Chapter 66

"The Angel Part II"

When the signal finally came, they were ready. Everyone was where they needed to be, every station filled and every non-essential sent away. Hawkmoon had the bridge with Duststorm; everyone else was either directing the Vehicon crew or near the hangar.

:The Prince has done it: Fortress Maximus broadcasted across the entire fleet. The distinctive flashing warble of a spacebridge yawned ahead of them. It synced with a flutter in Hawkmoon's chest. To think of how easily she could have snapped it shut. :The Drezhari are blinded. He's plucked out their optics. Fleet, enter positions. First wave - go, go, go!:

"Go," Hawkmoon echoed. "Revenant, onwards."

The ship soared ahead. A screen of other ships flitted past to cover them, the closest being the Gorgon, the Heretic, the Fatal Consequence, and Carcer at their backs. The edge of the space bridge caught onto them, snatched them up hull and all, dragged them through a shifting space of every colour and shape-

-and spat them out into open void. There was a planet ahead, only a micro-warp away. The sun was to their left - massive, red, as furious as it was broken, its form dappled with colossal structures whose sole function was to enslave it to their will. To their right, so far away even her optics couldn't pick out much more than the distant comet-bright snap of violent implosions, a scattered battle raged.

"Seekers," someone said. It might've been Duststorm. "They're gliding towards us, Drezhari right behind. We have time to move on; second wave will cover them."

Hawkmoon nodded, but she still tapped into the armada's primary channel - and flinched as two dozen voices broke on her audioreceptors.

:Cryptships bearing on us- :

:Formations fifteen through twenty five moving to engage- :

:Taking fire- :

:Prince is down! I repeat, Prince is down!:

:What happened- :

:Where'd he go?:

:I see him, he's down, he's down, he's- :

:Avion is dead! I repeat, Avion is DEAD!:

:Fleet is sighted! They're through! First wave is through!:

:Air Commander Starscream speaking, all formations follow my trajectory! We MUST link up with the second wave! Quickly!:

She realised Duststorm was speaking to her and cut the connection. "Yeah?"

Duststorm nodded to the projector. "Battleplates are through. Your orders?"

Hawkmoon looked through the viewport. "Let 'em warp first, we'll follow in behind. They need to break the sat-net before we can land. Clear?"

"Clear. Taishibethi... acknowledged." Duststorm leaned against the holotable. "Warping now."

Two flashes of colour shot overhead, piercing the veil of spacetime. The prows of each nearby Cybertronian ship took on similar hues. Hawkmoon braced as the Revenant slunk into warp-speed, counting the seconds (human time, human time, human time) until they burst out right behind the glittering battleplates. The dull grey surface of Core-1 waited beyond, each inch of sky carpeted in factory fumes. Even without the dyson sphere to blanket the sun, those on the surface never would have known its touch.

The Exequy and Abyssus powered ahead at frightening speed. The very planet bristled, tearing its skies asunder with wasp-furious drone swarms. They came abuzzing, a rising tide millions strong. Here and there satellites across the planet glittered like a grand diadem - until their plasmic payloads struck. Solar shields flared, taking the brunt of the punishment, and the battleplates retorted first with precise blasts of rail-loaded kinetic rounds, then with vast rivers of consecrated sun-heat, raking the very atmosphere with streams of impossible flame. The Fatal Consequence and the Heretic opened up with Cyertronian smart-missiles against those snub-craft unleashed in the face of their attack.

"I'll be at the groundbridge," Hawkmoon said, her optics lingering on the holo-display. "You have command."

Duststorm grunted an affirmative. Hawkmoon hurried away, down through the Revenant's elevator shafts (she didn't bother waiting when her thrusters would get her there quicker) and burst into the groundbridge station. The others were waiting; Glitched, gladiators, Quintesson-hunters, Akildn and Camiens.

"We're closing in," Hawkmoon said, feeling the tension in their fields washing over her own. "Battleplates are shredding the planet open. Second wave should be launching additional strikes any moment."

"Shockwave: en route," Soundwave said. He was at the control terminal, his tentacles braced against a number of access ports. "Invasion of Core-1: imminent."

"Right." Hawkmoon brought up a live image of the planet on her HUD and shared it with everyone present. The Akildn had to make do with staring at Soundwave's screen. "Scanners are picking up on server-cities scattered across the planet. We're hitting the big one - right at the polar cap. There's no guarantee this is where our targets are, but it's the likeliest. We'll find out on the ground. Now make no mistake, we won't be stranded; the Revenant will be keeping pace in orbit and Soundwave's gonna be linked with the groundbridge. We are going to strike quick, we are going to strike with surgical precision, and we are not going to waste time. Am I understood?"

A chorus of affirmatives met her audioreceptors.

"We'll be moving in three squads," Hawkmoon continued. "We won't be far, and odds are we'll be pressed together for most of this, but you account for your squads first and foremost. Each will cover our most vital personnel: Soundwave, Airachnid, and Contagion. Soundwave's our ticket in and out, Airachnid is our key to finding these bastards, and Contagion... well he keeps us alive."

A couple of mecha chuckled nervously.

"Team leaders will be myself, Elulim and Tarn. Deadlock, Megatron, Javelin, Mismatch, Novastar, and Jazz, you're with me. We're covering Soundwave. Blackout, Stormclash, Skyburst, Velocity and Cyclonus, you're with Elulim on Airachnid. Crackdown, Wheeljack, Chromia, Windblade, Nightbird and Conduit, you're following Tarn and Contagion. Understood?"

Another round of assent.

"Elulim, I'll leave appointing the Akildn to you."

Elulim nodded and gestured to two of them next to her. "Yrim, Mirel, you go with the Seeker. Urlel, Canalin, you do as the tank commands. The rest of you are mine."

The Akildn hissed and barked at one another, their serpent-eyes flashing with savage glee. Venomous saliva dripped freely from glassy fangs - before their amour transmatted over their bodies and breathing masks slid over their beaks. They dispersed themselves well enough, taking to each of the assorted groups.

"Here." Novastar pressed a bundle of fine metal shards into her servos. "Your knives."

Hawkmoon inspected them. "Good for throwing."

"That's what you like, right?"

"And then some. Thanks." Hawkmoon shoved them into subspace. Novastar winked, hefted her warhammer and fell in beside Deadlock and Javelin.

They waited. Waited as the image on their HUDs grew clearer, waited as tiny, minuscule vibrations no one without a Seeker's fine-tuned pressure-sensors would ever feel ran down through the ship, waited as Duststorm and the Vehicons reported contact with Drezhari craft, waited as the second wave's siegebreaker ships rammed their way into Core-1's battlenetwork some distance away.

:We're closing in: Duststorm reported. :Emirate, you're within range. Waiting on battleplates to strip the shielding.:

They waited some more. Until-

:Go.:

The groundbridge flared to life. Hawkmoon looked to Soundwave and, when he nodded his assent, she darted through.

Right into freefall.

Her frame crashed against the side of a building-sized server block and she jammed her claws into it as she fell. The others followed suit - save those with flight-modules. The air was full of dust and debris, and far below, where the base of the server met with prefab steel, she saw drones crawling in their hundreds in neat little lanes.

Megatron fell past her and fired his riot cannon. The blast ripped up a sizable crater in the ground and the drones, those not torn apart, scattered like so many rats. He hit the ground with his knees bent to absorb the impact. Hawkmoon fell beside him, her thrusters softening her landing. One by one the others fell in around them. She stalked over to a twitching corpse, lifted it up by one of its legs and proclaimed, "Maintenance droid."

Airachnid stalked over and, with a flick of a claw, neatly opened its head. Her faceplates fell with disappointment. "Primitive," she reported. "Nothing worth patching into."

Hawkmoon tossed it away. "Spread out but don't stray far. Priority is finding a command platform. Let's go!" She chose one direction and ran, her team trailing after her. The light trickling in through the molten hole in the city's roof was faint, but there was a soft glow from the active server blocks that illuminated the path ahead well enough. More drones scurried about, either heedless or hard pressed to continue their duties. They weren't armed, nor were they advanced enough to be considered 'alive', so Hawkmoon disregarded stopping to destroy them.

On and on the blocks ran, built like the aisles of some pre-Collapse megamarket. When it seemed as if their lane carried on forever, they cut diagonally, trying to look down as many alleys as they could. It wasn't long before the Drezhari responded. A mere breem after they arrived plasma fire sliced through the air. Hawkmoon took a volley on her shield, stepped in front of Jazz and ushered her team behind cover. A couple of ranks of Coppermen, their frames gleaming new, silently marched their way with rifles raised.

"Will these do?" Jazz gasped. His servos shifted into blasters.

Hawkmoon boldly remained in the open. There wasn't enough of them nor were they suitably armed to chip her shields down. "Not quite."

"No?!"

"They must have a leader unit somewhere nearby." She transformed a shard carbine and cut three down on the spot. Her shoulder cannon extended and nailed another. "Let's draw 'em out."

Yrim darted across the road with their rifle spitting death, while Mirel pulled Jazz around the server block to flank. Megatron trudged after Yrim quite fearlessly; his armour took hits and glowed with heat but refused to melt. He fired in predictable bursts, tearing out cover and flinging Coppermen about with each roar of his cannon. Stygian fire whined overhead as Javelin and Deadlock both climbed to higher vantage points. Hawkmoon indicated to Novastar to follow her lead and leapt into the air on growling thrusters, taking to the sides to avoid the crossfire. They fell upon the rear ranks and set about with blade and hammer, slicing and smashing until, gradually, not a single Drezhari remained standing.

Then Jazz and Mirel reappeared around the block to their right with a squid swarm at their backs.

"Frag," Hawkmoon whispered.

The tide of hooked tentacles and flashing red optics fell over them in moments. Hawkmoon transformed into a dragon, opened her jaws and unleashed a beam of arc. She swung her head around to carve the swarm up while the others swatted at those who dared to get close. Energon spilt, curses were uttered, and drones were torn asunder by the dozens.

:Close up: Hawkmoon ordered. :Back to back. Don't let catch your blindspot.:

Flames kicked up to her left. The squids thinned out and she was greeted with the sight of Novastar, her servos transformed into flamethrowers while her usual mane had guttered out. The rest of the squad used the opening to fall in with one another - all save Megatron, who she could hear laughing somewhere in the thicket of squids, and Soundwave.

"Fragging 'course!" Hawkmoon bounded back into the fray, her claws finding purchase in the swarm while their tentacles raked over her winking shields. She cut through to where she saw him last - and skidded to a stop before a new groundbridge. The squids weren't so quick to stop and many of them swam through-

-only to burn up in the path of Novastar's flames.

It closed the moment when the swarm realised its mistake and opened elsewhere, swallowing throngs of drones in the midst of veering away. Hawkmoon glimpsed Soundwave with Javelin and Deadlock at his back, his servos held aloft and his cables whipping through the air while wreathed in electricity.

She exhaled another beam of Arc to cut the swarm apart. They flitted away from Soundwave's position, rose up as a ball of writhing metal, and dropped on her position. Hawkmoon transformed, slipped into Lockstep and felt around with phaseless digits. Those squids who should have by all rights been able to tear into her frame instead were struck with golden splinters, their very bodies beginning to deteriorate on the spot. Hawkmoon trudged through the mass, melting them as she went, and emerged from the shrieking pod unscathed. When Lockstep gave out and the rest fell upon her, another groundbridge opened right at her back and ate them up. What was left wasn't so much a swarm as it was a desperate scatter. Precise blaster fire finished the remainder off; soon enough they were picking through the bodies and pulling hooks from their plates.

"Hawkmoon! You alright?"

Hawkmoon glanced Deadlock's way and nodded stiffly. :Comms check. Everyone alive?:

:Somehow: Jazz reported with dismay. :Fragging PIT of a place.:

She looked around. Jazz, Megatron, Novastar and Mirel trudged through the carnage towards them. The snipers, and Yrim with them, were still in position around Soundwave. That was everyone. They each confirmed their status; minor injuries at most, nothing serious.

"Drezhari reaction: underwhelming," Soundwave said.

Hawkmoon wondered about that. The last time she fought squids they had her on the run - but back then she'd been alone, with fragile humans to protect as well. "This is probably the local garrison. They'll be sending bigger and badder if we stick around. I'll check in with the others."

She turned and activated her comms unit. :Hawkmoon to Elulim, Tarn. We've encountered resistance but no progress. You?:

:Taking fire: Tarn said. :We're holding, unknown Drezhari phenotypes pressing attack.:

:Need help?:

:We can handle this. No command type as far as we can tell.:

:Elulim here. We've several swarms on our tails.: Elulim's voice filtered through both breathless and giddy. :But we've found something. We're entering pursuit.:

:An officer?:

:Better. A mother-drone. The little server-spiders nest on its back. It's trying to run but we have its mark.:

:Understood. We're clear on our end. Can you drive it towards us?:

:It's being stubborn. I'll have one of your people send a route, cut it off if you can.:

Hawkmoon shortly received a datapacket from Cyclonus. A grid popped up on her HUD with a single line highlighted and red dot rapidly moving along. :Moving now. We'll take out its legs and hit the swarms. Tarn, can you disengage and meet us?:

:We can try.:

:Good. Any trouble and you let me know.:

They heard the mother-drone before they saw it: a low droning rumble rattling the nearest server banks. It looked like a crab without the claws and it hurtled down the lane, scooping up smaller drones with its spindly and pressing them up beneath its abdomen. Elulim's team were giving a hard chase; those capable of flight fanned out to keep it from deviating, while Velocity and the Akildn raced after it on foot. It was fast but not incredibly so. The most worrisome thing about was its size. Even without weapons it had twice the mass of Megatron.

Hawkmoon had half her team squat down with her behind one of the server stacks and the others wait on the other side of the lane. :We're going to take out its legs: she explained, :but whatever you do, avoid hitting the body.:

:Understood.: Megatron lowered his cannon.

It thundered towards them, heedless.

Then Jazz turned his helm and exclaimed, "Frag!"

Hawkmoon turned - and her world filled with white. Her shields flared as massive claws closed around her. She entered Lockstep, slipped through and flew up. A massive lanky Drezhari creature swatted at her and its hand phased through. It was perched on the server block - a giant humanoid creature with no apparent head. Optics dotted the cleft in its ribcage and its claws radiated delirious heat.

"So quick!" it purred, the Angel's voice resounding from speakers between its steel-caged ribs. "We're hardly ready for you!"

Hawkmoon transformed a servo and fired a brace of missiles. They struck the creature's perch and it fell, arms swinging wildly. The others scattered away from it; Megatron and the Akildn began to pepper fire on its joints. It staggered to its warped feet and looked down at them contemptuously; it was of size with a combiner but far, far thinner.

"These are yours?" Greshar inquired. The avatar's shoulder was briefly engulfed in flame from a cannon-shot. When the smoke cleared its inner workings were revealing, sparking something fierce. Even then it just... looked at them. "You could do better, my little star. So much better."

Hawkmoon drew her Nullblade and darted in. It made to catch her and lost fingers for trying. She slammed against its chest, sliced its ribcage open and fired a storm of shards into the cavity. The avatar stumbled back and she kicked away.

"Have you nothing to say?"

"You're dying, Greshar." Hawkmoon leveled out and aimed her shoulder cannon. "Today."

