Great chapter - can't wait to read how this ends.

 

Thanks Petey, a good read.

I am amazed this story has been going since 2003.

 

I'd love to see this masterpiece finished. Sixty pages of awesomeness. Note to other writers... this is format to write in to get people to our work.

 

I'm sad to see this series wrapping up, but so happy when there is a new episode. This is still, easily, the best work of fan fiction I have ever read.

 

I just finished copy/pasting all of these together into a Word file so that I can have it all together for easier reading. took forever just to copy/paste! I still have to proof-read all this mess, and then format it. dang.   I couldn't help but notice these last 2 chapters were a lot shorter than all the previous ones. I thought that was interesting. As long as this story has been going on, it's not hard for me to image Petey getting either burnt-out, or simply impatient to get it finished and over with, though.

I also had completely forgotten about the Tech Specs on page 2! Oh man, I'd love to see that updated. Obviously not with every single character to make an appearance, but the rest of your front-line ones at least. I'd love to see Punch/Counter-punch added, the rest of the combiners, city/base-formers, multi-changers, etc....

 

Yeah, the last two episodes were short. They were build up episodes, didn't have much going on, and quite frankly were a little boring to write. 61 will be much longer and be more of a payoff.

I'll probably update tech specs once I'm done with 62.

 

Great to hear Petey. Best Fan Fic....EVER!

 

Awesome, Petey.   I'd love it if you did update that list! This story is a true novel. Without formating, simply single-space with 1 inch margins, single-sided, it's already past 1200 pages.

 

babump

Please finish this epic. It is so close...and i will be grateful to get an ending, but also sad.

 

Yo petey,
so awhile back you mentioned that this is gonna reference an historical event....and at the time, the movie was gonna be out before you finished this piece.
Any chance you can give me a hint as to what movie it is?
I know it was something 2007 but i'm drawing a blank...

 

The historical event was the battle of Thermopylae, the movie was '300'; don't worry, no naked guys with beards and spears. I'm hoping to be done with 61 in the next week - it's longest episode yet and I've got one last segment to polish off, but not touching it this weekend and probably won't get to touch it Monday.

 

Good Deal son!
It will definitely be a great chapter! Also I know you touched upon the tech specs in earlier post. Are planning on doing only key player character that are significant or the WHOLE roster?...cuz that alone sounds epic!

 

Episode 61: The Darkest Hour


"So, have I earned my keep?" Starscream asked through a broadly smiling mouth as he, Jhiaxus and Rook watched the first wave of warships washing over the Iaconian defenses on the large view screen on the bridge of the Twilight.

Jhiaxus looked to Rook, who checked the control panel to verify that no new worm hole generators had appeared in Cybertronian orbit, before returning his gaze upon the screen and nodding. "Yes, it seems that you have."

Starscream folded his arms over his chest as he continued to proudly beam at the screen. "I only wish I could have seen Megatron's face when he realized I had negated the weapons we'd worked so hard to design to eliminate your fleet."

"Perhaps that could be your request to the Liege Maximo." Jhiaxus asked in a disinterested manner.

"Hmmm, tempting, but no." Starscream replied. "I've got my mind made up. In fact, now that the transmitted signals I've provided have proven effective, I'd like to present my request to your boss...now."

Jhiaxus arched a metal opticbrow. "You do not wish to see the outcome of the battle?"

Starscream shrugged. "Naw, it really doesn't matter anyway. Please just prepare transport to this 'Hub' of yours when you get an opportunity."

"Rook will escort you to Hangar 417; a transport will be prepped and ready by the time the two of you get there." Jhiaxus snapped back.

"Wow, that's all it took?" Starscream was genuinely surprised. "I assumed there'd be a lot more red tape involved, or that you'd put it off until the battle was over."

"Normally there would be, and under any other circumstances I would put this minor issue off until the battle was concluded," Jhiaxus turned and glared at Starscream "but when the opportunity to get you off my ship presents itself, this minor issue gets fast tracked. Besides, Rook has been summoned to the Hub as well, so it’s less of an inconvenience than normal. Now get out of my sight."

"Aye aye, Liege Centuro." Starscream offered a mock salute before turning and marching off the bridge with the smaller green Rook at his side.


***


Spike had been watching the view screen of the empty chair for several minutes before Carly finally arrived to sit in it, her composure failing as she saw the image of her husband and her red eyes once again began releasing tears. "So I guess they've brought you up to speed on the situation already." Spike muttered.

"Don't do this!" Carly pleaded. "It's a lost cause, a pointless battle! I could see if you had a chance of winning, but you don't!"

"I know, but we need to buy time. There's a chance that Prime can get us some reinforcements." Spike half-heartedly tried to explain.

"Reinforcements?" Carly snapped. "Spike, they told me there were two-hundred thousand of those monsters bearing down on you!" The woman wiped a tear from her cheek. "Prime could lead every Autobot in Iacon to your location and you'd still be hopelessly outnumbered. And that's not taking into account that you and your men are just that; men! Flesh, blood and bone up against bodies of alien alloys stronger than anything found on our planet and armed with weapons that make your Wolves look like third grade science projects!" Her stern, insistent features softened. "It's not a question of courage, and honor isn't honor if it's used to justify nothing but an elaborate suicide that serves no purpose."

"It does serve a purpose." Spike replied with forced calmness. "We need to provide the citizens of Cybertropolis adequate time to evacuate, and to examine possible ways to move Vector Sigma."

"Vector Sigma is hardwired through the ground, probably all the way to the Cybertronian core! There is no moving it and you know that!" Carly retorted. "And as for the citizens of Cybertropolis, to hell with them! This isn't Iacon or Matriopolis! It isn't even a truly neutral city-state! It's a haven for antagonistic, short-sighted cowards that will likely reward your sacrifice on their behalf with mockery and derision!"

"Not all of them are like Custodex. There are good sparks there, and we just can't abandon them to this fate." Spike quietly replied to his wife. "And if Jhiaxus gets Vector Sigma, there will be no possible way of stopping the Cybertronian Empire. All organic life will be exterminated, and any mechanical life deemed physically worthy of surviving will only be permitted to do so on bended knee."

"Jhiaxus IS going to get Vector Sigma!" Carly insisted. "Can't you see that? His forces will take possession of Cybertropolis whether you're in their way or not!"

Spike was becoming more insistent as well. "I'm not foolish enough to think a victory over these forces is achievable by us, but we can and will hold them off, for a few hours at least, and hopefully longer, and with Max here, I know full well that we'll be putting a sizable dent in their numbers before we go down!" Spike stared intently into the eyes of his wife. "And just because I'm unable to come up with a way to achieve victory right now doesn't mean that Prime won't pull out a miracle given enough time. I intend to give him that time."

Carly sniffled. "Spike, I know he's your childhood hero, but try to look at this objectively. As great as he is, even Optimus Prime has limitations. Even he can't overcome these odds. He'll be lucky to survive the day in Iacon, he certainly won't be able to assist you in Cybertropolis."

Spike lowered his eyes and shook his head slowly. "I can't give up hope." He looked back up at his distraught wife. "Believe me Carly, I've gone over this a thousand times, and the simple fact is that if Jhiaxus gets a hold of Vector Sigma, Earth will become a drained husk covered by metal cities occupied solely by soldiers of the Cybertronian Empire. Maybe it won't happen today, or this week, but rest assured it will happen. The odds are against us, but if there's something, ANYTHING, I can do to oppose that fate, then damn it, I'm doing it." Spike's eyes narrowed with intensity. "And the one thing that I can do is block these bastards from turning this city into their soldier manufacturing plant, if only for a little while."

Carly, doing her best to retain composure, allowed a tear to run down her cheek and drip onto her blouse. "What am I supposed to tell Daniel?"

Spike looked down, swallowed hard, and looked back up. "I was half expecting him to be there with you."

Carly shook her head. "I was near the Pentagon when they started looking for the next of kin. I asked them to get Daniel from daycare, but with Washington traffic it'll probably be another half hour before he gets here. So it falls to me to tell him Daddy's never coming home."

The statement was a kick to the Spike's gut, and it took all of his self control not to tear up. "Tell him...tell him I love him. That I'll always be with him, looking over him, helping him in any way I can. Tell him to love and honor you. Tell him...tell him that I'm proud of him, and have been since the day I first laid eyes on him, and...and that I have no doubt that he'll grow to be a great man, one that I'll continue being proud of long after I’ve..." Spike's lip quivered as he paused.

Carly closed her eyes; forcing two tears hanging on the edge of her lids to drop and roll down her face. "I'll tell him." She whispered and opened her eyes. "I'll tell him every day."

Spike offered his wife a sad smile. "And you, I want you to remember every day that despite being surrounded by heroes all my life, it was always you that I drew and continue to draw inspiration from. You are my courage, my strength, my compassion and my force of will. You made every challenge worth conquering, every goal worth achieving; having your love made everything else attainable as it paled in comparison. Since we met, every day has been a blessing, every shared moment a gift, and even when we're separated by billions of miles, thoughts of you elevate me to levels I'd never thought possible prior to you coming into my life. You are the love of my life, the partner I never dared to hope for, the mother I always wanted for my children. You've made every sacrifice well worth it, especially this one. I love you Carly, and I always will." A tear finally rolled down Spike's cheek.

Carly covered her face for a few moments before composing herself a little and responding to her husband. "Please Spike, come home. I need you."

"I'm sorry Carly, but I can't."

"What am I supposed to do without you?" The woman, who was clearly not ready to be a widow, asked between a pair of sobs.

Spike looked down. This wasn't getting easy, and time was running out. There were preparations to make. He mused with the idea of providing his wife with a laconic answer, and intended to discount that musing, but his mouth voiced the almost joking words his mind had intended not to voice. "Marry good men and bear good children." Spike winced as he heard the ancient quote come out of his mouth, and hesitantly raised his eyes toward his wife.

To Spike's surprise her face was not a visage of terror, anger or sadness. There was sadness there, as there had been since she had first sat down, but now there was the playful look of annoyance that she displayed whenever Spike was acting immature. Being a student of military history, she was very familiar with the quote, and at the very least could appreciate how apropos it was for the situation. But the slight hint of mirth soon faded and the sadness soon took over her face completely as she responded. "I already married a good man, and he’s given me good children."

A sad smile etched itself on Spike's face at her words. It took him a couple of moments for her last word to catch his attention. "Child...ren?"

Carly smiled sadly as she reached down and placed her purse into her lap. A moment later she pulled out a used pregnancy test, and though too small for Spike to see on his screen, a plus sign was in the tiny square window of the plastic device. "Children."

Spike's eyes grew wide. "How far?"

"Seven weeks." Carly replied. "I found out about a week ago." She turned and looked at the test. "And before you say anything, yes, I realize how gross it is to be keeping something I peed on in my purse." The two shared a pained laugh. "I was waiting for the perfect time to tell you." Carly's eyes welled up with tears and she broke down sobbing.

Spike pondered this new development. "This is wonderful news, and nothing would bring me greater joy than to be there for this child, to see what an amazing older brother Daniel would be; but I can't." A look of mixed sympathy and determination came over Spike's face. "I already love this child, and that's all the more incentive for me to stay and fight harder than any man has ever fought before." The determination slowly shifted to a look of rage. "You and the children will be safe, I'll eagerly snuff a billion sparks to see to that."

"Captain?" Spike turned to see a very timid Sanchez standing in the doorway of the small room he had been using as his quarters while on Fortress Maximus. "I'm terribly sorry to intrude, but we've reached the narrowest point in the pass. And we've also detected a couple potential complications.”

“Complications?” Spike asked.

“The first appears to be a large camp of volunteers trying to find survivors in the mountain range created by Unicron’s attack, mostly Micromasters from what we can tell. The other is a small transport ship that's followed us from Cybertropolis."

Spike reached out and touched the screen. "I’m sorry, but it’s time for me to go. I love you Carly."

"I love you Spike." Carly replied as she placed her hand over the image of Spike's on her screen.

"Good bye." Spike forced himself to switch off the screen, and once the image faded, stood up and started toward the doorway and Lieutenant Sanchez. "So, who's the death-wish-having idiot following us?”

"I don't know, but they're probably touching down by now." Sanchez replied.

“And the rescue camp?” Spike asked.

“A few miles to the south of us. Maximus has already contacted them and informed them of the situation. They’re calling in all search parties, but it may take some time to get them all back.”

“Damn, the last thing we need right now is civilians to look out for.” Spike muttered.


*


"I'm putting down next to Fortress Maximus now, sir." Chroniclax commented into the view screen on the front panel of the cockpit of his ship.

"Excellent. Begin recording everything now, transmitting it to the remote data storage site at frequent intervals in case you are martyred." The image of the acting Cybertronian Consul replied. "You will be remembered always as one of Cybertron's greatest heroes, as well as a champion of peace."

"Being remembered as a loyal servant of Custodex is all the glory I could ever hope for." Chroniclax responded.

"That you have been, my friend. Just know that by recording the sheer brutality of these savages, you are putting a nail in the coffin of their warlike agenda." Custodex smiled. "Primus speed my loyal friend." The image vanished and the craft rocked slightly as it touched down.


*


The two men had taken the time to suit up, Sanchez in his Wolf and Spike in his headmaster suit, before leaving the mobile fortress and seeking out their uninvited guest. As they headed toward the craft, a small transport, they caught sight of their visitors disembarking it. "Isn't that Custodex's toady?" Sanchez asked loudly through the communications channel, having to speak over the growing noise of the approaching army trampling the ground just a few miles to their south.

"Chroniclax, the official biographer of Consul Custodex." Spike muttered disdainfully as he quickly made his way to the robot and his entourage of three other devotees of Custodex. "Greetings Chroniclax, I am Captain Spike Witwicky of the United States Air Force. I am also the husband of Ambassador Carly Witwicky."

"Yes, I am well aware of who you are." Chroniclax replied.

"Well then, with introductions out of the way, I guess I can just jump right in and ask you what you are doing here." Spike made no attempt to hide his annoyance.

"I have been assigned by Consul Custodex to record all that transpires here." Chroniclax answered.

Spike arched an eyebrow inside his suit. "Custodex should be more concerned with implementing our very, very heavily recommended call for the evacuation of Cybertropolis than with sending a film crew to their deaths."

"Is that a threat?" One of the denizens of Cybertopolis that had arrived with Chroniclax baited.

"You know that it's not." Spike replied calmly, but in a manner indicating he was not in a mood for such nonsense. "I'm just assuming your boss brought you up to speed with regard to what's headed this way."

"He has." Chroniclax replied. "Consul Custodex made clear the danger that I would be putting myself in should I accept this assignment. I have no desire to perish, but I feel that documenting the barbarity of you, your comrades and your enemies is a necessity that outweighs my life."

Spike shrugged, the movement carrying over to his suited exterior. "Fine, just stay out of our way." The human then looked over the craft that Chroniclax had arrived in. “There is a large group of rescue workers headed this way. Since you’re intent on staying, would you be willing to give them your craft so that they can escape? They consist mostly of Micromasters, but even then your ship is only large enough to hold a tiny fraction of their number. But saving some is better than saving none I guess.”

Chroniclax peered skeptically at the small armored alien. “What do you care about the fate of civilian rescue workers? You are only interested in defending the military asset that you consider Vector Sigma to be, and snuffing as many sparks as you can while doing so.”

Spike glared intently at the robot’s optics, which were recording him and everything else Chroniclax experienced. “Now’s not the time for this eternally regurgitated debate. Will you provide your craft to the rescue workers?”

“Of course.” Chroniclax responded, almost offended. “We’re not monsters like you.”

“That’s good, because here they come.” Sanchez pointed to the south from the cockpit of his Wolf, toward an approaching band of roughly thirty robots, most Micromasters but there were a half dozen that were between sixteen and twenty feet tall.

“Which of you is Maximus?” The apparent leader of the group, a scuffed up blue and red Micromaster asked when they finally drew near.

“That would be this fortress here.” Spike replied in Cybertronian, thumbing at the giant structure. “I’m Captain Spike Witwicky of the United States of America, a nation of Earth, and I’d like you to select some of your slower moving, possibly injured members to be transported in this ship out of the area.”

“Hello Captain Spike Witwicky of Earth, my designation is Burnokus, second in command for this group, and I’ll gratefully take you up on the use of the transport to send as many of my members ahead as possible. The rest of our group needs to remain here and wait for our last expedition party to get here before continuing further.” The group foreman replied, shaking Spike’s wrist.

“Last expedition party?” Spike was stunned. “I’m sorry Burnokus, but the oncoming legion of Imperial Decepticons is only minutes away, you need to continue on as quickly as you can. Anyone left behind is likely already dead.” The human shook his head. “Why didn’t they return to your base camp and leave with you upon receiving our message?”

“Our leader took an expedition party out this morning and they found survivors. They were in the process of securing them when your message came in.” Burnokus explained seriously.

“Survivors?” One of the robots with Chroniclax asked in surprise.

“Yes, it’s a miracle.” The clearly weary Burnokus nodded. “Our group knows of a barely traversable path through the razor mountains that exits…” the robot turned and pointed to a small opening between the jagged outcropping of metal peaks roughly six hundred yards to their south, a section that unfortunately fell way south of the point where the bottleneck ended and the pass opened up far too wide for Maximus and the Wolves to defend “there.”

“Contact them and instruct them to remain in the mountains.” Spike forcefully suggested. “The enemy will get here before your friends do. Tell them to stay put, put your slowest members in the small ship, and lead the rest of you group north as quickly as possible. I've got to get my men suited up and ready to fight.”

