When Optimus Prime and his elite squad crashed into the Earth almost five million years ago, the celebrated leader made what humans call a near-catastrophic "rookie mistake": he didn't appoint a successor. What's worse, the one thing that may prove instrumental in ending the Autobot/Decepticon war, the Matrix of leadership, was on board the fated Ark spacecraft - and was feared lost for millions of years. After a few brushes with mortality since being revived, Optimus Prime has begun to take steps to ensure a proper successor to him can quickly assume the awesome power of this vessel in the even that Optimus Prime should meet his end.