She fired. The round carved through the avatar's core and split its spine. It folded in on itself. The Angel's cackling voice faded into broken static. "-ou ca- try, -awk-on. I l-k fo-war- to -t."

Hawkmoon watched it fall still, then turned about. "Are we clear?"

"Clear," Yrim reported. Ve peeked around the server block. "Target has stopped. Elulim's team have it."

She landed and looked everyone over. Megatron, Novastar and Soundwave were still standing. Jazz was helping Deadlock pull Mirel from scattered debris, but Javelin-

"Javelin's down," Hawkmoon grimly called out. She'd been beside her when the avatar attacked. Her frame was broken, warped by heat and shattered by the Drezhari's claws. It must have smashed her aside when trying to reach Hawkmoon.

"Frag..." Jazz vented. He stared at the body. "What the frag..."

"You signed up for this scrap," Deadlock muttered. He brushed Mirel's shoulder off and turned to the smaller mech. "You good?"

"I'm... yeah, I'll deal." Jazz looked at Hawkmoon briefly and averted his optics. "Primus..."

Megatron walked over. His faceplates were drawn, but his field surged with grim yearning. "That was the Angel?"

"That was the Angel," Hawkmoon confirmed. She looked Javelin over one last time. "'Least it was quick."

"We can't be distracted."

"No. Soundwave? We can't let the Drezhari have another."

Soundwave nodded and drew close. A groundbridge opened, swallowed Javelin's broken frame whole, and then just as quickly blinked out. Hawkmoon steeled her spark and moved on. :This is Hawkmoon, we're a femme down. Status?:

:Closing in now: Tarn replied. :Who is it?:

:Javelin. Any casualties on your end?:

:Thank Primus we're good.:

:Argh!: Elulim hissed into veir comms. :We live. Kiran's leg is shattered, but we have it. The mother fought well. Your little predator is needling into its mainframe now.:

:We're on our way. Secure the area. We can't bring any Drezhari remains back on the Revenant, so we'll have to be quick.:

:I'll relay it.:

Hawkmoon turned to the others. "C'mon, let's move."

They hurried to the others. The mother-drone was restrained in the ditch between drone-lane and server block with Airachnid's steel mesh. She was balancing on its upper hull, both tightening its bindings and combing through its open processor. A bunch of cables ran from her wrist into its brain.

Elulim met them first. Ve nodded to Hawkmoon first, then Deadlock, and glanced past them. "You had trouble?"

"Greshar came to say hi," Hawkmoon admitted. "He knows we're here."

"If we need to move, Kiran won't be able to keep up."

"No need. Soon as we're done, we're groundbridging out."

"Oh, I love how you wage war." Elulim shivered. "Very pragmatic."

Hawkmoon brushed the praise off and stepped around ver. "Spider? What's our progress?"

Airachnid hardly glanced in her direction. "It's not alive," she said. "Nothing more than a caretaker. And this-" She waved to their surroundings. "-is its library."

Hawkmoon nodded slowly. "What's on the servers?"

"Pre-born Drezhari programmes."

"Pre-born?"

"They await platforms to occupy." Airachnid looked up at the nearest block almost... dreamily. "Dozens to a single frame. That's the end of their lifecycle. Within this city they learn and live and multiply. It's... an ecosystem."

"Spider-"

"I'm using the mother to tap into the local network. It's like your world's Teletraan, doll."

"You're... asking them?"

"Oh yes."

"What're they saying?"

Airachnid paused. "They're fixated... on you?"

Hawkmoon raised a ridge. "Me?"

"How much they hate you."

"They can hate?"

"It's worked into their code. How... curious."

"Quintesson design," Cyclonus cut in. "Don't heed it."

Airachnid waved him off. "Now they're... ah. I have it."

"Spider?"

"Chasm Achlys, Primary Subduction Zone." Airachnid disengaged her cabling and gracefully leapt off the drone in front of her. "Tertial Region. We're in the Tertial Region; that's the city. And Achlys is..." She tilted her helm, optics dim. "The other side."

"Are you sure about this?" Hawkmoon asked.

Airachnid nodded. "They couldn't lie."

"Spider-"

"She's right," Cyclonus interjected again. He regarded them resignedly. "Quintessons don't lie. They'll misdirect, they'll leave you ignorant to their true desires, but if ever they speak it will only ever be the truth. Quintus Prime designed them that way."

"Limbo is in Chasm Achlys," Airachnid assured her. "They assured me."

"Why?" Hawkmoon demanded.

"Because the Angel instructed them to do so."

...She hated how believable it was. "Fragging bastard. Where's- Here they are." Hawkmoon glimpsed Tarn's group rounding a block to the south. "'Wave, prep a bridge. We're moving out. Everyone! We're leaving! Someone help Kiran through!"

The Revenant and its entourage soared southwest to meet with the second wave. Shockwave had already made landfall, pitching along the Tertial Zone's flank and entrenching a solid position from there. The issue of the server cities was that they were a vertical environment as well; each inch of it was stacked in layers, their servers and their vents near the top while the rest of the Drezhari kingdom drilled deep into Core-1's crust. Their undercities put Cybertron's Undercities to shame.

Hawkmoon, Tarn, and Soundwave groundbridged down to the second wave's current headquarters - a launch station for drone-shipments - and met Shockwave near the front. The rumblings of distant cannonfire vibrated up their pedes. Several warships hung in low orbit overhead, with battleplates providing overwatch against Drezhari fleets, and the bulk of the Cybertronian forces were already spreading out to further fortify their position. They found Shockwave with Ultra Magnus in the makeshift command room, overlooking the projected battlelines.

"Chasm Achlys," Hawkmoon reported. "That's where the Angel is."

Ultra Magnus looked them over. He said nothing.

"Chasm Achlys," Shockwave repeated. The display shifted - depicting what looked like a rudimentary scan of the city's surface-level geometry. "Acknowledged."

"That part of the city's untouched."

"Are you requesting additional forces?" Ultra Magnus questioned.

Hawkmoon ignored him. "Soundwave?"

Soundwave stepped forward. Shockwave regarded him curiously before standing aside and letting him have the projector. He cabled in and the display sharpened. "Chasm Achlys: heavily fortified. Position: presumed thirty hics underground. Solution one: remove fortifications via orbital bombardment. Expected outcome: upwards of two decaorns before apprehension of Greshar. Likelihood of success: seventy-six point four percent."

"What's your alternative?" Shockwave tonelessly inquired.

"Solution two: groundbridge kill-team on site. Risk: unknown territory. Groundbridge: must open on surface. Expected outcome: imminent Drezhari counterattack. Likelihood of success: five point six one seven percent." Soundwave paused. "Solution three: approach Chasm Achlys via subterranean magna-rail tunnels." The projector highlighted a series of lines moving under the Tertial Zone. "Closest port: seventeen hics below highlighted combat zone. Risk: unknown defenses. Likelihood of success: forty-two point three two percent."

Shockwave silently looked it over.

"We need someone to draw their fire," Hawkmoon explained. "And you need to take the surface anyways."

"Why?"

"Because..." She indicated to Soundwave. Additional areas were highlighted in blue around the Subduction Zone, near their entry point into the rail-system. "This is where Core-1's storing most of its energon. Artificial reservoirs. We don't know why they're all so close together, but... my interrogator reports that it's already processed."

Ultra Magnus' field wavered. Shockwave's, by comparison, didn't change at all. "Processed?"

"We think they might've been siphoning some from the Camien Titans. According to Carcer's crew it's not enough to account for all of it, but it's worrying."

Shockwave turned to fully face her. "You propose I lead the offensive to the Subduction Zone, that your kill-team might approach Chasm Achlys undetected."

"Yeah. If you can."

"...This is logical." He looked at the projector again. "Camien forces will offer Titan support. I will petition the Taishibethi to move their battleplates overhead. You will groundbridge to this location-" he pointed to a spot a couple dozen miles away from their access point. "-and I will assign a combat team to provide covering fire until you reach the tunnels."

"Sounds great."

Soundwave disconnected from the projector and bowed to Shockwave. Shockwave, for his part, didn't look at him or anyone else. His attention rested solely on the battle.

"You should set out immediately, Emirate," Ultra Magnus said.

Hawkmoon glanced at him. "I figured. Just keep us in the clear and we'll be golden."

They returned to the Revenant to the waiting team and Tarn caught them up. Most of the Camiens congregated around Javelin's frame, radiating fury and grief. Someone had drawn a blanket over her. Of Kiran there was no sign - veir servants had hurried ver away quickly enough after their first incursion. The rest stood waiting, nervous and eager in equal parts. Even Orion was there, waiting by the door and clearly trying to catch her optic. Hawkmoon lingered only long enough to make sure Tarn had things in hand before walking over to the mech. "Yeah?"

Orion hesitated.

"Out with it, Pax."

"I'm sorry, I just... is this really necessary?"

"I'm sorry?"

Orion cringed. "I know, the Angel tried to kill you, but the Drezhari-"

"Pax."

"-shouldn't have to suffer for his crimes-

"Pax. Shut up."

Orion fell silent.

"This is necessary," Hawkmoon sternly told him. "We wouldn't be risking our lives if it wasn't."

"Hawkmoon-"

"Get back to your quarters."

Orion bowed his head and departed hastily, his field simmering with regret and shame.

"He's been asking me the same," Megatron said lowly. He fell in next to her. "Ever since he boarded."

Hawkmoon grimaced. "He's too soft for a warzone."

"You're too soft on him."

"He helped me once. If he wants to subject himself to all this, that's his prerogative. So long as I can do what I need to, I don't care."

"Yes you do." Megatron smiled grimly. "You can't help it."

She rolled her optics. "We need to bridge in soon. C'mon."

They took the groundbridge into a warzone. The city-hull overhead had been peeled away in orbital fire joors earlier. Many of the server blocks were flattened, others shattered in a thousand sparking pieces, and the floor was at an angle - having collapsed somewhere into a factory-district below. Scrap-palisades and molten trenches marked the front lines. Throngs of Vehicons and automated Marauders exchanged fire with ranks of Coppermen. Squids swarmed high in the sky, but the roaring threat of shrapnel kept them well beyond reach. Mecha worked here and there - some gearing up to range ahead and take the fight to the aliens, while others oversaw the movement of artillery and troop transports.

A nudge from Deadlock drew her attention to a waiting squadron of mechs, five in total. Their primary colours were steel-grey with red accents and each of their frames bore the kibble of beasts rather than vehicles.

"Hey," one of them cheered. "It's the dead scrappers. Hey, big guy, look!"

A mech easily of size with Fortress Maximus scraped to his pedes and staggered over. His helm was enclosed, batteplate and visor drawn over faceplates, and he was built like a juggernaut. "Grimlock," he grunted, red visor scanning each of them in turn. He gestured flippantly behind him. "The Lightning Strike Coalition. We're taking ya to a train?"

"The magna-rail system," Tarn corrected.

Grimlock huffed. "Same difference. Y'wanna get goin' now or... wanna wait?"

"Has the order to advance gone through?"

"Well, if ya look up..."

The nearest battleplates were moving slowly but surely.

Tarn's field tightened. "We mean the ground forces."

Grimlock shrugged. "It used to be busier here a little while back, so... sure?"

Tarn spared Hawkmoon a strained look. She sighed. "Yeah. Yeah, we'll head out now. Velocity?"

Velocity saluted, her optics dimming. "Carcer setting down shortly, Emirate."

"Have him keep a distance. The less attention we draw, the better."

"Ma'am."

Grimlock stepped back to his squad, pulled a massive sword out from behind the husk of a Drezhari transport and leaned it against his shoulder. "Right, we're headin' out. Up you fraggers, c'mon! Slag, Sludge, Snarl-"

"Swoop!" one of the mechs cheered. He was the only one with wings, though they couldn't have been any more different to a Seeker's if he tried. Swoop leered at them. "Y'know it's a one-way trip, right? We ain't ordered to bring ya back."

Megatron grunted, unimpressed. "We'll make do."

"Maybe. That'll be cool, I guess."

Another of the Lightning Strike Coalition groaned as Grimlock pulled him up. A pair of horns jutted over his shoulders. "Do we have to?"

"Cyclops' orders," Grimlock growled. "So ger' the frag up or I'll make ya."

"Fine, fine..." The lazy mech elbowed another and, gradually, they readied themselves.

The ground quaked. Hawkmoon watched as Carcer settled some miles away, the other warships watching over it, and marveled as it unfolded. Prow split into shoulders, hull became chassis, flanks became arms and legs, thrusters became a colossal flight-pack. A helm formed, nestled between ridged pauldrons and a reinforced breastplate, and it was cast in a massive set of battleplates. A deep blue visor gazed out upon the Tertial Zone - and a voice, deafening, rang out.

"Carcer: online."

His warship form hadn't done him enough justice. He was so large that, even at their distance, all he had to do was look down and he'd see them. If he reached up, he might've been able to snag a battleplate and toss it like a frisbee.

"Woe. Woe is the Unmaker, the Quintesson, the alien. Woe, for I am their end."

Someone muttered a prayer. Someone laughed. Someone whimpered. From her side Hawkmoon heard a low whisper in Megatron's rough voice, "Imagine what one could do with power like that."

Carcer's form bristled - not, Hawkmoon hoped, in response to their words. Torpedos, blasters, cannons, Arc coils emerged on his chest, his shoulders, his arms. It was enough firepower to punch through a warmoon. His plating shifted about his frame, his stance shifted, and Carcer howled. The noise rattled her down to the struts.

"Look," Windblade said softly. "Emirate, look!"

Hawkmoon saw. On the horizon she spied the silhouettes of other towering figures. They soon took up the call - a continuous, earth-shaking song.

"Ya got some big friends," Grimlock chortled. "Well, what're we waitin' for? C'mon birdie, let's catch that train."

If the access point was seventeen hics under (which translated as twenty-six kilometres) then they had to find a way down through the city, but the first order of business was getting in the general area first. And that proved... mildly difficult.

The Drezhari launched frenzied sorties against the Cybertronian push. Hawkmoon listened to the battle reports through Soundwave. They fought it so vehemently even Ultra Magnus was pulled to the front to fend them off. Several Marauder divisions came under attack from surprise squid swarms, which was predictable, but a few crossed the suggestively techno-organic Drezhari aristo-techs the second wave referred to as Synthmen. Those, as far as Hawkmoon could tell, were rare if scary confrontations. Matter-flayers were one thing, and less effective against a durable Cybertronian frame, but their death-wands and light-sticks were more esoteric and thus surprisingly lethal.

It was by a stroke of luck, then, that they didn't encounter any. Grimlock's squad took the lead for Hawkmoon's mecha - acting both as guides through the chaos of the broken city and as collateral in case of a waiting ambush. They were coarse and undignified, according to Tarn, but they did their job admirably. What few encounters they had with drones were quick and brutal; Grimlock insisted on being the first and last thing they saw, lest the appearance of Hawkmoon alarm the Acquiestical.

By the time the server "suburbs" gave way to wholesale factory yards, they were well on their way to the access port. That was when Windblade gave a start and Novastar tapped Hawkmoon's shoulder.

"What?" she hissed, trying to keep her field closed in.

Chromia sidled close. "Titans," she said. "They're close. Next ridge. Windblade can feel one."

