Beast Wars and all characters and things related are copyright and trademark of Hasbro and Mainframe Entertainment. This work, however, is the original work of the author.
Note: This story takes place immediately after "Journeys".
Saving Cybertron, Chapter 3
By TVfan
Battle Site
The site of the fighting outside the Tripredicus Council headquarters was temporarily as their drones and transformers that had challenged the force that Dinobot had lead there had been destroyed or at least defeated. The transmetal two raptor hoped the lull would last until Optimus returned and whatever plan for the assault on the Tripredicus headquarters could be planned better. The sound of a starship's engines and a warning shout, broke that hope though.
"Dinobot!" Tigerhawk shouted from a nearby roof, "Incoming!"
Dinobot looked up to see three shapes moving down toward them from clouds. They were dark due to the fading light around their point on Cybertron, but he could easily recognize the shape of the warship class that the Darkside belonged to. And the three ships were headed their way.
"Take cover!" Dinobot ordered as loud as he could as all three of the ships began firing on their positions as they got closer.
Laser fire landed indiscriminately among the tall buildings and the ground around the resistance fighters. For the moment, no one had taken a direct hit, but the ships did manage to force all of the buildings in the area to collapse into the street they were in. This included he one that Tigerhawk had reported their attack from. The resulting avalanche of metal, glass, and other building materials actually did more to disorient them then the direct laser shots did, as several transformers were buried by the rubble.
Wolffang had managed to avoid being buried and nervously looked around. Piles of rubble covered the street, and had buried many of the transformers that were there, and he could hear the sound of grunting and growling as several of them struggled against he metal and glass piled on top of them. Wolffang was quick to move to Tigerhawk, who was pulling himself out of one pile of rubble.
"Are you alright?" Wolffang asked as he approached.
"As well as I can be," Tigerhawk grunted as he stood up, feeling some pain in his wings.
"How do we stop those things?" Wolffang questioned as he gestured to the three starships which were moving to circle around for another pass at them.
Tigerhawk sighed. Attacking ships was a job left to other starships. He could remember the Beast Wars well. The Darkside, the Nemesis, he Axalon, the Ark were all used as bases and all of them were difficult to take. Their weapons were more powerful then anything an individual transformer was equipped with, and if their shields still functioned, they could take a lot of punishment before the shields would be knocked out. And even with their numbers, they didn't have the numbers to bring down three of those ships.
"I do not know," Tigerhawk grumbled, "but for the moment, fighting those ships is not our main priority."
Tigerhawk then turned to the piles of rubble that several of the other transformers who weren't buried were taking cover behind.
"We must get those who have been buried out from underneath all this rubble," Tigerhawk said urgently, "without them, we may not stand a chance of taking out those ships."
Wolffang slowly nodded and turned to his beast mode, knowing that he could more easily smell out the others in it.
Tripredicus Council Headquarters
"Yes!" General Seaclamp exclaimed, "now that is how things should go!"
The three Tripredicus Council leaders were still watching from a central monitoring room within their tower as the three warships launched their attack on the resistance fighters in front of them. The ships had destroyed several buildings and had buried most of the resistance fighters in the rubble. This gave many in the Tripredicus Council some confidence that the conflict was approaching a suitable end.
"It isn't over yet, General Seaclamp," General Ramhorn warned.
"Not over," General Cicadacon spoke up, "but I'd think we can mark this as a victory now. Most of them were buried in rubble when the buildings collapsed. And our ships are circling back for another pass, and with an open target, they can hover over the battle and insure that they stay in the killing zone while we gather more drones from elsewhere."
Ramhorn nodded at the plan. Cicadacon was right the battle was going well and that if they handled the situation well, they would win. But few things ever go entirely according to plan, and even with the success they had had, they couldn't be sure that those that were buried were in stasis lock.
"It's doubtful that all of them are in stasis lock," Ramhorn told the other two, "the falling rubble will disorient them, but I doubt that all of them are in stasis lock."
"Even still, I think we should have a good shot at winning," Seaclamp said confidently, "our ships will be back over the position before all of the ones that have been buried have been dug out."
Ramhorn looked out again to see that all three ships had finished turning and were now preparing to return to the battle site. The resistance wouldn't fully dig themselves out in time, and that gave him some confidence, but there was one thing that remained in his mind. From what he could see, not all of the resistance fighters were there before the ships attacked.
