Beast Wars and all characters and things related are copyright and trademark of Hasbro and Mainframe Entertainment. This work, however, is the original work of the author.
Note: This story takes place immediately after "Journeys".
Saving Cybertron, Chapter 2
By TVfan
Tripredicus Council Headquarters
General Seaclamp stood on an outdoor observation deck as the latest armies of drones arrived. The councilmember was deeply frustrated by what he saw. Nearly all of the drones were damaged, half of them seriously. He and the others had already guessed that either Optimus or the Resistance were preparing to assault their base, and they would need all their available drones to repeal the coming attack. And these drones would last for an even shorter period of time then a fully functional drone. His disappointment with these drones kept him from looking up as General Cicadacon came up behind him.
"We've made contact with a few of our ships patrolling the Cybertron sector," General Cicadacon spoke to the other councilmember, "they should arrive shortly with reinforcements."
"Transformers or drones?" Seaclamp asked back in a clearly frustrated voice.
"Drones, mostly," Cicadacon answered, "but substantially more intelligent drones then what we have here."
"That is not difficult," Seaclamp grumbled, "Has General Ramhorn determined which direction the attack will come from, yet?"
"Not yet," Cicadacon replied, "He's in the main scanning area trying to pickup any Maximal or Predicon energy signatures. Our transformers are on alert and will lead the initial attack when they're found."
"No," Seaclamp stopped him, "let the drones attack first. We don't have enough transformers here to challenge them in a direct fight. Let the drones provide a distraction and our transformers will reinforce them once the Resistance plays its hand."
Cicadacon was about to answer when he heard General Ramhorn's voice come over the radio.
"General's Cicadacon and Ramhorn, get to the scan-center, immediately," came Ramhorn's voice, "I've found them."
The two rushed with all their available speed to head toward the scan-center to find General Ramhorn looking at a projected map of the area surrounding their headquarters.
"Where are they?" Seaclamp asked quickly as he rushed in.
"About four blocks to the west of us," Ramhorn said pointing to a dotted line on the map, "they're gathered in an alley."
"What are they doing?" Cicadacon questioned as he looked at the map, "preparing to attack?"
"It appears as though they are monitoring our position," Ramhorn commented, "None of them are in the road. If they were to attack, they would be perfect targets."
"How long until our ships arrive here?" Seaclamp asked.
"At least one megacycle," Ramhorn answered him.
"Then send out the drones now," Seaclamp urged, "they will force the battle and will draw them out. Then, while they're distracted, our transformers can engage them, leaving our ships and us to deal with any that may have survive."
Ramhorn glanced to Cicadacon, who nodded. Ramhorn then nodded in agreement.
"And now, let the Battle for Cybertron begin!" Ramhorn spoke.
Outside the Building
Airazor and Terrorsaur both perched in their beast modes watching the Tripredicus Council headquarters, and waiting for what would likely be their attack.
"This is boring," Terrorsaur grumbled, "We should attack."
"Is that all you dream about?" Airazor questioned.
"All we're doing is sitting here," Terrorsaur retorted, "We're not even preparing for anything."
"We were ordered to wait until Optimus and the others arrived," Tigerhawk answered, "even your new leader, Queen, agreed to that."
"Doesn't change the act that this is boring," Terrorsaur grumbled.
Airazor ignored the Predicon flyer for the moment and looked out toward the Tripredicus base. The falcon transformer brought her optics to maximum focus and then backed away in surprise at what she saw.
"If you wanted a fight, Terrorsaur, I believe you've got it," Airazor spoke nervously.
Terrorsaur and Tigerhawk paused their argument to look in the direction the Tripredicus Council headquarters. Moving out from the gates was an army of drones, mostly tank drones, but there were a few cycle drones protecting their flanks, and overhead several squadrons of jet drones.
"Finally," Terrorsaur smiled.
"Dinobot, I think they're onto us!" Airazor called down to their field commander, "Their drones are attacking!"
