Burning Bridges

« Transformers Timelines text story » Beast Wars: Uprising »
"Burning Bridges"
Publisher	Transformers Collectors' Club (online exclusive)
First published	August 13, 2015
By	David Bishop & Jim Sorenson
Illustrations by	Josh Burcham
Cover	Josh Burcham
Continuity	Beast Wars: Uprising
Chronology	circa 2384
Page count	23pp

The MaxCop Stiletto comes to terms with her PTSD as she and her new partner defend an bridge of strategic importance from the Resistance.

Synopsis

Though once an active member of the Maximal Command Security Force, Stiletto has since transferred to a more reclusive position. She joins Overshoot at a post near the Melpomene Bridge, which links the cities of Kalis and Altihex over an otherwise impassable abyss. Their duties consist of maintaining three Overcharge drones, ancient and inefficient war machines, and being on the lookout for any members of the Resistance; their location could be of strategical value to the rebels. It isn't glamorous assignment.

Though Overshoot attempts to form a friendship with his new partner, Stiletto remains aloof and taciturn. She is constantly plagued with traumatic flashbacks of the event that ultimately led her to her transfer... During a riot Stiletto sees the drug dealer Sea Panic encroach on her partner, Betabear. Mistaking a camera Sea Panic is holding for a weapon, she skewers him with a throwing-knife. Henceforth, the guilt she carries for killing an innocent bystander eats away at her...

Even with the lack of stress that comes with her new job, Stiletto's flashbacks worsen. Her idle days are eventually interrupted by a klaxon indicating that the Resistance have breached the bridge's perimeter. She and Overshoot scramble to prepare for the incoming attack, and signal the Overcharge drones to help them. As this happens, Stiletto's thoughts shift once more to the past... Stiletto is accompanied by Aura and Wolfang as they raid a warehouse, finding an acolyte of the Resistance within: Sledgehammer. Though taking down the addled brute should be well within her capabilities, Stiletto hesitates, allowing him to get away. Aura insists Stiletto should be able to get over her past mistake, but still it weighs heavily on her...

As acid rain pours down, the rebels open fire on Stiletto and Overshoot's position. Despite the poor visibility caused by the weather, Overshoot manages to tag a few of them, causing them to fall back. The Overcharge drones then finally arrive, and position themselves to help defend the bridge. While they form the first line of defense, Stiletto goes to scope out their opponents and acquire targeting data. She finds Bighorn directing not just a scouting party, but an entire battalion of rebels. When she decides to return to Overshoot's side, Stiletto's mind once more revisits her past... Stiletto has been sent to the mnemosurgeon Vampire to purge herself of the "problematic" memories that have been affecting her performance. The sinister 'bot assures her that whichever memories she decides to keep or erase are entirely up to her...

Stiletto comes to and realizes that she has been detected during her reverie. With the acid rain having damaged her blaster, she is forced to fight back against Bighorn with her metallikato skills. She manages break away from the rebels. Unfortunately, the Overcharge drones mistake her for a hostile unit, and one of their blasts badly damages her. Overshoot takes over the offensive against the rebels, and leaves Stiletto to repair herself as he formulates and implements a plan of his own. He tells her only that she'll need to provide him with some evac as soon as she's able. Overshoot darts off as Stiletto yet again drifts into the past... Stiletto is an emotional mess. Everyone insists that the mnemosurgery was successful, but she is still wracked with guilt over killing Sea Panic. Making matters worse, her fellow officers are beginning to lose patience with her...

Stiletto is brought back to reality by Overshoot's distress call. With most of her systems back in the green, Stiletto takes off in her plane mode towards him. Overshoot is pinned down on the middle of the bridge, but his plan is in the process of succeeding; having over-energized the Overcharge drones, they are now about to blow and take Melpomene bridge with them. Stiletto manages to snatch him up just before the explosion consumes most of the Resistance members, and any hope they have at ever taking control of the bridge.

Stiletto finally begins to open up to Overshoot now that she believes the danger has passed, only for Bighorn to emerge from the conflagration. Though mangled, Bighorn swears he will avenge his fallen comrades. He begins to crush Overshoot, who is too damaged to fight back, and brutalizes Stiletto. As she struggles to stay alive against the juggernaut, Stiletto unlocks her true memories of what took place prior to her mnemosurgery. She didn’t kill Sea Panic by accident. She deliberately killed Betabear as he rampaged in the riot's aftermath. Stiletto's previous partner was far from being faultless, and was barely able to control his murderous rage due to his addiction to Nucleon. The department sent Stiletto to Vampire as part of a cover-up, not for her own well-being. Stiletto snaps back to reality, grabs a nearby shards of debris, and uses them as impromptu knives to take on Bighorn. As she overpowers and then slays her opponent, she tells him of the revelation she's just had, to make sure she never forgets it herself. Overshoot overhears her whole speech.

At the Resistance's headquarters, B'Boom begs Lio Convoy to approve of an airstrike to avenge Bighorn's death. Lio Convoy turns down the request, stating that they can't spare the resources to avenge their beloved comrade. Crestfallen, B'Boom begins to walk away. Lio Convoy decides to walk with him, and shares memories of adventures he and Bighorn had together...

