Seeker (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen)

Seekers are a subspecies of ancient Cybertronians from the planet Cybertron.

"I'm a Seeker. Far, far older than either of you... a whole other, superior order of Cybertronian lifeform! Have some respect!"

- Ransack

Anatomy
Seekers share a biology similar to other Cybertronians.

Powers and abilities
Seekers share many of the same abilities as other Cybertronians.

Seekers are characterized by their ability to traverse space can teleport across space and time using an internal space bridge.

Weaknesses
Seekers share many of the same weaknesses as other Cybertronians, though this is more prevalent as they age.

Seekers can suffer from debilitating physical and mental conditions akin to humans as they age. For example, Jetfire suffered amnesia upon being reactivated, Bulldog has a Cybertronian equivalent of dementia known as "robot dementia", and Lieutenant a Cybertronian equivalent to arthritis.

Similarly, Seekers can uncontrollably shed vehicle and robot mode parts as they age, which can become more excessive if they have not gone into stasis.

Culture and society
According to Ransack, Seekers are a whole different and separate yet superior form of Cybertronian life. However, it is likely that he was likely just talking smack in the context.

Though many Seekers such as Ransack and Fortress are aligned with the Decepticons, a small number of Seekers including Jetfire and Air Raid have defected to the Autobots.

Seekers are regarded as role models by younger Decepticons, evident by Divebomb idolizing Ransack enough to reformat his body into Ransack's likeliness. Meanwhile, the current Decepticon high command regards Seekers as a means to an end and "the lost", redundant shells containing ancient knowledge.

Many young Autobots such as Skids and Mudflap are unfamiliar with or even unaware of the Seekers in general as their existence predates their own.

Background
Millions of years ago, the AllSpark created the Dynasty of Primes and their followers as a race of powerful, trans-dimensional beings and the first inhabitants of Cybertron. While the AllSpark gave these ancient Cybertronians mighty powers and bright life to Cybertron itself, its power was not limitless and gradually became depleted. The Dynasty learned that the AllSpark's power could be replenished by harvesting the energy of stars but were unable to locate new stars to suit their purposes, despite their amazing ability to travel between dimensions.

In response, the AllSpark created the Seekers, a race of Cybertronians workers that possessed the art of Transformation. They would be tasked by the Dynasty with finding stars for them to use Star Harvesters on so they could use the Energon obtained to feed the AllSpark. The AllSpark also created the Matrix of Leadership, which served as the key to activate Star Harvesters. One such Seeker was Jetfire, who served directly under Megatronus Prime as his most loyal and capable Seeker. Manipulating Jetfire into thinking he was serving the Dynasty as a whole, Megatronus began to open up over time, claiming that the Dynasty no longer served Cybertron's best interests.

One day, Megatronus came to believe that the AllSpark was "speaking" to him. In his pursuit of power, he broke the Dynasty's one law when Jetfire unwittingly sacrificed a populated star system under his misdirection. This prompted the Dynasty to establish a new restriction, requiring them all to be present for the activation of a harvester. Undeterred, the renegade Prime secretly handpicked a small army of Constructicon drones to be part of the Decepticons, a new faction under his leadership established with the intention of eventually subverting the Dynasty.

Despite his doubts and confusion over the matter, Jetfire continued to work with Megatronus as one of his Decepticons. Megatronus built a facsimile Matrix to carry on his work. However, the counterfeit Matrix proved inferior when his next star-harvesting attempt backfired and flooded his body with primal energies, driving him to total insanity. For his repeated infraction, the Prime was casted out of the Dynasty by his brethren and dubbed "The Fallen".

17,000 BC
In 17,000 BC, The Fallen brought his Decepticons to a small blue and green planet called Earth and began the construction of a Star Harvester on a desert, knowing that this attack on a life-bearing world will draw his brothers into the trap he has prepared. When primitive human life made itself known, Jetfire realized too late that he was on the wrong side and rebelled, unable to countenance his master's dark acts any longer.

