Space is a cold and empty place. That is what Swoop had been told, five and a half million years before. He had been told that the chances of discovering life away from Cybertron was minimal. That the chances of ever encountering another lifeform in the deep reaches of space were nonexistent. 4.3 million years of war had proved to him that no one knew what they were talking about.

As the ship exploded around him, he cast his gaze upon the green planet below, the void of space pulling the ship's atmosphere into the vast nothingness. It was organic, but it was habitable. It was their only chance of surviving, as long as the ship could hold together for a few more minutes. Swoop then turned his gaze upon the ship that had attacked them, the Decepticon ship that could hold no more than the Dynobots themselves yet had decimated them with only a few shots.

The ship fired once more, its blast ripping through the Dynoship's hull, before the ensuing explosion launched Swoop away from safety, and into the void. The Dynobot looked up in horror as he approached the enemy, before a hand clamped down onto his wrist. Swoop only glanced the form of his commander, Grimlock, before he was thrown backwards towards their own ship. As Swoop's feet connected with the floor and locked in place, he looked back to see Grimlock's fading form, illuminated by the planet's yellow sun and the flaming sword in his hand.

Grimlock had been slaughtering Decepticons since the war began. Before it, he had been killing fascists. Sentinel and Zeta Prime had both met their ends at his hands, though he had help back then. A simple ship would not be enough to kill him. As the ship's automated defenses activated, he raised his sword to deflect the turret blasts, growing closer and closer. Whoever his foe may be, from the Decepticon Justice Division to Megatron, they would soon be meeting their end.

Once the Dynoship's shields reactivated, Swoop turned to the door and hurriedly opened it. He ran for the bridge, hoping the rest of his crew was still alive. He found them all standing before him, with the exception of Snarl, whose left leg had been taken off by a blast.

Swoop was quick to tell them, "Grimlock's gone! I mean, he left! To fight them!"

"We have bigger problems," Slag growled as he faced the ship's communication monitor as it blinked orange at him.

"Press the button to turn it on, dim-spark," Sludge said as he pushed Slag out of the way and activated the monitor.

Of every foe they expected to see, they were met with the worst of the worst. Perhaps worse than even Megatron himself. A single yellow eye surrounded by darkness and enclosed in purple metal stared unblinking at them as it said from no mouth, "Greetings, Dynobots," with not even a trace of emotion in its voice.

"Shockwave," Snarled Snarl. "My old enemy."

"Snarl. Autobot," Shockwave replied. "In approximately 32.02 seconds, your ship will be pulled into the planet's atmosphere before it will burn up. There is a guaranteed rate of survival for all of you, though likely Snarl will be forced offline after suffering extensive injuries. You will crash in a desert of ice, thousands of miles away from civilization, or a means of repairing your ship. You will be stranded, for conceivably forever."

"Or?" Swoop asked with optimism, though he knew deals never worked out well with Decepticons.

"Or nothing," Shockwave told him. "I was simply informing you of your fate."

"Sir!" came another voice on the monitor.

"What is it?" Shockwave asked, turning to face the offscreen Decepticon.

"Their leader! He's on board!" the Decepticon cried, fear filling him.

Shockwave raised his left arm, a gun in place of a hand, before firing once. He then ordered, "Connect a fusion grenade to his spark. Prepare for combat."

"Guess your in the same boat as the rest of us," Sludge grinned.

"Oh, no," Shockwave said, and it felt to all of them that he was smiling. "Everything is going exactly as planned."

There came an explosion from offscreen, followed by screaming and laser fire. Shockwave simply raised his arm and fired, before lowering it and facing his own monitor once more. He suddenly turned with surprise, before Grimlock's flaming sword cut off his right arm, then stabbed him through the chest. Grimlock looked into the monitor, his resilient body covered in scorch marks and a single hole in his left side, but still standing triumphant.

"Don't worry," he said to his unit. "I've got thi," Grimlock's words were cut off as a blast of pink energy ripped through his head, before he fell to the ground.

Shockwave rose up over the Dynobot, then turned his attention to the others. He said simply, "Point seven seconds."

The transmission cut off just as the Dynoship was pulled down into the planet, before quickly catching fire. The Dynobots had little to do but brace themselves for the eventual impact that would tear apart their ship, and their bodies. They would emerge alone, in a horrifying world filled with organic monsters that lurked beneath the ocean, and no energon in sight. Reluctantly, they returned to their ship and activated a barely operational distress beacon, before going to sleep. They would awaken either when their allies came to save them, or their enemies came to kill them. Either way, they would be asleep for many years.

