Transformers:
Apocalypse Song
In an attempt to regain Autobot and Decepticon technology that was thought to be lost through time and the Dread War, Kross has made his way to the forbidden plant of Earth. There, the rogue Predacon hopes to locate several sources of vast power that was left behind by the Autobots when they evacuated the planet shortly after the signing of the Cybertronia Pax. The first location that Kross has targeted is the ancient Autobot city of Metroplex. Fearing that the Predacons may revive the massive city, Prowl has followed Kross to Metroplex and hopes to thwart his efforts to gain the city for his own purposes.
However, something is not right about the planet. When the Transformers were last on Earth, the population was reaching nine billion humans, but now Liger has discovered that the planet has a population of only half a billion. Although this seems to be a mystery, especially to Prowl and Swiftwing who were on Earth at one point in their lives, the Maximals must place the vanishing of the Earth's population on hold why they try and keep Kross from reaching his goal!
Chapter Four:
The War Anew
New Lithone
Harp stood on the observation deck of the Maximal space station that orbited New Lithone and gazed out into the vastness of space. She placed one arm across her abdomen and rubbed her chin with her other hand as her optics scanned the immediate vicinity for any sign of the Maximal ship known as the Optimus I.
Frustrated, she turned to her partner and looked up into his yellow optics. "Something doesn't smell right, Crush," she said.
The large green and yellow Maximal nodded at his commanding officer in agreement with her statement. He then looked out into space and glanced down at the planet. "I'd have to say that you're probably right on that, Harp." He tapped his finger on the thick glass and looked over to the leader of his unit. "If you want my opinion, I think that we've got a problem brewing."
Harp tilted her head to her right and smiled at Crush's statement. "You don't have to say it, Crush," she said as she turned her attention to the traffic of shuttles making their way between the planet and its two moons. She watched as the cargo ships transported energon and other goods to and from New Lithone and its newly creted moons."I just want to know where the hell those two ships could have vanished to." She turned around and looked at Crush. "Outside of us, there hasn't been any Maximal activity on New Lithone in over three orns." She began walking to the other side of the deck and glanced to the elevator shaft. "So where did they go?"
Crush turned his attention to the elevator. He smiled pleasantly as he saw three Lithonian sparkling-mechs run out of the elevator and press their delicate faces against the procetcive glass. Crush waived to the two other mechs that followed the small sparklings. "Beautiful view we have today," he said.
The two mechs smiled back at Crush and nodded at the Maximal. Then, as they approached the sparklings, they saw the black Maximal symbol on his massive chest. They then quickly made their way over to the three sparkling-mechs. They grabbed the two child-like mechs by their shoulders and hurried them to the opposite side of the observation deck. "We're extremely sorry," the taller mech stated as they walked away. Obviously nervous about the appearance of two maximals operatives, he opened up the door and allowed the sparklings to exit the room first. "We'll leave you to your business."
Crush shook his head at them and walked over to Harp. "Now tell me you didn't see that," he started. "The Maximals have been getting a bad name for quite some time now, and we're supposed to be the ones protecting them." Frustrated, he clenched his fists and looked at the polished floor. "It makes me sick to think that we're beeing looked at with fear."
Harp shook her head and looked over at Crush. She then walked over to the large Maximal and grabbed his right hand with both of hers. She rubbed the top of his fist and he then turned to look into her blue optics.
"Things have changed, haven't they?" Harp asked. "I'm not sure if they have done so for the better." She let go of Crush's hand and took out her communicator from her side. She opened it up and the Maximal symbol appeared on it. "Do you read me, Kom-Batt?" she said into the lower portion of the device.
A deep blue Maximal appeared on the screen and smiled at Harp. "Gotcha boss," the Maximal known as Kom-Batt said. "Did you find anything there?"
Harp shook her head at his question. "Not a damn thing," she said with frustration. "I've got a feeling that they never were headed here in the first place." She looked over at Crush who was staring at some other Lithonian civilians on the other end of the observation deck. "Tell Grout and Aquafrost that we're headed back to Cybertron immediately." She looked back at the image of the Maximal on the communicator's screen. "The Council isn't going to be too happy with this news."
