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TRANSFORMERS BEYOND

LEGENDARIUM

Chapter VII

The Silver Age

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The Silver Age of Cybertron was a period of time where Cybertron saw peace and prosperity, a precursor to the swashbuckling days of the Golden Age to come in the far future. However, it wouldn't last...

Approx. 525 million stellar cycles ago:

The ancient city-states of Cybertron are united under the aegis and protection of the Cybertronian Commonwealth, governed by Septimus Prime and the Council of Ancients. Though there are still a few warlords and marauders in the remote corners of Cybertron, the Cybertronian Defense Forces (CDF) had rendered them, for the most part, toothless.

Approx. 510 million stellar cycles ago:

High Circuitmaster Boltax-a friend and former student of Alpha Trion and a member of the Council of Ancients-leaves Iacon to found the Temple of Knowledge near Stanix, along with a group of disciples including his old friends Jhiaxus, Decanus, Rokan, and Tallus. Boltax commissions the creation of the Underbase: a database of all knowledge of the Cybertronian race to be created. Over hundreds of thousands of ano-cycles, all of the data collected is accumulated into the Temple of Knowledge and Boltax and his disciples integrate themselves with the temple itself, forging a collective hive-mind with his disciples and the Underbase.

Approx. 505 million stellar cycles ago:

A Cybertronian archeologist team led by a renowned scientist from Crystal City named Spanner discover buried remains of cities underneath the Oxide Wastes, a large wasteland covered of oxidized metal surrounding the Hydrax Plateau that'll one day be known as the Sea of Rust. The archeologists believe the ruins to have once belonged to the Ancients, the original inhabitants of Cybertron before the creation of the Thirteen Primes. In the ruins, Spanner's team find old schematics of the Ancients' Space Bridges and are able to successfully reverse-engineer the technology, allowing the Cybertronians to create their own Space Bridge design. With the Space Bridges, the Cybertronian Commonwealth constructs an interplanetary transport network between Cybertron and its outposts in the Hadean System.

Approx. 500 million stellar cycles ago:

With the development of the Space Bridge Network, the Cybertronians begin reestablishing contact with the scattered colonies. Representatives from each colony travelled to Cybertron to participate in the Commonwealth government, which would give each world an equal voice in the Council of Ancients. As part of these diplomatic missions, many of the colonies have their surfaces restructured to reflect and complement of the Patterner designs on the homeworld. A Space Bridge is constructed on each of the colony worlds to maintain interstellar travel between one planet to another.

Approx. 495 million stellar cycles ago:

Septimus Prime announces that colonization efforts will begin to explore and cyberform uninhabited worlds outside the territory of the Cybertronian Commonwealth, during which time research will be carried out on discovering new means of propelling Cybertronian civilization beyond their small sector of space into the wider galaxy. For most of the next 25 million years, Cybertronians will head out to establish new colonies. Among the worlds settled during this new wave of colonization include Velocitron, Mons Prima, Omnitron, Biosfera, Vinsi'vallok, Dromedon, and Cryadorr.

Approx. 480 million stellar cycles ago:

Jhiaxus betrays the other founders of the Temple of Knowledge in the moment the Underbase first comes online, slaying the online avatars of Boltax, Tallus, Decanus, and Rokan and using their temporary incapacitation to copy much of the data they have collected and catalogued over the eons for his own personal benefit while erasing their memories of him via their connections to the database. Fleeing Stanix, he sets up a secret laboratory in the undercity of Kalis to begin co-opting the efforts of his former associates.

Approx. 475 million stellar cycles ago:

