A CONCISE HISTORY OF AQUATRON
- abridged from the works of Cybertronian historian LancerThe ancient Titan named Hydrax, a loyal servant of Quintus Prime, once rested atop the Hydrax Plateau on Cybertron; but that changed when the followers of the Primes departed the planet to explore and colonise the galaxy. When Quintus ordered her followers to seek out a deeper understanding of the universe and its mysteries, Hydrax took flight with a crew of theoretical scientists and quantum engineers, pledging to bring knowledge and insight back to Cybertron. What the Titan and its crew didn't know was that their journey would be cut short before they could return to their homeland.A mere few hundred years after their voyage began, Hydrax's systems - including its engines - were damaged by a quantum flare while investigating a rift in the Benzuli Expanse. Phyophore, the head overseer of the crew, ordered that the Titan set down on an uninhabited nearby world; but the crew was unaware that their scanners had also been damaged. When Hydrax breached the planet's thick cloud cover, rather than setting down on rock and earth as they expected, the Titan's crew found themselves hitting seawater - an endless expanse of ocean. Realizing their mistake too late, and with Hydrax's propulsion systems compromised, the populace was unable to do anything to stop their city-ship from sinking to the ocean floor, falling ever faster as it took on water and was subjected to the crushing pressures of the unfathomable depths.In the aftermath of the crash, the Hydraxans struggled; huge amounts of the Titan's infrastructure had sustained catastrophic damage, and much of their leadership had been killed in the crash. It was Hydrax itself that provided them with hope: the Titan ignited its own inbuilt hot spot, producing the sparks of new life, and unfurled great metal tentacles to anchor itself into the seafloor. Coming to understand that life, especially for Cybertronians, requires change and adaptation, the Hydraxans worked to rebuild; they began to excavate into the rock and metal beneath their city, and started to modify and upgrade their bodies in order to survive in the inhospitable ocean of the planet, which they named "Aquatron".In the years since the inadvertent founding of their colony, the Aquatronians' settlements grew; they expanded Hydrax outwards with newly built structures around the Titan, and dug out the caverns and tunnels under the city to create a maze-like warren to house the newborn Cybertronians born from the hot spot. Others set out in immense city-like watercraft, propelled on treads, legs or hoverfans - and some even founded new settlements, such as the Gulf, a city of bridges and hollows in rock faces built across the span of an impossibly deep crevasse. A few would try to "go it alone", but this rarely ended well; the most "successful" of these ventures would evolve over millenia into the Sharkticon tribes that hunted on the seafloor.In adapting to life in the depths, the Aquatronians' bodies - both those original settlers, and those born from their Titan - diverged significantly from their original Cybertronian frames. Where the majority of Hydraxans had before converted into sleek, advanced spacecraft, they now changed to specialised alternate modes for the purpose of sea exploration, taking forms that blurred the line between vehicle and beast as a matter of necessity. So, too, did their robot forms change, taking on wildly alien appearances compared to the Cybertronian standard; from incredibly squat, dense frames to spindly, skeletal and fragile-looking bodies.Many had unconventional body-plans; missing or additional limbs were common, as were unusually-articulated ones, including fully prehensile tentacles. Transparent or translucent body-plating and photoluminescent paintwork were frequent sights. Their faces were strange even by Cybertronian standards; additional eyes, lenses that moved around the face, wide and unmoving circular optics, and articulated mandibles are only a small selection of what could be found on an Aquatronian. Some had no apparent facial features at all, and some even lacked head units entirely!The adaptations were not merely cosmetic. As a result of the immense pressures in the ocean's depths, Aquatronians were extraordinarily resilient, with incredibly strong mechanisms and tough but lightweight armor that made any of them a match for the most powerful Transformers of other worlds. Their optics were adapted to see huge distances through the water with very little light to see by, though a side effect meant they could be stunned or blinded in bright light; on top of that, they had exceptionally high radio- and electro-sensitivity, to the extent that many of them could read surface-level thoughts and emotions.When Cybertron made contact with Aquatron during the attempt to reunite the colonies, their initial encounter was with the lone above-water civilisation on the planet, the outpost city of Guyot, which perched atop an immense undersea mountain. First contact proved uneasy; the pressure of both air and water at the bottom of the ocean were debilitating to Cybertron's ambassadors, and in turn, the vast majority of Aquatronians lacked experience with existing on the surface. Eventually, through a combination of specially-resilient representatives and selective depressurisation, Cybertronians were able to be introduced to Hydrax; the diplomatic process was enabled by Aquatron's representative, an elderly triple-changer named Agonizer, though he preferred to be known as "the Curator".Despite this effort, relations between Aquatron and the other Cybertronian worlds have since been rather frosty. Aquatronians are notoriously terse, rarely elaborating on their thoughts; and though they are naturally curious, this makes for a poor combination with their lack of understanding of (or regard for) other cultures' etiquette - many a would-be diplomat has been made uncomfortable or unnerved by Aquatronians staring at them blankly, invading their personal space, or "reading their minds". All this gives Aquatronians a rather poor reputation among other Transformers, and though many Aquatronians would jump at the chance to experience other worlds, they rarely have any interest in getting to know their cousins.A last, more disturbing element of Aquatronians is a side effect of their electro-sensitivity, which gives them a greater-than-average vulnerability to mental manipulation by outside forces. Though it's rare that any are ever effected by this, it may have something to do with the legends and rumors from the Gulf about the whispers of "the one beneath"...
So it's not exactly a fanfic, but I spent enough time writing this that I decided to give it its own thread. Because.
