[IC] Transformers - One Shall Fall

[rocketrobie2]

Sklog had just finished personalizing his quarters with various knick-knacks he had found around the barracks when he heard Nightscream's voice in his head. The news that Optimus had died didn't faze Sklog much, he had never fought the Autobot leader and didn't hold a lot of hate towards him either though Sklog quickly realized that the other bot's must have been pretty upset about the revelation. Sklog didn't say a word but gave a quick glance at his old chassis then began quickly heading back to the main level to join Nightscream on the trek to the dead bot.

Sklog finally got up to the main level after a few minutes of ascending the stairs which made him think back to his tumble down the stairs and how it was so much faster to go down the stairs than it was to go up. He looked out to the tundra of cybertron and got ready to make his slow journey as he had not intention of transforming which he didn't want to do right away for a few reasons one being he didn't want to spoil the surprise of his alt-form.

[pyroman]

She couldn't. She heard very well that Turbulence had said to her, but she couldn't bring herself to stand, much less touch the dead body of her now former leader. She could only look up at the dead body of the once great bot who had inspired her to become more than what she was. Without his guidance, she would have never been where she was now. He lived and existed before the war, he knew of sense and how to live. She was created for the purpose of war, meant to destroy and kill and die for another to take her place.

But he taught her that she was more than that.

Looking at his body, she could remember when she had come back from her tenth successful mission after having graduated from the academy.

"Prism." She remembered him saying. He had pulled her aside soon after she had returned on her own. The team she was placed on deemed the mission too dangerous for bots of their skill level, but she stayed and finished it to the bitter end. "Why did you not follow Prowl's orders when he called you all back? He is your commander and the only one in your group that isn't fresh out of the academy."

"Because I knew I could bring it down." She remembered herself replying hastily, grunting as her arms crossed one another. "That ambush wasn't enough to stop me, and I think I should be commended for finishing the mission rather than running back."

Back then, she was still a sparkling, a greenhorn demolitions expert who had been assigned to what was believed be a simple mission. They were to take down a new decepticon outpost that had just been put up, and wasn't believed to have had any ranking officers there. However, the intel of the mission was wrong, and Starscream himself was there, overseeing the construction and finalization of the outpost. Prowl had decided that starscream was too much for just himself and a squad of trainees, and had ordered them to retreat. Prism didn't listen and took the mission into her own hands, rushing the base in her alt mode and setting her charges as she went along. Starscream was too busy screeching at the grunts to do any of the work himself, and thus the two never fought. Soon enough, Prism drove away and detonated the base as soon as she was just out of the danger zone. It was risky and life-threatening, but she got the job done.

"You did finish the mission, and I'm sure that you will finish other missions in the future, but at what cost?" He asked her. His solid blue eyes looked down at her, his battle mask off as they were in Iacon at that time. Unlike her, he lacked pupils in his eyes, but that didn't stop him from letting her know that he was looking down at her. "Will you take the same reckless path in all of your missions? We are in a time of war, but that does not allow you to throw your life away for a completed job."

"What's it matter?" Her tone was rather annoyed at his words. "If we all worked like I did, then we'd be in Kaon quicker and have Megatron at his knees."

"If we all worked like you did." He parroted her words. "Then there would not be anyone to celebrate the victory over the descriptions. " There was no beating around the bush; Optimus Prime wanted her to know the dangers and risks of her actions. "Yours actions today could have failed, and you could have died, Prism. We have already lost too many Autobots in this war, and I will not let you do this to yourself if I have any say in this."

"I'm just a war bot! I was meant to kill and die, there's nothing I can do that another can't do just the same!" Prism exploded at her commanding officer. "I got the job done when the others wouldn't step up!"

Prime's head tilted down in what seemed to be silent rage at her words. His cold and hard stare actually broke through her tough words as he returned with some of his own. "It's more than the job, Prism, it's your own life at stake. You may have been created during this war, you may have thicker armor and heavier weaponry, but your spark is just like mine, just like Prowl, Ratchet, and many others created before the war. Your spark is no less valuable, and neither is your life. This may be your view on life, but I will not accept it. There is more to you than you can imagine, more than you can see right now. When this war is over, maybe then you will see that there is more to you than meets the eye."

