Era of Change

by TB the Third

UPDATED! Crossover with Transformers. In the year AC198 the Preventers unearth an army of mobile suits beneath a dormant Volcano. But there's more to this than meets the eye, and a great evil looms ever closer.

13. Clash of the Titans

CHAPTER 11. CLASH OF THE TITANS

"And they brought them together in a place called Armageddon." Captain Ivan Putin, The Hunt for Red October

THREE DAYS LATER

The two energy swords, one purple, one green, clashed and rebounded off each other with a sharp crack and the scent of ozone. The purple assailent spun and lay into his adversary, a heafty blow the defender barely turned aside.

Both grunted. The green warrior dropped to the ground and spun, knocking the legs out from underneath his foe, before bringing his blade sweeping down in a graceful arc. A bright flash of purple light blinded him briefly, and when he looked again, his target was gone.

On a reflex he ducked and rolled backwards as the violet blade cut the air above his head. Quickly he thrust his weapon up and drove it into his opponent.

"OW! Do you know how much that stings?"

*

Wufei dragged the Altron to its feet, and helped up Skywarp.

"You're getting good, but I don't see the honour in using an unfair advantage on me."

"Pardon?"

"You teleported. There's no honour in exploiting an advantage."

"Where does honour come into it? It's war"

"I'm trying to teach you how to duel, and that is not merely a skill. You have to have the right mindset, and that's what I'm trying to drive into your cranium. Duelling should be an expression of the two combatant's respect for each other. Otherwise it becomes nothing more than a dirty game, with no honour to it."

"You set a lot of store by honour don't you."

"When we're backed into a corner our honour is all we have left. If this was real, we weren't using just the containment fields and the actual plasma, and you hadn't vanished you would have died a noble death, a warrior's death. Instead you played dirty, and you still 'died'. But because of your actions it was a filthy death."

Skywarp shrugged. "I've always been taught that if you have an ability no- one else has, use it the best you can."

"Yes but there's a time and place for anything. By doing it in a duel, a test of skill you disgrace both yourself and your opponent."

Wufei breathed out slowly, before flipping down his cockpit and grinning at the Decepticon.

"Other than that you've progressed at an amazing rate Skywarp. Just don't let your desire to win overcome your warrior's pride. A duel should not be merely about winning, but playing the game the best you can."

*

Noin leaned against a tree, watching the two combatants giving each other hell. She shook her head slowly. Wufei and Starscream had started duelling in their spare time to work out their stress, and Skywarp was impressed enough by the sight to ask for lessons with a pair of energy blades Howard had dragged up from somewhere. The concept of a teenager teaching a twenty million year old robot to swordfight was, well incredible. Had someone told she would see sights like these a few months ago she would never have believed them.

A faint stirring of leaves behind her caught her attention. A blocky indigo transformer was slowly proceeding through the woods. Intrigued, she followed.

*

Two other observers watched from the viewpoint of a nearby rock formation as they danced around the trees, blades flashing and sparking with a speed and grace that would have put Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker to shame.

Quatre shook his head. He admired Wufei's skill but he was not sure of what he was doing. Thundercracker noticed the blonde human on his intakes sudden silence and turned to him.

"Impressive aren't they?"

Quatre nodded slowly.

"Yes, very impressive, if it wasn't wrong."

Thundercracker's left optic rim lifted an-ever so slight amount. His deep voice had a tinge of a laugh in it.

"Pardon?"

Quatre stared at him, a slight tinge of anger at being talked to condescendingly.

"Skywarp's about my age relatively, and he has a chance to live in a peaceful world. Yet Wufei's teaching him how to fight harder and stronger than ever before. What purpose does that serve in a world at peace? It can lead to no good."

Thundercracker rolled back, hand to his head, laughing. Quatre yelped and would have fallen into the intake if he hadn't grabbed the rim. Steadying himself he turned to the now quietly chuckling seeker.

"There aren't many differences between you humans and us, but there is one big one. We are machines, and as such have a primary programme, which designates our purpose in life. You humans have no one directive, you choose for yourselves, and that's what's concerning you isn't it. Your worried Skywarp will be provoked into becoming a threat to peace."

Quatre nodded.

"Yes. Us Gundam pilots are like a cancer to this world. No matter how much we try to re-build our lives, we still have that desire to fight burning in us. I worry that one day that fire will be released on an innocent person or world."

Thundercracker rubbed his chin, staring into oblivion.

"Then you're voicing my own concerns. Us transformers all have a primary function embedded within us, and mine is to fight-as is Skywarp's."

When Quatre made no response Thundercracker carried on.

"I see no danger in Wufei's instruction. If anything it can only help. We Decepticons were built to fight, and that manifests in many of us as a desire to wage war. I myself see no point in war, but if Wufei's providing an outlet for Skywarp to vent his desire to battle, I can only approve. He also seems to be learning a degree of discipline in the process."

Quatre paused, the draught flowing into Thundercracker's intakes ruffling his hair before he stirred.

"If you don't believe in war, why did you fight for so long?"

A long, meaningful paused followed before Thundercracker spoke up.

"Because I was weak. I couldn't bring myself to believe in the Decepticon 'cause' when all I could see around me was pain and suffering and death. But I feared Megatron's wrath so much I could not bring myself to leave the organisation."

A quiet peace fell over the pair as they contemplated themselves, while the Altron and Skywarp continued to express their philosophies in a more physical manner.

*

Trowa sat on the railing of the gantry watching the new facility in action. The human machines and transformer equipment had been merged together seamlessly, and the new plant was performing admirably. Each machine was running at full speed. One production line was producing thick sheets of cybertronian metals, others were producing components. On the far side of the massive bay was a complicated chemical facility that was inactive. Beside it one of the lime-green constructicons was apparently ranting at a human engineer. Intrigued, Trowa somersaulted of the railing and landed on the floor fifty feet below without a scratch. A few nearby transformers watched on impressed.

As Trowa neared the two arguing figures their argument become audible.

"I'm telling you that the amount of C is inversely proportional to that of H!"

"And I'm telling you that it's opposite!"

"I'm the engineer who actually manufactured this stuff and I know what I'm talking about!"

"And I'm the one who actually has to drink this stuff, if you remember."

Trowa smirked slightly. Chris Latta was waving his fist at the Constucticon chemist Mixmaster, who had the distinctive feature of a massive mixing drum sticking out of his back. The machine they were by was intended to begin producing flux, no energon for the transformers to consume but currently the two, who had actually sparked up a close friendship seemed to be undecided on its composition. Quietly, Trowa jumped up a level to a balcony and left the room.

*

Heero sat on the rim of a balcony, overviewing the massive hanger that had been turned over to house the human mobile suits. Hand under chin, he contemplated Wing Zero. The massive machine, wings tucked behind it's back, stared right backaHejkejilql, silent, brooding. Yet a faint light glimmered in its optics. Heero glanced briefly at the open cockpit. He had completely shut down the suit, yet he could see a faint flicker and hear the hum of processors. But then of course, the Zero system never slept.

Heero looked down as movement caught his eye. He grunted in surprise.

Relena, still dressed for gym and wiping her face with the towel she'd appropriated, stepped towards the mighty titan. She halted at the base and stared up at the head. Tentatively, she reached out and touched one of the foot assemblies.

"It's warm."

"Gundanium absorbs all energy, including heat so it only registers a small amount on scanners like infra-red."

She turned, but was hardly surprised. Heero had dropped from the fifty-foot balcony and landed silently like a cat. She looked up at the Gundam.

"Why does this machine mean so much to you?"

Heero walked up to Zero and grabbed the safety cable, acting like he hadn't heard her. It drew him into the air and he vanished into the cockpit. Relena waited for the cable to drop back down and grabbed it.

Heero was tapping the controls in the cockpit. Around him screens came to life and displays lit up like a Christmas tree. He looked up as Relena pulled herself into the cockpit door, faint surprise showing on his face that she was strong enough to pull herself up the cable. She carried on doggedly.

"You were genuinely grieved when you lost this thing in Brussels, then you spent five months rebuilding it on your own even though Anne Une offered you the best mobile suit engineers on the planet to help."

Heero stood up and squeezed past her, he pointed.

"Sit in the chair."

"Pardon?"

"Sit down in the pilot's seat."

Relena was, needless to say, shocked. Since he had come into possession of Wing Zero, Heero had not let anyone touch it, let alone cohabitate it's cockpit. Of course there was that episode where Quatre hi-jacked it after the war but...Slowly, she eased herself into the leather seat. The straps cut into her back, but it was relatively comfortable. Heero squatted down on the folded down door.

"Zero, this is Relena."

"What, Hee- OH!"

*

The quiet mountains burned like cold fire in the first light of dawn. On the edge of a deep turquoise lake, a mighty army was gathered.

Onslaught watched on in pride as his forces paraded before him. An entire army of loyal drones. Behind him stood his four new commanders, silent and foreboding.

The one hundred human mobile suits stared blankly ahead, their faceless heads incapable of any expression. Each suit had had some extensive modifications made to them, as well as a new paint job.

In appearance the front ranks of Leos were even more impressive than they had been before conversion. Each gleamed purple and silver, and a massive set of Caterpillar treads rose from each shoulder. The Aires remained relatively unchanged, each looking like a samurai warrior with a pair of sharp blades crossed over their backs. The Taurus' were his new seeker corps, each now bearing the distinctive signs of those warriors, the cockpit folded over the chest. Finally came the Serpents and Virgos, the first retaining their olive green colour, the second gloss black with silver and red trim. Each pair had a massive pair of wheels for shoulders. As artillery support, they would be deadly.

