-CHAPTER ONE-
Twenty five years earlier...
The planet Earth was known as one of the most beautiful worlds in the galaxy, with it's massive blue oceans and green, brown and white colored land masses, made it a visual delight for those who looked upon it. But with the arrival of the Reapers, sentient machines created by the Chaos Bringer known to many as 'Unicron'.
The Earth came to looked to suffer the same fate as millions of worlds has before it. Gone was the colourful beauty that nature had given it, replacing it with the look of a world that had been burnt to a crisp. The Reapers had begun harvesting the planet's main Indigenous life form, a species called 'humanity', who for the majority of their short existence on the planet had believed that they were alone in the universe.
But that belief was not true and as of this very moment, humanity fought alongside a race of autonomous living synthetic brings called 'Cybertronians'. This race who originally arrived on Earth and brought their civil war (which also cost them their own world) with them, was now living peacefully with Humanity. And now with the Reapers threatening to destroy everything that they held dear, both races along with the combined galactic community were fighting this last desperate battle to hold the line against the night.
But it was a fight that they were losing, the galaxy has put all of its efforts into a Lithone device that was supposed to destroy their adversaries, but it instead became their doom. It was really a means to return Unicron back to the physical realm and with their creator among them again, the Reapers moved forward with their plan to destroy all organic life in the galaxy.
But then stepped forward one man, his name was Jack Darby. But he was known amongst many as Jackson Prime, the first Human Prime. He activated the matrix of leadership and used it to destroy the Chaos Bringer, but at a terrible cost. For it also ended the life of Primus, the Aeon who created the Cybertronians and the line of Primes. For if Unicron was to be no more, then Primus had to fade away as well.
So as the Chaos Bringer exploded and the wave of energy expanded across the whole galaxy and wiping the Reapers from existence. Unknown to those who survived that day to see a future that they could not believe that they would witness, a scream echoed from the destruction of the two Aeons.
A scream that they could not hear, but as it echoed across the universe like a shout through a mountainous region of land. It would eventually be heard by a powerful force, a force that would see it as an act of defiance by the galaxy in question and in turn set their sights to the Milky Way. And so they begin their journey through the endless dark space that separates the galaxies from each other, to find out what happened to their deceased brethren. Because death is not a idea known to them, and so heaven help those responsible.
Present day...
In the vast void that was deep space, there was suddenly a flash of white light as a star-ship jumped out of hyperspace. It had the markings and color scheme of the Interstellar Federation and the Autobots on it's hull (white, blue and red), it's name in black, bold lettering 'Icarus' could be could also be clearly seen.
Walking down one of the ship's dimly lit corridors was a Caucasian Cybertronian with brown hair and wearing purple and silver uniform that also had green outlines in its joints, he walked up to a door at the far end of said corridor and pressed the control panel to his right.
The door opened and he walked onto the bridge of the ship, which had a circular design to it. The Commander's chair situated in the centre of the room with all main stations surrounding it, giving the commanding officer full view of his bridge crew. All stations were manned by a mixed crew of Cybetronian, human, Krogan and Asari, while sitting in the Commander's chair was a Turian who turned in his chair to look away from the Bridge canopy and towards the man who had just entered.
"Shockblast, I thought you would like to know that we are approaching the last set of coordinates" the Turian said as the bot stopped beside him.
"Commander Villius, we have saved the best one till last right."
"I certainly hope so, after spending five years visiting and unearthing ancient Cybertronian settlements on numerous worlds across the galaxy, this last one should be jackpot... So the human saying goes."
The Turian then looked at a holo-image that appeared over his right-side armrest, it showed the Icarus and it's distance to the planet.
"I have to say that I am looking forward to your briefing, considering the planet we are about to enter the orbit of."
"Thank you, Commander Vallius, all I require now is Dr T'Soni's assistance." Shockblast replied as he looked over to the Asari sitting behind the Turian at the science station, she looked over to him having heard her name spoken aloud and saw him smile back to her.
"Are you ready, Liara?"
The blue woman looked up and smiled at the bot.
"Yes, Shockblast." she replied, mirroring his smile before looking at the Turian Commander.
"Commander Vallius, I have finished recalibrating the ship's sensor grid and also completed the compiling of our database." she replied before standing up and joining the bot's side.
"Thank you, Dr T'Soni, we are certainly lucky to have you on this expedition." Vallius said back as she walked over to Shockblast.
