The Dinobot Chronicles: Grandra

Dinobot Chronicles: Grandra

CHAPTER 1

Centuries after the Great War between the Autobots and Decepticons had ended, Cybertron entered a new Golden Age and the Autobots lived in peace on their home planet. Many of the Autobots preferred a life of tranquility to one of war but there were a few who missed the days of battle and glory, the times when it was necessary to...
"...Munch metal!" A large metallic grey dinosaur stood at the edge of the fishing pond standing in front of his fellow dinobots, "Me tired of fishing it no fun anymore! Me Grimlock no like fishing, want to fight!"
Slag sighed, "But Grimlock, we defeated the Decepticons a long time ago, the Autobots live in peace now!"
"Grimlock, you are our leader and we always follow you into battle boss, but there's no one to fight right now." added Snarl.
This was not an isolated event; Grimlock was constantly thirsting for battle. This time he would not be denied, "If no one fight us on Cybertron then we go find someone to fight!"
"Who is going to fight us boss? We are the mightiest warriors in the galaxy!" countered Swoop.
Grimlock was already headed for the shuttlebay, "No more talk, we go!"

The Dinobots left the fishing pond and followed their leader, in hopes of finding someone or something to scrap. The five Autobots boarded a shuttle and transformed into their robot modes and prepped for take-off. Grimlock's optics thirsted for battle as he gave the final commands before liftoff.
"Slag, secure hatches. Sludge, full power to engine. Snarl, check weapons. Swoop, plot course away from Cybertron."
"Plot a course where boss?" replied Swoop.
"Vector 319." ordered Grimlock.

In the Autobot command centre, Perceptor noticed the unauthorized launch of a shuttlecraft.
"Perceptor to Ultra Magnus."
"What is it Perceptor?"
"A shuttlecraft is launching from the main shuttlebay without authorization."
"Have they identified themselves?"
"It's the Dinobots Commander."
"Alright then let them go, Grimlock is probably going to try and pick a fight somewhere. He'll be back in 100 megacycles with nothing to show for it, just like last time."
"Very well, Perceptor out."
With nothing else to do but watch, Perceptor went back to studying his latest design schematics for a new type of energy-efficient transformer.

Inside the shuttlecraft Grimlock sat rigidly in the command chair while the shuttlecraft left Cybertron. None of the dinobots dared to speak as they knew that the frustration was mounting inside of their leader. Swoop studied the navigational charts trying to find something on sensors that might peak Grimlock's interest... It was going to be a long flight.

CHAPTER 2

The shuttlecraft rocked from another volley of weapons fire.
"Port Engine off-line!" roared Sludge.
"Return fire, all weapons!" bellowed Grimlock.
"I found a planet less than a light year away, Grimlock!"
"Good Swoop, we go there and fight face to face!"
"What if they are cowards and hide in their ship?"
"Then Snarl, you must damage their ship and make them fight us."
"Yes sir!", Snarl returned his focus on the weapons panel.
Meanwhile Slag did his best to keep the ship in one piece while they attempted to land on the nearby planet. The alien ship continued to pound the Autobot shuttlecraft without explanation. That did not matter to Grimlock, all he wanted was a fight and he had found one.

The shuttlecraft entered the planet's atmosphere and began to break up as the hull plating was being taxed beyond its limits with the combined force of the planet's atmospheric pressure and the alien ships constant barrage. The shuttle plummeted the planet's surface while Sludge fought with the controls in an attempt to level off their descent. Any hopes of Sludge achieving his goal were ruined when a salvo of torpedoes took out the starboard engine turning the shuttlecraft into a plummeting fireball.
"There's nothing I can do! We're going to crash!" yelled Sludge.
"Grimlock! I have scans of the planet there are many lifeforms here."
"Good Swoop. If we survive crash we will have someone to fight!"
"VICTORY!" roared Snarl. "They are going to join us on this planet I have disabled their ship!"
Grimlock roared in approval. "Then we leave this ship now!

Grimlock blasted a hole in the side of the shuttlecraft large enough to jump through. The dinobots all flew out of the hatch, leaving the ship to crash on the planet. The dinobots attempted to locate the alien vessel as they landed on the planet that would become their home until they could find another ship to take them back to Cybertron. That was the least of their worries, as they looked into the sky they saw the alien ship plummeting straight towards them. It was a massive vessel and its sudden appearance gave the dinobots no time to move out of its path!

"Dinobots open fire!"
The dinobots began firing upon the ship trying to alter its path and avoid a trip to the scrapheap. At the same time though, the ship fired its retro-rockets in an attempt to make a successful landing. The ship ripped past the dinobots leaving a huge crater to their right and the ship plowed through the forest of odd-looking tress behind them and into a mountain.
"That was a close one." stated Swoop.
"Dinobots! Let us greet our new enemies"
The Dinobots roared in agreement, but there were only four voices among the group, Grimlock looked around but he could not see the group’s fifth member.
Slag was missing...

CHAPTER 3

After searching the crash site for Slag, or any pieces of him, the dinobots decided to take out the aliens, blaming them for Slag’s apparent death. They began following the path that had been cleared by the alien vessel in hopes of revenge. The four dinobots made the trek in silence, still unsure of what happened to Slag. Once they got close enough to the vessel that was responsible for putting them on this planet, that all changed:

“Me Grimlock rip enemies to shreds and rip those shreds to shreds some more. Dinobots Attack!”

Instead of bothering to fire their weapons the dinobots simply tore into the ship with their razor sharp teeth and claws. Meanwhile, Swoop bombarded the ship from above rocking it from side to side. Grimlock’s rage began to overtake him as he attacked different parts of the ship’s hull. No strategy whatsoever, just pure primal instinct and the thought of revenge.
The dinobots didn’t even notice that they had company. Three individuals had exited the ship from a door at the front of the vessel. They were about half the size of Grimlock, with very skinny bodies. They had four lower extremities, which looked like legs, and four upper extremities that would best be described as arms but none of their “arms” appeared to have any kind joints or hands for that matter. Their head, if you could call it that, looked almost two-dimensional (similar to a terran manta ray) but appeared to be almost all bone. Except for their heads, which were black as night, their bodies were covered in a bright yellow fur. One of the creatures had a tentacle wrapped around a silver cylinder; it slowly brought the cylinder up and pointed it and Snarl. The creature’s limb began to quiver as a blue bolt of lightning ran down its arm and hesitated inside the cylinder only to be unleashed upon Snarl with awesome power! Snarl took the blow on his right side and was forced to steady himself with his left hind leg.

“Grimlock! We have enemies to fight!”

The aliens looked inquisitively at each other; they seemed surprised that the dinobot did not receive any damage from their weapon. The lead alien wrapped a second limb around the cylinder and they began to quiver with greater force. Again the lightning shot down towards the cylinder and hesitated inside before unleashing itself on Snarl. The alien was forced to take a step backwards upon unleashing its weapon. Snarl took the brunt of the blow in the middle of his back, knocking him off of his hind legs and pushing him backwards.

“Ouch! That hurt! Now I’m really angry!”

Grimlock was the first to react, charging the three aliens, shaking the ground beneath their feet.

“Now you pay for attacking us and making Slag disappear!”

The two aliens to either side of the one with the weapon spread their four tentacles out and began rotating them (imagine a propeller on each side of their body) slowly. Grimlock charged towards the diminutive creatures and was about to take a large piece out of them when he bounced off of some kind of barrier and was thrown backwards. Sludge and Snarl fired their weapons at the creatures, only to have their weapons fire deflected by the barrier. Swoop tried an aerial assault, dropping missiles from directly above the creatures’ position. The explosion caused the creatures to momentarily grimace but they remained unharmed. The dinobots were dumbfounded yet they continued their attack, firing upon the yellow aliens that would best be described as hairy yellow centaurs.

The creature with the cylinder placed four limbs on the cylinder and began to shake violently as the blue energy coursed through its body. Snarl tried to move out of the way but at the last second it pointed the cylinder at Grimlock knocked the dinobots’ leader back the distance of a football field. Grimlock tried to get up but he found that his legs would not hold him. The other three dinobots were shocked to see their leader disabled by this yellow creature. The lead alien had fallen back from the blast and was getting back up into an upright position. It placed all four limbs on the cylinder once again and pointed the weapon at Sludge. The dinobots did not need any further coercing from these aliens. The dinobots retreated…

CHAPTER 4

Grimlock was still recovering from the blast that knocked out of the battle with the aliens. His systems had received a very large shock from the electrical weapon but were recuperating. The dinobots managed to put their leader onto Sludge’s back in order to carry him away from the alien ship. Swoop suggested that they return to the wreckage of their own vessel in order to find out if anything of use had survived the crash.

“How did those little guys manage to blast Grimlock like that?”
“I don’t know Sludge, but that weapon was pretty powerful, it knocked me backwards even though I was ready for it!” replied Snarl.
“Next time we will destroy their ship, then they will no longer have a base to hide in!” challenged Swoop.
“Yes but we have no way of attacking the aliens, they are strong!” answered Snarl.
“We will find a way to defeat them Snarl, Grimlock will think of something!”
“I hope so Sludge because I don’t know what to do. I just want to avenge Slag!”

With Swoop’s comment the three were once again silent as they traversed the land on the alien world. They thought about Slag, when the ship appeared out of the sky the five of them were together. They all fired at the ship, Snarl, Sludge and Swoop all tried to figure out just when Slag had disappeared. He was the closest to the ship’s flight path when it crashed he could have been scrapped but they couldn’t find anything that indicated that he was destroyed. Nonetheless they all came to terms with the fact that Slag was gone and they would never see him again.

The forest where the aliens crashed was almost out of sight now, as Swoop was now able to see the smoking wreckage of the shuttlecraft in the distance.
“I can see the shuttle, it crashed at the edge of this wasteland”
“It is in one piece?”
“I can’t see Snarl we are still too far away.”
“What is this planet?” questioned Sludge. “Swoop you found this planet on sensors do you remember where we are?”
“No Sludge, the navigational charts went offline during the battle. I don’t know where we crashed I just saw this planet on sensors.”
“Maybe we should think like Autobots and find out if others live here?”
“We will wait for Grimlock to awaken before we make more decisions”
“But what if Grimlock does not wake up?”
“ENOUGH!” Snarl interrupted the two of them, “No more talk! Let’s get to the shuttlecraft first!”

Silence once again fell over the trio of warriors as they approached the downed shuttle. Each dinobot seemed hesitant to start the conversation again. They were confused because they were without their leader to guide them. When they arrived at the crash site of the shuttlecraft any hopes of salvaging the craft itself were lost. The craft was broken into two large pieces, the planetfall combined with the battle damage was simply too much for the ship to take and it shattered on contact with the planet’s surface, creating a huge crater in the ground. The dinobots stood at the edge of the crater looking down on their ship unsure of what to do…


CHAPTER 5

Night had fallen on planet but it was not entirely dark on the planet’s surface because this solar system had two stars instead of just simply one. The dinobots had placed Grimlock near the edge of the crater and they guarded their leader in case the aliens decided to come looking for them. After a very brief period of darkness, the larger sun rose to the east of the dinobots.
“We could really use Ratchet or Wheeljack right now.” said Snarl, breaking what seemed to be days of silence.
The other dinobots simply nodded in agreement, this adventure was proving to be a costly one.
The sun rose above the horizon and its light fell on Grimlock’s unmoving body.
“Uhn, who turn on lights? Grimlock having a wonderful dream!”
“Grimlock!” the three dinobots chorused.
“Ow! You give me Grimlock headache. Where we are?”
Swoop spoke first. “We left the battle Grimlock, we traveled across the barren land and we have reached the shuttlecraft.”
“Those aliens really hit you hard.” noted Sludge.
“Next time me Grimlock hit them harder!” Grimlock managed to stand and began to survey the landscape, and then he saw the shuttlecraft. “That just Prime. Now we have no base, no Slag and no energy source.”

