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TRANSFORMERS BEYOND
LEGENDARIUM
Chapter XI
The Age of Havoc
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The Age of Havoc, sometimes referred to as the Great Invasion, was an era that saw the Combatron Wars, an interstellar civil war that consumed the worlds of the Republic of Cybertron for 3 million years. It marked the end of the Neo-Colonial Period as following the conflict, Cybertron was forced into isolationism after a retaliatory strike by the Galactic Council. The Age of Havoc is, in many ways, considered by many historians to be the founding event of the Fall of Cybertron.
Approx. 19 million stellar cycles ago
The Age of Havoc begins on the far-away Cybertronian colony of Combatron. Orbiting the yellow star Delta Draconis, Combatron was one of many thriving colonies that emerged thanks to the Expansion during the time of Nova Prime. It was well known throughout the former Great Cybertronian Empire as home and garrison for Cybertron's greatest warriors, and it would be one of the few original colonies that remained in contact with Cybertron following the Rust Plague. However, recently, following the Six-Gigacycle War against the Black Block Consortia, the war effort put a strain on resources. Security was bare bones, and there wasn't enough energon to go around many of the colonies, Combatron included, but people made do.
Then came the cataclysmic event that changed Combatron forever. Majin Zarak. A being of immense power, Majin Zarak's exact origins and the reasons why he arrived on Combatron are forever left unknown, but it's heavily believed that he's a surviving War Titan who left Cybertron during the waning years of the Golden Age eons ago to guard colonization fleets until they lost contact with the homeworld during the Rust Plague and were never seen again, believed to be destroyed by the dangers within unexplored space. Nevertheless, when Majin Zarak made landfall, the results were catastrophic as he suddenly unleashed his full arsenal upon the Combatronians, razing the colony and the planet it was situated on. With over 90% of the planet's surface being turned into an irradiated wasteland, Majin Zarak unexplainably transformed into his alt-mode of a space battlefortress and went into stasis lock within the ruins of what was Combatron's capital city.
Approx. 18 million stellar cycles ago
With the government of Combatron left decimated following Majin Zarak's rampage, the Combatronians were split into several factions and then began a world-spanning civil war that further devastated the planet. As Combatron was located in the most remote areas of the Republic of Cybertron, the Combatronian Civil War was almost completely unnoticed by those on Cybertron, especially Nominus Prime and the Senate, as they focused post-war reconstruction efforts in the Republic's inner sectors first.
As their planet was left torn asunder, rumors begin to spread between the Combatronians that Cybertron had deliberately dumped Majin Zarak upon their world and abandoned them, so they wouldn't have to think of the resource problem. Then, one Combatronian warlord used these tales to his advantage as he began to attract a massive following throughout the wastelands. This warlord came to be known as Overlord.
With the secret aid of agents from the Cult of the Black Epoch, Overlord recruited a large number of warrior tribes who sought for power and conquest by his side. His followers would soon call themselves the Combatrons.
It was only a matter of time till the Combatrons wiped out all of their rivals and successfully united Combatron under their banner. But Overlord wasn't content with ruling a post-apocalyptic wasteland. No, he sought for greater prizes, and he began to lay down the foundations of his empire. Once Overlord conquered all of Combatron, he quickly organized the Combatronians and decided that they should take revenge on Cybertron and the colonies that abandoned them by conquering the Republic of Cybertron for themselves.
Under his guidance, Overlord's followers created a massive army equipped with a highly destructive "doomsday arsenal" carefully reverse-engineered from Majin Zarak's technology that was capable of crushing anyone and anything that stood in their way. Among Overlord's inner circle were Combatron's greatest warriors-the Combatron High Generals-consisting of Gigatron, Bombshock, Turmoil, Scrash, Exarchon, Doomsday Marshal, Thunderhammer, Octus, Legonis, and Seizer.
The Combatrons colonize Combatron's sister planet, a desert world named Tuurok, fortifying it into Overlord's personal throneworld where they could use as a launching point for their future invasion of the Republic of Cybertron. Ashmar Citadel is then constructed on the planet's surface to serve Overlord's main headquarters.
