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Transformers: Transwarp
Prologue
On the planet Cybertron the civil-war between the Autobots and the Decepticons, the two robotic races native on the planet, had raged for over nine million years.
In the Earth year 2005 this conflict had temporally been overshadowed by a threat from the outside. Many Autobots, one of them their leader Optimus Prime, died in the battle for Autobot City.
Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons, was badly wounded in a duel with Prime during the same conflict and how so often before betrayed by his second in command Starscream who abandoned him damaged in space to die.
A short time later Unicron appeared, a monstrous being with unknown heritage and hostile intentions. Unicron rebuilt Megatron and his troops, who were abandoned along with him and gave them new lives. They became Galvatron, the "new" Decepticon leader, his second in command Cyclonus and Scourge and the Sweeps. But he also enslaved them and used them to his own agenda.
Unicrons final attack nearly caused the destruction of Cybertron and shattered the Decepticons on the Planet.
The Autobot Hotrod was able to use the mysterious Matrix of leadership to destroy Unicron. As a result of the battle the Decepticons lost Cybertron and the Autobots used the Chance to take over the planet. Galvatron was missing in space again. Both sides of the war were decimated but the Autobots used their chance to rebuild. For the Decepticons the loss of Cybertron caused a chain reaction that made them temporally loose the entire war. Their best troops were scattered in space after the hasty retreat. Without their leader and Cybertron as center, the remaining strongholds were disorganized and could easily be conquered by the Autobots.
But one year later a alien race named the Quintessons provided the Decepticons with new energon and allied themselves with them for a attack on Cybertron. Even earlier Galvatron´s new Second in Command Cyclonus had organized an rescue mission and found the Decepticon leader. But Galvatron was driven insane through Unicron´s manipulations and through his fall into a sea of molten plasma after the last battle.
Despite that the Decepticons and their allies were able to destroy the defense-system of the Autobots on Cybertron and the ark, one of their main bases on earth. But the Quintessons betrayed the Decepticons and tried to destroy all Transformers.
The war was continuing for another year, now with two fronts.
Galvatron´s insanity decreased over time, but was still there and posed a potential thread for everyone. In another attempt the Quintessons were rebuilding Optimus Prime, originally as a mindless zombie, to let the Autobots into a trap. But his personality re-emerged and he and Rodimus were able to save their troops from destruction.
A short time later a terrible plaque appeared that drove it´s victims insane and spread over the entire galaxy. To stop this threat the Quintessons were forced to restore Optimus Prime completely. He was able to wipe out the so called "Hate Plaque", by opening the Matrix a second time. It´s knowledge and power however was seemingly lost in the process.
As a side effect, the Matrix also cured Galvatron´s insert insanity and returned him completely to the being he was in the beginning of his existence.
Given the damage given to both sides by the hate plaque and the fact that they had worked together to save the galaxy, Galvatron called out a truce between the Autobots and the Decepticons. It gave all a short period of peace and security and to rebuild, but it gave the Decepticons also time to plan and prepare.
Finally that truce came to an end.
xxxxxxx
The year 2012, planet Cybertron, under Autobot control
Ultra Magnus and Hotrod were standing in the middle of Cybertron´s main defense center. Both were high ranked Autobots and were here to discuss the subject of the latest Decepticon activities with the security officer.
Ultra Magnus was the official second in command of the army. Hotrod had led the Autobots for two years as Rodimus Prime, for two years despite being very young for the position and it was known that since his return from the dead Optimus Prime was building him up to be his permanent successor.
Around them several Autobots were constantly watching the space around Cybertron for signs of enemy activities. That would mean either the Decepticons or Quintessons. This had even been the case during the time of the truce.
Of course that turned out to be a somehow mute task in the afterwards. No attack happened during that time and the Bots stationed here were only getting bored.
But the time of the truce was over now. A few months ago the war had started again. So far it had only been a number of smaller attacks from the Decepticons.
