Chapter 16
The grey-haired man runs out from his cover and fires on the Predacon drones, taking down five of them.
Another earthling comes running out from one of the abandoned buildings "Come one! Follow Cable!" he yells out as he too begins to fire on the Predacons. Multiple earthlings run out from their cover to fire on the Predacons with their own blasters.
The remaining drones suddenly stop firing and are teleported away as a multi-city-block sized Predacon vessel passes overhead.
"What's happening? We couldn't have scared them away. That was almost too easy." The woman says.
A square compartment opens up on Cable's bionic arm and a glass cube exits and hovers in the air. "Computer, what's happening? What are the Predacons doing?"
One of the screens on the cube lights up and projects a holographic image of the Predacon star port near Washington D.C. "A transmission was intercepted from Cybertron. Megatron has sent out a call across the Predacon Empire to transport all drones to Cybertron. Only a skeleton crew is to remain on the planets under Predacon control."
"Do you know what that means?" Cable looks at his crew. "It means that the Maximals have reached Cybertron and are trying to take it back. It means the Maximals have not abandoned Earth. Since the Maximals haven't given up on us, we shouldn't give up either. Now is our chance, we have to move quickly. Send the message out to every human and mutant you can. Tell them that the Predacons have been called to Cybertron and only some remain. Also, tell those mutants to pass along the message to whomever they find. If we are to get those tin cans off the planet, this is our one and only chance."
Inside the Predacon Citadel, Deluge is sitting at one of the consoles. He turns around to face Megatron. "Lord Megatron. The computer has finished decrypting the Maximal disc."
"What does it contain?" Megatron says as he walks over to Deluge's computer.
"We know that the Protoss are using replication technology from the Maximals in the Interceptors. Genius. But this is something entirely different." He taps some commands on the holographic controls. Schematic images and Cybertronian text appears "This is a schematic for a very advanced type of armor. I've never seen anything like this before."
"Have you been able to decipher the formulas?" Megatron asks sternly.
"The formulas are highly complex. But after doing the calculations, I suspect that these are the schematics for a self-healing or self-replicating armor. It's just not armor. This can also be used on inner components of Cybertronians. As long as the Cybertronian is alive and has energy, theoretically their whole body can regenerate in a matter of minutes."
"Can you duplicate this?"
"Not in any decent time frame, and with our resources being focused on the Maximals and their allies. Now is not the time to try to duplicate it."
"How do we defeat this kind of technology?"
"It looks like the only way to defeat it, is a consistent barrage of energy weapons. This would overwhelm the energy reserves of the user. Eventually the armor could not form."
Megatron turns to the rest of the room "Where are my drones?!"
"At least one earth hour, My Lord." Frenzy responded.
Within the catacombs of Cybertron, Wheeljack and Perceptor furiously type at the consoles to try to free to the imprisoned Maximals, Rhinox looks away from his console at another screen.
"Oh no.." Rhinox says with a heavy voice."
"What is it?" Wheeljack resonds.
"A message was sent out from Cybertron to all planets of the Predacon Empire. They are calling in for reinforcements. The instructions were to only leave a skeleton crew to maintain Predacon presence, but all Predacon drones and warships were to come back to Cybertron."
"How long until the Predacon reinforcements arrive?" Wheeljack asks again.
Various lights flash on Perceptor's head. "By adding up the time it takes to load up a near planet-sized military onto transports, and the time needed for interstellar travel, I calculate that the Predacon reinforcements will arrive in fourty-five earth minutes."
"That doesn't give us a lot of time then." Rhinox states. "We need to stop what we are doing and focus entirely on hacking the holographic drones."
Wheeljack calls out "Forty-Five minutes might not be enough time!"
"We literally have no choice. With one of us doing the reprogramming, the rest of us will monitor the code and attempt to block the security measures."
Deep under the ground on Cybertron in the catacombs, SilverBlade walks past old discarded Predacons. Human skeletons also litter the ground. He kneels to pick up one of the discarded hand held blasters.
Still full he thought to himself as he checked the charge on the indicator light. He stood up and resumed walking carefully as to not trigger any alarms.
