Ark

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. According to the Maximal Optimal Primal, the Ark was also built using "die-cast" construction, a lost art. One of the two known copies of the Covenant of Primus was carried aboard.

Crew of the Ark
The Ark's crew consisted of all the 1984 Autobots. A vehicle resembling Grapple's alt-mode and called "Hauler" is also seen shortly after the Autobots revived on Earth and may represent another crew member. Some or all of the 1985 Autobots may also have been crewmembers.

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
 * Dinobots
 * Grimlock
 * Slug
 * Sludge
 * Snarl
 * Swoop

Note: ''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.

According to the Predacon Blackarachnia, 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 the central command warship of the Decepticon fleet attacked, and Megatron ordered his Decepticon armies to destroy the Ark and all the Autobots in it. However, both ships were damaged and fell out of control into the gravity, the Ark crashed to Earth, smashing into a volcano in what would eventually become a desert, and the Autobots aboard were sent into emergency stasis lock. The exact location is unknown, but closely resembled the American southwest. There it rested until a volcanic eruption four million years later reactivated it and its inhabitants.