Force of Habit a Transformers: Cybertron Story
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Transformers Timelines Presents: Force of Habit A Transformers: Cybertron Story by S. Trent Troop & Greg Sepelak Illustration by Matt Kuphaldt Copyright 2008, The Transformers Collector’s Club Nothing we haven’t done before, the thought A soft chime echoed through the room, and conver- flowed into Ultra Magnus’ head.Sending mechs out to sations died down, every optic turning to Magnus. face who-knows-what. Once more into the breach, Knock Out thought. Maybe, he thought back, But the stakes have never “Alright, bots, as you all know, Cybertron is in been higher. deep, deep slag. That black hole is growing in power. Two minds looked out at the main assembly hall Long-range satellites report that there are space-time of the new Autobot flagship Iron Hope, taking in the anomalies with that thing’s energy signature popping assembled Autobots through Magnus’ optics. His up across nearly all of known space. We’ve relocated binary-bonded Mini-Con partner Knock Out made Cybertron’s population to Earth, but that’s a temporary note of a couple of them; Just think. Less than ten solution at best. It won’t be too long before there’s no stellar cycles ago, some of these guys outranked us. place left to run, so we gotta close that singularity. Magnus nodded. Scavenger, the Autobot’s meanest, Conventional methods have failed… and it looks like nastiest, toughest and, above all, most in-demand we’re now after the metaphysical. Optimus Prime trainer leaned against a wall, taking the opportunity has put his faith in this Vector Prime mech, who says to catch a few moment’s shutdown. Rodimus, who the only way to close the singularity is to locate four had really shone in the Powerlinx Battles a decade ‘Cyber Planet Keys’ and the ‘Omega Lock’ from previous, was talking with Longrack, the newest colony worlds established and lost by Cybertron “captain” in the hastily-assembled exploration fleet. millennia ago. Now, for the good news. Current information “All six scout ships are fully-fueled and stocked, points to Earth being a likely candidate for having the sir. Transwarp cells are charged to capacity. Tow-Line Omega Lock, and with most of Cybertron’s popula- is installing the last jump coordinates now.” tion there and now actively searching out clues, we Magnus nodded and signed off, turning back to the should be getting more updates as to its location and crowd. that of the other colonies. Also, we have agents on two “Bulkhead, your team on the Eclipse is taking a known colony worlds right now.” short jump to the Gamma Kreuger region. It’s not Well, one agent trapped alone on one, Knock Out far, but there are a lot of star systems in the sector to thought bitterly. We’ll get him back, Magnus thought search.” in reply. “Sparkplug’s team on the Valiant will head to the “And now… the not-so-good news. As you know, region near Betelgeuse. There are supposedly a series there are supposed to be four Cyber Planet Keys. of worlds devastated by natural disaster in the area, so However… if the admittedly-fragmented data we’ve be on your toes. The frequency suggests they might assembled bears out and this Vector Prime’s memories not have been natural in origin, possible evidence of hold true, there are more than four colony worlds.” Cybertron involvement, particularly Decepticon-style The room exploded in stunned exclamations. strip-mining. Magnus raised both hands, calling for silence, and “Arcee, your group on the Azusa are headed to was pleased to note how quickly the room returned to Gamma Serpentis. Long-range scans have picked up attention even in the face of this revelation. definite signs of some form of spacefaring civilization “There could be upwards a dozen colonies. The there, so be diplomatic no matter what. four Key-carrying flagships were apparently escorted “Longrack, you’re taking the Spanner to Delta by several smaller ships, for the purpose of estab- Draconis. There’s reports of a few space-time anoma- lishing relay points on the Space Bridge Network. lies around the area, and not all of them are from that The two colonies we’ve found might not have Keys, blasted singularity, so be careful. and who knows about Earth. While this does compli- “Scavenger will take the DieCast to Zeta Persei. cate our search… there is an upside. Even if a colony Not the most hospitable area from what we can tell, world doesn’t have a Cyber Planet Key, with luck they but I’m sure you can make yourself right at home might be able to fill gaps in our datanet and help us there in short order. establish the locations of the worlds that