt modes, or they died in said modes.

Alright, time to move on to our next property.  That’ll be StarCom.