Dire Wraith (Transformers)

Dire Wraith are a race of demonic humanoids from the Dark Nebula.

Powers and abilities
Dire Wraiths are shapeshifters that can take the forms of other creatures, including Humans. They are also able to gain new abilities by using the blood of the lifeforms they impersonate.

Wraiths wield powerful dark magic and are able to infect the bodies of other beings with their toxic biomatter, parasitically transforming their victims into more of their kind.

Culture and society
Dire Wraiths are a generally hostile race that seeks to conquer all they see. The only force able to oppose them is the Solstar Order, who managed to scatter Wraiths throughout the galaxy.

Though few species are capable of resisting their powerful sorcery, Cybertronians are more resilient to this magical corruption by virtue of their mechanical physiology. As such, the results of a botched infection are not pretty.

Background
The Omega Sentinel Omega Supreme believed that the Dire Wraiths had been created many years ago during the fallout from a devastating war between the Cybertronians and the Antillans, an unforeseen byproduct from an Antillan doomsday weapon designed to end the war by killing everything on the planet. The chaotic energies unleashed by the device cascaded across space and time, absorbing and corrupting the natural magic of the planet Prysmos to create the first Dire Wraiths, who walked the now-desolate landscape of Antilla. The energies of the activation event also affected the inhabitants of other exposed planets, mutating them into monstrous hybrid creatures resembling Dire Wraiths.

Subsequent events are unclear. According to Omega Supreme, the Wraiths subsequently fled the world of their birth and settled elsewhere in the galaxy, eventually coming to colonize a planet within the uninhabited Dark Nebula as the capital of their brutal new civilization, their hostile, expansionistic nature bringing them into conflict with other races. One such war saw the Dire Wraiths invade the planet Temptoria, with several Wraiths voluntarily choosing to adopt the planet's odd religious custom of "Brand loyalty".

During the zenith of the Cybertronian Great War, many Autobots such as Ultra Magnus considered the Dire Wraiths to be myths. Decepticon leader Megatron, on the other hand, was aware that these "panmorphic lifeforms" were real but was so disgusted by them that he and his troops deliberately avoided the Dark Nebula in which they resided.

Eventually, the Dire Wraiths went to war with a local galactic superpower known as the Solstar Order, and the conflict necessitated the creation of the Space Knights to contain the threat. Some two hundred years ago, the war turned in favor of the Solstar Order when the Space Knights successfully destroyed the current Wraith homeworld. The survivors scattered throughout Solstar space, and in spite of this defeat they remained an omnipresent thorn in the side of the Order, menacing several backwater regions such as Mato Grosso, Mining Colony 25-6-41, and the Huni System.

As the Solstar Order continued to hunt down remaining pockets of Wraiths, the survivors pushed outwards, with their exodus threatening to encroach on Galactic Council territory. During this time, a Wraith named Vekktral encountered an orphaned Camien named Stardrive on Matto Grosso, alerting the Dire Wraiths to the existence of mechanical life in the form of the Cybertronians.

Around this time, Starscream and his troops encountered Vekktral's Wraiths in the Huni System. Learning of Stardrive's Energon synthesizer, he agreed to a temporary alliance with the organics to lure the Solstar Order and their Cybertronian Space Knight into a trap. When the Autobots intervened, the Dire Wraiths managed to ensnare and assimilate Sky Blast. The magic of the Wraiths had an unforeseen effect on Sky Blast's cyber-biology: rather than transforming the Autobot into a Dire Wraith, the combination simply merged the two entities together into an insane, out-of-control monster. The hybrid rampaged across the frigid planet of Xetaxxis for a while before its increasingly unstable biology tore it apart, burning it away to cinders.

Using what he had learned from Sky Blast's physiology, Vekktral was able to repeat the process on Ultra Magnus, this time creating a far more stable, though still monstrous, fusion of Wraith and Cybertronian while several of his underlings assimilated the native Xetaxxians. However, the Vekktral-Magnus fusion still shared the divided mind of the Sky Blast hybrid, with both components struggling for control of their combined body. Magnus was able to overpower Vekktral for an instant, opening the chest compartment of the Magnus Armor and allowing a single placed shot to destroy his inner robot Convoy, ejecting Vekktral from his body. Vekktral and the remaining Wraiths were then destroyed, along with half of Xetaxxis's surface, when Stardrive's overloaded Energon synthesizer exploded.

Afterwards, a gathering of Dire Wraiths reviewed Vekktral's scientific endeavors and ultimate, disastrous failure. They resolved never to dabble in "blasphemous abominations" such as technology again, and to rely solely on magic in their future plans. Unbeknownst to either the Space Knights or Dire Wraiths, Stardrive herself had been infected with Wraith biomatter during the battle on Xetaxxis. In the years after leaving the Space Knights she gradually mutated into a stable hybrid of Cybertronian and Dire Wraith, even developing the ability to channel Wraith magic.

Around this time, a different group of Dire Wraiths landed on Earth and discovered its supplies of Ore-13, which they could use to enhance their powers and shield their energy signatures from the Energy Analyzers that the Space Knights traditionally used to root them out. Over the years, the Wraiths on Earth continued their clandestine preparations for their inevitable confrontation with the Space Knights, assimilating and replacing government authorities with Wraith copies.

