"... and the bad news?"
"You have to ask?"
Outside the fortress, an entire army of Vehicon jet-drones lit up the night sky like a swarm of wasps. The ground was covered in tank and cycle drones, dispersed amongst them the newer models that Obsidian and Stryka had brought into the mix. Megatron's army was quickly descending upon the helpless Maximals, intent on slaying them all, and taking back the sparks for Megatron's own nefarious purpose.
"Can you re-route the shields somehow? Get them back on-line?" asked Optimus.
"With what!" asked Rattrap, whirling around. "We got no power, no where, no how! What have I done... what was I thinking!"
"You may well have doomed us all, vermin," hissed Dinobot. "Over a useless..."
"Shut up Dinobot," snapped Cheetor.
Optimus sighed heavily, but what was done, was done. Files deleted and all that. "As you said, you did what you had to do. So this is it, people," he added, turning to the others. "The beginning of the end. And with the Matrix as my witness I swear Megatron will not get those sparks."
Outside the fortress, the army converged, building up strength, more units showing up every minute, as the four Maximals inside watched helplessly. This would be their final battle.
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An eternity seemed to pass. Cheetor, ever restless, was pacing back and forth. Dinobot watched the monitors. In particular, he watched the one showing them a prime view of the Vehicon generals remaining. Thrust, Obsidian, and Stryka. Jetstorm they'd converted, Tankor they'd defeated. It was just those three. Those three... and an army of soulless transformer Vehicons with a single guiding malevolence. Megatron's.
"Why aren't they attacked?" wondered Cheetor aloud, out of pure frustration. The waiting was driving him nuts.
"They require time for repairs," replied Optimus after a moment's thought.
"With their factories destroyed, they know they have but one shot at this," added Dinobot. "They know we have nowhere to run, as well."
"But this give us the time we need," said Optimus, seizing upon this hope.
"To do what! We've crashed the anti-grav's, the weapons are keyed to Mega-jerk's spark, and the big head's energon cells are dry... totally, completely, one hundred percent powerless," said Rattrap. His shoulders slumped, and he felt the crushing weight of despair cling to him again. He hated feeling helpless. "No power, no shields... no hope."
The sudden strain of metal caused all four Maximal's heads to snap up and rotate on their servos towards the source. Dinobot hadn't seen an attack coming, but no sentinel was flawless. However, as the ground's metal plates split open, they realized they were being invaded, but not by enemy Vehicons.
By friends.
"I located a power conduit," said a revived Botanica, her four arms waving about in tandem as she spoke. "We can use it to power the ship." The other Maximals who'd been out in the field, Silverbolt, Black Arachnia, and Nightscream, crawled up inside. For better or for worse, the team was all assembled again. All eight of them.
"Oh Botanica... am I ever glad to see..." started Rattrap, then quickly backpedal "... you've... brought us... this new power supply... eheh."
Dinobot rolled his eyes. The vermin's feelings for the salad-lady were obvious to anyone who hadn't been struck blind in both optics. They were only fooling themselves... and poorly at that.
"We get exactly one shot at recharging the energon cells," said Silverbolt. "After that, Megatron will cut us right off." Dinobot nodded, having been thinking much the same thing.
Both of them had found many commonalities in the past few weeks. Both of them warriors, both guided by honor and driven by hatred. Hatred of Megatron and all he represented. They'd both been very lucky. For Dinobot, his honor had been enough to help free him from the taint of Rampage and Megatron. For Silverbolt, it hadn't been… he hadn't learned about honor, it had been his initial programming, and as an infant on Old Earth, he'd clung to it. But he'd found something else he could really believe in, and that had saved him in the end. Love.
The monitors suddenly lit up as power started to flow back into the fortress, and sensors registered the full nature of their threat. Viewscreens hadn't been enough to see the full forces of Megatron encircled around them. Vehicons without count. No way out.
Dinobot grinned. The greater the odds, the greater the glory.
"Let's give them a welcome they won't soon forget," stated Primal aloud, voicing their collective thoughts.
They went to work.
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And so went to workthey did. Black Arachnia and Silverbolt grabbed some torches and welded shut the main doors. It wouldn't hold the Vehicons long but it would slow them down. Nightscream dropped down into the power cables to help re-route the feed, giving the systems that needed it the most use while bypassing the others. Megatron's private baths simply weren't a priority right now. Botanica and Rattrap connected up the power cables she'd discovered, connecting them up crudely from deep underground. Dinobot monitored the screens, keeping watch on the Vehicon army, which was settling into position. Obsidian and Stryka knew their work, they'd formed and conducted thousands of sieges just like this one before. Cheetor kept watch on the sparks, making sure they, above all, were safe. Cybertron's future.
