59- Project Predacon.
It was night when Optimus was waiting inside the hangar of the royal palace of Theed, while Elita was at the entrance with a little changed appearance, as a vehicle entered the hangar. Once it stopped, the pilot pulled out her helmet and exited the vehicle.
"Optimus, what we have here is a NB-1S Royal Bomber. It is a present for you from the Royal Naboo Security Forces in gratitude for saving our home."
"Thank you, senator Amidala. This will most certainly do." Optimus said before he stepped in front of the vehicle and commenced to scan it with two blue beams of light from his eyes.
"Ready to test your new alt form?"
"Ready when you are, Elita."
Both Autobots stood in front of the entrance, started to run and jumped out of the hangar. In middle of their fall, both Autobots transformed. Elita also had a new alt mode: she scanned an Advanced Naboo Starfighter as her new starship mode. They flew right at outer space to test their new forms. The next day, the Autobots finally managed to establish their new base of operations inside a room of the royal palace hangar. They even managed to create another ground bridge, and now they were testing it.
"Return trajectory fluctuations have been stabilized!" Aris reported.
Ratchet nodded. "Ultra Magnus, we are ready to receive you."
An RTT with the same colors as Ultra Magnus came through the portal carrying an energon box. Once Bumblebee took it, it transformed, revealing that Ultra Magnus took Optimus's previous alt form as his own now. Next, he approached all the present Autobots.
"We didn't find much else in the rubble of the former base." Ultra Magnus informed.
Then Wheeljack emerged from the vortex, carrying a lob-ball. "You call this…not much else?"
Without warning he threw the ball right at Bulkhead, who wasn't prepared and the ball bounced off his chest plating and directly to Leia.
"Leia, look out!" Han yelled.
Fortunately, Han pulled her out of the way on time, so the ball slammed the wall.
"Wheeljack, you could have caused serious damage!" Ratchet scold.
"To me!" Leia added.
But the worst thing was that the ball slammed just where Padmé's office was. She and 3PO were inside when the ball impact sent them to the floor.
"Oh my. What in the world happened?" The protocol droid asked.
"I think we're going to figure it out." Padmé said as she opened the door, showing the ball blocking the way out. "A little help here?!"
"Wait mom, we're coming." Luke answered.
"What were you thinking, soldier?" Ultra Magnus demanded.
"I was thinking Bulk could catch that lob." Wheeljack simply answered.
"Allow me to make myself clear: as Optimus Prime's second-in-command, I have no intention of tolerating Wrecker behavior."
"Some things never change."
All the other Autobots noticed the tension raising.
"Jackie…" Bulkhead called.
"Need I remind you that it was Optimus Prime himself who assigned me to command your Wreckers back on Cybertron, and get your loose cannons under control. An effective combat unit begins with discipline. If you won't accept that, feel free to choose the path of least resistance…as you did before." Ultra Magnus said firm.
"If my ship weren't a twisted wreck at present, I'd do that. Sir." Wheeljack answered before he passed through everyone and left.
"Hum, by the way Han, thank you." Leia thanked in a shy tone.
"For what?"
"For saving me."
"Oh…well, it wasn't nothing." He answered, also in a shy tone.
They both ended with their faces red, without realizing it, including the Autobots.
Ultra Magnus sighed before turning at the others. "So, any word from Optimus and Elita?"
"They're investigating recent Decepticon activity. Hopefully an energon mine." Ratchet informed.
Kuat
The Autobot leaders were testing their new alt modes flying above the clouds, until they reached the location point. Once they were close enough, they realized that their new alt forms were too big to pass the entrance.
"Hmm."
"I guess we can take a walk from here." Elita suggested.
So they changed to robot form and started exploring the caves' inside. Meanwhile, in the base…
"How rad would it be if you all had jetpacks like Optimus?"
"Quite rad, Han. But the forge has been depleted of its power to do that." Ratchet reminded.
"Now it's only good for bounding out dents." Bulkhead pointed.
"Hey everyone, we got a great new to tell you. We got a new member in our team." Sky announced entering the room. "Last night BB-8 went exploring by his own and made a new friend, so he brought it here to introduce it to all of us. Meet D-O."
