ON "WARRIOR GODDESS" AND ITS ASSOCIATED CONTINUITY

This fic started from one idea ("What if Mikaela was turned into a 'bot?") and expanded into a sprawling continuity that covers roughly a million years and ate not only my brain but occasionally noms on Darthneko's. The problem with a continuity this big is that I'm actually terrible at writing things in sequence. Different parts of the story inspire me at different times, and after a few years of this rolling around my head, I've got the beginning, bits of the middle, and quite a lot of the end and extended "epilogue". I've not put up a lot of the latter, because I felt it'd be confusing to read without knowing all that came before. This is reasonable, but...I'm terrible at writing things in sequence, and it's very possible that there are parts of this story that will NEVER get "fully" written.

Holding onto the later stories until I've written my way through to them sounds unnecessarily painful for all involved. I've just decided to admit that the standard format of chapters written one at a time in series is just not going to work for this series.

So this is what I'm going to do. In the interest of getting you All The Fic sooner, and of you getting the most out of it, I'm going to start posting things as I finish them, out of order.

ON "WARRIOR GODDESS 1, 2, 3, 4" STORIES
I will be posting Warrior Goddess as four stories, informatively titled "Warrior Goddess 1 - Earth" (renamed version of the original Warrior Goddess fic), "Warrior Goddess 2 - War and Peace", etc. These 'fics' will be COLLECTIONS. Their 'chapters' will be fics/snippets from the relevant time period in the continuity.

I will be posting things slowly as I work through my backlog and find completed bits of fic. I DO NOT guarantee from this point out that any of Warrior Goddess will be posted in chronological order. However, I'll try to post things that are finished, whether they be stories or slice-of-life drabbles, so this doesn't get needlessly cliffhangery. If you are subscribed to Warrior Goddess and DO NOT want to read everything out of order, I suggest taking a hard look at where the fics are in the timeline before reading.

When I finish something, I'll post it as a chapter in whatever timeperiod/fic it belongs. The chapters within each fic will still be in chronological-in-fic order, so you can still read the series from start to finish in chronological order.

If this posting out of order will disturb your reading mojo, I suggest that you follow only Warrior Goddess Part 1 (again, Part 1 is the original Warrior Goddess fic, so if you are subscribed to that, you're good to go and you don't need to do anything.) WG Parts 2 and 4, in particular, involve new wars and significant major character death, just a warning. If, however, you want all of Mikaela's Excellent Adventure as it's ready, then feel free to watch all the Warrior Goddess fics.

ON THE SPOILERIFFIC TIMELINE

To make all of this out-of-order posting understandable, I think it's only fair to offer everyone the full timeline. Thus, you'll find that below. This will give you the skinny on major world events through the end of Warrior Goddess. Reading the timeline is not required to understand the Warrior Goddess stories. But, if you're reading things as I post them and have questions, the timeline will provide context ("Who's Integrus?", "How did the Great War end?", "What happened during the Unicron War?", etc.) It's here if you want it, easily ignored if you don't.

This timeline is rough, preliminary, and subject to change. The main events have remained fixed in my head for several years, but the details are still evolving. Consider this to be stamped all over with "Work in Progress".

Below here is the timeline. Spoilers ahead! (sorry, I can't get to give me spoiler space, so LAST WARNING, SPOILERS AHEAD.)

2007
Transformers movie events - AllSpark destroyed.

2009
Sam and Mikaela graduate high school in spring. Sam attends college in fall. Return of the Fallen movie events - Fallen defeated. Mikaela starts apprenticing under Ratchet.

WARRIOR GODDESS 1 - EARTH
2010
Late in the year, Mikaela stops apprenticing under Ratchet, goes back to work at her dad's repair shop.

2012
Mikaela's dad dies, Mikaela inherits repair shop.

2013
Sam graduates college, takes on human/Cybertronian liaison duties full-time. Mikaela "dies", wakes in a Cybertronian body. Mikaela begins training in non-combat How-To-Be-A-Cybertronian classes under just about everyone and starts proper medic training with Ratchet.

