Hooligan and Sixshot transformed from their jet modes, landing on the back outer hull of the ship. Sixshot looked off into the void of space as Hooligan realigned one of his own joints.
"Skyquake ain't gonna be happy." Hooligan seemed to crack his neck, realigning some wires and joint connections.
"Skyquake will have to deal with the situation." Sixshot began walking across the hull of the ship towards where the bridge would be. "We're getting ourselves out of here."
"I never took you for the joking type Sixshot." Hooligan chuckled as he followed his comrade.
"I don't make jokes. We are finding a ship and leaving. Or are you forgetting who your master is?" Sixshot glared at Hooligan who cowered in fear. "That's what I thought."
Razorclaw walked by Decepticharge and Killbison who were guarding the captain's quarters. The door slid open and he walked in to see Skyquake sitting at the former captain's desk. "They escaped and Nacelle is dead. Preliminary reports have found that Hydra was obliterated by a fusion grenade. Sixshot and Hooligan's bodies weren't found."
Skyquake was reading something on a tablet in his hand. "Razorclaw, oh ignorant Razorclaw. Body count means nothing to me. All I need is five."
"What exactly did you find on that data slug?" Razorclaw took a step towards Skyquake.
"Our ticket to conquering Cybertron." Skyquake held the tablet out for Razorclaw to take. "This ship is holding the Enigma of Combination in its cargo hold. You're going to take a group down to the cargo hold and retrieve it. Garboil will go with you."
A blue cassette transformed off the desk, turning into a bird like form and landing on Skyquake's shoulder. "I will watch over you all." It spoke with a shrill, raspy voice.
"As you command my master." Razorclaw kneeled before Skyquake.
The Autobots had returned to the bridge with few injuries. Hubcap guarded the door with his newly acquired minigun. Kup was looking over some different consoles, trying to find communication controls. "Anyone find 'em yet?"
"Yeah. And you're not gonna like the answer." Rollout pointed to a floating chunk of the bridge that was a good few hundred meters out in space.
Overdrive rubbed his chin in thought. "That makes for an interesting predicament. What's to say the console still even works?"
"We don't know." Kup stood on the edge of the broken command bridge. "But I bet we can hook it back up to the ship if we get it over here."
"We don't have any cables, how do you expect us to get it over here?" Rollout looked to Overdrive for an idea, as he was the strategist.
"Signal Flare and Offshoot, you two will go over there and use your energon manipulators to create a stream of gas to push you guys back." Overdrive looked at the two brothers who simply looked at each other, mulling it over in their heads.
Offshoot turned to look at the piece of floating debris. "Eh, what the heck?" He ran as fast as he could and pushed off the edge of the ship towards the debris. "Woah!" He went tumbling through the vacuum of space towards it. His feet set down on it, automatically activating magnetic lock. The piece tumbled with him on it due to his momentum.
"Offshoot!" Signal Flare yelled out to his brother, taking off into space after him. He was barreling through space towards him at an increasing speed.
"You see what I see boss?" Hooligan was crouched on a piece of debris floating above the bridge. Sixshot landed next to him and seemed to giggle. "Did I say something funny?"
"No." Sixshot became serious in an instant. "Blow up the one tumbling away. The one attached to a part of some sort of command console." He transformed into jet mode and floated there for a moment before speaking. "Meet me at the rear of the ship. The engines are still functional. I want to dispose of that variable." He flew off towards the rear of the ship without another word.
"Time to die Autobot." Hooligan aimed his gun arm at Offshoot. "Say goodnight." He fired off a concentrated energon blast.
Signal Flare was nearly to the piece of debris which Offshoot was attached to when it exploded. Any possible flames were instantly snuffed out due to the vacuum of space. Though the superheated energon that flew out in every direction was enough to burn his chassis ever so slightly. "Gah!"
"What!?" Kup turned to look out at the two brothers. He watched as Signal Flare went spiraling through space towards somewhere back behind where the bridge was located.
"Haha! I love it when they explode!" Hooligan transformed and flew off before he could be seen.
Rollout looked into the void with an expression of horror. Nothing remained of Offshoot or the communications console. "Whichever Con did that is gonna pay."
"Holding grudges won't help us. We need to move again, cause it seems we've been spotted." Kup slung his weapon over his shoulder. "Grab what you think is necessary, and let's go."
Razorclaw, Garboil, Decepticharge and Killbison approached the door to the cargo hold. It was sealed shut with multiple layers of locks, heat sealing so it couldn't be pried and a tightly knit laser grid.
Killbison looked at it closely. Decepticharge looked to his comrade in confusion. "You're looking at this thing like you know how to shut it all down."