do… plus, we “Rodimus’ ship, the Longbow, will jump to Beta can always use more allies, like our new Velocitronian Aquarii, which is kind of the tailpipe-end of the galaxy, friend Blurr here.” He nodded to the mech in question, but that area seems a likely place for a colony world who simply gave a perfunctory nod back, one profes- relay point. sional to another. “Once this is all over, we can continue “And finally, the Iron Hope itself will head for the search to re-establish connection with our lost kin, Delta Crateris, which is also the current rendezvous but the Keys take priority. point for the Longbow, DieCast, and Spanner. The “Each team has a starting point, and a list of others will return to Cybertron if possible. secondary search points within a few transwarp jumps “I want to re-emphasize that we are to be extremely away. I don’t need to stress the point that this informa- careful in how we handle ourselves with the popu- tion is millennia out of date, so if you find anything lation of any civilization we encounter, Cybertron unusual that might indicate a Cybertron colony world, origin or not. We are not to engage in any local power even if it isn’t on the list, report it immediately and struggles or politics, nor are we to whip the populace investigate it!” at large into a panic with…well, with the truth of the Magnus tapped his forearm, revealing a communi- situation. cations panel. Ironhide’s face came up on screen. “All “And one more thing… be on your guard. We have ready?” reason to believe the Decepticons managed to hack the archival database, and they likely have a lot of the same information we do. Granted, it isn’t much, and frankly neither are the Decepticon forces, but The other Decepticons on the small ship turned to Megatron’s back and nastier than he’s ever been, and Brushguard. Swindle looked like he was about ready Primus knows where he might pop up. to thump his twin brother Hardtop, but then again, he “Any questions?... No? Alright then, Autobots… always looked like he was ready to thump someone. to your ships… let’s roll out!!!” Buzzsaw and Runamuck seemed to be taking this all as some form of entertainment… probably hoping someone would thump someone else, knowing those two. Brushguard had his own litany of complaints about this mission, the primary one being saddled with such a motley crew. But Megatron wasn’t someone you argued with unless you liked doing “I’m just saying we’re getting the raw end of the so without a head, so he had taken to looking for a stick is all. Starscream and Thundercracker get the bright side to this ugly arrangement. sweet assignments and we get effectively banished.” “While Megatron chases ancient folktales and Brushguard sighed to himself. Hardtop had been indecipherable maps, it falls to us to find the remaining muttering more or less non-stop since the Upstart had Cyber Planet Keys the hard way,” he sniffed, tapping blasted off from what remained of the Decepticon randomly at the keys on the console. “Unless you headquarters on Cybertron, being quiet only when really want our homeworld swallowed by that black he was reading one of those blasted comic books hole.” he always seemed to carry on him. Having recently “With the Autobots runnin’ it like they been for graduated to loudly complaining, he was quickly the past vorn*? Slag yeah,” Swindle snapped. getting on Brushguard’s last nerve. “With the Cyber Planet Keys in our possession, “Like you even notice, with your head buried Swindle, the balance of power on Cybertron shall in that organic-scrawled nonsense,” he growled, certainly see a change for the better,” Brushguard not even looking up from his control panel on the replied, with the tone of someone explaining ship’s command seat. “The potential for scientific quantum physics to a stunned turbofox. “According discovery is…” to legend, even one Cyber Planet Key contains the “Light years away from an oil bath, a decent power to change a world. Which is why, in fact, they fueling station or a sequential artist of even remote have been scattered across the galaxy: to shape new merit?” colony worlds for our people.” * 1 vorn = 83 Earth years Swindle simply snorted, like some filthy animal, that if he could simply get his manipulators on one which he seemed to do before every sentence. Cyber Planet Key, he could unlock its secrets. It was Brushguard himself was having a hard time with Brushguard’s opinion that there was nothing in the the entire premise, having only dabbled in meta- universe that, with the aid of science, could not be physics, but slagged if he was going to let on to this dissected, quantified and ultimately replicated.