(England, the Dark Ages)
Across the surrounding land, the sounds of battle could be heard. What was once a vast, green grass field, was now covered in scorch earth, broken wagons, scattered weapons, flames and smoke, and countless corpses. Hundreds of men were still clashing upon this burnt and blood-soaked battlefield. One side were the brave knights of England, led by their courageous and noble King Arthur of Camelot in defense of their homeland. The other side were the Saxons, warriors from across the sea, coming to plunder these lands, something that Arthur and his knights would not allow. And it was clear, as flaming boulders and arrows flew in the air, metal and wood clashing with one another, that the knights were being pushed back.
From a top of a mountain that overlooked the battlefield, several men, garbed in silver armor and riding on white horses watched the battle. In the center was King Arthur himself, his legendary sword Excalibur strapped to his waist. The knights with him were the twelve Knights of the Round Table, the finest warriors of England and Arthur's most trusted comrades. All of them had grim looks.
"Where is that bloody wizard?" A knight on Arthur's left asked. Anger and grief could be heard in his voice.
"He will be here, Lancelot. Have faith." Arthur said. He watched as his countrymen were fighting and dying across the battlefield. "I know it, Merlin will not let us down."
"My King" A dark-skinned Knight said. "I would lay down my life for you. But this 'wizard' Merlin, is a farce, an imposter. He will not come, let alone give us aid!"
"Tristan is right, Arthur!" A brown-haired knight yelled. "Merlin is nothing more than a drunkard! And the Saxons outnumber us ten to one. We must retreat and fight another day."
"No!" Arthur shouted, startling his knights and making the horses neigh a little. Dismounting his horse, the king of England pulled out Excalibur and drove it into the ground. "Without sacrifice, there can be no victory. How can we call ourselves knights if we run away, while the enemy does as he pleases with our people? Merlin will be here, or I will face the enemy alone if I have too!"
At that moment, something odd happened. The armor and weapons of Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table began to glow, shimmering brightly then ever. Before they could even ponder this, a great roar caught their attention, as well as the other combatants across the battlefield. This roar was not of a man, nor a horse, or any other creature that Arthur had seen before. This one was full of power. A shadow soon engulfed Arthur and when the King looked up, he was shocked at what he saw.
Flying over him and his knights was a large, three-headed dragon. Its body was entirely grey and metallic, and its huge wings released powerful gusts every time they moved. All three of the dragon's heads unleashed powerful torrent of flames, consuming the Saxons. Its talons tore through the earth, its tail swatted enemies and catapults aside, and its mighty wings sent more Saxons flying. And yet, the dragon did not strike the Englishmen. At that moment, Arthur realized what was happening.
"Merlin has given us aid!" Arthur shouted as he got onto his horse. Raising his sword, Arthur cried, "Onward! For Camelot!"
"For Camelot!" His knights shouted as they charged towards the battle.
With the aid of the dragon, the knights of Camelot cut down the Saxons. What was more, every time someone tried to harm Arthur or the Round Table Knights, the weapons would merely bounce off their armor. Also, Arthur's Excalibur would cut through any defenses, whether it be shields or armor. Above, the mighty dragon continued slaughtering dozens of Saxons at a time. In a short matter of time, the Saxon army had been slaughtered, the survivors fleeing in fear.
Sometime after the battle, Merlin came trotting through the battlefield, riding on his horse towards Arthur. In his hand was an intricate and beautifully crafted staff.
"My king." The wizard said to Arthur, who was back on his horse.
"Merlin" Arthur replied, a tired but happy smile on his face. "On behalf of Camelot and all of England, I thank you. You've saved us and our people. We owe you a great debt."
The bearded wizard shook his head. "It is not I you should be indebted too, but to them." Merlin said as he pointed his staff.
The direction he pointed towards was where the three-headed dragon stood. Before Arthur and the knights' very eyes, the dragon's form began to shift. In a few seconds, where was once large mighty dragon, were now twelve giant metal warriors, each one wielding weapons. The towering titans resembled like knights.
Merlin smirked as he looked at the gob smacked expression of Arthur and his men. "These are my dear friends, the Knights of Iacon." Merlin introduced.
Arthur regained his bearings, and looked at the wizard. "They are not from this world, are they?"
"No, no they are not." Merlin replied.