A blur of motion distracted Snarl from listening to Grimlock. He quickly turned to his right and transformed, drawing his sword. He began to walk in the direction of the movement. The ship has crashed near a large canyon; the terrain was filled with cracks in the surface that led to the base of the canyon hundreds of metres below. There was also a large waterfall that formed several pools before reaching the canyon floor. Snarl approached some large boulders cautiously, by this time the other dinobots curiosity was peaked but no one said a word. Snarl saw another blur of motion leave the rock he was approaching and disappear behind another boulder to his left. Snarl moved to the next rock, placing himself in between the two boulders and raised his sword above his head, ready to strike. Seeing nowhere else for his prey to hide he brought the sword down heavily, slicing through the middle of the boulder, slicing it in half! All that was left was a tiny creature shivering in fright. Snarl scooped up the creature in his free hand and examined it.
“What are you?” queried Snarl.
The creature was too scared to reply. It shook violently as it huddled in Snarl’s hand. The creature was a bit larger than a human and looked vaguely like one. It had pale white skin and not a single hair on its body. Snarl realized that this was a body suit that matched the creature’s skin color exactly. It had very long legs, which would probably explain how it moved so fast and a very small torso. Its hands and feet only had two digits of equal size and its arms were extremely short. Its head was aerodynamic, very thin but tall with two fins on the top of its hairless head.
“Snarl what you find?”
“I would guess this creature lives on this planet, Grimlock. It was probably wondering why our ship crashed here.”
“Does it talk?” asked Sludge.
“I can speak quite well, thank you!” piped up the little individual.
Grimlock tried for his best Optimus Prime impression, “We are dinobots, we are from Cybertron. We crashed here when aliens attacked us, their ship crashed over there.” Grimlock points in the direction of the barren desert, “We would like to be your friends.”
“Well you certainly made the wrong impression if you want to be my friend, attack me like a glurk! So you got into a fight with another species and you disabled each other’s ships forcing you to land on my planet? Well then let’s get you home because I do not want a war on my planet. I will give you a ship and you can leave!”
“We not leave yet! They destroyed our friend, now we must destroy them!”
“I told you! I do not want a war on my planet!”
“You have ship big enough for us to fit inside?”
“Well, no. But I am sure I can build one soon enough!”
“You are advanced species, you must help us so we can crush our enemies.”
“Nonsense! War has no place on Grandra! My fellow grandans would not permit it!”
“You stop us from fighting? You have power to stop me Grimlock?”
“Well, no. But I am sure that I can build something that will!”
“ENOUGH!”
Both of them looked at Snarl.
“We must not fight! We must be friends. We are Autobots. We are the good guys! Little man, I thought you were one of the aliens that attacked us earlier I did not think…”
“That’s right you didn’t think! I don’t know who the Autobots are and right now I don’t care! If you want my help then let me examine your ship. I will tell you what I want from it and then you will follow me to my factory!”
“No! Me Grimlock not like your idea. You give us energy and we go back and fight aliens!”
“Well! If you were already at their ship then you either defeated them or they beat you. I would assume that they are still alive so what makes you think you can beat them this time?”
“He makes sense Grimlock, maybe we should listen to him. He can take parts from our ship and then he will help us fight the aliens.” suggested Swoop.
“Well Grimlock? What do you say? Do we have a deal?”
“What your name little man?”
“Gildar.”
“Gildar, we have a deal. For now.”
“Excellent, now put me down and I’ll tell you what you will be carrying back to my factory.”
Snarl put the little creature down and transformed back into his alternate mode. Gildar jumped back.
“I take it all of you can change your forms like that?”
“Yes,” replied Snarl, “we are transformers.”

Gildar led the dinobots back to the shuttlecraft, by the time the dinobots made it back to the crash site Gildar was already rummaging through the wreckage.
“Grimlock do you trust this creature?”
“No, Swoop but we have no choice now, we must get strong to destroy aliens. Sludge, Snarl transform and help him with parts he wants.”
Snarl and Sludge joined Gildar in the broken shell of the craft as he pointed out manifolds and engine parts that were still in tact. Snarl grudgingly obeyed Gildar’s requests as he and Sludge dismantled the remnants of their ships’ engine. Hopefully this small creature was going to help them, so far the dinobots luck had been all bad.

CHAPTER 6

Gildar kept his word to the dinobots. He led them to his factory after collecting numerous parts from the autobot shuttle, he even suggested they cover the ship by filling in the crater in created so as not to arouse suspicion. Gildar’s factory was, in fact, a power plant/manufacturing warehouse. This suited the dinobots nicely. They could not fit inside the warehouse but sat behind it and Gildar ran power cords out to them so they could recharge their batteries but Grimlock refused to take Gildar’s offering. There was something about the little man that Grimlock did not like and as much as he needed a recharge, he chose to wait and make sure the other dinobots were okay first. Swoop, Snarl and Sludge needed to recharge after walking across the barren land after the battle. After supplying the dinobots with the power they needed, Gildar disappeared into his factory.

“Me still not trust him”
“Grimlock you hardly trust anyone, why would this little man be any different?”
“No Snarl, this different. Me have really bad feeling this time.”
“That’s because you haven’t recharged yet boss,” offered Swoop, “this stuff feels great!”
“Me wait until you three finish. Then me recharge.”

The dinobots sat in silence, only the buzz of the electrical current filled the air. Grimlock could not bring himself to trust the grandan; it was just too simple. Grimlock knew that things were never simple, he was reminded of the numerous encounters with Optimus Prime and the troubles with the humans during the Great War. But the dinobots had been in situations far worse than the one they were in now. The greatest unknown was the alien creatures. He had lost soldiers before, he had brought the dinobots back from death before but these aliens were a powerful enemy. Grimlock thought about other powerful foes that he fought, Shockwave, Megatron, even Unicron - he had been able to damage them during battle however meaningless the damage was, he was still able injure them. These aliens, it seemed, could not be injured. They had strange weapons and an energy shield that they could manufacture without the assistance of a machine or an energy source. Grimlock could not think of a way to beat these creatures and decided now was not the time to think of such things...

Snarl, Sludge and Swoop were now fully energized and wanted to exact revenge on the aliens, but Grimlock stopped them.
"How we hurt those aliens? We not get one shot through their shield last time we fought."
"But now we are fully charged Grimlock, I feel like I could take on 100 aliens!" boasted Snarl.
"Yes! Yes! We will destroy the aliens that killed Slag; we will avenge our friend! Why do you hesitate Grimlock?"
"Because Swoop, we not able beat them. Me Grimlock not know how."
"Grimlock? Are you alright?" questioned Snarl, "Normally you would not have to think about battle! Have you become weak?"
Grimlock slammed his fist into Snarl's chest, knocking Snarl down.
"You question your leader? Me Grimlock say when we attack! Not you!"

Silence...
Snarl picked himself up off of the ground and looked ready to challenge Grimlock but he saw the way Sludge and Swoop were looking at him, he saw the shocked expression on their faces and knew that he was wrong.
Snarl could say nothing but, "Yes Grimlock."

Gildar emerged from his warehouse pushing a platform ten times his size, on it: a circular device with numerous panels. The device itself was as large as Grimlock's fist.
"What you want now?" demanded Grimlock.
"Is that anyway to greet you partner? I am going to help you win your battle!
Gildar held a remote in his hand and pressed a button on it that opened the silver sphere on the platform, inside were numerous antennae.
"What is this?"
"Grimlock, for a great and powerful machine you ask many questions."
"You not answer my question Gildar, What is this!"
This time it was not a question but a statement, one that made Gildar shudder.
"Very well. This is a field dampener. It will help you end this pathetic battle that you feel you must fight."
"What are we supposed to do with that?" said Snarl.
"Theoretically, it will disrupt the energy field that the aliens produced during your battle."
"How you know about that! We not tell you anything about battle!"
Gildar realized that, in his rush to get these creatures of off the planet he had failed to explain how he learned so much about them so quickly. Now he would have to explain himself.
"I simply downloaded a copy of your memory cores while you were plugged into my factory, that was not simply a power cord I gave you." he grinned, these robots were not very bright for such an advanced species, they hadn't even detected the probe into their memory banks, "I have been in my factory examining your memories and I must say they are very interesting!"

The Grimlock was shocked at first, then he got very, very angry.
"You! You steal dinobots information! We not agree to that! Me Grimlock knows why he not trust you!"
Grimlock pulled out his sword and slashed through the Field Dampener and the platform hovering in front of Gildar. He went to grab for Gildar only to be stopped by his dinobots who were still very confused.
"Why you stop Grimlock! I am your leader! This germ has betrayed us!"
"Wait Grimlock, you told us that we must think before we act. Now you must dot he same!"
Sludge's wisdom caught Grimlock off guard; it left him with no reason to attempt to continue his attack. Grimlock looked at each of the dinobots; he could see the hope in their eyes. They had thought of something the he had missed...Slag.


CHAPTER 7

Grimlock and the dinobots were sitting around Gildar in a circle, it made Gildar extremely nervous because there was no way to escape. Fortunately for Gildar, the dinobots only wanted to hear him talk.

Gildar proceeded to explain how his cable probed into the dinobots memories, he explained that he had not hurt them but only gained information about the battle that had taken place on his planet. He put on his bravest face and hoped that the dinobots would understand what he was trying to do for them. He failed to mention that he had made copied their entire memories, information that would prove very useful to him in the future. He planned to use the information gained from the dinobots to build his own transforming robots, but he did not have Grimlock's memories yet and being their leader - he wanted those memories very badly. Of course, he had a perfectly logical explanation in order to gain access to Grimlock's memories.
"...the field frequency" finished Gildar.
"How Grimlock give you alien field frequency?"
Gildar sighed, "You were the one who came in contact with the field, Snarl and Sludge remember you bouncing off of something when you tried to attack the aliens, if I can examine your memory files I might be able to determine the field frequency that the aliens were using. That would guarantee that the new field dampener would work perfectly. Besides, you still need to recharge correct?"
"Yes Grimlock then we can destroy the aliens and take their ship back to Cybertron!" remarked and excited Swoop.
"Me still not trust you, but have no choice. We need your help to beat aliens."
Grimlock got up and plugged in one of Gildar's cables and began to recharge. He did not see the immense grin that spread across Gildar's face.

