Chapter Three – Return Of The Decepticons
The darkness inside the Decepticon shuttle was spooky and made many of the men nervous as the carefully took each step as they walked behind Archeville. The old scientist wasn't afraid to lead the team in front; his powerful light on his helmet shone down the corridor and revealed nothing that would be considered frightening to him. In fact, the entire way was clear with no sign of the evil robots lying about. Noticing this fact, Archeville came to a stop and moved his headlight around to make sure he wasn't missing the obvious.
"Funny...they should be lying on the ground just as they were in the Ark." He mumbles to himself.
One of the six officers came up beside him and spoke with a nervous pitch. "Sh-sh-shouldn't we keep moving sir? I mean...what if...what if they have an automatic defense system that's still active. We might get killed by a random laser or something like that?"
"Don't be stupid boy." The doctor snaps back at him in a gruff voice. "It must be obvious that they were either on the bridge or the cargo bay when it went down. There's no defense system on this ship, they wouldn't have the energy or the parts to spare to create one. This vessel's sole purpose was to take them home with a large cargo. Now stop your idiotic questions and tell the others to keep moving towards the bridge."
"Yes Sir...uh...where is that by the way?" The confused man asked.
Archeville rolls his eyes and turns around to lead the way. "I should have come by myself. Follow me children...and do keep up."
As the old man continues to take lead, the others group up in a tight formation behind him. The echoing of their footsteps makes them all twitch around with their weapons poised and ready to fire on anything that moves. Turning down yet another dark corridor, the men all point their headlights down the way and notice the large Decepticon insignia on the door at the very end. Archeville gives a cheerful smirk and rubs his hands greedily.
"Ah...there it is. So much trouble the Autobots have caused me to get to this point...but their failure to prevent me from this defining moment was worth it. Without them to stop me this time...I will finally win. Megatron...and all his secrets within his brain...are now...MINE!"
Continuing to chortle at his scheming thoughts, he now walks proudly towards the door with absolute fearlessness. The guards behind him try to keep up the pace and seem surprised that this old man has such youthful vigor to out step the likes of them. But before they can even get half way to the large door, a sudden low growl sounds out towards them from the darkness behind. All of them stop dead in their tracks and turn around to see the direction of the noise.
"W-w-what the hell was that?" The middle soldier says in a trembling voice.
"Might be the ship..." The other solder says standing beside him. "Pressure could be slowly distorting the metal...or...or something like that."
Archeville looks into the darkness with his helmet light and peers with curious eyes.
"No...Metal wouldn't make that sound if it was being crushed. Maybe the subs are too close to the hull...scratching it even..."
He brings up his arm communicator that's built into the suit and taps a green button on its display.
"Sub Alpha One...this is Archeville. Report your status...over."
Outside in the dark, forbidding waters, the commander of Archeville's sub answers back as he sits in the old man's command chair.
"This is Alpha One, Sir. We're still attached to the side and Sub Beta Two is continuing to explore the forward section of the ship and Sub Omega Three is heading down to the stern of it. Why is there a problem? Over."
"Contact Beta Two and Omega Three and see if they are cruising too close to the ship's hull. We're picking up a noise down here and I want to be certain that they are not damaging the vessel." The old man's voice responds on the crackling speaker.
"Rodger that sir." The commander replies. "Helm, hail Beta and Omega, tell them to give Archeville a status report on his com-link."
Down near the front of the resting Decepticon ship, the second submarine glides smoothly over the top of the massive metal ship and keeps shifting it's lights as it scans everywhere around it. Through the communication link up they send their report directly to the doctor in response.
"This is Beta sir...we're well above the ship and not even near the hull." The deep male voice says to him.
In almost the same height and cruising speed, the third sub is also scanning with its lights and delivering the Project N leader the same sort of report.
"Omega here sir...we're not even touching the ship per your request. I don't know where you're getting the sound from." The female voice also informs him.
As Archeville gave a short sigh of relief for brief moment, the woman commander spoke again as she continued to speak to the old man.
