Reaching the Omega Point was the Transformers convention-exclusive storyline which ran from BotCon 1998-2000. It's part of the 3H Productions comic continuity, which is itself an extension of the Beast Wars and Beast Machines cartoons.
Short Summary
Time-travel wackiness in the Beast Wars era precipitates a crisis in time, as dark warriors from an apocalyptic future travel back to preserve the events leading up to their timeline.
The Story
Critical Mass
BotCon '97 comic (scans available here.)
The first convention-exclusive story, this comic introduces the characters of Packrat and Fractyl. The plot is inconsequential to the Omega Point storyline, but the characters and setting reappear later. They're a Maximal and a Predacon respectively, interacting with the cast of the BW 'toon as though they were regular characters. Judging by the visuals, this is sometime in season one.
Visitations
Botcon '98 script reading (text available here.)
This tongue-in-cheek BW story was only presented as a live reading at BotCon '98. It's highly satirical, with self-referential and fourth-wall-breaking humor. (For instance, at one point David Kaye, reading Megatron, shoots and "kills" audience member Ben Yee.) However, looking past the comedy, the core plot goes as follows:
Set in season two, Packrat and Onyx Primal (another Maximal treated as an "unseen extra" from the cartoon), scouting Predacon territory, stumble upon a strange device. But they're suddenly attacked by Fractyl and Vice Grip (a Pred with the same apparent "unseen extra" status as Onyx Primal), who were looking for the "artifact." During their battle, a "shadowy figure" appears, swipes the device, and vanishes. Then some of the main BW 'toon Maximals show up and help beat the Preds. But in comes Antagony, who demands the device. Before she can attack them, though, Megatron flies in. She reacts violently to him, claiming to have searched for him across the cosmos. But she loses the ensuing fight, and Megatron takes her captive.
Herald, Covenant, Schism, Paradox, & Terminus
Prose and comic-book stories from BotCon '99 & 2000 (text and scans available here.)
As the story gains time-travel aspects, the storytelling becomes more fractured, with points of view leaping from timeframe to timeframe. It makes far more sense to summarize all of these chapters as a whole than to go one-by-one.
We are introduced to the Covenant of Primus, a 12-member group of Transformers created by Primus before Cybertron. Their creation-myth follows the Marvel US comic, which states that there had once been a universe of god-like energy beings, of whom Unicron was one. He devoured that universe and all his fellow gods, then slumbered. But while he rested, a new universe exploded around him, and it created Primus as its protector. When Unicron awoke and began consuming again, Primus battled him. These battles led to Primus' fateful plan to trap himself and Unicron in asteroids. But - in an addition to the previously-revealed creation story - Primus made a "dry run" of his plan, cyberforming the moon Protos of a giant planet called Methuseluh. He populated Protos with the Covenant, whom he tasked with overseeing the fate of their robotic brethren yet to come.
And so, as Cybertron was created and the Transformers rose up, the Covenant observed from afar and quietly intervened when necessary to maintain Primus's Grand Plan. They were constantly on guard for an apocalypse called "Point Omega, or Shokaract, the battle that would decide the final fate of the Transformer race." They would occasionally receive warnings from a god called the Chronarchitect, such as when Unicron's 2005 attack on Cybertron loomed. And they received another sometime just before BW Megatron left for prehistoric Earth. It was on this warning that four of the Covenant time-traveled to various temporal hot-spots. Three returned empty-handed, but the fourth (Scorpius) hit paydirt in the far future of the 32nd century.
Calling himself "Sandstorm," he aligned himself with the Predacons and came to lead the resistance against an interplanetary warlord with the portentious name of Shokaract. Shokaract had once been a Predacon soldier himself, under the command of some Megatron or other and known simply as "the Hunter." It's unclear when this was, but at some point, the Hunter was on Earth, pursued by Maximals. He took refuge in a cave, where he made a grand discovery: The essence of Unicron.
For in this timeline, when Unicron appeared to have been destroyed in 2005, he had actually thrown his own essence back in time at the moment of his defeat. Somehow he ended up deep in a cave on prehistoric Earth, weakened and waiting for someone to discover him. Eons passed, but eventually salvation did come in the form of the Hunter, who took the "Dark Essence" and used its power to create an empire spanning the galaxy. Naming himself "Shokaract" and bearing the "Matrix of Conquest," his supremacy seemed secure. But for some reason, in the aforementioned 32nd century, he became worried about a "dimensional key" on Earth during the Beast Wars, a device that apparently was related to a "great unraveling, a disruption to the timeline that had to be righted."
