Laserbeak

Next character in Transformers: Dark of the Moon is a new Decepticon, first seen in Chernobyll as he murders Alexi Voskhod, a human who had survived his usefulness in the Decepticons’ plans. We’re of course talking about Laserbeak, the vulture-like Cybertronian voiced by Keith Szarabajka, who acts as a spy and an assassin for the bad guys until he’s decapitated and killed on the battlefield by the joint efforts of Sam Witwicky and Bumblebee. Despite this Laserbeak speaks, and quite a lot also, the original one only makes animal-like sounds, and is in a symbiotic relationship with another Decepticon warlord: let’s see together.

Laserbeak was created on Cybertron millions of years ago, when the Decepticons devised a new technology that would have improved their intelligence services during the Great War against the Autobots: cassettes. These were small Transformers who could turn into animals and then return to their diminutive state, able to sneak and infiltrate anywhere, collecting information, secreted data, plans from the enemy, and responded directly to Soundwave, who stored them and was their direct superior. Laserbeak was the first cassette ever, a Decepticon who could assume the form of a condor to fly unseen into any Autobot stronghold, record every conversation, steal any plan, and come back to Soundwave to report. As the Autobots found out about the leak of top secret data, they tried to counter the flying spy by hiding themselves underground to device their battle plans, a tactic that worked for a while, as Laserbeak was unable to penetrate caves and tunnels… but then his masters created his “little brother” Ratbat, who compensated his lacks: together, the two flying Decepticons brought the Great War to a new level, and started a conflict of spies that would have led also the Autobots to develop their own cassettes. During the following decades, Laserbeak added other specialties to his repertoire, starting from his role as interrogator: whenever an Autobot was captured, he tortured him with his lasers, carving him to extract whatever information he may be hiding, extracting everything he needed and then killing whatever remained of his victim. For this reason, despite his diminutive size and lack of major firepower, he was among the most feared Decepticons in the war… and also one of the most appreciated ones by Megatron, who often employed him. When Megatron launched an assault on the Ark aboard his Nemesis, Laserbeak was with him, and he crashlanded with the others on Earth, staying dormant for four million years.

When the volcano the ship was buried in erupted, reawakening all the Transformers, what Megatron needed for first was information on their new location and their whereabouts: thus, Laserbeak was the first Decepticon who ever explored Earth, and also the first one who located the Autobots on the planet, leading to an immediate Decepticon attack that reignited the Great War on the alien world. From there on, Laserbeak participated to all major missions on Earth: the raid on the Harrison Nuclear Power Plant for material later used in building Fortress Sinister, the Decepticons’ HQ, the abduction of Sparkplug Witwicky, a human who could modify them so that they could consume Earth’s fuel, the hunt for the traitor Starscream, the attack on the Ark, and several others. He was always the first on the battlefield, boasting incoming victories and pain and death for the Autobots, but he was always also the first one to escape when the tides of the battle turned. Eventually, a coup led to Shockwave wrestling leadership away from Megatron, and Laserbeak was swift to change his allegiance and to swear eternal loyalty to the new leader, abandoning the former… but apparently Shockwave eventually found his constant adulation irritating, as he removed his voice box, making him unable to speak, now able to communicate only via bird sounds. This act of cruelty actually made Laserbeak even more loyal and subservient: he now genuinely feared Shockwave, and would have never betrayed him… even if this didn’t mean he wouldn’t have changed flags yet again if someone took the leadership away from him. When Soundwave and his cassettes, Laserbeak included, successfully infiltrated and then occupied Blackrock Aerospace Assembly Plant N. 1 to make it the new Decepticon base, Laserbeak’s work became to bring messages to the human soldiers outside, as well as to torment the human slaves kept inside the plant. Then, Soundwave became the new leader… and Laserbeak was just on the right shoulder at the right moment.

Laserbeak is a cruel and sadistic spy, an infiltrator born with a remarkable self-preservation instinct that allows him to survive any battle, power struggle or assassination attempt. As a Decepticon cassette, he can turn into a small cassette to be stored inside Soundwave, while his main form is that of a robotic turbo-powered condor, and in flight he can reach an incredible speed; his main weapons are his ruby lasers, solar-powered rays that can carve into the shell of any Cybertronian, in a slow and excruciating process that he savors as the Decepticons’ torturer. Despite his cruelty and brutality, though, Laserbeak is essentially a coward, always ready to break the lines when in danger and to switch loyalty whenever a new leader emerges: it comes as no surprise that not even his fellow Decepticons like him that much.