Transformers belongs to Hasbro/ Takara.
The Dark Horizon
Chapter 26: A Warrior's Life
Gunfire ripped through the air, it couldn't be far away. There was fire and smoke all around me. Bots were screaming, screaming like the engines of the fighter jets tearing through the skies, dealing out more death and destruction. Corpses and severed bodyparts covered the ground, I was walking through puddles of spilt energon and oil. It was a sickening sight, plucked from a nightmare… only this had really happened at some point. The city around me was in ruins, the buildings, or rather what was left of them, roughly resembled some old pictures I remembered having seen in history reports…
"This… is Cybertron?" I asked myself shakily. This was easily the most horrible place I had ever seen. I didn't have much more time to analyze my surroundings however, as a massive projectile hit what remained of the building next to me and brought it down with earth- shattering force. I ran so I wouldn't be buried beneath the falling debris, but the dead bodies and rubble slowed me down. I only just avoided being crushed, but now I really had stumbled into the middle of a full- blown battle.
Dozens of bots were fighting, shooting at each other from behind fallen walls and destroyed tanks, some were involved in hand- to- hand combat, some of them already severely injured. I ducked just in time and narrowly avoided being killed by a large mace swung at me by an Autobot. He was even taller than Optimus Prime or Megatron, very bulky as well. I shook my head. I wasn't here to stand and gape, I was here to fight. So that was what I would do.
While my opponent was still finishing his spacious movement, I drew my sword and jumped between his legs, where I rammed the blade deep into the back of his knee with my trademark precision. The huge Autobot hollered in pain, his left lower leg was now useless. I didn't need to take him out completely, my goal was to merely survive this battle. He couldn't run anymore so he couldn't keep up with me. Jumping and rolling out of his reach, I took off in a sprint.
I was being followed though- and this bot wasn't shaken off so easily. He was rather small and nimble, a scout maybe. He was catching up to me, but I found a half- buried entrance to another ruin. Maybe this was a dead end, but maybe I could set a trap for the Autobot. I disappeared into the labyrinth that was the downed building and he followed, although he slowed down considerably after entering, using his headlights to illuminate the space ahead.
I could hear his mocking voice through the damaged corridors. "You're a cute little thing, aren't you? Come out and play!" He chuckled. "I won't hurt you… much!"
I pulled my guns from their holsters and took the safety off. He wanted to play? Alright then. I jumped out from behind a corner and fired a few rounds at him. My shots hit their target, but didn't do all too much damage, mostly being deflected by his armor.
"Like it rough, don't you?!" He yelled. I retreated further into the building, he followed. I needed to get behind him somehow. But how? I looked up and smiled.
I could still hear where he was walking below me. Good thing I knew how to be quiet- I only prayed the damaged pipe running along the ceiling would hold my weight long enough. Well it did- barely. I felt it give beneath me so I turned around in the last moment to shoot the Autobot in the back as I fell and landed on the floor somewhat stiffly. He charged. I kept shooting.
There were a few serious hits, but I couldn't stop him before he tackled me and we crashed into the wall behind me, which was way thinner than I had anticipated. It shattered under the impact and we rolled down a long slope, punching and kicking. The impacts pressed all the air out of my ventilation system, sharp edges dug into my body while we tumbled further down. When we reached the bottom, I was quick to pull out my knife since he was still grabbing on to me firmly. I stabbed him in the optic mercilessly. He screamed in agony, but I didn't cease my assault. The Autobot managed to kick me off of him, struggling to get back on his feet.
I put my knife away and drew my sword again. Better keep him at a safer distance. I didn't leave him much time before I attacked, but he dodged my first blow with two machetes. He was blind on his left optic now and was clearly having trouble estimating distances correctly, still it wasn't an easy fight.
