Ok...since the responses to my story link was limited or non-exsistant...I've decided to post the (completed) story here. I'll post each chapter when I can and hope you will (at the very least) read it and give me some feedback. That's all I ask. :tfgrin

 

We begin....

 

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Chapter One – The Journey To Alaxon

 

 

" Hear my words and feel my spark Cybertron...I am he who is called Primus. I was the first of our kind to ever be created, the first to ever be given life by the mighty supercomputer of Vector Sigma and I was the first to defy the evil that held us back for so long. I am the beginning, I am the ending and I am the face of those who will all come after me. I gave you hope as we liberated ourselves from our bondage, a new home to call our own as we took the planet of our slave masters, and I shone the light in our darkest hour as Unicron came to destroy us all. All these things I have given you, but without all of you I could not exist, for you are the true legends of Cybertron. As I leave you to become the everlasting spark of the Matrix, remember to learn to live in peace, every faction, every individual, every spark that comes from this world and others. I shall see you all again in the Great Spark beyond, as we will once again be reunited in harmony and living as one mind again. Remember me my Cybertronians, let all that receive this Matrix of Leadership, guide you all with wisdom, passion and courage. This is the everlasting collective spark of those who will follow after me and give the power to guide those who have yet to come.

 

We are of Cybertron, we were once slaves but now we are the writers of our own destiny. So let it be said forever in your sparks.

 

Until the day my children...Until all are one with me again. "

 

- Primus OM-001, The First Leader of Cybertron

 

 

 

 

A world made of metal hangs in deep space. A war ravaged world full of activity of energy weapon fire and explosions. The planet looks dull and gray, the many years of war have tarnished its once beautiful look and the old, burned out ruins stretched out across its plains show its age. A planet once peaceful and tranquil has now become a drained, burned out shell of a world that those on it still call home.

 

The planet is Cybertron.

 

Two warring factions fight on the surface of this doomed planet, a group once known to be a labor class type of robot, The Autobots. The other was once used as a military and slave overseer class of robots, The Decepticons. For millions of years the two have long fought each other, Decepticons believe they are the destined rulers of Cybertron and the Autobots were made to serve them. But the Autobots believe that no one faction should rule another, they believe in equality and freedom for all...even for the Decepticons. The two factions long war engulfed the other outlying factions on the planet, their war made many leave the world and seek peace elsewhere. Some remained but ended up either being wiped out or incorporated into the two dominant warring factions. It was a time of great darkness, victories came and went as each war passed, but the Decepticons and the Autobots would never see eye to eye. Of the many wars there were the major battles that were termed " The Great War ", each one lasted for thousands of years, with no almost no end in sight. To gain a new foothold on each of these Great Wars, new body designs were needed to shield them from the devastating attacks. Some improved on a method that once was only given to a select few of Cybertronians long ago, a helpful disguise called, Transforming. This Transforming was only an alternative mode to help out in production or moving from place to place on Cybertron, but when each side learned they could mimic objects, vehicles or even everyday items, it brought into the war a new strategy of attack.

 

Decepticons made this transforming a priority; they made them into every thing imaginable, improving each new soldier as the years went on. The Autobots preferred sticking to ground based vehicles or some that could fly, that way they could keep moving as the Decepticons attacked or tried to make an escape. And that is how the planet has been for all this time, since the days of their great leader Primus; the wars have never truly stopped. But there are those who hope to bring about the end of these futile conflicts and bring about a new age of harmony to their world. The planet is in its Fourth Great War; a massive transport carrier robot named, Optimus Prime, leads Autobots. A great descendant of the original Primus, once a lowly dock worker named Orion Pax, rebuild during the war to lead them all to victory and freedom. Megatron is the Decepticon leader, a sliver polished robot that can transform into a large energy plasma cannon or as a hand weapon. His size in robot form is just as big as Optimus Prime, making them an equal challenge for one another. His goal is to rule the planet with an iron fist, to wipe out the Autobot faction once and for all, and then spread out into the galaxy to begin his new empire. The Fourth Great War has taken its final toll on the broken planet, the precious energy they need to stay alive, fuel their weapons and power the entire world is nearly exhausted. Energon, a power that all these " transformers " must rely on must be replenished or their race will be doomed. So as the Decepticons and Autobots fight, both build ships to send out into space, a last ditch effort to find the key to winning the war and the salvation of Cybertron.

 

The Decepticons have become obsessed with keeping their foot hold on Cybertron, but try to hinder the Autobot's plans to find more energy before they do, and as their enemy prepares to leave the planet, Megatron orders a massive attack on their heavily shielded launch base. Strangely designed jets fill the sky above as they clash with one another in a brilliant display of aerial stunts and weapons fire. The surface around the base is full of combating transformers, Autobots and Deceptions in hand-to-hand and distant weapon combat. An energy shield that continually sparks as the blasts from enemy fire hits it from every angle protects the large golden yellow structure. Inside the domed tower sits a large space vessel standing straight up and aimed at the top of the building inside. The war pounds away outside while the Autobots fuel the ship, pack the cargo and scatter about their duties within. Standing at the base of the ship is a rather large red-blue robot, his size and stance gives him a look of great authority, and well it should. For this is the leader of the Autobots, the one that has been given the Matrix of Leadership, a mantle of power handed down to those who will some day lead them all to freedom.

 

" OPTIMUS PRIME!!! "

 

The scream from a smaller yellow Autobot causes the leader to turn around and face him. The small soldier salutes him and talks to him out of breath.

 

" Sir! We've managed to scrounge up some more Energon for the voyage...but it wasn't easy..."

 

Prime nodded at his salute, which soon made the small soldier relax his arm. The tiny robot was yellow and black, but his voice gave away his apparent age of not being too old.

 

" Excellent Bumblebee...how much more is it? ", the leader inquires.

 

" Well...uh...Jazz and Cliffjumper are bringing it in. They said it was about 98 Deco-Quads. "

 

Prime clenched his fist and tried to calculate the amount in his head, " Hmm...just enough to power our main weapon on board. Good work...wait a minute...where did they get it from? "

 

Bumblebee laughed, " Trust me Optimus, you don't wanna know. "

 

Out in the distance, down one of the many damaged streets and roadways of Cybertron, two alien shaped road vehicles come racing down the road. One looks white, with large wide lights on the front and to long strips on its sides. The other is all red, small in size and has a small plasma cannon on its roof.

 

" Nice going Jazz! ", a voice booms out of the red vehicle, " I almost had him in my sight and you make me miss the shot! "

 

The White vehicle pulls up closer and hollers back, " Aw cram it man! It wasn't easy for me to take energon out of their booster rocket with you trying to knock off Megatron! Hmft! Face it brother...you're out of your league.... let Prime be the one to put Megatron in the scrap heap! "

 

" Yeah well...I still say I could have done it. Uh oh.... My sensors are picking up two unwelcome visitors! "

 

Jazz switches on his monitor device inside his car like interior; a screen on the dashboard shows two shapes in purple heading straight for them.

 

" Aw crap...I suppose that will be Starscream and his goons. I guess we didn't lose them back there under the overpass. "

 

As the race towards the Autobot launch base, a group of slender looking Cybertronian jets come flying in above the roadways. Almost on top of the two Autobots, the jets all fire at the speeding road vehicles. The lead jet is gray with red stripes and a large Decepticon Icon on either side of its dorsal fin and small wide wings.

 

" How dare you steal from the Decepticons!! I will personally rip out your sparks and squeeze the very energon life force out of them!! ", The jet says in an irritatingly squelched voice.

 

Jazz just laughs as he maneuvers the shots raining down on him from above, " Promises, promises Starscream! You're all talk and no bite.... so no Autobots for you to fight! HA! "

 

Cliffjumper beside him, also missing the shots, laughs as well, " Hey Starscream!! Here's an energon surge that's right up your tail pipe! "

 

Cliffjumper's small plasma cannon, aims right at the hovering jet and fires straight at the Decepticon. The blast knocks out his right engine causing him to wipe out two of his following jet commandos.

 

" GAAHHHH!!! ", the Decepticon screams as he goes crashing into them.

 

The two Autobots laugh and continue to increase speed to the base, with two jets still on their tails they continue to dodge the blasts coming down.

 

" What a moron...One shot and he's down for the count. Megatron must be proud of him...ahahaha! ", Cliffjumper shouts to Jazz.

 

Jazz begins sending a transmission to the base, " Autobot base one...come in...Get ready for us cause were racing on in!! Wooooo!! "

 

The two drive on and in the distance the happy Autobots can see the base, all around it war still rages hard.

 

Out in the battlefield, three Autobots quickly react to the many enemies around them, shooting their weapons and looking around on all sides. The first robot looks rather old in design, slightly damaged from years of wear and tear, his body colors a dull pale green and light sea blue. His handling of a gun is more then just experience, its full of calculated shots and rock steady performance. Kup is his name; a decelerated officer of many wars, now continues to fight for the Autobot cause. The two robots fighting with him look more like twins from a distance, their head designs and color sequences are the only thing that tells them apart. One colored deep yellow is Sunstreaker, the other a lush bold color of red is called Sideswipe. Having been created at the same time, the two act very much like twin brothers, often sharing the same thoughts and even the same impulses. The battle makes them giddy with delight; their skill at shooting Decepticons is masterful, but by no means at good as Kup. As they all shoot away a Decepticon soldier creeps up behind Kup ready to strangle him to death. Sideswipe sees the attacker in the corner of his eye and whips around firing his large white hand cannon at him. The blast wave rips through the soldier and streaks right past Kup's head as well. The Decepticon lies dead at the old salty Autobot's feet, his gaze of amazement makes Sideswipe and Sunstreaker laugh.

 

" You damn Punks!! ", Kup screams at the two, " Watch your energy strength on those weapons for Primus's sake! You could have taken my head off as well with that shot! "

 

Sideswipe shakes his head, " Oh Kup, lighten up will ya! I did ya a big favor and this is the thanks I get? "

 

Sunstreaker now butts in, " Yeah old timer...relax before you spring a gasket or something. Just keep fighting and lets get it over with, huh? I need a new wax job before we leave! "

 

" Old Timer?! You ungrateful bunch of....", Kup gripes soon wear off as he turns back to fight the Decepticons, " I'll show you young brats how to kill these Decepticons...The Right Way! "

 

Kup scowls away as he rapidly fires his blaster at hordes of Decepticon soldiers in front of him. The blaze of his gun illuminates the air and soon lays waste to many enemies trying to move in on him. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe glance at one another as they watch the old man go ballistic, they simply shrug their shoulders and help the aged transformer finish the job. A few feet away more Autobots fight along side a massive robot, a towering blue and white Autobot, with a head that almost resembles their leaders. But this is not Optimus Prime; this is their commander, Ultra Magnus. He's a bit more bulky in body structure, and really doesn't share any real similar features to Prime, perhaps only his head design. The smaller Autobots around him are half the size of many of the Autobots, mainly called Minibots, but formidable soldiers nonetheless. The four bots stood proudly around the massive Ultra Magnus, all trying to get their shots at the many Decepticons trying to take over the base. Suddenly a red light and beeping noise activates on the large commander, his arm panel flashes as a signal comes in to him. Tapping the glowing icon, a small microphone and a protruding antenna slide out of his head-helmet.

 

" Ultra Magnus...", the voice is Optimus Prime, a garbled, static filled transmission he makes to the commander, "...the ship is nearly ready. Jazz and Cliffjumper have just radioed in, so you need to give them cover when they show up. "

 

" Rodger that Prime! ", Ultra Magnus says, " We'll try to give them a clear way into the base, but we're not going to last much longer out here...it seems Megatron has launched every Decepticon he can spare to stop our plans. "

 

Optimus Prime signals back, " He's getting desperate Magnus...he knows if we get Energon before him, we'll have enough power to strike back. Just buy us enough time so that Jazz and Cliffjumper get through, once they're inside start pulling every one back in. The shield will have to keep us protected until the very second we can take off. "

 

"You got it Optimus...Ultra Magnus over and Out! "

 

The receiver folds back into his helmet and he peers down to the fighting small robot in front of him. A tarnished deep green and yellow minibot, his head is shaped like a sliver half round helmet, with a chiseled hard face sticking below it. Ultra Magnus points down to him and as he speaks to him, the mini-Autobot turns around to hear his words.

 

" Brawn! We're expecting our delivery men soon.... take lead and clear a safe road way for them to charge through, once their inside fall back to base. The shield will begin to re-cover the entrance the second their inside.... you’ve got two minutes to get everyone back in before it seals completely again. Understood? "

 

Brawn salutes his commander, " Yes Sir.... one safe passage to home comin' up! "

 

Looking over at the various Autobots around him, he screams out loud enough for them to all hear, " Ok you lug nuts! Follow me! We've got job to do.... fall in and make a path!! "

 

The many Autobots soon run behind him and begin shooting an opening near the road where Jazz and Cliffjumper need to come rushing through to headquarters. As the push the Decepticons back, the bright glow of the two Autobot vehicles lights can be seen in the distance, above them are the jets still pounding away trying to shoot them off the path. They get closer and closer to the area, the sound of their engines at full speed soon gets louder as they come right on in the path cleared by their friends. Re-joining the fight from above is Starscream, he tries to nosedive directly down towards them, firing his weapons and rushing down at full thrust.

 

" I will not be defeated by two mangy Autobots!! DIE YOU PATHETIC FOOLS!!! "

 

Unaware to Starscream, Ultra Magnus comes running in and protects the speeding couriers, his gun aims right at Starscream and fires away. The impact of the shots singe the Decepticons structure and manages to explode the front part of his jet nose cone. The shockwave barrels him past the road and comes crashing into the ground, once again he manages to fall into a group of his own soldiers, as they were too late to get out of his way. Ultra Magnus blew the steam off of his gun barrel and smirked.

 

" Magnus...one, Starscream...zip! "

 

He then runs behind Jazz and Cliffjumper as they finally enter the base, He turns around and signals to Brawn the time has come. Brawn sees Ultra Magnus motioning and gives the order to fall back. All of the Autobots quickly retreat into the large compound, some keeping fire as they help each other rush back inside. The Decepticons slowly move in as the area becomes exposed, but as Brawn and two others beside him make the final steps in, the shield totally seals behind them. All now are safe inside...for now. Starscream transforms out of his jet mode, now he stands in his grey and red colors, his head dark black and his eyes glowing an evil shade of red. Shaking his fists, light in blue color, he lets out a loud scream of anguish.

 

" Gaaahhh!!! We almost had them!! "

 

Suddenly a voice transmits to him, sounding very much like a radio signal that Magnus and Prime used, only this voice was that of the Decepticon leader, Megatron. Most Decepticons have internal radio receivers, Starscream being one of them, so while he stands there in fury, Megatron gives the whining soldier his new orders.

 

" Come in Starscream! This is Megatron...Answer me! "

 

Placing his hand to the side of his head, Starscream holds it as if he has a headset attached to it, " What is it! I'm busy! "

 

" Busy are you Starscream?! Not from what I've witnessed it isn't...� the leader says to him in a gruff tone, " You forget I can see the entire battle from above...thanks to my truly loyal spy Laserbeak! "

 

Starscream looks up and sees the small bird like creature hovering above them all. The scowl on the whiny Decepticon shows he wasn't too happy about it.

 

" Oh.... alright then. What is it you wish...mighty Megatron? "

 

" Fall back to headquarters...", the leader now calmly commands.

 

Appalled by the order, Starscream outwardly refuses, " Are you insane?! Their all trapped inside now.... we have a chance to defeat them once and for all...."

 

Megatron now screams at the air commander, " Don't argue with me you sniveling spineless dolt!! Just do as I say! The Autobots are too well guarded now for us to make a dent.... besides.... you’ve managed to wipe out more then enough of our forces to even make a foolish attempt like that!!"

 

" As you wish....", Starscream soon recoils, " ...But my strategy was working perfectly...if you are so afraid to lead on. Then perhaps I should be the one to take over...."

 

" SHUT UP!!� the leader screams again, " Get back here with the others quickly, or I'll personally rip out your heart and turn your hide into my new boots!! "

 

Starscream could finally hear the seriousness in his leader's voice, and gulped in fear of the transformer's rage, " Yeee.... Yeeesss Megatron. At Once! "

 

The sound of the signal breaking off soon made Starscream call out to the remaining force of the Decepticons. Many of which had stopped shooting as they looked near to exhaustion.

 

" Decepticons! We've been ordered to fall back! Return to base.... Transform and Retreat! "

 

Following Starscream's example, the evil transformers all switched modes and followed quickly behind him. They all collectively transport back into the heart of the Decepticon territory, straight on back to the very core of where their base resides. Inside the Autobot Base, the many Autobots listen carefully as the shelling stops. The sound of the Decepticons retreating causes them to burst out into a joyous cheer, it’s a brief moment of victory for them and soon they quiet down as they return to performing their various tasks. Ultra Magnus walks over to Optimus Prime and salutes his leader.

 

" Mission accomplished Optimus! Jazz and Cliffjumper have brought the added energon and the Decepticons have retreated back to Iacon city. "

 

Optimus salutes back and then pats his large friend's shoulder, " Excellent work Commander Magnus. I'm glad to see you didn't get yourself killed out there. "

 

"It was a bit tricky out there...but I managed as always. How soon can we lift off? "

 

Prime looks back at the ship and sighs, " Anytime now. But Magnus...I...I want to ask a favor of you. "

 

" Sure Prime...any thing for my best friend. Just name it..."

 

Looking back at his good friend, Optimus Prime's eyes show some reluctance in his request he's about to ask, " I want you and a few others...to.... stay behind. "

 

" What! ", the commander couldn't believe it; his eyes grew wide at Primes request.

 

" Listen Ultra Magnus, this is a dangerous mission. Megatron for sure has his ship fueled and ready...he'll no doubt try to follow us until we're dead. I need someone to stay behind and keep the battle going here on Cybertron while were gone. The solar system of Alaxion is no place to make our last stand; I'd rather collect the energon from the target planet there and be back home in time to finish the Decepticons once and for all. "

 

Ultra Magnus still couldn't believe he wasn't going with his brave friend, " But Prime...you'll need all the help you can get. You've got the female Autobots staying behind...surely Elita One and the others can keep the Decepticons at bay until we come back? Besides who's going to watch your back the next time one of Starscream's goons creeps up on ya? "

 

Optimus Prime laughs at the comment, a memory of one of their encounters during the long war causes him to reflect on the moment, " Yeah you did save my butt that day didn't you? Ahhh...those were good times my friend. But if this mission fails I'll need someone as strong as myself to keep this band of misfits going. One day you'll be great leader...perhaps even better then myself. "

 

" You can keep it. ", Ultra Magnus soon smiles and shakes his head, " I'm not a leader Prime...I'm just a soldier. Following orders is what I do best. "

 

" I know my friend...", Optimus Prime grabs the commander's hand and shakes it, "...that's why I need you to do this for me. Our survival depends on having sacrifices.... one out in the stars and the other staying home to fight the good fight. I promise, we'll try to quickly get enough energon and come back to all of you, let's just pray miracles happen every day. "

 

Ultra Magnus nods at his wise leader's words, " Maybe we should call it faith of the heart Prime...all our hopes ride with you and the crew. "

 

Optimus Prime walks away and heads over to the massive ship, as Prime goes walking by, he notices one of the computer terminals nearby scrolling many images on the screen. Looking closer he can see a small attachment device sitting on top of the terminal's table. The device has a peculiar snake like metal arm plugged into it, the video screen is flashing images of the detailed blueprints of the ship, their mission, the solar system they’re headed too and everything. The small icon on the side of the device is barely visible and it displays that of the symbol of the Decepticons. Optimus Prime's keen sight makes out the markings and soon realizes there is a spy among them.

 

" Intruder alert!! We've got a Decepticon inside!!! "

 

Transforming off of the computer terminal, the Decepticon spy enlarges as he takes form, the dark blue and sliver robot begins to make a mad dash as he tries to escape capture. Optimus Prime goes running after him, the sound of the noisy alarm blaring overhead, Kup and his security officer Prowl run down to see what the commotion is about just as the Decepticon goes past them.

 

" Soundwave! ", shouts Kup.

 

Now a horde of Autobots chases him down, some block his only route out and others begin to converge beside him. Feeling trapped, the yellow-eyed Decepticon suddenly presses down on a button on top of his chest. A whooshing sound accompanies a panel opening up from his chest plate as it flips open.

 

" RAVAGE!! RUMBLE!! EJECT! ", Soundwave says in his resonated monotone voice, " Operation...Escape! "

 

Two large flat cartridge shaped objects spit out of his open plate, they soon transform and take form as they land on the ground in front of him. Ravage is a black savage looking creature; four legged, with massive razor sharp claws on all four feet. It's head looks slender with one red eye beaming out of its dark features. Rumble is a light blue-ish purple, with some sliver chrome features and two large back weapons that attach to his back. Suddenly his arms transform into two massive pile drivers and starts to impact them to the ground.

