The Ultimate Price: Part Two

Part Two

Megatron shook himself out of his daze and turned to the computer. Diamond had been located, and she was leaving Vixadonia.

“I wonder where you’re off to in such a hurry,” he muttered sarcastically.

“Computer!” he barked suddenly, startling Blackarachnia beside him who was preparing for take off.

“Be there in a click,” he snarled and a few moments later he had moved across the airfield stealthily towards the ship. He entered and came up beside Megatron as the ship began to take off.

The ship shuddered and groaned. She activated the invisibility shield to maximum power and seconds later the ship jerked and sped off into the distance.

He noticed with interest that although Diamond was heading for Hashlyn, she was taking a longer route to get there. That could only mean that the Maximals had detected Predacon guards along the usual path and she was trying to bypass them.

He thought at first she might go directly towards the Vector Sigma base, but there was some kind of preparation to be done in Hashlyn, if all his theories were correct. They were, after all, just theories. But that was all he had and considering the information he’d been gathering over the past few months, he felt confident that he was very close to the truth. Kismet, Tarantulas, the Tripedicus…. It all had to be linked, had to mean something.

Vindictive looked at him curiously. He knew his boss was in hot pursuit of something, something vital to his plans, but up until now he had no idea what. By catching Megatron’s mumble, he’d gathered a she was involved.

He was just about to ask Megatron who it was that they were looking for when the leader spoke.

“Blackarachnia, our target is moving too fast to be on ground. She’s in a ship. Run a scan to see if you can locate this ship,” he ordered.

Blackarachnia did just this. Megatron hadn’t located the vessel Diamond was in. He had located her specifically.

“I can’t get a reading on the ship at all. If she’s in one, it has all the latest anti detection devices,” she reported.

“I thought only the Predacons had such technology. Tarantulas must have leaked information to the Maximals. Still, it must have been fairly recent. Which means that they cannot possibly have had time or available equipment to apply such technology to all their ships. The ship Diamond is inside must be very important or, rather, carrying something very important,” he explained to no one in particular.

“And that very important thing is this ‘Diamond’ girl, right?” Vindictive tried.

“They think they’re invisible, but I can see them. Follow them and once we’re close enough, attack that ship with a lock beam. I don’t want to destroy it, just immobilize it.”

“Yes, this is no ordinary stealth ship. This is on of the recently upgraded fighters complete with the latest technology. It is only a beta unit, but I’m betting its ready for testing,” he told her.

They hurried towards their target.

The ship headed towards Hashlyn at an alarming speed and he suddenly realized that he was already in danger, even before he got there.

Joe looked through the window and wondered briefly where everyone was. Diamond, well, he had no idea where she was going. All he knew was that recently she’d been really busy discussing things with Generals. Must be important. Dinobot? Ah, who cares! Tourmaline? The lovely lady had gone off to Hashlyn, according to Diamond. She was heading there to get her pregnancy problem sorted out – however she intended doing that. Could bots have abortions? Rattrap? He was probably off on some heroic mission to Hashlyn to try and stop Tourmaline doing something irrational. Him? He was on a one-way trip to his doom. What a thing to look forward to.

“Wouldn’t it be funny,” he muttered, “if I met up with them all again in Hashlyn?”

He sighed and stared down at his feet. He missed Earth. He missed good coffee. He missed his mother, good grief! He even missed her.

Once he arrived in Hashlyn he would probably be sent out to the perimeter defense again, the first place to get hit. At least it would be over quickly.

In another ship, Diamond was approaching Hashlyn at a speed so fast she hardly had time to breath before she was there. She sat motionless, her optics closed, next to her father who remained still as well. Magnanimous was sitting to her right, her father to her left. It was the last peaceful moment she would have with them. Her mind was a whir. Emotions were clouding all logical though that should have been going through her brain before she began the most important mission for the Maximals. All she could think about was how she was leaving Cheetor, soon her father and once she reached her post outside of the V.S. base, Magnanimous would leave her too to retrieve the plans. If he made it out alive, and that was a big if, she would at least have some company. If not, she would be utterly alone in the world on the last day of her existence. Her father was fighting in an area away from Hashlyn yet fairly near the V.S. base. After she had the plans, she would go straight to Hashlyn to deliver them then remain there until she was blown to pieces. What a day.

