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Welcome to my fan fic, Transformers:Phases.
Basically, this is a complete reimagining of the TF Universe, although it is heavily inspired by the current IDW series, it takes inspiration from all past series while hopefully never treading the same ground as those series. It will be told in different phases, starting off with the prologue Phase 0.
Anyway, enjoy

Phase:0 (Part 1)

Ark 32 – Earth Orbit

Grimlock stared hard at the holo screen being projected in front of him by his pilot Swoop.

“What’s he doing?” Grimlock asked, somewhat confused by his enemies latest move.

“Waiting.” Swoop replied bluntly.

“No. Really?” Grimlock replied sarcastically. “Now, I’ll ask again, and this time I expect a more complex answer.”

“Right, of course. The problem is though, that’s exactly what he’s doing. He’s just waiting there, barely functioning, although I expect this is simply to conserve power rather than because he needs to.”

“Great. So we’ve no idea what he’s doing then.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say no idea. According to the ships readings, the planet is currently undergoing tremendous changes and so is undergoing tremendous stress, which in turn creates huge amounts of energy. So huge that any normal Transformer would have gone into overload. Of course, he’s no normal Transformer.” Explained Swoop.

“No. He’s not. But you still haven’t explained what he’s doing there. You’ve simply stated what I already knew!” Grimlock bellowed, standing up sharply and slamming a fist into the desk between him and Swoop.

Swoop jumped back sharply before continuing.

“Right. Sorry about that. Anyway, the energy could theoretically be used to super charge himself, but…” Swoop began to explain before being abruptly cut off once more by Grimlock.

“What! Why was I not told of this before!”

“Well… its like I was about to say, the procedure is practically impossible, the only way that it could be successful would be if…”

“Would be if?” Grimlock asked, although he expected he already knew the answer.

“…if he was barely functioning.” Swoop said, grimacing. Anticipating the strike he was about to receive from his commander.

But the blow never came. Instead Grimlock lowered his head and sighed.

“Go see Slag, tell him to get us down there.”

Swoop gasped in surprise. “What! But we’ll all be killed!”

“You think I don’t know that? But if we don’t defeat him here, then the whole Cybertronian Race and many others are doomed.” Grimlock said.

“…Yeah, you’re right. I’ll go see Slag.” And with that, Swoop turned and left.

“Oh, and Swoop.” Grimlock added. “Make sure he gets us the longest time we can get.”

“Yes sir.” Swoop replied as he left the room. Leaving Grimlock to slouch back down into his chair. And to drift. Drift back to better times. Drift back to Cybertron…

Phase 0 (Part 2)

Ark 32 – Research and Analysis

“Interesting…” Slag mused as he played around with his newly modified weapon, the modification being the ability to now spurt flames out of it, as well as the original intent of firing laser blasts. Slag wasn’t used to weapons, this was the first and therefore only one he’d ever owned. Which made it all the more interesting to play around with, hence the flamethrower, it wasn’t needed. Slag doubted that no modification he could prepare for the weapon would be enough, especially if he needed to use it for this mission…
But before Slag’s thoughts on the matter could go any further, he was interrupted by Swoop, who had just entered the room.

“Grimlock says we’re going down.” Swoop said, his fear clearly showing.

“Down? You don’t mean to the planet, surely?” Replied a bewildered Slag.

Swoop nodded his head solemnly.

“But, we’ll be destroyed! Decimated! Obliterated in fact! If not by the planet, then by what’s waiting there for us!” Slag cried out.

“He knows. But lets face it. This is the only way. The range on the ships weapons isn’t enough and if we take the ship any closer then its gonna get overloaded. This is the only way to stop him.”

“I…I… I know.” Slag said, sounding resigned to his fate.

“Good. Then lets get about making sure we have the largest amount of time we can get.” Swoop replied, sounding more optimistic than before.

“Yes. Of course. One thing I’m still not sure about though, what about Sludge?” Slag asked.

“I… I guess we just leave him here. We can’t expect him to go through that again.” Swoop said, clearly upset by the notion, yet knowing there was no other choice.

“Fine. Then we’d better make sure that at least one of us gets back then. Hadn’t we?” Slag said, more as a statement than a question.

