Editing Setting:Transformers (section)

===Shockwave===
Before the Great War between Autobot and Decepticon erupted, Cybertron's Golden Age had come to an end and been replaced by a Gilt Age, with the gloss of the old order covering a growing rot from within, as corruption and selfishness claimed the ruling class. One charismatic, if somewhat vainglorious, senator spoke against this trend and was a mentor figure and friend to both Optimus Prime and Megatron. But rivals in the political arena grew tired of his moral crusading, and they united against him. Getting him captured under false charges, they sentenced him to the most terrible punishments of those days; Empurata and Shadowplay. The former - physical mutilation, restructuring a Cybertronian's body into a clumsier, more utilitarian form, stripping away their face and leaving them devoid of anything but their voice to communicate with. The latter - mental mutilation, forcibly inverting a Cybertronian's personality with extensive reprogramming. From their efforts was born the mech who became known as Shockwave; coldly logical, ruthlessly pragmatic and viciously driven to covet power.

He allied himself with Megatron, but always as an equal, in his mind. When Megatron was lost, Shockwave stepped in to fill the void, and in due fairness, he is in many ways a more practical and efficient leader than Megatron was. But his cold-booted logical approach is, in many ways, just as terrifying as the Slagmaker's passionate one. Shockwave's minions tread warily around him, knowing that to become expendable is tantamount to death. Shockwave will do anything that he considers appropriate or likely to acquire what he desires. And he is no mindless drone, either; although he will sacrifice lives as readily as the most stereotypical of the [[Imperial Guard]]'s commanders, he will never do so unless it will ''ensure'' victory. Indeed, one of the few beings capable of eliciting something in him close to rage is [[Commander Kubrik Chenkov]]; the fact a commander can get away with a tactic so... '''mindless''' as drowning his enemies in wave after wave of his men, actually profiting from the wasteful expenditure of his soldier's lives, goes completely contrary to everything his millions of years of tactical study and practical leadership dictates should be acceptable. For similar reasons, he's deeply opposed to the Orks and the Tyranids, and he is the Decepticon Commander most likely to "come to the rescue" of Imperial units facing such threats. On the purely logical creed that Orks and Tyranids are enemies that must be obliterated, and other races are comparatively minor nuisances who can be ignored until then.

Though officially allied with Soundwave, it is not so clear-cut. Shockwave is out for power first and foremost, and whilst his mental damage makes it impossible for him to wield his former charisma, he can understand and, in his way, appreciate the tactical value of Starscream's diplomatic skills. Thusly, although formally united with Soundwave, it is far from unknown for Shockwave to covertly make deals with Starscream, or use the Brigade's greater skill at manipulating and subverting organics to his advantage. Likewise, sabotaging Soundwave's efforts to find Megatron is not beyond Shockwave, for he long ago formed the realization that Megatron's efficiency as a leader was growing... sub-par.

Shockwave rarely takes to the battle himself, but is a devastating force, assuming the form of a mobile weapon capable of slaughtering whatever he aims himself at.

====Blackout==== 

A giant who stands taller than some bio-titans, Blackout is huge and ''very'' powerful, if perhaps on the simple side; though others would say that he is certainly quite intelligent, he is simply unconcerned with the fineries of life.  He is highly loyal to Shockwave, and some would say he was always more loyal to Shockwave than he was to Megatron, but he and his twin Grindor have served as Shockwave's enforcers for a very long time.  Capable of disabling electronics around them and crushing armies with enormous omnidirectional sonic pulses as well as a heavy arsenal of weaponry and tremendous strength and durability, one of Blackout's more unique traits is that he is a twin; having an identical spark and chassis to the Transformer known as Grindor, whom he is never far from.   Blackout has been at the forefront of several power plays by Shockwave and can be trusted to handle most situations with the directed applications of brute force that he was infamous for during the great war; frequently using his identical appearance to Grindor's to confuse enemies.

====Tidal Wave==== 

A colossus who stands equal in stature to Omega Supreme in his transformed state, the giant known as Tidal Wave has allied himself to Shockwave out of a belief that the cyclopean titan of logic is the best hope for the Decepticon cause; though he's often loaned out to Soundwave's forces when they need the monstrosity's all-surpassing brute strength and power.   Dwarfing even Titans; Tidal Wave is a one-'con army; capable of laying waste to whole worlds on his own if left unchecked and frequently needs the direct intervention of spaceborne assets to drive away.  Frequently using the tactic of disguising himself as a water-going cargo ship or a submersible, the devastating tsunamis caused by his emergence from the water have given him his name as the colossus displaces enough water to destroy whole armies on the coastline simply by emerging from the waves.  Out of all of the Decepticon legions, it is Tidal Wave who is perhaps Omega Supreme's closest match and many Titan legion Princeps have learned to fear Tidal Wave's presence as Shockwave often deploys him to single-handedly take out entire titan legions, to say nothing of the tiny insects who accompany them.