She opened her eyes and turned to the source of the voice. Her father looked at her solemnly.

She nodded, although she knew in her spark she would never be ready for such a day.

He sighed and looked at the cyber map installed in the wall in front of them. They were very close to Hashlyn. They would have been there sooner if it weren’t for Predacon guard ships blocking the usual way. Even under invisibility cloaks they didn’t dare take the well-used path because one could never be too careful. Now the Predacons had Tarantulas back, who knows what new technology they could have made to counter theirs.

Diamond was looking despondently at the floor so she never caught the communication between them.

Dinobot pointed at Magnanimous and mouthed ‘look after her’. He nodded with a faint smile and Dinobot grunted. Magnanimous was a good bot, young, but determined.

All of them were already armed. When they landed, Dinobot would go to a transportation vehicle to take him to his post, which was a few miles away from where Diamond would be stationed. He would be guarding her from the south with a small army. Diamond and Magnanimous would get off this ship and board another that would take them to the perimeter of the Vector Sigma area. There Diamond would take her post and the mission would be carried out.

It wasn’t long before they touched down, the ship let outs its last bellow and then all was silent. Diamond looked up and noticed Magnanimous and her father were staring at each other. Magnanimous nodded softly as if Dinobot has just told him something and then he looked at her.

She stood up with a gentle sigh and swung her gun over her shoulder. She turned and faced her father.

They looked at each other in silence for a long time. They both knew what the other was feeling; they didn’t need to say anything. Eventually, she closed her eyes and pulled him into an embrace.

“I love you,” she whispered and squeezed her eyes shut. She felt his hand touch her shoulder gently.

The doors hissed open and Magnanimous gave Dinobot a pained look. He realized that there was a gentle light coming in through that door. The sun was rising. Time was running out. He lifted Diamond’s head by the chin so she was looking at his eyes.

She bit her lip, holding back her emotions and nodded. She pulled away gently, turned around and headed for the exit. Magnanimous put an arm around her and the two left in silence. Dinobot stood alone for a moment, his spark shuddering with grief. She would die today. And so would he.

When the siblings stepped outside, they noticed there were a lot of ships coming into land. Bots were scurrying all over the airfield. As soon as they walked off the ramp and onto the ground, and officer approached them hastily.

“I am Mission Commander Sereqi. I am in control of this mission and when you return after retrieving the plans, you, Lieutenant, will pass them onto me upon your return to Hashlyn. Are you both ready to board the Xitech?”

“The Xitech is the cloaked ultra-jet that will take you to your sector. It’s ready for you.”

“Ah, yes. Yes, lead the way,” Magnanimous said, trying to sound confident. Serequi turned and led them to the Xitech. It turned out to be relatively small, streamlined, grey on top and silver beneath. Diamond noticed the silver when walking beneath one of the wings. They both admired the awesome ship until they were interrupted by a ramp sliding out.

Diamond walked onto the ramp but just before she entered the ship she stopped. Magnanimous got stuck behind her.

Almost immediately the ship and its occupants became cloaked and the two couldn’t see each other. They stumbled into each other, found a seat and sat down.

They felt the ship rising and watched through what was like a glass tank as all the Maximals darted about here and there below them.

It was amazing. The ship was almost totally silent taking off. It was like floating up to the heavens.

“No. Here goes everything.”

One of the bots below them was Tourmaline. She was standing still and looking up as ships came into land. There were a lot of troops arriving now. She was inside the airfield as she had been helping out by guiding sick or partially injured soldiers to the medic camp. While most of the soldiers arrived healthy and ready to fight, there were some coming from cities that had received nothing except bombardment from Predacons these past few weeks and the soldiers from there were tired and hurt. She’d offered her services as a nurse and bandaged some of the humans and performed manual repairs on some of the bots. Now, though, she was having a break. The sun was rising a little more each moment and the day was about to begin.

