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 "Saving Cybertron".
A Whole New World, Chapter 3
By TVfan
The Liberator
Dinobot looked out of the bridge's main windows into the area around the Liberator. Part of him was heavily amused by the naming and the fact that the ship's design and build was Predicon in nature. The ship was of a Predicon design, yet it used a Maximal name. Such a thing would probably really grind the gears of Predicons who were all caught up in the politics of the Maximal and Predicon factions. To a great extent, Dinobot had little care for either. He allied himself with Optimus Primal because he saw Primal as an honorable leader, and worthy of having Dinobot as his 'sword' to wield against his enemies. For Dinobot, honor was more important then faction or the political excuses one side gave.
Though, at present, that wasn't the issue to be decided. The issue was making sure the Tripredicus Council's idea of recreating Unicron would never happen. Dinobot and his group were to take the Liberator and destroy the military satellites that orbited Cybertron. And while that battle raged, Optimus Primal and Queen would lead a small team to raid the uncompleted drone that was intended to become Unicron, and take out whoever was running the drone.
"What is the status on their satellites?" Dinobot wondered aloud.
"Sensors show that we got most of them," Cheetor answered, "at least most of them in this particular area, BUT they're redistributing with the other satellites that we didn't hit."
"Making sure they can fire at any attacker that might come from outside Cybertron with sufficient force," Dinobot grumbled, "have you heard anything from Optimus, yet?"
"No," Cheetor sighed, "my guess is that Big Bot is still busy with whatever is in that drone..."
Dinobot glanced upward in the general direction of where Omega One was in the area. He couldn't see it from inside the ship and based on where the ship was and where the massive drone was, but based on the sensor information and the mission to cover Optimus's move to board Omega One, Dinobot knew where the drone was. Hopefully there were no major problems.
Omega One
Meanwhile on the station a different situation was playing out. Druyd had been defeated and was placed in restraints that even his various 'links' to the Matrix and the Oracle could not overcome. That left Optimus Primal and Queen in command of the weapon the Tripredicus Council had intended to use as their ultimate weapon. A reconstituted Unicron.
"So, Omega One is ours now," Queen stated.
"Yes," Optimus nodded, "the key though is stopping the Tripredicus Council's attacks elsewhere... disarming their satellites."
"How...?" Queen wondered.
She was good at figuring out what to do to attack the Tripredicus Council. To her, that seemed to be enough to get her into a position of power, and for the most part, the Resistance had accepted that. Even those that were Maximals. Optimus, however, had come up with a question that needed to be answered that Queen hadn't given time to consider.
"The other thing would be what to do with the sparks," Blackarachnia commented from where she was securing Druyd, "that containment unit is too big to transfer to even the Liberator. We'll need to actually LAND this thing on Cybertron's surface."
"Couldn't we bring bodies here?" Queen wondered.
"If you wish to do half a trillion shuttle trips," Blackarachnia shrugged, "go ahead."
Optimus, meanwhile was quiet. He knew these were all questions that needed to be answered, but that didn't mean he had the answer. Though, fortunately, that was when an answer was given.
"Then I guess what remains to be done is to hack into their computer," came Rattrap's voice as he walked up to the command level.
He had left his position where he was supposed to be guarding the sparks, but with Druyd defeated, that wasn't an issue.
"What makes you think the computers here would control all those things? The drones? The satellites?" Queen wondered.
"The Tripredicus Council wanted to recreate Unicron for some political reason," Rattrap answered, "and he was the ultimate bad guy. The only guy that got the Ancient Autobots and Decipticons not to fight each other. And this guy took it to an almost religious devotion..."
"What are you saying, Rattrap?" Optimus wondered.
"If these guys support Unicron THAT much, wouldn't it make sense to make sure that all the controls to their arsenal lay WITH 'Unicron'?" Rattrap questioned.
"And in a spot where the Resistance could never get at it..." Queen said slowly.
"Can you get in?" Optimus asked.
Rattrap smirked and slowly approached the main computer panels that Druyd had earlier been using. He sat at the placed chair that was there and then stretched out his arms.
"Of course," Rattrap smirked, "it may take a little bit, but I can get in."
Meanwhile, Tigerhawk stood quietly by. With Druyd defeated, all drones on the station destroyed, and the sparks safe for eventual return to Cybertron, the transmetal two fuzor was left without much to do. He wasn't super great with computers and couldn't help Rattrap with the codes, and at the same time, the very mechanical nature of everything was not entirely to his liking. In this, Tigerhawk and Airazor were probably very different from the other Maximals and the Resistance members.
