Author's Note 1: Transformers Reborn is a non-profit fanfiction.

Transformers is owned by Takara and Hasbro.

Any original characters and concepts are owned by Navek or xpegasus.

Please support the official release.

Before we start this chapter, let me just lay down one define rule for you guys to keep in mind while reading this story; all the Transformers are scale-accurate to their alt-modes. That means no Ratchet being able to carry Ironhide inside him, no 50-foot tall combiners (Dreamwave Devastator), no motorcycle bots being almost the same size as one that turns into a car (Prime Arcee), no Aircraft Carrier Transformers only being slightly bigger robots (Broadside), and no Thunderbolt planes being able to fit on a merry-go-round (G1 Powerglide).

If a Transformer has an alt-mode with a defined size, their robot mode should match.

Also, I've come up with a potential list of voice actors that would play the Reborn Autobots.

Optimus Prime - Peter Cullen (but with his more casual G1 seasons 1 & 2 voice instead of the usual grandiose sage voice)

Ironhide - Scott McNeil (he's a natural born Texan and he has experience voicing Optimus' second-in-command)

Ratchet - Jeffery Combs

Crosshairs - John DiMaggio

Strongarm - Constance Zimmer

Jetfire and Jetstorm - Jason Ritter

Blaster - Bumper Robinson (Falcon/War Machine EMH voice)

Steeljaw & Ramhorn - Frank Welker

Warpath - Bill Fagerbakke

Roadbuster - Ron Bottitta

Whirl - Tom Kenny (the man can do insane)

Pinpointer - Nolan North

Omega Supreme - Kevin Michael Richardson

So, let's start the next stage of the war!

Chapter 2: The Human Element

The Nemesis…

Unbeknownst to the people of Earth, the Decepticon warship known as the Nemesis was hovering in geosynchronous orbit over the blue planet, their cloaking field preventing anyone from detecting them. As Lugnut and Soundwave observed the planet below, another Decepticon leaned against the nearby wall, his arms crossed in front of him.

He was a red and white Cybertronian with black lining, and a pair of wings protruding from his back. His white faceplate and orange optics were surrounded by a square black helmet covered in ridges. Standing next to him (and looking just as bored) was a purple and black Cybertronian with a silver faceplate and red optics.

"We're wasting our time with this blue mudball." The red & silver Decepticon stated.

"As always, Starscream, your input is as useless as you are." Lugnut replied, making the black-headed flyer scowl.

"Actually, I think I'm with Screamer on this one." The black & purple robot chimed in. "We've been in this galaxy for almost five solar cycles and what've got to show for it? Nothing!"

Hearing his friend back him up almost brought a smile to Starscream's lips….until he continued to talk.

"I mean I could be on Velocitron, getting tanked on pure Nucle-O and oiled by some sliiiiick fembots. But no. Instead, I'm stuck on a warship with a bunch of screwjobs whose personality components have been permanently set to deadly serious."

"Is that so, Barricade?" A deep female voice asked from behind him, almost making the Con's spark leap out his torso in shock. Slowly, he turned around to face a towering robot made of deep magenta metal, an orange crown, piercing red optics, and an orange funnel over her mouthplate.

"Perhaps I should let Lord Megatron know you'd like to 'retire' early."

Starscream rolled his optics. "Open mouth, insert stabilizing servo," he whispered.

"N-no, of course not, Lieutenant Strika! I'm 500% dedicated to Decepticon cause! All Hail Megatron and all that!" Barricade quickly spouted to cover his own aft, a sight of which Lugnut could only shake his head at. Ever since they picked up Starscream and Barricade from Velocitron, the two incompetent idiots had been nothing but a pain in his afterburner. Thankfully, his Conjunx Endura, Strika, and third-in-command, Soundwave, were always soldiers he could rely on.

Speaking of soldiers, the doors to the bridge slid open and a group of five Decepticons marched in single file, one of them being Vortex.