Dinobot, on the ground, looked around the corner and then snarled at the approaching army. His orders were to wait until the groups that had gone to destroy the factories joined them, but it was clear that the Tripredicus Council was not going to give them the luxury of waiting.
"Airazor, take Terrorsaur and Waspinator and attack the jet drones," Dinobot ordered, "Draw them this way and away from their base. The rest of the flyers are to wait until their main body gets closer, and we will then put them in a crossfire."
"What if the Council sends out their transformers?" Bomb questioned, "They are tougher then the drones and three transformers can't defeat them."
"By the time they work up the courage to actually fight, their drones will be in our crossfire and we can then work from a position of numerical superiority," Dinobot grumbled, "if not… it's a risk we have to take, as our only other options are to run or let them attack us on their terms."
The stinkbug transformer gave Dinobot a very sour look, but wasn't about to start a fight with the male Maximal raptor. He hoped that the groups sent after the factories were on their way.
Elsewhere
Rattrap rushed as fast as he could in his vehicle mode toward the area that Dinobot an the others were supposed to be waiting for the 'factory teams' to arrive. The trip was not easy for the transmetal rat, for multiple reasons. One, was the fact that he was in the open and could easily be ambushed. The other main reason was the Resistance member he was with.
Runner was fast, not as fast as Cheetor, but still faster then Rattrap. As a result, Rattrap spent much of the time trying to keep track of the antelope transformer. But, that wasn't really the problem, as Rattrap did have to chase after Cheetor throughout the Beast Wars. The problem was Runner's nervousness. He expected to be ambushed at every street. Now, Rattrap didn't oppose caution, but Runner's stopping at every intersection ended up slowing both of them down as Rattrap crashed into him.
"We gotta keep going," Rattrap urged as he pulled himself back up, "we can't keep stopping like this… otherwise, we'll be in too many pieces to do anything."
"And run headlong into an ambush?" Runner countered, "I don't know what you went through in the Beast Wars, but things have not been good here, and regardless of how weak the individual drones are, the Tripredicus Council has used enough of them overwhelm any that would oppose them."
"They ain't gonna be ambushing anyone for awhile," Rattrap told him, "we took out their factories, and they've likely sent much of their army elsewhere trying take other places."
"Better to be safe then sorry," Runner retorted beginning to run again, making Rattrap rush to keep up with him.
"I ain't opposed to that, but we're kinda on time table here," Rattrap answered, "stopping and starting is only gonna get us caught as well."
Runner was about to answer when Optimus's voice was heard above them. Both Runner and Rattrap stopped to look up as Optimus and Queen came in for a landing in front of them.
"How'd it go?" Optimus asked.
"We got the factory, and we're on our way to where Dinobot and the others are," Rattrap told him.
"So far, so good then," Optimus nodded.
"Hopefully, Dinobot has decided to wait for us," Queen grumbled, "I want to be there when I be there when the Tripredicus Council is taken down."
"Are there any drones ahead of us?" Runner asked.
"None that we saw," Optimus commented, "and if there are any, most of them are likely trying to rush to their base to try and anticipate our 'attack' on their base."
"Which will destroy them once and for all!" Queen added.
"Well, that's peachy," Rattrap commented, "I don't suppose we could get a ride, could we?"
"I don't see a problem with that," Optimus commented as he lifted Rattrap up in his massive hands.
Queen merely, returned to her beast mode and gripped Runner with her legs.
"Let us hurry," Queen said urgently.
Optimus and Queen took to the air again, each carrying their respective members and heading toward the rendezvous point. They flew only a block before an explosion was heard in the distance.
"Dinobot didn't wait, I guess," Rattrap commented.
"Hopefully he had a good reason," Optimus sighed and accelerated.
Outside the Tripredicus Council Headquarters
Airazor easily flew through several formations of drones, destroying them as she went. Flanking her were Terrorsaur and Waspinator, who also had no trouble in destroying several jet drones. But, there were more drones coming, and the drones on the ground actually stopped and began firing up at them.