Dinobot, despite his political differences from the other Maximals could easily gain some redemption. Tigerhawk was certain that Optimus would send him off to defend some Cybertronian colony, or maybe organize a defense force that would defend Cybertron itself. Tigerhawk couldn't really do that. He had enjoyed Earth's natural beauty. Grass and plants grew, animals lived, the sun rose and set, as did the tides. There were mountains, streams, oceans, and other things that were not crafted by machines, people, or Cybertonians. Those were the things that Tigerhawk had come to enjoy.
But Omega One held none of that, and from what he'd seen, Cybertron didn't either. So while Rattrap began his work on the station's computers, Tigerhawk began to do a little exploring. If only to see what was there and figure out if there was anything worth finding out. He found the passages to be long and winding. There were rooms, but they were of odd shapes, which was probably to be expected. Omega One was to become Unicron according to the Tripredicus Council's plans. Therefore, things on the station couldn't be laid out the way they would on a ship or in a building as the station would have to transform between 'moon' and robot modes.
His wanderings were quiet for the most part until he came to another large room. It was dominated by a large screen-like projector. The screen itself looked rather liquid-like. But that wasn't the only thing that astonished Tigerhawk. On the screen there seemed to be all kinds of sparks flying every which direction.
"What is this?" Tigerhawk gasped aloud and sounding completely puzzled.
"We are the Oracle... guiding light of Cybertron and from which your spark was created and through which it will be guided to the Matrix when it is time for your spark to expire," came a mechanical, slightly feminine sounding, and disembodied voice that startled Tigerhawk completely.
"Who... how...?" Tigerhawk stammered.
"We answered," the Oracle answered, "and you hear us for you are different from other transformers."
"But they say those that have been able to hear the Oracle... or the Matrix are of much lighter build then I," Tigerhawk commented, sounding slightly skeptical, "like Druyd... he doesn't look like he could take on the Tripredicus Council's drones when you look at him..."
"We do not take strength from transformers," the Oracle answered, "Druyd may not have looked the part... but he is powerful in his own way..."
"Because he could communicate with you," Tigerhawk spoke.
"As can you, Tigerhawk," the Oracle replied.
"Why me?" Tigerhawk asked, "Optimus..."
"Optimus Primal is a good leader and is a great hero for Cybertron and the Maximal faction," the Oracle responded, "but he does not carry the philosophical and spiritual ponderings that you do... and it is for those things that sit firmly at the heart of your peaceful spark that we are able to speak to you and you are able to hear us."
Tigerhawk was about to answer when the Oracle gave a great flash of light in front of him. In an instant he saw many things. His awakening as Tigatron, and befriending the tiger, Snowstalker. He saw his desire to preserve the alien floating island as a world of peace in the midst of the Beast Wars. He saw the firefight against the Predicons that got Snowstalker killed and his grief for the tiger that had died. How he was ready to give up the war altogether, despite the puzzlement that Cheetor, Dinobot, and even Optimus had had at that decision. It finished with him as Tigerhawk talking with Airazor over how and why things had happened. And whether or not the Beast Wars were a fated event.
"The Beast Wars were fated to happen," Tigerhawk breathed.
"In some ways, yes and no," the Oracle replied, "the Beast War need not have occurred to accomplish what has been missing on Cybertron... but it ended up being the path to which you followed to the mission that now lies ahead."
"A new mission?" Tigerhawk wondered.
"Yes."
"But what of the Tripredicus Council? Druyd? Their deal to bring back Unicron?" Tigerhawk wondered.
"Their deal was spawned from their religious love for their 'father'," the Oracle answered, "a transformer of great power and might. To allow a spark of such power out of the Matrix where it pays for the sins it committed, would require a number of live sparks of equal power... which grows larger with every transformer killed by the Tripredicus Council's war... and ultimately makes their own victory untenable."
"You do not agree with their plans?" Tigerhawk asked curiously.
"Of course we do not," the Oracle answered, sounding annoyed, "their mystic, Druyd through his link was able to accomplish the deal his masters wanted. We had no control over what the deal was. Just as we have no control over whether or not you will actively carry out the mission assigned to you."
"And what mission do you have for me?" Tigerhawk answered.
"You already carry that with you," the Oracle replied.
