On Cybertron, three female Autobots -Chromia, Moonracer and Firestar -break into the Decepticon HQ. Chromia contacts their leader, Elita One, and tells her they're inside the Decepticon HQ, and are ready to begin the operation as soon as they've located Shockwave's supply room...and it looks like Firestar has just done that.

Chromia blows open a wall, revealing a hidden computer behind it. Firestar presses a button, which opens up some doors, revealing an elevator. The Autobots use it to enter a room packed with energon cubes. Firestar transforms, and the other two start to load her up with a stack of cubes.

Chromia says they'll only take one stack, but Moonracer says that their energon supply is so dangerously low. Chromia says these are Elita's orders, and orders Firestar to roll out. As Chromia followers her, Moonracer can't help herself, and heads back to take a couple more energon cubes. However, in doing so she trips an alarm, and gets locked inside a box.

Chromia tells Firestar to hurry and get out before Shockwave returns, as she tries to free Moonracer. Shockwave sees that he's got visitors, and is surprised to see that they're female Autobots, as he thought they were extinct. Just then Firestar rushes by him.

He shoots at her, blowing up a few cubes in the process. He then heads down and confronts the other two Autobots, and fires at Chromia. She dodges his shot, which destroys the cube Moonracer was stuck in.

Moonracer knocks Shockwave down by throwing a couple of energon cubes at him, and with him out of the way, she and Chromia run out of the HQ and transform. They soon catch up with Firestar, and they all head back to their base.

Shockwave has a Sentinel robot sent out, and tells it to hunt them down, and report their destination to him. Meanwhile, Chromia requests permission to enter their HQ, but Elita One denies it -they've got company. They see the Sentinel approaching, but Moonracer shoots at it...

and blows it to bits. Shockwave says they'll pay, and contacts Megatron. He tells him that three female Autobots broke in and attempted to steal energon cubes. They managed to... Megatron cuts him off. He's more interested in the female Autobots, and assumes Shockwave has captured them. Shockwave says they escaped, but he now knows that approximate location of their... Megatron cuts him off again and tells him to find them and capture Elita One. He tells him he'll send over a team of Decepticons to assist him.

The female Autobots arrive home, and drop in the energon before heading down the hatch themselves. They meet up with Elita One and explain what happened, and how now the Decepticons may have discovered where they are. Elita One says she'll contact Alpha Trion, as he'll know what to do.

Shockwave scans the area where the Sentinel was destroyed, and believes the Autobot's HQ has a hidden entrance beneath some rubble. Megatron contacts him and says the Decepticons are about to arrive. The space bridge is activated, and a team of Astrotrain, Rumble, Starscream and Ramjet appear. Shockwave says he has the coordinates, so Starscream says they'll proceed immediately.

Elita One contacts Alpha Trion and tells him what happened. He tells her they must relocate at once, and to investigate the area alone, as that way perhaps the Decepticons won't spot her -but she needs to be careful. Elita One says she can deal with the Decepticons, as she knows no fear. Alpha Trion warns her not to use her special power under any circumstances. Elita One says she understands.

She heads outside, but doesn't get very far when she spots the group of Decepticons. She hides and then follows them as they head towards the base. Starscream tells Rumble to use his pile driver arms, to shake the hens out of their nest. Rumble says Megatron's orders were to find the female Autobots and capture Elita One, not to tear up the whole planet. Starscream says when Megatron isn't with them, he's in charge, and he orders Rumble to obey him!

Rumble does as he's told, and soon starts rocking the base. Elita One fires at the Decepticons and gets into a fight with them. Ramjet transforms and fires a missile at her, but she catches it and throws it back at him, causing him to go down.

However, Starscream then hits her with a null ray blast, causing her to fall. The Decepticons quickly capture her, and Starscream tells her to take a last look at her HQ -as Rumble tells her there's not anything left to see!

The Autobot's HQ has been wrecked, but the female Autobots have all survived. Whilst they hope Elita One is safe, there's not much they can do about it, as they're trapped - the entrance has been covered up with debris. Chromia says they won't stay trapped.

Megatron contacts Optimus Prime, and tells him something rather exciting has been discovered on Cybertron. Prime tells him to get to the point, so he reveals that female Autobots still exist, and some of them were foolish enough to break into their HQ on Cybertron. Prime thinks he's bluffing, so Megatron provides proof -Elita One.

Prime tells him to let her go, but Megatron tells him to surrender, if he ever wants to see her functioning again. He gives him two Earth hours to make up his mind, and ends the call. Prime uses Teletraan I to pinpoint the location of the Decepticon's space bridge.

As he heads out, he thinks about what happened millions of years ago. Just before he and the other Autobots blasted off into space, Elita One and the other female Autobots appeared just as he was boarding the ship. She told him to wait, but he said he would return for her. She wanted to go with him, but he told her it was too dangerous. Just then, the launch site came under Decepticon missile attack, and Prime believed she was taken out. Back in the present, Prime says he will return for her.

Back at the Autobot HQ, the Autobots wonder why Prime is trying to get to Cybertron, and why he's going by himself. Ironhide says there is only one way to find out, and leads a team consisting of himself, Inferno and Powerglide out of the HQ. Prime arrives at the space bridge, but finds it odd there are no guards.

He walks in and the space bridge immediately activates, sending him straight into the Decepticon's HQ. The moment he steps out, he is captured and placed in a cube trap, as Elita One and some Decepticons appear.

