Chromedome (Autobot)



An academic at heart, Chromedome tried to bring an end to the war between the Autobots and Decepticons with his computer programming skills.

Ficiton
Before the war, during the days of the Clampdown, Tumbler was a mechaforensic scientist in the police force. The poor bugger was nicknamed "Unlucky" because he had to work with Prowl, the most anal, full-autopsy loving officer of all time. Tumbler had a strong interest in mnemosurgery, the science of hacking into Transformer minds and "reading" their memories, and was fascinated by the conspiracy theories of the Institute, a supposed secret group used by the authorities to brainwash dissidents.

Tumbler and Prowl investigated the assassination of Senator Sherma, whose corpse had been marked with a Decepticon insignia, and backtracked his whereabouts to the posh Translucentica Heights. Unfortunately, the killer had struck again before they arrived, murdering a second senator! Post Hoc Tumbler to attempted to chase down a suspect, who perished in a fiery crash. Investigating the second victim's home, the two police 'bots learned from the warden Red Alert that the senator, Momus was secretly a Decepticon. The group were suddenly set upon a second attacker, but were saved by the timely arrival of Orion Pax, a fellow law enforcement officer. Pax had learned from his senator friend, Shockwave that Sherma was also a secret Decepticon sympathizer, making it clear that the murders being committed against Decepticons, rather than by them.

Pax was able to identify that the killers had been using borrowed bodies, so Prowl and Tumbler set out to investigate the nearest Relinquishment Clinic, passing a Decepticon protest along the way. Although innocuous at first glance, the pair eventually found a secret facility beneath the clinic Tumbler believed to be the Institute. Along with proof that the killers had indeed been using borrowed bodies, Tumbler also discovered a list of citizens organized by threat level. Meeting back up in Rodion, Orion Pax was able to use the list and other evidence he'd gathered to realize the true plot in motion: the Senate had arranged for the pro-Decepticon senators' murders so that the swift solving of the crimes would boost Decepticon faith in the Senate, increasing the turn-out for the recently-created Decepticon Registration Act. The Senate then planned to detonate a bomb at the late Nominus Prime's memorial service, hidden inside a fake Matrix of Leadership, and blame it on the Decepticons, giving them an excuse to use the Registration Act list, found by Tumbler, to round up and brainwash the dissidents. With a plan to stop the bomb plot in place, Tumbler borrowed a replica Matrix from police armorer Ironfist, to be switched by Pax for the Matrix-bomb. At a concerned Prowl's insistence, Tumbler was left behind during the 'heist' to switch the Matrix, and was instead assigned to guard Shockwave with Pax's colleague Roller at a safehouse. Unfortunately, the safehouse was attacked by Senate thugs, and whilst Pax arrived back there in time, he was forced to allow the enforcers to take Shockwave in return for Roller's life. Tumbler quickly led Pax to the Institute facility he had found with Prowl, only to find it deserted. n the aftermath of the full-scale Decepticon rebellion, the new Prime, Zeta, moved the Institute to a new, remote location, "rebranding" it as the 'New Institute'. Knowing of Tumbler's interest in neuroscience through Prowl, Zeta recruited the forensics officer as an apprentice cerebroscientist under Trepan. Working at the New Institute, he acquired the nickname "Chromedome" in reference to his prodigious skills as a mnemosurgeon and lobotomist, which he would eventually adopt as his regular name. When Overlord located and attacked the facility, Chromedome was in the middle of a procedure on the Decepticon Soundwave, but was interrupted by a blast through his midsection. Luckily, the medic Pharma was on hand to save the mnemosurgeon's life. Over time, after the war had begun proper, Chromedome came to resent his mnenosurgical abilities and became cynical over their use. Many things he had to do during wartime were things that, in hindsight, he would regret. Eventually, Chromedome was on the verge of suicide due to the immense burden of his abilities and the terrible side-effects they had on his own mental health. It was then, at his lowest point, that he went to a repurposed Relinquishment Clinic to end it, but found Rewind searching fruitlessly for Dominus Ambus. He formed a deep friendship with the diminutive archivist. Chromedome credited Rewind's optimism and caring nature as having saved his life, and the two were nearly inseparable since. Indeed, Swerve has been known to claim them as being "closer than Rack'n'Ruin" Hangers On and Rewind had named Chromedome as his Conjunx Endura. Chromedome was stationed at Kimia Facility when Cyclonus and the Sweeps invaded. He survived and managed to escape before the facility's destruction, leaving in an escape pod together with Brainstorm and a number of other Autobots. They were soon rescued by, as he put it, a psychopath in pink armor, and made a joke at Swerve's expense. As Arcee told the survivors about Galvatron and D-Void's master plan to bring the Dead Universe into the actual universe, Chromedome and Brainstorm felt a bit overwhelmed by the massive "info dump" and wondered if other species ever had to worry about saving the universe. eeks later, after D-Void's threat had ended and Cybertron had been reborn, Prowl summoned Chromedome and revealed to him that Overlord, recently defeated and captured by the Wreckers, had not in fact had his spark removed and imprisoned, as the official story had claimed. Instead, he had been rebuilt, as part of an initiative by Prowl to uncover the secret to the immense power and endurance of Overlord and the other Phase Sixers. With interrogation and the gift of a new body ineffective in making the Decepticon prisoner talk, Chromedome's former partner now sought for him to interface with Overlord and find the secret in his memories, a complex procedure that would be highly dangerous to the mnemosurgeon. When Chromedome refused, not wanting to break his promise to Rewind to stop interfacing, Prowl attempted to blackmail him with an unsavoury secret from the mnemosurgeon's past. Desperate to avoid Rewind learning this story, Chromdeome attacked Prowl and forcibly interfaced with him, erasing from his old friend's memory both the blackmail threat and the knowledge that let him make it. He subsequently left the office, telling Prowl, oblivious to his attack, that he'd consider the proposal to work on Overlord.

