James Ironwood has just been promoted to the position of General of the Atlesian Military. He's still new to this whole "general" thing, and could probably use a guiding hand. Fortunately, an experienced military officer fell right out of the sky to guide him: Megatron, leader of the Decepticons.
Surely, this can only end well.
Dust and Decepticons
is a series of crossover fics between RWBY and Transformers written by SwapAUAnon, the author of the A Girl and Her Bike series. Current stories in the series are:
Epiphets of Megatron (AO3 link here)
Falling Stars (AO3 link here)
This series provides examples of:
- Adaptational Heroism: Zeta Prime in IDW was a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who hid his monstrous nature behind a benevolent facade. Here, that facade is completely genuine, with him being a noble, heroic Prime whose death is treated as a tragic shock to all. This is actually Truer to the Text, as he was portrayed as benevolent back in the G1 episode, "Five Faces of Darkness".
- Adaptational Jerkass: Ultra Magnus is a lot ruder than most incarnations. The worst you can say about him is that he's usually very strict and adherent to protocol, but is a Benevolent Boss and A Father to His Men nonetheless. In this fic, he's more of a Mean Boss who's far more admonishing of the Autobots under his command. Regardless, he's still a good bot when all's said and done and proves his devotion to his troops when the chips are down.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: In most adaptations, Prowl's normally characterized as a raging jerkass Straw Vulcan who strictly adheres to an authoritarian mindset. In this story, Prowl's more of a Nice Guy who goes against orders to protect the innocent.
- Bad Boss: Megatron is this to the Decepticons barring Soundwave, since his go-to method of improving his troops is to dismantle whomever he sees as the weak link. In the aftermath of the Stunticons' Frame-Up mission, he states that had the Huntresses of Remnant been mere foot soldiers, he would have dismantled Breakdown for getting heavily damaged by them.
- Bloodier and Gorier: The chapter "Power Play" is much more graphic in its depictions of violence and death than RWBY ever was. The power plant is drenched in blood at the start of the chapter, the guards are reduced to Ludicrous Gibs, the security guard watching is bisected at the chest, and that's not getting into the deaths that the Stunticons inflict on Team ROZE.
- Composite Character:
- Prowl takes up a similar role to Mirage in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, saving Koa from the cops in a chase evocative of that film.
- Prowl's more rude traits get passed on to Ultra Magnus, who also gains attributes of Optimus' characterization in Rise of the Beasts, such as his focus on maintaining the Autobots and his disinterest in humanity.
- Consummate Liar: Megatron proves to be a very effective manipulator, easily swaying Ironwood to his side and convincing the newly selected General that the Autobots are villains through a well-planned Frame-Up.
- Corrupted Character Copy: Downplayed, but present.
Word of God states that the idea behind Team ROZE is that they're in part a version of Team RWBY who never truly overcame their early issues in the series. So, it's less "corrupted" and more "flawed". - Create Your Own Hero: Quite literally at that. The first chapter of Epiphets of Megatron has D-16 mining ores that'd be taken to create new Transformers. One of these Transformers would end up being Orion Pax/Optimus Prime, his Arch-Enemy.
- Crossover Relatives: Thanks to Mesothulas working with Pietro, combining the PENNY Project with the Decepticons' efforts to produce Techno-Organics, Browning (of Transformers: Super-God Masterforce fame) and Penny are siblings.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Team ROZE's deaths at the hands of the disguised Stunticons are incredibly morbid and unpleasant, to say the least. To start, Esmerelda gets crushed to death under a Decepticon's stomp, what's left of her splattering over the team's leader. Then Rosalyn gets brutally bisected at the waist before her skull gets cracked. Zephyr ends up impaled on a pipe and sent flying into a crate of Fire Dust, which then explodes, burning her alive. Finally, Opal dies grieving and terrified as the Stunticons collectively surround and vaporize her.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: Optimus Prime's status as a Messianic Archetype gets torn apart in the first chapter. While Optimus is considered by his troops to be the Arisen and is as much of the Big Good as he always is, this has led to them practically worshipping him and, consequentially, being blind to the fact that he most certainly isn't infallible. Case and point, when Optimus fights Megatron in the first chapter, rather than provide covering fire, the rest of the Autobots simply cheer him on, believing he'll win. The result? Every Decepticon starts firing on Optimus and he gets beaten within an inch of his life by Megatron.
- Drowning My Sorrows: During the first chapter of Epiphets of Megatron, Megatron (back when he was D-16) first meets Termagax when she's drinking herself into a stupor in the wake of Zeta Prime's assassination.
- Eaten Alive: Several of Megatron's (then D-16) coworkers are devoured whole by the Sharkticons at the end of the first chapter of Epiphets of Megatron.
- Frame-Up: Megatron sets up a false flag operation in Chapter 2 of Falling Stars that sees the Stunticons disguise themselves as the Autobots and launching an attack on an Atlesian power plant. The aftermath convinces Ironwood to lend his support to the Decepticons, unaware that they caused it in the first place.
- Gender Flip: Both Bumblebee and Jazz (known here as B-127 and J-422) are girls here, contrasting their usual portrayals as male.
- Hypocrite: Ironwood argues that, as Penny's a prototype weapon with Atlesian technology infused with her cells, she's property of the Atlas military. He completely ignores that, as he's now a cyborg whose body is mostly comprised of Atlesian technology, the same could be applied to himself. Professor Dunder wastes no time in calling him out on this, and it pretty much forces him to give Penny full citizenship and rights lest he dig himself deeper.
- Inter-Service Rivalry: Between Professor George Dunder and General James Ironwood. The two represent the Huntsman system and military of Atlas respectively, and they both despise each other. George accuses Ironwood of having played a role in getting his best Huntress team killed. Ironwood, for his part, covers evidence of Cybertronian activity in Atlas and tries to keep George from getting involved so he doesn't discover them.
- Manipulative Bastard: Megatron's bread and butter is deception, and he more than shows it by way of manipulating Ironwood into thinking that the Autobots are seeking conquest of Remnant, as well as keeping the more idealistic Decepticons in line by keeping them from discovering anything that'd shake their views.
- Obliviously Evil: Thundercracker is left completely unaware of the atrocities that the Decepticons have committed, and Megatron is content to keep things that way to further manipulate him into his service.
- Protagonist Journey to Villain: Epiphets of Megatron serves as Megatron's backstory, chronicling his descent from a bot with good intentions into the Big Bad focused on domination.
- Token Good Teammate: Thundercracker may be a Decepticon, but he's a genuine Noble Demon who fights because he truly believes the Autobots to be the evil ones. Unfortunately, his idealism makes him a prime target for Megatron's manipulations.
- Unwitting Pawn: Ironwood is this to Megatron, as he has no idea that he's being manipulated into helping Megatron against the Autobots.
- Wham Line: Chapter 5 of Falling Stars ends with Tamara Ustic telling Watts about a college who'd be far more appreciative of his work than Ironwood. Suffice to say, anyone familiar with Watts' role in RWBY knows exactly who she's talking about.Professor Ustic: I have a colleague. And I have a feeling she'd appreciate your work far more than Ironwood ever will.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The Decepticon part of the plot is this to Bumblebee, with the Decepticons tricking the Atlesian forces into allying with them against the Autobots due to careful manipulation of the top brass, identically to what happened to Sector 7.
- The Worf Effect: Team ROZE is described as being the best Huntress team in Atlas, with their sudden (and horrific) deaths at the hands of the disguised Decepticons being a major shock to Professor Dunder and General Ironwood.
