[M] Transformers: War of Creation (IC)

[Axilus Prime]

http://i.imgur.com/kg8NbWX.jpg

After the Battle of Hong Kong, the testimony of the Yeagers and the Chinese government, along with the exposure of the illegal actions and subsequent disbanding of the CIA task force Cemetery Wind, has resulted in the Autobots once again being welcomed into an alliance with the US military. The Yeagers as promised were given a new house by Joshua Joyce, for whom all criminal charges were dropped in light of his more recent actions. Cade, with resources and money provided by Joshua, has finally been able to take his inventing career somewhere. Tessa has gone to college, and Shane with her. For the most part, the world is at peace.

But it's not over. Optimus Prime has flown off into space to take the Seed "where it can never be found" and go after the Creators, whatever he may mean by that. Galvatron yet lives, and could be anywhere on Earth so long as he doesn't get within close physical proximity of an Energon detector. And the Knightship, piloted by the late Lockdown's crewmen, has retreated to parts unknown, but is still very much functional. Any Autobots surviving among the stars may come to Earth, or even join Optimus Prime on his way to face the Creators. Any surviving Decepticons would likewise be eager to reinforce their reborn master. The Creators, no doubt, are still planning to "sweep their chessboard clean" even with their top agent's death setting them back. Whatever happens next, only one thing is certain: this peace cannot last.


---

Clink. Clink. Clinkclinkclinkclinkclink.

A man in a leather jacket, walking the streets late at night, stopped when he heard a series of metallic taps against the pavement. He looked around. There was no one there. Not a single car. Nothing noteworthy save for the Energon detector on the corner. The detectors had been installed all over the world, capable of detecting any large enough amount of Energon that came nearby. But since the incident in Hong Kong, all the way on the other side of the world, none had ever been set off.

He continued to walk. And then there it was again. That sound. It bounced off all the walls in the dead of night. There was no telling where that sound was coming from. From a holster on his hip, he drew a pistol. He continued to look around. His house wasn't too far away from here. He moved slowly, cautiously, keeping his gun pointed wherever he looked. Both of his hands, gripping the gun tightly, were becoming sweaty. But the sound had stopped. He continued to walk. He went past the Energon detector, turned the corner. And then he heard the sound again.

CLINKCLINKCLINKCLINKCLINKCLINKCLINKCLINKCLINK

He didn't get to fire a shot. A silvery hand, without a body or even an arm, crawled towards him in a flash and knocked him to the ground. The fingers wrapped around him and squeezed in one swift motion. Flesh, blood, and bone splattered outward. His scream was muffled by the sound of the fingers slamming into the palm of the hand.

The hand turned slowly then. Where it would have attached to a wrist were uneven cubelike protrusions sticking out behind it. As it crawled, more slowly, towards the Energon detector just around the corner, just past the puddle of gore that had once been a man, blue energy crackled behind it. It was slightly pulled backward, and for a split second appeared like it would dissolve entirely into cubes like the ones behind it.

"Rrgh! Too far..."

The hand tried again. It crept forward. Slowly, with visibly great effort. It made its way towards the Energon detector, occasionally crackling with blue energy. But the hand was much smaller than what the detectors could pick up. It wrapped itself around the detector and squeezed, snapping it in half. The top of the detector clattered uselessly against the ground, sparking. And then, finally, the hand dissolved into cubes and flew back the way it had been pulled before.

The cubes assembled onto the handless left forearm of a silver robot with glowing blue lights across his body, a spinning orange grinder in his chest, and a monstrous face with deathly red eyes. And on his forearm, they resumed their role of composing a strong mechanical hand. With the detector out of the way, the robot stepped out from between some buildings, dissolved his whole body into flying cubes, and flew the swarm up in a swirling, spiraling motion almost like a tornado. The cubes soared above where the detector once stood and higher still, toward the upper atmosphere. A large black ship, floating in low orbit, came into view. "The former keeper of the Temenos," a growling voice that seemed to come from the swarm of cubes said. "The Knight Ship."


---

Colonel Lennox walked through a huge metal room, an underground facility with a fifty-foot high ceiling. Even for a classified military base, that was unusual. But then, that's just what this base was. Even though he was in civilian clothing, everyone in the room knew to salute him. "At ease, guys. We're all brothers here." Everyone dropped their salutes, both the reinstated NEST soldiers, once again proudly wearing their badges, and the four Autobots present. "I'm just heading out to buy something better to eat since we have some time off. MREs are crap."

"Still don't get why humans eat so much." Hound, a large green Autobot bristling with holstered guns, a large belly that covered his thighs when he sat, and what appeared to be a cigar but had once proven to be a hidden weapon in his mouth, grinned, cleaning the inside of a four-barreled pistol. "We get a dose of Energon and we're good for a few eons!"

Lennox grinned and looked at Epps, who was laughing slightly. "With a belly like yours," Epps said, "I'm finding that a little hard to believe." Hound's only response was to give Epps the finger. Lennox couldn't help but let out a little laugh himself after that. Even though the NEST soldiers and the three newest Autobot arrivals, Hound, Drift, and Crosshairs, had only met shortly before Cemetery Wind had slaughtered most of the Autobots behind everyone's backs, they were already, just as he said, like brothers.

He walked towards the elevator at the end of the room and took it up. After coming up in a candy store, the cover for the underground NEST facility, he stepped outside. Life was good again.


---

Through the blur of darkness and seemingly stretched starlight, Optimus Prime flew. His gunshield was stowed on his back again, as was the Seed, now that both he and it were safe from atmospheric exit burns. Interstellar travel was something he was used to by now. Only the fact that he could activate interstellar drives in his legs without regressing into meteor form was new. It meant one less moment of vulnerability, one less opportunity for whatever defenses the Creators had prepared on their planet to destroy him. He had warned them that he was coming, after all. It was not, perhaps, strategically wise, but it would keep their attention on him, and away from Earth. These beings had created his entire race, brought it to life with the Allspark. They could unleash unspeakable horrors on the Earth and its people, given the time to prepare and the focus to target them.

But Optimus had a plan. He was almost there, and when he arrived, he would put a stop to the Creators unleashing anything ever again.

[Thelonewanderer]

(Chillwind)

Damn humans. Setting these detectors. Can't get anywhere at all without tripping the damn things. Chillwind thought as she kept to low orbit, her best method of staying out of detector range. Sure she wasn't a Con now, but she was wary of the Bots. Even of, from what she could pick up over some un-encrypted channels, and a few encrypted ones, that most of the 'Bots she had ever dealt with were dead, she still didn't want to risk it.

Might have to anyway. No energon sources for me to tap, My ammo fabricator is in bad shape, and my armor plating is almost worthless, more so then usual. Damn those battles. the femme thought, as she started to dive. Time to bite the bullet.

Looking for energon signatures, Chillwind found three on the ground. Diving faster, Chillwind broke the sound barrier as she came down, forgoing a stealthy approach to let the Autobots know she was coming. Slowing down as she got closer to ground, she pulled up, braked, and transformed mid-air, doing a few flips before landing in a three point stance.

Getting to standing, she could see many a gun aimed at her. "Well, hello there." she said, voice smooth and not showing the slight panic she felt. This was a stupid idea. So bad. Why did i think this was a good idea?

[Blazing Falcons]

"If we have to go through another day of just going down the road, I'll see to it that your ass doesn't look like it does now." Copperhead quipped. "If you're saying that you're going to tear yourself apart, piece by piece, you'll be making me sad." Quicksilver said back. The two had long been friends, but Cemetery Wind's actions had indirectly affected their views on humanity, Decepticons, and Autobots. "Why don't you go back to the Autobots? Do you really think that any Cons we might come across are going to let you go without trouble?" Copperhead asked. "And what makes you think the Bots won't do the same?" Quicksilver shot back, "Ever since we got to Earth, it's been Bots shooting Cons, Cons shooting Bots, and humans shooting everyone. We can't get out, so we go dark. 'We' meaning both of us, Copper." He finished.

A few moments of silence passed before Copperhead sprung a new argument, "Autobots have saved us before, we've saved other Autobots before. Humans haven't done us any wrong-" Quicksilver interrupted him, "Because they couldn't find us. If I remember correctly, it was you that was listening in on human military when they were hunting us. Just takes another battle with the Cons and suddenly the little guys are pointing guns at us and telling us to leave." Believing he finally managed to quiet his partner, Quicksilver pulled out onto the road. "Go find an energon detector, let the Autobots come to us." Copperhead ordered. "That's the opposite of what I want to do. Exact opposite." Quicksilver said back. "Well, I'm sick of hiding from nothing. So either you're going to drive to a freakin' energon detector, or I'm gonna go to one without you. That's where you don't look like your old self." Quicksilver did a graceful U-turn, and sped towards the nearest city, and said, "Things I do for you my friend, things I do for you." Copperhead laughed and gave light-hearted reply, "I could quite easily say the same."

[Punished Snake]

Right outside of Earth's atmosphere, a small Cybertronian ship was falling down to the planet. The engines were no longer in control and the majority of its systems were broken. The ship was barely able to warp as it took a major hit from a Decepticon missile. As it hit the atmosphere, the heat shields were beginning to fail.

A red Autobot frantically tried to gain some control as he tried to control the area of collision. "Can't cause any casualties. Hopefully I can take this to a remote area." Some people in the outskirt desert of Arizona began recording video of the burning space craft. His efforts of guiding the craft were paying off, but he was soon abiut to crash onto the planet surface.

"Gotta bail before I go splat!" He pushed a button on the console which then ejected him from the vehicle. He landed on a butte, but the sound of an explosion told him his ship was now totaled. "Shit. As much as I hate to leave the ship there, I got to get moving and find the other Autobots."

Razous jumped down and his way to road while laying low. As he reached the highway, a red Corvette sped by. He scanned it and drove in the opposite direction Corvette was heading. "If I activate my emergency beacon, they'll come and find me." A microwave frequency was now being transmitted to alert any Autobots (or Decipticons) of his current position.

[Axilus Prime]

By the time Chillwind landed, the sonic boom and Energon detector, still beeping, had both made enough of a scene to get the NEST forces sent out. A freight elevator in the back of the supposed candy store was on surface level, open after letting four Autobots out into the city. From the front of the store, the standard elevator had deployed the NEST forces, armed and ready in only a minute after Chillwind's dive into lower atmosphere had tripped the detector by entering the air right above it. "You'd better have a damn good reason for making us ditch this base," a dark-skinned human on the ground said to the robot standing before the arrangement of soldiers and Autobots. After all, these bases were put in cities to allow quick responses, but once forces were seen deployed from them once, they weren't exactly secret bases anymore, and had to be abandoned. Autobots could easily leave the base in vehicle form without attracting any more attention than your typical sports car, but judging by the number of civilians holding up their smartphones, Epps figured they had been seen transforming already.

Hound squinted, aiming his massive triple gatling gun. "HEY WAIT, I KNOW YOU! YOU'RE THAT DECEPTICON BITCH!" He nearly filled her with lead, and would have if not for Drift quickly pushing his gun up and a yell from Epps to hold his fire. "Hey, what are ya doing?!" All around the scene, soldiers were clearing civilians away, telling them to get to safety, and occasionally to delete their half-finished recordings of the scene. Hound, meanwhile, seemed to be ignoring all that, trying to aim his gun back at Chillwind. "Lemme--get--a--shot in!"

"Hound, stop it! She would not come here like this to attack. Decepticons do not work that way." Drift, the black and blue Autobot with the armor configuration of a samurai and a thick Japanese accent, finally got Hound to get his finger off the trigger. As protocol dictated, he pointed his gun back at Chillwind, but it seemed he was calm, for now. Drift turned to face Chillwind, holding a sword in the hand he wasn't using to keep Hound from firing earlier. On his back was another sword, though he didn't draw it. He just kept the one pointed at her, while exchanging a glance with Epps.

"I've seen her before," Hound muttered, glaring at Chillwind. "Freakin' backstabber whatever the hell she is...any funny moves and I'm shootin' her."

"What's a 'Con doin' here?" Epps asked, gun naturally pointed at the femme standing above him. "You sure you're not lookin' for Galvatron? Ugly mofo, can't miss him."

"Yeah," a bright green Autobot with a trenchcoat formed from his vehicle mode's roof and hood said with a smirk. "You wanna find him, go right up shit creek and take a left straight into go fuck yourself. Now if you want to meet him without all the fancy travel business, I can just blow yer brains out, and when we send him to hell right after, you can say hi." His smirk got wider when he heard Bumblebee's rasping laugh. The kid may have had his voice box crushed, but he got the occasional word or sound out every now and then. It sure was better than his constant radio speak, to Crosshairs anyway. He heard a beep come from the scanner display on his forearm before he could think of any more wisecracks. "Hang on, all you people better be aimin' correctly cause I need to put my guns down, and if I'm the only one who could have actually landed my shots yer all anally screwed when she makes a move." He stowed both of his SMGs, expanded the view on his forearm display, and rolled his eyes. "Ah, great. Freakin' distress beacon. Can't they see we're busy here?!"

Epps, who had command at the moment since none of the Autobots present were particularly suited to lead, spoke up again. "Alright, you and Bee check it out. Roll out and find the 'Bot sending it." He kept his eyes on Chillwind, but heard the sounds of the two Autobots transforming and letting the others handle the job of pointing guns threateningly at the suspicious new arrival. They drove off, but not before he caught Crosshairs muttering something about it not sounding right when Epps was the one to say 'roll out.'

"Sergeant," a soldier holding a radio spoke up, "another Energon detector's been tripped in a suburban area 20 miles out. Should we check that out too?" The soldier turned and saw the samurai Autobot transforming into a helicopter.

"I will handle it. Hound has more than enough guns to shoot her if something goes wrong. Autobots have tripped the detectors before, and if this is one I don't want Hound shooting them." Drift flew off with no opposition from any of the NEST forces.

"Yeah," Hound sighed. "You guys found Crosshairs when he tripped one."

"We found you when you tripped on one," Epps reminded Hound, waiting for the femme to explain what she was doing here.

"Hey! I only tripped cause I couldn't see it with my gut in the way!"


---

In the darkness of the upper atmosphere above the coastal United States, where night had already fallen, a crew of the last Creator loyalists worked on repairing the Knight Ship. Its largest weapon, a magnet capable of pulling on normal steel and Transformium alike, hung destroyed beneath the ship, as loose strands of metal and wire. A few holes in its armor plating created by the Chinese air forces still remained, holes perfect for a swarm of cubes to fly in. And so it did. Black and green robots turned towards the metallic chattering sounds produced by the cubes as they swirled into the room and assembled themselves into a robot roughly the size of Optimus Prime but sharing nearly none of his features. He was bulkier, silver with blue lights across his body. A hole straight through his chest, where his spark should have been, contained a spinning orange grinder. His red eyes glared at everyone present, but across his face was a grin. "What do we have here? A multitude, armed but without purpose...utterly hopeless in their quest to capture our common enemy."

Armed they were, and with their many guns, they all took aim at the newcomer. One stepped forward, set apart by his possession of a rocket launcher in place of a rifle. He squinted. The newcomer looked different from any Cybertronian he had seen, and his transformation into a swarm of cubes was clearly unnatural. "You...are one of the humans' projects. The ones our captain allowed in exchange for their help."

"It would seem the insects have their uses," the silver robot conceded, "even to me." He had no visible weapons out, though serrated spikes could be seen protruding from each wrist, on the underside of the forearm, opposite the thumb. It was clear from their design that they could extend. "I am Galvatron."

"State your business here, Galvatron. We have far more important things to do."

Galvatron laughed, a harsh, scratching sound that echoed throughout the room. "A fine act, but I am here because as we both know, you do not. I am aware that you seek Optimus Prime. But you lack the power to defeat him. I will deliver him to you...if you help me deal with my Autobot problem."

"If you had the power to deliver him to us," the rocket trooper countered, "you would have killed him when you first fought! We saw you, fighting him, from this very ship! We saw Lockdown clean up after your failure! We even saw your attempt to use the Seed on the human city, and your army's slaughter at the hands of the very Knights we worked so hard to capture! And you fled!"

With a shifting of parts and a flash, the rocket trooper's limbs and head fell to the ground. There wasn't very much of a torso there, just parts that had been blown apart. Where Galvatron's right forearm once was there was a large round fusion cannon. The troopers, naturally, opened fire, but failed to hit anything when his body dissolved into cubes and scattered. Only the cannon remained in one piece, and flaps all around its sides opened to release rockets. They were launched aimlessly, but changed course to blast apart clusters of troopers and knock survivors to the ground. On a bridge-like protrusion from one of the walls, all the cubes re-formed into Galvatron once more. "If I lacked power, you fools, that would have been quite impossible. The first time I fought Prime, my body was not fully under my control. And when my army was destroyed, did you expect me to face the entire group of Autobots and beasts alone? I witnessed your captain's death. He was destroyed by a mere TWO of them, and three of the insects armed with only a single weapon and a nonliving truck." At this, the crew appeared humbled, getting to their feet slowly while more crewmembers rushed into the room to see what the cause of the commotion was. One of the crewmembers held up a hand, seemingly a signal to hold fire. All eyes were on Galvatron now. "What I propose is quite simple. I need an army, and you need a leader with true power. You will serve under me, and when the Autobots on this planet are dead, I will give to you Optimus Prime. Or...you can continue your aimless wanderings, helpless to make any progress in your quest, until you are hunted to extinction by our Autobot foes, or terminated by your Creators for your utter failure."

The troopers lowered their weapons and stood at attention. Satisfied, Galvatron grinned and walked toward the controls of the ship.


