Chapter 15 – Ride To War
Area 51
The large smoldering crater sits like a pinpoint of a major bomb blast, the sheer depth of it shows all the levels the underground structure had and all the people that once worked inside of it. The Autobots used their grappling hook arms to lower down and rescue the survivors; Ratchet remained on the surface near the crater's edge and tended to both the wounded and the dead. The human medics, the ones that survived as well, also helped where they could. It was a field of bodies and screaming wounded that reminded many soldiers of the wars of old. Prime remained standing on the edge of the devastation and looked at it all as he folded his arms.
"All this just to keep a damn secret." He mutters.
"Not just any secret Optimus…secrets to keep humanity safe."
Looking down beside him, Prime sees Commander West limp up to join him as they both assess the damage.
"The very reason why this place was created, so that we could ensure that the rest of human kind would never be exposed to this kind of horror."
"I sincerely doubt that." Prime snickers. "You amaze me…you believe you're doing all this for the greater good, that you'll protect the Earth by keeping things locked away and living in your delusions. Meanwhile, your race suffers through wars, acts of terror, diseases and starvation all because you won't share the technology or new discoveries with everyone. That's not being protective. That's being superior to all else. A unique little club with only the most elite members."
Prime looks away from him in disgust.
"You're a sad individual, West. A follower of a madman like Archeville."
West stays silent and just continues to look out at the craters that once housed the massive multi-leveled underground base. In the back of his mind, he knew Prime was right. They kept things; dark secrets, medical cures and even technology that might have propelled humanity further than anyone dared dream. But in the end, Archeville was always there to keep it shelved and left hidden for no one to use. After witnessing the power the energy cannon and the thousands of dead soldiers laying about the place, that moment of shame passed. He gave the Autobot leader an answer that he was proud to admit.
"At least Archeville new what he was doing. You on the other hand Optimus Prime…charged in here without a single thought of what could occur…or even to the safety of my men."
Prime seemed shocked by that remark and knelt down to the man as his eyes flashed a bright blue in anger.
"I knew exactly what was going to happen, Commander West! I'm only sorry to say, that none of you could comprehend what sort of weapons you were getting your hands on. Project N is over…finished…and good riddance I say."
West let a smirk creep upon his face.
"Who said this was Project N Optimus?"
"What?" The leader suddenly says as his eyes dim from the brightness they shone. "What do you mean?"
"Project N…" The commander continues with his arms folding back. "Its not here. This is only a secondary site. More like a station built to house the many things taken from Project N."
Prime stands up and continues to look shocked.
"Taken? There's more to this secret? Tell me West….tell me where is Project N, the real Project…no more of these games of yours."
"Why should I tell you?" He says turning away from him. "I think it would be better never to let you know."
Suddenly Bumblebee calls the Autobot leader on his inner communication linkup.
"Optimus…"
Prime raises his right hand and presses it against the right side of his head.
"Go ahead?" He answers back.
"We've been trying to hail Autobot headquarters and getting no response. It's like nobody is there."
Prime sighs as his eyes lower a bit.
"Keep trying…I'll join you all below in a minute. Oh and Bumblebee…have you found any trace of the Constructicons? I don't want to leave any thing behind here…"
Prime looks over at West as he too looks up at him.
"Just in case they get any funny ideas of stealing Decepticon technology for themselves."
"After that blast Prime…" Bumblebee snickers. "I'd be surprised if there was even a smear of them left. But we'll keep looking to be sure. Bumblebee out."
Prime turns off the inner communicator and folds his arms as he continues talking to the human base commander.
"You know…another thought has just crossed my mind."
"Do tell Prime." The man said rolling his eyes.
"If the Decepticons are alive…and Megatron as well…don't you think they'd know about Project N too?"
The man laughed at the thought, but then quickly stopped as he suddenly got the notion the Autobot was right.
