Chapter 8
Prowl had watched as Grindcore, in his large tank form, lead a small team of Destron foot soldiers into the open space in front of the tower. He and the Autobots had found the ideal hiding place inside one of the nondescript buildings, where they looked out through a viewport as they waited quietly for the Decepticons to make their move – it would be their signal to ambush Straxus' unsuspecting party. His weapon charged and ready, Prowl looked up to see Straxus and the air-borne Destrons circling the sky above, and then indicated with a nod to Kup and Ironhide, who were also watching the scene unfold just outside.
"Get ready," Prowl said to them.
Ironhide gripped his flux cannon more tightly, lifted it to chest level. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be," he answered with gritty determination.
Grindcore's heavy treads rolled along the ground, trundling ever closer towards Nemesis, who stood waiting. The latter did not appear intimidated by the threat of the war lord army's approach, even as several Destron troops moved into position behind the tank, two or three at a time coming into view as they ran across the street from the left and right, or jumping out from behind nearby structures, weapons firing in a burst of bright laser blasts against the darkened streetscape beyond.
The heavy set Destron sub-commander stopped in front of Nemesis and transformed into robot mode, his cannon firmly in his grasp. He held up a hand and his troops immediately ceased fire, though remained on the alert, ready to unleash another fusillade of damaging firepower upon his command. "You have done well, destroying the Autobots for us," he said to Nemesis, looking around at the deserted landscape, not a single Autobot in sight. "Now, you will surrender your army to Lord Straxus–" A pause as he studied Nemesis' reaction. "–Or he will strike you down where you stand." As he said this, Straxus' space craft mode circled closer above them, a flight of jets accompanying him abaft.
Nemesis looked up at the Destron invaders in the sky, and then at a second unit of ground troops as it emerged from the shadows, led by Clench. As the enemy watched and waited in satisfied expectation, secure in the knowledge that they held the upper hand, Nemesis slowly raised both arms, outstretched and with palms opened, facing upward, and as he did so a glowing, violet-pink haze began to emanate from around his torso, slowly spreading to envelop his entire frame, fluorescent against the surrounding darkness. Then, in a sudden wave of low-pitched screams and growls, the Nemesis Army rushed forwards with violent fervour. Hundreds of drones swarmed towards the Destrons, moving around the Nemesis, clawing and clambering their way forward with a frightening tenacity that seemed unstoppable. The sudden rush of the drones as Nemesis mobilized his army against Grindcore and Clench caught the two of them off guard, but only for a moment.
"The drones might be immune to firepower, but you're not!" Grindcore said in a low voice, growling menacingly, and then grimaced as he aimed his cannon point blank at Nemesis Prime's chest and fired.
"Optronix – no!" Hot Rod cried out, wanting to reach out and protect his friend – or what had become of him – from all harm, but all he could do was watch as three rounds of energy pulses from Grindcore's cannon hit the Nemesis squarely in the chest, sending him sprawling backwards onto the ground, sparks flying all around him.
Hot Rod couldn't take his optics away from the horrific scene, the Nemesis lying on the ground defeated as he struggled for survival, red optics still ablaze with the fury of having been wronged. "No, Optronix…" he managed again, this time in barely a whisper, but was soon jolted by Sentinel, who had refused to let go of his arm.
"Listen to me!" he said in a harsh tone to the cadet. "For once in your life, listen! If you go out there now you'll be shredded to pieces, do you hear me?"
Knowing that Sentinel was right, Hot Rod dropped to his knees in defeat, and began to grieve over the loss of his friend.
"Now?" Thrust whispered to Starscream, as he and the Decepticon jets watched Grindcore and Clench's teams open fire upon Nemesis. They had taken shelter near the top of one of the taller structures, and had a clear view of Straxus' small army, both on the ground and in the sky, though they remained undetected.
The Air Commander did not take his optics off the scene that was taking place on the ground below, and held up a hand in response. "Not yet."
It was apparent to all watching that Grindcore had defeated Nemesis; the Prime fell in a shower of sparks, absorbing the full brunt of Grindcore's cannon after receiving three bursts of its charge. He lay on the ground, broken and twitching, energon leaking from his face and side, but would continue to struggle to remain alive until his very last moments.
However, Grindcore's show of force did not come without risk, for although he had beaten the Nemesis, ensuring that the rogue Prime could no longer pose a threat to Straxus or his anticipated victory, the Nemesis Army remained as yet undefeated, and he had no way of knowing exactly how it would react, now that its leader had been disabled.
Indeed, no sooner had the Nemesis hit the ground, forced backwards with the impact from the assault, than it became clear to Grindcore and his soldiers that disabling the Nemesis Army's leader had achieved nothing. If anything, it had only encouraged the drones to intensify their attack with a fierceness and a voraciousness that the Destrons had not witnessed from the Army yet, and they began to panic, firing their weapons into the ravaging crowd of drones in a desperate attempt to back them off.