“The injuries of the survivors are such that once stasis lock was interrupted they required immediate medical attention; remaining in the mountains is not an option.” Burnokus answered. “And aside from those I intend to send in the ship, the rest of us can not abandon them. We have become what you humans refer to as a family.”

Spike rolled his eyes. “Fine, just stay out of our way.”

"What's going on Captain?" Halpin and the rest of the team arrived; all suited up in their exo-suits. "Who are these guys?" Halpin suddenly saw and recognized Chroniclax. "And what the hell is he doing here?"

"This group here," Spice motioned to Burnokus and his followers "are a group of rescue workers trying to find survivors of Unicron’s attack in the mountains. And Chroniclax and the other three are lambs to be sacrificed in the name of Custodex's smear campaign."

"Yeah, well High Consul Colostomy Bag can sacrifice his idiot sheep in his own house. This guy needs to go!" Halpin's Wolf took a threatening step toward Chroniclax.

"Stand down Halpin!" Spike ordered. "He can stay if he wants. We've got enough on our plates right now without taking on the role of bouncer."

"Sir, I have no intention of letting him go all Ephialtes on us." Halpin replied as he continued to eye Custodex's biographer threateningly.

"I said stand down!" Spike reiterated his order before turning his attention to Chroniclax. "Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong Chroniclax, but you have no more love for the invaders than you do for us, correct?" The robot nodded and Spike continued. "And given your eagerness to die for Custodex's cause, it's doubtful that you can be bribed, correct?"

"I am aware of what your man is accusing me of being willing to do, I have studied human history to some extent, and you can assure him that I will in no way act on your behalf or against it." The robot replied. "I am here simply to observe, record, and transmit."

"Alright then." Spike nodded and turned to Halpin. "Now stand down and prepare to take your position."

"If you say so Sir, I just hope history doesn't repeat itself here." Halpin replied in a tone that conveyed his doubt.

Spike looked down, nodded to himself and removed his mask before calling out to his men. "Wolves, I have something to say to you.” The exo-suited human soldiers gathered around their leader. “History will be made today, not repeated. Despite some similarities in terrain and strategy, this is not Thermopylae, and we are not Spartans. We were not raised in a warrior culture. We did not spend our lives desperately hoping for a valiant death on the battlefield. We are not Vikings anticipating a place at the side of our gods upon falling in battle, we are not religious zealots or would-be martyrs who possess a sense of absolute certainty that our deaths will be rewarded with an afterlife of paradise, nor are we Samurai who have devalued our lives in the name of servitude to the point where dying is an insignificant price as long as it's done honorably.

No, I treasure my life, and had great plans for the future. I eagerly looked forward to..." Spike closed his eyes and paused for a moment before forcing himself to continue "a great many things. I for one was hoping to live another six or seven decades and die surrounded by my family and friends, and I'm pretty sure most of you hoped for much the same. But that's not to be. We were raised to value life, ours and the lives of others. We were raised to appreciate the high price brought on by conflict, the pain and suffering brought on by strife, and while there is still a sense of glory to be gotten in battle, we've all seen first hand the agony loved ones and wounded go through. And the dead?" Spike looked to each of the soldiers serving under him.

"That's the question, isn't it? There may be no atheists in foxholes, but we come from a cynical culture in the midst of a cynical age. Even those of us who would consider ourselves to be religious are very far from certain that there's anything waiting for us once we close our eyes for the final time. And that's what sets you men apart from the Spartans, the Vikings, the Samurai and those fighting in the name of religion. They fight with a safety net, you do not. Today we face death. Not the chance of death, or the likelihood of death; no, we are going to die, and we face this certain death without hesitation or doubt. We do so without the benefit of a safety net. Will our souls exist in some manner, will we be reborn in some way, or will the light simply be switched off? We don’t know. You may have your hopes and suspicions, but you men don't know if immortality exists or not, and because of that, you are braver than any warrior clinging to an afterlife contingency. You stagger me with your courage, and I can not truly express what an honor it has been to serve with you men. You are my brothers, uncles to my children and sons to my father. And if there is an afterlife, well" Spike smiled at the men he would be dying with shortly "I look forward to toasting our life with each of you. First round is on Halpin."

“I guess that means the rest of you ladies are planning on following me to Hell.” Halpin quipped.

The men chuckled lightly, trying to hide the emotion in their uttered laughs. "Sir," Sanchez called out to Spike "It's been an honor to serve under you. We only react to the courage you've displayed." The other Wolves vocally expressed their agreement with the statement.

Spike waved the adulation down. "I'm not brave; I'm just a father doing what a father needs to do." The helmet back in place, Spike nodded to his Wolves to take their places. The rumbling in the distance was growing more and more thunderous with each passing second and the image of the approaching force was just coming into view in the distance.


***


The perimeter cannons had connected with virtually every shot, and smoldering green and white frames littered the ground from the defensive barrage, but ultimately the initial defense had proven insignificant against the hordes bearing down on Iacon. Jhiaxus's forces had gained entrance to the city-state with ease, and were swarming over the Autobot and Decepticon defenders. But those defenders were not yet overwhelmed, and Autobot and Decepticon fought side by side and made every shot count against the endless mass of invaders. Optimus Prime, in his PowerMaster armor and linked to Quenaud Ginrai, plowed through enemy robot and flier alike with limbs and cannons, amassing a body count that had entered three digits. "Maintain a tight perimeter around the Spires! And I mean tight! I don't want any of these enemy soldiers getting through! They're to see nothing but a wall of firepower when they look our way! Fliers are to remain close to our perimeter! Do not be baited into flying into their numbers, you won’t stand a chance in there!"

"Prime come in!" Megatron's voice called through the communicator.

"What is it Megatron?" Prime asked.

"I've grown weary of poking at the tip of the dragon's claw with a toothpick!" The Decepticon Commander spat back. "I intend to assault the beast's head. But I need either Sky Lynx or Omega Supreme to cut through Jhiaxus's atmosphere of cannon fodder. Perhaps one of them can claw through the ship’s armor so that I can get in and shake things up from the inside."

Prime shook his head as he listened to Megatron’s intentions. “Negative Megatron. You might be able to get to the Twilight, but you wouldn’t last more than a minute in the…” Prime suddenly considered something. "Actually Megatron, might I make a suggested alteration to your plan?”

The annoyed Decepticon leader replied. “What do you suggest Prime?”

“Take both. Board Lynx, have Omega Supreme cut a path for you. But do not attempt to gain entrance to the ship, instead land on the hull and publicly challenge Jhiaxus to come out and face you. As much as he likes to present himself as being thoroughly in control, he can be easily goaded into a fight, especially by you or me. He holds us on some sort of pedestal, despite his public denunciations of us as throwbacks, and feels the need to try and knock us from that pedestal. He needs desperately to prove to himself and others that he’s at least our equal, if not our superior. Use this to draw him out, and do whatever it takes to eliminate him. And Megatron, don't hold back on the dirty tricks. Jhiaxus is easily on par with either of us physically; I’ve been significantly upgraded since you and I last faced off, and even in my upgraded form I was unable to get the better of him to any significant degree, so definitely do not take him lightly, there's too much at stake to risk not killing him if the chance presents itself."

"I will go with your suggestion, but do not presume to tell me how to conduct warfare, Prime!" Megatron spat back. "I am warfare!"

"Just go kill Jhiaxus already!" Prime grunted his reply as he thrust down with his outstretched fingers and drove them into the chest of a soldier that had managed to get through the hail of weapons fire to charge him in robot mode.


*


Megatron peered ahead at the fiery discharge of Omega Supreme's enormous thruster, and smiled at the hundreds of wrecks continuously dropping out of their way, either in flames from the Guardian’s tremendous blasts or flattened from impacting against the massive warrior’s near-indestructible hull. There were those that managed to weave around the giant rocket in an attempt to get at the white shuttle hauling the blue cargo roller, but those attackers were met by Sixshot, gracefully maneuvering between the two Autobot giants and destroying anyone that got past Omega Supreme.

“Exiting the atmosphere and entering Cybertronian orbit.” Sky Lynx announced. Megatron noted the hordes of green and white warriors clearing away from them and braced himself for the onslaught from the giant warships that had launched them. Sky Lynx broke away from Omega Supreme and Sixshot and utilizing maneuverability that seemed impossible for his vast size and bulk began making his way toward the largest warship, The Twilight.


***


The trek was at an end, their quarry was near, and they could feel it. Razorclaw led his team through the deserted ruins of Polyhex toward Darkmount, and found the visibly agitated Galvatron using the lowest setting of his fusion tube to blast away tiny pieces of a sixty foot tall chunk of metal positioned in front of the looming fortress. It took them a few moments to figure out what he was doing, but they quickly realized that he was trying to sculpt a statue, no doubt one of himself. “Greetings Galvatron.” Razorclaw announced as he and the other Predacons approached their former leader, all in robot mode.

The purple warrior spun around and faced those that were intruding on his moment of creative expression. “Razorclaw, you traitorous beast! You dare show your face after deserting me for that inferior prototype of a commander?”

“I dare, Galvatron.” Razorclaw replied as he continued marching toward the enraged abandoned leader. “But our loyalty has never been to Megatron.”

A confused look came over Galvatron. “Not Megatron? Then why…” Galvatron’s optics widened and a smile came over his face. “You were injured or otherwise unaware that the retreat from the orbital battle was not called by me, and did not realize that you were deserting?”

“We were well aware of what we were doing.” Rampage growled as the distance between the Predacons and Galvatron was cut to a couple dozen yards.

The rage returned to Galvatron’s optics. “Then you knowingly left me?” A nod from all five Predacons only increased Galvatron’s rage and confusion. “If your loyalty is not to Megatron, and it is clearly not to me, then what fool have you given your allegiance to? Or are you planning on asserting your claim to leadership of all Decepticons, Razorclaw?”

Razorclaw drew his sword and came to a stop thirty feet in front of Galvatron. He peered down at his sword for a moment, and then slowly raised his long optic to the raging war machine standing before him. “I have no interest in becoming Decepticon Commander, Galvatron. The loyalty of the Predacons is to our creator and the one that was most fit to rule Cybertron, until your act of treachery ended his existence; Shockwave.”

Galvatron’s optics widened in surprise just as Razorclaw raised his sword to strike, with the other four Predacons following suit.


***


There’s a freedom that comes with certain death. When victory is impossible, the opportunity to flee has long passed, and the comprehension of what those things signify comes over a person, acceptance and a degree of calm take place. Couple with those things something worth fighting for and an enemy standing before you that’s a threat to whatever that something is, and an absolute fearlessness comes over a person. Spike suddenly felt himself awash in this feeling, and the fear and uncertainty that had been plaguing him for hours faded and in its place an almost giddy eagerness to lash out at those that were a threat to his family. “Max, are you ready?” Spike’s voiced question emanated from the head of Cerebros.

“I am.” The fortress, configured for battle mode, boomed.

“Wolves, are you ready?” Spike asked.

“Yes sir!” They replied in unison.

“Then gentlemen, it has been an honor to serve with each of you. Now fire at will and make these bastards pay a horrific price for locking horns with us!” With that Cerebros and the Wolves began blasting away at the oncoming wall of green and white tanks, battle rollers and various other ground-based war vehicles. A second later the wall of mountains to their left shook with the sounds of Maximus’s ordinance firing into the endless wave of enemies.

The rounds hurled forward at impossible speeds by the human rail guns easily cut through the armor of the advancing soldiers of the Cybertronian Empire. There weren’t the destructive blasts caused by shots from Cerebros and Max, but when aimed well, the rounds were very capable of incapacitating and killing, and these men were trained to aim well. Within seconds dozens, then hundreds in the front of the advance were killed and pushed aside, either over the ledge to the west or crushed up against the jagged metal cliff face to the east.

But despite the casualty rate, the soldiers of Jhiaxus continued pushing forward, many of the corpses remaining in front and being used as shields to help their comrades gain ground. Spike, nestled in his transformed armor atop Cerebros’s shoulders utilized his cybernetic link to view the proceedings through Cerebros’s optics. “Max, concentrate fire dead center and punch a hole that will slow these guys down!”

BOOOM! Metal bodies and debris flew in every direction and the humans were forced to wince at the nearly unfathomable sound of Maximus’s ordinance blasting through the center of their attackers. Charred metal and bodies were everywhere, and it took a couple moments for the invaders to regroup, but they did and soon it was as if Maximus’s overwhelming frontal blast had never occurred. “Alright, let’s shake things up! Max, transform to robot mode for a bit and take it to them. Wolves, flatten out or find cover somewhere until we get back and transform back to battle station mode!”

Maximus did as ordered, and a moment later the nearly one-thousand foot tall Autobot was stomping into the advancing vehicles and robots, knocking dozens off the cliff with a swing of his massive foot, bending over to sweep numerous others with his giant hands and forearms, and keeping his cannons firing almost the entire time. He advanced several hundred yards, decimating the enemy soldiers as quickly as he could before running back to his previous position and transforming back to battle station mode.

“Well done Max!” Spike called out. “Hit and run, bloody their slagging nose and get back before they get a chance to flank us!”

“Yeah, that was good there Cap’n,” Halpin said through the communications link “but you do realize we’ll be running out of ammo and Max’ll run out of energon before we get through a twentieth of these guys, right?”

“Then let’s kill a twentieth of these guys, shall we?” Spike snapped back. “Just remember what happens to Earth if these guys get Vector Sigma! We buy Prime as much time as possible and I’m sure he’ll come through and hammer these guys to filings!”

In the distance behind the defenders, behind an outcropping of metal shards was Chroniclax and the other Neutrals, his optics recording every image of destruction and carnage, his link to their communication channel recording all that was said; all of which was being transmitted to Custodex’s personal data depository.


***


The comfortable, mid-sized shuttle came out of super luminous speeds and continued at half-light speed through the myriad of interconnected pods that made up the central section of the Hub. Rook expertly piloted the craft to the center and after what seemed and eternity to the impatient Starscream, approached and then entered the largest of round structures. Starscream, who had been standing behind Rook, lowered his head and placed it next to Rook, a broad grin etched across it. “Are we there yet?”

“Yes.” Rook replied as he stood up and made his way to the opening door and lowering ramp. “Come with me, the Liege Maximo awaits our arrival.”

Starscream trotted after him excitedly. The two robots made their way through miles of hallway before finally reaching a large room. Starscream scanned the vast expanse of a room, taking in all the various details, and deriving some slight amusement from what could only be vast quantities of vegetation and other organic material throughout the chamber. A movement off to the side finally alerted the Seeker to the presence of an enormous being, one that possessed mechanical and reptilian traits, a blending of substances that reminded Starscream of a Quintesson to some degree. “Greetings Starscream, I understand that a bargain was made, and that you have upheld your end of it.”

Starscream easily suppressed his intimidation and stepped forward toward the giant. “Yes, Liege Maximo, that I have.”

“Well then,” the giant technorganic green Liege Maximo peered down at his visitor “it is time for me to uphold my end then. Rook, please leave us.”

“Yes my Liege.” Rook bowed before leaving.


***


Jetfire weaved maniacally through the endless sea of airborne green fighters trying desperately to blast him out of the sky, launching missiles back at them whenever he got a chance and always connecting, but the destruction that he and the other members of the Autobot-Decepticon coalition were causing was having no impact on their attackers in a broad sense, and finally, after impossibly evading nearly infinite rounds of weapons fire, he finally caught a blast to his wing. That initial hit was followed by a second, third, fourth and then a fifth that forced him to a crash landing. The white and red super jet screeched to a halt on the metal ground about a mile from the line of his ground based comrades.

Ultra Magnus, the ranking officer at that section of the perimeter, saw his comrade go down and leapt away from the safety of his comrades, transformed, and sped toward Jetfire.

“Magnus, no!” Kup called out to his former student.

“Kup, step up and cover for me until I get back!” Magnus called back and made it to Jetfire, who had painfully transformed while getting pelted with laser fire and was trying futilely to get to his feet. Magnus fired repeatedly at those dogging his Air Commander, but soon found himself in the same desperate situation as Jetfire.

The two Autobots braced themselves against each others’ backs and fired up at their assailants, knowing that it would only be a matter of moments before they were cut to shreds. Though they were fighting furiously, they both were coming to terms that these would be their final moments. At least that’s what they were coming to terms with until a bolt of purple followed by four streaks of blue cut through the green. The battered Jetfire and Magnus looked up to see Cyclonus transform and land in front of them as Scourge and the Sweeps kept Jhiaxus’s fliers busy. “I seek Megatron.”

“Can’t you wait until after the battle to kill him for your master?” Jetfire posed as he and Magnus got to their wobbly feet.

“I am not here to kill him.” Cyclonus replied before grabbing the two of them and flying them back to their battle line, where Kup and Wheeljack immediately tended to them.

“Are we supposed to believe that?” Magnus asked as Wheeljack began a quick examination.

“If I were here to kill him I would not bother to lie to the likes of you.” Cyclonus arrogantly snapped. “Galvatron survives and thrives only if the Decepticons do so as well. And unfortunately Galvatron is temporarily stricken with an ailment that makes Megatron the better leader for the Decepticons…for the time being.”

“So, you’re here to ensure Megatron’s safety?” Kup asked skeptically.

“Yes.” Cyclonus replied. “Where is he?”

“Cyclonus speaks the truth.” Soundwave announced as he approached, apparently unconcerned with any repercussions at revealing that he had pried into the mind of Galvatron’s trusted second. “Megatron has traveled to Jhiaxus’s flag ship. He seeks personal combat with Jhiaxus.”

