Havocon Division

The Havocon Division is a faction in the Transformers: Extinction fanon.

"Long live the new steel!"

- Havocon battle cry

Origin
During the later stages of the Vos-Tarn war, Governor Starscream was faced with a crisis. The armies of Vos were being rapidly depleted by Tarn’s superior military might, and even with outsiders coming to join the war as mercenaries, Vos’ manpower would not last much longer against Tarn. Considering his options, Starscream’s hand was eventually forced by the shadowy figures of the Republic, and he issued the Second Prison Bull, directly mimicking the earlier declaration by Shotmaker, the earlier governor who had conscripted Vos’ prison populations in order to fight a war against Iacon.

However, by this time, Vos no longer had a standard prison system, instead sentencing its criminals to a life of fighting in its gladiatorial pits, which meant that this new penal legion lacked the rigid prisoners’ hierarchy of the first legion, but more than made up for this with far greater martial skill and unfettered brutality. The unruly nature of the pit fighters provided Starscream with a modicum of doubt as to their effectiveness, but the Republic was able to conveniently convict several of the army’s surviving officers on trumped-up war crimes charges, forcing them to serve in this new militia, officially dubbed the ‘Havocon Division’. Appointed as commander of this outfit was Misanthropy, a gladiator championed and sponsored by Starscream himself, who had carved a name for himself as Vos’ most brutal and unflinching combatant.

Trial By Fire
Consisting in equal parts of glory-seekers, murderers, rapists, arsonists, terrorists, and gangsters, the Havocon Division proved to be the most effective shock troopers Vos had ever deployed. Combining Misanthropy’s tactical genius with their unique brand of terror tactics, they began to push back the forces of Tarn past the border and beyond, reaching far into Tarn’s militarised quarter. Already accustomed to the notion that each day in the pits could have been their last, the Havocons soon took this morbidity one step further. Choosing new pseudonyms for themselves, often reflecting the crimes they had committed, they began to refer to each other as having already died, throwing themselves recklessly into suicidal missions, often with surprising success. Most historians now believe this to have arisen from the belief that they would be retried, possibly even executed, after the war, and had little to live for as a result.

Aftermath
After the war, the Havocons boasted the highest percentage of survivors amongst all the units involved in the war, though its casualties were beyond counting. Granted amnesty by Starscream, they returned home to a ruined city, devastated by Tarn’s nuclear assault. Seeing their rulers flee to Kaon, the Havocons prepared for what they saw as inevitable – the invasion of the crippled city of Vos by another force. Although no such invasion was to come, they were dealt another crippling blow by Misanthropy’s disappearance, commandeering one of the last remaining starships in the city, vowing to seek revenge on Tarn. Misanthropy had been considered the interim ruler of Vos, and in his absence, the most brutal of the Havocons struggled amongst themselves to claim the title for themselves. Many powerful fighters joined the power struggle, though most are now remembered simply by their names – Slaughter, Vivisection, Blackmail, Sedition, Battery – all forgotten to those bleak times. The eventual victor was to be Genocide, a sadistic individual who even most of the Havocons shunned for his savagery.

Under the rule of Genocide, Vos began to take shape once more, although its inhabitants were now almost entirely the survivors of the Havocon Division. An economy based mostly around the salvaging of scrap began to form, and Genocide was even able to devise a judicial system – though it was little more than a case of summarily executing those who displeased him. This empire of ash was to last for several centuries, until the death of most of the remaining Havocons during a large invasion of Vos by forces fighting during the Great War, which finally saw Misanthropy return to Vos. Upon his slaying of Genocide, and several of the higher ranking Havocons, the remaining Havocons rallied behind him, seeing the return of their fabled leader as a portent, a sign that now was their time to lash out at the world that had abandoned them.

A New Leader Emerges
Before long, however, it became clear that Misanthropy, whose return had been the catalyst for the Havocons' resurgence, would decline the position of leadership that he once held. The fabled 'Scourge of Tarn' insisted that the faction find a new leader, one who could maintain control when he was off-world - as his dedication to Unicron greatly overshadowed his loyalty to his old unit. The power vacuum created by this revelation sparked a brutal struggle, with several would-be tyrants warring for dominion of the savage Havocons. The eventual victor of this was to be Styx, a former medical aide during the Vos-Tarn War, and through a combination of martial skill and surgical precision, he was able to crush all who stood in his way. The speed with which his opponents were slaughtered, and the fear his gruesome work inspired, soon became the basis for an awed respect, and within weeks, Styx found himself accepted as the third warrior to don the mantle of the leader of the Havocon Division. His first order was simple - Cybertron would burn, and from the ashes would rise a new breed of warrior.