Those words resonated with her even after all of this time. Prime instilled within her a sense of self worth that was more than just a disposable tool for killing. The fate that he kept her from was the same that he had met, she knew that much. The only way he would have gone down was by protecting every last spark in the name of peace and justice.

Her eyes tightened shut, the memory fading as she returned to the present. Slowly, she looked up at Prime and nodded. She rose at a similar pace, nearing the corpse and assisting Turbulence in prying the chest plate off.

Even with her strength, it was no easy task, but the two doors that led to his spark finally opened to reveal to things to her.

With the cavity opened, she could see a gaping hole where Prime's spark once was, showing the back of the pod between mangled cords and other metal pieces.

The second thing was both similar and something else entirely.

Right below where his spark once laid, the very Matrix of Leadership sat in it's compartment in Prime's body, completely untouched, but the crystal inside dim and dark. It laid dormant, not inactive. There were no signs of damage or wear on the gold-orange dome, nor the silver handles on each side.

Prism looked at the Matrix and looked to Turbulence, almost as if she were afraid that her very gaze would break it. Optimus, the last of the Primes was dead, and the matrix was jettisoned off with his body in hopes that someone back on Cybertron would be able to do something with it. When she finally spoke, her tone was soft and scared, almost like the was a sparkling all over again.

"What do we do now?"

[ShiningSector]

Turbulence gave a very audible sigh of relief upon seeing the Matrix of Leadership still intact and rightly confined within Optimus Prime. Whatever the fateful circumstances had befallen the Autobots who bravely followed Optimus Prime, they were at least successful in sending away their prize to somewhere that was safe; supposedly safe given recent events. But with Prime now deceased, what good what the Matrix to him? What good was the Matrix to anyone now, especially considering the revered artifact's fading state?

"I..." Turbulence hesitated; he found himself stumped on the very question too, "Well...we can't just leave him here"

Looking where they had come from, he could see the the lab's silhouette within the haze that surrounded the looming structures of Kaon. Around him and Prism were the Junkions, still remaining silent but nonetheless observant of the two Autobots and their privileged quarry, "Especially not here."

Thinking hard about their situation, the only thought or parallel that Turbulence could muster was Iacon. It made sense really, at least to him; Iacon, much like Kaon was to the Decepticons, was their home city. Their turf. But much of the megalopolis had been destroyed by the Decepticon's fierce assaults. Turbulence could not even recall there ever being a sector untouched after the battle was over. That is, if it was truly over, given the skirmishes that he would hear about daily. Even so, it was still the same city Orion Pax was inaugurated into Optimus Prim.

"My only idea would be Iacon. It would be proper to return Prime there," he anxiously suggested, "We may - just may learn what to do afterwards."

[Forsythe]

Hearing the heavy thumps on the stairs, Nightscream looked back at the door. It didn't look like Sklog was going to try and extinguish her spark again, making her somewhat more relaxed. "You did keep a flight capable mode, right?" she inquired, seeing some changes to his chassis has happened since she last laid optics on the former dinobot.

Leaping into the air she transformed, engines revving up. "If not hop on, but let's not make a habit of this! And if you say you're afraid of flying you're losing your brawler card!" the seeker said jokingly. Pulling up a navigation widgets, she looked at the map and found the spot where Prime's mobile tomb landed.

Could they send Megatron too? That would be a great relief.

...

I hope you are all right, Brother.

As soon as Sklog decided whether he needed or wanted her help or not, Nightscream blasted off and headed for the Autobots.

