Disclaimer: I only own my OCs.

Authoress: Well, this is strange. I haven't updated in a while and now I pull this out of the hat. Wonder what I will do next?

Prologue: Declaration of Independence

Pandimala's 1st P.O.V.

Dragonia, it had been my home planet from my creation. It is a beautiful planet rich in resources and nature, though many on Cybertron could never appreciate the beauty of this land and they are never afraid to demand us to give them every single resource that we have just so they can turn around and sell it to us at exuberant prices.

"Pandimala, over here!"

I turned my helm toward the location of the voice and smiled as Tana, my dear friend since I was a sparkling, ran forward. She stood tall for a femme grounder but she was a great friend. Her and I had shared many an adventure, many of those dealing with teasing the Iaconian soldiers that are stationed here. Ever since we were new younglings, we made sure to keep the Iaconian soldiers occupied. Most that I had met were stuck up and pompous fools who I hated to see in such a state of power. They were idiots who knew nothing of honor. Fragging Iaconians.

"Hey Tana, what brings you to Scale Heights?" I asked her. Scale Heights was the capital city of Coldice, the state where I lived. Tana, on the other servo, was from a small town called Shenap, which was located in the state of Pith. Pith and Coldice were neighboring states that would work together from time to time when their interests aligned.

Motioning behind her, Tana said, "You live here and you haven't heard? The five states of Dragonia are holding a meeting here in Scale Heights to contact Iacon demanding the council pay heed to our grievances and give us a voice in their decisions."

"I've only just got back from Pine Canyon yesterday. Rev and Blockade needed help putting up their fences so the cyber-wolves can't get in." I defended myself as my reason for not knowing about the meeting before I realized something. "So why does that bring you here?"

The two of us began to walk toward the meeting house in the center of town before she answered me. "One of the delegates from Pith, Hinge, asked my mentor Chem to come with him to help against possible resistance from the Iaconian forces. Chem, in turn, requested that I come to learn from this experience. Plus, this is Chem's and Hinge's first time to Coldice and since I visit here often to see you, I am also here as a guide."

As Tana had said earlier, there were a total of five states, which were really provinces but they liked to call themselves states, on Dragonia. Coldice, where I lived, Pith, where Tana lived, Lectran, Tian, and Agarath. Unfortunately, most citizens of the states did not travel to the others and did not think highly of them.

But, from my time in the Iaconian army, I had traveled to all of them and had learned how each lived and how they acted to different things. "Tana, it is good to see you again." I said finally. "I am glad that your mentor allowed you to come. I have not seen you in the bot since my time in the Iaconian army." My creators, who had been Major Generals in the Iaconian army, had seen fit to have me start training for the Iaconian army not long after I became a youngling. Back then of course, they had been in full support of the Iaconians, loyalists if you would. But, after five stellar cycles, their attitudes changed but I was not allowed to be taken out until my term was done, which still had twenty stellar cycles from when they tried to take me out.

"Hey," Tana stated, taking me out of my thoughts of the past, "would you look who it is."

I looked in the direction that Tana was looking and smiled as Chaom walked toward us. Another of my friends since I was a sparkling, Chaom's family had been neighbors to mine since my creators moved to Dragonia from Polyhex and his moved from Iacon. They had both been surprised in how similar Chaom and I looked...well, as similar as a mech and a femme could, and had been even more surprised about how quickly we had become friends. These solar cycles, while I was enjoying the civilian life I now lived, Chaom worked as a trade-mech. More specifically, he traded metal with Cybertron and back. He was one of the many bots who were greatly affected by the unfair treatment of Iacon.

Waving my servo at him, I called, "Chaom!"

He turned at my call and smiled before waving toward the two of us. Once we reached him, he joined us in our walk. "Pandimala, Tana; you two heading toward the meeting house?"

We both nodded and I said, "You bet we are. Why are you heading there?"

Chaom laughed as we neared the building before saying, "Coldice's representative, Gearstar, asked me to join him as another representative, since I have been one of many that have been affected by the Iaconians and I have had taken some studies in Cybertronian politics. He believes that it will help us in our discussion with the Iaconians."

