The TRF Soldiers are major antagonists in Transformers: The Last Knight. They serve as the operatives of the Transformers Reaction Force, an organization bent on destroying Transformers regardless of faction and is led by Commander Santos.
They also have a British counterpart in the United Kingdom as well.
Biography[]
Background[]
TRF Soldiers mostly served as the backbone and military of the Transformers Reaction Force. They are mostly ex-special forces and former NEST soldiers that previously fought in battles alongside the Autobots against the Decepticons. Some of them maybe former members of Cemetery Wind, a similar anti-Cybertronian organization that had the same intentions as the TRF did previously before its dissolvement. While they may seemingly be former soldiers, most soldiers from the regular United States military have also merged with the TRF, particularly the United States Navy SEALs. Santos, a former Delta Force operator born in Brazil, became the unit's leading field commander of the American branch, alongside a lieutenant and former ally Autobots, William Lennox. They were able to eradicate every single Transformer and have also captured Decepticons and imprisoned them in several N.B.E. facilities, particularly Megatron's Crew. At some point, they found out about Autobot sympathizer Cade Yeager, and set up a warrant for his arrest.
Finding Cade Yeager[]
At a no zone in Chicago, Santos and a group of soldiers ordered an airstrike on the Autobot Canopy, which killed him while sheltering a group of children led by Izabella. After Cade had them escape, the TRF soldiers began to surround Cade as he surrendered. As Santos' right hand man identified the fugitive on his computer, Santos demanded Cade to surrender and give up the Autobots, but refused to sell out his friends, to the point that he told Cade that they are in charge as they wake up since it is being deemed as an "invasion". After Cade began warning Santos that a much dangerous threat is coming from the sky since Transformers keep arriving on the planet, he was then rescued by the timely arrival of Bumblebee. An operative opened fire on the Autobot, to the point he was able to disassemble himself. As the soldiers surrounded the disassembled robot, Bumblebee began to reassemble himself; his head began to bite into Santos' leg, one of his arms was able to destroy a TRF cruiser, killing some operatives inside, his arm cannon blasted into the operatives, either killing or wounding them, and one of the explosions was able to kill a few operatives where one landed on the front glass of a TRF cruiser. As the robot's parts continued to destroy the vehicles, Santos was hit by Cade by the front door, and one of the parts kicked an operative to the face as the robot reassembled himself. Bumblebee was able to kick and injure another operative as Cade told the robot to take it easy. As Santos ordered his men to kill Cade, the standoff was interrupted by the arrival of William Lennox and Autobot Hound. The TRF then stood down as Cade told Bumblebee and Hound that they were leaving with the standoff eased. As Santos demanded Lennox on which side he is on, he ordered a TRF sniper to fire a homing beacon on Bumblebee.
Some time later, due to a homing beacon that tagged Bumblebee earlier, they found out that Cade Yeager was hiding at a junkyard in South Dakota and realized he was in possession of a talisman that he got earlier in Chicago. This prompted the TRF to unwillingly work with Megatron and his newly released crew to find Cade Yeager and retrieve the talisman he was holding. As the Decepticons and the TRF convoy moved in, a drone was able to spot Cade, to the point that they needed to evacuate before the TRF can reach them. They proceeded to hide at an abandoned town, to the point they were able to kill several Decepticons with the exceptions of Megatron and Nitro Zeus. As the TRF convoy were approaching their said target, Grimlock and Snarl were able to halt their advance by destroying several TRF vehicles, killing the operatives inside. The TRF convoy was brought to a halt and this prompted Santos to launch a fleet of mini drones, furious that his men were killed. However, Cade was able to destroy the mini drones one by one. Although Cade was their only priority to kill or capture, they weren’t seemingly keen on wanting to capture or kill Jimmy and Izabella, believing the other two weren’t important targets as Cade was their top priority for now.
