Character of the Month

February 2002 + Redone in May 2004

Name: Depth Charge

Faction: Maximal

Gender: Male

Role in Beast Wars: Underwater warrior

Animal: Manta Ray

Transformations: Transmetal (He has 3 modes: beast, flight and robot.)

His life

Depth Charge came very late in the series, but not through a stasis pod.  You see, he was a guard on Omocron (ovicron?) and the nasty product of an experiment (in which a Maximal was mixed with a clone of Star Scream's spark) got loose.  This thing called protoform X wiped out everyone except DC. who was the lone survivor.  Protoform X was captured and podified (put in a stasis pod) and tossed onto the Axalon.  The Axalon pilot (Optimus) was ordered to dump it far away from Cybertron, seeing as there was no way to destroy Proto X.  DC. was obviously very unhappy with the idea that the thing that savaged all his mates was still out there.  So, using a kind of detector tuned into the spark of X, he went looking for him to kill him.  (How he intended to do that, well, maybe he had thought it out, we just don't know.) He ended up flying through space in his little star hopper and went through a porthole (the same that sucked up the Axalon and jiggled it out on the other side of time) and ended up crashing on Earth.  Ancient Earth.  He crashed in the sea, took the beast form of a manta ray and saved Cheetor from drowning.  Old pussy cat was hovering over the giant splash DC's ship has made and was shot down by surprise surprise Protoform X (known to us as Rampage).  Once he dropped off the water logged kitty on an island, he went flying off in pursuit of Rampage.  He found him, they tussled and he had just about won and had Rampage lying upside down in tank mode (not an easy mode to get back up on) when that nasty little fuzor called Quickstrike shot him down.  Optimus arrived and took him back to base. (And Cheetor!)  When DC. came out he was rude, nasty and disgusted at how much Optimus messed up.  He said he was out to go and slag Rampage before he even had a proper tour of the Ark and met the crew.  He was that adamant.  Optimus told him about the Ark and blah blah blah and warned him that there were six Preds out there ready to kick his butt at any opportunity.  Depth Charge's response was simple: "I've gotta hand it to you Primal, when you screw up, you do it big time.  But thanks for the tip."  (Ah, that's good old Depth Charge for you!)

That pretty much wraps up his character.  He went hunting for Rampage most of the time and the two of them had their fair share of fights.  Eventually DC. kind of almost joined up with the Maximals, but he was still a rebel and just as determined.  He finally got the 'justice' he'd been hunting for at the bottom of the sea right next to a long-fallen but slowly regenerating Decepticon Warship flown by Megatron (which DC. alone was ordered to stop, by the way).  He never got round to doing this pathetically tremendous task that Optimus had plonked on his shoulders as rampage was standing guard and taunted him into a battle.  Depth Charge fought and kind of won, but rather tragically.  He pinned down Rampage and held a stick of raw energon right over Rampage's spark.  Rampage didn't think he'd thrust it in an kill him, because it would kill DC. too.  DC was feeling kamikaze that day and did it and died.  He was literally made into fish sticks and Rampage finally lived up to the teasing name 'crab cake'.  The Decepticon ship was stopped later by Rhinox and TM2 Dinobot, don't worry.  Depth Charge was a strangely alluring character who was both interesting and noble.  He presented a whole new chapter of Cybertron history and gave us thousands of options for stories based on that very unknown past of his, but one that is most definitely intriguing.    

His Achievements: 

Having some of the best lines in the Beast Wars

Displaying intelligence 

Being so incredibly determined.

Saving lovable Rattrap (so what if RT's a favourite of mine?!)

Being the first underwater Maximal with some of the coolest equipment.

Having the guts to chat back to Optimus.  (We still love you, Op!)

Not chickening out at killing Rampage.  (Not that I was anti-Rampage, he was kinda cool.)

Depth Charge: He entered the Beast Wars quickly as a stubborn, rude and adamant fish.  He left as an honorable warrior, just as quickly.