Apelinq

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is out in theaters… and it’s not exactly the masterpiece that was announced. It does introduce another character (possibly more, but we’ll have to wait for one official reveal on the last one), however, and at at the very beginning. On the homeworld of the Maximals, we see the leader, Apelinq, sacrificing himself against the invincible Scourge to allow his people to escape with the Transwarp Key. Voiced by the versatile David Sobolov, Apelinq is killed off pretty quickly, but his original story has something more to say about him: let’s see together.

Apelinq was born on planet Cybertron hundreds of years in the future, on a war-torn planet on which Autobots and Decepticons were still battling for power. Apelinq was part of the former, and for all his life he had known nothing but war… until the Decepticons were finally defeated, and Cybertron entered a new era of peace and prosperity. As all the old warriors had to reinvent themselves to fit into the new, pacified society, Apelinq chose to pursue scientific research, and with quite a success: his first and main invention was the Transfer Interlink, a futuristic device that allowed him to “download into reality” any digital object, making it extremely simple to move around, for example by downloading a vehicle any time there was need of it. Apelinq spent most of the transition time in his research lab, and witnessed the dissolution of the Autobots and the birth of the Maximals, their “spiritual successors” in the lead of Cybertron. Apelinq could spend most of the following centuries living a peaceful life, but nobody had forgotten his past as a warrior, and his services were inevitably required sooner than later. Cybertron started to be plagued by the terrorist attack of the Predacons, a violent group that inspired themselves to the ancient Decepticons. The Maximal High Council of Elders decided it was time to take countermeasures against the Predacons, sure that they were a serious threat the moment they elected as leader Megatron, descendant of the Decepticon tyrant of the same name. Their first idea was to reform the Wreckers, a legendary group of Autobots who acted outside of normal regulations, composed of the strongest and most powerful warriors who weren’t afraid of embarking in suicide missions, an invincible black-ops squad who got the job done. The Elders needed someone with confirmed skills as a tactician, and Apelinq was just the man for the job.

Apelinq accepted to come back on the battlefield, albeit in a very different capacity than before, and became the mind behind the Wreckers, while Rodimus Prime acted as their on-field leader. For years, the Wreckers were the secret police that vanquished the Predacons’ plans, and Apelinq moved his men on Cybertron and other planets as if they were pieces on a chessboard, always trying (and more often than not succeeding) in foretelling Megatron’s moves and in planning a countermove. The first major defeat suffered by Apelinq as an intelligence officer came when Megatron and some of his men managed to steal the Golden Disk, a precious relic that contained the coordinates of Earth, the planet on which, centuries before, the destiny of the Great War had been decided. After that, both Megatron and the Maximals who were chasing him disappeared, and everyone believed them to be dead. Apelinq’s job with the Wreckers didn’t get any calmer, of course, as the Predacons were all but vanquished, but it surely became much easier without their leader around. Then, all of a sudden, Cybertron was plunged into chaos once again, and Apelinq didn’t know why or how: the Elders kept silent about what was happening, and first the Marshals, then dozens of people at the time, started vanishing in thin air. Through a strong work of intelligence, Apelinq managed to locate the source of the turmoil: it was Megatron, who after a long period stranded in time had managed to come back to his homeplanet and to his original time, and who had carried along an unknown weapon. Rodimus and the other Wreckers were sent to put him down once and for all, but it turned out that the mysterious weapon was a deadly virus, and only Rodimus, who being a Matrix Templar was immune, made it back alive. This was a start, however: Apelinq started researching on Rodimus’ body, in order to replicate his unique physiology and develop an antidote to distribute to everyone. This was, of course, only the first step: war had returned on Cybertron, and Apelinq was there to fight it.

Apelinq is a proud warrior and a man of science: his rational mind always allows him to maintain control of the situation, and to keep his cool even in the direst circumstances. As a Cybertronian, he possesses natural superhuman strength and durability, and he doesn’t age; he’s a formidable tactician, as well as a great warrior, and albeit he can materialize any weapon he desires with his Transfer Interlink, he usually wields his custom-made twin Impact Maces, that he uses with brutal efficiency; after his unwanted trip to Earth, he can turn into a silver gorilla, gaining the beast’s agility. An experienced warrior with a sharp and calculating mind, Apelinq is a priceless asset in whatever role he’s assigned to, dangerous for his enemies both as an invisible tactician behind the curtains and as a restless berserker on the battlefield.