Each drone was proudly branded with the Decepticon sigil of the plumed serpent. He stepped to the fore.

"A new order is rising, and its victory is at hand. You here know no pain you know no fear. You will bring swift devastation to our enemies."

One hundred fists raised in the air as the drones chanted.

"ALL HAIL ONSLAUGHT, DECEPTICON COMMANDER SUPREME! I FUNCTION FOR YOU AND YOU ALONE!"

Onslaught turned to his new commanders and addressed them. Among them the obvious leader was the powerful navy and white machine which almost radiated charisma. The single blue optic visor gleamed with intelligence and optimism. Onslaught nodded.

The decepticon saluted, reserved but confident.

"Commander Onslaught!"

Next was an imposing red machine, silent and brooding. Likewise, it saluted, but did not speak.

Finally were two machines to whom the most modifications had been carried out , as Onslaught had removed their blank heads and replaced them with a transformer face. Both had proper faces unlike the other new decepticons, but the expressions were placid, lips tightly pursed, dully glowing red optics staring straight ahead as they stood at rigid attention. Onslaught smiled. The two human personalities he had built in were described as perfect soldiers, and he was eager to see these two in battle.

He reached the end of the line and addressed them.

"You are all skilled in battle, and as commanders of our drone forces I expect you to excel. Now then decepticons, transform and attack!"

A massive sound of transformation filled the air as the occupants of the hall shifted confusingly. The front rank of Leos had become tanks, turrets armed with the variety of weapons they were built to carry. Each Aires had become a helicopter, a beam cannon slung beneath the body, along with several banks of missiles. The Taurus' still retained their fighter transformation, but modified to improve their power and speed. Finally the Serpents and Virgos were a bank of artillery vehicles, the Virgos carrying massive beam rifles, the Serpents adorned with missiles, Gatling guns and a bazooka.

Equally impressive were the new vehicle modes of his four new commanders. Onslaught watched with pride as, with them at their lead, the mighty army tore out of the valley towards the north, leaving nothing but clouds of dust and fear in their wake.

*

1010110101011011101001010101010101010110100101001001001011101101011010101110 11

Heero watched on. Relena had barely moved in the twenty minutes after the Zero system had jacked into her mind. Like any person using the Zero, though the mind was currently 'on hiatus' the body remained tensed, except for her mouth, which hung slightly open. Heero noted with silent amusement that her hands had subconsciously gripped the joysticks and her fingers were pressing the buttons in rapid succession.

Curious, Heero managed to manipulate himself around the computer console that filled the front of the cockpit and tapped a few quick commands, activating the small screen mounted over the sensor array. After a few seconds where the screen was filled with binary code, a new display came up.

Heero knew that the zero system recorded the brain patterns of anyone who piloted it as an algorithm, and the small menu was the access to this portion of the memory banks.

DATA BANK 394 CONTENTS.

PILOT VERSION. Q.W. 2.0 H.Y. 4.0 D.M 1.0 Z.M. 1.0 C.W. 1.0 T.B. 1.0 R.D. 1.0 (NEW FILE)

Heero selected the last option. A long, undulating wave pattern ran across the screen. Heero knew that the full wave at this scale was actually over three miles long and the computer was only displaying a small portion of it. Coming out he accessed another menu.

ACTIVE COCKPIT SOFTWARE. (30/12/198)

ZERO SYSTEM: VERSION 3.0 ALICE CONTROL SYSTEM: VERSION 6.0 DIAGNOSTICS: VER 4.0 OZ 38423: VERSION 2.0

Heero blinked. After the reconstruction of Zero he'd been forced to recycle a few OZ Mobile Suit programs to replace damaged software. But the only one that had any relation to the cockpit systems was...

"ZERO! PULL HER OUT!"

The active processors in the cockpit began to shut down and Relena slumped in the seat, a small contented smile on her face, eyes still closed. Heero checked her pulse and slowly eased her out of the cockpit and laid her down on the cockpit hatch, her head propped up by the towel she'd brought along from the gym.

That done, Heero scrambled back into the seat and furiously tapped at the controls, giving the cockpit his patented scowl.

OZ 38423 BATTLE SIMULATION. SIMULATION TAKEN FROM: DATA TRACK 24: NEWPORT CITY RESULTS:

UNITS DESTROYED: 36 VIGROS DAMAGE TAKEN: 24% MISSION SUCESS: 78%

ZERO COMPATIBILITY: 92.35%

COMPARABLE RECORDS.

H.Y. 95.49% Z.M. 92.34%

Heero blinked, mouth hanging open slackly. Suddenly, Relena began to stir. Her eyes blinked open and she drew in a deep breath.

"Whoa!"

*

Noin jogged slowly through the woods, convinced she was lost. She'd followed the sound of the blue robot's engines for the past half hour. Now the clanking sound had faded and she was wandering.

Tired and weary, she stumbled out onto a bluff that overlooked the forest and the mountains. It was already occupied.

Starscream sat on the cliff edge, staring out over the grand vista. She quietly approached him. Before she had covered ten feet he turned and looked at her.

"Hello."

She nodded back. He turned towards the horizon again.

"Impressive view."

"It is."

Noin squinted briefly as she gazed out beside him. She pointed.

"What's that?"

Starscream fixed his gaze on a trail of dust rising above the trees miles away. His contemplative expression turned grave.

"War."

As she opened her mouth for a clearer definition, his radio crackled into life.

"Quake in fear Transformers and Organics, for this is your hour of doom!"

*

Optimus Prime stood on the former bridge of the Ark, viewing the massive monitors that were mounted on the wall. Megatron stood beside him, his hands clenched in fury.

"It seems Onslaught's come back with reinforcements."

Shuddering footfalls behind them indicated the approach of the massive human mobile suits. The four machines stared grimly at the view screens.

Inside Sandrock Quatre gulped at the massive army of mobile suits lined up on the horizon.

*

Onslaught chuckled slowly, imaging the expression on the faces of the fools inside the ark. He proudly examined the ranks of Leos, Aires and Taurus' drawn up for war on a hillside that sloped gently down to the mine. The remainder he held back, his trump card. With another hollow laugh he turned to his brother Combatacons.

"It's time to truly strike fear into them. COMBATACON'S, UNITE TO FORM..."

The familiar transformation sound filled the air, but larger, louder and longer as the five mighty weapons of war leapt into the air and came together, bodies twisting into a single mighty form. As a mighty head rose up from the new torso, a booming voice filled the air.

"...BRUTICUS!"

*

Just within the shaft to the surface of the mountain, the allied Autobots and Decepticons were drawn up, ready for battle. Scattered among them were three of the Gundams and the Tallgeese 3. Wing zero was conspicuously absent. Prime was facing Sandrock, the new leader of the Gundams in Heero's absence.

"Are you sure you can fight this battle?"

Quatre chuckled slowly.

"I think the question should be are you ready. Some of these mobile suits are quite tough nuts to crack, and if they now have intelligence..." he left the sentence hanging in the air. Prime nodded slowly.

"Very well."

At the head of the amassed forces Grimlock and Motormaster shared a handshake before drawing their swords and turning to face the massive monstrosity rising up outside. Megatron stepped out into daylight, fury in his eyes, his fusion cannon humming alarmingly.

"ONSLAUGHT! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!"

Bruticus turned and glowered at the Decepticon leader.

"MEGATRON," he boomed, "BRACE YOURSELF FOR THE PIT. IT IS TIME FOR YOU TO DIE!"

By some radioed command, the front rank of Leos transformed to their tank mode and charged down the hillside, bazookas, beam guns or machine guns roaring.

Megatron's fist clenched as he stood fast. Behind him, the transformers waited for the signal to attack.

The first three Leos reached the base of the hillside and tore across the complex towards him. As the flanking ones pulled up, the centre machine transformed to robot mode and leapt towards Megatron, dobergun primed and ready to fire into the Decepticon's head.

"NOW!"

As the transformers leapt into fray, Megatron brought his cannon's massive barrel to bear and fired directly into the 'face' of the Leo leaping for him.

The blast skewered the machine and passed on to strike the second Leo in the chest. As it flew backwards it exploded in mid air. The third brought its bazooka to bear and fired into the chest of an attacking Autobot. As it aimed for another transformer, its body was cleaved in half by Motormaster.

The battle was on.

*

Deep inside the Ark a 3-D view of Mt. St. Hillary and the surrounding terrain was being displayed on a massive circular table. The holotable was usually used to navigate in space but served a use as a strategic display. Tiny figures were leaping and flying over the area. In the centre of the fray the four massive mobile suits and Prime and Megatron were group, firing off at incoming drones. The transformers were fighting valiantly, but sheer numbers was overwhelming them. Also, the presence of Bruticus was terrifying enough to quash almost any spirit.

Zechs and Noin along with Heero, Relena, Howard, Sally and Latta were all gathered together on top of the table, walking amongst the simulations, which passed through them like ghosts. Latta and Noin both had small radios and were relaying the battle information to the four young pilots. Howard was tinkering with the display, using the transformer-sized controls to zoom in and out on specific areas of the battle. Heero and Zechs were trying to convince Sally to let them in their suits.

"Look, they need help!"

