Transformers

More Than Meets

The Eye:

Rebuilt

Part IV:

The End of the Beginning

Iacon

Ultra Magnus watched as the Ark moved upward into the atmosphere. He constantly kept checking the radar at his side making sure that the Decepticons were not engaging the departure of the Autobot spacecraft. With a concerned look chiseled onto his metallic face, Ultra Magnus looked over at Broadside who was manning the tracking station.

"Any sign of Decepticon activity?" Ultra Magnus asked.

Broadside shook his head and glanced over at Ultra Magnus, who was obviously growing more nervous by the astro-second. "Nothing so far, Magnus," he said. "As far as I can tell, Countdown and Springer did their job jamming the Decepticon radar station in Kokular."

Ultra Magnus then looked back at the visual image of the Ark. He rubbed the top of his head and gazed intently at the image. "Can we establish a link with the ship yet, Chromedome?" he asked.

The computer specialist shook his head at Ultra Magnus. "Not yet," he replied. "There's too much interference resonating from the magnetic output by the Ark's shielding." He looked over his shoulder at the worried Autobot. "Once the ship hits the upper atmosphere, we can get a solid link with Prime."

The door to the control room opened, causing Ultra Magnus to jump. He turned his head to see Kup and Scrags enter the room.

"How's it holding up on this end, Magnus?" Kup asked with a smile.

Ultra Magnus attempted to blow off his concern for his brother and the crew of the Ark, but he knew all too well that the survival of the Transformers depended upon Optimus Prime's success. "As well as can be expected, Kup," he said. Ultra Magnus walked over to the large glass window and watched as the shuttle disappeared into the heavens. "I just hope that Prime knows what he's getting into up there."

Iacon

Science Guild Observation Tower Thirty-Seven

Black explosions littered the sky above the outskirts of Iacon. The ground cannons designed to guard the city-state from Decepticon ariel attacks shot rapidly into the air hoping to destroy the five approaching intruders. Autobots nervously loaded the heavy caliber shells into the guns and watched as their partners targeted the Decepticons.

Above all the activity in Iacon, Blitzwing streaked across the sky and began to activate his internal targeting computer as he came upon the Science Guild's observation tower designed to monitor the activity of Optimus Prime and the Ark. He targeted the base of the structure and opened up a communication link with the other four approaching Decepticons who were also dodging the fire from below.

"Keep your optics peeled for the feed-line!" Blitzwing shouted. "If you hit that, then the whole flarging compound will come crashing down upon them!"

A white Decepticon rolled in the air and began scanning for the power feed-line that his commanding officer referred to. Suddenly, the targeting computer locked onto the power source that represented the feed-line to the tower. "I got it!" he said. "I've got that slaggin' thing locked!"

"Great, Ramjet!" Blitzwing screamed over the roar of the explosion that shook him. "Dirge and Dreadwind will follow you through to the line while Cloud Killer and I lay down some cover fire!"

Blitzwing and Cloud Killer activated their afterburners and climbed up into the sky. They opened up their bomb-bay doors and let the warheads fall to the surface. Both Decepticons watched with an evil glee as dozens of Autobots bellow began running for cover. Many of them jumped off of their gun-turrets while others stayed focused on shooting down the rapidly approaching Decepticons. Either way, their actions were worthless. The bombs slammed on the surface of the planet and unleashed a force of plasma-energy that began to instantly incinerate anything in the blast radius.

Blitzwing chuckled to himself as he brought his forward turrets online. "Easy pickings, eh Cloud Killer?"

The blue Decepticon seeker rotated his laser turrets forward as well. He began to target several running Autobots as he began to descend lower to the planet's surface. "I wish there was some resistance, Blitz," Cloud Killer said apathetically. "This is a bore!"

Behind them followed Ramjet, Dirge, and Dreadwind. Each of them now had a clear path straight to the tower, as well as to the feed-line. They all brought their ion-disruptor cannon online and targeted the fragile feed-line that lead to the tower. The three Decepticons lined up side by side, and fired their cannons in unison. The white balls of energy gracefully made their way toward the power line, and then slammed into it, causing a chain reaction.

