Strafe (IDW)

Strafe is a Camien from the IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Who you callin' "yellow"?

Previously a member of the Forgefire Parliament, Strafe, like most citizens of Caminus, is an adherent of the Way of Flame. An encounter with Bludgeon and his cruel experiments corrupted her body, changing her alternate mode from a vehicle to a two-headed monster, and she is now filled by an unquenchable thirst for vengeance against the Decepticon. For this reason, she's fallen in with the Dinobots, who have nothing against adding an additional angry beast to their ranks.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

• First Appearance: Windblade vol. 2 #1

When Windblade called to meet with the Forgefire Parliament, Strafe was among those present. She insisted that Starscream be contacted to give account of Cybertron's role in the destruction wrought on Caminus by Menasor. When Starscream arrived, she and her companions were shocked to see Optimus Prime arrive with the cityspeaker, and bowed low as he revealed the Matrix of Leadership within his chest. The Sum and Its Parts

Together with another representative from the Forgefire Parliament, Strafe served as an official representative of Caminus in meetings with Starscream, expressing gratitude for reparations made to repair the damage from Menasor, but also stressing the importance of Optimus's opinion as Matrix-bearer. The Possible Light At the negotiations towards the Council of Worlds, she was confused by Starscream's reluctance to follow the word of a Prime, and later doubted the ability of Superion to defeat a Prowl-dominated Devastator, prompting Starscream to use the Enigma of Combination on the Protectobots, creating Defensor. She looked on as the pair of Autobot combiners defeated Devastator, and was witness to a beaten and bloodied Prowl's insistence that the Decepticons and Starscream could not be trusted. Mistakes and Mayhem

Afterward, she stood as part of a group observing further repairs to Caminus being assisted by Superion, Defensor, and several Decepticons, You, Me, and the Universe and following further conflicts between combiners, she provided a signature for the treaty officially forming the Council of Worlds. All That Remains

Together with Swift and Barricade, Strafe made plans to travel to Alyon with a truckload of Camien sparks to make use of a hot spot, joining the energy abundance of Cybertron with the available supply of new Camien sparks to ensure the future of both planets. The trio bargained for the assistance of Slug and the other Dinobots with a briefcase full of gold shanix, though she chose not to trust their hired muscle with the nature of their cargo, telling Swoop that he was "better off" not knowing. For most of the journey, she remained at the wheel of the truck, usually accompanied by Slug. When Starscream's secret police attacked the convoy, she briefly believed that the Dinobots had sacrificed themselves, and tried to motivate her companions to not let that be in vain—before Slug and his team returned, telling her to move forward for her own sake.

Crossing the Sea of Rust, she took point alongside Slug, walking in front of the truck with a bladed staff held at the ready. When Slug inquired about her choice of weapon, she explained that the power crisis on Caminus meant that blasters weren't practical, just before being attacked by a Sweep taking advantage of the cover provided by dust storm. She took to the air in vehicle mode, her weapon converted into twin prongs that speared her attacker. Just as she asked the Dinobots about the dead bot's identity, more attacked, and Strafe joined the Dinobots in battling to defend the truck—until the Sweeps fled in fear. Strafe spotted the reason hidden in the dust storm: the Torchbearers.

As she drove the truck across Praetorus Wharf, she was reminded of Caminus's energy-depleted past by the stark and frozen landscape. The resemblance disappeared as the ground turned to a mysterious sleek black metal, and mutant turbofoxes fired on the truck, shattering the windshield and hitting both Strafe and Slug with what they assured each other was only superficial damage. When Slug expressed concern over her injuries, she took it for flirting, pointing out the similarity to a conversation between Barricade and Swift. She then mistook Slug's disgust at Barricade's Decepticon allegiance as being directed at the flirtatiousness, and expressed doubts about villainy of the Decepticons, recounting that she'd heard they had fought for equality.

Flames fed by Nightmare Fuel.

When Bludgeon tore through the truck at Tyger Pax, she attacked him in a rage, only to be batted away and knocked against a leak of the same contaminated energon that Slug had earlier blamed for his change into a "monster". Broken and rapidly mutating, she looked on in horror as Bludgeon finished off the wounded Barricade and the sparks, and then explained his desire to see what the toxic blood of Trypticon might do to an Autobot—prompting Strafe to reply that she was a Dinobot, as she transformed into a monstrous new beast mode with two heads on long necks. She began destroying Sweeps with a double blast of fire breath, agonized at all she had lost and the sacrifice of her principles now that the sparks were destroyed. When Swoop and Slug realized they were overlooking an active hot spot at Alyon, however, her mood improved at the sight of the great many sparks, and in spite of the newfound pain in transforming to robot mode, she realized that their journey was worthwhile.

