Wow, chapter 10 of New Beast Wars, part two of Operation: Exodus. Per the usual, I do not own Beast Wars, Beast Machines, IDW Comics or any characters associated with Transformers. Ok, this is where the story arc involving the refugees concludes, and I can say goodbye o the three useless characters of Sling, Cohrada and Longrack, who have done absolutely nothing since their introduction. Good riddance. Anyway, feel free to review when you're done, and please enjoy the story!
At the Maximal/Predacon base, everyone, Maximal, Predacon and refugee, were lined up in the centre of the base. There was a low murmur all about the room as people conversed. It suddenly stopped when Optimus Primal, Magmatron and Razorbeast appeared and stood on a raised platform.
"My friends" Optimus Primal said, talking into a microphone "We have good news. We know that you have endured terrible hardships while under the rule of the Vehicons, but now, your torment is finally at an end. We have arranged for a number of transports to take you to the shipyards, under heavy escort. From there, you will be flown offworld by three brave volunteers, Sling, Cohrada and Longrack, to the nearest Maximal colony." Optimus stood down.
The crowd went back to murmuring
"How can you be sure that we'll be safe?" A refugee in the back called out.
"As I had previously stated, all available soldiers will be escorting you to the shipyard. At no point will anyone be on their own." Optimus Primal said.
"When will we be moving out?" A different Cybertronian asked.
"Right now." Optimus Primal said, standing down from the podium and making his way to the garage.
"You heard him! Move out!" Spittor commanded the refugees, before attempting to herd them into the garages.
While the others moved out towards the garage, Powerpinch and Double Punch began conversing with each other.
"Double Punch! This could be our chance to escape this hellhole!" Powerpinch exclaimed to his partner in crime.
"Indeed Powerpinch, but what should we do with that scheming little insect?" Double Punch replied, referring to Antagony.
"Hmmm" Powerpinch though for a moment before answering "Kill her, we have no further use for her, and besides, she's put us through enough trouble already, she's too dangerous to leave with us."
"As you command Powerpinch. Shall I do it now?"
"Hmmm...No, we had better wait until we're safely aboard one of those escape transports."
The two then walked off to follow the others into the garage. They saw that a large number of refugees were being escorted into three separate transportation shuttles.
"Will we make it Rhinox? Are there enough shuttles for everyone?" Optimus Primal asked, turning to his trusted lieutenant.
"Yes Optimus, but barely. It's quite a shame that those scouts couldn't find any more shuttles. As it is, we're cramming these refugees on to these shuttles as if they were sardines!"
"Sardines?" Cybershark asked, his audio receptors pricking.
"Just a metaphor Cybershark, return to your post." Optimus commanded, and Cybershark replied with a salute before he walked off.
"We should move Optimus, the longer we wait, the longer those Vehicon drones will have to mobilize their forces." Rhinox said.
"I suppose you're right Rhinox." Optimus said, before turning to his troops "Alright Maximals, Predacons, are we completely ready to move out?"
Spittor walked up to Optimus "Indeed we are sir. We have fully loaded all of the shuttles and are completely prepared to move the refugees at your orders."
"Good. Then lets transform and roll out!" Optimus commanded.
All around him, the Maximal and Predacon forces began turning into their beast modes. The pilots of the shuttles, Sling, Cohrada and Longrack stared the engines of the shuttles and began moving out of the base. All three shuttles were followed by Maximal and Predacon forces.
"I just hope that we can pull this off." Optimus whispered to himself.
In the Vehicon fortress, Megatron was sitting on a throne.
"Thrust, do we have any reports on the activities of my enemies?" Megatron asked as Thrust rolled into the room.
"As a matter of fact sir, a large convoy of Maximals and Predacons has just been spotted, they seem to be escorting a trio of transportation shuttles. We believe that they hold the refugees that the Maximals had freed earlier, and that they are now moving towards the shipyard." Thrust replied in a calm, matter of fact tone of voice.
Megatron bolted upright in his seat "What? We cannot allow this to happen! Order all available drones and drone generals to converge on the Maximals location! I do not want even one refugee to step foot inside that shipyard!"
"At once sir!" Thrust said, giving off a salute before turning and leaving the room to carry out Megatron's orders.