“He abandons his troops and risks defeat just to quench his desire for glory.” Cyclonus pondered. “Perhaps he is not the leader I considered him to be.”

“Take a look around, genius!” Kup growled as he squeezed off a few rounds at the green and white fliers. “We were past running the risk of defeat days before the battle started! It’s been all but assured since the first of these slaggers entered our atmosphere.”

Cyclonus took Kup’s advice and scanned the area, noting the swarms of invaders bearing down on the defenders of Iacon, three taking the place of every invader shot down. “Yes, I see. It is a desperate attempt at cutting off the snake’s head, but an endeavor that’s less desperate than remaining here and fighting a losing battle.” Cyclonus turned to Soundwave. “But his place is still at the head of his army. I will see to decapitating this snake.” The purple warrior transformed and shot into the sky, barreling through the invaders that got in his way. “Scourge, with me!”


***


Sky Lynx’s bird mode fought off the attacking fliers as his lynx mode pounced upon the Twilight’s hull at forces that swarmed out of the ship to face him and Megatron, who stood defiantly, hands on his hips, staring up at the bridge with an arrogant sneer on his face. He said nothing, but the message was clear. ‘Come and get me, Jhiaxus.’

Inside the ship Jhiaxus glared at the screen in front of him that was displaying the Decepticon legend. “Thank you Megatron…” Jhiaxus muttered to himself “now HE will know which of us is truly worthy of his praise and respect.” With that Jhiaxus transformed in the bridge and blasted forward, smashing through the transparent metal front window and sped down to where Megatron was waiting for him. “Warriors of the Empire, stand down!” He bellowed through a communications channel that was only open to those in the immediate vicinity.

Megatron turned and nodded to the giant blue cat, then to the white bird before opening a channel to them as well as Omega Supreme and Sixshot, who had been battling fighters further from the ship. “Return to the surface and aid our forces, they need you, I no longer do.” Megatron then turned to the massive warlord. “So, I understand that you were one of my foot soldiers. According to some of Shockwave’s performance evaluations you were quite a competent soldier.”

Jhiaxus displayed a smile. “Competent?”

“Yes, a very capable warrior.” Megatron continued his backhanded flattery. “I believe he claimed that were you to control your rages, you might at some point make an adequate officer.”

“Even before joining the Cybertronian Empire to achieve the rank of Liege Centuro, I was given command, by Shockwave I might add, over an entire squadron.” Jhiaxus smirked.

“Yes, a squadron sent into deep space to scavenge for some form of energy.” Megatron replied.

“Well, whatever you think of me, or my performance back when I was uneducated and serving blunt throwbacks,” Jhiaxus snarled “I have changed a great deal since then.”

Megatron laughed, the laughter not heard in space, but it, and the words that followed, were transmitted like with the rest of the conversation. “I’m going to continue your education and let you in on a little secret. Nobody changes. You may learn a few things as you go, acquire new skills or even nuggets of wisdom, perhaps even go through temporary behavior-modifying moods, but ultimately all of that passes and you die the same individual you were when you first came on line. This is true even more so for beings like us, for whom the prospect of immortality is a possibility. Why change today when change is uncomfortable and there are countless tomorrows to implement any change that may or may not be necessary?”

Jhiaxus looked his former leader up and down. “Then from that I can assume that you are, and have always been, nothing more than the Slagmaker?”

Megatron smiled. “You are about to find that out first hand.”

“Excellent.” Jhiaxus returned the smile.


***


The golden-hued blade sliced through the air and sunk into the left forearm of Galvatron, who yanked his arm with enough force to pull the sword out of Headstrong’s grasp and fling it across the metal ground. Rampage lunged in an attempt to impale Galvatron, but the point only cut into his mid-section a couple of inches, and was rewarded by a thunderous backhand that sent Rampage hurtling backward.

Divebomb came down out of the sky and was about to pounce on the besieged purple warrior, but Galvatron’s arm snapped up and blasted a shot from his fusion tube through the flying Predacon’s wing, sending him sailing back and bouncing across the ground. Razorclaw and Tantrum took advantage of Galvatron’s optics and weapon-wielding arm pointing up and charged in to spear their former leader, Razorclaw planting his right shoulder into Galvatron’s chest and Tantrum planting his left shoulder into the tyrant’s abdomen.

Despite the raw physical power used by the two Predacons, the attack only caused Galvatron to be pushed back a few steps and he immediately slammed down hard on Razorclaw’s back with his right fist and thrust up savagely with his balled left fist into Tantrum’s mid-section, smashing the Predacon leader against the metal ground and sending the horned Tantrum flipping a few times through the air over Galvatron’s head.

Headstrong had drawn his rifle and began peppering Galvatron with minimally effective fire, and his attack was met with the purple warrior charging him and laying him out with a staggering right cross. “Is this the best the mighty Predacons have to offer?” Galvatron bellowed, his voice echoing off the heavily damaged but still imposing walls of Darkmount.

His question was answered by Rampage, who cut a gash across Galvatron’s cheek and sliced again with a swipe that crossed Galvatron’s chest, cutting in through the armor an inch deep. “How’s that Galvy?”

“Whelp!” Galvatron snarled and fired at the Predacon, just missing him by inches as Rampage leapt out of the way. Razorclaw’s sword slammed hard against the back of Galvatron’s head, the helmet keeping the blade from piercing into Galvatron’s head, but the impact sent the Decepticon stumbling forward.

Galvatron turned, hatred burning through his optics as he glared at Razorclaw, but his focus was once again redirected as a pair of shots from Divebomb’s rifles impacted his neck. “Grrrfff.” Galvatron stumbled back, one hand to his neck as the other reached forward to block more of Divebomb’s shots. Despite being caught off guard, Galvatron recovered a moment later and squeezed off a couple of shots at the winged Predacon. Neither shot directly hit the scrambling Divebomb, but the second scorched the armor of the Predacon’s right leg. “Slagging pheasant, I’ll eviscerate you!”

“Do not let up Predacons, this is the opportunity that we’ve waited so long for!” Razorclaw roared as he slammed his sword down on the top of Galvatron’s fusion tube, hoping to disable the unbelievably powerful weapon, but failing to do so. Galvatron reflexively swung and batted Razorclaw back, but was quickly pounced upon by a giant panther, which sliced at his chest with the claws on its forepaws and gouged into his back with the claws on its rear paws.

Galvatron reached up to grab the great cat, but a charging rhino slammed into his mid-section, trying to gore the enraged Decepticon with his horn. Rampage leapt away as the horn cut in several inches, but whatever pain it caused did not slow Galvatron down in the least, as the besieged warlord battered down on the rhino’s back, planting Headstrong’s bestial underside into the metal ground. Just as Galvatron was bringing his cannon into position to blast through the downed Headstrong, two bull horns jabbed into his back and he was driven forward by the charging Tantrum.

Galvatron twisted violently and back-fisted the bull in the right shoulder, sending the animal tumbling over the metal ground. The giant panther dove at Galvatron’s blind side, but the hulking robot twisted to smack the feline away and turned and braced against the lion diving at him from the front. Galvatron caught the fore paws, twisted and swung Razorclaw in beast mode over his head and slammed him into the ground.

Divebomb’s sword slammed heavily into the back of Galvatron’s helmet, but did little more than distract and irritate the powerhouse. A twist and an uppercut sent the winged Predacon flying back through the air and landing hard on the ground. “Pathetic!”

A hand gripped Galvatron’s shoulder and spun him around. Galvatron’s optics focused on the twin barrel openings of the newly transformed Razorclaw’s shoulder cannon just as they glowed with power and blasted him in the face at point blank range. The smoldering purple warrior skipped across the ground and skidded to a halt at the base of the ancient Decepticon stronghold. Galvatron’s head snapped up, a look of absolute hatred and rage glowing in the red optics focusing on the five Predacons that were regrouping a few dozen yards ahead of him. Razorclaw noted the homicidal rage had reached a boiling point in his former leader, and decided that playtime was over. “Predacons, merge.”


(continued on next post)

 

(continued from previous post)


"Mindset, come in."

The hulking visored field commander raised the communicator built into his wrist to his face. "Mindset here, have you cleared the obstacle yet?"

"No sir, unfortunately the battle station and the mech-suit fitted organics are still firmly entrenched at the narrowest point in the path stopping our progress." The voice replied.

"And our attrition rate?" Mindset asked.

"Still embarrassingly high." The bearer of bad news heard Mindset's groan and quickly steered the discussion back on course to his intended subject matter. "I wanted to make you aware of a signal being continuously transmitted from a location a few hundred yards to the rear of the battle station to an as yet unidentified location hundreds of miles away."

An even deeper groan rolled out from behind Mindset's faceplate. "Great, just what I need, for footage of this increasing body count to be broadcast to the rest of the home world. Instruct the Denouement to create a transmission blockade beginning, block any transmission trying to get farther than the city housing Vector Sigma. And then find a way to punch through that impediment! You will regret being birthed if I’m forced to go to the front line and direct the battle personally! Mindset out."


*


Consul Custodex watched the view screen with glee as the enormous structure that was Fortress Maximus mercilessly pounded his ordinance into throngs of vehicles and robots trying to advance on his position, decimating them and adding their lifeless parts to the thousands of other corpses littering the ground. Those that managed to avoid death from the thunderous barrage found themselves being sadistically perforated by the armored humans and their rail guns, or in the case of the human leader, Spike Witwicky, the blasters mounted on his headmaster suit. The headless Cerebros was also racking up a body count with his own sniping of those enemies that evaded Maximus's bursts. The fervor with which they slaughtered these robots was vividly clear on Chroniclax's transmission, and was turning out even better than Custodex had hoped. The Cybertronian government's ranking member had hoped to see some vicious battling for a few moments before the invaders overran Maximus and the humans, but to have footage of a top-tier Autobot commander and their human allies brutally executing thousands would be perhaps the most potent weapon in Custodex's public relations arsenal.

Suddenly the image went blank. Custodex checked his terminal, trying to get the signal back, but upon reading that there was no longer any signal to acquire, realized that the transmission had been jammed or terminated. Either way, he had gotten more than enough. The realization that Chroniclax, his trusted advisor and biographer, was likely dead or soon would be entered his mind. Custodex shrugged. Chroniclax was a useful, but hardly irreplaceable asset. He had served his purpose, and would be fondly remembered. But ultimately, he mattered not. Nothing mattered but achieving peace and disarmament on Cybertron.

Custodex reached forward and opened a channel of communication on his terminal. "Please connect me to Consul Saloria."

"As you wish, Consul." The computerized voice came back.

Within moments another voice came through his speaker. "Saloria here."

"Hello my dear, how are you doing?" Custodex charmingly addressed his colleague.

"I suppose as well as can be expected, given that our planet is being invaded by some deranged, power-hungry kin of ours." The Femme replied. "What can I do for you Consul Custodex?"

"I would like to call the governing council to session to vote the Pax Cybertronia into law." Custodex replied, a smile coming over his face.

"I was not aware that you had completed the document." Saloria responded.

"I have only just recently put the finishing touches on it." Custodex answered with a smug sense of satisfaction.

"Well then I see no problem doing so. I'll put out the call to session out once these invaders are repelled." Saloria replied. "Provided we're able to repel them."

"The Autobots and Decepticons likely won't be able to repel them." Custodex replied, a lack of concern in his voice. "I've read up on the intelligence reports the Autobots have compiled regarding this Cybertronian Empire, and if their estimate on the numbers arrayed against them is even remotely accurate, they will be overrun shortly. I have seen footage with my own optics confirming that the number of invading troops attempting to take Cybertropolis number well into the tens of thousands."

"Oh..." Unlike Custodex, Saloria's voice gave off a very clear indication of how troubling this news was to her. "Well then, perhaps calling the governing body to session may not be prudent after all." The Co-Consul was silent for a moment before continuing. "In light of this, our tenure as a governing body may be over before the call to session can even be made."

"I fully understand your fears, Consul Saloria, but I believe that our authority, as well as our well being will not be jeopardized, regardless of who wins." Custodex replied confidently. "I have read the dossier of the commanding officer of this invasion force, a former Decepticon named Jhiaxus. From what I've been able to discern, what we have in Liege Centuro Jhiaxus is a raging brute who desperately desires to be seen as a thoughtful, reasonable statesman. With this in mind, we need only treat him as he sees himself, stroke his ego, praise him as the champion of peace and order that we've been waiting an eternity for, and he will gladly endorse our government and allow us as much autonomy as we wish."

"But they're here to conquer Cybertron. I don't see how flattery will convince him to walk away, especially given that he's a Decepticon." Saloria questioned. "Even if he has discarded the aggressive nature found in nearly all Decepticons, one of the Eternal Decrees listed in the Pax would make his presence on our world a violation of the law. And as an Eternal Decree, it can not be removed or even modified as long as our government exists."

"True, but until ratified by the governing body, the words of the Pax, even the eternal decrees, are not yet law, and therefore can be changed." Custodex replied, grinning broadly. "Which made me think of one of the revisions that you requested."

"The pushing back of the date of renunciation?" Saloria asked eagerly.

"Yes," Custodex smiled slyly "though only to four-hundred breems past the ratification of the Pax Cybertronia. Jhiaxus seems to have lost any sentimental loyalty to the Decepticon name, and the brand he bears already deviates from the traditional symbol, so I see him being amenable to denouncing his heritage. I only hope for your sake that the same can be said of your daughter and her ties to the Autobot line."

"That's barely more than two human days..." the momentarily despondent Saloria ceased her complaint. "I will do whatever it takes to make her see the light. And I will call the senators to session as soon as the invasion has ended."

"No." Custodex interjected. "Contact them now."

"But...I don't understand." Saloria replied. "How can we possibly..."

"You will tell them to be ready to meet the moment hostilities have ended." Custodex interrupted. "I want to be looking at a voting quorum within a few of breems of the invasion's end. The Autobots are still very popular in many segments, so the opportunity to get the Pax ratified, especially that Eternal Decree you mentioned earlier, will only fall within the confines of a very narrow period of time. In the off chance that Optimus Prime is victorious, we must not allow he and his kind the opportunity to sway the opinion of the public and their appointed senators to their favor."

"But Cybertropolis has been evacuated. It will take some time before the Autobots declare it safe to return, and then even longer for all the senators to get there." Saloria pointed out.

"True. So we shall meet in Iacon." Custodex offered. "The siege seems to be confined to the central section of the city-state now, and there are more than enough venues in the outer sections of Iacon to serve as a meeting place for the governing council."

"Even the outer sections are closer to the combat than I and most of the other senators would prefer." The Femme countered.

"Have courage my dear." Custodex reassured. "The Oracle has not taken us this far merely to lead us to our death."


***


"Of course it is within my capability to do so, but I just want to make sure that this is what you want." The Liege Maximo's deep voice echoed off of the walls.

Starscream smiled. "I have put a great deal of thought into this, and yes, I am certain that this is what I want."

"If I may ask, why did you select this point in time?" The giant technorganic creature started moving across the room toward an array of machinery whose complexity seemed unfathomable to Starscream. "What significance does it hold?"

"Oh, it’s just a calculated point of entry so that I can accomplish something before someone else lays claim to the achievement." Starscream replied.

"I see. And what of this individual whose accomplishment you wish to usurp?" The giant overlord asked. "Do you foresee them becoming an impediment should this endeavor take longer to accomplish than expected?"

"Do not worry about that, I will see that this impediment is removed with extreme prejudice long before he has any idea of what's going on." Starscream smirked.

"Understood." The Liege Maximo began operating the machinery, and very soon it was humming to life. "I have input the date that you wish to be sent back to."

"And this device will transport me to that exact point in time?" Starscream asked skeptically.

"To the nanoclick." The technorganic monster replied. "Second thoughts?"

"No, just due prudence." Starscream smiled as a wall of energy erupted into existence in front of him.

"Then proceed." The giant instructed, and watched as the Seeker smiled and marched into the energy field. Once Starscream vanished the Liege Maximo switched off the device. "Ignorant fool, even were I to allow you the opportunity to try and snuff Megatron in his infancy and unite the Decepticons under your leadership, you would fail on both counts. But I can not take the chance of you getting lucky with the extermination of a newborn Megatron. Enjoy extinction Starscream."


*


‘What is this?’ Starscream twisted his head furiously in every direction. Dirt? Starscream glared disgustedly at the ground beneath him. “This isn’t Cybertron!” In that instant the would-be great unifier of the Decepticon tribes realized what had happened, and silently cursed both the Liege Maximo and himself. “Insipid fool!” The Seeker growled at himself as he peered over the organic environment, one well lit by the planet’s local star, but his mood improved at the sight of a large city in the distance. It was an odd conglomeration of what appeared to be ancient structures designed for smaller, roughly human-sized creatures, and more recent, seemingly hastily built edifices designed for beings with statures on par with Cybertronians.

An internal chronometer check confirmed what Starscream already knew; that the Liege Maximo had adhered to the letter of Starscream’s request. The former Decepticon Air Commander had indeed been transported through time to five vorns prior to Megatron’s first confirmed appearance. But while the time was right, the location was not. Though implied, Starscream did not explicitly instruct the giant reptile to put him somewhere on Cybertron. A stupid mistake to be sure, but with the presence of some sort of technological civilization, and very likely adequate energy sources, Starscream would be able to design and construct a space-faring craft and get to Cybertron with a great deal of time to spare. He chuckled at thinking how only an hour before he believed that he had padded his prep-time too much and would arrive so early that he’d need to fall into stasis lock just to pass the time before Megatron would emerge.