"No...wait. I do see something...what...what the hell is that?"
"What do you see commander?" Archeville demanded.
"Oh...oh my god!" She screamed.
As the third sub continued to hover over the stern of the ship, a massive streak of green light struck through the human vessel and spliced it in half. The energy blast was so intense that it caused the entire submarine to implode into a huge round mess of fire, bubbles and crumpling metallic debris. The shock wave of the explosion rocked the Alpha sub out of it's lock on the ship and tore away from the side. The sirens inside of it were blaring all over as the crew scrambled to their stations to see what had happened. Archeville could hear the events echoing deep within the bowls of the Decepticon ship and screamed at his sub commanders.
"What is happening?! Alpha! Beta! Give me a report damnit!!"
Trying to stabilize itself from the quake, the beta sub turned around ninety degrees and started heading back towards the Alpha submarine.
"Sir, this is Beta...Omega no longer appears on our sonar...they've...they've been totally blown away by...oh...OH SHIT!"
Once again, another green streak of light rips into the second sub and punches a hole right through it. The blast hurls debris out into the murky depths and some human bodies can be seen coming out from the forcible blast. The commander is heard screaming over the airwaves and soon ends as the vessel explodes in a manner similar to the previous sub. Archeville's eyes grow wide with panic as he hears the sound of his men dying on his communicator. The guards standing beside him close their eyes in fear as they too are overcome by the deadly screams that soon become silent.
"This...this can't be happening...what...what is going on?" The old man stutters in shock. "Alpha...Alpha...report! REPORT DAMN YOU!!"
The last human submarine soon controls its chaotic spin and the crew regains their positions after being thrown around. The commander sits in his chair once again and looks on the monitors as they switch on. Each camera flicks on every angle around the sub as it tries to see their attackers and Lieutenant Becker keeps a vigil eye while trying to keep pressure on his bleeding forehead.
"This...this is Becker sir. I...I can't see anything. Beta and Omega are gone...the ship is on full alert...we're taking on water...."
Then the man's face goes completely pale and his eyes gaze at the screen in total shock.
"What? What is it Becker?!" Archeville is heard screaming over the speakers. "For the love of god man! What do you see?"
"Decepticons!" The man utters in a doomed voice.
As the sub gets a blast from the deadly green energy blast, a booming male-sounding robotic laugh can be heard as it strikes into the ship and sends it into a deadly fate as the other subs encountered.
"Welcome to your end...Humans!"
The team inside the Decepticon ship hears the voice just as the last submarine cuts out from communication and gives a terrified look at each other.
"Screw this man!" One of the younger soldiers utters loudly. "I didn't come all this way to die!"
The kid bolts down the dark corridor and drops his weapon.
"Get back here coward!!" Archeville shouts at him in anger.
As the young man disappears into the void, a sudden blood-curling scream from him echoes out as the sound of something sharp rips into him. The others back away slowly and aim their guns at the darkness.
"Jason? JASON!" The lead soldier shouts out in panic.
"This...this isn't possible...they...they can't be alive! They can't be alive...they can't...they can't...." Archeville utters over and over again.
The men fire their weapons furiously in fear, point in all directions, in every dark corner, they bombard the ship with their weapons powerful laser fire. As they continue to blast away, the entire ship lights up and soon the darkness inside becomes as bright as day. The men stop firing as the notice the ship is fully powered again and see their friend at the end of the corridor lying in a pool of blood.
"So humans..." Starscream's voice echoes through the air. "You thought you could come hear and try to steal our technology?"
His laughter booms though the corridor loudly as the thought strikes his mind.
"Fools! No one...but, NO ONE...dares to steal from a Decepticon! Now you must pay...."
Stepping out from one of the hidden passages at the end of the hallway, Starscream and Ravage reveal themselves to the frightened group huddled together at the opposite end.
"With your deaths!" The Decepticon commander finishes speaking.
