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Kaleidoscope

Part Two

By: Sapphire

Dinobot had watched that cloud rise for what felt like eternity.  He had watched the tell tale ripples in the smoke caused by the Predacon jets glide out and away from the area.  Then he had seen ships.  Maximal ships, he could tell by their design.  It was all very vague from where he was standing, but from what he could gather, the Maximal air force had shot down and chased out the P. jets.  How they had managed to destroy invisible targets was unclear to him.  He didn’t dwell on the matter and was thankful that the Predacons retreated before long, and he was no longer required to warn the rescue ship occupants.  So, he had turned back and headed into the city, finally reporting to duty as an officer.  To his great relief, he had no trouble trying to prove his rank.  It seemed that his fame thanks to the Beast Wars had spread, and he was well recognized.  ‘Just as well,’ he thought, ‘because I would have given them something to worry about if they didn’t believe me!’

The sun was now high in the horizon as midday approached.  It was only now that the full extent of the damage was shown.

It was clear that there was a lot of work needed in order to build up and protect the city.

Vixadonia was only recognizable by the still standing Giant Paper Clip.

Diamond trudged through ash and debris as she neared Vixadonia.  It had been a six-hour trek with much ducking and diving to avoid some of the still present Predacon ships in the area.  Yet now Vixadonia was but a few meters from her reach and she for one was extremely glad.  Maybe now she could get some rest and find out what was really going on.  The exact cause for the Predacons actions was unclear to her, and she was eager to find out why they thought all this fighting and destruction was necessary.

She finally entered the city, trying to continue holding her heavy weapon.  Her gun and sword had long since been lost in all the commotion and now she had to carry this heavy thing!  She hadn’t tested it out.  Apparently, it was very powerful.  Where the weapons had all come from she had no idea.  There must have been a secret stash somewhere that only the Maximals knew of in case this very thing happened again.  If you thought about it, it wasn’t really a shock.  The Predacons were bound to do something like this sooner or later.  Why, however, when Cybertron was just trying to find its feet after the Gitrix War, she had no idea.

Almost as soon as she had entered the city she was checked, disarmed, and led straight to a building that wasn’t too damaged and taken inside.  There, she met other officers, who were queuing up at a desk to have their ranks insignias repaired and have their names put down with their rank. She had guessed all the official documents with military details had been destroyed.  The queue was long and she knew that it’d be some time before she had some rest.  Yet she forgot all her weariness and worry when she caught sight of a bot just leaving the desk with a newly repaired insigne on his right shoulder.

“Dad!” she exclaimed and he stopped dead in his tracks and turned slowly towards her.

When he saw her he was utterly expressionless and still, but a few moments later, a relieved smile spread across his face.  This rare expression almost made the joints creak and looked odd, but she didn’t care.  She left her spot in the queue and rushed over to him. 

“Dad,” she whispered as she hugged him, her emotions almost bubbling.

If she could, she would be sobbing with joy.

“Diamond, my little Diamond,” he said gently, patting her back softly. 

She had seen all her friend officers she had met on the train there, and knew they were watching.  She knew Captain Swantex was snorting like he was saying ‘I told you so’ and that Lieu Vern was making some cock eyed remark.  She didn’t care, though.  She wasn’t ashamed that she loved her father and knew that if they had a problem with it, she could easily deal with them!

She pulled away from him and smiled.

“I thought you were dead, or badly hurt…I sensed it,” she said gently, and he nodded as if he fully understood what she meant.

“I was.  Hyra and I were shot down by a jet and crashed in the desert between Kiulist and Nystrin.  We only just made it to the medic camp at Kiulist.  I should have died,” he explained. 

Diamond didn’t look shocked.  She had expected and almost knew something of that sort had happened.  The urge for her to go in the direction of the medic base when she was in Kiulist was clear now.

“What about Hyra?” she asked worriedly.

Dinobot bowed his head and his optics dulled.

“I’m afraid that her chances of surviving both the crash and the hover-tanks out in the residential area of Vixadonia were slim.  I doubt she’s alive.”

Diamond felt her entire body droop.  Hyra was her friend, and in a sense, Dinobot’s responsibility.  She knew that he’d see it that way anyway, and to him it was a miserable failure.  She didn’t think so, and knew under the circumstances, it couldn’t be helped.  Especially when he mentioned the hover-tanks.  She for one knew the power they held. 

“It was out of your hands, dad,” she said solemnly.

He didn’t answer.

After a while, she looked up again.

“At least we found each other.  Let’s try and stick together.  I don’t want to lose you again,” she said adamantly, her voice fragile with emotion.