---

As Bumblebee and Crosshairs drove through the desert, Bumblebee spotted a crashed ship of Autobot design. He turned on his radio, piecing together sound bites he could find on broadcast channels to form a sentence. The whole process, now that he was used to it, took only a second. A second and a half, tops. "Keep going--I wanna check that out." He took a left and drove towards the ship, leaving Crosshairs to proceed towards the beacon itself.

"Oh, sure," Crosshairs said, rolling his eyes within his car mode. "Leave me to be the people person." He turned around a few rock formations before spotting a red Autobot with car parts on him, a bit taller than his vehicle mode would normally suggest he'd be. The car was a Corvette variant similar to Crosshairs, judging by what he could see on the guy's robot mode. Eh, good taste this one's got. When he was close enough, he transformed, looking slightly up at the Autobot's face. "All right, yer an Autobot judgin' by yer signal and that thing," he said, tapping Razous' Autobot insignia, "you have good taste in cars, and there's a crashed ship back there. So...who the hell are you and whaddaya want?"


---

Drift moved quickly in helicopter mode, with no obstacles in his way. He was a custom helicopter, an alternate mode he had formed by piecing together different helicopters he had seen, but that didn't seem to draw very much attention. In minutes he reached the coordinates of the Energon detector that had been set off at the edge of a city. From above, he could see a silver and blue car right next to the detector. It seemed it had been set off on purpose. Not wanting to attract human attention, Drift sent a radio transmission down to the car and flew into the desert the car had apparently come from judging by the way it was facing. "I am Drift, warrior of the Autobots. Meet me outside the city. I fly above you now."

[Punished Snake]

"The name's Razous. I came here to regroup with any Autobots here on this planet. It was a rumor I heard, so I had to check it out and get out of the backwater planet I was on." He turned to the direction of his ship had crashed.

"Pretty sure you found my ship. A hard ass con was able to land a hit right before I exited the atmosphere. The overal travel here took a toll on the ship and soon my systems failed."

.....

Reluis walked into a local store and greeted the store owner. He grabbed a gallon of milk, twelve pack of beer, and brought it up to the register. "That all Ray?" "Yeah, I'm running low on beer." He chuckled a bit.

"One can go never have a day without a beer." "Amen to that." Relius payed the owner and left the store. As he opened the passenger of his 70's Ford pickup, he noticed someone walking opposite to him. Is that Yeager? Nah, couldn't be.

[Thelonewanderer]

(Chillwind)

"well, aren't all of you a fun bunch. And glad to see at least one of the old guard is still alive, so to speak." Chillwind said, a slight smirk on her face. While she did need help from the Autobots, messing with them a tad was always fun.

"If you must know, I need help. The last couple of years have not been good to me. After the Battle of Chicago, and seeing our 'Glorious Leader' killed again, I left, scrapped off my 'Con decal, and tried to lay low." A bit of sarcasm thrown in, though mostly serious. The next part was the hardest to tell.

"Of course, those Cemetary Wind bastards are quite the effective bunch. Almost got me before I fled to high orbit. Came down to try and get more energon, only to see that bomb go off. A couple months in low orbit, to stay out of range of those detectors, and I knew I had to get help." Chillwind sighed as she told that part. It was annoying for someone like her to have to get help, but desperate times and all that.

"So, I have a proposition for all of you. I work for you in the role I've always filled, infiltration, and you simply provide me with a tune up and energon. Mercenary is the human term for this, yes?" Chillwind hadn't looked at any of the humans this whole time, keeping her gaze on the two Autobots that had stayed here.

Energon Detection system Offline read across her vision. Well, that was not unexpected. As long as the Shadow Systems stay online I should be fine.

[Blazing Falcons]

"Well. You got what you wanted." Quicksilver sighed, surging forward and back out towards the desert. "It's a good thing that he came out here for us, at least he isn't a Con." Copperhead said. Quicksilver quickly corrected him, "He came out here for me, not us. I'm pretty sure there's no knowledge of your existence as of yet." He then turned his attention to the helicopter above him and introduced himself, "We're ex-Autobots. Name's Quicksilver. Went dark when Cemetery Wind started shooting."

[Axilus Prime]

"Well, you found us, great job, I'm going back. You can follow me if you--" Crosshairs stopped and turned around again to face Razous. "Wait. You're bein' chased by a 'Con?"

Bumblebee pulled over at the crashed ship and transformed. It didn't seem too special to him, just another one of those one-man fighters that became common near the end of the Cybertronian War. He'd flown two of them himself already...crashed them both, but still, he'd flown two of them. It made him feel a bit better about his piloting skills to see that he wasn't the only one to crash these things. When he examined it, the engines were clearly shot. Before he could look any further, he heard Crosshairs' voice in his comm radio. "Oy! Bee, get over here right now!" He transformed and drove there, but not without playing an insulting song over the radio and sending it to Crosshairs as his response. Seriously, that green guy was rude. He pulled over next to him and Razous, changing back into robot mode as he slid to a stop.

"Alright, Bee, this is Razous. Razous, this is Bee. Now," Crosshairs said, pointing his finger rather close to Razous' face, "you better tell us who's chasing you, why, and with what ship. Because this is seriously putting a dent in my relaxin' time, and we've already got Galvatron to deal with so I'm getting pissed off real quick."

Bumblebee made a whistling sound, standing there nervously. Crosshairs was not exactly making the best impression.


---

Cade Yeager, walking to the store, put his hand in his pocket to make sure he hadn't left in a rush and forgotten his wallet again. It sometimes happened when he was too busy focusing on a great idea. Even more frequently, he'd forget to eat because he was working on something, and then the hunger would just hit him all at once at the worst time ever. This was one of those times. He had to pick up something to eat. The setting sun's light reflected off of something, causing him to squint. He stopped. Wait. That truck looks familiar. He turned to get a better look, and then he realized why. "Ray? That you over there? Thought you were gonna tattoo your other arm! Did you spill some bleach on it?" He smiled, then checked his pocket again. Good. Money's still there. For some reason, no matter how many times he checked, he had to check again.


---

"So you're gonna work for us...if we make you feel less shitty." Hound's expression looked disappointed, as if he was hoping for an excuse to shoot her. "So, tiny boss, whaddaya think? Should we trust her? Lack of Energon seems kinda fishy to me..."

"Pretty sure you're only stocked up on the stuff cause you overfilled." Epps looked Chillwind over. "Not too often we get a 'Con switchin' sides. But hey, it's happened. Funny thing...last one needed more Energon too." He lowered his weapon. "You turn on us, we got four Autobots and a bunch of guys who all make a living blasting Decepticon asses. Weapons down people. We're closing shop." He thought for a moment while everyone stowed their guns and one of the soldiers put in the call to move all supplies from the 'candy store' base to their next location. "Never had a jet before...we got an airbase in the next state though. Move everything there and she can land there without looking funny."

Hound stowed his weapon, but kept his eyes on Chillwind. "Uh...one thing. See, to get her Energon, fastest way would be to, uh...blow up the sun. Kind of a funny story, but I'm not even kiddin, an--"

"Yeah," Epps cut him off, "we know. Been there, stopped that. 'Cons tried that in Egypt before you got here."

"Well...we don't really have any stock Energon, so she's kinda shit outta luck."

"Well, we're gonna have to give her a donation then. Don't tell me you're running low with that belly."

Hound groaned, transforming into his camo-patterned alternate mode. "Just don't ask me to handle the tune-up. Someone else can take that job." Soldiers got inside, though Epps remained outside and looked up at Chillwind.

"All right," he said. "Don't want any funny business, so I'm riding with you."


---

Drift tilted forward, sliding around his parts and landing on both feet in a smooth flipping motion next to Quicksilver. He waved his hand upward, gesturing for Quicksilver to stand up as well. "They were truly dishonorable," he said sympathetically. He had experienced that firsthand, as had all the surviving Autobots currently on Earth. "But Cemetery Wind is gone. You are welcome with us again." Drift looked around then, expecting to see someone else, but no one was visible. "You said we. Can you introduce me to your friend?" He didn't want to ask where this friend was, preferring to seem fully aware.

[Thelonewanderer]

(Chillwind)

"Very well." Chillwind said before transforming into her alt. form. Once Epps climbed in, and the road cleared out, she took off, getting to a decent altitude before circling. "Alright, where am I going? Or should I just follow the Heavy Gunner?" she asked, voice coming over a radio speaker in the cockpit.

[Punished Snake]

He slowly lowered Crosshair's finger and gave a grim expression. "Ever heard of a 'Con named Sinwarden? That's the same bastard who shot me down and killed my twon brother. I don't know if he came after me, but if he did, he'd come here in his own flight mode." Razous looked up at the sky as if he was already there.

He then switched his expression to a rather cheerful one and says, "So are just going to stay here and melt in the desert, or are we going to regroup with the others? It really has been a long time since I met anyone from our side. Wonder who else is here on this planet?"

....

To his amazement, it was Yeager who Reluis saw. He chuckled at Cade's comments about his tattoos. "You don't worry Yeager, I'm still getting that tattoo. You still still fixing 'junk' in your barn?" He laughed as he got into the driver's seat with the window already down. He better get home or the milk is going to spoil in the heat of the sun.

.....

Through the cosmos, a Decepticon flew past the stars in search of an Autobot he had failed to exterminate. This Decepticon is none other than Sinwarden. A ruthless warrior who was a skilled assassin during the war due to the range his Scrambler rounds could travel and his laser as well. None the less, he was not going to let Razous out of his sights, because no Autobot has ever survived whenever they faced him.

Soon he was arriving at the planet that Razous had landed. But something caught his eye as he came closer to the planet. A dark figure could be seen im its most upper atmosphere. "Rather odd that a ship would be docked there. I wonder if its crew are allies..." the Con then booseted his way down towards the vessel before he finished his sentence, "or more Autobots for the killing."

When arrived at the ship, he infiltrated through an area that seemed like its prison cells. The rusted looking Con then transformed his right arm into his Scrambler Rifle and made his through the ship while being cautious. As he made his way through the ship, he soon found what appeared to be a silver and blue robot with what appear to be the crew of this ship. Sinwarden then jumped down from his position, pointing his rifle at the bot whom he had no clue of his identity and said, "I don't exactly know who you are, but I'm sure you'll perish quickly. Now tell me your name; I like to keep a record of most of those who I've killed."

[Blazing Falcons]

Quicksilver transformed, not bothering to do anything fancy with the action, and said, "Naturally." Seconds later, Copperhead shot out of his "hiding place", wings spread. He circled the larger two bots once, and then perched on Quicksilver's outstretched arm. "Copperhead." He quipped. "Quicksilver's partner in crime, justice, or Decipticon murder! Whichever you prefer!" He laughed, trying to get the others to join in. "You'll have to forgive him, he suffers from a need to make bad jokes." Quicksilver said, almost emotionless, given his situation and his reluctance to have been put in it in the first place.

[Axilus Prime]

Epps responded to Chillwind by putting his hands on the controls. "Neither. I may be on the ground most of the time cause of joint ops, but I'm Air Force." Over the radio came a transmission informing him that the ground troops had already started moving. He and Chillwind would get there first, but he was willing to take the risk. There were NEST soldiers already on-station at the base to begin with. He simply set Chillwind on course and let the engines run, doing the rest.


---

"Sinwarden?!" Crosshairs had heard the name. "That guy once shot me outta the sky when I was paratrooping! Had to grab a tower before I hit the ground. He's a flier...guess he didn't need a ship to chase yours and shoot it down." He looked up, even putting on his goggles and zooming in to search for the Decepticon, but he found nothing. "Where the hell is he?!"

Bumblebee shook his head. With a single radio transmission, he told Crosshairs, "Guess he lost track!" There certainly wasn't any sign of Sinwarden, whoever that was. "Come on, let's go!" He transformed and revved his engine, eager to get moving. Upon receiving a transmission from Hound, he relayed it to the others over his radio system just as he would with any transmissions he used to speak with. "Hey Bee, we're moving to an air base a few miles out. Just follow the coordinates when you're ready to go back. Freakin 'Con's offering to fight for us if we give her Energon, taking from MY gut..."

Crosshairs kept looking at the sky for a moment longer. "Well, he's not here. We're good to go, but if we run into him on the way, we're shooting him down. I want that pain out of my backside for good." He transformed, went around Bumblebee so they were parallel, and revved his engine as well. "Sucks you didn't get here sooner. Week ago, we had Optimus Prime." He drove off without waiting for Razous, expecting him to keep up.


---

"Watch your language, Ray, I still don't use the J-word." Cade smiled, glad that his situation had improved enough that he was no longer working with what others would call junk. "I got a new house and better tools from a friend." It was still weird, calling Joshua that, but when a man (however annoying he is at times) gives you millions of dollars worth of stuff for free, you have to be fair to him. "Actually," he said, looking around to make sure no one was listening and lowering his voice, "there's something you might want to see in there. It's not finished, but I promise, this one's going to work." He'd said that many times in the past about many projects, but this time, he had no doubt. Realizing that the same didn't automatically apply to Ray, he added, "Something from that Hong Kong craziness."


---

Drift stared blankly at Copperhead, unimpressed with his joke but fascinated to see a birdlike Cybertronian. He had once wanted one as a partner. For a few seconds, he just looked silently. "It is an honor to meet you both," he finally said, bringing out a smile. He could tell Quicksilver was less than enthusiastic to meet him, but still, it was no reason to forget his manners. He got a call from Hound shortly afterward informing him that the base was being moved. They did, after all, have to stay hidden to avoid the Decepticons tracking their actions through human media. "Let us go to the rest of our brothers," he said, assuming the two ex-Autobots were once again on board. "Try not to attract attention as we move to our base. It is meant to be secret. We must be as the shinobi." Some found his references to the ancient Japanese culture of this planet odd, but to him it was a treasure trove of wisdom. Wasting no time, he transformed, though this time into his car mode so he could show Quicksilver the way to drive there.


---

Epps brought Chillwind down at the airbase before anyone else arrived and pressed the button to open her cockpit. When he stepped out onto the bridge for pilots to exit from, he looked around to make sure there were no sightseers going around. The base wasn't in the middle of a city, but it would be bad if someone saw Chillwind enter. Even if the Transformers' existence was public knowledge, where they stayed certainly wasn't. "All right, we're clear. Normally you can drive in and take a freight elevator to get underground, but you're our first flier actually going in. You're gonna have to transform and get in the freight elevator cause your jet mode's too expanded." Thankfully, jet Transformers tended to have their parts compacted in robot mode so they wouldn't be too ridiculously big. The elderly looking one who gave his parts to Prime a few years back definitely wouldn't fit, but Epps had a feeling Chillwind would.

The two guards stationed at the front of the base stared at Chillwind's jet mode. "So...that's an ex-Con. Think we can trust him?" one asked the other, assuming the new arrival was male. The other didn't respond, simply staying wary and silent.


---

Sinwarden found himself aiming his gun at a space of open air, his target's entire body having dissolved into cubes. The left hand re-formed first, directly under the Scrambler Rifle. The rest of the body formed under the hand, pushing the rifle up as it stood and finishing the reformation with a fusion cannon pointed straight at Sinwarden's face. Looking him in the eyes, over the cannon, was a pair of red eyes with an unmistakable familiar look in them. When the robot spoke, his tone was again familiar, even though the voice was vastly different. "I will assume you mistook me for an Autobot, Sinwarden...but I will not tolerate such disrespect again." Crewmembers gathered around, pointing their guns at Sinwarden from all sides. Galvatron grinned, waiting to see if his subordinate would recognize him and kneel. It wouldn't do to shoot him, of course. There were much better ways to put this unexpected turn of events to use.

[Thelonewanderer]

(Chillwind)

"Very well. Lets see how capable you are." Chillwind remarked as Epps assumed direct control. As they landed and Epps got out of the cockpit, Chillwind rolled forward as far as she could before she had to transform. Once standing, she overheard the two guards.

"Yes, Im totally a male. Just look at this figure, it screams manliness." The femme quipped as she walked towards the freight elevator, getting in and sitting down, able to let her legs out a bit. Being on the short side for both a femme and a flier/infiltrator type had its perks.

"So, whats the situation like with the remaining 'Cons? I know there were a few that had to still be active, if only because they're just too damn stubborn to die easily. " Chillwind asked Epps. She may have been an ex-Con, but seeing as how she hadn't kept up with orders since at least the Battle of Chicago, and for sure during the Cemetery Wind ordeal. As such, she was very much out of the loop.

[Punished Snake]

"M...Me...Megatron?! You live?!" He transformed his right back into it's original form and quickly kneeled before him. "Apologies, my leage. I received no word of what happened to you from where I was. Some assumed you perished after you last left to this planet, but I kept loyal to you all the time. I knew you were alive..." the Con rose up and looked at Galvatron still shocked, "but I didn't imagine you would appear as such."

Sinwarden looked at Galvatron in amazement as he circled him to view his new form. "So...you have no spark, and how is it that you are able to trasmform as such? Is there a way you can reveal that technique to me?"

.....

Razous trasformed as he followed the others to the air base. "That asshole shot me while he was still on the planet. A railgun installation was built where I was stuck on." When he heard about Prime, he became ecstatic. "Prime was here?! Holy balls, I always wanted to meet the guy! I heard many things about him, but I never met him in person."

Since they were driving along the road, Razous decided to surf through the radio transmissions on Earth. As he searched through them for anything interesting, he found a rock station and (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEBfQoIgMtk) turned the volume all the way up. "This song is sick! This planet knows how to make some killer sounds."

....

