Chapter 1

On Cybertron's days

There was a squad of cons on the Iacon highway. They had autobot prisoners, all of them were scouts. The decepticons escorted the autobots to a decepticon drop ship as I was about to start sniping. I was immediately caught off-guard by a noise. I looked back and then…

I saw darkness

Confused, maybe I should introduce myself, I am Black Halo. I am a scout for the Autobots. I am female, and I am a recrut, but I am a lot tougher than you think. I was just caught off-guard which gave that attacker the advantage. When I came to, I looked around the room I was in and I saw a bunch of things in the room, I didn't know what they were. I tried to move, but I felt something on my wrists. I was being held prisoner by someone, but I didn't know who. I was weak and I felt something running down my arm. I looked over and saw a wound that was about five inches (in an autobot's view) long, but not very deep. Energon blood ran down my arm as I was helpless to get to anyone for help. I saw the door on the other side of the room open and a red and black male figure walked in and continued to walk toward me. I tried to struggle but I was weak. "Oh don't even try, you will run out of energy before you even make a dent in those cuffs." He said. He had a deep huffy voice, but his tone was blank with no expression. "Who are you?" I asked in a weak voice. "Oh Right, how rude I am, Guess that runs in the blood of all decepticons, I am Regicide, the Decepticon scientist next to shockwave, second in command to his group. Who might you be?" he asked. "That isn't important." I said. "Well then, on to the point, shall we? Where is Optimus Prime's base?" He asked as he leaned towards my faceplate. "Like I will tell you." I responded. "If that is the case, then I wonder what it would be like to have a hole in your spark from your sister having a real hole in hers." He looked away from me and a light turned on, shining on my sister. Her name was Yellow Hornet, she had a unique set of armor for an autobot, and she was a sports car from Cybertron. I gasped "Yellow, What did you do to her?!" I asked in a demanding tone. "Yellow" was her nickname, mine was "Black" as you can guess. He turned his hand into a drill and said "Nothing… yet. So where is Optimus' base?" he asked, as he pointed the drill to her spark, about to drill a hole and kill her. I was hesitant for a moment and said "It is in Iacon that is all I know, I never saw it." I said. He stopped the drill and said "I believe you." Then he jammed the drill into her armor, destroying her spark. She screamed in pain before her optics turned dark and she dropped limp. "YELLOW!" I yelled. Then Regicide came toward me, his drill still out. "Now it is time for you to join your sister in being one with the matrix." He said as he slowly brought the drill to my spark. I was about to go offline, knowing that I was going to see all of my dead friends that I had fun with. Then, out of nowhere, a couple of shots came from the other side of the door. The door immediately got blasted from its spot and hit Regicide, knocking him out and holding him down on the floor. I looked through the door and saw two familiar faces. Wheeljack and Bumblebee came through the door and found me on the cuffs that were holding me. Wheeljack turned the system that controlled the cuffs off and I fell, Bumblebee catching me before I hit the ground. "Bee, Jackie, I couldn't save her, I couldn't do anything." I said. Wheeljack looked over to Yellows body. He looked at me. "It isn't your fault." He said. They got me up to my feet and we got out of there, we had to use a drop ship because I was running low on energon. Once we arrived at Optimus' base, they got me to the infirmary. They sat me down at a table, then a medic came in. "Ah, the new recruit, so how bad is it?" He asked. "Take a look for yourself, doc." I said. He looked at the wound and started repairing it immediately. "I had to do this once with Bumblebee you know." he said. "What is your name?" I asked. "Its Rachet." He responded. "So what happened to you?" Rachet asked. "I was ambushed by some bot named Regicide. He took me and my sister to a bunker and asked me questions. I answered with an answer that