//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 // Story: War in Equestria // by FlamingSamurai //------------------------------// It all happened so fast. To Bulkhead, it felt like every conceivable thing going wrong all at once. After their skirmish with Sunstorm and Thundercracker, Superion had arrived to take Bulkhead and Wheeljack back to the Ark, since the Jackhammer was pretty much toast. But when they turned to the direction that Superion had come from, they saw the Decepticon warship split in half by a large explosion. And no trace of the Ark. Instead, all they saw were a swarm of Decepticons with a few Autobots wrapped in energy binders amid debris. Superion was able to identify the captives as the rest of the Wreckers, specifically Hound, Cliffjumper, Sideswipe, and even the Commandobots. There was no sign of Optimus or any of Team Prime. Several dark thoughts had gone through Wheeljack’s mind as he could only imagine what horror put them out of commission. They also noticed that members of the Mayhem Attack Squad were wearing phase shifters on their wrists, which must have protected them from something, as Superion’s visor managed to discover. Without thinking, Wheeljack had Superion fly right at the Decepticons in an attempt to free their friends. At that moment, Starscream attacked them from behind, firing missiles at them. Superion avoided this by splitting apart into the five Aerialbots, which left them open for an attack from the other Decepticons. Moments later, all six of them were wrapped in energy binders. Bulkhead and Wheeljack tried to fire back, but soon suffered the same fate. Starscream ordered them to be executed right then and there before the rest of the Decepticons could search for Megatron and Soundwave’s strike team on the planet their ships had apparently been circling during the battle. Bulkhead commented on how odd the clouds looked from where they were, but Wheeljack couldn’t care less. Starscream had then moved to execute Wheeljack himself, but the long-time Wrecker had been in this sort of situation before. When Starscream grabbed him by the throat and gloated over his impending victory, typical of the sniveling sycophant, Wheeljack kicked him square in the chest and flexed with whatever strength he had left. It was enough, as he was able to miraculously break the energy bonds before opening fire on the Mayhem Attack Squad, destroying their binding guns. Starscream attacked Wheeljack directly and the two grappled with one another. But destroying those guns had freed the rest of the Wreckers and the Aerialbots and they immediately fought back. The Commandobots and Aerialbots combined once more to form Ruination and Superion, immediately turning the battle against the Decepticons. But not even that was enough. As Starscream caught Wheeljack in a full-body tackle and flew him into the rear end of the Decepticon warship, Shockwave appeared and a blast from his plasma cannon spelt the end for Hound. Bulkhead watched in horror as his commanding officer, now with a smoldering hole in his torso, was thrown into space, towards the direction of a small moon. Ruination fell next, a blast from Shockwave’s cannon mixed with that of blasts fired from one or two members of the MAS ripping through the gestalt’s titanic form. Superion appeared and swatted them all away, knocking them and Shockwave into the atmosphere of the planet. He hoped that the fall would be enough to put them all out of commission. The remaining Autobots clung onto Superion and flew towards the direction of the warship’s rear end, where Starscream and Wheeljack were fighting each other fiercely. Bulkhead had to admit; his old friend did seem like nothing could stop him. The two had managed to score a few good hits on each other but because of the injuries Wheeljack had sustained, he wasn’t going to last much longer. Superion led the group onto the remains of the warship to give Wheeljack a chance, but the air commander saw them coming. Throwing Wheeljack to the ground, he fired a blast from his integrated null ray that disabled the surviving gestalt. Superion toppled over them and into the atmosphere of the planet. Bulkhead’s remaining allies, Sideswipe, Cliffjumper, and Autobot aerialist Jetfire attacked Starscream while Bulkhead himself helped to get his friend back to his feet. “Bulkhead?” “We have to get off this thing”, Wheeljack had warned him. “We’re about to enter the atmosphere.” “Bulkhead?!” Wheeljack’s warning came too late. The ship entered the atmosphere with everyone on it. Bulkhead remembers himself and Wheeljack sliding off the ship and falling into atmosphere, seeing only red… ----------------------------------------- “Bulkhead! Wake up! Bulk!!” The memories ended there. Bulkhead blinked and he looked up to see Wheeljack hovering over him. Bulkhead groaned and tried to sit up, immediately getting hit with a jolt of pain that forced him back down. “Bulk? What’s wrong?!” Wheeljack asked frantically. Bulkhead groaned again. “Everything… hurts”, he coughed out. “The others… where are they?” “I don’t know, but we were out for a while”, Wheeljack said. “I tried to scout out the area as best as I could, but my legs aren’t working right. I was able to make out something a few clicks north of here. It might be part of the Nemesis.” Bulkhead tried to move again, but Wheeljack stopped him. “Hold on, pal. That fall must have done something to you”, he said, laying a hand on his chest. “I don’t know where Sideswipe, Cliffjumper, and Jetfire are, but hopefully one of them will come looking for us.” “Did you try signaling them?” Bulkhead asked. “Yeah. Nothing. My