Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers: just my OC's & the plot.
THE DOMINOES FALL
Chapter 2: Trapped
The command center:
He was too angry to care about the pain, as he army-crawled his way into the middle of the room, and tried to grab her by the leg,
Blackshot casually glanced down at him, as if to acknowledge him being there, before swiftly kicking him in the face, and sending him crashing into one of the bot-sized terminals.
"Don't even bother trying," she nonchalantly stated, as she got back to work typing something into the central console, "The stasis field will only fry your circuits"
"Why?!" Deathshot grunted through his clenched dental plates, staring up at her with pure hate in his one optic.
"Why what?" she glanced down at him,
"YOU KNOW WHAT!" he roared, "Why did you kill them?!"
"Ah yes, them" Blackshot huffed, as if bored and couldn't be asked to be serious; she turned away from her work and approached him, stating: "I assure you it wasn't anything personal; merely a means of ensuring your recruitment"
All the bots laying on the floor stared up at her in horror; "WHAT?!" Deathshot gasped,
"You were, and still are the best sniper in the Autobots, Deathshot" Blackshot stated as she knelt down next to him, "But we couldn't afford to take on the burden of safeguarding civilians. We needed soldiers: nothing but soldiers; we needed recruits who were not preoccupied with protecting their friends and family, soldiers who were focused only on fighting and defeating our enemy...Of all the recruits I scouted, you were by far the most promising; the only problem was that you rejected us, in favor of them"
"Us?" Optimus echoed incredulously,
"What was it you said Majestrix?" Blackshot coolly glanced over at the Prima: ", 'I don't care what it takes: bring me soldiers who are willing to go all the way, and not be distracted by anything or anyone'"
Majestrix's shock turned to rage as she growled through her sharp teeth: "THAT DIDN'T MEAN I WANTED ANYONE KILLED! WHAT KIND OF SICK TWISTED LOGIC IS THAT?!"
"The one you endorsed whole heartedly when we first started out, remember?" Blackshot pointed out frankly as she stepped over to Majestrix, and kicked her hard in the side of the helm: "You couldn't care less about what our troops did or didn't come with: you just needed soldiers who were as angry and blood-thirsty as you. The slaughter of one's family, I'd say is a good enough incentive to turn any mech into a monster; and in the end, isn't that what it's always been about? Fighting fire with fire? In order to rise above the monsters, we had to become monsters too, regardless of the consequences?" she kicked her again, this time in the side, "I was doing you a favor, both of you," she turned back to Deathshot, crouched down next to him, and grabbing him by the back of his neck-plates, brought him up to her optic level: "And let's face it, if it wasn't for you coming home and seeing their corpses like that, you wouldn't be half the soldier you are today; that much rage and hatred? It showed in the proficiency your work. And we got results because of it. So don't hate me for making you a great soldier, hate the ones who forced me into making that choice" she dropped him, and returned to the console.
"All the collars are working properly" Shadowstar stated in a flat monotone as she came around Majestrix's side: as the Prima glanced at her, she realized she was wearing a stasis collar, and that there was a vague white-ish aura surrounding her whole body; 'She must have reversed the collar's polarity field: instead of containing the stasis energy inside her, it's keeping the energy already present from getting inside...smart...' she thought offhand.
"However, it would seem not all the stasis-field emitter's are functioning. The ones in the rec-room and med-bay got shot out, and the ones out in the open-air hanger are unable to reach under the Ark and Omega Supreme" the purple and white sphinx added,
"We knew this would happen" Blackshot replied as she activated the comm, : Longrange, once your done dispatching the humans on the airbase, head for the open-air hanger and take care of the bots and humans there:
The airbase? The humans there were all dead too? Both Optimus and Majestrix's pumps seized with dread,
: Sure, but we got a problem: Longrange replied flatly, : All the humans are gone:
Blackshot's cool poker face turned into a look of frustrated confusion : What do you mean their all gone? :
At the same time, by the airbase:
: I mean their all gone, and there's no bio-signatures leading from here back to the main base! : The young sniper huffed in annoyance, as he hovered above the main runway,
Indeed, there wasn't a single human to be seen anywhere on the airbase;aircraft and tools were left lying around, unattended and abandoned: as if they'd just dropped what they were doing and left in a hurry. But where had they gone? There were no footprints in the sand or dirt leading away from the buildings and tarmac. Had the teleporter's somehow got out and whisked them all away somewhere safe? With over three hundred humans stationed on the airbase alone, it was impossible for someone as quick as Skywarp to do that in less than ten minutes, and even Jetfire couldn't do that. So what happened?