The feed-line began to explode beneath the surface of Cybertron, creating a zig-zagging line on its path to the tower. It made its way haphazardly toward the Science Guild tower, and hit it at the base of the complex. The entire foundation of the complex exploded with such fury that each of the Decepticons began to depart from the scene. The tower began to explode upward floor by floor, starting from the bottom. Glass shattered and flames shot out from the dying building. Finally, when the roof of the tower exploded, the antenna on top of it crumpled over and fell to the surface of the planet causing any surviving Autobots and civilians to flee for cover.

The two groups of Decepticons met up and started back toward Kaon. Blitzwing was pleased with his work, and he was sure that his commander, Shockwave, would be happy with his efforts to thwart any contact with the Ark by the Autobots.

Iacon

Ultra Magnus rubbed his optics and slammed his fist onto the table. "DAMMIT!" he shouted. "This can't be happening!"

The image of Preceptor was glitchy, at best. The acting Autobot commander stood up and walked over to the monitor, placed his hands on the consol, and shook his head. "So, what does this mean now?" he asked Preceptor.

The Autobot scientist shook his head and looked back somberly at Ultra Magnus. "As best as I can tell, this means we have no idea about the status of their mission." He looked down at some data, but quickly turned his attention back to Ultra Magnus. "With the Science Guild all but dead, and the observation tower destroyed, I can presume that we're not going to have any contact with Prime and the crew of the Ark until they attempt to contact us."

Blaster walked over to Ultra Magnus and stood there for a moment. He tapped a data pad on his palm and shook his head knowing that he was not going to be adding any cheerful news to the conversation.

"I don't think that Prime will be callin' us soon," Blaster started.

Ultra Magnus then turned to his communication officer and reached for the data pad. "What do you mean by that?" he asked.

Blaster walked to the side of Ultra Magnus and pointed to the data on the pad. "We've got some interesting scans from Scrounge and Drifter in Kaon. It seems that the 'cons have been jamming our atmospheric comm-sats, meaning that while we can talk to whomever we want to on Cybertron, we're gonna have a tough time communicatin' with any ships out there, including Prime and the Ark."

Ultra Magnus gave a sarcastic smile and shook his head in disgust. "Great!" he shouted. "How can this orn get any worse?"

M' Fall Quadrant

Uncharted Territory

The golden ship known as the Ark exited transwarp displacement with ease. It settled seven hundred astro-klicks away from the massive asteroid field. The retro-engine turbines activated and began to create a standard orbiting stationary position in order to keep the minimum safe distance between the ship and the asteroid field.

Optimus Prime stood up and walked over to the observation window in front of the ship's bridge. He stood there silently for a brief moment and gazed out into the vastness of space. Although he studied the maps of the known universe carefully while he was documenting data logs in Iacon, he never truly thought that he would be able to venture off into space, but here he was nonetheless.

Prowl and Jazz approached Optimus Prime with a smile, realizing that he was admiring the sheer vastness of infinity. Jazz stood next to the Autobot leader and looked out of the window as well.

"She's a beauty, alright," Jazz said with a smile. "I've been wonderin' when I'd get past those two moons of ours, and here I am."

Optimus Prime looked down at the Autobot and gave a sympathetic glance with his optics. "As much as we fight on Cybertron, it truly is amazing how insignificant we are in the whole scope of creation."

Prowl walked over to Optimus Prime and Jazz and cleared his throat. Both of the Autobots turned around and looked at Prowl, who was going to bring them back to the here and now.

"I hate to rain on your parade, boys, but we've got some real issues to deal with." Prowl was never one for subtly breaking the ice, and he was not one for easing into conversations. Prowl did what he thought he had to do, and that was it.