[pyroman]

The Junkions all looked around at one another, even Wreck-Gar unable to step forward and say something to them. His face, normally jovial and as carefree as the wind, was unsure. He looked at the dead body of Optimus Prime, a figure that all of the Junkions had seen before at one point or another from hijacking Earth communication waves. He was unsure if he should tell the two Autobots what he and the others had heard. They had believed it to be just convenience that all of the words that they heard were organized in such a way, and didn't actually believe the death of the last Prime when it had reached their ears, but now there was absolute proof, and without his spark, there was no possible way for them to fix him. Of course, they could fix the body and put a new spark in it, but it wouldn't be Prime.

"We'll help, we'll help." Wreck-Gar finally spoke up and looked to Prism and Turbulence. "We'll get that delivery done in thirty minutes or it's on the house." His tone, however, matched the general feeling that all of the Junkions were feeling. He was trying to be happy, or at least not let his true emotions show, but he did feel remorse for the fallen commander all the same.

Prism looked at Optimus Prime almost expectantly. There had to be something, she told herself over and over. Something that Prime himself left for his troops or for the ones still on Cybertron. Kup left the message, that yellow Autobot sent the pod, so what did Prime do? There had to have been something. A message, a tool, anything. Something to tell them what to do and how to continue onward, something telling them exactly what they were going to be up against.

Turbulence was right, though. They should be heading for Iacon so they can take the pod apart and see if the others had left anything else to help Cybertron against Megatron, or whoever had done this to Optimus. They needed to start rebuilding, getting ready for whatever was ahead of them, and see what others remained on cybertron in hopes of them helping out as well.

Slowly, she moved aside, letting the Junkions work to pry the pod out of the ground. She wanted that whole thing. There was no way that she wasn't going to take it apart and flip it inside out to see if anyone had left them anything but the Matrix and Optimus. Maybe they didn't know how bad things were back on Cybertron, maybe they did. If there was anyone still out there, she hoped that they could get in touch soon.

She then turned to Wreck-Gar, looking at him curiously as they watched his bots do their work. "You never told us why you're here, Wreck-Gar. Normally, you lot are pretty territorial of your own space." She smiled and laughed a little. "You aren't thinking of taking over Cybertron, are you?"

"Yep yep, quite the astute one, you are!" He chirped much happier this time. "We thought the sky was fallin' when we saw that thing there fly past us, so we followed is here, yes we did. We come in peace." He smiled back and even laughed at the two.

[ShiningSector]

Just as Turbulence gave his weary suggestion, the Junkion Wreck-Gar spoke up the rest of the amassed scavengers, volunteering their services in excavating the large pod-coffin of Prime and transporting it to Iacon. The Autobot flyer knew Junkions were a very wonky but fiercely territorial bunch, but to show this much kindness - it was almost too good to be true. Before him or Turbulence could voice their opinion on the matter officially, the Junkions conveniently set about their work in freeing the pod from the crater; a task both Autobots would agree on needing to complete first had they done it themselves, that was assuming of course the Junkions were truer to their original nature.

It was assumed by Turbulence that Prism was on-board with his idea too as she never argued about it once, perhaps mainly because she amusingly queried Wreck-Gar about a hidden agenda for taking over Cybertron to which the Junkion laughed in response. How quaint. "I...appreciate you and your people's dedication - and optimism - in assisting us with this endeavor Wreck-Gar,"

Turbulence paused a moment and gave Prism a glance in order to gain her attention before continuing, "but I must ask is you're really prepared to do this. Iacon is roughly on the other side of the planet. Primus know how much time it'll take to get there."

[rocketrobie2]

Instead of walking, Sklog decided to hitch a ride with Nightscream as he clambered onto the con without a word. Sklog had no fear of flying though he had never done so before, he was a ground troop through and through but he was always somewhat curious as to what it would be like to soar the skies like his brother Swoop. Sklog was ready to get going and see the previous Autobot leader in all his magnificent glory.

[pyroman]

Though not to Turbulence's extent, Prism had been somewhat worried about the too-helpful Junkions. She went along in good faith, seeing as they were kind enough to be respectful in a territory that wasn't their own, as well as helpful to folks who really needed it. Turbulence was right, Iacon was a ways away, and even with a big team like his moving Prime around, Wreck-Gar would still have to push his crew to get them moving at a good pace.

