JHIAXUS

By Raksha
Based upon the character created by Simon Furman

ALLEGIANCE: Decepticon
FUNCTION: various throughout life
FIRST APPEARANCE: Transformers Generation 2, issue 1

MOTTO: "We are Decepticons. There is nothing we cannot face, nothing we cannot fight, nothing we cannot crush!"

APPEARANCE: Jhiaxus is a large, almost ponderous Transformer who exudes an air of ominous power and brooding majesty. His basic color is a polished chrome, from his broad shoulders to his powerful arms and legs, though his hands, feet, and face are a matte gold. An ornate helmet of an impressive deep-scarlet color surrounds his face, from which two narrow optics peer, in luminous pale green - a gaze of such unwavering confidence and dark musings that most would find it decidedly unnerving. A pair of serrated wings in dark green sweep upward from behind his shoulders, and the gold cockpit that makes up his chest and torso, is adorned with a purple Decepticon symbol.

His Stratobomber jet mode is shaped vaguely like a giant predatory fish, dorsoventrally flattened with serrated wings out to both sides, dark metal above and chrome below. The gold-rimmed cockpit takes up part of the upper surface, decorated with a small Decepticon symbol, below which are two angled sensors that appear very much like eyes. Rising from the back of the craft is a scarlet cannon, a bit reminiscent of a dorsal fin. Additional, powerful cannons are affixed to the underside of the craft, which can spew death in multiple forms.

PROFILE: Jhiaxus is in every sense of the word a Decepticon Warlord -commanding, imperious, ruthless. He lives by a strict honor code and standards of success and skill that everyone around him, enemy or ally, must live up to, or face the fatal consequences. He has his dark side, the impassive savoring of slow torture, the sadistic pleasure that comes from seeing a prisoner artfully executed. But somewhere deep within him, buried under layers of grim survival and unspeakable burdens, he retains the driving vision of his youth - to seize the future and make it a better one for his species. Somewhere within him still is the memory that each of his underlings is a functioning Decepticon, and their lives are not to be risked casually. This aspect of his nature is not easy to bring out, however, shielded as it is by his ominous presence that deters most underlings from trying to approach him. He spends much of his time wrapped in his own dark thoughts, and tends to be uncommunicative when not giving orders, seldom sharing what goes through his mind. Still, his troops have the utmost respect for him, as he is highly efficient both in directing others, and in plunging into combat himself. His sense of justice is harsh but fair, and he never goes back on his word once given.

HISTORY: Jhiaxus began life as one of the countless thousands of cogs in the machinery of the Decepticon war effort - one of the nameless, faceless aerial minions that were sent in masses against the enemy, and that often died in masses without the high command seeming to take much notice. But unlike so many others around him, Jhiaxus survived - and each time he survived a suicide mission while his compatriots fell out of the sky around him, he became more determined to keep right on surviving. He carefully hoarded his energon rations and used them, a bit at a time, to pay for upgrades to his design - better armor, more powerful engines, heavier artillery.

As was inevitable for someone who proved himself capable of outliving the odds and who showed considerable battle skill, he began to be steadily promoted. He had finally reached subcommander status in a small battle group, when his group commander ordered an attack that Jhiaxus and others believed would lead them straight into an Autobot trap. Ignoring the suspicions of reconnaissance, the commander insisted upon forging ahead - but ran up against Jhiaxus, who was unwilling to stand by and allow their whole group to be wiped out. Heated words led to blows, and then in the passion of the moment, weapons were drawn, and- in the end Jhiaxus found himself standing over the smoldering remains of his former commander. Shocked by the realization that now, by right of ascension, he was in command of the battle group, he gathered his wits about him as best he could and ordered a withdrawal from the region while he contemplated what to do next. Aerial spies reported shortly thereafter that the Autobots, who had indeed been lurking in wait for them, finally got tired of waiting for their enemies to come to their trap, and came out of hiding to find the area mysteriously clear. The warriors under Jhiaxus gained an immediate measure of respect for him upon hearing this news and realizing that he had indeed saved them from an ambush and almost certain decimation.

