Disclaimer: Not mine
I am in the process of trying to find somewhere to live and then move, plus assignments so writing is going to be slow.
Chapter 3
Optimus looked around the table at his Commanders, taking in their shock and horror that the AllSpark was gone from their world. Elita-One sat at his right, Prowl to his left. Ultra Magnus, Ironhide, Jazz, Ratchet, Red Alert, Silverbolt and Chromia filled the rest of the seats.
"What's done is done. Optimus, what is the plan now?" Prowl spoke over the others.
Optimus nodded at his second in command and lead tactician, he could always trust the Praxian to cut through to the heart of the matter. "That is why we are here. Without the AllSpark, Cybertron will die. We must recover it and keep it out of Decepticon hands. And there are still forces here that must be dealt with." He got the meeting back on track and they began making plans, Optimus would obviously be the one to retrieve the Cube but until they had an idea of where it was he would remain and continue to lead their forces. They had two ships, if they could be made space worthy they could be sent out to search for signs. The meeting finally ended, and Optimus went to address the troops. Megatron having left the planet made them cheer but the knowledge that the AllSpark was gone had not gone over well. Without it they were a dying race, their world cold, dark and eventually it would be unable to sustain life.
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Optimus stood, looking out over Iacon, remembering the once bustling, peaceful city it had been. He felt his love join him there, her arm brushing his.
"Something is troubling you."
"Many things are troubling me," he admitted.
"Are you having doubts about the launch?"
"Since the moment Alpha Trion suggested the plan," he looked down at her. "Have I condemned out people, our world to extinction?"
"Better that then what Megatron would have done my love," she assured him. "We will win, and we will restore Cybertron."
He nodded slowly, allowing himself to bask in her certainty and her trust in him. "You do not have to be the one to take the second ship." It was as close as he would come to asking her to remain at his side, but she understood.
"My squad is best for the job and we both know it. We have time, the ships still need work," she told him, flirtatiously and Optimus nodded, leaving his office for their quarters. He would take every klick he could get with her.
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Ironhide watched as Chromia worked with Bumblebee, furthering his skills with using sound bites to communicate. It hurt, to see him so injured, but Bumblebee wasn't letting it handicap him in any way. it wasn't just learning to live without his voice though, he'd started training with Jazz and Prowl, two of the best close combat fighters they had. His defeat at Megatron's hands had obviously affected their bubbly Youngling, making him push himself to become better at fighting. Ironhide hated the idea of Bumblebee ever being put in that situation again but they were at war and it could happen. He would rip Megatron's Spark out himself for what he had done to Bumblebee, for what he had done to their people.
He had known Megatron before the war, and that Mech bore no resemblance to the mad monster he had become. That Megatron would never have harmed Bumblebee, would never have caused the attack that had ripped Bumblebee's Creator's from him. He didn't understand how Megatron had changed so much, what had caused it but it had gotten to the point where he didn't really care anymore, all he wanted was to end the war and live in peace with his Spark Mate and Bumblebee.
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Optimus watched at the ship launched, feeling the bond to Elita-One stretch and fade until it was only the sense that she was alive. He knew Ironhide was feeling the same thing as they stood side by side, optics locked on the ship for as long as they could see it. Silverbolt had an escort on the ship and they had lain several false trails for Starscream's forces to follow, increasing the odds of the ship making it. They only relaxed when the ship was out of the system and safe from the Decepticons, until they managed their own launches. The second ship would be launched in an Orn and then it would become a waiting game.
He prayed to Primus that soon the war would be over soon and that his people would know peace again. Then they could all come home again.
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They all stared in awe and terror as fire blazed across the sky, hunters clutching at stone spears. The noise was deafening as it flew overhead, the sky burning until there was as flash on the horizon and a loud boom. They waited, but nothing else happened and they went on with their lives, gradually forgetting what had happened.
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Time passed as the search for the AllSpark continued. Life on Cybertron became harder, bleaker but they did their best to keep spirits up as the search drew out into Vorns and then eventually Decavorns.
Starscream left the planet on board a ship he named the Nemesis with most of Megatron's elite forces, leaving Shockwave in command of those who remained. The majority of those aboard were in stasis, conserving Energon, knowing their search could last for many Decavorns.
Shockwave was not an imaginative foe but he still kept the war going.
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When the sky burned again no one was left alive who had seen it the first time. Their descendants watched in awe as fire streaked across the sky, but they never heard when it crashed through the ice several thousand miles north.
When he landed Megatron was critically low in Energon, his armour damaged by the almost uncontrolled re-entry. The Fallen's anger at his failure hadn't helped matters at all. The freezing cold was seeping in and he struggled to free himself from the ice, but his movements slowed until finally he was forced into emergency stasis in an effort to protect Spark and Processors.
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Optimus took one last look around what had been his office for Decavorns before leaving it and heading down to where the others waited. They boarded the newly named Ark II and then launched, heading quickly for space. They only rarely heard from the other two ships and neither had found the AllSpark. Cybertron was all but dead but they had no way to evacuate all those who still lived there. Ultra Magnus remained behind to watch over their people and to try to find them a new home until Cybertron could be restored. Optimus stood on the bridge, watching until the planet was gone from even his keen optics. Would he ever see his home again?
TBC…