Present Day
In 2016, Autobot leader Optimus Prime chose to annex Earth into the Council of Worlds, and a group of Wraiths took advantage of the confusion to lure G.I. Joe founder and head of the Earth Defense Command Joe Colton into a trap. Though Colton was able to fight them off—avoiding lethal absorption by amputating his own hand—the Wraiths were able to use what genetic material they possessed to create an impostor, who used his position as head of the EDC to replace more members of G.I. Joe with Dire Wraiths. It was at this time that Rom landed on Earth to root out the Wraith infestation, and, while discussing the unstable geopolitical landscape of Earth, Miles "Mayhem" Manheim suggested that Action Man could be of help with a "situation" in northern California, where Rom had begun hunting his old foes.

Indeed, Mayhem had cut his own deals with the alien invaders and the extradimensional warlord Baron Karza, who promised the human dominion over Earth in exchange for the planet's supplies of Ore-13. However, the Wraiths were now forced to contend with Prime and his Cybertronian peacekeeping forces and used their agents in G.I. Joe to open fire on them in Portland. However, their activities drew the attention of Rom, who showed up and blasted four of them with his Neutralizer, including the false Colton. Once Rom had made peace with Prime, he further elaborated on the Wraiths' interest in Ore-13 and how it made them harder to detect. While autopsying the remains of their slain comrades, Carla "Doc" Greer realized that the DNA of the corpses did not match with baseline human samples, alerting the team to the alien infiltrators.

With their cover blown, the Dire Wraiths became more aggressive and managed to take over the EDC's Bikini Atoll base. G.I. Joe was sent to defeat them and recapture the facility. While this happened, Marissa Faireborn was meeting with the President of the United States and given the case of Ore-13 that the Wraith Colton was carrying around before Rom killed him. This was the cue for the Wraiths in the White House to try to reclaim the case. Armed with a firearm that fired armor-piercing bullets, Marissa made short (if bloody) work of the Wraiths in the vicinity before she called in renegade Decepticon Thundercracker as backup.

The Wraiths managed to take control of the Seeker clones before Thundercracker and D.0.C. destroyed them. Thundercracker's dog Buster proved able to sniff out the Wraiths from the humans while Insecticon Bob simply mutilated one before eating it. The leader of the Wraith cell barricaded herself in the situation room. This proved ineffective against Thundercracker who casually destroyed the wall and all her minions. At wit's end, she merged magic and Ore-13 growing to Cybertronian size. Adopting the form of a Wraith Hawk, she engaged Thundercracker in the air and managed to rip off his cannon arm. Thundercracker shouted a warning that the arm was full of ammunition and that she ought to be careful with her fire hands. With her wings incinerated, she was impaled upon the Washington Monument. Marissa meanwhile mowed down the rest of the Wraiths with a standard rifle.

Mayhem later contacted the Wraith leader "Caleb Awan" to inform him of the large supply of Ore-13 beneath Autobot City. The Wraiths moved out to meet their M.A.S.K. allies in Monument Valley where many Wraiths performed a kamikaze attack on Victorion, overwhelming the Torchbearer Combiner. When they entered the city, their path was blocked by Rom, who had allied himself with the Cybertronians and others to fight off the Wraiths.

The Wraiths managed to use the Ore-13 beneath the city to enhance their power before they (rather unsurprisingly) betrayed Miles Mayhem. Refusing to be beaten by aliens, Mayhem summoned Baron Karza from Microspace much to the amusement of "Caleb" who questioned what the diminutive creature could do. The diminutive creature responded by absorbing all the Wraiths into him, turning himself into an ungodly fusion of Cybertronian, Microspace, and Wraith power. In short order, said ungodly fusion was dumped into a collapsing spacebridge into Microspace.

Meanwhile, the real Joe Colton had reunited with his old ally of convenience Garrison Kreiger. After removing the toxic Wraith biomatter from his system, the pair worked together to assemble an alliance of supervillains capable of fighting back against the forces of Cybertron, with Colton disguising himself as the evil "Baron Ironblood." Having acquired the Talisman on Earth in the 1980s, Krieger was able to synthesize Dire Wraith genetic material, and eventually used samples of the stuff to enhance Storm Shadow's legion of Red Shadows into transhuman fusions of humans and Dire Wraiths, able to mimic several Wraith powers.

After discovering the Talisman on Earth, Garrison Blackrock accidentally activated the device, causing an energy pulse that once again mutated the exposed individuals into monstrous Wraith-like forms. This time the victims were the inhabitants of Verenya in Schleteva. G.I. Joe forces found Rom on the scene and worked together to track the energy wave to the Talisman, which had caught the attention of the Oktober Guard and Action Man. Another activation of the device mutated Heavy Duty, Flash, and Quarrel into similar creatures. The afflicted were placed in the care of the Action Man Programme in the hopes of finding a cure, which Blackrock was eventually able to synthesize some time later.

During the Iron Ring's invasion of Cybertron, the Dire Wraith enhancements inside the Red Shadows had the effect of tripping the Solstar Order's scanners, resulting in them placing Cybertron under quarantine. When Unicron awoke and began his attack on the galaxy, Bumblebee came to learn of the dark origins of Unicron and the Wraiths through a vision imparted by a dying Omega Supreme. As Unicron rampaged across the galaxy, consuming Cybertron in the process, the Wraiths who had come to call Earth home were forced to put aside their differences with their Space Knight nemeses to defend their new homeworld. Several of these Wraiths took on a cell of Unicron's invading Maximals in Siberia.