"That's cause I do." Killbison transformed into his tank mode. Decepticharge realised what he was doing and jumped away as an explosive shell hit the door, splintering it. Killbison transformed and laughed wholeheartedly. "That's how you open a door!"
"Let's just get what we came for." Razorclaw walked into the hold, Garboil flying by his head to get in first. "This place is giant."
The entirety of the cargo hold seemed to run the bottom of the whole ship. Killbison groaned in annoyance. "This ship is like an entire Hic* long. This will take us forever to look through."
"We'll split up then. Keep coms open just incase. Garboil and I will go one way. You two go the other." Razorclaw walked off, Garboil on his shoulder, leaving Decepticharge and Killbison just standing there.
"Let's go." Decepticharge took point, his Scatter Blaster in hand.
"Fine." Killbison adjusted his grip on his Torque Rifle. "Maybe we'll find something I can use this on."
Hooligan transformed and landed on one of the five main engines. Sixshot turned and looked at him. "We're going to disable these. Permanently."
"Boss, I don't mean to question ya, but are you sure? How else are we gonna get home?" Hooligan motioned to the ship. "If the engines still work, we could take the ship and then head off to wherever."
"I'm not looking to take this ship. Too large to sneak back onto Cybertron. No. We've got friends on the way. Do not worry." Sixshot looked out into the void, the lights of distant stars keeping his attentions. "You may say that they're adventurers of sorts."
Hooligan watched Sixshot just stand there, a sense of awkwardness filling the space around them. "Soooo, how do you want to destroy these things?"
"I almost find it funny that you two think you can take out the engines on my ship." The metal beneath Hooligan's feet shook as he turned around. Towering over him was Skyquake. "You can either join me and kill Sixshot, or I crush you slowly." He lowered to be eye level with Hooligan. "Your choice."
Sixshot pulled Hooligan back, stepping in between the two. Sixshot was a big bot, but Skyquake towered over even him. "Are you trying to be threatening Skyquake?"
"Are you defying me Sixshot?" Skyquake took a step forward and Sixshot pulled out a small rifle. "You dare pull a weapon on me!? Your commander!?" Skyquake's arm quickly morphed into a fusion cannon from the elbow down. He aimed it at Sixshot's face. "Make a move."
"Hooligan. Destroy the engines. I shall destroy this fool." Sixshot spoke to his underling who simply nodded and flew off and began firing on the engines.
"Die!" Skyquake's arm slowly went back as a blast of energy began to fire from the barrel. Sixshot ducked at point blank range as the blast went over his head. "What!?"
Sixshot sprung upwards, catching Skyquake with an uppercut. Explosions erupted around them as Hooligan fired on the engines upon which they stood. As Skyquake began to regain his footing, Sixshot began running off the quite large engine and onto the hull of the ship.
"Grah!" Skyquake fired off three blasts at Hooligan. "Die!" He spun around and jumped through the void to slam into Sixshot's back, sending them both skidding along the hull.
"What!?" Hooligan dodged two of the blasts, but was hit by the third. He transformed into robot mode, his entire left wing now gone and energy burns seared the partial left of his upper torso. "Damn it." He used the boosters in his feet to keep from flying off into space. He looked at Skyquake who was currently firing blasts at a quickly moving Sixshot.
Sixshot rolled and skidded to a stop, firing a blast of purple and deep red energy at Skyquake. It made contact with the hulking mass of a Decepticon's right leg, tripping him and sending him head over heels.
"I got ya now!" Hooligan fired a blast of concentrated energon at Skyquake. Before he could regain his composure, Skyquake was hit with the blast and sent flying.
Sixshot looked at Hooligan and pointed to the engines. "Finish them off and then retreat to the rendezvous point!"
"On it!" Hooligan began firing blast after blast at the engines. It was taking a bit longer due to his loss of one of his wing mounted rocket launchers.
Sixshot watched as Skyquake re-magnetized his feet and attached back to the ship. The larger bot began running towards him. Silently, Sixshot fired blast after blast from his rifle to try and slow Skyquake down. It only seemed to anger him.
There was an enormous energy explosion as the final engine was destroyed. "We're all good! See you there!" Hooligan flew off using his feet mounted boosters. He disappeared around the right side of the ship.
Sixshot took out a small device and attached it to the hull beneath him. "Another time." The device melted through the hull beneath him and he fell into the ship and flew off down one of its corridors.
Skyquake jumped in and looked in both directions for Sixshot but saw no sign of him. "Raaahhhh! Sixshot!" His angry screams echoed through the halls of the upper deck.
*Hic = About a kilometer