In the midst of this, Optimus sat alone. And meditated. Forging a link to the Oracle that lay inside of himself and, through the Oracle, reach the Matrix. Now, more than ever, they needed help.
Preparations to the fortress complete, each Maximal turned his attention to themselves. They were the real defense here. Their bodies, the bodies of techno-organic transformers, were the real weapons. Cheetor and Dinobot sharpened their swords, likewise Silverbolt his knives. He wouldn't miss today. Rattrap passed out the last of his organic grenades and a few false transmitters, in the chaos of the battle they might buy a little time. Botanica let herself settle, her roots digging deep, drawing on the power of the organic core to revitalize herself.
The greatest weapon, however, had yet to be shown to them.
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As their activities came to a halt, the Maximals re-gathered in the command center. Optimus Primal arrived last, his foot giving a sudden boom that echoed throughout the base and instantly captured all of their attention. Something was different about him. They could all sense it. He seemed to... glow... with inner power. Radiating with it. And his spark was clearly visible on his chest.
The spark, the source of all Cybertronian life. Tiny pieces of the Matrix.
That was their weapon.
"We are no longer fighting alone, Maximals," stated Optimus, and his voice resonated with the truth of the Matrix behind it. "Feel the might of a united Cybertron."
To describe what happened next could not be completely translated into computer code. There was a white light, so bright it overwhelmed all their senses.
For a moment, they were one. They were one with each other, yet themselves. One with the Matrix, one with the countless sparks of Cybertron. Bound together as tightly as family, as deeply as if they were but one individual split into eight. Together. United.
When their senses returned to them, they saw they too now wore their sparks proudly on their chests for all to see, glowing individual colors of the rainbow. Red, blue, gold, green, purple, silver. Dinobot's glowed a blueish-green. His razor sword caught the illumination and held it, shining with inner light like it was made of cerulean fire.
"Very swank," said Black Arachnia, ever the skeptic, eyeing her own glowing chestplate. "But... what can they do?"
"Provide us with the key to victory."
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As one, the Maximals stood on the platform of the fortress they were now charged to defend, and peered out at the vast army of Vehicons before them, in robotic form and armed to the teeth. Thousands of Vehicons surrounded the fortress, a sea of metal with an evil purpose. The odds were nearly five hundred to one.
In other words, as Rattrap put it, just enough to make things interesting.
Optimus Primal took one look out at the battlefield, then back to his Maximals. "The fate of Cybertron rests with us. Here. Today. Some of you had fought alongside me since the beginning of the Beast Wars," he said, walking past Dinobot, Rattrap, and Cheetor, who stood as if they were on military review. "Some of you, I only just come to know," he said, ending at Botanica, who gave a small smile.
"Together, we have fought against Megatron's evil. And I'm asking you to help me fight against him one more time. Man, Woman… Animal, Plant… Maximal, Predacon. Together, we will stand united against evil."
"I can't think of anyone I'd rather stand beside now," he finished, smiling. And he meant every word of it.
A sudden bright glow encompassed the field, and then lit up in the sky over the fortress. It was Megatron... he was setting up a communication relay for them to see and hear him, as he presumably could see and hear them. His face filled the sky, peering down at them as if they were ants to crush as his leisure. Ants who he had no use for, if they were not loyal to him.
"Greetings Maximals," intoned Megatron. "You cannot win... but there is no need for you to suffer. Surrender your sparks... and the nightmare will end."
If he thought that was being generous, he had another thing coming. Dinobot growled darkly, about to step forward and tell his former commander to eat slag, but Cheetor held out a hand to stop him. Primal spoke for them instead, and his message was far stronger than Dinobot's.
"You want our sparks, Megatron?" he roared. "COME AND GET THEM!"
The gauntlet had been cast, the challenge made. Megatron's eyes narrowed to angry slits, and his voice dropped to a dangerously chill tone. "So be it," he intoned one final time, as his image wavered and vanished. Hologram.
The air became thick with tension with his statement, and the Vehicons seemed charged by it. The sounds of whirring engines filled the air, and as one the Maximals tensed and readied themselves.
If this is to be the end, thought Dinobot. Let it be an honorable end.
There was no honor in being a slave to Megatron, and in death he would find escape, his spark would be extracted, and made part of something unnatural. Thus, there was only one alternative. As it was, back in the valley where he'd saved the early humans, Dinobot found he truly had no choice at all.
Back then, it had been to die. This time, it was to win.
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And then, like that, battle had begun.
By some unseen signal (Megatron's prompting, no doubt) the Vehicons suddenly launched themselves forward en masse, swarming around the fallen fortress to crush the Maximals and obtain the sparks therein.