As the Dynasty arrived soon thereafter to put an end to The Fallen's betrayal, the ancient Decepticon warped Jetfire and the Constructicons into orbit so that the Primes could face each other alone. As they fell planetward, Jetfire fought the Constructicons one-by-one and was eventually victorious. However, victory came with a price: he crashed from orbit into the Earth and laid dormant for thousands of years. After he awoke, Jetfire began wandering the Earth periodically, adopting new alternate modes to remain hidden.

Meanwhile, the Dynasty found themselves unprepared for The Fallen's strength, and were slaughtered in quick succession until only Prima remained. Prima used the combined lifeforce of his departed fellows to banish The Fallen to another plane of reality, sealing his sarcophagus to prevent him from returning. For his final act, Prima gave up his own life to fuse his body and those of his deceased brothers into a tomb that will serve as the resting place of the Matrix.

Following The Fallen's defeat, a number of his loyal Seekers arrived on Earth to search for the Tomb of the Primes, with the only clue to its location that they could find being a riddle: "When dawn alights the Dagger's tip, Three Kings will reveal the Doorway". Though Ransack was lucky enough to discover the Tomb, he lost contact with The Fallen when he seemingly abandoned the Seekers. Choosing to reveal this knowledge to only The Fallen, he chose to stay on Earth for decades until his master returned.

19th Century
In 1898, Jetfire was disguised as a portion of the United States Navy vessel USS Maine when he sensed energy similar to The Fallen's and broke away from the wooden housing that formed the rest of his alternate mode that he might settle the score. Of course, this action inadvertently led his human crew to believe they had been attacked, thereby initiating the Spanish-American War. Tracking the signal to the Arctic, he instead found a near-comatose Megatron, the Decepticons' current leader.

Upon discovering that this other Cybertronian was some other Decepticon that he had never heard of, Jetfire just punched Megatron and turned to leave when he realized he had an audience. A group of humans called the First Seven had been studying Megatron and reacted to Jetfire's presence by shooting at him. Jetfire promptly seized his attacker Billy North and hurled him to his death, while the other humans used explosives to crack the ice sheets and send Jetfire plummeting into the frigid depths.

At the bottom of the ocean, Jetfire discovered a subterranean cave network in which he took refuge. Sensing a familiar energy source somewhere on the planet, the Seeker began to seek. Growing progressively low on power, it took him fifteen years of crawling about underground before he could track the signal to its source. Along the way, he was confronted by strange inhuman beasts that inhabited the caves and slew all those that dared attack him.

Early 20th Century
Having little success over the years, the other Seekers grew bored and frustrated until they were forced to go into stasis lock out of a lack of Energon. Some Seekers began competing and fighting amongst themselves over the smallest clue to the Tomb's location, while several others would choose to defect to the Autobots. In the early 1910s, Bulldog participated in World War I, aiding the British military forces. Like with other Cybertronians, his exploits were documented and covered up by a secret society called the Order of the Witwiccans.

By 1913, Jetfire became addled and sluggish from a lack of energy. Finally digging his way out, he found the source of the signal: the AllSpark itself, which was in the process of being excavated by the First Seven. Fending off another attack on his person, Jetfire reached for the cube, inadvertently triggering a discharge of Energon from it that brought several surrounding machines to life. This action also overloaded his systems, prompting him to teleport via space bridge to parts unknown in order to expend the excess energy he suddenly absorbed.

Around this time, the First Seven would establish a government organization known as Sector Seven and became increasingly aware of Cybertronian activity on Earth. Commissioning Project: Black Knife to investigate the matter, they discovered Cybertronian symbols called Cyberglyphics inscribed on ruins across the globe, raising the possibility that there may be aliens lying inert on Earth. Unfortunately, this evidence was deemed inconclusive and Project: Black Knife went nowhere.

In 1919, Bulldog would eventually retire at Castle Folgan under the care of the Burton family and their Headmaster butler Cogman following the end of World War I. However, he would suffer a sad case of "robot dementia", believing that the Great War was still going on decades later.