"Even still," Ramhorn warned, "Primal is not there. If he arrives while we are distracted, he could cause problems. He's done so before…"
"That was mostly against Megatron, which we learned of through Tarantulus," Cicadacon reminded him, "we'll do better against that ape then what Megatron did… and if he does intervene, we'll deal with him directly, and we'll beat him."
"Right," Seaclamp agreed.
Ramhorn only sighed at the bravado of his compatriots. It might help in certain situations, but if a clear mind wasn't controlling it, bravado would only bring about their own destruction.
Elsewhere
Optimus was absolutely horrified by what he saw. Three warships, identical in design to Megatron's Darkside, descended on the position where the others were waiting and had fired on them, at close to point blank range. He had no increased his speed in the hopes of getting to the battle site in time, and that left Queen struggling to keep up.
"Can your upgraded forms do damage to those ships?" Queen inquired, referring to the transmetal and transmetal two armor that several of the Maximals from the Beast Wars were equipped with.
"Any of us can do damage to them," Optimus answered, "the question you should be asking is 'do we have the time to wear down their shields'."
"And I'd say that'd be a long shot," Rattrap grumbled from his position, "we got some help in attacking the Darkside, and some difficulties in defending the Axalon because both ships had crashed and sustained serious damage in the crash."
"And the Axalon crashed twice," Optimus sighed with a slight chuckle, as though he was trying to escape an already tough situation.
"It's a miracle any of you survived your Beast Wars," Queen grumbled, "Maximal or Predicon. It's a miracle you survived."
Queen then looked up toward the battle site as the three warships made their way back toward where the rest of the resistance fighters were likely recovering from the first attack.
"So do you have any plan on how to deal with those things?" Queen inquired.
"The shields will stop anything until they wear out…" Optimus answered, "but maybe… if I slow down enough… I think I might be able to push one of them and knock it off course. That might help a bit and would buy you and the others time."
"Just make sure I'm on the ground before you go on these glory charges," Rattrap spoke to him, "I don't wanna be killed while flying through the air!"
The Battle Site
Dinobot and Rapther erupted out of one pile of rubble to find that the situation there was not good. Tigerhawk, Wolffang, and a few others were trying to dig as many resistance fighters out from under the rubble of the first attack by the starships, and a few, like Depthcharge had managed to pull themselves out on their own. But all of them had sustained some damage from the falling rubble, and there were likely to be a few who were now in stasis lock at best, if not destroyed outright. The transmetal two raptor slowly approached the transmetal two fuzor who was leading the efforts to dig out the others.
"Can you get a head count on who is still online?" Dinobot questioned as he got closer.
"We're mostly trying to get everyone out," Tigerhawk answered, "I don't think we'll have time to take a real count of who has been wounded. Those ships are already on their way back."
Dinobot looked up again to see all three ships heading directly toward their position, all weapons ready to fire again.
"We might be able to use the rubble as cover," Rapther spoke up, "use it to block the worst of their shots."
"That won't work when they're directly over us," Dinobot grumbled, "We had cover assaulting the Darkside because that ship had crashed and couldn't over any attacking target. And the Darkside's most powerful guns were destroyed in the crash. The only cover we can get would be to go back underground…"
"Which would surrender the field and any of the Maximals in stasis lock to them," Rapther finished, "Slag."
"Not to mention that Primal is on his way here with Queen," Bomb commented as he came closer, "You'd be abandoning your leader and ours to fury of those ships."
Dinobot gave a growling sigh as Depthcharge slowly made his way over.
"So how do you plan to get us out of this, before they start shooting again?" Depthcharge asked again.
Dinobot looked up toward the advancing ships.
"Can you distract them?" Dinobot questioned.
"Distract them?" Depthcharge questioned, glancing to Tigerhawk.
"Yes," Dinobot nodded, "fly between them and fire on the ships. When they turn their guns to fire on you, they will gun each other down on their own."
"They could be blown to bits!" Wolffang protested.
"Do you have a better idea?" Dinobot growled back, "For the moment we are still out of range to warn our leaders of the situation and take the most… appropriate course of action… which means we have to stay here. I for one, do not wish to sit as a target for them. I will do whatever I can to fight!"
"Just try to make sure the others are alright," Tigerhawk said simply and took to the air, hoping the transmetal two raptor's plan wasn't a foolhardy one.
Depthcharge followed quietly behind him. Dinobot, meanwhile turned to the others.