Fearswoop turned himself over in mid-air as he began to transform. Once he was completely in his alternative mode, the Predacon ignited his rear thrusters and sent the single wing mini-jet soaring into the clouds. He began to laugh to himself as he brought his weapon systems on-line. He then took a sharp turn to his left and began his decent down to one of his intended targets.
"Come out, come out, where ever you are," he said to himself as he scanned for Maximal signatures. Suddenly, Fearswoop spotted several Maximals dropping from the bottom of the Optimus I. Realizing that the Maximals were vulnerable without the protection of the ship, he streaked downward and headed toward the nearest Maximal that he scanned.
The Maximal known as Vistory landed on the ground and pulled his E.M.P. rifle from his back holster. He then looked up and activated his long-range scanner within his optics. A green visor slid over his optics and he spotted Fearswoop headed in his direction. The visor retracted and Victory lifted the rifle up to target the approaching Predacon.
Suddenly, a burst of machine-gun fire came from underneath Fearswoop which sent Victory running across the deck of the massive city. The Maximal hid behind the corner of a nearby hanger and ducked as the bullets showered down upon the building and the ground, sending up shards of debris around Victory.
Fearswoop zipped by the Maximal and Victory took aim at the Predacon yet again. He smiled to himself as Fearswoop entered the rifle's cross hairs. "See ya, sucka!" he yelled as he pulled the trigger.
A white ball of energy streaked across the sky and clipped the unsuspecting Fearswoop right on his wing. The Predacon screamed in pain as he went falling to the deck of Metroplex. He tried relentlessly to pull up, but without any power flowing to his navigational systems, he crashed onto the deck of the city. Fearswoop struggled to transform as he lay there in agony, but he managed to do so. He spotted Victory running in his direction and he pulled his own weapon from his hip. He fired of two rounds which sent Victory scurrying for cover.
Weasel landed on his hands and knees. The jolt from the landing rattled his joints somewhat, and he looked for any signs of Maximals. Then, Weasel spotted something even better. The Predacon found an abandoned hanger bay and began running toward it. He kept looking over his shoulders to make sure that he was not spotted. Once he reached the complex, he ducked inside and peered around to make sure that nobody, Maximal or Predacon, saw him. He ducked down and pulled out his sidearm. His hand shook with an intense nervousness as he sat there. He placed his other hand on his forearm in an attempt to calm himself down, but he knew deep down inside of his spark that he was molre afraid than he possibly could imagine.
Please don't let me die. Please don't let me die. Please don't let me die. Please don't let me die.
Swiftwing landed the Optimus I at the edge of the runway right before the Predacons had landed. He sprang from his seat, grabbed his side arm that was magnetized to his left leg, and ran for the exit. He slapped a fresh energon clip into it weapon and shoved open the exit door of the shuttle. The bright sun was setting over the mountain, causing Swiftwing to hold up his left arm to shield his optics from the glare that it had created. He turned his head module toward the Predacon ship and saw both Kross and Downtrodden running down the ramp of the shuttle. He then jumped down and took aim at the two Predacons.
As teh two Predacons reached the end of the ramp, Downtrodden spotted Swiftwing pointing his weapon at Kross. He then jumped on his leader's back and forced him to the ground, causing the twomechs to topple over each other. Just then, three red plasma blasts skimmed over the two Predacons. Kross heaved Downtrodden off of his frame and rolled over onto his back. He opened up his compartment embedded within his left leg and pulled out his own weapon.
"Thank you, my dear Downtrtodden," Kross said as he took aim at Swiftwing. "Let's deal with our little hero here first before we attend to our business!"
Kross fired off several shots at the Maximal, but they missed him completely. Swiftwing smiled at his good fortune and began firing at the two Predacons. "Looks as if your aim hasn't improved after all of these vorns, Kross!" Swiftwing yelled.
Kross sprang to his feet and grunted at Swiftwing's comment. "Damn Maximal dog!" he yelled. "I'll recycle you yet!" He brought himself to a standing position and began charging toward the Maximal with his weapon firing. "Die, damn it! Die!"