Megatron sat back down in his seat "Those are my refugees! They are mine to turn into Vehicon drones! I will not let that fool Optimal Optimus take them away from me!" Megatron said to himself, gripping the armrests in his seat with enough force to cause the metal to bend.
Meanwhile, the convoy was proceeding along the streets of the now abandoned Cybertron. It was extremely eerie to see what had once been a bustling metropolis now almost completely deserted, save for the Maximal, Predacon and Vehicon forces. Currently, the path to the shipyard was clear and Vehicon free. Optimus could only hope that it would stay that way.
"Airazor, can you see anything?" Optimus yelled out as he drove along the ground in truck mode.
"Nothing yet Optimus, I-wait...I think there is something! Vehicons! Lots and lots of Vehicons!" Airazor warned.
Optimus cursed "Quick! All Maximal and Predacon forces! Prepare for battle! Get to your stations!"
The roads became cluttered with soldiers as Maximal and Predacon alike attempted to create barriers around the refugee shuttles in order to protect the refugees. In the air, the fliers attempted to do the same. A near impenetrable wall formed around the shuttles. Optimus could only hope that it would successfully protect the refugees from harm. Suddenly, the Vehicon hordes became visible as they rushed towards the shuttles. Optimus looked at the oncoming drones in horror. There were easily hundreds of them, and they were not limited to tank drones, there were also Jeep drones, Cycle drones, Aero drones and Stealth Drones.
"Get ready for battle! Optimus cried out as the two opposing forces quickly closed the distance between them.
"Pterosaur Squad, Terrorize!" Terrorsaur cried out, as he, Fractyl and Lazorbeak returned to robot mode and began shooting Aero and stealth drones out of the skies.
"Show no mercy squad!" Terrorsaur commanded as he shot down another drone.
Lazorbeak was cleaving the drones into small pieces with his laser, although he still had to wait for the weapons long cool down period before opening fire agin.
Scourge and Insecticon flew ahead of the others, before landing on an Aero drone. Much to the drone's horror, they began tearing him apart with their mandibles.
"Delicious, eh Insecticon?" Scourge asked with a mouthful of Aero drone scrap metal.
"Just a little heavy on the electrons, Scourge!" Insecticon replied, before taking a huge chunk out of the drone.
"Scourge, Terroize!"
"Insecticon, Terroize!"
The two transformed back into their robot modes, jumped off of the drone, and fired, destroying it. They then began cutting down a number of drones with their fire, taking down dozens of drones. On the ground, Torca and Ramulus were charging the Tank, Jeep and Cycle drones with such a fury that it was making even Powerpinch nervous. The two were clearing a large path for the shuttles.
"Quite a shame that they didn't turn out to be Predacons, eh Razorbeast?" Landsaur asked as he flung a jeep drone out of his path.
Razorbeast rolled his eyes at that little comment "They were never meant to be Predacons in the first place! All of your forces used to be Maximal protoforms!"
"Well, not all of them! Spittor, Drill Bit, Iguanas and Manterror I brought with me to Earth! They were always Predacons!"
At the front, Grimlock was keeping the Vehicon drones at bay with his fire breath, any drone that dared to venture too close was quickly burned to a crisp. Close by, Scavenger was tearing through the drones while he was in his dual drill tank mode, and laughing while he was doing so. It's quite a shame that I didn't recruit him Powerpinch thought as he decapitated a Cycle drone He would have made a good edition to my little group. Blackarachnia was using her Transmetal 2 powers to throw debris and shrapnel at the drones, impaling them.
"Blackarachnia?" Silverbolt asked, flying next to her.
"Yes dear?"
"Why don't you do that more often? The last time I saw you do that was to Rampage during the Beast Wars."
"Huh...You know, it never occurred to me to use it so often." Blackarachnia replied, shrugging before impaling a Jeep drone on a lamppost.
Buzzsaw was helping Waspinator shoot down drones while flying. Waspinator was slightly unnerved by the hero worship that Buzzsaw seemed to be displaying.
"Quit following Waspinator! Waspinator not need fan!"
"But you're one of the original Predacons that served under Megatron! And we have the same beast mode!"