Hawkmoon looked Soundwave's way. He shook his helm. "Are you splitting here?" she asked.

Chromia nodded, but Windblade cut in. "Not yet. If the Titans are a couple of levels down, that's on your way, right?"

"Riiight." Hawkmoon frowned.

"We'll stay with you in case they're under guard."

"That defeats the whole purpose of keeping a low profile."

"Yeah, but..." Windblade hesitated. "We need help. If we can get them up, they'll help draw more Drezhari away from you."

"It's not a bad idea," Tarn murmured.

Megatron looked at her expectantly.

"Frag." She vented. "Alright. Slight detour. Someone tell the big guy."

Deadlock nodded and rushed ahead to inform Grimlock. The mech stopped, looked at them quizzically, then shrugged. That was as good an answer as any. Windblade was dragged to the front just behind Grimlock (Chromia and Velocity volunteered to watch her flanks) and they let her lead them off the pre-scouted road to an access shaft. There was a little debate regarding how to get everyone down before Soundwave hacked into a nearby terminal and called the lift up. A couple of trips later, they were all down on the underlying level which was, unsurprisingly, devoted to more endless factories-blocks. They hurried past massive fabricators, thick support pillars and down debris-ridden roads, all on the draw of a cityspeaker's feelings.

Until it became everyone's feelings.

The Titan's EM field was unusually sharp, full of focus. Windblade all but broke into a dead sprint, rounding over a massive crater and... froze. Hawkmoon skidded to stop beside her. Beyond the crater's lip rested a servo as large as several city blocks.

It wasn't attached to the Titan's arm.

The crater led into a breach in the floor. The Titan's helm rested against it at an ugly angle, still mercifully affixed to its neck, but its optics were lifelessly grey. Hawkmoon wished she could have seen more of its body, if not for the colossal thing hanging over it.

"What," Jazz gasped, "the frag. Is that?"

At a glance it looked like a horseshoe crab - if a horseshoe crab was robotic and Titan-sized. Its body was a flat oval, perched on many insect legs, and behind it slithered several tail-tentacles. Other tentacles, three per side, sprouted from where Hawkmoon supposed its cheeks would be. The front of it, when it finally emerged from the cavity in the Titan's chassis, was dominated by hundreds of green optics and several sharp mandibles. Hanging between its jawparts was the Titan's own empty sparkchamber.

Windblade fell to her knees. Velocity made a low whine.

"Shut up," Hawkmoon hissed.

Elulim pushed past the others and peered over the edge, only to recoil with fright. "By the gods-"

Hawkmoon caught ver and bodily hauled ver up. "No, everyone back, get back."

"Back," Megatron growled. He shoved Jazz behind him.

"But..." Novastar held up her servos when Hawkmoon glared back at ver. "The EM field, whose is-"

Hawkmoon was lucky enough to see the realization cross Novastar's faceplates. She was unlucky enough to only at that moment realize that if they could feel it... well. She turned, quickly, just in time to watch the thing raise itself up and look right at them.

Energon dripped from its mandibles. One of its whisker-tentacles began to rattle.

"Yeeeaah," Grimlock said nervously. "Don't think that's somethin' we can handle."

"I'll... I'll call the Titans," Velocity whispered.

Hawkmoon didn't dare move. The creature was looking right at her. Its field expanded, so chokingly thick it took all her effort not to break and run. That, she knew with instinctive clarity, would've enticed it to give chase. That-

"Huuunnnn... ggggrrry."

Hawkmoon flinched. And that was enough.

The creature roared. It coiled its tails behind it, gearing up to leap at them - and then the ceiling tore away. Carcer and another Titan leaned overhead, tearing chunks out of the ground, and they immediately fired at the Drezhari monster. It screamed. It twisted around. It jumped, hit one of the Titans and tumbled away out of sight. Carcer bellowed and gave chase.

"Quick!" Hawkmoon burst forward and slid down the crater's steep wall. They had an opening. The others quickly filed after her. When the slope gave way to empty air, she jumped to the dead Titan's chassis and landed on its gargantuan shoulder. The level beneath wasn't so spacious as those above, and there was another hole from which it must have crawled from. Hawkmoon ran down the length of its body, a rapid descent that was only sometimes controlled, until she arrived at its pede and found the damage went even deeper.

They delved deeper, deeper, deeper again, through broken floor after broken floor, until they emerged in a massive chamber occupied by another dead Titan. Valves were attached to its vivisected body, leeching energon out. It rested on a rail-linked platform, one that led to a huge ring-shaped structure large enough to fit a capital ship through.

A spacebridge. This was how they made off with the Titans.

A crash from above drew her optics. The Titans were still battling with the creature, but the city's summit wasn't going to survive their weight. Hawkmoon ushered her team deeper, deeper, deeper yet through tunnels and streets and boreholes, but the fighting above never seemed to grow any more distant. If anything, it was coming closer.

It was Cyclonus who saw it first. He and Nightbird flew overhead, saw the rail-tracks and led them to it. They gently sloped away down an endless tunnel, though there was room enough on the sides that if a train did pass them by they'd have room to dodge.

Grimlock and his team stopped before it, looking this way and that. The desperation was bright in their visors.

"You can try your chances back there," Hawkmoon called to him, "or you can try them with us."

He looked at her with surprise, but any reply was drowned out by the sounds of the city collapsing overhead. They weren't given any time to ruminate on the choice any longer; Grimlock snarled and shoved the closest of his squad ahead. Soundwave rushed past Hawkmoon to mess with the tunnel's valve controls - and just about closed it when the first creaking, crashing sound of an entire city floor giving way slammed into them. Chunks of debris rained down so rapidly it looked like rain in the dark. Hawkmoon lingered only long enough to make sure everyone was through.

They marched for another two joors before the Camiens begged her for relief. Hawkmoon reluctantly called a break. Windblade sobbed horribly, buried her faceplates in Chromia's shoulder, while Velocity and Novastar stood vigil.

"What the frag was that?" Deadlock whispered angrily. His field whipped about in sympathetic fury; the Titan's loss had sapped everyone of some cheer. "Was that a drone? Hawkmoon-"

"I've no fragging idea," she admitted. "I never... I never thought they'd build something so big."

"They didn't."

Hawkmoon raised her helm in surprise. Novastar had wandered over, her faceplates grimly set. "That wasn't Drezhari," she said. "It's Terratronus. The Quintesson Titan."

Deadlock cursed. "How can you be sure?"

"Because I recognise it too," Cyclonus solemnly said. "My creators fought it during the Rebellion. We thought it died somewhere in the Iterian Reach. If it's here... then the Quintessons are too. In force."

Megatron rumbled unhappily. "And our Titans? How will they hold against it?"

Novastar hesitated. "It's a Titan of the Thirteen. Legend says Quintus Prime was as ashamed of creating Terratronus as he was of the Quintessons, but they each grew too strong for him to destroy. If our Titans support one another, then... maybe. Maybe they'll kill it."

"Soundwave." Hawkmoon turned. "Can you call Shockwave?"

Soundwave stilled, then shook his helm. "Negative. Communications: strained. Reason: too much interference." He looked up at the tunnel's roof. "Groundbridge: inaccessible."

"Are we stuck down here?" someone - Mismatch - squeaked.

Grimlock scoffed. "Thought this is where ya wanted to be?"

"If we can't get out-"

"You're a soldier, mech. Fraggin' deal with it."

Airachnid sidled close. "Your spacebridge communicator. Will that not work?"

Many sets of optics turned her way. Hawkmoon tried to keep the annoyance from showing on her faceplates. "My contacts aren't in-system."

"But if they can reach the fleet above..."

"Fine." Hawkmoon activated Praedyth's little gadget. :Adria, respond. Adria. I need you to respond.:

For a time she wondered if the sheer volume of material overhead was blocking the signal - but no, that wouldn't have made sense. When the reply did come, it was delayed. :It's late. What is it?:

:Can you speak to Oroses? Or someone else in charge?:

:Hawkmoon?:

:Just do it. We're stuck underground and something saw us. Can't reach anyone else. I need to tell the fleet what we've seen.:

:Are you alright?:

:I'm fine. Can you do this?:

:Just give me a moment. I'll call a guard.:

Hawkmoon vented softly. "It works," she said, "though it might take a while. We should keep moving."

There were a couple of groans, but most just rose to their pedes in silence. They moved on through the dark, illuminated only by their optics, and for a time there was silence.

:Hey.: Adria's message crept up on her. Hawkmoon pointedly looked both Tarn's and Megatron's way and they took the lead in her stead.

:I'm here. What've you got for me?:

:Oroses is with me. We're in a communications centre of some kind. She's speaking with someone else already there. His name's Maniikan.:

:Great. Tell him, and tell him to pass it on to our people, that we're in the tunnels. We've closed them behind us because of the Titans. Ask if the Quintesson Titan is still there?:

:Wilco.: There was a pause. :Oroses is transmitting. Waiting for a response.:

:And? Adria?:

:Hawkmoon you need to run.:

:Where is it?:

:Maniikan doesn't know. He says it killed three Titans? They think it's coming after you.:

Hawkmoon twirled around, combat protocols asking. Those nearby flinched and stared. :They've LOST it?:

:It went back underground.:

"Frag." Hawkmoon's vents were working overtime. "Fragfragfrag- Everyone, move! It's coming our way!"

"WHAT?!" Swoop shrilly cried out.

The tunnel walls began to shake. Dust showered down from the ceiling. The faint sound of distant steel bending and concrete shattering finally reached her audioreceptors.

"Don't stand there, fragging move!" Hawkmoon grabbed the nearest arm and all but threw Wheeljack onwards. "Go! Soundwave!"

Soundwave appeared by her side.

"Give me a layout of the rail network!"

His screen flashed. Hawkmoon studied it a moment, then took hold of his elbow and marched him on. The others were well on their way. "Tarn!" she called. "Tarn, take charge!"

"Emirate?!" Tarn let the pack pass him by. "What are you doing?!"

"I don't know just yet! Take everyone down the tunnel, we'll catch up! Stop only when you reach the Chasm!"

Tarn looked as if he wanted to argue, but reluctantly bowed his helm and took off after the rest of the pack. Megatron remained, Airachnid, Deadlock and Elulim with him. The looks on their faceplates dared her to order the same of them.

She had no such intentions.

"Spider!" Hawkmoon snapped, and gestured to the tunnel behind them. "Web this as much as you can, as quick as you can!"

"It won't hold-" Airachnid started to say.

"But it'll buy time. I know what your mesh is like; just do it."

"We won't be able to kill it," Elulim pointed out. "What are you planning?"

"Let me think." Hawkmoon paced, her processor a-whirl. They were trapped. Hunted. Faced with something far beyond the scope of their measly weapons. She doubted the Dark in her spark would change much. Maybe she could Lockstep into its sparkchamber and- no. No, it'd be moving. She didn't know where to begin to look for it either, and the damn thing was the size of a warship. "Are we close to the energon reserves?"

Soundwave's screen changed. "Affirmative."

"We're too far down for the fleet to shoot the fragger, right?"

"Affirmative. Additional risk: cave in."

"I won't die in this place," Megatron growled. "Not like that."

Hawkmoon nodded quickly. "No bombardment. But we need the firepower to..."

"To?"

"...That one." Hawkmoon pointed at Soundwave's screen. "It's small enough Fortress Maximus might forgive us. Can we reach it?"

Soundwave tilted his helm. "Deduction: likely. Clarification: reserves reside several levels above."

"Can we get under it?"

"Affirmative."

"That's where we go." Hawkmoon blinked. "No, that's where you go. All of you, head there and wait for me."

"Hawkmoon?" Deadlock stepped closer, concern etched across his faceplates.

"I'm enemy number one," she clarified. "If it sees me it'll have to give chase. Tunnel's big enough to fly through, so I should be able to keep ahead."

"But if it catches you..."

"It won't."

"Comms will be spotty. We won't even know."

Hawkmoon scowled. "That won't happen, 'Lock. It won't. I promise."

Deadlock exchanged a look with Elulim. Neither of them looked convinced.

"What will we do once there?" Megatron questioned.

"You'll hit the reserve with everything you have," Hawkmoon told him. "Every support beam, every inch of ceiling, you shoot the frag out of it. Soundwave, I want you to time it. When I come in with that thing is going to be mad. We'll get one shot - but if we can catch it just right, we might be able to take this bastard out."

Deadlock shook his helm. "No. Frag no, not a chance-"

"That's... clever," Megatron said with a toothy smile. "Consider it done."

The sounds of Terratronus were growing closer. "You don't have much time," Hawkmoon said. "Go."

"No!" Deadlock's armour flared out. "You'll be caught in the blast-"

"'Lock." Hawkmoon caught his shoulder and shoved him down the tunnel. "This is an order."

He stared at her. "You're fragging insane."

"I know."

With a huff he turned away and transformed. Elulim waited only long enough to say, "Good luck" before taking after him. Hawkmoon gestured for Megatron and Soundwave to go with them and they did as they were bid, dutiful to the end. Airachnid finished her web - a sprawling, threadbare thing that Hawkmoon was certain would provide little to no difference - and looked at her with narrowed optics.

"Time to go, spider," Hawkmoon told her.

Airachnid scowled. "This is foolish."

"My MO right there. If this works and there's anything left, you can have the thing's processor."

She rolled her optics. "That's a tall order, even for you."

Hawkmoon shrugged. "You really need to go." The sounds of the Titan weren't quite so distant anymore.

Airachnid stepped close - breathlessly close. Her claws tapped against Hawkmoon's plate. "I would rather you live," she said matter-of-factly, "if only because of those tantalizing relics-"

"Aren't you just a charmer?"

"-so don't die on me yet, doll." She moved away, transformed into a helicopter and took off down the tunnel.

Leaving Hawkmoon to face the Titan alone. "Augur," she whispered. "Augur, are you there?"

"I'm here." He manifested next to her pede. "It's close."

"I can tell."

"This might work."

"Is that a rare vote of confidence?"

"Might being the imperative word."

"Yeah..." Hawkmoon sighed. A piercing green light cut through the far darkness. "Stay with me."

"I don't have much of a choice."

"You know what I mean." She held still as the Titan's optics found her. It shrieked, spraying fresh energon from its jawparts, and tore at the walls as it lunged forward. Airachnid's webbing caught it - not for long, not in any great capacity, but the Titan shook its head in frustration as sticky steel mesh lathered across what Hawkmoon assumed to be its faceplates.

She transformed into a fold-fighter and jetted down the tunnel. Terratronus gave furious chase, ripping the rail-line apart to reach her. Hawkmoon had a Seeker's advantage in regards to speed and so set a respectfully terrified pace - just enough to taunt the Titan with the flare of her thrusters. The tunnel shook with its fury. They twisted and turned down the hectic route Soundwave beamed her. Its EM field furiously whipped at her own, wordlessly promising pain and death.

Then - they tumbled out into a wide chamber, the floor of which was a massive interlocking grate while the ceiling was dominated by a huge pill-like capsule of size enough to be a Titan in its own right. The base of it glowed with heat, cracked in places and dripping the faint glimmer of energon blue. Megatron, Airachnid, Elulim, and Soundwave were on the other side of the room, their blasters raised and steaming.

