=Chapter 5: Fatal Blow=

~x~X~x~X~x~

The Space-bridge opened up and Soundwave stepped through, tailed by a group of Vehicons. While the Vehicons guarded the deactivating Space-bridge device, Soundwave went deeper into the Energon Mines to check on the miners. There was a second team consisting of Jet Vehicons that had gone down to the planet as well, to scout out a base that Soundwave had deduced as an abandoned native base.

On his way there, he ran into one of the miners, who was attempting to wrench a small crystal out of a rock. Soundwave ushered the Vehicon miner out of his way for a second, then turned to the Energon crystal. Two of his tentacles snaked out from his torso and drilled into the rock around the crystal, loosened it enough for the Spymaster to grab, then handed it to the miner, who stood awestruck for a good few minutes. The silent Spymaster continued deeper into the mines, and was soon contacted by Nightbird, "Soundwave, there's some signals at the native outpost, your old friends are here." Soundwave showed a few pictures of a few Autobots he was particularly familiar with, inquiring about them. Nightbird dismissed the answer, "I meant the Seekers. I intercepted a communication, they said something about following a new Spark signature here." Soundwave took a moment to process the information, then sent a message with his orders to the two-wheeler. Nightbird accepted the order, "Roger."

"All Vehicons report to the Space-bridge Control immediately!" The call rang through the com-links of all Vehicons present in the mines, who were soon gathered in front of the Space-bridge. Soundwave rallied the Vehicons around him and opened a small Ground-bridge toward the outpost as Nightbird relayed the situation to them.

The Starscream he was expecting to see was the grovel-feigning, traitorous, scheming Cybertronian that he worked alongside, but that was gone, replaced by his former Great War body. He had decided to go back to that one, the armored one with red, white, and blue armor organized in a familiar pattern that the Spymaster hadn't seen in a long time. Starscream and the 12 Seekers accompanying him noticed Soundwave after a second. Starscream walked past the green one and cyan one in front of him, Acid Storm and Bitstream, and greeted the Spymaster, "Quite a surprise to see you out here." Soundwave was still silent as Nightbird and the Vehicons poured out of the Ground-bridge. The Seeker leader wondered if Soundwave's silence was a challenge and broke the tension with a low rumble, "You're still just as silent as ever. I just cannot understand how you manage to be so quiet now when you were the most annoying voice I'd ever heard back on Cybertron." Soundwave was unimpressed and still, analysing his opponents and determining their weaknesses. Starscream sneered, "If this is a challenge, what makes you think you could win against me when all it took was a human child to outsmart the great Soundwave?"

Starscream raised his arm and pointed at Soundwave and the Vehicons, "Destroy them!" The other Seekers went to action, 9 of them taking to the skies immediately, leaving Sunstorm, Hotlink, Nacelle, and Starscream on the ground. Starscream charged at his former comrade and raised his fist to meet Soundwave's razor-like arm. The Spymaster was not to be outdone as he smacked Starscream's arm away and with a twirl, connected his foot to the side of the Seeker's head with enough force to send him falling backward.

While Starscream and Soundwave battled each other, Nightbird had her hands full with the rest of the Seekers. The term Seeker had many meanings and associations on Cybertron, and one association was their dangerous accuracy and coordination, in the air and on the ground. Nightbird was dealing with the truth behind that association as she blocked a barrage of punches from Nacelle, who traded off with Hotlink as the Vehicons did their best to provide aid to each other and Nightbird against the fight. The Seekers in the sky were plowing through the Jet Vehicons like leaves in a hurricane, and giving the Cybertronians on the ground hell. Nightbird took a moment to observe the Seeker leader and the Spymaster as Soundwave blocked Starscream's fast punches and responded with a jab with his left arm that, had he hit his mark, would've decapitated the Seeker if he hadn't ducked at the last moment. Soundwave then received an encrypted message that he decoded as quickly as possible. Once decoded, he took to the skies in his UAV form, to the surprise of Nightbird, the Vehicons, and the Seekers.

