Alpha Trion (WFC)

Alpha Trion is a member of the Thirteen, and later an Autobot, from the Aligned continuity family.

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In the last days before the war, Alpha Trion was "The Archivist of Iacon," head overseer of the planet's Hall of Records, a place where all the information on the planet's history was stored, locked away...and promptly forgotten. It was a fitting position, as Alpha Trion himself had been placed there by Sentinel Prime to be forgotten as a relic of history...but the elderly Autobot was more than he appeared. A truly ancient and powerful being, Alpha Trion dates from the days of Cybertron's birth. A first-generation child of Primus, he is a member of the Thirteen and the secret, forgotten guardian of two powerful artifacts: the oracular Covenant of Primus and the reality-bending Quill. Granted with infallible recall and a direct connection to the Spark of Primus, Trion's years of experience and wisdom means that he's calm and unflappable in even the most dire of crises.

Something of a mentor to a young monitor named Orion Pax, Alpha Trion knew that his young friend was in reality the reincarnation of the legendary Thirteenth Prime. Alpha Trion would eventually set him on the path to reclaim his noble heritage, and in the process forged him into a Cybertronian worthy of leading the fledgling Autobot movement.

Fiction

The Covenant of Primus

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Alpha Trion was the third Prime created by Primus to defeat Unicron. The group of newborn Primes soon began experimenting with their powers and artefacts, strategizing for the coming conflict with their creator's arch-nemesis. Alpha Trion preferred to strategize than directly fight, and trained alongside Quintus Prime, Liege Maximo, and Micronus Prime. The Thirteen Primes ultimately triumphed over Unicron with the help of Solus Prime's many artifacts, although the malevolent presence of Unicron's anti-spark meant that all of the Primes, Trion included, were irrevocably tainted with a touch of darkness.

In the period following Unicron's defeat, the Primes began rebuilding Cybertron, each focusing on their own interest. Trion collaborated with Prima and Vector Prime with the establishment of government, creating order for later civilizations. Trion was surprised when Megatronus and Solus Prime's feelings for one another blossomed into mutual love, but said nothing of the matter. Alpha Trion would later investigate Quintus Prime's unethical experiments, which involved pitting specially-engineered robotic beasts against one another underneath Cybertron. Liege Maximo's manipulations led to the accidental murder of Solus Prime by Megatronus, even as Maximo himself blamed Megatronus for the manipulation. Battle broke out between all thirteen Primes, and they all wound up falling into the caverns below Cybertron, temporarily knocking Alpha Trion unconscious.

When Trion came round, he noticed that Liege Maximo had been blown apart with the Requiem Blaster, and Onyx Prime had been grievously wounded by Quintus's beasts. After the construction of Solus Prime's tomb, Megatronus departed into space, renaming himself "The Fallen". Alpha Trion and the remaining Primes hatched a new plan to revitalize Cybertron.

Alpha Trion and his closest friend Alchemist Prime retired from leadership roles, but would subtly guide the progress of the Cybertronian race. Onyx, Micronus, and Thirteen entered the Well of All Sparks and activated it, giving birth to the Cybertronian race. Alpha Trion went along with Prima's plan to keep the existence of T-cogs —and by extension, the ability to transform- a secret for the time being. One of the robots to emerge from the Well was Orion Pax, the reborn shape of the Thirteenth Prime, who had voluntarily entered the Well and allowed himself to be reborn so as to better understand the new Transformer civilization. Alpha Trion made sure to track Pax's progress as he moved through life.

After the Great Cataclysm and the founding of Iacon, Trion took up residence there and founded the Hall of Records. When the first Quintessons arrived on the planet and gave Cybertronians the "gift" of transformation by reactivating the dormant T-cogs, Alpha Trion ruefully noted that even he had been momentarily deceived by the Quintesson's false promises.

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After Cybertron's Golden Age, Sentinel Zeta Prime began sequestering Cybertronians under the caste system. Trion sought council with Vector Sigma, hoping to gain access to the Matrix of Leadership and use it to revitalize Cybertron's increasingly static society. Vector Sigma refused to give him access to the artifact, but reassured him that the time would soon be right for the Matrix's arrival. Instead, the computer gave him the Badge of Vector Prime, to be given to Sentinel as a gift. The Badge reacted with Trion's copy of the Covenant and his Quill, creating a new and mostly indecipherable passage calling for the reawakening of the Thirteenth Prime. Alpha Trion realized that Orion needed an equal and opposite number to inspire the archivist and hopefully jog his memory.