The Autobots Goldbug, Chase and Freeway were currently working on the monitors. Kup, the security officer of the planet was standing behind them and oversaw their work.
"Don´t you think you are a little over-doing it Kup?" Ultra Magnus asked the security chief who had just looked over the shoulder of an Autobot who was checking the sensor data of his console.
"No, Magnus, I think not. We have slacked down here and you know that as good as me."
While he was by far not as paranoid as his predecessor Red Alert, Kup was someone who took his duty seriously and he had to admit in the long time without a real attack the security had been slowing down. And he was the one going to do something about it.
"I know Kup. You had been right, our security was lacking a few months ago, but we have already brought it back to top standard and beyond it", Ultra Magnus explained to him. "I have personally approved every single improvement you have suggested in the last months. Our defense-system is as good as it is technically possible and you know that as good as me. All that you can reach with your constantly close-watching everybody is making everybody nervous and then they will make mistakes."
Kup this discussion already a few times the last months, with him, Hotrod and even Optimus Prime. By now, Cybertron was surrounded by a dozen defense satellites, highly sensitive sensors were scanning the entire area of space for threats, shuttles were scouting the sector of space were Cybertron was currently located. Every Decepticon or Quintesson ship would be detected in the moment it entered cybertronian space and would be under attack in a matter of seconds.
The only problem was the security chief was still not satisfied. He was since the war had restarted always holding a close eye on everybody involved and regularly coming up with new suggestions what could be changed.
And that made the security as a whole less effective as it could have been.
"I guess you are right", Kup admitted. "I have personally build up our entire defense-system. Even I have not really a idea what we could make better.
They would need to teleport their entire army directly behind our defenses to even come close to the planet."
"Maybe, but that is still no reason to feel save", Hotrod reminded him. "In one point you are right. Sooner or later they will attack, but that is no reason to drive everybody insane before it even happens." He grinned at Kup.
In that moment the alarms are going on.
"What is going on?" Goldbug asked.
Chase stared motionless at the monitor for a few seconds, before he finally answered.
"A ship has suddenly appeared in close orbit, by the readings it is a Decepticon model."
xxx
A few miles over Cybertron a small Decepticon ship had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. The air-locks opened and over a dozen robots streamed out and opened fire.
Behind them a blue energy sphere appeared and out came a second ship of the same type. Like before, Decepticons emerged and began to attack.
Ten of the robots separated from the rest. It were the two sub-groups named the Combaticons and the Terrorcons. The two team leaders gave the order,
"merge" and they transformed and combined into the two combiner robots Bruticus and Abominus.
The other Decepticons transformed into jets and started to shoot downwards at the surface of the planet.
xxx
"And now a second ship has appeared, a third", Chase called out. "They are behind our defense lines. I can´t target them."
"Our satellite weapons are directed at the space, we can not turn them around fast enough", Goldbug exclaimed.
"How in the world could that happened?" Kup yelled.
"You know Kup, my guess is that they had somehow teleported an entire army directly behind our defenses", Hotrod said sarcastically.
"Oh yes? I wouldn´t have thought", the old veteran replied.
"The Decepticons are attacking targets on the surface, the ships are shooting our satellites down, our defenses are breaching", Goldbug told them.
"Good, all of you, charge your weapons and get out", Ultra Magnus ordered. "We are under attack."
xxxxxxx
On the command bridge of the Decepticon flagship "Revenge"
Galvatron and Cyclonus were watching the tactical situation on the display.
"Our troops had jumped directly behind the defense systems", Cyclonus announced. "The position of our assault ships differ only 0,2 percent from where we predicted."
Galvatron, sitting in his command chair, smiled.
"Very good Cyclonus. Our new transwarp engine seems to work as well as we have concluded."
"Yes Galvatron our attack goes completely according to plan", the second in command remarked.
"Good, give me a connection to Skorponok", Galvatron ordered.
