Introduction: Happens between Revolution and Age of Smoke. Continuation of the previous chapter.
"Still nothing on the scanners?" Logos asked.
Maccadam stared out the window of Liege's ship, searching the nothingness between stars.
"Nothing," Liege said.
"Can't you boost them somehow?" Micronus crossed his arms.
Liege turned slowly to look at him. "Excuse me?"
"The scanners," Micronus said. "Can't you give them more power, more range, something?"
"Did you spend the last ten thousand vorns in subspace watching science fiction holovids?" Liege said.
"What?" Micronus snapped.
"Micronus," Logos said patronizingly. "I'm sure the scanners are already on their highest setting. What exactly would the point be of having them on a lower setting?"
"Well, there's got to be something here somewhere, hasn't there?" Micronus said. "These are the coordinates Vector sent us, aren't they?"
"We're getting close to them, at least," Liege leaned back in his seat, scowling at the readings displayed on the inside of the window. "Unless we read them wrong."
"Great," Micronus said. "We came out here—I spent two entire decaorns putting up with all of you and there's nothing here!"
"Mechs?" Amalgamous said.
Maccadam recognized the rare concerned tone in his voice and turned to look at him, but the others kept arguing.
"There has to be something here," Logos said.
"Or maybe you're all just idiots and this is some sort of trap!"
"But in order for it to be a trap, they would have to put something here!" Logos said.
"Mechs."
"Besides, I don't think Vector would give us the coordinates for—"
"But there isn't anything—"
"Stop the ship!" Mal jumped up from his chair.
"What?" Liege turned to glare at him.
"Do it," Maccadam confirmed, and Liege fired up the engines.
Maccadam was thrown forward and had to grab on to his chair as the acceleration from the reverse thrusters hit them.
After several astroseconds, Liege pulled back on the thrusters and the ship went back to drifting.
Micronus had been flung to the ground. "What was that for?" he griped as he clambered back into his seat.
"This had better not be some sort of joke," Logos said.
"Mal?" Maccadam asked.
"Shhh." There was a look of concentration on his faceplate and he held up one hand.
Was he listening to something? Mac couldn't hear anything beyond the steady hum of the ship's systems.
Also outside the ship there was a vacuum so they shouldn't be able to hear anything from out there.
"What's going on?" Logos demanded.
"Do you feel that?" Amalgamous asked.
Logos slowly shook his helm.
"Feel what?" Micronus said.
"So help me Mal if this is a practical joke..." Liege growled.
"No," Amalgamous said. "You all really can't feel it? There's some kind of field. We've stopped just shy of it though I think we're still drifting toward it."
Maccadam couldn't feel anything.
"Oh…" Micronus tilted his helm to the side slightly. "You know, I think you're right."
"Hold on," Liege said. "If there's a field there, the scanners should have picked it up. Is it giving off some sort of signal? Electromagnetic?"
"Nothing so obvious," Mal said.
"It's on another dimension," Micronus said. "Of course, I noticed it there, but didn't think anything of it. You find that sort of thing all over the place."
"Really?," Amalgamous said. "You definitely didn't notice it at all until I pointed it out."
"It is strange," Micronus said, ignoring Amalgamous. "It's… It doesn't originate from a point, it's coming from this sort of… sphere."
"Yes, and we're still drifting toward it," Amalgamous said. "And I'm actually not sure whether it will kill us or not so maybe you should burn the thrusters a little longer to send us in the other direction."
"Coward," Liege said, but turned the thrusters on a low setting.
"You can't tell me this doesn't feel like some sort of trap," Amalgamous said. "We ought to go—"
"We can't go back until we've investigated this," Logos said. "Maybe we should have brought Quintus. He might be able to reconfigure the scanners, maybe link them to the warp drive to repurpose them as multidimensional—"
"I'm not letting that mad scientist mess with my ship," Liege said.
"Oh, Quintus is a mad scientist now," Micronus crossed his arms. "What about—"
"It doesn't matter anyway," Logos cut in. "What can we do now? Can you see anything at all inside that barrier?"
"Nothing," Liege said. "We're still detecting things beyond it, so it can't be some sort of cloaking barrier, can it?"
"I suppose it could be some sort of very clever cloaking barrier," Logos said. "Liege, this ship has scout drones, right?"
"Yes," Liege said. "Should I send one in?"
