Chapter 42-All Hail Megatron part 2
Smoke rose from the remains of the Ark as the Nemesis hovered over the blast site. A ground bridge materialized at the edge of the crater and from it Megatron walked out into the wreckage. He took one look at the scattered debris of the Ark and smiled. The plan had succeeded beyond expectations.
'This is a good day for the Decepticons.' He thought victoriously.
Behind him, Nightshade flew down in beast mode and transformed before landing on a piece of the Ark's hull, now warped and barely recognizable. She looked around and whistled.
"I never thought I'd see the day that the Autobot flagship would be destroyed." She said, walking up to Megatron. "Starscream's contacts actually worked."
"Starscream is useful when he's not blinded by dreams of grandeur." Megatron said. "But don't get comfy, Nightshade. The fun is only just beginning."
"Dreyas' army is arming their airships and vehicles as we speak. Shockwave is also bringing in our heavy hitters from nearby bases." She reported.
"Good. We're going to need a lot of firepower for the next part of this plan."
"And what's that, Megatron?" Nightshade asked.
Megatron's red eyes gleamed as he stared up at the scorched Autobot symbol covered in warped metal and soot. "Devastation."
XXXXXX
One day later
It was early morning in New York City and it was the height of rush hour. People flooded the streets heading to their destinations or completing their morning routines. Bus and train stations were full with commuters. The city was its usual bustling self, despite the war going on across the world and within the country itself. Despite everything that was going on, everyone just wanted to continue their lives.
The morning rush was cut short by a commotion in the street. Pedestrians looked to the intersection where six oddly colored construction vehicles were plowing through traffic. A bulldozer was in front pushing aside cars and vans, heedless of the angry and scared drivers trying to move. When they reached the intersection, the vehicles pulled to a stop.
"Hey!" A man yelled. "What the hell are you doing? You're gonna kill somebody!"
For a second, he got no response. Then without warning the vehicles began to change. Parts rearranged themselves, folding on top of one another, and in just a few seconds there were six twenty-foot tall robots standing above the humans and their vehicles. Everyone stared at them, not exactly sure what to do at the sudden appearance of the cybertronians.
"Greetings people of Terra. We are the Constructicons." Scrapper began. "We have come a long way at the behest of our leader to visit the greatest city on this planet. We come in peace and mean you no harm."
The Constructicons glanced at each other silently before they burst out laughing and took out their blasters.
"Nah, we're joking." Scrapper grinned. "We're here to kill ya!"
They opened fire on the defenseless humans, and suddenly everything turned chaotic. The entire street erupted into flames. Laser blasts tore apart the streets and sidewalks, blew holes into the nearby buildings and shops. Several cars were destroyed, many of them still occupied, and many more people were completely incinerated by the laser blasts.
Those lucky enough to be far enough away from the carnage ran as fast as they could. Panic gripped the populace and everyone tried to escape the free-firing Decepticons.
Several law enforcements teams tried to stop them, and SWAT units armed with police issue talos opened fire on the Constructicons. Sadly, their guns couldn't do much against tougher cybertronian armor. Mixmaster took care of them swiftly with his infrared cannon.
"So this is Terra, huh?" Scavenger said, looking around at the damaged buildings. He broke off a piece of a brick wall that used to be a bookstore and looked it over. "Is this what they use for their materials? It's so weak and brittle."
"No wonder it's so easy to break 'em." Long Haul laughed.
They heard the sound of jet engines above them and looked up to see three fighters heading for them. "Look alive, boys. His Highness is here to grace us with his presence." Scrapper scowled.
Starscream transformed and landed on the ground, his feet skidding through the street and tearing it apart in a knowingly destructive way that sent cars flying. Thundercracker and Skywarp landed beside him as he looked at the chaos his comrades caused.
"I love what you've done with the place. Though I expected more from the infamous Constructicons." Starscream said.
"Thank you, Starscream. Your opinion matters of much to us." Scrapper said sarcastically.
"You'd do well to remember that." Starscream raised his arm cannons and fired two beams that tore apart a police talos before it could even point its weapon at him. "Worthless toy robots."
He boosted forward and brought out his arm blades, slicing deep gouges in the buildings down the street, stomping on cars and blasting apart groups of humans trying to take cover. At this point, the police had long since given up trying to stop the Cons and were trying to escape, but Starscream didn't give them any mercy.
"Look at how they flee in terror my brothers!" He hollered. "They feel terror because of our presence. This is how it's supposed to be!"
"Yeah, just wait until Megatron gets here." Skywarp grinned.
