CHAPTER FIVE
--Cybertron--
"I'm surely not the only one to have noticed this, but I do believe we have lost some of our labor force."
Galvatron scowled as he sat atop his makeshift throne, surrounded by the other Heralds in the ruins of Iacon. "You are indeed correct, Scourge. It would appear Megatron has found a way with words rather than actions."
Scourge smiled sadistically. "Would you like me to--?"
"No," Galvatron cut him off. "There's no use in exerting any energy in hunting them down, especially with the Reunification short at hand."
"But if they unite with the Autobots, we will be outnumbered," Jhiaxus said, wringing his servos. "We may not stand a chance."
Straxus snorted loudly. "Are you suddenly forgetting that we serve the Chaos Bringer? He'll be able to destroy any opposition with the mere flick of a wrist."
"If it were that easy, wouldn't he have done so already?" Grindcore pointed out. "Unicron chose us to carry out his will and defend it. And we shall do just that."
"Enlighten us, then," Cyclonus said sardonically. "How do you suppose we go about doing that?"
Grindcore folded his arms over his chest, a sinister gleam in his visor. "We bring out our dead."
--The Steelhaven, in Archon's system--
"Uh, we've got a problem."
Optimus Prime closed his eyes as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Don't tell me: Archon isn't there anymore or we've arrived in the wrong system."
"No, no, don't worry," Blaster said. "It's just that... I've lost contact with the Lost Light."
Optimus nearly shot out of his chair, his optics wide with concern. "Is something interfering?"
"More like the line's completely dead. I don't know if it's on their end or ours."
"Just keep an eye on things and give me further updates," Optimus said with a solemn sigh. "Jetfire, land us down."
--The Lost Light--
"This is not happening, this is not happening, this is not--"
"I hate to break it to you, Tailgate, but it's happening." Her head-mounted light illuminated, Nautica carefully went down a corridor with Tailgate and Strongarm behind her. "Just keep calm and try not to jitter too much. The D.J.D. feed off of fear."
Despite this, Tailgate only began to shiver even more profusely. The three of them reached a corner and cautiously turned it. Immediately, Nautica detected two figures with her light and she readier her wrench, only for one of them to raise their hands.
"Relax, Nautica, it's me!" Brainstorm said. "Me and Crosscut. And you'd better not use that wrench on me. I placed a failsafe on it when you were working on it in case you were to do so."
"You did what?!" Nautica exclaimed.
"Not so loud!" he hissed. "Do you want the D.J.D. to find us?"
"They're going to eventually," Strongarm said gruffly. "The question is: what are we gonna do when they do?"
"Hit them with a shovel." All eyes turned to Crosscut, the silver and red mech accompanying Brainstorm. He shrugged in response. "Sorry, old joke. You've seen My Shovel, Your Face, haven't you?"
"Forget it," Nautica said. "Let's get a move on and find the D.J.D. before they find us."
"You guys go ahead and do that," Tailgate said, opening a nearby door. "I'll just hide in this storage closet until--"
The small mech was cut off as a mutilated turbofox leaped out of the closet and lunged at him, hunger glowing in its savage optics....
* * *
Nightbeat heard the screams from outside his hab suite. Rushing out, he found blaster fire lighting up the end of the corridor, Skids being one of its sources as he shot at something beyond the corner. Before Nightbeat could go to aid the theoretician, he was jumped on from behind by Getaway, who then shot back at something.
"Apologies for the surprise tackle," Getaway muttered as he got off of the detective. "How good are you in a gunfight?"
Nightbeat said nothing as he brought out his gun and shot at their unseen assailant. No retaliation came.
"Who are we up against?" he then asked Getaway.
"That one there was Kaon, I think. The electric chair bot." Getaway motioned towards Skids' position. "He's dealing with Helex, AKA Ol' Brain-in-Mouth."
"Some help would sure be nice!" Skids called at them, narrowly dodging a few shots from Helex. "I would appreciate it a lot more than pointless exposition!"
