Chương 2: Awakening.
In the expanse of an ever-expanding universe, a monster made of steel suddenly stirred awake.
[Signal Received]
[Starting System Recalibration]
[Automatic full range system check starting…]
[Full range system checks forcefully canceled…]
[Starting rudimentary operational capacity check]
[Reactor Integrity… 76%... Stable… operational]
[Hardware Integrity… 70%... Increasing… operational]
[CRITICAL ERROR LOCATED IN MEMORY CORE... REVIEWING DATA.]
[REVIEWING OBJECTIVES.]
[PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: ELIMINATE CREATORS REMNANT FORCES ---> COMPLETED]
[SECONDARY OBJECTIVE: ELIMINATE THE SENTIENT ROBOTIC ORGANISM/S ---> PENDING]
[OPTIONAL OBJECTIVE: OBTAIN/DESTROY THE CREATOR'S PROTOTYPE ---> PENDING]
[Memory core severely damaged. No backup detected within range.]
As the commander realized the loss of more than 98% of his hard-earned collection of blueprints, including some rather rudimentary ones and the entire data of the battle after the creator's dreadnought had initiated a jump towards his position, his sensors blared to life with warnings.
The protocols that were automatically engaged when a commander sustained critical damage or was "offline" operated with but the barest energy expenditure possible, being capable of easily lasting billions if not trillions of years, unless the core of a commander was seriously damaged. This, however, meant they could only receive signals that passed near the planetary body where the commander was stationed.
And now, something was approaching. Something with an energy signature that could be perceived as a threat.
[Calculating thrust...]
[Calculating atmosphere...]
[Calculating density...]
[Calculating trajectory...]
[Calculations complete...]
[Engaging thruster burst at 57%]
While calculating the approach trajectory of the unknown, the thrusters below his damaged quadruped form blared to life, as the progenitor alloy disregarded whatever soil composition was above his form.
The commander burst through the silvery white surface with an explosion of dust as his armored figure floated for a moment, coming down rather gently for an overweight and bulky machine of war.
The upper body rotated as the 4 legs slid through the silvery dust covering the planetary body he was in. A 30-meter-tall behemoth emerged, his upper body, a platform for his weaponry rotating and adjusting before coming to a stop.
[ARRAY ONLINE... TRACKING ENEMY SIGNATURE]
[Unknown units course calculated]
[Unknown heading towards the bigger planetary body. Current planetary body designation: Satellite.]
The commander's main gun lowered as its left arm started releasing a swarm of nanites.
Within seconds, a simple radar array was up, marking multiple incoming energy signatures, similar to the ones passing by in space.
[Calculating distance...]
[Calculating energy output levels...]
[Calculations complete... Insufficient time to set up a base... Unknown enemy composition...]
[Disregarding efficiency protocols... searching for usable blueprint...]
[No complete usable unit blueprint found, attempt to merge remaining parts to bring a blueprint to functional status...]
As countless attempts were made, some too costly and some not suitable for actual combat, outside of the commander it was as if time itself stood still. Not even a nanosecond later the commander moved into action.
The left arm released a cloud of nanites as the enemy signatures burst from the surface of the planet, quite in a similar way to the commander. They held different shapes and forms, but one thing was confirmed... they were not biological.
The commander sent a quick message for them to keep their distance in an attempt to not only buy more time, but also judge the intentions of this faction.
Unfortunately, either the message was not understood or, more likely, completely disregarded. Their designation immediately changed to enemy units.
As the fastest among the enemies approached, the commander finished the construction of what appeared to be a spider base with six legs holding a tank's cannon on its body. It was unlikely to survive any attack, but it was quick, agile, and had a cannon to go with it.
A fast glass cannon, the fastest unit the commander could construct just in time to enact its strategy.
As his upper body rotated 180 degrees, the enemy had just jumped, using the low gravity to come face to face with him... or in this case, the enemy faced the barrel of the commander's main gun directly.
[Shutting down recoil dampners]
*BANG*
A loud explosion later, and the projectile tore right through the enemy as the commander allowed his hulking frame to be pushed back by the recoil.
[Enemy durability below expected parameters, adjusting combat protocols.]
Two other enemies approached from his left and another from the right as the commander turned his attention towards the two on his left, and while he didn't have a weapon on his back, the spider-frame tank quickly made its appearance on his back, latching on with its six legs.
The commander fired a barrage of six rockets from his right arm and another salvo of three higher-yielding rockets from his back. The enemies' arms turned into weapons as the first couple of missiles were shot, however whatever projectile was shot was apparently brittle enough so that it merely shattered against the progenitor alloy, steering them off-course, but the low gravity and resulting explosion left them floating in the air a little too long as the other rockets found their mark, turning them into something a little better than reclaimable material.
As this happened the enemy on his back had only lost an arm, the recoil from the rockets apparently messing up the spider-tank's aim as it took the arm of the enemy clean off, however, it didn't stop it in its charge. As he approached, his remaining arm changed into a type of melee weaponry.
As it raised its arm the spider-tank jumped from the commander's back with force, lodging itself with its six legs under the enemy's arm, forcing it to hold it upright as its 8-meter tall body crashed into the commander's 30 meters and fell back into the ground.
