Disclaimer: I own the Mars Decepticons, who actually are members of my team in Heavy Metal War over on Seibertron, but any official Transformers characters belong to Hasbro, Takara, Dreamwave, etc...
"Loyalty"
'Episode One: Mars Rising.'
By J.T. Magnus, Turbo.
Jazz couldn't believe this was how it was gonna be. It had been simple, Cosmos had reported that the Decepticons were up to something on Mars and Optimus Prime had formed a team to go there, find out what Megatron was doing and handle it. Now here they were, pinned down in a small canyon by the Decepticons with no way out. It had turned out that Megatron had taken the risk of diverting a number of his forces that were protecting Cybertron to Mars to protect the geo-thermal energy tap that had been constructed on the fourth planet and the Autobots were pinned down by an unexpected number of opponents.
'Somehow, I always expected us to either out-live this war or go out in something flashy that'd take the 'Cons with us,' the Special Operations officer thought.
Autobots, prepare to make a break for it, Prime's voice came over the internal radios of his troops, With luck, some of us will be able to make it back to Earth and inform the Autobots on Cybertron of what's happened.
Trained to analyse people, Jazz caught the unspoken in his leader's statement, 'He's planning a suicide charge.'
It was true, Prime was planning to rush Megatron personally in hopes that it would manage to distract the Decepticons and allow his troops to escape.
"Until all are one," Prime whispered to himself, hoping that Prowl, Ironhide, Ratchet or Jazz managed to make it home. They would be needed to take his place and lead the Autobots until his body and the Matrix of Leadership could be recovered and a new Prime was chosen.
With a deep intake of dusty air through his cooling system, Prime prepared to speak out loud and transmit by radio at the same time, "Autobots..."
"DECEPTICONS, ATTACK!"
All of the Autobots, from Bumblebee to Prime himself braced for an onslaught of weapons fire. The expected barrage came, but not at them...
It came from BEHIND them, towards Megatron's forces.
Bumblebee looked up towards the battle cry and was stunned at the sheer number of Cybertronians that were flying, driving, running and otherwise headed towards the Decepticon Leader and his troops. A trio of planes, one green and white, one white and blue and a third painted red, black and white were engaged in an aerial war with Starscream and his wingmates. A purple and black jet the size of Jetfire was fighting the Coneheads supported only by a small twin-rotor chopper. The Dinobots, always ready for a fight, had rejoined the fray as soon as there was someone shooting at the Predacons, fighting alongside a jaguar much like Ravage except Standard sized, a red and black mech using massive amounts of weaponry and a third mech armed only with his fists. All throughout the battlefield, Autobots were beginning to fight back supported by these new arrivals.
"Are you TRYING to get yourself killed?" A red and black Cybertronian, not much larger than Bumblebee himself asked as he grabbed the yellow minibot and yanked him down just as several rounds passed right through where he had been moments before.
"Thank - WHAT?" Bumblebee had just gotten a good look at the faction insignia on his savior's shoulder, it was black on a red circle instead of purple, but it was unmistakably a Deceptibrand.
The Decepticon blinked his optics off and back on again, "Uh, how about 'This is a rescue'? And if you make a comment about me being 'a little short for a Stormtrooper', you're done for."
Across the battlefield, a dark figure stood up from where he had been waiting and transformed into the form of a Cybertronian truck, uttering one word as his engine revved and propelled him towards his target, "Megatron..."
Laser bolts split the air at high speeds as the green and white plane fired at Starscream, "You've gotten slow, Starscream."
In perhaps a supreme bit of irony, the voice that had spoken, while female, was nowhere near as high-pitched and effeminate as Starscream's own voice when he replied, "Slow? NEVER! I am STARSCREAM!"
A massive energy blast rocked the red and white Seeker as a nearby flying gun shot him, combining it's firepower with that of the other plane to knock Starscream out of the air.
"Thanks, Krunix," the plane said, executing a barrel roll as she looped around to rejoin her own wingmates.
"No problem, Air Commander," Krunix replied, bobbing in the air a moment before shifting targets and firing again.
"'Til all are won!"
The Air Commander nodded inwardly as the powerful shout echoed across the Martian terrain, the enemy Decepticons were about to get a bigger surprise. As one, she and nearly every one of the Decepticons that had come to the Autobots' aid answered in kind...
"'Til all are won!"
Prime was slightly surprised at what he was hearing as he was locked in combat with Onslaught, the words the unknown Decepticons had said were similar to the 'Until all are one' that was often used in reference to the Matrix, but they were different, more battle-oriented...
'More like something a Decepticon would say,' Prime realized, but wondered why he had never heard it said before.
Almost as surprising was the fact that, even though just for a fraction of a second, those words had caused the Combaticon Commander to give quarter in his attacks.
''Til all are won', but that would mean...' went through Onslaught's mind as the same time as it did his own commander's.
"...YOU!" Megatron shouted at the oncoming black form that was ramming it's way through his troops in vehicle mode as it charged him.