The face of lord Zarak. A human like alien and ally of the Decepticons appeared on a monitor before them. Zarak had once been a dictator from the planet Nebulus, before he had been exiled. He and his soldiers had connected themselves to a group of Decepticons led by Skorponok that had landed on their planet years ago, through a process named binary bonding. This connects a organic being, in the most cases a nebulon, physically and mentally to a Transformer. With the help of a transformable exo-suit and mechanical implants in the body, the organic literally takes the place of a body part of the Transformer.
The new, bonded Transformer had far greater reflexes like before, was faster, could concentrate at two things at once and had in the most cases a better energy efficiency. In short words it was a very great improvement.
Zarak and his followers were headmasters, the most common form of binary bondings. The nebulon takes the place of the head of the robot.
"Galvatron", Zarak greeted him, "as I see is everything going as planned, good. My troops are ready to attack. In case you need us." He smiled.
"Ah Zarak", Galvatron answered him, "as we had discussed, it would be better for your troops to hold back right now. The Autobots don´t know about our alliance yet, so it would be good to have your headmasters in reserve. You will be our ace should something unforeseen happens."
"Oh, of course Galvatron. It would be a honor for me to save you in case your plan goes wrong", the small alien said mockingly. The challenge was easily to hear out under his words.
"Thank you Zarak or should I call you Skorponok", Galvatron said smiling, "but I think we won´t need you when we conquer Cybertron."
Zarak had not been happy that his personal warriors would not been part of the actual battle. He of course realized the wisdom of letting the troops that the enemy didn´t knew about yet out of sight. But he still didn´t like the fact that he would only sit around while Galvatron was fighting. So he constantly reminded him about the great potential of his troops and himself. For now this had to do.
From the beginning, Galvatron disliked the idea of bonding organic beings to the Decepticons, especially mentally. But he couldn´t deny their uses, so he went along with it, at least for not. The most wary was he of Skorponok, the leader of the headmasters.
Zarak and Skorponok had their completely own ambitions. He was a very ambitious nebulon and a very ambitious Decepticon, combined. For his aims he needed to win the respect of the Decepticons. Secretly he had even thought once or twice about taking leadership for himself. Maybe, he wasn´t sure by now if supreme leadership was the right course of action for him. He would have to wait and see the situation.
Zarak shut the monitor off.
"Cyclonus, activate the engines", Galvatron ordered. "We will fly right into the heart of the Autobot sectors."
"Yes Galvatron."
xxx
On the surface of Cybertron several groups of Autobots and Decepticons were already fighting each other while the ships were wiping out the rests of the defense system.
The Decepticon gestalts Predaking and Abominus were fighting Computron and Superion, the combined forms of the Techno- and Aerialbots.
Devastator and Bruticus were teaming up against Omega Supreme and bringing the giant Autobot easily in the defensive.
Until the Dinobots arrived and backed him up. They transformed into their dinosaur modes and began a combined attack on Bruticus with brute force. The gestalt was holding himself against them, but was not longer able to help his partner against Omega.
Many Autobots had assembled in small groups and were trying to fight the attackers off.
One of the Decepticon jets transformed into a very large, silver and green robot. He was Sixshot, a six changer, an experimental Transformer with six different transformation modes and one of the most dangerous warriors the Decepticons had. In the moment he landed, he killed one of the defending Autobots with a shot through the head. He was constantly transforming and changing his form and so confused his opponents. For his enemies, he was literally not to touch.
The Autobot shuttle Skylinx was together with Cosmos and Skyfire involved in a fight with the Decepticon jets.
On the ground, a large number of Autobots were trying to defend Autobot headquarters. Optimus Prime was leading a group consisting of Getaway, Slapdash and Joyride.
Ultra Magnus fired one of the missiles that were mounted on his shoulders and killed a Decepticon jet in mid-flight.
In the Sky over them the Decepticon flagship appeared right over the cybertronian sector of Iacon, the capital of the Autobots. Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge exited, followed by dozens of Decepticon warriors.
xxxxxxx
Autobot city Earth
Jazz was currently in control of the Autobot forces on Earth.
