================================= History =================================
   < Portions of this were used with the permission of the TLY file's
     creator >

     It is known that the first Matrix of Leadership holder was of the
military hardware line--a Cybertronian by the name of Surefire.  Given the
extra strength and spirit he needed, he rallied all the robots against
their Quintesson masters and drove them from their planet, claiming it for
their own.  In the time that followed, the military line continued to
secure Cybertron, ensuring the safety of the newly freed Cybertronians,
while the more domestic line explored what was left of the Quintesson
technology and culture, gleaning what they could to help their fledgling
race survive.  For several millions of years, the robots gleefully explored
their world and their surroundings living as they were designed to--two
parts together making up a sound and healthy society.
     It is recorded that Surefire, the first Matrix holder, Liberator of
Cybertron, was killed in an unexplained construction accident during the
sixth thousandth millennium after the War of Liberation.   
  It is also recorded that the Cybertronians soon started to develop a
dislike for the other line's functions, although the reasoning was never
known.  The military line began to draw away from the domestic line,
feeling them weak and unnecessary for Cybertron's survival.  In an effort
to curb the possible chain of events, Vector Sigma created one more
Cybertronian, an advisor, but used up what little self-will he had managed
to develop since the Quintessons struck him down.  He designed Alpha Trion
to watch over his children and keep them from falling to the influences
that now drove them towards civil war.
     Together with the current functional team leaders (Crusader of the
military line, and Regimus of the domestic line), Alpha Trion was able to
avert any hostilities and together, they puzzled over the reasoning and
what drove the Cybertronians towards disliking each other.  A few scant
centuries passed before the military line leader disappeared for a time,
and when he returned, he organized the military line into the first
semblance of the Decepticon race as it is known now. 
er the Deceptive nature of the transformation techniques.  Curious and
intrigued by the new change, the domestic line soon began duplicating this
technology, making themselves into more of the automated mechanical devices
used to build and maintain their planet, for that guise seemed better
suited to their tastes.
     Confused and vastly disappointed, Alpha Trion gathered the newly self-
named Autobots to him and tried to organize them into a group, helping them
work on the technology that they would need to keep the Decepticons from
overwhelming them.  On the seven thousandth millennium anniversary of the
end of the War of Liberation, Crusader and Alpha Trion met at Alpha Trion's
request, in a last effort to avert the unthinkable.  Alpha Trion pleaded
with Crusader to give up his efforts to try and dominate all Cybertronians
and allow them to live in peace once again as Vector Sigma and Primus had
intended.                  
  With brutal and unexpected intensity, Crusader struck down his one-time
friend and thus began the Second Cybertronian War.
     While Alpha Trion recovered from his grievous physical wounds, the
Autobots struggled against the organized chaos that the Decepticons were
wreaking on their kind.  Still shocked that Crusader had attacked him,
Alpha Trion finally concluded that the Decepticon had developed some device
to give himself the extra power to defeat him, so he returned to his
creator to find out what had transpired.  Still crippled from the effort it
took to create Alpha Trion, Vector Sigma could not relay much information,
but presented Alpha Trion with the rough designs of the second matrix
Crusader had managed to create--the Matrix of Power.  Unlike the Matrix of
Leadership, the Matrix of Power was a dead thing, made by Cybertronians,
and didn't have the power to preserve life as did the original--it was a
tool to house extra energy, and therefore grant its holder an edge in
combat and nothing more.
    Surprised by the information and Vector Sigma's current debilitated
state, Alpha Trion struggled back to the surface, determined to help his
creator recover whenever this new war should end.
     The Second Cybertronian War lasted for almost 20 million years.  Each
side made advances in their own technology to aid them and gradually,
through the conflict, all of the Cybertronians were converted into
Transformers, for the inherent advantages of being able to change form were
too useful to ignore for very long.  It was during this period that most of
the destruction on Cybertron occurred.  Oddly, or perhaps not so,
Decepticon leaders after Surefire and Crusader lived short, brutal, often
heroic and unquestionably intense lives.  Great battles were won and lost
and great heroes forged on both sides, but still, none could end the
conflict.  Towards the end of the 19 millionth year of the war, many of the
current Decepticon leader's, Rapidfire, lieutenants began to realize that
utter annihilation of their own kind was not 
   Unknown to Rapidfire, they worked on building another Decepticon
leader, who would hopefully bring the madness to an end.  In the last few
millennium of the war, Megatron was created.
     Carefully, Megatron watched Rapidfire and learned from him and his
mistakes while biding his time.  After a few more centuries of destruction,
Rapidfire's lieutenants went to him with their concerns over his goals.
Enraged, he lashed out at them, determined to kill the insubordinate
officers.  Desperate themselves, they fought back, mortally wounding their
leader at the cost of their own lives.  The last of the lieutenants
summoned Megatron with his dying bit of energy, hoping Megatron could
finish the grisly task.  What transpired after that is unknown, but the
Decepticon leader's chassis was never found, nor was the Matrix of Power
that Crusader had built.  So ended the Second Cybertronian War, suddenly
and uneasily. 
   Five million years passed peacefully.  Alpha Trion stepped back out of
his forced semi-leadership role, content to watch his race grow and
prosper.  In an effort to prevent future unneeded hostilities, the Guardian
robots were created shortly after the end of the second war by a joint task
force.  And, although there were some Transformers on both sides that were
reluctant to give up the hostilities, most of the race was glad it was
finally over.  As soon as the sides were capable again, they sent missions
off planet to gather up resources and energy to try and restore Cybertron
and repair the damage the latest war had caused.
