THE LOST CHILDREN OF CYBERTRON
Chapter 32: The First Attack
---SOMEWHERE IN DEEP SPACE----
"What have you uncovered my child," Unicron's booming voice said over the intercom as Galvatron stood before him on the transmission platform.
"My lord the planet is within reach to send the first wave of scouts," Galvatron said while kneeling.
"Excellent have the coordinates for the Autobot and Decepticon bases been found?" Unicron's deep voice filled the room.
"Yes, my lord," was the reply
"Send the scouts tell them that Unicron is on his way…and he is hungry,"
----MAUNA KEA SPACE OBSERVATORY, HAWAII----
Dr. John Potter of the Mauna Kea observatory was the first to see the creatures when they first entered the system. They seemed to be in pods before they burst into beings. Each time this happened the cameras of the observatory took pictures and immediately Dr. Potter sent them to N.A.S.A. and then towards the Pentagon.
What he did not realize was that the message would come too late.
----MOSCOW RUSSIA----
Rosso Mussovich was busy eating a sandwich enjoying the day as the deep Russian snow decorated Moscow with its white blanket. He could hear the sounds of whining as he turned his face towards the skies and when he did he wished he hadn't.
Meteors fell from the earth and began to drop into the city like some movie. Running for his life Rosso only barely made it when something stepped on him.
The creature that stepped on him did not give a second glance as it turned and began to roar to the skies. People ran as fast as they could when the Unicronians began their attack on the Russian Capital.
When they were done they enjoyed feeding off the energy from the nuclear power plants. It then turned towards the main city and let loose its blaster cannons into the fleeing crowds. Another of its kind stood by its side. It screeched to its brother as it let loose another barrage of weaponry upon the Russian populace. The military were the first to respond and began to fire back on the monster but the Unicronians annihilated them all in just a single blast.
--PARIS---
At the same time as the first the second attack landed in Paris, France where one of the smaller of the Unicronians managed to make quick work out of a subway system. Glowing optics of red with a different mark then that of the Decepticons shown on their shoulders. It did not show the usual purple fox but it showed a horned face like that of both Autobot and Decepticon. Where as the Autobots showed the face of Primus the Unicronians showed the face of Unicron a face similar to Primus but it has horns growing out of his head.
The creature snarled as it tore down the streets of Paris. It made an attack on the Lube but something stopped him looking up he spotted some jets from the local air force trying to stop him. Aiming his cannon up the scout fired a few shots at the jets making them join the ruins. Satisfied he turned towards the west towards the headquarters of the Autobots and the Decepticons.
----DECEPTICON HEADQUARTERS ARIZONA---
Shockwave was to say 'shocked' by the illogical act of the Unicronians as they attacked Moscow and Paris. He could see the bodies of hundreds of humans as they run for their lives. He looked on with sad optics the sight of which reminded him of the mistakes the Decepticons did on Cybertron and who paid the price for it.
----CYBERTRON AFTER THE PURGE----
Shockwave walked amongst the rubble seeing the bodies of the dead femmes, sparklings and younglings his footsteps barely making a sound as the bodies piled high from around him. If he could cry he would as he was one of those who witnessed the slaughter first hand at Megatron's order.
As he neared one of the piles his spark broke in two at the sight that greeted him.
There lay the navy blue paint job of his sparkmate Forestmoon his first youngling Firestarter and Thunderfist. Walking further down he finally spotted the body of his sparkling just newly born. Kneeling beside the body he let a cry of anguish leave his vocal processor. He held up his child in his arms and saw the arms dangling from it.
---MODERN TIME PLANET EARTH---
Shockwave shook off that sad memory as the images of burning cities reigned on his memory banks. It was exactly what happened on Cybertron. The Unicronians were taking over again. This was just a scouting party and Shockwave realized that they had been fools. They had fallen for a Unicronian trap ever since Megatron began the war.
He remembered the old stories that were past down amongst the Decepticon generations. The rulers before then often warned about the day where hatred would begin to seep through the crowds and war would come again. It was then that the defenders of Cybertron, the Decepticons were supposed to protect Cybertron from this harm that was working its way in.
But in the end the Decepticons betrayed the people of Cybertron by starting the war.