The most armored of the group was a dark green robot with an orange visor over his optics with a square black head and a cannon on his back. In front of him was a yellow, purple, and grey robot with a black head a purple visor covering his optics. Next and in front of Vortex was a brown and purple winged Decepticon with a purple visor over his optics. And finally, leading the march was a cobalt and black robot with a black head, an orange visor, and silver twin cannons on his back.

"Combaticons," the cobalt Decepticon shouted, his posture hard and straight "sound off!"

"Brawl!" The green Con said with a salute.

"Swindle!" The yellow Con shouted, doing the same.

"Vortex!" The chopper Con said, also saluting.

"Blast Off!" The brown flyer shouted as he saluted as well.

"Onslaught!" the cobalt Con shouted as he saluted Lugnut.

"Reporting in, Commander!" All five of them shouted. Now, this was a group of Decepticons that Lugnut had mixed feelings about. The Combaticons were the Empire's fiercest commando unit with an almost perfect track record. However, there was a rumor amongst the higher ranked officers that Blast Off, Vortex, Swindle, and Brawl had no real loyalty to the Decepticon cause, and were only loyal to Onslaught, not Megatron.

"What took you so long?" Lugnut asked as he approached the group, his footsteps echoing throughout the bridge until he stopped in front of Vortex, his shadow dwarfing the Combaticon.

"Well, the squishies were better armed than we first thought. Turns out they've discovered how to use rocket launchers," The redheaded con stated.

"Did you learn anything actually important?" Starscream asked.

"No, but wasn't my job, right Soundwave?"

"Affirmative." The red-visored con stated before a large disk ejected from the Nemesis' main console and transformed into Laserbeak, who perched himself on his Deployer's shoulder. "Planetary Military Data; Processed."

Soon enough, all the screens on the bridge began to show specs of footage of Earth's military hardware. From vehicles to firearms. However…

"Wait!" Lugnut shouted before pointing at a particular screen. "Rewind and replay."

Soundwave did just that and the screen showed an image of a warhead begin dropped from a bomber plane. And when the warhead was above a city, it detonated with a force that left the Decepticons and the Vehicon soldiers speechless.

"Vector Sigma." Starscream cursed.

"What...what was that?" Blast Off asked.

"The inhabitants called it a nuclear warhead." The blue deployer explained. "A long-range form of bombardment that weaponizes either fission or fusion nuclear reactions. Currently, there are over 15,000 of these weapons on the planet."

"HOLY SCRAP!" Vortex and Brawl shouted.

"How many of those would it take to destroy the Nemesis?" Strika asked.

"Five."

"Well, Starscream, looks like your idea to scan for native alt-modes was the right call." Onslaught said to the flyer.

"Of course it was. I wasn't Megatron's second-in-command for nothing." The red and white con boasted.

"But this kind of reinforces my point." Barricade chimed in. "We should get the frag out of here if the natives are packing that much firepower."

But to the shock of everyone, the purple & black Decepticon's statement was met with a laser blast the knocked him into a wall, energon leaking from his new wound. And the one who fired it was none other than their commanding officer, his right hand transformed into a rectangular energy cannon. Smoke rose from the barrel.

"Disgraceful. We do not cower from inferior races! WE ARE DECEPTICONS! WE ARE THE TOOLS OF MEGATRON'S GLORIOUS WILL! THIS IS THE PLANET HIS MORTAL ENEMY, OPTIMUS PRIME, WAS ATTEMPTING TO REACH! WE WILL NOT LEAVE THIS SYSTEM UNTIL WE DISCOVER WHY! VORTEX!"

"Y-yes, commander?"

"ARE YOU SURE YOU SLAUGHTERED EVERY ORGANIC AT THAT BASE?!"

"Um...like, 80% su-"

And just like Barricade, Vortex was blasted into the wall, the Combaticons restraining themselves out of fear that the same would happen to them.