As soon as he realized that his soldiers on the ground had become sitting ducks, the war lord led the first air strike against the drones as he and his jets swooped low, letting loose a flurry of bright laser bursts upon the ground. In a last-ditch effort to end the Nemesis Army's dominion and finally take possession of Autobot territory, Straxus had decided that sheer force and firepower might be able to give him the advantage; even if the drones were able to absorb the concentrated energy from his weapons, perhaps with enough intensity, he might be able to simply blow them to pieces.
But Straxus' assumption about the drones was quickly proven wrong. They seemed able to absorb the energy from his laser weapons faster than his team could deliver, and the few projectile weapons that he could utilize against them proved to be far less efficient, due to the sheer number of the mechs that made up the undead army.
As his soldiers attempted to flee a losing battle, Straxus realized with a growing sense of urgency that the only safe place for him was to remain airborne, though he'd given up on firing down upon the menace, since it had proven an ineffectual, not to mention expensive, exercise.
A number of Straxus' ground troops had already succumbed to the encircling swarm of killer drones as they were savagely torn to pieces, whilst the remaining soldiers who had been lucky enough to escape the drones' deadly clutches, as well as the crossfire from the sudden air strike, scrambled to flee to safety, seeking shelter wherever they could to escape the terrible army. The battle on the ground was essentially over, the drones spreading out in all directions on a renewed mission to hunt down and destroy any mech still alive – no matter their allegiance – an unrestrained free-for-all.
Starscream watched Straxus and his aerial unit circle around the communications tower, and transformed into his jet mode. "Get ready…" he told the Decepticon flyers and, as Straxus came back around, picking up speed, he shot up into the air directly towards them. "Now!"
Prowl was beginning to wonder whether perhaps the Decepticons had never intended to help them at all… or, perhaps they had fled, leaving the Autobots here to fight the battle on their own. Either way, he was quickly becoming concerned.
"Ah, slag 'em – let's just get out of here before we get taken alive by those things!" Ironhide said in frustration, but Prowl held him back.
"No. Just a little bit longer," Prowl replied, though his voice could not hide his own uncertainty.
He continued to watch as the drones began to spread out into the nearby streets and buildings on the heels of fleeing Destron soldiers, whilst Straxus and his unit, still in the air, had stopped firing upon the Nemesis Army.
Then, only a few short moments later, as Straxus banked to manoeuvre around the tall transmission antenna, picking up speed as he straightened out again, Prowl's misgivings were gratefully dispelled when he saw a group of Decepticon jets fill the sky above them, on a course directly for the Destron space craft. Before the war lord could alter his path or engage defensive manoeuvres, Starscream, the blue, red and grey-colored jet leading the Decepticon unit, hit Straxus' forward control thrusters with a blast of laser fire, causing the larger craft to bank to the left, diving downwards. Momentarily losing control, Straxus narrowly avoided crashing into the drones below.
"Now!" Prowl shouted, and rushed out of the building, leading the Autobots out into the war zone.
In his effort to regain control from Starscream's initial attack, Straxus steadied himself enough to be able to swerve upwards and away from the ground, but there was little he could do to protect himself from the barrage of enemy fire that bombarded him. Several Decepticon jets closed in around him, intent on taking him down with repetitive laser blasts and torpedoes, and he crashed to the ground in a burst of smoke and sparks. A moment later, the Decepticon jets split up into smaller units and began to chase down the other Destron flyers, who had begun to retaliate with their own counter-attack effort as they attempted to blow the Decepticons out of the sky.
The night was alight with activity, and while the battle in the air raged on, the action on the ground was equally as intense. Jazz, Guzzle and Ricochet intercepted the Destron soldiers on the ground as they attempted to run from the drones, blasting them with their weapons before they had a chance to escape, while Mirage and Blaster helped to track them down.
Grindcore and Clench had both transformed into their heavy alt modes in an attempt to trample their way through both the drones and the Autobots, but they were slow and cumbersome, and only managed to delay the inevitable.
Prowl teamed up with Kup and blasted Grindcore until the Destron could no longer effectively function in tank mode and was forced to transform to robot mode. Ironhide and Trailbreaker succeeded in their joint effort to stop Clench in his tracks, causing him to overturn and land on his side in truck mode, crushing several drones in the process; he, too, was forced to transform in order to try and run from the drones as they began to press in on the two Destron sub-commanders. However, the Autobots, having maintained their distance from any of the marauding, hungry drones, were able to intercept the Destrons before they could get away.
Whilst this was going on, Skyfire once again joined the fight in the air, and this time, with the Decepticons' help was able to pay back in kind the Destron flyers who had shot him out of the sky earlier. The three Decepticon trine units pursued and disabled any remaining Destrons in the air whilst Blitzwing, alternating between his tank mode on the ground and his large-winged interceptor mode in the air, kept the enemy off-balance and helped to ensure that neither Straxus nor any of his warriors had any chance of escape.
By the time Megatron and the rest of the Decepticons arrived at the communications tower, the worst of the battle was already over. Straxus had finally been defeated. However; the drones, still without a leader to control them, continued their destructive rampage, plundering and desecrating anything and everything that stood in their path as they began to spread out from the city square and into the surrounding streets.