Start of the Combatron Wars: Secretly backed by the Ironforge Guild, who provided them various types of Vehicon drones to serve as their general infantry, the Combatrons almost immediately began their campaign of conquest, sweeping through the outer regions of the Republic of Cybertron as they conquered many of the most vulnerable colonies, taking over one sector at a time. While many on Cybertron and its inner colonies grew concerned of the Combatrons' expansion, Nominus Prime and the Senate just dismissed them as just a bunch of upstart colonists. Naively hoping to solve the situation quickly, the Senate dispatched a lightly escorted diplomatic team aboard the Titan Waypoint led by Senator Codexa of Helex to find out what was happening. Overlord saw this as an excellent opportunity to begin a campaign of psychological warfare. The Combatrons waited for the Senate's diplomatic team to come into Combatron's orbit, and then allowed them to transmit images of their army before firing their anti-aircraft defenses at them, utterly destroying Waypoint and the crew aboard him, including Codexa. In response to Waypoint's destruction, the Senate quickly mobilized the Cybertronian Armed Forces and declared war on Combatron.
Several Cybertronian colonies willingly swear their allegiance to the Combatrons, hoping that their aid can help them expand their own sphere of influence-the most notable being Animatros and Hiil'Frayka. The Animatronian leader Yharon was impressed by Overlord's strength and brutality, while Glowstrike, the Arachnicon queen of the Insecticon Hives of Hiil'Frayka, saw the potential of possessing a vast amount of resources to allow her hive to expand and thrive. Some colonies such as Lucifer, Skomiloch, and Hexagon also joined the cause, primarily due to their belief that Combatron possessed the greatest chance to win the war. Many others didn't get a choice, and either had their resources entirely stripped from them, or had their subjugated inhabitants either forced into slave labor or as cannon fodder in the frontlines.
As for the Republic of Cybertron, many colony worlds flocked to their cause in order to repel any attacks from the Combatrons. Notable Republic allies included Velocitron, Athenia, Planet V, Zone, Archon, Regulon IV, Lithone, Messatine, Carcer, Arduria, and Neutronia.
As part of an early attempt to slow down the Combatrons' expansion, the Primal Vanguard immediately mobilized a fleet to the besieged areas in the Republic's outer sectors. Arriving in proximity to Croteus XII, Dromedon, and Omicron, the first Cybertronian war fleet found itself ensnared in a Combatron trap. Surrounded by Combatron warships and turncoat allies, the Vanguard fleet was forced to scatter and retreat to Daffodil II in order to avoid complete annihilation.
The Siege of Knerax Minor: With the capture of a majority of the outer colonies and the rout of the Cybertronian forces there, the Combatrons turned their sights on a valuable new target: the Knerax System. The star system's main planet, Knerax Minor, was the home of significant Cybertronian starship manufacturing facilities which presented a tempting target for the invading forces. The Combatrons easily conquered Knerax Minor, which was entirely undefended with the Republic forces scattered. For the majority of the Combatron Wars, the shipyards of Knerax Minor would construct many destructive warships for the Combatrons such as the Revenge-class, the Hellfire-class, the Goliath-class, the Immolator-class, and the Sledgehammer-class. (Many of these ships leftover from the Combatron Wars would be utilized by the Decepticons during the Third Cybertronian Civil War in their early campaigns in space. They would also serve as the inspiration for the Decepticons' own Worldburner-class.)
The Defense of the Salvataan System: Despite the violence of this attacks, not all Senators were convinced of the threat they faced, believing that the Combatrons can easily defeated if only the military could devise an effective strategy, believing the Senate paralyzed by indecision. The Cybertronian Armed Forces decided to matters to their own hands as Ginrai of the Primal Vanguard and Sentinel Zeta of the Elite Guard led by their respective forces to defend the Salvataan System from the Combatrons. They hoped that this action would spur the Republic of Cybertron into action, and indeed they were successful in doing so. After witnessing the heroism of the military on the news feeds, lines began to form at countless recruitment centers across Cybertron and its colonies.
As the public clamored for action, the Senate came together and began proper planning for war. Though having already faced a number of defeats, the unified Republic of Cybertron rallied to defend itself from any attacks by the Combatrons. As the forces of the Salvataan System struggled to themselves from the Combatrons, a Primal Vanguard taskforce led by Commander Delta Magnus was sent to the Beta System to destroy a blockade that was strangling the flow of supplies to Cybertronian troops at Salvataan. Delta Magnus' forces were able to break the blockade, allowing much needed supplies to resume travelling to the besieged Salvataan System soldiers.
