Transformers: Harmony

by megatron_91

Chapter 12

Transformers: Harmony
Chapter 12
By: Megatron_91

“Aright, whatever you do, do not cause an explosion; we don’t need the attention,”

Bumblebee and the two mares at his feet slowly snuck around the inert engine deck. The gargantuan, pursuit-class engines were still cooling from their flight down to the Hanging Valley. The trio carefully weaved their way across the large metal floor, making sure to be extra careful not to entangle themselves within any of the cables or conduits that lay strewn about the hard, metal surface.

Rarity looked around the spacious room with a fashion designer’s eye for detail. On each of the massive, four engines she tried to spot anything that looked vital to its functionality. She took note of any marked off cables, sealed off buttons, or anything that was left exposed for easy repair; these were the signs of important equipment. She may have been the Element of Generosity, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know how to play the game of sabotage.

However, much to the white unicorn’s confusion, their stoic, yellow protector bypassed the engines and continued deeper into the chamber. As they snaked their way through even more loose wires and tubes, Rarity couldn’t believe the state of the room. Apparently these Decepticons had no interest in tidiness or organization at all; just as long as their equipment worked they left it in a heaping mess. She couldn’t blame them, though, as she knew very well the advantages of having a messy workstation. Her own workroom back home looked like Rainbow Dash had dropped a Sonic Rainboom in it. But, it was where she got some of her best work done.

A light began to flash in the unicorn’s eyes, breaking her train of thought. She and Applejack followed Bumblebee into a smaller room attached to the large, engine chamber. A massive, nightmarish machine sat in the middle of the room.

The machine was made of a dark, black metal and appeared to be in the shape of a pyramid. Thick, pulsating spikes seemed to rise out of the base of the pyramid like demented, gnarling claws reaching up to the heavens. On each of the pyramid’s four sides, gaping furnaces with entrances like fang-filled maws glowed with rupturing, sparking energy. Whatever energy leapt from the furnace’s mouth was instantly absorbed by the spikes surrounding it. Above the strange machine, nests of wires and cables shifted about as they traveled from one end of the room to the other. Rarity watched as one of the wiry tentacles snaked across the floor to a conveyor belt emerging from the left wall. There, it picked up a glowing, pink cube and brought it back to the machine. It tossed the cube into the furnaces. The machine roared and spat out morsels of electricity as it feasted on the cube it had been given.

“This is the main energy converter for the engines…I think,” Bumblebee explained, placing his hand on the glowing, hellish machine. “All power for the Nemesis’ engines comes from this puppy right here. Think you can do anything with it Rarity?” He gave the massive furnace a tap with his knuckle as it belched out even more particles of energy to be captured by the grasping spikes.

“Hmm…” the white unicorn thought to herself as she examined the machine with the same precision she had with the engines. “If Applejack here is willing to help me snap off a couple of these spikes, and I can get into the wires beneath them, I believe we should be able to at least get a start.” She leaned down and carefully looked at the small, twisting wires that filled in the crevice between the spikes and the actual furnace.

“Well, then let’s get started!” Bumblebee exclaimed, rubbing his hands together as he watched Applejack rear up onto her front legs and take aim at the nearest spike.

………

Soundwave did not speak. Instead, he watched quietly as the unicorn below him continued translating coordinates and inputting them into his computers. It had taken her time to learn how to operate the control pad, but he had kept the image of her home and the younger dragon inside on one of the screens; an ever present reminder of what would happen if she were to fail. It appeared as if the adolescent reptile would get to live to see another day; Twilight Sparkle was nearing the end of the list. It would now only be a matter of moments before Soundwave would know the location of the sacred relic his leader so desperately sought.

A small alarm over his personal com-channel alerted Soundwave that something was wrong on the ship. Turning his back on the hard-working unicorn for a moment, he began typing in security codes for the sector of the ship from which the alarm had sounded. In a matter of moments, an image of two ponies and the Autobot scout appeared on the screen. They were destroying the Nemesis’ main power converter, the machine that provided energon to not just the engines, but the entire ship itself. The intruders would need to be destroyed immediately if there was to be any chance of scavenging the converter. He would deal with these three personally.