With time being short as it is, Blackshot couldn't waste time on a wild goose-chase, and so ordered, : Forget them for now, just concentrate on the Ark:
Longrange wanted to object, but even he knew they were running to a tight schedule, and so reluctantly replied, : Sure thing, I'll let you know when I'm done:
Once Longrange had jetted off and flew down into the canyon: Soundwave released his concentration on the psychic shield he had covered the whole airbase with. To Longrange, the airbase looked perfectly normal: when in reality, the ground surrounding the tarmac and hangers had a number of holes peppered around them, all the same perfect circular shape, and cut through the dirt and rock in such a way that suggested a set of large drills had done the job.
As Soundwave let the shield drop, and the illusion faded with the mirage of the desert heat, both the seekers gawked at him in amazement. "Whoa! Since when did you learn how to do that?!" Skywarp gasped,
"You'd be surprised what you can do with a bit of creativity," the communications officer sighed with relief, as he opened his chest compartment, and let Morri climb out onto his shoulder. Though she'd stopped crying, her face was still red, and the distraught was still present in her voice: "Are you okay?" he asked her worryingly,
"I'll be fine" she stated stubbornly as she wiped her face, and looked around, "Where'd everyone go?"
"I think Scorpy beat Longrange to it" Thundercracker glanced down at one of the holes nearby, "He must've dug all the tunnels a while back, to have so many holes present: my guess is, he got everyone out and led them down to his central network of burrows"
"Your guess would be correct," Soundwave looked down at the ground intently, "I can sense the humans some eighty feet down, their all fine, albeit confused and worried. It seems like Scorponok's already got a plan of his own in mind, and I think it may be worth letting him carry it out"
"Alright" Morri acknowledged, before rubbing her hands over her face, and through her hair in anxiety, "...That was way too close though, if Longrange had used his scanners, that trick would have been busted"
"Then we're lucky he's in a rush" Thundercracker frowned,
"Primus!-" Soundwave gasped suddenly,
"What now?!" Morri fretted
"It's Longrange; he's found his next targets,"
Aboard the Ark:
"WHAT THE SLAG IS GOING ON?!" Firefly angrily shouted as she covered her sisters with more gunfire,
"WHY'RE YOU DOING THIS?!" Bluebird shouted pleadingly at their attacker,
"Because I need you little ground-huggers dead! What else?!" Longrange grunted as he fired at them from down the other end of the passageway.
On the other side of the door at the opposite end of the passageway, inside the ship's central core processing systems: Darren and his cousins, along with the Waineright sister's, listened helplessly as they heard the fierce gun-fight play out.
"Longrange may be outnumbered four to one, but his guns are still more powerful than theirs" Hailey swallowed hard,
"What about Blue? He didn't corner him as he stormed the corridor" Becca suddenly remembered,
Outside, Longrange was nearly knocked off his feet as Bluestreak came at him from the side: ducking behind one of the wide bulkheads, he managed to place a few shots in his side and arm, before Longrange turned to fire back, leaving his opposite side open for the VW sisters to return fire. This was bad: he couldn't afford to take his optics off any of them: even with two weapons aimed in their directions, he couldn't keep both optics's on them simultaneously. This would be an opportune time to retreat, but he had to be sure no one was left alive to regroup and go on the offense; and besides, he knew what would await him, if Blackshot found out he failed. This needed to be completed: they needed to die...
Bluestreak ducked back behind the bulkhead to quickly reload a fresh clip, when he suddenly noticed something moving fast through the thicket of cables and wires running along the ceiling. As Longrange concentrated on firing at the VW sisters, the gunner watched as the shadowy figure moved towards Longrange's position, and climbed around in a wide circle to get behind him. A flash of red light illuminated the inside of the tangle of cables for a split-second, and Longrange yelled in pain as he grasped the back of his neck. It was a laser blast, fired from a CTG, right down onto the nape of the sniper's neck.
