Chapter One: The Scars of War
Each faction had its own individual who was the best of the best. Among the Lycans, that individual was a soldier named Ethan Ketra. He was slightly muscular, 5' 11" and had silver hair that reached the base of his neck. He had a scar going from his forehead along the left side of his nose and eventually reached his neck. It was from when he was turned. Lucian gave it to him as a mark to identify him if he had to be recruited. Physically, he was only nineteen, but he is over 450 years old chronologically. He sat on the bench of his garage with his Decepticon partner, Barricade. His nights in the garage were often spent with Barricade in an awkward silence. Usually driven by Ethan's distrust of machines due to Starscreams treacherous nature and their history together. 6 months ago, Starscream ordered Devastator to destroy his hometown of Nome in Alaska. This time the silence was caused by his unusual sense of guilt for what he did during the last mission. He had never watched an Autobot long enough to see their spark extinguish after he strikes them down. This time, he was unfortunate enough to watch. Her name was Arcee. She was the size of a full grown human and was no challenge for the young lycan. He remembered her dying words. "You don't have to do this". But he was following orders when he drove his knife deep into her spark chamber. He stood transfixed as the shots rang out, staring at her spark as it began to fade. Once the light had died, Arcee was gone. Lucien dragged him back to base after the Lycans and Decepticons had taken the city. That was over 3 hours ago, but it still burned in Ketra's mind. Now, Barricade tried to break the silence.
"You know I can't comment on what you saw, but what you witnessed is a Decepticons reason to live." The mustang said. A Decepticons reason to live? I'm nothing like them. Ketra thought. "It changes you to watch a spark extinguish." It changes you? It definitely changed me.
"Throughout my service, I've always regretted killing for anything but food. But watching an individual's life force leave them was what filled me with guilt." Ketra was furious by this time and stormed out of the garage to head to the Tactical Combat Training, or TCT, room. He did this after each mission to hone his skills. Lucien had always told him he had to be "faster, stronger, and more accurate." This time, he needed to blow off some steam. On his way, he passed Raze, who greeted Ketra with compliments for his first recorded Autobot kill.
"Heard how you iced Arcee. I should've been there." He said.
"If you were there, it would have been easier. You need to be where we want you when we want you." Ketra snarled. Raze backed off slowly then ran, his trench coat flowing in the draft. Why do I even bother? The base wasn't very large, but the Lycans certainly benefitted from the Cybertronian technology. The airborne Decepticons had a specialized runway above ground, but Starscream was the only one who ever used it. Starscream, Grindor, and Megatron were the only ones who could fly, so the runway was almost perfectly useless. Ever since its acquisition, Ketra had gotten lost in this base three times. My first Autobot kill. I can't take it anymore. I have to get out of here. I wonder if NEST would take me in. Ketra thought about leaving for at least a week now, but he knew Lucian and Megatron would stop at nothing to get him back. After 15 minutes of wandering through the base, he made it to the TCT room. He took out two Heckler & Koch MP7s and folded in the stocks. For training, he used a cartridge loaded with cells that fire off transphasic energy that damages the solid-matter holograms. The cells fire off their charge, and are discarded by the weapons like normal bullet casings. As accurate as he was with his SMGs, no lycan was permitted to use UV rounds outside of combat with the vampires. Ketra knew why. The materials for producing these rounds were extremely rare on earth and only the Decepticons knew how to synthesize them. The success rate is limited as the Constructicons were semi-retired. Enemy holograms appeared at random spots in the room. Speed was Ethan's most prominent weapon. He was the only lycan fast enough to run across walls in human form. This is what he would do first. He leapt and the wall and ran along its surface. He opened fire at the enemy holos and destroyed them. Two enemy holos approached from behind. Ethan quickly turned and opened fire. Both holos were destroyed. These were the last of the enemies he would fight. Ketra had to be ready at all times. He had specialized combat armor like the rest of Lucian's elite soldiers. His armor was equipped with Cybertronian offensive technologies. He needed to work on it to make sure it still did its job. The Autobots haven't made a move in weeks, but he was better safe than sorry. He never knew when the Autobots would try to reclaim the city. His armor consisted of a Flak Jacket with internal Kevlar plating and a special bullet-proof fabric composed of threads of carbon nano-tubes. The back had Barricade's police emblem and the Decepticon symbol was embroidered on the right side of the chest. The shoulder pads covered his upper arms and snapped to his flak jacket. The true marvels of technology were the boots and forearm guards. The boots were made of pure steel and housed retracting wheels and jump thrusters. The forearm guards housed retracting blades made of the same material at the heart of each UV round. This ensured instant vampire kills. Each piece had to be attached one at a time. After his armor was put on, He went back to the garage to see Barricade looking through his bookshelf. He noticed that Ketra had a large collection of werewolf literature. Some of the mythology in his possession came from over 150 years ago.