"In the meantime we must evacuate all stasis locked transformers to the tunnels and back to base," Dinobot instructed, "Which will mean moving as much of the rubble as possible. Lay it as road blocks so that if any more drones come, we will have a ready defensive barrier by then… hopefully, Tigerhawk and Depthcharge, and any other undamaged flier we can find can keep those ships occupied until Optimus arrives."
The others nodded and the work resumed in trying to clear the rubble that had fallen.
Meanwhile, the Tripredicus Council continued to watch the battle as it unfolded.
"What are they doing?" Seaclamp wondered aloud as they saw two transformers begin to fly toward the approaching warships.
"It would appear that they are attacking the ships," Ramhorn replied.
"That's perfect!" Cicadacon smiled confidently, "the ships will destroy them and leave them without any available flyers!"
"If they fly slowly and in front of the main guns," Ramhorn countered, "and our ships are rather close together. They might be trying to get our ships to shoot at each other."
"I'll rely an order to the ships, telling them to take a more open formation," Seaclamp spoke, "It'll give the ships a better shot at them without risking having them shoot themselves down."
Ramhorn nodded and continued to watch the battle as it unfolded.
Tigerhawk and Depthcharge flew toward the approaching ships as quickly as they could with their weapons ready. So far the ships had their weapons aimed downward to fire on ground targets, and that gave the transmetal two fuzor some hope that the plan would work. Once they got close enough, Tigerhawk opened fire with his Gatling guns on the ship on right of the formation while Depthcharge fired on the ship on left of the formation.
The attack had the response that they were hoping for. As they flew through the formation, the ship's guns turned to follow them and fired a few hesitant shots. Both dodged the shots, and they hit the center ship, and the center ship's shots hit the other two. Both transformers regrouped behind the formation of ships.
"Well, that's a start," Depthcharge grumbled, "The real question is will they keep that formation?"
"We have to hope so," Tigerhawk answered and readied the two mega-missiles mounted under his wings and fired them at the ships on the edges of the formation, "because they aren't turning to follow us."
The missiles did little damage, but did make their shields shimmer for a moment.
"Time for the next round," Depthcharge commented as he moved forward again.
The two then charged forward again, going between the central ship and the two flanking ships. Again they flew too fast for the ships to target them accurately, and they mostly shot each other as they went by. But, Tigerhawk did notice something once they arrived in front of the approaching ships.
"They're moving apart!" Tigerhawk spoke with some alarm in his voice.
Depthcharge turned and looked back to see the two flanking ships beginning to move into a wider formation, one that would allow them to target the two transformers more easily. Their maneuvers could still work, but not as well, and the smaller guns on those ships would be able to hit them with ease.
"Slag," Depthcharge cursed, "try and see if you can hit the individual guns. If they're going to spread out for ease of targeting, maybe we can take out their weapons so that they can't shoot!"
Elsewhere
Queen watched in puzzlement as she saw shield flashes on the three Tripredicus Council ships as they began to return to the battle site from the other direction. They were also getting close enough that she could make out two forms flying around the ships.
"They're attacking the ships?!" Queen gasped.
"Dinobot's never been one to back down from a fight," Optimus commented.
"Bearings of chrome steal!" Rattrap nodded as he added his assessment of Dinobot's personality, "We're all gonna die."
"Yes, Dinobot is brave, but I would think that he is smart enough to move away from three heavily armed warships when he can not openly match them," Queen answered, "a smart warrior doesn't engage in a battle he knows he doesn't have a chance of winning."
"He might if he knows he can't avoid it," Optimus answered, thinking back to the Beast Wars, "or if the cause is to important to pull away…"
"And saving Cybertron from facing a resurrected Unicron sounds like a pretty important one," Rattrap added, "Perfect cause for ol' Chopperface to fight for."
Queen grumbled something that Optimus couldn't hear.
"Regardless, we'd best get there," Optimus sighed, "the fight has already begun."
Queen only sighed and continued to follow Optimus toward the battle site.
Battle Site
"My aching head," Terrorsaur grumbled as Snowstalker and Wolffang dug him out of the rubble that he had been buried under.
The transmetal two Predicon slowly staggered out of the rubble to look around the scene and check himself for damage. His armor was scratched up and dented in a few places, but nothing looked seriously damaged. Which seemed to be better then several others being taken into an alley and to the underground tunnels beneath the streets. He also noticed the three ships hovering over them.
"Those are warships!" Terrorsaur exclaimed.
"Yes," Snowstalker answered, "they launched the attack that collapsed all these buildings. Tigerhawk and Depthcharge are trying to distract them while we try dig out those that were buried and ready some defenses should they send more drones while those ships."