I just shook my helm. He had all of the luck between myself and him. It was rare to be asked to be a representative for the state, given as there were few time where the states had made an effort to meet with each other and actually needed to meet. But, once you were a delegate, you had a recognition among the states that was never forgotten, and you were thought very highly of for it. Now, my good friend Chaom held the position. "I bet it will. Iaconians seem to love to play political games with each other and it would help us if we had players who knew how to play their game." Instantly, my mind traveled to my strategy mind of my army solar cycles. All of the games I had to play with the Iaconians just to make sure that I was not underestimated due to myself being a femme and a Dragonian. But, I had learned their games well.

Nodding, Chaom said, "Yes, and it is unfortunate that our very state of being has been reduced to playing games with the Iaconians. It sickens me to my very spark." He then opened the doors for us before saying, "Femmes first."

Tana and I both stared at each other in mock shock before she said, "Politics have changed him. Maybe we should have gotten him into this a long time ago?"

The three of us chuckled at that as we entered the meeting room. But, our chuckles were quickly muted as the mood of the room hit us. I could see that the delegates were all tense and must have been talking in hushed tones before we walked in. Thankfully, they seemed to not have been offended by our light mood as we entered.

While Tana walked over to the two mechs that I was assuming were Chem and Hinge, I followed Chaom over to Gearstar. I had met the seeker the previous solar cycle and I had been impressed with the gray mech with green and yellow markings. He was a great mech who had a good deal amount of wit and intelligence around him. If I remembered correctly,

"Ah, Chaom, it seems you have brought a friend." Gearstar greeted him before he turned to me. "Captain Pandimala, it has been quite some time."

Shaking my helm, I said, "Gearstar, please, just call me Pandimala. I have been out of the Iaconian army for a few stellar cycles now. I am now simply another citizen."

"Of course, my apologies Pandimala. I had heard of your discharge and yet I allowed it to slip my mind." Gearstar apologized.

Smiling, I said, "It is alright Gearstar. You can make it up to me now by telling me a few things about this call today."

He looked relieved when I told him that and nodded at my request. "Of course. Just ask me what you wish to know."

"How many times have the states of Dragonia contacted Iacon to air their grievances?" I asked immediately. I have been out of the loop of the happenings around the political circles ever since I had left the army. It was unknown to me as to whether or not the states of Dragonia had contacted the Iaconians before.

From the nodding that Gearstar was doing, it seemed like they had. "From what I understand, there have been many calls from the individual states to Iacon to try and get them to do something about how we have been treated. The first, from my understanding, was Agarath. The council didn't even pick up their call though. It was diverted to a smaller group of bots who ignored the complaints. Agarath has been the strongest arguers against the Iaconians ever since then."

I nodded in response as I sat down in-between Chaom and Gearstar, I turned to the seeker before saying, "Gearstar, speaking of the attitudes of today, what would you say was the feelings of each state toward Iacon?"

Looking around, Gearstar motioned toward the five sectors of representatives, each having two representatives each, before saying, "I might as well introduce all of the representatives while answering this. Of course, I must start with ourselves. You know Chaom and I, the two representatives from Coldice, and the citizens of Coldice believe that Iacon will not listen to our needs but they are unsure as to what we should do about it."

I nodded. It was no secret that Coldice was straddling the imaginary fence when it came to what to do about our situation with Iacon. "That makes sense, though I can imagine it makes things difficult for you in these discussions."

"Exactly." Gearstar stated. He then motioned to the group to our far left. Both grounders were looking quite bored with what was going to happen but, from my experience in the army, I could tell that they were worried, but putting up a smokescreen to make it look like they were not. "The black car mech with red and yellow markings is called Flareshock and the black truck mech is called Blacklight. They are the representatives from Tian. They are in the same situation that Coldice has."

Made sense from the look of them. "And what about them?" I asked about the group sitting to our immediate left. Coldice was the center group in the room. The group I was referring to looked like they were nervous about being here, like they would get in trouble like a sparkling being caught with their servo in the energon goodie jar.

