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TRANSFORMERS BEYOND

LEGENDARIUM

Chapter III

The War of the Primes

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Approx. 4 billion stellar cycles ago

Following their triumph over Unicron, the Thirteen Primes, with the aid of the Knights of Cybertron led by Knight Grandmaster Autonomous Maximus as their vanguard force, begin to rebuild Cybertron from the devastation caused by Unicron and led its surviving people into a bold new era. Like the time before, this era was prosperous with even greater cities and technology, but it lacked the innocence of before. Due to their close proximity with Unicron, each of the Primes were corrupted by a touch of his darkness, some more than others...

Prima grew more detached from his siblings, considering himself, Vector Prime, and A-3, being the first created by Primus, as an united force of lawful good, and looked upon the other Primes (excluding The Arisen) as chaotic and potentially evil. Liege Maximo looked up to the stars with hunger, seeing planets and resources ripe for conquest and domination. Megatronus Prime took notice of his more beloved brethren and envied them for their glory, seeing himself as the mightiest amongst the Primes.

During the reconstruction period, Megatronus Prime falls in love with Solus Prime, though she doesn't initially return his romantic affections. Her deep friendship with Nexus Prime, Onyx Prime, and Amalgamous Prime begins to fester jealously within Megatronus, fueling the hidden darkness within him.

Things begin to become even worse when Prima attempts to assert his authority over the other Primes in an attempt to bring them to an united purpose to stop their growing division, only succeeding in alienating Megatronus Prime, who refuses to bow down to his older brother. This has led to several confrontations between the two Primes, with it even going so far as one time Prima threatened to attack Megatronus with the Star Saber. In the aftermath, the other Primes remain undecided, while Vector Prime and A-3 continue to stand by Prima.

Approx. 3 billion stellar cycles ago

It doesn't take long for Unicron's influences to slowly convince most, if not all, of the Thirteen to believe that the Cybertronian race was inherently superior to all other races in the known universe due to their powerful artifacts and great historic feats. So, eventually the Primes sought to spread Cybertron's "enlightenment" through the doctrine of "Pax Cybertronia" ("Peace on Cybertron"), by conquering other worlds and shaping them into "Primus' image" with the power of the Omega Lock, completely abandoning their rule of cyberforming planets with life. Distant worlds discovered by the Skyraiders like Caminus, Devisiun, Prion, Arduria, Carcer, Junkion, Lithone, Gigantion, Neutronia, and Quintessa are aggressively cyberformed, displacing (and in some cases, killing off) the planets' original organic inhabitants.

As they were fascinated by organic life and became increasingly disgusted by their actions, Micronus Prime, Onyx Prime, Quintus Prime, and The Arisen would separate themselves from their siblings' plans of expansion and live in seclusion back on Cybertron. However, Quintus Prime is approached by Liege Maximo, who has become more manipulative and self-serving by Unicron's manipulations, to secretly experiment with the life-giving powers of the AllSpark to create new forms of Cybertronian life if the need arises to defend Cybertron and its colonies from any hostile aliens.

Approx. 2 billion stellar cycles ago

The remaining nine Primes attempt to colonize Antilla, a peaceful planet that orbited a black hole near the galactic center, home to the Antillan species. When the Cybertronians set foot on Antilla for conquest, the Antillans fought back against the robotic invaders, but they were unable to match the power of the Primes and their Titan fleets. However, the Antillans gained the upper hand in the conflict when several of their people's best scientists create a superweapon known as the Lightning Bug. They activate the Lightning Bug, which unleashes devastating waves of energy that not only decimated the Cybertronian expeditionary force, but also kills Amalgamous Prime during the battle, ending the Cybertronian/Antillan War.

Defeated and saddened by the death of their own, the Primes returned to Cybertron in defeat and mourned over the loss of Amalgamous Prime. During a meeting over the failed Antilla expedition in the Citadel of Light, Megatronus urges his siblings to launch a massive counterattack against the Antillans and avenge their fallen brother, however, Prima refused to do so, having realized in his grief of Amalgamous' death that their actions of expanding Cybertron's influence and "enlighten the lesser races in the universe" has brought nothing but pain and sorrow, and plans to arrange peace talks with the Antillans and any other aliens that their colonization efforts had negatively affected. Enraged by Prima's pacifistic response, Megatronus stormed out of the meeting in anger, further dividing the Primes.

As the Primes slowly recover from the death of Amalgamous Prime, Megatronus Prime appeals to Solus Prime and their mutual love and trust to build for him a heavyarm version of the Apex Armor called the Devil Z Armor as a defense against future attacks. After this, Megatronus is approached by Liege Maximo who takes him to Quintus Prime's laboratory complex outside of Crystal City, where Quintus presents them their latest creations: the aggressive and bestial Horrorcons. The three Primes intend to perfect the Horrorcons into living weapons that'll be used against any future threats to Cybertron's prosperity.

