//------------------------------// // Chapter 76-Do or Die // Story: Transformers: The Requiem // by JDPrime22 //------------------------------// Noctune admired the Nemesis’ unique functions. Like the door that split up into three sections, that was impressive. His lifeless eyes observed every bit and piece of Cybertronian technology as he and his two guards entered into the bridge. Just as instructed, Shockwave and Soundwave were there, coordinating the attacks. Just as instructed, Noctune approached them from behind, offering a little bow. “We have arrived, partner,” Noctune announced loudly, catching the attention of Shockwave only. Soundwave kept his visor on the computer screen, as if he didn’t care for Noctune’s presence. Noctune didn’t care much for him to begin with. Shockwave slowly turned around, nodding once to his equine ally arriving in post haste. He could’ve spent numerous cycles trying to imagine how Noctune flew his airship in close enough to the Nemesis for a precise boarding, but he’d rather inform Noctune of the plan. Soundwave’s chilling voice broke the silence creeping into the bridge. “Shockwave, the majority of the Decepticon forces within the Nemesis have entered the battle below. The remaining army is currently crossing the bridge into the city. Approximate reinforcement arrival time: forty-five cycles,” he said, tapping multiple glowing symbols on the computer screen. “I don’t even think we’ll need those reinforcements,” Noctune interrupted. This time, both Shockwave and Soundwave turned towards the dark brown stallion approaching their right, followed by his two guards. He rested his forelegs on the nearest railing, his eyes staring out the window. Noctune chuckled, a smile growing on his face. “This resistance doesn’t stand a chance against our combined forces.” “On the contrary,” Shockwave spoke out, bringing up a small screen to the pony. Noctune and his guards watched with stunned expressions as an overview of the current battle raged on. The drone, what Noctune presumed was filming the battle, flew lower to the streets. Once there, the screen zoomed in much closer to the resistance’s first lines. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were right there, deflecting bullets and tearing apart anything that got close. Noctune grinded his teeth together. “They are proving to be quite…resilient,” Shockwave murmured, somewhat uninterested. He reached forward with his good hand and began tapping on the nearest screen. He chuckled, “But not for long…” Instantly, Noctune and his two guards had to steady themselves as the entire ship lurched forward. Noctune felt a multitude of small tremors erupt across his hooves, followed by the sounds of shattering glass and breaking concrete. He couldn’t see anything passed the massive window in front of him, nothing but bullets flying and jets soaring. However, he didn’t need to see out the window. The same small screen hovering in front of him shifted to another live recording. It seems another drone in the midst of the battle decided to quickly look up. In its recording Noctune could see the underbelly of the Nemesis open up from the sides, releasing a total of ten tow cables into the nearest buildings. Shockwave chuckled again, catching the attention of his pony ally. “Perhaps you were right, Noctune,” Shockwave began. “This resistance has put up quite the spectacle, but not so much as to where we need to prepare an orbital strike. In fact, why don’t we bring the buildings down on Celestia and her forces? It would mean for a very…‘crushing’ defeat.” Noctune smiled, but did not chuckle. He never had time to when a missile struck the glass shield. “A direct hit!” Jetfire and the five equines atop his back could only stare in awe as Drift launched a single missile into the bridge of the Nemesis. A bright light erupted from the explosion, sending glass and fire to scatter across the air and down below to the fight. As that happened, the tow cables stopped firing. Drift flew right past Jetfire’s field of vision, shouting, “Just as predicted! Disturbing the bridge has upset the Nemesis’ controls! Hopefully it will last long enough for you six to enter the Nemesis unnoticed!” He had to shout over the enemy jets flying overhead, their engines tearing the skies apart. Rainbow Dash fidgeted as they grew closer and closer to the Nemesis. She shouted, “Come on, Jetfire! Pick up the pace!” The disgruntled Autobot dodged and swerved away from oncoming Decepticon Jets. He grunted, the tip of his nose diving down to avoid the trio of jets headed his way. “Having a bit of trouble at the moment,” he retorted, flying back up. “Surely you wouldn’t want to be flying around in this war zone, Rainbow D-AAAH!” Rarity squealed, ducking her head to avoid the jet that nearly hit Jetfire’s top. Rainbow Dash’s eyes grew wide once she observed the skies a bit more clearly. Smoke and ash began to rise into the skies, nearly darkening them and taking away Celestia’s afternoon sunlight. Alliance airships covered the mid-airspace, dropping off more Spider Tanks to join the main battle downtown. As for the jets they were constantly in short skirmishes with, they occupied the high and low altitudes. There was no clear space. The skies were filled. Even if Rainbow Dash tried to jump off and fly to the Nemesis on her own…she wouldn’t make it far. Even Rainbow Dash knew that. “Still kinda on the fence about it!” the Pegasus replied. She chose to shut her mouth after that and hold on to whatever leverage she could find on the Autobot’s back. Jetfire continued to maneuver back and forth as he rose higher and higher to the Nemesis. Drift was becoming harder to locate with more jets filling the skies, but Jetfire never lost track of him. He could see the Autobot hover over the first of many tow cables, transforming and landing perfectly on it. He flew in close. Drift spotted him, pointing to the opposite direction. “There appears to be a weak spot in the Nemesis’ hull! Just as I’ve trained you, Jetfire! Use your missiles to create an entrance!” “What are you going to do?” Fluttershy screamed, making her voice slightly rise in order for the Autobot to hear her. Passed her flowing mane getting caught in her vision, Fluttershy could still see Drift flashing them a tiny smile. “I will offer a distraction so the aerial forces do not