Chapter 10-Zodiac
Waldreich Mountains, Belka, 2003
Theodore Harkins blew into his cold hands to warm them up for what felt like the thousandth time. He stared at his laptop and sighed at what little progress he made in his work. He only managed to type one paragraph before giving up.
"I can't do this." He sighed and shut his laptop down before standing up and stretching his stiff body. Deciding to get some fresh air, or what could count as fresh in the icy cold mountains, he exited his tense into the bustling camp site around him.
It was freezing cold in the Waldreich Mountains, one of the coldest places in Belka, especially in Fall. Looking around at the campsite, Theo saw dozens of people walking around with their own business. Only a small percentage of these people were members of his archaeological team, mainly students hand-picked from his class. The rest were hired help from a local team of amalgam mercenaries who do odd jobs for a price, and many of them didn't look friendly at all.
"About time you left your humble abode, Professor." A female voice said behind him.
Theo turned around and saw his coworker, Stephanie Bergen, walk up to him. Stephanie was a true beauty, with long red hair tied back into a ponytail and sharp glasses over ocean blue eyes. The unflattering beige jacket and thick grey pants did little to hide her toned figure and natural curves. The one thing that ruined her attractiveness was the cigarette held in her gloved hand.
Stephanie was a fellow seeker of knowledge like Theo who took you her job just as serious, though she rarely showed it. There was a cold sharpness that was only natural in Belkan natives and had an almost obsession with Arian culture that rivaled Theo's. Honestly, he figured it was the only reason they worked together as often as they did.
"Well, I couldn't have my dedicated students make this huge discovery without me." Theo smiled. He flinched when he heard an explosion nearby. "Though if I wanted to hear loud noises every morning, I would've just gone back home."
Stephanie smiled a bit and took a puff from her cigarette. "Relax, Theo. These guys know what they're doing. And their powers save us tons of money from buying dynamite."
"I suppose, but-oh!" Theo yelped in surprise as she pulled him aside to avoid a giant boulder that almost ran him over. The boulder crashed into a tree, where a large man clad in black armor that looked like it was made of black smoke ran past them. "Thank you."
"No problem." She said and turned to the armored man. "Rath, watch it!"
"Sorry, Ms. Bergen!" The amalgam said with a heavy Belkan accent.
"That marks my first near death experience on this expedition." Theo said mildly. "Hopefully we can avoid others."
"Yeah, these guys can get a little out of control then they get too carried away."
Theo idly studied the armored man hefting a boulder on his shoulder with ease. "I wonder how they're able to make that strange black armor. I've never seen any concrete information on this ability."
"That's because the government wants to keep it hush-hush, though they're doing a bad job at it. This power of theirs is a little secret that gives Department of Superhuman Defense nightmares." Stephanie took a drag of her cigarette. "Amalgams have a gene that causes the change in their bodies from human to amalgam, that much is common knowledge. But in recent years, amalgams have discovered another trait of theirs; their bodies evince an unknown form of black matter that's invisible to normal humans unless released in large quantities. With practice and training, these amalgams can harness this black matter and shape it into a sort of armored carapace, sort of like a natural weapon used by animals."
"Outstanding," Theo breathed. "But how do you know this?"
"I have friends in high places who keep me up to date on the exciting shit when those yahoos in the DSD stumble onto something. Their loss is my gain." Stephanie grinned. "These amalgams you see here are proof of that. They've told me that they've seen this black matter leaking off others of their kind during times of emotional stress, but it's completely invisible to humans like you and me. Amazing people, aren't they?"
Theo looked at the amalgams working as their demolition team in the partially buried ruins. "Stephanie, are you sure we can trust them?" He asked. He wasn't racist against amalgams or anything, but some of these people felt like they worked in the cartel. "Some of them have dealings with Karaba."
"A good friend of mine was kind enough to hire they're services to help us on this expedition. I know some of them, so of course I trust them as well. She wouldn't hire people who'd only backstab us in the end." Stephanie said. "And we don't really have a choice in the matter. This is something that cannot get out to the public eye until we've learned everything there is to know."
Reaching the edge of the camp, the pair looked down into a small valley that held quite possibly their greatest find yet. It was another Arian facility, but this one was mostly intact, save for being half buried inside a mountain. And because it was intact, they could see that it was a large building of some kind, not unlike research center found in modern times. Due to the amount of frozen rocks covering the entrance, it took a whole team of amalgams to uncover just enough of it to allow them entry into the building. Stephanie was having the time of her life, but Theo was nervous.
"I still don't think we should've kept this from the archeological committee. A discovery like this is too big to handle alone." He said seriously. "Not to mention to leave it's uncovering to the hands of, forgive my rudeness, thugs."
Stephanie sighed and took a big drag from her cigarette before tossing it into the snow. She gave him a hard look that belayed her annoyance.
