AN: Another lengthy chapter this time, although I really wished you guys reading could give me some feedback. Anyway I dunno if I can continu with this one chapter per day craze but I´ll do my best to update regularly.
The crowd of Terrorcons kept growing in size, advancing on the three bots with moans and groans that threatened to freeze the energon running though the frames of the outnumbered warriors.
"Megatron has desecrated the resting place of our fallen ancestors and his own." Ratchet took an involuntary step back in fear. Though his medical optics that scenario was one of the most macabre conceivable.
"Not even the dead are free from his warmongering." Answered Optimus in a grave tone.
"Whatever the case we won´t survive for long by talking. We´re going to have to quiet down everyone once again, independently of spiritual problems." Solarflare was getting more and more scared but steadied herself with rhythmic breaths, it was no time to run away.
From his perch Megatron could see how the bots reacted to his latest creations. He relished in the fear his new army caused in the sparks of his enemies, their doubts as to whether they´d survive to live another day brought him great joy. But there was something gnawing at his own spark. The dark energon had numbed him to a multitude of emotions but there was one that refused to disappear completely and leave him be. Carefully analyzing the situation he finally found the problem.
"Destroy the Autobots and bring me the seeker!" Shouted the warlord.
Down with the Autobots, Solarflare repressed the urge to fly up to the hulking figure and put a shot straight to his spark. How could he still remember her after all that time had passed? If they managed to get out from there with their sparks still going she´d never hear the end of it until those dammed Autobots had pried all the information from her processor.
"Seriously, how do you know him?!" Ratchet would certainly be number one in line to hear the Maker´s explanations.
"I said later!"
Optimus took the lead, blasting the once fallen warriors with regret but they suffered next to no damage and kept walking, physical pain holding no meaning to them. They had not deserved to be risen from their eternal rest to fight in the war they´d already given their sparks to independently of the faction they´d once sworn loyalty to.
"Scrap! Prime, that´s not working! We need another plan." Solarflare took her fair share of shots at the crowd alongside the taller bot but her efforts meant nothing as well.
"Optimus, if our combatants are already deceased how can we possibly defeat them?!"
"Retreat, both of you! Bridge yourselves back to base."
"And leave you alone? I may have a grudge against certain Autobots but you´re not on that list." Shouted the femme. "I won´t abandon you."
"I won´t be going either. You may require a medic when this is over with." Ratchet withdrew his blades and threw himself at the Cybertronian ghouls and with great surprise watched as the parts he cut off died back down, losing the dark energon glow that possessed them. "I recommend dissection. The smaller the pieces the better."
Optimus changed his blasters to blades as well and impaled several Terrorcons with them, noticing the efficacy of the medbot´s method. "Sound advice, old friend."
The seeker recalled her blasters but had no blades imbedded in her frame like the two Autobots. No, she possessed something far better in her opinion. Reaching into her subspace she withdrew a pair of collapsible rapiers and joined the fight. "Keep your optics open, boys. Victory taught me some tricks."
The three bots threw themselves into the fight, hacking away at their reanimated enemies but every time they took one down two replaced them. Solarflare went for swift decapitations and separating the limbs form the torso, Ratchet targeted the sparkchambers with quicks hacking motions and Optimus used his greater strength to straight-up tear them apart. Picking up their speed they strengthened their efforts but it felt like something was slowly sapping away at their life-force by just being near the ghoulish creations. Under the gaze of Megatron they kept fighting, giving their all to survive the madness of dark energon.
"Give up, Optimus! When you fall you too shall join my army!"
"We can't wait much longer, I´m going in."
Mayhem had gotten tired of waiting. Granted, she hadn't kept track of the time but it didn´t matter when a certain someone could very well be meeting his demise at the hands of the Decepticons. Sitting idle while they could be doing something to rescue the human man did not sit well with her at all.
"No, Mayhem, it´s too dangerous." Bulkhead put a servo on the seeker´s shoulder.
"Well, either we do something or Fowler is going to spill the beans and die."
"I meant it´s too dangerous to go alone, I´m coming with." The wrecker offered a smile. It had become obvious something had went wrong with Arcee and Bumblebee so they´d need to act on their own. "What do you have in mind?"
