Nautica (G1)
From Transformers Wiki
The name or term "Nautica" refers to more than one character or idea. For a list of other meanings, see Nautica (disambiguation). |
- Nautica is an Autobot from the Generation 1 continuity family.
Nautica's upbeat demeanor conceals the mind of a brilliant intellectual. Whether she's tackling quantum mechanics with the help of her trusty wrench or negotiating a ceasefire between warring alien races, she brings an impressive command of engineering, literature, cartography, moral philosophy, and linguistics to the table, and this wealth of knowledge makes an invaluable asset on just about any given adventure.
Despite this wealth of knowledge, Nautica can be a bit socially clueless and has sometimes struggled with the feeling that she doesn't always fit in with her fellow Autobots. Indeed, she's often happiest when she's away from her homeworld and exploring the wider galaxy, where she can put her submarine alternate mode and its limited spaceflight capabilities to better use.
Contents |
Fiction
2005 IDW continuity
- First appearance: Robots in Disguise #25
Nautica was born from a hot spot on Caminus, one of the lost Titan colonies. A 'Bot and Her City During her early life in one of Caminus' many sororities, she roomed with Firestar. Both of them were part of the same sorority and were Amica Endura... because on Caminus, serious adherents of the Way of Flame expect you to have an Amica in ten megacycles or be written off as "officially lonely". As soon as an equally desperate Firestar cited the Oath of Constancy, Nautica accepted. While they tried, their personalities clashed badly: Firestar would lord her better artistic skills over her and patronizingly assumed Nautica needed to be more like her. Neither could break up as platonic severance gets you cast out. As Firestar tells it, Nautica tended to be part of a group rather than strike out on her own. To make matters worse, Camien society expected you to, if not be a performing artist, to at least try to do it and Nautica couldn't be bothered. That got her stuck with the loathed nickname "Naughty Nautica"; though she was a hyper-literate and intellectually skilled person, she became self-deprecating and didn't think much of her talents. The Sensuous Frame The Frail Gaze
After one particularly bad rehearsal, Nautica got chewed out by Firestar for her disinterest in the performing arts. She was rescued by Velocity, a fellow member of their sorority and an aspiring doctor. The two became fast friends; Velocity provided Nautica with new reading material that sparked her interest in quantum mechanics, and Nautica helped the luckless Velocity (who kept failing her exams) with her studying. The two parted ways when Velocity eventually left to study at an off-world Mederi Center. An Axe to Break the Ice
When Windblade wanted to recruit a team to look for Cybertron, Nautica was picked up (which Firestar didn't forgive) alongside Chromia. The Frail Gaze Nautica boarded the Vis Vitalis along with her crewmates, and they served under Thunderclash for a short time. Windblade #4 However, the arrival of Alpha Trion brought to light the dire situation Metroplex was in. As the Vis Vitalis would be unable to reach the Titan in time, Nautica went along with Windblade and Chromia in a smaller and faster craft. Burning Bright A Long Way Down
While inside the nigh-corpse of Metroplex, Nautica and Chromia encountered a group of Autobots. After beaning Ultra Magnus with a hook, Nautica tried to act threatening towards the strangers, but failed; Chromia picked up the slack, demanding the Autobots' unconditional surrender. The Dead Are Not Enough Ultimately, Getaway defused the situation by wiping the grime from Nautica's Autobrand, showing they were all on the same side. Introductions were interrupted by an Ammonite attack, forcing a retreat to Windblade's position. Burning Bright Along with the others inside Metroplex, Nautica was transported by the Titan to Cybertron, where she saw Metroplex take down the Necrotitan. Finis Temporis
Nautica and Windblade updated Ultra Magnus about Metroplex's condition as he healed thanks to the infusion of Ore-7. Nautica realized that Magnus wanted answers from Metroplex regarding the Knights of Cybertron and told Magnus that she once asked the titan the same question, only to get the response that none of them deserved to know the truth. The Becoming Nautica was within Metroplex when a swarm of Ammonites large enough to blot out the sky attacked; Metroplex needed no persuasion to join the battle. Black Planet The Ammonites all spontaneously combusted and died due to the actions of Metalhawk. The three Camiens watched as the Lost Light smashed onto Monstructor, and they leapt out of Metroplex to finish off the separated component members of the combiner. ...And the Damage Done
