Airachnid (G1)
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| The name or term "Airachnid" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Airachnid (disambiguation). |
- Airachnid is a Decepticon or Eukarian from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Airachnid is a scientist in only the loosest sense of the word—ruthless, amoral, and more interested in using her discoveries for her personal gain instead of any kind of greater good. Whether it's mnemosurgery, exotic body modifications, or even arcane super-science, Airachnid tackles problems with a mixture of cold logic and a gleeful disregard for ethics.
This attitude would make her an excellent potential Decepticon—and when push comes to shove, she'll readily fall in with their ranks to save her own skin—but given the choice she'd much rather work behind the scenes for warlords, dictators, and other unsavory sorts, cooking up gadgets and pulling strings in exchange for a free workspace, the freedom to experiment as she pleases... and a steady supply of new test subjects to victimize.
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Fiction
2005 IDW continuity
Born from Chela on the colony world of Eukaris, Airachnid was a member of the oracular Fateweavers, who used their talents to divine the future from the thoughts of other 'bots. This wasn't enough for Airachnid; hoping to discover a more scientific way to advance her tribe's prophetic powers, she used her mnemosurgical abilities to fatally experiment on other Transformers, dissecting their brain modules in the hopes of calculating all the potential variables in the Cybertronian mind and applying it to the art of prophesying. For her crimes, she was exiled from the Fateweavers and banished from Eukaris. The Price of You
On Cybertron, Airachnid came into the employ of Cybertron's High Chancellor Starscream, who was searching for more information regarding the whereabouts of Swindle's brain-damaged body. On Starscream's orders, Airachnid began attacking Decepticons in Iacon and aggressively probing their memories—a process that proved unfortunately fatal, but turned up no concrete evidence. 07:00:00
Following the reunited Combaticons' disastrous outing as Bruticus, Starscream took all five of the comatose Decepticons into his custody, and turned them over to Airachnid's care. Hoping to turn the powerful Decepticons over to his side—and cover up his involvement in the disastrous "Combiner Wars" that had precipitated Swindle's death—he told Airachnid to alter their memories so that they would believe that they had always been working for Starscream, and that their recent misadventure as Bruticus was under Starscream's own supervision. Airachnid noted that it was usually impractical to attempt such a procedure on more than one individual, but, since the Combaticons had combined with one another, their minds would be synchronized and thus easier to manipulate... as long as one of their number was aware of the procedure and able to explain away any discrepancies to the other four.
Airachnid thus patched Starscream into Blast Off's mind, tempting him with a vision of an idyllic life with Onslaught where the team worked for Starscream as his bodyguards. The Chancellor promised Blast Off that, in exchange for maintaining his cover, Airachnid would alter Onslaught's mind so that he would be develop an infatuation with Blast Off, who had always secretly admired his commander. When Blast Off grudgingly accepted the deal, Airachnid rewrote their memories to comply with the terms of the bargain. She also falsified psychiatric evidence to Ironhide, claiming that the Combaticons were not culpable for their actions as Bruticus and thus would not face trial. The Price of You
On her own time, Airachnid familiarized herself with the situation regarding Windblade and Vigilem before she fixed up Swindle. When Blast Off and Swindle arrived, Starscream pulled the Eukarian aside to question her about Windblade. Airachnid gleefully informed the ex-Decepticon that the only way to save Windblade would be for a third bot to enter her mind and help her destroy Vigilem but since all three risked dying, only an idiot would even consider doing it. If I Know You
Proving himself an idiot, Starscream ordered Airachnid to patch him into Windblade's mind. When the two awoke, Starscream commanded her to leave to which Airachnid atypically displayed medical concern regarding the major neurological event but left anyways when Starscream reiterated the order. Your First Mistake
After Starscream publicly confessed to his laundry list of crimes, Airachnid was placed in jail for being complicit. She scratched up her cell and glared hatefully at Windblade when she passed by. The Chosen One
