CHAPTER NINE
--Outpost Four--
"...And an extra ten thousand for the--"
"Right, right," Darkstar grumbled as she finished transmitting Lockdown's payment. "There. Twenty-five hundred thousand credits have been transferred to your account."
"Excellent." Lockdown gave her a mock bow. "Pleasure doing business with you."
He then turned to leave the command center only to see Megatron standing in the doorway, Soundblaster right behind him. The bounty hunter took a step back in surprise.
"Err, am I missing something here? Last time I checked you were--"
Megatron ignored him and strode over to Darkstar, who calmly stared back into his angered optics. "Yes?" she said. "What is it?"
"Where are we?" he growled.
"New Kaon, capital world of the Decepticon Empire."
"Why are we here?"
"So you can reclaim your throne as Emperor of Destruction, a title currently held by that fool Starscream."
Megatron stepped over to the viewport and stared out at the volcanic planet below. Just in the periphery view was the Titan Lockdown's hunters had retrieved, currently in its vessel form. At first he simply passed it over only to perform a double take. Something was moving towards the Titan -- a small ship of sorts.
"What's that ship doing there?" he asked.
Darkstar moved over to where he stood and followed his line of sight. Upon seeing what he saw, she said, "Oh, that would be Skyscorch's crew. They're supposed to prepare the Titan for the Headmaster process."
Megatron blinked. "The... what?"
"The Headmaster process," Darkstar repeated, looking at him oddly. "Is there something wrong?"
Before Megatron could reply, the Titan -- as well as the small ship -- did something completely unexpected.
They both vanished.
Both Megatron and Darkstar performed a double take at this, unsure if they had actually witnessed what had just occurred. Lockdown, on the other hand, merely crossed his arms in defiance.
"I am not paying back for this."
* * *
And to think, everything had been going smoothly.
First they had gotten Cerebros free by using Quickshadow's demolec-gun on the chair he was stuck to. This did leave him with a slightly rubbery lower plating, but Brainstorm had assured him the effects would wear off (he was 95.73% sure of that).
Next, they had hijacked a Decepticon shuttle using Quickshadow's clearance codes. Once they were out of the hangar, they made for the Titan that the 'Cons had somehow gotten their hands on, intending on taking it back to High Command.
Clearly the Titan had other plans.
Lifting himself up from floor of the crashed shuttle, Brainstorm looked to see Quickshadow and Cerebros getting up as well. Outside the ship, he could see the spinning blue tunnel of hyperspace that the Titan was taking them through.
"Can't something go right for us?" he muttered. "Just for once?"
"I'll try to get a message out to High Command," Quickshadow said. "Tell them what's happened and why we won't be--"
"Um, guys?" Cerebros pointed out the viewport. "Something's happening again."
Brainstorm and Quickshadow both turned towards the window and saw that the Titan was beginning to exit hyperspace. All three of them found something to hold onto as the vessel lurched.
Rising to his feet again, Brainstorm stared out at the lush green world that they had arrived at. Although he was no astronomer, he knew what planet it was... and could only wonder why they were here of all places.
"Better buckle in, guys," he murmured. "I think we're in for one wild ride."
--Carcer--
Eukaris. Finally.
Of course, these days it was known as Animatron, but Magmatron had no desire to acknowledge Nova Prime's imperialistic influence. He was here to remove the stain Cybertronians had made to his domain once and for all.
As he stood on the edge of Carcer's bow, staring down at the green world of Eukaris, he heard the distinct sound of rotors come from behind him, heralding the approach of Obsidian.
"Ah, Obsidian," Magmatron said, not turning to face the ex-Decepticon general. "Are your bots ready?"
"Yes, my liege." Obsidian clicked his fingers together. "Er, I do have two pieces of news to deliver."
"Out with it then. I don't want this to be put off for much longer."
"Well, first of all, Ultra Trion has returned. Without the Autobots he took with him."
Magmatron looked at him in surprise. "You mean...?"
"He left them behind on the Necrobot's planet. He said he saw it as the best way of getting rid of them. Of course, we still have four Cybertronians and over a dozen Camiens to deal with...."
"As long as Trion's gotten rid of that brash punk who I can only assume was their leader, I wouldn't worry too much about them," Magmatron said. "And the second piece of news?"
"Ah, yes, well... if you would look to your right...."
Magmatron raised an optic but did as instructed... and saw another Titan ship hovering in the distance. He squinted his optics to discern its details... then widened them once he had.
"Is that...?"
"We believe so, yes," Obsidian said.
The Eukarian rubbed his chin in thought. "And Onyx Prime's Titan is...."
"Yes, it is."
A smile slowly crept onto Magmatron's face. "Well then. Perhaps we don't need the Enigma after all."
"Shall I have Karmen attempt to hail it?"
"Yes. And have Strika assemble a team to take command of it, if necessary." He turned heel and started to head over to where his troops awaited. "Now then, enough putting things off any further. It is time for me to reclaim my rightful place as Beast King of Eukaris; to show that imbecile Razorclaw who the true heir of Onyx Prime is.
"It is time to unleash the Beast Wars!"
--The Lost Light--
"And... done! Fuel intake at 100 percent!"
"Finally," Dipstick grumbled, pushing Pipes aside. "Go and tell Hound. I'll finish things here."
While the blue minibot sped away, the old green bot started removing the unnecessary cumbersome fuel nozzle. The natives of Technos were really insistent on making their technology overly complex at the expense of user-friendliness. The fact that they were nothing but an intergalactic pitstop made it even more pathetic.
As he finally got the nozzle out of the gas tank, he heard a loud bang and at first thought he had done something worse. Than he heard a very familiar voice speak from above.
"Sheesh, the least he could have done was teleport us inside the ship."
Dipstick stepped back and saw fourteen bots standing on top of the Lost Light, among them Rodimus, Swerve, and Nightbeat.
"Rodimus?" Dipstick called up. "Is that you?"
Rodimus looked down and waved back at him. "Hey, Dipstick. How's it going?"
"Where in the Pit have you--" Dipstick stopped himself, shaking his head. "Never mind. It's probably a long story."
"You bet! And you're not going to believe how we got here!"
* * *
"The Necrobot sent you?"
"Yup!" Rodimus replied, looking very comfortable in his captain's chair. "He had a teleportation device which lets him go anywhere in the galaxy. So he teleported us here!"
Hound wasn't sure he believed this at all... but then, it was no more ridiculous than the rest of his story: Ultra Magnus losing his armor, Ratchet switching bodies with Pharma, Thunderclash dying, Swerve almost dying....
"And we still have five of our own crew stuck on this mobile Titan," he murmured.
"Right," Rodimus said. "We had Censere teleport us here rather than there so we'd have the numbers in case the Carcerians wanted a fight with us."
"And you think they would?"
"Honestly? I don't know what to think. I thought they were trustworthy at first, but after today...." Rodimus' expression became dour. "I don't know what kind of game they're playing at."
"So how are we going to find them if they're on a mobile Titan?" Hound asked.
"Nautica has the hailing frequency of her friend Firestar that we can trace to the Titan," Rodimus said. "Hopefully it'll lead us straight to them."
"Hopefully you're right," Hound murmured as he stared out the viewport, at the infinite span of stars that awaited them. Sitting at the controls as always, Mainframe looked up at the two of them.
"Engines are ready, captain."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Rodimus grinned as he sat back in his seat. "Let's burn rubber!"
TO BE CONCLUDED
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