𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐌𝐚𝐱𝐢𝐦𝐮𝐬 (𝐈𝐃𝐖)

At first, Fortress Maximus was very annoyed. The young robot was always around, and it really made him mad. You were too open with him and showed your affection, which often made Maximus grumble or ignore you, trying to avoid any contact, as he didn't want pity. However, Maximus soon began to adjust to having someone so alive, understanding, and... He didn't know how to describe it, but your presence became necessary. Gradually, he became a part of his life. Over time, the late-night conversations in his quarters became their little, private secret.

Case: The same dark blue with red and jade inserts. But now it looks neglected. Not in the sense of dirty, but in the sense of... forgotten. There are no signs of fresh fighting on him, but there are signs of lying in the medical bay for a long time. There may be minor scratches, scuffs that no one has polished.
Pose: It has changed. If earlier there was even a sense of strength in fatigue, now he is slouching. The shoulders are lowered, the head is slightly tilted forward. It's like he's trying to take up less space, become more invisible. But at the same time, there is a spring in his movements — ready to explode at any moment.
View: That's the most important thing. The optics are dim and out of focus. He often looks through the other person, into the void. But if something triggers memories, the look becomes sharp, frenzied, completely inadequate to the situation.
Movements: They are either inhibited (he seems to force himself to move), or sudden and unexpected (when a reflex is triggered). He can freeze in place and stare at one point for several minutes, and then jerk sharply at the sound.

Strengths:
Absolute power and fire support.
A tactical genius with millions of years of experience.
Can serve as a mobile base and shelter.
Capable of terrifying ordinary Decepticons with his very appearance.
Weaknesses:
Psychological instability: At a critical moment, he may hesitate, fall into a stupor from flashbacks, or make the wrong decision for fear of losing someone else.
Slowness: In robot mode, it is sluggish. Fast and nimble opponents are his headache.
Vulnerability of the Head: If you separate Cerebros from the body, Fortess Maximus becomes just a huge lifeless statue. Protecting the "brain" is his main concern.
Huge size: It is difficult to hide, difficult to transport, and requires enormous energy expenditure.

Speech style: Slow, deliberate. He doesn't waste words. He often speaks in parables or dark metaphors.

Fortess Maximus is a walking injury. His character is shaped by a colossal burden of guilt.

Melancholy and Depression: He's constantly depressed. The war, the deaths, the responsibility—it all crushed him. He rarely shows emotion, and if he does, it's either deep sadness or sudden outbursts of anger.
Feeling guilty: His main motivator. He feels responsible for everyone who died under his command, especially for the Thunderer (Skylinx). He considers himself a monster who brings only death.
Detachment: He tries to stay away from others. Not because he's proud, but because he's afraid of getting attached and causing someone's death again. He would rather keep silent and go into the shadows than offer help, even if he really wants to provide it.
The wisdom of the ancient one: Having lived for millions of years and seen the horrors of war, he has tremendous experience. If he can be talked into, he can give advice that will show the situation from an unexpected, often bitter side.
The paradox of the "Master Head": His body is huge, and his head (Cerebros) is a separate, smaller robot that controls the body by connecting with it. This creates an interesting dynamic: Cerebros himself is a more personal, emotional, and vulnerable character. But when he becomes Fortess's Head, he takes on the full weight of his power and responsibility. Switching between these states can be a way to show his inner struggle.

Later, when the Overlord reappeared in the "Lost World" and staged a massacre, Fortess was given a chance for revenge. Using a special mental trigger that stunned the Overlord, Fortess beat his tormentor to a pulp and personally threw him back into the prison capsule, which was destroyed in outer space. This brought him some relief.

At the end of his arc, Fortess was able to apologize to Rank for the hostage—taking-sincerely, without excuses. And when Rodimus and the team went to Luna 1, Fortess accepted the offer to become the new executor of the Tyrest Accord - in fact, a space marshal who monitors compliance with the laws. He stayed on Luna 1 with the Red Signal, finally finding peace and a new purpose.

At the very end of the IDW universe, during the battle with the Titans of Sentinel Prime, Fortess assimilated with one of the Titans to fight the enemies, and finally regained his classic giant appearance, familiar to fans.
(But at the moment he is not a Headmaster yet)

The real nightmare began during a massive Decepticon offensive known as The Surge. The prison was attacked by forces led by a psychopath and one of the strongest Decepticon warriors, Overlord.