"She's the best." the bot said with an affectionate tone, making the Asari almost blush in return.
"We are approaching the planet sir." a young man at the helm stated, gaining their attention of which Liara was thankful. The pilot was Caucasian and had blonde hair and was wearing a yellow and purple uniform that like Shockblast, had green outlines at it's joints.
"Very good, Six-shot. Take us into orbit." Vallius replied as he and everyone on the bridge could see their destination on the other side of the glass.
"Cybertron!" Liara exclaimed with excitement in her voice.
"Yes, our former home-world." Shockblast replied as the Icarus moved into high orbit above the dead planet, from their vantage point, they could clearly see the detail of it's heavily damaged surface. Results of the eons long civil war that had caused the Cybertronian exodus long ago.
"We are in orbit, Commander." Six-shot stated.
"Good. Shockblast, have your team ready in the briefing room." The Turian Commander replied, earning a nod from the Shockblast as he and the Asari walked over to he elevator and entered once it's doors had opened.
A short time later and the two were in the briefing room with their team mates, waiting for the Commander to make an appearance.
"Liara?" Shockblast asked as he looked down at a data pad in his hands.
"Yes." she replied with a smile, earning a similar expression from the bot, though a shy one.
"You know, I meant what I said to the Commander earlier."
The Asari turned to the bot and wrapped her arms around his neck affectionately.
"I know you did, and if I hadn't worked with you for the last five years then I wouldn't feel the same way about you." she said before closing the distance between them, their lips meeting and moving in synch as they kissed for a long moment. They then parted as they heard the door open and turned to see the Commander enter the room along with Six-Shot and several others who all sat down on the chairs that were grouped together in front of the two.
"Well, we are all here, are you two ready?" Vallius said before Shockblast and Liara suddenly began moving like they had a purpose, which made Six-shot shake his head and sigh in response as he looked at the ground.
"Yes." Shockblast replied before activating his holo-tool, thus making the room go dark. The only illumination coming from a holo-globe that was hovering just behind Liara and himself.
"So... here we are, after five years of sifting through the mud on numerous worlds, finding evidence of previous Cybertronian settlements that pre-date the Great War and other discoveries that we did not know. We have finally arrived at the final destination of our journey before heading back to civilization."
As Shockblast spoke, Liara with her holo-tool changed the globe to a model of Cybertron that rose up above them, so that those sitting at the back could see.
"Cybertron." he said, before noticing a hand rise up from the group watching them.
"Yes?" the bot replied as the Salarian brought his hand back down to his lap.
"Thank you, but I find myself confused. Have there not been many expeditions to Cybertron over the last twenty-five years, not to mention the years before the Reaper war. What are we expecting to find that has not been found already?"
Shockblast smiled and brought up another hologram next to the Cybertron, it showed lines of Cybertronian writings that glowed in orange.
"The writing that you see before you is that of ancient Cybertronian, and each line was found on a tablet on each of these worlds." Shockblast added as Liara typed on the interface of her holo-tool, bringing up another hologram. This time of the galaxy which had several red dots scattered over it, gaining a knowing look from Six-shot.
"Those are worlds that we have already visited in the last few years, finding those colony ruins." he said, earning a smile and a nod from the bot standing in front of him.
"That is correct, now it should be noted that while the ruins we found on these worlds does in fact date back to the early years of the Golden Age. The tablets that these codes were inscribed, on are actually only a few million years old..."
The majority of the audience just stared at him blankly which annoyed Shockblast, but he managed to hold it all inside as he took a breath.
"...which means these codes were used during the Great War between the Autobots and Decepticons."
Suddenly some members started to show sins that hey were catching on as Six-shot decided to speak again.
"So what are these codes then?"
Shockblast could not hide the satisfaction he felt at the younger bot's questions, he was really the only member of the audience who was showing a natural interest, though Commander Vallius who would just watch and listen, keeping all his questions to himself until the end of the briefing. But Six-shot always did have a keen eye for history, just like himself...his older brother.
"Well, Six-shot, I...and it was no small task due to the complexities of the dead language...managed to decipher the codes." Shockblast replied as Liara worked her holo-tool again and made the codes separate from their formation, and hover above the audience.
"Now each code on its own read like gibberish, they made no sense. But when I put all the codes together..." He said as the codes hovering over the audience began to join and mix with each other until it made on singular code and an arrow appeared at it's end and pointed to a location on Cybertron.
