Astrosecond~ .498 seconds, milli-cycle~1 sec, cycle~1 min, breem~ 8.3 minutes, mega-cycle~1 hour, meta-cycle~1\2 hours, solar cycle~1 day, day~ 20 hours, orbital cycle~ 1 month, gigacycle~ 1 year, deca-cycle~10 years, vorn~ 83 years, stellar cycle~400 year, mechanometer~ 1 meter, vun~ hectometer, hic~ 1 kilometer


AN: Had a real bad case of writer's block on this one. Yeah, had to up the rating just because of the Insecticons(you'll see why soon enough).


On their way to Tuchanka, to the coordinates Victus gave them, Shepard, Decibel, Garrus and James were set to find the 9th Platoon and the Insecticons. "Turian 9th Platoon, this is Commander Shepard. Do you read me?"

"Commander Shepard, this is the 9th Platoon. Lieutenant Tarquin Victus reporting."

"Victus?" James turned to Garrus, "That the Primarch's name."

Garrus whispered amongst themselves, knowing who he is, "He has a lot to live up to, being the son of Adrien Victus. It's a big military name on Palaven. War is expected to run in the Victus blood."

Decibel moved up, "Lieutenant, this is Decibel of the Autobots. May we inquire as to your mission? The Primarch was rather reserve in his discussions."

"There's a bomb on Tuchanka…and Cerberus has it."

Decibel turned to Shepard, "An explosive device, even inert, could prove valuable to the Insecticons."

Shepard looked back to Decibel with concern, "What do you mean?"

"The Insecticons have been observed consuming all known matter on Cybertron, however they are like any Cybertronian, without an energy source they will eventually shut down. But if this bomb has enough energy, the Insecticons could feed off of it for some time and reproduce exponentially."

Shepard checked his weapon, making sure Wheeljack's modifications were all functioning, "Right. Talk to me more about this Cerberus bomb."

Victus' head lowered, "It's not Cerberus, Commander. It's…turian."

Shepard quickly looked back to the monitor, "What do you mean 'turian'?"

"It was planted centuries ago, after the Krogan Rebellions. The bomb was a safeguard against another galactic war."

Garrus walked over, "Brutal, but it makes a certain kind of sense. Put the krogan down hard if they tried anything."

Decibel had other view on the matter, "These tactics are rather Decepticon in nature. The reasons behind them are still inexcusable."

Shepard agreed, "You won't earn trust with tactics like that. But right now, we focus on disarming that bomb."

"Yes, but Cerberus found it. Detonation means all-out war between my people and the krogan. And we can't let the Insecticons get to it either."

"Right. Where is it?"

"Those buildings ahead. Cerberus brought equipment to dig it up. The Ninth Platoon will cover your flank, Commander."

Decibel could feel the flak as they got closer, "Krogan forces will undoubtedly notice all of this activity soon enough."

"Then we can't fail."

Shepard loaded his rifle, "Copy that, Lieutenant." As the shuttle lowered them through the flak, the doors opened to an unsightly scene, Insecticons of varying sizes were openly engaging Cerberus forces. Cerberus troopers weren't even bothering with Shepard or the shuttle, the flak was to keep the flying Insecticons at bay, for what little good that did.

One of the Insecticons grabbed a soldier by his feet and pulling him underground as one of the flying Insecticons pinned another to the ground as others started to crawl over, "Get them off me!" slowly ripping him apart, organ by organ, consume his entrails, armor and weapons.

Decibel rushed out of the shuttle using this Fire Blasters to burn the Insecticons as he smashed his fist into a few or crushed them with his feet while avoiding the Cerberus soldiers. The Insecticons didn't seem to care about Decibel's assault, rather they left those under attack to deal with him as the swarm continued to devour more Cerberus soldiers that were attempting to slow them down with no success other than when they stopped to consume them.

Garrus turned to Shepard, "So who do we fight, the Cons or Cerberus?"

Despite the size difference, Decibel was putting a rather large dent in the larger Insecticons. "We mop up Cerberus and help Decibel if he needs it."


The Decepticons were still largely in the dark about Megatron's status as Soundwave continued with the repairs. All repairs had been completed as well as various alterations. Soundwave was infusing Megatron was Dark Energon to finally revive their leader, "Balancing auditory sensors. Optic circuits online."

Megatron was slow to regain awareness as he started to look around, "Where—am—I?"

Soundwave stood before Megatron, "The Nemesis' repair bay."

"What happened? What about the Reapers?"

"You took a direct blast from a Sovereign-class Reaper's primary weapon. You created a Dark Energon field that absorbed most of the blast, however enough broke through nearly extinguishing your spark." Soundwave then displayed an image of their new fleet, "The Reapers who attacked have been converted or destroyed. Operation: Reclamation underway for upgrades and repair."

