LEXICON COMMENT:
Thanks very much to Rachel Walker for formatting this fanfic! :-)

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*** Part 1: The Creation ***
Lithonian Calendar: About 1'353'000 Old Age
Cybertronian Calendar: About 16'840'000 Age of Primus
Earth Calendar: About 13'880'000 BC, in the latter Tertiary Era

Lord Straxus was bored. He was sitting in a tent, large enough to hold its four occupants, himself, Raxinfraxin, the king of Lucratia, Vorok, the chieftain of the Soo'Nmoro tribe, and one of Vorok's advisors, whom he couldn't identify. Raxinfraxin and Vorok were busy negotiating peace terms between the Lucratians and the Soo'Nmoro, but there was nothing to interest Lord Straxus.

"Our proposal is as follows", said King Raxinfraxin. "We allow the Soo'Nmoro to retain full control over their homelands, but they may not conquer or otherwise acquire new lands from the Lucratian Empire. In addition, all Soo'Nmoro are subject to taxation by the Empire, and are accepted as honorary citizens. In return, I trust all Lucratians and Soo'Nmoro will treat each other with peace and honour."

Now it was Vorok's turn to speak. "We have studied your proposal well, King Raxinfraxin, and found it acceptable. We welcome peace with the Lucratian Empire."

With that, Vorok stood up and offered his hand to Raxinfraxin. As was customary, Raxinfraxin too stood up and shook Vorok's hand. The peace was now complete.

As they were leaving, Lord Straxus felt ill at ease with their recent negotiations. The Soo'Nmoro were last of the small native tribes that hadn't succumbed to the civilisation of the Lucratian Empire, which it was rumoured had once been a small tribe just like all the others.

Lord Straxus wanted the Empire to gain control of the whole of the planet of Lucratia. That meant the Soo'Nmoro had to be conquered. Yet his king, Raxinfraxin, allowed the Soo'Nmoro to remain as barbaric as they had always been.

"Your highness, may I speak freely to you about our recent negotiations?" he asked Raxinfraxin.

"You may", said Raxinfraxin graciously.

"With all due respect to your policy, your highness", said Lord Straxus, "I personally think that the Soo'Nmoro should not be allowed to remain a hindrance to the growth of the mighty Lucratian Empire. We should force them to join the civilised Empire or perish at its borders, just as we did with all the other tribes."

"We?" asked Raxinfraxin. "I distinctly remember it was you who led the armies to assimilate all the other tribes. I gave you free hands then, and now it seems that that was a mistake. It was a mistake I won't make twice."

"But your highness..." began Lord Straxus.

"That will be quite enough, my dear lord", said Raxinfraxin. Lord Straxus shut up. There could be no arguing with the king of the Lucratian Empire unless he so wished.

Later that night, when King Raxinfraxin dismissed Lord Straxus from his court, Straxus went straight home, where his wife, Lithona, was waiting for him.

"Another busy day at the court, dear?" asked Lithona.

"Yes", said Straxus. Were he an organic creature, he would be sweating with stress and frustration. Instead, he just stroked his metallic moustache and told Lithona all about the meeting with the Soo'Nmoro.

"Now dear, that is nothing to worry about", said Lithona, "I'm sure you will someday have your own way. Now come inside and we'll have a nice cup of hot petroleum together." Straxus sighed and followed his beloved wife inside.

The next day Straxus left his home before Lithona had even woken up. He thought long about what she had said to him the day before and concluded it was time he finally did have his own way.

Lord Straxus spied a public transport vehicle and hopped in.

"Where to, pal?" asked the driver.

"To the king's palace", said Lord Straxus.

"Okay, you got it", said the driver and started the vehicle's engines. The vehicle soon took off the ground and after a short journey, touched down just outside the palace.

"That will be 200 thousand buckazoids, pal", said the driver. Lord Straxus paid him and went on his way.

This time he didn't go to King Raxinfraxin's court as usual. Instead, he went straight to his own office, where he summoned all his inferior officers.

