Invasion - Part 6.0

The Space Bridge Nexus.

The Autobot Elite Guard commander and the Decepticon supreme leader regarded one another silently. Around them were the Decepticon leader's close followers: Lugnut, Blitzwing, Shockwave, Barricade, Sunstorm, Ramjet, Strika, Cyclonus, Oil Slick, Scalpel, Spittor and Mindwipe, and three incapacitated female Autobots: Ariel, Chromia and Moonracer. Though Ultra Magnus' attention was focused primarily on Megatron, he became aware of his followers behind him, in particular Shockwave, the Decepticon double-agent that had fooled all the Autobots and nearly deactivated him permanently. Ultra Magnus could still remember the moment when he had witnessed the dropping of his Longarm Prime disguise, when he raised his canon to fire at him... And standing next to Shockwave, Ultra Magnus recognised another face: Barricade, a security officer from Trypticon Prison. There had been another Decepticon agent within the Autobot ranks, Ultra Magnus realised grimly. Barricade was uttering something to Shockwave now.

"Just had to leave him functioning didn't you," Barricade sneered quietly at Shockwave, looking from Ultra Magnus to his fellow Decepticon double-agent.

Shockwave glared back at him. "I'd like to see you do better," he hissed back.

Pushing the double traitors out of mind, Ultra Magnus brought his full attention onto Megatron. "I knew I'd find you here, Megatron," he finally said. "How would you escape Cybertron without a Space Bridge?"

"It doesn't take a genius to have figured that out," Megatron replied in an unimpressed manner.

There was a tension-filled pause.

"Is this not an ironic coincidence, Ultra Magnus?" Megatron said with a dark smile. "That we should meet once again in this place, the same place that we last crossed one another, long, long ago..."

Millions of stellar cycles ago.

The Space Bridge Nexus was a battlefield. Rubble lay everywhere; laser fire flew; explosions rocked the grounds; jets flew overhead. A blue and white Omega Sentinel in robot mode crashed to the ground with earth-shattering impact.

"Sigma Supreme!" a young Ultra Magnus cried out as he watched the gigantic Autobot topple.

The young Autobot commander looked in shock and horror upon the brutally damaged body of Sigma Supreme. The giant Omega Sentinel that he had been bonded to lay lifeless on the ground amongst the ruins, bearing the most terrible marks of battle.

"Sigma..." Ultra Magnus uttered as he began to make his way over to the fallen giant.

A laser blast struck him suddenly from the side, sending sliding across the ground. He looked up to see a dark and ominous figure approaching him, lowering a long arm canon: Megatron.

"Your Omega Sentinel has fallen, Ultra Magnus," the Decepticon leader declared. He drew his double swords from behind. "But do not fear. You will soon join him, as will all resisting Autobots."

Ultra Magnus got back on his feet and with a mighty roar, swung his crackling hammer at Megatron. Megatron's swords flew up. There was a thunderous clash of weapons.

The present.

"I will stop you, Megatron," Ultra Magnus said determinedly. "No matter the cost."

Megatron reached behind himself and drew his twin swords. "If you were able to stop me, Ultra Magnus," he scoffed, "you would have done so already!"

Without warning, Megatron brought his swords up and charged at his old foe. Ultra Magnus barely managed to react in time as Megatron's swords descended on him. He brought the handle of his hammer up just in time to block Megatron's double strike. The vibrations of the clash resonated across the grounds of the Space Bridge Nexus.

Over Iacon.

As he soared over Iacon in the Powermaster armour, jumbled thoughts raced through Optimus Prime's mind: why had Ultra Magnus left the Infirmary? It did not seem like the Autobot Elite Guard commander to just suddenly take off without informing anyone of where he was going. There had to be a good reason. Where had he had gone to? And Megatron, had he already reached the Space Bridge Nexus? Was he already too late to stop him? Would he be able to stop him even given the chance? Optimus fought to control his rising dread as his worry for Ultra Magnus and his fear of Megatron fought for dominancy within him.

Unbidden, memories of the conflict on Earth and of Prowl surfaced in Optimus' mind. He feared the dawn of a reignited war between Autobots and Decepticons; he feared the losses from such a war. Dimly, he remembered the solar cycles of a not so distant youth when the Great War had been nothing more than a historical fascination for him, when he had used to pour over archival records of battles and the heroes who fought in them. As a young Autobot cadet then captain, he imagined what it was like to fight in those great battles of old. Then the unexpected discovery of the Allspark changed his life, all of his crew's lives. They were thrown into combat; they became real soldiers fighting real battles with the Decepticons. Quickly, Optimus had come to realise that the reality of fighting a war was very different from imagining it. It was terrifying...

Megatron rises from the roof of the tower like The Fallen incarnate, his red optics burning as he surveys allies and enemies alike with the same cold dispassion.

it was painful...

Lying here on the ground, my body cracked, broken, I feel pain of the worst kind as my systems shut down: the pain of dying.

it was unforgiving...

"I know how easily you forget your friends."

it was haunting...

Prowl lingers there, on the periphery of my consciousness. I see him when I shut off my optics. The peacefulness of his face tears into my spark.

And now, here on Cybertron, the war was continuing. The grim realisation struck Optimus. Had Earth only been the beginning of it all?

Pushing his troubling memories and thoughts away, Optimus brought his concentration back to his destination: the Space Bridge Nexus. He would get there; he would find Megatron; he would bring him back. The Decepticon warlord would not be allowed to escape, to restart another Great War. Megatron had to be stopped, no matter the cost. Optimus silently prayed that he would not be too late to catch the Decepticon leader. And he prayed that Ultra Magnus was alright, wherever he was.

Unknown to Optimus, he was being watched. The Decepticon Air Attack Squadron from Trypticon Prison approached from above him. At the head of the squadron, Air General Obsidian spoke into his comm-link: "General Strika, I have Optimus Prime in sight."

To be continued.

A/N: FYI, the flashback is set during the Battle for Iacon at the end of the Great War.