Chapter 54
24th December
1643hrs
The menu appeared in his field of vision, it was of course in his native tongue. He groaned and brought his optics online as he slowly, groggily sat up.
"Where am I?"
Magnus found himself sitting in a pile of soggy cold mud. His sensors alerted him to the fact that he was in a mine that was known to the Autobots, a place the Decepticons had once used, only they weren't aware or didn't care at least, how far into the earth the old tunnels stretched. His internal computer gave him information regarding the lay out of the mine and more importantly, the fact that there were Autobot signatures up ahead. He stood, refocused his optics into infra-red and started his walk towards them. He took a moment to regard why he was covered in energon that wasn't his own.
There were about five times during his journey through the pitch black mine that he felt that someone was behind him, but with each look over his shoulder, with every detailed scan of the surrounds, nothing was revealed. If someone was there, and they were too cowardly too face him, they were obviously no threat. As he contemplated on this he became aware of voices. Up ahead, but muffled. They overlaid the life scans, he also picked up a human signature, and its initial reading lead him to believe it was a Witwicky, and since it was unlikely that Daniel was running around down here, it had to be Spike.
A large mound of dirt, mud and large rocks blocked the entrance to the cave his sensors told him was on the other side, the cave that contained the life signs. He yelled out a warning, both verbally and over the Autobot comm. link but neither was heard. He had to risk and hope that no one was leaning up against the wall on the other side. He fired a shoulder missile and it caused a nice big bang, a fire ball and a good sized hole to be disintegrated into it.
"Magnus!"
Kup stood up from where he was crotched by Rodimus' unconscious form.
"Wait, isn't he all crazy?"
"What in the Pit are you talking about, Blaster?"
"Nope. My mistake. He's fine".
The city commander approached Kup.
"Kup, report".
"There was a strange shudder, we all blacked out, but when we woke up, Roddi was still out of it, he's been in stasis for a good hour and a half".
"What about the rest of you, how long were you in stasis?"
"We dunno Magnus, all our chronometers are offline".
Jazz chimed, sitting on a mound of dirt away from the newly created exit.
"Mine is functional, in the human standard its just gone 1645 hours on the 24th December".
"Holy hell, Carly is going to kill me".
Spike grumbled.
"Spike was out of it too".
Blaster added.
"Who woke up first?"
Springer raised his hand.
"And Percy is a bit subdued, though, I can't blame him given the dose of the crazy he's had lately".
Sunstreaker grumbled.
"Where's that idiot Sideswipe?"
"We don't know sir".
"Well, now that there's away out, I'll go answer that question for everyone".
"Not under my command, boy, you're staying here until we can figure this all out".
Ultra Magnus said with his sternest voice.
"You don't scare me, old man".
"I have no interest in scaring you, Sunstreaker, what I will do, however, is pound your aft into sheet metal. Now sit back down".
Sunstreaker obeyed, because the cold hard truth was, as vicious a fighter as the golden plated twin was, as skilled as he was, Magnus was older, wiser, and sturdier, and holder of a far deal less patience. He was also a mech of his word, if he said he'd pound you into sheet metal, he'd damn well do it.
"Explain the shuttle".
Magnus said as he stepped over Rodimus (a little get back for the singing) and towards the aged Decepticon craft.
"It once carried the Decepticon Matrix, lad, that's what's the cause of all of this".
"Primus be praised, are you certain?"
"Yes, Magnus".
Ultra Magnus sighed, his shoulders slumping ever so slightly.
"What? What is it?"
Spike asked.
"This is going to sound insane".
He looked over at a very sleepy looking scientist.
"But some time ago I was on patrol when something happened and I blacked out, I woke up in a dark small cell somewhere, every so often my captor would stand over the bars and pour energon over me and laugh. Next thing I know Rodimus is in the cell next to me. He informs me that we're both inside the Decepticon Matrix and that he assisted Perceptor to escape. He started singing and the cell walls around us shattered in specs of light, but then I woke up down here, in this mine".
"Well, that would explain your recent bout of… stabbiness".
Jazz chimed.
"Excuse me, lieutenant?"
"Lad, you were… it was like you were… possessed".
"…and it was kinda scary".
Blaster added.
The others all deemed it best, in their CPUs, not to tell Magnus of the carnage he caused while under such an influence.
"It was the same with Perceptor".
Springer replied.
"So the Decepticon Matrix is in the shuttle?"