"Professor Harkins, if we told the Board, what would you think would happen? Do you really think they would be so merciful as to offer us their aid and use this information for the betterment of mankind?" She asked in a tone that reminded Theo of when his wife Julia was angry but didn't show it. "Rest assured that they're going to blab to the government, who will swoop in and confiscate everything we have on this site and then swipe it out of the country in the name of "national interest". They will use any technology they find to create bigger guns to kill people faster, and I won't let that happen. So yes, Professor, I am very sure about keeping this our little secret."
Theo couldn't really reply to that. If there was one flaw aside from her smoking that Stephanie had was her unbridled hatred for the government and military. Not just in Belka, but in general. Her views on them were less than stellar, and whenever they so much as touched the subject when talking about archeological finds, her stoic visage would turn demonic and feelings that she expertly buried were brought to the surface.
"Steph!" A young girl wearing an oversized puffy coat came running up to them. She gave the woman a big smile as she relayed the good news. "They've managed to open a hole in the rubble! The others are waiting for you!"
"Good job, Lilly. Tell them to gather some of our heavy hitters and prepare for entry."
The girl nodded and scurried off, pushing her feet off the ground in a tremendous leap and jumping into the valley. Stephanie watched her go with a sad look.
"Lilly is a sweet girl. She manifested her powers when she was only five; her body metabolizes solar energy like a battery. That glow you saw was her using the solar energy in her cells to run and jump faster. When she first got her powers, she accidentally set her bed on fire while lighting up like the sun. when the people of her village found out, they treated her like she was going to burn down the whole village and avoided her like a plague." Stephanie said. She walked into the dig site with Theo as they talked. "When I found her, they were trying to stone her to death, but I saved her and took the girl far from that place. Gave her some meaning to her life that wasn't just trying to survive long enough to see the next sunrise. You have a daughter, Professor?"
"Yes, a little girl. She'll be turning 11 in December." He said fondly. Stephanie grinned.
"It must feel good to have a family, someone to love and love you in return." She sighed.
"Do…you have any family, Stephanie?"
"Not since the day I was born."
They approached the large hole made in the pile of rubble that was made by the twin brothers that looked like they were made of rock. Stephanie and Theo joined the excavation team and peeked inside. It was very dark and flashlights would definitely be needed.
"Shall we?" Stephanie asked, motioning to the hole. Theo nodded and entered first, switching on his flashlight.
The entrance hall of the building was massive, just like most of the other Arian sites they've uncovered in other parts of the world. It was dark, but they could see that much of the interior remained standing, and there were many rooms and carts holding shattered objects strewn about the cracked floor. At first glance, Theo and Stephanie knew that this was no temple of worship or house, it was something else.
They made their way deeper into the facility, checking the dark halls and broken lights, the first use of electricity used by mankind before the Void era. Stephanie saw one of the doors to a room had been shattered and went to investigate. Inside was a large room that looked very similar to a lab or a classroom. At the front of the room was a large board with highly detailed carvings etched into the stone and looked like they haven't faded despite the centuries it's been left there undiscovered.
"What kind of language is that?" Theo asked as he read it over. "It's nothing I've ever seen before when dealing with Arian language."
Stephanie tilted her head and her eyes widened as she made a realization. "Theo…I don't think these are words at all. I think it's math."
"Math?"
"Yes. These look like equations." She said and ran a hand along the stone.
Theo hummed in thought. "Equations for what?"
"Something glorious." Stephanie breathed.
Unknown to the two explorers, this discovery would mark the beginning of a long, bloody series of tragic events that would change their lives forever…and not in a good way.
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"Ha! I win again!"
"Damn it! You're cheating, I know it!"
"You're sitting right next to me, Tracer. You know it's impossible for me to cheat."
"Yeah, well, I didn't have my eyes on you."
"Typical noob excuses."
"Don't call me a noob!"
Roll Bar sighed and he rubbed his temples as he tried to work in his little workstation in the Minicon/human area of the Ark, studying the readings he was getting from the hammer, Mjolnir. He was working on it along with Liftor to give Wheeljack more time to work on his other projects. Prowl had been giving them a lot of pressure on trying to figure out just what the hammer was and its capabilities. The problem was that without Annie holding it, the hammer was little more than dead metal.
And working next to arguing femmes wasn't helping either. He looked over at Tracer and D-Va, who were both playing some fighting games Gina loaned them. From what he saw, D-Va had found a new hobby in playing online and beating her opponents to the ground with uncanny gaming skills.
"You lose again, scrublord!" D-Va cheered. Tracer grumbled at her ninth loss and threw her controller down.
"It's not fir! I was getting lag on my side!"
"We're sitting right next to each other, Tracer, there is no lag between us!"
"Good grief." Roll Bar groaned and banged his head on the table.
"Rough night?" Sparkplug asked as he walked up to the table, holding two cups of energon.