As the young sniper staggered backwards, Sam deliberately dropped from out of the cables, and landed on the back of the sniper's main engine intakes: realizing it was a human, Longrange quickly tried to fall flat on his back so as to crush them, but it seemed Sam was already one step ahead, as he jumped off the sniper in mid-fall and landed above his head, firing his CTG's laser blaster straight into the air intakes and other small gaps between the sniper's armor. Bluestreak took the opportunity to move in and fire at Longrange's legs, the VW sisters too took his cue, and staggered their moves as they fired at his wings and side.
Sam swiftly dodged the sniper's grasp, as he quickly flipped back up onto his feet and made a grab for him; but Sam was quick to keep his hand at bay as he fired another blast at the sniper's wrist, before darting up the side of the of the passageway, climbing fast up the multi-layered paneling on the wall, and disappearing into the cables and wires again. Longrange scrambled to try and grab him by the leg, but to no avail as Bluestreak and Bluebird tackled him hard: the sniper kicked them off easily, and was about to shoot them both in the head, when suddenly, he felt a large set of claws dig deep into the back of his neck plates, and before he knew what was going on, he found himself hurtling through the air, into the wall at the next corridor intersection.
Quickly getting back up on his feet, he was dismayed to see Thundercracker stomping towards him with look of pure anger on his face, with Bluestreak and the femmes flanking him at his back: behind him, Skywarp was cracking his knuckles in readiness for the beating he was about to deliver; and standing to his left down another corridor, Soundwave let his drones out of his chest compartment, and assumed their attack formation. Above his head, he could hear Sam moving towards him, ready to launch another drop-attack, and nearby, the sound of another human clambering through the cables told him he would be attacked from behind again.
This was very bad: vastly outnumbered and outgunned, Longrange did the only thing he could to get out, and in one rapid move he fired a smoke grenade at his feet. The whole intersection filled with thick white smoke in an instant: but by the time both seekers had activated their engines and blasted the smoke away, the sniper was gone.
"Where is he?!" Bluestreak panicked,
"Outside, and climbing to several hundred feet above the canyon" Soundwave assured him, "He won't be trying that again anytime soon"
"What the slag's going on?!" Veebee fretted, "One minute we were about to step inside the systems core, and then-
"-The kids!-" Tangostar panicked, "Their still trapped!-" she grabbed Soundwave by the arm, and frantically ran back the way they'd came, "In there!" she pointed to said door, "The armor plating's too thick for our guns to blast through!"
"Are you okay in there?" Soundwave shouted right up close the door,
"We're fine but the door won't budge!" Darren shouted back: his voice barely audible as the thickness of the door muffled the sound,
"Stand clear! ..." Soundwave replied, and in one smooth move his arm transformed into one of his sonic cannons, and blasted the door out of its frame.
Darren and the others came running out from their hiding places, relieved to see the four femmes and Bluestreak were alright: "Are you all okay?" the young gunner frantically scanned them over: "Us?! It's you we should be asking if your okay!" Lizzy exclaimed.
"Everyone's fine!" Thundercracker stated as he came running up to them with Sam and Morri perched on his shoulders, with Skywarp close by his side: "Care to fill us in on what happened here?"
Darren stepped forward and got straight to the point: "Prowl announced the cyber-invasion incursion, and since I was right outside the Ark I decided to head for Teletran's central core systems to check it out first: I barely got in through the door when the goon squad here decided to check out what's up" he gestured to his cousins, "We were barely in there ten minutes when we heard Glen over the comm and the door slammed shut behind us: Blue' and femmes tried to hack the door's lock when we heard the gun fire, and heard Longrange down the other end of the passageway"
"We were barely holding him off when you guys showed up" Bluestreak added, "I managed to blind him with my laser-sight and took a running flip to get past him, got behind the bulkhead back there and was pinned down: if you hadn't had showed up I don't know if-
"-Never mind that now" Thundercracker dismissed, "We're alive, and that's all that's important"
"So what now? What's going on?" Firefly panicked,
While Sam and Morri filled everyone in on the coup, and everything they'd learnt earlier that day during the crisis with Josie: Soundwave reached his mind out, assisted by his creations, to Crystalwing and her family...