Actually, given his knowledge of how to construct worm-hole generators, he likely still would have an exorbitant amount of time on his hands, regardless of how far away the Liege Maximo sent him. He figured he could have a ship constructed within a few human weeks, assuming the native civilization was very primitive in comparison to Cybertron he figured it would take him a couple of human months to construct the very complex worm-hole generator, and from there it would be a matter of minutes to launch and arrive in Cybertronian orbit. All in less than a human year, he’d still have centuries to put in motion his schemes for Cybertron, more than enough time to determine ways to lay out a plan of action with his younger self, eliminate the various Decepticon city-state warlords, take possession of their soldiers, execute an as yet unknown chrome warrior and lay claim to his destiny.

Starscream was pulled away from his musings as his proximity sensors alerted him to several aircraft headed his way. He looked up into the sky to assess the possible threat, and was surprised by what met his optics. The seven fliers were Cybertronian, but definitely not a threat to the likes of Starscream. The designs were archaic, to the point where Starscream didn’t even recognize the designs. Certain elements were somewhat recognizable, as though they may have served as some sort of influence to the designs of frames worn by the oldest Decepticons Starscream had known when he was first brought on line. And to add to the problems of this welcoming committee was that fact that their ancient frames were in a horrible state of disrepair. “Hmm, this is an interesting development.” The sleek air warrior mentioned to himself as he watched the seven jets lower out of the sky toward him.

They all transformed when they were forty feet off the ground and landed heavily onto the ground, kicking up large clouds of dust in the process. Starscream winced at the complete lack of grace displayed by what could be his forebears. Given the Deceptibrands etched into each of them, they likely were his forebears of sorts. A bulky dark gray robot, the probable leader, marched forward toward Starscream with a pistol in his hand, though it was not yet pointed at the newcomer. “State your name!”

The Seeker smiled. “My designation is Starscream, and is that any way to address a Decepticon brother?”

“It is if that Decepticon brother’s loyalty is to the gods.” The dark gray robot snarled back. “We’ve long since butchered the organic slave masters that they sold us to fifty thousand vorns ago, and we will not be returning to the auction block for a new set of masters. Our creators or not, we will go down fighting before allowing ourselves to be shackled by the five faced slaggers that erased all memory pertaining to the location of home and leaving us here in a state of servitude!”

“Stated like a true Decepticon warrior.” Starscream replied flatteringly. “Rest assured my friends, the yoke of the Quintessons was tossed off of Cybertron roughly forty-thousand vorns ago. Cyberton is ruled by Cybertronians, albeit in disorganized regional governments enforcing wildly varying sets of laws in wildly varying manners, but we are no longer ruled by semi-organic beings claiming to be our gods. Help me, and I will not only repair you but upgrade you with the latest technology, bring you back to Cybertron with me, and allow you entrance in my inner circle as I bring about peace and order to Cybertron before spreading that peace and order throughout the galaxy.”

The dark gray leader of the group turned to his comrades, all of whom began sharing looks of extreme happiness and relief. The leader turned back to Starscream, a smile working its way across his cracked and dented face. “That is excellent to hear, and we will help you in any way possible. When we first saw the size of the battle station you arrived in we knew that we would be at the mercy of whoever it was piloting that craft. Our greatest fear was that it was the gods constructing another world the way that they claim to have created Cybertron, one that they could pilot throughout the galaxy. But to see that it’s not only the ship of a Cybertronian, but a fellow Decepticon, well, our long painful existence has definitely been rewarded.”

“Battle station?” Starscream was utterly dumbfounded. “What are you talking about?”

A rusty and battered orange soldier stepped forward, a look of confusion etched onto his only partially functioning facial features. “The moon sized craft that arrived in our orbit nearly an hour ago. In fact, it’s coming to within visual range now.” The robot pointed skyward above and behind Starscream.

Starscream turned and glanced up to what the orange robot was pointing at and felt his mech fluids run cold. There it was visible in space but coming closer in this planet’s orbit, crossing the horizon quickly and eclipsing the primary star; Unicron. The Seeker panicked as he saw the planet-killer’s open maw bristling with energy, and ran across the ground consumed by dread and confusion. Starscream stopped running, braced his feet in a wide stance as he turned to look up once again, and as the unfathomably powerful blast came down from the heavens, the chronologically displaced Decepticon futilely raised his hands over his face to protect himself from the attack.

In orbit the Chaos Bringer did what he had done millions of times before and dismantled the life bearing planet before sucking the vast debris into its maw. Coming out from the trillions of tons of dust, rock and other assorted clumps was a tiny glowing orb possessing traits that allowed it to escape Unicron’s pull and head out into the depths of space.

The disembodied spark of Starscream sped out from the trap that the Liege Maximo had led him into and began to assess his situation. His evaluation of the stars laid out before him made the flying spark dim just a bit. He had five vorns before Megatron would emerge, six before his conquest of the Decepticon warlords would be complete, and going by what his memory of star charts was telling him, he was in the outskirts of the galaxy. Based on his current location in space and his maximum velocity, it would be tens of thousands of vorns before he would reach Cybertron, almost to the point where he had first traveled through time. “Curse you Maximo! I will get my revenge!”

It was then that another option came to the spark’s attention. “Earth!” Starscream’s voice emerged from the orb. “It will still take me tens of thousands of vorns to get there, but I should arrive long before that wretched volcano erupts, more than enough time to see to the demise of a dormant Megatron as well as all the Autobots, and revive the Decepticons under my leadership. And there’s nothing there to stop me, absolutely nothing! Even the humans will not have made it to the Homo sapiens stage by that point. There will be nothing on that planet to threaten my plans, nothing but beasts!” The spark sped off into the inkiness of space, laughing as he went.


***


The balled golden-hued fist slammed hard against Megatron's chin, sending the Decepticon Commander flying into the vacuum of space, but the chrome leader immediately recovered, contorted his body so that he once again faced the hull of the massive Twilight, and engaged his thrusters to bring him back to the brawl with Jhiaxus. The two locked up once again and began grappling. The fight had been almost even to this point, neither warrior causing significant damage to the other, but the slightly larger Jhiaxus did seem to have the slight advantage in terms of strength and durability, and while Megatron recognized this, it hardly intimidated him as he slammed his helmeted forehead into the nose of his enemy, then twisting, pulling Jhiaxus over him and slamming him down onto the metal exterior of the flagship.

Jhiaxus snapped his foot up and delivered a right snap-kick to the top of Megatron's head, sending the recently re-crowned ruler of the Decepticons falling back, but he rolled and popped back up on his feet simultaneously with Jhiaxus. Once again the two warriors locked up and Jhiaxus began pushing Megatron back, but the slightly smaller Decepticon rolled back, pulled Jhiaxus with him, planted the bottom of his foot in the Liege Centuro's mid-section and kicked him over to land hard on his back. Jhiaxus flipped over to push himself up, but a hammer strike from the spinning Megatron sent him tumbling back.

The Twilight was large enough to have a significant gravitational pull, but it was still far weaker than what either robot was used to dealing with, and Jhiaxus had no difficulty giving a gentle push off the hull to send him flying quickly at Megatron and land an uppercut that sent Megatron falling back. Megatron too recovered quickly and charged back at the invader, throwing a barrage of punches that was met with a barrage of punches.

The two hammered away at each other for nearly two straight minutes before Jhiaxus landed a strike to Megatron's throat that sent the Decepticon Commander stumbling back and Jhiaxus took the moment of advantage to step in and deliver a staggering uppercut that sent Megatron flying back and landing hard against the hull. Jhiaxus smiled as he crossed his arms and glared down at the legend. "He made you immensely powerful. He re-made me to be even more so."

"What are you babbling about, twit?" Megatron snarled through the communications channel as he got back to his feet and started marching toward the white, green, yellow and red warrior, his fists clenched tightly and murder in his optics. But before reaching striking range, Megatron halted and blasted his cannon into the warlord's chest, sending Jhiaxus hurtling back and bouncing against the hull, his smoldering frame coming to a stop. Jhiaxus drew a cannon from under the wing mounted on his back and began firing back, angered at himself for being duped into thinking Megatron would engage him sans weapons.

"Resorting to firepower in the face of the overwhelming strength of a superior warrior, Megatron?" Jhiaxus gloated through clenched teeth as the two leaders pounded each other with ordinance.

"I'm not here for bragging rights, servant, I'm here to eliminate the leadership of these endless, mindless hordes!" Megatron growled back.

"That is what I was hoping to have verified." The voice through their communications channel preceded Cyclonus's arrival by a couple of seconds, an arrival that had him blasting through a half dozen of Jhiaxus's fliers before transforming to robot mode and landing heavily on the hull of the ship between the two leaders. Dozens of other fighters turned to attack him, but Scourge blasted through them and drew their attention to him. Cyclonus turned to Megatron. "Taking out Jhiaxus was the right course of action, and I will see it through. But right now your troops need you to lead them. Scourge will return you to the front line."

"I am to believe this slag?" Megatron barked the question through the communications channel. "You and the chief flying soap dish would love nothing more than to present my head to your insane master!"

Cyclonus leveled a heated glare at Megatron as he replied in a barely controlled tone. "I assure you that we will not cause you harm, though I suggest you refrain from insulting Galvatron further. As it stands I am deeply conflicted aiding you, but I have come to the conclusion that he only survives if the Decepticons survive. And in light of his current condition, the survival of the Decepticons is best served with you at the helm. Now go, lead your troops! I will attend to Jhiaxus."

“NO!” Jhiaxus bellowed almost frantically through the speaker and started marching toward the two Decepticons. “No one shall take this from me!”

Megatron ignored the oncoming Jhiaxus for the moment and locked optics with Galvatron's second, and though extremely skeptical, he decided to trust the purple warrior. "Alright, call my cab." The Decepticon Commander turned to Jhiaxus, who had frozen in his tracks, a look of disbelieving fear in his optics, a fear not due to facing Cyclonus, but one borne out of the thought that the opportunity to fight Megatron may never again be available. "I wish that I could finish what I started, but Cyclonus is correct, my place is with my troops." A moment later Scourge swooped down and Megatron grabbed hold of his rear crest, allowing himself to be pulled at tremendous speed through the swarms of green and white fliers that had been chasing or fleeing from Scourge, and down toward the surface of Cybertron.

“NO!” Cyclonus turned to Jhiaxus, who was glaring hatefully at him while hundreds of fliers hovered above awaiting the order to obliterate the purple interloper. "You…you…slagging exhaust port! You dare interrupt an honor bout; one that I've fantasized about for tens of thousands of vorns?" The furious Liege Centuro bellowed through the communications channel.

"I interrupted the fight because it was not an honor bout." Cyclonus calmly explained. "But if you are so eager to prove what a powerful warrior you are, might I suggest taking on a challenger whose frame was created from the fires of Unicron himself?"

A clearly enraged Jhiaxus responded with a charge.


***


Galvatron's frame slammed hard against the ancient metal wall of Darkmount with enough force to cause the front section of the giant structure to shudder and leave a dent. The former Decepticon leader rolled out of the dent and fell eighty feet to the ground, a ground that shuddered with the advancing footfalls of PredaKing. Galvatron wearily raised his head and noted the oncoming giant. An enraged sneer replaced the look of pained fatigue and the purple warrior sprung forward, transforming as his frame was propelled forward, and the super cannon on treads quickly targeted the gestalt's chest and fired.

PredaKing attempted to react, but though the fastest of gestalts, he was unable to dodge this nearly point-blank shot. The blast erupted against the lower portion of the lion head mounted on his upper chest and sent him stumbling back. The multi-spark enhanced armor was astoundingly effective against all but the most powerful of ordinance, but unfortunately for the combined Predacons, blasts from Galvatron's fusion tube fell into that category. PredaKing let out a roar as he composed himself and once again started toward his former commander.

Galvatron fired again, but it would be nearly another minute before his cannon could power itself back up to full strength, and his second; third, fourth and fifth shots at the giant seemed to be causing little damage and doing virtually nothing to slow him down. Galvatron transformed and leaped away just in time to avoid getting stomped by PredaKing's right foot. The deposed Decepticon leader rolled over the ground, jumped as soon as he got to a standing position and took to the air, flying around the red, orange, yellow and black gestalt, peppering him with dozens of shots, each powerful enough to punch holes in normal Transformer frames. They did little more than sting the giant, but the purple warrior inflicted dozens of stings and was effectively remaining outside PredaKing's range. The gestalt gave up on trying to slice the smaller robot with his sword or swatting him with his hands and raised his arm-mounted cannon to blast Galvatron out of the sky, only to have that cannon explode in a fiery blast as Galvatron targeted and fired on it. PredaKing growled at the destruction of his primary long-range weapon, but activated his smaller, shoulder-mounted cannons and attempted to target Galvatron with them.

Galvatron laughed as the smaller cannons whirred forward in an attempt to target him, and he shot ahead, to the other side of PredaKing, narrowly evading a swipe from the giant's blade. Galvatron stopped laughing and realized that while he was quicker than the combiner, PredaKing was still far too fast and smart to think of as a gestalt in any category outside of strength and durability. Galvatron whizzed over the giant, whirled around and aimed his cannon directly at the head of the Predacon. PredaKing twisted around to track Galvatron, but as soon as he turned the purple Decepticon's recharged fusion tube spit out a fully charged shot that impacted against the Predacon's visor, rendering it inoperative and sending the ninety-foot gestalt back and into the base of Darkmount.

"Ha! Foolish clod!" Galvatron bellowed as PredaKing fell away from the heavily damaged wall and collapsed to the ground. "Nothing can withstand the might of Galvatron! Nothing!" The former leader gloated as he hovered forward, snapping off repeated shots to the back and shoulders of the downed giant. "You will pay for your treachery with your life, and my destruction of you will serve as an example to any other Decepticon considering betra..." a giant spiked left fist shot forward to grip Galvatron, gunmetal gray fingers wrapping around his left upper leg and waist. "Wha...?"

PredaKing planted his right hand onto the ground and used it to rise to his knees, maintaining his grip on Galvatron and ignoring the barrage of shots impacting and damaging his helmet and upper torso. Though currently sightless, the Predacon's grip of Galvatron made him very aware of his enemy's exact location, and the giant proceeded to deliver right cross after spiked right cross to the captive warrior, tearing and battering Galvatron's armor mercilessly and driving the purple robot closer and closer to destruction with each strike.

Within seconds Galvatron found himself being driven toward stasis lock, with death following shortly afterward. He desperately shot his fusion tube, hoping to his something vital, and if possible, vulnerable. One shot finally connected on the exposed circuitry of PredaKing's optic, giving the giant pause. Galvatron took aim and blasted the spot again, causing the monster to roar with pain and anger. The heavily battered and lacerated Galvatron then looked up and saw a large platform extending out from Darkmount sixty-five standard Cybertronian stories directly above them, one that had been build to hold a vast array of defensive weaponry. Galvatron channeled nearly all available energy to his primary weapon and aimed for the base of the platform and fired. He barely got the shot off before the recovering PredaKing embedded two of the four spikes on his right fist into Galvatron's chest, breaching the spark chamber but not yet piercing into the spark. Galvatron roared in pain, but the sound of his agonized cry was drowned out by the impact of his shot against the point where the platform connected with Darkmount, and then the tearing of metal as the weapons laden outcropping pulled away from the structure and began its twenty-six hundred foot drop.

PredaKing heard the horrendous noise and instinctively turned his face upward, but was unable to see the millions of tons of metal plummeting down at him. Galvatron, on the other hand, clearly saw the wall of machinery coming down at him and could do nothing but wince as the metal sky fell. The sound echoed for miles around, the dust kicked up extended several miles as well, and as it started to clear, an impact crater with a quarter mile radius came into view. Darkmount remained standing, but the frontal portion of the lowest twenty stories was utterly devastated. All was quiet for over half an hour before some of the debris at the center of the crater began to sift. Slowly and gingerly Galvatron pushed his way out and stumbled backward as he finally freed himself of the metal tomb, falling as he tripped over the twisted metal chunks. The relieved warrior leaned back in the wreckage and relaxed, too exhausted to crow about his victory.

Galvatron's rest was short lived, as tons of metal debris began shifting. The purple warrior scrambled to get away from the epicenter of the crater and could only watch disbelievingly as PredaKing rose through the ashes and chunks of metal. Upon his ascent to his full height the gestalt looked majestic, but as dust and debris cleared way from him, the tremendous extent of the damage to his frame became clear. He had borne the brunt of the impact, and it showed. Almost all of his armor was torn away; most of that which remained was dented and bent. Sparks were flying off of his frame like rain from a storm cloud, and it became very apparent that he was barely able to remain standing. Of course, aside from retaining his vision, Galvatron's condition wasn't any better. The gestalt took a wobbly step forward, unaware that Galvatron was struggling to line up his fusion tube at the giant. A weak shot lanced out, but it hit PredaKing's side and caused significant damage given the lack of armor. PredaKing roared in pain and anger before giving an internal command to disengage.

The five Predacons fell away from one another, all stirring painfully in their various states of damage. Rampage got to his hands and knees and looked up at Galvatron. "There you are."

Galvatron took a step, but halted as something golden buried in the debris caught the light and his attention. The former leader limped over to it, practically dragging his crushed right leg, and pulled Razorclaw's sword out from under a hill of metal shards. He then turned and glared at Rampage, who was getting to his wobbly feet. The Predacon, who no longer seemed to possess his black fur nanites, raised his hands to fight his would be prey, but was unable to adequately fend off the sword wielding maniac launching toward him off of his good left leg. Razorclaw's commandeered sword cut right through Rampage's right forearm and into the Predacon's face. The severed arm and two warriors fell to the ground, Rampage twitching as Galvatron got to his knees, one hand still tightly clutching the handle of the sword embedded in Rampage's head. Galvatron pulled it free, raised it high and drove it down through the red Decepticon's chest and spark chamber.