"ONSLAUGHT," Lugnut screamed, his optic overflowing with rage. "AFTER KNOCKOUT HAS FINISHED REPAIRING YOUR INCOMPETENT SUBORDINATE, YOU AND YOUR TEAM WILL TAKE A SHUTTLE PLANETSIDE AND HUNT DOWN ANY AND ALL ORGANIC SURVIVORS, THEN BLAST THEM TO SLAG BEFORE THEY GET THE CHANCE TO ALERT THEIR SUPERIORS! ARE WE CLEAR?!"

With his fists clenched and his anger barely contained, Onslaught replied, "Transparently." Brawl, Swindle, and Blast Off carried Vortex to the Med-Bay. Now slightly calmed from his tantrum, Lugnut returned to his chair.

"Starscream, make yourself useful and bring Barricade to the Med-Bay as well." Strika stated.

"...right." The flyer said as he picked up his injured friend. But as he did, he and Soundwave shared a knowing look with each other before the Con and his injured cohort left the bridge.

Meanwhile…

A ground bridge opened near the scorched remains of the Qatar base. Optimus, Blaster, Roadbuster, Whirl, Warpath, Jetfire, and Jetstorm stepped out of it.

"Damn." The blue flyer said as he surveyed the damage. All over the base were burning vehicle parts, rubble from the buildings, and human corpses that had either been sliced up, stepped on, or blown up.

"Looks like my nemesis hasn't lost his touch." Whirl stated as he examined one of the sliced tanks.

"I thought Killmaster was your nemesis." Roadbuster chimed in.

"He was. Until I cut his spark out. Then I met Vortex and instantly hated the guy. Best sword-fighter in the universe my aft."

While the two former Wreckers continued to converse with each other and the others weaved through the debris, Optimus looked down at one of the dead soldiers. The sight of the dead lost in battle was not anything new to the Prime. But that didn't lessen the horror of the situation. Without saying a word, the red & blue Autobot leader walked towards the sand surrounding the base and began digging.

"Optimus?" Warpath asked.

"These soldiers deserve a proper burial." He said as he dug a grave for each and every soldier that had perished in Vortex's attack. Without a word, Warpath began to gather the bodies.

While this was going on, Steeljaw, Ramhorn, and Jetstorm cleared the debris around the bases' main computer while Blaster and Jetfire plugged into it.

"Now time to see what old Soundwave was trying to find." The red deployer said as he and Jetfire weaved through the data. A few minutes later, Optimus and Warpath had finished burying the last of dead soldiers just as Blaster and Jetfire walked towards them.

"Looks like this was a recon mission to see if Earth's military was a threat." The orange Autobot surmised as their search showed that Laserbeak was hacking various military files. It didn't take a genius to figure out why Soundwave's loyal Mini-Con was doing so.

"Is a there a chance of survivors?" Optimus asked.

"Since this was Vortex by himself, maybe." Roadbuster explained. "But that's probably not going to be the case for long. Onslaught's got a reputation for being a perfectionist."

Optimus contemplated this for the next few seconds before addressing his troops. "Alright, everyone but Blaster and I will stay here, find the human survivors, and protect them in case the Combaticons try their hand at hunting them."

"You heard the Prime, boys! Let's roll out!" Roadbuster said as he transformed into his alt-mode and took off, Whirl, Warpath, Jetfire, and Jetstorm doing the same.

"Come, Blaster, we have work to do." Optimus stated as he and his communications officer opened another ground bridge and returned to Omega, where the truck bot would continue were Jetfire left off in their search for the Cube. Somewhere and at sometime, the denizens of Earth must have encountered the relic. Some small detail had to exist out there that only a Cybertronian would spot. And they would have to be quick to find it, before the Decepticons could kill any more humans.

Mission City, Massachusetts…

In the middle of a junkyard, a bored blonde teenage girl sat in the driver's seat of an old Volkswagon Beetle. One look at this girl let you know that she was one to keep up with the latest trends, and stuck out like a sore thumb in this setting. She pulled out her smartphone and sighed before poking her head out the window.