Gearstar glanced at the group before sighing and saying, "The red and white boat mech is named Brigadier and the white jet mech is called Stormfire. They are the most sympathetic with the Iaconians and fear what Iacon would do if they were even found out to be here. I cannot blame them. Their state, Lectran, is weak when it comes to natural defenses from attack and would not be able to stand well against an attack. Plus, many of them are loyal to Iacon and do not like to hear arguments against them."

I nodded at this. "I know. From my time in the army, I had to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of each state and how to both best attack and defend them."

"Really?" He asked me in shock. I nodded and he, thankfully, did not go further into the question. Instead, he motioned to the group on our immediate right. "The blue and green seeker femme is named Seablade and the white car mech with gray markings is,"

"Templar, and they are the representatives of Agarath." I finished. I had met Templar before and, to say it lightly, he was fiercely against Iacon and everything that it stood for. I had met him a couple of stellar cycles back and, during that first meeting, he had almost taken off my helm. He really had not like the Iaconians even back then and did not like the soldiers. But, I eventually convinced him that I was different. When our optics locked, Templar sent me a small nod in greeting and I smiled before I sent one back.

Gearstar raised an optic ridge at me in return. "So, you have met Templar. While I am curious about how that turned out, the meeting must start soon, and we have one more group to get to." He then motioned to the representatives from Pith and said, "The brown car mech is called Hinge and the silver locomotive mech with red markings next to him is named Smoke Stack. They are from Pith. Pith is much like Agarath but they do watch themselves around Iaconians. That is why Hinge asked for the ruby car mech Chem to come with his apprentice, Tana. Chem was a war hero in the Iaconian army and a master warrior."

I nodded but continued to stare at the giant locomotive mech. He was probably a good four meters taller than my ten meter tall self and I had not met many who were near my height. Plus, his not being a triple changer, like myself, made it even more impressive.

"I need to talk with them all, see what they feel like." I muttered.

Gearstar, not hearing that, turned to me and said, "In total, the amount of calls from the individual states totals around ten, five of those coming from Agarath. It was after the last call that Coldice made that we all decided to join together and make a call as one united group. Maybe, that will convince Iacon to listen to our complaints."

Unfortunately, I found that very unlikely to happen. From my time training on Cybertron, I had learned that, not only were Iaconians idiots, they were also hard-helmed fools that wouldn't bend, no matter how great the force. Before I could say that, however, the screen turned on and I had to hold back a shudder of disgust as the council came on the screen. All six of them appeared to be looming above us, which was another of their tricks. They used the view that their audience beheld them at to gain a servo up in the argument from the start.

"To whom are we speaking?" Halogen questioned.

From my time on Iacon, I could identify most of the council. It was one of the first things you learned to do so you wouldn't insult someone of a higher class than you and, for a soldier in the Iaconian army, that was pretty much all the major nobles and council bots. Before us on the screen, I could identify six of the seven council bots. One must have come on after I left. From left to right was seated Halogen, Dragstip, Roadkill, Sentinel Prime, Breakstreak, and Alpha Trion. The femme next to Alpha Trion, however, was unknown to me. Fortunately, I knew that the entire council was not full of idiots. Alpha Trion was the only stable minded mech that I knew of the six I did. The femme, however, was peeking my curiosity.

Plena Teo, the speaker of the representatives, who was from Coldice, stood and said, "You are speaking with representatives from the five stats of Dragonia."

They all stared at him and I found myself feeling sorry for the mech. But, the feeling was soon replaced by admiration as Plena Teo held his ground and stared right back at them, not giving a nano-inch. "Ah yes, the colony. We have received many calls from you in the past and are curious about why you call us as one." Halogen stated.

I knotted my eyebrows in anger at that. They were pretty much saying that they only reason they bothered to call was because we had called in a united way. They wouldn't have cared otherwise. I was so tempted to yell at them but this was not my meeting to get involved with. I was only an observer.

"We the five states of Dragonia call to ask if you could please hear out our grievances." Plena Teo started. "We wish that you would give Dragonia a representative on the council so our citizens can be represented in your decisions concerning Dragonia. Our citizens are struggling to get by with the enormous taxes that have been placed on them for reasons that were not caused by them."