Several months later, Quintus Prime is able to successfully perfect the Horrorcons. With their secret project complete, Liege Maximo puts his true plan into motion by revealing to Megatronus Prime that Solus Prime had completed the Devil Z Armor weeks earlier but had been reluctant to give him such a powerful weapon. Megatronus Prime confronts Solus Prime in a rage, feeling betrayed, and in the ensuing argument results in Megatronus fires the Requiem Blaster without thinking, fatally wounding Solus Prime. As she dies in Megatronus' arms, Solus tells Megatronus that despite everything, she still loves him. Her spark would then rise from her body, and melts its way underground to Cybertron's core, making way for the planet's first and greatest spark geyser that would be known as the Well of All Sparks.

Horrified at the results of his anger and jealously, Megatronus flees the scene of the crime to seek Liege Maximo's advice, only to discover his brother betraying him and Quintus Prime to Prima, at which points the true extent of Maximo's betrayal becomes clear to him. Swearing vengeance, he flees Crystal City into Cybertron's empty plains with the Requiem Blaster, the Devil Z Armor, Quintus Prime, and the Horrorcons.

Discovering Solus' death, the other Primes are quick to believe Maximo's version of events which points the finger firmly at Megatronus and Quintus, triggering what will become the First Cybertronian Civil War. It would be the first, shortest, and most destructive war the Cybertronian race would ever experience.

Battle lines and allegiances were drawn. When the war began, Prima (urged on by the scheming Liege Maximo) uses Vector Sigma and the Plasma Energy Chamber to create a new Cybertronian subgroup to act as defenders and warriors to fight alongside the Primes and the Knights of Cybertron against Megatronus's and Quintus's Horrorcon armies: the Protectobots. Meanwhile, Megatronus amasses his own loyal army of Constructicons and Skyraiders in the Darklands to fight for him in this war. He also gains the allegiance of several Titans, including his own partner Titan Trypticon.

In a matter of weeks, Prima's forces immediately overwhelmed Megatronus's, which were vastly outnumbered in the initial battles.

The Battle of Night's Falling: The bestial Horrorcon armies are crushed by the more effective Protectobots, allowing the Primes to storm the Darklands and capture Quintus Prime. Megatronus Prime and his remaining followers escapes to Cybertron's desolate regions aboard Trypticon and goes into hiding for a while. Quintus Prime is imprisoned within Cybertron's underground until the war is over and their fate can be decided by their remaining siblings.

The Battle of the Monstrosity's Slumber: Megatronus and his Horrorcons minions re-emerge. The fallen Prime unleashes Trypticon upon Crystal City in an attempt to end the war and eliminate all of his enemies with a single stroke, however, Trypticon is defeated by the combined efforts of the Knights of Cybertron and Trypticon's longtime rival, The Arisen's Titan Metroplex. Trypticon's higher functions are taken offline and his spark placed in stasis lock. His dormant form is then sealed away beneath the Toraxxis Plains. With Trypticon gone, Megatronus is forced to retreat into space, thanks to his Skyraider loyalists.

Less than a week later, Megatronus Prime and his minions returns again. Much to the horror of the other Primes, Megatronus' lust of vengeance drives him to seek out planets seeded with Unicron's fossilized blood-the dark element known as Dark Energon, which he hopes to tap into to create a new army. With Dark Energon, Megatronus reformats his army of Constructicons, Skyraiders, and remaining Horrorcons into powerful warriors called the Terrorcons. After creating the Terrorcons, he then infuses a chunk of dark energon into his own spark to enhance his strength, fueling the Unicron-taint within him until he completely becomes insane with power and rage.

The Battle of the Weeping Crystals: With the Terrorcons under his command, Megatronus Prime once again launches an attack on Crystal City. Though Megatronus would be defeated and driven off-world again, his Terrorcon armies managed to heavily devastate the Primes' forces. Not only that, but during this battle, Onyx Prime was left crippled and close to death after battling Megatronus Prime. The other Primes place Onyx into a state of suspended animation within his sarcophagus to retain his life functions. These event redoubles the desire of the remaining Primes to see Megatronus defeated and made to pay for his crimes.

Soon, Liege Maximo journeys into the depths of Cybertron to meet with his imprisoned sibling Quintus Prime and shows them the chaos being wrought by Megatronus Prime and his Terrorcons as they cut a path of destruction across the universe, killing scores of innocent lifeforms and assimilating their technology, and leaving the dry husks of planets in their wake, only partially countered by the Primes, the Knights of Cybertron, and the Protectobots. Horrified at what they are shown, and believing Liege Maximo is there on the behest of the other Primes, Quintus agrees to use their knowledge and skills to create a new army of Cybertronian supersoldiers even more powerful than the Protectobots: the Combaticons.

