Hello, bots and cons. Centurion here, and welcome back to Dustformers: Season 2 and the multi-parter: Insecticon Swarm. A few things happened in the last part of Insecticon Swarm: The kids and their families were taken by the Atlas Military, the parents now know about the Transformers, Jaune shows more negativity, the Insecticons are shown to be roaming around that small town in Anima, and finally, the three Mini-Cons in the stasis pods have at last reactivated.
I have had this multi-parter in the works in my head since Dustformers: Season 1. I once again thank cryo threshold for the contribution.
Now, let's head back into Insecticon Swarm Part 2!
*Atlas. Atlas Military Headquarters. General Faust's Quarters. 6:01 am*
General Faust was getting something ready in her quarters. The kids, and General Ironwood were there while the parents were waiting outside. "Okay. I think it's ready." General Faust said getting up from under her desk.
"Everyone. Since you know about our alien visitors, this is footage from the small town in Anima from three days ago." General Ironwood informed as he turned to look at the footage projection.
The footage showed townspeople having their weapons shooting at something. The kids had their eyebrows raised at what they might've been shooting at. Suddenly, something moved in front of the footage. When the thing moved a second later, one of the people shooting was just gone. All that was left was a pile of blood. The kids were kind of stunned at how fast that happened.
The footage then showed another townsperson get stabbed by something that looked like a mechanical leg. The mechanical leg then dragged the now-dead person out of view. The kids and two generals then heard a new sound that sounded like chittering of some kind. "What is that? Why does whatever it is sound like that?" Blake thought to herself. Suddenly, a robotic insect face popped up on the screen and screeched at the camera. Then, the footage cut out.
When the footage ended, the kids were talking amongst each other. "What the hell was that?" Nora asked quietly.
"It looked like a robot insect," Ren answered just as quietly.
"Strange that it didn't have a Decepticon symbol. It didn't have the Autobot symbol either, though." Blake pointed out.
"We can't rule out the possibility that it could be a Decepticon," Ruby whispered.
"It seems that you eight know what that thing on the footage is." General Ironwood stated.
"Actually, sir, we've never seen anything like that before," Weiss said.
"Are you sure about that?" General Faust asked.
"Perfectly, ma'am," Weiss replied.
"We're putting together a unit to drop in and deal with this. We want you eight to join this unit and help us deal with these robot insects." General Ironwood revealed.
"Why would we help you guys?" Jaune asked, sarcasm evident in his voice.
"If you don't, then your families will be considered fugitives of Atlas and will always be under surveillance." General Faust brought up. "Unless you want to give us the exact location of your alien friends."
That got the kids thinking. If they helped Atlas, the Atlas Military would gain more information about the Transformers. If they didn't, they and their families would be considered fugitives of the entirety of Atlas unless they revealed the location of the Ark. Jaune sighed. "Alright. We'll help. Just let us know when we're heading out."
"Excellent." General Ironwood smiled. "Return to your temporary quarters with your families. We'll let you know when it's time."
The kids left General Faust's quarters and hugged their parents and siblings. "How'd it go?" Kali asked.
"We have to help the Atlas Military with a mission concerning a small town in Anima." Blake responded.
"If we chose not to help, we would all be considered fugitives of Atlas." Yang slightly growled.
"They can't do that," Raven growled in agreement.
"Unfortunately, they can, Ms. Branwen," Winter said walking over to the group.
"What do you want, Ice Queen?" Qrow sneered.
"What I want is to show you all to the quarters you'll be staying in," Winter said. The group walked behind Winter. A little bit later, they arrived at their temporary quarters.
"Not bad," Roslyn commented.
"Speak for yourself, Roslyn," Saphron commented back rolling her eyes.
"For what it's worth, I'm glad you're helping us with this," Winter said softly.
"I'm not," Jaune growled. "All you among others here want is to ensure Atlas's survival if things happen to go south for the rest of Remnant."
Everyone went quiet at that. Jaune actually growled. He very rarely did that before. "Jaune, please. Don't do this." Pyrrha quietly pleaded, putting her hand on his shoulder.
