Firestorm smirks, “that’s fair but we also have faced, quite literally, Unicron and his Heralds and destroyed them so, this isn’t all too unusual for us.”
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“Isn’t that the truth?” Kitai said, suddenly beside him. His body was now glowing a neon yellow, as his trio of eyes bored into Spotwelder. His wings were dragging behind him like some great cloak, and he chuckled softly.
“Though, you’re not really helping either, are you?”
He snorted.
“Yes, surely then everything will be perfectly fine.” His eyes narrowed.
“Unless of course, that thing you started punching was therein started eating your hands, or tore you to pieces like paper.”
“Unusual or not, it still doesn’t account for the fact that we have no idea what they’ll look like. Or fight like. Or if they’ll hit-and-run. Or if they’ll do anything we have a clue to.”
He had to mentally stop himself from reaching to the input where the chip had been, being so used to having it in there.
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“We’re on the cusp of finding whatever it is that Gabriel and the quintessons want,” Liege protests. “We’re currently surrounded by weapons satellites that could swat us out of orbit if we make a wrong move- would you at least let me give the captain the code to disable the security grid first?”
Spotwelder shrugs. “I fix ships,” he says. “I’m not a godslayer or a Prime or anything. I won’t be much help in a fight, but I’ll sure as the Pit make myself useful the next time this ship gets roughed up in a fight.”
Nearby, Trenchfoot checks his weapons, and watches the satellites outside carefully. Next to him, Beta Maxx sits on a stack of energon cubes.
“They aren’t reacting to us,” Trenchfoot comments, watching one of the satellites drift by. “Are they dead?”
“Likely not.” Beta shakes his head. “The AI controlling the defense grid is programmed to not threaten visitors so long as they don’t take aggressive action.”
" ‘Aggressive action’ such as, maybe, an unknown vessel trying to board the research station and send personnel down to the surface?" Trenchfoot says.
“You needn’t worry, Trenchfoot,” Beta says, “Liege and I have clearance codes that this ship can transmit to disable the grid. Add that to the quintessons being unable to follow us here, and we should be able to walk right in and find Sentinel’s artifact without incident.”
Trenchfoot’s eyes narrow behind their lenses. “Name one part of this mess so far that’s happened ‘without incident’,” he rasps.
“Hm… a fair point,” Beta Maxx concedes. “Well, if it comes to it, we can always shoot our way through to the objective, yes?”
“I’m counting on it,” says Trenchfoot.
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“You can count on me to join you, then,” Defender says. “I can always buy you some time.”
He looks around at the satellite arrays hovering outside.
“Good thing someone plans on entering those codes, right?”
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Nova rolled her eyes, clearly less than thrilled by his protest. Though as much as she needed a distraction from her other worries right now, she couldn’t argue against his reasoning.
“Alright, fine. We’ll do this later. But as soon as we get the chance I’m getting that interview. Half the reason I agreed to join in this suicidal space quest was to pick your brain and get some answers. Not to mention the fact that I lost a leg fighting to rescue you from your own island. So you owe me, fretkarl!”
Honeycomb stepped forward, nudging herself into the conversation.
“Are we positive the Quintessons can’t follow us here? I mean, I’m sure you guys know more than me. But from everything I’ve heard it feels like there isn’t really much they can’t do, including maybe following us here.”
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Liege nearly does a spit take- as much as such a thing could be possible for a robotic being, anyway.
“I-… what?” he sputters. The sputtering quickly turns to laughter.
“I’ll have to remember that one,” the Prime of Lies remarks with a wry grin. Pistons in his torso hiss as he turns and strides out of the hangar, his black cape billowing behind him.
Beta Maxx glances across the hangar to see Liege leaving for the bridge. “It won’t be long now,” the minicon says.
“The quintessons are powerful, yes, but even they have their limits,” Beta then replies to Honeycomb. “There are unknown variables in every timeline. If the quintessons knew where Sentinel’s artifact was hidden in this universe, they could’ve come here themselves and taken it ages ago.”
