Dropship (WFC)

Dropships are a type of ship from the War for Cybertron portion of the Aligned continuity family.

A Fall of Cybertron Autobot dropship, surprisingly not in the middle of crashing.

Because not everyone has a flight-capable alternate mode, dropships came into common use in the latter days of the Great War between the Autobots and Decepticons. While they are generally armed with an array of weapons, their main purpose is to carry ground-based Transformers from place to place, usually between battlefield. To facilitate exiting the vehicle, the troop carrying area is open at the sides, allowing the troops to simply jump out. Like many Transformer-built ships, they tend to get shot down a lot, making a swift exit even more necessary.

Games

War for Cybertron (360/PS3/PC)

In War for Cybertron Decepticon dropships were a lot pointier.

Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker encountered a large Autobot dropship armed with mortars while traveling through the lower levels of Cybertron. It sealed off their route with a force field, and they had to fight off the Aerialbots it disgorged and then destroy the ship with a Dark Energon det-pack to continue. Later Megatron and his men traveled to Iacon by dropship. Starscream and his Seeker troops shot down at least one Autobot dropship while their leader was making his way through Iacon.

After inadvertently activating Omega Supreme, Megatron's warship was grabbed and tossed around by the titan until crashed. He and his men attempted to get to a dropship, only for Omega to destroy that one too. As Megatron and his men headed for some anti-aircraft defenses, Omega himself acted as a dropship, depositing Autobot troops to fight the Decepticons.

Following Omega's defeat, they became a common sight in the skies over Iacon. Optimus, Sideswipe and Bumblebee were taken to Kaon prison by dropship after they allowed themselves to be captured. War for Cybertron (360/PS3/PC)

War for Cybertron - Decepticons

Neither side seems to be good at interior decorating.

When Megatron infiltrated an Autobot training facility, Dirge rendezvoused with him via dropship. It's unclear why, as Dirge had a jet alternate mode. War for Cybertron (DS)

War for Cybertron - Autobots

Likewise when Optimus Prime started clearing the Decepticons out of the training facility, Jetfire arrived there by dropship. Jetfire also had a jet alternate mode. War for Cybertron (DS)

Fall of Cybertron

Later in the war, the Decepticons traded sleekness for more engines. Their ships were still shot down.

Dropships were used during the Decepticon attack on Autobot City when the Autobots were trying to launch the Ark. Many of them were shot down or simply swatted out of the sky by Metroplex. At one point an Autobot dropship was shot down, and Optimus took a break from ordering Metroplex around to help the survivors. Meanwhile Sideswipe flew a dropship into the Sea of Rust to drop Jazz and Cliffjumper off, so the pair could hunt for Grimlock.

A dropship was part of the Combaticon plan to intercept an Autobot energon transport—Brawl would fly the dropship to a bridge to take out the supports. After they brought the transport to a halt, the other Decepticons started trying to board it in dropships, with little success since the anti-aircraft defenses were still operational. While Swindle took out said defences, he made use of the Combaticon dropship's roof-mounted cannon to finish the job.

Following Megatron's resurrection, the Decepticons used dropships to reach the crater where Trypticon crashed, only for them to all be shot down by the Autobot defense systems. Fall of Cybertron