After the turmoil on Cybertron settled down, an enthusiastic Nautica accompanied by Chromia attended crew auditions for the Lost Light hosted by Swerve. Just as she was turned down for having a trisyllabic name, Nightbeat burst in and revealed that the auditions were a joke by Swerve. Six months later, Nautica did end up on the Lost Light, and became close friends with Brainstorm. Towards Peace On her first day, Crosscut took the newbies on a tour and explained how Swerve's was the place where everything happened. No Guns, No Swords, No Briefcases
At Swerve's, she discussed the latest issue of the Lost Light Insider with Skids and Riptide. Riptide decided to have fun with a drunk Trailcutter, and while Nautica initially joined in the laughter, left to return to her quarters. Words Hang in the Air
Nautica was part of "Team Rodimus" called in to figure out the identity of the Rodimus corpse found within a coffin found in space. Nautica recognized Spectralist markings on the coffin, indicating that Drift, a practicing Spectralist, was the one who carved them. The mystery of the coffin was put on hold, however, as parts of the Lost Light began to disappear and Brainstorm's Early Early Warning System told them to "Run For Your Life!", forcing the crew to evacuate into shuttles. Predestination: A Beginner's Guide Nautica found herself with nineteen others on the new Rodpod, where she gave a short lesson about the ship's quantum generators, concluding with the theory that the ship was so advanced that it "proved itself impossible".
People began to disappear, and tensions began to rise amongst the crew. Hound aimed his gun at Nautica, prompting her to defend herself with her wrench, but the other Autobot was actually aiming past her at Ravage, who had stowed away on their ship. Those present in the Rodpod started to disappear, and Nightbeat finally made the connection that those left behind, including Nautica, were not part of the original crew of the Lost Light. The mystery continued as the Rodpod stumbled upon the bisected remains of the Lost Light. Twenty Plus One
The ship had been attacked and the crew killed. As a quantum engineer, Nautica's expertise was crucial to the group as they explored this disturbing discovery. She identified the quantum foam leaking from the shattered ship, as well as the danger it posed; teaming up with Nightbeat to check a section of the ship for survivors, she noted that local space was "worn down" from excess quantum activity, a further danger. She waded through Nightbeat's questions about life on Caminus while they searched the ship. When Nightbeat found Brainstorm's abandoned briefcase and opened it, only to find it empty, both Autobots were baffled - but failed to notice a bizarre time-skipping phenomena happening to them. The pair then discovered Overlord's corpse locked in a chamber beneath the ship, another piece of the puzzle. They rejoined the main group as the ship began reacting to the quantum foam... and as Ravage discovered a still-alive Rewind inside the empty Magnus Armor. slaughterhouse
While the rest of the group tried to make sense of this, Nautica gazed out at the derelict quantum drums floating in a field of quantum foam, and suddenly worked out what had happened—the Lost Light had apparently duplicated itself at launch due to a malfunction in the quantum engines. Nautica hypothesized that shutting down the quantum engines completely would cancel out any effects that depended on them—restoring their version of the ship to reality. The group searched for Brainstorm's miniaturization gun to make at least one of their number small enough to make it through the loops of drifting quantum foam; during the search, Nautica was shocked to uncover Brainstorm's lifeless body—and startled when Nightbeat pointed out that the inventor had a Decepticon insignia painted on the inside of his faceplate! Once Megatron revealed that he could downsize himself, Nautica guided him and Rewind as they floated out into space to the drifting quantum drums and carried out the procedure, restoring the Lost Light as they had known it. The mission successful, she and Nightbeat puzzled over the survival of Rewind—and of Brainstorm's briefcase. The Road Not Taken
Brainstorm would then poison the crew and use the briefcase to travel through time, attempting to ensure the war never happened and his love Quark would live. Nautica sat in on the Lost Light Internal Legal Affairs Committee's hearing into the affair and quietly stared at her wrench. When Brainstorm made a joke about his being a Decepticon, she stormed out and left the wrench behind. In an attempt to patch things up between them, Ratchet (under pretence of a medical check-up) reminded her that Brainstorm had been a M.T.O. and if his plan had worked, he would have erased himself from the timeline: his actions could not be condoned but had not been selfish.
