"The war between the Autobots and Decepticons rages on across the galaxy. Earth, Cybertron, and beyond, have all become battlegrounds in the conflict...a conflict that has many sides...and many secrets."

"Trapped in space! The Infernus Axiom Space Station is an ancient Cybertronian outpost located far away from any other Cybertronian location. Abandoned and forgotten, this station is said to house secrets of the first Cybertronians. But no one has been able to find it...until now.

Following a star map found in the ruins of Old Iacon; Autobot Communications Officer Scattorshot sets off in search of the Infernus Axiom, determined to bring back the data at any cost, knowing that any information could save lives in the war. Little does he know that he is being pursued by a team of Decepticons..."

 

Prologue - Day 0 - May 1st, 2012:

Old Iacon, Cybertron:

Rust and rubble. Nothing but rust and rubble laid in front of Scattorshot. The large dark blue, yellow-ish gold and silver Autobot Communications Officer gazed at the ruins of the historic district of Cybertron. The former location of Iacon City, it was now a ruined wasteland of half-destroyed buildings, corrupted energon pools, and melting ground. If he didn't have to be there, Scattorshot most certainly wouldn't be.

"This place gives me the shakes. Why'd Prime have to send me here?"

The Prime he referred to, of course, was Zeta Prime, supreme commander of the Autobots in their conflict with the Decepticons. A conflict that was now in its twenty-fifth year, and had expanded to the planet of Earth. Scattorshot oversaw the team of Autobots who were going to Earth, them leaving in hopes to covertly protect it. Hot Shot, Arcee, Jazz, Trailbreaker, High Wire, Grindor, Sureshock, Sparkplug, Longarm, and Jolt. Scattorshot had a hard time saying goodbye to Hot Shot especially, having been friends with him for as long as he could remember. The two bots were like brothers.

They were all good soldiers. Jazz was a strong leader, and the Mini-Cons in the group were some of the best trained of the little guys in the Autobot army. Scattorshot had wanted to go with them, but Zeta told him that his work on Cybertron was needed.

"Yeah, like cataloguing ruins is needed," He thought out loud. Scattorshot had at least wanted to be on the front lines with Zeta Prime, Optronix, Red Alert and the Aerial Mini-Con Squad. But that too, was not to be. Oh, he visited the front for sure; but never stayed. Just received new orders from Zeta, chatted for a moment with Optronix or Red Alert, and he was gone again, off to search some barren city, or some demolished highway.

And here he was, some barren city. Who cared about this anyway? The archivists knew enough. "The place is old, it has old buildings, it used to be the capitol of Cybertron. That's it, done."

Holding up his scanner, Scattorshot pressed a few buttons and a beam of light burst from it, scanning the barely standing building in front of him. "Metal, blah, wires, wait...what's this?"

An active energon uplink? In Old Iacon? No bot had actively lived here in decades, after the capitol was moved to Iacon City. Some scavengers, maybe? The thought of running into potentially a group of armed, desperate scavengers was almost enough to make him turn away. Nervously, Scattorshot said, "I suppose I better check it out."

Slowly walking into the building, Path Blaster activated and raised, he got a better look at it. From the outside, you could barely tell what it was. From the inside thought, it was obvious that it was a tower-like structure. In addition to relief from their being no scavengers, Scattorshot was met with a place that was surprisingly stable despite its state of disrepair. He remarked, half-surprised, "Looks residential, but interesting design."

Getting his bearings, he found a spiral staircase that ran all of the way up through the tower. "Looks like the only way to go is up." There were other rooms to the tower, but they were sealed-off by debris.

As he walked up the stairs, he noticed many energy capacitors on the wall, some still glowing with energon. That was strange. "The energy consumption of this place must've been through the roof...who lived here?"

Not many occupations required this much energon. And why at the top of a tower of all places. His right foot had barely touched the hard metal floor of the top room when it hit him. "An astronomer!"

A large telescope sat, pointing out toward space. The walls, lined with monitors, lit up from star maps being shown on the screens. "How could someone still be using this?"

Upon a closer inspection, Scattorshot's suspicions were confirmed. The star charts hadn't been updated in twenty years. "This building must've been connected directly to Old Iacon's energon supply. That's why it hasn't shut down yet."

What was so important though, he wondered? Astronomy was neat and all, but it hardly had its place in modern society. Certainly not enough to warrant this much energon use.

