Chapter 5
Cybertron in the year 2005 - Iacon outlands Autobot resistance
Ultra Magnus was thinking about his situation. The Unicron battle would come really soon. He thought about himself and his role in it.
The first time this battle happened for him, he had just been repaired from heavy damage the received on the Planet of Junk and was to weakened to actually be of much help.
The Sweeps had literally shot him apart. It had been a wonder that no vital system was destroyed.
This time around however he was in a good condition. And he was here. Was it really the right thing to stand by and don´t do anything?
Could he really do nothing while the other Autobots are risking their lives?
Had he not already influenced the past... alone by being here?
After some time of sitting for himself in the room the Autobot resistance gave him temporally, he finally came to a decision.
xxxxxxx
Cybertron 9.000.000 years ago - border of the sector Polihex
The small group of Decepticons had walked into an ambush. Two Seekers and a ground soldier with tank alt-mode were being attacked by a larger group of Autobots.
The Decepticons were on their way to deliver their cargo, as the Autobots surprisingly attacked them. Now they were in a desperate situation. They were trying to take cover behind a few down broken walls.
Then suddenly they sawsomething in a couple kilometer´s distance that looked like a flash of light.
One of the Autobots addressed his team leader.
"Def-Charger - I detect three new Decepticons, unknown type."
The group leader Def-Charger was a large, mostly green Autobot who transformed into a war vehicle.
He was one of the few Autobots who had been designed especially for combat during the last war against the Decepticons before the start of the Golden Age.
Now that the Decepticon leader Megatron had started a new war, he was the leader of an new elite team of Autobots.
"Understand Grim-Side. Can you tell me something about the abilities of these Cons?" he asked the tracker of his team.
"No - the readings I get are completely off. Whatever models they are, I can not identify them."
Damn it - probably new prototypes, Def Charger was thinking.
xxxxxxx
A few miles away Galvatron, Cyclonus and Scourge were just recovering from their misdirected time-jump.
"It will take approximately 5 breem (1 breem ca. 8,3 minutes) till the time displacement controller is recharged and we can go back to our time," Galvatron told his two followers.
Both looked more than a bit startled by the events.
"The workings of the corrupting programs that Unicron had placed into us had slowed down now," Cyclonus informed the others.
Galvatron made a system check that confirmed what his Second in Command´s claim.
"That at least proofs our theory that Unicron´s destruction would stop the programs and set us free," he concluded.
"But why have they then not completely stopped now? We are 9.000.000 years in the past?" Scourge asked nervously.
"That only means that Unicron already exists in this era. Somewhere in the universe," Galvatron explained.
He, Cyclonus and Scourge had realized that Unicron had a form of mental connection to them. That made it for example possible for him to torture them mentally or influence their programing over a distance.
His influence was now weaker when he was further away and maybe because he was not aware of them.
When he was dead it would most likely completely stop.
But here, so far in the past they couldn´t do anything against him and it was too dangerous.
"We will return to our time as soon as the time-travel controller is working again. Then we will try once more. Stay here and wait, I don´t want to risk accidentally interfering in the past."
"Boss we have a problem. Autobots are coming," Scourge warned the others.
A few moments later laser blasts were fired at them.
They saw their opponents lying in wait on some of the buildings close to them. This robots were now shooting them from save cover. Cyclonus recognized the Autobots Ironhide, Prowl and Grim-Side.
So much for not interferring. The three new Decepticons were with the back to the wall. They had no choice than to fight back.
"Take them Out," Galvatron ordered, "but be careful not to kill anybody. Remember we must not change too much."
With that Cyclonus and Scourge transformed, rose up and attacked their enemies from the sky.
They realized that this Autobots were the Elite Security Squad - a command group that was active during the golden age and the first years of the war.
They were in many ways the predecessors of the even more famous group named the Wreckers. Their members were their leader Def-Charger, Grim-Side, the later war heroes Ironhide, Kup and Prowl... and two more Autobots named Fist and Cable.
This team had once been a legend and Cyclonus and Scourge were fighting them right now.
Nine Million years were much time for technical progress. Over the years all Transformers had been growing stronger - very slowly and subtly, but they did.
In Cyclonus and Scourge´s case to this came the upgrade from Unicron that made them stronger than any regular Transformer anyway. Few in their own time could hope to match them, but here - nine million years in the past - they made these legendary fighters look like cannon fodder.
