Axalon (BW)
From Transformers Wiki
| The name or term "Axalon" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Axalon (disambiguation). |
- The Axalon is a spaceship from the Beast Era of the Generation 1 continuity family.
The Axalon is a Maximal exploration vessel whose mission was to explore and survey uninhabited worlds, seeding them with stasis pods so that those Transformers within could adopt the appearance of local lifeforms and conduct research undisturbed. However, it was called upon to intercept and pursue a stolen Predacon starship, and was subsequently never heard from again by its superiors.
Contents |
Fiction
Cartoon continuity
Beast Wars cartoon
An exploration ship, Beast Wars (Part 1) the Axalon was meant to chart the unexplored reaches of the galaxy, Victory and find a lifeless planetoid on which to dump Protoform X, a directive that only Captain Optimus Primal and First Officer Rhinox were made aware of. Bad Spark
Before the Axalon's mission could commence, it, as the only transwarp capable ship within range, was directed to intercept Megatron's band of Predacon criminals who had stolen the Golden Disk and escaped in a stolen ship.
After following their foes through transwarp, the Axalon found itself outmatched by the Predacons, falling into the gravity well of a nearby planet. At Primal's command, the Axalon ejected all the stasis pods it held and managed one last volley from its plasma cannon that that brought down the Predacon ship. Powerless, the Axalon made a crash landing on the primitive world. Beast Wars (Part 1) Though heavily damaged, the Axalon was still flight-worthy, though only just. Victory
As the Maximals took stock following the crash, Cheetor ran off to explore. Without functioning communicators, the Maximals followed, encountering the Predacons and starting the Beast Wars. Defeated in the first battle, the Maximals made for the Axalon only to be barred by Dinobot who challenged Primal for leadership. Beast Wars (Part 1)
Following the establishment of the conflict, the Axalon became the Maximals' base of operations. Fallen Comrades A Better Mousetrap
The Maximals on Cybertron began a search for the missing Axalon, launching temporal probes programmed to recognize the craft's transwarp signature. When one of these probes passed through the Solar System, Optimus' crew attempted to broadcast their location but the Axalon's damaged Transwarp Drive made it unable to contact the probe. Undeterred, the Maximals duplicated the ship's transwarp signature and attempted to broadcast to the probe via communications tower only for the Predacons to destroy the tower. The Probe
When it seemed that the Predacons had destroyed themselves, the Maximals looted the Predacon ship for what they needed to repair the Axalon. Unfortunately, the Predacons had only faked their deaths, intending to seize the repaired ship to claim the orbiting protoforms. When Dinobot discovered this, he raced back to the Axalon just as it was beginning to take off, Optimus and Cheetor exiting to aid him. Though the resulting battle saw most of the villains defeated, Megatron had snuck aboard and managed to jam his weapon into a vital bridge console, overloading the engines and irrepairably damaging them. Though the Axalon quickly plummeted, Optimus managed to safely ease the ship back onto the surface. Rhinox' subsequent assessment of the damage revealed the ship would never fly again. Victory
Megatron later sent Clone One to infiltrate the Axalon and disable its security only for Dinobot to defeat the impostor. Double Dinobot When Blackarachnia gained control over the flying island, she sought to destroy the Axalon but lost control of the alien construct before she could. The Trigger, Part 2
When the Vok, angry at the damage the Cybertronians had done to their long-term experiments, arrived, Tarantulas and Blackarachnia made for the Axalon, hoping to retrofit a disused stasis pod into an escape ship. Other Voices, Part 1 When the Maximals discovered the spiders, Optimus decided to use the pod to trigger a transwarp explosion and destroy the Planet Buster. As a result of Megatron's malware however, he found the pod was sealed and died in the process. Other Voices, Part 2
As the Maximals mourned the loss of their leader, the Axalon was struck by a quantum surge from the Planet Buster's destruction, mutating Rattrap, Cheetor and Tarantulas into new Transmetal bodies. With Megatron having received the same upgrade, he launched an attack on the Axalon but was chased away by an angry Rhinox. Aftermath