Finding the Staff[]
Realizing that Cade is in England, Santos, Lennox, and an unnamed lieutenant boarded a Navy ship to monitor their British counterparts trying to find Cade Yeager and Viviane Wembly. After they board the H.M.S. Alliance to find the staff, which turns out to also be an Autobot, Santos, Lennox, and the lieutenant organized groups of SEAL teams to give pursuit to them inside naval submersibles. After following Cade and Viviane inside the alien ship, they then spotted an awakened knight, to the point they were able to fire at it and allowing the TRF Lieutenant to put a bomb on his leg, killing the knight. They attempted to arrest or kill Viviane, convincing her to drop the staff, to the point that she told them she can only hold the staff. Lennox refused to listen to Cade's pleas as Viviane demanded them to shoot her, and as Cade warned Lennox about the drastic consequences if he killed her, more knights awakened and were able to kill several operatives in the process. Optimus Prime, who had just been brainwashed by Quintessa, was able to kill the knights and demanded Viviane to hand over the staff. Santos fired at Optimus only to have the shots deflected. As after Optimus went Cade and Bumblebee went to find him Optimus, Lennox reluctantly teamed up with Cade Yeager as he ordered the rest of the operatives to return to their submarines that they lost contact with the staff.
Stopping Quintessa[]
The TRF reluctantly began to work with Cade Yeager and the Autobots to retrieve the staff, which was being used by Quintessa to drain out Earth's life force for the restoration of Cybertron. As the soldiers boarded the Osprey's, Cade then shamed the operatives and Santos that they never stopped hunting him, and that the world had begun to turn their backs on Autobots after losing faith on them. Realizing their mistake understands he wrong about the Autobots, Santos and the soldiers admitted defeat and tore off their TRF badges, which disbanded the organization for good. However, their Osprey's were forced to crash land.
The ex-TRF soldiers led by Santos and the military led by Lennox fought both the Decepticons guarding the chamber's entrance. Hound also joined with the soldiers as well. As Santos began ordering an airstrike on the chamber, Lennox told Cade that their operation is over for them because they will die if they stayed. As Lennox ordered the operatives to parachute down back to the surface, Santos tracked the air force's missiles bringing down the chamber. However, it turned out to be active, but Optimus and Bumblebee were able to defeat Megatron and Quintessa, and Viviane was able to use the staff to stop Cybertron's merger with planet Earth. After a long battle, Optimus said farewell to his former human allies and they begun to return to Cybertron to rebuilt it. Following this, it can be implied that most of the TRF operatives were dismissed and became scapegoats and relieved of duty for not only hunting down Autobots, but also reluctantly teaming up and grouping with Decepticons to hunt down Cade Yeager as well, as they finally realized that only Viviane can wield the staff to stop the merger of Cybertron and Earth, and finally realized a good lesson from what Cade Yeager said earlier during his first encounter with them and during the climax that there will be harsh consequences which them not being able to handle it themselves if they did destroy all Autobots. As a result, TRF was dissolved and that Cade was finally taken off the fugitive list. It’s quite possible that all the blame was placed on Santos and his former TRF soldiers, and also on Lennox and on his military group for failing an operation by using nuclear missiles to destroy the ignition chamber which almost cost the lives of all humanity. They will also be prohibited from creating deals with the Decepticons and only Decepticons will be outlawed and they will also be given strict orders to find and destroy only Decepticons since they are the real threat to the world.
Powers and abilities[]
- Humvees - They mostly serve as cruisers and transports.
- SUVs - Troop transports and cruisers. They are mostly compromised of Cadillac Escalades, which were previously used by Cemetery Wind.
- Troop Carriers - They mostly transport TRF soldiers to their said targets. They are mostly International MaxxPro trucks used by the regular U.S. Army.
- AH-64 Apache Longbow: Serves as close air support for the TRF in hunting down Autobots.
- Submersibles: Loaned by the United States Navy and used by TRF and SEALs to find Cade and Viviane during the search for the staff. Used for underwater purposes.