Phase 0 (part 3)

Cybertron – The Past

Grimlock looked around. He was back on Cybertron, well, he was reliving a memory in fact, a memory he was living in just as much as when it first happened, but unable to change anything. Grimlock was standing in the crowded street of Tyger Pax. To be precise, he was on one of the many Cyber Ball courts of Tyger Pax. He and his fellow ‘Dynobots’ as they liked their team to be known as were playing against a rival team, who called themselves The Predacons.
Grimlock hated it when his mind drifted off back to this memory. It reminded him how perfect everything had been and probably was know back on Cybertron. Back before the fighting, back before the death and destruction. Back before him. Before Thunderwing.
Just mentioning that name made Grimlock want to curl up and hide. The unspeakable horrors committed by Thunderwing to Cybertron, Nebulos, Nebulan, Simfur… what he’d done to Sludge. But then Grimlock remembered the promise he’d made. He would destroy Thunderwing, and everything he had done. No matter the cost.
Suddenly Grimlock was back in the memory track, Swoop hurled him the ball before transforming and flying over head, Grimlock bounced the ball round the opposition, was clean through, and then it happened. Swoop came crashing down. A massive hole through his chest, narrowly missing his spark casing, Grimlock jumped back, scared witless, and stood there, rooted to the spot as Thunderwing hurtled over head, bombarding Tyger Pax with a barrage of plasma missiles. Stood there, as everything he had ever cared for, everything he had ever loved was destroyed.
Well, not quite everything, but Grimlock wasn’t particularly fond of ruins and rubble… and of course, there were his friends, his fellow Dinobots.
It wasn’t Grimlock though who had saved himself and the other Dynobots. He wasn’t like he is now, a warrior, and a battle hardened one at that.
No, he’d been rescued by a true Cybertronian hero, Nova Prime.
Grimlock had watched in awe as Nova Prime came thundering in, in his apex battle armour, designed specifically to take Thunderwing down. He remembered being stirred from his trance by Sludge, who then went on to pick up Swoop, before they ran, ran as fast as they could, treading on the dead and dying as they clambered to get as far away from Thunderwing as they could.
There had been so many made homeless that day, so many more killed, but Grimlock had survived, and so had the others.
Grimlock and the others had almost made it to the evacuation site, where he and his team would be flown out of the city by various shuttle Transformers who had volunteered to help with the evacuation, Grimlock was just stepping aboard a shuttle in fact when it happened.
Grimlock didn’t see all of it, but he heard it, the huge explosion, the cries of dismay from others in front of him and the shuttles, Grimlock had whirred around immediately, expecting Thunderwing to be looming above them, about to destroy them all.
But what he saw was far worse, Nova Prime’s decimated pieces, all falling towards the ground, he’d lost. Nova Prime was gone. Grimlock suddenly felt various hands around his waist as he was pulled inside the shuttle as it took off. It didn’t matter he had thought, with Nova Prime out of the way, Thunderwing would simply fly over and blow them all out of the sky as they fled. Grimlock was part right anyway. It seemed Thunderwing wasn’t interested in destroying everyone on those evacuation shuttles, he destroyed plenty of them, but not all of them, some he let escape, so they could spread the message of what happened here, not that it was needed after what he did to Kolkular, Kaon and countless other city states.
“Phew that was a close one!” Their shuttle had exclaimed as they flew away from the massacre Thunderwing was crafting below them. “By the way, my name’s Astrotrain. Hey, it looks like your buddy there took some pretty heavy damage, don’t worry though, I’ve got a friend that’s a medical unit, his names Ratchet…”

And then Grimlock was back in the present, the here and now. And he was looking at a screen, and Thunderwing was on it. And he was sitting on the planet Earth. And he was going to pay, for everything that he’d ever done, all this he’d ever killed, or harmed, Grimlock would make him pay ten thousand fold for.

>>Grimlock, you there?<< Came Swoop’s transmission through Grimlock’s comlink.

>>Yeah, I’m here.<< He replied.

>>Great, then get your aft down to the CR Chambers, we’ve got the perfect plan. Me and Slag are already kitted out, so get Snarl and then get down here<<

>>On my way.<< Grimlock replied as he stood up and left his room. ‘This one’s for Sludge.’ He thought.

Phase 0 (Part 4)

CR Chamber

Grimlock entered the CR Chamber with Snarl.

“Hey, where’s Slag?” Snarl asked after briefly looking round the room.

“Slag? Oh, he’s gone to see Sludge, try and make him understand what to do, but not even he’s that smart! Hahahaha!” Swoop said, laughing loudly.

Grimlock glared at Swoop, and as soon as Swoop made eye contact with Grimlock, he seemed to shrink in size. Grimlock charged at Swoop, pinning by the neck to the wall, knocking various pieces of equipment off their hooks.

“Never laugh at Sludge’s expense again. Understand?” Grimlock asked, making it obvious the answer he wanted to hear as he did so.

“Yep… couldn’t be any clearer.” Swoop replied, frightened.