The two patched things up when Brainstorm added a new function to her wrench: a button that said "BRAINSTORM IS AN ASS!". Our Steps Will Always Rhyme
Brainstorm, Getaway, and Skids interrupted her reading about Froid to teach her practical skills, as she'd asked... which were basically circus tricks. She protested until she realised hanging from the ceiling was cool. This was interrupted by a visit to the Vis Vitalis: Thunderclash was finally dying and everyone was invited to his pre-wake. Everyone at the pre-wake had an awesome dance party... except Nautica and some others who sat in the corner like saddos, with her lowering her face shield and grumping that nobody seemed to have noticed they weren't there.
Firestar noticed though, having joined the Vitalis with half of their old sorority. The two attempted to catch up but Nautica was uneasy around Firestar, as the latter 'playfully' undermined the former's vocation and her accomplishments. After an awkward conversation, the two segregated. Hours later, she stuck around on the Vitalis with Skids so she can catch up with the old gang (and desperately told him "they're not all... y'know"). He picked up something was wrong and she asked if she could borrow him for a minute The Sensuous Frame to practice dancing. To his surprise, she was a lot better than she had let on or thought. Relaxing, she admitted to him that she had befriended Firestar out of desperation and her frustrations.That was when bizarre, horrific aliens attacked! Completely without combat skills, Nautica was overrun but shoved her fist into the recharge socket to vape the suckers. Nautica and Skids took refuge with Nightbeat, Getaway, Ravage, Firestar, and Velocity, who Nautica briefly caught up with. When the creatures, identified as personality ticks, broke in, Nautica detonated innermost energon to keep them back... which didn't work but never mind, Skater saved the day off-panel. She tried to convince Firestar to stay on space adventuring after that and was bluntly asked if "adventures" were really this nasty all the time ("maybe it is"). After encouraging her to ensure "Lotty" stuck to her career, she was aghast to learn Firestar, believing they just weren't a good fit, was willing to take the shame of platonic severance for her. Nautica refused to allow it and said that while they were different, they were still friends. The Frail Gaze
When Swerve fell seriously ill, Nautica was part of the massive rescue effort sent down to the hologram planet of "Swearth" in a human holomatter avatar. She hung out with Rodimus, Nightbeat, and Megatron and devoted time to tickling Megatron's avatar to see if he was ticklish. (He was not) The real Earth struck her as a good place to visit, as the humans had accomplished so much for a young race. The One Where They Go to Earth Instead, she got to visit the graveyard planet of the legendary Necrobot alongside the equally interested Velocity. A fun day was had by all until they learned the flowers for every statue was actually a symbol of how many lives each Transformer had taken! The Not Knowing
Before the ship went on a forced shutdown, Nautica, Whirl, and Swerve were enjoying a drink together when a protoform (actually scraplets in disguise) was found outside the bar door. Unable to keep it around in case it impaired the shutdown but with no Biometric Envelopment Device for it, the three amigos ran around the ship trying to find a solution and Nautica bashed Ultra Magnus unconscious in a freakout when the scraplet hijacked his armour in front of him. Christmas is a time for whacky hijinks! Silent Light
Nautica would attend Megatron's lessons on the Knights of Cybertron, although she would spent much of her time tinkering with the Rodpod. In one lesson, Megatron pointed out the significance of a symbol that had popped up multiple times in their travels. Skids said it was the symbol he said seen when he went through Tyrest's portal, and Nautica had seen it on Troja Major. Along with the rest of 'Team Rodimus', she boarded the Rodpod to find the cause of a series of mental attacks. Using the teleport drive she had installed, they followed the source of the assault, ending up "supposedly" of the map. However, when things materialised it turned out they were on the Necroworld. They left the Rodpod to explore, but were immediately attacked by Decepticon fighters. Any chances of escape in the Rodpod were dashed when they were blown out of the sky, a stray missile blowing up part of Nautica's face. They retreated into the Necrobot's fortress only to learn that the 'bot was dead and that the rest of the Lost Light crew had mutinied, leaving them all to the Decepticon Justice Division for having been 'too close' to Megatron. How Bright Their Frail Deeds The D.J.D. deliberately gave them until sunrise to dwell on their imminent death.
