Forge of War
Prelude: The Squadron Descends
by Tremor3258
Lines of asterisks donate scene changes. Other Author's Notes as events warrant.
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The year 2000 was truly a landmark for people on Earth. Finally, Optimus Prime relented and started transferring portions of Autobot technology to the new Earth Defense Command, in order to drive the Decepticons from the planet. As if that wasn't powerful enough, the Autobots were constructing a powerful planetary defense system and energy collection site. For four million years, the Transformers had lacked the resources to put their continuing technological development to use. Earth, however, provided many opportunities.
Autobot City would allow the Autobots to focus their attention on their homeworld, as the energy it provided would reforge the scavenging Autobot terrorist cells back into an army, after millions of years of being forced to lurk in the dead planet's shadows. And more importantly to the humans, the Decepticons on Earth would be effectively locked down, as Autobot City's heavy x-ray cannons would be sufficient to blow any transport ship attempting to get anywhere close to Earth long before it could hit atmosphere, while Metroplex, the sentient portion of the city, a true Transformer, and armed with firepower of such magnitude to make Megatron weep bitter tears of envy, capable of swatting down any Decepticon that dared have line-of-sight with it.
However, even the most optimistic of engineering Autobots, a fairly pragmatic breed, claimed that it would be at least three years before the city's defenses would be sufficiently developed to risk construction of the great collection arrays that would eventually be used to fuel the Transformers home planet, after the Autobots repaid the planet for material and land costs for Autobot City. (Since one really couldn't stop giant fighting robots from parking where they wanted, the UN had decided the best they could hope for was compensation, which Optimus Prime naturally provided).
Ultra Magnus cursed silently as he read through the apologetic message from Earth on a small data chip. Optimus had sent troops several months ago on a mysterious mission, and some of them had gotten separated and stayed with the Autobot's small band for several local days. Even his closest friend knew little about the mission, save that a trip to the core had been part of it. Magnus was not one for mysticism, but had hoped that Optimus, besides visiting the mighty supercomputer Vector Sigma, had perhaps found the old power core for the planet. Dumping energon into that, rather than feeding the subsystems, would be much more effective. However, Optimus had came and left with barely a word, and in a lifetime of disappointments, even that had hurt. "The words aren't going to change," he noted to himself, "I just wish that telling them this wouldn't make facing Shockwave seem easy."
Magnus stood up, and headed out of the alcove. He was a huge Transformer, several meters taller than even Optimus, and tended to attract attention when he didn't especially want it. Still, it would be a dishonor to those under his command to try and hide this information even for a moment. "Everyone, please listen!"
Magnus had once been in charge of the great city of Iacon's defenses, but Iacon's Golden Spires had long since fallen, and Magnus would trade that entire battalion for the small group under his command. Hot Rod and Springer were back from their patrol and playing cards in the corner, while Chromedome was involved in an animated discussion with Kup over how much high-quality energon had declined in the last few million years.
Off in the corner, talking amongst themselves, were the Technobots. Optimus, possibly because of his relationship with Alpha Trion, had managed to activate Vector Sigma to create a new gestalt team. They had suddenly appeared over Cybertron half a vorn ago, a gesture from Optimus that he was still aware of the fight back home. However, for now, they were newcomers in a group whose faces had not changed but to lessen for a near-eternity. And then Megatron had sent up the Combaticons to even the odds for Shockwave, and so the stalemate continued.
"I decoded the message from Optimus," Magnus said loudly. People who had only been paying polite attention now looked at Magnus's broad frame with full attention. "It will be three more years before energon shipments can begin in earnest. And until they do, Optimus's troops are too scattered to destroy the Decepticons."
Springer coughed slightly, and said under his breath, "That sounds familiar." The older Autobots nodded in agreement.
"Maybe, but the situation is quite different on Earth. There are billions of humans," Scattershot, leader of the Technobots said with his arms folded. Several people smirked, but Scattershot's voice cut across it relentlessly, "I know they look insignificant, but they've tipped the battle to our side several times. And they're quite dangerous in large numbers."
Kup agreed, "I've run into some pretty touch organic life forms in my time. Why, I remember, I think it was on Detorlous III, we were doing a recon mission for Cybertronians who had lost contact back when the Second War broke out."
"*Second* Cybertronian War?" Lightspeed, the Technobot archivist said incredulously, "How old are you?" Though at this point few were alive who remembered the origins of the conflict, Cybertron's last eight million years had been under the Third Cybertronian War. The archives barely extended to the second, and the legends barely extended back to the first.
