“I count five--- wow, I thought we only had three—motherships, about fifty destroyers, and… more fighters than I can count,” Nighteye said, counting the ships of various sizes on the screen. The layout on the monitor that he, Shockwave, Magna Stampede, and Strongarm were crowded around showed an image of Cybertron being projected via a satellite feed from the farthest of the planet’s two moons. The Vexoran armada had quickly followed the Maximals back to their homeworld, and now their unbelievably enormous fleet nearly obscured all of Cybertron’s actual surface from view. No shots had been fired from the ships yet after they had entered normal space five minutes ago, though fighters were starting to be launched from the metropolis-sized motherships and mountain-sized destroyers.

     “I think our forces combined have about one-thirtieth of that force,” Magna Stampede said, shaking his head. “Hopefully, we can get all of our forces organized before—“

     “One of the motherships is firing,” Nighteye interrupted as a red glow started to build up from the center of one of the largest ships. It’s a fourth of the way around the planet, but it isn’t going to be pretty, regardless.”

     All of the assembled Transformers winced slightly as the mothership fired, and a large explosion emanated from the planet’s surface directly below it.

     “Well, there goes half of Nova Cronum,” Strongarm muttered.

     “Enough of this,” Shockwave said. “We will accomplish nothing by merely watching them destroy us. It is clear that the motherships must be our primary target, as they are capable of taking out our planet the fastest. Therefore, our first strike should be against one of them—preferably the one next to the mothership that just fired, the one that is closest to our position.”

     “Brace yourselves, that very mothership is starting to fire!” Nighteye interrupted. “It’s still a hundred clicks away, granted, but—“

     A fairly loud boom cut off Nighteye, followed shortly afterwards by a rumbling that shook the base they were stationed in, sending several things that weren’t bolted down crashing to the floor. Shockwave and Magna Stampede were also knocked on their skidplates.

     “As I was saying,” Shockwave said, standing up again, “That mothership needs to be targeted, likely by our strongest, most durable units. My two Maximus gestalts will likely be up to the task, as well as Dreadwing and two of my largest soldiers, Tidal Wave and Menasor. Elders, what will you be able to bring to the table?”

     “Magnaboss will be able to help out, most likely,” Magna Stampede replied, “As well as Omega Supreme and his Omega Sentinels, and Superion Maximus, a recently created gestalt of ours based off of your Maximus technology, Shockwave.”

     At Magna’s mention of this, Shockwave’s optic flared, but as always, he showed no emotion in his voice. “Very well then, let us get our troops together as quickly as possible. Nighteye, open a channel to a nearby city named Kaon. Here are the coordinates…”

     “So, what needle in this planet-sized haystack are we supposed to be looking for, anyway?” Ramulus asked Skydive as they, Sigma Prime, and Mirage—all but the latter in beast mode-- found a ramp descending to yet another lower level of Cybertron. Ramulus counted this as the eighth level below the surface.

     “She already mentioned it, it’s called the Well of Allsparks,” Sigma Prime replied.

     “No, I mean, what clues should we be looking for?” Ramulus clarified. “A big neon sign, what?”

     “The Covenant of Primus mentions that the Well of Allsparks is close to what it calls the ‘claw of evil’,” Skydive answered. “What that means, I haven’t the slightest clue.”

     “Yeah, I think that’s the idea,” Ramulus sneered. “So, how many more levels do we need to go down before we start looking for this ‘claw of eeeeevil?’”

     “Well, the archived maps of Cybertron go down to about the thirty-eighth level, and beyond that no official map exists,” Skydive said. “I’d imagine that’s where our search will begin.”

     Ramulus muttered something unintelligible as they headed for the next descending ramp.

     “Do you all understand your mission?” Shockwave addressed the large—literally—group of Transformers he and the Elders had assembled. His voice was louder than normal as he struggled to be heard over the firefights taking place above as the Vexoran fighters started to attack the planet and flying Transformers from both factions responded in kind. Not to mention the fact that every few minutes, another loud boom sounded from over the horizon as the nearest mothership fired yet again on another relatively untouched spot in a neighboring city.