Immediately, BB-8 entered the room and beeped to someone else to encourage it to enter the room, and a smaller droid, with a cone-like head on a single wheel entered the room.
"Hi, I am D-O."
"Wow, I didn't think it could be smaller droids than BB-8, except mouse droids." Cliffjumper said surprised.
"Amazing. Giant droids."
"Sorry, he can't speak the same as the others. So, he uses simple words." Sky explained.
"(Well, at least he says words.)"
Then everyone heard a speeder engine, and a very familiar speeder entered the room, but this had a new color scheme: it was blue with yellow touches.
"Smokescreen?" Arcee recognized.
The speeder transformed, revealing to be the same Autobot.
"Aw! What gave me away?" He asked disappointed, earning a serious face. "Come on! Robots in disguise, right?"
"I like it." D-O said.
"Oh, didn't know we have a newbie."
"This is D-O. So I suppose that makes you not so newbie." Luke introduced.
"Well, welcome to the team, little buddy." Smokey saluted.
"Thanks." D-O said.
After that, Ultra Magnus approached him.
"Where have you been, soldier?" He asked.
"Scanning new war paint. Thought it would be proactive to follow Optimus's lead, and Bumblebee's." Smokescreen answered while Bee heard him.
"(I just only did it to survive.)"
"Now you can look your best while stacking those empty cubes." Ultra Magnus ordered.
"Yes sir." He said. "I was nearly a Prime, but somehow I'm still a rookie."
"What was that about a Prime?" Ratchet asked, revealing that he caught some of his words.
"Uh, time. Time to stop acting like a rookie." He lied before he left.
Arcee went next to Ratchet. "Smokescreen was the only one who went back. If it weren't for him, Optimus might not be with us today."
"Arcee, we were under the strictest of orders. The four of you have your human partners to protect, but we are fortunate that Smokescreen is inexperienced enough not to follow protocol." Ratchet said.
Meanwhile, inside the cave, two Decepticon miners were operating the mining drills under the guidance of a tactical droid, protected by a small group of Insecticons and a few Octuptarra droids. The miners reversed the drills allowing the tactical droid to look inside the hole.
"There. I can see it." He said.
Inside the hole was some kind of skull. The droid was about to grab it when…
"Abandon the excavation! Now!"
It was Optimus in his vehicle form, who speeded up towards them.
"Attack." The tactical droid ordered, so four Insecticons transformed and flew against Optimus.
Optimus fired a missile that divided in multiple missiles that eliminated the Insecticons easily. Other two charged at foot firing, so Optimus serpentine, hitting one of the bugs. Then he returned to his robot form before throwing an uppercut on the last bug. As it was getting up, Optimus turned his hand into a new cannon so powerful that left a huge hole on the Insecticon's chest as mark of the shot. The Octuptarra droids started to fire, but immediately a rapid fire shot down one of them. It was Elita, also in vehicle form, who flew at high speed toward them firing two proton torpedoes, leaving only one droid left. With this, she transformed in middle of the air and sliced half of its legs before kicking it against the wall, destroying it. The tactical droid tried to grab the skull, but it broke it and only grab a piece. Next, he mounted on a hunter-seeker droid and left through a hole in the ceiling. Despite that, Optimus and Elita could see what they could not take. Moments later, they used a ground bridge to return to base.
"Optimus, Elita, did you find energon?" Ratchet asked.
"No. But we did uncover this." Elita answered placing on a table the skull.
"It cannot be."
"Be what?" Luke asked.
"The ancient remains…of a Predacon." Optimus answered.
"Thought it remains unclear why such a skull would be found on your galaxy, its presence reveals all too much about the Predacon which Megatron recently sent in pursuit of us." Ratchet said.
"You meant that dragon droid we put on ice?" Han asked.
"Except that Predacons have been extinct since…well…"
"Since before most life began on Cybertron." Smokescreen finished.
"They're like the ancient dinosaurs." Sky noticed.
"Which means for you guys running into one would be like us meeting a Tyrannosaurus Rex." Aris added.
"So, then what were Dinobots?" Han asked.
"Totally different." Bulkhead replied.
"With Megatron seeing new interest in the excavation of prehistoric skeletons, and a certain scientist back among the Decepticon ranks." Ratchet continued.
