Terminus (issue)

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The Covenant comes from a time before good CGI.
"Terminus"
Publisher	3H Enterprises
First published	July 28, 2000 (BotCon 2000)
Cover date	July 28–30, 2000
Story	Simon Furman (with Glen Hallit)
Script	Simon Furman
Pencils	Geoff Senior
Inks	Geoff Senior
Colors	Andrew Wildman
Lettering	Richard Starkings and Comicraft
Continuity	3H Beast Wars continuity

Shokaract brings Armageddon to Earth's past to secure his own future.

Synopsis

Long ago, Unicron's Dark Essence emerged on Earth from a rift in space-time. Eons later, a lone Predacon found the Dark Essence, his destiny forever changed.

At present, Point Omega has begun. Shokaract, newly arrived on prehistoric Earth to defend the Dark Essence's past and future, battles Optimus Primal's Maximals. The task is easy for the demigod, who plows through the helpless Transformers. Travel through overspace has taxed him, so he seeks to feed upon the sparks of his prey. He takes notice of Windrazor's anachronistic presence, but ultimately dismisses it. Megatron stands unnoticed in the background, realizing the reason for Shokaract's presence and hatches a gamble for power. Equally unnoticed is Apelinq, who has obtained what he came to the era for, but cannot decide to leave behind the clearly chaotic battle in front of him.

Apelinq's musing suddenly ends when a portal opens overhead and the Covenant emerges. With Leonicus leading, the Covenant immediately set out to attack Shokaract. The spawn of Unicron, however, strikes back harshly, killing several of the Covenant. Leonicus realizes that Shokaract's "dark cloak" cannot be breached and the remaining Covenant members retreat back into a defensive position. Apelinq, convinced of the need to fight, joins the battle, calling out "Wreck and rule!" In the pit of the Dark Essence, Megatron journeys deep into the local disruption in the fabric of reality, finding the rift through which Unicron's Dark Essence arrived on prehistoric Earth from his destruction in 2005. To inform Shokaract of his leverage, Megatron attacks the rift. Shokaract feels it, and summons his Heralds, Antagony and Cataclysm, restored from their poor fates, to do battle for him. They hold off the Covenant and Apelinq long enough for Shokaract to make his way to the pit.

Sandstorm arrives, informing Windrazor that his journey to J'nwan was for naught. Nevertheless, thanks to the timestorm caused by Point Omega, Beast Warriors from other worlds and continuums arrive to the battlefield. Shokaract confronts Megatron, who attempts to apply his leverage on the demigod. It doesn't work, as Shokaract has used his Dark Essence to anchor the past's Dark Essence to this time. Their one-sided negotiation is interrupted when the alternate universe Beast Warriors attack the villain. They are of little consequence, as Shokaract uses his Matrix of Conquest to wipe them all out. Though the Covenant and Apelinq are able to destroy Antagony and Cataclysm, things turn worse when Sandstorm reveals himself to also be... Shokaract's Herald! But his spark proves pure when Leonicus recognizes him as Scorpius, the lost member of the Covenant! Using his Heraldship as a ruse, Sandstorm breaks through Shokaract's dark cloak, attacking his "master" with pure energy and forcing him to lose his impregnable defense. Shokaract returns the favor by utterly destroying his betrayer.

With this opportunity, the Maximals all fire upon Shokaract. While he is distracted, the Covenant realize the weakness Sandstorm's sacrifice had exposed to them. Reverting themselves to pure energy, they unite in spirit and enter the Matrix of Conquest as an avatar of Primus. But before they can sever the bond of the two Dark Essences, they must battle the manifestation of Unicron within the evil Matrix. Shokaract is kept off balance by the Maximals on the physical plane, who are soon joined by the Legends of J'nwan—the Autobots and Decepticons of old. The Covenant-Primus destroys the figure of Unicron and severs the bond between the Dark Essences. With no anchor, the Dark Essence of the past is whisked away back into the timestream, followed by the remnants of the Covenant, having finally fulfilled their purpose. At the battle's end, Shokaract explodes mightily and history is forever changed.

On Earth in the far future, a lone Hunter flees for his life and hides in a cave. He feels like he hears a voice luring him deeper inside the cave, only to find... nothing.

'Til all are... back home?

Featured characters

Characters in italic text appear only in flashbacks.
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Stop him! He is killing Optimus Primal, tearing the very spark from his body!"
"Stop me? You face Shokaract, Maximal. The overlord of Cybertron and better than half the known galaxy. You would better try stopping this planet from turning, or dimming the stars themselves."

—Cheetor delivers some clunky exposition, while Shokaract waxes poetic about himself.

"Forgive me, Primal, but I cannot abandon these brave souls. Let our battle cry echo down the centuries -- WRECK AND RULE!"

