Well here goes.
I've been working on this story since the late 80's and I have no plans to leave anyone who has been following it hanging, as I have been left hanging so many times.
I'm tired though. Not tired of Maelstrom, or even of writing. Just plain tired. My back injury is slowly (knock on wood) improving but it still disrupts my sleep repeatedly. It will be a year in December since I've had a decent night's sleep...and my muse is in a coma.
I'm not giving up, but I am facing reality. I'd rather hedge my bets than die without reaching the end.
This whole thing will be one long spoiler.
If I get my mojo (such as it is) back I still can write all of this out in full. This is unlikely to remain unchanged if I ever do. My characters have a lovely way of throwing my outlines the bird anyway, and I don't see them starting to behave themselves now. No doubt they have plenty of surprises and crap to throw at me that will twist this summary into knots. That's the problem really...I'm not feeling them right now. I'm not hearing them...watching them. When I write I see what they are doing as if I was watching a movie and I am just...reporting on their actions. They run things and I just try to type fast enough to keep up.
Until the show starts up in my brain again this project is on hold.
If you don't want to be spoiled, stop reading.
If you don't mind and want to know how it all is (roughly) supposed to play out, read on.
OK then.
Let's start with the bad guys.
The Maelstrom is going to pay a call to the Jabez homeworld - which is in pretty much the same place it was in the Crossover. They will get a few clues as to the downfall of the Jabez from the ruins. The place is home to primates very similar to our chimps and gorillas...with forests much like ancient Earth. Basically the Jabez, with their ability to absorb information instantly from matrix crystals, evolved naturally on this planet. Their tech surged faster than their wisdom did though and they inadvertently released a virus that wiped out 95% of all Jabez...but 99% of the females. Even the primates that were most closely related to them suffered extinction. Those that survived are still carriers...it has entwined itself into their DNA. That was its purpose - to make genetic modification easy . Basically the researchers wanted to make changing your DNA a sort of over-the-counter type of thing. Wanted to be stronger? Smarter? We've got the stuff for you. Catch this cold for a few days and come out with a higher IQ!
Right.
Anyway, the babies being born were still nearly all dying in utero so they turned to cloning and fled the planet to escape the virus as it mutated everything it touched. Basically any Jabez walking around right now has been cloned countless times. Memories and personalities are transferred to the clone through a crystal, but with degradation each time.
Since that time the few remaining females are sequestered together and the males compete for breeding rights.
Earth is a pitri dish. Basically they transplanted their closest genetic relative that wasn't affected by their virus on Earth and used that as a basis to speed evolve humans into a genetic "blank slate" that they can then breed back into their own lines. The problem is the lack of immunity and the matrix crystal sensitivity that they need are on the same gene. They are making progress but in the mean time they are surviving off the $$$ from their scientific stuff, slave running their rejects, and kickbacks from the governments they control through Converts and other means. Males that distinguish themselves get to try a go with the females. Jabez born after the exodus from their home world are called Youngers but most of them are sterile. Those that aren't get to be cloned with their elders and join the competition.
Rodi and Lancer guessed at some of this in the crossover. More will be confirmed on the Jabez homeworld (which I haven't properly named yet BTW.) Some they will learn after the final skirmish. What they do get from this visit is a good long look at the planet's geology that makes the matrix crystals what they are.
Quintissons. Not quite extinct.
Decepticons.
Cyclonus and Soundwave will find that *knowing* Rodimus is spying on them is nerve wracking and degrading, but essentially nothing more than a worry. He is not inclined to interfere with their day to day lives unless they seem ready to screw up his life too. Even when the Bots figure out where the missing creche went they decide not to intervene. Viper is the only breeding female...and even she isn't slut enough to keep up with all of her busy Autobot cousins.
Her first child is (maybe...not totally happy with the name yet) named Sigil and boy is he a disappointment. Galvatron and Viper are expecting full fledged warriors like Vector Sigma used to produce. What they get instead is a child: no weapons, no transform, small...and no more or less inclined to be a bad-ass mother fucker than the next kid. Once they realize he's not going to instantly start spouting cannon fire and so on, they rapidly lose interest in him. Viper dumps him on Rivet to care for and Galvatron goes about his business as if his son didn't exist.