Optimus Prime nodded and began walking over to the weapons station on the opposite end of the bridge. He glanced at Trailbreaker and Ironhide who were both manning the post. He stopped there for a moment and looked at the two Autobots who were intently monitoring the situation with the asteroid field.

"Weapons' status," Optimus Prime said.

Ironhide turned around in his chair and smirked at his leader. "She's all up an' rearin' to go, Prime," he said in his drawl. "These sonic doohickeys o' Wheeljack's are chargin' as we speak."

Trailbreaker brought up an image of the asteroid field and pointed to it. "If we are to go through the field at its center, we'll have to make two passes in order to clear the asteroids needed to ensure that they don't reach Cybertron." He brought up another image of the asteroid field and of Cybertron. "Using the sonic field generators as we pass through the field would then pulverize the nearby asteroids as well, and they would also push the others further off of their current course."

"But will it be enough?" Optimus Prime added. "I would not want to leave this mission and move on to the next with a false sense of security."

"Teletran-1 will take care of the long-range calculations, Prime," Wheeljack said from behind the Autobot leader. "That baby will run constant checks to make sure that at the field's current trajectory it won't reach Cybertron or its moons."

Optimus Prime nodded and turned back to face the window. He walked over to the consol in front of the window and looked down at the two Autobots who were piloting the massive ship. He placed his hand on the back of the seat and watched as the two Autobots continued on the present course.

"Is everything alright, Sideswipe?" Optimus Prime asked.

The red Autobot nodded and smiled at Optimus Prime. "As clear as crystalized carbonate," he replied. He then nudged the yellow Transformer next to him who grunted in return. "Old yellow nuts here thinks that he can handle this baby pretty easily."

"Oh, shut up will you?" the yellow Autobot replied. He turned to face Optimus Prime and ignored Sideswipe's comment. "Flying this bird is relatively simple, Prime," he said. "Even my brother can do something like this."

Optimus Prime nodded. "Excellent, Sunstreaker," he stated with satisfaction. He looked up at the window and watched as they hovered in front of the asteroid field. "Keep her steady and go through the field exactly where Wheeljack projected."

The Ark began to move toward the asteroid field with ease. In the back of the bridge was the tracking consol, manned by Huffer and Gears. Both were so focused on the approaching asteroid field that they failed to notice the minute momentary glitch on the tracking monitor that would indicate that they were being followed.

The Nemesis

Megatron smiled as he watched the Ark begin to sweep through the massive asteroid field. He turned to face Soundwave who was monitoring the entire situation as well.

"How noble of Prime," Megatron said to his most trusted follower. "To ensure the survival of our species, only to have it conquered by me!"

Soundwave looked up at Megatron who was sitting in the command chair on the bridge. Very few things caused the blue Decepticon to glisten with delight; all that mattered was that Megatron was pleased so far with the mission. He turned toward Rumble and Frenzy who were manning the cloaking station. He kneeled down in order to speak to his symbiotic followers.

"Ensure that we are not spotted by the Autobot shuttle," he said sternly. "Failure to do so will result in your immediate replacement."

The two Decepticons looked at each other with a frightened look in their optics. Very few things caused concern in the two Decepticons who depended on Soundwave for survival; all that mattered was that Soundwave was pleased with how they did their job, which reflected on him. Failure on their mission resulted in Megatron's aggravation with Soundwave, who, in turn, would take it out on his own followers, which was the one thing that they feared next to Megatron's wrath.

Iacon

Sky Lynx landed gracefully on the pad and immediately lowered his departing ramp. As the door to the ramp opened, two Autobots began running out from the body of the lieutenant commander of the Autobots. As they reached the surface of the landing pad, they transformed and headed toward the complex where Ultra Magnus was stationed.

The acting Autobot leader was going over scenarios on how to deactivate the Decepticon jamming activity that was disrupting their contact with Optimus Prime and the Ark. He looked over at Jetfire who was mulling over several possible solutions to the problem.

"What we really need to do is attack the problem head on," Jetfire said. "All of this plotting will do slag if we don't attack the situation where it matters most."

