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The Convergence

The outskirts of star system Elba, several light hours away from Garrus-9...

The vast, endless canvas of stars was still, save for a occasional shooting star piercing the night. This serenity was not going to last for long though. A hole was punched into the darkness, massive amounts of energy being focused on a pinprick sized chunk of space. Within fraction of a second the small void in space grew into a ripple until the it began to appear like the space itself began collapsing into the growing rift. And from this hole in the fabric of space, appeared a sleek, angular space faring vessel. It was black as the space surrounding it, barely visible against the background were it not for the purple accents of its hull. And as suddenly this foreboding vessel, size of a small city, had appeared - it disappeared from sight as if it had become one with the endless void of space.

And yet, the vessel was still there.

"The Semper Tyrannis is at full readiness," Reflector began, his components entering various commands in to their respective workstations. "Ghost shield engaged. Waiting for confirmation from the rest of the fleet."

The wait, such as it was, did not prove to be an extensive one. At the appointed time, and at the appointed place, various other vessels from the 2nd Expansion Fleet began transmitting their presence as both small and massive warships began to appear at varying points in the spacescape. Reflector took in the arrival of each new vessel with a certain degree of increasing satisfaction.

"Signals confirmed. Corvette Cleansed by Fire reporting in. Condition level yellow." Finback, a sickly, crusty old sailor and the Tyrannis' designated navigator reported from his workstation inside a life-support tank which kept a metal eating condition of his from spreading, "Corvette Demonizer reporting in. Condition red. Corvette Final Fortune reporting in. Condition yellow. Corvette General Nightmare reporting in. Condition yellow. Corvette Hands of Death reporting in. Condition red. Corvette Insurrection reporting in. Condition green. Corvette Mega Starpuncher reporting in. Condition yellow. Corvette Nepenthe reporting in. Condition yellow. Corvette Phantom of Death reporting in. Condition yellow. Corvette Steel Tormentor reporting in. Condition yellow. Corvette The Bitter End reporting in. Condition red. Corvette The Gentle Art of Making Enemies reporting in. Condition yellow. Well, they got an enemy in me. Those gearsticks owe me big time. I remember back in..."

"Enough!" Cyclonus' chilling voice interrupted Finback before the old Decepticon would get carried away with his reminiscenting. "Continue with the reports."

"Ah, yes. I apologize cap'n." Finback regained his thoughts, proceeding to continue listing the ships that had reported back. "Corvette The Surgeon's Warning reporting in. Condition yellow. Corvette Triple Corpse Hammerblow -sigh- reporting in. Condition red. Frigate Eternal Night reporting in. Condition yellow. Frigate Spirit of Wrath reporting in. Condition yellow. Frigate Terminus reporting in. Condition yellow. Frigate The Flame of Serenity reporting in. Condition red. Frigate The Splendour of a Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath the Blazon of the Decepticon Empire reporting in. Condition green. Seriously... what the slag the crew of Splendour were drinking when they named that ship? Nightmare Fuel? I need that stuff..."

A baleful look from Cyclonus pulled Finback back to the reality. "Eh, back to the business. Yeah. Frigate Merciless Dominator reporting in. Condition yellow. Frigate Flaming Ember reporting in. Condition red. Destroyer Burning Justice reporting in. Condition yellow. Destroyer Majestic Beast reporting in. Condition yellow. Destroyer Pestilence pending in on report. Last known condition level yellow. Battlecruiser Invictus reporting in. Condition green. Warworld Doctrine of Fear reporting in. Condition yellow. And Worldsweeper The Shatterer reporting in. Condition yellow. All bug ridden ships ready and counted for. Waiting word from Snaptrap.And now I have a cranial ache...."

"We are in the position Commander." Finback stated. "Standing by."

"What is the ETA for our target?" Cyclonus asked, stalking the bridge quietly as he continued to await notification from the Pestilence. He had confidence that he had selected the right Decepticon to bring that ship under heel and quell any problems amongst the Insecticons before they managed to spread and become problems for the whole fleet. But that confidence only went so far. Cyclonus also wanted results. He would not wait for Snaptrap's affirmation of the Pestilence's readiness for much longer.

"10 light-hours, sir." The Reflector trio hurried to reply in unison, not willing to have Finback to take all the attention of their superiors.

Reflector's announcement prompted reaction from no other than the High Commander Scorponok himself. The gigantic Decepticon had been sitting on his command throne, leaning thoughtfully against one of his massive claws. There was much depending on the battle to follow. Majority of the 2nd Fleet had been summoned to join the assault. Only a handful of ships had been left to defend their most critical holdings. Unlike Nebulos, this operation couldn't be carried out with just a one battlegroup. So Scorponok had freed three of the five he had. Too bad most of them were in a sorry state of being. Only few ships had been listed green in the operational condition check. Most had been listed yellow, which really meant that most of his fleet was in disrepair of various levels. At least only few of the summoned ships had been in no condition of being any kind of asset to the fight. To be successful, he needed all the intel there was to be had from his Autobot captives.

