Author's Note: Well, I didn't think my next fanfic would be about the Insecticons! This story is an origin plot for everyone's favorite mechanical swarm of locusts (unless there's another one I don't know about). The cartoon mentioned that they weren't always able to eat organic matter, and therefore weren't always Insecticons, so what gives? What did they go through to get to that point? Well, this random thought is the plot bunny for this fic. I hope you like it and I will update regularly :)


Chapter 1

Parts Unknown

The war had been escalating on Cybertron for thousands of vorns. The Decepticons had gone from being a small rebel faction to all but becoming the masters of their world! The Autobots had been forced further back, and many of their cities had either fallen or had defected to the Decepticons. Under Megatron's command the Decepticons were achieving power that the upper classes of Cybertron had denied them for far too long!

Despite the progress the Decepticons were making, however, there was one thing that still weighed heavy on everyone's processors: the energon shortage.

It was becoming clear that without new sources of energon all of Cybertron would starve...and then it wouldn't matter who won the war. Despite his megalomaniacal tendencies, Megatron was not ignorant to the need for new fuel sources, so he had sent small teams of Decepticons in survey ships to search for new planets to conquer for their own needs.

That was where the Ladybug came in. It was a small ship designed to scan for energy on other worlds, and had but a small skeleton crew aboard. In all, there were only 10 Decepticons on board. To be fair though, 10 still seemed like too many inside the tiny scout ship.

They were under the command of Bombshell; a mech that had been a medic before the war. He specialized in delicate processor surgery back in the day, but had his medical license revoked by the council when they discovered his more...unorthodox procedures. He dabbled in everything from dangerous upgrades to protoforms all the way up to inventing a microchip that hacks a mech's processor and forces them to obey Bombshell's every command. Truth was if he hadn't joined the Decepticons he probably would've been killed by the council ages ago!

Bombshell knew his new assignment wasn't glorious, but at least it was safe. There would be no fights with Autobots and no death reports to file. They were just looking for energon. What could possibly go wrong?

He also enjoyed the company. While a few of the mechs were trouble, he got along quite well with his second in command and his communications officer. They both shared his sigma ability of being able to clone themselves. Of course, that was only useful in battle, and they likely wouldn't see battle on this mission.

"Commander, the scans show nothing nothing," Shrapnel, his SIC, reported, "I'd humbly suggest turning to starboard starboard."

"Acknowledged," Bombshell said evenly, "Hisser Wind, turn us to starboard."

"Aye aye, sir!" Hisser Wind, a sky blue and purple seeker, replied enthusiastically.

"And don't rock the cargo hold this time this time!" Shrapnel added caustically.

Hisser Wind grumbled under his breath but was quick to comply.

Shrapnel wasn't the most popular mech on board the ship. In fact, most mechs in general tended to avoid the hotheaded little head case. He was considered weird and angry, and nobody felt like listening to his speech impediment for long periods of time. None of this bothered Bombshell, however. He knew the sadistic little glitch was loyal to the core of his spark and would likely do anything for him and the rest of the crew. Besides, he was good at keeping the others in line.

"Commander, we have a transmission from Cybertron," Kickback, his chief of communications cut in, "It's from Acid Storm. Should I put it through?"

"Pit, no!" Bombshell immediately answered, causing everyone on the bridge to stare at him, "...No! Forget it! I still remember the last time I got stuck talking to that guy! He kept me on the comm for 5 hours and I missed an important communique from Shockwave!"

"You heard him, Kickback! Cut the transmission transmission!" Shrapnel ordered.

"Whatever you say. Not my skid plates on the line," Kickback quipped easily.

Not everyone could talk to Bombshell or Shrapnel like that, but Kickback wasn't just anyone. He was probably Shrapnel's only true friend, and he was also one of the most easygoing and laid back mechs Bombshell had ever met. Kickback might have an attitude problem, but he was good for morale.

"Hey! Nucleus! Get your treads off the console console!" Shrapnel snapped at one of the large tank formers manning the weapons array.

