Chapter 10-Zodiac
Azteca, 2003
Theodore Harkins wiped the sweat from his forehead for the thousandth time since he woke up three hours ago, once again cursing the ungodly Aztecan heat. He stared down at the laptop he was working on and sighed at the little progress he made. He only managed to type one paragraph!
"I can't do this." He sighed and shut his computer down before standing up and stretching his stiff body. Then he made his way out his tent.
He walked out into the heavy, humid heat that permeated the Amazonian climate and looked at the rest of the campsite. Only some of these people were a part of his archaeological team of students hand-picked from his class. The rest were hired help from some pro-esper group, many of whom did not look friendly at all.
"Well it's about time you came out of your humble abode, professor." A sweet voice laughed behind him.
Theo turned around and saw his star pupil, Madelyne Pryor, standing behind him. She was a true natural beauty, with long red hair tied up in a bun, flawless skin and light brown eyes. Even in the unflattering olive green T-shirt and brown shorts did not lessen her attractiveness.
She was a very dedicated student, taking to his classes with a fervor that rivaled his daughter. Madelyne displayed a maturity that one wouldn't normally find in a young adult, and her love of Arian culture made him smile. It was always good to see young people interested in history.
"Well, I couldn't have my dedicated students make this huge discovery without me." Theo smiled. He flinched when he heard an explosion go off nearby. "Though if I wanted to live near this racket I could have just gone back home."
Madelyne giggled, eyes shining with mirth. "Be at ease, Theo, they know what they're doing. And it saves us a lot of money from buying tons of explosives."
I suppose but-oh!" Theo was pulled to the side to avoid a giant spinning ball that rolled past them and out of the campsite, mowing down some trees. The ball stopped and unfolded into a tall, bulky man with segmented armored skin like an Armadillo's. "Thank you."
"Any time." She said and turned to the ball man. "Rath, watch it!"
"Sorry!" The esper said in a heavy Aztecan accent.
"That makes my first near death experience on this expedition. I hope we can avoid any others." Theo said mildly.
"I'm sorry, these guys can get a little out of control when they get into their work."
"Maddie, are you sure that we can trust these people?" Theo asked. He wasn't a racist or anything, but some of these people looked like they worked in a cartel. "They have dealing with Karaba."
"These people are associates of my boyfriend. I know some of them, so of course I trust them. And we don't really have a choice in the matter, this is something that cannot get out to the public eye until we've learned everything there is to know."
Theo and Madelyne looked down into a small valley that held their greatest find yet. It was an alien ship, green armored and about twice the size of a regular military airship. What appeared to be the front of the ship was half buried inside a mountain, and it took a whole team of espers to uncover just enough of it to allow them entry into the craft. Madelyne was hanging the time of her life, but Theo was nervous.
'I still don't think we should've kept this from the committee. A discovery like this is too big for us to handle alone." He said seriously. "Not to mention leave in the hands of, forgive me, thugs."
Madelyne sighed and gave him a look. Her brown eyes seem to glow an amber color for a moment but Theo chalked it up to a trick of the light.
"Professor, if we told the Board what would you think will happen? That they will offer us their aid and use this information for the betterment of mankind?" She asked in a tone that allowed no argument. "Rest assured that they're going to blab to the government, who will swoop in and confiscate everything we have on the ship and then swipe it out of the country in the name of "national interest". They will use its technology to create more big guns to kill people faster, and I can't let that happen. So yes Professor, I am sure about keeping this our little secret."
Theo pursed his lips and said nothing. If there was one flaw about the otherwise perfect Madelyne, it was her unbridle hatred for the government and military. Not just in the Helix Republic, but in general. Her views on them were less than stellar, and whenever they so much as touched the subject, it was as if her angelic features turned demonic and feelings that were buried were brought to the surface. He certainly hoped that she wasn't going to abuse the knowledge they were uncovering.
"Maddie!" A young child wearing a tattered white shirt and shorts much too big for him came running up to them. He gave her a big smile as he relayed the news he was told. "They've managed to open a whole into the ship! The others are waiting for your orders!"
