Disclaimer:Transformers belongs to Hasbro, Takara, etc . The only thing in this that belongs to me is Arcee's sister.
"Please, I mean no harm," Orion said begging for his life.
"Oh?! Then what are you doing here?" Starscream asked Orion.
"Research. ForLord Megatron," Orion answered.
"Is this some kind of joke?" Starscream asked, still confused what was going on and why he was there.
"I do not understand," Orion said, "and why did you call me 'Optimus Prime'?"
"Uh, why wouldn't I?" Starscream asked him.
"Because my name is Orion Pax," Orion answered, "I am far from being a prime."
Starscream then looked at Orion's right shoulder pad and saw a Decepticon insignia on it rather than the Autobot one, "You reminded me of someone I once knew, that's all," Starscream lied.
"You are Starscream," Orion said.
"Yes," the former Decepticon seeker said.
"Lord Megatron told me you had been terminated," Orion said.
"Lord Megatron says many things, only some of which are true," Starscream told him.
"You, do not suggest that our leader would speak falsehoods?" Orion asked him.
Starscream then laughs, knowing that Megatron has clearly been lying to the amnesiac Optimus, "You truly are being kept in the dark, aren't you?"
"You speak in many riddles, Starscream. Please, tell me what it is that you know," Starscream said.
"And in return?" Starscream asked when suddenly the door behind them opened with Vehicons in the doorway and aimed their blasters at him.
"Starscream, surrender!" One of the Vehicons ordered.
Starscream hid behind Orion, "Hold your fire," Orion said.
Starscream transformed and flew away, down the corridor.
"Remain in the lab," one of the Vehicons said as they left him
"But I-" Orion started.
"Lord Megatron's orders," the Vehicon clarified before closing the door with a switch as he exited and transformed before going after Starscream in his jet mode.
As Starscream flew, Vehicons in their robot forms were shooting at him with their blasters and as he flew by then, he knocked them down.
He transformed and jumped onto the Jet Vehicon that was chasing him, activated his blaster with his hand and started shooting the Vehicon he was standing on before jumping off as the Vehicon exploded and he flew away and launched his missile from one of his wings, the missile flew towards towards the door to the hanger and collided with the door. As he flew out of the hanger's door, Vehicons were shooting at him, one of the shots from the Vehicon troopers hit his rear thruster, causing him to lose altitude and spiral towards the ground.
"Rafael, is the test subject ready?" Ratchet asked Raf as he finished adjustments with the Ground Bridge and Raf places a remote controlled car that is black with some green on it.
In response, Raf placed the remote control car on the ground and tested its functions. This could be one of their only chances of getting to Cybertron. So they had to get this right. Optimus was counting on them to bring him back.
"Check," Raf nodded, "Long range GPS activated."
"I have doubts that my recalibrations have successfully extended Ground Bridge range, but there is only one way to find out," Ratchet remarked as he activated the Ground Bridge.
Raf immediately drove the car down the Ground Bridge tunnel. Both him and Ratchet were watching the car intensely. This has to work. It just has to work. If they failed, they were back to square one concerning the mission to send Jack and Arcee to Cybertron and potentially bring back the leader they knew.
"Come on," Ratchet said.
All of there hopes and dreams were destroyed within mere moments. Electricity cackled around the black-and-green radio-controlled car and exploded. The Ground Bridge automatically shut down before the eyes/optics of Raf and Ratchet. Both of them slumped slightly at the sight of failure before them.
"It was just the first try," Raf reassured Ratchet as he turned to look at the medic.
"No, Rafael. It was pure foully. A misguided act of desperation," Ratchet immediately corrected as he turned away from Raf, "It takes eons to master Space Bridge engineering. And no one is more accomplished than the Decepticons."
"You know, there's this thing in gym class where you have to climb a rope. All the way to the ceiling. It's really hard, and I've never been able to do it. But When I told Bee about it, he believed in me, which made me practice a ton. Finally, just a couple of weeks ago, I made it to the top," Raf told him, telling him not to give up.
"what does any of this have to do with gym class?!" Ratchet snapped as he looked at Raf.