     All of the giant Transformers, as well as the various Maximus and Magnaboss gestalt components and Dreadwing, nodded.

     “And do you all understand yours?” Strongarm asked, turning towards the other Earth escapees that were able to fly, as well as Slugslinger. Again, all of the addressed Transformers nodded—although it took Waspinator a few seconds of quaking in fear before he followed his teammates’ action.

     “We are to serve as a distraction for the fighters, no more,” Obsidian affirmed. “I will be sure to keep the others in formation and close together, I promise you.”

     “Good,” Shockwave replied. “Then there is no time to lose. For Cybertron!”

     “For Cybertron!” All of the assembled Transformers yelled back. Immediately, all of the assigned Transformers took to the air, leaving just the two Elders and Shockwave watching their troops launch towards the sky.

     “May Primus help us…” Strongarm whispered as he saw his troops enter the cloud of clashing Vexoran fighters and Transformers in the skies above.

     “They want a distraction, do they? Well, one distraction COMIN’ UP!” Slugslinger cackled, as his jet mode split in two to reveal a very large energy blaster. After a few seconds of charging up, a huge beam of energy shot out, clipping off two enemy fighters’ wings and completely annihilating a third.

     “Let me add another ‘distraction’ to the tally!” Cybershark smirked, powering up his fin-arm and firing off an energy blast of his own.

     “I tell ya, mates, I’m almost glad these Vex-whatevers showed up!” Slugslinger laughed. “I’ve been bored out of my skull lately, this is just the mayhem I needed!”

     “Well, at least SOMEONE having fun…” Waspinator whined as he nimbly dodged a fighter laser aimed at him. Waspinator suddenly stopped in mid-air and stood still for a few seconds.

     “Wait… Wazzzpinator… DODGED blast! HahahaHAAAA! Wazzzzpinator invinzzzible! Take THIZ, fighter-botz!” Waspinator giddily shrieked before firing his rifle rapidly at a Vexoran fighter. One particularly well-aimed shot penetrated the engine, and the whole fighter exploded, spiraling to the ground in flames.

     “Good job, Waspy—one down, only about two hundred million to go,” Bulkhead shouted as he unleashed a barrage of missile fire at some incoming fighters. Two or three were incinerated by the blast, but the rest punched through the cloud of fire, shooting their main guns at Bulkhead. Taken by surprise, Bulkhead wasn’t able to get out of the way in time, and the laser fire peppered his chassis.

     “Gah! I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come…” Bulkhead groaned as he retaliated.

     “That’s the problem!” Injector yelled while dodging an incoming fighter and firing back. “Even if we take down a hundred before we go down ourselves, we’ll still lose! How the slag are we supposed to ‘distract’ this many fighters?!”

     “Everyone, out of the way now!” Obsidian’s voice suddenly came on over everyone’s comlinks.

     Suddenly, a huge green-and-gray hand swatted away two fighters that were pestering Atlas and Bulkhead, sending them crashing into another nearby fighter and exploding in a large fiery ball.

     “TIDAL WAVE GROW TIRED OF WAITING!” The 800-foot-tall Predacon behemoth roared, firing a round of his chest guns at another group of fighters, most of whom barely dodged. “MOVE ALREADY!”

     “Oh, yeah, that might work…” Injector said to himself.

     “Well, there goes that part of the plan…” Obsidian groaned. “Alright, everyone, quick change of plans! Clear a pathway for the other giants so they can all follow Tidal Wave to the mothership!”

     “Clearing!” Injector replied, firing at an incoming group of fighters. One took a direct hit to the cockpit, but the others nimbly dodged Injector’s potshots, and fired a barrage of lasers back at the Predacon. Injector barely dodged the first salvo, but the second hit him in the chest and wings full force.

     “Grraaccck…” Injector gurgled as mech fluid started to spurt from his mouth. Choking, the fuzor plunged to the ground far below.