Rivet is in no way inclined to "indoctrinate" this child with her sissy Paradronian ways. She's too much of a sissy to deliberately undermine her captors like that. She simply isn't cruel to him and does her best to care for him well, even if it is only to avoid being beaten. The other Decepticons are cautious with how they treat Galvatron's offspring for a few months, but when they realize Galvatron doesn't give a crap it's open season on the kid. He's definitely the Omega of this little wolf pack - without the teeth to defend himself. Tocsin BTW will eventually change his name to Toxin and join the Decepticons outright. Beating on Sigil helps him "prove" he's changed sides.
Sigil's not stupid though, and he is wily enough to avoid trouble most of the time, brave enough to take the hits when he can't avoid them, and vindictive enough to hatch long tern revenge plans against Cons who mess with him. Stuff like adhesive in your energon feed and so on. He's careful to not get caught too. Still he spends a lot of time with Rivet who takes care of him. He also shadows Cyclonus a lot because the Second ignores him at worst and will occasionally show him how to do things. It is Cyclonus who finally realizes that what the child needs is simply training. The weapons and so forth will come as he grows. Unfortunately by this point Galvatron has forbidden any extra resources be wasted on Sigil so the best Cyclonus can do is allow the boy to observe him without being obvious about it. Sigil often doesn't recognize these as lessons but he does notice when Cyclonus is around, nobody tries to beat him up, so he naturally tries to stay within Cyc's orbit.
Quite a set of roll models. Rivet and Cyclonus.
Viper does not ignore her child quite the way Galvatron does. She regards him as a failure. She saw him as an easy ticket to becoming Galvatron's most treasured resource and often wonders how it is possible for such parents to have produced such a "worthless piece of scrap." She takes it out on him whenever she can...and she is so good at cruelty. However she too finally catches on that what he needed was molding when she finds him nurturing a hurt bug. It's one of Adder's vermin chew toys that somehow got away with most of its legs. Viper comes to the storehouse for something and catches him talking to it and playing with it.
She knows at once he learned that crap from Rivet...and she knows he learned it by osmosis because Rivet would never dare TRY to turn him into an Autobot. What Viper realizes is these youngsters are basically blank slates...very malleable minds that have the potential to become what they are taught. It is too late for her to write on Sigil's slate. He hates her...but he doesn't have to remain an only child now does he?
Viper is patient where she sees potential for power. Her next mating with Galvatron is fertile...as is the next...and the next...and...and... All of these protoforms are built and raised in isolation. Galvatron is aware of them...barely...but as long as Viper is wasting her own resources on them he doesn't worry about it until it is too late.
Then the Autobots' youngsters begin to "grow out" of their first protoform shells and reach upgrade stage to their intermediate and adult body shells. The reports are starting to reach Char.
Only then does Galvatron realize he's been neglecting a resource and takes steps to rectify neglecting his son. Only then does he begin wondering what Viper has done with the rest of them.
Good guys.
Ratchet does in fact take over Vector Sigma's duties...and if you think he was grumpy before wait till you see what having to watch Paradronians all day does to his state of mind. The slavers and riff raff piss him off but he can DO something about those guys... He and Perceptor use knowledge gleaned from the blank crystals and the geology of the Jabez homeworld to begin producing their own Matrix based technology and to help Robert decipher the Maelstrom's code and capabilities. Ratchet muses that Wheeljack would have boiled his own energon to see the tech they come up with. In any case, they start retrofitting Autobot warships with Maelstrom tech...including the cloaking fields and the teleportation drive.
It also leads them to huge advances in healing Transformers and humans alike...including allowing temporary mind transfers like the one Wheeljack attempted in "Autobot Spike" and the one that saved Rodimus in Maelstrom issue 3. Basically, if you're an Autobot, they can put your brain in storage while they fix up or replace the rest of you.
Spike and Shellshock are a huge part of the last sections of this story. The original dynamic duo...with a twist of nasty revenge for spice. If you remember Shellshock has set himself up as Spike's new bodyguard. His presence in the spotlight of Spike's life as ambassador is a red cape waving at the slavers and sponsors that operate around Earth. You need to understand, the Maelstrom crew tracks the bounties placed on them after every mission. It's a game to see how much their "score" has gone up. They take bets on themselves and each other. You could buy yourself a private moon or even a small planet with the bounty money. Shellshock always "wins." Needless to say, his face is known to the bad guys and a dye job on his beard is not going pull a Clark Kent on everyone.