comm lines are down”, Wheeljack replied. “In retrospect, that plan to take out Sunstorm may not have been the best of ideas.” “I’ll see if my comms are working in a second. You have any idea where we are?” “I think it’s some sort of organic planet, like that Earth planet we visited a while back. Nothing but grass and a few trees.” Bulkhead sighed. “I miss Earth. They had a lot of cool stuff there. Even the vehicles were sleek.” Wheeljack nodded. “I know, Bulk. I think we all miss it. Probably why we still have the vehicle modes we used on that rock. If Megatron hadn’t endangered the whole world using the dark energon, Optimus wouldn’t have decided to leave to protect the humans.” Bulkhead sighed again. Then, hoping to change the subject, he moved his right hand to the side of his head and tapped it with two of his fingers. “Bulkhead to Cliffjumper, do you read me?” Silence. “Bulkhead to Cliffjumper, do you copy?” Silence again. “Bulkhead? That you?” Both Wreckers’ faces lit up as Cliffjumper’s voice crackled over the comms. “Cliff? Are you hurt? Is Sideswipe okay?” “I’m fine”, Cliffjumper replied groggily. “I’ve got Sideswipe with me. But Seaspray and Trailbreaker didn’t make it and… I think you saw what happened to Ruination and Hound.” “I guess you’re in charge of the Wreckers now?” Bulkhead asked. “Looks that way, big guy. Sideswipe’s still unconscious but I think he’ll survive. I don’t think I was hurt too bad in the fall. I’ve got your signal locked onto my radar and I'm bringing Sideswipe to your current position. Should be there soon.” “What about Jetfire?” Bulkhead heard Cliffjumper sigh. “No dice. Don’t have a read on Superion, either. Either they’re offline or something’s masking their energy signatures. Are you guys okay?” “Jackie can’t move his legs and the only thing I can move are my arms and my neck. You might wanna get a move-on.” “Noted. Hang tight, boys. We’re coming for you. Cliffjumper out.” The signal went dead. Bulkhead let his hand fall to the ground and sighed. He then looked up and saw Wheeljack with his eyes closed and his head dipped. “Jackie?” “Bulk…” Wheeljack said in a coarse whisper. “What happened to them?” “What are you talking about?” Bulkhead asked. “Hound, Trailbreaker, Seaspray, Impactor, Roadbuster, Topspin, Whirl, and Twintwist." Wheeljack's voice was starting to sound angry now. "What happened?” Bulkhead groaned and let his head fall back onto the ground, his eyes staring into the orange and purple sky, a clear sign that the sun was setting. “I don’t know about Trailbreaker or old barnacle butt. It must have happened when you and I were fighting those Seekers”, Bulkhead said. “After Starscream tackled you onto the Nemesis’ back end, Shockwave showed up and blew a hole right through Hound’s torso. Then he and some of the Mayhems overloaded Ruination’s systems. They never saw it coming."             Wheeljack’s hands clenched into fists. He closed his eyes and bit his lip. He wanted to scream, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. Wreckers took the jobs no other Autobot would, and many of them never came back. As a Wrecker, he knew that this was something to expected; he’d lost several friends during the Cybertronian wars. But Hound and all those who volunteered for the gestalt experiment were people Wheeljack had fought alongside for years, people that he knew even before the war.             “How many more of us need to kick the bucket?” Wheeljack wondered aloud.             “Jackie… I know. Roadbuster and Topspin were especially my friends, too. But for all we know, Jetfire and the Aerialbots could still be out there. Team Prime, too. Once we get back together with Cliff and the kid, we’ll signal for help. There’s gotta be some surviving Autobots here.”             “With our luck, the Decepticons have already gotten to them,” Wheel jack spat.             “Hey now buddy, look”, Bulkhead interjected. “We both know Optimus has been through worse before.”             “Who do you think you’re kidding Bulk?” Wheeljack’s said in a raised voice. “Have you looked around? Cybertron’s gone, my ship and the Ark are history, and we’re stuck on another organic planet! Optimus did what he could, but it wasn’t good enough. We’re already done for.”             Bulkhead had heard enough. “Don’t you get it, Jackie?” he asked in irritation. “That’s exactly what the Decepticons want. It’s like Optimus once told me: all they want to rob you of your spark so that you surrender before you even see the battlefield! We can’t let them win like that. The Wreckers aren’t finished yet and neither is Team Prime or the Elite Guard. If Megatron and Starscream wanna beat the likes of us, they’re gonna have to earn it.”             Wheeljack stayed in place, considering what Bulkhead had told him. Optimus was the most powerful Autobot around, Megatron being the only one capable of taking him down. His team consisted of some the best Autobots around from the doc-bot Ratchet to forceful female sniper Arcee. Ultra Magnus, while a stickler for the rules, had a reputation for his strength and courage. In essence, he fought like a Wrecker, despite essentially leading two young and impulsive bots. Finally, Cliffjumper was one of the most capable Wreckers out there; even in captivity, he would always find a way to win.             He then wiped some grime away from his damaged mouth plate and looked down at his old friend.             “Alright pal, you’ve made your point”, Wheeljack conceded. “Let’s wait for Cliff and the kid to arrive and signal for help. I’d imagine the doc-bot’s gonna have his hands full when we find Team Prime.”             