Diary of a Former Nyonian: 2

Research half is done, but where to even begin...

Well, initially, when the Autobots first landed on Junkion, Wreck-Gar and the rest of his crew were not friendly. They attacked us, but who wouldn't have? We were trying to take something valuable from their homeworld. But I wanted them to know that we weren't doing this purely out of self-interest - I personally wanted the Junkions to be safe, and for the ununtrium to stay out of Decepticon hands, so I asked Wreck-Gar if we could strike a peace pact, and have the Junkions work together with the Autobots to fend off the Decepticons. He agreed, though reluctantly.

Later, Prowl lauded my actions. I was a little surprised at the time. I had guessed he sort of just wanted the Junkions out of the picture.

But like I said before, I can't really prove this. Prowl and I were the only Autobots on Junkion when he switched the drill into overdrive. However, Wreck-Gar was also there, and we both made an attempts to stop the drill from destabilizing Junkions core. Sadly, we couldn't stop it in time. By the time Wreck-Gar had buried his ax into the drill, the planet was turning into a boiling slag pot.

But here's the thing that really kills me. The destabilization of the core caused the ununtrium to rise to the surface, and I saw Autobot drop ships lower to gather what they could of it. So now I question whether it was Prowls intent all along to destroy Junkion.

He wasn't with us when we first landed on Junkion. And like I said before, I kinda thought he wasn't interested in making peace with the Junkions. Plus, the Junkions aren't exactly what you would call reliable and stable - and Wreck-Gar himself is a living testimony to that. In the end, Prowl must have either decided they were, unfortunately, a necessary expense or, he let me make negotiations because he figured it would be way easier to pull an unexpected move on the Junkions. Neither of those options sound like something an Autobot should be doing.

I did some digging, but I couldn't find much on the current whereabouts of Wreck-Gar. Last I saw him, he was leaving Junkion with the rest of his crew in a ship that looks like a metal corkscrew. Finding him is probably dangerous - at this point, he'll probably try to kill any Autobot on sight. We didn't leave on good terms. But if he was here right now, I'd tell him... I'm sorry, and that I owe him any favor he can think of.

Now about... Phantom.

Ever since the Simanzi massacre happened, I've been trying to do extensive research on him, to find out more about who he is, and where he came from. But information on him is about as elusive as his name. And a thousand conspiracy theories about who he is and what he can do are out there, though most of them are senseless. They range from "outlier" to "fancy augmented Decepticon holomatter tech" or "he was ordinary, there's no recorded footage of him in the act."

See, the thing is, it doesn't seem like anyone knows much about his background. Rumor has it, he isn't from Cybertron, or any of our associated colonies like Caminus, either. In fact, no one I asked could confirm where he was from, or who he was before he ended up here.

This frustrates me because he's the reason why we are even able to have the dimensional portals we have now. He's the reason why anyone ever got poisoned with psychosonorum. He's why the crucible started overheating and caused the Simanzi massacre. He's also the reason why the very short-lived era of peace we had with the Decepticons /started/ and /ended/. And now, if it hadn't been for him, Prowls ethically questionable plan to send Trypticon to a faraway distant somewhere wouldn't be possible.

I've read Sky Lynx's report on Simanzi, and asked Prowl for the security footage from the portal control hub the cycle it all happened. And I swear I've watched the video a thousand times, but I still can't figure out what happened. I know what Prowl would have told me if I had asked him. That the Decepticons had intended all along to sabotage the operation. But I just can't bring myself to believe that. Back a while ago, I skirted the edges of Decepticon territory and talked to some of the mercs who had been hired as security by the Decepticons back during peacetime. They said they honestly thought the opposite. That the Autobots had sent in a sabotage unit labeled as a security detail and Phantom had rushed there because he was suspicious. None of it makes sense. Either something really weird is going on, or Prowl is lying. I wouldn't be surprised, after all, he was the one who mandated a kill on sight for Phantom immediately after every member of the "security detail" sent to the tower failed to return.

I also discussed this with Blast Off at Maccadams - he was the last person to receive communication from Phantom. And he said that Phantom had arrived on the scene, unarmed, dragging the dead chassis of another Decepticon. Phantom's last words to Blast Off were about the Autobots being responsible for everything, along with a request for him and the other Decepticon to be avenged. When I asked Blast Off if he had believed Phantom, he seemed uncertain. He says they weren't close, and that Phantom was unstable but didn't go into details about why.

Blurr later argued with me that Blast Off could have been lying to me - but that didn't make sense to me either. What incentive would Blast Off have to lie like that? If he was going to lie, wouldn't he just say that he believed Phantom and that it was the Autobots fault?

Blast Off also expressed interest in looking for Phantom, which I have been continuing to do in my spare time. But looking for him is like trying to find a metal shaving at the bottom of the Mithril Sea. The last place he might have been seen was in the back of Maccadams, near the dumpster. Healthpoint was there. However, its unlikely he'll show up there again. He's hard to pinpoint, and the places he pops up in are often kind of random.

To be honest, I don't really know what I'm doing. Phantom's probably dead by now. But if he's not, we need to find him and get to the bottom of all of this.