Kup nodded at Jetfire's comment. "The kid's right, Magnus," he said. "If we take Springer's unit, along with Grimlock's team, maybe we can penetrate the stronghold where the jamming frequency is coming from."

Ultra Magnus nodded in return. "I'll contact Grimlock and Springer." He turned to Kup and looked at the elder Autobot. "See if we can get Maximus to add support for our troops on this one."

Suddenly, the door opened and in came Sandstorm. He ran over to the Autobot commander and frantically handed Ultra Magnus a data pad. Sandstorm then pointed to the information on it with a troubled look on his face. "We've got some bad slag here," he said.

Ultra Magnus gazed rigorously at the information as it moved across the screen on the data pad. His optics then widened as he began to read the information encoded on it. "Tell me that this isn't happening," he said with despair. He looked up at Sandstorm and shook his head. "Where did you get this?"

Just then, Streetwise and Speedometer entered the room. Streetwise handed Ultra Magnus another data pad, this time it contained images of what seemed to be a Decepticon base. "This is what we've been trying to contact you about," he said sharply. "The 'cons have a base on the far moon where they've launched a ship in pursuit of Optimus Prime!"

Ultra Magnus scrolled through the various images of the base and of the massive ship. He looked up at the two Autobots and shook his head again. "When did it leave?" he asked.

Speedometer shook his head in response. "Once the Ark departed Cybertron. We've been trying to reach you, but all communication between the moons and Cybertron are shot to hell!" He pointed to another image on the pad. "They've been jamming Autobots interplanetary communications from their base on the far moon!"

Ultra Magnus slammed the data pad on the desk in frustration, shattering it into several pieces. "Damn!" he shouted. He turned to Jetfire and stood up. "Have Maximus gather his troops, now!" He looked over at Kup and pointed to the shattered data pad. "Tell Grimlock that we're off to kick some Decepticon chassis! If he's interested, he can come along too!"

Kup smiled and reached for his laser pistol. He demagnetized it and cocked it with a flick of the wrist. "Now you're talking, kid!"

The Ark

The Ark made its final pass through the massive asteroid field without any problem. All of the Autobots waited as Teletran-1 calculated the trajectory of the remaining asteroids to see if they were headed toward their home world. Each Autobot, especially Wheeljack, waited impatiently as the supercomputer worked out the calculations.

Suddenly, the silence was broken by Teletran-1.

"Situation averted. Current trajectory of asteroid field poses no threat to Cybertron" the computer spoke.

The Autobots all cheered and applauded their combined efforts. They hugged each other realizing that the first objective on their mission had been achieved. Optimus Prime walked over to Wheeljack and shook his hand.

"Nicely done, Wheeljack," he said. He then turned around and looked at the rest of the Autobots gathered on the bridge. "Nicely done EVERYBODY!" All of the Autobots congratulated one another again. Optimus Prime then made his way over to his command chair and pointed at the window. "Let's keep the momentum flowing."

Sideswipe gave Sunstreaker a gentle punch on his arm. He smiled at his brother and spoke. "Not to shabby, Streaker."

The yellow Autobot dismissed his brother's compliment and continued to activate the transwarp driver. He looked over at Sideswipe and shook his head. "Don't get lazy on me now, bro," he said. "Bring the transwarp core to ful capacity so we can blow this joint."

A hole in space appeared in front of the Ark. It expanded to twice the size of the ship. Then, the golden ship began to make its way into the transwarp displacement field, taking them farther than they could ever imagine.

The Nemesis

Megatron watched as the Ark entered standard transwarp displacement. He turned to Thundercracker and sneered at him. "Make sure that their trajectory is noted in the navi-computer," he said coldly. "I want to make sure that we follow Prime and his band of pathetic Autobots to this world that holds the key to our victory!"

The light blue Decepticon nodded at his leader's request. He brought up the last known trajectory of the Ark and calculated the speed of the transwarp displacement hole. He began to feed the information into the computer, and activated the transwarp driver.

