Sata

Sata is an alien Space Knight from the IDW portion of the Generation 1 continuity family.

Feelings... nothing more than feelings...

The four-armed Sata is a young Space Knight cadet in the service of the Solstar Order, fond of using her long arms and adaptive armor to form powerful blades of Neutralizer energy. Though slightly more down-to-earth than her fellow rookie Auxin, Sata shares Auxin's distaste for working alongside Cybertronian cadet Stardrive, believing "the machine" lacks the necessary attributes to become a worthy Space Knight.

Fiction

2005 IDW continuity

You'd better work out, or you won't be able to fit in your suit.

Sata and Auxin were deployed to Mining Colony 25-6-41 alongside senior Knights Rom and Livia to investigate reports of a Dire Wraith infestation. She remained on the ship while Auxin accompanied the full-fledged Knights to the planetoid. After a brief altercation on the asteroid, the Knights returned to their ship with Stardrive, who had earned the ire of Auxin for interfering with his first Wratih kill.

The Knights brought the three cadets with them on their next mission to the space station Orchid Crossing, orbiting Xetaxxis, to provide security for a diplomatic summit with the neighboring Galactic Council regarding Dire Wraith incursions into Council space. The two cadets were more interested in sniping at Stardrive as they disembarked, though they were unaware that Stardrive had been brought along for publicity purposes: to show the Council that the Solstar Order could keep Transformers "in their place." The next morning, the five Knights watched as Solstar diplomats made contact with the Council envoy... only to learn that the Council members had been replaced by Dire Wraiths, and their shuttle revealed itself as the Decepticon Astrotrain, who summarily blew Auxin in half. A vengeful Sata attacked Astrotrain only for the Autobots to arrive. Shining Armor #1

I wear your hardsuits, isn't that enough?

The Autobots waded into the brawl, but were unprepared for the magic of the Wraiths; Sata watched in horror as Sky Blast was forcibly merged with a Dire Wraith, who swiftly mutated into an ungodly fusion that began destroying all. The four-way fight threatened to tear the station apart; seeing no other way to kill the beast, Ultra Magnus deactivated the station's force field in the hopes that it, and everyone else aboard, would burn up as the station entered the atmosphere. Sata and her commanders quickly fled the scene, escaping into the skies above the icy planet. The Knights caught up with Stardrive just as Ultra Magnus placed her under arrest, sparking another firefight. Shining Armor #2

"Why, you little-"

In the ensuing melee, Sata grappled with Bumblebee, nearly stabbing him, before a furious Stardrive managed to call off the fight. With some help from Ultra Magnus, all parties were soon on the same page after Stardrive revealed the existence of her energon synthesizer—the reason why the Decepticons had attacked in the first place—to the Autobots. Both sides rolled out to the wreckage of Orchid Crossing to get to the synthesizer, Sata tagging along with the two ground-bound Autobots. Bumblebee convinced them to make a detour to help a Xetaxxian village deal with the punishing cold, much to the dismay of his travelling buddies; Sata received a message that the Decepticons had caught up with them at the crash site, prompting the villagers to drop their cover and reveal themselves as Wraith imposters. Sata helped keep them off Bumblebee as Ultra Magnus ordered them to get to the energon synthesizer while he held off the swarm. Shining Armor #3

Bumblebee obligingly transformed and zoomed away... an action that didn't sit right with Sata, as she remained convinced that the Cybertronians were merely emotionless computers incapable of friendship or affection. Her remarks prompted the normally affable Bumblebee to snap that Ultra Magnus was his friend, who had deliberately chosen to sacrifice himself for the greater good. Spying the battle site up ahead, Sata glumly concluded that they had failed and that they would need to sterilize the planet. The duo arrived just in time to intervene in Stardrive's recent crisis of conscience; managing to talk down the despairing Cybertronian Space Knight, the unlikely alliance were unprepared for the return of Ultra Magnus... who had fallen to the swarm and become a monstrous puppet body for Vekktral, leader of the Wraiths. Shining Armor #4

SHUT UP or I'm going to spank you!

In the ensuing fight, Sata found herself used as an unwilling weapon by Stardrive, who used her entire body as a gigantic sword to lop off one of the Wraith-Magnus's arms. The Autobots and Space Knights were ultimately able to put Ultra Magnus down and force Vekktral to separate from his host—but were unable to prevent Starscream from sabotaging the energon synthesizer in one last act of spite, threatening to obliterate half of the planet. Sata pointed out that Vekktral had thrown himself into the explosion to take Stardrive with him; his gambit failed and the Space Knights and Bumblebee were able to safely evacuate the planet in time, watching from orbit as it burned. This was the last straw for Stardrive, who, tired of the constant prejudices and moral hypocrisy of the Space Knights, shed her silver armor and flew away into deep space. Leaving Bumblebee to be picked up by the Autobot fleet, the three remaining Space Knights flew off to gather up the escape pods from the Orchid Crossing.

Some time later, Sata had become a full-fledged Space Knight and, alongside Livia, proudly helped to mentor a class of new recruits, impressing on them the need to make sacrifices. Shining Armor #5

Nearly two centuries later, Sata was one of the many Space Knights who joined Rom and Optimus Prime to defend Elonia, capital of the Solstar Order, from Unicron. Though the Cybertronians were able to safely evacuate the majority of the Elonians, they were unable to stop the monster planet from destroying Elonia. Floating amongst the planetary debris, Sata cradled Livia's wounded body. Our Darkest Though the loss of the capital planet was devastating, Sata heeded Rom's call to war against Unicron. Ad Infinitum

Sata and the other survivors of Elonia were later teleported to Earth when Unicron then destroyed Cybertron. Road's End

Notes

• In keeping with Rom's name being derived from read-only memory, Stardrive's fellow cadets also have names taken from computer terminology. Sata is a punny name derived from serial ATA, or "SATA", computer interfaces.