Absolute silence. Emptiness looms within the air as cold Cybertronian wind seeps into the cracks on the armor of a metallic titan. He surveys the area, emitting a blue scanning laser from his eyes. The laser sweeps over a sea of iron corpses, processing feedback to the robot.

"No..." the robot sighs softly, as no signs of life were detected.

He looks closely. Most of the wreckage is of Eradicons - Decepticon footsoldiers of different mass-produced templates. A few Autotroopers are piled within the Eradicon graveyard - most of their visors smashed to pieces. A Decepticon commander's body is found as the robot picks it up to identify it. It's body is blue, but tiny Scraplets have already begun gnawing away at the rusting chassis.

"Zzshtttt....cm....dd," the robot's communicator activates as he tries lowering the volume.

"Soldier..." the robot whispers, surveying the smoking horizon cautiously, "Come in?"

"Can't....awa....s...a...ru...." the transmission is static.

"Soldier?! Come in!" the robot raises his voice a little, the white noise still echoing in the air.

"Sa....yo....RUN!!!!!" the voice shouts as a loud shriek, followed by a roar is heard in the background. The transmission breaks the emptiness in the air.

The robot immediately disengages his comlink and surveys the horizon once more. He hears something. First the collapse of a small building far out in the distance. And then a low buzzing noise. They've heard him. There's no certainty of where the noise is coming from, other than it is approaching him. Quickly, he dives into the body of robot corpses, trying to avoid detection.

In the distance, six plane-like objects zoom quickly toward the battlefield. Each one is equipped with a red monocular sensor at the front. They circle above Cybertron's closest moon as it barely shines through the polluted sky. The objects transform into bird-like robots, and touch ground upon the corpses. A red beam emits from each one of their eyes as they scan the area for life.

The titan, however, sees the bird-drones from cracks underneath the corpses. He can feel the Scraplets beginning to bite at his feet as they move away from the rusting bodies. He's afraid, but stays alert.

"Life signs positive," one of the bird drones states monotonously. The robot rolls his eyes.

"Options." another bird drone states. "Excavate, salvage, report, or exterminate."

"What is the will of the transmitter?" asked another. The air stood quietly for another moment.

"Operation: Extermination."

On cue, a giant blue plasma beam shot up from the corpse layer and killed three of the six bird drones. The remaining three were taken back, but quickly regained momentum in mid air. The titanic robot climbed to his feet; his smoking ion blaster unfolding into a larger plasma cannon.

"Identification...scanning." a bird drone said the robot came forward, swinging the cannon at the bird, swatting it into the ground where the Scraplets began eating away at it.

"You two," he said, firing the plasma cannon, blowing the other two bird drones into thin air. The smoking wreckage came cascading down on the corpses below as the titan walked on.

The titan reactivated his communications relay, "Autobot Headquarters...come in!" There was no response, just the same white noise he'd heard for days. "Autobot Headquarters, please respond..."

"He...hello?" said a younger voice on the other end, "This is Helion."

"Who?" asked the titan.

"Helion, sir. I was just promoted to this post a few days ago..."

"Understood, soldier. Where's Optimus Prime?"

"Optimus hasn't been sighted for at least a week now."

"What do you mean 'at least'?"

"Our records here haven't been exactly stellar since Lunix fell."

"Agh...what about Impactor?"

"Impactor's been heading the siege of Kaon - afraid he's unavailable."

"Roadbuster?"

"Also at the siege."

"Who can you spare?"

"We have a few flight-capable Autobots we can spare. We're sending you the most capable ones we have right now. Where is your location?"

"Ruins of Zea. They'll have a hard time finding it by sight alone. Every building here's been blown to dust by the 'Cons. Send them here quickly. Something's of interest here to the 'Cons that they didn't get the first time around."

"Understood, sir. They'll be arriving shortly."

The robot continued to traverse the area on foot. Black soot continued to collect upon his blue and red legs, while his white and blue arms were scratched with battle scars. Twin energy pylons on his back grew a dimmer red as his Energon supply faded. Quickly, he began searching the corpses for additional Energon he could salvage for himself.

As he moved the corpses around, he noticed a silver hammer with blue Energon pulsating through it. The hammer was grasped in the hand of another Decepticon commander, deceased from the battle. Effortlessly, the robot picked up the hammer - it's head glowing as the robot smirked in a moment of brief victory.