Looking at the star charts, he noticed a similarity. Earth, Velocitron, Beastia, Gigantion, Nebulos, and Cybertron. Those six planets were each on every star chart, in different positions. What was the point though? One was the core Cybertronian planet; three were ancient Cybertronian colonies, and two were non-Cybertronian inhabited planets that were considered rich in resources for energon.

"I wish Ironhide and Brawn were here..." The best duo of the Autobot Investigation Force, they investigated crimes of all kinds, and took down Decepticons whenever they could (often the perpetrators of the crimes). Ironhide was easily the best soldier Zeta had, and that's why he was put in charge of the Investigators. Scattorshot really wish he had his skills...and his firepower, right about now. "They could crack this."

There was a holographic projector in the center of the room, with a keyboard. "I wonder if this still has enough power to go..."

Within a few commands, Scattorshot had connected the monitors' data to the projector. Looking from the monitors to the projector, he said, "Maybe if I imported the star maps into a more physical space, it'll make more sense."

Pressing a few buttons, the projector glowed to life, as the first star map was imported. Then the second one was created next to it, followed closely by the third, fourth, fifth and sixth. "Highlight Cybertron, Earth, Velocitron, Gigantion, Beastia, and Nebulos." He said to the console.

It highlighted each of them on each map. Each one was in random locations. No decipherable pattern. He looked to the telescope in the room. It only pointed in one direction, at up to a 45 degree angle. How could the astronomer have gotten so many different locations at the same time? It almost seemed like the starmaps were taken from each planet, given their angle of location.

"Combine all of the starmaps," Scattorshot said. Maybe that would give a clue. The second layered over the first, followed by the third. With each addition, Scattorshot's mouth dropped. The six "Cybertronian Planets" were still highlighted in each map; together they created a perfect sphere of 36 icons.

"How is this even possible?" Scattorshot wracked his mind for an answer. If the star charts were from each planet, and they were combined together in this way...then that meant that they were all searching for a common center point. Each star map had to be angled, with a specific place in mind.

"Triangulate a centered location of all highlighted planets."
Suddenly, lights began shooting from each icons; moving toward the center; meeting at a star. On the command console, it said, "Location Coordinates Confirmed."

Scattorshot sat down in the chair in front of the console. What was he looking at? What had been searched for that was this important. Twenty years ago...that was just after the Battle of Polyhex, the point in which everything turned from a "rebellion" to a total war. Likely the astronomer got killed in the bombing raid on Old Iacon that had followed only a month later.

"Recall all previous searches." He told the projector. A small list of names popped up next to the starmap. One stood out in particular. One that Scattorshot couldn't believe he was seeing.

Infernus Axiom.

Scattorshot stood up, excited, before immediately sitting down again. If he was right, he had just found the coordinates for the Infernus Axiom. That space station was a legend. No one believed it existed. Untold secrets were said to come from it.

Leaning back in the console chair, Scattorshot looked out the window of the building. Just in the distance he could see laser fire from one of the battlefields. Where more Autobots and Decepticons died, and who knows how many civilians caught in the crossfire.

"The premiere inventors and scientists of ancient Cybertron were invited to Infernus Axiom," He recalled from the old legends.

Wait! He realized. What if in all of those years they could've invented things that the Autobots could use now. And...if he found the station, when no one else ever could..."Zeta Prime might finally see that I'm useful! Maybe he'll let me fight on the frontlines, where I belong!"

That was all he needed to make a decision. Connecting his datapad to the projector, Scattorshot smiled, "Infernus Axiom...here I come!"

 

Looks nice; keep up the good work.

 

Great prologue! I'm looking forward to reading more.  

 

Chapter 1 - Day 1 - May 2nd, 2012:

Autobot Air Force Spaceport, Iacon City, Cybertron

"What's this?" Scattorshot asked as a small orb was given to him; in addition to a data card. He was at the Spaceport; he had just been given clearance to use a starfighter (which he needed the datacard for).

The soldier behind the table just smiled and said, "We've been wanting to test a new companion drone. It's experimental; but has the entirety of the Autobot database on it. Since you're venturing off-world; we figured it would be a low-risk to send him with you."

"Him?" Scattorshot asked uncomfortably, "Wouldn't it be...well...an it?"

"He has a full AI processor; perfectly capable of thought. Do keep in mind, he doesn't have experience; so he'll act a bit like a sparkling who'd be sent to a military academy his whole life."

"Is that supposed to be comforting or discouraging?" Scattorshot whined, before adding, "I don't work well with others. I'm not exactly the most comfortable around."

"Please, just test him. If you don't like him, turn him off."