The Elite Security Squad had some of the best fighters of Cybertron of their time, but against Cyclonus and Scourge they were only statistics.
The fight took only minutes. Had the two Decepticons been allowed to use their full strength and lethal shots it would have been seconds.
But even so Cyclonus managed to overpower Ironhide, Prowl and Cable without problems, as Scourge did Grim-Side, Kup and Fist.
After the short struggle the Autobots were now retreating.
The three other Decepticons who had originally been ambushed by the Autobots were now lying on the ground, damaged and mostly unconscious.
Cyclonus and Scourge transformed and landed to check on them and their carriage.
They saw that all three were still functioning. On the ground next to them lay a large metal box that this robots had obviously been transporting.
Galvatron arrived and landed next to them. He looked around at the unconscious Decepticons.
"Has anything been damaged here? Beyond what should have happened anyway?" he asked them.
Cyclonus stared at the three Decepticons and at the box. This entire scene reminded him of something.
"Wait", he told the others and opened it.
Inside was exactly what he thought it would be, six small metal cubes.
Autobot personality cores. This was a transport of war prisoners who had been stripped of their bodies.
And the transport had been intercepted by a group of enemy fighters.
He took one of them out, the one with the storage number 0050. Cyclonus held it in his hand and looked at it. He remembered it´s significance.
In this moment he heard a weapon discharge and an explosion.
One of the seekers, he remembered him by the name of Gunpoint, had shot and destroyed the box with the other five Autobot personalities.
xxxxxxx
At the same time - sector Kalis
The Decepticons were attacking something that had before the war been a factory for spaceship parts.
Now it was a weapon factory for the Autobots. At least until now.
Of course the fascility was well guarded by several soldiers. Even by one of the large so called guardian-robots (powerful but unliving machines, with the exception of the one called Omega Supreme)), who had in the Golden Age been responsible for the security of Cybertron, was defending the factory.
The Decepticons needed a strong force to take them down. But the outcome was inevitable.
Since their former leader Sentinel Prime had been killed by Megatron, the Autobots were disorganized and without clear structure.
The forces who were guarding the Kalis sector were alone and without any hope for reinforcements.
The defenders of the factory had no chance. Megatron personally and some of his best troops were carrying out the attack.
A group of seekers led by Skylord - the Decepticon Air-Force Commander was starting an air assault, while Megatron and his ground troops were storming the building.
The seekers Skywarp and Thundercracker, two of his earliest recruits, were fighting the guards on the main gate.
Meanwhile their leader Skylord destroyed a automatic cannon on the roof.
Thundercracker and Skywarp shot a salve of missiles at the guards and then transformed into robot mode.
Skywarp teleported and reappeared right in front of one of the Autobots. He shot the completely surprised robot directly through the head.
His partner Thundercracker used the chance to attack two remaining guards from the other side. He fired an entire volley of blasts at their heads and spark-chambers and killed them so in seconds.
As the seekers had weakened the defenses, the ground troops attacked in full strength.
The guardian unit was so large that normal Transformers not even reached it´s knee. It´s armor however was nothing special and rather weak in comparison to real war-units.
The Decepticon Shockwave used that weakness and attacked it in gun mode. One shot from him ripped through the the Guardian´s chest and destroyed it.
Megatron fired a blast of his fusion cannon between the five remaining Autobot fighters. He hit none of them directly, but it was enough to bring all of them all off balance and damage a few.
With a second shot he completely obliterated one of the defending Autobots. He literally disintigrated he entire upper half of his body.
Then the other Decepticons attacked after this and easily finished the rest of them off.
The Autobots went all down fighting.
Skylord, Thundercracker and Skywarp had meanwhile secured the entrance. They stood at attention as Megatron and Shockwave addressed them.
"Is the factory completely under our control?" the Decepticon leader asked Skylord.
"Yes Megatron - no Autobot remains in the building," the commander of the Air force answered.
"Good take everything we can use from the building. Destroy the rest," Megatron ordered.
"Megatron - the patrol has returned," Shockwave informed him.
Another group of seekers came just closing in. They were led by a silver and red flier, who was instantly recognized by Thundercracker.
As the patrol transformed and landed he greeted their leader, before he and Skylord brought him to Megatron. Skywarp smiled too as he saw the newcomer.
"Megatron," Skylord begun to speak, "can I introduce you to one of our new and best recruits," he presented the other seeker to Megatron. "This is Starscream."
