Previously on Tales of the Transformers-

The battle for Nebulos has ended with the Autobots finally triumphing over Scorponok's pirates and Galen and Llyra ascending the throne as king and queen of Nebulos. However, their conflict on Nebulos was all part of Lord Zarak's plan to take the throne from Galen, and now the Autobot Headmasters and Targetmasters relentlessly pursue Scorponok and his pirate crew to capture their Nebulan partners to be tried on their home planet for their crimes. Despite all of this, Scorponok and Shockwave make haste towards Cybertron, where they will be joined by other Decepticon warlords for their attack on Iacon to free Megatron from Autobot captivity...

Nightbeat and his team were working frantically to uncover the Decepticon agent in their ranks as confirmed by Megatron. He had told them nothing else other than confirm these suspicions first brought to light by Grapple after being gravely injured by Doubledealer's detonation of the space bridge which also killed Hoist and Perceptor. To Megatron, disclosing this information meant little to him. He knew that the attack would in time be successful and he would soon walk free, but what he began to realize was that Starscream may not have been the one orchestrating these events. "That fool, Starscream." Megatron said to himself. "He hasn't the charisma to lead Scraplets to a rusting corpse." Then he realized who was. The only individual with even enough sway over the Decepticons and the strategic capacity to carry out such an ambitious plan was one with whom Megatron had clashed with many times in the past. "Shockwave." He smiled at the thought of it. "A Decepticon keeping his word. Ironic. I suppose I at least should thank you before you follow in the path of your creation, Archforce." He then remembered a passage from The Deceived, his personal manifesto written during his imprisonment not long after the beginning of the first wave of Decepticon uprisings. "Deception is one great whole, and of it we are its many parts. Because we are all parts of that whole, to raise your sword against a brother in Deception would be to raise that sword against Deception itself. The cause of Deception therein requires a united front if we are to see to it that those who rule Cybertron be torn from their thrones and a new order take its place with the good of the common Cybertronian its one and only priority. This new Cybertron will be a paradise, one to rival the Golden Age we know from the writings of Alpha Trion. The strong will stand guard over the weak, the starving will be fed, the naked clothed, the ignorant enlightened, and Cybertron will at last break the chains fastened around it by the Senate and High Council. Cybertron will only know peace, because such goals will only be realized by one design-Peace through Tyranny."

In the command center of Autobase Iacon, Ultra Magnus convened a meeting with his senior officers and advisors to plan their defense against the assault warned of by Megatron. The Decepticons are bound to assault with huge numbers on the ground and in the air, plus support from orbital bombardment." He explained, illustrated by projections on the hologram table of the Decepticons potential attack formations. "Our defense will have to rely on the strategic placement of what troops we can muster, but I have a plan in the event things go awry." Another projection appeared, drawing gasps and murmurs from those gathered. What appeared were the projections of three gigantic Autobots.

"I'm sure you remember what a stir these three caused. Two million years ago, Optimus ordered the construction of three Autobot Titans-Omega Supreme, Metroplex, and Fortress Maximus-to act as safeguards against a major Decepticon offensive." Ultra Magnus said.

"Then why didn't he activate them during the Decepticons' big push forty something megacycles ago?" Asked Nightbeat.

"We considered that, but the reality of the situation meant that there wouldn't be enough time to activate them and for them to converge on Iacon in time to stop Megatron's advance." Ultra Magnus explained. "But, in this case, we may still have time. Even if we can only manage to activate two of the titans I calculate we'll have a twenty-five percent better chance of either defeating Starscream and the Decepticons or at the very least inflicting significantly greater damage than without them. We'll have to shelve the investigation into the identity of the mole in our midst Megatron told us about. It's a choice I'm not going to make lightly." A projection of the coordinates of Fortress Maximus, Omega Supreme, and Metroplex. Metroplex was located deep in the Charmex Basin in the Sea of Rust, 3,400 megamiles southwest of Iacon. 2,500 megamiles north was Omega Supreme in the Manganese Mountains, and far north was Fortress Maximus close to the planet's north pole. "Nightbeat, Cavalier, you'll each take a team to recover Metroplex and Omega Supreme. I'll being making preparations for Megatron's execution and the defense of the planet." Ultra Magnus said. Had he known that the Decepticon spy, Doubledealer, was in the room he would not have spoken so freely. Doubledealer slipped out of the command center in an attempt to then relay this information to Starscream and the rest of the incoming Decepticon battle group who were really under Shockwave. This caught Ultra Magnus' eye as he tried to escape in such a hasty manner. As he gave the briefing he then realized that it was the Autobot he knew to be Dealmaker who was the spy sent by Starscream.

"Hey!" Ultra Magnus boomed. Seeing this, Dealmaker quickly changed to his vehicle mode and sped away down the corridor, while Ultra Magnus, Nightbeat, Flak, Firechief, Streetsar, Sparkride, Flyup, Doubleheader, Longtooh, and Pincher all gave chase. "Set weapons to stun! I want answers from him!"

"Sir!" The Autobots replied as Ultra Magnus charged down the corridor on foot. Now that he was far enough ahead of his pursuers, Doubledealer changed back to robot mode and contacted Starscream as he ran on foot.

"Commander, do you read me!?"