"Ready when you are, Megatron," Thundercracker said. "We have a standard course plotted."

Megatron smiled and looked out of the observation window. "Excellent," he said with a smile. "It is time that we follow Prime, even if it is to hell itself!"

Omani-Attune

Far Moon of Cybertron

Grimlock handed Throttleback another shell to load into Sludge. He gazed at the young Autobot and saw a mech who was terrified of both dying on the battlefield and of disappointing his commander. He slapped the green Autobot on the shoulder and watched as he delicately placed it inside of Sludge's cannon.

"Don't worry about harming Sludge, Throttleback," Grimlock said with concern. "He know how to take it."

The young mech smiled and shook his head at his leader. He watched as the shell dropped all the way down to the base of Sludge's forward cannon. He slapped Sludge on the turret and looked up at Grimlock. "There he goes," he said.

Sludge chuckled and fired the shell from his cannon. The gathered Autobots watched as the shell streaked across the battlefield and slammed into the Decepticon stronghold, throwing up a red ball of flame as it incinerated part of the outer wall.

"Sweet," Sludge said softly. "Got another one?" he asked Throttleback.

Throttleback smiled and picked up another shell and loaded it into Sludge. He began to feel as part of the team rather than a new recruit that was assigned to Grimlock to replace a fallen friend.

Grimlock turned to Snarl and pointed to the communication array. "Get Maximus," he said.

Snarl squatted down by the computer and dialed in several coded frequencies. He patiently scanned for the correct imaging codex, and then activated the monitor as he located the proper encryption code. "Here you go, Grim," Snarl said over the roar of the shells being fired from Sludge and Warpath.

Grimlock sat down in front of the monitor and looked at the image of Whirl. "Where Maximus?" he asked the Autobot.

Whirl turned around and tapped his commanding officer on the shoulder. "Grimlock's on the line," he said.

Maximus walked over to the monitor and smiled at the image of his friend. "What's the situation there?" he asked.

Grimlock nodded at Maximus. "Scans indicate that we penetrating outer wall. We ready for breach here."

Maximus nodded while his smile grew larger. "Great," he said happily. "Maybe we can get this slagging jamming station down before we lose Prime's signal!"

Just then, Slag walked over to Grimlock. There was a look in his optics that told Grimlock he was ready for a fight. "Wall's down, boss!" he said with a grin. He then grabbed his energy sword and activated it. "Ready for breaching raid whenever you are!"

Grimlock turned to Maximus and nodded. "Me have business to attend to." He then turned off the monitor and stood up. He looked at Sludge and Warpath who continued to hammer the outer wall with shells. He pointed to the hole in the wall and gazed at it. "You two keep optics opened while we enter building!"

Warpath turned his turret at Grimlock and rolled back a bit. "Bang! Zow!" he exclaimed. "Happy hunting boss!"

Grimlock looked at the small Autobot known as Throttleback and grabbed him by the shoulder. He then looked into his optics with concern. "Ready for this?" he asked.

The small Autobot nodded and smiled at his leader. "As ready as I'll ever be!"

Grimlock activated his energy sword and leapt over the wall, followed by Slag, Throttleback, Roadbuster, and Snarl. The charging Autobots hollered out in a primal scream, letting all of the Decepticons inside know that they were on their way.

Inside the complex, Decepticons were chaotically running around attempting to find a way to stop the attack by the Autobots. Several Decepticons went running to the breach in the wall prepared to stop the Autobots, but they did not know that Grimlock would be leading the assault.

Shockwave stood there motionless as the other Decepticons prepared to fight. Everything was going exactly as he had planned. All he needed was a little more time to ensure that Megatron would never return. Each passing moment meant that Megatron was getting further and further away from Cybertron, and then Shockwave would have complete control.

The Ark

Everyone onboard the Ark gazed out of the observation window in astonishment. Every mech that was on the ship came to the bridge to witness the sight that they never could imagine. Off in the distance was a blue and white planet, orbited by two moons. Many of the Transformers smiled as they realized that they finally reached the destination, one that could ultimately bring stability and hope back to the people of Cybertron.

