Chapter 1 - Prodigal Son
The savior who was never promised.
In the early morning, a downpour brings a sheen to the surface of Cybertron. Such weather was normally avoided by the planet's inhabitants as it was not uncommon for the weather to produce acidic rain, a kind of chemical warfare brought on by way of precipitation tampering. Today however, the threat of melted chassis and sizzled circuits did nothing to dissuade a convoy of vehicles from traversing the storm.
The Convoy sped down the wet metal road. Their highly augmented wheels made what would have otherwise been a perilous drive, trivial. Seven vehicles in all, first of them was a white and black car with energon wheels and a flashing light bar. Next was an Armored green buggy with an Autocannon affixed to the roof, and following that was a white and blue hovercraft with a rear wing.
The Car, Buggy and Hovercraft pulled away from the larger group, leaving the other four to trail behind. They were an Armored Red and Blue Truck with gatling Guns built into its fenders and 3 Armored vans - two sporting white and Black color schemes like the car in the lead, while the third van rocked a red and yellow livery.
Despite the differing appearances across the convoy of Vehicles, they all shared one similarity: a red face-sigil with a white backing plastered somewhere on their Chassis. The sigil was called the 'Autobrand' and it was the symbol of the Autobots.
Autonomous Robotic Life Forms - The Autobots were one of two main factions of a race of Robotic Lifeforms capable of transforming their bodies, known as Cybertronians. In current times, the Autobots believed in Justice and Freedom and were sworn to protect both from their enemies, the owners of a pointed Purple Sigil with white Backing: The Decepticons. The Autobots waged their battles to destroy the evil forces of the Decepticons and today their mission was no different.
The convoy was headed towards an old abandoned Tower in Quadrant Epsilon of Iacon-City, the capital of Cybertron. Their intel said that a High Value Target was operating right under their noses and they had come to investigate.
The convoy rode up to the base of a tower. The white car and the green buggy riding ahead of the convoy stopped and then so did the others. Then, the vehicles' chassis began to shift. Metal peeled away and segmented as the cars, vans and Truck all changed form until the convoy of seven vehicles had all taken their robot modes.
No longer a buggy the green, armored Autobot knelt down to the ground and put his hands against the jagged metal surface. He chipped a shard from the metal soil and held it in his hand.
"Mmm, unkempt." He grumbled as he rolled it around his fingers before crushing it in his palm. The grounds had not been tended to for some time; the place looked to be abandoned; it fit the description they'd been given quite well. "We're here."
"So we are." Holding a long blaster, the white and Black car who'd lead the convoy was now a robot with a Red crest atop his forehead and 'doorwings' fixed to his back. He moved on to take the lead. As he did, he turned and pointed at Two armored Autobots bearing his color scheme.
"Autotroopers, take point." He commanded.
"Yes sir!" The Autotroopers, both male and female, said in compliance.
Autotroopers were Autobots who's Sparks were cultivated and placed into pre-built bodies in a process called 'Cold Construction'. Given a code as identification - 'A.T.' followed by a hyphen and serial numbers - they were loaded up with general combat knowledge such as Cybertronian combat styles, weapon platform knowledge and engagement strategies. The Autotroopers were purpose-made Autobots built for war.
With their weapons, the Doomlauncher missile racks, they stepped by the main group and continued up to the Tower door ahead.
"I really hope Punch's intel is off…" The white and black Car Autobot sighed.
"You know it never is, Prowl." The Hovercar said in his robot mode. He was now a slender, athletic looking, white and blue bot with a Black Helmet and a Blue Visor. "That's why we send him on undercover Ops."
"First time for everything, Meister." Hound, the Armored Green Autobot, said as he rose up off of the ground.
"Not likely." Meister grinned.
The last remaining Autobots, a Red, armored Bot who stood above them and wore a similar body to the Autotroopers and a Red and Blue bot who stood above everyone else, passed by Meister, Hound and Prowl.
"Autobots, fall in." The Red and Blue Autobot commanded, his voice held a gravitas that felt like it could shake the planet itself.
"Yes, Prime." Prowl answered and the others followed.
Prowl, Hound and Meister followed the orders of Optimus Prime, the Autobot Supreme Commander, and moved on the target.
The 5 Autobots approached the door, the Autotroopers were already posted up at it. Ironhide, the Red Autobot who shared their body type, gave them an approving nod and they obliged.
