Transformers Titan

Mosiac

Chapter 1-City of Rust

The Orvus Autobot base was an orbital station situated within moderately held Autobot territory far from the front lines of the war. While sporting some decent soldiers, it was far from a forward operations base, instead acting as a research station. But what they were researching was top secret. Odd considering that Orvus was located in no strategic location other than the uninhabited planet Salvvatan VI.

Personally, Goldbug was fine with not knowing what the lunkheads in the research department were working on. Top secret info was a scary thing to deal with, as seconds after learning what the big secret was, you would immediately be taken into a world of deception and misery that only ended poorly. It was a bit of an exaggeration, but Goldbug didn't make it long into this war by being nosy. If the Autobot scientists were keeping something secret on orders from on top, then he'll keep his mouth shut.

Besides, he wasn't a scientist or a theoretician or some fancy weapons developer. He was a Throttlebot. His team was known for being among the fastest Autobots in the eastern divisions, serving as couriers, spies, scouts and saboteurs. They're job was to be the escape plan in case the base was attacked; with Orvus being little more than a trumped up research station, the Throttlebots were tasked with keeping the info from falling into enemy hands. General Backfire had stationed them there because he had faith in their abilities and skills in case things got ugly around there, what with the recent battles involving some unknown enemy.

That didn't make things not boring though. Being something other than a scientist or warrior made for some pretty dull cycles for a spy or courier without any immediate missions on standby.

"I'm just saying, I think Glyph is totally into me. I mean, she was giving me glances the entire time we were talking about her archeological find on Athenia."

"You mean when she was talking and you were just nodding your head acting like you knew what she was talking about." Goldbug told his friend. "Searchlight, I know you were there during Thunderwing's second awakening, but that's nothing to brag about when all you did was hang back with Dogfight. Glyph isn't the type of femme to go for bots with the alpha male mentality."

"Don't kill my buzz, Goldbug, please." Searchlight said, taking a long, hard swig of his mostly spiked energon. "I barely see her enough as it is and I constantly worry if she's alright. You'd worry to if your crush was hanging out with that pyromaniac Flareup."

Goldbug shook his head. He didn't like complaining, but this was unbelievably dull. When his team was reassigned to Salvvatan VI, he thought he would be one of the most active bots on the field. This…this was just torture. And how the hell did he get stuck talking to Searchlight about his relationship problems?

"Hey, Goldbug." Searchlight said, catching his attention.

"Yeah?"

"What do you think is down there? On that planet?" Searchlight asked, referring to Salvvatan VI.

"We're not going over that again, Searchlight. That's info privy to bots way above our pay grade. We're messengers; we just deliver the messages and get the hell out of the firing line. That's it." Goldbug said.

"But I'd like to know why the hell we're even here in the first place. We're better helping out the intelligence division or the Special Forces, not slumming it out here. Hell, even Chase is getting a little antsy."

Goldbug rubbed the back of his head, unable to really deny that. Chase was the friendliest of the Throttlebots, always greeting even Autobots he hasn't even known existed with a smile. But sitting around on this space station wore away at even Chase's optimism.

"We have our orders, Searchlight. You know that." he said. "If you want to take it up with Wingbat…"

"Hell no, that's suicide." Searchlight blanched. Wingbat was the femme who sent the Throttlebots to the base in the first place. A member of the Autobot Special Forces, she ran a tight ship, and was possibly scarier than even Ultra Magnus when riled up. "But what could make this slightly more bearable is if we knew-"

"No." Goldbug shot that idea down immediately. "We're not snooping."

"But-"

"No, Searchlight. Whatever it is, it's probably too dangerous for us to even know about." Goldbug said.

Searchlight knew better than to press any further, knowing that Goldbug was right even though he didn't want to admit it. "Okay, you win. Let's go get some energon goodies. I hear Big Daddy's got some secret stash somewhere in storage."

"For a guy who lifts weights in his downtime, he sure knows how to work his magic around a synthesizer." Goldbug commented.

Goldbug was proud to be an Autobot, but it was moments like these that he looked forward to the most. The moments where he wasn't being shot at by dozens of Cons at once. Wholesome moments with his team and closest friends.

It was a shame that they never last in this long war.