"Old enough to know when to be quiet, lad," Kup merely said, a bit irritated about having one of his beloved stories interrupted. And being able to see Springer and Hot Rod give enthusiastic thumb-ups to the Technobots didn't help his mood either.
"Easy there, you two," Magnus said, smirking slightly at the expression on Kup's face. "Regardless, we'll just have to make do on the shipments that the colonies and Optimus sends for the time being."
Springer noted, "If anything, the shipments should come faster then. Sky-Lynx always moves faster when we look more grateful to see him. He has to spend less time reminding us how grateful we are." Even the Technobots nodded at that. Though they were young, Sky-Lynx had made certain that every member of the resistance cells knew of his deeds.
"Yeah, but it's not enough to get ahead," Hot Rod said glumly, "Megatron may not approve, but Shockwave's got his own batch of colonies through local space." Everyone nodded. Wheeljack had proven on Earth that the nearly forgotten methods of creating Transformers were indeed correct. Several Transformers working together could mimic Vector Sigma's functions and create new AI. The Dinobots had their problems (being expected to be fully capable personalities, like from Vector Sigma, being the worst, making the Autobots anticipate them to be fully capable from the outset, rather than requiring some learning time), but the path had been blazed.
Over the next few years, energon from Earth was carefully hoarded, and when there was sufficient amounts, Autobots were awakened from the long stasis that many had lain in over the last few million years. Given some energon, a quick update, and a blessing, the Autobots were sent out into the new galaxy Cybertron was located in. Local space was mainly uninhabited, besides Earth, and there were plenty of planets where the Autobots could settle, though it would be millenia before the technological ecosystem was sufficiently established to make it feel like home.
And there were even new Autobots being created. Though the Keys were considered totally lost, several Sparks mingling together could produce a new Spark, source of the AI that lay at every Transformers' heart. True, the new intelligences needed training to bring them up to normal Transformer standard, but that was a few years out of millions, so it wasn't that big a deal normally. Except on Cybertron, where the situation was so precariously balanced that the loss of one Cybertronian, of either faction, to baby-sitting could utterly win the war for one side or another in the time period where they were gone. One less Autobot to train another, or two or three, meant that much less gathering energon, with more mouths to feed. One less Decepticon meant that an Autobot, the more technically oriented faction, could possibly break into one of the few active data portals and seize control of Cybertron's computers.
But finally, new troops were starting to come about. While new Transformers were starting to come on-line, the outposts had barely become self-sufficient colonies, and it would be awhile before they could start a true flow of energon to their home world. Shockwave, now with additional resources, had done the same, though he had to do it on a small scale, and could not try and have the Decepticons simply shove the Autobots out of the way. If Megatron knew that Shockwave was diverting troops from achieving victory now to make an eventual victory easier, he would be furious, and, so logically enough, Shockwave didn't tell him.
"Agreed," Magnus said, "But for once we've got the edge on them somewhere, even if it's a small one." Magnus thought a moment, "We're going to have to send a runner up to near Shockwave's citadel. Elita's troops are reported to be in that area, and Cybertron's awake enough now, that Shockwave has to know we got a message. We may be able to put something together."
"Do you want us to get an analysis of the situation?" Scattershot asked with barely restrained eagerness.
Magnus held up his hands to placate the eager Technobot. "Not right now. Our energon supplies aren't as comfortable as I like, and Shockwave's got his remotes scattered further afield. Unless anyone's found a handy cave lately, forming Computron would mean a battle, and we need to avoid as many fights as possible right now."
Magnus held Scattershot's eye until he nodded reluctantly. Computron had his uses, as the gestalt had been designed to analyze its components very carefully before making actions, and the rigid, logical, and perfect decisions created were very good for predicting Shockwave's actions. Unfortunately, Computron couldn't act until such a decision was made, and Magnus had been flabbergasted to see the Cybertron-based Autobot's new ultimate warrior's performance in its first battle. The mighty Autobot simply stood stock still in the middle of a battle field despite heavy artillery pounding on his armor, face furrowed in thought.
However, when the battered combiner had snapped out of it, a single shot with his pellet rifle had detonated a recently activated ancient power conduit. The conduit was near overload already due to its long disuse, and the acid within the pellet had caused the conduit to explode. The Decepticons, standing by the conduit, had been forced into a temporary retreat long enough for the Autobots to pilfer the much needed supplies that had been the battle's objective, and despite the damage done to the Technobots, the Autobots had come out far ahead. While amusing in retrospect, Magnus had promised himself to start looking gift horse's in the mouth if they were from Optimus. Optimus had left back when the Autobots could still engage the Decepticons directly, and the war on Earth prevented him from returning to Cybertron long enough to become acquainted with the current state of Cybertronian warfare.