'Soundwave!-' Crystalwing felt a wave of relief wash over her, as she sensed everything from his end of the connection: the feeling was mutually reciprocated among her own creations; 'You didn't get caught in the stasis field?'
'Only briefly, but we got out just in time: what's going on your end?' he replied,anxiously,
All at once his mind was filled with everything that happened in the last several minutes, from her point of view, as well as the 'burrowed' perspectives of the other bots in the command center: along with several other bots around the base.
'This isn't good' he worried, 'and no doubt she's monitoring all the comms and all other frequencies'
'Which, is why I think we're going to have to get a bit creative and do this from a psychic-platform'
Soundwave hesitated, '...I don't have a problem with that, but what about the humans? How will they fare?'
'If we share the load we can keep their minds as close to reality as possible: I don't see why they shouldn't be able to handle it?'
Soundwave thought about it carefully a quick moment, before anxious agreeing: 'Alright: but if anything goes wrong I'm cutting the connection, deal?'
'Deal...do you want to bring them in now?'
'No time like the present' Soundwave figuratively shrugged; summoning the sum of his mental strength, and focusing on one particular line of telepathic power: his drones along with Crystalwing and her family all followed suit, as they expanded their minds out, and enveloped every mind on the base into their psychic presence. Filtering out every other mind, until the ones they needed were present...
"Wait-... What?" Lizzy blinked in surprise, as if she'd fallen into a deep daydream, and suddenly snapped back to reality,
"What was that?" Max pressed her hand to her head, "For a second there I thought I was daydreaming"
"Is that what it felt like?" Soundwave thought aloud, "Huh, that was easier than expected"
"Wait... Why does your voice sound like it's inside my head?" Max suddenly realized,
It was at that moment; the humans glanced at one another, and realized something was not right. All bar Morri, who suddenly remembered this strange, almost 'dethatched-from-reality' sensation: "Ah, I think I know what just happened"
"What?" Roxy gave her a weird look, as did everyone else, "What just happened?"
"The telepath's inserted themselves into our heads" Morri informed, "Take a look around: see anything different?"
Looking around their surroundings, the other humans were dismayed to find the interior of the ship had taken on a very different feel and appearance: for some strange reason, everything seemed to be slightly tinted the same shade of pale blue. The corridor looked way wider, and taller than before, with the cables and wires on the ceiling looking like they were warped and distorted.
Soundwave, his drones and the two seekers were still present: although now, Crystalwing had suddenly appeared, and was lying face down on the floor some several meters away, while her children were standing some several meters further down. Down the opposite corridor, Elita was standing there, looking a little bewildered, and further down from her was Majestrix and Optimus, who were also laying face-down.
But stranger still, were the unusual little wisps of colour flitting and drifting about in the air, along the floor, and all over everyone's immediate space: the way they moved almost made them look as if they were alive somehow; pulsating like energy, and full of atmosphere.
"What the fuck?-" Roxy stared bug-eyed at all the bots, and the strange colours swirling around her, "Am I high on something?"
"Nope, what you're seeing is real: those weird colours are auras" Morri assured her, "Right now, we're all telepathically connected, right?" she glanced at Ravage,
"Right: except we're not in any one specific mind"
"-Wait, hold up: we're telepathically linked up to each other?!" Max gawked, "How?-, what?-..." her brain struggled to compute, as did the rest of her cousins and sister as their confusion was reflected on their faces.
"Allow me, "Soundwave stepped in, "What you are experiencing right now is a multi-trans-mind uplink, or 'psychic platform'. It's a means to communicate and relay data between multiple telepaths simultaneously. But right now, given the current circumstances, we've 'widened' our telepathic range and strength to accommodate non-telepaths, such as yourselves"
"The comms!" Darren suddenly realized, "If Blackshot's taken over the command center, she'll be able to monitor all the comm frequencies"
"Hence, the need for a psychic platform," Crystalwing struggled to gaze up at them, as she tried to flush air through her vents.
"'Crystal!-" Jeanie, Allie and Rosy ran to try and help her, but as they reached out to grab her hand, they were shocked to see their arms grabbing only air. Crystalwing wasn't real. "Wha-, I don't get it?! What-" Allie stammered in disbelief.