 

" If Autobots do happen to surround you and block the door...then get ready to move out of the way cause here comes Rumble to rock the floooor!! "

 

The pile divers smack the floor repeatedly; the motion and strength cause the whole area to generate a sizable earthquake. The Autobots shake and fall as the wave hits them, no one can stand on two legs and keep their balance while this happens. Soundwave quickly turns and makes for the doorway, but Prowl soon comes running up and grabs the robot's feet. Prowl is a black and white looking Autobot, his helmet bears a large red " v " shaped fin on the front of it. He keeps a solid hold on the Decepticon as they fall to the ground, Soundwave screams as he is captured and soon calls for help.

 

" Raaavagee!! "

 

The large beastly black creature comes hissing and roaring towards Prowl, a massive swat to his head knocks the Autobot right off of the cowardly Decepticon. As Prowl tries to get up again, Ravage pounces on him and opens its mouth to him. Inside that mouth are various large jagged teeth, all of which comp down on the security officer making him yelp in pain. Soundwave once again takes advantage of his freedom, he manages to reach the control panel and quickly open the door. His fingers move so fast on the keypad it’s as if he knew the exact sequence in which to open it. The door opens up and part of the shield gives way, just enough for him and his crew to go through. As he runs on out, he calls back to his helpers and continues running once it’s done.

 

" Ravage! Rumble! Retreat! Retreat! Reeeetreaaat! "

 

Rumble stops his pile drivers and speeds out the open door awaiting him, like wise for Ravage, letting go of Prowl and as quick as lightening sprints out the door. As soon as they all leave the door shuts back down again, the Decepticons managed to escape, Optimus Prime laying on the floor pounds his fist in anger. Prowl gets up holding his shoulder in pain, walking over to him is Kup, who doesn't seem too impressed with his actions.

 

" What the hell.... I gave you instructions to keep this inside secure Prowl! "

 

Prowl just lowered his head, " I'm sorry Kup.... I got sloppy I guess...I promise it won't happen again."

 

Kup continued to harp at him, " You're damn right it won't! I didn't train you for years on end just to screw up this mission! That's it...I'm taking you off of the Ark, I'll go in your place and I'll make sure the security is lock tight! "

 

Prowl quickly raised his head, his eyes filled with intensity, " NO! I've trained my whole life for this Kup! You can't take it away just because I missed the one Decepticon...."

 

" One Decepticon is one to many....I'm sorry kid, but if you can't spot one of their spies then everything I've taught you is for nothing. "

 

Kup was being overly dramatic about the situation, but Prowl was an up and comer in the ranks of his security force, easy to follow orders, loyal to Kup and the duty of protecting the base. But one thing Kup always felt about the young Autobot was that he was too over confident, Kup always made his men trust that inner gut feeling, that safe is never safe enough. Prowl tended to overlook certain things, little as they may be, he never believed they could be a threat. Kup believes that every thing, big or small can be a potential threat, even in times of peace. Now the old security chief thinks the young robot isn't prepared for this mission at all, no thanks to having Soundwave slip past his fingers. Optimus Prime overheard the two bickering, he knew that Kup was being a tad hard on the kid; he walked over to the old salty warrior and gave his advice.

 

" Kup, the boy said he was sorry...I believe he means it. "

 

" I'm sorry Optimus Prime, but that’s no excuse for his mistake. I should be the one to go. "

 

The leader just sighed, " This is isn't the time to change positions Kup...we have to launch right away. Prowl is still the best man for the job and I need you hear to keep the others safe. The Decepticons know when were going to launch.... personally I think we need to go this very moment while we have the upper hand. "

 

Kup twisted his face and looked back at Prowl, " Fine.... the kid can go. But you better be on your toes soldier, cause if I hear you screwed up again.... I’ll be the one kicking you down back to the lowest rank imaginable. You got that? "

 

Prowl raised his head and saluted the warrior, " Yes Sir! I won't let you down again, Sir! "

 

The young Autobot turned and nodded at Optimus Prime, then ran over to the ship as the many others were starting to load and board the Ark. Kup shook his head and looked up at Prime again.

 

" Dah! The young...They always think they're so invulnerable. I wish you'd think about this again Prime, some of these young cadets need more training. "

 

Optimus Prime takes hold of the old man's hand and shakes it, " They'll do fine...this is the time for our turn around. Goodbye you old rust hound, I'll miss hearing your stories about the old days of Cybertron. "

 

" You too Optimus, I'll try to keep these slackers in check for ya while your gone. Take care and Good luck. " Kup smiles and grips the leader's hand firmly.

On the other side of the city, in the more densely filled city region of Iacon, the large building housing the Decepticons and their ship sits in a purplish dark hue of lights. Inside the massive building that bears the Decepticon logo largely on the outside, the troops are all preparing their ship for flight as well. Sitting in a hovering massive throne, the slivery evil leader Megatron sits in it as he watches final stages of its completion. Megatron's streamline sliver shell still shines as if it was only built yesterday, on his right arm sits his black colored fusion canon, when transformed, it sits on top of his cannon mode as a targeting device. As he sits there in his large hover-chair, Starscream and his jet brethren walk up and raise their arms up to their chest. The standard salute to the leader of the Decepticon armies, Starscream does not salute, he's never liked Megatron for thousands of years. He's slowly begun to question the evil robot's leadership ever since Optimus Prime managed to prevent their kind from winning the war long ago. Megatron almost had complete success before the fourth war began, but when Prime came into the scene the war began to take a turn for the worst for their side. The Autobot's strategies became more aggressive, well planned and even found the courage to battle on without fear. Once loyal to Megatron long ago, the air commander had little respect to show for him anymore, this sliver polished transformer had lost his luster in Starscream's eyes. For him, it was time to begin a new leadership, time for a radical change that would bring about new ideas on how to win the war, Megatron's days were over, time for Starscream to lead. That's how he felt about it anyway, but he was alone in that assumption, no one else felt the way he did. And rather then try to take the throne himself, he'd have to wait until Megatron either died, or betrayed them all. Then the air commander could convince the others to join him and takeover as leader of the Decepticon Empire. For now, he will be cautious, patient, but one day his day will come.

 

" Tell me Starscream...", Megatron speaks to the air commander in a rather sarcastic tone, "...why is it that you always rush in without a plan. Or even heed to my advice? There was a time you were as loyal to me as any other in here. "

 

Starscream smirks at the leader, " Those days are long gone, and this war would have been won by now if I had been the leader. "

 

Megatron rushes out of his chair and backhands Starscream in the face. The slap to him was so forceful it caused him to spin ninety degrees and fall on the floor face down. The air commander slightly dazed tries to get up, and hold his face from the devastating blow his leader gave him.

 

" You traitor!! If I didn't need your services so desperately I would kill you right here! Don't ever question my authority again, Starscream! When I say pull back...I mean pull back RIGHT AWAY!! Am I making myself clear? Or do you need Thundercracker here to draw you a schematic?! "

 

The other soldiers all laugh at their leader's taunt to Starscream, as the air commander looks up he sees Thundercracker mocking him. Thundercracker is almost like a clone to Starscream, in fact the bulk of the air defense team he commands are all very much similar in design. Thundercracker is all light blue with some black features, he stands over Starscream holding out his hand and gesturing with the other of writing out a schematic for him. Seeing his own troops laugh at his misfortune makes him feel betrayed, he's the reason many have lasted so long in his ranks, but now like him their all getting overly cocky. Wiping the leaking oil slick from his cracked mouth, the transformer stands up again and faces Megatron. The leader still stands there in front of him waiting for an answer, his eyes are a deep bright red, and a certain evil lurks behind them as any would see from staring at them too long. The scowl on his face shows that he's mad, as hell at the air commander, being so disobedient to his command is very insulting to him.

 

" No...Mighty Megatron. I.... I submit to your authority. You...are the Leader of the Decepticons. ", Starscream says in a humiliated tone.

 

Megatron Smiles, " That’s very good Starscream. Just like the obedient dog you use to be...excellent. Now then, I can finally tell you of my plan..."

 

Laserbeak comes swooping down from the top of the building and right onto Megatron's left arm, like any well trained type bird, the loyal spy comes straight to him. The quick return gives the leader a sense that something is wrong, but not sooner was he startled by Laserbeak's entrance, when Soundwave comes running up to the leader. Megatron sees his spy is in a great hurry to get to him and turns to face him as the soldier stops to salute.

 

" Report Soundwave. "

 

Soundwave lowers his arm and begins to speak in his usual monotone voice, " The Autobots discovered my presence, and they are preparing to launch at any given moment. "

 

Megatron's face soon sports and evil grin, " Perfect. The time has come for the ultimate finalization to my plan. Tell me Soundwave.... did you download the information I requested? "

 

The manifold mouthed blue sentinel nods, " I have the detailed charts of their primary target. They are heading for the system of Alaxon. "

 

" Excellent Soundwave...well done. Now we have them."

 

The leader soon calls to all of his warriors in the entire building; all of them stop in their jobs and pay attention to their ruling leader.

 

" Decepticons! The time has come to crush our enemies forever! "

 

The roar of the crowd signaled their happiness of this day, screams of death and chanting of "Kill the Autobots " rang out in the entire structure.

 

" Together we march into victory! Board the ship, prepare the guns and begin the countdown to blast off! ", The leader screamed aloud again.

 

As the excited throngs of Decepticons start to board the ship, Megatron looks over to one of his soldiers walking over to him. A big purple colored robot with a head looking rather flat and barrel like, in the center is a single yellow eye as the rest is black like a void. His right hand resembles more like a large protruding blaster weapon; the see-through design shows the pulsation of the energy powering it. Transformed, he is able to form a mighty large hand weapon and can act like a long-range cannon, much like Megatron. The Decepticon bows upon approaching his leader and awaits his orders.

 

"Ahhh...", Megatron speaks, " Shockwave...my loyal city guardian. I have a task for you..."

 

The yellow eye flashes as the purple guardian speaks, " I am yours to command Megatron. "

 

" The minute the Autobots take off and the shield starts to drop, have your warriors attack the building. Make sure they spare no one. Once the Autobot ship is out of the launch bay...Level it! Completely! Understand? ", Megatron says to him.

 

Shockwave salutes the leader, as the details of his plans bring him much joy, " You shall have it Megatron! I will have Cybertron completely Autobot free upon your return! "

 

The evil leader laughs out loud, " Cybertron will be ours again! Shockwave I leave you to take command until my return. You are loyal Shockwave.... A rare thing these days. "

 

Megatron looks at Starscream as he utters that phrase, one that seems to make the air commander squint his eyes in anger. Shockwave bows and goes off to fulfill his duties as instructed. The Decepticons continue to climb aboard the ship, the sight of which looks more like an organized army marching into battle. Megatron walks over to the elevator that will bring them to the bridge of the ship, as Starscream walks with him, the air commander can't help but wonder what Megatron's plans are.

 

" What now Megatron? Surely you don't intend to let Shockwave handle this on his own? You and I both know the Autobots will survive and come back to destroy us. We should attack the entire base with the ship still in it! That way we would be certain of an outright victory. "

 

Megatron doesn't even glace his way, still walking towards the ship elevator, he calmly tells the commander of his strategy, " No moron! We need to make sure that Optimus Prime is well away from this attack; if he survives and rounds up the few others that do as well.... he could be just as dangerous as before. No...we need to separate them, put a big distance in-between their only strong leader and the only surviving forces left on Cybertron. That way we can be sure that neither Prime nor his few followers here will ever rise up again. How I've dreamed of this moment.... Optimus Prime.... my greatest adversary...gone from this world at long last! "

 

Starscream begins to see what the leader has in store for them, and smiles just as evil as the leader does, " Yes...Prime won't know what hit him! With no one to organize a new movement here and inspire the troops.... the Autobots are as good as extinct. HAHAHAHAAH!! "

 

The two board the elevator and rise up to the bridge level. The echoes of their laughs resonate throughout the building, the sound of doom for all Autobots, as the war is about to begin.

 

Inside the Autobot Base, the ship is being cleared of all surrounding equipment and debris, Optimus Prime finally makes his approach to the elevator that will bring him to the bridge. As he opens the doors to it, a female voice calls out to him. He turns and sees Elita One running towards him. Elita one is pink and white, while she is a robot, her body is sculpted to that of a human female. Her head is adorned with two large protruding antenna spikes and two smaller ones just separated between them. They are all built into her helmet that looks more like warrior head gear, pink in color, but decorative nonetheless. Her face is a softly chiseled, blue eye that shows compassion, and her lips a soft hue of pink as if she is wearing lipstick. This is the model most Cybertronian women look like, so few are there any on Cybertron, she must have been a template for those that came after. Megatron despised women warriors, sexual preference wasn't really in the nature of transformers, since they don't copulate or produce children on the biological nature, and it is a useless creature to him. Females were created long ago as a pleasure line or as additional slave helpers by their creators before Primus's liberation. Autobots are the one group that seems to generally care for these women; the two seem to share a need for companionship and mutual emotion. Decepticons always felt that to be a weak trait in that faction, mercy, compassion and love...it disgusted them. Megatron decreed that any and all females on Cybertron were to be destroyed, for they were a " burden on society and a danger to Cybertronian life ". Thanks to him, only a handful of female warriors remain, those that were once part of the Decepticon faction now have joined the Autobots for protection. Elita One is the leader of the Female Autobots, her strength of spirit is what led them to survival, and shown Megatron the universal truth inherent in all women...hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Optimus Prime and Elita One were destined lovers; they've fought beside each other in many wars, as if they were perfectly made for one another.

 

" Prime! Don't Leave! ", Elita One begs of him.

 

" Elita! Go Back! Get to the lower levels with the others!!� Optimus screams at her.

 

She finally reaches him and hugs the Autobot Leader tightly, " I can't bear to part from you my love.... let me come with you...I want to be with you always! "

 

" My dearest love...", Optimus holds on to her gently, "...This mission is too dangerous, I would sacrifice the whole of Cybertron to be with you forever. But you know that you’re needed here.... and I'm needed on that ship. "

 

She looks up and stares deeply into his eyes, " I...I know. But I will miss you so much. Come back to me my love...come back to me in one piece. "

 

Optimus Prime holds her face in his hand, " And you.... stay safe.... and look for my return, for one day, we will be together again. If not now...then in the great spark of the matrix! "

 

They lean into one another and kiss passionately, an odd thing for a robot to do, seeing how there is no stimulation in that area of their face, but these are Transformers, more advanced then any robot ever built in the whole universe. Love became natural to these advanced machines, which now all think and feel, like any developing creature in the galaxy, love always manages to bring two sexes together. The fact that neither one of them can truly feel the others lips touching is irrelevant to them, it's the action of affection that makes it worth doing. This imitation of kissing is as close as they can get to being physical with one another. But that's love for you, logic, reasoning and small details are inconsequential when two people deeply care for one another. Optimus Prime has no lips to kiss her with, the manifold covering his face up to his nose makes short work of that. But it doesn't matter to either of them, as the long lasting lip embrace shows, two lovers saying goodbye...in a world at war. Optimus Prime finally pulls away from her and back ups a bit.

 

" Go Elita...help Magnus and the others. The Decepticons will no doubt take advantage of this moment; I need you to be safe.... I need all of you to be safe until my return. "

 

Elita One holds her lips and nods; " I'll give them a good fight Prime.... just come back to me safe as well. "

 

Rather then saying another word to each other, Elita One goes running off wiping the simulated tears coming out of her Optics, Optimus Prime enters the elevator and watches his girlfriend as the doors shut in front of his eyes. The lift activates and sends him up to the bridge. Ultra Magnus was watching from the shadows, he didn't mean to eaves drop, but he wanted to make sure his friend got aboard safely. Elita One soon discovered him standing there, the tears welling up in her eyes made Magnus walk over and comfort her. Inside the Ark, Optimus Prime took his command seat on the bridge, he sighed and slowly sat down into it. At the helm of the ship was Ironhide, a red and grey old soldier who seemed very built and blocky, and a sure sign that his design was from an older time. Beside him sat hound, an all green commando Autobot who had a missile launcher sitting on his shoulder. The missile launcher is part of his robotic design, capable of many feats, creating holograms, detaching to become a weapon and even just as a regular explosive missile. Hound is a tracker, a damn good one at that too, he knows when Decepticons are about, like he could almost smell them. Operating various functions around the bridge is like a who's who of Autobot soldiers, all from various walks of life and of different ranks. Bumblebee, Sunstreaker, Trailbreaker, Prowl, Sideswipe, Huffer, the list could go on and on. Needless to say, the large ship was full of Autobots ready to fulfill their mission. Ironhide started the countdown, his voice crackled in an unusual southern type twang, a personal trait that makes him distinct from the others. Optimus Prime was growing impatient, counting down to blast off really made no sense to him, if they were going to go, and then it was time to literally go.

 

" Ten...nine...eight...", Ironhide counts in his voice.

 

Optimus Prime shakes his head, " Oh for love of Cybertron...Just hit the switch! "

 

Ironhide smirks, " Heh...yeah I told them you wouldn't care to stick to procedure. Let's light this baby! "

 

Ironhide's finger taps the glowing large button in front of his hand, the sound of the engines revs up and soon the building fills with smoke and fire. Standing just out of the way, Ultra Magnus and Elita One watch the ship as it starts to take off, the rush of flame and smoke builds as the ship begins to rise up slowly. As the ship begins to move upward towards the top of the building, the large domed top unfolds and opens itself out of the way of the ship passing through. The outer shields on the Autobot base buckle and soon de-materialize, the building is now vulnerable, just what the awaiting Decepticons had been hoping for outside. As the ship slowly rockets out of the building, Shockwave and his commando units attack the unprotected Autobot structure. Thousands of Decepticon solders come running out of nowhere and begin shooting at the building, the Autobots guarding outside and at the opened domed part itself. Streams of air jets come screaming through and begin to bomb the base below them. The Ark finally clears the building and makes it's rush upward into space, with the shields still down, another Decepticon bomber comes through, one that's carrying a massive bomb attached to it. Optimus Prime watches the monitor; it's a reversed camera that’s aimed at the building below. In the image he can see Ultra Magnus and Elita One still inside, just as the jet drops its bomb into the bunker. Rising out of his chair, he screams at the monitor as if the two could actually hear him.

 

" NO! Magnus! Elita! Get out of there!!! "

 

He's helpless to watch the horrified looks on their faces as the bomb drops and explodes on impact. The massive chain reaction begins just as the shield comes back on again; the sight also horrifies Kup standing outside.

 

" Oh God no! The shield! It will keep the explosion inside and they’ll all be killed! "

 

Sure enough, the shield manages to contain the bomb's blast within the area in it. The violent explosion rips the building to shreds and soon stresses the shield to its full capacity. All around the shielded explosion, the Decepticons continue their attack; Autobots fight for their very lives as the enemies march forward. The last thing any of the Autobots see on the ship is their brave kin struggling to stay alive. Optimus Prime slumps back in his chair; the shock of seeing his friend and lover destroyed is a crushing blow to him. The sight of it all infuriates Ironhide, slamming his fist on the controls; he soon tries to turn the ship around.

 

" Those Decepticon scum!! Don't worry Prime I'll have this ship turned around faster then you can say...."

 

The leader screams at him to interrupt, " NO! Don't you dare change our trajectory! We must continue forward no matter what! "

 

" But Prime!! ", the old red and grey Autobot hollers back.

 

" No Ironhide, this mission is too important to worry about what's happening behind us. If we don't get that energon then none of us will survive this war, we all knew the risks of this mission.... even those who gave their lives. Now keep those coordinates locked in and maintain your position. Understood? I said….is that understood, Soldier!!"

 

Ironhide remained silent as he stared at him, so did all the Autobots watching the drama unfold on the bridge. Optimus Prime looked around the room and saw all the shocked faces of his soldiers; they all seemed rather displeased with the order he was barking at the old Autobot. Bringing his eyes back to Ironhide, the two stared at each other until the old red and grey Autobot gave in.

 

" Yes...SIR! Alaxon it is then...� Ironhide grumbled as he turned back to the controls.

 

The other Autobots went back to their duties, not a word was spoken as they continued on, and Optimus Prime sat in his chair and stewed on the moment. Hound leaned over to Ironhide and asked him a question.

 

" You think any of them will be alive when we get back? "

 

Ironhide grips the control panel tightly in anger, " If not...I got me a score to settle with Megatron...and one with our leader as well. "

 

The ship clears Cybertron's orbit and heads out into deep space.

 

••••••••••••••••••••••••••â€

••••••••••••••

 

Down on Cybertron's surface, in the Decepticon quarter, another ship begins to take off from the ground. The Nemesis, the Decepticon battle cruiser that Megatron and the others are using to chase down Optimus Prime. The vessel rockets off of the planet in hot pursuit, the sleek and fully armored ship has a faint purple tone to it's metal, the colors of Decepticon technology. Inside the many warriors sit, Megatron has his own command chair, a large over elaborated throne that is placed in the middle of the bridge. On the large view screen in front of them all is an image of the Autobot ship leaving into space. Soundwave operates the helm of the ship, one seat only for him as he steers the mighty battle cruiser, he frantically pushes buttons and activates switches as the ship moves ever forward. Suddenly he turns around to view Megatron behind him a few feet back, a worried look in his eyes soon makes the Decepticon leader lean in to hear what he has to say.