* * * * *

It was dreaming, that had to be the explanation. It couldn't feel its legs; its hands and it couldn't open its eyes. The only thing it could feel were the walls, the walls that had been put up around it, walls that it could not break down. It called out but it could not hear its own voice. It was trapped. It tried to sleep, but there was no such thing. It tried to turn itself off, but there was no power running through it to begin with. It tried to remember how it got here but it could not think. It didn't even know what it was, but that did not scare it. In fact, it could feel nothing at all - only the walls. The walls were always there, always around it, unforgiving, unrelenting. It wanted to walk, but what was walking if one had no legs? There were only the walls; they were all it knew. The walls were everything and nothing. It wanted more but there was no more...


CHAPTER 8

"Finished!"
Gildar had managed to use Grimlock’s sensory data to construct a new, more powerful field dampener. The rest of the information that he had downloaded from Grimlock’s database would have to be examined at a later date – the dinobots were hungry for battle.

Grimlock was the first to see Gildar emerge with the new device as the dinobots tried their best to devise a strategy to exact revenge on the aliens. The remaining dinobots looked on.
"How we know your toy work?"
"Well Grimlock, I guess we will have to use it in battle against the aliens. You’re not worried about getting defeated again are you?"
Gildar’s jibe was more than enough to get the dinobots leader riled up.
"You! Shut Up! Dinobots prove how strong we are!" Grimlock turned to the others. "Dinobots transform!"
Snarl, Sludge and Swoop all assumed their dinosaur modes and roared in approval of their leader’s decision. Grimlock pointed at Gildar, his finger equal to the size of the Grandans body.
"You bring your device to battlefield now!"
"What!" exclaimed Gildar, "I have no intention of joining your battle!"
"You steal dinobots secrets, you know everything about dinobots, now you join us when we fight enemy!"
"I will not succumb to your prehistoric logic! I am staying here" Gildar was now shaking with both rage and fear.
Grimlock scooped up the Grandan in his right hand,
"You come with us and make sure device works! If it works as good as you say then you have nothing to worry about, dinobots smash enemy quickly."
"I see that I have little choice in the matter…very well then, put me down. I must make an adjustment to the device before we leave."
"What adjustment?"
"I am going to add a energy wave disrupter so I don’t get blasted by your yellow friends!"
"Hmm..very well."
Grimlock returned the small man to the ground.
"How long this take?"
Gildar had not intention of joining the dinobots on their trip across the desert to fight a bunch of powerful aliens. He needed time.
"It will take one day."
"You have one hour, then we leave."
Gildar’s white face turned blue, the human equivalent of turning pale, he was not going to be able to find a way out of this mess…

CHAPTER 9

Four dinobots and a small white being driving a floating hexagonal cylinder, quite a sight to see traveling together, but as Gildar had explained numerous times no one would see them. He was the only Grandan who lived so close to the desert, everyone else preferred to stay away from the desert on Grandra – it was said to be cursed.
They made their way across the desert in good time for they were fresh from one of Gildar’s recharges and Grimlock did not need to be carried this time. As they approached the crash site of the aliens, they slowed their pace. Gildar assured Grimlock that the device was ready. Gildar moved off into the trees, separating himself from the dinobots. He had nowhere to run and faced four huge, angry metal dinosaurs if he chose to abandon them now.
The dinobots moved closer to the ship, and when Grimlock saw that Gildar was close enough to the battlefield the attack began!

Sludge began hammering the ground around the ship, causing crevices to open up and attempt to swallow the vessel. Swoop began bombing the ship from above repeatedly, his missiles blowing shards off of the vessel’s hull. Snarl used the heat he had accumulated from the hot desert sun to shoot volleys of his tail spikes into the side of the ships hull. The dinobots had agreed to leave the engines alone but that any hull breaches could be repaired later, once the aliens were destroyed. Grimlock launched himself at the hatch where the aliens had first exited the ship to attack them. The four dinobots attacked with reckless abandon, ripping and tearing away at the alien ship. It didn’t take long of the aliens to respond. They exited from a portal at the back of the ship as the dinobots concentrated near the front of the huge vessel.
Sludge was the first to notice them and he shook the ground beneath their feet causing the three aliens to stumble, but the quadrupeds did not fall. The leader took aim with his weapon and his arm began to quiver – just as it had before – and a blue bolt shot out from the cylinder and pushed Sludge backwards.
"Grimlock!" roared Sludge after shaking off the blow.
Grimlock turn to see the aliens standing at the rear of the vessel, he didn’t even bother to think, he simply charged.

The aliens managed to see Grimlock in time and they attempted to erect their shield but Gildar had already activated his device and Grimlock’s head met the alien leader with a loud –clang-. The alien leader was sent flying in Sludge’s direction and Sludge lined the alien up and swatted him back towards the ship with his tail. Any normal creature would have been crushed by the two attacks but the alien got back up and fired another bolt at Sludge, knocking him over on to his side.
The aliens were wearing some kind of metal suit that seemed to protect them from combat and now that the others realized their shield was ineffective they too pulled out cylindrical weapons.
Snarl reacted first, placing a well-aimed shot he shattered one of the alien’s weapons with his tail spikes. Swoop moved in and fired a volley of missile shots at the aliens. The alien without a weapon was knocked over and the other two aimed their weapons at Swoop but both shots missed the dinobots’ bombardier. Grimlock got back to his feet with a bit of a headache and roasted the majority of yellow fur off of the alien leader’s metal suit.
"Continue attack dinobots," roared Grimlock, "we are winning!"

Sludge had regained his footing only to receive another blast from an alien weapon. But this blast ripped through his front left leg, blasting a quarter of the leg right off! The bolt was a yellow one, not a blue one, and evidently the aliens had been toying with them the first time!
"Ahhh! Grimlock my leg!" Sludge screamed as he fell back to the ground. It was not very often that a dinobot in his dinosaur mode was injured so easily.
Grimlock continued has attack on the alien leader, who now looked to be in very bad shape. He locked jaws down on the aliens’ arm, smashing its weapon and ripping through the exo-skeleton of the alien suit. The alien used its remaining three arms to pound away on Grimlock’s head, putting several dents in Grimlock’s nose.
"OW!" shouted Grimlock as he released his grip.

Gildar surveyed the battlefield, one of the aliens was still unconscious from Swoops bombing and now Swoop and Snarl were focusing their attack on the alien that had damaged Sludge. Grimlock appeared to have his hands full with the third alien. These aliens seemed a lot tougher than they looked!

The battle raged on…Grimlock kicked the alien leader backward into the hull of the ship with a satisfying clang. The leader did not appear phased by the attack and instead of retaliating it tended to the fallen alien, opening a small access panel in its back and making what seemed to be adjustments. Grimlock took a second to turn and look at the remaining alien, who still had a weapon and had punctured a hole in Swoop‘s right wing. The damage did not phase the dinobot though as he used his eye lasers to smash one of the aliens’ front legs. The alien went down hard and Snarl moved in for the kill. The alien focused on Snarl’s approach and fired a yellow bolt at him that Snarl attempted to duck; the blast removed two of Snarl’s back plates but did not prevent him from ramming his head into the alien’s head. The alien’s head shattered on contact but that did not stop the creature. Snarl seemed startled by this development as the creature rose to its feet once more.
“Grimlock, they do not give up!”
“Yes Snarl, they are worthy opponents but we will still crush them!” bellowed Grimlock as he turned back to his prey.
Grimlock unleashed his fire breath upon the two aliens; the leader was still tending to its fallen comrade. Grimlock’s attack further melted away the hairy yellow skin that covered the two metal bodies but the metal itself resisted the super-heated attack. Grimlock transformed and began blasting at the aliens, missing numerous times before sending the crippled alien backwards, the leader turned towards Grimlock and produced a new weapon which it quickly fired at Grimlock. The dinobots’ leader attempted to dodge the shot, but failed as he felt the bolt rip though his right shoulder and then through his dinosaur chest plate. Grimlock charged while continuing to shoot at the alien. Before the alien managed to fire another shot, Grimlock had produced his sword, which he brought down on the aliens’ left side, severing two arms off of its body and then he crushed the weapon beneath his foot.

Grimlock stopped. The aliens were robots, there was no being inside what they had assumed was a metal body suit. His hesitation cost him his sword as the alien wrapped its two remaining limbs around the sword and shattered it. The alien then reared up on its hind legs and kicked Grimlock clear across the battlefield.

Swoop, Snarl and Sludge (all now in robot form) were handling the other alien as it tried to continue its attack on Sludge. The dinobots followed Grimlock’s lead and the three of them plunged their swords into the alien’s body, ripping it apart. They stood over the remains of the robot momentarily but the sight of Grimlock flying into the forest was reason enough to continue the attack. Two aliens were still functioning, one of them still missing two of its arms. The previously unconscious alien was now spinning its arms just as it had before when the aliens produced their shield. Snarl smiled and took aim with his blaster. He squeezed the trigger but the shot was defected by the alien’s functioning shield.
“What! How can this be? We have disabled their shield!” said Snarl.
“I guess not.” replied Sludge.

Gildar was impressed with the alien’s resolve; they had managed to rotate frequencies on their shield at a pace with which his machine could not keep up at its current power level. There were only two aliens left though and they looked to be in very bad condition. Although one had managed to throw Grimlock into the forest. Gildar could hear Grimlock rummaging through the trees on his way back to the battle, he was not happy…

CHAPTER 10

The three dinobots stood in front of the aliens and their new shield, which Gildar’s dampener could not disrupt. Gildar turned the machine to maximum, attempting to match the aliens’ rotational frequency. The last thing Gildar needed was these aliens on his planet the sooner this battle was over the sooner he could take his life back instead of being a slave to the robot dinosaurs.

Grimlock passed right by Gildar on his way back to the battle the gigantic robot completely ignored him as he fixed the rocket launcher on his shoulder. He rejoined the dinobots who were now dodging alien fire as one of the aliens had produced another weapon and was firing using his remaining two arms. Grimlock raised his gun and fired both weapons at the aliens, the rockets exploded on contact with the shield and the shot from his blaster deflected off into the sky.
“Their shield works!” he roared.
The alien ignored Grimlock and tried to finish off either Sludge or Snarl as they tried to avoid getting hit by the yellow beams unleashed from the alien’s weapon. Swoop had transformed and was slowly flying above the alien vessel, handicapped by his damaged wing. Grimlock turned back to Gildar.
“You promise us that your machine works! Now it does not help us!”
Grimlock moved over to a speechless Gildar who worked frantically at the controls trying everything he could think of but knew that it was futile. He did not notice Grimlock’s fist until it was too late. Grimlock plunged his hand into the device, knocking Gildar backwards.
“Stupid machine!” he bellowed.
The machine overloaded, Gildar hid behind some rocks and the explosion rocked the ground beneath him, the explosion threw Grimlock directly at the aliens. The aliens paid no attention to him until he passed through their shield with a large piece of the dampener attached to his fist and crushed both of them underneath his body. The other dinobots stopped. Grimlock was not moving. They gathered around their leader hoping he was still functional.
“Grimlock? Are you still alive?” Snarl questioned.
“…uhh, Me Grimlock have huge headache.”

