Chapter One
Chapter One
Aboard one of the many Decepticon Scout Ships, an Autobot Operative found herself in quite the bind. She managed to render two of the five decepticons offline. The four she knew of were basic Decepticon Soldiers, and just as easily taken out… But what she didn’t know, was that he fifth one turned out to be one big Insecticon! Now, the massive bot had its claws around her neck, clicking two sets of varying sized mandibles, in thought. The Autobot could feel his claws scratching off her blue paint.
“H-Hey, ugly! Watch the paint job!” She yelled, trying to break free of the Insecticon’s hold, the massive transformer tilting his head. “What? Never seen a fembot before?”
The Insecticon snarled at her, opening his fang filled maw. “What is your name, Autobot?” He asked, slamming his right claw into the Autobot’s chest. “So I may add it to my legacy.”
The Autobot continued to struggle in the Insecticon’s grip. “Just like an Insecticon… You all rather destroy things, instead of protecting life, just like your Decepticon Masters.” She argued, glaring at the angled visor of the Insecticon’s cyclops optic. “You lot have no spark. Wipe out everything on planets, for energon, even going so far as to torture the organics there!”
“Enough, Autobot. Your sentiments fall on muted audioreceptors.” The Insecticon snarled, the glaring red light of his visor making the Autobot’s face light up. “Your name, now!”
“No point in trying to reason with something that has no mind, no life, of its own.” She grumbled, staring up at the Insecticon’s face plate. “My name is Hornet, irony right? And it is not my name you should be asking about.” Her smirk confused the Insecticon. “More like, what I did while aboard your ship… Besides take out two of your pals.”
The ship suddenly rumbled and shook, nearly taking the Insecticon off of his stablizers. He kept Hornet in his grasp, looking around before one of the corridors exploded. “Breaker, this is Intercept! The ship is being torn apart!” A Decepticon came over his comm-link. “That Autobot scum planted explosives all over our ship!”
‘Breaker’ snarled at Hornet, his grip becoming tighter around her neck. “You planned to go down with our ship!?” He pulled his right arm back. “You weren’t planning on coming back from this mission, were you?”
Hornet smirked at him, tilting her head a bit. “If it means preserving innocent life? Then I am willing to give up my own spark, just to protect it.”
“Good to hear.” Breaker threw his arm forward, ripping into Hornet’s chest! The Autobot screamed in agony, feeling the Insecticon’s claws rip deeper into her body, flailing her legs. Breaker gave a fanged grin, gripping Hornet’s spark and suddenly ripped it clean from her chest. The energon, that once flowed within her body, sprayed on to his Breaker’s black and gun-metal gray body.
The Insecticon wiped the blue life liquid from his face, exposing the crimson tribal markings he designed after the one once called ‘Hardshell’. Though, the Autobot’s words played back through his processor, about not having a mind or life of his own. He dropped her spark, eyeing the offline fembot There were many names of different Autobots that he slayed in the many solar cycles of service, Breaker held each one within his memory core, but this bot has actually made him wonder?
An explosion brought the Insecticon back to his current situation. He looked to the right, seeing that the entire ship is starting to go. Releasing a defiant screech, Breaker quickly dropped Hornet and transformed into his Hercules Beetle form! The Insecticon’s wings started buzzing, lifting his massive body from the ground, and prepared to flee from this section of the ship.
His optics suddenly spotted the sparkless Hornet, actually stopping him midair. Breaker was a warrior from his Hive, who somehow was able to break free from the Hive Mind and got away before Arachnid could have fed on his energon like the others. He prided himself on such ideals of being a strong warrior, and researched a word that the Autobots and old Decepticons called ‘Honor’, making it to where he treated his battles with ‘Honor’. Now, here before him, is an offline opponent that will end up taking down the whole ship, every Decepticon onboard with it. She was a warrior, far as he is concerned, and something told him: Take her with you, bury this worthy warrior.
Breaker looked around, trying to figure out who said those words, but saw no one there with him. Sounds of explosions drawing closer rushed the Insecticon’s decision to the point he hovered over the offline Hornet. Quickly, his legs picked her up and flew down towards the, still, intact corridor. His audio sensors were picking up the explosions were drawing closer to him, right on his tail. It didn’t help when he had to make last minute turns, due to his current course blowing up, or being weighed down by an offline bot.
