Prologue

Prologue

Alpha Centauri was the closest star to Earth. It looked much like Earth’s sun, reminding the crews of the fifty Terran Confederation ships of home. What also reminded them of home was the field of wreckage that was floating a hundred million kilometers from the star. The wreckage was a mix of enemy and friendly ships, fighters, and bodies. However, the mood was anything but gloomy on board the human ships. In fact, every ship was ringing from stem to stern with the sounds of joy. After nearly a century of war, the humans and their allies had finally won what they had been striving for: peace.

Admiral Raymond Chandler was one of the few people in the fleet who wasn’t celebrating. He was one of many generations of humans who had known war all his life and was unsure what to make of the apparent peace. He merely sat at his station on the badly-damaged human flagship Prometheus, with no expression at all on his face. It is too early to celebrate, he thought. Not until the search crews have finished combing the wreckage. Once they have made sure that every last one of the enemy is dead, then I will celebrate.

Chandler turned to the communications officer and ordered, “Contact the Iacon and get a status report on the search team’s progress.”

The communications officer turned and wiped the smile off her face. “Yes, sir,” she responded sharply. Chandler allowed himself to lean back in his chair a little while he waited.

The Autobot Jetfire stood in the blasted corridor of the flagship of the lead enemy ship. His comlink came to life and a voice asked, “Jetfire, this is Blaster, do you read me?” Blaster was the chief communications officer for the Autobot army, stationed on the Iacon.

“I read you. What is it?”

“Optimus wants a status report.”

“We’re almost to the bridge now. Nosecone’s clearing away some wreckage now. I’ll let you know once we get there.” Jetfire deactivated his comlink and looked over at the brown and white form of Nosecone, who was using his massive drill to plow through the debris. “How long?”

“Just a few minutes,” Nosecone replied gruffly.

Jetfire sighed and a red, white, and blue warrior sidled up next to him. “What do you think we’ll find?” Joyride asked.

“I don’t know,” Jetfire answered. “Probably nothing, but maybe we’ll get lucky.”

“That would be a nice change of pace. Anyway, the hangar area is secure. Not much left alive in there. The Aerialbots did a number on the place.”

“I’ll be sure to congratulate Silverbolt later. See if you can help the others clear the debris from the bridge.”

“Yes, sir!” Joyride threw a mock-salute and hurried away. Before Jetfire could move, his comlink activated.

“Engineering is secure, sir,” Landmine’s voice said in its nasal human-sounding voice.

“Good work, Landmine. Anything alive down there?”

“Nothing. I’ve taken a look at the propulsion systems, they should still be able to work. That means we could salvage this ship.”

“I’ll let Wreck-Gar and his salvage team know. Have Grimlock come forward to give the others a hand.”

“I’m on it,” Landmine replied and the connection broke. Jetfire turned back to the Autobots working to clear the rubble in font of the bridge. Obviously the enemy had made the place hard to get into. Really not surprising, Jetfire thought to himself. He went over to give his team a hand, hefting chunks of metal that Nosecone’s drill left behind.

After a couple of minutes, Jetfire heard a grunt behind him. He turned and saw the burly form of Grimlock standing behind him. “Me Grimlock clear path,” the Dinobot commander said. Jetfire stepped aside and Grimlock pulled out his sword. He sliced into the rubble and the other Autobots took a step back.

After a minute of furious slicing, Grimlock’s sword slashed the doors apart. “Those doors were blast-proof, but I guess they weren’t sword-proof,” Joyride joked. Jetfire nodded and watched Grimlock put his sword away. He transformed into his robotic Tyrannosaur mode and slammed into the doors, breaking them down.

“Excellent job, Grimlock,” Jetfire complemented the Dinobot. “Siren, go inside and make sure that nothing is waiting for us.”

The Autobot warrior nodded and pulled his shotgun out. He stepped inside carefully and looked around. He surveyed the room and flashed a thumbs-up to Jetfire and the others. “All right, let’s go in...carefully,” Jetfire said, looking at Grimlock.

“Me Grimlock always careful,” Grimlock bellowed.

“Yeah, I remember that time you were so careful stepping into that Decepticon trap on Mars,” Joyride replied sarcastically. Grimlock pulled his sword out, ready to hack Joyride in half, but Jetfire intervened.

“Knock it off! We still have a mission to perform.” Jetfire stepped onto the bridge and saw that it was in ruins. Every station was destroyed and bodies were lying everywhere. As Jetfire took in the carnage, Siren came up to him, a gray object in his hand.

“I think I’ve found something, sir,” Siren said. He held up the object and Jetfire gasped.

“Iacon, this is Jetfire. Mission accomplished.” Jetfire looked at the object in Siren’s head with a mix of horror and joy. After so many years, their true enemy was finally dead. “Megatron is dead.”

