CHAPTER TWO
--The Darksyde, the past--
The halls of the Darksyde were deserted as the purple-plated mech walked with confidence towards the captain's quarters. Normally, Cryotek would have had a guard or two stationed outside; but this time, Gnashteeth had been personally summoned. There would be no need for Buzzbomb or Backslash to shake him down.
As Gnashteeth came within range of its sensors, the door opened on its own accord and Gnashteeth strode right on in, not giving it a second thought.
Cryotek's quarters were vastly different in appearance from the rest of the ship. Where most of the vessel was dark and worn down, the captain's abode was far more lavish, decorated with cerulean glass and countless treasures worth more than the Darksyde itself.
Cryotek himself rested upon a throne made of platinum, legs crossed atop a sealed safe and a tiny glass of Visco in his hand. His yellow optics lit up upon falling on Gnashteeth and the captain grinned.
"Ah, Gnashteeth! How very prompt of you." Uncrossing his legs, Cryotek set his glass down on a small table. "I hadn't expected you to come over so quickly."
Gnashteeth stood tall before the azure Decepticon. "Your orders supersede any preoccupations I may have, captain."
Cryotek chuckled. "That's what I like to hear." Rising from his seat, Cryotek stood to his full height, revealing a large set of wings that had been tucked away. Gnashteeth had served under Cryotek long enough to no longer be put off by his commander's bestial appearance.
Waving his left arm, which ended with a dragon's head, Cryotek commanded the lights of the room to dim. From the block Gnashteeth had thought to be a safe, the hologram of a lush green world materialized.
"Tell me, Gnashteeth," Cryotek said. "Have you ever heard of Animatron?"
"Yes, sir. It was one of the first colonies established by Nova Prime during the Expansion, circa Cycle 2914."
Cryotek smirked. "Impressive. I didn't think High Command had bothered with an education program for M.T.O.s."
Gnashteeth refrained from frowning. He was not at all fond of being reminded of his status as a Made-To-Order soldier. "All due respect, captain, I took it upon myself to be educated on Cybertronian culture."
"Even better! So you would know that Animatron is not its proper name?"
Gnashteeth raised an intrigued eyebrow. "It's not?"
"No. It's true name is Eukaris. In fact, it existed as a colony well before Nova Prime made it one."
"It did? Why was it renamed then?"
Cryotek scowled. "Nova had a habit of putting his mark on history. He wanted to be remembered as the only Prime who ever did anything noteworthy, so he took credit from those who had preceded him."
"I don't follow."
"Have you not heard of Onyx Prime?"
Gnashteeth shook his head.
Cryotek let out an overly dramatic sigh. "Oh, to be young and ignorant...."
"Sir?"
Cryotek silenced Gnashteeth as he sat back down on his throne, motioning the young soldier to take a seat as well. "It's time you educated yourself beyond the limit of today's society, Gnashteeth. You must always know what your enemies -- and your allies -- choose to ignore."
--Eukaris, now--
It hadn't struck Gnashteeth until now, but Cryotek's face looked really good with a spear driven through it.
He watched with a twinge of amusement as the Predacon warlord flailed helplessly on the floor, grabbing the spear with his one good hand and trying in vain to pull it out. Realizing it was no use, the azure dragon slumped against the wall, glowering at Gnashteeth with his one remaining optic.
"Trait--" The rest of Cryotek's speech dissolved into static, but Gnashteeth understood him clearly enough.
"'Traitor?'" Gnashteeth said with mock indignation. "Personally, I prefer 'opportunist'. You always did encourage me to follow my ambitions."
Cryotek rolled his hand into a fist but his rebuttal was indecipherable. Adopting a look of false pity, Gnahsteeth looked over to a large blue and gray Predacon.
"Darksteel, would you be so kind as to remove the spear from Cryotek's face? It seems to be causing him some discomfort."
Darksteel cackled as he walked over to Cryotek. Planting one foot on the fallen warlord's chest, he yanked the spear out of Cryotek's face, bringing forth a deafening roar of static as the dragon expressed his agony.
As Cryotek writhed in pain, Gnashteeth strode over to kneel at the disgraced Predacon's side.
"Were you anyone else, I would probably end you here and now. But fortunately for you, I still have a use for you."
Cryotek's optic flashed at him.
Gnashteeth grinned. "Oh, yes. I cannot proceed with my conquest of Eukaris without someone who knows far more about it than I do."
Cryotek narrowed his optic, another blast of static emitting from his damaged vocal processor.
Gnashteeth chuckled. "Who says I needed you intelligible? No, I just need you conscious so that Psychobat can extract the needed information from your processor."
As if on cue, a Predacon bat in purple and green flew down to perch on what had been Cryotek's throne, a wicked gleam in his red optics. As Cryotek's eyes went wide in terror, Gnashteeth motioned to Darksteel again.
"Take him away. And try not to make him scream too loudly."
Darksteel's laughter drowned out Cryotek's static-riddled cries as he was carried out of the throne room.
* * *
"Why are we still here?"
Scorponaut looked up from his work, shooting a sidelong glance at the red Predacon that sat idly on a nearby rock. "Because I'm still working on the space bridge," he said as if that was the stupidest question he had ever heard.
Terrorsaur rolled his eyes. "That's not what I meant, moron. I meant... why have we been here this long? The space bridge at the old fortress used to work for ages. How come we never used that to get back home?"
"Because Cryotek said we needed to stay here," Scorponaut said simply.
"But why? There's nothing here! We've been on this planet for nearly two hundred years and nothing of interest has come up. We scoured Razorclaw's fortress after he got his aft kicked, but anything he had was either taken by Magmatron or broken." Terrorsaur growled as he kicked at the dirt. "This entire planet is worthless!"
"That, my friend, is where you're wrong."
Both Predacons tensed as a large shape emerged from behind the device Scorponaut had been working on. Eight eyes were transfixed on them as the huge arachnid crawled over to them.
"There is far more to this planet than any of you realize," Tarantulas hissed, mandibles clicking together.
Terrorsaur's face twisted in disgust. He didn't know what to make of the Predacons' newest recruit, having only arrived on Animatron a week ago. From his understanding, the arachnid had been a scientist on Cybertron before the war; but beyond that, he knew nothing else of the web-crawler. Gnashteeth seemed to trust him... but how much was that worth?
Crawling down from the device, Tarantulas morphed into his robot mode, which was not much of an improvement. The eyes of his beast mode continued to blink even on his chest.
"Do neither of you know the history behind this world?" Tarantulas inquired. "Surely you would have heard of it from those who dwelt here long before you."
Terrorsaur scowled. "Oh, sure. We've heard scrap about Onyx Prime and Titans and lousy trinkets. But until I see any of these things with my own optics, I'm not believing any of it."
Tarantulas cackled. "Is that all it takes? Well then...."
Pushing Scorponaut aside, he pushed in a command into the device's control panel. For the first time in nearly seven thousand years, the original space bridge of Eukaris came back to life. A bright blue portal materialized between its twin prongs.
"Allow me to convince you."
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