"Finally, you´re talking my language." Mayhem grinned and huddled closer to the Autobot. "Here´s my plan, I fly over and distract the Cons by landing on the hanger up top while you take advantage of the distraction, accelerate to top speed, grab onto the cliff and climb up. I´m a seeker, they won´t risk shooting one of their own without knowing who it is."
The plan sounded so crazy it might even just work like the femme said. "… Fine. When you´re ready."
"I was sparked ready." She gave a thumbs up, transformed to her alt-mode and flew up to the Nemesis with no hesitation.
Bulkhead watched the femme fly away and turn back with a barrel roll towards the Nemesis. She was a little crazy and even more impulsive but if that was what they needed to rescue Agent Fowler he was more than willing to turn a blind eye just that one time.
The patrolling Vehicons on top of the Decepticon ship paused at the sight of and unfamiliar purple and white seeker with pink accents landing on the deck with no warning. They kept their weapons away for the time being, nothing was worse than pointing one´s weapons at a superior officer and be on the wrong side of a blaster, missile or, the worst of all, a fusion canon.
"Identify yourself!" Shouted one of the faceless drones.
When the seeker did not transform, choosing to remain perfectly still and speechless, the small group of Vehicons finally withdrew their blasters and pointed them at the newcomer.
"Identify yourself or you´ll be held in contempt of Lord Megatron´s orders!"
Mayhem steadied her racing spark and did her best to keep her wings from shivering in anticipation but when the Vehicons surrounding her began warming up their blasters she knew she had to either do something or her little impromptu adventure would come to an end faster than she´s want to. Just as the seeker got ready to release her alt-mode thumping sounds of metal against metal reverbed though the air, making the Decepticons turn their attention to the Autobot that had just climbed his way onto the deck and thrown the closest drone down below.
"Finally!" Mayhem came out of her alt-form and took out her hammer. "It´s hammer time, boys!" She yelled with glee.
Together the Autobot and the Maker tore their way through the Decepticon´s low ranks, their actions having surely triggered the ship´s alarm because as soon as they thought to be done more faceless enemies emerged from a hatch behind Mayhem just as soon they dropped their guard. The seeker´s optics widened at the sight of several pairs of blasters aiming at her back but before she could do anything Bulkhead took action.
"Duck!" The wrecker tore out a satellite dish from the deck and yelled at the femme to get just as he threw the piece of equipment at her attackers, knocking them out or even over the edge.
Noticing more coming their way from all directions Bulkhead ran up to Mayhem and pulled her along to jump down the hatch the Vehicons had come though and closed it behind them, making sure to break the locking system once it was secure so they couldn´t be followed.
The mech looked at both ends of the hallway they´d ended up and pointed behind the femme. "You go that way I go the other. When one finds Fowler we let the other know and we´re out of here."
"Got it. See you soon, big guy."
With a parting glance he watched her run and round the corner. He prayed the next time he saw her she´d still be in one piece, if not for her sake then for his. HE did not want to find out what fighting a triple-changer was like.
Making his way through the hallways the wrecker did what he knew best and fought his way through the Vehicons unlucky enough to cross his path. All it took in most cases was a body slam and a few punches to knock the daylights out of the drones patrolling the hallways, their aim not having improved since he´d last fought them. Unfortunate he got cocky and failed to notice one sneak up behind him while he beat the living hell out of another. He looked back, staring into the red blaster ready to blow his helm off, but someone else took care of his problem in a similar fashion.
Bulkhead looked at his savior to see Arcee putting away her weapon. "Thanks. I thought I was a goner for a moment."
"Both of you storming the Decepticon ship was not a wise move. Where´s Mayhem?" Asked the two wheeler.
"You try getting her to stay put for more than a click." He quickly defend himself but decided to leave the excuses for later. "We split up to try and find Fowler quicker but I got no word from her yet."
"Great, now we have to rescue a human and a Maker. Let´s hit the brig first, experience tells me that´s where we´ll find our main target."
As they moved along the numbers in Vehicons increased, proving that there certainly was something of importance at the end of their path. They sustained some damage but kept moving on, Bulkhead crushing at the front with Arcee shooting from close range while Bumblebee shot from the rear.
