Semper TyrannisA blink in the corner of his optic. A signal he had been waiting ever since sending Mindwipe down to planet with the Terrorcons as the security measure against the untamed world shrouded in mystery. A simple pulse wave code worthless to anyone who had not been expecting it - proving that Mindwipe knew better than sending important information in a form that allowed little encoding.
"Finback, keep the
Tyrannis position in paraller with the pulsewave. The bridge is yours until my return." The enormous black, crimson and gold warlord addressed the grizzled war veteran in charge of piloting the Decepticon dreadnaught.
"Lord Scorponok." Finback wheezed, adding a slight nod to his simple reply to acknowledge the orders of his commander. The partially disabled navigator was residing within a life support tank filled with nanites that kept his continiously detoriating body from falling apart. It had been a shame to lose a soldier of Finback's capabilities but even Scorponok's vast scientific experience had failed yet to fully counter the metal-wasting disease Finback had contacted during a failed raid on a chemical-polluted world vorns ago. Then again, a Decepticon warlord did not have the time to spare to research for a cure for just one soldier, no matter how good.
Radiation belt around the planet was still making an orbital bounce impossible. They were also lacking an opening to be able to fly through belt until another opening would present itself. Given how the radiation belt was interfering with even the
Tyrannis' sensory suite, Scorponok had little faith in his own sensors being able to guide him through it. And the belt was a death trap. And invasive scan made with a series of drones had detected enough hidden mines inside the belt to potentially severely damage even a ship like the
Tyrannis were it to attempt to land. But get to surface he had to. In a way or another.
Having left the command bridge sometime ago, Scorponok finally arrived into an area of the ship where number of his experiments were being performed. This particular one he was after appeared as if it was scaled down model of the ancient space bridges surrounding Cybertron. It had orginally been one of Shockwave's many projects but handed down to Scorponok by Megatron himself after the one-eyed scientist had gone missing. Shockwave had been after creating a true space bridge, revitalizing the ancient spacebridge network of Cybertron. It was a grand goal, capable of ultimately allowing instant transportation between vast distances. It was also something completely unpractical with the energy resources currently available to the Decepticons. Opening a rift through space required enormous amounts of energon and while Scorponok had had limited success with his experiments, he had been forced to put them on hold.
However, the subjugation of Nebulos had changed everything.
For the first time in hundreds of vorns Scorponok had an access to enough energy to continue his research of spacebridge technology. And before he had been forced to place his research on hold, he had been able to create alternative way of ship to ground travel to the orbital bounce. One that held potential of moving vast amounts of troops from orbital warship to planetside and back faster and more safely than orbital bouncing allowed. Even when used in this manner, the high power demand of this 'ground bridge' had stopped the Decepticons utilizing it during the energy shortage they had been suffering from last several hundreds of vorns. But if he only could prove the technology's usefulness to Megatron now that they had a steady supply of energy on Nebulos, then perhaps the Decepticon Leader would be willing to allow him to make a true space bridge a reality first time in hundreds of thousands of vorns.
And due to Mindwipe's pulse wave, he knew where to open a rift.
Having programmed the computer terminal to open the bridge again after receiving a specific pulsewave, Scorponok activated the ground bridge, creating a vortex before him with no clear end in sight - a pathway between his current position and the grand chamber in Jhiaxus' former base of operations on LV-117. Hesitating for a moment, Scorponok stepped into the vortex and began walking towards the light appearing in the far end of the whirling corridor through folds of space and time.
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Research Bunker"Isn't that Sentinel Prime? Before he even was a Prime? And Omega slagging Supreme too? Who the slag is Jhiaxus? And what in the abyss did those six just do?" Hun-Grrr kept growling out questions as he stared at the footage Cipher had managed to pull out from the ancient data slugs. Sentinel. Oddly young looking Kup before the Autobot had decided to avoid upgrades to his form for who knows how long. Ironhide as if he had stepped out of the well of Allsparks only cycles ago. This footage was seriously ancient, likely older than anyone currently inside the research bunker with possible exemption of Cipher.
The number of his questions Cipher or Mindwipe answered was lost to Hun-Grrr as a sudden crackling of energies behind their position drew his attention. True to his battle instincts, Hun-Grrr turned on the spot before any of the others had had a chance to react and found himself aiming his sonic stun rifle at an opening energy vortex in the exact position where Mindwipe had earlier used a pulse wave transmitter.
"What the frag?"
The leader of the Terrorcons could only stare at the growing energy vortex, confused but ready to open fire. The whole spectacle before him reminded him oddly off the rift torn to space by a spacecraft engaging a transwarp jump. Hun-Grrr didn't have to wait for an answer for long. The rift had grown to size large enough allow someone twice his own size to enter through - and staring back at him in the other end of the tunnel was a form of a gargantuan Cybertronian. The shape of the approaching figure was unmistakeable.
Scorponok.