 

" We are low on fuel energy...we do not have enough to break orbit! "

 

Megatron's eyes grow wide, " How can that be? "

 

Turning back to the controls, Soundwave fiddles with the computers and turns back to give his worried commander the answer, " There is a failure on the starboard engine! It wasn't refueled after the Autobot's took the energy from it! "

 

" What?!� Megatron screams in disbelief.

 

Getting out of his chair, the leader stands up and walks over to the various soldiers at their stations. Eyeing them all, he shakes his fist and raises his voice at them. Most tremble in fear at the very tone of his anger, but ones like Starscream don't even flinch.

 

" Who was responsible for overseeing repairs to the starboard engine? Answer me!! "

 

Starscream looks at him with great ease, " I was supposed to be in charge of that, but since you gave me the order to follow those Autobot thieves...I gave the job over to Jetplauge, I told him you wanted it done right away. But you know how Jetplague is..."

 

" Where is he? ", the leader asks.

 

" Why right over there, Mighty Megatron. ", the Decepticon says with a smile and pointing in the robot's direction.

 

Sitting by himself near a computer console was Jetplague, the only jet in Starscream's bunch who doesn't look like a clone of them. His head is shaped more slender, a mouth shield covers his bottom face and his light purplish-grey color shows that he's not the cheeriest of fellows. As Megatron walks over to him, Jetplague remains in his seat and looks generally bored.

 

" Get up you! ", Megatron demands.

 

Jetplague reluctantly rises up and faces him, " What do you want now? "

 

The insulting tone doesn't impress the leader at all, " Why didn't you repair and refuel that engine like Starscream asked? Well? "

 

Jetplague sighed, " I didn't really feel like it. This war is a bore; I was one of the best flying stars of Cybertron until this sham of a war happened. The only joy I get now is doing the bombing raids over the Autobots, which is where we should be instead of this....*yawn*...waste of time. "

 

" Your right...we shouldn't waste our time, Jetplague. ", the leader smiles at him in an evil look.

 

The Decepticon leader grabs hold of him and punches right through his chest, reaching into his inners, he yanks out the robot's energy absorber. Jetplague's face is full of pain and shock, the leader holds the absorber in his hand and shows it to the now dying robot.

 

" Now we have the means to repair that oversight you made.... thank you Jetplague...your services are no longer required. "

 

The Decepticon keels over dead; the leader stands over him and kicks his laying carcass on the floor as it leaks oil and fluid all over it. Megatron tosses Starscream the absorber and points to him as he catches it.

 

" Starscream...place that absorber into the starboard engine port and be quick about it! Or else you will be joining your...ex-bomber star here. Just be grateful that it was his stupidity and not yours. "

 

The slivery evil leader goes walking back to his awaiting chair, while Starscream looks over at his dead air bomber; the sight of the body makes him recoil in fear. The absorber in hand, he raises out of his seat and stares at it.

 

" Thanks for covering for me Jetplague. But as they say.... better you than me. "

 

Megatron sits back down in his chair and leans back to get comfortable again, " Soundwave! "

 

The blue and sliver spy turns around to face the leader calling him, the leader again points as he talks to him, giving the Decepticon soldier his new instructions.

 

" Reroute all power from the front main weapons and transfer it into the damaged engine. The energy absorber Starscream is installing will automatically refuel that tank, which should be sufficient enough to break Cybertron's orbit. "

 

" As you command Megatron. ", the monotone resonated voice says back to him.

 

The ship rises out of Cybertron and quickly follows behind the Autobot flight path, with their home world disappearing in the background behind them, the ship maneuvers deeper and deeper into space.

The Autobot Ark continues to blast through deep space, for now, all is calm inside the massive vessel. The warriors all continue to monitor the ship and keep busy in their tasks, but within all of them is a sense of loss as they've witnessed their fellow Autobots demise on Cybertron. Optimus Prime strolls through the many corridors of the ship, looking at each soldier and wondering if what he has done is the right path to their salvation. Mostly he's thinking about Elita One and Ultra Magnus, to witness the horror of their faces as the home base blew up was more then he could bear. The war had lasted so long he has forgotten what peace was like, Elita One and he had plans for the future, they would build a life for one another and live in total harmony. Now thanks to the Decepticons, all that is now moot. As he enters back into the main bridge, he can see the look of doom on each face gazing upon him as he steps in. Ironhide had been chatting with Prowl and a few others, but once Optimus Prime entered they all hushed down and stared at the leader like he was the most evil person in the room. The Autobot leader could feel this uneasiness, he and Ironhide fighting about not turning around to save the others was a rather heated moment. Prime bore a heavy burden, being leader meant having to make the most split decisions whether they are for good or for bad, but it always had some consequences to it no matter what. One thing is for sure; if he hadn't kept going then they would be just as dead as those they had left behind. Energon is a must now, their survival depends on it, and there can be no turning back until they have enough...a one-way ticket, with no certain future. Optimus Prime walked up to Ironhide who now is staring him down, sticking out his hand in friendship, he asks the warrior for his forgiveness.

 

" Ironhide...I owe you an apology my friend. I know you meant well, but you must now that we couldn't go back. We all had friends and loved ones back there...your a good soldier and I'm sorry I had to pull rank on you. "

 

Ironhide's face continued to look cold at him, but looking at his leader and down to his awaiting hand for a handshake soon melted that dead face look. A smile crept into the stern proud warrior, he did indeed finally see Optimus Prime's point, and perhaps he just needed to cool down to think about things properly.

 

" Aww.... Shucks Prime. ", the southern sounding Autobot says to him, " I can't stay mad at you...hell you're doing your best in the worst situation imaginable. Those Decepticons are all getting to us.... guess I just was too hard headed to see the importance of this mission. I forgive you Prime, just as long as you can forgive me for ever doubting you "

 

The two shook hands firmly, the long war made them good friends throughout the many sticky situations and both have a stubborn attitude that always seems to clash from time to time. Optimus Prime never thought of his Autobot comrades as soldiers, more like good friends fighting the good fight. This is why so many of them remain loyal to him, he's a well meaning robot who always lends a helping hand, he always thinks of others and treats them all with respect. They see how he listens to them and asks for their advice when he himself cannot think of any other strategy, they also see that he is truly destined to lead them all, carrying the Matrix of Leadership is a calling like no other. Not since the days of Primus have any of them felt so strongly about a leader, doomed as they may be, at least Optimus Prime made them last as long as they did. Shaking the hands, Prime and Ironhide settled the argument once and for all. A sigh of relief washed over the other Autobots all witnessing the touching moment, the tension was gone, now they can relax.

 

Optimus Prime lets go and gives a friendly close fisted tap onto Ironhide's chassis, " Thank you my friend, I forgive you too.... you old cast iron bulkhead you. "

 

The two shared a laugh, as did some of the others near by. Suddenly, alarm sounds were going off, the room was flashing red from an overhead light that signaled danger was close by. Prowl looks down at his console screen and his eyes soon spot the intruder the ship was warning them about.

 

" Prime! We've got company! "

 

Optimus looks over at the black and white colored security chief, " Decepticons no doubt..."

 

" You got that right. ", the robot shouts back at him, " And man are they ever gaining fast! "

 

The leader sits back down into his command chair and starts to order his men around again, " Ok...so they're not done with us yet. That’s fine.... we’ll give them a fight to the finish! Ready all weapons! Ironhide get back to the helm and prepare to fold space.... we’re going to Alaxon no matter what. "

 

Ironhide sits back down and quickly punches in the sequence on the computer board in front of him, " You got it Prime! Alaxon or bust! "

 

Outside the ship, the various panels on the outer hull pull back and spring out large unfolding gun cannons. Each one aims backward as they prepare to target the approaching Decepticon Nemesis. The sound of them all charging pulsates and the ships main engines begin to also grow louder as it revs up to fold space. The Nemesis is quickly catching up from behind, the ship looks menacing as it tries to overtake the Autobot vessel. Megatron sits inside watching as they inch closer and closer. A evil grin on him shows his inner cruelty, he thinks about the destruction of the Autobots and the death of Optimus Prime, no were else to run, their victory is almost at hand. Soundwave's sensors soon detect the activity happening on the ship in front of them and quickly informs his leader of the situation.

 

" Autobots are preparing to fire upon us! ", he says in his monotone computerized voice.

 

Megatron leans in, " Maintain the course Soundwave, charge the main outer guns, I want to cripple that ship no matter what! "

 

" We cannot sustain it for too long...Energy has been greatly lowered from the redirection of power to the engines! "

 

The leader seems concerned by that bit of information that Soundwave interjected, " Yes.... that did set us back. Very well...we must forego the main weapons; keep the shield up at all costs. This ship will not yield to these Autobots..."

 

Soundwave studies the enemy vessel again and reports again, " They have begun to build up power for hyperspace! "

 

Megatron looks shocked, " What?! They have enough energon for that? So Optimus...I've underestimated you once again, you've managed to scrape up enough power to make a jump, eh? Probably just enough to get you there...but I'll bet by the time your ship finishes the journey you will have nearly exhausted your fuel. Perfect...now I know when to finish them all! "

The Autobot ship begins to fire back at the Decepticons, the rapid energy blasts scour the Nemesis, the shields buckling as the various impacts strike it. The Decepticon ship shakes and quakes at the incoming fire, Megatron holds on tightly in his throne like chair, while the others struggle to hold on. Inside the Ark, Optimus Prime watches the results on the monitor, the Nemesis still continues to rocket towards them at an accelerated rate.

 

" You just don't know when to quit do you Megatron? I know you too...You don't have enough energon for the voyage as well. Well now its time to eat our dust. Ironhide! Activate the jump! "

 

The command from the leader instantly makes the old red robot push the button to fold space, the ship's engines glow a bright burning blue, soon the ship stretches and leaps away into the vast distance quicker then a blink of an eye. The Nemesis now alone in space as they just miss the Ark. Megatron pounds his chair and stands up, his arm stretches out and points at the viewer.

 

" Damn you Optimus Prime!! Follow him Soundwave...Fold space and pursue! We'll meet them on the other side and begin the slaughter! "

 

The Nemesis's engines glow a vibrant purple hue, just like the Ark, it stretches and quickly leaps off into the void of space.

 

••••••••••••••••••••••••••â€

•••••••••••••••

 

In the solar system of Alaxon, the various worlds hang in space as they orbit the one yellow sun in the center of it all. Gas giants, asteroid ringed worlds and some developing planets all sit silently. One world in particular is in a flux of violent volcanic eruptions; constant asteroids and meteors bombard the small third world. Two dead moons orbit it and sometime shield the planet from the various impacting rock, one moon looks smaller then the other, but it looks to be the more stable one. Not too far off from where it sits, a massive light flashes and soon a ship comes streaming out of it. Miles away from the third planet, this entering ship is the Autobot Ark, now slowing its engines to cruise the distance between. Inside the Autobots all see they've come out of the hyper jump, Hound and Ironhide continue to fiddle with the controls as they power down the engines. Optimus Prime sighs with relief.

 

" We made it...Well done Autobots. We've entered Alaxon safely...now then, lets get ready to collect the energy! Power all gun turrets to that third planet. Hold our position and open up the collectors...it's going to take all our energon to fire on that world to make the core unstable and eject into space. Perceptor! Are your ready with those calculations? "

 

He looks to the left and a few feet beside him sits a red-black robot with a large shoulder mounted cylinder attached, his light blue forearms bear round sliver implements and his hands are black. His dark colored fingers feverishly tap away on his console as he figures out the precise numbers to begin the process. Perceptor is the resident scientist along with Wheeljack, who stands behind him checking his work. Wheeljack is white with some sliver elements to him, two head mounted triangle-like shaped ears stick out of him, slightly sliver and a bit see-through. A manifold that looks more like rippled lines of metal put on top of one another covers his mouth. Together the two, Perceptor and Wheeljack, have been waiting for this day to arrive. They personally picked this system and planet for energon consumption due to its infancy and lack of life living in it. Perfect to take what they want, without having to endanger any other creature's lives. Optimus Prime made them check and re-check that possibility before they came, he wanted to make sure that no life was taken needlessly for their benefit. With everything in place, Perceptor gave his results to Prime.

 

" I'm ready to begin Optimus Prime...the planet is perfectly ready for harvesting. ", the snooty sounding robot says back to his leader.

 

" Good...lets get this over with and get home fast..."

 

Just as they prepare for the extraction, another ship comes warping out a few feet behind them, The Nemesis. The Decepticon ship powers down it's engines and soon is in clear sight of the Autobot vessel. Inside Megatron's ship, the leader sees them and orders Soundwave to attack.

 

" Now Soundwave...Open fire at them! "

 

As the Decepticon soldier tries to push the button, he reports a problem to the awaiting leader, " All weapons are offline! I do not have control of the main battery! "

 

" NO! I will not be denied so close to victory! ", Screams Megatron.

 

Starscream comes walking up behind his throne and explains what happened, " It seems the jump into hyperspace drained our resources, the shields are at forty percent and the main engines barely have enough power to get us back home. "

 

" Daaah! I will not let that ruin our victory! Open the air lock; I'm going to make sure they don't get the chance to retaliate! "

 

Flying upward, Megatron slips through a portal that opens up in the ceiling, another panel opens on the outer hull and the leader comes out of it onto the surface. The Ark in plain sight of him, he transforms into his cannon mode. His side arm, now sitting atop his cannon, acts like a telescopic tracker and targeting lock. The ship now in his view, the targeting system flashes red as it now has perfect aim at the Ark's engines. Inside the Autobot ship, more alarm systems sound off, Prowl once again looks at the monitor and sees the ship behind them again.

 

" Decepticons!! "

 

Prime turns on the rear view screen and zooms in on the top of the vessel, he now can clearly see Megatron aiming for them, but he is too late to do anything about it.

 

" OH NO! Hang on everyone! "

 

Megatron releases the full might of his energy blast, the Ark's engines explode from contact of the Decepticon leader's strike, Megatron unleashes two more at them and causes the back end of the ship to smolder in flames. Transforming back into robot mode, Megatron revels in his destructive blow against them. The Ark starts to drift and move from the shockwave of the explosion. Inside the Autobots are tossed about like rag dolls, Optimus Prime gets up off the floor where he landed and barks orders at them all.

 

" Autobots! Repair the ship and be prepared for another attack! Megatron isn't done with us yet..."

 

No sooner had he said that, when the Nemesis begins to pull along side and Megatron speaking into his chest communication device, orders his Decepticon soldiers what to do next.

 

" Activate the tracking beams and hold them! Decepticons prepare to board and attack!! "

 

The Nemesis opens up two large devices along side the ship; two massive green beams come out of it and grip the Ark. Now stable together in space, four large extending metallic tubes come out of the Nemesis and drill into the Ark's hull. The Autobots inside can here the drilling on the various levels and prepare for an invasion. Optimus Prime picks up his massive hand weapon out of his chair's side holder and loads an energy cartridge into it. The other bridge crew arm themselves and stands ready for the intruders as well. The tubes cut through the Autobot ship and soon expose the opening for the Decepticons who all come rushing out into the corridors with their weapons blazing. On different levels of the Ark, the battle ensues, weapons fire at one another, fists pound away at each other, and a horde of Decepticons lead by Starscream make they're way for the main bridge. The bridge is the only place that wasn't attacked yet, but Starscream and the others manage to rip through the metallic doors and begin to pour in. Optimus Prime and the others duck for cover and fire back. Pinned down on either side, they try to take each other out. Suddenly a massive explosion rips out the top of the bridge's ceiling, as the debris comes crashing down, and the large open hole exposed to space, Megatron comes flying down and fires away with his arm cannon. Optimus Prime takes the moment to leap up and tackle the Decepticon leader to the floor. They struggle with one another and each get a quick sucker punch in, the two fight hard with one another and soon find themselves locked in head grips.

 

" Give it up Prime! ", the evil Transformer says to him, " The age of the Decepticon Empire is at hand! "

 

" You wish Megatron, I'll never give in to the likes of you! I'd rather kill us all then see you rule Cybertron any longer! "

 

Megatron laughs, " Who says you'll live to see my rule! This is your day to die!! "

 

" No Megatron, its all of ours!! "

 

Optimus Prime punches Megatron in the face, cause him to fall back onto the floor. Optimus rushes over the control helm and activates the only working device, the massive energy collector. The collector moves and points backward from the ship, with one large thrust, the massive energy wave sends the ship spiraling towards the developing third world. The sudden shock of the Ark leaping forwards sends all of them to go crashing back. As the ship rockets forward, the Nemesis attached to the side of it begins to buckle and snap off. The Decepticon ship, with no crew on board to steer it, spins helplessly into the planet as the gravity brings it crashing straight down into it. The Ark continues to blast forward into the developing world, the G-force pins all of them down where they are, Prime holds on to the controls as the force tries to push him back. Megatron soon comes crawling up beside Optimus and grips onto the computerized console for dear life.

 

" Your insane!! I'm indestructible Prime!! What hope have you with this madness?! You still won't be able to survive and Cybertron will still belong to the Decepticons!!"

 

Optimus turns his head to Megatron and sees the fear in the leader's eyes " May be.... But at least you won't be leading it for much longer either.... lets see just how indestructible you really are..."

 

Looking back at the planet they soon see themselves rushing into atmosphere, the sky gives way to the violent, turbulent, volcanic activity taking place on the surface. The ship speeds straight down towards a rather large mountainous volcano, brimming with liquid hot magma and fiery ash dropping all around it. Optimus sees them heading straight for it and Megatron lets out a large frightened shrill of a scream.

 

" Dear Primus.... let this not be the end. We are with you...Till all are one! "

 

The ship finally collides with the surface and rips through into it in a fiery explosion of nuclear proportions, a large cloud of smoke and vapor billows to the top of the sky as the impact causes the largest burst of lava to eject all over the globe. The planet shakes and huge earthquakes split open the land all around the impact crater, the last thing we see as the world continues to be born in this new solar system.

 

End of Chapter one

Chapter Two - The Re-awakening

 

One Hundred Million years later....

 

The once molten, chaotic planet has now long cooled. The sky is not longer full of ash and fire, but of blue sky and white wispy like clouds far above. The ground no longer black and flowing with lava, has given rise to vast open fields of lush greenery, trees, grass and plant life of every kind imaginable. In the mountainous range that stretches for miles, other life frolics in the countryside. Biological creatures that feed on the foliage all around, birds of all kinds fly about in the open sky, some catching small furry prey on the ground below them. But as one bird settles down to feast on this meal it has caught, a loud noise can be heard heading its way. A roar of an engine soon startles the creature that goes flapping by it as it charges up the rocky terrain. A motorized vehicle with large rubber wheels that seem to be made for this rough road it comes riding on. The road looks rather warn and used often as the now green car makes its way ahead. A Hummer, a type of all terrain vehicle, build for all sorts of rugged country and just one of thousands of cars build to take someone from point A to B. The hummer car rides straight on ahead to a large mountain; all around it is clouds of smoke and sounds of construction being done. As the Hummer approaches it comes to stop near the bottom area that’s being worked on. All around are bi-pedal creatures, fleshy light skin and some in darker tones they all are. Wearing crude fabricated cloth on them with white and yellow helmets on their heads. The planet is full of these creatures, living on the leftover islands of dirt and rock the violent eruptions left long ago. Surrounded by water, the planet is a thriving world of life. These bi-peds have been here for a long time and pretty much dominate the entire world, they call it home, and they call it...Earth.

 

Humans they are called, living on this Earth planet, a very strange species. Wars have come and gone within just a few thousand years of their existence, they crave for peace but tend to wage war most of the time. Not all are like this though; many are generally trying to live their lives in meaningless tasks and jobs. They've only been on this Earth for a short time, a few thousands of years or so, but have made progress by leaps and bounds. Now they can even launch themselves into the stars, but only for a short while, for they have only yet begun to begin their space age. A species with much potential, great pride and very dangerous amongst themselves and others if provoked to easily. A young race of beings who don't understand that the universe is full of life, too primitive to see it or communicate with it, they try their best to expand their knowledge and understanding. The sexes on this planet are split into two groups, male and female. The two procreate with each other, a biological function that repeats itself with each individual maturing for that age of copulating. They multiply by the thousands, which is why the Earth is covered with their kind. A fragile, flesh bound creature they all are, but are publicly shy about their naked bodies. Clothes are the norm for this species, not only to shield their soft skinned bodies, but as a means of protecting it from the elements of this planet as well. Each landmass on this Earth is ruled individually, some have fractured governments within each landmass, and some don't. Humans are very territorial, but also very curious beings, which brings these two human males to this mountain region.

 

Now as the Hummer shuts off it's engine, to well dressed humans step out of the car, one looking light in color and slightly matured, and the other a dark skinned individual wearing protective, but fashionable, eye wear. Both men walk upwards towards the heavy dirty yellow construction machinery working on the mountain, the drilling and pounding of the machines causes the rock to crack and crumble as they continuously work on it. Walking up to one of the men in the yellow hard hats, the one lighter skinned males taps the worker on the shoulder, causing the man to turn around to face them.