Jaune shrugged off Pyrrha's hand and walked to the back of the room. The other kids watched Jaune having a scowl on his face.
Weiss walked up to Winter and hugged her. "Please reconsider what you're doing, Winter."
Winter began to tear up. "I can't. I have to help ensure Remnant's future." With that, she walked off.
"Yeah, 'Remnant's future' my ass." Qrow rolled his eyes.
"Atlas doesn't know what they're getting themselves into," Jaune muttered. "They tried to attack the Decepticons at Vale's Beachfront two months ago and what happened? They got completely wiped out. They had virtually no chance. Only the Autobots can stop them and I assume that they know they didn't do anything, but they don't seem to get it."
The kids and Jaune's family were looking at him with concern and sadness, more so with the kids. Had Bumblebee's death really affected him this much? From the looks of it, it must've been destroying him inside.
"I really hope the Atlas Military knows what they're doing," Athena stated, really hoping that.
*Anima. Underneath the Barnhouse. 8:12 am*
There was a lot of chittering in this newly-made underground space. There were a lot of drones moving around fresh-made holes in the ground. It seemed they were making some sort of hive for themselves. Amidst the drones, there was a black, purple, and yellow grasshopper was hanging from the ceiling, seemingly overlooking the drones.
In one of the holes in the side was a robotic stag beetle with the same color scheme as the grasshopper. It was looking around to see the drones continue to just move around aimlessly, though some were heading outside and coming back in.
There was a third black, purple, and yellow Boll Weevil just sitting on the ground, lying motionless. "Must the drones make all this noise? It's a wonder I get anything done." It suddenly said.
"Calm down, down." The stag beetle voiced. "They are mere drones, after all. It's essential to have them moving around all the time, or would you rather have them in here all the time, time?"
"You have a fair point there." The grasshopper said from the ceiling. "However, you two should be grateful that we were able to make this in so short a time."
"We must continue gathering materials to strengthen our lair and to produce more of us." The boll weevil added. "We have no idea if anyone will be unfortunate enough to stumble upon us and/or attack us."
*Atlas. Atlas Military Headquarters. Kid's and Family's Temporary Quarters. 10:12 am*
People haven't said much since a few hours ago when Winter was with them. There wasn't really much to be said. Jaune had barely moved from his spot in the back. His sisters had moved to his spot to try and comfort him which somewhat worked.
"I wonder when something will happen," Yang muttered quietly.
"Hopefully nothing," Blake said.
"I agree with Blake." Ruby voiced. "We're not giving up our friends."
"You said it, Ruby." Nora agreed.
"Thus, we have no choice to help the Atlas Military with whatever they have for us," Pyrrha stated.
Suddenly, they heard footsteps. "Speak of the devil," Taiyang said.
"Everyone. Walk with me." General Ironwood motioned. Everyone got up and walked with the general.
"What is it, General?" Weiss asked.
"We have our team set up to go to the small town in Anima to investigate and eliminate. Also, if possible help us with securing one of these robot insects for further analysis." General Ironwood informed. "Will you help us?"
"Yes. We'll help you." Ruby said.
General Ironwood smiled. "Excellent. Continue with me and you'll meet the team you'll be working with for this mission." They did just that and they made their way into the main hangar. "Here they are. Introduce yourselves, people."
The first to introduce themselves had pine green hair, pink eyes with a sunflower tattoo on her left cheek. Hello. I'm Specialist Erica Flora. I hope we can work well together."
"I-I'm Private Mitch Bueller. Believe it or not, it is nice to meet you all." He stuttered. He had black hair with a white spot in the center, blue eyes wearing black fingerless gloves.
"Private Dixon Spyke. Howdy." He smiled. He was different from the first two. He was a Faunus. A Thorny Devil Faunus to be more specific as he had small thorns protruding from his body which was why he was wearing a special uniform. Besides that, he was bald with brown eyes.
"Pleasure to meet you all. I'm Private Carrol Garcia." She bowed. She had long, black hair with orange eyes and a small cut on her chin.