That was pretty sly. Plena Teo found a way to take a crack shot at the spending extravagances of the Iaconians without outright saying it and making the council question his jests. While I didn't know the mech that well yet, he was yet another Dragonian that I had to make sure that I became acquainted with. While I despised politics, it seemed that there were many interesting bots who were connected to the dreadful thing that didn't seem so bad.

I could visually see Breakstreak bristle at Plena Teo's suggestion and couldn't keep the smirk off of my faceplate. I loved watching the higher ups squirm. To my surprise, though, Sentinel Prime was the one who responded to him. "We must be focused on the overall success of our race in the universe. Caring for the problems of one simple colony planet is not useful in our goals. You had best be thankful that we even took time to indulge this call. Good solar cycle." The screen then went black.

The room was stilled in a shocked silence.

"The nerve of them!" Seablade yelled while slamming her clenched fist against the table in front of her.

And that outburst let loose the damn of yelling and screaming back and forth between the representatives. I was surprised that Chaom and Gearstar also got involved in the yelling, though, I wasn't so surprised to see that they were yelling on the side of the Agaraths. That display from the council probably tipped the room toward hatred of the Iaconians...well, most of them.

Of course, there was still those who were lenient toward the Iaconians. "They do have more to worry about then us!" Brigadier yelled, getting into Templar's faceplate.

This wasn't going to be good. Lectran and Agarath were polar opposites on this subject, true, but they both held strong fighters and I knew that this situation could get serious if somebot didn't stop it. So, who better to stop it than myself? So, I stoop up and pushed in my chair.

"Pandimala, what are you doing?" Chaom asked, forgetting his arguing and reaching out to me.

But, I didn't answer him and continued forward. "ENOUGH!" I screamed while marching down and separating Templar and Brigadier. "You all complain about the Iaconian council and yet you act just like them! You are hypocrites! Now, stand down and shut your vocalizers before you do something you will regret later!"

The only reason that they probably listened was because of the shock of someone yelling at them. The few representatives that I had met looked put in their place and made their way to sit back down. But, the ones that I hadn't met officially continued to stare at me in shock until Stormfire walked forward. For a seeker, he was pretty tall, and broad, and he stood a fourth of a meter shorter than myself. So, we were pretty close to the same height. Most seekers were smaller than me by a couple meters at least. "I don't remember you being a representative, femme, and I think you would be wise to keep your vocals shut."

I growled at him and kept up my glare at him before saying, "First of all, my name is Pandimala, former captain for the Iaconian army now a citizen of Dragonia. Second, I will keep my vocals quiet when you bots start to actually think about your actions. Now sit down before I make you."

Most of the other representatives who hadn't already sat down took their seats when I said that. Guess they now knew who I was. Even Stormfire took a couple of paces back away from me. But, Brigadier, instead, marched up to me while saying, "You have a lot of talk for a femme, but talk is cheap."

"And yet it seems that is all you do." I countered back, addressing all of the representatives. That retort caused Brigadier to stop in his tracks and he muttered while going back to his seat. "From what I have found out, today's call to the council makes it the eleventh time that the states of Dragonia have tried to get the council to help us. Yet, they do not do a thing. Are you going to just continue to be all talk, or are you going to put your credits where your talk is and actually do something? Obviously, the council does not care about us." Then, an idea started to come into my helm. And idea so radical that it would be something that had not been done.

Tana and Chaom then walked up to me and stood besides me as Plena Teo gave me a thoughtful look and asked, "From the sound of your statement, captain, you have thought about this before this meeting. So, what do you suggest we do?"

Turning so I looked at each representative, I cleared my vocals before saying, "You are correct in saying that I have thought about this. I care much for Dragonia and hate to see what the Iaconians are allowed to get away with each and ever solar cycle that I live. So, from my experience and in my opinion, there is only one thing that we can do to solve the problem with the Iaconians." I then focused my gaze on Plena Teo before saying, "We must cut all ties with Iacon and make ourselves independent of any council. We must not follow their example and have a government run by many bots of equal power. Having so many bots on an equal footing of power will allow for corruption to enter the system we set up easily. We must break away from everything that the council stands for."