"Good boy, go tell them to gather some of our heavy hitters and prepare for entry."
The boy nodded and scurried off into the valley. Theo watched him go with a forlorn expression.
"His name is Roberto. He manifested his powers when he was only five, able to absorb solar energy and channel it threw his body. It just turned on one night, making him glow like a star in the middle of the night. The other people in his village treated him like everything he touched turned to ash." Madelyne said. She walked into the dig site with the professor following her. "When I found him, they were trying to stone him to death, but I took him far from the place. Gave him some meaning to his life that wasn't just trying to survive long enough to see the next sunrise. You have a child, don't you professor?"
"Yes, a little girl. She'll be turning 11 in December." He said fondly. Madelyne smiled.
"It must feel good to have a family, someone to love and love you in return." She sighed.
"You don't have a family?"
"Not since the day I was born."
They approached the hole that was made in the ship, where a small group of people, probably mercenaries, were waiting for them. Madelyne and Theo joined them and took point.
"Shall we?" She asked motioning to the hole. Theo nodded and entered first, switching on his flashlight.
The interior of the ship was large and spacey, but the thousands of years of inactivity had worn down the metal and technology beyond repair. Theo and Madelyne looked around them in awe, marveling at the amazing construction that was reminiscent of die cast molds.
They made their way through the dark hallways and soon entered what had to be the ship's command center. Like everywhere else in the ship, the computers were either broken or dark, covered in a fine layer of dust and everything was strewn about.
As her associates checked out other areas of the ship, Madelyne was looking at a large insignia on the control panel of the pilot's seat. It was a blue diamond symbol that had a curved half pentagon inside. She ran her hand down the symbol and her red lips split into a smile, her eyes glowing gold in the darkness.
"Glorious."
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"Ha! I win again!"
"Damn it! You're cheating I know it!"
"You're sitting right next to me, Tracer, you know it's impossible to cheat."
"Yeah well, I didn't have my eyes on you."
"Typical noob excuses."
"Don't call me a noob!"
Rollbar sighed and rubbed his temples as he tried to work at his little workstation of the Minicon/Human area, studying the readings he was getting from the hammer Mjolnir. He was working on it along with Liftor so that Wheeljack would have less to worry about. Prowl had been giving him a lot of pressure on trying to figure out who made it and what it's capabilities were. The problem was that without Annie holding it, the hammer was little more than dead metal.
And working next to the arguing femmes wasn't helping either. He looked over at Tracer and D-Va, who were both playing some fighting games Gina had loaned them. From what he saw, D-Va had found a new hobby in playing online and beating her opponents into the ground.
"You lose again scrublord!" D-Va cheered. Tracer grumbled at her ninth loss and threw her controller down.
"It's not fair, I was getting lag on my side!"
"We're sitting right next to each other, Tracer, there is no lag between us!"
'Primus help me.' Rollbar groaned and banged his head on the table.
"Rough night?" Sparkplug asked as he walked in, holding two mugs of energon.
"You could say that. Thanks." Roll bar took the cup and extended a wire from his arm into the drink. He hummed as his body recognized the taste. "Is this ferrum positive?"
"Yup, managed to snag some before Bulkhead chugged the whole tank down." Sparkplug said and looked at the computer. "How long have you been working on this?"
"Three days, two hours, 49 minutes, and 34-wait, 35 seconds." The silver Minicon answered. "I'm filling in for Liftor until he gets his rest."
"You should get some rest to, Optimus can hold off Prowl."
"I know, but it's not just because of Prowl that I'm doing this." Rollbar looked at the outline of Mjolnir on the computer screen. "Look at it, Sparkplug and tell me that you aren't the least bit curious about how a hammer this small could grant a little girl enough power to drop not one but two monsters in a row. Even with cybertronian technology, such power would have to used sparingly. But the way Mjolnir works, it's like its actual magic."
"Advanced science is indistinguishable from magic, Rollbar. It's probably something that we haven't seen yet."
"True that," Rollbar sighed. Then something popped up on the screen. "What's this?"
"What is it?"