"Here is our new plan", said Lord Straxus. "We will sneak up behind the Soo'Nmoro guardians and then take them by surprise. Every Soo'Nmoro will be given two options: join the Lucratian Empire or die."

"Has King Raxinfraxin approved of your plan?" asked one lieutenant, his moustache considerably shorter than Straxus's. Lord Straxus feigned innocence.

"Of course he has", he said, "now be on your way. Alert all troops and put the plan to action immediately."

The plan was a total success. The swords and spears the Soo'Nmoro warriors used proved no match against the laser rifles brandished by the Lucratian soldiers. With minimum petroleum shed, the Soo'Nmoro were soon assimilated into the Lucratian Empire. Lord Straxus was pleased.

"Well done, officers", he said at his gathering of officers, "you are all promoted one rank further."

However, it wasn't long until news of this tragic event reached King Raxinfraxin. He dismissed the messenger and struggled to control his fury.

"Send for Lord Straxus immediately!" he shouted to another messenger.

"At once, your highness!" replied the messenger and went to the place Lord Straxus was last reported seen in. Straxus had no choice but to follow the messenger back to King Raxinfraxin.

Inside the king's court, the messenger had barely had the time to get out of the courtroom and close the door behind him when King Raxinfraxin unleashed his fury on Lord Straxus.

"So Lord Straxus", he began, "I have heard that you disobeyed my direct orders and attacked the Soo'Nmoro tribe. Have you got anything to say for yourself?"

"But your highness, I thought..." faltered Lord Straxus.

"Silence!" shouted King Raxinfraxin. "Your action was a horrible mistake, which I won't let go unpunished. You are hereby exiled from Lucratia for the rest of your life. You have one day to gather all your family and other supporters, and then get out of my sight. If I ever see you again, I will order you killed on the spot. Now go. You are dismissed." Thankful that his punishment was only exile and not death, Lord Straxus thanked his king and left the courtroom.

When Lithona heard the bad news, she didn't feel a bit of sorrow or regret. Instead, she assisted her husband to gather together all Lucratians who still felt some shreds of loyalty towards Lord Straxus. They numbered a few hundred against the billions of other Lucratians.

When the gathering was finished, King Raxinfraxin's troops ushered Straxus, Lithona and their followers inside the great spaceship that would carry them out of Lucratia for good. When the last follower of Straxus disappeared inside the ship, the hatch was closed and everybody still present in the launching dock cleared outside before the bay doors were opened. Then the ship thrust into flight.

Straxus and Lithona travelled several Lucratian years throughout space, discovering dozens of previously unknown planets, but found none of them to their liking. Most of them were too organic for their tastes, being composed of rock, sand, or in the worst cases, liquids. Worse than these were the gas planets that had no solid surface. So they continued their search even further.

When the crew was on the brink of mutiny, one of them suddenly spied a metallic planet out of the window. A big cheer was heard throughout the ship and it soon touched down on the planet.

Lord Straxus and Lithona were the first to step on this new planet. It was a small planet, much smaller than Lucratia, but still large enough to hold their modest population. The surface was entirely metallic as far as Straxus could see, and there were no trees or other formations to disturb the beauty of the featureless landscape.

Straxus asked one of his men to perform a life-scan on the planet. The scan yielded no electronic or organic life-forms over the size of a small Earthen fieldmouse. This is the perfect planet for our new home, thought Lord Straxus.

"My loyal followers!" he called out, solemnly. "Years ago, we were exiled from our former home planet, Lucratia. Now we have finally found our new home. May it be called Lithone in honour of my lovely wife, Lithona. Now get to work and found some buildings!"

There was a big cheer from the men as all of them set to gather metal from the planet's surface and fashion it into crude houses. Now they had a new home. Lithone had been born.

*** Part 2: The Expansion ***
Lithonian Calendar: About 1'448'000 New Age
Cybertronian Calendar: About 788'800 Age of Optimus Prime
Earth Calendar: About 1'399'000 BC, in the early Quaternary Era
King Straxus relaxed and threw his metallic feet onto his desk. He of course didn't need to do it, because his electronic structure did not tire of immobility like organic ones did, but it struck him as a gesture of importance.