"All We ask for in return is hospitality and some scraps." His right hand moved above his head, his elbow pointed at a perfect ninety degrees while his left arm was move back behind his body. "We're rocking and rolling to get the job done, and I promise that we won't take any of your big autobot toys." His fingers all curled inward with the exception of the smallest finger on the end. "Pinkie promise." He spoke again.

She couldn't exactly say no to them. They already pulled Prime's pod out of the ground, and were getting him ready to move, but this was a decision that she could not make on her own. Looking back at Turbulence, she sighed and looked out to the expanse. "Thank you Wreck-Gar, really. But I want to wait until the rest of the team gets here. It's only fair that they agree to this as well."

High above the Autobots and the Junkions, another small metallic shape soared high above them. The Junkions had taken notice of it long before Prime had crashed onto earth, and was actually the reason that they had followed the pod to Cybertron in the first place. It's sleek black and red shape was build for stealth and cutting through the air, a little camera on what appeared to be the face of the machine popped out from the crown of it's head.

[Forsythe]

Nightscream made a mental note not to offer any more rides as she was nearly planted to the ground by Sklog's weight. None the less, her engines were nothing if not powerful and picked up speed soon enough. As they approached the coordinates of Prime's landing, a familiar IFF transponder pinged her sensors. If she was in her protoform, her optics would have widened.

Laserbeak!

She would recognize the minicon anywhere, and if he was here, then Soundwave either wasn'T far behind, or at the very least was alive. Could Megatron have done it? Actually defeated Prime and the earthbound Autobots? Well, there was one minicon who could possibly shed light on what was happening in the distant corners of the universe.

As she apprached the autobots, she informed Sklog of the change in plans. "I need to go check something out. Get ready to drop. I'll be on wireless if the three of you need me." she said, cutting her engines to slow down and drop in altitude so that she could safely do a barrel roll to drop the former dinobot without making him suffer through (too) rough landing.

As soon as the weight was off of her, her engines screamed back to life and she blasted off, heading in the minicon's direction and sending a string of commands:

Laserbeak.Attach('Nightscream');
Laserbeak.TransferMissionLogs();

[rocketrobie2]

On the way to the Prime crash site Sklog thought about what it meant that Optimus was confirmed to be dead. His whole life had been aimed around destroying Autobots but now he was at a point that he was working with two of them and now their leader was dead and by chain of his current command his leader since he was more or less taking orders from them. His thought process however, was interrupted when he was dumped off of Nightscream above the crash site. Sklog came tumbling down across the ground and came to a skidding stop right near the two Autobots currently on scene. The Predacon stood up after simply staying on the ground for a few moments and dusted himself off before taking in the situation. Sklog walked over to the pod calmly as he observed the strange looking Cybertronians.

[ShiningSector]

"Speaking of which..." said Turbulence, following Prism's request to wait for the others just as his own IFF sensors pinged over his HUD.

Turning his attention to the direction of the ping, Turbulence's heads-up display zoomed in on the general origin of the sensor emission before catching two masses flying towards them. His visual sensors quickly highlighted the inbound entities as Nightscream and Sklog hanging from her vehicle mode's underside. For such a simply looking alt. mode, Turbulence was almost impressed that Nightscream could ferry the former dinobot without any trouble, at least what could be observed visually.

"I can seen them coming in now. Nightscream's carrying -

As he reported his findings to Prism, he caught their Decepticon ally disconnecting Sklog from her chassis before jetting off unannounced.

- Correction. Nightscream dropped, Sklog."

Luckily, and thankfully for that matter, Nightscream had dropped off Sklog's profile close by and at a safe enough altitude before flanking away from them. While the landing seemed rough, Sklog however appeared more durable and easily picked himself back up without needing the Autobot's help. It was nonetheless appealing however to see Sklog back on his feet and active than still being distraught back at the lab.