Starscream was enraged, "No-one flees from Starscream!" With that, he transformed into his Cybertronian Jet form and took off after Soundwave, abandoning the battle in favor of finishing his opponent. He fired at Soundwave, his lasers missing the UAV as he performed various aerial stunts to avoid the shots, trying to lose the Seeker. Unfortunately, with there being very little in the way of cover, Soundwave resorted to tapping into the Bridge controls and opened a Ground-bridge from his current position to his intended destination, a plan in mind for how to take out the Seeker. He vanished through the portal and Starscream soon followed through. The Seeker lost track of Soundwave through the Ground-bridge and simply followed the light tunnel toward its destination. When he breeched the other side, he was caught unprepared as Soundwave flew directly at him, rotating himself a quarter-circle and letting his own wings, what became is razor-sharp arms in robot-mode, collide with Starscream's alt-mode's left wing and tear through it without stopping, without denting himself, and forcing the Seeker to transform and crash-land into a cliff-side from the sudden lack of control. The Ground-bridge closed and Soundwave flew around and back to the ground. He transformed back into robot-mode and landed gracefully, as Starscream recovered from his crash.

The Seeker looked up to see Soundwave's imposing figure standing over him, his obscured optics looking down on Starscream. Starscream snarled at the Spymaster, "You think that you're the only one with a few tricks?" He sent a signal that Soundwave couldn't intercept in time and after a moment, a Ground-bridge opened overhead and Thundercracker in alt-mode flew out, breaking the sound barrier as he did. Soundwave stumbled, his sensors were screaming warnings from the sonic boom and he became disoriented. Thundercracker retreated through the Ground-bridge and Starscream took the opportunity to get back up and punch Soundwave right in the face. He stumbled and Starscream followed up with an uppercut connecting with his chest, and by extension Laserbeak. Soundwave flew back a few feet before hitting the ground. Starscream stood up, Energon dripping from his torn wing, and sneered at Soundwave, "You may have been able to take on Airachnid in a one-on-one fight, but you've never fought me before. Starscream's sneer disappeared when he realized Soundwave's visor was showing various images, "You're up to something, aren't you?" Soundwave replayed a clip of Starscream's voice, "You think that you're the only one with a few tricks?" Starscream immediately checked in with Sunstorm, "Status report!" Sunstorm informed him of unfolding events, "The lone Spark we were searching for has been taken. They got to it first." Starscream turned to Soundwave as he got back up. "Well-played," he muttered, before addressing his Seekers, "Seekers, retreat!" He summoned a red Seeker, Red Wing, to pick him up, as his shredded wing prevented him from properly flying. He called off the remaining Seekers and they disappeared through a Space-bridge, having Red Wing pause for a moment as he glanced down toward Soundwave, who was returning to the mine through a Space-bridge, and muttered, "Until next time, Soundwave."

A number of Vehicon corpses were strewn across the desert, they would be brought back to the ship. Nightbird was down, unconscious, with a smoking hole in her back, where the wheel for her alt-mode would be. Strangely enough, Soundwave sensed something off about Nightbird's internal systems that he hadn't picked up before, he picked up the unconscious femme and opened a Ground-bridge, carrying her through.

Once Nightbird was in the med-bay, where a couple Vehicons began tending to her as good as they were capable, Soundwave made a quick check on the spoils of this fight. Safely tucked away inside a container next to the Protoform, a pulsing, red orb of energy, stable now, but only for Primus knows how long. It needed to be inserted into the Protoform, but with Nightbird occupying the med-bay, and access to medical tools unavailable, they were forced to wait until a better time. When he had returned, one of the Vehicon medics showed him a piece of technology that they'd extracted from under the armor on her head, hoping for a reaction. Indeed, he got one, as Soundwave pulled up an old technology thought to have been lost to the ages: Cerebro-shells. These were used by one Insecticon called Bombshell, this particular one outfitted with a tiny Holomatter Paint generator. Soundwave revealed that, as long as Nightbird remained unconscious, he had the opportunity to perform a Cortical Psychic Patch. Someone, at some point, had put a Cerebro-shell in Nightbird's head, for some reason. He was no fool, but he was stumped. Starscream was the first suspect, but the former Seeker had gone so far as to openly challenge, and prove a truly dangerous foe, against him. There were others, like a former Autobot trying to kill him, or a Neutral seeking to erase the pass for some reason. Then, there was Airachnid. She was stuck on one of Cybertron's moons as a Terrorcon, probably a barely functional wreck right now. Galvatron figured that Soundwave and Nightbird's Cortical Psychic Patch session should provide the proof needed for whoever was doing this.