Just and the dinobots were about to help Grimlock to his feet, he was tossed right at them, knocking his comrades over. All four dinobots lay in a pile. The two aliens were still functional!
While the dinobots tried to untangle themselves the alien that still had four arms dragged the second alien into the ship. By the time the dinobots reached their feet, the door to the ship had closed.
“Cowards! Face me Grimlock!”
Grimlock transformed into dinobot mode and began tearing into the hull of the ship, the other dinobots followed suit. The damage they had suffered slowed their progress but these four dinobots were not about to give up, not when they were so close to victory! Swoop relentlessly bombarded the ship from above while Snarl ripped into the ship’s hull with his tail and Sludge used his undamaged front leg to shake the ground beneath the ship. Grimlock used everything he could to rip away at the hull: teeth, claws, feet but it was obvious that the dinobots were not going to breach the ship in this manner.

Grimlock was the first to notice that the door nearby was opening and charged through it head first hoping to ram one of the aliens. He focused his optics and momentarily let up on his charge when he saw a hulking mass of metal standing and the end of the passageway. This turned to be his undoing as he realized that the creature was travelling toward him at its top speed. Grimlock tried to get back into position to meet this transformer-sized creature but it was too late. Grimlock was thrown backwards by the contact and tossed out the doorway that he entered. The dinobots narrowly avoided their leader’s body as they were preparing to enter the ship through the open door. The dinobots were busy watching their leader slide along the ground when the creature exited the ship and rammed both Sludge and Snarl, knocking them backwards. Swoop hesitated to attack the creature and received a laser blast to his chest causing him to crash to the ground. Normally the dinobots would be more than happy to return the favor but they couldn’t bring themselves to attack this beast because they couldn’t believe their optics. Sludge was the first to speak.
“S…Slag?”

CHAPTER 11

The dinosaur did not respond the Sludge’s question it merely roared at them and charged Grimlock again, but this time Grimlock was ready for it. He sidestepped the charge and hammered the side of the dinosaur with his tail, knocking it on its side. The dinosaur used the momentum to roll completely over and land on its feet.
“Dinobots attack!” commanded Grimlock.
They still hesitated to attack this dinosaur that looked just like Slag.
“ATTACK!” roared the dinobot commander.
Swoop was the first to respond, dropping bombs on the dinosaur’s back. The dinosaur lost its footing momentarily but Swoop could not see any damage. The dinosaur turned to Grimlock again and fired a laser blast from its centre horn that moved each time the dinosaur acquired a new target. Grimlock returned fire, hitting the front foot of the dinosaur leaving a small scorch mark that seemed to disappear. The dinobots valiantly tried to slow this beast but they were weakened from the battle and the dinosaur from the alien ship was at full power. Grimlock transformed and blasted the dinosaur on his side but the shot did not do any visible damage. The dinosaur ignored Grimlock’s attack and focused on the other three dinobots.

Snarl, Sludge and Swoop had all transformed and they fired their blasters directly at the dinosaur’s head. The blasts were completely absorbed by the metal plate extending from the dinosaur’s head. A second later the blasts were reflected right back at the three dinobots, knocking them backwards. The dinosaur then fired a volley of missiles from its head plate at the three fallen warriors. The resulting explosion rocked the alien vessel due to the dinobots close proximity to the vessel’s hull. The air was filled with dust and smoke, Grimlock saw the form of the dinosaur moving toward his position.
“Come! Face me Grimlock!” the dinobot commander roared.
“I intend to.” Came the reply in a flat, low tone.
Grimlock transformed back into his dinobot mode and roared at his opponent; now fully prepared to combat this new foe. The dinosaur charged at Grimlock, intending to ram his front horn into Grimlock’s stomach. Grimlock sidestepped the charge – it was clear that despite Grimlock’s injuries he was the more mobile of the two – and kicked the dinosaur in his hind leg. The joint buckled but the quadruped was not fazed by the attack. As the dinosaur turned to face Grimlock, the dinobot commander bit down on the dinosaur’s back. Digging in with his powerful jaws, Grimlock removed a large metal plate from the dinosaur’s back as he pulled away. The dinosaur roared in surprise and completed his turn. Now facing Grimlock, he rammed his horn into Grimlock’s injured leg. Forcing his horn deeper into his foe’s leg, the dinosaur whipped his head back, throwing Grimlock off-balance.

The dinobot leader crashed to the ground, the dinosaur spun around, using his tail to slam Grimlock in the jaw. Grimlock’s head began to spin and instead of trying to right himself he transformed to robot mode. The transformation seemed to clear his head and as he got up he saw the dinosaur lunging at him. Grimlock quickly brought his hands together and brought them down on the dinosaur’s skull with a loud clunk. The dinosaur’s head plunged into the ground. Grimlock wasted no time, picking up the beast by its tail, Grimlock swing it into the hardest object he could see through the smoke, the ship. The sound of metal dinosaur colliding with the ship’s hull was music to Grimlock’s ears. He was sure that a blow of that magnitude would buy him some time. He had no sword and his blaster wasn’t doing any damage, he needed an alternative. He had not seen the other dinobots since the dinosaur attacked them. He moved to their last known position and saw Snarl, lying motionless.
“Snarl. Snarl!”
There was no response.
“Snarl! Wake up!” Grimlock kicked Snarl in the arm.
“…”
“Snarl, give me Grimlock your sword! Me need to destroy other dinobot!”
Snarl moved every so slightly in producing his sword but the dinobot could not muster the energy to speak. Grimlock grabbed the sword and charged off towards where the dinosaur had landed. There was a large dent in the ship, but no dinosaur. Grimlock turned, scanning for any signs of the beast.
“I thought you gave up using weapons Grimlock? How is that sword going to help you?”
“Who are you? Me Grimlock demand to know where you come from!”
“I’m a lot like you Grimlock, only smarter, stronger and more powerful than you will ever be.”
“No one stronger than Grimlock!”
“Really? Well then let’s find out how strong you really are.”
Grimlock had located his enemy. It was off to his right, putting Grimlock between the dinosaur and the ship. The dinosaur moved forward slowly. Grimlock saw that it had a bit of a limp on one of its hind legs. The creature stopped.
“I see the glow in your optics Grimlock, you think I’m injured. Well guess again! Striker Transform!”

The dinosaur planted his front legs firmly on the ground and did what appeared to be a handstand. The dinosaur’s head slid on to his back and sunk into a hole produced by the shifting metal plates, the dinosaur’s front feet became legs and the hind legs became arms. The dinosaur’s tail split in half and formed shoulder blades, Striker turned around stare Grimlock in the optics and show off his powerful looking robot mode. He then reached behind himself and produced the head of his dinosaur mode in his right hand to use as a shield and in his other hand a shiny silver sword. Striker grinned.
“You can’t win Grimlock. Once I finish with you, your friends are next.”
Grimlock’s optics flared, “No one stronger than Grimlock,” growled the dinobot commander, “No One.”

CHAPTER 12

Striker leaped at Grimlock, the tip of his sword pointed at the wounded arm of the dinobot commander. Grimlock deflected the blow with his sword brought his other arm up, slamming his fist into Striker’s chin. Striker stumbled backwards; Grimlock took advantage and thrust his sword at Striker’s chest. Striker recovered in time to parry the sword with his shield taking the brunt of the blow. Grimlock continued on the offensive, slicing away at Striker and the renegade dinobot attempted a counter-attack. Striker successfully dodged Grimlock’s attacks and attempted to plunge his sword into Grimlock’s mid-section. Grimlock moved to his left but Striker’s sword still ripped into Grimlock’s right side. Grimlock ignored the pain and brought the hilt of his sword up and into the right side of Striker’s head. Striker’s optics temporarily gave out from the blow and Grimlock managed to connect with a weak roundhouse to the other side of Striker’s head. Striker brought both hands up to protect himself from Grimlock relentless attack. The cocky renegade dinobot did not expect Grimlock to put up such a good fight.

They did not exchange words; the only sounds came from the weapons and the overtaxed gyros of the two warriors. Grimlock was favoring his right side. Both his shoulder and torso were mangled from battle. Striker continued to work Grimlock’s right side, moving his sword to his left hand to give him an advantage. The two warriors continued to attack each other, Grimlock’s weakened state was hampering his ability to sustain an attack. Striker was wearing him down and he knew it. Grimlock looked for an opening in Striker’s attack that might give him an advantage. Striker suddenly brought his sword up and underneath Grimlock’s defense, slicing deep into Grimlock’s side. Striker’s optics glowed and he drove the sword into Grimlock’s chest. Grimlock stumbled as he tried to maintain his footing. He reached for the blade but then hesitated. Grimlock launched his own attack, slicing through Striker’s chest with his sword. Grimlock’s right side was wounded badly but his thirst for battle allowed him the strength to continue.

Striker took a step backwards, surprised by Grimlock’s attack. He released the grip on his sword and brought his hand up to his chest. Grimlock took advantage of the young dinobot’s mistake. Removing Striker’s sword from his side, Grimlock used both swords to attack Striker. Striker managed to parry the blows with his shield but Striker appeared to be out of options. Grimlock roared as he brought the swords down simultaneously. Striker blocked his own sword but Grimlock’s sword ripped through Striker’s left shoulder. Striker jumped back and smiled as he slowly brought his right hand up to cover the wound. Grimlock charged at Striker but stopped short of his target as a laser blast seared through his right chestplate. Grimlock was knocked off-balance by the shot and his attack missed its target by several metres. Striker was grinning as he had produced a blaster and was standing over Grimlock, the blaster pointed at Grimlock’s head.

“The mighty Grimlock as fallen!” claimed Striker, “You are no match for me old-timer.”
Grimlock said nothing.
“No final requests? Well then, time to say goodbye!”

Striker squeezed the trigger…the blast ricocheted off of Grimlock’s dinosaur neck and Grimlock locked his jaws onto Striker’s outstretched arm. The dinobot commander pulled and squeezed as Striker’s exo-structure gave way and Striker’s left forearm shattered. Striker tried to remove Grimlock from his arm but to no avail. Grimlock continued to squeeze, nearly biting the arm off. Striker kicked Grimlock in the head a dozen times before Grimlock finally released his hold.

“You stupid dinosaur! You’re going to pay for that!” screamed Striker as he held his mangled arm.
“You take cash, cheque or ...” Grimlock rammed his head into Striker’s chestplate “...charge?”

Striker got up and tried to transform but the damage to his arm was too severe. Grimlock was also having trouble in his alternate mode as his right dinosaur leg looked ready to collapse. Grimlock transformed back into his robot mode, his optics blazing bright blue as he produced the two swords.

“You cause enough trouble today. Me Grimlock say no more!”

Grimlock charged Striker.
Striker knew he was about to die, the look in Grimlock’s optics was nothing but pure bloodlust. Grimlock sliced into Striker’s chest and arms. Striker had no defense against the onslaught. Grimlock sliced through Striker’s right leg, severing it from his foe’s body. Striker fell backwards and Grimlock plunged Striker’s own sword into the dinobot’s chest. The life faded from Striker’s body.

Grimlock turned and limped towards his fellow dinobots. The battle was won but the war was far from over. Snarl, Sludge and Swoop were just coming back online.
“Grimlock? What happened to you?” asked Sludge.
“Looks like Grimlock went one on one with Unicron!” joked Swoop.
“Yeah, and lost!” laughed Snarl.
“Dinobots, we go back to base now. Time for repairs.”