He suddenly hears a faint humming – the 'powering up' sound from plasma rifles, from behind him. Without looking he aims the hand-held blaster behind him beside his head and fires at the Predacon guard, hitting him squarely in the head.
He continues to cautiously walk through the catacombs when Predacon drones appear down the hall and begin to fire at him. He swiftly ducks into a connecting hallway and watches as bright flashes of red, green and blue whip by.
"Computer, find a way around this!" he says frantically. A holographic projecting from his wrist activates and displays a three-dimensional layout of the catacombs and where he is located. A red highlighted path shows him an alternative route.
"But that requires me crossing that line if plasma fire." He says to his computer.
"The hallway you are in does not have a path leading to Megatron's throne room." The computer responds back.
"Shit. Now what?" He looks at the walls around him. Hmm. He thinks to himself. He activates his energy claws and begins to slice out a huge square section from the wall. After placing the section down on the ground, a section of his side opens and he reaches in for a spherical object. He picks up the wall section and carries it beside himself. As he enters the pathway of the plasma blasts, he hears the shots hitting the metal in rapid succession. He can even see red spots forming, meaning the shots are almost getting through.
He drops the spherical object when he's mid-way in the corridor. He then lets go over the metallic piece and charges down the hallway.
As the Predacon drone group approaches the hallway that Silver went down, the spherical object explodes, sending an electrical shockwave in all directions.
Deluge, looking at the schematics for the Maximal self-healing armor, is alerted to something on a second monitor.
"Lord Megatron, an EMP burst was detected."
"What is the location?" Megatron turned to Deluge, annoyed.
"Deep inside the planet. It was detected in the catacombs." Deluge responded.
"That means he's getting close." Megatron muttered to himself, but Deluge heard.
"Who?" asks Deluge.
"None of your business. Continue studying that self healing armor and get it into MY drones."
"Yes, my lord." Deluge responds and continues to study the schematics.
Megatron turns to Frenzy. "How many more physical drones can the system handle?"
Frenzy manipulates the holographic controls for a few seconds. "The antennas are at their maximum. The holo-emitters are also at their maximum. I set the drone replicators to make more as they get destroyed. The holo-emitters are shielded so we should have no problem there, lord Megatron."
Megatron nods. "I'll be in the throne room. You will not disturb me. I am leaving Soundwave in Command as Shockwave is occupied."
The Predacon personnel in the command center salutes as Megatron's image fades out.
On board the Maximal Flagship, Rodimus looked out of the windows to see multitudes of small vessels belonging to the Cybertronian allies descend to the planet. He turns to Ultra Magnus. "Do you remember the first time we went to investigate a distress signal after we retreated from Earth and Cybertron?"
Magnus watched as one of the Naboo cruisers drifted by. "I remember what we found."
"I was on the bridge of the space station, when we received a frantic call."
"This is Federation outpost 304. The Predacons have started to attack us and our defense system is taking heavy damage. Come Help, pl.". Then static.
"I got an away team ready and met you in one of the smaller transports. When we got there.."
The away team, led by Ultra Magnus and Rodimus, stepped into the very wide hallway to find the floor littered with dead bodies of different species and uniforms indicating the planet they were from: Naboo, Cardassia, Kronos, Tattoine, Coruscant, Klingon, Human, Protoss, and Wookies. The away team also notices the blood splattered on the wall.
The away team moves into room after room, yelling out 'clear!' after each one, indicating that no Predacons have been found.
They approach the door to the main bridge, which was forced open and bent. The display monitors are barely working and more bodies are found. Some drapped over the consoles while others lay on the ground. Rodimus looked over to the Captains chair to see the body of the Captain, only his head looked like it was severed by multiple shots to the neck. He looks at the body belonging to the Second in Command, which was pulled apart at the waist, as he sees the rib cage and spine in the mutilated body.
"Rodimus! Sir! I think I found the video logs of what happened." One of the team members called out.
"Put it on the main screen." Magnus ordered and the video begins to play:
The main screen shows a four-way split screen of the events from four different perspectives.
The crewmembers sit at their respective consoles when the screen shows Predacon vessels approaching. The Captain looks over to one console "Fire at their weapons systems first!" Multiple torpedoes burst towards the Predacon vessels, only to be met with a shield.