Magnus glanced around at his troops and gauged their reactions for a moment, before speaking again, "All right, that isn't just for the Technobots. Shockwave will have his optic peeled for trouble for at least the next few kilocycles, and much as I wouldn't mind relieving old One-eye of a few patrols, we're on our backup list for secure bases right now as it is and closer to the Core levels than is safe.. Besides, we just got finished moving in here."
The various Autobots nodded in agreement, but Springer noted, "Well, as long as we're up chatting with the femmes, I don't suppose we couldn't trade some house hunting advice?"
Kup shook his head, "Springer my boy," he said sadly, "We're talking about a bunch of bots so loaded with stealth systems that they can sit safely right under Shockwave's, er, face-plate. Now, if we happened to still be near Varicrax 7, there were some alloys there that did a great job of scattering sensors...."
"And you were the only survivor, right," Hot Rod interrupted, mimicking Kup's tones. As the ancient Autobot spluttered, Hot Rod turned to the massive blue Autobot still holding the data pad and said seriously, "Magnus, Springer and I picked up some weird echos on our patrol, in that sector that got torn up about half a vorn back. It could be a set of old caves."
"Or we could have gotten a radar echo from the Great Gash," Springer said, "Our maps do stop three levels above here." The Great Gash was a huge opening in the side of Cybertron' southern hemisphere, through which one could see the planet's original rocky surface. It probably originated in the First Cybertronian War, as even Kup could not recall a time without the Gash.
"True," Ultra Magnus noted, before transforming into his repair trailer mode. Missiles and guns were bolted to the frame, but the huge trailer's interior was taken up by an assemblage of equipment that could stabilize even the most critically wounded Autobot for transport to repairs. "I'm going to go see it for myself," Magnus decided.
Magnus pointed to groups as he gave orders, "Technobots, you're with me. Kup, you're in charge until I get back. Transform and roll out, Autobots!" Ultra Magnus commanded, hovering out into Cybertron's warrens. The Technobots folded into their vehicular modes and roared out after their commander into the darkness. At the time, it was yet another gesture by the Autobots to ward off extinction.
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Shockwave, Guardian of Cybertron, second in command of the Decepticon Empire, and quite possibly the single most powerful Decepticon, worked on, despite the late hour at this altitude. Normally he'd have turned in earlier to a recharge cycle to ensure proper functioning, but a sudden inspiration had occurred, and he wanted to advance a theory as much as he could while the details were still fresh in his mind.
Long ago, Shockwave had created the mathematical theory behind the space bridge, a near-miraculous invention that allowed instantaneous transportation of goods between two space bridge transponders. Shockwave spent a great deal of time refining the space bridge, as the larger an aperture that was possible in a shorter time meant the more energon that could be transferred through to Cybertron.
However, another theory he was working on, a mixture of space bridge technology and the older teleportation technology, would allow one to open a space bridge between two points without requiring transponders on either end, allowing one to traverse from one end of the space-time continuum easily. Megatron had been enthused with the plan, allowing Shockwave to transfer a great deal of resources to the project. It was still only a theory at this stage, but the resources gave Shockwave a cover for launching his colonies. Megatron could have Earth, but Shockwave would have space.
As if summoned by this train of thought, a bank of panels corresponding to Cybertron's early-warning sensors went off, indicating something entering the planet's local area of space. Shockwave would have grinned, if his face allowed it. There had been a seventy-eight percent probability that the recent message indicated that Optimus would try a combined strike. Fortunately, Shockwave's estimates gave an ninety-three percent chance that Optimus would over-estimate the level of synchronization the forces were capable of.
Optimus could not transfer too many of his forces without risking an attack on his humans, and Shockwave predicted that the tower's primary defenses would be enough to hold off a strike force, with his assistance, as long as the Autobots received no ground support for almost twenty breems. With Shockwave's sentinels keeping the Autobots pinned down, there was a forty-seven percent chance that Shockwave could completely destroy the Autobot strike force.
Shockwave examined the readouts, and then came as close to panicking as Shockwave ever had. Coming out of FTL were almost two hundred ships, far more than ships than the Autobots even had crew to man them. Energy sensors indicated that dozens of weapons were coming on-line, a bit too early to Shockwave's estimation, but at least that allowed him to confirm them as hostile.