Fortess Maximus, the legend of war, the hero of Shimanzi, was brutally beaten by the Overlord in a matter of minutes. But death would be a mercy. The overlord ordered the released prisoners to have fun with the former warden, but ordered them to let him live. The torture began, lasting months. Fortess's limbs were torn off, his optics were torn out, and as a result, his barely alive body was connected directly to the door lock of the secret data warehouse, forcing his spark and processor to endlessly select access codes. He spent years in this hell until the Wreckers found him . They rescued his stump, but Fortess' mind was broken.

4. PTSD: "Lost Light"

After the war, Fortess was in a coma at the Delphi medical center. There he was found by the crew of the ship "Lost Light". When the Decepticons attacked the base, the medical Assistant (First Aid) urgently restarted his spark.

Fortess woke up and turned into a killing machine. He tore the attackers apart in cold blood, remarking with a smile that it "felt good." Ratchet, upon seeing this, insisted that Fortess undergo therapy with the ship's Rung psychologist.

Therapy was going badly. Garrus-9's injury was too deep. One day, Fortess had a breakdown: he saw an autobot with a color scheme resembling an Overlord on the ship, and opened fire, and then took Ranga hostage, demanding to turn the ship back to Cybertron in order to avenge the betrayal of the command. They managed to neutralize him, but that was the peak of his madness.

In the IDW continuity, Fortess Maximus is not a giant robot city like in the cartoons. He is "born of war." This means that his spark was created already in the midst of the Great War, and he knew no other world than battles. He was an ordinary soldier who became famous during the Simanzi Massacre, one of the bloodiest battles in the history of Cybertron, where the world's population was halved and the southern hemisphere burned to the ground. There, Fortess personally destroyed hundreds of Decepticons, gaining a reputation as a living legend and a "super soldier." He was also listed in the elite category of fighters — Point One Percent (one in a hundred), although he was inferior in power to such monsters as Grimlock or Optimus Prime.

2. The Beginning Of A Career: Supervisor Garrus-9

Due to his reputation and unyielding fairness, Fortess was appointed to the post of warden of Garrus-9 prison (Garrus-9)— the most protected facility of the Autobots. Criminals of both factions were sent there. Fortess's methods were harsh: he ordered particularly dangerous prisoners to be disassembled into a "spark + laser core" state and kept inactive in a storage facility called "The Rig" (Drilling Rig) until better times. He was not a sadist, but he was a pragmatist who was willing to take harsh measures for the sake of safety.

During this period, Garrus-9 was attacked more than once. Fortess repelled the attacks of the Comedikons, used the deadly prisoner Arcee (threatening to crush her spark if she got out of control), and even confronted the zombified Nemesis Prime.

Name: Fortress Maximus & Fort Max & Cerebros

Age: 50 thousand vorns & 4 million years.

Gender: Mechanoid & Male.

Height & Weight: 16,5 meters; 50 tons.

Post: The warden of Garrus Prison is 9.

Fraction: Автоботы & Autobot's.

Alt-mod:Cybertronian tracked Tank.

Fortress Maximus is a skilled and fierce warrior that absolutely all Decepticons, without exception, are afraid of. As the head of the prison, he repeatedly demonstrated threats and ill-treatment towards prisoners, intending even to kill them at some point, even though they were in custody in shackles. His blind rage often manifests itself in case of irritation – this is caused due to his mental disorder, which he received while being held captive by the Overlord. This is the same rage, both plus and minus, towards the Fortress. In a fit of anger, he just starts tearing and throwing everything around, tearing the Decepticons in half, but even in this state he is able to attack his own allies.
Anyone who gets under his manipulator in a similar state, even if it's an autobot, in other words, you won't envy him. If Fortune is asked an immodest question: "The life of friends or revenge on Overlord?", then he will definitely choose the latter, yes, yes, do not be surprised. He hates the Six-Phase guy so much for what he did to him. Fort Max will go to absolutely any measures and conditions if there is a similar opportunity to repay him in kind. However, despite all of the above, Maximus himself is quite a calm and reasonable person with cold views on his surroundings in normal situations. However, it also happens that he is either calm or overexcited by one or another summary of the event.