Forward: Like many others, I wasn't satisfied with the way Armada ended. Fortunately, it made for the perfect opportunity to 'wrap things back together' and finish my 'Next Generation' series.

For those who haven't watched the entire Armada series, the final few shows consisted of: Starscream dying at the hands of Megatron, Megatron then sacrificing himself to save Cybertron, Hotshot taking command of all Transformers, and Optimus being badly damaged – blown into space – and drifting away alone.

Building a Nation Near Earth

Under her guiding hand as the Matriarch; Raptor's family had grown immensely in the years since the departure of the Autobots from Earth. It turned out that every daughter had indeed had hybrid sparks growing within her, including Raptor herself.

They had taken over the abandoned Decepticon lunar base, for this kept them out of range of any possible aggressive actions by human countries. Transporting up the vehicles, equipment and materials they needed to build the chassis' for the new sparks to fill.

Deciding as a group to honor the sires of these new sparks, the femmes chose to build the new Mechs more in their image – than in their own. So as the sun peaked over the horizon of Earth, twenty one empty Mechs stood in silent readiness for their 'births'. Rescue choppers, cars, construction equipment, small passenger jets and a few semis – had all been converted into Mechs; the dual-insignias gleaming in the solar radiation.

As one, the First Brood and the Matriarch had bonded and transferred the new sparks into the Mechs. Each femme having carried three growing sparks within her. They had welcomed them into the world, into the family – and begun to train them, to teach them.

As her family grew, Matron Raptor had realized that she would need to get the human population to accept them. Contacting Alexis, she had gotten the young woman and young men, whom had once been friends with the Autobots – to represent her family's interests. Through them, she had gotten patents on all of the alien technology within the Transformers. Carefully selling some of the rights to tech and power companies, her family quickly built a great wealth in human money.

Under the disguise of supplying international non-profit relief associations with equipment and transport – the Mechs had shown up in the most desperate of human times. Providing food, clothing and water to thousands – then amazing the thankful humans by transforming after their cargo had been unloaded – saying something to the effect that the humans' God had blessed them – then leaving. Making sure that video of the event was posted across the internet.

At first, this caused widespread panic. But as these strange aliens continued to show up, helping during these human disasters, the humans began to accept that their Gods may have just sent these robots to help them. As disasters hit countries with brutal military regimes, who would not allow other humans to help, these aliens showed up. Easily sneaking in past those militaries and getting the supplies to the desperate civilians, then disappearing quickly. Though this enraged those governments, the larger population on earth decided that these aliens were truly heroes.

When the time was right, Matron Raptor quietly approached the member countries of the United Nations – to have a meeting to discuss their mutual needs. With her human insight, and the negotiation skills of IceOwl, she soon had a pact with the human nations. Her family creating a 'nation' on the lunar surface, and having land offers in third world nations.

Return Trip

"It is almost time." Matron Raptor said to IceOwl.

Her wing mate nodded her agreement, quietly regarding her Matriarch.

"I want Beltway to stay and take temporary command of operations here." the gray/green femme decided. For Beltway was one of the Second Brood, another of Optimus's daughters, and had shown the same temperament and had the knack for both negotiations and leadership – as her older sister, IceOwl, had.

"A good choice." IceOwl nodded, knowing that her younger sister could more than handle things.

They didn't have a ship, but Raptor had had the First Brood extending their teleport range through endless practice. She felt that they were now able to teleport as far as needed, thus, they could make it to Cybertron and recharge when they landed. Each Seeker would carry one of her ground Mech offspring, and Alexis, Rad and Carlos would also go with them.

The Matriarch could see the excitement within her elder daughters at the thought of finally visiting Cybertron, and seeing the sires of their offspring again; their engines rumbling in excitement as they prepared to leave Earth's orbit.

Alexis looked down at the beautiful blue sphere beneath them. Pulling against the tightness of the flight suit, the woman leaned back into the seat. "I can't believe I'm going to see Cybertron again!" she said to Raptor.

The femme chuckled, "Yes, I hope it's an enjoyable visit."

"I just hope they don't have any potholes! My struts are still stiff from the mission in India!" Blacktop mumbled, resting her helm on her mother's cockpit. The black ground femme both excited and nervous about visiting her sire's home world.

Raptor chuckled at her younger daughter as the full squadron of the First Brood turned and teleported together.

Visitors

"Hotshot, sir, there's something strange coming in from delta quadrant." Blurr reported, looking at the long range scans.

Red Alert came up to the console next to his, punched in some commands, and focused the scans tighter. On the main viewer, the seven unidentified objects on radar came in focus. Everyone gasped as they identified the objects.

"It's Raptor and her squadron!" Hotshot exclaimed, not believing they had made it to Cybertron without a ship.

At that point, one of the fighters turned into two, as a Mech jumped off the jet, transforming into a human passenger jet. The Cybertronians then realized that each member of Raptor's squadron had been carrying an unidentified Mech on their topsides.