In a few hundred millennia, a short time for the ageless Lucratians (and Lithonians, he corrected himself), his people had constructed a whole city made entirely of metal. Soon it was time for the first new citizens to be born in Lithone. If only Raxinfraxin could see me now, thought King Straxus.

As Lithone had progressed from an unnamed, almost uninhabited planet into a well-civilised one, other races in the universe noted its presence. This, of course, meant that the Lithonians had to establish diplomatic connections with the most important races, to distinguish themselves from the Lucratians, whom most Lithonians thought old-fashioned.

Several small passenger craft had been sent from Lithone to other planets in the same galactic branch. The captain of one of these was called Helix, and he was an aspiring, well-built robot barely a hundred millennia old. He was the diplomat that King Straxus was most proud of.

Helix's destination planet was chosen and planned several years in advance. It was a curious-looking world called Quintessa, or so the Lithonians had heard. Helix wondered what it would be like in there. Well, soon he would find out.

King Straxus hadn't thought he would get his wish so soon. But in spite of that, the ship carrying King Raxinfraxin from Lucratia did indeed land on Straxus's regal space-dock. What an honour this is, thought Straxus, now I can show Raxinfraxin that I can live just as well without him!

King Straxus hurried to the space-dock, accompanied by a small ceremonial guard. They stopped approximately ten metres away from the shuttle as King Raxinfraxin and his guard climbed out of it. When they had emerged and the shuttle doors had shut, it was time for old friends to meet once again.

"So Lord Straxus, it seems that I have underestimated you a little", said King Raxinfraxin. "Your highness, I would like to inform you that I have abandoned that title and crowned myself king of Lithone, so I would advise you, now that we can be considered equals, to drop all titles in our conversation."

"Whatever", said Raxinfraxin.

"But never mind that", said Straxus, "what brings you here? It's such an honour to have you here."

"I just heard that you had founded an empire of your own", replied Raxinfraxin, "and wanted to see what it was like."

"Well then, I can show you!" said Straxus, with a small laugh. He called for a personal transport vehicle, and took Raxinfraxin for a tour around Lithone in it. Raxinfraxin was amazed at the glorious city and other buildings the Lithonians had constructed. It was less than the ageless beauty of Lucratia, of course, but still nothing to be sneered at.

When Raxinfraxin was leaving, he gave one final comment to Straxus.

"You seem to be living quite peacefully here", he said, "I would advise you to continue so. Your attack against the Soo'Nmoro tribe was a horrendous deed, and I would warn you not to do any similar attacks again. Promise me you will live in peace with all other races."

"I promise", said Straxus. And as he watched the shuttle carrying Raxinfraxin take off into the stars, he thought, "now if only my followers will keep my promise."

"Now this shouldn't be too difficult", thought Helix as his craft touched down in the aluminium wastelands of Quintessa. He and his crew stepped out of their shuttle and began walking towards the capital of the planet, their feet making loud clanging sounds on the metal ground.

They were met by a strange-looking being. It was ovoid in shape, with a dozen or so green tentacles hanging from the place where one would consider its shoulders to be, if its structure had anything to act as a collarbone. Its main support was, however, a constant beam of unknown energy that kept emitting from its bottom. What was most curious, thought Helix, was the fact that the being had five faces, which it periodically swapped, turning its ovoid body around. Two organic-looking lizard guards in heavy armour accompanied it. Helix's admiration of the thing's abstract beauty was cut short when it began to speak.

"Greetings, fellow galaxians, and welcome to Quintessa", it said. Helix still couldn't figure out what the being's gender was, or if it had any. "I am the High Magistrate of the Quintessons. To whom do I have the honour of speaking?"

"I am Helix, grand diplomat of his highness, King Straxus of Lithone", said Helix, "I have come to discuss peace and potential trade between our two cultures."

