Introducing the only Autobot who makes bigger explosions then Wheeljack!
I've lurked here for a while but finally got up enough nerve to think about posting a character, and the first mech out of my team of black ops bots to leap into my brain was:
Name: Boom (I don’t know if it’s his real name but this is what he gave when I asked) Field name: Devastator.
Type: Transformer.
Gender: Male.
Eyes: Thin optic band - copper coloured.
Height: 25 feet.
Description: Slender for a seeker Boom is all angles, straight lines and sharp points. Having been designed for stealth he has wide splayed feet which spread his weight lessening the chances of what ever he’s walking over collapsing. When motionless his armour plates lay close together giving the impression of being one unbroken surface, the segments move and slide over each other so they don’t impede his movement. His wings are squared off thin slats that angle backward and then bend sharply forward at 2/3rds of their length almost like a tick mark sticking out of his back. His predominant body colour is matt slate grey with darker/lighter patches over flaps and ailerons his cockpit is black. Not usually visible unless he’s on parade or wants to intimidate someone are his team and kill markings. Each member of the Hell Riders has an icon of a burning stylised transformer skeleton personalised to reflect some aspect of their name and or job, this icon is painted over the spark chamber in a paint that glows a disturbing glistening blue when electrical current is passed through it. Boom’s icon is this skeleton with the ruins of buildings on either side, his Autobot faction symbol is also painted on both wings in the same paint, the Hell Riders don’t believe in advertising who and what they are unless it suits them
Personality: Spiky, like his body design. Boom is a natural born sociopath - forget the Dandelion of Doom this mech will much more happily kill you than say good morning. Loyal beyond deactivation to those who he’s pledged himself too: the rest of the Hell Riders (His special ops team) and, for some reason no one’s ever figured out, Prowl, everyone else is on his ‘I might just kill you for the laughs’ list. Having said that he’s had restraint more or less beaten into him by the head of his team and doesn’t usually lash out indiscriminately unless provoked, for all his delicate frame he can hold is own in a fight and drink an entire unit under the table with no trouble.
Likes: Blowing things up! Flying, drinking unsuspecting units under the table, Cybertron history & architecture, using his stealth abilites to freak people out by suddenly turning up behind them
Dislikes: Almost everyone else in the entire universe (except his team and Prowl), Autobots going on about how he should stick to the rules of engagment and codes of conduct. anyone who crosses/injures/capture a member of his team.
Squicks (DO NOT WANT): *Grin* Unless some serious reprogramming or drug induced delirum is involved I can't see him ever being the Autobot poster boy for Mr Nice Mech but other than that go with what ever he'll let you get away with!
Other: He doesn’t show it but Boom is quite the Cybertronian history scholar, he figured that he should know something about the things he was blowing up and got hooked. This makes him a very useful mech to know if you ever get lost in the maze of passages that riddle Cybertron or in any of the golden age cites/ruins. Just don’t get him and Hoist or Grapple started on the subject of architecture, Boom maybe more interested in blowing it up but he can wax just a lyrical about good design as the other two.
References: I can't draw without a flowchart so however you want to interpret my description is fine.
kimbo_demonica did this wonderful interpritation of my description.
driftwoodwings Painted him being rather introspective here (with added bouns story to go with the art)
Transformer-specific Details: add this on if you're submitting a Transformer
Faction: Autobot.
Occupation: Demolitions & Explosives expert
Alternate Mode: Boeing Bird of Prey
Tools/Weapons: In combat he employs what ever high explosives he’s currently carrying and he’s always got something that’ll go bang on him, and, because his boss insisted he have ‘something to take the slaggers out with out bringing down the house’ he reluctantly carries and sometimes even uses two rail guns. These attach to his arms in robot mode and cling to the fold in his wings when in alt mode. His primary close combat weapons are the sharpened edges of his armour and his practically non existent sensor profile, Boom is the ultimate ambush mech- his alt mode may only do 260 knots (482 km/h) and doesn’t go above 20,000 feet (6,100 m) but unless you are lucky enough to get a optical lock on him you aren’t going to know what hit you.
Preferred Generation: I original wrote him in G1 but if you think you can make hime play in something else, please feel free.
History: People just don’t ask, it widely rumoured that they still haven’t found all the pieces of the last mech who did. The Hell Riders know that Boom was originally a Decepticon, he followed his creators into the ranks when war broke out and really never looked back. His anger and violence made him a natural terror trooper, and with his affinity for big explosions and very neat demolitions he rapidly became part of the Autobot hunting packs. The deactivation of his creators in a pointless suicide mission made him begin to question his loyalty and being left for dead by his own team after a mission gone wrong completed the process. Life, from his POV, didn’t get any better when he found that not only had his team more or less sacrificed him to save their own casings but that the Autobots most ruthless black ops team were the ones to pick him up. Resisting some fairly rough interrogation both he and the Riders were surprised by a mixed bag of pirates who made the bad mistake of trying to take over the Riders ship, in the ensuing fight both the Riders and Boom where impressed by the other and at the end of it all with the Riders needing an explosives expert they offered him a job and since he didn’t want to go back to the ‘cons who’d betrayed him he accepted. While technically an Autobot Boom hasn’t shed all his Decepticon behaviour patterns, these tend to surface when in company he doesn’t know or trust (see above for that small list) and he sometimes finds himself contemplating rejoining the Decepticons, especially when confronted by what he calls ‘sanctimonious twaddle about mercy, ethics and rules of engagement’.
Alt Mode References:
Boeing Press Release
USAF Museum fact sheet
Close up photos - in flight and on the ground