"Oh really?" Ray knew Cade was somehow involved with Transformers after he heard about that incident and saw his face on the news. "I'll pass by shortly. I got to drop off my milk before it spoils on the way home." He got in his truck and started its engine. Once it was ready, he drove off to his ranch to drop off his gallon of milk. "I wonder what Cade made after that whole incident? I never told him I was with N.E.S.T before...maybe I should tell him now."

[Blazing Falcons]

"Ninja! Got it!" Copperhead shouted happily. As he was speaking, Quicksilver transformed without warning, leaving Copperhead with a momentary struggle to keep from falling to the ground. "Little warning next time would be nice." he said, before melding with Quicksilver once more. "You're enjoying yourself too much." Quicksilver said. "No, you're just don't know how to have a good time when the situation calls for it." Copperhead defended. Quicksilver sighed and said, "I'll admit that's true in some occasions. But I firmly believe this isn't one of them." Copperhead laughed at him. "You 'firmly believe'?" Quicksilver tried to end the conversation there, saying "Just shut up, remember who's driving, and that he can hear us."

[Axilus Prime]

The guards stared up at Chillwind, evidently surprised at how she actually looked. Epps followed in after the clearly female bot, smiling a little at the guards' confusion. "Uh...sorry," one of them said. Once the freight elevator started moving down, the same voice added, "If she wasn't metal, she'd be kinda hot."

Epps called up from the descending elevator. "You got some weird fetishes, bro!" The only response he heard was laughter from the other guard. "Alright. This is NEST base for now. You stay here unless we tell you to go, you get repairs here when you need them, and you don't break anything. Understand?" The elevator stopped as he said this, parallel to the other elevator on the other side of the room, which Hound in his vehicle mode drove out of. He accidentally knocked something over and broke it with his rear end, muttering a clumsy apology. Epps could only facepalm.

The base itself was a big open room, with silvery bulletproof metal for the walls capable of withstanding immense weight falling on it. After all, the Transformers were lighter than their size equivalent in steel, but they weren't exactly light. The ceiling was high enough for even those taller than Optimus Prime to stand, though at the moment none were present. Vehicles, nonliving with the exception of the now-transforming Hound, were parked along the sides of the room. Transformer-sized doors led to other rooms, though at the moment they were closed. "Repair bay's this way," Epps said. "Hound, you come too, you're the donor."

Hound followed behind Epps and Chillwind, grumbling. "Don't want any funny business...like pulling all my Energon instead of just what you need. You do that and you're cleaning up the rust pile," he told Chillwind.


---

Crosshairs didn't object to Razous' music. He was fine with it, really. The singer seemed to be speaking his language. Bumblebee, on the other hand, had his windows rolled up and his own radio turned on. Heh. Guess the little bugger dun like this music. After a while, they made it to the base. Bumblebee drove in, preferring to lead by example. Crosshairs, in case the new guy needed things to be really clear, decided to simplify matters for him. "All right, if you don't know how to get in, you turn your wheels to do this thing called driving and go forward. You steer, that's turning the wheel thing inside ya, so you get in the elevator. And then it starts doing this thing called going down, that takes you into the--" A loud beep from Bumblebee cut him off. "Fine, fine! The one time I try to give detailed instructions..."

When the three were inside, Crosshairs and Bumblebee assumed their robot forms. Sitting on a big bench thing was Hound, taking up the entire space and looking somewhat...thinner. He still had a belly, but it stuck about about six inches less. "Oh, there you guys are," he said, looking up. "Meet the bloodsucker."

"You just gave an Energon donation, Hound, stop it. Makin' it sound like she's some kinda vampire. DON'T," Epps said, pointing his finger at a soldier, "start watching Twilight in the base again." A few soldiers laughed at the soldier Epps had singled out, who turned as pale as the vampires he had been watching two days ago. "So, this a new recruit too? You need any explaining, or did Crosshairs already fill you in?" Crosshairs rolled his eyes. "That's a no."


---

Drift drove forward, pretending not to hear Quicksilver. At least Copperhead seemed more enthusiastic...and he knew what a shinobi was. He does not seem to trust the Autobots. This is very strange. Still, he didn't question him there. It would be wiser to just get to the base and let that be sorted out after things were more settled. He wondered what had become of Optimus Prime since he left, taking to the skies like a great bird and charging to face their dark Creators.

There was nothing in their way as they passed through the desert. Drift, having been educated on the locations of Energon detectors when he first arrived on Earth, took them on a route completely devoid of them when they had to pass through a city. Coming out on the other side of the city, they went on through the desert until arriving at the airbase that had become the new NEST headquarters. "Into the freight elevator," Drift said. "You may transform on the inside."

When they got down, Epps was finishing an explanation on the current situation, recent events, and NEST to a red Autobot. "That's about it, so you can go in there and get scanned so the Energon detectors don't go off on you, and you're all set." He looked at the freight elevator only to see yet another new arrival, this time accompanying Drift. "...And you can explain the stuff I said to him cause I'm not going over all that again."


---

"Right, you do that, I'll go get it ready." Cade walked into the store as Ray drove off and bought some canned food to cook when he got home. Ironically, he was probably gonna get sidetracked from that again, showing Ray his new project. He went to his truck, got in, and drove home. Then he remembered a little detail. "Shit." He took out his phone and called Ray. "Uh, Ray? Do you even know where my new house is?" It then struck him as stalkerish if it turned out he did know without even being told. That would make it weird.


---

Galvatron appeared satisfied, making no objection to Sinwarden observing his new form. "I did indeed perish," he said, "but I was reborn." There was pride in his voice, justified by the fact that his rebirth into this form was in fact his own doing. Perhaps it was not a true death, but being reduced to nearly a vegetative state, living as just a head, only to return more powerful than ever was an accomplishment. And he did suffer a true death before that, only to be restored by his loyal followers. It was fitting that now, after his second rebirth, he was joined by one. "I am now Galvatron," he said, turning to face Sinwarden again while stowing his cannon, no longer needed in this situation. "I need no spark because this body is not of our Creators' making...and that is also the reason I can transform as you have seen."

His lower legs dissolved into cubes, which swirled like tornadoes, floating him up. He hovered like that for a moment, getting used to his new technique, before slowly flying towards the side of the ship. "Come with me, Sinwarden. There is something we must discuss." He looked at the crew momentarily, making sure they didn't follow. "Continue flying the ship. Set course for the East Coast of the United States."


---

Optimus Prime's navigation system told him he had arrived. As he had set them to, his boosters' interstellar function shut off. The blurs of light around him slowed and became stars. A huge black object came into view. There it was, in front of him. A massive orb, larger than Earth, though smaller than Cybertron. But it was darker. While Cybertron was a silvery steel color, patterned with layers upon layers of hexagon frames, with glowing blue visible at its center from above, this planet was different. It was a dark steel color, like that of Lockdown and his crew, like that of the Knight Ship after its alteration by the hunter. Instead of hexagonal patterns, it was flatter, though it was covered in complexes of buildings visible even from orbit. Green lights in lined patterns streaked across its surface in some places, flowing in all directions and visibly pulsing between bright green and completely faded black. In some areas, entire sections of the planet appeared to be moving. Coming up behind it and slowly into view was a moon sharing almost the same appearance, only smaller. These worlds may have once been unique, but not anymore. Now they were just giant factories, massive engines of war. They were made this way.

He turned, flying using the power of his thrusters. Down, towards the Creators' planet. Towards Xenos. The moon Rotos was above him as he entered into the atmosphere, but it cast no light. This planet had no sun. All its light was artificial, and it was forever cold. When Optimus got close enough, he drew his gunshield from his back and held it in front of himself to guard against re-entry burns. It was somewhat charred already from the last battle, but Knight weaponry was strong. It would not break.

He aimed for an area with less light, somewhere the Creators were likely not using. Buildings were everywhere, of course, but he managed to find an area filled with some that had fallen out of use. It would be better if he wasn't seen before he landed. Finally he landed, slowing his fall by turning his body and putting his legs below him. He landed on one knee and a fist, gunshield still strapped to his other arm. And then he got up while retracting his thrusters.

"Xenos." He was here.

[Punished Snake]

"Uh, no. You said it blew up or something your last house , right?" Ray was already on a dirt road that lead to his house. Good thing there were no ploice on these roads, cause he would get a ticket for doing this. "Is thsi place fancier than your old home?" He chuckled a bit as he said that.

....

"Hi there. I'm Razous, and we got a former Con on our side for now at least." He pointed with a thumb over his shoulder to Chillwind. "If you don't want to have those Energon detectors to go off on you when you're driving the road, then follow me. I'm heading there right now."

Razous walked into the room to scan his body. He turned his head to Quicksilver and asked, "So what's your story? You here with the rest of the guys when Prime was still around, or did you crash land here in a ship like me?" Once he got himself scanned, he walked out onto the room with everyone in it.

....

"As you wish." Sinwarden followed Galvatron as he looked at the floating cubes. "May I ask, what is it that you what to discuss with me?" He was rather curious as to what Galvatron had in store for him. Could he secretly be plotting to kill him, or make him his high ranking official in this time? The Knight ship was a remarkable ship as he walked its halls.

[Blazing Falcons]

"We got here just before open season was declared on Cybertronians. And before you ask 'Who's we?', I'm Quicksilver, and behind me is Copperhead. Pretty sure that any second now he's gonna-" With that, Copperhead attempted to pull the same stunt he had when the two were out in the desert. Unfortunately for him, he misjudged his speed to how far the ceiling was. By a large amount. He smashed into one of the lighting fixtures. "Crap! Who put that there?!" he yelled, shaking some glass off and trying to regain his footing after his less than graceful "landing". Quicksilver could only laugh at his companion's misfortune.

Quicksilver was first to enter the scanner after Razous. He contemplated why his sudden acceptance of being an Autobot again was due to Copperhead's recklessness. Maybe the humans' saying about laughter being the best medicine was true. Or maybe he just wanted to see more lighting fixtures get broken. Yeah, that seems more like me. Quicksilver thought.


[---]

Trebuchet was overlooking a city (that wasn't too far from the knight ship) with murderous intent. Sick of rusting away on this backwater... Humans think they can kill us and forget us in a week. Not today. They're gonna remember today... he thought. He surged forward, a burst from his 20mm Vulcan cannon here, a rocket or two there, until he was a fair ways into the city. He transformed, and dug his free-hand and his saw into a building to slow his descent. About thirty feet above the ground he returned to a freefall. Police cruisers were on scene, whether they were there by unfortunate chance, or had just arrived, Trebuchet didn't care. He shot one, flipped another, and sawed a third in two. "Let's see if you remember this past a week!" He shouted, before continuing his onslaught.

[Axilus Prime]

Cade laughed. "Yeah, it got blown up by an evil Transformer. He got his though, don't worry about that. And my old place wasn't so bad!" He took a right turn past two large water tanks not unlike the ones that were once near his old home. "Alright, you know those big blue water tanks right? Not the gray ones from near my old house, these are blue. Alright? You take a right when you pass them, then take the second left you see. That's my new house. Just stop by when you drop off your milk." He hung up, eager to finish his project. On the way, he turned on the radio. A little music helped him think sometimes. While the radio played somewhat quietly, he was visualizing what he needed to do next, making sure he had everything right--

The voice was that of a typical female news reporter with a British accent. "We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to bring you this emergency broadcast. Downtown Norfolk, Virginia appears to be under attack by the hostile aliens known as Decepticons. The police are on the scene, but the military and its alien allies, the Autobots, have yet to make an appearance. Police are attempting to evacuate the area, and it is advisable to steer clear of the city until further notice." When Cade heard that, he slammed on the gas. This was even more reason to finish his project.

He pulled up in the garage of his new house, a somewhat over-the-top mansion Joshua had given him. The benefits of having a rich friend who also owed you for almost causing humanity's extinction. It would probably baffle Ray to see the house, especially given that it had a helicopter resting on top, but that wasn't the issue right now. Cade quickly ran inside, forgetting to even turn off his truck or take out the keys. The garage door closed automatically, so at least no one would steal the car. He rushed to his working room and started hastily connecting wires. Hopefully he could finish before Ray got here.


---

Drift was about to ask Quicksilver why he seemed distrusting of the Autobots when Lennox ran into the room. He was in full combat gear, prompting Drift to hold his tongue and instead assume a ready position. "We've got a Decepticon attack in Norfolk, Virginia! Single hostile," Lennox said, "but there might be more coming! It could be a distraction so we're only sending three Autobots!"

Drift drew a sword, signifying that he would go. "Razous, Quicksilver, Copperhead, come with me." He sheathed it and transformed into car mode, driving to the freight elevator. "We will need plane transport so those who cannot fly will not lag behind."

"This is an airbase, that's no issue," Lennox answered. "Epps, stay and guard the base with the other Autobots. Stand by in another plane to deploy in case we need reinforcements or there's another attack somewhere else. You four," he said, pointing at some other soldiers, "with me!" He made for the freight elevator, taking it up with Drift and the new Autobots. The soldiers he called followed suit. When the Autobots and soldiers got on the plane, it took off.


---

When Galvatron and Sinwarden made it into a room of the ship devoid of any potential eavesdropping crewmembers, Galvatron detached his hand. It flew using the same swirling cubes he had used to fly up to the floor this room was on, and pushed a button to close the door. Then it flew back, the cubes on its severed portion meshing with the cubes on the severed portion of his arms. "There is a way you can transform as I do. What we require is more of our metal, the substance dubbed Transformium by the insects inhabiting this planet. I tried to acquire a Seed used by our Creators to destroy a human city and raise an army from its ashes, extensions of my will inhabiting raw sparkless forms...but the Autobots interfered and took it from me. We must detonate the Seed when they are unaware, and for that, we must acquire another!" Galvatron paced back and forth as he spoke, clearly eager to execute the plan and still brimming with fury from the last battle.

"The crew of his ship is loyal to the Creators and so the plan must be kept secret. They do not trust me, nor would they willingly lay down their lives for our cause. But they can still be used as a distraction. The Creators will no doubt be preparing to destroy Earth, producing Seeds as we speak. We will send this ship's entire crew to attack a city, and while the Autobots are busy, we will detach one of this ship's pods and make for Xenos to retrieve all the Seeds in the Creators' possession. We will raise an army larger than even I had dared to dream...and I will grant you the power you seek." Just then, Galvatron detected a Decepticon signal nearby giving off large amounts of energy. "We're approaching another member of the cause...this could work quite favorably. We will leave this ship without notifying the crew and board it again later. Now!" Galvatron jumped out the open, gapped frame of the Knight Ship, a logical design when unlike the humans, Cybertronians needed no atmosphere to survive. A swarm of cubes descended towards the city.


---

Police fired their guns at the helicopter Decepticon attacking the city, backing up to avoid attacks, but usually they moved too slowly and were caught by machine gun fire or flying car parts. The high-heat rounds used by all Cybertronians, and therefore Trebuchet, set off the fuel in police cars and caused them to explode. The police, meanwhile, were entirely unable to harm him, having only the standard-issue police rounds and none of the high-heat rounds used to fight Transformers.

Four SWAT vans pulled up next, with officers carrying rifles pouring out of the back hatches. Some fired grenade launchers at the Decepticon, though these were more likely to be minor annoyances that simply knocked him back rather than deal actual damage. Before the Decepticon could even respond to them, though, the SWAT vans erupted in flames with gaping holes from the back to the front. Bursting through each one was a forearm or lower leg, flying inexplicably with a swirl of cubes where the elbow or knee would have been. Bloody, broken corpses of the vans' drivers were either lying on the hoods of the vehicles or on the road in front of them. A swarm of cubes formed behind the line of police cars, assembling into a body to which the arms and legs attached. Galvatron snarled upon fully forming and destroyed the entire SWAT team with a volley of fusion cannon shots. "Decepticon," he said, "what is your name?"

Over the carnage flew the NEST plane, the back end of which opened to allow an airdrop. Drift grabbed Lennox and one other soldier and flipped out of the hatch. He shifted his parts around to place the soldiers in his helicopter mode's cockpit as he transformed, then descended towards the city. "Each of you carry one of us," a soldier said to Razous and Quicksilver, both of whom had been given Transformer-sized parachutes designed to deploy from the gaps in their armor on the way here.

Drift flew in, firing missiles at Galvatron and the other Decepticon. "Galvatron is here," he relayed over comms to the other Autobots and soldiers. His missiles were immediately intercepted by Galvatron's, but that gave him enough time to land on a building, set the soldiers down to fire from there, and jump down the side while drawing both swords. "You are outnumbered," he said, though he wasn't entirely sure they could defeat Galvatron. "Face your deaths with honor."

"What?!" the pilot of the plane said even as he pressed the button to contact the base. "Galvatron is with the other hostile, repeat, Galvatron is with the other hostile!"

Epps heard the message come through on the first standby plane. Around him were four soldiers, along with Hound and Crosshairs. "They're gonna need backup if Galvatron's there. Pilot, take off." The pilot did so, though he reminded Epps that it would take some time, same as the last plane did. "Just do it," Epps answered. Even with Prime, fighting Galvatron was dicey. But he still couldn't deploy the second standby plane with Bumblebee, Chillwind, and another squad of soldiers if there were only two hostiles. They needed quick response capabilities if this was a distraction.


---

Optimus drove across Xenos in the truck mode he acquired on Earth. It was faster than moving on foot, and would attract less attention than flying. The metallic, patterned roads were bumpy, but they didn't damage him at all. When a Cybertronian took on an Earth mode, it was always more durable than the vehicle they scanned. So far, not a single alarm or turret had gone off. What he needed was a facility with a computer terminal, somewhere information could be accessed. So far, all he had passed were factories, whirring but closed off to the outside so he couldn't see what was being assembled inside. Destroying these factories might stall the Creators' progress, but that would give his position away.