Meanwhile, back on Lithone, Straxus' newly organised church of Lucratian religion had begun to function. Straxus had appointed one of his most loyal followers, a Lithonian known as Rath, as its grand bishop. Rath's first duty was to study the ancient religious writings of Lucratia to see how they should live on Lithone.

At first Rath's findings had been nothing but plainly obvious things that Straxus had already heard from Raxinfraxin. But one night, when Rath decided to stay in church late at night to continue his studies, he found an interesting detail. He asked Straxus if he could discuss it in private. Straxus agreed, not wanting to alarm his followers in vain if the dangerous-sounding religious detail turned out to be a hoax.

"Well, what did you find that was so important?" asked Straxus.

"Your highness", Rath began, "it seems that Raxinfraxin wasn't just speaking idly when he warned us against further breaking of peace. What I have found is a chapter completely different from the usual style of the writings." He began reciting the chapter.

"And so shall the Gods know of the corrupted empire", read Rath, "and they will send the Chaos God, the Destroyer, to purge the universe from its foul influence." Straxus was beginning to become interested.

"I presume that the corrupted empire means us", he said, "but what will the Chaos God be?"

"I don't know, your highness", said Rath, "but there is more. 'And then shall a true hero arise from the ranks of a race torn by civil war, and make peace among their ranks, and destroy the Chaos God.' That was all I could salvage from the ancient parchment."

"What on Lithone does that mean?" asked Straxus.

"I don't know, your highness", said Rath, "however it's obvious that we mustn't let any notion of this chapter escape the halls of the church laboratory."

"Yes, that is correct", said Straxus, "I also believe that the chapter was a little bit exaggerated. We will, of course, live in peace, just as Raxinfraxin said, and none of that will happen."

"You are, of course, correct, your highness", said Rath, and retreated back into his laboratory.

On Quintessa, Helix was intensely negotiating peace with the High Magistrate of the Quintessons.

"I hope you understand that peace with us will require that you will aid us in certain causes", said the High Magistrate.

"Such as?" asked Helix.

"If we should end up at war with a third party", explained the High Magistrate, "we wish that you will come to our aid and help in the battle against this third party." Helix could see no harm in this, so he agreed. Who knows what horrendous foes these Quintessons could have, thought Helix, we'll be glad to help them get rid of them.

"Then it's all settled", said the High Magistrate, interrupting Helix's thoughts. "We welcome peace with the Lithonian Empire and give you our uttermost respect."

"Thank you, High Magistrate", said Helix, "we, too, welcome peace with the Quintessons. Now that we are finished, by your leave I shall return to my planet." Helix was anxious to return home to Lithone, because there was something about the Quintessons that kept him constantly nervous, although he couldn't put his finger on what it was.

The High Magistrate replied with thanks and a farewell, so Helix and his guard retreated into their ship and flew back to Lithone, where King Straxus met them. Helix told Straxus all about the peace with the Quintessons, and Straxus thanked him for a job well done. Of course, he wisely kept Helix unaware of the disturbing religious writings Rath had discovered.

Later that day, King Straxus announced a public speech. Everyone in the vicinity of his palace gathered around the balcony to see what their king had to say.

"My dear subjects", he said, "today we have made peace with one of the most powerful races in this galactic branch, the Quintessons." The crowd cheered. "With their help, we shall proceed to become a great empire, reaching and passing even the famous Lucratian Empire!" More cheering. "So I have declared this day of the year as a national holiday. Now you can all go and enjoy yourselves. Have fun!" The crowd rejoiced as they resumed whatever they had been doing.

Inside his palace King Straxus thought to himself, "We have indeed begun to become a mighty empire. Soon the whole galactic branch will recognise and respect the Lithonians!"

*** Part 3: The Conquest ***
Lithonian Calendar: About 1'609'000 New Age
Cybertronian Calendar: About 1'121'000 Age of Optimus Prime
Earth Calendar: About 18'130 BC, in stone-age
It had now been a long time since the events that had led to Lord Straxus' exile from Lucratia and the creation of Lithone. King Raxinfraxin was long dead, victim of a severe fuel maintenance systems failure. King Straxus deeply missed his old friend, but was thankful he had now established complete independence from Lucratia.

