In the "Cybertron" universe, Cybertron was under attack by two of the Heralds of Unicron, Nemesis Prime and Ramjet. They had already damaged Alpha Trion, and while Ramjet engaged Vector Prime in a duel high above Cybertron, Nemesis Prime got past Sentinel Maximus and revealed his plan - he was going to use the Dead Matrix, a corrupted version of the Matrix of Leadership, to drain the lifeforce of Primus and use it to revive Unicron (destroyed in a black hole at the conclusion of ). But he was confronted by the most unexpected foe of all - Omega Prime. Omega then split into Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus, and while Prime attended to Primus, Magnus defeated Nemesis Prime. Informing Sentinel Maximus of what went on, they then stored the Dead Matrix away forever, unaware they were being observed by Soundwave.