Bombshell barely heard Shrapnel's harping anymore. It was like white noise. He secretly suspected that Shrapnel just acted like that compensate for the fact that he was a minibot and probably the shortest mech in their unit. There weren't many minibots that survived in the Decepticon ranks. Most of them joined the Autobots for protection, but not Shrapnel. He was tough, and he wanted the whole universe to know it! It also helped that the dark purple minibot had two antennae that allowed him to shoot electricity from his head! Bombshell didn't know why Shrapnel joined the Decepticons. He didn't know him well enough to ask, and suspected he never would.

Kickback's reason was a bit more obvious: boredom. Kickback loved the thrill of adventure and liked sneaking into places to see if he could avoid being caught. Kickback wasn't very happy with his job working the communications console. He romanticized the idea of fighting for the Decepticon cause and bringing energon back to a starving and grateful populace. Bombshell didn't begrudge him these fantasies though. After all, he was young.

Bombshell scratched the top of his cone-shaped head as he tried to think of a way to make their search for resources more efficient. They had been out here for several dozen orns, and it was starting to get tedious. Especially since most of the crew consisted of seekers. Bombshell himself was a conehead seeker. Kickback was a seeker as well, but of the more typical design.

"Commander!" Hisser Wind's panicked voice broke Bombshell from his thoughts, "The ship is being pulled into a gravitational field! I've lost control of navigation and we're coming down fast!"

"All power to the thrusters!" Bombshell demanded, "Nucleus, Jughead! I need you to shoot down any space debris that gets too close! If the ship remains in tact we might have a chance of surviving the impact!"

"Yes, sir!" Jughead, a nervous white tank former, replied.

"Kickback! Send out a distress signal!" Bombshell ordered frantically.

"I can't, sir!" Kickback shouted over the sound of the engines roaring to keep up with the new strain of gravity, "We're out of range! There are no civilized planets for light years! I can't get a response from anybody!"

"We're gonna die!" Someone from behind Bombshell screamed.

"No, we're not!" Bombshell hollered over the bedlam of his bridge, "We're the mighty Decepticons, and we can survive anything! Brace for impact! We'll survive…"

With that proclamation the ship lurched forward and began to shake! The mechs could feel the heat as the unknown planet's atmosphere covered their ship like a thermal blanket. An evil thermal blanket…

Shrapnel lost his grip on the chair he was holding and almost fell face-first into a console, but Kickback grabbed his servo and held tight! Bombshell saw that Jughead had been knocked out cold and crashed into the sensor array; crushing it with his head. Now they would never be able to locate new sources of energon...They would crash on an unknown world, and their mission had failed…

Before Bombshell blacked out, all he could think about was how far he had sunk in the short amount of time between his medical career and his glorified scavenger job on this doomed ship.


The smoke had barely cleared and a crater had been formed by the ship when the remains of the crew decided to get out and explore the world that had claimed the Ladybug. 3 crew members had died, but 7 were left to explore the new planet. There was Commander Bombshell, Shrapnel, Kickback, Hisser Wind, Nucleus, Suppressor, and Gall. They had lost Jughead, Pincer, and Grit Iron.

They all looked around the planet. It was organic, and the humidity was unbearable! It was covered in giant green plants and what bit of the sky they could see was blue!

"Seriously, who ever heard of a blue sky?" Gall asked disdainfully, "How's a mech supposed to scan two new alt modes when he can't even find one good thing on the planet?"

"Oh, stop complaining complaining!" Shrapnel barked, "We're still alive, aren't we aren't we?"

"Ah, don't listen to him!" Kickback retorted, "Triple changers are always fussy!"

While his crew argued among themselves Bombshell took stock of this world and it's organic inhabitants. There were animals large and small surrounding the area. None of them seemed sentient, but all seemed hardy and potentially dangerous if they weren't careful. The plants were used as a food source by many of the organic animals...That information could be useful, but Bombshell wasn't sure how just yet.

"Our ship crashed into a tree," Nucleus said flatly.

"Tree? So that's what that thing is called!" Hisser Wind observed happily.

"That's the spirit…" Bombshell deadpanned as he saw his navigator fly around the trees to examine them.

Bombshell didn't know where they were or if there was a way to get energon down here, but he did know one thing...It would take everything they had to survive.