"She's not physically here... " Ravage regretfully stated, "What you see before you, is Crystalwing's mental manifestation, as she is at this moment in real time; and suffice to say, she's not in good condition"
"Are you hurt?" Rosy fretted,
Crystalwing winced as she felt the stasis energy gnaw at the circuits in her solar panel wings: "I can't move, it's too painful: but not enough to stop me concentrating on helping to maintain this platform"
"And with our help, we can share the load," Twilightveil stated,
"Ditto that" Lazerbeak nodded, "Between all of us, we're practically a whole other data sever!"
"Okay, now that we can talk freely..." Sam interjected as he and Morri climbed down off of Thundercracker, and stood in the middle of the gathering, "What's the situation? And how bad is it?"
"It's bad..." Optimus groaned, "Blackshot has control of the command center, and the security cameras were actually stasis-field emitters"
"Not just in the command center" Elita interjected, "In the rec-room too: we managed to shoot them out before they did any real harm, but the armored doors shut us in, and the corridors are filled with stasis energy too"
"We managed to get the drop on the ones in the med-bay as well, but like you guys we're also locked in" Acidwing added,
"There's stasis energy being emitted all over the base, even outside in the open-air hanger" Soundwave displayed a mental image of the layout of the whole base, with the stasis energy highlighted as a thick cloud of blue mist,
"How's that possible?! How the slag did Blackshot manage to swap out all the security cameras for stasis-field emitters?!" Skywarp exclaimed,
"Because she helped Red Alert to overhaul the base's security systems, remember?" Majestrix growled in ire, "She was responsible for replacing all the cameras and motion detectors, including the software that links them all together"
"Shit-..." Sam breathed in astonishment,
"And no doubt she took the liberty of slipping some rouge code into Teletran's core systems too" Darren frowned, "Right before Longrange showed up, I saw a line of code on the central terminal that didn't make sense, I can only surmise the blackout was her doing after all, as a means to reboot the system and reset the access pass-keys"
"Where're the rest of her team now?" Optimus winced as Elita knelt down next to him, placing her reassuring hands on his shoulders, and letting her encouragement flow through their spark-bond to him.
Telepathically scanning the base, Soundwave soon pin-pointed Blackshot's cohorts: "Coldbore's in the computer hub, Blackshot and Shadowstar are both in the command center, and Longrange is right over the canyon: he's waiting for us to try and run"
"We'll sort him out soon enough" Morri waved off, "All I want to know is where Deathshot is"
"He's in here, with us..." Crystalwing manifested an image of the sniper, curled up on the floor in pain and great anguish, "He's too angry to reach telepathically, and even if we could, right now he's in no fit state to help anyone"
"He was too fast for us to keep up with him," Thundercracker sighed with regret, "And when we saw the Black Solstus's bridge light up with the stasis energy, we figured you guys needed help getting out"
"Is he injured?" Morri frowned, staring at the mental image of her guardian, feeling totally helpless,
"If he is, he's not noticed" Crystalwing reluctantly replied, as she let her head drop, "...He's not aware of much else right now, all he's thinking about, is them..."
As everyone stared at Deathshot, the realization of just how bad this was, finally began to sink in; as Soundwave expanded the scene in the command center, both and Sam and Darren were horrified to see their guardian's slumped on the floor, along with Eclipse, Red Alert, Prowl, Novastar, Inferno, Gears and Smokescreen.
"We have to get them out!" exclaimed Sam angrily,
"Not all at once" Skywarp worried, "That much stasis energy in one confined area? I'll only be able to do two, maybe three teleports before the energy cripples me"
"Then who do we get out first?" Jeanie thought aloud,
"Eclipse" Majestrix strained,
At the same time: inside the rec-room:
"Elita? Elita are you alright?" Hot Rod waved his hand in front of Elita's face: but the femme didn't reply, as she continued to stare off into space, as if in a deep trance.
"She can't hear us right now" Portia chipped in, "Either Soundwave or Crystalwing managed to get through to her, and are telepathically conversing with her as we speak"
"So at least one of us managed to avoid the stasis field" Bishop sighed with relief, "Is there any way to know what they're talking about?"
