PROLOGUE
One year ago, after the Thunderwing War
Convoy stared at the magnificent field of stars displayed before his yellow optical sensors. It was the same field of stars that he had been staring at for the past couple of hours, and it had become no less intimidating than it had been before.“I don’t see how we’re going to be able to find them in all of this,” he muttered.
“At least be grateful that our scope is as narrow as it is,” replied Onyx Prime, standing beside him on the bridge of their shared vessel. “Metrotitan’s sensors indicate that Vigilem should be in this region of space. We are in the right place.”
“Even so, this is taking longer than it should. Can’t Metrotitan teleport to Vigilem’s exact location?”
“If he could, we would’ve found him by now,” stated Nexus Prime. The five components of the combiner Prime — speaking in unison — were standing at Metrotitan’s central computer, observing the Titan’s navigational controls. “Liege Maximo is surely using some kind of cloaking technology to hide from us.”
Convoy shifted, bristling with impatience. “Can we at least find a way to connect space bridges? There has to be a way quicker than this.”
Onyx Prime looked down at Convoy with a cocked optic ridge. “Why are you in such a hurry, brother? I don’t remember you being this impatient back in the day.”
“A lot of things have happened to me since those days,” Convoy grunted. “Besides, this is Liege Maximo we’re dealing with; he’s gotten away with too much for far too long. If it wasn’t for him, we never would have become divided.”
“I can’t help but doubt that. With all of our clashing views and personalities, a split was bound to happen.”
Convoy sighed but did not bother responding. Despite their alliance, Convoy was still wary of his fellow Primes — Onyx in particular — knowing their plans for conquering Cybertron before Quintus Prime and her machinations had sent those plans awry. Once they had found and dealt with Liege Maximo, what was going to stop the two of them from returning to their schemes?
He was forced to push such thoughts aside when Nexus Prime suddenly spoke up again. “We’ve found something.”
Convoy and Onyx looked over at the five components. “Is it Vigilem?” the former asked.
“I didn’t say that,” Nexus replied. “I said we found something.”
“Then tell us what that something is.”
“Putting in coordinates now. I don’t know how to describe it, so just… brace yourselves.”
Convoy returned his attention to the viewport as Metrotitan started to move. As the Titan began to advance at ten parsecs per minute, Convoy spotted what appeared to be a system of five planets fast approaching. Only, the planets were far closer in proximity than what was expected of a typical star system; in fact, they seemed to have been arranged in a specific formation. A small moon-sized station hovered over all five of the metallic spheres. As Metrotitan drew even closer, Convoy realized that the five planets — while all different in color — had an uncanny resemblance to Cybertron.
A loud ping sounded from Metrotitan’s controls. “We’ve lost contact with Brave Maximus,” Nexus Prime reported, concern in his voice.
Convoy glanced out the viewport to see that the Titan that had once served Quintus Prime was nowhere to be seen. Before he could say anything, the room began to shake violently, causing him to lose his balance and fall onto the floor.
“We’re being pulled in!” Nexus Prime exclaimed, his central component clinging onto the main computer while the other four held onto each other.
“Pulled into where?” Convoy asked as he struggled to get back to his feet.
“I don’t know! Everything is…. Nothing is responding!”
Convoy looked to Onyx Prime. To his surprise, the beast Prime appeared to be absolutely calm, as if he was oblivious to everything happening around him.
“Onyx, talk to me,” Convoy said. “Do you have any idea what’s going—”
Without warning, Onyx Prime reached down and grabbed Convoy, lifting him off the ground. As the blue mech cried in protest, Onyx spun around and hurled him through the viewport, sending him crashing through it and into the coldness of space. As Convoy spun in zero-gravity, he spotted Onyx Prime taking off after him followed by Nexus Prime’s components, who reassembled themselves into Nexus’ combiner form before tackling Onyx from behind.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Convoy heard Nexus cry over their shared comm-link. “Do you know what’s going on?”
Onyx’s only response was a bestial roar as he turned around and threw his fist into Nexus’ face, knocking the other Prime off of him. Nexus quickly recovered and threw himself at Onyx again, exchanging blows with the black-and-orange gestalt. Throughout the fight, Onyx Prime became gradually more and more beast-like, demonstrating a ferocity that Convoy had never seen from him before. It got to the point where Convoy wondered if Onyx was even still in control of his own body….
He was snapped out of his thoughts when Onyx suddenly tore off Nexus Prime’s right arm from his connection point, eliciting a pained scream from the combiner. After tearing the arm component to shreds, Onyx went for Nexus’ left leg and proceeded to repeat the action. Drawing his gun, Convoy fired at Onyx but all of his shots bounced off of the beast Prime’s armor plating as if they were nothing. Unable to move himself to their position, Convoy could only watch helplessly as Onyx destroyed Nexus’ other arm, leaving him with nothing but a body and a single leg.
Rather than finish off the combiner Prime, Onyx instead shifted his attention to Convoy. The blue bot raised his gun again and prepared to fire only to suddenly find himself laying upon solid ground. Onyx and Nexus were nowhere to be seen and the void of space that had surrounded them was replaced with a gold ceiling and walls, dominated by statues and other decorative pieces.
“I am so sorry you had to see all of that,” a deep, grating voice spoke out. “It was difficult to get a lock on your position.”
Convoy jumped to his feet, already knowing to whom that voice belonged. “Show yourself, Liege Maximo!” he shouted, readying his weapon.
The voice laughed. “And give you a chance to kill me? You act as if I don’t know that you’ve been pursuing me for the past several weeks.”
“I don’t have time for your games, Maximo. I demand an explanation.”
“If I gave you one, would you believe it? I am the Prime of Lies, after all.”
This response gave Convoy pause. Before he could process it any further, he felt an invisible force seize him and lift him up into the air.
“But since you asked so nicely, I will gladly give you one,” Liege Maximo said as Convoy was hauled into darkness. “You, more than anyone, deserve to know.”
ALIGNMENT
Part 1: The Truth of a Thousand Lies
No comments:
Post a Comment