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A small group of survivors from the military base attack wander through the desert and are attacked by Scorponok. military base in Qatar in an effort to use the military database to discover the location of Megatron and the Cube, but they do not succeed. In the present day, the rest of the Decepticons-Blackout, Scorponok, Frenzy, Barricade, Starscream, Bonecrusher, and Devastator-have already landed on Earth and assumed the disguise of Earth vehicles. The still-frozen Megatron is moved into this facility, and is reverse engineered to further advance human technology.
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Sector Seven, a secret organization of the United States government, discovers the Energon Cube and builds the Hoover Dam around it to mask the energy signal. Megatron's navigational system is unintentionally activated, and Archibald's eye glasses are imprinted with the coordinates to the Cube's location. Captain Archibald Witwicky and his crew of explorers stumble upon Megatron's body in the late 19th century. Megatron discovers the Cube on Earth, but crash-lands in the Arctic Circle, becoming frozen in the ice. The book begins with the history of Cybertron's destruction at the hands of Megatron, and his quest to obtain the Energon Cube.
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