Upon adding Silverbolt and Quickstrike to his ranks, Megatron prepared for another march on the Axalon. As Rhinox projected his core consciousness into the Allspark, Rattrap, Cheetor and Dinobot fought a delaying action. Coming of the Fuzors (Part 1) When Megatron sent his flyers ahead to the ship, the Maximals followed. After they had downed Silverbolt, Rattrap and Cheetor brought him within the ship for repairs as Rhinox finished his task. Though outgunned, the Maximals fought another delaying action, lasting just long enough for a resurrected Transmetal Optimus Primal to arrive, chasing away the Predacons. Coming of the Fuzors (Part 2)
When the Metal Hunter made its approach, Megatron broke into the Axalon to retrieve the Vok disk. Other Visits (Part 1) Following the collapse of his alliance with Megatron, Tarantulas had Rattrap bring him to the Axalon so they could ally to destroy the Metal Hunter. Other Visits (Part 2)
Following the death of Dinobot, it was calculated that the transwarp wavefront would reach contemporary Cybertron. Fearing Maximal reinforcements, the Predacons launched a do or die attack on the Axalon only to be scared off by Ravage's transwarp cruiser. The Agenda (Part 1) Taken prisoner, Megatron revealed to Ravage that he was acting on orders left by the original Megatron. Moved by the sight of his former master, Ravage defected to the new Megatron, The Agenda (Part 2) turning his ship's weapons against the Axalon only for Rattrap to destroy his cruiser with a pair of fusion grenades. In the aftermath, a desperate Megatron made for Ark, Optimus ordering everyone to follow. The Agenda (Part III)
After the Maximals had prevented Megatron from outright killing the stasis locked Optimus Prime, they realized that they had left the Axalon undefended. Though Optimus Primal nearly saved the ship, he was forced to sacrifice it to save Prime's spark, held within his body. Pulled off its mount by Rampage and some of Tarantulas's spider drones, the Axalon was split in two, the bridge landing on dry land while its computer core fell into the lake. Managing to salvage the command center, the Maximals moved it to the Ark. Optimal Situation
With the Ark's force field inoperable, Rattrap was sent to retrieve the Sentinel shield control module from the wreckage of the Axalon. After claiming it, an underwater battle between Rampage and Depth Charge sent the ship's remains plummeting even further into the lake's depths. Changing of the Guard
As the Maximals packed up their stuff for leaving Earth, they were hauling many large crates, some of which had pieces of the Axalon's command center dangling out from them. Nemesis Part 2
3H comics
Following the Maximals' evacuation of Earth, the Vok returned, intent on putting a stop to Tarantulas and his plans. At this point in time, both the Axalon's salvaged bridge and the rest of the wrecked, sunken ship remained exactly where they had been abandoned. Primeval Dawn Part 1
Timelines
Before leaving in earnest for its stated mission of interplanetary exploration, the Axalon was parked at a Maximal space station for a few weeks while it picked up its secret cargo. Finally, its impatient crew were able to leave, but subsequently were contacted by Maximal Defense Command Center about a rogue ship of Predacons in their area who had stolen the Golden Disk. The Axalon was ordered to pursue it.
A spectacular battle followed between the Axalon, the Predacon ship, another mysterious Predacon ship, and the Chromia 10. The latter two ships were destroyed, and the former two ships flew through a transwarp portal. Dawn of Future's Past
Beast Wars Metals comic
The Axalon was badly damaged during a space battle with the Predacons and left floating in the orbit of Energoa. It eventually crashed into the ocean when Protoform X broke free. Using the ship's still-active armaments, the Maximals blasted Rampage into space. Beast Wars Metals #2
Beast Machines toy bios
The Dinobot Airraptor served aboard the Axalon as interplanetary surveyor and navigator. Airraptor's bio
United
Fear blossomed as the news of Unicron's return spread. Optimus Primal and his crew tried valiantly to battle his new "Ark Unicron" form, but they were quickly defeated. In their darkest hour, the Axalon started glowing blue and revealed a previously unknown power: transforming into a super robot lifeform. Born again with a new living spark of its own, this powerful ally gave the Autobot army a hope of finally defeating Unicron. Axalon bio
2005 IDW continuity
a tale of a fateful trip."