The Predacon vessels attack immediately, hitting key weapon locations on the outpost. "Captain, Sir, they just took out half of our defences."
"Shit" says the Captain. He turns to another crewmember. "Send a message to the Maximals. NOW." He ordered in a panicked tone.
The communications officer taps the keys on the console and begins to speak. "This is Federation outpost 304. The Predacons have started to attack us and our defense system is taking heavy damage. Come Help, pl.." As he almost finished, several Predacon troops teleports into the bridge, with their weapons aimed at the humanoids.
Soon after, a large blue and gold Predacon appears before the Captain
"SilverBlade." The Captain speaks softly, as he shows he is clearly frightened.
"If you know who I am, then you know what I do when I don't get exactly what I want. You must know where the Maximals are located as we detected a signal meant for them."
"Why should I tell you?" The Captain says as he spits on SilverBlade's face
"Don't tell him anything!" one of the crewmembers pleaded from the science console. SilverBlade wasted no time as he aimed his wrist-mounted plasma blaster at the human's head, hitting with pinpoint accuracy and the human's head bursts and sends blood in all directions.
SilverBlade looked at the Captain and says in harsh and commanding tone "That is why you should tell me everything you know. That was your warning. Tell me where the Maximals are!"
"Go to Hell, Predacon." The Captain says as he spits at SilverBlade in contempt.
"Kill them all, except him. And use solid rounds, not energy." SilverBlade ordered the Predacon troops around him. The Predacon troops immediately followed the orders. The human Captain watched as one Predacon slugs Naboo officer that was Second in Command, causing him to stumble. The Predacon smacks him in the head to knock him out cold and tosses the Second in Command over to two other Predacons as if he were weightless. The two other Predacons grabs the Second in Command – one holding the torso and one holding the legs – and they pulled him in half at the waist, tossing both halves of the Naboo officer to land near the Captain.
SilverBlade latches energon restraints on the Captain. He grabs one of the ensigns roughly, punching him in the stomach and activating his energy claws, and sliding them upwards to the ribcage. Once the ensign body goes limp, he tosses the ensign on the console.
Another Predacon trooper pulls a Cardassian to the end of the barrel of his blaster and fires multiple bullets through the Cardassian's body, moving upwards towards the neck, blood and pieces of organs flying out and onto the wall. The Predacon trooper then dumps the Cardassion on the ground.
In another area of the same room, two Predacon troopers grab onto the arms of a science officer – a Wookie. He stuggles wildly until one of his hands gets free. He uses it to grab a blaster from the Predacon and fires at its head. He grabs another blaster from the fallen Predacon trooper and begins to fire at the Predacon troops while ducking behind the console. SilverBlade gets irritated and speaks into his com unit "Send more units units in." Within seconds, more Predacon troops are teleported in and they overwhelm the Wookie easily just in pure numbers.
Two Predacons hold the Wookies arms up, as another aims for the Wookie. He repeatedly fires at the Wookie's stomach, going across, with blood being splattered on the wall. With each shot the Wookie howls in intense and excruciating pain. The lower half of his body eventually collapses and the Predacons drop the upper half.
"Commander Blade" SilverBlade's com unit alerts him. He taps a button. "All humanoids are killed." He nods and turns off his com unit. He looks at the Captain. "If you value your own life, you will tell me where you sent that message." He grabs the Captains neck, and says angrily, while squeezing his throat. "Tell me or die!"
The Captain struggles to breathe, but remains speechless. SilverBlade tosses him onto the Captains chair, and fires multiple times to his neck, severing it from the body.
He looks over to one of his Predacon troops, who aims his blaster at the console. SilverBlade orders "STOP!" The trooper backs away immediately. "Leave everything intact. The Maximals will come, and I want them to find this recording." He looks at one of the cameras directly. "The deaths of these humanoids are on your hands, Maximals. More deaths will occur the longer you hide." He then nods to his troops. They are then teleported off of the station.
"Now the question is, Rodimus, is do we trust him?"
"SilverBlade may act like a Predacon at times. He may even look like one. But he has proven to be a valuable Maximal. Until I see otherwise, I'll continue to trust him." Rodimus responds.