"Don't you find it rather disturbing that Devastator came to destroy this place?" Optimus continues to say as West listens with his back turned. "Why would he do that? More to the point…why was he so interested in your energy cannon? He wanted you to expose that weapon…it was a ruse to get you to raise it up and then…take it from you."
West's eyes grow wide with realization.
"Take it? No…no that's a lie. He wanted to destroy it…the Decepticons were mad at us for shooting them down."
Prime shook his head negatively at the confused human.
"No commander. Devastator was here to find the weapon…and bring it back to Megatron. If he had wanted to destroy it…there wouldn't be the long drawn out battle that ensued. He was toying with you….making you resort to bringing it out and trying to use it on him. But…why would he want the cannon so badly? That's the question isn't it West? If this is only the second part of the project…then where do you think the other Decepticons are?"
"Oh my god." The man utters in horror. "It's not possible…they couldn't know…unless….unless…"
"Yes?" Prime questions.
The man slowly turns around and stares blankly at him.
"Unless they found Archeville and made him reveal where the project was!"
Covering his mouth, Commander West quickly feels ill at the thought. Optimus Prime unfolds his arms and places them on his hips. Nodding in agreement, he too thinks the worst has happened.
"Found him, used him, perhaps even killed him. If there's one thing Megatron is notorious for…it's exposing secrets to his advantage."
"Optimus Prime." West now says firmly. "This is a serious problem…you have to stop them. If Project N falls into their hands…"
"Are you trusting us now with this Commander?" Prime says as he kneels back down to him again. "I would have thought you wouldn't share this information with even the likes of us."
"Spare me the sarcasm, Autobot." West grumbles. "This is definitely grim for both of us."
"Then tell me where it is, West. Where is Project N?"
The man purses his lips and gives a hesitative look.
"I can't believe I'm telling you this…North. The project is in the Arctic…in the most Northern part of the pole to be exact."
"You'd better be telling me the truth this time West." Prime says to him.
"This time Optimus…I dare not…for all our sakes."
Prime nods and rises back up again. He soon rushes down off down to the other Autobots who only just now rise out of the crater with the last of the wounded. Gathering in one spot after everyone was brought out. The Autobots gave a handshake to one another for a job well done and even gave a stretch from all the work.
"Man is my back just on the last spring coil…" Blaster breathes out. "Next time you guys wake me out of a coma…don't bring me along to more of these hard missions."
"You've got it easy buddy." Inferno laughs. "Try putting out a million fires at once…my coolant must be nothing but vapors now."
"Hey!" Ironhide shouts in his southern-like twang. "Here comes Optimus! Funny how he shows up when all the hard work is over. Ain't that right Prime?"
Prime finally reaches them all and tries to quiet them down as they laugh at Ironhide's humor.
"The hard work isn't over yet everyone. Pay attention all of you."
"What is it Prime?" Hound asks with concern.
"We're heading to the north pole."
"The north pole?" Sideswipe laughs. "We need to pay a visit to the human called Santa Claus?"
"Who the heck is Santa Claus?" Red Alert says nervously. "Is he hiding deadly secrets too?"
"No…" Prime replies in a stern tone. "But it is where this never ending cycle of lies ends. Project N is stationed there…and that is where we must go to end this threat once and for all."
"How do you mean Prime?" Prowl asks rubbing his chin.
Optimus takes out his gun from the side panel of his leg that opens. Bringing it out and pulling back on the energy chargers, the looks at the others and holds the heavy weapon up onto his shoulder.
"I'll explain it all to you on the way. Autotbots…mount up. We're going into action again…and you can bet that Deceptions will be waiting for us."
"Alright!" Ironhide says pushing his fist into his other hand. "Now I gotz me a reason to get my knuckles lined up."
Prime raises his weapon up over his head and shouts his now infamous command.
"AUTOBOTS! TRANSFORM AND ROLL OUT!"
The united sound of them all reverting to their other forms fills the air. The human soldiers all watch them in amazement; it was hard to fathom how these robots change so quickly and into everyday looking vehicles. Still they were rather humbled by theses 'robots in disguise', if it hadn't been for Optimus and his bunch, Devastator would have surely killed them all.