In 1929, another biplane Seeker named Fortress clashed with another Seeker disguised as a truck for leads to the Tomb of the Prime's location. However, the latter accidentally caused a car accident with the Newell family as Fortress pursued him. Though his parents died on impact along with the truck Seeker, Carter Newell survived to lay eyes upon the shocked Fortress, who had never wanted to harm humans.

Since the incident, Carter swore a vendetta against the Cybertronians and spent the next 81 years building the secret organization known as the Initiative to hunt down the alien robots and collect their technology. At an indeterminate point in time, Fortress was captured by the Initiative's forces and dissected, reduced to a head that apparently served as the living core of the Initiative's mobile base, thereby allowing it to transform.

Mid 20th Century
In 1944, Jetfire was disguised as a Lockheed P-38 Lightning when he was captured by Nazi scientists during World War II and imprisoned in a cryo-chamber in Castle Neuschwanstein. As the Nazis studied his body, they reverse-engineered transforming tank-mecha from his systems. They also prized a map of the cave system from examining Jetfire's memory. When Sector Seven got wind of the new Nazi technology, they dispatched a unit led by William Simmons to find and destroy Jetfire. Being the only survivor of the team, Simmons made it into Castle Neuschwanstein before being confronted by the Nazis' ultimate creation, the Panzer-Giganten.

When Simmons tried to destroy the Panzer-Gigsanten by throwing a satchel of explosives at it, they instead struck the chamber holding Jetfire. Being freed from confinement, Jetfire proceeded to stop the Panzer-Giganten by tearing out of its human components. Demanding to know how humans could do something so hideous to their own kind, Jetfire was told by Simmons that it was not his doing and that he believed his bomb would have killed them all. When Jetfire inquired why he valued his life so little, Simmons retorted that he did value his life but valued freedom more.

Simmons' words gave Jetfire pause, reminding him of his reasons for turning on The Fallen millennia before. Seeing a kinship in Simmons and in humanity that he had not felt before, he silently destroyed the castle and everyone in it, then flew Simmons to an Allied outpost before disappearing once more. Jetfire's experience with Simmons deeply affected him, and he evidently shadowed the man and his organization over the following years by taking the form of a Lockheed U-2 spy plane.

Several other Seekers were involved in World War II, with a Supermarine Spitfire Seeker named Lieutenant joining the British Air Force while a female Seeker disguised as the HMS Alliance (P417) submarine joined the Royal Navy. After World War II ended, their exploits would be covered up by the Oreder of the Witwiccans and Lieutenant would retire to Castle Folgan.

Sometime during World War II, the HMS Alliance Seeker learned of the Guardian Knights' presence on Earth and the location of their ship, hidden beneath the Atlantic Ocean. However, she was so badly damaged from the war to the point where she was rendered comatose and unable to transform. When the war ended, the mode-locked HMS Alliance was put on display and converted to a museum for humans called the Royal Navy Submarine Museum.

In 1954, Jetfire was present when sabotage at Sector Seven's Arctic base left Simmons and a small crew trapped with a rapidly thawing Megatron. William's grandfather Walter Simmons called for liquid nitrogen bombs to be dropped on the complex, at which point Jetfire swooped to intervene, transforming and shielding the younger Simmons's wife Anne and Philip Nolan from the freezing blast. When Jetfire sadly informed Walter that he had been unable to save William, Walter could only ask why he had done anything at all. Jetfire explained that William's nobility had driven him to atone for past sins. Before departing, Jefire told him that he was no longer the creature Walter had met in those caves half a century before and Walter did not have to be either.

Over the next few years, Jetfire decided to defect to the Autobots, wanting to put his former Decepticon life behind him. Ransack learned of this as he continued waiting for The Fallen. By 1964, Jetfire was disguised as a Lockheed A-12 owned by Sector Seven agent Heath Donovan. Remaining in vehicle mode, Jetfire delivered fellow Autobot Bumblebee and P.R.O.G.R.A.M.M.E. agents David Reeve and Diana Lux to a castle used by modern Decepticons as a secret base. En route, Lux had the impression that the jet was alive, only to brush it off as imagination to Jetfire's relief.