After Optimus Prime's subsequent appearance and departure from Cybertron, Chromedome chose to join the Rodimus's crew of the Lost Light, alongside Rewind. Prowl, angry with this decision, tried to persuade him to stay, noting that Chromedome was "gifted" and his talents were still required on Cybertron, with the plan regarding Overlord left unspoken due to Rewind's presence. Eventually, realizing he wouldn't get anywhere with the argument, Chromedome gave up left with Rewind, leaving Prowl to fume alone in his office.

Not long afterwards, Chromdome, Rewind, and Ratchet were headed to the Lost Light, with Chromedome verbally jabbing at Rewind's impractical alt mode along the way. Suddenly, a fight between Whirl and Cyclonus crossed their paths, as well as Tailgate, who had just escaped being trapped underground for six million years. Chromedome helped Tailgate out of the ground, but the small Cybertronian fainted when he saw that his escape had accidentally injured Whirl. Chromedome and the rest decided to take both Whirl and Tailgate aboard Lost Light for repairs. After the Lost Light suffered a premature quantum jump and ended up halfway across the galaxy, forty Autobots were sucked out of a hull breach and sent plummeting to the surface of a nearby planetoid. Once the ship had landed there, Chromedome, Rewind, and Hoist aided in the recovery of missing crew members, pulling the stowaway Cyclonus from a lake. Later, Chromedome and others came across Skids, who had also crash-landed on the planet and was being pursued by some unknown sword-carrying robots. After Chromedome removed the "fiddly" inhibitor claw attached to Skids, the long thought-dead Autobot sprung into action and defeated his one remaining pursuer, much to the amazement of the others. Later, Chromedome was present when Rodimus addressed the crew. When a Sparkeater was thought to have been let loose aboard the Lost Light, Rodimus asked Chromedome to use his abilities to help identify it. Despite Rewind's reservations, Chromedome complied, hacking into Shock's mind to see the deceased Autobot's last memories. They did indeed tell of a violent attack by a Sparkeater, and Chromedome recoiled in pain and collapsed. After Chromedome recovered, he described the Sparkeater's appearance to the others. The Chaos of Warm Things After the Sparkeater business had been resolved, Chromedome enjoyed a drink with Rewind and a tipsy Skids in Swerve's new bar. Life After the Big Bang Curious about Skids' ever-present handgun (and the mental block which seemingly kept Skids from remembering it), Chromedome swiped the gun at the bar and turned it over to Brainstorm for analysis. Days later, over another round of drinks, Chromedome demonstrated his talent of being able to identify someone by the sound of their transformation alone. He offered some sympathy to Tailgate over the latter's studying under Ultra Magnus and displayed disgust when Tailgate mentioned trying to invite Cyclonus over to the table. However, the casual atmosphere came to a violent end when a mentally-disturbed Fortress Maximus entered the bar and abruptly shot Pipes at pointblank range. Chromedome later checked in with Brainstorm to find out what was up with Skids' gun. Brainstorm managed to blow the thing up while examining it, but also named it a "Binary Gun" after recognizing it could only hold two cartridges. He also noted that its engineering seemed to indicate that the gun came from the Institute. Chromedome suffered a brief bout of false recall, where he re-experienced the memory of Skyfall's death- one of the unpleasant side-effects of his mnemosurgeries. He attended Tailgate's Autobot initiation ceremony, and he, Rewind, and Brainstorm placed bets with Jackpot as to how long it would take for Rodimus to say "'Til all are one" in his speech. After representatives of the Galactic Council showed up, Chromedome was among the Autobots teleported to the surface of Theophany to explore the ruins of Crystal City, which had been subject to some unknown siege and left desolate. They discovered an inert Metrotitan under the city, and Rodimus ordered Chromedome to hack into the giant's brain module and read its memories, hoping to discover what happened to Crystal City. While preparing to do so, Chromedome and Skids had a brief chat about their similar outlooks on life and its larger meaning. With a disapproving Rewind looking on, Chromedome hacked into the Metrotitan's memory, and discovered it was still alive. Chromedome collapsed in pain, images torn from the Metrotitan's brain reverberating through his mind, as the giant woke with a start and fired an eye-blast that struck the Galactic Council's ship in orbit. Once recovered, Chromedome explained that the Metrotitan was attempting to will its spark to leave its body, having barely any power left and being totally paralyzed. Chromedome wanted to attempt to re-enter the Metrotitan's mind, as the glimpses he caught indicated that its memories contained much of the information that they were seeking. With the Galactic Council's troops bearing down on them and the Lost Light under attack, Rodimus chose to set the Metrotitan free instead of pillaging its