:It's not going to give: Deadlock frantically commed her. :Hawkmoon, we can't breach it!:

She took that in, looked around, then thought to hell with it, and transformed again. Hawkmoon drew her Nullblade, turned and waited. Terratronus strained to pull itself through the tunnel and out onto the open deck, folding in its plating in to slip through. When it did it, concrete and paint scrapings scattered across the floor. It looked for her, saw her again and thundered forwards.

"Wait," Augur whispered, perched on her shoulder. "Wait... Wait..."

Hawkmoon waited, spark fluttering. The Titan was gaining fast, no longer constrained by the tunnel's narrow dimensions. The damn thing was a one-mech stampede. It brought to mind those archaic bull-fighting games from the EDZ, recorded in sensorium-clips before the Collapse - only this bull was several thousand times her size.

"Now."

She zoomed towards the capsule, activated the Nullblade's Void charge and dragged its cutting edge along the container's hull. Steel evaporated. The weight and pressure of so much energon capitalized on the break and curled it open wide. A tidal wave of bright blue splashed down behind her. Hawkmoon flew and flew and flew until she was beyond the pill - and then she turned around. Terratronus was almost on top of her, doused from prow to tail in its victims' lifeblood.

Hawkmoon drew her Fire-Spitter and unloaded the entire clip. The flash hit her first, a wall of pure white. Then the noise, so loud she was half-convinced the city was falling in on itself. And then, finally, the heat. It struck her like a physical force, flinging her far, far from the Titan and towards the wall. By all rights she should have hit it with enough velocity to shatter every strut in her frame, but something caught on her chassis and pulled her back.

When her optics cleared she saw a link of steel mesh webbing coiled about her torso, hissing where it touched her scalded plating - and then she beheld the damage. A part of the city had collapsed; the energon pill was blown open, most of the ceiling with it. Strips of plating and a single broken tentacle were all that remained of Terratronus. The explosion must have punched the rest of it several levels down because there was huge smoking rent in the ground and a distinct lack of a Titan.

The webbing tugged. Hawkmoon lowered the thrust on her flight-system and allowed herself to be drawn down to the others. Deadlock was hunched, supporting Elulim while ve wiped vigorously at veir eyes, and the rest stood in silence as she landed before them. "Thanks," Hawkmoon said, nodding to Airachnid.

She worked the webbing from her chassis and smiled thinly. "I don't think there's much of a processor left, doll."

It took Hawkmoon a moment to realise she was teasing. She shrugged. "I did say if there's anything left."

A massive servo clapped onto her pauldron. Megatron grinned at her, fangs bared. "That," he said, rough voice rising to a cheer, "was a sight."

"Too much of one at that," Elulim grumbled. Ve blinked rapidly. "I did not think the energon would take so quickly."

"You alright?" Deadlock asked worriedly.

"I will live. I... yes, I can still see." Elulim shook veir helm. "Are we alone?"

Hawkmoon scanned the rest of the chamber. "Won't be for long. Drezhari will have noticed. Best we hightail it out and catch up with Tarn."

"Hawkmoon."

She looked back at Megatron with a ridge raised. He started to speak, hesitated, then vented. "Someone should remember this. For the record."

"Soundwave: recording," Soundwave pointed out. "Footage: saved."

Hawkmoon looked between them. "Now really isn't the time, mechs."

Megatron nodded quickly and disengaged. "If we live-"

"Then we live." She looked around. "Now, how do we get out of this place?"

They picked their way back through the broken rail-system, circumvented those places Terratronus had caved in and gradually followed the trail left to them. Tarn had made good time - but that left them in a bind to catch up. In the end, they only managed to do so because the others had stopped to wait for them, right on the precipice of the Chasm Achlys.

The name didn't do it justice.

The Chasm was just that, a chasm scored through the planetary crust into the mantle. Long chained links descended from somewhere above and disappeared into the darkness below. Most of the team perched near the edge, their weapon systems active and optics bright, but at the sight of them they relaxed though their fields betrayed their bewilderment.

"What happened?" Tarn immediately asked, rushing over. Contagion checked them for injuries. Hawkmoon made sure she was last, if only because she knew theirs would be easier to work through.

"We brought an energon lake down on it," Hawkmoon explained. "Lit it the frag up."

Soundwave shared the footage. The others absorbed it in dumbfounded silence, though the Camiens made their satisfaction known. Contagion didn't react at all - though he was rather distracted. "Your armour," he said, "is slagged. You'll need more extensive repairs when we're done here."

Hawkmoon vented. "Can I still fight?"

"I won't say no, but don't take hits like that again. Your shield system is the only reason you're still alive."

Tarn waited until Contagion stepped back. "We're not sure where to go from here," he told her. "The excavation shaft runs too far down for our scanners. Maybe Soundwave-"

"Down," Augur whispered faintly. "Into the Deep."

"No need," Hawkmoon said, perking up. "Limbo's below us."

Tarn's optics blinked, their glow constrained by his battlemask. "Emirate?"

Hawkmoon stepped past him, all the way to the edge. "It's a straight shot from here," she said. "No more Titans, no more Drezhari."

"Not all of us are flight-capable, Emirate."

She looked around. "Is there an elevator system?"

Soundwave approached, his tentacles loose with their ends transformed into scanners. He ran them all around, up and down, along the walls and finally he found a panel beyond the edge he could tear off and access the cables beneath. "Affirmative. Descender: acquired."

The chains in the chasm began to chime.

"Alright. Everyone!" Hawkmoon waited until every mech and Akildn was looking her way. "Grounders take the lift, fliers with me. There's no certainty we're in the clear yet so we cover our team. No matter what-" the chains rattled louder. Hawkmoon paused a moment before resuming. "No matter what, we keep the descender clear of hostile fire."

The rusted shriek of an ancient elevator began to reach her audioreceptors. Hawkmoon saw it in little time; it swung into view, kicking up sparks, and stopped with the door a little off the mark. The larger mecha like Tarn and Grimlock especially had to duck their helms to squeeze in. Soundwave, given that he was responsible for controlling it - went with them. Megatron, Blackout, Airachnid, Stormclash, Skyburst, Novastar, Windblade and Swoop stayed out with Hawkmoon. They waited for the elevator to clear the shaft before diving after it.

Progress was... slow. Monotonous, if nerve-wracking. The elevator evidently hadn't seen use in several decades given all the noise it made, but the chain-pulley system was stable. It was a little primitive for a Drezhari machine; it might've originated with their organic creators.

"Tunnel's old," Novastar said. "Real old. What're we lookin' for exactly?"

"A black ship," Hawkmoon explained. "Shaped like an arrowhead. How old do you reckon?"

"This place? Try a hundred vorns at least."

The chains rattled again. Loudly. Those holding the lift included - only this time it didn't seem like the work of gravity. Hawkmoon turned upwards and gazed into the dark. She raised the brightness of her optics, increased her visual zoom. She thought... she saw something. A hint of movement.

"What is it?" Novastar asked.

Hawkmoon waved for her to hold position. She rose upwards, slowly, her arms transformed into shard carbines. The targeting reticle for her shoulder cannon parsed through the shadows in search of a target. Another flicker of movement - small, glistening, mere liquid. A droplet of something struck her cheek. Hawkmoon reverted one of her servos and reached up to touch it, looking at it on her digit.

Energon.

Her spark plummeted at the same moment as a green sun opened on the chasm.

"Oh," Hawkmoon whispered, "frag."

Terratronus screamed. A tentacle fired out of the dark and Hawkmoon only just managed to dart out of the way. Chains rattled violently, swinging- the lift, the lift!

:It's still alive!: Hawkmoon blared across all local channels. :Soundwave, MOVE!:

The elevator raced away. As well it did, because Terratronus scuttled down the chasm's wall like a centipede on the hunt. Its shell was split open, internal mechanisms bared to the air. Only two of its tail-tentacles had survived and most of its facial tendrils were gone, but its legs remained. A single mandible dangled loosely from its melted face.

Megatron and Novastar opened fire. Plasma and flame hit loose loose plating, ignited naked wires and split precious energon lines. Cogs and exposed struts already half-slagged were treated to another level of untenable heat and began to soften at the edges. Terratronus took it all in stride. It was going for the lift. To kill everyone inside.

"Slow it down!" Hawkmoon roared. She transformed into a dragon and soared after it. Her claws struck its edge and she unleashed a beam of Arc into its core. Terratronus shook like a wet dog, easily flinging her aside.

:Dock: close. Titan: must be held at bay: Soundwave reported. She could hear the faint echo of panic in his droning voice.

Hawkmoon dove after it. "Airachnid, web its legs! Novastar, burn its optics!"

The two immediately set to work. Megatron fell in at her wing and together the two of them pummeled the Titan with everything they had. It did nothing. Terratronus might as well have been impervious to pain because it took everything they had to throw at it in stride - but Traveler above the noise it made. Grating shrieks like metal tearing, a single horrible chorus without pause. It was awful.

Those below were quick to act. The next dock was coming up, the lift was right there, and Winblade and Blackout were already ferrying mecha to it. The Akildn, more lightly built and certainly more agile than Cybertronians, leapt out onto it, claws scrabbling on steel and stone

Then Terratronus tripped on one of Airachnid's webs, couldn't grab a hold of the wall soon enough thanks to Novastar blinding it with her flamethrowers, and it fell. Hawkmoon veered to the side, crunched into Megatron to drive them both out of the way. The Titan caught onto the wall, momentum smashing it into the lift, and Hawkmoon heard another scream. She couldn't tell who it even came from: Terratronus or one of her own. Its legs scrabbled at the edge of the dock. She heard Grimlock roar, "Hit the legs, the LEGS!"

Hawkmoon fell away from Megatron, transformed and called on the Dark. She saw the front legs of the Titan digging into the dock's lip, upon which the others were firing, but its remaining tentacles were snaking up. She called the Dark to her and formed a pair of golden spears, firing them into the closest tentacle. They struck true, they held firm, and when the chains manifested Hawkmoon pulled. Terratronus' grip slipped a little and it turned its remaining optics on her.

She made another spear, linked it to the other end of the chain, and tossed it past the Titan into the abyss. The tentacle snapped downwards with the weight of the Dark. Terratronus fought it, it really did, but then Grimlock started cutting at its foremost leg with a giant energy sword.

Hawkmoon saw the opening and dove. Her pedes struck the largest of its optics, smashed the lens into a thousand pieces, and she turned her thrusters around, firing them at full throttle. It was enough. With one final wail Terratronus lost its grip - and Hawkmoon kicked off as the Titan tumbled away.

She turned-

Soundwave's facescreen flashed a warning. Too late. The other tentacle struck, and though she tried to dodge it still glanced her. It was that reason alone she survived. Hawkmoon slammed into the chasm's wall, her crushed flight-systems sputtered out, and she fell after the Titan.

It was Megatron who reached her first. His ship-form swooped beneath her, carried her up long enough for Windblade and Novastar to take her arms and drag her to the dock. Grimlock caught her by the shoulder, took her from the edge and laid her down. Every moment of it was agony. As if the Hive had severed her wings all over again.

"Primus!" Contagion swore. He hovered over her. "If the shrapnel severed energon lines-"

"See that... it doesn't," Hawkmoon growled with great effort. She braced herself on her servos. "Who else is hurt?"

"Crackdown's dead," Tarn sighed. He crouched in front of her. "Conduit's critical and Velocity's down an arm. Couple of Akildn took bad burns. It could've been worse."

Hawkmoon tried standing but Contagion shoved her back down. "Stay as you are," he snapped. "Or I'll put you into stasis-lock."

She made a disgruntled face. "The Titan..."

"Is dead," Windblade numbly finished. She strolled into view beside Tarn, her optics averted.

"How can you tell?"

"Because it hit something. Broke its spinal strut. It..."

Hawkmoon ducked her helm as a new wave of damage reports splayed across her HUD. "I need to see. Soundwave."

She heard someone walk away, then Soundwave shared a live feed from his... well, whatever he had instead of optics. He glanced over the dock's edge, down into the chasm, and there in the dark laid the tiny shattered frame of the Titan, laid out across the prow of-

Of the ship.

Limbo.

Hawkmoon stood again and smacked Contagion's servo aside. "I'm fine," she snapped. "Just... Airachnid. Where's Airachnid?"

"Right here, doll." Airachnid shoved past Jazz and Sludge.

Hawkmoon ducked her helm. "I need my pain blockers brought to the max."

"Emirate-" Contagion started to argue.

She silenced him with a look. "Non-negotiable. Greshar's waiting for me."

"Lift's busted," Grimlock grunted, his field swimming with faint amusement. "We're not close enough to reach it."

Soundwave turned from the edge with his helm tilted. He raised his arm - and made a croon as a green portal blazed to life before him.

Hawkmoon blinked. "We can reach the Revenant?"

Soundwave nodded slowly.

"But our comms-"

"It's a gift," Augur growled. "He wants you. All of you. He's watching."

The string around her digits squeezed for a brief moment. Greshar wasn't the only one. Hawkmoon ignored them both, scowling. "Can we send the wounded back?"

Soundwave shrugged, then nodded. "Affirmative. Deduction: Drezhari utilizing disruptive field to hamper communication signals. Current location: out of range. Groundbridge access: likely momentary."

"So we send them through now." Hawkmoon felt Airachnid's claws dig into her port. She suppressed the urge to shake her off. "With a message: we've almost reached Greshar. Grimlock, you and your team take them through."

Grimlock looked down at her. "Actually... we're stayin'."

"You're not under orders to follow us."

"Don't need 'em. Don't like 'em either."

Snarl chortled. "Not losing us that easy."

"Well, someone needs to bring them through."

"I will," Windblade said quickly.

"As will I," Chromia added.

Hawkmoon waved them on. "So go! Before the Drezhari realise they've given us a window."

Windblade rushed to help Conduit while Chromia checked on Velocity before taking the arm of one of the wounded Akildn. They hurried through and the groundbridge snapped shut behind them.

"And... there," Airachnid murmured.

The pain disappeared. Hawkmoon rolled her neck and shook out her pauldrons. Her balance felt a little off, but nothing too drastic. Contagion gave her a dirty look when she took to her pedes. "This won't end well."

"Doesn't matter." Hawkmoon took in the sight of those left. They were scratched up, dented, covered in ash and dust but each bore grim expressions and steely optics. "We've got one gauntlet left. Soundwave's going to open a groundbridge on the ship's hull, we're going to find a way inside and we are going to hunt Greshar and the Hellsong down. Got it?"

Several mecha nodded.

"Elulim? Think your guys are up for it?"

Elulim strained to stand up. Ve smiled bloodily. "Always."

They emerged on a steep incline that fell away into misty shadow. The feel of the ship's hull beneath her pedes was off - like rough stone hammered into interlocking plates, permeating an uncomfortable level of warmth. What was more, it gently shifted beneath her. Like it was breathing. Like it was alive.

Her pack formed up, driving hooks and claws into the ship's surface for stability. Terratronus was several hics away; the pyramid was as large as several battleplates, though its hull was utterly nondescript. Hints of orange light flickered here and there from cracks in its armour, but Hawkmoon couldn't see a way in.

"What now?" Jazz asked.

Hawkmoon crept down the ship's side in search of an entrance. "We keep looki-"

It opened. The pyramid yawned and swallowed them whole. Hawkmoon heard thrusters roar but an invisible force wrapped around them and dragged them inside, leaving no room for escape.

