Robotech vs. Transformers: Revenge Road
Chapter Fifteen
Megatron smiled coldly as his team swooped down, the prototype oil rig in the high arctic seemingly deserted. Raiding Earth's poorly protected data networks the Decepticons had heard about the incredible reserves of oil buried beneath the ice, and they were determined to claim them for themselves and Cybertron.
Touching down Megatron nodded to Soundwave, "Begin preparing the energon cubes, Thundercracker, tap the oil."
"Yes, my Lord," Thundercracker nodded subserviently even as he and Rumble went for the pipe leading down into the Earth.
Silently Soundwave formed the empty energy constructs that would convert Earth fuels into energon, even as the mostly blue alloyed Transformer scanned their surroundings. "Quiery: where are the human workers?" he wondered.
Megatron, frowned, conceding that there might be something wrong as he also scanned their surroundings. He turned towards the others, "What of the oil?"
"There ain't nothing coming up," Rumble complained as he kicked the pipe casing, the small transformer making the metal ring.
Before they could move a massive explosion ripped through the rig from below them, throwing them all off balance and momentarily disrupting their sensors. "Shit!" Frenzy yelped as he fell, the platform tilting sideways.
Out of the ice and snow around them special sensor baffling covers were thrown off, figures rising from the snow as they hefted weapons. "Wreckers!" Springer yelled as the green, bulky Autobot took aim, "Wreck them!"
"RDF!" Izzy Randal yelled from her Veritech fighter in Battloid mode, bringing up her canon even as other Destroids and Battloids took position, "Let them have it!"
The already disorganized Decepticons were hit by a wave of pure firepower, explosions ripping across them as they staggered backward. Soundwave cried out as penetrating shells tore into his armor, and Rumble didn't even have time to scream as a lucky missile impacted right on top of him. As Soundwave fell he 'ejected' all the tape-decepticons, Ravage, Ratbat, Laserbeak and others, though they seemed disoriented by the sudden launch.
"Hold them off!" Megatron yelled to his minions as he ran to Soundwave's side, dropping to his knees beside his injured comrade.
"Die you bastards!" Frenzy yelled, nearly bezerk as he blasted away wildly.
"Megatron...," Soundwave lay on his side, smoke curling from his chest plate.
"We'll get you out of here," Megatron hissed as more weapons fire brought down Frenzy and scattered the other disoriented tape-decepticons.
"Decision illogical," Soundwave managed, "my functions are ceasing."
"No," Megatron growled, remembering the many times Soundwave had stood by him, determined to save his ally.
"You must go," Soundwave looked at him intensely, "bring victory to the Decepticons."
Laserbeak exploded just above them, fragments peppering both as Megatron digested the grim reality. "I will not forget this," Megatron said as he rose, taking aim and killing the Wrecker Swoop with one shot, then blasting apart a nearby Destroid. He visibly ground his teeth as he realized they would be overwhelmed by numbers if they stood and fought.
Skull One blazed in, weapons flaring as he engaged the flying Decepticons in the air, even as the RDF forces and the Wreckers advanced on the ground. "Die, human germ!" Thundercracker yelled, the blue fighter trying desperately to tag the fighter.
"RDF, give 'em hell!" Lana Isavia yelled as she plodded forward, her Destroid's heavy guns firing again and again, the snow hissing as it hit the red hot muzzles.
"Decepticons, retreat!" Megatron snarled as he leaped up into the air.
"No way!" Frenzy yelled as he and the surviving tapes charged the Autobot forces, dodging nearly overwhelming fire.
Megatron thought about trying to force the little Decepticons to obey, but all he could do was kill them, and at this point it seemed that was what they wanted. "The Autobots will pay for this," Megatron growled as he soared off with the survivors.
"Aaah!" Top Spin barely had a chance to scream as Ravage tore his voice processor out then ripped into his chest, killing him as the Decepticon remnants attacked wildly.
"Damn it!" Springer blew Ravage to pieces even as his team mopped up the remaining fighters. The fake oil rig was a smoking ruin, but they had taken out a key Decepticon as well as destroyed the whole sub-group of Decepticon tapes. All in all, it was a good day's work.
Even as the Autobots saw to their wounded and dead the RDF worked on their own people, cracking open armor to assess the injured or the dead. Casualties were light, really, but for the tightly knit human army any loss was dearly felt.
"Damn it," Izzy sighed as they forced the cockpit of the Destroid open, seeing the smoking ruin of a human being. They had hoped the glancing shot had only burned insulation, but apparently not.