"You could say that. Thanks." Roll Bar took the cup and extended a wire from his arm into the cup to consume the energon (a useful evolution quirk for bots with no mouths). He hummed as his body registered the taste. "Is this Ferrum?"
"Yeah, it is. Managed to snag some before Bulkhead chugged the whole tank down." Sparkplug said and looked at the computer. "How long have you been looking at this?"
"Three days, two hours, 49 minutes and 34-wait, 35 seconds." The silver Minicon answered. "I'm filling in for Liftor so the guy can take a break."
"You should get some rest too. Optimus can hold Prowl off."
"I know, but it's not just because of Prowl's manhandling that I'm doing this." Roll Bar looked at the data collected on Mjolnir. "Look at it, Sparkplug and tell me that you aren't the least bit curious about how a hammer this small could allow a little girl enough power to drop a thirty foot monster. Even with cybertronian technology, such power would've been used up in a single day. But with the way Mjolnir works, it's like actual magic."
"Advanced science is indistinguishable from magic, Roll Bar. It's probably something form of technology we haven't seen before."
"True that." Roll Bar sighed. Something popped up on the screen, catching his attention. "What's this?"
"What's wrong?"
"An alert. Teletran-1 detected something." Roll Bar typed in a command and a wall of text showed up on the screen. His eyes skimmed over the text and he gasped. "Primus…"
"What?" Sparkplug asked.
"Sparkplug, you need to see this."
In his office, Optimus was talking with Jazz about Arcee's encounter with Flamewar in Yellowstone. Having heard her report, they were worried about what this ultimately meant in the long run.
"Well, Flamewar's stuck in Yellowstone at the moment, possibly without a terran vehicle mode. So that's something." Jazz said. He sighed and shook his head. "I can't believe she made it here."
"How is Arcee?" Optimus asked.
"She's doing fine-better than I would've thought after dealing with her again. I think Darren had a hand in that. Kid's good therapy for her." Jazz smiled. "She needs a friend after that."
"Indeed. Flamewar's been deemed MIA for mega-cycles, but it appears that she's been spending her time hunting down organics." Optimus said.
"Think bucket-head might hunt her down instead?"
"I doubt Flamewar will allow herself to be discovered that easily."
Ever since the tragic events of that night, Flamewar's body hadn't been found and she was declared MIA. Everyone thought she died from her wounds after the cell collapsed on her, but apparently she had been using it as a cover to escape detection and basically do whatever the hell she wanted without an officer looking over her shoulder. Megatron would most likely kill her on sight if, when, he found her. But Flamewar didn't live this long unnoticed for nothing.
The monitor on Prime's desk lit up with Ratchet's face appearing. "Optimus, we have a situation."
"What is it, Ratchet?"
"Sparkplug and Roll Bar just got an alert from Teletran. They've found the Exodus."
A few minutes later, the Autobots and Minicons were assembled in the Command Center with a holo-map in the middle of the room.
"Satellite just detected a faint signal coming from Azteca. It's originating here," Ratchet pointed to the southeastern corner of Azteca. "Within Balsa."
"What did you do to find it?" Optimus asked Roll Bar.
"Nothing. It just…came out of nowhere." Roll Bar answered, completely stumped.
"Peculiar, considering we've never been able to locate it until now." Prowl muttered.
Tracer looked up at the Autobots and spoke her mind. "Um, what are we waiting for? Our ship is right there, waiting for us! We need to go salvage it before the Cons come knocking."
"Tracer is right. That ship is all we have from Cybertron." D-Va said. "And if the computers are still operational, maybe we can use them to find our lost comrades easier."
"Yes, that's true, but it's still a little suspicious that it suddenly appeared on our radar out of the blue." Optimus said. Sparkplug shrugged.
"Whatever the case, we need to find it now. I don't want anyone but us getting what could still be left on those computers." He said firmly. "And if you guys won't go, then we will."
Optimus looked at the Minicons and knew they were fully willing to go with or without the Autobots. He resigned himself to their decision and turned to Ratchet. "Ratchet, open a ground bridge. Wheeljack, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, you're with me. The rest of you will remain on standby."
"Thank you, Prime." Sparkplug smiled. Optimus didn't say anything, still feeling uneasy about this. Something was about to happen.
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Optimus' team exited the ground bridge in the middle of the Amazon rainforest in Azteca. Sparkplug and Jolt also came out, riding on their respective partners' shoulders. The air was thick and damp with water and some droplets already started condensing on their armor.
"Let's go find the ship before I start to rust from all this humidity." Jolt said, riding on top of Bumblebee's shoulder.
"Yes, time is off the essence, Autobots." Optimus led the way on their trek through the forest. In their robot modes, of course, since there was too much vegetation for them to drive in their alt modes.
Unknown to them, a camouflaged drone was following their movements. It was scouting the immediate area when it stumbled upon the ground bridge and the three Autobots moving in a certain direction. From a secret hideout, one of the drone operators switched his radio on.
