"You are a relic Prime--part of an age long past. Autobot, Decepticon--these are outmoded concepts. The war is over, and it is time for you and your kind to take their place in the new Cybertronian empire!"--Jhiaxus, TFG2 #1

"Maybe we guilty of not seeing big picture, but Decepticons guilty too. See too big a picture! Time on earth help us look down, see what we trample on. It life no matter what it size or form. We watch it struggle, fight for existence. We helped it then--"--Grimlock, TFG2 #1

"Let's do it--MAXIMIZE!!"--Optimus Primal, Beast Wars episode #1

The third Great Cybertronian War was over, finished, perhaps longer than Optimus had thought. He sat in the command chair on the Autobase he chose to be stationed on after Jhiaxus was defeated. It had been three centuries--was it really that long?--and it seemed more and more like he would have nothing fullfilling to do for the rest of his runtime. This base he chose because of its closeness to earth. If it was ever in danger, he could jump in and end the threat. Without Decepticons, however, there was no threat unless something else surfaced. He was to the robotic equivalent of boredom. Unfortunately, he would soon have a lot to do.

On Cybertron, after the war, new robots were built. Soon, they began to realize that Autobot and Decepticon were the names of two violent enemies and these descendents began calling themselves Maximals and Predacons. They were able to keep themselves separate because of the treaty signed after the war that stated that the two factions should always exist, because of their different programming. The names weren't the only changes; they worked toward advancing Transformer technology. They learned how to duplicate animal forms along with better vehicle modes. They strove to become more biological, to partially understand the life they were protecting. Deep space exploration became important, as the population was rising rapidly and colonization was needed. Soon, however, the rift between factions became obvious; rebel Preds began running wild. Then, one day, the peace was broken.

It was a normal cycle on Cybertron, and in the Cybertronian Archives nothing out of the ordinary was happening. Outside, however, was a different story. The Archive was one of the most important buildings on Cybertron, a storage place of all the personality chips and base memories of every Cybertronian known to have ever existed. A group of Predacons outside were lying in wait until everyone was on night downtime. This group was made up of the most dangerous terrorists with a deadly plan; the leader was planning to steal the personality chip of the most diabolical mind ever created on Cybertron. Gunfire suddenly rang out as they attacked the guardians of the Archive. They seriously damaged the three guardians and rushed to the door. They broke in and searched through to find a personality chip labeled "Megatron". The leader took this chip and planted it in a slot in his body. The rest of the group was shocked to see energy coursing over his metal skin as his face was altered and his body was reconfigured.

"YAAAAAAAAeeeeeesss!!!!" he said. He stood and began to understand. "I am no longer the leader you knew. I am now Megatron reborn; I shall lead you to victory!!!!"

"Megatron," one of his companions said in a raspy voice, "I think we must leave now. We have yet to elude our enemies!" Alarms rang out as Maximals clanked down the hall.

"Cover me. I'll handle this." Megatron walked into the hall and toward the Maximals.

"Okay, Preddy, come out slowly and we'll be lenient on your criminal punishment," yelled one of the Sentinels.

"Now why would I do that?"

"Because my photon cannon says so."

"I say otherwise, yesss." With that, his right arm morphed into a laser cannon and missle launchers came out of his legs. Still walking forward, he fired a barrage of lasers that simultaneously knocked all the weapons out of the Maximals' hands. He then fired again, and this time there were no survivors. "Let's get out of here. I'm changing the plan--we're going for the Golden disk."

He threw a grenade in the doorway to seal off the building and the terrorists ran. They got on a waiting hovercar and sped to a building 300 clicks away. They had a harder task in front of them, for they had to get past 20 guards, and 10 deadly forcefields. They blasted through each of them, one after another until they blew open a doorway to a room in the center of the building. On the pedastal inside there sat a Golden Disk inscribed with strange characters. Megatron plucked it off quickly and ran to the doorway. Alarms rang out and an automatic voice said, "Alert, Golden Disk has been stolen. Commencing lock down. All doors will be sealed."

"Run," screached one of the terrorists, "they're gonna catch us! I'm going to get reprogrammed!!"

"Be quiet you fool, this is no time to panic," said Megatron, "we have to calmly get to the door before it falls."

They bolted from the room barely before the emergency door had fallen. They rushed from the building to the hovercar and ran to the launching pad, where one more of the terrorists was waiting, with the ship already hovering off the pad. They climbed on as it lifted up into the sky. The Maximal Sentry force got there and began to fire on the ship, but it was almost out of range; still one blast managed to penetrate the hull. The engines got louder, as, suddenly, the ship streaked out of sight.

