Chapter 3

Displaying the determination and single–minded purpose that was reminiscent of his former self, Nemesis Prime began to scale the communications tower with a strong, steady rhythm. Behind him, his army of drones obeyed his commands faithfully, without the need for him to utter a single word or use any external control signal; his ability to communicate with the living dead was innate, his instructions received instantly by them. This ability was the result of a natural property of the Ore-13 that tainted the Matrix he now carried, but which also provided him with the means to communicate directly to the very animating force of the drones themselves.

The two Autobots stood quietly by, watching at a safe distance as the drones encircled the tower's base, the vast number of them extending outwards a fair distance from the tower. The drones' attention seemed to be focused upon the solitary mechanoid climbing the structure, optics raised upwards as if in a silent vigil.

"What are they doing?" Skyfire said to Mirage in a low voice, his own optics remaining fixated upon the scene before them. He continued watching as the Nemesis reached the top of the tower, and bent down to open the cover of the control bank situated upon the narrow walkway.

"I don't know, though I have a feeling it's not anything good," the blue and white espionage agent replied.

After several long moments, the drone leader straightened and as he did so, a burst of bright blue energy was emitted by the tower's antenna, shooting upwards into the sky like a laser beam. Nemesis Prime remained where he was, watching the beam as it continued to radiate out into space.

Mirage pointed towards the lone mech upon the tower, and the activated antenna. "What in the…?" he managed to whisper.

Skyfire shook his head, and then transformed into his jet mode, keeping his canopy open for Mirage. "We'd better get back to Iacon and find out what's happened to the others," he said.

As Skyfire took to the air with his companion, Nemesis Prime paid them no heed – all that mattered to him was the success of his mission and, hence, the fulfilment of his destiny.

Upon entering the Command Center, Kup had to avoid broken conduit and twisted metal at every turn – part of the general wreckage that had been caused by the recent drone invasion. He stopped first by the med bay to see if anyone there needed assistance, but when he arrived he saw Ratchet and several others with their hands full, busily performing emergency repair work on injured Autobots, and decided to leave them to it. He noticed that the place was a mess, but the clean up effort would have to wait until the crisis was over.

Continuing back along the hallways and then up several levels on an elevator platform, he arrived just outside the control room. It was apparent that a struggle had taken place inside – a burned out control panel, a shattered monitor, scorch marks along one wall – but it was now deserted, the unusual quietness that had settled over the room exuding a restless eeriness that was difficult to ignore.

The adjacent communications room, on the other hand, looked as though it had been left undisturbed for the most part. The seasoned troop leader noticed the communications equipment at the relay station was still online, and he walked towards it. He saw that it had been set to actively monitor the air waves and one of the indicator lights was flashing, so he took a seat in front of the console and flicked a switch on the control panel, leaned forward closer to the transducer. Just when he was about to speak, a voice came over the link.

"Hello? Hello, is anybody there? Please, somebody respond."

"This is Iacon Command. Who am I speaking to?" Kup returned.

The mech on the other end sighed in relief, "Oh, thank Primus," took a moment to clear his vocal processor. "This is Alpha Trion. We've been trying to get in contact with Central Command for more than an hour. We thought something terrible must have happened…" Then he trailed off, sounding uncertain. When Kup neither confirmed nor denied his concern, he continued. "I have some rather alarming news. We are detecting a significant energy drain that is directly affecting our power grid. Whether this is a localized anomaly, or it is originating from outside this sector I cannot determine without venturing beyond the Academy."

Kup was not aware of any anomaly with the energy grid. He thought for a few moments before responding. "Hm. We haven't been alerted to any anomaly. We'll let you know if we find out anything. Listen, can you let Sentinel know that we've found–" Kup started, but was cut off by another voice over the link – a very familiar voice.

"Who is this? Kup?" Sentinel demanded.

"Sentinel? It's good to hear from you. You must be feeling better."

"What is happening? Has the Command Center been compromised?" the leader of the Autobots wanted to know.