"Fat lot of help you'd be. I only let you fly here from the Genesis in them on the condition you do nothing rash and you nearly got involved in a fight! Now do you want to do this the easy way or do I have to sedate you before you damage yourselves!"

Faced by an angry doctor, and with unpleasant memories of tangles of Sally in the past, Zechs subsided. Heero however, was running on pure adrenaline.

"Damn it! We need Wing Zero to tip the balance of this fight!"

"Not necessarily."

The humans looked up. The six Constructions had just entered the room, faces grave, weapons drawn.

"They have Bruticus, but we have our own gestalt."

With that, the six robots transformed to their construction vehicle modes and charged out of the ark. As they reached daylight, they all leapt in the air like the Combatacons, twisting and morphing into a massive green and purple beast. Below, the transformers watched on in awe.

"Devastator," Prime breathed.

As the gigantic Devastator laid into Bruticus, a faint cheer rose up from the battling robots.

*

"WE'VE GOT THEM!"

"What!"

Ultra Magnus rushed to the bridge of the Salvation, the deck trembling under his thundering footfalls. The Salvation's bridge was a perfect circle and offered a panoramic view over space in all directions. In the centre of the room was a massive central holotable similar to that on the Ark. Currently a massive simulation of the near universe was hovering above the gleaming obsidian surface. In the darkened bridge, the tiny stars gleamed like jewels.

A slight pink and white Autobot was quietly working the controls. As Magnus neared she looked up, her blue optics shining.

"We've found them."

"Who Arcee!"

"The missing Autobots and Decepticons. Our sensors have picked up a large concentration of weapon discharge that matches their energy signatures.

Magnus sighed slowly.

"Does this mean they're still at war?"

She nodded slowly.

"That's what's most likely."

He nodded.

"Where?"

Arcee reached into the holographic galaxy and tapped a small pinprick of light with a slim finger.

"Here. The third planet of the Sol system."

"Do we have any records on that planet?"

"The last survey was conducted shortly before the war began. The scientists on that expedition were..." She tapped for a second, and looked up, "Skyfire and Starscream."

Magnus grimaced and looked away.

"Skyfire never came back did he?"

"No."

Ultra Magnus stared out of the nearest view screen, a glowing red galaxy dominating the view.

"We've searched for years for our strongest warriors. Now that we have them, what do we do..." He spun on his heel, fists clenched.

"Signal the Vengeance and set course for Sol. It's time to see some old friends, and put an end to Unicron."

*

The humans watched the progressing battle in awe via the holotable. The three Gundams and the Tallgeese were surrounded on all sides, while Prime, wielding his proton rifle and Megatron, fusion cannon dispensing death were back to back, blasting away the attacking mobile suits together. It was the perfect example of the new union between the transformer armies, but it was a futile one in the face of an overwhelming enemy.

*

"Quatre, behind you!"

Sandrock dropped to the ground and pivoted on a hand, the other holding a humming shotel that sliced through an Aires that had dropped down behind him. Quatre tapped the small radio headset he wore.

"Thanks Ms. Noin."

*

Noin grinned slightly and turned to watch Heavyarms dispatch a pair of Taurus with it's homing missiles, before being kicked to the from behind ground by a Leo, which quickly encountered the sharp end of Duo's beam sabres. Nodding in approval she looked up.

"Where's Anne?"

*

In all the chaos of the battle field no-one noticed a bright yellow Volkswagen tear out of the Ark. The only person who acknowledged its existence was Anne Une, currently riding shotgun with a handheld bazooka standing up in the open sunroof.

"Bumblebee, left."

The bug swung left around Jazz's right leg, and Une used the new angle to shoot a missile into the Minovsky Ramjet Engine of a low flying Aires Helicopter, which was swooping down on him. As it transformed into a rather pretty red smear the smooth talking race car saluted casually.

"Thankye mam!"

Une smirked into her radio.

"No familiarity please Jazz!"

"Sorry mam!"

Chuckling, Une lapsed back into her cool demeanour as Noin's voice blared into her ear.

"Anne! What do you think you're doing!"

"Making a difference!"

"You're committing suicide!"

"I know."

"What about the people you'd leave behind. Anne, what about Marimaia."

Une paused, a new edge in her voice.

"I'm doing this so that she can have a future!"

*

Of the four piloted mobile suits, Heavyarms was acting in a more defensive mode, using its massive Gatling cannons and powerful missiles to drive back Onslaught's forces as they broke through the lines. The other suits were struggling to hold their ground, due to their lack of long-range weapons. Tallgeese's Mega-gun lay on the ground, charge depleted, Duo now forced to strike with his two beam sabres and heat rod.

"Damn it! I could do with my beam scythe now!"

Duo cursed as the heat rod was driven out of his hands by a well-aimed uppercut by a Leo, which was promptly severed in two by Duo's blade. Surprisingly, it did not explode as he had come to expect.

"Onslaught's gone and upgraded their armour."

Sandrock produced its mighty heat shotels and flung them at a pair of Leo's embedding in their sensor arrays. The two drones merely reached up and pulled the shotels free, blindly flinging them back towards the Gundam.

"A human pilot could never do that. It's harder to fight when the suits on a more even footing!"

Altron and Skywarp were back to back, beam weapons glowing in their hands. Skywarp hefted his blade and muttered out of the side of his mouth.

"Duelling or dirty Wufei?"

Wufei's reply was condescending.

"Remember what I taught you. Never use an unfair advantage on an opponent..."

Skywarp visibly deflated. Wufei came back with a tone of humour in his voice.

"..but I'd hardly call soulless machines worthy opponents!"

Skywarp grinned widely and vanished in a flash of violet as Wufei skewered a Taurus with his dragon fang before turning to view an impressive display.

Skywarp had materialised in mid-air, gracefully skewering Taurus' and Aires as he dove past them As he impacted on the ground a pair of Aires turned on him with their beam cannons. Not batting an optic-lid, he vanished, the Aries bullets ploughing through thin air and into each other. Wufei watched with the pride of a mentor viewing a talented pupil, before back flipping over a Leo-tank flying at him from behind. Landing on the turret he drove his trident through the armour, burrowing deep into the machine and ripping out its core processor. As the vehicle was consumed in a fireball, he sprang gracefully from it, only to see Skywarp fling his sabre at an Aires. As the blade cut through the 'head' of the machine and shot through to the other side, he materialised out of thin air to catch it and send it flying at another drone.

*

"Here, pull up here!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes damn it!"

Bumblebee slammed his brakes on, locking the wheels and spinning in a 360. Une jumped from the sunroof, throwing down the bazooka and zipping her flight suit up as she gazed up at the looming Leo standing over her, unaware of the tiny organic's presence as it continued to attack with it's tiny beam rifle. Une jogged over to its leg and scrambled onto the foot assembly, where she found a small hatch.

"Perfect."

She threw it open and dropped into the darkness, a small torch in her hands.

When the Leos were built it was attempted to use the original Tallgeese blueprints as much as possible. However, since there was less hardware inside the Leo than the prototype for all Mobile suits, it resulted in a lot of dead space within the limbs, mostly the legs. The upside was that this made for easy maintenance.

Une was currently in this space, surrounded by humming, clicking wires and computers slaved to the cockpit. She shone her torch up, and its weak beam highlighted a second hatch up into the leg. She pulled this down, and began to climb up a ladder built into the narrow crawl way, about two feet deep and three feet wide. As she climbed the ladder swung underneath her as the mobile suit began to walk. Holding gamely on, she was only to aware of the massive voltages coursing in wires not six inches from her head.

Eventually, the ladder ended, and this last hatch was highlighted in yellow and black chevrons and decorated by various warning signs.

WARNING. THIS HATCH PROVIDES ACCESS TO VERNIER COMBUSTION CHAMBER.

Une took a deep breath and began to undo the bolts sealing the hatch shut. As she drew the last one back she paused, prepared herself for almost certain death.

"God. Please watch over Marimaia. Mr. Trieze, I'll be seeing you soon."

With a grunt she threw the hatch open, and scrambled into the actual vernier engine, one of three mounted around the Leo's waistline. This was where superheated helium from the reactor was released to the atmosphere for vertical propulsion and it was also useful to accelerate movement in a battle. She just prayed this suit had a fear of heights.

Une was actually perched rather precariously on a metal rim about six inches wide that ran around the inside of the cylindrical chamber. Thirty- five feet beneath her though the massive engine vent she could see the ground, hard and rocky. She gulped. No wonder OZ's engineers had insisted in wearing full mountain climbing gear when working in here.

Because of the curve of the chamber she had about twenty feet to edge herself along before she could get to the next hatch into the upper torso. If the suit lurched during that time...

Carefully, Une undid her belt and looped it over a metal bar that was fixed in the wall two feet above her head, to which the engineers clipped their karabiners. Holding both ends of the belt, she began to edge her way along.

*

A deep roar in the air marked the arrival of a small air armada. Six fighter jets in V formation led by a navy and white F-15E and a beige and purple MiG darted over the battlefield. Above and behind them, a larger passenger airliner hung slightly in their wake. Thundercracker opened his comm.

"Silverbolt, take your team and try and turn the tide down there. Blitzwing and I are going to lend Devastator a hand."

As the five Autobot jets peeled off, the largest leading them, the two Decepticons lit their afterburners and streaked towards the two duelling giants.

* "PREPARE FOR DEVASTATION BRUTICUS!"

Devastator's booming voice called out as he blocked a punch from the other Gestalt. Bruticus however, spun and kicked the green leviathan in the torso.