In a desperate search for anything useful, Nautica joined Swerve and Velocity in checking out what the Necrobot's keys opened. En route, Nautica was glad to learn Swerve had become guilty that he was a bad boss for Ten (but unamused to learn the guy had forgotten where Ten was). The keys turned out to open a basement room full of slumbering organics in stasis pods—using the fortress's teleport chamber to escape meant leaving the organics to die at the Decepticon's hands. When Megatron gave a grand speech in favour of staying to protect the pods, Nautica (and everyone else) silently agreed to stay and face their deaths. The Sun in Flight With sunrise bearing down, and the only development being the spitting-in-wind arrival of Drift and Ratchet, Nautica felt a burning need to finally stop putting off declaring her feelings about her comrades and sought out Rewind for relationship advice. After a confused discussion about how relationships refused to be logical, she learned Cybertronians declared Amica Endura only after they'd ruled out being a Conjunx. That pretty much made her decision for her. Your Fierce Tears
At Drift's suggestion, Rewind recorded the last requests of the gang so that they could get it out of the way and broadcast it into space. At Close of Day Nautica found herself unable to think of any last words to quote, berating herself for it, and requested to be buried in the shadow of the Fourth and Central Athenaeum. She tried to come up with a passage for her grave but found herself unable to care anymore, despair setting in. How Bright Their Frail Deeds
Finally Nautica came to a decision and gathered Rung, Nightbeat, Brainstorm, Velocity, and Skids together for the right of Amica Endura. She opened her spark to them, recited the ritual, and told them all how they were valued, being accepted in turn; after, Rung congratulated her nervous self on taking the step.
In the end, rather than wait to be attacked, the Autobots decided to make a final charge on the enemy (minus Megatron, who Rodimus berated by pointing to Nautica as someone who was scared but willing to fight). At Close of Day Skids sacrificed himself to provide the assembled Autobots with a temporary spark surge, temporarily granting them outlier levels of strength. Rage, Rage After being thanked by Rodimus for serving with him, Nautica and the others charged the Decepticons. At Close of Day For her part, Nautica fiercely unloaded her weapons upon the horde of attackers. When the spark upgrade wore off, she retreated back to the Necrobot's compound as Megatron stepped up to take on the Decepticon Justice Division. Once inside, Nautica was utterly inconsolable after learning of Skids' death and stayed with his body for the rest of the night. Rage, Rage Do Not Go Gentle
In the days that followed, Nautica helped Velocity acclimate the "Disappeared", the "organics" in the Necrobot's basement who were actually time-displaced Cybertronians he had saved from history. Some Other Cybertron One of those returnees was Anode, a former blacksmith who studied on Caminus that Lotty believed to be a serious thief. Realizing Anode awoke at a different time than the other Disappeared, Nautica asked Swerve to check out the other pods. Anomie Nautica also expressed her grievance at Velocity using "mood suppressants" to help Swerve, Nightbeat, and others cope with the loss of Skids. Nautica believed their grief should be faced head on, not avoided. A World Misplaced
Nautica was with Anode when she realized that, as a side-effect of timesickness, she had been hallucinating that her Conjunx Endura Lug had also survived their last caper. In fact, the Necrobot had only saved Anode, and Lug had died centuries ago. Modes of Production Nautica also witnessed the amazing loophole Anode discovered, using a bloom of sentio metallico combined with Lug's residual spark energy from one of the Necrobot's flowers to rekindle the life of her lover. This Machine Kills Fascists In fact, Lug was completely restored in a matter of days, fully recollecting her entire life up to the moment of her death. Nautica was very interested in what Anode had accomplished, latching on the idea that she could resurrect Skids. Though his spark had long since faded, Nautica salvaged his brain module and hid it in her optical socket beneath an eye patch. After Megatron An Axe to Break the Ice
Stopping off at Troja Major's infamous Howling Town, Nautica made her way to the Museum of Curios and Rumored Objects to question Agonizer about the possibility of bringing back Skids, searching his collection for the Resus Cradle. After failing to find it, she butted into Agonizer and Velocity's discussion about the Knights of Cybertron to question the Curator on its whereabouts. Agonizer directed them to a Catharsian semi-rival of his named Mengel. When they arrived, Nautica made her plea and was let inside. An Axe to Break the Ice