“Unless it was more convenient to let us find it for them,” Leslie interjects, walking over from her impromptu residence aboard the Pack Mule. “Just saying. We’re keeping the option to destroy this thing- whatever it is- on the table, right?”
Beta sighs, air whistling through the vents in his mouthplate. “If it comes to that,” he says hesitantly.
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The doors to the bridge slide open and Liege strides through, just as Excalibur II flies over an enormous plateau of black rock far below on the surface of Lacuna. Between the desert planet and its moon, an ancient space station hangs in the void, sunlight glinting off its grey hull. Shaped like a great scepter built for a gargantuan king, strings of Ancient Cybertronian glyphs bordered in gold run up the length of the station’s cylindrical docking structure, while the emblem of the Knights of Cybertron adorns a spherical module at the apex of the construct:
Liege pauses as he lays eyes upon the station for the first time in eons, and a wistful expression briefly passes over his face. He closes his eyes for a moment before turning to Gravastar.
“Captain, if I may,” he says, “I have an access code that will allow us to board the station without triggering the defense grid.”
“Well, be my guest,” Gravastar says, motioning toward the front of the bridge. “Redshift, you heard the man.”
“What’s the magic word, Prime?” Redshift asks as she summons a holographic panel beside her piloting harness. “Open sesame? Mellon? Till All are One?”
“Nothing so poetic, I’m afraid,” Liege sighs as he strides up to the holo-panel and taps at its array of widgets. The Prime of Lies opens a channel to the station and transmits a simple alphanumeric sequence. Outside the viewport, the station responds by powering up exterior lights between its hull plates: rivulets of blue-green light flow up its length as sections of the spherical module turn like clockwork.
A harsh klaxon suddenly blares over Excalibur II’s comms, and an androgynous voice echoes down the ship’s corridors and chambers. “Unknown vessel,” it says in Cybex, the language of the Golden Age, “You trespass upon territory claimed by the Imperium of Cybertron. Leave this world’s orbit at once, or you will be fired upon.”
Outside Excalibur II’s viewports, our heroes can see the defense satellites opening their carapaces like blossoming flowers, revealing deadly weapons within their shells that rotate to aim themselves squarely at the ship.
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“Well, that wasn’t what I expected,” Defender comments. A sound like a shotgun being primed comes from his turret as he loads a clip of shells.
“Any likelihood we can tell those things to calm down?”
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Nova sputtered, left fuming by the utter disrespect Liege had shown her.
“What the- YOU INSUFFERABLE BACKBITER! I’m serious! You owe me! Miklimunnr! Oflati! Mock me like that again and I’ll have your tongue! You hear me lie-weaver? I will mess you up!”
Hearing this, Honeycomb couldn’t help but get hung up on one small detail and tune out anything that was said afterwards.
“Wait, this universe? Like there’s other universes, with other Sentinel Primes? Other me-s? Is that a thing??”
“Okay I have no idea what that said, but it definitely didn’t sound good.” Niko spoke out to the group assembled in the hangar. Anyone mind offering a translation?"
“My ancient cybex is more than a little rusty, but I get the gist. Things are about to get real rough real fast.” Maximus replied.
“Wait what? I thought I heard Liege had some kind of deactivation code. What happened?” Honeycomb asked in a panic.
“Oh this would be just like him!” Nova shouted. “This is just what you should expect for the father of lies.”
Niko looked at his friend in confusion.
“Wait, huh? You sound like you know the guy. I don’t get it.”
“I’ve had a hunch about him ever since ol’ dragon face told me about him back at the tomb on Cybertron. Every time I’ve talked to him since we left that ring world has only strengthened my suspensions, and this right here is just one more nail in the coffin!”
Axis came rushing into the bridge, looking panicked and disheveled as the sudden alarm and transmission had abruptly woken her up from her meditation.
“Primus almighty, what happened?!”
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“Liege! Tell the defense network our ship is a friendly!” Firestorm yells in sync.
Seraphicon gives Nova a glare.
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