On a world in the depths of space, circling a long dead sun they awoke...
A war that had been dormant for eons began anew...
Two forces, one good, one evil...
The Autobots and the Decepticons...
They are The Transformers!
“Megatron?!” Prime spun to face the most feared transformer in existance.
The grey Decepticon leader smiled at the new Autobot leader, “Ahh, you’ve heard of me, how nice.”
Prime moved backwards slowly, his optical sensors scanning the room, looking for a way out, any way out.
“You won’t find it,” Megatron said, as if he were reading Optimus’ mind, “We are far beneath the surface, the only way in or out of this cavern is the warp door.”
Prime turned his full attention to Megatron, “What do you want?”
“Why,” Megatron smiled as he raised his fusion cannon, “Your head on my wall!”
“Where is he?!” Alpha Trion demanded.
Prowl, Grimlock and Jazz were standing round him. In a chair in front of the old Autobot sat a sullen looking small Decepticon.
“Demand all you want, I ain’t tellin’ you nuttin’,”
“Hey, Rumble, you really need to learn some full words,” Prowl said stepping forward, “It’s nothing.”
“Bite me metal mouth!”
“Bite you, good idea” Grimlock snarled, “Where Prime?”
“Hey Prowl, maybe you should give grey and stupid here a lesson in speakin'” Rumble giggled.
In a flash of motion Grimlock’s sword was at Rumble’s throat.
“Grimlock!” Alpha Trion’s hand went to the hotheaded Autobot’s lower arm, “Stand down.”
“Yeah, kill me, kill Prime, kill me, kill Prime,” Rumble sang.
Jazz’s fist suddenly smashed into Rumble’s face, “Can’t kill you, but we can make you sing better.”
Grimlock smiled, “Good plan, think he survive without arm?”
“Dunno, probably,” Jazz smiled back.
“Autobots,” Alpha Trion stepped in, “I’m in charge here.”
“Sorry sir,” Jazz said while Grimlock just stepped back, looking slightly put out.
“Now Rumble, as you can clearly see,” Alpha Trion waved his arm at the other Autobots, “These soldiers are very eager to get Optimus back, and right now you’re our only link to do that.”
“Yeah, well, I can’t help, Megatron’s got him now, and there ain’t no way he’ll let him go.”
“The Arena?” Grimlock snarled the question.
Rumble just smiled.
“Prime taken to the Arena?!” Grimlock’s blaster was suddenly aimed right at Rumble’s head.
“Yup!” Rumble laughed.
“What is this Arena?” Ironhide asked Grimlock.
“It where Megatron sorts out weak from strong.”
The yellow Bumblebee leant forward, “It’s a combat area?”
“Yes,” Grimlock’s face didn’t change, but his eyes held a glint of menace, “Prime taken to fight to death.”
“You’ve been there?” Kup asked, “How do we get in?”
“You can’t, need a warp door.”
“A what?” Cliffjumper asked, his voice holding the inquisitiveness that they all felt.
“Transportation tech, made by kidnapped scientist,” Grimlock told them.
Blaster’s voice came from one of the back seats, “Spanner...”
“Yeah.” Grimlock growled.
“Blaster,” Alpha Trion turned to look at the communications specialist, “You knew this Spanner?”
“Yes sir,” Blaster stepped forward, “We were at the Decepticon prison camps together, he saved my hide more times than I can count, but that brought him to the attention of Ratbat...”
Alpha Trion nodded, “And through him, Shockwave and Megatron.”
“They took him, tore off his arm getting him out of the cages, forced him to build things, terrible weapons, much to his shame I believe, the Massed Driver was one of his.”
The silence in the room was deafening. The Massed Driver was the most deadly of Decepticon weapons, capable of pulling asteroids out of their orbits and send them crashing down onto the surface of Cybertron. It was with the Massed Driver that the Decepticons wiped out the last remaining group of Omnicons, the neutral faction of the Transformer race.
Blaster broke the silence, “And he built the warp door.”
“Do we have any specifications on it?” Prowl asked leaning forward, “Any idea how to replicate the technology?”
“Not yet,” Alpha Trion shook his head, “Powerglide is doing a flyover of the Decepticon’s headquarters and should be back soon...”
“It’s a powerful piece of tech, uses massive amounts of Energon though, the ‘cons must have only used it a few times...”
“The question is, can we do better?” Jazz looked at Perceptor.
“I believe so,” the Autobot scientist paused, “The quadridynamical balance of the hyper-accelerators will need to be retrofitted with the equations that apply to the narrow beam transmissions...”
“Without the tech speak, please!” Jazz said in an exasperated tone, noting to himself that he must remember to only ask Perceptor yes and no questions in the future.
“Err... Yes,” Perceptor looked a bit put out at being interrupted.
“Then do it,” Jazz turned to Alpha Trion, “I’ll lead a recon team to scout the main con forces.”
“Take Grimlock with you.”
“Sir, he’s a liability, he’d sooner charge in and kill as many of them as possible before they take him down.”
“I know, but something tells me he’ll be needed...”
“Come out, come out...” Megatron growled as he stalked this new Prime, following his distinct energy trail. He had to admit, there was something about this one, something in the way he’d somehow managed to dodge not one, but four directly aimed fusion blasts.
“It’s time to meet your maker Prime,” he taunted, listening to his voice echo around the cavern.
“Look around you Megatron...” Prime’s voice echoed back, “This is one of the last non-metallic caverns left on Cybertron, and you pervert it for your sport, that’s why you’ll never win this war.”
“Oh yes?” Megatron called back, “But it’s also why you’ll never win either!”
Prime listened to Megatron’s threats from where he hid. Shaking his head he called back, “So neither of us can win... Why do we fight then?”
“Because it’s our destiny!”
“Megatron!” Prime called stepping out of his hiding place and leveling his plasma rifle at the back of Megatron’s head.
The grey Decepticon growled as he spun round, leveling his fusion cannon, “Prime!”
“Stalemate,” Prime said softly, “You fire, this gun goes off, we both die.”
“No Prime, you see, I’ll survive.”
“Faulty logic Megatron, you are not indestructible.”
Jazz crept to the ridge overlooking Karon, the Decepticon centre of governance. Below him he noted and processed the presence of four flight patrollers and one Decepticon lieutenant.
“Starscream...” he breathed.
“Megatron is a fool!” Starscream announced loudly to the universe at large.
“Careful ‘Screamer, if he hears you talk like that he’ll have your body parts melted down...” Thundercracker sneered, “While you’re still online!”
Starscream spun round and practically yelled in his comrade’s face, “Megatron is a fool! He’s had ample time to blow the new Prime to scrap, but has he?!”
“Maybe the new Prime scrapped his arse for you,” Skywarp sniggered.
Starscream growled and his fist lashed out and smacked the light blue Decepticon in the face.
“Okay guys,” Jazz turned to the scout team, “Back to base, we’ve got the info we needed...”
“No,” Grimlock snarled, “We need Decepticons smashed.”
“Grimlo...” Jazz’s admonishment was cut short by the head of the nearest Autobot soldier exploding in a shower of molten metal.
“Perhaps Autobots,” Starscream’s voice came from above them, “You should keep your voices down when spying on Decepticons!”
To Be Continued...
Next Time on Transformers Lifeforce...
The victor in the face-off between Megatron and Optimus Prime is revealed while Starscream interrogates his new prisoners. Meanwhile a new plot is hatched, unknown to Autobots and Decepticons alike.