"Cyclonus, check in with Scourge and Soul Siren." Scorponok spoke, "ETA 10 light-hours. Last chance of cancellation of Operation: Convergence at 4. I want Scattershot's data."

"As you command," Cyclonus said, opening a direct commlink with Soul Siren.

>>"Lord Scorponok demands a status update. Has the patch been initiated? Has Scourge retrieved the codes from the Technobot?"<<

As Cyclonus contacted Soul Siren, Scorponok sent out a holographic projection of himself to his chosen hacking team. >>"Sparkstalker, Wingspan - ETA to target 10 light-hours. Report your current state of readiness."<<

Combo post by Sid and Cry.

The Pestilence - Bridge

Snaptrap accepted Bombshell's answer about Venom for the time being. There was no more time to waste dealing with these insects and their politicking. He had no wish to either. With a curt nod, Snaptrap strolled forward into the room, assuming his temporary command of the Pestilence. Gesturing for the Seacons to take up positions within the bridge, Snaptrap prepared to enter the Convergence behind the Semper Tyrannis. He sent his report in to Cyclonus as he did so.

>>"Snaptrap to Cyclonus. The situation on the Pestilence has been dealt with. The Seacons are in control. All is in readiness. We will be joining you shortly."<<

With that, the Pestilence moved - finally - away from Nebulos and made the jump by ripping open the fabric of space, warping the laws of reality as the Pestilence enter the portal. It reappeared in space near the Semper Tyrannis's location, fading from sight as Snaptrap initiated the ghost shield. With the Pestilence finally battle ready, Snaptrap turned to address Bombshell once again.

"Assemble your warriors for the drop down onto Garrus. We will reach it soon."

Semper Tyrannis – Computer Lab

With a nod Wingspan took the lead and entered the lab. Terminals stretched across three walls while the one opposite the door sported a large viewing port. The scene through it was breathtaking. In fact had the data processor the time he would have spent several orns just staring and thinking. “Why don’t you get set up over there while I take up this station.” Wingspan gestured to a series of computers just opposite the location he had claimed. “You can look into Garrus 9’s command codes while I work on the security system’s programs. Once we’ve gotten a foothold on those two agendas we can move on to the communications systems.”

He didn’t wait for a confirmation from Sparkstalker; instead the hawk-clone took a seat and began to upload the information pertaining to the prison’s systems. Once completed Wingspan started to sift through the security network’s programming. It seemed that the Autobots had enlisted Red Alert to create the protection protocols. “It figures. They had that paranoid freak write these programs.” His digits flew across the keys as he doubled his efforts to crack through the data. “No matter. Red is good but he’s never been pitted against me. Heh.” Wingspan mumbled.

The data processor dove into his work and at the same time he tuned out everything that was not related to his assignment. So when the image of Scorponok appeared and demanded to know of his and Sparkstalker’s progress, Wingspan flinched. He quickly regained his composure and addressed the holographic effigy. “Sir. I have just begun to sift through the security system’s programs. They seem to be heavily encrypted, but it should cause no trouble.” He turned back to the terminal for a moment and then looked back to the image. “I will be reworking the protocols to your specifications, and they shall be ready within the allotted time frame, sir.”

The Pestilence – Bridge

“You're right, Tentakil. Obedience is all we need.” Nautilator's voice remained low. “But I don't think we'll find that here. I mean, just look at them...”

Nautilator had his doubts over the Insecticons' loyalty. He believed they were as unfamiliar with that word as they were with trust.

He also had that icky feeling, the one you could only contract from being on board the Pestilence. Squishy sliding doors, for Primus's sake. Organic components had no business mingling with anything mechanical. But here he was, stuck on a mockery for a ship, slapped together with metal and organic material.

Why did the universe hate Nautilator?

Snaptrap's conversation with Bombshell came to an end. A gesture from his unit leader indicated that the Seacons should assume positions behind the various stations scattered throughout the bridge. Nautilator quickly approached the nearest station.

A mere glance at the controls caused him to stiffen slightly and he knew he was in over his cranial unit, the buttons, miniature screens and flashing lights making him want to twist his features in puzzlement. Too bad that wasn't the worst of it, because if it had been, he would've been okay with that.

Upon further investigation, Nautilator found himself staring at some kind of...goo smothering the controls here and there. Disgusted, he peered around the bridge, wondering if any of his fellow Seacons had suffered a similar mishap. They all appeared to be fine and well.