Starscream scowled at the mention of Megatron. "Megatron? He's busy rolling around in the Ark's wreckage to focus on other things. This is our show, Skywarp. Our time to show the world the full scope of our power."
"If that's the case, then shouldn't we wait until Dreadwing gets here?" Thundercracker asked, unable to resist needling Starscream.
"Thundercracker, please, I'm in a good mood today. For one day could you not be a piece of slag?" He growled. "Can you manage that?"
Starscream's mood soured even further when a ground bridge appeared in the middle of the ravaged street and Megatron and Soundwave walked out of it. Starscream plastered a smile on his face and approached his leader.
"Megatron, what a surprise to find you here. I thought you would be at the Ark's remains searching for the Autobots."
"I have Nightshade working on that. I wanted to take part in the real fun in this city." Megatron said, looking around at the damage his troops caused. "How go things in the Big Apple, Starscream?"
"Everything's going according to plan, Megatron. The humans flee in terror at our very presence. They cannot match the firepower we're giving them with their primitive toys."
"Power? You call this power, Starscream?" Megatron frowned.
Starscream stammered at the question. "What? But I…"
Megatron shook his head and increased the power output on his fusion cannon. "As usual, Starscream, you talk big…"
He fired his fusion cannon, releasing a tremendously large particle beam that completely blew out the ground floor of an office building, shattering its supports and causing the building to slowly fall over. Megatron calmly walked away from the collapsing building as the ground shook from the impact.
"…When everything about you is so small." He grinned.
XXXXXX
"My god."
Sumeragi watched the chaos unfold on her television with a look of horror on her face. She had just seen the breaking news coverage of the Decepticons attacking New York and was horrified by the amount of carnage they had already caused. Megatron himself was there, and it seemed like he had half of the Decepticon unit there with him.
"…The footage we're showing you is from the initial attack at Times Square. The images shown are coming rom an unknown source that seems to have perfect coverage of the extent of the damages caused by the Decepticons. Casualties are believed to be reaching into the hundreds and possibly thousands by the end of the day. This is following our emergency coverage of what appears to be the smoldering wreckage of the Autobots' flagship, the Ark, with the Decepticon warship, the Nemesis hovering over it. We don't know where these images are coming from, but we can only assume that the Autobots are preoccupied…"
"Sumeragi!" Kotetsu burst into the room with the other Neo Knights. "Did you see the—"
"I saw Kotetsu." Sumeragi said.
"It's horrible. They're killing everyone over there and the police are either dead or in hiding." Nathan said.
"So when are we going to jump in and chase them off?" Hua asked.
"We will be doing no such thing." Sumeragi said, shocking the group into silence.
"What?" Karina said. "But headmistress, all those people…"
"She's right." Barnaby sighed. "We're completely outnumbered and we'll be killed if we rush into that mess by ourselves. There's no way we can fight that many Decepticons, let alone Megatron."
"He…has a point." Kotetsu said reluctantly. Even he knew that rushing into the city without any backup from the Autobots was tantamount to suicide.
"But what happened to the Autobots? Aren't they supposed to fight them?" Hua asked.
"I don't think we can count on the Autobots anymore, Hua." Karina muttered. "Not after seeing those pictures."
It was a grim thought. If the Decepticons had managed to defeat the Autobots, then Terra was facing an enemy they were ill-equipped to fight. She could only hope that Annie and her friends were all right.
XXXXXX
Megatron fired another blast from his fusion cannon that tore apart an entire street, rupturing several pipelines and throwing cars into the air. Megatron had his troops expand outward from Times Square, chasing down the fleeing humans and taking out any possible way they could escape. He had Laserbeak and Ravage hunting down the humans, corralling them into large enough population centers for easier killings. He knew from experience that trying to take out a few lone humans was hell to do as a thirty foot robot.
The law enforcement squads and SWAT teams had been routed, and so far they were uncontested in their ravaging of the city. But he knew that it was only a matter of time before the military got involved.
"Megatron," Soundwave said, walking over to him. "Hostile aircraft approaching. Origin, south by southeast."
"I see them." He said, looking up to see a squadron of F-35 fighters heading for their position. "It's about damn time they came."
"Don't worry, Megatron. I'll handle this." Starscream said. "Brothers, take them out!"
"Halt! Ignore that." Megatron waved him off. "Let them come."
The fighters flew below the buildings and launched two guided missiles each at the Decepticons. Megatron glanced at Soundwave, who released a soundless jamming signal that completely took out the missiles' targeting systems and caused them to fly everywhere else but their intended flight path.