"An alert. Teletran detected something." Rollbar typed in some commands and a wall of text showed up on the screen. His eyes skimmed the text and went wide. "Primus…"
"What?"
"Sparkplug, you need to see this."
In his office, Optimus was talking with Jazz and Prowl about recent events that had been going on, namely the arrival of Arcee's sister Flamewar. Having heard in her report on the event, they were generally worried about the news Arcee had told them.
"So they think we're dead, huh?" jazz sighed. "That's depressing."
"Everyone saw our ships go up in a flash of light inside an exploding space bridge. I'm amazed that we're even still alive." Prowl said. "You don't just get lucky with inter-dimensional gateways."
In a way, it was almost poetic. Nova Prime, Cybertron's first Prime since the Age of Evolution, had went on a very similar crusade to the stars to spread cybertronian ideals across the galaxy. But he and his crew were lost when they went into a space anomaly in the Benzuli Expanse, abruptly marking the decay of the Golden Age and the rise of a functionist puppet government.
"What troubles me is this Exodus Flamewar spoke of. What is it?" Optimus questioned.
"I can hear the capital E in the word, which means that it must be really big. I hope it doesn't have anything to do with the others." Jazz said. "The more we learn, the worst it seems to get for the planet at large."
Optimus nodded and leaned back in his seat. Some more information would be needed before they can make any conclusion, but with no contact off world, their only source of information lies with Flamewar, and her whereabouts were unknown. And even if that weren't the case, Optimus doubted he could stop Arcee from killing her before they could interrogate her sister.
Suddenly Ratchet called in on the communicator. "Optimus, we have a situation."
"What is it Ratchet?"
"Teletran just detected a cybertronian ship on the scanners. It's the Exodus."
A few minutes later, the Autobots and the Minicons were assembled in the Command Center, with a holo-map emanating from the table.
"The signal is coming from Azteca, within Ordalian territory." Ratchet said, pointing to the southwestern area of the continent.
"What did you do to find it?" Optimus asked Rollbar.
"Nothing. It came out of nowhere." He answered.
"Peculiar, considering we've never even detected any trace of it until now." Prowl muttered.
Tracer looked at the Autobots and spoke her mind. "Um, what are we waiting for? Our ship is right there, waiting for us! We should go salvage whatever we can before the Cons come knocking."
"Tracer is right, it's all we have from Cybertron. And it may have some tech that can aid us in finding our lost comrades." D-Va said.
"Yes, but it's still suspicious that we would suddenly find it now out of the blue," Optimus began but Sparkplug shook his head.
"Whatever the case, we need to find it now. I don't want anyone else but us getting what could still be left on those computers." He said firmly. "And if you won't go, then we will."
Optimus looked down at the Minicons and knew that they were fully willing to go with or without the Autobots. He sighed and turned to Ratchet. "Ratchet, open a ground bridge. Prowl, Bumblebee, you're with me. The rest of you will remain on standby."
"Thank you, Prime." Sparkplug smiled. Optimus said nothing, feeling uneasy about all this. Something was about to happen.
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A opened up in the middle of the Amazon Rainforest in Azteca, and the four Autobot team, plus Sparkplug and Jolt, stepped out into the thick, moist air that felt very stifling even to the robotic beings.
"Let's go find the ship before I start to rust from all this humidity." Jolt said, riding on top of Bumblebee's shoulder.
"Yes, time is of the essence Autobots." Optimus led the way through the forest, in their robot mode of course. There was too much vegetation for them to drive in their alt modes.
Unbeknownst to them, there were two sets of eyes following their movements. Two Talos clad in camouflage armor hid in the thick leaves and vines, out of sight of the Autobtos. Once they were far enough out of sight, one of the men whispered into his radio.
"Sir, we've got some visitors, just like you predicted."
"How many?" A deep voice said on the line.
"Four, one of them is large. I think it's their leader."
"Monitor them, but do not engage. I'll prepare our little introduction."
"Yes sir."
The second phase can already begin.
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"We've got a Minicon panel!" Longarm announced.
"Now?" Ratchet frowned. That was perfect timing. "Where is it?"