"No, but I've no doubt we'll know soon enough" the spider femme assured him,
"Well whatever it is, it had better be something that will help us get out of here" Epps rubbed the back of his neck anxiously,
At the same time, inside the med-bay:
"Good grief! ..." Que inspected the damaged stasis-emitter, "How the slag did we not know about this?"
"Whoever did this, obviously had this planned for a long while now" Jazz surmised as he and Miles inspected the device, "Damn lucky that thing was right in my line of sight the second it activated"
"And what's up with them?" Tom gestured to Crystalwing's family, who were all as still as statues, with thousand mile gazes in their glazed optics.
"They must be in telepathic communication with their mother" Ratchet guessed, "Whatever it is, it must be pretty important for them to shut us out like that"
"Yeah, but our main concern right now is, how do we get outta here without getting zapped by the stasis energy outside?" Mikaela gestured to the sealed med-bay entrance: "Never mind the emergency doors locking us in; only the teleporter's will be able to get us all out now"
"You could be right" Ratchet sighed in defeat, "In which case, it may be a good idea to prep all the patients for emergency evacuation: start with the most critical first"
"Yes sir" Mikaela nodded,
"You'll need help!" Tom called over as he and Danny came running up to her, "Half these guys can't even stand up straight" he gestured to the other Autobots in the room, "They'll need emergency patch-jobs to hold them over until we can get them all to safety"
"Alright: follow Mikaela's orders, I'll see to Ashley personally" Ratchet told them, before addressing the rest of the med-bay: "Alright listen up! Anyone who's able to walk unaided, help me move those that can't: we're prepping for emergency evacuation!"
At the same time, back aboard the Ark:
"Eclipse? Why her?! She's the reason we're in the mess!" Skywarp scoffed,
"And she's the only one who can get us out!" the Prima growled: her tone telling him not to argue back, "This is Blackshot we're dealing with: this is as bad as it gets!"
"Okay, we get her out, then what? We come back for you two?" Sam surmised,
"No, we need to formulate a plan: we can't do this on the fly, not with her as the enemy. Eclipse is the only one who knows Blackshot's agenda back-to-front, she can help"
"But how would she know?" Allie fretted,
"Because she was part of Blackshot's team" Morri interjected, "She was originally sided with her, but began having her doubts, and then last night Blackshot revealed to her what she planned to do once the base had been taken over. She wasn't prepared to go the lengths she was, and so told her mum everything, and earlier this morning she filled me and Sam in too"
Darren frowned in doubt: he didn't like the idea of trusting Eclipse, but he also knew not to doubt Morri's gut instinct; "...You sure she can be trusted?"
Morri thought about it for a moment, before answering: "...Yes; I'm sure"
"Good answer" Majestrix smiled, "Now, first things first: get Eclipse out and bring her here; the energy matrix of the stasis field feels like a five point eight, which means you'll only have about four seconds before the energy cripples your motor reflex system," she gazed up at Skywarp, "Let Crystalwing guide you in, she can place you right over her"
As Skywarp gazed at the mental image of the layout of the command center, he saw Novastar curled up in pain, and all at once his spark felt wracked with dread: of all the Autobots trapped in there, he wanted nothing more than to get her out. "...But? What about Novastar?" he blurted out unconsciously.
"She'll be fine" Majestrix assured him, "I trained my daughters to endure worse than this, she can hold out for as long as necessary. The question is, can you?"
Skywarp gawked at her; but the Prima merely rolled her optics, and sighed in exasperation, "Oh come on! You honestly think I didn't know about you and Novastar seeing each other these past few months?"
If Skywarp could blush, he would've turned the reddest shade of red imaginable, instead, his ailerons twitched in uncomfortable embarrassment.
"Look, we can talk about this later: but right now, you need to get Eclipse out of the command center. That's an order!" Majestrix shouted.
Acting on impulse: Skywarp teleported out, and through the mental image of the command center, everyone watched as he appeared right over Eclipse, grabbed her, and teleported out: all within practically the blink of an eye. The seeker reappeared in the warped corridor, with a semi-conscious Eclipse in his arms, and set her down in the middle of the gathering.
"Is she okay?" Morri worried as she climbed up onto her side to get a better look at her.
