Wazup y'all!
So Since it's been a bit and I just want to get another chapter out there, I decided to release this one early. This chapter is a preview of what's to come. Maybe once I finish this chapter I'll update this post, but I'll more likely just post a new chapter altogether.
Thanks as always for your patience. Remember I update my profile with announcements about where I am in my progress with chapters and other things, so keep your eyes peeled for any more updates there. I moved the announcements section to the top of my profile so you can find it easier.
As for Bigvic's review in chapter 4, since there were more than a few questions, I'll only answer a couple here for the rest of you. As for anything revolving around the movieverse or TFP, yes there will since the universe this story is based in is the aligned continuity and is currently taking place before WFC, so there will be characters from those series as well as leading up to the plotlines of FOC and the movieverse.
As for finding artifacts, the Engima has just been found in the last chapter as you know, but the others are TBD. I wouldn't want to spoil anything ;).
Enjoy (some of) Chapter 5!
The shockwave was powerful enough to push us both back. On one knee, Devastator dug his massive servos into the ground like claws and charged without hesitation. I prepared for the impact by taking another step back, holding my fists up, and waiting for my insight (1) to kick in.
"Cmon, cmon…" I muttered aloud.
But when nothing happened, Devastator sent a massive right hook into my head. I flew to the side, effortlessly taking down trees with my momentum before pummeling the ground with force. I slowly raised myself on my hands and knees. Devastator has charged again. Instead of waiting, I decided to take action. Once he was close enough, I leapt toward his abdomen, grabbing him in a bear hug. Once I forced Devastator to the ground, I attempted to restrain him, but he charged his laser-powered visor, sending a beam of energy at my face that I was barely able to dodge. The beam still managed to singe my cranium plate, so I stumbled away in pain. Devastator capitalized on this and tripped me. Then he grabbed my leg and started to swing me around. He sent me flying for miles. I tumbled for what seemed like forever. Struggling to pick myself up, Devastator finally approached. Slowly this time.
"Pathetic waste of metal." He muttered as his visor grew bright. Before he could deliver another blow, Optimus appeared. His axe sliced the green giant's calf, causing him to scream as he fell to one knee. Optimus, sliding as he made his attack, now stood and charged for the behemoth's face, sending a heavy punch toward it.
As Devastator fell, I muttered, "I was handling it."
"Your handling needs work." He stated bluntly, standing atop the unconscious combiner.
Optimus raised his axe high, preparing to finish the job, but Devastator awoke, blasting him away with a beam of red energy.
Optimus doubled over, crashing into the ground beside me. His chest was steaming as he slowly stood.
"This fight is not yours, Prime."
"No. It's all of ours."
He stared at us for a moment, letting out a soft growl, before retreating.
We let him go at first, but we still followed. As we approached the portal he ran through, we predicted what was waiting for us on the other side.
"What do you think it'll be? An army? Megatron himself?"
"Doesn't matter. But we must prepare for the worst." Optimus replied.
We stopped before we reached the portal. Optimus slowly looked at me.
"After you." I mused, extending my arm at the portal.
Optimus looked ahead and unsheathed his arm blades. I leapt through the portal after him.
After falling through the green and blue portal's dimension, we dropped into Iacon, but not Maccadam's bar. We were in the middle of a slum. Except, instead of Decepticons, they wore black insignias. They did not seem surprised by our arrival, as their weapons were already trained on us as we appeared.
"Who are you?" I bellowed.
"Why do you care?" Their leader asked. Then he directed the rest to open fire.
I blocked some of the shots with my arms, but Optimus charged without hesitation. He tore up several of these assailants with his arm blades. I grabbed a nearby street pole and ripped it out of the ground. Using it as a large bat, I swung at those firing at me, swiping at least four of them off the ground and into a nearby building to the left. One enemy ran forward with a larger gun. He aimed for a moment as I noticed him and fired his grenade launcher. It exploded on my chest, but I rose out of the smoke cloud unharmed. I raised my pole high and slammed down, turning him into scrap metal. More of these bots were rushing in.