She watched one ship very closely, though, as it came into land. It was branded with a symbol - a triangle. By now she had learnt that all ships with triangles on them came from Vixadonia. She watched as the ship landed and a ramp slid out. She waited expectantly for soldiers to come out. It was possible, she thought with a shiver, that Rattrap was on one of them. She hadn’t thought what she would do if he found her. What she’d say. She decided not to think about it and let the moment come. Suddenly, the soldiers appeared marching downwards but they were human soldiers. She tried to ignore the quiver of disappointment she got. She shook her head softly and turned away, heading back to the medic camp. She didn’t see the one human waving his arms frantically at her trying to get her attention. The human was Joe, and he had something important to tell her.

“Hurry up, private! You’re holding up the line! Who you waving to anyway, your mommy?”

Joe ignored the irritable human behind him and continued marching.

Thousands of ships filled the sky like an angry swarm of bees. They were all black against the rising sun; they were all hovering in silence. Most of them were small fighter ships, although there were others that were large and bulky. Inside each bulky carrier ship were five hundred soldiers, hover tanks and some heavy artillery. Each ship was equipped with weapons capable of mass devastation and each soldier carried a minimum of two guns. Altogether there were sixty-one carrier ships hovering amongst the fighters. They were all pointed in the same direction.

The General looked up at the sky with a smile. He brought up his wrist to his lips and spoke into his COM. link.

“Air Commander Blackton, have you set course for Hashlyn and are your ships ready?” he asked.

“Affirmative. I wait for your orders, General, to advance towards the Maximal city.”

The General turned and gave a nod to two of his colonels standing beside them. They both grinned back at him.

“Air Commander, I order you to attack and totally destroy Hashlyn city and all its occupants!”

A moment later, the swarm in the sky began to glide forward and then suddenly, they all disappeared as they switched on their anti-detection devices. There was nothing to indicate they were there except the occasional hiss coming from the engines as they flew overhead. It was cold this morning and their engines were still warming.

General Alesion stood inside his office and gazed through a large glass window. Today was the day they would put a stop to the Maximals for good. He was aware that there was a lot of Maximal activity going on in Hashlyn and if they were planning something, they would never finish it, because his army was invincible. The Predacon uprising was over. They were the true leaders of Cybertron now and after this battle, they would go on to conquer other worlds. The Maximals now were starting an uprising of their own in Hashlyn city, but he would not let them prevail.

“Hmm…. Where is Megatron?”

Blackarachnia, who was driving the ship, also had a scanner screen in front of her and saw the same thing as Megatron.

“She’s moving again, sir. She must be on another ship. And she’d heading towards Vector Sigma! What kind of suicidal maniac is this girl--”

He stared at the flashing blip on his scanners that was moving towards his ultimate goal.

“So it is true,” he muttered, “I was right. She wouldn’t risk getting so close to the heavily guarded base unless she was able to get there without being seen. No doubt her purpose is to get inside the base!”

The thought struck him that once inside, she might copy the plans of Vector Sigma for the Maximals. They could then, in secret, build another Vector Sigma and start making troops again. Still, Hashlyn was going to be under siege today. Surely she would have done this sooner if she knew that Hashlyn was to be attacked today? She may get the plans but she may not have anyone to give them to!

Megatron realized that Tarantulas had obviously not warned or finished warning the Maximals of the Predacon attack. They must have no idea that they are coming today, in the next hour. It was all touch and go. There was a balance of power today so delicate and so great that made both sides vulnerable….

“Increase speed to maximum and follow that ship! But don’t destroy it or make your presence known when we get there, no. I will instruct you further when the time comes.”

'When that ships lands and she goes and gets the plans, which no doubt she is going to do, we will wait for her return, hidden and ready. All I have to do is sneak up on her, knock her into stasis lock and extract the information from her head! Then the plans are mine and after that….'

Megatron let out a low chuckle. Power, he thought, was in his grasp. So much power!

Between Vixadonia and Hashlyn, there were lots of ruined cities, lots of rubble and lots of Predacon outposts to watch out for him.

Rattrap scraped his underbelly against another shard of metal for the umpteenth time, as he sped forward in vehicle mode on the clearest paths he could find through the little towns leading towards Hashlyn.

He was covered in dust, he was bleeding from numerous scratches all over his body and he was beginning to tire. Still, he was physically in good shape, although he wasn’t sure how long that would last. It was only a matter of time before a Predacon scout spotted him and blew him to bits.