"They do seem distracted," Terrorsaur commented as he looked up again, watching as the ships were firing predominantly at the transmetal manta ray and the transmetal two fuzor.
"Dinobot hopes the warships end up shooting each other down," Wolffang commented.
"I assume that means he wants all flyers to attack them?" Terrorsaur grumbled.
Wolffang nodded. Terrorsaur grumbled something again, but took off and headed for the central warship. The three warships had spread out over a wide area to make it easier for their guns to target Depthcharge and Tigerhawk. And Terrorsaur could see that both of them had taken some damage, but even with the wider formation, the ships did still occasionally miss their intended targets and hit one another. Depthcharge and Tigerhawk also fired on the ships with their own weapons.
As Terrorsaur got closer, he assumed that the central ship was running low on shield power. He added his own optics lasers to the shots the ship was taking from the two flanking ships and occasionally from Tigerhawk or Depthcharge. After the second shot, he got what he anticipated, the ship lost its shields. He ended up running into the two Maximals as he flew around the ship.
"Target the pods where the wings join with the ship," Terrorsaur screeched, "that's where the engines are… with its shields down, eve our weapons will do serious damage to them."
"If we aren't destroyed by the other two first," Depthcharge grumbled as he dodged one shot fired at them.
"Just do it!" Terrorsaur screeched.
All three of them fired several rounds into the central ship's engine pods, and as Terrorsaur predicted, the ship began to lose power. Trying to avoid being shot down, it began to drive away, but a few hits from Depthcharge's shark blaster sent the ship drifting downward toward the buildings that they hadn't damaged earlier.
"Triumph!" Terrorsaur smiled as he heard some cheers from the ground below them.
The triumph was short lived as all three of them were hit by shots from the two flanking ships that sent all three of them dropping to the ground.
Inside the Tripredicus Council Headquarters the three generals were all shocked by what they had witnessed. Using the ships against each other, they had successfully brought one down. Something that even Ramhorn didn't anticipate.
"Impossible!" Cicadacon gasped as the central ship dropped out o the sky toward the ground between them and the resistance fighters that they were trying to destroy, "they can not bring down our ships!""
"They didn't," Ramhorn answered, "our own ships bought them down. They merely executed a stratagem that worked against our ships. Now, the drones from the downed ship will have to win the battle on the ground."
"The downing of the central ship will give us some help in that the remaining two will have a wider area to shoot through," Seaclamp commented, "the resistance won't be able to use those tactics again."
Just as Seaclamp finished, they witnessed the two flanking ships hit all three of the resistance fighters, sending them crashing toward the ground.
"As just shown," Seaclamp finished.
One Block Away
"NO!" Optimus shouted as he saw Tigerhawk, Depthcharge, and Terrorsaur crash to the ground.
He had been pleasantly surprised to see them take out one of the three ships, which was something that even he didn't think could have been managed, even by himself. But the shots fired by the two flanking ships renewed his worry. For, while Terrorsaur was a Predicon, who had recently sworn loyalty to Queen, Optimus couldn't let anyone, regardless of their faction, get hurt while they fought on the same side.
He had to do something before the two remaining ships destroyed the others. To do this, he quickly landed to let Rattrap get off.
"Why are you stopping?!" Queen demanded as she buzzed down, still holding Runner in her beast mode legs.
"To put Rattrap down," Optimus answered, "I'm going to do what I can to try and stop those ships. Get to Dinobot. Coordinate whatever attack you can against the Tripredicus Council with him."
"But those ships will destroy you as well!" Runner exclaimed.
"Better me then letting those ships destroy everyone else and giving the Tripredicus Council the time to resurrect Unicron," Optimus answered, "We have to do what we can to solve the situation… we have to."
Once Rattrap was off, Optimus returned to his vehicle, jet, mode and flew off at high speed toward the closest warship. Determined to knock it away from the battle zone, even if he had to push it himself.
"You go on ahead," Rattrap said to Queen, "I'll get there when I can."
Queen only nodded and buzzed off, still carrying Runner as she went. She gave one small glance to Optimus's position, and as the Maximal leader rocketed toward the closest ship, part of her programming worried, for some reason.
Optimus, meanwhile rushed onward. If Tigerhawk, Depthcharge, and Terrorsaur were in stasis lock, they would leave the others as sitting targets for the remaining two ships. He had to get there.
