This is my first weekend off since January.
Chapter 4: The First War
As the Elders' abuses became harder to deny, Megatronus approached Solus, convincing her to begin creating weapons in secret. Megatronus, Malleus, and Invictus had built-in weapons, of course, but the others would need hand-held equipment.
When the Twelve Primes (minus the still-contained Atavus) launched their first rebellion, attempting to seize control of Point Helix, the Elders used Primus (forced by the Elders' Control Matrix) itself against them, using the production models (and even the planet's own automated systems) as mindless cannon-fodder against their rogue prototypes. They also evacuated all nonessential personnel from the planet, withdrew command protocols to their backup facility at K'th Kinsere, and used the Matrix to disable the Primes long enough to re-secure Point Helix.
The brief disruption still sent ripples throughout the Empire, even as far as the colony on Earth.
The Primes' bodies were disabled, but their minds were still able to access the Linkage, and Logos again entreated Primus to choose a side. Finally, Primus itself rose up against the Elders, again using the mechanoid population as a hive-mind.
Lord Empurata used the Omega Lock to disable the Primus AI, inadvertently lobotomizing the still-connected Logos Prime in the process (and crippling their manufacturing infrastructure, which caused pushback from the rest of the Empire). At that moment, all mechanoids on the planet (including the mechafauna that had been Primus' eyes and ears) "crashed" back to their default programming. All over the planet, Transformers suddenly awoke, with no clue where they were, how they'd come to be, or even who they were.
While the Elders were quick to re-establish control, many sparked mechanoids began to self-actualize, and many cyberfauna managed to wander out of their assigned zones and hide. Insecticons and Predacons swarmed across the planet, Thetacons closed ranks, and confused Decepticons lashed out, finding themselves surrounded by "enemies" both familiar yet alien --shockingly quickly, local hierarchies appeared, and an organized civilization started to form.
As part of their bid to reassert control, Empurata deployed Omega Units to cow any resistance. Most mechanoids were only too happy to be given structure. Those who resisted were brutally destroyed and recycled. Mirdane's role in the uprising was soon discovered (after Deseeus sold him out to cover his own nonexistent ass), and he was summarily dematerialized. Empurata's increasingly draconian methods of control also earned him new enemies among the Elders, such as Al-Badur and Aquarius.
As sectarian war threatened to spread across the planet, the Elders reactivated the Primes, returning their mobility in exchange for submission (Logos alone could not be reactivated, though the Elders could not explain why). New measures were taken to keep the Primes in line, manipulating them against each other (Amalgamous observed these manipulations with great interest), as the Elders watched for weaknesses they could exploit.
For a time, Elder-ruled Primus returned to normal, but without the AI to control their machines, the Elders were forced to implement a series of patches to Vector Sigma; the new system was far less efficient, and more and more mechanoids begin to slip through the cracks.
Numerous organized underground groups began to develop, including groups led by Beta (a Thetacon), Boltax and Azimuth (Patterners), A3 (a Diaclone), Maccadam (a Convoy), Clench (a Decepticon), and a band of Predacons (Brimstone, Stormreign, Dragonicus, Steelbane, and Skullitron). Awash in a web of Elder-created misinformation, most of the resistance were not even aware of the Primes' natures (nor, for that matter, were the Primes made aware of what was going on outside). As far as anyone in the resistance knew, "Mount Helix" was the home of petty and capricious gods.
Eventually, the resistance began organizing, and the Elders responded with violence. The rebellion began with a peaceful protest in the Gardens at Malemb. The Elders shut down and recycled the malfunctioning units.
A3 developed the coder remote, a means of suppressing the Elders' control over them, and the next protest refused to be shut down. Instead, it escalated into a riot, put down by the Omega Units.
Boltax, meanwhile, had deduced the existence of the Hub, and was learning to navigate the Linkage through a cortical psychic patch of his own design. It was there that he began having dreams of an Entity, a consciousness at the centre of the world. It was Boltax who taught the word "Primus" to his comrades, who eventually became his disciples.
A3 improved his coder remote, disabling the Omega Units, and the Elders responded by deploying Malleus Prime (who initially assumed this was another of the Elders' pointless "games"). Once he understood what was happening, Malleus switched sides, seizing command of the rebels and turning on his former masters.
In outrage, Empurata released Atavus Prime, reconfigured to be capable of transformation, his robot form equipped with a single blazing eye. Atavus again went rogue, lashing out at the Elders and the resistance alike, prompting legends of a great monster.