Hotshot whistled, slapping the two older Autobots on their backs. "Looks like some of you are fathers!" he laughed.

"It would seem so, sir." Blurr answered, hiding his excitement under his cool demeanor.

"Guess we need to get a welcoming committee together." the yellow Mech stated, and then ordered all of those who knew the femmes to meet at the main landing runways. He then had Red Alert send a welcome greeting via radio to the femmes, giving them the coordinates to the runways.

A crowd gathered to watch as the squadron landed, talking excitedly to each other.

The 6 Seekers still carrying Mechs made a slow, low pass over the runway, their landing gear still up. This allowed the Mechs they carried to jump off, transforming before they hit the pavement, their wheels squealing as they 'landed' going 150 mph. The squadron then banked around the runway, coming in their final approach in V-formation, with the passenger jet inside the V. Landing lightly, they slowly taxied up towards the crowd of Mechs. The ground Mechs they had brought, transforming and approaching those Seekers who were opening up their cockpits.

"They brought humans too!" Side Swipe said excitedly as he watched the ground Mechs help the humans out of the cramped cockpits.

Transforming, Raptor and her group approached the Cybertronian Mechs, smiles on their faces as they saw the warm welcome. The adult humans they had brought, running up to their old Autobot friends and hugging them.

"Wow! I can't believe how much you've changed!" Hotshot exclaimed to Rad, for the human was no longer the boy he remembered.

Raptor smiled as she put a hand on the yellow Mech's shoulder. "Yes, it's a little different to watch humans grow and mature. Rad and the others have played a key role in our creation of a Mech nation in their solar system."

"Mech nation?" Hotshot asked her.

Blacktop grinned, "This isn't the whole family, we had to leave a bunch of them at home."

Hotshot looked up at the tall ground femme, she was built lighter than the male Mechs, but so obviously one of Optimus's daughters. He remembered what the red Mech had asked of Raptor before they had last parted ways – Build a few semis this time… Laughing, Hotshot realized that Raptor had done just that.

All around them, excited conversations erupted as the femmes introduced the Autobot sires to some of their offspring. Soon, Jetfire was wheeling happily in the sky, Tigress and their son – following along for the 'tour'. The other Autobots left, giving their offspring and the femmes 'tours' as well. This left Hotshot, Raptor and Blacktop standing alone.

Hotshot felt a little awkward since Optimus wasn't here to give his own daughter the tour. Raptor just smiled. "The humans told us what had happened to Prime, why don't you give Blacktop a tour?"

The young ground femme grinned at the yellow Mech. "Thank god it looks like you Mechs keep your roads in good shape! Matron keeps sending us on these god-awful missions where they call a mud track a 'road'!"

Hotrod chuckled, "You can go a lot faster here!"

"I can keep up, give it your best shot!" she challenged.

Raptor chuckled as the two ground Mechs transformed and shot down the road at breakneck speeds.

"You're still going, aren't you?" Alexis asked her, as Raptor sat down, charging in the glow of Cybertron's star.

Raptor nodded. "Ice knows to take command while I'm gone."

"Is he still alive?" the woman asked, sitting on Raptor's knee.

Raptor shrugged. "I don't know, I'm able to lock on to him – but he's a long distance away, was heavily damaged in the battle, and has been alone for all these years."

Alexis sighed. "I guess if he's not alive, then you'll bring his chassis back here?"

The gray/green femme nodded. "It is only proper to bring the dead back home."

Together, they heard the sounds of minicon chatter, as a group of the diminutive robots came towards them. It was the three Star Saber minicons.

Raptor offered them her hand. "It is good to see you, my little repair bots!"

They jumped lightly in her hand, running up her arm as they chattered happily in their strange encrypted language.

Looking at Alexis, Raptor smiled. "It seems I'll not be going alone on this mission."

With that, the femme stood up, transformed, and rocketed out into space; the three happy minicons comfortably riding in her cockpit. Alexis waved to them, wishing them good luck.

Left

"She is doing what?!" Hotshot demanded.

When they had all come back to main headquarters from giving their visitors the tours, they had found that Raptor had disappeared. Now IceOwl and Alexis were telling them that the Seeker was searching for Optimus's body, that she had a lock on him.

"Why didn't she tell us?" Red Alert asked IceOwl.

"Because this is something only she can do. And you would not have understood this." the blue/gray femme quietly stated.

Blurr looked steadily in her optics. "Can't you teleport as well? Thus, joining her in this mission."

She regarded him. "None of us has her stamina, and we can only teleport if we have coordinates locked in."

"She doesn't need coordinates, she can teleport merely with an image in her mind." Jaguar added.

"This is why she can go to other dimensions…" Wasp started.

"-and we can't." her twin finished.

Scavenger looked over at his Commander. "Sir, at least the Star Saber minicons went with her, so she's got some backup."

"Ya, ya, I still don't like it – but I guess there's nothing we can do about it now." the yellow Mech mumbled.

Alexis looked up at the Mechs. "I wonder if there's even the slightest chance that Optimus is still alive?"

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