Halfway between the SOL systems primary and her third planet
a duel between
starships was about to begin. It was going to be a one sided battle
by either side's account.
Unfortunately both sides were sure that it would be the Predacon's
that were victorious.
Their ship, the Overlord was a dreadnought class battlecruiser,
while the Maximals only
had the Axalon, a modified frigate. The only advantage they had,
was the Overlord had
not come through New Iacon's destruction intact. The huge ship
had lost many of it's
systems during the stellar conflagration, but what it had left
still outgunned them by at
least three to one.
The ship's current commander Diehard, knew exactly how dire
their situation
was, his last assignment had been aboard the Command ship, the
Resolute. He had been
aboard her during the battle of Aurora when they had faced off
against the Overlord
under Scourge's command. The Resolute had barely escaped the encounter,
and the battle
between the two had never even been close.
"Launch all fighters!" He said, his voice showing
the combination of both anger, and fear
that he felt. "Then raise our shields and bring all weapons
to bear on that thing!"
"But sir," The human pilot, Jackson said. "we've
got a chance in hell against that
behemoth."
"I know," Diehard said determinedly. "but we're
the only one's who can stop that thing
from reaching Earth, and our friends. If they don't succeed, then
it won't matter whether
we do or not."
The tables had turned on both sets of Maximals. The team
that belonged in this
timeline had been turned upon by the Predacon agent Ravage, and
attacked by the hidden
remainder of the Predacon army. The other set had been cut off
from both their starship,
and the ship they had come to find, the Ark. Their engineer, Rhinox,
had entered a knew
access code, but it could only be used once before they were shut
out again. To make
matters worse, if the Predacon's dreadnaught reached the planet,
they were all lost.
"You can't send us away know Optimus!" Eclipse said
excitedly. "You need us here to
help you stop Megatron."
"No!" Optimus said, finally understanding how Grimlock
had felt when he had assigned
him to this mission. "Galvatron has to be stopped from reaching
this planet, or the
consequnces could be worse than what Megatron is about to do."
"What good are we going to do?" Rattrap asked. "There's
no way that hunk of junk can
stand up to Galvatron's ship anyway. What are we supposed to do,
go up there and ask
them nicely to go away?"
"If you think that will work, then yes." Primal said
sarcastically, matching Rattrap's tone
perfectely. Then, he calmed down and continued in a more determined
tone of voice.
"This shuttle is one of the most heavily armed craft the
Axalon carries, and it's not like a
ship of her size can haul a huge number of fighters to begin with.
I need all of you to get
into orbit, and stop any ships that get past ours. Eclipse is
one of the best gunners we've
got so she has to go. I need you and Night Stalker to pilot for
her while Rhinox and I go
stop Megatron from killing Prime."
"Oh yeah." Rattrap said. "Well speaking of which,
what do you intend to do with our
version of the 'Great Predacon hero' now that we don't need him
any more?"
"Oh I do believe that he intends to take me with him,
yes." Megatron said as he walked
out of his cell, finally free of his chair.
"What's he doing loose?!?" Night Stalker screamed,
bringing his disrupter to bear on the
former Predacon commander. Before he could fire, Megatron ducked,
and used his tail
gun to grab Stalker's foot under the table. He yanked, dragging
him underneath it, sending
the Maximal's shot wildly into the ceiling. Instantly Rattrap
and Eclipse brought their
own weapons to bear, but this time it was Primal that stopped
them.
"That's enough!" He said to his troops. Then he turned
to Megatron."And I mean all of
you!"
"As you wish." Megatron said. He shrugged, as he
held the struggling Stalker in the air,
then he released the Maximal, allowing him to fall to the floor
with a thud. Primal turned
to his troops, each of them except Rhinox looked to him for an
explination.
"I'm going to need all the help I can get to stop Megatron's
other self from making the
biggest mistake of his life. I need all of you to keep the other
Predacons away while he
and I do whatever we have to do to stop all this from starting
again."
"You can't trust him Optimus!" Stalker said desperately.
"The kid's right big bot. He'll shoot you in the back
the first chance he gets. Let's waste
him now before he gets the chance." Rattrap said, starting
to go for his gun again.
"Stand down!" Primal ordered. "We have a mission
to perform, and I need each of you to
obey my orders, not question them. I don't have time to fully
explain because I need you
to get this ship into orbit while our alternates are to distracted
to notice your launch." He
said in a tone that indicated the discussion was over. "Our
two human pilots will escort
you in thier fighters. Your orders are to stop any ships from
reacing the planet. No matter
what the cost."
On the Overlord, Galvatron was giving similar orders to the
surviving members of
his crew. Most of them had been glad to get away from the Maximal's
revenge alive.
Now they weren't as sure they had been the lucky ones after all.
"We will reach the Earth, no matter what the cost."
He fumed to his subordinates. "And
when we reach it, we will end not only Optimus' life, but those
of every Autobot on the
Ark as well." He said, and went into a hysterical laughing
fit.
"But won't that alter the timeline, and erase us from
existance?" One named Skullgrin, a
former Pretender asked. In answer, Galvatron bellowed, brought
his rifle out, and pointed
it at Skullgrin. The formers Decepticon only had a moment to whimper
before Galvatron
pulled the trigger, creating a hole where his upper chest used
to be. As his remains fell to
the ground, Galvatron turned to the rest of his troops.
"Would anyone else care to argue with me about the ramifications
of altering the
timeline?" He asked menacingly. Silence filled the room,
allowing him to continue.
"Megatron's mistake was in killing only Optimus Prime. By
destroying the others, we will
insure that none will remain to oppose us in the future, thus
erasing the crushing defeat
we left behind in the future."
It made sense, at least in a way that none of them could figure
out yet. Each of them was
more concerned about Galvatron and their immediate future than
they were about the
possible future.
Both ships launched their fighters almost simultainiously.
The Axalon, like most
frigates had never been meant to carry more than a token force
so her contigent was
relatively small. Fortunately, most of Galvatron's fighters had
been used up in the earlier
battle, and he was now limited primarily to the Predacons capable
of space flight.
Unfortunatly, they still outnumbered the Maximals by a substantially
large margin. The
two forces screamed across the void at one another, their first
strokes, in the form of
missiles launches, were traded long before they reached one another.
The
Maximal/Human allaince had the advantage in this department however,
as the Axalon's
point defenses took most of the enemies initial salvo down. They
knew however, that it
was only a temporary respite, and that the numbers would soon
begin to tell.
"Bring us about." Diehard orderd. "I want us
to be in position for strafing runs on their
ship."
"Yes sir." Jackson said, moving them away from the
fighter battle. The ship swung
around to face it's giant counterpart.