     “Injector!” Slugslinger yelled, changing course to dive after the falling Predacon.

     “Forget him, Slugslinger! That’s an order!” Obsidian quickly yelled. “We all know there’s going to be casualities in this battle, what matters is getting the giants to the mothership!”

     Slugslinger growled, but did as he was commanded. “I should be givin’ YOU orders, mate…”

     “So what we do to get fighter-botz out of way?” Waspinator asked, yelping as a laser shot nearly clipped his left wing.

     “Everyone who isn’t in vehicle mode, transform!” Obsidian commanded, as he, Waspinator, Cybershark, and Atlas all transformed into their vehicle or beast-vehicle forms.

     “Now, everyone cluster together, and point their guns skyward!” Obsidian yelled. Reluctantly, the other Transformers under his command flew to within a close proximity of each other and faced towards the huge mothership looming miles overhead.

     “Isn’t this kinda… you know… making us a HUGE target?!” Cybershark said.

     “We’ll only be like this for a millicycle. Everyone, FIRE! FULL FORCE!” Obsidian yelled, and all of the assembled Transformers under his command unleashed a huge blast upwards, a massive combination of missile, laser, and electrical energy fire. As expected, the huge blast incinerated dozens of fighters above them (along with the occasional fighting civilian Transformer, which Obsidian winced over, but mentally chalked them up as acceptable losses), and cleared a temporary pathway most of the way to the mothership.

     As Cybershark had astutely pointed out, however, a few fighters to the side of the group took advantage of the situation and unleashed a barrage of missiles at the metal bullseye.

     “Everyone, scatter now, quickly!” Obsidian commanded. Most did, but Atlas, who was in the center of the formation, took many of the missiles. Grunting, Atlas plummeted from the sky, a trail of smoke following him downwards.

     “Giants, move, now!” Obsidian yelled.

     With a roar, the assembled group of many of Cybertron’s most powerful warriors rocketed upwards, many on their own power, but a few—such as Constructicon Maximus and Menasor—via large jetpacks strapped to their backs.

     “Atlas…” Bulkhead mumbled, closing his optics so he wouldn’t see his leader hit the ground.

     “FOR CYBERTRON!” Magnaboss yelled as he flew up through the atmosphere, at the head of the group consisting of Dreadwing as well as the gestalts Bruticus Maximus, Superion Maximus, and Constructicon Maximus, and the giants Tidal Wave, Menasor, Omega Supreme, and the four Omega Sentinels.

     “FOR CYBERTRON!” the massive group behind Magnaboss echoed.

     “For Blackarachnia…” Magnaboss said more quietly to himself.

     “Our fighters are breaking through their aerial defenses over nearly all of the planet now, High Guardian Zaknos,” a Vexoran general said. “However…”

     “However, what?” Zaknos said irritably. “You cannot tell me this race poses a serious threat to us. After all, it has been told to us by the Master Himself that we will—“

     “No, not at all, sir,” the Vexoran general continued. Typing in a few keys on the mothership main bridge’s console, the monitor screen that had showed a planet-wide view suddenly switched to a camera on the underside of the ship, which showed twelve giant Transformers and one normal-sized Transformer flying up towards the ship, making short work of any Vexoran fighters in their way. “It’s just… we’ve got a group of some exceptionally powerful Transformers heading directly towards this mothership.”

     “So?” Zaknos said. “Exceptionally powerful they may be, but they still cannot stand up to the might of a Vexoran mothership.”

     “Assuredly, sir,” the general acknowledged. “However, from the results of the Transformers’ earlier experience on Tarad’s battleship have shown, this is a not a race to be underestimated. Though I am still certain we will win, to be sure, for safety precautions it may be wise to transfer you to another mothership—after all, only the Master Himself outranks you, sir. It would be most unfortunate if these Transformers were to destroy a small section of the mothership that you might be inhabiting, however small of a chance that is.”

