War Dawn

Up in the sky, the Aerialbots are after Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker who've captured a bunch of humans. As the Decepticons try to get away their pursuers finally catch up with them and give them a good blasting, despite their efforts to try and outmaneuver them. Due to some fancy flying by Thundercracker though some of the Aerialbots are impressed.
 

With Thundercracker and Skywarp injured, Starscream sees that the only way that they are going to lose the Aerialbots is by getting rid of the hostages and they are dumped as the Decepticons get away. Silverbolt tells the others to rescue them and they are all saved before any splatter mishaps can happen. As they return to base, all of the Aerialbots apart from Silverbolt begin to talk about how great the Decepticons, and how much better than humans.
 

Such talk does not go down well with the other Autobots present, with Ironhide calling them all arrogant young punks and that if they'd been fighting the Decepticons for as long as he had, their opinions about them would be different. But, as Optimus Prime says, this is the problem - the Aerialbots were only built a few weeks a go, and so don't quite get the full story of the Transformer war yet. Teletraan-1 then picks up abnormal energy readings from Cybertron, the likes that no-one has ever seen before, so he gets Omega Supreme to transform and take them back to their home planet so they can check it out.
 

At the Decepticon base, the three seekers are fixing themselves up when Megatron storms in calling them or failures for being beaten by the Aerialbots again, and that as long as these new Autobots are around, his supremacy of the skies is threatened. Soundwave then checks in saying that he has found out that some Autobots are heading to Cybertron, and Megatron realises that they must have found out about the work Shockwave is doing on the "Chronosphere" - a time machine device that he wanted to use to go back in time to before the war started on Cybertron so he could steal as much energy as he wanted, but he now has a plan to use it to get rid of the Aerialbots, and he goes off to use the space bridge.
 

As the Autobots arrive on Cybertron, Omega transforms and says that he is low on energy, so Optimus tells him to power down for now and they'll try and find some supplies on Cybertron. But first, they need to find out what these strange energy readings are so they transform and roll out, but the Aerialbots wonder why the other Autobots would want to live on Earth when Cybertron seems so much cooler. Starscream and co. then attack them, but...
 

...Slingshot transforms and tells the Decepticons that they don't want to fight! They just want to talk. Starscream and the others transform too and say that that's fine with the as Slingshot wants to know more about the Decepticons and that the things Optimus Prime has told them about them may be wrong, Starscream agrees and leads them away, with only Silverbolt being the one to remain behind. He contacts Optimus telling them what his fellow team-mates have done as Megatron can't believe how naive these new Autobots are as Starscream leads them straight to him.
 

As the Aerialbots and Decepticons enter a battered old building, Starscream instructs his new friends to take a seat, but just as Silverbolt runs in to the rest of his team to tell them that they are making a huge mistake, Megatron activates the Chronosphere and sets it so the Aerialbots will be taken to the point in time where the galaxy doesn't even exist yet, and they'll be trapped forever!
 

Optimus Prime and the other Autobots then crash through but have arrived too late to stop Megatron. As Ironhide makes Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker scatter, Optimus transforms and says that the only way to stop Megatron's plan is to destroy the machine, and he shoots it. But Megatron believes that his plan has been a success and tells the others that they can get out of here now.
 

With the Decepticons out of the way for the moment, the Autobots wonder if they can get the Aerialbots back and Optimus says the only thing they can try and do is get Megatron's time machine device operational again, and with Wheeljack saying that it could be done, they all begin to start repairs whilst finding out that the Aerialbots have been sent back nine million years -Ironhide says that must mean they would be on Cybertron during it's golden age, before the war started.
 

And as the Aerialbots find themselves somewhere else, they quickly realise that they are still on Cybertron, but they are in the past. They walk around not knowing where to go whilst most of them still say the Decepticons are cool until they happen to meet a guy called Orion Pax, who works at a factory which uploads energon.
 

He takes the Aerialbots inside the factory where his buddy Dion shows up asking if Orion is trying to shift his workload over to someone else again, and then another robot walks in, who is called Ariel and happens to be Orion's girlfriend. Dion then calls out and everyone heads into the open to see...
 

...these new-fangeled "flying robots", who Orion and friends think are the coolest and are desperate to meet them, and just getting to see them is exciting. As Fireflight proves how stupid he is, Silverbolt tells Orion that just because they can fly, doesn't mean that they could be good robots, and Ariel then says that she heard that these flying robots attacked a city. Orion says that as long as there are guardian robots around, they don't need to worry about a war breaking out. Orion then returns to work and guides a ship into the dock next to the factory.
 

A voice then calls out behind him and Orion gets to meet Megatron for the first time. Megatron shows Orion a bunch of transports and says that he has been looking for a place to store all of his energy, and asks about the hangars here. Orion tells him that they only store energon in these hangars, and as soon as Megatron hears this he orders his army to transform and attack!
 

