The Monster of Kaon (Transformers Si): Chapter 32

Cybertron was once a place filled with life.

I still remember it as if it were yesterday.

One moment, I was a human from Earth, driving to work just like any other day, and then the next moment, I woke up as a massive robot fresh from the Well of All Sparks.

And thrown directly into the Quintesson War.

Well, technically, anyways.

I was actually born into a rather stable situation since I was taken away by the Quintessons right after being born because of my Point-one percenter spark, and then put into work behind their lines as support for their frontliner machines.

Of course, being who I was and knowing what I did, I sabotaged their weapon systems and combat robots completely from the inside, thanks to their arrogance and how they believed that they could mold me to become one of their assets.

Ratchet told me later on, when I secretly made my way across the lines and joined the Cybertronians, that my sabotage had played a critical role in the defeat of the Quintessons.

Later on, after the war, I came to see Cybertron for the beautiful world of metal that it was, even after suffering several catastrophes in its past.

With mechanical creatures roaming the planet’s surface and its underworld, the lesser Cybertronian Fauna and Vermin that kept the planet’s natural, mechanical, flora in check.

With countless bots of all shapes and sizes walking the planet freely and living their lives as they please.

It was a beautiful world that I came to see as my home after centuries of war.

Then, that bastard Nova started his expansion across the stars with Space Bridge technology our forces stole during the war from the Quintessons, and everything started going downhill from there.

However, even then, even during the Age of Rust and during Sentinel’s rule, the planet was still a beacon of life, with countless beings calling it home.

But now?

I felt like my spark would cease to be as I stared at the barren landscape that stretched to the horizon.

That beautiful planet, the place that I called home, is now gone.

Now, all that remains is this wasteland, born from the failure of my disciples and my own.

“…..Maximus? Are you alright?”

“No, Windblade. I am not. How can I be? When my world, my home, lies in ruins like this?”

The young femme flinched at my words, making me feel guilty for my words.

“I am sorry. You do not deserve those words. It’s just-“

“It’s okay, Maximus. I know that you didn’t mean to say it like that.”

She stared at the barren world around us with a hint of disappointment on her face.

“If Caminus ever ended up like this, I know that I won’t be able to keep myself together as you are doing right now. So, I don’t blame you for your words. Still, I think you should focus on what we are here for.”

“….Right. Let’s go.”

She is right. I can mourn the death of my Planet later, but first, there is a doppelganger I need to kill and a search operation I need to conduct.

“Where to?”

“I am seeing a powerful Spark, over there!”

Windblade pointed to the distant horizon west of our current position, showing where her optics were picking up the spark.

One of the many abilities granted to her by Alchemist Prime’s lenses is the ability to see the sparks of all mechanical life, and a ‘weird ball of energy’ as she put it, within an organic lifeform.

My guess is that the ball of energy that she sees within the organic lifeforms is maybe the consciousness, or perhaps even the soul, of a creature. But that is just a conjecture on my part and has no proof.

That is a thought for later, though.

 With a clear destination in sight, Windblade and I transformed into our Alt-modes and took off.

Better clean your neck, Fortress, you are going down for what you’ve done to so many people over the centuries.

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“How interesting. He arrived here faster than anticipated.”

Within a dimly lit section of the space that the bot converted into a laboratory, the colossal bot that dwarfed nearly all other Cybertronians save for a few, chuckled as he watched the two spark signatures rapidly approaching his location.

“Then again, I had anticipated that this would happen sooner or later, given his nature and how I deliberately made those puppets cause havoc across the galaxy.”

The bot turned from the screens and walked to a wall in the laboratory, decorated with all kinds of weapons from Cybertron’s various eras.

From the various weapons that found use during the Autobot-Decepticon War, a functional Molecular Forge which might as well be a scrap metal due to the lack of Telatraan-1, a few weapons from the Age of Rust, weapons from the Golden Age, and even some that date back to the Age of Wrath, right from the beginning of the Quintesson War.

“What should I use? A spark extractor? No, too quick. He will die before he even knows what happened. Hmm, how about the Riot Cannon? It will be quite ironic if he is killed by the very weapon of his most prized disciple. Or, perhaps, this?”

The bot took an oversized Energon cannon from the wall, which looked like it was supposed to be used as the arm of a bot instead of a standard weapon.

“Yes. This will do. To be killed by the very weapon you helped design, how fun!”

The bot turned his baleful purple optics to the other side of the laboratory, where another bot lay.

Or rather, what was left of the bot.

Completely disassembled and strewn across the laboratory haphazardly, A single optic connected to an exposed brain module and spark watched mutely as its creation ginned maniacally at him.

“Don’t you agree? My Sire?”

“I wonder how he will react when he knows that you created me to fill the void in your spark after he ‘died’? How will he think of you when he learns that you twisted his image to create the Vindicators? How will he react when he knows that I punished you in his stead? HAHAHAH I CAN’T WAIT TO SEE THE LOOK ON HIS FACE!!”

Fortress, the real leader of the Star Seekers, and the bot created by Shockwave with the old body of his dear friend, laughed like a maniac, while Shockwave watched with barely restrained emotion as the familiar spark signature zoomed across the landscape of Cybertron on the screens, headed straight for them.