"It would stand to reason that Shockwave cloned the beast from one such find." Elita finished.
"And now Megatron's looking to clone another." Ultra Magnus added.
"What makes you think Buckethead will stop at just one?" Wheeljack pointed.
"We could have beast wars on our hands." Bulkhead said.
"And if Shockwave only requires a single strand of CNA from which to clone a beast." Ratchet continued.
"He already possesses what he needs to engender this one." Optimus reported. "Autobots, we must become beast hunters."
"One thing still doesn't follow." Cliffjumper pointed. "Predacons went extinct on Cybertron. So what would their bones be doing here?"
In that moment, the tactical droid delivered the bone back to his masters inside the Nemesis.
"On this galaxy?! I mean, isn't it just a little preposterous?!"
"They are not the remains of Predacons, Skywarp. But rather, the remains of Predacon clones." Megatron explained as Shockwave scanned the bone while some organic decimators removed all remaining rock and dirt from it. "For you see: our recent Autobot hunter wasn't the first beastly super soldier Shockwave ever attempted to breed from prehistoric matter."
A flashback showed Shockwave's lab full with active stasis container pods, each one with a Predacon waiting to rise.
"During the War for Cybertron, I sanctioned the dispatch of a small army of these Predaclones to several planets of this galaxy. To unleash the beasts on unwitty Autobot forces stationed here." Megatron continued.
The next flashback showed an entire group of Predacons of all kinds chasing the Autobots on some planets in ancient times.
"Once they accomplished their mission, the surviving Predacons held sentinel on these very worlds for ages to come. Guarding the energon reserves they've managed to secure, while awaiting my arrival."
The last image showed the surviving creatures stood on an ocean cliff, looking at the sunset.
"Of course, our reunion here was much delayed and it would seem we lost the beasts to the ravages of time."
"But not their endo-matter, from which I am logically able to extract their very CNA." Shockwave added holding the bone.
"Pfft, another scavenger hunt? How logical would it really be to locate all the dusty remains of your former…pets?" Starscream asked.
"You are not suggesting that I would send my creations to distant planets without first having them microchipped?" Shockwave answered.
"Well, I- Well, I was…"
"Seriously, you did?" Slipstream asked in disbelief.
"That's sounds very appropriate from my point of view. Every worthy scientific creation needs a suitable tracker in case of possible recovery, for later reuse." Thundercracker supported.
Back to the Autobot base, the team was seeing a lot of pictures of many kinds of dragons.
"This is all the information we managed to collect from our historical texts." Ratchet reported.
"But those are metal versions of dragons and similar reptile creatures from different planets." Aris recognized.
"Surely are prehistoric, but not very much like dinosaurs." Leia added.
"It would stand to reason that Predacons did indeed walk upon some of these worlds in ancient times. As they seem to have been the basics for much of natives' folklore. Illustrating once again, that the past of the galaxy and Cybertron are inextricably linked." Optimus told.
"It also seems that they left their mark on the planets' ecosystems: their merely presence was more than enough to influence over the native wildlife, resulting in the same evolutionary path on some of the dominant reptilian creatures. Making the dragons you know in that way by natural evolution." Ratchet added.
When the night came, the kids were still at the room sleeping, until Sky woke up. Then, he saw something curious: Optimus and Elita were very close to each other, something that he only saw on his parents.
"Hum? Cannot sleep?" Ratchet asked him, noticing him awake.
"Is curious: Optimus and Elita seems…very close. In a special way. You know what I mean?"
"Yes. Optimus and Elita were always that close, even before he was a Prime. While Optimus was Orion Pax, Elita One was also another archivist of Iacon named Ariel. It was obvious for them to get that close working at the same place, and sharing the same opinions and thoughts of what was happening on the last days of Cybertron's Golden Age. She was with him when Megatron joined the Decepticons, and the same as Orion became a Prime, she also became a freedom fighter, changing her name as well. And both became leaders: as Optimus was the official leader of all Autobot forces, Elita specialized and lead all female Autobots on a special division, focused on sneak attacks and stealth missions, gathering information or weakening enemy forces. Both of them shared the same kind of leadership and beliefs of the Autobot cause. When everyone left Cybertron, Elita and Optimus were forced to go separate ways. Optimus never expressed it, but that was one of his hardest moments, and always waited for the time for both of them to finally be reunited, as well as reuniting all the Autobots they could. So yes, they're a couple, like your parents or your friends'. In cybertronian terms that's what we call sparkmates."