Jhiaxus was not, up until this point, an especially innovative or independent thinker. He had a determination to succeed and survive that set him apart from most others, but he'd basically lived to follow orders and ask no questions. Now he found himself with the full responsibility for keeping his battle group alive. Forced by necessity to become an instant expert on a good many things, he spent long hours studying the moves and tactics of the greatest Cybertronian generals of the past and present, and often sent scouts out to gather whatever historical records they could find in the ruins of the cities. Additionally, he carefully considered and finally appointed his subcommander, a smaller Decepticon named Rook - who, while quiet and deferential, would give highly intelligent answers if asked for his opinions.

Jhiaxus' battle group began to earn a reputation for itself as a lethally efficient unit - and one that seldom lost members. Jhiaxus, in the traditional style of Decepticon warlords, began to issue "trial by combat" challenges to the Autobot leaders of his opposing battle groups, in which the two leaders, and the leaders alone, battled it out to the death to determine victory. He proved so successful at this, and so much ground was taken from the Autobots without ever having to endanger his warriors, that the word went out on the other side, for battle group commanders to not, under any circumstances, accept a personal challenge from Jhiaxus. But every now and again, he was still able to goad another small-time general or lieutenant into standing up for his honor - and losing his life.

In time, the battle group began to grow as others joined him - in some rare cases, even the followers of those Autobot commanders he killed in battle, having been so impressed with Decepticon efficiency and Jhiaxus' reputation for "safeguarding his own." Jhiaxus himself earned numerous commendations from Megatron and was steadily raised in rank, though in the day-to-day circumstances of his life, nothing much changed. Finally Megatron in a rare personal conference flat-out told him that if he had the strength, strategy, and perseverance to go further, then it was about time he got to it. He never explained precisely what he meant by this, but he'd looked significantly from Jhiaxus to the towering dark walls of the Hellpit Fortress in the distance. The Decepticon leader withdrew to Polyhex, leaving Jhiaxus to ponder....

Rumor had it that the ruler of the Hellpit Territory in which Jhiaxus found himself currently stationed, was losing his grip on the region - that slaves were escaping from the Quadrilithium Mines routinely, that the guards and underlings became more and more inattentive and insubordinate. Perhaps, Jhiaxus mused, they needed a ruler whom they could truly respect again. He launched an attack on the mountain fortress the very next day, overwhelming the half-hearted opposition, and hunting down the commander in the depths of his own base. As was Decepticon tradition, Jhiaxus challenged him to one of those death-battles that he was so good at, and won. The other Hellpit warriors, who had been steadily losing regard for their old commander, saw in Jhiaxus a ruler whom they could believe in again, and immediately pledged their allegiance.

Jhiaxus spent the next years as a regional warlord, running the mines and protecting his borders with uncompromising efficiency. Hellpit Territory, a barren, remote region east of the Bismuth Mountains, held its true treasures underground - the priceless Quadrilithium crystals which were invaluable for focusing and magnifying energy- weapon beams. With Hellpit being the sole supplier, it had long been disputed property; every minor Decepticon warlord and mountain chieftain had at one time or another attempted to gain control of this crucial bit of land. But the fortress, carved out of black stone into the mountainside itself, proved impregnable with Jhiaxus' highly disciplined sentries on the job.

Deterrents to invaders, insurgents, and traitors were numerous and visible; Jhiaxus developed a fondness for staking up captured enemies and rebellious slaves on metal pikes along the borders of his realm, and leaving them impaled until they stopped twitching. He was not squeamish about handing down death-sentences when necessary, nor about carrying them out personally. He had the great seething cauldron of a smelting pit installed at the base of his throne, where he indulged himself in overseeing the execution of captured Autobots and other troublemakers, all of whom met their fiery end in the bubbling pools of red-hot liquid metal.

