Badlands (Cybertron)

The Badlands is an area on Cybertron belonging to Decepticons, rebels or Decepticon rebels.

Dreamwave Generation One continuity
The Badlands were the surrounding territory of the city-state Kaon.

3H comics
Before the war against Shokaract, the Badlands were part of the territory of one of the old, proud city-states of Cybertron. It was destroyed by Shokaract's armies, which left it a ravaged infrastructure in a twisted, scarred landscape. On the flipside, underneath remained a labyrinthine sub-city, making the area an ideal refuge for those who opposed Shokaract's rule. Shokaract reacted on this by declaring the Badlands to be the training and proving ground for future Heralds.

One such future Herald, the Cub, one day searched the Badlands for his alpha target, the rebel known as the Veteran. Upon finding him, the two engaged in a savage battle from which the Cub did not emerge victorious, an event that eventually led to them merging into one being, Windrazor. Because of the significance the Badlands thus held for them as the location of their first meeting, their two minds within Windrazor always opted to communicate within an imagination of the area.

''Note: The city-state the Badlands once was is not referred to by name in the Reaching the Omega Point storyline. When writing the Dreamwave Generation 1 storyline, Simon Furman made the Badlands existing as early as the Golden Age and part of Kaon's domain. For the Energon storyline, the location of the Badlands wasn't specified but affirmed as Decepticon territory. It is thus possible the unnamed city-state retroactively is Kaon.''

Wings Universe
The rest of the inhabitants of Cybertron treated the Badlands as a rubbish dump, but it served as a perfect hideout for Decepticons and other outlaws. Many Decepticons, including the Warlord Gutcruncher, had bases there. It was bisected by the Transmorpher Freeway, which commuters used to get from one side to the other while keeping out of the filth.

Regeneration One
Following their resurrection and conversion with Scorponok's Gene Key on Nebulos, Highbrow, Hardhead and Brainstorm touched down in the Badlands on their return to Cybertron, so as avoid detection. From there, they killed anyone in their way until they reached the Civil Defense Hub in Iacon. Scorponok himself would then burst into Fort Scyk in the Badlands to recruit the Neo-Decepticons hanging out there to his cause. Although Soundwave was away on Bludgeon's Warworld at the time, when Misfire protested that they already had a leader Scorponok made it clear that he was not requesting their obedience and executed Misfire on the spot for questioning his orders.

Later, Ultra Magnus remotely co-ordinated the Wreckers as they carried out a stealth assault on Fort Scyk but found that it had been abandoned and booby-trapped.

Note: Fort Scyk is said to be located in the Badlands in both "Natural Selection" and "Destiny", though its earlier appearances in "Counterpoint" and "Loose Ends, Part 1" place it in Polyhex.

Energon comic
The Badlands were located close to the core of Decepticon territory during the war, and as such, those Decepticons who rejected Autobot authority post-war had returned there, making the area dangerous to travel through. Unfortunately, Ironhide needed to do just that to get to and check in at the smelting plant. Cliffjumper agreed to escort him, which backfired when Tidal Wave attacked them, knocked out Cliffjumper and then used his life as leverage to force Ironhide to assist him in reactivating the seismic-shock warheads.

Aligned novels
The Badlands were located on Cybertron's eastern hemisphere, below the Hydrax Plateau. This was where the lower castes worked in the mines and industrial cities of Kaon, Blaster City and Slaughter City, where gladiatorial combat began, and where Megatron created the Decepticons.