"What's their shield status?" He asked a female Maximal
who was maning both the
science and weapons stations.
"Mostly non existant, but their armor is almost as thick
as our ship is wide. Nothing but
the heavy missiles and the Plasma cannons are even going to dent
it." She answered.
"Then save the other weapons for any fighters that follow
us in, and plot us a course for
any and all of their weak points. We may not stop them, but I
say we make them pay for
every inch they try to take from us." Diehard said to his
crew, which cheered in
agreement, even as the giant ship they were facing prepared for
it's own assault on them.
The native Maximals were holding their own against the Predacons.
Even as their
Rattrap attempted to tunnel into Ravage's ship, an alternate Primal
watched as his own
crew blast off into space aboard their shuttle. He knew they
wouldn't let them down, it
was his own responsibilities he worried about now.
"We mustn't dawdle here." Megatron said grimly. "Soon
your counterpart will defeat my
counterpart's forces, forcing him into the most desperate action
of his life. We must make
sure he does not succeed. For both your sake, and my own."
Megatron held his tail guns
barrel up for emphasis.
"Your right." Primal said, switching to his flight
mode, unable to avoid the enormous
burden any longer. "Come on Rhinox let's go." He said,
and pointed to the front edge of
his board.
"Great." Rhinox said and looked at it hesitantly.
He had never actually been afraid of
heights, but that didn't mean he was thrilled with the idea of
being as high up as he knew
they were going to be. "What about him?" He asked Primal.
"Oh I believe I can take care of myself, yes. Beast mode!"
Megatron yelled. His body
went through its transformation for the first time in centuries,
and despite the time he
had spent in the restoration chamber it was still difficult. Despite
the pain, he changed
into his t-rex mode, then sprouted the fanjets that allowed him
to fly. "Let us go, before it
is too late." He said igniting them, and taking off into
the sky.
Primal followed him, intending on trying desperately to finally
come up with a plan of
action. During all the months they had been here, he had been
unable to decide how to
handle this day. Rhinox interrupted his train of thought only
a few minutes into their
flight.
"Why is he here?" Rhinox asked him, indicating the
Predacon a few feet away. Primal
sighed at the same question he had been asking himself for some
time. He gave Rhinox
the same answer he had given himself.
"We need as much firepower with us as we can get, and
he's got a vested interest in
stopping this from happening." Primal said.
"And that would be?" Rhinox asked.
"Not spending another three hundred years strapped to
a chair springs to mind." Megatron
said. "Or perhaps if that future is not going to include
me, I would rather it did not exist
at all." Megatron mused for a moment, then added something
he had heard once. "For I
would rather die with uncertainty, than live with the truth."
Rhinox hesitated for a moment, then looked over at Primal. Primal
shrugged.
"You asked." He said, and went back to being immersed
in his own thoughts. Rhinox
gave up after a moment, and decided to spend the rest of the trip
starring straight ahead.
At least that way he didn't have to think about the ground, which
was uncomfortably
distant now.
While the Axalon engaged the Overlord, the two groups of fighters
struggled to
destroy one another. Maxwell Silver's 'Spirit' squadron was accounting
well for
themselves. They had accounted for a full quarter of the enemy
kills so far, and had lost
less than an eighth of their own number. Captain Silver himself
hadn't even been hit once.
In their own time, he had been considered the premiere ace of
the human forces. A fact
that had earned him command of the fighter squadron on this mission.
He knew they
were fighting a losing battle, not even the best optimist could
deny that. He didn't let that
deter him in the slightest however, and was proud to know that
it wasn't stopping his
troops either.
Both sides felt as if the fighting had been going on for days,
when it had barely
been over an hour. Weapons were starting to run low for both sides.
The Axalon was in
no position to re-arm it's troops, but it kept the Predacons from
trying to return to the
Overlord.
"If something doesn't happen soon," He thought. "we're
going to end up with nothing to
throw at each other but insults."
He checked his sensors. So far the Axalon had managed to evade
taking any major hits,
largely thanks to Jackson's piloting skills, and the poor shape
of the Overlord of course.
The problem was, that she had scored very little damage on the
huge ship herself. It was
simply too big for the Axalon to deal with directly. This meant
his squadron was on it's
own though. If the Axalon turned its attention away for a moment
to try and help them,
the lumbering giant would crush her beneath its heel.
On the Overlord's bridge, Galvatron was growing impatient
with their inability to
crush the bothersome flea that the Maximal ship represented to
them.
"We lost too many of our targeting systems during the
battle my lord." A subordinate
groveled. "Their ship is so small, and flying so close that
we're having trouble tracking
them."
Galvatron turned, grabbing the officer by the throat. He held
him for a moment, then
simply released him to the ground. The officer was dumbfounded,
and tried to figure out
what had earned him this unexpected reprieve. He looked up to
see Galvatron staring at
the grainy image of the Maximal frigate.
"What about our fighters?" Galvatron asked.
"Most of them are still engaged with the humans and Maximals.
The rest as ordered
attempted to make a run for the planet, but were intercepted by
a second contingent led by
an assault shuttle." He answered quietly. Galvatron continued
to stare for a moment, then
turned and strode toward the elevator. "Where are you going,
my lord?" The subordinate
asked.
"To take care of this bothersome problem, personally."
Galvatron growled. The doors
closed behind him, leaving the bridge crew to ponder their fates,
on their own.
Galvatron arrived on the Overlord's massive flight deck a
few moments later. It
was mostly empty now, and the few fighters that remained were
in poor shape at best.
"My lord," Galvatron heard someone call, and looked
over to see the flight decks
commander approaching him. "the bridge called ahead to tell
us of your intentions. I am
afraid however that I must report that I have no space worthy
fighters to give you. All
available units are currently engaged outside."
Galvatron looked at the officer for a moment, then laughed loudly.
"I need no starfighter you fool." He bellowed. "I
have a more powerful form than any of
these ships could possibly offer me. Allow me to show you, BEAST
MODE."
With this, his features altered. Wings appeared from slots
on his back, a reptilian head
emerged from inside the drill of his tank mode. Seconds later,
a large robotic dragon
stood where Galvatron had once been.
"Let the Maximals beware!" He said, and launched
himself out of the bay, into the depths
of the void.
Diehard's situation was dire, and he knew it. Despite repeated
attacks, they had
only managed to score a limited amount of damage. It was only
a matter of time before
the Predacons finally scored a major hit on them if he didn't
think of a way to take them
out.
"Are you sure there's no way we can hit their engine room
Snapshot." He asked his
weapons officer.
"Not a chance in the inferno sir." She told him.