Again Tigerhawk was immersed in a flash of light. This time he saw Megatron in his Tyrannosaurus form emerge from the CR tanks after the Darkside crashed onto Earth, as well as Dinobot's emergence in the form of a Velociraptor. He saw Optimus, Rhinox, Rattrap, and Cheetor emerge in their beast modes. He saw Blackarachnia in her transmetal two form. He saw Silverbolt emerging from his stasis pod. He saw Optimus collecting a plant with Dinobot as his assistant. He saw himself as Tigatron helping the other Maximals deal with the animal instincts of their beast modes, to bring beast and robot modes together.
He then saw contrasting images of Cybertron. At first he saw an almost organic world, until he saw a small human-like life form find a cybernetic looking key, which when that being touched it set of a chain reaction that didn't stop until the modern Cybertronian race of machines developed and Cybertron became a robotic world. The very thing that Tigerhawk didn't like.
"I will try," Tigerhawk promised weakly.
"That is all we ask of you," the Oracle answered.
Cybertron, Underground Base
Rhinox continued much of the work that was needed to keep things going. For the most part it was insuring that the transformers that they had found would have the ability to transform between alternate and robot modes. And that largely meant giving them the alternate modes of animals. To a certain extent, Rhinox didn't feel that organic life was something that should be part of Cybertron, but he also knew that the Trans-Lock 9000 virus in the atmosphere would affect anyone that didn't have a beast mode and do them harm.
And that virus couldn't be removed. Rhinox didn't have the scanners to check and see what percentage of Cybertron's atmosphere was the Trans-Lock 9000 virus, but he knew it was still there. The weapon had been devised toward the end of the Great War and employed on various fronts of that war, by both sides. Maximal scientists after the war eventually found that in areas where it had been used, it remained in effect in large numbers for centuries, and that they were still traces of it present on those worlds today. Filtration or attempts to collect the virus had all failed. Treatment for it revolved around CR Chamber/Tank treatment or the direction introduction of a counter-virus designed specifically for each specific strand of the Trans-Lock 9000 virus.
And all Rhinox knew was that it had been used on Cybertron as part of the Tripredicus Council's efforts to conquer the planet. No one had found anything on what specific strands of the virus were used and no stash of the anti-virus for what had been released on Cybertron had been found. So, Rhinox was left installing beast modes onto the various Resistance members that had been liberated in the earlier battles.
"Okay, Virox, it's your turn," Rhinox said to the Predicon that had been rather pushy over receiving the 'cure' for the Trans-Lock 9000 virus.
Virox handed the DNA chip to him and entered the CR tank that was being used in this cycle of repairs. Rhinox then activated the systems for the that would create the new beast mode for Virox. After a few moments a large and heavily muscled snake slithered out of the tank and onto the ground of the cave that was being used as the base for the time being. It was largely a brownish color with dark brown diamonds on various parts of its body, and had very small 'horn-like' growths on its nose. A Gabon Viper, if Rhinox had read the DNA chip accurately.
"Virox Terrorize!" the Predicon announced and transformed to his robot mode, his jaw splitting in half with the lower jaw becoming his chest and the top jaw and head becoming his upper back with the long fangs acting as a clamp to hold the two sides together, "Yes... THIS is power!"
"Okay now, let's move along," Airazor spoke, trying to help Rhinox out, "there are others that are in need of this treatment too."
The next to approach was another transformer that had come in with Virox. This one was Surge.
"I'm sorry if he's given you too much trouble," Surge said politely.
"It's nothing," Rhinox answered.
Dealing with Predicons who did little to hide the fact that they desired power was something he hated having to do, but for the time being, they were allied to stop the Tripredicus Council. Now, with the Council defeated, that could change, but Rhinox knew that that would be Optimus's responsibility. Not his. So, until things were sorted out for the long term, he'd merely grin and bear it.
Surge then headed into the CR tank and Rhinox repeated the 'activation' process again. After a few moments, the CR tank shut down and a long black scaled electric eel flew out in the same way the fish swan through water on Earth.
"Surge, Maximize!" Surge gave the Maximal transformation code.
Surge then moved off and made quiet conversation with some of the other transformers there as Ultra Mantex came forward and handed Rhinox the DNA chip he had selected. Again Rhinox repeated the activation process. When Ultra Mantex emerged, he was in the form of a green predatory insect, a praying mantis.
"Ultra Mantex, Maximize!" Ultra Mantex announced.
His first set of beast mode legs folded closed and hands emerged from the joint as they folded. His middle and rear legs locked together to give him a bipedal stance. His beast mode abdomen folded up while his beast mode head folded down while his robot head popped up.
