I HAVE A NOTE FOR THE SPANISH REVIEWER REQUESTING CHANGES AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS CHAPTER. Please, do take care to read it carefully. :)
Disclaimer: I'm not the most knowledgable when it comes to coding, hacking, computer science, etcetera, so please forgive me if my 'Jarik vs Soundwave' slicing battle seems a bit clumsy or badly done. It's kind of ironic because my main character is supposedly the best in the galaxy at this kind of stuff. xD
PaLpAtInE: iRoNiC
Hoth asteroid belt - Outer Rim Territories
3rd person POV...
A pair of Vehicon troopers marched through the hallways of the ship silently, going on their usual patrol route. As they were passing by a corner however, they were suddenly blindsided by Ironhide and Chromia, unable to react in time. Chromia cuts off the head of one with her wrist blade while Ironhide smashes the other into the wall, crushing him with the impact. After doing so, the two Autobots dragged the dead bodies out of the hallway and into a smaller room, locking the door shut so that their absence wouldn't be noticed.
"Accessing the navigation log is going to be tricky. That type of intel is usually kept on the bridge," Chromia says.
"Not always," Ironhide grunts in reply. "There should be a few substitute command centers with a terminal we could access."
"Then lets roll," she responds determinedly.
Ironhide looks around the hallways for a moment, frowning as he recalls past memories from when he's been on the warship before, and then takes off at a run, while Chromia follows after him.
Soundwave stands at the main computer terminal onboard the bridge of the Nemesis, staring at the monitors with a keen gaze. Analyzing the electronic frequency of the droid, R5-S7, and how it should operate, he starts typing swiftly, putting his skills to good use.
No matter what programming keeps it so well shielded, there is no machine that he is unable to break into.
Onboard the Knight Hawk, R5-S7 was busying himself by checking to make sure there was nothing on the ship that needed fixing. As he was checking the power grid however, he suddenly freezes in place, beeping in alarm. Some foreign entity is attempting to break into his processor! R5 beeps furiously and starts hammering back on the intruding presence, utilizing his many programming tricks given to him by Jarik.
Soundwave pauses, surprised by the resistance of the droid. Growing irritated with it, he works to increase his efforts.
R5 lets out several angry, but also frightened beeps as the foreign entity continues to assault his processor, acting like a virus. It starts to break through the first line of his cyber defenses, almost frighteningly so. Panicking, R5 pulls away from the power grid and starts rolling through the ship as fast as he could, intending to reach the cockpit so that Jarik and Mara would be aware of what was happening to him. Unfortunately, Soundwave's relentless cyber attacks proved to be too overwhelming for the droid, taking total control of his processor.
With the door to the cockpit just down the hallway in front of him, R5 lets out a loud wail of desperation as he's forced to a stop, unable to defend himself from Soundwave. His beeping slowly quiets down as Soundwave overtakes him completely, forcefully shutting down R5's systems in favor of his own presence, gaining remote control of the astromech. After a few moments of silence, R5 slowly turns around and heads back down the hallway, obeying the command of his new master.
Jarik POV...
While Elita, Ironhide and Chromia were working to acquire the data that they needed from the Nemesis, there was nothing much that Mara and I could do besides wait in the Knight Hawk for confirmation of their success. R5 was off doing his typical routine of ensuring the ship was in great condition; he always busied himself with making sure it was better... and I think ever since HK-47 insulted it he was determined to prove the assassin droid wrong.
"Aren't you happy that your hair looks better now?" Mara says cheerfully.
"It's fine," I shrug in reply.
"Really? That's all you have to say?" she asks, raising an eyebrow.
"What? It's just hair," I say defensively.
"I even added another Viking braid!" she exclaims. "Did you know Astrid's been giving Hiccup a few of those?"
"Hmm hmm," I nod in response.
"Do you even care about your hairstyle?" Mara asks sarcastically.
"Well, I do like how my hair looks now a lot better than it did when I was a Padawan," I admit.
"When it was short?" she questions, raising an eyebrow. "I thought you looked fine."
"Eh, wasn't for me," I shrug casually. "I'm more of the 'ranger' type guy."
"Or you have it long because Mom thought it was cooler that way?" she asks dryly.
"No, but that part didn't hurt," I tell her.
Mara rolls her eyes in exasperation, and I smile at her upon sensing her resignation in regards to the topic, opting to give up on talking about my hair. At that point in time, the Nemesis slowly moves into our range of sight again, so I take the opportunity to observe it once more, noting what it was doing; it wasn't always visible due to the constant rotation of the asteroid. I narrow my eyes slightly as something gains my attention.
