[[Story: The day Planet Quintessa died.]]
[Court chamber of the Empire's Capitol]
"Tell us the status of Cybertronian defense apparatus."
"Total shambles after the last great war. Three kids and a dog could take the planet."
"Four percent probability of truth. Defenses at optimum levels. Direct assault not viable."
"Are there any known weaknesses in your defense system?"
"Hey, you guys seem to know all the answers. Why ask me?"
Why ask him indeed?
The Autobot who went by the name of Kup was giving the judges a hard time giving the information they were after.
Unfortunately for Kup and his best efforts to be as unhelpful as possible, the court of Quintessa knew exactly what the current state of Cybertron was. They knew about its defenses, about its political atmosphere, about... well... they knew enough.
Enough to make this courtroom practice but a bureaucratic formality.
[Khalanxis Facility.]
"Attention, all units- attention, all units" the intercom speakers were blaring so loud that they were easily heard throughout the vast regions of the facility, "All Quintesson citizens are to execute command state Alpha-Zics-Triptich. Time unit: Immediate. Priority A. Repetition of message: All Quintesson citizens are to execute command state Alpha-Zics-Triptich. Time unit: Immediate. Priority A."
The broadcast in itself was repeated a number of times before the system switched around in favor of a similar but slightly different message; "Attention, all military units and guard personnel - Attention, all military units and guard personnel. Execute evacuation protocols in accordance with class and function. Repetition of message: Execute evacuation protocols in accordance with class and function. "
And it wasn't before long that the broadcast system switched out again with a third set of orders; "The following message applies to all selected prototype units, testing subjects and designated handlers. The next prototype units are ordered to proceed to docking bay Alpha and board the Rinxis-Amari immediately: Dacarath-775, Dacarath-776, Dacarath-000, Shalko-6, Rimure equipped with all Triccis sub-modules. Proceed immediately to Rinxis-Amari, docking bay Alpha. The next prototype units are ordered to proceed to docking bay Omega immediately and board the Talcath-Xilantha: Active D-Hex units, Prometh, Falxas, 66-093-Mirr, 66-094-Mirr, 66-095-Mirr, Firincat-Solstein. Proceed immediately to Talcath -Xilantha, docking bay Omega. The next prototype units are ord-"
The list went on and on, followed by an oddly out of place calmness of Quintessons dropping what they were doing and heading for the space station bays as directed. The inhabitants of Quintessa displayed a dazzling amount of peace and calmness considering that all around them there were Sharkticons and Allicons rushing about to ensure that evacuation protocols were met.
It was a strange orderly kind of chaos that exploded in the facility at the words ringing through broadcast speakers…
[End of Chapter 1.]
With the Quintesson Totalitarian Empire culture established well enough in the previous stories (keeping enough space for me to expand world-building efforts), I can finally let that rest for a bit and proceed with my schedule: anyone familiar with G1 knows what day this is.
If you're not familiar with G1 and do not know what day this is... well... just gotta read the next chapters to this, don't you?
*The first five sentences of this chapter (interrogation segment) are precise transcripts of the episode Five Faces of Darkness Pt. 2 from Transformers G1.