Chapter 4
"So, maybe you will finally tell us now what is going on on this planet", Megatron asked the native woman who was leading them.
"Yes, it is time you hear everything", the woman replied.
The Decepticons had agreed to let this humanoid guide them to her master, as she called it. They were right now slowly converging to a large building complex that for some reason seemed less destroyed than the area around it.
"My name is Xaaras", the woman told them. "I was once a scientist, a part of a group that was involved into a secret project, before all this started."
"Excuse me, how long was that ago?" Skywarp asked curious.
"About 11 years of my world."
"That are only 10 cybertronian years."
"That is impossible", Thundercracker fell in, "by the rate of the atomic disintegration, this destruction must have happened at least hundred years ago."
"It is his presence, it changes things", she told them.
"And who is this he?" Megatron wanted to know.
xxxxxxx
"Ironhide."
Ironhide saw the robot coming out of the dark corridor. The figure was forming out of the shadows. He realised who was standing before him, he couldn´t believe it.
It was his formers group leader Def Charger. But Def Charger died two vorn ago. He was shot before his eyes.
"Ironhide, my old comrade", the robot greeted him. He was smiling.
"No, that is impossible. I saw you die."
"Yes, I was shot by a rogue Decepticon", the smile of Def Chargers face vanished, "and you stood simple at the side, doing nothing. You let me die", he accused him.
"That is not true, the were far to powerful for us. We couldn´t do anything." Ironhide defended himself.
"You did nothing. I was your comrade, your commander, your friend", Ironhide´s spark pained with every word this ghost told him, "and you let me die."
The scene reappeared before Ironhide. He saw the Decepticon standing directly before his commander, aiming his cannon at him and shooting.
Def Chargers head exploded and his corpse fell down. Just like the last time. He didn´t hear him falling, only the explosion. Ironhide looked at the body on the ground.
Then he heard laughing all around him.
xxxxxxx
"As I said, we were a certain group of scientists", Xaaras told the Decepticons. "This world consisted once of four large states, that were all united in a single alliance."
"Our team had been recruited by our government. We had been involved in a special project. A secret experiment that should have brought our nation´s technological development on the top of this planet´s."
"Of course, be only in a alliance if you are the strongest partner in it", Megatron said.
"What kind of an experiment was that?" He wanted to know.
"Hyperspace manipulation", she replied, "a passage created by an over strong gravitation field. To make it short, we opened a gate, a gate to another dimension."
"You teared a hole in our universe", Thundercracker commented.
"Yes", she stated. Her voice sounded hollow. "We had hoped to use the hyperspace as an energy source. But it hadn´t happened as planned."
xxxxxxx
The Autobots were still searching the area and despite that they were holding relative close range, they somehow managed to loose sight from each other.
Ironhide and two others hadn´t departed too much from the shuttle to keep contact, while Optimus group had moved a far longer distance. But now even a few of the members of the same group could hardly see each other anymore. It was as if the darkness and the duty air had separated them from each other.
Ironhide was still confronted with the appearance of his former commander. The rational part of his mind knew that this couldn´t be the real Def Charger. But that didn´t change the fear it had awakened in him.
He realised that the half of Def Chargers head was missing now. Inside he culd see the sparking, damaged circuity.
"No", he yelled, "that has to be some Decepticon trick.
"You little fool", the being who looked like Def Charger told him.
Ironhide could all too good remember it, the hidden fear and terror as his friend and superior was killed before his eyes and he was not able to do anything without it.
He felt that he was grabbed from behind.
xxxxxxx
The Decepticons came now closer to the buildings. Something told them that this was their destination.
"What exactly went wrong?" Megatron asked.
"We had not only opened a gate to another dimension", Xaaras explained to the Decepticons, "something came through to us."
xxxxxxx
Ironhide recognised the rogue leader. The large purple form, in the same size as Megatron and Optimus Prime, the crowned helmet, the cannon, everything.