The war between Atavus and Malleus rocked the planet, sowing tales of a gleaming knight and a monstrous dragon-beast (later mythologized as the Life-Bringer and the Chaos-Bringer).
Eventually, a band of pilgrims (guided by the prophet Boltax) infiltrated Mount Helix and met their gods face-to-face. Their arrival sent the Primes into argument, and while they debated, Boltax found himself drawn to the insensate Logos, recognizing his progenitor. Boltax was able to connect to Logos through the Linkage, rebooting and awakening him, which also drew the attention of the Elders --and forced the Primes into action.
Battle at Mount Helix; with High Magistrate Empurata distracted by an attempted coup by Deseeus (not helping the revolution, just with really bad timing), the Primes reached out through their Linkage to Malleus, who returned to Mount Helix at the head of his own Destron army. During the battle, Votus seized the Matrix Key (which was large enough that he could swing it around like a sword), and reached out through the Linkage, trying to reach Primus itself. It was this act that sent a flood of plasma flowing through the Matrix Key, rebooting Vector Sigma and purging the Elders' influence (but also burning out Votus' body like a fuse, and shattering the Key).
(The Matrix key was attacked to the Omega Lock at the time, and Votus improperly removing it triggered a flame-like effect; the "Matrix Flame" would continue to burn for as long as the Matrix itself exists.)
The Elders again abandoned Mount Helix, but Votus Prime's body was extensively damaged, and the Matrix key was shattered into pieces. Votus' remains were recovered by his allies, and Solus Prime found that his spark was intact for now --though it would take her centuries to learn enough to even consider repairs, and Votus was fading fast. Solus, Logos, and Nexus determined that the only way to save him was to use the remains of the Matrix Key to link his spark directly to Vector Sigma.
With Votus still in stasis, and Atavus still at large, the Eleven and their army of Elect attacked the Elders at K'th Kinsere, managing to scar one of Empurata's faces as they did so.
Finally, the Elders withdrew to J'nwan, their spacebridge nexus, where the Primes and their massed Army faced a final, cataclysmic battle. The Primes succeeded in forcing the Elders to flee the planet, and Logos Prime himself sealed the spacebridge behind them --scrambling its controls and ensuring that only he would ever be able to open it again.
This also completely shut down the entire Elder spacebridge network, effectively ending the Empire, and leaving far-flung colonies (including the one on Earth) completely cut off (250,000,000 years ago).
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With the planet Primus free, the Primes debated what to do next: Caelus, Malleus, and Megatronus wished to follow the Elders and obliterate them, while Solus, Logos, and Amalgamous wished to fan out through the stars and explore the universe, and Micronus, Alchemist, Nexus, and Invictus thought they should turn their attention to the people of Primus, to guide and protect them. Beelzebus simply wanted to eat.
The rest of the planet took care of itself: villages and communities arose, and with them warlords, explorers, and psychopomps. Many of these villages were clustered around the Forges; automated factories still carrying out their initial programming, taking in shipments of raw materials and producing new mechanoids.
The Elect, the followers of the Primes, acted quickly to try to maintain order: the High Circuitmaster Boltax seized the Underbase at Simfur, and Alpha Trion secured Vector Sigma itself.
Micronus, Solus, and Invictus collaborated to build a central, fortified city for their followers, which would come to be called Seibertron. The Omega Keys were removed from the Omega Lock and (after some debate), entrusted to four second-gen Transformers; A3, Maccadam, Beta, and Azimuth (Boltax declined, as he refused to leave the Underbase, and believed it too dangerous for a Key and the Underbase to be at the same location). The Omega Lock itself was relocated to Seibertron, where the Matrix Flame continued to burn.
Gradually, the Primes drifted apart, carried around the world by their own curiosities and goals.
Logos withdrew into the depths, and returned with Atavus in tow, his reason somehow restored, though neither of them would ever disclose what had transpired. Even after his return, Atavus distanced himself from the others, voyaging out into the wastelands, fashioning a mask to hide his cyclopean eye, and calling himself "Onyx."
Solus Prime herself went with Azimuth to claim the Patterner Forge at Ultirex, hoping to learn the secrets of mechanoid construction (with an eye toward repairing Votus). A second mission took Solus to the Constructicon Forge at Galaxxon, where she determined that each of the thirteen types of Children of Primus were uniquely designed, their parts seemingly incompatible.