He had been driving under a blanket of dust that clung around the destroyed Maximal towns for so long that he had lost all track of time. Suddenly though, he exited the last of a seemingly endless line of towns and industrial parks and he found himself gliding on a relatively smooth and open road.

“Aw, man! I’m out in da open! It just takes one Pred flyer ta see me and I’m scrap!”

He sighed and glanced up at the sky. It was no longer dark. The sky was a pale blue as the sun’s rays began to chase away the night.

He kept glancing up at the sky, half expecting Waspinator or Terrorsaur to appear and start blasting him.

He did this for some time until he gradually began to relax. Maybe he was too small a target to be considered of much importance to the Predacons. Besides, they were probably channeling their soldiers into a major attack somewhere. They were constantly attacking Aswade, or so he’d heard.

He was a lone traveler on this long and bleak road. Along both sides of the road there were a couple of refueling stations and a factory or two. He was going through what is known as a middle strip on Cybertron. Driving between the outskirts of two major cities.

Nothing accompanied him except his thoughts and they were beginning to agitate him.

His spark was fluttering in his chest with a sense of urgency that he’d never felt before.

He remembered once talking to Tourmaline while they were together in their cabin underground. They were talking about their pasts, the adventures they’d had before they met each other and what they had been planning. Rattrap had told her he had been pretty content as a journalist. It had its fair amount of risks as well as thrills. He’s asked her what were her plans before she met him and if they’d changed.

She had paused thoughtfully and eventually had said that she was still adamant to become some kind of an artist, although realistically she had more chance of moving up the ranks in the detective agency. She’d wanted to start her own agency.

He’d pressed her and asked if she ever wanted to settle down, marry and have kids.

“Not for me, Rattrap. I’m a free spirit and children will hold me back. It sounds very romantic starting a family with the one you love, but it’s not. It really isn’t. I will avoid them as much as I can.”

It was her last line that worried him. Sure he’d agreed with her! He never wanted kids! But the difference was, and he surprised himself even thinking this, if it ever happened, he’d accept it. He wasn’t as young as he used to be, he’d already experienced a lot, done a lot and had many adventures. If he had a son or daughter, oh well. It would be an adventure in itself. He could teach him or her what he knew and watch them do the things he never managed to do. But Tourmaline, she was young and determined to live…and frightened at the moment. So frightened, he thought, that she might do something in confusion and desperation that could hurt herself or…or their child.

He wasn’t sure yet what he was going to say when he finally found her: IF he finally found her. There had been a brief moment where he wondered why on Cybertron he was doing all this!

Then he thought hey, I’ve fought for her, blown up criminals for her and lied for her, I might as well do this for her too. There’s nothing for me back in Vixadonia, but there might just be something left for me in Hashlyn.

He was just about to glance up at the sky again when he felt a sharp pain in his side and suddenly he was flying through the air. He hit the ground and rolled, eventually being stopped by a large rock.

“Ouch,” he wheezed. He was lying on his back with his right side rammed against the rock. He rolled onto his feet and transformed into robot mode. He looked across in the direction of the road and sure enough, there was a heavy-looking red Predacon walking towards him carrying a very large gun.

He crouched there and took his gun out from his sub space pocket. He’d raided the weapons stall two days ago in case he had to leave in an emergency. He’d filled his wrist compartments with bombs again and he’d picked a high-power laser gun.

He peeped over the top of the rock and watched as the Predacon advanced very confidently towards him. He aimed his gun at the Predacon and fired. The Predacon had been on the alert and dodged the shot and opened fire. Rattrap gasped and ducked his head. The rock exploded into tiny pieces in front of him.

He was exposed to the enemy who continued to fire. Rattrap jumped into the air, did a somersault, landed on his feet and ran as fast as he could. He let loose a volley of shots aimed at the Predacon who took the bullets and fell back.

The Predacon jumped to his feet and shot Rattrap’s gun out of his hand with bright blue optic lasers.

Rattrap yelled in fright and stared wide eyed at the Predacon who was recharging both his gun and his eye lasers.

“Uh oh,” he muttered and flung himself to the left as the laser fire just missed his head.