When he spotted a building with a communications antenna, he knew that would have what he sought and transformed. He approached the double door, but it didn't open. His next thought was to pry it open, but found he couldn't even get his fingers into the crack. It was too thin. That left only one option, one that would certainly result in his being attacked by defensive turrets or some other form of trap. He backed up, took his gunshield off his back, and set it to full power. A single shot blew a hole where the door once was. Immediately he brought the shield in front of himself.

As expected, gunfire came in, but the source was baffling. His eyes grew wide when he saw what was shooting him, but he wasted no time staring. He extended his thrusters and propelled himself to the left to get out of the doorway, then drew his sword and stood at the corner of the door. While doing this, he set the gunshield to a lower setting so he wouldn't damage the inside of the facility. "Come here!" he challenged, for what had attacked him was not turrets. It was a squad of robots.

The first to attack him moved to the opposite end of the facility, backs to the inner wall. From there, they could fire on him. He blocked with his gunshield first, then fired shots into their heads, chests, and stomachs. The robots collapsed easily, but a gun came over his gunshield, aimed at his face. Another robot had turned the corner he was hiding around. Immediately he pushed his arm up, causing the stream of bullets to narrowly miss him, then brought his sword down on the robot's other shoulder. The robot gave no sign that he felt any pain and simply brought his gun around, nailing Optimus in the right side of the chest with a few bullets. "Gah!" He backed up and blocked with his gunshield, kicked the robot in the stomach, and smacked him to the ground by bringing the edge of the shield to his head. The movement brought him forward, into the line of fire of three others, but he guarded himself with the shield while finishing off the one he knocked to the ground with a stab down to the chest.

Inside the small building, Optimus' longsword would be of no use, so he sheathed it. He fired a shot to kill one of the robots, held his shield up again, and advanced towards the other two. With a shield bash, he knocked one into the other, punched one in the face to stagger him, and finished him with a shot to the chest. Instead of finishing off the last robot, he tackled him, pinned the gun arm down with his knee, and grabbed him by the neck. "I thought the Creators were done making robots after the rebellion. How are you alive?!" The robot stared at him blankly with its faceless mask, only a pattern of red lines across it. Optimus removed his hand from the robot's neck and dug his fingers into the edges of the mask. "Answer!" When the robot still remained silent, he tore the mask away...but there were no eyes beneath. Instead were sparking, moving parts that slowed to a halt.

Confused, Optimus stood up and put his gunshield on his back. He turned towards the computer terminal on the room's central pillar. It had a large section designed for operation by large robots, and a small section designed for the more human-sized Creators. "I need answers," he said softly as he began typing. There had to be something in this terminal he could use. Why are these robots here? Why did they want the Knights captured rather than killed? And where is it?

[Punished Snake]

Sinwarden followed Galvatron's lead as he transformed and flew out of tbe Knight Ship. He noticed a ship flying through the skies that had three Autobot signatures inside of it. Three missiles fired out and raced towards the ship. The Decepticon then circled around the ship and switched to his Scrambler Cannons.

"Shit, it's Sinwarden! Didn't think he'd be here!" He grabbed his Combat Rifle with his right hand and picked up a soldier with the other. "Hang on, this isn't going to end well!" He ran out of the back end of the plane while firing his Combat Rifle, and then jumped down while still firing bullets at him. Razous pulled his chute out and desended down on the city safely with the soldier a little bit nauseous.

Sinwarden backed away from the plane as soon as he felt Razous's bullets him. It seems that one his prey has made it onto the planet filled with insects. He transformed and landed hard on top of a building. His right arm turned into a the Laser Rifle and aimed at Drift as he fired a beam of energy down on the formed Decepticon. "All traitors will fall before me!"

.....

"Alright, thanks Yeager." As soon as he hung up, Relius turned on his radio and played a CD that was popped in it. Once he got to his house, he quickly dropped off the milk and made his way back to Cade's new house. He made sure to taks a right once by the blue tanks and not the grey ones like he said. Once he took he the second left, he saw the mansion that was now Yeager's new home. "Holy shit, where the fuck the Cade the cash for this?" He got out of his truck and called Cade as soon he reached the front door. "Yo, I'm at your pad. You must've been selling something to get this place man."

[Blazing Falcons]

Trebuchet swung around to see the cause of the destruction of the SWAT team, "Lord Megatron!" He yelled, half in surprise, and half in glee, "My name is Trebuchet. I thought you'd been slain!" He then saw the parachutes open, one with problems... He fired on the Autobot that had landed badly, as he was just down the street, but then turned his attention to someone that had proven himself to be a threat, Drift. He transformed and fired a few rockets at him, and fired bursts from his cannon. "Outnumbered, perhaps, but clearly not outfought!"


[---]

"Who the hell is- And he's gone..." Quicksilver said, before transferring his attention to the soldier next to him, "Hold tight, I've never done this before, so I can't see it ending in a good way!" With that, he grabbed his polearm and the soldier and was soon tumbling through the air like a fish out of water. Quicksilver thought he had straightened out his fall, and activated his parachute. It got tangled. "Cop'! Get this guy to the ground for me before he gets pancaked!" Quicksilver yelled, panic in his voice. "On it!" was Copperhead's response as he left Quicksilver's back, trying to climb down his arm and to the now-panicked human. He grabbed the human's arms and said, "Got him, let go!" Quicksilver's hand opened just in time for Copperhead to reach a speed where it would be safe for him and his 'cargo' to smack the ground as they did.

As the two recovered from their hard landing, Quicksilver was trying to free himself of his parachute's cords and dislodge himself from the building he collided with. "Stupid piece of- Never jumping out of a plane again..." He muttered before being peppered by Trebuchet. "Cop'! Taking fire!" Quicksilver yelled, still fighting to break the parachute cords. Copperhead flew over and helped cut them with his talons, despite the occasional bullet that landed much too close for comfort.

Now free, Quicksilver swung his guns up and let out a burst from each at Galvatron, followed by a similar attack from Copperhead, who had since taken to the sky.

[Axilus Prime]

"Answer," Cade said to his phone as soon as it rang. With the modifications he made to it, it could respond to voice commands properly unlike a lot of his previous inventions. He heard Ray speaking while he worked, though he didn't answer for a few seconds in his rushed focus. "Uh, yeah," he said absentmindedly while connecting some wires. Then he forced down a metal plate he'd custom-crafted. It didn't have Cybertronian markings on its design like the original did, but those weren't necessary. "I mean no!" he said, realizing what Ray had actually suggested. "No, sorry, didn't sell anything--" he picked up his project and what it was based on, hurrying back to the garage with his phone on speaker, sitting in his pocket.

"It was," he started to say while coming out of the garage door. "Hang up," he told his phone when he came face to face with Ray. "The house is a gift from a guy who almost doomed the planet, he gave it to me for helping save it." When he looked at Ray's face, he realized how strange he must have looked carrying what appeared to be two swords. One was a silvery color not unlike a spoon, covered in alien markings, and the other was an exact copy, only made with raw Transformium harvested from corpses of Decepticon forces in Hong Kong and without the markings. It was also slightly lighter colored for a reason Cade couldn't figure out, but appearance was an issue for later. "Ok, hang on," he said, putting down the sword with alien markings on it. He smacked the side of the unmarked sword, causing it to split open and reveal a gun barrel. Without much warning, he fired a shot at a tree, causing a portion of it to explode. It creaked, tilted, and came crashing down. "...Timber. Ok, it works. Here, catch." He tossed Ray the sword-gun contraption and picked up the original one covered in alien markings. "Yours doesn't have a rope to keep it on your shoulder because I was short on time. Keep a good grip on that thing."

He ran into the front door and started to come up the stairs. "Follow me! Look, I know this seems, crazy, I seem hyper, whatever, but that's not what this is. I'm holding an alien gun, used it in Hong Kong, and you're holding a copy of it. These things can kick ass. There's a city in Virginia that's under attack and I'm going to help. The army doesn't have weapons like these, they might need us." Most people would call Cade crazy for charging into a battle with alien robots. But he owed them for saving his life, and the bad robots had taken his daughter Tessa once. He owed them a little something too.


---

The pilot tilted the plane left in an attempt to strafe away from Sinwarden's missiles even as Razous and Quicksilver were jumping out. The plane's inner wall nearly smacked them on their way out, but it still couldn't move fast enough. They left the plane with it exploding behind them. Its wreckage spun out of control and descended diagonally away.

"I was slain twice," Galvatron answered Trebuchet, "but the Decepticon cause is eternal! It's good that you recognize me, Trebuchet, unlike some." Without explaining, he turned his fusion cannon on the red Autobot and fired several shots. One struck a human who the Autobot had just set down, leaving charred bones and not any flesh.

"How--" the soldier Copperhead put down coughed in confusion. "How did you manage to mess that up?!" he demanded from Quicksilver. There wasn't any time to wait for an answer, though. He moved behind a car for cover when the gunfire started whooshing over his head, careful not to stand too close to it in case of explosives.

Drift started to charge Galvatron, though he never got to find out whether or not he could match him in close combat. A laser from an unseen foe pierced his left thigh, sending him crumpling down. "NO!" he yelled in total frustration. When rockets and gunfire came in, Drift's transformation into car mode at the last second brought him under the attacks. They struck a building behind him, but he drove away before the rubble could crush him. He didn't need the same systems to drive as he needed to walk. "A sniper hides on a rooftop to the left," he transmitted to his allies while driving straight at Trebuchet in a zigzag manner to make aiming difficult.

Lennox turned and spotted Sinwarden standing with a short odd looking rifle. It wasn't a sniper rifle by the look of things, but he was the only possibility. "Soldiers focus fire on that target! Razous, help Drift!" With their rifles, Lennox and the soldier next to him fired on Sinwarden across the rooftops, taking cover behind box-shaped protrusions on the rooftops with them. The soldier on the ground ran into a building, rushing up the stairs to get a position from which he could shoot Sinwarden with his grenade launcher, but not without firing a grenade at Trebuchet's right knee first.

Galvatron shielded his face with his forearm from the machine gun fire unleashed on him by the two new Autobots. It was painful, but not immensely damaging at this distance. He couldn't very well avoid small, fast projectiles by turning into cubes, so he remained in solid form and simply fired his fusion cannon at the SMG-wielder while backing toward the sidewalk. Four missiles around the side of his cannon all flew out and locked on to a single target: the bird Autobot. Having fully expected the larger Autobot to dodge his cannon shots, Galvatron crouched and picked up a car with his left hand, then hurled it at him. The Autobot had a polearm with which he could easily stop the car, and perhaps he could even avoid it, but it would be enough to obscure his vision for a moment. Galvatron dashed forward as a swarm of cubes moving faster than he could on his legs and re-formed near instantly. When the car was out of the Autobot's way, the next thing he would see was Galvatron's wrist blade coming straight at his face.


---

Optimus was once again driving through Xenos, though this time, instead of an odd silence, he could hear patrols of non-sentient guards looking for him, as they had been directed to by the Creators. Non-sentient combat drones, he thought, still thinking about the information he had acquired from the terminal. Created to fight the Creators' battles after their attempt at an intelligent galaxy-conquering army rebelled and chose its own path. What they lack in individual intelligence, they make up for in numbers and the power they can potentially wield. Behind him, small one-man attack ships with a round body and trailing fins behind them searched the area he had just fled. On its underside was a circular weapon, though unlike that on the Knight Ship, it appeared to be a single anti-ground cannon rather than a magnet. Other ships flew around it more quickly, back and forth, bristling with missile launchers. A few footsoldiers are nothing compared to this. This is a fleet.

He kept driving, occasionally taking a turn to make sure his path wasn't straight. The ships searching for Optimus were faster than he was, and only his erratic movements could throw them off. I can't access another terminal until I lose them. This time, they won't hesitate to destroy me like Lockdown did. They no longer want me alive for brainwashing into serving as general for this drone army, nor do they still want any of the other Knights brainwashed into joining it. They've realized the risk is too much. When Lockdown died, their goal changed from my capture to my execution.

He drove faster, seeing the ships start to approach the place he had turned at. So far, they seemed unaware of his turn, and if he got far enough then turned again he could keep it that way. The terminal locked me out before I could learn what I truly needed. I have to lose them and access one again.

[Thelonewanderer]

(Chillwind)

"Well, thanks for the fix Hound." Chillwind said to the big 'Bot, just as Lennox came running in. Hearing of someone attack a human town just made Chillwind frown. What use would there be in attack a human city? The Decepticon leadership's been gutted, and there aren't that many left. Just what sort of sense is that? she thought to herself as she waited for a call for reinforcements. Waiting around was never her ideal thing to do while she had 'allies' in combat. Might as well run a system check.

[ Cloak Generator: Online]
[ Weapons systems: Online]
[ Ammo factory: Online]
[ Energon Scanner: Offline]
[ Vision Suite: Offline]
[ Combat Optics Suite: Online]
[ All other systems nominal]


"Well, it could be worse." Chillwind muttered to herself once the report came in. Hearing that someone named Galvatron was helping in the attack made Chillwind feel uneasy for some odd reason. "Why do I feel like things just got worse?" she said out loud, not really expecting an answer.

[Punished Snake]

Razous felt the hit of one of Galvatron's Fusion blasts hit his body. It wasn't good, but he could still manage. He fired two shots from his Flaylock pistol before converging on Drift. "I got your back, Drift!" The red Autobot looked up to see where Sinwarden was hiding and fired the last two shots of the mag in the Flaylock pistol.

"Everyone take cover!" Yelled the Autobot. A rain of beams began to come down on the soldiers and Razous as Sinwarden fired his Scrambler Rifle. The Decepticon kept his crosshairs on any sign of a soldier or Razous popping out of cover so he can shoot them. "There is no escape! I will crush you like the way I crushed your brother!"

.....

"Hold up, Cade. By the time we get to the battle, it may already be over. Plus, I got some weapons that we can also use to take the Decepticons down. Been years since I've done shit like this, but someday I had to go back and kick some alien ass."

Relius basically just blurted out his secret to who he was before. Yes, the person standing in front of Cade Yeager is a former NEST soldier. Having this background on him makes him a worthy ally to anyone on the battlefield when it comes to handling giant alien robots. "If want to kick some serious alien robot ass, your looking at the guy who can help you with that."

[Blazing Falcons]

"Holy-" Copperhead yelled as he tried to dodge Galvatron's missiles. He dove straight down, almost hitting the pavement, before bringing his body parallel with the ground again and launching himself forward with his feet. The missiles had landed just barely behind him, knocking him forward onto his back. He saw smoke rising and pieces of pavement raining down from where he'd been seconds before, and saw a much more gruesome sight through the smoke...


Almost instinctively, Quicksilver swung his guns back and pulled his polearm from his back at the sight of the car coming at him. A smooth deflection didn't help him with the blade coming at him though. He tried to jerk his head out of the way, but Galvatron still caught his left eye, tearing it and part of his face off. Quicksilver screamed in pain, dropping his polearm as he transformed to try to get away from Galvatron. He drove forwards, since a coffee shop was right behind him, trying to snake around Galvatron to a better position. By then, Copperhead had rolled over and taken flight again, trying to provide some cover fire for the two of them as they retreated.



---


"Special build of stupid, aren't you?" Trebuchet taunted as Drift sped towards him. "Tell you what, come at me in a straight line, and I'll make it a clean-" The grenade hit him, forcing him down to his good knee. A sound half between a shout and a sigh escaped him as he fired in the direction that the explosive came from. "Yeah! Run! Coward..." He said as he re-directed his fire at Drift while trying to stand and get his saw ready again.

[Axilus Prime]

A soldier looked up at Chillwind, confused. "You're a former 'Con and you didn't figure it out?" he asked. "Galvatron is Megatron reborn into some crazy new body! Apparently now he has superpowers!"

Bumblebee told the soldier to "Cool it" using a sound bite from his radio. "That sounds a little too crazy, don't ya think?" he added with another clip.

"Yeah, well, if dissolving into a swarm of cube things and assembling wherever you want isn't superpowers, I dunno what is. I can think of a billion uses for that power and none of them are good for us." The soldier tapped his gun nervously, wondering if the second plane would need to be deployed.


---

Cade shook his head, coming up the stairs and opening the door leading onto the roof. With his hand on the doorknob he stopped and looked back at Ray. "You were with the Autobots? You mean like Egypt, Chicago?" He wished he could say that explained a lot, but it didn't. Ray had been pretty good at covering that up, just like presumably everyone involved with the joint operations was. "...Look," he said, finding the words to use, "that's cool, but these things," he held up the alien gun, "are better than whatever anti-Transformer weapons you guys have come up with. I know, because I've seen them. Cemetery Wind had them too, and I literally saw footage of them taking down an Autobot." He opened the door all the way, stepping out onto the helipad. "Come on! You're as well armed as you can be."

He turned back, quickly grabbed Ray's shoulder, and basically pulled him into the helicopter with him. "And we're not gonna get there after the battle's over. This isn't a normal helicopter either." He turned it on, spun up the rotors, and brought it up. Before starting to move forward, the helicopter extended wings from each side with thrusters on each end. The design of the thrusters was clearly based on the ships from Chicago, the ones used both five years ago and one year ago by Lockdown's crew. The top rotors folded back, and the helicopter, now a sort of jet vehicle, shot forward at nearly supersonic speeds.

"What did you think I've been doing in my spare time?" Cade asked over the roar of the engines, laughing as he said it.


---

Lennox got down, lasers whooshing over him. Tiny crumbs of hot rubble fell on his back when the beams cut through the raised edges of the rooftop he was on. He saw a soldier rolling, flames on his back. "We're pinned down!"