"YOU'RE GOOD DEVASTATOR, BUT SLOW. BIG, SLOW, AND STUPID."

Bruticus cracked his steel knuckles alarmingly before driving his mighty fist into the chest of the downed giant. Behind his face-plate, he sneered menacingly. That sneer vanished abruptly as he felt a cold muzzle impact in his abdomen, and he was driven back by a massive cannon blast from Devastator's incredible weapon. As Bruticus fell back and lay still, Devastator pulled himself to his feet, using his gun as a crutch. His joints creaked alarmingly and steam and fluid gushed from his body, but he managed a weak smile.

"YOU ALWAYS TALKED TOO MUCH BRUTICUS."

A sharp CRACK! rang out deep within Devastator's body and his smile faded to a look of surprise. Damaged hydraulic linkages failing, the Constructicons fell apart, tumbling unconscious to the ground.

*

"Devastator..." Megatron breathed slowly, as he watched the mighty beast fall apart.

*

Thundercracker and Blitzwing dove down on the fallen Combatacon gestalt, who was beginning to stir to life. At 15,000 feet, they peeled off from each other.

"Cracker, you gonna boom him?"

"Yeah, put your earmuffs on."

Blitzwing chuckled as he deactivated his audio sensors and armed his payload. Meanwhile, Thundercracker began to spin his sonic drums.

*

Une paused. A bracket that supported the rail was blocking her makeshift safety rope, and she still had ten feet to go. Slowly, she slipped one end off the belt off the rail and passed it across. For a few brief seconds she would be unsupported.

*

As his drums reached 12,000 rpm, Thundercracker ceased circling Bruticus and went in for his final assault.

*

Une let go of the belt as she passed the second loop over. Unsupported, she just prayed no-one decided to pick on this drone for a few more seconds.

*

Bruticus cracked his optics open and stood up. He shook his head, then his radar alerted him to a small target coming in on him from above. He looked up.

"Shit!"

*

Thundercracker dove down past Bruticus' face to ground level and angled up again, perpendicular to the ground, parallel to his chest. He pushed his afterburners to the limit.

NOW!

He locked the drums, and as they stalled, the pent up sonic energy was released as he passed through the sound barrier.

*

BA-DOOOOOOOOM!!

*

Une had just hooked the belt back onto the railing when the entire suit trembled, then steadied itself. She sighed in relief, and was suddenly thrown from her perch as both battling armies were driven back by a massive wall of sound. Screaming, she swung out over the shaft, acting like the pendulum on a grandfather clock as her rudimentary rope held. She reached the apex of her swing, her feet briefly touching the opposite wall, and flew back down.

"Oh shit!"

Une's back slammed into the wall and she gasped as the breath was driven from her. For a few seconds she just hung there before her feet registered the commands of her brain and climbed back onto the ledge. As they did, the suit swayed left slightly, and the momentum was enough to through her sideways and onto the ladder that led up to the next hatch.

*

Bruticus screamed and clutched at his audios as Thundercracker's twin sonic booms reverberated around his cranial casing, disorientated long enough for Blitzwing to come in low and fast and lift him off his feet with a missile volley directed up into the groinal area.

*

Une dragged herself out onto the outside on the OZ suit, now standing on the shelf of the abdomen. She held and winced for seconds, her back bruised and aching. At least she was in the open air, rather than in the stifling innards of the suit, which was beginning to lurch slowly through the battleground, beam rifle targeted on a small group of Autobots, about three hundred feet away.

Une sprang up, ignoring the agony in her spine and darted around the suit to the front, where she groped around the armour for a few seconds before finding a small switch.

*

The Leo Drone paused.

UNCOMMANDED BODY FUNCTION DETECTED. COCKPIT HATCH OPEN. DIAGNOSTICS SUGGEST RUNNING TESTS AND CHECK SYSTEM INTERA...

With that though, it's brain died.

Une fell back into the command seat of the cockpit, thanking God and all the angels in heaven that Onslaught had hardwired his AI to the Mobile Doll system, which had a cockpit override. Around her, the red lighting that indicated the active doll software faded, and she took in the familiar surroundings of a Leo cockpit. Simple, laughably weak compared to the later OZ models, but it held an appeal to her, like saying hello to an old friend.

That feeling intensified as she gripped the two joysticks.

"Hello."

*

Cliffjumper, another beetle was helping Hound, a broken-legged Army Jeep to his feet when a trio of shadows loomed over the smaller transformers. Hound beheld three Leos, unpleasant doberguns trained on them. He cast a brief glance at his missile launcher, thirty feet away, and braced himself to meet Primus.

FSS-SKERCH!

A forth Leo materialised out of nowhere, thruster engines burning and beam sabre flashing, cut the leading machine in half from head to groin before spinning and blasting the other pair with the shoulder mounted beam cannons.

"Oh-yeah!"

Une twirled the beam sabre in the Leo's fingers, elated at the upgraded speed and manoeuvrability. It was as if the old friend had invited her straight to his bedroom without an introduction. She delved into the computer memory for a second, then hit the radio.

"Howard, you read me?"

"Yeah. Where the hell are you?"

"I'm in a Leo in the north-west quadrant of the battle standing on my own."

*

Howard jumped from key to key, and the lone Leo changed colour from red to green, highlighting it as an ally.

"Right, I've got you."

"Right, now get this."

Une rattled off a number and Howard's grin spread even further than ear to ear, if that was possible. He slid the aerial down on his CV. He turned.

"Heero, when you re-built the Wing Zero, did you incorporate the package Dorothy Catalonia sent you?"

Heero was still arguing with Sally, now brandishing a four inch hypodermic like a rapier, and was on the verge of carrying out one of his much dispensed death-threats when Howard called to him.

"The Zero doll system, why?"

Once again, Howard's grin surpassed all laws of physics and grew even bigger.

"Anne just sent me the frequency Onslaught's broadcasting orders to the Leo's on."

Heero nodded understanding, and Noin spun, yelling into the radio.

"Boys! Prime! Megatron! Take down as many drones as you can, but NOT THE LEOS!"

*

Megatron frowned at Noin's rapid message, then wrestled with himself for a moment. 'Well' he shrugged. 'What have I to lose.'

"Prime! Catch me!"

As Megatron flew in the air his body shrank and twisted. In seconds, a small silver handgun landed in Prime's navy fist.

Megatron concentrated. He'd never tried this before...Slowly he reached down and flipped the switch. As the antimatter coursed from his sub-space portal and flooded his cannon's chamber, he felt the pain begin to build. The pure energy coursed through him, flowing into every corner of his being. When every nerve in his body was burning with the agony of controlling such potent energy, he set his fusion accelerator to maximum. Then, he did it. Instead of just releasing the antimatter, he used his particle accelerator to OBLITERATE IT!

A sudden silence descended over the battlefield as the sounds of war were drowned out by a roar that was amazingly, too loud to be heard. A narrow stream of energy shot from Megatron's barrel with a brightness and intensity never seen on earth. The energy rippled and spun as it flew from the tiny gun, tendrils of plasma skewing off and boiling the surrounding air. Entire ranks of drones were blown out of the sky by the energy, reduced to sub-atomic dust in nano-seconds. As the strange silence lifted, a new sound could be heard. A constant, high pitched scream of total, utter pain, louder, piercing and more terrifying than the cries of all the souls of the dammed in the eternal fires.

Prime watched in amazement as Megatron's tiny mode began to shake and gyrate in his hands as he struggled to aim at the enemy, the screams of the Decepticon leader still continuing as he amazingly, continued to spew forth more of the potent power.

*

ZERO SYSTEM ONLINE. VARIANT CATALONIA.

"Comeoncomeoncomeon!"

Heero quickly booted up the intricate processors of the Wing Zero, skimming through the pre-mission software checks as quickly as possible. Even though the Gundam would not be moving this time, the slightest fault in the programming would result in lasting damage to the pilot's mind.

DIAGNOSTICS COMPLETE. NO ERRORS DETECTED.

"Finally."

Heero's finger hovered over the 'engage' button. Now to just physically boot Zero up.

"No you don't!"

A sharp pain in his left forearm made Heero wince. He looked down. Sally had jumped into the cockpit, rammed her hypodermic into his arm and pumped him full of sedative before he'd even noticed her presence.

'I'm getting lax.'

. Heero never thought he'd have a reason to quote Wufei but...

"Baka onna!" he mumbled before his mind was enmeshed in a warm, fuzzy blanket.

*

Megatron was in hell, he was sure of it. He had thought storing antimatter was painful, this agony made that seem like an energon bath. The pain had mounted to such a peak that even the dampers built into his neural system could not drown it out. He continued to force himself to fire, but the effort was draining him...

With a final BA-DOOM! Megatron's barrage of antimatter ended and he flew in the air, screaming right through his transformation sequence. As he landed in a bank of snow, which began to melt and steam around his red-hot form, he finally noticed the damage he had sustained. His entire body was dulled, the silver finish blackened, and exposed wires struck through his joints, split and sparking from the massive power drain. Then he looked at his cannon, and gasped.

The barrel had vanished, obliterated from the blast. The rear intake was shredded and components hung from it. The central unit was fused together into an unrecognisable lump, energon trickling from cracks in its obsidian surface.

He then slowly turned and stared around him, vision blurred with lingering pain. At least sixty percent of the flying drones had been wiped out in one fell swoop, the others, including eighteen Leos still stood, weapons ready to fire, merely awaiting the order.

