Well, I'm back from vacation, so let's get back to it!
I don't own Transformers or the Riordanverse; they belong to their owners.
Chapter 15: A Real Canadian Hero.
On board the Nemesis, Megatron sat silently in the command chair in his private chambers. Four screens were in front of him, all displaying some of his loyal Decepticon soldiers currently giving their reports.
"The Autobot outpost is totaled," said a green bot with no jaw. "Mindwipe is currently going through their records to see what secrets..."
"Situation is stabilized," said a transformer that looked like Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker except green in color. "But we have escalating flashpoints. I'm not sure how long the rainmakers can hold..."
"I'm telling you!" insisted a purple con with a yellow helmet and red visor. "I think we got a double agent among..."
"Energon supplies are holding strong, but they won't last forever," said a purple con with a single eye and no mouth. "If what you said about finding energon on Earth is true, it might be time to look into gathering some. In other news, Overlord's prison is still holding..."
As Megatron took all this in, he heard the door opening behind him. "Any news from Cybertron, Megatron?" Soundwave asked.
"Yes, Soundwave. there is." Megatron said, turning his head to face his loyal officer. "I've just gotten a report from Shockwave. He's requesting that we start gathering more of the energon you found here on this planet."
"Understood." Soundwave nodded. "I will start searching for an appropriate location to begin mining operations."
He turned and walked out of the room.
The next day, a ground bridge opened in the middle of the Canadian wilderness. Soundwave stepped out of it, followed by Thundercracker, Skywarp, Starscream, Spinister, and Quake, with the latter pushing various equipment for processing and storing Energon.
The Decepticons took in the view around them. It was a mountainous rocky area with pine trees as far as the eye could see, and the ground and tips of the mountains were covered in a white powder.
Starscream lifted up his foot, which was covered in the strange stuff. "What is this?" he asked.
"It's called snow," explained Thundercracker. "It forms in cold regions. Some humans enjoy playing in it, building forts or making small balls to fling at each other."
"You learned all that by watching that TV of yours?" asked Quake dismissively.
"As a matter of fact, I did," Thundercracker said.
"Silence," ordered Soundwave. "This is the spot where I picked up the Energon readings."
He pointed to a nearby wall of rock. "We will start digging here."
"Fine by me!" said Quake as he started pounding at the rocks and digging his way through.
Soundwave pressed the eject button on his shoulder. "Rumble, eject, operation, mining."
Rumble in his data disc form leaped out of Soundwave, transformed into his robot mode, and landed on the ground. "You got it, Soundwave!" he said. Then he turned his arms into piledrivers and began slamming them on the ground.
Spinister and Skywarp moved forward to help out with the digging.
"Starscream, Thundercracker. You will help me prepare the equipment for pro-"
"I know what to do, Soundwave!" Starscream insisted before moving to the equipment.
Thundercracker hesitated a bit. "So... Soundwave?" he asked.
"Yes?"
"Are you sure no humans will pick up on this?"
"Unsure, but this location is remote and far away from human civilization," Soundwave noted. "It is not probable we will encounter any natives."
"Right. Got it." Thundercracker said before moving to help Starscream.
Miles away, a Canadian Humvee bounced up and down on the rocky roads as it trekked through the Canadian wilderness.
For the moment, the three soldiers in it were silent until the communication system turned on. "Bear 4, this is Canadian Military Command; do you come in over?"
The driver of the Humvee picked up the microphone and put it to his mouth. "Bear 4 is here over."
"Marcus, we're picking up some weird seismic readings from your location's northeast. Requesting investigation at once."
"No problem command," the driver, Marcus, responded. "We're heading to look into it." He turned the wheel of the Humvee and started going off the beaten path.
"What do you think is going on?" asked one of the passengers.
"No idea, Blake," Marcus admitted. "It's probably nothing, but we go where command sends us."
He turned back to the passenger in the back seat. "Sorry Emily, it looks like your ride back to base will have to wait a bit longer."
Emily laughed. "All good, Marcus. I've waited this long to see my boy again; I can wait a bit longer."
As the Decepticons began to gather and process the energon in the mountains, a beeping sound started emitting from Soundwave.