Of course they were. Every bad thing to ever happen always made sure to target Nautilator first. Ugh.

As he thought about that dismal truth, a diaclone, coming from out of nowhere, hurdled itself at Nautilator, hissing like a cyber-snake. Jagged lines of electricity glided along its antenna as it threatened the Seacon.

Nautilator recoiled. “Get the frag away from me!” He launched a fist at it, smashing the diaclone.

The filthy creature skidded across the floor, emitting a disturbing high-pitched squeal. Almost as fast as it had fallen, it righted itself before retreating back to the bunches of diaclones haunting the bridge. Good riddance.

Nautilator returned his attention to the station. Since he had no idea how it worked, he simply pretended to operate it, hoping no one would notice.

Better that than looking like an idiot, which was what his fellow Seacons would call him if they realised he was clueless.

Wait, they already did call him an idiot.

Ugh.

Semper Tyrannis: Brig

Pyro locked his optics on a simple sparkless droid as it made its way through the halls of the single leveled cell block of the Decepticon Battleship. There was not much else he could do. Conversations had been kept to a minimum, especially after Scattershot and Rad had been taken to the upper levels of the block infirmary. It was not hard to guess why Commander Scattershot had been taken into the dark nether regions of the ship, and rumors were already spreading that Scorponok was present onboard this vessel. Pyro could easily determine the basis of such maneuvers meant that they were about to head into battle.

The only problem Pyro had was the facts did not lend themselves to actually confirming that hypothesis nor even give a target for such an aggressive deployment of the Decepticon fleet. Not that it mattered at present. The ranger nor his blockmates were in any condition to oppose Scorponok or his minions. They had been scattered to the four corners of the planet and had been forced to defend themselves against a coordinated resistance. Had they been able to land enmass, perhaps things would have ended differently, but they had not and pondering such a 'what if,' served no purpose.

For Pyro, he continued to ponder exactly how Optimus Prime would handle such a confinement. Secretly he had managed to collect pieces of scrap left behind by the Horrorcon, Apeface's, attempt at being funny or at least threatening. While his initial thought to short out the energy fields had been proven ineffectual, the scraps were sturdy enough to be used in other aspects. Perhaps as a weapon or a form of digging tool... not that a tool of that nature would do them any good inside the belly of a starship. But whatever he decided to utilize them for, he was confident in the knowledge that they were available.

The drone looked up at the wounded Autobot warrior and beeped something in a computer code that Pyro did not care to translate. It completed its task with another burst of haste and disappeared around the bend towards the lift leading towards the infirmary. "It would appear things onboard this vessel have begun to reach the critical bursting point." His voice meant to carry to the other cells, but not directed at a mechanism in particular.

He knew the Technobots had been seperated, they were filed into their cells just after Scattershot had been forcibly removed from their number. And given the limited number of cells onboard, Pyro surmised that they had been paired up at the very least and more than likely three had been tossed into one and the other waited for the return of Scattershot and whoever else was with them.

"What could they possibly be after out in this avenue of space anyways?" He rubbed at his chin briefly.

Semper Tyrannis: Holographic Grid

Deadlock's weapon leveled at a non descript Autobot figure. A micron passed as his finger pulled back on the firing stud and sent a burst of solid light slugs straight into the construct's meta processor. A gyser of sparks were instantly rendered as the creation staggered forward and vanished. He flipped the weapon again before pressing himself against one of the rust coated cryocrete wall of the holographically generated prison block.

Two of his team members had already been killed off, primarily due to their inability to follow the simple order of shoot anything not wearing a Decepticon Sigil. Of course the computer was taking into account the inevitable battlefield restrictions that Turmoil or Scorponok would impose. It was so much easier to just ignore their incessent need for prisoners, eliminating the enemy brought this war closer to an end anyways.

"You two," he pointed to two Vehicons who were carrying neutron semi automatic rifles. "Quit shivering over those morons and cover the left flank. Maximus is in here somewhere and I want to take him down before the timer's up."

The two soldiers did as they were told, primarily out of fear that the barrels of Deadlock's guns would eventually be turned on them if they failed to heed his warnings. For his part, the warrior rounded the corner of the holographic grid and snapped off a trio of rounds from each of his weapons. Each burst pounded an Autobot prisoner and guard respectively causing them to smolder or erupt into flames. "At least here, I don't have to deal with those overly cautious scrapheaps."

Semper Tyrannis: Prison Infirmary - Scattershot's Mind

The images of the fortification faded away, leaving Scattershot a glimps of himself and the other future Technobot recruits as they surrounded a Decepticon Commander, then proceeded to beat it into a crumpled mesh. It was a sight that brought a satisfied smile to his plate as it all faded to darkness. In the skies above there had been a brief skirmish between defenses he had brought out of the memory and online against Scourge. Given who his opponent was, Scattershot was not surprised he had evaded the aerial bombardment and managed to survive long enough to eliminate the basic defenses.

