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TRANSFORMERS BEYOND
LEGENDARIUM
Chapter XIII
The Cold War
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The Cybertronian Cold War was a period of geopolitical tension on Cybertron between the Autobots and the Decepticons and their respective allies, which began following the Sacking of Kaon.
Approx. 11 million stellar cycles ago
Despite the fall of both the Senate and the Functionist High Council, Cybertron's future has become darker than ever with war on the near horizon.
The Decepticon Brothers Megatron and Gelgastorm, and their followers have slaughtered a majority of the Senate's most influential members and storm the city-state of Kaon in what's known as the Sacking of Kaon, taking the capital of the Badlands for themselves under the Decepticon banner. Declaring himself as the Supreme Leader of the Decepticons with pride, Megatron, along with his closest lieutenants Gelgastorm, Nightshade, Soundwave, Starscream, Shockwave, Strafejetter, Overlord, and Trannis, begin heavily militarizing Kaon, forming their own military junta with the city as their capital.
Following the death of Logos Prime during the Sacking of Kaon by Megatron, the Creation Matrix of Leadership is recovered from the battle by the Elite Guard and the remaining members of the Senate debate on who should chosen as the next Matrix-bearer. Initially, they chose Orion Pax as the next Prime, believing him to be a direct descendant of the Thirteen Primes after they discovered that Orion bore a sigil that represented The Arisen, the thirteenth and final member of the Thirteen Primes whose true name has been forever lost to history. However, Orion denied the role as he didn't believe that he was a Prime, believing instead that he would bring good to Cybertron as a valiant soldier fighting for the common people. Sentinel Zeta is then chosen to claim the Creation Matrix, becoming Sentinel Prime. His leadership-relying heavily on pageantry and theatrical displays of force-restores a semblance of order to Cybertron. His first act as Prime was the abolishment of Functionism, finally ending the oppressive caste system after 21 million years since its establishment. Orion Pax becomes his deputy commander, while Sentinel's original second-in-command Magnum is promoted as Commander-in-Chief of the Cybertronian Elite Guard. Under his leadership, Sentinel Prime reorganizes the Autobots, once an anti-Functionist resistance group, into the Autobot Defense Forces, a counter-terrorism militia that'll safeguard the people where the Senate and the Functionists did not.
The Autobot Academy-overseen by Elite Guard Lieutenant Sentinel Major-is formed to recruit and train new Autobots to become officers, with a significant number of them given the opportunity to be accepted into the Elite Guard.
Sentinel Prime reforms the Cybertronian Senate as the New Senate with Senator Halogen of Nova Cronum as its First Senator.
The Autobots and the Decepticons enter an era of uneasy peace, as both sides undergoing heavy military build-up. The Autobots lived free to choose their own paths in life, becoming a group of artisans rich with culture and energon. The Decepticons primarily focused on the development of their military, constructing great fortresses and warships in preparation for a possible war.
Approx. 10 million stellar cycles ago
The Annexation of Tarn: Megatron aims to expand the Decepticons' supremacy by annexing other city-states. The first city-state is be absorbed into Decepticon territory would be Megatron's and Gelgastorm's home city, Tarn. The interim leaders of Tarn wished to maintain their city's independence, but Megatron sent an ultimatum to them demanding that they hand over all power to the Decepticon cell in Tarn or face an invasion. Decepticon troops led by Megatron and Gelgastorm themselves entered Tarn the next day, to be greeted with enthusiasm by the populace. Shortly after Tarn's annexation, the Decepticons begin work on repairing the many damages inflicted on the city during the Great Fire and giving Tarnians new jobs within the Decepticon workforce.
Vos is next to be conquered. Despite Starscream and his clique of Seekers having joined the Decepticon ranks, his older sister, Seeker Air Commander Deadscream, wishes to maintain the Seekers' and, by extension, Vos' independence. She arranges the murder of the Decepticon-aligned Senator Contrail and becomes the interim governor of Vos, declaring neutrality.
The Vos-Tarn Limited Exchange: In response to Vos' neutrality, the Decepticons begin stirring tensions between Tarn and Vos, as the neighboring city-states have been strong rivals since the Age of Origins, resulting in the two cities launching limited ballistic missile strikes against each other. This event would be the first time Cybertronians warred against one another ever since the Combatron Wars. Though the New Senate and the Autobot Defense Forces succeed in preventing the conflict spreading further afield and defuse the crisis, other libertarian city-states across the planet begin to declare neutrality and independence from Iacon's "repressive" government.