"A few strained circuits and overheated engine, but otherwise she's fine" Soundwave replied as he scanned her over.
"What? ..." Eclipse rubbed her helm as she sat upright, and blinked in surprise at the brunette human standing on her hip-plate; looking around at everyone present, and feeling that strange 'dethatched-from-reality' sensation swirling about her lucidity, she instantly realized where she was: "A psychic platform? Been a long while since I've been included in one of these" she though aloud as she gently grabbed a hold of Morri, and got back up on her feet.
"Except this time, it's not just us that's maintaining it" Crystalwing added, gesturing to Soundwave and his drones.
"Huh" she gazed at the communications officer nonchalantly, "Somehow, I had a feeling you'd avoid the stasis field: you always did have the damnest of luck, even as a Decepticon"
"I'll take your word for it" Soundwave frowned in dubiousness, "And you already have surmised the reason for us getting you out of there, have you not?"
Gazing at the mental image of the command center, Eclipse then gazed down at both Sam and Morri, "I take it you two filled them in?"
"More or less" Morri shrugged, "The question is, can you help us stop her?"
This day had been a long time coming. Eclipse, in her spark of sparks had known that for a long while now; even if she hadn't wanted to believe it before, she knew in her 'gut' that this plan was probably destined to meet with failure. And why not? It included genocide no less: something Prime, the bots and the humans alike were never going to stand for. But the discovery that Soundwave was in fact brainwashed had changed everything; how many others like him were there? How many innocent brainwashed civilians had they killed over the course of the war? It was harrowing, and worse: for Blackshot it meant absolutely nothing, it was still business as usual; Decepticons were evil, and the Autobots were righteous: black and white with no room for any middle ground.
But it wasn't black and white, not anymore: and worse still, the way Blackshot had gone about all this? It was almost as if she had been expecting most of the Autobots to side with her. That they would have seen her plan as the right move. That they would just, roll over and let her take the lead: killing the 'traitors' and humans without blinking an optic. The sheer arrogance and hubris was sickeningly unbelievable.
But in that depth of madness, Blackshot had made a grave miscalculation: Eclipse now hated her, more than she feared her. She had her mother, sisters and uncle held hostage, she had the entire base locked down with everyone trapped inside, and she was planning to commence the unthinkable. Eclipse, was ready to take her down, and she had no doubts in the least, about which side of the line she stood.
"...Do you even have to ask?" she frowned: "What do you need?"
At the same time, inside the command center:
"What?!-" Blackshot blinked,
"The seeker" Shadowstar realized, "He took her"
"Where are they?" the black femme growled,
The sphinx drone frowned as she tried to telepathically find him, only to be met with resistance, "It's Soundwave, he's blocked me in: I can't read anything outside of this room"
Glancing over at Crystalwing, Blackshot stomped over to her, grabbed her by the back of her neck-plates, and promptly slugged her in the face: "You know where he is, don't you?!" she growled. Crystalwing merely spat out the leaked energon collecting in her dental plates, and glared daggers up at the femme. To which Blackshot punched her again, let her drop to the floor, and kicked her hard in the side of the head: "Tell me where he is!"
"L-like frag!" Crystalwing strained as she continued to defy her: no way was she letting this bitch know what they were up to.
Blackshot kicked her again: "I'm not going to repeat myself: find him and shut him out!"
Crystalwing continued to glare up at her: she wouldn't yield. Frustrated, Blackshot kicked her again, this time, sending her flying face first into the side of one of the bot-sized terminals: where she remained motionless.
"Can you counter him?" she turned to Shadowstar,
"Only just; he's aware of our presence, but I won't let him in" the drone stated as she concentrated on Soundwave's telepathic presence trying to close in on her.
"W-why are you doing this?" Optimus ground out through his clenched dental plates.
Blackshot regained her composure and glanced down at him nonchalantly; she let her gaze drop, as if contemplating his question, before finally answering him: "...Since you're not going to survive this anyway: I suppose it wouldn't matter whether this mission stay's secret or not" she walked over to the central console, and activated the main monitor.
Majestrix remained silent, as she let the others watch through her optics, and listen through her audios...
