ROBOT WAR 1991

In early January, Unicron unleashed his agents Hook, Line, Sinker and Galvatron upon Cybertron, using them to deal with any resistance. The Autobot's main base was compromised and Emirate Xaaron was chased into the depths of Cybertron. But once there, Galvatron revealed his true plans- to have Xaaron help him wake up Primus so he could summon all the Transformers together to battle Unicron and thus destroy him!

On the 10th, Optimus realised that Scorponok was ignoring the threat of Unicron and keeping the Autobots prisoner to boost his popularity. To end this, he broke free of confinement and strong-armed the Decepticon into the alliance, but before it could fully take off, the base was destroyed by Shockwave and his fellow dissenters in an initial strike. Scorponok survived and engaged in vicious combat with Shockwave, nearly destroying the financial district of Manhattan in the process, while the Autobots attempted to control the damage. Once Blackrock and the Neoknights joined the battle, Shockwave was defeated and the alliance fully cemented. 

On Cybertron, Unicron's other agents attacked Galvatron on orders to bring him back. The future Decepticon was able to destroy Line and Sinker before being thrashed by Hook. However, Xaaron succeeded in waking Primus and was possessed by the god, and destroyed Hook with one blast. After being conned by Galvatron into believing the Transformer race was now united, all active Transformers were teleported to Cybertron- including, by accident, the Neoknights. Meanwhile, the corrupted Creation Matrix prepared to make its move again, and reanimated the injured Thunderwing.

On the 11th of January, once the Transformers had all been informed of the situation, Primus retold the story of his feud with Unicron- how Unicron, last of a race of energy gods, had destroyed the old universe in an attempt to gain the purity of the void; how the new universe had come into being and how Primus, last of the Light Gods, had challenged him, only to discover the new universe being destroyed in the battle; and how Primus had both of them imprisoned in asteroids, which Unicron psionically shaped into a body and Primus shaped into Cybertron. Optimus became suspicious of Primus, as he had burnt Xaaron's mind away and was treating the Transformers like mere pawns; when asked to return the Neoknights, Primus ignored them even though Circuit Breaker was suffering a mental breakdown. Meanwhile, Grimlock and the Dinobots finally returned to the Ark with a load of Nucleon. Grimlock ordered all the deactivated patients to be treated with it, inadvertently reactivating Megatron. The Dinobot, though he tried to hide it, started to suffer slight paralysis due to his exposure to Nucleon.

Optimus and Scorponok were attacked by a Unicron cult, and the battle against them helped the alliance foster. Just as soon as that battle was done, Unicron attacked in full force. 

Two thirds of the population died that day. At first, faced with such a foe, the Transformers fled en masse, allowing Unicron to tear up the planet. Primus attempted a frontal assault in Xaaron's body, but Unicron swiftly killed both of them. It eventually stood to Galvatron to inspire the troops by launching an attack and being swatted for it; after witnessing this, the ashamed Transformers fought back, though their firepower didn't seem to be doing enough damage even when the Ark arrived with Nucleon-revived reinforcements. Scorponok, Highbrow, Hardhead, Bomb-burst and Brainstorm were among those killed in battle. Even the corrupted Matrix joined the fight, trying to kill Unicron so it could be the strongest evil force in the universe, but it was defeated and its vessel Thunderwing destroyed. Circuit Breaker was violently pushed out of her breakdown and into using her electrical force to hurt Unicron in order to give Prime a chance to use the Matrix. Releasing his Powermaster component Hi-Q, he cleansed the Matrix and sacrificed both it and himself to destroy Unicron. 

In the aftermath of the battle, several of the Demons came out from under Cybertron and Hi-Q went on the run from them. A dying Optimus Prime named Grimlock his successor and Prowl went all-out to make sure he didn't shirk his responsibilities this time round; Bludgeon managed to sidle into roll of Decepticon leader, with Krok as his advisor. Meanwhile, Shockwave and Starscream stole the Ark, and a surviving Galvatron snuck on board it. When the Dinobots went to search for it, they came under attack from the Demons and Grimlock underwent full paralysis. The Dinobots were nearly slaughtered until Hi-Q, realising Grimlock's paralysis was a chrysalis stage towards a more powerful form, speeded up the process and Grimlock was remade into the first Actionmaster- more powerful than before, but with the ability to transform removed. His power drove the Demons back underground. Hi-Q then claimed he was really Optimus Prime (and indeed due to the Powermaster process he contained all of Prime's memories and near all of his programming) and was subsequently locked up for insanity.

Grimlock's new role caused tensions between the Autobots and Decepticons, especially after it became apparent that the Unicron battle had caused structural damage to Cybertron and the planet was falling apart! It was decided that the Transformers would leave and colonise a barren world, and drop the Neoknights & Hi-Q off at their home planets. However, Hi-Q convinced the humans to help him break out and search for the Last Autobot- a legendary Primus-made machine that could reverse Cybertron's decay. Bludgeon convinced the Decepticons that the alliance was stifling them and that they should go off to conquer new worlds- they left ahead of the Autobots, disabling their craft before they went, and waged bloody war on the planet of Klo.

Shockwave and Starscream headed to a defenceless Earth in the Ark, not knowing that they still had several offline Autobots on board, including Ratchet, and also a stowaway Galvatron & a newly-awakened Megatron. After a brief punch-up, Galvatron and Megatron decided to unite; meanwhile Ratchet discovered he and Megatron were still mind-linked and, realising he was on a ship full of dangerous Decepticons, damaged the Ark's engines and caused the ship to crash in Canada, in an attempt to take out the whole crew.

Grimlock had several hidden Decepticon battle-cruisers stashed away and the Autobots piled into those before chasing after Bludgeon. Unfortunately, a bad move by the Dinobot got most of the Autobots destroyed and a few scant survivors hiding on the planet from pursuers. Hi-Q and his companions found the Last Autobot who revitalised Cybertron and sped up the natural Powermaster process for Hi-Q, that of eventually becoming fully absorbed by the Transformer host. Without Optimus around, however, Hi-Q was transformed into the Actionmaster Optimus Prime. The group arrived on Klo, and in the face of the Last Autobot repairing all the fallen Autobots, Bludgeon and his Decepticons retreated, and the Autobots finally had Cybertron back.

On February 18th, Galvatron reactivated and tore his way through the Canadian army before Spike Witwicky rejoined with Fortress Maximus (still on board the Ark) and, after a bout of insecurity, put the rabid Decepticon down. Declaring himself the last Autobot on Earth, the Headmaster duo decided to remain as its guardian.

As the Actionmaster process spread throughout Cybertron, many Transformers underwent severe depression following the loss of their alt modes. Grimlock, feeling guilty for this, led his Dinobots to Hydrus 4 where an improved strain of Nucleon had been developed that could return the ability of transformation. They were captured by Bludgeon and a small team of Decepticons, who were attempting to resurrect Megatron, but where luckily thwarted by a convenient Autobot attack; Bludgeon's Pretender shell, being remotely controlled from a vast distance, was destroyed. 

The new Nucleon was distributed among the Autobots, but the Decepticons were able to poison the Nucleon given to Prowl, Sunstreaker, Ironhide, Silverbolt and Wheeljack, slipping them into a coma. New Nucleon was also distributed among the Decepticons- however Bludgeon made a mistake and resurrected both Megatron AND Shockwave, who immediately started feuding on Earth, going as far as to create two separate Decepticon armies and start fighting each other. Bludgeon, disgusted by this, decided to permanently take the role of leader and had the greater Decepticon army head off to outer space to initiate Project Warworld.

And so the stage was set for the Earthforce Wars of 1992.