Swiftwing ducked behind the landing gear of the Optimus I and avoided being clipped by Kross's stream of gunfire. He crouched down and peered around the other side of the bulky gear. Swiftwing spotted Downtrodden making his way to the entrance to the city, so he turned his attention to him. Swiftwing squinted and intently focused on Downtrodden, taking aim at his legs. Once he got a positive lock on the Predacon Swiftwing fired at the mech.
The shot caught Downtrodden in the knee and sent the Predacon tumbling over himself. The Predacon slammed his face on the surface of Metroplex and grunted as he heard his jaw crack. Over by the Predacon shuttle, Kross heard the thud of Downtrodded hitting the surface. He turned his head and saw his loyal follower crouched over in pain. He then spotted Swiftwing running to the cover of another landing gear and opened fire on him.
The Maximal saw Kross and managed to get off three more rounds aimed at him, which sent Kross hiding for cover. The Maximal checked the gauge on his clip and jumped out from behind the landing gear. Swiftwing then shot at Kross twice, hitting the gear that the Predacon was hiding behind.
Seeing that he had the Predacon cornered, Swiftwing looked behind him and saw the entrance to the city. The Maximal then shot at Kross again and began sprinting toward the door. Suddenly, Swiftwing was tackled by the massive Predacon known as Malpractice.
The two Transformers tumbled for a moment, and Swiftwing managed to break free. He looked at Malpractice for a moment, and then he spotted his weapon just out of arm's reach. He lunged forward toward it, but it exploded into several large fragments just as he was about to reach it. The Maximal looked over and saw that Kross was taking aim at him.
Swiftwing then rolled to his left and avoided being shot by Kross. He then ducked behind a wall to the hanger and reached for two E.M.P. grenades in his side compartment. He pushed a red button on the top of them, and they lit up with a blue light. Swiftwing smiled to himself and lept out from behind the cover.
"Choke on this!" he yelled. He threw the first grenade at Malpractice who was still getting up. The Predacon saw the incoming projectile and jumped as far away from the grenade as possible. Once it hit the ground, a blinding white flash appeared and blue electricity crackled all around.
Kross saw the other grenade heading for him and he ran for cover. The E.M.P. blast caught Kross in the leg and he fell flat on his face as he felt his entire left leg shut down. He attempted to stand up, but he fell down again. He propped himself up on one leg and began to head straight for the doorway.
"Damn you!" he shouted as he loaded another energon clip into his weapon. "You'll pay dearly for this, Maximal!"
Swiftwing smiled as he ran toward Kross. "Oh, I'm sure I will!" he said as he squared his shoulders and broadsided the Predacon. Kross went flying to his side and rolled over onto his back. He lost the weapon which went sailing across the highly polished deck of the city.
Realizing that this was his best chance, Swiftwing ran to the entrance of the city. Once he reached the massive door, he pulled on the large handle and managed to open the door just enough for him to get through. He then pulled the door shut and began running down the hall to the nearest control consol in order to gain access to the city's mainframe.
Disgusted with the situation, Kross turned and saw Malpractice running toward him. Malpractice offered to help him, but Kross brushed him away. He propped himself up to a standing position and pointed to the door that Swiftwing had entered.
"That damn Autobot reboot has made it inside the city's workings!" he shouted. "We have to stop him before he sends our plans to the slag-heap!"
Antagony landed on her feet with both grace and ease. She glanced over her shoulder and spotted two other Maximals approaching her from the south end of the deck of Metroplex. She turned around and sneered at the two approaching Maximals.
The grin on Antagony's face made Liger shudder. He turned to Orion Magnus and looked at the young Maximal. "Be careful of this one, Magnus!" he shouted. "She's one grade-A bitchmaster!"
Orion Magnus smiled at his partner. "Gotcha, Liger!" he yelled. "Let's take her out together!"
The two Maximals transformed into their alternate modes. Liger's wolf mode made a dash straight toward Antagony, while Orion Magnus, in his grizzly-bear mode, stormed off in the same direction as well.