target you!” “But that’s suicide!” Rainbow shouted, practically leaning off of Jetfire’s edge to stare down the midnight-colored Autobot. “You’ll be an open target for any of these Decepti-creeps!” Drift appeared uneasy, his blue optics staring off the edge of what little ground he had. The earth lay below him, with a fierce war raging on. He turned his optics back to the equines. “I will hold my ground!” he assured them. “But-!” “Just go! I will meet with you all again once you’ve secured Twilight! Hurry, Jetfire, there isn’t much time!” Jetfire’s engines roared to life. “You heard the bot! Hold on tight!” And just like that, the Autobot Jet disappeared into the smoke with the five ponies still safe atop of him. Drift adjusted his footing, finally bringing his optics back to reality. Explosions rocked the buildings scattered amongst the city. Decepticon bombers constantly flew overhead, dropping their payload onto the city and not where the resistance was holding their ground. Of course, the Nemesis was hovering directly overhead, so that would be a reason why the bombers stayed away from that area. Yet the rest of the Manehattan was not safe from the carpet bombing. Fires raged across the city, smoke filled the air, and a battle between good and evil raged below his feet. Below the Autobot’s feet, the bringers of justice and freedom were going head to head against the beasts, and yet he was there…as a distraction. He was a distraction for the war. He was a distraction for the plan. He was a distraction for- “Hold it right there, Autobot!” …his friends. Suddenly, the Autobot found himself to be surrounded in a matter of seconds. Numerous Decepticon Jets flew by, the majority of them breaking off from the group and transforming. The Decepticons landed on the tow cable Drift resided, shaking it with the added weight they provided. Three Decepticons had his back, three more had his front. Drift stood in the middle of it all. Noticing that he was unarmed, the first Decepticon chuckled and unsheathed a glowing purple dagger from his wrist. Drift caught his unwelcome glance with one of his own. He pointed his purple dagger forward and shouted, “Let’s see what you’ve got, traitor!” The Decepticon lunged for Drift with his dagger leading the way. The next thing he knew the Autobot he dove for was gone, and a searing pain quickly raced up his back and ultimately to his head. The Decepticons around him gasped in shock, many of them backing away. The Decepticon was sliced in half…upwards. The two halves of his body separated with a large helping of liquid Energon to rush out and paint the tow cable. The rest of the squadron watched in sheer horror as the body parts broke up and fell to the ground below. All visors, all optics, all eyes turned to the Autobot. Drift landed perfectly on two feet, a blade in each hand. He turned towards the remaining five Decepticons, pure murder ripe in his optics. “Who’s next?” A single eruption tore apart the inner walls of the Nemesis. Jetfire slowly hovered inside, landing down to allow the five mares to jump off. Once each mare landed on the cold, metal floor, the Autobot transformed back into his robot mode. Still, they were never noticed, because no alarms went off for an Autobot presence. Jetfire eyed his surroundings, noticing how most of the lights within the dark halls of the Nemesis appeared to be either flickering or dead. Just like Drift had told him, disturbing the bridge upset the rest of the ship. Several more seconds ticked by, the only sound being the heavy breathing from the five ponies at the Autobot’s feet. Finally, Jetfire broke the silence. “Alright…we’re in the Nemesis,” he spoke, his voice low. “Where are we supposed to go now?” It was Applejack’s turn to eye her surroundings. Jetfire’s missile had caused quite a lot of damage, creating a hole large enough for him to safely fly through. The hole remained behind the towering Autobot, the howling winds upsetting the dangling wires that hung across the damaged wall. The mare brought her eyes away from the damage and onto the rest of the ship. Darkness filled the endless halls of the strangely quiet Decepticon flagship. Lights flickered on and off, computers that lined the walls doing the same, and yet there was not sound besides the sparks dancing off broken pieces of machinery. Applejack took one step forward and one step closer to the darkness. Rarity offered a little bit of light from her horn, covering the area in light blue glow. Applejack bit her lip, turning her eyes back to the Autobot. “Ah…Ah really have no idea. All Drift said was that we were gonna search the Nemesis high an’ low for Princess Twilight…but he never bothered ta mention where she was.” Fluttershy took a cautious step closer next to Applejack. “Drift probably didn’t know himself,” she squeaked, cowering under the terrifying machines that appeared in the hallway. A certain Pegasus took a step forward, a determined look in her eyes. She smiled to her friends and said, “Don’t worry what Drift said! The best he could do was getting us to Nemesis, so that just leaves us with the easy work: finding Twilight!” “Oh, darling, but where do we even begin?” Rarity questioned, her unicorn light spreading across the towering walls that stood to her side. “This ship must be more complicated than those wretched tunnels we were trapped in back on Cybertron.” “Ah don’t know, but we might as well start somewhere,” Applejack announced, a quick shiver crawling up her spine. “Ah don’t want ta be in here when the lights come back on, so that means we gotta hurry up an’ find Twi.” “And we’ll bring down this whole ship if we need to!” Everypony quickly shushed Pinkie. The over-excited mare quickly placed a hoof to her mouth, her cheeks flushing. The glares directed her way slowly cooled down, and with Applejack and Rainbow Dash leading the way they had begun their search for Princess Twilight. Jetfire protected the back of the group, his blue optics scanning every nook and cranny he could find. There was nothing there in the dark. Nothing was in front of them, nothing to the left, and nothing to the right. Jetfire, however, did not take into account the backside. A dark red visor eyed the group from afar, followed by a chilling tone that appeared as a whisper against the Nemesis’ inner walls. “Ravage eject, operation…hunt.”