As the transformers stared in amazement at what Megatron's supreme effort had accomplished, a sound rumbled through the air that chilled each person or machine to their very core.

Bruticus, battered but not defeated, had pulled himself up, and was laughing, a massive, hollow laugh.

"IS THAT IT? IS THAT ALL YOU CAN MUSTER MEGATRON?"

His voice creaked and groaned as he spoke.

"YOU MAY HAVE DESTROYED MOST OF MY ARMY, BUT YOU HAVE WORN DOWN YOURSLEVES IN SO DOING...DECEPTICONS, ATTACK!"

At that command, a massive second wave of vehicles rose into view on the horizon. The transformers noted with no surprise the rebel decepticons scattered among the group or hovering in the air above, but there were fourteen new machines which they could not place. The pilots however, could see a familiarity between the colour-coding and weaponry of the newcomers with suits that still haunted their nightmares.

*

Heero's unconscious form slumped out of Wing Zero's cockpit and would have fallen off the hatch had Zechs not caught him. The blonde pilot silently cursed as his wounded arm protested at the weight of the blissfully smiling pilot 01.

"Damn it Sally! What the hell did you do that for?" He gasped as he managed to lug Heero over to the railing that separated the open hatch from the balcony. Sally meanwhile, had grabbed the young man's legs and together they managed to haul him over the banister. As Zechs leant over Relena took Heero's arms and helped Sally bear his weight while Zechs climbed over.

"Heero's a patient of mine and I won't have his mind subjected to the mental stress the Zero system exerts on the mental processes. And the same goes for you!"

"Dammit all to hell Sally! If I don't pilot those Leos he won't have a chance to get better! Do you know anyone else here who can pilot a Gundam?"

"Me."

"Huh!"

The bickering pair spun round to witness Zero's cockpit seal itself, Relena inside! Zechs and Sally quickly ran to a communicator while Heero was left forgotten on the catwalk.

"Relena! Get the hell out of there!"

"No Zechs. Sally's right. Neither you or Heero are fit for this at the moment."

"That bakana Yuy put you up to this didn't he!"

"SHUT THE HELL UP MILIARDO!"

The use of Zechs' former name quicker had the desired affect. Inside, Relena took a deep breath.

"I'm doing this because I choose to Zechs, not because Heero or anyone else made me. Now then, talk me through the start up sequence or try to do it myself, and there's so few buttons in here the first one I hit might be the self-detonate!"

Zechs dragged his hand over his face before slumping in defeat. Dammit! Noin was right. He'd be doing the same in Relena's place. He slumped in defeat.

"Fine! But I hope to God you know what you're doing."

"WHAT!" Sally screeched, "You're going along with her!"

"Sally," Zechs breathed, "I believe you have a patient who needs attending to."

Once again he shut his eyes as he tried to recall the layout of the Wing Zero's cockpit.

"Right, Heero's already brought the cockpit systems online so the first thing you need to do is engage it to the motor control systems. That's the spherical red button behind your right elbow."

"Done."

*

On the crest of the hill was a fleet of artillery pieces, drawn up in an arrow formation. In the centre, ten either side, was a white and navy half- track, swift, powerful, and deadly, the massive dobergun mounted on it's rear a testimony to that.

Its rear treads ground the earth into dust and it leapt forward, mounting a ridge and sailing into oblivion. Halfway through it's fall it transformed, into a noble king of mobile suits, a weapon that combined sheer firepower with the elegance of ancient warriors. It landed at the base of the cliff, and gestured towards the transformers, and yelled with a voice that struck a nerve in the human pilots.

"ATTACK!"

Wufei leaned forward in his cockpit.

"Treize?"

At the Tallgeese Mk II's cry, ten of the Virgos and Serpents on the ridge transformed and fired, sun glinting off their armour, sinister weapons unloading ammo and particle charge into the weakened transformers while the other ten dropped over the cliff after their commander. Simultaneously, the rebel Decepticons joined the battle. All the while, the sinister Bruticus loomed over, watching, and waiting for the inevitable victory.

*

"Next, you have to switch the power supply from the batteries to the reactor."

"How?"

"Above the main display and right of the console there's a line of five switches with a red light above them. Press each until each light turns green, making sure to go left to right. That will bring the reactor online."

As Relena activated the reactor, a low humming began to build in the cockpit as above her a thermonuclear fusion reaction began to take place.

"Now, to supply main power to all the other systems including the Zero you have to close the circuit breakers. They're too big to close by hand, so you have to pump up a primer charge to shut the contacts."

"Pardon?"

"Small sub-console on the left. Three circular buttons. The yellow one is labelled push to charge. Push it, and pump the left joystick back and forth three times."

"Right. One, two three. Charged."

"Now under the words 'contact position' there's a pair of buttons. Red says push to open and green says push to close. Push green."

Relena ran her finger down the panel.

"Push to close. Got it."

CLICK!

With a dull thud, the cockpit monitors lit up, and Zechs grimaced as the exterior sensors burned green, and a harsh klaxon began to sound.

"Finally, activate the Zero system. It's the...it's the..."

"Yes?"

Zechs paused. Steeled himself.

"It's the yellow button above the 3-D radar."

Zechs slowly eased himself to the catwalk as the klaxon cut out. No going back now.

*

Relena depressed the switch, and an amazing presence filled the cockpit.

"Zero?"

'Yes.'

"Zero, I need your help."

'Why? You're not my pilot.'

That stumped her for a second.

"No, but I do care about him."

There was a heavy silence.

'Yes. You do don't you.'

"Please Zero. If we don't defeat the enemy, then Heero's going to die."

A long pause.

'Mission, accepted.'

Before Relena could answer back, an amazing wave of disorientation hit her, and her vision went black.

*

Prime opened up a small com-link on his wrist.

"Silverbolt! Take Bruticus down."

*

"Roger that command Optimus."

Silverbolt, a silver supersonic concord, plummeted down from the sky and opened his comm. link while he transformed.

From: SBolt@Sup.bot To: Airbts@Sup.bot Sub: Combine!

Four Autobot jets immediately stopped fighting and swept towards a common destination, where Silverbolt was waiting. As they rose into the air together, he issued his challenge.

"AIRIELBOTS, COMBINE TO FORM SUPERION!"

Superion, a weird amalgam of a concord and four fighter jets, bellowed to the distant giant across the battlefield.

"BRUTICUS, COME AND FACE ME!"

Bruticus turned slowly, a cruel smile hidden by his face-plate.

"KIDS."

"I'M NO KID! COME AND FIGHT ME, INSTEAD OF SENDING THESE ANTS TO DO YOUR DIRTY WORK FOR YOU!"

Bruticus roared with laughter.

"YOU KNOW ANTS CAN STING!"

"WHAT?"

A sudden tingle in his thighs made Superion look down, and watch with horror as a group of Leos scrambled up his legs, using magnetic grips to climb.

"ARGH!"

As he tried to bat the steadily advancing land suits off, a squadron of Aires swept down out of the sky and attacked his head, staying just out of range of his massive arms. Superion, young and inexperienced, began to panic.

"ARGH! GET AWAY ROM ME!"

Unfazed, the Leos on him split into separate groups. While a pair remained at each of his knees, the remaining six scrambled over his chest to his shoulder assemblies. All ten, were armed with bazookas.

*

Ironhide, the battle veteran of the Autobots, looked up from a Leo he had just torn to pieces.

"Dang it. SUPERION, DIVIDE NOW!"

Too late.

*

BA-DOOM!

All ten Leo's unloaded a single rocket into each of Superion's joints before leaping off and using their waist-thrusters to control their descent to the ground.

"AGH!"

Superion trembled for a second, and fell apart.

*

It was amazing.

Relena hovered in the centre of a massive spherical chamber. The single curved wall was lined with dozens upon dozens of monitors, each blank.

Once again she could feel the overwhelming mind of the Zero.

COMMAND FREQUENCY INTERLINKED. MOBILE DOLL CONTROL ASSUMED.

Each monitor lit up, showing the battle from the viewpoints of more than a dozen Leo suits. But there was something more. Relena wasn't just seeing the battle through each suits eyes, she could feel them.

'Dorothy told me about this.'

That was her last thought before both minds, one organic, one artificial merged together.

*

Autobots and Decepticons were struck down in their tracks, until only a scarce few stood, worked into a circular group back to back, along with their leaders and the standing mobile suits.

Two imposing helicopters flew over the barrage, one red, and one blue. The red one carried no visible weapon, but was studded with a vast selection of circular shield-like devices. The next had a massive black generator and beam cannon mounted on its underside. As they darted over the gathered transformers, they shifted and morphed, and two sinister mechs dropped into the fray, weapons ready. At the same time, the Tallgeese rocketed forward on its impulse engines, dobergun cast aside in favour of the two beam sabres it produced.

In response, Megatron ripped his twisted cannon from his arm, and with a crackle of energy, his laser mace and sword lit the surroundings ominously.

*

The other pilots and the humans in the Ark were more vocal in their response.

"Shit!"

"Crap!"

"That's Trieze's Tallgeese."

"I thought they were destroyed!"

Prime looked at the mobile suits gathered around him.

"I assume you're very familiar with these new forces."

Each human nodded slowly, and the Gundams drew their weapons, ready for battle.