"Hey!" Scorponok exclaimed, driving up to them in tank mode "I served under Megatron too ya know! I was even his second in command!"
"Until you and Terrorsaur stuck under lava!" Waspinator taunted.
Waspinator was rewarded for this by a shot from Scorponok's tail cannon.
"Oooooohhhh...Universe...Waspinator....Hate..." Waspinator muttered in a daze.
Satisfied that he had successfully put Waspinator back in his place, Scorponok turned to face a Tank drone. He opened fire on it.
"Tankor, Pulverize!" The Tank drone cried out.
With that, the Tank drone began returning to robot mode. He easily took the blow that Scorponok had given him.
"Pathetic little bug! Do you really think yourself a tank?" Tankor taunted, as he picked up Scorponok by his tail cannon and flung him into a nearby building.
"Tankor!" Optimus Primal exclaimed, driving up to him.
"Yes! It is I! Tankor, leader of the glorious Tank Drones!" Tankor boasted.
"Thrust, Accelerate!"
"Jetstorm, Afterburn!"
Two more Drone Generals arrived and stood beside Tankor.
"I see that you are such a weakling that you require backup!" Dinobot taunted, walking over to Optimus Primal's side.
Tankor scowled "Tankor needs no backup!" he cried, before turning to Thrust, blasting him and then doing the same to Jetstorm
"Tankor, you idiot! You're not meant to attack us!" Jetstorm cried, shaking his fist.
"Bah! I'll show you that I need no assistance!" Tankor said, as he opened fire on Dinobot.
Dinobot leapt nimbly to the side
"Dinobot, Maximize!" Dinobot cried out as he turned back to robot mode.
Dinobot retaliated by using his optic lasers to hit Tankor.
"Argh! You'll pay for that little reptile!"
"Little reptile?" Dinobot cried out indignantly "Nobody calls me that! Nobody!"
Dinobot leapt at Tankor, ripping into him with his razor sharp talons. Rattrap walked over to see the carnage.
"Yikes. Looks like old Chopper Face has a berserk button!"
Jetstorm had since recovered and had taken to the skies. He was currently facing off with Silverbolt.
"You and I are not so different, Maximal!" Jetstorm taunted.
"We are as different as day and night! You are a bloodthirsty maniac who knows nothing of honour! How can we be alike?" Silverbolt replied.
"Look into your spark Maximal, and you will see what I mean! I am what you could become, if you were to abandon your allies and join us! The Vehicon hordes! Think of it! You would have power, wealth, anything!"
"I would not have my honour!" Silverbolt cried out, before firing at Jetstorm with a barrage of missiles.
Jetstorm raised his arms in a feeble attempt to defend himself, but to no avail.
"Argh!" He yelled as he was sent plummeting down to the ground.
"Jetstorm!" Thrust exclaimed as he saw his friend fall.
Thrust rushed forwards and caught Jetstorm as he was falling.
"I...have..failed..." Jetstorm said weakly "The Maximals will escape."
"Not yet! Drones, forward!" Thrust yelled out, before turning and fleeing in order to get Jetstorm into a CR chamber, Tankor rolled after them, injured but not dead.
More drones rushed towards the Maximals and Predacons. Suddenly, one of the shuttles stopped, before crashing into the round.
"Cohrada! What happened?" Optimus cried out, looking towards the downed shuttle.
"I don't know Optimus! The engines just failed!" Cohrada replied, crawling out of the wreckage.
Optimus cursed, this would make things so much harder. Suddenly, the second shuttle crashed as well, this one belonged to Longrack.
"Blast! Now we only have Sling's shuttle left!" Optimus exclaimed.
Powerpinch glanced at Antagony "What did you do witch?"
"What I was ordered to do!" Antagony snarled at Powerpinch.
"Optimus, we're not far now, the refugees can still make it by foot." Rhinox said as he lumbered alongside Optimus.
"Slag! Alright, we're going to have to be much more cautious! We've lost two transport shuttles!"
The group advanced, slowly now, in order to protect the now shuttle-less refugees.
"Optimus! The last shuttle is still functioning, shall we go on ahead?" Airazor asked.