—Apelinq

"I'd rather not kill you, Megatron. There are benefits to your continued existence I shall reap in the years to come. You know how it is."
"Ah, but I don't. And the knowledge you posses of my future is the very price I demand for not scattering your future across the aeons"

—Shokaract and a rather hardcore Megatron

"Foolish, doomed creatures. The fires of a living god beat at my dark heart. The end of everything is upon us. The long night of oblivion beckons... for you ALL! ...and you in particular."

—Shokaract saves a special bit of wrath for Sandstorm

Notes

• Mentioned characters: "Primal"
• Official scans of this story were first uploaded to BotCon Online on December 12, 2003, three years after its convention release.^[1]

Continuity notes

• Shokaract claims to have conquered "half the known galaxy" in his era, which was first established back in "Herald".
• Shokaract's future era is confirmed here to be the 32nd Century, which was said in "Schism" to be 200 years after the events of "Covenant", which itself took place concurrent to the era of Maximals and Predacons on Cybertron.
• Like with the previous BotCon exclusive characters who appeared in "Ground Zero" and "Visitations", Apelinq's presence in the Beast Wars is unexplained, as though he was always there. However, a proper explanation for how he got here would be given the following year in "Apelinq's War Journals".
• Apelinq is shown to carry an artifact that he recently acquired "at considerable risk". The implication here is that he was the mysterious figure who took the "plot device" that Antagony sought back in "Visitations", which the recap of that story included with this comic confirms in its illustration. Although, after a noticeable hiatus, the artifact makes its long-awaited return in this story... only for it to play absolutely no part of importance whatsoever, contrary to the significance placed upon it in both "Visitations" and "Herald". Nor is it ever revealed what exactly the artifact even is. The artwork depicts it as resembling some kind of vial of liquid, in reflection of its presentation as a "sealed canister" in this comic's "Visitations" recap. But it would not be until "Apelinq's War Journals" when we'd finally learn that this artifact is... a device that has nothing to do with Shokaract's future after all. So much for that hype.
• The origin of the Covenant, as well as their visit by the Chronarchitect, are recounted here. Both were first presented back in the story also titled "Covenant".
• Leonicus previously observed Shokaract's "cloak of darkness" back in "Covenant". We now learn that this "dark cloak" is the power of the Dark Essence itself.
• Sandstorm's attempt to seek help from the Legends who reside in J'nwan, and their rejection of his request, occurred back in "Paradox".
• Shokaract's preferring not to kill Megatron stems from the fact that Shokaract, back when he was the Hunter, originally lived a pleasant life from Megatron's takeover Cybertron (which had yet to happen by this comic's point in time), and circumstances stemming from that life would eventually lead to him finding the Dark Essence and becoming Shokaract, all of which was divulged in "Paradox".
• Megatron's demanding knowledge of his own future from Shokaract hearkens back to when he demanded same from Antagony back in "Herald".
• The Matrix of Conquest makes its debut in this story. Though it is given no origin here, the bio card that accompanied Shokaract's toy described it as a housing for the Dark Essence that was fashioned by Shokaract himself. This Matrix is also the formidable weapon that the Veteran mused about Shokaract possessing back in "Schism".
  • Years later, Shokaract and the Matrix of Conquest (but not the Dark Essence) would reappear in another Beast Wars comic series penned by Simon Furman, though with the Matrix renamed the "Anti-Matrix" (and renamed again as the "Matrix of Chaos" in Shokaract's Beast Wars Sourcebook profile).
• At long last, Sandstorm, who was established in "Schism" to be a key figure in the future Maximal/Predacon resistance, is revealed here to be none other than Scorpius of the Covenant, the missing member who never returned to Protos. What's more is that he is also revealed to have secretly been another Herald of Shokaract all along, but see Continuity errors below for more on that.
• The epilogue scene at the end is an abridged retelling of the opening scene of "Paradox", but with the absence of the Dark Essence.

Transformers references

• Apelinq feels compelled "to observe the enemy [Megatron] before the Machine Age" as a reference to the then-contemporary Beast Machines series (though neither he nor any character ever calls it the 'Machine Age' again). Later, "Apelinq's War Journals" would reveal this line of dialogue to be a quote from a passage in the Covenant of Primus.
• Apeling's battle cry of "Wreck and Rule!" (quoted above) is the same as was originally used by the Wreckers in the Generation 1 Marvel UK comics. Though it was only hinted in his BotCon 2000 toy bio, "Apeling's War Journals" would officially reveal him a member of a new team of Wreckers.
• Megatron postulates that the rift that brought the Dark Essence to its resting place on Prehistoric Earth did so after Unicron's destruction in 2005 (which happened in The Transformers: The Movie), and that the rift has reopened thanks to Megatron's own "temporal tamperings", which resulted in a timestorm after he tried to kill Optimus Prime in "The Agenda (Part III)".
• A blue blocky foot is seen standing before Sandstorm in J'nwan. Coupled with appearance of Optimus Prime among the other Legends who later show up in the fight, this strongly implies that the Authority who spoke to Sandstorm back in "Paradox" was none other than Prime himself. Further support for this is found in the Furman-penned unofficial comic "The Last Days of Optimus Prime", which previously established Optimus Prime (and the original Megatron, also seen here among the Legends) to be a resident of J'nwan.
• Generation 1 Megatron's face and helmet are, respectively, colored pale blue and gray-black, calling to mind how they were colored in the Generation 2 Marvel comics.
• A fight between the energy forms of Unicron and (sort of) Primus really is full circle, being a rematch of their very first fight described in all versions of Furman's Primus/Unicron origin story. And placing the battle inside Unicron too especially calls right back to "The Legacy of Unicron!" where the first telling of said origin took place within Unicron's mind.
• As a twist on the standard "IT NEVER ENDS" Furmanism, the narrator says of Point Omega, "even that must end".