"Yes," Logos said. "If it's a trap, then it's better to set it off with something expendable."
"It could be some sort of bomb," Amalgamous said. "Maybe we should back up a bit."
"The Quintessons wouldn't just leave a bomb to try and offline us," Logos said. "That's not their style. However, we should be prepared to warp away in the case that entering the field alerts them to our presence."
Liege stopped burning the thrusters, and an astrosecond later, Maccadam felt the slight kick of something small ejecting from the ship.
Liege's drone was heavily cloaked, and invisible in the darkness, but it showed up as a green dot on the visual screen. Liege messed with the controls, and a window popped up on the screen displaying the drone's visual feed, distance, and exact coordinates.
"I don't think that kind of field would kill you," Micronus said. "Even harm you. It might—"
The green dot on the screen disappeared, along with its visual feed.
"Pit," Liege said, and started pressing buttons on his control panel. "It's gone. We've completely lost—"
The green dot reappeared, headed directly toward the ship.
"What is it doing?" Micronus sounded frightened now.
"Just returning," Liege said, frowning. "I tried to recall it. It... must have worked."
He typed in another command and the drone obediently slowed to a stop.
"Wait," Logos said. "Does that mean it was picking up your transmissions?"
"I think so," Liege said.
"But it couldn't send anything back."
"So whatever's in that field is probably watching us," Amalgamous surmised.
"No," Liege said. "We're cloaked, so nothing in there should be able to see us."
"And as soon as the drone went through the field… hmm…"
"I guess we'll just have to fly in there and see what happens." Micronus said. "It's obviously not some sort of bomb."
"We don't know that!" Amalgamous said.
"It's risky," Logos said. "But I don't know what other choice we have. I mean, we could stand around deliberating, but if there's really no way to see past that barrier, we'll have to enter it at some point."
"We could also turn around and leave," Amalgamous said.
Logos rounded on him. "We all know where your priorities lie, Amalgamous, and I think we've heard enough from you about running away."
"I just don't want to get all of us offlined," Amalgamous said. "Aren't you supposed to be the logical one?"
"Shut up," Liege said. "You're both right and you're both wrong." He sighed. "I don't want to fly right into a trap."
"If there are Quintessons in the area, then the longer we sit around, the more likely it is they'll notice us," Logos said. "The drone didn't seem to have any trouble returning, so it's likely we'll be able to come back if there's nothing there, or if we decide we don't want to mess with whatever's inside."
Silence fell.
"Liege?" Logos said.
"Mac," Liege turned to look at him. "What do you think?"
Maccadam stared. "I… what?"
"I trust your judgment. What do you think we should do?"
"What?" Logos said. "Liege, I'm the strategist here—"
"I know," Liege said. "And I don't care. Mac?"
Maccadam looked out the front window.
He remembered the hologram, remembered Vector's tortured faceplate.
It was possible that this was a trap. It was possible that the Quintessons would be lurking just past the barrier, ready to capture all of them. It was possible that if they entered that invisible sphere, none of them would ever make it home again.
But it was also possible that his brother was in there—that he needed help.
"I say we go in," he said. "Cautiously, and prepared to warp away if anything happens."
"Logos?" Liege said.
Logos nodded.
"Mal?"
Amalgamous took in a deep vent, and sighed heavily. "Fine."
Liege fired the thrusters and the ship flew forward, toward the invisible barrier. Maccadam stared, waiting, spark pulsing heavily.
"Here it comes," Amalgamous said. There was a moment where the window filled with silent static.
Silence fell as they all watched.
When the visual noise cleared, they could see what had been cloaked. He heard Micronus gasp and his spark sank.
A vast space vessel filled the window. It was covered with irregular oval protrusions and smaller spacecraft swarmed around it like scraplets.
"Unicron and the pit," Liege said.
"A whole station," Maccadam muttered.
"Yes," Logos said. "A whole station within communication range of Cybertron, perfectly cloaked. How long has this been here I wonder...?"
"There are probably thousands of Quints on that ship," Liege said.
"Yes," Logos shook himself. "We need to find out if Vector's there too."
"I'll go in and look for him," Amalgamous said.
Logos glared at him.
"What, that's why you brought me, isn't it?" Amalgamous transformed to look like a Quintesson bailiff. "So I can sneak in."
"Sure you wouldn't rather stay here where it's safe?" Logos asked.