"Strange... would've thought they'd do something by now," I admit.
"Like what? Shoot the vulture droid?" Mara asks.
"I suppose," I reply with a shrug. "Either they have no clue how to deal with it, which I find unlikely, or they're just disregarding it in favor of continuing to look for the real thing."
"But the 'real thing' is attached to their ship right now," she scoffs, crossing her arms.
"Yep," I nod in agreement. "That's kind of why I'm a bit cautious."
"You think Elita's ship should've been detected by now?" Mara asks.
"If Soundwave is as good as they told us, then they should already know at the very least that the droid was bait to lure them in," I say thoughtfully, bringing my hand to my chin. "Whether they know if the Autobots are on their ship, or what we're after, is the real question."
"Kind of stinks that we can't contact the others to see how they're doing," she sighs.
"Well if its any comfort, I've been on plenty of missions before that required radio-silence," I tell her optimistically.
"Real comforting," she replies sarcastically.
I shake my head in some amusement, leaning back slightly in my chair. The splint for my collarbone is still in place of course, limiting some of my movement in my upper body: I can't raise my arm over my head for example, not unless I want to risk putting some negative pressure on my injury. Just then, the dashboard starts to beep warningly, and I lean forward to get a better look, frowning. Turning on the dashboard's video screen, I slowly widen my eyes in growing alarm.
"What the kriff?" I murmur incredulously.
"What's wrong?" Mara asks in concern.
One by one, other beeping alarms start to go off as the ship's systems send warnings to the terminal.
"Someone's slicing through the ship's database!" I say in a panic.
"What?!" she asks in surprise. "How's that possible? I thought you gave us, like, the best cyber defense in the galaxy!"
I quickly start sorting through the computer in a panic, pressing buttons with my one hand as more and more issues start revealing themselves. The Knight Hawk's database is just leaking a bunch of intel now: someone's sifting through it all, stealing it. Then other issues start to arise, such as the ship's power grid failing... followed by the engines starting to be overloaded with power. I widen my eyes in horror at the last part: if that keeps up then the engines will implode, destroying the ship and us!
"How in the..." I whisper in disbelief, shocked at how easily the network that I personally set up is being wrecked.
"That doesn't look good..." Mara says nervously, glancing at the dashboard.
"R5, R5 you there?" I ask into my comlink.
But there's no answer.
"Dad, everything in the computer is starting to upload to something!" Mara tells me in a panic.
"I don't get it! How could someone..." I cut myself off, coming to a terrifying realization. "Oh no..."
"Oh no what?!" Mara asks anxiously.
"Soundwave... it's Soundwave!" I exclaim, much to her surprise.
"What? How? He'd need some way to physically connect, right? There's nothing for him to use, except-" she argues.
"-except R5," I realize, and she gasps in horror. "Mara, shut everything down! As fast as you can!"
"What about R5?!" she asks anxiously.
"I'll handle that, but you need to power down the ship now, before the engines overload," I state urgently, getting up from my chair. "Quickly!"
"Got it!" she replies, nodding her head.
I rush out the door as fast as I possibly could, forcing myself not to move to quickly in order to make sure I don't upset my injury. The only way Soundwave could have possibly gained access to the ship this way is through R5, as I went to great lengths in order to ensure its systems and network could not be accessed remotely. As for how Soundwave managed to break through R5's programming...
I almost can't believe it. It's probably that I'm not the absolute best slicer in the galaxy, given that they're trillions of beings living in it, but I'm just about certain that no droid has a better cyber defense than R5. How could Soundwave have possibly done this?! Is R5's memory and programming even intact still? Force, I really hope so...
Nemesis
3rd person POV...
A small group of vehicons working in one of the substitute command centers all look up as the door opens; there's some confusion among them as they see nobody coming through. Without any warning, Ironhide suddenly charges into the room like a wrecker, shooting his cannons all over the place, also throwing the body of a defeated Vehicon. The thrown body crashes into two startled Vehicons, while several others are quickly blown apart by Ironhide's cannons.
Surprised, the remaining Vehicons nevertheless activate their own energon blasters and rush to attack, but several blue energon bolts shooting through the air take them out as well. One of them looks over in surprise, only to be slammed against the ground by Chromia as she leapt into the air, bringing her foot down in a spinning kick. The last Vehicon backs up in a panic, raising a hand to his helm in order to contact the bridge, but is suddenly thrown against the ceiling by a powerful uppercut from Ironhide. He hits the ceiling with a crash, and then falls back to the ground in a collapsing pile of metal.