Orion tells Megatron that he can't do this, so Megatron shoots him. Ariel then tries to attack Megatron, so Megatron kills her. Orion then has another go at stopping Megatron, so Megatron shoots him again and kills him. Megatron's army then invades the hanger and destroys the workers, including Dion, and their orders are to just take the energy.
 

As the Decepticons depart, the Aerialbots have heard the commotion and come running back, but they are too late as all they find are the lifeless bodies of Orion Pax and Ariel!
 

Back in the present, Megatron tells the other Decepticons that it would be a disaster if the Autobots get control of the Chronosphere, but Shockwave then tells everyone to head over to where he is as he's discovered the headless body of a guardian robot. Megatron thinks they can use it again the Autobots and has Shockwave re-activate it, saying that as long as it has a good, strong body, they can still use it.
 

Meanwhile, the Aerialbots carry Orion's body in the hope are finding someplace where they can repair him, as Slingshot says that he now wants to pay back Megatron for what he has done. As they head past one building, another robot appears and says that they should try the next city if they need repair work, but the now desperate Aerialbots ask him to repair their friend. This new robot says that he does detect a strong spirit within him and takes Orion into his workshop to totally rebuild him.
 

As Megatron's army continues to attack cities, the Aerialbots wait outside wondering how long it is going to take when the suddenly, the robot who took Orion in reappears outside and tells them all that his work to Orion is done, but he is Orion no more -he is the first in a new generation or robots, and his name is...
 

Optimus Prime!
 

Optimus apolgises to the Aerialbots, saying that he admired Megatron simply because he was powerful, which was the wrong thing to do. He then asks if Ariel can be saved and his creator says yes, saying to himself that he will call this new female warrior "Elita One" as the Autobots head out to stop Megatron, who is still leading his troops into battle, destroying the guardian robots who challenge them.
 

But then in steps Optimus Prime, claiming that he is Megatron's worst nightmare as he single-handedly takes out Megatron's entire force with his laser rifle. As he is doing that, the Aerialbots spy Megatron's transport drones who are moving into a hangar to steal lots and lots of energon, with them realising that if he gets it, the Decepticons will be unstoppable.
 

In the present, the Autobots finish work on the Chronosphere and Wheeljack says that it will take just two minutes for the machine to transport the Aerialbots back where they belong. Megatron and the Decepticons then attack intending to destroy the machine, and as Prime fights them off he orders Ironhide and Ratchet to distract the headless guardian robot which comes crashing through a wall.
 

The Aerialbots have snuck into the hangar and planted energy packs everywhere to set up a change reaction that will eventually lead into the energy Megatron's drones plan to take exploding, but as they finish setting up they see that there only way out is now blocked but another group of Megatron's troops. Determined not to let Megatron win, they set off the chain reaction anyway but as everything begins to blow up they and transported back to the present just before the explosion engulfs them.
 

As Prime and the others fight a losing battle against the guardian robot, there is a flash of light and the Aerialbots appear, who quickly transform into Superion, and soon the headless robot is nothing more than junk.
 

With his plan ending in failure, Megatron and the other Decepticons retreat as Slingshot states his hatred for them all. The Autobots then head back outside and Wheeljack asks what the Aerialbots got up to in the past, and Silverbolt tells them that they learnt a few interesting things about Megatron and Optimus Prime, including what Prime's original name was.
 

Optimus suddenly remembers how they knew that he was Orion Pax, and that they were the ones that originally saved him. Ratchet wants to know what the heck they are all talking about and Optimus starts to tell the tale that began over nine million years a go...

Prime's creator is of course Alpha Trion, although he is never named in the episode. He's yet again got a slightly different look in the beard department - because he hasn't got one at all here.

Thundercracker has one short line of dialogue but he has a completely different voice compared to his usual one. Just after Skywarp states how he finds the guardian robots creepy, Thundercracker then says his line, but it's not John Stephenson providing the voice.

This episode's story of how the Transformer war started kind of gets ret-conned here.

This episode is one of the most violent of the series, with quite graphic deaths for Ariel and Megatron's troops. In an interview, David Wise (the writer for this episode) said that in his script for War Dawn, Orion's death was suppose to involve Megatron shooting Orion in the shoulder, which caused one of his arms to fall off. Megatron then used this arm to decapitate Orion. The only part that was kept in the actual episode was Megatron shooting Orion in the shoulder.

There has been some fan speculation over the fate of Dion, with one bunch of fans saying he got built into Ironhide and another saying he became Ultra Magnus. However, after Dion gets killed, he is never seen in the episode again and only Orion is the one to be bought back to life (with it made clear that Ariel will also be re-built, too).