Back on Cybertron, Megatron's reign had been thoroughly cemented, and any resistance cells that sprang up were very quickly decimated, either by the Decepticon Leader himself, or by one of his many loyal enforcers. He sat upon his throne in the former Citadel of the Primes, smiling contentedly as he watched an Omega Sentinel raze an entire city-state that had served as a resistance base. Still, a bit of anxiety surfaced. As far as he knew, the Heart of Cybertron was still lost to him, but not to the Autobots. Even more worrying to the Decepticon leader was the prospect of Starscream gaining possession of the Heart for himself and re-establishing his position as Leader of the Decepticons and dethroning him as the ruler of Cybertron.
Suddenly, the feed of the Omega Sentinels' assault on the rebel hideout was interrupted by an incoming transmission from Shockwave.
"Lord Megatron," the Chief Scientific Officer began, "the probes have located the Heart of Cybertron. It is on an organic planet in the Sol System. I have programmed the coordinates into a next-generation Omega Sentinel that will serve as both your warship and your bodyguard."
"At long last, I will be able to claim my destiny and finally rid the universe of the last of the Primes," the tyrant said out loud.
"Yes...indeed...Nemesis will arrive in Iacon within the mega-cycle."
"Excellent. As soon as I've departed, activate Megaplex."
"Understood," Shockwave replied before closing the comm channel. Megatron leaned back, clasping his hands together in anticipation. "It won't be long now," he said to himself. "It will be a great relief to stain the soils of an alien world with the Energon of the Prime."
"Master Megatron, what are our instructions?" asked Ransack, who stood dutifully at his commander's left side.
"You and Soundblaster will accompany me aboard Nemesis. I want to see the looks on the faces of those whom your past selves considered friends."
Neither drone responded, having no apparent memory of his past life. They simply waited patiently for the Nemesis to land in front of the Citadel.
Before the mega-cycle ended, the Nemesis arrived, just as Shockwave promised. The ship was a good deal larger than the previous Sentinels in their alternate modes. It was painted in an intimidating black and charcoal color scheme with purple highlights. "Nemesis online," announced the booming voice of the ship's AI before deploying a boarding ramp for its would-be passengers. Megatron grinned as he rose from his throne, exited the Citadel, and climbed the ramp with Soundblaster and Ransack following behind. As soon as all three Decepticons had boarded, Nemesis withdrew the boarding ramp and sealed its hatches while its small crew made its way to the bridge.
"Now, Nemesis...Let us pay a little visit to the mudball where the Heart of Cybertron rests. I trust that you have the coordinates, along with sufficient Energon for a Transwarp jump."
"Affirmative," the ship replied. "Launch sequence initiated. Transwarp Drive will engage once Cybertron gravity field has been cleared."
On Earth, Ratchet worked through the night, finishing up the repairs on his fellow Autobots while the five humans, with the blessing of the owner, slept on the cafe's couches. As soon as his work was done, the medic breathed a sigh of relief before speaking. "I did the best I could do."
Springer dusted himself off as he stood up, regarding Ratchet with a smile. "Hey, it's not like I could expect high-quality care on some uncharted alien world," he snarked. "Still, it's good to know I can fly again."
"The question still remains whether or not we'll be able to refuel ourselves here...and whether or not we can do the same for Perceptor," commented Prime.
"I'm still thinkin' about that, Prime. I'd need a sample of Earth fuel to really get anywhere though."
By the time the Autobots were all patched up, their human friends had also awakened and come out to meet them. "So...you guys can't run on normal gas, huh?" asked Stan.
"Not unless I can figure out how to convert this 'gas' into Energon. For that, I'd need a sample," Wheeljack explained.
"I'm sure I could set you up with some. Nobody would think anything of a few cars at a gas station appearing to fuel up. By the way, I'm Stan Wittleman. I'm a friend of your leader. What's your name?"
"I'm Wheeljack, chief engineer," the white, red, and green bot replied.
Jazz knelt down to make eye contact with Spike, having been drawn to the logo on his t-shirt. "So...you're the dominant species of this planet huh?"
Spike nodded before noticing the warrior's fascination with his shirt. "You must wanna know what the symbol on my shirt means. It's Masta Renegade's logo."
"I think I saw the same marking on the vehicle I scanned. There were some pretty sweet sound patterns comin' from its speakers."