~x~X~x~X~x~

Miyu cornered Fay against the wall and assaulted her with light pecks and tender neck bites. Fay breathed heavily whenever her mouth wasn't caught in Miyu's, and was distracted enough that she didn't realize where Miyu's right hand was going until she felt a draft against her chest, looked down, and realized that Miyu was unzipping her flight suit, and slipping a hand under her suit and her bra. Fay gasped as Miyu gave her another soft, loving bite, a bit lower on her neck. "Miyu..." Fay felt like things were going somewhat fast and tried to get her attention, only for Miyu to apparently ignore her. "Miyu... Miyu, please..." Miyu looked up at Fay, "Yes love?" The lynx slipped her hand out from under Fay's clothes and brushed the collie's cheek. "Miyu... Don't you... don't you think that..." Fay trailed off, unable to finish as Miyu placed a finger on her lips, "You wanna slow down. That's fine, really. But, someday you're gonna want to see more of this." Miyu tugged at the collar of her own flight suit, showing just a bit of fur below her neckline for emphasis. Fay couldn't help grinning, "Maybe..."

The two were unpleasantly surprised when a voice called to them, "Girls, Peppy said he wants everyone on the bridge for his announcement." Miyu turned to Saru and glared, "We're coming, be patient." Saru rolled his eyes and walked away from their room, not bothering to close the door behind him. The lynx sighed and glanced toward Fay, who was still speechless from being interrupted like they were, "Maybe later..."

"Alright everyone, I have an announcement to make- and Falco, it has nothing to do with my wife, those jokes were never funny to begin with-" Falco sighed, thinking, Does he really know me that well? Peppy turned to Miyu and Fay as they arrived, tailing Saru. He continued with what he was saying, "Since our last... eh... mission, I've been diving into research about transforming mecha. Aside from a prototype that they refused to say anything else about, there was a recent set of satellite imagery from one orbiting Katina. These are the images of the surface ROB and I were able to retrieve-" Peppy showed a holographic image showing a zoomed image of the surface from one satellite, which showed laser fire, explosions, and fighters of unknown factions fighting some familiar characters: The shapeshifting jets from their escort mission. Another picture showed some of the jets in their jet forms, either flying from or tailing after the unknown faction. One more showed two particular members, one with bizarre weapons impossible to describe. Peppy gestured to the pictures, "Whatever they're fighting over, it may have to potential to bring the Lylat System to its knees." The old hare turned to ROB and gave him a sign. He then gestured toward a new set of pictures, focusing on more scenes from the obvious battle, "Observe these figures carefully." He gestured toward a group of them. The pictures flashed rapidly and it appeared as if the beings had become one larger being, while a bit higher in the sky, another member of the unknown faction changed its shape from a flying vehicle to a bipedal form to fire at an unseen target, then reverting to its alternate form in stop-motion. "These beings, whatever they are, they are clearly of the same level of technology, but they have different factions, so it's possible that we might be able to negotiate with them."

Fox waited until Peppy had finished, then threw a suggestion out, "We should go to Katina. If we're lucky, we can meet with them there, or we can find a lead to track them from there." There was a general consensus of agreement with his suggestion, save for Slippy and Saru, the former admitting that he wasn't a fan of the heat. Regardless, Fox declared that they were going to Katina.

~x~X~x~X~x~

"Pitstop, what can you tell us about your experience in the Great War?" The brown Lylatian fox, Sabre, asked the large, blue and yellow mech who, according to Hound, used to be a racer from Cybertron's Golden Age. Pitstop sat down, mindful of the blue Lylatian feline, with his left leg upright, the other laying flat, and his left arm resting on his knee, and spoke, "I was born in Altihex, a city that bordered Iacon. I was one of the first racers from that city. I could race with some of the best, except for Blurr. My first actual experience with the war came very suddenly, when Decepticons attacked the Altihex casino. I wasn't in the building at the time, but I saw it go up in flames. After that, I learned of Orion Pax being nominated as the next Prime, and after listening to a few of his speeches, chose to join the Autobots."

"How did you get your name?" The blue Lylatian, Crystal, asked. Pitstop stared at the ceiling in thought for a good 10 seconds before saying, "I was just named like that, same way you were named Crystal or you were named Sabre." It was at that point that Cameo, who had walked in previously, joked about it, "I'd always heard that you were called Pitstop because you kept needing tire-changes after racing Earth vehicles." Pitstop rolled his optics, "Well, maybe tire-changes weren't what my constructors had in mind when they named me." She then noticed Crystal and Sabre's confusion, "Earth is a planet you wouldn't know of." Sabre chuckled, "Your kind go to a lot of places we've never heard of, like that negative polarity universe you mentioned." Pitstop chuckled, "Oh no, I never went there. A Decepticon from that universe came here for a few days before we helped him back home, nice guy actually, you'd be surprised how much the little things affect our lives."

