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TRANSFORMERS BEYOND

LEGENDARIUM

Chapter XIX

The Great War

Part VI

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Approx. 4.7 million stellar cycles ago

Following a faint energy signature that resembles the AllSpark, the Ark enters an unexplored region of space and discovers the cyberformed ocean world of Aquatron, colonized by the Great Cybertronian Empire during the Golden Age. The Aquatronians welcome the Autobots in peace, offering them energon and other resources to aid the Autobot Commonwealth against their Decepticon enemies. However, in a surprising twist of events, the Aquatronians suddenly betray the Autobots, revealing the presence of the Ark to Megatron and then disable both the Autobot flagship and the Nemesis. The Aquatronian leader Deseeus reveals themselves to actually be a Quintesson Judge and takes Optimus Prime, Megatron, and their respective crews captive, using a kill switch that deactivates Cybertronians to incapacitate both forces on Aquatron. While in captivity, Team Prime and Team Kaon discover that millions of years ago, when Cybertron and the inner colonies lost contact with Aquatron and the rest of the outer colonies amidst the chaos brought by the Rust Plague, Aquatron was conquered by the Quintessons, who annexed the virtually defenseless planet into their Quintesson Pan Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere in the hopes of using it as a launching point for their eventual reconquest of Cybertron. The Aquatronians themselves are then modified by their invaders into mind-controlled slaves with little to no memory of their Cybertronian origins.

On Cybertron, Lockdown locates and incapacitates Alpha Trion, taking him to Shockwave where the Decepticon scientist hooks up the ancient recordskeeper to Vector Sigma in an attempt to take control of the master computer. But Lockdown reveals himself to be working for the Quintessons, and the connection between Alpha Trion and Vector Sigma allows the Quintessons to reactivate an ancient Space Bridge beneath Iacon, which allows the Quintesson army on Aquatron to easily invade the city. As Sharkticons and Terrorbots flood into the Autobot capital during the Seventh Battle of Iacon, Gelgastorm's Decepticons struggle to overcome the invaders and Shockwave himself fights Lockdown. With the planet on the verge of falling to the enemy, Ultra Magnus and Gelgastorm forge an unexpected alliance between their forces against the Quintessons. Meanwhile, Shockwave reluctantly frees his reluctant former mentor, Alpha Trion, and the two work together to successfully deactivate the Space Bridge.

On Aquatron, Optimus Prime and Megatron work side-by-side to free the Ark and Nemesis crews from their captors. During their escape, Megatron kills Deseeus and destroys his control device over the Aquatronians, freeing them from their servitude. Thankful for their savior, the Aquatronians swear their allegiance to Megatron and promise to join the Decepticons in their fight against the Autobots as a sign of gratitude, once Aquatron is fully liberated from Quintesson control. As the Ark and the Nemesis are forced to flee from the planet before an approaching Quintesson armada, Megatron swears vengeance on their captors.

Start of the Sixth Quintesson Wars: Under the command of the Alpha Quintesson, the Quintesson Expeditionary Forces attack Novatron and the Decepticon capital world of New Kaon, conquering both worlds. Optimus Prime and Megatron form an temporary alliance against this new threat out of Cybertronian history, pooling in their strategic and tactical resources in the Cybertronian Grand Alliance.

Approx. 4.6 million stellar cycles ago

The allied forces of the Autobots and the Decepticons on Cybertron succeed in rounding up the remaining Quintesson forces on the planet, though Shockwave has been forced to supply them with many of his secret caches of synthetic energon that was meant for his Regenesis Program in the process, setting his plans back by millennia. With the Cybertronian Grand Alliance still at war out in space, the two sides maintain an uneasy truce on the homeworld.

Approx. 4.5 million stellar cycles ago

The Cybertronian Grand Alliance liberates New Kaon from the Quintessons. As the Autobots prepare to push forward to liberate Novatron, the Decepticons betray their Autobot allies and instead push ahead into Quintesson territory to show the enemy the error of opposing the might of the Decepticon Star Empire.

Despite the collapse of the Cybertronian Grand Alliance, the Autobots are successful in liberating Novatron, thanks in part to the distraction offered by the Decepticon invasion of the Quintesson Pan Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere. Captured Quintesson soldiers self-destruct rather than be subject to interrogation, leaving the Autobots ignorant of the aims of their enemy.

With the Quintessons withdrawing from Autobot Commonwealth territory to defend their own sectors from the Decepticons, Autobot High Command is divided on their next course of action. Three main factions emerge: the first led by Optimus Prime and Elita-One who want to hold the line on the borders of Autobot space and use military intelligence to learn more about their enemy while maintaining the peace, the second led by Ultra Magnus and Sentinel Major who wish to push ahead into Quintesson territory and bloody their noses so the squids don't try to another invasion attempt, and a third faction led by Prowl and Thunderclash who want to join the Decepticons in crushing the Quintessons to prevent any chance of future incursions. In the end, Prime's and Elita's faction gains the advantage in the discussions.

