Long ago, thousands of light-years from Earth, life arose on the planet Cybertron. But not life as we know it. Living robots, capable of changing into alien cars, trucks, aircraft, and much more, were birthed from the metal of the planet, some were peace loving individuals, others ruthless conquerers.
After many wars in Cybetron's history, the planet has entered a new age of peace.The Commonwealth, comprised of Cybertron and its countless colonies, has stood for more than ten million years. For peace to be kept, the Commonwealth relies on the Autobots, a massive interstellar police force charged with keeping the Commonwealth safe from threat, and rounding up dangerous criminal elements.
On the prison ship Alchemor, life for one Autobot is about to change drastically...
Optronix, an Autobot Lieutenant and chief of security on board the Alchemor, stood in line in the ship's Energon dispensary. He, and about fifteen others, were stood in line, waiting to get their mid-day Energon cubes. As Optronix's line slowly moved, he focused his attention on one of the many holoscreens scattered about the room. It was playing a news broadcast, straight from Cybertron. It wasn't anything too special, just the daily fluff pieces that Cybertron News Now was known for. Optronix finally reached the front of the line, hit the activator on the dispenser, and watched as the cube dropped out into his waiting hand.
He barely made it to a table before another 'bot ran up beside him. He sighed inwardly, knowing exactly who it was before the other even got a chance to speak.
"Hello Bumblebee." Optronix greeted.
"Hey Op!" The little Autobot cadet eagerly returned. "You'll never guess what happened! Guess!"
"You just said..." Optronix shook his head, and shrugged. "Did you finally win a game of Skyllian Five against Sideswipe?"
"No, even better!" Bumblee jittered in his seat. "I finally worked up the courage to talk to Arcee!"
Optronix smiled. For such a friendly little 'bot, Bumblebee sure did have some issue actually talking to others. Nice to see he was starting to work through it. "And?"
"She brushed me off completely!" Bumblebee excitedly grinned.
"Oh. You'll get her next time." Optronix patted Bumblebee's shoulders gently.
"But that's not the best part, this time I didn't- Hey what's that on the news?" Bee pointed.
"Huh?" Optronix turned to the holoscreen. It seemed that Teletraan One had hijacked Cybertron News Now's programming to report on something big.
"This is Andromeda with ANN coming to you live from in front of the Senate chambers where a shocking assassination attempt was just made."
"Assassination attempt!?" Bee echoed.
"Shh!" Optronix hushed, trying to hear the news.
"Senator Alpha Trion was confirmed as the target, but his condition is currently unknown. In response to the attempt, all spaceports in Iacon are being put on lockdown for the moment, and all outbound traffic is being monitored. For more updates on the situation, stay tuned."
"I can't believe it... an assassination!?" Bee blinked. "Who'd do such a thing!?"
"As Supreme Commander of the Autobots, there would be no shortage of people who would stand to benefit from Alpha Trion's death." Optronix frowned. But he quickly brushed it off with an inscincere smile. "But we shouldn't be concerned. No doubt Intelligence has already started to track down-" Optronix was suddenly and unceremoniously cut off by a violent explosion.
The entire ship shook with the force of the explosion, and Optronix and Bumblebee were thrown to the floor, alond with every 'bot in the hall. The alarms began blaring as fires began breaking out.
"Warning!" Teletraan One announced. "Critical reactor detonation detected! Prisoners are rioting! All security personnel, respond!"
"A riot! Finally some action!" A bigger mech yelled, Bulkhead if Optronix remembered correctly, as he rushed out of the hall with his fellow bots.
"Bumblebee! Are you okay?" Optronix asked, getting to his feet.
"Yep! Feelling fine!" The yellow 'bot responded, jumping up.
"Okay, you go join the others." Optronix ordered. "I need to get to my post on the bridge."
"Roger that." Bumblebee snapped off a quick salute. "Good luck."