XXXXXX

The attack without warning and without mercy. Due to the stealth capabilities of the attacker, and that fact that he was folding in and out of realspace, no one detected it until it was too late. It was only when the proximity sensors went off that the Autobots went into action.

"Hull breach in the second level!" Big Daddy reported. "Whatever that thing was, it's not natural, that's for sure."

"Send section 2 security teams to the location." Commander Gasket said, eyes on the security monitors. "If this is an attack, then we need to-"

Gasket went quiet, as did the other mechs in the room when they saw the live footage of a massive green and white mech tearing through the Autobot security teams in his way. It was the Decepticon Phase Sixer, Sixshot.

"S-Sixshot? What the hell is he doing here?!" An Autobot cried out.

"How did he find this place?"

"We're so dead!"

"Game over, man. Game over!"

"Everyone, shut up!" Gasket shouted. He was as terrified as they were of the prospect of fighting the Decepticons' executioner, but they had a job to do. "If Sixshot's here, then chances are he's here for the base's info. We cannot let that data fall into enemy hands, especially Sixshot's."

"Orders, sir?"

Gasket downloaded as much data as possible in the time frame he had into a data slug and gave it to an officer. Find Goldbug and give this to him. Have the Throttlebots board an escape shuttle and move out at once!"

"Yes sir!"

"Commander, Sixshot's breathing level three. He's coming our way, sir!"

"No surprises there." Gasket muttered. He reached down to unholster a large photon cannon from the bottom of his chair and hefted it onto his shoulder. "It's been a pleasure serving with you all, Autobots. Now let's show this glorified thug we'll all die with dignity."

"Yes sir!" His troops changed, also reaching for their hidden weapons.

They didn't have to wait long for Sixshot to reach them. He had torn a path of carnage up from the seven level onward in his beast mode, leaving behind the shredded remains of the Autobot security teams that tried to slow him down. He ran through the hallway and tore through the doors to the command center to get inside, only to be met with a barrage of weapons fire.

"Give him hell!" Gasket yelled, firing his photon cannon at full power.

Sixshot's upper body was assaulted by a barrage of weapons fire that would've liquefied a normal bot, but only left scorch marks on his armor. It barely felt any more painful than a sting, but it did annoy him. "I don't have time for this!" He grunted.

He changed into his cannon mode and fired a single powerful neutron beam into the room. That one blast killed three Autobots and devastated the computer system. Three more soldiers were severely wounded by the explosion. Sixshot was swift with his kills, blasting most of them apart with his cannons and ripping others apart in his beast mode. It was more fun to rip his enemies apart in beast mode for some reason.

In a matter of minutes he had killed everyone save the commander, whose legs he crushed. Gasket was bleeding large amounts of energon as he propped himself up on his chair, his lower body only a mess over wires and scorched metal. Sixshot stood over him and stared down at the broken Autobot stoically.

"What? No…no victory speech?" Gasket laughed. "I thought you Cons always loved a good mono-"

Sixshot's hand shot down and grabbed the Autobot by his chest plate, lifting him up to glare at him in the face. "I'm not in the mood, Autobot. I'm keeping you alive to tell me where your data core is. This base doesn't have one and I know you've hidden the info. This base doesn't have one and I know you've hidden the info. Tell me, I'll allow you to die slowly amongst your fallen comrades."

Something caught Sixshot's attention in one of the still working monitors. He looked over and saw a ship flying past one of the external cameras-a ship. Gasket gave him a weak smile.

"There it goes." He laughed weakly. "Sucks to be you, doesn't-"

Sixshot wordlessly crushed is head in his hand and tossed the body aside before stomping back out of the hole he made.

He wasn't kidding when he said he wasn't in the mood.

XXXXXX

Goldbug clutched the data slug in his hand as he struggled to keep the shuttle on course. None of the Throttlebots were particularly skilled pilots, but he just focused on keeping the ship from breaking apart so he didn't have to think about the massacre that was assuredly going on back at the space station.

"Why are we running? We have to help them!" Rollbar said.

"Sixshot's taken out whole Autobot divisions, Rollbar, you think we'll fare any different by going back? The only think we'll accomplish is adding more names to his body count." Searchlight said. He grunted when the ship gave another worrying groan. "Goldy, could you hold the damn ship steady already?"