 

" Excuse Me! ", the man says politely to him, " I'm looking for Witwicky? Arthur Witwicky...have you seen him by any chance? "

 

The man wipes the sweat off his brow, as the heat is causing him to perspire, " Your looking at him mack! "

 

Arthur Witwicky is a rather older tanned white gentleman, wearing jeans and a dirty worn out plaid shirt, his health is very well rounded...just like his middle aged weight he carries around his mid-section. A man that has worked in construction all of his life, in various roles and jobs, a hard worker to the core and a gentle soul to boot.

 

The dark colored male in the sunglasses reaches over and shakes his hand, " Mr. Witwicky...a pleasure to meet you. I don't suppose you know why we're here do you? "

 

" Yeah I think I do...your here to take over this mess I suppose. And stop calling me Mr. Witwicky.... most people just call me Sparkplug. "

 

The two men look at each other in confusion and look back at him, " Why is that? ", the lighter skinned man asks.

 

" It's shorter and easier to say then Witwicky.�, he says with a grin, " But mainly because I'm good at fixing machinery and vehicles. Just a nickname fellas.... I’d rather you call me by that is all. "

 

The two men nod in understanding and the dark man speaks to him again, " Ok Sparkplug...wanna tell me what happened? What's this big problem you have? "

 

Sparkplug just cleans his nose with a rag he pulled of his back pocket, and when finished he looks at them again, " It's rather hard to explain. You see we where supposed to blast through this here mountain for a new roadway, one of them super tunnels I guess you call them. Anyways, my boys were cutting through it...and well...we kinda came across something. Something you government types might be very, very interested in. "

 

As the two men look at each other, Sparkplug motions them to follow his lead, they all walk up the hill side where they've been working on and come to an open rock face they've uncovered. Cut into the rock, like an archway, the men have shaped it around what lies in the center. Stopping at the foot of it, the look up and see a massive metallic structure deeply embedded in the rock face, the large metal towers over them all as high as they've cut the rock around. The golden-yellow/orange metal looks old but manufactured. Another arch is seen on the metal, still rather large, it appears to look more like large doors, the kind you'd see in a science fiction space ship. On the doors, right in the middle of the seam of the doors, is the marker of the Autobot faction symbol. Unknown to them as to what the marker means, they stare at it in amazement and realize this is no natural metal they've discovered.

 

"My god.... it’s...it's huge! ", the white dressed man remarks.

 

The darker man takes off his sunglasses and shares his partner's sentiments, " Damn! What the hell is that thing! It must be thirty or forty foot in height! "

 

Sparkplug just stares at it with them, " Bout that I figure as well. I thought we must have stumbled upon an old Indian burial site.... but I don't think this is anything they've ever built. In fact I don't think I've ever seen that kind of weird symbol before in my life. "

 

A voice shouts out from behind them as the continue to stare at it all, " Nobody has.... this thing must have been buried millions of years ago. "

 

They all turn around and see a young, white male with brown hair and brown eyes looking at them. He wears standard construction boots, dirty blue jeans, a pale sand colored short sleeve shirt and a yellow construction hat.

 

Sparkplug clears his throat and walks over to the young male, he places his arm around the boy's shoulder and looks back at the two well dressed men.

 

" Uhm...this is my son, Spike. He's here helping out his old man for a while; he dropped out of University awhile back...but he think he how old this stuff is. Son, I think this best left to the professionals. "

 

Spike interrupts his father, " I took courses in geology dad...I know what I'm talking about. If you look at the rock face you can see the different layers that date the period. This use to be a sizable volcano a long time ago...maybe even before the dinosaurs..."

 

Sparkplug gets frusterated and quickly brings his finger up to silence the boy, " Spike, shush! These men came to have a look at the thing not listen on and on to your theories. They're the experts, let them deal with this. "

 

" But dad?! "

 

Sparkplug raises his voice, " Stop! I said thats enough! Now go back down there and help Artie out with the drilling...Let these men deal with this ok? You're only here to do a job...your a driller, not a scientist."

 

" Fine...", the angry son says back at his father, kicking the small rocks in frustration. He walks down the hill and doesn't look back.

 

" Your son seems pretty smart...� the black man says to Sparkplug.

 

" Yeah...he's pretty smart...and a good boy. But he wasn't cut out to stay in University; he was starting and dropping out of too many classes. Never finding a real subject he could be focused on.... and then he completely dropped out of school after his mother's...my wife's passing."

 

The two men just stood there looking at Sparkplug thinking about it, and the lighter colored man just broke the silence, " I'm sorry to hear that. Well...Mr. ...ah I mean...Sparkplug. I think we're going to have to bring in some experienced experts on this, despite your son's guess work. If you don't mind I think we'll keep your men on a bit longer so you can help us out here and maybe uncover more of this thing, hm? "

 

Sparkplug reluctantly nods in agreement, and then well-dressed man pulls out a small cellular phone from his coat pocket. Opening the mouth flap, he taps down on one of the buttons and holds the phone to his ear.

 

" This is Agent Connors, we need a team up here A.S.A.P., this is a code six-one-five.... repeat a code six-one-five. That's right.... uh huh...that is confirmed. Oooh I say that this most definitely would categorize as...alien in origin. "

 

As the two obvious government agents look back upon the ship stuck in sold rock, Spike looks back as he finishes walking to the bottom of the hill, and his face is full of anger at his father. Spike and his dad never really saw eye to eye after his mother died, her death began a lengthy rift between the two that never really healed. They still love each other, but in a friendly male bond sort of way, they never discuss their feelings or even show any sign of emotion to one another. Spike can still remember his mother lying in the hospital; dying of a deadly disease they call cancer. She fought long and hard to survive, but in the end there was nothing anyone could do to save her. Spike and Sparkplug could only watch her slowly diminish until she was gone; both lost something that day, a good wife, a loving mother and the only person that kept the family together. When Spike dropped out of University, his father told him that if he didn't attend school, then he would have to work for a living, no son of his would be living a life of unfocused direction. Spike had no choice but to work with his dad, it was either this or try and earn a living somewhere else. Having no money and no place to go, the choices became rather apparent. He didn't mind the work, in fact he was learning to do a lot of things, but deep down he wished for more adventure, something that would take him on an exciting journey and perhaps help him to focus on a goal in life. As the Agents studied the ship doors, Spike had a sinking feeling that these men were about to disturb something that shouldn't even be touched at all.

 

••••••••••••••••••••••••••â€

••

 

As the dusk begins to turn the sky a darkened orange-red, the mountainside is filled with activity; helicopters swoop in and patrol the area as the military of this particular country of the United States creates a large fenced area a few miles away from the site. Now large spotlights are fixated on the exposed ship, which has now been cleared away of more mountain rock. The ship's hull now stretches upwards and soon shows a few of it's back engines, freshly exposed to the oxygen atmosphere thanks to Sparkplug and his drilling team. The few round back engines over hang the door that was seen before, and part of the back wing is exposed as well. It was just enough to see that the ship is actually larger within the rock then many had realized. This was no small ship they were trying to dig out, but rather a small back entrance that they've stumbled upon. The soldiers all walk about helping to clear away the rocky debris that the construction workers managed to break off, Spike stands near one of the military jeeps parked near by as he gets a full view of the awesome spectacle revealed to them at last. Sparkplug comes walking over to him and wipes the grimy, oily dirt off of his face and hands. Looking angry and even more frustrated then before, he rests himself on the front of the jeep as Spike continues to look up at the behemoth.

 

" That's the military for you, swoop in and take over. Now we've been told to pack up and leave...damn it. You know we're going to lose our contract for this place? The company called and has pulled out of the deal, but the worst thing is that they won't even compensate us for it. Spike? Are you listening to me? "

 

Spike looks down at him, " Like I care. "

 

Sparkplug didn't like that tone of voice, " I beg your pardon? Listen all of us have lost a lot of money here today and your standing there gawking at this thing. "

 

" That's right dad I am.... for god sakes, you don't even realize what this means, do you? We've just discovered alien technology...and you’re worried about money? That is so like you...at least mom would find this fascinating...all you were concerned about was working and not about her health.... "

 

Sparkplug looked offended at his remark, he reached over and gave his son a strike to the cheek with his hand, " Don't you dare assume I didn't care about your mother! What do you think? How were we supposed to pay her medical bills huh? You act as if your so above me, well I paid for your University education too mister...and you couldn't even finish that. This...Work...I do is what kept her alive for so long. It's what sent you to school, filled your mouth with food and put clothes on your damn back!! I loved my wife; I loved her so much that I worked my ass off to keep her alive!! So before you go judging me son...maybe you should examine your own situation. No focus...no goals...huh...Alien ships? Who gives a god damned rat’s ass about that! Doesn't help the people of Earth trying to survive from one day to the next. "

 

Spike holds his cheek from the pain, an almost tear-filled glare from him puts the father back into his sanity, realizing he's hit his son; Sparkplug backs down from him and moves away slowly. Spike is in shock from his father hitting him, not moving at all he continues to just stare without blinking. The father quickly collects himself and wipes his nose with the same cloth he just cleaned his hands with. All the years of working and having to watch his wife suffer finally have broken this once happy man. The pressure of losing the contract of work to the military has pushed him over the edge, not only does he not get paid a lot for his work here, but he'll end up losing his drilling company in the process. For this was the only major job that would have brought his business out of debt and helped to ease the financial burdens he's had to live with after his wife's passing.

 

"I'm.... sorry, Spike. I.... I didn't mean.... damn it.... I’m gonna go take a walk. "

 

The father begins to slowly walk down the hill and towards the new gates that lead out; down below in the distance of the open valley, a mass group of mobile homes sit in the darkness. Some have lights showing there are people occupying it at this moment; the workers have a temporary place to reside in as they prepare to let the military take over. Sparkplug turns around and looks at his scared son one last time.

 

" I'll understand...if you don't come home tonight. I want you to know...I.... do love your mother. And you my boy.... I’m just sorry.... sorry...."

 

That was all he could give out to his son, he knew it wasn't enough to apologize for what he did, but it's all he could openly send out to him. Turning back around towards the gates, he walked on out. Spike dropped down behind the jeep and wept, hiding his tears like all proud men do from others around him. He felt so bad for talking back to him, and even for the unkind words he spoke, how he wished his mother was still around to mend this situation. Spike had felt so lost in life, his father being distant, his mother dying and he not knowing what to be or career to set out in. This troubled young man was also at his breaking point, trying to hold back the tears as he controls his emotions, he stayed behind the jeep until he focus back on being whole again. The soldiers and government agents near the ship's massive doors were trying everything imaginable to cut through the metal. Shooting flames of blue and sparks flying, the cutting torches and diamond drills pieces had a hard time even making a scratch in the surface. One of the military soldiers watches as they work, a five-starred General of the U.S. forces, wearing the usual combat fatigues and looking very wise with his matured look.

 

" Anything soldier? ", he asks the military kid below trying to cut through the metal.

 

" Nothing sir, we've nearly tried just about everything here. This is a metal I've never seen in my life, hell if molten lava couldn't damage this thing too much.... I don't know what will. "

 

Spike comes walking up, composed and calm now, he's heard the man complain and offers his advice, " How bout cold? Maybe some liquid nitrogen? Don't know any sort of metal that could withstand that stuff. "

 

The General looks around to see the boy talking to him, " Son this is our concern...why don't you go back with the others to the trailers. Your job is over. "

 

" Well pardon me General...", Spike says back, " But I do believe you muscled in on our discovery here, I don't see why I can't give a simple suggestion to help in finding out what's inside. You owe all of them and my dad for your special prize, since you won't pay them for their efforts... "

 

The General adds in a comment, " We're going to pay them for their efforts, ok? But only for the time they've worked with us. You're beef is with the company that started the other project...not this one. "

 

" I beg to differ. ", Spike says to him with contempt, " Anyways...most of the drilling team wants to find out what's inside this thing too, you could at least give them and me this small request for giving this all up to you. "

 

The General sighs, " This isn't a finders keepers situation kid, we don't know what's inside or what it might do to anyone once it does get opened. Are you willing to take that risk? "

 

Spike glares him down, " You bet your butt I am. And if you think your going to crack that metal with heat, you can forget it...this stuff survived extreme heat and lava, but I'll bet you any money that liquid cool nitrogen will at least get you further then you are now. "

 

The soldier squatting below with the blow torch shrugs his shoulders and looks up at the General, " It's worth a shot sir, I mean heat doesn't do much...maybe liquid cold nitro will shatter some of it? "

 

The hard looking military commander sighs, " Very well. Lieutenant Palaton, get some men up here with some Liquid Nitro...Pronto! "

 

The men around him salute and all rush to get the chemicals he's barked for. Hours pass on into the night; the large tanker parked near the alien ship is full of the liquid nitrogen that was requested. The men aiming a large flexible tube at a spot on the large doors cause a hissing sound coming out of it. The nitrogen rushing out is causing the soft hiss sound, coating the metal in it's super cool fluid and the workers pound away breaking it off layer by layer. Going at it for so long, they seem to have begun making a hole into the super thick metal door, as they come to the end of whatever nitrogen they have left. Punching the last bit with drillers, they finally break through. A sudden rush of dusty air forces its way out of the ship, the pressure inside releasing outward as it becomes exposed to the Earth's atmosphere. Once the dust settles and the pressure drops, the men clean up the hole a bit more so that a person can go through it with minimal effort. The Agents walks up to the General and converse with him about their concerns.

 

" Mr. Drakemore, Mr. Connors.... I know what you two are about to say, so spare me the lecture. ", the General says to them as they stand beside him.

 

Agent Connors snickers, " Look we can't have civilians in that thing...too many men in there will contaminate the site. Besides word has come down to keep this top secret. "

 

The General laughs, " A bit late for that sir...all these witnesses...hell I'm surprised you didn't shoot them all to keep it quiet. "

 

The dark man, Agent Drakemore, turns his head at him, " Too many dead would lead to too many inquiries.... it would have been messy. But...it was an option for a while..."

 

The General shakes his head, " Not much of an option in my books, shooting innocent U.S. civilians...what a world we live in. "

 

" Look, bottom line is...we don't want too many people in there. How bout...just one civilian, that Spike kid, myself and two of your boys with weapons? That way we keep the contamination low, the soldiers can secure the place, and the drillers will be satisfied letting one of them in there to have a look. Sound good? "

 

" What about the drilling crew? You think they'll stay silent? It's going to take a lot more then just having a quick peek inside this thing to keep them all quiet. ", The General says to Drakemore.

 

" Fine...", Connors adds in, " We'll give them more money to shut them up, but only if they sign a document that they will in no way reveal to anyone what is in this mountain or any knowledge of discovering it in the first place. If they so much as talk...well...maximum jail sentences in a federal prison or the other option we discussed earlier will be the choices left to them. I think that should keep them very quiet...don't you think? "

 

The General just shakes his head and snickers, " Whatever works is fine with me, but you and I both know that jail time will never be an option. I just hope you can live with the consequences of your actions."

 

The men both smile and start walking over to Spike who's watching the soldiers widening the hole on the shuttle door. Connors turns around as he continues to walk backward up the hill towards the men and gives the commander his response.

 

" Trust me General...We lived with it before, we can live with it again. It's just a job. "

 

The army General didn't think much for that comment, he scowled at Connors as he continued to turn around and walk up to Spike. He could see the two men explaining the situation and the young kid agreeing without hesitation. Turning his back on the men chatting it up, he looks down at the small group of trailers down below, he can't help but feel a small bit of pity for these men who just don't realize what they've brought themselves into. News crews hadn't been alerted to this site yet, but there would always be a risk of someone spilling the news. A strict curfew had been placed on the campsite, making sure that none of the drillers could step out of the quarantined area and spread the gossip about this place. All communications where now monitored from the satellites above, no phones, emails, cellular calls or even C.B. radio signals would be allowed without a special encoder device. Both Agents of the Government and the top military soldiers had such a thing; it was standard issue for top-secret findings such as this. UFO (Unidentified Flying Objects) discoveries are rare for the Government; too many times they've had close calls with civilians exposing the truth. The Agents had promised everything to keep the men quiet, but deep in the General's mind, he knew these men would either have their memories erased, all killed with some elaborate story to cover their tracks or even threatened with blackmail just to silence them. There are no illusions about this, top secret is top secret, and the world has changed from innocent times. A war of secrets and lies now has become the norm; the twenty first century of this planet is full of fear and paranoia, interesting how human traits like those never truly go away. As Spike prepares to enter the ship, a quick glare from the General makes him realize this is a serious situation, the young boy is going to discover that danger and consequences come from every side.

 

End of Part Two

That's the best story I have ever heard.

Thanks alot! And it only gets better....

 

___________________________________

 

Chapter Three - Re-Awakening The War (Part Two)

 

Spike, Agent Connors and two well-armed soldiers slowly make they're way through the opening made for them, the large door of the ship was thick and hard to penetrate. Thanks to Spike's advice, they managed to create a big enough hole for them to squeeze into; all of them are wearing white coveralls that are self contained, airtight pressure suits. The suits look more like lightweight space costumes astronauts wear to survive. The slow breathing sounds of each man can be heard as they step in, a steady pace of their taking in air and exhaling as they make they're way in. As all four men gather inside, they turn on their separate flashlights that are rather powerful enough to shine through the darkest corridor. Looking around they see just how big it is inside the ship.

 

" Hoooly Crap! The people must be massive to walk around in here! ", Spike observes loudly while flashing his light down the long dark corridor.

 

As Agent Connors enters in he spots Spike and the other soldiers gawking at the never-ending passage, " Ok cut the chatter! We're here to do a job. Spike, let private Gortez and Millar take point front, we don't know what we could be dealing with in here. "

 

The two soldiers snap out of their amazement and nod to the Agent, they quickly move ahead of everyone and walk down the corridor with their guns pointed and flashlights peering into the darkness in front. Spike and Connors stay closely behind as they follow the men, Spike continues to look around and spots scorch marks all along the walls. He taps the Agent on the shoulder and points to the burn marks for the man to see.

 

" Look at that...it looks like there was a lot of activity in here huh? "

 

The Agent just looks at it with a deadpan gaze, " Weapons fire no doubt. These aliens might have been fighting to survive or escape. Probably lost their marbles from the heat.... trying to kill each other. "

 

" Huh...that’s thinking positive for ya? How can you be so sure that’s what happened in here? "

 

Connors just smirks, " Doesn't take much to go nuts kid, that’s why our history is full of brutal savagery. Heat, cold, just slurping your coffee the wrong way...People go nuts for various reasons. "

 

Spike rolls his eyes at the man, " Oh your just a joy you are. "

 

The soldiers ahead stop dead in their tracks and yell to Connors behind them, " Sir! We've found something blocking the way! "

 

The Agent points his light ahead of them and sees the massive object blocking the hallway, " Metal? Looks like.... a.... a leg or something. "

 

They all point their lights at the object and discover that it is indeed a leg. A blue and sliver colored leg that seems to arch like a knee, as they walk around they discover an arm to match, a wide torso and then they see the head. Studying it carefully, Connors sees that it has only one uniformed yellow eye and where a mouth and nose should be there is only a manifold mouth guard covering it. This robot once was called Soundwave, but to them it's their first nameless discovery. Spike is in awe of the sheer size of the mechanical man, he watches the Agent touch the face of the being and suddenly backing off just to be cautious.

 

" It's dead. Whatever it is. "

 

" Its a giant robot ", Spike points out to him.

 

" A dead robot then. ", the man snips back at the young kid.

 

The two soldiers lower their weapons and look at the symbol on the chest plate of the robot. They notice how it's not the same as the one on the door, making them wonder what it all means. Tapping the body with their gun tips, they giggle and turn to show the Agent the symbol they've discovered.

 

" Take a look at this, Sir. Another symbol...only this is different in design. ", The first solder says.

 

The second soldier leans on the dead robot, " Yeah...and that one on the door was in red, this one has a purple color to it. What do you think? Words for ' Exit ' and ' Robot '? "

 

Connors shakes his head in disagreement, " I sincerely doubt that’s what it means. Chances are we won't know what it truly means seeing how we know nothing of their language...written or otherwise. Let's keep going until we get to the end, we'll turn back the minute our oxygen runs low. "

 

The four of them continue to walk down the tunnel, the soldiers in front again as Spike and Connors follow up behind. As they continue to walk down the large corridor, they soon pass by more of these huge robots. Some look larger, some look about almost human height, all different in design and with two of the opposite symbols on their persons. The hallway is littered with these robot people; Spike is amazed at how many there are. Connors doesn't get distracted for a minute, he pushes them all on as the reach the end of the corridor. Spike can't help but get a bad feeling about all of what he sees, the scorch marks on the walls are also all over some of these being's bodies. Looking into the soulless eyes of the dead creatures makes him gulp with fright, what could have happened to all of them he wonders to himself. Madness? An explosion? But looking at the weapons clutched in their hands, Spike figures it must have been a massive battle. These bulky machines look designed for combat, they have large weapons and even a looked damaged from previous skirmishes. A ghost ship of robotic warriors long since deactivated, a chilling reminder to him that even in other worlds, war has its price. A sudden shriek of " Ah ha! " from Connors makes them all look at his light shining ahead, they had reached the end of the corridor and a pair of doors faced them. The doors where slightly open, thanks to one of the robots head sticking through it on the floor. The doors came from either side and looked stuck from the head getting in the way. This time Connors lead the way in, crawling over the robot's black helmeted head. Sideswipe it was once called, obviously shot down and frozen in time as he blocked the doors to the bridge.