"It's in Azteca, but within Federation territory. Somewhere around El Dorado."
Ratchet grunted and turned to Jazz. "Jazz-"
"No need, doc, we're already on the job." Jazz, along with Ironhide and Arcee went to the shuttle bay. D-Va turned to the medic.
"Ratchet, what's wrong?" She asked.
"The timing of this Minicon and the appearance of the Exodus is looking less like a coincidence y the minute." He said seriously.
"Do you think it's a Decepticon trap?"
"Possibly, but it's not like Megatron to hold out such a farce for this long."
Ratchet had no idea that he was very correct with his assumptions, but he didn't know that the threat coming was something much more unpredictable.
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Prime and his team trudged through the dense jungle and came upon a deep canyon. Even through the darkness they could see the wreckage that was the front half of the Exodus, mostly buried in the ground.
"There it is," Sparkplug breathed. "I never thought I would see it again. Come on, let's-"
"Wait." Bumblebee said. He narrowed his eyes and slowly edged down into the canyon. He magnified his optical vision and took a closer look.
"What do you see?" Optimus asked.
"I think I see tracks. Car tracks maybe." Bumblebee said. "And they're fresh."
Sparkplug scowled and Optimus fingered his blaster. "Proceed with caution."
They went down into the valley and cautiously approached the ship, weapons ready. Then they heard some noise coming from inside the ship and saw what looked like four robots rolling out a hole in the ship.
They were Talos, mecha tanks in fact. They had humanoid torsos built on modified tank treads, and had pitch black armor with crimson visors. Two were harboring shoulder mounted six-chambered missile pods, and the other two had shoulder-mounted auto-cannons.
They were towing a large crate behind them, one that was emanating a strange but familiar energy that only Optimus recognized. It didn't take long before the Talos pilots inside noticed that Autobots and didn't waste a single moment in opening fire on them.
The Autobots were assaulted by a hail of weapons fire from the Talos, which were heavily armed with missile pods and artillery cannons. The bullets simply bounced off their tough armor, but the missiles, when they hit their target, actually hurt. Optimus and Prowl backed off a bit, but Bumblebee ran forward, powerlinking with Jolt.
"Bee, fall back!" Prowl shouted.
Bumblebee didn't listen. He fired a blast from his solar cannon and the explosion tore apart the treads the tanks were rolling on, causing two of them to tip over. The remaining two machines backed off a bit, and Bumblebee pressed his assault. He wouldn't kill the humans inside, but he wasn't going to let them use him as a shooting gallery.
He was just within grabbing distance of the crate when a beam came down from above and hit him square in the chest. There was an explosion that sent him flying back and crashing to the ground. Another beam was shot at him, but Optimus ran in and blacked it, the explosion rebounding off his battle blade.
They looked up and saw an airship hovering over the crash site, and from the gondola more soldiers in black uniforms and silver masks slid down on tow lines. One of them actually jumped from the airship and landed on the Exodus' hull without any injuries, and it should be noted that he looked different from the rest.
The man was clad in a deep crimson Talos suit, one more streamlined than any modern armor on the market. It had a high caliber rifle attached to the waist and wing-like protrusions on the back. His helmet was in his hand, large and modeled after Roman centurion helmet with the Mohawk made of copper.
Without his helmet, the man's face was exposed. He looked to be middle-aged, but sporting a strong build and a piercing gaze. His storm grey eyes were cold but an odd feature about him was the vertical third eye sitting on his forehead. Optimus held his gaze with the human until he heard Ratchet call him on the comm-unit.
"Optimus!" His voice was fading in and out in static.
"Ratchet, we have come into contact with humans! Can you get their location?"
"No Optimus, I'm having trouble keeping in contact with you! Wait…I think someone's hacked into our communications frequencies!"
"Greetings Autobots. It's nice to finally meet you all at last." The man said in a powerful tone. Back at the Ark, his voice was also heard over the comm-units, relaying his message to all.
"Who are you?" Optimus asked.
"I am Aries, general of the Organization of the Zodiac, but you can call us OZ." Aries said.