"Sir, we've got some visitors, just like you predicted."
"How many?" A deep voice said on the line.
"Four, one of them is large. I think it's their leader."
"Monitor them, but do not engage. I'll prepare for our little introduction."
"Yes sir."
Now phase 2 was ready to begin.
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"Alert: Stasis panel detected." Teletran-1 announced.
"Now?" Longarm frowned. What perfect timing. "Where is it?"
"In southwestern Azteca, within the sovereign nation of San Salvador." Teletran said.
Ratchet sighed and turned to Jazz. "Jazz-"
"Already on the job. Let's go, guys." Jazz left the room along with Ironhide and Arcee. D-Va turned to Ratchet, who looked uneasy.
"Ratchet, what's wrong?" She asked.
"The timing of this Minicon activation and the appearance of the Exodus is looking less like a coincidence by the minute." He said seriously.
"Do you think it's a Decepticon trap?"
"Possibly, but they would've done something by now." Ratchet muttered. "Perhaps I'm just being paranoid, but something doesn't seem right about this situation."
Ratchet had no idea how on the spot his assumptions were. He also didn't know that the hidden threat in question was something no one was expecting.
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After trudging through the dense jungle for a few minutes, Prime and his team came upon a small canyon at the edge of the forest. On the other side down below they could see the wreckage of an alien ship buried in the rock-the Exodus, or what's left of it.
"There is it." Sparkplug breathed. It's been centuries since he had last seen the ship that ferried his people off Cybertron. "I never thought I'd see it again. Come on, let's-"
"Wait." Bumblebee said. He narrowed his eyes and slowly climbed down into the canyon, hooking onto a cliff and magnifying his optical vision for a closer look.
"What do you see?" Optimus asked.
"I think I see tire tracks. Multiple tracks going in and out of the ship." Bumblebee answered. "And they're fresh."
Optimus' eyes narrowed and his reached back to draw his ion rifle from his back armature. "Proceed with caution."
They climbed down into the valley and cautiously approached the ship. When they got close enough, they saw that it wasn't the entire ship that sat half buried in the rocks-only the front half, the rear of the ship was still lost. Then they heard a mechanical noise coming from the ship and saw four machines rolling out of a hole in the ship's hull.
They were talos, four units in all with a humanoid torso mounted on tank treads, similar to the Osean M4 Murphy talos. These machines had dark green and black armor with red visors and two units had two smoothbore cannons on their shoulders, while the other two were equipped with shoulder-mounted six-chambered missile pods and machine guns on their forearms.
In the middle of the talos formation was an armored truck towing a large crate behind it, in which its contents emanated a familiar energy source that only Optimus recognized. The pilots froze as they noticed the Autobots and didn't waste a second before open firing on them.
The Autobots were assaulted with a hail of high caliber bullets and missiles being shot at them. Optimus and Bulkhead backed off while Wheeljack took out an overshield to block the enemy fire, but Bumblebee ran forward, powerlinking with Jolt.
"Bee, fall back!" Bulkhead yelled.
Bumblebee ignored him and fired a blast from his solar agitator at one of the talos, destroying its treads. He fired two more blasts at the others when they redirected their fire at him, making them back off. He pressed his assault and focused on the armored vehicle. He won't kill the humans inside, but he wasn't going to let them use him for target practice.
As he neared the crate, a red beam of energy was fired from the sky and hit him in the chest. The explosion blew him back off his feet and to the ground, smoke rising from his chest. Another beam was fired at him, but Optimus rushed in and blocked it, taking the shot to his shoulder with a grunt.
Looking up, he saw a black airship hovering over the canyon, and from the gondola, more soldiers in black uniforms and silver masks slid down tow lines. One of them actually jumped down from the airship to land on top of the Exodus' hull without even a stumble before standing up straight.
This man was clad in a black bodysuit with body armor and an assault rifle attached to his back. Only his face remained uncovered, revealing his short black hair, thick beard and piercing storm grey eyes. His most notable feature was the vertical, and fully operational, third eye on his forehead. He and Optimus stared at each other unblinkingly before he heard Ratchet calling him on the comm.
"Optimus!" Ratchet exclaimed. His voice was faint beneath the growing static.
"Ratchet, we have come into contact with a hostile human force!" Optimus said. "Can you get a read on our position?"
"No, Optimus, I'm having trouble maintaining contact with you! Wait…I think someone's hacked into our comm frequency!"
"Greetings, Autobots. It's nice to meet you in person at last." The man said in a powerful tone. His voice could be heard not just on the team's comm-units, but also in the Ark, transmitting his message to everyone.
"Who are you?" Optimus asked.
"I am Aries, general of the Organization of the Zodiac, but we're mostly known as OZ."
"How do you know of us?" Wheeljack asked, standing over Bumblebee. He was still trying to contact the Ark, but couldn't get a message through. His signal was being blocked.