He sends one of his top lieutenants (or "Heralds") back in time to retrieve the dimensional key. This agent is Antagony, and it becomes clear that the mysterious "artifact" from Visitations was the dimensional key. Moreover, the "shadowy figure" who got it first was its owner, Apelinq. It seems the device was his "transfer interlink," an uncannily powerful tool he uses for many purposes. This element of the plot will be covered later. Suffice it to say that Antagony failed, she was captured by Megatron, and rather than reveal her secrets to his brain-scan, she mind-wipes herself into vegetablehood.
So Shokaract begins preparing another Herald, Cataclysm, to discover Antagony's fate and check on the Dark Essence. When the resistance catches wind of this, desperate plans are hatched to stop him. One of the rebels, called simply "the Veteran" (probably an aged Swoop), captures Cataclysm's rejected and half-dead "fission-brother," who is called "the Cub." Sandstorm orders the Veteran to merge his spark with the Cub in order to gain whatever crucial information would get them inside Shokaract's base. The merger works, and the resulting Transformer called "Windrazor" makes for Shokaract's palace.
Simultaneously, Sandstorm takes a team in search of a strange quasi-reality called "J'nwan," reached through a maddening dimensional rift on Cybertron. Many of the Autobot and Decepticon heroes of old had retreated there after their war was finished, and he tries to enlist their aid in the coming apocalypse. However, his team gets destroyed passing through the rift, and his pleas to the legendary figures are rebuffed, so he returns empty-handed. Eventually, he decides that he must go back to the Beast Wars himself, a decision that's reflected by the rest of the Covenant, who independently choose to make the temporal trip as well.
Meanwhile, Windrazor's infiltration of Shokaract's fortress goes swimmingly, and he assaults Cataclysm just as the Herald is opening a transwarp portal to the Beast era. The two go tumbling through the vortex, and Windrazor manages to throw Cataclysm outside the temporal tunnel and into oblivion. Windrazor lands on prehistoric Earth, and his first sight is that of dragon Megatron rising from a volcano (presumably the last scene of "Master Blaster"). Windrazor also discovers that Cataclysm's destruction wasn't quite complete: A tracking device also survived the trip. He uses it to search for the Dark Essence, all the while unknowingly followed by the Beast Warriors (who had detected his arrival). While battles erupt behind him, he finds the fateful cave and the Dark Essence within. Unicron possesses Windrazor, and the combined being attacks the Beast Warriors. But when the Veteran and the Cub team up to resist the evil influence, they exorcise themselves of the Essence, which retreats back to its cave.
Then... Shokaract arrives.
And he begins to live up to his name. As he and the Beasties battle, the Covenanti arrive from the future and assault him as well. Megatron, though, guesses correctly at Shokaract's intentions, and he slinks into the cave to fire upon the Dark Essence. It seems that Unicron is in constant danger of being pulled back to 2005, and the threat posed by Megatron's onslaught is critical. So Shokaract uses the future Dark Essence that he carries with him to cement the past Dark Essence's hold in space-time.
Meanwhile, temporal reality begins to break apart: Beast Warriors from alternate timelines (like Polar Claw and Torca) are pulled into the melee. Plus several G1 figures (such as Optimus Prime and Megatron) also arrive from the future, having reconsidered their J'nwan solitude. Even Apelinq, who had silently observed the Beast Wars for quite some time, pitches in at last. As Shokaract fends off these new combatants, he somehow resurrects the mind-wiped Antagony and atomized Cataclysm. However, the Covenanti turn themselves into energy beings and enter his Matrix of Conquest, where they fight Unicron's Essence and sever the bond that's holding the past Essence in place.
As the past Essence is pulled to its final destiny, history begins to rewrite itself. Transwarp portals open for all the displaced combatants, and as they retreat to their own times and places, Shokaract explodes mightily.
And finally, we see the Hunter, on his way to the cave where his dark destiny awaits, but what he discovers... is nothing at all.
Apelinq's War Journals
Botcon.com online bonus 2000-2001 (text available [here.])
Mention must also be made of the side-story called Apelinq's War Journals, which both explains and leaves frustratingly unelaborated the presence of its titular character, who is arguably the center of the whole "Omega Point" affair. Apelinq was a Squadron Commander of the Wreckers at the time of BW Megatron's return from the past. These journal entries reflect Apelinq's growing alarm at the beginning of Megatron's assault. He expresses frustration at the bureaucracy as Peace Marshals go missing. Then suddenly Megatron's paralyzing virus sweeps across the planet, and Apelinq survives by developing a "shield suit." He finds fellow Wrecker Rodimus, whose "somewhat… unique physiology" made him immune. Apelinq uses this information to create an inoculant against the virus.
