Comics Bon-Bon Manga Summary for August, 1999 - Beast Wars Neo

     Capsule Summary: While Longrack holds down the fort on Gung Ho, the rest
of the crew enter a giant worldship built by Corahda's people, where Dead End
proves himself to be far tougher than his toy would imply.  And Scuba is
rightly recognized as a god.

     Thanks to Drew Dederer for some translation and cultural notes.

p 1: Split into individual beast modes, Magmatron is recovering from his
     battle with Big Convoy last issue.  He places Guiledart in charge of
     seeking out more Angolmois Capsules.

p 2: His voice full of reverence for the boss, Guiledart splits the Destron
     forces into three groups to go after Capsules.

p 3: On Gung Ho, Longrack is shocked and dismayed to find he's being left
     behind to watch the ship on this mission.  He tries to bargain out of
     it, but no luck, so he puts on a game face.

p 4: Break tries to plead Longrack's case, but Big Convoy has his reasons.
     So everyone gets into pods and launches into space.

p 5: GIANT SNAKE!  Turns out to be a five kilometer long worldship built in
     the shape of a cobra/dragon (it has a far toothier maw than any cobra
     could ever own).  It was apparently built by Corahda's people.

     Digression: We seem to have a trend here in BW Neo regarding beast
forms.  Rather than being disguises assumed by Cybertronians, they are entire
sub-races of Transformers.  Hence Stampy's family last issue, Corahda's
people and Longrack's people (see later in the story) this issue.  This may
be related to the scenes in the "part zero" in the manga where the scattered
BWII Cybertrons found animals and empowered them, perhaps spawning these new
races of Transformers.

p 6: Entering the mouth of the snakeship, they quickly come upon a temple
     containing a giant statue of Scuba, the squid Cybertron from BWII.

p 7: Corahda relates the legends of his people, of how Scuba came down from
     the skies and granted them the power of transformation.  He brought the
     rain and generally did all the things a proper god should.  Break
     disagrees with the idea that Scuba is god, since he knows Bighorn was
     the god.  Having Bighorn as a cultural icon would explain a lot about
     Break's personality.  Stampy apparently has his own legends, but all
     this discussion is getting to Corahda...the temple is bringing back some
     bad memories, and he's stressing.  Specifically, a bottle-like structure
     in front of Scuba is causing him distress.

p 8: Back on Gung Ho, Longrack is sitting in the command chair and playing
     at being captain.  Giving orders to nonexistent crew, etc.  Then 
     Heinrad asks what he's doing, and Longrack nearly jumps out of his own
     skin.

p 9: Heinrad questions whether Longrack deserves to sit in that chair,
     triggering a defensive tirade from the giraffe.  Longrack then points
     out that he comes from a long line of great leaders among his people,
     so leadership runs in his blood, as it were.  Then the sword comes
     through the bulkhead.

p 10: Hardhead's sword carves a door in the bulkhead.  He and Hydrar enter,
     introducing themselves as a special Destron Taskforce and generally
     carrying on like villains introducing themselves in an old samurai 
     movie.  Longrack freaks out, he can't handle the two of them, but he
     mustn't run away (for those who watch Evangelion, he uses the exact
     phrasing Shinji uses when he tells himself he mustn't run).  Heinrad
     watches this mental meltdown with some concern, understanding why Big
     Convoy didn't want Longrack on the mission...the lad still needs a lot
     of growing up.

p 11: Hardhead threatens Longrack.  "If you don't surrender the Angolmois
     Capsule, I'll do THIS to you!"  He sweeps his sword in a grand gesture,
     and slices open Hydrar's chest.  Hydrar asks Hardhead why he did this,
     and demands an apology.  His samurai honor tarnished, Hardhead falls on
     his sword, despite Hydrar shouting for him not to (after all, who will
     bring back the Angolmois?).  As both Destrons lie stupidly dying, 
     Longrack wonders what the heck happened.  Then, with his dying words,
     Hydrar gloats that they have already completed the important part of
     their mission....

p 12: Break asks Corahda what happened that he's so wigged out over.  So
     Corahda begins his tale.  One dark night, THEY came.  Hideous mutant
     creatures of shadowy essence swarmed over his world, ravaging as they
     went.  They were...the Blentrons.  Three basic forms, hundreds of 
     copies.

p 13: While the Blentrons ravaged the place, young Corahda could only watch
     in horror from within the bottle in front of the Scuba statue while his
     father was torn apart by an Elephaorca.  His father's crown fell to the
     ground as life fled the man's body.