"It's one of the most heavily armored
sections of their ship." She brought up a small schematic
of it on the lower edge of the
viewscreen to show them.
"It would take a warhead as big as this ship to penetrate
that thing." Jackson said in awe.
Diehard went silent for a moment, then stared at his pilot.
"What did you say?" He asked aloud.
Jackson waited a moment, as he adjusted their course to avoid
a flight of missiles, then
answered. "I said it would take a warhead as big as....."
"I know what you said." Diehard interrupted him.
"Then why did you ask me?" Jackson said.
"It's called a rhetorical question. Look it up."
Diehard said harshly. "In the meantime,
connect me to engineering. I think I've got an idea how to..."
The ship shook before he
could finish. "What was that?" He shouted.
"We just took a fusion blast on the rear shields." Snapshot answered him.
"From where?" He said, clutching the armrest of his chair as another blast shook them.
"A small object, following closely behind us, almost in our contrail." She answered him.
She hit a few buttons, and brought up a rear view in place
of the schematic. In it,
Galvatron's dragon form followed them closely. As they watched
he opened his mouth,
and nuclear fire poured forth, smashing into their rear shields.
"Take him down, now!" Diehard ordered.
"I can't," Snapshot said. "none of our weapons
are capable of firing in that direction, that
close to our ship."
"What, why not?" He asked as the ship was rocked again.
"No one ever saw the need to fire into a ship's contrail
before, because nothing should be
able to survive there." She told him.
"Great, how long can our shields take this?" He asked.
"If it were just him, probably for hours. But they can't
cope with him, and the fire from
the Overlord too." She said.
"Well we've got to do something, we can't just sit here
and watch him pick us apart."
Diehard yelled, smashing his fist down.
"I don't think we're going to have to." Jackson said, pointing at the screen. "Look!"
As they watched, a flurry of cluster missiles struck Galvatron
from the side, knocking
him off course, and into the side of the Overlord. A moment later,
the familiar outline of
Captain Silver's tri-fighter flew past the screen.
"Get out of here," His voice said over the comm system. "this bastard is all mine."
"Acknowledged captain, and good hunting." Diehard said. "Jackson."
"Sir?" The pilot answered.
"Prepare to set a course away from the Overlord at full speed." Diehard ordered.
"We're running?" Jackson asked in disbelief.
"We're not going far, and we'll be back all too soon."
Diehard answered. "Now someone
get me engineering.
Back on the Overlord, Galvatron slowly pulled himself free
of the ship's hull.
Neither the missiles, nor the impact had done any appreciable
damage to his structure,
but the damage to his pride was beyond repair. As far as he was
concerned though, it was
not beyond either redemption, or revenge. His tormentor it turned
out, was not a
Maximal, but one of the humans that he held in so much contempt.
The human stood
nearby, his fighter in its robotic form now, with his rifle leveled
at Galvatron.
"Your move." He said over his radio.
"Indeed it is!" Galvatron said, then with a bellow
of rage he ripped himself free and threw
himself at his waiting opponent.
Eclipse's team had met with a great deal of initial success.
Not one Predacon ship
had managed to pass them, and enter the planet's atmosphere. Now
however, they were
beginning to be overwhelmed. They had already lost one of their
two escorts, and the other
couldn't hold out much longer. She knew if Primal didn't fix the
past soon, none of them
were going to have a future to worry about. She was so distracted
by the forces attempting
to pass near her, that she failed to notice the blip of a small
ship on the edge of her sensor
range. It entered the Earth's atmosphere, over her northern hemisphere.
Primal's party had reached the mountain that the humans would
one-day call Mt
Saint Hillary, resting place of the Autobot ship, the Ark. While
they had beaten the
Megatron of this timeline to the Ark, two others had still managed
to arrive before them.
"Blackarachnia and Silverbolt." Primal said in disgust
as he watched them remove the
final few stones from the passage to the inner chamber. "I'd
managed to forget about
those two."
"Oh really?" Megatron said in a mocking tone. "How
do you intend to get in now,
through the roof?"
"As a matter of fact, yes." Primal said, looking up at the volcano's vent.
"You're joking." Megatron said in disbelief.
"I've already done it four times now, it's not that bad." Primal said.
They flew up to the top, then down the middle of the volcano's
central shaft.
Through temperatures that would melt most metals. They were unaware
that a figure
watched close by. He also watched as the familiar form of this
universe's Megatron
arrived a few moments later. Megatron examined the entrance, then
followed the two
love birds into the cave. For a moment, the figure paused, then
lifted into the air, taking
the same route he the Maximals had, down the central shaft.
Primal, Megatron, and Rhinox stood on top of the gigantic
Autobot ship, the Ark.
Rhinox was busily working on the entry codes that would open the
door for them. Primal
and Megatron watched as Blackarachnia explained the Ark's history
to Silverbolt. Primal
turned to rush Rhinox, knowing that this universe's Megatron would
be here any moment.
"I've almost got it." He said. "Just give me
another minute to finalize it, otherwise the
system may lock us out again."
"Just hurry." Primal said in an urgent whisper.
He looked back, just in time to see Silverbolt and Blackarachnia
get knocked over by the
force of an explosion. Primal looked over, and found its source.
Megatron, had arrived.
The Predacon leader, walked over to his wayward soldier, and picked
her up by her beast
form's legs. Primal turned back to hurry Rhinox again, but his
engineer was one step
ahead of him.
"I got it, let's go." He said, indicating the roof hatch he had opened.
One by one, they slipped through the slowly opening hatch.
When the computer
thought it sensed the last of the mechanoids who intended to enter,
it began to close the
hatch again. Before it had even gone halfway, a fourth figure
slipped through and into the
ship.
"You heard me right." Diehard yelled over the comm.
"I want you to set the
engines to overload."
"But sir, if I do that, they'll explode in less than five cycles." The engineer came back.
"Exactly, with a greater force than every weapon on this
ship combined." Diehard agreed.
"I need you to get to work on it, now!" He ordered,
jabbing the comm button.
"Sir," Jackson started slowly. "I think I know what you have in mind. Are you sure..."
"That there's no other way?" Diehard finished. "I
wish there was, suicide isn't high on my
priority list."
"I understand sir." Jackson said, settling back into his chair.
Diehard then addressed the bridge in general. "If anyone
wants out, I understand. This is
my job, and I won't blame anyone who wants to take their chances
in an escape pod." For
a moment, there was silence. Then Jackson spoke up.
"Being honest sir, what's the point." He said. "If
Primal succeeds down on the planet, then
we're all going to be erased soon enough. If he fails, then the
Predacons will hunt us
down and kill us anyway. I say we take as many of them with us
as we can." A murmur of
agreement filled the bridge for a moment.