"You too, Bumblebee." Optronix wished, before running off to the bridge. He transformed into his vehicle mode, chassis twisting and compacting with a few mechanical clicks, and he shot forward.
"Attention!" A shrill and nasally voice announced from overhead. Optronix instantly knew who it was. The Second-in-Command, and Sentinel Prime's most trusted Lieutenant...
Starscream.
"This ship is now under MY command!" Starscream prattled on, and Optronix could feel his energon pressure begin to rise. "Surrender to the Decepticons, or perish!"
Finally, Optronix could see the entrance to the bridge. Transforming, but keeping his momentum, Optronix burst through the door, and skidded to a halt.
The situation on the bridge was dire, to say the least. The rest of the command crew lay slumped over their consoles, the wounds in their craniums still smoking. Sentinel himself lay broken, one of his servos was severed, and the hole right where his spark should have been was leaking Energon.
"Starscream!" Optronix shouted, as his battlemask covered his face, and he drew his Energon axe. "Stop this now!"
Starscream only grinned. It was entirely humorless, and predatory. "Optronix, I'm glad you're here... I hadn't gotten my fill of killing yet!"
That was all the warning Optronix had before Starscream opened fire. Optronix reacted quickly, diving behind the console he was closest to. Starscream's shots continued to pelt the console relentlessly, until they had to stop because his guns had overheated.
Taking the opportunity that had been presented to him, Optronix popped out of cover, standing to his full hieght, and drew his arm back. He chucked the axe forward, and it spun in the air, on a direct course for Starscream.
The traitorous mech barely had any time to react, and tried to scramble to safety. While he succeeded in making sure the axe didn't hit his torso, the axe still caught Starscream in his shoulder.
"Argh!" Starscream howled with pain, as he fell to the floor, clutching his shoulder.
Optronix walked over, and ripped the axe out, making Starscream yell out. "Sentinel was our friend, and you shot him in the back! Why!? What was the purpose behind all this!?"
"You..." Starscream grunted. "You expect me to talk!?"
"Why not? You've already lost."
Starscream smiled, but again there was no humor behind it. "So it would seem... But if I am to die, there will be fire!" Starscream yelled, shot a small device at one of the control panels. The disc uploaded something to the system, and exploded shortly afterward, taking the console with it. The ship began to creak and heat up as it hit the atmosphere of a nearby planet.
'Warning, unsafe atmospheric reentry detectedTeletraan One blared.
"This is my stop!" Starscream kicked out Optronix's legs, and transformed into his alternate mode. He shot out the glass, and rocketed out, leaving the others to die.
Optronix quickly got back up, and ran over to Teletraan's control console.
"Teletraan One, status report!" He ordered.
"Former Commander Starscream has initiated a collision course with an unknown planet." The AI reported. "At our current velocity and angle of descent, the impact will be fatal!"
"Can we fix it?" Optronix demanded.
"Negative, the Alchemor's engines do not possess the required thrust capacity to slow our velocity or change our course. Only one viable course of action remains--shipwide evacuation."
Optronix sighed. "Very well, send out the order."
"Evacuation proceedures now underway. Jettisoning stasis cells, activating escape pods, engaging distress beacon, transferring system processes to external drive."
A golden data disc slid out of the front of Teletraan's console, and the screen went dark. Optronix took the disc, and shoved it inside his subspace storage compartment.
Optronix turned on his heel to exit, but before he got the chance, the metal of the ship began to warp, and emit the most horrible screeching noise, like a pack of wild scraplets. Before what precisely was happening hit him, the bridge section of the ship was sheared clean off, and was sent tumbling into the atmosphere.
Optronix was blown out by the intense winds, and the ship shot off waves of escape pods, Optronix barely missing the cannonball-like lifeboats. A chunk of debris broke off the ship, and Optronix brought his hand up to block it.
But the chunk of metal was too large, and moving too fast, and as soon as it hit Optronix, everything went to static.