Battle Site
They all hit the ground relatively hard. Defeating the central ship had left them exposed to the two flanking ships which fired on them as soon as the central ship was out of the way. Terrorsaur was the first to get up, and quickly saw that Depthcharge was now in stasis lock, and Tigerhawk looked like he couldn't take much more. The two ships above them were also turning their guns to fire down on them.
"We've got to get back up there," Terrorsaur spoke slowly, "make sure they can't fire down on us…"
"But Depthcharge…" Tigerhawk began to protest.
"Will be scrap if we stay down here," Terrorsaur answered, "especially since Dinobot isn't likely to order a retreat. We have to attack those ships."
"We'd best focus on one ship then," Tigerhawk sighed, "I'm in no condition to divide my attention. Maybe we might be able to take out the shields on it."
Terrorsaur and took off toward the southern most ship. Either ship was a valid target, but the southern most ship just happened to be the one that they targeted. Terrorsaur opened up first with his optics lasers while Tigerhawk followed up with his Gatling guns. Once again, their weapons did little real damage to the shields, but were successful in distracting both ships from firing down toward the transformers on the ground.
"Here's hoping they miss when they shoot at us," Terrorsaur grumbled as he fired again.
The shots had little impact on the ship's shields, as it had not taken as heavy fire from its own side as the central ship had. But, the shots did have the affect that Terrorsaur hoped for. Both ships began to move their guns to target them rather then fire down on the transformers there. The guns on the southern most ship couldn't track them because they flew to quickly and too close, but the northern ship did manage to fire a few weak shots, which thankfully missed.
"We're not going to get a shot being between the two ships," Tigerhawk spoke, "We'd best go around and take out the guns on the other side."
Terrorsaur nodded and the two began to circle around to directly strike at the guns on the other side of the ship.
On the ground, Dinobot watched the situation nervously. The initial attack had sent many of the transformers there into stasis lock, and they had been fortunate to have no fatalities yet, but that sort of luck couldn't hold out. The central warship had not been destroyed. Any drone or transformer crew that manned it would surely move overland to attack their position on their own, and the commanders of the two remaining warships could change their tactics and let Terrorsaur and Tigerhawk buzz them, doing negligible damage.
"Any sign of a ground attack?" Dinobot questioned to Rapther, who he had placed as a lookout.
"Negative," Rapther answered, "If whoever was in the downed ship intends to launch an attack, they're taking their sweet time to coordinate it. Nothing has come out of the Council Headquarters either."
"That'll give us some time to deal with our present issues," Dinobot sighed and turned to look back to the efforts to recover the transformers that were buried in the initial attack by the ships.
As he tuned back, he found Snowstalker looking up.
"Look!" Snowstalker spoke up pointing up to the sky.
Dinobot glanced up to see Optimus's vehicle mode slam into the shields of the northern most warship. The ship's shields, already tested by impacts from their weapons and shots earlier fired from the central ship lost out as Optimus put pressure on them and began to push the ship sideways through the air.
"By the pit," Dinobot spoke in surprise.
His own rockets were at their limit as he pushed against the large warship. Transforming to robot mode gave him some more control, but Optimus found that even with that, it wouldn't be too long before he simply ran out of the fuel stores to fly. He had to deal with the ships quickly. His intention was to push the northern most warship into its southern partner. It was the only way he could conserve what little fuel he had for his rockets.
Meanwhile on the other side of the other ship, the sound of Optimus hitting the other ship attracted both Terrorsaur and Tigerhawk's attention.
"What was that?" Terrorsaur wondered aloud.
"That sounded like something hitting the other ship," Tigerhawk commented as he fired his weapons at an exposed gun on the warship they were attacking.
"None of the others have a weapon that could make that sort of sound," Terrorsaur commented, "Not even Optimus has a weapon that could make that sound."
"Optimus…" Tigerhawk mused for a moment, "Perhaps he has arrived…"
"And what would he be doing?" Terrorsaur questioned, "Pushing the ship?"
"That could be just it," Tigerhawk nodded and ducked to fly under the ship they were attacking.
Terrorsaur only grumbled and followed. As they began to traverse the space between the two ships, both transformers came under fire again. Terrorsaur managed to dodge the shots aimed at him, but Tigerhawk, already damaged from the earlier shots fired at him, was hit again and tumbled out of the sky, though thankfully at a slow enough speed and a shallow enough angle that hitting the ground wouldn't cause him too much damage. Terrorsaur continued on to find that it was in fact Optimus Primal pushing the other warship.