"I don't know how to fly a ship, Searchlight. I'm just winging it!" Goldbug said. "Scrap, this ship's not going to hold up if we don't hit the lower atmosphere soon!"

"Wait, look!" Wideload pointed out the window to a massive canyon that came into view as they broke through the clouds. Goldbug didn't know what he was pointing at until he saw a large mass of metallic grey on the ground that stood out amongst the rustic brown landscape.

It was a city. Salvvatan VI had signs of life-cybertronian life from the looks of it. The buildings were definitely made to cybertronian scale.

'What's a city doing here? Commander Gasket never told us about anybody living on Salvvatan VI.' Goldbug thought. Suddenly the ship shook again.

"Scrap, we're doing to fall apart!" Searchlight shouted.

"I'll hold her steady until we can land in that canyon down below." Goldbug pulled back on the controls and maneuvered the unstable ship to slow its descent with forward landing thrusters. He didn't relent even as the ship's bottom scrapped across the ground, holding onto the control sticks with enough force to chip the mesh on his hands. He didn't let go until he felt the ship come to a stop and everyone nervously opened their eyes.

"By the Allspark, we're alive!" Chase shouted and hugged Rollbar. "We're alive!"

"Get off me!" Rollbar pushed him off.

Searchlight and Wideload peeled Goldbug's hands off the control sticks. "Goldy, you okay?" Searchlight asked.

"Y-Yeah, Searchlight, just vowing to never fly a ship of any kind again." Goldbug shivered. "Come on, we need to haul aft before Sixshot finds our trail."

The Throttlebots quickly exited the ship and transformed to vehicle mode, where they sped off down the canyon towards the faint outline of the mysterious city.

XXXXXX

By the time the Throttlebots were halfway to the city, Sixshot had entered the planet's atmosphere in jet mode, descending to the planet without a care as he followed the shuttle's invisible ion trail. He found the abandoned ship crashed inside a canyon and shifted to his beast mode. Landing on the ground with a thump, he sniffed the air for the scents of his prey.

'Did they really think they could run from me?' Sixshot thought. 'I'm honestly insulted they thought they could escape so easily.'

His sensors detected six different scents leading away from the crash site out of the canyon. Judging from the exhaust fumes, they did so in vehicle mode, driving at full speed towards that…city?

"Intelligence never said anything about this planet being inhabited." Sixshot muttered. Those morons would need to change their name if stuff like this gets overlooked. "Oh well, time to go hunting."

His body rearranged itself again and shifted into his tank mode. He drove out of the canyon and in the direction of the lone city sitting idle in the distance. He was just starting to have a good time, and he wasn't about to let a couple of low rank grunts ruin it.

XXXXXX

The whole city was definitely abandoned. Or it was empty. The buildings were a mixture of bronze and copper, with deep red markings along the buildings and even the streets. The Throttlebots had explored almost every building in their way but found no signs of habitation and detected no life signatures either. It was as creepy as it was odd. What was even weirder was that they even found supplies-rooms full of energon cubes, medical wards, even weapons storage. Cybertronians did live here, but everyone was gone, seemingly without a trace.

"This place is a ghost town." Goldbug said, looking around at the empty streets. It was way too quiet for his liking.

"A ghost town with supplies. Creepy, but I'm not complaining. Found some energon here, folks, and a swirly straw for you, Goldbug." Chase handed everyone an energon cube. "Let's fuel up. If the Cons' hellhound is still coming after us, we might as well be in top shape."

"Top shape to do what? I saw him take on am army, Chase…of Wreckers!" Searchlight said. "Our best bet is to run. Get off this planet and get out of his way."

"And how are we going to do that? Our shuttle is trashed and I'm not seeing any hangar bays around here." Rollbar said, crossing his arms.

"Not to mention he can fly after us while also trying to kill us." Wideload said.

"Exactly!" Rollbar exclaimed.

"Um, maybe is isn't following us anymore?" Freeway nervously suggested. "Why would he? We don't have anything he would want."

His teammates all gave him equal looks of exasperation and disbelief that made him wish he hadn't said anything. Goldbug, being the good mech that he was, was kind enough to not call him stupid to his face.

"Do you really think that, Freeway?" Goldbug asked slowly. Freeway lowered his head and shook it.

