Fire in the Dark

Beast Armada?

Synopsis

At an archeological dig at the Labná ruins in Mexico, an accident causes Jessica Theist and Ransack to plunge into a cavern where they discover remnants of a strange extinct civilization. Inscriptions carved onto a cave wall appear to depict strange creatures—half-humanoid, half-animal—and the crash of a meteor-like object into a volcano. The scientific researchers are excited to see some artistic motifs that are apparently shared by ancient human societies from all corners of the globe. Then they get really excited when they activate a recorded message from Rhinox, who, 3,000 years in the past, had conducted his own anthropological study of the Natiltec tribe, translating and recording their oral mythology in order to preserve some aspect of their culture.

The history of the Natiltec revolved around terrifying encounters with these transforming animalistic gods, half of whom—evil reptiles and arthropods—had enslaved the Natiltec and forced them to harvest underground pink crystals, while the other half—valiant mammals and birds—fought to free the slaves. The Natiltec particularly venerated a wolf-god with feathered swords for having struck the final blow that released them from slavery, and in gratitude they bestowed upon him the honorific title "Fire in the Dark."

As the recording ends, the scientists are all but giddy at their good fortune, their fame and careers now assured. Exiting the cave, one of them has a vivid hallucination of these ancient transforming animalistic warriors. As she recovers from her vision, Theist pays closer attention to her attendant Mini-Cons Ransack and Dune Runner and reasons that if they had been seen by a primitive human society they too would have been imagined into gods. Suddenly struck by the similarity of many ancient human legends, from Egypt to China, Theist begins to wonder whether all of human history has been manipulated by the Transformers.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Notes

Errors

• On page 265: "I was only a young boy at the time, but the spider-god took every male with him with him."
• On page 269, Ransack is spelled "Ransank".
• Kelly is referred to as being Alexis's nephew, despite being female.

Continuity notes

• Even by the standards of some of the other, ahh, highly creative visions within Transformers Legends, this is a bizarre story. The Beast Wars are re-set to occur a mere 3,000 years ago in Mexico, as part of the same timeline that would eventually lead to Armada. Which.... yeah. Not long after, a random Cybertron Jetfire toy would refer to a Beast Wars. Eleven years later, because fans bide their time, the Facebook version of Ask Vector Prime officially clarified that there was indeed an Armada Beast Wars and this story is part of it.
• Furthermore, fully one-quarter of this story's length consists of a flashback sequence in which Rhinox's recording retells the stories of the now-dead Natiltec people. The Natiltec believed the sun to be the goddess Chinatlitni, who each night was devoured by the earth-maw Kundalxit. The Natiltec story asserts that this culture had lived on the shores of the river Ilchixtil. Another location mentioned is Uxurulati, a volcanic area.
• Ransack identifies himself as an Autobot. Though eventually Mini-Cons would end up being reimagined as belonging to one of the two main factions, this story precedes that brand change by several years.

Trivia

• The story describes Waspinator using his eye beams, which he used infrequently and only in season 1 of the Beast Wars cartoon.
• Quetzalcoatl, mentioned in the story, was a deity worshiped in real-life.