"I'm proud to have served with all of you." Diehard
said to all of them. "Now get ready to
plot us a course, straight for the heart of our foe." They
leapt to obey him, however he
moved away to Snapshot's station to talk to her privately.
"I need you to do me a favor." He said.
"Sir?" She asked.
"As soon as we pass the closest point of our trajectory
to the Earth, I want you to launch
any remaining stasis pods in the hold." He said.
"Why," She asked. "as Jackson said, in either outcome they won't be safe."
"Because, at least this way they'll have a fighting chance."
He said. "It's the closest I can
give them to a choice without waking up and asking each of them
individually."
"I think I understand sir." She said, though she wasn't sure if she actually did.
"Thank you." He told her, then he returned to his
command chair just in time to see their
ship turn. Preparing for the last journey it was ever going to
make.
As it came around, a hatch opened near the rear of the craft.
Dozens of stasis pods poured
from the hold into the depths of space. In time, they would be
pulled into Earth's orbit,
then possibly down to the planet itself. At least, if any of them
survived the next hour
they would.
Galvatron and Silver had scored many hits upon one another,
but neither had
gained the upper hand as of yet. Galvatron was having trouble
keeping up with the human
ace as he pulled off seemingly impossible maneuvers. Silver on
the other hand had scored
hit after hit on the Predacon supreme commander, but had caused
very little damage.
Indeed, each hit seemed to send him further into the bloody rage
that possessed him. It
was a stalemate that could not continue for much longer, and as
luck would have it,
would not have to.
Outside the vast starship, the Predacon commander Megatron
was busy persuading
his underling, Blackarachnia to open the main entrance for him.
He did this by
threatening the life of her traveling companion, Silverbolt. At
first she resisted, but with
the encroachment of Silverbolt's fellow Maximals, she finally
gave in. Even as the doors
cycled open for them, a different Megatron, Primal, and Rhinox
were making their next
move.
"I still can't get Teletran 1 to give me access to the
internal security net." Rhinox told
Primal in frustration.
"Keep trying, it would make all of our lives a hell of
a lot easier if we can convince this
ship to take down Megatron's other self for us." Primal
said.
"Just make sure it takes down the right one." Megatron added.
"I'll do what I can, but don't expect me to try too hard
to protect YOU murderer." Rhinox
said bitterly, turning from his work to face their prisoner.
Megatron returned his stare, but his eyes carried the vague hint
of an unspoken threat.
Rhinox didn't even flinch, so it was Primal who broke the stalemate
by grabbing
Megatron and dragging him down the hall.
"Come on. we've got to get into a position to stop the
other Megatron just in case Rhinox
fails." Primal said as they walked out of the room. Rhinox
flinched at that last statement,
but returned to his work.
Primal and Megatron made their way through the Ark's gigantic
hallways. It had
been made for full sized Transformers, but it was huge even by
their standards. He
peeked around a corner, and spotted two figures entering what
he thought must be an
auxiliary control room. He turned back to Megatron to ask him
what his alternate might
be doing in there, but the Megatron he had brought with him, was
gone.
Rhinox had been working for some time, but was still having
no success. Teletran
1 was an old computer by their standards, but it was still a pretty
powerful artificial
intelligence. In fact, all of the AI computers from their time
had been based upon
Teletran's model. If he only had a little more time, he was sure
he could do it. He was not
going to get that time.
A figure leapt upon him from behind, dragging him from the
chair and hurtling
him across the room. He landed with a crash, but quickly turned
and pulled his chaingun
from its holster. He fired a bust in the direction the attack
had come from, but there was
no one there. The Ark was still on low power, making the light
in the room rather dim,
leaving many pockets of shadow for his assailant to hide in. Just
to be safe, he fired
bursts into all of them. On his third volley, several shots ricochet
off of something made
from a stronger alloy than the bulkhead. Rhinox aimed for this
and loosed the entire clip,
almost a full thirty seconds of sustained fire. When he finally
stopped, his gun was
glowing red and near overload. The only reward he received, was
the sound of laughter.
"Is that the best you can do Maximal?" A familiar
voice said. "Because if it is, you're
going to be no sport at all."
"No," Rhinox said. "that wasn't my best, this
is!" He said, and went to his rhino tank
mode. He charged forward, and pinned his opponent to the wall
with his horn.
To his surprise however, the figure grabbed the horn and wrenched
it off with a sickening
snap. Rhinox cried out in pain, and tried to reverse his tread.
Before he could, the figure
grabbed his head, and flipped him over. Rhinox went back to his
robot mode out of
desperation. The figure never gave him the chance to draw his
weapon, as it leapt on him,
and drove his own horn deep into his chest. The horn pierced his
spark chamber,
damaging the vital circuits within. Rhinox knew he had only seconds
left before he gave
up his spark. There was, unfortunately, nothing left that he could
do. All his systems were
crashing rapidly, and he was even too weak to self-destruct. The
only thing he could do,
was turn and finally get a good look at his assailant.
"You." He said weakly, then went off line permanently.
The figure stood gloating for a
second, before stepping into the light.
"Yes, my dear Maximal. It is I, Megatron." Megatron
said, and allowed himself a chuckle
as he left the room.
Primal had wasted several priceless minutes searching for
his Megatron, fearful of
the damage he might cause if allowed to roam loose. He pulled
out the control Grimlock
had given him and was about to push the detonation switch when
the former Predacon
leader appeared around a corner.
"Where have you been!" He exclaimed, half-angry, and half-relieved.
"I heard a commotion somewhere behind us, and went to
investigate." Megatron
answered.
"And did you find anything?" Primal asked angrily.
"No. The noise stopped before I could determine where
it was coming from." Megatron
said. Primal didn't buy it for a moment.
"Listen, if I find out that you're trying to change anything
ELSE, or you disappear on me
again, I'll detonate every charge in your body and leave the pieces
for Primus to sort out.
Do you understand!" He screamed.
Megatron looked at him for a moment. "Yes. I understand all
too well." He said with a
hint of menace in his voice.
"Then lead me to the bridge, we haven't got much time
left to stop your alternate self."
Primal said, the control still in hand.
"This way." Megatron said, keeping his eye on the
control as he led primal down a series
of hallways toward the front of the ship.