The First Autotrooper transformed his Doomlauncher into it's hammer configuration. The Second readied herself.
"Breach." She ordered.
"Breaching!"
With a mighty swing, the First Autotrooper brought the rocket-powered hammer into the door and sent it flying off its hinges. The Second pointed her Launcher into the now open ingress and readied herself to open fire. When there were no signs of combatants, she stood down.
"Clear." She said.
"Ingressing." Her contemporary added.
The Autotroopers entered the tower. Inside, they took a staircase down into its sublevels; the rest of the Autobots followed, weapons ready. Punch, who was an Autobot with the innate ability of having 2 distinct Robot modes, was a double agent feeding the Autobots intel under the false name 'CounterPunch.' His latest report mentioned a Decepticon Laboratory seated in a tower hidden away in an old sect of the Autobot-controlled Iacon. Many would have dismissed the report as preposterous, but Punch's spotless track record made the tip too big to ignore.
The Autobots pressed on. With the Autotroopers in front, Prowl, Meister and Hound following and Ironhide bringing up the rear, they were all positioned around their leader, Optimus Prime. Normally, Prime wouldn't even have been involved in an investigation like this. However, it was the nature of the Laboratory's owner that had drawn his intrigue.
The Tower belonged to Shockwave, the Decepticon head of applied Sciences. He was known well for his particularly cruel and emotionless experiments, experiments that had given rise to such horrors as the Cortical Psychic Patch - which allowed a user to forcefully peer into someone's mind, and Combiner Technology - which merged 3 or more beings into a Gestalt capable of much wanton destruction. But, before he was a Scientist, Shockwave was a Senator. And it was as a Senator that Shockwave and Optimus - then known as Orion Pax - made their acquaintance.
Optimus longed for the days when he, as a young Archivist and Shockwave as a sitting Senator, would talk about Cybertron's misgivings. Their friendship wasn't the only one Optimus was still mourning, but the past was the past. The Shockwave of today was far removed from the Shockwave of his earlier days and Optimus didn't expect to find any semblance of his old friend in that old tower. But, given the Decepticon's track record of leaving dormant, living, Weapons of Mass destruction around, the Prime thought it necessary to make an appearance should something emerge that needed to be swiftly put down.
The Autobots soon came to another door within the Tower, just as Punch's intel said they would. "This is it." Hound said. "Lab should be on the other side of that."
"Troopers?" Prowl ordered and the Autotroopers readied themselves. Doomlaunchers in hand, the mass-produced Autobots prepared to breach the door. This time, weapons hot, the rest of the Autobots prepared to push in along with them.
"Breach!" The first Autotrooper said, his Doomlauncher ready in its firing position.
"Breaching!" The Second Autotrooper declared before slamming her rocket powered Doomlauncher hammer into the door and sending the door into the room.
The Autobots pressed into the lab, Blasters and launchers ready and aimed. A moment passed, and when it was clear nothing was going to jump out at them, they called it.
"Clear." Said Prowl.
"Clear." Said Meister.
"Clear." Said Optimus Prime.
The Autobots entered the room with their weapons lowered but at Alert-carry - a kind of combat ready stance designed to help them level a weapon at a moment's notice. The room they entered was vast and dark. The lights on the Autobots' chassis, the only source of light in the entire space, pierced the void like a knife but did nothing to illuminate the full scope of the Laboratory.
"Someone find a light." Meister requested.
"I'll see if I can't rub some sticks together." Said Hound as he stepped away.
The Autobots split up into the open room; most of them checked the space while half expecting a mass of limbs and metal to come jumping out at them. Prime, however, moved without caution.
Meister was the first to notice Prime's behavior. "Prime?" He called out, to no answer.
The others were moving with cautious steps, but Optimus walked on as if he was being pulled in. Something had caught his eye but, unless Optimus was also capable of seeing in the dark, that hardly seemed to make sense.
As Optimus stepped deeper and deeper into the space, a light began to shine behind the windows in his chest. Within the compartment just above his Spark chamber, Prime carried the Matrix of Leadership and, through its mystical properties, he could sense something in the dark. He was being drawn in, by what? He could not say. Only that, through the Matrix, he sensed life; the presence of a soul.
Optimus soon reached the very back of the lab. There, he stood before a Glass tank, within the murky liquid behind its casing was the 'Spark' he'd sensed.
Prime put a hand to the glass. Through the Matrix, he was shown a vision of that soul's prophesied life.