While he waited, Alpha Trion sequestered himself within the Hall of Records, and eventually became a recluse. He kept himself busy by monitoring transmissions from across the planet, and grew increasingly interested in the exploits of a gladiator named D-16, who had recently taken on the nickname of "Megatronus". Encouraged by Alpha Trion, Orion Pax and Megatronus became friends and intellectual sparring partners. Trion hoped that this friendship would lead to the fulfillment of the prophecy, and that Orion Pax's idealism would temper Megatronus's aggressive urges. At a council meeting secretly organized by Trion, Sentinel and the High Council named Orion the new Prime, but Megatron's jealousy and inability to share power led to the first shots of the Great War.

During the Great War, Alpha Trion was assigned Smokescreen as a security guard. To keep the various artefacts of the Primes out of Decepticon hands, Trion began launching them off planet in artificial meteoroids. He launched many of these artefacts to Earth, as he sensed that one day the war would spill over to the organic planet. After the majority of Transformers left Cybertron, Trion remained on the planet with a handful of other Autobots, including the Wreckers and Dinobots, and together they continued fighting against Shockwave's remnant Decepticon forces.

He would remain aware of Optimus's progress on Earth, however, and eventually transcribed many of his adventures into the Covenant of Primus itself.

At some point after the rejuvenation of Cybertron, Alpha Trion transmitted an altered copy of the Covenant to Earth, so that humans could learn more about their galactic neighbors. The Covenant of Primus

Aligned novels

Stop writing down everything I say, Trion!

Alpha Trion was informed by Orion Pax of an upstart Kaonian gladiator named Megatronus, and was played a recording of his speeches regarding a Cybertronian's right to self determination, defying the caste system. Alpha Trion acknowledged that Megatronus's tirades were the fruit of a society that discouraged ambition.

When terrorists began bombing Cybertron, Alpha Trion saw the gladiator — whose name was shortened to Megatron — and Orion make speeches on the Grid, protesting Megatron was not involved in what happened. When Orion returned to Iacon, Alpha Trion asked him why he trusted Megatron. Orion felt Megatron would have claimed responsibility for the attacks if he were behind them. Awed by Orion's intuition and empathy for the lower class Cybertronians in Kaon, Alpha Trion wondered if Orion was the Prime foretold in the Covenant: the Prime that would save Cybertron from a civil war. When Sentinel was kidnapped, Orion requested Alpha Trion arrange a hearing with the High Council. Alpha Trion obliged and passed on his beliefs about Orion to the Councilors, and it was at the hearing Halogen renamed Orion Optimus Prime: the act that angered Megatron and tore the planet into Autobots and Decepticons.

Alpha Trion recorded the events of war in the Covenant. On the Communication Grid he witnessed the beautiful and terrible destruction of Crystal City. He continued maintaining the Hall of Records with a skeleton crew, but he felt the stirrings of battle in his Spark, proclaiming he would fight once more if the Decepticons broke the siege of Iacon. Optimus visited after the victory of Kalis, asking if they could win the war itself. Alpha Trion replied only a being who could tell the future could answer that, and it was then he revealed to Optimus it was he who suggested that the High Council appoint him Prime.

When Megatron discovered the existence of Dark Energon on Trypticon Station, Alpha Trion sensed what happened and told the Autobots of the essence of Unicron, revealing he had deleted much of the information regarding Trypticon's purpose from the DataNet as he felt knowledge of it was too dangerous. When Megatron attempted to steal the Plasma Energy Chamber, Alpha Trion informed Optimus that Teletraan-1 had reactivated Omega Supreme. Afterwards, Alpha Trion gave Optimus advice when he went to Kaon to rescue Sentinel Prime, and when his body was returned Alpha Trion eulogized him with the traditional liturgy of the Passing of the Primes. It was then Alpha Trion made Optimus's Prime rank official, rather than de facto.