“I don’t know where you’re going in such a hurry,” the Predacon shouted, “but I do know that NO Maximal passes beyond this point without having to deal with me first!”

His wrists opened and he took out two bombs and in a surge of anger, he flung them at the Predacon. The Predacon turned to run and the bombs didn’t hit him, but they detonated when they met the ground only a few feet away and he was blown four meters into the air. The Predacon’s body flew for a moment before it crashed to the floor in a sparking and mangled heap. Steam rose from his damaged systems and his body jerked with blue waves of energy. He turned his head and shot Rattrap a final glare before submitting to stasis lock, or death. Either way, Rattrap had defeated him and he wasn’t going to hang around any longer.

“No one messes wid’ dis rat!” he snarled. He retrieved his gun and transformed back into vehicle mode. He rejoined the road and hurried on his way, uncomfortably aware that sooner or later the other scout patrols would find the Predacon’s body and come looking for him.

“Man, all dis had better pay off,” he muttered and sped off into the distance.

He had been stationed outside the protection of the shields and was a part of the army that was the city’s outer defenses. Yup, when the Predacons attacked, he’d be the first to feel the heat.

He was kneeling behind a low barrier of titanium, his gun aimed over the top if it and ready to fire at the first thing he saw approaching him in the distance. That is, if he even saw anything. The Predacons had invisibility cloaks which made them impossible to see, so the Maximals and EA fighters had set up a lot of obstacles for the Pred ground troops to trip on. They each had heat sensors, although the Predacons had developed a way of avoiding those. One of the things the EA had done (and this is why the frontline consisted only of humans, Maximals were much further back) was make a barrier of raw energon crystal all along the perimeter of the outer defenses. The energon build up would force all the Predacon ground troops, after some time, to fall back. Of course they’d probably blow it up and there would be a massive explosion killing both Predacons and humans in a hundred foot radius, but at least it would slow the advance down. Because of this possible explosion Joe and the energon crystals had been placed a good deal away from the main city. The energon had been supplied by the humans who had a few years ago discovered a huge stash of energon in a mine in Africa. This had been top secret and the energon had been mined and stored and was to be used only for emergencies. This seemed like a big enough emergency to Joe.

The silence was heavy. All he could hear were the sounds of other men around him breathing. He looked up at the sky and to his surprise noticed that there were vague traces of clouds. Highly unusual for Cybertron! He’d asked Diamond about the weather up here and if it rained. She said if it did it went down in the history books.

He didn’t like that explanation and tried thinking of another. Well, since a lot of humans now inhabited this city they’d set up a breathable atmosphere for them inside the shields. They were still required to wear or at least carry their oxygen helmets at all times incase of a shield failure, but it was nice to take your helmet off once in a while and scratch your nose. Whenever ships came in to land or small doors in the shield were open to let out armies some of that oxygen escaped. It could well be with all the smoke in the air that a kind off bubble had developed over the city, trapping the oxygen and thus causing little clouds. It was probably a very scientifically unsound solution but it did make him feel better.

“Who knows? Maybe I’m right. Joe the scientist, now that’s a thought isn’t—”

That could only mean one thing. The scouts further ahead must have picked up some disturbance. A Predacon could have sneezed and those guys would have picked it up. The scouts had installed in their helmets special audio devices, which increased their lousy human hearing by five times. These audios would shut off when battle commenced otherwise they’d all go deaf with the explosions.

Joe’s finger tapped the trigger of his gun every so lightly. His heart began to pound harder and faster and fear began to choke him. Forget the scouts, he could feel their presence. They would be here any moment. A trickle of sweat slid down his face and his breathing quickened.

Suddenly, there was a muffled noise. It wasn’t very loud but it was the sound of laser fire all right. He could tell by the way the area around him lit up and a second later two men, one on his left and one on his right fell dead with holes through their neck. The Predacons had silencers! Guns that were fast and deadly and almost silent.

“Incoming!” someone yelled and suddenly everyone opened fire. He joined in. The energon was protected by a metal barrier on both sides so it wouldn’t get hit easily. It was unprotected from the top and the full radiation escaped from there and affected all transformers. Still, they tried not to hit it as much as possible. His first few shots didn’t hit anything but he was firing at something invisible. He got some satisfaction when two of his bullets exploded in what would appear midair – he knew better, it was a Predacon.

