Chapter Text
“GGGRRRAAAAHHH! CURSE YOU OPTIMUS PRIME!!!” while the sound of their Master’s angry screams could be heard all around the Nemesis was everyone making sure to be busy in the farthest parts of the ship.
The farther away one was the better, mostly if you saw the head officers carefully sneaking away, their SIC interrogating their CMO how fast the medic could whip up a specially made energon to send the raging mech on the bridge into recharge within an astrosecond. When they saw their TIC walk away in a slightly more hurried tempo from the bridge the Eradicons and Vehicons were ready to bolt for their sparks.
Ground for their already violent Master to be close to blow all fuses was due to the desparkening fact that the Autobots had with their last battle destroyed all chances to be ever able to repair the Omega Lock… thus Cybertron would stay dead. No one liked this and for once was everyone sure that even their enemies were not pleased with their Prime and the sacrifice he had forced on them, but there was nothing anyone could do.
All hope was lost…
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The hissing of an opening door made Knockout tense before placing the tool he had been cleaning down on the table and turning around to see who had come seeing that he was too busy concentrating on Megatron’s throbbing spark to notice anybot on the ship, but it seemed to have relaxed now after two solar cycles. When he finally saw who it was needed the red mech to raise an opticridge at the unusual sight, meaning Starscream completely silent for once.
“Can I help you with something Starscream?” he asked, but did not receive an answer, this confused him seeing that if not in need for treatment, the other only come to him to either try dragging him into one of his plans - he could not refuse them due to him trying to not make his processor stability worse - or to complain. Yes, they were in need of a counsellor, though he was sure that Screamer would make them bolt in a matter of joors in the best of cases. “Erm…Starscream? ...Screamer?”
There was still no reply which was slowly getting a bit creepy, almost on the same level as those vampire-terracons. Shaking his helm to get the memories out of his processor he strode up to the Air Commander and dragged him to the closest medical berth and made him sit down. After this he hurried to the closet and pulled out a jar, the fleshies may be using smelling salt to get some things done, but they had also something similar. Holding the jar as far from himself as possible he took of the lid and held it close to Starscream’s faceplate, so that his smelling receptors get the full does of the disgusting smelling powder. It worked wonders for when the Seeker not only made all honours for his name, but also managed to nearly jump up to the ceiling without the usage of his wings.
“Euuggh! Why did you put that disgusting thing in front of me!?” Starscream demanded to the now grinning medic.
“There you are, now care to tell me why you were so out of it?” he inquired to the glaring Seeker who shuddered as his processor brought back the ground for his little freezing.
“I went back to the bridge to try… talking some sense to our Master” Knockout waited because the other definitely did not look in dire need for repair so he was not close to know the fact how Megatron had calmed down. “Turned out that it was not needed…” here the Seeker shuddered, his optics off-lining for a few clicks “Soundwave had simply knocked him out with only one hit…” Starscream finished in a panicked tone.
“Aha” there was nothing Knockout could say, but he was getting why the SIC looked so panicked, he was kind of sure that beside him and their liege had no one on board of the Nemesis a clue that their TIC was an Assassin Type.
How could they? Sentinel Prime and the council of Cybertron had agreed in their fear of their ability to be the perfect killers, - Cybertronians able to switch of their emotions and only concentrate on the task, no regrets, no remorse they follow their master’s every order - to eliminate all of them. They were feared, despised and thus needed to be eliminated. All, but one had perished and many of the lesser mechs did not care for they had never encountered them, but Knockout had. This was why he did not worry like Starscream about what Soundwave had done to Megatron, it was easy to note that he was the one the Spymaster served in loyalty and he would never do anything which would harm his master. If he was honest with himself the medic had often envied such loyalty which was rare even by the Autobots, but having grown up with Assassin Types and servants due to his creators always being more concerned with their jobs and wealth to pay attention to their sparkling he had seen all of their sides. A sudden, panicked, squeak like sound which come from Starscream brought him out of his thoughts. Turning to the side he found out the ground in the form of their Information Officer standing in the door to the medbey.
“Well, you are fine Starscream and I need to go look at our liege, now that he is more cooperative.” Knockout said, guessing why Soundwave had come, as the silent mech nodded in affirmation made the medic his way out of the room, the other following him. Well it seems as if Starscream would stir clear from Soundwave for a while.
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“I really don’t like this depressed mood.” Miko stated from her place beside Jack and Raf as they looked at the Autobots, neither of them had spoken much since the battle three days ago which had dwarfed Megatron’s plan to restore Cybertron and enslave Earth.