Together with Warpath, Beachcomber and Perceptor, he was standing before a monitor and watching the latest Decepticon "activities" on the planet.
In other words, they were seeing the Stunticons driving and rampaging through the city of San Diego California.
"What by the Matrix are they thinking?" Perceptor asked.
"That are the Stunticons", Tracks replied, "I would be surprised if they had been thinking at all."
xxx
The five Decepticons were racing through the town and creating a chaos on the streets where ever they went. Wildrider and Breakdown rammed several vehicles, Dead End was overrunning traffic signs and Motormaster forced another truck off the road. The police was not able to stop them. As they tried, the robots simply transformed, demolished the cars and scared the cops away. They had so far managed to derail the traffic of the half city.
This continued until the Protectobots appeared. They came in, driving in their vehicle forms.
"Finally they are here", Dead End announced.
"Yes, the fun is over", Wildrider remarked.
"Okay, Stunticons merge", Motormaster ordered.
They transformed into their combined form as Menasor. As answer the Protectobots merged themselves into Defensor. The two gestalt stood in opposite of each other in the middle of the town.
Above them, on top of one of the larger buildings, stood a group of five Sweeps. The Decepticons, all identical clones of Scourge, were waiting and watching what happened.
"Do you think they will be fighting?" One of them asked.
"That doesn´t matter. All we have to do is keep the Autobots on Earth distracted", another one answered. This particular Sweep had taken for himself the name Skyhound and was part of a sort of unofficial elite under the Sweeps. The most most skilled and most experienced clones.
Below them, four other Autobots in sports car form came in. They recognized them as Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Mirage and Tracks. The four Autobots transformed and draw their weapons.
"Good, remember we are only here to keep them busy", Skyhound told his fellow Sweeps."
xxxxxxx
Cybertron
Cyclonus was leading a squad of three other Decepticon jets. He, his partner Scourge, Slugslinger, Triggerhappy and Misfire. This five were not alone, every of them had a nebulon sitting in his cockpit.
They were a new form of binary bonded Transformers called Targetmasters. The idea for them came from Cyclonus himself. Their nebulon partners transformed into their guns. That gave them a far greater reaction speed and was typical for every form of binary bonding, greater firepower and the nebulon had far lesser influence on the mind of the Transformer he was bounded to. The last part was a very good thing in the opinion of the Decepticon leadership.
Cyclonus fired a salve of his missiles that hit the Autobot Cosmos in his space ship form. The unfortunate Bot completely exploded into shrapnel.
Cyclonus, Scourge and the others transformed and attacked the Autobots on the ground. They easily outmatched their enemies in speed and reflexes.
Scourge shot a one of them in the shoulder before he even had a chance to react. Slugslinger and Triggerhappy were forcing the Defenders backwards with ease.
Cyclonus was confronted by his rival Ultra Magnus.
"That is far enough Cyclonus. I am here to stop you."
"Ultra Magnus, it seems we fight again. You will be a good test for my new abilities."
They were normally evenly matched. The two warriors had already several fight with each other, never with a real winner. This time however it was different. Cyclonus reacted simply faster than Ultra Magnus, who couldn´t hold up. He landed blow after blow while Magnus was only defending. Suddenly Cyclonus blaster transformed into a small "robot" and shot him in the side. At the same time, Cyclonus attacked from the front and punched the Autobot down. Then his nebulon partner Nightstick transformed back into a gun and flew in his hands.
"Very good Cyclonus. Your idea with the Targetmasters seems to really work out", Galvatron commended him, looking at the carnage around them.
It was good to feel the rage of a battle again after this five years.
The two Decepticon jets Darkwing and Dreadwind were in a fire fight with Getaway and Joyride.
"Galvatron", someone called out. He saw that it was Optimus Prime.
The Autobot leader was standing in front of a small group who was trying to defend their headquarters.
"Optimus Prime", the Decepticon leader greeted him, "how interesting to fight you again or should I say the first time. After all I had not been Galvatron back then."