He started to fly faster, feeling the flames on his back. The Insecticon needed to reach the escape pods, but they were on a level higher than his current one, and there would be no time with how close he’s cutting it. “I. Will. Not. Fall… HERE!” His wings started to buzz even faster, allowing him to give a much greater distance from the explosion.
To his surprise, an entire section of the corridor’s ceiling collapsed! Breaker came to a sudden halt, noticing that it led up on to the next level, where his ship’s escape pods would be. Not questioning it, and feeling like this was a gift from Primus, he quickly flew up into the hole!
During a barrel roll into the upper level, narrowly escaping the flames, Breaker B-Lined it straight to the escape pods. Strangely enough, the majority of the upper level remained untouched, so he managed to reach them without trouble and sat Hornet down on to the escape pod’s floor. “Now, to get out of here-?”
The escape pod suddenly shook, sending Breaker into the wall and rammed his head into the wall. It activated and launched from the ship, but it was not quick enough and could escape the explosion. The escape pod could not stabilize itself. This caused the Insecticon to be sent all around the escape pod’s inside haul, harshly ramming him into the metal walls. He was only stopped, when his barbed horn pierced the inside haul, causing a discharge to surge throughout his entire, metallic, body!
Breaker wailed in agony, as the discharge surged around him. When it stopped, he collapsed on to the ground, his body powering down. However, the result of his horn tearing through the escape pod caused its corresponding outside part to blow! The sudden, and unexpected, explosion threw the escape pod from its intended trajectory, and hurling it towards a nearby planet.
Entering the planet’s atmosphere, it turned into a giant fire ball, soaring through the sky, and aimed itself for a large forest. The crash resulted in it dragging across the ground, promptly tearing in half. The occupants within its metal bell were thrown out and on to the ground, while the escape pod’s front half flew forward and collided with a large rock. When it met a larger, more solid, object; the entire front portion of the shuttle exploded… Those it saved laying in its dirt trail, one offline while the other was unconscious and trying to repair what damage was done internally.
-Froggy Bottom Bog-
“Are you sure about this, Scootaloo?” Sweetie Bell asked, looking around the normally dangerous swamp. “I mean, what are we here for, anyways?”
The pegasus filly stopped, and looked back at her unicorn friend. “Because I saw that grant metal thing fall down this way.” Scootaloo answered, before continuing down the swampland trail. “There is no telling what it could have been! I mean, what if it was some strange asteroid, or maybe an alien space ship!”
“Yeah! Just imagine, Sweetie Belle. We could discover some new crystal, or prove there are aliens out there!” Applebloom added, their unicorn friend still not completely convinced. “Your sister could use it in her next fashion line.”
Sweetie Belle thought about it for a moment, then slowly nodded her head. “I-I guess you girls are right.” The three looked around the swamp, their short attention span missing bubbling within the murky water. “Rarity has been looking for new designs, just for her upcoming fashion show… Maybe this will help her with it.”
“Girls?” A caring voice called out, making the three suddenly stop. They turned around, seeing a familiar magenta mare trotting over to them, she had saddlebags on her back. “What are you three doing here? Don’t you know it is dangerous here for you?”
“Hello, Ms. Cheerilee!” The Crusaders chirped, smiling up at their favorite school teacher. “We were just searching for that thing, which crashed somewhere near here! From what we saw, it seemed to have scared everything off.” Scootaloo answered, eyeing her. “What about you? If it is so dangerous, why are you here?”
“For a special breed of flowers, that I can only grow in a swamp environment.” Cheerliee answered, looking around the swamp, going back to the fillies. “And yes, it scared off the smaller creatures, but not a-?”
The sound of water breaking, drew their attention towards the murky water. Their gaze slowly went up, following four, scalely, heads into the air. When they roared, powerfully, the ponies all yelled. “Hydra!!!” Then, promptly, ran for it with the mare staying behind the Crusaders, as the monstrous creature gave chase after his new found prey.