"What's that about?" Skywarp asked as he loaded some energon into the processor.
Soundwave didn't answer. He just put a finger on his audio receptor, as if listening in on something.
"Well?" asked Starscream.
"It appears some humans have picked up on our activity." Soundwave finally said. "They are sending someone to investigate."
"I thought you said we wouldn't be detected by humans!" Thundercracker grumbled as he helped process the energon into liquid form for easier storage.
"I said it was probable." Soundwave said. "Not certain."
Thundercracker sighed and got back to his work.
Soundwave turned to Spinister. "Spinister. Deal with them."
Spinister nodded and ran off, transforming into helicopter mode.
As the trio of Canadian soldiers approached the site, they could hear the rumblings increase; their Humvee rumbled and shook more and more as they got closer and closer.
"Okay, something is definitely up," Emily noted.
"You see anything?" Marcus asked Blake, who had relocated to the turret on the roof of the humvee.
"No, not... hey wait!" Blake shouted.
"What is it?"
"It's a helicopter!" Blake replied, "Looks like an Apache!"
He pointed forward, and Emily and Marcus looked; sure enough, right in front of them was a Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopter coming right toward them.
"What's an American helicopter doing here in the middle of nowhere?" Emily asked. "And what's with the weird blue and light purple paint job?"
"You think this is connected to that Russian tank in Mexico from last week?" Blake asked.
"No idea." Marcus picked up the communications device in the Humvee. "Apache helicopter, this is Bear 4 of the Canadian Military; ID yourself now and explain-"
At that moment, the helicopter started firing at them. The twin missile launchers on its side wings began shooting their projectiles at the humvee.
"LOOK OUT!" cried Emily.
Marcus thought fast; he turned the steering wheel hard to the right, barely avoiding the incoming missiles. They heard a small explosion as the missiles impacted the ground beside them; dirt flew in from the open window of the humvee and flew in Marcus's face.
"Why the hell is it shooting at us!?" Blake asked.
"No idea, but shoot back before it gets a lock on us!" Marcus ordered as he hit the accelerator. The humvee roared underneath the helicopter.
Blake swerved the turret to the back of the humvee and started firing the machine gun at the copter, but the bullets just bounced off.
But there was an even worse sight; Blake's eyes widened as the helicopter seemed to turn on a dime, and he got a look at the cockpit.
"Emily, Marcus, the helicopter! There's no pilot!"
"Is it a drone!? Emily asked.
"No, there's nothing at all!" Blake said, "The cockpit is completely empty!" He was starting to panic.
"Just keep firing!" ordered Marcus.
Blake did his best to aim the turret back at the helicopter before it could fire at them again. The shots were still bouncing off the hull, but he managed to get a hit on its cockpit.
The helicopter seemed to stagger and groan. They shook in mid-air.
"Did that thing just...groan?" Emily asked.
The copter sped up and flew forward, getting in front of the humvee again.
"Okay, Blake, hang on," Marcus shouted. "Just a few more hits and-"
At that moment, they heard a clicking sound...
And then the cockpit of the helicopter split in two, becoming a pair of legs that landed on the ground. With a TSCHE-CHU-CHU-CHU-TSCHE the rest of the helicopter began to change into a giant robot.
"WHAT THE-" Marcus exclaimed.
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!?" Emily asked.
Blake looked horrified. "DO SOME-"
The helicopter reached his arms forward and grabbed the humvee, stopping it in its tracks.
Then it raised its arms above its head into one massive fist.
"OH NO!" cried Emily. She unlatched her seatbelt and barrled out of the side door of the humvee. Blake jumped out of the turret and onto the ground, but Marcus was still in there, struggling with his seatbelt.
"Marcus, come out!" shouted Emily.
"My seatbelt! It's jamm-" Marcus started before the robot slammed its fists onto the humvee. It crumpled and shattered as it collapsed in on itself.
Emily stared in shock and horror. "Marcus?" she called uneasily.
There was no reply.
And then the robot directly looked at Emily.
Emily pulled out her rifle and began firing, but the shots were still doing nothing.