The Mercurius and Vayeate lay into the group together, working as a team to overcome their own disadvantages. As the Vayeate dealt out swift destruction with its beam cannon, the Mercurius shielded it with its mighty planetary defensors, blocking the energy attacks dealt out.

Prime was battling it out with the Tallgeese, using the energy axe which suddenly replaced his right fist. He neatly parried and blocked every blow dealt to him, but each attack of his own was brought up short on the shield Tallgeese adorned.

Tallgeese grunted in satisfaction, this was a worthy fight. He felt enlivened, the rush of battle flooding his system.

Yet deep within his spark core a slight niggling feeling ate at him. his forces only had the upper hand because of the first wave of drones, and he faintly disliked their use as warriors. They were not alive, and using such creatures to fight a war made it seem somewhat pointless to him. War was meant to be an expression of beliefs, which gave war a degree of nobility and fighting with drones to defend your beliefs rather than yourself made war into nothing more than a game. He felt a slight shudder run up his spinal column.

*

Duo was in dire straits. A trio of Leos were currently surrounding him, each wielding a Taurus style beam cannon. One shot of these had been enough to finish the original Deathscythe off, and the Tallgeese 3 wasn't even a Gundam.

*

Zech's remained huddled next to the communicator, and a chill struck through him as he heard Relena's voice come through. It had the same cold, soulless quality that Heero's had under the influence of the Zero

"Mission commencing."

*

Megatron neatly cut the cord which linked Epyon's power generator to its beam sword, rendering the weapon useless. He allowed himself a brief smile, which faded when the red machine with more than a hint of smugness, produced a long, segmented heat rod. Megatron had seen the Tallgeese 3 using such a weapon, and its deadly effectiveness had chilled him.

*

Thrust laughed maniacally as he hovered a short distance above the battlefield. Below him Ironhide and Jazz were worked into a corner where two cliffs met, a Leo, a Serpent and a Virgo advancing on them, beam rifles and cannon drawn.

"Yes. Kill them, KILL THEM ALL! AHAHAHAHAHA!"

*

The three Leos targeted the Tallgeese 3. Duo closed his eyes.

"Sorry you weren't able to go down with me Deathscythe."

*

Ironhide threw his depleted handgun away.

"Jazz? Ready to go down fightin'!"

"Yeah my man'!"

FZZ-OOM!

The Virgo fired it's weapon with dazzling precision direct into Jazz' chest, taking the rally car down. Jazz looked up, and the blue Leo obscured his vision, a dark angel of death. In one swinging movement, it brought its sabre flashing down...

...and spun into the Virgo, driving the sabre through the optic plate and out the other side.

Ironhide blinked in amazement at the sudden turn and grinned wildly.

"Yeah!"

With that, the ten-ton robot launched himself at the Serpent, knocking it down and rolling, before grabbing the machines elaborate shoulders in the same movement and throwing it over his shoulders, swinging it to the ground with a sickening thud. The Leo neatly enhanced the move by bringing the sabre down through the back, shutting down the reactor.

"I say yeah!"

*

Thrust stared down from his position at the rebel Leo, and brought his laser to bear.

*

BA-BA-BA-DOOM!

Duo blinked. The three Leos had spun and were firing their weapons in varying directions, but all away from him. In perfect synchronization, two Taurus and the last Aeries were blown out of the sky.

*

Relena could feel everything. She could see in all directions at the same time, feel the movement of every machine in the battle, and she was all eighteen Leos at once. It was amazing.

*

Thrust pulled the trigger, and the rebel Mobile suit burned brighter than day.

*

Relena was suddenly struck by a cold, cold pain all through her body, as she felt a part of her go out of her, as the Leo exploded.

'This is what it's like to die.'

She detected the decepticon who had 'killed' her.

'Yes Thrust, you're my enemy.'

*

With that, one Leo, special in that it was mounted with an atomic ramjet backpack, shot off the ground and swooped past the arrogant conehead, beam sabre held out at ninety degrees to it's body.

*

Thrust blinked, and screamed as her realised the cone of his head had suddenly gone. He began to thrash in agony as energon and coolant fluid spurted from the gaping wound.

Relena quickly put him out of his misery. Just before it cleaved him in two, Thrust heard a distinct voice emanate from speakers in the suit's head.

"I lived up to my promise."

*

All over the battle ground the sixteen other Leos were turning on their allies. The ten Virgos and Serpents on the battle level were focused on the battle, weapons trained on the transformers, waiting for a point to pick off some unsuspecting target. So focused were their soulless minds that they barely noticed the darting blue figures stalking them, until it was too late.

However, Relena in turn made the same mistake. The Zero system operated best if the user kept the broad perspective in mind. By focusing too much on smaller battles she was unaware of the drones on the bluffs until they began picking off her units. Time after time she felt the cold, burning agony of death, until she was down to four units backed into in the same group as the remaining transformers, the Gundam boys and Une.

*

Up on the bluff the drones kept up their assaulted, unaware of a silent figure that prowled behind them.

With a quiet snarl, Ravage turned back towards the trees, where a figure awaited, only perceivable by a slight change in the texture of the shadows. Soundwave knelt and stroked the metallic coat of his child, pondering, till a decision was made. He rested a finger on his shoulder catch.

"Rumble Frenzy, Laserbeak Buzzaw. Eject."

Two cassette tapes shot forth from his chest and twisted into the figures of small humanoid robots, while another pair morphed into mechanical birds. Soundwave knelt before the five, and addressed them in his usual monotone, but there was something different about it. There was emotion in it, concern, and a faint caring compassion.

"Never have I left you alone while I go on a mission, but now I must. This is a battle I may not return from, and I cannot put your lives in danger as well as my own."

Rumble held up a fist in protest.

"Why? We can take care of ourselves in a battle."

"You survive because enemies lend you mercy because of your size. But these enemies have none, and I will not risk you."

With that, Soundwave turned and sprinted from the cover of the trees towards the massed Virgos and Serpents, oblivious to the cries of his children as he lay into the unexpecting drones, ripping and tearing weapons from their arms with a ferocity not often seen in him.

*

Starscream in his jet mode hurtled over the landscape towards St. Hillary, where the smoke of war rose high into the air. Noin, in his cockpit, had her face pressed against the orange glass, with nothing to do but wait, and hope.

*

Grimlock and Motormaster stood back to back, comrades in arms ready to fight to the bitter end. Behind them the Gundams continued to fight, driving back decepticons futilely. Now, only they, Prime, Megatron and few else stood, the others scattered about, fallen, but alive.

Heavyarms raised its weapons high, targeting a Serpent swooping low over them. The barrels spun dry, smoke trickling from the bores. Unfazed, Trowa hefted the gun high and flung it at the drone. The barrel impaled itself into the Serpent, which paused to pull it loose like a bee sting, paused long enough for Tallgeese to swing it's heat rod in a massive arc and sever it cleanly in two. As it fell to the ground, it's high-pitched humming faded, and the glow it gave off lessened. Duo dropped it to the ground in disgust.

"I'm out!"

He looked up briefly, at Bruticus, sizing up the gestalt.

"Or am I?"

*

Megatron paused from his duel with Epyon just long enough to wonder where the constant barrage of firepower had vanished. He yelled in shock, just before Epyon kicked him to the ground.

"Soundwave!"

Soundwave had taken down three of the five Virgos with his bare hands, driving his fists into the head sensor arrays, blasting them with his shoulder cannon. So far, he had been able to avoid damage, his telekinetic abilities forewarning him of his adversaries' moves. But he was large, and slow. As he took a swing into the torso of his first Serpent, the remaining units set him as their primary target.

*

Epyon stood over Megatron, heat rod raised high, a psychotic gleam in its emerald optics.

*

A mental alarm went off in Soundwave's head and he turned to face the danger, only to be hit in all sides by a massive barrage of bullets, shells and beam targets. His old armour held, but the pressure was crushing him, and he did something he had not done in a long time. He screamed.

*

Megatron braced himself for the end as Epyon's heat rod swept down. A sudden 'CLANG!' and a cry of surprise came, and he opened his optics.

The heat rod had wrapped itself around Prime's energy axe, which he had used to block the attack on Megatron. The metal core of the axe was beginning to burn and melt as the rod bit deeper into it. Prime was screaming at the agony of having a literal extension of his arm being melted away. Acting on instinct, Megatron summoned his last ounce of energy and swung his mace at Epyon. The scarlet Gundam took the blow directly in the chest, shattering the green gem that housed his variant of the Zero System.

*

Tallgeese 2 wondered where his adversary had sprung to, before laying into the first of the blue Leos he sighted. The machine kept up with every parry, thrust and swipe of his blade, and he tilted his head in surprise.

"Where did you learn skills like this you backstabbing drone?"

It was a rhetorical question, so his fuel pump skipped a beat when he got an answer.

"Drone, I'm no drone. Don't you recognise my style?"

Tallgeese paused in confusion, before the Leo stopped moving and it's cockpit opened. A slender human female stepped into the light. The appearance of her slender figure and sharp, yet gentle facial features stalled the Mk 2. Leo Prototype, unleashing a barrage of memories in his mind.

"Don't you recognise me, Mr Treize?"

Tallgeese clenched his hands over his head.

"StopitstopitSTOPIT!"

In a wave of sudden rage he whipped out his beam sabre and slashed at the Leo.

'No! Not Anne!'

The beam stopped only a few feet short of the human, who hadn't budget or even blinked.

Tallgeese slumped to his knees, bringing his head on the same level as the woman.