They arrived at the door they´d been heading towards and, with Bulkhead using a Vehicon as a shield, both him and Bumblebee opened the door, remaining hidden in the shadow of the unconscious drone. The trick had worked in the past, why not then?
Starscream turned to the poor soul that had the nerve to interrupt his interrogation just as he was about to get the location of the Autobot´s headquarters from the puny little human man. "What? Can´t you see I´m busy?"
The Vehicon fell to the floor, revealing to the Autobots the sight of Agent Fowler hanging from chains while Starscream dropped the energon prod he´d been more than clearly using on the human. The two bots aimed their weapons at the SIC but the seeker in turn aimed his at the man.
"Not so fast!" He knew the soft-sparked Autobots wouldn´t have the courage to shoot him while he had his weapons trained on the organic. What he did not count on, however, was the blaster poking his helm from above, courtesy of the blue femme balancing on the shaft right above himself.
"I wouldn´t." She said.
"Oh, but I might."
The fight came to a standoff, no one daring to take the first shot. The Decepticon SIC was known for devious maneuvers and backstabbing his was though the ranks in record time, leaving no room for trust when it came to him.
"Now, Agent Fowler and I will take our leave."
"The eagle says meow!" Yelled out the man with a crazed smile. Clearly the continuous shock therapy had fried more than just a few brain cells.
Startled by the dizzy agent´s rambling Starscream lost focus, enabling Bumblebee to shoot and throw him off balance. With that the other Autobots blasted away at their panicked screaming enemy, not giving him a chance to ready a counterattack, making the seeker do what looked like a dance while avoiding getting shot.
Feeling outnumbered, Starscream felt it would be in his best interest to make a ´tactical retreat´ before ending up with a few extra holes in his protoform. Jumping in the air used his alt-form to take slight and took off though the hallway, deeper into the Nemesis. He´d been so close to delivering some good news to Megatron for a change and would no doubt be in trouble after Soundwave relied his actions to their leader.
"Coward." Yelled Arcee after being singed with the jet´s engines but she let him go anyway. Agent Fowler needed medical are ASAP and they still needed to track down the only seeker on that dammed ship that was on their side.
Mayhem was more than lost. All the hallways looked the same and she couldn´t keep fighting forever any Cons she encountered at every turn. She tried different doors but they either led to storage units or empty crew quarters. On her fifth attempt she found what looked like the control room along with a few Vehicons performing some tasks. When their attention turned to the open door she steadied herself before letting out a cry and charging in, hammer brandished high.
She got hit by a few blasts but managed to bear it through, either knocking out or offlining the small number of enemies. Storing her weapon Mayhem took a good look around the huge room. Control panels and screens decorated every wall from one end to the other and a sort of bridge over loops of stairs separated what was probably the main seat from the rest of the room.
Mayhem was about to continue her search when a nearby computer displaying equations and graphics caught her attention. If the Decepticons were up to something to her it looked like that something was connected to the data presented to her.
"Hello. What do we have here?" She approached to take a closer look but could not make heads or tails of what she was looking at. "Kind of looks like one of Rad´s programs." She stilled at the though. "Rad! Of course, he´d know what this means." Pawing around in her subspace for a way to carry the data she found nothing beyond only one of her holopads. "That´ll work too." She brought the disk up, turned the bottom portion to the screen, and took a picture before subspacing it back.
As carefully as possible she backed away from the computer but before she could make a run for it the door opened and a Vehicon came inside. They stared at each other in surprise and the Decepticon immediately took out his blasters, having been previously warned a seeker femme was among the bots that had invaded their ship.
Mayhem dodged the blasts and ran forward, tackling the Vehicon and crushing him against the hallway wall, driving her shoulder hard into his torso plating. A honk brought her attention to the three Autobots speeding on their alt-modes in her direction and she let go of the unconscious drone.
"We´ve got Fowler, move!" Bulkhead yelled while driving past Mayhem along with Arcee and Bumblebee, prompting the seeker to chase after them in her jet form towards the exit.
A few turns and run over Decepticons later they were falling off the Nemesis and into the desert ground but they kept speeding away to somewhere safe enough to bridge back to the base. Agent Fowler needed immediate medical care and Mayhem had a lot of explaining to do.