p 14: In the rain, young Corahda stood before his father's grave, holding
     the crown in his hands.  Then he placed it on his head.  Now, here in
     front of the place of Corahda's greatest shame and failure and loss,
     they must find the Angolmois Capsule before it is too late.  And, well,
     it is...Sabreback attack!

p 15: Flinging his flower weapon, Sabreback causes it to branch out into many
     vines with many flowers.  Out of each blossom steps a mindless warrior
     clone of Sabreback, armed with axes and lacking the feathery crown
     (each has only one feather).  A horde of whooping indian warriors.

p 16: Okay, SMALL warriors.  But there's a load of them, and they're armed.
     Corahda wipes out a bunch on his own, breathing fire in beast mode,
     lashing out with his tail, and then transforming to stomp on a few.

p 17: Sling enters the fray, sparring with Stampy while Break guns down more
     of the mini-Sabrebacks.  Break severs the vine, and all the remaining
     clones vanish.

p 18: Stampy actually has the better of Sling, but that was only the 
     prologue.  Now it's Big Convoy versus Dead End.  Dead End challenges
     the Cybertron leader to a hand to hand fight, no guns (besides, they're
     in a hollow shell, a stray shot could blow out the atmosphere).

p 19: Big Convoy drops his cannon and pops out his tonfas, and the battle is
     joined!

p 20: Back on the Gung Ho, Longrack finds the "good thing" Hydrar managed to
     accomplish before dying. A bomb.  Navi can't move it without setting
     it off, and Heinrad is no help.  So, with a "How To Disarm Bombs" book
     in one hoof, Longrack sets about disarming it.  And, of course, there's 
     the classic "which wire do you cut?" dilemma.

p 21: Longrack thinks back to his ancestors and what they'd do...and moves
     to cut the black wire.

p 22-24: Big Convoy and Dead End fight fiercely, but seem to be too evenly 
     matched in hand to hand combat.

p 25: Guiledart orders Sabreback to interfere in the fight, so he throws his
     flower weapon at Big Convoy.

p 26: Direct hit!  Big explosion, all the Cybertrons are shocked.  Guiledart
     starts to gloat, but then...Big Convoy arises from the rubble!  He
     chides Guiledart for breaking the rules, and now that the no guns rule
     no longer applies....

p 27: WHOOM!  Big Convoy blows the Destrons out the side of the ship.  But
     this means there's a hole in the ship.  Ooops.

p 28: Big air vortex.  Everyone's holding on for dear life, and Sabreback
     manages to get a vine around Big Convoy's gun.

p 29: Big Convoy doesn't want to let go of his gun, but Break isn't able to
     keep his grip on BC.  So BC reluctantly lets go of the gun and catches 
     Break just in time, the gun goes sailing out into space with Sabreback.

p 30: The Scuba statue crumbles, revealing an Angolmois Capsule hidden within
     (probably the reason for the Blentron attack).  The Capsule stops up the
     hole and the wind stops.  Break realizes that maybe Big Convoy does care
     about his troops after all.

p 31: It's a contemplative ride back to the ship, as both Corahda and Big
     Convoy have a lot to think about....

p 32: Longrack snips the black wire.  The bomb goes off.  Heinrad stops time
     and then reverses it to just before the explosion.

p 33: Heinrad grabs Longrack's hoof and pushes it over so that the white
     wire is cut.  The happy bomb computer announces that it has been 
     successfully disarmed, have a nice day.  Longrack didn't notice the
     nudge, and thinks he did it himself.  As he does the dance of joy,
     Heinrad is quietly satisfied that he helped Longrack gain some self-
     confidence.

p 34: Back in the Destron ship, a small insect with sunglasses has come to
     report the failure of the two missions this issue.  Then a mysterious
     black sphere appears before Landsaurus.  A claw comes out of it, 
     followed by a whole shadowy being...Raatoraata.

p 35: More Blentrons follow....  Back on Gung Ho, Stampy is passing by 
     Heinrad's room when he hears the tanuki talking.  He stops to listen,
     and is terrified by what he hears: "My time powers don't really let me
     defeat enemies.  I'd like to be able to beat them up more, but that 
     might reveal my true self.  Maybe I can cut loose a little bit, but I
     gotta keep a calm face around the boss..."  (Translation very loose.)
     Heinrad has a secret identity, and time control is only one of his
     LESSER powers?  Whoo.  And, apparently the spacey act is just an act.

     Dave Van Domelen, perhaps it's an embodiment of Vector Sigma?