When Primal Prime and his team of Maximals arrive from post-BW prehistoric Earth, Apelinq inoculates him. But they're attacked by the Vehicon Mirage, who plunges Apelinq into the same transwarp portal that Primal Prime & co. had come through. Apelinq manages to dispatch Mirage in some fashion, but not without losing track of his transfer interlink and antiviral program. However, he finds both and gets his bearings, secretly observing the Beast Wars while he waits for a "temporal polestar" that will allow his transfer interlink to reopen the transwarp portal he came through. Unfortunately, though, this only happens when Shokaract arrives, and he finds himself thrust into the middle of that Armageddon.
TF Universe: Wreckers #1
BotCon '01 comic (scans available here.)
Like Critical Mass and Visitations, this comic isn't part of Reaching the Omega Point proper, but it's notable for a brief bit of epilogue. As Shokaract was being destroyed, Apelinq grabbed Windrazor and returned to his own early-Beast-Machines future, where he reunites with Primal Prime and ends up running into the Oracle-reformatted Optimus Primal. Primal doesn't remember Apelinq, nor does he remember the apocalyptic tale of Shokaract's arrival and destruction in the Beast Wars. Apelinq chalks this up to Shokaract's timeline having been entirely erased, leaving only "a few of us" with memories intact.
Analysis
Continuity
Where does Omega Point "fit"? The simple answer is that it was written concurrently with Beast Wars and Beast Machines, so it fits as an addendum to those series. It's no accident that the show-tie-in segments of the story proceed from season one to two to three to Beast Machines; that's what was on TV when those stories were written.
Notably, though, while Omega Point was intended to complement BW/BM, the reverse is not true. There is no evidence that the show writers were even aware of the con-exclusive storyline. There IS one Omega Point reference in BW, but that's in the episode that was written by the Omega Point author, Simon Furman. And it's barely a reference: The term "Covenant of Primus" is used, but as a holy book, not the group.
But, that all having been said, does Omega Point actually WORK as a piece of the BW 'toon universe? There are a couple of rough spots, but due to the all of the quasi-paradoxical temporal wackiness, a lot could be dismissed with hand-waving if need be.
Time travel
Omega Point's resolution - the destruction of the Shokaract timeline - seems to fly in the face of a classic time-travel snag: the "grandfather paradox." That is to say, if you travel back in time and kill your own grandfather, then you'll negate your own existence, so you wouldn't have time-traveled, so your grandpa wouldn't have been killed, so you would exist, so his untimely death would still happen, onward and onward. Likewise, Shokaract's defeat meant the Dark Essence was pulled back to 2005, meaning it wasn't there in the cave eons later for the Hunter to find, so he didn't become Shokaract, so there was no battle over the cave during the Beast Wars, so the Essence was in the cave... and so on.
Elements remaining
- The Covenant of Primus. The Covenant's creation and mission predate even Cybertron itself, so there's no way the destruction of the Shokaract timeline - which at most only reached back to prehistoric Earth - would've cancelled them out. In fact, it may even have done them some good: Eight Covenanti died fighting Shokaract in the last battle. Since that battle has been negated, it stands to reason that those deaths would've been nullified as well. The Covenant's long history and temporal sophistication make it likely that they exist in many TF universes, much like The 13.
- The Hunter. As the last scene of Reaching the Omega Point shows, the Hunter still exists at some point, fleeing for his life on Earth and taking refuge in a cave. It's possible that the context has changed, but for simplicity's sake, let's assume his circumstances are identical. By the chronology of the story, it seems to happen within 200 years after BW Megatron's departure for prehistoric Earth. (There is a scene focusing on Leonicus, leader of the Covenant, some 200 years after the Chronarchitect's appearance. During that scene, he muses about the rise of a Predacon warlord called "Shokaract.") But who would the Hunter have been under the command of? A Predacon in BM Megatron's Vehicon army would've been very out-of-place. And Megatron showed no sign of meddling on Earth during his BM reign. Maybe Megatron would eventually return from his apparent destruction at the end of BM, and this time he wouldn't be so "purity"-minded. Or maybe it's an entirely new character by that name. Nonetheless, it remains a point of curiosity.
