SIDESWIPE FIRED TWO MORE VOLLEYS AT THE RINGS, but he wasn’t waiting around to see the results; instead, he turned the Ark around at the sharpest angle possible and vectored straight back toward the planet. Although he was much farther away than he had been before leaving orbit, he was now on the side of the world that mattered. What the Quintessons initially had thought was a craven attempt to flee was actually a gambit intended to give the Ark line of sight on the capital city of Hydratron. Sideswipe engaged the afterburners and thundered in toward it. They were going to rescue Optimus or die trying.
But up ahead was the Nemesis, still in near orbit above the city. Sideswipe could only hope that the Decepticons weren’t going to interfere with him. Or that they wouldn’t interpret his closing in as an attack on them. He was going to find out in a few moments.
STARSCREAM AND SOUNDWAVE WERE COMPLETING THEIR final system checks when the Ark shot the ring to pieces and did its about-face. Now it was bearing down on their position at several thousand miles an hour.
“Destroy them!” Starscream yelled, happy to have a distraction. He’d far rather fight Autobots than rescue Megatron.
“They’re not coming for us,” Soundwave shot back. “They’re obviously making for the city! Which is what you said we were going to do!” Before Starscream could protest, Soundwave revved up the Nemesis’s engines and sent the Decepticon warship screaming down into the atmosphere. The fire of reentry licked past the window; the weather buffeted the ship violently, but the howl of the engines was drowned out by the noise blaring from the intercom: the roar of hundreds of Decepticons cheering at the top of their lungs throughout the ship. Soundwave brought up the targeting system and put the approaching city in his crosshairs …
XEROS NO LONGER HAD THE PLANETARY DEFENSES OF the first ring at his disposal, but he had plenty of other resources to draw on. All across the planet, ground-to-space batteries whirred to life. But even as he began targeting them on the Ark—which had turned around, he noted—the alarm lights began flashing as a new and far closer menace swooped in.
The Nemesis.
“Recalibrate defense parameters on the following lines!” he yelled, barking out a series of coordinates.
But it was too late.
Long tongues of flame streaked in across the sky toward the city. The incoming Nemesis had barely reached the lower atmosphere, but it was already opening fire with everything it had. Explosion after explosion rocked the Aquatronian capital. Through the window, the Curator watched in horror as a torpedo hit the roof of the Hall of Justice. A column of fire roared across the sky, and then the view was blotted out as armored plates slammed into place across the inner sanctum’s windows.
“Lockdown complete,” said an automated voice.
The Curator turned to Xeros with murder in his eyes. “I told you to do something about those ships!”
“Lord, I was trying—”
The Curator cuffed Xeros hard enough to send him sprawling. Xeros started begging for mercy, but the Curator stepped past him and keyed a mike.
“Commander Gnaw, report!”
The face of Commander Gnaw appeared on the screen. He was in his command tank, presumably somewhere near the Hall of Justice. “I am yours to command, my lord!”
“I am moving the inner sanctum into fortress mode! You are hereby placed in charge of the city’s defenses! Concentrate all fire on the incoming ships!”
“I hear and obey, lord!” The screen went blank. The Curator hit a lever, and the inner sanctum began to descend from the skyline, trundling on vertical rails as it dropped beneath the streets. Clearly, it was no time to be anywhere near the surface.
INSIDE THE HALL OF JUSTICE IT WAS PURE PANDEMONIUM. The audience barely had time to process the fact that Megatron and Optimus somehow had escaped the pit; the next moment, the whole building shook and part of the roof caved in as the Nemesis strafed the city. As the power died, Aquatronians poured through the exits, only to be shot down by Sharkticon guards who had taken up position outside the building with orders to let no one escape lest some of the prisoners get away in the confusion. Now free of the energy-dampening field, those prisoners were working on finding a way to do just that. Using all his strength, Jazz managed to bend one of the bars enough to get through; as the Autobots followed him, Dirge was doing the same thing for the Decepticons. The Sharkticon guards still in the chamber found themselves in hand-to-hand combat with scores of Cybertronians. For once Autobots and Decepticons weren’t fighting one another; they’d watched on video screens while their leaders teamed up and figured now it was time to do the same thing. They could always settle their differences later, if they lived through this. Outside the building a screaming filled the sky: the vast roar of an incoming warship …
THE NEMESIS EMERGED FROM THE LAST OF THE CLOUDS and hurtled toward the city.