"Wow. I didn't know that unique aspect of Optimus."
"Like I told you, he knows how to put his emotions in check. And I am one of the few who knows him from that long."
Sky yawned, signal that he wanted to go back to sleep.
"You're still awake? Come on, little one. Time for bed." Arcee said arriving, taking and putting him back to the sofa to sleep with the rest.
That was witnessed by the Autobot leaders.
"She truly has returned to be the same as she was before." Elita observed.
"Our native friends have given so much good to our team. Helping them mature and connect more with all and each other." Optimus added.
Next, they saw Ratchet was working on something.
"Is that the synthetic energon of what you spoke?" Elita asked.
"Indeed. I am concerned that without access to any energon reserves since our base was destroyed, our ability to deal with impending crisis will be severely hampered." Ratchet explained.
"A wise decision, old friend." Optimus congratulated.
"Just please, manage your expectations. I am working with even more rudimentary hardware than before." Ratchet saw showing the native made materials he had now as his items.
"Prime!" Anakin called from the room's exit. "Our surveillance service just picked two signs of Decepticon activity. One near a mining facility on Kessel, the other near to the higher mountains in Mimban."
All the fuss woke up Han.
"So don't forget to pack your climbing equipment." Anakin ended.
"We must divide our resources." Optimus said turning to the team. "Ultra Magnus, lead the Wreckers to Mimban."
"Yes, Optimus." Ultra Magnus nodded, but he approached his leader confused. "Hum…what kind of equipment we must take?"
Optimus looked at the Jedi, knowing about what he was referring to. "Master Skywalker can at times be oblique and do things his own way, he's different from other Jedi masters. I find it best to simply nod and mobilize."
With that clear, Ultra Magnus went with the two Wreckers. "Bulkhead, Wheeljack, let's roll." That made Wheeljack groan. As he was making his way, Ultra Magnus stared at the Forge of Solus Prime. "Optimus, I know there are many emotions tied to the forge.
"This is no time to stand on ceremony."
"Are you sure, dear?" Elita asked.
"Even without it's mystical properties, Solus' legacy can still help us in our hours of need."
So Ultra Magnus grabbed it. "I will be honored to put this to some practical use."
Kessel
The ground bridge transported Optimus, Elita, Bumblebee, Cliffjumper and Smokescreen to a highway overpass on Kessel's surface (one very far from the ones which have natural life). There they changed to their robot form. Optimus took a look before turning at the team.
"Elita and I will search this quadrant." Optimus instructed.
"You go ahead and register the mines." Elita added before she and Optimus transformed and flew away.
The three Autobots transformed and followed the road. In a couple of minutes, the trio found the mining fields. So they changed to robot form and prepared their weapons.
"Hey guys, have you ever thought you might wanna be a Prime?" Smokescreen suddenly asked.
"What? What's with that question? You mean right now?" Cliff asked.
"Not now. Someday."
"I don't know. Sincerely, I think I could not handle taking command of an entire faction and taking all kinds of important decisions all the time. I prefer simply been among the rest of the freedom fighters, and let the truly worthy ones to handle big leadership, like Optimus."
Smokey nodded. "And you, Bee?"
"(Actually, I've always wanted to be warrior class, like Cliffjumper.)"
"Warrior, yeah. You and me both. But I've seen you in action. Optimus knows you can scrap with the best of them. Why won't he just promote you from scout already?"
"(It was my decision to remain as a scout.)"
"Your choice? Huh. So why wait?"
"(Wouldn't you want to be promoted at home?)"
"Guess it would be more meaningful to be graduated back home, on Cybertron.
"Bumblebee may be young like you, but patience is one of his virtues. He is the most patient guy I've ever known." Cliff confessed.
"I should take a cue." Smokescreen added saying the last part to himself.