Optimus Prime looked over at Prowl and walked over to his second in command. He shook his hand and nodded at the cautious Autobot.

"Nicely done, Prowl," Optimus Prime said. "Perhaps this will usher in a new era of peace across Cybertron."

Prowl smiled back at Optimus Prime. "With the possibility of limitless energy, maybe Megatron will finally come to his senses."

As if on cue, there was a rumble onboard the ship shaking everything and everyone on it. Many of the smaller Autobots fell to the floor, while some of the larger ones attempted to catch their balance. Once the initial brunt of the force was over, all of the Transformers began running to their assigned stations.

Sideswipe ran back to the navigational consol and began scanning the area to make sure that the ship did not stray off course and hit something. He looked up at Optimus Prime and shook his head. "Scans say that we're running free and clear of any orbiting objects, Prime!" he yelled over the mass confusion.

Optimus Prime then turned to face Gears and Huffer. "Can you pick up anything?" he asked.

Gears looked down at the consol and grabbed it to help him from falling out of his seat as another shockwave hit the ship. He looked over at his partner and grabbed him by the arm. "What do you got?" he asked.

Huffer rubbed his head in confusion. He looked up at Optimus Prime and shook his head. "I can't spot anything out of the norm, but there's a large energy source coming from a void on the tracking computer!"

Optimus Prime stood up and walked over to the two Autobots. "Megatron," he said. He then looked over at both Hound and Cliffjumper and ran to the bridge's main screen. "Give me a visual of the ship's hull!" he said to the two Autobots.

Cliffjumper rapidly brought up several windows on the bridge's monitor that displayed various images from cameras placed around the Ark. Four of them displayed a purple vessel roughly the same size of the Ark. It was attached to the Autobot ship by two bright purple magnetic beams. In the center of the beams was a docking bridge, which had already breached the hull of the Ark.

"Those damn 'cons have leached onto the hull!" Cliffjumper said as he pointed to the images on the screen. He brought up the internal cameras and saw several Decepticons already inside the ship. He touched one of teh images and it zoomed in on several mechs running down the metal hallway. "We've been breached!"

Hound brought up an image of the sector of the Ark where the Decepticons breached the hull. He pointed to the monitor and looked at Optimus Prime with horror. "The Decepticons have compromised our security measures! They're en route to the bridge as we speak!"

Optimus Prime ran over and grabbed his weapon. He turned around and looked at the rest of the crew. "Prepare to repel boarders!"

Suddenly, the entranceway to the bridge exploded and threw the doors across the room. Sideswipe ducked out of the way as the doors hit the navigational consol. Sparks shot out of the computer as it began to short circuit from the damage. Sideswipe then began to pry the massive door from the computer. As he touched the metal door, a power surge went straight through him and began to send raw energy into his body. The red Autobot began to shut down as his body began to overload from the power.

Sunstreaker ran over to his brother and tried desperately to free him. Once he did, he watched as Sideswipe went into stasis lock to repair the heavy damage that he sustained. He gently placed his brother's body on the floor, and then retracted his right hand. Out of his wrist came a laser cannon and he activated it immediately.

"Let's go you bastards!" Sunstreaker shouted as the smoke cleared the room.

In the hallway, Optimus Prime watched as the Decepticons ran toward the bridge. There he saw his adversary approaching him. Optimus Prime brought up his weapon and fired into the rush of Decepticons causing them to scatter. Optimus Prime gave into the primal rage and anger that fueled his neural processor at that moment, and he could only utter one word from his vocal processor. "MEGATRON!"

Megatron smiled and brought his right arm upward and pointed his cannon at the Autobot leader. "Die Autobots!"

Soundwave grabbed his leader's arm and pulled it away from his intended target. "No!" he shouted. Megatron was taken back by the sudden turn in disposition by Soundwave and glared back at him. Soundwave let go and explained his actions. "If you fire, you'll rupture the hull's integrity, thereby sending us all into space!"