Approx. 17 million stellar cycles ago
The Combatrons went on to seize many worlds and their rich resources. Battlegrounds included Kambryar, Vespa II, and Paryadisou, the latter seeing many of its floating cities destroyed, despite attempts to remain neutral. Any world that attempted to defy the Combatrons was simply razed to the ground, sometimes serving as testing grounds for new weapons. The most notable example of this wave of careless genocide was the Devastation of Neutronia, when the Neutronians refused to swear their allegiance to the Combatrons, High General Gigatron ordered his entire fleet to fire missiles armed with super energon warheads, which were powerful to destroy the entire planet until it was nothing but an asteroid field. In the wake of their planet's destruction, the surviving Neutronians were forced to live an interstellar nomadic lifestyle.
Headed by the Combatron-allied Insecticon alchemist Venom, the Combatron Biological Warfare Program creates and weaponizes genetically-engineered, mutated variants of the infamous Rust Plague. This allows them to employ many dangerous biological weapons such as the dreaded Red Rust, which kills tens of thousands of Cybertronian soldiers in seconds. Through their intelligence network, the Cybertronian Armed Forces learn of the new bioweapon and are able to manufacture a vaccine to slow the spread of Red Rust. Taking example from this, they also begin the secret development of their own Rust Plague-based biological weapons that are then deployed to destroy strategic worlds to the Combatron war machine.
The Devastation of Oria: The minor Cybertronian colony of Oria is destroyed when the Combatrons employ Red Rust in the initial battle, killing most, if not all, of the planet's population. The sole survivor of the attack, Conflux, is brought to Cybertron and recruited into the Functionist High Council by Steelheart when she founds out that he is a high-level Outlier, believing that his abilities may be useful under her command one day.
The First Battle of Athenia: The Combatrons rashly sent an invasion force to the colony Athenia, however, the Cybertronians were well-prepared for defense. The Elite Guard unit stationed there had anticipated the attack and, in a risky maneuver, gathered their entire fleet over Athenia. The Combatrons were caught completely off guard and then utterly obliterated.
After many defeats and pyrrhic victories, the Republic of Cybertron gained a significant victory over the Combatron war machine. The news of the victory on Athenia proved a great boon, rekindling hope and generally increasing morale throughout the besieged Republic.
The Second Battle of Athenia: The sweetness of victory, however, would be short-lived. Seeking vengeance for their humiliating defeat, the Combatrons sent a much larger force back to Athenia. With powerful planetary shields in place, an Elite Guard attack battalion-led by Second Cybertronian Civil War veteran Zeemon Magnus of the Guard's Magnus Corps-were able to force the Combatron forces into a ground battle. While the Combatrons devastated the Cybertronians, they were inflicted so much damaged during the battle that they were forced to retreat. The Second Battle of Athenia was ultimately a draw in terms of material gain and loss, but the heroic sacrifice of Zeemon Magnus and his troops gave Cybertronian troops galaxy-wide a memory around which to rally.
The Warworld Campaign: The Combatrons wasted no time in developing new projects for their war machine. One result was the Warworld-class, a prototype orbital battle station created from a cyberformed asteroid that became the prized flagship of Overlord himself. The Warworld's maiden voyage cut a swath through Cybertronian territory, striking in several star systems and annihilating all forms of resistance that stood in its way. In order to eradicate the Combatron's new superweapon, the Cybertronians lure the Warworld in a trap near Opulus, where a Primal Vanguard strike team led by Ginrai storms into the battle station and fight their way through swarms of enemy soldiers to destroy its core. Disgraced, Overlord and his remaining forces are forced to retreat back to Tuurok. The Republic of Cybertron then celebrate this major victory as the threat of the Warworld was dealt with.
The Siege of Caminus: Caminus was targeted for conquest by the Combatrons, with an invasion soon followed. With the aid of the Primal Vanguard, the colony's local militia, the Torchbearers, organized a resistance group to defend their world. The Camiens would soon be aided by a division of the Cybertronian Defense Forces led by former Destron Ironhide, now a Colonel in the CDF, liberating the planet. During the siege, Ironhide meets a senior member of the Camien militia named Chromia, who would join the Defense Forces in their overarching fight against the Combatrons and the two would become long-time partners in the war.