Chromia scans the room with a keen gaze, lowering her blasters with a satisfied nod upon seeing no other enemies.
"We're clear," she reports.
"Good. Lets hope we can find what we need before Soundwave detects us," Ironhide replies.
He walks up to the main computer terminal and begins browsing through the database, while Chromia keeps watch, shutting the door in case any Vehicons were passing by. After a short while of time, Ironhide stops with wide optics in astonishment.
"Leaking lubricants!" he says.
"What? What is it?" Chromia asks, looking over.
"These fraggers didn't come here with a TransWarp drive!" Ironhide growls.
"What're you talking about? Of course they did!" she replies incredulously. "How else would they have gotten here?"
"They used a space bridge," he reveals grimly.
Chromia widens her optics in surprise, shaking her head in disbelief.
"That's... that's impossible," she argues. "Space bridge technology has been lost for megacycles!"
"Not for the 'Cons apparently," Ironhide grunts.
"How could they possibly have a space bridge?" Chromia asks.
Ironhide frowns, opening the file on the space bridge and quickly skimming through it.
"Shockwave's been busy it seems," he states.
"If they have an operational space bridge, then that'll put our forces at a serious disadvantage," Chromia replies in concern.
"It puts us at a disadvantage too," Ironhide replies, growling in frustration. "If they came through a space bridge, then that means they don't have any navigation coordinates for us to use. We're trapped."
He slams his fist against the console in frustration, while Chromia frowns with a thoughtful look on her face.
"Not necessarily. Onslaught was by himself remember?" she points out. "He never used a space bridge."
"Hmm... maybe," he replies in agreement.
With the idea set in mind, Ironhide resumes his search through the Decepticon database, particularly in relation to any intel they have based off of Onslaught's mission. After some searching, Ironhide manages to locate the correct file, a satisfied look on his face at seeing the plotted course Onslaught used for traveling to and from the Andromeda galaxy, particularly how to avoid the Hive blockade.
"There it is! We've got it!" he states triumphantly.
"Thank the Allspark! Copy it down," Chromia suggests happily.
right at that moment however the door suddenly opens, allowing a large group of Vehicons to come charging in, weapons armed and ready. Ironhide and Chromia look up in surprise and alarm as the Vehicons come to a stop, aiming their weapons at the pair.
"Autobots!" one of them shouts angrily.
"Oh scrap," Chromia sighs.
Knight Hawk
Jarik rushes through the hallways of the ship, sliding around a corner to see the engine room up ahead, as well as R5 plugged into an astromech port at the station. R5 turns his dome to see him, and lets out a few beeping sounds... sounds that seemed to be cybertronian, not the normal droid binary. Jarik narrows his eyes angrily and storms his way down the corridor while R5 refocuses on whatever he was doing. Without warning the door to the engine room is shut closed, preventing him from entering the room. Jarik stumbles back a step to avoid being hit by the closing door, looking up with a scowl on his face.
"Great," he mutters.
He then starts to hear a few rumbling echoes throughout the ship, and looks around with an uneasy expression, listening with a feeling of dread. Down a few hallways, not too far away, the docking port airlock door opens up to the void of space, immediately creating a vacuum. Jarik lets out a startled cry of alarm as he's yanked off of his feet, getting sucked down the corridor at a frightening speed. At the same time in the cockpit, Mara was also yanked out of her seat with a cry. She's flipped over her chair, but just barely manages to grab hold of it, floating in the air while holding on for dear life.
"Dad!?" she cries out through her comlink.
Jarik tumbles through the air, groaning in pain as his back hits the wall; luckily his collarbone wasn't terribly jolted. Shaking his head, he reaches out with his arm and grabs onto the corner of the hallway, also holding on for dear life; the open airlock lay just twelve feet behind him, oxygen constantly being sucked out into the void of space, as well as anything else that wasn't secured inside. Jarik grimaces with a heavy scowl of exertion on his face, glancing down at the airlock.
"Mara, can you reach the door controls?!" he calls out through his wrist-com.
"I can't reach it!" she exclaims, unable to muster the strength needed to pull herself back up and into the seat.
Whilst keeping an eye on the data transfer from the Knight Hawk to the Nemesis, Soundwave observed the status of the two Jedi through the ship's security cameras, patiently waiting for them to be pulled into the vacuum of space. Or also wait for all of their precious oxygen to be sucked out.
