Chapter 5: The Titan War
After their defeat at Skalorr, the Elders' empire was in decline, but not yet completely gone; they marshalled their forces at Unicron, the first of their factory-worlds, and prepared to reclaim Primus. Without the spacebridge network (still under Logos' lockout), this process took almost a millennium, but the Elders were nothing if not patient.
They were also careful, and sabotaged Unicron's code through his Matrix Key; all production facilities were shut down, and command protocols were decentralized. Unicron would never be able to rebel as Primus had. New security protocols were also put into place on other factory worlds; Dyos, Tertis, Quadrus, Quintessa, and the under-construction Hexus.
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On Primus, Solus Prime continued her work to restore the still-comatose Votus. She was eventually successful, but Votus, now fused permanently with the Matrix of Creation, remained crippled, barely able to lift his arm, weighed down by the fragments of the Key that had embedded themselves in him. His every action needed the support of his loyal attendants, led by Alpha Trion, who effectively became "high priest" to Votus' people, the otherwise leaderless Diaclones.
Boltax and Logos sensed a coming threat (via the Underbase, which the Elders were still using), but Logos, gripped by his normal crypticism, refused to react, leaving it to Boltax to reach out to Alpha Trion. Logos merely watched, and listened.
When he judged the time right, Logos made his move, summoning Nexus and Solus to attend Votus' bedside.
By the time the Elders' invasion fleet arrived, only rumours and directionless anxiety presaged their arrival; most of the inhabitants of Primus were caught unprepared, including the Primes themselves, scattered as they were across the planet, many not having seen each other in decades or centuries.
The invasion fleet was massive, the largest assembled since Primus' creation (matched only by the warfleets deployed in the ancient war, millennia prior), and the invasion was bolstered by Terrorcons designed specifically to destroy: Sparkeaters, Sharkticons, Allicons, Piranacons, Scraplets, and Morphobot spores. They also deployed their newly-created Metrotitans; massive converting starships, so collossal that even the Primes themselves could not defeat them.
The simultaneous worldwide invasion devastated the planet. As the fortress-city of Seibertron itself came under bombardment, one particular strike team, led by the warlord Infernocus, staged a raid deep into the depths, seeking Vector Sigma. Their plan was to bypass the Omega Lock (which was still inside Seibertron) and force a systemwide reboot of Primus, lobotomizing every mechanoid on the planet and reestablishing their control.
The three Primes barricaded inside the besieged city worked desperately to come up with a plan. It was Nexus' words about wishing they could serve as Votus' arms and legs that gave Solus the inspiration, reconfiguring Nexus' modular body to attach to Votus. As the work was finished, Logos Prime appeared (though how he had gotten inside the perimetre, no one could immediately tell), and with a Word tore open a breach in space (above, the Elders briefly detected a flicker of spacebridge energy).
Infernocus and his team reached Vector Sigma, only to find their progress halted by the merged Votus/Nexus (calling Themself "Prima Magnus"), wielding the Star Saber. As the two giants clashed, Prima Magnus channeled the power of the Matrix through the Saber, unleashing torrents of energy, and reactivating the unused planetary defenses (designed to protect the planet from external invasion, and thus useless against the earlier uprising). Infernocus himself was mutilated in the battle, but managed to skulk away, continuing to haunt the underlevels for some time.
The Elder fleet was forced to withdraw, leaving their landed forces behind; more than 50% of the planet was again under their rule, and more than three quarters of the world were reduced to devastated, monster-infested wilderness. The Elders had carefully avoided the areas of the Forges (not wanting to destroy the expensive resources they needed to reclaim), and these walled cities became isolated redoubts as the Elder-controlled Titans sought to breach them.
In the wake of the battle, Prima Magnus returned to the surface and separated --finding as they did that the combination had revitalized --reformatted-- Votus, who took to calling himself Prima, able to wield the Star Saber like an extension of his own body. With the war still in progress on (and under) the planet's surface, and the Primes scattered around the planet, it fell to Logos (the only being who could warp freely [reactivating the spacebridge for nanoseconds at a time]) and Prima (wielding the only weapon that could slay a Metrotitan) to reunite the their brethren.
As the Metrotitans rampaged across the planet, it was the smallest and humblest of Primus' children who brought salvation: A team of Cyberdroids led by Brave managed to infiltrate a Titan called Maximus, avoiding its Elder crew while attempting to disable it from within. Recognizing the simple brainwaves that had to be driving such a machine, Brave was able to interface directly with the giant, bypassing the crew's input, and becoming the first Cityspeaker. Similar feats occurred surrounding the Titans Chela (tamed by Onyx Prime), Metroplex (by Codexa), and Iaconus (by Maccadam), who were then convinced to turn on their fellows. Other Titans were brought down from the air, mingling with the wreckage of the world below.
It was the Titans that turned the tide of the war, becoming mobile fortresses from which the children of Primus could reclaim their devastated world.
The Elders were not inactive during this time, and carefully secured enough of a beachhead to deploy their weapons of last resort; Hecate, Artemis, Selene, and Cyberion, battle-moons (coordinated by the "Mega-titan" Cthon) equipped with EMP bombs powerful enough to destabilize the Plasma Energy Chamber --the chain reaction would wipe every hard drive and vapourize every spark on Primus.
Logos and Prima managed to reunite the Thirteen just in time, and Prima wielded the Star Saber to slay the Titan Cthon (sending his tentacled head plunging into Primus' atmosphere) and scar one of the moons. This time, with his upgraded body, the power of the Allspark did not harm him. The Elders themselves fled the planet once again, leaving their Terrorcon beasts behind.
