CHAPTER ONE
Skids couldn’t remember the last time he had ever seen Swerve's this empty. In fact, he was pretty sure he had never seen it so deserted before. All of the chairs were turned over and placed on the table; the booths were closed up; some of the lights were off; and there was not a single spark in sight, save for Swerve himself as he wiped down the counter. Even the ever-inebriated Trailbreaker was absent; that was a sure sign that something was up.
Carefully approaching the bar, Skids noted that Swerve was not his usual self. Rather than being upbeat and talkative, the minibot was dour and uncharacteristically quiet. Even when he noticed Skids’ approach, he didn’t utter much more than a simple “Hey” as went down the counter again with his cleaning cloth.
Skids frowned as he pulled up a seat. He tried not to sound too concerned when he asked, “Closing time already?”
“Closing time forever,” Swerve grunted in response.
“Why?”
"'Why?'" Swerve repeated the question, giving Skids a look as if he had just asked the stupidest question in the universe. “Because it’s over. The quest, the journey... it’s all over and done with. No point in staying open, is there?”
“Still, I would have thought you’d be having a celebration party or something.”
Swerve scoffed. “What’s there to celebrate?”
Skids blinked in confusion. “We found Cyberutopia.”
“Yeah, and guess what? It was a big fat disappointment. Hands-down one of the worst quests I’ve ever been on. Even the Thumb Quest was better than this; at least then I actually found my thumb!”
Skids opened his mouth to say something, to offer something to lift his friend’s spirits, but found himself at a loss for words. Honestly, even he was having mixed feelings about everything they had discovered on “Cyberutopia” -- or Mederi, as it was actually known. To find out that after all they had gone through -- all the pain and suffering -- only to find out that the map they had been following had been dredged up by super-ill bots that had been tricked by a very convincing artificial reality... it was disheartening, to say the least. He knew that some people liked to say that the journey mattered more than the destination, but when said journey had plenty of moments that he would rather not relive, he couldn’t help but feel the desire to punch whoever had first said that in the face.
When it became apparent that he could not think of anything of substance to say, and that Swerve was not exactly open to conversation at the moment, Skids got up from his stool and exited the bar, probably for the last time.
* * *
Deep down, Star Saber had almost been hoping that Rodimus Prime would not pick up the call. He wasn’t quite sure if he was ready to explain to the Autobot leader about everything that had went down at Velocitron and Mederi, along with that they had discovered while at the latter. He wasn’t expecting Rodimus to be mad by any means, but he knew how much the quest had meant to the young Prime. For him to reveal that it had all been, for lack of a better phrase, “a waste of time,” it would surely bring down the already-beleaguered Prime’s spirits... and it would probably leave Star Saber feeling guilty as all hell.
Eventually however, Rodimus’ face finally materialized on the viewscreen and Star Saber was forced to face the music.
“Star Saber!” Rodimus greeted him, putting on a cheery face that may or may not have been genuine. “We were beginning to worry about you. Did you make it to Velocitron okay?”
“It depends on your definition of ‘okay,’” Star Saber muttered. “We got to Velocitron just fine, but we encountered enemy forces which set us a bit off-course.”
Rodimus frowned. “Was it the Worldsweepers again, like on Caminus?”
“Correct. They gathered Velocitron’s space ore and used it to transport us to a completely different location. Said location made itself to look like the Afterspark, of all places, but it turned out to actually be the original Mederi station.” Star Saber paused, selecting his next words carefully. “What’s more… after we figured out we were on Mederi, we made another discovery. A very big discovery.”
“What, did you find Cyberutopia or something?”
Star Saber couldn’t help but flinch at that. “Yes. It turned out that the Knights of Cybertron had come to Mederi after contracting a deadly disease, and the station’s artificial reality settings made itself to look like their vision of a perfect Cybertron.”
Once he was finished speaking, Star Saber braced himself as he carefully watched Rodimus’ expression. He could see traces of disappointment beginning to form on the young Prime’s face, but Rodimus for his part was quick to hide them. Adopting a neutral expression, Rodimus nodded curtly to himself.
“Well then. I suppose that’s that. Where are you now?”
“We’re on course back for Velocitron, to see if the Worldsweepers are still there. We were able to evacuate most of the planet’s population in time however.”
“That’s good. If you do encounter the Worldsweepers again, alert us asap so we can send reinforcements. I don’t want you tackling them on alone.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, sir.” Star Saber hesitated for a moment as he thought carefully on what he was going to say next. “I’m sorry, by the way,” he finally managed to blurt out. “About how it all ended up. I know the quest meant a lot to you.”
“Hey, don’t guilt yourself over this,” Rodimus replied. “If anything, I should be blaming myself for hyping everything up in the first place. You did nothing wrong, Star Saber. You did good.”
Star Saber nodded but said nothing. An awkward silence prevailed between the two before Rodimus stepped back from his end of the viewscreen and cleared his vocal processor.
“Well, in any case, I should get going. Got important stuff to take care of. Worlds to protect and all that. Have a safe travel back to Velocitron and remember: Call if you see danger.”