Meters before it reached Megatron, the form transformed into a mech as large as Megatron or Prime, of similar design to Prime, a massive sword held in one hand and a pair of equally large cannons resting on his shoulders, "It's been a long time... Megastorm."
Megatron lowered his fusion cannon, ever-so-slightly, "Yes, it has, Stormmaster. Have you finally realized our destiny and come to rejoin us?"
Those that knew him well would've been able to pick up the barest traces of hope in Megatron's voice.
"You're the one who lost sight of our destiny, Old Friend."
There was a shrug from the Decepticon Leader, "I take it this means you won't be standing at my right hand again."
A nod from Stormmaster caused Megatron to bring his own battle sword out of subspace. The great weight of the blade felt right in his hand after so many millions of years away, but this was no ordinary battle sword. This exact kind of battle sword was only given to champions in the State Games before the Great War. In fact, besides Megatron's, only one other of them still survived...
It was the one Stormmaster held in his hand.
The battle slowed to a stop as the two mechs took ready stances. While Megatron held his sword loosely by his side, Stormmaster's rested on his shoulder. Autobots and both groups of Decepticons had turned from their opponents during the exchange between the two leaders. Time itself seemed to slow as the two swordsmechs took measure of each other, each preparing to defend if the other struck first or to strike themselves if the other did not. No one present on the battlefield circulated air through their cooling systems or moved. Blitzwing and Astrotrain were standing beside the Autobot Lamboghini Twins, Soundwave, Blaster and their respective cassettes had all optics trained on the source of the growing tension, and nobody was trying to slag anybody else, they were all waiting to see what would happen next...
Megatron struck first in a manuver that took even his own forces by surprise. Instead of striking with the sword itself, Megatron had used it to support him as he used both feet in a kick to Stormmaster's chest. The attack knocked the other mech off-balance and backwards, but failed to knock him down, leaving him free to use his own sword to block Megatron's follow-up downward slash. Stormmaster countered with a punch to Megatron's midsection, causing the flow from his energon tank to his energon pump to skip for a moment, the Cybertronian equivilent of a human having the wind knocked out of them. He quickly followed up by firing a salvo from his arm-mounted exhaust pipes/lasers, scoring a series of hits on his opponent. A harsh barking intake of air marked the realignment of Megatron's fuel systems as he used his flight systems to gain some distance.
"I'm surprised I fell for that, 'Master, it always was one of your favorite moves."
Stormmaster's optics narrowed, "I'm not. This isn't a sparring match, Mega', one of us is leaving with his shield, the other's going out on his."
"So be it," Megatron agreed with a nod as each returned to their ready stance.
No one could tell who launched the first strike this time, the two combatants were moving so quickly that few were able to keep up, each swinging their sword with the sole intent of deactivating the other. Stormmaster stumbled as Megatron caught him in the side with a well-spun heel kick. Using his own flight systems, Stormmaster dodged the following strike that would've been fatal if he hadn't.
'He's flying and fighting... like a Decepticon,' Prime noted, watching the fight with his laser rifle in his hand, held by his side, 'But that design... it's an Autobot design.. like Dion's had been... there's differences, but the basics are still there...'
Out of subspace and into his free hand came Stormmaster's own laser rifle, which he fired at Megatron. For his part, Megatron used his battle sword to block the laser bolts before firing a blast from his fusion cannon towards Stormmaster. A pair of plates on Stormmaster's shoulders rotated and the energy from the blast was drawn into them, then he subspaced his weapons and returned the energy back at Megatron through his arm lasers, scoring deep into - although not penetrating - the Decepticon Commander's armor.
"I've picked up a few new tricks since the Sundering, Mega', have you?" Stormmaster verbally shot at his opponent.
Megatron's fingers passed over the blackened armor of his torso, "Yes, new... But not better!"
Raising his right arm straight up, the barrel of his gun mode connecting to his fusion cannon before Megatron lowered it and brought it to bare on Stormmaster. A glowing ball of white-hot energy began to form at the end of the extended barrel. In response, Stormmaster lowered the cannons on his shoulders to lock onto Megatron.
"Storm Cannons, ready... FIRE!"
As the leader of this band of renegade Decepticons fired his main weapons, the Autobots looked on. Even Optimus Prime was stunned at the sheer destructive firepower carried by one Cybertronian.
"What are those...?"
"Plasma pulse cannons," one of the Decepticons, a red and gold mobile fortress/tank answered, "Maximum range of fifteen kilometers with an output of thirty-five megawatts."
Prime couldn't believe his audio receptors, "PPCs? That's starship weaponry!"
As Prime spoke, Megatron fired his fusion cannon, the two forms of energy impacting with each other between the two warriors and causing any loose debris to be sent flying by the shear energy being put off as each poured more and more power into their attack. Many of the Autobots and opposing Decepticons knew that once Starscream had been a scientist and a loyal friend of the Autobot Skyfire before becoming the traitorous backstabbing Air Commander he now was. Equally well known was his intent to claim leadership of the Decepticons for himself.
