The Monster of Kaon (Transformers Si): Chapter 33

“The storm radius is bigger than I remember it being.”

“How big are we talking about here?”

I looked at Windblade through the external cameras of my Alt-Mode.

“Several thousand times larger than it should be.”

Windblade fell silent at my words as I guided her through the Rust storm, heading towards the old lab that Shockwave and I used to utilize a long time ago. A lab that was once one of the outposts of the Ancients and housed their original Space Bridge, which they used to map the universe in those times.

When Primus created the Rust Sea to contain the Rust Worms and their threat towards all life on Cybertron, he probably did not know that the very presence and activity of these vermin would alter the atmosphere around the basin in such a way.

Combined with the fact that some stupid bot crashed their Rust Plague-infested ship into the Rust Sea during the Space Bridge collapse, the Rust Sea of today was born.

With a sea of brown liquid, created from the excrement of the Rust Worms, that evaporates the heat of the sun to create a storm of Rust laced with an inferior, harmless, but still threatening version of Rust Plague, it is one of the most inhospitable places on Cybertron.

Or rather, it was. Until all of Cybertron became a lifeless wasteland.

I could not suppress the pain I felt in my spark as my thoughts inevitably went back to what I saw after arrival.

My lifetime as a human was dwarfed by my experience as a bot. So it stands to reason that I saw Cybertron as my true home. To see it in such a state, I cannot help but feel like I played a large part in its fate today, despite knowing that it was not my fault.

Windblade stayed behind me as we flew through the storm, allowing my built-in warp drives of my Alt-Form to subtly influence the winds around us to keep her safe from the storm since she did not have as thick and powerful an armor as I did.

“How much further?”

“A little bit further. Our old lab is probably the only place where anyone can hide from the Rust Plague of today, so our target must be there.”

“Hmm. Then, after we are done here, it's back to the search for the All-Spark?”

“No. I think I will have Silverbolt search for it in my stead while we start preparing Cybertron for its inevitable revitalization.”

“Oh! I forgot to ask. Mistress said that the Predacons were the most powerful type of Cybertronians to ever exist. Is that true? And did you ever see one?”

At her random question, I could not help but laugh a little, alleviating my mood a little bit.

This femme, I don’t know if she did it on purpose after sensing my mood, or if her natural curiosity that made us give her the name Windblade all those years ago came through. Whatever the case may be, her question was indeed effective in distracting me from my loss and pain.

Never change, Windblade. Never change.

“Yes, and No. The Predacons were indeed the most powerful Cybertronian life forms. However, no one alive today has ever seen one with their own optics. At least on Cybertron. While Lady Chela has definitely seen some, given that she had transported a pack of them to Eukaris along with the Beast Formers, the rest of the Eukarians refuse to tell me if they have seen one themselves.”

“As for me, I have never seen one either. Although I did play around with their C.N.A when I was a much younger bot alongside an old friend.”

“Whoa! If they were really the pinnacle of Cybertronian life, why did they go extinct with a simple meter strike?”

At her question, I answered in a serious tone to emphasize the gravity of her question.

“First of all, being powerful does not equate to being at the pinnacle of life. Second, the storm that nearly ended Cybertron during the Age of Origins was no ordinary meteor storm.”

“…what do you mean?”

“The records are sparse, and what records we did find from those days are heavily laced with mythological influence. However, there are a few things that I guess have transpired. While not completely sure, the common consensus back then was that my theory is most likely to be true.”

Taking a deep breath, I started speaking about those chaotic times, the records of which painted a far grimmer picture compared to what I remember from the stories of my human life.

“From what we found, the runaway Red Giant star that interfered with our star system was no accident. Based on its trajectory, speed, and other factors, the Ancients had mentioned in the records that someone had deliberately changed the direction of this runaway star and pointed it at Cybertron. It was only thanks to a miscalculation on the part of the instigator that the runaway star missed a direct impact with Cybertron and instead only caused chaos in our Star system.”

The part that I omitted from speaking was that the sudden change in trajectory happened when this runaway star was passing through a particular part of the galaxy. A part that houses a star system with a life-bearing world known as Earth.

Yeah, this incident had Unicron written all over it.

“After that, as you know, the sudden gravitational fluctuations caused thousands upon thousands of meters to impact Cybertron, each one strong enough to wipe out a city at least. Not to mention the violent solar flares that ravaged Cybertron’s surface since it did not have a functioning atmosphere or a magnetic field to combat such solar flares.”

Something that has long since been rectified by Primus after this incident.

Because Primus was much more ‘alive’ back then, it did not take long for our deity to morph his body and start creating an atmosphere to protect the surface from all kinds of radiation and a magnetic field to protect from the sun’s flares.

“Because of this, almost all kinds of early life on Cybertron that existed during the Age of Origins have gone extinct. The only survivors were those who ran and sought shelter in the Underworld of our planet. It was these survivors who worked with the Primes to rebuild, which later on became the first generation of our race as it is today.”

By the time I was done explaining the history of our race, we were already close to our old lab.

However, I instantly felt that something was wrong when my powers told me that there was significant activity with the tower.

Then, I felt it. A sudden burst of power rushed at us.

“DIVE!!”

On instinct, Windblade followed my order as we both nosedived to the ground, barely avoiding a colossal blast of energy that would have probably gravely injured me and blown Windblade apart outright.

The familiar rage boiled to the surface, which I used to hone my mind and find the attacker.

“Windblade, what do you see?”

“I am seeing a lot of Energon draw from within. And there is one spark moving around, heading towards us at a relatively fast speed. My guess is that their Alt-Form is land-based.”

Land-based Alt-Form. Combined with that kind of firepower, there are very few bots that come to mind. And given our location and what we are doing here in the first place, there can only be one.

I finally found you, you thieving bastard.

I activated my combat mode and pulled out my sword, ready to engage the enemy just like Windblade did with her blasters.

And not to soon since a bright flash appeared in our vision and barely a second later, another energy blast.

This time, however, I was already prepared.

I used my sword’s flat surface as a shield and angled it just enough for it to deflect the blast.

But still, the force behind the blast made my servos creak in protest as pain flared across my body.

‘Damn! Haven’t felt this kind of firepower since the War!’

Not long after, I heard the screech of tires as the aggressor arrived in his Alt-Form.

I had heard from Override that this guy had taken a liking to Velocitron’s culture of speed and chose this alt form, but seeing it in person, it is clear that she was not entirely correct.

As he approached us, I did not even hesitate to fire my Laser at its full setting, turning everything in my path to scrap.

But the bastard easily swerved out of the way, transformed into his bipedal mode, using my shield to block the laser.

“HAHAHA! Is that any way to greet someone!? Maximus?”

Looking at the spitting image of my own face, holding something dear to me, all I felt was overwhelming rage.