Son of Airachnid (Transformers prime)

20

Chapter 20: Invasion pt.3
      
     On the outskirts of the small town known as Jasper Nevada, Lockdown's fleet had assembled and kept all ships cloaked to avoid catching human attention. 
       
     "Lockdown, all ships are present and awaiting your command. What are your orders?" Lockdown's lieutenant asked.
       
     Sitting in the comfort of his throne-like chair in the center of the command deck, the mercenary leader gave his next order. "We know the Dark Spark has been here recently but I want to know exactly where it last was. Narrow down our search even further. Find out where in the area the Dark Spark's energy signature was last seen."
      
     "Yes sir." The lieutenant says before leaving to pass down the order.
      
    'I wonder, who wields the Dark Spark now? Do they even realize what they have? Can they control it?' These are the questions that plagued Lockdown ever since noticing the constant activation and deactivation of the Dark Spark. They've been monitoring this solar system for a while now and ever since the energy signal of the Dark Spark became active they've noticed a pattern which suggests someone has been using it. If someone truly has gained control over the Dark Spark then taking it from whoever wields it will be no simple task.
In the Amazon Rain forest.
     
    A groundbridge opened up and Steve and Kevin step out into one of the largest forests in the world with a tracker location device in hand. They've come here to hopefully get some answers out of Airachnid, preferably without being torn to pieces. After her last encounter with Max she visited many places before stopping here. It's unknown as to what she did whilst at those other places but so far Syphir hasn't found anything online about recent human deaths in those areas so luckily it appears Airachnid hasn't gone hunting. However Airachnid stopped in the Amazon forest and that has Syphir concerned. With the Decepticons and Autobots both constantly looking for her it would've made more sense to keep moving, but for some reason she just stopped. But none of that matters right now as the only thing they want out of her is whatever knowledge she may have on Max and the Dark Spark.
    
    Kevin turns on the tracking device and the search begins. "She's just a few clicks north. Let's go."
  
   Steve turns his right arm into a blaster and keeps an eye on the trees. If the rumours of Airachnid’s hunting style are anything to go by, then she could ambush them from the tall trees, pop out of the ground, or set some kind of webbed trap. It didn't take long for the vehicon duo to find signs of Airachnid's presence as whilst following the tracker they stumbled upon a rather gruesome scene. It was a clearing in the forest that was man made and used for a campsite. Around the campsite there are a lot of vehicles, equipment, and tools likely used for deforestation. The thing is, the site is littered with multiple dead human bodies that look to have been horribly mutilated. It was a bloodbath.
    
    "Well, if there were any doubts about her being here before they are gone now." Kevin says as he looks around the blood soaked campsite. 'Poor things. They didn't stand a chance. ' 
     
    "How do we know this was Airachnid's doing?" Steve asked.
     
    Kevin stared at him in disbelief for a moment before responding. "Are you serious?" He asked before pointing to a dead body that was webbed to a tree. The cause of death, decapitation. "I'd say that's a pretty good clue."
     
     Steve let out a depressed sigh. "Frag it all. I was hoping she wasn't actually responsible for this." Truth be told, Steve is terrified of Airachnid. The stories told about her amongst the Decepticons made her almost as terrifying as the DJD.
       
     "We need to get moving before someone sees us here and assumes we are responsible for this." Kevin says as he begins walking away from the scene. 
      
    After a few minutes of walking they arrive at the location we're the tracker says Airachnid is. The tracking device sent them to a large hole in the ground. It wasn't a sinkhole, it looked like something very big drilled into the ground.
      
    "What do you think made this?" Steve asked as he stared into the darkness of the hole.
      
    "Probably Airachnid.  I once heard she can drill into the ground." Kevin answers. "The tracker says she's somewhere down there. Let's go."
      
     Kevin was the first to jump down into the hole Airachnid had made. Steve jumped in quickly after but not before briefly questioning his life choices. When the vehicons hit the bottom they found themselves in a cave, ahead of them, they could just barely hear the sound of metallic footsteps.
      
    The duo continue ahead towards the footsteps but not before drawing their weapons as a safety precaution. They arrive in a large opening and see something that sets off alarms in their heads. It was Airachnid, and she's digging up an insecticon stasis pod.
     
    "Oh Primus. We need to get out of here before she wakes that thing up." Kevin says. Attempting to talk to Airachnid was dangerous enough, but now an insecticon is involved, that makes things a lot worse. Insecticons are much more vicious and stronger than vehicons so a confrontational fight with both Airachnid and an insecticon was out of the question.
     
     "Are you sure? We need any information she may have on the Dark Spark. If we're lucky then maybe she won't attack us." Steve says.
     
    "We have a tracker on her that she hasn't found. We need to leave and rethink our approach." Kevin reasons as he turns to leave. However before he could get any further Steve stops him.
    
    "What about the humans? Airachnid won't hesitate to kill more of them. Should we really just leave her be?" Steve asked.
     