[Take a tour of the Mountain Fortress]

Having secured his hold over the region through this combination of innate ability and fearsome reputation, he was for a while content with his position and the state of Cybertron. He continued researching his planet's past and his species' greatest military leaders. He proved himself a harsh but just ruler, who expected the utmost obedience and commitment from his troops, but also rewarded them generously for their efforts. Through all this time, Rook had remained as his subcommander; and while he seldom caught a glimmer of emotion under the fierce control that his leader imposed over himself, he was, on occasion, privy to Jhiaxus' dark musings and inklings of plans for the future.

Even before Megatron disappeared into the depths of space, Jhiaxus began to be convinced that the Decepticons were fighting over a lost cause. The possession of Cybertron, with its all-but-drained reserves of energy, was nothing but an exercise in foolish sentiment. Good warriors were fighting and dying over an intangible ideal that would, in the end, bring them nothing but a dead world to rule. He felt that the Decepticons' true purpose lay in reaching outward toward the stars, in putting what resources remained into a full-scale exodus, to seek out and conquer worlds that were actually worth possessing. He felt certain that this was exactly what Megatron had done, without telling anyone else of his plans beforehand. And Jhiaxus was determined to follow. Slowly and deliberately, he began to take steps to insure that his plans could go into effect, beginning to hoard stockpiles of fuel and resources, so carefully that no one ever realized what he was amassing, and what treasure lay under the rocky spires of the Hellpit Fortress. There was only one real obstacle to his goal - the loyalty of the Decepticons themselves to their homeworld. Jhiaxus realized he had to cast off any lingering, useless patriotic sentiments attached to Cybertron, and convince the rest of his species to do the same, if he was to see victory for them all.

He began to approach Shockwave, whom Megatron had left in charge of the planet, and sent his subcommander Rook among Shockwave's troops to subtly begin building the idea of exodus. The conversations began as hypothetical discussions, during which Jhiaxus developed an honest respect for Shockwave's intelligence, logic, and self- discipline - but for all his rational mind, Shockwave would not see what, to Jhiaxus, was the obvious solution. The response everywhere, initially, was the same: "First we deal with the Autobots, then we think about adding worlds to the empire," or "What?! Leave Cybertron to the Autobots without a fight? It's our homeworld - why should they have it?" In time a good number of Decepticons did hear Jhiaxus' message, however, and secretly agreed with it - some not so secretly, and eventually all diplomatic ties with Shockwave were broken as Jhiaxus and Rook were branded instigators and banned from Polyhex.

By this time, Jhiaxus had completed the construction of a massive starship deep under Hellpit Fortress, a huge, sleek craft with an elegant scorpion-like tail, which was named the "Twilight". With the help of a brilliant scientist whom Jhiaxus had convinced to assist, additional fuel was wrung out of the products of the Hellpit mines - enough, just barely enough, to power the interstellar flight. One last time, Jhiaxus determined to get through to Shockwave. He would go to the interim Decepticon commander and lay the truth bare: tell him of the ship that stood poised for flight, the stockpiles of energon, the resources and weapons for the journey. He would offer it all to Shockwave, to the Decepticons, for the sake of the future. But this message, he would not trust to Hellpit's outdated communications equipment and the interference caused by the surrounding mountains. He would deliver it himself, and sent a message saying only that he was on his way to Polyhex, to the seat of command, to discuss something of great importance.

The Autobots, having eventually become wise to the comings and goings between Hellpit and Polyhex, saw an opportunity to play two strong-willed commanders against each other. As chance would have it, they were able to intercept this one crucial communication, and then send it on, decidedly changed. While Jhiaxus arrived in Polyhex to talk, Shockwave was expecting to be challenged for leadership of the Decepticons. It seemed logical to deal with the problem right away, and he fired upon the first sight of his supposed opponent.

Jhiaxus, startled and then angry to find himself under attack, fought back. The battle raged savagely, cannon-fire and missiles and crushing blows exchanged relentlessly between two almost evenly-matched opponents. But eventually it became apparent that Shockwave was the stronger of the two, his weaponry more sophisticated, his artillery in greater supply. Jhiaxus realized in horror, for the first time in his life, that another direct hit from his opponent's weapon would very likely kill him - and where would his grand plans be then? What of his troops back home in Hellpit, to whom he had promised the stars? Choking down his pride, he turned and fled the battle scene as best he could.