Shockwave walked towards one of the viewing screens again to see the destruction and the humans that were bleeding being helped by medics. Shockwave sighed through his intake valves.
"You alright sir?" asked one of the other Decepticons
"No," he said
----AUTOBOT BASE----
Titan was board out of his circuits.
The caffeine they added to the energon helped him to flush out the rest of the drug faster. This in turn made the sparkling mech very board so in being board Titan wanted to play.
But that was not allowed considering most if not all of the people on this base were adults and soldiers.
Titan was still unable to transform due to his still repairing transformation cog but he tried his best to remain good.
But good can only go so far when you are board out of your mind.
When Tom comes around they would play games, but he is not around often enough for the mech to stay entertained so he was now at the moment very board. Titan swam around in his tank observing the various comings and goings from in his tank. The only good thing was that his transformation cog was replaced he just was not allowed to transform till he was fully recovered.
"Alright Titan time for refueling," said Mixmaster as he came to Titan's tank.
Titan has not spoken a single word to them except the polite words such as 'thank you' or 'please' and phrases such as, 'I am hungry,' or 'I want to go home'. He'd never really spoken to anyone as Mixmaster lifted him out of his tank to get some energon. The mixing truck was larger then Titan and managed to get the Ichthyosaur to eat. When he was done he placed Titan back into his tank and the sparkling swam around in it.
Grimlock walked in after Mixmaster left to see his new little buddy. Titan and Grimlock along with the other dinobots got along fine. At the moment it was just Grimlock as the Tyrannosaur walked to the edge of the tank.
"Titan, Grimlock here to see Titan," he said his jaws looked kind of funny while trying to talk.
Titan now strong enough to swim on his own poked his head out of the water.
"There is Titan," Grimlock said obviously happy to see Titan.
"Titan happy to see Grimlock," Titan replied doing an impression of a dolphin.
"Still can't transform?" Grimlock asked
"Nope can't transform," Titan replied
"Shucks! Dinobots wanted Titan to play with us," Grimlock said
"Titan wants to play but Titan can't leave tank," Titan replied
"No worries! Grimlock bring Titan to outside lake there Titan can have big room to swim," Grimlock said happy to see that Titan can play with him.
"Only if Uncle Ratchet and Uncle Hook let Titan out first," was the reply.
"No worries Grimlock tell them that," with that the beast bot got up and walked towards where the medbots were.
Titan dove down to watch Grimlock talk to the medics and saw that they walked over to Titan and slowly lowered a harness into the tank and Titan swam into it.
It was First Aid that lifted Titan up from the water and Grimlock saw how big Titan was. He still was not as big as the Tyrannosaur but Grimlock transformed and Titan saw him for the first time.
Like Titan he had parts of his beast form around him such as his back has the two halves of his body while one his legs make up his arms and his tail his legs. His face plate and blue optics made Titan want to laugh at how funny he looks. Gently Grimlock grabbed Titan from his sides and helped him up and carried him outside with him.
When Titan saw the outside of the base he was amazed at the size of the lake. It was bigger then the one in Tranquility and he could barely see the mountains in the distance.
"There Titan go have plenty of fun swimming," Grimlock said
"I prefer the ocean to this but thanks," Titan said as he began to swim around in the freshwater.
It did not feel like the ocean in fact it lacked the life that Titan could feel in the sea.
"Feels dead," Titan said as he popped his head above the water.
"It is winter they said everything dead in winter," Grimlock replied
"It is very cold like the Artic Sea," Titan said as he stuck his head under.
The water was indeed cold as he swam beneath to explore under the ice. When Titan looked above where the hole is and saw that the base was in the high mountains somewhere in the woods. There was forest all around and from the looks of it the mountains stretched in the distance. Sticking his head under the water again he began to explore the lake. He did not like the freshwater at all and rather have the taste of the sea in his mouth again.
---LENNOX FAMILY---
Will and Epps along with their families walked along the edge of the icy lake. The deep forest that surrounded the Autobot base was perfect for camping out in the winter where nature was at its best.