This is Spike and Shellshock's way of shaking things up...and oh they do shake.
This section of the story is (in my imagination where it is all written and perfect) supposed to read like a spy novel or something. Lots of twists and so on. Yeah...do you think Tom Clancey does ghost writing? In any case, without revealing EVERYTHING in case I actually do get to sleep again someday, they piss a bunch of people off, they make some messes, both political and actual, they set some people up to see if they catch anyone, suspect all kinds of wrong people, get set up themselves, escape, hunt down who betrayed them, defend Carly from assassination, and finally get a real lead on a Sponsor.
This sets off a long undercover mission that requires a less recognizable face. Marissa gets tapped with the Maelstrom providing transportation and backup. Lancer essentially serves as her handler for this, but after many long months of poking around and setting things up to position Marissa inside the Sponsor's organization, they get caught.
Lancer is pretty resistant to telepathic invasion. Marissa is not. Just a surface scan of her thoughts gets them shipped off to a Jabez installation for questioning.
We all know how the Jabez like to question you right?
The Maelstrom/Autobot alliance is exposed. The cavalry is coming of course...but not before the girls get to have some fun times being "toyed" with. Lancer, of course, with her lighting bolt metabolism and her dim but measurable Matrix sensitivity is particularly interesting.
Robert, after all these years trying to coax the Maelstrom into revealing its secrets and its potential begins to bludgeon instead. He stays up for days trying to unravel the computers' programing and awakens the Vector protocols instead. Sigma Beta devours his mind.
Pagan and Talen find his body slumped over on the bridge...and find every panel on the ship lit up and running for the first time since they stole it. It takes Robert a few days to be coherent enough to actually let them know he's still around so all they know until then is that he's dead, but they can finally fly Maelstrom without him. They concentrate on rescuing Lancer and Marissa - who they know through Rodimus are still alive.
They just don't know WHERE to go until Robert is able to surface enough to tell them. Every Jabez stronghold, lab, and even the breeding facility with the females have been in the ship's memory banks the whole time.
Thus the cavalry arrives...guns blazing and all that. Against a fully functional Maelstrom and a really, really pissed off Autobot strike force, the little Jabez lab is not much of a match. The only thing they had on their side was time.
A wee bit too much of it.
As the lab is invaded, the bad guys are prepping Marissa for Conversion. When the good guys break in her skull is already being drilled. The explosion the guys use to break down the doors shake the drill out of alignment and it merely severs her spine. Magnus pretty much just steps on the Jabez and CV's working on her to get her out of there.
It's too late for Lancer.
It ends for Rodimus and Lancer pretty much where it began...in a Jabez torture chamber. The Jabez have spent the last few weeks ruthlessly pushing her powers past their limits again and again. They are rather pissed at her, so this is more than their usual painful curiosity. Her body is subject to such high levels of energy that her cellular structure begins to break down. She becomes less matter and more energy by the day. By the time the guys get there the chamber holding her is the only thing keeping her alive. Rodi can't even open the door to go in with her. So he sits with her while all hell breaks out around them until she dies.
Marissa's body will die too, but they keep her going long enough to reach Cybertron and do a matrix-mind transfer into an Autobot shell. She goes pretty crazy for a few years until she gets used to the sensory deprivation. It puts a huge strain on her relationship with Magnus but they do work it out eventually.
Rodimus, who has been borderline berserk while Lancer was being tortured, goes completely into assassin-cold mode right now. Her death shreds their mind link and he is bleeding in a way no one can see or staunch. When they raid the lab, Robert sucks the computer banks dry. Between that and what they already were finding on board the Maelstrom they finally know where to strike...and striking is about all Rodimus is up to at the point. The offensive they launch at one Jabez facility after another is surgical and overwhelming...often before their Sponsor protectors even know the cloaked Autobot fleet is in the area. When they get to the Jabez breeding facility they don't even take on the defenses...they just chew the whole place through the Maelstrom's engines. This takes out the breeders and the cloning facilities in one fell swoop...effective ending the Jabez as a race. Mopping up the rest of the surviving Jabez is more of a formality.
