Planet Earth, that luscious jungle world, opens itself to many of the Cybertronians for the first time. Naturally, they are eager to explore the area, so Optimus gives them two free megacycles before they plan their strategy.
Upon exiting the shuttle, Caesar finds a destroyed Arachnoid drone, which he gives to Blackarachnia. The Axalon II engineer, Edge the echidna, immediately offers to date the drone and decode its files. After this, Klaatu, Caesar, Cheetor, Pantora, Stalker, and Beetalion head directly for the human settlement, where they meet up with none other than Waspinator, king of Earth. After insisting that there is no way he is going to leave the planet, Waspinator endures a round of questioning from both Klaatu and Beetalion, who are artifact-hunting. Though Beetalion is not able to get information, Klaatu does somewhat better by establishing, unbeknownst to the bug, a momentary electronic link with Waspinator's brain. Cheetor, meanwhile, catches up on old times with his protohuman friends, including Una, who has become an adult. Meanwhile, back at the starships, Optimus has a talk with the now-Transmetal Darkecho. Darkecho seems to him to be extremely eager to enter the Ark, and Optimus realizes why: he wants to join his spark with that of his ancsestor, Soundwave. Optimus insists that the union is a bad idea. In the Axalon II engineering bay, Edge finishes his work and calls Blackarachnia in. The news isn't good…the drone is old, but only twenty years...not old enough. Blackarachnia insists on inspecting the creature herself. Not trusting Predacon engineering, Edge asks to inspect the Demon. Thundershot, who had worked as the ship's pilot, looks after his activities carefully per Optimus's orders, and Edge searches the computer but does not tamper with the ship. Two megacycles almost over, the group in the valley returns to the ships, but not before Klaatu finds a chance to sneak away. As Waspinator aids the humans in cooking game (with the help of Inferno's long-discarded flame thrower), Klaatu sneaks back into the wasp's personal hut, and, going through his items, finds a good-sized shard of the original Golden Disk. The crews of both ships band together on the Axalon II bridge. Optimus states that the first order of business is to scout out the Ark. Since Blackarachnia is still researching the found Arachnoid, she won't be coming along, but sends Silverbolt. With Cheetor interested in getting better aquatinted with Pantora, and some of the Axalon II crew scouting out Beetalion, whom they still do not trust, the scouting party consists of Optimus, Silverbolt, Caesar, Darkecho, and Stalker. However skilled the newer members are, a current of distrust runs through the whole affair. The team's skills do prove useful in the mission, and with Caesar and Darkecho having the ability to scan through walls, they need not enter the Ark to check it for problems. Thankfully, the Ark has not been touched since they left it thirty years ago. However, it does have one problem: the fuel that keeps Teletran I running is not even close to enough to last four million years.
Meanwhile, Edge is still suspicious of the Predacon ship. When Beetalion, closely followed by Miriam and Daybreak keeping watch, heads out into the Valley of the Humans (insistent he will find Dinobot's Sword there despite Waspinator asserting him of the contrary), the engineer returns to the Demon and searches the computer again. Seeing an odd anomaly on the ship's already illegal transwarp-equipped engine, Edge downloads a few of the schematics over to his own station. He returns to Axalon II, but now finds himself unable to decrypt the Predacon-encoded files.
The Ark scouting team digs at a local energon deposit, and brings a deposit of fuel to the Ark in an attempt to tide the ship over. At this point, they must enter the ship, though carefully. After they add the fuel, Optimus scans Teletran's files himself, and finds that the fuel reserves will last only two-thousand years. The trip the team has just made bought three-hundred more. Obviously, fueling the Ark with energon will not be a permanent solution. At this point, Darkecho again beseeches Optimus for a chance at communing with his ancestor. Optimus, after explaining the situation to the rest of the group, still denies him the right. However, when Darkecho begins to quote the Covenant to back his claim, Optimus falters...slightly. He tells the bat he will try and communicate with the rest of the group, and it will be put to a vote.
It is night by the time the scouting team returns to their ships. Blackarachnia has finished her work, and informs everyone that the drone's final instructions were digging and excavating somewhere near Tarantulas's last Lair. Beetalion also has findings to report; though he did not locate what he was looking for, he did find an odd energon deposit in the Valley. Caesar, Thundershot, and Darkecho decide to use the night to hunt living game. While Caesar searches the valley, he finds the energon deposit that Beetalion had spoke of. However, he notices something that the Predacon had not...the deposit is part of a vein that leads deeper into the jungle. He follows the line, sniffing it out until he comes to a tree, where lines of energon converge. Realizing that the tree may not be natural, he scratches away at the bark, and finds a sigil engraved on metal. Having a sudden ancestral memory, he panics, and runs away, right through the human village, stirring Waspinator awake. Thundershot, now, is finding the energon vein, and the trail that Caesar left behind...but someone else seems to be stalking him. He notices a dark form in the trees above, but, before he can react, he is blinded. Already disadvantaged in the darkness, he recognizes a familiar foe, the Predacon Blackout. He dispatches him quickly, taking off his head yet again, but the subcommander, Epitaph, is not far behind. The commotion calls Caesar, Darkecho, and even Waspinator to the scene, and, realizing he is outnumbered, Epitaph retreats with his fallen ally. Thundershot is upset, but recovering. The group calls back to base, and the news spreads quickly of the strange artifact and of the Predacons' arrival. The connection is made between the Predacon team and the cloaked ship that followed Axalon II to Earth, and Stalker is immediately confined to quarters for possibly summoning this threat. Edge, from his location at Axalon II, scans the strange tree, and notes that it gives off an enormous output of energy. The nearby observers who arrive at the monument recognize the familiar patterns of unstable energon, but Caesar begs them not to touch the alien artifact. He recalls now very well a former life as a Beast Wars warrior, and wants nothing to do with any technology left behind from the Vok.