- Apelinq. Apelinq's presence in the Beast Wars had nothing to do with Shokaract. Shokaract was the one reacting to him. So in the revised, non-Shokky timeline, Apelinq would still appear during BW season two, lose his transfer interlink, then recover it. He seemed quite reticent to interfere with the past; it was only the extreme situation of Shokaract's assault that brought him into the open. So, in the absence of Shokaract, Apelinq would probably just skulk around and eventually go back to the BM era without interacting at all. Oddly, though, the Apelinq who did reappear in the BM era had memories of Omega Point. No explanation for this is ever given.
Elements negated
- Shokaract. The Hunter doesn't find the Dark Essence. He keeps on being the Hunter. End of story.
- The Matrix of Conquest. This only existed as the manifestation of the Dark Essence within Shokaract. It could possibly exist in other timelines by other contexts, but there is no evidence of this.
- Antagony and Cataclysm. They are only known to us as 32nd-century Heralds of Shokaract; if they do still exist, it's in very different circumstances. And certainly Antagony no longer shows up in the middle of the Beast Wars for Megatron to torture.
- Point Omega, the final battle. There's no need to shoehorn an apocalyptic showdown in-between Master Blaster and Other Victories. As Primal's memory attests, it no longer happened.
- Sandstorm. Scorpius adopted this alias and became a Predacon rebel leader as part of his mission to uncover the truth about the coming Point Omega. With Point Omega negated, it's likely he never would've done this.
Elements of uncertain fate
- Windrazor. By all rights, Windrazor shouldn't exist anymore. The Veteran/Cub merger happened in Shokaract's 32nd century due directly to Shokaract's actions. But when the final Omega Point battle is coming to an end, we see Apelinq carrying Windrazor, about to go through a transwarp portal. If Apelinq's memories were preserved, then perhaps bringing Windrazor through also preserved his very existence. On the other hand, we never see Windrazor after that panel, so it's also possible he vanished off of Apelinq's back.
- Fractyl, Packrat, Vice Grip, and Onyx Primal. On the face of it, their presence in the Beast Wars is unrelated to Shokaract. But it's tempting to group them with the other Shokaract-specific elements because of the contradiction they embody: They interact with the main BW characters as though they've been around all along, but the cartoon storyline was a tight one with a small cast. It stretches credibility to suggest that these four could've really been "just offscreen" the whole time. If their part of the slate could be wiped clean at the end of Omega Point, it would be convenient. And it could: The Shokaract timeline doesn't diverge just when the Hunter finds the Dark Essence. Differences may begin to accumulate in 2005, when Unicron vanishes instead of facing his destruction. Perhaps it's not destruction per se that awaits, but a change: absorption into the Matrix or imprisonment in his own floating head or whatever. In the centuries between that event and the crewing of the Axalon and the assembly of Megatron's cadre, maybe Unicron's unnatural absence created subtle discrepancies, such as the extra four characters being members of the teams. This theory is supported by the fact that none of the four appear in the Primeval Dawn storyline, which is set on prehistoric Earth just after the Beast Wars. In fact, only two are ever seen again: Fractyl and Packrat, on Cybertron with Primal Prime's Wreckers. But this evidence is inconclusive, since Primeval Dawn is an incomplete story, and the Wrecker team was cobbled together from all different places, including BW-era Earth. So while Fractyl and Packrat still could have been on prehistoric Earth, it's simply a tidier assumption that they weren't.
- J'nwan. The J'nwan region itself isn't given an origin, nor do we know when the heroes of old departed into it. So both aspects could be either firmly entrenched in the Beast saga, or they could be merely curious but nullified artifacts of the Shokaract timeline.
Continuity, reprise
We can see that, with time-travel effects taken into account, it's not difficult at all to mesh Omega Point with the BW 'toon. And it adds several unique, intriguing ideas to the Beast universe. With the Primus origin and 2005 Unicronian climax, it also reinforces the notion that the "G1" backstory of BW is a hodgepodge of cartoon and comic elements, not a literal continuation of either timeline.
The only remaining continuity "snag" is the IDW Beast Wars comic. The events of Omega Point flow directly into 3H Productions' other comic series, Universe and Universe: Wreckers. And those books' timeline is incompatible with IDW-BW due to the treatment of Magmatron and Ravage. So by extension, Omega Point and IDW-BW can be considered mutually exclusive. But neither need "cancel the other out." The TF multiverse is filled with divergent, half-related continuities. These are but two more.
Trivia/Oddities
- Botcon.com presents Herald as chapter 4 of Reaching the Omega Point. The Botcon 2000 comic's presentation places it (more sensibly) as a prequel.
- The name Reaching the Omega Point was not christened until Botcon 1999, but is retroactively applied to the Botcon 1998 script, which served as the storyline's opening act.