But it doesn't take long for the Primes to uncover Liege Maximo's treachery when Quintus Prime accidentally reveals the existence of the Combaticons to a visiting A-3. Having believed Quintus nothing more than a misguided idealist, A-3 is able to piece together Maximo's schemes: his psychological maneuvering of Megatronus Prime, and his part in the creation of the Horrorcons and now the Combaticons.

Afterwards, the Primes confront Liege Maximo, who then reveals his treachery and how Unicron's corruption has heavily affected him, berating his brothers for their simple minds and parochial dreams, and claiming that he is the best of them and should be in charge, in which case they could truly be the gods they were created to be instead of bickering children. Seeing how he was utterly unrepentant for all the chaos he created, the Primes decide to imprison Liege Maximo within his Titan Vigilem and banish him from Cybertron forever. Quintus Prime is then released from prison and agrees to help their siblings to stop Megatronus Prime.

The Battle of the Pit's Yawning: Prima, Vector Prime, A-3, Micronus Prime, Alchemist Prime, Nexus Prime, Quintus Prime, The Arisen, the Knights of Cybertron, and the Protectobots hunt down Megatronus Prime aboard Prima's Titan Emissary, finding on the third planet of an uncharted solar system within the Orion Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. This seemingly unimportant blue world would be known in the far future as "Earth." When arriving on ancient Earth, the Primes and the Knights discovered that the planet has somehow accumulated huge amounts of energon, which has allowed the slow creation and evolution of organic life on its surface. It is here that the final battle of the First Cybertronian Civil War then occurs as the Primes and their Knights and Protectobots fight against Megatronus' Terrorcons in order to prevent this young world's destruction. During the battle, Nexus Prime was slain by Megatronus Prime with the Requiem Blaster and the Protectobots were able to destroy all of the Terrorcons, though they are practically wiped out in the effort. Prima and Megatronus clashed against one another, the former trying to reason with his fallen brother. But Megatronus was too far gone, as he then proceeded to cut off Prima's arm wielding the Star Saber and then proceeded to stab his blade into the First Prime's spark chamber, mortally wounding him. In his final breath, Prima passed down the Creation Matrix to The Arisen, who used its full power to trap Megatronus within his sarcophagus, sending him into eternal limbo.

The First Cybertronian Civil War was finally over, having lasted for barely one month, short even by human standards.

Megatronus Prime's name was soon forgotten by history and he was forever renamed as "The Fallen." The Fallen's tomb was then sent to drift into the deepest depths of space, never to be seen again.

With the war over, the remaining Primes and their forces return to Cybertron in the aftermath of their devastating and bloody conflict. Their hopes are shattered, their great dreams have come to nothing, and several of their number have been killed or lost. As the Primes mourn their losses, the Covenant of Primus decreed that the Age of the Primes was now over and that Vector Sigma will no longer be used to create new Cybertronian life from the Plasma Energy Chamber. The remaining seven Primes are directed to remove themselves from the pages of history, leaving Cybertron to future generations. The Primes discuss the means of creating these future generations until they determine to activate the Well of All Sparks as a testament in honor of their fallen sister Solus Prime and her love for the Children they had created. Before they undergo this, the Primes turn over their Artifacts to the Knights of Cybertron, charging them to guard the powerful relics through the dark ages to come. Custody over the Creation Matrix of Leadership also fell into the Knights, who are then given the task of protecting it until the coming of a worthy successor.

Once all were accounted for, the Primes made their choices. Vector Prime, disheartened by recent events, retreating into a pocket dimension called the Realm of the Primes, where he'll act as a guardian of the multiverse: watching and waiting for the return of either Unicron or The Fallen, using his position outside time to send visions and prophecies to a chosen few throughout history. Quintus Prime left Cybertron for greener pastures at their far-off colony world of Quintessa, in hopes of using their Emberstone to create benevolent allies for their fellow Cybertronians in the future. The grievously-wounded Onyx Prime, along with Micronus Prime and The Arisen who had the most grief over their losses in the war, were willingly absorbed by the Well of All Sparks and becoming one with Primus in the AllSpark, so they could aid in the development of their people. The Knights of Cybertron would entomb the bodies of Solus Prime, Nexus Prime, and Amalgamous Prime within a fortress called the Primal Basilica, which was built in their honor. As for Prima's body, it is carried by his Titan Emissary and a crew of Protectobots across the stars until it's believed that they would decide to settle on a peaceful world lush with vegetation that would be known as Mons Prima, a pilgrimage world for Cybertron's future warriors. A-3 and Alchemist Prime remained on Cybertron to continue assisting Transformer civilization from behind the scenes until they are able to fulfill Primus' Grand Plan, eventually falling into obscurity.

From there, the Thirteen Primes became little more than a legend that inspired the many heroes and villains in the new eras to come...