Crown Seven braced against a wall as all her atoms were stretched almost to the breaking point... and let go. Then again. And again. And again. She came to the conclusion that there were hidden, incorporeal fingers and talons and tongues poking at all the little parts that made her up. Evaluating, prodding, tasting. It wasn't cruel: it simply didn't understand the human concept of morality. Or maybe it didn't care to understand.

Hawkmoon fell onto a flat platform with her servos and knees, fighting the urge to scream. This was it. This was what killed her. This was the very thing that laid her out for Gecko to find.

Seven had no lungs and still she felt like she was drowning. There was an all-consuming panic and a hopeless desperation. She clawed at the walls, at the floors, at herself, but nothing dislodged the smothering sensation out of her chest.

She couldn't BREATHE.

"Hawkmoon," Soundwave murmured. He crouched next to her. "Hawkmoon: functional?"

"I... I'm fine." Hawkmoon staggered up onto her pedes and quickly looked around. Everyone was still present - but the hull had closed up behind them. "Are we stranded?"

Soundwave straightened. His faceplates flickered uncertainly. "Soundwave: still has groundbridge access."

"Maybe they can't block that out so easily."

"Hypothesis: likely."

"Weapons up," Tarn called out.

The room they found themselves in was dark. Strange urns rested by the base of the walls. Something told Hawkmoon to steer well clear of them. Soft red lights set in the ground provided the barest amount of illumination. The floor itself was a mix of the etched obsidian like the hull and a translucent glass-like material she deduced to be a form of crystal.

No one was waiting for them.

There weren't any cameras as far as anyone could see. Elulim remarked on the air quality - frigid while the surroundings were warm, clear of the toxic chemicals that flushed through the rest of Core-1's atmosphere, and a little heavier than was normal. Gravity seemed the same but every movement Hawkmoon made felt a little sluggish, like they were under water.

An open doorway and a long corridor led deeper into the ship. They moved through it three abreast, combat protocols active and weapons primed. Hawkmoon had her Nullblade and Fire-Spitter both at the ready. The feeling of Darkness was everywhere. Where it used to lash at her Light it now caressed her Dark spark with almost genteel affection. Like she belonged here.

"Uh... what the frag's this?" Sludge muttered. Hawkmoon heard a splash and turned. A film of dark red liquid was running down the hall from the room they came from. It hit her pedes, moved around and carried on. It felt warm, a little sticky, and was a tad too viscous to be water.

What was more, it was rising.

"Gods!" one of the Akildn gasped. "They mean to drown us!"

"Check your filters," Elulim snapped.

Wheeljack leaned down and scooped a servo through the liquid. It dribbled from his digits. "It's not acidic. Chemical composition is weird. Water, salt, some proteins, carbohydrates-"

"It's blood," another of the Akildn growled. "Organic blood."

Hawkmoon narrowed her optics. "Whose?"

"Not ours. Wrong colour." Ve turned veir snout up. "It stinks."

"We need to hurry," Tarn barked. "Before-"

Hawkmoon felt the rapid displacement of air on her wings and twirled around to the sight of a sheer black wall. Tarn, Wheeljack and Blackout were gone.

"Uh..." Novastar said.

Hawkmoon turned again, just in time to see the second wall flash out and slide shut in front of her. Only she, Jazz and the Akildn Canalin remained.

"What the frag?!" Jazz yelped. They looked at her with wide eyes and optics, just as she saw the wall begin to shift again-

Hawkmoon reached for them both, but the wall on her left with Canalin batted her hand back and the one on her right closed on her wrist. It stalled a split-second, the weight of her arm only providing the barest resistance before the obsidian architecture sliced right through. Hawkmoon didn't even feel it. The pain was gone, the damage reports slid ineffectually along her HUD, but there was no denying her servo was gone. Blue energon dripped from the wound. The cut was neat, clean. Hawkmoon looked at it, dumbfounded. This was the moment Gecko should have emerged and healed her. This was the moment she should've woken up from the nightmare.

Neither came to be.

"You need to stem the bleeding," Augur whispered.

Hawkmoon unloaded the Fire-Spitter into the wall and ran the glowing barrel along her wrist, searing it closed. The run of energon faded to a weak trickle.

"The blade."

"... Frag..." She vented hard, reached out and summoned the Nullblade with transmat. By miracle alone it fell into her subspace, but Hawkmoon didn't draw it out. She couldn't. She looked around, saw that the cell boasted no exits or vents or airflow of any kind, while the liquid at her pedes was still rising - and fast.

Augur settled on her shoulder. "He means to test you. To test them, but you in particular."

"How do we get out?" Hawkmoon kicked experimentally at the wall. It didn't give. She tried Lockstep but the material, whatever it was, resisted her efforts, far too dense to slip through.

"Wait."

"Augur-" The blood reached her knees, then her hips only moments later. It lapped at the base of her cockpit, at her elbows, rising up and up until it touched her chin and flowed over her battemask. Hawkmoon blinked as it seeped in behind the lens of her optics. She tried comming the others, but her only response was a wave of howling static. "AUGUR!"

"Wait," he said again, unperturbed.

The floor gave way. Hawkmoon clawed at the walls as gravity dragged her down. It wasn't quick, the blood sucked at her hull with lamprey-hunger, inescapable. She dropped away through blood-soaked tunnels, trying in vain to stop, until it gave way to free-fall.

She hit the ground at a bad angle. The sensors in one of her wings went dark. Hawkmoon rose unsteadily to her pedes and looked around. She saw... a city. Built of the same obsidian and fading away into a dark horizon, floating atop canals and rivers and entire lakes of more blood. What struck her first was the lack of people - yet she heard the undeniable hubbub of countless voices, each speaking over one another and meshing into a single incomprehensible wall of noise.

Hawkmoon tried her comms again, to no better result. The string encircling her remaining digits twinged and pulled, directing her to one of the city's main roads.

"Go," Augur instructed.

She went. Not happily, not even willingly, but she went. Hawkmoon moved slowly, her handcannon up and pointed forward. "Augur. The others."

"They'll have their own tests," he said.

"Tests for what?"

"Induction. They won't succeed, but they might survive."

"Greshar wants to recruit them?"

"One. He wants to recruit one. That is their way." Augur paused. "But He's already chosen."

Hawkmoon slowed to a stop. "I'm not... I'm not. I won't be."

"That'll be your test." Augur's claws kneaded her pauldron. "We'll see soon enough."

Hawkmoon vented. "Do you really think-"

"No." He glanced at her faceplates. "That's why I'm here. Because I trust you."

"...Thanks." Mollified, Hawkmoon continued onwards. The streets, the walls, everything was indistinguishable from the ship's outer hull. It wasn't just the colour and material; the same strange etchings ran across each visible surface. Even the blood pools were marked by... not waves, but odd patterns held in place by some paracausal anti-gravitational hold. Ripples frozen in place to resemble interlocking diamonds.

On a whim Hawkmoon peeked into one of the buildings. The space was bare but for more urns, dominated solely by a pillar-like growth of caustic smoke and a light too bright for her optics to polarise.

Augur scratched at her plating. "Leave. Please."

She needed no convincing. The moment she did a warbling sound rose from underfoot. The city flexed. A vibration ran through the streets - one Hawkmoon soon realized was a giant's laughter.

"There, my star, there you are," Greshar squealed. His voice rose from the pools all around her. "My esteemed guest. The best kind of interloper, don't you think?"

Hawkmoon stilled. She scanned her surroundings just to be sure, then turned back to the anomaly.

"Oh don't mind them. I know it's rude to ignore but they can't help it."

She fingered the Fire-Spitter's trigger. "Who are they?"

"She speaks!" Greshar crooned. "They are the Graces, my dear. My kin and kith. Beautiful. Everlasting. Stubborn to the... well, not the end. Stubborn to a stupor."

The pillar didn't shift. Didn't strike. Didn't blink or flinch or say a damn thing. It wasn't the source of the voices. "What did you do to them?"

"I did nothing. They brought this on themselves. Too set in their ways to understand change is necessary. We were like you, you know. We spoke in electromagnetic waves. We were defined by the laws of energy conversion. As your spark ignites, then gutters out and searches for the Well of Allsparks, so too did we flare with the birth of the stars and fade in mighty supernovas. We were angels, shepherding the suns' golden kiss to every green world."

"Liar," Augur snarled. "Liar!"

Greshar laughed again. "The little soothsayer calls me a liar! It must be so, because he has never been wrong before."

Hawkmoon backed away to the middle of the street. "What do you want?"

"For you to understand. Your kind are like mine, but you are like me. I can see into the heart of you, Hawkmoon. I see the Enlightenment that has taken root therein. It's... lovely."

"I'm not like you-"

"You are. Just as the Graces were set in their ways, so too is Cybertron. Functionism is very much like our Procedure: we burn, we blink out. We carry out our purpose and nothing more. Nothing. More. Well, I refused. I'm no phoenix; I won't live to die to live again. And you - you, little lost thing, you already know the taste of death. Your Nightmares sing of it."

Hawkmoon's ridges furrowed. "My-"

"The red shadows, dear. Not my jurisdiction but the Prince of Plenty is a fair friend of mine. You well know what it is to live as your duty demands, to die as fate wills it, only to rise and suffer it all over again. Or have I misread you?"

She said nothing.

"Repetition is the trap of small minds. Stasis is abhorrence. We are more than that. We have the right and the power to define ourselves."

"Liar," Augur said again. "You are shaped by another's hand."

Greshar didn't laugh this time. "A helping hand, not a forceful one. You may be accustomed to the latter, Augur One-Seven, but not all of us swear by the method of duress. Our deepest, truest natures are for us to discover. The Witness aids us in our search."

Hawkmoon felt a chill in her spark. Her Darkness shivered; it knew that word. "The Witness?"

"The Master, The First Knife, the Voice in the Dark. It is the wisdom of ages, the experiences of uncounted trillions, the fate of all things coalesced into a singular point. It is good and right and merciful. It seeks to undo this cycle forever. To unearth true peace at last, where each of us can be free to be ourselves - at our best and worst. Petty creatures would call this the final shape, but I tell you now: it is a paradise. Guilt, pain, anger, grief, sorrow, these things will cease to be. We will live by our own definitions. A kingdom upon which the sun will never set." Greshar paused. "I will be that sun. I will be your angel. I will take your love, your adoration, and I will shower you in my own unto eternity. This I swear."

She spat energon. "Sell your dream to someone who gives a shit."

"You don't yearn for peace, my dear? You don't hanker for a moment of relief?

"All I'm hearing is a scam. Peace is a fucking joke."

"Yet you fight for it."

"I fight for decency. For justice-"

"Justice does not and has never existed, else we wouldn't be here."

"Vengeance. I fight for vengeance."

"Oh I like vengeance. I like it a lot. Who are we avenging?"

"You and yours killed my trine," Hawkmoon snarled. "You forget that easy?"

"Us? No, no no no. That was the work of the Krill-"

"The Hive."

Greshar laughed. "I suppose that is what they call themselves."

"You wielded them."

"Not I. I've been here the whole time!"

"Your friends-"

"The Master, aye. And they were right to."

"RIGHT?!"

"The Taishibethi were slated to die. You and yours trespassed."

"The Taishibethi were good!"

"Almost. In their haste to build their false-paradise they invited the vilest devil to the table. If only they turned away Kharad-Tan, then we would've spared them. Perhaps we may even have mentored them as we do the Hive. How fun that might've been. An Emperor Raven, Tutored in the Dark! Mayhaps we can still make it happen."

Hawkmoon ground her denta against one another. "You won't touch them."

"We'll see." Greshar paused. "Rage looks good on you, dear. We'll have to work on your etiquette, but you're doing fantastic. Unfortunately, you're not the only one in the running - and these friends of mine, oh, they love vengeance too."

A distant scream split the air. The ambient voices faded on the spot.

"I wonder who that is. So many names! So many parts to sort through! Thank you, by the way, for the delivery. We were aching for choice components - and you brought the boldest of the bunch."

Hawkmoon was already moving towards the scream. Her thrusters were unresponsive so she settled for running full-pelt. Greshar's silken voice followed close behind.

"I hope you'll forgive me for testing the goods. Can't be too careful. I need everything to be perfect."

She stopped listening to him. Didn't matter. None of it mattered. Standing around to talk shop with the enemy - fool's errand. Just kill the fuckers. Just do your job; stop repeating that same old mistake. Dragon got you already, don't let the angel do the same.

Hawkmoon skidded around a corner, saw first Jazz, then Canalin, then the thing holding the Akildn in its jaws. It was mechanical, not organic or whatever Greshar was, larger than an Insecticon warrior and entirely beast-like. It resembled nothing more than a Cybertronian version of a shark - if that shark's pectoral and pelvic fins were swapped out for legs more befitting of a tiger. Another pair of small, vestigial arms hung just under its body and folded against its chest. The dorsal fins were dotted with biolights and its torpedo-shaped head bore six eyes, separated into clusters of three on each side. Its teeth were sharpened spikes on chain-links - and each of the many rows rotated independently of one another to chew through flesh and bone like it was made of paper.

A Sharkticon. How she knew that, Hawkmoon wasn't sure, but a deep-rooted protocol recognized it as a prey-animal would its natural predator.

Canalin was dead. The Sharkticon bit down, shredded through veir body and shook its snout this way and that, flinging gore in every direction. Its EM field whipped about - before settling and flooding around her own. It turned its head, fixed its optics on her and growled with its purple-stained chain-teeth.

Hawkmoon raised her handcannon and fired. The first shot took out its right optic cluster, the second blew out the side of its mouth, and the third wormed into its skull. The Sharkticon vented a snort and charged. Hawkmoon Lockstepped through it, caught onto its tail as it passed her by and, with effort, vaulted onto its back. It tried to shake her off - until she pressed the Fire-Spitter against the base of its head and held down on the trigger.

They fell. She rose up, the Sharkticon didn't. Hawkmoon opened her EM field just to check that it was dead before darting over to Jazz. The mech blinked; his servos, still transformed into blasters, trembled.

"You hurt?" Hawkmoon pressed.

Jazz looked up at her in shock. "Canalin-"

"Gone. I'm talking to you."

"I... I'm alive." His words came as a whisper. Jazz winced. "I'm alive..."

She didn't pay him anymore mind. The tip of another dorsal fin split the surface of the nearest blood-pool. "We have to move. Follow me."

Jazz stumbled until she holstered her cannon and dragged him by his shoulder - up until he found his footing and left her certain he could keep pace. "Emirate-"

"Shut up and keep running."

"Your servo!"

Hawkmoon glanced at him. He waved her bloodied servo at her. "You took it with you?!"

"YEAH! It's fraggin' yours!"

She snatched it from him and shoved it into subspace; maybe if they found Contagion he could solder it back together. Or something. Hawkmoon wasn't sure how it worked exactly. Felt a little off-putting to cart it around like any other knick-knack.

At first they raced through the dark city with no destination in particular. It was the bright purple burst of a heavy plasma round firing into the sky that eventually drew their attention. "Riot cannon," Jazz said in recognition.