"I told you I'd come and I came," Amalgamous said flatly. "You don't have to keep trying to goad me into it."
"Well, you've certainly been complaining the whole—"
"I said stop!"
Logos looked shocked for a moment. Amalgamous made a constant habit of driving everyone else up the wall, but rarely got angry himself.
It was especially disturbing coming from his current form as a Quintesson bailiff.
"Okay," Logos said. "Then go. Be careful though—if you alert them to our presence we'll have to retreat empty handed."
Amalgamous nodded and left the cockpit. Maccadam watched for the light on the display screen that meant an airlock was open.
"So, now what?" Micronus asked. "How is he even going to get past all those swarm ships?"
"It's Mal," Liege said.
"So?"
"So he can get in anywhere. Logos, what's the plan?"
"Watch those swarm ships in case they change formation at all." Logos said. "I'm still working out the details, since I didn't realize there'd be a whole station. Before we do anything drastic, of course, we should fly out of the field and send a message to Quintus and Alpha Trion to let them know what we've found, just in case we don't make it back. Honestly, we should have done that before we entered the field in the first place."
"I'll have a drone do that, so we can stay here and wait for Mal to comm. us," Liege said.
Maccadam turned his attention to watching the Quintesson station. There was something unsettling about how those smaller ships moved, darting around each other in perfect formation like they were tied together with invisible threads. He was involuntarily reminded of a Cybertron where mecha couldn't trust their own neighbors and had to fight their own comrades. Those had been dark orns. If Primus hadn't found a way for Cybertronians to fight the Quintesson reprogramming…
But he had. And they had won the war and then made sure the Quints had left the galaxy. They had hoped that would be the end of it. He supposed he should have known it wouldn't.
They sat in silence for several breems, waiting.
Maccadam was almost starting to worry when the ship's comm beeped and then Amalgamous's hushed, staticky voice came through.
"Miss me?" He said.
"Not much," Logos replied. "Are you in?"
"Yes, I have successfully made it into the giant screw from pit," he said. "The situation' s kind of tricky. Judging from the way security is set up, I think Vec is actually here and I think I've even figured out where they're keeping him but there's no way I can get in there without setting off alarms, and even if I could, there's no way we'd get off the station again. This place is crawling with Quints. I even saw a judge, and I went past some birthing vats too. They might have a whole pentahive."
"Are you sure Vector's there?" Logos said.
"No," Amalgamous replied. "Not absolutely certain. But they're keeping something important contained here and I can't think what else it would be."
"Would it be possible for Micronus to reach him?"
"It's possible," Amalgamous said. "But not without being detected. He'd have to fight his way through. If we're going for some kind of frontal assault, you should definitely send someone besides Micronus."
Silence fell.
"So what are we going to do?" Liege asked. "Logos, I assume you have a plan?"
"Yes," Logos said. "Liege, you have some explosives on board, right?"
"Yes," Liege said. "I think I've got just about enough to blow up that station if that's what you're suggesting."
Micronus stared at him.
Liege scowled. "What? Unlike some of you, I didn't expect this trip to be a pleasure cruise and I came prepared."
"Wait," Amalgamous said. "You want to blow up the station?"
"We have to get rid of them," Logos said. "We can't have Quintessons hanging around. And it's the only way to get Vector out of there."
"Blowing him up?" Amalgamous asked. "I don't see… oh… never mind. That's clever."
"We'll set the charges," Logos said, "Then send Micronus in, probably with you, Liege, or at least Alchemist, as a guard. All you have to do is meet up with Amalgamous, and get to Vector. Then Micronus can put you all in subspace and I'll detonate the charges, then come pick you up once the debris field has cleared.
"Right," Liege said. "Except that won't work."
"Why?"
"I said I have enough explosives to blow up the station. I meant from the inside, and only if you place the charges carefully. I mean, I'm sure I could damage the station from the outside, but its shields would absorb some of the blast and it might not be completely destroyed."
Logos frowned.
"Easily fixed," Amalgamous said. "I can come back to get the explosives, then set the charges beforehand."
That would make things riskier. Also… "One quick note," Maccadam said. "If they realize we're on the ship, what's to stop them from just offlining Vector before we can reach him?"
"Nothing," Logos said calmly. "Unfortunately… Vector offlining is better than Vector remaining in the tentacles of the Quintessons. Seeing this—that there's a whole station here… the part of the mission where we destroy this place precedes rescuing Vector in importance."
