Chapter 1: Prologue

Terran calendar: Sept. 10, 2010; approx. 4:05 P.M. Location: Crossus II, Northern continent, District 12, Section 3

The Soldier was young by Terran standards, about sixteen years old; young, but deadly nonetheless. He was already exhausted, having minor injuries; but he was still fighting, as they say, "with a vengeance."

Just ten days before, he lost his best friend. He told no one of this however, because just before his friend died, he made a covenant with him, making him keep the very knowledge of his existence a secret; at least until the war was over.

The enemy he was fighting was a race of insectoid aliens, called "Cyrostians," hell-bent on the enslavement, select sterilization and husbandry, and the possible group-extermination of the Human race.

As he moved the plasma rapid-gun emplacement around, he started speaking in Humanese. "{Come here brickheads,}" he said,"{your death awaits!}" He yelled, although no one could hear over the uber-loud racket. A few seconds later, an explosion occurred outside his gunport, sending him, along with everything else, backwards toward the wall. As he regained awareness, he noticed that something was wrong; and as he was losing consciousness he saw why: his chest, or lack thereof, was massively damaged. As he blacked out he remembered something; and in one final thought he defiantly raged,'{my name is Jarod Flux!}'

Then he died.

At that exact moment, 42.37 billion parsecs away, in Jasper, Nevada, the Human named Jack Darby laid eyes on a motorcycle that was "more than meets the eye." The motorcycle, a Cybertronian female named Arcee, was hiding in the K.O. Burger parking lot from the Vehicon "twins," when she saw Jack come out. What he said next touched her spark: "I love you."

Five years later... almost three years after the Autobots left Earth, special agent Jack Darby, along with several military units, were scouting out a possible MECH locale. As he was waiting for the other units to report in, he started to think back to three years ago...

He snapped back to reality when he heard screaming on the radio. "All units report!" he said. He received silence. "Agent Darby to all units, what's happening in there?" He ordered. All that was heard was snapping and clicking. "I repeat, this is agent Jack Darby, please respond!" he said with determination, only to be answered with sharp grunting, whistling, and clicking.

Grabbing his Walther 2000 sniper rifle, he turned around, only to stare into the multi-lensed eyes of a man-sized bug. To say Jack was surprised was an understatement, but he wasn't paralyzed with fear. Almost as soon as he turned, the "giant bug" charged him; however, it was far enough away for Jack to get a round through the carapace, slowing it down to, literally, a dead stop.

Unfortunately, the rifle wasn't silenced; consequently, the resounding gunshot echoed for miles, alerting the other insectoids to his whereabouts. As he was examining the corpse, the sound of snapping branches fell upon his ear. He took that as a sign to leave post-haste. He needed to contact Fowler at base and alert him of this new threat.

Unfortunately for Jack, the "insectoids", a powerful race from Cyrostia, had knocked-out communications for miles. Satellite, radio, and even landline telephones were fried. The Cyrostians were there for one reason: to kidnap the hero Jack Darby, the first Human on Cybertron, and friend of the Autobots.

As Jack was dashing between trees, he suddenly heard and felt a loud thudding noise. Turning around, he saw a huge, four-legged monster chasing him. He knew he couldn't outrun it, so he decided to outsmart it; that was a mistake.

As he turned sharply to mislead it, the "monster" quickly snatched him with one of it's two enormous arms. It then injected him with a bio-sedative. As he blacked-out, he whispered, "forgive me Arcee, I'm sorry-"

Then he was taken to the Queen.