"We've already known about your presence on our planet. Contrary to what you believe, you shadow war has not gone unnoticed by some our more…aware members." Aries smirked.
"You talk big for a human in a fancy costume!" Sparkplug growled. "What the hell do you think you're doing with our ship? We aren't going to let you steal our technology to sell on the black market!"
"Who said I was going to sell it? This technology is more useful in helping OZ achieve its goals." Aries replied. "You see, we are at a crucial point in history, Autobots. For centuries, humans have evolved, built great civilizations, only for our base instincts to cause us to tear everything they've built to the ground. We have ceased to evolve, and espers are merely a mutated stepping stone onto our next step in that evolution. We lie in stasis, unable to move forward, stuck in place by their animalistic desires and follies that make them repeat history over and over again. Oz simply wants to guide mankind on the path to achieving their true form."
"And you plan to use our technology to do this?" Optimus growled. Aries' rhetoric sounded very similar to what a fanatical femme once said in the past, and he didn't like where it was going.
"Yes, but not just with this." he pointed at them. "We need you cybertronians too. Mechanical organisms with real, tangible souls. You hold the key to achieving a new form of evolution with your bodies, your very souls, and we need you to realize our goals."
"Like we're going to let you do that!" Bulkhead growled.
"Unfortunately for you, you don't have a choice." Aries said.
Aries took a deep breath and exhaled, firing a beam of energy from his third eye. Optimus grabbed Sparkplug and rolled to the side to avoid the beam as it blew a deep hole in the ground. Bulkhead helped Wheeljack pulled Bumblebee behind some rocks and ducked down when another beam came dangerously close to his head. As if that wasn't enough, the airship's mounted guns swerved and fired on them with anti-tank rounds that punctured their armor and forced them all to fall back.
"Boss bot, you there?"
"Jazz, we're under attack by humans! We need immediate assistance on our end!" Wheeljack yelled.
"No can do, Jackie. We're getting the same rough treatment on our end as well. Looks like that stasis panel we detected was a ruse."
"What's your status?" Optimus asked.
"We were caught in an ambush and Arcee took a bad hit. They're using weapons designed to take out tanks, Optimus. And what's worse is that we can't contact Ratchet for a ground bridge."
This was very intricately planned. Optimus looked over the rocks and saw the soldiers lifting the crate on top of the Exodus and were hooking it to the airship for transport. No matter what, they had to retrieve or destroy that crate so the humans couldn't abuse their technology.
"Wheeljack, watch over Bumblebee. Bulkhead, follow me!" Optimus and Bulkhead ran from cover and transformed, driving at high speed towards the ship.
Aries frowned and fired another beam at them. They swerved around each blast, staying on course as the beams tore up the canyon floor. Bulkhead broke off from Prime and drove at Aries, shifting forms and lunging at him. Aries fired a beam into his shoulder that knocked him back, but then he saw Optimus getting closer. Gritting his teeth, Aries fired another beam and hit Optimus in the nose of his truck mode, making him flipping into the air.
"Optimus!" Wheeljack exclaimed.
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Jazz's team wasn't have much luck with their new enemies. They were pinned down in the ruins of a Mayan city that was already wasting away before they dropped in and started blowing stuff up. The Autobots were engaged in a fierce firefight with OZ forces that had surrounded them and were shooting them from all sides.
Arcee was sitting behind a wall trying to keep water from seeping into her wounded thigh. One of the talos had fired a kinetic shell that tore into her leg and dropped her. Jazz and Ironhide were covering her, but they couldn't do much with their enemy using the trees to mask their positions.
"I'm getting really sick of this scrap!" Ironhide growled, firing a pulse blast into the forest after ducking under a missile. "I didn't come all the way out here to this fragging hot place to get a face full of bullets!"
"Feel free to go out there and tell them that." Jazz said, firing is photon rifle at them, only to get shot at. "You doin' alright there Cee?"
"Yeah, just trying to ignore the pain." Arcee said. She looked over the wall and brought a red battle visor over her eyes to zero in on a part of the forest where she was getting a faint signal. "Jazz, I think they have a Minicon with them."
"What?"
"Yes, I'm detecting a really faint stasis panel signal. They have a panel with them and must've been using it to draw us here." She said. At that moment, a black military helicopter rose from the forest above the tree line and inside were two men holding onto a crate. "They're already on the move!"
"Jazz, get the panel!" Ironhide said. He detached his two arm cannons and connected them into one larger cannon.
"But what about-"
"We'll be fine. We've been through worst scraps than this." Ironhide grinned. "I'll cover you."
Jazz nodded and ran out into the open. Ironhide stood up and fired his amalgamated cannon, which he called his "boomstick" at the attacking talos, blowing a huge chunk of their immediate surroundings into a fireball. One blast took out two talos parked close together, and another took out another mecha supported by missile launching infantry. That was enough to send the soldiers and talos packing when he starting shooting down trees to bury them.