Growling in frustration, Jarik looks back down at the open airlock, mentally running through any possible scenarios in his head. Spotting the door controls, a flicker of hope and determination surge through him, and he refocuses on his grasp of the wall. Focusing on the Force, he allows it to surround him with its power, and then glares fiercely at the open airlock. With a shout, he brings his feet up and then pushes off of the wall, also letting go with his hand.
Jarik hurtles through the corridor towards the airlock, turning his body midair so that his back slams into the wall just beside the open door, grunting in pain. Pinned against the wall, he glances down and immediately slams his hand on the emergency door control, allowing for a ray shield to spring up in the airlock door.
The effect is immediate: the intense vacuuming pull is stopped and he collapses to his hands and knees, his left shoulder throbbing with pain; in the cockpit, Mara falls down with a surprised yelp, grunting in pain as she hits the floor. Disregarding the throbbing pain he felt, Jarik springs to his feet and then presses another button on the control console, also sealing the airlock's physical doors. Afterwards, he focuses on the Force once more and gestures to the doorway with a closed fist. Using the Force, he crushes the doors mechanisms to ensure that it could not be reopened by any means possible, as R5 had complete access to everything from anywhere in the Knight Hawk.
Jarik takes a moment, inhaling and exhaling with deep breaths to refill his lungs with more oxygen. Recovering, he turns to look up at one of the Knight Hawk's security cameras, knowing that Soundwave was watching through them.
"You have no idea who you're dealing with, Soundwave," he states with a hard glare. "And you've pissed me off."
Although discouraged and a little annoyed at the open airlock method failing, and also a little bit surprised that Jarik knew his name, Soundwave nonetheless looks on with amusement at the Jedi's bold statement.
"Mara, you listening?" Jarik says into his comlink.
"Yeah, I'm listening," she sighs in response. "Still here thankfully."
"How's it coming along on your end?" he asks.
"I'm trying to shut down the power, but R5 keeps turning it back on," Mara explains helplessly. "The data transfer is getting closer to finishing too."
"Kriffing Force," Jarik mutters with a frustrated sigh. "Well, keep trying your best."
"I will," she replies. "How about you? Where's R5 at?"
"He's locked himself in the engine room. Unfortunately for us, R5 can access everything no matter where he is in the Knight Hawk," he tells her in reply. "Still, there's only so much Soundwave can do to stop me from getting to him."
With that being said, Jarik ends the transmission and resumes heading for the engine room. Upon reaching the door he stops in front of it, holding a hand against the metal with his eyes closed. Breathing in deeply for a few seconds, he reopens his eyes with a determined glare and calls the Force to his aid, clenching his hand. The door twists and folds with metallic-sounding groans of protest, before being swiftly separated from the structure of the wall and is blown into the engine room. Inside, R5 swivels his dome to look at him with a few beeps of surprise in cybertronian, quickly becoming angered.
Jarik outstretches his arm towards R5 and uses the Force to rip him away from the astromech socket he was plugged into; however, as he starts to skid across the floor his magnetic clamps activate, securing him in place. R5 then brandishes his electric prod and starts zapping, forcing Jarik to duck out of the way to avoid being electrocuted. Irritated, Jarik reaches out again and makes a fist, crushing the electric prod and then storms his way over. He kicks his foot out, snapping the arm R5 had plugged into the astromech socket, causing the droid to cry out in angry protest.
"I'll ask nicely this one time: give me back my droid!" Jarik snaps.
::YOUR DROID IS MINE. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.:: a growling, machine-like voice responds.
"Yeah? Resist this you kriff-head!" he retorts angrily.
Ripping a few power cables out of the computer, he thrusts them forward to deliver a powerful electric shock to R5. The droid cries out from the deadly electrical charge, forcing his systems into temporary shut down. Satisfied, thought a bit concerned over R5's current state, Jarik turns to focus on the computer that R5 was previously plugged into, raising his wrist-com.
"Mara, you there?" he asks.
"Yeah, I'm here. Did you get him?" she replies questioningly.
"I did. You should be able to stop the power overload," Jarik says.
He waits for a few seconds for Mara to respond.
"Dad, it still won't let me shut it down! And the data transfer is going too!" Mara exclaims warningly.
"Are you kidding me?" he asks incredulously.
"No! Soundwave's still connected somehow!" she says anxiously.
Jarik growls in frustration and disbelief, bewildered by the fact that Soundwave is still connected to the ship somehow. What is it that makes him able to do what shouldn't even be possible?! Unless...
"He's in the ship's mainframe," he murmurs in realization. "On second thought Mara, start boosting the feedback to the power grid."
"What?!" Mara cries out incredulously. "I thought that's exactly what we don't want!"
