PROLOGUE
Twenty-four years ago (1993) - Earth, the Laurentian Abyss
“What is it about this planet?”
Shockwave did not respond or react in any way to Fistfight’s inquiry, his attention focused solely on the monitor in front of him. Fistfight sighed, more than used to this kind of “silent treatment”; something which he had endured for nearly two thousand years at this point. Knowing that Shockwave was going to either ignore him or silence him, he continued with his rant regardless.
“I mean, I know this isn’t the only world you’ve got seeded with an ore, but it’s the one you’ve gone back to the most. I know the colony worlds are too close to Autobot space, and Elonia is under Solstar supervision, but I haven’t seen you visit Arduria or LV-117 nearly as often as this dirtball.”
“Arduria’s ore has already reached the final stages of its evolution,” Shockwave replied, his tone as matter-of-fact as ever. “The planet itself is barely inhabitable due to its effects. Similarly, LV-117’s ore is in a state that makes travel to the planet… unwise at the moment.”
“Okay, fine,” Fistfight harrumphed. “But what makes this world so special? It’s not a colony world or anything like that. Does Ore-13 require that much monitoring?”
“Given what it is capable of and what it can do in the hands of a single Cybertronian, yes. If any of the others learned about this—especially, Primus forbid, Starscream—and tried to use Ore-13 for their own designs, the repercussions would be… devastating, to say the least. Thus, it is prudent that this ore is watched more carefully than any of the others, and Earth’s location is remote enough to provide desirable cover from prying optics.”
Fistfight clicked his claws irritably. While Shockwave was making a number of good points, he still wasn’t fully satisfied with those answers. He could tell that there was something more about this planet that his boss was interested in.
“What about that incident that happened nine years ago?” he then asked. “There was a huge burst of temporal energy when you showed up, and then Soundwave of all bots nearly uncovered our operations. Why was he even here in the first place?”
“Your place is not to ask questions, Fistfight, but to do what I command of you,” Shockwave said curtly. “You would be wise to keep that in mind.”
“Oh, trust me, it’s all I can ever think about,” Fistfight retorted. “But if you want me to be a good little assistant, then maybe you could shed some light on a few things so I don’t accidentally mess up something you don’t want me messing up. Just saying.”
Shockwave was silent for a moment, and Fistfight was certain it was going to remain that way. Then, the one-eyed Decepticon turned away from his monitor and regarded him with his single optic.
“Very well,” Shockwave said. “Nine years ago, upon my arrival to this planet, I encountered a starship of Cybertronian—or Cybertronian-esque—origin. When I fired on it, it inexplicably performed a quantum jump and I followed it through time and space with my experimental transwarp drive. I followed them as far back as twenty thousand stellar cycles into the past, where they crash landed here on Earth during its period of glacial maximum.”
“Twenty thousand…?” Fistfight shook his head in disbelief. “Is that the furthest anyone has traveled with a Transwarp drive? We didn’t get that kind of results during the Sigma Project….”
“Indeed. And on the subject of the Sigma Project….” Shockwave tapped in a few commands on his console and the monitor changed to indicate various hot spots of activity on a global map of Earth. “I have recently discovered that each of our subjects ended up on Earth whenever we sent them on a test jump, despite our operations being located on Sigma Seven.”
“That’s strange,” Fistfight said. “Wouldn’t they have just stayed on Sigma Seven?”
“That would be the logical deduction. However, something on this planet appears to be drawing them here, possibly through Transwarp space itself. And I believe I may have finally figured out what it is.”
Shockwave changed the screen again to show what appeared to be a rather large island near the continent that the natives of Earth referred to as Antarctica, located at the planet’s south pole.
“An island?” Fistfight asked. “That’s what’s so important?”
“Theoretically. For reasons I have yet to deduce, this island does not appear on any human-made maps, yet its existence has been recorded in more than a few pieces of human folklore. In them, it is referred to as ‘the Land Where Time Stands Still.’”
“Those fleshlings sure have a thing for the poetic,” Fistfight muttered. “So, have you investigated it yet?”
“Not physically,” Shockwave replied. “Given that this island is a new and unknown factor, it would be illogical of me to potentially risk my life exploring it, especially at this stage of the Regenesis program. However, I did send a few auxiliary drones to investigate the island. This is what they found.”
Fistfight looked at the screen as Shockwave displayed a variety of images that had been captured on the mysterious island, each one more extraordinary than the last. The denizens of the island seemed to range from all sorts of beings, from all across time; from humans to dinosaurs (which Fistfight knew were supposed to be extinct)… to Cybertronians.
“Wait.” Fistfight pointed a claw at one of the images, which displayed a Transformer of familiar design. “Is that…?”
“Yes,” Shockwave said. “The ship that I followed twenty thousand years into the past was crewed by Transformers not from Cybertron, but rather from the colony world of Eukaris. Rather than destroy them, I decided to use them as subjects for a simulation of the Great War in order to accurately predict the outcome of our centuries-spanning conflict. For countless years they have lived here on Earth and waged their own secret war, slowly killing themselves off one by one. Few of them remain… and some are perhaps better off dead or forgotten.”
Fistfight shook his head in disbelief. “Of all your schemes… you know, for someone who professes to be all about logic, some of the stuff you get up to is anything but.”
“I would not expect you to fully comprehend my designs,” Shockwave coolly responded. “Your processor, while admittedly impressive, does not contain the memory storage required to fully grasp—”
“Yeah, yeah, spare me the backhanded compliments,” Fistfight grumbled. “So what are you going to do about this? Just leave them be or save them for later? Or blow them up? ‘Cos if you blow them up, I wanna be the one to do it….”
Shockwave stared at the images, considering his options. “Perhaps it would be wise to leave them be for now,” he eventually said. “At least until I have figured out the true nature of this island and its capabilities. In the meantime, we must keep its existence secret from all, including our fellow Decepticons.”
“Right, as if they’re not already suspicious of us enough….”
Shutting off the monitor, Shockwave turned and began to walk past Fistfight. “Prepare my ship. It is time I return to New Kaon, lest Starscream and Soundwave grow wary of my absence.”
“Yeah, sure.” Fistfight gave one last glance to the offline computer as he followed his master. “That’s the last thing we want, isn’t it?”
CROSSING OVER
Part 2: Life Finds a Way
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