"...they reveal a set of coordinates that are on the planet we are orbiting right now."
The bot then smiled as he saw that he had the attention of the audience now.
"Do you know which faction the codes belong to?" another crew member asked.
"No, but whether Autobot or Decepticon. The fact that the coordinates were encrypted using ancient Cybertronian, shows that whatever is at this location is big and I believe that it is something more than worth a look into." Shockblast replied as he noticed a smile appear on the Commander's face.
"Okay, Shockblast, you have a go. Everyone get ready, we will be landing the ship in exactly sixty minutes time. Let's go find out what's down there."
With that, the audience began leaving the room, going to their respective stations leaving Shockblast, Liara and Six-shot behind.
"That went better than I thought it would." the Asari said as Shockblast placed his hand on her shoulder affectionately.
"We are going to make history with this discovery I just know it."
"Don't go planning any speeches for future awards, we may still find nothing down there." Liara replied as she placed her hand on his in return.
"No, this is it. I can feel it in my bones, we are about to hit gold." the bot said back enthusiastically.
"Don't you mean platinum?" Six-shot corrected, earning a smile from Shockblast.
"Well, I was very impressed with your questions during the briefing, little brother, I think you may have chosen the wrong career."
"Nah, I am a pilot, Shockblast. I find history interesting but I will leave that to you." the younger bot replied, earning a brotherly slap on the back from the older brother before he and Liara began to head for the exit.
"See you on the bridge, Six-shot, I know you are dying to show off your skills with the landing."
"Yeah, yeah. You should know I can make this ship do anything with my skill. The landing will be so smooth, it will be like a leaf kissing the surface of a pond." Six-shot replied as he followed them out.
The ship broke orbit as it turned on its side so that the planet was below it's underside, as it prepared for its descent to the dead planet below it. On the bridge, Vallius rotated his chair three hundred and sixty degrees as he looked around at his crew. Six-shot was at the helm performing his per-landing prep, Liara was at the science station and Shockblast was sitting at her side as everyone else worked frantically around them. The Commander activated the intercom.
"This is Commander Vallius to all personnel, brace yourselves for entry." his voice boomed around the ship as all that heard it stopped what the were doing and strapped themselves, the Turian then looked at his pilot.
"Alright, Six-shot, take us down."
The pilot nodded before tapping the glowing blue holo-interface in front of him.
"Aye aye, Sir."
The Icarus's engines then fired as it started to descend down to Cybertron. As the ship entered the atmosphere, the turbulence was strong as they passed through an electric storm on the way down. They could hear the energy strikes through the hull and the inertial dampeners could not stop the vibrations from being felt as it made anything that was not fastened down shake and move around.
"I think we are passing through the worst of it." Six-shot stated as the cloud cover dissipated, revealing the battered, and war torn surface below. It was a mixture of grey and bronze colors with the derelict buildings stood inside what looked like a desert.
"Commander, that is the 'Sea of Rust, and the coordinates are located just north west of our current position'." Liara stated as she looked at the holo-interface of the science station, showing a three dimensional representation of the area she spoke of.
"Very good, Doctor T'Soni. Sixshot, take us to the coordinates." Vallius replied. The pilot merely nodded in return as he made the Icarus turn slightly to the left and fly the ship over to what looked like a desert where a lone mountain could be seen.
"There, right there!" Shockblast said as he pointed at the image.
"The sensors show that it is not a natural formation." he added as he looked to Liara for confirmation.
"He is right, there is another structure buried underneath. Looks like it has slowly been covered by the rust storms over the eons. Perfect place to hide something." she said with a smile, feeding Shockblast's enthusiasm more.
"Very well. Six-shot, land us next to it." Vallius said while keeping his attention on the glass canopy and the mountain as the Icarus got closer to it.
"Switching to thrusters to slow us and gently bring us down, also deploying landing struts. Touchdown in ten seconds." Six-shot said. The Icarus's struts appeared from inside the ship locked into place as it neared the ground, the strength of the thrusters kicking up a dust cloud around the vessel as it landed on to the Cybertronian surface, sending a shudder through the ship from the contact.
"The Icarus has landed, shutting down the engines and deactivating all navigational systems." the pilot stated as the Commander smiled at everyone.
"Nice flying, Six-shot." he said as the pilot's older brother undid his seat's straps and got up.
