The morning that Shredder led Mirta, Thrawn, and Rukh into the jungle, events at the beach were far from quiet.
LKD-9D9 had just finished relaying Lwothin's report of the morning's "briefing" to Uxils, Shalx, Durga, and, most importantly, Nightscream.
Lwothin and Uxils had tried to remain close to the Maximal ever since their meeting with Primus. The Quintessons and the Sith both had major roles to play on this world as part of Unicron's grand scheme, and it seemed now that beyond a doubt that Zed Ram was the individual who would bring Unicron's desires to fruition. Lwothin, Uxils, and LK alone knew of Unicron's plot and were unsure how serious even Nightscream would take the claim that they had spoken to Primus. Still, Lwothin stressed the danger of Shredder as a Sith apptrentice.
Lwothin desperately trilled something that his droid rendered as "My Master says that you can allow them to go alone, Master Nightscream!"
The Maximal, now in beast mode, simply folded his wings and said, "And how am I to stop them? Mirta has complete control over the group and zero respect for me."
Uxils ventured forth, "No, Mirta had that authority. Now Shredder does, and one of the chief reasons he doesn't respect her is that she refuses to respect you. If anyone can break through to him before Shadow sinks his claws into him, you can."
Nightscream blinked, and then nodded. He wouldn't make the same mistake as Mirta about underestimating the threat he was less familiar with. The possibility of a "Darth" Shredder was not something to take lightly. Still, he was amazed by how much influence Cody and Shredder both seemed to give him. He'd been an adolescent during the Spark Wars; he'd fought but the real hero had been Optimus.
He started to take flight when he noticed a small oval shaped craft begin to descend on thrusters. Soon, everyone had followed his eyeline.
The object was totally silent so no one had noticed it until they could see it.
It continued its descent until it came to rest a few yards down the beach.
Suddenly, Shredder was forgotten. They had a more pressing matter. Everyone was thinking the same thing, but only when the one-person hatch was opened did those thoughts become reality for Nightscream, Uxils, and Shalx, for no one else there had seen a Quintesson before.
The being, with its long head and organic green tentacles coming out from the robotic body's shoulders, was a member of the Quintesson Warrior caste.
It inclined its purple jet-motor and bowed, striking one "shoulder" with a tentacle. Then it spoke…with a feminine voice.
"I am Commander Atrilo. On behalf of the Quintesson Empire and the United Planetary Government of Cybertron, we have come here to rescue you." She sliced through each of them with artificial eyes until she found the bat Maximal. She approached saying, "You must be Nightscream. Cheetor Prime himself wanted us to determine if you were alive."
Suddenly the reality of all this hit Nightscream. He staggered back unable to process what was going on. Cybertronians and Quintessons working together in an era after Galvatron?!
"The message…if the two galaxies met…heat death…" Nightscream choked not being able to reconcile what he had known for so long with what he was hearing.
"Oh, that. An ancient warning about a theory that proved incorrect. There's no danger here," She said with full confidence that only confused everyone further.
Nightscream brought Atrilo to the main camp where Quoreal was sitting on medium sized rock from whence he could see most of the camp. Upon seeing a creature so similar to the one from the hologram in person, Quoreal jolted up in shock, and started walking to it even as the Quintesson and Nightscream walked toward him.
"Greetings, Quoreal Rapuung. I am Commander Atrilo of the Quintessson Empire." Atrilo struck her shoulder with a tentacle. "It has been a long time since our two species have met."
That comment haunted Quoreal. According to Zonama Sekot, the Yuuzhan Vong had developed their warrior ways and their loathing of inorganic technology because of a lengthy war with technologically advanced Cyborgs…was this the encounter the Quintesson was referring to? Immediately his mind was thrown back to the present.
"Why did you send Krang to this galaxy?"
He expected feigned confusion or an outright refutable lie.
Instead she said, "A corrupt magistrate wanted to extend his influence into this galaxy, in particular he wanted to influence an order of Force-users. He informed Krang which ship to board and opened the wormhole from the Milky Way side." Seeing Quoreal contort his face in worry, she quickly added, "The warnings about heat death were based on a theory our scientists had later proven incorrect. By that time, we had already pulled out of the galaxy, and thought 'Why not leave the warning in place?' It kept dangerous factions in this galaxy such as the Rakaata out of the Milky Way, and it kept the World Devourer Unicron out of this galaxy. The portal on this side remained closed until very recently." She looked at Nightscream.
Nightscream wanted to believe everything she was saying was true, but with her being a Quintesson, that race who never reproduced naturally anymore, who never had new minds to replace the old, meant that he couldn't trust her, not after everything they had done to Cybertron in the past.
"You said that Cheetor Prime personally wanted to speak with me? Can you reach him or Ratrap, or Botanica or—" Nightscream had not parted on the best terms with the eagle Maximal Silverbolt and even speaking to Silverbolt's wife, Blackarachnia, would lead to inevitable conflict. That conflict could only be resolved on Cybertron in person. But the question about the Quintessons needed to be settled now.
Before Nightscream could finish his thought, Atrilo broke into his pause.
