Many generations have passed since the Autobots battled the Decepticon on Earth and Cybertron. Their descendants, the Maximals and Predacons, are still at war and there looks to be no end in sight. The Maximals, on a mission of exploration, come across a Predacon cruiser on its way to the energon plentiful planet of Earth. The two ships engage in a large space battle. After both have taken heavy damage, they are forced to crash on a nearby planet. Just before the Maximals ship enters the planets atmosphere, they manage to jettison most of their comrades in stasis pods into orbit around the planet.

This planet is rich with energon and both the Maximals and Predacons are forced to take on beast forms in order to protect themselves from the energon which causes their robot forms to overload and potentially go into stasis lock. Now the struggle between the two continues. The Maximals must continue the fight and try to save the others in stasis as they fall from orbit to the surface while trying to find a way home. The Predacons, on the other hand, will try to steal the protoforms and annihilate the Maximals in what is now known as The Beast Wars.