War of Spare Parts
Mauler raised both of his guns into the sky and opened fire. With repeated sots he is able to bring down a few air assault vehicles. He looks at the horizon and sees a multitude of ground assault vehicles on the way.
"All units, return to base. We're to severely outnumbered!"
"But we have to defend this technorganic patch," Rumble objects.
"That's a priority order!" Mauler commands.
Rumble, Cyberlink, EagleClaw, and StarStreaker transform and begin to retreat. Rumble is not to pleased with the decision.
"This is Mauler contacting Maximal base. We've been overwhelmed and are evacuating the area. Mauler out!"
Meanwhile, in Cybertropolis, Krem is furious at the growing Maximal activitiy.
"Give me the damage totals!" Krem orders.
"In all, 107 units were destroyed. Precisely 231 were damaged, but we now have control of another technorganic patch." Urlacher informs him.
"It will take all of the new materials we have just gained to replace the vehicles it took to get them," Krem states. "Production has dropped since these new Maximals have shown up. If I falter, the Board will not think twice before replacing me with Phoclon. We must find a more productive way of dealing with these renegade Maximals."
"Sir, I may have a more inexpensive way to dispel them."
"Show me." Krem commands.
The two Quintesson committe members travel to the basement of the complex. Once there they find workers repairing vehicles that are different than the Quintessons.
"What are these?" Krem questions.
"These," Urlacher starts, "are Vehicons."
"What!?" Krem gasps. "You mean the drones of Megatron!?"
"Precisely. Apparently the reformatting of Cybertron was not as thorough as we had thought. Pockets of Vehicon remains were discovered. I have secretly governed the restoration of these vehicles."
"Does Phoclon know of this?" Krem asks.
"No one does, sir."
"Excellent. Now we have the cost effective tools we need to wipe our hands of this Maximal uprising!"
Back at the Maximal base, the crew is meeting about the recent loss of technorganic turf.
"If we stand idle the technorganics will be wiped from Cybertron!" Tri-Fire declares.
"More importantly," Technobot interrupts, "We're losing resources, and the Quintessons are gaining them."
"That is a growing problem," Optimus states. "Eventually we are gonna have to go on the offensive."
"We must protect the technorganic elements of Cybertron!" Tri-Fire cries.
"Our first priority is to free the enslaved Maximals and oust the Quintessons. Then we will determine the fate of the planet." Optimus informs him.
Tri-Fire must bite his tongue to keep from objecting.
"Now, on to other matters. Technobot, have you made any discoveries in reversing the technorganic process?"
"Actually," Technobot starts, "I may have found the solution."
"Go on," Optimus says.
"Well, I was repairing one of the Maximals we freed recently, but the technorganic CR chambers were all in use. I decided to use the one in our ship."
"Hmm. Your findings?"
"It seems our CR chambers view the technorganic material as damage and replace it with Cybertronian alloys."
Whoa, whoa, whoa. That sounds way to easy." Hip-Hop interjects.
"The only drawback is that the process takes 3 solar cycles and a lot of energon. We don't have enough to repair 10 Maximals, let alone the hundreds that were freed."
Optimus walks over to the main computer module and presses a few keys. A list of names comes up on the screen.
"The Quintessons have more than enough energon to share. There! We'll hit station 477. We roll out in 2 mega cycles. Elita, Cyberlink, Mauler; assist Technobot in assembling several new CR chambers by our design."
"I wonder what wrench the Quintessons plan on throwing in our gears this time?" Hip-Hop ponders.
Optimus and EagleClaw soar through the sky at cruising speed. The Quintesson energon storage facility begins to come into view.
"Set your weapons to full power. We've got to take down that security tower if the ground team is to have any chance." Optimus commands.
"I hear ya loud and clear," EagleClaw says.
The security tower comes into range and EagleClaw circles around. The two open fire, and tower is brought down.
"This is Optimus Major to Tri-Fire. Move in!"
"Tri-Fire relays the message to StealthCat, who hacks the door system. He and Hip-Hop move in, followed by StarStreaker.
They locate the energon cubes, and begin to load them in a trailer attached to Rumble. Tri-Fire is on guard.
"Things are running smoothly," Optimus notes. At that moment his comlink goes off.
"Heads up, Cop-Op. We've got some unidentified aerial fighters coming in." The voice of EagleClaw warns him.
The jet like fighters do not resemble the Quintesson fighters they had previously encountered.
"Prepare to intercept," Optimus commands. He transforms to flight mode and begins to fire at the vehicles. EagleClaw does the same. The opposition goes down with little struggle.
"Optimus to Tri-Fire, watch your backs! The opposition has arrived."
"Your a little late with the warnings!" Tri-Fire cries.
An army of tank drones are headed in their direction.
"I'll get the others," Rumble says.
"No! We need that energon. We can hold them off."
Tri-Fire transforms to vehicle mode. He begins to fire missles from his horns. Rumble (whose beast mode legs form canons on his robot mode) fires his canons repeatedly. There blasts take the tank drones down easily.
"Blast them!" Krem roars. "They're defeating the Vehicons too easily. They have already destroyed 30% o our forces."
"I'd better come up with a new plan of action," Urlacher comments.
Optimus (flight mode) switches to his machine guns. He begins to take down the enemy targets in bunches.
"Optimus to Technobot. I'm relaying visuals to base. Cross reference with all known Quintesson vehicles in the database."
"Nice downgrades!" EagleClaw exclaims. "I don't know what they are, but they go down easy."
Things are not going so well on the ground. The tank drones are proving harder to take down.
"They're gettin' close!" Rumble alerts Tri-Fire.
"Then let's clear them out." Tri-Fire's beast mode mouth opens up, revealing a mega missle. He fires it at the tank drones. A majority of them are destroyed. Rumble take out the few remaining.
"Technobot to Optimus. Those are not Quintesson vehicles. They're Vehicons, drones used by Megatron during the Technorganic Wars."
"We've cleared most of them out," Optimus informs him over the com link. "We now have all the energon we need. Are the CR chambers ready?"
"Ready and waiting," Technobot answers.
"Good. We'll be back to base in 30 cycles. Optimus out."
As one can imagine, Krem is not to happy with these latest results.
"Another failed project!" Krem roars. "Now they have a stock pile of energon to toy with!"
"Sir, I have concocted another strategy." Urlacher informs him.
"I've had enough of your strategies!"
"I have discovered the flaw in our approach. We were accustomed to fighting Technorganic fighters and beating them with brute force. These are not Technorganic Maximals, and this approach will not work. The time has come for psychological warfare."
"Very well," Krem says. "You have one more chance. If your next plan fails, I will have to step in and dispose of them myself!"