Continuity errors

• Rhinox was blasted into unconsciousness in "Paradox" but here, he is up and about!
• Megatron somehow already knows the Dark Essence's name, despite having not been told it.
• Likewise, Leonicus somehow already knows the name of the Matrix of Conquest despite its having never been seen or mentioned before its first appearance in this story.
• How in the flying flip does Sandstorm being an undercover Herald of Shokaract fit into all this? The reveal comes completely out of left field and serves no other purpose than to provide a shocking moment to the readers... which only lasts for a single page since his Scorpius reveal comes immediately afterward and reaffirms his status as a good guy. If he was secretly a Herald, why did he even need the Veteran to merge his spark with the Cub's in order to learn about Shokaract's plans back in "Schism"? Shouldn't he have already had access to such plans with his being a Herald himself? None of this makes any sense!
• Apelinq alludes to having fought alongside Optimus Primal at another point in time (Optimus: "Are you with us, stranger?" Apelinq: "I am, Optimus Primal. As I will be again... trust me. I pray that we both live to fight on that day, too!"). Though he does team up with Optimus again in "Departure", that took place after this from Apelinq's perspective, so he shouldn't know of those events yet. Nor did Apelinq ever team up with Optimus during the events of "Apelinq's War Journals", so just what is this little bit referring to?
• So, how exactly do the Legends get to Prehistoric Earth from 32nd Century Cybertron? Their entrance to the battle isn't really explained like how the arrivals of the Covenant or the other Beast Warriors were. They just sorta... show up.
• The penultimate page, saying the war ends as Shokaract explodes, with the faction badges shown melted together, sure seems to imply that everyone has died. Even Optimus Primal!
• On the final page, the Hunter finds the crater originally left by the Dark Essence's arrival on Earth, albeit, without the Dark Essence in it. But the previous page showed the crater to have been sealed up after the Dark Essence was sucked back into the timestream. With history having been changed thusly, the crater shouldn't be there anymore by the time the Hunter finds that cave.

Art and technical errors

• Throughout the comic, Optimus Primal is consistently missing his blue chin guard, replaced instead by a small goatee-like block colored the same gray as his mouth. Likewise, Megatron's wings are consistently colored the same red as his body, instead of the gold color they ought to be.
• On the opening two-page spread, the Dark Essence is distinctly colored bright yellow upon its first arrival on Prehistoric Earth, despite its later appearing mostly purplish, or even solid black, throughout the rest of the comic.
• In the second two-page spread, Blackarachnia is missing the little prongs on her helmet.
• In all of his appearances, Rhinox is drawn wearing a "hood" made from his beast mode kibble. This was most likely a case of the artist misinterpreting the rhino head kibble that Rhinox wears on that part of his back.
• In the fourth panel on page 10, Apelinq's robot mode face is colored maroon and his helmet is colored the same gray as his body. His chest also has the splash of green from his toy that is otherwise absent in this comic.
• In the last panel on page 13, Windrazor's eyes are colored yellow instead of red. And then on the last panel of page 14, the orb on his tummy is colored red instead of blue. In both of these instances, these errors make him look a little bit more like the original use of his mold, Silverbolt.
• On pages 14 and 15, Transquito's entire body (barring his orange wings) is colored black/navy blue, instead of the tan-gold and purple of his toy's beast mode.
• In the second panel on page 15, Megatron's dialogue bubble (quoted above) lacks a concluding punctuation mark.
• In the first panel of page 24, Optimus Primal's eyes are colored in the same swirly purple as the background, when they should be green.

Covers (2)

• Convention cover: Computer-generated collage featuring Leonicus, a Covenant member, and Optimal Optimus; art by Andrew Wildman
• Dinner variant cover: Avatars of Primus and Unicron do battle within the Matrix of Conquest; art by Geoff Senior

References

External links

• Tales from the Transformers: Beast Wars: Reaching the Omega Point - "Terminus" on the Botcon Online archives