On board, the pilot laughed crazily, "Tete hehehehe, where are we to go, leader?"

"Call me Megatron. Here, translate this and follow it." He handed him the Golden Disk. "It shows the location of a rich natural energon source."

He popped it into a scanning device and read the information outloud. "This appears to be the planet earth, but the position suggests about two million stellar cycles ago."

"Well, then, let's go. It's time to take what is rightfully ours!!!"

Optimus suddenly got a deep sinking feeling as he pulled away from the communication from Cybertron. So, it was to start again; the great wars had plagued Cybertron for eons, even though their purpose, as set by Primus on their creation, was to be a force for peace in the galaxy, to defend the young races from those that would destroy them. That purpose seemed far away now, as the Autobots eventually found themselves the only defenders, defending planets from their own race as the Decepticons ravaged them with their thirst for power. It started when the natural reproduction of Transformers began to change them--they lost their morality. As soon as that began, reproduction stopped and the neural pathways were sealed, erasing all memories of the process. The Quintessons came, and swept the planet with a beam that wiped their memory. They built a fictional history, and became their "creators". They set to work building new Transformers, slaves to be used as appliances, or weapons, further depleating the Decepticons morality. The chains were broken, as the Quintessons were forced off in a series of revolts. The damage had been done, however, and the final stone was cast after war had broken out twice before. A group of construction robots built an evil Transformer that became the tyrant leader of the Decepticons--Megatron. They took Cybertron by force and sucked it dry of energy and energon, their major energy source. The Autobots fled in search of energy, but were forced to a planet early in its evolution after the Decepticons boarded them. They were badly damaged in the crash, and remained deactivated for four million years until a volcano shook and knocked the dormant computer into use which repaired the Decepticons first, then the Autobots and gave them bodies based on earth vehicles. And so it went on, the war continued until Megatron was forced to join forces with Optimus to fight a more lethal enemy, one that was created from the rediscovered reproduction ability. And then peace--it had remained so for 300 years, but as the Predacon terrorists sped toward a documented energon source, he knew peace may not last very long. Something must be done quickly or no one would be safe.

"No one will be safe, commander. The last survey team to go to that sector and time found an unusually huge amount of energon on that planet. With that much natural energon, the Predacons would destroy our defenses and take over the galaxy with little trouble. I can't tell you how important stopping them is," explained the Lead Sentry Maximal, "and we have a plan. You will be given the responsiblity to stop them. You were given the lead of the Maximals long ago because of the Predacon threat. I know you were looking forward to the exploration mission you signed up for, but we need the Axalon to track it; it's the only one with transwarp tracking ability."

The Axalon commander was a large black and white robot with a chestplate that had a red circle in the center and wing-like projections. One of his special abilities was flight using a built-in jetpack. He was a well-respected transformer because of his built-in weapons and intelligence, and he was almost ready for any mission, no matter how unusual. "We'll prepare right away, sir. Optimus Primal out."

Three megacycles later, the call went to the Axalon, still docked to the space station orbiting Cybertron. The Lead Sentry Maximal appeared on the screen. "The transwarp ship Axalon, three point five megacycles ago a group of Predacon terrorists stole the golden disk artifact from the safety storage facility. We need your ship to track the Predacons who did this. We've already discussed this with your commander, and he's agreed to it."

"Hey, come on, we're supposed to be on deep space exploration in the delta sector. This is not a battleship," replied the Maximal at the comm. He was a small brown robot with a silver brain dome on his head. "Suicide is not in my job description."

"Irrelevant. Your going. Be ready in one megacycle," shot the Lead Sentry Maximal.

"Hey, stick it in your command--"

"We'll be ready," interrupted one of the other crew, a large, green, heavy set robot, "you can count on us."

"Yes, I'm sure I can," he said uneasily. His face took on a decidely concerned look as he said, "Over and out."

"Hey, what's with you big green? You trying to get us all killed?"

"No, but they need our help. It's doubtful that they will be able to track those Preds without our help, and anyhow, it probably won't take that long to locate and fairly easy to capture them--you know how most Preds are. They're more concerned with stabbing each other in the back than with getting things accomplished."

"Well, I'd rather sit this one out."

"I don't think we'll be coming back to get you, even if they are captured. If you want to continue to explore deep space, you will have to stay on this ship."

"All right, all right, don't get your circuits in a knot. I'm staying."

"Damage report." said Megatron.

"The laser blast from one of the Sentries penetrated the transwarp engine and nearly disabled it. We're just going on regular warp now, and the transwarp has been shut down for repairs. It's bad enough to slow us down a few megacycles. Unfortunately, this may give the Maximals time to start tracking us," said the pilot.