"I'm sorry," Rick Hunter said, having helped peel the armor aside with his Veritech's powerful hands. "Did you know him?" he asked quietly.
"We knew each other," Izzy sighed, "not well though."
Rick moved off to help with another attempt to get a pilot out of ruined mecha, even as Izzy lingered a moment. 'Could have been me,' she thought grimly, remembering her own run in with Megatron, and how close she had come to dying.
The snow blew over the battlefield as the teams collected the dead and dying, gradually erasing the conflict. In a few days all you would see was the tilted, ruined platform covered in snow, the scorch marks and craters wiped away.
With a sigh Izzy returned to work, even as the Autobot commander of the mission watched the green accented Veritech thoughtfully. 'She's not what I expected,' Springer mused as his squad finished their tasks and prepared to head out.
"Springer!" Izzy yelled as she forced through the snow. The Veritech offered it's hand as she said seriously, "Good work."
"You too," Springer nodded as he shook it, "you're people more than held up their own end. Pass on my thanks for me."
"Will do," Izzy nodded as he transformed to copter mode and took off, his Autobot team falling into step behind him. She then gathered up her own forces to go to the transports waiting for them some miles away under the snow.
Some hours later Optimus Prime smiled proudly as he met with Admiral Gloval, commander of the RDF. The large truck transformer was appearing via video-feed, of course, as trying to ram him into Gloval's office would be difficult.
"The attack your Wrecker team organized was very effective," Gloval noted as the gray haired man added, "but we failed to get Megatron."
"It gave us a shot at hitting their undersea base," Optimus said with a smile, "I suspect he was very surprised to go home and find it a gutted wreck."
Gloval frowned, "But the Decepticons have only suffered light losses so far. We must press the attacks harder on them."
"Pinning down a flying enemy isn't easy," Optimus admitted. He leaned forward, "Do you have any suggestions?"
"Do you think they'll fall for such a trap again?" Gloval asked curiously.
Optimus shook his head no. "Megatron is no fool," he said flatly, "the only reason we got him this time was his greed."
"So we need to bait a trap so well he can't avoid going after it," Gloval mused thoughtfully. He shook his head, "We'll have to think on it."
"I'll put my people on it too," Optimus agreed.
"Will your commander Springer be sticking around?" Gloval asked curiously, his Russian accent giving his words a faint twist.
"He'll need to return to Iacon," Optimus said with a certain amount of regret, "he and his Wreckers are often all that keeps the Decepticons on Cybertron in check."
"You might want to consider creating such a rapid response team here," Gloval suggested, "it might come in very handy."
"I have just the commander in mind," Optimus agreed.
In another part of the world Megatron cursed wildly as he dove down beneath the waves, swimming down to the now wrecked Decepticon starship. The hull was cracked open and water filled the hulk, the interior scarred and blackened in battle. Worse, he saw that the energon stores they had carefully horded were also destroyed, ruining years of effort.
The newly arrived Darkshadow hovered above the waters as she watched her leader rise up. 'How could this have happened?' she wondered, shocked at how effective the combined Human and Autobot forces were.
Megatron exploded from the water, his expression dark with fury as he flew to her side. "Survivors?" he asked flatly.
"Myself," Darkshadow told him, "and my team from Cybertron Shockblast, Stormbringer, Sunstorm, Runabout and Runamuch." She hesitated then admitted, "Sunstorm insisted on standing and fighting, I assume the Autobots destroyed him."
"Hmm," Megatron nodded. He hated losing a powerful soldier, but Sunstorm's insanity made him a liability.
"We fought a running retreat through the base along with the Decepticons stationed there," Darkshadow said, "they escaped and presumedly headed to the emergency meeting place."
"Then let us go," Megatron said grimly as the band of Decepticons left the ruins behind them.
"Looks like things ain't doing too well for our side," Runabout muttered, the nearly pure white Transformer hanging back a bit.
Runamuck gave his brother a wry look, "You wanna try crossing Megatron?"
"You think I'm nuts?" Runabout shuddered.
"That's what I thought," Runamuck answered flatly as the black colored Transformer said, "so shut up and follow the leaders."
To be continued...
Notes: I wanted the good guys to start doing some real damage to the Decepticons, so I took out Soundwave. It's implied in some of the official materials that he and Megatron were close, and I decided to run with that here. Might be a bit out of character, though.