"If Soundwave is still connected to the ship's mainframe, he's got to have a really strong signal output to do so," Jarik explains; he takes the power cables and connects them to R5's power coupler, reconnecting him to the Knight Hawk. "So, I'm going to give him exactly what he wants."
"...okay, if you say so," she replies, a bit hesitantly.
After ensuring that the astromech is connected directly to the Knight Hawk's power grid, Jarik turns R5's dome to look at him and activates the visual feed of his sensors, transmitting directly to the signal being used by Soundwave.
"Alright, Soundwave, you seeing this?" he asks casually, before scoffing. "Who am I kidding? Of course you're seeing this you scumbag!"
Soundwave pauses in his word, staring wordlessly at the monitor displaying a live visual of Jarik Shan, who is glaring at the camera.
"Cybertronian or not, nobody messes with my droid, or my ship. And especially not at the same time!" Jarik declares firmly. "So congratulations! You get what you want!"
Standing back up, Jarik turns around a presses a button on the computer terminal, looking back down at R5 with a hardened look on his face. Immediately, an intense surge of power is sent from the Knight Hawk and into the astromech droid, which causes him to start spazzing out with bolts of glowing blue electricity running across his chassis.
On the Nemesis, Soundwave pulls back in surprise by the sudden feedback being sent to his end, causing his own computer to start sparking thanks to the immense power surge; what was meant to overload the Knight Hawk's engines in order to blow them up, was now instead being transmitted into his own computer, overloading the power systems.
Having not expected the Jedi capable of pulling off something like this, Soundwave immediately rushes to combat the cyber attack with his own defenses, knowing exactly what to do; unfortunately for him as he attached his two tentacles into the computer, he was struck with pain as the overloading energy surge began to shock him, forcing him to disconnect. It was too late to combat it: he had to cut the feed entirely!
Crouching down in front of R5 again, Jarik does his best to ignore the pained squealing of his friend and glares into the camera.
"It's probably not enough power to kill you, but it'll serve as a warning!" he states fiercely. "You're not the only gifted slicer in the universe, Soundwave! So go kriff yourself!"
Soundwave frantically tries to cut off his connection to the astromech droid and the Knight Hawk, but all of the power he used to overload their ship reached critical peak in his own computer: the entire terminal exploded, throwing the Decepticon hacker to the floor. The Vehicon technicians and bridge crew all turn to look over in complete astonishment, having never once seen Soundwave on the receiving end of a technical issue.
Soundwave remained lying on his back for a few moments, stunned at what just occurred, unable to comprehend the fact that he just let a human from Andromeda reverse the feed on him in such a basic... humiliating manner. He lifts himself up, staring silently at the smoking heap of what used to be his computer terminal. If that were any Andromedan ship, it would have surely been destroyed by the power surge overloading its fuel cells.
Once R5 started to settle down, Jarik quickly pulled the power cables off of his chassis and started tending to the astromech droid. R5's chassis was smoking, and an electrical burning smell filtered through the air.
"R5, you okay buddy?" Jarik asks anxiously, shaking him. "R5!"
Looking over the astromech, Jarik starts opening some of his access panels to check on the state of his systems. Stilling seeing some sparks going off within the droid, he grabs a few spare tools hanging around the engine room and opens up R5's dome, revealing his inner mechanics and droid process. Upon doing so, Jarik widens his eyes in alarm at seeing the damage done to the Intellex V processor, which was charred and smoldering in some areas. R5's primary power cells were also completely destroyed, being nothing but charred pieces of smoldering metal.
"Oh no..." Jarik murmurs, sitting down defeatedly with heaving breaths. "I'm such an idiot..."
He leans his back against the wall, struggling to keep himself in check as he looks at the still form of his droid companion. Using R5 as a conduit to overload Soundwave's feed may have worked, but unfortunately came at the expense of the astromech, the immense power surge proving too much for his systems to handle. Jarik lets out a sigh, staring at the ceiling with a bitter gaze, unable to muster the effort needed to cry or grieve for his lost friend.
Just then however, a sudden thought enters Jarik's mind. Thinking for a moment, he gets back up and looks down into R5's processor once more, searching through it keenly with a flicker of hope. Spotting what he was looking for, Jarik reaches down and detaches a part of the Intellex V processor and holds it up in his hand, analyzing it; R5's memory databank. A smile stretches across his face at seeing it only suffered superficial damage, however he carefully sets it aside and continues searching through R5's processor, soon finding the other piece he needed; R5's programming directive.
"Thank the Force," he sighs in relief.
With both R5's memory files and directive programming still relatively intact, there was a high chance he could get the astromech droid restored to his former self.