Noting the dead seriousness in Grimlock’s words the dinobots did not speak another word as the four warriors headed back to Gildar’s lab.
“Wait! Wait for me!” chimed Gildar, as he hurried to catch up to the dinobots on what was left of his mobile platform.
None of them noticed as the door to the ship opened and the two aliens retrieved Striker’s body or the faint glow remaining in the renegade dinobot’s optics…

CHAPTER 13

After an extremely draining trek across the grandan desert, and a short stop at the remnants of the dinobots shuttle, Gildar and the four dinobots reached Gildar’s factory. At the shuttle, Gildar downloaded the design specs for the dinobots repair system and began work on designing a machine that could perform a similar task. The diminutive grandan had come to the realization that he was now a part of this battle. He was not sure if the aliens noticed his presence on the battlefield but he could not take that chance. If the aliens saw him helping their enemies then they would surely want vengeance on him as well. Gildar knew there was no holding back now, he had to trust these robots to defend his planet. Gildar’s mind began racing as he mapped out different ways to help these robots emerge victorious, but first he had to get the repair machine working.

Grimlock looked at his three comrades. Swoop’s wings were mangled, one of them had a hole punched right through it, and he could barely hover when he transformed into his alternate mode. Sludge’s left arm was partially destroyed from the first yellow alien blast. Snarl was missing several fins from the back of his alternate mode but sustained the least damage of the three dinobots. Grimlock himself had received the most damage and his comrades told him that they would not allow themselves to be repaired until Grimlock was fully operational again. Grimlock protested that he was fine but when he saw the damaged to the right side of his body he knew that he was lying to himself. He had turned off his self-diagnostic system a long time ago because of its incessant warnings of his damaged systems. The dinobot commander was fortunate that he shut down all of his failsafe systems or he would not have been able to transform when Striker attempted to blast his head off. Grimlock could not bring himself to tell his friends how very close he came to death, he thought that they would think he was weak and the leader of the dinobots could not show weakness.

After several days had passed, it was time for Gildar to make the final adjustments to his new repair module. Gildar approached the dinobot commander with caution; Grimlock had been very quiet since their return to the factory. Gildar needed to take measurements of the dinobot commander in a standing position in order to complete his alterations on the robots’ repair system. Because Gildar has access to vast amounts of metal and energy he was able to create an enormous capsule that could shift to accommodate each dinobot’s specific dimensions.

“G-G-G-Grimlock?” stuttered Gildar.
The monstrous robot was seated on the ground and it shifted to get a clear view of the small grandan. Gildar could see Grimlock’s body hesitate to comply with the dinobot commander’s instructions.
“What you want?” demanded Grimlock.
“Could you please stand up so I can take measurements of your body?”
Grimlock chuckled, “How you going to measure Me Grimlock, little man?”
Gildar ignored the barb and repeated his request. Grimlock complied, curious to see how the little alien could possibly measure him. Gildar simply held a small scanning device in his hand and walked around the dinobot.
“Just as I thought,” mumbled Gildar, “Grimlock, you’re 9.3 jexars wider and 2.1 jexars shorter than you were before your battle with those aliens. I can restore you to your normal parameters during your repair cycle. I need until sunset to finish the adjustments to the repair module.”
“Me Grimlock like original parameters! You fix Grimlock and Me will finish SMASHING aliens!”
“I know you will Grimlock and by the time the four of you are repaired I will have some new toys for you to play with as well.”
“Toys? Me Grimlock no want to play with toys! Me want to –“
“Smash aliens! I know, I know! I am going to give you new weapons to smash the aliens with.”
“Weapons! Why you not say weapons the first time? Dinobots love new weapons!”
Gildar sighed, this was going to be a long couple of days.

CHAPTER 14

Grimlock emerged from the repair module after almost two days after he entered it. Gildar found a bunch of internal damage that he was only able to patch up at best. It was much easier to replace the plates of Grimlock’s exterior frame. Grimlock’s outer shell was almost as strong as when he first landed on Grandra. Gildar did install an internal repair robot to further repair the damage that Grimlock sustained in battle with the other robot. Gildar hoped that the repair robot would aid Grimlock in his next battle, the repair robot had Grimlock’s design specifications and was programmed to repair anything that did not conform to the original schematics.

“How do you feel Grimlock?” asked Gildar.
“Me Grimlock feel strong! Feel like was just brought online for the first time!”
Grimlock transformed into his alternate mode.
“What you do to Grimlock?”
“I sharpened all of your claws, I thought it might help you make a bigger hole in the aliens’ ship”
“You smart! Now Me Grimlock go and finish stupid aliens for good!”
“Grimlock, shouldn’t you wait for your friends?”
“NO! You fix other dinobots and then they join Grimlock and help me fight aliens”
“What about your new weapons? Don’t you want those?”
“Grimlock get new weapons? Not detect new weapons!”
“That’s because they’re not ready yet. I’m building a new sword for you and I’m working on armor piercing rockets for your rocket launcher.”
“Maybe Grimlock wait for new weapons then go fight aliens”
“I think that is the best idea you’ve had so far”

Gildar sighed. He input Sludge’s measurements into his computer and let it adjust to Sludge’s dimensions and then went outside to get Sludge ready for repairs. At least the other dinobots wouldn’t take as long to repair, or give Gildar such a big headache.

Sludge’s arm proved relatively easy to repair, none of Sludge’s circuitry was damaged from the blast. Gildar was about to release Sludge when the final diagnostic revealed that Sludge’s secondary power source was damaged. He repaired the problem quite easily, had Sludge gone into battle without his secondary power source he could have been knocked offline very easily. Gildar noticed the same power problem in Swoop and Snarl as well. He tried to make a connection and upon reviewing their sensor data he realized that all three were hit by the other robot dinosaur’s missiles. Gildar sent instructions to his repair drones inside each dinobot to maintain constant checks on their secondary power sources. Gildar’s greatest challenge, other than putting up with Grimlock, was repairing Swoop’s wing. The metal used in Swoop’s wing was unlike anything he could reproduce. He decided to shorten Swoop’s wingspan in order to reinforce the integrity of each wing without limiting Swoop’s flight abilities. Once the dinobots were repaired Gildar began work on their weapons.

Gildar finished Grimlock’s sword but then asked to see the dinobot’s guns because he thought he could change the amplitude of each weapon so that at least one of the weapons would be able to penetrate the alien shield no matter what frequency the aliens tried. Gildar worked at a frenzied pace, he had not slept for days. When he was finally finished the dinobots were armed with twice as much ammunition than before. Grimlock’s armor piercing rockets were a success. Swoop’s missiles were twice as powerful. Snarl’s tail spikes were twice as sharp. Sludge’s front legs were reinforced so he would be able to cause bigger earthquakes. Gildar smiled at the four robots as they walked around in their dinosaur modes. They slashed through rocks with their claws as though the rocks were paper. The dinobots took one last recharge and they set off to put an end to this war. Gildar looked on as the dinobots left, he hoped that he would never see them again.

* - * - *

Striker opened his eyes; his creators had saved him. Despite the feeling of gratitude there was only one thing on his mind.
“REVENGE!”

CHAPTER 15

Striker paced through the alien ship, he knew nothing of his creators. It frustrated him because they never spoke. The only things Striker knew were from the other dinobot’s database and the commands that his creators implanted in his processor.
He had never actually seen this “other dinobot” so the information about the four robots he faced earlier was circumstantial. Had the information been correct, Grimlock would not have surprised him with his power and resourcefulness during battle. Striker would not underestimate those dinobots again.
The yellow creatures had sealed him in a large cargo bay where he could practice his battle moves but practice had become redundant. Striker wanted to fight.

* - * - *

Grimlock felt like a new bot. He and the other dinobots crossed the wasteland much faster than the previous times. Their sharpened claws gave them better traction on the uneven surface of the desert plain. They could see the alien ship now. Grimlock vowed that this would be the final battle, the dinobots were ready for anything. Or so they thought…

* - * - *

Striker was tired of waiting. He sheathed his sword and walked over to the portal. The door would not open for him. He smashed the controls and pounded on the door, trying to pry it open. The door was too solid though and would not buckle.
“I am tired of waiting!” he shouted, “I am going to find those robots and kill each one of them! You will not stand in my way!”
There was no response.
Striker transformed into his alternate mode and backed away from the door. He lowered his head and charged. His horn ripped through the door and sent metal shards flying into the corridor. Striker headed for the control center. He passed by a large room and was distracted by the garbled sounds of a conversation, which stopped as soon as the occupants of the room saw the huge robot. Striker saw the two aliens working on another robot. Striker assumed his robot mode and strode into the room.
“What is this?” he demanded.
The creatures ignored him and continued their work.
“What are you doing?” shouted Striker and he walked up to the platform and grabbed one of the creatures. The other creature immediately grabbed a weapon and sent Striker spinning backwards with a blue blast from its weapon. While Striker tried to right himself the first creature, the one he grabbed, plugged one of its arms into Striker’s leg.
”We are building you a partner.”
“So!” bellowed Striker, “you can communicate!”
”Yes, but there is no time for explanations. You WILL wait until we finish your partner. Then you may fight.”
Striker wanted to ignore the voice and lash out at the creature but his limbs would not respond to his commands. The creature had done something to his motor functions. He was powerless.
Striker could only watch as the two aliens returned to work on the robot. From what he had seen the robot was larger than he was but obviously not near completion because it was in several pieces.
Striker tried to scan the rest of the room, out of the corner of his optics he could see a single holding cell. The rest of the chamber was in shambles as though the creatures were dismantling their ship in order to build this new robot.
Striker could do nothing, he lay in a heap as his hatred for these creatures and the other robots continued to grow. The creatures had left his consciousness online. That was a mistake. When he was finished with the other robots he was coming back to finish off these aliens. Just as Striker began to feel good about himself, the ship began to shake…

CHAPTER 16

“Me Grimlock love new rockets!”
Grimlock fired off another volley of rockets from the launcher on his shoulder. The missiles slammed into the alien ship, sending large chunks of metal debris flying. The other dinobots were dissecting parts of the ship, they no longer cared about leaving the planet in the alien ship. The dinobots had become obsessed with destroying the aliens. Armed with their upgraded weapons, the dinobots tore into the alien vessel. Their attacks punctured holes in the hull of the ship but Grimlock was clearly not satisfied with their progress. He transformed and charged at one of the ship’s doors. Grimlock’s claws sliced through the metal plating, he clawed at the door relentlessly.

The ship continued to rock with explosions as the dinobots mercilessly dismantled the vessel. Grimlock had forged a hole in one of the doors and stuck his head inside to take a look. Grimlock’s nose met with the energy discharge of a powerful blaster. Grimlock stumbled away from the door. The door then opened to reveal Grimlock’s assailant.

“Striker! Me Grimlock destroyed you!”
Striker said nothing, the glare in his optics told Grimlock everything he needed to know. Striker leveled his gun at Grimlock and fired. Grimlock took the blasts directly on his chest plate, they momentarily scrambled his circuitry but Grimlock stood his ground, partly out of determination and partly from the shock of seeing Striker still alive. Striker transformed and fired a missile volley at Grimlock but Grimlock had recovered. The dinobot commander melted the missiles with his dinobreath and then charged at the rogue dinobot.