The soldier who shot Trebuchet tripped when the bullets destroyed the part of the staircase under him. He grabbed on to the railing with one hand and pulled up, running to get to the roof of the building he was in. "Course I get the rookie who can't skydive properly!" He raced up the stairs, knowing the elevator was unsafe if a stray shot took out the power grid. He passed civilians who remained inside, too afraid to leave for fear of being seen and shot. "Shouldn't even be climbing here!" he muttered while ascending the last staircase. When he popped out on the roof, he spotted Sinwarden firing on Razous and the other soldiers. "Son of a bitch."

He pulled the pin on a grenade, threw it over to the rooftop Sinwarden was on, and fired a grenade from his rifle's grenade launcher as well. Hit or miss, that ought to create a distraction, and immediately afterward, the hand grenade detonated as well. Running behind the rooftop elevator exit for cover, he bellowed "HIT HIM NOW!" to the other soldiers.

Lennox popped up on cue, seizing the opportunity to fire on Sinwarden. "Everyone focus your fire! Razous, peg him in the head!" The other soldiers got up, even the one with a hole burnt into the back of his ACU.

While the battle ensued on the rooftops above, Drift managed to reach Trebuchet thanks to the soldier's grenade bringing him down. At this range, his erratic driving could not make aiming difficult enough for him to avoid being shot. Bullets tore through his front windshield and flew out the back. The support running from the left side of the windshield to the roof was cut through, and several more bullets grazed his left door. Nonetheless, he made it, transforming as Trebuchet got back up to ensure he wouldn't avoid being rammed. With the momentum granted by his vehicle mode, he rammed Trebuchet's leg as a robot to knock him to the ground.

Kling!

Drift jammed his sword into a portion of the road so he couldn't skid too far away. Walking was out of the question, but if he could stay close, he wouldn't have to. He drew his other sword with his free hand and thrust it down at Trebuchet while they were both still on the ground. "HYAAAAH!"

Galvatron's face contorted into a mix of a satisfied grin and a savage snarl. When Quicksilver started to drive away, he detached his right arm at the elbow. Propelled by its own swarm of swirling cubes at the detachment point, the arm easily caught up to the fleeing Autobot and seized him by the spoiler. With some effort, it was able to prevent him from moving at all. The air was filled with the foul smell of burning rubber while Galvatron took Quicksilver's spear from the ground with the hand still attached to his body. He threw it at Quicksilver, but Copperhead's shots struck him just in time to throw his aim off. The spear landed in the road next to Quicksilver, sticking completely stiff. "Graaah! Persistent creature!"

Galvatron ejected the wrist blade from his left arm, caught it as it extended into a sword, and slashed at Copperhead. Though he appeared to have his full attention on him, his mind had been fragmented repeatedly while transferring and now he could just as easily focus on Quicksilver. Without his eyes even glancing at the car Autobot, Galvatron's right arm released him to change into fusion cannon form and instantly blast him with a nearly point blank shot.


---

Optimus continued to drive. So far, the Creators' forces were still searching the area they had stopped at. His mind wandered as he did so, both helping to keep him calm and trying to make sense out of all that he was able to get from the terminal he had accessed. There was more to our history than I had ever known. I knew the Creators discovered the Allspark and used it to bring life to our empty shells. Yet the details had always escaped me...until I found the complete record in the Creators' files. It seems the original Primes, and the first generation of our race, the Seekers, had been designed with the Creators' space bridge technology within all of them. But only the seven Primes, those unexpectedly gifted by the Allspark against the Creators' wishes, had the incredible powers for which they were so renowned. Only after a fear of rebellion set in among the Creators did they attempt to reduce the power of their creations, the largest factor being the removal of inbuilt space bridge capabilities from all later generations. Generation after generation they built, and they would bring to life as many as they could before the Allspark needed to recharge again. The seven original Primes realized as the Creators feared that their race's enslavement was unjust, and led a rebellion. Most sided with them, but some sided with the Creators. When I first encountered Lockdown, I did not know he was one of them. Nearly lost in his train of thought, Optimus just barely remembered to take the next turn. Traveling in a straight line would simply get him caught.

The Primes, at the end of the rebellion, joined their powers to bridge all their followers, the unborn of our race, and the Cube to a distant corner of space. With the Allspark's power they were able to create a new home there, the world we could name Cybertron. And from there, the Allspark would bring life to the generations taken with them, well beyond the deaths of the Primes. But the Creators would continue to know our history. With our race, they sent observers into the space bridge vortex, transmitting drones that would remain until the planet itself was destroyed.

Long after the Fallen's betrayal, after the Seekers were stranded on Earth and all of our history save for that logged by the Creators or contained, inaccessible, within the Cube itself, was forgotten...that is when I was brought to life, the final generation of Cybertron before the Cube began making new bodies from the planet's metal itself. I was gifted with some measure of the power of the Primes, the same as others, such as my former mentor, were gifted in generations past. But when a force of Creator loyalists attacked Cybertron, a response team had to be made. The Knights of Cybertron, of which I was a member, assembled to combat the Creator loyalists around the galaxy, to prevent them from gathering their power and destroying our way of life. The Knight Ship was created for that purpose, and we set out to protect our world from what lay around it. We would eventually succeed in destroying nearly all of the Creator loyalists...but the final battle, only I survived.

Upon my return I was informed that a Cybertronian had attempted to build bodies on his own like our Creators did. It seemed that even with the Fallen's betrayal fading out of memory, that story had survived. They were intended as a supplement to the Knights, giant warriors with legendary power. According to the story, they were not only powerful, but savage due to their inexpert construction. But it was only a rumor. No one I met had ever seen those we would later know as the Dinobots. The only sign was that after I left to search for them, the Knight Ship was stolen. I now realize that they took it...but they were found by the last group of Creator loyalists, Lockdown and his followers. Only recently was I able to free them from his imprisonment.

Long after the first war broke out and ended, after the battle came to Earth and Cybertron was destroyed, that was when the Autobots first encountered Lockdown. He had never shown himself to those opposing the Creators until then, and I never realized he was a surviving loyalist until he told me himself. It seems he was the Creators' final attempt to control us...and now, I must put a stop to whatever machinations they have made to destroy us.

Optimus stopped outside a facility, transformed, and looked back. He was far enough now. I need to access this terminal quickly and leave before they converge on my position. If I fail to get out in time...I will never reach the Creators' capital. He took his gunshield off his back, set it to maximum power, and prepared to breach.

[Punished Snake]

Sinwarden looked at the area where the soldier was at from the grenade that flew by him, he fired smaller Scrabler pistol lasers from his left wrist. Then a grenade from under his feet detonated and sent him stumbling. Razous swapped to his Combat Rifle and aimed at Sinwarden's head as he fired several rounds. The Decepticon then grabbed a spiked grenade from his back, and tossed it at the soldiers below just as several bullets hit his face. Sinwarden fell down from his post and ran for cover. "Take cover!" Razous dove back at the sight of the grenade landing down on the ground before them.

"Galvatron, it would seem I have underestimated the capability of these creatures. I have sustained damage and am in need of repairs," he said through a comm line in the Decepticon language. His right arm was still his Scrambler Rifle, but his right arm now protrudes a scythe blade at the ready. Sinwarden was not about to let some Earth creatures get the best of him.

....

"Hell yeah I was there. Best moments of my life." As he got into the vehicle and after it transformed, he was amazed at Cade had done. "I thought you were still fixing broken shit from your neighbors!" Yelled Reluis over the sound of the engines. He laughing a bit at thought of being something Cybertronian like. "When this is over, I have got to get have me one of these."

[Thelonewanderer]

(Chillwind)

"Well, that explains why I felt impending doom when I heard the name." Chillwind muttered. Turning into cubes? Why the hell couldn't I have that ability? the femme thought as she looked down at the ground. While the thought that Megatron had come back, again, filled Chillwind with dread, hearing his new ability just cranked it up to Impending Doom(Tm). It was not a good feeling.

[Blazing Falcons]

The blast sent Quicksilver airborne, he transformed mid-air, and came down on his hands and feet. Go, go, GO! he thought, trying to launch himself forward again and transform before the cannon could hit him again. He was a mess, a hole in his back, missing part of his face, he couldn't take much more... And Galvatron? Looks like they hadn't scratched him...

Copperhead tried to climb higher with every swing Galvatron took. Every few feet he'd take a few shots before returning to his upward climb. "Come on, you can do better than that, can't you? Or is this really the best you have?" he taunted before suddenly diving past Galvatron into an alley. Bad idea, bad idea... Door! Upon his realization, he shot the door handle and pushed it open in a panic. He took a few uneven hops before settling down for a second and chose a window to burst out of. Wait for ugly to bring the place down on top of me. Brilliant. He thought as he took cover underneath a nearby table.


---

A sword in his side. No better way to piss him off than to stick a blade in him. Trebuchet couldn't use his saw very well while pinned like this, so he went to punch Drift in the face. "You know it's personal now, right, 'bot? Tell you what, give up now, and I'll let you off easy by turning you into only three different chunks with this thing!" he hissed, trying to bring his saw down on his attacker's back.

[Axilus Prime]

The soldiers on the rooftop with Razous scrambled for cover, but there was none. They had to dive. Unfortunately, the spiked grenades didn't disperse shrapnel in an upwards cone like regular grenades. Spikes flew out, missing two of the soldiers but impaling Lennox in the leg. He yelled out in pain, both physical, from the single two-foot spike going through his right thigh on the right side of the bone, and mental, because the soldier closest to him was even more unlucky. The spike had gone straight into his eye and out the back of his neck. If he wasn't dead already, Lennox felt even more sorry for him that he normally would. The pain of feeling that for a few seconds before the nervous system gave out would be a horrifying final moment.

Lennox couldn't get any words out, but he could spot the other two soldiers getting up and looking over the edge for Sinwarden. One looked back at him and ran to help, but Lennox sharply pointed the other way, urging him to chase the Decepticon first. He wasn't bleeding out with the spike as firmly planted as it was. "G-ho!" he forced out, and thankfully the soldier understood. They got out their ropes and rappelled down the side of the building to pursue Sinwarden on the ground.

The lone soldier on the other rooftop had taken cover from the lasers behind the stairway exit booth. Lines bored through the side of the booth's corner remained where the lasers had struck. When the soldier looked around the corner again, Sinwarden was gone, and rappelling gear on the side of the other building told him the others saw the Decepticon jump off the far side of his building. Knowing he had no chance of catching Sinwarden, he looked back over the other edge of his rooftop to see the other Decepticon, the one fighting Drift.

What the soldier saw was Drift quickly withdrawing his swords from both Trebuchet and the road, crossing them above himself while rolling onto his back to protect himself from the buzzsaw. He did it almost too late, just barely stopping the saw from striking his chest. The force of Trebuchet's arm had pushed Drift's swords down, causing him to bang the blunt side of one on himself, but at least he was alive. The saw spinning against the swords showered the two Transformers in sparks. Knowing a simple shift of position would be all it took for Trebuchet to pass the swords and saw Drift's head in two, the soldier acted before that could happen to fire a grenade from his grenade launcher at Trebuchet's arm. It was knocked aside, and Drift immediately transformed, driving out from under Trebuchet before he could bring the saw toward him again. "Hold him off!" the soldier called to Drift. "I'm coming to you!" He went back the way he came, down the stairs.

Drift turned to face Trebuchet, shifting parts around so that when he was facing his foe, he was now a helicopter rising steadily above the ground. Hopefully Trebuchet's wound would slow him. "I give you a gift. Your punishment is fire. You're utterly screwed." After spouting about the worst haiku the soldier had ever heard, Drift fired six rockets from the sides of his helicopter mode at Trebuchet.

"You will have your repairs when these Autobots are dead! Demonstrate your competence! Or are you worth no more than a simple trooper?!" Galvatron answered Sinwarden. He slashed and slashed, nearly hitting the bird, but its flight was becoming an issue. He was just about to solve that problem when it went into a full retreat. "Graah! Cowardly vermin..." For a moment, he glanced at his arm pursuing Quicksilver. It fired a shot as the Autobot transformed desperately, blasting away the rear axle system and both tires attached to it before he could even get his wheels on the ground. It was just about to finish him when a shot from above knocked it off course, causing an explosion to simply land next to Quicksilver and flip him back upright. More shots continued to harass the cannon, preventing it from properly taking aim again. "What?!"

When he looked up, Galvatron spotted a helicopter with a human holding a small Knight firearm, almost certainly taken from the armory of the Temenos after it was stolen from the main ship by the Autobots. "More insects!" His cannon arm suddenly left Quicksilver, granting an apparent reprieve as it fled toward an alley as a swarm of cubes. Galvatron himself then became a swarm of cubes, first flying towards the helicopter. The shots from the human's gun could hit only one cube at a time, if they even hit that, hardly doing any damage and certainly not slowing the swarm. A second, smaller swarm branched off from the first, pursuing Quicksilver again. Three things then happened simultaneously.

The swarm that had flown down the alley turned towards the doorway Copperhead had taken cover inside. In the small space, it engulfed him, forcing him down the hall, into another turn, and crashing out a window. In the swarm's wake, every wall, ceiling, and floor was torn up by the swirling metal blocks. Immediately after forcing Copperhead out of the building, the swarm ground him a little on the road with a flat spinning motion before again taking the shape of the fusion cannon and firing point blank on his wing.

The swarm flying towards the helicopter simply charged, and Cade immediately realized what was going to happen. He stopped firing and lurched it forward in jet mode, but the cubes still caught the tail end and knocked the jet off course. Galvatron re-formed his armless body there, with his chest grinder around the tail of the jet. It was shredded off and fell to the ground, while the rest of the jet spun out of control. Galvatron dropped several feet and landed in a lunge position on the road below.

With Galvatron missing both arms, his right arm from the elbow down and his left arm from the shoulder, that left only one possibility for the divergent swarm that had pursued Quicksilver. It formed mid-flight into Galvatron's left arm, still wielding a sword, and stabbed straight down at the injured Autobot.

"Shit!" Cade yelled. His custom aircraft was spinning over rooftops, getting lower and lower. "When we get over that one, we're gonna jump! This thing's gonna crash and blow up!" Securing his grip on his gun, Cade pushed up into a standing position, hanging on to the seat he was in for balance. "NOW!" He jumped out the open side of the aircraft, dropping eight feet onto the hard roof. The impact hurt, but he rolled to minimize it and got to his feet in a few seconds, groaning. "Aaahhh....that was Galvatron. I dunno if you know this but Megatron came back and he's stronger than ever. Apparently now he's got superpowers." Breathing hard, Cade made it to the edge of the building so he could shoot. "Come on!" he called to Ray, realizing when he saw the condition of their allies that there was no way he could deal with this alone.

[Blazing Falcons]

Trebuchet tried to roll away from the oncoming barrage, and successfully avoided most of the damage he would've sustained. A missing hand, a mangled leg, and a few pieces of shrapnel sticking out of his torso. Those could wait, he still had his gun, and he still had his saw. He transformed, staying low as he retreated a ways before climbing upwards to be level with Drift. His flying was uneven from system damage, but like hell Trebuchet would let that stop him... "Haikou? Cute. Let me try-" He said in a somewhat strained voice before firing a burst from his cannon, letting loose seven rockets, and firing another cannon burst. "I'm going to kill you today."


---

Copperhead cried out in agony when his right wing was destroyed. It looked like the end. Belly-down without the ability to counter-attack or even try to escape. He thought it a futile move, but he launched himself up and slightly to the side, keeping his head down, trying to knock the cannon off-balance to give himself even the slightest chance of survival.

Quicksilver gave a weak grunt when Galvatron's blade impaled him. He didn't have much more fight in him. "You picked a crappy time, 'Cop!" He shouted, mostly to himself. He brought one of his SMGs forward and shot the arm around the sword, brought the gun back, and then laid both his hands on the disembodied arm. One hand gripping Galvatron's hand, the other gripping his arm. Quicksilver tried to twist the arm but keep the hand where it was. "Come on! Break damn you! Break!" he barked.

[Punished Snake]

Sinwarden growled as the comm line ended with Galvatron. The odds between the humans was greater than one with Razous. He switched his Scrambler Rifle to his Laser Rifle, and began to stalk his prey like a hunter. He stuck to the streets, and took any shadows to help conceal his whereabouts to his enemies.

"Damn! Knowing him, he'll probably get the drop on us before we know he's there. Activating Active Scanner." Razous tapped the side of his visor and a quick scan of a 15 degree field in front of him revealed only one anomaly. "I got his position. Let's move in quickly and quietly before his position dissappears on my radar." Armed with his Combat Rifle, Razous moved towards Sinwarden's location that appeared on his map of the city. After 30 seconds, the red dot faded away.

Both Sinwarden and Razous were literally standing on opposite sides of a building. All that was left to do was for one of them to round the corner and begin shooting.
....

"No shit!" Relius jumped out as soon as Cade did. "Heard of him. Was really hoping I didn't meet him." Ray saw one of the soldiers with a spike pinned on his thigh. When he rushed to his aid, he remembered his face. "Lennox! Don't worry, I'll help you out." Analysing the situation, the only reasonable way out was to pull the spike out. It would be agonizing for Lennox, but it seems like the only option at the moment.

[Axilus Prime]

Drift flew sideways when Trebuchet fired his cannon, but the bullets tore through his right-side missile launcher. He could only be glad he hadn't attempted to fire again, or he would have had the missiles armed when the launcher was hit, resulting in his fiery death. Realizing his helicopter mode was too slow to avoid the missile barrage at this range, he transformed to robot mode and dropped beneath the explosive projectiles. "GYAH!" His injured leg gave out beneath him on contact with the ground, and the next cannon barrage destroyed the crest on his helmet. It would have done more if he hadn't immediately plastered his body flat on the road. With his head turned to the right he checked to see if the soldier helping him had arrived. He had not, and now Drift was helpless to counter the helicopter Decepticon aiming down at him.

