Subaquatic stealth vessel


 * The subaquatic stealth vessel is a submarine from the Beast Wars portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.



It looks like a ball turret, it sounds like a bicycle, it bounces like a pinball, it has no energy signature -- it's a subaquatic stealth vessel, or a submarine in plain language. Blackarachnia built it, but it was poor Rattrap who had to operate it.

It features a single propeller driven by a hand crank, an external manipulator arm, floodlights (also powered by the hand crank), and a radar system and proximity alert. It's not very large; apart from Blackarachnia, only Rattrap could fit inside, and it was a stretch for him.

Beast Wars


Charged with defending their inert ancestors aboard the Ark, the Maximals tried to use Teletraan I's shields to guard their base, to no avail. Optimus Primal's next plan was to salvage the Sentinel shield module from the sunken ruins of the Axalon. Depth Charge, the only Maximal capable of underwater operation, refused to answer the call -- but Blackarachnia came up with a backup plan, constructing a small submarine to search the Axalon's wreckage. Over his vociferous protests, Primal nominated Rattrap to pilot it.

Silverbolt carried Rattrap and the submarine to the lake at the bottom of the cliffs where the old Maximal base had stood, and unceremoniously dropped him into the water. Rattrap, after an initial moment of panic, discovered that piloting the sub was actually pretty fun.

Making his way into the murky remains of the ship, Rattrap located Sentinel, still attached to the main computer core. His first attempt to wrench it free with the sub's manipulator only scared out an eel; before he could start a second attempt, the proximity alarm sounded -- something was approaching, fast!

Rattrap attempted to escape the ship, but a claw loomed up out of the darkness, as Rampage siezed and began to crush the defenseless ship. As Rattrap watched helplessly, the compressed ship sprang a leak and creaked ominously; only the timely arrival of Depth Charge kept Rattrap from becoming Rampage's latest victim. While the two powerhouses fought it out, Rattrap returned to the computer core and pulled Sentinel loose. Blowing the sub's ballast, he rose to the surface as the Axalon's wreckage sank deeper, dislodged by the fighting below.

Silverbolt pulled Rattrap and the sub out of the water, but an attack by Waspinator sent his cargo tumbling to the ground. The submarine bounced wildly off the rocky terrain, losing most of its external parts in the process. Whether the Maximals abandoned it there is not known, but it had completed its mission and was not seen again.