Megatron nodded at the warrior, realizing that Soundwave was concerned for his safety. He brought his arm down and smiled back at Soundwave. "I guess we'll have to do this the 'old fashioned' way like we did in the pits."

On the far end of the bridge, Trailbreaker looked at the monitor and saw the Decepticon ship attached to the Ark. He then activated the sonic disruptors at his station with the hopes that it would destroy the ship and any other remaining Decepticons on it.

The sonic disruptor gave off a blast of pure transonic energy. The wave, deathly silent in the vacuum of space, tore through the ship, cleaving it apart. The magnetic clamps were sheered away from the mass of the Ark, tearing away the outer wall of the ship's hull. The docking tube was also violently ripped off the hull as well. With the Ark's internal pressure compromised, there was a thrust force that sent everybody on the ship falling to the floor. Teletran-1 realized that the hull was breached, so it threw up several invisible force fields in order to protect the Ark from suffering any more structural damage, as wll as keeping all of the occupants inside of the hulking vessel.

The remains of the Decepticon ship fell toward the nearest moon and slammed off of the surface, skidding miles before it fell into a crater six times the size of the Nemesis. Once it fell to the bottom of the crater, the ship exploded, sending debris miles high into the thin atmosphere of the moon while a large frontal portion of the ship drifted toward the blue planet.

Furious, Starscream ran over to Trailbreaker and kicked him in the back, sending the Autobot defensive strategist headfirst into the consol. Starscream pointed his null ray at Trailbreaker's neck and sneered at the sight of the black Autobot. "You fool!" he shouted. "You'll kill us all!"

Trailbreaker quickly turned around and hit the Decepticon in the face, shattering Starscream's right optic. Trailbreaker pushed Starscream and then hit him again in the face, this time breaking the Decepticon's jaw completely off from his face. Trailbreaker smiled and threw Starscream to the floor. "At least we'll be taking some of you psychopaths with us!" he shouted.

Trailbreaker was ready to fire his wrist laser at Starscream, but he was tackled by the combined efforts of Rumble and Frenzy. The two Decepticons began to viciously hit Trailbreaker repeatedly, but no matter how hard the Autobot tried to get them off of his chassis, they continued to hit back.

Thundecracker began firing randomly at any Autobot that he saw. In his continued fire he hit Windcharger, Ratchet, and Bumblebee, as well as the remains of the navigational computer, shutting it down completely. The consol exploded, throwing Sunstreaker across the room and into the wall. It also sent Sideswipe's body at Bluestreak and pinned him against the far wall of the bridge.

"Holy Primus, Sideswipe," Bluestreak said as he tried to shove Sideswipe's body off of him. "You must have put on an astro-ton since the last time we wrestled!"

With the ship sustaining too much damage, Teletran-1 started shutting down unnecessary systems in order to continue on its current trajectory. With the orbital mainframe offline, the Ark then began a straight decent into the planet's atmosphere. The ship shook violently as it started entering the planet's gravitational field. Prowl, barely holding off Ravage who had severed several components in Prowl's right hand rendering it useless, looked over at Optimus Prime. "The planet's g-forces are dragging us down!"

Optimus Prime elbowed Megatron in the face, sending the massive Decepticon leader backwards. "You've done some rash things before Megatron, but this teeters on the verge of insanity!"

Megatron rubbed the green lubricant from his chin as he listened to Optimus Prime's remark. He looked up at the Autobot and began to laugh at him. "Insanity Prime?" the Decepticon commander said softly. "Allowing you and your ilk the opportunity to grab this planet as a trophy would be insane. I'll be damned if I will allow that to happen!" Furious, Megatron then lunged at his nemesis and they both toppled over the command chair.