Jetfire expected Blaster to reply, but a different voice said, “Check the area for sparks. Make certain that Megatron is destroyed.”

“I understand, Prowl. I’ll bring back his head if you want.”

Prowl chuckled and replied, “No need for that. Just tell me when you’ve made sure. Optimus and our allies are anxious to make sure our victory was total.”

“I know. I’ll do my best.” Jetfire broke the connection and turned to Landmine, who had just come onto the bridge. “Scan the entire area for sparks, on-line or otherwise.”

Landmine nodded and touched a button on his yellow spacesuit. Jetfire waited a few minutes until the Pretender was done. “Scans complete.” He walked over to a ruined chair and pointed to a black smear on the deck. “That’s what’s left of Megatron’s spark.”

“Are you sure?” Siren asked in disbelief.

“I am 100% certain. His spark was destroyed in the battle, as were the others.”

“How?”

“My guess is that they destroyed their own sparks. Obviously Megatron knew that he had lost, so he destroyed himself and had the others kill themselves as well.”

“He’s never given up before, why would he do so now?” Siren asked.

“We’ve had Megatron on the run for the last ten years now. With the advances in Autobot and human technology, we’ve outmatched Megatron and his warriors at every turn since retaking Cybertron. We finally drove them to this empty corner of the galaxy and trapped them here. Megatron knew he was making his last stand. Once we had crippled his ship, he knew that it was finished. He would rather die than to be a prisoner of Optimus Prime’s. He would never admit defeat, so he killed himself. The others probably followed his example,” Jetfire postulated.

“Sounds good to me,” Siren responded. “Well, let’s spread the good news.”

Jetfire nodded and contacted Prowl. “Landmine has scanned the area, all we found were the traces of destroyed sparks. Every Decepticon on this bridge is dead.”

“I understand. I’ll alert Prime at once. And...good work, Jetfire. Give my complements to the Raptors.” The connection broke and Jetfire smiled. It was the first time he had heard Prowl, or anyone other than Optimus, use the name of his unit.

Jetfire had formed the Raptor strike team twelve years ago. After millions of years of fighting, Optimus Prime had assigned he and Wheeljack to a lab on Earth to work with a human genius named Simon James. After three years of work, they had come up with some devastating new weapons. In order to field test the new weapontry, Jetfire outfitted an elite, hand-picked group of Autobots to undergo special modifications. The weapons worked as expected, but rather than disband the unit, Jetfire had asked Prime to allow it to stay. Optimus had decided that it would be a good idea, and so the Raptors had remained a unit to serve as a covert strike force.

Today’s assignment had been the mother of all assignments: attack and cripple Megatron’s flagship, the Tyrant. The humans had trapped the Decepticons, using their superior ships to keep the Decepticons pinned. Once nearly the entire Autobot army had arrived, the leaders for the humans and Autobots decided that it was time to go in for the kill. While the human ships provided cover, the Autobots launched their attacks on the Decepticons. Optimus had assigned the Raptors to take the Tyrant because he knew that they were the best, and he had ordered Jetfire to capture Megatron and his crew if at all possible. Only the Raptors had the skill to pull off a mission like that, but today they were too late. Now Megatron and some of the most infamous Decepticons ever were dead. Not that I’m going to miss Starscream or Shockwave, but I’d rather they atone for their crimes, Jetfire thought.

“Landmine, see what you can do with the engines. I’ll contact the Forager and have Wreck-Gar’s team salvage what they can off of here.” Jetfire took the head from Siren and then added, “After that, I’m going to pay Optimus a visit.”

Optimus Prime took the head of Megatron and studied it. The eyes were black and vacant, but there was still an evil grin on the gray face. It somehow seemed to mock him. Optimus knew that it was because he had wanted to bring Megatron back to Cybertron to stand trial, but now he would be denied. The galaxy had been rid of the ruthless warlord forever, but Megatron had never paid for his crimes. After all of his experiences, it still seemed unfair to Optimus that such things could happen. War is seldom fair, he reminded himself. “Good work, Jetfire,” he said to the warrior in front of him. “Once again, the Raptors have proven their worth.”

“Thank-you, sir. Is that all?”

“Yes, Jetfire. Once Wreck-Gar’s team is safely aboard, you can have your team return to the Striking Eagle.”

Jetfire saluted and left the room. Optimus put the head down and sat down in his ready room chair. Megatron is dead, peace is finally at hand. After millions and millions of years we Autobots have finally achieved our goal. Cybertron and Earth are liberated, and ever other colony and outpost has been freed of Decepticon control. After a long journey, the Autobots have finally reached the end of it.