"Can you speed it along?" She said to the person working on the car's undercarriage.

"You can't rush genius, Katie," An older female voice replied as she tinkered away. "Alright, try it now."

Rolling her eyes at the 'genius' statement, Katie turned the keys in the ignition, the old car revved to life like it was fresh off the production line.

"Finally!" The teen said with glee as the older woman got out from under the car. And while Katie stuck out like a sore thumb, she was definitely more at home in a junkyard, her outfit consisting of a white undershirt, a pair of brown overalls over them, brown boots & gloves, and a pair of goggles over her eyes.

In terms of physicality, the only things that showed at this woman and Katie were related were their blue eyes and dirty blonde hair. While Katie was slim, this woman was toned from years of working with machinery.

"What'd I tell ya?" The older woman stated as she slapped the hood of the car. "I can get any old junker to work like new."

"Ya, ya." Katie said. 'Like you haven't said that a hundred times, Erika.'

But as the two sisters continued to chat, they were unaware that a man about Erika's age was sneaking up behind her. He was a man of hispanic descent with warm brown skin, short brown hair, a matching short beard, and green eyes. His outfit consisted of a pair of jeans, sneakers, a dark green carrier bag slung over his right shoulder, and a t-shirt that read "MCPD".

Without warning, he wrapped his arms around Erika's waist, slightly freaking her out until he spoke.

"Ma'am, we've received some heavy noise complaints. I'm afraid I'm gonna have to take go downtown." He said with a flirtatious tone and smile.

"Oh, are sure about that, officer?" Erika said in a similar tone while she grazed his beard with her finger, making Katie roll her eyes as she removed the clutch from underneath the car.

"Uhhhh. Can't you guys wait until I'm gone before you get all gross?"

"Hi, Katie." The bearded man greeted before looking over the repaired car. "So you finally fixed the beetle?"

"Yup!" Erika said with glee. "And all it took was four days of elbow grease."

"And I would hug you out of gratitude, but…," Katie said before motioning towards Erika, who was covered in sweat, dirt, and oil.

"By the by, I've been wondering why you wanted a car this old." Erika asked with an inquisitive look.

"Hey, even gals like me can appreciate the classics." The younger dirty blonde said as she adjusted the driver's side mirror.

"Oh, really?" The bearded man said with a smirk. "And it's not because 'Six-Pack Mick' from Right Round is an antique car enthusiast?"

The two girls reacted as you would expect. Katie was stunned and mortified by what he just said while Erika was trying (and failing) to hold in her laughter.

"H-how...do you…"

"You really need to change the privacy settings on your Facebook page."

"Six-Pack Mick? R-really?" Erika asked her little sister between laughs. In anger and embarrassment, Katie got into the beetle, strapped on her seatbelt, and turned on the ignition.

"Have fun being gross and stupid." Katie grumbled before driving away.

"Say hi to Mick for me."

"F(*K YOU, LUKAS!" The blonde and pissed off teenager said as she and her new-old car vanished in the distance.

"You really need to stop messing with her." Erika stated, despite still inwardly chuckling.

"I know. But she just makes so easy," Lukas said before motioning towards the house. "After you, madam."

After a slight chuckle at her boyfriend, Erika asked, "You got the movie?"

"Yup," Lukas said as pulled out a Blu-Ray entitled 'The Wicker Man'. "And I hope we got the beer. 'Cause trust me, we're gonna need it."

The Nemesis…

Barricade grumbled as he walked through the halls. As if getting blasted by his insane superior officer wasn't enough, he had to deal with Knock Out, who, no less than eight times, tried to convince him to switch to a more 'sporting' paint job. He liked his black and purple color scheme fine, thank you very much. And so, he figured he just pop into his chambers and catch a gladiator match on the DIBN (Decepticon Intergalactic Broadcasting Network).

"Barricade." The con turned and saw Starscream and Soundwave standing in a nearby corridor, almost as if they were hiding, the red flyer motioning him to come towards them. And with a reluctant sigh, he walked towards the corridor.

