Author's Note: Due to my purely selfish reasons, while I am aware that Shockwave technically did not accompany Megatron and stayed on Cybertron during Fall of Cybertron, I love his character so much, my favorite character in the Transformers canon, that I humbly ask the reader to pretend that didn't happen. All other mistakes of characters are non-intentional mistakes and will be corrected if brought to my attention.
The Humbling River
IV
Shockwave was hard at work, cutting through pieces of the alien ship's internal structure. Shockwave was a thinker, and he wondered as to what kind of race would build their ship like an insect hive, with many sac like profusions on the pale brown walls. The pieces of metal that Shockwave cut off and tossed to the ground would be useful in repairing the Decepticon ship, the Nemesis, but were not made in the same vein as any kind of Cybertronian technology.
Shockwave was about thirteen feet tall, and his head was like a rectangle. He had but one eye, a long visor that glowed with a bright purple dot. The Decepticon had few weapons, his expertise being more in technology and wisdom, but he did have the ability to shoot laser bolts out of his optical visor, deadly streams of energy that had brought many Autobots to their knees over the course of the war. Because of his specialties, he had never been able to take on Megatron, and assume his rightful place as leader of the Decepticons. But that time, Shockwave thought to himself, would soon be approaching if Starscream continued to be a tyrant.
As Shockwave started up again with his laser-shears, he heard his name shrilly called out on the Comm channel.
The Decepticon responded to the call, put down his work and walked back outside from the ship. His opticals flared for a second, as the sun of the planet was very bright. "Starscream," grumbled Shockwave, "What do you want now?"
"Skywarp got back to us from his scouting mission. He found the Autobot ship."
Shockwave did not sound impressed, "And did he find any Autobots?"
"No, he did not. But, we would do well to go over there and salvage that ship."
Shockwave sighed with annoyance, dealing with Starscream was a pain, the very voice of the Decepticon was bothersome, but Starscream was right. "Alright," agreed Shockwave, lets move out to over there."
"Its about twenty clicks north of this position," explained Starscream, "In a sea of dunes, according to Skywarp."
Starscream yelled out to all of the Decepticons, of what was left being the members known as Soundwave, the master of information gathering and stealth, with his faithful pet Battle Ravage stored within his chassis, Brawl, a brute fighter with skill in demolishing anything, and Barricade, a sort of marksman.
"Decepticons, we are mobilizing to go take the Autobot ship and salvage it! Decepticons," Shockwave groaned as Starscream used the utterly unnecessary catchphrase that had started with Megatron, "Mobilize!"
All at once they transformed, Starscream transforming into a space fighter with a remarkable ordanance, Brawl transforming into a heavy tank, a huge cannon fused to the center of his chassis. Barricade transformerd into a hover vehicle, two laser turrets on the front of his hood, and Shockwave himself transformed into a jet, purple thrusters blazing as the decepticons swiftly rode away from the site of the alien vessel.
"They're leaving," said Garrus softly, folding up his sniper rifle.
"Fascinating," said Mordin in awe, "Synthetics capable of physical form alteration in the form of vehicular transport. Synthetics in Masquerade!"
"And dangerous, just look at that ordanance," muttered Shepard, "Joker," he said over the comm, "What direction are they going?"
"North, commander, you want me to send the shuttle for pick up?"
"Send it, we won't be able to pursue on foot."
Ten minutes later the Cerberus shuttle zoomed in, and picked them up.
Optimus Prime and Perceptor had walked along the length of the ship, and had walked in again to look for any survivors. Their search proved fruitless for two hours, (as best time that Perceptor could make out without knowledge of the planet's rotation,) until they reached the armory of the ship, that was guarded by two heavy blast doors.
"Think you can cut through this?" asked Optimus.
"My laser shears can't cut through the door, but that doesn't mean there aren't other ways of getting in."
"As?" said Optimus skeptically.
"Through the roof," said Perceptor and with that they went upstairs into some charger stations for Autobots who needed a rest. Perceptor brought out his shears, and carved into the floor, searing a bright orange circle. The roof caved in, pieces of debris shattering and falling like crumbling like dirt. Perceptor hopped down to the metal floor with a thud, followed by Optimus.