mind. After some of its mass was shrunk by Brainstorm, the Metrotitan had enough power to teleport the Autobots back to their ship, and the Lost Light quantum-jumped to safety. ays later Skids, inspired by his discussion with Chromedome in Crystal City, wanted to let the mnemosurgeon unlock his missing memories. Chromedome admitted that he himself was curious about the mystery of Skids' past and agreed to do it. After hacking into Skids' mind, Chromedome discovered the memories of the year prior to Skids' joining the crew of the Lost Light had been replaced by an imperative to escape. Chromedome dug deeper and found the erased memories still locked inside Skids' head, but once he caught a glimpse of them, he quickly withdrew. Chromedome told Skids that the buried memories were so horrifying and traumatic that it was better for everyone, Skids himself included, that they never resurface. Skids reluctantly agreed, but asked Chromedome about a piece of music he kept hearing in his head. Chromedome admitted that he heard it in there too, identified it as "The Empyrean Suite", and prayed that Skids would never come to understand its significance. In order to restore the recovering Rung's mind, Chromedome and others were assembled by Rewind to tell a story from the Clampdown era. Chromedome explained to the others that the story would help reestablish critical neural connections in Rung's brain. He started off the story, but he and Rewind got briefly distracted trying to figure out how many times Prowl had flipped a table over in their presence. By the end of the story, the ship's alarms were sounding, and Chromedome scrambled for battle stations with the others. As they headed to Temptoria in the Leading Light, Chromedome and Rewind argued over the latter's insistence of joining them in battle, despite being technically exempt from combat. Though Chromedome enthusiastically took part in the battle on Temptoria against a small force of Decepticons, when he returned to the shuttle, he found that Rewind had been gravely injured in an explosion. Back on the Lost Light, First Aid talked Chromedome into performing a jumpstart on Rewind to save the smaller 'Bot's spark. The procedure failed, as Chromedome's own spark was "low yield". Sent to his quarters to recharge, Chromedome spoke to Driftthrough his door, who offered to show him something in the basement that would give the Autobots an advantage and prevent any more tragedies like Rewind's from ever happening again. Before Chromedome could answer, however, First Aid contacted him with the news that Whirl had a compatable spark to be used to save Rewind. A happy reunion ensued. Despite this, Chromedome met with Brainstorm and Drift and learned the secret of Overlord's presence on the Lost Light. Despite his previous refusal to Prowl, the fresh memory of Rewind's near death was enough for Chromedome to agree to use his talents on the Decepticon, in the hope that "Autobot Phase Sixers" could prevent any such tragedies from happening again. Over the next several days, Chromedome visited Overlord in the slow cell multiple times, acclimating himself to the Decepticon's mental architecture. As a safeguard in the event of Overlord's escape, he subtly altered the Decepticon's memories so as to make him associate the phrase "'til all are one!" with defeat in combat, knowing that Rodimus would undoubtedly say this in a battle. Feeling bold, Chromedome began visiting Overlord's cell without informing his co-conspirators in advance, and confronted Overlord directly in his memories. He compelled Overlord to lead him through his memories to the Foundry, when Megatron, Shockwave, and Rossum used ununtrium to reinforce his endoskeleton and transform him into one of the Warriors Elite. Although Chromedome found his answers, he was taken unawares by Overlord also having mnemosurgical training, allowing the Decepticon to loop them through a shared memory and take control of the mental environment. With Chromedome helpless, Overlord browsed through the Autobot's memories at will until he found the security codes to unlock the slow cell. With this, Overlord escaped, taunting a weakened Chromedome with the knowledge that the five seconds it would take him to cross the cell pursue would equal thirty minutes of killin' time for Overlord aboard the ship. Sure enough, Chromedome exited the slow cell into chaos, as the crew of the Lost Light battled vainly against the superwarrior. Luckily, a true-to-form Rodimus uttered his catch phrase, causing a sudden nervous attack in Overlord which gave Fortress Maximus an opening to overpower the Decepticon. Per Drift's back-up plan, Overlord was forced back into the slow cell, which was readied to eject into space. Tragically, one of Drift's swords, stolen during the battle, blocked the cell door open, and heroically Rewind climbed inside the cell to remove the blade. Once he did, the door closed automatically, and Rewind was trapped inside with Overlord as it jettisoned. Unwilling to leave Rewind to Overlord's tender mercies, Chromedome personally manned the weapons array of the Lost Light and blew the slow cell to pieces, apparently killing Rewind in the process.