King Straxus was once again on the balcony of his palace, holding a memorial speech to his one-time sovereign, King Raxinfraxin. All was going normally until some of the Lithonians spotted a strange shadow in the sky. The shadow drew nearer, and showed itself to be a spaceship from the nearby planet of Delta Pavonis IV. The Lithonians had barely had the time to figure out how the respond to the appearance of this feline looking ship, when it opened fire on the palace balcony.

The first burst of laser beams hit King Straxus straight in the chest. Straxus shuddered a bit, then collapsed backward, thick, black smoke spewing out of his mouth. The feline ship charged its weapons to fire again, but before it had the time, the gamma-ray fire of the elite imperial guard drove it off. There were no other casualties, but nothing could be done to help King Straxus.

The spy satellite's camera zoomed in on the ship retreating back to Delta Pavonis IV. Its high-powered radio antennas transferred a constant stream of electronic information back to the video monitors on the top-secret espionage centre on the planet Quintessa.

The Chief of the Secret Service watched the monitor with interest. He turned to the High Magistrate.

"It seems our plan is going well", he said.

"It had better be", replied the High Magistrate, "it was no easy task to steal the television transmitting equipment from the Junkions and use intelligent propaganda to fool the Delta Pavonians into thinking the Lithonians were their enemies. Now if we have our way, this could result in a serious war between Delta Pavonis IV and Lithone, which should ultimately leave both planets ripe for our plucking. Our Leader will be very pleased."

The Chief of the Secret Service felt a slight tingle in his circuits at the mention of the Leader's name. Of course, he did not fear her - the Leader ruled the Quintessons in a gentle way, not ordering them around but instead giving them advice about what to do next to further their evil ends - but the thought of her being pleased gave him a sudden surge of pleasure as well.

On Lithone, things were looking bleak. The benevolent ruler of Lithone, King Straxus, was dead and there was no one to replace him. Everybody's mind was fixed on the incident of Straxus' assassination, and everybody shared the same burning hatred of the Delta Pavonians. But no one dared take command just yet.

Finally, a young, energetic-looking Lithonian stepped on the small podium placed outside the balcony. He began speaking.

"Fellow Lithonians! The death of our beloved king is a grievous loss, but we cannot afford to stay passive at such heated circumstances. I, Younnie, know what must be done. By your leave, I declare myself as the new ruler of Lithone!"

Everyone cheered and hailed Younnie as their new king. Younnie was escorted into his new palace in a ceremonial fashion. Inside, he assumed control of the palace straight away. Everyone kept their eyes fixed on him. Everyone except Lithona, the widowed queen, and Rath, the grand bishop. The two turned their eyes away in grief and disgust.

Under Younnie's reign, Lithone changed from a peaceful and wise empire to a war-like, fearsome force. Lithonian warships could be seen all over the galaxy, attacking other life forms they believed were responsible for the death of their beloved king.

Younnie trained his warriors well, always keeping them fit and supplying them with fine weapons. He thought his warriors were the finest in the entire galaxy, yet he had always room for improvement.

The Lithonian troops were proud of the fact that no planet in the galaxy could oppose their might. But there was one planet they had not counted on.

Younnie has dispatched a small legion of warriors onto the small, harmless-looking planet of Bhooyuti. Upon landing, the soldiers stepped out of their craft and viewed their surroundings to locate their enemy. They soon found a group of curious-looking organic creatures.

The creatures seemed to consist of a gelatinous substance, which gave them a blubbery appearance, despite the humanoid forms of their bodies. Several thin, elaborate antennae probed their surroundings in an incredibly fast pace. They looked to pose no threat to the mighty Lithonian soldiers.

The leader of the soldiers gave the signal to attack. The other soldiers drew their machine guns and opened fire. They thought that they would soon see the hapless Bhooyutians lying dead on the ground. What happened, though, was not what they expected.