He spends a few days being catatonic after that, but Edana brings him around...by melting his leg off...and he goes back to work.
The Sponsors are next and here's where things get REALLY messy. Definitely a things get worse before they get better issue. Jabez like to work quietly and their little projects. Sponsors are more like intergalactic organized crime. They are mixed up with business and politics wherever they operate and bringing them down has its side-effects. It's not as if EVERYTHING they did was detrimental to the planets they operated on...parasites do better on a healthy host. As Rodimus' campaign moves out into the open and the truth about the Jabez and Conversion becomes public, it sets off a galaxy-wide shit-storm. In other words many systems over-reacted to finding out they had CV's in positions of power. Economies collapse when the Sponsors that control them fall. Civil wars break out in the voids left by CV leaders. Transformers, a Jabez construct, are challenged on their right to even exist...as is every human ever born. It is even widely believed that all human are CVs from conception. Wars break out on Earth too, so it is years and years before things stabilize and the Autobots can finally see something like peace again. Somewhere during this period there is a huge battle where several Sponsor converge on Autobot forces at once. The Decepticons decide to join the party too, and during the fight Galvatron goes after Rodimus. Rodimus doesn't even really see him - a body comes at him at the edge of his peripheral vision and the assassin takes it down. He doesn't even realize who he's killed until they review the footage after the fight.
Kids:
Soltice grows up pretty much unscathed by all the violence around her and unaffected by the celebrity of her "first born" status. No one growing up around Arcee the Blunt and Springer the Sarcastic is going to do so with an over-inflated ego.
Magnus and Marissa's twins grow up tall (duh) , smart (double duh), and with a hefty obsession with thing that go BOOM. No surprise there either. When they're kids they have their own language and make Magnus nostalgic for a comparatively well-behaved Hot Rod. As adults Kyle goes into weapons design, and Darren likes computers and demolitions. He doesn't see the dichotomy there. There is also a surprise sister born a good ten years after them but I can't for the life of me remember her name right now. All I know is it's amazing she's ever asked out for a second date with the way Magnus and the boys grill anyone who'd like to take her out. Not that she needs protection. Magnus raises her pretty much alone while Marissa adjusts to being a robot. As a result she's a drop dead gorgeous tom-boy who helps both her brothers test their new weapons. They live fairly normal lives...if you can call growing up in the heart of the Autobot command structure "normal".
Edana...one of the few teenagers in the universe who pretty much keeps a smile on her face...probably because she can never honestly accuse her parents of 1. not loving her or 2. having no clue what "problems" she is going through. This is good because she does, in fact, become a class 2 pyrokenetic when she is 13. A devastating ability she almost never needs to use because anyone trying to mess with her generally suffers a severe panic attack and ends up in a fetal position. Rodimus remarks she is more like Elita's child than his. She's calm and pretty much unflappable most of the time once she's an adult. After the Jabez breeding center goes down and they can finally let her off Maelstrom permanently, she highly instrumental in the reconstruction on Earth and neighboring systems because she attends high-level meeting as Spike's aide and "reads" the parties involved. She can settle a mob in full frenzy if she has to...and she gets a good bit of practice at it. Eventually, (and behind her father's back) she joins EDC and gets quietly promoted until she's running it. She lives a pretty normal life too. Marries a sweet but clueless man who has no idea where she comes from, gives her father a few grand-kids and dies when she's in her 80's.
It is good Edana's fairly easy to raise. Alex is a whole other story. Alex. My anti-Sue. Alexandra is a transformer...by that I mean a shape shifter. Isn't that a lovely power? The ability to be - literally - anything you want. Certainly it's what I wanted growing up - the power to be anything but what I was. Mass is not conserved. Substance is optional. She could be a literally fly on the wall or Unicron's second coming. Awesome - she should be able to finish off all the bad guys with the bat of an eye.
Yeah...would I do that?
Alex's powers are nothing but a curse to her. She never suffers because her body adapts to changing conditions without fail. If it's chilly, she adjusts automatically. If it's dark her eyes modify to see. You know how hard it is to figure out who you are as a kid growing up? Imagine if you couldn't even pin down WHAT you are.
Children who grow up in abusive homes are actually better adjusted that children who are never held or stimulated as infants. The lack of contact and sensation stunts them in numerous ways. She never gets a chance to feel hot, sore, or sweaty. She never gets to spin herself dizzy or have the comfort that follows a skinned knee.