Star Saber nodded again. “Understood. Star Saber, out.”
With that, he pressed a control and Rodimus’ image fizzled out, allowing Star Saber to see the warping blue tunnel of hyperspace as the Lost Light traveled at lightspeed. The sound of a sigh escaped his voice box as he landed back into the command chair, adopting an exhausted posture. From his right, Wing Saber stepped over to stand beside his brother and looked at Star Saber with a concerned expression.
“You doing all right, bro?”
“I’ve been better,” Star Saber grunted.
“Leadership isn’t what it was cracked up to be, eh?” Wing Saber asked with a slight smirk.
Star Saber rubbed the crest of his helm. “It’s been a hectic month, brother. For almost an entire year, we hadn’t been making any progress in our quest and saw little action. Then, within the span of a week or so – bam! Not only did we find Cyberutopia, underwhelming as it was, but now the fate of the universe is in question because of these Destructons and whoever else it is we’re dealing with now. I simply don’t know how Primes like Optimus or Rodimus handle it.”
“With immense difficulty and plenty of failure,” Wing Saber replied. “No one ever said leadership would be easy, and no one is perfect even if people expect you to be.”
“That’s rich coming from you,” Star Saber said wryly.
Wing Saber chuckled. “Hey, if somebody offered me the Matrix, I’d just throw it back in their face. I may be great at what I do, but that doesn’t mean I’m great at everything.”
“You do act like it though. Sometimes.”
“Well, naturally. As your spark-brother, I have to do something that grates your nerve circuits.”
Star Saber shook his head but was smiling beneath his faceplate. Straightening in his seat, he cleared his mind of any discouraging thoughts and redirected his attention to the bridge crew. Skyblast was focused on the ship’s controls and navigation system, ensuring that they didn’t accidentally get atomized in hyperspace (not that Star Saber was concerned of that happening, but after what had gone down at Velocitron, he wanted to be prepared for anything). The communications officer Big Bang, meanwhile, had a mild look of consternation on his face as he studied his monitor, a hand raised to the side of his helm.
“Something up, Big Bang?” Star Saber asked him.
“I just caught a trace of a distress signal,” Big Bang replied. “It’s gone now but I had it for a second...”
“We’re coming up on Velocitron,” Skyblast announced at that moment. He pulled back the lever for the hyper-drive and brought the Lost Light out of lightspeed. The stars reformed around the ship and the orange world of Velocitron came into view; even from afar, the damage that had been wrought upon it by the Worldsweepers was apparent, with its once labyrinth-like roads now in broken ruins.
As the ship made its slow approach towards the barren world, Big Bang spoke up again. “I’ve got it. It’s coming from sector SF-05-LQ....”
“I see it,” said Signal Flare, sitting at the ship’s scanners. “Or them, rather.”
“Them?” asked Wing Saber.
“I’m detecting two spark signatures, both very faint. I think there are bots floating out there.”
“Dispatch a MARB to retrieve them,” Star Saber ordered.
In short succession, a mobile repair bay was launched from the Lost Light towards the position of the two damaged bots. While the remote-controlled drone worked on retrieving them, Star Saber hurried down to the hangar bay, summoning the medical team as well as a handful of “heavy-hitters” in case the bots turned out to be hostile. Just as the gathered bots assembled in the hangar, the MARB returned with the injured pair in custody. While First Aid, Velocity, and Nickel rushed over to their aid, Skids tilted his head as he gazed upon one of the damaged bots.
“Wait a minute,” he murmured, brushing past Star Saber. “That’s Cannonspring.”
“Someone you know?” Star Saber asked, following him over to the MARB where the non-descript gray bot lay, along with a smaller white and blue one.
“Not just someone I know; he’s Nexus freaking Prime. Well, a part of him at least.”
“Really?” Surprised, Star Saber looked over at the one known as Cannonspring. Making his way over to the MARB, careful not to interfere with First Aid’s work, Star Saber looked down at the gray bot who, while weak, was still in functioning order. Cannonspring moved his optics to look at the captain but did not speak, his expression almost vacant.
“Are you all right?” Star Saber asked. “What happened? Where are the rest of your components?”
Fear suddenly filled Cannonspring’s optics and the bot shifted uneasily. “Betrayed,” he started, hoarse static corrupting his speech. “Should have known… all a lie.”
Skids stepped over to stand on the other side of the MARB, frowning in concern. “What are you talking about? Who betrayed you?”
“The Prime of Lies.” Cannonspring coughed, sparks flying out of his mouth. “We were deceived.”
“Was it Liege Maximo? Did he do this to--”
Cannonspring suddenly let out a scream as his body spasm before just as quickly falling slack, his optics dimming. First Aid quickly brought down the MARB’s shield, closing the bot within the repair bay.
“We’ll need to get them to a CR chamber,” the medic said urgently.
Star Saber and Skids both stepped back to allow the three medics to secure Cannonspring and the other bot before rushing them out of the hangar bay. As the pair watched them go, Star Saber glanced over at Skids.
“Any clue on what’s going on?”
“I think I do,” Skids said grimly. “And you’re not going to like it...”
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