#lobster-bots

Dear Sharkticon Speculator,

Oh dear, I suppose I should do, given the apparent confusion is largely my fault.

During the Age of Evolution, as later scholars have named it, a plethora of Cybertronian life emerged onto Cybertron's surface. While most of my kin preferred to study those whose forms more closely resembled our own, I found myself watching over the Predacon and Insecticon breeds that arose from the Well. The others viewed them as little more than beasts, but they were possessed of an uncommon intellect, and a canny curiosity that was often confused as baser instinct. I taught them science and art, which they absorbed voraciously.

Unfortunately, that all came to an end with the Great Cataclysm, when meteors and radiation threatened to strip the world bare. While the smaller humanoid-robots that became modern day Cybertronians were able to survive, and many Insecticons retreated into the core for protection, the Predacons were unable to escape the devastation.

And so, I intervened.

Telling not even my kin, I gathered together as many of the Predacons as I could, along with some Insecticons, and loaded them onto Titans. While the world was stripped of its protective magnetosphere, we escaped, diving into the void of space, to find a new world where they might survive, or even prosper.

And we found it, in the far-off Lenocinium Velnero System, a world of sea and archipelagos rich in energon. There the Predacons, many of whom already had aquatic alternate modes, took to the waters. The Insecticons didn't take long to follow suit, exploring the depths of their new world, which they soon named Aquatron.

Over the millennia, the Predacons and Insecticons adapted even further, becoming Sharkticons, Leviacons, Lobster-bots, Piranhacons, Eelcons, Allicons, Croctobots, Cleaners, Shrimp-bots, and other specialized forms. They created their own societies, rising and flourishing with the tides, while I retreated into the Realm of the Primes. I did, however, leave behind one of the blades of my Mandala, through which they would be able to contact me, if their need was great.

Unfortunately, they became one of the first victims of their distant kin: the Quintessons, spawn of Quintus Prime. Observing the Aquatronians, the Quintessons realized their shared kinship, but instead of reaching out with open tendrils, they tightened their coils around their brethren in the name of research. Inside the Aquatronians' bodies, the Quintessons discovered a dormant organ-mechanism, one they themselves lacked. Through experimentation, they were able to activate these T-cogs, and armed with this knowledge, were able to present themselves as saviors, raising Aquatron to a new level of civilization—if only the Aquatronians would surrender their freedom. So convincing and powerful were the Quintessons, that only a brief period of hesitance passed before the Aquatronians submitted, and by the time they realized they had been conquered, the thought of rebellion had already been quashed. The Sharkticons became the clawed fist of the burgeoning Quintesson Empire, while the others were made to toil to produce energon.

When the Quintessons discovered Cybertron, they used the space bridges to connect to it, and brought their Sharkticon slave-enforcers with them. But in their greed and haste, the Quintessons overreached. The Cybertronians realized what was being forced upon them, and began plotting rebellion—and when the spark of rebellion catches, it spreads like plasmafire. It even reached the shores of Aquatron, causing the Aquatronians to rise up as well, threatening to throw off the shackles of Quintesson oppression. One even recovered the Mandala-blade, carrying it to Cybertron. He was driven by visions—admittedly, granted by me—of a bot who would liberate their world, at the time known simply as D-16.

Together the two joined the fight for liberation, and drove the Quintessons from Cybertron, forcing them to seal their space bridges and consolidate their core territories—including Aquatron. Those Aquatronians stranded on Cybertron retreated to the Sea of Ages, becoming the stuff of urban legend. Alpha Trion, recognising the blade of my Mandala for what it was, took it from the Aquatronian and stored it with his other relics. And Aquatron itself spent untold eons under Quintesson control, until they brought about their own doom.

During the conflict between the Autobots and Decepticons, the Quintessons lured Optimus Prime to Aquatron, in the hopes of seizing the Matrix of Leadership, making their own facsimile of the artifact using its data as a backup plan. But in doing so, they also lured Megatron—the former D-16—to their world. He came across the fragmentary records of the Quintesson rebellion, as well as the prophecy of their liberation by his hand. Using the duplicate Matrix, he became a hybrid Aquatronian being, a Sharkticon Megatron. The power of the Matrix coursed through him and through the Aquatronians, erasing the Quintesson control codes that had been implanted in them. The Aquatronians were free, and rose up against their former masters. When the Decepticons and Autobots left, some chose to follow Megatron, although he had by that point lost the Matrix. Others stayed on Aquatron to rebuild a new, and more peaceful society.

By the time the Great War ended, the Sharkticons and other Aquatronian transformers had become a minor, if fearsome, part of the Decepticon forces. Many were arrested and sentenced to prison, while others returned to Aquatron, which had become part of the Cybertronian's new alliance of worlds.