"How do you know us?" Prowl asked, standing over Bumblebee. He was trying to contact the base but got no signal.
"We know a great deal of your existence on our planet. Your awakening a year ago has not gone unnoticed to some of our more…spiritual members." Aries smirked.
"You talk big for a human in a fancy costume, you bastard!" Sparkplug shouted. "What the hell do you think you are doing with our technology? We aren't going to let you sell it on the black market like this!"
"Who said I was going to sell it?" Aries replied. "We are at a crucial point in human history Autobots. For centuries humans have evolved, built great civilizations, only for their base instincts to tear everything they built to the ground. And now they have ceased to evolve. They no longer get smarter, nor do they act on their base instincts to survive. They lie in a stasis, and the only way to get them to advance, is to have them evolve!"
"And you plan to use our technology to do this?" Optimus growled. He had heard this argument before from individuals who had no regard for the rights of the people.
"Yes, but not just this tech." He pointed down at them. "We need you cybertronians as well. Metal beings with real, physical souls. You hold the key to achieving a new form of evolution within your very bodies, your very souls, and we need you to realize our goals."
"Like we're gonna let you do that!" Jolt yelled.
"Unfortunately for you, you don't have a choice!" Aries said. Then he took a deep breath and exhaled.
A large clear beam of energy came shooting from his head and at the Autobots. Optimus grabbed Sparkplug and rolled to the side to avoid the large explosion that blew a hole in the ground. He helped Prowl pull Bumblebee behind some rocks and ducked down when another beam hit their position.
"Boss bot? You there?"
"Jazz, we are being attacked by humans! We need assistance now!" Prowl shouted.
"No can do Prowler, we're getting the same rough treatment on our end to. Looks like that Minicon we detected was a ruse."
Optimus cursed. "What is your status?"
"They caught us in an ambush and Arcee got hit pretty badly. They're using weapons designed to take out tanks boss bot. and what's worse is that we can't contact Ratchet for a ground bridge."
This was very intricately planned. Optmus looked over the rocks and saw that the soldiers were loading the crate onto the top of the Exodus so they could hook it up to the gondola and haul it into their airship. He didn't know what was in there, but he couldn't let them steal ad abuse cybertronian technology.
"Prowl, watch over Bumblebee and Jolt!" Optimus ran from cover and transformed, driving at high speed towards the ship.
Aries frowned and fired another beam at Prime. He swerved around each blast, struggling to stay on course as explosions rippled around him. When he was sure he was close enough, a beam exploded in front of him, sending him flying nose first in the air.
"Optimus!" Prowl shouted.
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The other team wasn't having a very good time either. They were pinned down in the ruins of a city that had seen better days long before they arrived there. The Autobots were engaged in a firefight with the OZ forces that had surrounded them and were taking pot shots at them from the trees.
Arcee was sitting behind a wall trying to keep water from seeping into her wounded thigh. One of the Talos had fired a sabot round that got her right near her joint and took her down. Jazz and Ironhide were covering her, but they couldn't do much with their enemy using the vegetation as cover.
"I'm getting really sick of this scrap!" Ironhide growled. "I didn't come all the way out here to the hottest place on Terra only to be riddle with fragging bullet holes!"
"Feel free to go out there and tell them that." Jazz said, firing his photon rifle into the trees, only to get a face full of bullets shot at him. "You doin' alright there Cee?"
"Yeah, just trying to ignore the pain." Arcee hissed. She looked over the wall and at a certain part of the trees where she was still detecting that Minicon signal. "Jazz, I think they have a Minicon with them."
"What?"
"Yes, I can sense it. They have a panel with them and must've used it to draw us here." She said. As if to prove her right, a helicopter flew in just above the tree line and two men carrying a small crate started to board it. "They're already on the move!"
"Jazz, you got to get that panel back now!" Ironhide said. He detached his arm cannons and began hooking them together.
"But what about-"
"We'll be fine. We've been through worse scraps than this." The red Autobot grinned. "I'll cover you."