The journey had been filled with a lot of tragedy. Optimus could remember the dark times of the eight years the Decepticons had ruled both Cybertron and Earth and it had been the Autobots on the verge of extinction. He remembered holding Elita-1 in his arms on a shuttle as her spark terminated after she had valiantly defended the last stragglers trying to get off Cybertron while Scorponok and part of the Decepticon army advanced on the last Autobot stronghold of Iacon. He remembered the brief civil war that had been fought amongst the Autobots when Hot Rod had stolen the Matrix and declared himself the only true Autobot leader. He remembered watching Fortress Maximus destroy himself and Scorponok by plummeting into the Sun during the liberation of Earth. He remembered Ironhide calmly telling him that it had been fun while it lasted while the old warrior piloted his shuttle into the command center on Gyon in order to prevent Megatron’s fusion bombs from detonating and taking out most of the planet. He remembered all of the dark times and knew that he could never forget them. However, it had not been in vain. The Autobot cause had finally triumphed. Looking at Megatron’s head, he only wished he could celebrate like the others.

He opened up a channel to the Prometheus and saw Admiral Chandler’s face come onto the screen. “My troops have searched the Tyrant. Megatron and all of his officers are dead. They terminated themselves rather than be captured. It appears as though we have won,” Prime said.

“Yes, it does. Congratulations, Optimus, your troops have performed superbly,” Chandler replied.

“As have yours. I have ordered my teams to begin salvage operations. I assume you will want to do the same.”

“Yes. I will send one of my scout ships back to relay the news of our victory to Cybertron and Earth. I would expect it to take a couple of weeks for us to complete salvage and repair operations.”

“That sounds like a good estimate. I assume you will want to conduct a joint debriefing later?”

“It would probably be a good idea once we have casualty and damage reports in.”

“Excellent. Let me know once you are ready.”

“I will,” Prime nodded and the connection was severed. Chandler turned to the communications officer and ordered, “Dispatch the Hermes to Earth to deliver the good news and then order all ships to report once they have compiled damage and casualty reports. Once all ships have reported in, let me know. I’ll be in my ready room.”

“Yes, sir.” Chandler left the bridge and took the lift down a level to where his ready room and a pair of conference rooms were. He stopped at the first conference room and looked inside. It was extraordinarily large, built to accomodate Transformers as well as humans, and Chandler wondered what would happen now.

Humans and Transformers never had a very good rapport. The Autobots were good, but Chandler knew that most humans distrusted them because they were robots. The common perception of a robot, even after all the Autobots had done to help humanity, was that it was cold and uncaring. Decepticons had done little to help this and Chandler wondered if the battle here would change everything. Here, at Alpha Centauri, the Autobots and humans had fought side-by-side and conquered the greatest evil in the universe. They had shown that humans and robots could work together in order to achieve a common goal.

Chandler opened the door to his ready room and the lights came on. He sat down behind his desk and opened the top drawer. Inside was a bottle of scotch and a glass. He took both out and began pouring. Let the politicians worry about the future, he thought. I’m a soldier, my only concern is the here and now. He downed the liquor in one shot and poured another. Maybe if I get drunk enough I can finally celebrate.

He looked over at the picture on his desk and picked it up. The picture was of him, his ten-year-old son Jason, and his wife Gillian. His wife and son had been killed when their transport ship had been raided by Decepticons. It had been nearly twenty years ago, but Chandler could still feel the pain as though it had happened yesterday. He took another shot of his drink and set the picture down so he couldn’t see it. He had finally paid the Decepticons back for killing his family. Why didn’t he feel any better? He closed his eyes and wished that the scotch could numb the pain in his heart.

***

Doctor Simon James sat at his computer terminal in his lab on Earth, deep in thought. He studied the hyperpulse laser specs created by he, Wheeljack, and Jetfire ten years ago. The weapon had been proven to work very effectively, and the hyperpulse laser rifle had replaced the standard laser rifle for both humans and Autobots. Now James was trying to improve the weapon. He would need to create new, more powerful weapons for what he was planning to do.

He heard a buzzer ring and turned in his chair. He got up and walked over to a large metal hatch that rested at the top of a flight of stairs that connected the underground lab to the surface. He opened the hatch and saw a messenger wearing the green dress uniform of a Confederation Army leftenant. “Can I help you?” James asked.

“I have a message from Command for you,” the leftenant replied. He handed a holodisk to James and smartly did an about-face. James closed the hatch and went down the stairs. He put the holodisk in a player and saw the face of a friend of his, General Celia Marshall.

“Simon, I have received word from the fleet. The Decepticons are no more. Our fleet, combined with the Autobot forces, eradicated the ‘Cons near Alpha Centauri. I trust you know what will happen next: the Autobots will recharge and then come after us. Perhaps they will attack directly, or maybe they will try and destroy us within by destabilizing our government. Either way, we need to be prepared. I will watch things politically, but I need you to get weapons ready if they decide to attack.”

