Many light years away there exists a planet of pure machinery called cybertron. The inhabitants of the planet were called cybertronians, they were a peaceful race of sentient machines with the ability to reconfigure their bodies into all sorts of weapons, vehicles, or technology. Some cybertronians had special miniature robots, much similar to themselves, called minicons. This race had lived many cycles in peace and prosperity, many had even traveled to distant worlds to build new civilizations upon them. This is the story of one such expedition long before the fall of cybertron and the creation of the two factions, autobots and decepticons.

This story begins with a group of cybertronian explorers, they were designated as exploration team sigma. A group known to have been to countless worlds, worlds known to their race, and even helped discover new ones. Some more dangerous and life threatening than others, yet they were always ready for whatever the universe had to throw at them! However they were not ready to gain a new member to their group. This young mech was designated as rookie by his superiors.

One such superior was none too happy for the new mech's arrival. This was due to the fact new members had no experience, lacked foresight, and tended to get lost. Not only that but any new members team sigma got in the past ended up with some sort of trauma, disfigurement, or something lead to their spark being extinguished.

The others were simply put off by the young mech's enthusiastic mentality, even after they warned of what might happen to him. They even quizzed him on the proper tools, what situation they'd be needed in, and what to do should something happen that separates them. Unfortunately he passed without a problem, which meant they had no reason to deny the higher ups.

The one femme on the team was more than cautious of the rookie, however her sparkmate always planned to add another to their team. Unfortunately for both femmes no experienced cybertronian wanted to join, so they were stuck with this fresh out of training wheels mech. The two embraced as the mechs of the team, besides rookie, teased the femme couple. They meant no harm by it, to which the couple was used to it.

A deca-cycle (10 days) passed and team sigma was called to explore a new planet in an unknown planetary system. It was thought to be uninhabited, a perfect trial run for the new member of the group. The leader of team sigma agreed to it, the rookie was ecstatic about his first real exploration. If only there wasn't one problem, only he and the group leader were going.

As the two entered the ship, the rookie was told not to stray from the leaders sight, to keep an eye out for anything and everything, and most importantly to not touch anything unless told to. The mech nods as he boarded the ship and entered his stasis pod upon being instructed to do so. The leader of team sigma said his goodbyes and boarded the ship as well. Upon sitting in the pilots seat, he started it up before flying the ship towards their destination.

After three stellar cycles (3 years) in the void of space, a person would go mad by themselves. However the leader of team sigma was used to being online while his team was in stasis. It wasn't so bad, once you get pass the painful memories and thoughts of impending doom. The mech chuckled to himself as he turned on autopilot and looked to the stasis pods. Only one was in use leaving four others inactive and vacant. He began to think, only an orbital cycle or two ago (1-2 months), about how just maybe this young protoform, no this young mech could become his successor.

A funny thought, yes, but one that was proven to possibly be true. They had arrived on the unknown planet about half a stellar cycle back, and the rookie had proven himself to know what he was doing, even if he did forget he wasn't supposed to touch anything without proper permission. They spent the entire time searching for, and examining the unique specimens, weather patterns, and telling stories.

However as they were returning back to cybertron, an unknown ship appeared. One that was twice, possibly three times the size of the small exploration vessel. Each shot damaged the ships hull more and more. Now while the damage was minimal, it was hitting close to the ships main engines. The leader tried his best to maneuver the exploration ship out of reach of the unknown ships blasts. The leader activated a small space bridge hoping to get them both back to cybertron safely.

Unfortunately it wouldn't be long before a stray blast destroyed the engines. The explosion sent the smaller ship towards an asteroid belt where the ship was ripped in two, separating the two mechs. One half went through the still open space bridge before it closed. While the half with the rookie plummeted to the planet beyond the asteroid belt. A planet the unknown ship was heading towards, and possibly was protecting.