The ICS Excalibur II
The first Excalibur was a prototype warship built by the finest minds in the Cybertronian Commonwealth, meant to serves a sister vessel to the Commonwealth’s flagship, the Sword in the Stone. Instead, it was commandeered by the heroes of Twilight of the Golden Age to ferry them on their quest throughout the Prime Colonies. It received numerous augmentations from the Forge of Solus Prime to better serve our heroes, but it sadly met its end in the final battle over Cybertron. Now, in the age of the New Imperium of Cybertron, gigantion shipbuilders have constructed a successor to the Excalibur: the Imperial Cybertronian Ship Excalibur II.
Excalibur II measures at roughly a thousand feet long, with sleek, jet-black hull plating, neon green exterior lights, and the same silhouette as her predecessor, taken from this piece of concept art by Robert Simmons:
Excalibur II has twin thrusters that each rotate on an axis to provide directional control, branching out from either side of a large ion engine. Heavily armed for a frigate, she boasts twin electromagnetic coilguns and a pair of plasma beam cannons, along with with four point-defense laser turrets. Built into the end of her prow is a warp cannon, a mighty weapon that distorts space to blast a torrent of energized particles at a target with devastating results.
Excalibur II has two main decks. Deck One is devoted to a small hangar and the engineering bay. The hangar has an armory and ready room for ground teams, and also features a Ground Bridge gate- a scaled down version of Space Bridge tech that can transport ground teams anywhere within a generous radius around Excalibur II. Deck Two is the crew deck, with quarters for Excalibur II’s personnel, a state of the art medical bay, and maintenance rooms for the ship’s weapons, sensors, and probes.
Above Deck Two is Excalibur II’s bridge. The captain overlooks their subordinates from a seat at the back of the room, in the middle of an array of consoles and hologram projectors. The pilot flies the ship from the front of the bridge, flanked by helmsmen and weapons crews on their left and right. The pilot also manages communications and navigational duties.
Excalibur II also plays host to a sentient AI named Teletraan Kappa, the successor to the Teletraan Iota AI of the original Excalibur. He performs many duties aboardship, such as operating the point-defense guns in battle and maintaining automated systems. In emergency situations, Teletraan Kappa is also capable of assuming control of normally manned functions and operating Excalibur II largely by himself, with only a few crewmembers required to assist him. His operating efficiency is greatly reduced in this state, however, which is why this ability is only used in dire situations.
Crew
Gravastar
Name: Gravastar
Homeworld: Cybertron
Appearance: in robot mode, Gravastar is twenty-one feet tall, with a slim, humanoid figure and sleek black armor with purple trim. A pair of angled wings rise from her back, while shorts fins come up from her shoulders. Gravastar has two swept-back fringes atop her head, and her eyes glow a dark shade of blue.
Alt-mode: Gravastar transforms into a cybertronian spacefighter, similar in design to Destiny 2’s Platinum Starling ship:
(Credit to artist Kan Xie)
Weapons: in robot mode, Gravastar can reform her forearms into automatic plasma rifles, and she can deploy short energy blades from her wrists. In vehicle mode, she has access to her plasma guns, which are mounted on the jet’s underside.
Bio: Gravastar was a daring soldier in the air corps branch of the Cybertron Elite Guard, where she commanded a wing of flying transformers. She earned particular recognition in the battle over Cybertron five thousand years ago, when her troops provided life-saving air support to ground battalions on Unicron’s sparkchamber. With her proficiency in leadership proven, she was given command of Excalibur II upon its completion. Gravastar is the kind of bot who doesn’t back down from a fight, and her defiant spirit spreads to her crew in times of peril.
Redshift
Name: Redshift
Homeworld: Velocitron
Appearance: Redshift is twenty feet tall in robot mode with a lean figure made from the mechanisms of her vehicle form held in shape by angular sections of its crimson hull. These components are studded with numerous blue lights, and her eyes are hidden behind a black visor.
Alt-mode: Redshift transforms into an unarmed cybertronian jet, similar in design to this spaceship designed by an artist named Tyler Bartley:
Weapons: in robot mode, Redshift can transform her right hand into an automatic energon pistol.
Abilities: being from Velocitron, Redshift is light on her feet and possesses reflexes beyond the norm for most transformers of her size.
Bio: A ten-time champion of the Northern Orbital Games from her home planet, Redshift was a test pilot in the Imperial Cybertronian Navy before being assigned to Excalibur II- in fact, she flew some of the prototypes that preceded the frigate. She is an unorthodox and daring pilot, with a competitive streak a lightyear wide that inspires her to treat everything as a challenge.
Megaton
Name: Megaton
Homeworld: Bellator
Subtype: Megaton possesses a meiotic spark, allowing him to divide his body and consciousness among three separate bodies.
