flightsim.andyjohnston.net

As the cosmos cooled in the wake of the Big Bang, stars formed, and from the material that orbited them, planets. And while many of those planets were lifeless chunks of rock and ice, a few were the birthplaces of a concept that would later come to be known as life.

One such planet was the third orbiting an average sized yellow sun. For billions of years, life here struggled to gain a foothold. But it was not the only place were life began. Only a few light years away, a planet in a binary system also gave rise to life. But not only was there life here, but life that eventually gained sentience, and even intelligence. And some 12 million years before the human race came into existance, life on this distant planet was well established.

They called themselves Quintessons, and they had grown from an infant species to be the dominators of their world, a world they named Cybertron. By the standards of humans who would one day follow them, they were cruel, perhaps even savage. Yet they continued to survive, and with time discovered the capability to build machines to aid in their everyday existence. It led to their own form of industrial revolution.

Brutal as they were, their devices fell into two broad categories: those that would help in day to day tasks, and those that would be used as weapons. With time, their technology advanced, from simple mechanics, to electrical and then electronic devices. Robotics followed, and the Quintessons struggled to built ever more capable machines, to push the capabilities of artificial intelligence to the limit, and beyond.

They succeeded.

Their simple devices became more complex, and were slowly developing the ability to think for themselves. Further and further, the technology expanded, until the machines were capable of building newer and better machines without the help of the Quintessons. And when that happened, the intelligence of the machines could no longer be considered artificial. They too had acheived setience, and emotional awareness. They rose up against their Quintesson masters, and civil war erupted.

The machines were the victors, the Quintessons were banished from their home planet to roam the universe.

But not all were satisfied with this existance. They still considered themselves as two separate groups, those who had been everyday consumer goods, who named themselves Autonomous Robotics (which they shortened to Autobot) versus those who had been weapons, who went under the name of Decepticon.

The Decepticons secretly amassed their forces, and attacked the Autobots, plunging Cybertron back into civil war. Vastly overpowered, the Autobots developed the technology of transformation: modifying their bodies so they could camouflage themselves. With this new power, the Autobots won the war and brought about the Golden Age of Cybertron.

Working in secret, the Decepticons also developed the technology of transformation. The first of this new breed called himself Megatron. One of Megatron's first actions was to attack and try to kill a young Autobot named Orion Pax. Pax was saved and was built into the first of a new battle hardy breed of Autobots with a new name: Optimus Prime. Optimus Prime led the Autobots against Megatron's Decepticons as Cybertron again found itself embroiled in civil war. With both factions now in posession of the transformation technology, they began to refer to themselves as a united species, Transformers.

The incredible forces of the war shook Cybertron loose from its very orbit, and it was hurled across the cosmos.

With time, Cybertron found itself wandering through another solar system, and was in grave danger of being detroyed as it passed through a field of asteroids. Optimus Prime led a group of dedicated Autobots to clear a path using an enormous starship called the Ark. As the task was completed, and Cybertron was safe, the Autobots were ready to return home to put an end to their war. But before they could do it, the Decepticons attacked the Ark.

The Ark crashed into a mountain on the third planet in the system, the same third planet where life had begun. But the Transformers didn't consider this world to have life. It had been so long since the Quintessons had been eliminated, that they had forgotten that organic life could even exist, that not all life was mechanical.

The crash incapacitated all the Transformers on the Ark, and for four million years, they lay incapacitated. Until the mountain volcano erupted.

The eruption acivated the Ark's computer, which launched a small probe to investigate the surroundings. It was nearly overwhelmed by the variety of mechanical objects it discovered, and sending the information back to the Ark, the Ark proceeded to repair the Transformers. Like had been the situation on Cybertron, the Autobots were returned to the state where they could camouflage themslves as ordinary vehicles, the Decepticons as military weapons and vehicles.

And so, their war continued on earth; their war became our war.

Installation

Drag the entire contents to the Simobjects\Airplanes folder.

Operation

Land and take-off in robot mode, retract the landing gear to transform.

Contact

andy@istop.com

flightsim.andyjohnston.net