"I see you've met my sister. I'm Sergeant Orville Garcia." He said. He also had black hair and orange eyes. He was slightly more muscular than his sister.
"I'm Private Terry Rockwell. How you all doing?" He asked. He had a cowboy hat hanging from his back and had orange hair and dark green eyes.
The last Private in the unit was a Serval Faunus as they saw her cute cat ears. She had sandy colored hair and brown eyes. "Hi. I'm Private Cassie Rayne." She cutely waved.
"Now that they've introduced themselves, I'm Corporal Matthew Weir." He was taller than most of the unit. He had dark red hair and pale yellow eyes with a skull and crossbones symbol on his uniform.
"I'm the commander of this unit. I'm Captain Wilbur Prescott." He was a Seagull Faunus. He had wings sprouting from his back. "He had pure white hair and orange eyes.
"Now that you have introduced yourselves, let's get you all to Anima ASAP." General Ironwood ordered.
"Yes, sir." Captain Prescott acknowledged.
"What do we do?" An asked.
"You all will go back to your quarters and wait till they return." General Ironwood said.
"Are you serious?" Romulus asked, his irritation clearly growing.
"We don't really have a choice," Qrow muttered.
"I'm glad to see you all are cooperating with us." General Ironwood smiled as the parents went back to the temporary quarters and the kids joined the rather large unit in the Bullhead.
*Bullhead. On the way to Anima. 11:21 am*
While the Bullhead was traveling to its destination, the kids weren't really looking to make conversations with the unit. Ruby was sharpening her weapon while Yang was making sure Ember Celica had more than enough ammo. Blake was reading her book with Weiss beside her checking Myrtenaster's dust. Ren was trying to calm Nora down as she was slightly cheering to have pancakes when the mission was finished. She wasn't as cheerful, mind you. Really, she was more concerned about Jaune.
Speaking of Jaune, he was sitting silently mostly away from everyone else just staring at the sky. Pyrrha was right beside him trying to find a way to start a conversation, but to no avail so far. She was the most worried due to how he acted at the Atlas Military Headquarters. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Erica winking at Jaune which caused her to slightly growl internally.
"So, the eight of you know what these things are, right?" Private Garcia asked.
Blake sighed. She didn't want to talk to the unit, but she forced out an answer. "Are you just assuming?"
"Why don't you answer? You wouldn't have been brought here and doing this if you really didn't know anything." Sergeant Garcia correctly assumed.
Blake didn't find a fault in his Sergeant Garcia's logic for the moment. "Yes. We do."
"That's good, though. That means you must know any weaknesses." Private Spyke guessed.
"That's a good guess as we don't really know any true weaknesses." Nora sheepishly muttered.
"Please. Any info could really help." Private Rayne softly said.
"Don't worry, guys. The Atlas Military will protect you." Private Spyke cockily said. "We have all kinds of weapons on our side. Hell, even sharp sticks are a part of our arsenal. I wouldn't be surprised that this enemy turns tail and runs away at the mere sight of the Atlas Military."
"Dixon, could you knock it off?" Erica asked with a small scowl. "Seriously, you don't need to be like that."
"Alright, people. We're landing in five!" Captain Prescott informed. "Will one of you please wake up Private Bueller?"
*Anima. Small Town. Kids & Atlesian Military Unit. 13:10 pm*
It was raining by the time the Bullhead landed. "Oh, come on! Why'd it have to be raining by the time we get here?" Yang complained.
"Really, Yang? I'd be more concerned with what we saw on the footage." Weiss said.
"Oh, you mean that robot insect thing?" Yang asked. Weiss nodded. "Yeah, I admit that I'm a little worried about that. However, it shouldn't be too much to fuss over."
"I wouldn't be so confident, Yang," Ruby whispered after walking over to her sister. "Remember that we were the same after we beat the Grimmcons, but that didn't help us at Vale's Beachfront" Hearing that caused Yang to slowly go silent.