“Where shall we land, lord?” Soundwave asked.
Starscream scoffed. “Who said anything about landing? Keep giving them a taste of our firepower. They’ll be begging us to negotiate in no time.”
“We’re taking a considerable amount of ground fire,” Soundwave said.
“Put the shields into the red!” Starscream gripped the back of Soundwave’s chair as the metropolis ripped in toward them; building after building disintegrated as Soundwave strafed away at point-blank range. But that cut both ways, for the Nemesis’s initial bombardment had left the city with plenty of defenses, and now every antiaircraft gun Gnaw had was opening up on them. On the scanners, Starscream could make out a honeycomb of ground defenses that hadn’t shown up on the original schematics. Apparently someone who knew military tactics had made some last-minute adjustments; the view from the bridge of the Nemesis showed a curtain of laser fire rising toward them, smashing against them like a driving rain. The bridge’s windows shattered. The ship shuddered. Alarms went off.
“Shields up!” Starscream yelled.
“They’re all knocked out!”
“You incompetent fool!”
But Soundwave said nothing. He was too busy trying to keep the craft level.
“I’m losing control,” he said.
Starscream resisted the urge to strangle him. What was happening was the entirely predictable result of their being stupid enough to try to rescue Megatron. Not only were they going to die, they were going to die uselessly. Smoke billowed as engine after engine flamed out. As more shots crashed home, the Nemesis dipped dangerously low, almost crashing into the buildings. But Soundwave managed to engage the auxiliary power and keep the nose up, firing off another round of missiles and lasers into the nearest antiaircraft defenses. All that was visible from the ship’s bridge was the skyline of the Aquatronian capital wreathed in palls of smoke. The topmost part of the Hall of Justice had been shot off, but there was still enough of the structure left to make it the highest point in the city.
“Set us down as close to there as possible!” Starscream bellowed.
“I think you’re overestimating how much control I have,” Soundwave shot back.
“Do it or I’ll kill you myself.”
Not that Soundwave really needed any extra motivation. He was trying for a crash landing, with an emphasis on the word crash. Starscream caught a glimpse of Aquatronians running in all directions as the ship just missed the top of one of the buildings, smashed through a series of light rails, and then skidded down a wide ceremonial avenue, plowing through all manner of vehicles and bots as it gradually slowed, crunching through the front wall of the Hall of Justice and coming to a halt. Starscream was amazed they were still alive but figured it wouldn’t do to act surprised. He stepped out onto the nose of the Nemesis to see Autobots and Decepticons alike staring at him.
“Consider yourself rescued,” Starscream said.
Chapter Thirty-four
SIDESWIPE LET THE ARK GAIN INCREDIBLE SPEED AS IT hurtled down through the atmosphere, firing its main missile launchers into the heart of the Aquatronian city. Ground-to-air defenses opene
d up on him, but the Nemesis already had absorbed the brunt of the damage, managing to take out large portions of the city’s defense network while doing so. Now it had crashed straight into the Hall of Justice, creating chaos in the Sharkticon defenses. Sideswipe made a mental note: Always get someone else to go first. Especially if that someone was a Decepticon. One of his rockets sliced through a central power junction, rewarding him with a deadly light show that flared over a whole quadrant of the city.
“That ought to keep them occupied for a bit.” He keyed into the main com and gave the order he’d been waiting to give: “Strike Force Zero—you are a go!” With a flick of the switch he deactivated the locks on hatches all along the hull.