As Shockwave watched the Dynoship burn up in orbit, he turned his attention Grimlock and said, "You are most resilient. I imagine you are a point one percenter, as they are called?"

"Frag me," Grimlock growled, his head half blown off, as he groped towards Shockwave's feet.

"How very interesting," Shockwave admired. "Unfortunately for you, I have an abundance in the Decepticon army to choose from. Perhaps luckily for you, I still need you."

Shockwave then reached down and pulled his disembodied arm up with his elbow, before pressing it into place where it had been severed. Grimlock watched in horror as the melted metal began to fuse back with the severed limb, before Shockwave flexed his fingers. There was a delay, but it would have to do for the time being.

"What kind of glitch are you?" Grimlock asked in disgust.

"A scientist," Shockwave replied before grabbing hold of the back of Grimlock's neck and pulling him forward. The Decepticon brought the fallen Autobot to an air lock before tossing him inside like a bag of scrap metal, leaving him with one last cold statement. "I may have use for you, but it won't be for some time."

Grimlock let out a roar as Shockwave ejected him out into space, the void stealing his scream. The Dynobot would soon find himself meeting the same fate as his allies, but unlike them he was left to burn unprotected. Unlike them, he landed upon desert sand, with no shield to protect him. Grimlock gave one final reach upwards, to where the Decepticon ship had once been, then his eyes went black as his body fell into stasis lock.

History repeats itself ever so frequently. A lone Autobot ship held firm against the might of a Decepticon cruiser, a mad man commanding a group of far too loyal soldiers. The hero of Cybertron, Optimus Prime, barks orders as he sets a course for the planet, hoping to land safely before suffering any losses. Their ship was shot down just as the Dynoship was, crashing down onto the planet's surface. Unlike the Dynobots, they arrive only a few miles away from civilization, outside a rural town in Arizona.

As Optimus, Bumblebee, Jazz, Hot Rod, and Ratchet fell towards the planet, their attacker smiled to himself as he rubbed his claws together. Then he gave the order to follow, and confirm the deaths of their enemies, even if it meant wiping out the entire planet. His men chuckled at this thought. They didn't have a reason not to destroy the petty thing after all, there could always be Autobots hiding deep in its core.

With the absence of Optimus Prime, the two self-proclaimed most important Autobots would fight over the claim to lead. They were each the most law abiding, strict, and cunning Autobots the war had ever seen. One followed the law with such efficiency one could wonder if he had a spark, while the other was so cold that the law had proved a useful tool for him to twist. Their names were Ultra Magnus (Duly Appointed Enforcer of The Tyrest Accord, and Right Hand to Optimus Prime) and Prowl (Left Hand of Cybertron).

Across space, aboard the Decepticon ship The Nemesis, Megatron meets with his own right hand, Thunderwing. He asks the smiling Pretender, "Have you found the planet yet?"

"Oh great and noble Megatron," Thunderwing said as his smile grew across his haunting yellow face. "We have found the most perfect of planets. Not only does it contain the materials to create an abundance of Energon, its practically overflowing with alternative fuel."

"Good," Megatron said as he turned away. "Set a course for this planet. Earth, was it?"

"That's right," Thunderwing said as Megatron began to walk away. "There is just one small thing though, mighty Megatron."

"What is it?" Megatron growled, stopping in place.

"It's an organic planet," Thunderwing said as his smile turned to a grimace. "Filled to the brim with little squishy things. And plants. So many plants."

Megatron let out a sigh then asked, "Has infiltration begun?"

"It began forty years ago," Thunderwing gleefully informed.

As Thunderwing informed Megaton of Earth's usefulness, a lone human crept along the shadows of a large compound filled to the brim with enemy soldiers. The human dressed in black fatigues and a balaclava, while goggles covered his eyes. At his hip was a silenced pistol, while on his back he carried a sword. The human has been called many names, but the name he currently possesses is Snake Eyes.

A group of Cobra Vipers walked past the corner Snake Eyes hid behind, patrolling the grounds. He waited for them to move out of the way then ran forward, his footsteps silent. Snake Eyes then slid beneath a HISS tank, still invisible to the various soldiers and engineers. The ninja looked beyond the area he was in, to a closed off hanger that everyone seemed to be avoiding, though not widely enough for him to worry over a radiation leak. Whatever was in there, he needed to see it.

Snake Eyes crawled out from beneath the tank then rose to his feet before dashing forward, avoiding the line of sight of a passing Techno-Viper. He looked over the hanger, before settling on what he hoped to be an unlocked door, before sprinting to it. As one would expect, it was locked, but this wasn't much of a worry. Snake Eyes quickly drew his handgun and fired, shooting the lock off the door, before holstering the weapon. He then entered into darkness, shutting the door behind him.

