[Video]

[primianpolarity]

The video opens to white walls. What seems like the interior of Prima's temple, for anyone who's ever been there, but recognizable by design only. It's a room that's never been seen before by any Refugee.

In the background, voices can be heard murmuring. Some familiar, some not. One a deep, resonant growl - another smooth like oil. Prima's the one facing the camera, but behind him many of the other the Firstforged can be seen, apparently wrapping up a meeting of some sort...

...including one or two who haven't been seen before. One, wrapped in what looks like an energy sphere vanishes quickly in a flash of light, spacebridging away - of another, only a set of what look like steel, pleated wings are visible.

"We know many of you have questions about the...recent happenings," Prima begins, folding his hands behind him - the camera source seems to be from something other than his personal systems. "In the interest of efficiency, we invite you to ask them in a more direct manner."

"Remind me," an off-screen voice murmurs, utterly humorless, "To reinforce the defenses on my Temple. I don't want another one of your...creatures...messing up the place again."

Nexus, barely visible - even with his greater bulk - shrugs. "They're more than just 'creatures', and they're really not that bad, once you get to know 'em, I promise. So long as they're Marked..."

Prima briefly glances to the two arguing, then reaches forward to end the transmission.

Comments

[chatterbot]

That one you made just now.

So it's a creature, right? Probably dangerous to everyone here.

And you're not gonna tell us about it? [Hear his dubious tone. Hear it.]

What's worryin' you all so much about it? Why can't you just give 'em glyphs and leave it at that?

[trionicpolarity]

Oh. [He thinks.] This one? [And the throat-clearing noise is reproduced.]

Not any more dangerous than you are, actually. It seems one of the Refugees--[Nope. Nope, not gonna talk about it. You can't make him.]--Either way, the problem seems to have solved itself.

[He sighs, though, wishing the solution was that easy.] If we were the ones who bestowed Glyphs, my friend, we would gladly do so.

[chatterbot]

Yeah, that one.

Wow. That was so specific and informative. I think all my questions have been answered. Thanks for that. [r u 4 real]

So what? They happen to end up on us, and happen to be associated with you? Who gives them to us then?

[trionicpolarity]

I have an audio file, taken from a manuscript found in the early days of the Junk pile. It seems to have originated on Andellor, a planet whose species were capable of crossing universes, and who made it their job to record the sum total history of knowledge.

As you might guess, I have read the compendium.

That is where I found a reproduction of that noise. [If all your questions weren't answered before, now they must be.]

You are more than welcome. [He sees your sarcasm and matches it!]

It is my suspicion that the marks you arrive with are bestowed by Primus himself--or rather, by an extension of Primus's will. Those untouched by his alternate--Unicron--he can extend some influence over, binding them to us to that we might protect them from the growing chaos.

It is only a theory, however.

[chatterbot]

Yeah, all you had to do was finish that first sentence and I was like 'Yeah I bet he read that whole thing'. I'm actually pretty sure that's your job or something. I don't know.

But the point is that you are totally not going to answer my other question now. But then things are probably gonna come up and then you'll have to share and we'll all be like 'well why didn't you tell us before?' and you will have nothing to say.

Well, you probably will, but whatever. Not the point. The point is what is up with this Unicron guy that everyone seems to know?

[trionicpolarity]

It is, relatively speaking.

But if you must know, it is not my question to answer. [He can't tell you what isn't his to speak about.]

Unicron, however, we know enough about. He seeks either chaos or destruction, or both. If he manages to break fully into this universe, it is without a doubt that he will bend this world to his will, and use all of you as his unwilling slaves.

We're trying to prevent this.

[chatterbot]

[Sure you can buddy. It's called being a tactless gossip. Swerve does it all the time.]

Seriously? Where is he now?

Please don't say the Dead Universe, because I am so done with things that come out of that place.

[trionicpolarity]

[Alpha Trion points up.]

You'd know his forages into our dimension as the Lambda.

But what is this dead universe you're talking about?

did i win

[chatterbot]

Well, yeah. But forages is sort of like he's exploring around, right? Where is he now?

Oh man. Okay, sit down because this is kind of a long story.

Are you sitting? Awesome.

So I'm not really sure how it started, but the long and short of it is that there was this guy named Galvatron, and he had something called the Heart of Darkness that he thought was the key to defeating something called the Dvoid. Or D-Void. There's a hyphen in there somewhere. But yeah, it turns out it wasn't actually a key to defeating it, it was actually a thing that allowed it to get a foothold into our universe so it could kill and eat it. Or eat and kill it. Or both at the same time. And also Galvatron raised an army of the dead to follow him and they merged into a giant sort of mech made out of smaller mechs. Unless those were all the Sweeps. Or something. I kinda bailed out of the ship before I found out the rest, but it all got around pretty fast after the war was over.

But the point is he sort of failed because Prime put the Matrix of Leadership into Vector Sigma to fix it so the D-Void couldn't come through, and it also rebooted Cybertron, except that it was really hostile. And then a bunch of Cybertronians who had nothing to do with the war started coming back, and they were seriously fraggin mad. Then we found a map to the Knights of Cybertron in the core of the dead Matrix so me and a BUNCH of other mechs got on the Lost Light and left to find them.

Except we got sorta lost. Go figure.

yes. You won the ULTIMATE PRIZE: One internet

[trionicpolarity]

Just as you came in through the Lambda, we suspect he is attempting to do the same.

[And dragging poor mechs like the Refugees with him.]

[You know, while most mechs would get bored hearing the full, drawn out tale--you're talking to Alpha Trion here. He listens, rapt.]

That does parallel our own troubles, in many ways. This 'Heart of Darkness,' in its own right, sounds not unlike the Badlands--resurrecting monsters from within.

I've heard of Vector Sigma before. It's been mentioned in a number of separate writings, collected from innumerable universes... [Actually, the number was 6, but innumerable sounded more impressive.] You say that inserting this Matrix of Leadership prevented the D-void from coming through?

Re: yes. You won the ULTIMATE PRIZE: One internet

[chatterbot]

So he's trying to get into here. And instead of coming in, he's botched it up? Is that why we're here? Man, for some kind of cosmic horror or something, this Unicron guy sure is doing a pretty slagged job at it. Lucky for us, huh?

[your patience is p. weird trion]

So... wait. How are those two things similar?

[Swerve shrugs because being helpful is just so what he does]

I guess? I mean, it did something. Just not sure what.