"OY! YOUR HAIKUS ARE EVEN WORSE THAN THIS SORRY JACKASS'S!" The harsh voice was followed by two simultaneous, even harsher streams of SMG fire. With two parachutes slowing his descent and a C-130 plane passing overhead behind him, Crosshairs tore into Trebuchet's propeller assembly with his right gun's line of fire and shot straight at the Decepticon's center of mass with his left. "That wasn't even eight syllables!"

"Actually," Drift said, pushing himself up and transforming into helicopter mode again, "it's five, then seven, then five." He was in an unusually good mood despite Crosshairs blatantly demonstrating ignorance toward the structure of haikus, mainly because of the fact that he had just saved his life in the process. With his remaining missile launcher, he fired two more shots at Trebuchet.

After firing on Trebuchet a decent amount, Crosshairs spun one gun around and severed his parachute strings with precise shots, clearly a practiced motion. "Oh, hell no! You're not dying on me, I am NOT dealin' with all that paperwork! You get yer ass to safety!" He landed on both feet behind a truck trailer, crouched, and reloaded. "And if you got a problem with that you can bite my shiny metal ass!"

Drift realized he would be more of a hindrance to Crosshairs than anything now, so he ascended and backed away. "Hai. Arigato."

Given time, the fight between Sinwarden, Razous, and the two soldiers helping him could have gone either way. It depended on who made better moves. But that wouldn't be seen today. Instead, grenade launchers rained down on Sinwarden from parachuting soldiers above. "Move up and hit him!" one yelled into his radio, transmitting to the forces on the ground.

"Flank right, Razous! Paint that son of a bitch!" The soldiers accompanying the new Autobot rushed around the building's left side. When they got into view of Sinwarden, bullets flew from their assault rifles all over his upper body and face.

Lennox looked up, his leg starting to go numb. It made it easier to speak, but he recognized one of the NEST soldiers who had retired coming near him. With him was some sort of sword...gun...Lennox's vision was too blurry to tell. "Clover? Wait, don't--" He coughed several times, just barely making out Drift flying away from the fight. "You pull it out here I'm gonna bleed out! Come with us to the base and we'll take care of it." Lennox moved his hand to his radio. "Drift, pick me up! I'm no use like this. Get the guy next to me too. Clover was a NEST soldier back before you came to Earth."

Cade heard the conversation and nearly freaked out. "What? Wait, Ray, I need your help over here! I'm shooting Galvatron!" Ignoring Lennox's surprised yells in response to that, Cade quickly shot the flying cannon attacking the small bird Autobot. Again and again he fired, driving it further away from the bird. "Hey you! Broken wing! You gotta get out of there before that cannon--" Immediately he saw the cannon dissolve into cubes, leaving the bird Autobot, and fly at him. "INCOMING!" he yelled, turning back and running away from the building's edge towards Ray and the soldier named Lennox.

"Clover, get a grenade off me and throw it at the edge where this guy was standing!" Lennox forced out as Drift came up next to the building. "DRIFT, BACK UP, GALVATRON'S COMING TO US!"

Galvatron slowly walked towards Quicksilver and his sword-wielding left arm, intending to rejoin with it and finish the Autobot with the strength of his body behind the blade. The SMG fire struck the arm's fingers, forcing it to release the sword and leave it in Quicksilver's body. It briefly wrestled with the Autobot, but due to his stab wound, his strength was insufficient to overpower the arm and it easily broke free of his grip to seize the sword again. It pulled it out just as Galvatron approached. He raised the sword to stab again, this time straight through the Autobot's heart. Instead he was knocked forward and jammed his sword into the ground. Sparks flew from his back, and he growled in pain.

"YEAH! TEN POINTS!" Hound, on a rooftop with still-attached parachutes laying behind him, held his massive triple gatling gun's trigger down. The bullets tore up Galvatron's back armor until he was forced to dissolve into cubes. "Oh shit," Hound said, backing up when the swarm flew towards him. He threw down his gun and grabbed his parachute cords, then spun and swung the chutes when the swarm of cubes came past the rooftop's edge. He bagged most of the cubes up and swung them down. "Ha!" As expected, Galvatron re-formed and cut his way out of the chute, more frustrated than slowed. That was why Hound made sure he quickly charged right into two shots from his quad pistols. "Now I see why you were running from us in Asian land!"

Galvatron responded by hurling his sword at Hound, slicing the barrel from one of the pistols while he transformed. Mid-transformation, he was a swarm of cubes again, and Hound's remaining pistol could only shoot a few of the cubes out before the sword dissolved. It came back and re-formed while flying at Hound's other hand from behind, impaling it and forcing him to drop the pistol. Now Galvatron was facing an unarmed Autobot with his truck mode's missile launchers deployed. "Obese lapdog!" He fired off a missile, though before he could get any more off, a stream of high-caliber bullets slammed into the back of his truck mode from above and jerked him sideways. Several holes popped up in his armor even while the missile hit Hound in the stomach and sent him crashing off the rooftop. Galvatron transformed into robot mode again and jumped off to take cover from the C-130 plane that had dropped in the hostile reinforcements, but was knocked off balance by a shotgun blast and landed on his back rather than his feet. "Graaah!"

Hound dropped his shotgun from his one good hand and pulled out a single-barreled pistol, which he fired at Galvatron several times. "You're lucky I can't cock that thing like this!"

Galvatron stood up, shots bouncing off the thicker parts of his armor but penetrating others. He took cover around a corner and switched on his radio. "Decepticons, retreat! The vermin are surrounding us! Return to the ship and we will have our vengeance!" He reached out with his hand, facing it towards the sword still in Hound's hand. The sword, as all his body parts formed from cubes did, obeyed his command and moved on its own. It darted for the Autobot's spark, powered by half of Galvatron's focus while the other half watched for his newly arrived Decepticons to leave the area. If they died before they could aid in his plans at all, this battle would have been a colossal waste.

Hound yelled in agony as the wound in his hand widened, the sword trying to force itself through. He held his left hand away from his body, but the sword turned towards his spark anyway and tore into the hand even more. His right hand released his pistol and grabbed the sword's flat sides, trying to hold it back. "Help me out! Somebody! There's a sword--trying to kill me!"

[TheExiledChampion]

An horn echo down the highway as an APC drove down the road, fearlessly crashing through any remaining cars left out of it way. Each time it crashes into one, a flash of yellow was made as the car flew out of the way from impact. The front of the APC being left unharmed, thanks to the slightly shimmering field covering it.

Anyone who can get a clear look at the front or sides of the APC, would see a Autobot insignia. The ones on the sides having a military style to it. Once the APC was a few yards from Hound's location, it began to shift as it transformed into a ten meters tall green Autobot. Who kept running the rest of the way as he skid to a halt, grabbing hold of the sword that was dangerously closing in on Hound's Spark.

"Hold it steady, I'll get it out." The Autobot spoke out as he try getting an firm hold on the hilt of the Decepticon's sword, soon pulling it out without taking Hound's damaged hand with it. Then threw it back to it owner a second it was pulled out, while protectively standing guard in front of Hound with both of his forearms raised after they quickly configured into two heavy cannons.

"Good to you again Hound, you look a little...slim than I last saw you. Finally went on a diet?" Rampart jokingly asked rhetorically in his deep tone voice, still keeping his eyes on the silver Decepticon as he train both barrels at the Con. While using his size to cover Hound, though Rampart knew that the obese Bot would move to take a shot at the Decepticon.

[Punished Snake]

Reluis grabbed a grenade off of Lennox, pulled the pin, and threw it over the ledge where Cade was standing before. He aimed his sword rifle at Galvatron and began to fire at the giant Decepticon. "I feel pretty rusty at the moment trying to shoot at a new Megatron! By that, I mean I feel like I'm going to die after I saw what just happened!"

....

Sinwarden yelled in pain as he felt the lounding of grenades. "Die!" He fired his laser rifle up at the soldoers descending down onto him, and grabbed a second grenade from his back "To hell with you all!" He lobbed the grenade down at the soldiers as he formed his arm back to normal, but this time with the scythe blade on his right and the Scrambler Rifle to his left.

Razous quickly placed his combat rifle away and pulled out his SMGs as his dove out and fired on Sinwarden. Both bots shot at each other; searing hot lasers and bullets pierced one another. As Razous got up and was about to fire at Sinwarden, the Con lunged at him with a sweeping right strike with scythe blade. His chest felt ripped open as armor fell of from the gash brought on by the blade.

Placing one SMG away, Razous kicks Sinwarden back and pops out a knife from his arm. "Ok, let's dance you bastard!" Both cybertronians charge at each other and their blades clash. Both aim their guns at one another and fire a burst as they move back. Razous thows his knife at Sinwarden, which lodges itself on his right shoulder. Using his free arm, Sinwarden fires off the rest of whatever he can before it overheats on him. The Autobot charges firing his SMG while being punched by lasers. Right as Razous gets close enough to him, he pulls out his Flaylock pistol, jumps off Sinwarden, and fires three shots which brings the Decepticon down.

[TheExiledChampion]

Parked a mile from Norfolk, a lone greyish-green Chevy appear to be abandon. But in fact was trying to listen in on what was happen, using a small dish formed from it right-hand mirror. Which was picking up vague communication between the NEST soldiers and the Autobots, when it heard the words referring to Megatron, now known as Galvatron.

The car began to shift it shapes as it soon became a medium-size robot, the insignia on his chest plate shows it was an Decepticon. the Con rest two fingers on his temple and tries to established communication. Broadcasting a encrypted signal that Decepticons can easily decipher, hopefully the one that is supposedly the reincarnated Megatron can detects it.

"Lord...Galvatron, can you read me. This is Tracker, awaiting for the order to assist?" Tracker announced with a low hiss, not quite knowing the whole situation happening down there.

[Blazing Falcons]

Crosshairs's attack sent Trebuchet spiraling down towards the streets. He transformed seconds before impact, giving him the opportunity to give a limited degree of control over how far he slid. He couldn't stand, but he only needed to be able to prop himself up on one knee to make his hold-out. His torso was angled sideways to present a smaller target, gun arm extended, ready to shoot at anything that so much as looked suspicious. "Lord Galvatron, I need urgent assistance." he growled onto the radio.


---

Seeing the cannon leave him, Copperhead wasted no time retreating from the open street, despite his injuries, and the danger associated with confirming that he was still alive, he needed to know if his partner was still kicking. "Hey, Mercury!" he shouted, trying to get a response from Quicksilver, "Where are you!?" The plea barely made it to Quicksilver. "He- Here, 'Cop!" he tried to shout, halfway between a cough and a moan. "Big Green, you're the best!" his voice didn't carry far. "Hell, the day we go back to the 'Bots, I told 'Cop something bad would happen." he said to himself.

[Axilus Prime]

Hound grunted, both in surprise to see his old friend and from the pain of having the sword extracted. "Don't mention my weight loss ya big jackass! Had to give a little Energon to an ex-Con who's joining us...gah, but I still have this thing." With his one good hand he patted his belly, then dropped the now-empty pistol he had been using. "Can't even reload! Hope you're still good with medical shi--WHOA!" Hound fumbled his empty pistol's fully loaded twin and dropped it when Galvatron's sword swung back in midair and flew at Rampart without anyone holding it. "GET OUT HERE YA SCREWY COWARD!" he said, trying to get back up and grab his dropped pistol. The sword suddenly changed course and flew at him. Though he ducked, he was only saved by his helmet, which the sword knocked off with a shower of sparks. The impact forced Hound to fall on his back again, now unarmed, and transform to reverse and get some distance from the flying sword. "Shoot that thing!" he said, leading it away from Rampart.

Galvatron snarled in frustration when Sinwarden's comms went dark. "Sinwarden has fallen!" he said to Trebuchet over the radio. "Your assistance, however...will arrive. Do not dare to perish!" He had retreated further behind a building, though now, in the same way he could see in vehicle mode, he could see through his sword. The benefits of having a dissolving transformation included every cube in his body being able to take in sensory data and move independently, as was necessary for such a transformation to work. The disadvantages, however, he felt immediately afterward, and his nearly lost his concentration on controlling the sword. He felt an explosive pain from several hundred feet away.

The grenade Ray threw blew up just as the swarm of cubes that comprised Galvatron's cannon came over the building edge. The explosion struck all the cubes while they were separated, scattering them and causing them to fall, some off the building and some on its roof. They twitched and vibrated, with visible blue energy now sparking from cube to cube. Slowly, with visible difficulty, they started to come together. Cade immediately shot the congregations of cubes, splitting them again and sending even more off the edge. "Nope! No way!"

Galvatron focused, reaching out with the arm currently attached to his body in the direction of the rooftop where his cannon's cubes were. He tried again to force them together after they had been jarred by the explosion, but what he did not expect was for another human to get a sight line on him, with another Knight weapon no less. The shots struck him in the face, forcing him to duck and roll away. When he looked up at Reluis firing another shot at him, he dissolved the split second before he could be shot. He was just barely fast enough to avoid a direct hit. The bullet pushed cubes aside when it reached the swarm, as he had not even spread out enough to avoid that. Still he was mostly undamaged, and he flew for the rooftop.

Drift saw this and immediately transformed into robot mode, landing on the roof. His leg collapsed and he fell forward yet again, but he caught himself on his left arm so he wouldn't flatten Lennox and Reluis. He grabbed them both in one hand and Cade in the other, transforming in such a way that they wouldn't be shredded by his moving parts and finished with them sitting inside his helicopter mode. Immediately he backed away from the building, where Galvatron's swarm of cubes arrived. "Iie..."

The swarm of cubes swept up those parts damaged by the humans' weapons, bringing them back into the properly functioning swarm before re-assembling into the complete Galvatron, standing on the rooftop. He took aim with his fusion cannon, locked the four missile launchers on the sides on to Drift, and fired all of them. "None of you shall leave alive!" He attempted to fire a cannon shot as well, but it missed when bullets hit him in the back. He turned around to find that Crosshairs, standing below with a truck trailer between him and Trebuchet, had decided his new target was him. "More Autobot pests!" He backed away so Crosshairs had no line of sight, only to see his missiles uselessly impacting the buildings across the next street. "GRAAAAH!"

Drift had known his helicopter mode would fail to evade the missiles with its speed, or even lead them into anything by using their lock-on against them. His natural response, then, had been to transform again, making sure to move his parts so that the humans inside were not crushed. As soon as he first left his helicopter mode, he dropped, and the missiles could not change course that sharply. After they impacted behind him, he finished his transformation, landing in car mode with the three humans safe inside but rattled. "GYAAAH!" The landing hurt, but it didn't crumple him or injure the humans. "We are fortunate that our replications of your vehicles are more durable than the originals."

Lennox yelled in pain, the spike in his leg only rattled further by the harsh landing. The alternative, he assumed, was death, but he didn't quite understand. "The hell...do you mean by that?" he asked, too dazed by his injury to know entirely what had just happened.

"It means this guy's got some crazy shock absorbers in there," Cade answered. "Drive!" The moment he got the word out, Drift bolted off straight down the road.

"I will try to regroup with the others," he told the humans.

Galvatron, seeing Drift leave, fired more missiles at him, but the Autobot turned a corner and managed to make them detonate on the edge of a building instead. Furious and thirsty for vengeance on at least one target, he looked back over the edge to find the light green Autobot who had fired on him earlier and ruined his aim. Instead of finding him where he had been, he found Crosshairs had pushed the truck trailer over and was now shoving it using his vehicle mode towards Trebuchet. The Autobot means to use his own cover as a ram! With a cannon shot, Galvatron flipped Crosshairs over the trailer and sent him flying.

Crosshairs transformed, fire on his back, into robot mode. He crashed down behind Trebuchet, but managed to take aim. "Now I've gotcha!" One SMG at Trebuchet, the other at Galvatron... "GAAAAAAH!" He was nailed to the ground by a brief burst of machine gun fire, and rolled away in an attempt to evade it. When it followed and hit him anyway, he lunged forward and transformed, then drove around a corner. In the sky was a detached arm of the Knight Ship, a pod much like the Temenos. "It's like that bloody thing where Optimus found the--the Dinobots!"

The ship came low to the ground, turret swiveling to stay on the Autobot's last known position. Galvatron exploded into a swarm of cubes and assembled next to Trebuchet, then tossed him into the open hatch. He stepped in afterward and his thrown sword returned to him. The hatch closed. "We are fortunate that when I took command of the Knight Ship, I linked with its controls for remote commands." Rising up and accelerating to top speed in seconds, the ship fled the city and made for its original position. "Make use of the medical chamber in this pod. It will repair you swiftly. Then we will leave this planet...and return with our vengeance."

A soldier climbed out the window of the building he was in after he heard Sinwarden die. When the spiked grenade had landed, he shot the glass and dove in. His comrade, impaled and pinned to the wall, hadn't been fast enough. His eyes lingered on the body for a moment, but he remembered himself and turned the corner to assess the situation. Three of the soldiers with parachutes had landed. The others had died, with nothing left where the lasers had passed through. Of them, nothing remained but gun barrels, flaming parachute bits, and feet, with still-glowing orange areas where they had once been attached. He looked at each of the soldiers there, then up at Razous. "Is it over?" he asked his radio.

"Yeah," came Hound's voice. "Got chased by a flying sword, but it's gone now. I got Drift and an old friend with me. Everyone regroup on us."