"Okay, time to get down there and make history." he said enthusiastically as he looked out of the canopy down at the base of the mountain.
"Easy there, Shockblast..." Liara said while looking at the holo-interface in front of her.
"Sensors show a rust storm heading this way, it's about five hours away from us."
The bot turned to her, his excitement dimming ever so slightly.
"That's why we should go now, get a head start." he continued to say as he looked over to the Turian Commander, hoping to get the go ahead.
"Very well, looks like you will need that time just to drill through the exterior anyway." Vallius replied with a nod as he brought up the scan of the mountain from the science station, it's three-dimensional model showing the thickness of the rust covering the building.
"Thank you, Commander." Shockblast said back before looking at Liara, the enthusiasm back on his face.
"Right, let's go."
The bot and Asari then got up and left the bridge as Six-shot watched, this did not go unnoticed by Vallius who saw the look on the younger bot's face.
"You want to go with your brother don't you, Six-shot?"
The pilot's attention snapped back to his Commander from the door as he heard his name spoken.
"Yes, Sir." he replied somewhat nervously, earning a smile from the Turian.
"Go on then, the Icarus wont be needing it's pilot while we are planet-side anyway."
The bot smiled at him and got up.
"Thank you, Sir." he replied before heading out of the bridge, through the same door as his brother earlier. Vallius then turned his attention to the rest of his bridge crew.
"Alright then, systems check. I want a report on each section by zero eight hundred hours." he said, earning a groan from some crew members around him.
Liara looked down at the interface on her holo-tool as she stood outside in her silvery white/blue armour and breather helmet as Shockblast and his brother were helping the dig team operate the large laser drill that was situated on top of the Icarus's MAKO.
The laser was firing a bright red and white hot energy beam at the base of the mountain that was towering over them, obliterating the rust that was blocking their way. They had been at this for nearly five hours as the Asari's com-link activated.
"Dr T'Soni, how fares the drilling?" the voice of Commander Vallius said from his end of the call. Liara looked down at the read out of her holo-tool.
"We are ninety five percent through, Commander."
"Well that storm is nearly upon us, you may want to consider returning to the Icarus and finishing it tomorrow. This storm will be going on all night." Vallius replied, Liara then looked over to the north and saw a massive storm cloud approaching, it was so large it seemed to reach up into the heavens.
"I think you are corr..." she started to say, only for Shockblast to interrupt over the link.
"No, I will not let a storm stop us now. We can take cover from it via the building that is encased in this mountain of rust." the bot replied with a slightly annoyed tone.
"Are you sure, Shockblast? I don't want anyone taking any unnecessary risks." Vallius replied.
"Yes, and everyone on my team agrees with me."
"Doctor T'Soni, does that include you?" the Turian asked. The Asari suddenly felt conflicted by the Commander's question, true she did see the logic in Vallius's words. But she also understood Shockblast's eagerness to find out what was inside the mountain, plus the thought of waiting several hours to a day for the storm to pass did not sit well with her either. She had trusted Shockblast for the last five years, and she did not plan to stop now.
"I agree with Shockblast." she replied, knowing full well the grin that would be on the bot's face right now.
"Very well, just be careful in there. Due to the strength of the storm, communications will be unavailable until after it has dissipated."
"Understood." Shockblast replied before ending the link.
It took a further thirty minutes for the laser drill to finish and by then the storm was pretty much all over the area, gale force winds blowing the sand like rust up into the air, making visibility almost zero. But the dig team managed to get into the tunnel that they had created through the heavy layer of rust that had slowly covered whatever structure had stood there over the eons.
Shockblast and Liara led the way as they shone their torches into the darkness ahead of them, hoping to find some clue as to what they would find. After a short time walking through the tunnel, the gale force winds of the storm now just a faint echo behind them. The group came up to what looked like a metallic wall.
"Looks like there is something written on it." Six-shot observed as His brother reached out and wiped a gloved hand over one of the symbols.
"It's ancient Cybertronian." he said before activating his holo-tool.
"Can you translate it?" Liara asked.
"Give me a few minutes to get my bearings with this." the bot replied as both the Asari and Six-shot gave each other a knowing look before looking back at the rest of the team, who had started to talk amongst themselves. After fifteen minutes of hearing conversations such as...
"What do you think we will find down here?"
"Perhaps a first edition of Sargent Kup's war stories."
"By the Allspark, I hope not!"