Optimus Prime looked back and saw West slowly walking over to him.
"Optimus!" He shouts. "One more thing. Don't ever attempt to interfere with our operations again. Remember this isn't your world…it's ours…you're just a visitor from another planet."
"And yet commander…." Prime adds. "Here we are cleaning up your planet from the mess you've made of it. We may only be visitors…but something tells me you're just as alien to your own kind then any of us are."
Prime transforms into his tractor-trailer mode and rides out ahead of the Autobot group. Together they increase speed down the dusty, dirt valley and zip away into transwarp as they head to the Arctic.
West slicks back his hair and tries to wipe the dirt from his clothes. The dust they stirred up is left all over him, he spits out all the grit that flew into his mouth and takes out a cell phone from his inside pocket. It's black with a green neon circle on its faceplate. He flips it open and instantly communicates with the person on the other end.
"This is West."
"Yes sir?" The male voice says on the other end.
"Did you get the items out of Level 13?"
"As you instructed before the blast hit sir. Yes."
"Good." He smiles. "I'll join you soon at the lab when we've cleaned up here. At least there's still one secret we can hold on too without anymore interruptions."
"Aye sir. Over and out."
Flipping the phone back and placing it in his jacket pocket again, the commander lets out a sigh of relief and walks away.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Just beyond the rocky plateau of Area 51, scattered all around the large sand valley lay green metallic parts, and a large head sticking out half buried in the ground. The head is that of Devastator, the large Decepticon that was caught in the blast is now laying in ruins all over the ground. The look of surprise is still on the face of the mighty being, his red eye shield cracked and burned and still smoldering away. The Constructicon was blown back into his separate individuals once again as they lay there half-transformed and missing limbs of their own.
"Ooh…what….what happened?" A robotic voice speaks from the debris.
"What do you think happened Scrapper!" Hook's voice shouts. "We got our butts kicked you ninny!"
Rising up and out of the sand sits Scrapper, the leader of the Constructicon gestalt team.
"I feel like someone just dragged my head across the plasma fires of hell itself. Can you transform Hook?"
The transformer tries to unfold from being the torso of Devastator, no longer attached to the head and lying on his side, Hook slowly and painfully reverts back to his robotic state.
"Uhg…aaah….rrraaahh! Well…that was an embarrassing moment in Constructicon history. Devastator defeated…by humans."
"You mean Autobots." Scrapper quickly corrects him as he walks over to help him up. "Don't forget it was Optimus Prime that drove Devastator back into the weapon. Not the humans. They would have been slaughtered had it not been for the Autobots showing up."
"Indeed." Hook nods in frustration. "Wait a minute…how the heck did you manage to survive? For that matter…how did any of us?"
"I…I can fill you in on that!" Another Constructicon says as he rises up out of the dirt.
"Ok, Mixmaster…" Hook sighs as he rests his fingers against the bridge of his robotic nose. "Let's here your amazing tale of how we survived a full powered blast from an energy cannon…."
As the fellow Decepticon stands up, he begins to search for his right arm that was blown off of him and continues to explain to them.
"Our bodies are covered in a rare alloy I procured on Tallus Minor during our last mission before we were recalled to Cybertron. I found it had a very dense molecular structure and was very immune to intense heat. Naturally it was too good of an opportunity to pass up…so I gathered as much as I could and brought it back home to refine in my lab."
"Are you serious?" Scrapper scoffs as he and Hook look for the others in the sand. "There is no such metal of that kind. If there was I would know about it."
"Ha!" Mixmaster scoffs. "You only know of common elements my friend. I, on the other hand, am a skilled chemist and geologist and know a lot more then you on such things."
"Now is not the time to boast Mixmaster….besides…" Hook now adds as he discovers Longhaul's hand moving about and begins pulling him out. "Uhhh…that still doesn't explain…gaah…how you managed to apply it to us. If memory serves…I don't remember us being together to be coated with your material."