Because he was Shockwave, he had a plan, and began to bark commands immediately. "All sentinels, report to Decepticon headquarters at once! Decepticons, report to secondary control stations and prepare to receive secure files. Computer, begin launch of orbital mines!"
Shockwave could feel the vibration as mass drivers around the tower began to launch explosives into orbit, and radar indicated dozens of signatures as robots flew to their destinations. The sentinels were non-sentient, but quite heavily armed and armored, and along with the mines, gave a ninety-seven percent chance of distracting enemy attacks long enough to allow Shockwave to conduct a proper investigation. Admittedly, the analysis was still preliminary, and Shockwave wished that the enough raw materials had come from Earth to begin work on the defense installations for Cybertron's moons. Time bought was time to find and exploit weaknesses, but if it was to be a slugging match... Shockwave flew over to another control panel and activated it.
"Shockwave to Earth, this is Shockwave calling Commander Megatron. We are under attack by an unknown force, I repeat, this is Shockwave..." Shockwave's plea was delivered faster than light, and though it only had a few measly light years to pass through, Shockwave doubted he would get a response before that Armada arrived. Setting communications to loop his message, Shockwave activated the short-range equipment, keeping the visual off.
"This is Commander Shockwave of the Decepticon forces of Cybertron. Who dares approach this world uninvited?" Shockwave put as much scowl as he could into it. Though he did not hold with it, a certain amount of bravado increased the chances of slowing the approaching force.
To his surprise, an the communication panel indicated a response almost immediately. Shockwave had given it a high probability that the force would spend at least a breem in analysis of his opening words. This was grim, as the ships out there evidently knew much about Cybertron already, or simply didn't care. Either was disenheartening. Shockwave waited an amount of time that was his best estimate to cause delay without causing impatience, and then opened a two-way channel.
Shockwave studied the image before him, and was quite intrigued. It was evidently a mechanoid, judging by the slight metallic sheen, but one sculpted to resemble some sort of figure that was probably mythological. An organic humanoid's skeletal face, locked in a permanent grin peered out from under a helmet, consisting of sloped overlapping pieces of armor. Now Shockwave was bothered. Obviously they knew much about Cybertron, but why choose such a pitiful organic form if one was trying to intimidate?
"I am Bludgeon, commander of this portion of the Freedom Armada," stated the hellish figure from some hidden vocal chip, that quickly studied the Decepticon, and then nodded, apparently satisfied. "Excellent, I thought the Decepticons would still be in control. I would hate to think the efforts expended to follow your trans-warp trail were in vain," he stated, before leaning forward, face filling the viewscreen. Shockwave merely blinked his single optic bank at Bludgeon, if that was who he truly was. Shockwave was content to continue to allow the 'mech to speak as long as possible, as his sensors continued to gather data and forces moved to position.
"You cowardly excuses for hardware thought you could hide it, didn't you?" he suddenly hissed. Shockwave started to state a query, but he was cut off. "I didn't come here for your pathetic excuses, pile of scrap. The rumors we picked up were true, that the Homeworld was reduced to a pile of cold slag by your mismanagement." Bludgeon leaned back slightly, "But do not fear, you will be in capable hands, soon enough." Bludgeon slumped backwards, revealing for a moment a command center with many Transformers and the communication blinked off.
Shockwave had already been working, but now he was able to concentrate in earnest. Sensors had refined the data somewhat, indicating that the data had come from the probably flagship, a battleship that probably out massed the Ark by almost four times. Sensors also indicated another fifty ships approximately Nemesis attack cruiser sized, and seventy light destroyers. Assorted smaller shuttles and fighters interweaved through the fleet. Under Shockwave's experienced hand, the sensors were far more effective, and weapons and defense data from the approaching fleet was relayed throughout Cybertron. Despite the urgent necessity of the work, as in all probability Headquarters would be bombarded sometime in the next kilocycle, Shockwave's mind kept coming back into loops to analyze one near-impossibility. Bludgeon had a Decepticon sigil on his chest, but Shockwave had seen no evidence of an alternate mode, and all Decepticons were Transformers. What sort of creatures was he about to fight?
End Prelude.
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Author's notes: Hmm, avoided a few of the Transformers cliches in here. 'Robots in Disguise' was not uttered by anyone. Oh, obviously this is more or less the Generation 1 cartoon universe, post season 1 and 2, though I'm not sure everything will get back on track before the movie. Oh, just for reference, I'm using the Dreamwave comic's gestalt size (which is about 12x normal), because it's really impressive looking. Besides good eye candy, no one can argue that one super-robot is not more powerful than five normal ones.