Late 20th Century
At some point during the latter half of the 20th century, Jetfire was wandering in a desert when an SR-71 Blackbird crashed into him and exploded. Amidst the chaos, he took its form. In 1998, he took advantage of the SR-71 being retired to hole up in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Washington, D.C. as a permanent resident and would lay dormant and hidden in his alternate mode for the next few decades.

At some other point, an associate of the Witciccans named Wembly discovered the HMS Alliance Seeker's existence and left clues of her resting place for his daughter Viviane. The reason for this was because the Wemblys were among the last living descendants of the Guardian Knights' human ally Merlin.

By early 12st Century, Sector Seven agent Seymor Simmons had climbed his way up the chain of command to agency director. Despite attempting to reopen inquiries into projects such as the shuttered Black Knife files, his superiors turned down his requests. They believed that wanting to look for Cybertronians on Earth was an obsession that Sector Seven should not indulge, as their mission is to counter aliens.

2000s
Before Sector Seven was shut down following the battle of Mission City in 2007, Simmons copied as much research as he could, including the files relating to Project: Black Knife and images of several vehicles suspected of being Cybertronians. These images included a Ford Model T automobile, a J3-A 4-6-4 Hudson steam engine, a B-24 Liberator bomber aircraft, two F-104 Starfighter interceptors, a circa 1950 American truck, and Jetfire in his SR-71 Blackbird mode.

In 2009, Soundwave sent Grindor to find a Seeker mode-locked in the form of an old, rusting car. When cutting the car open, Grindor retrieved a Cybertronian-like "memory tree" from its innards. Ransack eventually received an order from his master (via Soundwave) to execute Autobot twins Skids and Mudflap before they could warn the other Autobots of the Decepticons' upcoming plans. First bombing the interstate that they were driving on, he went on to pursue them into the countryside, soon strafing them in an open field. A proud Seeker and servant of his lord, Ransack got a bit irritated at these young whippersnappers dissing his alternate mode. To add insult to injury, both of these Autobots were too oblivious of his identity and temporarily disabled him with dirt.

Recovering quickly, and helped by their lack of Energon, Ransack soon had them ran to ground and was about to execute them when Bumblebee arrived. As he retreated, Ransack warned that in the long run, he would be the winner. When Soundwave tried to get the location of the Tomb from Ransack, he refused to give the information, recognizing no other commander besides The Fallen. Concurrently to this, the Twins were pretending to have defected and hunted him down for Soundwave. Ransack was glad for the chance to finish them off. Skids ended the fight quickly by lying they had been sent by The Fallen to bring him back in, with Mudflap adding that his master was incapacitated.

Having not heard from his master in a long time and wanting to come in from the cold, Ransack was easily conned into standing down only to be attacked and captured by Grindor. Dragged to the Decepticon base on Phobos, Mars, Ransack found himself aggressively interrogated by Soundwave. Rather than comply, he instead insulted Soundwave for being a mere cog in The Fallen's machine, unable to grasp the true plan. Second-generation Seeker Starscream quickly stepped in to stop the angry Soundwave from killing the Seeker. When Starscream pointed out that it would not go well if The Fallen found out they had murdered one of his agents, Ransack realized that The Fallen was genuinely incapacitated.

Left amused by the pair's squabbling and Starscream's threats of "loosening" him up, Ransack believed that this allowed the modern Decepticons to think they had freedom of action and were pursuing their own agenda. His chance at retribution came when Skids and Mudflap attacked the Phobos base, allowing him to attack a distracted Starscream. Fleeing into space in hopes of reuniting with The Fallen, Ransack threatened to inform his master of what the modern Decepticons had been up to, claiming that there would be nowhere for Starscream or Soundwave to hide after that. Rather than fight the Autobots, the two hurriedly chased after Ransack out of desperation to make sure he would not be able to talk.