He smiled to that.

“Yes, let’s.  But first you must get your insigne replaced.  Now get back into that queue before it gets any longer you sentimental old fool,” he hissed.

That was her old dad back again.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

It was a heart-warming scene she had to admit. It was also good to see from her point of view, because now she knew her weak point.  Great blackmail, this person she loved so much presented.  Despite all his medals and battle victories, he could not defy destiny.

Kismet stood, invisible, watching Diamond hug her father.  Chimera was sitting quietly next to her.  Both could see the love between father and daughter, but it was Kismet who saw the potential such a situation presented.

“Just imagine,” Chimera began suddenly, “that you find her when she’s alone after a stressful battle that she’s lost and all, and you decide now’s the best time to try and convince her she must join you and stop all the chaos, which is the plan, right?” she said.

Kismet nodded.

“Yes, we’ll obviously expose ourselves in a situation where the options we present, which will be joining up with fate again and having control of the happenings on Cybertron, will seem good for the taking.”

Chimera continued.

“Yeah, but just imagine that she refuses.  Then what will you do?”

Kismet smiled and pointed at Dinobot.

“See him?” she asked and Chimera nodded.

“He’s perfect blackmail. If we threaten him with death, she’ll have to join.  That, however, is only a last resort.  We don’t want to pressure her too much now, do we?”

Chimera looked impressed, but surprised Kismet by continuing.

“Yes, and if she still refuses?  Then what?”

Kismet was silent, staring ahead coldly.

Eventually, she answered.

“She won’t refuse.”

Chimera didn’t bother with any further questions but just made one more point.

“She has a boyfriend, you know.  When I went to check that the ship had landed ok, I brushed past him and he was praying to Primus that ‘sweet Diamond will be all right.’  Either that or he’s her brother or something, but I don’t think she has one, does she?”

Kismet looked at Chimera and smiled approvingly.

“No, that’s her boyfriend all right.  Another weak point of hers to kick, if necessary.”

Chimera nodded.

“What do we do now?”

“Follow her closely and when the moment is right, and we’ll know when, we strike.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………

He wasn’t sure how many hours had passed. The sunlight that spilled in through cracks in the wall seemed of a stronger nature than to those of the early morning rays he last saw.  They must have been away for a few hours, but he was sure no one had left.  The city was more likely building up its defense.  Vixadonia was, after all, one of the most important Maximal cities.  All the important documents and information on events and people were stored here in the MIA (Maximal Intelligence Agency) main chamber, which was again sealed off underground.  Where exactly it was he wasn’t sure.  Yet he knew that when the Predacons returned to fight, the Maximals would defend their city fiercely.

Rattrap yawned and stretched out.  He had awoken with these curious thoughts but shoved them aside again.  There was nothing he could do about anything anymore.

He sat up against a wall and looked down to his right.  Tourmaline was fast asleep, lying on her right side, facing him.  He smiled and gazed down at her.  It was a miracle that they had found each other amidst all this chaos. 

She was smiling in her sleep, looking peaceful for the first time in a while.

Her hand lay outstretched and he slipped his into hers.  He’d never been in love before, but it wasn’t a bad emotion.  It was confusing, that was for sure, but worth all the trouble.

They’d shared a lot these past few hours, but sleep soon set in.  War was, to say the least, very tiring. 

Eventually he stood up and decided to have a look through the cracks down on the streets below.  He was sure he could hear some noise.

They were on the second floor of some building, and hadn’t been disturbed, thankfully.  But he feared something was wrong.  It was a bit too quiet outside.  He looked through one of the cracks and saw below a congregation of soldiers, both human and transformer, listening to an officer.  A meeting!  A probably very important, informative meeting at that.

“Uh oh,” Rattrap mumbled and ran back to Tourmaline.

He knelt down and shook her gently.

“Tour!  Tour, baby.  Wake up!”

Tourmaline groaned and her optics lit up slowly.

“What?  What’s wrong?” she asked.

Rattrap’s optics were wide with horror.

“Dere’s a meetin’ down dere wid’ all da soldiers.  I think we’re missin’ something mighty important!”

It took a moment for it to sink in, but she soon responded in the expected manner.

“Oh slag!”

They both got up and scrambled down the steps and out the building.

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

Joe stood to attention, listening to what the colonel had to say.  All the soldiers were standing quietly in the weak sunshine, awaiting news of what was to happen and what had happened.  So far Joe had been informed how the Predacon Air Force had been defeated in Vixadonia, and that Maximals had claimed back a city called Hashlyn.