"If is the best they have, then we can crush them all," Terrorsaur spoke confidently as he dodged ground fire and destroyed two more drones that were trying to turn around.
"These drones are intended to draw us out," Airazor warned the pterosaur transformer, "when they're confident that they've drawn everyone out, they'll back these guys up."
"Then Waspinator thinks we should destroy them now," Waspinator buzzed from beside her and destroyed two more jet drones with his stinger darts.
"We need to draw them toward the others," Airazor corrected as she watched a shot from the ground hit Waspinator, knocking the transmetal two wasp away from their location, "then all the drones will be destroyed."
"Killjoy," Terrorsaur grumbled as he slammed two jet drones together with his bare hands.
Several more jet drones flew out and began firing, using their laser fire as a blaster fire like a plow to force the Maximal and two Predicon transformers away. Airazor fired a few darts and then dove down and toward the waiting force of transformers. Terrorsaur and Waspinator quickly followed. The drones followed behind, firing as they went. Unfortunately for several jet drones, the fire from many of the tank drones on the ground was so poorly aimed that the tank drones actually destroyed several jet drones as well.
Dinobot and Rapther, meanwhile kept a close eye on the developing battle. The drones were yet to do anything to impress the transmetal two raptor, and he was confident that even the three transformers being fired on could destroy every drone in the force that was advancing. The drones fired wildly, with several of their shots doing damage to the buildings along the street that they were advancing.
"How these things conquered the planet I'll never know," Rapther commented showing her own disappointment at the quality of the opponent.
"They had more transformers helping them when they took over Cybertron," Bomb reminded the transmetal female raptor, "before we realized just how wrong the Tripredicus Council was."
The two raptors only snarled their disapproval.
"The drones may actually help us a bit with their wild firing," Blackarachnia called from he other alley, "the rubble from the buildings will provide us with a barricade in the middle of the street."
"So long as they don't damage the buildings to the point where they collapse," Dinobot replied as Airazor, Waspinator, and Terrorsaur flew overhead.
"They're on their way, and about as effective as ever!" Airazor called down as she returned the fire of several drones.
Dinobot nodded and turned back to the advancing drones. They were still moving forward, and several of the jet drones had actually flown over their positions to continue fighting the three flyers sent against them. The male raptor only waited a short time before he felt it was time to spring the trap.
"Maximals and Predicons, ATTACK!" Dinobot screamed to commence the attack.
Dinobot then led the charge out as the drones tried to maneuver through the barricade of rumble they had created by their earlier wild shots.
Tripredicus Council Headquarters
The three council members watching the battle frowned heavily as the Resistance finally made its move in attacking the drones. The result of the fire from the attacking Resistance members created a massive explosion that destroyed almost half of the drones in one shot. The rest began firing on the Resistance fighters, but had a difficult path between rubble from damaged buildings, and fragments from destroyed drones.
"And the drone's success rate continues," Cicadacon commented, "at least they're providing a distraction."
"How much longer until our ships arrive?" Seaclamp asked nervously.
"About half a megacycle," Ramhorn replied, "besides, by your own plan, it is not yet time to call the ships in anyway. Now, we are to send in our transformers to support the drones."
Seaclamp nodded, "I know, it is just that I do not think that Starscream can destroy enough of them for even their numbers to be effective."
"Vile and Crane could always get lucky," Cicadacon commented, "besides, even they are still cannon fodder. The Resistance will be weakened battling them, and will not be able to beat the ships when they arrive. And we can finish off any of the survivors."
Seaclamp nodded again. He hoped that his plan would work, because if it didn't, he didn't want to dwell on what would happen then.
"I am more concerned why Primal and few other members of his band are not present," Ramhorn spoke up, "I had thought that he would lead the charge."
"Primal, more then likely, is with teams that just destroyed our drone factories," Seaclamp told him, "if not, maybe he's guarding their base… and either way, it will make it easier for us if Primal is not here."