"You okay big guy? Feels better not being cooped up back there don't it?" asked Turbulence as he made his way to Sklog, wanting to know if the former Dinobot required any help but just as importantly, "Anyway, where'd Nightscream take off to?"

[pyroman]

Post WIP

The little figure that floated around immediately came to a halt in the air as a string of commands were sent its way. Open receiving the commands, another string was set fourth.

run: scan.exe;
'nightscream' located;
docking...;
file transfer initialized;
additional files available for transfer

The minicon moved to Nightscream and was quick to connect to the decepticon, doing as it was ordered to do and transfer all mission logs and additional files over to her. Soundwave's pet was also instructed with giving Nightscream the additional files, which it did without question. He was almost completely sure that Nightscream was still alive, and only two two of them knew how to properly use the Minicons, especially laserbeak.

There was little that Prism could say at the moment, after having watched Sklog fall out of the sky and Nightscream still refusing to land to speak to the rest of them. She needed them all here to discuss further matters, but she supposed that she wouldn't mind telling things to Sklog first, then repeating them to Nighscream once she finally decided to come about.

"So, big guy." She looked to Sklog, not seeming to care that he had just fallen out of the sky. "The Junkions want to help move Prime to Iacon, but in exchange for scraps. And they promise not to take any valuable artifacts. I think I'm going to oversee what they take and grade it myself so they don't accidentally take anything. Your thoughts?"

[Forsythe]

Nightscream transformed as the minicon approached. She wasn't a spymaster to have an alternate mode in a shape of something so unnoticeable yet useless as a boombox, so the little bird had to dock to her externally. One of her forearms split open, revealing an extendable docking port for the minicon. Once docked, Nightscream wasted no time and started browsing through the files. It seemed that Soundwave sent Laserbeak her way on purpose, packing a short history lesson with him.

mission files

There were many mission logs, dating back thousands of years. The Nemesis was unable to get to the space bridges in
time to catch up to the Ark. However, that did not mean that Megatron was planning on stopping his journey to find Prime and take the Matrix. However, there had been a turn. Megatron and Soundwave had located some sort of unspecified anomaly, and took a detour in an attempt to harness it. Harness, was not the correct word for what had happened. Soundwave's logs reported that after investigating the anomaly on his own, before Megatron could send out for it, Startscream approached it and returned back seemingly unscathed. He rambled like usual, but Soundwave caught onto the consistent phrases that the coward usurper spoke of. Elders, Unicron, the Void, the Crown, the Mantle. Soundwave could only make speculations on what he was always muttering to himself about, but it became more and more apparent after the encounter, that Starscream was indeed affected by whatever the Anomaly was. At the time, Megatron, seeing that Starscream had already left for it, didn't bother to send anyone else out. If he died, then there was no downside, but if he did return with news, then there would be further investigation. Starscream seemed normal back then, and as they left and set course for a planet known by the inhabitants as Earth, nothing seemed off.

Then they had reached the planet, and the Autobots had done all they could without detection from the natives. The most recent recorded date that the people of Earth used was September seventeenth, 1984.

When they finally came to Earth and found the autobots was when all hell broke loose. Starscream, the moment he touched earth soil, darted to Megatron, his cannons aimed at the decepticon leader, and blew his face off with black energy, never before seen shot from Starscream's cannons. In the confusion, Starscream then ripped apart Megatron's chest and his own, shoving the former leader's spark inside his own cavity. It was then that Soundwave caught a look at Starscream internally, looking at the disgusting techno-organic mess that infested Starscream's own spark. It shone darkness, and the black tendrils of his spark latched onto Megatron's own, devouring and absorbing it. With what was left of Megatron's body, Starscream fitted it to his own while the decepticons watched in silent horror as Starscream took the bucket helmet from Megatron and adorned it to himself, declaring himself the new leader.

The new Starscream, Megatronus, he dubbed himself after the fallen prime, lead the fearful decepticons into a ruthless battle against the Autobots, aiming to kill and kill by any means necessary, even by suicide.