"I-I was just-," Raf stuttered, "I'll give you some alone time."
"Optimus, I am so sorry," Ratchet whispered to himself as Raf walked away to give him some time alone.
Orion continued to work on Project Iacon at his workstation. But his mind and spark wasn't fully into the project. His mind was on something else. And that something else is what happened hours ago. Why did Starscream call him a Prime named Optimus? Who was this Optimus? And how was Starscream alive when Megatron told him that he had been terminated?
"Orion," Megatron started as he entered the room, disturbing Orion from his work and thoughts, "I am so sorry for the recent commotion. You weren't in any way harmed, were you?"
"No, Lord Megatron," Orion answered, "But why did you tell me that Starscream was dead?"
"Because he is dead to our cause! Starscream was my most trusted lieutenant. Until he turned traitor and joined the Autobots," Megatron lied, "Never before have I witnessed a more profound act of deceit! He did not do us anything troubling to you?"
"No," Orion answered.
"Good. Perhaps it is best to forget the entire incident and return to your project," Megatron advised breezily before proceeding to walk away.
"As you wish, my lord," Orion nodded before the doors to his workstation closed.
As soon as the doors slammed shut, Megatron's smile was replaced with a sneer. As he was having a feeling that Orion was beginning to regain his memories. And if Optimus came back and realized what was happening, he would try to stop his plans and everything would return to the way it was before with the Autobots winning nearly every battle they have with the Decepticons.
"Orion was never in depth in the art of deception," Megatron recalled as he approached Soundwave, "I made the mistake of not terminating Starscream when I had the opportunity. A mistake I do not intend to make again!"
Back at the Autobot base, the Ground Bridge was activated again. However, Ratchet and Raf weren't testing Ratchet's latest calibrations. Instead, Bulkhead was returning to base after his latest recon assignment. Everyone excluding the humans and Ratchet were assigned quadrants to investigate in their quest for the Decepticon Space Bridge.
"No sign of Energon spikes," Bulkhead reported grimly, "Arcee, Bee or Chromette find the Space Bridge?"
"They haven't yet reported," Ratchet answered sadly.
"Ratchet, are you alright?" Bulkhead asked worriedly.
"Hmm? Yes. Yes, let's just get you to the next quadrant," Ratchet responded abruptly before a series of beeps from the console distracted his thoughts.
"What is it?" Bulkhead asked.
"A high frequency signal. With an embedded message. For me!" Ratchet said with a surprised tone in his voice.
"Optimus?" Bulkhead asked hopefully as Ratchet went to read the message.
Ratchet clicked on the console and a diagram of Starscream appeared on it, "Starscream!" He corrected before reading, "I have obtained information regarding your leader. Bring medical kit. Come alone."
In a remote mountainside forest similar to the place where Arcee and Jack encountered Airachnid after so long, Starscream slumped against the rocks. His leg and aft severely leaking Energon onto the hard dirt ground below. There was no denying that he was in pain. It was clearly written on his face. With the way he sat. The way he breathed. The pain was written all over him.
He then saw a Ground Bridge open up, hoping it was an Autobot one and as a figure walked out of the portal he saw that the figure was Ratchet. Starscream's hope soared slightly. Ratchet got his message. Then…he saw Bulkhead follow him through the portal.
"I told you to come alone!" Starscream said with anger at Ratchet.
"And since when do we listen to you?" Bulkhead asked as he transformed his servos into his wrecking ball mace.
"Where is Optimus?" Ratchet asked him.
"Patch me up and perhaps I'll tell you," Starscream retorted before growling, "Have sympathy. I'm leaking here."
"Then I suggest you speak quickly," Ratchet threatened, "Has Optimus been harmed in any way?!"
"He's fine! Fine! Can't you see I'm the one who's been harmed?" Starscream demanded impatiently.
"Where is he?" Bulkhead demanded angrily.
"Where do you think?!" Starscream retorted, "He's on Megatron's warship."
"Which is located where?" Ratchet asked impatiently.
"Now? Who knows! It's a ship. It moves. It took me months to track, only to get fired upon," Starscream grumbled.