"Not really, no. sorry."

Goldbug looked at the empty city. It looked grand and large scale, but out of place on this planet, which didn't even have any suitable natural energy sources. Why was this kept secret? There was nothing particularly outstanding about it from what he could see, and from the looks of things, no one had lived here for stellar cycles.

"Maybe they have a secret experimental weapon in development somewhere." Wideload said.

"Or maybe we're sitting in a colony! You know, one of the last ones from the Golden Age!" Searchlight said.

"If that's the case, then we better watch ourselves. Many colonies were cleaned out because of the Rust Plague. If this is one of those colonies…" Goldbug trailed off, but his team still got the message.

"We're all going to be having a bad day." Rollbar said.

"Then let's stop yapping and roll out." Chase said, still balancing the energon cubes in his arms. "I'm already tense about Sixshot, worrying about a lingering rust diseases is too much for me."

"Then how would you like an outside opinion."

"No…" Goldbug whispered in horror and looked up to see the large form of Sixshot standing atop one of the buildings across the street. The Con was in his robot mode and had his neutron cannon in hand. He didn't look very happy with them.

"Surrender now, hand over the lab's information and you'll all die painlessly." Sixshot said, getting straight to the point. "You don't want the alternative."

"Am I wrong in believing that if we don't have the information, you'll have to torture us?" Goldbug asked.

Sixshot pointed his gun at them. "Something like that."

"Yeah, I thought so." Goldbug nodded and looked at his team. "Throttlebots…ROLL OUT!"

The team transformed to their vehicle modes and sped away, leaving Sixshot in the dust.

"At this point, I probably should've seen this coming." Sixshot muttered. He changed into his beast mode and grinned a toothy grin. "Time to play."

He ran after the Autobots at full speed, moving incredibly fast on four legs despite his large size. He fired his twin plasma cannons at the fleeing Autobots, blasting Chase and Freeway off the street. Chase went crashed through a wall, but Freeway changed forms in midair and landed unsteadily on his feet. He shot at Sixshot, but the laser blasts bounced off Sixshot's dense armor. Sixshot leapt into the air above Freeway and changed into his tank mode, right above the Autobot!

"Frag!" Freeway tried to run, but he was crushed under the immense weight of Sixshot's tank mode. The Con made sure to grind his treads on the Autobot's chest, brutally ripping away strips of his armor and causing immense pain.

"I'm sorry, little mech, I hope I'm not too heavy!" Sixshot taunted. He detected someone on the rooftops behind him and spun his cannons around to fire at the sneak. "Nice try, idiot!"

Sixshot's twin plasma cannons shot two blasts that hit Wideload in the chest, blasting him right off the roof. Not even sparing him a second glance, Sixshot transformed to robot mode and picked up the damaged Freeway by the neck.

"Now are you going to talk, you mouthy little bastard?" He growled. All he got was a pained groan. "I thought not."

Sixshot looked around at the empty street around him. "Come on out, Autobots! Pretending to run scared only to launch a surprise attack is impressive. You're a lot braver than most of my targets." He yelled into the streets. "But it's meaningless. The game's over!"

Goldbug and Searchlight appeared from their hiding places and pointed their guns at Sixshot. The six changer gave a pleased grunt and tossed Freeway aside without a care.

"I saw you on the moon of Bhul during the Gorlam Prime affair. You were Ember's slave, practically a drone doing her bidding." Searchlight said.

"That was then, this is now. You'd be surprised at what you can trade for Kopesh's technology. Shockwave got access to dolem stargate technology and failsafe overrides and I got my freedom back. Everyone wins…except you." Sixshot said.

"You're smarter than that, Sixshot. We're scared, not gutless." Goldbug said. "We're Autobots. Not born for war, but warriors all the same. We'll go down fighting."

Sixshot chuckled. "So be it."

Rollbar drove at Sixshot from behind, ramming into his feet and slapped two shape charges onto his back and detonated them. He had just enough time to land on his heels before a large foot hit him in the chest and knocked through into a wall, crashing through the other side.

"Intruder alert! Perimeter breached! Intruder alert!"

Sixshot looked around at the security monitors that were flashing red with the alarms blaring loudly. "What perimeter?"

"Now, Searchlight!"