He listened closely, for the first time actually interested in what an officer had to say.

“Despite this victory, we are fully aware that the Predacons are regrouping and will find a way around the radar.  Even if they don’t, all they need to do is take out the lone air base of Aswade to take out our air force.  Without an air force, we are very weak.  We do, however, have one more base.  Rivastar air base, situated in space not far from Cybertron, was attacked by the Predacons early in the Uprising.  Thankfully, the EA air force got there in time and saved it.  At present it is secured and is undergoing repairs, but until it is fixed we are relying heavily on the flow of ships arriving from Earth.  The Predacons need only to fully secure the planet’s perimeter to stop the EA ships from getting in to leave us almost totally stranded.”

Joe interrupted his attentiveness to look around upon hearing approaching footsteps.  Rattrap jogged up next to him, panting, followed closely by a female transformer.

“Where have you two been?” Joe asked calmly.

Rattrap stuttered and stumbled in his answer and the female just cleared her throat and looked away.

“Oh,” Joe said with a knowing smile.

Rattrap was looking very worried.

“Uh, Joe, what did we miss?” he asked.

Joe snorted.

“Not too much.  I’ll catch you up later, I don’t want to miss anymore of this guy’s speech,” he told them and faced the front again.

“So, my friends, it appears that we are indeed relying on hope.  The attacks have had a huge blow to our population.  Just how many Maximals are left we are not sure. For now, technicians are working on repairing the shields and weapons are coming in via ships.  A few of our fighter jets are holding off Predacons ships from disrupting the carrier ships.  They won’t be able to hold them off much longer.  We hope that the carrier ships can get in enough weapons to arm each and every one of you with more to spare.  For now, I want all unarmed soldiers to head for the Giant Paper Clip.  Directly below it there is a stand for you to collect your weapons.  I’ll try and keep you infromed.  Until then, dismissed.”

A large portion of transformer soldiers headed towards the stand, but most of the humans were armed and were led off to a camp to be treated for injuries and to be fed and so forth. 

Joe was starved and started to run to avoid the queue. 

“Hey, Joe, wait!” Rattrap called.

Joe spun around, jogging backwards for a moment.

“The officer simply told us how Vixadonia was claimed back and that we might have an air base handy in space.  I’m sure your lady friend can update you on the first part,” Joe called, then turned and ran off.

“Food!”

Rattrap stopped running after him and heard Tourmaline come up beside him.

“Guess we didn’t miss much after all,” she sighed.

“Yep,” he agreed.

They stood still for a while and looked around.  The place was so quiet, the dust still clung to the air and pieces of debris littered the streets.  Vixadonia’s front end was in shambles.

Ahead of them, next to the human eating stall was an energon vender.  There was quite a queue of hungry transformers accumulating there.

Rattrap turned to Tourmaline.

“Have ya eaten?  I could eat a submarine!”

She shook her head.

“No, I ate aboard the ship.  You go along though, I’ll meet you near the G.P.C.” (Giant Paper Clip.)

Rattrap nodded and jogged off.

After a short while, he arrived and was met by an irritatingly long queue.

He stood impatiently at the back.

“Come on, fatsos!  You’ve all eaten aboard yer rescue ships!” he cried. 

As usual, no one listened to him.

Grunting and swearing, he edged on towards his stomach’s goal. 

He spotted a femme bot walking alongside the queue, looking for someone.

He recognized this femme immediately.

“Hey!” he yelled, “Diamond!  What’s up, girl?”

Diamond turned and looked at him, her face lit with recognition.

“Rattrap!  Jeez, what a co-incidence,” she called. 

Rattrap was so happy to see she was alive that he forgot about his food and ran up to her.

He had grown pretty fond of the strange but friendly femme.

He gave her a hug and lifted her off her feet, although this was incredibly straining for a bot of his size.

He put her down quickly.

“Hah!  Yer armour’s so heavy!  But den again, I’m no body builder,” he chuckled.

She was grinning happily.

“Wow!  So great to see you!  How did you survive Nystrin?” she asked.

Rattrap’s answer was interrupted when someone tapped him on his shoulder.

He spun around and his grin faded.

“Lizard lips!”

Dinobot looked down with contempt at the small bot, but was hinting a slight smile.

“Vermin.  So nice to see you warming up to my daughter,” he snarled.

Rattrap crossed his arms and tapped his foot.

“Yeah, well, I’m more happy ta see her dan you,” he said disdainfully.

Dinobot growled.

“Out off all the worthy, hard working citizens that there were in Nystrin, you were one of the few survivors!  Oh fate is cruel,” Dinobot sighed.