The pods had been launched, and now the Axalon had turned
to face the goliath
before her. If Diehard's plan worked, the ship would not be the
sling that launched the
rock against the giant, but it would be the rock itself. Her transwarp
engines were now
inexorably set on an overload, and not even Primus himself could
stop it. Her sublight
engines were set to full power, and she leapt forward. All available
power had been
routed to her forward shields, and heavy weapons. As she moved
towards the Overlord,
she ignored the small gnats of the big ship's remaining fighters,
and instead concentrated
her fire on the thick armor of the engineering section of the
ship.
The Predacons weren't stupid, they saw what Diehard had in
mind from the first
salvo. Unfortunately for them, the sad shape of their ship left
them with few options on
how to counter it. Every weapon that could be brought to bear
on them was already
firing. She tried to turn away, but her engines were too damaged
to get her out of the way
in time. The Axalon's own remaining fighter had broken their engagements
with the
Predacon fighters to take advantage of the Overlord's distraction.
They attacked every
open port or gash on the ship, entering it and opening fire on
everything they could. One
of them, managed to sever the main control conduits. It only took
a moment for the
Predacons to re-route it, but that lost moment would prove fatale.
The Axalon dove towards her target like the arrowhead that
she resembled,
straight towards the heart of the beast. Diehard and his crew
watched the huge ship fill
their screen as they plummeted towards it. Then, in an instant,
the living missile found its
mark. Even the thick armor plating around the Overlord's engineering
section couldn't
stand up to a ship the size of the Axalon traveling at full sub
light speed. She carved her
way in, almost up to her tail section before her momentum was
finally arrested. Sub
punctures and burst hatches sprayed the living and the dead into
deep space. The living
however would not have long to worry about their predicament,
as the Axalon's engines
finally crumpled, then exploded.
The explosion tore through the Predacon flagship, impacting
into her own
transwarp drive. The force tore loose the drive from its housing,
sending it into a similar
explosion. From the outside, it looked for a moment as if the
big ship had weathered the
Maximals last heroic nonsense, but only for a moment. It cracked,
then began to turn
slowly on its axis, as the cracks belched fire. Then finally,
it erupted into what would be
a short-lived star. From this explosion, a wave of released transwarp
energy leapt out in
all directions. Spelling doom for all the remaining ships in the
area, and possibly the
planet Earth itself.
Megatron and Optimus Primal waited in a room not far from
the bridge. The plan
was to wait for Megatron's alternate to pass them, and then take
him from behind,
allowing him as little resistance as possible. They had managed
to get a monitor working,
and anxiously watched as the security cameras tracked the other
Megatron's progress.
"He's left Blackarachnia in charge of keeping the other
Maximals busy." Megatron said.
"He will be heading for the bridge now."
"Right." Primal said, still fingering the remote
detonator. "Tell me again why I
haven't been able to contact Rhinox since you went investigating."
Megatron drew a
quick, frustrated breath.
"How many times must I tell you that I was unable to find
Rhinox when I went to
investigate the commotion, and I don't know what happened to him."
He said.
"A few more times at least, because I'm still not buying
it. I'm beginning to think it
would be better just to detonate you now, and take my chances
on my own." Primal said.
"Are you willing to take the chance of taking my other
self alone, even knowing the price
of failure?" Megatron asked him, his eyes know thoroughly
fixed on the detonator.
"At this point I think it's a hell of a lot safer than
allowing you to live any longer." He
answered, his finger seconds away from pressing the trigger. He
never got the chance.
A clatter arose from the rear of the room as the grate from an
air vent fell to the floor. A
figure dropped down close behind it. Both Megatron and Primal
brought their weapons to
bear on it simultaneously, but the figure was faster. Two shoulder
cannons fired on
Primal, knocking him to the floor. A handheld weapon fired on
Megatron, slicing cleanly
through his chest near the shoulder, blasting his weapon arm off.
The force of the
explosion threw Megatron against the far wall. Primal rolled
over, and brought his arm
mounted plasma cannons to bear. The first shot missed its mark,
but the second one
struck head on. The figure fell back, and in the light of the
explosion, Primal saw who it
was.
"M-M-M-Megatron?" He said confusedly, looking over
at Megatron's prone form on the
floor near the room's door, then back to the figure he had blasted.
"Not exactly." The figure said, rising again and
showing little damage. "You see, I knew I
might have to send someone back in time to insure that our timeline
came about. I
certainly wasn't going to send him." The figure said, indicating
the Megatron on the floor.
"And I don't trust his counterpart to carry it through either."
He continued, indicating the
Megatron on the screen. Who, to Primal's dismay, was almost to
the bridge. "So I had a
body with a blank spark commissioned, built it in Megatron's image,
and programmed it
with my personality." He said, smirking.
"Galvatron." Primal said, the realization flooding over him.
"That is correct Maximal, now it is time for you, and
every Autobot on this ship, to die."
He said, the glow of his tail cannon filling the room.
Mere minutes before the fiery demise of the Axalon and Overlord,
the continuing
duel between the original Galvatron and Silver was drawing to
a close. Silver's weapons
had long since been exhausted. He had attempted a limited hand
to hand against
Galvatron using his now depleted gattling gun as a makeshift club.
Galvatron laughed at
the blows, returning fire with his seemingly unlimited supply
of nuclear fire. After almost
a full hour of misses, he finally landed a blow. Silver's tri-fighter
was holed through the
chest, not far from the cockpit. His craft spun out of control,
but his expert handling soon
brought it back. He turned to face Galvatron, only to find the
Predacon leader sitting
between him and the Overlord. Galvatron hovered there for a moment,
the fire in his
mouth glowed, ready to be unleashed in a moment. On his scanners,
Silver saw the
Axalon plummeting towards the Overlord in its last desperate charge.
He knew if he
could keep Galvatron occupied for a few seconds more he could
score the third greatest
victory of this battle.
"You have given me the most entertaining battle I have
had in centuries human."
Galvatron said over Silver's radio. "For that, I thank you.
I am afraid however, that you
have ceased to be amusing, and I must end this now." The
fire in the dragon's mouth grew
brighter suddenly.
"I want to thank you for giving me an opportunity too"
Silver said, re-routing every
damaged system so he would have the optimal amount of control
over his ship.
"And what would that be?" Galvatron said, opening
his mouth wide as he prepared to
fire.
"That would be the opportunity to avenge every death you've
ever caused, YOU
BASTARD!" He said, and activated his ship's engines on full
throttle.
Galvatron fired in response, but Silver twisted his ship out of
the way. The robot mode
fighter crashed into the Predacon leader, its giant arms locking
tightly around him. He
twisted and struggled, but wasn't able to break the vise like
grip. His head turned, and he
saw the form of his flagship, impaled by the Maximal frigate.