"Megatron was evil," Blackshot gazed down at Optimus, "But ultimately, it was your cowardice that sealed Cybertron's fate. You knew exactly what he was: what he was capable of. And yet, you didn't kill him...A million times, you had the opportunity throughout the eons of the war, and still you couldn't summon the brass bearings to do what needed to be done" she stepped over to Majestrix, "...And you're no different: even when you were consumed by rage and hatred, you still couldn't bring yourself to kill him. Your own twin brother. Is that really such a difficult choice to make?" Blackshot seethed as she stood back up and returned to the console.
"After all your failed attempts to end him, after all the wasted opportunity's to stop the war: it's clear neither of you are fit to lead. I intend to amend that: by doing what you failed to deliver" she added as she typed something into the console,
"Megatron is dead" Optimus growled, "What good is revenge now?!"
"Not revenge..." Blackshot continued, "Rebirth"
An image appeared on the main monitor: suddenly realizing what it was, the bots all gasped in horror...
"The seed?!" Novastar gasped,
"The last one in existence: took me a long time to procure and keep secret: but it was all worth it, for this ..." Blackshot continued, an air of pride beginning to lace her words: "With this: we can turn the earth into a new Cybertron. A new world for our people to call home. Free from the Decepticons, free from the humans. And free from the stench of your failures" She glared down at Optimus, "And to ensure the cyber-matter is rich in enough energy to completely consume the planet: I took the liberty of helping myself to the human's weapons..."
Another window popped up on the monitor, next to the live feed of the seed; a countdown programme, with the words: Nuclear Launch Sequence as the title, and a countdown box ticking down.
"As you all know, Cyber-matter can consume virtually all kinds of energy: but the most potent and the one that provides the most nourishment, is radiological. Ergo, for the past few weeks my team and I have been busy hacking into every military network with nuclear weapons in their arsenal, back-hacking and overriding their online security protocols, and covertly gaining control of their launch codes..."
Everyone stared at her in horror: and through the psychic platform, everyone was silent with dread.
"In less than one hour, the worldwide population of homo sapiens will be cut down by two thirds, as every one of those missiles is aimed at every major city and densely populated area, including Tranquility. And thanks to the accompanying fallout, the cyber-matter will have clear lines of energy along which to proliferate. Through which, the remaining survivors will be subsequently consumed and eliminated"
"... You're insane!" Majestrix growled,
"Considering what you did during the war, I find it hard to believe you would consider this an act of insanity" Blackshot raised an optic ridge as she gazed down at her, slightly in disbelief at her words: "But it doesn't matter anymore; by this time tomorrow, I will deactivate the stasis fields and allow my new subordinates to take their first steps upon their newly acquired home-world. Together we will create a better, more peaceful world for all cybertronian-kind to thrive upon... And I will ensure no one ever threatens us ever again"
"What in the pit makes you think any of my Autobots would be willing to follow you?!" Optimus fumed
"Oh they'll follow me," Blackshot shot back: "They'll have to. They're all smart enough to know they won't have any other choice: exterminating the humans and cyber-terra forming this world is the only way to save our species from extinction. You know that: you've known that from the very beginning; but your outdated sense of honor prevents you from doing what needs to be done. You'd rather defend those primitive backwards meat-sacks than protect your own kind!" she scowled as she glared down at him. "After everything the war took from us, after everything we had to endure, only to face extinction. You would abandon us? ...And you have the audacity to call me insane?" she fumed as her anger began to boil over. "...After today: when Cybertron is reborn, I will ensure no one remembers your names. And no one will ever have to remember your sins"
O_O
Sorry for the long absence ^^; I recently got into Attack on Titan, watched the anime, read the manga, the works: and OMG it is addictive! I've just been binge-watching the anime (mostly because of Levi, unsurprisingly XD) almost non-stop. But now, reality is finally starting to creep back in and I'm getting back to doing regular stuff. But you know how it is: when you discover a new anime, movie, fan-fiction or whatever, and it's so good you just binge on it nonstop? and once you get sucked into the fandom, you're done for. suffice to say, Attack on Titan is definitely worth the watch, and the manga's just as great too :) Hope I didn't keep you all waiting too long: like I said, I'm steadily starting to get back to reality, and the fandom won't be going away any time soon. catch you all next chapter! :)