The silence was destroyed and like blind animals the humans shot everywhere. The Predacons were advancing quickly because the ten humans stationed twelve or so meters ahead of Joe were all dead.

“Hold them back! Hold them back!” screamed Joe’s sergeant. He knew they had to keep the Predacons at bay long enough for the energon to affect them.

He fired at the air, aiming to the height at which he guessed most of the Predacons’ chests would be. Their sparks were usually inside their chests and that was the thing that kept them alive.

The human laser fire was loud and there were a variety of guns. Most of them were High-Power laser guns but some had spider guns, which were ugly looking things with eight small barrels capable of firing eight tiny but deadly laser bullets at a time, like a chain gun. There was some heavy artillery set up as well as auto guns lurking behind every rock. The terrain outside Hashlyn was particularly rocky which at least gave him some cover for when his barrier was destroyed.

Around him explosions erupted everywhere, men fell screaming, others dropped silently to the ground. He could now hear the sound of approaching feet. Many feet. Metal feet.

He was shivering now, sweat was pouring down his face and his hand was shaking so much it could hardly hold his gun.

He ignored the warning. He couldn’t see any air force and he couldn’t leave anyway.

He fired in the direction of the marching feet, which was just about everywhere in front of him. Suddenly the barrier in front of him took a heavy hit and a hole was ripped through it. The missile that had pummeled into it detonated roughly three meters away. He threw himself onto the ground pulled and his hands over his head.

He leopard crawled away from the area and rose up again behind a part of the barrier that was still intact. He fired like a maniac in fear and anger.

“Take that you ugly lumps of slag!” he screamed. He snorted with satisfaction. He’d learned that was an insult to all transformers, thanks to Rattrap.

The noise of crunching feet was now all around him and he threw himself on the ground again and lay on his side, tucking himself into the interior of the barrier. They were jumping over it now; he could hear their feet by his face as they pounded the ground. They were running towards the main city.

“How about a bit of backfiring,” he muttered and twisted his arm a bit so that he once again could aim his gun. He was surprised he hadn’t dropped it yet. He fired rapidly and grinned darkly when he heard the noise of bodies crashing to the ground and some screams. He continued this until suddenly he felt a hand grabbing him by the throat and yanking him out from under his shelter. He tried to pry loose the metal hands from his neck but they just squeezed even tighter. He kicked and he felt himself being lifted off the ground.

“I’m going to squeeze your throat so hard the bones will be shooting out your eyes,” the Predacon growled. Joe closed his eyes and waited for his enemy to do this dreadful thing when suddenly he was dropped. He crashed to the ground and as far as he heard, so did the transformer. Joe rolled onto his side and sucked in sweet air.

“You okay buddy? I saw you rise off the ground clasping your neck. Was he strangling you?”

“Yeah…thanks…you rescued me in time,” he wheezed and coughed. He spat a little blood onto the interior glass of his helmet, but by that stage the human who was talking to him had run off.

Joe staggered to his feet and looked around. He was the only human left standing this far out and he realized that the EA army was retreating towards the shields. He had a strong feeling he should be doing the same.

He picked up his gun, which he’d dropped when that Predacon bozo tried to strangle him, and ran as fast as his wobbly legs would carry him towards the Hashlyn shields.

The trip from Hashlyn to sector Virex was fairly smooth. They didn’t encounter any Predacon ships but then again they couldn’t see them. Tarantulas had developed technology for the Predacons some time back that would allow them to see Maximals, humans and Predacons alike. When applying this technology to the Maximals ships and units, the software didn’t perform as well. They could see Maximals and humans but the technology was safe guarded. Only transformers with an internal Predacon signature and special code could see Predacons. Tarantulas was going to find away around this sturdy safe guard the Predacons had put on their technology but unfortunately he never got that far. So although they were flying invisible to the enemy, the enemy was invisible to them too. Diamond prayed they hadn’t discovered a way around their own technology, if they did and intercepted her ship on the way back to Hashlyn while she was carrying those precious plans, all would be lost. When they came into land at Sector Virex unnoticed it gave her a little more confidence that they’d make it back the same way.