"We're here to rescue him," Maccadam said firmly.
"I know," Logos said. "And we can't back out on that, even if the better option would just be to blow the station up without risking a rescue attempt at the same time… All right. Here's what we'll do…"
The fourth judge was the last of its hivemates who remained conscious. The others were in hibernation already. They had been directed to shut down operations until further notice and return to the Great Hive. The Project had been disrupted, and it was necessary to secure a new source of compatible essence before it was continued.
The pentahive had failed, and the fourth judge knew the blame for this calamity rested on its pentahive. If they had not overestimated the First of Two's constitution, the Great Hive's destiny would have been well within reach.
But that destiny had been delayed, yet again. The fourth judge would face torture and imprisonment for its failure, as was logical and just.
The fourth judge looked forward to its fate, and to the satisfaction it would feel when the Great Hive had been avenged of all those who had failed in their missions.
The station was nearly prepared for departure. The swarm ships would finish their sweep of the station's exterior in three point seven cycles, and then the fourth judge could join them in hibernation for the journey.
A bailiff died suddenly, sending a ripple through the psychic channel. The bailiffs and executioners in the swarm ships and throughout the station chattered to each other, unsettled, suddenly on high alert.
The fourth judge could sense their anxiety, but commanded them to be calm, and they complied. Bailiffs died, on occasion. The fourth judge had difficulty maintaining all of the lesser Quintessons on its own, and sometimes missed the warning signs of their declining health until it was too late.
It should be investigated, regardless. The fourth judge sent several bailiffs to remove the dead one's carcass.
Another bailiff died.
Concerned now, the fourth judge used its remote link to the command center to access the security footage from the station. It found the first dead bailiff lying on the floor, still twitching slightly.
Fluids oozed from a thin slit in its back.
It had not died of natural causes.
There were intruders on the station, or perhaps one of the bailiffs had gone rogue…
No, they were all accounted for, except for the two who had died.
Was the prisoner loose on the station? He had been easier to control since his last escape attempt, but he was still powerful and often unpredictable.
The fourth judge checked.
The prisoner was still contained and currently unconscious.
The fourth judge gave orders through the cranial hub and prepared to wake its hivemates from hibernation. The combined cerebral power of the pentahive would be enough to defend against any intruders...
The fourth judge should be certain, though, before it woke the others.
Who were these intruders? Who could have discovered their location?
The champions of the First of Two would certainly be looking for their hivemate but how could they possibly have found him?
It could not have been an accident, and the field that concealed the station could not be detected with any scanners.
Perhaps it was someone else?
Just as the fourth judge had concluded that the intruders could not be Cybertron's champions, it received visual feed from two panicking executioners in a hallway.
The fourth judge had not been birthed at the time of the pre-conquest so he had never personally seen them before, but they were easily recognizable.
Maccadam ducked around a corner and froze.
There were twenty Quintessons waiting in the hall, blocking his way.
"Pit," Liege said, coming out beside him. "Those last ones must have seen us."
Maccadam commed Amalgamous. "Better hurry, we've just been seen."
"What? Already?" Amalgamous said. "I'm not done yet!"
"Sorry, we kept running into the guards." Maccadam followed Liege as he barreled through the hallway. The Quintessons were slow movers and awkward fighters, but they probably weren't trying to fight.
Just trying to slow Maccadam and his brothers down.
They made it past the group of Quintessons and kept running. Maccadam stayed in the back to make sure Micronus didn't get left behind. They were almost there. The directions Amalgamous had given them led to a room just a few corners away. They might have to break down a few doors, but they'd get there.
The only problem now was that if Amalgamous wasn't finished setting the charges, he might not be able to join them before they had to detonate.
"Mal," Maccadam said. "It might be better for you to try to get off the ship after—"
"Oh, there's no fragging way I'd get out of range in time," Amalgamous said. "Just wait for me as long as you can, all right?"
"All right. I told you it'd be better if I went with you."
"And I told you it'd be better if you went with Micronus and Liege. Vector probably needs a medic."
They went around another corner, and the door in front of them opened.
Liege skidded to a stop.
"What?" Micronus said.
"It just opened. That doesn't seem suspicious to you? Don't you think if Vector was in there, they wouldn't want us to reach him?"
"Maybe they're trying to trap us?" Maccadam suggested. "Just prop the door open or something."