Mysterious aliens begin sending out scout drones to monitor the activity of the Cybertronian Commonwealth from afar. These aliens would be eventually known as the Quintessons, one of the most feared races in the known universe. The Quintessons' origins can be traced back to the First Cybertronian Civil War's aftermath many eons, when Quintus Prime left Cybertron, using their Emberstone to seed life on planets across the universe in reparation for the destruction caused by his wayward creations, the Horrorcons/Terrorcons who were under the command of their fallen brother, Megatronus Prime. They believed that these new Cybertronic races would one day become allies of Cybertron in the future, if a threat such as Unicron or Megatronus would ever return to wreak havoc on the universe. Once the Emberstone triggered the evolution of life on a planet, Quintus would quickly move on to the next world, leaving the races they spawned to fend for themselves. The first world seeded with the power of the Emberstone was Quintus Prime's former colony world of Quintessa, which would spawn the technorganic Quintessons, who steadily evolved to become a race of scientists and explorers. One day, the Quintessons questioned the purpose of their existence, and so set off into space in search of their absent creator-but when they discovered that they were just one of many experiments Quintus had abandoned, they grew bitter and sought to enact vengeance on Quintus Prime and take the power of the Emberstone for themselves, destroying many of the Cybertronic races that Quintus created in an act of spite during their quest. After eventually capturing Quintus Prime, the Quintessons studied their biology and technology, allowing them to further advance their already-existing technology. With the information they've gained from their creator's biomechanics and with the life-giving powers of the Emberstone, the Quintessons were able to create their own army of technorganic Transformers-the Sharkticons and the Allicons-to serve as their elite guardsmen and attack force. The Quintessons develop an expeditionary fleet of warships based on Cybertronian technology, allowing them to expand their sphere of influence from beyond their sector of the galaxy, occupying many worlds such as Skuxxos, Epsilon Iridani, Prysmos, Brobdingnag, Monacus, Tlalak, Torkulon, Fabricon, Zeotopia, Exton IV, Lanarq, Xetaxxis, Corata-Vaz, Spindrift, and Zamojin, forming their own mercantile empire known as the Quintesson Pan Galactic Co-Prosperity Sphere. Quintus Prime's fate is left unknown, though Alpha Trion suspected that when the Quintessons found no further use of their creator, they must've disposed of them.

The Quintessons had long searched for Cybertron with the goal of turning their distant relatives into mindless workers and sell them into slavery for the highest bidder. Over the following 5 million years, they study the Cybertronians in secret, using a system of probes secretly inserted into some Cybertronians, brainwashing them into sleeper agents that allow them to infiltrate all levels of Cybertronian society. With this network of sleeper agents, they will aid in the planet's development from behind the scenes to suit their own ends.

Approx. 470 million stellar cycles ago:

Septimus Prime vanishes in the Cybertronian hinterlands when he and his personal guardsmen had been hunting down a rogue warlord whose raiders had been attacking the outer sectors of Kaon. Neither the Prime nor any of his troops are seen again, and the Council of Ancients are forced to assume control of the Cybertronian Commonwealth in the absence of a Prime. The Creation Matrix of Leadership is lost and Septimus' plans for Cybertronian expansion are put on hold in the ensuing crisis as the Council attempts to locate the lost artifact. An elderly Amazon Prime emerges from retirement to take the position as acting moderator for the Council of Ancients until any signs of either Septimus Prime or the Creation Matrix is discovered. (It will revealed much later that Septimus and his guards were slaughtered by Quintesson shocktroopers who were preparing for their eventual invasion.)

Agents working for Quintessons make contact with an unsuspecting Jhiaxus in Kalis, promising him all the resources and knowledge he requires to complete his work in return for a few favors in the coming eons.

Approx. 460 million stellar cycles ago:

The Destrons-an autocratic organization claiming to be of descent from Liege Maximo-gain control of the city-states of Kaon, Tarn, Vos, and Altihex. These new Destron States form in opposition to the pacifist ideals of Iacon and begin pressuring the Council of Ancients to end Cybertron's long eons of isolation and follow the ancient Knights of Cybertron into the wider galaxy.

Approx. 455 million stellar cycles ago:

Tales of alien abduction begin to spread throughout Cybertron and the colonies. The first of these cases is an energon miner named Coldwelder from the Sea of Ages near Iacon who claims to be abducted by aliens when a strange probe is removed from him during a routine check-up by an Arachnicon doctor named Cogwheel and her apprentice, a young doctor from the minor city-state of Vaporex named Ratchet. However, the tales are considered as humorous jokes by the urbanized city-states of the Cybertronian Commonwealth, while there's a growing fear in the wilderness regions. Unbeknownst to most, Amazon Prime and the Council of Ancients is aware that far from being wild tales there is some truth to this unknown force whose attentions are turned on Cybertron, having discovered traces of Quintesson technology like the probe found in Coldwelder and a few other reported abductees. To prevent panic and with no Creation Matrix of Leadership to guide them, the Council covers up the truth until more is known.

Approx. 450 million stellar cycles ago:

The Quintessons reveal themselves to the leaders of the Destron States, promising them governance of Cybertron and a galactic empire in return for their help and support once they have revealed themselves to the rest of the population. Hungry for power, the Destrons eagerly accept this Faustian deal. Jhiaxus serves as their go-between with their powerful new allies.

Spanner appeared in Issues #17-18 of the Marvel US Transformers comic, where he was briefly characterized as a neutral Transformer captured by Straxus's Decepticons and forced to design them the Space Bridge. In the Beyondverse, Spanner isn't responsible for the creation of the Space Bridges, but he did develop the modern Space Bridge design.

My version of the Quintessons takes elements from the Aligned continuity novels and Earthspark.

Think of the Destron States as an earlier version of the Decepticons.