He had a moment to
wonder when this had happened, when both ships exploded in front
of him. Then, Silver's
plan became all too apparent to him. He struggled all the harder
as the human pushed his
fighter past its safety limits towards the onrushing transwarp
wave.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" He screamed, as Silver carried
them both into the
wavefront, and oblivion.
Galvatron's copy was quite shocked at the amount of resistance
the Maximal
Primal was putting up. Instead of being quickly destroyed, he
had actually fought the
Predacon to a standstill. Both of them had scored a number of
hits upon one another, but
it seemed as if they could only damage each other at full power.
He knew that neither one
of them could keep up that pace for long. He wrenched the Maximal's
vice like grip
loose, and threw him across the room. Before Primal even landed,
Galvatron hit him with
several shots from his shoulder cannons, while he recharged his
tail gun. He brought the
gun to bear, but Primal dodged to one side and let loose with
his rocket launcher and
laser rifle. The rifle caused little damage, but the rocket blasted
one of his shoulder
cannons off, along with most of his shoulder's armor.
Galvatron roared in rage, and returned fire. Primal dodged
most of the blasts, but
one struck his leg, knocking him to the floor. For a second he
was too dazed to move, but
then he noticed something.
"Wait, where is Megatron?" He asked, indicating the
empty spot Megatron had come to
rest in after Galvatron's initial attack.
Galvatron scoffed. "He undoubtedly crawled off in an attempt
to escape my anger. Don't
worry about him though, I will deal with him, as soon as I finish
dealing with you." He
said, launching another salvo at Primal.
Primal threw himself out of the way, and just missed seeing the
injured Predacon enter
the ship's bridge on the monitor.
Megatron hovered over the inert body of his prey, the legendary
leader of the
Autobots, Optimus Prime. His tail cannon glowed as all available
power was focused into
it. He gloated, even though he knew there was no one to hear him.
Slowly he brought the
cannon to bear on the head of Optimus Prime.
"And now Optimus Prime, in memory of the Decepticons,
for the glory of the
Predacons," He said, the glow from his gun now so blinding,
that he failed to notice his
alternate move into the room through a side door. He mouthed the
words even as the
original spoke them. "and for the Cybertron that should be,
mine to rule." His cannon's
glow reached a crescendo and he prepared to fire.
"NOOOO!!!!" His alternate screamed. "I will
not be enslaved! NOT AGAIN!" He leapt,
his fan-jets blasting at full power.
Over the din of his nearly overloaded gun, Megatron could not
hear his other self, and
opened fire. The blast shrieked towards the helpless Autobot,
but found another target
first. Megatron propelled himself between his doppelganger and
Optimus Prime. The
blast struck him, causing his body to glow with the raw power
that had been unleashed.
The Megatron who was firing thought he saw himself through the
backwash of power,
but thought it was a trick of the light. For a moment, Megatron
held the blast back from
its target, but even he couldn't contain that much power. He exploded
in a shower of
sparks and flying debris, allowing the beam to finally reach its
target. The beam struck
Optimus Prime on the left side of the face, which quickly began
to glow. That glow
spread outwards, like a vortex, forcing Megatron to stop firing
and back off. The vortex
spread, and Megatron's sensors told him it was composed of chronal
energy. The glow
was so bright, he was forced to find his way back to the door
by memory alone. He
stumbled out of the room, and made his way back to the entrance.
He knew he had
changed time, but he needed to find out how it had changed. The
best way to do that he
knew, was to find the Maximals, and watch what happened to them.
Several minutes earlier, Primal's battle with Galvatron wasn't
going well. The
Predacon leader's clone had managed to catch him from behind,
and was now attempting
to pull his head loose. Primal knew he only had a few seconds
left before Galvatron
succeeded, but couldn't seem to get loose. Unknown to him, at
that moment, the other
Maximals outside managed to take down the fusion cannon under
Blackarachnia's
control. This sent a Power surge through the ship, and took out
the lights in their room.
Galvatron hesitated, distracted by the sudden darkness. Primal
took advantage of this to
grab Galvatron's shoulders and pull the Predacon over his shoulders,
and onto the floor.
The lights came back on just in time for Galvatron to see Primal's
remaining Plasma
cannon, pointed right at his face, at point blank range.
"This is for every living being you've murdered."
Primal said. Then activated the cannon.
Galvatron had less than a second to scream before the blast annihilated
both his head,
and part of Primal's arm. the blast threw Primal back, partially
stunned. He looked over at
the headless corpse.
"I hardly ever miss at that range." He said aloud.
Slowly he picked himself up, then
realized that Galvatron might have succeeded after all. He limped
over to the monitor,
just in time to see one Megatron's triumph, and the other's failed
sacrifice. He saw the
wave of chronal energy leap out from Optimus Prime's body. Less
than a second later, he
saw the wall near him glow blue, and realized that what was going
to happen next.
"No!" He screamed, as he felt the wave erase him
from existence. "It can't end this way."
But seconds later, the wave finished passing through the room.
Leaving no trace, that
either he, or Galvatron had ever existed.
Both their human escorts were gone now. They had held back
the Predacons, but
all aboard now had a clear view of the fate in store for them.
A transwarp wave, bigger
than the planet itself was heading straight for them. Even at
full speed they knew they
couldn't escape it. Several of the Predacons had tried, but even
those capable of
hyperspace travel had been destroyed while running.
"We might as well wait here for the inevitable." Eclipse said in resignation.
"What is that thing going to do to the planet." Night Stalker asked.
"A wave that big kid," Rattrap said. "isn't
even going to leave rubble behind. That doesn't
mean I don't think that we shouldn't at least TRY to escape."
He said to Eclipse.
"What's the point?" She asked. "There's no where to run to."
"Yeah? Well you'll excuse me if I at leas try." He said indicating the shuttle's escape pod.
"Knock yourself out." She said, not taking her eyes
off the screen. Rattrap opened the
hatch, then hesitated for a moment.
"Come on kid," He said to Stalker. "there's more than enough room in here for two."
"No." Stalker said determinedly. "I'm not going to desert my post."
"I hate to be the one to tell you kid, but your post is
about to desert you." Rattrap said.
Stalker shook his head again, so Rattrap shrugged, then closed
the hatch. The pod
launched, with a shudder, then accelerated away at top speed.
Eclipse and Stalker watched
as the wave approached their position. Less than a minute before
impact, the sensors
screamed out a warning. Stalker leapt over to the science station,
and gave Eclipse a
report.
"I'm reading a chronal wavefront emanating out from the planet." He said.
"Does that mean Primal succeeded?" She asked.
"There's no way to tell, but if these readings are right,
it's erasing all the chronal
anomalies in the area. All the debris from the battle and otherwise.