Mixmaster laughs and reattaches his arm as he discovers it.
"Well, I've been slowly adding it to our bodies every time we've been repairing or putting on a new coat of paint to ourselves. It took a bit of time to do it, but now we're completely treated with the metal."
"Sneaky." Longhaul says as he finally gets out of the ground. "Very sneaky of you Mixmaster."
"Thank you." The chemical expert nods. "All in a day's or in this case…centuries work. Heh!"
Scrapper gives a sigh and sits down on the ground.
"Yes…if Megatron ever found out you've been using that compound for us alone…he'd make sure you where put offline for good."
"Which is why I had to do it in such discreet manner Scrapper. I only had enough to do all of us…and even that was stretching every ounce I had left."
Hook still looks around the ground and suddenly stops as he finds one of their own again.
"Ugh! I think I've found Scavenger…or what's left of him."
Scrapper gets up and runs over to have a look.
"Looks like he took the brunt of the blast. So much for your metallic coating on him Mixmaster…"
The other Constructicons walk over and all gaze at their friend laying in pieces.
"I didn't say it would completely shield us…." Mixmaster confesses. "Just give us enough to protect our bodies from melting."
"Hey, your right." Hook says crouching down and expecting the body. "There's not even melted bolt on his frame. Incredible. This should make it easy to repair him."
"Excellent…" Scrapper nods. "Well done Mixmaster, finally we have an advantage over our Decepticon brethren!"
"Ok, so we found Scavenger….so where's Bonecrusher?" Hook sighs.
"Yo! Over here!" A voice cries out in the distance.
A few feet away is Bonecrusher, his body ripped in half as he tries to crawl over to them with only his arms to use.
"I think the other half of me is down farther!"
"So much for the might of the Constructions." Scrapper says with disappointment. "Now we have to rebuild Devastator from scratch and get our unification modes back online."
Hook picks up the struggling Bonecrusher and flings him over his shoulder.
"Look at it this way Scrapper…this time we can make some improvements to him and make him even stronger."
Scrapper strokes his chin in thought.
"Hmm…good idea Hook. This world may yet yield some new raw materials we could acquire to give Devastator an advantage."
As the group finally comes together and all their parts are found, the Constructicons use their flight capability to rise out of the canyon and head out into the sky.
"Back to base everyone…" Scrapper commands. "Our time will come again soon."
"What about Devastator's head? We can't just leave it there!" Scavenger whines.
"Be grateful we don't leave you there too…" Hook replies. "And stop moving about will you…I can't fly with you shifting all over me!"
"I can't get comfortable!"
"Tough!" Hook shouts.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
"Stop! Please! You're crushing me!"
The painful plea of Chip Chase was lost on the Decepticon Leader as he continued to squeeze the young man slowly. Megatron wasn't even looking at him as he begged to stop. Instead the Decepticon leader was fixated on Archeville below, who even now refused to tell the leader anything further about Project N.
"Tell me Doctor….NOW! Or this one shall die!" Megatron demands.
"Go ahead…he means nothing to me." The old man says folding his arms and turning away.
"What!" Chip shouts as he hears the doctor.
Megatron's fury now begins to subside as a smirk appears on his face and looks over at the young man in anguish.
"It appears you are as worthless to him as you are to me. Very interesting. The doctor has streak of common sense after all."
With that, Megatron release Chip from his grip and lets the young man fall to the frozen metal ground. The boy scream in pain as he feels the impact and grabs his body in reaction to the forceful drop.
"You can torture everyone I have Megatron. It will not change my answer one way or the other." Archeville snickers.
Megatron continues to hover over him and then flips a panel open on his arm.