As Rewind and the other victims were laid to rest, Chromedome seemed to hold together remarkably. Only Brainstorm knew what was really going on in his friend's head, and confronted Chromedome in his suite after the funeral. Brainstorm tried to remind Domey of his other Conjunx Endura over the years -- Mach, Pivot, Scattergun -- each of whom Chromedome forcibly removed from his own memories using mnemosurgery once they died, as he couldn't cope with the loss. Brainstorm pleaded with Chromedome not to do it again, and honor Rewind by remembering him. He passed on a final message from Rewind, a memory stick the little bot threw through the cell door as it was closing. These final words and expression of love from Rewind were enough to stop Chromedome from injecting and convince him to hold onto the memory of his lost love.

Shortly afterwards, Chromedome visited Ratchet in the medibay for reconstruction of his left arm, lost in the closing slow cell door. As he enetered, a panicked Tailgate barged past him. Before work on the arm was complete, the Lost Light, pursuing the missing Ultra Magnus, arrived at a vast portal in space, and Chromedome watched from the observation deck. Beyond the portal was the long lost Luna 1, and the mnemosurgeon was recruited by Rodimus for the landing party.

The group descended, though not before Chromedome promised Skids to search for answers regarding his amnesia, and on the moon's surface they found an active hot spot of gestating sparks. Before long, however, the party was set upon by Lockdown and his cadre of Titan Hunters, forcing them to flee into a nearby Metrotitan "graveyard". Their flight was futile, and the entire group was soon captured, whereupon their gracious host was revealed as Tyrest, who accused them of crimes against creation. On the way to their cell, Chromedome noticed an apparently immobile Ultra Magnus.

The landing party quickly got chatting with their new cellmate, who revealed himself to be Minimus Ambus, spark brother of Rewind's lost friend Dominus Ambus. The group stewed in their prison for some time until an observant Rung deduced something from Minimus's mannerisms—that their cellmate was none other than Ultra Magnus!

Even though they were all locked up at the behest of Tyrest, Chromedome didn't share Tailgate's impatience to escape their shared prison cell. He quickly chastised the minibot for calling him "Domey", the personal nickname that Rewind once used.