The purple warrior had no time to savor his kill as both Headstrong and Tantrum tackled him and tried their best to batter him into the wreckage. The mouth of Galvatron's fusion tube was lined up against Headstrong's leg, and upon noticing this Galvatron let loose with a shot that tore through the single horned Predacon's thigh. "Argh!" Headstrong growled as Galvatron tossed both robots off of him, rolled on top of Tantrum and drove his fist into Tantrum's face six times until it plowed straight through the back of his head.

Divebomb slammed into him, pushing him off of the dying Tantrum. Galvatron twisted around and out-grappled the winged Predacon until they were face to face, reached up to grip Divebomb's face, and drove his thumbs into the bird-bot's optics. Divebomb started to cry out in pain, but his shriek ended prematurely as Galvatron violently twisted and pulled his head completely from his torso. The purple warrior released the winged corpse and stumbled back, only to be impaled upon the sword that he had used to kill Rampage. The blade was nearly a foot into his back, having found a tear in his armor, and the wielder of the blade thrust further so that the point came through the front of Galvatron's abdomen. The face of his assailant slid into place next to his, and he heard the voice of Razorclaw snarling into his left aural cavity, which was left exposed from his torn helmet. "The price is high, but vengeance belongs to the Predacons."

Rage and hatred seared through Galvatron at the boast, and he jerked his head forward and slammed it back heavily into Razorclaw's. The deposed leader spun around, wrenching the grip of the sword free of Razorclaw's grasp, causing the blade to painfully tear against much of Galvatron's inner workings, and delivered a straight right to the Predacon leader's chest that sent him flying back. Galvatron then noticed Headstrong upright and hopping on his one good leg. The purple warrior reached back and pulled the sword out from his back, got a two-handed grip on the handle, lunged forward and swung wildly at Headstrong, cutting all the way through from the equivalent of his left clavicle to his right hip.

Galvatron whirled around to confront the leader of the four corpses laying in the debris around them, and was tackled to the ground by the charging Razorclaw. The enraged Predacon landed cross after cross to the face of Galvatron, but the strikes only brought out laughter in the battered former leader of the Decepticons. Their optics met, and Galvatron gave a broad grin before driving one of the spikes of Razorclaw's sword hilts into the side of the Predacon's head. The spike pierced all the way through so that the tip was jutting out the other end of Razorclaw's head, leaving the Predacon nothing but a twitching frame. Galvatron rolled Razorclaw off of him and got to his feet, pulling the sword so that the hilt spike slid out of the head wound and held it loosely in his hand. "Your fears do make you traitors." The battered lone survivor grumbled as he raised the inverted sword so that the hilt was above his head, and then drove the broadsword straight down through the neck of Razorclaw, separating the Predacon leader's head from his torso. Galvatron grinned in victory, but collapsed onto a pile of shredded metal and faded in an out of consciousness for the next half hour.


*


"Primus, are there any survivors?"

The words seemed a distant echo to the victorious purple Decepticon, and he was sorely tempted to ignore them, but forced himself back to consciousness, diverting energon to his optics and taking in the sight of the three surviving Insecticons looking over the battlefield and gutted front section of Darkmount. Galvatron planted his right arm against the ground and gingerly pushed his barely functioning frame up, eventually getting to a standing position as Venom, Chop Shop and Barrage stared in a mixture of horror, awe and disbelief. "Razorclaw and his loathsome pets..." Galvatron coughed out a stream of various mixed mech fluids, sparks erupting all over his body from the minor convulsion before he could continue "they attacked me. Tried to assassinate me, just to avenge that fool Shockwave." The purple victor took a step toward them but stumbled to one knee. He slumped forward, but barely managed to get his right hand beneath him to keep him from dropping face first to the rubble. "Aid me. Each of you, transfer half of your energon supply to me to power my repair systems. You will be rewarded." His voice weaker than it had ever been, but still retaining its sense of regal self-importance. After several moments passed without a response he painfully raised his head and glared at the Insecticons, none of who had moved. "Did you not hear me, assist your leader!" The growl was followed by another fluid-launching coughing fit.

Barrage looked to Venom. "I know how he looks, but I'd rather not take any unnecessary chances."

Venom continued staring at the prostrate Galvatron as he replied to Barrage. "What do you suggest?"

"Trisecticus."

Venom nodded, but then paused and looked at the dead Predacons one at a time. "I suggest a new designation, one to honor our fallen brothers." Venom looked at each of the other Insecticons. "Tripredacus."

Chop Shop and Barrage thought for only a few moments before nodding their agreements. Galvatron had reached the limits of his patience. "Quit your senseless yammering and aid me now, Insecticons!"

"No, we are not Insecticons." Venom spat back at the downed purple warrior. "Our kinship and our loyalty are to these fallen heroes spread around us. Heroes whose sparks deserve, and will receive, vengeance. We are not Insecticons, we are Predacons. And the only aid we will be providing you is in ending your vile existence!" The predominantly green robot turned to his comrades. "Merge to form...Tripredacus!"

Galvatron jerked his torso back so that he was upright on his knees, and watched as the three animalistic robots twisted and maneuvered their bodies into odd positions, various parts locking into each others’ frames as their nanite coverings melded together to complete the cohesion. Their combined frames created a lean, but powerfully built fifty foot tall metal and faux-organic monster. "Cyclonus never told me you were capable of this."

The giant creature laughed ominously as it raised a jagged melee weapon composed of Chop Shop's trident, Barrage's sword and Venom's axe and swung savagely down at Galvatron, catching him against his left arm and sending his frame skipping across the ground. "Ughnnnn..." Galvatron looked forward and saw his amputated left arm lying uselessly on the ground two dozen yards ahead of him. His optics slowly focused on the large object beyond his arm and watched as Tripredacus began sprinting toward him. Galvatron got to his knees and tried to raise his right arm to fire on the attacking gestalt, but he was far too slow and Tripredacus swung his weapon upward, catching the front of Galvatron's torso, tearing most of the remaining frontal armor from his frame and propelling what was left of Galvatron up into the air to plummet seventy yards away.

Tripredacus took a step in the direction of the near-dead Galvatron, but an internal buzz went off in his head; proximity alert. "Separate." With that the three former Insecticons dropped to the ground and glanced around nervously.


***


A chrome and gold blurr whipped through the blackness of space and caught the right fork of the ducking Cyclonus's helmet, tearing it clear away but seeming to cause no pain to the purple warrior, who responded to the blow with a left uppercut to Jhiaxus's chin that sent the slightly taller and noticeably bulkier Liege Centuro stumbling back and falling to the hull of the Twilight. Jhiaxus's head snapped up and his optics burned a hate-fueled green as he scrambled back to his feet and charged the Unicron-spawn. "I'll feast on your spark!"

Cyclonus calmly prepared for the charge and allowed Jhiaxus to barrel into him and have the fight be brought to the ground. Jhiaxus had planted his face into the chest of Megatron's proxy for the take down, and now raised it only to have Cyclonus's helmeted forehead slam into the bridge of his nose. Momentarily stunned, Jhiaxus suddenly found himself being flipped off of Cyclonus and flung away. "Your physical power is exceptional." Cyclonus commented through the communications frequency as he got to his feet. "You're not in the same caliber as me, being created by a god puts me at a near unattainable level for conventional creations like you, but you are staggeringly powerful none the less. But you rage like a spoiled human child being kept from his favorite toy; a mindless berserker incapable of viewing an opponent dispassionately and determining courses of actions that might lead to success. You've devolved to the point where you are devoting all of your raw physical strength and speed to lunges, swings and other easily avoided or overcome assaults. A mindless brute," Cyclonus twisted his head and viewed the fleet of ships and hordes of warriors surrounding them "placed in command of millions. The master you serve is an idiot..." the purple warrior scrutinized Jhiaxus closely and a look of realization came over him "or a sentimental fool desperately trying to replicate Megatron. That's it, isn't it? You're burning desire to defeat Megatron, it's not just simple bragging rights, is it? This victory over him that you seek is justification of your existence. You've been seen by yourself, and likely others, as a pale attempt at forcing lightning to strike twice, isn't that correct?"

"Shut your slagging hole!" Jhiaxus hissed through the channel.

Cyclonus grinned. "I am right." The purple warrior nodded, a look of deep introspection coming over him. "You can never be Megatron. Lightning does not strike twice, even when you can make use of the spark of Megatron himself, he simply can not be replicated. Were you to get lucky and actually destroy him, your master would only consider you a consolation prize, and that opinion would go with you through the remainder of your days."

"Raaarrrrrr!" Jhiaxus threw himself savagely at Cyclonus, tackled him and started pounding on the air warrior. Cyclonus blocked and parried all but a few of the strikes, returning with several of his own. The intensity of their struggle was such that they failed to notice the fleet and throngs of warriors turning to face away from Cybertron. It was only when the Twilight began firing its massive cannons did Cyclonus direct his attention away from Jhiaxus, and was hurtled across the hull for his shift in focus. Jhiaxus leapt to his feet and took a step toward Cyclonus, but felt the hull beneath him shake with another barrage being fired from virtually every cannon at the Twilight's disposal. Jhiaxus turned toward the direction of the outer system and watched in shock as a vast inky cloud began absorbing the enormous ships closest to it as well as the hordes of warriors throwing themselves at it. "What in the pit?"

Cyclonus also got to his feet and stared in awe at the ongoing destruction of Jhiaxus's fleet. "Could even my master Unicron sow such destruction so efficiently?"

"No!" Jhiaxus roared, not in response to Cyclonus's quiet query but in protest to what he saw, his yell muffled by static through the communications channel. "You shall face extinction for your assault on the Cybertronian Empire! I personally will break you down to your most minute components and wipe you from existence. Me! Lord Jhiaxus! Liege Centuro of the Cybertronian Empire! Guiding hand or smashing fist of the Liege Maximo himself!" A section of the black cloud that was decimating the fleet stretched forward toward Jhiaxus and came to within a few feet of him, almost studying him as he bellowed his threats at it. "And for you, whatever you are, I will most certainly be the smashing fist of the Emp..." Apparently weary of his pointless threats, the entity blasted through his chest. The penetrating strand stretched out, circled back and punched through the back of Jhiaxus's head before beginning to consume the commander of the fleet in earnest.

Cyclonus began firing repeatedly into the vast dark form that was now consuming the battle ship that he was perched upon. He knew it was a futile effort, but being the consummate warrior and not being able to determine any course of action that might possibly lead to victory, Cyclonus could respond in no other way. He transformed, sped at and away from the cloud encircling him, blasting away with everything he had, but in the end he was completely encompassed. The Swarm paused a moment to study the trapped purple jet before dismembering it to its core components. Chaos, not as strong as the original meal that had set the Swarm on this course, but the same essence that had been possessed in that piece of Unicron's horn. The desire to consume raged anew within the Swarm, and Cybertron, a home the entities that made up the opaque expanse knew nothing of lay waiting for it below.


***


"Aghhh!" The pained cry came out of the mouth of the thin, mangled seventeen foot tall robot strapped to a stretcher that was ridiculously large in comparison to the eight micromasters carrying it through the jagged ravine toward the raging battle ahead. The patient, one of three being carried in the same manner by the team of micromaster rescuers, looked up through very dim optics at the siege before them. "You really should have left me in stasis lock, Amicus."

"Had we any idea that this would be waiting for us," the six-foot brown and red leader of the group, Amicus, replied as he scrutinized the unfathomable army sending wave after brutal wave of troops at the seemingly insurmountable fortress and its walls of repelling firepower, "we certainly would have. But there's no going back now."

"So we hold here until this blows over?" A green micromaster asked optimistically as he struggled to hold up his section of the right side of the stretcher that Amicus was at the head of.

"I'm afraid not." Amicus replied. "Our injured friends here can't hold out for much longer without significant medical attention, and this battle does not appear as though it will be ending soon."

"Primus, look at the carnage!" An orange micromaster standing on the other side of the stretcher gasped as he took in the battlefield. "There must be hundreds of bodies stretched out there."

"Given the intensity of the fighting, and the incalculable number of anatomical pieces floating in the layer of mech fluid that's flowing over the ground as far as my optics can take in," Amicus replied sadly, "I'd say that the dead count well into the thousands. Most of the dead have likely been pushed off the cliff to get them out of the way."

"And you want us to wade into that sea of death?" The frightened green robot asked.

"I'm afraid we must." Amicus replied. "Our newfound friends will certainly die if we don't act now."


*


"Be advised, we have movement in the mountains!" Halpin announced through the communications channel being used by Maximus and the Wolves. "Small ravine a third of a mile to the south!"

"Refrain from firing on that position until we verify they're hostiles!" Spike came back. "That's the position the remaining members of Burnokus's rescue party are due to exit the mountains from."

"Yeah, getting clear visual of them now." Halpin replied as he piloted his Wolf around one of Maximus's gun turrets and unloaded a string of super-velocity rounds from his rail gun, most of which pierced right through a pile of stacked corpses and then through the living Imperial Cybertronians taking cover behind them. "Roughly twenty-five micros hauling three moderate-sized robots on stretchers. I'll certainly refrain from shooting at them, but I doubt they'll get more than thirty yards out of the mountains before they're cut to tiny metal pieces."

"You just concentrate on repelling these goons!" Spike ordered. "Our plates are too full right now to do more than wish these guys some luck."

The Cyberwolves acknowledged the order by firing into the endless wall of troops trying to get at them. Entire bunkers were built out of the dead for the living to take refuge behind, but Maximus was quick to blast the makeshift structures to pieces shortly after their construction. The giant Autobot was paying a horrific price for his unfaltering defense of the pass and of those Cyberwolves firing on their enemies from behind the refuge of his vast frame. When the barrage got to be too much he would transform to robot mode, charge into the midst of the green and white hordes, disrupt them from within their own ranks, and push them back several hundred yards or off the cliff before returning to the position chosen as their proverbial line in the sand and transforming back to battle station mode. But even beyond the damage caused by the ordinance of the never ending enemy soldiers was the quickly dwindling energon supply. Maximus was nearing the point of exhaustion, and once he ran out of power, there would be nothing to stop Jhiaxus's hordes from barreling over him, slaughtering his human comrades, the Cybertronian civilians, and everyone else between them and Cybertropolis. The scenario was one that they were fully expecting, but the fore-knowledge would take none of the sting away.

"Sanchez!" Spike called out as the Wolf of his soldier took a direct hit and exploded from the waist down. Spike charged toward the cockpit of the destroyed craft, sprinting in his headmaster suit. Spike reached his comrade's battle suit and tore away the cockpit canopy, but froze as he saw a chunk of torn metal jutting out of Lt. Sanchez's chest. The slightly younger man seemed to be trying to say something, but the only thing to escape his lips was bubbling blood, and then a final exhalation. Spike sadly lifted the remains of the craft and carried it to behind a section of Maximus before re-engaging in the battle.

Halpin witnessed the death of his comrade, but forced himself to focus on the fight so as not to be hindered by the grief that would undoubtedly come over him if he allowed it to. He didn't have time for sentimentality, not when there were metal bastards to kill. Though he was of the opinion that his emotions were completely in check, the actions of Barry Halpin said otherwise as he pulled his Wolf forward away from Maximus and began spraying rounds into the thickest shades of green and/or white he could see. His 'controlled' attack was quickly devolving into a rage-fueled lashing out, and it was only a matter of moments before he gave in fully to the hatred and thirst for revenge. Killing these monsters was all that mattered; until he saw something else that mattered more.

The micromaster rescue team was valiantly, or foolishly, marching into the thick of the battle to get their full sized patients to the safety offered by Maximus. Barry Halpin had lived his life looking out for himself, seeing to his own hedonistic impulses and desires. He wasn't a bad man, he never intentionally hurt anybody, and provided it wasn't too much of an imposition, he would help others from time to time. But at no point in his life, aside from his decision to engage in today's battle, had he ever considered himself to be acting selflessly. But as he watched these robots, whose stature was on par with his own, walking through an atmosphere made up entirely of blazing death, a feeling of obligation came over him. These were entities that put their lives on hold to take on what was for all intents and purposes, a lost cause. Yet they did it, and performed a miracle in finding three survivors. And now they were sacrificing their own lives to try and further aid these survivors. They could have sat in the mountains until the battle ended and the warriors had passed, but they put the needs of these likely lost causes ahead of their own...again. And now they were going to die because of it. "No." Halpin altered the direction of his Wolf and headed toward the team of micromasters. "No! They will not die!"

"Halpin!" Spike called out, and then opened their channel and repeated himself. "Halpin, what the hell are you doing?"

"Getting these party clowns out of here!" Halpin spat back as he guided his craft over the terrified group of micromasters carrying the farthest stretcher, and lowered the mechanical arms to either side of the injured robot. "I've got this guy; you runts get your metal asses to the battle station!"

"I told you not to worry about them!" Spike yelled into the radio.

"Yeah, you did." Halpin replied as he lifted off with the first injured robot and guided his craft over the next stretcher-bound robot. "You can make me perform an eternity of PT in Hell." The exposed Cyberwolf lowered his passenger on top of the second patient, causing both injured robots to cry out in pain and the micromasters carrying them to groan under the now doubled weight. Halpin adjusted his controls to now grasp both stretchers, lifted off and then proceeded to the final injured robot.