The Musuumei Incursion: On the fringes of Cybertronian space, the Combatrons discover the biomechanical planet Musuumei, which was home to a sentient race of gynoids collectively known as the Musume. Taking advantage of the Musume's isolation from the wider galaxy, Overlord and his High Generals feed them propaganda that spoke of Cybertron's "betrayal" and allowing them to serve the Combatron army as elite shocktroopers and blitzkrieg fighters against the Cybertronian Armed Forces. After several devastating battles against the Musume, a Primal Vanguard diplomatic team led by Goldbug go to Musuumei, where they leave the lies of the Combatrons in order to rid their enemy from their allies. After dissolving their alliance with the Combatrons, the Musume align themselves with the Republic of Cybertron for the remainder of the war, with some of them serving as intel experts for the Cybertronian Security Operations in exchange for forgiveness. After the war, Musuumei is then formally established as a Cybertronian protectorate, though the Musume have remained a relatively isolated people, mostly keeping to themselves.
The Animatronian Blockade: Following orders from Overlord, Yharon ordered the Animatronian fleet to blockade the Republic of Cybertron's most critical trade routes. Soon, the Cybertronians found themselves with no raw goods or supplies to support their citizens in the inner sectors. An unlikely hero proved to be the savior of Cybertron, Cannonball, a space pirate motivated by the possibility of great profit in a time of dire need, organized a pirate fleet to defeat the blockade and enrich himself in the process. With the aid of Elite Guard and Primal Vanguard support ships, Cannonball's fleet were to able lay waste to the blockade and deliver large amounts of resources for the war effort.
Cannonball would be rewarded a medal of honor in the great halls of Iacon by Nominus Prime himself in honor of his efforts of breaking the blockade. This event would mark the Cybertronian space pirate as a legend among space travelers as following his death, many pirates and smugglers through the ages would take up the name "Cannonball" in the hopes of living up to his legacy.
Following the Animatronian Blockade, Yharon is overthrown and exiled by the young honorable warrior Firebane. Though the allegiance of Animatros' new leader was uncertain, the Animatronians ceased to be a military threat to Cybertron during the remainder of the war.
At some point of time, during a mission, the Wreckers are betrayed by one of their own, Valve, who led them into a trap that resulted in the deaths of several members, including the group's founder and leader Threnody. Afterwards, Crest takes Threnody's place as leader of the Wreckers for the meantime.
Approx. 16 million stellar cycles ago
With a majority of the inner and outer Cybertronian colonies under their control, the Combatrons spearheaded an invasion of Cybertron, hoping that the war would be brought to a quick end. The Combatron invasion of Cybertron would be known as the Razing of Cybertron, which saw most of the planet being brought to ruin. Despite their many losses, the Cybertronians were able to counterattack as all of them who were willing to fight would be put through the wringer to defend their home. With the aid of all of the available Omega Sentinels and Titans, the Cybertronian Armed Forces were able to force the Combatrons off of Cybertron. However, the Razing of Cybertron left the planet heavily ravaged. The most notable battle during the Razing was the infamous Battle of Tarn-Hauser Gate, which resulted in the largest mass-grave in all of Cybertronian history at the time.
Following the Razing of Cybertron, the Cybertronian Armed Forces, now bolstered with a seemingly endless wave of new recruits, were able to regroup and launch a massive counteroffensive against the Combatrons, gaining the upper hand as they liberated hundreds of colonies and other worlds from Overlord's forces. Using this newfound standing, the Cybertronians initiated Operation Severance, a major campaign to strike at key enemy targets with speed including shipyards, factories, and key planets in quantum trails to isolate the Combatron throneworld of Tuurok as much as possible from its allies and resources.
End of the Combatron Wars: Once Tuurok was isolated, the combined forces of the Cybertronian Elite Guard, the Primal Vanguard, and the Cybertronian Defense Forces led by Nominus Prime, Sentinel Zeta, Magnum, Delta Magnus, Ginrai, and Traachon, with the aid of several allies, were able to break through the planet's defense fleet and deployed legions of troops onto the ground to engage the Combatron forces. The campaign to capture Tuurok was long and arduous, with a great cost on both sides, but after a long final year of the Combatron Wars, Tuurok was finally captured, while Overlord was finally captured by Ginrai after a brutal duel in the halls of Ashmar Citadel.
