Darkest Hour (prose)

As Unicron descends on Cybertron, the Autobots must make their last stand, and take one final chance to save history!

Synopsis

The combined efforts of Overdrive and the reborn Prowl result in the successful apprehension of Battle Ravage. Alas, the grave alterations Battle Ravage has already wreaked upon the timestream have borne fruit: cornered within his secret base, Battle Ravage displays for the Autobots a video image of Unicron, right as the monster planet launches his attack on Cybertron. The Autobots' moonbases are lost, as are the lives of many Autobot warriors fending off the massive army of robot soldiers Unicron unleashes. Battle Ravage surprises the Autobots by giving them advice, warning them not to let Optimus Prime die, since the Matrix of Leadership he carries is the key to defeating Unicron. Realizing Battle Ravage's true intentions, Prime boards a shuttle with Ultra Magnus, and together, they head to confront the chaos-bringer.

Before departing, Prime issues a command to Skids on Earth to enact "Operation: Distant Thunder", a desperate last-chance plan the Autobots have constructed since learning that Battle Ravage altered history. This plan involves sending Wheeljack's memory data back in time, to before Battle Ravage changed the timeline, in hopes that the Autobots of the past will be able to use it to avert the changes before they happen. Without time-travel technology of their own, the Autobots have only one way to accomplish this: manipulating the chronal energies of Dinobot Island to create a time warp. Skids has spent years studying the island and learned to control the energy in a limited fashion, but now, as he puts the plan in motion, a Decepticon squadron descends upon his base!

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

• This chapter of the Binaltech story was printed in the pack-in booklet included with the Skids Binaltech toy.
• "Operation: Distant Thunder" is named for the Marvel UK comic story, "Distant Thunder!", which had some long-standing time-travel-related ramifications for poor ol' Skids.
• Dinobot Island and its time warps originally appeared in the two-part Generation 1 cartoon episode of the same name.
• This was to be the last Binaltech story chapter published for some time, as the line went on hiatus after the release of Skids in favour of Kiss Players, which ran throughout 2006. It was over a year before the cliffhanger that this chapter ends with was resolved, when Binaltech returned with some limited, exclusive releases in 2007.

References

• Complete text of "Darkest Hour"
• Author-endorsed translation of "Darkest Hour" at Ben's World of Transformers (archived)