(Unknown Time, Cybertron)
Across the barren surface of the dying planet, an orange and blue mech was running frantically, with several Cybertronian corpses lying on the ground behind him. He had a plasma cannon, smoke rising from the barrel after having been used so many times. The mech's body was covered in wounds, burn marks could be seen, as well as sparks coming off damaged parts. A trail of energon went down his mouth, but the Cybertronian ignored all this, focused on reaching his destination and protecting the object he held. The mech just entered a valley when he heard shouts.
"There he is!" A voice yelled. Above the orange and blue mech were three more Cybertronians. The bulkiest was a black and orange mech. With him was a green and yellow mech, as well as a purple and black mech. The former brought out a mace and rushed the target, while the others readied their plasma cannons. "Surrender, Dion!"
The large mech swung his mace at the named Dion, who stepped to the side and dodged it. Dion brought out a gauntlet over each hand and lunged at his larger opponent. The mech had no time to react when Dion slammed both his gauntlet-covered fists at his face, smashing it into pieces.
"Breakneck!" The purple and black mech cried as he watched the large mech's body hit the ground.
"Focus, Tomb!" The green and yellow mech yelled. "You attack him from the right and I'll go to the left.
Tomb nodded as he and his comrade fired at Dion, trying to pin him. Dion pulled out his shotgun and fired back. He blasted some rocks under the green and yellow mech, making him lose his footing. Then, he fired at Tomb, hitting the purple and black mech in the left arm, blowing it off. Tomb could only give a short scream before Dion fired another plasma bolt through Tomb's chest.
As the other mech began to get up, he was knocked down again when Dion, in his car mode, rammed into him. Dion then transformed and pinned the green and yellow mech beneath him. "Stand down, Clear Cut! I don't want to kill a fellow Autobot!" Dion shouted furiously.
Clear Cut growled. "I'm not a damn Autobot! Not anymore!" He declared as he tried to raise his right arm and fire at Dion.
Dion saw this, though, and immediately grabbed the arm and ripped it off, green energon spraying everywhere. He brought up his right fist and prepared to finish off Clear Cut when a sound caught his attention. A high speed moving projectile struck near where the two mechs were, and created a large explosion that blew away rocks and dust.
From a top a nearby mountain, stood another Cybertronian. This one was far bigger than the other four mechs. He possessed smooth, silver and purple colored armor, along with silver claws and purple feet. The mech had a yellow face, with a silver helm over it. His optics were a dark purple and he had fangs too. Attached to his back were large, slightly retracted, silver wings, with purple turbines on them. Currently, a four-barreled cannon was sticking out of his chest before retracting back inside.
"I wonder if that killed him? Well, so long as the object he was carrying is unharmed, that's all that matters." The mech thought before transforming into a large, Cybertronian shuttlecraft and then flew towards where Dion was. Now, though, there was a large crater as the silver purple mech landed, transforming back into robot mode. Ignoring the corpses of Breakneck and Tomb, the mech made his way over to find a sign of Dion's body. However, all he saw were the broken remains of Clear Cut, which were only the mech's head, and a portion of his chest. But there was no sign of Dion. "Did he escape the blast?" Wondered the towering mech. His optics did not see the narrow passageway within the valley, nor Dion as he made his way through it. The orange blue mech was clutching his wounded chest, energon dripping out of it.
"Thunderwing…" Dion cursed as he finally exited the valley. Waiting for him was a Cybertronian assault carrier. Ignoring his injuries, Dion slowly made his way into the craft and activated its systems. "Engage auto-pilot. Set coordinates to planet Earth." Dion ordered weakly as he settled in.
The carrier's systems glowed in response and began taking off. As Dion felt the thrusters engaging, he opened a special subspace, meant to hold a certain object. Said object as a talisman that barely covered Dion's palm. "Have…to get…to Orion and…Ariel…" He muttered as the carrier left Cybertron's atmosphere.
(Present Time, Solar System)
Beings believe that Cybertronians are split between Autobots and Decepticons. However, there were those who did not pick a side, and they were promptly called Neutrals. Among the Neutrals there are usually two types. The first and largest are Cybertronians that chose neither faction, refusing to take part the war, instead leaving their homeworld and finding other planets to live in peace. Many of them form groups to better protect themselves from threats and keep their race going. The second type are individuals considered too dangerous for either side, and are usually left alone to do as they pleased. These Cybertronians were rare, as they would become a danger to the rest of their kind and would be terminated quickly.