====Strika==== 

One of Shockwave's right-hand cons, Strika is a giant of a woman, as large as her consort Lugnut and the leader of Strike Team Chaar, Shockwave's retinue of his most trusted cons.  Once Megatron's personally chosen "general of destruction", Strika has laid waste to more worlds than even an Eldar will ever get to visit in their life throughout her millions-of-years-long military career.  Whereas her teammate Blackout prefers the forms of massively powerful gunships such as the Stormbird and her consort is fond of the alternate mode of heavy bombers, Strika prefers the shape of superheavy tanks.  With heavy armour and weaponry, Strika's fighting style leans towards the slow at times, but the force at which she strikes her enemies should leave very little doubt as to why it is a poor idea to allow oneself to be struck by this awesomely powerful Decepticon at the helm of Shockwave's resurgent Decepticon Empire's military forces.  Having even managed to hand military defeats to the Primarchs with her command skills, she has a safe place at Shockwave's side as the Cyclopean juggernaut plans to restore the ancient Decepticon Empire to its full glory as the Imperium begins to collapse.    

====Oil Slick==== 

A chemist and biologist who claims to be working to further Alchemist Prime and Quintus Prime's teachings (though doubtlessly Alchemist and Quintus Prime would disapprove of the ways he pursues chemical science), Oil Slick has created all manner of extremely dangerous chemical weapons to advance the cause of technology in Shockwave's empire.   He's created a weaponizable form of the cosmic rust that won't affect Decepticons, destroying the technology of his enemies as well as the so-called reverse evolution virus; which was capable of altering the minds of Autobots to convert them into Decepticons.  Though during the great loss, he terrified many humans by creating the Devolution Pox with Scalpel's help, a virus that would rapidly cause afflicted humans to regress to a much more primitive state, leading to the White Scars legion trying to chase him across the galaxy.  Having managed to escape Jaghatai Khan's attentions, Oil Slick has been hired by Shockwave, who recognizes the value of Oil Slick's scientific skills when the advancement of technology is a foundation of Shockwave's empire.  When in combat, Oil Slick prefers to do battle in his tank-based vehicle form instead of his comparatively weak and gangly robot mode and usually tries to let his concoctions do the fighting for him, but he wouldn't have survived this long if he didn't have some skills.    

====Scalpel==== 

The chief medical scientist of Shockwave's Empire, Scalpel is tiny for a Decepticon, being the size of one's hand.   But Scalpel is one of the most feared of all Decepticons as the cruelties he can conjure at his medical tables will shake even the hardiest of souls to their core.  Older than the likes of Fabius Bile or Urien Rakarth and only surpassed in age by the likes of Illuminor Szeras, few who have gained reputations as mad scientists can match the horror of being one of Scalpel's experiments.  Though certainly an able and skilled healer, by all means, Scalpel prefers harming to healing and when the rising Imperium assaulted the worlds of the Decepticons, it was he who had the files on human gene sequences retrieved to unleash several horrific bioweapons targeted at the Imperium's people and studied the Astartes to find a weakness in the superhuman soldiers, and it was he who organized a raid on the Night Lords to recover the body of Konrad Kurze to learn how humanity could have created such powerful warriors for his experimentations; an insult for which the Night Lords have never forgiven Scalpel.  Scalpel has helped many of his fellow Decepticons gain some "modifications" to make themselves more able warriors, though he can charge steep fares for his attention.  

====Spittor====

Spittor is generally seen as... disgusting by most of his fellow Cybertronians due to the ooze he gets on everything when he fights, but he remains a capable enough combatant to be placed on Shockwave's elite force known as team Chaar.  A walking offence to olfactory sensors everywhere and an extremely lazy and shameless liar; were it not for Spittor's capabilities in combat, Shockwave would have long dismissed him as a drain on resources.  His alternate form is a somewhat frog-like bipedal all-terrain walker which can lash out with its many tentacle-like tongues to swallow enemies whole, either digesting them or spitting them back out covered in explosive (and smelly) slime to function as living bombs.  Repulsive even to his allies, most who interact with him tend to quickly seek the nearest decontamination chamber once they no longer have to interact with him, and even Shockwave has Spittor keep his distance at all times unless necessary; the time spent decontaminating his chassis would be much better spent elsewhere after all.  

====Barricade==== 

Loyal to the strongest, when Megatron disappeared Barricade swore fealty to Shockwave when it was clear that he would emerge from the fracture on top.   With a big mouth that he nearly always uses to taunt, criticize, jeer, or demoralize someone at any opportunity, it is perhaps for the best that he fell under Shockwave's empire rather than the others, who may have had less patience for Barricade's constant usage of his vocalizing hardware.  Preferring the forms of lighter wheeled vehicles to the heavy war machines that many Decepticons seem to prefer, Barricade is the smallest regular member of team Chaar but he's still a very lethal and destructive member of it at that.  Using the wide array of weaponry available to him as part of the cream of the Decepticon crop, Barricade can meet just about any challenge set before him; striking with a tremendous amount of agility and sheer tenacious meanness.  As a skilled hunter and tracker, Barricade is usually the first encountered member of Team Chaar; leading the rest to pounce on the enemy once they've been detected and continually keeping them off guard with his usual barrage of insults and jeers that can drive even the most stoic of individuals into a fury.