Optimus, calm despite the terror approaching, raised his arm...
... the Vehicons drew closer...
... and brought it down in a sharp, chopping motion, at the same trying yelling 'now!'
Rattrap's tail snapped out and slid into place, locking into the interface module. At once, he was interfacing with the fortress inner systems. He raised the shields, and a blue glow engulfed the fortress. Vehicon jet and cycle drones hell bent on their charges were now unable to stop in time and smashed full force into a wall of energy as tangible as steel. Several tank drones skidded to a halt in time, but their comrades smashed into the from behind, resulting in a pile-up. All in all, they'd taken out nearly two dozen drones, and the battle had hardly begun. The rest began to transform and opened fire on the shields, but they wouldn't break through anytime soon.
Things were looking up. Some of the Maximals thought maybe they could win this thing.
Dinobot was less than impressed. They were still vastly outnumbered. And Obsidian and Stryka weren't fools. Neither was Thrust, he was forced to admit his former comrade was proving more threatening as a Vehicon than a Predacon. And they could not forget about Megatron.
As always, Dinobot's gaze rested on the hillside where the generals gathered, keeping close eyes on them.
A fleet of 'copter drones zoomed overhead, and as they watched, slammed fully into the shields. The entire fortress buckled from the blows, and Dinobot stumbled.
"What're they doing?" asked Nightscream, puzzled by their suicidal tactics. He had to remember the drones had no sparks, they didn't care if they died, so long as their objective was achieved.
"Depleting our energon," reasoned Primal. "They know our shields won't hold up under that kind of punishment."
"Oh man, the shields are running on fumes," Rattrap said, stating the obvious.
Dinobot's fingers coiled around the hilt of his sword. He would need it soon, he suspected.
Another drone smashed into the shields, and as it did, fragments rained down onto the ground beside the defenders. The shields had failed, and as they watched in horror, winked out of existence.
Rattrap yanked his tail out of the socket. No more help from that end. "Guys...? COMPANY!"
Optimus Primal, however, held firm. And after a moment's hesitation, Cheetor and Dinobot stepped up onto either side of him, blades upraised. As bolts of fiery destruction rained down upon them, they stood firm.
"For the Matrix...! For Cybertron...!" he cried, the great ape giving as good as got, and blasting away at a coming tank drone, obliterating it.
Battle was joined.
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The flow of battle fell upon them, and Dinobot embraced it as he charged forward, meeting a transformed cycle drone and slicing it's head clean off it's shoulders before it even knew what hit it. All around, the sounds of battle reached his ears... the shriek of lasers, the boom of explosions, the odd scrunching noise he'd come to associate with Rattrap's organic grenades. The war cries of Nightscream as he split the air and tore through the ranks of their enemies.
It was epic. It was glorious.
But glory and honor aside, the Maximals were still sorely outnumbered. And they were the ones with something vital to protect.
The sparks.
"Fall back to the entry port!" called out Primal. "We dare not let a single drone inside!"
As one, the Maximals fell back. Dinobot and Cheetor gave cover as the others made their way back up the ramparts towards the narrow entrance. Dinobot approved of the plan... bottleneck their forces so they'd be forced to take on the Maximals in smaller numbers, rather than surround them from all ends and crush them.
Suddenly Botanica gave a cry of pain and collapsed, though no bolt or blast had struck her. Rattrap was at her side at an instant.
Her breathless reply spoke volumes. "The orchard," she said. "I must go!"
Great, more to worry about.
"The orchard is vital to our mission," said Optimus. "Go! Take Nightscream with you."
"I'm going too!" added Rattrap sharply. For a moment, Optimus looked about to order him off, but instead nodded.
"For the Matrix."
The three of them vanished over the slope, and already the strain of battle was felt by the others left behind. Dinobot cast his gaze out, seeking the generals. If he could take them out, things might get considerably easier. The drones would have no real leadership, and would be more quickly dispatched.
There!
Dinobot slipped into his techno-organic beast mode as he dropped down from atop the fortress and took off like a shot, knocking aside two cycle drones that tried to box him in, one with his head, the other with a whap of his tail as it tried to slip past him.
"Dinobot get back! Dinobot!"
Dinobot ignored him. He respected Optimus as a leader but he'd always played too defensively. He trusted his instincts. And they told him to attack. Besides, Optimus and the others had plenty to worry about as it was. Dinobot charged forward. Within moments he'd slipped past the Vehicon ranks and was in relatively free enemy ground. His head swiveled back and forth to find his foes.