After Optimus returned from purging Cybertron's core of Dark Energon, he began the construction of the Ark. He asked Alpha Trion if it would work, but the Archivist responded that if it didn't, the Autobots would die with Cybertron. At this point, despite Optimus's pleas, he was refusing his share of Energon, and refused a place on the Ark, explaining the planet would not permit him to die. He told the Autobots about the last functioning space bridge, during which he made a big giveaway about his identity, seemingly joking he was older than that space bridge and he still functioned. Alpha Trion oversaw the Ark's construction within the Well of All Sparks, while Optimus distracted Megatron aboard the Eight Track with a false exodus. With the city-sized ship completed, Alpha Trion reiterated he would not be coming, stating Vector Sigma would keep him alive. As Optimus boarded the ship, he realized his friend and mentor was one of the Original Thirteen. Exodus

Alpha Trion remained in the Hall of Records after the departure of the Ark, curiously left alone to attend his duties as Archivist by Shockwave and his Decepticon forces. Alpha Trion received regular reports from Ultra Magnus and his Wreckers, the primary Autobot resistance force left on Cybertron. Alpha Trion remained concerned about his protégé, Optimus Prime, and his quest for the AllSpark and the final fates of the other Thirteen. He marveled at Wheeljack's suggestion of re-mastering the Space Bridge technology to send an Autobot after the Ark and learn how the mission was proceeding.

As Wheeljack's plot was set into motion, Alpha Trion was forced to deal with an ever-more brazen Shockwave, who began making appearances in the Hall of Records without the knowledge of the security detail appointed to protect it. Shockwave tried to cow Alpha Trion by calling him a traitor, but the wily ol' buzzard calmly retorted that he was far older than the Decepticon regime, and a traitor to nothing...he was a flat-out enemy of Shockwave's, simple as that. Taken aback by this show of defiance, Shockwave retreated from the Hall for the time being.

Shortly after he successfully launched a volunteer named Chaindrive through space-time towards the signals of the Matrix, Alpha Trion was officially "captured" by Shockwave and detained under house arrest in his quarters at the Hall of Records. Alpha Trion cared little for the change in circumstances, for he had convinced Shockwave to leave him his Quill and Covenant to continue archiving history as it came to him. The Covenant revealed to him signs that Nexus Prime and Vector Prime had both reappeared in the flow of history, if only briefly, and Alpha Trion was content with that for now. Exiles

As Shockwave's control over Iacon increased, Alpha Trion spent more and more time analyzing the Covenant. He foresaw a time when Shockwave would take him in for experimentation purposes, and prepared accordingly by safely locking away the crucial information Shockwave was looking for. Sure enough, Shockwave and a swarm of Insecticons arrived at his door, and Trion willingly gave himself up for arrest.

Shockwave took him to his latest tower, which he had constructed in the center of Iacon, and gloated to his prisoner that he had managed to interpret a section of the Covenant himself, and planned on using the power of the last Prime on Cybertron to access the true power of the Vector Sigma supercomputer and create a Decepticon Matrix. Shockwave tried and failed to integrate Trion into the computer, before realizing that Trion had locked the nessecary codes deep in his cortex. Shockwave resorted to his contingency plan- pumping the computer full of Dark Energon. Trion knew that Shockwave's reckless experimentation would alert the Quintessons to Vector Sigma's existence, but his warnings did nothing to dissuade Shockwave.

Alpha Trion was eventually rescued by Ultra Magnus and the other Wreckers, who extricated his unconscious body from Shockwave's lab and headed to the surface. Trion managed to stay lucid long enough to alert them to the impending Quintesson invasion before collapsing again. When the Sharkticon fleet arrived on Cybertron, a furious Shockwave- who thought that he could use the artifacts of the Primes to repel the aliens- confronted Alpha Trion, who calmly revealed that he had taken the precaution of jettisoning them from Cybertron so that Shockwave couldn't get his hands on them.

Trion then convinced the Wreckers to head to the Hall of Records; the archivist planned to rig the building to explode so that the Quintessons couldn't use Cybertron's accumulated knowledge against them. His plan was foiled by Tyrannicon, who jammed Trion's detonator. Before Tyrannicon could kill them, however, his own foot soldiers turned on their general, and Alpha Trion and the Wreckers managed to escape.

When the threat of the Quintesson invasion had passed, Alpha Trion resumed studying the Covenant, and idly wondered when Optimus and his crew would arrive on the planet where he had launched the many artifacts. Retribution

Prime cartoon

Voice actor: George Takei (English), Kinryū Arimoto (Japanese), Tom Deininger (German), Sang-hyeon Eom (Korean), Alejandro Villeli (Latin American Spanish), Vicente Gil (Castilian Spanish), Jussi Wahlgren (Finnish, season 2), Tero Koponen (Finnish, season 3), Bruno Bulté (French), Mauro Castro (Brazilian Portuguese), Gunnar Ernblad (Swedish)

"I'm speaking in riddles. That's kind of the point, like a clue, so when you figure it out you'll say Ohhh, that's what he meant! Stars above!"