"Screw this" I muttered. "Get ready to run" I warned Optimus.
He nodded in reply and continued to attack.
I charged to the nearest structure while still being barraged with weapon fire. I targeted the pillars barely holding the building together, charging right through them. Metal creaking slowly turned into snapping and crashing; the building was falling.
Optimus saw what was happening and transformed. I ran just behind him as the rest of the enemy scattered. Not many of them made it out. The crash was enough to push me onto my knees with its shockwave. Dust quickly spread in all directions.
Optimus transformed and approached me.
"Well done." He mused.
"We are not done yet."
As the dust slowly settled, I was able to make out an enemy in the rubble. He was half buried.
"Who are you? Who do you work for?" I asked again.
"Why should I answer you? I'm going to die anyway." He sputtered.
"Allow me." Optimus stepped forward.
He ripped the bot out of the rubble. He screamed in pain, his legs were missing.
"Here are your options. One, you answer our questions and we give you a quick and merciful death. Two, you can keep your mouth shut… and I slowly carve it open as you beg for mercy." He threatened as he slowly unsheathed his arm blade next to his face.
"Alright, alright!" He exclaimed in desperation. "We are Mercenaries; bounty hunters. We serve the highest bidder. We aren't a part of your childish war." He wheezed.
"So who paid you?" I asked.
"Who do you think? Megatron has sent us on all sorts of ambushes on your scouting parties. But for some reason he resents you. And it doesn't stop here. No. There are more of us. The best of us, and he's coming for you. Watch your back Autobot, or else you'll join your weakling brother Sentu-"
His head exploded and his body went limp. My rifle smoked as I slowly lowered it.
Optimus looked at me with a slightly confused look.
"He was not fit to speak his name" I muttered.
"It would have been nice to know what he meant by 'the best of us'." Optimus pointed out as he finally dropped the frayed corpse.
"I guess we'll find out eventually."
We decombined and began our trek back in our alternate modes.
"Do you have any intel on these guys? I think we should look for weaknesses in their ranks and beat them to the punch." Interceptor asked as he hovered low alongside us.
"We have had dealings with these Mercenaries before. Many have tried to do just that. Few have returned." Optimus stated.
"Wonderful" Synapsis muttered.
"As for weaknesses, the only one to note is simply that they serve the highest bidder. So if need be, they can be paid off. But knowing Megatron, it is unlikely we can beat his price." Optimus continued.
"I wonder if there are other ways to sway them…" Interceptor trailed off.
"Who cares. Shoot first, ask questions later." Throttle mused.
"Yeah, because that's the smart thing to do." Interceptor quipped.
We made it back to Metroplex City with what intel we did have. Optimus left for the command centre while my team and I decided we needed a well-deserved break.
"Well, that went well." Interceptor mused as we finally reached the bar.
"What are ya talkin' about, boy?" Junction asked.
"Devastator."
"It wasn't that bad" I replied.
"We got our aft handed to us. The big guy had to step in so we wouldn't kick the bucket. Some Inigima, it didn't even do anything." Throttle complained as we sat down at the bar.
"To be fair, Avenger is still young. He won't reach his full potential instantly." Synapsis piped in.
"Yeah, but we didn't even have the future insight thingy." Throttle replied.
"Oye! It's been a long day mate. We need the good stuff." Junction shouted to the bartender
The bartender gave him a thumbs up and worked his magic.
"Yeah that was kinda weird, you'd think that would be enough of an anxiety-inducing moment. We were fighting Devastator for crying out loud." Interceptor replied.
"Maybe Avenger is too reliant on it." I suggested, "If he's always going to rely on this insight, what if somehow the enemy finds a way to counter it or remove it altogether? Then what? Avenger needs to learn to adapt."