The ever-alert antennae of the Bhooyutian creatures sensed the energy unleashed in the gunpowder explosion of the machine guns and instantly alerted the creatures' sophisticated neural systems that they were threatened. This changed their behaviour completely. Where before the creatures had been stout, but humanoid in form, now they changed into a streamlined, elongated form. The speed of their movements increased, and before the Lithonian soldiers knew it the Bhooyutians had flown to the other side of the planet.

When the legion had returned to Lithone, the commander gave his report to King Younnie. He told him how the creatures had outsmarted him with their curious mutations, and his legion had been forced to retreat from the planet.

"Interesting", said King Younnie. "It seems that these creatures have somehow developed the ability to alter their very bodies into another form to use in a situation such as an attack."

The legion commander could see King Younnie sinking deeper and deeper into his thoughts. He was wondering if the king would soon fall asleep, until suddenly Younnie opened his eyes and shouted: "I've got it! We'll develop a similar ability ourselves!"

"But how are we going to do that?" asked the legion commander.

"As you know", replied King Younnie, "we are mechanical creatures. All that is required to alter our bodies is a simple mechanical construction job. And I believe I have just the man to organise it."

The most exalted Lithonian physician and mechanic, Stardlax, found himself with quite a magnificent job to do. He had to alter the structure of all Lithonians currently alive to become able to alter their bodily forms into different shapes.

"It won't be an easy task", he thought, "but I'll try it anyway."

King Younnie supplied Stardlax the entire military force of Lithone as guinea pigs. Stardlax took one of the soldiers and asked him to deactivate his systems for a while. The soldier nodded, and soon fell limp to the ground. Stardlax carried the soldier to his workshop, where he stripped the soldier's mechanical body to its basic components and began building a new, more advanced body for him. The process took a long time, but when it was finished, Stardlax presented the recently reactivated soldier to King Younnie.

"Watch this", said Stardlax. "You soldier, try to concentrate on the image of yourself flying through space. Good. Now shut your eyes and lean forward. Just like that... it's working!"

King Younnie was excited and delighted by what he was seeing. The soldier's body changed shape. Limbs pressed tight against the body, joints straightened out, even the head itself adopted a more streamlined form. After the change was finished, the soldier looked more like a spaceship than a Lithonian. And to complete Younnie's amazement, the engines of the spaceship ignited and the spaceship burst into flight.

"Amazing!" said King Younnie to Stardlax, "This is just the thing I wanted!"

"Thanks, your Highness", said Stardlax, "now I will proceed to perform this change on all other soldiers. And I have also developed this" - he held out a small electronic device the size of the end of his thumb - "which is a tiny medico-mechanic processing device. It is to be swallowed by a Lithonian, so it will link itself to the Lithonian's systems and reprogram his configuration so all future Lithonians that will be born from him shall automatically have this ability to...transform."

"Excellent!" said King Younnie, "I will see to that every Lithonian currently alive shall swallow one of your devices. With this new...transforming ability, we shall truly conquer the galaxy!"

*** Part 4: The Enlightenment ***
Lithonian Calendar: About 1'611'000 New Age
Cybertronian Calendar: About 1'126'000 Age of Optimus Prime
Earth Calendar: About 1'660 AD
Thousands of years had passed and Lithone had established itself as the mightiest empire in the galaxy. Most other races, be they mechanic, organic or otherwise, lived in awe and respect of the Lithonians.

The furious wars that had raged in the galaxy for centuries were now mostly past; with Lithonian militia units patrolling on and over many planets to maintain peace and Lithonian rule. There was only one race that people dared suspect that even the Lithonians had to obey - the Quintessons. But this name was not even mentioned whenever a Lithonian was anywhere near hearing range.

In a small residential facility in the suburbs of central Lithone, two young Lithonians were playing sports with each other. One of them kicked a small metal ball to the other and shouted:

"Hey, Kranix! Catch this!"

Kranix did just that. Gently stopping the ball with his leg, he said:

"You know, Arblus, your sports skills are not improving very rapidly."