As Trypticon jetted through hyperspace, Soundwave received a transmission. "A transmission registering a Decepticon frequency has been detected, Commander." He reported to Shockwave.

"Put it through." Shockwave instructed. The transmission was then put through to the bridge of Trypticon.

"Commander, do you read me!?" Doubledealer asked, frantically.

"What is it?" Starscream and Shockwave answered simultaneously. Doubledealer looked only at Starscream.

"Commander Starscream, I've been compromised." Doubledealer reported.

"How?! How could your cover have been blown?!" Starscream demanded of his spy.

"I'm not certain, but I think Lord Megatron realized that you aren't really the one who planned the operation to free him so he ratted me out to the Autobots!" Doublebealer replied. Trypticon's bridge went silent for a few seconds after Starscream's shady dealings had been brought to light.

"Starscream, you back-stabbing coward!" The normally level-headed Shockwave roared in a rare fit of genuine anger as he swiped at Starscream with his hand and sent him flying.

"Never let a good crisis go to waste, Shockwave!" Starscream said as he rose to his feet. "This is my chance to gain Lord Megatron's favor! You're doing this solely to tie up your loose ends and eliminate Megatron so you can become leader of the Decepticons! As if that scheme worked out the first time."

"Then I admit to it. I never intended on keeping my word to Megatron in my goals to become leader. If you have not yet realized that Megatron has brought the Decepticons to ruin then you are part of the problem! The Decepticons have no chance of defeating Optimus Prime with him in command. His emotions cloud his judgement and he revels in his cult of personality. I have no such limits, logic is the only thing which governs my decisions." Shockwave said with a burning passion in his voice as he then fired his shoulder turrets at Starscream, but he was able to jump up, hover in place with his foot jets and respond with a barrage of null cannon blasts, though Shockwave was able to dispel them with a single burst of energy from his hand cannon which then blew Starscream back and sent him falling to the floor in a heap. He concluded that Starscream was able to learn his lesson from this once again, and it wasn't the first altercation the two had gotten into.

"Once again, the fact that I require your services prevents me from killing you. Regrettable." Shockwave said as he looked down upon his temporarily vanquished rival. "See to it that Starscream is properly healed in time to commence the first wave of the assault." Shockwave radioed Knockout.

Back on Cybertron, Ultra Magnus and his Autobots continued their pursuit of Doubledealer. Now the Decepticon was truly on his own. He had no other choice but to pull out his weapon, put it to his head and pull the trigger. Ultra Magnus and his troops heard the report of a gunshot and as they rounded the bend they found Doubledealer laying on the floor in a pool of his own energon writhing in agony. As it turned out, he meant to shoot himself through the head with his pistol for a clean kill, but with his pursuers approaching so quickly he was too anxious to concentrate, meaning that he had shot himself such that the laser blast went through his neck and exited close to his waist. "I assume this was the spy. Dealmaker, was it?" Ultra Magnus wondered.

"Affirmative, sir." Nightbeat said.

"You and Cavalier assemble your teams and find those titans. I'll do what I can here." Ultra Magnus said. As he lay on the floor, Doubledealer grinned darkly.

"You can't stop what's coming!" He gasped, and indeed he was right. Trypticon and Scorponok in their starship modes, dropped out of hyperspace in orbit accompanied by an array of ships contributed by various other Decepticon warlords for the assault.

"Begin the assault. Operation: Eclipse has begun." Shockwave ordered. Unlike Megatron, he had no grandiose speech praising himself or the Decepticons as Megatron would. As he had told Starscream, he was only rescuing Megatron so that he could finally cement his power over the Decepticons and kill him. Starscream, after having his injuries repaired from his battle on the bridge with Shockwave, lead his seeker squadron into the fray at the vanguard of the assault.

"DECEPTICONS, ATTACK!" He shrieked as he changed to his jet mode and lead the charge. Autobot ships which formed a ring around Iacon's perimeter noticed this as they launched fighters of their own and opened up with point defense turrets and missile salvos. The flagship of this defense flotilla was the Praxus 5, a light cruiser of the same class as the Steelhaven and its bridge crew were horrified to see the Decepticon jets making their attack runs on the fleet and the city down below.

"The Decepticons are attacking, alert Magnus!" An Autobot officer exclaimed, but before he could do that a missile from Blitzwing hit the ship right in its bridge and the explosion sent it into a dive.

"Haha! There goes the flagship!" Blitzwing roared, gleefully.

"Don't get cocky!" Starscream warned. "The Autobots won't surrender so easily, not with Megatron in their custody." A swarm of missiles from the point-defense Frigate Alpha-Centauri came flying at Starscream, locked onto his energy signature, but he changed to his robot mode and opened fire with his null ray cannons which shorted out the missiles and detonated their warheads before they could even get close to him. The Decepticon Air Commander then changed back to his jet mode and with a tremendous boost of his jets he roared in on an attack vector, strafing the bow of the ship before he then was able to land a null-ray blast in one of the concussion missile launchers. The result was a massive explosion which touched off a chain reaction in all the other magazines, until finally the ship was vaporized by the explosion of the main reactor. "Aahahahahaaaa!" He cackled.

"Showoff." Muttered Dirge as he shot down an Autobot fighter. With Starscream and his air components dealing major damage to the Autobots' orbital defenses, Shockwave pressed on as the larger ships began their descent to the surface...