With the Cybertronian Grand Alliance ended, the fragile peace on Cybertron between Gelgastorm and Ultra Magnus ends and the Autobot-Elite Guard resistance are forced to return to their underground guerilla conflict in Iacon as Gelgastorm sends Trannis to reestablish Decepticon rule elsewhere on the planet.

Alpha Trion departs Cybertron aboard the Autobot starship Dawn Treader to prevent himself falling into Shockwave's hands a second time.

Approx. 4.4 million stellar cycles ago

With surreptitious support from Prowl who provides them with a cover story, Autobot general Thunderclash and his troops aboard his starship Vis Vitalis head out from Commonwealth territory to support the Decepticons' assault on the Quintesson Pan Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere. Avoiding contact with the main Decepticon forces, Thunderclash and his soldiers harry the Quintesson Expeditionary Forces away from the main Decepticon advance, dividing the Quintesson lines so the Decepticon advance is more successful and ensuring their ancient enemy is left in no doubt as to the result of attacking the Autobot Commonwealth.

Approx. 4.3 million stellar cycles ago

Thunderclash and his men are captured by the Quintesson Expeditionary Forces at the Battle of Huldracron, and their involvement in the Sixth Quintesson Wars is revealed to Autobot High Command. Prowl denies any capability and disowns Thunderclash and his men, but Optimus Prime's hand is forced and the Autobots renew their fight with the Quintessons to liberate Thunderclash and the rest of the Vis Vitalis crew.

After he's freed, Thunderclash agrees to keep Prowl's secret, but the military strategist's betrayal leaves a long-standing distrust and rivalry between the two Autobots from that day on.

Approx. 4.2 million stellar cycles ago

At the Battle of Xarus IX, Optimus Prime battles the Quintesson-aligned Sharkticon general Tyrannicon and succeeds in defeating the brutal tyrant, heavily crippling the Quintesson war effort. The Quintessons sue for peace with the Autobot Commonwealth, who agree to withdraw their forces from Quintesson territory, but the Decepticon Star Empire continues their advance on the Quintesson homeworlds. Megatron regards the Autobot peace treaty as a betrayal of Cybertron itself, deepening his contempt with his former friend Optimus.

Approx. 4.1 million stellar cycles ago

The Siege of Quintessa: The entire Decepticon battlefleet besieges the Quintesson throneworld of Quintessa, bombarding the planet from orbit and rendering it uninhabitable. The surviving Quintessons led by Alpha Quintesson and their council of Quintesson Lords escape their homeworld's destruction via Space Bridge to a pre-prepared evacuation point at their far-off colony world of New Quintessa (formerly the Ejoornian homeworld of Ejoornus) where they can rebuild their now-shattered empire and plot their revenge against the Cybertronians.

After the Sixth Quintesson Wars, Shockwave succeeds in reverse-engineering Quintesson Space Bridge technology as he secretly begins construction of his own prototype Space Bridge in Kaon, hoping to give the Decepticons a tactical edge against the Autobots. Luckily, the Autobot resistance on Cybertron is able to steal the technical readouts on the new Space Bridge and transmit them to the Autobot Commonwealth on Novatron, beginning development of their own Space Bridges.

Aquatron officially becomes a member of the Decepticon Star Empire following the ousting of its Quintesson tyrants.

The Ark makes contact with the Neutronians, who have been living as space nomads after their homeworld of Neutronia was destroyed long ago during the Combatron Wars. After meeting with Optimus Prime, the Neutronians decide to join the Autobot Commonwealth.

The Nemesis makes a supply run at the Azazel Asteroid Field. However, they discover too late that the asteroid field was home to a wandering colony of Scraplets, which invade the ship and begin devouring its crew. While the Decepticons are able to exterminate the Scraplet colony with liquid nitrogen, Megatron laments that the bulk of his crew's fighting force was lost, including his elite lieutenants Destroyer and Skybolt, who were old friends of his during his days as a miner before the war and who were among his first recruits in the Ascenticon Movement.

Approx. 4.0 million stellar cycles ago

Ambush of Floron III: The faint signal of the AllSpark is detected by an Autobot patrol flotilla passing by the abandoned Cybertronian colony of Floron III. Word is relayed back to Optimus Prime who heads in pursuit aboard the Ark, tracking the signal down to an uncharted star system. However, their message is intercepted by Megatron and the Nemesis who decimate the entire flotilla and lock on to the Ark's trajectory to the AllSpark's location. Eventually, the Ark has finally tracked down the AllSpark to the solar system's third planet, an unmapped organic world that would be known as Earth. However, before the Autobots get the chance to make planetfall, they are suddenly attacked by the Nemesis which has emerged from unspace. The two mighty starships engage one another in brutal space combat across Earth's orbit until the Nemesis disables the Ark with their tractor beam. Megatron leads a boarding party to finally put an end to Optimus Prime before he has the change to get the AllSpark before he does. The battle is engaged in earnest aboard the Ark, the intensity of the combat causing both ships to plunge into the planet's gravity well: the Ark with all its inhabitants crash-lands on Earth as it collides to the side of a volcano in the northwestern regions of modern-day North America, rendering everyone inoperative as the ship is gradually buried beneath the surface, while the Nemesis, with no one aboard to control it, sinks into one of the planet's large oceans.