Suddenly, they heard a drilling noise, so Bee pointed them to where the sound was coming as they hid behind a container. They spotted a mining drill and a couple of Decepticon soldiers guarding, alongside lots of heavy battle droids. The three Autobots moved out, but they didn't notice the Decepticon long-range soldiers on the mills who observed them, alongside walker droids. In the moment they charged their weapons, the Autobots nodded and quickly scattered within a split second, evading the blaster fire. They found some cover and Bumblebee returned fire, taking down one of them, while Cliff engaged an incoming wave of spider droids. Smokescreen had a shot for one of the Cons and eliminated it, but two Vehicons and a group of chameleon droids on the ground fired at him. He hid and readied his blasters, next he ran out from the cover, just when a pump went down in front of him and he disappeared. They stopped to wonder how he vanished, and then they looked up to see him on top of the pump, seeing him jumping at them firing. Before landing he grabbed one of the Vehicons and threw him to the other, before blasting out the droids one by one easily. The survivor smacked to a metal pole, and when he recovered, he noticed Smokescreen with the arms crossed pointing to look up, but when he did he saw the pump coming straight toward him, smashing his head. Cliffjumper jumped on top of a heavy spider droid and used it as cover and as mobile vehicle as he fired at the other droids, even he used its laser beam to improvise. Bumblebee eliminated a Decepticon tank by shooting his arm off, then his leg and finally his head. Another Con fired at him, but he kicked him at the face. Another Con, a heavy soldier tried to smash him with his big gun, but he grabbed him and spun him around, punching his head when he had the chance. Cliffjumper jumped nest to him, and seeing coming an entire wave of NR-N99 Persuader-class droid enforcers, HAGs, IG-227 Hailfire-class droid tanks and Century tanks, he took the heavy soldier's gun and fired it. Once the fire was over, all droids were fried. Although it seemed everything was calm, they aimed their guns at one sound, but it was only Smokescreen with her arms crossed.
"Like I said; Bee got nice chops for a scout. You also are good as well, Cliffjumper."
"That's why he's the best scout." Cliff supported.
Then they heard loud footsteps, so they turned to the excavated hole and saw Shockwave emerging, with the Predacon bone on his hand. They also spotted a few J-1 semi-autonomous proton cannons besides him.
"Shockwave, is been a while." Cliffjumper saluted.
"Cliffjumper, one of the two Autobots that sabotaged my space bridge. I knew Starscream couldn't dispose of you."
"And that makes you think you can? Anyway, I was looking to have the rematch with you."
"Coming all the way here only for that? What an illogical reason."
Shockwave started firing his shock cannon at them, the same as the droids. The Autobots managed to dodge the blasts and fire them back. Some of the shots hit Shockwave's cannon, making it to move and accidently hit one of the droids, and one nearly coaxium deposit. As it exploded, it caused a chain reaction for the others to explode. The Autobots ran away from the explosions as fast as they could. One explosion was set off near them and flung them into the air, making them crash hard to the ground.
"How epic was that?!" Smokescreen expressed said as everyone was getting up.
"Tell me about it." Cliff answered.
Suddenly, Shockwave jumped over them in vehicle form covered in flames, and he was getting away. They transformed and pursued him, but Shockwave turned his cannon around and fired at them, causing them to swerve. Shockwave arrived to the bridge, but then he saw Optimus and Elita coming at him, so he aimed his cannon at them and fired. Both Autobot leaders managed to dodge all shots, and while Elita launched two missiles, Optimus fired a huge laser shot that as well as the missiles impacted in front of Shockwave. The blast launched him in the air, making him roll and return to his robot form, and losing grip of the bone. It bounced all the way to the center of the overpass.
"Woah! And that's why he's a Prime." Smokescreen yelled cheered.
"(And why she's his partner.)" Bee added.
Then a ground bridge appeared in front of Shockwave and two familiar Decepticons came through alongside two vulture droids and two TIE hunters, firing at the Autobots.
"Soundwave." Smokescreen recognized.