Jazz nodded and ran out into the open. Ironhide also broke cover to fire his amalgamated cannon at the surrounding forest, pelting their hidden assailants with plasma blasts that destroyed the trees covering the Talos and forced the OZ soldiers to retreat.
The attack chopper that was hovering over them lowered a bit more so that it had Ironhide in its sights. At that moment, Ironhide and Arcee noticed the rocket pods on its underside and knew it was time to move. Ironhide grabbed Arcee and leapt from the stone archway just as the chopper fired two rockets at them, blowing apart the place they were using as cover.
Once the men were inside, the chopper began to fly away, but Jazz leapt into the trees and was in pursuit of the craft. One way or another, he was not leaving this place without a souvenir!
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"I still can't get either Optimus or Jazz on the comms!" Ratchet growled frustrated. "Somehow they're blocking our communications! Bulkhead, go aid Jazz's team!"
"On it!" Bulkhead ran out the Command Center and to the shuttle bay.
"How are they doing this?" The medic said. This attack on them was way to organized to be a random attack. "We need to get them out of our systems before they cause too much damage!"
"Maybe we can hack their tech using the signal they're blocking us with." D-Va suggested.
"Cyber warfare is not my forte, D-Va, nor is it Wheeljack's. This is something Gina can do with her eyes closed." Ratchet said. Rollbar shook his head.
"But we don't have Gina, there's only us. And we can manage something." He grabbed a computer and began working at the console. "I may need your help on this Ratchet, let's show these guys why they shouldn't mess with us."
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Optimus flew through the air, seemingly knocked out from the explosion that caught him right in the nose of his truck mode. But then he transformed in mid-air and threw something at Aries. The general thought that it was a bomb, but to his surprise it was a Minicon. Sparkplug!
Sparkplug crashed into Aries and they both went falling to the hull of the ship. Aries kicked him off and got up, slammed his metal fist into Sparkplug's face. Sparkplug stumbled back from the unexpectedly strong blow and fired his wrist cannons. Aries bloced the bullets with his arms and pulled two curved blades from his back, which then began to glow red.
"Wonderful." Sparkplug grunted.
He dodged and weaved through Aries' attacks, feeling the heat of those blades nearly cut into his armor. Aries went for a downward strike and Sparkplug grabbed his arm, throwing him over his shoulder and into the ground.
When he ran at Aries, the general shot up and fired his eye beam at nearly point blank range. Sparkplug had just enough time to move his head as the extremely hot beam shot dangerously close to his face and exploded against the canyon wall. He fell to his knees and Aries came at him with a kick to the chest, knocking him back.
"You're fifty years too late to be fighting me, you fool." Aries said and took a deep breath to finish Sparkplug off.
Then a red armored hand reached around him from behind and grabbed his head just as he fired his eye beam, aiming his head at the airship. The beam tore into the gondola, killing some of the soldiers there and knocking the crate loose. Aries threw Jolt off him and jumped to the side as the crate crashed to the ground.
Aries glared at the two Minicons and made to engage them when he heard his pilot's voice ring over the comm.
"Sir, we've got a situation!"
"What is it?" He growled. He didn't have time for this!
"Some hacker's using the channel we used to block their communications. They should be in the system any minute now!"
Aries inwardly snarled, but he kept his face emotionless. "Deal with it."
"Yes sir."
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Ratchet and Rollbar worked as fast as they could. They had made a makeshift virus that was supposed to infect OZ's systems and shut them down long enough for them to provide aid for their comrades.
But then things went south. Their systems froze and an image of a bomb about to explode popped up on the screen.
"Slag! They're planning to delete out software with a counter-virus!" Ratchet cursed.
"We can't get rid of it in time!" Rollbar exclaimed.
D-Va hurried over to a control panel without anyone noticing and quickly got to work, moving her fingers over the keys at lightning fast speeds. Once she was done she entered the commands and watched as the bomb disappeared before it could reach 0. Everyone was puzzled.
"Um…what did you guys do?" Tracer asked.
"N-nothing, I don't know what happened." Ratchet said perplexed.
"Guys, let's focus on the matter at hand, shall we?" D-Va said. Ratchet nodded and got to work. No time to waste pondering.