2014
Mikaela gets in her first fight with a Decepticon. Mikaela gets nod from Ironhide and Prime to get full combat training. Mikaela is accepted as a full, untrained Autobot and starts Autobot bootcamp, taking on base duties and slowly being introduced to long-range and then short-range combat. More Autobots arrive, and to forestall uncomfortable questions about where she came from, Mikaela takes on the designation "Firebrand" and Ratchet spreads the story that she was found on Earth, her memory cores wiped clean, to explain her shaky Cybertronian and lack of knowledge about Cybertron and its customs.

2015-2050
While Mikaela trains and becomes more firmly an Autobot, Decepticons start trading technology for energon-capable energy. Autobots' relationship with the American government becomes strained as Decepticon-aligned countries start reverse-engineering weapons and gain military advantage. Optimus finally agrees that Americans need Cybertronian-level weapons, too. Meanwhile, Earth gets less and less hospitable, with wars on the horizon over water, food, and energy. Autobots begin chaperoning colonists to other systems in the Exodus. They try to be fair about this, but distrust is sown by perceived favoritism in who gets to go. Human distrust grows to the point that the Autobots are getting attacked, now with Cybertronian-based weapons that do considerably more damage. Megatron gloats, continually playing one side off the other and encouraging anti-Autobot sentiment. Other Decepticons start wondering what the hell they're still doing on this dying ball of dirt.

2049
Mikaela downloads the internet to take a little light reading with her when she, Bee, and Sam head out on what will be the last Exodus transport.

~2050
Earth goes boom. Humans tampering with Cybertronian tech (possibly attempting to build space bridge technology) manage to open a 1m-wide black hole on the surface of the earth. This lasts for approximately 1 minute, sucks in a good chunk of Siberia and the earth's atmosphere. As the tremendous gravity forces heat up the matter falling into the black hole, a huge explosion of superheated plasma destroys most of the earth's atmosphere, irradiates everything else, and changes earth's orbit. Between all these things, all oxygen-needing life is annihilated. Cybertronians are left standing on a dead, barren planet with a v. different gravity profile and almost no atmosphere. This is NOT good for Autobot/Decepticon relations, and there are several major battles as both sides struggle to gather resources and decide what to do next.

2052
After delivering Sam and the rest of the colonists to the Gliese system, Mikaela and Bee return. Mikaela does NOT take the destruction of Earth well and is a very angry being for the next several hundred years.

WARRIOR GODDESS 2 - WAR AND PEACE

~2100
As the last of Earth's resources dwindle, Megatron begins acting erratically. Launches off into space looking for something that is "calling" him. Starscream leads the Decepticons while he's gone and slowly winds down the fighting, instead focusing on sending out scouts to look for another promising planet to sustain them. Both Autobots and Decepticons (separately) make plans to leave Earth.

2125
Megatron returns from his vision quest...towing a huge chunk of Dark Energon. He has well and truly drunk the purple kool-aid and is determined that the army can use the Dark Energon as fuel and wipe out the Autobots, then take over the universe. Starscream disagrees, kills him, and takes over as Decepticon leader, with Soundwave as 2IC. Starscream asks Prime for a formal truce. Optimus Prime agrees, and so begins the Long Peace.

~2125-10,000ish - The Long Peace
Autobots and Decepticons have both settled some, building colonies in several places, sometimes even on the same planets. There's still energy shortages, but everyone's tired of fighting and being pretty good about sharing. Folks even begin to have sparklings again. Mikaela spends part of this time in a one-bot scout ship working for the Exploration Force, looking for habitable planets. She enjoys the time alone to think and become a little less angry.

~10,000-200,000 - The Unicron War begins
Around 10,000AD is the first known appearance of Unicron's Swarm. These start out as fairly simple and dumb (though dangerous in numbers) mechanoid creatures that run on Dark Energon, easily destroyed and seen as a nuisance more than anything. Slowly they gain complexity, and as the years pass, Cybertronians realize that these are the ever-evolving fore-runners of Unicron's army.