"We should still be careful though," Cicadacon warned, "If Primal is with the teams that struck our factories, he is likely on his way here to join with the rest of his forces."
Both Ramhorn and Seaclamp nodded in agreement.
"In the meantime, it is time to send in our transformers," Ramhorn answered, and activated an intercom, "Attention soldiers of the Tripredicus Council, it is now time. Attack the Resistance fighters! Attack and destroy!"
Starscream and Curser were the first to charge out of the Tripredicus Council headquarters and flew directly toward the obvious battle unfolding in front of them. The battle had destroyed most of the jet drones, which were still desperately trying to fight the Resistance's flyers. Starscream quickly noted the pterosaur transformer and a wasp transformer fighting against the drones.
"You can fight whoever you want, but Terrorsaur and Waspinator are mine," Starscream growled to the other Tripredicus Council soldier.
"Of course," Curser answered and followed the F-15 transformer toward the battle.
Silverbolt grimaced slightly as a couple of shots fired by a drone glanced off of a wing. The drones were numerous, but as all their past encounters with them had shown, their weapons were not as powerful as a transformer's and they need their numbers to be of any use. Silverbolt quickly made work of the attacking jet drone with one of his extended feathers, which he was using like a sword.
"What will we do when we've finished with these drones?" Silverbolt wondered out loud, "the Tripredicus Council will surely know that we're here now."
"I do not know," Tigerhawk grumbled as he, still in beast mode, sliced a jet drone in half with his talons, "the Resistance leader wants to be here for the fight and the glory, and Optimus wouldn't let us take the risk alone. Everything will depend on when they arrive and… and probably on what Dinobot decides to do."
The two fuzors were interrupted by a new arrival.
"Don't worry!" Curser spoke as he fired several laser blasts at them, "you won't live long enough to figure out 'what' to do next."
Curser's shots hit Silverbolt in the back and sent him tumbling away while Tigerhawk managed use his transmetal two wings to shield himself. Curser, however, avoided Tigerhawk's attempt to bat him away, and opened the transmetal fuzor up for a series of shots fired on him by a pair of attacking drone. Tigerhawk quickly dispatched the two drones, but that left him open to Curser's fire, which sent him crashing into the roof a nearby building.
"It would appear that an easy victory has been stopped," Silverbolt commented as he fired a few feather missiles at Curser to let Tigerhawk get back to his feet.
"Nothing in this business ever is," Tigerhawk grumbled as he opened on Curser with his gatling guns.
Curser dodged Silverbolt's fire, but the move took him into Tigerhawk's. This threw the Tripredicus supporter back and enabled the two Maximal fuzors to charge forward.
Silverbolt was not about to let the Tripredicus soldier recover and reached Curser first, and tackled him while the two continued to fly. Curser fought back, and the two began a long wrestling match in the air, until they crashed into the roof of a building across the street. While Curser was driven straight into the metal roof, he did manage to throw Silverbolt off of him, and the wolf-eagle fuzor ended up rolling toward the edge of the building.
Tigerhawk, following after Silverbolt, finished the fight by landing directly on Curser. His greater size and weight put the smaller jet transformer into stasis lock for the time being.
"Silverbolt? Are you alright?" Tigerhawk questioned.
"Physically?" Silverbolt asked back slowly, "Fine… although I don't think I'll be flying anywhere soon."
"You should get back to base then," Tigerhawk urged, "No need for you to risk being destroyed."
"I'm fine, sir," Silverbolt answered, "I will simply need help getting back to the ground."
"You're sure?" Tigerhawk asked.
"Yes," Silverbolt nodded.
"Very well," Tigerhawk sighed.
Starscream, meanwhile zoomed forward at high speed, intent on engaging Terrorsaur and Waspinator. He could remember taking possession of Waspinator and the fact that Terrorsaur was suspicious of him, and so, getting vengeance against them would be sweet… and then destroying Blackarachnia and Optimus Primal would be even sweeter, but that would have to wait for the moment.