The lake they had chosen was well into the woods, but close enough to the Autobot base that if they ran into any trouble then they can get help. Ironhide was with them along with Epps's partner an Autobot named Bluestreak. Bluestreak and Ironhide were talking in their native language about something, and after listening in Will did not want to know. He hung out with them enough to pick up on some of their language the ones he can hear and he nearly choked when they started to talk about provocative stuff.
When he turned his head Epps was giving him the same look of amusement. Epps too could make out some rather provocative words from there and laughed.
"Well it seems like human males are not the only ones that get horny," Epps whispered to Will who was holding Annabelle.
The little girl laughed as Will bounced her up and down.
Not far Epps's daughter was not having as much fun. She was in fact furious that her family dragged her up here to the mountains in the first place. She is currently suspended from school on accounts of smoking pot and doing other drugs. Instead of going to rehab where it was recommended Epps finally showed her to the Autobots and to the girl's surprise her father's car was in fact a robot.
A bloody sniper like her dad as well.
While the others were busy Camille walked towards the frozen lake. Huge footprints in the snow made her stop though as she looked at them. Three toed claws like something out of some Sci-Fi movie. As she followed the footprints she suddenly stopped as something approached. Looking up she saw a dark shadow over her. When she turned her head she screamed.
There in front of her was the largest Tyrannosaur that Camille had ever seen and she let the others know it by screaming.
Will and Epps ran when the screaming started and when they saw a confused Grimlock and a scared to death Camille, Epps started laughing. Camille glared at her father with much loathing.
"Grimlock sorry scare Epps daughter, Grimlock only bringing Titan out to play for Titan was board," Grimlock replied as he stared at the water.
"Did Ratchet approve of Titan being out?" asked Will
"Yes he recommended it but no one wanted to take the little mech out," replied Grimlock.
"Who is Titan?" asked Camille as she looked around for another Autobot.
Grimlock had transformed and now towers over her allowing Camille to get a better look at him. Ironhide and Bluestreak waved from where they were currently talking. Grimlock walked on over to where the other two mechs were and Camille sat by the lake.
She began to enjoy the wintry sight that greeted her when something from the sky made her look up. It was like a meteor as it raced towards her and the lake.
----TITAN---
Titan could hear the meteor crash into the ground just on the other side of the lake. After the shock everyone stared with scanners going until blasts from a cannon alerted them to the danger.
Titan well hidden from the attack by the lake's icy surface stayed well below the surface as he watched the shadow walk over him and towards the others. Swimming well out of range of its scanners he followed as best as he could.
---LENOXES---
"Ironhide call for help!" Will shouted as he grabbed his rifle and shot a few Sabot rounds at the creature but it was impervious to such rounds unlike the Cybertronians.
Sarah and Annabelle were running down the road towards the Autobot base while Will and Epps tried to shoot at it. Ironhide and Bluestreak fired their cannons while Grimlock tried to go at it with his missiles. He then charged full throttle at the Unicronian who easily overpowered him.
Camille tried to run in the direction that Sarah and Annabelle took but the impact from the ground when Grimlock crashed sent her flying towards the lake.
"Millie!" Epps called after her but was stopped.
---TITAN---
Titan watched as the girl slammed into the ice hard enough to break it as well as parts of herself as she sank beneath the waters. Titan quickly swam up to her and with blood trailing from the wound got her to a safe place before spy hopping to see what was going on. What he saw shocked him to no end.
Grimlock was down for the count with a badly damaged side and his leg was shattered.
Ironhide was faring no better trying to protect the humans that he was guarding. His cannons were sparking because they were overheated and his torso and chassis took some heavy hits.
Bluestreak was already offline by the damage caused by the creature.
The creature reminded him of an insect from some Godzilla movie with its mandibles moving. His raptor – like claws wanted to make short work out of Ironhide and its drooling mandibles wanted nothing more then to feast on Grimlock who was leaking energon badly.
Titan watched as other Autobots filled the area and started to open fire on the Unicronian, but the beast would not be swayed. It fired its cannons at them and Titan had a thought go through his processor, Goliath and Rodan fought that thing?
It was when he saw Uncle Tom amongst the humans that joined the fighting. It was when an explosion rocked near the humans that Titan grew angry.
The Unicronian was forced back by the sheer force and ferocity of the Autobots that had joined the fight as it moved onto the ice. Titan watched as he moved further onto the lake. To his horror he was near where the human that he rescued was lying. Ducking his head under water Titan rushed towards the monster with all the speed that he could come up with.