“This time Me Grimlock finish you off for good!”
Striker’s optics continued glow, he did not move to avoid Grimlock’s charge. He simply lowered his head, silently challenging the dinobot commander. Grimlock leapt at Striker catching the rogue dinobot by surprise. Grimlock’s claws sliced through Striker’s nose cannon and Grimlock’s head collided with Striker’s head plate, knocking him backwards. Grimlock swung around violently, his tail connected with Striker’s left side. Striker was beginning to realize that he was no match for a fully powered Grimlock while they were in their alternate modes. Striker would have to get Grimlock to transform. As Grimlock turned to face Striker, the rogue dinobot charged at Grimlock. Striker rammed the remainder of his horn through Grimlock’s lower jaw. Grimlock retaliated by raking his claws along Striker’s front legs.

Striker roared in pain. Grimlock’s claws were not this sharp during their last encounter! Striker’s hesitation cost him a chunk of his head plate as Grimlock tore into Striker’s armor plating with his teeth. Striker’s internal repair system could not handle the trauma as Grimlock continued to pull on the wires that connected Striker’s missile launchers to his weapons processor. Striker had to transform to re-route his weapon systems. Striker transformed while he lay on the ground, his face ended up in a pile of dirt. Grimlock stumbled backwards as Striker’s dinosaur head dislodged from his body, giving Striker a chance to get up. Striker pulled out his sword and his blaster. He began shooting Grimlock in the head, he didn’t want Grimlock to re-orient himself or Striker would have little chance against the dinobot commander. Grimlock tried to fight off the blasts but each shot was well placed and Grimlock was pushed back into the forest. Striker allowed himself a small grin before he was knocked off of his feet by a huge explosion. Swoop had joined the fight, dropping his explosive missiles right behind Striker. Striker ended up landing right at Grimlock’s feet. The dinobot commander reared back and slammed his foot into Striker’s side sending Striker through the air once more.

Striker lay beside his sword, he had suffered minor internal damages from Grimlock’s attack but the blast from Swoop’s missiles took him completely by surprise. He regained control of his arms and legs quickly though. He groped around for his sword and stood up. His optics came back online and he stopped.

Striker was surrounded by all four dinobots and they were definitely not looking to talk.

CHAPTER 17

Surrounded by his enemies, Striker knew he would most certainly die. He tried to assess the situation, he could try to take one of the dinobots with him. Striker knew the dinobots were loyal to Grimlock and destroying their leader would give his creators an advantage but there had to be another way. Striker would not give his creators the satisfaction of seeing him die before he could exact revenge on them for they way they treated him. Striker recalled the commands his creators had implanted in his processor: disable Grimlock, prolong the battle as long as possible. It sounded so simple but in his current position Striker could not see a way to prolong the battle, one aggressive move would surely lead to his destruction. The dinobots were not interested in his knowledge, they only wanted to make sure that he stayed deactivated this time. Striker recalled all of the information that he had about the dinobots. His processor dissected the information in nanoseconds, he paid special attention to words like “stupid”, “belligerent”, “stubborn”, “strong”, “curious”, “childish”. Striker halted his processor and input a new scenario based on the data he had reviewed. The entire process had only taken six seconds from the time his optics came back online. The dinobots were not yet certain of their course of action but Striker was and that was all the edge he needed.

Striker slowly turned in a circle; he tightened the grip on his sword. When his optics refocused on Grimlock, the rogue dinobot planted his sword deeply into the ground.

Striker’s sudden movement caused each dinobot to level his blaster at Striker. Certain of death, Striker laughed. He laughed long and hard and loud. His voice echoed off of the Desert Mountain in front of the alien ship. The dinobots began to look at each other, wondering what it was that they had missed. Striker took great pleasure in their confused response. He had piqued their curiosity by responding irrationally to the situation at hand. Striker stopped laughing in order to answer the questions that the dinobots most assuredly wanted to ask. Instead of a question he received a mouthful of metal, courtesy of Grimlock’s fist. The blow knocked Striker back a step.

“We about to slag you and you laugh? Me Grimlock say you pretty dumb!”
Striker stayed silent, as long as he had the dinobots’ attention he could still complete his task. Striker focused his attention on the dinobots despite the movement coming from the alien craft.

“Give us one good reason why we not slag you right now!”
Striker glared intently at Grimlock but maintain his silence.

“Very well. Good Bye!”
“WAIT!” screamed Striker, “I have three excellent reasons why you should spare my life!”
“Yes? Tell me Grimlock your reason. Better be good reason or me slag you right now!”
Striker smiled, “I’m not going to tell you anything, you can find out for yourself.”

At that moment a bird-like robot (similar to a archaeopteryx) that was almost as large as Swoop himself carried off the dinobot bombardier. The dinobots turned and fired at the robot but its smaller size allowed it greater maneuverability and it was able to dodge the poorly aimed blasts. While Sludge and Grimlock continued to fire, Snarl’s attention was still focused on Striker. Snarl fired at Striker, searing a hole in Striker’s right shoulder. Striker reached for his sword and pulled it from the sand. Snarl fired three more shots at Striker, the first two ripped through Striker’s right shoulder, damaging the tail for his alternate mode. The third shot missed as Striker brought his sword up into Snarl’s hand, knocking the blaster from Snarl’s grip.

Grimlock then turned around and punched Striker in the side of the head. Grimlock fired a missile at close range and the resulting explosion forced the dinobot commander to take a couple steps backwards. Before the smoke cleared, Striker was back on his feet – despite the hole in the left side of his torso. Grimlock fired again but Striker was able to dodge the attack. Grimlock was about to fire another shot at the rogue dinobot but he was attacked. His assailant was a smaller version of his alternate mode. It was a powerful looking velociraptor, a dinosaur with huge legs and a massive inner claw on each foot. The raptor landed on top of Grimlock and began clawing at him with its feet. Grimlock grabbed the beast’s throat and threw it off of him and on to the ground. Before Grimlock could get to his feet the raptor was attacking him again, clawing and biting his left arm. Grimlock reached over with his right arm and grabbed the raptor’s tail. Grimlock used the tail to propel the beast into the forest. Grimlock got up and tried to find Striker, he looked around the battlefield – His dinobots had been taken by surprise. Swoop was now involved in an aerial battle with the bird robot, Snarl was battling Striker and Sludge was caught in the tail of a dinosaur that looked much like Sludge’s alternate form. Grimlock fired a blast at the Sludge-like robot hitting its right rear leg and causing the robot to drop Sludge. Sludge immediately transformed into his powerful alternate mode and slammed the ground with his feet. The ground opened up and quickly tried to swallow Sludge’s opponent but these new robots were fast and the robot quickly moved out of the way. Grimlock fired two of his missiles across the battlefield and they slammed into the creature’s neck and chest, knocking it to the ground. Sludge lumbered over the fallen robot’s position and grabbed its neck with his teeth. The rage inside Grimlock grew, he wanted the aliens more than ever now, he wanted to rip them apart piece by piece.

CHAPTER 18

Grimlock heard a hissing sound behind him; he turned to see the raptor robot staring at him, challenging him. Grimlock transformed. He roared at the smaller beast, he was not going to be intimidated. Grimlock charged the raptor but the raptor side stepped his charge and jumped on Grimlock’s back. Grimlock continued to run as he felt the raptor’s huge talons rip into his back. Grimlock moved into the forest and found what he was looking for, he increased his speed as he felt the raptor’s teeth dig into him. Grimlock ducked a massive tree branch and was shocked when the raptor was not ripped off of his back! He turned back to look and saw the remains of the tree branch on the raptor’s mouth! Grimlock was going to have his hands full with this beast…

Swoop was locked in intense combat with his aerial foe, the two flying robots attempted to gun each other down while they raced through the tops of the trees and dodged mountain cliffs. Swoop had difficulty keeping up with the smaller, faster bird. He saw his enemy disappear around the corner of the mountain and tried to pick up speed in order to catch up. As he rounded the corner he was hit with a blast from the robot’s wing missiles. Swoop lost control and began falling out of the sky. Swoop’s systems quickly recovered though and he transformed and locked his blaster on to the creature and fired off a few rounds. The bird easily dodged the blasts but it did give Swoop time to get closer to his enemy and transform back into his alternate mode and fire his explosive missiles. The first missile veered upwards and slammed into the mountain, distracting the robot, while the second missile punched a hole in the robot’s chest. Swoop fired again, slamming his missiles into the mountain, burying the robot underneath a ton of rubble. The dinobot bombardier left the area quickly to rejoin his comrades.

Snarl and Striker had drawn their swords and were engaged in an intense battle near the alien ship. Striker’s wounds hindered his movement but he vowed revenge on Snarl for damaging his shoulder. Once Striker finished with Snarl he would find Grimlock again. It was Striker’s absent-mindedness that allowed Snarl to deflect Striker’s lunge and slice into Striker’s left side with his sword. The damage enraged Striker. He used the butt of his sword to jar the back of Snarl’s head and then brought his sword down on Snarl’s head. Snarl managed to avoid a direct blow to his skull but Striker’s sword sliced through Snarl’s right tail plate, severing a chunk of it from his body. Striker did not stop to enjoy the pain etched on Snarl’s face. Striker brought his sword back in front of him to deflect Snarl’s retaliatory slash. Snarl was more determined than ever to finish Striker off himself! The two robots continued to exchange parries and lunges, they moved closer and closer to the ship. Striker continued to back Snarl into the ship until Snarl lost his footing. Striker took his sword in both hands and brought the blade down hard. At the same time, Snarl lunged at Striker. Snarl avoided the brunt of Striker’s attack but Striker’s forearms drove Snarl into the ground, Striker’s sword sliced into the ship’s hull and it took a moment for him to remove the blade.

That was all the time Snarl needed to lodge his blade deep into Striker’s knee joint. Striker lurched, unable to control his movements while his processor tried to reroute command functions around the injury. Snarl shoved the blade deeper into Striker’s knee and then ripped it loose with as much force as he could muster. Striker collapsed down to one knee as Snarl stood over him.

“This time you won’t come back!” yelled Snarl.
Snarl brought his sword up and thrust it into Striker’s lower torso, Striker’s optics dimmed and the sword slammed into him. Snarl allowed himself a smile, just one more blow and Striker would be finished. Snarl went to remove his blade from Striker’s torso when Striker’s hand came up to meet his. Snarl tried to overpower Striker but he couldn’t. Striker smiled. The glow from his optics nearly blinded Snarl.

“I’m not going anywhere!” Striker screamed. “It is you who has an appointment with eternity!”
Striker held on to Snarl’s sword with his right hand while he used his left to slash away at Snarl. He sliced off the fingers on Snarl’s left hand and took another chunk out of his tail plate. Snarl panicked, he had no blaster and he couldn’t retrieve his sword from Striker’s chest. Snarl wrenched his right hand free from Striker’s grip but lost his right hand to his foe’s blade. Snarl was quickly running out of options as it appeared that Striker was now toying with him. Striker ripped his blade across Snarl’s chest plate and then plunged his sword into Snarl’s left knee.

“How does it feel it have a piece of cold steel rip into your knee Snarl? Not very pleasant, IS IT?”
Snarl’s processor was overloading with damage reports and he tired to shut down his diagnostic program so he could concentrate. Striker had removed his sword and stood over a helpless and dazed Snarl. Striker pointed his sword straight down at Snarl and brought both hands up to the hilt of the sword. Snarl looked up at Striker and then the gleaming point of the sword that would send him to eternity.