In a few moments, everyone was gathered in the same spot. Drift sat in car mode with Cade, Reluis, and Lennox inside. The four surviving soldiers besides Lennox stood by him. Hound stood next to Rampart with his helmet and all his guns put back on. Crosshairs had carried Quicksilver and Copperhead there, grumbling about having to do that as well as drag Sinwarden's corpse so it wouldn't be picked up by the wrong people. There were no civilians around. All of them had fled during the course of the battle. "I called for a helicopter extraction," one of the soldiers said. "We can't exactly land a C-130 on a street."

"Well, that's nice. We all get to go home," Crosshairs said with heavy sarcasm. "Yeah, we get back to base, then what? Who's gonna patch us up after this shit? Doc's been murdered. And now we find out that Galvatron has control of the bloody Knight ship! That was one of its pods back there! It fucking fired on me to cover their exit! Now, even he couldn't face the entire crew, so guess what that means? THEY WORK FOR HIM NOW."

"Be quiet, Crosshairs! We all saw it," Drift said. "Complaining will not reduce our disadvantage. But getting back and fixing ourselves up will. We must be ready for the next attack. This was clearly not planned, but with how badly it went without Galvatron's coordination..." He said something in Japanese, most likely something taken from the ancient religions about warding off evil.

"We don't have a medic!"

"Well, actually," Hound cut in, "Ram here can patch you guys up. My hand too. Gonna have to get Lennox a human doctor though. He can't operate on fleshbags. No offense." He looked up at the sound of helicopters whirring. "Well, here they are with the heavy lift gear. Let's get these two and the dead body hooked up. Rest of us can just drive." He transformed and opened his doors, allowing the four soldiers standing next to Drift to get in.


---

The pod re-attached to the Knight ship, shortly after picking up Tracker and completing Trebuchet's repairs. Galvatron had recognized him, and so between the two there was no need for introduction. Whether he and Trebuchet were acquainted remained to be seen, but Galvatron didn't care. "I did not call for your assistance because this was not a true attack," he said. "Trebuchet engaged in an act of aggression without my permission, and it cost us some time. That I do not punish him for it is only because we have severely damaged the Autobots with this attack." Despite his words, he was scowling down at Trebuchet. "Instead of ordering an immediate retreat, I aided him in this attack for that very purpose. Unfortunately, their reinforcements arrived before we could claim any Autobot lives...and our reinforcements are being reserved for a more special purpose." Galvatron looked directly at Tracker now, stepping closer to him. "This battle cost us one of ours. It is fitting that you arrive now, so you can take his place."

After glancing at the door leading from the pod into the main ship, Galvatron continued. "This ship's crew is not loyal to us, but I know of a way we can claim an army that is. We will take Seeds from the Creator homeworld of Xenos itself using this very pod. In the meantime, we will deploy this ship's crew in an attack on this human nation's capital. The entirety of the crew will be deployed on what is either a decisive victory or a suicide mission to distract the Autobots while we are gone. When we return...we will position Seeds in human cities undetected, then detonate them remotely. From the raw biometal created, I will bring to life an army, extensions of my very will that will serve us and lay waste to this planet as vengeance for what our cause has suffered here. And then...we will strike back at the Creators, seize all that they have, and spread into the stars. As they should have eons ago, Decepticons will rule this galaxy, and if the two of you serve well, you shall be at my side..." He dissolved his hand into cubes and re-assembled it as a demonstration. "And even share in my power."


---

It was hours later, but the NEST forces had arrived. Now inside the underground portion of their primary base, the injured Autobots were lined up in order of priority to receive Rampart's treatment. It would take hours more to finish. Quicksilver was first, having suffered horribly at the hands of Galvatron. Behind him was Copperhead, followed by Drift. Hound was last, as the injuries sustained by the others were merely small bullet wounds. Those would heal on their own. Lennox, meanwhile, had been hauled off on a medical cart.

Released from standby, Bumblebee and Chillwind were in the room as well, and after a brief summary by one of the soldiers who participated in the battle of what had happened, Bumblebee was furious. He was quite literally shaking with rage, burning with a desire to get back at the Decepticons. Only a low whirring sound came from his mouth speaker, and nothing from his radio. None of his clips could really fit what he felt now, but his body language and the fact that his eye was twitching said it quite well.

Cade was in the room too. There hadn't been any argument to him coming along. To him and the Autobots, it was so he could help. To the soldiers, it was for his own protection. He didn't say anything, simply stood there with his gun pointed down.

"It's gonna be some time before we're up to full strength," Epps said. "An attack comes before then, it's up to me, and you," he pointed to the surviving soldiers from the last battle and those who had stayed in the base, "and you," he pointed to Crosshairs, Bumblebee, Razous, and even Chillwind, "to kick its ass. When you're done with repairs," he told Rampart, "the rest of you are gonna back us up."

"Yeah," Bumblebee said, only now using his radio to speak. "If we're not all done before you even show up." And he pounded his fist into his hand.

[TheExiledChampion]

Rampart was going ask about the Ex-con, before he talked about Hound's damaged hand. Only to end up remaining on defensive as the sword came back, Rampart rapidly firing at it to either knock it back or somehow break it. While giving Hound some cover fire to get his gun, soon reconfiguring his left forearm back to normal. Readying himself to bring out his Axe-hammer from his back, which was beginning to jut out the handle to it.

But it appear to retreated back to its owner as the silver Decepticon, soon learning it was the reincarnated Megatron, began to take off on a small ship with another. Leaving them all to recover and regroup.

Rampart soon follow Hound with the other Autobots, seeing a green one dragging a dead Decepticon with him. Along with helping a few functioning Bots, though one was quite damaged.

"So Ratchet is dead...thought I felt something bad." Rampart spoke out with a frown and sadden tone, having his suspicions be confirmed from hearing what Crosshairs had said. Then putting on a straight face, Ram gave the injured blue Autobot's face a close look. Bringing up goggles go over his optics, which assisted him in pinpointing the important areas around the damaged side of Quicksilver's face. Mentally noting the spots to focus on.

"Yeah, should be able to fix you guys up. Hound might be losing a hand though, no chance of saving it." Rampart joked as it wasn't that seriously damaged, since he just wanted to mess with the obese Autobot.



Tracker was the last to exit the pod after Trebutchet, figuring he'll gives the Con some space. Mainly to avoid a crossfire between Trebutchet and Galvatron, in case he see fit to give the Con a beating for his actions.

But it didn't seem that was gonna happen yet, so he picked up the pace a bit. Soon walking along side Trebutchet, listening closely to Galvatron's explaining a few things about his plan. While giving the interior a look over, briefly glancing at the crew of the Knight Ship. Already noting a few of their weak points to use against them, in case of a surprise assault by them.

"Shame we did, between those insects of Cemetery Wind and the Autobots. Many of us had fallen, thankfully so did the Autobots." Tracker added with a small growl, fist already clench tightly and threatens to break a servo to it.

"Fight the Creators...our Creators? The insanity of thinking it...and thrill of taking their life." Tracker lightly chuckle at the idea of being the true lords of the galaxy, along with the chance of gaining such powers that Galavtron was demonstrating.



"Well Quicksilver, I got good news. Your eye can be repaired, so you won't suffer of being half-sighted." Rampart announced with a grin, lightly prodding at Quicksilver's damaged face with some tools. Gradually getting into working on the three repairs, focusing on Quicksilver's damaged face so he wouldn't lose his eye.

All the while, listening to Epps discussing about how to handle another Decepticon attack. Soon smiling at Bubblebees statement. "I'm like this guy, sigh...miss fighting along comrades." Ram stated with his smirk still remaining, while carefully piecing together Quicksilver's face. Working with the components for the optics, then the rest of his face before moving onto the rest of the damaged areas.

"Hey Con, make yourself useful and shine the light for me. I need both hands for this." Rampart ordered, though he wasn't purely being rude to the Ex-Con, he was even thinking of giving her a check up judging by her worn appearance and the need of Energon. Likely mean she may have systems trouble, but he could also be wrong.

[Blazing Falcons]

"Quit talking and focus on my face, would you?" Quicksilver barked. "I don't ever trust a medic that talks while he works. Especially on something as important as what's being worked on right now." With that, he shut up himself. Copperhead was about to try to add a joke to the conversation, but stopped himself. "How'd we even survive that, anyway?" he asked instead.


---

"I do believe I heard some Autobots scream... Of course, I'm sure they would've been no match for you before you gained more power..." Trebuchet tried to show his loyalty. After all, he'd not yet had a chance to actually see Galvatron's power, but he'd very much like to see a demonstration performed on Autobots... "I plead forgiveness for my actions, my lord... I did not know you were as alive as our cause..."

He stopped, and looked back at Tracker after his comment about killing Creators, "I think you and I will get along just fine..." He smirked. He shot his saw forward and spun the blade a few times, "You think one of their skulls would look good on the back of our lord's throne? Or under one of, if not both his feet?"

[Punished Snake]

"Maybe it's just bkind luck." Razous said as he walked into Quicksilver and Copperhead getting repaired. "Hell, I could've died too, but it d the battle was in our favor since we literally do outmatch them." He was always the one to cheer up the morale of the team when times were low. It's what he does and so did his brother during the war on Cybertron. For as long as he canremember, he was always the one who lifted the spirits up and couldn't find a moment when he needed the lifting.

[Axilus Prime]

"Wait wait wait WHAT?! You can fix all this other stuff but not a hand?! Come on, that's bullshit! What am I gonna do now, get a buzzsaw or somethin'?! I don't do buzzsaws, they're all big and awkward and--"

"He's joking, Hound!" Cade cut him off. He flinched somewhat when the most injured Autobot, who he didn't recognize, started yelling at the new medic. "Someone's paranoid! Damn! Who's this guy?" he asked Epps, trying to make conversation and get a bit of information.

Epps faced Cade after informing Copperhead that they survived because they'd gone through much worse odds in the past. "That's Quicksilver. His bird buddy's Copperhead. Medic's...uh...he showed up in the middle of the fight. Who--"

"Rampart," Hound filled Epps in. "He's cool, I knew him for a while. Likes to mess with my head though!" he said, glaring for a second at the tall Autobot.

Bumblebee took the light and shined it where Rampart had directed Chillwind to do so, saying "I'll do it." through his radio. He couldn't fight right now, but doing this was thwarting the Decepticons just as much as shooting them was.

"It is never blind luck," Drift told Razous. "We have survived because we are vigilant warriors. We must be more so to survive what is to come. I can feel it."

"You can't feel jack!" Crosshairs cut in. "You couldn't feel me recordin' your haiku writing session and the only reason you know that is cause it's fuckin' obvious!"

Drift simply shook his head and gave Crosshairs the finger.


---

Galvatron didn't respond to either of the Decepticons' comments after they stepped out of the pod. "Speak of the plan no further until the attack begins," he quietly told them. Coming up to a platform extending over a large, open section of the ship, he addressed the crew. "Residents of the Knight Ship...heed your temporary captain." Normally such a title Galvatron would consider beneath him, but seeing as either the Autobots or the entirety of this ship's crew were about to die, it hardly mattered. Words that would get him their grudging assistance were most preferable here. "We are approaching the human capital, an insect city known as Washington D.C. When we arrive, every member of this crew shall be deployed and burn the city to the ground! The Autobots will surely come, but with your numbers we will be able to exterminate every last one of them! And when they are disposed of, I will be able to dedicate my every effort to finding our common enemy, Optimus Prime."

The crew was silent. It was too much to expect applause. They hated him, after all, and only agreed to this out of necessity. But in seconds they began to form ranks to prepare for the coming battle. Galvatron was satisfied. "March to the deployment hatches once you are fully assembled. The ship can run itself for now." With that, he turned around and walked, whispering to the Decepticons. "It can run itself after I alter the settings so that it will move entirely out of their reach. They will have no method of retreat, and so it shall be victory or death. We leave in the pod we arrived here in when the battle begins."

[TheExiledChampion]

Rampart gave Bumblebee a nod in thanks as he watch the yellow Autobot shining the light onto Quicksilver's face, giving Ram a clear picture of the damage as he began to get to work. Taking a quick glance at Hound as he chuckle a bit, still finding it funny at how Hound took his little joke.

"Okay, now you might feel a little sting or two. But you must keep your head still, one false move and I might accidentally disable both optics." Rampart warned as he tilted Quicksilver head in the right angle, giving him a better one to work with as he starts to piece things back together. Trying to re-synced the optics, especially when he had to replace the damaged optic with a new one that Rampart has for spare parts.

The process would be slow, due to how Rampart need to be careful. Which would require at least thirty minutes or so before he could let the wound heal, then Rampart would work on the rest of Quicksilver's severe damaged areas. Rampart would like have to fix Hound's hand after he finished with Quicksilver, figuring that the fat Autobot might get restless.



Tracker shrug his shoulders at Trebutchet's question, since he didn't care much about crude furnishing like that. Tracker was more concern about how effective these soldiers are and if they could finish off the Autobots, or at the very least a few of them before they perish.

"It a shame they're so few of us, might've volunteer in leading them. Or finish off any of the wounded Autobots...Is it possible to have the ship fire upon them, make sure that no survive." Tracker offered as he give a quick glance at the departing crew, making sure they didn't catch what he meant as Tracker was specific with the term them. Obviously, not caring if the ship's crew were caught in the crossfire.

[Punished Snake]

"Whatever it was, we sure did pretty good out there. Maybe a bit better next time, but still good in my books." Razous continued to pace around the complex hoping for something to happen so that he can go out. It felt a bit boring there ar the base for him.

Reluis went up to Lennox and took a looked at his injury. "You took one hell of a hit. Thank god you didn't get hit anywhere vital. I don't want to end up having to announce you kicked the damn bucket."

[TheExiledChampion]

"Hey Red, how bout you sit down before you step on someone with those stompers. The pacing is a little distracting." Ram spoke out while glaring at the smaller Autobot, then return his attention back to Quicksilver. Giving his face the final touches before he'd done enough to allow the wound to heal itself.

"And done...but first, how many fingers am I holding up?" Rampart asked with a raised open hand, wanting Quicksilver tell him if the repaired optic was working in unison with the undamaged one. Otherwise, he'll have to work on them some more.

[Blazing Falcons]

"Every single one of them. This mean you're not the butcher I thought you'd be?" Quicksilver asked. Amidst the background noise, Copperhead could be heard stifling a laugh, before accidently grinding against the wall, in turn setting something off in his damaged wing, which drew a quiet "Ow!, son of a bitch!" Quicksilver continued, "Because if you aren't a butcher, or scrapper or whatever, I just figured I'd let you know that I'm messing with you. Otherwise, quote, 'You mad butcher! Would've had more luck letting Hound shoot it back in!' Unquote."

[Axilus Prime]

"Oh sure, show off your fancy properly workin' hand..." Hound grumbled as he rolled his eyes. With his working hand he pulled out a pistol and grinned at Quicksilver's comment. "Is that a standing offer? Heheh!"

Crosshairs had his hand on his face. "You actually prepared a line for if he got it wrong...come on, that's a new level of asshole even for me. At least have the decency to wait until somethin' actually happens and make up a line on the spot!"

"You don't wait until something happens," Cade said with a hint of a laugh. "You're an asshole in response to just about everything!"

"Hey, things are happening all the time! Doesn't have to be a specific kind of things..." Crosshairs jumped back and sat on a table, then shifted into a lying-down position with his hands behind his head. "Like you babbling on and puttin' me to sleep!" He closed his eyes then, and taking a page from Bumblebee's playbook, used his radio...to play a snoring sound effect at absurdly loud volume.

Lennox managed a grin, now that the spike had been removed from his leg. "Yeah, well, either Rampart's like Que and knows how to make a mechanical leg brace for humans or I'm off the field for months. How about you ask him about that for me? Don't wanna strain myself yelling--" Lennox shut his eyes hard at the sound of Crosshairs' snoring. He turned his head to what was up from his lying-down perspective, realizing where it was coming from and balling his hands into fists. "CROSSHAIRS CUT THAT SHIT OUT RIGHT NOW!" He received an obscene gesture in response, but at least the noise stopped. "...Maybe I just needed the right motivation. God, that guy's annoying." He turned his head again, managing another grin at the sight of Bumblebee shining the light into his own eye, then blinking sharply and setting it down.


---

Galvatron laughed harshly, though he didn't slow on his way to the ship's primary controls. "You would volunteer to lead a suicide mission? How devoted of you." They passed through a circular automatic door, its five flaps spinning out of the way to reveal the captain's chair where Lockdown once sat. Galvatron sat there now and pulled up holographic displays. "I expect no victory from these mindless Creator loyalists. I expect Autobot casualties, but I do not believe a single member of this crew will survive...and for the last Autobot and last suicide trooper to kill each other at the same time would be far too much to expect of fate. No," he said, rising from his chair and leaving the room. "We will board the pod. When the ship reaches the capital it will descend and eject our troops while detaching our pod. But your idea was not without merit, Tracker..and so when the battle begins, the ship has been set to fire on the Autobots, and in the event the troopers actually win, fire on them as well."

[TheExiledChampion]

Rampart shook his head with a chuckle, not the first time someone berated his handiwork. "I am equally good at breaking things apart as I am at fixing them, in fact both me and Ratchet saved many wounded Autobots." Ram stated before getting to work on the rest of Quicksilver's wounds, those that needed the most attention. While ignoring everyone else around him, but did gives Bumblebee his thanks for the assist.

"Just be happy you still had your eye, last time I did this for a fellow Bot. I have to patch it together without one, leaving the poor guy single-sighted...gave him a hook too, now that I recall." Ram added as he paused to scratch his chin, trying to remember before shrugging.