"Looking good... thank you, Rhinox," Ultra Mantex told the rhinoceros transformer.
"You're welcome," Rhinox answered.
Omega One, Command Area
Meanwhile Rattrap was in an area that he enjoyed, breaking codes and so forth. He wasn't the best computer programmer that the Maximals had, but to a certain extent, breaking codes was like dealing with booby traps and solving problems of that nature. Of course, this was different from the puzzle that the flying island had been or Rhinox's new security program had been in the Beast Wars. But solving puzzles was something he did well.
"Do you have it?" Queen asked from behind him, sounding impatient.
"Hey! Easy, this is delicate work!" Rattrap answered her, "ya can't rush these things."
"And work that is very important for saving Cybertron!" Queen countered, "The Tripredicus Council wanted to exchange most of the living sparks for Unicron's! And this station's 'commander' fought hard to keep the station under his control!"
"Forgive me if I misheard you earlier, but didn't you say that the Tripredicus Council's war was done when he was taken out?" Blackarachnia questioned and pointed to Druyd, still in stasis lock, "Or is there some other threat that you haven't told us of?"
"The Tripredicus Faction does retain forces outside of Cybertron," Queen answered, "mostly drones, but still... their numbers are impressive. And with most of our forces recovering from the battle against the Tripredicus Council on Cybertron... we can not afford a major engagement with their fleets and drones. Despite Dinobot's bravery, be it as a Maximal or Predicon, he can not beat all of them."
"Their drones would shut down from a central control signal, right?" Optimus questioned, wondering along the same lines as Blackarachnia.
Dealing with Queen had moments of good cooperation, but plenty moments of difficulty as well. Queen clearly hated Megatron, and had blamed him for the Tripredicus take over, but during that take over when they used Megatron's tactics to their advantage in spreading out the Maximal defenses, she was heavily in favor of those tactics. It was only when the descendents of Unicron began purging themselves of those descended from the Decepticons that she turned on the Tripredicus Council. And even in the recent fights, it was quite clear that she enjoyed the power that came with conquest.
And this left a question in the back of Optimus's head that he couldn't shake. How would Cybertron be governed? For years the planet's official government had been a democratically elected Council overseen by the 'Council of Elders', most of them veterans of the Great War. The Predicons, descendents of the losers of the Great War were offered entrance into the government, provided they followed Maximal democratic principles. The Predicons had refused and lived in a sort of grey area. They were subject to Maximal laws, but were granted their right to self-government in all things with the obvious exception of politics between Cybertron and planets not colonized by Cybertron or not recognized as colonies.
And that was what had fueled Megatron. Or at least that is what Optimus had gathered from talking with Dinobot. That desire to conquer and rule had never left the Predicons after the change their past as Decepticons. They resented not being on top of the hierarchy and were looking for any excuse to restart the wars. Optimus had known things were tense even before Megatron had stolen the Golden Disks, but the talks with Dinobot had given him some insight into the motivations for the Predicons. He had learned that Dinobot looked forward to a good fight and was quite willing to follow Megatron at first when the prospect of some glorious campaign was at hand.
But they weren't all bad. And Optimus supposed on some level, military glory was a big thing for both sides. Predicons may have dreamed of conquering worlds and unknown enemies. But many Maximals dreamed of saving entire galaxies, relieving the glory of Optimus Prime. Depthcharge, Rattrap, Cheetor, and even himself had filled that role. And Dinobot had also turned on Megatron as well. First because he thought Megatron would lose, and then because he saw that Megatron's path to victory broke every code of honor that Dinobot knew.
And the fact that Dinobot had served so well as a Maximal was enough to give Optimus hope that Maximals and Predicons could get along, even function well. Even Blackarachnia had come around. Despite his early doubts about Silverbolt being able to get her side with them, she had truly seemed to have changed her 'allegiances' no matter what her command codes were.
But Queen had not gone through any similar change. She saw no problem with toppling the Maximal Elders, even if it was underhanded and didn't give them the chance to even try to defend themselves. Something Optimus believed Dinobot wouldn't do because of his code of honor. And working with the various Maximals that made up the resistance had not made her see that there was more to life then conquest for the pure joy of it. And that left Optimus with a very important question. And that was, what would come next?
"Yes, off course the drones will shut down, but it won't matter if they take out everyone else in the time it takes to crack the code," Queen answered, trying to defend her position.
"Then Dinobot won't have to defeat them, merely hold them off until Rattrap cracks the code," Optimus retorted.