CHAPTER 19

Sludge was beginning to enjoy himself. While his counterpart was faster, Sludge’s greater overall size and strength gave him a huge advantage. Sludge wondered why the robot continued to fight him; it was obvious that he wasn’t going to win. Sludge chased the robot to the foot of the mountains; it already had numerous scars on its neck and tail from Sludge’s teeth. Sludge slammed the ground again, knocking the robot on to its side. Sludge moved in to grab the robot but the robot righted itself quickly, grabbed a large boulder with its tail and smashed it over Sludge’s head. The robot then dug its tail into Sludge’s shoulder and released a massive electrical surge. Sludge crashed to the ground, his limbs shaking from the shock. The robot looked at Sludge for a split second and then returned to the battle; soon it would be time to finish the dinobots for good.

Grimlock was still trying to figure out a way to get the raptor off of his back. He had managed to keep it occupied by running into trees and rocks in order to avoid more damage to his back. The raptor held on skillfully though, its talons were lodged deeply into Grimlock’s spinal plating. Grimlock could not transform, nor could he reach the creature. Grimlock increased his speed and turned towards a huge boulder that was 500 metres away. The raptor began digging into Grimlock again; Grimlock’s vital circuitry was almost exposed. Grimlock closed in on the boulder and leapt into the air, turning his back towards the boulder. The raptor was ready for Grimlock’s maneuver, its tail opened to reveal a heavy drill and the raptor used its tail to drill into the boulder, splitting it in half. Grimlock was running out of ideas, the robot ate trees and split boulders with its tail! Grimlock began climbing up the mountain, he moved quickly for such a huge dinosaur. Grimlock’s sharpened claws allowed him to move effortlessly up vertical cliff faces. The raptor returned to its attack, it had almost exposed Grimlock’s circuits. It looked down at Grimlock’s back but the hole it had created was gone! The dinobots did not have regenerative capabilities!!!

The raptor scanned Grimlock and found a small repair drone inside the dinobot – it would have to report this to its creator. The raptor then looked up to find that Grimlock was moving at an exceptionally fast speed. The raptor quickly discovered that Grimlock had leapt off of a cliff and was falling to the ground. The raptor decided that it would be a good idea to dislodge itself 0.1 seconds before it was crushed as Grimlock landed on his back. Grimlock stood up and looked at the mangled robot.

“Ha ha ha!!! That was piece of cake! Err... was Piece of PANcake! Ha ha ha! Me Grimlock not as dumb as me looks!”
Grimlock kicked the raptor, his claws digging in to its side. But instead of resuming his attack, he decided to gloat a little bit longer.
“Me Grimlock smart cookie! Next time you think twice about fighting me! Me KING of fighting!”
Grimlock kicked the raptor again.
“Now it time to finish you off!”
Grimlock slammed the raptor with his dinobreath, the raptor’s body was motionless as the superheated plasma charred its metal plating. Grimlock transformed and drew his sword.
“Me was saving this for Striker but now me test it out on you first.”
Grimlock raised his sword above his head, unknowing that at the very same moment that he was about to terminate the raptor, Snarl was about to be run through by Striker’s blade.

CHAPTER 20

Swoop surveyed the battlefield as he returned from his battle with the robot bird. He looked down to see Sludge lying unconscious at the foot of the mountain. Swoop came down out of the sky and landed beside Sludge, transforming in to his robot mode.

“Sludge! Sludge! You okay? What happened?”
“Grrrrnnnnn… I am OK, that other robot overloaded me with a heavy electrical discharge.”
“Okay well let’s get back into this battle! We can double team that robot that shocked you!”
“Good idea Swoop, let’s go. Gildar’s robot is almost finished repairs.”
Swoop returned to his alternate form and he and Sludge started off in the direction of the alien vessel.

Snarl’s processor was overloading itself as he panicked, looking up at Striker holding his sword above Snarl’s head had sent the dinobot’s mind into chaos. Snarl’s gaze was locked on to the blade, he couldn’t move. He watched as Striker brought his sword down towards Snarl. Snarl was out of time; he was about to join eternity. He felt a presence nearby; he felt the presence grab hold of him for a microsecond and then it was gone. Without thinking, Snarl lunged at Striker, his forearms slamming into the sword that was lodged in Striker’s torso. Snarl twisted the sword with his arms and then violently removed the weapon, leaving a gaping hole in Striker’s torso. Striker felt the blade rip further into his vital systems and he hesitated in his attack. When the sword was finally removed he re-doubled his efforts to finish off Snarl and plunged the sword into the dinobot. The sword did not pierce Snarl’s dinobot armor however, as Snarl had transformed into his alternate mode. Striker’s sword bounced off of Snarl’s back. Striker howled in frustration and kicked Snarl in his side. Snarl retaliated by swinging his mangled tail at Striker’s wounded knee. The remaining metal on Striker’s leg struggled to keep his leg attached to his body.

“Argh! You stupid dinobot! I’ll destroy you yet!”
Snarl chuckled, “Looks like you’ll NEED all the help you can get!”
Striker pulled out his blaster and started shooting at Snarl. His shots were merely deflected into the sky. Snarl retaliated using his tail spikes – which Gildar’s robot had quickly repaired – and targeted Striker’s injured torso. The tail spikes ripped into Striker and the rogue dinobot stumbled backwards. Snarl then rammed his head into Striker’s damaged knee. Striker’s mobility had been severely restricted and he was in desperate need of repairs if he was going to be a threat to these dinobots. Snarl swung his tail at Striker, trying to knock his foe to the ground, but Snarl’s tail did not connect with its target. The Sludge-like dinosaur had stopped snarl’s tail. The robot had wrapped its tail around Snarl’s tail, preventing Snarl from hitting Striker. Snarl tried to overpower the robot and began to gain some leverage, but before he could take advantage of the situation the robot overloaded Snarl’s circuits with a massive electrical discharge. Snarl’s body crumpled to the ground. Striker looked at his colleague.

“You go and find your friends, I’ll get myself to the ship for repairs.”
The other robot nodded its head at Striker and the two parted ways; one went to re-join the battle, the other shuffled off towards the ship.

Grimlock admired his new sword; it looked powerful. Grimlock looked down at the robot that had caused him so much trouble, the repair robot was still repairing his wounds. Grimlock brought the swords down towards his opponent but the sword never touched the raptor…

Grimlock was thrown backwards by the two missiles that exploded against his chest plate. The bird-like robot “screeched” with pleasure. Swoop’s attack had only temporarily crippled the robot and after Swoop left, the robot had homed in on the raptor’s signal. The robot fired two more missiles at Grimlock, who had just managed to shake off the first attack. The first missile slammed into the ground next to Grimlock but the second missile was on target and slammed into Grimlock’s chest. Grimlock fell backwards; his injured back hit the ground hard. The bird-like robot landed beside its comrade, it would strafe Grimlock whenever he got to his feet. Grimlock quickly transformed into his alternate mode and returned fire with his dinobreath. His attack exploded in front of the two robots and stirred up a cloud of dirt and dust. By the time Grimlock reached the spot where his enemies had been standing, they were both gone.

CHAPTER 21

It still existed, it did not know what is was but it knew there was more to its life than the unending emptiness that it was experiencing. Life? Experience? What did these words mean? Where did they come from? It tried to recall what those words meant but after a timeless period of thought all it had was the nothingness. It reached out as far as it could; beyond the walls it felt a giant mass. What the mass below it? Above? Within? It could not tell, the mass had no location, the mass was all and the mass was nothing. Before it entered another one of its trances it felt something new, something familiar yet foreign. It tried to focus its being, its essence … then it was rocked by a violent emotion – FEAR - . It took a hold of this fear; it knew fear all to well. It replaced the fear with calm and as it did so it saw the source of the fear. Two bright red objects that lit up the endless night. Once it had taken the fear away from the familiar, the red objects disappeared and it was alone in the darkness once again. Only the mass remained. Just before it entered another trance a word appeared – LIFE - . All it knew was that it wanted life; life would save it from the void. Until it found life it would only know emptiness in the unending darkness …… Then it was gone …

CHAPTER 22

Swoop and Sludge saw Striker limping back to the alien vessel and opened fire. Swoop’s missiles missed Striker and kicked up large clouds of dust behind him. Sludge used his dinobreath, hitting Striker in the shoulder, spinning the rogue dinobot around. Striker couldn’t believe his luck! After narrowly escaping the four dinobots and then failing to capitalize on a weakened Snarl and relying on one of the new robots to save him, he had to face Swoop AND Sludge while he was barely functioning.

Striker spun around to face the dinobots and took out his blaster, attempting to hold off the dinobots while he tried to get back into the ship for repairs. Striker fired shots randomly into the sky, which Swoop easily dodged. Sludge slammed his foot into the ground opening up a large crevasse that ran between Striker and the ship. Striker would have a hard time making it back to the ship now. Sludge moved closer to Striker’s position, Striker knew that he would have to be resourceful in order to win this battle. Striker was already at a disadvantage because he could not transform in to his alternate mode, which was less vulnerable to attack.

“Cowards!” Striker called out, “Face me in hand-to-hand combat!”
“Why should we do that when it is much easier to destroy you in these forms?” replied Swoop.
“There are two of you, surely you would rather put a sword through me than one of your feet!”
“Sword or foot, it doesn’t matter! They will both have the same effect!” roared Sludge.
“Enough talk,” screeched Swoop, “now you die!”
Swoop unleashed his missiles upon Striker, the first missile slammed into the ground to Striker’s left pushing his compensators to the maximum while he tried to balance on one leg. The explosion only served to enlarge the gorge. Striker had forgotten about the second missile. He turned back to Swoop quickly, bringing his blaster up. He found the missile heading straight for him! Striker fired at a furious pace, trying to hit the missile before it hit him. A second before the missile reached its target; Striker’s blaster hit its mark. The resulting explosion threw Striker backwards; his body slid along the ground and was brought to a sudden halt when his shoulder rammed in to a large boulder. Striker was now laying only metres from Snarl’s unconscious form. Striker slowly got to his feet, seeing Snarl would only further enrage the other dinobots. Striker moved away from Snarl and back towards his assailants; the situation did not look good…

Grimlock was angry, the little bird had taken his victory right out from under him. He scanned the forest for the two robots but found a different energy signal and moved off in its direction instead. Grimlock didn’t care who it was as long as he got to slag someone! Grimlock moved through the trees slowly, it was dark in the forest so he relied heavily on his sensors. Like a bloodthirsty predator stalking his unsuspecting prey, Grimlock moved through the shadows, his eyes blazing, thirsting for combat. He caught movement off to his right and stopped. He sunk low to the ground and bared his razor-sharp teeth. The prey was bigger than the other robots, for a moment he wondered if it was one of his dinobots but then he pushed that thought aside. His dinobots wouldn’t move through the forest so quietly. Actually, Grimlock thought to himself, this wasn’t how Grimlock normally acted either. This battle was forcing him to become more resourceful. Once he and his dinobots won this battle they would be better warriors. Grimlock returned his full attention to his prey, it was now moving slowly toward him. Had it detected him?

No, it didn’t matter. In seconds Grimlock would leap from his hiding spot and tear his prey to shreds.