Antagony began to laugh at the two Maximals and their strategy. "Pathetic!" she shouted to them. She then placed her hands close together and white electricity began to spark out from her fingertips. She slowly pulled her hands apart from each other, and the energy began to coalesce in a pulsing, blue ball. The ball of blue energy began to grow rapidly, and then she braced herself on her feet by shifting her balance. She then spotted the two Maximals and giggled. "See you in hell!" she shouted as she pushed the blue ball toward the Maximals with her arms.
Liger and Orion Magnus spotted the energy ball and attempted to doge it. Quickly, Liger leapt to his left and avoided the initial explosion that the impact created. However, the blast caught Orion Magnus and it sent him sliding across the deck of the city and into a wall. Liger opened up a compartment on his shoulder and out popped three gun barrels. The Maximals brought his shoulder-gun on-line and aimed it at Antagony. He shot several times in order to clip the Predacon, but he did not seem to hit her.
The female Predacon jumped up and held out her hand at Liger. Streaks of white electricity shot out from her fingers and nearly caught Liger. The ground in front of the Maximal was a charred black and smelled of ozone as it crackled from the electric shot.
"Foolish Maximal!" Antagony yelled to Liger as she landed on her feet. "You have no idea who you are dealing with!" She turned her attention to Orion Magnus who was pushing himself off of the ground. She pointed both hands at him and shot another stream of electricity at the Maximal.
The electric wave caught Orion Magnus and he writhed in pain as the electricity surged through his body. The young Maximal doubled over in extreme pain and attempted to look for Liger. The mechanical bear let out a deafening roar as Orion Magnus rolled onto his back.
Enthralled by her handiwork, Antagony did not notice that Liger was headed toward her from behind. The Maximal wolf jumped up and pounced on her back, digging his front clws into her shoulders. The two Transformers threw up waves of orange sparks as they slid along the surface of the white deck while Liger transformed.
Once the two Transformers stopped sliding, Liger grabbed Antagony by the back of her head and shoved it into the deck with a loud thud. The resulting impact left a dent in the surface of the city.
Completely enraged, Antagony elbowed Liger in his throat and sent him falling backward. She then turned around and kicked him in the abdomen. The Predacon stood up and gazed down at Liger. "Foolish whelp!" she yelled. "You shall pay for soiling me with your stench!"
Just then, Antagony was brushed aside by a large paw. Orion Magnus snarled at her in his bear mode and positioned himself in front of Liger in order to protect him.
Antagony smiled at the sight of the ferocious Maximal who was being protective os his friend. She realized that even as damaged as he was, Orion Magnus was still a difficult Maximal to take off-line. "How heroic," she said slyly. "I'm impressed, but not as impressed as I should be."
Orion Magnus growled again at Antagony and glared at her red optics as he understood the underlining meaning of her statement. "You'd be surprised at quite a bit, witch!"
Antagony stood up and curtsied at Orion Magnus. She then smiled and tiled her head at the Maximal. "I'll let you deal with your friend while I make my way inside!" The Predacon then began to transform into her hover-car mode. She then sped off for the main access door that Swiftwing had already entered.
Orion Magnus transformed and turned to his friend. He helped Liger stand up and braced him on his shoulder. "You okay, Liger?" Orion Magnus asked his friend.
Liger shook his head at Orion Magnus. "I'll be fine," he said sharply. "It's that Predacon bitch that's headed toward the entrance that I'm worried about!"
Prowl punched Heatwave in the face and it sent the Predacon falling backwards. He then turned his head and spotted Antagony making her way to the entrance where Swiftwing entered. Prowl began running toward the doorway as well and opened his communication link with Swiftwing.
"What's the deal there, Swift?" Prowl asked.
There was no reply from Swiftwing. Prowl transformed into his owl mode and flew in the direction of the door. There he saw Malpractice already at work on opening the door.
The thick door exploded and Malpractice ducked to avoid being hit by any debris from it. The Predacon grabbed the huge door and ripped the remains of it off of its hinges. The door landed on the ground with a loud thud, and Malpractice glared into the hallway. He scanned for Swiftwing, but he could not find the Maximal's signature. He turned around and saw Prowl approaching, so he quickly ducked inside the door, transformed, and sped off down the hall in search of a command consol.
Swiftwing reached the end of the hallway and paused for a moment to listen. He could hear the engine of an approaching Predacon, so he began running down the left hallway. He brought his forearm close to his face and opened the mini-computer inside of it. He punched in a few numbers and the screen displayed a map of the complex.
