100000000000000000 Grains of Sandron!!
From Transformers Wiki
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| Life is too short to count all those zeroes. | |||||||||||||
| "100000000000000000 Grains of Sandron!!" (Sandron 100000000000000000 Tsubu!!) | |||||||||||||
| Publisher | Kodansha | ||||||||||||
| Published in | Comic Bom Bom | ||||||||||||
| First published | May 1999 | ||||||||||||
| Cover date | June 1999 | ||||||||||||
| Script | Shōji Imaki | ||||||||||||
| Artist | Shōji Imaki | ||||||||||||
| Continuity | Beast Wars manga | ||||||||||||
Behold, the killer sand!
Contents |
Synopsis
On Luxor, Longrack is being consumed by quicksand. Big Convoy jumps into the quicksand and saves Longrack, escaping by firing the Big Cannon to create momentum out of the pit. The Maximals run toward a town located in higher ground. While running, Break nearly falls into the quicksand before he is saved by Big Convoy with his Mammoth Haken. He then gets dragged all the way into the town by Big Convoy. After entering the town, the Maximals find the residents are all dead, leaving nothing but only skeletons. Big Convoy tells the rookies stay in the town till NAVI can repair and bring the Gung Ho in one hour.
Meanwhile, on the Dinosaur, Dead End confronts Magmatron, asking him why ordered them to retreat. Guiledart asks Dead End to stand down and has a quarrel with him. Magmatron tells Guiledart to stand down and explains to Dead End the existence of the "cannibal sand". The Predacons are elated at the prospect of Big Convoy and his trainees being eaten by the sand. Saberback even divines with tarot cards, predicting death.
At Luxor, Heinrad tells Big Convoy that Longrack now feels thirsty and is stuck in mid-transformation. Soon after checking on the others, Big Convoy starts to feel odd in his left knee. Thinking it might be some sort of infection, Big Convoy sends Longrack's body data to NAVI for diagnosis.
While Break and Heinrad are taking care of Longrack, Stampy finds the sand has climbed into the town. He kicks and mocks the sand. After he leaves, the sand starts to impersonate Stampy.
After analyzing the data, NAVI tells Big Convoy that there is much sand in Longrack's body. She explains that this sand is in fact a kind of Transformer, known as the "Sandron", which are able to enter a victim from a joint, eat out the power system and the transform circuit before finally consuming the CPU in the head. NAVI theorizes the Sandron may related to the Angolmois energy. Big Convoy realizes that the Sandron are defending the capsule, which the Maximals have taken. Shortly after, Break and Stampy encounter the Sandron impersonating the Maximals and trying to seize back the Angolmois capsule. Break, Stampy, and Heinrad start to fight the legion of impostors. Big Convoy has little concern because, as the rookies are not powerful, the rookies' impostors will be not powerful. Feeling his body beginning to freeze, Big Convoy tells Break if anything happens to him, he wants Break to take command.
Just when Break thinks they are going to be defeated, NAVI arrives in the Gung Ho, blowing apart all the Sandron impostors. After the Maximals retreat, Big Convoy feels relieved and lays himself on the deck. However, the Sandron form a legion of Big Convoys and use their imitation Big Cannons to fire at the Gung Ho. Big Convoy destroys them immediately with the true Big Cannon by swinging himself rapidly. However, he falls off the Gung Ho because he can barely control his body. The Sandron soon form a gigantic Big Convoy out of the planet's surface and fire at the Gung Ho. Break recalls Big Convoy's words and takes over the driver seat, managing to rise the ship's altitude in time to avoid the attack. The giant Big Convoy crumbles shortly after, as the Angolmois capsule is now too far away to continue to influence the sand. After the ship is safe, Break rushes out, trying to rescue Big Convoy —only to find he is safe. Break who falls off the ship, cursing Big Convoy.
Learning the Gung Ho has safely left Luxor, Magmatron decides it is now the time for him to battle Big Convoy.
Featured characters
(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)
Quotes
"Don't worry. Even though there are lots of enemies, they're still your doppelgängers. Meaning, they aren't very strong. Looks like you guys are safe."
- —Big Convoy, insulting and encouraging at the same time.
"Shut up, you should join the fight too!"
- —Break isn't impressed by Big Convoy's hands-off style.
"It would be bad if they copied me."
- —Big Convoy tempts fate.
"Damn you, you loafing instructor!"
- —Break to Big Convoy, upon learning of the latter's safety.
Notes
- The "敵勢" (Tekisei) in the original Japanese title means "enemy force" or "number of enemies", but it was given a note to be read as "Sandron".
- It is unknown why Longrack feels thirst instead of pain when his transform circuit is attacked by the Sandron.
- Neither Break nor Stampy have any siblings.
- Heinrad's sake bottle can be used as a ball-and-chain flail.
- It is unclear whether the Angolmois energy temporarily evolved the sand into Sandron, or gave the Sandron the ability to impersonate other objects.
- It is unknown why the giant Big Convoy impersonation is sand color while other Sandron impostors have the same color as the originals do.
- For the record, that's one hundred quadrillion grains.
Real-word references
- Heinrad's transformation doesn't visually come off as physical shifting, but more like a tanuki magically taking on another form, as in Japanese lore.
- Saberback uses tarot cards in his efforts at divination. The card he draws is "Death".