No sooner had he been fully repaired, than the alarm klaxons went off within the mountain fortress. Shockwave had gotten his own troops together and had followed, determined to wipe out this insolent insurgent once and for all. It took all of Jhiaxus' self-control to keep from flinging himself into combat against Shockwave once again, just out of sheer fury. "You fool!" he shouted at Shockwave from the highest ramparts of his fortress, "I offered you the universe itself, and you would turn me down! Have your dying planet, then, and be content with it, for you deserve nothing better!" Dodging a barrage of artillery, he leapt back behind the protective walls of the fortress, pulling all of his sentries back from their defensive positions and leading them down into the stronghold itself, all the way down, through secret passages and hidden tunnels and concealed staircases that most of them had never suspected - all the way down to the shipyard far below the fortress, where the "Twilight" gleamed softly in the dim artificial light, ready to claim the future as her own.

Under the direction of Jhiaxus and Rook, boarding was hurried but orderly. The guards who had stoically overseen the slave mines - the polished sentries who had proudly lined the throne room and patrolled the highest defense platforms of the fortress - the skyfighters who had scoured the outskirts of Hellpit Territory to keep it clear of invaders - the Decepticons from other provinces, including some of Shockwave's own, whom Jhiaxus had been able to persuade - all of them left their old lives behind for the promise of a grander destiny. When the entry hatches sealed themselves and Jhiaxus settled into his command chair on the bridge, the forward plasma turrets came alive and seared an escapeway out of the side of the mountain itself. The attacking Decepticons outside, beginning already to swarm over the towers of the fortress, were startled to see a huge ship explode upward out of the ground and tear past them, like a shooting star defying gravity, quickly lost against the dark canvass of the eternal night sky.

(For the record: the vacuum of power that was left at Hellpit when Jhiaxus departed, was fiercely fought over by the surrounding Decepticon warlords, leaving one of them, Shadowlord, as the eventual victor.)

Long millennia, Jhiaxus and the crew of the "Twilight" scoured the cosmos. But where Jhiaxus had expected rich resources, fuel for the taking, he came only upon light-year after light-year of emptiness, an occasional barren rock, a widely scattered star here and there from which they could recharge their solar cells and move on. It was only the iron discipline that Jhiaxus kept up, both over himself and those around him, that prevented a wholesale descent into anarchy and despair. But everyone knew, and no one more bitterly than Jhiaxus, that their hopeful mission was becoming slow suicide for everyone involved.

With the solar cells almost drained again, and the scanners reading only cold void ahead, the ship was one day seized by a mysterious force that drew them toward what looked like an immense cavern floating in space. Ethereal stalactites hung like ghostly curtains against the backdrop of the stars, while strange flickers of light played between them, creating a vaguely tunnel-like effect. The passage led toward some sort of solid surface at the heart of the phenomenon. The "Twilight" was hailed by a being that called itself the Liege Maximo. After some verbal altercation, Jhiaxus found himself unceremoniously teleported from the bridge of his ship and into the creature's presence.

No one ever found out what transpired between Jhiaxus and the Liege Maximo. All his troops knew, was that upon their leader's return, they suddenly had all the fuel they needed, and a seemingly endless supply of resources. When they came upon planets now, they found them useful and filled with rich raw materials, there for the taking. The fleet grew into multiple ships - dozens, then hundreds, eventually thousands. Although they had in fact taken creation factory machinery with them from Cybertron, the staggering numbers of new troops that took their place in the ranks, seemed hardly to have been able to come from one small generator. But success bred pride and confidence, and few were interested in questioning the sudden good fortune, lest it just as suddenly disappear. (Jhiaxus was quoted years later as saying, "I would have sold my soul for the Decepticons. ... In fact, I did.")