"Offer that man maximum coverage!" Spike ordered the rest of the team. "I want him back here in one piece so that I can tear him a new one!" As one, the remaining Cyberwolves and several of Maximus's cannons fired heavily at the enemy positions that posed the greatest threat to Halpin and those he was helping.

Halpin got hold of the third patient; uncaringly stacking the first two on top of him and then grabbing the bottom stretcher to haul them all back to relative safety. "Move ladies, you're about three seconds from getting blasted to scrap!" The Cyberwolf shot out with the three wounded robots en tow, quickly getting back to Maximus where the robots were lowered to the ground. Halpin then turned and flew back into the fray to help the rescuers get back to safety, once again leaving himself completely exposed.

"Damn it Barry, what the hell are you doing?" Spike yelled.

"I'm not putting those buckets of bolts back together!" Halpin replied as he fired over the heads of the oncoming micromasters, all of whom had transformed to their vehicular modes and were driving as fast as they could. "They're going to need these shmoes to keep them alive." A shot from enemy lines impacted just ahead of the transformed Amicus, sending him end over end and crashing to a stop on the debris and fluid covered field of battle. Halpin adjusted his flight pattern and landed between Amicus's downed and slowly transforming frame and the front line of the army intent on exterminating them. "Can you move?"

"Ye...yes. In robot mode that is." Amicus sputtered in response. "The damage to my vehicular mode is too extensive for me to..."

"Shut up and run!" Halpin yelled as he began firing at the enemy lines and slowly piloting his Wolf in a backward walk behind the hobbling Amicus. Just as they got to within one hundred yards of the safety offered by Maximus's huge armored walls, a rocket impacted just below the cockpit of Halpin's Wolf, blasting the torso apart and sending the top of the craft, cockpit included, crashing down upon Amicus.

"Halpin!" The headmaster-armored Spike yelled out before leaping over his protective cover and charging past the arriving rescue party to help his soldier and their leader. Using the tracking systems built into his helmet Spike traced the origin of the rocket and saw that the warrior that had launched it was still visible. In the span of a half second Spike's mental command had targeted the head of the white and green warrior and launched a missile from a launcher in the back of his armor. A moment later Spike was leaping and landing next to the upper portion of Halpin's Wolf and the head of Halpin's attacker was exploding to small metallic shards. "You'd better be alive!" Spike barked as he hoisted the cockpit over and tore it open to get access to his subordinate. His first glance let him know that Barry Halpin was still alive, but not for much longer. His chest had been crushed by the control panel of his craft, and a metal plate had been blasted up through the floor of the cockpit that had nearly flattened his waist and legs. Blood was already flowing liberally from the man’s mouth and other places going by the pools seeping out of the cracks in the metal equipment pinning him down. "No." Spike whispered.

Despite his injuries, Halpin was still very much awake. "Ye...yeah, it feels bad too."

"Come on!" Spike yelled as he lifted the cockpit up and started pulling it toward Maximus, letting go with his left hand to grab the arm of the heavily damaged Amicus and drag him as well. He was within dozen yards of cover when one of the wave of missiles blasted the ground just to his side, sending shrapnel up that cut through his helmet. Spike fell to the ground, dazed, but forced himself up to his knees, reached up and pulled his helmet off. A deep gash had been cut up through his left cheek, through his eyebrow and a couple inches across his forehead, fortunately missing his left eye. Despite the pain, Spike got back up, reached down and continued pulling Amicus and Halpin to safety. He hoisted them around a barricade provided by Maximus’s frame and tossed the significantly less injured Amicus to the side to focus on his dying friend. "Come on Barry, hang in there!"

Halpin looked up with fading eyes and forced a weak smile. "Cut it out Spike, I..." a splatter of blood came out with a cough, "I'm kicking off, don't tell me otherwise."

Spike closed his eyes tight, his own blood now covering half his face, and nodded. "Is there anything I can do?"

Halpin closed his eyes and a hint of a smile came to his face. "Buh...big funeral. Lots of crying chicks." He opened his eyes one last time. "Bye Chief." With that his head slumped back and he was gone.

Bracing himself against a wall to stand over the two men, Amicus peered down at the two aliens that had risked, and in one case, sacrificed, their lives to save him and his companions. He peered intently at the chest of the dead man, left exposed due to the clothing on his torso being burned or torn away, and he studied the image on it. The Cyberwolf tattoo covered his left pectoral, the sharp, mechanical canine features burning into the memory banks of the rescued micromaster. "He died to save me." The robot muttered softly in Cybertronian.

"Yes." Spike whispered back in the same language and then looked up. "Now make it worth something and get you, your team and those you pulled out of the mountains out of here. Live, so that all this matters." Unseen in the distance by the two, but possessing the technology necessary to see and hear every detail clearly, stood Chroniclax, recording every moment with a look of growing humility, surprise and shame etched into his metallic facial features.

"Autobots!" The amplified voice was heard very clearly, as the previously never-ending weapons fire coming from the Decepticon front had ceased in order to accommodate it. "I am Mindset, commander of the legions that you foolishly oppose. I come with an offer for you, the best offer you can hope to be presented with. Who speaks for you?”

Spike looked to the central section of the battle station. “You or me?”

“Why don’t you field this one?” Maximus’s voice replied through a speaker on Spike’s suit.

“Great.” Spike muttered as he began climbing to a point where this Mindset would have no difficulty seeing him, chuckling as he climbed. “You do realize that given the state I’m in, pretty much any offer he makes will be met with a middle finger and string of profanities.”

Maximus chuckled out loud this time, his voice rumbling through the mountains before replying through the communications channel. “If I were really interested in negotiations, I wouldn’t be sending an organic to meet with someone whose life is devoted to exterminating organics.”

Spike chuckled as he found his perch at the top of one of Maximus’s walls. “Yeah, I hope Chroniclax gets a good shot of Mindset’s face when he sees my flesh and blood body standing as his opposite number.”

“What is this?” Mindset bellowed as he caught sight of Spike standing against him. “It is reprehensible that the Autobots allow you fleshlings to fight at their sides, but to have an inferior organic speak on their behalf, that’s nothing short of pathetic.”

“Shut your various holes until you’re ready to offer whatever the hell you’re here to offer!” Spike forcefully demanded in perfect Cybertronian, and smirked at the shudder of surprise that came over the hulking robot. “Good, now make your presentation so that we can tell you to go slag yourself and get back to slaughtering your troops!”

“Arrogant maggot!” Mindset snarled. “I would love nothing more than to crush you in my hands, but that is not to be. You are insignificant, but your large Autobot friend has posed an obstacle that requires us to escalate our assault in order to remove. I was going to offer any Cybertronians their lives if they stood down, but this insult had changed my mind. You will all be dead within a matter of breems!” The imposing field commander raised his wrist to his face. “Soldiers of the Empire, fall back to a safe distance.” Spike cocked his head quizzically in confusion at the order. A few moments later Mindset issued another order. “Denouement, enter Cybertronian orbit, proceed to the following coordinates, and use every weapon at your disposal to eliminate everything!”

“As you command sir.” The muffled voice responding through Mindset’s communicator was just audible enough for Spike to hear; as was intended by the Decepticon field commander.


(continued on next post)

 

(continued from previous post)


"What is it?" Chop Shop asked.

"Where is it coming from?" Voiced a nervous Barrage.

"Silence!" Venom snapped, turning his sensors on high. "Something coming toward us...fast. Still a couple miles out, but it'll be here in seconds. Scans indicate it's consistent with an Autobot shuttle."

"So what do we do?" Barrage queried.

"Transform, hide and observe." Venom replied. The three robots were soon three enormous insects that scurried or flew into the heavily damaged front section of Darkmount.

Thirty-five seconds later an Autobot shuttle arrived and lowered to a landing on the devastated landscape. The side door opened and the ramp lowered to allow Grimlock, Slag, Sludge, Swoop and Sideswipe to walk down. “Scan area.” Grimlock ordered into his wrist communicator.

A few seconds later Snarl’s voice came back. “The place is a mess, but I’m getting a spark signature roughly twelve hundred feet northwest of your position. The accompanying electronic and mechanical scans indicate that whoever it is, they’re more than likely on their way out.”

Grimlock and each member of his team scanned the area and studied the five Predacon corpses carefully. The Dinobot leader cocked his dual-barreled hand cannon before heading northwest. “Be ready for anything! Anything that take out Predacons dangerous, especially if on way out. Slag, contact Iacon and let them know we find Predacons. Let know PredaKing not be helping with defense.”

“Was in the process of doing so, but I can’t get through.” Slag replied. “Looks like they’re being jammed.”

“That mean assault probably already begun.” Grimlock replied. “Be ready to lift off soon as we get back. Grimlock out.” The Dinobot leader replied as he continued on his way.

The rest of the team followed after Grimlock, crossing over a couple hills of metal debris before finally arriving at the source of the spark readings. There, laying on the ground, his frame shredded and destroyed, and completely at their mercy, was Galvatron. “Well lookie what we’ve got here.” Slag grinned as the Autobots circled around the unmoving, but fully conscious frame of Galvatron. Only the flickering of his optics and the slight movements of his torn metal lips made them aware he was cognizant of their presence. “Any last words, Exhaust-sludge?”

Sludge looked up. “What?”

“Oh for Primus’s sake, Sludge, how long have you been alive?” Slag snapped. “How many times do we need to go over this? With the exception of Grimlock, our names are common terms! One of the quirky little legacies of Quintesson rule that these young-sparks” Slag thumbed at Sideswipe “lacked the sense to abandon. Primus, my name is used more frequently than yours, you don’t hear me badgering every jerk who utters a profanity, do you?”

“Enough!” Grimlock growled. “Leave Sludge alone. Besides, more important thing to deal with.”

“Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me.” Slag turned his attention back to Galvatron and activated his plasma blade.

Galvatron twitched his head in Slag’s direction. “Ggg…ggg…gggaaaahhhhh…” Was all the Decepticon was able to get out.

“Well said, we’ll be sure to etch that on your tombstone.” Slag joked as he raised his sword.


“Hold!” Grimlock raised his hand.

Slag looked at his leader, and then lowered his weapon and let his shoulders slump dejectedly. “Fine, you’re the boss, you get the kill.”

Grimlock looked at Slag for a few moments before turning to look down at Galvatron, who was now glaring wordlessly and motionlessly at him. “Me Grimlock tend to view humans as weak, worthless. But me Grimlock grow to appreciate certain aspects of humans and human history.” He then looked to his comrades. “Anyone familiar with term ‘eye for eye’?”

“Yeah," Swoop answered "a philosophy that served as the basis for many early human laws. Justice based on straightforward reciprocation; an eye for an eye, life for a life..."

"Brother for brother." Grimlock interrupted and looked to Sideswipe. "Not what you want, but realistically, this closest Sideswipe come to snuffing Megatron's spark."

"No slaggin' way!" Slag snarled. "Look, you want to off this guy, fine, cool, I'm down with that. But giving this honor to the street jockey just because he had to tomb somebody he gave a slag about? Screw that!"

"Shut slagging mouth!" Grimlock snarled, and then turned to Sideswipe and offered his sword. "If want, then do, but do now. Need get back to Iacon."

Sideswipe slowly took the sword by the handle, staring down at what remained of the purple Decepticon. "It's not the same. I loved Sunstreaker, Megatron will feel nothing but joy with Galvatron's demise."

"Can't have everything." Grimlock muttered. "If not what you want, then I'm sure..."

"No, I'll kill him." Sideswipe declared as he stepped toward Galvatron and ignited Grimlock's blade. "According to intel, it is part of Megatron's spark powering that psychopath."

Galvatron suddenly lurched forward, but an almost instinctive snap kick from Sideswipe sent him back against the ground. The purple warrior face grew frantic as he glared at the black Autobot standing above him with a fiery blade pointing down toward his chest. "Nnnnn. Nnnnooooo. My legend...mmmmmyyy legacy....mmmmyyyy life, not meant to end here."

Sideswipe glared down at him with a dispassionate look in his red optics. "Your life, huh?" The Autobot paused as he remembered something else from Galvatron's dossier. "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Galvatron's optics widened and his mouth opened to protest, but the blade came down, guided through the openings in his armor, piercing heavily damaged circuitry and through the spark chamber deep in his chest.

"Arghhhhhh!" Galvatron cried out, his right hand rising upward. Sideswipe gripped the handle tighter and jerked his body and sword forcefully; twisting the blade in Galvatron's spark and immediately ending the life of the demented would be emperor.

The Dinobots nodded and with the exception of Grimlock turned to return to the transport. Grimlock remained a moment, observing the Autobot staring down at the dead Decepticon beneath him. "It's not the same." Sideswipe muttered, and then looked up at Grimlock. "It'll never be the same, will it? No matter who I kill, even Megatron, it'll never be the same. Streaker's gone, and revenge isn't going to fill the void of his absence, will it?"

Grimlock shook his head. "No. Many reasons to kill enemies, but compensating for loss not one of them. Revenge good, but can't be driving force in life. Can't let it shape you, control you. It something you do; something you need control, not other way around."

Sideswipe quietly nodded, de-powered Grimlock's sword and offered it to him without taking his red optics off of the corpse at his feet. He then looked down at a streak of mech fluid that had spurted up to his chest from Galvatron when he had stabbed him. He brushed the fluid away, but continued staring down at the black armor beneath the streak, as though he did not recognize his own frame.

From the shadows, the optics of Venom, Chop Shop and Barrage viewed the goings on. In another set of shadows, another pair of red optics mounted in a small black metal feline head watched as well. Ravage recorded everything before turning and silently disappearing through the rubble.


***


"Aaarrrrrggghhhhh!" Megatron roared as he released the tailfin of Scourge and gripped his chest, where within his spark was inexplicably causing him excruciating pain. "What? What is this?"

Scourge swooped around and placed himself beneath the freefalling Megatron, allowing the Decepticon Commander to land on his flat top section. "What's wrong with you? If you don't think you need a lift, then just say so. I wasn't created to act as a chauffeur for you."

"No." The still pained, but quickly recovering Megatron spat back through clenched metal teeth. "You were created to serve Galvatron. Galvatron is now dead, I have felt his spark disintegrating, and as odd as it seems, am now acutely aware of his non-existence."

"You lie!" Scourge bellowed as he continued speeding toward the heart of the fighting below, the area surrounding the capital spires of Iacon.

"For what purpose?" Megatron replied with a question. "You are already assisting me, and I assume you will continue to do so at least until this battle is won or lost. At that point you can verify for yourself; you are a tracker aren't you? You'll be able to sniff out Galvatron's corpse afterward and ponder the purpose of your existence at that point."

"I will put your claim to the test as soon as these pretenders are destroyed, and any deception will be met with extreme reprisals." Scourge shot back as his three Sweeps regrouped with him.

"Sir," Erupt called out over the whipping wind and sounds of approaching battle "there's something now entering Cybertronian orbit. I think it demands our immediate attention."

Scourge directed his sensors to the area from which he had just come. "What in the name of chaos is that?" The powerful warrior, now unsure whether or not he was the highest ranking spawn of Unicron still alive, asked to himself more than anyone else. "Torrent, come here!"

The Sweep sped next to his leader. "Yes Scourge?"

"Escort Megatron back to Iacon." Scourge commanded as he unceremoniously tossed the Decepticon Commander over to the identical Sweep. "I will lead Erupt and Tumult in an attack on whatever that is. Join us once Megatron is safe on the ground."

"As you command sir." Torrent replied before speeding down toward the ground as Scourge directed the other two Sweeps up to the upper atmosphere.

"Sir, I am unable to raise Cyclonus on any communications channel." Tumult informed his leader. "Nor can I get any indication that there are any craft in orbit above larger than a pebble."

"We should assume he's been destroyed, as has Jhiaxus's fleet." Scourge replied.

"Do you have any instruction on how best to face this threat?" Erupt queried.

"No, just attack it as you would any other enemy. If this is our final battle, then so be it." Scourge replied. "It will give us the opportunity to see if there is any eternal reward for the damned." With that the three identical ships sped at the growing blackness covering the horizon. They, along with several hundred of Jhiaxus's fliers, met the Swarm with every weapon at their disposal. The weapons had no effect, and the Swarm replied with lightening quick tendrils darting out and brutally breaking each combatant down to their most basic components.

Torrent registered the sudden absence of Scourge, Erupt and Tumult on his sensors, and knew what that meant. "Have you sustained injuries that make you incapable of flight?"

Megatron sneered as they entered the hordes of white and green fliers. "Negative, I can see myself the rest of the way." With that the Decepticon Commander leapt from atop the Sweep and plummeted through the cloud of enemy aircraft.

Torrent turned around and darted back up to the almost completely black sky. Whatever this thing was, in addition to Jhiaxus's fleet, it had destroyed Cyclonus and Scourge, both of whom were vastly more powerful than Torrent, and it had destroyed Erupt and Tumult as well, each his physical equal. But Unicron had made him fearless and obedient. Scourge had ordered him to follow him into battle against this...thing the moment he dropped off Megatron, and he would be obeying the orders given to him by his superiors, even to his death. "Am I slagging nuts?" The voice of Kickback burst forth from Torrent's flying frame moments before engaging the black entity. The blue and white ship abruptly banked away, releasing some missiles as it did so, which was the extent of Torrent's engagement with the entity. "What the slag am I doing? I'm not getting eaten for the sake of honor!" The Sweep sped away from the oncoming inky cloud, but as fast as he was going, he could not evade the swipe of a tendril from either side. Torrent felt himself being eaten away, his metal skin being broken down as he became completely encased in the black void, his frame being compromised, and the agonizing pain of being consumed alive.