The young seeker was nervous and insecure as he was introduced to the Supreme Commander. But he did his best not to show it... and `nearly´ succeeded.
"Starscream - yes I have heard of you," Megatron said. "You have gone through the War Academy in record time despite the fact that you were not even a soldier before."
"He had the best grades that were ever reached at the War Academy. They were even better than Skywarp´s and mine," Thundercracker pointed out.
xxx
It was actually more than that, Megatron knew. Thundercracker, Skywarp and Starscream had originally been created together.
But at the end of the Second Cybertronian War, while the first two - like so many other seekers - had been discharged (or better said disgarded) as not longer needed... and finally ended up living as homeless empties... until he recruited them...
Starscream had for some reason been accepted into Autobot society and even found his way into the Science Academy.
But after the war broke out and Starscream had joined them, Skywarp and Thundercracker quicky found a liking to their lost `brother´.
xxx
"Yes Megatron - Starscream here is a genius," Skywarp agreed without any real jealousy.
"Thank you. It is a honor to meet you Sir," Starscream replied, flattered that Megatron himself remembered him.
"Starscream was part of a exploration mission and has only recently returned to Cybertron," Skylord stated.
Nothing that Megatron didn´t already knew.
At the mention of this however. the young seeker´s features froze for a short moment, something that the Air Commander noticed.
"He was the only member of the group who returned. His partner was lost," he added.
"I am sorry about this. Have you and your partner been close?" Megatron asked.
"We were friends, for quite a time," Starscream replied, but barely showing real emotions.
"When I finally returned to Cybertron I heard that war has broken out. So I joined the army of our Faction," he explained.
Megatron didn´t need to hear what else happened. He could easily figure it out by himself.
Starscream´s post in the science academy had been void when the war broke out. His place in society - in the Autobot society - was lost. Because of his Decepticon heritage.
He had become nothing but another dangerous `war model´.
He was alone. So he joined the Decepticons.
"I understand. It is good to meet a promising young talent like you. With recruits like you I hope we can finally win this war and bring our people the place in society they deserve," Megatron explained to the seeker.
"You have to understand something Starscream. You have been very lucky. Maybe not in the last time... but in the years before. By sheer luck, you have been given the chance to be educated and become a scientist in the first place.
Countless other seekers never got that chance. Many were just created and thrown om the street afterwards like garbage when they were not longer `usefull´. Nobody needs war machines in a time of peace," he pointed out to him.
"Skywarp and Thundercracker here for example had been created in a factory that had produced seekers in the last war.
And after the war was over they continued to produce them, despite that they know that this seekers were not longer wanted in the society, only so that the company could justify it´s own existence.
So they had been created and thrown away just afterward, like many others. They were not needed and not wanted by this planet ruled by the Autobots."
Starscream looked at the two. Their expression told him all too clearly that what Megatron said was indeed true.
"You see why this war is necessary Starscream. Because the Autobots had won the last war against our ancestors, we became second class citizens.
The Autobots tell us our ideas and the ones of our ancestors are wrong and we are too dangerous to be in charge of Cybertron.
But that is not true. The only reason why they were ruling the planet till now and we were living in the underground is that their ancestors won.
They won, we lost - so easy is that. It was never a question about right or wrong - just who had the upper hand."
Megatron placed a hand on Starscream´s shoulder.
"You are one of us Starscream. We will make our place on Cybertron and you will get yours too."
Starscream stared at the Decepticon leader. A place in the world, that was what he had wanted the whole time since he returned to Cybertron.
And he already knew that Megatron was right about everything he had just said.
xxxxxxx
At the border of the sector Polihex
Five sentient completely helpless disembodied Cybertronians had just been wiped out in the blink of an eye.
They had been enemies sure, but they were still completely helpless war prisoners.
But all that wasn´t what gripped Cyclonus mind right now. He stared at the destroyed cargo unit and then back at the object in his own hand.
He remembered who that was, what it meant. It was pure look that I had just taken that personality core out, he realized. Otherwise it would have been eliminated together with the other five.
He could only think about one thing. The entire future - the world where they came from - nearly destroyed by the cowardly act of an idiot.
Since his recreation Cyclonus had heard a voice in the back of his mind that told him to fight, to kill, to destroy... and now Cyclonus finally followed that instruction.
"Ha - should have wiped out that worthless Autobot minds from the beginning, instead of wasting our... wha...?!" Gunpoint was gloating, before he was suddenly grabbed by the neck and lifted off the ground by Cyclonus.