When Sam Witwicky absorbed the knowledge of the AllSpark from a fragment that he found in the clothes he wore during Mission City, he started hallucinating Cyberglyphics. Skids and Mudflap were able to identify the Cyberglyphics as Cybertronian in origin but were unable to translate them because the language predates the Autobots' existence. Leo Spitz eventually directs him and Mikaela Banes to his rival Robo-Warrior, which turned out to be Simmons' online persona. As he explained Project: Black Knife, they discovered that in order to read the Cyberglyphics, they may need a Decepticon.

Mikaela interrogated the captive scrap drone Wheelie, who identifies the symbols as the Language of the Primes. Suggesting they may track down one of the Seekers, he pinpointed the location of several Seekers hidden in the United States, with the closest being in Washington D.C. Infiltrating the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, they used the AllSpark fragment Sam carried to reactivate the SR-71 Blackbird Seeker. The sight of a Decepticon insignia sent the humans scrambling for cover as the surge of energy awoke the elderly Jetfire. Confused at the "hideous mausoleum" he was held in, Jetfire decided to head outside to get a better handle on where he was.

After his attempts at overriding and shooting the doors failed, Jetfire smashed them aside before wandered about the planes outside, damaging a few. When the humans tried to talk to him, he initially claimed that he could not deal with them because he was on a mission. When asking what planet he was, he was not too fond of the name "Earth", feeling it might as well be called "Dirt". When he inquired on the state of the Cybertronian civil war, Jetfire revealed that he had defected to the Autobots as an intensely personal decision. This motivated the smaller Wheelie to defect to the Autobots and Mikaela, who he dubbed "warrior goddess".

After Sam again asked what he was saying, the still-confused Jetfire pounded the ground and shouted that he had a lot of issues regarding his mother. As he talked about how his father was the first wheel, who did not transform but performed his functions with honor and dignity, a parachute stored in him suddenly popped open, bringing him down. Sam then tried to explain what was going on by carving Cyberglyphics on the ground and saying how Megatron and The Fallen wanted the knowledge in his mind. This jogged Jetfire's memory banks of both his mission, which the Cyberglyphics were a part of; and The Fallen, who he claimed left him on Earth to rust.

Having regained enough of his memory, Jetfire immediately opened a space bridge and teleported himself, the four humans, and Autobots Bumblebee, Skids, Mudflap, and Wheelie to Egypt. Though he thankful that they had managed to stay on Earth, the energy discharge of his space bridge portal caught the attention of Ransack. Following them through his own portal in biplane mode, Ransack flew towards Sam's party until his engine sputtered out, causing him to crash in front of Jetfire. Transforming into robot mode, he started to pick a fight with Jetfire, calling him a yellow-bellied traitor. Taking the "yellow" comment the wrong way, Bumblebee wanted to intervene before Sam convinced him that the dispute was between the two of them and the others should not get involved. Declaring that they were going to settle things right there and then, Ransack took a shot at Jetfire that merely bounced off him, causing no damage.

Jetfire abruptly ended the conflict by stomping Ransack, who he never liked, to death. After things calmed down, Jetfire subsequently identified himself and the late Ransack as Seekers before telling them the story of Cybertron's first contact with Earth, when the Dynasty of Primes opposed The Fallen's plan to use the Star Harvester to destroy Earth's Sun and convert it to Energon. When Jetfire revealed that only a Prime could defeat The Fallen, Sam caught the Seeker's interest by mentioning Autobot leader Optimus Prime, though he became distraught to hear of Prime's death. When Sam wondered if the Matrix could restore Optimus to life, Jetfire answered that it was not its intended use, but that the power within was unlike any known. Sadly, this was all Jetfire could do for the group, and after telling them of the riddle, he urged them to hurry off and find the Tomb.

During the final battle around the Great Pyramid of Giza containing the Star Harvester, referred to as Operation: Firestorm by the Autobot-human task force NEST, Jetfire arrived and attempted to "stick" the landing to no avail. He immediately decided to "show how they brought the pain in [his] day", using his axe to slice Mixmaster across the chest and decapitate the Constructicon with a mighty stomp. While he was critically wounded by a surprise attack from Scorponok, he managed to crush the Mini-Con's head. Fortunately, Jetfire was treated to one last wonder, as Sam used the Matrix to resurrect Optimus. As Optimus thanked Sam for saving him, Jetfire was overjoyed of the moment, hardly believing that he was seeing a living Prime.