wasn't that helpful but he believed that I was telling the truth. Then he killed my sister in the most brutal way possible, drilling a hole in her spark." I said. He looked at my face and said "I am sorry, no one should experience such a thing." After that, I asked "Can I meet Optimus, so I can inform him about my mission?" I asked. "I don't care, but you should inform the guards outside of the room he is in of what you are doing." He finished with repairing my arm and allowed me to leave, so I did just that. I walked the corridors of the base while other autobots looked at me in what looked like sorrow, it might have been for me. Things tend to get around very quickly. I arrived at Optimus' room after a long walk, and the guards stopped me right at the door. "State your business." The one on the right said. "I am here to report my mission progress to Optimus Prime." I responded. The guards looked at each other and nodded. "You may enter." The one on the left said. They moved out of the way to let me through. I walked in and Optimus Prime was looking out the window to the sky. "Optimus?" I asked. It was to get his attention. He looked back at me and said "Black Halo, It is nice to see you again." He gestured me to come to the window, and I did that. When a Prime tells you to do something, you are most likely expected to do it, but without a hassle about it. Optimus is wiser and more courageous then the other Primes, maybe that is why he has lived longer then they have. I shouldn't have said that, it is wrong to disrespect a Prime. They are the leaders of the autobots and the only hope to ending this war. The other Primes have fallen and so far as we know, Optimus is the last Prime, so we must be strong and work as hard as we can to end this war. "The stars are so beautiful, right?" he asked as he looked at me. I nodded. "Will we need to leave Cybertron, Optimus?" I asked. "If that is what it takes to allow our race to survive, then yes, it must be done." Optimus said. I looked down at the floor, and Optimus put his hand on my shoulder. "I know it is hard, even if you have seen many things that your optics shouldn't have seen yet, even though you are the same age as bumblebee." I knew what he meant. I was the age of bumblebee at that time, but my spark couldn't bear the thought of a friend's death. I have lost many friends in this war, but this is the first time I have lost family. I looked at Optimus and said "I will try to do my best to do my job." He looked into my optics and said "I know, but you mustn't do anything rash, okay?" I nodded. We looked at the battle raging in the distant sections of Iacon city. Then the door opened and wheeljack came in. "Optimus, we have cons outside, trying to gain entrance to the base!" the three of us ran out to the corridors, other autobots fallowing us, then, Jazz, Cliffjumper, Arcee, Ironhide, Warpath, and Elita 1 came out of another corridor. "The six of you should come with us, we need to keep the decepticons out of the base." Optimus said. They nodded and fallowed us to the entrance. Once we got there, Starscream, Brawl, and Breakdown were outside with what looked like fifty cons. We had about sixty seven autobots, so we thought that we could handle them. The defenses were offline and it would take a few cycles for them to come online, so we were protecting the entrance until then. The doors were sealed, so the decepticons were using a plasma cutter to get through, but they stopped halfway. We were getting ready when we saw the doors get blown off. Then Brawl and the other decepticons came through the opening, guns blazing. We fired and we were locked in battle, both of the sides. We killed about twenty cons, but that is when I saw that a sniper was about to hit Optimus. He aligned his shot from his angle to Prime's spark. Right before the con fired the shot, I jumped in the way, and then I was the one that was shot. Wheeljack noticed the con and aimed for his head and shot the con, blasting his head off. Then Wheeljack ran over to me, stopped right next to me, and picked my head up, telling me to try to stay online. It was hard to stay online though, I was shot right in the spark, so I was going offline for sure. Then my optics turned off.