Fools, Soundwave thought to himself as he powered down the monitor. Did they really believe they could keep their actions hidden from him, the Decepticon spymaster? Compiling knowledge was one of his favorite pursuits, especially knowledge from around the ship that he could use to his advantage. Ever since the early days of the war, when the Decepticon movement first emerged from within Cybertron’s planet-wide military under the command of Megatron; he had served as its ever loyal spy and intelligence gatherer, collecting information on whatever Megatron might need to forward the Decepticon cause. It had been him who first alerted the Decepticon leader to Optimus Prime’s attempts to evacuate the planet during the waning days of the war, and it had been him who first began the process of gathering Equestrian allies when the Decepticons arrived on this new planet millennia later.

He sent a coded, burst message to his avian minion, telling him to watch the prisoner while he attended to the situation on the engine deck. Laserbeak confirmed Soundwave’s request and the Decepticon head of communication was out the sliding metal door and down the hall.

Laserbeak floated down from his perch at the top of the room and landed behind Twilight Sparkle. He was twice her size and could easily eviscerate her if he so pleased. He leaned in close and began to hiss into her ear.

“Are you done yet, little pony?” he whispered. “I sincerely hope not. I have always wanted to feel the bone of a dragon skull splintering between my talons.” He smiled with glee at the thought of murdering the small, purple dragon.

“Here!” Twilight growled, using her hoof to push down on a final button. “There’s the last of your stupid coordinates translated. Now, how do I show this on a map so you can see for yourself, you stupid bird?” she angrily demanded. She gave Laserbeak a glare that most others would not dare to give the Decepticon bird. She wasn’t afraid of him, not anymore; not after learning he was just an underling to a much more frightening Decepticon.

She watched as the metallic buzzard hissed at her in anger, splaying his wings in a show of dominance before he began hopping around the keypad, punching in commands with his long serrated beak. The screen, in response, brought up an image of the planet from outer space. It began to zoom in closer and closer, travelling northward along the planet as it closed in on the coordinates she had translated. Finally it stopped over a city far to the north of Canterlot. Twilight’s eyes widened, her heart skipped a beat, and her brain entirely shut down; she knew that city and, more importantly, who lived there. No, she thought to herself. No.

“The Crystal Empire!” Laserbeak shrieked in excitement, splaying his wings outward again. “Of course! To hide a treasure one must surround it with even more treasure to disguise it, how clever!”

A sudden knock on the large metal door behind them drew both the bird’s and the unicorn’s attention away from the wall of monitors. The knocking continued as Laserbeak flew over to the door and pressed a large red button which allowed the portal to open. Standing in the doorway was a large, white-and-silver, tank Vehicon staring at the floor.

“Well, what do you want? You worthless drone!” the Decepticon buzzard shrieked.

Unexpectedly, the large Vehicon tumbled forward, face first into the floor, revealing a mid-sized black, silver, and red Autobot standing behind it with his weapon drawn.

“Surprise, bird brain!!!” Bluestreak shouted as he opened fire into the room.

Laserbeak screeched in terror at the thought of being in such a close-range blaster fight. As he dodged the bolts of plasma that flew past his head, one sailed straight past him and into the terminal Twilight had been working on. It melted the computer instantly. Enraged, the Decepticon took a swipe at Bluestreak with his tail, but the Autobot dodged. Laserbeak quickly took advantage of the situation and soared out of the confined room over Bluestreak’s head before setting off to find Soundwave and tell him what was happening.

“Bluestreak!” Twilight cried out in relief. She hopped down from the melted terminal and ran up to the small Autobot, wrapping her hooves around his leg in a gesture of thanks.