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Jazz leapt from tree to tree with agility and mobility that betrayed his size. He kept the helicopter in his sights and waited for the right moment to strike the gunship. So when he saw it falter for only s few seconds, he saw his chance.
The Autobot leapt from the tree line and lunged at the gunship, terrifying the soldier mounted at the turret and making him open fire. The incendiary bullets dug into Jazz's metal skin but he didn't even flinch as he punch the turret and the gunman, knocking the man out and breaking his arms in the process. He clung to the side of the gunship and made it lose its balance in the air and begin to spin.
Jazz pulled himself up and reached into the chopper, grabbing the crate one scared soldier was holding onto and jumping off, giving them a cocky smirk just as he disappeared into the jungle.
The pilot of the gunship cursed as he saw their target get away with their prize. After gaining control of the gunship he looked back to see that one of soldiers was out cold with two painfully mangled arms and the other shivering in the corner looking like he soiled himself. Poor bastard probably did.
He groaned and turned the gunship around to fly to the rendezvous point. General Aries was going to have their heads for this.
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Sparkplug grunted as he hit the ground in a daze and struggled to jump away just as another explosion knocked him off his feet once more. Jolt was pelting Aries with his cannons but the armored general kept him at bay with his attacks.
Three gunships outfitted with hellfire missiles were unleashing an onslaught on the Autobots. Optimus and Prowl were covered in burns and holes from where the missiles and armor piercing bullets hit them. Bumblebee was conscious but weakened, with a hole in his chest where Aries' beam hit him. Scorched and warped armor surrounded the wound and sometimes spurted out sparks.
Soldiers were hooking the crate back onto the tow cables and were raising the cargo back up towards the airship. Everything was going well until they got a nasty surprise.
"Sir, we have another problem!"
"The next words from your mouth better be something good or you'll be meeting whatever god you worship within the next ten seconds!" Aries growled. He was not in the mood right now for anything going wrong.
The private swallowed his whimper and gave him the bad news. "Sir, we just got word from Beta team, they lost the package."
Aries inhaled sharply through his nose and closed his eyes. "Pull me up, Private. We're leaving with our prize."
"Roger."
Another cable came down and Aries stepped onto it. Jolt transformed and tried to head him off in the air, but Aires fired his beam that exploded and blaster Jolt from the sky. He looked over at Optimus, who stared right back at him a she vanished from sight.
When Aries reached the gondola and made his way to the pilot cockpit, he was met with another piece of bad news.
"Sir, we've lost contact with our forces! Something's wrong with our systems!"
"It's the virus, it's been sent back to us!" the pilot reported. Aries' eyes went wide and he leaned in.
"Stop it before it reaches us!"
"It's no use sir, it's already-"
The electronic controls suddenly began shorting out and the airship began going out of control in the air. The pilots had to take manual control as their auto-pilot was deactivated. Down below he saw the tow cable lose their grip on the crate and watched it fall to the ground, for good this time. And there was not time to get it back before the gunships ran out of ammo and the Autobots made their move.
"All units we're pulling out. Disengage and rendezvous at point grid omega." He ordered. Everyone looked at him in shock and one of the privates from earlier made his protests known.
"Sir, we can't just leave without the cargo! We have tem on the ropes, to run would be nothing short of cowardice!" He said. Aries looked at him then nodded.
"Your opinion is noted, Private." Then in a single movement he slashed his heat rod and took the man's head off in one clean stroke. The headless corpse collapsed to the floor, the stump smoking and sizzling. "Would anyone else like to fill his shoes?"
No one said anything.
"Good, now follow my orders and pull out of the area."
Aries looked outside the window and at the Autobots. There will be other battles, other chances to get at least one of them. After all, Gaia worked in mysterious ways.
When the gunships and mecha taks made their exit and were gone from view, Optimus walked over to Sparkplug and Jolt and knelt down. "Are you two alright?"
"Yes, we're fine. A bit beaten and bruised but nothing to worry about." Sparkplug said. "I'm just glad that they didn't get any of our cargo."