Nemesis
Ironhide and Chromia swiftly turn around the corner of a hallway, red energon blasts trailing behind them. As they take off sprinting down the corridor they fire back at the Vehicons pursuing them, scoring a few direct hits. As they do so, Chromia raises her hand up to her helm to talk through her comlink.
"Elita, do you read me?" she exclaims.
"Loud and clear Chromia. What's your status?" Elita asks.
"We got what we came for, but the 'Cons found us!" Chromia reports. "Get ready for a quick evac!"
"Understood," she responds, ending the transmission.
Ironhide pulls out a grenade from his belt and then chucks it down the hallway behind them. The pursuing Vehicons only have a moment to stop in surprise and alarm before the grenade explodes, taking out several of them in a blue fireball.
"We should be close," he states firmly.
Unfortunately for them however, they're halted in their path as they turn down another hallway to find Megatron standing at the end of it, a group of Vehicons standing behind him with their own blasters raised. Ironhide and Chromia both skid to a halt in alarm, and Megatron smirks menacingly at them.
"Leaving so soon, Autobots?" he asks sarcastically.
Behind the Autobots, the rest of the Vehicons also come to a stop with their weapons aimed, trapping them in the middle of the hallway. Ironhide glares angrily at Megatron, who was standing between them and their pathway to escaping.
"Megatron," he growls, readying his twin cannons.
"I must admit, I am rather surprised," Megatron remarks curiously. "Tell me, what did you expect to achieve by sneaking onboard?"
"Sorry, but we're not in the sharing mood," Chromia retorts. "I'm sure you enjoy playing the guessing game, right?"
Megatron chuckles in sinister amusement.
"Of course! I always have enjoyed theorizing what outcome leads to your demise," he sneers mockingly.
"Well I'll give you the reality: we're not dying today!" Ironhide declares.
Raising his cannons, Ironhide fires two missiles down the hallway at Megatron, who just barely ducks to avoid them. The resulting explosions throw a few Vehicons off their feet, and Megatron looks up with a snarl. Chromia shoots at the Vehicons behind them while Ironhide tosses his last grenade as well. Sharing their battle plan over their spark-bond with each other, the two quickly transform into their vehicle modes and starting driving down the hallway at high speeds, letting the grenade blow up the Vehicons behind them.
The Vehicons in front of them start firing red energon blasts in their direction, and they swerve to avoid the shots. Growing, Megatron lunges forward at them with his sword, aiming to cut through the pair with his blade. Just when he was about to swing, Ironhide surprises him by transforming once more, rolling across the floor and pushing himself up into the air; his fist connects with Megatron's jaw, throwing the Decepticon warlord out of the way. Ironhide stumbles momentarily before returning to his vehicle mode, following after Chromia. Megatron shakes his head with a furious expression on his face, looking over to see the two Autobots smash their way through the legs of his Vehicon troopers and continue on their way.
Yelling in anger, Megatron starts following at a sprint, disregarding the Vehicons who were knocked over without a care. Upon reaching the airlock hatch, Chromia transforms in an elegant jump to her feet, dashing toward the door controls while Ironhide transforms as well, whipping around to fire his cannons. Megatron ducks out of the way of a few shots and then cuts through another with his sword. Letting out a fierce war cry, Megatron jumps forward with his sword arm at the ready, stabbing downwards at Ironhide.
Ironhide raises his arms to protect himself, but luckily at that same moment Chromia shuts the door to the airlock hatch, halting Megatron's advance: his sword stabs through the door, only a few inches from touching Ironhide. His roar of outrage could be heard on the other side as Megatron yanks his sword back out of the door.
"Nice save," Ironhide grunts with a nod of gratitude.
"Anytime 'Hide," Chromia replies with a grin.
She raises her arm and slashes the door controls with her wrist blade for good measure, locking the door shut. On the other side, Megatron glares at the doorway with a frown while the rest of the Vehicons gather around anxiously, unsure of what to do.
"Soundwave! The Autobots have breached the airlock and shut the door!" Megatron states, pausing when nothing happens and he receives no response. "Soundwave!"
Knight Hawk
Jarik returned to the cockpit with both of R5's most dire components, and Mara turns to him with a relieved smile on her face.
"Wow, whatever you did actually worked. The data transfer was stopped, and the ship's not going to explode anymore," she states, frowning afterwards. "Is R5 okay?"
"Not really, but he'll survive," Jarik replies.
Mara raises an eyebrow in confusion, growing a bit concerned about the state of the astromech droid. Before she could ask him further about the subject, the ship's comlink crackles to life and Elita's voice comes through.