The helicopter that was hovering in place positioned itself so it had Ironhide in its sights. That was when Ironhide and Arcee noticed the twelve-chambered missile pods mounted on the wings. Ironhide grabbed Arcee and leapt from their hiding spot just as the helicopter fired multiple rockets at them, leveling the ancient temple with explosions that blasted rock and dirt everywhere.
Once it finished with its assault, the helicopter began to fly away, but Jazz continued to pursue it from below the trees. One way or another, he wasn't leaving this place without a souvenir.
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"I still can't get Optimus or Jazz on the comms. "Ratchet growled, frustrated. "Somehow they're blocking our communications. Prowl-"
"I'm on it." Prowl ran out of the room to the ground bridge on the lower deck.
"How are they doing this?" The medic asked himself. This attack was way too organized to be random. "We need to get them out of our systems before they cause too much damage."
"Maybe we can hack their systems by backtracking the signal they're blocking us with." D-Va suggested.
"Cyber warfare is not my forte, D-Va. This is mostly something Gina can do with her eyes closed." Ratchet said. Roll Bar shook his head.
"Except Gina's not her, only us. And we can manage something." He grabbed a computer and started working. "I might need some help on this one, Ratchet. Let's show these guys how outclassed they are."
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Optimus flew through the air, seemingly thrown asunder by the attack that hit him dead center. But then he transformed in mid-air and threw something at Aries. Aries thought it was a bomb, but to his surprise, it was a Minicon-Sparkplug!
Sparkplug crashed into Aries and they both tumbled off the ship. Aries kicked him away as they hit the ground and jumped up. Before Sparkplug could do anything, Aries charged at him and slugged him hard in the face. He stumbled back from the surprisingly strong punch and drew his blaster on Aries. Surprisingly, Aries didn't seem all that worried at being held at gunpoint, and he even smiled at the Minicon.
"So you're willing to fight. Good," Aries cracked his neck. "I was itching to fight one of you."
Aries reached back and took out two long, curved blades that looked like Egyptian kopeshes. A flick of the wrist and the adamantium blades began to slowly increase in temperature, making them heat up at temperatures hot enough to cut through solid metal or stone.
"Wonderful." Sparkplug said.
Aries charged at him and slashed wildly at him, forcing him to back away. The blades were red hot and more than enough to cut right through him. When Aries went for a downward strike, Sparkplug grabbed his arm and threw him over his shoulder into the ground. Aries rolled to his feet and fired his eye beam, almost hitting Sparkplug in the head. It was just a split second movement that allowed the concussion beam to sail over his shoulder and exploded against the canyon wall. Aries spun around and kicked him in the chest, knocking him almost a foot back from the kick alone before landing on his back.
"You should've known better than to fight a warrior alone!" Aries took a deep breath to finish Sparkplug off when a hand grabbed the back of his head and diverted his aim just as he fired the beam.
The beam cut through the air, tearing a deep gash into the canyon wall and destroying one of the helicopters. The burning fireball that was the helicopter landed on the crate, snapping its tow cables and sending it crashing into the ground. Aries reached back and threw his intruder off his back. It was Jolt, who leapt back to help Sparkplug to his feet. Growling, Aries went to fight the Minicons when he heard the airship pilot's voice over the radio.
"Sir, we've got a situation!"
"What is it?" Aries growled. He didn't have time for this!
"Some hacker's using the signal we used to block their communications to invade our network. They'll be in the system any minute now!"
Aries snarled, but kept his temper at bay. "Deal with it."
"Yes, sir."
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Ratchet and Roll Bar worked as fast as they could. They made a makeshift virus that was supposed to infect OZ's computer systems via their jamming signal and shut them down long enough to provide aid for their comrades. But things went south when their systems froze and the image of a bomb on the verge of exploding appeared on the main monitor.
"Slag! They're planting to delete our software with a counter-virus!" Ratchet said.
"We won't be able to get rid of it in time!"
Unbeknownst to them, D-Va hurried over to a control panel and got to work on her own, her fingers moving over the keys at lightning fast speeds. Once she was done forming the program, she pressed enter and watched the bomb virus disappear before it could reach 0. Ratchet and Roll Bar were puzzled at this turn of fortune.
"Um…what did you guys do?" Tracer asked.
"Nothing, I don't know what happened." Ratchet said, confused.
"Guys, let's focus on the matter at hand, shall we?" D-Va said. Ratchet nodded and got back to work. No time to waste pondering good luck.
XXXXXX
Jazz leapt from tree to tree with agility betraying his size. He kept the helicopter in his sights as much as he could and waited for the right moment to strike the gunship. He waited in a break in the tree line to make his move.
