Vok

In Transformers history, the Vok were mysterious and powerful aliens who had evolved beyond the corporeal world. Their base of operations - be it another planet, location in space, or entire dimension - is dubbed "Nexus Zero." The Vok's influence was present on prehistoric Earth during the Beast Wars period of Earth's history (hundreds of thousands of years BCE). During this time, they were running an experiment on Earth, the reasons have yet to be revealed. The Vok were responsible for a second "moon" in orbit around Earth which was actually a planetkiller/monitoring station, the seeding of the massive amounts of energon on the planet and the creation of various monuments on pre-historic Earth including a collection of standing stones, a the floating island, a the stone square and a hidden "Metalhunter" ship. Additionally, the second golden disk that served as a master key to the above monuments was hidden on the planet. After the destruction of the Floating Island and the sending of a signal prior to its destruction, they returned to the planet to investigate to find it infested with the Predacons and Maximals. Taking the form of Unicron and rendering judgement, they turned their planetkiller on the Earth, which began detonating the massive deposits of energon on the planet, only to have their planetkiller destroyed by Optimus Primal in a transwarp explosion.

Alien influence was next felt when Airazor and Tigatron tripped an alien device located in a lush valley. The device, in the shape of a peculiar planet, generated a signal beam that shot the two into space. When the Maximals and Predacons came to investigate, another signal emerged from the depths of space, converting the plant into the Metalhunter base, which Megatron then used the Golden Disk to control, only to have both artifacts be destroyed in a Transwarp explosion. However, the Vok were unaware of this, and believed their experiment to have been wiped clean. However, when they became aware of the continued existence of the Transformers, they judgement chose to combine the bodies of Airazor and Tigatron into the demigod Tigerhawk, and possess the body, using it with the intent of passing judgement on Megatron for his attempts to alter history. They were unable to pass judgement on Megatron, as Optimus Primal tried to prevent him from destroying Megatron, due to him carrying the original Megatron's spark inside his body. He failed as Tigerhawk opened the earth underth him. Tigerhawk was however felled by Tarantulas' devices. In an attempt to gain Tigerhawk's demigod powers, the Vok left the body, entering Tarantulas', just as a weapon was used on Tarantulas, killing them both.

Beyond the fact that they were aliens, no real origin or explanation for the Vok was given in the animated series. The two story editors of Beast Wars, Bob Forward and Larry DiTillio have their own explanations. Forward views the Vok as the ultimate evolution of either mankind, or sentient life in general, while DiTillio conceived of an origin more closely tied to Transformer history - he thought of the Vok as the evolved, purified version of the Swarm, a destructive, dark byproduct of Transformer reproduction, as seen in the Transformers Generation 2 comics. At the conclusion of that series, the Swarm was purified by Optimus Prime and the Matrix.