"You wouldn't go to the trouble of calling me here unless you had information to trade, real information," Ratchet pointed out.
"Very well. Your beloved leader may have lost your senses. He goes by the name Orion Pax now, and it seems Megatron has led him to believe he's a Decepticon," Starscream reported.
"Tell us something we don't know," Bulkhead scoffed.
"What?! How could you possibly know that?!" Starscream demanded in disbelief.
"We're wasting our time," Ratchet said as they went to walk back through the portal.
"Wait! That's all I have. You can't just leave me like this!" Starscream called out desperately.
"Unless you know where Megatron's hiding his Space Bridge, you can stay here and rust," Bulkhead said.
"Space Bridge?" Starscream gasped at what the wrecker said, "Do you mean to tell me that they finished building it without my supervision?!" He then shows Ratchet his wound with his servos, "it hurts most here, Doctor."
"The Decepticon Space Bridge is located right here," Ratchet said as the monitor of the Cybertronian computer system aimed at an area of the planet where the Space Bridge was located, "Deep within an energon mine."
"Adjacent to a raw fuel supply," Arcee pointed out.
"Genius," Chromette complimented, "That's a good location for a space Bridge."
"What's our intel?" Arcee asked.
"A...reliable source," Ratchet hesitantly answered,"So, do we have a consensus?"
"Do we know if people can even breathe your atmosphere?" June asked.
"No, June, our atmosphere is made up of mostly nitrogen with an energon form of vapor as well as methane, carbon dioxide, Carbon monoxide, hydrogen as well as a bunch of other elements that are not oxygen," Chromette answered, "Humans can not breathe any of those elements but you do exhale one of them."
"Then how will he breathe on Cybertron?" June asked.
"I'll hook Jack up," Fowler answered before telling them that he could wear a space suit to breathe on their planet, "Completely state of the art. I still have connections at NASA."
June looked at her son with worry, "It's too dangerous," she protested.
"Mom, I know this is hard, but Optimus risked his life to save our planet and he's not even human. We owe it to him," Jack retorted.
"Jack may be the only one who can do this, June. But I don't want you to think for one moment that I'll allow him to travel unchaperoned," Arcee added.
"Not everyone is destined for an ordinary life. Optimus Prime was once Orion Pax, after all," Ratchet proclaimed.
"When you were little, you always wanted to be an astronaut," June recalled.
"OK. Optimus Prime," Orion spoke aloud before typing in the necessary commands, as an image of Ultra Magnus, the second in command of the Autobots appeared on the screen "Oh. Optimus Prime. Leader of the Autobot invaders. I reminded Starscream of him? And Lord Megatron said Ratchet was the Autobot leader. Someone is not telling the truth."
"We will Ground Bridge directly into the Autobot mine. And make our way to the Space Bridge chamber, neutralizing any Decepticon enforcements we encounter," Ratchet began laying out the plan, "Once we secure the Space Bridge, we'll send for Jack. Stealth must be an absolute priority. We will most certainly be outnumbered. And if any Decepticon should transmit an alert to their warship…"
"The odds become 400 to one," Bulkhead finished for Ratchet.
"Scrambling communications upon entry will provide an edge on this regard," Ratchet added.
"Taking the bridge will be the easy part. You four need to hold it long enough for Jack, and me to get to Cybertron and back," Arcee pointed out, new determination filling her voice.
"Rafael climbed to the top of the rope in gym class. We can do anything," Ratchet retorted.
"What does gym class have to do with anything?" Miko asked, "And if Ratchet gets to go on a commando raid, I'm going to."
"Miko, you will help Rafael operate our Ground Bridge and manage the communications op," Ratchet decided.
Miko groaned before stalking away mumbling to herself, as she walked to join Raf at the control systems, "Can't go to Cybertron. Can't storm the Decepticon Space Bridge."
"And Nurse Darby, you will stand by in case of an emergency," Ratchet finished allocating the jobs.
"Son?" Fowler started, earning their attention, "It's time to suit up." Inside the mine, a Ground Bridge portal was shining brightly and wide open. If any of the Vehicon noticed and decided to investigate, they would've wandered their way inside the Autobot base. Fortunately for the Autobots, no Vehicons noticed and dared to sneak a peek. As soon as Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Chromette and Arcee stepped out of the portal, the portal closed behind them.