... Liara rolled her eyes and turned back to Shockblast who was still trying to figure out the wall in front of them.
"Figured it out yet?" Six-shot asked before the she could say the same question.
"I don't get it! I have gone through every translation matrix I have and the symbols on the wall still make no sense." the older brother replied with a frustrated tone. The three of them looked at wall and the way that the symbols were arranged in a circular pattern.
"That looks familiar..." Liara said before bringing up the codes via her holo-tool.
"..., the symbols on the wall are identical to the first symbol on each line of code." she added as Six-shot decided to pint something out.
"Yeah and the number of symbols on the wall match the lines of code we have."
Shockblast looked up at the wall with a confused expression that soon changed to one of embarrassment.
"How did I not notice that?" he said.
"Don't worry about it, let's just see if we can now open this door." his younger brother said as he placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Okay, let's see what is in this door shall we." Shockblast replied as he began a scan with his holo-tool.
"I am detecting a series of small CPUs inside the door, each one behind one of those symbols, there is also a faint signal being emitted from each CPU. So if we..." he said as he brought up the holograms of the codes and lined them up with each corresponding symbol on the wall.
"...send the codes along the same signals, then..." he added as the images then passed into the wall, gaining a ping from his holo-tool.
".. Open sesame." he smiled as the gears and cogs could be heard turning from behind the wall as it began to open up, releasing a small dust cloud from the other side.
"Well done." a Salarian team mate said as the rest of them had stopped talking and watched as the three lead members figured out how to open it.
"Okay, let's see what's in there." Shockblast said as he done his torch into the opening and began walking through the door, followed closely by Liara and Six-shot and then the rest of the team.
It did not take long before the group entered a massive room, one that would have been of normal height for a Cybertronian in their original body. Six-shot activated a drone with his holo-tool, it's bright glow illuminating the room so everyone could see what was around them. It was filled with consoles and heavy equipment and also had three doorways that led elsewhere in the complex. Shockblast looked around in utter glee before turning to his team.
"Alright, we are going to split up in to teams so that we can explore this place some more. Also activate your search drones if you find any more rooms, so that we can make a map of this place."
So the bot then split everyone into four teams of three (being sure to have both Liara and Six-shot with him) and had one team stay behind and examine the room they now in, while having the rest of teams (including his own) check out where the three door ways led. Once they had split up and headed down their respective corridor, Shockblast's team entered another large room, but this one only had one massive computer at one end, and a large containment tank in it's center. There was also a large hole in one of the walls that looked like it connected to a mine tunnel.
"Six-shot, activate a search drone to explore the area behind that hole." the older brother said. His young brother nodded and activated his holo-tool, making an orange bill-orb appear in front of him before it flew off through the opening and into the tunnel beyond it.
"Okay, the drone is mapping the tunnel." he said as the interface of his holo-tool showed the ever expanding map of the complex grow some more with the drone relaying more data. Shockblast nodded back before joining Liara at the computer.
"I am detecting an Energon source nearby, but it's readings are not exactly the same as what we know Energon to be like." the Asari said as Shockblast looked at her interface.
"I thought Energon was completely depleted throughout the galaxy, which was the reason why our species had to switch to pretender bodies to begin with." Six-shot said as His older brother noticed something about the readings.
"That's right, but these readings do not match with that. It is picking up Synthetic Energon, a lot of it."
Liara gave both bots a puzzled look.
"What is Synthetic ener...?"
"Just call it Synthergon for short." Six-shot interrupted, earning an Annoyed look from his brother, before he turned his attention back to Liara.
"..Synthergon is exactly what it sounds like, a Cybertronian-made alternative to the real energy source. The formula for it was created by the ancients and then lost over time, only for Team Prime to rediscover it during the twilight years of the great war."
"So why don't we see this 'Synthergon' around today?" Liara asked, her undivided attention squarely on Shockblast.
"Because the formula they found was incomplete, and they would have had to sacrifice one of their team to gain the full formula."
"With it incomplete, the Synthergon would have dangerous side effects on any Cybertronian that used it, taking away their inhibitions while also making their bodies grow dependent on it." Six-shot added while confining to map the mine tunnels.
"Like a drug addict... I understand. But either way, whoever's complex this is, clearly found a way to use it as a power source." the Asari replied as she looked at the power signature on her holo-tool. Shockblast activated his own and ran a scan of the computer.