"You're crazy!" Queen retorted.
"Sometimes, crazy works," Optimus sighed, feeling like he'd said that line for the thousandth time.
Rattrap, meanwhile kept typing away to get through the code. He didn't like Queen's line of thought, but while she debated with Optimus, he at least had the free time to work on breaking the codes that the Tripredicus forces had encrypted into Omega One's computers. Then, after a few more keystrokes, the code line closed and he had access.
"Ha!" Rattrap smiled, "I'm in! Told ya there was no need to rush! What do you want to do first?"
"Deactivate the satellites around Cybertron," Optimus ordered, "and then hail Dinobot on the Liberator. Tell him he has some targets to destroy."
Rattrap nodded and entered in a few keystrokes.
The Liberator
Things remained quiet on the Liberator as they waited for Optimus to send them some signal that the Tripredicus follower had been defeated. The wait had been tense for them, as if Optimus's group failed, that would mean that Dinobot and his small team would be left. Of course, that could mean that defeating the Tripredicus follower would be easier, but it would also mean that Optimus Primal had been destroyed. And that was not something Dinobot would have wanted.
Before the Beast Wars, Dinobot had been privately certain that there would never get him to side with the Maximals on anything. Then he encountered Optimus Primal and found out how truly evil and vile Megatron's plans were. Optimus Primal had honor, and Dinobot would gladly give his life in Primal's service. Losing Optimus Primal would be a loss that would be irreplaceable. Even if Optimus won glory in doing so.
"Any news?" Dinobot inquired, hoping something had come in.
"Noth... wait," Cheetor answered, "I think we're being hailed by Omega One."
"Put it through," Dinobot answered, "If that slagging Tripredicus follower has some surrender demand... we will answer firmly and with everything!"
As Cheetor made the connection, the face that appeared on the communications screen was not the Tripredicus follower, but Rattrap.
"Hello, Chopperface, good to see ya!" Rattrap gave a smirk, "Do I have good news for you!"
"You control the station?" Dinobot questioned.
"Not only control it, but in command of it and all the systems the Tripredicus guys got!" Rattrap said with a smirk, "And we're about to end the war in one series of pushing buttons!"
"Spare me your enthusiasm," Dinobot commented, "what are Optimus' orders?"
"I'm about to shut down the weapons satellites they have wringing Cybertron," Rattrap commented, "Your job is to blow up the remaining satellites. In case any sparked Tripredicus followers out there avoid capture and flee here... they'd arrive to not only find that we control the planet, but that the weapons they're counting on taking over are gone. Sweat plan, eh?"
Dinobot nodded in response, "It will be done. Dinobot, out."
Rattrap nodded and signed off on his end of the channel. Dinobot meanwhile turned back to Terrorsaur at the pilot's seat of the Liberator.
"Take us back to space," Dinobot ordered, "there are a few last minute details to take care of."
Terrorsaur nodded and began to pilot the ship upward. Beside him at the ship's weapons console, Depthcharge waited until the ship rose into the space around Cybertron again. As the ship left Cybertron's atmosphere, the main view screen displayed the various weapons satellites that surrounded the planet, or at least those that survived their decoy efforts earlier in the battle. At first the satellites moved to target the Liberator in accordance with what the Tripredicus followers had likely programmed them to do, but that soon changed.
As the ship came closer, Dinobot observed a change in the lights that flanked various sections of the satellites. Probably so that Tripredicus maintenance crews could move to them and fix them should they have been damaged. As the Liberator moved into the space around Cybertron, those lights were a bright green color, but in a flash that went through all the satellites they dimmed to black and they began to drift in random patterns. Like they'd all been shut down.
"Gotta hand it to the mouse," Depthcharge commented, "they all appear to be down."
And with that the transmetal manta ray filed the Liberator's weapons at the closest satellite, destroying it.
Elsewhere
A small Maximal colony sat under siege from Tripredicus forces. They had been a scientific team sent to explore a planet being referred to as Vegatas, and they had encountered a great many wonders on the world that were intended to back to Cybertron for scientific presentation. But then the Tripredicus drones came. They destroyed much of the plant life on Vegatas and in great numbers kept the small Maximal science team pinned down inside their base.
"They've gotten inside our main defenses!" a lone male transformer announced in a nervous voice, "They'll make it inside the base soon!"
"Do you have your weapons?" the leader of the team, a femmebot asked with a sigh.