"Impressive," he mockedly whistled as the next stage of large Sentinel Robots emerged from the ground began to take their toll on the Decepticon tracker. "Got to admit Rustheap, you are really good at tracking down trouble." The large sentinels proved to be a challenge for the mental intruder, dealing unchecked damage and provided a heavy amount of obstruction to whatever target the Decepticon was intent on getting to... but again, Scattershot was not entirely surprised that they too could not stop such a determined enemy. They were large and bulky. A highly maneuverable enemy could easily out turn them and get into a blind spot, thus have an opening to take it down.

It was a nice piece of entertainment. In fact, Scattershot would be hard pressed to remember such a spectical since the final days of the Golden Age. He pushed his mental standing briefly and constructed a bucket of Energon Bits and a cup of Energo Cola.

Popping a few bits into his mouth, Scattershot waved his hand in order to begin the next scene of the movie. "Come now, you can't expect that to be the final stage Scourge. We haven't even hit the climax of these little games. You wanted in, now you get to see what its like." A sadistic grin crawled across his face as he swallowed the half chewed bits of energy.

The blocked mountain range in the distance began to tremble. A fury of gasses exploded from the center of the range as a hallowed voice erupted from an eon's slumber. "Stage three. Can you handle this level? If you can, I'll give you a prize." A gigantic hand was launched from the southern edge of the range as another hand emerged from the north. Soon large batteries of guns all locked upon Scourge's energy signature as the large range withdrew its ancient cover and emerged into a towering behemoth.

Metro Titan. Scattershot could not remember if he had ever actually seen one, but he had known of their existance through legend and Lightspeed's constant lectures of those who were stronger than he was. Not that it mattered, this was his mind and in here nothing was stronger nor more skilled than the Commander of the Technobots. Maybe he'd let Lightspeed sample what it was like, maybe not, probably prove too much for the processor. Along the flanks of the gigantic titan an entire air batallion of Aerialbot squadrons flickered to life. Each one built around a similar form of Scattershot's alt form, and bristling with armorments. Their maneuverability exponentially boosted as was their speed and shields. "Alright Scourgy. Round 3. Begin!"

Semper Tyrannis – Computer Lab

Sparkstalker watched carefully while Wingspan pressed passed him and into the computer lab. It would be extraordinarily interesting to see just what the data processor had to offer to their new endeavor. Whatever it was Sparkstalker was sure it would rival his own contributions, although he’d be sure to put in a bit more effort. Can’t have anyone one upping him.

Once the hawk-former had entered the lab Sparkstalker followed close behind. His optics wandered around the room taking stock of all of the terminals; a smile creasing his lips. Here is where he belonged. The Firecon only barely registered just what Wingspan had to say before nodding in full agreement and taking up a position across from the clone.

The smile on his face only grew wider as he began is work. Digits flying over keys, possibly even faster than Wingspan’s own. He was determined to get anything Scorponok wanted, and, perhaps if the time allowed, just a tiny bit more for him.

Sometime passed with progress moving at a steady pace. He was none too surprised, however, when the holographic image of Scorponok appeared and demanded a progress report. It had to come sometime.

Sparkstalker regarded the image with a respectful nod and gave his report. “Sir, I have been filtering through the prison’s command codes that had been provided and I have already decrypted several lines of code. It should not take long before I have broken through all of their system’s coding. Should I have any difficulties, and I am confident there I will not then I shall contact you immediately.”

Semper Tyrannis - Bridge

Cipher watched the image on the screen for several minutes while he mentally formulated a plan on just how to reach the location. Now that he’d found what he was looking for he was determined to find it and use it. “To get to you, my lovely. To get to you.” Cipher tucked his left arm across his chest while he tapped his chin with the forefinger of his left. His target was located far beneath the prison so getting to it would take more than what he had to offer.

There was only one thing he would be able to do and that was to enlist several other ‘Cons to help him. Of course these mechs would not only help him in his search but they also keep him safe. Oh, he could hold his own if need be, but why bother when you surrounded yourself with brutes and neer do wells?

“It would seem you’re my best choice.” The scientist smiled once more and opened a comm link with Mindwipe. >>”Mindwipe. It’s Cipher. I have found something within the Garrus 9 facility that would benefit the Decepticon machine in so many ways. If you have the time please meet me on the bridge. I will fill you in when you arrive.”<<

A broad smile swept onto his face as he leaned back and rubbed his hands together. “Your secrets are mine.”