“Let’s see how you punks like this!” he said as he leveled off over the center of the city and dumped his deadly cargo. Led by Sunstreaker, more than two hundred Autobots floated down toward the city like deadly snowflakes. Some were equipped with rocket packs that allowed them to descend gracefully and land with precision all around the Hall of Justice. Others, of greater bulk and sturdier construction, dropped like stones, crunching through buildings to cushion their landings. Still others just hit the ground hard, emerging from their impact craters and unleashing the full measure of their firepower against the Sharkticons, sending rockets, missiles, and bolts of superheated plasma in all directions. Their erstwhile commander was too busy landing to keep an eye on his troops; Sunstreaker bounced against the side of a building, smashed his fists and feet through the stone, and rode the tidal wave of wreckage down to the city streets. Then he switched to sports-vehicle mode, gunned his engines, and roared toward the Hall of Justice, blasting Sharkticons as he went. Bluestreak and Mirage swung in on his flanks; together the three carved their way forward, straight over a shattered wall and into the hall itself. And as they got inside—
“Glad you could join us,” Starscream said.
Sunstreaker looked around to see Decepticons pouring out of the crashed Nemesis. As the Autobots who had just landed entered the building, a palpable tension gripped the wrecked courtroom.
“We need a truce,” said Jazz, “until we beat the Quintessons and get off this planet.”
Starscream nodded. He’d already decided that was a great idea. A firefight here would merely increase his chances of being killed. That would be just his luck: He’d get blown to bits, and then Megatron could take over once again. Because he couldn’t help but notice that the glorious leader wasn’t here.
“Where’s Megatron?” he asked.
“Never mind Megatron,” Sunstreaker said. “Where’s Optimus?”
“They both went down the pit,” Jazz said. “They’re somewhere beneath this city.”
“Maybe they’re dead,” Starscream said. “I mean, that sounds like a lot to survive—”
“Optimus is alive,” Jazz insisted. “And until I see a body, no one’s going to say otherwise. Least of all any Decepticon.”
“Agreed,” said Ratchet. “We don’t leave until we find him.”
“We don’t have much time,” Hubcap said, consulting his datapad. “This city’s crawling with Sharkticons. We may have taken care of those in the immediate vicinity, but there are a lot more where they came from. If we don’t find Optimus soon, we’re going to be up to our armpits in sharp teeth and lasers.”
“We’re still pretty weak,” Jazz said. “That inhibitor field may be gone, but it’s been a while since we—”
“I anticipated that,” Sunstreaker interrupted. His strike team unpacked its satchels and began handing out fresh cubes of Energon from the Ark’s replicator to both Autobots and Decepticons.
“Now you’re talking my language!” Kup said as he grabbed one.
Perceptor looked at him quizzically. “You okay there?”
“Never felt better.”
“Even though you testified against Optimus?”
“What are you talking about?”
Perceptor frowned. “What do you remember about what happened? As in before right now.”
“Well, the three of us went exploring and …” Kup’s voice trailed off.
“Then we were in the cage here,” Rodimus said. “And then there was a big explosion, and then you guys showed up.” Bumblebee clicked and whirred in agreement.
Ratchet and Perceptor looked at each other. “When that energy inhibitor went down, it must have let their circuitry go back to default mode,” Perceptor said.
“Default mode?” Kup asked. “What other mode have we been in?”
“The Quints did something to your neural architecture to get you to testify against Optimus.”
“I would never do that!” Rodimus yelled in horror. Bumblebee bleeped in agreement.
But Kup took one look at everybody’s face, and the awful truth dawned on him. “When we took that dropship,” he whispered. “That’s when they must have done it.”
“Probably,” said Perceptor.
“We really stood up there in the trial and condemned Optimus?”
“You really did. Listen, for what it’s worth, you didn’t have much of a choice.”
“Primus take them,” Kup muttered. “They’re going to pay.”
“Whatever they did to us has worn off,” Rodimus said. “Give us a chance.”
“So you’re okay to fight?” Ratchet asked.
“Give us some more Energon and we’ll show you,” Kup told him.
SIDESWIPE CIRCLED THE CAPITAL CITY WELL OUT OF range of what was left of its guns but close enough to maintain contact with the ground force. His radio crackled.