"Jazz what's your status?" Optimus asked over the comm.
"We're fin on our end to boss bot. they turned tail and ran home."
"Good. Ratchet we need a ground bridge and medical aid for Bumblebee on the double."
XXXXXXX
Back at the Ark, the Autobots who were severely wounded in the battles were in the med bay taking their turns in the CR chambers. Those that weren't wounded got to work on salvaging anything from the Exodus that could be useful to them and was still operational.
Optimus, some of the Autobots and the Minicons were all gathered around the object that OZ tried to steal. A large metal cube with multiple cybertronian glyphs carved into its hide. It gave off a faint but warm feeling that could be felt by those who were near it.
"So those OZ goons tried to steal this thing?" Ironhide frowned. The cube was barely as tall as his waist.
"This cube was very important to our continued survival on other worlds." Sparkplug said and ran a hand along the warm surface. "It's a proto-cube. We found these inside Luna-1's tunnel system. They are made from cybermatter born from our moons."
"We were supposed to use them to grant us blank protoforms in the situation that we needed to perform emergency spark transfers." Rollbar explained.
The Autobots looked down at them surprised. Protoforms were embryonic cybertronians born from the birth metal and sparks that were harvested after Vector Sigma ignited a hot spot full of sparks.
Blanks were protoforms without a spark, grown with outside help to full size and were little more than featureless mannequins that required a spark in order to take shape into a cybertronian. Such individuals born this way were Cold Constructed. But the cybermatter to make them was usually taken from the Sonic Canyons, not these cubes.
"And you never thought to tell us of these cubes?" Prowl inquired frowning. Sparkplug glared up at him.
"I didn't think it was anything worth mentioning. I didn't think we needed to run our issues by you." Sparkplug replied. Optimus placed a hand on Prowl's shoulder to get him to back off.
"What matters is that we have completed our objective today. But there is still the matter of humans knowing of our existence." Optimus said solemnly. "OZ has made it clear that they intend to use us to achieve their goals, whatever they are. A third side has entered into this war for Terra, and they are a clear and present threat to Autobots and Decepticons alike."
Optimus Prime looked at his team with a grim expression. "We are all targets now."
XXXXXXX
Aries sat a dark room devoid of light save for the computer screen he was staring at. His armor was of now, leaving him clad in a tight leather body suit that hugged his muscular frame, watching the footage of their previous encounter with the Autobots, more specifically Optimus Prime.
"Gods with bodies of metal, falling from the heavens to grace us lowly mortals. You claim to protect humanity, but is humanity really worth saving in its present state. Oh Optimus if you could see just how savage humans could be, would you still fight for them?" Aries muttered. "Or would you leave them to wallow in their own filth?"
The door slid open and in walked a young woman dressed in the same bodysuit as Aries, but this one showed off her sinful curves. She was beautiful, with pale skin, long silky black hair and ebony black eyes. Her black painted lips were upturned in a smile as she leaned against Aries shoulders.
"I take it that things didn't go as planned?" She asked sweetly. Aries shoved her arms off and kept watching the footage.
"No, they did not. But we did learn more about our visitors." He said. "They are strong, but their pacifist habits will get them killed."
"So? More metal for the scrap-yard then." The woman laughed. Aries grunted and looked up at her, his third eye shining an ominous gold.
"What do you want Aquarius?"
"Orders from our comrades at the Ouranos base. They want us to begin mobilizing against the cybertronians." Aquarius said and leaned on the desk. "It's about time, really. Watching the ass of a jeep is not my forte."
"There is no shame in learning about our enemy. They are not to be underestimated, Aquarius. They will be ready for us next time." He told her.
"And so will we."
She pressed a button and the blinds over the window slowly rose up to reveal a view overlooking a lad area, and I the middle of the room was a large metal cube, one that was pilfered from the Exodus three years ago under the cover of darkness. Cables were hooked up to it, and scientists were moving about deciphering the data acquired from the cube.
"They will fight but in the end they will die," Aquarius said. "And we will obtain the means to evolve this Terra into a pure world. All in the name of our White Queen."