Leaping onto a branch, he pushed off and leapt into the air, lunging at the gunship. The soldier manning the turret gave a terrified scream and fired at Jazz. High caliber bullets pieced Jazz's metal skin, but he didn't even flinch as he punched the turret and the gunman, breaking his arms and knocking him out. He hung onto the side of the helicopter and his added weight caused it to lose attitude. It spun out of control as Jazz reached inside and grabbed the crate from a scared soldier, jumping off after giving him a cocky smirk.
The pilot cursed when he saw the Autobot leave with their prize but couldn't do much about it. He quickly regained control of the gunship and looked back to see one of the soldiers out cold with mangled arms and the other stuck in his seat shivering, looking like he soiled himself. Poor bastard probably did.
He groaned and turned the helicopter around to fly to the rendezvous point. General Aries was going to tear them to pieces.
XXXXXX
Three gunships were positioned in front of the airship firing a barrage of hellfire missiles at the Autobots. Optimus and Bulkhead were covered in serious burns from the constant onslaught, as was Wheeljack, who was looking over a conscious but still weak Bumblebee, who had a smoking hole in his chest where he was hit. The soldiers were once again attaching the crate to the tow cables and were attempting to lift the cargo back into the airship.
Sparkplug and Jolt struggled to evade another of Aries' eye beams as it blew a crater into the ground, the explosion knocking them off their feet. The general ran forward and started slashing at them with his blades, scoring a cut on Jolt's arm before Sparkplug rammed his shoulder into his chest. Aries grunted and stumbled back, and Jolt pressed the attack by throwing a punch at his face…only to have his fist caught by the man.
"How many times must I tell you," Aries growled, squeezing Jolt's fist painfully. "That you are outclassed!"
Aries wrapped his arms around Jolt's body and lifted him up, slamming him into the ground. Pulling him up by his rotors, Aries threw Jolt into Sparkplug, smacking them away. He swung his swords and marched towards the Minicons, but stopped when he got another call on his radio.
"Sir…we have a problem!"
"The next words from your mouth better be something good or you'll be meeting whatever god you worship within the next ten seconds!" Aries growled.
The soldier swallowed the whimper bubbling in his throat and reported the bad news. "Sir. We just got word from Beta Team. They lost the package."
Aries inhaled sharply through his nose, and released it calmly, closing his eyes. "Pull me up, Private. We're leaving with our prize."
Walking under the airship, Aries stepped onto a cable and allowed it to pull him up. Jolt started running and transformed, flying over to Aries and firing his guns at him. Aries almost snarled and fired a beam at the red mini-helicopter and the explosion blasted Jolt out of the sky. He looked over to the Autobots and traded glances with Optimus as he vanished into the airship.
Once he was in, Aries made his way to the cockpit, where he came upon another piece of bad news.
"Sir, we've lost contact with our forces! Something's wrong with our communications systems."
"It's the virus. They sent it back to us!" The copilot said. Aries' eyes went wide and he gripped the pilot seat.
"Stop it before it reaches us!"
"It's no use, sir. It's already-"
The electronic controls suddenly began shorting out and the airship began losing control in the air. The pilots had to take manual control as their auto-pilot was shutdown. Under the airship, the tow cables couldn't handle the constant tugging from the crate and the wires snapped, letting it fall to the ground once again. This time, there was no time to get it back before the gunships ran out of ammo and the Autobots gained the upper hand.
"All units, we're pulling out. Disengage and rendezvous at Point-Grid Omega." He ordered. Everyone looked at him in shock and one of the privates from earlier cautiously made his protests known.
"Sir, we can't leave without the cargo. We still have them on the ropes. To run would be nothing short of cowardice in their eyes!" He said passionately. Aries looked at him blankly, then nodded.
"Your opinion is noted." Then Aries spun around and slashed his blade across the man's neck, severing his head in a bloody geyser in one clean stroke. The headless corpse collapsed to the floor, spurting blood profusely. "Would anyone else like to fill his shoes?"
No one said anything.
"Good. Now follow my orders and pull out of the area."
Aries looked outside the window down at the Autobots. There will be other battles, other chances to fight and defeat them. He knew they would meet again in the future.
With the airship already leaving, the gunships and talos also retreated from the canyon, laying down cover fire to keep the Autobots at bay. Optimus ran over to Sparkplug and Jolt after making sure Bumblebee was okay.
"Are you alright?"
"Yeah, we're fine. A bit beaten and bruised, but nothing serious." Sparkplug said. "I'm just glad they didn't snatch any of our cargo."
"Jazz, what's your status?" Optimus called.
"We're fine on our end, boss bot. After we snagged the panel, they hauled ass." Jazz said.
"Thank the Allspark." Optimus breathed and reconnected to the Ark. "Ratchet, we need a ground bridge and immediate medical aid for Bumblebee."