Silence filled the room as my words echoed around. Of course, I was also going to assume the the representatives were contacting their general assemblies with the proposal and they were probably waiting for the vote to come in before they responded. That would be a good thing if it was happening. While this new form of government would have fewer bots in charge, the voices of the people would always need to be heard. It was one of the reasons that we were splitting from Iacon in the first place.

The first to answer was Chaom, who had returned to his seat by Gearstar. "The citizens of Coldice...agree with the plan to declare our independence." I smiled at him and nodded.

"Agarath is in accord with the declaration." Templar stated with a nod to me and a smile. After our initial meeting those stellar cycles ago, Templar and I had a mutual respect for each other...even with my being in the Iaconian army. He had thought that I was simply another pawn soldier who looked down on Dragonians and he had tried to teach me a lesson. What happened though was that we both ended up trapped in a cave after we fought a little and became friends once Templar realized that I was different.

Flareshock then stood up and said, "Tian is also in accords with the independence declaration."

"Pith also agrees." Smokestack stated as he stood up.

Alright, so four of the five states were in agreement. That just left,

"Traitors! All of you!" I sighed as Brigadier yelled that and stood back up. How many times did I have to show this mech that the Iaconians could not be reasoned with. "The Iaconians help protect us from our enemies and this femme is talking us all down the path to ruin."

Unfortunately, I had not realized that he was walking closer to me until I watched the mech pull out a sword and swing it at me. I quickly stepped back but let out a hiss as the blade made a small cut across my abdomen.

Growls arose from the others and I heard some start to rise but I held up a servo to stop them. Then, I slowly rose up and glared at Brigadier before saying slowly, pain in my voice. "Now, what would you have expected me to do if I was a part of the higher society of Iacon if you did that to me?"

Brigadier's optics widened, as did Stormfire's, and I knew that they were finally seeing what sort of beings the Iaconians truly were. Every bot in this room knew that, if they dared strike a higher member of Iaconian society like Brigadier had just done to me, they knew that they would be, at the least, put in the stockades for a good hundred stellar cycles and, at the most, be executed publicly.

The two representatives from Lectran glanced at each other once Brigadier returned to his seat before Brigadier turned to me and said, "I apologize for my outburst, it was uncalled for and shallow of me. Lectran now agrees with the declaration of Dragonian independence."

A cheer rang up in the air and I smiled as I slowly made my way back to my seat. While the cut from Brigadier's sword was not dangerously deep, it caused enough damage to slightly leak energon and for it to sting as I walked. While I knew I would have to get it patched up, I needed to see what was going to happen. So, I re-took my seat next to Chaom and Gearstar.

"Pandimala, you need to get that repaired." Chaom whispered to me.

Shaking my helm, I said, "I want to see how this plays out. Now that everyone has agreed to declare our independence, all we have left is to call the council and I am not missing that call."

Chaom looked worried but nodded before we turned our attention back to the room as Plena Teo, a smirk tugging at his lips and a hopeful look in his optics, sent out a call to the council yet again. I was quite curious about how quickly we would be connected to the council. They had just hung up on us and now we were calling them back. I did know one thing, however. I knew that they were not going to be very happy to be called back.

"What do you want?" Breakstreak demanded as the council reappeared. Most of the council looked quite upset with the 'inconvenience' of our calling again so soon. Alpha Trion and the femme, though, looked curious.

Plena Teo, still smirking, stepped forward and said, "We the citizens of Dragonia have come to a decision about your unwillingness to assist us."

Sentinel Prime stood and growled at that. "How dare you,"

"Please, I am not finished yet." Plena Teo interrupted the Prime. We were all tense now. Most would rather talk back to one of the council than even think about interrupting the Prime. Yet, Plena Teo seemed to have no problem in doing so. "We have come to a decision on this topic and we have called to inform you of this decision." He then paused before saying, "From this nano-click forward, the planet of Dragonia is a world free from any authority not its own and it shall, from this solar cycle hence, cut all ties with Iacon and its ways." He then cut the line and blocked the council from calling back.

Slowly standing, due to my side still being in pain, I slowly clapped for Plena Teo. Most would not have even half the courage that he just showed. Soon, the others in the room joined me in clapping and Plena Teo looked grateful.