I then heard a voice. Sounded like Rachet. I think he said "Balancing Auditory sensors." And then I was able to see again. "Optic circuits online." Rachet said. Once my vision was clear, I looked around the room and saw Wheeljack, Bumblebee, Rachet, Arcee and Optimus looking at me, Wheeljack with relief on his faceplate. He has been acting like that ever since I arrived. "Where am I?" I asked. Everyone looked at Optimus and Optimus said "The Ark." Rachet then released the clamps holding me and let me get off of the platform that I was on. I looked at Optimus and asked "How? When I was awake, the ark was halfway to being completed." Wheeljack said "About that, you were in a stasis mode until now. You were lucky that the con that shot you didn't kill you." "Wait, that actually happened?" I asked. Arcee nodded and said "When your optics turned dark, Rachet came over to you as fast as he could and checked your vitals and you where green across the board." I was surprised when I heard Arcee say that. I couldn't believe that I had survived that shot. All of a sudden, the ship shook, as if it was being attacked. Then an autobot on the comms said "Optimus, decepticons are swarming the engine deck!" Optimus turned on his comm and said "I am on my way, Bumblebee, Wheeljack, Black Halo, Go to the bridge and secure it." We nodded, transformed, and we drove as fast as we could. A battle raged around us, between the Nemesis and the Ark. The Nemesis had tow cables connecting to the right side of the Ark, while the Ark had the defense cannons shelling the Nemesis. We arrived at the entrance to the bridge corridor and entered the corridor. When we arrived at the bridge, Ironhide and Warpath where helping some autobots clear the room of decepticons. Warpath looked at us and said "we were wondering if help was coming, we need help with these Cons." We nodded and I went to Ironhide, Wheeljack fallowed me. Bumblebee went to Warpath. We had taken out about ten Cons when one of the autobots went down. Then we took out about twenty more Cons and then Megatron appeared on the screen. All the areas of the Ark radioed the bridge to tell Optimus that Megatron were on the screens there too. "Your precious Ark will never reach that portal Optimus, I will tear you ship apart PIECE BY PIECE!" The message was directed to Optimus, which I think heard the message. Rachet came on the comms and said "Black Halo, The entire defense network is down, I need you to get to the defense tower and reactivate it manually. Bumblebee, you should go and check on Optimus, from what I hear, he is losing ground." I said that I would get it done, and bumblebee gave a beep, transformed, and drove off. "I will come with you Black." Wheeljack said. Rachet said "No Wheeljack, You should stay and guard the bridge, I am sure that Black Halo can handle a few decepticons alone." Wheeljack sighed and said "Yeah, I guess she can." I said "Don't worry, I will come right back, so you don't have to do anything but guard this room." Then these autobots got my attention and said "Through here Black Halo, we will take point." One of the autobots ran past a stack of crates, the other autobot tried to run past the same stack, but was killed by an explosion that came from the crates. The first autobot looked back and saw only me "Are you okay?" He asked. I nodded. "Can you make it over?" the autobot asked. "I think so." I responded. I jumped over the rubble from an older explosion, and the autobot leaded me to a door. The door was locked but an autobot from the other side forced it open. "Hurry, I'll hold it open for you." He said while he struggled to keep it open. I had to dash through so the door didn't close on me while I was coming through. The autobot that was holding the door let go of the door and sat down to rest. "Are you okay?" I asked. "I'll be fine, you just go and get the defense network back online." I nodded and ran to a couple of autobots that were waiting for me. The one on the right said "We've got to get out of here." While he said that, he pointed to a tow cable that was about to punch a hole in the ship. Then it rammed into the section of the ship that I was in. "Grab ahold of something!" the autobot at the first door exclaimed. Then, the autobot at the door started to get sucked out of the opening. I had one hand free so I grabbed his hand. "HOLD ON!" I yelled. He tried his best, but he was sucked out anyway. When the blast doors closed, I dropped on the floor and got up to look at the large chunk of the ship that was taken away. "Megatron will pay for that." Rachet said. "They're ripping the Ark apart, Black Halo, you need to get to the defense tower as fast as you can." I jumped and dashed across the hole in the ship that the tow cable made and sprinted to the service lift. The service lift was offline so I needed a moleculon fuse to power it up. "My schematics show that there should be a moleculon fuse somewhere in that room." Rachet said. I looked around the room and saw that there were limbs from a fight and one of them had a moleculon fuse. "Found it." I said. I grabbed it, ran over to the