"Need any help?" Terrorsaur offered.
"Push the wing up!" Optimus spoke, "We must get it to lose control… it might be the only way to move it."
Terrorsaur sighed and moved to the underside of the wing on the other side of Optimus and began to push up on the warship. It struck him as a rather desperate plan, but attacking it outright wasn't much better in his opinion either. To his astonishment, the massive ship began to tilt upwards slightly, as if he was actually able to push the massive ship.
Tripredicus Council Headquarters
The three generals stood in absolute shock at what was happening. Primal had not only arrived on the scene but was physically attempting to push one of their warships out of the fight. What shocked them more was that he appeared to be succeeding. The ship was rotating up and being pushed toward the other ship.
"I can't believe it," Seaclamp gasped, "I can't believe it."
"It is the unexpected," Ramhorn commented, "which is what always turns battles."
Cicadacon and Seaclamp glanced at Ramhorn, who had sounded the least confident when the ships initially attacked, who now sounded the most shocked by what had happened. They then glanced back out to see the ship that was literally being pushed attempt to try and pull away from Primal's attack. This only made the situation worse as it aided Primal's efforts and resulted in absolute chaos. The ship ended up colliding with the other ship resulting in both ships dropping out of the sky towards the ground to the south of the position the resistance fighters held.
"What do we do now?" Cicadacon asked turning to Ramhorn directly.
"The only thing we can do," Ramhorn sighed heavily, sounding frustrated, "we intervene directly."
"What about Druyd?" Seaclamp asked.
"We do not have enough sparks to activate the new Unicron," Ramhorn answered, "all we would do would be to activate a massive drone. We must intervene in the battle."
"What about the surviving drones from the ships?" Cicadacon wondered, "Wouldn't they be of some help?"
"They will," Ramhorn grumbled, doing nothing to hide his frustration, "but we can not let them decide to retreat to recover from the battle damage they have sustained so far. Therefore, we must attacked now… or else this might as well be marked as a defeat."
At the battle site, cheers went up as the remaining two warships spiraled down to the ground way from the site. Queen arrived in time to watch the warships hit the buildings a block away from the battle site wit a great explosion. Shortly after, both Optimus and Terrorsaur landed in the center of the battle site, looking around the area, and both looking exhausted.
"Are you okay, Optimus?" Snowstalker asked as Optimus asked as the transmetal two ape landed.
"About as well as can be expected," Optimus sighed, "about as well as can be expected. How goes the battle? How is everything?"
"About as well as can be expected," Snowstalker answered.
Queen didn't like that answer and turned to Dinobot and Rapther who were approaching their position.
"Report," Queen ordered.
"What you see is what happened," Dinobot snarled back, "As you demanded of Optimus, we took up attack positions and waited for you and Optimus to return. The Tripredicus Council detected our presence and attacked. Their drones and transformers were of no threat, but their ships formed the third wave which we have only now just survived… and as far as the why is concerned… I would think that to be a miracle."
Again Dinobot's answer unnerved Queen. He made it sound as if the battle was her fault, which made it apparent that he trusted Optimus more.
"If you thought fighting the Tripredicus Council was such a bad idea why did you stay then?" Queen demanded.
"To simply run would have lacked honor," Dinobot growled back, "and you were still beyond radio range. If we had left, you and all the other small strike teams would have run into those three ships, an army of drones, and all of the transformers under the command of the Tripredicus Council… alone, and you would have been annihilated."
"How many have they killed?" Optimus asked.
"Thankfully no one has been destroyed," Rapther answered, "though not for lack of trying. Packadex, Spine, and Blackarachnia are moving the first group of wounded back to the base. Wolffang, Terrorsaur, Cheetor, Dinobot, Snowstalker, and myself have held the rest of the line while waiting for them to return to take the next group of wounded transformers back."
"And now you have us," Queen answered, "We attack as soon as possible."
Dinobot only glared at the honeybee transformer with both mistrust and some frustration. Unfortunately an explosion that knocked them all off their feet prevented there from being any further argument. When they looked up, they saw three large transformers surrounded by up to thirty scaled down tank drones, the likely crew of the first ship that had been brought down.
"I'm afraid, you will not be attacking anyone today," General Ramhorn spoke authoritatively, "let us see how you fare at defensive warfare!"
And with that, the Tripredicus Council members and their supporting drones fired their weapons in one massive salvo.
To Be Continued…