"Elita One to Knight Hawk, do you read?" she calls.
"I'll explain later," Jarik tells Mara, sitting down in the co-pilots seat. "We read you Elita. Everything alright?"
"We've got what we came for, but the Decepticons know we're here," Elita states firmly. "We're about to leave the system."
"We'll follow you guys out," he replies, gesturing to Mara.
Mara turns the power back on for the Knight Hawk and lifts the ship off of the asteroid. It shutters for a few moments, Soundwave's cyber attack having done some damage to it, but nevertheless after a shaky start it carries on like normal. Mara flies the ship around the asteroid, where they get a clear view of the Autobot's ship flying away from the Nemesis as fast as possible, the Decepticon warship firing red laser blasts at them.
"Just so you know, I'm still not the best flier!" Mara tells Jarik uneasily.
"You're fine! Besides, I've only got one hand right now so you're already going to be better than me," he responds. "I'll get the navicomputer ready for lightspeed."
Mara nods in confirmation and begins to follow after the Autobots, who were also aware of their destination as previously planned out, and were prepping their TransWarp Drive. Just then, new problems emerge as Vehicon troopers take off from the landing deck on the Nemesis, flying in their jet modes: Megatron is also transformed in his own jet form and leading the group. They shoot in the direction of the two fleeing ships, firing on them with everything they had. Several energon blasts strike the hull of the two ships, causing violent shaking as they deflect off of their shields.
"Well, someone's certainly not happy!" Elita comments, seeing Megatron on the radar.
"Is he ever happy?" Chromia scoffs, looking at Ironhide with a grin. "Even you feel happy more often than he does!"
"Hmph. Very funny," Ironhide grumbles.
Megatron fires angrily, his energon blasts hitting both the Autobot's ship and the Knight Hawk. Mara and Jarik both flinch from the impacts, the latter seeing their shields swiftly being taken out by the immense firepower of the Decepticons.
"Dad?" Mara asks anxiously.
"Almost, almost," he replies with a hard gaze, opening the ship's com. "You three set to make the jump?"
"Just about!" Elita answers. "Coordinates are set!"
"We're clear too!" Jarik replies.
Without any hesitation, Jarik pulls the hyperspace lever just as Elita also hits the button to activate their transwarp drive. Both ships disappear in a blurred streak, and the pursuing Decepticons break off their pursuit, leaving a furious Megatron behind.
Nemesis - Hoth asteroid belt
The door opens, allowing Megatron to stomp his way onto the bridge with an irritated scowl on his face. The Vehicon troopers wisely give him plenty of space as he marches past them, glaring straight ahead. He comes to a stop in the middle of the bridge and glances over at Soundwave, who is unmoving in his position next to his computer monitor, his head tilted to look downwards... only, the entire computer is a smoking wreck.
"What happened?" Megatron demands angrily.
The silent Decepticon looks over at him and then back to the computer, before finally giving a response. Verbally.
::SHAN SEVERED THE CONNECTION.:: he states in his robotic voice.
"And how exactly does that lead to this?!" Megatron demands, gesturing to the destroyed computer.
::REVERSED ELECTRICAL FEEDBACK.:: Soundwave explains.
"So what you're telling me is that he bested you at your own game," he retorts coldly, narrowing his optics in anger. "Is that it?"
Soundwave doesn't say anything, merely looking down at the floor. Megatron growls in disappointment and steaming anger over his apparent failure to defeat a mere human and a primitive machine.
"Then what of the Autobots? They were in our database looking for something," he questions firmly.
Soundwave's visor displayed an image for him to see: the navigation coordinates that Onslaught used to evade the Hive fleet while leaving the Andromeda galaxy. Megatron studies it for a moment before widening his optics in realization, a scowl swiftly replacing the look as he stares forward with a hard gaze, approaching his usual commanding position on the bridge.
"So... they know how to leave the galaxy now. Is that it?" Megatron asks, glancing over.
Soundwave nods his head in response, and Megatron's expression becomes grim. He wants to be furious... outraged... punish Soundwave for failing to stop them from acquiring such detail. And yet, what would be the point? He himself should've known better than to underestimate the Autobots purpose of coming to the Nemesis. Not to mention, Soundwave is far too loyal and useful of a Decepticon to punish in such a way that would be reserved for Starscream.
He simply has to accept that Elita One will now be able to return to Cybertron. And he must deal with her and Optimus Prime the way he has been for the last few eons of war.
"Then it is time we return to Cybertron," he states in resignation.