"Bah", said Arblus, "you just think so because you were able to stop the ball so well. I bet if I was to go to a tournament, I would be quite a good player."

"We'll see about that", said Kranix.

When they were organising the playfield for another game, something in the sky caught Kranix's eye. It was like a spacecraft, but it was like no craft he had even seen before.

He was used to Lithonians flying in their alternative shapes, but this one looked... different. Kranix didn't even hear his mother call:

"Kranix! Arblus! It's late, come inside!" or see his friend run into the house. He was far too in awe of the strange craft.

Arblus had long since run inside the house, but Kranix still stood outside, watching the strange spaceship. As he watched, the ship landed a small distance from him. Kranix ran to see what it was like.

When he got to the ship's landing site, he was amazed to see that it was not a common spaceship at all, but a blue-coloured metallic beast of some kind instead. Still oblivious to Kranix's presence, the ship transformed into a different being. Kranix was intrigued. He had never seen such a thing before.

Only a few moments later did Kranix approach this strange robot. This alerted the stranger to his presence.

"Oh, bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong, salaam aleikum, xyzzy, muuhathenipsumiini and all that stuff", said the strange figure, "my name is Stargazer. And what might you be called, brother?"

Kranix had not understood mostly anything the stranger had said, but he had recognised the universal greeting he had been taught in school, and also understood that the stranger had introduced himself.

"My name is Kranix", he said, quite timidly.

The meeting did not go unnoticed. A small spy probe caught visual contact with the two robots and alerted its masters back on Quintessa. Several Quintessons gathered around the video monitor.

"Curses!" said one Quintesson, "This might result in an alliance between their two planets, and together they might be powerful enough to oppose our Leader...or perhaps the Chaosbringer itself!" "Then we must do something about it", said another Quintesson, "but what?"

"We should ask our Leader", replied the first Quintesson, "she's the only one who can deal with such drastic decisions." The other Quintesson agreed and so the two went to the secret underground chamber that was home to their Leader.

"So what planet might this be?" asked Stargazer. Kranix, puzzled by the fact that Stargazer hadn't heard of their famous empire, answered laconically:

"Lithone, the home planet of our mighty empire."

"Ah so!" said Stargazer, "it seems I've drifted a bit further this time than I intended. Must have had a bad trip or something. But anyway I needed a break from that stupid religion lesson. Father Protector and the Chaosbringer and all that crap...sheesh!"

Kranix felt a twinge at the name.

"What did you say he was?"

"Father Protector, you mean? His real name is Primus, but I suspect he's just an incarnation of Brahma, who on the other hand..."

"No, no, the other one", Kranix quickly corrected.

"Oh, that would be the Chaosbringer, you know? The Destroyer, Unicron, whatever you call him. From what I've heard, he's supposed to come and eat up a lot of planets. A load of bosh if you ask me."

But to Kranix, it was much more than that. He recognised the description of this god from the religious writings he had inherited from his father's cousin, the grand bishop Rath, after his death. No one on Lithone had so far believed that stuff, but now Kranix felt that it must be true.

Kranix and Stargazer would have loved to chat onwards, but two things happened. Kranix's mother had come out looking for his son, and Stargazer suddenly remember that he had 'Decepticons to fight'. Kranix couldn't understand what Decepticons were, but he guessed it must be very important to Stargazer. So they bid each other farewell and left the site of their brief first contact.

Meanwhile, on a planet hundreds of light years away, a creature called Hugh Witwicky was also staring at the sky.

"Blimey", he thought to himself, "there sure are some strange birds in the sky! Are they angels of God or daemons from the Netherworld?"

He pondered the question a while, then left it unanswered and got back to bed. Tomorrow would be a very special day, he thought, because the King himself would pay a visit to the colonial lands across the ocean.

*** Part 5: The Judgment ***
Lithonian Calendar: About 1'611'000 New Age
Cybertronian Calendar: About 1'126'000 Age of Optimus Prime /0 Age of Rodimus Prime
Earth Calendar: 2'005 AD
Life on Lithone had continued peacefully for decades since Kranix's meeting with the mysterious robot called Stargazer. Or at least, that was what appeared to the outside observers.