I gasped in pain when his blade slashed across my thigh. The cut wasn't deep. But it was long and I felt my leg losing a great deal of mobility and strength. It distracted me enough for him to land a punch in my face. I was hurled backwards by the sheer force, my face felt shattered, the immense pain blinding me for a moment. I arched my back right after landing on a dead mech, my own energon mixed with the fluids on the floor.
"You lose, Decepticon." He said, approaching me quickly. Just before he could chop my head off with his machetes, I pulled my sword up to block his attack. With my good leg, I kicked him in the gut as hard as I could. He stumbled back, I was on him in no time, jumping and ramming my blade in the spot between his chest armor and his collar. It went in all the way, his life fluids splattered all over my face. He was dead before he hit the ground.
I had long since forgotten this was a simulation, it was just too real. The fear was real. The sights, the smells. The pain. I took the dead bot's blaster and limped onwards.
I tried to stay out of the open for I sure as hell wouldn't make myself an easy target for aerial forces or sharpshooters. For a moment, it actually looked like I was slowly getting out of the death zone. Boy was I wrong. A gunshot ripped me off my feet, I fell. And screamed.
I struggled to turn around, but my right arm, along with the shoulder was gone. Just gone. I never got the chance to get back up. A strong hand gripped my other shoulder, flung me around, grabbed me by the throat and lifted me up.
It was Ironhide. His armor was scratched, full of blast marks and practically caked in energon. I knew he was one of Prime's most prized warriors. In other words: I was dead.
"Decepticon scum." He spat in my face. Then my torso exploded when he fired directly into my sparkchamber.
Everything went black, then the lights came back on. I was shivering.
"Not bad for the first time." I heard Bludgeon's voice. The shots were still echoing in my head.
"So", I finally managed to squeeze out, "this is war."
XXXXXXXXXX
The gasket we had to replace today was one of that kind again. The kind which had you crawl beneath several tons of engine blocks, just to reach the last fasteners you had to release before you could clean the whole thing up and put in the replacement gasket.
Barricade was quietly cursing every once in a while, I helped him the best I could.
"Say, how did you end up with the 'Cons anyway?" I asked, handing him two wrenches.
"I suppose you expect to hear a story now." He threw me a glance, starting to loosen the large screw above his head. I smiled at him. He knew what that smile meant and I knew that, amazingly, he trusted me enough by now to even reveal some details about himself. I didn't feel like he would talk about these things with a lot of bots.
"Well, I used to work for the police, the forensics department in Praxus to be exact, mostly analyzing data from crime scenes and simulating possible courses of events. Then there was this one murder case that just didn't add up… when I finally found the crucial evidence leading to the murderer, I got myself in deep trouble. It was a senate member. When he found out about my work, he sent his lackeys to threaten me. Two solar cycles later he was found dead in his apartment." Barricade handed me the wrenches and the now loose screws back, I gave him a short crowbar.
"How did he die?"
"I threatened him." I cocked my eyebrow at my mentor.
"And by threaten you mean you killed him."
"You could say that." I snorted.
"Why didn't you just make it public? Wouldn't he have been suspended and all that?"
He chuckled darkly. "We're talking about Cybertron before the war, youngling. If anything, I would have been executed for defamation."
"It really was that bad?"
"Much worse." He growled, using the crowbar as a lever to take off the panel we had just loosened. I helped him put it aside. His headlights made it relatively easy to see down here and we quickly found the faulty part. Oil was dripping down from above a large cationic filter.
"What happened then? Were you caught?"
"Frag no. Not for that one, at least. I wasn't that stupid." We shared a short glance. I shrugged. "No," he continued, "but that doesn't mean they didn't try. Of course I had all the inside information which was definitely an advantage, plus I was able to manipulate investigations. Whenever someone came close to discovering the truth, they magically disappeared."
"A serial killer? You?"
"Well, once you find out how easy it can be to get rid of bots who pose a threat to you… it took those idiots decades to finally figure it out." Barricade actually chuckled, almost as if remembering a fun game he'd played. Quite macabre, considering bots had actually died.