"Who are you?"

"The question is, who are you?"

"I'm a warrior."

"Yes. But who is the warrior?"

*

Starscream hurtled over the rim of the site. Noin leaned over in her seat and screamed, pointing down.

"LOOK!"

Soundwave had crumpled to the ground, his chest a mess of shrapnel and molten metal. A Serpent was over him, beating him with its fist while the other machines moved in for the kill. With a scream of anguish, his five cassettes had run to defend him, hopelessly outmatched.

Ravage leapt onto the Serpent, in his rage trying to bite through the sensor plate. He suddenly realised his folly and fired his hip-mounted missiles. The head of the Serpent exploded, the blast picking Ravage up and throwing him hundreds of feet. Noin pounded the cockpit.

"Help them!"

"Rumble and Frenzy have hidden cards to play," but Starscream's voice had a twinge of doubt in it and he circled back to the ridge, away from the main battle.

*

Duo jumped from the Tallgeese 3's cockpit, holding the remote detonation device in his hands. As he touched the ground, the white machine rose into the air, and darted off towards the waypoint Duo had set on the autopilot.

BRUTICUS!

'Even if we win this fight that monster will crush us before we can move to defend ourselves. Maybe I can readdress that balance.'

Bruticus turned as his sensors picked up an incoming object. He blindly swiped with his arms to strike the machine, just as Duo pressed the detonator.

...nothing happened.

Bruticus struck the Tallgeese like a batsman would hit a ball. A crumpled, twisted mess it flew across the site, landing among the rebel Stunticons, skulking at the edge of the battle.

Curious, the three machines cautiously approached the twisted mass of metal, which began to emit a piercing screech. The three darted for it as the Tallgeese's fusion reactor went thermonuclear, lifting them into the air.

Drag Strip hit the ground face first, sliding along before being brought up short by a pair of grey feet. Nervously, he looked up, and gulped.

"Don't even bother to beg for mercy traitor", Motormaster growled, before grabbling his torso and hefting him towards another machine Drag Strip knew only too well.

"Grimlock..."

*

Megatron and Prime helped each other to their feet, each supporting the other. Tallgeese slowly turned his gaze from Une and gazed at them in even further bemusement..

"You aid each other, yet..."

Prime looked up.

"Yet what?"

Tallgeese slowly stood up.

"You are merely exploiting the other. Building on each other's weakness for your own ends. So says Lord Onslaught, decepticon commander supreme!"

"Oh wake up and smell the coffee!"

Tallgeese was sent reeling by a hefty punch to its head by Altron's remaining arm, the other lost to a Serpent's missile barrage. As it lay on it's back, staring at the green dragon, Altron's cockpit popped open and Wufei stepped out. More images assaulted the blue mobile suit's mind with the appearance of the intense Chinaman.

"What lies has Onslaught poisoned your mind with? You are not the noble warrior and leader I once duelled with, you are little more than a naive child with an oversized weapon."

Altron knelt down, grabbing Tallgeese's head with its hand.

"Where is that man? Where in that thick skull of yours is Treize Kushrenada?"

*

Epyon's optics slowly blinked online and his hand slowly reached out and gripped the shield, which had become separated from his arm. He paused, and tensed himself.

Heat Rod Power levels 56%

Wait for it

67%

Wait

79%

Wait

94%

Long enough.

"AUTOBOTS! DIE!"

With a brief burst of verniers Epyon threw himself to his feet and swept the heat rod round in a massive arc at the nearest target to him.

"WHAT!"

Heavyarms swept round to see Epyon's rod wrap itself around the leg assembly of Altron, flipping it onto it's back before quickly unwinding itself for a final lethal blow before the gundam could upright itself.

*

In the cockpit Wufei smirked.

"You have no honour Miliardo."

*

With a roar of plasma Altron's remaining Dragon Fang baptised the Epyon with fire, aiming at the neck and head.

"Those without honour are weak, and I always defeat the weak!"

As the red machine screamed in pain Trowa further fuelled its baptism with his final armament of micro-missiles, driving the demon gundam back further.

*

Miliardo's brain rebelled at its now superheated body's treatment and rose up for one final suicidal strike. Epyon's chassis flipped to aircraft mode in a nano-second, and he darted at Heavyarms on a direct collision course.

"I'LL KILL YO-FLOH!"

A spilt-second before collision, Epyon fell to the ground as a robot, tumbling and rolling into Heavyarms, flipping the blue Gundam into the sky. At the same time, the final segment on the heat rod caught Heavyarm's left arm in the elbow for a split second, ripping the lower arm lose. Trowa, used to flying through the air in unusual directions, quickly pulled his flight into a backward triple-axis spin and landed in front of Epyon, which was gyrating on the ground, clutching it's throat and gargling!?

"LARGH! AHH! GARR..!"

Epyon continued to grasp his throat as if unseen hands were strangling him, but it seemed his ghost attacker was winning.

Despite that suffocating pain that was grabbing him, Epyon's brain still registered the need for one final kill. He looked up at Heavyarms, not a hundred feet away, and threw himself at him, screaming blue murder.

BA-DOOM!

A sudden projectile hit him in the chest and threw him back, burrowing deep into his core before exploding, sending bright fire streaming through his limbs, which was the last thing he registered before death.

*

As Epyon's shattered body collapsed, a thin trail of fluid trickled from the steam vents masking his face.

"He drowned."

Heavyarm's kicked it slowly while Altron struggled to its feet and joined it.

"Pardon?"

"The coolant and steam pipes in the neck. Heat from your flamethrowers softened them and the force of my missiles caused them to rupture, and his head flooded. He just, drowned..."

Heavyarm's paused a moment, before spinning round.

"Who shot him with a dobergun?"

*

Starscream swooped low over the ridge, where the cassettes where backed up around Soundwave's battered chassis. Rumble and Frenzy where back to back, using their small hand-held lasers, while laserbeak and Bussaw pecked at the faces of their attackers, which barely fazed them.

"Come on guys, use your real weapons." Starscream muttered. Noin screamed at him.

"You've got to help them! They're only children!"

Starscream chuckled humourlessly.

"If you think of those scraplets as children wait till you wake up one morning to find your quarters painted pink!"

"I'm serious, look!"

Laserbeak had just taken a hefty shot from a beam cannon, knocking his frail body from the air on top of his 'father's'. Frenzy and Rumble gaped in horror at an oncoming Virgo, beam cannon trained on his tiny form. Starscream banked tightly back.

"Right."

The Virgo's audio sensors registered a sound above it, and its brain processed the information at the speed of light.

LOW FREQUENCY HARMONIC RUMBLE, DROPPING FROM HIGH TO LOW PITCH. PROCESSING... ID. TRANSFORM SEQUENCE AUDIO OUTPUT

The machine looked up to the red streak dropping towards it.

SEEKER UNIT STARSCREAM. NEW OBJECTIVE. ATTACK WITH EXTREME PREJU-

That particular computation was never worked through. Starscream's right heel, engine vents red hot from fusion impulses, drove straight into its head, melting it to an unrecognisable blob. As Starscream kicked the molten goo off his foot, he spun on the other with lightning speed and fired off quick null shots at the remaining machines, following them up with laser shots to the main CPU.

"Yuk. Liquid Gundanium, bet that stains!"

As he finished downing the drones, Noin dropped from his cockpit, sprinting over to the cassettes huddled on Soundwave's back. Frenzy was cradling Rumble in his arms, the small purple machine quivering and mumbling.

Starscream knelt on the bluff, his advanced processor quickly processing the knowledge he had gained from Zechs' mind as he surveyed the battle. Bruticus was still overseeing the fray, seemingly indifferent to the slaughter of his forces. Drag Strip's crumpled body lay at Grimlock's feet, and the corpses of Wildrider and Breakdown were clustered near Motormaster. The transformers and human mobile suits were beginning to break out of the formation they had been worked into, but were held back by the Mercurius and Vayeate, still ruthlessly double teaming them.

'Mercurius, Vayeate. Both have a weakness. Vayeate has no short range weapons, so it relies on Mercurius covering it with its defensors to keep any attackers away. But the shields must have a limit? Take the Mercurius out of the equation, and the Vayeate is defenceless. Right.'

Starscream spun and lifted a beam cannon off a downed Virgo. The weapons database Howard had installed spun into action.

'Beam cannon. Long range particle weapon capable of damaging gundanium. But the Mercurius shields deflect beam weapons.'

His optic alighted on a Serpent, it's twin Gatling cannon still clenched in its fist.

'That however...'

*

Noin was holding Rumble with Frenzy's assistance, trying to get a reaction out of the comatose cassette. Pausing for a brief second, she looked towards Starscream.

"What is he doing?"

Starscream had pulled enough wiring from a dismembered serpent to allow him to jury rig the recharge terminals in his beam sabre sockets to the beam cannon he held in his right hand, the left holding a Gatling cannon. Their weight pulling him down, he mounted the ridge, and strained his arm servos to the limit in order to lift the unfamiliar, and heavy weapons. He trained his sights on the target. He took a deep breath.

"MERCURIUS!"

The said robot spun to face him, and at that point Starscream pulled the trigger on the beam cannon.

A stream of charged particles spewed forth from the cannon. On instinct, Mercurius brought its defensors to bear, the spherical shields forming a barrier across his front. As the beam struck it, the energy spewed off like water off a sheet of glass, deflected by the invisible energy that bound the shields.