 

As they entered, the soldiers and Spike saw the room was massive, more robots lay all over the place and with looks of shock on their faces. Where Megatron once blasted out the top of the bridge room, a large rocky column now sticks down, lava hardened into rock has sealed the room airtight. Walking into the very large room, Connors is breath taken from the massive size of the computer tables.

 

" Look at that...we can't even reach it! Amazing...a race of machines that use machines to guide them. This is going to be one hell of an operation for us. "

 

Spike and the others walk around, looking at the robots frozen in time and powerless. That’s when Spike flashes the light over his shoulder and sees the slivery evil face of Megatron, still scowling away and sitting propped up against the wall. The sight of the spooky gaze makes the kid scream in horror, he trips and falls causing his light to fling through the air and land someplace else. Connors and the soldier run up and see what his panic was about.

 

" Hey kid you ok?! ", the one soldier asks him.

 

"I...I was just...it scared me for a second that’s all. "

 

Connors looks up at the silvery giant, " Uhg.... Monstrous looking isn't he? Ok Spike, get on your feet and try to watch where you’re stepping. I don't want to carry your heavy butt back with me ok? "

 

Spike just gets up and dusts himself off, " Sure thing. Oh man...I dropped my light. "

 

Connors pats him on the back, " Come on...I'll help ya look for it. "

 

The two search around with the one remaining light source in Connor's hand, and as they spot the beaming light in the darkness they walk up to it and see that it is pointing upwards on one of the robot's lap. Like a heavenly signal of epic proportions, the light is fixed on the head of Optimus Prime. The massive Autobot leader sits in his command chair as the light shines on him, the force of the crash must have thrusted him back hard, so hard that it managed to land him into his chair in a sitting position. Spike can't help but be impressed with the way the robot looks, massive in size he was, but something about they way the robot's head was poised made him look almost noble. Connors climbed up on top of the motionless robot and reached up for the light, he too noticed how it made the robot look rather important and rather dramatic. It was a passing thought to him, who knows what these machines were, perhaps the lighting on them does no real justice at all.

 

" Wow", Spike says still looking upon the Autobot leader, " He's awesome! Much more easy to look at then that silver giant over there. Do you think he could be the leader of them all? "

 

Connors grabs the light and jumps back down, " Who knows.... who cares. Whatever they were they've long since passed, doesn't really matter who's who anymore. "

 

Spike grabs the flashlight from the man's hand, " I guess not, but...I'd still like to know what happened on this ship. I mean...it looks to me as if there are two sides here, one group of robots have that purple emblem, and the other have that red one. Maybe they had mutiny or something..."

 

Connors just laughed at the boy's wild theories, " yeah...right. That's what happened. Come on kid, there are a million different scenarios you could come up with and you still wouldn't know what happened really. Look...you've seen the place, your happy now...the workers will be happy now...we're all happy now! Got it? Now step aside, don't touch anything and let me get to work. "

 

Spike nods and walks away from the Agent who zips open one of the pocket flaps on his breathing suit, taking out a small digital camera, he takes pictures of the various robots and inside control room. The other two soldiers wander around aimlessly and look at the other various robots littered all over the room. Many of the robots have lost limbs; some have had their heads blown off, probably from either the battle or impact of the crash. Spike takes his flashlight and walks over to the main computer. Staring at the sheer size of the thing, he wonders if he can climb up on top of it to look at the controls. Placing the light on the ground, he begins to reach up and place his hands in open slots along the computer. He begins to pick himself up as he makes a stead climb upward, straining himself and grunting as he continues, he tires to find a foot place so he doesn't slip back now. His left foot searches desperately for a place to set down, but as he finally locates a ledge to place it onto, the ledge begins to move. Unknown to him, he's stepped on a large switch that is slowly descending as his weight forces it downward. As the thing finally drops down completely, Spike lets out a worried scream as he falls to the floor. As he tries to deal with the pain, a large whooshing noise fills the room, everyone stops to hear it but soon the noise dies down. The two soldiers and Connors come running over to see what happened.

 

" Spike!! You ok?! ", The first soldier says.

 

" Damn Kid...what the hell did you do now? ", the second soldier blurts out.

 

Connors comes running over and beams the light at the large switch Spike accidentally activated, he studies the lever carefully and then quickly turns to the fallen young man to chew him out again.

 

" That's it!! I want you out of here kid! I told you not to touch anything..."

 

Spike rises to his feet and holds his sore butt that he fell on, " I...I was only climbing up to have a better view. I'm sorry. "

 

"Sorry?! ", Connors says in a freaked out tone, " You're Sorry?! crap kid...you might have killed us all with your stupidity! That switch could have activated the self-destruct, electrified the room, pressurized the whole ship.... or god knows what else!! "

 

" Chill out guy, it was a mistake ok? See nothing happened. It was probably just a vent opening up. ", Spike says to the screaming Agent.

 

Connors was unimpressed by this kid's actions, it was bad enough he allowed this boy to come in with him, but now the young man is disturbing the site with his stupidity. The Agent paced around to calm down; once he was focused again he walked up to the three men again.

 

" As of right now...You're hereby off limits to this vessel. If you step inside again, or divulge any knowledge of what was seen in here...I will have you sent to a federal prison where you will never see the light of day again! You got that? Private Gortez, please remove Mr. Witwicky from this ship immediately."

 

Spike scowls at the Agent, " Wait!! All because of one stupid mistake? That's not fair! "

 

Gortez puts his hand firmly on the young boy's shoulder and Connors looks at Spike dead on, " One mistake is all it takes Spike, fair or not...I can't have stupidity in a situation like this. Take him out of here. "

 

Spike quickly swats off the soldier's hand on his shoulder, an angry look at the government agent is all that he gives, without any more fuss Spike and the soldier walk out of the room. Connors breathes a sigh of relief and looks around the room to see if anything did happen from Spike's mistake. Silence is all that can be heard, so he takes it as a sign that no harm was done. Looking back at the remaining soldier, Connor's picks up the flashlight Spike left behind and gives it to him.

 

" Here...you and I will head on out too. We'll come back tomorrow morning and finish the search; in the meantime I want you and Gortez on guard duty tonight. I don't want that punk back in here at all...no one it is to enter without permission from me first. You got that? "

 

The soldier salutes, " Yes sir. "

 

The two remaining men walk out of the room and head for the outside, a few seconds after they leave a strange beeping can be heard from the ship's computer console. One of the buttons begins to flash on the computer and soon the large display screen boots up with static on it. Too far down the hallway to hear it, the soldier and Agent Connors continue down the dark corridor as they reach for the main outer doors. The computer continues to switch on, as many lights and buttons activate lighting the room up as much as it can. On the large viewer, cracked like a pane of glass, a massive red Autobot icon comes on and scrolls command codes all over in front of it. A booming voice now comes out of the awakening computer, a bit muffled at first, but soon becomes clear as it states out it's function.

 

"Tel...Tela...Telatran One, Online. Beginning diagnostic...Error...Error....Malfunction....Re-routing to secondary systems. Systems now activated, beginning inner vessel scan...."

 

The ship soon opens a large panel above and out of the top comes a massive device that sends out a large laser that fills the entire room. It does a couple of sweeps and then retracts back into the top with the panel covering it again.

 

" Scan complete.... Unable to identify Autobot Leader...Error.... Secondary systems are damaged. Emergency reconstruction protocol activated.... Search and Repair priority one. Activating reconfiguration laser...search for target..."

 

Another large panel opens up from above and a massive laser beam device unfolds and searches the room, it soon detects Megatron laying against the wall and points it's beam of light at him.

 

" Target acquired...scanning...transformation cog damaged, new design required. Orbiting alien satellite detected, linking computer to satellite...begin search and download. "

 

High above the Earth, one of many man made satellites hangs in space, soon it becomes overwhelmed with a strange signal sent from Telatran One, the squibbling and hissing of it's beaming messages causes it aim at others orbiting around the Earth as well. Almost in a spinning web of telecommunication, the signals all link up with one another and spread across the Earth, every computer, every digital system and every database on the planet is instantaneously downloaded and quickly sent back to Telatran One. The mass download causes confusion in every country and every owner of such a device, as if the technology has gone mad the flood of unexplained chaos. The Autobot supercomputer meanwhile, places all of the human information into its memory core and instantly selects the mode of disguise Megatron is to become as it scans the incoming data. The laser poised above him shoots, enveloping him in a glow of a faint blue as it transforms his body to the specifications. Molecular nanotech technology is widely used by Cybertronians, it gives them the ability to copy and change their shapes in order to make their transformations possible. It also gives them the ability to shrink their mass to a certain degree. If they are to become in disguise and need to almost look like the similar object they are trying to mimic, molecular nanites help to reconstruct their density to help in this process. As quickly as they can transform so too can the nanites rebuild them to their true size when going back into robotic form. An almost symbiosis happens because of this, since they have been developing this for millions of years, it's almost instinctive for nanites to instantly react to the Cybertronian's reactions. That being said, Telatran One has found the perfect technical object for Megatron's new form. The cog inside of him reconfigures and the nanites re-form his body into the new look. A reboot to his system gives him life again, now laying on the ground as a modern day sliver polished berretta eight millimeter gun, specially mounted with a laser eye piece and silencer attached. The sound of him moaning and transforming back into his robot form reveals his resizing back to his proper height. Megatron stretches out his arms and arches his back like an animal coming out of its hibernation. Telatran One stops the laser and lets it sit there waiting for the next instruction.

 

" Target rebuilt.... awaiting next target.... please instruct...."

 

Megatron's eyes glow a bright red as he stands there, “ Uhhh…. I…. I live! “

 

Looking around he sees the devastated ship, Autobots and Decepticons all laying in their deactivated states, “ So Optimus…it seems that fate has awarded me a second chance. Now with all of your Autobots gone…I can at last finally rule Cybertron forever! With the help of Telatran One, I shall rebuild my Decepticons; the time for our empire is here at long last!! “

 

The leader continues to laugh in an evil tone, the realization that Optimus Prime and the Autobots attempt to kill him had failed made him laugh with joy. Telatran One continued to ask for a new transformer to rebuild as it awaited instructions from the revived robot.

 

End of Chapter Three

Chapter Four - More Than Meets The Eye

 

Spike stands near the silent drilling machines outside of the exposed mountainside, looking rather ticked off he waits leaning against the equipment that his co-workers can no longer use. It seems that everything his happening to him all at once today, the argument with his dad, the alien ship, the men losing their jobs because of the government and now the Agent threatening him. His discarded white oxygen suit lay beside him as he obviously took it off in a great furor, his angry eyes now shift to the small opening of the alien ship's doors as the Agent and the other soldier enter out of it. Agent Connors starts to remove his gear after walking a few meters away from the ship; looking up in Spike's direction he can see the young man isn't too happy with him. He looks back to the soldier taking off his white suit and nods back to him.

 

" You know your instructions...make sure no one enters. No one! ", He says to the soldier as he motions his eyes towards Spike.

 

The soldier finishes getting out of his gear and salutes, " YES SIR! "

 

Young Spike knew what the men were talking about; having been chewed out by the government agent inside, he realized that Connors wouldn't even talk to him now. Even so, Spike walked up to the man and spoke his mind about the matter.

 

" Listen Connors...I've had it with you. I don't need the likes of you yelling at me for one misplaced footing, just who in the hell do you think you are? First you take over the project here, then you stiff my dad and all the workers from getting paid, and now you want to keep this all a secret. You guys are all the same, cover up and deny everything. "

 

Connors raises his hand to him and shouts back, " Enough Kid! I'm through explaining my actions to you. But just to ease your mind...this Government is the one that will pay you and your men for all their hard work. Ok? Hm?! So just back off right now! Just be glad you didn't do any real damage kid...its guys like you that tend to make things worst..."

 

Spike stares at the man, " Just what the hell is that supposed to mean? "

 

" I think you know exactly what I mean....�, the man says back to him in a gruff tone, " Guys like you rush in and never think about the consequences, well boy, I and all the rest of us at the agency are the ones protecting your asses from getting into any trouble. Trust me kid, I've seen many things you best not know...nor even the world to find out, cause let me tell you...it would blow all your minds. "

 

Connors said it so intensely that Spike had to back off a bit, his determined answer made him uncomfortable about what in fact this man did know about certain things they've kept quiet. He could only speculate on what that might be, but after seeing this ship and all the giant robots on it made him a believer of the agent's warning. Spike walked back to the construction vehicle he was leaning on earlier and sat inside the open door way of the machine. Connors picks up the white suit he's taken off and throws it back to the two soldiers, Gortez and Millar, now standing near by. He starts to head down the mountainside when all of a sudden his partner, Agent Drakemore, comes running up to him out of breathe.

 

" Jack!! We've got a problem! The whole world went on the fritz.... communications, computers, everything just went haywire! "

 

Connors looks confused, " What? Slow down...what are you going on about? "

 

" You have to come down and look at this right now. It was like a flash of pure mayhem, nobody could figure out what the hell was going on. The General is waiting for you to explain all this...", the African American says to his colleague.

 

Jack Connors was still trying to figure out what his buddy was telling him, but shaking his head he proceeded to follow him down quickly to the main camp base below the mountain. Unfortunately Spike didn't hear any of their conversation, for he had fallen back onto the seat of the open door driller and gone to sleep very quickly. It was a long day for him, he was up at the crack of dawn in the morning till the late hours of this night, it seems that sleep finally caught up with him. Both soldiers standing in front of the ship's doors paced around with their automatic machine guns ready for anything, they had forgotten that Spike was still there, and just casually chatted to each other as they kept watch outside. Deep inside the Autobot ship, Megatron continued to look around the bridge of the ship and saw the state of his troops. His body had changed only slightly from the reconfiguration; the large cylinder on his back now resembled the front part of his new gun transformation. The side arm cannon attached now looked like that of the black laser eyepiece that also is used in his new mode. It never really even occurred to him about this new transformation, too busy to care about it for now, he instead focused on rebuilding his fellow soldiers. The first one he dragged over from the floor was Starscream; he put the damaged robot in the path of Telatran's laser and gave the computer a command.

 

" Telatran One...begin repair of this unit. "

 

" Target acquired.... searching database for new transformation mode....", the computer said in a fizzling, broken mono-tone, " New design found.... beginning reconstruction. "

 

Megatron smiled evilly, " One down...more to come! "

 

Back outside down at the foot of the mountain, the campsite where all the military assembled, Connors and Drakemore walked into the main tent where General was. The old high ranking soldier was hunched over a large table full of maps of the U.S. and the Earth, not turning around to greet them, he simply acknowledged them as if he had seen them.

 

" Welcome back Mr. Connors, Drakemore and I have been hip deep in chaos since you were gone. "

 

Jack Connors was walked over to the other side of the table and looked down at the graying soldier, " Well...lets have it then? What's been going on? "

 

" Well while you've been in there gazing at the aliens, it appears that something scrambled our communications and technology for a brief time. We couldn't get through on any phone lines, radio transmissions, or even work the damn computers for almost two minutes. And the creepy part is.... it all happened at precisely the same time around the globe.", the General says to him gazing up.

 

Connors rubs his forehead and thinks, " Incredible...it could be a new super virus from those hackers maybe? What do you think Mike? "

 

His eyes fix on Drakemore as he asks him on a personal level, Drakemore also gives a thought and answers back, " Well...it's possible. We've been having trouble with that group, especially their front man. But we know full well that Phoenix is being monitored, he hasn't attempted something like this for sometime though and his upcoming trial is keeping him occupied...."

 

The General straightens up and looks over to the dark skinned agent, " Who the hell is Phoenix? "

 

Connors answers the old soldier, " A hacker we've had some dealings with in the past, his real name is Chip Chase, just some kid who thinks he's the god of the internet. You know that time some of military secrets were leaking out? About Project N? You can thank him for that big mess. No...I can't see Chase being the one for this.... it would take a lot of programming and a hell of lot of extra help to pull a stunt off like this."

 

Mike Drakemore added another suggestion, " How bout an Electromagnetic disturbance? A solar flare might do that sort of thing wouldn't it? "

 

Connors thinks again and walks over to the other side of the tent, " No...Solar flares wouldn't be the cause...at least not the way you guys are describing it, satellites would be affected but...computers on Earth? And all at the same time? Not possible..."

 

" Well what then? ", the gruff General starts saying in a frustrated tone, " If it wasn't a computer virus and it wasn't some electromagnetic interference...then what shut down the world for those few seconds? "

 

••••••••••••••••••••••••••â€

••••••••••••••••••••••••

 

Inside the Autobot ship, Megatron has revived many Decepticons, Starscream and his fellow air jets have now all been brought back to life and are helping to bring more of their kind into the path of the laser. On the floor sits a blue sliver digital recording device, a minidisk player with a top entry loader that has a tinted window. On that window sits the Decepticon symbol, it's surrounded in the blue light from the laser and as it stops glowing a transforming sound soon reveals the identity of this redesigned Decepticon. Enlarging to its true form, the robot called Soundwave is reborn again. A small round cylinder sits attached on his shoulder looking like a combo microphone/shoulder rocket launcher. A sleeker design for Soundwave, his features have slightly changed for the better but his head still looks the same as it always did. The one uniformed yellow eye glows as he sees his leader standing there greeting him.

 

" Welcome back to the living Soundwave. I hope you are ready to serve me again my old friend. "

 

" I am yours to command, mighty Megatron. ", the sleek looking minidisk centurion says in his monotone computerized voice.

 

Megatron smiles, " Excellent. Transform and download as much as you can from Telatran One. I want to know every Autobot secret that’s contained in it's memory banks, squeeze as much as you can out of this computer Soundwave. "

 

The robot bows and raises his arm to his chest in salute, " As you Command. "

 

Transforming back into the minidisk player, Soundwave lands on top of the computer console and a snake like wire with an adapter on the head of it reaches out and plugs into the universal port. The large viewing screen shows a small insert image of the Decepticon Symbol as Soundwave begins transferring the data to his memory circuits. Starscream finishes laying down another Decepticon in front of the laser and walks over to Megatron viewing the screen as Soundwave downloads.

 

" Why don't you simply rip out Telatran One's memory core? Why bother to fill Soundwave up with all that nonsense? "

 

Megatron scowls at the stupid questions, " Because you ninny, the core was made by the Autobots and probably full of safety features to prevent such a feat. We could very well hook it up and activate its self-destruct sequence! I won't risk that, best thing to do is having Soundwave copy the information, and decipher it later, we have to get back to Cybertron and finish the Autobots as soon as possible. "

 

" But we have defeated the Autobots mighty Megatron! Look...� Starscream smiles and points over to Optimus Prime, who still sits lifeless in his chair, " Prime is dead! The Autobots back on Cybertron were destroyed by Shockwave before we took off...we have all the time in the universe to rip out the computer core, discover any of it's hidden booby traps and head back to Cybertron! "

 

" Don't question me Starscream. When we left, Cybertron was still full of small pockets of Autobot rebels spread out across the planet, it’s possible many still survive and are still a threat to our limited forces there. But we wouldn't have that problem if you didn't keep screwing up and wasting energon on your stupid strategies...I can't fathom why I even bothered to revive you, let alone reprogram you to be more obedient. ", The Leader says to him sternly.

 

" You had your chance Megatron, but like always you overlooked the possibility...perhaps you were too much in a rush to think of it earlier, a sign of a weakness and incompetence for such a great leader of the Decepticons. ", the grayish winged robot laughs with a bit of sarcasm in it's tone.

 

Megatron raises his fist at the disobedient robot, " It can still be preformed Starscream! Watch what you say to me carefully or else I'll have the others hold you down while I personally see to your lobotomy!! "

 

Starscream gulps and recoils like the coward he is, " I...I was only kidding Megatron. You know I am a loyal Decepticon..."

 

" Remember that Starscream.... see that you do remember that. ", Megatron says back to him.

 

Another robot comes walking up to Megatron, this one looks exactly like Starscream only colored black with some purple added to a few of his limbs and markings on the jet wings sitting on his back.

 

" Where the hell are we Megatron? Last thing I remember is blasting away the Autobots and us crashing into that large volcano on the planet. "

 

Megatron turns to look at him, " We'll soon find out Skywarp, as soon as the men are repaired and Soundwave has finished downloading the information...we'll all step out to have a look. "

 

Skywarp smiles, " Good...I need to stretch my wings for awhile to test out this new transformation mode. Seems a bit primitive in design, hopefully it can withstand my teleportation and breakneck speeds. "

 

Thundercracker comes walking into the conversation, still looking very much similar to both Starscream and Skywarp, but in his full light blue color and red markings, " I hear ya Skywarp. I'm just itching to spread my wings and test out all my weapons. Who knows what this Autobot computer has done to us...."

