Convoy (Beast Wars)

Convoy led the Cybertrons in the Beast Wars. Hundreds of years after the end of the Great War, a member of the Cybertrons named himself Convoy in honor of the great Cybertron leader Convoy. The relatively inexperienced but highly skilled Convoy joined the Convoy Council and gained early command of an exploration ship, the Axalon, loaded with numerous stasis pods. His crew included Rhinox, Rattle and Cheetas. He was also entrusted with a secret mission- to deposit the dormant Protoform X on some uninhabited world, thus keeping him from destroying or being destroyed.

However, the Axalon's mission was sidetracked by the crimes of the Destron renegade Megatron and his crew, who stole the Golden Disk. The Axalon was sent after him, and pursued him via transwarp drive to an unknown planet. Both ships engaged in battle, and both crashed miles apart from one another on the planet. Learning the planet had abundant supplies of raw energon, Convoy and his crew adopted animal-based alternate modes- Convoy became a gorilla. The Cybertrons resolved to stop Megatron and his forces from claiming the energon and taking it back to Seibertron. Convoy dubbed the resulting conflict the "Beast Wars."

Convoy grew in skill as a leader as the war continued. Soon, an alien influence on the planet, known as the Vok, came to light. Convoy seemingly died once investigating an alien probe, but was later released. A second probe confronted Convoy, and he piloted a transwarp-modified stasis pod to take out the Planetbuster sent to cleanse the planet of the Transformers' influence. Unfortunately, due to Megatron's sabotage, Convoy was blown to bits as a result.

Over the next several days, Rhinox tirelessly worked, ultimately retrieving Convoy's spark and placing it into a Transmetal body. Convoy was resurrected, and the Beast Wars continued. Convoy's secret mission was revealed when they faced Protoform X, now transformed into Rampage. Soon, it was revealed that the mysterious planet was in fact prehistoric Earth, and that Megatron planned to change history, first by wiping out humanity's ancestors, and later, by destroying the Cybertrons in stasis lock aboard the Ark. Megatron nearly slew the original Convoy, forcing Convoy to contain his predecessor's spark within his own body to preserve it. As a result, Convoy metamorphosed into a more powerful, form resembling the original Convoy. The original was repaired, and Convoy returned his spark to him.

To protect history, Convoy moved the Cybertrons into a base defending the Ark, and continued to fend off Megatron's attacks. He also had to deal with Depth Charge, a newly-arrived Cybertron who resented Convoy for his failure to contain Rampage. Ultimately, Convoy and his troops were able to defeat Megatron for good, and the Cybertrons set course for home.

Abilities

Convoy had a gorilla alternate mode during and after the Beast Wars. One or more of Convoy's robot or vehicle modes always had the ability to fly.