Seeing that their missiles weren't working, the pilots resorted to shooting their 20mm Vulcan cannons. Against the touch armored skin of the Decepticons, all they did was leave extremely shallow dents in their armor but caused no serious harm. Megatron smirked and raised his hand.
"Now that we let them have their fun, let's make them regret ever coming here. Decepticons…tear them apart!"
What followed next was a complete massacred. The Seekers took jet mode and easily matched the speed of the jet pilots. They shot down several fighters with their laser cannons alone, while the Insecticon alphas, Kickback and Bombshell, tore the fighters apart with their sharp teeth and mandibles. Any pilots that managed to eject were unfortunate enough to get caught by said Insecticons and eaten alive on the spot.
"What a glorious sight." Megatron grinned. He saw one of the damage fighters escape the battle in the sky and fly straight toward him. "A kamikaze run? That's your final solution?"
He growled and marched forward, waiting for the fighter to get close before slamming his fist into the cockpit of the fighter. The punch folded he aircraft in half and sent the lower half spinning wildly down the street, the thrusters exploding on another city block and causing a small apartment building to collapse in on itself.
If that was what these animals resorted to as a last resort, then they deserved to be killed like animals.
XXXXXX
Colonel Barnett was trapped in a nightmare. That was the only explanation for how so many things were going wrong at once.
Megatron's surprise attack on New York not long after losing contact with the Autobots was no coincidence. He planned this out to the letter, and from the looks of it, he wanted the entire world to see him lay waste to one of the largest cities on Terra.
The Hexagon was in an uproar, the government was going Defcon 1, and Barnett was trying to keep everyone up to date while keeping himself informed as well.
"Still no word from the Autobots?"
"No, General Abernathy. I haven't gotten any word from the Autobots. Air Force patrols had flown over the last known location of the Ark, but they were chased off by Decepticon flyers. All we know is that their ship is destroyed, but it's too inconclusive to know whether they perished in the blast." Barnett said through the phone.
Abernathy sighed, sounding as old as he looked. "We don't have a choice. If we can't count on the Autobots, then we must focus on at least driving the Decepticons out of the city. Colonel Leopard is en route to New York as we speak to lead the Army forces there in taking back the city."
Barnett wanted to say that they didn't have the firepower, but he knew that wasn't the right thing to say right now. They had no other options. The Autobots were MIA and there were thousands of people in the city at the Cons' mercy. They couldn't just sit back and do nothing.
"Have you contacted the Atlantians?"
"I managed to secure a call with Princess Aspen. They doing their best to monitor the situation, but they already lost three scout ships to the Seekers." Barnett ran a hand through his short hair. "Apparently there are at least six or seven unidentified Decepticons taking part in the assault."
"Christ. Keep me updated on the Autobots, Barnett. I need to talk with President Flagg."
"Yes sir."
Abernathy hung up and Barnett put his head in his hands, muffling his frustrated groan. This was only going to get worse before it got better, if it ever will.
XXXXXX
Daniel Leopard was a decorated Army colonel with several years of combat experience under his belt. A good chunk of that experience was from being on the front lines in the war on Karaba in the Middle East and on the homefront. It was hell having to fight against a bunch of extremely powerful superhumans, and though he disagreed with how espers were sometimes treated in his country, he had a duty to protect innocent people from the terrorists that made no secret of wanting to harm them.
Like some other military officials, he wasn't very keen on the Autobots. Yes allying with them was beneficial in the long run, but being caught up in a highly destructive civil war wasn't exactly ideal. Not to mention he didn't fully trust them. For all their talk about wanting to help humanity against the Decepticons, they didn't give much in the way of advanced weaponry or defense systems. Not everyone in the military was a complete asshole to shoot them in the back.
And now their dependance on the Autobots was coming back to bite them in the ass. The Cons had supposedly captured or killed the Autobots, the Decepticons were running rampant across New York and thousands of people were already dead. That's not to say anything about Karaba, who has yet to make an appearance in this shitshow.
The military had set up shop in the residential area near city limits, far enough from the hot zone that they could avoid getting attacked but close enough to monitor their forces. As soon as the chopper got close to the ground, the colonel was already out and on the ground. A soldier greeted him with a salute and debriefed him on what was going on.
"What's the situation?"
"We've sent two squadrons of fighters to engage the enemy. All of them were destroyed, sir."
Daniel's scowl tightened. "Are we still having vehicles and supplies brought in?"