The cost of resurrection, however, proved exceptionally high with Nautica even agreeing to sell her emotional connection to Skids in exchange for his life. Velocity interceded at this, only for Nautica to snap at her for her many medical failures, something which prompted Mengel to try and up the price to including Nautica's connection to Velocity. Agreeing, Nautica was strapped into the emotional extractor where Velocity again tried to dissuade her, outright saying that she suspected Nautica was doing this mainly out of grief for suggesting Skids' fatal spark spasm, before Flame called Mengel away. When Flame's men began ransacking the compound, Velocity rushed to her friend's defense, the act reminding Nautica that Skids had chosen to sacrifice himself, and she rushed to her friend's aid, carrying her away in her super-sized alternate mode. Before they were due to return to Skip, Velocity offered to return to Mengel's lab and recover Skids' brain module but Nautica was alright with leaving it behind. Off to the side, Wipe-Out explained to Velocity that any feelings Nautica had felt for Skids had been removed by Mengel's machines. Chasing the Infinite
As the minibot sailed, Nautica questioned Brainstorm about his Early Early Warning System, before Anode and Swerve's increasingly ridiculous prank war caused all the tensions from the cabin fever to come to a boil. To make matters worse, Skip's mass-displacement suddenly began wearing off. Salvation came at the hands of the inexplicably lucid, and differently sounding, Ten who instructed Nautica and Brainstorm to modify Skip's engines so they could access the Warren and reach a Mederi facility. While they accessed the quantum structure, the mass displacement wore off, forcing the crew to "abandon Skip" where their bodies were ravaged by super-compressed space. The group had emerged within spitting distance of the original Mederi, now in the year 2018, falling into its gravity well. The moon repaired them and, based on Cyclonus' desire to reunite with the believed-deceased Tailgate, presented itself as the Afterspark. Sardines Metastasis You Are Here
Awakening in a holographic facsimile of the Clavis Aurea Afterspark, Nautica translated some Primal Sacrement writings before she was found by Brainstorm, Drift, and Nightbeat. When Nautica queried about the latter's glum state, he revealed his depression over having been unable to solve any of the Big Three mysteries. As Nautica tried to comfort him, the group was approached by the jubilant Roller and Springarm before they raced away, Nautica calling after them. Metastasis Following the perpetually flashing Early Early Warning System, the group found a temple, where Nautica failed to deter Lug and Anode from thieving, before Drift was teleported away by divine lighting and Nightbeat went off to follow a trail of photonic crystals. Inside, the two found Quark who declared his everlasting love for Brainstorm leading the scientist away. Left alone, Nautica found a door marked "Danger: Do Not Enter." Before she could enter, she was visited by the ghost of Skids who invited her to walk to the Matrix with him. Having lost all emotional attachment to Skids, Nautica declined, revealing Skids to be a hologram. Entering the room, Nautica found herself face to face with the Scavengers. The God War
Managing to use Brainstorm's penchant for outrageous weaponry to bluff the Scavengers, Nautica soon befriended the group when it was found that they were seeing two different environments. The illusion soon collapsed revealing that they were all at the original Mederi facility. Exploring the morgues, the group found Axe's corpse, bringing him to Rodimus. With that, Rodimus quickly pieced together that Mederi was Cyberutopia, the illusion having been created so that the Knights of Cybertron could die peacefully. When the group prepared to leave, they were beset by the crew of the Lost Light, now horribly mutated into sparkeaters. You Are Here
While Rodimus led a team to board the Lost Light, Nautica joined the others in huddling up in Mederi to try and find a cure for their friends. A Dance Before Dying Once the sparkeaters had been healed, the organic telepaths began "saying" the Knights' coat of arms, Nautica managing to translate it and querying Rung about his familiarity with it. Soon enough, a massive tear in the Warren opened above the moon. Lūstrāre Everyone soon boarded the Lost Light only to find its engines could not match the rift's gravity, being dragged through it and emerging in the Benzene Cluster, now occupied by multicoloured duplicates of Cybertron. When the ship touched down on one, Nautica recognized the sight as one that Skids had described to her before they were surrounded by the Black Block Consortia, now a puppet state to the Grand Architect. By speaking the coat of arms, Nautica was able to spare the group's life, the Architect instead choosing to imprison them. When Froid and Sunder were thrown in the cell, they revealed that the planets were the pieces of a massively upscaled God Gun, capable of breaching the barrier between universes. When the weapon did just that, it allowed for the Functionist Universe to invade their timeline. Farsickness