Megatronus killed Prime, intent on taking the Matrix and Prime's spark for his own. However, he could only kill the leader of the autobots before he was ejected into space by the scraps of the autobots. The rest of the Autobots ran and scattered, running into space themselves. Meanwhile, Megatronus made himself known to the Human population and even assisted in advancing their technology. He wanted them to be the heralds and harbingers of his name, telling the rest of the universe about his might. He wanted to coat all sentient species in fear of him and his minions.

Soundwave must have known that Megatronus must be stopped, and did what he could to send Laserbeak after the dead Prime. He had a feeling that the autobots were going to send Optimus back to cybertron, it was more than likely. So he sent all he could on the new threat that was Starscream, and hoped that Nightscream could do something with the information.

The seeker's optics widened in worries. If Megatron and Prime were both so easily obliterated by this new transformer, they ere in trouble. What was troubling even more was that apparently, the husk of starscream could very realistically only be a pawn of something much greater - the reference to Unicron did not go past Nightscream unnoticed. The Dark one's name came up often when she searched for alternate energy sources, most often in relation to dark energon.

The most worrying thing though was the video file that displayed Megatronus' inner workings. She has seen something like this. That something was now beaten and welded shut in a makeshift cell in their base, and worse, there was a dinobot with a chassis derived form it running about.

She tried to calm herself down. It should not be a problem. Blackarachnia wasa secured, and Sklog's chassis was her own development form what she learned, not the result of Primus knows what altering an existing cybertronian. However, she needed to be sure.

Updating Lasaerbeak with new recognition codes so he would not engage the Autobots or the Junkions, she sent the minicon to them and share the information. After a second of thought, she specified Turbulence as the recipient, attaching a personal message to edit what he said in front of Sklog, and Prism to a lesser degree. She did not need the dinobot even more angstier about his new chassis or the bot with failing memory and high explosives getting any ideas. Once that was done, she transformed and blasted off back to base.

As soon as she got there, she charged up her null ray and put Blackarachnia out of any lingering consciousness before tossing the husk into the lab and grabbing an angle saw. Then she rememberted the horrifying image of Megatron's spark being absorbed and opted for a robotic arm guided by remote. She carefully sawed the spiderbot's spark chamber open, she looked with anticipation and a bit of dread for what she would find.

[rocketrobie2]

"Sklog fine. Sklog like not being at base." the techno-organic behemoth replied as he continued to watch the Junkions move the coffin of the great Optimus Prime. He had a different perspective of being online now that he had died and and been revived; he didn't see death as such a big deal anymore but he had an ever stronger aversion to it as he did not want to go through the ordeal of dying again.

Sklog was brought back to reality when Turbulence asked about Nightscream to which he just shrugged and continued to watch the Junkions. Sklog was beginning to get used to his new chassis and as such he was beginning to become just as he was before the accident, only talking when spoken to or when it was absolutely necessary.

[pyroman]

"Nightscream" Prism spo0ke through comms, even though it was obvious that she was not going to be returning to them soon. "At least chime in before you dart off. Wreck-gar wants scraps in Iacon in exchange for moving Prime there. He promises not to take anything of importance and run things by us first before they take off."

"And you are correct!" Wreck-Gar suddenly spoke up, having weaseled his way into the comm frequency through unknown means. "Pinkie promise we won't take anything important, but we don't work for free, y'know."

Prism had to admit. The Junkions would make a good recon team for delving into the deeper parts of the city. Prism herself only went so far past the hangar that she didn't know what exactly was left in the rest of the base, but she knew that Prime did not move the entire Autobot faction into the Arc. She was sure that there was more than what she had seen. Weapons, more energon maybe? She wasn't sure, but the Junkions were a good way to find out.