He had clutched Gunpoint at the throat and was willing to crush his neck with one hand. His fingers were actually digging into the metal of the seeker´s body.
Cyclonus saw the pleading look on his face - shocked and surprised, not understanding why a fellow Decepticon would attack him like that over a few Autobot minds - and terrified... silently begging for mercy.
The voice in his head told him to crush that disgusting creature, to torture him to death, to rip him apart.
This time he wasn´t resisting.
Cyclonus remembered the importance of the personality he just had in his hands... what nearly happened.
He remembered how he had seen this situation here before. How Gunpoint had lied to Skywarp about what had happened to the personality cores, how he had lied to him.
His anger knew no limits anymore. He started to crush Gunpoint´s shoulders, to rip parts of his wings off. That was one off the most painful things that could have happen to a seeker.
xxx
In some distance the Autobots Ironhide and Kup had been lying under cover. They had seen what Gunpoint had done.
Ironhide was about to lose his restrain.
"This damn bastard. I will…" he snarled.
But Kup was holding him back.
"You will do nothing. Have you forgotten what this new Decepticons can do? By the way - it looks as if this other Con is taking care of this matter for us."
"Yes you are right. I have never thought that I would wish a Decepticon good luck," Ironhide admitted.
xxx
Cyclonus was ready to kill.
The seeker Gunpoint had already lost conscious and would very soon die by his hand.
Then he heard Galvatron´s voice.
"Cyclonus what do you think you are doing? You can not kill him remember."
He realized Galvatron was right.
Gunpoint was meant to die in another way. He knew that.
"Mighty Galvatron - I have just remembered something. I have seen this scene before," Cyclonus explained.
He looked at the seeker he was holding in his hand. With a move of his wrist he threw him aside.
"You are right, I can not kill him. And I have never thought that I would congratulate the Autobot who did."
Galvatron and Scourge were looking at him a bit perplexed. Gunpoint´s actions were not exactly commendable, even under Decepticons. But why did they enrage Cyclones that much?
"Do you remember the prisoner transport out of the Kalis sector?" he asked Galvatron. "This one?"
Cyclonus saw after a moment that he did remember... and saw the significance of this event here as well.
The two Autobots were still watching. They finally saw that the three Decepticons flew off and left the unconscious ones behind.
"We have seen enough," Kup declared, "let us go back to Def-Charger and the others."
"Yes there is nothing left for us to do," Ironhide replied. He secretly wished to go down and finish that murderer off. But he told himself the he wouldn´t sink as low as him.
"Do you think that seeker had survived?" Kup asked him.
"If he had, I will get him some day."
xxxxxxx
Sector Kalis, former Autobot weapon factory
Skywarp was just in a conversation with one of the other seekers as Shockwave approached him. This surprised him a bit.
The Decepticon general was a machine of pure logic and duty and never socialized like other warriors.
So that he even spoke to someone meant usually that he had an order for him.
"Skywarp - the patrol team that was transporting a number of captured Autobot personality cores had not reported to the set time," Shockwave stated casually, without emotion as always. "Take two other seekers and find them."
"Yes sir," Skywarp replied simply.
He knew that Thundercracker had other duties right now and Starscream was still in a conversation with Megatron. So he would just take two of the others.
Megatron showed great interest in the promising recruit, like he did in him and Thundercracker. Understandable, they were the best air warriors in the army. Sometimes they managed even higher scores than the Air Commander... sometimes.
xxx
"You see Starscream the Autobots claim to be standing for freedom and justice. They say their state is just. They want to tell you what is right and wrong. But that is only a way to stay in control," Megatron explained to the young seeker.
"They say that we are wrong because we have started a war and attacked them. They say we have started a violent uprising - us," he said full of sarcasm.
"But what was the reason that they were in control of Cybertron for the last hundred thousands of years? What was the foundation of their peace?" he asked "Because they won a war.
What was the reason their government came to power in the first place? It was the rebellion against the alien race who had once controlled this planet.
It was a violent uprising that brought them into power.
It was violence that brought them into the place they are. And now that they are in charge they condemn violence.
Do you see their Hypocrisy Starscream?" Megatron asked the young Decepticon.
"Don´t let others tell you what is right or wrong. In reality freedom and power only come to the one who is willing and able to fight for it. If you want something and you think it is right for you - take it," he told him.
"I will always remember that mighty Megatron," Starscream replied.