A bot of Gold and Black, he would one day unite Bots of all builds, from all corners of the cosmos under one unified banner. He would bridge worlds and form new alliances and, one day, he would end the Great Civil War - and that was only the start of it.
This soul would go on to face Darkness itself, igniting the very night with the Stars, a Saber of light in his grasp and the Matrix itself at his hilt. He would be Prime and his would be an era of Rebirth for the Cybertronians. He was to be a savior they were never promised and he would do away with Cybertron's dependency on the Primacy. His tenure would be the end of the lineage, he would be The Last Prime.
Suddenly, the lights in the laboratory came on. Prime jerked his hand back from the case; evidently, Hound had figured out their power situation. Now Optimus could see plainly what was the subject of the Matrix's visions. The sight gave him pause.
With the room illuminated, the other Autobots looked on in horror as, with Prime at the other end of the room, there were 2 tanks and one of them was occupied. Inside was a silver mass shaped vaguely into a bipedal figure; the Autobots recognized it immediately and looked on in shock.
Prowl Audibly gasped. "By Primus…it's a fragging Protoform."
Protoforms were Cybertronians in their most basic state. They were just Proto-matter - a kind of Living Metal - that could be shaped and molded into a Cybertronian Body.
"What's a Protoform doing down here?" Hound asked.
"Isn't it obvious?" Prowl began. "Shockwave has been tampering with creation."
"And creation seems to have tampered back." Meister said, pointing to the second tank beside the first. Its casing was shattered and glass was all over the floor.
Hound approached. "Dried stains, aged weathering…the Damage looks old." He said. "Whatever was in this one, it broke out a long aft time ago."
"But this one's still here." Prowl pointed out. "We should destroy it."
"No." Prime said, his words brought shock back to Prowl's face.
"But Prime..." Prowl blinked.
"This Protoform is too far along." He said. "I sense a Spark within its Protomatter."
"A Spark?" Ironhide gasped.
Like Protomatter, Sparks formed naturally on the surface of Cybertron. They held genetic information, the make up of all that a Cybertronian was. Their personality, their habits, even their alt-mode information, all of it was there. It was a Cybertronian's soul. Once merged with Protomatter and allowed to cool, the Protomatter and Spark would form a full-fledged Cybertronian, which was exactly what they'd found in Shockwave's laboratory. The Autobots were essentially staring at a newborn.
"It's alive!" Meister realized.
Hound gasped. "By Primus…"
"'Primus' had nothing to do with it!" Prowl said, his voice echoing off the lab walls.
Optimus Prime gave an exasperated sigh, "Prowl…"
"Prime, I know how you feel about this…but this is Shockwave we're talking about. For all we know? That thing could be a bomb! Spare it, and there's a good chance it will stab us in the back someday."
"He won't." Prime declared.
Prowl blinked at the inclusion of a pronoun in the discussion. "He?! Did you just assign it a gender?"
Ignoring Prowl, Optimus got on comms. "Ratchet? This is Optimus. I'm sending our coordinates. Prep for Medical Evac: One Protoform."
"Prime-" Prowl tried to begin again, but Optimus wouldn't have it.
"Stand down, Prowl." He ordered. "I have made a decision and you will follow it. That is final."
Prowl shut his mouth. Every circuit in his body told him that this was a bad idea, but he would not go against a Prime's wishes.
Submitting, the Officer finally obliged. "...Yes Prime."
Satisfied with Prowl's subservience, Optimus continued. "Good. Now, take the Autotroopers and secure the perimeter."
Prowl complied with a nod. "Yes, sir." He said before spinning on his heel to face the Autotroopers. "You two, with me."
"Sir!" Both Autotroopers obliged. They followed Prowl and left the laboratory. Feeling for his friend, Meister turned to Optimus.
"I'll go cool him off." He said.
Optimus gave an approving nod; he watched Meister go after Prowl and the Autotroopers.
"We're on our way, Prime." Optimus heard Ratchet say in comms. "ETA: 5 Kliks."
Pleased with Ratchet's response, Optimus turned back to the Protoform in the tank. He put his hand back up onto the glass and held it there.
"Oh the life you will live…" Optimus began. "Yours will be an Era of Rebirth. You will be the Voice of the Innocents, the Sword of Cybertron. Our…Saber."
Optimus pulled his hand from the tank and stepped away, leaving 'Saber' alone.