"Yes sir. Lieutenant Colonel Hawk's orders."
"Tell the lieutenant colonel that I was want all senior officers in the command tent in 10 minutes."
"Yes sir." The soldier nodded. "He also wanted you informed that ground forces are deployed and are preparing to engage the enemy."
"Where?"
"Central Park, sir."
"Central Park." Daniel growled. "Forget 10 minutes. I want them there immediately."
"Yes sir."
Daniel had read the reports. The Decepticons were somehow emitting a jamming frequency that caused all guided missiles and rockets to go haywire. Which meant they had to get up and personal, something no one wanted to do against a giant bot like Megatron. At the very least, he hoped the tanks could at least bloody their noses while they had the chance.
XXXXXX
The ground forces made their way into Central Park, ready for the fight of their lives. The unit consisted of a fearsome show of heavy firepower, several dozen M9 Gernsbacks, at least three dozen M1 Abrams main battle tanks, two dozen M4 Murphy support talos, and a large number of human infantry as well.
While they were expecting to engage the enemy any minute now, they weren't expecting the resistance to just consist of four Decepticons, three mechs recognized as Blitzwing, Scrapper and Skywarp, and a smaller red mech named Frenzy.
"Just as Laserbeak said. It's about time they took us seriously." Scrapper muttered. "I'll get the rest of the team. We'll take care of them."
"Whoa there, cowboy, let the little guy handle this." Skywarp grinned, nodding his head at Frenzy.
"Him? What's he gonna do?" Scrapper asked.
"You'll see. It's going to be magical." Astrotrain smirked.
Frenzy calmly stepped forward into the field, drawing the attention of several smoothbore cannons, rifles and missile launchers. But before the mechanized forces could open fire, Frenzy opened his mouth and screamed.
Frenzy's high pitched sonic scream was dangerous enough for even the hardiest cybertronians, and when used against a group of unprepared human soldiers, they didn't stand a chance. The infantrymen exposed to the full power of the sonic wave were subjected to high frequency waves that ruptured their ear drums and scrambled their brainwaves, giving them a sense of intense vertigo that completely ruined their sense of balance and caused all kinds of nauseating side effects.
The humans in the tanks and talos were spared the worst of it, but were still rendered inert by the sheer high frequency of the scream that was too much for their ears to handle, as well as the brief but significant glitching of any and all digital systems. Seeing that his scream was doing its job, Frenzy cut his sonic assault short and lifted something in his hands, throwing it right at the human soldiers. The other Cons recognized it as Soundwave's tiny micro-cassette alt mode.
The spymaster waited until he was right on top of the soldiers before he transformed, growing from a tiny recorder into a thirty foot tall robot who crashed right on top of the nearest tank. The disoriented soldiers were too disabled to give an immediate response.
And then the slaughter began.
Soundwave systematically tore apart all of the soldiers in his wake. He used his blaster on the tanks, the pulse blasts easily ripping through the composite armor of the battle tanks that they were famous for having, and killing the tank crews inside. The talos attempted to shoot at him, but he shot faster, taking out four with his blaster before rushing in and using his vibro-blade to cut them to pieces. He didn't have to stab them in the cockpits, but he did so anyway, because Megatron said no survivors and he intended to ensure that no one survived this battle.
The Constructicons watched in awe as they saw Soundwave completely demolish the soldiers all by himself with a clever use of limited weaponry and his own transformation ability. They heard stories of Soundwave's combat prowess, but they largely dismissed it until now. After all, he was a spymaster. The less people knew of his skills, the better.
"Watch out for the quiet ones." Skywarp dryly remarked.
"Astrotrain, you have a new target." Soundwave said as if he didn't just wipe out an entire mechanized battalion.
"Sure thing, Soundwave. What's the target?" He asked.
Soundwave's red visor gleamed briefly as he said, "The subway tunnels."
XXXXXX
"According to drone footage, the civilians are making their way toward the tunnels for safety. A sizeable portion are hiding out in the Holland Tunnel in an attempt to leave the city. We can't get anything else with all the smoke in the air, and the Decepticons keep shooting them down if we try to get a closer look."
Colonel Leopard closed his eyes and thought for a moment. "Still no sign of their warship or Karaba?"
"No sir." Said Hawke. "Though that's subject to chance any moment now."
"I'm well aware of that, Hawke." Daniel said and looked at the map. The topographic map of the city had several red zones where the Cons had already attacked, and those areas were growing more and more by the minute.
"What about the Autobots? Where the hell are they?" One general growled.