"But you were caught in the end, weren't you?"
"… Yes. And it wasn't pretty. Not at all. And to think the slagger responsible for it is now the Autobots' second in command…"
"What, Prowl?" I was genuinely surprised. This stick- up- his- aft sorry excuse for a document shredder had actually been something like a detective back on Cybertron? At least that would explain why he'd chosen a police car for an alt mode but…
"Yes, Prowl. I've never liked that mech, but I have to admit he's smart. I almost had him, but in the end, he was one step ahead of me and had me arrested."
"You've been to the stockades? Were they as bad as they say?"
"I'd rather not talk about the stockades." He grunted, trying to twist the filter off. I moved closer so I could help him. Shoulder to shoulder, we tried our best to get it loose, but we kept slipping because of the leaking oil. I got some detergent from the tool box we had with us and started cleaning the slippery surfaces.
"How did you get out?"
"Megatron. The war had started some time before I was caught and the Decepticons were attacking the prisons all over Cybertron to recruit new members. It was either joining the cause or deactivation in some way or another. The choice was rather easy."
"So you're not a Decepticon out of conviction but rather out of convenience?" The black mech shrugged again, wiping his hands.
"I can live with Megatron's ideals." He placed his hands on the filter again. I did the same. Then he paused, looking at me. "Are you scared of me now?"
A long silence followed. Was I scared of him? He was a killer, had been even before the war and yet… I realized it didn't bother me half as much as it probably should have. Since I'd known him, he had never treated me badly.
"…No." I finally said.
"Alright. Let's try this again."
Together, we gripped, strained, twisted- and were engulfed in a gush of oil when the filter came off. For a few seconds, we just lay there beneath the engine, covered in dirty oil and holding the filter in our hands.
"Well… I didn't see that coming." I said.
Suddenly, an acoustic signal blared from the speakers by the fourth generator. Starscream's rough voice followed, reverberating through the whole Nemesis. "Attention all crew members! Man all battle stations! I repeat, man all battle stations! Constructicons and Stunticons to the boarding area! Aggressive business ahead!"
"Aggressive business? What does he mean by that?" I asked Barricade, who was starting to crawl (or rather slide) to the narrow corridor we had come from initially. He turned back and actually grinned at me.
"We're going to pirate another ship."
"What? We're gonna rob someone?"
"How did you think we could afford this war?"
Minutes later, after we had somewhat cleaned up, we were on our way to the closest turret- I was actually a double sided one, so we would both be required to work a cannon.
"There, a Ferengi ship!" Barricade exclaimed as we climbed the steep stairs up into the translucent dome protruding from the Nemesis' rump. From the depths of space a large ship appeared and we were gaining on it- fast. Crossing the gravity barrier towards the actual turret felt weird; suddenly, back was down and forward was up. I had crossed such a barrier once before, but it was about as hard to get used to as teleporting. We jumped into the seats behind the cannon controls and strapped down quickly.
"How do I operate this thing?"
"Use the joystick for aiming, the red button means fire, reloading happens automatically! I'll get us into position! Should our shields fail, retreat back into the ship!" He yelled over the hum of the weapons system powering up. Everything was so loud and hectic all of a sudden. Barricade tested the gyros with a few quick turns, we were almost at the height of the other ship. It was big, not as big as the Nemesis but still intimidating. Its shape roughly reminded me of a horseshoe crab.
"Aim for the shield generators! Those guys usually give up as soon as they're vulnerable!" The mech I was basically sitting back to back with instructed.
The Nemesis easily outgunned the other ship- it was made for war after all, not for trade. The fire the trade ship returned was severe, but not nearly strong enough to penetrate our shields. I didn't know much about the Ferengi other than them being a humanoid organic species that valued profit over everything else and that they weren't exactly known to be much of a warrior race. And that they often loaded their ships with all sorts of currencies as well as different precious metals.