As Snake Eyes moved forward, he could see the shapes of various vehicles in the hanger, mostly jets, as well as several tanks and surprisingly two vintage cars, one of which had a strange mounted gun. Snake Eyes looked over the vehicles before his attention was drawn to a massive form, something that Cobra must have spent billions of dollars on developing. Then red light washed over him as the machine opened its eyes, or more accurately, turned them on.

"Well, what have we here?" It snickered as it began to move forward, far too fast and fluid to be a simple robot. "You don't look like one of our humans."

Snake Eyes began to run away, firing over his shoulder, but his bullets simply bounced away harmlessly. Whatever this thing is, he had to report back to Hawk. Snake Eyes was surprised to see two more humanoid machines transform from the shapes of the cars, one having previously been a beat up blue pickup truck, and the other a green SUV. There was little time for Snake Eyes to escape now that these two new machines were attacking, so instead he did what he had been prepared to do since he was a child, albeit with far less honor. He simply clicked a button on his wrist and waited.

The blue robot dived at him, but instead of crushing Snake Eyes, it held him safely as it transformed back into its truck form, allowing him to fall onto the passenger's leather seat. The green robot then jumped in front of them and used its own body as a shield as the red eyed robot fired a purple blast at them, which would have killed Snake Eyes were it not for the intervention of these other two machines. That would have been a mercy.

The blast was powerful enough to rip through the green robots chest and out its back, before washing over the truck. Even though the first robot had taken most of the damage, the leftover was still enough to shatter the glass and burn away Snake Eye's clothing, frying his skin. Had it been any other human, they would have blacked out from the pain, but Snake Eyes was never going to give in during the heat of battle.

The truck spun around without any interference from the ground as steam rose from its scorched metal, while its mounted gun began to fire upon the hanger doors, its ammunition hot and acidic enough to melt through the steel like it was nothing. Snake Eyes looked over his shoulder as the truck began to drive forward, far faster than any normal truck, while the robot first attempted to crawl through the small hole, before ripping open the doors. The robot then transformed into a red, white, and black jet which began to fly after them before crashing into a catwalk, taking several engineers with it as it fell to the ground below.

"Ha, wouldja look at that!" an almost Scottish voice filled Snake Eyes' ears. "Name's Kup. That little fella back there is Recoil. The psychopath that killed Hoist is one mean sun of a gun called Starscream. What's your name?"

"…" said Snake Eyes.

"Right. Well, you don't seem like one of those snake guys back there," Kup said. "You also seem hurt bad. You got a place I can drop you off?"

Snake Eyes thought for a second before he began to tap on the dash, hoping the transformer knew what Morse code is, as well as coordinates.

"I got ya, kid," Kup said as he ran over a squad of Vipers. "It's gonna be a bumpy ride."

Snake Eyes took one last look over his shoulder, to see a squad of Vipers chasing them while HISS yanks began to grow close. Then he closed his eyes, and accepted sleep's cool embrace. Kup would deliver him from the Cobra compound safely, and out onto the desert sands before continuing forward. Kup was a bot of his word and would make sure Snake Eyes got back to his friends in one piece. Well, alive anyway. He was fairly confident that the skin the human lost counted as separate pieces. The base would be bombed minutes later, most of its inhabitants dying in the blast. Most.

Verity Carlo walked down a sand covered street in Amarillo, Texas, kicking someone's discarded soda can. As she drew close to the trailer park she called home, she decided for the sixty-eighth time in a row to extend her walk by another few minutes. Maybe an hour or two. So, she kept walking forward, until she arrived at the edge of town, with nothing more than empty desert waiting for him. Then, she decided to keep walking, at least for a little while.

Verity's greasy black hair fell over her shoulders, having lost most of the curls it usually had. Her eyes were a deep brown, and were shaded by a red baseball cap. Her skin was light brown and mostly covered despite the intense heat, though as night fell it was replaced by a deep cold. She dressed in a red tank top over a black long sleeve shirt and red basketball shorts over dark jeans, along with a pair of cheap sneakers that were falling apart. She was only fifteen years old yet held the cold gaze of someone who had grown numb to the cruel world around them.

It would be an entire hour before Verity came to a stop, far out into the desert, with only the occasional bird for company. She found herself a large rock to sit on, before laying back to look up at the full moon overhead. Then Verity began to cry, as she had done many nights before, looking up at the same moon from other parts of the desert. This time however, she wasn't alone.

