Intending to use the situation to his advantage, corrupt Nebulan politician Lord Zarak learned more about the Autobots and the war they left behind and used this information to contact Cybertron. Zarak's message was received by Fortress Maximus's Decepticon equal, Scorponok. After lying to Zarak about the intentions of the Autobots, Scorponok led an invasion force to the planet. Armed only with weapons that had not seen use in millennia, the Nebulan defense were no match for the intentionally aggressive Decepticons. With little options left, Galen, leader of the Nebulan world council, made arrangements for himself and others to become Autobot Headmasters. Although the Headmaster process made them able to drive off the Decepticons, all Galen had succeeded in doing was re-igniting the Transformers' war on Nebulos. After Scorponok and now-captive Lord Zarak developed a way to duplicate the process (as well as a later "Targetmaster" Process), the Nebulos theatre of the Transformers' war escalated. After casualties and collateral damage mounted, Galen eventually convinced Zarak to take their conflict off-world, with nearly all Transformers from both factions following a distress beacon sent by Goldbug from Earth.