I kinda felt sorry for them. There really wasn't much they could do to defend themselves. After all, on a list of the most dangerous species in the known universe, Cybertronians were definitely somewhere near the very top. A lone trade ship being attacked by the Decepticon flagship… they didn't stand much of a chance.
The first time the Nemesis sped past the Ferengi ship, its turrets managed to deactivate three of the shield generators. We got the rest during the second fly-by. Then we slowed down. Apparently, they had surrendered. A few minutes later we docked, and after about two more hours, it was all over.
Crippled and defenseless, the trade ship was pulled into the orbit of a nearby planet.
Barricade and I had remained on our post the whole time, in case something unexpected happened. Now, we just sat there, watching the ship become smaller and smaller in the distance.
XXXXXXXXXX
The Decepticons were no saints, that much was clear, but it wasn't until another week after the incident with the Ferengi that I discovered how savage they really were. Or rather, how savage their way of dealing with disagreements amongst themselves was. Actually, what happened was quite sweet… in an energon- shedding, brutal and very barbaric way.
It started with a commlink message, a rather unsettling one at that. It was from Hook. Basically, he was blackmailing me again. I was supposed to meet him in a storage room, alone, I wasn't supposed to tell anyone. I knew exactly what he was planning and I was mortified. However, he'd also made it clear that, should I even drop a hint at something not being right, he would know. Fearing for the safety of my son, who was, after all, still in his care, I obliged begrudgingly.
I made sure no one followed me as I walked down the halls and towards the back of the ship. My hands were shivering, I was feeling sick to the core. Still, I pressed on. Better me than my sparkling. I kept thinking of my son as I walked, just so I didn't have to imagine what Hook would do to me.
When I reached the storage room with the right number, I slipped through the door quietly and waited. The lights were dim, the medic could have been anywhere, hiding behind the stacked crates and shelves.
"I'm here." I finally said. There was a distinct clicking noise to my left. I turned my head. There he was, red visor blazing, gun aimed at my head.
"Have you been followed?" He asked, a low growl lacing his voice.
"No." I despised this mech. He was smirking.
"Good." He used his gun to back me up against a table near the other side of the room. I suspected what he was going to do. I did not expect him backhanding me though, right before slamming my upper body onto the table so my rear was exposed to him. It all happened so fast I didn't even have time to fight back- not that it would have been wise in this kind of situation.
"No! Don't!" I still cried out, the pain from the rough handling mixing with the horror at the prospect of what was to come.
"Shut up!" Now he was pressing the back of my neck down forcefully, prying my armor open. I kicked my legs, but it was of no use- he had me pinned against the table, I couldn't move. I screamed when he rammed his cable up my port brutally, I begged him to stop- and he actually did. Except for his hand releasing my neck, he didn't move. The room was deadly silent all of a sudden.
"Isn't that interesting." I knew that voice, although I had never heard it speak with such contempt before. Rapiron. I turned around halfway, only to see Hook standing behind me with his hands raised, doubtlessly shocked as Rapiron pressed a cannon to the side of the medic's head. How had he known I was in trouble? That I was here?
Help me. I formed the words with my lips silently, Rapiron seemed to know what was going on.
"Come on you sorry piece of slag!" The younger, but much more powerful mech hissed before he ripped the Constructicon off of me and hurled him against a shelf- as if he weighed nothing at all. Rapiron went after him immediately, grabbed him again and simply smashed the door out of its hinges with the other Decepticon's body.
I slipped off the table and went down on my knees, grinding my dental plates together and pressing my fists into my lower belly to try and numb the pain. I needed to save my sparkling. Now. Despite the pain, I got up. I was bleeding energon from Hook's blow, but I didn't let that stop me.
Finding the two again wasn't hard- they were making more than enough noise as Rapiron chased the combiner. When I arrived at the nearby hangar, I noticed I wasn't the only one who had followed the noise; about fifteen curious Decepticons had gathered around the opponents, more were arriving, eager to witness a good fight.