 

The robot smiled as the hammer illuminated a bright blue glow across its face. From the hammerhead, ancient Cybertronian glyphs glowed white as deep voice bellowed in an unknown language.

"Hello?" the robot asked. The deep chant continued for a few more seconds before all the light in the hammer disappeared. Shortly after, the hammerhead glowed blue again, glowing brighter as the robot clenched his fist tighter around its handle.

In the distance, he saw two Cybertronian cars zooming towards him. Both cars had damaged Autobot insignias on the front, covered in sludge and scorched from laserfire. One of them was red and slightly streamlined with the appearance of a racer, save the plasma rifle protruding from the roof of the car. The second car was blue with silver markings along the side, scratched as if they were in the shape of flames. The robot slammed the hammer on the ground, as a loud echo of thunder roared and a tremor shook the ground.

"WOAAAH!!!" the blue car shouted, transforming into its robot mode, "What the..."

The red car was thrown off balance, transforming in mid-air, "You alright there, Sideburn?"

"Yeah...." the blue car robot said, "I think I got a little soot or something on my eye visor." Sideburn brushed off black soot off of his right eyepiece.

"Oh slag..." the red robot said, "Sideburn," he hushed, "There's a Decepticon behind you. He's coming at us."

"Shit, shit, shit..." Sideburn said, seeing the glowing hammer robot approaching him, "Swerve, what the hell are we gonna do?"

Swerve grabbed his plasma rifle, ready to take aim, "I really hope the battle tore this guy up a lot. No way I'm ready to get our tailpipes kicked again..."

"Wait!" the hammer robot said, "STOP!"

"Eat plasma fire, 'Con!" Swerve fired a shot of heated plasma toward the hammer robot. The hammer absorbed the green plasma bolt, redirecting it toward a small colony of Scraplets gnawing on the rusting corpses. A small explosion vaporized the robotic vermin. "Oh no...uhhh..." Swerve stuttered as the hammer robot came into full view.

"So these were the couple of reinforcements that Helion sent me?" the hammer robot asked, "Plasma fire wasn't what I had in mind for a 'warm' welcome." The hammer robot's silver face came into view; the soot and sludge on his helmet began to fall off, revealing a deep shade of blue from underneath his armor. Blue optics looked down at the two reinforcements as red details shined on his chest and arms.

"Ultra Magnus..." Swerve bowed, "Sincerest apologies, sir."

"Sincerest?" Sideburn asked, "What's sincere about nearly wiping off an Autobot's face? Never mind the Elite Guard commander?"

"Sideburn, shut it..." Swerve muttered, turning back toward Ultra Magnus, "Again, I'm sorry for..."

"Apology accepted, Swerve," Magnus accepted, "Though consequences of friendly fire, especially upon a senior officer, will be taken into account upon return to base." Swerve's nervous face twitched, gulping in dishonor.

"So what happened here?" asked Sideburn.

"I'm presuming a large battle, mostly a drone fight. Although one Decepticon commander was present," Ultra Magnus showed the pair his hammer, "He had this artifact on his possession."

"Any idea who it was?" asked Swerve.

"His face was missing, presumably blown off or eaten by the Scraplets. In either case, the weapon is now in Autobot hands."

"Where's the rest of your team?" asked Sideburn.

Ultra Magnus sighed, looking into the morbid nighttime horizon, "I'm not sure. We were separated shortly before I arrived at this location. I have confidence in my team though; Airazor's sharp minded, she'll take care of them."

"Sorry to hear that, "Sideburn muttered.

"You needed reinforcements though, you plan on raiding Decepticon outposts alone?"

"Presently, no. We have precious cargo needing to be secured. Sideburn, Swerve: accompany me back to the Quantex base. From a topography scan, that is the closest Autobot outpost we have."

"Can do, chief," Swerve said, transforming back into his red car mode.

"Hope you two are fueled up on Energon - might be a hell of a drive," Magnus' body twisted and reformed itself into the shape of a mobile heavy weapons platform.

"Gotta say, Ultra Magnus, we're more worried about you."

"Just cover me, scout out anything suspicious if you can."

From beneath the pile of corpses, a bird-drone's head resurfaced, a red light flashing on and off from its single optic. "Recording complete" it monotonously said to itself, transforming back into its mini-plane mode and zooming away in the opposite direction of the Autobots.