Imagine how hard it is to parent a kid who never suffers a consequence for any of their actions. Even the proverbial "kid touching a hot stove" lesson doesn't teach her anything - she could put her hand in a fire and not be burned. She is physically invincible and emotionally as lost as can be. She can see/smell/taste/feel more than anyone around her (she knows you by scent first and foremost) but none of it has any impact. She takes huge risks - throwing herself into laser fire and bomb blasts just to feel *something* in that fleeting instant before her body adjusts. Like an addict looking for a high, she is always chasing the next thrill.
When Lancer is alive it's bad, but she's closer to her mother and sister than anyone else. She will reign herself in for Lancer's benefit...most of the time. Rodimus is just some guy that shows up now and then and tries to tell her things. She grows up too fast, and her body far outstrips her mental maturity. The Maelstrom is boring and she is disinclined to be stuck there. One time she even gets the jump on Talon and goes on a mission with Lancer AS Talon. She's 6 when this happens and while she looks the part she is not really capable of impersonating a 50+ year old man so she gets caught. She hits puberty when she's 7, and is over 6 feet tall in her "real" form. Not long after that she discovers the one sensation her body will allow her to feel strongly - sexual desire and orgasm. She is instantly hooked...and she is gone. By the time she is 8 she's had dozens of lovers, both male and female and she's had them AS both male and female. Her parents can't even find her, let alone reign her in.
She could have been their best weapon. If she'd been there when Lancer died, Lancer wouldn't have died. Instead she is literally out screwing around, and no ones where she is or who she is being at the time. Losing her mother that way is like the final crack in her sliding foundation and she disappears into madness for years. During this time period she gives birth to and fathers numerous children...and even gives up on sticking to other humans. She will literally try almost anything...often without even making a decision to change. If she even smells anything sexual she will be on all fours mating with an animal and experiencing it on that level with no knowledge of herself as something sapient. Sometimes she will come back to herself later and be ashamed. Sometimes she will just live on as that animal until some other stimulus causes another transformation. She leaves several liters of young behind as well...some of which merely survive as the animals they are. There are many unfortunate hybrids though that have human characteristics too though...and many don't survive. If something else causes her to transform before they're weaned, she also just leaves them to starve...with not enough awareness to even know she's left her own young to die.
When she finally stabilizes, and they try to backtrack her movements and trace her activities through this time period, she tries to clean up the messes she made. They find enough to know they will never find them all. Rodimus jokes humorlessly that he really does have to regard the entire universe as his family because he's got grandchildren in most species of it.
Decepticons:
After Galvatron is killed Viper makes a grab for the throne. She had her illicit offspring in hiding for years and it is now that she reveals them. The six youngsters she has raised in secret are nearly as warped as Adder...even by Con standards they are twisted. They utterly love her - in a slavish, obsessive kind of way - and do not acknowledge any authority but hers. They kill other Cons on a whim which Viper shrugs off as inevitable and stupidity on the other Decepticon's part. They are extremely dangerous and she just assumes that everyone will surrender to her rule..or that they will fight so she can kill her rivals.
Cyclonus does neither. He looks around himself and finds nothing he wants to fight for...and just leaves.
Sigil and Soundwave stay...until one of Sigil's siblings kills Rivet. It's not even that Sigil (who's grown up tough as only an abused neglected kid can) loves Rivet all that much. Her death just illustrates to him, Soundwave, and the few other Cons with more than one cerebral circuit to rub together, that no amount of caution or obedience will keep them alive. Since the fall of the Jabez, the Autobots have made a point of broadcasting everything Vector Sigma did to manipulate both sides to keep fighting. While this is not enough to make the Decepticons suddenly want to become all sweet and friendly with their cousins, they certainly do not appreciate having been slaves and pawns. Nor do they see the point in continuing to attack Cybertron when they are so overwhelmingly outnumbered and outgunned just because Viper is obsessed. Those that stay behind do so only because following the next leader is all they know how to do. A few die testing Cybertron's defenses, but most die at the hands of Viper's young. A few others desert her and surrender to the Autobots...who treat them as war criminals and assign their sentences on an individual basis. Most of them will serve thousands of years of community service under Blitzwing's watch and will end up paroled at some point in their lives.