As the war continued to stretch on, though, a third type of Neutrals was born. This type consisted of Cybertronians that were once Autobots or Decepticons, having decided to defect from their respective faction. The reasons differed among individuals; some could no longer handle the war that killed their world and nearly brought their race to extinction, while others decided to strike out on their own and form their own faction. This category fitted with the Cybertronians aboard the warship Longshot, currently hovering over the planet Jupiter.
Once a part of the Decepticon armada, this vessel was now commanded by the Star Seekers, Cybertronians that could best be described as scavengers, raiders, pirates. These Cybertronians banded together to survive by any means necessary, even if that meant raiding resources of other inhabitant worlds. With their planet now dead and no home to call their own, the Star Seekers would travel the universe and take what they needed to live. Originally consisting of former Decepticons, other Cybertronians that were neutral to begin with soon joined, and later Autobots too. Old wounds between these former enemies now forgotten in the common interest of survival binding them together.
At the Longshot's command center, there were several Cybertronians working. Standing on a separate platform that overlooked the room was the ship's captain, as well as the leader of the Star Seekers, Switchblade. A former Decepticon commander, the blue and golden flyer decided to strike out on his own sometime around Megatron's first death. Switchblade showed no interest in serving a leader who abandoned his forces, and he refused to serve Starscream. With his entire unit agreeing with him, Switchblade commandeered the Longshot and took off, taking many weapons, energon and other supplies with him before looting worlds.
Hearing the command center's door slid open, Switchblade turned around. Walking through was a green and black, white stripped mech. This was Anomaly, a former Autobot soldier/scientist and now serving as Switchblade's second-in-command. Like the former Decepticon, Anomaly grew tired of fighting, what he saw, a pointless war, and ignored Optimus's universal-wide message. Instead, he and several other Autobots, defected and eventually joined the Star Seekers. Seeing the potential, as well as the similar interest in the young mech, Switchblade decided to make Anomaly his lieutenant. It also helped show that there was no ill will between the two defectors, each from warring factions.
"We've still tried to make communication, but have gotten no word from Lockdown or his crew." Anomaly reported as he stood beside Switchblade. "It looks like you were right, he's been offline."
The former Decepticon grunted, annoyed. "I should've figured that Lockdown would fail. Bounty hunter or not, such a mission should've been given to soldiers such as us." Switchblade commented.
"Don't you mean former soldiers?" Anomaly asked jokingly. "Because I'm pretty sure most would consider this line of work as piracy."
The aerial Cybertronian ignored the comment. "Either way, we shall complete the task that Lockdown failed to do. Prepare to head towards Earth." Switchblade ordered the crew.
Suddenly one of the crewmembers, a femme with a cerulean, black and cyan colored armor, spoke up. "Switchblade, sir. We're detecting a weak energon signature near us, just passing the planet." The femme reported.
"Is it Lockdown, Astraea?" Switchblade asked the femme.
"I can't tell. But whoever they are, they are not flying in a ship and appear to be floating adrift. Probably in stasis lock." Astraea replied.
Switchblade rubbed his chin, wondering what it could be. Deciding to take a chance, "Lock onto it and zoom in." He ordered.
Astraea did as she was told and began focusing the ship's scanners on the energon source. It took a few minutes, but eventually an image of the object came up on the big screen. What they saw made the Star Seekers opened their mouths and widened their optics in shock.
"Is that who I think it is?"
"No way. What's he doing all the way out here?"
"But that's definitely him. I remember seeing him before he left for Earth."
"Talk about good fortune."
The object, or person, on the screen was none other than Optimus Prime. The Autobot leader's body was frozen in ice. His form unmoving, with his optics dark and lifeless. He continued drifting through space, floating aimlessly.
"It really is Optimus Prime." Anomaly said as he stared at the image of his former leader. "Why's he out here in space?"
"I don't know, and I don't care." Commented Switchblade. "But this just makes things for easier us. Send a team out and bring him aboard. Make sure his weapons are removed before reactivating him. Then, set a course for Cybertron."
And there is chapter two. FYI, the Star Seeker members are Autobots and Decepticons from the cancelled Transformers Universe game. Anyway, be sure to review.