Regenesis

Oral fixation

The Regenesis Program was created by Shockwave with the intent of seeding many planets with Energon-derived ores so that, in the distant future, he could harvest them, as part of an insanely over-complicated by half plan to solve Cybertron's energy problems.

As part of this plan, the ores were designed to alter a property of existence, developing what some might call "superpowers".

The ores include:

• Ore-1, "Time", from LV-117, which allows travel through time
• Ore-2, "Death", from Gorlam Prime, which causes living matter to decay and die
• Ore-3, "Size", from Prion
• Ore-4, "Gravity", from Caminus, which creates gravitational fields
• Ore-5, "Combination", from Devisiun
• Ore-6, "Cold", from Arduria, which causes the cessation of thermodynamic processes
• Ore-7, "Change", from Antilla, possessed of transmutation properties
• Ore-8, "Destruction", from Tsiehshi, which manifests as radioactive and explosive crystals
• Ore-9, "Space", from Velocitron, which allows teleportation across the vastness of space
• Ore-10, "Deception", from Carcer, capable of reprogramming the minds of Cybertronians
• Ore-11, "Evolution", from Eukaris
• Ore-12, "Protection", from Elonia, which can form itself into crystalline armor for living beings
• Ore-13, "Power Itself", from Earth, which boosts a Transformer's capabilities
• Ore-14, "Regeneration", from Cybertron and planted prior to the actual Regenesis program, which can resurrect cities and Transformers

In addition, if two or more of the ores are brought together, the synthesis can produce dramatic new effects, to say nothing of what might happen if all the successful samples were united.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

The first seed of what would later become the Regenesis program was created millions of years ago, in the Crystal City. Then, Shockwave was just Jhiaxus's understudy, working on a means to combat what he felt was the true threat facing Cybertron: lack of resources. Unfortunately, the rampage of the newly created Monstructor made it seem that Shockwave's plan had failed, and the project was left in the ruins of the city.

However, the idea grew in Shockwave's mind. Many years later, Shockwave (now a Senator) hit upon the idea of making a new version of his original plan—seeding distant worlds with energon. The idea remained even after Shockwave's very mind was violently altered by shadowplay, his punishment for speaking out against the status quo. When the nascent Decepticon movement granted him resources intended to create another combiner, Shockwave used them to test his synthetic energon. Shockwaves

Shockwave initiated the Regenesis program over 600,000 years ago, dispatching thirteen rockets, each loaded with a different ore, to thirteen different planets scattered throughout space. At the time, Shockwave had chosen the locations of the ores at random, simply seeking out specific geological profiles, unaware that all the chosen worlds had been associated with the Thirteen Primes in some way, as arranged by his future self millions of years before. The Crucible The First Who Was Named

As Shockwave had hoped, each ore had markedly different effects on the worlds they found their way to, with perhaps none stranger than that the first ore had on the planet LV-117. The very matter of the planet was mutated to the point of chronal instability, unhinging the entire world from the flow of linear time. Fortunately, after mastering the technology of the missile, LV-117's natives were able to develop a means of controlling their planet's voyages through the timestream. Syndromica (2)

The second ore had detrimental effects on Gorlam Prime, causing the planet to fall under a state of "death", creating a portal to the malevolent Dead Universe. Homecoming

Shockwave would discover the different fruits of his labors as he proceeded to visit the worlds he had attempted to seed in order to observe and, if necessary, control the Regenesis process. Arriving on the planet Arduria some 500,000 years ago, he found that Ore-6 had created a catastrophic loss of planetary heat and had proven fatal to the natives, but he considered it a learning experience nonetheless. Syndromica (1) As Shockwave travelled, he learned that some of those ores had not "taken root". Finis Temporis

Ten thousand years ago, Shockwave arrived on the thirteenth world, prehistoric Earth, where the "Ore-13" brought by his rocket had successfully reacted with the local geology to the extent that the planet threatened to become so rich in Energon that its environment could become lethal to Transformers. Shockwave created global dampers that he then injected into the planetary crust to regulate the reaction, allowing the ore to safely develop into Ultra-Energon in the present day. Spotlight: Shockwave

In the 1800s, Ore-12 caught the attention of the Dire Wraiths who invaded Elonia in an attempt to claim it. Their invasion led to the native Elonians discovering the ore and it forming a crystalline suit of armor around them, creating the order of the Space Knights. Cold Fire Some years later, the Wraiths found Ore-13 on Earth. The New Colossus

At one point the Titan Metroplex came into a sample of Ore-7. Wishing to take it from him, Shockwave sent an army of Ammonites to reclaim it, but Metroplex gathered the ore into his thumb and jettisoned it. As a result, the Ammonites tried killing him with a sample of Ore-2. The Becoming