Elita breaks free from Astrotrain and kicks him in the face, but Starscream takes her out with a laser blast. Before he can finish her off, Shockwave stops him, and says he has a better idea.

Meanwhile, Chromia reveals that the energon cubes they stole earlier could be used to let them blast their way out -she stored them away safely earlier. The cubes are placed at the entrance, and are detonated, blowing away the debris and the door. The female Autobots move out.

Back on Earth, Ironhide's group arrive at the space bridge, and use it to head to Cybertron. On Cybertron, Prime is left dangling over an acid pit, which Starscream tests out. Elita begs for herself to be taken instead, but Starscream tells her not to be so anxious -her turn is right after Prime's.

He tells Rumble to cut the chain and let Prime drop into the pit, but as he does this, Elita uses her special power: stopping time. She is able to break free from the Decepticons and save Prime.

She uses her power to unfreeze time for Prime, and explains what her special power is, and that it drains all of her life force. As she collapses, she tells him to take her to Alpha Trion, as he's the only one who can save her. Prime gets himself and her out of the Decepticon HQ.

He transforms and stores Elita in his trailer, before moving out. Back inside, the Decepticons celebrate, as as far as they're concerned, Prime has been disintegrated. Ironhide's group then arrive, and tell them that the party's over.

Starscream says it has just begun, as the destruction of Optimus Prime is a long awaited victory for the Decepticons! However the Autobots don't believe him and begin their attack, shooting them down.

Ironhide's blasts melt a hole in a wall, which the Decepticons run through, so the Autobots go after them. Elsewhere, Prime tells Elita to hold on, as they'll find Alpha Trion soon. Elita isn't sure how much longer she can last, as she is fading fast. Prime tells her to hang on just a little longer.

Back at the battle, the Autobots and Decepticons continue to fight, but Starscream blows his opponents away. The female Autobots see them, and see it looks like they could use their help, so they rush in. Starscream thinks it's quaint that the girls have come to rescue their boyfriends.

Inferno tells Firestar its been a long time, as they blast Astrotrain so hard he gets flung into Shockwave. Powerglide tells Moonracer he hopes she's still the best sharpshooter in the galaxy...

...which she proves she is when she shoots a tower, causing it to fall onto Ramjet and Rumble. Ironhide and Chromia corner Starscream, but he drops off a ledge and transforms to get away.

Prime arrives at his destination, as Alpha Trion appears out of a hidden elevator. Prime says he never thought he would see Alpha Trion again, and explains that Elita One's life force is drained. Alpha Trion realizes she used her special power, despite his warning not to. Prime tells him she did it to save him.

He takes Optimus and Elita down into his base, and says he'll see what he can do, but it doesn't look good. He finishes his work and tells Prime he's done what he can, but now it's his turn to help her. Prime asks what he can do, and Alpha Trion tells him to disengage his power filter.

Prime wonders what good this would do, but then says he'll do anything to help her. He takes out his power filter, and connects it to Elita. Alpha Trion says only his interface is designed to interface with Elita One. Prime asks how he would know, as only his creator could know that. Alpha Trion says it was an educated guess.

Prime doesn't say anything else about that subject, and instead pleads for Elita to reactivate. Back at the battle, Ironhide says they've won, but Shockwave uses a powerful blast to knock the Autobots back.

Some of them get knocked off but hold on, but Starscream tells Shockwave to push them over the edge. Before he can do that, Prime and Elita One arrive.

Starscream says this can't be, as he saw Prime's melted carcass. Prime transforms and starts firing, and Starscream tells the Decepticons to retreat. Most of them pile into Astrotrain...

...who blasts off and leaves. Shockwave remains behind, but Elita says this one has his name on it, and blasts him out of the sky. With the Decepticons beaten, the Autobots are glad to see their leaders back.

The female Autobots enter a new HQ Alpha Trion has setup for them, something Moonracer is impressed by. Powerglide tells her she should see their HQ on Earth, and she says she'd love to return with him -once the war is over. Inferno tells Firestar he sure misses the rescue missions they used to go on together, and they are still quite a team. Firestar says they're as good as they ever were.

Chromia tells Ironhide she hates to admit it, but it's good to see him after all this time. The Earth Autobots have to return home, and Prime tells Elita he wishes they didn't have to part again. Elita says she feels the same way, but they must continue to fight here on Cybertron. Prime guesses they have Alpha Trion to thank for their victory. Elita calls him such a wise old Autobot... he's almost like a father to her.

Prime tells her that's more than she'll ever know. He and the others head back to Earth on the space bridge, as Elita bids goodbye to Prime, and hopes he doesn't stay away for too long.

NOTES

-The episode sees the debut of female Autobots, they only appear in this episode (although Elita One technically appears in War Dawn) and are never seen or talked about again. Their reason for inclusion in the show was due to a push for more female characters to be added. A series update published in 1985 had this to say:

Whilst the female Autobots in this episode are one-shot characters, the Transformers movie added Arcee, a female Autobot who would make plenty of appearances in the cartoon's third and fourth seasons.

-As shown in part 2 of Desertion of the Dinobots, the Decepticons are managing to get energon to Cybertron -and in this episode, they've got even more of it there now.

-The episode also has one of the series' most notable errors in it. When Megatron contacts Prime, there is a very brief moment where his mouth plate is missing:

It's only missing for about one second before it magically appears on his face.

-Finally, this episode marks Alpha Trion's first appearance. He'll be back in several more episodes spanning across this season, along with seasons three and four. Despite this, he never had a toy available back in the 1980s.