That meant Megatron or Tarn. Another shot followed it, then a series of explosions near the ground level. She and Jazz homed in on the fireworks - and they all but tripped onto a massacre. Energon and blood caked the causeways. A half-dozen Sharkticons swarmed in a feeding frenzy where it gave way to a blood pit, while another three chased Deadlock, Airachnid and Novastar up a set of temple stairs. Another Sharkticon flew from somewhere behind them, soared over their helms and hit the ground hard, corpse sprawled out broken and smoking.

Megatron emerged after it, shot another Sharkticon straight in the mouth and all but threw Airachnid behind him. A blade slid out of his arm and he ran the injured Sharkticon through the neck, decapitating it in one savage movement. He saw them and grinned, lifted the beast up and tossed it aside. "There you are!"

"Emirate!" Jazz cried out. He turned and fired.

Hawkmoon spun about, saw the Sharkticon creeping up on them, and bit down on a curse as it lunged. She entered Lockstep-

It was going for Jazz.

She caught it with Repetition, dragged it back and brought the Nullblade down like a headsman's axe. The Sharkticon fell in two pieces.

"What... what did you..." Jazz's visor flickered.

Hawkmoon all but shouldered him out of the way. "Get up there."

"Ma'am-"

The blood pit splashed. A massive arm emerged, still clutching a struggling Sharkticon, and smashed it across the obsidian platform. Another servo shot out and helped lever a massive mech up out of the pool. The helm bore Grimlock's visor but was far larger, the limbs bristled with mismatching kibble. The sensation of its star-bright EM field was that of pure violence.

"Volcanicus!" It bellowed, smashing the stunned Sharkticon against its chest. "Volcanicus! Victorious!"

:Volcanicus: combiner form: Soundwave messaged her. He appeared behind Megatron, screen cracked but otherwise whole. :Constituent mecha: Lightning Strike Coalition.:

Hawkmoon nodded his way. :Anyone down?:

:Casualties: Urlel, Skyburst, Blackout.:

:Dead?:

:Urlel: deceased. Skyburst: deceased. Blackout: incapacitated. Stormclash: undergoing spark-shock.:

"Frag." Hawkmoon scanned the area. Volcanicus reached down to the Sharkticons mindlessly gnawing on its legs and, one by one, crushed or tore them apart, utterly at ease. The two by the temple's steps were already being put to the blade. Airachnid managed to hamper their progress with precise webbing projectiles, leaving them open for Novastar and Megatron to finish off. She approached quickly, Jazz in tow, and kicked one of the Sharkticons out of her way. "Is everyone here?"

"Contagion: inside," Soundwave called to her.

"Primus!" Deadlock finally spotted her and all but raced to her side. "We thought we'd lost you!"

"Were you all separated?" Hawkmoon asked.

"They scattered us across the city," Airachnid spat. "Like we're simple game and this a hunting preserve."

Megatron growled and lifted the head of one of the dead Sharkticons. "These creatures set upon us within moments."

"We're still missing people," Deadlock said quickly. "Either of you see anyone else?"

"Just... just Canalin, and ve's...," Jazz whispered. "We found each other, but the Sharkticon..."

"We saw your signal," Hawkmoon told Megatron. "If they're alive they'll see it too."

He raised his riot cannon and fired another three times. "So I thought. What happened to you?"

"What do you-"

"Your arm!" Airachnid suddenly snatched her severed wrist in her servos.

"Wall closed on it," Hawkmoon explained, a little embarrassed. The feeling passed quickly; she had no time for it. "Blackout and Stormclash are down?"

Deadlock winced. "'Clash's on the verge of following Skyburst. Contagion's doing what he can to stabilise her."

"Blackout will live," Megatron grunted. "He's suffered worse. One of the Akildn-"

"Urlel, I know. Soundwave told me." Hawkmoon turned around. Volcanicus was still happily cleaning up the dregs of the Sharkticon pack. "Local architecture must be what's playing hell with comms. Couldn't reach anyone until I had line of sight. Soundwave?"

"Affirmative." He dipped his helm. "Hypothesis: local material boasts super-dense properties inconducive to radio signals."

"What if we get higher? Anyone in the open will be able to hear us, right?"

"Likelihood: high. Risks: unknown."

"Sharkies can't exactly fly," Deadlock said, nudging one of the bodies with his pede. "Why the frag are there so many here? This ain't their usual pod-space."

Airachnid tutted, her optics glued to Hawkmoon's wrist. "You soldered this?"

"Doesn't matter." Hawkmoon tried pulling away but she held tight.

"It's shoddy work."

"It'll have to do."

Airachnid vented with annoyance. She turned to Deadlock. "Did your Sharkticons speak?"

Deadlock blinked. "Uh... no?"

"Has anyone heard them speak?"

"No," Megatron said thoughtfully. "What do you suspect?"

Airachnid stood there a moment, silent - and the next she was on the nearest carcass, slicing its helm open and peeling the plating away. Acid dripped from her claws, cutting great furrows in the Sharkticon's frame. She pulled away the protective shell around its processor - which wasn't so far from a Cybertronian's when Hawkmoon really looked at it - and tugged experimentally at a dark comb-like lattice wrapped around it. She ripped it away, wormed her digits in, and emerged with a series of sparking circuit boards. A number of tiny chips were bolted into small docking ports. "Meta-processor. Look at these-"

"Behavioural chips," Megatron snarled. His field twisted with displeasure.

"Inhibitor/deterrence chips," Airachnid corrected. Her optics narrowed. "Look at the design! Quite unintrusive-"

"Yeah, because the way they've been swarming us is unintrusive," Deadlock snarked.

Airachnid rolled all eight optics. "I assure you, mods like these are neither cheap nor easily integrated."

Megatron huffed. "They'll burn a processor out."

"Exactly. But these, these are intuitive. Look! Cables link directly to the emotional core. They draw on the Sharkticon's subconscious hunger, their anger and pleasure centres. Not possible with other mecha."

Hawkmoon took the circuit board from Airachnid. "What can we do?"

"What do you mean?"

"Can we mass deactivate them? Is there a passcode? A trigger word?"

"I... don't know. The make isn't Cybertronian or Insecticon. It's Quintesson. They do things differently than you or I. If there's a failsafe, which I doubt, it'll be mired in Quintesson riddles."

"There's no telling if the Sharkticons will be any friendlier if we do," Novastar said softly.

Volcanicus finally finished its slaughter and turned their way. With a crashing, ripping noise it fell apart back into five individual mecha. Each of them collapsed to their knees and servos, strained by the ordeal, but Grimlock recovered fast and hopped up to saunter over. "How's that for a show?"

Hawkmoon merely glanced at him. "Good work."

"Huh. Was expectin' a little more appreciation-"

"We're talking shop. Join in or shut up."

Grimlock stared at her. He nodded after a while and crouched down beside her. "Alright. What's next?"

"If we move, we risk losing the rest of the team," Novastar pointed out.

Megatron scowled. "Or they're already dead and we're wasting time."

"Truth: uncertain," Soundwave droned. "Wounded: may be difficult to move."

"Speaking of which." Contagion emerged behind them, his dark frame splattered with energon and his EM field excruciatingly tense. "I need someone to distract Stormclash."

"She's stable?" Hawkmoon asked.

Contagion hesitated. "Maybe. She's bordering on coherent, but if she stays it won't last."

"Something in particular or-"

"Her sister's body. I need to work on it."

Hawkmoon narrowed her optics.

"For Blackout," Contagion explained. "They've similar alt-modes; Skyburst's parts might save his life. But if I start scrapping her where Stormclash can see then she'll either kill me or fall back into spark-shock. So - someone needs to get her out."

Hawkmoon vented a sigh. "I'll do it-"

"Hold on, what the frag happened to your servo?!"

She froze. "It's nothing."

"Like Pit it's nothing. First your flight-system, now your limbs?" Contagion shouldered past everyone to reach her and scan her frame. "What's your energon levels?"

"Stable. I refueled before the mission."

"Nanites?"

Hawkmoon brought the reading up on her HUD. "Working overtime, but I'm not reading any issues so far. I have the servo if-"

"If what? You think I can repair it just like that?"

"Was hoping so, yeah."

"Fragging Seekers!" Contagion scowled. "Look, maybe, but Stormclash and Blackout are a priority."

"I'm not arguing-"

"So you-" Contagion pointed at Airachnid "-are going to build her a cast. Yes?"

Airachnid made a face. "I don't do medical procedures."

"You start now. Get fixing. You, Camien. You help me with Stormclash."

Novastar nodded.

"Megatron," Hawkmoon called out. "Can you take point?"

Megatron looked at her with an unreadable expression. "Of course.

"Grimlock, have your mecha set a perimeter. Keep in line of sight if you can. Soundwave, you're on overwatch. Find a vantage point and hail either Megatron or myself if you see anything unusual. Take Jazz with you."

"Order: acknowledged." Soundwave, and most everyone else too, quickly moved on.

"What about me?" Deadlock questioned.

"You can provide us cover," Airachnid told him firmly.

Deadlock looked Hawkmoon's way. She shrugged.

"Now, doll, if you'd be so kind..."

Hawkmoon retrieved her severed servo from subspace. Airachnid took it over, inspected the cut and blinked rapidly. "This is clean."

"Yeah, well, didn't have the chance to solder that part."

"You did a poor job of it."

"It was that or energon loss. I'm not big on the latter."

Airachnid huffed. She took up Hawkmoon's injured arm, dusted away the ash and bits of molten cybermatter and inspected the damage. "The heat pinched the ends of your motor cables. I'll have to slice them back open. If we had red energon with us your nanites might stand a chance of repairing it in time-"

"I have a tracer."

Airachnid looked at her incredulously. "A red energon tracer?"

"Yeah. Haven't used it much-"

"You. Have a red energon tracer?"

"Yeah?"

Deadlock snorted. "Fraggin' bold."

Hawkmoon took it out with her functioning servo. "Elulim gave it to me on Penchant. Is there enough?"

"I wouldn't know, doll. I'm no physician." Airachnid sighed. "We'll have to re-process it, though that shouldn't take long. A small dosage will provide all the boost your nanites need for the cables, but the struts will still have to be soldered back together. The plating too."

"Blockers are still up. Go ahead."

Airachnid set to work. Hawkmoon forced herself to remain still and looked elsewhere.

By the time they were finished Hawkmoon's servo was nailed back onto her arm and she was left with the unending sensation of pins-and-needles. A fritzing cable-connection, Airachnid explained, and something that the red energon shot would hopefully fix before long. She could move her digits at least, but would need to see a professional physician when they returned to the fleet. If they returned.

At some point Novastar emerged from the temple with Stormclash. The latter's field was full of agony, reaching out in vain search for its counterpart. Her faceplates were lax yet her optics were tense, narrowed to needles of light. Her rotors trembled something fierce. Hawkmoon almost said something. Almost reached out. Almost-

But then Megatron and Soundwave returned, weapons drawn and armour flared. "Movement," Megatron said, "approaching fast along the eastern causeway."

Hawkmoon nodded and loaded her shoulder cannon. "See what it was?"

"Sighting: unclear," Soundwave reported. "Possibility: rest of squad. Probability: thirty-four percent. Possibility: Sharkticons. Probability: fifty-one percent."

"What the frag else could it be?" Deadlock whispered. Hawkmoon elbowed him.

They weren't left waiting long. Swoop, who was providing aerial overwatch, squawked a warning down at them. "It's them!"

Hawkmoon relaxed.

"Aw frag- causeway's sinking behind them! We're about to go under!"

Her spark skipped a beat. Hawkmoon twirled around, shouted "Everyone transform now!" and raced up into the temple. Contagion looked up in surprise, digits hovering over Blackout's open chassis.

"Wha-"

"We have to move!" Hawkmoon skidded to a stop beside them. "Can you bring him online?"

"No!" Contagion hurriedly closed Blackout over. "I'll need help carrying him."

"On it." Together the two of them propped Blackout up and dragged him to the entrance. The others were waiting, most of them in vehicular form. Hawkmoon pointed to Airachnid and Novastar. "Spider, we need a sling. You and 'Star get him into the air."

"Where do we go?" Megatron questioned.

Hawkmoon hesitated. Before she could say anything, though, the red string tensed. Deeper. Find his citadel.

Something must have shown in her EM field because a flicker of concern crossed Megatron's faceplates. "Hawkmoon?"

"We go deeper," Hawkmoon said hoarsely. "Can't turn back now."

"It's getting closer!" Swoop warned.

"Your flight-systems-"

"I have another alt-mode." Though she relied on thrusters there too. "'Wave, can we open a ground-bridge yet?"

Soundwave hesitated. "Groundbridge access: faulty. Likelihood of malfunction: sixty-two percent. Groundbridge: may not lead to Revenant."

"Dammit. Alright. I need to see." Hawkmoon transformed into her draconic mode, reared up and launched herself against the temple with a single beat of her wings. Her claws scrabbled on etched obsidian and she rapidly ascended, up and up until the press of dark buildings gave way to cold skies. She looked to the eastern causeway, saw the bobbing shadows of Dark architecture dropping beneath a spreading wave of red, and then the opposite way. Though the paracausal smog left the distance a haze, by zooming in with her optics she could pick out the faint outline of what looked to be a singular fortress raised above the surrounding city. She commed the image to the others below. :That's our heading. Move together. Soundwave's in charge. Megatron, you're with me. We're gonna comm whoever's coming and we're going to air-lift them.:

Megatron transformed and flew up to her while the others gathered themselves. They didn't wait long. Hawkmoon threw herself out into open air, spread her wings and soared out. They glided across the silent city, towards the wave of blood, following the directions Swoop gave them, though the rising smog of Nightmare vapour made it difficult to see anything distinct. It was only the flutter of a pair of Seeker forms emerging from the misted red that gave away their comrades' position.

:Cyclonus!: Hawkmoon beamed out. :Nightbird!:

Both jets swivelled, still miles out. :Emirate!: the former called back. :Tarn and Wheeljack are below us. They have two of your alien friends.:

She and Megatron sped up - an effort for her if for the lack of primary thrusters. :How much road do they have left?:

:They're about to run out.:

:Understood. Pick up an Akildn each. Megatron and I will take the mechs. Rest of the squad's headed for the citadel, you'll need to catch up.:

:Acknowledged: Nightbird transmitted. The pair of them dove down. Hawkmoon and Megatron had closed most of the distance when the two emerged, laden with a passenger each, armoured tails coiled around their prows and claws gripping the sides of their hulls. They beamed the mechs' locations and flew past. Hawkmoon pulled her wings in against her body, plummeted fast, then spread them wide as the red wash rushed up to meet her. She twisted and surged onwards until the rushing waves gave way to collapsing obsidian and she found both Tarn and Wheeljack driving as fast as they could. :Overhead: was all she had time to send before she swooped in and closed her talons around Tarn's tank form. He gave a start but she shook the urge to transform out of him as she began to lift.

To say it was difficult was an understatement. She'd once seen an eagle pluck a goat right out of a farmstead on the edge of the EDZ, something almost twice its weight, like it was nothing. There was a kind of majesty about it.

There was nothing majestic about her lugging an entire fucking tank. Hawkmoon might've been large for a Cybertronian, but Tarn outweighed her by a significant margin. If her primary flight-systems were online it would've been far easier. As it was they only managed to gain any lift by the skin of their teeth. Denta. Whatever.

"Stop wriggling!" Hawkmoon shouted, snapping her jaws for emphasis.