    Kevin stops for a moment and contemplates that question. In the past he'd never really cared about the well-being of organics, no vehicon did. But in the short time he's worked with Max, Syphir, and June both he and Steve have softened up to those around them. He internally cursed himself for being so soft.
   
    "Alright, fine. Let's do this." Kevin says reluctantly.
    
    "Airachnid!" Kevin calls out as the two vehicons start walking towards her, catching the former Decepticon's attention.
    
     Airachnid stops what she is doing and turns to the vehicons. She hisses and powers up her palm blasters but stops briefly at the appearance of the Vehicons. Neither had the Decepticon emblem on them nor did they have the typical purple and black paint jobs that other vehicons had and they appear to be alone. Now she was curious.
    
    "Well this is new. Since when did Megatron start allowing for vehicons to have different paint jobs? And he sent only two of you to capture me, why?" She asked mostly out of amusement.
    
      Kevin and Steve both put away their weapons to show they mean no harm. Kevin decided to do the talking. "We aren't with the Decepticons, Airachnid. We are with Shadowstreak." Kevin says hoping to avoid being torn to scrap metal. 'She didn't immediately attack us. That's good be we aren't out of the woods yet.'.
     "He prefers being called Max." Steve says abruptly.
     
   Kevin ignores him and continues speaking. "Something has happened to him and we may need your help."
      
    This immediately got Airachnid on red alert. "What happened to Shadowstreak?" She asked with a venomous voice.
     
    "He's alive, but he got into a fight and was hurt. We found something called the Dark Spark in his chest. Do you know anything about it?" Kevin answers before asking a question of his own.
      
    "The Dark Spark? Yes I know about it. Megatron attached it to Shadowstreak during his later stages as a protoform. From what I understand Megatron intended to use Shadowstreak as a super weapon as well as his heir to Decepticon leadership. Megatron is many things but a fool isn't one of them, he knows one way or another, he will become one with the Allspark. So he wanted someone to take his place and carry on his legacy and ideals, Peace through tyranny. He also wanted a super weapon to use against Optimus prime, an Anti-Prime. That's what Shadowstreak is to Megatron, his heir and ultimate weapon." Airachnid explains.
      
    "Ok, that answers how Max has the Dark Spark, but how do we safely remove it?" Kevin asked. 
   
  "You don't. It's merged with his Spark." Airachnid answers.
     
    "Well scrap." Steve says sadly.
     
    "Since I gave you this information I assume you will bring me something in return?" Airachnid asked.
      
    "What is it you want?" Kevin reluctantly asked. 
      
    "When Shadowstreak recovers, I want you to bring him to me so we can catch up." Airachnid answers.
      
    "How do we know you won’t just take off with him?" Kevin asked.
      
    Airachnid simply rolled her optics at the question.  "As much as I'd love to take Shadowstreak and get of the dirtball of a planet, I'd don't currently have the means of doing so."
       
    Kevin hesitated for a moment to answer but all things considered, if they told her no then she would just kill them then and there. "Fine, but no more killing any of this planet's inhabitants. We got a look at your most recent hunt."
      
   "Very well." Airachnid agrees.
      
   "Syphir open a groundbridge." Kevin says via comlink.
 
On Dinobot Island.

    The island is in ruins, a place that once flourished with life was now an island of destroyed stone and fire. But not everything was killed in Lockdown's bombardment of the island, the Dinobots had survived. 
    
    "Yeesh, look at this place." Swoop says as he looks at barren island. "Lockdown sure did a number on it."
    
    "Yeah. This place used to be full of wild animals, but now all of them are gone. Just imagine if he did this to one of the cities the locals built." Slug says. 
     
    "Is everyone alright?" Grimlock asked his teammates.
      
     "We got a few scratches but aside from that we're fine. Then again I'm no medic. That was Snarl's job." Swoop reports.
     
     "Good I'm going to send out a distress beacon using my commlink and hopefully prime’s team picks it up and not the Decepticons or Lockdown." Grimlock says.
     
     "Wait really? Just like that? Didn't you just tell Optimus like yesterday that we won't be working with him anymore? Why the change of spark?" Swoop questions.
       
     "The situation has changed. And as much as I hate to admit it we may need his help. Besides, who else is going to kick Lockdown's tail pipe? The natives of this planet? Not likely. " Grimlock answers. 

Lockdown's fleet
      
     "Sir the Dark Spark's energy signature vanishes in this area. There must be something clocking it." A mercenary reports to his boss.
     
      "Are there any structures nearby?" Lockdown asked.
     
     "Yes it looks like an old human missile silo on top of a desert cliff." The mercenary says as he pulls up an image of the missile silo. Unknown to Lockdown, this is the Autobots Base.
       
    "Prepare a search team. Scour that structure for the Dark Spark. Destroy any lifeforms that may be inside. " Lockdown orders.