Both Terrorsaur and Waspinator were chasing after drones, which they were destroying with ease. This allowed Starscream to get the drop on them. Staying in his vehicle mode, Starscream acquired a radar lock on the other two transformers and fired two missiles from his wings. The resulting explosion threw the both Waspinator and Terrorsaur back several feet, and Starscream ended up flying between them.
"Hello chumps, remember me?" Starscream taunted.
Terrorsaur and Waspinator both watched as the F-15 transformer circled around to fire again on them.
"Waspinator remembers Scream-bot," Waspinator growled and fired several stinger-darts at Starscream.
Starscream took his robot mode and dodged most of Waspinator's shots, and those that did hit him, were only glancing hits.
"Waspinator hasn't gotten any smarter, I see," Starscream chuckled as he flew forward and punched the wasp transformer in the face.
"No dumber then you," Terrorsaur told him as he fired his lasers into Starscream's back.
The shot made Starscream tumble down a bit while Waspinator and Terrorsaur gathered above him. The two were fairly formidable while together. He was working on a plan to separate them when he was hit in the back again by another set of darts. He then turned to see Airazor arriving on the scene.
"The flying drones have all been destroyed," Airazor reported as she came closer.
"So you came to be destroyed by me!" Starscream cut Waspinator and Terrorsaur off before they could answer, and blasted away with laser fire at point blank range into Airazor's stomach.
The blast threw Airazor through the wall of a nearby building, where the falcon transformer fell into stasis lock. Starscream then followed, hoping to destroy he femmebot and draw the other two flyers into a battle where their numbers wouldn't help. Waspinator and Terrorsaur were both quick to follow. They caught Starscream preparing to finish of Airazor and managed to blast him away in the nick of time.
"Bird-bot is sleeping," Waspinator buzzed.
"Pity," Terrorsaur replied, "get her back to the base. I'm sure our Maximal allies would want to see her recover."
Waspinator nodded and flew out of the building with Airazor. Terrorsaur, meanwhile, didn't get much of a shot at getting ready, as Starscream had recovered and blasted him with missiles at rather close range. The attack threw Terrorsaur out through a different wall and into the alley, where Terrorsaur bounced of the exterior walls of the buildings making up the alley before landing hard on the ground.
"I'm growing tired of you," Starscream growled as he landed on Terrorsaur's chest and pressed down with one foot.
Terrorsaur was in too much pain to really fight back at the moment, but watched as Starscream's hopes were quickly dashed. Several large blasts hit Starscream in the back and threw him into the ground, where he finally fell into stasis lock. Terrorsaur then looked up to see Depthcharge and Wired arriving, weapons drawn.
"I thought you were supposed to wait until we arrived before you begun the battle," Depthcharge questioned.
"You didn't tell the Tripredicus Council that," Terrorsaur answered as he got up, "they attacked us."
The ground battle was going very well for the resistance fighters. The drones had attacked in mass numbers, but their moderate weaponry, weak armor, and poor intelligence kept them bottled up and easy targets for the transformers fighting them. It was only their numbers that kept the battle going so far. As Vile arrived on the scene, he found even the most basically armored resistance fighters destroying drones at will.
"Oh, this will not do," Vile grumbled and prepared his mace, intending to take out several of the resistance fighters, particularly while there were still drones present.
Squeak and Mammoth had just finished off a pair drones when a large wrecking ball hit them from behind and sent both of them flying. Neither was hurt badly, but it was clear that Squeak was somewhat disoriented.
"Foolish little resistance fighters, thinking they could make a difference," Vile taunted as he attacked again with his mace.
Mammoth dodged the attack, barely, but Squeak was not so lucky. When Mammoth looked back, he noticed that Squeak had been knocked out by the crane transformer's mace.
"You'll pay for that," Mammoth growled as grabbed a nearby tank drone and threw it at Vile.