Optimus considered it for a moment "Alright, go ahead! But take Terrorsaur and his men with you!"
Airazor saluted, before flying off with the last remaining transport with the Pterosaur Squad in tow.
Optimus looked around. Thankfully, there were no only a handful of drones left. To his left, Optimus said Vice Grip use his stun blaster in order to decommission a number of drones. On his right, he saw Cheetor mauling more drones. Soon, the group managed to reach the shipyard, where Airazor and her group were waiting.
"Optimus! Glad you could make it!" Airazor said, walking up to her commander.
"Have you found a suitable ship?" Optimus asked.
"Yes, it should be large enough to carry the refugees to safety."
Optimus nodded. He was feeling déjà vu, but shrugged it off.
Suddenly, he saw Powerpinch and Double Punch, they were running towards a ship.
"Stop them!" Antagony yelled "They're trying to steal the escape ship!"
Blackarachnia obliged, throwing a web at the two.
"Cowards!" Dinobot scowled, kicking Double Punch in the side "Attempting to flee Cybertron to keep yourselves safe no doubt!"
"That's not the only reason!" A voice from behind them said.
Everyone turned to see Antagony.
"Those two have been keeping secrets from you!" Antagony said, pointing a finger at Powerpinch "I have a recording which proves that it wasn't Retrax who killed Optimus Minor!" Antagony raised a recorder and pressed the play button.
"Excellent! Our plan to frame that fool Retrax worked better than expected!" A voice everyone recognized as Powerpinch said.
"Indeed, his attempts to escape only cemented his guilty appearance!" A different voice this time, no one had any problems as identifying it as Double Punch "Imagine how they would react if they knew that it was us Powerpinch!"
"Yes, well, I'm glad that it's not us! Now keep quiet! I don't want you to talk about it anymore, anybody could be listening!" Powerpinch groaned from inside the web, Why did we even talk about this at all? He thought to himself. "And delete that recording of yours, we don't want it being discovered!"
"Hey, no way! I doctored that recording so that we could frame Retrax, so I think that as a reward, I should keep the recording!"
"Fine Double Punch, you can keep your recording."
The recording ended there. Everyone present stared down at the treacherous Predacons. Finally, Magmatron broke the silence.
"You insignificant little worms! You dare to kill one of your own and frame another!"
"You two are going to be in a world of hurt when we're done with you!" Dinobot added menacingly.
Double Punch gulped, but Powerpinch remained calm.
"I think not fools!" He said, before using his claw to cut through the net "Quickly! Split up!" Powerpinch commanded to Double Punch, who followed the advice and ran in the opposite direction of Powerpinch.
A number of soldiers made to go after them, but Optimus Primal stopped them.
"Let them go! We'll go after them later, but for now our top priority is to get these refugees to safety!" Optimus said.
Magmatron scowled "Fine, but if we catch them...When we catch them, I want to be the one leading the search party!"
The Maximals and Predacons quickly loaded the refugees onto the ship, and then watched as it took off.
"There they go." Cheetor said.
"Yes, and it will not be long before they bring in reinforcements..." Optimus said, before turning and looking around "Wait, where is Antagony?"
Miles away, Double Punch had stopped for a quick break. He was leaning against a wall, if he had had lungs, then he would be breathing heavily. He knew that he could never go back, if he did Magmatron, would kill him for sure. He jumped when he heard a voice.
"You may have escape Magmatron's vengeance, but not mine!"
Double Punch took a step back. Antagony stepped out of the shadows, she seemed to be radiating malice. Double Punch took out the detonator which would activate the acid capsules in Antagony's circuitry.
"Stay back! I'm warning you! Any closer and I'll activate the acid capsules!"
Antagony growled, before activating her optic lasers. The detonator melted in Double Punch's claws. Double Punch whimpered, and took a step back, only to trip and fall.
His screams could be heard for miles.
End of chapter 10. Wow, ten chapters! Anyway, it looks like that's the last we'll see of Sling, Cohrada, Longrack and Double Punch. Little bit of trivia here, Australians use kilometres, but I decided to use miles here, it sounds so much more menacing. I hope you enjoyed it, and please remember to leave a review! Another update as soon as possible. Thanks for reading!