When the group was contacted by Megatron, the Functionist Universe's Cybertron emerged from the portal, now transformed into a robot mode in Primus's likeness which engaged the Architect's fleet while destroying the God Gun. When Megatron created a hull breach to free the group, the Architect was able to seal the hull breach before everyone was sucked out, Nautica among those who remained behind. When pressed the Architect revealed that he was Adaptus, pointing out the other members of the Guiding Hand, including naming Rung as Primus! The Return of the King
Though most everyone openly disbelieved such a claim, Nautica forced everyone to be quiet and suggested that they, nicely, let Rung have a say. When Rung's self-healing confirmed the claim, he explained the truth of the God War and Adaptus' intentions behind it. The discussion was interrupted when Tyrest, now remembering his past as Solomus, attacked Adaptus, resulting in both their deaths. After the group reunited with their friends, Megatron overruled the idea of simply blowing up the false Primus, on account of its population. Inspired by Adaptus using Luna 1 to fire an energy attack that did no physical damage to Cybertron, Nautica led a group brainstorm that resulted in a plan of using twelve duplicate Matrices to have the hot spots overload Vector Sigma. The Unremembering
When the Matrices were made, tragically coming at the cost of Rung's life, Nautica was sent to open one at Vauvaire with Brainstorm as her back up, where the two silently confirmed their love for one another. When the time came to open the talismans, Nautica's self-doubts prevented her from opening it before Rodimus' inspirational speech allowed her to do so. A Spark Among Embers
New Cybertron, as it came to be known, was soon visited by Prowl who decided to decommission the Lost Light so its quantum engines could be used to double the planet's energon reserves but allowed the crew the luxury of a victory lap. Before jumping back home however, the science team proposed recreating the initial malfunctioning launch and then shunt their duplicates into a parallel universe, thereby ensuring their adventures would never end. When the time came however, the ship simply wound up back on Cybertron where the Lost Light was disassembled following a last drink.
Along with Velocity, Nautica chose to rejoin the larger Cybertronian race on Earth, settling there with Chromia and becoming an accomplished author, chronicling the Lost Light's many adventures. Years later, Nautica returned to New Cybertron for Ratchet's funeral, reuniting with her old crew one last time.
And far away, in some distant corner of the multiverse, the duplicate Lost Light materialized, ready to set sail for an infinity of new adventures. How To Say Goodbye And Mean It: Part 2
Titans Return marketing material
The engineer Nautica was partnered with the Titan Master Parsec, who granted her the power of lightspeed.[1] Nautica took part in a mission led by Laser Prime to Velocitron to secure the power of dominion over speed.[2]
2019 IDW continuity
- First appearance: Transformers issue #10
In the past, Nautica had traveled alone beneath the ice of Aeglus IV, worked with Crosscut as they negotiated a ceasefire between the Thraal and the Occulted Dremden, and spent time with the Voin in their native environment to learn about their strange culture. In time, Nautica rose to become the head of Cybertron's Xenorelations division, and a member of Sentinel Prime's inner retinue. Nautica's duties meant that she and her loyal bodyguard Road Rage spent most of their time off-planet negotiating with other alien races; as a result of her time spent out in the wider universe, Nautica came to regard Cybertron as a dull, stultifying world compared with the vibrant alien lifeforms and landscapes elsewhere in the galaxy. Nautica: Home Multiple Cybertronians—Proxima, Crosscut, Froid, and even Road Rage—all developed an infatuation with her, but Nautica was so wrapped up in her work that she didn't notice their romantic advances. The Change In Your Nature Part Four
As head of Xenorelations, Nautica approved Glyph's proposal to study the native civilization on the remote world of SDS-359. Transformers Valentine's Day Special
During one of Sentinel Prime's tours of the Cybertronian colony worlds, Nautica and the other high-ranking members of Sentinel Prime's cabinet undertook a tour of Cybertron's colony worlds aboard the Titan Lodestar alongside a number of alien dignitaries; on Nautica's recommendation, Lodestar was refitted with a cold store where carnivorous aliens like the Thraal could store their food. While in orbit around the asteroid city of Hexagon, Sentinel Prime recalled all his staff to announce that they were returning to Cybertron after Brainstorm, Rubble, and a Voin scavenger had all been murdered. However, while the crew waited for their organic visitorrs to disembark, Starscream showed Nautica some footage he'd stolen from the Thraal quarters aboard Lodestar; although Starscream didn't understand its significance, Nautica quickly realized something was amiss and summoned Road Rage to discreetly investigate.