"Alright, everyone! Move up!" Captain Prescott ordered. The unit and kids moved up and spread out by squads. They paused for a minute before moving on. "Squad one: Check out the structures for any clues to the disappearance of the townspeople!"
Squad One obeyed as they began heading into the various structures to hopefully find any clues to the townspeople's whereabouts.
"Squads Two and Three: Move to the other end of the town to stand watch!" Captain Prescott ordered. The two squads obeyed as they ran to the other end of town.
"A standard Atlas Military maneuver," Weiss observed.
"Yes. It has helped us on several occasions." Private Bueller added while he was standing behind Weiss.
"Oh! Private Bueller." Weiss slightly squeaked.
"Sorry if I startled you." Private Bueller apologized. "As I said, this maneuver has benefitted the Atlas Military on several occasions."
"Yes, I know. I sometimes read reports." Weiss stated.
"I am worried about these people. If the enemy is unlike anything we've encountered, we'll need any advantage we can get." Private Bueller voiced.
"I hope we can rescue the townspeople," Weiss said. "They are innocent and don't deserve this."
In another part of the town, Jaune and Pyrrha were searching for any clues to the townspeople. "Jaune, you've been awfully quiet," Pyrrha commented.
Jaune sighed softly this time and turned to face Pyrrha. "I'm sorry, Pyrrha It's just that I don't feel comfortable being with the Atlas Military."
"Okay, I do agree with you there," Pyrrha admitted.
"The fact that they know about our friends and will probably keep us thereafter this mission to try and extract whatever information about the Transformers from us to fuel their own agenda." Jaune reasoned.
"That may be true, but don't you think you're being a little bit paranoid?" Pyrrha asked.
Jaune sighed again. "Maybe I am, but after what happened, I can't afford to not be on my toes at all times." He walked off leaving Pyrrha with a saddened expression due to how he was acting. She had to bring him out of it somehow.
Ruby and Yang were with Squad One and managed to sneak off to take a little break to talk. "Yang, did you see the way Jaune acted before we got here?" Ruby asked.
Yang turned to face her sister. "I did, Rubes. We all know why and that he blames himself for it. I don't think being essentially kidnapped with his family and brought to Atlas and practically being forced to work for the Atlas Military isn't helping at all."
"Well, I kind of agree with you on the last part. We were all essentially brought to Atlas against our will and our families have just been brought along for the ride." Ruby sighed.
"Well, at least we don't have to hide anything from the parental units anymore." Yang smiled slightly.
That got Ruby to giggle a little. "Yeah. There's that. You just found a small silver lining in this. No doubt Dad's gonna hug us to death."
Yang laughed a little at that. "You're right about that. We should probably get back with the rest of the squad." Ruby smiled at Yang and the two went to rejoin Squad One.
Weiss and Blake were also searching for clues related to the people's whereabouts. "We need to get out of Atlas." Blake suddenly said.
"Blake, while I agree with you, I have to ask how are we going to do that?" Weiss asked. "Not only would the Atlas Military be on us in seconds, but we'd be labeled as fugitives to the entirety of Atlas."
Blake's cat ears drooped a little. The group always found it adorable when Blake's cat ears moved. "Sorry, Weiss. I'm just afraid the Atlas Military will stop at nothing to gain the information we have regarding our alien friends. Not to mention that they have our families and can threaten us with harming them."
"Look, I get what you're saying. I really do, but we also have to still consider the Decepticons." Weiss reminded. "They've been awfully quiet again. Who knows when they could strike again."
Blake nodded at Weiss's words. The Decepticons have gone quiet again for the past two months. They had no idea when they would attack again.
"Blake, let's try to focus on the objective, please." Weiss said softly. "We can talk about this after we find the people of this town."
"Alright, but we better talk about it after this." Blake relented. "We may not get another chance."
Ren and Nora were walking around slowly. "Renny, I'm getting a chilling feeling." She shivered.
"What's wrong?" Ren asked in concern.
"I'm not sure. It's like I get the feeling that something horrible that we don't want to find out happened." Nora muttered, still shivering.