"A risk we'll have to take. There is no way we're turning back now, no! We'll be punished and reprogrammed to prevent this from happening again. I must have victory!"

"And if they catch us?"

"Please--would you rather go and be chased by a shipful of Maximals or turn ]around and be faced by the entire planet of Cybertron?" asked Megatron.

"I see your point."

The entrance lift on the Axalon moved as the commander, a Prime that had been leader of the Maximals for some time, went up on the entrance lift. He was made Prime for this purpose, a defensive first effort if the war began again. He didn't think was needed because there had been peace for three hundred years, but he knew of the possiblity; he remained a Prime and took up deep-space exploration. Though he didn't have the life- force matrix that most Primes have, he had the personality chip of one of the greatest leaders of the Autobot/Maximal faction. This Prime had actually ended the long conflict between the Autobots and Decepticons, although it seemed to have been four million years too late. The main fighting force had been deactivated while the descendants of those left learned to reproduce again and peacefully left Cybertron, albeit drained of energy. Once reactivated, the main fighting force of the Decepticons restarted the dormant conflict.

Now he was faced with an even greater problem. The Predacons were like the Decepticons, except they were extremely repressed--they craved conflict without ever experiencing it. They didn't yet know the consequences of their actions. They would fight with a fierceness no experienced warrior would, setting up a wall of frantic laser-fire in battle. Of couse, they wouldn't be experienced and wouldn't fight nearly as well, which gave the Maximals the advantage, he just hoped it would be enough.

"Attention, Maximals. We have been chosen to fight Megatron in battle. With your help, we can defeat these Predacons quickly and you can get back to exploration. If we fail, the Predacons will get to a vast source of energon, and, under Megatron, take over the galaxy."

"Well, I'm thrilled," said the silver robot.

"What's our crew complement?" asked Optimus.

"We're the crew, mostly; there are about forty in stasis, to be awakened when we reach our first destination," said the green robot.

"So, what are we waiting for? Let get those Preds!" said a yellow robot in a youthful voice.

Optimus took his seat and said, "Plot a couse to track their ship, we're heading out. Engage transwarp drive, now!"

The Axalon suddenly became a streak of light against the stars; a distortion to hyperspace opened and the ship dissappeared into it.

The Predacons had gone several light years through space when they stopped. "Statis report," commanded Megatron.

"The Transwarp drive has been repaired and is fully operational!!! We will soon be prepared to leave." said the pilot.

"Good. I should hope everything goes as well as our escape, yessss. As soon as we're ready, plot a course to the coordinates on the disk and calculate the time variation. Work fast, however, or the Maximals may send a capture party after us. How long, best estimate?"

"Three cycles," said the pilot.

"Uhhhh, Megatron, you should see this," the helmsman whined.

He came to the screen and saw it. "Noooo! It's a Maximal timeship! This can't be!" The console began to beep. "They're hailing us. On screen."

"This is Optimus Primal of the Maximal timeship Axalon to Predacon ship: halt and surrender your vessel to us."

"Never, you Maximal fool. No Predacon will ever become a Maximal prisoner while I lead. Fire!" yelled Megatron to the crew. The shots flew and were deflected off the defensive shields. "Get us out of here! Engage Transwarp!" The ship streaked into space and dissappeared.

"Trackers on," said Optimus.

"Oh, boy, here we go!" said the silver robot.

"Engage Transwarp drive on an intercept course." The ship shot into transwarp and dissappeared just like the other one.

It wasn't long before they caught up in transwarp space. The battle began, each one firing on the other, weakening each other's defenses. Suddenly, the Predacons went into a time-warp. "Follow them; we can't let them get away," said Optimus. The time trackers came on and they dissappeared.

A wormhole opened near the destination. Both ships flew out, firing at each other. The Predacons hit the Maximal's and they lost control of their ship. They began falling toward the planet. They fired at the Predacons and blew a wing off and they followed. The Axalon began ejecting small pods out of the stasis deck and into orbit. The ships picked up speed and began to glow red with the atmospheric friction. They became two meteorites falling to the ground. They hit and seconds later, the crash could be heard and felt miles away.

Once they crashed, both sides began battling each other for control of the massive energon deposits on the planet. There was so much, in fact, that its radiation interfered with their circuits. They took on animal forms whose organic outer layer blocked the radiation. They named the conflict to come the Beast Wars, and soon found they weren't alone on the planet. They also started a conflict on Cybertron for control of the planet and on several Autobot/Decepticon outposts.

The Beast Wars were only the beginning.