Magnanimous and Diamond stepped out of the ship into to the early morning light. The sun was still on its slow rise this far out. Vector Sigma base was in view and it lay dormant in the shadows. They were on a hill and the base, a long, oval building protected by numerous walls and guard posts, was in a basin. Because the Maximals had only recently acquired this anti detection equipment, they hadn’t the time to apply it to all their units and ships; only a precious few were lucky enough to have it. Diamond was wearing one of the only unit invisibility cloaks available. Magnanimous had a cloak and anti- detection software installed inside as a safety precaution. Even with all this technology he wouldn’t make it inside the base as a normal bot. They had ground and air sensors down there so sensitive to movement even a cloaked bot stood no chance. A constant invisible field of energy surrounded the base like a moat between it and its inner most wall that no bot could get through without having his systems fried. Only the top Predacons had special suits that allowed them to pass through this field unscathed and Tarantulas hadn’t developed those suits so he hadn’t found a way to recreate them for the Maximals. No, Magnanimous was going to have to use all his powers to get in. He we going to have to make himself air like he did in the underground cabins and float in. He’d have to disrupt the energy field, he’d have to break inside and he’d have to be quick in locating the machine, copying the plans and getting out of there as soon as possible. So Diamond was surprised to hear how calm his voice was when he spoke to her.

“Well, this is it, little sis. Here goes everything, as you put it,” he said with a sigh.

“When you go inside I want you to know that no matter what happens, I will always be proud of you. You’re brave and noble and as long as I live, I’ll remember you for that.”

“And I want you to know, Dimes, that whether or not I make it out alive, I will make it out for you. Whatever happens to me, I want you to try and get those plans to the Phoenix. You are also brave and I wouldn’t trust anyone more in the world.”

She found his other hand and pulled his arms around her in a hug and closed her eyes.

She didn’t care that now she was crying softly. It had all become too much for her. In one day she’d said goodbye to her boyfriend, her father and now her brother.

She could see the air glowing a bit where she guessed him to be standing, and then the light faded away and there was silence. The air was cold and still, the sky was a mixture of deep purples, pinks, oranges and yellows as the sun began to rise.

She stood at her post and stared down at the base, her body limp with misery and loneliness. A slight wind whipped itself around her and she heard it whisper before it passed down the slope towards Vector Sigma.

“She’s stopped sir. She’s remaining stationary in sector Virex,” Blackarachnia reported.

Megatron could see that on his own scanners. The scanners were holographs projected from the otherwise invisible screens. They were not easy to see in the light and as the sun rose it became more apparent that they were going to have to turn off the invisibility cloak around the sections of the screens and scanners. It might look odd to those below to see nothing but a flying monitor above him, but they were flying over a small desert at the moment and the chances of anyone seeing them were small. Still, he was very close to his target now and he didn’t need the scanners for much longer.

“Can you do that? I don’t know if the kind of signature she has is compatible with our low-tech internals. Tarantulas used a one of a kind scanner to find her and—”

“Well we don’t know unless we try,” he growled irritably. He found his left side and took out a disk from one of his compartments. He felt around for the console but it was no use.

“Oh confound it! Turn off the invisibility cloak around the console, Blackarachnia!”

She didn’t question his orders this time, much to his relief, and a moment later the console flickered into view. He inserted the disk into the console and copied the scanner software and Diamond’s signature reading onto the disk. After that he inserted this disk back into himself and asked his internal computer to tune into Diamond’s signature by using the new software. The computer hummed for a bit and the tension in the air grew.

Suddenly, Diamond’s signature blip appeared on a map displayed across his left optic.

“Ah, yes. It worked, as I thought it would. These transmetal bodies are very useful. It appears not only my outside form was upgraded, but my internal systems as well.”

Megatron stood up, switched the cloak back on around the console and readied his stasis gun. It would not kill her; it’d just knock her out.

“Yes, but park some distance behind her. We don’t want to land on her ship, which is probably near by. We cannot see it anymore now that she’s left it.”

“Vindictive! Ready yourself. I may need you as back up, although I doubt it.”

“Load that software to your internal scanners. You’re going to need to see her too.”

“When I arrive, my old comrade’s daughter won’t know what hit her!”