Chapter 1: The Battle of Paradise

2034 CE

Paradise

The blue planet was not unlike Earth. Filled with waterfalls and lush scenery, Paradise certainly lived up to its name for its primitive inhabitants who were similar to humans in many ways. To them, this was paradise indeed. In fact, the galaxy as a whole had been much safer than it had been four years ago. Of course, it wasn't as if the inhabitants knew this. Their most advanced technology was the net, used by the natives to catch fish in the streams that provided so much life to them.

However, despite this serenity and despite the general security of the galaxy, Paradise was a paradise no longer as the inhabitants fled their burning homes in fear. All which way, laser fire roared through the air, creating crackling pew! sounds in their wake. One Paradisan, a young boy who had spent all his life only knowing the simpleness of his tribe, ran as fast as his legs could take him before he collapsed on the ground, tripping on an exposed root from one of the many large trees in the area. As he tried to pull himself up, he froze when he heard the sound of one of the enemies landing behind him. It was a loud sound as metal flattened the grass and other debris like sticks that may have been lying around. The boy, terrified, looked over his shoulder and the massive robotic invader behind him, optics glowing red. The giant aimed the large rifle he was holding at the boy and it was is if time had stood still.

However, another robot, half crimson red and half cobalt blue, quickly lunged in, tackling the invader and sending the enemy tumbling away. Seizing the opportunity, the boy quickly got up and ran to join his family who had hid in one of the caves north of the tribe's camp.

Paradise, like countless other planets in the galaxy for the past ten million years, had been caught up in the war between the Transformers.

"By the authority of Optimus Prime, Supreme Commander of Cybertron, you are under the arrest on the charges of Article I and III of the Iacon Hearing of 2030." Rodimus yelled out, flipping over his Decepticon opponent while firing rounds into his enemy's face. As he landed on his feet while keeping his crosshairs on the Decepticon, the Decepticon reached towards his face in pain.

"and… what's that legal jargon translate to, huh? Is it illegal for us to exist?" the Decepticon asked, his optics flickering as his self-repair systems tried to reconnect and reboot the damaged parts.

"Correct. The continued existence of Decepticons like you remains the largest threat to the galaxy." Rodimus said. "Look around you, for Primus's sake!" He gestures with his rifle to the burning society around them. Lasers continued to fire out across the sky while Autobots and Decepticons with aerial-based alt-modes roared against each other in dogfights.

"What's the difference between you and me, huh!?" the Decepticon asked, falling to his knees. Rodimus glared at the Decepticon as he slowly walked towards him, his crosshairs still never leaving the robot's head. He pondered the question in his head, though he had wondered about what made them different many a time. In technicality, the only difference between the Autobots and the Decepticon was their ancestry. Originally, war between the Autobots and Decepticons happened without knowledge of their early history. There was only the slight feel each side had with the feeling that the other side was a bit different. It wasn't until Vector Prime had made contact with the Autobots that more about their race's past was revealed. It turned out that the Decepticons were racially different from the Autobots, descent from one of the original Thirteen Transformers that was predisposed to commit heinous acts. Simply put, they were statistically more likely to be evil.

In the early days of the Second Cybertronian War, Rodimus had believed all Cybertronians to be equal. He left Cybertron after the centuries of war and he brought many Autobot and Decepticon defectors with him. The Autobots and Decepticons learned to cooperate with each other and eventually became the same race called the Omnicons. But that was his past.

More prominently, Rodimus remembered the levels of evil that approached and crossed the line of insanity during the Fourth Cybertronian War. That was when the Decepticon Army followed the will of Megatron who was set on reviving Unicron, the ultimate evil. While Rodimus was guilty for a while in the fact that he too wanted to revive Unicron, but Rodimus had assured himself that his intentions were pure. He wanted to help Alpha Q restore his planets.

Alpha Q. That's where it always comes to, doesn't it? Rodimus thought. It was with his death that I came to believe that the Decepticons were nothing but animals if they would follow a monster who would do anything to end all life. By this point, Rodimus had his blaster right against the head of the Decepticon. And when Vector Prime confirmed that they were essentially a different race…

The Decepticon looked up at him. Only his right optic had managed to completely reactivate.

"The difference between you and me…" Rodimus started. He paused for a moment and considered his answer. "The difference is that you're an animal that needs to be put down and it's my job to do just that." With that, Rodimus pulled the trigger. In an explosion of fire, shrapnel, and fluids, the Decepticon's head was destroyed. The body fell to the ground with a loud thud.

"Commander Rodimus!" a voice called out. Rodimus turned to look at the direction the voice came from. It came from Flak, who was driving over to him in his TOS-1 Buratino alt-mode. An Earth-based mode, Flak had chosen the mode after he saw Scattershot's effective alt-mode. Once he was close enough to Rodimus, he transformed into his primary robot mode. He raised his arm (a task easier said than done thanks to the large rocket launchers on his arm) in a salute. "Sir! We've destroyed a majority of their primary scouting force! They're retreating to Starscream's forwards operations base in the Taros system. Rodimus looked around and the fleeing ships in the sky. He nodded at Flak.

"Prowl, disengage!" Rodimus ordered, separating from his Powerlink form with his lieutenant, Prowl. Having separated, Prowl took his position by Rodimus's side. "Round up any prisoners and execute them and do some cleaning up. Put out these fires and see if our engineers can't rebuild these civilian areas to their state pre-battle. I want Sunrunner and Bumblebee to remain in orbit to provide watch over this planet." Rodimus looked around for a bit. "All things considering, this was a minor confrontation. No need to report this to Optimus. It'll be a footnote to the Taros campaign."

"We might be calling this the Nebulon campaign if we fail." Flak chimed in. Rodimus glared at the officer for a second.

"Hey, watch what you're saying! We can't lose Taros! That's traitorous talk!" Prowl responded, trying to assume a threatening pose to Flak. His small stature evoked the imagery of a slightly inconvenienced chihuahua.

"Easy, Prowl." Rodimus sighed. "It's only natural to have a little concern. Since Starscream assumed command of the Decepticon remnants, we have been losing consistently in the major battles."

"These battles are becoming more and more wide-scale. It's not like the mop-up operations four years ago when the war ended. Maybe… Maybe we should ask Optimus for a formal declaration of war so we can have more resources devoted to our efforts…" Flak started.

"No." Rodimus quickly responded. "Go relay those orders, soldier." Rodimus ordered, getting off the subject. Flak looked questioningly at him before firing a salute and transforming, driving off to direct the post-battle commands. Prowl looked up at his commander.

"Rodimus… you really don't want Optimus to involve himself in this at all, do you?" Prowl asked. Rodimus looked up at the sky at the Decepticon retreat. He then glanced over at the decapitated body at his feet.

"Optimus's involvement… would ensure that this operation will never end." Rodimus looked at the flames of the burning village that reflected off the flame paint-scheme on Rodimus's chest. Rodimus's thoughts trailed to a red ball of light in the hands of a titanic monster. "... and it would ensure more loss of life."