     “Hmmm… perhaps you may have a point,” Zaknos admitted. “Very well. Prepare a pod for my departure immediately, as well as the rest of my personal guard. We will fly towards the next nearest mothership.”

     Swatting aside another two fighters, the assault team of Transformers landed on the lower side of the Vexoran mothership.

     “Omega Sentinels, clear the area, and take out any automatic defenses!” commanded Omega Supreme. The Sentinels wordlessly obeyed, as they always did.

     “WE’VE GOT AN INCOMING DESTROYER!” Magnaboss thundered, pointing towards an ever-closer Vexoran ship that was brimming with weapons.

     “Tidal Wave, Bruticus, Superion, deal with it!” Omega Supreme commanded. “Magnaboss, help the Sentinels and guard this area from further attacks! Menasor, Constructicon, work on drilling a hole through the mothership’s outer armor!”

     “Aye, don’t get yer wires inna bunch, I’m workin’ on it!” Menasor replied, in his usual thick Irish accent, before activating his drill-arms and starting to shred away the outer layer of the mothership’s armor. Constructicon Maximus, meanwhile, started to clear away the rubble that Menasor was shredding out of the mothership.

     “Meanwhile, I’m going to divide and conquer!” Omega Supreme stated, before transforming into his two separate vehicle modes. His futuristic crane half began to help Constructicon Maximus with the clearing of the debris, while his battleship half flew in the direction of the destroyer.

     Dreadwing normally would have been perturbed that he had been ignored while Omega Supreme was giving out orders—granted, he was easy to miss, given that he was the only normal-sized Transformer among the group, but still-- but something else inside the ship had distracted him. While the other Maximals and Predacons around him fought like mad, he simply stared at the mothership that Menasor was drilling into.

     Something was in there, he could feel it… Something… familiar….

     “Woah!” Superion Maximus said, narrowly dodging a massive blast of energy that zipped by him. “Watch out ‘bots, those things come at you quick!”

     “DESTROYER DOES NOT SCARE BRUTICUS!” Bruticus Maximus bellowed, before diving towards the front of the huge spacecraft. Roaring, Tidal Wave followed.

     “We’ve got a lot of firepower on our own, you know,” replied Omega Supreme’s battleship half as it flew past Superion, its several guns blazing at surrounding fighters.

     “True, but they still outpower us exponentially. Maybe giving them more smaller, faster targets will help even the odds…” Superion muttered, before dividing into his five smaller component robots, who each transformed into their jet modes and flew towards the destroyer at full speed.

     Tidal Wave, being slightly faster than Bruticus Maximus, landed on the top of the destroyer first. The many guns firing at him did dent his armor some, but to such an enraged behemoth they felt like little more than bee stings. Roaring again, Tidal Wave slammed his fist down on a nearby gun, obliterating it and crumpling a portion of the ship’s armor beneath it as well. Still, even as huge as he was, Tidal Wave looked like a mere flea in comparison to the massive destroyer. Turning to another gun emplacement, Tidal Wave continued on his rampage as Bruticus landed too and followed Tidal Wave’s example. Bruticus didn’t do quite as much damage, however, since as big as he was, he was only waist-high to Tidal Wave.

     Omega Supreme saw the destroyer’s massive gun turn towards Tidal Wave a moment too late.

     “TIDAL WAVE, LOOK—“

     The sound of the destroyer’s main energy blaster going off cut Omega short. Tidal Wave turned around in the direction of the gun, but he couldn’t react in time—the energy blast annhiliated his entire upper body.

     Superion’s various components circled around the offending energy cannon, strafing it so fast the cannon couldn’t get a good bead on them.  Tidal Wave’s lower half fell to the “ground” of the destroyer with a loud rumble, smoke trailing from the former behemoth’s severed waist.

     Omega Supreme zoomed full speed towards the energy cannon, weapons blazing. After a few seconds, either he or one of Superion’s component ‘bots—Omega wasn’t sure which—must have hit a vital spot in the cannon, and the huge cannon exploded into a million pieces.