“Good. Because, if you do, I’ll make sure you’re worse off than even he is.” Grimlock told Swoop ominously, before throwing him to the ground, hard. “Now, what’s this perfect plan of yours?”

Holding Cells

Slag walked into Sludge’s holding cell. Sludge was curled up in the far, right hand corner, completely still and completely silent.

Slag cautiously walked over to Sludge. “Hey there Sludge, it’s me. Slag.”

Sludge looked up at Slag. “Me know who you Slag is.” Came Sludge’s reply. “What you want?” He asked.

Slag smiled at Sludge and sat down beside him. “What? I can’t just come down here and see how my buddy’s doing?” Slag asked, trying to sound as if he believed himself. But failing.

“No.” replied Sludge bluntly. “Me Sludge know that only time you Dynobots come visit me Sludge is when you give me news, or want me Sludge for something.”

Slag sighed. He hated seeing his friend like this, he was starting to regret coming down to visit Sludge. But he knew that if he didn’t, then chances were he’d never have the opportunity to do so again.

“So, what you Slag want?” Sludge asked.

Slag looked at Sludge’s face, his battered, scarred face. He tried to speak but he couldn’t.

“Fine. Me Sludge start conversation.” Sludge said, sensing Slag’s hesitation and looking down at the Golden Disc in Slag’s hand, Sludge asked, “What you Slag have shiny disc for?”

“Oh, this?” Slag replied, startled at the fact he’d forgotten about the disc in his hand. He raised the disc up towards Sludge and said. “We’re going planet side Sludge. We’re going to face him. And we might not come back. If that were to happen, then eventually other Transformers are going to come looking for us. And when they find this ship, they’ll come on board. And they’ll find you, locked up here, for your own safety. When they get here, I need you to remember that they will be friends ok. And what do we do to our friends?” Slag asked, sounding far more patronising than he’d intended.

“Me Sludge be nice to them friends.” Sludge replied, sighing, he’d been over this thousands of times. ‘It wasn’t me Sludge’s fault…’ he kept thinking to himself.

“Good. And when they arrive, I want you to give them this straight away and tell them Grimlock gave it to you for them.”

“But, you Slag give it to me Sludge.” Said Sludge to Slag, confused.

“That’s right. But just tell them it was Grimlock, ok?” Slag asked.

“Ok.” Came Sludge’s reply. “What on shiny disc?” He asked.

“Important information about us and him. But don’t worry about that, ok? Just make sure you give it to them.”

“Me Sludge promise to give it to them.” Sludge said, fully meaning what he said.

“That’s all I can ask for Sludge. I’ll see you later, ok?” Slag said, standing up and heading for the exit.

“You Slag coming back, right?” Sludge asked.

“Um…” Slag hesitated, obviously Sludge hadn’t taken in everything that he’d said earlier.

“Right?” Sludge repeated.

“Um… yeah. Of course.” Slag said, as he sealed the door.

“Good.” Came Sludge’s reply. “Just make sure you come to see me Sludge next time, not because you need something.”

CR Chamber

“That’s your ‘perfect’ plan!” Grimlock bellowed in anger as Swoop finished explaining. “You want us to alter ourselves to fit in with the planets local inhabitants to protect ourselves from the massive amounts of energy? And what happens when Thunderwing sees? Do you seriously expect us to defeat him with only those pitiful alt modes! What are we going to do, tail whip him to death?”

Swoop ducked down, fully expecting Grimlock to throw a punch in his direction. When the punch didn’t arrive though, Swoop stood up and attempted to calm Grimlock down. “Of course not. We won’t adapt ourselves to completely match these life forms. Instead we simply modify them slightly to include our weapons, such as my selected form, the weapons will be contained on the underside of the wings.”

“And there’s no other way?” Grimlock asked.

“None that we could hope to achieve in time to take Thunderwing down.” Swoop said.

“Fine.” Grimlock said as he walked into a CR Chamber. “Flesh me up.” He said.

Hmmm... I'm seeing some potential here with this one. I like the mystery you set up at the beginning. So many early writers make the mistake of trying to explain everything at the beginning. This purposeful with holding of information helps to draw the reader in.

I'm interested in the changes you made to the Dynobots too, which was not something that most people would be willing to attempt. Sludge, it would appear, speaks like the Dinobots we all know, but this would appear to be due to the damage caused by Thunderwing... however, Sludge does still seem to retain his intelligence, even if his speaking pattern is child like.

So, the big question is--is this Shockwave that they are talking about on the planet, and if so, does this mean it is a expanded retelling of the Shockwave spotlight, in a sense?