Bulkhead smiled. “That’s my Jackie…” ----------------------------------------- If Twilight had gone to find whatever had crashed near Ponyville, what she would have found was beyond imagination. Beyond the Everfree Forest, near the Castle of the Two Sisters and the Tree of Harmony, lay a large, damaged spacecraft, its crash-landing having destroyed a large chunk of forest near the abandoned castle. The engines were destroyed, with its destruction having torn the ship in half. The half that survived landed in this spot the previous night, but no one had bothered to investigate it, some not even realizing that something had crashed there at all. The windows in the front of the ship were completely shattered, the control room inside torn apart by a vacuum suction. The ship’s tip touched the border of the Rambling Rock Ridge, where Rarity would go to collect gems. Inside the spacecraft, several large, robotic forms lay dormant, their systems knocked completely offline in the crash. Some of these robots wore red insignias, the mark of a solider fighting for peace and justice. Others wore purple insignias, those who wished solely to conquer and destroy all who stand in their way. Centuries of civil war tore their home world apart and a galaxy-wide chase had brought them here. Once they awoke, Equestria would be at their mercy. One of the robots with a purple insignia was jolted awake by alerts of life signals coming in on his visor, which covered the entirety of his face. Slowly, he rose off the ground and onto his feet, clutching the wall for support. Studying the signals he was receiving, he found that there were a few Decepticon signals on this planet, one on one end of the land mass they were currently on and at least four on the other end, near a body of water. Scanning again, the identities of the life signals came in: first lieutenant Starscream, Mayhem Attack Squad commander Steeljaw, chief science officer Shockwave, chief medical officer Knock Out, and Mayhem Attack Squad soldier Breakdown. Behind his visor, Soundwave frowned. “S… Soundwave….” The robot looked at the ground to see one of his allies looking up at him. He was large, blue and yellow in color scheme, had a gun with a sword attached to it on his back, and had wings indicating a jet vehicle mode. Soundwave knelt down and helped his comrade to his feet. Then, he turned away from the pile of inactive warriors and saw a black and purple colored robot limping down the hallway. His armor was burned up from a massive explosion; the fact that he had survived was remarkable. “Quickly, Dreadwing, Skywarp”, Soundwave turned back to his comrade. “We must retrieve the other Decepticons.” “Where are we going?” Dreadwing asked. “My sensors have located most of our allies on this planet, all on the same land mass”, Soundwave replied. “Is… Lord Megatron…?” Skywarp asked in a quiet, raspy voice. “My scans showed no signs of Lord Megatron, nor Thunderhoof or Barricade. Either they are offline or something is blocking their energy signatures. I have located Shockwave and most of the Mayhem Attack Squad near a large body of water, so it is a possibility that Lord Megatron and the others are there. “And what of Commander Starscream?” Dreadwing asked. “He is on another corner of this land mass. I believe he is near a surviving piece of the Nemesis.” Dreadwing looked down at the inactive Autobots and Decepticons at his feet. If Megatron was really dead, that coward Starscream would surely take his place, something which Dreadwing truly feared. He had no sense of honor about him, nor did he have the ball bearings to do any of the things that made Megatron a legend back on Cybertron. He was no warrior, but a former scientist. What kind of a leader would that be? “What are your orders, Dreadwing?” Dreadwing looked back at his companion. “I’m sorry?” “In his and Starscream’s absences, Lord Megatron ordered that you were to take command of the Decepticons”, Soundwave said. “Oh. Right”, Dreadwing remembered. “Soundwave, set your space bridge coordinates to Shockwave’s current location. If what you said about Starscream is true, then the remaining piece of the Nemesis should have some materials for him to survive with.” “My thoughts exactly”, Soundwave concurred. And what of the Autobots?” “Leave them. They can do nothing at the moment to stand in our way.” Dreadwing then picked up two smaller Decepticons that lay at his feet and slung them over his shoulders. “They will get what they deserve soon enough.” “You’re no fun…” Skywarp muttered as he grabbed one other Decepticon by the shoulders. This one was almost identical to Dreadwing, the only difference was his green and white color scheme. Soundwave found the last two Decepticons in a remaining part of the hallway and picked them up, one by the backs of his neck and the other by his foot. Then, as Dreadwing and Skywarp walked up next to him, the coordinates to the location of Shockwave’s group appeared on his visor. Moments later, a swirling green vortex appeared in front of them. Soundwave stepped in first, dragging his two unconscious allies behind him. Dreadwing followed in suit as did Skywarp, who complained to himself about having to carry one heavy Decepticon while the others all had two lightweights to worry about. Once Skywarp stepped through, the vortex closed behind them, leaving only the still-unconscious Autobots behind. The only witness to this reawakening was a strange, small orange Autobot with a set of wheels replacing everything below his torso peeking out from behind a corner of the hallway. He then scurried off, hoping to find something he could use to reactivate his comrades.