The War consumed Cybertron, destroying its once great City-States and turning the planet into a wasteland.  Megatron, the leader of this new band of Decepticons planned to turn Cybertron into an interstellar dreadnought of unmatched power.  As the first step towards this he built a huge engine room beneath the City-State of Kalis.  The initial test firing of the engines blasted Cybertron out of orbit and on a elliptical course throughout the Galaxy.  While Cybertron hurtled through the cosmos the Decepticons tried to press their advantage by destroying the last Autobot City-State, the Autobot capital Iaacon.

But just in time to prevent their final destruction a champion came forth from Iaacon.  A warrior without compare, an inspiration to those he served under, a passionate and dedicated hero for the Autobot cause and the Guardian of the sacred Creation Matrix within which rested the essence of Primus.  This being was the legendary Optimus Prime, a Transformer who none would ever forget.  He embodied all it was to be Autobot and under his leadership the Autobots successfully repelled the Decepticon attacks and over a thousand year period bought the War to a stalemate.

But danger threatened Cybertron from without.  Cybertrons course took it through the asteroid belt of the Sol system.  The Autobots readied the last of a fleet of large space-craft, known as Arks, which they had constructed centuries earlier.  Optimus Prime himself lead a team of the Autobots most powerful and skilled warriors into space aboard the Ark in order to clear a path through the belt that Cybertron could pass through safely.  The Decepticons constructed an assault craft named Nemesis to attack the Ark once the immediate danger of the asteroid field was removed.  Megatron hoped to eliminate Optimus and the Autobot elite with one strike.  Accounts vary as to what happened exactly, but it is known that the Ark crashed on the third world of the system with both crews aboard and the Nemesis was left deserted in a decaying orbit around the planet.  Possibilities include the Nemesis shot down the Ark or that it was purposefully crashed by Optimus to end Megatrons evil once and for all. Neither crew was heard from since.

While the Autobot Council of Elders again took command of the Autobots, the Decepticon command was grasped by Trannis.  He began to reconquer all that the Decepticons had lost to the Autobots over the last thousand years.  Finally he came to the same position as Megatron, Iaacon.  Iaacon held out against the Decepticons for hundreds of thousands of years until Trannis decided it wasn't worth the bother of capturing.  Ordering a full assault on Iaacon, the Decepticons levelled it.  Trannis marched into the remains and executed the surrounding Autobot Council.  Trannis believed he had won and gained complete control over Cybertron, but small pockets of Autobots engaged the Decepticons in guerilla warfare for the next thousand years.
 

The Decepticons meanwhile discovered how to reproduce bio-morphically akin to cell division and so their numbers grew as well.  Their ambitions grew too and Trannis begun to turn his attention to the rest of the Universe, readying a vast fleet and army to conquer the galaxy.  Eventually the Autobots staged a daring assault on Decepticon Headquarters itself and the Autobot commando unit, the Wreckers, killed Trannis.  While the Autobots intentions had been to cripple the Decepticons by eliminating their leader, they unwittingly helped them.  Many Decepticons felt that Trannis had lost his 'killer' edge and upon his death a powerful second generation Decepticon called Jhiaxus assumed command and lead the Decepticons away from Cybertron, leaving a small unit under the command of Lord Straxus to mop up the final residues of Autobot resistance.

[ASIDE] The Decepticons who left Cybertron eventually met up with the original Decepticons and eventually joined forces under the command of the Liege Maximo, the original Decepticon leader.  The new Decepticons brought with them the Cyberforming process.  Originally a method of colonisation, it quickly became a way of fortifying planets to defend themselves against Unicron.  The whole Decepticon rebellion on Cybertron was later revealed to have been engineered by Primus and the Liege Maximo.  The new Decepticons were intended as reinforcements for the original Decepticon army and the Kalis engine was to move Cybertron away from Unicron who had locked onto its position and was coming to destroy it. [End aside]

With the bulk of the Decepticon army suddenly absent the Autobots managed to retake parts of their homeworld, but Straxus was ruthless and relentless in the 'war' against the Autobots.  Not all agreed with his command and with Trannis, Jhiaxus and the other Decepticon Lords away they soon dissented.  Two Decepticons rose to challenge Straxus.  Thunderwing took a more subtle route while Scorponok staged a direct rebellion against Straxus and took command of the Decepticons.  In the Autobot camp several Autobots became dissatisfied with current Autobot leader Emirate Xaarons strategies and formed a separate group under the command of the powerful Fortress Maximus. Straxus seeks to regain his command from Scorponok and uses his hunting team the Predacons to do it.  However the battle is soon drawn to a deadlock as Scorponok recieves reinforcements, so Straxus challenges Scorponok to one-on-one combat to the death...

Continued in Transformers: Tales of Cybertron #7.  Preview issue here.
 
 

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