Liege nodded, pulled a large spear out of subspace and set it into the frame of the door to prevent it from closing
Then they continued past it, around the final corner, and through a second door, which also opened for them.
Maccadam stepped into the room cautiously while Liege propped the door open.
Vector lay on a medical berth, looking just like he had in the apparition, with tubes protruding from every hole in what little was left of his exterior mesh. Wires of all thicknesses ran between him and the surrounding, unfamiliar machines.
"You know that's not going to do anything, right?" Micronus said to Liege. "Especially the one back down the hall. They can just have their little minions move that spear thing."
Vector had both of his hands. That didn't make sense…
"Also, how many weapons do you have in subspace?"
Maccadam reached out to touch the hand that shouldn't be there. His fingers went right through it. A hologram.
He moved his hand up until it hit the solid part of Vector's wrist, just to make sure the whole thing wasn't a hologram.
"Okay," Liege said. "Now we just need Mal."
Right. Maccadam commed him. "Mal, we've found Vector."
"Good. I'm coming. I'll be there in less than a breem."
"He's coming," Maccadam said.
"I don't want to bring all this into subspace with us," Micronus said. "It's Quintesson. Can you disconnect him?"
"I… don't even know what it all is," Maccadam said. "It could take a while."
"We don't have a while," Liege said.
Maccadam heard a sort of rapidfire clanging sound like several doors shutting.
"Pit," Liege said, looking behind himself. The door into the room was still open, but outside, the hallway now ended in a heavy-duty blast door.
"Well—"
"No," Maccadam cut Micronus off before he could reference their plan out loud.
"Start disconnecting him," Liege said, and pulled out an axe. He stepped out into the hall and started hacking away at the door.
Maccadam followed one of the tubes to the machine it was connected to.
It didn't look as if it was meant to be pulled out.
He frowned. He really wasn't sure what to do about this. He could already tell he was going to have to spend decaorns trying to repair Vector. It might even take quartexes. He wasn't even really a medic—he'd just been chosen by the others to fill that role because none of them had wanted to do it.
He could do repairs. But he didn't have the intuitive knowledge of the Cybertronian frame that came from vorns of piecing it together over and over again.
And he had no idea what these tubes and wires were for, which if any were keeping Vector alive, which he could cut or pull out without hurting his brother.
A hissing sound filled the atmosphere, and Maccadam looked up to see a sickly green cloud billowing from a vent at the ceiling.
"Um…" he said.
Liege retreated backward into the room, gasping and clutching his chest, pursued by a similar green haze.
"What is that?" Micronus asked.
Maccadam's processor stalled as his sensors picked up the toxin as it spread through the atmosphere. He recognized it.
"We can't…" Liege coughed, sinking to his knees. "…no time. Primus…"
"What?" Micronus said.
"Seal your vents. Try not to let it in," Maccadam said. "This is what killed Primus."
His spark pulsed painfully. He couldn't tell if it was from the poison already inside of him or from the horrible realization.
"They did this."
Micronus stared at him.
Maccadam shut his optics and commed Amalgamous. "Hey, they've locked us in with Vector and they're trying to poison us. We need you to get here now."
"I'm trying," Amalgamous said. "Twenty astroseconds. Wait for me."
Maccadam wasn't sure they had that long. The toxicity in the atmosphere was still rapidly increasing.
"Alchemist, you have to disconnect Vector from all the wires," Micronus said.
"I don't know how," Maccadam said. The green fog in the atmosphere was making it hard to see. Or was something wrong with Maccadam's optics?
"Just yank them out or something!"
Liege got back up with obvious effort and raised his axe.
"No, wait…" Maccadam said, but didn't try to stop him as Liege started hacking laboriously through the wires and tubes. Some of them sparked, others leaked energon. Vector remained motionless on the berth.
"There's this big heavy door blocking me," Amalgamous said. "I don't know how long it'll take for me to get it open. You mechs still alive in there?"
Liege collapsed again with a groan.
Maccadam's spark ached. His vision blurred."Barely."
"I told you!" Amalgamous said. "I told you it was some kind of trap."
The room seemed to tilt.
Micronus shouted something at him, but his audios were glitching out.
"Frag it. Just get out of here. Tell Logos I'm sorry it wasn't me. Mac?"
He couldn't feel anything but his spark, burning, sputtering, fading…
"…Mac…?"
Blackness.