As he neared the monster he smashed his way out of the ice and slammed his tail as hard as he can at the creature causing it to fly several hundred meters away from the human. Titan then disappeared under the ice again and rushed towards the monster.
---THE AUTOBOTS---
Optimus Prime watched the creature go flying from Titan's attack and land several hundred meters away from a prone form on the ice.
Zooming in he saw the prone figure of a human female there.
"Swoop get that human out of there!" He shouted to the Dinobot
Swoop dove down and retrieved the human taking her back to base to the medical bay.
As he did the creature tried to shoot the pterosaur down but Swoop being as agile as he is flew away.
Optimus watched as the creature shot after Titan who was hiding under the ice. The sparkling proved to be faster then the Unicronian while the Autobots watched.
---TITAN---
Titan was pumping every fiber optic muscle cable that he could to move faster then the Unicronian well into the lake. The monster shot at him again, but being faster Titan dove down away from his blasts. The bad part was that the blasts were breaking the ice apart so it no longer was a solid mass. Instead it was a bunch of floating pieces and that made Titan more in his element.
Turning around the Deceptibot went into a full charge towards the monster swishing his tail with increasing speed as his dorsal fin left he water. The Unicronian fired a few shots at him and screamed in frustration that he could not touch Titan, as the ichthyosaur leaped up from where he was in the water and delivered a flip with his tail. The creature ended up in the water perfect for Titan to deliver a few attacks.
Diving back into the lake the Deceptibot disappeared and raced after the monster who was trying to get away with his thrusters full of water. Titan rammed him full on in the chassis and the monster grabbed him attempting to bite him. Titan was smarter through and sent out a sonic noise that was deafening to the Unicronian as Titan slammed his tail into the monster again.
---AUTOBOTS---
To say that Prowl was impressed and worried at the same time was something that the mech was slowly fritzing over. He pushed that aside as he watched the explosions from the water as the Unicronian tried to take off and Titan right on his aft biting hard on his leg.
Using that momentum Prowl watched as the sparkling mech used his weight to throw the monster off and back into the lake. This time the Unicronian landed on the shore and threw Titan towards the Autobots. If he it them then the impact would be devastating to his body as well as the humans he was about to land on.
---TITAN---
I need to transform now! He thought as he tried to go over his override codes.
The Decepticon sparkling tried to transform as he sailed through the air. His systems were still jammed as he hit the trees and warning lights flashed across his optics.
Because he was a finned animal he could not move on land so he was basically screwed up the creek.
Great like a fish out of water Titan thought darkly
The Unicronian garbled something in Cybertronian that Titan did not catch as he grabbed Titan's tail and swung him again.
Come on transform! Titan thought trying to work his CPU into overriding the error codes.
Remove doubt from your mind a voice in the back of his head said
A past memory?
Remove your doubt there is no try; do or do not is the question that must be asked. To lower your doubt one can achieve many things. To feel no sense of shame and with the will to do as you must you can accomplish what you set to do,
It was then that Titan realized where the voice was coming from.
Grandma!
It was a memory from his past training. Titan then offlined his optics and concentrated as the Unicronian spy once again grabbed him and tossed him again to play with his meat before consumption.
---AUTOBOTS---
Grimlock was now holding his side as he struggled to get up as Red Alert worked on his side. He looked as Titan was tossed for the third time and wanted to help the sparkling.
He is one brave little guy he thought to himself.
To his amazement Titan began to transform. As parts changed and formed they all watched as Titan became the mech they thought he was as he nimbly landed well behind the humans.
Now Grimlock got a good look at the mech.
Titan was covered in blue streaks where his organic parts go. The lower jaw of his beast form made up his chassis much like some of the other Maximals and Dinobots. He had the normal pair of red optics like the Decepticon that he is.
His feet were flat with three toed splay to show that he was ready for business. His claw-like hands were ready for action as he took up a fighting position as he readied himself with the monster.
His stance was solid that much Grimlock was sure of as it looks more relaxed then what a bot would normally do. Titan stood ready for action as he parted his legs as if ready to run.