After their visit with the Thraal dignitaries aboard the vessel turned up nothing, Nautica then called Lightbright to have her find any missing organics. Inside the ship's cold store, they found that a Thraal had deliberately smuggled something aboard multiple frem carcasses. After following the trail up a nearby access chute,the two found the mystery Thraal, who had assembled an autonomous artificial-life bomb as part of a plot to punish the Cybertronians for deliberately harbouring the survivors of their A'ovan genocide. Though Road Rage quickly handled the organic, the drone teleported onto the hull and began crawling towards its target. Though Nautica attempted to negotiate with the bomb's artificial intelligence, she couldn't convince it to turn back, and as a result Road Rage ordered Nautica to take cover while Lighbright overpressurzied an energon valve to blow the bomb into space where Road Rage destroyed it, but suffered injuries in the process. Nautica soon confirmed that the Thraal ambassador was innocent before she reported the situation to Sentinel Prime who ordered her to downplay the gravity of the attack. Though Nautica agreed to do so, she warned the Prime that this situation was not without precedent and might yet reoccur. Nautica: Home
When Lodestar touched down in Iacon, Nautica disembarked alongside the Autobot leader; The Cracks Beneath Your Feet Part Four after first learning more about how the dead Voin fit into Brainstorm's murder, Nautica made for the Voin embassy, where she learned that the deceased scavenger had indeed witnessed Brainstorm's demise. Worse yet, the Voin had been a high-ranking member of their society and his death would have serious repercussions. In exchange for this information, Nautica revealed Cybertron's increasingly high rate of civil unrest. Once she had all the information, she relayed it to Prowl. The Change In Your Nature Part Two
To avoid a diplomatic incident, Nautica issued a notice that all Voin ships entering Cybertronian airspace were to be delayed until she could make a proper assessment of the Voin community. After a Senate meeting, Nautica was ambushed by Froid for a discussion on the psychological state of Cybertronians during xeno-relations. Though interested, Nautica soon heard of a Voin ship landing; she rushed to the spaceport, but arrived too late to prevent a heavily armed Voin asserter—contracted out to kill Quake and every other Cybertronian that got in its way—from disembarking. The Change In Your Nature Part Four She did her best to monitor and accommodate the asserter in the days that followed for the good of interplanetary diplomacy. All Fall Down When the asserter parked itself outside the South Tower Security Center and demanded to see Quake, Nautica warned Pointblank, who insisted that nobody knew where Quake was, that the asserter was packing building-level firepower. Tremors Eventaully, however, the asserter managed to elude Nautica and Road Rage, and although Orion Pax ordered Nautica to locate the alien, they failed to locate it in time and couldn't prevent Quake from killing the alien when it attacked. Prisoners
After Megatron's Decepticons overthrew the Senate and killed Sentinel Prime, Nautica was among the Cybertronians who witnessed Optimus Prime's first speech after he inherited the Matrix of Leadership. Awakenings
When the A'ovan habitat began transmitting a distress signal, Nautica and Road Rage investigated and found Hound fending off the Insecticons. After successfully driving them off, Pra'tyne explained what had happened, and Nautica and Hound reported to Optimus who ordered them to evacuate the non-Cybertronians from Iacon. Returning to the habitat, Nautica explained what was to come to the organics and organized them into a convoy in the hopes that nearby Darkmount would provide them with mothballed Arks to transport the organics and injured Cybertronian civilians off-world. Escape Part One The convoy came under attack from the Decepticons before Dai Atlas came to intervene. As Nautica and Mudslinger were having a chat with Pra'jak about the concept of ambidextrousness, the Insecticons attacked again. Escape Part Two
Security managed to drive them off, but Scrambler and two organics were taken as food by the omnivorous scavengers. The convoy made it to Darkmount, and Nautica helped corral some A'ovan children who were playing on top of the wounded Leviathan. Escape Part Three When it came time to meet with their "host", Senator Straxxus, Highbrow brought along Nautica and Wheeljack in the hopes that bots of similar intellect would make negotiations smoother. Straxxus was indeed happy to see Nautica, but he made it clear the people of Darkmount were evacuating from this war as well, and they would receive priority seating on the restored Arks. Escape Part Four