Knight Hawk - Somewhere in the Outer Rim Territories
Jarik POV...
After our escape from the Decepticons, we emerged from hyperspace in another region of space. We didn't want to risk traveling to Yavin 4 or Ahch-To in the possibility that the Decepticons tracked our location. For that same reason, the Autobots were preparing to leave the galaxy to return to their own home, now that they had the proper navigation coordinates needed to bypass the patrolling Yuuzhan Vong fleet.
"I'm sorry to hear about what happened to your droid," Elita says apologetically through the comlink.
"Thank you Elita," I say in response, heaving a sigh. "R5's memory and programming directive is still intact though, so I should be able to get him back online and running again."
"I hope so," Mara says worriedly. "I never thought R5 could be taken over by anyone like that."
"Soundwave's a slagging glitch, but a really dangerous one at that," Ironhide grunts in response. "I'm impressed you managed to reverse the feed on him like that. Only other bot I know who's gotten Soundwave that badly is Blaster, and he's almost as good as that creep."
"Guess I got lucky," I shrug in reply.
"Lucky or not, you still scrapped him up," Chromia adds in amusement.
I scoff lightly in response, a small smile on my face while Mara also grins as well. Our expressions quickly become more somber at the reminder of them having to go.
"Take care getting back to Cybertron," I tell them.
"Yeah. Try not to crash land again?" Mara adds jokingly.
"Don't worry about us kid," Ironhide grunts.
"Thank you, both of you, for all that you've done for me," Elita says gratefully. "I wish there was more I could do to repay you."
"There's nothing else you need to do Elita," I respond sincerely.
"We'll miss you guys," Mara says bitterly, but also with some joy and happiness for their well being.
"We'll miss you too," Elita replies. "Well, I know I will. Chromia, probably, and 'Hide... not so much."
"Oh frag off already," Ironhide grumbles, prompting a few laughs.
Mara and I look out the window and watch as their ship flies past us, heading out further towards open space.
"Until next time," Elita says pleasantly.
"Good luck," I say in reply.
With that being said, the Autobots disappear in a blur, leaving us by ourselves. We sit in silence for a moment, staring out into the area of space where their ship disappeared.
"So, what now?" Mara asks me.
"Well, I need to make sure the ship is cleared of any trace of Soundwave," I remark, letting out a sigh. "Then we need to go get some new parts for R5. The internal mechanics of his body were fried."
"And make sure you're collarbone is okay?" Mara adds, raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, that too," I reply, rolling my eyes. After a few moments I frown upon remembering something, and turn to face her. "Mara... didn't you say earlier that I contacted you to warn you about Atollon?"
"Yeah, you did..." she says, looking at me in confusion. "Why are you acting weird about it? You sent the message, right?"
I glance at her warily for a moment, considering how to respond.
"Y-yeah, yeah I did," I say with a nod, smiling reassuringly at her. "I just heard there was some confusion from the others is all."
"Well, yeah. They said you never did," Mara says slowly, easing up a little bit. "Apparently HK-47 kept saying that you never got through Imperial jamming."
I shrug helplessly in response, and after a few more moments she also drops the topic, still a bit confused but also relieved at my answer. But I didn't feel the same way, and turn away from her with an uneasy expression on my face; the others are right.
I never did send her a warning message.
Author's Note: This is the last time that we'll be seeing the Autobots and Decepticons in the Legacy of Jarik Shan. Sad, I know, but the story must progress! Come to think of it, I probably will have to make a few alterations to the "Alien Robots- and Fulcrum?" story as well, mainly just the opening chapter and then a few scenes of dialogue. I was a bit too eager when I started doing that story last year, as I still hadn't gotten everything planned out, but oh well. Lesson learned! :)
And now we're on to the Heroes of Mandalore story arc! Just FYI there's going to be a time jump between this chapter and the next.
TO THE SPANISH REVIEWER: Please, with the most possible respect... zip your howling screamer. I've been working on the Shaniverse for over two years now, and it will take another few years to complete my entire vision of the series. I'm not about to erase several years worth of work—which I do not get paid for, and sacrifice my own time to do—just to please you. You think Transformers and HTTYD doesn't work together? To bad, I made it work. Be angry all you want, I am not changing anything.
I'm most certainly not going to add Overwatch and Cthulu to this: I don't even know a thing about half of what you want, so even if I wanted to, which I DO NOT, I couldn't write it. You think my story is messy, disgusting, and not very related? I fail to see how your vision would be any better, if at all. If you don't like what I've written, then don't read it, because it's not changing.