The mugs of high-grade slide down to each of us. Junction downed his as normal, while the rest of us took modest sips. Throttle tried to act like he was downing it while hiding the fact he was pouring it out over his shoulder behind him.
"Don't be a wimp." Junction slapped his back in a hearty chuckle, spilling some of the drink on his face and chest.
"I think you're right Jaeger. How do you suggest we teach 'em?" Junction asked.
"Honestly, I don't know. This is new territory for all of us. Maybe experience will be the best teacher. Basic combat will follow."
"I don't know. These Mercenaries seem like they could be a problem." Interceptor mentioned.
"They're just bounty hunters. I could take 'em all on myself." Throttle bragged while brandishing one of his blasters.
"I'd pay money to see you try." Interceptor chuckled.
"Well, then you'll be happy to know you will get to witness my greatness for free." He mused.
"This'll be good" I muttered into my drink as I began to take a sip.
"How about this, 50 credits says you run away after 30 seconds." Interceptor continued.
"There's a 72.3495% chance of that happening" Synapsis reported.
"I like those odds." Throttle stated proudly in his overconfidence.
Our comms suddenly turned on with chatter.
"Boys. It's go time." Warpath mused.
Junction downed his second mug and slammed it on the table before slipping off his stool.
"Let's get this show on the road." He quipped.
"Think I'll beat my high score this time?" Throttle asked.
"We're a combiner now numb nuts. Your high score is our high score." Interceptor sighed as we all exited the bar.
"Who says we're combining? I wanna have some fun." He mused as he flipped his guns in his hands.
Fast forward to us inside the dropship, at least that's what we called our floating platform of a vessel. This was a smaller one though, so there was only room for our squad and a few other soldiers. Interceptor was staring off into space while Junction was practically asleep. Synapsis was typing away on his small holoscreen emitted from his arm and Throttle was pretending to shoot things in the distance with his servos pointing like a gun.
"Am I the only one that finds this endless cycle exhausting?" Interceptor mentioned, still not breaking his mindless gaze.
"Nope." Another soldier replied. I think his name was Prowl or something. "But I feel like it's gonna be worth it in the end."
"When will that be? I'm kinda done with marching into another battle every day almost dying, and for what? Just to do it over and over again? It's not even scary anymore. It's just… unending." Interceptor continued.
"Yeah well, welcome to war kid. You'll get used to it after a while." Junction piped in, waking from his slumber.
"We are fighting for our freedom. That's our reward, and we aren't going to let up until we get it." I added.
Interceptor just nodded and sat back in his seat.
We exited the carrier and marched toward our side of the battlefield. Barracks were already prepared as well as soldiers organizing and loading weaponry and ammo. We even had a few tanks rolling off of their transports on the other end of the barracks.
"What are we looking at this time?" I asked the commanding officer, who happened to be Ironhide.
"Dunno. Could be Devastator, could be Megatron himself for all we know. Why do you think you're here?"
"So… you didn't even send a scouting party?" I asked.
"I repeat. Why do you think you're here?"
"Hold on. You don't expect us to do a rookie's job, do you? We're supposed to be the big guns!" Throttle complained.
"First of all, scouting isn't a rookie's job. It takes skill and precision to remain practically invisible. Second, as a commanding officer, I say and do everything for a reason. You need to leave your ego behind on a battlefield. I've seen way too many good men die that way." Ironhide shot back.
"I will do whatever I damn well please. Now if you were smart you'd put us front row centre on the battlefield. That is unless you want to see more of your good men die." Throttle continued, slowly stepping forward to get in his face.
"Easy, Throttle." I cautioned.
Ironhide grabbed Throttle's chest plate and held him high with one arm while he squirmed. Then Ironhide slammed him into the wall of the barrack we were standing beside.
"If you're gonna have a good idea I'm gonna give it to you, youngblood. Now shut up and obey my orders, 'else I'll have to feed you to the Insecticons." He growled.
He dropped Throttle, letting him fall back to his peds.
"These kids… they think they know more than the lot of us" Junction muttered.