Scattorshot nodded, and took the metal ball; now realizing it had a slight egg-shape to it. It was heavy, but Scattorshot was more than strong enough for it. It was around the size of his head, so it wouldn't require a seat in the starfighter, luckily.

Making his way across the runway, Scattorshot tried to hurry. Starports unsettled him; with the loud noises from the ships and all.

He quickly reached the small starfighter he got from Autobot Command. Red and orange; it was easily identifiable as an Autobot fighter. Sleek; it was built for one pilot (with an adjustable seat for different-sized bots; which was good for Scattorshot, being a fairly large guy). He climbed in, and set the metal orb/egg in his lap as he closed the cockpit.

Getting Command to sign off on it was another thing entirely. He had to call in every favor he had with the Aerialbots; and even found himself agreeing to owe them new ones. Scattorshot was nervous and quick to get off of Cybertron. If Zeta found out about it; he'd keep Scattorshot on Cybertron and send someone else to find the Infernus Axiom.

Scattorshot wasn't about to let that happen. He needed this to prove himself, and he knew that he was one of the best-suited for it. Assuming the Infernus Axiom wasn't hostile. After all...no one had heard from it in 2,000 years.

Connecting his datapad into his console, Scattorshot sighed. This was it, if he wanted to turn around, he had to do it now. Once he activated the map and left Cybertron, it was go time.

"I'd do anything to be on the frontlines with Zeta Prime...and real heroes like Optronix! Scanning old areas, cataloguing archives...that's no job for me. I was top of my class in strategy and communications at the Autobot Elite Guard Academy, for Primus' sake!"

Scattorshot weighed the datapad in his hand. It felt heavier with the gravity of the decision he was going to make. Because as much as he wanted to impress Zeta, he couldn't shake the feeling of nervousness and....the feeling that something bad was going to happen.

Some of the other Autobots called him neurotic: said he was obsessive, overanxious, oversensitive. But they also said they trusted him to know when something was wrong. But what Scattorshot couldn't pin down was...did he feel it was wrong to stay...or to go?

Gazing out the duraglass cockpit he looked at the large Iacon City spaceport. There were Aerialbots talking, ships of varying sizes fueling and refueling...loading supplies, all in preparation to fly to other parts of Cybertron...and beyond. It was no secret that transports were being loaded, taking Cybertronian civilians and even some Autobots to other planets for safety. Megatron couldn't be trusted for much longer, couldn't be trusted not to use superweapons like Dark Energon, if it meant the conquest of Cybertron.

Scattorshot wondered as the datapad finished loading, and gave him a simple question, "Update coordinates, Y/N?"

Scattorshot looked around him. Everyone was doing their part to help the war, to save as many lives as they could, and to defeat the Decepticons. Scattorshot looked at the datapad and pressed the button, making his decision. He was going to help save the Autobots, and Cybertron. "Coordinates updating...updating..."

It was only a few minutes before it responded again, but they were the longest minutes Scattorshot had experienced. If it failed now, he'd have some explaining to do as to why he requisitioned a ship behind Zeta's back. "Coordinates confirmed."

Scattorshot breathed a sigh of relief, "Well at least something worked..."

Controls having been activated, the starfighter lifted in the air. Pressing his arms forward, Scattorshot maneuvered the controls to begin his ascent through the atmosphere. His alternate mode being a tank, Scattorshot didn't fly much. He didn't mind it though, and was a good enough pilot to fly a one-man starfighter, and that was all he needed.

Iacon Aerial Authority came over the starfighter's commlink. "Autobot Starfighter P-2005; confirm identity."

Grabbing the datacard he had received when he signed out the starfighter, he quickly replied, "This is Scattorshot; identification code; TQFW-2102"
"ID Confirmed for interstellar flight. Good luck, Scattorshot," The IAA officer replied before terminating the connection.

As he headed for the yellowish-orange atmosphere, all Scattorshot could do was whisper to himself, "Good luck, Scattorshot, good luck, Scattorshot."

Accelerating, he left Autobot airspace...Cybertronian airspace for that matter. Taking a second to look out, Scattorshot smiled. Cybertron was beautiful. Even with the war tearing it apart, it was still a gleaming beacon to all Cybertronians. It was home.

Scattorshot's gaze turned back in front of him, at the stars ahead.

"Hyperspace calculation confirmed." The control console stated mechanically. Scattorshot nodded in confirmation, and replied, "Let's go then, before I change my mind!"

The stars turned to streaks as the ship burst forward