Appearance: Megaton’s combined form stands roughly twenty-seven feet tall. He’s a massive bot with blocky offwhite armor, a broad chest with shoulders to match, and a pair of cannons mounted on his back. Megaton’s face is a featureless gold visor, and a rectangular crest rises from his forehead.
Megaton can split himself into three smaller bodies. Two of them look almost identical, with stocky builds and one of the main body’s shoulder cannons mounted on their backs, while the third is leaner and sports a pair of blasters on each forearm.
Alt-mode: Megaton transforms into an eight-wheeled cybertronian vehicle which resembles an armored truck, crowned with the giant cannons from his robot mode. Megaton’s smaller bodies cannot transform.
Weapons: the weapons on Megaton’s back are powerful rail guns, and his arms can transform into plasma cannons. Each of Megaton’s two larger bodies carry kinetic assault rifles, in addition to the weapons mentioned above.
Bio: a starship takes many hands to operate, and it helps if a few pairs of those hands are all operated by one mind. With his consciousness divided among three bodies, Megaton mans Excalibur II’s weapons and sensor arrays. By necessity, he is an adept multitasker, though he’s often so buried in his many assignments that it can be hard to get his attention for anything not pertaining to his duty.
His name is not Megatron. He’s rather insistent about that. Best not to bring it up, really.
Lampyridae
Name: Lampyridae
Homeworld: Eukaris
Appearance: Lampyridae is eighteen feet tall in her robot mode, with a lanky silhouette, long arms ending in four-fingered talons, and digitigrade legs. A pair of large insectoid wings from her beast mode hang from her hips, while another pair dangle off the small of her back. Lampyridae’s armor is mostly purple, with electric-blue lights on her legs and torso and four yellow eyes on her horned head.
Alt-mode: Lampyridae transforms into a large mechanical beetle-like creature, with two sets of mandibles, a large horn at the front of an eyeless head, and glowing circuits running along its wings, thorax, and abdomen.
Weapons: in robot mode, Lampyridae has sharp blades on her forearms and the tips of her claws, and she can deploy cannons which shoot globs of acid at enemies. In beast mode, she is possessed of sharp pincers and blades at the ends of her legs, and her horn can transform into a laser cannon.
Bio: Lampyridae is an insecticon hive queen who took her brood with her into service in the cybertronian armed forces. They’ve all been assigned to Excalibur II, where she serves as the chief engineer. The insecticons under her influence are her subordinates, and help her maintain the ship’s systems. Lampyridae is possessed of a sharp wit and strong personality unusual for most hive queens, who are typically more passive and impersonal.
Moreyn
Name: Moreyn
Homeworld: Eukaris
Appearance: eighteen feet tall in robot mode, Moreyn bears black and grey armor that forms an open longcoat over his torso and legs, which reaches down to his ankles. He is a slender humanoid with a face consisting of a pair of big, round blue eyes and a curved, white beak- like a human plague doctor’s mask. The top of his head is shaped like a wide-brimmed hat.
Alt-mode: Moreyn transforms into a large robotic bird that could be likened to a crow or raven, with large wings made from dull metal blades around a pair of turbines that allow him to fly.
Weapons: Moreyn wields a sniper rifle which can transform into a giant scythe, or collapse into a long staff.
Equipment: Moreyn’s hands can transform into a variety of repair tools, and an energon repair ray is built into his right arm.
Bio: Moreyn is an aloof eukarian transformer who left his homeworld to save lives across the galaxy. That mission has led him to the medbay of Excalibur II, serving as the frigate’s medical officer. His bedside manner could use some work, with his demeanor having been described as unnervingly quiet and severe.
Trenchfoot
Name: Trenchfoot
Homeworld: Cybertron
Appearance: standing seventeen feet tall, Trenchfoot is a humanoid bot with sturdy olive-drab armor accented by grey and dusty red, which rises as a collar around his neck. His boot-like feet are brown and often blemished with scrapes and burns, his hands are black, and his face is shaped like a World War I gas mask: with two orange eyes beneath a pair of circular lenses, and a short snout tipped with a cylindrical cap beneath them. The sides and back of his head form a built-in helmet around his cranium.
Alt-mode: Trenchfoot transforms into a boxy armored car, crowned with a rail cannon and a machine gun turret.
Weapons: in robot mode, Trenchfoot wields a lever-action rifle and he can deploy blades from his wrists. His body can also produce fragmentation grenades from microfabricators in his thighs.
Bio: Trenchfoot is the model cybertronian soldier: he is brave and dutiful, he cares deeply for the bots under his command, and he is a gentleman off the battlefield. He commands a detachment of marines assigned to Excalibur II for ground operations, and he keeps his subordinates sharp and well-disciplined.