“They had given up all chances to ever be able to restore their home.” Raf said sadly as he made his way over to Bee who was sitting in a corner, blue optics dejectively looking at his servos.
Optimus looked solemnly over his friends, his family, they had walked with him for long vorns, following his every command and now they even followed his word which damned their home. His spark flickered with terrible grief, almost extinguishing, but he knew that he could not let it go out. He was their Prime and as such could not let them alone now, not without mending the wounds he had caused.
“Optimus?” turning around found the Prime himself faced with the youngest member of their small family.
“Yes, what is it Smokescreen?” he asked the one whom he had almost passed over the title as the new Prime, but instead he had risked his own life to bring him back.
“I… well I wanted to tell you that I trust in your decision” Smokescreen assured his leader before he asked the question which had plagued him since their return to the base their human friends had given them. “Optimus, what will we do now?” he watched as the older mech vented a sigh, his optics running once more over their friends.
“Agent Fowler stated that we could stay on this base if we wish to do as such, it seems now that this planet will fully become our home.” he told the younger before a sudden gasp, shortly followed by a yell from Ratchet brought their attention to the medic.
“E…everyone get here, I… I found something!” he called to them in a voice mixed between disbelief, excitement and a trace of hope.
“What is it?” Arcee asked as she got as close to the medic as possible due to the fact that everyone was trying to crowd the computer screen.
“I was just browsing through the Iacon database, not even noticing what I was doing and then suddenly I found this message.” Ratchet told her excitedly.
“What does it say?” Miko asked from Bulkhead’s shoulder.
“It is a letter form Alpha Trion” Optimus told her “it says that in the case if the Omega Lock should be destroyed and no way of repairing it is possible that then we shall let a new Cybertron be born from another planet which is in its consistence much like our home. When we find it the Allspark will head over to that planet.” a wave of excitement rushed over all of those gathered inside the hangar.
“I will be starting the scanning.”
“Do that Ratchet, but there is more, a key is needed to awaken the planet, but it says that we will find it in the end if we listen to our spark, if not the last hope will be gone.” Optimus told his friend, but even those words could not dampen the mood, they were all sure that eventually they will find the key.
“Hey, there is something more.” Jack informed the group.
“True, these are coordinates and an instruction to go to those places, get the hidden clue which will lead us to our goal, but it does not stand here what it could be.” Arcee said while looking at the others. “I will head out to the first coordinates, Ratchet could you please open a groundbridge for me?” she asked before glancing at Optimus who nodded in permission to the femme who gave Jack over to Bee and turned from the group, transforming.
“It seems as if we have now a new ground to compete with the Decepticons if they have found the same message like by the keys.” Bulkhead said eagerly while smiling as they saw the name at the end of the message.
Alpha Trion
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“Well, you seem to have sent our liege resting at the right time. All of this anger would have after a couple of more joors damaged some of his circuits.” Knockout stated as he scanned over the prone figure of their lord, Soundwave standing behind him, guarding.
”Loyal to Megatron.” come the record of Starscream’s voice.
“I don’t doubt that.” Knockout replied before turning away from Megatron. “You sent him into recharge till tomorrow late in the evening, this should help him his system to get back to normal.” and with that was he already on his way to return to his work and making sure that Starscream was not hiding under one of the berths in there when suddenly a new voice hit his audio sensors, a little bit of static mixed into it, but he recogrinaised the speech pattern from his sparklinghood.
”Request: Knockout staying, Soundwave requiring assistance.” Soundwave did not like asking for assistance, if he needed it had his cassettes been there to help him, but now he only had Leserbeak who was doing surveillance. He would also not likely use his own voice, - not even Megatron had heard it – and the only fact he spoke when the Autobots had foolishly thought that they had captured him had been only due to remind Prime about the ground why his predecessors annihilated his kind and also for his commander who had himself slain not one of them. Knockout would be at the moment the second exception, but that was not a problem for the medic seemed to not be surprised to hear him speak which was no wonder if one had read the file regards the status of his family back on Cybertron.
“By what do you need me?” Knockout asked, his curiosity piqued about the unusual situation.
Soundwave did not answer only started leaving the room, knowing that the medic would be following him. It did not take long to reach the bridge where he brought up the Iacon database with the message he had found while looking into the deepest parts of it. The message had been cleverly hidden, but Soundwave had always liked challenges.
”Soundwave found message today, sent out Laserbeak to keep an optic on the Autobots.” Soundwave told the medic as that read over the message, wondering if he will understand what he had planned.