"Speaking of upgrades," Knock Out and his flashy red chassis walked into Megatron's view, "We took this opportunity to upgrade your fusion cannon." Flatline was carrying the weapon in both sets of hands, "It now as the ability to blast a hole into a Reaper's hull with a single shot, once you get past the kinetic barrier of course."

"Und I have taken ze liberty uf upgrade your design personally." Scalpel descended onto Megatron's head as he started to crawl over to his shoulder, "Ze armour plating ist stronger, more durable. Und you can tear ze Reapar armour vith your bare hands!"

Megatron quickly grabbed the small finicky doctor, nearly crushing him with his new power, "Never improve upon perfection, Scalpel."

"Yes…yes Lord Megatron…" Once released, Scalpel scurried away to a safe distance outside of his reach.

Soundwave transformed into his recorder form as a panel from the wall opened to pull him in. "Megatron, there is something you need to see." One of the monitors brought up the message sent by Reaper Shockwave, "This was broadcasted to most of the galaxy during our engagement. Decepticons on Parnack and Turvess have intercepted the transmission before the organics witnessed it."

Megatron silently watched the video as his anger started to quickly build. Reaching his peak before the message ended, Megatron slammed his fist into his hand as he roared, his cry echoing throughout the ship. He then proceeded to ripping the mechanical arms holding him in place during his reconstruction before he roared again and a pulse of Dark Energon was released overloading a few systems and energizing others. "Soundwave, I have a message of my own to send, to both the Reapers and the galaxy."


As Shepard's team continued to fight through the Cerberus and the Decepticons, Shepard noticed rather unusual behavior from their Autobot companion. "Decibel are you alright?"

"All systems are functional. We must press forward quickly. We have no time to expend on small talk."

Shepard was keeping up with Decibel as the Autobot continued onward, "That's not what I asked. You're not exactly yourself right now."

"I'm sorry Commander, but you have not seen what a hive of starved Insecticons are willing to consume. They are relentless, if not dimwitted. Damage a few and the swarm will turn on them while the rest who don't get enthralled by the frenzy continue to press onward. An infestation of Insecticons is nearly as bad as a case of scraplets, once they take root they are near impossible to completely remove."

"How bad could it get?"

Decibel turned back to Garrus, "This bomb could be the first ample energy source they've consumed for some time now. However, should energy production startup and they get their fangs even on a portion of it, they would begin reproducing at an accelerated rate."

"Accelerated rate? These bugs look like they're already on Viagra."

"Unfortunately Mr. Vega, we have not seen Insecticon production at their max potential. Cybertron was dying before our exodus to this galaxy, and Insecticon reproduction was slightly more than what we are currently seeing on Tuchanka. By the time we first encountered them they were starting to salvage energy from the surface and anything else that still had power. However I pray to Primus that we never see the day their reproduction get any higher."

The team rushed to the bomb site where Victus and his men had set up a perimeter around the controls, "I'm at the control panel, Commander. Cerberus set up a firewall around the trigger mechanism to slow us down. I need to create a bypass. That'll take time. But like you said: no trigger, no explosion."

Shepard walked over the Victus to see his progress, "I'll make sure you have the time you need, Lieutenant."

"Understood. Starting bypass." Victus had a few trick he tried to use to fasten the process. Suddenly one of his men had a hole in his head as he fell. Decibel threw out of arms, blocking the next shot from hitting Victus or the other soldier, "Commander!"

Shepard was already in cover after the first shot, "Focus on the bomb! We'll handle Cerberus."

Decibel crated a wall of fire, blocking any view of Victus as Shepard's squad moved down to hold Cerberus off. "Detonation protocol in jeopardy! Shepard's blocking access! All units, engage!"

As Cerberus shuttles flew in to drop troops off, the ground around them started to shake. It was the Insecticons, and they were already in the process of consuming the bomb's support structure. "Insecticons, swarm!" Bursting through the ground several flying Insecticons of varying sizes started to land on the shuttles to get at the Cerberus soldiers or to just bring them down so the others could feast as well.

James threw a grenade into a mess of Insecticons that had a Cerberus trooper surrounded, a mercy to the soldier as the machines tore through his charred remains to get to his implants. A group of Insecticons even found the sniper, bringing her down to the masses below as she was quickly torn limb from limb in the frenzy. A massive Insecticon burst out of the ground in front of Decibel, revealing itself to be the leader as it transformed to his humanoid form. "Autobot…" He then turned his sights to the bomb and Victus. "That energy is ours! It will feed the swarm!"

Decibel stood his ground against the taller bot, ready to fight if he had to, "That bomb has been set to detonate at any moment. We have to disarm it."

"I couldn't agree more. But we won't let its energy go to waste like you, Autobot." With a snap of his fingers the ground started to tremor once more before tiny thresher maws found their way to the bomb and latched onto the legs that had suspended the device high in the air, crushing the metal legs to bring it down to the pit it was suspended over. "Leave Autobot, and we will spare you and your organic allies, for now."

