Lonesome Diesel

An aging trucker befriends a Mini-con fleeing the war on Cybertron.

Vital Statistics
Writer: David Bischoff Pagecount: 29pp Major characters: Originally published: In the Transformers Legends anthology, November 2004
 * Jake Williams
 * QuickFire
 * RipTide

Synopsis
When QuickFire's Autobot partner Riptide is gravely wounded, QuickFire transports him to Earth, hoping to effect the slow repairs needed there.

On approach, QuickFire notices the distressed thought-pattern of a human telepath Jake Williams and, attracted to Jake's vintage 57 Ford pickup, lands near him. Though RipTide falls into stasis-lock after reconfiguring himself into a Streamliner truck (drawn from the former-trucker Jake's memories) QuickFire, linked to his Autobot partner, is able to control him.

QuickFire uses electromagnetic therapy to revitalize the aged Jake, and make him an attractive offer; return to trucking, to better conceal them from Decepticon detection while he attempts to revive RipTide. Jake accepts.

For seven months, Jake and QuickFire crisscross the country, taking freight. Jake will drive until he's sleepy, then Quickfire takes over. This, combined with QuickFire's finessing of the weigh-stations with anti-gravity has them living very comfortably while RipTide, though not yet awake, makes steady progress.

But, discovering that a fight between the Autobots and the Decepticons in Yellowstone National Park threatens to create a mega-volcano that would devastate the American west coast, they reluctantly break cover to inform Optimus Prime. RipTide awakens on the way, and when Megatron threatens to destroy Optimus, he attacks the Decepticon leader directly. When Megatron rips QuickFire (who transforms into RipTide's engine block) out, Jake launches his pickup off a cliff into Megatron, causing him to lsoe the Mini-Con. He follows this injury with insult- a pair of shotgun shells.

After the battle, Optimus Prime promises to retrieve and restore Jake's pickup, but surprises everyone by not wanting RipTide and QuickFire to remain with the Autobots. Rather than be targets for Megatron's plans to capture Mini-cons, he orders them to return to their happy life hauling cargo across America's wide highways.

Continuity
Lonesome Diesel takes the place in its own continuity, a hydrid of elements from Armada and Generation 1 (generally favoring Armada.) Distinguishing elements include: Shockwave among the Decepticons, Hot Shot among the Autobots, Iacon and portions of the Primus mythology otherwise only found in Generation 1, nt Armada continuities. The Autobot and Decepticon presence on Earth was the stuff of conspiracy theories up until a few years prior to the present of Lonesome Diesel's 2004 publication, but is now widely known

Trivia/Notes

 * Jake's shotgun goes from being cradles in his hands, to stowed in the back of this truck, then back into his hands. Whups!
 * The earliest encounters with Autobots and Decepticons in this continuity apparently took place in Japan.
 * Mini-Cons appear vanishingly rare in this continuity; neither side has any.
 * Unlike the real world, Lonesome Diesel's Yellowstone National Park is dangerous tectonic hot zone on the edge of disaster. This difference may be a result of the Mini-Cons construed, not stated explicitly under the park.

Quotes

 * "Oh, John Wesley Harding on crutches!" - Jake Williams, swearing in amazement


 * "I'll get you human, and your little dog too!" - Megatron, just been pee'd on by Yeller