When he heard Lennox talking about a mechanical leg brace, Rampart stopped to bellow a laugh. "Sorry, but I have zero knowledge with your species' anatomy. Would likely make it worse than helping." Rampart explained with a small grin, then return to fixing up Quicksilver.



Tracker kept up with Galvatron as they entered a room, which was likely where the ship's captain would likely be stationed. But if what he learned is true, then that said captain no longer lives. "I wouldn't let myself die with them, taking on a suicide mission isn't a ideal way to die in my opinion." Tracker explained while watching his leader inputting commands into the ship's computer.

During that time, Tracker stared at Trebuchet before returning his attention back to Galvatron. Hearing him explaining about setting the ship's weaponry to fire upon both the Autobots and the Loyalists. Tracker only nod, happy with just knowing his leader took interest in the idea. "Then the ship would just be waiting for our return?" Tracker curiously asked, part of him not wanting to waste a good vessel like this one.

[Punished Snake]

Relius went up to Rampart in order to take Lennox's question to him. "Excuse me Doc, but Lennox wants to know how long he'll be out?" Razous sat on the floor on wherever he last took his step. "Sorry, just feel a bit bored being here." The red autobot then tuned hos radio to a satellite radio station that played some VERY interesting music. A rock type known as Black metal. He turned up so only he can here it and others won't be easily disturbed by the music.

....

On the Moon of Earth, a lanky humanoid robot emerged out an Autobot prison transport wrecked upon the satellite's surface. Every lifeform on the ship was dead except for the lone bot on the lunar surface. The robot that seems like a drone thre out what appeared to be a collar from his neck. This robot is the Decepticon known as Technovictus. One of the most ruthless Decepticons alive that is known to have caused the deaths of countless lives during the war on Cybertron.

His transport was traveling through this system when it encountered a solar flare which disrupted power for a few seconds on board the vessel. The Decepticon had an inhibitor collar that disabled his ability to transform into his armored alternate version. When the flare hit the transport, the collar was disabled and Technovictus went on a rampage through the ship. The result is what is left on the moon of his dirty work.

The Decepticon looked above at the blue marble of Earth as he stopped walking. He detected Decepticon signatures on the planet in front of him. Adjusted his trasmitter, he tuned to a frequency only Decepticons would pick up. "To all Decepticons who listen, Technovictus has arrived. Requesting transport at my current location on the satellite orbiting the planet."

[Blazing Falcons]

"You got that right. What. A. Dick." Copperhead grumbled in reference to Crosshairs. "Some real colorful language in the operating room." Quicksilver sighed, "So how long you think it'll be before I can kick ass again?" Copperhead stifled a laugh, "Don't tell Galvatron." Quicksilver was quick to reply, "I'm holding you to the same rule." Copperhead waited a few seconds before responding, "Yeah, alright. Sounds fair."


---

"Yeah, I like to be able to taunt the fleeing survivors. Provided there are any. Suicide missions suck. Just wish I could watch the fireworks. Watching idiots and other idiots kill and be killed. Perfect weekend activity." Trebuchet smirked. "I think we all know that after 'Chicago,' a lot of buildings blowing up and a lot of insects getting squished was enough to make the insects turn on the Autobots. Where I'm going is, maybe have the ship fire a few random shots at insect hubs. Make the Autobots look bad and do the rest of the galaxy a service by doing a little exterminating."

[Axilus Prime]

"I don't think he'd know that either," Lennox called out to Clover. "If he can't fix my leg I'm pretty sure he can't figure out its healing time. Better off asking the doc who operated on me. Just let it go, I'll get a wheelchair and ask him myself later. It's gonna be a long time..." He closed his eyes and decided to see if he could fall asleep. The faster his wounded time flew by, the better.

Sitting in the medical treatment line, Drift took on an ancient Japanese meditation position. Hound sighed, put his pistol away, and started poking his injured hand. "Ow." Bumblebee changed into car form and drove around the room's perimeter...very, very slowly. Crosshairs continued attempting to sleep, which confused Cade as he wasn't sure if Autobots could even do that. He knew they didn't need to, for sure.

"Restless bunch aren't they?" Cade said to Ray. "So how're you liking the new gun?"


---

"It would," Galvatron answered Tracker, "and upon our return it would have quite ideal space for the army we will create upon arrival. We would need to clear out the prison quarters to make room, perhaps, but that feat is easily accomplished by mass execution." They stepped into the pod's entrance, moving up to the controls, where Galvatron took the pilot's seat and began programming a course. "I would prefer, Trebuchet, that our vessel draws as little attention to itself as possible. It will remain out of sight until the battle's conclusion and return only to finish the survivors. Should the insects wish it, they could evacuate their city's survivors and make use of an invention that is solely their own to destroy the ship: a nuclear bomb. Having learned their language by now, I am sure you are both familiar with the term.

Galvatron's hand was right over the holobutton to detach the pod from the main ship when he received Technovictus' transmission. It had reached only his and the other Decepticons' comms, as the ship's comms were adjusted to Creator frequencies...frequencies which, suspiciously enough, were silent at all times. "This is Galvatron. You would know me from my previous life. Hold your position and await extraction. There will be an immediate assignment where you shall operate directly under me upon our arrival."

[TheExiledChampion]

"Lennox right, I'm more of a mechanic. Ratchet was into the whole biology stuff, while I was into making things that helps destroy Cons. Give me the right materials and I could make a tank that could take a missile head on, or a jet plane capable of short-distant space travel." Rampart explained before returning to give Quicksilver's some final touches, giving his wounds enough repairs for them to heal on their own.

"There...now just sit there and let your body do the rest of the work. Hound, let fix that hand. Best to get it patched up incase another attack happens." Rampart instructed as he gesture for Hound to let him fixed the damaged hand.


Tracker ignored what Trebuchet was talking about, paying more attention of Galvatron's actions as he take one of the vacant seats within the pod. "It wouldn't be a hard task with them vulnerable within their prison, this ship must have a way of killing it captives if ever needed. But perhaps we could see if any will pledge their loyalty to you, Lord Galvatron." Tracker stated with little enthusiasm in his words, making that last bit a suggestion to his leader after he spoke of executing the prisoners.

When Galvatron asked them of the Earthlings weapon. "It a destructive weapon made during a war the humans had against each other, would interesting if the ship could take such a thing. Hopefully it can defend itself without a crew."

Just after saying that, a transmission was picked up by the pod from Technovictus. A fellow Decepticon, whose name brought worried to him. More for the Autobots than to himself and the others.

[Punished Snake]

After several minutes listening to black metal, and other various metal genres, Razous turned off his radio. He got up from his position and walked over to Rampart. He noticed a healed Quicksilver, Coppehead, and Hound; all looking ready for combat once again.

"You're pretty good, Ram. Nice job." He patted him on the back. "So what's our next move now? Do we wait on the Cons to strike?"

......

Technovictus waited for Galvatron to arrive as he stood there in very spot where we was; staring out into the blue marble known as Earth with his red eyes as if studying it for any signs of imperfections, weaknesses, life, and strengths. The wrecking was still there behind him. An Autobot body hanged out from the window of the cockpit; its lower body severed off with wires and metal hanging exposed and leaking fluid. One body inside couldn't even be identified due to how badly shredding it was; it was completely torn apart by claws and the face blown out by a shotgun blast. This was his work, this was his brutality, and this isn't the end.

[TheExiledChampion]

Rampart was just making the final touches on Copperhead, Hound's hand was a easy fix and he figured that it was best to give it some attention. Mostly to make the obese Bot happy and to get working on his weaponry, considering how touchy he is when it comes to his weapons.

So the moment Ram was done with repairing Hound's hand, the large Autobot turns his attention to Copperhead. Giving the avian bot the same amount of attention he gave to Quicksilver, which he did as Rampart fixed up the damages Copperhead had suffer in the recent fight with the Cons.

Leaving him with only Drift to repair, though he took a brief break before getting to work on the task. "Thank red, but I'm not quite done yet. And it very likely, but if they're only those two. It uncertain of when they'll strike again. If Galvatron the same Con that I know and hate, he wouldn't foolishly attack with few numbers"

[Axilus Prime]

Through the clouds over Washington DC descended a black blur. As much panic as there was at the sight of it, that could not compare to the panic, to the chaos, that would follow.

"That's the ship from Chicago!"

"I saw that thing on the news!"

"It was in Hong K--"

Buildings shattered before the Secret Service could even get moving. Black pods with backswept spikes and green lights coursing along their sides hurtled through the concrete, jammed into the pavement and grass of the city grounds, and violently blew their walls apart, smashing more buildings still. Cars were dispersed, even impaled where they sat or as they were driven by the drop pods' spikes. Out of each pod came five nearly identical troopers. And their guns sang.

There were no bodies dropped. Just as in Chicago, the mere impact of each of their shots proved sufficient to shatter the bodies, the heat sufficient to leave little more than blackened bones. The onslaught had not even ceased its beginning. While the troopers laid waste to all around them, drop pods crashed down on even the armored cars evacuating ranking personnel from the Capitol Building and the White House. Some avoided the pods only to be violently cast aside when they blew open, or when the troopers within opened fire. Those that would not be destroyed by bullets became smoldering wrecks at the impact of a rocket. None could refuse their explosive deaths once they were fired upon. The rockets were not simply homing, but would do all manner of maneuvers, through windows, over buildings, under cars, and around every corner they had to in order to ensure they hit their targets.

"We are deployed, Galvatron! Where are you?" The trooper received as much answer as the humans he was slaughtering received help. "Galvatron! Do you disregard your own operation?!"

Another trooper pointed to the skies. "The ship is missing another pod!"

"We are betrayed! It's leaving us as well!"

Regrouping after the slaughter, the troopers bellowed in rage, an incomprehensible mess of various curses and exclamations resulting from the rapidly-spreading comprehension of what had happened to them. In the midst of it all, they were forced to regain their bearings when attack helicopters came in, with tanks not far behind. The exchange of fire instantly claimed lives on both sides.

"Hound and Bee, explosives into the clusters, then you jump! Crosshairs, lay down cover fire while jumping with them! Everyone else airdrops while they cover us! Aim for the ground, buildings are unstable!" Epps put on his chute, then looked at Clover and the civilian, Yeager. "You know what to do already. As for you--"

"I can handle myself in a fight," Cade said, tapping his gun. "Just give me a chute."

"If things weren't going to shit this damn much you wouldn't be here. Just make sure you follow orders."

"Sure thing buddy. Long as they aren't stupid."

The plane with its rear open swept low over the city, grenades the size of truck tires falling out the back. Past them flew ten missiles, each locking on to a cluster of troopers. Some had the sense to dive aside, but all were filled with shrapnel. As they got up, the grenades landed, claiming the lives of some. It disoriented the rest enough that they scarcely had time to react to three Autobots dropping in, a hail of bullets and even balls of plasma covering their entrance. In the smoke, flames, and flashes, the horde of NEST soldiers dropping in after the Autobots was invisible to the troopers below. From above and from the sides the troopers were pushed back behind the buildings still standing, or pushed to their unmarked graves.

"Wish I had time to fix those pistols!" Hound grumbled as he hit the ground and put his gatling gun on his back to draw his knife.

"Ya weren't even gonna use 'em, ya jackass!" Crosshairs replied. "Now quit screwin' around and cut the cables!"

The troopers began to regain their bearings in the time it took Hound to cut the parachute cables from himself and the other two Autobots who had landed. "Rocket launchers locking on!" A soldier called out as he ran up behind Bumblebee. The yellow Autobot quickly popped out his reloaded missile launchers, and at the instant the troopers fired, sent his own rockets to intercept their shots, each perfectly locked on. Grenade launchers from the men on the ground knocked up those troopers' guns next, clearing the way for the helicopters to finish them off.

A trooper captain bellowed orders in a dialect the Autobots could not understand. He and his began to withdraw, regrouping into a less damaged section of the city for cover. Metal balls rolled out between the buildings, but they did not explode. Instead each projected a blinding series of beams, blocking the vision of every soldier and Autobot present.

"Tanks!" Epps yelled into his radio, "blow whatever the hell is causing that!" The shells in a single volley took out each and every one of the projection orbs, but it was too late. No one had eyes on a single trooper.

Hound's helmet flew off with a deafening bang. The obese Autobot immediately rolled behind a debris pile before getting back up. "Sniper! Left side!" Everyone scrambled, though no one could yet see their assailant. From behind came a trio of locked-on rockets.

"Aw SHITE!" Crosshairs whirled towards the sound, his trenchcoat spreading out (and taking a sniper round through its edge when that protruded past the tipped-over armored car he was behind). Both triggers pressed down he was able to detonate the rockets mid-flight.

"We need to get inside a building!" Cade yelled from inside a drop pod crater, where he had his back to the edge. He looked up to spot the sniper, and to his surprise did so. "Top of the short building!" When he fired his gun, the sniper's head exploded. "I got it!"

Another sniper round took off Crosshairs' left shoulder plate. "Yeah, well we need to get in that building anyway!"

Bumblebee blew an entrance into the building with his plasma cannons and transformed, taking in as many soldiers as could squeeze in. Hound pulled up in vehicle mode next to Cade and some others, while Crosshairs grabbed Ray and Epps without asking then took vehicle form with them inside. The three drove in and returned to robot mode while expelling their occupants. "They have us surrounded," Cade said. "What the hell do we do?"

Tanks and troopers exchanged fire when the pursuit began, and after that, there was silence. "We flush 'em out," Epps said, grabbing his radio again. "They tried to follow us but the tanks made 'em think twice. Just have to force them not to have any options."

"You do that," a soldier said, "all hell's gonna break loose. It'll be a clusterfuck."

"We don't, they find a way to kill our asses. We don't give them time to figure out how the hell they gonna do that." Epps held down the button on his radio. "B team, move in, opposite side of the city! Rampart, finish with Drift and board a plane as C team!" According to the plan, B team was Chillwind flying in with Razous and Quicksilver magbooting to ride on top of her, with her transforming as they jumped off, and Quicksilver deploying Copperhead as they all landed. The four would then initiate a pincer movement, containing and destroying the troopers. Assuming the execution went right, this could be done with minimal casualties. But it was a big force. And the execution was almost never spot on. A battlefield did not have an abundance of control.

---

The Knight Ship was safe in Earth's orbit, far from the battlefield. "The humans responded faster than we anticipated. It was safest for the ship to withdraw without attacking. You may feel free to place bets on the victor," Galvatron said, viewing the fight on a screen within the pod through the eyes of a trooper captain. "It will not matter when we forge the largest Decepticon force since the days of Cybertron."

The pod lowered itself to the moon, opening the hatch for Technovictus. "Hurry aboard," Galvatron said, gazing upon the wreckage behind the Decepticon warrior. "Excellent work," he added with a hint of humor. "I will brief you on the way...to Xenos."

[TheExiledChampion]

Rampart was busy fixing up Drift's left leg after finishing the other, not giving much response to Epps' words. But he did heard them, which gives him a reason to work a bit faster. While careful of not messing up the repairs, since a slopping repair would be quite fatal for a Bot that'll be soon fighting.

"Drift, keep that light steady. I can already tell I'm going to be doing this allot, one of those damn feelings." Rampart muttered to himself mostly, then get back to working on fixing up Drift for their turn to fight. Almost nearing completion too, so it be happening eventually.

[Blazing Falcons]

"Just a bit stronger than the human models, eh?" Copperhead said sarcastically. Quicksilver ignored him and said, "Looks like our stop!" Quicksilver cut the power to his magnets and he was swept off of Chillwind in an instant. Quicksilver dug his hand, and much of his forearm into the nearest building to slow his descent. Bullets sailed past them as Quicksilver neared a stop. "Go, Cop! Now!" Quicksilver yelled as one of his SMGs slid forward and unleashed a spray of rounds in the direction he thought the attack came from. Copperhead burst out Quicksilver's back and went straight for cover before going high to identify and attack his first victim. "Let's kick some shiny metal ass." he said, diving at one that was taking cover in an alley.

[Punished Snake]

Technovictus boarded the pod and came abroad the Knight Ship. "All hail, Galvatron," he said as he greeted his superior. "What business do we have on this Xenos?" The Decepticon had no known knowledge of a planet named Xenos. Could it be a secret operating base for one of the factions?

.....

"Aaaaawwww yeeeeah!" Razous cut off the power to his magboots and fell off Chillwind onto the firefight below care free. Four shots could be heard being shot of from his Flaylock pistol and four explosions before the louder thud of him landing. The bodies of several enemies laid beside Razous as he loaded a fresh mag onto his pistol. He then holstered it and switched to his Combat Rifle. "Hey Quicksilver, do remember the plan of attack? I think I forgot it with my own distraction." He chuckled a little to his own words as he now probably seemed like an idiot.

[TheExiledChampion]

Rampart was giving his Ion Blaster a look over as himself and Drift were being flown to the battle, after he finished repairs on Drift. They quickly boarded the plane with another team, that would soon bring them in position to complete the pincer move on the enemy forces. "Don't strain yourself too much out there, you didn't get a chance to heal up." Rampart warned, looking over to where Drift was standing.

Eventually, the plane arrived and Rampart jumped out first. Wanting to give the other some cover upon decent, using his shield to achieve that goal. Not wanting any of the enemy forces to make potshots at them while in the air, where there little chances of moving to avoid the shots. Which were deflected upon hitting his shield, causing a shimmering spark at where the shot had struck.

And pinpointing of where it came from, Rampart correct his trajectory and landed several meters away. Quickly firing his Ion Blaster, taking the trooper with four shots. A fifth shot being fired to make sure he was dead. "C Team on the ground, where to Epps?"