In the present day, Jhiaxus and Bludgeon began a quest to seek out the other worlds that had been touched by Shockwave through Regenesis. Learning of their intent after a battle on Arduria, Orion Pax, Hardhead, Wheelie, and Garnak set out to stop them, pursuing them to their first objective on the LV-117. Syndromica (1) There, after a complicated journey through space and time, the Decepticons procured a control device from the natives that granted Jhiaxus power over the time-bending abilities of LV-117's soil. Syndromica (2) After that, they travelled to Gorlam Prime, where the Ore-2 had remained inert. However, Jhiaxus used Waspinator to manipulate Orion Pax into awakening a Titan slumbering beneath the planet. This is turn hastened Ore-2's effects, apparently destroying the planet. Homecoming

The Titan, infused with Ore-2, travelled by Waspinator's command to Cybertron, where it and the ore inside reacted to the Ore-14 found in the Crystal City, becoming an undead monstrosity. Dark Dawn The "Necrotitan" unleashed a "death wave" upon Iacon, while the resurrective effects of Ore-14 brought the deceased Metalhawk back to life. Winners & Losers The death plague continued to ravage Iacon, until it was stopped by Metroplex, when the Titan had his Ore-2 infused thumb returned. However, this was all part of Shockwave's plan to gather the remaining ores together, and use their combined powers to fulfill his ultimate aim: Solving Cybertron's energy problems forever. Finis Temporis

Using an unwilling Galvatron as a conduit, and the chronal drive, Shockwave fed the combined ores into the Dead Universe's very inception. With Ore-6 and Ore-8 merged, all of that universe's potential energy was leached, thereby causing the Dead Universe to become dead in the first place. Using that colossal amount of energy, Shockwave began to collapse all of space and time into a single moment, with Cybertron at its center. The Becoming However, the revived Metalhawk determined the ores were in a balance, but adding the Ore-14 present in himself would disrupt that balance, disrupting Shockwave's plans, and cause every single Ammonite to go up like a firework. Defeated by a combined effort of Optimus Prime and Megatron, Shockwave's chronal drive collapsed into a singularity, taking Shockwave with it, and apparently ending Regenesis for good. ...And the Damage Done

Though Shockwave's scheme had been halted, the ores remained valued prizes to be claimed, with Starscream trying to claim the ores within Metroplex. A Long Way Down On Earth, Ore-13 became the center point of a war between Cybertronians, humans, Dire Wraiths and the extra-dimensional tyrant, Baron Karza. Revolution

After Unicron had been roused from his slumber, First Strike #6 he began consuming the Cybertronian colonies, assimilating the powers of the Regenesis ores when he consumed their worlds. Our Darkest

Games

Transformers: Earth Wars

Observing the toll the unrestrained Energon mining fueling the Great War was causing on Cybertron's climate, Shockwave long ago embarked on Project Regenesis: an initiative to create a new, sustainable form of Energon production via harvesting energy from Cybertron's magnetosphere. Megatron in his hubris declared the project nonessential and directed Shockwave to shut it down, an act that ultimately led to the planet becoming uninhabitable. In the present day, human liaison to the Autobots Melody Keen broke the news that the actions of the Transformers were rapidly accelerating the degradation of Earth's climate. Remembering intel of Project Regenesis, the Autobots hurried to Shockwave's old base on Cybertron to hunt for the sole prototype produced by the project. Hijinks ensued after the Decepticons gained wind of the 'bots plan and both sides chased Shockwave, then rogue agents Swindle and Octone attempting to fob off the technology to the Quintessons, then time traveling saboteurs Tarantulas and Beast Megatron, before ultimately working together to reproduce the technology at scale, ensuring a sustainable future for the Earth, and the Earth Wars. Regenesis

Notes

• The Regenesis Program and its ores have a bit of a convoluted history, thanks to a retcon here and there. In its introductory stories by Simon Furman, Ore-13 was the name Starscream's Infiltration Unit had given Shockwave's invention, with the implication that all the Regenesis missiles had been carrying Ultra-Energon. When Furman's run was ended, many of his plotlines were ignored until John Barber began writing the Robots in Disguise series in 2012. Barber treated Ore-13 like it was logically part of a set, with characters exploring what became of the other twelve, changing their payloads to being individualized "superpowers". Between "Syndromica" and the Dark Cybertron crossover, six more ores were established, including the slight cheat that is Ore-14. The absence of the remaining ores was given a throwaway line from Shockwave about how some of the other Ores hadn't "taken root", but Optimus Prime and Transformers: Unicron would later establish that the remaining ores were indeed very much active.
• The kinder, gentler Regenesis Program seen in the Earth Wars mobile game, again developed by Furman, was the product of a collaboration between game developer Space Ape and energy policy nonprofit REN21 to encourage players to recycle and swap to LED lightbulbs and what not.

Foreign names

• Japanese: Regenesis (リジェネシス Rijeneshisu)