[Forsythe]

Nightscream stared at the screen in a mix of alarm and curiosity. Normal bot would be terrified at the sight of what Nightscream did to Blackarachnia. The spiderbot's spark chamber was ground open her very heart dismembered. Nightscream was agitated by what she found there. It was fortunate for Sklog she didn't get permission to examine that part of the mutant, lest hen ght have as well be one a thrall of Unicron. But the dinobot's spark chamber was fortunately of standard design.

Come to think of it, Nightscream was lucky herself. If she pried Blackarachnia open before off lining her, she might have suffered the same fate as Megatron. In a state like that, one could be forgiven for being a bit unsocial. "What do I care what happens to a husk of a dead prime, just take the Matrix and leave him to the junk dogs! I sent Laserbeak your way, I just learned from him what happened on Earth, we have bigger problems!" She half growled half screamed into the ether.

Not taking any chances, she had an automated hauler dispose of Blackarachnia in the smelting pit. She walked to the main hall and hooked the self up to the recharge berth hand plugged herself in. There was only one thought looping in her processor: Sound wave needed rescuing. But how? They would need a ship or some other means of traveling faster than light. And what then? They might have to fight the rest of the decepticons. Not even if she upgraded all four of them would they have enough dakka.

[ShiningSector]

If it was visible, Turbulence would have frowned. Sklog shrugging didn't give him any ideas where Nighstcream was going. But in the grand scheme of things, did it truly matter anyway? Perhaps something came up or she was busy at work with probably another freak project and could only spare the time to hot-drop Sklog off. "Satisfied" with Sklog's response, Turbulence had nearly turned his attention back to the Junkions as they dug up Prime's pseudo-coffin until something tripped his long-range IFF sensors.

The new signature was small but fast approaching with a clear conscious vector. Turbulence turned and looked to the grayish skies to see the small object closing distance; towards him if he deduced the flight path correctly. As the object got closer, Turbulence could visually recognize the inbound flyer as an avian-like minicon. He could only remember a few minicons by name and hardly remember any of one of them capable of flight...Unless... Eventually, the minicon's closer position revealed an all too familiar paint scheme with the matching Decepticon badge on each wing.

It was Laserbeak.

The infamously nimble crony of Soundwave was usually designated for reconnaissance and intelligence gathering but that mean the agile minicon was incapable of dive-bombing an unfortunate Autobot with a barrage of swift laser strikes. While the the thought didn't sit too well with Turbulence, there was the conceptualized idea that the minicon would not be as brash as attaching a 'Bot in public without backup unless the small flyer had the advantage. Just as Turbulence had assumed an almost hesitant defensive stance, as string of docking commands originating from the descending minicon appeared on HUD.

The thought of Laserbeak, not meeting with an attack run but a docking request gave the battle-hardened Autobot unexpected pause. Could it be a trap? Maybe, but if it were true, it would be the most outrageous he'd heard of yet. Docking with the sworn enemy, one that would have to even accept the coded request first, concluded to no logical tactic he could think of. Laserbeak eventually arrived and flew circle's around the Autobot's personal airspace, still pending his acceptance of the request.

Grumbling something not audible, Turbulence hesitantly, but slowly offered his arm forward which the avian minicon quickly landed on with metallic talons magnetically stabilizing to Turbulence's hull. For a moment, the two cybernetic being started at one another. While Laserbeak could not display any emotion aside from ever screeching squawks, Turbulence could've sworn that the minicon's optics narrowed, gesturing the displeasure of communing with an Autobot.

"The feeling is mutual." said Turbulence, not expecting the minicon to reply at all before finally accepting Laserbeak's permission to dock with him.

Hopping to Turbulence's shoulder where a data port flipped open, Laserbeak transformed into the classical data-slug and hard-connected to the provided slot. As soon ad the data transfer had begun, a quick message from Nightscream appeared first from the ever gather files, explaining her sudden change of course and rendezvousing with the happened-upon minicon. It was all that Turbulence needed to know at the very least. The transference of data from Laserbeak revealed a disturbingly long chain of events that had occurred Primus knew how long, but it was evident the Autobots and unfortunately the Decepticons had made it familiar-named world called Earth.