Immediately Perceptor was grabbed from behind, and a voice growled, "Hold it right there..."
A laser cannon was aimed at Perceptor's back and Perceptor grinned to Optimus, who said, "Ironhide, easy, its us."
Ironhide, a short, block shaped Autobot, put down the gun and sheathed it back inside his arm and said, "Optimus! You're alive, thank Primus."
Optimus and Ironhide embraced with a hearty hand shake, and then Ironhide apologized to Perceptor, "Sorry, Perceptor, thought you might be a Decepticon. I only awoke but an hour ago, and found I was locked in this room."
"Didn't think to blast out through the ceiling?"
Ironhide laughed, "Even if I did, I'm not tall enough to climb out. We got a good selection of weapons though down here though. In case some Decepticon scum comes looking for a fight."
"So far we haven't run into any Decepticons, nor have we been attacked."
"Really," Ironhide said disappointed, "darn, I was hoping to try some of this stuff out. I didn't even know we had such things as particle rays."
Perceptor picked up a long silver tube-like weapon and attached it to his arm. "Gauss Rifle," he said proudly, "One of my inventions, wouldn't hurt to arm myself with it."
Their banter was interrupted with the low roar of thursters blazing in the air.
"What's that noise?" asked Ironhide.
"Thrusters, four hundred kilometers an hour," explained Perceptor, "My guess is the Decepticons are finally mobilized unless..."
"Unless what?" said Optimus.
"Unless there are lifeforms on this planet, advanced enough to build air transport as fast as that. Either way, I suggest we arm ourselves."
Optimus attached a new Laser blade to his arm, and a plasma cannon to his right. Ironhide looked on approvingly and said, "Lets get up there, I guess."
Each one boosted each other up through the hole in the ceiling and before them a hole as large as two transformers gave them view of the sky and dunes outside. Three blurs of movement zipped by, gracefully.
"I think you're going to get that fight after all," said Optimus grimly to Ironhide.
Shockwave's sensors located Optimus Prime before any of the others did. A bright red box outlined the Autobot leader on his HUD, as they flew by.
"Autobots detected," said Shockwave without interest, "Shall we engage?"
"Decepticons Attack!" yelled Starscream.
"I must protest against this," argued Shockwave, "We are currently not at full strength, and Optimus Prime is a better fighter than all our brutes."
"Hey Slaghead," yelled Brawl, "Shut your mouth! We can take on the Prime."
"Seeing as there is no Megatron here to enforce my cooperation, I will sit this one out," said Shockwave.
"You coward!" yelled Starscream. Shockwave turned himself around. Skywarp asked, "Should we blow him out of the sky boss?"
"No, we still need Shockwave's technological expertise, we can't get rid of him just yet. But he will pay for this later."
And so they began their attack firing bolts of energy at the Autobot ship, explosions in vibrant orange flames as they rounds hit.
The pilot of the Cerberus shuttle called up the Commander to come up to the front. Shepard walked into the tiny cockpit. The pilot was a short african american wearing a simple cerberus t-shirt, shorts and a baseball cap. He said, "Sir, I think you should see this. I'm picking up heat sigs, all over the place in this location," the pilot pointed to an area they were quickly approaching.
"Take us around, recon pattern," ordered Shepard.
The pilot swerved the plane around to the side, and changed course to make a sharp curve. The display feed on the side cameras showed Shepard what was going on. Explosions were present around the hulk of a ruined ship, smoke coming up from the wreck in long pillars.
"There's a battle going on," said Shepard softly, "Pilot," he ordered firmly, "Drop us one click away."
Just as they did so, a sleek black jet zoomed overhead, looing menacing, a purple glow coming from its front.
"What the hell was that?" the pilot yelled. Shepard didn't answer him, he couldn't.
Shepard came back into the passengers room and said, "Suit up, team, we're going back on the ground."
"What's happening Shepard?" asked Garrus.
"I honestly don't know, but there's a fight going on, and I want to see this close up. They're not fighting Collectors this time."
"Who are they fighting?"
"Each other."