Ren brought her into a warm hug in which she began to calm down. "It'll be okay, Nora. I won't let anything happen to you." He whispered.
"Thank you, Ren." Nora whispered back. "I promise the same thing to you."
When all the squads and kids regrouped, they told each other that they somehow found nothing regarding the townspeople. Suddenly, Private Rayne got something on her scanner. "I've got something!" She exclaimed.
"Where?" Captain Prescott asked
"In the bank's vault." Private Rayne informed.
"Alright, let's keep sharp. We have no idea what it is." Captain Prescott ordered. With that, they went to the bank. When they got there, they kept themselves on edge just in case it wasn't what they wanted it to be. They slowly approached the vault at the back of the bank. "Here we go." Captain Prescott whispered.
They opened the vault, and a girl that looked about 9 years old with short black hair, torn denim jeans and overalls ran out. the first to react was Nora who ran after the girl. After a couple of minutes, Nora found the girl hiding under a porch. "Hey. It's okay." Nora spoke in a very soft voice.
The girl didn't believe her and moved backwards. Nora frowned at this. "Don't worry. I'm not gonna hurt you." Nora's voice was soothing to the girl, so she slowly crawled out of her hiding space. Nora immediately wrapped her into a tight hug. "You'll be ok. You're safe now."
A little later, Nora rejoined the group with the girl in tow. "Who's this?" Private Rockwell asked.
"Everyone. This is Lily." Nora softly spoke. Lily nervously waved at the group who waved back with small smiles on their faces. The unit was glad they found at least one person in the entire town. Since they found no one else, some of the unit instantly assumed the worst whereas the kids and others thought that maybe they'll find her parents. Lily didn't say much as she didn't want to speak with anyone but Nora.
Some like Private Spyke were scanning for the townspeople in hopes of finding them and completing the mission. "Yo! I think we've found them."
"Alive or dead?" Corporal Weir asked.
"Not sure, but it looks like they're at a barnhouse just outside the town." Private Spyke said.
"Maybe they're having a union?" Sergeant Garcia suggested.
"Alright, everyone! Gear up and move out!" Captain Prescott commanded and the unit obeyed, though the kids were more reluctant to do so. Nora still couldn't shake off a chilling feeling in her spine.
Hello, everyone. Here is Insecticon Swarm Part 2. We have seen the original G1 Insecticon trio: Shrapnel, Bombshell, and Kickback discussing gathering more materials for their hive and produce more Insecticons. Who knows where that will lead.
In Atlas, the kids and their families are still in their temporary quarters simply waiting for something to happen. Then, something does and they agree to help the Atlas Military with their mission which results in a slew of Atlesian Military OCs: Private Mitch Bueller, Private Terry Rockwell, Sergeant Orville Garcia, Captain Wilbur Prescott, Private Cassie Rayne, Private Carrol Garcia, Corporal Matthew Weir, Private Dixon Spyke, and Specialist Erica Flora. I did my best with their introductions, showing little things to distinguish themselves from each other. There are also a number of random, nameless grunts joining in.
After the introductions, they made their way to the small town in Anima, some of the unit cocky that this will be a cakewalk compared to the fight at Vale's Beachfront. How little do they really know regarding most things Cybertronian. As they search for any clues regarding the townspeople
Author's Notes #1: A little factoid about the Insecticon concept for those who don't really know. In the 90s with Beast Wars, people tried to make Insecticon a name for a singular individual instead of a whole concept or subgroup. This was attempted again with 2004's Transformers: Energon comic where he was a part of the breakaway Terrorcon faction while in the Transformers: Energon cartoon had Insecticon as an identical Terrorcon drone. The live-action films and the Aligned continuity basically surrendered to the idea of being a whole concept. In the Transformers: Fall of Cybertron and Rise of the Dark Spark video games from 2012 and 2014 took the concept and made them a naturally occurring form of Cybertronian life.
Author's Notes #2: If you figured it out, I'm homaging the 1986 film: Aliens which is one of my favorite older movies of all time. R.I.P Bill Paxton.