“Twilight, are you ok?” he asked, looking her up and down to check for any damage. “What did they have you do?” He reached down and carefully pulled the metal ring off Twilight’s horn, freeing her magic in the process.

“They had me convert some old coordinates so they could find something called the Creation Matrix!” She watched as Bluestreak stared at her with shock and disbelief for a moment before he began rapidly punching few keys on his wrist communicator. “Bluestreak, what’s going on? What’s the Creation Matrix?”

“It is a sacred relic to our race, thought to have been lost for generations, akin to your Elements of Harmony,” he explained as he continued to try and work his com-link. “I’m trying to get in touch with Ratchet back at base to let him know what’s going on, but Soundwave’s got the entire channel scrambled as long as we’re on the ship.” He finally stopped fiddling with his wrist and turned to face Twilight again. “Come on, we need to find Bumblebee and your friends and get out of here.”

The two of them cautiously peeked into the hallway outside Soundwave’s lab. They began to move quietly down the right hand side of the corridor once they were sure it was safe. A few moments of silence passed between them before they had to stop and wait in the shadows while a small group of Vehicons passed by, talking about a strange mare sitting outside the ship. As they began moving again he couldn’t help but notice Twilight seemed depressed. Her face had the telltale signs of something bothering her.

“What’s wrong?” Bluestreak asked as he poked his head around a nearby corner. Nothing to see coming or going on either side, he thought.

Twilight hesitated a moment. She sighed and continued to follow the silver Autobot as he moved down the next hallway. “I just wanted to apologize,” she admitted, looking at the floor as she ran. “If I had just stayed at your base for a little longer, none of this probably would have happened.”

“Yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask about that,” the Autobot replied as he traced his footsteps through the massive ship in his mind, trying to find the way out. “Why did you decide to leave? You don’t really seem like the type that would shrink away from something this important.”

Twilight sighed again before responding. “I left the base to save Fluttershy,” she explained. “She and the others are the only friends I’ve really ever had…I just wanted to make sure I could keep one of them safe if the others wanted to fight in your war; to…you know…protect them.”

Bluestreak stopped dead in his tracks outside the maintenance room he had hid in earlier that day. He slowly turned around and looked down at Twilight with a look of concern. Years of experience, unfitting for such a young Autobot, emerged on his face as he spoke. “Twilight, I know it must be hard, but you can’t let yourself get upset if something were to happen to your friends, trust me.” The grave tone of his voice frightened Twilight a bit and forced her to take a small step backwards.

“Wh-Why?” she asked very confused at Bluestreak’s very sudden, alarming change in behavior.

“I’ve seen what happens to the people who think like that, especially when they fail to protect those people they consider being their friends and loved ones,” he explained. He didn’t move his optics off of hers for even a second, maintaining perfect eye contact. “I’ve seen the long stretches of depression, the self-loathing, and the bouts of rage that can make you do things you would never even consider doing otherwise.” He glared at her with concerned optics.

Twilight was stunned. The seriousness in which Bluestreak had said his words; the passion he had employed when describing the dangers of her thought process really shook her to the core. All she wanted to do was protect her friends. She almost didn’t want to ask the question filling her head. “Y-You have? With whom?” she cautiously asked.

Bluestreak hesitated. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to share this his story with her.

………

The strike of Optimus’ blade knocked the approaching Vehicon backwards, unbalancing him and sending him to the ground. Moving quick to deactivate the drone, he slammed his sword downward, piercing through the Decepticon soldier’s head and carving straight through his central processor. The Autobot commander pulled his blade from the wreckage and raised it into a defensive position. Another two drones were getting up from where they had been laying on the cold, hard ground. Both of them were missing limbs but continued advancing on him like the mindless machines they were. This was beginning to get ridiculous.