"It looks like the drones have already come and gone through here. We don't know whether they'll be back." Kup paused for a moment, wondering how his next statement was going to be received. "We know who has your Matrix, though getting it back is going to be a little tricky."

"It's that fool Straxus, isn't it? He has it. Is he in Iacon?" Sentinel's anger was beginning to surface as he recalled his experience at the hands of the war lord's raving scientist.

"Well, no, not quite. One of the Destrons forcibly inserted the Matrix into… his name's Optronix," Kup said, and a moment of awkward silence followed. "I'm not sure how or why, but it transformed him, somehow." Before he could explain any further the Prime spoke again, impatience clearly in his tone.

"I don't care what it takes. I want it back, do you hear me? I will be in Iacon shortly," Sentinel declared abruptly, before disconnecting the link.

"Sentinel, wait–" Kup quickly replied, but it was too late. He was gone.

As Skyfire approached from the east, Prowl glanced upwards and watched the large jet land nearby before it transformed back into robot mode, ejecting a smaller Autobot as he did so.

"It's good to see you're all alright," the Autobot's air guardian greeted, glancing around at Prowl, Ironhide, Trailbreaker and several others, as well as the small team of Decepticons, and noted that Deluge had been captured. His countenance became sombre as he saw the fallen lying on the ground. Then he pointed into the air behind him. "Something strange is happening at the communications tower. It's those drones – it looks like they're activating it."

As Prowl contemplated the news, Kup emerged from the Command Center and made his way over to them. "Ah, good. You're all here," he said to the Autobots, before casting a curious glance towards the Decepticons. "Sentinel's on his way," he informed the second in charge.

"Does he know what's happened?" Prowl asked.

"For the most part," Kup replied, and then remembered Alpha Trion's report. "Oh, there's some kind of energy drain that's affecting the power grid in the sector. Think it has anything to do with the drones?"

Prowl shook his head, puzzled. The others did not seem to have any answers, either, until Jazz spoke up in realization. "It could be the comms tower," he said. "That transmitter is capable of drawing a tremendous amount of energy, especially when it's operating at full power."

"Jazz is right," Prowl agreed. "Does anyone have any idea what those drones are up to?"

Skyfire shook his head. "None."

"And more importantly, how we're supposed to stop them with that Nemesis Prime in control of them?" Trailbreaker considered, emphasizing the name. But no one seemed to have any idea.

"I can reach him," Hot Rod said quietly, standing behind Prowl. He sounded uncertain at first, though his resolve steadily increased. "I know I can. I can talk to him; it's still Optronix in there. Please, you've got to let me try," he said.

Kup and Prowl looked doubtful but they seemed to consider his plea, and this time the brash cadet did not push the issue. Several moments went by before Prowl made his decision. "All right. You do exactly as I tell you, when I tell you. No stupid moves. Is that clear?" he said, glancing at both Hot Rod and Blaster.

"We promise," Hot Rod replied.

Satisfied, Prowl motioned for the senior Autobot officers – Kup, Skyfire and Trailbreaker – to accompany him to the communications tower, along with Ironhide, Jazz, Mirage, Guzzle and Ricochet. "Let's go," he said.

As Prowl and the Autobots went to investigate the situation at the communications tower, Megatron became aware of a shuttle craft in the distance, accompanied by several jets. "Good, Shockwave has arrived," he said, and watched as the Decepticon contingent came in to land.

Astrotrain was the first to touch down and transform as Shockwave, Soundwave, and the Constructicons all disembarked from the shuttle. Among the seekers accompanying Astrotrain were Thrust, Ramjet, Acid Storm, Bitstream and Hotlink, whilst Blitzwing was also among the arrivals.

"So, what happened? Is Straxus here?" Astrotrain asked after noting that Deluge was in their custody.

"He was here," Thundercracker replied amusingly, "but was scared off when his own zombie army turned against him." After the blue and grey seeker brought them all up to speed regarding the incident with the drone army and Nemesis Prime, Shockwave shared his analysis of the situation.