 

Laughing at Thundercracker's comment, Skywarp add in his extra thought, " Yeah...we could end up with a set of shoddy wheels! Too bad Jetplague isn't around; I'd would have liked to challenged him to a one on one. "

 

Megatron didn't flinch to Skywarp's comment about Jetplague, to him it was a matter of the past and not very important to even mention. But he did hear enough of the two jet's banter to make him sick of hearing about their flying woes, he simply walked away from them and continued to watch his other soldier being brought back to life. Starscream wasn't interested in Skywarp and Thundercracker's petty chat either; he walked over to Optimus Prime and looked directly into the Autobot leader's face.

 

" Nice of you to die Optimus Prime, but I would have preferred to kill you myself. One shot of my null ray and you would have fallen to your knees begging me for mercy. ", Starscream says to the motionless robot.

 

Thundercracker and Skywarp overheard Starscream's comment to the dead leader; they snickered at the jet commander's wishful thinking.

 

" HA! If anything you'd be the one doing the begging Starscream...Prime would have made you his cyber-Starscream! ", Thundercracker says to him giggling.

 

Starscream quickly turned to face him and fired a shot from his arm null ray cannon, " Daaaahhh!!! "

 

The shot streaked over past him as the two jets ducted out of the way. Starscream brought his null ray cannon back over to Optimus Prime's head and glared at him, " I would have killed him!! I, Starscream would have defeated Optimus Prime.... and then I, not Megatron, would have been the leader of the Decepticons. One day...one day I SHALL be the leader. Just you two wait and see...."

 

Starscream laughs in crazed manner and brings his arm cannon up to the ceiling shooting it off repeatedly. The flashing glare of his blasts reflects off of Optimus Prime like an omen of things to come.

Spike slumbers away in the construction vehicle, a sound sleeper he doesn't even hear the crunching of the two soldiers feet on the rocky ground as they pace back and forth. The two army guards keep a vigil eye as they pass by one another, but like many on duty together, they tended to talk to break the boredom. Gortez took out a cigarette and used his special silver polished lighter, in haling the smoke he had a look of satisfaction. Millar turned around to see the man smoking on duty and shook his head.

 

" Come on man...that crap will kill ya. I thought you were supposed to be off of cigs? "

 

Gortez looked over his shoulder and shrugged, " We all got to die some day man...might as well have the things that make ya feel good for now. Besides, it's getting a little tense around here, alien robots, this Connors dude riding our backs..."

 

Millar just laughs, " I hear that. Man is so tight he could crack a walnut from his ass...feel sorry for Spike kid, talk about getting screwed over huh? "

 

" Ah...the kid messed up. Those agents love to toot their own horn when things go wrong, but you do have admit, that was some stupid mistake the boy made.... who knows what he could have turned on in there.", Gortez just laughs at his own words and thinks of something else funny, " hey...hey...we could have been fried by a big disco ball or something...you know.... doo dee dooo de doo doo..."

 

The sight of his buddy doing the " robot " dance made Millar howl with laughter, the two laughed on as a sudden sound of something powering up hummed over their joy. Both men stood still for a second and their laughter died down as they heard the high-pitched noise. All of a sudden Millar looked down on the ground and could feel the ground shaking, the sound of clanging metal and heavy thumps made them both aware that it was coming from inside the alien craft. As they fully turned to look at the ship, they noticed the door symbol was glowing bright red and all around the door a strange light illuminated it in an eerie way. The sound of heavy thumps and clanging were getting louder and louder, Gortez looked at Millar and threw down his lit cigarette to the ground. Scrambling to ready their weapons, the poised the automatic machine guns at the door waiting for whatever was about to come out.

 

Down at the bottom of the mountainside, in the General's tent, both Agents were still trying to figure out what the cause for the worldwide black out was. The General was talking on the phone and Connors and Drakemore were quietly chatting with one another. A young soldier enters the tent and walks over to the agents; saluting them both he lets them know why he's there.

 

" Sir! I have foreman Witwicky out here requesting to speak with you. "

 

Both Agents casually salute back which makes the young private relax his arm back to his side.

 

" What does he want private? ", Connors asks him.

 

" Sir...he wants to know if you've seen his son. He had heard you went into the ship together and he's wondering if he's still inside.... he never came back to the campgrounds. "

 

Connors looks concerned and a sudden rush of thought strikes him, " No I haven't seen.......wait.....oh god! "

 

He turns his head at Drakemore and finishes his alarming realization, " The kid.... he touched something in the ship! It was a large switch or something...but he activated it! "

 

At the same time they were just realizing this, the two soldier guarding the space ship suddenly saw the doors slide open quickly, a bright light shone in their eyes and they had to shield themselves from the sudden brightness. The sound had woken Spike up from his sleep, rising up from the drivers’ seat he also became blinded by the powerful illumination coming out of the doors. But as they all lowered their arms they saw a group of large robots stepping out of the vessel. Spike was in sheer awe of the creatures walking about; it looked more like a sci fi movie coming to life right before his very eyes. The two soldiers guarding it didn't notice just how fast one of the robotic feet were coming at them, before either one could fire off their weapon, Starscream's jet engine-like foot came stomping down and crushed private Gortez to death. Millar screamed out in terror at the sight of his buddy being stepped on, the shriek caused Megatron to pause beside Starscream and look down at the small human. Starscream could hear the fleshy crunch of the man under his foot, and lifted it up a bit to have a look.

 

" Ewww...I stepped on something. "

 

" You merely stepped on a bug Starscream...just scrape it off. ", Megatron calmly states.

 

The remaining soldier below them opens fire with his weapon; the bullets bounce and pop off of them as if they didn't even exist. Megatron was mildly annoyed by the small man shooting at them, and reached down with his large hand and picked him up...very hard. Millar could feel every bone in his body breaking; he couldn't help but cry out in absolute pain. Megatron's grip was tight to this small fragile man, but to the Decepticon leader it wasn't more then a light fist closing. Spike witnessed the whole thing down below, his awe and wonder soon turned into fear and shock. The sight of such horrible violence made him sit still with fright, his gaze followed the Decepticon leader's hand as he brought the soldier up to his eye level. Megatron inspected the being carefully and saw that this was no simple bug.

 

" A bi-pedal homo sapient species? And such a fragile creature as well..."

 

Starscream was using a large boulder to scrape off the remains of the one he stepped on, " Yes...very fragile. Such soft and brittle structures, clearly not as superior to us. "

 

"If this is what awaits us on this planet, then I see no need to worry. ", the leader says.

 

The soldier who is in extreme pain in Megatron's clutches, soon realizes that mere smirk on the being's face isn't one he thinks has sealed his fate. With one super tight grip, Megatron finishes the puny human to a gooey finale. Once again, Spike looks on in sheer terror, blood was everywhere and the last crush the giant robot gave ended up jutting out the poor man's head onto the vehicle's hood that Spike was sitting in. He coward below the dashboard as the robots all laughed the sight of their leader squashing the poor man, Spike closed his eyes tightly and whispered gently to himself.

 

" No, no, no....not me...don't come for me.... please pass me by...please, please, please.... Mother help me, don't let them hurt me...."

 

The Decepticons hadn't seen young Spike at all; in fact they didn't really care what was around them. Megatron turned to his evil horde of robots and commanded them.

 

" Decepticons...to the air! Let's try and see what this planet has to offer us in the way of energy. Long live the Empire! "

 

The others all chanted after him, " Long live Megatron! "

 

As they continued to chant the praise over and over, they all began to rise off the ground and hovered towards the dawning sky. Megatron hovered above them all and saw that Starscream was still on the ground and facing the ships opening.

 

" Get a move on Starscream...the ship isn't going anywhere. "

 

Starscream pointed his two side arm null ray cannons and continuously fired upon the inside of the ship.

 

" I just want to say one last goodbye to the Autobots..."

 

" Forget the Autobots, Optimus Prime and his scrap heap comrades are now ancient history! ", the Leader says laughing in his usual melodramatic evil tone.

 

Starscream looks up and sees the others flying off into the distance, he looks back into the ship and smirks. He stretches out his arm and a panel on the side of his forearm opens up to reveal a small stubby rocket.

 

" Goodbye Optimus Prime...thanks for the ride. It looks like the Decepticons are going to rule for a long, long time! "

 

Laughing away, the air commander launches his small missile and transforms into his F-19 stealth jet mode. As the missile propels away down the corridor of the ship, the jet commander quickly joins his fellow Decepticons in the sky. The missile inside continues to fly down the deep corridor; it ricochets off the top and lower walls until it comes crashing right behind Optimus Prime's chair in the bridge. The explosion hurls the big red robot on to the floor and the shockwave makes the repair laser turn and activate on the Autobot leader. Smoldering from the fiery attack, the blue light soon surrounds Prime and begins the transformation.

 

" T-T-Target aqu-aquired...Beginning repair and redesign. alert.... alert.... circuits have been damaged, switching the third primary backup systems. Systems now repaired...Target has been identified, Optimus Prime is priority one for repair. Searching Database for transformation......design found. Repair and reconstruction beginning...."

 

As Telatran One rebuilds, Optimus Prime's eyes begin to flash a bright blue and the sound of his voice can be heard as he starts to come around.

 

••••••••••••••••••••••••••â€

•••••••••••••••••••••••

 

Back outside the ship again, running up the hillside of the mountain towards the vessel, the two agents and most of the army personnel come rushing up to see what happened. Also running up quickly is Sparkplug, he is constantly calling for his son but is drown out from the sound of the soldiers yelling and barking orders to one another. Spike slowly gets out of the vehicle he was stuck in and looks bewildered by all that’s just happened. As he looks around, the blood on the ground and the boulder Starscream used to scrape off the other soldier with are all that remain of the two men guarding the ship. How does one take this all in? Shock and a ghostly pale completion is all Spike has right now. Turning to see the soldiers running up towards him, they're movements to him are slow and dream-like, even his father who suddenly grabs hold of him and tries to shake him out of the stupor he's in right now. The military is all over the place; sounds start to take shape in the young boy's head again, Helicopters rising up, jeeps honking horns and even Agent Connor's voice peering into his skull as he snaps out of it.

 

"Jesus Christ kid! What the hell did you just start?!"

 

Sparkplug held the boy's face in his hands as he tried to bring him around, "Spike? Spike, son.... are you ok? Come on, snap out of it my boy!"

 

"D-d-dad? Oh Dad! They...they crushed them...they killed them right in front of me!!� Spike says frantically.

 

Connors grabs Sparkplug and pushes him aside, and then he grabs Spike and begins to shake him, "Damnit! I told you not to touch anything! Now look what you've done you brat!! "

 

Sparkplug backhands the man in the face, causing him to un-grip his son, "Don't you ever...EVER...Lay a hand on my boy! It's your fault for letting him go in there in the first place Connors!! So just lay off my son! If you so much as touch him again...I’ll make sure you won't be able to chew solid food ever again!! "

 

"Just try it pops! My men will have your ass in two seconds before you can lay in the first punch."

 

Sparkplug clenched his fist in anger, itching just to strike the son of a Starscream down, but as he held himself back from doing so, Spike looked over at the agent and flattened him right on the chin. Connors fell back hard and was stunned as he hit the ground, Spike stood over the man with his fist still ready to give him another.

 

"Yeah...but I bet your men weren't prepared for that! You wanna blame me for all this? Then go ahead, just leave me and my dad alone you bastard!"

 

Connors shakes his head and holds his jaw from the pain, "That's fine with me kid. Consider yourselves under arrest.... it will be a cold day in hell before you see the light of day ever again!"

 

Spike and Sparkplug didn't like the sound of that; they knew they were in deep trouble for attacking him and for getting in the way of his plans. This guy was blaming them for everything and they knew there was nothing they could do to stop him. As Connors got up ready to order them under custody, Drakemore came running over to him.

 

"Jack! Come on! We've got to catch a helicopter and follow those things, they're moving fast and we'll lose them if we don't go right now..."

 

The sore jawed agent just straightened his tie, fixed his hair and pointed his index finger at the two Witwicky men, "This isn't over, you two are going to have to answer for all this and I'm going to make sure you get the maximum sentence possible."

 

"Kiss my ass you son of a...", Spike says to the man looking like he's about to hit him again, but Sparkplug quickly grabs hold of his fist and shakes his head at his son as if to say it wouldn't help matters.

 

Connors turns around and runs down to the awaiting choppers at the foot of the mountain. Leaving only a skeleton group of soldiers behind, the military moves to pursue the alien robots. The choppers all begin to lift off and beam their spotlights into the dawning sky, The General, Drakemore and Connors all look out the window as they fly over head the mountain, the General eases back into his seat and looks at the two men.

 

"You do realize this is up to us now? If we can't stop these creatures...well...god help us all."

 

Drakemore smirks, "Why do all the military do-gooders say that? I hate that cheese fed line!"

 

Connors keeps his eye on Spike and Sparkplug down below and then looks up at the General as they fly out of sight of them all, "Don't worry General, we've got just the weapon to put them in their place if the moment comes. Trust us."

 

The General didn't seem to like that, these well dressed men working for secret levels of the government always made him suspicious of their plans, hearing Connors say such a thing re-affirmed that belief. What sort of weapon do they have? How could they possibly know what could stop these creatures? So many questions rose in his mind, but he dare not ask them, men that ask too many questions often disappear. Putting on the headset behind him, the General talked to the pilot through the microphone attached to it.

 

"Get me HQ on the horn...I want a squad of jets to be ready just in case..."

 

As Spike and Sparkplug watch the helicopters and vehicles disappear in the distance, the remaining soldiers try to keep the workers from coming up the mountain to see what the trouble is about. It's a handful trying to keep them all back, so the soldiers all form a line and slowly walk them all back down. Sparkplug holds his son's shoulder and grips it reaffirmingly, a simple look between the two of them gives a sign that all is forgiven. It doesn't take words for them to express they're feelings, a look is all it takes to show their deep father and son bond, they both smile and give each other a good long hug.

 

"Thanks Dad, sorry for being such a screw up."

 

Sparkplug pats him on the back and releases him, "You're not a screw up son. I am.... and I'm sorry I hit ya. I'm just glad someone managed to hit that S.O.B. "

 

Both laughed at the memorable moment and gave mocking punches in the air as they tried to show each other how it looked. Sparkplug could here his men getting out of control at the bottom of the mountain, told his son to wait where he was while he runs off to calm them down. Watching his dad scurry off down made him smile a bit, the tender moment they had was the most significant the two shared in years, perhaps this was the beginning of a whole new relationship with his estranged father. But Spike began to feel uneasy again; the smile quickly diminished off of his face as he felt someone was watching him. He was still standing close to the ship, but a he noticed the light coming from the ship had dimmed a bit, he slowly looked over towards the ship and soon realized that the light wasn't dimmed, but rather a large shadow was cast over him. As he fully turned his head to see, there stood a massive figure in the doorway, another giant robot in red and blue, with it's glowing light blue eyes looking down at him.

 

"No....� Spike said softly as if he new his fate was sealed, "Don't...Don't Kill me!"

 

Spike's voice had now risen, loud enough for the towering creature to hear. It looked at the boy rather curiously and tried to assure him he would do no such thing.

 

"I'm...not going to kill you. Please, don't be afraid...I realize I must look strange to you, but please do not fear me.� The robotic sounding calm voice says to him.

 

"Who...� Spike nervously asks the robot, "Who are you?"

 

"My name is Optimus Prime...and I come in peace."

 

Spike stands there dumbfounded, this large robot is talking to him instead of crushing him under his foot. Unsure how to feel about it, he continues to stare at the giant. He's more impressed on how he managed to sneek up without causing a sound for such a large robot. Blinking uncontrolably, Spike manages to sink in the words Prime uttered to him.

 

"You...You come in peace? More like here to kill us all....to crush our bodies! Peace? More like to rip us apart in pieces! "

 

Optimus Prime is taken back by the creature's tone, "No...no not at all. I...I..."

 

Suddenly from below the mountain, Sparkplug turns to see the massive robot standing in front of his kid. His eyes grow wide with panic and shouts to the others about it. They all stop shouting and struggling with one another to see the alien, the soldier realize this is a new threat and rush to the top with their guns blazing. The bullets wizz by Spike and Optimus Prime, as they both turn to see the horde of men rushing towards them. Spike is trying not to be hit by the bullets the soldiers are pouring out, but can't find anywhere to run too, if he does move he's sure to be hit by one of them. Optimus Prime sees that the young human is in peril and brings his hand down to sheild him from the attack. Sparkplug suddenly realizes what the robot is doing, at first he thought he was going to flatten his poor son, but seeing the hand stretch out like a metal wall for the boy made him aware that this is no monster. The hand was large and looked like it could crush a vehicle like a compactor, but there was an almost gentle nature to how he lower his hand down to his son, like a human hand shielding a frightened bird. He was calling out to the soldier to hold their fire, but it made no impact, these soldiers where given direct instructions to stop these metal beings. Optimus Prime waited as they continued to empty their guns at him, small metal fragments hitting him was no big deal, he seemed more concerned about them hurting each other while in the heat of battle.

 

" Please, hold your fire! I mean you no harm! ", the loud metallic being said to the rampaging soldiers.

 

Soon the guns silenced down, some from hearing him say so and other just because they ran out of ammo. They couldn't believe this strange alien being was speaking to them in their language, nor for the fact that he was begging them to stop shoot at him. As they all stopped shooting at him, he took his hand away from Spike, who was completely unharmed from the firing. The leader stood tall facing them, they must have seemed like ants to the large robot, the men just tilted their heads back and stared at the gentle being. Prime slowly raised his hands up in an attempt to show he was not hostile.

 

"I mean none of you any harm. Forgive me if I startled you or caused fear...I'm only here to offer my hand in peace. My name is Optimus Prime, I am the leader of my people."

 

Spike looks up at Optimus and tries to make sence of it all, "Then you must have ordered your men to kill...cause there was a large group of metal beings such as yourself that didn't want peace. They killed two innocent men and treated us like common bugs!"

 

The large red robot looks down at Spike, "I gave no such order, my men still lay inside deactivated and are unable to....Wait....What did this metal being look like, if I may ask?"

 

"He was sliver, with red glowing eyes, and a large black...well...it looked like a giant cannon on his arm or something."

 

Optimus Prime's eyes flared, the blue flash in them showed he knew that description, "Megatron!"

 

Sparkplug came up beside Spike, he gave his son a quick hug thanking god he was ok, but then stared up at the robot as he asked a question, "What the heck is a Megatron?"

 

Prime was still looking away deep in thought, "Not a what...more like an unfeeling evil monster! I guess I didn't notice he wasn't still laying there in the bridge, I was disoriented when I woke up...This is indeed grave. If he tries to get back to Cybertron we're all finished."

 

Spike, Sparkplug and the others wondered what the hell he was babbling on about. Clearly this gentle being wasn't the same as the one Spike encountered, it seemed this one was more concerned about the welfare of the people surrounding him and not of his own person. But the mention of the name of Megatron seems to have given him an angry look, something that every person with a grudge against another would make. Optimus Prime looked about at all the humans, their faces showed him the niavity of this primitave culture, unaware of what they have unleashed to their own world. Looking up into the heavens, the Autobot leader gazed at the fading stars as the sun began to peer over the mountainous region. One yellow sun, one moon, clearly not the same place they crashed into what seemed like not too long ago to him.

 

"The stars are different, strange...what is this place? Is this planet in the system of Alaxon?"

 

"Uhm...no. We don't have a real name for our solar system, we just call it SOL for short. But the planet your on is called, Earth", Spike says back, "Third planet from the sun, I guess....perhaps we should start to explain how we found you. And how long you've been buried under all that."

 

Prime looks back down at him and his eyes squint slightly, "Perhaps you should. But if it's all the same, I need to repair my men, if Megatron did escape...you're kind is going to need our help."

 

Spike's eyes give a worried look, "You make it sound like he's unstoppable or something? You don't think our military can handle him?"

 

Optimus Prime nods, "You must trust me on this one, Megatron and his Decepticon soldiers will unleash a terrbile evil on your planet. They're desperate for energy and will go to any length to getting it, no matter what is in their way. Your weapons will have little effect on his armor, my Autobot warriors and I have the only weapons capable of harming them."

 

Spike gulps in fear, "Man, I guess we really will need your help then huh?"

 

Sparkplug smiles, "Ok if thats the case then Optimus Prime... My name is Sparkplug and this is my son Spike. And if you need help getting your boys back in action...then you've met the right bunch of human species."

 

Sparkplug glances over to the rest of the workers and soldiers still standing there in amazement, " Ok boys! You heard the man...oh pardon me....Robot. Let's get him and his crew back together! Because my wife once told me, a friend in need is a friend indeed. Let's give our new friends a hand then huh? Move out!"

