Transwarp

Transwarpd

Transwarp is the general name for the technology that sandwiched between the infinite universal streams that make up the multiverse, there is an expanse of nothingness that acts as a buffer between dimensions. This interdimensional space has many names including unspace, overspace, underspace, infraspace, subspace, and foldspace—but it is most famously known as transwarp space, since that name is often used for much of the technology built around exploiting its properties.

Transwarp space—or just "transwarp", and also spelled "Transwarp" or "TransWarp"—has become an integral component of many well-known Cybertronian technologies, even if its creators do not always understand the specifics, or even the fact that they are utilizing transwarp at all. Subspace radio allows broadcasts to span galaxies by beaming them through transwarp space, while personalized subspace storage pockets give Transformers the ability to store their weapons, and in some cases shunt their mass, outside their dimension. The most famous use is surely the space bridge, which allows a traveller to traverse vast intergalactic distances almost instantaneously by means of a "short-cut" through transwarp space. As transwarp space exists beyond the laws of reality, it is even possible to travel through time itself by crossing it. The ultimate expression of the technology came with the development of the portable Transwarp Drive, powered by transwarp cells, which removed the need for a fixed departure/arrival location system and allowed whole vessels to independently voyage across time and space at will.

However, its widespread use does not necessarily mean that transwarp space has a glowing reputation. The precision and energy needed to access it often makes the technology required very temperamental, and hugely susceptible to disruption if its delicate balance is disturbed. Make one wrong move when voyaging through transwarp, and it is very likely that you may not end up in the same time period, or even the same universe, than you started in... if you're fortunate enough to end up in a universe at all, and not cast adrift in its formless non-space. And even this is not the worst that could befall a hapless castaway, because despite its seeming emptiness, transwarp space is home to a collection of enigmatic, malignant, shapeless entities, and for them to take notice of a stranded traveller is a fate far worse than a mere eternity of solitude. Fortunately, the inhabitants of one of the older, more advanced realities have appointed themselves stewards of the multiverse and taken it upon themselves to trawl transwarp space, oftentimes rescuing both the on-purpose and the accidental travellers that find themselves lost in its unending expanse.

Generation 1 / Beast Era

See also: Transwarp Drive, Transwarp Cells, Transwarp Wavefronts, Transwarp Cruisers, Orbital Jump, Emergency Warp-Out, Quantum Jump, Quantum Generator

Young Transformer Titans Prime series

See also: Ground Bridge

Michael Bay series

See also: Sarcophagus, Foldspace Warheads

History

The Dynasty of Primes were the first to possess the power to traverse the interdimensional gulf, which they did using sarcophagi. The servants, the Seekers, were also gifted with the power to generate their own personal space bridges so that they could search the universe for stars to feed the AllSpark. With the death of the Primes and the banishment of The Fallen across the dimensions, the technology was lost to modern Cybertronians until reinvented by Sentinel Prime. The unexpected activation of the pillars that made up Sentinel's bridge caused his craft, the Ark, to jink uncontrollably across space and time until it crash-landed on Earth's moon in 1961, but one pillar recovered from the wreckage was used by the Fallen to broach transwarp and allow him to escape his exile.

Unicron Trilogy

See also: Warp Drive, Dimension Gate

Concepts & biography

Space bridge technology is openly known to operate by piercing transwarp space. The key component in a bridge's functioning is the plasma dynamic thruster, which is responsible for opening the fissures into interdimensional space that allow for transport. In this universe, the term is even used as a verb: one "TransWarps" from place to place.

Synopsis

Two uses of transwarp space collided in amusing fashion when Swindle hijacked the Autobot ship Steelhaven. Using the Autobots' space bridge, Sari was able to hack into the frequency Swindle used to access his subspace storage pocket and TransWarped Optimus Prime through it, so that he emerged on the Steelhaven through the access drawer in Swindle's chest.