The Unicronian scout roared in fury at the still not dead Decepticon. Titan growled in response then both of them charged. Titan building up speed at the same time as the Unicronian and the Autobots watched as both clashed.
Titan blocked blow for blow as the creature came down on him and Titan being faster used his speed to claw into the armor. When the armor was barely grazed Titan was surprised as the creature grabbed his leg and threw him across the lake and charged.
Titan flipped in the air and landed on his feet and charged again. Using the ice to his advantage he skated towards the Unicronian. His speed was something to match with as he slipped under the legs and delivered a blow that caught the Unicronian off balance. Getting up Titan turned and saw the monster rise again.
How can I not hit him? All my blows were devastating unless…
Titan zoomed in his optics towards the Unicron insignia on the right shoulder of the monster. He then felt something from it energy pouring from it. Then Titan knew what it was…
A force field! That dirty cheater! He thought as he looked around and found a piece of ice.
With the speed born from years of training Titan kicked the Unicronian scout down and grabbed the jagged piece and turned towards the monster.
Before the monster got up Titan grabbed the tip of the piece and threw it at the monster scoring a direct hit.
When he did the monster screamed in pain as the insignia was hit.
The scout was clearly pissed off by now and a jagged sword came out from his arm. Roaring in fury it charged Titan and the Deceptibot stood ready. His legs were spread apart as he waited for the monster to come at him with all the speed he could muster.
Titan stood his ground and gotten into a defensive stance ready to spring when the time called for him to spring. The monster was on him before Titan made his move. The massive sword came swinging down and Titan leaped into the air.
The monster's sword smashed through the ice causing the monster to fall into the icy lake. Titan took advantage of that and transformed back into his beast mode before disappearing under the water again.
As he dove after the monster it fired his cannon at him again getting Titan on the side but the Deceptibot shut down his pain receptors and charged. Energon leaked from the massive wound but that did not stop the Deceptibot from snatching the sword from the monster's arm ripping off the arm in the process.
The Unicronian was clearly pissed now as he charged after Titan who increased his speed and broke the surface of the lake again and flying up into the light of the sun.
The Unicronian burst from the waves and landed on the still hard and solid ice. Turning he roared at the sky just as the shadow of Titan in robot mode came down sword in hand.
The monster moved out of the way just in time for the sword came crashing down. Energon leaked from Titan's wound but he did not care as he got up slowly and held the sword before the monster could recover enough to come after Titan again.
Titan turned to the creature and held his position. The Unicronian came again and this time Titan gave a indifferent look. Pointing the sword down Titan readied himself as the scout shot at him again. Titan was ready and deflected the blasts with the sword. Raising the sword to his mouth piece he placed his two clawed fingers to his lips as well and held the sword as if in prayer.
The monster neared and time seemed to slow down.
----AUTOBOTS----
It was Grimlock and Ironhide who was being held up by Sludge and Snarl two other dinobots when they saw Titan give the final blow.
The dinobots were sure that the sparkling would die when the creature brought down his other arm to finish the kill when Titan moved with blinding speed slashing into what appears to be nothing to the optics.
Just as the blow was about to reach Titan, Grimlock watched as the arm fell right off and landed on the ground harmlessly in three pieces. The monster stared in bewilderment before parts of him began to fall towards the ground. His optics shown up in surprise as he suddenly fell in pieces and then exploded. Titan right then and there let air into his intakes to cool his systems as his optics finally shut down and he succumb to stasis.
Grimlock ran after the sparkling as he started to sink into the lake and swam after him. He ignored his wounds as he picked up the sparkling and held him close.
"Titan very brave, Me Grimlock very proud," he said to him as he drug him to shore.
The medics were already there helping both human and Autobot alike.
When they saw Grimlock walk to shore with Titan in his arms they immediately rushed to the sparkling and started to treat his wounds.
Grimlock started to teeter till he was caught by Slag. The Triceratops helped him in the direction of the Autobot base while Sludge and Snarl helped Ironhide and Bluestreak.
---AUTOBOT MEDBAY---
Slowly optics came online as Titan looked around and once again found himself in the medical bay. He was once again back in beast mode but he felt a bit tired nothing more.
Looking down he saw that his wound was treated and the face of Tom greeted him from the glass of the tank.