"And Thundercracker." Cliff added.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Shockwave ran to the bone. Optimus couldn't help because he was too busy dodging the droids and Soundwave's fire, and Elita was busy with the TIEs and Thundercracker. They saw that Shockwave secured the bone again and headed to the portal. At the same time, Bumblebee transformed once he was close enough, jumped and kicked Shockwave on the back. While he was still in the air, both Smokescreen and Cliffjumper jumped on him, grinding him to the pavement. Bumblebee tried to grab the bone, but he didn't notice that Shockwave recovered already, until he punched him hard with the cannon. Smokescreen was busy engaging the vulture droids in walker form, so Cliffjumper tried shooting at Shockwave, but it was useless because it seemed like he had better armor. And because he got distracted a little by the bone, Shockwave charged his cannon and fired, hitting Cliff this time.
"You're a good flyer. I was waiting for a challenge like this." Thundercracker said firing two missiles at Elita, who managed to turn around for a fast moment and destroy them with rapid laser fire.
"Optimus, I may need a hand here." She requested continuing dodging their attacks.
Optimus answered changing back to robot form and activating his jetpack. He changed one of his hands into an axe and cut one of the TIEs' wings, taking it down, and launching an overcharged blast form his jetpack's engines that destroyed the other one. That allowed Elita to turn around and fire at Thundercracker, chasing him now. Both the female Autobot and the Seeker transformed and landed, ready for a melee combat. Thundercracker readied his claws as Elita changed her hands for two swords, similar to those that Optimus had in his previous form. Meanwhile, Soundwave deployed Laserbeak to aid him on delaying Optimus.
"Enough." Optimus said as he turned around and fired his gatling gun at Soundwave hitting him on one of his wings, but he received a few shots from Laserbeak, who latched onto Optimus's engines and began to electrocute him.
That made Optimus to lose consciousness and start falling while Laserbeak detached from him. Optimus crashed on the side of a bridge pillar, then the ravine wall and smacked hard to the ground. Soundwave transformed and landed on one side of the ravine and looked at Optimus, who started to recover. Meanwhile the three Autobots were still trying to get the bone from Shockwave: Bumblebee jumped on top of him, but the Decepticon grabbed him and slammed him down to the pavement. Next, he aimed his cannon at his chest, but Cliffjumper now jumped on his back and Smokescreen grabbed the cable attached to his cannon and pulled, preventing him from scrapping Bee, but that did not stop him from throwing Smokescreen like a rag doll. As he recovered, he saw Shockwave coming at him preparing to hit him with the cannon very hard, so he activated the phase shifter and phased through Shockwave's entire body. He made a grab for the bone, but Shockwave wasn't gonna lose grip so easily. Soon Bumblebee and Cliffjumper came to help Smokey, until the bone broke, which each Autobot have one piece, but a small tooth was flung in the air and into the ravine. Optimus saw the tooth and took flight in his robot form. As Elita and Thundercracker continued their fight, Soundwave saw it too so he started charging another portal, one that appeared between Optimus and the bone, which fell through the vortex and into Megatron's hand. Then the vortex closed.
"No." Optimus said.
"We have all that we need." Shockwave told to Soundwave.
Soundwave retrieved Laserbeak, and alongside Thundercracker, who managed to kick backwards Elita, transformed and flew back to the ground bridge while Shockwave ran toward it. The Autobots tried to shot them down, but it was no use, so they reunited.
"A single strand of CNA." Smokescreen reminded looking the bone.
"Megatron already has another Predacon to clone." Elita said.
Meanwhile in the Nemesis, Shockwave was examining the tooth while Thundercracker analyzed it operating a terminal when Megatron entered the lab.
"Shockwave, I understand that you engaged Optimus Prime in the field."
"Only in order to secure the specimen, Lord Megatron."
Megatron picked up the bone. "I believed that you had perished once, my most prized engineer. And I highly doubt that Project Predacon can be completed without you."
"If I may, Lord Megatron, me and my Seeker siblings can take care of securing the Predacon fossils for Shockwave."
"Excellent suggestion, Thundercracker."
"Understood. I shall leave the fetching of bones to Starscream, Slipstream, Skywarp and you, Thundercracker, and confine myself to my laboratory in order to accelerate results." Shockwave nodded.
"Excellent. For I am rather impatient to witness my army of beasts trample the Republic and the Jedi underfoot." Megatron declared holding the bone.