As they continued towards him, Prime rushed the closest, slicing his sword through the air once more to deliver a glancing blow from the Vehicon’s shoulder down to his opposite hip. Sparks and shavings of metal flew everywhere, but the drone still did not halt its progression. Instead, it leapt at the Autobot leader, forcing him to drop his sword as he grappled with his attacker. Surprisingly, even with just one arm, the drone had a bit more strength than Optimus had been expecting and he found himself being forced backwards by it. These were definitely not Megatron’s typical Vehicons; this batch had been augmented somehow. He shuddered to think how many more of them the insane tyrant still had.

Focusing on the task at hand, he began to push back against the Vehicon, forcing it to back off. It was now a struggle of sheer strength; on one end, the legendary leader of the Autobots and on the other, an augmented Decepticon drone. Optimus let out a bestial roar as he began to overpower his opponent, using the force gifted to him by his sheer size; he ripped the Vehicon’s remaining arm from its shoulder joint and threw it across the canyon. Before the drone could react, the Autobot whipped his Ion Blaster out from behind his back and fired a point blank shot into its head, sending it crashing to the dusty floor.

Now all that remained was the first drone’s accomplice. Turning, Optimus could see the Decepticon soldier marching towards him. As he raised his sword to strike the drone down it suddenly stopped in its tracks. The drone stood there for a moment, its arms were slightly swaying in the breeze. It collapsed and fell to the ground. Puzzled Optimus cautiously approached to see what had happened.

A large, gaping hole in the Vehicon’s back was spraying a familiar, pink liquid into the air. Optimus instantly recognized it as Energon. Of course, he thought to himself. To Autobots and Decepticons, Energon was the equivalent of what organic races would call blood. Energon provided nourishment and sustenance to the much more important innermost Energon that was responsible for keeping a Cybertronian’s spark alive. Every so often, Cybertronians would need to cycle out the old, dirty Energon in their bodies and bring in new, cleaner Energon in order to continue providing fresh nourishment to their innermost Energon and spark. But, to non-sentient Transformers such as drones and vehicles, Energon was nothing more than a fuel source, like fossil fuels being pumped into a transport. Once they ran dry, they would need to be refueled. That was the key to defeating these new drones.

“Ironhide!” Optimus called out to his nearby friend. The black Autobot in question was currently a few yards away, smashing two drone’s heads together in an attempt to bring them down. “If you can’t destroy their heads, than we need to bleed them dry!” Optimus ordered, picking up his sword and running it through the chest of a nearby drone.

“Can do, Prime!” Ironhide shouted in response. The old war veteran quickly rammed his hunting knife into the stomach of a nearby Vehicon, puncturing its fuel tank. He gave the knife a sharp twist before ripping it out to ensure the wound stayed wide open so it could begin leaking its precious contents onto the desert floor. Ironhide then proceeded to punch the drone in the face.

From atop his rocky perch, Megatron looked down in annoyance. Prime had figured a way to bring down the Vehicons faster than he had expected. At least the test run of the new drones had been a success. Despite this one, minor flaw they were still very effective. Unfortunately, the drones he and Starscream had brought with them to the canyon were the only ones Shockwave had made. In hindsight, that may have been a mistake, he admitted to himself. Once he had the matrix he would return to Cybertron and tell the one-eyed, mad scientist to begin mass production. He noticed that Optimus was glaring up at him.

“Amazing, Optimus!!” he exclaimed, applauding his enemy’s efforts. “Even after all this time; still at the top of your game!!” He smiled as another group of Vehicons attacked the Autobot leader in a desperate attempt to restrain him. Megatron needed to leave right now. He had far more important things to attend to.

Turning away from the battlefield, the silver Decepticon tyrant opened his com-link and began honing in on Starscream’s signal. After a few brief moments a click sounded, indicating that someone had answered on the other end.

“Starscream, where are you!?” the Decepticon leader hissed into the com-link. His rage at his treacherous second-in-command was starting to boil over. He was going to shoot something soon.

“Lord Megatron!” Starscream replied over his end of the channel. “I am directly beneath you; I apologize, it took longer to find Oil Slick’s body than I expected.”