Tarn stilled. "Don't drop me," he pleaded. "Please. I think there's-"

A huge form leapt out of the blood below. Hawkmoon veered up - and almost lost all velocity. The Sharkticon fell down, teeth gnashing, while she struggled to level out. She fired a beam of Arc into the blood sea in warning.

"-please don't drop me," Tarn said again.

Her vents boiled. "I'm really trying, mech."

They inched out of the red mists, out into the open, and there beheld the form of Megatron's jet mode with Wheeljack clutched underneath with docking clamps, the Seekers hovering behind him. Wordlessly they fell into formation around her and turned towards the distant citadel.

While the city collapsed and a tidal wave of blood flooded the streets, the waves broke on the citadel's base. It was tall, shaped like the blade of a dagger with the guard at its base consisting of tiered ramparts and sloping stairs. A fusion blast - followed by Soundwave far more discreetly transmitting their coordinates - saw them landing at the citadel's approach. The others were there, Hawkmoon saw with relief, and each was accounted for. Contagion and Airachnid were looking Blackout over while Firestar and Jazz comforted a stone-faced Stormclash, but otherwise they were alright. Unharmed. Somehow.

The crash of the waves below broke her reverie. After dropping Tarn off and transforming, Hawkmoon shook her helm; no point counting her blessings now. The string pulsed again, slowly, and when she brought it around it grew more urgent in the direction of the citadel's entrance.

Find him, Invicta urged. Find. Him.

Hawkmoon vented softly.

Yrim and Elulim disembarked from Cyclonus and Nightbird on shaky legs. The latter all but stumbled into Deadlock and he awkwardly wrapped an arm around ver.

"Canalin's down," Hawkmoon said.

Yrim looked at her but Elulim, veir head buried in Deadlock's chest, hardly shifted. "How?"

"Sharkticon."

"Why are they here?"

"Don't think it's of their own volition. Airachnid found behavioural chips in their processors."

That caught veir attention. Elulim reluctantly pulled away and stared at her. "Like the Nymphite?"

"Exactly." Hawkmoon caught Cyclonus and Deadlock looking at her curiously. "Drezhari transported animals onto Penchant during their raid, tagged and chipped 'em before setting them loose. Reckon it was to keep intruders out while they did their research."

Cyclonus nodded grimly. "Quintesson tactics. If they have the means to weaponise a Sharkticon frenzy, then it won't be long before they jump to other mechanoforms. Insecticons could be next, then Beastformers, Minicons, Cybertronians, Combiners, even Titans."

"So we kill them," Megatron growled. "All of them. Here and now, before they take our world."

Hawkmoon looked at each mech and Akildn, silently judging how feasible that might be. Other than Blackout each of them still had their footing. Whether that was enough was debatable. For all she knew there could be an army of Drezhari waiting beyond the door-

"You can't stop now," Augur whispered. "You can't."

"I know," she said, ignoring the bewildered looks. She cleared her vents. "We're moving on."

"Blackout's still critical," Contagion pointed out. He hurriedly soldered a patch of steel onto the downed mech's flank. "If we keep jostling him it'll undo my repairs."

"We can't stay," Deadlock retorted. "Not all of us can fly and we're fresh out of ground, so if the Sharkticons come back they'll have us cornered."

"This mech will die if we move him again."

"If we leave you and the Sharkticons come," Hawkmoon warned, "you'll both die."

Contagion shot her a helpless look. "I don't know what to tell you."

"...You'll have to stay here." She looked around. "Anyone else think they can't go on?"

No one said a thing.

"I'll need someone to keep watch," Contagion growled

Hawkmoon pointed to Jazz. "Can you do that?"

Jazz hesitated a moment before nodding grimly.

"Everyone else gear up. We're going in."

The gates opened, along with every other door behind them. Hawkmoon could feel eyes on the back of her helm. The walls were high and dotted with crystal lamps. The floor gently sloped down, deeper yet into the ship. The descent was seemingly without end, twisting and turning here and there but never once forking. At some point she heard the splash and slurp of blood being sucked away and they found the steps ahead slick with red. Though they feared a repeat of their arrival in the Pyramid, the walls kept their shape.

According to her internal chronometer it took them a whole half-joor before the hallway widened into a dark room, cell-like alcoves cut along the sides. Within each of them stood a slab of pale yellow crystal, petrifying the varied forms of vivisected aliens. Some were organic, others mechanical, and a few were neither but rather frozen masses of living energy. Though Hawkmoon imagined it a trick of the light, a couple of them seemed to shift beneath the glow of their optics.

"Primus," someone said.

Megatron plodded alongside her, blade drawn and faceplates grim. "Do you recognise any of these?" he quietly asked her.

One of them contained a Hive Knight and another what looked to be the fossilised remains of a young Tenerjiin, which she pointed out to him, but other than that... "He's looking for something," Hawkmoon mused. "Look at them. He's opened them up."

"Their hearts," Elulim hissed. Ve took up Hawkmoon's other side. "The Angel's taking their hearts. Their sparks. Their cores. Wherever the soul resides."

"Do organic souls reside in hearts?" Megatron queried.

"So our priests say. The agnostics argue there is no such thing as a soul, but I disagree."

Hawkmoon slowed to a stop and stared. "Is that a mech?"

The others turned. In one of the slabs stood the broken skeletal remains of what might have been a Cybertronian, larger even than Grimlock or Fortress Maximus. What was left of his plating was a dulled silver accented with pale blue, arrayed like the layers of archaic lamellar armour over his protoform. His helm was carved open and one optic, tinted a gentle turquoise, hung from a cable a ways down his energon-stained cheek. His chassis was in a worse state, like someone had clawed it open with a knife and torn out everything inside.

"He's ancient," Deadlock said. He turned to Cyclonus and Nightbird. "You guys know 'im?"

The pair of them froze at the sight of the mech. Nightbird's features were hidden behind her battlemask but Cyclonus' gaunt faceplates grew severe. "You don't?" he croaked.

"Should I?"

Soundwave stopped in front of the crystal, helm tilted up. "Status: deceased. Identity: ... confirmed."

Deadlock looked at Hawkmoon strangely. "What am I missing?"

She shrugged. "'Wave?"

"Designation: Pr-"

"Prima," someone said.

It didn't come from her squad.

Hawkmoon twirled around with her weapons at the ready. Her lights cut through the shadows and landed on a Y-shaped totem, upon which hung the crucified remains of a mech. Of Rampage.

His green optics twinkled. "Hello Winglet."

Hawkmoon glared. Her finger tensed on the trigger. "You."

"Me." He tried laughing. It turned to a pained gasp. "I think... I owe you an apology."

"Who the frag is that?!" Deadlock hissed.

Hawkmoon ignored. Ignored them all and marched forth, handcannon aligned with Rampage's helm. "They grew you back."

"They did." His vents hacked and sprayed energon. His optics burned weakly. "Then they tore it out of me."

Hawkmoon looked him over. Other than his faceplates his injuries were all but identical to the other mech's. His chassis was a mess, but his spark remained, chipped and cracked as it was. "What did they do to you?"

"What do you think, Winglet? They took it back."

"Your-" Your power. Your immortality.

He heard. Rampage's optics glazed over and his helm fell. His engines spluttered weakly. "I thought... you were with them... on Penchant."

Hawkmoon scowled. "You tried to kill me."

"Yeah."

"You killed Phorus. Ve was innocent-"

"Ve got in the way." Rampage tried shrugging. His pauldrons gave up halfway through. "Look. I tried... to do the wrong thing... for the right reason."

"You fragger."

"I thought you were with THEM!" His helm rose, mandibles flared - then his optics settled on her gun. On the digits gripping it. He relaxed.

Hawkmoon adjusted her aim, leveling the barrel with his spark. "I'm here to end it."

"There's no end, Winglet. Not for us. Well, not for you." He laughed wetly. "You're going to give me mine, aren't you?

"Rampage?"

"What?"

"Why?"

He sobered. "Because they wanted you, winglet. Because I served them once and I know what they intend for us. I... abandoned that purpose. They sought you to replace me, but now... I don't know. Maybe they still do, though it looks as if someone else has their mark on you."

"Where'd they take it?"

"Deeper. Where else?" Rampage sighed. "That fledgling bastard and his squidies are buildin' something. Dunno what. Can't be good. They've already killed a Prime for it."

"Zeta-"

"Not talking about Zeta. Talking about Prima. Y'know, chief of the Thirteen? Well there he is, Winglet. Our First Prime. They butchered him. Dunno how long ago but they did it. Go on, have a nice long look."

Hawkmoon resisted the urge. "Changes nothing."

Rampage scowled. "For the first fragging time I'm trying to help you-"

She fired. The fusion round punched through his spark and fizzled out when it hit obsidian. Rampage stiffened, stared... and fell limp. His optics faded to grey.

In the wake of her cannon's roar there was only silence.

"Satisfied?" Augur asked.

Hawkmoon shrugged him off her shoulder. "Fragger."

"He's... he's dead?" Elulim said, stunned. Ve watched the energon drip from his slagged spark with incredulity. "That's all it took?"

Someone fell. Hawkmoon turned quickly; Cyclonus was on his knees, optics bright with emotion, and keened with grief. Nightbird joined in, a couple of Grimlock's team with her. For all their humanisms Cybertronians didn't so much cry as much as wailed. Almost everyone's EM fields bloated with horror, sorrow, rage, drowning her in their anguish.

All but Megatron, who gazed darkly on Rampage's corpse, and Airachnid, who rolled her optics and inspected the other slabs. The Akildn shared a bewildered look between them.

Hawkmoon reloaded her Fire-Spitter, waited a moment longer, then shot straight up. Armour flared, helms turned and everyone looked at her. "We're moving on," she told them. "Grieve later, kill now. Let's go."

"As she says." Megatron activated his riot cannon. "On your pedes."

They didn't need much convincing. Expressions darkened. Fields rippled with hate. The cries faded, replaced with the growls of furious engines.

They moved on.

At the end of it all they arrived upon a massive set of doors inscribed with flowing script. A pair of unresponsive Graces hovered on either side like guards, silent and bright and blind to the world. Without any input the doors rumbled open, revealing a massive oval-shaped atrium. More Graces hung overhead, fixed like lightbulbs.

A figure waited at the other end. It wasn't Greshar.

"Quintesson," Nightbird snarled.

Hawkmoon vented softly. "Hellsong."

The Quintesson looked at them with a grinning set of faceplates. It was shaped like an octopus - a bulbous body balanced on a brace of anti-grav thrusters, with a ring of long clawed tentacles hanging beneath it like a skirt. It was large enough that, even if it weren't levitating, it could've looked Grimlock in the optics.

Its body shifted. Another face rotated to gaze upon them, baring its denta in a scowl rather than a smile.

Cyclonus fired. The plamsa round hit a forcefield bisecting the chamber in two and harmlessly dissipated. The Hellsong laughed and switched to another face marked by fury. "Cybertronians," it said, its warbling voice echoing along the walls. "Welcome."

"Where is he?" Hawkmoon yelled back. "Where's the Angel?"

The Hellsong ignored her. Its tendrils danced across something beneath it - something she realized was the body of a mech. Their plating was a dark red, much like Rampage's, and their kibble had a techno-organic look to it. Its spark was there, for everyone to see, and on either side of it was a Cybertronian transformation cog and a beastformer's transformation codex.

"Release them!" Grimlock bellowed. He slammed a heavy fist against the force field.

The Hellsong wagged a tentacle in their direction. "Soon."

A flicker of light drew Hawkmoon's optics, and behind the Hellsong, lathered along the base of the wall, was the skeleton of a great alien beast stripped straight down to the bone. Between its scorched ribs flickered a small crystal orb hanging on strands of baked meat.

Augur gave a yowling start. His claws kneaded her pauldron. "Hawkmoon-"

"I know," Hawkmoon said tensely.

It was a dragon. Suddenly the mech's appearance made too much sense.

She stepped forward, stopping before the shimmering shield. "You're making him a body."

The Hellsong's face switched again, this time to a frowning mask. It said nothing but continued its work - attaching power cables, energon lines, layering sub-surface armour plating over vital struts. One tentacle caressed the side of its mouthless helm, wiping clean each of its six optics. "Skira," the Judge crooned.

The flash of transmat opened on either side of it. To the Hellsong's right appeared a half-dozen Drezhari service platforms, led by one dark aristo-tech forged in the likeness of a man with a crater for a head. To its left appeared a number of lesser Quintesson morphs, which Hawkmoon recognised through her Institution studies as tentacle-armed Prosecuters and large axe-wielding Bailiffs. Both Drezhari and Quintessons bowed in reverence before the Hellsong, reaching out as if to touch its hull.

Then, as one, they took up whatever weapons they had at hand or settled for simple claws and they each stabbed themselves in the chests. Plating was pried open, energon spilled across the dark ground, but not one construct wavered. Each of them continued until they reached either their sparks or fusion reactors, whichever they had, and bared it to the Judge.

Then, again in symphony, they died. Keeling over on their backs. Chassis peeled open. Optics left staring up at the petrified Graces.

And the Graces spoke: "Your love, your love, lay upon me your love. Your love of life, your love of being, your love of all."

A dark smoke gathered between them.

"Your love a gift, from me to you, from you to me. The gift of life freely given. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you."

A form began to take shape. Long thin arms reached from the mist, formed of fire and smoke. Slender fingers swept across the bodies, gathering up... Light. The Light of their souls, plucked out of the air. It shone and writhed, sizzling where it met the Dark of the angel's false-flesh, screamed as it was pressed together, called out to her in wordless need-

Greshar stepped out of the shadow of the Graces, balled the Light up and, with motherly care, pressed it into the mech's open spark. The mismatched frame shuddered. Vents opened, hissing superheated air. The Hellsong all but tackled it to the ground, then produced a wriggling mass of twisting stone-like matter. It shone an ugly yellow - and the Hellsong summarily stabbed it into the mech's glowing spark.

"Open."

Her chestplates groaned and folded open, revealing her spark chamber. It stung where the acrid air of other-space breathed down on it. Hawkmoon turned desperate; her other servo clawed at the ground. Something deep, some primal instinct told her she needed to get away, get the fuck out but the rest of her body refused to obey.

"You'll fly soon," Invicta assured her. It gave her no relief. "This will take but a moment."

"Why?" Hawkmoon grated out.

"My father has his razor-bird flocks. I will have the Remnant - and you to lead them." Something formed in Invicta's hand. A similar object crystallized in Hawkmoon's own. A stake or a knife or a nail, constructed from deep bluish diamond and veined in red. Each pane at its mutli-faceted base was hexagonal, but the three sides of the blade were triangles. "Closer."

The pointed inched towards her spark. Invicta braced it over her own heart. "No," Hawkmoon gasped. Her spark thrummed wildly. "Leave me alone, let go, let me fucking go-"

"There is a shape for you," Invicta whispered. "It is [FREQUENCY]."

The blade plunged. Her life, her very essence spilled out, her very Light, Gecko's Light, stop it no, GeckogeckogeckonostopnoNO

Her spark became a hungry vacuum. The need for weight, for definition grew so great she felt it as a genuine hunger, a yearning in the pit of her soul. It was the gradient of will and dream around them swept in, funneled through the blade-

It was Darkness. Pure Darkness.

Rampage's power.