"If Nemesis is controlling the drones directly, we must remove that which enables him to do so." Shockwave paused in contemplation, and cast his gaze upon Deluge, then stepped towards him, addressing him. "How were you able to infuse the Autobot Matrix of Leadership with the Ore-13?" he asked in a cold, stoic manner.

Deluge looked back at him in consternation; the Decepticons weren't certain whether his reaction was due to fear of the consequences if he refused to divulge his method, or his surprise upon discovering that Shockwave was aware of his use of the Ore-13. "I – I don't know what you're talking about," he finally replied. "You know as well as I do that the Matrix of Leadership is invulnerable to such procedures. What you're suggesting – it's simply not possible! Even if I wanted to, I'd–" He was cut short as Shockwave reached out a hand and placed it against the scientist's forehead. After a moment, Deluge's optics widened in shock and he cried out as a sharp, intense pain suddenly overcame his sensory circuits. Shockwave held his hand in that position, watching as the Destron struggled to escape from his penetrating energy beam while being held fast by Thundercracker and Dirge. When the guardian finally released him, Deluge could barely speak or stand upright as his entire system strived to recover from the unexpected attack.

Shockwave took a step back and spoke to him once more. "I will ask you again. How were you able to infuse the Autobot Matrix with the Ore-13?"

This time, Deluge understood that he had no choice but to give the Decepticon the answers he sought. He had no intention of experiencing first-hand just how much more pain Shockwave was able to inflict, nor did he doubt the powerful Decepticon's capability or willingness to do so. He slowly raised his head to meet the guardian's and spoke in a lowered voice, still laboured from the punishment he had received. "I… I simply reversed the process," he confessed, his voice wavering. "The same process that I used to–" Then he stopped short, realizing that if he continued he would be divulging the genius of his creation that he, alone, had devised and developed. But he also realized that he had no other choice.

"To what?" Starscream prompted.

"To… infuse each of my drones with a portion of a split life spark."

"How?" the Air Commander pressed.

"With my purposely built diffusion chamber – several failed attempts were unavoidable at the beginning, of course – but I was able to deduce the correct parameters, in the end."

An awkward silence followed, and then Starscream walked to stand before the scientist. "So, in other words, once the process proved successful for the drones, you were then able to infuse the Matrix itself with the tainted partial spark of your victim?"

Deluge looked back at him expectantly, his optics now subtly glowing with self pride. He almost seemed to be enjoying the attention. "Well… yes, more or less. It was easy, in a way – the Matrix is already able to absorb the sparks of those who have been sacrificed. I simply facilitated the process."

No one spoke a word as Deluge revealed the secrets to the greatest achievement of his career. Then Thundercracker broke the silence. "Well, you're just pure genius, aren't you?" he said to Deluge, his tone sardonic.

Shockwave nodded, satisfied with Deluge's answers, and then gave a small sigh in contemplation before moving on to a different issue. "If the city's transmitter remains operational at full strength, it will only cause the imminent planetary energy shortage to occur much sooner than anticipated," he stated.

"Yes," Megatron agreed, his thoughts along the same track. "And whether Straxus intends it or not, such an event would provide him with the perfect opportunity to overpower the Autobots whilst they are at their most vulnerable."

"Well, what about the zombie army? I mean, if he's no longer in control of it, it's probably not going to allow him free rein," Thundercracker pointed out.

Shockwave nodded in acknowledgement. "That is true; however, that will largely depend upon the intentions of its current leader, which is, as yet, unknown," he concluded, pausing in thought. "Either way, the drone army needs to be stopped, and Straxus removed from power – permanently."

"Straxus could be anywhere by now," Starscream reminded them. "He is probably in hiding, waiting for his next opportunity to make a move, just like the coward that he is." He glanced towards Deluge as he said this, but the scientist ignored him.

Megatron considered the situation, and devised a suitable plan. "Then we shall simply have to draw him out," he said.