A blast of laser fire nearly caught him in the back if he hadn't yanked himself out of harm's way a second earlier. He slid backwards, claws raking the ground and leaving skid marks as he transformed back into robot form, upraising his sword.
"Shooting someone in the back... how dishonorable," he hissed. "So you really haven't changed much, have you... Waspinator?"
Vehicon General Thrust and former Predacon Waspinator gave what might've been considered a smirk (his new facial configuration made it hard to tell) and raised up both his arms again, opening fire. Dinobot rolled aside and opened fire, energy pouring from his eyes. Thrust dodged, the beam slipping over his shoulder and off into the distance.
"Getting weak in your old age, comrade," replied Thrust, stating the last word mockingly. "Should've stayed back on Old Earth." He opened fire again, and this time his shots managed to score a hit on Dinobot's leg, causing the more massive warrior to stumble down onto one knee.
Dinobot growled, as much from the insult as from the injury. "And you," he replied, his eyes burning like emerald suns. "Should have stay amongst weaklings, for they are the only ones you can defeat!" This time his attack hit as well, and he knocked Thrust backwards, striking him clean in the chest and very nearly sending him flying through the air. He skidded backwards, clutching his chest plate protectively.
"But as usual, bug... you cannot face a true warrior. You can only stab one in the back," he sneered. Then, with deliberate ease, turned completely around, presenting his unprotected back to Thrust. "Go on then, coward. Take your best shot."
Thrust, predictably, charged, and Dinobot was ready for him. He lifted up his sword, and the mirror-like blade allowed a perfect view of Thrust as he charged. Dinobot waited until he was close enough, right before he was about to strike, and struck himself. Both of his eyes glowed bright emerald and twin beams shot forward. They struck the blade and reflected off, angled perfectly by his sword so they struck Thrust full in the chest and with enough force to send the Vehicon General flying through the air and off of the hillside down amongst his troops.
Dinobot grimaced slightly, his body still damaged from the earlier attacks, and moved to the edge of the hillside to peer down. Thrust was shaking his arm at him and yelling something, but he transformed into cycle mode and was heading towards the fortress.
"Good. I have no time to waste on you. I have to get to the others. Stryka and Obsidian are the real threat." And Megatron, he added silently, as he shifted back into beast mode and went hunting for his prey.
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The battle seemed to be going well, all things considered. Dinobot's absence hadn't overly hurt the defenders. Apart from a few tank drones who'd slipped in they'd held their own and were keeping the others at bay. And they would continue to do so.
Dinobot had finally reached Obsidian, but the Vehicon general was flanked by at least two dozen tank drones... big, menacing tank drones. Dinobot grimly held up his sword, determined to give them hell... and then...
... then...
That sensation came over him again. The Matrix. The Sparks. Raw, surging power filled his body, and he was engulfed in an emerald-blue glow that enervated him. He felt like he could take on Megatron's whole army single-handedly, and not even work up an oil sweat. And he intended to start with the tank drones.
He charged forward...
... took less than a minute, according to his internal chronometer. But every single tank drone had been slashed to pieces. They lay on the ground in a pile of metallic confetti. His old transmetal two body couldn't have done a better job in it's prime. He grinned darkly, turning his gaze on Obsidian, determined to cleave his head clear off his neck servos...
... when the glow faded. And not a gradual, pleasant fade like before. It was a rip of some kind. A tearing. As if the power had been on the other side of a door and it had just come slamming down to cut him off.
Megatron.
He had to be responsible somehow.
Obsidian just hovered there, watching him impassively. And Dinobot knew he ultimately was as cold and heartless as Megatron. He didn't care about Dinobot as anything but an obstruction to his purpose. An obstacle. He didn't care if he lived or died as long as his mission was achieved. It sickened the warrior's spark inside of Dinobot, and he spat mech fluid onto the ground. It sizzled against the heated body of a tank drone.
No words needed to be said. They knew each other's purpose. Now it was time to test their metal.
With a mighty roar, Dinobot raised up his sword and charged forward, his metal booted feet pounding against the ferrous ground.
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Author's Notes:
Ultimately, I decided to skip through most of the story, since ultimately Dinobot's presence wasn't designed to alter the plotline in any major fashion. He'd be there, he'd help them win a fight or two, he'd offer a scathing comment about rats or Maximals in general, but ultimately, not much would change. This next chapter, however, was what originally inspired me to write this story.
Yoda's Padawan: Dinobot pushes you away Back off kid you're cramping my style. turns away, then pats you on the shoulder when no one is watching to show he cares
MerlockVonBaron: It has its moments.
Stone-Man85: I'm afraid I stuck with those seen in the show, but you do have some decent ideas.
Master Solo: It took a while to work out, but it was well worth it.