"I won't have to doctor. I had hoped you'd do this the easy way…by confessing the answer I seek before I slaughter all those around you. But I see you have no moral ethic about you…which in itself…is a personality trait I thought only I had. But no matter…perhaps this will finally convince you…"
On the inside of his arm panel were a glowing red buttons, a small electronic screen and a rhythmic sound that pulsated. Megatron pressed one of the three red buttons and watched Archeville react. Suddenly the man held his head and screamed in pain. The small nodules on his skull cap lit up in a bright white light and sparked with blue bolts of energy.
"What? WHAT IS HAPPENING!" He howls in sheer pain.
"My little contribution to your upgrade, doctor." Megatron smiles. "Did you really think I would let you live without telling me all of your secrets? This is my way of keeping you on a tight leash."
Megatron presses yet another one of the red buttons and the power increases on Archeville's deadly skull cap.
"DON'T! PLEASE STOP! I BEG OF YOU….I BEG YOU MEGATRON!"
"Yes Doctor." Megatron laughs. "Beg for your life….isn't interesting how you are willing to trade the lives of others…but not your own."
"P-p-please…have mercy!" Archeville shouts again.
"Give me what I want Archeville." The leader states without emotion. "Tell me about Project N…and I will stop your pain. For now at least."
The doctor nods furiously and continues to wiggle onto the ground as the shots of energy into his brain fry his senses. Megatron smirks with satisfaction and turns off his remote link. Archeville sighs with relief and twitches now and then as the energy blots die down.
"We must thank Starscream for such a wonderful job. Who knew he'd beable to tap into that frail organic mind of yours and hardwire you brain to do my bidding?"
Starscream bows to the Decepticon leader as he looks over and then laughs at the two humans lying on the ground.
"Pathetic isn't Megatron. Humans are such frail creatures…it's going to be so much fun destroying them all."
"Ah but first…" Megatron says as he wiggles his finger negatively. "We must not get ahead of ourselves Starscream. The Autobots must be destroyed…then we can take this world for our own."
Crouching down to Archeville, Megatron stares at him as the man turns to look up at the evil robot's face.
"Now then doctor…as you were about to say….Project N?"
The doctor gulps in fear and quivers as he notices the leader bringing his finger back to the red button on his arm.
"I…I...will take you there."
"Tsk, tsk…I've heard that one before…" Megaton says sarcastically. "While this ship is a grand find…I do believe you leading us to another dead end would be a serious mistake on my part, don't you agree?"
"I promise…" He cries. "I won't let you down again."
"Give me the exact location doctor….no more delays, no more deceptions, no more hidden secrets. And…"
The leader pauses as he gazes up beyond the ceiling of ship.
"No more of these cursed satellites of yours."
Soundwave stands near as Megatron flips into his gun mode and resizes down to fit into the awaiting robot's hand.
"Target that space junk and destroy it Soundwave." Megatron says in his transformed state.
"As you command, Megatron." The cycloptic robot nods.
Soundwave points the gun to the ceiling and uses his inner sensors to pinpoint the location of the main source of the object. While the dampening field may block the energy and magnetic frequency, Soundwave is equipped to locate an object through various filters that can locate an object thousands of miles away. The accuracy of his target might be less then perfect, a few shots is all it will take to bring the object down.
"Fire!" Megatron orders.
Squeezing the trigger, the massive energy blast rips through the ship, out through the cold snow weather and up into the stratosphere. The fist shot misses the satellite completely, but two more come streaking up from the cold frozen ship and both seem to do the job as it obliterates the object and turns it into a burning blaze that streaks down to the Earth.
"Target has been eliminated!" Soundwave says as he lowers the weapon.
"No….no…" Archeville moans.
Megatron transforms back into his robot mode, as he becomes his full size once again.
"Now we shall see the truth doctor…now we shall see the truth."
Glaring back down at him again, Megatron's eyes grow a demonic bright red.
"What is Project N? Tell me…right now."
The man cowers in fear and looks at him.
"You'll find it at the center of the polar cap…." He whimpers. "Without the dampening field…it shouldn't be too hard to spot now."
Megatron laughs in delight and looks over at the other Deceptions.
"Victory is ours! Come Decepticons….Project N awaits!"