"I have gained access to some of the system, attempting to restore power to the..." he said before being cut of by the sound of generators powering up and the lighting system of the complex activating, illuminating the rooms and the corridors. The bot looked around at the lit up room and was about to speak when his com-link beeped.
"Shockblast, everything is powering up around us. And we are detecting a breathable atmosphere within the complex. Please tell us that was you?" one of the other teams asked.
"Yes, we have restored power. Nothing to worry about." he replied as the group removed their helmets, before the containment tank powered up and a trap door opened inside and a human sized synthetic body strapped down to a mobile berth rising up into the center of the tank.
"What is that? It looks like a blank slate." Liara asked with wide eyes, gaining mirrored looks from her team mates.
"That is a Pretender body." Shockblast replied.
"But it doesn't look like any Pretender model I have seen before." Six-shot said as his older brother took a scan with his holo-tool.
"This is a more advanced model than the ones that Cybertronians were forced to use all those years ago, I am not entirely sure but it looks like this has an 'T-Cog'."
Liara looked at him with another puzzled expression.
"T-Cog?"
"Back when our race had their original bodies, they also had a T-Cog which allowed them to scan a vehicle of equal size and then transform into a replica. The T-Cog in this Pretender is not as complex, it looks like it only alters the body slightly. In what way I am not entirely sure, I would need to see it in action." Shockblast replied as he walked closer to the glass canopy that surrounded the pretender, only for his holo-tool to start pinging, taking his attention from the body.
"Alright, I have manage to interface with the main computer, accessing the data logs now."
"I thought the computer would have been more encrypted than that, considering how well locked this place was." Six-shot said.
"Maybe whoever owned this place never thought anyone would figure out the codes to gain entry, let alone reach this far." the older brother replied as looked down at the holo-screen in front of him as lines of data scrolled down it. Liara took a closer look at the pretender with an unnerved expression.
"I know it is a blank slate, but that thing doesn't look particularly friendly."
Six-shot stood beside her and looked at it too as Shockblast smiled and clicked his fingers as his holo-tool pinged again.
"Eureka, now let's get some answers." he said as the others stood beside him, just as he enlarged the holo-screen which changed to show a Cybertronian figure looking back at them. It was quite bulky and it's armour was purple colored, but it was the solitary red optic staring back that was most recognisable to two of the group.
"Shockwave! Well now we know which faction this complex belonged to." Six-shot exclaimed in surprise as Liara looked at screen.
"Shockwave, who's that?"
"He was the Decepticon's Head Scientist and he was well known for 'tampering with with nature'." the younger bot replied.
"Are we going to see what this log is about or do you guys want to carry on talking." Shockblast said with a tone mixed with annoyance and excitement.
"Yeah, alright. I know what this means to you, Shockblast. With your liking of all things Decepticon-like." Six-shot said back.
"Well, I have known you for five years (dated you for two) and I am still not really comfortable with your favorite subject. I mean the Decepticons were evil, right?" Liara said as she looked at her boyfriend.
"It was a civil war, it was only th factions beliefs and ideals that separated our people down the middle. It was the Cons leader who was truly evil, and he ruled the faction with fear to keep his men in line." Shockblast replied.
"Megatron, that's his name right?" the Asari asked back, earning a nod from the brothers.
"I still don't understand it, but at least you're not obsessed with the Reapers like some others I know. Those things nearly destroyed my planet, let alone the entire galaxy. I guess that is far worse." Liara added.
"That's right, especially since the Reapers were creations of Unicron and the Decepticons were enemies of him too. Megatron even allied himself with Optimus Prime to defeat The Chaos Bringer." Shockblast said.
"Yeah, I remember hearing all about that back at school...so can we play this log now?" Six-shot asked earning a smile from the two lovers, before the older bot tapped the holo-screen to activate the video.
"Research log Alpha nine seven two. My continuing research into Pretender technology has brought up a weakness that If not corrected, could prove fatal to any Decepticon using it. Though it is true that even in these smaller bodies, we would still have strength and stamina which would give us an advantage over the Humans, but to maintain adequate deception and allow our agents to walk among our enemy, then certain advantages of ours had to be sacrificed to allow the mimicry to be successful. But now, using the knowledge gained from successful experiments such as Airachnid and to a certain degree, the Dinobots. I believe that I can finally produce a Pretender form that will give us a permanent advantage, not just over the humans, but over all of our enemies."
The video ended and the three friends looked at each other.
