COVENANT OF PRIMUS i JUSTINA ROBSON 47nORTH ®2013 Hasbro. All rights reserved. TRANSFORMERS and the distinctive logo thereof are the trademarks of Hasbro, used with permission. All Rights Reserved. www.hasbro.com Published by 47North. All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. FIRST EDmON ISBN-10: 1477805990 ISBN-13: 978-1477805992 Printed and bound in China. 10 987654321 4VnOrTH PO Box 400818 Las Vegas, NV 89140 www.amazon.com/47north Transformers: The Covenant of Primus is produced by beckerftmayer!, Bellevue, Washington. www.beckermayer.com Designer: Tyler Freidenrich Editor: Kjersti Egerdahl Production coordinator: Tom Miller Product developers: Todd Rider and Peter Schumacher Managing editor: Michael del Rosario H TABLE OF CONTENTS t Foreword.B The Thirteen Primes.7 The Expulsion of Unicron.21 The War of the Primes.36 The Age of Evolution.60 The Age of Origins.73 The Age of Wrath.84 The Golden Age.100 The Age of Rust.113 The Great War.129 Exodus.150 Earthfall..160 ^::e:word.17Z - .:the Author.174 Credit: 174 - "‘"9 Artists 175 FOREWORD To this day I could not tell you the very beginning of our story—how Primus came to be, nor why, nor when. Though my curiosity burns me greatly, I have had to be satified with looking at the Covenant’s hidden stories, written in codes I cannot decipher, knowing that they exist, and knowing that there was a beginning. Yes, there is a first page and prior to that there is a blank page, but that is all. Today I have set myself the task of translating and editing the Covenant of Primus so that it is meanin^u! for human contemplation. Since our fates are now entwined as galactic neighbors, you should have the opportunity to gain a greater understanding of who we are and where we have come from. The Covenant is our history—a full and lengthy record—of which this is only a fragment, but I hope that it proves a worthwhile and illustrative fragment that will satisfy your curiosity and allow you to develop a richer understanding of the personalities you have so lately met. For the ease of your reading pleasure, I have translated many Cybertronian proper nouns, pronouns, and phrases into English, and into Earth-normative con¬ cepts also. In doing this, I hope that I have not caused confusion or overstepped my authority in the use of your languages and customs. It has long been our habit to observe alien cultures and attempt to make ourselves intelligible to them in their own terms wherever we can, be it in physical form, language, or manner. Where a significant deviation from Cybertronian culture cannot be avoided, I shall make a note in the text. — Alpha Trion B ' FOREWORD I turn to him automatically across the comms net, No moment but the present lies within me. 1 am as son to father, but even as I do so, his presence is already empty as the spaces between the stars. They are the first fading away. He switches down from conscious flow to thing I see, the first thing 1 know. hypersleep with a gentle glide of unraveling synaptic pro¬ in the next quantum of time that passes, I am aware cesses. The last we know of him is a feeling of quiet faith, of what and who 1 am. I know the stars are above me and which he has for each of us. He has given us everything the solid metal body of the planet is beneath my feet. This of himself, and there is nothing more to say. world that supports me is the titanic, semi-hibemating I feel bereft: to gain and lose so much in a single min¬ Primus, the demigod who created me. 1 have a name. I am ute. Between joy and grief 1 am tom into silence. Beside Alpha Trion, third of the thirteen Primes. me the other Primes stand, titans astride a reclining god, A split cycle later Solus appears to my left out of thin filled with awe. We look at one another. We look at the air. There is a flash as she takes form and the ground quakes. world, the vast skies, the sprays of light that are stars and Lightning surrounds her in a nimbus that reaches out and galaxies and the near-infinite reaches of the universe crackles into my nerves. 1 marvel that I can be blinded that extend beyond our ability to see, or hear, or know. and shocked, and that I can recover from this. Everything As far as we can tell, there is nothing here but us and our is new. Everything is a wonder, even pain and fright. dormant world. Then, with a series of resounding booms, the next But if there were tmly nothing, there would be no nine are made one after another to complete our lineup. need for our existence, and that thrilling and disturbing Shrouded in the glowing golden light of the Energon knowledge is reflected in all our eyes as we turn to face burst that accompanies his explosive creation. Thirteen’s one another. Then, as our awareness unifies, our spirits first gesture is to salute with his arm raised-a sign of draw together. We are granted a fleeting glimpse of what victory and greeting marks the mighty effort of imagina¬ has gone before as the past unfurls before our minds’ eye. tion and will that has made us all. He is the last Prime, and he completes us. 1 raise my arm too. To my right and left all do the same. Our first action is unified. Knowledge Ages ago, before time had measure, there was a single of our destiny unspools in our minds in a steady cascade being. It had no use for identity or name-it lived, and as Energon fills our bodies with life and power. Primus’s this was enough for a while. But as it explored the gal¬ work is done. In concert we will do what he could not; we axy and began to find other living beings, the bliss of are his successors, and in our creation he has drawn this discovery gave way to disturbing thoughts that had no phase of his life to a close. answers: if they are this, and they are many, what am I, THE COVENANT OF PRIMUS 7 and why am I alone? Having nobody else to talk to, it Now Unicron roved the galaxy on a binge of destruc¬ began a conversation with itself and gradually evolved tion, bent on the erasure of all life in the belief that this two distinctive voices with which it examined the differ¬ would give him peace. Primus grew in the conviction that ent sides of matters. One was reassuring, full of faith and it was his duty to stop Unicron’s devastation and to pre¬ acceptance; the other was restless and relentless, compar¬ serve what joy was left for others as long as it could be ing itself with what it found and discovering that there made to last-for both of them understood that one day were flaws and needs that went unanswered in the vast even they would eease to exist. Primus taunted Unicron emptiness of space. that aU he must do is sit and wait for entropy to do his The two voices took names to themselves: one was work for him-the universe would die in heat and chaos Primus, meaning first and one, and the other named regardless of his actions. Unicron replied in kind that himself Unicron, meaning unique and one. They both Primus should assist him to prevent the creation of more knew that they were one being, but this act separated living beings into a world of suffering and disappoint¬ them into two pieces whose feelings and insights could ment. They were still irrevocably locked together, in spite not be reconciled. They were the essence of opposition, of all they had done to separate. Being evenly matched, and, being young and without guidance, they began to neither could best the other for long. Primus realized that fight, each thinking his way was correct and that the unless something changed, neither would ever prevail. other was a fool. The more that they argued, the more Therefore, he decided to withdraw from the conflict, they felt in danger from each other’s existence. and from his role in it. The division of mind and spirit caused a separation in form so that ultimately they divided physically, as well as in every other way. In spite and disappointment. We return to the present moment and our new selves. Unicron became rapacious and destructive, and Primus Though we may not see Unicron yet, we can feel his pres¬ grew withdrawn and resentful. For a long time they could ence. He scrapes the edges of our collective awareness not truly part and traveled together. Unicron rampaging with his claws. He is the eye of a storm that crushes plan¬ and Primus attempting to prevent him and make repara¬ ets, assimilates suns. Each ingestion increases his power. tion. Primus made overtures to reconcile, but Unicron Between bouts of fury he pauses, sated for a moment had found a sense of self that was enlarged by his con¬ into remembering his rival self. The dread radiation of tempt for others.