Swiftwing looked up and realized that he was approaching the location that he was looking for. He stopped as he saw the door to the command center that would give him at least partial access to the city's mainframe. He pushed the door open, and then he ducked inside of the room. In his haste, he forgot to close the door behind him.
The Maximal ran to the far end of the room where he saw a computer consol. Swiftwing jumped on the hulking seat and took a small wire from out of his wrist. He looked all over, but he realized that he did not have a port to hack into. He became nervous as he heard Malpractice approaching, and that's when it hit him.
"Damn!" he said out loud. He jumped off of the chair and ripped open the metal covering to the computer consol. He activated the laser scalpel in his index finger and sliced open several wires. He then pulled the wire from his wrist again and spliced into the original wiring. The computer on his forearm lit up as it began negotiating with the host computer.
Suddenly, Swiftwing felt a tug at his leg. He looked behind him and saw Malpractice pulling on his lower body. He lifted his leg up and kicked the Predacon in his face. Malpractice fell backward and stumbled over some large equipment.
Swiftwing looked back at his mini-computer and saw that the negotiating was complete. He then began to upload the Maximal signature to the city's mainframe to activate Metroplex's defensive mechanisms. The Maximal smiled, unplugged hiself from the computer, and wiggled out from under the computer. He looked around as the city began to come back on-line.
"You'r too late, Malpractice," Swiftwing boasted. "Metroplex has been inputted with Maximal signatures, so I'd get running if I were you!"
All of the radars across the massive city known as Metroplex began to hum with life. As a testament to their sheer magnitude of power, all of the radars pointed into the sky in the direction of the setting sun. Suddenly, each radar began to glow a bright white as the hum became louder. Then, without warning, every radar fired off in unison creating one large beam of solid white light.
The light streaked off over the horizon and headed into the sky. Finally, the light hit a small satellite in Earth's orbit and the beam was broken into two seperate streams which headed off into different directions.
Every Transformer on the complex grabbed their audio receptors in agony and fell to the ground in complete pain. Prowl fell to the esurface of the city as he was overcome by the piercing sound while Antagony slammed off the deck of Metroplex as well. She then swerved haphazardly and crached into a small wall. Malpractice doubled over and clenched his head modlue as he traied to crawl out of the room. Swiftwing looked up at the monitor and saw that the beam had cleared the mountain range and headed to space.
Finally, the high-pitched sound stopped. Swiftwing skook his head and then jumped onto the chair again to activate the defensive programs. He pulled up the Predacon signatures that were spread across the deck of Metroplex and brought several weapons on-line.
Antagony transformed back into her robot mode and shook her head as she attempted to gain her bearings. She then spotted Prowl in a tangled mess as a result of him falling from the sky. She smiled to herself as she saw the opportunity to kill the vulnerable Maximal.
Suddenly, she heard a mechanical hum from behind her. She turned around and saw two of the hulking gun turrets pointed down at her. The massive barrels gleamed in the fading sunlight and she began to back away from them.
"PREDACON SIGNATURE DETECTED," the street's audio equipment stated in a monotone voice. "INITIATING DEFENSIVE PROTOCOLS. INTRUDERS ARE TARGETED FOR EXTERMINATION."
Several other gun turrets began to move in the direction of each of the Predacons. Antagony transformed into her alternate mode and took off for the Predacon ship.
"The hell with this scrap!" she yelled. "Let's get out of here!"
The other Predacons scattered across the city began to make their way to the Predacon ship. Heatwave started running and spotted Weasel coming out from the empty hanger. "Where the slag were you?" Heatwave asked Weasel.
The cowardly Predacon turned to Heatwave and pointed toward the ship. "Do you really want to discuss that now, or would you rather live to see another orn?"
Both Predacons continued their dash for the ship.
Downtrodden hobbled over to Kross and helped his leader to his feet. "We must leave here now," Downtrodden stated. "The Maximals have beaten us."