lift power box, and inserted the fuse. The fuse powered up the room and the doors to the lift opened. I ran into the room and I rode the lift up. I heard gunfire coming from the first doorway of the lift. "Let's move decepticons, mop these decks." When I arrived at the first doorway, I saw a brute with a decepticon squad attacking some autobots. I couldn't help because of the defense tower and that the lift was going to fast for me to be able to shoot decepticons. The next doorway was coming up and an autobot said "Soundwaves on deck five. AAAGGGHHH!" Then when I came to the doorway, I saw soundwave, rumble, and laserbeak killing autobots. "Rumble, create an entrance." Soundwave said. I was at the third doorway after some time, but it was closing and then it was bended to a point that it wouldn't open or close. Once I arrived to the top of the lift, I heard Rachet on the comms. "Black Halo, you are facing the defense tower, but you must hurry, Optimus is losing ground and bumblebee needs to get to him." "Consider it done." I said. I ran to the start of the domelike hall in the middle of the room, then an aerialbot that was shot outside rammed into the defense tower, it didn't harm the defense tower or the network at all, but the sides of the room I was in started to spew flames and those flames could kill me if I wasn't fast enough. "Those flames will bubble your paint of you don't hurry, sprint through them." Rachet said. I sprinted through the flames but they hurt a lot, and I was feeling very weak. Then I saw an energon cube. "That energon will cool your chassis." Rachet said. I walked to it and grabed it and used it to cool me down. Once I was ready, I ran to the door. The door opened and a battle was progressing in the room between one autobot and four decepticons. I ran and helped the autobot. He said "Black Halo, you might need to switch your shooting hand for better aim and cover." I was on the right side of the room behind cover, so I changed my shooting hand from my right to my left. I was ready to kill these cons when three more came from the top floor. I helped the autobot by shooting five cons and he handled the other two. "Go ahead Black Halo, I'll keep guard when you turn the network on." The autobot said. I ran to the door to the terminal. When I opened the door I saw a con. Rachet said on the comms "Easy now, your weapon will melt that terminal." "Think you can rush him from there?" he asked. I walked out of hiding and readied myself, then I started to sprint. When I was behind him, I grabbed my sword and attacked him from behind, killing him and sending him behind the terminal. I looked outside the window and saw tow cables connecting to the Ark. I turned on the defense network on and the turrets fired on the Nemesis. A tow cable was facing me and charged towards me. I dodged the cable over to a service duct. I opened the duct and the cable pointed at me again I dived into the duct and the cable tried to hit me again. I heard Rachet on the comms. "Black Halo, you need to get to bumblebee, he needs help clearing the path to Optimus." "I will get it done Rachet." I said. I transformed and found that bumblebee came this way because the path was clear of some obstacles. The only obstacles that there was were dead aerialbots on the path. I was in a hurry to get to bumblebee so we could help Optimus. Then Rachet came on the comms "Black Halo, Optimus is taking Megatron head-on, you need to hurry." I arrived at a turn and saw titan class autobots guarding the turn. "Hold your fire." One of them said. Then I turned around the corner and found a door. The door opened up and autobots let me in. "You turned on the defense network, nice, we didn't stand a chance without it." One of the autobots said. "Oh yeah, well what do you think the odds are now?" The other one said to the first. I knew that he was referring to our chances of survival against the decepticons. We walked to another room where other autobots were wounded and arguing with one another. "The Ark can't take much more of this, well NEVER make it through that portal!" one of the other autobots said to another. "Have faith in Optimus soldier." The other one responded. I was low on ammo and needed to restock on it. I saw a weapon rack on the wall and a few clips of ammunition, I had the right gun for it so I took some ammo and used the ammo from the guns on the wall for my gun. The autobots that were ready for battle gathered in the next room and waited for me. As I walked in, an autobot said "Through here Black Halo." In the middle of the room, an armory recreator came up from the room. "Want to be the tip of the spear, we are right behind you." The autobot said. The armory recreator opened and inside it was a thermo rocket launcher. I scanned it and changed my weapon to it. It was very heavy, but I could handle it. The autobots ran out of a door that opened and I sprinted to be in front. I came out of the other side and two autobots and Bumblebee were shooting at more cons. Bumblebee gave a beep and gestured me over to help. I nodded, stepped over and assisted them. I shot at the con