     The effort kept Transformers busy for several million years, expanding
the planet too as they went along.  The last two million years were spent
in idle living and exploration.  Vast improvements in technology, arts and
sciences were made and Transformers lived in relative peace and harmony for
a short time during this newest Golden Age of Cybertron.  While the rest of
the planet was busy living, Megatron was busy learning. 
    He spent his time gleaning over the ancient records of the wars and old
military training documents in an effort to increase his knowledge in order
to give him the edge over any other pretenders to the Decepticon throne.
While others worked on rebuilding the planet, he worked on rebuilding the
Empire.  He watched, impassive, but disgusted, as various other warlords
made claims for the title as leader of the Decepticons, causing the clans
to begin squabbling with each other.  After a few years of mild internal
strife, the Decepticon warlords took to more serious fighting amongst each
other as they vied for the throne.
     It was at that point Megatron stood forward again, determined to raise
Decepticons back towards the path of their rightful destiny.  The warlords
began falling, presumably at the hands of another.  Megatron sought out and
convinced those who remained of the strength of unity and the worthy path
the Decepticons were to follow, bringing them together and uniting them
under the single banner of the Decepticon Empire, rather than letting them
cling inefficiently to their own disbanded clans. 
  Having convinced them to live for the greater glory of the Decepticons,
he then turned his attention to converting the Autobots to his way of
thinking.  It soon became apparent that the Autobots had no interest in
creating peace through dominance.  Again, Megatron bided his time,
collecting resources and supporters until all he needed for his 'conversion'
of the Autobots was a large enough store of energon...
     It is not commonly known by Transformers what place Orion Pax has in
history, but his place was reserved on the day Megatron decided his
warehouse would be taken before his first major attack on the Autobots
could begin.  On that day, the Second Golden Age of Cybertron ended, and the
Third Cybertronian War began, which has been waged to this day.  Slowly,
over the course of a few million years, the once energy rich planet has
been reduced to a cold and nearly lifeless orb.  Decepticons, under
Megatron's guidance and leadership, had managed to drive the Autobots back
into the ancient city of Iacon, their only remaining stronghold.
    Autobots would still venture out of Iacon, but their hold on that
sector of Cybertron was tentative at best.
     Created from the shattered chassis and life of Orion Pax, Optimus
Prime had struggled to gather the Autobots together and train the non-
warrior race of people into some semblance of a fighting force before they
lost their way of life to the onslaught of Decepticon attacks.  Millions of
years of fighting had taken their toll on Cybertron, and Prime came to
realize that it was no longer possible to acquire the resources needed to
combat the Decepticons on Cybertron.  He searched out Alpha Trion in the
hopes he would help them build a new ship designed to recover the badly
needed energy and materials the Autobots needed to hold their own against
the Decepticons in those dark days.
     On the 37 thousandth millennium anniversary of the end of the War of
Liberation, the Autobots prepared the Ark for departure into the unknown,
as the Decepticons scrambled to get their own ship launched in time to stop
them.               
  After a brief but intense battle in space, the two ships were forced
to crash on an undeveloped planet and the parties, decimated by the impact,
lay entombed for four million years while the planet and its native life
evolved around them.  Nearly 41 million years after free Transformer
history had begun, a volcanic eruption triggered long dormant automated
functions onboard the Ark, and the main battle continued between the
primary combatant groups after their revival.

     The Transformer history on Earth was loosely documented in the series,
so won't be restated here.  It must be noted, however, that in Earth's
1998, our timeline deviates from the known sequences as follows:  
  After a particularly deadly attack, the EDC and a variety of
supporting world governments approached Optimus Prime, offering
unprecedented levels of equipment, resources and personnel towards a
concentrated push against the Decepticons in hopes of driving them off of
Earth and, hopefully, Cybertron as well.  Unprepared for the sudden and
unexpected assault, Megatron was forced to pull back or risk losing too
many Decepticon lives in a battle he wasn't sure he could win.  Megatron
fell back out of the system and regrouped, determined to take the time to
rebuild his troops and his resources correctly instead of trying to strike
back quickly or without sufficient preparation to win.  He foraged out,
recontacting and taking over systems loosely sympathetic to the Decepticons
and their ways, then started preparing for his own retaking of Cybertron.
    Meanwhile, Unicron, seeing the position of fortification into which the
Matrix and its holder had suddenly put themselves, decided to detour away
from Cybertron, biding his time as he adjusted his course to watch and
wait for the Decepticons to make their move, hoping to use them as a
diversion to finally destroy the Matrix as he intended.
     Optimus tried to keep watch over where the Decepticons had gone, with
varying degrees of success for all his efforts.  In the year of 2055, by
Earth standard, Autobot reconnaissance patrols picked up ion traces of a
freshly launched Decepticon ship and tracked it briefly, making note of
its mission design series before reporting back in to Cybertron.  It was
heading towards a distant chain of planets with a crew compliment designed
to both forage as well as terraform and Optimus felt he had no choice but
to send a crew ship after them, to follow and determine what their intent
was.  And so begins our MUSH, under the mutual threat of Imminent Domain.