Rattrap sniggered.

“Same goes for you!”

Diamond interrupted the oncoming fight.

“Hey, calm down you two!  Rather be glad that life still existed after all the bombing there.  Hey, um, Rattrap…is Tourmaline still alive?” she asked.

Rattrap smiled naughtily.

“Is she!  Heh heh!”

Diamond took that as a very happy yes.

Rattrap turned and looked up at Dinobot, his face a little more serious.

“How about Hyra?” he asked.

Dinobot shook his head slowly and his optics darkened.

Rattrap’s shoulders drooped.

“Oh no…”

It was then that Tourmaline jogged up to all of them.

“Hey!  You’re all alive!  I just spotted you guys now.  That’s wonderful,” she said excitedly.

Diamond smiled sadly.

Tourmaline’s joy flushed away suddenly.

Her face became solemn.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Does anyone have any idea where Axterbeam Heliotrope is hiding?”

Blackarachnia glanced at Tarantulas, who was repairing a device at the back of the room.  She had no answer to his question.

“He’s probably cowering in a cave on earth somewhere.  Why?” she asked.

Tarantulas finished screwing in the last bolt on the machine.  It was some kind of new engine he was working on for hover-tanks. The machine, about twelve feet long, was raised off the ground by metal jacks and he was lying on a skateboard beneath it.  He slid from under it and wiped the oil from his forehead.

“It’s just that…losing the head of the Maximal High Council isn’t such a good idea,” he said calmly, picking up a hammer.

Blackarachnia wondered why he didn’t get his cyber bugs to do the dirty work.  Maybe it was too fragile an operation.

She shrugged.

“Who cares?  He’s no good to anyone now.  Salient Halls and pretty much all the Maximal major cities are out of his reach,” she pointed out.

She carried on typing up plans for her latest invention.

Tarantulas grunted and shook his head.

“That may be true, but I think he’s worth worrying about. Especially since he had the access codes to the imperative Altron Chamber,” he sneered almost acrimoniously.

Blackarachina’s optics widened and she wheeled around in her chair to look at him.

“The room that contains the access key codes to Vector Sigma!” she exclaimed.

He nodded nonchalantly and wheeled back under the machine.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to know where he is,” he muttered aloud. 

Blackarachnia stared at him expectantly.  She knew he was up to something.

Something big.

“Yes,” she said as she surrendered to this game of vagueness.

There was a thoughtful pause before Tarantulas continued.

“Funny, how things work out.  For just the other day I re-met someone.  Someone who can find Axterbeam and get the codes in less than a deca-cycle.  Someone who owes me a favour,” he said.

Blackarachia’s spark was shuddering from excitement.

“Really,” she said simply.

“Uh huh.”

He wheeled out from under the machine again and smiled crazily.

She knew then and there that he was after those codes and would stop at nothing to get them.  She could tell by that insane determination on his face.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Megatron glared at his computer screen.  The reason being that there was a list of captured and/or assassinated officers of the Predacon faction. 

Under the captured list, he saw:

Lieutenant Danzhire, 2^nd Lieutenant Northstar, Captain Altramond and the famous Major West.  Captain Asphyxiate was marked under the ‘Killed in Battle’ section.

He sighed and turned away from his computer.  The list wasn’t very long, especially not compared to the Maximal one.  The Maximal list contained some very important names, including Hazhire, a powerful Maximal leader.

Yet there was one name missing from the list.  He was sure he wasn’t the only one to notice, but to his knowledge, nothing had been done about it.

“Axterbeam Heliotrope,” he breathed, his optics narrowing. 

Megatron knew that he had something of great importance.  Something that had been brought to his attention by one person.  This one person has learnt his information from secret sources, which if you followed, would probably source form the Tripedicus Intelligence Agency.  Tarantulas had brought it to his attention when they were stealing the golden disks.  It was too late at the time to change plans, but Megatron never forgot it.

He stood up, scratching his chin as he thought about trying to locate the spider.  For, even with all the rank upgrades and fancy features like private air forces etc. Megatron was looking for a more ultimate kind of power.

He grinned at this thought.

“A power that would bring about the apocalypse of this planet, even,” he said softly

“Apocalypse?”

Megatron spun around at the voice, the realization that he’d been standing in the same way as General Pernicious coming back to haunt him.

There stood General Alesion, staring at him curiously.

Megatron’s calm smile was washed away by temporary fear.

“I was just babbling to myself, sir,” he said quickly, uncomfortably.

The General didn’t seem to hear what he said and moved straight into business.