"So that pretender over there is what he came up with." Liara said.
"Certainly looks that way, the log was dated during the final year of the war. The Decepticons never got the chance to use any of the Pretender tech, good job too." Six-shot replied as Shockblast kept his eyes on his holo-screen as he scrolled through the list of vid logs. Suddenly The younger bot's com-link activated.
"Six-shot, I was trying to contact Shockblast but seem to have trouble making a connection." the Salarian scientist from earlier said, making the young bot look over to his brother. Shockblast just gave him a look which said 'I turned it off', so Six-shot just smiled and shrugged.
"...yeah, it seems that we are having trouble with our communicators."
"But I managed to contact you just fine." the Salarian replied.
"I don't know why that is, I am only a pilot after all." Six-shot answered, annoyance beginning to show in the tone of his voice.
"Well, I need to speak to Shockblast..." the Salarian said, earning a eye roll from the older brother who in frustration tapped his com-link.
"What is it? He snapped.
"Ugh... no need for that tone." the Salarian replied in a similarly angry tone. Shockblast did not need this right now, this particular scientist was annoying at best, but now with the discovery they had just made, he did not have the time nor patience to put up with him.
"What is it?" he asked again, this time with a little less anger.
"We have found what appears to be the controls for a space bridge generator in the laboratory we are currently inside, I thought you would like to know." the Salarian replied, though you could hear in his voice that he was still pissed off.
"Okay, mark the lab on your holo-map, rendezvous with the other teams and come over to our location, we have just activated Shockwave's main computer." Shockblast replied.
"Shockwave?... Alright, we are on our way." was the reply from the scientist as he closed the com channel.
"He certainly changed his tune." Six-shot said as his brother returned his attention to the data base.
"There is another file data log that looks interesting, but I am having trouble accessing it."
Liara looked at the holo-screen with a curious expression.
"Why, is it encrypted?"
"No, it seems to be connected to a separate system. Let me just try...(ping)..that's it." he said as suddenly a loud humming could be heard from behind the north wall directly behind of them, making the group turn round.
"What did did you do?" Six-shot said as he and Liara looked at Shockblast.
"I saw a file in the database that had no name or description what so ever, so I activated it." the bot replied as just like earlier with the large door, the sound of gears turning could be heard before a section of the wall ascended, revealing a inner chamber. It was no bigger than a closest, but contained something that made everyone's eyes widen in surprise.
"Is that what I think it is?" Six-shot asked as they stared at a machine that had a glass cylinder in it's center, and inside that pulsed a red glowing ball of energy.
"It looks like a spark." Shockblast observed.
"But I thought sparks were always white coloured, I have never heard of a red coloured one before." he added.
"Instead of standing here scratching your heads, how about looking through the database. Surely there is information about this." Liara said as she brought up the database on her holo-tool after transferring the entry key from Shockblast. But just as she started searching the files, the other groups entered the lab.
"Well, we are here. What have you fou..." the Salarian said before catching a glimpse of the red spark pulsing in front of them. For a long moment, everyone other than Liara (who was still searching through the database) just looked at the spark. Some of them were admiring the red energy that pulsed through out it, others just stared at it with a focused expression. But then the Asari brought them all out of the trance.
"Damn it." she cursed, which was out of character for her.
"What?" Shockblast asked as he looked over to the Asari.
"I found the files, but they are all too fragmented to activate."
Just as she said this, her boyfriend suddenly had an idea.
"Wait, why don't we just transfer it to the Pretender over there and Wake them up?" he said.
"You said this was Shockwave's lab right, and now you want to wake up some experiment in the hope it knows what was done to it. It's more likely to try and kill us." the Salarian said in response.
"Or we may just free someone who has been another victim of his twisted science." Six-shot said, earning a smile from his brother.
"Right, I think it is worth the risk. I mean we do carry weapons with us, so we can act if whoever it is does end up being a threat." the bot said as he gestured to the pistol equipped to his waist.
"We should at least inform the Icarus of this and see what Commander Vallius thinks." another scientist said amongst the group.
"The storm is still going to strong out there for our com-links to work." Shockblast replied.
"Wait, what about the space bridge generator. We could repair that in say...a couple of hours, then use it to get help from the ship." the Salarian said back.
"That would take too much time, and do you really have any experience repairing space bridge technology?" Shockblast replied sarcastically.
