Ark (WFC)

The Ark, aka Project Generation One, was the city-sized ship that the Autobots left Cybertron on during the Great Exodus. Unlike other galactic transports, the Ark was extremely large, and had other special modifications made by Optimus Prime, such as its gold color, as other transports were gray.

Aligned novels
When Optimus Prime removed the Plasma Energy Chamber poisoning Cybertron's core with Dark Energon, it informed him that while healing, the planet could not sustain a fraction of the life it currently did, and the Autobots needed to leave. Optimus announced Project Generation One to his comrades, many of whom deemed the notion suicidal as the Cybertronians had not left the planet since the Golden Age. Regardless, Jazz said he would rather die on a starship than on a planet, and declared "Let's build this Ark."

Alpha Trion oversaw the Ark ' s construction in the Well of All Sparks, installing Teletraan-1 inside, while Optimus drew out and crashed Trypticon aboard the Eight Track. When they returned, the Ark was completed and they boarded the ship. Sideswipe was appointed the pilot. Alpha Trion refused a place, aware Vector Sigma would keep him alive, while Omega Supreme, Jetfire, Ultra Magnus, Springer and the Wreckers sacrificed a chance to leave, giving time for the Ark to launch by keeping Trypticon at bay.

However, Trypticon transformed into the Nemesis and pursued the Ark into the last space bridge, but when it emerged, the Decepticons were nowhere to be found. The Ark was outside an unknown spiral galaxy where the AllSpark was detected. Bumblebee asked Optimus if they knew the way home: he replied the Matrix of Leadership would guide them back one day.

The Ark emerged from the defunct Spacebridge without any major visible casualties. Its archives were checked for any maps or direction its passengers might use, until it was discovered that they had neared a long lost colony of Cybertronians on a planet known as Velocitron. The Ark was later brought onto the surface of the speed-centred planet and was being repaired until an explosion that took place a certain distance from its hull led Optimus Prime to believe that the Ark ' s age — it being described as an 'ancient machine' — and its suffering of a Spacebridge malfunction might have been the cause of some internal failure that led to the explosion. He was later informed by Silverbolt that the explosion was the result of sabotage and Optimus suspected they had a traitor on board. Much later when the Ark was parked low in Junkion's orbit and Optimus was coming to terms with the Junkion leader Wreck-Gar, the ship suddenly plummeted toward the surface of the junk planetoid, embedding itself in the ground, and causing a ripple of shock to sweep over the planet. Later Optimus was told by Velocitronian passengers Clocker and Mainspring that they had checked the Ark over before the incident, and they had done so with focus on the ship's fuel reservoir, and that everything had been safe, save for the tiny rupture in it. That they said was not enough to cause the Ark ' s fall. Once again the accident was revealed to be the result of sabotage, thus deepening Optimus' suspicion of a traitor in their midst. Still later when Junkion was falling apart as a result of the extraction of the Requiem Blaster from the planetoid's core, the Ark had to take off minus some of its intended repairs, with additional damage taken from the seekers Starscream, Thundercracker, and Slipstream's missiles. It was then ordered to turn back toward the remains of Junkion as part of a newly fabricated plan that Optimus engineered in order to play upon Megatron's desire to kill and so contain the Decepticon threat for a while. As it was doing so it had some trouble resisting the gravitational pull of the Requiem Blaster grafted onto the Nemesis. When Megatron discovered the direction in which the AllSpark was to be found, the Ark was made to pursue the Nemesis, without two of its passengers, Clocker and Mainspring, who left with the other components of Nexus Prime. The Ark also had the Star Seekers' ship, the Tidal Wave, in pursuit of it.

Prime cartoon
When Jack and Arcee stopped at a deserted farmhouse for a break, Jack worries that they're all that's left of Team Prime. He then asks Arcee if there were other Autobots available. She says there were other Autobots out there who escaped in the Ark, who are now 'scattered to the winds'.

Transformers: War for Cybertron (360/PS3/PC)
After defeating Trypticon, Optimus gathered Bumblebee, Ratchet, Ironhide, Jetfire, Air Raid, and Silverbolt around him, telling them he had commissioned a new ship, the Ark, to take them off Cybertron when it was time for them to leave.

Transformers: War for Cybertron (DS)
Upon Trypticon's defeat, Optimus said once Megatron's threat was contained on Cybertron, they would leave the planet in the Ark.

Transformers: Fall of Cybertron
Classified as the first Vanguard-class Deep Space Interceptor (though referred to by Megatron as a "glorified cargo hauler"), the Ark was larger and more streamlined in design than previous galactic transports. According to Sideswipe's evaluations, the Ark possessed insufficient armor plating and was armed with only 16 particle combustion cannons and 16 laser emitters, though a series of twin-barreled pulse cannons were seen to be activated during the Nemesis' attack. It did however possess an "adequate" propulsion system, leading to the conclusion that it was meant to outrun and evade instead of going in guns blazing. The Ark's main purpose was more spiritual than practical: to carry the Autobots' hopes and dreams from a dying Cybertron.

And in that, it succeeded. Despite a surprise attack from the Decepticons that drained the Ark ' s energon supply and the Combaticons shooting down an Autobot refinery transport carrying the energon from Shockwave's collapsed space bridge tower in the Sea of Rust, the Ark nevertheless launched thanks to the sacrifice of Metroplex, who transferred his entire energon supply into the Ark at the cost of his life. After launching into space, the Ark found itself confronted by the Nemesis and the two ships engaged in a fierce battle that was abruptly concluded when both passed through an unstable space bridge portal.