“I’ve decided to wipe out Vixadonia completely.  We’ve been developing plans for hours and have come to one strategy,” he said, walking over to him, clutching a disk.

He stopped in front of Megatron’s computer, closed the program he was on and inserted the disk. 

“What is the plan, sir?” Megatron asked tentatively. 

There was a moment’s pause as Alesion watched the program load.

“The plan is to send in 600 lightly built G. Fighters,” he began and then trailed off as he clicked furiously on various icons on the screen.  Megatron waited patiently.

“And…”

The General smiled briefly as the program loaded showing a map of the area with flashing red Predacon blips south of the city, Vixadonia.

He turned to face Megatron.

“We have, in the center of this massive onslaught, a big ship.  If the Maximals want to use old technology, then so will we.  The big ship is not a fighter, but a bomber.  An Anti-Matter T.D. Bomber.  That is why we need the little ships to cover it as it arrives.  One bomb equals four thousand dead Maximals and 1000 dead humans.  The MIA base will be easier to locate, as it is underground. Quick, simple and clean.”

Megatron blinked.

“That’s it?  That’s the entire plan?” he asked.

The General shook his head.

“Not exactly.  It’s a little more complicated.  Sit down Megatron, as I show you an interactive program explaining where everyone’s going to be situated, and where your air force will come in,” he said quickly, moving over to let Megatron sit down.

Megatron obeyed and watched with keen interest as the General began to show him.

“What we’re going to do, is send in ground troops on the western flank.  Not many, just a few to keep them occupied at that part of the city.  Then, we send in a large air attack from the east.  The Maximals will have expected that and by then would have seen that the ground troops were a diversion.  They will think they’ve got our trick figured out.  They’ll think wrong.  While our ground troops begin to back down and the Maximals focus their attention on the onslaught at the east of the city, we send in a bomber from the north.  However, this bomber is disguised.  There are plenty of grounded Maximal planes.  We just fix one close to the city, place our bomb inside, fly in and pretend to be a Maximal ship – and we will look it with the ship letting off a friendly signature and all – and then we drop the bomb.  Kablooey!!  Hah ha!”

Megatron stared at the screen, watching the attack sequence being displayed as if it were a computer game.  It was rather simple, clever but with a good chance of failure.  However, the Maximal shields were down on the north and in the confusion the bomber would probably get in.  To Megatron it seemed a good wipeout plan, but it also sounded like a terrible waste.  Cybertron was dying.  After so many wars and so much damage done to it’s core energy supplies the planet was getting colder and colder.  More and more desolate.  At this rate, the uprising will wreck Cybertron until there is nothing worth fighting for.  Nothing but a planet of ash…

“Megatron!  Your air force will be on the west waiting as back up, so when the ground troops retreat, you send them in to keep ’em busy.  What say you?”

Megatron shook his head too slightly for Alesion to see.

“I say yes, General.  It is a very destructive plan, but, if I may say, not a very planet-friendly one,” Megatron said softly, rising from his seat.

The General shrugged.

“True, but once Cybertron is ours, we will restore it to its full glory and rule the galaxy.  Not a bad bargain, if you ask me.”

Megatron nodded falsely.

“Yes sir.  I’m sure.”

The General switched off the program and took out the disk.

“Right then, Colonel.  Plans will be sent to you in a few cycles.  Read them over and send them to your captain.  I’ll get back to you on a date for this occurrence.  For now, focus on your present task, whatever that may be,” he said, his voice drifting as he walked out of the room and down the hallway.  Megatron closed the door and sighed.

He glanced at the floor, his mind wandering.

‘Kablooey indeed!  The Predacon leaders are more insane than I in their ambitions.  The way they plan to take over will surely bring about the destruction of Cybertron.  Although weakened, the Maximals are determined and strong fighters. They will fight to the bitter end, and it shall be so.  Eventually, the two races will cancel each other out! Madness…’ 

He stepped over to his star chart and gazed at the paper image of the sky.

‘Things aren’t looking good for me, or anyone for that matter.  Someone needs to get hold of Vector Sigma and take it away from them all.  There is no point trying to fight an opponent and conquer all when afterwards you’re going to die out because there is no way to grow.  If I could just get hold of the access codes and ship myself away from here, leaving them all to perish…to perish UNLESS they obey my every command and become my slaves.  Under my rule, Cybertron will become great and-’

Megatron stopped in mid thought when he realised that he was beginning to sound just like General Alesion.  He shook his again and slumped into his chair.

“Perhaps I should not interfere.  Perhaps all is as it was destined to be,” he whispered.

………………………………………………………………………………………………