“Sunstreaker to Sideswipe, objective secure.”
“Great. I’ll circle back and pick you all up.”
“That’s a negative. We don’t have Optimus. We’re going to need a little more time.”
“How much time?”
“Not sure. He and Megatron went down into this city’s cellars.”
“He’s with Megatron?”
“Look, it’s complicated down here. Just give us a few more—”
“Complicated up here, too,” Sideswipe interrupted, eyeing his instruments. “My radar shows Sharkticon fleets closing on the island from all directions.”
“I’m more worried about the Sharkticons right outside this building,” Sunstreaker said.
COMMANDER GNAW FINALLY HAD BEEN ABLE TO RALLY his troops, forming a steel ring around the Hall of Justice. His recon drones showed that the Cybertronians were trapped in the heart of a city they didn’t know, with no way out—a major tactical mistake. They still had one ship flying around up there that was proving tough to bring down thanks to the damage to both the rings and the city’s strategic weaponry. But once the Sharkticon reserve fleets had taken up position around the island, that ship was going to get shot out of the sky fast.
Gnaw had to admit some grudging admiration for the boldness of the Cybertronian onslaught. Most beings who came face to face with Sharkticons were so overcome with fear that they were incapable of doing much else besides dying fast. But these Cybertronians were fighters. Gnaw respected that. Besides, fighters were the kinds of beings he enjoyed slaying the most, and there were few instances here on Aquatron in which he was able to indulge that habit. His Sharkticons weren’t exactly original thinkers, and as a result they rarely had disciplinary issues. Gnaw’s secondary occupation as head of the police security force was even more boring. Aquatronians were so terrified of being dragged off in the middle of the night to be experimented on by Doctor Xeros that breaking the law never crossed their minds. And then, just when something big was finally on the menu—just when the Quintessons got ready to invade a whole new planet—of course it had to be Tyrannicon who got the plum assignment. No, there were very few opportunities for Gnaw to sharpen his claws, and he wasn’t going to let this one go to waste. He keyed up the central command channel.
“Attention all units, this is Commander Gnaw. The Cybertronians are pinned down in what’s left of the Hall of Justice. Divisions Razor and Claw, set up you
r main forces at their right and left flanks and prepare to counterattack. Division Incisor, you will move into the city cellars and cut off any escape from below. Division Dorsal will cut the causeways and block any attempt to get out of the city.”
“Sir,” said the commander of Dorsal Division, “won’t cutting the causeways trap the civilians in the city, too?”
Gnaw grinned. “And?”
The commander of Dorsal Division said nothing.
“That’s what I thought,” Gnaw said. “Commence the attack.”
Chapter Thirty-five
CYBERTRON
SHOCKWAVE SAT IN HIS PERSONAL MAGLEV CAR, RACING along a set of rails that cut through a tunnel leading off from the one the Wreckers had used to get into his bunker. There was no way they were going to be able to catch up with him, and if they were foolish enough to try, they would trigger a pair of king-size remote mines that he’d rigged at the tunnel entrance.
Not that Shockwave seriously thought the Wreckers would pursue him. They’d come for Alpha Trion, and now that they had him, they were going to do what they did best: make themselves scarce. That was the only consolation Shockwave had. Other than that, the situation was a complete disaster. The Wreckers had deprived him of the single factor most likely to help him win the war and face down Megatron upon his inevitable return. The whole thing was so depressing, it was several moments before Shockwave registered the early-warning system bleeping frantically on his dashboard.
Suddenly all his calculations were forgotten as he snapped back to the present moment. There was something ahead on the tracks, about a mile up, and it was literally up, as he was heading back toward the surface. Something that just shouldn’t be there. His maglev’s sensors went to full resolution. For one terrible moment he thought that it was the Wreckers, that somehow they’d managed to get ahead of him, had smashed through the wall of the tunnel and were waiting for him to come this way. But when his onboard computer made a positive ID, it didn’t show any Wreckers. It showed something else altogether.
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