Ravage growls, his eyes light up a beaming red glow and begins to charge towards them with his mouth wide open. Archeville snaps out of his scared stupor and takes charge of the terrified commandos.
"Just don't stand there like idiots! Open Fire!!"
The men scream out in anger as they obey his command and strike at the rushing black robotic cat with everything they've got. The damage was very effective as the energy shots manage to cripple the black cat as it gets flung back from the hits. Starscream shakes his fist in anger at the humans and aims both his arm cannons at the men.
"Bah! Ravage...you weakling! I'll do this myself! DIE HUMANS! DIE!!!"
Starscream's lasers strike all around the men and explode in large bursts of fire; they all dive for cover and try to hide behind the various struts along the corridor. They return fire at the Decepticon with equal force and try to protect Archeville as much as possible. The doctor himself hides behind one of the soldiers firing, but gazes back at the large door with the symbol on it.
"If I could just get into that room...he'll be all mine...then they'd have to obey my will alone!"
The soldier looks over his shoulder at Archeville and gives him a curious glance.
"Are you nuts, doc?! I think it's pretty obvious they're not dead!"
"Megatron is mine...he's mine...I'm so close...I...I can't stop now!!" The madman howls in a crazed tone.
As Starscream continues to fire, Soundwave, Rumble and even Thundercracker run up to aid in the commander's attack against the few remaining humans. One by one the team beings to dwindle down, some loosing limbs, some burn to death and the last one trying to protect Archeville gets his head sliced off as Soundwave takes out a large dual blade shaped like a round disc and thrusts it right into the metal strut the man was trying to stay protected behind. With no one left to protect Archeville, the old man takes the weapon of his dead soldier's hand and aims it at the group of Decepticons closing in on him.
"I won't be denied! I'm destined to be the ruler of the world! Do you hear me? Nothing can stop me now...not even you!"
He fires the gun rapidly at the evil robotic group and laughs in full insanity, tears stream down his cheeks as he loses his mind from the onslaught of death around him, it was now apparent that Archeville was no longer in his right mind. The Decepticons shielded themselves from his volley of weapon fire, but Starscream stood his ground and opened up his right side arm panel. A group of rockets rolled out from under it and he took aim at the pathetic doctor trying to strike them down.
"I've had enough of this...."
Only launching one rocket from his arm, it blasted down the hallway and straight for the old man. Stopping in wild shooting, Archeville saw the bomb heading his way and gave his last word.
"Damn."
The rocket struck just in front of him and caused him to be blown back at the door he had so wanted to get into. The blast had torn off his arm burned his body and now lay bleeding to death on the ground just at the base of the door. Starscream walked over and held his gun down to the dying man's head and smirked at him.
"Proud of yourself little man? Time to put this animal out of its misery."
Suddenly the large door opened and Megatron, the tall, silver-polished leader stood there with his arm cannon pointed at the air commander's head.
"STARSCREAM! I told you that this one was to be unharmed!"
The jet commander gulped as he came face to face with the leader's massive black cannon.
"I...I wasn't really going to kill him Megatron...honest. I was just waiting for you to enter this very moment...heh-heh-heh!"
Megatron's red eyes flashed in anger and pushed his cannon even further at the cowering Decepticon.
"You fool. I need him alive and fully functional for questioning...now look what you've done! I warn you Starscream...and this will be the only time...if he so much as dies within the next few moments...you die with him!"
"NO, PLEASE MEGATRON!" Starscreams begs. "I'll fix him...I'll repair his wounds!"
"You'd better Starscream!" Megatron barks at him. "And be quick to learn how...This creature is losing vital fluids as we speak, if he isn't tended to quickly then his frail brain will cease to function!"
Starscream nods at the evil leader and reaches down to pick Archeville up. As the badly broken and dying old man is raised up to eye level with Megatron, the leader gazes down at him and smiles.
"Welcome to our home...Doctor Archeville."
The evil robot laughs hysterically as the old man stares at him with blood shot eyes and a fractured skull. It is the last image he sees of the Decepticon as he soon blacks out in to a coma.