An Insecticlone attack accelerated everyone's timelines. Straxxus launched two Arks with his people, with one being destroyed before it reached orbit. As only one Ark remained after the attack, the Cybertronians agreed the organics and other foreign species would be allowed to fill the craft before any Cybertronians, to escape a war not of their making. Nautica was reluctant to remain behind, as she had always found peace in the stars among other species. She explained to Road Rage later, though, how she understood the responsibility she had to her people and their world. Escape Part Five
Nautica was still at Darkmount when the Autobots prepared to abandon Cybertron to the Decepticons. She helped load the civilians and non-combatants aboard the last Ark, as Optimus Prime led his people away from Cybertron and left the world in Megatron's clutches, for now. Fate of Cybertron
Legacy VS500 Collection Special Comic
Nautica was one of many spectators for the Speedia 500 race on Velocitron. Velocitron Speedia 500 Part 2
Games
Angry Birds Transformers
Nautica appears as a character unlockable by killing Bat Pigs. She is portrayed by Matilda. She also appears as an Energon version. Angry Birds Transformers
Transformers Roleplaying Game
Nautica was a xenocultural specialist with a vast range of knowledge relating to alien cultures and philosophies. Although well-versed in the customs of other races, she was socially awkward around other Cybertronians and sometimes struggled to relate to her peers. Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
Toys
Titans Return
- Chaos on Velocitron (box set, 2017)
- Accessories: Blaster, shield/vehicle front, Parsec Titan Master
- "Autobot Nautica" is a retool of Titans Return Deluxe Class Blurr, adding a new face and new removable arm-mounted turbines. She transforms from robot to seacraft and back; her Titan Master partner, Parsec, can pilot her from within, ride inside of her detachable shield, and form her head in robot mode.
- Parsec and Nautica were only available in a box set named "Chaos on Velocitron" that includes Dynamus & Quickswitch, Refractor & Laser Prime, Fastclash, and a Rodimus Prime Titan Master head. The set was officially announced by Hasbro to be a Toys"R"Us exclusive, and was sold at stores in the United States, Canada and Hasbro's Asian markets (such as Malaysia, Singapore, and Hong Kong). Despite this, it later became available via Amazon in the United States (but not in Canada) as well, actually sold by Amazon directly (as compared to a third-party seller).
- Due to only being a minor retool of an existing figure, the package art's rendition of Nautica (which is heavily based on her design in IDW's comic books) does not particularly resemble the toy itself, despite an attempt to incorporate some elements of the toy into the artwork.
Titans Return mold: Hyperfire | ||
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Merchandise
Transformers Trading Card Game
- Autobot Nautica, Camien Engineer (2020)
- Wave 5: Titan Masters Attack
- Rarity: RT
- Card Number: T03/T46
- Stars: 8
- This card's set was originally set for an April 2020 release, however due to the global COVID-19 pandemic the release was pushed back to May 29, 2020.
Notes
- Nautica and Chromia were originally planned to look less visually 'female' and more like "the default Cybertronian design", so that readers "wouldn't have clocked" they were female until the dialogue. James Roberts had to "shelve" this idea because IDW wanted to make it clear immediately that female Transformers were in the series.[3]
- In her debut, Nautica had a transparent visor mounted over her face. Since then, whether or not her design includes the face visor is up to the whim of the artist at the time.
- In More than Meets the Eye #31, Nautica is given an estriol-positive spark type as part of a world-building nod. Roberts had this edited in the trade paperback. as he thought it would be lazy writing to have gender be down to sparktypes (and to use a feminine name)[4] and because it could be offensive (casting them as an "abnormal", and reinforcing a binary gender system). In the trade, Nautica's spark type is identified as ferrum-positive.
- James Roberts stated that he "heard" Nautica as being voiced by Sarah Nixey, lead vocalist in the now-defunct English indie rock group Black Box Recorder.[5]
References
- ↑ Trypticon's Titan Master Crunch
- ↑ Titans Return Chaos on Velocitron pack-in blurb
- ↑ Women Write About Comics: "James Roberts on IDW’s Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye" 10:00 - 11:21
- ↑ Women Write About Comics: "James Roberts on IDW’s Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye" 15:06 - 16:40
- ↑ "To me, Nautica sounds like Sarah Nixey, lead singer in Black Box Recorder: https://t.co/4b1GgAjCeF"—James Roberts, Twitter, 2014/09/05