"DON'T TOUCH THOSE!!!!!!!!!" Ketra yelled. Barricade stopped what he was doing and Ethan's copy of Frostbite by David Wellington fell out. "I'm sorry." Barricade said sincerely.
"It's okay. I just lost my head." Ethan picked up his book and put it back in the shelf.
"You've got some pretty old stuff here. Is there a reason for all this?" asked the huge Decepticon.
"Back then, I wanted to know what had attacked me. I became scared when I read that I would become like them, but I've come to accept this 'curse'" said Ketra.
Out of nowhere, the incursion alarm sounded once again. Barricade quickly transformed into his Saleen Mustang altmode. He opened his driver door and Ketra jumped in. "The Autobots are making a move to take back the 8th district. Megatron and Starscream are moving in quickly and Grindor just got out of the hangar." After this mini briefing, Barricade drove right out. Ketra took control and proceeded to the 8th district. They had only sent three Autobots. Ketra identified them as Bumblebee, Ironhide, and Ratchet. Ketra leapt out of Barricade before the Saleen fully transformed. Megatron descended quickly and tried to drive his sword through Ironhides head, but the Autobot moved in time to avoid impalement and fired off a few rounds from his pulse cannon. Megatron dodged and came at full force, but Lennox fired of a concussion grenade from his launcher, sending Megatron to the ground. Lucien leapt into combat with Starscream and went after Lennox. Lucien was knocked down by a soldier with Poleepkwa plating covering his chest, back, arms, and lower legs. The half-breed clocked Lucien in the face. Lucien got back up and threw the alien half-breed into one of the buildings.
"Better luck next time, Fairway." He said. Fairway, the half-breed, entered his wolf form. His legs became digigrade and fur covered all that the plates did not. His head became that of a wolf and he leapt out into battle after Lucien. Fairway's wrist-blades extended and Lucien's sword was deployed. They engaged in a sword battle that went on until Lucien collapsed from fatigue. Ketra quickly engaged Fairway, but the Lycan found himself losing to the half-breed. Before long, he fell. This was the first time he was ever beaten in combat. The ensuing chaos was what Starscream needed to get away. As he flew off, Breakaway flew with the moon to his back. His pilot, a hybrid soldier, leapt out and used his bladed wigs to attach to Starscreams underbelly.
"Get off me, hybrid filth." Starscream shouted. Before the F-22 transformed, the unnamed soldier took a grenade off of his vest and threw it into Starscreams intake. He leapt off and flew toward Breakaway and got in. As Starscream began to transform, the grenade exploded and disabled his engines. Starscream couldn't hover, so he fell quickly to the ground. Barricade looked on the carnage. Nothing was right. He leapt after Ratchet flailing his weapon. Ratchet shot round after round from his machine gun, but nothing would stop the 20-odd tons of confused Decepticon that was running towards him. Bumblebee dashed quickly and knocked Barricade to the ground, toppling a radio tower in the process. Ratchet got back up.
"Thanks, Bee." He said. Ironhide was locked in combat with Grindor. The MH-53 transformed and bombarded the area. Breakaway and his Hybrid partner went after Grindor. Breakaway turned to his side and sped on at full afterburner. His wings cut through the rotors as they turned. Grindor transformed and fell to the ground. Before Lucien could be subdued, he escaped with Starscream back to the Decepticon HQ. All other forces were brought back to the HQ. In his garage, Ketra stood with Barricade as a broken man.