Thundercracker was one of Megatron's elite warriors, participating in the attack on the Ark and joining the rest of the Earth-bound Transformers in their several-million-year nap under an inactive volcano. He awoke when the rest of the Decepticons did, and took part in their attempts to gather energon and escape the planet Earth, which he loathed for being too "flat". It was he and Reflector who spotted the first "potential Autobot", when in fact they had discovered the planet's native inhabitants, two humans, in an unliving vehicle