"Clear," Bulkhead observed.
"Clear," Arcee echoed.
"Clear," Chromette said.
The Vehicons stood near one of the many drills that stood in the mine. They didn't notice Arcee standing on top of the drill they were guarding to obtain a better view. When she had that view, she jumped in front of a Vehicon. With her arm blades, she destroyed the Vehicon preparing to attack behind her. His companion activated and charged his blaster at her. While Chromette was behind the Energon driller and before he could shoot Arcee, Chromette tackled the other Vehicon, from behind the driller, deployed her blade after tackling him and sliced his head with it.
"Command, this is Space Bridge Control! We are under attack! Command! Do you read?"
Another Vehicon tried to contact the warship to alert Megatron of the Autobot invasion. The scrambler Ratchet had activated before walking through the portal was successfully doing its job. The Vehicon was having trouble contacting the Nemesis. But it didn't mean that the Vehicon was going to give up without a fight. When the Vehicon turned around, Bulkhead whacked him with his Wrecking ball mace. The Vehicon fell to the floor offline.
"Shhh," Ratchet hissed.
Together, the five Autobots ran towards the elevator lift, which immediately went down. Arcee, Chromette, Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Ratchet defeated the Vehicons on the first level. Now, there was only one more wave of Vehicons standing in their way of commandeering the Space Bridge. And they immediately met one as soon as the elevator arrived on the designated level.
"Going down," Bulkhead smirked as he smashed the Vehicon's head.
Without thinking twice, they immediately took off running at high speeds. With everything that was at stake, they couldn't afford to stop and fall back. They had to keep moving forward. This could be their only chance to do this. They couldn't afford any mistakes. Immediately, they divided in two and hid behind rocks. Ratchet teamed up with Bumblebee, Chromette and Arcee hid behind a rock with Bulkhead. Together, they observed the action and situation that was laid out before them. And…it was something that surprised them.
"By the AllSpark!" Ratchet gasped.
There wasn't that many Vehicons there. But there was enough to make a significance. But that wasn't the aspect that surprised the Autobots. Oh no. What surprised them was the Space Bridge. It was bigger than the last Space Bridge. There was no denying that. It was situated against the rock wall of the mine. There was a walkway leading towards the portal whenever it was activated. Vehicons – though small in quantity – keep it under constant surveillance. Much like they do with the brig, the Energon Storage Vault and Orion's workstation back onboard the Nemesis.
"Thank you, Starscream," Arcee remarked, causing Bulkhead to look at her in alarm, "Who else would it be?"
suddenly one of the autobots picked up one of the Energon Drillers and threw it in the air causing it to hurtling towards the surprised Vehicons nearby. No matter how many lasers they fired, they couldn't stop their own drill. Some were crushed upon impact. As soon as they saw the five Autobots running towards them, it was guns blazing. Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Chromette and Arcee had the Vehicons defeated in moments. Leaving Ratchet free to observe the technology and figure out how to use it.
"A masterpiece of engineering," Ratchet sighed dreamily as he approached the Space Bridge's computer.
"Operational?" Arcee asked.
"Fully," Ratchet nodded after touching the monitor which beeped.
"Perimeter secured," Bulkhead reported.
"Now the scary part," Arcee remarked.
"I'm shutting down the scrambler in order to contact base and maintain communication for the remainder of the mission," Ratchet declared, "Strike Team to base. Objective secured."
"That's your cue," Fowler said to Jack.
Jack was wearing a grey colored spacesuit holding the spacesuit's helmet with his right arm against his side. He climbed down the latter from the catwalk, he put the helmet on and sealed it, so it wouldn't come off at the wrong time. He turned around and looked Raf, Miko, his mother and Fowler.
"Bring me back a souvenir," Raf requested.
"So, what happens when you have to go to the bathroom?" Miko asked.
"Safe journey, Son," Fowler said, bidding farewell to him.
"Just go already. Optimus needs you," June said.