Kross shoved Downtrodden away and began hopping to the ship. "They've only take one prize, you fool!" Kross shouted. He watched as the rest of the Predacons entered the ship. He turned around and saw Malpractice running from out of the damaged door. "Idiot!" he yelled at the running Predacon.
Fearswoop landed by the entrance ramp and helped Downtrodden up to the ship. Weasel ran behind them and made his way to the pilot's chair. He brought the ship's anti-gravity propulsion on-line and the ship lifted slightly off of the ground. He retracted the landing gear and looked all around him.
"Are we all on?" he asked.
Kross slammed his fist into the wall and pointed at the image of the city on the monitor. "Damn this Autobot technology!" he screamed.
Malpractice helped Kross to his chair and sat him in it. "Yes," he said to Kross. "Perhaps it is time that we looked at my methods?"
Kross looked over at Weasel and pointed at him. "Get us out of here now!" he shouted.
The Predacon ship lifted off of the ground and streaked across the deck of the city. It then lifted up into the air and shot across the hazy sky and into the horizon.
All of the Maximals gathered in the control room where Swiftwing managed to hack into Metroplex. Prowl looked over at his friend and smiled at him. "Good timing, Swift," Prowl said. "Another astrosecond and we might have had some difficulty dealing with the Preds."
Swiftwing glanced over at Prowl and smiled back at him. "It was nothing, I suppose," he said with a grin. He walked over to Prowl and placed his hand on his shoulder. "It looks like the Predacons managed to scram, though."
Prowl turned and looked at his crew of gathered Maximals. He placed his hands on his hips and looked at each one of them in the optics as he began to speak. "We're in this for the long haul," he said. "The Predacons managed to escape, and that leaves us in charge of making sure that they do not do anything to the planet or its inhabitants." He looked over at Swiftwing and nodded in his direction. "This is going to be home for a while."
Orion Magnus looked up at his leader and stepped forward before he spoke. "What are we going to do about the Council of Elders?" he asked. "It's not like they'll want us here."
Prowl shook his head at the Maximal's question. "The truth is, Magnus, that they don't know that we're here, and I'd like to keep it that way for a while." He gazed out of the window and formed a small smile in the corner of his mouth. "Perhaps it's best that they don't know, and maybe it is for the best that we are here."
All of the Maximals gathered around the window that Prowl was staring out of to see the sight of the setting sun. The red haze began to radiate in the sky, and the highly polished deck of Metroplex began to give off a light crimson glow.
New Detroit
The young radar officer jumped to his feet and grabbed the sheet of paper that he printed off of his computer. He glanced at the print-out of the information just to double check what he had read. He then looked up and began running straight down the hallway toward the general's office.
He shoved several clerks aside as he hurried down the hall toward his destination. He accidentally knocked over the lunch boy who was bringing around bottles of water to several of the other radar officers who were stationed at the base today.
Finally, he reached the end of the hall and spotted his commanding officer. He immediately snapped to attention in front of his superior.
The commander smiled at the young officer and saluted him. "At ease, soldier," the commander said. "What's the rush?"
The young officer took the piece of paper and handed it to the commander. "Sir," he began. "Comm-sat indicates increased activity in the Southern quadrant of Oregon." he pointed to some of the other readings on the paper. "The majority of the activity originated in the Restricted Zone, Commander Waignright."
The commander glanced over the information and began to realize just what he was holding. "Are you sure of this, soldier?" he asked the officer. "I'd hate to throw the military into a panic."
The young soldier snapped to attention again and looked into Commander Waignright's eyes. "Absolutely, sir," he said. "The information was relayed to Neo Tokyo the Miami Collective, as per confirmation order seven-three-seven." He looked at the paper again. "As the bottom of the paper suggests, the activity emanates from the Autobot city known as Metroplex."
The commander closed his eyes, rubbed their corners, and shook his head. "Have the meg-res imaging satellite maneuvered so it orbits above the Restricted Zone." He looked at the officer and squinted a bit at him. "I'll relay this information to the general immediately."
The young soldier stayed at attention. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"
The commander nodded. "Proceed."
The young officer looked directly into the commander's eyes. "What are we going to do if this is Transformer activity without prior authorization?"
The commander looked at the officer with an uneasy look. "I don't know, son. I just don't know."