Sigil's band will make it clear by withdrawing and mostly behaving themselves that they have no interest in continued hostilities and will be mostly ignored by their neighbors and the Autobots while the rest of the Jabez mess sorts itself out.
Viper will screw up at some point and will be killed by her own children - who then have no clue how to care or think for themselves and starve to death.
All hail the glorious Decepticon empire.
Maelstrom crew:
Robert as mentioned, has become one with his work. The knowledge he gains merging with the ship includes the blueprints so pretty so the Autobots have a fleet of vessels that can cloak perfectly and fold space. Comes in handy with wars popping up all over the place. If you've got a Sponsor army a few million strong facing you, it's lovely to be able to just threaten to chew the planet through the engines. Lots of CV armies are deactivated without a shot fired.
Pagan lets Kain go home and lives the rest of her days gleefully making Jabez associates pay with their lives.
Claudia dies in her sleep of natural causes...Jordan doesn't last a year after that.
Talon retires to Earth and outlives his body's ability to keep up. He dies drunk, fat, and happy.
Malice moves back to Earth too, and petty much spends the rest of her life taking care of her son. He ends up in an institution after she dies.
Shellshock commits suicide three days after the last major Sponsor organization is brought down. Spike knows what he's up to and tells no one. Carly, BTW, comes out of catatonia to save Spike when the Sponsors put a hit out on her and come after her in her nursing home. Turns out blowing someone brains out is good therapy. She remains fragile and never returns to public service, but she travels with Spike during the chaos following the Jabez wars. The fact Edana is there to help her heal is very good for her...and Spike too. They both live well into old age with Spike serving as an honored adviser even after he retires.
Command staff:
Jazz is cool until the end of time. Perceptor and Ratchet are fine. First Aid goes back to the Protectobots and gives them nightmares for a while.
Magnus is intimidating until the end of time too...he never retires. Seriously - what would he do with himself? He continues his roll as discipliner and threatener in chief. Marissa takes over as liaison to Earth...everyone knows who she is even as a robot, although there are those who object to her "being one of THEM."
Rodimus has a rough time adjusting to life after Lancer. The bleeding from the severed link nearly kills him in the first few decades after she dies. Naturally, he neglects to let anyone know until it's almost too late. I actually have this story written...so I think I will not spoil how they save him. Once that is fixed he is out of danger although one major problem is he hates her through and through for making him promise he would live. He gets better about it though but he remains Rodi and he remains an idiot. Looking for another mate never dawns on him. He remains single for centuries until elita decides to intervene in her sneaky way.
He catches Chromia fussing over some Autbot sparklings (she's still basically head of education for new Transformers) and remarks to Elita that he was surprised Chromia never found someone to start a family with. Elita just stares at him in disgust for a moment and tells him Chromia's been in love with someone for a very long time but that the idiot in question was callously ignoring her. He's offended by the notion and sets off to figure out who could be so stupid...only to find out to his shock that's it's himself. This sets off a long, convoluted, and extremely awkward courtship where her misconceptions about his past (his life with Lancer is still not common knowledge because of the risk to his extended human descendants) cause problems, and his complete ignorance of Autobot intimacy cause even more problems. They eventually do work things out and he finally gets to have a normal, healthy relationship with someone.
Optimus and he remain partners for several more centuries. Then Op and Elita retire and have a kid of their own. A few centuries after that the Matrix speaks up for the next in line - Illmatar. (BTW...Illmatar is not my screen name because I think she's me or anything. She's my screen name because it wasn't taken!) Unlike Op and Rodi she gets notice and training - imagine that. She and Rodimus work as a team for a few million years. He retires fairly young (only 2.5 million years old) but after everything no one is really surprised. He changes his look and shows back up now and then to test the Autobots' defenses and give Illmatar a hard time. He thinks he's funny.
She's on her own for about a million years when an invasion fleet led by the last surviving Quintessons shows up in force. They have some kind of fabulous MacGuffin with them (details here are... hmm...sketchy) that is very dire and scary. It needs to be destroyed...suicide mission and all that. Guess who she asks? She gets rid of Quints and Rodimus gets his little death wish fulfilled.
The End. Ta-da! Was it worth it?