Chapter Text
The Rust Sea was a dangerous place.
While Tagan Heights was located in what would otherwise be ideal for an industrial port, and the workers there produced nearly 40% of Cybertron's planetary manufacturing output, the industrial district preferred to distribute products and goods by large scale ground vehicles.
Hydrax Plateau floated nearly central to the vast Sea, serving as a critical transportation hub. The island provided off-world shuttles and space port infrastructure that served to connect Cybertron with the rest of the galaxy.
Visitors from colony worlds were more familiar with Hydrax than Iacon, having first laid eyes on the planet as their shuttles broke the atmosphere while the red and orange Sea rolled violently around the gleaming silver structures of the Hydrax Shuttle Bays.
The greatest danger of the Rust Sea was it's most evident feature: The swirling sludge of liquified rust, acidic to an extreme and toxic to living metalloid lifeforms.
Most bots who had water vessel alt-modes stayed far away from it, lest their curiosity get the best of them. Those who couldn't resist the urge often died in the copper waves, as nobody could reach them. And the few who made it to shore quickly succumbed to the corrosion, rust and rot seeping in to their protoforms, leading their spark to gutter out from the extent of the damage and the exertion of their nanites attempting frantic self-repair that could never be completed.
The Rust Sea, while it reached from Altihex to Polyhex, could not be used for shipping, or swimming, or hardly anything else other than its use as a deterrent to life.
So no bot could have imagined that a Titan lay in stasis beneath it, rested into the bottom of the Sea, covered by centuries of silt and long buried.
Early in the region's cultural history, there were stories passed along about a giant who lived in the sea, using its propeller to generate the waves and tides.
As society developed, these were dismissed as myths; Surely such a Titan would have risen or been known before now.
Now, when the people of Altihex were in great need.
With the ground shipment routes from Tagan Heights were destroyed by localised fringe group violence as the restructuring of Cybertron continued, not necessarily to everyone's satisfaction, tensions around the allocation of materials had risen to a boiling point.
For the past few cycles, Altihex had been cut off from Tagan Heights and the industrial region there, blocked by road barricades and patrolling independent marauders looking to pirate stray goods from any ground shipments. To avoid losses and damages, the Tagan workers had to cease transport, and while they worked furiously to resume delivery in some other way, the people of Altihex were already feeling the effects.
An energon shortage became serious quickly, and reconstruction efforts ceased due to lack of building materials. Injuries were piling up in med centres all over the region as armour plating and metalloid medicines were running in low supply.
The Autobot and Decepticon forces, now at a tenuous peace with one another, were occupied with centralised diplomatic disputes and sorting out the central regions and cities as a first priority; They were aware of the situation unfolding in Altihex, but logistically it was difficult to address immediately-- And once an adequate convoy could be sent out to handle the situation and restore shipment routes, it may well spark another bout of factionalist violence in a region already struggling from increasing rates of what amounted to gang warfare.
That was the official position.
The citizens of Altihex did not agree.
While nobody wanted to spark another conflict, the Altihexians did not want to sacrifice themselves in the name of planetary peace.
Some set about preparing to defend or fight, planning to break up the illegal blockades themselves. Some arranged energon deposits to share between bots in the greatest need. Necessary tasks, difficult tasks.
And some others prayed.
To Primus, or other Primes. To mythical beings or creatures from lore.
One little bot prayed to the Titan under the Rust Sea, the one she was told didn't really exist, just in case.
And it is her prayer that was heard.