Solarflare had lost count of the enemies she´d decapitated but kept going despite her dwindling energy reserves. Her rapiers, although thin, were strong enough to go through a bot´s armor from one side to the other. Doomsday had smelted down Victory´s shield after his offlining and expertly crafted the weapons at her friend´s demand with no questions asked, not that the Forger had wanted to argue with the grieving seeker.
The Autobots were getting more tired by the minute but the horde of Terrorcons seeming previously endless previously had noticeably dwindling numbers at last. Their efforts were paying off but they had their doubts they´d ever reach the end of the fight victorious. At one point they found themselves back to back with each other with their weapons held high while looking at the crowd still surround them.
"The prolonged exposure to dark energon is slowly sapping our strength." Ratchet explained the bot´s obvious question at their exhaustion. "We won´t be able to last much longer."
"We cannot falter now." Proclaimed Optimus before throwing himself back at the Terrorcons but was quickly overwhelmed by their numbers clinging to his frame and swallowing him to their horde.
The medbot saw his leader disappear into the frames tainted by dark energon and tried to make his way to him but the distraction caused him to suffer the same fate, leaving Solarflare feeling increasingly scared at the thought of being left alone with the Decepticon warlord and his army. One of the Terrorcons managed to get a hold on her arm with enough force for her to drop the rapier she´d been holding and, with a desperate cry, she shoved her other one though its left optic and kicked herself free but now unable to reach her weapon.
Another battle cry came from the pile Optimus was buried under and Solarflare felt relieved at seeing the mech shoot and hack his way out still intact and shoot the Terrorcons targeting Ratchet, freeing him as well. Running up to the medbot she stabbed her way through to him and offered a servo to help the injured medbot up.
"Everything in one piece?" Asked the white and green seeker. Placing his arm around her neck she helped him to his pedes and gave him a quick look over for any more pressing issues but it seemed only his harm needed immediate care.
"Mostly yes." Ratchet extracted himself from the femme and withdrew his weapons once gain. He could fight though a little pain.
Optimus reunited with the bots and once again they went back to putting the now reasonable number of risen warriors back to their graves.
"After all these years, Optimus, still at the top of your game." Megatron drew the attention of the Autobots and the Maker to himself. "My legion, finish them and bring her to me at once!"
"Optimus, you go deal with him, we got this." Said Solarflare, knowing the only one who could put a stop to the source of the madness was the Autobot leader.
"Are you-"
"Yes! Go!" She shouted, interrupting him. They had not time for arguing.
The Autobot leader carved his way to the bottom of Megatron´s cliff and sheathed his blades, putting his remaining forces to making his way up to meet his long-held enemy. All he could think of was ending his former friend´s impending reign of terror on Earth from spreading to all the corners of the Universe. Many lives would be lost if they failed their mission now. "You will not prevail, Megatron, not while energon still flows through my veins."
"Fitting, for it is dark energon that flows through mine. I have to applause your resolve." Taunted the Decepticon leader. "Though this just a prelude. You may wish to save your strength to the main event." He leaned down to stare at the blue optics just inches away from his.
Optimus swung his arm just as he reached the top, hoping to land a hit on the seeker, but Megatron jumped up and transformed into his alt-mode and flew away. He may have lost many battles in his life time but the war had just tipped in the Decepticons´ favor and that time there would be nothing the Autobots could to change the outcome. War spoils could wait, he had a war to win.
The Autobot tried to shoot the fleeing jet but missed on all his attempts. Whatever reason Megatron had retreated for it was not because of the outcome of that battle. The mech had never backed away from a fight with Prime in the past and Optimus feared there was something he was missing in the bigger picture.
Ratchet reached the top just as Megatron disappeared over the horizon and his leader helped him up. Together they looked down at the once again eternally slumbering army they´d fought against and though about the purpose of it all.
"If this wasn´t Megatron´s endgame, what is?" Asked Ratchet while surveying the damaged they´d caused. Looking at Maker walking among the offlined warriors, rummaging through the piles of cut off parts until she bent down to pick up her fallen rapier he thought of another pressing question. "And why does he know Solarflare?"
AN: Please tell me what you think about the story so far :)