"I'm afraid that someone here has set up a communications jam within a 100-kilometer radius. Quintessons use frequencies that no one here can jam, but Cybertronian technology is just not up to the task. You would need to fly to the mainland with a communications device, or better still come to our ship. And the Wormhole would need to be open." Suddenly Nightscream felt very depressed, and very suspicious.
Quoreal let Atrilo introduce herself and the Quintesson Empire to the citizens of the Republic, present there while he sought out his rival. He found Samedi practicing Yautja martial arts behind the same waterfall where Claudelle had once tried to kill him because of what he had done to her ancestor, but then chose to forgive him.
Claudelle…
Quoreal brought his mind back to the present and called to the Predator.
Samedi emerged from the waterfall.
"What do you want?" Quoreal was Mirta's second-in-command. She had basically declared all knowledge of the Milky Way Galaxy totally useless.
"There is a Quintesson in the camp," Quoreal said flatly.
Samedi flared his mandibles. "And Mirta is already discussing how to defeat the Sith with Quintesson help!"
"Mirta isn't here. Shredder took her, Rukh, and our Chiss ally to the Sith Compound."
Samedi stepped backward with one foot quivered his lower left mandible.
"Shredder knew where the Sith were?"
"Darth Shadow spoke to him through the Force."
"Paya!" Samedi cursed. "One idiot trusts the cyborgs, another the cultists!" Samedi then paused. "Why did you come to me?"
Standing resolute without moving, Quoreal said, "I'm not Mirta. The Quintessons have already said that Krang was sent here by one corrupt judge. The message about heat death was based on a theory that has been discarded. Everything fit smoothly," Quoreal took a half-step forward, "Too smoothly."
Samedi nodded. Everything was just to coincidental for the Quintessons to not have sent them here.
"Too smoothly, indeed," Samedi said. He began marching off in the direction of camp.
Quoreal hurried after him.
"Samedi, wait! We need a plan!"
Samedi paused, and quickly turned upon realizing that, "You've already given me one. We confront him with the inconsistencies between what he said and what we actually know about the situation."
"The Quintesson isn't a 'he,'" Qoureal said as he stepped up his pace to keep on track with the Yautja.
"A female Quintesson? They're rarely seen, but maybe that's because all their cybernetic forms look the same."
The fact that the Quintessons used cybernetics to extend seemed to Quoreal to be an inverse but related practice to the Yuuzhan Vong's using biological implants or grafted organs to reflect increased rank. The inverse yet similar practices stood out even more when he remembered the round head and different tentacle assortment on the scientist. He knew that the Quintessons had different castes, which was yet another similarity they shared with pre-reform Yuuzhan Vong. His race had adopted all the traditions that had made them so feared by the Republic long ago after a war which they fought with a cybernetic race in their home in another galaxy. He also knew the Quintessons had brought ancient Yautja who founded Mandalorian culture to this galaxy. The fact that identical Humans existed into separate galaxies was also probably the Quintessons' work. And if the Quintessons really transferred their minds into clones after death—there was definitely more going on here than the commander let on.
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Nightscream was not interested in the chaos when a Vong and a Yautja confronted a Quintesson. Quoreal and Samedi kept the argument going well into the evening but by that point Nightscream had gone, having borrowed one of the Milky Way humans' communicators. If their estimations were right the wormhole should be open in a few hours, and it would only take him one hour to get past the Sith's jamming radius on the mainland.
He finally landed on what was, to him, a new continent, or at least a much larger island, and he was careful to land in an area of undulating grassy hills, well past the coast line. The Sith shouldn't give him any trouble here.
He gazed up at the sky. It was getting dark. He wouldn't have to wait long. It now occurred to Nightscream that he did not know exactly who he should contact. It obviously couldn't be her or either of her parents—Cheetor Prime could get the most done, but out of the available people on his list he was closest to Ratrap. Having decided upon his rodent mentor, all he had to do was wait. Soon enough, the purple of the Dathomiri/Cybertronian Wormhole exploded on to the night sky.
Nightscream transformed to robot-mode where he could actually manipulate the communicators controls with five digits. He entered the frequency needed to contact Ratrap now that the wormhole could send his frequency back to the Milky Way. He was finally going home—they all were—and then he heard the most spark-crushing sound. The communicator responded, "Signal jammed," repeating itself as the red words flashed in English in the place of his friend's holo-image.
"Slag!" Nightscream yelled angrily as he almost threw the communicator into a rock before remembering it was someone else's property.
Laying the device down gently, the Maximal got down on his knees, looked at the wormhole and released a sonic scream in its direction. This same ability had beat Megatron twice. The wormhole was too far away to be affected. Nightscream didn't care. He was angry with this unthinking, unfeeling product of Quintesson science. He was so angry that he did not notice the tears streaming from his eyes. He was obviously sad. He'd tried to contact his home and had failed miserably. This was the first time the Sith Order had ever done anything to him personally. His sadness and anger fused into hatred. Mirta had been right: he had underestimated the Sith, Their jamming network extended further than just their island base. The whole planet could be covered for all that Nightscream knew. Only the Quintessons could communicate off-world and they could not be trusted any more than Unicron could be thrown. They alone could communicate off-world and that made them their masters once again.