Getaway nodded as he cocked his gun. "All right. Let's see if we can set a record for the most minutes survived against the D.J.D."
* * *
"This is a bad dream, right? This is all a very, very bad dream. Pretty soon we're all gonna wake up and laugh at how incredibly bad that dream--"
"Riptide, shut up!" Swerve snapped, hiding behind the counter with the Hydrobot, at the same time cringing from the shredding sounds outside the door. "I know that sounds strange coming from me, but we've gotta keep calm."
"How the slag does one keep calm with the D.J.D. at their doorstep?!" Riptide cried.
"Take it easy. I've got a plan."
The Hydrobot gave him an incredulous look. "You?! A plan?! Since when do you have plans?!"
Before Swerve could answer, the door to the bar was torn open and a large, hulking Decepticon stormed in, a shredding mechanism spinning in his chest cavity.
"Come out and play, Deadlock," Tesarus said with a sadistic grin. "It's time to die."
Emerging from the shadows, Drift descended from the ceiling and plunged his blade into Tesarus' back. The Decepticon enforcer flinched from the attack but easily pulled him off with the waldos in his shoulders and held the ex-Decepticon by the legs.
"Wow. For a last-ditch effort, that was just sad." Tesarus grinned more broadly and savagely as he moved Drift towards his spinning shredder. "Now then... let's go for a spin."
Before the large Decepticon could finish off Drift, Swerve emerged from behind the counter with a large gun in hand. It had an orange cap on its barrel, red, blue, and green strobe lights decorating its top, and the words "My First Blaster" embolden on its side.
Aiming the gun straight at Tesarus' head, Swerve boldly declared, "GET THE SCRAP OUT OF MY BAR!"
He pulled the trigger and a large beam of energy shot out, briefly illuminating the bar with a green light. When the gun finished firing, Drift fell out of the clutches of a charred-headed Tesarus. The My First Blaster then started lighting up as it let out a musical tune.
"Hooray! You scored a direct hit!"
"Yes, congratulations," Tesarus growled. "You have just made me angrier."
"Then this should cheer you up."
Coming up behind the Decepticon enforcer, Star Saber thrust his sword straight into Tesarus' back. The brutish mech screamed as Star Saber then pulled the blade out and stabbed him through the mouth, causing the lights of his X-shaped visor to go out and for the Decepticon to collapse onto the floor.
"Gruesome," Riptide commented when the clash was over. "But fitting."
Swerve simply scoffed. "'This should cheer you up?' What kind of a one-liner is that?"
"Never mind that," Drift said, brushing himself off. "We should track down the other D.J.D. members and stop them from slaughtering everyone else... if they haven't already."
"We?" Swerve asked, suddenly elated. "Hey, yeah! We should be a trio or something! 'Swerve and his Amazing Sword-wielding Friends!' Wouldn't that be fun?"
"Extremely," Drift said dryly as he strode out of the bar, with Star Saber, Atomizer, and other patrons following.
Swerve watched them leave before looking at Riptide. "I think it would be."
* * *
"Any luck in getting anything back up?" Elita asked Hubcap.
"None," came the reply. "Communications, engines, defenses, cameras... they're all shut down."
"I hear footsteps," Red Alert said quietly, his audio receptor pressed against the door to the bridge. "Heavy footsteps. Someone's coming."
"Weapons ready," Ultra Magnus, readying his gun. "If any of us die from this, let me just say it's been an honor serving with you."
"Likewise," Elita murmured, loading up her own weapon. "Red Alert, open the door."
Standing off to the side, Red Alert punched the control panel and the door opened to reveal Tarn. Red optics glowed behind his Decepticon insignia mask as the leader of the D.J.D aimed his fusion cannon.
"Hello, Autobots... and good riddance."
-
Author's note: Tesarus isn't dead, just so you know; only incapacitated.
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