The Annexation of Vos: Following their failure with the Vos-Tarn Limited Exchange, the Decepticons form a massive army led by Nightshade and Shockwave at the Vos-Tarn borders to invade Vos for themselves, however, they can't get pass the city's defenses. In order to gain more power in Decepticon High Command, Starscream challenges his sister in a trial by combat for the title of Seeker Air Commander, with him winning through a dirty trick at the last minute. After killing Deadscream, Starscream provided the Decepticons a "backdoor" through Vos' defenses, including scrambling the programming of the city's array of ion cannons so that they would not fire on Decepticon spark signatures, allowing them to invade the city with little resistance. Among the Decepticons who participated in the annexation of Vos was an elite commando under the command of former Combatron High General Turmoil who went by the name of Deadlock, who was infamously known as the "Butcher of Vos" for his high kill-count of Autobot sympathizers and Neutralists.
In return for his assistance at Vos, Starscream was not only made Air Commander of the Seekers and all other Decepticon aerospace forces, but also given the position of Megatron's second-in-command. Under Starscream's leadership, the Seekers as a whole swore their undying allegiance to the Decepticons and Megatron, but a few members felt betrayed when their new Air Commander allowed Vos to be easily conquered and therefore joined the Autobots. Thundercracker, Skywarp, Slipstream, Jetfire, Dreadwing, and Skyquake would become Starscream's top lieutenants within the Seekers' upper echelons.
The Annexation of Helex: After Vos's annexation, Megatron and Gelgastorm sends a contingency of Decepticons into the low-caste city of Helex, and swiftly take control, taking numerous workers and Cybertronian Defense Force members into their ranks. They easily capture the city's interim government and the Autobot troops stationed there, taking them hostage to try and extort resources from the Autobots. Orion Pax leads a team; Ariel, Dion, Goldbug, Ironhide, and Ricochet into the city's underbelly to rescue the hostages, where they are met by Magnum and his Elite Guard unit. With a couple of his soldiers held hostage, Magnum joins Orion's team on their mission. Throughout the mission, Magnum gives Orion lessons of leadership, as the young Autobot commander struggles to take the transition from social movement to armed militia. They link up with their contact, Helex native and fellow Autobot Swerve, who shows them through the city's underground and assists them in rescuing their allies. Despite their mission's success, Helex firmly remains within Decepticon territory.
The Annexation of Tesarus: The Decepticons then target the artisan city-state of Tesarus for conquest. As they march into the city's streets, a Decepticon advance group led by the disgraced Six Clan Cyber-Ninja Sixshot join forces with the city's local militia, who believe that the Decepticons are more suited to serve as Cybertron's ruling body. Together, they overthrow Tesarus' governor and easily take over the city, quelling any sign of resistance almost immediately.
The Decepticon annexation and occupation of Kaon, Tarn, Vos, Helex, and Tesarus would be forever known as the Fall of the First Five Cities by future historians.
Paranoid of a possible attack at one another, the Autobots and the Decepticons become recklessly in their use of energon. Both Sentinel Prime and Megatron excessively used the lifeblood of their planet in their military build-ups, even more so than the Senate and the Functionist High Council ever did, all in the name of national security. Inevitably, Cybertron began to experience an energy crisis the likes of which had not been since the Great Energon Famine during the Age of Rust. The AllSpark weakened as it began to stop producing energon, Vector Sigma's life-giving pulse waves drastically slowed down, and the planet's very environment seemed to wither away. Megatron made speeches blaming the Autobots for Cybertron's state, claiming that only the efficiency of the Decepticon way of life could save Cybertron. He further claimed the Cybertronians should enact another Expansion into other worlds and reaffirm Cybertronian dominance of the galaxy, under the Decepticon banner, of course.
As the energy crisis began to bite, Decepticon terrorist cells from across the planet begin raiding energon docks and mines in Autobot-allied and neutral city-states. Sentinel Prime responds to this by tasking the Autobot Defense Forces and Omega Sentinels to defend their resources.
With the support of the New Senate, Sentinel Prime commissions the Autotroopers-a new military police force of drones cloned from their original template-to serve as the Autobots' main infantry. In response to this, the Decepticons create their own clone soldiers called Eradicons to guard their cities. The Autotroopers and the Eradicons do not have sparks nor the same level of sentience as regular Transformers, but unlike most drones, they possess some degree of sentience in order to complete tasks that require thinking.
Orion Pax would quickly become a rising star in the Autobot Defense Forces, becoming one of Sentinel Prime's most trusted officers as he's promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander and helps in the fight to defend Cybertron's resources against the increasing depredations of Megatron's Decepticons.
In order to prevent future Decepticon attacks, Sentinel takes numerous actions to root out illegal activity, which eventually leads to shutting down popular venues like racetracks. This temporarily puts star racer Blurr, who immigrated to Cybertron from his colony world Velocitron to seek fame, out of the spotlight. Sometime later, Blurr gets caught in Autobot/Decepticon crossfire, but Orion Pax convinces him to turn his self-confidence to the Autobot cause when the Velocitronian helps them in informing Sentinel Prime of the Decepticons' attack plans.