Megatron walked over and glanced down the other side of the plateau he was standing on. Down on the dusty, red floor he could see the lanky, red-and-blue form of the Decepticon air commander dragging a mangled hunk of metal out of a nearby cave. After studying it for a moment he was shocked to discover the smoldering pile of scrap was, in fact, the remains of Oil Slick. Apparently the fallen chemist had taken much more damage than Megatron had been led to believe. The Autobots would pay for this disfigurement of a Decepticon warrior.

“Return Oil Slick’s remains to the Nemesis now, Starscream,” he ordered into the com-link. “I will join you shortly.” He watched as the smaller, red-and-blue Decepticon flipped over on himself and transformed into his hybrid bi-plane mode. A pair of grapple claws emerged from beneath the hull of the plane and grabbed hold of Oil Slick as it took off into the air.

The sound of metal rolling across stone drew Megatron’s attention away from the retreating seeker. Sitting on the ground next to his foot was one of his elite Vehicon’s heads. He slowly sauntered over to the side of the cliff that was hosting the battle in the canyon below. He could see Optimus and his worthless bodyguard had torn through most, if not all, of his drones and was now running towards the base of the plateau.

“Bravo!” Megatron chided, observing as Optimus began futilely climbing up the cliff side to reach him. “Now, if you’ll be so kind as to excuse me, I have more important matters to take care of. Specifically to have Soundwave give me the coordinates to the Creation Matrix’s location on this planet!!” he howled. Leaping into the air, he transformed and took off just as Optimus reached him.

Optimus pulled himself onto the plateau and his mind slowed to a crawl. Had he just heard his nemesis correctly? The Creation Matrix, the legendary artifact of the Knights of Cybertron, the relic that was said to have guided the legendary Knights through their journeys across the cosmos, that which was sacred to their people and had been a symbol of leadership for generations, was here; on this planet? The Autobot leader quickly opened his communicator and began to contact the base.

Regardless of whether or not Megatron was bluffing, he said he had coordinates to the sacred relic’s location, and that was a risk Optimus Prime was not willing to take

………

Continuing to make their way down the long winding corridors, the Autobot and violet unicorn next to him walked on in silence. Not much had been said between the two after their earlier conversation. Bluestreak felt horrible for snapping at Twilight and telling her that caring about her friends’ well-being was not a good idea, but he had to make her understand, he didn’t want her to fall into a state of never-ending torture and depression. He desperately wanted to apologize, but, before the young Autobot could open his mouth to speak to her, he heard the familiar, robotic voice of Soundwave drifting through the hallway from around the far off corner.

Moving quickly, he shoved Twilight into the nearby maintenance closet and told her to stay hidden until he had dealt with things. As he pulled himself out of the room, however, Soundwave turned the corner and spotted him. The two stared at each other in dead silence. The silver-and-black Autobot frowned as he realized what he was going to have to do. He would have to fight Soundwave in order to give Twilight the chance to escape.

He instantly whipped out his pistol and began firing a barrage of plasma at the unmoving Decepticon. Soundwave roared and ducked out of the way, allowing the plasma bolts to sail over his head and strike the surface of the hall behind him. Taking off down the corridor, moving much faster than the small Autobot could track, the Decepticon spy closed the distance between them in a matter of seconds. Desperate to land a hit, the smaller Autobot began wildly swinging his fists to try and knock Soundwave back, but the Decepticon simply blocked his blows with the sides of his forearms.

Twilight watched with fright from the maintenance room as her Decepticon captor quickly turned the tide of the battle against her friend. Soundwave began landing nasty blows against the sides of Bluestreak’s head, knocking the smaller Autobot about and keeping him from regaining his balance. Suddenly, Soundwave flung his left arm around like a whip and seized Bluestreak by the throat. The enraged and annoyed Decepticon lifted the struggling Autobot scout high into the air. His right arm transformed, straightening out and becoming almost dagger-like in appearance.

