EDITED 3/28/2018 Changed Caliburn to Barrel (Armada Leader-1); more befitting of a Mini-Con leader, I'd say...
CHAPTER SIX
Little Iacon certainly lived up to its name. With its golden buildings and vast population, it felt and looked like a small replica of Iacon. Beta Maxx stared in amazement as the silver Mini-Con led him through the village.
"This is amazing," he said. "I thought the Scientist wiped out all of the villages."
The silver Mini-Con smiled. "Not all of them. Modus Prime created this as an emergency refuge."
"So, how many Mini-Cons live here?"
"At least a hundred or so. Admittedly not as much as some of the other villages."
"Why did you bring me here?"
The female Mini-Con was silent for a moment before bringing out a triangular object, with a greenish-blue orb in its center. "Do you know what this is?" she asked.
Beta Maxx shook his head.
"We call it the Mini-Con Matrix. It is the belief of our leader, Barrel, that it contains the spark of our ancestor, Micronus Prime, and will thus lead us to the Matrix of Leadership."
"Is that why those Decepticons were chasing you?" Beta Maxx asked.
She nodded. "Thunderwing- otherwise known as the Scientist- is obsessed with tracking down the Matrix. He somehow knows that the one Zeta Prime has isn't real."
"So, where do I fit in all of this?"
She smiled as she grabbed him by the arm. "Follow me."
* * *
"All right, Steeljaw," Orion Pax said as he set the yellow cybercat down in the desolate Mini-Con village. "Find Beta Maxx."
In an instant, Steeljaw was on the trail, scanning the ground with his sensors. He then moved to a caved-in cove and began digging out a tunnel.
"Looks like he's got a scent," Sideswipe said. "Are we all going to fit through that tunnel though?"
"I have him on tracker," Orion said, "so we can follow him on the surface in alt mode."
Once Steeljaw had created his tunnel and was going through it, Orion and his team converted into their alternate modes and followed the cybercat. At first, they were headed towards the city of Kalis, until Steeljaw took a sudden sharp turn and led them into a region of Cybertron Orion was not familiar with.
"Ironhide, do you know where we are?" he asked the older and more experienced Autobot.
"Looks like we're in Nyon," Ironhide replied. "It used to be a magnificent city, almost up there with Iacon. But over time, after Nova Prime left, it kinda got neglected by the new government. Now it's just a crime-ridden city like Kaon and the Badlands."
When Steeljaw came to a stop, the Autobots did so as well, morphing into their robot forms. It came to Orion's notice that Ironhide was not joking about Nyon's condition. Scrap metal littered the streets, rust coated buildings, and empties dominated the sidewalks. The fact that neither Sentinel nor Zeta Prime had attempted to repair this made it even worse.
Bringing out his scanner, Orion attempted to pinpoint Steeljaw's current location only to find that the cybercat's signature had vanished.
"Slag," he muttered. "We've lost him. He could be anywhere at this point."
"Can I help you guys?"
The five Autobots turned with a start to see a young mech standing before them, colored in red and orange with a flame deco on his chest.
"We don't get many visitors here in Nyon," he said. "Are you guys lost?"
"Not exactly," Orion replied. "But we have lost a friend of ours. He's underground."
The mech raised an eyebrow. "Why is he underground?"
"Long story. Do you have any tools for us to dig?"
The mech snorted. "Who needs tools?"
Dropping to his knees, he dug his fingers into a crevice in the ground and pulled back a piece of metal, revealing a downward passage.
"There you are," he said. "Piece of energon pie."
Orion nodded, smiling behind his mouthplate. "Thank you, er...."
"Hot Rod," the mech answered with a grin. "If you need any more help, just ask me."
"I'll keep that in mind," Orion said before he and the others dropped down the tunnel.
* * *
"Star-gazing again, Cosmos?"
Perched on the Fortress Maximus' observatory tower, looking through his built-in telescope, Cosmos turned to see his fellow Elite Guardsman Jazz.
"Yeah, I can't help it," the green and yellow Autobot replied. "I mean, visiting planets and whatnot is one thing, but just sitting back and staring at them gives you such an idea of wonder and stuff."
"I guess it does," Jazz said before grinning. "Just don't burn your optics out, okay?"
Cosmos started to laugh until a blip of light appeared in the lens of his telescope. Adjusting its visual range, he saw that the blip was actually an object that had just exited hyperspace and was fast approaching Cybertron.
"Say," Jazz said when he noticed the object as well. "What is that thing? Looks like a ship of sorts."
"Are you sure?" Cosmos asked. "I mean, if it is, it looks like it's changing shape."
Indeed, as the unidentified object came closer and closer to Cybertron, it appeared less like a ship and more like a beast....
"Alert High Command," Jazz said urgently. "Looks like we've got a situation."
* * *
After years of planning, Cybertron's reckoning was at hand.
Seated upon his command chair on the bridge of his flagship, the Nemesis, Megatron watched as Trypticon slowly approached Cybertron, Decepticon warships close behind the beast. Although Trypticon would be doing most of the work, the fleet had been brought along to further ensure the Autobots' downfall.
And so Megatron could pay a certain Prime a special visit.
"Lord Megatron, your shuttle is ready," Soundwave said from beside him. "Do you wish to travel down now?"
"Not yet," Megatron replied, grinning slightly. "I want to savor the beginning of what's left of the Autobots' lives." Opening up a channel to Trypticon, Megatron said, "You may begin."
The beast's responding growl was briefly accompanied by a sinister chuckle.
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