The Nemesis is a Decepticon spaceship in the fictional Transformers Generation One universe. It was built by Megatron as the flagship of his Decepticon space fleet, and was described by Optimus Primal as the most powerful Decepticon battleship ever. The ship was never named in the original series, only being given a name in the Beast Wars series finale. Over three miles long, the ship was equipped with an energon reactor, cutting and tractor beams, along with a staggering array of offensive and defensive weapons. It was powered by the energy maximizer named the Heart of Cybertron. Other amenities included a battle preparation room large enough for a combiner to completely form inside.
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Generation One
Animated series
When the Autobots left Cybertron in the Ark, they were pursued by the Decepticons aboard the Nemesis. In the battle that ensued, the Nemesis attached itself to the Ark via its tractor beam and the Decepticons initiated a boarding. As the two factions battled aboard the Ark, the G-forces of a nearby planet—Earth—dragged both ships down. While the Ark imbedded itself in a volcano, the Nemesis crashed into the Pacific Ocean. This retelling of the crash of the ships comes from the original Generation One animated series. When Optimus Primal related it in Beast Wars, he claims that the Nemesis shot the Ark down. This is a result of the way Beast Wars treats the original cartoon series: as a historical legend. In the Earth year 1985, an Earthen archaeological expedition uncovered the Nemesis in a mountainside in South America (how it got there is explained below), drawing the attention of the Decepticons, who attacked and reclaimed the Heart of Cybertron, which was installed into Megatron himself, giving him wildly increased powers, forcing Bumblebee, Perceptor and Brawn to shrink themselves down and enter his body in order to remove it.
Beast Wars
The Nemesis would play a much more important role in the Beast Wars series, where it was finally named. When two small groups of Maximals and Predacons—descendants of Autobots and Decepticons from three centuries in the future—traveled back in time and wound up stranded on prehistoric Earth, the treacherous Predacon Tarantulas located the Nemesis and, unbeknownst to anyone else, began refurbishing it, outfitting it with a transwarp cell and a Predacon-sized command console, as well as the only other existing copy of the Covenant of Primus, which he had stolen before leaving Cybertron himself (the other copy was aboard the Ark). Following Tarantulas's death, however, Megatron acquired the ship and used it to attack the Ark. All seemed lost until Rhinox crashed an Autobot shuttle through the Nemesis, heavily damaging it. The ship was last seen disappearing over the horizon trailing fire and smoke, presumably gliding long enough for the Nemesis to reach and crash into a mountain in South America, where it was subsequently buried until the year 1985.
Marvel Comics
The backstory of the Nemesis in the Marvel Transformers comics was similar in that Megatron pursued the Ark in it. However, there was one important difference: in this continuity Shockwave was also aboard and was left on the ship when Megatron's troops attacked the Ark. Subsequently Shockwave piloted the Nemesis down to Earth and left it at the bottom of the Atlantic. Shockwave's subsequent entombment by the Dinobots meant the ship was forgotten until much later. According to the letters page in the US comics it was subsequently used by Shockwave as his base in the Civil War against Scorponok. A continuity error arises when the UK stories are taken into consideration. In the Target: 2006 storyline the Nemesis is seen to still be orbiting the Sun. Galvatron upon building a massive laser cannon to destroy Unicron in the present, to ensure his own dominance in the future, tested it by blowing the distant Nemesis out of space.
Dreamwave Productions
In Dreamwave's reimagining of the Transformers universe the Nemesis backstory remained the same. When Starscream returned to Earth after Shockwave's defeat he used the Nemesis as his base.
Toys
In 2006 Hasbro plans to release a toy of the Nemesis in its Titanium toy line. The Energon Transformer, Sharkticon was designed to pay homage to the Nemesis, and was originally going to be called "Decepticon Nemesis"
Beast Wars Second
In Beast Wars Second Nemesis was the name of Galvatron's planetoid fortress. An enormous ship that could drain entire worlds of their energy, Galvatron determined to attack Cybertron with it, but was stopped by Leo Prime. Enraged, Galvatron set the Nemesis to self-destruct to kill his foes, but he only succeeded only in trapping his foes in a wormhole, and confining his own troops to a black hole.
2007 Movie
The Nemesis does not appear in the film, being that the Transformers transport themselves as protoform "comets". The Nemesis does appear in the prequel novel, Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday, as the base of Starscream's operations while searching for the Allspark (and ostensibly Megatron). Although it is described as the epitome of Decepticon science, it is merely a transport, and is actually much weaker than the Autobot equivalent ship, the Ark.
Transformers: Animated
The Nemesis makes a return for the 2008 Cartoon Network TV Series, where it is much bigger and stronger than Ark.
Other uses of "Nemesis" in Transformers
There are three Transformers characters with "Nemesis" in their names. These are Nemesis Prime, Nemesis Strika, and an evil Decepticon version of Leobreaker in Transformers: Cybertron named Nemesis Breaker.