"I believe it would be more prudent than waking up an experiment that we have no idea what it is." the Salarian spat.
"Enough!" Liara shouted at the pair of them, making both men look at her with startled expression.
"Shockblast, do you think we can wake him up in that containment tank as an added security measure?" she then asked while pointing at it.
"Sure." he replied confidently, which made the Asari smile.
"In the five years I have known you, I have learnt not to doubt you. Can't see any reason why I should start now." she added with a loving smile.
"Alright, we have quite a few preparations to make before we can pull this off." the bot said enthusiastically, as he started giving orders to the rest of the team.
Twenty minutes later and everyone took their positions around the lab, three of which held their pistols at the containment tank which still held the inactive pretender body. Which was connected to the cylinder containing the unknown spark via a transparent cable. Shockblast was standing just behind one of the armed scientists, as he and Liara oversaw the operation. Six-shot stood just aways from them, next to the machine containing the red spark.
"Alright, we are ready for transfer." he said as his brother nodded back.
"Then let's begin, start the transference."
The younger bot then tapped a control on his holo-tool which bright the machine to life, and suddenly the red spark began drifting out of the glass cylinder, down the cable and towards the vacant body lying in the middle of the large room.
"Okay, so far so good." Shockblast stated as he kept his attention on both the read outs from his holo-tool, and also the progress of the spark, which was coming up to the half way point of the journey. The bot felt a lump grow in his throat as he watched it slowly move down the cable, before it entered the tank and went into the pretender body via an adaptor on it's chest. Almost immediately, the pretender started to change.
It's skin colour became that of a Caucasian male in his early-forties, his hair was black with a hint of silver mixed in as it appeared on his head. His torso shaped itself into a well toned and built frame, as the rest of the body grew in height an extra inch or so (six foot tall). The newly transformed figure had the look of a battle hardened veteran as he lay there on the berth. Everyone outside of the containment tank just watched in amazement at the transformation that had occurred before them.
"That was amazing." Liara exclaimed before the newly created Cybertronian's eyes suddenly opened, revealing his eyes to have red irises. He gasped as he took his first breath and rose up from the berth, surprising everyone before falling to his knees with his hands up against the glass.
"Help...me." he said on a deep, commanding voice. Though a hint of helplessness could be made out in his tone as he looked up at the people staring at him from the other side of the glass.
"What are you waiting for, he needs help." Shockblast said urgently while the others looked on utterly dumbstruck.
"Why don't you help me?" the newborn bot said.
"Six-shot, give me a hand." Shockblast said, earning a nod from his brother as both started for the containment tank's control panel. When suddenly the Salarian scientist got in their way and pointed his pistol at them.
"What are you doing? he obviously needs aid." Six-shot asked in disbelief.
"No, this has gone to far. As soon as the storm passes, I am reporting to Commander Vallius. We should let him decide the fate of this...?"
The Salarian then turned to the unknown male and looked down at him.
"What is your name?"
The bot looked up at him with a confused expression.
"My...name?"
"Yes, your name. What is it?" the scientist snapped, but the man was unfazed by the Salarian's attitude.
"My name is..." he started to say before mumbling the first half of his name.
"...atron."
Everyone, Shockblast included stared at him with their eyes wide.
"Did he say what I think he just said?" one of the others said at the back.
"Are you Megatron?" the Salarian asked, this suddenly caused a change in the Cybertronian as his eyes met with the scientist's and stared at him coldly.
"No!" his answer was cold with a hint of anger in his tone as he began to stand up.
"Then...what is...it?" the Salarian asked, suddenly feeling very small due to the way that was being looked at. The man was now standing and bracing his hand against the glass, the nails on his hand were changing into claws. His body became slightly more muscular and as he gritted his teeth as he felt his anger building up, revealing them to now be as sharp as a blade's tip. But what had everyone's blood suddenly running cold was that his red eyes now looked like those of a lizard.
My name..." he then said in an angry tone as he dug his claws into the glass, making multiple cracks appear, weakening it considerably. The group was now so scared by the sudden change in this bot, that even the ones with their pistols pointed at him could not move. Suddenly the man pulled at the glass, shattering it and freed himself from the tank.
And before anyone could react, he charged out and grabbed the Salarian by the throat, digging his claws into his neck and causing blood to pour from the wounds. As the scientist died there in his grip, the man looked around at the others staring back in fear.
"My name is Galvatron, you will kneel before me...or die!"