XXXXXX
Once the Autobots returned to the Ark, they were rushed to the medibay to take their time in the CR chambers, namely Arcee and Bumblebee. Ratchet and Longarm worked on the bots that had less severe wounds, while Prowl led the effort to recover anything useful from the wreck of the Exodus now that the area was secure.
The object that OZ was so intent on stealing was a giant cube almost as large as a basic energon cube. It was dark grey with cybertronian glyphs carved into its surface. Though unassuming at first, it felt warm to the touch, like it was alive.
"So those OZ goons tried to steal this thing?" Ironhide said, frowning at the cube. The thing certainly didn't look very special.
"This cube was supposed to be one of our lifelines in case we some…new arrivals. It's a proto-cube." Sparkplug said as he ran a hand along its smooth surface. "We found these inside the tunnel system inside Epistemus. They're cube made out of pure sentio metallico that our protoforms are made of."
"We planned on using the sentio metallico from these cubes to make blank protoforms to place newly budded Sparks inside of." Roll Bar explained.
The Autobots looked intrigued by this interesting way of giving life to new Sparks. Being asexual, cybertronians could only reproduce by a process called forging, in which a designated area called a hot spot had Sparks ignited and harvested along with the birth metal they manifested in. This birth metal would coalesce around the Spark to form a protoforms, the embryonic stage of a cybertronian and then mature into a fully grown adult within two weeks or less. Budding was a new form of reproduction that was only recently discovered following the Great Exodus, in which cybertronians would randomly-and violently-give birth to protoforms from their own bodies. The protoforms born from budding had absolutely no genetic relation to the bot who birthed them. To this day, the process was random and no one had figured out how to control or even predict a budding process.
Blanks were protoforms that were fully formed without a Spark and were basically life-sized mannequins that required a Spark in order to take shape, though they could be molded ahead of time. Sparks placed within these blanks were considered to be cold constructed, as the Sparks in question didn't forge within the planet normally.
"With no connection to Vector Sigma, we had to find a way to preserve the Sparks in case anyone on the ship suddenly started budding." Sparkplug said. "This was our answer to that dilemma."
"And you never thought to inform us of the contents of the Exodus?" Prowl asked, frowning down at him. Sparkplug met his glare with one of his own.
"I didn't think it was worth mentioning until the time came." Sparkplug replied defensively. "And I certainly didn't know we had to run things by you to get approval, Prowl."
Optimus placed a hand on Prowl's shoulder to get him to back off. "What matters is that we have completed our objective today. However, there is still the matter of humans knowing of our existence on this world. We are compromised, and at odds with a possibly dangerous faction that seeks to abuse our technology and biology to cause harm to the rest of the world."
"You think they might be that bad a threat to us?" Bulkhead asked. Sure he wasn't going to underestimate any humans, but these OZ people were no real military or sovereign country.
"OZ has made it clear that they intend to use us to achieve their goals, whatever they are. They had the firepower, and they possibly have connections all over the world. They could be a third side in this war for Terra, and they are a very tangible threat to Autobots and Decepticons alike." Optimus said grimly, looking at every member of his team. "We are all targets now."
XXXXXX
Aries sat in his personal quarters, the lights off save for his computer screen. He was watching the footage of the earlier encounter with the Autobots, especially Optimus Prime.
"Gods with metal bodies falling from the heavens to grace us lowly mortals. You claim to protect humanity, but is humanity really worth saving in its present state? Oh, Optimus Prime, if you could see how savage humans could be, would you still fight for them?" Aries muttered. "Or would you allow them to wallow in their own filth?"
His door slid open and a young woman clad in a form-fitting black bodysuit walked in with a seductive stride. She was a beauty, with fair skin and long, silky black hair and onyx black eyes. She smiled as she leaned on the back of Aries' chair, playing with his hair.
"I take it things didn't go as planned?" She asked sweetly. Aries grunted, not looking away from the screen.
"No, they did not. But we finally got to see our visitors up close and personal. They are every bit as marvelous as the Axiom had foreseen." He said. "They are strong, but the Autobots' pacifist habits will get them killed."
"So? More metal for the scrapyard then." The woman laughed. Aries looked back at her, his third eye gleaming red.
"What do you want, Aquarius?"
"Orders from on high. We're to begin mobilizing against the cybertronians." Aquarius said and leaned no the desk. "About time, really. Watching the ass of a jeep is not my definition of fun."
"There is no shame in learning about our enemy. They are not to be underestimated, Aquarius." Aries warned her. "They'll be ready for us, next time."
"And so will we."
She pressed a button on his desk and the screen switched to a security fee of a research lab down below the facility. In the middle of the room was a large metal cube, one that was pilfered from the Exodus before the Autobots had arrived. Cables were hooked up to it, and scientists were studying it intently under controlled conditions, deciphering the large amounts of data they acquired from the cube.
"They will fight, but in the end they will die." Aquarius smirked. "And we will obtain the means to truly evolve this world. They're judgment day is just beginning."