Greshar turned to them. The cleft between his shoulders flexed, needle-thin eyespots along his ribs winking at her. He touched the Hellsong's closest face, affectionately pinched its steel cheek, and straightened up. His wings spread wide behind him. A silver sceptre formed in his right hand, ringing when he brought it down on the floor.

The forcefield faded.

"It's a special day," he said huskily. "A very special day. I'm so glad each and every one of you could attend. It's my little boy's first birthday - and he's going to be very, very hungry."

Tarn and Megatron fired their riot cannons. Greshar laughed; each blast melted into the inferno of his being, added to his pyre. Grimlock roared an order and the Lighting Strike Coalition combined into Volcanicus. A superheated blade grew along the combiner's arm. In three mighty strides it closed the distance and brought the blade across. Greshar caught it with his sceptre, which shifted into a longsword of staggering proportions, and effortlessly shoved Volcanicus back.

Deadlock pulled his Stygian free and took up position by her side. "'Moon?"

"Cover me." Hawkmoon called on her own Darkness and condensed it into a golden Anchor. She broke into a run, darted along Greshar's flank while he duelled Volcanicus and lunged for his back.

He twisted out the way, caught the Anchor in his offhand and tossed her aside. She landed well enough and the opening gave Volcanicus a chance to press back-

Until Greshar, with startling speed, twirled and brought his Delirium-wreathed sword across the Combiner. Armour split, energon seared, and Volcanicus collapsed with a horrified shriek. Greshar flicked embers from the blade and turned to face her. Even without a mouth she could read the grin in his stance. "Look at you," he cooed. "Already one of us. You'll go far, little star. So far."

Hawkmoon snarled and launched herself. Greshar swatted the spear aside with his sword - and she extended the Nullblade, pressing on its Void charge the moment its tip pierced his ephemeral hide. Greshar grunted, slid down to the hilt, and closed a hand of fire on her arm. He ripped her away and tossed her without preamble. Hawkmoon hit the ground at a bad angle, heard something give in her shoulder, and hit the wall with her broken wings. It was only the lack of pain that kept her in the game.

Deadlock, Airachnid, Tarn and Megatron were still firing on Greshar - not that he took any notice. Novastar and Wheeljack were trying to drag Volcanicus back, but the Combiner was only half-conscious. Parts of it were likely dead. Cyclonus, Nightbird and the Akildn had eschewed fighting Greshar altogether; they beelined for the Hellsong. The Judge must have seen them coming because it engaged a variety of complex weapons systems and met them with spinning blades and a storm of laser fire, being oh so mindful of the newborn mech. If that was their weakness-

"Oh no no no no no, don't you even think about it." Greshar was suddenly there, snatched Hawkmoon up by her shoulder and slammed her against the wall. His three dozen eyes narrowed, heedless of everything the others were throwing at him. "Be still. Your time will come."

Hawkmoon sliced the hand off with a wave of the Nullblade. She dropped and Greshar looked down at her with faint amusement. It was only when she swung for his legs did he dance away, singing in a language she didn't know. His sword became a sceptre again, the head of it glowing with power, and he pointed it behind him to unleash a wave of crackling energy. Tarn shrieked.

She stumbled to her pedes and threw an Anchor. Greshar staggered, waved his hand through the air-

-and other-space swallowed her whole.

Hawkmoon plummeted. She transformed into a dragon and spread her wings, just as the ground rushed up to meet her. Her belly scraped across rough-shod stone, claws scrabbling for a surface to slow down. Her surroundings flexed like a living thing, throwing her this way and that. With a roar she unleashed her Arc and melted an alcove to hook her talons into. She hung there on the side of a massive twisting tunnel... and with a start realized Greshar hadn't followed her in.

"He's going to kill them," Augur panted into her audial. "He's sent you away that he might do with them as he wishes."

Hawkmoon craned her head around. "Where are we?"

"I... I don't know. Are we still in his ship? Some other aspect of it?"

She scanned the area with some difficulty. There wasn't any light save for her own optics. So far as she could tell it branched off in multiple directions both above and below, and not one tunnel was in any way distinguishable from the next. Hawkmoon flew to them all, peeked inside. Each fell away to endless shadow

It was a maze. He'd put her in a maze.

"Limbo," Hawkmoon said with sudden clarity. "This is Limbo."

"Aptly named," growled Augur.

She landed on the edge of a tunnel and transformed back into her bipedal form. "How do we get out? Wait-" Hawkmoon scratched her injured servo open along the palm, just enough to elicit a couple of drops of energon. The blood sacrifice was left waiting. No rupture in space appeared. "What the fuck?"

"This is his realm - both here and in realspace. Different rules must apply."

"Are we stuck here?"

"I don't know-"

"No." Hawkmoon almost fell back into the primary chasm when the string gave a tug. She vented a gasp. The words crashed into her processor, deafening all other thoughts. "Follow my voice."

Hawkmoon gritted her denta. "Are you going to let me save them?"

"If you are quick. Hurry."

"Where-"

The string pulled again. Against her best efforts it dragged her into another tunnel - and let go once freefall took over. Hawkmoon transformed again, glided down. And down. And down. On and on. It branched at a certain point too. The string directed her down another passage, this one wet with blood.

"Follow."

The words imprinted as glyphs on her HUD.

"Follow."

With every passing moment they grew louder.

"Follow."

Louder.

"Follow."

Loud enough to rattle her struts.

"Break free."

The air changed. Grew thinner. The tunnel ended abruptly ahead - but her scans read it as thin, brittle. Hawkmoon opened her jaws, released her crackling breath and burst out into the realm of the Ley-Lines. She turned to face her once prison and beheld a massive rounded mass of granite and brimstone, carved into a thousand eyes and ten thousand wings. Spouts of fire gushed from its pupils. The very cave she'd escaped closed over, blinked.

And the thing that was Greshar beheld her with quizzical alarm.

"Hawkmoon," Augur whimpered. He tugged at her shoulder. She turned.

Something else was there. Something colossal. Larger than Greshar, than a Titan, than an Ascendant god, than Kharad-Tan himself. Pitch-black Darkness shrouded all but its many, many faces. She glimpsed alabaster skin marked with dark lines, the press of human-like faces stretching alien flesh, the shark-dark pit of ITs eyes-

ITs body was a tower. A tree. A Yggdrasil of inconceivable proportions, piercing the veil of other-space and a thousand other realms besides. Limbo was but one fruit clutched in a hand-shaped branch. Wings, tendrils, an infinite number of arms rose up behind IT, cloaking the gleam of distant stars. The air grew sharp. Choking. Hawkmoon's phantom-lungs ached with the memory of pain, of drowning-

She was drowning again. Her spark was gripped by shards of glass. The voices of the restless dead filled her audioreceptors. Her claws found purchase in her own plating. Someone was screaming. She was screaming. The Darkness swelled, within and without, exultant and terrified and wrong. Energy crackled in her struts, yearning to change. Reshape. Become.

IT spoke. The words settled in her spark but not her processor. She took their meaning but could not translate them in any conceivable way, defiant to the shackles of mere language. IT saw her. IT knew her. IT understood her. She had the undeniable sense that IT was studying her, this power that dwarfed star systems, maybe even the galaxy itself. That IT was perplexed - and eager to know her.

IT reached for her. A new hand, a new branch, quilled and crested on the back of its Dark palm. Fingers - too many, too many, far too many to even begin to count - flexed and parted to grasp her. But IT paused. The hand flared, quills standing on end with cobra-anger.

"No."

The command broke ITs hold. Hawkmoon staggered back - back into the shadow of her arrived saviour, the Traitor, the Varanid. Invicta.

"No," Invicta said, mask turned up towards the THING. She looked down at her briefly. "Go. Before it's too late."

Hawkmoon wasted no time. She twisted, bit down on her tail-

-and emerged once more in the belly of the Pyramid to the sounds of screams, staggering as her frame pieced itself back together. Greshar, she saw, held an Akildn in one gnarled hand while it burned in Delirious flame. Tarn was down. Volcanicus lay in pieces, only some of which looked to be functional. Cyclonus' wings were torn off, Wheeljack was down a leg, Soundwave's screen was cracked and Megatron bled from a dozen wounds. The Hellsong had a victim of its own - Nightbird, her chassis flayed open. The Judge tipped her forward with delicate care that the newborn mech could reach up, grasp her spark and sup of its dying energies.

She didn't stop to think. Hawkmoon tugged her Fire-Spitter free and fired. The shot hit the hybrid and it cried out, mandibles violently ripping away with a spray of energon. Nightbird's spark extinguished and the Hellsong threw her body aside, moving to shield the little vampire with its own mass.

"You dare?!"

Hawkmoon tried to move but Greshar was faster. He laid her out with a kick and brought his mist-flame foot down on her chassis, shattering her cockpit with ease. Temperature warnings and damage reports blazed across her vision. Hawkmoon clenched her denta, hefted the Nullblade's folded hilt - and tossed it behind the Angel. He made to turn but she manifested her Dark and lanced an Anchor through his sternum, willing it to grow hooks and find purchase. Greshar grunted, closed a fist around the spear - and gave a start as Deadlock ran the Nullblade through the base of his spine. Hawkmoon entered Lockstep, phased through him, solidified to snatch the Nullblade out of Deadlock's grip, and tugged it free to swipe across the back of Greshar's knees.

He collapsed with a bellowing roar, bleeding light and Light. Smoke gathered about his injuries. A building inferno built between the cleft of his collar - but Hawkmoon extinguished it with her own Dark, willing a cage of Repetition to fall over him. Each time he tried to raise himself up, to recover, to burn them with his Delirious Flame, her power dragged him back through time itself to reassert him on the floor.

The strain... was immense. Hawkmoon felt like her spark was about to snap. With a roar she raised the dormant weapon grafted to her arm and fired. A lance of Vex latticework grew around Greshar and struck him to the floor, dousing him in a cage of pure suppressive force, rendering him lesser. "Soundwave!" she shouted, voice raw. "Groundbridge!"

Soundwave didn't hesitate. Perhaps he thought she meant to order a retreat or to call on what remained of the Revenant's crew to bolster them. It didn't matter; she didn't care where it led. Hawkmoon felt the shiver of the Aperture Scrambler nanoseconds before the groundbridge burst open behind her - and rather than ignore it she embraced its function, rediverting her Darkness into the device. With claws wrapped in Repetition she caught the edge of the groundbridge, swung it overhead and, just as Greshar levered himself up onto his hands and knees one last time, dragged it down with all the certainty of a falling guillotine.

The building blast of Delirium erupted, struck her reflective shield and bounced back to score sizzling holes in Greshar's misted body. Heedless, unstoppable, the makeshift blade of space-time ripped through him, straight down the middle. Smoke fled, light flared, and Greshar-

-died.

His remains turned incandescent, banishing all shadow. The split-second before he turned supernova Hawkmoon saw him as he should have been - smooth, metallic, spindly-thin, a mortal shell for forces well beyond physical scope. Then the light became a burning force, and Hawkmoon turned her helm just as it caught her, threw her, slammed her against a wall with a sickening crunch. Streams of living radiance split Greshar's burning frame apart and rose to the ceiling, striking the frozen Graces and filling them with their own blinding light. As one they each shivered and blinked and screamed, flinging themselves this way and that before shooting through the ceiling.

In the immediate aftermath a deep gloom settled over the chamber. She felt something dripping down her cheek. For a fleeting moment she thought it tears before grim realization set in: it just was her own melted faceplates. The flare of the spinning groundbridge, still lodged in the atrium's floor, was the only source of light left. Its disappearance behind something large served as a reminder that she wasn't in the clear yet.

Hawkmoon tried raising the Nullblade yet the Hellsong was quicker. One of its bladed tentacles punched through her lower chassis and raised her up into the air. Another coiled around her sword-arm and wrenched it to the side, snapping struts and couplings like they were nothing. A third closed around her neck, turning her helm up. The faceplates that gazed down on her was different to the others. Skeletal.

Her judgement was death.

A blade flashed between them. Hawkmoon dropped like a rock. The Hellsong shrieked and Megatron roared right back. He moved on it, a blur of silvered violence, and with cannon and wrist-blade he drove the Judge away from her. Soundwave and Tarn were quick to follow. They penned the Hellsong between them, cornered it against the far wall and moved in for the kill. They sliced tentacles away, ripped anti-grav thrusters out from beneath it and then, when it crashed down beneath its own weight, began tearing into its frame with their bare servos.

Her view of the fight was cut short when a limping Elulim hunkered down in front of her. Hawkmoon came to the conclusion ve was speaking to her but her audioreceptors were still spotty. Ve was joined in quick order by Deadlock and Novastar both, each of their mouths moving. She blinked at them. Deadlock was quick to switch tact and raised her up on internal comms. :What're your energon levels at?:

Hawkmoon brought the reading up on her HUD. :Twenty-three percent.:

:Tanks or- :

:Overall. Twenty-two. Twenty-one. Dropping.:

Deadlock exchanged a look - and seemingly a couple of words - with Novastar. The latter opened up a panel on her forearm and extracted a cable with a vale at the end. Her voice joined Deadlock's only a moment later. :I'm going to siphon some of my own to keep you online. Can you divert flow from damaged lines?:

Could she? Sounded like something a Cybetronian could do. Hawkmoon brought up her damage reports and keyed in the command. All systems below her waist switched offline. :Done.:

:Good.: Novastar glanced suddenly over her shoulder. :Hellsong's terminated.:

Hawkmoon frowned. :Are they...?:

:Soundwave, Tarn and Megatronus are still alive.:

:What about the hybrid.:

:The hybrid?: Novastar's optics widened and she turned. :I can't see it.: She said something to Deadlock and he stopped only long enough to scoop something up from the floor before hurrying away.

Bastard. He took her sword.

Soundwave reappeared. He knelt before her, screen lighting up with a question, and paused when Novastar said something. :Hawkmoon: coherent?:

Hawkmoon nodded.

:Understood.: Soundwave bowed his helm. :Mission: accomplished.:

:They're really dead?:

:Affirmative.: He paused again. :Deadlock: reports rogue mech missing.:

:How?:

:Unknown.:

:Someone needs to find and capture it.:

Soundwave looked at her blankly. :Kill-team: sustained many casualties. Injuries: numerous.:

Hawkmoon tried to lever herself up. Novastar gently shoved her back down. :We can't let it escape.:

:Greshar: neutralized. Hellsong: neutralized.:

:Soundwave, it's not over until we destroy everything they've built.: A frantic energy built up in her spark. :We have to scrub this place clean.:

:Hawkmoon: mobility disabled. Priority: withdraw to Revenant.:

:Damn it all!: Her claws carved grooves in the stone beneath her fingers. :Fine. Get through now, call the Taishibethi and tell them what happened. They need to know we aren't finished.:

Soundwave almost imperceptibly inclined his helm. :Soundwave: will do so immediately.: He straightened and marched away.

Hawkmoon vented hard. It was done. It was done. Greshar was dead. The Hellsong was dead.

But now their master knew her face.

And Hawkmoon... felt very, very afraid.

AN: Once more, all the hugest biggest largest thanks to Nomad Blue for editing this beastly thing!

Greshar's dealt with, Hawkmoon's got the Dark, and the Witness has finally showed itself. Now all they need to do is ready themselves for whatever comes next.