With the Combatron Wars at an end, Cybertron and its colonies began to rebuild with all of the heavy damage from the war, necessitating large amounts of post-war reconstruction throughout the eons.
After the war, Ginrai is promoted into a Brigadier General of the Primal Vanguard.
Ironhide and Chromia spark-bond with each other, becoming conjunx endura who then retire from the military to serve as freelance soldiers-for-hire living on Cybertron.
Alpha Trion decides to retire from being a Senator, returning to his full-time role as Cybertron's head recordskeeper at the Iacon Hall of Records. The position of Senator of Iacon is later given to Torenia Pax, Ginrai's spark-sister and a well-respected Matriarch within the Iaconian Nobility.
As for the Combatrons, the faction was immediately dissolved following their High Command's decimation at Tuurok. Combatron was placed under interdiction by the Elite Guard under the Senate's orders, leaving the planet's remaining population living in destitute. Many of the Combatron High Generals were forever exiled from Cybertronian space, while others were captured by the military or law enforcement, and some slipped under the radar. The colonies that were originally allied with the Combatrons during the war were allowed to rejoin the Republic of Cybertron in spite of heavy scrutiny from native Cybertronians who viewed them as traitors. The Combatron footsoldiers were offered a chance to reenter society, though found themselves under massive discrimination and prejudice, leading to many becoming criminals and mercenaries. (A large majority of former Combatrons would be among the early waves of recruits in the Ascenticon/Decepticon Movement.)
After his trial overseen by Nominus Prime at the Grand Imperium, Overlord was then sentenced to life imprisonment at Penal Facility H-3 (nicknamed "the Rig"), just outside the Badlands. There, he was kept in solitary confinement and under constant guard. Despite his defeat at Tuurok, Overlord did accomplish something-he humbled Cybertron and brought it to its knees. So, in a way, he won the Combatron Wars.
The Combatron Wars was a dark period in Transformer history. While it wasn't all that much devastating to the Third Cybertronian Civil War that would follow, hundreds of worlds were decimated or destroyed. Not just Cybertronian worlds, but also those who were home to various alien races, many of which were driven to extinction as they were caught in the crossfire when the war occasionally spilled out of Cybertronian territory. Some of these worlds destroyed were member worlds or close allies to the Galactic Council. This resulted in the rise of anti-mechanoid prejudice in GC space as many within the Galactic Council's populace feared the possibility of another "Cybertronian invasion" while their leadership ordered the expansion of their starfleets in preparation of a possible war with Cybertron.
The Border Wars: In response to the devastation brought on by the Combatron Wars, the Galactic Council rally their armies and starfleets to prevent the Cybertronians' expansion, under the pretense to stop another potential invasion. This results in a series of border skirmishes between the Republic of Cybertron and the Galactic Council. Though it only lasted for two years, enough damage was done across several planets that both sides reluctantly agreed to a peace treaty, or at least a long-term ceasefire. After the war, the entire Cybertronian race was blacklisted from ever joining the Galactic Council.
In order to prevent another conflict with the Galactic Council, Nominus Prime passes the Nominus Edict, a piece of legislation that halted all further efforts of colonization and deep space exploration, effectively isolating the Republic of Cybertron from the rest of the galaxy to ensure national security and stability as they recover from the past wars. The edict would become a controversial decision for many within the civilian populace that would be debated about for many eons to come.
Following this, the Senate decided it was time for a power play. The power-hungry First Senator Proteus decided that the time was right for the Senate to take power. Using their far more organized regimen, the Senate passed legislation that gave them increasing power. The caste system, which was originally meant to temporary, became a permanent institute in Cybertronian society overseen by the Functionist High Council. With Nominus Prime subordinate to them, the Senate and the Functionists would be the authoritarian ruling powers of Cybertron.
The Age of Havoc came to an end as the Cybertronians' new era of expansion and prosperity ended, and the Senate and the Functionist High Council grew increasingly corrupt. The growing disparity between the ruling body and the civilian population would eventually help give rise to the Decepticon Movement in the near future. The Six-Gigacycle War, the Combatron Wars, the Border Wars, and the passing of the Nominus Edict would greatly reduce Cybertron's grandeur as the eons went by, sparking a series of events that would result in the outbreak of the Third Cybertronian Civil War and the Fall of Cybertron...