Chapter 1:
1;
16 years away from home will take a toll on anyone, Cybertronian or not, Prime or not. Optimus knew it well. He missed Cybertron every day.
He stood at the bridge of the Ark in the captain's seat, a seemingly endless vacuum of space just beyond him. In front of that vacuum however, was their destination. Earth. Their salvation. It was there that they were to land, to take refuge, regroup, and build up resources. Optimus had managed to lead the Autobots away from the Decepticons some time ago, and was nearly certain that they had bought enough time to gain an advantage over Megatron. They certainly needed it.
As much as Prime hated to admit it, even after so many years at war, he wasn't as strong or as smart as Megatron. He could come close, but his old brother was always one step ahead. At long last, perhaps that pattern would be broken.
"You're sure this is the one, Prime?" asked the white and black bot, sitting immediately to his left, his gaze also reaching down towards the organic world.
"Yes Prowl," Optimus responded, his focus still on the world below. The day would come when his lieutenant was able to understand the value in certain things. As smart as Prowl was (anyone could see that), he lacked the hope that Prime found ever so important in the spirit of an Autobot. He hoped that one day he could fix that.
"We've been through this Prowl," Jazz replied, sitting on Prime's immediate right, "we don't exactly have any better options right now. Earth sure as hell has enough energon to get us through for a while longer."
There was a mystery which Optimus was sure bore an answer worth about as much as anything else. Thousands of planets across the cosmos were rich with energon, enough to sustain a small party for months or even years, but this world went beyond that: outside of Cybertron itself, there didn't seem to be any other known worlds with this quantity of energon. The only reason that it hadn't been mined for those resources long ago was its distance from their homeworld, sitting hundreds of lightyears away. Without the exact coordinates and an active space bridge, it was next to impossible to find it. Fortune truly had shined upon the Autobots when they found Earth.
"Be that as it may," Prowl replied, his voice as icy and restrained as ever, "I'm not sure I'm overly thrilled to be hiding away while the Decepticons keep tearing through more worlds by the hour."
"We'll be back for those worlds, Prowl," Optimus said, only briefly glancing over to his third-in-command. "Ultra Magnus will keep the universe in check as well as he can for the time being. Right now the best that we can do is build ourselves back up. However this planet has what it has… it could be the key to ending this war forever."
Prowl grunted in response.
A few moments passed before Prime heard the words, "ETA forty-five minutes," spoken from Sideswipe, sitting directly in front of him, one of the Ark's two pilots, the other being Sideswipe's brother, the equally brash Sunstreaker.
Forty-five minutes. They were almost there.
2;
Just as Optimus Prime sat in the captain's seat of the Ark, Megatron sat in an almost identical seat aboard the Nemesis, perhaps the greatest warship ever created. All of that said, the ranks of the ship had greatly thinned in the last few years, and for a number of reasons. Of course there was Prime and his Autobots, but they were hardly the real issue: landing on Aquatron was mistake number one. Damn Sharkticons ravaged their scouting parties, and that was before they encountered the worm… that damned worm….
Toxic Rust had been problem number two. They had picked that up when Megatron had sent a few bots down to an asteroid to mine out some resources. He had no idea of course that they would come back with the most dangerous virus known to Cybertronian kind. The loss of a few of Soundwave's cassettes, or even a few of his lowlier soldiers were acceptable losses, but then there were bots like Dreadwind, or Blackwing, or Exhaust… they were greater losses.
All of that aside, he still had enough forces to tear the Ark out of orbit, and send it plummeting down to that puny dirtball. The Autobots had never truly lost them. The Decepticons were just biding their time, gathering info from their agent on the inside, and now it was time to finish them off once and for all.
Megatron turned his head to his right, only to find his first officer's chair vacant, grunted in disapproval, and then shifted his gaze over to his left instead, where he found his much more loyal third in command (of the ship anyway, otherwise he ranked as fourth in line to take leadership of the entirety of the Decepticons).
"Soundwave," Megatron commanded, "connect me with Starscream."