As Slug prepared to depart and leave Swift to take credit for the discovery of the sparkfield (and let her put the blame for any crimes on having been kidnapped on the Dinobots, who were already outlaws), Strafe insisted on joining him so that she could hunt down Bludgeon and make sure that he did not survive. Returning to her monster mode, she joined the other Dinobots and left Swift and her old life behind. Redemption

The Dinobots searched for Bludgeon for months until Strafe's intuition brought them to one his labs, where Slug ended up killed by Sandstorm. Bludgeon then resurfaced, stole the sparks and reactivated Trypticon, so the Dinobots fought their way inside the giant beast where Strafe discovered its brain module. Having gleaned some cityspeaker knowledge from Windblade, she recognized it as a Titan's brain and knew it was being mind-controlled, but could do nothing about it before Bludgeon bested her. When the other Dinobots and Sandstorm arrived, Strafe distracted Bludgeon by attempting to commune with Trypticon as a cityspeaker would, allowing her comrades to sever his link to the Titan. After the battle, she convinced Snarl not to kill Sandstorm, telling him the group's new purpose was to remain with Trypticon and protect the sparks as they matured. Salvation

Much cuter in the daylight!

The sparks soon developed into protoforms and Strafe and co. were eventually joined by Centurion in their vigil over the newborn Cybertronians. The group soon came into contact with Optimus Prime leading an expedition into the wilderness, bringing with him a resurrected Slug, who was enraged to see the Dinobots allied with Sandstorm and immediately attacked. The existing tension and aggression in the air was only amplified by Bludgeon, who manipulated everyone's emotions with the Void Scepter. The Dead Come Home, Part 1 Strafe helped the other Dinobots take on Slug, but the battle soon ended when Optimus managed to talk him down and learned the existence of the new protoforms. The Dead Come Home, Part 2

When Shockwave's return threatened the whole of Cybertron, the Dinobots prepared to deploy, but were overruled by Trypticon, who space bridged himself and all within him to Earth. The Hallowing Strafe and the Dinobots next aided in the evacuation of Elonia when Unicron attacked it. Our Darkest

The Dinobots continued to live within Trypticon after he set up camp near Mount Rushmore, much to the humans' agitation. After the Colonist Soldiers attempted to rescue the captured Jazz from G.I. Joe custody, the Dinobots took the attackers as a threat to the safety of their protoform charges and engaged them. The battle raged until the deaths of Mainframe and Gimlet, and Strafe restrained the hysterical Slide before things could get worse. Rum-Maj and Wreck-Gar soon appeared on the scene with an army of Sharkticons, but everyone's attention was drawn to the arrival of Unicron in the skies above. Time Will Rust Strafe and the others stood around while everyone tried to figure out what the next move was. A Sunrise Dark

A Dinobot that worshiped Optimus Prime. That's new.

Strafe attended a war summit with many others to determine how best to combat Unicron and was part of an attack force that confronted the planet-eater's Maximal army in Earth orbit. Assembly When Bludgeon's Worldsweeper entered Earth's atmosphere, Strafe and the Dinobots boarded Sky Lynx to pursue. With Victorion providing a distraction, the Dinobots managed to board the Worldsweeper and fight their way to the bridge, intent on ending Bludgeon once and for all. Strafe killed the massive ship's pilots, sending the Worldsweeper on a collision course with the White House. While nearly all aboard perished in the ensuing crash, Strafe and Swoop managed to survive, and were later pulled from the wreckage by Swift. Ceremony In the days following Unicron's defeat, Strafe attended Optimus Prime's funeral. Post

Notes

• The character that would become Strafe was first designed by Saren Stone and given the generic name "Yellow Leader" on her model sheet. She would first be named "Strafe" in The Transformers: Redemption one-shot written by John Barber.
• Strafe is the first female Dinobot and the first member of the team with an animal form in no way derived from Earth's prehistory, being a two-headed dragon-like creature similar to the alt-modes of Doublecross or Hun-Gurrr.
• Strafe's two headed alt mode reflects and references the Age of Extinction character of said name.