"Uncle Tom?" Titan asked as he looked at the human there his arm in a sling and he has a crutch.
"How are you feeling kid?" he asked smiling
"I feel like I was drug out of the pit and then across Kilauea (Key-La-u-eh-ah) only to have Kané (Ka-neh) himself pound me into poi," Titan replied (Poi is a staple amongst Ancient Hawaiians it is mashed Taro plant that takes quite a bit of time to pound to the right texture. It may be bland but it is an acquired taste. )
Tom smiled at Titan and patted his head.
"You were very brave back there Titan," Tom said
"I was only doing my duty as a Deceptibot, but personally that was the scariest thing I could have ever done," Titan replied
Tom smiled as he once again patted the Ichthyosaur on the head.
It was then that the doors opened and the dinobots entered. As they saw Titan they all rushed to the tank much to the protests of some of the medical staff.
"Titan alive!"
"Slag miss Titan!"
"You have proven yourself a worthy warrior,"
"Grimlock owe Titan Grimlock's life; Grimlock in debt."
"Me Snarl like Titan, You is now Dinobot,"
Titan looked rather shy at all the attention that he was getting. He swam around to get a better look at the dinobots.
It was then that the door opened and a few more dinobots entered. These ones bore the Decepticon insignia. Among them was their leader, Rip Claw a raptor and a pterosaur like Swoop named Terrorsaur.
"We have come to see the sparkling named Titan," said Rip Claw as he entered his claws clicking against the metal floor.
Titan swam down to the bottom of the tank to get a better view of Rip Claw since he was a Predicon and not a Dinobot. The raptor then turned his head to get a better look at Titan who shied away from them as Rip Claw replayed the video in his CPU of the events that took place.
"My Titan you have proven yourself worthy for a Decepticon child. At such an early age too! The Decepticon base when they heard this got very excited that such a warrior could come form such a child," he said
"What do you want Rip Claw?" asked Titan
"My feisty too, Shockwave wanted me to say what a job well done and we have analyzed the Unicronian's defense and figured that if their insignia is the source of why they can't be killed by conventional means then we have to aim for that insignia. I just think it is really cool," Rip Claw said smirking when everyone gave him looks.
"What can't blame the guy for being excited for finally seeing a weakness in Unicronian armor," Terrorsaur replied back to them.
"Why is it so important I thought you guys knew how to fight these guys?" Titan asked from the tank.
"Actually that is the problem Titan you see for thousands of years when we were at war with the Unicronians we Cybertronians could not defeat our enemy. So in desperation we placed them in stasis never to be awakened again." Rip Claw said
"Wow, so how did they awaken?" asked Titan.
"Well according to the old stories they are to be awakened when there is enough hatred amongst the Cybertronian race," said Terrorsaur as he perched on one of the tables.
"So if all this anger and hatred brought them back how did it start?" he asked
"When Megatron started the war," was the last statement.
"Oh," Titan replied
"Now do you understand, when Galvatron took over we knew now that Megatron was truly dead and that this evil in his body corrupting it is what caused this war to start," Rip Claw replied
"Yes I do," Titan said
"Then how do we fix it?" asked Snarl
"We fight with no hatred in our sparks." Titan said
They all turned to the sparkling and Titan did a strange version of a shrug.
"Well that is what grandma said. She always tells us that we have a reason to fight whether good or evil. Evil fights for the sake of fighting to conquer and satisfy its hunger for power and pain. Good fights to protect the innocent and those who can't fight they mainly fight to protect. We the Deceptibots are guardians, protectors of Earth. We were trained by our grandmother to carry out the mission even though we are sparklings. She trained us to protect ourselves and those we swore to protect." Titan said
"Such a wise femme even for a human," said Rip Claw as he showed his pleasure by giving a friendly snarl.
"Uncle Can I come out now," said Titan
Ratchet looked up from his data pad at Titan.
"Not for another day and then we have to send you off back to your family," he said
"Really? I get to finally go home?" he said
"Yep, along with letters to both Jazz and Bumblebee wishing them luck. Unless the Decepticons have something to say to Starscream, Barricade and Frenzy," he said with a smirk, he really like this kid.
TBC