Mission logs poured through revealing more of the greater aspects of the war and what had occurred so many lights years away from Cybertron. As he dived deeper into the logs, a sense of dread washed over as learned of this new Deception leader brandished as Megatronus whom not only horrifically killed Megatron as Starscream but also ended the life of Optimus Prime as well, leaving many of the Earthbound Autobots scattered and soon possessing the once beautiful blue planet for himself. As he continued reading the additional detailed, he requested Laserbeak to display the contents via holo-projection before calling out to Prism.

"Prism...?" Turbulence said aloud without his optics leaving the holographic report before him, "You're gonna want to see this."

[rocketrobie2]

Sklog didn't know what to do at the moment. He wanted to be doing something but all there was to do was move the fallen Prime but that was already being taken care of by the Junkions. The Predacon settled for simply watching the bots do their job. It wasn't more than a minute later though that a somewhat familiar sound came near as Sklog saw the minicon Laserbreak come by and land on Turbulence. Sklog had seen the con on a number of occasions though never up close so the con naturally began to walk up to Turbulance and the minicon as he looked over the small cybertronian creature.

The minicon reminded Sklog of his time with his brethren but by now Sklog was for the most part over his loss of them. Sklog had a new family that cared enough for him to the point of brining him back from death. His old family never talked much and there was less compassion and more tolerance from them with some of them making Nightscream seem like a loving mother in comparison. Regardlessly Sklog still wondered about his old clan and how they were doing or if they were even alive for that matter.

[pyroman]

Upon Turbulence's request, Prism looked to the projection and watched as the events unfolded before her eyes. All of the log dates, all the reports and notes on Starscreams delving psychological state, right up until his change to megatronus. It was even further down hill from there. Those poor Earthians, facing such a terror, only to have Megatronus use them as harbingers of his new reign as the leader of the decpticons. She was, however, curious as to where Soundwave was. Was he still alive? Did Megatronus kill him too after finding out that Soundwave planned on warning Cybertron of his arrival? She believed the latter was unlikely, but still possible given how he did kill Megatron.

While she watched, Wreck-Gar took the impassive Nightscream's stance on the situation and saw that as his queue to move forward, having his Junkions take the corpse to Iacon. He hummed to himself jovially, dancing and prancing while the others took the body to the city.

"This is a problem." Prism stated the obvious. "How are we going to beat him? We have the Junkions on our side, for now, but we don't have the time to gather the resources we need to stand even a little bit against Megatronus. It's the four of us against an entire faction, and only one of us has top of the line upgrades."

She sighed, looking around and transforming to move with the payload. "Let's move out, Turb, Sklog. We'll have to plan as we go. I don't know how much time we have until he gets here."

[Forsythe]

"Way ahead of you." Nightecream mentioned over the comms. Calming down somewhat from the initial shocks of the new discoveries, her processor was once more thinking clearly. "We'll need a ship to get there, and a big, biiig gun on it to take down the Nemesis before they think to use it on us. Fortunatley, I know of one chassis that we might be able to convert to a ship that already has a big, biiig gun." Nightscream said, pulling up the blueprints of Trypticon.

It didn't need to be perfect. It just had to get them there. A few engines strapped on here and there and something powerful enough to turn on a spacebridge, which she would have to construct, unless... If he did stay behind as well, that would be the place for him to hide. a mildly disturbing thought made it's way to Nightscream's mind.

As far as the engines went, Nightscream was sure some could be salvaged form some of the downed autobot ships. A power core was a different matter, Trypticon's was never designed to work at the output of a spaceship. Maybe Iacon would hold the answer. Lastly, there was the final thing Prism mentioned.

"As far as top of the line upgrades go... I have some ideas. I can't really build another chassis for everyone, building one would be a stretch, but I could modify three enough to perhaps give us an edge." Pulling up Laserbeak's files, she looked at some of the Earth vehicle scans he had in memory. Instantly she found one that she liked. "Hm, yes, that would do." she muttered for herself.