"If I remember right, Megatron had to be carried from the battlefield and only managed to "kill" me trough a cheap trick."
"A trick that you all too easily fell for. Don´t blame me for your stupidity. You won against Megatron once and that only by a small margin and with luck. I am Galvatron, what can you hope to do against me?" He didn´t wait for an answer.
The Decepticon leader charged forward and punched Optimus in the gut, who staggered backwards a few steps but caught himself.
"We will stop you Galvatron."
"Don´t delude yourself Prime, this battle was over before it even started."
xxx
Hotrod and Kup were fighting back on back against several Decepticons.
"Like in old times what Kup?" Hotrod commented.
"You say it lad."
xxx
Galvatron fired his weapon at Optimus, who managed to dodge the shot.
"It is time to stop playing around", the Decepticon leader exclaimed.
"Optimus", Ultra Magnus informed him, "we are detecting another object coming in, a very large one."
"What is it?" Optimus asked.
"Trypticon", Magnus answered.
"The greatest weakness of your army", Galvatron informed him casually. "Your city Transformer is easily stronger then mine, but Metroplex can not fly and is bound to earth while Trypticon can attack where ever I want and you have nothing left to hold against him."
Optimus realized that Galvatron was right.
The large dinosaur form of the Decepticon city robot appeared at the sky. Trypticon activated his mouth cannons and leveled several buildings on the ground with a few shots.
The Autobots watched horrified what happened. Galvatron used the chance that the Autobots were distracted. He transformed into his artillery gun mode and took aim at Omega Supreme, who was fighting close to them.
A shot with Galvatron´s full fire power threw even the super robot down.
"Optimus", Ultra Magnus shouted, "we are being overwhelmed. Our defense system is destroyed, we had no time to organize any resistance and now with Trypticon on top of it..." He let the words hanging in the air.
He knew that Ultra Magnus was right. Somehow the Decepticons had found a way to bring their troops directly behind their planetary defenses. They had been caught completely by surprise. The Decepticon assault came so suddenly that many Autobots didn´t even had time to fight back. This battle had been hopeless from the beginning. If they tried to stay they would only needlessly waste the life's of their troops. Even he had to see that. So he gave the order.
"Autobots retreat", he said. "Give up the planet."
As much as he hated to admit it, they had lost Cybertron. They had lost it again.
xxxxxxx
All over the planet, Autobots were fleeing. A planet wide chaos had broken out long before Optimus gave the order to evacuate. In first line the civilians under the Autobots were leaving Cybertron in masses. Everybody could see what was happening. Somehow the Decepticons had appeared right over the planet and were overrunning their forces. Any attempt to fight back was hopeless.
Optimus order had only been the last straw. Shuttles and space ships were leaving the planet, others fled over the dozens of space bridges everywhere on the planet.
The attempted coordinated retreat soon turned into a chaotic mass flight.
Some Autobot troops were still fighting, but only to cover the retreat of their comrades. A few fleeing Autobots were gunned down under the fire of Decepticon forces, others left the planet completely unnoticed by their enemies.
Some Autobots went into the underground of the planet and built up small resistance groups, like the last time the planet was under Decepticon control.
xxx
Under the refugees were also the robots from the former Autobot colony Paradron, who had settled on Cybertron and members of several alien races, who had currently been on the planet for various reasons.
Spike Witwicky, the ambassador of earth and his family were standing on board of one of the fleeing ships. They watched back at the battle behind them.
"Spike?" His wife Carly asked.
"I thought Cybertron was safe, I though after years without a serious attack, I could let you stay there for some time without danger. Yes, a nice thought", he said sarcastically.
"This is not your fault. Nobody could have known this."
"Really?" He asked cryptic. "Did we really think it was simply over?"
xxx
Behind them the Decepticon war-ships and a large number of seekers were flying over the planet. Every real resistance of the Autobots was now broken. What was left were only a few fleeing reminders.
"We have a target lock on them Cyclonus. Should we shot them down?" Slugslinger asked his commander, who was flying next to him, referring to the retreating ships.