"Keep out of this, boy!" Hook yelled. He'd taken a defensive stance, his visor was already cracked.
"Don't you dare even activate that worthless vocalizer of yours! I hereby challenge you, Hook!" Rapiron roared back, taking a large dagger from his subspace and throwing it at the floor between Hook and himself. It cut through the metal like an axe through soft wood, the handle vibrating as it was stuck in the thick metal sheet. The young mech's whole physique practically screamed aggression, his optics showed a bloodlust and white hot anger I hadn't thought him capable of. Hook's glare darkened even further and he growled.
From the corner of my optic, I saw Lugnut arriving. He seemed shocked to see his son in this situation, but when I began limping towards him, he quickly noticed me- and the energon on my face.
"Oh dear Primus, what happened?!" He exclaimed, kneeling and taking a hold of my shoulders.
"You've got to help me, Lugnut! My sparkling- Hook's gonna kill my sparkling!"
"What?!" At the sound of crashing metal, we both looked over to Hook and Rapiron, who were showering each other with punches and kicks. They weren't going easy on each other either. Not at all. "I'm calling Megatron." The old mech stated.
"What about them?" It looked like they were about to kill each other.
"Let them fight. Rapiron's going to win, you'll see." Lugnut didn't seem too worried- and he was right. It quickly became clear who had the upper hand in this duel- and it wasn't the medic. I would almost have enjoyed the sight of that bastard receiving the beating of his life, had I not been so afraid for my child.
A blood- curdling scream was ripped from Hook's vocalizer- Rapiron had ripped his arm off and looked like he was about to beat him with the still bleeding limb. I was totally dumbfounded, I even forgot I was still hurting for a moment. The medic's arm was off. Just like that.
But the situation, I noticed, was about to escalate. The other Constructicons had arrived. And they didn't look like they were up for a fair fight. Without Hook, they couldn't properly form Devastator, but against five more Constructicons, even Rapiron wouldn't stand a chance.
Luckily, they never got to attack him.
"ENOUGH!" It was Megatron, hollering across the hangar. Everybody stopped, the cheering crowd grew silent. Rapiron, still holding the green arm in his hand, turned around. "Would someone care to explain what this is all about!?"
"He attacked me! For no reason!" Hook yelled, pointing at Rapiron with his remaining hand. "He ripped off my arm!"
"That's not true!" I stepped up, shoving past a few mechs standing in my way. "This mech", I continued, pointing at Hook in turn, "has assaulted me repeatedly. He has threatened to kill my- our unborn sparkling, should I not comply! Had it not been for Rapiron-"
"Lies! Filthy lies!" The injured Constructicon struggled to his feet. "This is an outrage!"
Just then, a large holoscreen flickered to life- projected onto the hangar wall by no other than Rapiron. Apparently, he had recorded what he'd seen earlier. The evidence was devastating. I flinched as I saw Hook hit me in the projection. Thankfully, it stopped shortly after, but it showed enough to leave no doubt about what he had done to me.
"You were saying?" Rapiron panted.
"Hook," Megatron started, scowling at the medic darkly, "not only have you assaulted and damaged one of our most valuable assets, you have also attempted to interfere with the breeding program. I hereby demote you to assistant medical officer. Also, you will spend the next 15 solar cycles in the brig. You will not approach the femme or her offspring again. Is that understood?"
"Assistant medical officer?" Hook taunted. "Who's the CMO then? This idiot?" he pointed at Rapiron, who in turn threw the arm at the medic.
"Shockwave will take over the position of Chief Medical Officer. You will answer to him from now."
"But-"
"SILENCE!" The Decepticon leader bellowed. Megatron really was a terrifying sight to behold when he was angry. At this point, I wouldn't have been surprised if he had simply shot the Medic's other arm off as well. Instead, he ordered two other Decepticons to take Hook to the brig.