 

As all the workers hear their boss's words, they smile and shout with jubulence. They all scramble into the ship taking their tools and some of the vehicles inside. Optimus Prime is glad to see he's met the right sort of beings, they seem like a good group to befriend and he walks inside to show them the way. One of the commanding soldiers walks over to Sparkplug looking rather concerned.

 

"Wait a minute! We haven't been given the authority to do this? It could be a trap....or they could be decieving us....or...or.."

 

Sparkplug laughs, "Save it soldier. This is the time to show what it means to be human, that we're not always bent on shooting at whatever lands in our yards, that our generousity and friendship is our greatest gift to share. True, they could very well be having us on here, they could very well turn on us the second we repair them....but something tells me in my gut that this...this guy here is alright. But some times, we all have to open our eyes....not every creature in the universe is bent on conquest."

 

Sparkplug walks towards the ship and helps the others load up the equipment, meanwhile the commanding soldier he was speaking too walked over to a group of his own commanding officers. They could see he wasn't happy with what was happening and voiced his concern.

 

"Damn fools! They're going to get themselves killed. I don't like any of this, first they come out to crush us, now they want make friends?!"

 

One of the soldiers in front of him speaks, "I think we should call the General about this, we don't have enough soldiers here to take on both the robots and the workers. Plus many of the men have said they'd like to help out as well..."

 

The commander nods, "Right, Baxter get on the wire and call the General let him know exactly what's going on here. Jim, you and Frankie will supervise the men that want to go in and help out. Keep a sharp eye and report anything that might give us concern about these giant robots. You all got that? "

 

The men all agree and the commander nods back, "Ok then...go to it men."

 

Breaking up into smaller groups, a few head down towards the campsite to call the General, the others lead the soldiers in to help out. The commander still stands outside and waits for word from either group, he thinks about what Sparkplug had said to him and mutters on to himself.

 

"Not every creature in the universe is bent on conquest? Huh...ya right. Last famous words before the crap hits the fan."

 

End of Chapter Four

Chapter Five – The Decepticons New Mission

 

Out beyond the mountianous region, standing on a platau over looking a large valley, Megatron and the other Decepticons gaze the world as the sun shines an orange filled cloudy sky, morning has finally come. Megatron looks lost in thought, while the Decepticons behind him look around and notice how organic the planet seems. Starscream steps up beside Megatron as does Soundwave. Staring at the sky, Starscream speaks to his leader, causing him to break from his concentration.

 

"One sun....and one moon? This is not the same planet we came too...is it?", the irratating voiced air commander asks his leadter.

 

"The stars are much different then I remember them. I don't recognize anything from our star charts. Soundwave search the data extracted from Telatran One and explain this."

 

The blue colored soldier nods, as his yellow eye flashes at the command given, "As you command Megatron. Searching data....Searching.....Searching...."

 

While Soundwave looks for the data in his memory chips, the smaller Decepticon called Rumble walks over to Megatron and points out to the human settlement below.

 

"Look Megatron! More of those creatures! Man they seem to be all over this place...."

 

Megatron looks down at the mini Decepticon, "Who cares! They're no threat to us, if those weapons they used back at the ship are all they have at their disposal, then this world is ours to do with as we see fit!"

 

Soundwave finishes his research and gives his leader a rundown on what has happened, "I have completed the search. It has been nearly over one hundred million years since our collision, this planet has evloved since that time and spawned the main speices of this world called the Human race."

 

"One hundred million years huh....", the leader contimplates, "Much time has passed my Deceptions, no wonder the stars don't seem familiar to us anymore."

 

Starscream looks at Megatron, "Does that mean Cybertron no longer exsists?"

 

"No...it must exsist. Shockwave would have found a way to keep our kind energized, he's a loyal Decepticon and one that I could always count on to wait for my return."

 

Starscream shakes his head, "Impossible Megatron...our energy supplies were dangerously low when we left, it's very possible that Cybertron burned out long ago...even your precious soldier Shockwave!"

 

"If that is the case....then we are all that remains of a once proud and mighty Empire.", Megatron says with remorse, "Curse those Autobots for doing this to us!! Perhaps now that they are all gone, the time to return to our home world is fortuitous, we can go back and rebuild the Decepticons back to their former glory....a new age for Cybertron!"

 

The others had heard their leader's words and cheered about the possiblity of going home to begin the Decepticon rule. But as they all rejoiced, Soundwave detected something on his internal scanners and looked out at the sky. Megatron saw Soundwave perk up a bit and knew the communications officer had heard something.

 

"What is it Soundwave? What do you hear?"

 

"Airborne crafts are approaching at rapid speed.", Soundwave says in the monotone synthizied voice.

 

As Megatron gazes out, he has trouble seeing what lays beyond the horizon, he looks back at his group of warriors, "Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp! Transform and investigate...."

 

All three bow at his command and transform, Starscream transforms into his grey toned F-19 stealth jet mode, Thundercracker transforms into his F-18 blue angel mode, and Skywarp transforms into the black F-22 Raptor. Together they all blast off straight into the sky and put on their thrusters to speed up to the target. Starscream takes point lead and moves slighty ahead of his fellow air armada. Inside his cockpit, all the normal instruments and design of the human built make up of that model are seen. The monitor sitting in the middle of the dashboard shows that the Decepticon is locking on to their position, a quick flip of the screen soon shows a zoom in of the objects in question. It's the military helicopters carrying the General and his troops. Inside of them, the General and the two agents soon are soon informed by the helicopter pilot of something heading their way.

 

" Sir! We've got three un-identified aircrafts heading our way."

 

The General gets up from his seat in the back of the helicopter and leans into the cockpit to have a look, "It might be the air support I called in...give them a shout on the radio."

 

"I did sir...but I'm getting no response back.", the pilot says.

 

The General looks confused, "No...wait a second. They can't be the air support, I just called for them only four minutes ago and the air base isn't even near here....then... who the hell are they?"

 

The Decepticon jets go screaming past the helicopters causing a major wind tunnel in their wake, the choppers all struggle to keep airborne and balance out from the aftermath. Starscream and the other turn around to make for another pass, he contacts Megatron and reports on what they've discovered.

 

"Starscream to Megatron...Come in Megatron"

 

"Megatron here, report Starsceam...", the leader's voice responds back to them.

 

"It appears these humans have the technology to fly. They have strange, primitave looking vehicles that are armed with those inferior weapons again. Perhaps that is were Telatran One aquired our new bodies from..."

 

Skywarp flying behind him booms out his voice, " Ugh...what a disgusting thought. To think we have them to thank for our new transformations."

 

Thundercracker also gives his opinion, "You mean we're stuck with these forms? Great...I'm beginning to hate this planet already."

 

Megatron laughs, "Foolish flesh creatures, they dare challenge us in the skies? Starscream, teach them a lesson in flying."

 

The leader's evil laughter makes Starscream and the other jets laugh as well.

 

"As you command Mighty Megatron! Alright guys...lets give them a more proper hello...Bwahahahahaha!!!"

 

Inside the helicopter, the pilot warns the old commander again, " Sir, they're coming round for another pass!"

 

"Damnit I want to speak to those pilots! Just who the hell is flying those things anyway?"

 

The agents look at one another and Connors makes a wild guess, "The aliens! I'll bet you they took control of some of our aircrafts and pitted them against us!"

 

The General looks back with doubt, "Stop your stupid guess work Connors, it's done nothing to help us so far."

 

Connors shouts back at him, "Hey anytime you want to relieve yourself from command is fine with me General, I'll gladly take over this whole operation from you! So back off old timer..."

 

The pilot interrupted all of their conversations by screaming back at them, "Here they come!!"

 

Starscream rushes in first and does air stunts around the small helicopters causing them to shift about and lose control, next is Thundercracker and Skywarp, they rush in and just narrowly graze the crafts as they come streaking by. One of the helicopters looses total control and crashes to the ground in a fiery explosion. The rest return to normal and try to fly down lower to the ground in an attempt to give the jets a harder time to start it up again. The General, cursing up a storm, gets hold of his head set again and radios in to the air base.

 

"This is Alpha leader calling Air Base One....where are my damn Fighters?!"

 

A crackled message comes over his head set as someone responds to his distress, "This is Red Eagle One to Alpha Leader...have no fear the calvery is here."

 

Coming in from the distance is a group of five fighter jets, the lead jet has the marking of a red eagle on the side of his cockpit and the pilot inside sees the three attacking jets on his monitors.

 

"Red Eagle One to all fighters, lets take'm down y'all"

 

They all dive down to attack the Decepticon jets, but Starscream sees them and laughs with joy, "Terrific!! Thundercracker! Skywarp! They've sent us our target practice!! ATTAAAACCCK!!!"

 

Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp slam into over burn and zoom straight for the on-coming jets piloted by the humans. Starscreams weapons on either side of his wings, usually sitting attached to his arms when transformed, now lock themselves on the lead jet and fire a rapid burst of his null rays at it. Unprepared for the barrage of devastating impacts from the weapon, the pilot screams a blood curling scream as each of the hits destroy pieces of his jet fighter. With one last shot from the Decepticon air commander, the human jet explodes in a fiery ball of flame, as the debris scatters across the sky and defecting off of the other jets now scrambling to get out of the way. Starscream laughs in triumph as he streaks through the area where the jet once was, but then Thundercracker comes racing by and follows two human jets trying to shake him off their trail. The blue Decepticon F-18 rolls around in the air behind them, an almost taunting gesture, and then fires his two side missiles that were attached to his wings. The two human pilots barrel rolled, dived and did every maneuver in the book to out do the missiles that were inching up to them, but they couldn't seem to lose them no matter what they did. Before either one of them could eject, the missiles struck them and exploded both jets on impact. Thundercracker rolled and flew back down to where Starscream was cruising.

 

"This is fun! Nothing beats my Heat Seeking missiles! Those humans never stood a chance...hey...where's Skywarp? "

 

The last two human pilots flying away in their jets where making a break back to base, suddenly they could hear a loud voice coming over their communication radio.

 

"Where ya going? This party ain't over yet...� Skywarp's sarcastic voice said to them.

 

A few laser shots came raining down on top of the jets, as the humans looked up they saw the black F-22 Raptor coming down on top of them. The two swerved to get out of his path, but as he came past them the jet began to vanish from their sight as they looked at it.

 

"Now you see me...� Skywarp said in a playful mood, " Now you don't!"

 

The Decepticon had indeed vanished into thin air, as if a cloak of invisibility suddenly was draped over him, A whooshing sound came off of him when it happened, for a few seconds it looked as if he had blurred almost as if he was increasing his speed. As the pilots looked around frantically, they didn't notice how close they were to one another, still they whipped their heads around as they stared out the cockpit window. They struggled to see where the jet was, then Skywarp's voice boomed out again at them.

 

"Comin' Through!!"

 

The pilots looked straight ahead and saw the Decepticon F-22 come streaking out as he materialized directly in their flight path, the human pilots freaked out as they saw Skywarp fully coming into view and on a direct collision course with them. Just as Skywarp looks as if he's about to crash into them both, the once again blurs and vanishes into thin air. But the humans panicked as it occurred, which made them crash into one another as they both tried to move out of the way. The planes exploded and debris once again littered the sky. The wreckage spilt down to the ground and impacted on the surface, fire and smoke billowed out of it as the rest of the fuel began to burn. As Starscream and Thundercracker flew overhead, Skywarp came streaking out to be seen again and flew beside the two of them. The black sleek Decepticon jet was chuckling as he pulled up.

 

"Humans are the dumbest creatures I've ever encountered. Megatron is right...this world is going to be a pushover!"

 

Starscream continued to laugh in an irritating tone, "Time to head back to Megatron boys! We're done teaching them not to mess with us."

 

The evil jets all cranked their boosters and headed back to their leader, the three of them laughing and doing incredible aerial stunts as they vanished off into the distance. On the ground, the General and the remaining helicopters sat out of sight, the survivors looked on as they all realized the aliens were going to be tougher to stop then they thought. The two agents also looked on, Connors looked at his buddy Drakemore and he in turn looked back with the same deadpan stare. The sound of a cell phone flipping open and a dial tone ringing could be heard, Connors had it in his hand and raised it up to his head.

 

"This is Agent Connors, tell Area 51 to prepare the weapon...oh and have the Project N leader contacted. I don't care if he's busy in the arctic; just tell him get down here right away. We're going to need his help on this as well...Tell him that the sleeping giants are awake..."

 

The General looks back as he over hears the agent's call, the look of deep concern on his face doesn't even faze the agents as they see him gazing in their direction.

 

••••••••••••••••••••••••••â€

•••••••••••••••••••••••••

 

Inside the Ark, the repair laser is still hard at work bringing the Autobots to life, while the humans help drag in the rest that were scattered down the hallway. Ironhide, Prowl, Wheeljack and Hound all check to see their limbs are in working order. They stand there watching the humans help bring in the rest of their friends, Wheeljack looks more interested then the rest of them, eyeing the species very carefully. Ironhide huddles over to Hound and Prowl and whispers to them.

 

"What are these things? They look kinda weird and funny looking..."

 

Prowl whispers back as he continues to look over, "Maybe Optimus adopted them as our new pets or something?"

 

"Not likely Prowl", Hound snickers, "I know Prime, he'd never take any alien life and make them slaves...face it guys, these our new allies."

 

"Allies?? Them?! Don't make me laugh Hound.� Ironhide now says raising his voice, " They don't even look like they could withstand a strong wind."

 

Suddenly Cliffjumper comes running over to them, " Hey fellas! Long time no transform huh? Hahaha!"

 

"Cliffjumper you lil' titanium hardnosed scrapper, good to see ya back in the land of the living!� Prowl says to him.

 

"Hey Prowl, I hear these humans found us...and the Decepticons too! Apparently they're the ones that let them loose."

 

Ironhide grumbles, "What? Why those idiots! Now how are we supposed to win the war with that lot running around again? Stupid humans..."

 

Some of the men stop to look at the metal giant, his words where loud enough to ring out to most of the bridge; the human workers looked offended by Ironhide's comment and tried to work away from him. Optimus Prime came over and stood right in front of the insulting robot.

 

"Ironhide, I wish you would keep your opinions to yourself. These humans have much to be thanked for by us..."

 

The cranky red robot soldier just chuckled at Optimus, "Thankful? For what? They let out the Decepticons Optimus! Megatron and his goons are gonna stop at nothing to get back home...hell, we don't have enough energon to fight them boys again full on. It would have been more fitting to leave us where we were before...at least then Megatron would be gone from Cybertron for good."

 

Prime shook his head and folded his arms together, "Ironhide...it would have made little difference if Megatron was dead or not. Someone would always be there to replace him and keep the battle going. I'll agree that these humans made a terrible mistake opening up this ship and freeing the Decepticons, but they couldn't have known what was in here, nor could they have realized the impact of what they had done. I've told them enough for now, they seem pretty willing to help us get back on our feet, but don't underestimate these humans...like every intelligent creature in the universe, there always two sides to their nature."

 

Wheeljack looks over at the leader, "Tell me Prime, where are we? Telatran One isn't giving out too much information right now, I think Ratchet and I need to over haul its systems."

 

"When the rest of the Autobots are repaired, I'll give a full briefing...but for now I'll tell you this, we're on the same planet we tried to get the energy core from and it's been some time since we crashed here."

 

Hound looks at Optimus, "How do these humans know our language? Or how do we know theirs? Can't just be a coincidence."

 

Wheeljack lifts his finger up, "I'll field this one.... you see Telatran One must have downloaded the human information network and deciphered the linguistic communication, as we were being repaired some of the language files must have imprinted onto our brain functions. They have a wide variety of dialects on this planet, but this one form called, English, must be the most common form of language to speak. Telatran must have figured we would need to communicate with this form of life and given us the necessary skills to do so. You follow?"

 

Hound scratches his head, "Uhm...yeah.... sure."

 

Ironhide raises his hand up to Wheeljack as he sees the robot ready to continue his theory, "Stop. He gets it...No need for you to explain it any further. I know you...if he doesn't give you yes or no, you'll yap on until we're all bored to death. We speaky they lang-ish, Ok?!"

 

Wheeljack looks a bit taken back by Ironhide's harsh response and shrugs his shoulders. It is true that if Wheeljack doesn't hear a straightforward answer, he'll continue to talk on and on about the subject until that person does understand. Wheeljack loves science and technology, so much so that he can often get lost in his work or even his own theories. Many can tolerate his never ending rambles, like Optimus Prime, but many others believe that Wheeljack only does it because he likes the sound of his own voice. So rather then explain the rest, Wheeljack walks away from Ironhide and the others continuing to study the humans walking around. Optimus Prime looks at Ironhide in a stance of disapproval of his actions; a deep look with folded arms and a slightly closed eye on the right.

 

"I know, I know...� Ironhide says backing down, " Control that temper. Sorry Prime, I'm just frustrated that’s all."

 

Prime reaches over and pats him on the shoulder, "We all are Ironhide...Just learn to cool it down a shade for the sake of the others, hm?"

 

On the far side of the room, down near the bridge's exit, Spike stays out of the way and watches the others work. He feels guilty for being the one that let those evil robots out and killing the two guards. Even though it was only an accident, he can't help but realize if it hadn't been for him, none of this would be happening at all. Sparkplug comes walking over to him and grips his son's shoulder in comfort.

 

"You know, when I heard that you dropped out of university.... I was so mad. I kept hoping you'd be the one to go on and do great things, my dad never gave me that chance, he wanted me to get a real job and not pursue hopeless dreams. I guess I was hard on you, I know your mother would have told me so..."

 

Spike giggled, "Yeah, mom would have...but she would have ripped into me as well. It's funny, but when I did leave I could almost hear her say, ' don’t throw away your whole life because of me! '. I miss her dad."

 

Sparkplug's lip quivers a bit and tries not to show his tears, overcome by his emotions he rubs his son's shoulder, "I do too, son. But...I want you to know that I'm not angry at you anymore, seeing all of this...the ship, the aliens...it would have been something your mother would have looked on as you have. Amazement and wonder, with so many possibilities.... now I see what I've been missing for so long, it makes me realize that life is too short and it is full of surprises. If we don't cherish the time we have together day by day...those...wonderful surprises could end. And I don't want them to end.... ok? Give us a hug son."

 

The two share a loving father and son embrace, Spike had waited so long to hear his father say those kind words, it was almost like a miracle to the both them. A few sniffles from their noses and they pulled away from one another, the father cleared his throat and started composed himself again.

 

"Ok...uhm...Bill over there needs some help lifting that...whatever it is...and I'm going to go check to see if the aliens need any minor repairs."

 

Spike nods and also comes back into focus, " Right...right...ok."

 

The father walks off and Spike turns around to go find Bill, but as soon as he turns a fairly tall yellow robot stands behind him. This one wasn't as large as the other Autobots hanging around; in fact it was almost half the size of the others. A large red Autobot symbol was sitting on the robot's yellow chest and his head had small horns protruding out from on top. The bright blue-eyed robot looked down at him curiously and spoke to the startled boy.

 

" Wow, are you humans always that emotional?", the young sounding robot said.

 

"Uh...not all the time. Who are you?"

 

The yellow Autobot smiled and shook Spike's hand as gentle as he could, "The name's Bumblebee, I'm...ah...just a junior officer, but I can put up fight like another Autobot here."

 

"Bumblebee? I thought that was a human name for an insect?"

 

Bumblebee put his arm around the back of his head and rubbed it in embarrassment, "A well...you see, there is another insect in the galaxy that has a name similar to you pronunciation. The fellas kind of gave me the name because I stepped in a nest of them one time and well.... the name stuck."

 

"Really.... so you've traveled to other worlds before?", Spike asks him curiously.

 

"Well, before the war we did...there was lots of energon before those days."

 

Spike squinted his eyes, not understanding what he meant, "Energon? What the heck is that?"

 

Across the room Optimus could hear what the two were talking about, like a scolding father Prime gave a warning to the young Autobot.

 

"Bumblebee...."

 

The yellow transformer turned his head and saw the leader shaking his head not him not to utter another word about it. Bumblebee's eyes squinted and he turned back to Spike with a nervous grin on his face, he mildly chuckled and tried to change the subject.

 

"Aaaaah oh hey! Wanna see what I can do?"

 

The yellow creature began transforming in front of Spike, the sound of it could be heard as he folded and contorted into his new form. It looked like current model of the Volkswagen Beetle, the interior was all leather inside or simulated at least, and the dashboard looked like something out of the future. The standard steering wheel remained, but more monitors and computerized components filled the dash. Spike was amazed by the transformation, never had he seen anything like it before, not that he sees thing transforming before his eyes on a daily basis. The other men working near by also stopped in amazement, Sparkplug's mouth hung open as this robot turned into a car in front of his son. Spike's eye lit up with excitement.

 

"Cooool!!"

 

"Are you cold?� the yellow bug car asks.

 

"Huh? Oh, no, no...ahaha.... it’s a human expression. It's what we say when something is amazing to us or fun."

 

The Beetle revs up his engine, "Ooooh I get it. Cool!"