CHAPTER 23

Grimlock leapt towards his prey, he hesitated for a nanosecond because it looked like Sludge. There was a distinct difference though, this dinosaur was long and skinny, Sludge was not. Grimlock landed on the dinosaur’s back and bit into its neck. The dinobot commander dug his claws into the robot’s back, just as the raptor had done to him. He chewed on the robot’s neck violently; he would have his victory! Grimlock had only been on the creature for a few seconds when a massive electrical surge passed through his body. He resisted the attack but it was too powerful and he was forced to release the robot and he fell to the ground. Grimlock’s body was still quivering from the shock but he did not lose consciousness. He fought his way to his feet and looked around. The creature was gone.

Striker’s shield was gone, his blaster was at half power and his power reserves were almost depleted. Striker knew he had little chance of surviving this battle. For a moment he wondered why he was fighting in the first place, his hatred for the dinobots was implanted in his processor when he came online. Striker weighed his options. He could fight these dinobots to the bitter end where his death was almost assured, or he could buy himself some time and make his own decision about whether or not he truly hated these robots…
Swoop’s missiles impacted the ground in front of him; he had to choose quickly. Striker tightened the grip on his sword and looked up at Swoop, then he stopped. Striker took his sword and plunged it in to the ground.

“I surrender!” he shouted.
“NO!” yelled Swoop, “No surrender! You will die!”
Swoop fired his optical lasers at Striker, burning holes in to the rogue dinobot’s chest.
“You’ll pay for that,” huffed Striker under his breath. He yelled at Swoop again, “Enough! I cannot beat you! I give up! I can help you!”
This time Sludge fired his plasma breath at Striker, ripping into his already wounded knee.
“Damn you ignorant dinobots!” whispered Striker. He would have to think of something else, and quickly…

Swoop fired missiles at his enemy, victory was almost theirs! He and Sludge would destroy the robot that tried to kill them only days ago. Nothing would stop him now! Striker insisted on surrendering but Swoop and Sludge wanted to watch the life fade from Striker’s optics and make certain that he didn’t come back this time. Swoop dove at his target, blasting away with his optic lasers. Striker’s chest was charred and he fell to one knee as Swoop flew by.

“ . . . Slag!”
That was all Swoop heard as he flew by his enemy, he dismissed the word as the robot cursing. The dinobots had all come to accept that Slag was dead. Soon the dinobots would have their revenge on the aliens who destroyed Slag. Swoop turned around and saw Snarl lying on the ground; he would go back for him once they finished off Striker. Snarl was motionless in his alternate mode, had Striker killed Snarl? Swoop’s anger grew 10-fold. Slag and now Snarl? Striker would pay dearly for the trouble that he had caused! Swoop loosed another pair of missiles at Striker and flew by his target again.

“ . . . where Slag is!”
This time Swoop clearly heard Striker say that he claimed to know where Slag was. It was obvious that this poor excuse for a dinobot was trying to save his life by giving the dinobots hope that Slag was alive. Swoop’s missiles found their mark and Striker’s body was tossed in to the air. By the time Swoop had circled around he saw that Sludge was now holding Striker in his mouth. Swoop transformed and landed in front of Sludge. Swoop looked at Striker, battered and now missing one of his legs. He motioned to Sludge to stop squeezing Striker. Swoop wanted to enjoy this as much as Sludge was.

“ . . . know . . . Slag” Striker whispered.
“What did you say?” queried Swoop.
“I . . . know . . . where . . . Slag . . . is!” gasped Striker.
“Tell me! Tell me where he is you lying pile of scrap!”
“Fff…fix mmmme”
“No! If you say he is alive then you tell us now, or Sludge will finish you off!”
“Ttthen you’ll … … ver find hmm.”

Swoop drew his blaster and shot Striker in his remaining leg. The blast shredded the weakened metal but Striker’s leg did not fall off.

“Slag is dead, you are lying to me and for that you will die!”
“Nn…nno! H…he’s al … … ve!”
“LIAR!” Swoop drew his sword.
“Tttthhhhen SSSlag … dies … ww…th me!”
Swoop brought his sword up to his chest. Sludge began squeezing Striker again. Striker’s chest plate groaned from the pressure.

“Sludge. Drop him! I am going to finish the liar!”
Sludge obliged. He dropped Striker to the ground and transformed. Sludge drew his sword as well.
Striker put his hands up in the air, “Nnnnnooooooooo!”
Swoop brought his blade down slicing Striker’s left arm off at the elbow. Sludge simply looked on. Swoop brought his blade up again.

“This time, I’m not going to aim for your arm!” shouted Swoop, the rage in his eyes blinding him; Swoop could see nothing but Striker, lying in front of him.
Striker tried to speak but the repeated traumas to his body had shut down all his systems, including his vocal processor.
Swoop brought his blade straight down, towards Striker’s chest.

“STOP!”
Swoop was suddenly knocked aside, his sword missed its target and landed at Sludge’s feet. Swoop looked up to see a familiar tail swinging away from him.
It was Snarl.

“I believe him.”

CHAPTER 24

“WHAT?”
Swoop could not believe what he had just heard. Snarl, his dinobot brother, wanted to listen to these lies?

“Snarl, he’s lying! We can avenge Slag’s death, right here, now!”
“No Swoop, I think that Slag is still alive. I want to hear what he has to say.”
Swoop picked himself up off of the ground and walked over to Snarl, who was still in his alternate form.

“That is insane! He’s barely functioning and there is no way we can repair him! If you really think that Slag is still alive let’s download his memory core and be rid if him!”
“I know how you feel Swoop, Striker almost killed me and I should feel anger and hatred right now but somehow all I feel is calm and peaceful. I can’t explain it.”
“Ridiculous!”
Swoop turned and walked away from Snarl, he couldn’t believe that Snarl would spare the life of something that was seconds away from killing them all! Striker was evil. Swoop decided that and no matter what happened, he would destroy Striker while he lay unconscious. With a smile on his face, Swoop turned back to Snarl.
“What do you want to do?”
“Let’s take him back to Gildar, maybe he ca-“
“NO!”
Sludge had heard enough, he agreed with Swoop, it was time to finish their enemies and go home. The faster they got off of this planet the sooner Sludge could return to the fish swamp on Cybertron.

“I am tired of talking and retreating. We are here now and we are winning. Slag is gone and we will destroy these aliens to avenge his death. No more talking!”
Sludge drew his blaster and fired it at Striker. His enemy’s body shook with the blast and Striker’s metal chest plate cracked under the stress.
“NO!”
Snarl swung his tail at Sludge, knocking the blaster from his hands.
“I want to talk to him! I want to find Slag!”
“We are through talking!” roared Sludge.
“Slag is dead. We cannot bring him back Snarl.”
“No Swoop, he is not dead.”
“Your head is filled with lies! Snarl, stop pretending, let us defeat our enemies and leave this planet.”
“I can’t explain it Swoop, I just know.”

The three dinobots sat there in silence. Snarl stood near Striker’s body while Swoop and Sludge simply looked at each other, dumbfounded.


Grimlock was growing impatient. He would constantly detect one of the robots and the outer rim of his sensor range but as he tried to track them down they quickly managed to disappear. Grimlock was tired of playing guessing games so he took his frustration out on each and every tree as he began walking back to the alien vessel.
“Stupid tree! Get out of my way! Me Grimlock! Me strongest warrior! Everyone fear Grimlock! Everyone else get out of my way!”
Grimlock slashed and clawed, creating a large path through the forest in his wake. When Grimlock neared the edge of the forest he detected a powerful energy signature. The dinobot commander was surprised that such a large signature could mask itself from detection but he then realized that his rage had overcome him and he had been ignoring his sensory data. He had allowed this robot the luxury of a surprise attack! It didn’t matter though; Grimlock was looking for a fight, now he could take his frustration out on something that would provide a challenge. When Grimlock reached the edge of the forest he saw his new foe, and looked up, way up to see two flaming green optics staring right back at him…

CHAPTER 25

Grimlock was facing a behemoth.
The legs and waist of this massive robot were those of the raptor that had ravaged Grimlock’s back. The upper torso and arms were that of the Sludge-like dinosaur that Grimlock had attacked earlier and the head was made up of the annoying bird that attacked Grimlock when he was about to kill the raptor. This gigantic machine had two shoulder mounted missile launchers and long whip in its hand a shield on its arm. Grimlock did not want to guess what other weapons this creature had at its disposal. The sheer size of the robot was baffling; it appeared as though the robots had grown in size when they merged together!

The behemoth looked down on Grimlock and smiled. None of the three smaller robots had spoken a word and it didn’t look as if this monster was able to talk either but by the look on its face, you could tell what it was thinking. Well, Grimlock thought to himself, he was going to wipe the smile off of this creature’s face with or without his dinobots. Grimlock lunged at the behemoth, careful to avoid the electrical whip that almost knocked him out last time. His teeth dug into the creature’s left leg and he quickly ripped in to the cold steel. The behemoth moaned and tried to hit Grimlock with its whip but Grimlock was between the creature’s two legs and proved to be difficult to hit. Grimlock slammed his feet into the heel of the monster using his claws as well as his teeth to dismantle the robot’s leg. Grimlock felt the creature’s left hand grab his neck and try to pull him off but Grimlock dug deeper into the creature’s leg and held on while the he felt the robot try to squeeze his neck. Grimlock’s alternate form was strong and the monster could not remove Grimlock from its leg. Grimlock felt the creature let go so he continued ripping away at the creature’s frame. The robot had stopped moving and Grimlock thought that he was making progress towards its vital systems.

Grimlock saw movement out of the corner of his eye only a nanosecond before he was hit with the little bird’s rockets. Apparently the bird was able to detach itself from the behemoth while the other two robots waited for it to return. Grimlock was thrown backwards, his teeth held on to the robot’s leg though and managed to remove a large panel from the back of the left leg as he was hurtling away from the explosion. The bird reattached itself to the behemoth’s body and the robot turned to pursue Grimlock, drawing a sword that looked very similar to the raptor’s tail.

Swoop, Snarl and Sludge were still standing near Striker’s broken body. Snarl’s repair robot had somewhat repaired his damaged hands while he was in his alternate form and he was now trying to re-activate Striker’s vocal processor. Swoop and Sludge still wanted to be rid of Striker but their thoughts had turned to a different topic.

“Where is Grimlock?” said Sludge.
“We should go look for him, there are still two more robots to destroy.” said Swoop.
“I thought there were three robots.”
“No Sludge I destroyed one on the other side of the mountain.”
“Ohhh…”
“I say we go help Grimlock!”
“Yes, I say we go help Grimlock too! What do you say Snarl?”
“You two go, I want answers.”
“Why can’t you accept things the way they are?”
“Because Swoop, I think that Slag is alive, I think he tried to talk to me when I was fighting Striker!”
“Snarl. Just accept the fact th-“

Swoop stopped mid-sentence as a large explosion echoed off of the mountain, the air was still foggy from the constant weapons fire so the three warriors could not see anything but it was obvious that a battle raged on without them. Swoop and Sludge transformed.

“We will talk later, you stay here and make sure Striker doesn’t get repaired by the aliens again!”

Before Snarl could reply Swoop was gone and Sludge was thundering off towards explosion. He was alone with Striker, maybe now he could get the answers that he was looking for…