Star Trek vs. Transformers
When World War III consumed Earth, the Decepticons fled the blighted planet aboard Trypticon, trailing the Autobots aboard Fortress Maximus. When the two Titans reached Cygnus Seven, the Decepticons attacked, the battle sending Maximus hurtling into the moon and causing everyone to fall into stasis lock. Eventually, the Federation moved onto Cygnus Seven with a survey team accidentally rousing Maximus's autonomic systems. By random chance, the repair beam first struck Megatron who proceeded to revive the other Decepticons and lead an attack on the surface. Prime's Directive, Part Two The attack brought the attention of the USS Enterprise, with the Decepticons managing to corner the away team sent by the human ship only for Captain Kirk to scare the Decepticons away with a photon torpedo barrage. Retreating to a nearby moon, the Decepticons found Trypticon with Klingons occupying his city mode. When Kuri demanded the Decepticons identify themselves, Airachnid grumbled about all the organics pointing weapons at them. Prime's Directive, Part One
Megatron and Kuri soon came to an agreement, having Trypticon scan Kuri's warbird to lure the Enterprise into a trap. Once the human ship had been crippled, the villains resumed their attack on the mining colony. Prime's Directive, Part Two Airachnid aimed to finish off the wounded Optimus Prime only for Fortress Maximus and the other Autobots to join the fray, Airchanid being knocked out of the sky by Arcee. Prime's Directive, Part Three
After Trypticon beamed the Decepticons to safety to pursue the treacherous Starscream, Airachnid joined Megatron and the other Decepticons as they caught up with the Air Commander over the planet Kronos. Though the Decepticons initially held the advantage in the battle for the world, they were ultimately felled and taken into Klingon custody. Prime's Directive, Part Five
My Little Pony/Transformers
After Shockwave had opened a space bridge back to Equestria, Airachnid and Shadow Striker were sent to the Crystal Mountains, discovering a rock that pulsed with power, unknowingly bringing King Sombra to Cybertron. When the evil king was released from his prison, he cast a mind-control spell on the Decepticon forces, enthralling Airachnid to his will. The Magic of Cybertron
2019 IDW continuity
Airachnid was a wanted criminal who experimented on unwilling Cybertronians test subjects and used what she learned to upgrade herself with exotic, sometimes unpredictable technology. When news of her atrocities inevitably drew the attention of Colonial Security, Airachnid went into hiding, and eventually took up residence on the remote asteroid colony of Hexagon. There, Thunderwing recruited her as part of a project to reverse-engineer the various Artifacts of the Primes using mundane technology.
Some time later, Colonial Security operatives Lightspeed and Strafe discovered her secret laboratory; as she clambered up from the depths to deal with the intruders after first explaining her latest project, Scattershot and the other Technobots arrived and tackled her. Airachnid retaliated by unleashing a shrapnel barrage that sent all five of them plummeting into her Combination Core, an artificial replica of the Enigma of Combination. Realizing what had happened, Airachnid fled the room as the newly-formed Computron arose from the depths of Hexagon and destroyed her lab, then contacted Thunderwing to warn him that the only way for Hexagon to survive was to eject part of the colony and take the combiner with it. Light/Star
Games
Transformers Roleplaying Game
Airachnid was a sadistic Decepticon who hailed from Old Cybertron, with the ability to control lesser Insecticons. Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
Toys
Notes
- Airachnid is a cross-continuity transplant of the Prime character of the same name, who could transform between a regular robot, a secondary spider-like robot, and a helicopter. As Till All Are One depicted her as a neutral Eukarian from a planet entirely populated by Transformers with beast modes, she was implied to simply transform into a giant spider, as evidenced by a dream sequence in issue #10. Star Trek vs. Transformers and My Little Pony/Transformers would return the character to her conceptual roots by depicting her as a Decepticon with a helicopter mode, while her appearance in IDW's rebooted Transformers comic and the Role Playing Game splits the difference by depicting her as a full triple changer with the ability to shift between robot, spider, and flight mode.