That would indicate
that there has been a change, but there's no way to tell if it's
Optimus' death or not." He
answered.
Eclipse thought for a moment. "Erasing all the anomalies, wouldn't that include,"
"Us? Yes it would." He finished for her. Suddenly
Eclipse leapt up from her gunners
chair, and took Rattrap's pilot seat.
"What are you doing?" Stalker asked.
"I'm heading for the chronal wave." She said.
"Why?" Stalker asked.
"Would you rather be fried by the trans warp wave, or
erased by the chronal wave." She
answered.
"Neither, if I could help it." He answered.
"Same here, but I think the time wave would be a hell
of a lot less painful." She said,
diving into the chronal wave.
The small ship dove away from the trans warp wave, but it
was traveling at
unbelievable speeds, so they didn't get far. It reached them,
and licked at their rear
shields. From the front however, the chronal wave came out from
the planet even faster.
The two struck, nearly evenly with the shuttle. For long seconds,
the law of physics was
torn completely apart, then reasserted itself. The chronal wave
continued outwards,
erasing the transwarp wave from existence.
A short distance away, Rattrap watched as the shuttle was
caught between the two
titanic forces. "Just a preview of what I'm going to get."
He thought. He had attempted to
pilot his pod behind the planet, to use it as a shield if possible,
but the oncoming chronal
wave had destroyed that plan. He waited with the same fatalistic
attitude that Eclipse had
been using.
"Well," He said, as he watched the closer transwarp
wave begin to strike his ship. "at
least I was right for once, we ARE all going to die."
The wave enveloped his ship, and waves of energy buffeted, then
overwhelmed his
shields. The inside of the pod was filled with the unstable trans
warp energy. Then the
chronal wave struck, and Rattrap's pod was caught in the same
buffer zone the shuttle had
been in. Like the shuttle, the pod disappeared in a flash.
The waves of chronal energy enveloped the Maximals. They screamed
in pain as
they felt time change around them.
"Time, the universe itself is all being destroyed."
Optimus Primal said. He heard a laugh,
then looked up to see the gloating form of Megatron walk out through
the doorway.
"Time has changed Maximals." He said. "The Autobots
loose the Great War, and you, you
no longer exist." He activated his jets, and floated into
the air above them, laughing out
loud. Plans, already forming in his mind for how he would proceed
from here. He looked
back down, and saw the Maximals starring up at him in fear.
"So it should be." He thought. A moment later, he
realized that they were not looking at
him, but behind him. He turned, to see what they were looking
at.
He turned, just in time to see a fist, half as big as he was,
heading towards him. It hit him
with enough force to send him flying out of the cave, through
the cave wall. He traveled
almost a full mile, before skidding to a halt against a rock outcropping.
Nearby,
Waspinator had nearly managed to reassemble himself. He flew to
Megatron's side, and
helped his leader to his feet.
"Megatron, what hazzz happened?" Waspinator asked.
Megatron shook his head for a
moment, then looked back towards the mountain.
"NO!" He said. "I have failed, FAILED!"
As he watched, the vortex glowed brighter for a
moment, then disappeared.
The Maximals stood stunned for a moment, as a legend walked
into their lives.
The left side of his face was burned badly. It was actually melted
in several places. He
strode from the ship, and dropped a small inert form from his
other hand.
"I assume she belongs to you." Optimus Prime said,
indicating Blackarachnia's inert
form.
"Blackarachnia!" Silverbolt cried out. He struggled
to reach her, but could not. When the
others had found him, he had been trapped half in, and half out
of the Ark's shields when
Megatron had reactivated them. They had severed his legs. He would
survive, but was
effectively immobile until they could get him back to the ship.
"As I thought." Optimus Prime said. "Its not
bad enough that you Decepticons caused my
ship to crash, but now you try to kill me while I'm helpless."
He reached behind his back,
and pulled out his laser rifle. Primal had seen recreations of
it in a museum, but they
paled before the real thing.
"Wait!" Primal said. "We're not Decepticons,
we were trying to save you life!"
Prime hesitated, but didn't lower the rifle.
"You've got exactly sixty seconds to explain." He said finally.
"It might take a little longer than that." Primal said.
Over an hour later, they sat inside the Ark. Rhinox was busy
trying to get
Silverbolt at least partially mobile so they could get him back
to the base. Optimus Prime
stood nearby as Primal finished filling him in.
".....and so we were trying to break in to stop Megatron
from altering the past. We didn't
know he was going after you specifically, but we knew he wanted
to something from this
ship." Primal finished.
"That's a pretty unbelievable story." Prime said
from the Medical table, as Teletran 1
repaired his faceplate. "Teletran 1 managed to gather enough
information to confirm your
story somewhat." As the repairs finished, he rose from the
table, his face fully restored.
Primal looked up at him, and for the first time felt the full
force of the name he had to
live up to.
"I suppose I'd better get to work reviving my friends.
Not to mention getting rid of the
original Megatron and the other Decepticons on board." Prime
said.
"You can't!" Primal said, jumping up suddenly. Optimus
Prime stopped short, suddenly
suspicious again.
"Why not?" He asked.
"A race is going to evolve here, the human race. Through
interaction with them, and
interference on both our part, and their part, you will win your
war with the Decepticons,
and finally restore peace to our home planet." Primal said
plaintively.
"But Megatron is the Decepticon's leader. If I take him
out now, while he's helpless, we
should be able to win the war anyway." Prime said.
"Trust me Optimus, I'm from the future and that's not
how it happened. If you do that,
there's no way of knowing what could happen. Time has to be allowed
to happen as it is
supposed to. There are any number of disasters that could befall,
including Unicron."
Primal said.
"Unicron?!" Prime exclaimed, the ancient dark name
sparking a cord with the Matrix
inside of him.
"Yes, Unicron, or any number of other disasters which
we won't be here to prevent if you
repair the Ark and leave now. The innocent lives here will be
lost because of us, and the
Optimus I was named for would never allow that." Primal said.
Optimus Prime stood
motionless for a moment, then his shoulders slumped.
"What do we have to do?" He asked finally.
"First, we've got to repair this ship, and erase any logs of our being here." Primal said.
It took several hours to repair the fusion cannon, the door's
lock, and set Teletran's
repair cycle to restore her systems to their state before Megatron's
arrival. At last, they
stood on the bridge with Optimus Prime.
"Everything's ready." He said. "As soon as your
outside, I'll reactivate the shield and erase
Teletran's records of these events."
"What about yours?" Rattrap asked.
"I'll erase them just before I go off-line." Prime
answered. "Computer, on my command,
erase all files pertaining to the Maximals, and take me back off-line."
