Ark (G1)

The Ark (アーク, Āku) is the name given to the Autobot spaceship that, in many universes, originally carried the Autobot and Decepticon armies to Earth.

The Ark is a Vanguard-class Deep Space Interceptor. It has five decks and houses a full crew complement of 300 Transformers (although it can be flown by only a handful if necessary). Its environment is fully automated and self-sufficient. For engines, it features 4 Hyperfuel Intake Accelerators.

It is armed with 16 particle-combustion cannons (port), 16 laser emitters (starboard), a primary starfield missile launcher, and an Overshock sonic battery.

Crew of the Ark
The original crew of the Ark consisted of:


 * Optimus Prime
 * Roller
 * Autobot Cars
 * Bluestreak
 * Bulkhead
 * Hound
 * Ironhide
 * Jazz
 * Mirage
 * Prowl
 * Ratchet
 * Sideswipe
 * Sunstreaker
 * Trailbreaker
 * Wheeljack
 * Hauler
 * Autobot Mini Vehicles
 * Brawn
 * Bumblebee
 * Cliffjumper
 * Gears
 * Huffer
 * Windcharger


 * A number of Autobots introduced later in the series (Perceptor, Red Alert, etc.) came down with Cybertonium depletion indicating they have been away from Cybertron just as long as the known members of the original Ark crew. This may indicate they were also part of the Ark crew behind the scenes and perhaps not initially repaired by Teletraan I.

History
Other Vanguard-class ships, pretty much identical to the Ark, are seen taking refugees from Cybertron on a history tape. It is suspected that the settlers of known Autobot colonies such as Paradron were among these. In which, the Vanguard-class ships are built using "die-cast" construction, a lost art.

The Ark was launched under the command of Optimus Prime, carrying a group of the Autobots' "finest heroes" to search for fuel, but ran afoul of two colliding asteroids. Then during the voyage, the Decepticon ship attacked, and the Decepticons' crew and boarding party led by under Megatron boarded it. However, both ships were damaged, going out of control and fell into the gravity well of the nearby planet, the Ark crashed to Earth, smashing into a volcano, the Transformers aboard were sent into emergency stasis lock, and in what would eventually become between a forest and a desert. The exact location is unknown, it is located not to far from New York City. There it rested until a volcanic eruption four million years later reactivated it and its inhabitants. One of the two known copies of the Covenant of Primus was carried aboard.