#2 - "Reaching the Omega Point"

Credits

Writer - Simon Furman / Penciler/Inker - Geoff Senior / Lettering - Richard Starkings and Comicraft / Colors - Andrew Wildman

Story

In order to protect his future, Shokaract has arrived on prehistoric Earth to preserve his past. His objective is simple: destroy Windrazor and the Maximals before they can capture or destroy Unicron's essence, which is the key to his power. While Shokaract battles the Maximals, Megatron watches from nearby and tries to figure out Shokaract's motives, though he is also being spied on by Apelinq, another future-time traveller.

The battle grows in pitch; Shokaract has defeated Optimus Primal and prepares to devour his spark. Suddenly, a dimensional portal opens, and the Covenant of Primus leaps into the fray. Though he is staggered at first, Shokaract quickly recovers, killing several of the Covenant in the process. From the shadows, Apelinq commits himself to the fight, and leads his own attack against Shokaract. Meanwhile, Megatron has tracked down Unicron's essence. And although reality is starting to break down from Megatron's and Shokaract's recent time/space manipulations, Megatron ignores the dangers and attacks the essence directly!

Suddenly put at risk, Shokaract resurrects Cataclysm and Antagony to fight by his side. As Windrazor watches, Sandstorm appears with bad news -- he's failed to convince the J'nwan "Legends" to help in their battle. Their only hope now is to delay Shokaract long enough for the timestream to reclaim Unicron's essence, so Shokaract will ceast to exist.

Shokaract, meanwhile, has found Megatron, and quickly stops his disruption. As time splinters further, Beast Warriors from alternate realities appear and join in the battle, but Shokaract blasts them away with the Decepticon Matrix of Conquest -- his housing for Unicron's essence, the Heart of Darkness. As Shokaract's victory frows near, Sandstorm blasts several Beast Warriors, then prostrates himself before Shokaract and reveals himself as one of his Heralds!

As the Beast Warriors watch, Sandstorm approaches Shokaract; then, once inside Shokaract's defenses, he attacks! Sandstorm stands revealed as Scorpius, one of the Covenant of Primus, who disappeared eons ago on a deep-cover mission. Pained, Shokaract reels, transforms, then smashes Scorpius; Apelinq rallies the remaining Beast Warriors back into the attack for one last time.

Regrouping, Leonicus and the three surviving members of the Covenant finally understand the Chronarchitect's prophecy -- Shokaract can only be stopped if they "return to the beginning," reverting back to their original states as the Energy of Primus. Turning into energy beams, the members of the Covenant lance into Shokaract's Matrix, even as Optimus Prime, Megatron (the original), Grimlock, and other Cybertronian Legends emerge from the timestream and join the fight against Shokaract.

In the astral plane, the souls of the Covenant rejoin to become Primus, who battles Unicron's essence in the Heart of Darkness. Bypassing Unicron's defenses, Primus slashes the black cord binding Unicron and Shokaract -- Unicron's essence snaps back into the timestream as Point Omega -- the end of everything -- flashes in a blinding light.

Shokaract the Overlord has ceased to exist, and the never-ending battle never occurred.

Epilogue: In a future reality, Shokaract, a lowly Predacon warrior, is separated from his squad on an unnamed planet. Following a mysterious instinct of power, he stumbles into a dark and ominous cave ... but finds nothing but echoes.

Notes and Comments

• Confused? That's not unexpected; "Reaching the Omega Point" is the conclusion of a three-year-long, BotCon-exclusive story arc by Simon Furman (and others). The entire story is divided as follows:

  1. "Visitations" -- Presented at Botcon '98 as a Saturday-night script-reading presentation, it documents the arrival to the Beast wars planet of a mysterious artifact and Antagony, a Predacon of the future.
  2. "The Omega Point" -- A text-only story featured for BotCon '99. Parts 1 and 2 were included as teaser material in the BotCon '99 registration package. Parts 3 and 4 were printed in the BotCon '99 convention program.
  3. "Reaching the Omega Point" -- The Botcon 2000 comic book summarized above.

  "Visitations" and "The Omega Point" can be read in their entirely at the BotCon Beyond web site.

• The comic book was published by 3H Productions, the organizers of BotCon '97: Glen Hallit, Jon Hartman, and Karl Hartman.
• "Reaching the Omega Point" was available in a variant cover, an exclusive for attendees of the BotCon 2000 VIP dinner. This cover was drawn by Geoff Senior and colored by Andrew Wildman, and features the spirit of Primus battling the spirit of Unicron.