'With that much power,' the scientist in Starscream raised its head, 'even just a little more would tip the scales and the feedback would destroy them both...'
Soundwave saw it as Starscream raised his Null Ray. He might have disagreed with Stormmaster millions of years ago, but he still understood that Stormmaster was doing what he thought best, the same as he had when he joined the growing underground movement that would soon explode into the Decepticon army as it now was. Soundwave had also known both combatants during their gladiatorial days, Starscream had survived Megatron in the time since the Sundering, but if he interfered, Megatron and Stormmaster would both see to the Air Commander's permanent deactivation. While the thought of Starscream no longer interfering with their plans through his foolish attempts at leadership pleased Soundwave, he also knew that at the same time the Seeker's scientific knowledge and combat ability were still useful. All of this passed through Soundwave's mind in nanoseconds and he reacted as quickly.
Ravage, stop Starscream.
At the command from Soundwave, the robotic jaguar looked around to locate his target. Ravage didn't need to know what he had to stop Starscream from doing, it didn't matter. He knew that if Soundwave had thought a further explaination was needed he would have given one, so obviously he had felt that 'stop Starscream' was good enough.
Ravage pounced, knocking the red and white Seeker to the ground and causing the Null Ray blast to go high into the air instead of striking the ball of energy that the two fighters were creating. Starscream tried to throw Ravage off, but unfortunately for him, Soundwave, Blaster and other near-by Cybertronians had guns pointed at him.
"How about 'Give us a reason'?" Blaster smirked.
"Agreed," Soundwave said simply.
In his periphial vision, Stormmaster had seen what was happening, but he had more immediate concerns.
'Megatron's fusion cannon is linked to a black hole, he doesn't have to worry about running out of energy for it... But I'm down to twenty-seven percent, this keeps up and I'm dead... Gotta end this quick... He's putting out so much energy that I can't dodge, I'd still get caught by the fusion beam. Can't fire at him, if I catch... wait...'
Rotating his shoulder panels again, Stormmaster began lowering the force of his Storm Cannons, letting Megatron's fusion beam creep forward so that he could absorb the outermost force of it.
'Twenty-eight.. -nine... Thirty percent... I'll need to watch it, I can't be too obvious and I can't let it reach me before my power levels at up to sixty-five percent minimum...'
'This isn't like him. Stormmaster, you are up to something,' Megatron thought to himself, fighting to keep from being thrown back by his own fusion beam's force.
Minutes passed, the ball of energy drifted closer to Stormmaster as his energy levels rose by feeding off the ambient energy surrounding the impact, Rumble and Ramhorn entertained themselves by beating on Starscream as they watched the fight...
'Sixty-five!' "NOW!"
Stormmaster shouted the last part, suddenly turning all the energy he had gathered and returning it back at Megatron through his Storm Cannons, piercing the fusion beam that had weakened in turn as its counterpart plasma beam had weakened, staying just strong enough to push the plasma beam back towards the mech firing it. Megatron went flying backwards, his right arm and the fusion cannon mounted to it badly damaged and sparking, Stormmaster fell to his knees, his shoulder plates also sparking with smoke trailing from the damage-blackened panels. Unable to move his arms and with his Storm Cannons overloaded by the raw power that had just gone through them, Stormmaster had no way to win the fight since Megatron's left arm still functioned. Bowing his head, Stormmaster prepared for his former friend and partner to give the killing stroke.
"Decepticons... Return to Earth."
Stormmaster raised his head to see Megatron helped into Astrotrain's shuttle mode by Soundwave.
"I still function!"
Megatron turned to look at the shouting mech, "Next round, Stormmaster. Next round."
Collapsing on the ground, Stormmaster muttered, "Next round, then."
Several of the remaining Decepticons broke away and ran to their commander's side, joined by Ratchet, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. The red and gold tank-mech and a white femme with an obvious helicopter alt dropped to the ground and began pulling equipment out of subspace.
"You and your stupid bouts of honor," The femme complained as Ratchet joined them and began pulling out his own medical equipment.
"That's who he is, Lifeline," the Air Commander commented.
"Be quiet while we're trying to save his life, Athena, or I'll have someone weld your mouthpieces shut," Lifeline answered, pulling off several plates of armor.
"You don't get to die yet," Sunstreaker muttered, "You still owe us a rematch for the State Games..."
"Stick it in your exhaust pipe, Yellow-body," Stormmaster got out just before Ratchet deactivated his higher-level neurological functions.
"He'll make it, Athena," the heavily-armed red and black mech who had fought the Predacons alongside the Dinobots said, "He's too stubborn to die just because he's damaged."
Sideswipe and Sunstreaker nodded in agreement as the red brother spoke, "Believe me, before the war we tried a number of times and he never would.."
No one had the courage to comment that was then, not now. Not even the Autobot Leader who had come to watch the repairs of the leader of the troops of the other side who had come to his Autobots' aid...