"We've searched it, but we can't find it, just an empty capsule and a lot of dead cons".
Kup replied.
Magnus walked passed him and entered the shuttle to see for himself. The others, not in any mind or desire to wish to repeat the experience, remained outside. After a few moments, maybe five minutes, maybe two seconds, no one could hassit a guess without their internal clocks, the city commander returned. He stood on the step of the shuttle before hopping down.
"Kup, I take it you know some of the story of the Decepticon Matrix?"
"A small portion, I'm sure, son".
"Well, let me clue you in on a few things you probably don't know. The Decepticon Matrix is not like the Autobot Matrix or the All Spark. Its not a crystal or any kind of inanimate physical object, it's a being. For years it was a femme kept locked deep in statis, the Decepticon leaders would "interface" with her in a way where they downloaded their memories and experiences into her, rather then "interface" in a sexual purpose. Eventually the evil would overwhelm her and her personality and she would offline permanently, but before that happened they would find another femme for the purpose of transfer the information. There were about 2005 femmes, and with each successive femme the amount of data increased beyond her capability and she would be tortured in her spark. Eventually, the last femme, her spark was completely polluted by the evil that was in her data files. Her spark is the "Decepticon Matrix". Now, some Transformers have a spark that is, for the most part, indestructible, Alpha Trion is one, hence the reason he survived the merger with Vector Sigma. If VS ever was destroyed, A3's spark would be free to traverse the universe or find another form".
Magnus walked towards Perceptor and crotched down in front of him, running an internal scan of the injured mech.
"Basically, when the Con's realised their little project wasn't working out for them, that the thing was now out of control and had a body of its own, they overpowered it and locked it in that shuttle. The mechs who piloted it, they knew damn well it was a suicide mission. Their orders were to fly the shuttle, Decepticon Matrix enclosed, into the Sun. And Earth's Sun… well, it's a special kind of sun, well, without getting overly complicated it produces a sort of radiation that would erase the information in the Con's Matrix thus purging the femme's spark, but it wouldn't matter as they'd all die anyway".
He placed his hand on Perceptor's shoulder and titled his head back slightly so he could stare into his optics.
"However, she obviously got free and caused the shuttle to plough into the earth, her body would have been damaged at some point and the spark that is the Decepticon's Matrix, it would have bounced from her form and searched for another. And it doesn't have to be a mechanical being".
"You're saying that thing could have jumped into a human?"
Spike asked.
Magnus stood up and looked down at the man.
"Its highly probable given the history of this mine and its current state. You only have to look around, to walk down its tunnels to see that something happened down here a long time go that was not intended and certainly no fault of any human individual – rather, someone would have stumbled upon this shuttle and unleashed the Spark into their form".
"So, if this spark is jumping about, what do we do, how do we stop it?",
"Well, Blaster, if Rodimus is indeed inside that polluted Spark, then perhaps he is our only chance".
"Wait, okay, I know Kup gets his stories mixed up, but he said that all the Decepticon fallen leaders merged their sparks into the Decepticon Matrix when they died".
Springer pointed out.
"They did. They pushed their sparks into the spark of those femmes before the "mutation", for lack of a better term, took place. That was their primary purpose, to have a databank hold all the information about Decepticon command strategy and the spark for their essence, so one day they could live again. But a spark chamber can get mighty crowded, and eventually they will merge into each other".
"Then what's the plan, Magnus?"
Spike asked, wanting the incredibly weird conversation to end.
"My scans of the mine reveals a lot of damage to the structural integrity, multiple cave ins, it wouldn't be in anyone's best interest currently to attempt to vacate the premises. Once Rodimus has regained consciousness we can spread out and attempt to locate Sideswipe. Now Blaster, I want you to try and re-work that shuttle's radio system, send a communicae to base tell them where we are, I'll upload my scans of this place once you've established the link".
"Righty oh, chief".
Blaster tried to sound upbeat, but the reality was he did not want to enter that shuttle; he did not want to sit in a seat that had once held Decepticon pilots trying to get rid of the most evil thing that had ever spread through their species.
"Right, Kup, can you get Perceptor a little more alert?"
"I'll give it a go, lad".
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Author's NB: Okay, so here's my take on the Matrix and the All Spark. I think they can both exist together. The Matrix of Leadership is what the Autobot leader carries and can give them all the info, basically like in the cartoons. The All Spark is like in the movies, it gives life. SO one gives life, one contains knowledge.