"What do you want, Screamer?" Barricade said in a bored tone.

"Not here," Starscream stated as he led Soundwave and Barricade to the engine room. "Barricade, my old friend, it has become abundantly clear-"

"Stop right there." The purple & black con chimed in. "Whatever you're about to ask me to do, is it in any way going to undermine Lugnut's authority?"

A predatory smile appeared on Starscream's face. "Oh, maliciously."

"I'm in."

"Excellent!" The black-headed flyer replied before turning to Soundwave. "I told you he'd be up for it."

The cobalt deployer said nothing before he started to search through his data files.

"So what are we doing anyway?" Barricade asked.

"Well, you see, while Soundwave was filing through the Earthling's 'Internet,' he found something...interesting. And possibly the very reason Optimus Prime was attempting to reach this mudball in the first place."

The deployer then brought up a holo-screen that showed a YouTube video. The title was "Tomboy flubs genealogy report." Said tomboy was a younger and clearly more awkward Erika, who was stuttering, constantly dropping her newspaper prop, and at one point fell on her face.

"Um...what am I watching?" A confused Barricade asked.

"It doesn't matter what it is. But what does matter are the objects the fleshling is holding." Starscream stated as Soundwave zoomed in on the video. The newspaper young Erika was holding detailed how an explorer named Archibald Hawkins supposedly found an 'unearthly' cube in the arctic circle and later went mad, drawing strange symbols all over his work and his cell. The newspaper showed some of those symbols. And while to the average human, they seemed like nonsense…

"That's ancient Cybertronian." Barricade chimed in.

"Correct." Soundwave said as he began to project images of various cybertronian relics. "Based on the description in the Earth article and the symbols, I have determined why this world was of such importance to the Prime."

And soon enough, the deployer brought up an image of a metal cube covered in cybertronian symbols, an almost holy light radiating from the lines around it. It was an artifact that even the lowliest of Decepticons had heard of.

"N-no way!" Barricade said, stunned. "The Great Cube is on this planet?!"

"Correct," Starscream stated. "It would seem that when the old council launched Cybertron's most powerful artifacts into the stars, the Cube made landfall on this rock."

"If we get the Cube, we could restart Cybertron's core!" Barricade said with a smile. "We could go home!"

"And the ones who restart it will be received as heroes. Even by Lord Megatron." The flyer said as he placed his arm on Barricade's shoulders.

"So when do we start?" The eager Decepticon asked. At the same time, the Autobots had also found that video and came to the same conclusion. As such, Optimus had called Blaster, Strongarm, Crosshairs, and Pinpointer to the bridge and debriefed them of the situation.

"It would seem that this Hawkins human is the key to finding the cube." Optimus finished up. "Strongarm, Crosshairs, Pinpointer, I want the three of you to go on reconnaissance with Blaster. Find her and we find the Cube."

"Okay, Ms. Regs I get. But why send us and Mr. Loud Noise with her?" Crosshairs asked.

"Because if I figured it out, it's a safe bet that Soundwave's done it too and has come up with a plan." The red deployer explained.

"And no matter what, we cannot let the natives become aware of our presence. It would only complicate matters." The Prime stated. "Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir!" Strongarm, Blaster, and Pinpointer said with a salute.

"Ya, ya." Crosshairs said with arms crossed. Soon enough, the five Autobots arrived in the hangar and Omega activated the ground bridge. And as Strongarm, Crosshairs, Pinpointer, and Blaster transformed and rolled out, Optimus couldn't shake the sense of dread growing in his spark.

To be continued…

Author's Note 2: I know, the opening chapters are incredibly short. But trust me, that's all going to change when the action starts. And yes, we have been introduced to two of our three main human companions for the Autobots.

Also, writing and coming up with personalities for this version of the Decepticons was a lot of fun.

Until next time, please remember to read, favorite, and review! See ya later!