As fate would have it, the fleet's travels and Cybertron's homeless drift through space were destined to cross paths again. Even from a distance the long-range scanners could see that Cybertron was under an attack of unprecedented proportions - a creature out of legend, a creature fully the size of the planet itself - a creature that every one of the older Decepticons and quite a few of the inquisitive younger ones, recognized as mythology come to life: Unicron! Against the colorless backdrop of the void, Cybertron gleamed a soft, sad silver, small and helpless in the distance as the attacking monster tore into its surface. Whatever loyalty to the homeworld Jhiaxus and his troops had renounced when they left, surged back up in them full- force; the younger warriors, created during the long journey, were aware of Cybertron only as a home they had never known, but it was home none the less. With the fierce protective instincts and indomitable courage that only battle-enraged Decepticons can muster, the entire fleet soared to its homeworld's defense.

The vast majority of them were destroyed. Ships were blown apart around them, and the spaceworthy warriors transformed amid the burning fragments of debris and continued the battle. In the end, it was not the energy of the Matrix, as the Autobots pompously claimed, but the thousand ships of Jhiaxus' fleet that made the difference, that pumped Unicron full of so much artillery that the monster's shell couldn't contain the power. In the resulting explosion, many of the remaining ships and fighter craft were destroyed, and the flagship "Twilight" was damaged beyond repair - but Jhiaxus survived, just as he had done long ago as a lowly air warrior sent on his suicide runs against the enemy. He was gratified also that his subcommander Rook had survived, and at least some of their troops - and he was ready to reassess his evaluation of Cybertron and the nature of the Decepticon empire. Cybertron, he finally came to realize, was home - and home was worth fighting for.

The Decepticons plunged into some years of chaos and disintegration following the Unicron War, but eventually Megatron returned from deep space and restored order to the situation. Dealing a final, crushing defeat to the Autobots, Megatron set about revitalizing his world and expanding the empire, with Cybertron at its heart. Jhiaxus was rewarded for his heroic actions against Unicron by being given an armored transport ship to command: the "Harvester of Sorrow", the newest, largest, and most impressive of a line of carriers that were sent to the corners of the galaxy to gather resources. He re-instated Rook as his subcommander, and set about his duties with the efficient discipline that had always been one of his trademarks. And yet - where once the smoldering passions and dreams of destiny had seethed under the shell of iron control, there now seemed to be precious little of the fire left. Jhiaxus had become a commander who knew the routine so well that he could go through the motions without taking notice - who could deliver what the empire wanted of him, without reaching for the innovative, without having to truly give a damn. He wrapped himself in the cloak of ominous solitude that had always suited him so well, while something ate at him from the inside that others could not begin to guess at. Only Rook sometimes regarded his commander with a cold, knowing look that Jhiaxus failed to catch. Behind the indifferent mask and dull optics, Jhiaxus sensed a parasite devouring his soul - one that he would some day have to exorcise, or allow himself to be totally consumed. And survival, like command, had become a reflex; he had triumphed too long against too many odds, to simply give up without a fight.

ABILITIES: Jhiaxus has great physical strength, which served him so well during his years as an "unknown soldier." He can literally grasp hold of someone of similar size or smaller and crush their helmet or other vital area. He is armed with a series of ion cannons and concussion bombs that he can use in both modes. He is thickly armored, making most low- and mid-range attacks minimally effective against him. Although his atmospheric flying speed is relatively slow, he can put on a short burst of increased power from his engines to reach escape velocity, and his Stratobomber mode is capable of space flight. In battle he emphasizes raw power over agility and speed. Although he appears bulky and ponderous, he can display surprisingly fast reflexes at close range.

WEAKNESSES: In flight and movement he tends to be quite slow, although his strength, endurance, and armor usually compensate for any problems this may cause. His main potential weaknesses are psychological - he has spent a lifetime keeping his own counsel, bearing the burdens of command, and revealing little of his true self to anyone. There are elements in his past that he will have to face down if he has any hope of being free of them, and when he does so, he may not know who to trust for assistance - perhaps trusting the wrong individual, perhaps mistrusting the wrong individual - or perhaps trusting no one. In such a state, he might easily be pushed to the brink of madness or capitulation - and only his extreme strength of character and self-discipline has prevented it so far.

Strength 9, Intelligence 7, Speed 3, Endurance 8, Rank 8, Courage 8, Firepower 9, Skill 7