"They were the first ones taken out, general." Hawke sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose to stave off a headache. "We're on our own on this one."
A soldier burst into the tent. "Colonel!"
"What is it?" Daniel asked.
"Sir, we have a report back from the Central Park assault. There were casualties."
"How many did we lose?" He prepared himself for the high number.
The soldier was reluctant to give the answer, but he did so anyway. "All of them, sir."
Even Daniel couldn't keep the look of shock from showing on his face.
The moment was cut short by the sound of jet engines shrieking through the air. Everyone ran outside just in time to see a trio of fighters, the Seekers, race right over them and head to the Brooklyn and Manhattan bridges. Leopard's expression grew horrified when he realized what they were planning to do.
"Oh no." He muttered.
The Seekers launched two pairs of heat seeking missiles each at the crowded bridge, full of cars and trucks trying to escape the battle ravaged city. Vehicles that were completely destroyed when the missiles hit the bridge, blasting apart a large chunk of the bridge.
XXXXXX
From his position by the Hudson River, Megatron saw his flyers taking care of the bridges and knew it was time to wrap this mission up.
"The bridges are falling!" He roared. "Constructicons, you know what to do!"
Megatron made sure that Laserbeak was recording the awesome sight of the Constructicons combining into Devastator. That impossibly tall gestalt towered over the docks and factory buildings as he stomped his way into the river and headed for the target Megatron directed him towards.
At the field camp, Colonel Leopard and the other generals were given a live viewing courtesy of Laserbeak of Devastator's massive form wading through the water until he was right over the Holland Tunnel. Then they were granted the disheartening sight of Devastator bringing his massive fists down on the underground subway tunnels and destroying them along with the thousands of unfortunate civilians trapped inside them.
XXXXXX
President Flagg and his cabinet made settled down as Air Force One took off from the air field. With the situation in New York getting progressively worse, and new reports of Decepticon attacks across the country, Washington was too big a target to risk him being in such a high profile location.
Even now Flagg was getting reports of the carnage going on all over Osea. Karaba airships began materializing over military bases and were engaging with the soldiers there. Megatron's core strike team was systematically torching any military assault thrown at him. There was still no word of Dreyas or his family making an appearance.
And the Autobots were still MIA.
'This is a dark day for our country.' Flagg thought grimly. 'But we can still fight back so long as we don't panic. The Decepticons are strong, but they're far from immortal.'
He was violently taken from his thoughts when the plane began to shake. At first he thought it was turbulence, but when then the shaking grew to the point that he was thrown from his seat, he knew something was wrong.
"What's going on?" He demanded.
"Oh god," He heard Hauser gasp. "Sir, I just saw one of the turbine engines get torn off the plane!"
"What?!" Flagg jumped to his feet and ran to the window. Indeed the turbines were completely gone. "How are we still in the air?"
"Mr. President," Said his secretary of defense, who was looking out the window on the other side. "You should see this."
Flagg joined Keller by the window and his heart filled with dread at the sight of Dreyas floating next to the plane, smirking at them as he gave them a jovial wave. At that moment, the president realized that the terrorist leader had stalled them midflight and they were now dead in the air. Dreyas was the only thing holding them up.
"Farewell, President Flagg," Dreyas said, maintaining his magnetic hold over the plane. "It's been fun, but all good things must end…such as your reign of terror. Enjoy your early retirement."
Dreyas turned the plane around and sent it shooting back the way it came, letting go of the aircraft and allowing Air Force One to nosedive in a freefall.
Inside the plane Flagg struggled to remain standing as the plane descended back towards Washington. He could hear everyone else, from the screaming stewardesses to his secret service and his cabinet, panicking around him, but he struggled to remain calm even in the face of death. He wasn't going to allow Dreyas the pleasure of making him scream.
Flagg looked at Keller, who stared back at him with a resigned expression. They knew they were going to die, and that their deaths would be used to further bring the Osean public down. In his final moments, Flagg prayed to whatever god existed that Osea survived this terrible war that has completely swallowed it and for his people to survive the coming storm.
Then everything went up in flames as Air Force One crashed into the Lincoln Memorial, killing everyone onboard as well as the several civilians near the memorial.
That's it for that chapter. I'll be putting this story on pause until I can finish up the rest of the arc and finally finish the story. I also have Mosiac still in the works, though again I've been seriously procrastinating that story for this one and it's not cool at all. Be sure to check out my Sofia story, which is currently on hold for the moment, and check out the official Transformers Titan website on wordpress. Thanks for reading, please leave a review, and stay safe!