“YOUR SERVICE TO ME HAS YET TO BE FULFILLED.” The deep foreboding voice of Unicron thundered through Torrent’s head. “I WILL PROVIDE YOU ENOUGH POWER TO CONTINUE YOUR EXISTENCE. BUT THAT CONTINUED EXISTENCE IS TO BE DEVOTED TO ME.”

“I understand my master.” Torrent sputtered. “Now free me from this vile, opaque ketchup!"
With one final effort he ignited his thrusters, which were now powered by Unicron, and what was left of him, little more than a skeletal frame, careened out of the tip of the Swarm's tendril, the smoldering frame plummeted down, impacting the metal ground in the distance.


*


Megatron had landed and made his way back to the front line of the Autobot/Decepticon alliance with minimal difficulty, due mainly to the distraction the black cloud had presented Jhiaxus's forces. The Decepticon Commander casually picked off several fliers still focusing on the defenders of Cybertron as he made his way toward Optimus Prime, but was unable to take his optics off of the inky entity that was decimating everything in the sky. Even the Unicron-constructed Sweep that had carried Megatron the last portion of the trip had been dismantled and spit out before Megatron's optics. This creature, weapon, or whatever it was, had thus far taken every piece of ordinance the Autobots, Decepticons and Empire could throw at it without any apparent damage at all. Megatron considered his options, and was not pleased by the conclusions he was coming up with.

There was no way to fight this thing. There seemed no method of communications with which to reason with the entity. There was no course of action that did not lead to immediate death, save one; flight. He would abandon Iacon, and any troops not quick enough to exit with him. It was the only way of keeping himself and his Decepticon ideals alive to fight and expand another day. There must be a way to defeat this thing, but it would not be determined today. For now, Megatron would have to escape.

But first, he would settle all old debts. Galvatron was dead. Jhiaxus and Starscream were undoubtedly killed by this black swarm. Unicron was destroyed, his decimated remains cast out to the far reaches of space. That left one foe of note; one worthy of his attention. An opponent who was supposed to be nothing more than a temporary host for the Matrix, a pitiful replacement for the easily defeated Sentinel Prime. But Optimus Prime had proven to be his greatest and most enduring enemy. Prime would be dead very soon, and it seemed only just that it be by the hand of Megatron.

Ahead stood the Autobot Commander, long since having disengaged from his armor, as in base mode it would provide better coverage against the multitude of aerial attackers. So Prime was there, de-armored, his attention on the threats in the sky above, and completely oblivious to the murderous intent of what he still considered to be his ally in this defense of Iacon. Megatron raised his fusion cannon and leveled it at Prime's head. The Autobot had survived a head shot from him fifteen years before; this time Megatron would not cease firing until only an ember sat atop the Autobot's twitching shoulders.

"Prime!" Goldbug yelled out as he slammed into Megatron, forcing the shot to go a few inches to the rear of Optimus's head. Megatron snarled and swatted the golden minibot heavily to the ground, but Goldbug had been successful as the Autobot leader, as well as those around him, turned and took all necessary defensive posturing against Megatron.

Optimus glared at Megatron with his blue optics. "With so much as stake, you do this?"

Megatron backed away from the confused and enraged Autobots, well aware that the opportunity to assassinate their Commander had passed. "There is no victory today, not against that!" The Decepticon pointed toward the black sky. "I merely took an opportunity to garner a victory against you, so that in the future, after I’ve figured out a way to defeat that thing, I will no longer have you to contend with." Megatron turned and called out to the defenders of the city-state. "The truce has ended, Decepticons, retreat!" Though there were many that seemed reluctant, all Decepticons within auditory range complied and filed after their leader.


***


The Denouement cut through the atmosphere, the intense heat of entry against its hull caused the metal to glow brightly, but caused no damage whatsoever to the massive ship. Mindset's first lieutenant, Trauma, guided the craft personally toward the planet's surface. He had forwarded Mindset's request to the Twilight to see if Jhiaxus would have any objections to the unorthodox course of action, and after seven unsuccessful attempts to contact the flagship, Trauma had conducted a scan which indicated that the fleet no longer occupied the space around Cybertron. Something he would have to make Mindset aware of, but only after eliminating this obstacle that had impossibly eliminated almost twenty percent of Mindset's forces. As Trauma came to within visual range of the disputed pass, he seemed to realize why such a high casualty count had been amassed. He had been told that there was a battle station that was in actuality a living Cybertronian, but the first officer had assumed it would have been a much smaller battle station. Such a Transformer, even with an exceptional level of condensing, would still be close to a thousand feet in height. But even this giant would be ground to dust under the firepower of the Denouement, Trauma thought to himself with a smile.


*


"I guess the retreating to a safe distance wasn't a bluff after all." Lieutenant Daniel Green remarked to Spike and the other Cyberwolves.

"Nope." Spike, half his face covered in dried or drying blood, answered without taking his eyes off of the approaching vessel. "So Max, about how long do you think you can last against a barrage from that thing?"

"Going off of my initial scans, that ship has the firepower to scorch multiple city-states," the vast base replied "it should have no problem removing me from existence in under a minute or two."

"That's assuming you offer it a prone target." Spike replied.

"Even with a full tank of gas, mine isn't the type of frame to go dancing around ordinance." Max replied. "And I’m coasting on fumes right now. Energon levels are just about depleted, I'm not far from forced stasis lock at this point."

"Do you think you have enough to get up to that thing?" Spike asked. "Soundwave provided all the data they had regarding their run-ins with Jhiaxus's forces, including a bit of footage where your old pal Scorpinok was taking it to one of those ships. At least until the other ships started firing on him."

"I saw the same footage, Spike..." Maximus paused as something occurred to him. "Wait a minute. It wasn't the firepower from those ships that destroyed Scorpinok, it was caused by the blast when the other ships in the fleet targeted and breeched that ship’s main power source!"

"Yeah," Spike suddenly realized where Maximus was going with this. "That blast dwarfed the A-bomb!"

"Even if this works, or rather, especially if this works, we'll certainly be killed." Maximus warned as he powered up his engines with what remained of his near depleted power levels.

Spike slid his damaged helmet on and was about to leap up to Cerebros's waiting hands when he turned to the the group consisting of his Wolves, Chroniclax and Amicus's group, including the three injured rescued robots. "Look, once we launch, this stand is effectively over. Either we succeed and make this a very bad place to be, or we fail and make this a very bad place to be. As soon as we're off the ground I want all of you to head back to Cybertropolis as fast as you can, and from there, wherever you think is safe."

"Negative sir." The Cyberwolves replied in unison. "We'll remain behind and offer whatever cover we can to the civilians as they retreat." Green stated. "It won't be more than a couple of seconds without Maximus in front of us, but however much we can delay Jhiaxus's forces, we will delay them."

"Your courage and sacrifice are beyond commendable." Amicus said loudly as he stood up away from the rescued robot he had been knelt over working on. "But these patients can not be moved, and I can not leave them."

"And we will not be leaving Amicus." Burnokus announced.

"And I intend to document this to the end." Chroniclax answered.

Spike shook his head in frustration. "Alright, first, Burnokus, there's nothing to be gained by staying here. Amicus wants to tend to the wounded, then so be it. But there's no point in you and the others dying." A look of defiance was all Spike got from each member of the rescue team. "Fine, I don’t have time to try and change your minds." Spike then turned to Custodex's biographer. "Chroniclax, you've gotten more than enough footage of us killing them and them killing us to edit together quite a black eye for the Autobots. You need not die because Custodex expects you to."

"My desire to remain and provide a record of what transpires here no longer comes from a feeling of obligation toward Custodex or a desire to besmirch you and your comrades." Chroniclax retorted. "I have been misguided. You are not the monsters Custodex deceitfully tries to paint you as being. You are not here fighting simply to fight; you are here so that others need not fight. I have finally seen the truth, and I will do whatever I can to convey this truth to the rest of Cybertron." The robots that had escorted Chroniclax to this battle zone gasped at what he had to say, and even the humans were surprised to hear such words coming from the previously unquestionably loyal Custodex supporter.

Spike shrugged. "Alright, that's very nice to hear, but you're no longer able to transmit your footage out of here, so if you're frame is destroyed, whatever you have recorded will likely be lost forever."

"I can no longer transmit to Custodex's position hundreds of miles away, but the communication's shield that we find ourselves in also encompasses Cybertropolis." Chroniclax explained. "I have been sending all data recorded here to a database there. I may be blown to atoms, but the images I've seen will live on."

"Spike, it's now or never!" Maximus called out.

"Right." The leader of the humans on Cybertron turned back to the headless Cerebros, leapt into the air, reconfigured himself into a head, and was mounted on Cerebros's body. A moment later Cerebros entered the now-rolling battle station, and all of those on the ground watched as Fortress Maximus lifted off the ground.

Within seconds of taking to the sky, Maximus was met with a barrage of firepower designed to pulverize cities. Maximus returned fire, but in his depleted and heavily damaged state, not to mention having a tremendously smaller arsenal to begin with, the firefight was desperately lopsided. Entire chunks of the battle station were blasted off, but the Autobot super-warrior continued to barrel forward toward the invading space craft. The damage was vast, the pain to Maximus excruciating, but he continued forward at increasing velocity. "Brace for impact Cerebros!"

The battle station slammed heavily into the vastly larger ship, embedding itself into the hull. A moment later Maximus rolled himself out and transformed, pelted by the cannons still in a position to target him, and began marching toward what appeared to be the bridge of the ship, pounding away at everything that presented him with a target as he went.

“Send six squads of fighters out to engage that behemoth!” Trauma bellowed at his tactical officer.

“Sir, all the fliers in the Denouement’s crew were reassigned to ships devoted to taking Iacon, and were replaced by ground-based warriors; most of whom are down there.” The officer called back as Maximus’s enormous visage could be seen through the front view port.

“Slag it!” Trauma growled. “Then pulverize it with all available cannons!”

“Sir, we’re already doing that.”

“Then do it better!” Trauma snarled at the officer as Maximus’s ponderous outstretched hands came into view, reaching toward them. “No!” The giant metal finger tips pried through the transparent metal and pulled the view port, and then the entire front section of the bridge away, leaving Trauma and the rest of the command crew exposed to the high altitude atmosphere.

“Aim well Big Guy, we want working navigation when we mutiny this beast.” Spike instructed Maximus from within his head as the enormous Transformer positioned several of the smaller cannons mounted on his upper frame to take aim at Trauma and the other robots on the bridge. As one, all of those cannons fired, puncturing torso’s and heads, leaving the bridge occupied by nothing but corpses. “Cerebros, disengage!” Spike called out, and a moment later the head of Maximus ejected, condensed in size and transformed into the thirty-foot tall Cerebros.

“You won’t have long before troops come barreling through one or more of those doors,” the headless Maximus announced as he turned and started marching toward the rear of the ship “so hurry up and down this thing.”

“Will do Maximus.” Cerebros announced as his head ejected as well and the armored Spike landed, looked around and ran for the main navigation console. Cerebros headed toward the far wall to do his best to secure the bridge against any raiding soldiers.


*


The Cyberwolves had expected the hordes of enemy soldiers to advance once Maximus had lifted off the ground, and Mindset and his forces lived up to their expectations. The ground rumbled heavily under the pressure of the advancing one hundred sixty thousand plus ground vehicles, many of whom were taking long range pot shots at the humans and those they were trying to protect. “Do what you can to protect the wounded, but do so without taking your finger off the trigger!” Green called out to the other surviving Wolves. “Our rail guns have them in terms of range, so make the most of…” The instruction went unfinished as a missile landing squarely against the cockpit of Green’s frame obliterated both craft and pilot.

“Dan!” Sergeant Bill Carver yelled out as he continued spraying the last of his ammunition at the oncoming wave of white and green. Fortunately the rail gun didn’t require a concussive agent like gunpowder to launch its round, which made for vastly simpler, less expensive and easier to transport and store rounds, and therefore the Cyberwolves had started out with a nearly inexhaustible supply of ammunition. Unfortunately for them though, this situation was one of the few scenarios where they could exhaust such a supply, and the few surviving members of the team were down to their final shells. “Damn it! I’m out!” Carver marched his Wolf over and knelt it down in front of the rescue team doing what they could to minister to the needs of the three robots that they had rescued. As the moments passed, several of the remaining Wolves ran out of ammunition as well, and took their places next to Carver. Chroniclax watched/recorded all that transpired, sending his recordings to a data storage unit in Cybertropolis.

Carver looked to his comrades on either side of him. “Well boys, looks like this is it.”

“Uh, maybe not.” James Patel commented excitedly as he pointed forward and up. The Wolves looked forward as the Denouement came careening out of the sky behind but toward the advancing army. The massive ship slammed into the rear portion of troops, crushing at least twenty thousand on initial impact and grinding another sixty thousand beneath its hull as it skidded forward to a stop, roughly seven miles from the position of the Wolves.


*


Cerebros pulled his headless body out of a pile of smoldering debris on the ground, chunks made up of green and white body parts and pieces of the scuttled vessel. The large robot turned around, small cameras mounted around his frame scanning the area before panning up to the exposed bridge far behind him and nine hundred feet off the ground. “Spike?” The headless robot yelled out, amazed at how far his frame had been thrown by the impact, traveling half the length of the ship, past its front end and onto the surface of Cybertron.

Spike fortunately had managed to brace himself in the pilot's seat, utilizing the safety harnesses as best he could despite being much smaller than their intended user. He slid out of the chair and stared at Cerebros in the distance. "You really should wear a seat belt." The human yelled through his helmet as well as transmitting the remark via communications channel.

"Smart ass." Cerebros transmitted as he was too far to vocally convey the message. "Are you all right?"

"Bumps and bruises, nothing serious." Spike replied as he ran to the far port side of the bridge and tried to turn around the corner to view the rear of the ship. "Maximus, what's your status?"

The ship started rumbling as the enormous, headless giant pried himself out of the hull and rose to his feet. "Functional and prepping my last ten tonne yield missile with a sixty second delay." The giant limped his massive frame over the much more massive ship toward where, according to the footage of Scorpinok's final moments, the ship's power core should be found. Maximus reached the section as the tens of thousands of remaining Imperial ground troops turned and began firing at him, even though he was protected by all but a few of them by the massive Denouement.

Cerebros was not so lucky, and had to jump onto the ship, climb to the top of its hull, and sprint toward the rear to avoid the millions of rounds being fired in his general direction. Spike was not nearly as exposed as Cerebros, but he too had to dive for cover as the rounds started cutting through the air around the mammoth ship. "Maximus, we're about to have a whole load of company, so I'm a little confused as to why you're bothering with a delay. Sixty seconds won't nearly be enough time for you to lumber your way to a safe distance."

"Not a safe distance for me, no." Maximus replied a moment before the sounds of him pulling the metal hull over the engine room apart could be heard over the weapons' fire. That sound was followed by the tearing and pounding of Maximus burrowing his way through the multiple layers of ship toward the nucleon power core. "But if I can put at least a few miles between us and ground zero and get you and your team deep inside my frame, well, maybe...just maybe..."

The realization that he could survive this hit Spike like a ton of bricks; it was immediately followed by the realization that Maximus would be giving up a slight chance of escape to act as their shield. "No, Max, you keep running!"

"Spike, I'm out of energon." Maximus replied as the sounds of weapons fire grew louder and more intense near Spike. The armored human turned his head and saw thousands of white and green robots swarming onto the front of the ship, and then spotted the headless Cerebros a half mile from his position, running toward him with a fairly noticeable limp. "To be honest, I'll be lucky to get us back to our old position."

"Max, you just worry about delivering your package and do what you can to get yourself back to our position. Cerebros and I will likely be gone before you'll be able to retrieve us, but please do what you can to save my men and the others." Spike instructed.

"Package delivered!" Maximus's voice came through the channel, the sound of a missile leaving one of his many launch tubes in the background. "I'm on my way, you two stay alive!" With that Spike rose up and fired several rounds at the line of soldiers closest to catching Cerebros. The Imperial warriors paused and looked up toward Spike's position, but before they could react the hull of the ship began to tremble under the strain of Fortress Maximus climbing his way to the surface, and then a moment later, lumbering across the top of the craft. "I'm locked onto both of your positions, be ready for extraction!"

A second later Spike was nearly thrown into the air by the approaching footfalls of the giant, but kept from falling from the bridge's elevated position. The human smiled within his helmet upon seeing the massive frame pull up next to the bridge and ran to and jumped into the outstretched hand. Maximus trotted forward a couple hundred yards, reached down to retrieve Cerebros, held him as he transformed into the giant's head, perched him into place on his shoulders, and then started off as fast as his depleted and incredibly damaged body could take him toward the other Cyberwolves, the rescue workers and their injured charges, Chroniclax and those that had traveled with him. Stomping across the metal ground, crushing dozens of enemy soldiers as he went, Maximus could feel his frame starting to fail. "I will get you to safety." The giant muttered to his partners.

Spike, still in Maximus's palm, removed his helmet and looked up at the super-warrior. "Whatever happens Max, you've succeeded. Earth and Cybertron will have a fighting chance because of you. My children will have a chance because of you."

Maximus lowered his gaze slightly to meet the gaze of the human. "You will be there for the birth of your second child. This I promise." Due to his massive strides, Maximus cleared the waves of enemy soldiers and got back to their former defensive position in a matter of seconds. The giant quickly twisted his body around and began transforming, calling out as he did so. "Everybody, enter the fortress at the closest opening and you will be directed to my core by indicator lights. Where available I will provide conveyor belts for the injured. Now move!" The final command corresponded with the completion of the transformation.