Jack stepped backwards and gave them a salute, Fowler returned the salute as Jack walked through the Ground Bridge Portal.
Inside the mine, Jack walked through the other side of the open Ground Bridge portal. Arcee, Chromette, Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Ratchet were waiting for them patiently. When they walked through, the portal closed behind him and Arcee stepped forward.
"Locking onto Cybertron," Ratchet proclaimed.
"You ready?" Arcee asked him.
Jack removed the key from his pocket. Optimus had entrusted this to him for this. It was almost as if he knew that this was going to happen after defeating Unicron. He squeezed his hand before finally facing Arcee.
"Let's do this," Jack nodded.
"I'll leave the Space Bridge portal open in order to eliminate any communication lag over the great distance and make it easier for you to locate when you return," Ratchet promised them.
"Easier to locate?" Jack echoed in confusion, "You're not just gonna bridging us straight to the Big V?"
"Vector Sigma's true location is shrouded in myth and rumor, Jack. It is said the path of the primes leads there. We must be confident that coptimus will guide you," Ratchet answered as he turned back towards the Space Bridge controls as Jack put the key back in his pocket.
"Don't worry. Space Bridging is just like Ground Bridging," Arcee reassured him.
Then Ratchet activated the Space Bridge, The portal was bigger than one of a Ground Bridge it was louder too as well.
"Just a little more intense!" Arcee shouted over the noise.
together, Jack and Arcee walked towards the portal.
Cybertron was a barren metallic wasteland, scars of warfare were shown on the devastated buildings showing that the planet was currently dead and is unable to support life, There was no evidence of life left. Except , Arcee and Jack stepped through the portal on the lifeless planet. They took in everything. Every piece of building that was destroyed. The roads covered in ruins. How everything was so dark. Slowly, they took their first steps on the planet that was abandoned for so long.
"I…I can't believe it." Jack gasped, "I'm actually on another planet. Arcee, this is incredible."
"Arcee?" He called her name as she didn't respond.
He turned to see that Arcee had an expression on her face that was filled with sadness as she sees the aftermath of Primus resetting the core of Cybertron due to the foul influence of Dark Energon, "This didn't want how I wanted you to see my home," she told him.
"I'm...I'm sorry," he apologized.
"In the fog of war, it's hard to see beyond the next leg of the mission. Beyond the next punch in a fight. We did everything to save Cybertron. But when the fog finally lifted, there wasn't much left to save," Arcee recalled in sadness.
"Arcee, Jack, do you copy?"
Ratchet's voice over their commlink broke the reflective mood hanging in the air. They began remembering why they had come back to Cybertron to begin with. Newfound determination kicked in as they remembered what they had to do.
"Roger We're on Cybertron!" Jack answered, on the comlink.
"WHOO-HOO!" Miko cheered as she and Raf shared a high-five.
"Yes!" Fowler yelled as he punched his fist in the air before hugging June's shoulders.
"Thank Goodness," June sighed in relief.
"Just keep the sightseeing to a minimum, huh?" Bulkhead said.
"Hopefully, it's not that far from your current position," Chromette said
"Indeed. We don't know if your journey ahead is 5 klicks or 5000," Ratchet added, agreeing with Bulkhead and Chromette.
"Understood," Arcee nodded, "We're out."
"OK. Ratchet said that card would lead us, but I don't see how or what am I supposed to-" Jack started as he took the key to Vector Sigma out from his pocket and as he moved around a bit till he noticed that blue light was emanating from it, the light got brighter when he pointed it in a certain angle.
"There you go," Arcee complimented before transforming into her alternate form Jack hopped on Arcee before speeding away.
"This could be a while," Bulkhead remarked.
"Space Bridge control, do you read me?" Breakdown's voice said from the console.
They just gained a new problem. Breakdown was radioing them demanding a progress report.
"Space Bridge, Control, This is Breakdown. Your status report is overdue."
"Scrap," Bulkhead whispered before clearing his throat and going to answer.
"No, Bulkhead! He'll recognize your voice!" Ratchet stopped him.
"I could make it lower. Higher?" Bulkhead offered.