"As you command, Megatron," Soundwave hissed in response, ceasing to question his master in this instance anymore than he would in any other.
In but a moment, after the communications officer had stopped clicking his fingers away into the command board in front of him, a clear and transparent blue image appeared of Starscream in front of Megatron, projected from Megatron's own command board.
"How may I be of service, mighty Megatron?" Starscream asked, loyalty present in his voice if you were to ask 99 percent of those who heard it, but devious and plotting to the likes of Megatron and Soundwave, who had heard it thousands of times before.
"Return to the bridge immediately," Megatron said, his eyes seeming to pierce through Starscream's very being, even if it was only a hologram while Starscream truly stood on the other side of the ship. "We are boarding in five minutes."
Starscream's originally pleased and cocky face was cast away in favor of one annoyed and a bit angry. "Please master, allow me to lead this mission. As your second-in-command, certainly I am more fit than anyone to take control of the Autobots' ship, am I not?"
Any psychologist would have a field day with this one, Megatron thought, wondering whatever gain Starscream might get from making it aboard the Ark without sufficient backup from Megatron and Soundwave. It wasn't the first time that Starscream had suggested that the Seekers go alone, and it wouldn't be the first time that he was shot down.
"I shall be leading this mission myself, Starscream, and you know it," Megatron growled in response.
"But, my Lord-"
"But nothing!"
There was a moment's pause when Megatron thought that Starscream would continue to plead for his odd responsibility, but there was no argument. Instead, the hologram simply disappeared, leaving nothing in its wake.
3;
The entire ship seemed to be thrown over ten meters, shaking violently enough to nearly throw Optimus out of his chair.
"Wheeljack!" he called out in a commanding voice despite the shock that was pulsing through him. "Status report!"
Wheeljack, who actually had been thrown out of his chair, quickly got back up, and leaned forward over the set of keys in front of him, trying to check for breaches in the ship's hull.
"If by 'status report' you mean 'what the hell just hit us?' then I'm not entirely sure, Prime," he said, "but… dear Primus."
A blinking red light began going off on Wheeljack's command board, and in an instant, without his science officer even telling him, Optimus knew exactly what it meant.
"We're being hailed," Wheeljack said, slowly looking over his shoulder at Optimus.
"Put him through," Optimus almost whispered, every other Autobot in the room going dead silent. They all knew who it was.
A holographic image of Megatron appeared directly in front of Prime, on his own command board. The Decepticon leader's face was covered with a sense of malicious confidence, one that might have frightened the majority of Autobots on their best day, but of course, Optimus had seen it many times before.
"Hello, Megatron."
"Optimus," Megatron said, a strange satisfaction in his voice, "how good it is to see you again."
"Speak to me not as though I am your oldest friend. I don't have time for courteous beginnings like back in Iacon."
Optimus glanced over to see Prowl with his blaster in hand, as did Ironhide, although the latter's blaster was notably larger. Glancing over to the other direction, Optimus noted that the same couldn't be said for Jazz, but that it could for Hound, and his two pilots in front of him. Wheeljack was holding an absurdly large rifle that made the mad scientist seem tiny by comparison, and Ratchet, the final bot in the room, had already prepped medical supplies.
"I'm assuming that this transmission is being broadcast throughout the entirety of your ship-"
"It is."
"Very good," Megatron growled. "I've called to give you your final warning: in one minute, several dozen armed Decepticons will enter your ship, with orders to spare only those who've surrendered to me. Any Autobot unwilling to surrender will be terminated immediately."
"Slag licker!" Sideswipe called out from down below, cocking his proton rifle.
"Shut up, kid!" Ironhide called down at him while Optimus merely sent down a commanding and frustrated glance.
"Do you intend to comply, Optimus?" Megatron asked, seemingly ignoring any voice that wasn't Optimus's own.
"Wheeljack?" Optimus called down.
"Go ahead, Prime," Wheeljack said, an admittedly surprised tone in his voice.
"Cut transmission."
And with that, Megatron's forces began to speed through the transparent tunnel connecting the Nemesis with the Ark, and the Autobots rushed to meet them.