The transformer nodded in response, but his answer was not all that confident. And that was understandable. While many Maximals had given a lot of hero worship to Optimus Prime from the Great War, for the most part, there were few Maximals that had a truly military type of mindset. Most colonies got one of these transformers to act protectors as Depthcharge had been before Rampage, or Protoform X, had wiped it out. Others hired dissatisfied Predicons as mercenaries. Many times, the colony leader and the Predicon operative would form a good working relationship, similar to Dinobot's service to Optimus Primal in the Beast Wars, but when the Tripredicus Council launched their first attacks, many of these mercenaries behaved like Queen. Eager to take down the Maximals until they realized the Tripredicus Council intended to wipe out all descendents of Autobot and Decipticon.
This commonly meant that many Maximal explorers, scientists, and colonists had to learn all things military when the Tripredicus War began. And for this small outpost, there was still some unease about it. The commander sighed, looked out over the windows and saw the drones assaulting her base. They came steadily closer and closer, firing on the guns mounted to defend her ship.
"Don't worry... we'll manage," she said weakly.
She got ready to turn and face the entrances to the ship when the drones all suddenly stopped and then fell down. One of her other crewmembers brought her attention to it.
"Look, ma'am!" the other crewmember said in a surprised voice, "they all went offline!"
"We didn't hit them!" the first crewman answered.
"Something must have happened," the mission commander spoke, "best to destroy and dismantle them... just in case. Once that's done, we are to prepare to return to Cybertron, see what this is."
"Yes, ma'am," the first crewman answered and stood up.
Omega One
"There," Rattrap announced, "all Tripredicus drones are shut down, as are all the satellites around Cybertron."
"Good," Queen spoke quickly, "we can put all of the Tripredicus' plans behind us."
"Of course," Optimus spoke trying to be diplomatic.
He had some mistrust of Queen, particularly because she didn't apologize for her early involvement in the Tripredicus take over, but he didn't want to reignite a new phase of the Beast Wars on Cybertron, and neither did he want to restart the Great War. That would largely mean working with Queen.
"This will mean that a lot of the colony worlds will send representatives back to Cybertron," Blackarachnia commented, "either to investigate what caused the drones to go offline or make contact with us."
"We'll be ready! A new Cybertron will await them!" Queen said confidently.
"Yeah, yeah, that'll take time though," Rattrap cut in, "the bigger thing for the moment is what to do with the sparks?"
Optimus looked over to the spark chamber that was a level below them. The sparks were protected in it and kept alive, which was a good thing, but the chamber was massive in size. It was so big that they could not transfer it to the Liberator and have the ship take the sparks down. That left only one real option, which Queen spoke.
"We'll have to land Omega One on Cybertron's surface," Queen spoke, "at least until we can figure out what to do with all the sparks."
"The sparks will be given a new body to reside in," Optimus said firmly, "that is NOT to be debated."
"We'll still need to land Omega One," Queen shot back, "It's why your engineer here decided to hack into their system."
"Would Cybertron be able to handle this thing's weight?" Blackarachnia wondered after a moment, "This thing is as big as a small moon... maybe a little bit smaller, but not by much."
"I don't know," Optimus sighed heavily, "but I don't think we have much of a choice. Much of the space is devoted to weapons space or control areas, or as this area shows, spark storage. I don't think there are any areas that could manufacture protoforms..."
"What about their actual bodies?" Blackarachnia asked.
"Those were commonly destroyed after the sparks were removed," Queen answered, "or converted into the manufacture of drones... or were removed because they were too badly damaged from fighting the Tripredicus forces. Even if we found their bodies, they wouldn't be able to keep their sparks alive and they'd go offline, permanently."
"So, what's your command, boss monkey?" Rattrap asked.
"Scan Cybertron's surface," Optimus urged, "see if there is an open area away from where the underground base is that we can land Omega One... preferably also away from major factory or supply areas. We'll probably need them for protoform manufacture."
Rattrap nodded and began the scanning process. After a few moments, the scanners found a location. It was nearly two hundred miles from where the underground base was and fit Optimus's qualifications for landing.
"Right about there is our only shot to land," Rattrap spoke, and pointed to the point on the map of Cybertron displayed on one of the screens, "that's the best spot available."
"Then take us down," Queen commanded.
"Slowly," Optimus added, "we don't want to damage the spark containment unit or create a meteoric impact."
"Oh boy," Rattrap grumbled, "Who thought we'd all die after winning?"
He then dutifully pressed a series of buttons to begin the landing sequence.
To Be Continued...