The bridge's observation window began to glow red and yellow as the Ark dove straight through the planet's atmosphere. The Ark adjusted for the change in gravity, keeping everything from falling to the front of the ship. The massive cruiser shuttered without end, slamming both Autobot and Decepticon alike off of the walls, ceiling, and the floor. Huffer and Gears hit head first into each other, cracking Huffer's head-plate severely and sending him into stasis lock. Gears fell to the floor and reached over to his friend in an attempt to help him, but he was stepped on by Soundwave.

Just as Soundwave was about to fire his weapon at the back of the Autobot's head, he was hit in the back by Brawn. Soundwave fell to the floor and looked up at the smaller Autobot. Brawn smiled at the Decepticon and motioned for him to get up.

"Come on, slag-eater!" Brawn yelled. "Show me what you're really made of!"

Then the shaking stopped as the ship started falling downward through the clouds. All of the Transformers on the ship stopped for a moment and glared out at the window. They saw the ground of the planet quickly approaching the ship; they were all headed straight downward. Jazz ran to the manual steering control and tried to level the ship out. Knowing that a direct impact would vaporize everything in the blast zone, he pulled with every ounce of energy that he had left, and it began to pay off. The Ark started to level out, but was still headed toward the surface of the planet. As he started to level the Ark out some more, he was hit from behind. The force of the blow made Jazz slam his face into the steering control.

Skywarp smiled at his handiwork, but then looked out of the window. He stood there with his mouth wide open and realized that the ship was inevitably going to crash into the surface of the planet below. As Skywarp stood there dazed, he was tackled at his waist by Mirage. The two Transformers went toppling over each other as they exchanged blows.

Suddenly, the ship hit the rocky surface of the planet and it skidded across the landscape. A large boulder hit the thick observation window and crashed through it. The boulder hit the floor of the bridge once and then quickly slammed into Brawn's chest. Brawn and the boulder then went flying to the far end of the bridge, and Brawn was smashed between the reinforced wall and the heavy boulder.

A large portion of the window sailed across the bridge and hit Soundwave directly in his symbiotic storage compartment, his most vulnerable area. The window sliced right through Soundwave, sending a spray of energon out from the wound in his back. He fell to both knees and grabbed the glass that was jutting out from his chest, but quickly faded into stasis lock from the trauma sustained by the wound.

Wheeljack pinned down Buzzsaw by his beak and slammed him to the floor of the bridge, shattering his optic visor. The Decepticon squawked and flailed around as it tried to free itself from Wheeljack's grip in order to rush to Soundwave's aid, but to no avail. Then, distracted by the tragic turn of events for both Brawn and Soundwave, Wheeljack looked up and saw that the Ark was headed straight toward a mountain. His optics widened in horror as he realized that no matter what happened on the ship, they were all going to die.

Optimus Prime realized that all was lost. His hopes of finding a way to save Cybertron now faded to despair. Furious at Megatron, he grabbed the Decepticon by the arm and threw him to the floor. He jumped on top of him and placed his hands around Megatron's neck and hoped to wring the life out of the Decepticon leader.

Megatron managed to pry Optimus Prime's grip for a brief moment. He smiled at his longtime rival and spoke. "Such heroic non. . ."

Megatron was unable to finish his thought. The Ark slammed directly into the base of a large volcano. The force of the impact caused the volcano to erupt, covering its sides in cinder, ash, and rock, thereby burying the Ark under tons of debris.

As the dust settled inside the dark, lifeless ship, there was nothing but complete silence. All of the combatants inside the Ark were thrown about so violently from the impact that the blunt force trauma sent everybody into stasis lock, rendering the entire ship and its occupants dead. Teletran-1 suffered extensive damage and shut down all systems in an effort to preserve itself.

In the dark, the large giants laid there silently. It suddenly seemed impossible that not more than five minutes ago everybody on the Ark was amazed at the possibility of helping Cybertron from its inevitable course. However, the perverse turn of events created a tragic end to their efforts. Underneath the enormous volcano, the Transformers onboard the Ark would lay undisturbed until destiny could somehow awake them again.

END?