Twenty thousand years ago, Onyx Prime sent the Axalon away from Antilla, entrusting its captain Domitius Major and his crew of Maximals with the alien artifact known as the "Talisman". Strange Visitors Our Finest
The Axalon travelled through space for ten thousand years before dwindling supplies of energon sent their vessel off-course in the hopes of refueling. Drawn to Earth by its supplies of Ore-13, the ship arrived in orbit, where it intercepted Autobot transmissions, bounced off of Shockwave's nearby ship. To protect his experiment, the scientist shot down the Maximals, the Axalon falling into what would become Brasnya, with the crash somehow activating the Talisman and scrambling the crew's memories. When Shockwave entered the ruined ship, he found one of the crew, Centurion, watching the Autobot transmission and believing himself to be Bumblebee, inspiring the Decepticon to conduct a novel experiment. While the Maximals fought, the Axalon itself was left to be buried by the ice and snow, forgotten by all. Strange Visitors
Though the Axalon's mission had ostensibly been to retrieve the Enigma of Combination, Onyx Prime was, in fact, a future version of Shockwave who had been sent back in time and was playing the long game, having sent the Axalon to Earth both so that the time loop could be completed (or started) and so that the Talisman could be safely stored on Earth. Centurion profile The First Who Was Named Our Finest
By 1944, Centurion was the last survivor of the Axalon, the horrors of World War I and II having allowed him to break through Shockwave's reprogramming. After he'd killed "Shockwave", he attempted to return to the Axalon so he could die, aided by Sgt. Savage and Garrison Kreiger. When the trio breached the frozen ship, the Talisman had vanished and its robotic spawns, the IRON Troopers, had puppeteered the corpse of Domitius Major, engaging Centurion in battle. Though the Troopers were ultimately defeated, the residual Talisman energy within the ship activated causing the Axalon, and its occupant Sgt. Savage, to vanish. Strange Visitors
Over the following decades, Kreiger established a base for himself beneath the crater of the Axalon, which would come to be known as the "Project Ice Man" facility. In 1994, Kreiger, aided by Atomic Man, would activate the Talisman once again, its energies causing the Axalon and its passenger to rematerialize. When Eagles Scream
2021 IDW Beast Wars comic
A lightly armed exploration vessel, the Axalon, despite being equipped with a Transwarp Drive, was limited only to regular space travel. On a routine protoform delivery mission to H'nkshanaar-4 however, the Axalon was tasked to intercept the warship Darksyde, stolen by Predacon separatists. Unable to engage the Darksyde on equal footing, the Axalon instead locked onto the stolen craft's Transwarp Drive, following it through time. Emerging from unspace, the Axalon sustained further damage prompting Nyx to simply ram the ship into the Darksyde but this left the Axalon unable to escape the gravity field of the nearby planet, though it managed to eject its cargo of stasis pods. Crashing in a valley, the Axalon's onboard computer rebooted and reconstructed its crew with beast modes to protect them from the high levels of energon radiation on the planet. Savage Landing Part 1
As the Maximals began taking stock of their situation, the Axalon was observed from unspace by the Vok trio of Pakak, Tonrar and Tikaani. As repairs progressed, Nyx was sent scout the surrounding area. Savage Landing Part 2 When she later failed to return, the Maximals began establishing a link to the orbiting stasis pods to try and expand their sensor range. Savage Landing Part 3 When they succeeded in doing so, they found a wounded Nyx who had joined up with the defected Dinobot. Surrendering, the Predacon asked to join the Maximals. Savage Landing Part 4
With its crew having had no time to repair the shields during their night of expanding the sensors, the Axalon was left vulnerable to a direct attack from the Predacons. Savage Landing Part 5 When Tarantulas managed to breach the Axalon, he made for Theta Lab, hoping to upload corruptive malware to the orbiting stasis pods, only to encounter Rattrap operating a cargo-loading exoskeleton and tossed him out of the ship. Rattrap then managed to complete the repairs on the force field only for it to eject Dinobot with the other Predacons. When the hostiles turned on Dinobot, Primal had the Axalon's cannons scare off the Predacons. Bringing Dinobot back into the Axalon, the Maximals healed him and welcomed him into their crew. Savage Landing Part 6
With the force field fully online, the Maximals enjoyed some down time while getting to know Dinobot. This complacency left them unawares when the recently activated Blackarachnia, her spark still reading as a Maximal's, was able to walk directly into the Axalon whereupon her shell program activated. Pod Part 1
When Blackarachnia disabled Cheetor, his cry alerted his fellows. With the Maximals after her, Blackarachnia made her way to the Theta Lab and proceeded to transmit Tarantulas' code to the other stasis pods. After she had corrupted 51% of the protoforms, she was found by Rhinox and ordered all the pods to make planetfall. Scampering off, Blackarachnia helped herself to the ship's armory and managed to breach the hull, retreating to the Darksyde. Taking stock, the Maximals began drawing up plans for an attack on their foes. Pod Part 2