“May I stat the guess that you want the Autobots to find the first clue and see to what it will lead them and after we know what we can expect we will be also hunting those clues and the price at the end.” Knockout said in a thoughtful tone while Soundwave nodded, glad that he did not need to explain when there was suddenly a signal on his visor, Laserbeak was sending her message. Allowing his feelers to connect with the computer he pulled up the screen, so that they could see what the drone saw. “Not bad, the humans still have on cases trouble getting the aerial view in most movies right.” the medic mushed, not even noticing that he was doing that, not that he was telling a secret to Soundwave, he knew about the hobbies of their CMO.
The two Cons watched from the safety of their ship as a groundbridge opened, letting a blue motorbike through which transformed into a femme. They saw her look around the rocky area, searching as she pushed the stones to the side for the upcoming two joors before they heard her let out a triumphant cry. ”I have finally found the new coordinates and not one Con in sight, they must be still busy hammering out their dents.” Soundwave played down the audio on his visor while Knockout smirked and her naivety while ignoring the comment about dents, he was an expert how to fix them fast. With the new coordinates they waited till the femme was away before Soundwave opened a much smaller groundbridge in the air for Laserbeak so that they could continue to watch. The additional search had gone this time much faster and it seemed that she had found something, zooming at it Knockout let out a startled gasp, his optics wide.
"Inquiry: Knockout knowing what she found." Soundwave said while turning to the mech who was doing his best to compose himself before covering his optics with his right servo.
“Yes,” Knockout said as he tried to piece together a way how to explain this to Megatron and that what will follow after a decision was made. “That is a stasis-incubation port, meaning all those coordinates lead to sparklings which had been sent on this planet by Alpha Trion.” Knockout finished, still trying to wrap his processor around the situation, he doubted that any of them could provide much of an environment for a sparkling and he was sure that Ratchet will be the same option as him.
Soundwave did not say anything, but understood that things will become rather complicated in the future.
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“What in the name of Primus had Alpha Trion been thinking!?” Ratchet demanded while scanning over the port, till now his scanners showed that everything was fine.
“I agree that this was a bit of a drastic measure…” Optimus tried to talk with is old friend who flashed him a glare.
“Drastic is a nice understatement Optimus, what if we could have restored Cybertron? When would he have sent a message that by the way on Earth there are a number of sparklings hidden?” the medic growled while everyone held their distance.
“Uhm…what exactly is a sparkling?” Jack asked carefully.
“A sparkling is our equivalent for what you humans call a baby.” Ratchet answered while finishing of the scan.
“A baby?” Miko asked excitedly.
“Yes, I have now finished with the scans, everything is alright, but she will need someone whose biomes she can read and accept as a creator. We will see later on about an alt mode.” Ratchet said with a sight while Arcee stepped closer.
“The protoform is a femme?” she asked.
“Yes, according to the readings.” he told her.
“Then I will take her seeing that I’m the only femme in our group.” she stated while Ratchet led her servo to the base of the cube where the scanners could be found.
The three humans looked on curiously as the cube started to glow for a few seconds before a click could be heard, mixed with a hissing sound as the air tight lid opened, a few droplets of green geel glistering on the lid. They watched as Arcee gently reached out and took out a small robot from the cube, well small in the standard of their friends, seeing how she was at least twice Miko’s size. Ratchet was already there with a wet curtain, carefully cleaning down the remains of the nurturing fluid form the sparkling who looked around curiously with large, pale blue optics while the pink-blue paint of her frame was cleaned.
“She is soo cute!” come it from Miko, aptly summing up how most of the present ones felt.
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“So, you are telling me that there is a way to awaken a new Cybertron, but the key for that is still missing.” Megatron said carefully after getting the report from his TIC and CMO before continuing as they nodded. “You are also telling me that there are also other codes which in the end may lead to sparklings?” the last part sounded ridiculous to his audio sensors, but Soundwave was not one to joke around regards such matters.
“Yes my liege.” Knockout told Megatron who vented a frustrated sigh.
“As much I can’t see what had brought up this idea and how it would have been resolved if the other plan had worked out, but fine our numbers are small and the sparklings may be of good use. Knockout, Soundwave you are set on the task to monitor the database and making sure that everything is accomondatable for the sparklings and that they get paired to the correct adoptive creator.” Megatron ordered the two mech who nodded before leaving, alone again he put a servo on his crimson optics, venting a heavy sigh. “Sparklings… now that will be certainly a war we have never fought before Optimus, don’t you think?”
To be continued…