 

Optimus Prime walks over to the little Volkswagen, "Bumblebee I told you not to transform...you could have scared the humans doing that!"

 

" Come on Prime...I can't stay in robot form forever. Besides...they think I'm cool! Hey Spike, you wanna go for a ride?"

 

Bumblebee’s driver door pops open on its own and Spike again is amazed by that small fact. He looks over at his father and gives him a look as if to say, " Can I?". Sparkplug thinks about what the military would do if they let him go, but figured they were in deep enough...so why not go all the way. He reluctantly nods in agreement.

 

"Just don't go too far...we don't know what will happen outside the area."

 

Optimus Prime agrees with Sparkplug's suggestion, "Alright...you can go, but just like this human said Bumblebee, not too far."

 

Spike hops into the car and takes a seat, suddenly a large seatbelt harness slaps across his body as the door closes.

 

"Sorry about the restraints, I don't come with a Gravity Interlocking Motion Device." Bumblebee says to Spike.

 

"No biggie Bumblebee, neither do humans."

 

The yellow Volkswagen screeches its tires and zips right out of the room as high-speed, Spike gasps for air as the little bug car dodges and narrowly misses people, objects and debris. As soon as they get to the doors, the car flies out and lands hard on the ground outside. Bumblebee continues to speed down the mountainside and right past the military checkpoint. The guards sitting in the checkpoint room snap out of their boredom and rush out to stop the car, but as they look beyond the road, all they can see is the backside and a large trail of dust behind it. Spike and Bumblebee laugh out loud and both let out a youthful scream of freedom. As the car below races along the dirt road, high above a group of beaten and smoldering helicopters come back towards the spacecraft site. Inside the main helicopter, the General, agents Drakemore and Connors all look out and see the yellow vehicle speeding along. Connors whips out a pair of binoculars and sees the Autobot icon sitting on the top of the car's roof. Gritting his teeth hard, he lowers the binoculars and starts yelling at the General.

 

"Damnit! There's more of those things coming out of it...we've got to contain this thing."

 

The General was too busy listening into his headset, he was having a conversation with one of the men on the ground as he and the others were approaching.

 

"What?! Are you crazy? I don't care if you didn't have enough men to hold them off...no one was supposed to go in there! You met whom? Listen.... no shut up...I said Listen.... come to the helipad and talk to me there once we've landed. I want a full briefing and then you and your men are going to reassemble in two hours."

 

The General paused as he continued to listen to whomever he was speaking too on the ground, his eyes shifted over to the agents as they both gazed out of the helicopter with a look of amazement. As the General looked over to see what they were looking at, he uttered his last words to the soldier below.

 

"You've got two hours Lieutenant, tell the men... and then pray to God, because we're about to go to war!"

 

Taking off the headset from himself, he could finally see what the two agents were looking at. Down below on the ground, just near the spaceship, stood a bunch of Autobots looking around. The General and Drakemore had never seen what they looked like before, they noticed the massive Optimus Prime come walking out and were rendered speechless. Prime watched the helicopters fly by and land on a small patch of dirt next to the mountain; he noticed the considerable damage on their primitive machines and instinctively knew they had come into contact with the Decepticons. It would seem that the civil war between the Decepticons and Autobots has now restarted, with the humans caught in the middle of it all.

 

••••••••••••••••••••••••••â€

••••••••••••

 

Returning back to Megatron and the other Decepticons, Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker transform as soon as they reach them. They touch down near the leader and discuss how the encounter went.

 

"Report Starscream." Megatron commands.

 

Starscream smirks, "Better then we could ever hope for mighty Megatron. The humans are no threat to us what so ever, it appears they lack the sufficient weapons to even dent our metal."

 

Skywarp adds to the conversation, "Yeah, I had no problem taking those wimpy jets of theirs out of the sky. My teleportation was a waste of time on those things."

 

"Good, then the human threat isn't even worth our attention.� The sliver polished leader says, "That human settlement down below over there seems perfect for us to begin..."

 

"Begin what Megatron?� Thundercracker says in his lumbering voice.

 

Megatron points down to the small town below the cliff they're all standing on, "Begin building our ship to get back home moron! Down there is the perfect spot...nothing around for miles and enough resources for us to start construction."

 

Rumble, the small mini-robot looks down at the sleepy community that’s totally unaware of their presence, "You've got to be kidding! There isn't enough steel and materials to even make the ship."

 

The leader looks down at his small soldier and flashes his red evil eyes at him, "Be silent! I meant we need to clear out the area to begin, all of buildings and asphalt the humans have will be enough to make the base. Then we'll go out and rip out as much metal from this planet we need to make our ship!"

 

The small robot flinched as his leader scolded him, Rumble took a few steps back as he recoiled away from Megatron and stood by Soundwave's side again as if to seek his protection. Beside the towering mini-disk player robot was another mini-bot, similar to Rumble in every aspect of design. Frenzy was the clone of Rumble; the only way to tell them apart was that Frenzy is red and black, while Rumble is the pale purple and blue. The red and black version of him laughed and pointed at him.

 

"Ha, ha...Megatron totally ripped in to you! "

 

"Dah...shaddup!� Rumble shouted back at his laughing doppelganger.

 

Megatron controlled his anger and looked at the two micro creatures, "Now if there are no more stupid remarks to be made.... Rumble, you and Frenzy fly down and shake up the foundation. Soundwave launch Laserbeak and Ravage to survey the area...I want no more interruptions from these human dolts."

 

"As you command Megatron!", the blue robot's voice harmonized in it's resonating tone, " Laserbeak! Ravage! Eject...Operation, Surveillance."

 

He then pressed a button on top of his chest, a built in grey push button that made a quick whooshing noise as he touched it. As it made the sound, his clear plated chest opened up and ejected two flat mini-disks, both looking equal in size. As they came out, each disk transformed and revealed their true forms. Laserbeak, now looking more like a machine made Earth hawk, screeched and flapped its wings as they unfurled. Ravage, a black and grey colored Earth style panther, landed to the ground on all fours and growled away as its tail calmly swung behind him. The two quickly left the area and began their spying from both the ground and the air. Megatron looked proud of his two most loyal spies, the only ones that seemed to know their place under his command. Rumble and Frenzy both quickly jumped off the cliffside and flew down to the small town below; their arms began a quick transformation, from regular arms that had hands to large shoulder attached pile drivers. Both robots were capable of this transformation; they were the pile-driving duo that shook many Autobots from their combined talents. Looking back at the rest of his menacing evil warriors, Megatron walked over to them all as they stood around casually.

 

"Now Deceptions...together we shall drain this planet dry of it's resources, we shall conquer all who dare stand in our way...but first...we will rebuild our ship and prepare to return to our home world. The time for our destiny is at hand! "

 

The cheers from all of them made the leader smile, the sound of them chanting his name proudly gave him an ego boost he felt he needed. Starscream turned away while the others praised the leader, he didn't think Megatron deserved this shameless self-morale booster, a passing streak of jealousy that the air commander seemed to dwell on. Megatron rose to the air and hovered over them.

 

"Forward Decepticons! Let us begin the slaughter!!"

 

They all transformed and rushed down the cliff, the town was about to get the rudest awakening they'd ever known.

 

End of chapter Five

Chapter Six – The Calm Before The Storm

 

 

Racing down through the dirt roads of the mountainous countryside, Bumblebee and Spike continued to drive down towards the main highway well beyond the quarantined area. The struggling motor and sounds of the yellow car's tires spinning in the dirt soon evened out as he came on the black asphalt highway.

 

"Aaaawwww yeah, much better...that was killing my shock absorbers!"

 

Spike looked worried as he realized where they were, " Uh, Bumblebee.... I don't think we should go down this highway...I mean.... remember what Prime and my dad said..."

 

"Oh come on Spike! Live a little...besides my tires need to feel something smooth for a change. Optimus Prime won't know.... and neither will your dad.... we just won't tell them is all. Just a few minutes on this paved road...pleeeaaase?"

 

Spike shook his head and smiled, "Oh alright you rascal. Who am I to argue anyway...I'm not even driving!"

 

It really did strike the young man as hilarity, his hands weren't on the wheel and yet the car was steering in all the right directions. What some people wouldn't have give to be in his shoes right now, alien robots, cars that drive themselves, it was like a wonderful fantasy come to life. The yellow beetle drove down the smooth black road, the heat steaming off of it as the sun baked away on it's surface, it was a very warm day out in the valley to be sure. Spike folded his arms behind his head and leaned back in his drivers seat. Bumblebee turned on his air conditioner and began fiddling with the radio.

 

"Hey what are all these signals coming in? Sounds like you're airwaves are cluttered with them all."

 

Spike laughed, "That's our music stations...humans use the radio to listen to all sorts of things, but music is what we usually tend to put on when were driving."

 

"Oh.... Cool!", Bumblebee says.

 

Flipping through the various stations, he stops on each one as Spike listens, some where classical, some were nothing but talk or bible chat, but the one he came on was more of the current music being played. Spike finally heard a song he loved and shouted out to the robot to keep it there. The tune blasted away inside as they speeded along the road, Spike bobbed his head to the melody and closed his eyes as he listened. As he began opening them again, he could see someone walking along the hot roadside. He perked up in his seat and alerted his new robotic friend.

 

"Slow down Bumblebee...there's someone out here!"

 

"Huh...Oh right.... let me turn down this music..."

 

Spike looked closer through the windshield, "It... It looks like.... a.... a woman?"

 

His eyes did not lie; it was in fact a woman, an average sized woman walking down the road. She was wearing a white baseball cap turned backward, a cream colored shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of shorts that matched. The shirt underneath was a light blue and a gold-chained necklace hung around her neck as it slightly glared from the sun hitting it. Her legs, face and arms all seemed wet with perspiration, the hot sun and walking along the hot ground caused her to pant deeply. She looked more like an out of place explorer to Spike, but as they got closer and closer, he could definitely make out her lovely figure. She looked back at them as they came up the road; it was hard not to spot them, as they were the only car around for miles. The long outstretch of road looked like it went on forever, not a place of shade for thousands of miles, Spike was always a Good Samaritan and decided to give this poor woman a lift.

 

"Bumblebee we have to give her a ride...this sun will kill her out here."

 

"I dunno Spike...we might get into trouble if we linger to long from the ship."

 

Spike tapped the dash of the car, "Who told me to live a little, huh? Just don't say a word and everything will be alright...oh and I'll have to look like I'm driving so give me control."

 

Bumblebee sighed, "Oh...alright. Just don't crash me or anything. I just know she's going to soil my new interior...trust me to get the wet ones."

 

Spike helms control of the wheel as they slow down and pull up beside the woman. Spike lowers the passenger side window and smiles to the woman bending down to look inside.

 

"Hey there...� he says to her, "You need a ride somewhere?"

 

The woman bending down leans on the car, Spike now sees she’s a young woman almost about his age and giving him a big white teeth grin. Her eyes where hidden from the fashionable sunglasses she was wearing, and a small streak of sun blocking cream was on her nose cheeks.

 

"Oh thank you! I didn't think I would make it out of this area alive if you hadn't stopped!"

 

Spike nodded, "No prob. Get in before you burn to a crisp."

 

She opened the door and sat inside, once closing the door, she took off her sunglasses and removed her baseball hat. As she looked over smiling, Spike could see she had the most amazing hazel eyes; she had shoulder length golden blond hair and the face of a beauty queen. Needless to say she mesmerized him, he sat there speechless as she told him where she wanted to go.

 

"If it's not too much trouble...could you drop me off at the next town? I'll be able to phone for a ride or catch a bus.... or something."

 

Spikes eyebrows raised as he tried to speak, " Uh...oh...yeah, sure.... right.... no...No problem."

 

Bumblebee was helpless to this all taking place; he revved his engine at Spike so he would wake out of his daze from looking at her. Spike snapped out of it and began to drive off down the road again; he quickly regained his cool nature and questioned her.

 

"So...how did you end up out here? I mean I don't think there's a bus route or anything..."

 

She giggled a bit, taking out a water bottle from her shorts pocket and taking a quick sip from it, " My car broke down a few miles back, talk about the worst places for it to happen.... thank goodness I had my water with me. And then I realized I forgot my cell phone back in California...so..."

 

"Oh a Cali-girl huh? "

 

She smiled a bit, "Yeah...but I'm a bit of an outcast. My folks live on the beach, but I'm not much of a surfer girl. Oh how rude of me, we didn't even introduce ourselves! My mom always harps on me for not showing my manners..."

 

"Oh yeah that’s right...ha-ha...my dad would say the same thing. Anyways, I'm Spike Witwitcky...."

 

"Hello...", shaking his hand as he presents it to her, "...I'm Carly Jenkins"

 

Spike smiles back at her and returns his hands to the wheel to drive, "Are you a student out here for the summer or something?"

 

"Oh no...no...I've a...actually graduated along time ago. I've done the whole PhD. and whatnot...."

 

"What's your PhD. in?", he asks her curiously.

 

She takes another sip of her water, "Mathematics and Science, I'm a brainy girl you might say...that’s why I never became the beach bum, I was too busy hitting the books. What about you?"

 

"Oh ah.... actually.... I never really.... finished.", he says to her in an embarrassed tone.

 

She squints at him, "Oh...are you taking time from University to study up for yours?"

 

Rather then give a straight answer and making himself to look like a complete idiot, he simply agrees with her, "Uhh...yeah...something like that. Actually I'm helping out my dad for the time being...earning some extra money...stuff like that"

 

He wasn't sure if she'd buy that, a smart girl like her, now he really did feel nervous. She simply gave a satisfied nod in understanding and took another sip from her water bottle. Looking much more cooler and relaxed, she eased back into the seat as she enjoyed the ride.

 

"Oh I see.... That’s nice of you to help out your dad. Well I hope you don't stay out too long.... cause it can be hell trying to get back into the swing of things. Do you mind if I rest for a bit? I'm tired from the long walk I did."

 

Spike tenses up a bit, he's not sure if that was a snub to stop talking to him or if she's being sincere. But he soon realizes that it was rather hot out, and it was a long walk she did. But still, what’s a girl like her doing out here in the middle of nowhere? Something that even Bumblebee was wondering as he had to stay silent and listen to all this. On the electronic speedometer, Bumblebee communicated with Spike. It read:

 

ASK HER WHAT SHE'S REALLY DOING OUT HERE AGAIN, THIS FEMALE SOUNDS LIKE SHE'S NOT JUST OUT HERE FOR A CASUAL STROLL.

 

Spike looks down and reads the message, he nods carefully and looks over at Carly laying her head back, "This is a long way for someone to be out here, what are you really doing this far out?"

 

Carly's eyes pop open at his question, "Uhm...Just doing some research...."

 

Young Witwicky gives a curious look as if he doesn't believe it, "But I thought you said you were done University?"

 

Carly gulps nervously, but looking at this young man that practically rescued her from the desert sun she confesses her real reason, "Ok...I Lied. I know your going to laugh at me or freak out about what I'm about to say next.... but...."

 

Spike takes his eyes off of his focused driving as he looks over and straight into her eyes as they meet, She puckers her lips and continues her confession, ".... I’m.... I’m a...oh damnit...I'm a men in black chaser. "

 

Spike looked even more confused by her answer, "Your a what?!!"

 

"Sorry...that’s the term many seem to give me. I track down all the positions of the mysterious men in black...you know...government secret agents. The guys that hide all the information, UFOs, cover up all the conspiracies.... places like Area 51 and all that sort.", Carly says laying it all out for him to hear.

 

Spike would have been rather freaked out about picking up some nut ball like this, yammering on and on about aliens and conspiracies, but having gone through it all and her being so beautiful, it didn't trouble him in the least. Still, Bumblebee put large question marks on his electronic speedometer as he too heard her blurt it out. Spike simply tapped the dash as if to tell Bumblebee to cut it out. She looked drained, either from having to confess it or being out in the sun all day. Spike took pity on her situation and wanted to know more.

 

"Doesn't sound so weird to me. But I can't see this being your real job, I mean come on...tracking down secret government agents?? Why do you do this?"

 

The blond haired woman sighs, "No this isn't my full time job. My parents don't even know I do this...I lost my job a few months ago because of this obsession I have. I dunno...when I was a little girl, I read all the hype and mystery about this shadow government...hiding alien artifacts and building secret weapons. I told myself that one day I'd go out and track these guys down and discover the truth. After I finished University, I got a cushy job in some marketing firm, but I found it dull and a waste of my talents. So I thought, what the hell. I'll go out and being my dream of studying these guys down and being the first to expose them for all the world to see. Two years later and I'm still looking, I calculated every place they've been.... looked for any weird reports or even odd military placements. I could have sworn I was close...."

 

As she pauses, she finally notices the interior of the car, the dashboard is very futuristic looking, and in fact to her it looks very odd. Studying the inside of the car and looking over at Spike, she sees his outfit is dirty and not at all like someone who could afford a car like this. It seems strange to her she didn't notice it right away, but with trying to get cool again and being grateful someone was around to give her a lift, the moment sort of made her over look it at the time. Her mother use to always tell her not to hitchhike, cause she was afraid her daughter would be 'ravaged' by some maniac, Carly was never one to listen, she had her own mind and could fairly sum up a person rather quickly. Spike looked innocent to her, a workingman obviously, but his eyes gave away a young wisdom she could almost relate too. Still, this was too expensive a car for the likes of him to be driving and some of the electronics in the car looked way too advanced for any human to make.

 

"This is a strange car to be driving? How the hell can you afford a fine vehicle like this?"

 

Spike nervously gulped and giggled a bit, "Oh ah...My father owns a construction company and well...I'm an only child. I guess I'm rather spoiled."

 

The woman wasn't buying it, "Uh huh...so all this fancy equipment is something you picked out and put in the car huh?"

 

"Uhm...yeah...sure. Hey, I like a cool updated look to my cars...uh.... it drives the chicks mad.", Spike says trying to throw her off.

 

"Chicks?", She said with an angry tone, "I'm no chick buster! And I can tell you right now; if this is how you go about trying to impress women then you’re a sad little man. You know what you look like to me? Someone that's hiding something and too chicken crap to cough it up!"

 

Spike gulped again, but didn't like where this conversation was going, now she was becoming angry at his comment and beginning to realize there was more to him then meets the eye. She stared right at him with those hazel eyes of hers and gave him her general theory.

 

"I had calculated the last known sighting of the secret operation, it was somewhere out here in the valley, possibly near a large mountain. Seeing how there are too many to count, I drove around for hours to see any sign of tire prints leading off into the dirt roads. I looked and I looked and I looked...but damned if I could find one coming off the main highway. Now you show up with your spiffy car, covered in filth that looks like the red rock off of one of these mountains and your avoiding my questions with some stupid macho male garbage. Tell me Spike...You wouldn't happen to know of a military operation going on around here now would you?"

 

As Spike sits there totally now ticked off about this woman's arrogant manner towards him, he thinks about curbing her butt back on the side of the road and driving away again. He would like to do that very, very much. Unfortunately if he did then that would confirm every suspicion that Carly had about him, without hesitation he came up with a lie that would quiet her for the time being.

 

"For your information lady, my dad's construction company is doing a job out here, we're clearing a path for a new highway that will tunnel through one of the mountains. So yeah, I've got red rock dust on my pants and yeah, I've got a cool car that you seem very jealous about.... But I don't have a clue on what your talking about some military...whatever. I go out of my way to pick you up and drop you off into town...and this is the thanks I get?? Listen, I'm going to finish taking you to town...but after that...I think it's best we don't ever come into contact with one another ever again. I think all that heat is making you bonkers!"

 

Carly's mouth remained open at this young man's rudeness to her, putting her sunglasses on again, she turns away angry and folder her arms over, "Fine! Be that way...the sooner we get there the better. And don't worry yourself about me ever talking to you...once you drop me off I hope we do never meet again. I pity the poor woman that ever marries a jerk like you...all I asked if you seen anything and you give me this big attitude. Well for the rest of the trip, I'll just sit here quietly in your 'babe magnet' mobile...and you can save me from anymore of your intellectual chatter. Bastard!"

 

Carly leaned back in her chair and turned to her window. Spike was mad at this woman, he could have been a bit more relaxed in his lie, and he could have even been a bit more polite. But being patient is never Spike's strength, his whole life is rushing in where angels fear to tread. Gripping the steering wheel hard, he thought about the whole argument they just had, she was right in some respects, but he was under obligation not to divulge anything further about what he had seen or heard. He and his dad were in enough trouble already, why drag others down into their hopelessness. Bumblebee once again had to listen to their entire human drama. And once again, he voiced his concern on the speedometer.

 

SPIKE...NEXT TIME, JUST AS A REMINDER...LETS NOT PICK UP ANYMORE FEMALES WALKING DOWN THE SIDE OF A ROAD, HM? AND EASE OFF ON MY STEERING WHEEL WILL YA? GEEZ!

 

Spike let his grip loosen on the steering wheel and relaxed a bit more, he'd soon have this woman out of the car and be back to face the punishment from the agents. Even now he thought about what they would really do to him and his father, it seemed as the yellow car drove on down the road, his fate would be sealed no matter which way they went.