As the Decepticon raids continued, Sentinel's forces start to crack down on any Decepticon sympathizers within the Autobot city-states, advocating the use of lethal force as several citizens who are suspected of having Decepticon allegiance are murdered in police custody by corrupt enforcers. This led to many Autobots being disillusioned by this decadence, among them being Onslaught, leader of a renowned Elite Guard black ops unit known as the Combaticons. Onslaught begins listening to Megatron's speeches on the Communication Grid. He would eventually travel in secret to Kaon to meet Megatron. The two discuss politics, ethics and history for many long hours, at the end of which Onslaught is convinced that Megatron's political idealism is precisely what Cybertron needs to rediscover itself. Onslaught later convinced the other Combaticons-Brawl, Blast Off, Swindle, Vortex, and Blight-to follow him to defect from the Autobots to join Megatron's growing army in the Badlands. The Combaticons' defection throws the New Senate into disarray, and drives a wedge between it and its defenders in the Autobot Defense Forces and the Elite Guard.
Around this time, Shockwave's research into combiners finally determines the genetic keys that govern the process, and he uses the secret of combination to forge lesser copies of the Enigma of Combination called Combination Cores. He first tests the Combination Cores on the Combaticons, allowing them to merge together to form Bruticus Maximus, the first and most feared of the modern combiners. Impressed by Bruticus' success, Megatron and Gelgastorm order Shockwave to build more combiners, resulting in the creation of Devastator from the Constructicons. The combiners begin to rampage across city-states and decimating Autobot garrisons, reinforcing Decepticon territory. In response to this, Sentinel Prime orders a team of Autobots scientists led by a young Wheeljack to unlock the secrets of the Enigma of Combination in the hopes of creating Autobot combiners against the Decepticons'.
During the waning years of the Cold War, Orion Pax and Megatron would reunite after all these ano-cycles as they have their very first showdown which would become legendary; Orion, accompanied by the Triggerbots, faces Megatron and the Triggercons to defend the ages of accumulated knowledge contained within the Underbase near Stanix from falling into Decepticon hands. In the end, he is forced to blast the massive database into space, destroying Boltax and the Temple of Knowledge in the process. While Boltax was destroyed during the battle, it was later revealed that he was able to copy his mind into a Minicon-sized body named Cybaxx, who joins the Autobots as part of their exploration and scientific team, the Technobots. Despite the loss of the Underbase, Sentinel Prime promotes Orion Pax to overall General of the Autobot Defense Forces for his valor and bravery. This "victory" helped make Orion's career, but he knew he'd been driven by pride and glory-seeking. It is a guilt he will carry with him for the rest of his existence.
The Asphalt Wars: The Autobot Defense Forces and the Elite Guard wage a campaign across the planet's southern hemisphere to locate and neutralize Decepticon fuel depots and weapon caches in an attempt to defuse the threat of total war. The Decepticons are forced to self-destruct many of their major weapons manufacturing operations in order to prevent their plans from being uncovered.
Orion Pax spark-bonds with Ariel, the two officially becoming conjunx endura.
Approx. 9 million stellar cycles ago
Sentinel Prime and the New Senate are approached by Megatron with a deal, offering to work together to solve the energy crisis and end the hostilities. The New Senate were reluctant to accept, but because they wanted peace for Cybertron, they agreed, however, Sentinel ordered a team of Autobots led by Orion Pax to watch the meeting from behind-the-scenes and to intervene if necessary. Sentinel and Megatron have their meeting at the Grand Imperium in Iacon. At first, it seemed that they agreed that Cybertron needed to expand and seek energon on other worlds. But they quickly disagreed when Megatron made it clear he wanted the Autobots to conform to his fascist ideals, and that the Decepticons fully intended to conquer and exploit inhabited planets. When Sentinel Prime disagreed, Megatron revealed the entire meeting to be a trap as he knew that the Autobots would never stand aside by his plans, and his Decepticons launched a surprise attack. While a few Senators like Kudon, Vraz, Crisscross, Aviator, and Synettica are killed during the battle, but thankfully Sentinel Prime and the rest of the New Senate are able to survive as the Autobots are able to drive Megatron's forces out of Iacon.
Following the assassination attempt at the Grand Imperium, Orion Pax travels to Kaon to make one last effort to peacefully negotiate with his old friend, asking him to end hostilities and allow them to diplomatically solve their issues. With neither Megatron or Orion willing to bend to the other, Megatron promised to declare open war on his once friend and his faction if Sentinel Prime still doesn't accept his demands. Later on, with Sentinel still refusing to bend to the Decepticon leader's will, Megatron would keep to his promise as from atop his old home at the Nova Point Mine in Tarn, he holds what is forever known as Declaration Day, claiming that the future of Cybertron rightfully belongs to the Decepticons. This announcement would be forever remembered as the official commencement of the Third Cybertronian Civil War...