on the left with the rocket launcher and he blew to pieces. The explosion killed the other con as well. We ran to the door but three cons came out of that door. I shot two rockets, but the cons dodged both of them. I waited for the opportune moment, then I fired. The explosion killed two cons, the other con was shot in the head by Bumblebee. We ran to the door and it opened. Heavy weapon ammo was in the room and the other door opened. A battle was raging on the other side between an autobot titan with a squad and decepticons. I could see Optimus on the other side fighting Megatron. We had to kill all of the cons to get to Optimus and the titan will help with that a lot. "Bumblebee, I'll clear you a path." The titan said to Bumblebee. Rachet came on the comms "Bumblebee, you need to hurry, Optimus needs help now!" Rachet said. We cleared about ten decepticons and five were left. "We are almost through." An autobot said. I cleared three and the titan took out two. Bumblebee was in the middle of the area. Then right behind me, the roof of the doorway collapsed. "Air 18 to ground, that last blast took a toll on Optimus, if you want to help, the time is now!" an aerialbot said. "Bumblebee, get in there now!" I said as he ran to an open hole. He squeezed through. "He made it, he is through." I said. I waited for anything from him. Rachet was on the comms and said to bumblebee. "I can't see anything, but my scans say that Optimus is right on top of you." Rachet said. Then I heard metal scraping. Then one of the engines died. I ran through to see Optimus on the ground, Megatron with a rocket turret in his hands, and Bumblebee was getting up and looked at Megatron and Optimus. Megatron said "this ought to do the job." "Even if you destroy me Megatron, others will rise to defeat your tyranny." Optimus said. Then I'll just have to destroy you ALL!" Megatron said as Bumblebee jumped in front of Optimus, taking a rocket to his chest plate. I gasped. Optimus got up and said "Bumblebee!" Megatron threw the rocket turret to the side and said "What a WAIST of energon!" Then Optimus looked at Megatron and with a tone I haven't heard him use ever "After eons of conflict, I finally see the truth of your words Megatron." Megatron walked over to Optimus and pulled out his sword "And what might that be Optimus?" Megatron asked. Megatron brought his sword down about a quarters way before Optimus grabbed Megatron by the wrist. Optimus then said "This universe, no matter how vast, will never be big enough for you and me to coexist." Then Optimus punched Megatron in the chest plate, launching Megatron to a platform just a little farther away. Optimus then pulled out his sword and jumped over there. I looked back to bumblebee and pulled him to the blockage at the entrance to the platform bumblebee and I was on. I radioed in to the Autobot titan. "I need assistance here." I said. He responded with "Why?" "Bumblebee needs medical attention." I said. Then the titan broke through the blockage, allowing me to come through. I hurried to the medical station, because Bee was losing a lot of energon. I was driving as fast as I can with Bee on the roof of my vehicle form. I got to the medical station and I yelled to Rachet "Bumblebee needs medical attention NOW!" Rachet took Bumblebee to a table and began to work on him. He tried everything, but he could only slow the energon flow so Bee didn't leak to death. Then, out of nowhere, the ship shook. "That wasn't the Nemesis, was it?" I asked with an uneasy feeling. "No, the vortex of the portal is tearing the ship apart!" Rachet said. Then the bridge came on the radio. "HANG ON EVERYBODY!" the radio exclaimed. Then, for some reason, a video footage of the outside of the ship showed that Optimus and Megatron were flying in space. "Oh no." I said. The ship was spinning around while being pulled into the vortex, the Nemesis coming with us. I knew why we were heading for the portal in the first place. We needed to keep the decepticons off Cybertron so it could repair itself and the decepticons found a new world that was rich with raw energy. That energy was powerful enough to restart Cybertron. As Autobots, we also needed to keep the Decepticons from plundering another world, just like Cybertron. Megatron corrupted Cybertron by releasing Dark Energon into the core of our planet. But going back to the current problem, Optimus and Megatron were going into the portal by themselves and nothing but themselves. The planet has gravity, which would kill both Optimus and Megatron. Now we will have no leader for sure. When we went through the portal, on the other side, it looked like the portal collapsed. Then the other world was right in front of us. Then the bridge radioed in. "This landing might be a little rough, so hold on!" the bridge said uneasily. We held on for what seemed like about two megacycles, then, we were having a rough fall to the planet. After about three cycles, we had crashed on the planet. I was being shaken around, then I was forced forward and I hit a table. I didn't dent my head, but I was going dark again. Then I saw darkness.