"But, that leads us to another problem." Smoke Stack stated. "We must have a leader who can listen to all sides of Dragonia issues and a leader who has the ability to gain the respect of all the citizens of our planet."

The room grew quiet at that as we all started to think. There was no one that I could think of off the top of my helm but there had to be one out there. One bot that all of the states would follow behind to lead them in the inevitable fighting against the Iaconians. There were a few that might hold sway in a few of the states, but none would be able to bring the five states together in our one common fight.

When Stormfire and Brigadier of all bots burst out into laughter, we all turned to them with looks of confusion. They had just been idea of a revolution and now the found something funny? I was so confused. "What is so funny Stormfire?" Templar asked.

Brigadier was the one to answer us. "The answer has been laid before us and none of you have figured it out, especially the bot in question."

We all then watched as Brigadier stood and started to walk forward. I was tense because, the last time he had stood up, I ended up getting slashed across the abdomen...which reminded me that I had to get that looked at here soon.

When Brigadier stopped in front of our table, I glanced at Chaom and Gearstar, believing that Brigadier was going to say one of them. I hadn't really thought that they held that much sway in all five states. Maybe one or two but not,

"You Pandimala."

….Say what? "Me? I was only a captain in the Iaconian army. I have never had to order more than a small group of bots around at one time. Going from that to a planet...I'm not sure I,"

"Pandimala, you are the only one who holds sway with all five states, which you have just shown through convincing us to declare independence from the strongest city-state on Cybertron." Brigadier stated with a smile.

I wasn't sure what to think. It was only then that I realized that he was right. Out of all of the bots that I had interacted with in my time, only I myself had been able to interact with all five states in a peaceful way. While there might be more out there who could do the same thing, I only knew of me, as it seems, did they.

"I would be most humbled and honored to receive such a position," I started as I went to stand up. But, I hissed instead when a flare of pain came from the cut I had received earlier from Brigadier. A servo supporting my arm had me turning to Chaom and and idea suddenly came to me. I was known to Iacon and, if they knew I was in charge, they could use that to their advantage. "But, I must insist on us having a face-bot so the Iaconians will not know who our leader is."

The others in the room nodded in agreement before Plena Teo asked, "Who do you have in mind General Pandimala?"

Smiling at the new title, I said, "There is only one bot who I would trust so much as to relay my instructions fully and have the confidence to pull this off." I then turned to Chaom before saying, "Chaom, would you do me the honor of being the Dragonian figure-head Commander in Chief?"

My friend rose, a smile on his faceplate, before he nodded and said, "It would be my honor Pandimala."

I nodded and was about to turn to the others when the slash that I had received earlier sent me another bout of pain and I gasped before falling to my chair.

"Pandimala, we have to get you repaired, now." Gearstar stated as he came to stand next to me. He then turned to Brigadier and said, "Quickly, find us a medic. We are going to need our new commander in chief at full health if we are to fight a war with Iacon, which I fear is now upon us."

Vaguely, I heard Brigadier run out of the room, presumably to find a medic, and I tiredly glanced around to surprisingly see that I was surrounded by the others who were in the room. Guess I was going to have to be careful now that I was a leader of an entire planet. Just the thought of all of that responsibility made me feel weak. Thousands of Dragonians were going to be looking up to me to lead them against the Iaconian army and to make sure that we earned our independence.

When the medic arrived and he started to work, I realized that we were starting something that had never been done before. If...no...when we won, we will have started a chain event that would bring tyrannies like the Council down to their knees. The future looked brighter than it had in a while and I was so proud to be a part of it now. Every tomorrow had hope for a better future, and I would make sure that future became a very true reality.

Authoress: And yet another story to add to my collection.

Pandimala: You are insane.

Chaom: Please don't tell me you are just realizing this now.

Pandimala: Of course not. I am just restating the fact.

AN: I hope you all like this so far. This is going to be heavily based off of the show Libertry Kids. Also, this story is a pre-story to another one that I have planned. This is just going to give you some background on the new main character that I am going to be introducing. So, I really have nothing else to say. Drop a review in if you want. =D