Spike and Cerebros ran down the back of the fortress and jumped to the ground in front of the combined humans and Cybertronians. "You heard him, move!" Despite moving both injured and dead, the group quickly entered the fortress. "How much time, Max?"

"Eight, seven, six..." Max counted down.

"Move!" Spike barked as the doors sealed shut behind them. The floor beneath them started pulling them forward, toward Maximus's most central and protected sections. The sudden jolt caused many of them to fall to the ground. The blast and subsequent shockwave hitting Maximus from outside knocked down anyone not already on the ground. The conveyor belt that had been speeding them forward came to a halt, and the slight illumination that had been present ceased. After a few seconds Spike activated the lights on his suit to cut through the blackness. "Max?" Though his helmet was removed and neural link disconnected, Spike was still aware of Max's fading presence, as was Cerebros. "Max?" The presence remained for a few more seconds, getting progressively weaker, until it could no longer be felt by either Spike or Cerebros.

"He's gone." The headless Cerebros muttered sadly.

"I know." Spike replied quietly in English. The human dejectedly lowered his head, but suddenly sensed something. He looked forward, as did Cerebros, down the dark corridor. There was nothing but pitch black for several seconds.

"What is it Captain?" Carver asked.

"I don't know, but it's something." Spike replied as he peered intently into the darkness. A dim light could be barely seen in the distance, but it was approaching them, growing brighter as it drew near.

"What is that?" Chroniclax asked, both amazed and frightened.

Though unaware of what it was, both Spike and Cerebros recognized a familiar essence. "Maximus?" Spike asked skeptically yet hopefully. The glowing increased until the object finally got close enough for most of those present to recognize.

"A spark." Amicus remarked, clearly amazed by what he was seeing.

"Maximus's spark." Cerebros clarified. "There is an old legend, that when a Cybertronian epitomized duty, honor and sacrifice, his spark will be called forth at the time of his death by the Matrix to join the heroes of Cybertron's past."

Spike straightened and saluted the spark as it slowly traveled past them. "Then let his spark join the Matrix, the greatest of Cybertron." The leader of the Cyberwolves, and Fortress Maximus's final organic headmaster partner, released a tear down his cheek. "Farewell good friend; thank you for your sacrifice, for letting me see my child brought into the world, and for letting me watch Daniel grow to become a man. I shall remember and honor you for the remainder of my days, and beyond." The glowing orb passed beyond the group, and then lifted upward and phased through the ceiling. Spike then turned toward the few surviving Cyberwolves. "I can't give you any specifics, but there is a beyond," he then waved toward the recovered bodies of their comrades "and each one of them is there waiting for us."

Cerebros knelt down and gently placed a finger on Spike's shoulder. "Because of Maximus, they will be required to wait a long time my friend."

Spike turned and smiled at the headless Autobot. "I'm pretty sure they're fine with that."

“Well, if the radiation outside is as bad as I’m thinking it is, the dead aren’t the only ones that’ll be waiting a long time.” Carver commented. His comment was simply met with shrugs and smiles. They were alive, a fate that would have been inconceivable just a few minutes before.


***


Buzzsaw limped his way about seventy feet off the metal ground away from the capital spires of Iacon, his heavily damaged wings and thrusters barely keeping him aloft. He had been weaving through the Imperial aircraft, using his superior maneuverability in the confinement of the sheer number of aircraft crammed in the space over the Autobot city-state, when Megatron had turned on the Autobots and then called for retreat. His Decepticon brethren were already nearing the exterior perimeter of Iacon when Buzzsaw finally realized that they were gone. It was at this point when he recognized the reason that the previously inexhaustible number of enemy fliers was now starting to thin significantly; the giant black cloud descending upon Iacon that seemed to be devouring everything it touched. The bird-shaped Decepticon had accumulated vast damage over the hours of battle, but pushed himself to soar through the pain as fast as his frame could go.

Unfortunately for Buzzsaw, the Swarm began spreading itself out wider, extending the black blanket in the sky out far beyond the mechanical bird's position, and then began pulling in its outer edges like a net. The Decepticon spy turned to avoid the snare, but quickly found every avenue of escape cut off. The black form encompassed his winged frame, and he soon was shrieking in agony as that frame was compromised and broken down. Like with all other 'meals', the Swarm scrutinized every aspect of this entity, and noted large data stores within needed for the Cybertronian's function as a spy and secondary archivist. One segment of data stood out as particularly interesting to the black hive of essences, one involving a suggested contingency plan scanned onto an alien disk launched into space decades before. The Swarm was curious about the ramifications of temporal relocation and what impact that could potentially have on itself. Such contemplations were put aside however, as the insuppressible need to find a sense of purpose pushed the Swarm onward on its quest. Perhaps the last significant group within the central section of this vast conurbation might provide some of the answers that the horde of spark essences so desperately required. As the Swarm extended its senses toward that group, it did detect something. Something powerful. Something that almost seemed to be calling to it. Perhaps the long search was over.


*


Optimus Prime watched as the last of Jhiaxus's forces seemed to be absorbed into this dark Swarm, and then looked on in dismay as the apparently immeasurable substance stretched itself to encompass well beyond the boundaries of the Autobots' position. The Decepticon Buzzsaw's retreat had been intercepted, and now the small winged spy no longer existed. They were completely surrounded by this force that had thus far proven to be completely indestructible, or vulnerable in any way. Megatron seemed to be right; there would be no victory over this enemy today. But Prime's optics narrowed as a question entered his head 'is this force truly an entity?' It certainly seemed to be a threat, and it was descending upon them, destroying everything it came into contact with, but oddly enough, Prime didn't seem to sense any malice from the entity. Yes, for some reason, he knew it was an entity, and not a lifeless weapon. And for some reason his inability to sense malice seemed odd as well. Optimus Prime had faced many enemies before, and his recognition of the danger they posed came not from any innate sense, but from observation or prior knowledge. He wasn't psychic in any way, so why was he reluctant to see this destructive force as anything but the rampaging, murderous assailant that he normally would.

"Any suggestions, Prime?" Ultra Magnus asked as he stepped next to his commander. "I'm ready to make the call to fire at will, though going by the effect Jhiaxus's forces had on it, I doubt that would be effective at all."

"No, stand down." Prime answered calmly.

"OK, then retreat it is." Magnus replied and then turned to walk back to the bulk of the bewildered and frightened Autobots. "I still know the subterranean regions of this planet like the back of my hand."

"Negative Magnus, I said to stand down, not fall back." Optimus Prime turned and faced his second in command. "I will address this entity, try and reason with it."

"Reason with it?" Magnus gasped. "You must be joking, Prime. There's no reasoning with this thing. Blaster has sent out repeated hails utilizing every conceivable communication method and system, and has gotten no response. This thing isn't interested in reasoning with us, it just wants to devour us."

"No, it wants merely to know what it is and why it exists." The two large Autobots turned to see Alpha Trion emerging from within a group of Autobots, all of whom were startled to see that he had been in their midst. "It is confused, and has peacefully accepted this state of confusion and lack of self-knowledge for a great many eons, but it has recently been introduced to chaotic and destructive influences, and has begun lashing out like a child." Trion reached them and stood before Prime, staring deeply into his optics. "You already recognize this, don't you?"

Prime stared back, confused for a moment but finally nodding. "Yes, though not in such detail. I recognize the confusion and desperation in this swarm. I recognize immeasurable power coupled with not only a lack of understanding, but a complete lack of morality. It doesn't choose wrong over right, it merely fails to comprehend either." Prime turned and peered intently at the quickly approaching walls of black destruction. "But I do sense Unicron's influence. I assume that's the chaos and destruction you were referring to."

Trion nodded, a proud smile slowing working onto his face. "What is telling you these things? The brilliant mind I constructed for you, your vast experience, or something else?"

Prime shook his head. "No, this knowledge...it's coming from within." Prime touched his chest. "And from beyond. I believe it is the Matrix," Prime then nodded slightly as his optics were locked onto those of his creator's "and I think I know what needs to be done."

"And that is why you are the Chosen One." Trion nodded and placed his hand on Prime's shoulder. "Vector Sigma and I created you to give fate its champion, and in doing so, I was given a son that I have loved from afar for a very long time. Go forth and make me proud...as you have every day of your life."

Prime nodded. "We still need to have that talk."

Alpha Trion nodded. "In time, my son. Now leave before Elita One arrives here from her point in the defensive line and insists that you not perform this seemingly insane act." The ancient Cybertronian smiled and watched the enduring symbol of virtually every ideal turn and march forward to face this threat alone, as he had been destined to do since before he was brought online.

The Swarm condensed over the central section of this city-state known by the native species, a species that it shared some kindred relationship with, as Iacon. The vast conglomeration of essences allowed its outer portions to cut though the metal ground, partly phasing and partly cutting through hundreds of feet of metal, to best guarantee that those within their confines, and specifically the power source that seemed to be calling to them, would be unable to escape. As they contracted their form, that portion of Swarm that was below the surface weakened the metal of the subterranean tunnels and support system to the point that the entire central section of the city dropped over a hundred feet down.

The surviving Cybertronians within the confines of the Swarm had thus far not taken up the futile attacks that the other groups had, even after their city seemed to collapse. Fortunately for them, most of the structures around them, most notably the spires, seemed to remain intact apart from some minor damage; it would seem that edifices designed to last millions of years could take some major shaking. Many of the smaller structures had been destroyed, but that seemed to be the least of the worries of the Autobots that had been tossed about by the collapse of their city. Those not too badly injured were rising back to their feet and were now shrinking back from the black walls closing in; all save one individual. And from this individual emanated the power that had seemed to be calling to it.

Prime, like the rest of his army, had been thrown painfully to the ground as Iacon seemed to come crashing down through the surface of the planet. But he had quickly risen to his feet and continued marching out to meet this dark form head on. His march seemed was coming to a completion as the Swarm closed in upon him and encircled the Autobot Commander. "Greetings, I am Optimus Prime, and I believe I have what it is that you are looking for." With that the Swarm cut into him, ravenously dissecting Prime's armor and outer frame to glean any bit of knowledge they could. And while there was certainly plenty to learn from this being's outer shell, what lay beneath promised so very much more. The agony Prime was going through was intense, but he maintained his composure as he body was being worn away, until finally, he fully understood what he was dealing with, what it needed, and what must be done. "Our darkest hour has now come to an end. Let there be light!" Optimus's spark chamber, which had reconfigured itself to accommodate the Matrix when he had been transformed into Prime, opened to reveal the ancient symbol of Cybertronian wisdom and leadership. A blue light cut through the blackness, washing through the Swarm. Compassion, responsibility, honor, justice, sacrifice, humility, courage, and morality cut through the ignorance. Things not taught by the physical piece of Unicron, things that the members of the Swarm had an abstract knowledge of, but not a true understanding of. The blackness of the swarm enlightened to a shimmering mist, a cloud possessing the millions of glowing individuals that had once been non-sentient essences discarded in the spark splitting process.

The light cloud that had been the Swarm slowly drew away from what was left of Optimus Prime. "Thank you Optimus Prime." The entities emotionlessly conveyed to the battered frame that seemed to consist of solely an inner skeleton and exposed wiring.

"Yaaaaa....yaaaa....you are...welcome." The robot replied through the immense pain. "You...you have what it was you sought?"

"Yes, Optimus Prime." The former Swarm replied. "We are now complete. And we are ready to perform our responsibility."

"Reh...responsibility?" Prime forced out.

"Yes." The collective cloud replied. "We are not omnipotent, but we are the closest any created being has ever been. And it falls upon us to champion order; no, not just order, but order, harmony and justice. We must support these things with our very existence, to be their envoy throughout the universe. We are now, and shall forever be the Vicars of Karma."

"Vaaaa." Prime tried to comment through his heavily damaged and quickly failing vocal circuitry.

"You may refer to us as the VOK. And if we truly are to champion the cause of karma, we must see that both justice and order are served by saving your life and repairing you."

The cloud once again descended upon the Autobot Commander, and in an instant the pain was gone and Prime felt as optimal as he ever had. Prime rose to his feet and stared all around him, every direction showing the cloud with countless points of illumination deep within. "Thank you, and it is good to have another ally."

"We are not your ally Cybertronian." The VOK replied. "We champion many of the things that you champion, but we do so at a much higher level. The picture we look upon is much larger than what you see. Your devotion to compassion limits you greatly. We possess compassion, but it is merely one of many virtues that yields to the greater good. If entities must die to better serve existence, then that is the way it must be."

"You sound a little too detached, ambivalent, arrogant, and ruthless for my tastes." Prime replied.

"Your tastes are of little concern to us." The Swarm replied as it began to disperse to whereabouts unknown. "Play your role, Optimus Prime, and you shall encounter no discord from us."

"Optimus!" Elita's voice called out behind the Autobot leader.

"Prime!" Ultra Magnus, Hot Rod, Kup and Jetfire called out as well. Prime turned and looked at his friends and officers running toward him, as well as the hundreds of soldiers following closely behind them. "Prime, thank the Matrix!" Magnus continued as they reached him, slapping his comrade on his good-as-new right shoulder. "How did you pull that off?"

"He's the chosen one." Elita replied as she wrapped her arms around Prime's left upper arm. "Even if he'll never admit it."

"They were merely looking for guidance and wisdom, things that they found in the Matrix." Prime replied.

"I hope they didn't suck it dry." Hot Rod replied, half joking, half serious.

"No. Power may be finite, but that wasn't what they were after." Prime answered. "Guidance and wisdom aren't given or taken, they're shared. The Matrix is whole, it has merely given rise to a new universal power, one that I hope in the future we either meet as friends, or don't meet at all." The Autobot Commander suddenly went silent as his gaze shifted up above their heads and he stared in shock at an image on the distant horizon, one that just rose above the edge of the pit that Iacon's center was now in. "No."

The collective group of Autobots turned to see what had captured Prime's attention, and gasped in horror as they caught sight of the top of a mushroom cloud. "Where is that?" Blaster asked.

"Cybertropolis." Prime replied quietly.

"Maximus..." Ultra Magnus quietly uttered, fear and an unwillingness to believe in his voice.

"Spike!" Goldbug, in a voice that was clearly Bumblebee's, called out.

"No!" Hot Rod added as he and Goldbug shared a look.

"Maybe they found a way to survive." Kup offered, though there was a hint of doubt in his voice.

As if to answer Kup's suggestion, a small glowing orb came over the edge of the cliff that the Autobots were looking up over and sped the several miles to their position. They all caught sight of it as it drew near and zeroed in on Prime. Unsure of what they were dealing with, Prime took a defensive posture, but could do nothing to stop the glowing spark from phasing into his broad chest. "Ughn."

"Prime!" Magnus called out as he helped his leader, who had doubled over at contact with the spark.

"I...I'm OK Magnus." Prime muttered as he straightened up. A look of serenity with a tinge of sadness was etched into the visible portion of his face. "Maximus has joined the Matrix."

Ultra Magnus's face twisted into a look of denial, and his gaze fell to the ground. Several moments of deep contemplation passed before he raised his head and once again met Prime's gaze, his look of denial replaced with a mixture of sadness and pride. "I will miss him, but at least he will live on forever with the greatest of our brethren."

Prime nodded, but looked to Hot Rod and then to Goldbug, and could offer them no consolation. "We will send a search and rescue party to the pass they were defending." Though delivered with as much optimism as the Autobot Commander could muster, he could not dispel the hopelssness of the situation. The darkest hour may have passed, but they would forever have hours of varying darkness ahead of them.

 

petey, that was stupendous.

You couldn't imagine the stupid grin plastered on my face when you actually made "canon" Starscream's "fake origin story" to Blackarachnia.

 

I liked this part, made me laugh and explains a whole lot more than has gotten presented to us officially, I just wonder what happened to him after his little drop in on the beast wars.

Galvatron and the Predacon's fight was epic, no other way of putting it, slag snapping at snarl was funny and Spike and Carly's farewell talk was heart wrenching...

I could go on but the amount of praise in that almighty chapter would be as long as a chapter in itself.

It was a shame to see Maximus and Cyclonus die. What happened to Torrent? or is ol Kickback going to have a little scene in the next and final chapter?

One thing I will say is that it was nice to see Sideswipe realise that revenge can't be all that powers him. I hope all of Cyertropolis saw that transmission of Chroniclax's even if he didn't manage to see for himself.

 

my guess is Torrent/Kickback becomes Tarantulas.

 

If it was Bombshell I could see that but I don't see Kickback ever becoming as smart as Tarantulas.

 

I'm not confirming/denying anything, but:

Kickback
Function = Espionage
Intelligence = 9
"Charming, but cruelly clever... makes friends so he can influence them to do his bidding by digging up facts he can hold against them."

Not that a certain spider needed to blackmail a certain scorpion/cobra thing, but the spider's bidding was done.

Bombshell
Function = Psychological Warfare
Intelligence = 7.5
"Can turn foes into helpless accomplices by injecting cerebro-shells into their head (robot or human) with his stinger...gives him control of their minds...has a cruel sense of humor...arms himself by having his victims debase themselves."

Seems to me that the cerebro shells are a bit more advanced than mini-spider helpers or even the body-control device used in...well I don't remember the episode name but it's the one where they take control of Optimal Optimus's body (same episode as the one referenced for Kickback). In fact, what was used against Primal would seem to be a case of someone somewhat familiar with the technology attempting to reverse engineer it.


I suppose a case could be made for either, or neither if that's not the direction being taken. As I said, I'm confirming/denying nothing.