"Sounds like the car you scanned was his. Seems like you've got some great taste, uhh..."
"Name's Jazz. What's yours?"
"Spike Wittleman. Nice to meet you."
"These are our allies among the natives of this planet," Prime began. "They have already proven themselves invaluable to our cause."
"How in the Allspark is that?" asked an incredulous Ratchet.
"For starters, they know more about this planet than we do. It would be wise to heed whatever advice they may give."
"Yeah, their tech's a bit backwards, but they still seem cool to me, Doc-bot."
"I wouldn't expect a bunch of shape-shifting alien robots to be too impressed by human technology," Commander Scott stated plainly. "These guys seem hardly act like robots, and they seem a lot smarter than my phone's virtual assistant."
"That's because they're basically living technology," explained Andrea. "They're millions of years old, while modern humans have only existed for about ten thousand of our years."
Suddenly, Stan's attention was diverted to the sound of a notification on his smartphone, which he pulled out of his pocket to check. "Hmm...Massive UFO sighted in Siberia," he read out loud before tapping on the headline to pull up the whole article, which he carefully read to himself.
"UFO? Siberia?" asked Prime with a quizzical head tilt.
"Yeah. Unidentified flying object, Prime. Witnesses say it was at least the size of the Kremlin, and it appeared suddenly in a flash of light. I'm wondering if it's Cybertronian."
"If it's a ship, it must be equipped with a built-in Transwarp Drive, which would allow it to create a self-contained Space Bridge on the fly. I designed the prototype before all the chaos on our home planet started. I never got a chance to field-test it though. Only bots besides me who would know how to build one are Perceptor...and Scooter..." Wheeljack hung his head at the thought of the young hacker. He had long ago come to the conclusion that Scooter had been captured, and likely killed, by Shockwave.
"This Scooter...Did something bad happen to him?" asked Andrea, having sensed the engineer's growing sadness.
"He managed to infiltrate a Decepticon lab back on Cybertron and foul up their prototype ultimate weapon, the Omega Sentinel. His handiwork caused the Sentinel to turn on the 'Cons, but he was found out...and he never came back."
"He wouldn't have willingly given the Decepticons top-secret tech specs, would he, Wheeljack?" the human techie inquired further.
"He wouldn't have needed to," Wheeljack replied. "Shockwave, the 'Cons' chief scientist, would've found some twisted way of extracting the information from his processor. I doubt it would've been a pleasant experience."
Over in Siberia, the Nemesis landed just 15 miles away from the Turgenova Research Center, where Russia's top scientists were studying a strange green crystal that had recently been unearthed while drilling for oil. The head scientist, Linka Medvedev, was quietly typing up a report detailing what she and her team had discovered thus far about the crystal. So absorbed was she in her work that she didn't pay much attention to the panicked reports from the lab's security staff about the UFO or the menacing gray robotic creature that emerged from it. She figured the intruder was just another wolf or polar bear until the imposing gray robot blasted his way into her lab. Linka's face turned white as a sheet when she turned to face the fearsome intruder, who effortlessly smashed through the glass case protecting the green crystal before grabbing the specimen with a mix of satisfaction and confusion written on his face. His expression soon turned to disgust when he caught sight of the frightened scientist. "Vermin," he growled before charging up his Fusion Cannon. Linka shrieked before running for the door as fast as her legs could carry her, only to find herself staring down the barrel of the robot's powerful weapon once again as she swiped her key-card to open it. Before she could leave, though, the robot fired, melting the vaulted door down and reducing Linka to a pile of black ash.
After having done away with the unfortunate human, the fearsome robot, Megatron, turned his attention back to the green crystal he clutched in his hand. "It appears that the Heart of Cybertron was...fragmented upon entering this planet's atmosphere," he observed verbally. "This is only a fraction of the raw might of Primus. Still, it will suit my needs for the time being," he chuckled as he inserted the crystal into his chest, laughing as he felt its power begin to surge through his circuitry. "Yes, Primus...Give me your power!" he shouted as he fired at Dr. Medvedev's equipment, causing a massive explosion that reduced the entire compound to rubble. "Yes," he gloated as he waded through the remains of what was once Russia's top scientific research facility, "The Era of the Primes will end very soon."