Thundercracker TFP

"Trying to catch me would be foolish."

- Thundercracker

Thundercracker is a Decepticon Seeker featured in War for Cybertron as a playable character.

War for Cybertron
Thundercracker served with Skywarp, Jetfire, and the former Sky Commander Starscream on a dilapidated orbital research station that once experimented on the powerful, but highly dangerous Dark Energon. This made it a target for the leader of the Decepticons, Megatron, who wished to restart Dark Energon production in his plans to revitalise Cybertron. Megatron attacked the station and fought his way into the laboratory, and despite Starscream's attempts to destroy the remaining Dark Energon, Megatron withstood its destructive power and bent it to his will. His survival intrigued Starscream, who offered to serve Megatron in exchange for learning how to manipulate Dark Energon himself; Thundercracker and Skywarp fell into line. Jetfire declared them traitors and left to warn Zeta Prime. Thundercracker and Skywarp were prepared to give chase, but Megatron allowed the Autobot to leave, as he wished Zeta Prime to know his demise was coming. However, the Decepticon commander scoffed at the idea of being given what he could simply take from Starscream, until the one-time Sky Commander revealed that there was very little Dark Energon left on the research station, but he knew how to manufacture more, and that the ancient, long-forgotten Geosynchronous Energon Bridge needed to be reactivated before they could do so. Thundercracker, Starscream and Skywarp were sent the cliffs of Kaon, where they could make their way into the underground. Thundercracker commented with wonder that he had never travelled this far into Cybertron before, for which Skywarp labelled him as being boring as always. As they entered an underground energon reservoir, Thundercracker warned his teammates to avoid touching the flowing streams and waterfalls of crude energon, as in that state is was extremely volatile; Skywarp once again mocked his companion's thoughtfulness. Making their way out of the reservoir, the three fliers faced their first serious challenge when an Autobot cruiser appeared in a canyon they needed to travel through. The trio crippled the cruiser's weapons system, fought their way past the Aerialbot squadron it launched, and moved into the ship. Defeating the ship's defenders, they then destroyed it by placing a detpack on the ship's power core. While Starscream and Skywarp busied themselves with glory hogging and relishing the battle against the Autobots, Thundercracker tried to keep them alive, using his Energon repair ray to heal their wounds. Deeper in the core, they encountered strange creatures the likes of which Thundercracker had never seen before. Eventually, they found themselves before the mechanism needed to restart the Energon Bridge, but Thundercracker's scans detected something very unusual about the machine. Starscream, tired of Thundercracker's readings and sensors, pushed his way past and injected Dark Energon into it without waiting for more information. Perhaps he should have listened to Thundercracker, as the machine activated its defense systems, revealing itself to be the Energon Bridge Guardian. The three Decepticons were forced to fight a desperate battle where the Sentinel threw heat-seeking fireballs at them, activated powerful energy beams and turned the floor into lava. Exploiting the machine's cooling down period, they were eventually victorious, and barely escaped with their lives when the Dark Energon infected the facility and reactivated the Energon Bridge, which sent its energon bouncing along satellites to Megatron's Dark Energon facility. Thundercracker remarked his amazement at this...but not until after Skywarp did. Y'know, TC, it's all well and good for you to be thoughtful and careful, but when Skywarp beats you to the punch in stating the blindly obvious, you might want to speed it up. Shortly after the defeat of Zeta Prime, Iacon's guardian Omega Supreme gave chase to Megatron, though based on Megatron's attitude it was hard to tell exactly who was chasing whom at times. At one point, Megatron even ordered Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker to attack the behemoth, if only to provide a distraction. The three apparently eluded him after drawing his fire, however, as after Omega had cornered Megatron's team at an Autobot anti-aircraft terrace (or, depending on who you talk to, when Megatron tricked him into attacking them there), Omega's armour was breached by Megatron using the heavy guns, and Starscream led Skywarp and Thundercracker in shooting down the mighty Autobot, forcing him to crash land in a sub-level below. After Megatron defeated Omega Supreme on the ground and forced him to open the Omega Gate, Thundercracker and the others watched as Megatron achieved his plan to infect Cybertron's core with Dark Energon.

DS Version
Thundercracker served under Megatron loyally during the final days of the war. He followed Megatron into battle against the titanic Autobot Omega Supreme, but not without expressing his numbing fear of the giant first.

Exodus
When Decepticons bombed Altihex Casino, Starscream told Sentinel Prime that Thundercracker and Skywarp were his trusted lieutenants and that they would take him to safety. They actually took him to Kaon, from where he was then moved to Moon Base One and imprisoned.

Exiles
To be Added

Unreliable Narratives
During the war for Cybertron, Thundercracker was stationed at a Decepticon science installation located in Ankmor. Thundercracker was aiding his fellow scientist Shockwave in extracting the Sparks of the Decepticons Rumble and Frenzy in order to put them in Laser core containment chambers, which would then allow them to permanently switch between different bodies. Thundercracker started the experiment, and, in a flash of light, Rumble and Frenzy were transferred into their new bodies. As the two smaller 'cons bickered over whether Shockwave had gotten their colors right, two Autobots burst into the lab, one of them demanding that the Decepticons leave his lab. Thundercracker released Rumble and Frenzy to backup Shockwave and himself. However, the Autobot Wheeljack revealed that years ago he had lined his lab with explosives and unstable energon. Unable to use weapons, Thundercracker and his allies engaged their foes in hand-to-hand combat. After losing Rumble and Frenzy, Shockwave and Thundercracker decided to retreat instead of risking Wheeljack setting off the explosives he had rigged in his lab, never realizing that the Wrecker had been bluffing. Thundercracker and Shockwave would reconvene with Rumble and Frenzy at Kaon, where Soundwave demanded that they return the two to their original bodies.

Retribution
Thundercracker and the Seekers were later used as disposable assets by Megatron, sending them out to investigate an Autobot signal that Megatron suspected was part of a larger trap. Sure enough, Thundertron and the Star Seekers were behind the signal, and Thundercracker barely escaped back to the Nemesis with his hide intact.

Later, Thundercracker was among the Decepticon on Aquatron captured by the Quintessons. They were forced to stand trial for a litany of imagined crimes and found innocent, sentenced to death. Thundercracker and several other Decepticons were fed to the Piranacons in the Hall of Justice.

Video Games

 * "War for Cybertron" (Debut)
 * "War for Cybertron (DS)" (Unlockable Character)
 * "Cybertron Adventures"
 * "Rise of the Dark Spark" (Via GameStop preorder/DLC/Escalation Only)

Novel Series

 * "Exodus"
 * "Exiles"
 * "Retribution" (Killed)

Timelines

 * "Unreliable Narratives"

Trivia

 * Thundercracker is usable in both the Autobot and Decepticon versions of the War for Cybertron games for the DS. Used only for multiplayer, bonus missions and Arena mode in the Autobot version and used in Multiplayer, Arena mode, and campaign in the Decepticon version.
 * Thundercracker was made a pre-order at Gamestop included in the "Weathered Warrior Pack". He was later made a DLC and can be downloaded for use in Escalation. His default ability is the Heal Beam, and his default weapon is the Neutron Assault Rifle.