The Hasbro Aligned Timeline
By H.R.C. Stanley
Based on Transformers: War for Cybertron, Fall of Cybertron, Prime, Rescue Bots, Robots in Disguise (2015), My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, G.I. Joe: Renegades, Kaijudo, and Blazing Team: Masters of Yo Kwon Do, owned and created by Hasbro Studios
The Great War
The war quickly spread beyond the High Council, and before long battle lines were drawn as various city-states declared their allegiances. Autobots and their allies controlled the most important locations on Cybertron, including Iacon and Kalis. Shortly after the declaration of war, the Allspark stopped producing new Cybertronians altogether; some interpret this as an act of divine rebellion. Undeterred, the Decepticons launched their first strike by seizing Fort Scyk. Ultra Magnus and his Council Guardians managed to hold the line long enough for the Autobots to send reinforcements. The Decepticons then attack and occupy the Hydrax Plateau. With this crucial region under Decepticon control, Megatron quickly took over the majority of Cybertron's eastern hemisphere, which remained in Decepticon hands for the majority of the war. The Decepticons then captured the Satellite Command Center at Polyhex. The battle of Crystal City saw the Constructicons, having been deployed and combined together into Devastator, against the Autobots, razing the city. Fortunately, any of its scientific treasures survived the destruction. Many dangerous weapons, such as Cosmic Rust and the Cybonic plague, were developed by the Decepticon Biological Warfare Program.
During the early years of this conflict however, Sentinel Prime was mysteriously assassinated by a group of bounty hunters known simply as the Dreads. This sudden demise eventually gave way and rise to the temporary successor, Zeta Prime
The Autobots won their first major victory at Kalis, where Optimus, Sideswipe, and Jazz toppled the Gestalt combiner, Bruticus, of the Combaticons. Kalis remained in Autobot hands and the Autobots began using long-range combat against the Decepticons. Shockwave's armies occupied the cities of Tarn and Vos. Shockwave manipulated the two cities and turned them against one another, destroying them both. The Decepticon campaign reached Praxus, where they encountered stiff Autobot resistance. The city-state was ultimately levelled by the fighting, and to this day the outcome was unclear. Prowl and Ironhide, citizens of Praxus, joined the Autobot cause and became part of Optimus Prime's inner circle of confidants.
Megatron, still stinging from the loss of Praxus, ordered the Combaticons to spearhead a massacre at Nova Cronum. In the meantime, Minicon saboteurs managed to steal and reverse-engineer Shockwave's secrets, and before long the Autobots create their own combiners, the Aerialbots, Protectobots and Technobots. Optimus Prime assigned Ultra Magnus to lead an unruly squadron known as the Wreckers in the hopes of instilling discipline into their ranks, and with the aid of the newly created Defensor, the team defends the Tagan Heights against the Stunticons, Combaticons and Constructicons, although the fighting between the Autobot comdiners (Superion, Defensor and Computron) and the Decepticon combiners (Menasor, Bruticus and Devastator) demolished the area.
At some point during the war, Optimus survived an assassination attempt by Skyquake at the Battle of Technahar.
After centuries of stasis, the AllSpark created a final generation of Transformers, most of whom sided with the Autobots. Among them was the Autobot Bumblebee, who distinguished himself on the battlefield and became one of Optimus Prime's closest compatriots. Other young Autobots included Prowl, Bluestreak and Smokescreen entered the boot camp of the Elite Guard with hopes of becoming a full-fledged soldier.
Several Autobot scouts and warriors were put into different groups: Bumblebee, along with Brawn, Cliffjumper, Gears, Huffer and Windcharger, were in Beta Team. Beachcomber, Cosmos, Powerglide, Seaspray and Warpath were established as Gamma Team. Hubcap, Outback, Pipes, Swerve and Wheelie formed Delta Team.
Arcee and her close friend and comrade Tailgate were recruited to and served in Delta Team for most of the war. After a raid on a Decepticon munitions depot, both of them were captured and interrogated by the Decepticon Airachnid. Although Arcee was rescued by Bumblebee and Cliffjumper, they were too late to save Tailgate. At least some battles took place off Cybertron with the Wreckers having an adventure on Sandokan.
As the war continued, the Autobots were gradually outnumbered and outgunned. Zeta and Optimus made the painful decision to eject the AllSpark from Cybertron, so that Megatron couldn't create more Transformers. In the ensuing battle, the Allspark was fired through a space bridge into deep space from Tyger Pax. The Autobots also decided to eject various data cylinders from Cybertron to prevent Decepticons from using the vital knowledge within. With the Allspark gone, the Decepticons began focus their attention on Iacon, one of the last regions still under Autobot control.
Ratchet and Cogwheel were captured and interrogated by the bounty hunter Lockdown for coordinates of the Allspark and the cylinders, which they refused. As a result, Lockdown executed Cogwheel before the traumatised Ratchet, but the medic was saved at the last minute by Optimus.
Seeking a new edge in the war, Megatron stormed Trypticon Station and wrested control of it from Starscream, empowering himself and other Decepticons with the Dark Energon stored there. As part of their next strike, the Decepticon-allied Seekers travelled deep underneath Cybertron in search of the long-abandoned Geosynchronous Energon Bridge beneath the ruins of Crystal City, which would allow the manufacture of new Dark Energon for the Decepticons' use.
Megatron led a group of Decepticons into Iacon, to find a means of travelling to the very core of Cybertron to spread the Dark Energon. Though Zeta Prime attemptted to stand in his way, he was soon defeated by the vengeful Decepticon leader himself, but unbeknownst to Megatron, Omega Supreme was reactivated due to these events, and declared intent on stopping the Decepticons for good. The Decepticon forces managed to cripple the Guardian's alternate mode, and Megatron and his troops soon defeated him on ground level. Because of this, the Decepticon leader managed to reach Cybertron's core and corrupt it with Dark Energon—a critical blow against the Autobots.
The Autobots, however, weren't yet defeated, and they mustered a counter-attack to rout the remaining Decepticons from Iacon. Zeta, having been imprisoned in Kaon, was able to send a transmission, and a small group of Autobots, led by Optimus, soon launched an incursion into the prison to recover him. However, the former Prime perished just as he had been rescued. The Autobots returned the body to Iacon before the High Council, and Optimus officially came to accept that his name as Prime and must take up his role as leader. From then on, he fully became known as Optimus Prime, the last of the Primes. Optimus's first task as a true Prime was to cleanse the infected core. Heading down through Cybertron's inner layers, Optimus found much of the planet was thoroughly infected by Dark Energon. The core, the spark of the life-giver itself, told Prime that Cybertron was so greatly corrupted that it would take millions of years of shutdown in order to undo the grievous damage done by Megatron's Dark Energon. Optimus was then given the Matrix of Leadership by the Core, a fragment of Prima's powerful sword that contained a portion of Cybertron's spark...
To be continued...