As the Maximals continued their plans, Skold appeared outside their force field and presented the wounded Razorbeast to them for medical care. Thicker Skin Following Razorbeast being healed and Dinobot briefing the Maximals on the history of the Golden Disk, the Maximals left the Axalon in a retrofitted escape shuttle to attack the Darksyde. Maximals Strike Back, Part 1
After a battle at an energon crystal field, Cheetor was brought to the Axalon's medical bay where his mind was infiltrated by Pakak for information on protoforms. The Speedway of Central Consciousness
When Optimus Primal and Dinobot were planting sensors around the Axalon, the former was subjected to a viral attack by Tarantulas. Though his crew tried to restrain him, a hyper-aggressive Primal broke out of the ship and, after a loaded suggestion from Dinobot, set out for the Darksyde to confront Megatron. Primal Rage That night, the Maximals had a campfire outside the Axalon, keeping an optic out for their leader's return. The Morphlings
When the Maximals and Predacons joined forces against the Vok, Megatron sent Waspinator and Skold to the Axalon. With Waspinator's help, Rattrap managed to restore the Axalon's engines to 34% capacity and make it capable of planetary flight before they received a message from the Darksyde via unspace. The Beginning of the End
While Optimus led the others to help defend the Darksyde, Rattrap and Waspinator finished their repairs to the Axalon's transwarp drive and linked it to the ship's weapons. Now able to fire unspace energy, Rattrap and Waspinator turned the Axalon against the Vok trio. With their mutual foes defeated, Megatron lunged at Optimus Primal only for Rattrap to fire the unspace beam at the Predacon leader, sending him forward in time. Though Rattrap was eager to use the Axalon to leave the planet, Primal, Rhinox and Dinobot pointed out that they would need Megatron as their prisoner. After confirming that the other Predacons had no interest in extending the truce, the Maximals boarded their ship and flew off, ready to face the Predacons another solar cycle. The End
War for Cybertron Trilogy cartoon
The Axalon Kingdom episode 1 had a crew of over 200 Maximals, though after crashing onto Earth in the past and engaging in a conflict with the time-displaced Predacons, only Optimus Primal, Airazor, Rhinox, Rattrap, Cheetor, and Tigatron survived Kingdom episode 2 by the time the Autobot Ark and Decepticon Nemesis crashed on the planet. Damaged beyond the ability to fly and return to Cybertron, Optimus Primal and Rhinox checked the Ark's energon reserves in hopes of repairing the Axalon, though it was not enough. Primal then sought to salvage the Ark, though the Maximals soon after allied with the Autobots, Kingdom episode 1 and later left for Cybertron aboard the repaired Ark. Kingdom episode 5
Toys
Beast Wars 10th Anniversary
- Optimus Primal (2006)
- Known designers: Joe Kyde (deco artist)
- A small-scale toy of the Axalon was included.
United
- Axalon is a gray and red redeco of Energon Sharkticon, using all of the original paint operations, but in different colors. Axalon transforms into a Cybertronic submarine/battleship with dimly animalistic styling. His small gun turrets are movable, plus his side panels can extend outward to reveal spring-loaded missile launchers. He has two "dead" Mini-Con ports, one on each forearm. The vehicle mode's stylings were inspired by the Generation 1 Decepticon starship Nemesis.
- The mold was redecoed into the Timelines Sharkticons and retooled into Timelines Sky-Byte.
- Like the 5th and 6th wave figures, Axalon's package feature a sticker that said "limited quantity (数量限定)", indicating that this figure is released in limited numbers after its first and only shipment.
Notes
- The Axalon's main plasma cannons were used twice in the series: during the battle with the Darksyde (the guns that dealt the crippling blow to the Predacon ship) and once more during "Call of the Wild" as backup when the topside autogun was destroyed.
- In a running gag, the glass of the ship's elevator doors is shattered multiple times over the course of the series, usually by the Maximals.
- A very similar starship, possibly Axalon-class or meant to evoke it, was used in the 2001 Robots in Disguise cartoon by an Autobot who would eventually be reprogrammed into Scourge, as seen in "The Decepticons".
- Another starship of the Axalon's class was used by Ironhide's team in the Timelines story "Descent into Evil".
- Revenge of the Fallen Jetfire's Cybertronian form in Defiance has a more-than passing resemblance to the Axalon.
- A ship strongly resembling the Axalon can be briefly seen parked in a hangar near the end of the Power of the Primes episode "Saga's End".
Foreign names
- Japanese: Axalon (アクサロン Akusaron), Cyber Falcon (サイバー・ファルコン号 Saibā Farukon-gō)
- Mandarin: Axalon (Taiwan, 亞克薩隆 Yàkèsàlóng; China, 艾萨隆 Àisàlóng)
- French: Alaxon (War for Cybertron: Kingdom dub)