The Targetmaster group was now back in jet form, taking the last enemies out.
Cyclonus looked at the ships, he scanned them. A few military ships, but mostly unarmed shuttles, civilian cruisers, transport ships, tankers, diplomatic vessels.
"No, let them go", he ordered.
xxxxxxx
On the surface of Cybertron
Decepticon patrols were everywhere, scouting the entire area. He had to be careful.
The small Autobot was used to such things. A great part of his life had he spend in similar situations. As he had crash landed on the planet Quintessa, years ago, his life consisted of running and hiding.
Wheely was good at it. While a loud mouth in public and very careless when he had back up to help, he know when a situation was hopeless and when it was better to keep quite.
This was such a situation. By what he had seen the Decepticons had attacked in great force and invaded the planet.
Like so many others he had fled in a panic as he had seen just how outmatched they were.
The most Autobots were gone now.
He had been fleeing through long abandoned buildings in the outer sectors and were even running to the sewers to escape them.
And it had worked. He hadn´t seen a Decepticon for over two breem.
Wheelie had not survived for years under the Sharkticons for nothing.
To get him, they would have to be better, he thought.
Then suddenly, without warning, something appeared before him. It looked like a large, blue glowing sphere of energy that was coming out of thin air.
For a moment, he was too surprised and confused to move.
For a split second he was curious about the strange object. Then he remembered something in the back of his mind.
He had seen it on the monitors in the city. Exactly such energy spheres had also appeared in space, right before the Decepticon ships somehow jumped into their system. Some Autobots speculated that it where some kind of transwarp bubbles, part of a new teleportation system.
But it was too late too move.
In the next moment, the sphere disappeared and instead, three Decepticons were standing before him, three he had never seen before.
The one in the middle was large, very large, like Ultra Magnus. His entire armor was colored in a camouflaged green. His alt-mode was obviously a earth stile tank, the tracks were visible on his legs and several parts of his body resembled parts of a tank vehicle. His helmet, in opposite to the rest of his body, was completely white. On his shoulder was something mounted what looked like a large fusion gun.
His two companions were seekers, both of the same design as Starscream, the former air commander, before Cyclonus and Galvatron. One of them was mostly black, with some purple parts, the other was in a deep blue.
"I thought this area should be free of Autobots Skywarp?" The one in the middle, obviously the leader asked.
"It should be Megatron, but obviously we jumped at the time of a major battle. There are Autobots and Decepticons fighting all over the planet."
"Now good", the one called "Megatron" said. Without another word and before Wheelie had a chance to react, he aimed his fusion gun at the small Autobot and blew him apart.
"One good thing Megatron. According to the readings, we have actually arrived in the world we had attempted too. That the planet would be under attack, is something we couldn´t have known."
"Good, It may even be better this way, so we can enter this world unnoticed", he said. "Skywarp, Thundercracker, Ravage." With his words a small cassette glided out of a hidden component in his body and transformed into a metallic panther.
"We have arrived at our destination."
The introduction for this story is to a great part identical with the one for time circle. Both stories go with a very similar background, so I have reused some of the material.
The story is thought as a sequel to the 1986 movie and the g1 cartoon series. Like my other stories, it ignores rebirth and follows the last events in "return of Optimus Prime".
A breem is a cybertronian time unit from the marvel comics, about 8,3 minutes long.
cxx
Yes, this story is, at least partly a "Megatron returns" fic, but in opposite to other stories of this category, Megatron will not suddenly succeed in things he couldn´t even do in the first place.
He won´t outmaneuver the Autobots in every thing he does, he won´t retake Cybertron in a hand-strike and bring the Autobots at the brink of defeat.
(A sane Galvatron had already done that here, but he needed years of planning and preparation and new technologies. Not like "Megatron resurrected" in fanfics, who usually does that in the matter of two weeks.)
And he won´t kill Unicron with a single shot or do other ridiculous things.
Why? Because he couldn´t do it either when he was alive the first time around.