"He would recognize mine, as well," he added, remembering the time when he infused himself with Synthetic Energon and became a menace to everyone.
"Mine too," Chromette said.
They then turned to face Bumblebee, hoping he would answer the call. Then they remembered. Megatron crushed his vocal processors in Tyger Pax when Optimus ejected the AllSpark into space with a container forged by Alpha Trion. It's official. They are screwed.
"Come in, Space Bridge Control, don't make me come down there and dent some engine blocks," Breakdown threatened, clearly getting agitated at the no response he was getting.
"Somebody say something, Pronto!" Fowler said from the Autobot base's comlink.
Fowler's voice breaking through the commlink suddenly gave Ratchet an idea. Breakdown would recognize the voices of Bulkhead, Chromette, Ratchet and Bumblebee's buzzes/ beeps. But he wouldn't recognize Fowler's voice. He would be given an earful from Fowler when all of this is over. But too much is at stake.
"Rafael, patch in Agent Fowler," Ratchet requested Raf with his comlink, surprising Fowler.
"You have one nanoclick to respond or I'll-" Breakdown's threat was suddenly cut short.
"This is Space Bridge Control. Situation Normal," Fowler said.
"Normal? You sure about that?" Breakdown asked in confusion.
"We were just calibrating the subsystems and we, uh, had a surge, but it's fine now. How are you?"
Then he remembered what he asked. Everyone's eyes widened in horror. Everyone was praying that Breakdown wouldn't figure out that something was up and come down to Space Bridge Control. If he did…well, back to square one. And both Jack and Arcee could wind up stranded on Cybertron with no way back.
"Uh, never better. I know it's thankless down there keep up the good work, huh?" Breakdown said, surprising everyone, revealing that he cared for Vehicons.
"Will do. Control out," Fowler said before disconnecting the communications feed and letting out a huge sigh of relief.
"Why would the Decepticon archives be so heavily encrypted?" Orion asked himself.
He then went back to work decrypting the Decepticon archives. Needless to say, his curiosity was bordering on desperation. He needed to know more about him. He needed to know more about Optimus Prime. Why Starscream said he reminded him of him. He saw a picture of Optimus Prime heavily encrypted. His optics narrowed in determination as he went to decrypt the codes shrouding image of Ultra Magnus flickered as the image became something that he couldn't believe. As he saw himself.
"How could I possibly be Optimus Prime?" Orion gasped with confusion.
Meanwhile in the Bridge, Soundwave was displaying a security feed of Orion decrypting the file about Optimus Prime to Megatron.
"Even our encryptions couldn't keep him from the truth," Megatron said as he turned around and walked away, "Orion has much to accomplish, and he will stay the course, even if I must inflict great pain to ensure the completion of Project Iacon."
Back on Cybertron, Arcee was driving with Jack riding on her as he took the Key to Vector Sigma out of his pocket again and it was glowing brighter as he pointed it forward.
"That way," Jack said.
"Toward Kaon?" Arcee said with disbelief.
"The Decepticon capital. Swell," Jack remarked sarcastically.
"We're on foot from here," Arcee said as she skidded to a stop.
Jack glanced up at the tall building in front of him, that looked like it was the Decepticon's base in Kaon, Arcee turned off her engine as he dismounted her and transformed into her robot form with her right servo transformed into a blaster,"Don't want engine noise to attract the wrong kind of attention," she remarked, as she pointed her gun at various locations, her soldier instincts kicking in.
"'Cons?" Jack guessed.
"Vermin," Arcee corrected.
Jack took the key to Vector Sigma out and it was glowing as Arcee began to walk across a bridge and Jack followed her slowly and carefully across the footbridge.
Meanwhile beneath them a stasis pod opens up and an insectoid cybertronian wakes up. The creature snarling was and dangled before reaching for the underfoot of the bridge. The crawling was slow at first…then it gradually went faster. He was seeking prey. And that prey…was Jack and Arcee on top of the bridge.
To be continued and please review
Note: I didn't make up the elements of Cybertron toxic atmosphere, I looked it up and my favorite part was when Fowler says "How are you?" does anyone else love that part as well?