~200,000-250,000
The Unicron War begins in earnest, with enemies engaging (and often over-running) Cybertronian colonies. Many Cybertronians take to space again, wandering from system to system, occasionally attempting to make a stand against the Swarm and failing as the Swarm's numbers increase and its tactics become more devious. Many remaining Cybertronians are killed in the course of the War, including Optimus Prime. The Matrix passes on, almost imperceptibly, to Hot Rod, who is quickly killed as well in the same battle. The Matrix passes on, surprisingly, to Soundwave, who takes on the name of Integrus Prime and forges a true unified Cybertronian force to fight Unicron's Swarm. Mikaela spends much of this time in a strike unit led by Thundercracker on a ship called the Scythe, where she eventually earns the respect of the rest of her unit for her medicking skills and occasional bouts of berserkery during groundfighting.

~250,000
The War by now going very badly, the last of the Cybertronians are starting to run short of energon and supplies by the time that a planet-sized Unicron appears on the scene. Integrus Prime is captured and held aboard Unicron, where Unicron siphons and corrupts the energy from the Matrix to produce more Dark Energon to feed his army. Unicron heads for the abandoned Cybertron.

~250,005
Mikaela and a very small and bedraggled team (including Ravage) head into Unicron in search of Integrus. They manage to free Integrus from Unicron's tortures enough that Integrus can trigger the Matrix's power. The Matrix amplifies Integrus' own technopathic powers a millionfold, and he is able to, for a critical amount of time, take over Unicron's systems and set them to self-destruction. Unicron's spark is destroyed, and without his consciousness animating the Swarm, the Swarm collapses and the Unicron War ends.

250,005-300,000
Cybertronians begin gathering on Cybertron again. Energon shortages are still rampant, but they eke by, and the scientists left (headed by Starscream) turn their attention to how to safely make use of the massive quantities of Dark Energon contained in Unicron's planetary form. Eventually, Starscream is able to find a way to filter away Unicron's taint and make the energon usable. The Cybertronians use this energon to fill Cybertron's planetary engines and, with some fancy timing, get Cybertron to fall into orbit around a nice, cheery star in a system with useful resources and no current occupants. With solar energy plentiful and Cybertron's solar converters repaired, the fuel crisis is averted. During this time, Mikaela becomes Integrus' aide and is intimately involved with organizing the rebuilding of Cybertron.

WARRIOR GODDESS 3 - CYBERTRON AND BEYOND

300,000-400,000
With fuel no longer an issue, Cybertron begins a new period of rebuilding. Integrus encourages many to have sparklings again, and leads by example. Cybertronians begin making diplomatic overtures to other species and repairing their galactic image.

~400,000-~1,000,000
New Cybertronian golden age. Peace, prosperity, sparklings. There are intermittent contacts with other hostile races (mostly the Quintessons and their slave races), but under Integrus the Cybertronians are not expansionists. They keep to their own system and defend it well. The peace allows many of those involved in the Great War to take on new, civilian jobs, or to strike out on their own.

WARRIOR GODDESS 4 - THE SECOND QUINTESSON WAR

~1,000,000-1,000,010
A huge, Quintesson-planted bomb goes off at the center of the Cybertronian capital, in an attempt to destroy the Matrix and to demoralize the Cybertronian population in advance of an invasion. Mikaela and Integrus, as well as tens of thousands of others, are killed. The Matrix passes to Starscream, who quickly figures out the Quintessons' plan and calls for all military-trained Cybertronians and veterans of the Great War to reassemble to defend Cybertron. When the Quintessons reach Cybertron, they find one PISSED OFF planetary defense force that not only destroys them but chases them back into Quintesson space. Starscream leads the Cybertronian army on a blitzkrieg war against the Quintessons, pushing them back into their own space, destroying Quintesson fleets and interstellar capabilities as they go, taking over Quintessa, eradicating the Judge class, freeing every Quintesson slave race, and generally taking the Quintesson empire apart at the seams and telling the remains to stay the hell out of Cybertron's affairs. Cybertronians leave the remaining Quintessons to deal with their revolting previously-slave races and head home.