Sixshot spun around and got hit with two plasma blasts to the face. Searchlight advanced on him with a twin-barreled photon cannon, shooting his weapon rapidly, without a care for overheating it. Sixshot actually took a couple of steps back from the facial assault, but any damage he took was surperficial. Once he regained his bearings, Sixshot transformed to beast mode and charged into Searchlight, slamming him inot a wall.

"That actually stung." Sixshot hummed. "Nice try."

"Shut up!" Goldbug jumped onto Sixshot's back and stabbed his vibro-blade into the Con's left shoulder joint. Sixshot, not expecting to actually feel pain, roared and threw Goldbug off his back.

"You little bastard!" Sixshot growled. He changed into his space gun mode and fired a blast that sent Goldbug tumbling down the street. "You're starting to piss me off!"

"Good to know!" Searchlight yelled back, leaping onto Sixshot and planting something on his back. "Happy trails!"

"Wha-"

Sixshot's body vanished in an explosion of flames as the two phase charges Searchlight stuck onto his body detonated. Searchlight was knocked onto his back by the wounded Goldbug by the blast wave, but remained unharmed.

"I hope he gets a headache from that." Searchlight grumbled. He limped over to Goldbug, who was bleeding energon from his wounds. "Come on, Goldy, we need to haul it before thunder-lion wakes up."

He reached down to pull Goldbug onto his back, but froze upon hearing a voice behind him. "Never take your eyes off an enemy."

A large hand grabbed Searchlight and slammed him into the ground. Sixshot, covered in burns and positively fuming, repeatedly slammed the Throttlebot into the ground before tossing him into the air and punching him in the chest. Searchlight bounced off the ground multiple times before skidding to a stop a few feet down the street.

"Never thought a group of couriers could put up more of a fight than actual soldiers. Very admirable, honestly." Sixshot said, flames licking at his slightly burnt but mostly undamaged head. He walked up to Searchlight and pointed his rifle into his face. "You know me, Autobot. Tell me, are you afraid?"

Searchlight coughed a little and then grinned. "N-No."

"Really? Well, you should-" Sixshot roared in pain as a crimson blade was stabbed into his back and tore through his chest, just under his laser core. A feat that should have been impossible, given his durability.

He stared at the blade sticking out of his chest and looked back at his attacker. It was a mech, deep green and red, almost as tall as Sixshot and just as armored. What caught Sixshot off guard was how similar this mech looked to him.

"Who…" Sixshot tried to ask, but hissed as the mech pulled the blade from his back.

"Leave," He ordered. "Now."

"Who the hell are you?" Sixshot growled and spun around to shoot the mech that dared cut in on his mission.

Before he could do anything, the mech jumped back and transformed into a tank with four cannons, two on each side. He fired them all at once at Sixshot, focusing all his fire on the Con's chest would. Intense ion bursts burned into Sixshot's armor, and his mind was riddled with so much pain that he began to feel numb.

From the sidelines, Searchlight was watching the battle with a look of awe. "By the Allspark, this guy's really fighting Sixshot…and winning!"

"Search…light…"

"Goldy!" Searchlight leaned over his beaten comrade and help him up. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, but it hurts to move too much." Goldbug groaned. "Who's…the new guy?"

"No clue, but he's fighting Sixshot and doing a damn good job so far, and that's all I can ask for right now."

Sixshot and the nameless mech were fighting in their tank modes, though the damages Sixshot had sustained were slowing him down. Frustrated, Sixshot switched to his gun mode and fired an ion blast at his opponent, who turned into a large jet and flew away.

"Die!" Sixshot roared, firing his cannons at the fast moving mech. The mech easily evaded his shots with a Seeker's skill and dived towards Sixshot. "That's right! Come at me!"

The mech transformed again, this time into a gun. Sixshot had just enough time to be surprised at the speed of the mech's transformation before he took a powerful particle blast to the chest, blasting him out of the air. He hit the ground and changed back into robot mode, his body smoking and sizzling. His opponent transformed and landed on the ground in robot mode as well.

"This isn't possible. I'm the only one with six alt modes!" Sixshot growled. His playful demeanor had turned into one of rage as he yelled, "Who the hell are you? What are you?"

"I am Quickswitch, guardian of this fortress." The mech said calmly. "Now if that's all, I must insist that you leave or else."