According to legend, at the beginning of time, Unicron and Primus battled each other for eons, with neither side remaining victorious for long. Till, that is, Primus created the Thirteen. These Thirteen defeated Unicron and cast him into space. One Shall Rise, Part 1 At some point statues of Alpha Trion and his brothers were created and stored in the high council room. One Shall Rise, Part 3

Alpha Trion was Orion Pax's mentor and was the one who requested that he become a Prime. In the final days of the war for Cybertron, Smokescreen was assigned to guard Alpha Trion, whom he came to consider a great mentor and a true friend. Alpha Trion also trusted Smokescreen enough to tell him about his involvement in making Orion a Prime. New Recruit

When the Iacon Hall of Records was attacked by Decepticons, the ancient Autobot sent the contents of the Iacon Hall of Records to a remote, seemingly unimportant planet named Earth, as the Covenant of Primus had foretold that an important chapter of the war against the Decepticons would be decided there, and Alpha Trion wished Optimus Prime to have these important artifacts at his disposal. Within the Star Saber relic, Alpha Trion sealed a message telling Optimus of the significance of the weapons he was sending. Alpha/Omega He also revealed the secret location of the Omega Lock. Regeneration However, when Alpha Trion was sending the final Omega Key relics, it was too late to send the final one into space. In an effort, perhaps desperate, to find an alternate solution, he dazed his pupil Smokescreen long enough to manifest the final Omega Key within him and thus used him as a means of keeping it safe. Inside Job Alpha Trion was also in possession of a database with the locations of the relics which he highly encrypted, rendering it useless to Decepticon hackers, even to the likes of Soundwave. Orion Pax, Part 1 Alpha Trion was inside the Hall of Records when it was overrun Alpha/Omega and apparently perished. Rebellion

Many, many years later, after Optimus Prime had arrived on Earth and obtained the Star Saber, Optimus Prime received through the sword the message from Alpha Trion. Legacy Alpha Trion explained why so many artifacts from the Hall of Records were hidden on Earth, and he prepared him for a new hunt for the four Omega Keys, additional artifacts which would restore Cybertron. Alpha/Omega

As Optimus lay dying, he had a vision of Alpha Trion beckoning him to join the Allspark. Though Trion assured him that the Matrix of Leadership would choose a new Prime, Optimus hesitated and was restored to life thanks to Smokescreen and the Forge. Rebellion

2015 Robots in Disguise cartoon

Following the restoration of Cybertron from the Great War, Alpha Trion, despite his apparent demise, was one of the many Autobots blacklisted by the new High Council for being a supporter of Optimus Prime. Enemy of My Enemy

Fixit mused that Alpha Trion's beard resembled a steel carpet. More than Meets the Eye

Ask Vector Prime

In Uniend 610.23 Zeta, Ask Vector Prime Alpha Trion consulted with Optimus Prime about his plan to launch the AllSpark into space, and away from Megatron's reach. Bumblebee at Tyger Pax

A short time before the descent of the Shroud, Vector Prime remembered a version of himself marveling at Alpha Trion's wisdom. For a time, the singular Uniend version of Alpha Trion began merging with his non-singular, non-Uniend counterparts, but before said merger could complete, the Shroud nullified multiversal singularities. Ask Vector Prime

Games

Transformers Prime: Decepticon Strike

In the aftermath of a devastating Decepticon attack, the Autobots' base on Earth was left in ruins and Optimus was badly injured. Alpha Trion intervened, healing Optimus's wounds and granting him new flight capabilities. Decepticon Strike

Notes

• Alpha Trion was shown at BotCon 2010 to be purple and bearded like his counterparts,^[1] but it was also shown he has a halo.^[2] Taking the analogy a bit far, Hasbro...
• Alpha Trion's overall fate is uncertain; the DVD commentary for "Rebellion" seems to assert that Trion had died at some point before the episode, although this was never mentioned in the show's dialogue itself, leaving it a case of authorial intent. The Covenant of Primus has Alpha Trion describing later episodes all the way up to Predacons Rising, meaning that he had somehow remained alive or somehow managed to update the Covenant from beyond the grave.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Alpha Trion (アルファトライオン Arufa Toraion)
• Mandarin: Tài Shīfù (钛师傅, "Master Titanium")

References

1. ↑ BotCon 2010 - Hasbro Designers Panel! on TFormers
2. ↑ BotCon 2010 Final Day! Hasbro Designer Panel - The Good Stuff! on The Allspark