Unfortunately, The Fallen teleported in and attacked, disorienting the Autobots and stealing the Matrix before placing it in the harvester. Feeling that he had never done a thing worth doing throughout his life, the dying Jetfire offered his parts to Optimus so they would give him "a power like [he had] never known". Instructing Optimus to fulfill his destiny, Jetfire ripped out his own spark before collapsing dead on the ground. Fortunately, Jetfire's sacrifice was not in vain, as Autobots Ratchet and Jolt performed a full transplant of the Seeker's rocket thrusters and weapons systems onto Optimus within moments of his death.

Now equipped with Jetfire's powerful weapons and engines, Optimus broke through a blockade of debris The Fallen had telekinetically erected around the Pyramid and destroyed the Star Harvester before it could be used against the Earth's Sun. During the fight, Optimus blow part of Megatron's head using his own fusion cannon before severing that arm and using his afterburners to send the weakened Megatron flying through some ruins. Now faced with The Fallen, the ancient Decepticon pulled off the left afterburner and used it to strike Prime in the face. However, Optimus ultimately triumphed and ripped out the Fallen's spark core, killing the treacherous Prime. In the aftermath of The Fallen's demise, Optimus quickly detached Jetfire's parts. Sometime later, in addition to hunting down Decepticons hiding on Earth, NEST would make it their mission to locate all the remaining Seekers on Earth.

2010s
In 2010, Carter Newell had descended into utter megalomania and became obsessed with recreating the destroyed AllSpark in hopes of using its powers to destroy the Cybertronian species as a whole, even at the risk of the destruction of the entire solar system should it run out of control. To stop Carter, his relative and fellow Initiative staffer Ingrid released Fortress, who reassembled his body from components of the Initiative's base and set off in pursuit of the fleeing Carter, who also had Optimus Prime hot on his heels.

Carter was subsequently killed by the Mini-Con Buzzsaw at Soundwave's command, leaving Prime holding the dangerously unstable replica AllSpark, planning on feeding it with the energy of his own Spark. Fortress appeared before Prime, convincing him to hand the cube over so that he could take it away from Earth and attempt to undo the damage his recklessness had caused decades beforehand. After a moment's hesitation, Prime gave Fortress the replace AllSpark before the Seeker took to the skies. Making for a distant solar system, presumably via space bridge teleportation, the replica AllSpark safely exploded, destroying Fortress in the process.

Approximately a decade later, when Earth was threatened by the arrival of a Quintessa-controlled Cybertron, Cogman persuaded Cade Yeager to come to Castle Folgan on Sir Edmond Burton's behalf. They and Bumblebee flew to England aboard a mode-locked Northrop Seeker. When they arrived on the castle premises, Bulldog mistook Burton's guests for enemies and fired shells on them. After being scolded by Sir Burton for his behavior, Bulldog transformed into robot mode while bemoaning his poor physical condition.

When the Transformers Reaction Force and MI6 stormed their castle, Lieutenant stepped up to defend the castle. Unfortunately, he was undone by his own age, shutting down before he could make a stand. Discovering her father's clues to the HMS Alliance Seeker, Viviane went to the Royal Navy Submarine Museum with Cade, Bumblebee, and Cogman. Sir Burton paid off the museum staff to close it off to all other humans "for an eternity". While still unable to transform, the damaged Seeker was soon reactivated by contact with Viviane. Ferrying the group to the ocean floor, the HMS Alliance Seeker was forced to ram a pursuing military sub.

During a relatively peaceful moment, the HMS Alliance Seeker play host to a romantic dinner for her passengers. She later took the group into the Guardian Knight's ship and docked while they went to look for Merlin's staff. As the Knights' ship reactivated and rose to the surface, Viviane and Cogman returned to the safety of the HMS Alliance Seeker. Though she retreated, she wound up perched on the ship's hull as it lifted into the sky.