Starwing observed the conversation from the shadows. It was no surprise that he wasn't social, considering his reputation as a rule-breaker. Still, some things in the conversation interested him, like Earth. He had likewise never been to Earth, having spent a majority of the war in stasis, crashing in the Lylat System a few centuries ago. He also would have liked to meet this "Negative Polarity Decepticon" that Pitstop spoke of. Transformers, being mechanical most of the time, tended to live for a very long time if not forever, so a few centuries wasn't too terribly long. Though given how much he had missed, eavesdropping in conversations like these eased his troubled mind concerning what may have happened in that time. He heard footsteps behind him and turned around to see Hound walking down the hall. The green Cybertronian took note of the Triple Changer, "Stand down, Starwing, it is just me." Starwing rolled his optics, then returned to the conversation. Hound disappeared, and Starwing glanced back down the hallway, suddenly curious to what his "grand and mighty leader" was up to, even though they didn't actually elect anyone as a leader. Tiptoeing after Hound, Starwing watched the large Transformer disappear into a room and close the door behind him. What really made Starwing go over was the sound of the door locking. He pressed an audio against the door and listened. "Audio Log #72, It's been so long since we've landed here, in this system. At times, I almost forget why we were here, I find myself quite frequently enjoying the serenity of this planet, when it isn't tied up in its own conflicts... Beachcomber would probably like this system if not for that, especially that Sauria planet. Heh, Primus knows little 'bot always had a deeper connection with nature than I wish I did." There was a beep, Hound had paused his recording for a while, and Starwing sneaked away before Hound could peek out of his quarters.

In the meantime, he walked into the room that Pitstop and Cameo were in, hanging out with the two natives. Pitstop had his chest plates opened to show them the concept of a Spark, which they compared to an idea they called the soul. "Ironic, that's what Hound told me about what the humans compared the Spark to." He glanced at Cameo, "Maybe there's more in common with Earth and Corneria than we thought." Then, a surprise question came from Crystal, "Can we see your Spark, Cameo?" There was a visible change of color in her face plates from silver to pink, the Cybertronian equivalent of a blush. Pitstop pushed his chest plates closed. Cameo glanced toward Pitstop, who only shrugged, "I showed them mine, it's not like yours is that different, right?" Cameo's blush only increased, but she complied and opened her chest plates. Much like Pitstop, Cameo had a Protoform under her armor, much like a body under the clothes, and her Protoform's armor also opened to reveal her Spark Chamber. Pitstop was surprised when her Spark visibly lit up the room to a greater extent than his did. When he looked inside her Spark Chamber and saw her Spark, a green orb of energy that was pulsing and emitting electrical charges, he was even more shocked, "You're a Point One Percenter?!" Cameo closed her chest plates immediately, embarrassed, while Sabre asked, "What's a Point One Percenter?" Cameo made the explanation brief, "A Point One Percenter is a rare Spark that gives its Protoform unique abilities that range from relativistic abilities to nigh-on magical powers. I don't even know what mine does though. Optimus Prime was a Point One Percenter, the only one of the Thirteen who's Spark was most like their progenitor, Primus, even if they all could technically be considered Point One Percenters. His ability... I think it had something to do with using artifacts made by the rest of the Thirteen to their fullest potential, like Prima's Star Saber or Solus Prime's various tools." Pitstop patted her on the back, "Well, at least we know why Hound respects you so much."

Starwing, who had been leaning against the wall at the time, listening from just outside the conversation, was just as surprised at the news as Pitstop. Starwing knew for a fact that he wasn't a Point One Percenter, his only gimmick was Triple Changing, something easy to replicate for Cybertronians and even non-Cybertronians. At any rate though, Starwing could now see why Hound seemed so much more careful around Cameo than the others.

[Author's Notes]

→ Constructive Criticism/Feedback Encouraged!

→ Note about headcanon: Krystal has never explicitly shown (nor has it been explicitly stated) that she can sense machine minds, so I have decided that Krystal cannot sense mechanical minds at all, though cyborgs are kinda iffy right now.

→ Sabre and Krystal from Dinosaur Planet are special guests in this fanfic. For those of you who are unaware, Dinosaur Planet was the original version of Star Fox: Adventures prior to Nintendo taking the concept and rolling with it. Sabre and Krystal were the two main protagonists, and in my headcanon, Cerinian survivors just like Star Fox's own Krystal. For the sake of telling the differences between the two characters, DP!Krystal was renamed to Crystal to tell the difference, but she's still the same character.