The Decepticon put his end on Ironhide´s throat and lifted him up.
"Little Autobot", the robot said to him.
Ironhide screamed.
xxxxxxx
Optimus group was following the energy signatures of the Decepticons, they could find. They were coming to a large building complex that for some reason seemed less destroyed than the area around it.
Suddenly Optimus Prime thought he saw something beside them, next to the way they were walking on. It was dark and the air was full of dust, it was hard to see something, even for robots. As he stepped closer, Optimus realised what it was, heads.
It were the heads of a half dozen natives, stuck on spears.
For a moment he looked at the horrific picture before him. Then he turned around to the others. They were gone. All he could see was the thick veil of the dusty atmosphere.
"Ultra Magnus, Kup", he called them. Nobody answered. It was as if he was cut off from the others.
xxx
Ultra Magnus had lost sight of the other Autobots. From one second to the next, they were not longer to see.
Then he saw someone coming. Three figures shaped out of the mist. But they weren´t Autobots.
They were large, heavily armed mechs, Decepticons. Their armour was colored in purple and blue. It were three Transformers he hadn´t seen for over two vorn, since he was rebuilt, since he ceased to be Dion and became Ultra Magnus.
He never knew what they wanted, only that they were there and their threat. He knew that they were powerful. They killed Def Charger without anybody being able to do anything. Far too powerful for him to have any chance.
He knew they were one of the things he feared.
xxxxxxx
The Decepticons had arrived before a large hall. In opposite to the Autobots, they had no problems with their sight.
As if the planet wanted them to find their destination.
"At first, we wanted to contain the creature in a restricted area. It was unique, a entity, seemingly being of pure energy. It was a discovery from unlimited worth", Xaaras explained to them.
"But we underestimated it badly. It was not only intelligent, probably far more than us, it was also powerful. It didn´t take long time until it longed out, influencing, changing."
"What do you mean with that?" Thundercracker asked nervously.
"At first, the creature showed mental powers, people around it were showing strange behaviour, went insane. A few run amok and started killing other colleagues. The mind of a few of them was twisted to the point that the became only drones under his control.
His power however went far beyond that. It was able to manipulate reality itself. Both, things and people, changed without recognition."
"Changed? How do you mean that?" Megatron asked. Even his voice betrayed now a trace of uneasiness.
"You will see"; Xaaras answered him.
"Then the effect widened out", she looked at the Decepticons, "over our entire world."
The Transformers and the native were now standing before a large door.
"Mass murder, riots, genocide and madness. In the final stage he took control of the nuclear weapons of this world and turned them against their own planet."
"I understand and how comes it that you are still alive?" Megatron asked her. "Or be like the creatures out there."
Xaaras smiled.
"Simply, I made an agreement with the creature."
Xaaras was standing behind an older man, one of the other scientists. "He" was quickly starting to gain his influence. The man was visibly worried. She laid an arm on his shoulder.
"I was allowed to stay alive and my mind was kept intact. In exchange I agreed to become his minion. All I had to sacrifice were a few unimportant affiliations."
In the other hand she held a long knife. She cut the man´s throat.
Xaaras was kneeling on the floor and pledging her alliance, sitting in a pile of blood. Next to her were lying two dead bodies.
"And more", she said. Xaaras looked upwards, directly in Megatron´s eyes. "Eternal life and the fulfilment of all my wishes."
xxxxxxx
Optimus heard something behind him, steps. It stopped. Someone was standing directly behind his back.
He turned around and the energon in his fuel line froze.
xxxxxxx
"So you are, to call it short, a collaborator", Megatron stated.
"Whatever you want to call it", a voice was to hear. The source seemed to be inside the building. But at the same time it seemed to come from other directions too.
It was the same voice that had spoken to Thundercracker and Skywarp through Roughstart´s dead body, the same voice that called to Optimus and Ultra Magnus for help.