Stiletto awakens with a start from a nightmare wherein she hesitates to take out Bighorn, and he takes the opportunity to kill Overshoot. Though she is shaken by it, Overshoot is by her side to console her. With the help of her new partner, Stiletto is getting over her past anguish, little by little.

Featured characters

(Characters in italics appear only in flashbacks.)

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

Notes

• As with the previous Uprising stories, the page breaks contain Cybertronix text, in this case they're about the Overcharge units. Specifically, they translate into the owner's manual for the units, which is as garbled as the story says it is.
• Characters mentioned but not appearing include: Fortress Maximus, Blitzwing, Guardminders, Dropkicks, Unicron, Sunstreaker, Blurr, the Constructicons, Primus, the Darksyders, and Blackarachnia.

Continuity notes

• Overshoot dates this story to "half an orbital cycle" after "Head Games" (when "Fortress Maximus went dark"). The Uprising is now kicking into high gear, with whole cities being destroyed, but the Builder Assembly are still insisting that everything is completely fine even as they're having loyalists perform bombing runs.
• One of Lio Convoy's focuses of interest is the Darksyders, the criminal organization whom Blackarachnia's Maximal team went up against and whom Scavenger belonged to.
• Another of Lio's musings is on an event called the Targetmaster Extirpation, which later stories in the setting will elaborate on.

Transformers references

• Overshoot jokes that the Overcharges are called that because you're charged too much for them, a joke on the toy's eye-watering cost.
• Betabear, Stiletto's not-so-lamented partner, was a hi-and-die character in IDW's Megatron: Origin series. Here, he's been updated to a Maximal.
• The riot that plays a major part in Stiletto's backstory takes place in Peptex, a place established in Omega's Conundrum.
• Stiletto makes repeated use of Metallikato, a Cybertronian martial art.
• "Terrorbot" was a term first used by e-HOBBY for the Overcharges.
• A spiderbot is found devouring a Buzz fly, another Cybertronian insect first mentioned in Fun Publication's own The Coming Storm: Part 2. The spiderbot itself is new to this story.
• In her wanderings, Stiletto finds the disassembled remains of a Noisemaze drone, and wonders if the hanger also stored Guardminders or Dropkicks. The Noisemaze Mass Production Type was only available with the initial release of the final volume of Galaxy Force on DVD, while the Guardminders are from the Super-God Masterforce anime, a repurposed version of the Fasttrack figure which came with the original Scorponok. There's a little joke in there, in that Noisemazes and Guardminders are also ungodly expensive for army-builders. Finally, Dropkicks are named after the 2007 movie toyline character, who was depicted as mass-produced drones, though unlike the other Terrorbots, his toy is far less expensive. Later Uprising fiction will establish the Dropkicks as being the purple hauler drones from the The Transformers episode "War Dawn".
• The Melpomene Bridge's wiring has been nibbled by Frizz-rats, Cybertronian vermin mentioned in the Fun Pub story "Flames of Yesterday".
• There's a story about the dead climbing up the walls near Kalis, a reference to "City of Fear!".
• Crystal City blows up once again.
• Sledgehammer's smuggling contraband is an energo sword, typically the favored weapon of Grimlock and his Dinobot buddies.
• When Wolfang's leg comes off, it changes from blue to red. This will matter later.
• Mnemosurgery, the medical reprogramming of memories and thoughts, makes the jump from the 2005 IDW continuity to another continuity.
• Lio Convoy uses dozens of screens at once to feed him information, a reference to the omniglobes of the 2005 IDW continuity.

Real world references

• Sledgehammer, the Pred crook in Stiletto's flashbacks, is a Cybertronian version of Elephan, from the Beastformer toyline. Sea Panic, the hapless schmuck Betabear tries to kill, is from the later "Laser Beasts" portion of that toyline.
• Aura, Stiletto's boss in the MCSF, is named after the mask from, er, M.A.S.K., while creepy mnemosurgeon Vampire takes his name and colours from the Vampire motorcycle. Fittingly, Vampire is shown to be a repaint of Combiner Wars Groove, who turned into a motorcycle. Aura's job is she's a cop. "Working overtime, fighting crime" being a part of the original M.A.S.K. cartoon's theme-song.

Errors

• Though not necessarily an error, as she does have purple on her, the text of the story describes Stiletto as a "purple robot" while the art depicts her as mostly yellow.
• On page 6, it reads "Stiletto, did not reply."
• "Darksyders" is misspelled "Darksiders".
• On page 18, "Metallikato" is misspelled as "Metalliko".

Other trivia

• This is the first story in Uprising where our 'heroes' have been working for the Builders, giving us another look at the conflict.
• Bighorn was a beloved member of the Resistance! This is the first time we'd have known that because, in both of his appearances, he's been an antagonist and asshole to our POV characters.
• Almost all of the characters introduced to the Uprising universe in this story have never had toys released under the Beast Wars franchise. The one exception to this is Wolfang, who was revealed to be a main character in the sixth Uprising text story, "Trigger Warnings", by Ask Vector Prime prior to the release of "Burning Bridges".

See also

• "Burning Bridges" Cybertronix translation

External links

• "Burning Bridges" at The Official Transformers Collectors' Club website
• "Burning Bridges" annotations by Jennifer Alexis Carlo