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Re: The G1/BW Gap
Taranachus: was a member of the Cybertronian Empire, and as such, a son of the Liege Maximo - an ancient Transformer, who left Cybertron long ago to see through his own agenda, and whom built an army with the use of the budding reproduction method.
Taranachus was part of an exploration mission, locating viable new worlds to be cyber-formed and added to the Hub. Each crew had with it an analyst, Taranachus in this instance, specialising in the study and detection of the mysterious aliens encountered some many centuries earlier. Little had been learnt of them in that time - only faint traces of their unique energy signature had been detected, but if more could be learnt and subsequently added to the Empire to increase their own strength, then the research and information gathering would be worth it.
Their mission however was endangered when their ship was damaged by a meteorite. They drifted off-course for some time, as all crew had gone into Stasis after the impact. The automatic distress signal had seemingly not caught the attention of the Empire, or was being ignored as the time of their master’s ascension was close at hand, and the Hub was now under attack from a combined Autobot/Decepticon armada.
When the crew came back online, they found that their numbered had lessened, and they were being held captive aboard a space station of some kind.
The technology they were surrounded by was that of a species encountered some decades earlier. They were an advanced race, though peaceful, who attempted to engaged in a futile battle for their planet, which had been identified as suitable, because of its abundant resources, to be added to the Hub. Their people were scattered when the Empire was victorious.
Their captor revealed himself - a scientist, who survived the horrific battle, and had sworn vengeance against their race for destroying his people. He was constructing a weapon, as big as a moon, in which to attack the Hub with directly. It had some years to go until its completion however, but had engines large enough to propel it from being detected by the Empire before it was ready.
The scientist informed the Empire troops that their missing number had been taken away for testing, to identify weaknesses that would help defeat them later on. Sadly, they had not survived the testing process. Due to his commitments with getting the Battle-Moon operation, he turned the continuing testing over to his only companion, the Moon’s computer, which displayed incredible intelligence of its own - a capability the Empire had never identified in this species, the ability to create almost sentient artificial intelligence.
In reality, the Scientist was still a pacifist, and only allowed the testing of the Cybertronians under the urging of the computer, who outlined what advantages could be achieved from the study.
The computer delivered reports to the Scientist of what had been learnt and how many of the crew had now lost their lives in the testing. The Scientist could no longer sit idly by and allow it to continue, even to these creatures that had caused him so much pain. He demanded the testing stop and they be freed. The computer denied his request. It was not in the computer’s programming to deny any of his commands. He tried to take the computer offline manually, but it failed to work. In the end, he smashed a large control panel, which seemed to have the desired effect.
The Scientist raced down to the holding cells and found the four remaining Cybertronians, but they were not as he had left them, not at all. The computer had altered them, reformatted their super-structures. Testing them indeed, but for what? He brought them online and guided them to their ship, which was still being held in a hanger. The Scientist watched them fly away, then turned to deal with the malfunctioning computer.
Back aboard their ship, the four remaining Cybertronians took stock of their new forms. The computer had indeed altered them, arguably improved them. Taranachus, Seethe, Cinder and Rampant felt free of the strict control that was part of their programming. But deep in their Sparks, they knew something different, something dark, something that was gaining strength by the day. Their ship seemingly repaired, they made for the Hub.
But upon their arrival, they found desolation. The Hub had been destroyed. This was not the sign of a successful ascension by their Master, but of failure, and subsequent destruction. Energy readings leaving the Hub were of a Cybertronian type - their cousins, who still resided on Cybertron, had destroyed the Liege Maximo. But instead of a sense of despair at the loss of their lord, they sensed freedom, and opportunity. The three larger Cybertronians now took charge and the decision was made: Followed the fading energy signatures back to Cybertron - not out of a need for revenge, but out of curiosity for what their future may hold - and because protection from the growing darkness, for the moment, was only to be found behind the Matrix.
Back on the Battle-Moon, the Scientist was thrown into the already smashed control panel by a tentacle-arm protruding from the wall. A voiced boomed from the computer demanding to be obeyed. The scientist could do little but whimper and bow his head. The Moon’s engines had been firing at full thrust, driving it after the signal from the Cybertronian Empire ship. What was found at the end of the signal was beyond the computers’ wildest imaginings. The Moon’s central weapon opened, but instead of firing, it began to consume the debris from the detonated Hub. As the elements were processed, power surged through the Moon’s uncompleted frame. It announced to the universe - THE RETURN OF UNICRON!
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