With his message conveyed the Decepticon didn't wait for Decibel to acknowledge him, burrowing back underground to join in on the frenzy of his fellow Insecticons. "Commander Shepard, Lieutenant Victus. The mission is a failure. We must order an immediate evacuation of the area."

Shepard turned back to see Victus backing away from the console as smaller than average thresher maws were assisting the Insecticons in dragging the bomb down. "Cortez, we need an immediate evac. Hot zone extraction on my location."

"Roger that, Commander. Will be there in two."

"Hey Esteban, I think you might want to move it. These bugs look ready to chomp on more than just Cerberus down here."

Decibel split into Noise and Graphy as his pteranodon form hastened this, carrying Victus and his men to the Normandy shuttle, keeping them a good distance away from the Insecticons. As Graphy continued with the evacuation of the survivors, Noise was getting himself involved in the action, tearing into the Insecticons as though he was Grimlock, forcing Garrus and Shepard to provide him with much needed covering fire.

Cerberus forces eventually deployed an Atlas mech to try and contain the situation. Even though it managed to crush a few Insecticons upon landing an blast them with the mass accelerator cannon and rockets, the slow moving mech was quickly overpowered by the sheer numbers as they enjoyed the meaty morsel inside and the mech's power cells.

With the collapse of the bomb's support struts, the shuttle lowered down to pick up Shepard and the others while Graphy provided aerial support to keep the Insecticons off the shuttle itself. There were a few close calls with the cockpit, but Graphy maintained the skies long enough for the team to get in and flee the area.

They watched the Insecticon swarm quickly mass themselves over the structure in mere moments, dismantling it and devour all of its components rather quickly. Inside the shuttle Decibel fused back together, though he could not help but feel terrible as he watched the swarm consume. "Forgive me Commander, we have other matters we have to attend to on Tuchanka but we could not risk invoking the Insecticon wrath before the genophage cure could be implemented."

Shepard placed his hand on Decibel, "No, you were just thinking about your mission and ours to forge the krogan-turian alliance. And I thank you for helping keep us all alive."

Decibel still felt like this was a major failure on his part. "I shall warn Autobot forces on Tuchanka of the greater Insecticon presence now on the planet. Hopefully they can properly prepare should the Insecticons decide to assault the krogan clans."


Before the shuttle could even return to the Normandy, Joker was in a bit of a panic, "Commander!"

"What is it, Joker?"

"Trouble. I'm tapping you guys in now."

It took several moments but the monitors in the shuttle soon adjusted to show Megatron, and it appears he has gone through some upgrades. His armor seemed heavier and thicker than before, the only things that seemed the same, physically, was his head and fusion cannon. "…know that the Reapers will fall to my will," gripping his fist the camera quickly turned out to a viewport where a small Reaper fleet surrounded them as well as the debris of fallen Reapers, all of the Reapers within intact were emitting a purple glow as the Decepticon insignia was being etched onto their hulls. The image quickly returned to Megatron, "I…am the dominator! I…am the destroyer! I am MEGATRON! And I send this message to inform all who would be foolish enough to accept the offer of the Reapers and submit to their abomination they call evolution, know that your existence will be short lived before I extinguish you and your master! Know that you will serve as examples for my empire that will rise from the ashes of the Reapers!"

The image then turned to Shockwave, unaltered and in pristine condition, "Indeed. I have tapped into the Reapers and their collective database. I have learned this other me is a mere sub faction that will be eliminated soon enough."

The camera panned back to Megatron, "To combat such power as the Reapers an even greater power is needed to snuff them out. I am that power. Do not mire yourself in such frivolous thoughts that the Autobots can protect you against such a foe, or against my wrath. For once the Reapers are no more, all will submit or perish!"

As abruptly as the message appeared, Megatron's message suddenly ended. Garrus quickly turned to Decibel, "So I guess that truly confirms that the Cons aren't with the Reapers. Can't say I feel better knowing they are converting Reapers to fight other Reapers and then plan on sending them us."

"I can't exactly say it was not expected." Decibel continued to gaze at the deactivate monitor. "I am slightly curious as to why Megatron's retaliation message to Reaper Shockwave took so long for him to compose and what his upgrades entail."


Megatron's message quickly spread to the galaxy, though Soundwave did not transmit the message to the worlds already under Decepticon 'protection'. And with Megatron back in power, Slipstream no longer had a reason to delegate her duties, though she knew she had to do something about the raloi leader. Accidently step on him…too messy… Leaving it to the Reapers isn't reliable enough… I know…

With her wicked smile, Slipstream started to pull up the files Soundwave had acquired on Commander Shepard. Her answer was now staring her in the face, and though it won't guarantee his death, it will guarantee he won't interfere with Decepticon affairs.


A/N: Yep, Insecticons are real nasty pieces of work. Forgot to factor them in when it comes to the rating. Aw well, can't cry over spill milk(or blood/motor oil for the Insecticons).