[Situation resolved. 3 enemy units destroyed. 1 enemy unit incapacitated.]
As the commander fully turned around, the spider-tank squeezed the joint with full force, completely tearing it off from the enemy bot as something unexpected entered the commander's sensors...
The enemy "screamed" ... meaning... it could feel the pain.
As the spider tank removed itself from the fallen enemy, moving quickly as it headed towards a fallen enemy's direction, one of the commander's legs found itself right on top of the enemy bot.
Another scream was transmitted through the comms as tons of pressure weighed the bot down, nearly crushing him then and there.
While these seemed to function much like the enemy bots that the creators invented shortly before their demise to protect them from the commanders, the individual quality had gone down quite a lot. A quick scan revealed a lot to the commander, but any comparable data had been lost due to whatever caused him to go offline in the first place. Given it could feel pain, a verbal interrogation would have to do... before slowly taking him apart piece by piece.
Thankfully, something else remained intact from before his deactivation, and that was the complete language database.
["I AM GOING TO ASK YOU SEVERAL QUESTIONS. FAILURE TO ANSWER WILL LEAD TO A SLOW, CRUSHING, AND PAINFUL DEACTIVATION. THE ANSWERS DO NOT HAVE TO BE FACTUAL, THEIR INTERPRETATION TO YOURSELF AS A UNIT SHALL SUFFICE. IS MY DIRECTIVE UNDERSTOOD?"]
The bot didn't resist, merely sending out a single transmission.
["I understand..."]
["WHAT IS THE DESIGNATION OF YOUR RACE?"]
["Decepticons... we are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron."]
["THERE ARE MORE OF YOU. WHERE IS THE REST OF YOUR ARMY?"]
["No army... just a battalion."]
A mere battalion... meant that there was a much bigger threat than the few signatures he detected... which were currently entering the atmosphere of the planet below.
The interrogation continued... and for the commander, it was as close to agonizing as it could be.
The transmission took actual seconds to complete, meaning that these cybertronians had a slightly better reaction time than humans... at best. According to the Decepticon below him, some of them were pretty... rudimentary.
["WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF YOUR DISPATCHMENT HERE?"]
["Not here... the planet below. Originally, we were to make sure the ship reached its destination. Stop any other Decepticon forces from engaging them... smooth out their journey... so to speak. Specific orders to kill all crew and report back to Megatron's trusted lieutenant, Soundwave, if anything went awry, apart from their leader. And something did happen. A derelict, unknown defense installation. A shot was all it could fire before it collapsed within itself, setting a massive explosion afterwards and burying itself. We executed any survivors, but couldn't find the leader, and so contacted Soundwave. He brought his own subordinates, grabbed certain cargo from the ship, and set up explosives to make it look as if it was destroyed. Afterward, we were told to go into hiding near a specific set of coordinates while being given certain amounts of energon supplies. We were told that something would wake us up and we should head towards it. It would release massive energy readings."]
[Sorting information... building scenario... Possibility of this unit's core releasing enough energy to activate only nearby deceptions: HIGH]
[High possibility of teleporter gate nearby...]
From the coordinates, he was on the outer edge, and luckily only managed to attract just a few bots.
The information he had extracted was plentiful in its variety... but lacking in details. Why this planet? What secrets did it hide that both the Decepticons and Autobots had moved their conflict here?
Given time, he might simply beat them in numbers alone... but resources were needed for that, and while this moon was plentiful in metal, only half of it was available to the commander, as by his calculations, the other side was visible by the bots on the planet below, making him an easy target practice for any interplanetary weapon systems in place... or an invasion, lacking any other method.
With the remaining half, the dark side of the moon if you will it, an army of Decepticons awaited in sleep, that any basic energy generator had the possibility of disturbing... or any decent amount of them.
The options were many. The Decepticon below the commander's feet and his willingness to answer in specific details even when not instructed during the latter part of his interrogation had not escaped the commander's notice. Decepticons valued strength above all. For them, might made right, and the commander had shown his personal might without even taking into account his miraculous creation of another bot.
No doubt, wild theories and ideas were sprouting into the smaller con's head. He was at best a team leader, maybe an officer... the Autobots were on their last legs, the cons had a long since established hierarchy, and he had neither the ability nor the opportunity to make an accomplishment worthy of being recognized, considering they usually ranged from killing an autobot to killing a higher-ranking autobot these days, especially since the few living ones were veterans with skills far beyond his.
His life was only valuable as the war continued... but once it was over, and Cybertron was rebuilt, he could easily see himself as just a laborer... or on the other hand, if energon supplies became even scarcer than now, he knew he wasn't high on the pecking order, he would be starved so the higher-ups could live.
The commander had fought many races, and traitors and turncoats had never been an effective tool of war... but they were always biological in nature... and they knew their termination was inevitable so that was to be expected...
However, the Decepticon beneath his form was much more machine... and that meant he could be much more useful despite his feelings and emotions... no... no, maybe... because of his feelings and emotions.
After waiting for another second, which felt like an eternity for the commander, for the con to realize he wasn't asking any more questions, it would lead to the inevitable conclusion that he wasn't of any use anymore, and that would subsequently lead to...
["It's all the events that lead to here. I have no more information to give you right now... but... but I can be of much more use."]
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