"Or else what? On who's authority do you have the right to threaten one of the strongest Decepticons in history?"

Quickswitch pointed behind him. "Hers."

Sixshot felt the ground rumble and shake and turned around as a massive shadow fell over him. He actually cried out in shock as a massive fist rose into the air, and slammed right down onto him. The impact shook the entire city and could be felt for miles in all directions. The hand remained there for a moment before slowly rising up to reveal Sixshot's damaged but still functioning body.

"You still function?" Quickswitch hummed curiously.

"I…a-am Sixshot!" Sixshot sneered, trying to move his broken body. "Megatron's elite-"

The fist slammed down onto him again…and again…and one more time, each time deepening the crater that Sixshot was buried inside. After the last punch, the large fist pulled back, and revealed Sixshot…or what was left of him. Not a single piece of the phase sixer's body was in one piece, his body parts were shattered like shards of glass, energon pooling from ruptured power lines, and a faint outline of what used to be his head sat motionless in the dirt.

Goldbug and Searchlight looked up and gaped as the fortress at the heart of the city began to transform, parts slowly reconfiguring into a colossal mechanoid, who slowly stood to its feet at its full height of two miles into the air.

"What the fanbelt?" Rollbar exclaimed as he ran up to his friends. "The hell is this?"

"A Titan," Searchlight whispered. "Like Metroplex, but…different."

The Titan looked down at the little Autobots at its feet and bent down slightly to address Quickswitch. Goldbug couldn't help but marvel how the morning sunlight reflected off the Titan's red and orange armor.

"Quickswitch," The Titan said in a deep but clearly feminine voice. "Our position has been compromised. We must leave at once."

"Leave? Why do you want to leave?" Rollbar asked.

"To hide. You found me. Others will too." She said.

"Hide? You can't hide! There's a war going on! You have to join us!" Searchlight yelled. "You just smashed Sixshot apart with one hand! How can you refuse?"

"We have no part in your chaotic war. We have our own problems to deal with." Quickstrike looked up at his Titan, his creator. "There are those who would hunt beings like Kappa-Titans who hold incredible power. I must keep her safe and away from those who would abuse her power. I'm sorry."

Goldbug stopped Searchlight before he could argue further. "We…understand."

"You'll find supplies inside for your friends. There's a shuttle at the edge of the city in hangar 205." Quickswitch told them.

"So you're just going to abandon us." Rollbar grumbled. "That's swell."

"I have a mission. A purpose." Kappa said, her body slowly turning back into her fortress mode, now hovering on giant thrusters. "I week for all cybertronian lives lost, but I cannot help them. Farewell, Autobots."

Quickstrike transformed into jet mode and flew up into one of Kappa's exhaust ports before the Titan began her ascension. The three Throttlebots watched her fly away into the brightening sky, and into space, quiet possibly never to be seen again.

"Well, that was both amazing and disheartening." Searchlight said after a long moment of silence.

"Can't believe they just up and left us." Rollbar shook his head.

"We can't expect everyone to join the fight against the Decepticons. And you hear her, apparently someone's hunting Titans for their powers. Can't exactly let the Cons get their hands on them." Searchlight said.

"So this world was a colony that never got off the ground. I wonder what happened to make a Titan go into hiding." Goldbug said.

"Who knows?" Rollbar shrugged and looked into the crater where Sixshot's mangled body sat. "At least this bastard's dead."

"Come on," Searchlight said, walking away with Goldbug hanging on his shoulder. "Let's go find Freeway and WIdeload. They need help too."

Goldbug looked up at the now blue sky and gave a little prayer to the Titan and her lone child, quiet possibly the only cybertronian she forged since landing on this planet. Looking around the city, Goldbug realized how lifeless it felt without Kappa's presence animating it. Everything seemed dead now.

'I wonder how long it will be,' Goldbug thought. 'Before this city falls to rust?'

Here you go, the first chapter of the sequel to Distant Stars! It took way too long to get started on this chapter, and updates might be slow as I focus mainly on Devastation, but rest assured, you'll get some good stories in this one like in DS, as well as continuing storylines from Distant Stars. You can check this story out on the Transformers Titan on Wordpress. Thanks for reading, and please leave a review.