“I can’t stress how important this is: maintain secrecy at all times. Trust no one except very close friends or assistants. If the Confederation or the cursed Autobots find out, they will try and stop us. I have taken great care to make sure that this message was securely delivered. I don’t know how long we have to prepare, but it won’t be long. Once you are finished, contact me at once. You know how to reach me. Good luck, Simon.” The message stopped and James looked around the lab. He silently walked over to the far end of the lab and moved aside a panel. A computer pad was revealed and James typed in a code that made a secret door open. He stepped through the door and walked down dark, stone corridors until he reached a large cave.

Inside the cave was what he would use to get back at the Transformers who had killed his wife during the occupation of Earth. It was what he would use to destroy the Autobots before their menance could overrun Earth. It was what would finally allow humanity to be free of Cybertronian influence.

James turned on a set of lights and stared at the large, rusty object. It was the body of a Decepticon recovered twenty years ago. It had been thought to be destroyed, but James had hidden the body so that he could study it. The body was black and purple with one silver pincer jutting out its back. He knew that as far as Transformers went it was not all that powerful, but its corpse would become the most powerful weapon in the galaxy. It would finally allow him to unlock the secrets of the Cybertronians so that he could then find ways to destroy them once and for all.

James had wanted to disect it earlier, but he had been working on other projects. Lately he had been trying to redesign weapons for use with human troops against Transformers. But now he knew that the time had come to disect the beast and find out what mysteries it held. Then he would be able to find a way to destroy all of the Transformers. James went over to a hydraulic lift and raised himself up to the head. He grabbed a cutting torch and set to work.

***

Ensign Louis Darwin pushed the large hovercart towards the airlock, wishing that for once he could get a chance to do something more interesting than salvage and repair work. He looked over at the woman next to him, a tall Asian woman named Omi. He did not know her last name, but he did know that he would like a chance to find out. At least that’s the one bright spot to this detail, Darwin thought.

He had never seen Omi before and he wondered where she had been all of his life. Not only was she gorgeous, but she was smart to boot. He had asked her about how the Autobots kept the sparks of their prisoners in stasis without any degradation and she had quickly answered the question with almost no hesitation. They neared the airlock and Darwin stopped the hovercart. “Isn’t it weird hauling these spark thingies around? Thinking that inside all of those blue spheres is an entire being’s thoughts and memories is creepy,” Darwin said to Omi.

She looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “I do not find sparks to be strange at all. What I do find creepy is that you disgusting fleshlings are allowed to exist.” Omi touched something on her right arm and Darwin took a step back in horror as she began to grow larger. Her human frame stretched until it nearly reached the ceiling of the corridor. He took another step back as he watched her chest open, revealing a purple and black robot with bright red eyes.

“You’re...you’re a Pretender! But...no Pretender can do that!” Darwin stammered.

Omi shrugged and pulled out a hyperpulse laser rifle. She leveled it at the frightened human and pulled the trigger. Then she turned to the two hovercarts and her shell turned inside-out and became a transport module that surrounded the carts. She opened the airlock and saw an Autobot standing before her. Her sensors identified him as Fizzle, a military strategist. “Hey, who are you?” He asked.

She punched him in the face with her right arm, jumped a little bit in the air, and smashed Fizzle’s head with her left leg. He went down and she knew that she had caused enough internal damage to keep him incapacitated until she could deal with him. She brought her shell inside and shut the airlock. Then she headed towards the bridge.

As was typical for an Autobot shuttle, there was no other security until she reached the bridge. The fools, she thought. She opened the door and saw two puny Autobots turn at her approach. She identified them both as Throttlebots, Freeway and Chase. “Who are you?” Chase asked.

“Your death,” Omi replied and blasted Chase in the chest. Before Freeway could react, she shot his pistol from his hand and then destroyed him with a well-placed shot to the head. She quickly finished Chase off and took the controls of the shuttle. She pulled away from the human and Autobot fleet and activated the ship’s hyperdrive. Then she got up to deal with the Autobot she had left by the airlock.

She found that he had already regained consciousness and was feebly trying to get to his feet. He finally made it and Omi smiled. The foolish Autobots always fought even after all hope was gone. “What do you want?” Fizzle asked.

“Nothing from you, Autobot,” she replied. She shot him once in the knee, which sent him crashing back down. Then she grabbed his leg and dragged him to the bridge. She pulled out some wires from Chase and Freeway and used them to string Fizzle up to the ceiling. He dangled in the air limply, trying to find a way to stop her, but not having the strength to do anything. As the shuttle headed for its destination she began practicing her martial arts moves on Fizzle. He screamed in pain each time she sent a fist or foot smashing into him and she knew that his was only the first of the Autobot screams she would hear. Eventually, she knew that it would be Optimus Prime hanging in the air for her amusement; screaming as she used him for a punching bag and being too weak to do anything about it. The Autobots will pay, she thought as she bashed Fizzle in the face and heard his screams finally stop.