"Son of a—What's with this thing?" Emily asked.
The robot pulled out his own gun and aimed it at Emily.
Before Emily could even consider what direction to dodge, she heard the whiz of a rocket, followed by an explosion on the robot's head. The massive impact caused it to stagger and left a mark.
Emily turned her head and saw Blake wielding a rocket launcher pulled from the wrecked Humvee.
"Emily, get out of here!" he called. "I'll deal with him!"
"No way I'm leaving-"
"Get to command! Warn them!" Blake ordered.
"Okay," Emily said. She turned to look at the robot, who was recovering from the rocket. "But I'm going to leave him a present before I go!" She raised her rifle and shot the robot in the eye. She could hear the tiny ping of glass shattering, followed by the robot screaming in pain.
With that, she ran into the woods, doing her best not to look back.
Blake pulled out his own rifle and started shooting it. "Come and get me you piece of scrap metal!" he shouted.
The robot used its one remaining eye to glare at the human. Then it raced over to Blake.
The last thing Blake saw was the robot's giant foot coming down on him.
As Spinister crushed the puny bug beneath his feet, he looked around. He had to find that other human first—the one who shot him in the eye.
He turned away from the wreckage and transformed back into his helicopter mode, hovering above the woods.
He followed the footprints of the human, but they seemed to stop out of nowhere at a certain point.
Spinister continued to look around, but the human was gone. The only thing he could find was a small herd of moose.
"Damn it!" Spinister muttered, and he flew off to rejoin Soundwave and the others.
After he had left, one of the female mooses broke away from the herd and ran off in another direction...
"I think we got enough Soundwave," Starscream reported.
Soundwave inspected the fruits of the Decepticon's labor. Sure enough, a decent sum of the energon in the vicinity had been mined and processed.
"Good," Soundwave said. "There is still some energon to be mined, but it can wait until we have the equipment for a proper full-scale mining operation."
"Works for me..." Skywarp said as he sighed in relief.
"I just wanna get back to fighting Autobots!" Quake said.
At that moment, the Decepticons heard the whirring of helicopter blades—a sign that Spinister had returned.
When Thundercracker turned to face Spinister, he cringed and asked, "What happened to you?"
Spinister's right shoulder was cracked and covered in black soot, his left optic was gone, and his legs were badly hurt.
"We got a problem, Soundwave," Spinister said.
"Spinister is talking!" Rumble exclaimed.
"Yep, bad sign..." Skywarp muttered.
"What happened?" Soundwave asked.
"One of the humans got away; I couldn't find them," Spinister explained.
Soundwave was silent as he contemplated this.
"What do we do?" Spinister asked.
"Who cares!?" asked Starscream. "Let's just get back to the Nemesis with the Energon we gathered. We'll worry about the humans later."
"For once, Starscream is correct." Soundwave agreed. "Although I doubt Megatron will be pleased..."
Megatron wasn't pleased at all. He wasn't sure at all how to take this news. One of his best soldiers had been outmaneuvered by a bunch of primitives.
His speculation was indeed correct; this underdeveloped world and its people were surprisingly capable. The fact that there was now a human connected to one of this world's nation's military who had lived to tell the tale unnerved him. It was unlikely that the story would be fully believed at first, but rumors had a way of spreading.
He was reticent as he took all this in, sitting in his command chair in front of the Decepticons, who had just returned from the energon gathering mission.
At last, he spoke, "Spinister." Megatron addressed.
Spinister, back to being silent, stood up in attention.
"As punishment for failing to stop the humans, you will be on clean-up duty for the next orbital cycle."
Spinister nodded and walked off.
"Soundwave," Megatron said next.
"Yes, Megatron?"
"I need you to keep a close eye on all Canadian military communications for the next several weeks." Megatron ordered, "Make sure word doesn't spread too far."
Soundwave nodded and silently walked off.
"Starscream, get the energon sorted and ready for use," Megatron ordered. "And then I want you to study human military tactics."
"Why is that?" Starscream asked, although he had a good guess.
"Because now I know their weapons can hurt us," Megatron explained, "and we need to be ready..."
Thanks for reading, and don't forget to leave a review!