The ground began to shake beneath Verity, causing her to stop crying as she panicked at the thought of an earthquake, before realizing she didn't have to worry about anything falling on her. Then the rock she was sitting on was pushed away, nearly knocking her off, as something impossible rose from beneath the sand. A hulking metal frame rose up until it towered over her, then leaned down to look at her with its glowing red eyes.

Verity stared back, finding herself saying, "Well. I'm about to be killed by a giant robot dinosaur. I hate my stupid life."

"Killed?" the dinosaur asked in surprise, and what almost seemed fear to Verity.

"Are you…?" she began to ask, before realizing she didn't even know what to ask it. She decided on, "What the hell are you?"

"Me… Grimlock," the behemoth said after a moment, having found difficulty in recalling its own name.

"Riiiight," Verity said as she rose to her feet. "You're not going to eat me, are you?"

"Eat me?" Grimlock asked as he cocked his head.

"Guess not," she said with a small laugh. "Well. I found a giant talking robot. That's also a dinosaur. God, what the hell just happened?" she asked herself, as Grimlock looked around the desert with the curiosity of a small child. "So uh… do you have any friends or anything?" she asked, still not entirely sure what was happening.

"Friends…" Grimlock sadly whispered, before sitting down. "Grimlock… lost friends…"

"Oh, I'm sorry, buddy," Verity said as she carefully extended her hand before touching it to Grimlock's snout.

"Friend?" he asked as he leaned into her touch."

"Sure thing, Grim," she said with another small laugh. "Name's Verity."

"Verity…" he said in thought, though nothing came of it.

"Listen, buddy, I need to be getting home," she mournfully told him. "Will you be alright out here, all alone?"

"Alone?" Grimlock asked with what sounded like fright before he looked around at the foreign landscape.

"Shit, okay," Verity muttered as she thought to herself. "Alright, I have a plan. How good are you at hiding?"

"Good," Grimlock purred, cocking his head at her.

"Good. Good. I think we can make this work…" she said as she thought of how she would explain the Dinobot to anyone who saw him. "I'll just say you're a… school project or something. As long as they don't see you moving around or anything. That should be fine. This plan is going to fail."

"Fail?" he asked, cocking his head in the opposite direction.

"I don't suppose there's anyway you can make yourself smaller?" she asked him, hoping he could fit under a tarp. Without replying Grimlock began to transform, reverting to his standard form, which was several feet smaller in both height and width. "Well," Verity said in surprise. "This raises even more questions, honestly. Alright big guy, let's go," she said as she turned and began to walk away.

Grimlock followed in silence, occasionally twitching as sand rubbed against his brain module. Despite his large size, Verity had to hand it to him. The transformer was surprisingly good at moving silently, even in his current state. By the time they reached Amarillo, there was no one left on the streets, and most houses had turned out their lights. Verity took opportunity of this and hurriedly moved Grimlock past various homes, hoping no one would look out their window.

She eventually managed to get Grimlock behind her trailer before throwing the largest rain tarp she could find over him, which still didn't entirely cover him. Verity let out a sigh and said, "Just don't move until I get you, okay?"

Grimlock said nothing but instead a voice called out, "Is that you, Verity?"

"Yes mami," Verity called back as she turned around.

"What are you doing out so late!?" her mother demanded, poking her head out one of the trailer's windows.

"Nothing, I was just," Verity began before being cut off.

"I don't even care! Get your ass in here and go to bed!" her mother ordered. "And consider yourself grounded, too!"

"Yes ma'am," Verity sighed before she looked over her shoulder and said, "Good night, Grim."

Still, he said nothing.

"It's a good thing we got these alt modes before coming," Jazz said as he drove across the desert road. "Man, if I still had those old wheels…"

"We would have made do," Optimus sternly said. "Ratchet, are we being followed?"

"Nothing on the radar," Ratchet replied. "Chances are they'll be looking for bodies though."

"Then we keep moving," Optimus said.

"Where are we even going?" Bumblebee asked, holding back to match Optimus' speed.

"First we need to make contact with the reconnaissance team, and find out what they know," Optimus explained. "Then we formulate a plan."

"Sounds good, boss," Bumblebee chimed before driving forward.

Jazz then asked, "How bad do you think it is, Prime?"

"The planet's still here," Optimus sighed. "They can't be too far along, considering its not on fire, or made of metal."

"Any idea where the others are then?" Jazz asked, not expecting a real answer.

"There's an Autobot signal coming from a couple hundred miles ahead," Ratchet said. "I'm guessing that's our men."

"Yeah," Jazz chuckled. "Not like anyone else would be here, I guess."