“Come on girls, keep going! We have to get inside the forest!” Cheerilee instructed, trying to herd the three fillies towards the dense wood-line. The school teacher had been to Froggy Bottom Bog many times before, to plant those flowers and collect them, having to escape Hydra attacks with the same tactics. The only difference, this time, is the fact that she had three fillies with her. They were moving too slowly, and the Hydra is gaining on them quickly. “This isn’t going to work; I need to slow it down somehow.” She thought, glancing back at the Hydra and then to the fillies.
There is only one option right now, and it is probably the riskiest thing Cheerilee has ever done. But, when it comes down to her precious students, there is nothing this mare would not do for them. So, Cheerilee slid to a halt and quickly faced the Hydra. The three fillies stopped, looking back at the magenta mare. “Ms. Cheerilee! What are ya doing!?” Applebloom yelled.
“Don’t worry about me! You girls, get to the wood-line!” Cheerilee replied, glaring at the oncoming Hydra. “I will keep him busy, while you get to safety!” The fillies looked at one another, not sure if they should leave her behind, not like this. “Go!” They bounced up, startled by how stern she sounded just then, and rushed towards the forest, while Cheerilee stared the Hydra down. “Alright, mister… Come on, follow me!” With that, she dashed off towards the right.
The Hydra watched her run off, with one of its heads, while also watching the fillies with the others. It had to make a choice, of which ones it wanted to go after. The mare is a bigger prey, offering more meat, compared to the fillies running towards the wood-line, but there was also more of them and slower than the mare. The Hydra stepped towards where those fillies were going, but stopped when a rock struck one of its heads. The swamp living creature looked towards Cheerilee, who is currently tossing a second rock up and down in her hoof. She threw it, and struck the Hydra right into one of its eyes. That did it, and earned a four headed roar for such actions. The Hydra stomped after Cheerilee, who quickly turned back around and ran.
“That’s right! Follow me, follow the mare!” She called out, hearing the Hydra’s stomps right behind her. Though, when one of its heads narrowly missed, the mare’s eyes widened. The creature is closing in on her, faster than the mare had thought it would. She started to serpentine around, dodging the four heads even suddenly changed directions. This caused the Hydra to trip over itself, before resuming its chase after the mare. “Need to get to the forest, need to-YIKES!”
The Hydra slammed one of its heads right in front of her. She quickly changed direction, but another head struck the ground right in front of her, making Cheerilee changing directions again. Head after head slammed in front of her, preventing the mare from running towards the forest. Without hesitation, Cheerilee attempted to back track, and attempt to flip the Hydra.
However, the Hydra’s tail cut her off before she could actually get behind it, sending the mare flying through the air. “Ms. Cheerilee!!!” The Crusaders screamed, as Cheerilee crashed into the ground, sliding and tumbling violently, then came to a halt. The landing caused her body to be littered with terrible scrapes and bruises, her mane and coat ruined along with covered in swampy mud. “We have to do something!” Sweetie Belle yelled, looking to her friends.
“B-But what can we do against t-that monster?” Applebloom asked, watching the Hydra close in on the school teacher. “W-We have ta help Ms. Cheerilee!”
“If only we were older, bigger!” The moment Scootaloo mentioned the word ‘bigger’, two sets of red, glowing, eyes appeared towering above the three fillies. “Stronger! Then, we could easily kick his scalely butt!”
The two other Crusaders were ready to add their own thoughts on the matter, but heavy buzzing and wind roaring around them. Before they could look behind themselves, to see what it was, a massive Hercules Beetle flew over their heads! It released a loud, screeching, wail and slammed right into the Hydra! Sending the swampland creature right back into the murky water. “W-What is that thing!?” Sweetie Belle asked, the Crusaders unable to take their eyes off of this strange creature, not even looking at how angry the rising Hydra looks after it just got sent flying back.
“A-Ah think that is what crashed in the Everfree Forest yesterday!” Applebloom said, watching how the metal beetle landed above Cheerilee, standing over her unconscious body in a protective manner. “And ah think it’s protectin’ Ms. Cheerilee!” The beetle released another screeching-wail, challenging the Hydra!