Vile managed to duck under the throw, but it didn't save him from taking a laser blast to the chest, throwing him back several feet. Mammoth, meanwhile, charged toward him to make sure that the crane transformer couldn't escape. Vile managed to catch the attacking Maximal with his mace before Mammoth could launch another attack, but Vile still knew that he wouldn't last long against the rest of the resistance if he couldn't pull of a more successful fight. He quickly drew a blaster and blasted Mammoth into stasis lock, but the shot to kill the resistance fighter was taken away from him when a cyber-web caught and pulled away that blaster.
Vile turned, only to kicked in the face by Blackarachnia as the transmetal two black widow leaped at him.
"Now, that wasn't very nice," Blackarachnia taunted the Tripredicus Council soldier.
Blackarachnia then opened fire with the machine guns in her beast mode's legs, knocking Vile back and doing some damage to his armor. As Vile tumbled back, he swung his mace towards Blackarachnia, but the attack was unguided. The transmetal two spider easily ducked under the wrecking ball part of the mace and sliced through the chain with the claws mounted on her right wrist. The wrecking ball flew off into a nearby building while the chain swung back and hit Vile in the head.
"And you haven't gotten any smarter, I see," Blackarachnia smiled.
Vile only growled angrily and rushed forward, intending to pummel the spider femmebot with his bare hands. Blackarachnia responded by delivering a spinning kick to Vile's neck, knocking him down. She then took her beast mode and delivered a massive dose of cybervenom into Vile, paralyzing him. She then looked around to see that most of the drones were now destroyed and that Depthcharge's team had arrived at the battle zone. The others couldn't be far behind.
Meanwhile, Cybershark and Grease arrived from behind the makeshift barricade to look at the carnage in front of them. They slowly approached Dinobot and Rapther who were standing near a tank drone that looked like it had been through a shredder.
"You were supposed to wait until Queen got here," Grease growled as he approached the Maximal raptors, showing little if any fear.
"That was the plan," Dinobot grumbled, "but plans rarely last long."
"So you just attacked?" Grease questioned.
"This is the rallying point," Rapther growled at the hyena transformer, "If we attacked, would we still be at the rallying point?"
Grease didn't know how to answer that. The drones had proved to be very ineffective against Primal's warriors, and it was drones that numbered among most of the casualties present.
"The Tripredicus Council knows we're here," Dinobot grumbled, "This was their first attempt to drive us off. Now, we are only waiting for their next move."
"And what do you think that would be?" Bomb asked as he came around a destroyed drone, and then added icily, "commander?"
"Either they'll flee or send more drones," Dinobot grumbled, "we have captured all their transformers and destroyed this wave of drones. Unless they have more transformers that we haven't run into yet, I would think that the fighting out here is finished."
Tripredicus Council Headquarters
"Are our ships ready?" Seaclamp questioned, "our transformers hardly did any damage to them and the drones did even less."
"They are ready and waiting," Ramhorn nodded, "If the order is given."
"It is," Seaclamp and Cicadacon answered in unison, "send them in."
"At once," Ramhorn smiled.
Elsewhere
Optimus and Queen continued to rush toward the rallying point, which seemed to be the same spot where they heard the sounds of battle originally coming from. They did have to be careful, as they were still carrying Runner and Rattrap, but that wasn't the first thing on their minds.
"It's certainly gotten quiet all of a sudden," Runner spoke in Queen's grasp.
"He better have captured the Tripredicus Council," Queen growled, "that's the only thing that will let him escape punishment."
"I doubt Dinobot attacked," Optimus answered, "He may not have liked waiting, but he would follow the order. More then likely, the Tripredicus Council attacked him."
"And I don't think it's over yet!" Rattrap spoke up nervously from his place on Optimus's back, pointing toward something in the air ahead of them.
Optimus turned his attention to the direction that Rattrap was pointing, and immediately felt nervous by what he saw. Descending through the industrial smoke and heading directly for the rallying point were three warships of the same class that the Darkside had been built from.
"Well, that's just prime," Optimus growled in a frustrated tone.
To Be Continued…