With deadly speed, and before Twilight could scream or Bluestreak could make a desperate, futile attempt to dodge, Soundwave thrust his right arm forward and ran it deep into the Autobot’s chest and spark chamber.

The howl that escaped Bluestreak was deafening. It reverberated throughout the halls of the ship and forced Twilight to cover her ears; not out of pain, but out of not wanting to hear someone she considered a friend scream. Another noise quickly mixed in with the Autobot’s fading yell; the horrible shrieking of metal tearing through metal. Unseen by the cowering unicorn or the Autobot in his grasp, Soundwave had deployed a series of hidden blades across his pointed forearm and now, they were lodged into the circuitry and delicate machinery that ran through Bluestreak’s torso.

Time seemed to slow as, with savage fury, Soundwave ripped his arm back out of Blustreak. His blades tore through the Autobot’s vital components, sending them scattering to the ground. Metal shavings, sparks, and energon splattered into the air as Bluestreak’s chest seemed to explode apart. He howled again, but this time it was not a scream of pain, but a scream of despair, the scream of a dying life form. Soundwave lowered his energon soaked hand to his side, a mixture of pink and blue liquid running down its smooth surface. He pulled the small Autobot towards him and gazed into his dying optics.

“Y-you’re too late, Soundwave,” the Autobot wheezed. His eyes flickered as he tried to maintain his stare. “Sh-She’s already l-long gone; o-off to tell Optimus the Matrix’s lo-location…” He smiled as the enraged Decepticon threw him to the hard, cold ground and turned around. Soundwave walked off towards the bridge, leaving the dying Autobot in the middle of the hall. Someone would clean it up later.

Twilight did as the fatally wounded Autobot had asked and waited for Soundwave to leave before bolting out of the closet towards her protector and friend. Tears fell from her eyes, she looked over Bluestreak’s wounded and wrecked body. Two different colors of energon pumped out of his chest like an overflowing drainage pipe while shredded wires and machinery sat, soaking in the pools created by the equivalent of his blood. She turned and noticed he was staring at her, weakly.

“H-Hold on Bluestreak, I-I’ll find a way to get you to Ratchet. He’s y-your doctor right? He can fix you!” she exclaimed, watching as a small smile spread over the dying robot’s face.

He slowly reached out and laid his hand against the side of her face, telling her to look up at him. “Kid, there are some things, not even the docbot can fix,” he paused. He grunted in pain as a bolt of sparks leapt across his devastated torso. “C-Can I ask you to do something?”

“What?” the crying unicorn asked.

“D-Do you remember what we just talked about a minute ago? Not letting this kind of stuff get to you?” He watched as she slowly nodded her head. “It-Its okay if you care about protecting your friends, b-but, pr-promise me…p-promise me, you won't...” but before he could finish, his voice died down and his head fell to look towards the floor.

Twilight stared at Bluestreak in despair. Her mind was struggling to accept what was happening before her eyes. Tears fell from her face to the floor, mixing with the spilled energon that was pooling around her bottom.

“I-I promise…” she cried, putting her hoof in his hand so they could shake on the unsaid agreement.

She listened as the sounds of some great machine powering down and dying filled the air. She watched as the bright, blue lights slowly flickered and faded from Bluestreak’s eyes. His arm grew limp and fell to the floor. Finally, his entire body began to fade to various shades of black and grey. He was gone.

Twilight was now all alone inside the Decepticon ship, weeping over the body of her fallen protector and friend.

Comments

[megatron_91]

As usual, I apologize for the lateness of the update, but, this time, I have a legitimate excuse. I lost a proofreader to a busy schedule and I've been scrambling to make up for it.

On a brighter note, I am happy to announce that I am half-way through writing the first of two sequels to Transformers: Harmony, so there won't be too big of a gap between stories.

[NotRamjet97]

Feature box man!

[Blade Squall]

Bluestreak! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!

[MC BR0N3]

…Well that was unexpected.

[annonymus]

R.I.P. Bluestreak