Starscream kept firing, running the charge present in the cannon down, before channelling power directly from his own system into the weapon. As his power levels began to drop rapidly, alarms warning him of stasis lock began to blare in his head.

*

Mercurius frowned; his shields continued to deflect the beam energy his assailant was directing at him, but the barrage continued.

'That cannon should have run dry by now.'

He noticed, with rising alarm, that his shields were entering the danger area, over-reaching themselves in order to maintain a barrier.

*

STATIS LOCK IMMINENT!

"OVERRIDE!"

CANNOT COMPLY!

"DAMN IT!"

Starscream was on the verge of blackout, but he continued to divert energy, from his core system, at the same time building the energy in his new fusion reactor, waiting.

*

Mercurius was doing the same, channelling his life-force into his shield. But he did not have the dual power system that Starscream, and Starscream alone among all transformers possessed.

*

"NOW!"

As Starscream dumped several million watts of energy direct from his reactor into the beam cannon, he pulled the trigger on the Gatling cannon. The dual recoil of the cannon and the artillery piece drove him back, and his aim faltered, but he held his ground.

*

The high-velocity bullets passed straight through the energy shield and bounced off Mercurius's armour as Starscream's inaccurate aim traced a pattern of bullets across his torso, Mercurius' concentration wavered slightly, and the Gatling cannon spat again...

...right into one of the shields!

Overloaded, overcharged and overused, the shield exploded. The forces that bound its brothers unbalanced by its absence, they spun off or collided with each other. The shield flickered, wavered...

...and vanished.

Deep within Mercurius' mind, the mental picture of Heero Yuy had just enough time to think 'oh shit!' before the energy of the beam cannon burst through and filled the world with light, and pain.

As the red machine was eaten up by the hungry power, Starscream's body went limp. Cannons slipping from his fingers, he tumbled down the cliff, coming to rest at its base, limbs outstretched.

Quatre took his chance. As Vayeate held a hand up to its face to shield its optics against the blinding light he dived in, Shotels gleaming red.

Vayeate looked up to see a red blur sweeping towards his face. Instinctively, he spun and presented the only object he had to shield himself with at close range, the shoulder mounted fusion generator that powered his weapon.

The shotels buried themselves up to the hilt in the generator. As the two mechs stared at it, it began to emit a high-pitched whining, sparks leaping from the wounds the Sandrock had inflicted.

With mere seconds left to live, Vayeate and Quatre mouthed a single phrase.

'Damn it!'

*

Relena could sense the imminent explosion of the Vayeate, and time stood still for her as the Zero system downloaded to her every single possible outcome of the explosion, and they all ended in one thing. The complete destruction of the last of the transformers and the gundams.

Suddenly she could see what that would lead to. Defeat. Onslaught ripping Mt. St. Hillary apart, collapsing it and crushing the ark, and everyone inside it. Sally, Noin, Milliardo...Heero.

"NO! NO! NO! I'M NOT LETTING HEERO DIE!"

And in that second, she made her decision.

*

Sandrock was suddenly pushed aside as the last three Leo's darted past it and surrounded the exploding Vayeate...

...and self detonated!

The explosion ripped the three Leo's apart a microsecond before the Vayeate went Krakatoa, creating a wall of compressed air that absorbed and blocked the explosion, shielding the other mechs. However, their own explosions were still strong enough to throw the nearest machine, Sandrock over three hundred feet, landing with a sickening thud.

"QUATRE!"

It was Trowa's turn to scream for his other half. With a surprising speed for it's massive bulk, Heavyarms darted over to the shattered Sandrock and ripped the hatch from the torso. Quatre's limp form tumbled out into the black palm, alive, if unconscious, and amazingly unharmed.

*

Bruticus watched in horror at the wholesale devastation of his forces. His only remaining 'warriors', the two coneheads and Astrotrain, were dropping like flies from a match with the superior skills of Thundercracker and Skywarp, avenging their brother's sacrifice. Bruticus roared in frustration and then reeled back in agony, clutching his head as the five voices that made up his mind pulled in two different ways, either urging him on, or begging a retreat. And in his confusion, as his only weakness grabbed him in it's vice-like claws, he screamed, and it was a scream of agony.

A sudden muffled roaring made him look up. Riding on towers of icy flame his proudest warrior, his last gambit faced him.

His mind cleared, Onslaught crushed his minion's voices beneath him, took sole control of Bruticus' brain, and spoke. He was weak, could barely move, but he could just form the words.

"Tallgeese, destroy the enemy," a pause. Silence.

"No."

"What?" More silence. Bruticus looked up at the insolent form perched on his hand.

"ELIMINATE THEM!"

"I am not Tallgeese, and you, Onslaught, are no leader." He looked up, piercing blue optics boring into fiery red.

"I am not Tallgeese. I am Treize Kushrenada, and I refuse to be YOUR PAWN!"

With that 'Treize' leapt backwards off Bruticus' palm and back flipped gracefully. As he reached the one point where he faced the giant, he produced his dobergun. Bruticus stared straight down the barrel.

"GAH!?"

BABABABABABABABABADOOOOOOM!

The sleek black weapon fired a continuous round of shells at point blank range in the Combatacon gestalt's chest, crumpling and beating the metal to an unrecognisable series of dents. As the last shell fired, there was a moment of silence, where the world seemed to stand still, before Bruticus, managed to get one last word out,

"TRAITOR!"

Suddenly, he lost his footing, and slid backwards down the cliff, collapsing on top of himself into a pile of limbs, piping and metal. There was a brief rumble, and the debris settled further.

*

Duo saw his chance, and then he saw the means to achieve it not fifty feet away, idling, waiting to be used, waiting for him.

*

With a gasp, Onslaught scrambled out of the mess and stood on top of the mountain of Bruticus limbs, his brothers too weak to return to their vehicle modes. His body was scratched and dented, but his eyes burned with fury. His missile launchers gleamed, and with an ominous 'klik', the warheads locked onto their target.

"DIE!"

Four missiles shot loose from their racks together, converging and coming together with a sickening impact on 'Treize', still hovering in the air. With a brief cry, his engines failed, and he tumbled from the air, a trail of smoke behind him. He impacted and punched a crater in the ground, as the dust settled, Onslaught prepared to fire a second, fatal volley.

"BRAWWWM! BRAWWWM!...BRAWWWM!!"

As a sudden horn cut through the air with a piecing cry, Onslaught suddenly noticed the combatacon wreckage trembling beneath his feet. He looked down, and noticed that Bruticus had come to rest on a pair of railroad tracks, which vanished into a cloud of steam pouring from a split pipe beside the rails.

Within the smoke, something moved...

*

Duo gritted his teeth and advanced the throttle lever as the antiquated diesel engines behind him rumbled and roared. He braced himself.

"THIS ONE'S FOR HILDE!"

With a deafening orchestra of sounds accompanying it, a black torpedo-like shape burst from the steam and shot towards the wreckage.

As Onslaught watched in horror, the four railroad locomotives mounted the pile and, despite the forty-five degree angle, ploughed towards him with the momentum of a runaway juggernaught, a proud banner of black exhaust flying behind them.

The last thing Onslaught saw was what he swore was an evil steel face leaping at him before he felt a sharp impact in his abdomen and darkness overtook him..............

To be continued.

Author's Brother Notes:

So. A 26 page battle. Did you enjoy it? Did you? Well you better. For I give you terrible news. My Brother isn't updating till 2004.

Readers: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I'm sorry, but it would have become public knowledge sooner or later.

BUT! I do have good news! An Era Of Change Christmas Special! Guest starring: Tony Blair, George Bush, Saddam Hussain, The Gundam Wing cast, the cast of Transformers, the Nazgul and Sauron. And most of all! The MOST EVIL GERMAN of them all: Kaiser Wilhelm II!

Readers: ?

COMING 2004!

ENOUGH PLOTLINE BOMBSHELLS TO FILL HEATHROW INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
AT LEAST 75 MORE PAGES OF PURE FANFICTION/TRIPE
THE RETURN OF THE EXILED TRANSFORMERS
TWENTY NEW TRANSFORMERS
5 NEW GUNDAMS
THE RETURN OF MARIMAIA
CHRIS LATTA'S APPEARANCE IN ENDLESS WLATZ
OPERATION METEOR
MANY BATTLES

Go forth loyal fans. Dream of the Christmas Special. What is going to
happen to Onslaught? Will I be in bed in time? Will I see Lord Of The
Rings:Return of The King?
Find out in.....

ERA OF CHANGE: PART 2

Over to the real mastermind: Rhys Davies.

AUTHOR NOTES:

Well, thank you for that interesting contribution. I'd like to take this opportunity for not updating in a month, but it was unavoidable For one thing I'm starring in a school production of "The sound of music" amongst other things. I hope this chapter makes up for it.

Now then, the sad news. I'm stopping work on Era of Change until after Christmas so I can work on the Christmas special. This is a humor fic lampooning the war in Iraq, with many guest appearances by famous (and insane) celebrities. My brother and I will also be appearing.

I'm uploading this in school because my computer has developed an allergy to fanfiction.net, so I've got to cut this short. See you all next year, and in the meantime, I recommend you read the excellent story Transformers: Blood & Iron by author Lein.

Buy for now!

PS. My brother hopes to be soon posting his first fanfiction in the Command & Conquer section. It'scalled "The Kell Defection" so keep an eye out for it.

"So Long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodnight, Adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu."