Darksyde (BW)

The Darksyde (also Darkside or Dark Side) is the name of the Predacon vessel that Megatron's troops "borrowed" to get to Earth after he stole the Golden Disk. Terrorsaur named her, though Waspinator wanted to call her the "Buzzerbot". Megatron didn't care either way. After it crashed on prehistoric Earth, the Predacon Inferno preferred to call the ship "the Colony", though just about everyone else referred to it as the Predacon base.

Among the ship's features is an onboard computer.

Beast Wars cartoon
Exiting transwarp, the Darksyde was immediately fired upon by the pursuing Maximal science vessel Axalon, though the better armed Predacon ship quickly took the upper hand. Despite the urging of his first officer to destroy the Axalon when the Maximal's shields failed, Megatron arrogantly decided to merely toy with his opponents by slowing down the ship enough for the Axalon to catch up, then unleashing a broadside from the Darksyde's side guns, severely damaging the Maximal ship.

However, Megatron would not have long to gloat, as several well-aimed plasma cannon shots from the Axalon strafed the hull of the Darksyde, crippling the ship. Soon afterwards, both ships crash-landed on the planet's surface.

The crashed Darksyde became the Predacon base, their center of operations on Earth. The ship apparently crashed in a volcanically-active area, as the impact created lava-filled concentric cracks around it, and an upwelling of lava in the main control center. While it's arguably dangerous to have a control room where you can't walk across the floor without melting, it does look seriously badass.

The base contained a main control and monitoring center with a holographic projector; given the absence of a proper floor, hover platforms were commonly used by the Predacons to get around much of the base. The base also included CR pits capable of restoring severely damaged Predacons (or Maximals) to full functionality; a private suite used by Megatron, including a CR tank/hot tub; a lab area used by Tarantulas; holding cages suspended over the lava pits (keyed to Megatron's voice command); and a secure storage area which held the Predacons' remaining transwarp cells. The grounds surrounding the base were laced with automatic weapons, programmed to scan for and target Maximal energy signatures.

In addition to day-to-day Predacon operations, the base was the scene of several battles. The first involved a messy and destructive hunt for Cheetor, who accidentally teleported into the control room. The Maximals subsequently sent a bomb over to destroy the base, but Cheetor helped disarm it, as the detonation would also destroy the Maximal base via a common Energon vein beneath both ships. Another resulted from Megatron's attempt to reprogram Rhinox into a Predacon; the rogue Maximal very nearly brought Megatron down from power by taking out first his troops, then his kneecaps. Rhinox's comrades stormed the base to recover him, however. The Maximals forced their way into the base a third time when Optimus Primal was infected with a rage-inducing virus; the berserk Maximal leader stormed through the Predacon base, taking out troops one after the next, until his comrades arrived to heal and retrieve him.

The Maximals also managed to infiltrate the base more covertly on numerous occasions. When the Predacons managed to hack into Maximal communications, Rattrap went undercover as a turncoat. He escaped from one of the suspended prison cages and searched through the Predacon base till he found a Maximal codebreaker chip installed in one of its communication panels. Rattrap entered on another occasion to install a spy camera and cable; when the Predacons discovered it, they faked their own destruction, drawing the Maximals into the abandoned base to salvage space drive parts. Optimus Primal noted that even abandoned, a Predacon ship was still a dangerous place. Using Rattrap and Airazor as a distraction, Tigatron slipped into the base to search for information about the latest alien site to have revealed itself (though this turned out to have been exactly what Megatron wanted all along.)

At least once, the base's lava pits proved to be a distinct liability. When the planet was hit by a quantum surge in the wake of the Planet Buster's destruction, Terrorsaur and Scorponok lost control of their hover platforms, collided, and tumbled off. The two sank into the lava and were never seen again.

Tarantulas proved able to cut power to the base at will; he did so once with a magna pulse, and again through unknown means when Ravage and the Maximals arrived to take Megatron prisoner. The base took considerable damage while under assault from Ravage's transwarp cruiser.

After the destruction of the Maximal base, Megatron's troops stole the Sentinel shield module from the Maximals, and installed it in the Predacon base, providing it with a defensive energy shield.

The battered vessel was finally destroyed by the Vok emissary Tigerhawk.

Timelines
The ship that would later become known as the Darksyde was stored at Predacon Transwarp Research Center D-F. As part of Megatron's plan to steal the Golden Disk, he sent "Terrorsaur" and "Waspinator" to procure it as an escape craft. Once the theft was complete, the Predacons used it to make their getaway from Cybertron. The two fliers had had a contest to determine their ship's name. "Waspinator" had wanted to call it Buzzerbot but lost out to Terrorsaur's suggestion of Darksyde. For reasons known only to Primus, Megatron agreed with "Waspinator's" suggestion.

Flanked by Buzzsaw and Laserbeak's ship, the Darksyde prepared to execute a transwarp jump. The two ships were engaged by the Axalon before the former Decepticons managed to cripple the Maximal craft allowing the Darksyde crew to begin decoding the Golden Disk's contents. Half a mega-cycle later, the Axalon managed to catch up with the Darksyde and re-engaged in battle even as the Predacons jumped.

Ask Vector Prime
In Aurex 1104.30-JH Zeta, the Darksyde also carried Megatron's Predacons to prehistoric Earth and served as their headquarters. That is, until Wedge Shape defied her servility program and brought the Darksyde ' s codes with her. The Maximals proceeded to storm the Predacon base and rescue the captive Mini-Cons, almost decisively ending the Beast Wars in one stroke.

IDW Generation 1 continuity
A vessel identical to the Darksyde was used by Shockwave to check on his Ore-13 project on Earth. He encountered the Eukarian ship Axalon under the command of Domitius Major, which he promptly shot down, and upon landing to check on its crew was struck by the idea of a novel experiment. When the Dynobots arrived on Earth, they shot down the ship. Finished with his work on Ore-13, Shockwave sent a signal to the craft for pickup only to get no response, alerting him that attack was imminent.

The ship was presumably retrieved at some point, for it (or a ship identical to it) was used by a group of Maximals to attack the stranded Throttlebots on Regalis V.

Crew
The original crew of the Darksyde included:


 * Megatron - Commander
 * Dinobot - Second-in-command.
 * Scorponok - Engineer, later second-in-command after Dinobot turned on Megatron.
 * Tarantulas - Weapons/Special Ops. Secretly a spy for the Tripredacus Council.
 * Terrorsaur - Fighter
 * Waspinator - Pilot