"Do me a favour." Ironhide started to Junction, "Beat some sense into that one."
Junction smirked in reply.
"You know what to do, get out there and tell us what you see. Now get outta my sight." Ironhide concluded to all of us as he began to stomp away.
"Yes, sir" I replied.
We drove behind rock formations and cybernetic mounds to maintain cover. Once Synapsis said we were close enough to the nearest life sign we transformed and slowly climbed one of the mounds. We saw the Decepticon's forces congregating in a large area. It wasn't a surprise to see we were outnumbered, especially when we saw the all too familiar green construction vehicles approaching from the distance.
But, there was one thing that was different about the troops this time.
"Oh well this is just fantastic" Synapsis stated sarcastically.
"What is it this time?" Interceptor sighed.
"Looks like the Mercenaries still haven't let up. At least 25% of the enemy are those goddamn persistent bounty hunters." Synapsis groaned.
"Great. More heads to pop." Throttle mused, spinning his pistol as usual.
"I've got a feeling we might have some new friends at the end of this." Interceptor quipped.
"Keep your eyes open. This might be the Mercenaries' play to take us down." I cautioned.
"Ironhide, did you get all of that?" I radioed in.
"Affirmative. Now hold your position. Once it gets rough down here I'll give you the order to run interception. Until then keep watch they don't have any other tricks up their sleeve." He replied through the comm.
"That guy is such a pain in the aft." Throttle sighed.
"Maybe turn your signal off, Throttle" Interceptor smirked.
"Scrap." He mumbled as he slammed the side of his head repeatedly in a panic to shut off his comm.
We watched from a distance as the forces slowly charged each other, small beams of orange and yellow light scattering across the battlefield. Then at the rear of the Decepticon forces, we saw the Constructicons combining.
"Be advised, Devastator inbound." I radioed in.
"Affirmative. Hold your position." Ironhide replied in the midst of the weapon fire.
"He's gonna let them all die." Throttle stated.
"Calm down Throttle. You don't know what his plan is." I replied in frustration.
I then noticed the tanks rearing up on Devatstator's charge. I hadn't really noticed it before but the barrels of the tanks looked different, almost reminiscent of Synapsis' prototype from our first battle as a team.
"Did you know anything about this?" I asked Synapsis.
"No. I don't know what they're planning here."
Before Devastator could cross enemy lines, the tanks opened fire, launching continuous beams of yellow energy like railguns. Devatstaor began to slow down at first, blocking it with his arm, but as the blasts continued, his endurance began to wain and he stopped. But as he stopped, we heard aircraft flying in. Bombers.
Interceptor and I both deployed snipers in unison out of pure instinct. Interceptor managed to take out one, but I missed both my shots.
"Allow me." Junction mused as he barged his way ahead of us with his minigun.
"You can't be serious." Throttle laughed.
Junction slowly turned his sight to Throttle with a smirk as he opened fire. Without even looking he managed to take out one of the three remaining bombers.
"Okay... You were serious." Throttle admitted in his shock.
Junction laughed and finally focused on his targets, taking out the other two before they made it into the battle. Suddenly, as we were celebrating, something faster than our perception shot right through the cloud of smoke and ash the bombers left behind. It went right past the battlefield, but in the distance made a wide 180. Now lined up with our tanks, it flew low and unloaded machine gun fire, blowing up all four tanks in one pass.
"What in Primus' name was that!?" Synapsis exclaimed.
The jet then turned for another pass, but instead of going for another round on the battlefield, it slowed down when approaching our lookout and transformed right in front of us. Landing hard on the ground, revealing a somewhat slender but tall black bot with chains dangling from his arms. The black insignia on his chest glistened with the reflection of explosions behind us.
"The best of them" I stated somberly.
(1) "Insight" is referring to Avenger's ability to see briefly into the future. It will be referred to as insight from now on for clarity.
Let me know what you think! Chapter 6 will be done soon. I wish a great day to you all.