"Fact is however, that you can with me on your side destroy all your enemies and reach all your aims."
"And who guarantees me that you actually have this great powers your servant is talking about?"
"For your sake, a little demonstration. Go inside."
The Decepticons entered the building. Inside they found a long, grey corridor with prison cells on both sides.
"No", Skywarp pressed out.
"Skywarp?" Megatron addressed the jet. "You know this place."
"We lived here", he answered.
"Where are we?"
"Under the main building of the construction plants of SkyRay industries"
"The company that had constructed you?"
"SkyRay was one of the largest concerns on Cybertron before the war. Back in the time of the first Decepticon uprising, before the so called golden age, it was the main manufacturers of seekers and air units for both sides. Soon, the company became greedy and corrupted. The leadership of both factions were paying them horrendous sums. Neither of them dared to go against the company. Both needed them.
After the war was over, there was not longer a great need for seekers. But since they were payed by the government and had their hands very deep in the same government, they continued too produce.
Many of the seekers they had built were then thrown away, right after their creation to rot as empties on the streets", Skywarp explained.
The voice of the seeker showed every bit of the anger he felt.
"I already know all of that", Megatron stated.
"We have never told you the entire truth", Thundercracker told him. "We weren´t two of these seekers."
"We were experimental prototypes. Better, stronger and our special abilities. Models like us were to useful to be cast out. We were kept here. Thundercracker and I were meant to spend our entire life's in this cells. They wanted to devolve our abilities to other seekers, studied and tested us."
They heard a scream in a short distance, around the corner.
"Come", Skywarp said.
They saw a seeker hanging in a bizarre looking apparatus Horrified they realised that he was been taken apart piece by peace.
"I remember when this one was brought away. They wanted to use his ability for mass production and dissected him for it."
All of them starred at the scene. But they knew there was nothing to do. This was only an illusion. All that happened years ago.
The tortured robot vanished. Instead another shape appeared. Next to one of the cells, another seeker. It was a female.
"No, not that, not her", Thundercracker said toneless.
"Who was she?" Megatron asked.
"She was our creator", Skywarp answered. "Her name was Starfall. She was one of the earlier models, one of the first of our line."
"Me, Thundercracker and a few others, we were created from her spark and built with her schematics as base. We were her children if you say so. All of us were held here."
"What happened?" Megatron asked.
"Skywarp, Thundercracker, I will bring you out of here. You must hurry."
"She helped us escape. One day Starfall showed up and opened our cell. She had been long enough here to find a way to escape. Thundercracker and me had to fought our way out. From there on we lived our life on the streets like you know.
A short time later, we heard that Starfall had fled too and she joined us.
We had heart from her that she had brought another, younger creation out. She had sent him away, hide him by some mech she knew, so that SkyRay wouldn´t find him."
He didn´t mention that this creation was no one else than the missing air commander Starscream.
"We three lived then together in the outskirts of Kaon for some time. Until I and Thundercracker joined you."
Megatron said nothing for a few moments. Even for him was that a lot to take in.
"I understand", he finally said.
"Soundwave", Megatron addressed the communicator. He didn´t get an answer.
The large blue Decepticon said nothing.
"Soundwave", he tried again, silence. "Soundwave what is with you?"
Soundwave didn´t answer. He didn´t knew what to say, didn´t knew what to do.
He only knew one thing, he was terrified.
xxxxxxx
The Autobots were still walking around. Having lost contact to a few members.
"Have you seen Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus?" Kup asked his two remaining companions.
"They can not be far away, they had just been here."
The Autobots were about to find what they searched for.
XXXCCC
About the cybertronian time units. In case you don´t know.
A vorn is a period of ca. 82 years. Others would be breem = 8,3 minutes and cicle (As far as I know a day)
Technically, Cybertron doesn´t have a years, since it is not circling a sun. For this story, I go by the Idea that
the Cybertron year is about equal to ours.