He said.
"Acknowledged." His internal computer said. Optimus
Prime turned from the bridges
console, and saluted them.
"It was an honor to know you, and thank you for my life."
He said. "Someday, I will find
a way to repay you."
"Except your not going to remember us." Cheetor said.
"I've never let that stop me from repaying a dept before."
Prime said. They returned his
salute, then left the room.
Prime watched them go, using Teletran's monitors. When they left
the cave, they all
turned, and blasted it shut behind them. He tapped the erase command
on Teletran's
board, and removed the files on the Maximals and the Predacons.
Then he reset the
security codes back to the settings Grimlock had left. He couldn't
imaging why Megatron
had Changed them, but they had to be reset to keep the timeline
in order. Finally, he told
the security system not to allow any outside access to the ship,
just in case Megatron
came back. After this was done, he prepared for his final task.
"Computer," He said.
"Awaiting orders." It said.
"Belay previous orders to erase the memories pertaining
to the Maximals. Instead, I want
them transferred to a hidden file. Said file is to remain away
from my primary memory
until the year I am now recording. Then you are to return me to
emergency stasis." He
told it.
"Projected date recorded, copying files. Preparing to
return to inoperative state." It told
him.
One last time, Optimus Prime looked at the viewscreen before it to went off-line.
"I always repay my debts." He said. Then he deactivated,
and slumped over the control
board. Thousands of years later, a blast from Starscream would
knock him loose from the
console, and into Teletran's reactivation beam.
The Maximals had a long journey back, but they at least had
the thrill of a major
triumph to carry them home. All too soon though, they were going
to have to deal with
their prisoner, Blackarachnia, and the near disaster that her
relationship with Silverbolt
had caused. They were nearly back to the base, when Rattrap spoke
up.
"What's that?" He asked, indicating a plume of smoke not far from their ship.
"I'm not sure," Primal said. "but maybe we'd
better find out." He altered his flight path
towards the smoke.
It only took them a few moments to find it, but when they found
it, they couldn't believe
it. The wreckage of a shuttle lay in a long impact crater. It
glowed with the strange light of
the chronal wave they had been through earlier. Primal turned
to Rhinox.
"Any life signs?" He asked. Rhinox took out his scanner, and pointed it at the wreckage.
"Two, I think. The chronal energy is making the scanner
unreliable." Rhinox told him. "If
these readings are right, I'm picking up Maximal signatures from
them."
"What? That's impossible, we're all out here." Rattrap said.
"Could it be Tigertron and Airrazor?" Cheetor asked excitedly.
"I don't think so." Rhinox said, then his scanner
started beeping wildly. "Whoever it is,
we'd better get them out of there, this things engines are going
to blow!"
He and Primal leapt down into the crater, and between the two
of them managed to rip
the door off its hinges. Rattrap and Cheetor went in, and found
the unconscious forms of
Eclipse and Night Stalker inside. They grabbed them and ran for
the top of the crater.
Seconds after they had cleared it, the shuttle exploded. After
the debris and smoke had
cleared, they examined their find. None of them recognized either
of the Maximals, but
Rhinox's scanner confirmed that's what they were.
"The engineering is unmistakable, but these two are definitely
a more advanced design
than us. The ant lady has enough weapons mounted on her to blow
away an entire
Predacon assault team. Not to mention my scanners can barely even
register the cat
there." He told them.
"Let's get them back to the base." Primal said.
"Are you nuts?" Rattrap said. "We don't even
know who they are. I would think our
recent experience with Ravage would teach you to be a little more
suspicious of uninvited
guests boss monkey."
"They're Maximals," Primal said. "and I'm not
going to leave them out here to rot." He
went to his jet-board mode, and picked up Eclipse. "Rhinox,
you carry the other stranger.
Cheetor, you get Blackarachnia, and Rattrap can take Silverbolt."
"Gee thanks, fearless leader. I get the heavy one." Rattrap griped.
"Shut up Rattrap." Primal said.
It took almost a full day for the repair chamber to get a
handle on their
technology, much less to repair them. When it finally did, the
other Maximals stood
around, with weapons at ready, as Night Stalker emerged first.
"Where am I?" He asked.
"You're aboard the Maximal ship, the Axalon." Primal said.
"The Axalon?" Stalker said, starting to get his bearings.
"This doesn't look anything like
the Axalon." Then he finally got a good look, and realized
where he was. "I'm on our
alternates ship." He said. "We must have survived the
time wave somehow."
"Time wave?" Rhinox said. "What are you talking about?"
Stalker sighed, then said; "It's a long story, and I don't think you're going to believe it."
"Don't worry," Primal said, sitting down. "That seems to be the order for the day."
As Stalker began to explain to Primal, where he came from, Cheetor turned to Rattrap.
"By the way," He asked. "I never heard. What
happened to Optimus Prime after the Great
War?"
"Nobody knows." Rattrap said, shrugging. He vanished
right after the peace treaty was
signed. The Maximal elders sealed all records about it, and kept
them that way, even to
this day. Now shut up kid, this had got to be the most outrageous
load of slag I think I've
ever heard."
With that, they both went back to listening to Night Stalker's
tale. Which would continue
for sometime, and be elaborated on by Eclipse who emerged a few
hours later.
The Earth floated pristinely about the sun, untouched, and
oblivious to the fate
that had befallen her in another timeline. After humanities help
in bringing about then
end of the Great War, they had signed an agreement with their
allies the Autobots to form
an alliance. The so called 'Pax Cybertonia" which now included
a number of other worlds
as well, including both Cybertonian and human colonies. Most of
the local group of stars
was either a member of, or traded with members of the alliance.
Under such prosperity
the Earth had flourished, and she now used many of the resources
in her system.
Including her rich asteroid belt.
Even though the belt was now mined extensively, there were
many large, and
many more small asteroids that hadn't been touched yet. On one
of the smaller ones, a
computer clicked away the final moments of a two hundred and fifty
year long slumber.
"Selected date has been reached, beginning revival process"
It said. The lights in the
room came on, to reveal a large stasis pod in its center. "Appropriate
beast form has been
selected, initiate DNA replication." The pod glowed, then
a moment later, it opened. Mist
poured out from the opening, and a figure stepped out. It took
a moment to assess its new
Maximal form.
"All recent technological developments have been included
in the protoform as ordered.
It is optimized for the mission at hand." The computer announced.
"And my ship?" The form asked.
"Prepared as specified. As with yourself, it has been
upgraded with all recent
technological developments, including trans warp drive."
"Then prepare it for departure," Optimus Prime said,
stepping forth from the mist. "I have
a dept to repay."