StarCom

This is part 12 in a series.

I realize I forgot to account for something in the previous post.  Technically, humans would have already had access to Faster Than Travel prior to accessing the Microverse, namely Cybertronian Space Bridge technology.  There a few problems with Space Bridge technology, though.  It’s great for colonization, not so great for exploration.  As far as we know, Space Bridges are very large, they’re not something a ship can carry with it, unless said ship is a Titan Class Transformer such as Metroplex or Fortress Maximus, but such Titans are rare, and Earthlings don’t have access to one.  That leaves Earth only with the option of a Space Bridge built in orbit around Earth.  Why is this bad for exploration?

Let’s say you have three star systems and one Space Bridge.  So, you have a Space Bridge orbiting Earth, and you send out a ship to explore the galaxy.  You establish a Space Bridge connection to System B, from Earth.  The ship goes through the worm hole, and explores Star System B, now it wants to explore Star System C.  The ship needs to get in touch with Earth, a Space Bridge needs to be opened between Earth and Star System B.  The ship then needs to travel back to Earth, where another Space Bridge will be opened allowing it to travel to Star System C.  Of course, who knows how long it will take that request for a Space Bridge to reach Earth from Star System B, hopefully not long, though that’ll depend on if faster than light communication exists.  But the big problem here is it creates an extra step, instead of this exploratory vessel going from Earth to Star System B to Star System C, it must go from Earth to Star System B to Earth to Star System C.  That’s just inefficient.  Which is why a ship that can carry its own Faster Than Light drive system would be beneficial, hence the exploration into the Microverse and the use of it as a means of Faster Than Light travel. 

Before we discuss StarCom, we’re going to get into the Fermi Paradox for a minute.

Thus far in the Hasbroverse, we have three or possibly more civilizations, at least two in the Macroverse and at least one in the Microverse.  Now, the Microverse civilization or civilizations are in a different universe, so we’re going to say they don’t really count towards a solution to the Fermi Paradox, and that they operate under different rules than the civilizations in the Macroverse.  We have Earth and we have Cybertron, and then all the various civilizations that the Autobots aligned themselves with during the Cybertronian Civil War.

Earth and Cybertron have something very interesting in common, they both have a being of Godlike power sleeping in the center of the planet, Primus for Cybertron, and Unicron for Earth.  Though granted after season three of our Transformers series, it’s just Unicron’s body at the center of Earth, while his spark is floating through space, but I digress.  Our solution to the Fermi Paradox, at least as it relates to civilizations spreading to the stars is the Rare Earth Hypothesis.  The thing that makes Earth rare, is the same thing that makes Cybertron rare, that each has what is effectively a god slumbering at the center of the planet.  Primus and Unicron allow a planet to produce exotic matter in the form of Energon and Dark Energon.  When a Titan lands on a Cybertronian colony its spark mergers with the planet thus allowing that new planet to also produce Energon, and Unicron has never created any Titans.  Therefore, the Transformers fleeing Cybertron during Season 1 or 2 of our Transformers series needed to leave the planet on Titans, or at least leave for a planet where a Titan was already stationed.  The Titans merging their sparks with planets is also why active Titans are so rare.

Eventually, in the Hasbroverse we may introduce other space fairing civilizations, to do so we’ll need other entities like Primus and Unicron.  These entities will always come in “opposing” pairs; War and Peace, Life and Death, Science and Magic, so on and so forth.  These entities will find a planet, merge with it and sleep within it, producing exotic matter of different sorts on each planet.  This exotic matter will allow the civilization that arises on that planet to spread to the stars, though whether they will have a mechanism like Titans that allows them to bring that exotic matter with them to another planet is unknown.  But the exotic matter from one entity can be used by the civilization of another entity easily.  And thus, we have a potential source for conflict between the various civilizations.

Now, let’s move on to StarCom.  A refresher on what StarCom is:

So, I’m not sure exactly where on the timeline StarCom falls, given the gimmick of the original toy, where vehicles kind of folded up for more efficient storage, it should be fairly early, as that utilizes what can be determined to be simple transformation technology.  Or we could say it happens somewhat late, as StarCom is the first mass produced application of simple transformation technology, while all the other applications we’ve been following thus far have been in more experimental, and thus limited, applications.

So, in StarCom we’ve got Shadow Force, led by Emperor Dark, who’s researching the remnants of an ancient civilization scattered throughout the Solar System.  Humans are beginning to spread to the stars, first by colonizing our own Solar System, likely using Space Bridge technology.  We have colonies and research stations on various planets, most notably a colony on Mars.  Shadow Force ends up raiding various locations around the Solar System looking for more information on this ancient civilization.  At the end of the series they discover something on Mars, a tomb of some kind.  Emperor Dark opens it up and unleashes a swarm of Dire Wraiths on the planet.  The colony on Mars is wiped out, this incident is kept quiet by the world government.  Most of the Dire Wraiths return to their home planet, some remain on Earth, we don’t know how many or what forms they take.  That’s basically the end of StarCom, ends on kind of a dour note.

Next up are a few properties all in a single post.