     “Fighter bays are opening!” Storm Jet, Superion’s main component, yelled.

     “Great, as if we didn’t have enough problems…” Omega Supreme mumbled.

     “Attention everyone, I’ve gotten through!” Menasor’s voice suddenly said over everyone’s comlink. “Get back here now and get ready for th’ big push!”

     “Well, scratch this!” Storm Jet said, signaling his other teammates to jet out back towards the mothership. “The big cannon’s been neutralized anyways.”

     “TIME FOR SOME REAL SMASHING NOW!” Bruticus Maximus roared before taking off from his position further down on the destroyer. Bruticus had several burnt spots on his body from the myriad laser blasts he had suffered, but otherwise looked functional.

     “Attention Vexorans! Hull breach in Sector A-13! The ship will heal itself over time, but not fast enough! All available personnel, to that area, immediately! Prepare to defend the mothership!”

     As the speakers in the prison hallway went silent and most of the guards hurried off to defend their ship, Scourge peeked out from between the energy bars eagerly. Most bars could not hold Vexorans in their natural forms—as Scourge and Scarem were now back in due to their shape-shifting nature-- but these particular bars emitted a special short-range energy pulse that prevented the material Vexorans were made of from stretching or bending much.

     “Now’s our chance, Scarem,” Scourge whispered. “The guards are few and distracted.”

     “Um… how exactly do you plan on getting us out of here?” Scarem stated. “In case you haven’t noticed, those bars are still holding us in…”

     “Us, yes,” Scourge grinned. “However, our associate should have little problem escaping her bonds, especially with a certain… program I installed in her for just such an emergency.”

     “ECLIPSE, NOW!” Scourge shouted quickly.

     Before the guards could react, a huge explosion went off two cells down from the one where Scourge and Scarem were being held. The huge fireball blew through the two cells in between the three very quickly, and annhiliated all of the unprotected guards in the hallway. Scourge and Scarem, pressed flat against the floor, escaped the direct blunt of the blast… only to have the right steel wall of their cell fall down on top of them.

     Of course, by now the generators for the energy bars had been destroyed as well, and Scourge and Scarem were easily able to slither out from under the burnt, warped steel wall and reform into their normal shapes.

     “An important lesson to remember, Scarem,” Scourge smirked, “is that when you build an automaton completely loyal to you, always remember to include a self-destruct mechanism for use in dire situations. Now… let’s get out of here.”

     “They’re sending out drop pods,” Nighteye told the others, pointing at the hundreds of small little gray dots— at least, they looked like dots, considering the distance they were from the camera view that was being fed to the monitor—starting to fly off from the bottom of the destroyers and motherships. “It won’t be long until we have a full-scale ground invasion on our hands, as well.”

     “Tell the group of flyers to return here,” Magna Stampede ordered. “This fortress, being such an obvious target, will no doubt need a great deal of defending. Our ground troops and Metroplex will not be enough.”

     “Relaying orders now,” Nighteye answered.

     “I only hope Nightviper will be okay in our old headquarters,” Strongarm fretted. “The old Maximal was needed there to keep things in order in the area, but there’s already been two shots fired from the motherships aimed at that general sector of the planet, so I don’t know…”

     “Nightviper is not our primary concern at the moment,” Shockwave said. “This fortress is. I will gather the ground forces. If you will excuse me…”

     “Red Alert is reporting massive casualties among the flight-capable Transformers in the area, we’ve lost roughly 25% of the local population in just the last Earth half-hour,” Nighteye said. “He and Tow-Line said that they’ll continue to treat as many Maximals and Predacons as they can, but they’re severely low on staff and… oh, slag…”

     “What!? What is it?” Strongarm asked.

     “There’s an absolutely massive structure starting to come in through transwarp space right now, the readings are saying… it’s the size of a large moon….”

     “What, do they have some kind of super-mothership?” Magna Stampede said.

     “Worse... it’s a planet buster.”

To be continued…

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