However, deep inside his military complex, King Younnie was constantly developing new weapons, strategies, intelligence missions and just plain cheats to further enforce his rule, all to the cause of avenging his late predecessor King Straxus, and gaining a few hundred million new slaves into the bargain.

This day, King Younnie was in the chemistry lab of the military complex, watching the head of the chemical warfare department, Doctor Dixda, demonstrate a new liquid chemical which, once ignited, would create a dangerous nerve gas which would instantly terminate any organic life it came in contact with, but would not harm the mechanical Lithonians.

Doctor Dixda laid the tray with the chemical vats in front of King Younnie.

"Now watch this", he said, "we take a small organic lifef..."

His speech was interrupted by a violent shockwave running through the entire military complex. The tray and all the chemicals dropped to the ground while King Younnie and Doctor Dixda strove to maintain balance on the ever-shifting floor of the chemistry lab.

Hundreds of kilometres away, in a residential facility, Kranix and his friend Arblus were also experiencing similar tremors.

"Arblus! Look, it's Unicron!" cried Kranix. He couldn't see the fabled Chaosbringer yet because of all the dust and scrap metal flying between him and the monster planet, but he knew that this was truly the end of the world that the religious writings had described.

Arblus, on the other hand, didn't know what on Lithone his friend was babbling about. But what he did know was they were in great danger.

"The ships! Get to the ships! It's our only chance!" he shouted, in the vain hope that the high-speed spaceships they used for interstellar travel would provide them with a means of escaping this mayhem. Kranix and Arblus ran into their ships and scooted off into space.

On Quintessa, the Quintessons were keeping constant watch of these disastrous events.

"It seems we didn't have to worry at all", said one Quintesson, "the Chaosbringer is destroying these Lithonians and preventing them from causing a threat to us."

"But what if any of them should survive and escape?" asked another Quintesson.

"Never fear", replied the first one, "we will set up a mock justice system. We simply charge the Lithonians with whatever odd crime pops in our heads at the moment, and then deliver a verdict. No matter if they are guilty or innocent, we simply drop them into a gigantic pit full of petroleum thirsty Sharkticons and that will be the end of our troubles."

"What an insidious ploy", replied the second Quintesson, "our Leader will be very pleased."

The Lithonians were desperately fighting the giant nemesis. The majority of them didn't have a clue what it was had come to eat their planet, but three of them knew quite well. Queen Lithona, Grand Bishop Rath, and Kranix all shared the sentiment that the Chaos God Unicron had come to punish them for their corruption.

Kranix and Arblus could see their home-planet disappear into the jaws of the monster planet. Tens of millions of Lithonians died with the planet, and only a few thousand managed to escape into space, only to be sucked in by the massive gravitational force the Chaosbringer was creating. One of these unfortunate creatures was Kranix's friend, Arblus. He screamed a futile plea for help to Kranix as his ship was pulled backwards into the monster planet.

Kranix judged Arblus' fate, decided it was hopeless to try to save his friend's life, and concentrated on his own escape. In an incredible event of luck, he succeeded in evading the gravitational pull and flew off to space. He was safe, for now.

With the doomed planet Lithone behind him, Kranix thought about his home planet and himself.

"It seems so natural - that we were punished with death because of all the unnecessary death we caused among the other races. Somehow, I don't feel any grief towards them. Well, most of them, anyway."

With that sentiment, he stopped thinking about his past and instead started looking for a suitable planet to land for refuge. He didn't see the Quintesson interceptor star-fighters until it was too late. He was forced to land on Quintessa and was instantly arrested, accused of violation of Quintesson aerospace.

"I should have known", he thought, "the Quintessons were playing along with the Chaosbringer all the time. If only my people had known it." As Kranix marched towards the courtroom, the tale of the mighty Lithonian Empire had finally come to an end.

The End