A New Dawn - Transformers Prime (4)

Chapter Six

   "What is a Cybertronian ship doing in the middle of the Texan desert?" Miko demanded.

   "By the looks of it," I said, walking toward the massive ship in front of us. "They didn't mean to land here."

   "Be careful, Amanda," Finn warned, tone protective as I moved to the ship. "You don't know if those travellers are friendly."

   I closed my eyes and raised a hand, sending a sprinkle of silver dust across the area as a sort of sensor. "I'm not sensing any lifeforms."

   "And the ship? Is it active?"

   I made a face. "It's too badly damaged. It'd need serious repairs before lifting off again."

   "So let's go see what they're packing!" Miko dash forward, but I grabbed her arm before she could get too far, causing her to send me a questioning look.

   "We don't know the types of security measures it could have," I explained. "Stay behind me, I'll be able to sense it if anything happens."

   She frowned, but did as I said as we approached the ship. It truly was massive, the ship's shadow towering over us the closer we got, and I felt the metal that it was made of hum in response. I swallowed the urge to take all of it under my control, knowing that it would only burn me out, and focused only on sensing any dangers. I ducked underneath a hole in the hull, Miko following close behind, both of us careful not to get caught on the sharp edges of the hole. The moment we stepped inside, a chill went down my spine.

   "Déjà vu much?" Miko spoke up, breaking the eerie silence. "Doesn't this remind you of-"

   "The Nemesis," I finished. "Yeah, yeah it does. I don't like this."

   "You and me both, boss."

   Still, we ventured deeper into the ship, navigating towards the center of it through the dark halls. There was no evidence of life at all, not even signs of a fight or something that would have caused the ship to be abandoned. I chewed my lip, not liking this at all.

  "Anything, A?" Finn asked over the phone anxiously. "Give me an update."

   "We're inside, but no life forms," I reported. "Not even a little hint on whose ship this may have been, how it got to Earth, and how it crashed. We're heading to the control center right now, hopefully to get some information out of the computers, on the account that they aren't all destroyed."

   "Hey, boss," Miko's voice floated down the hall, making me look up ahead to see her standing at the entrance of a room. "I think whoever was on this ship dipped before it went down."

   I frowned, walking up to her. "What makes you say- Oh. Yeah, that makes sense."

   "What is it?" Finn asked.

   "All the escape pods are gone. Our count here is fifteen, each with the max capacity of a solid 3 Cybertronians in each. So we're looking at 15 to almost 45 Cybertronians."

   "Dang," Miko breathed. "Hopefully they weren't Cons."

   I threw her a look. "You said it. Come on, let's find that control center."

   We went back into the hall, heading deeper into the empty ship, my chills never ending, which was weird considering outside it was a million degrees. Miko seemed to be feeling the chill as well, because she rubbed her hands over her arms to expel her goosebumps. Our footsteps echoed, and I almost wanted to turn back around, to go back into the desert, when we reached the bridge.

   "Oh scrap," were the only words to leave my mouth for a moment, before I spoke again. "Finn, I need Ratchet on the line."

   "Give me a second," He replied, and it fell silent for a couple seconds.

   "Yes?" Ratchet sounded a little annoyed- I'd probably torn him away from dissecting that body- but I didn't let that deter me.

   "During the war, were there any ships modeled after the Nemesis? Did the Decepticons use a single style to build their ships? Was the Nemesis almost a role model for any warships that followed?"

   There was a pause, until, "Yes, I do recall a few ships that were very similar to the Nemesis' design, both interior and exterior, though the Nemesis was the most prominent one. Megatron commissioned the construction of similar vessels to attack the Autobots as a fleet, similar to how your human armies design battle ships to look similar in order to create a united fleet."

   "And how many of these ships were there?"

   "Including the Nemesis, five, though not all survived the war."

   "How many survived? Who were they captained by? What happened to the ones that didn't make it through?"

   Miko gave me a funny look as I listed off questions, but the gears in my head were turning too fast now to pay her any attention.

   "Each ship was captained by the highest ranking Decepticon; the Nemesis by Megatron himself, the Calamity by Starscream, the Nihilism by Shadowrunner, the Bane by Cascade, and the Anarchy by Tempest. The Bane and the Nihilism were both destroyed during the war on Cybertron, their captains going down with their ships. Starscream's vessel was also destroyed, though he fled before his ship could fall. By the end of the war, only Nemesis left Cybertron."

   "What about the Anarchy? And Tempest?"

   There was a long moment of silence, and I could basically see the medic frowning in focus, but I had to know. That final ship may be the most important.

   "I believe Tempest fled Cybertron, but after the Ark and the Nemesis did. Where it went though, I cannot say."

   "Scrap." That was the opposite of the answer I needed. My eyes flew across the bridge that was eerily similar to the Nemesis, trying to find a single computer that wasn't severely damaged as fast as possible.

   "A?" Miko tugged on my arm. "What did you realize?"

   "We have to get off this ship as soon as possible," I said, finally finding the computer and running towards it, forcing Miko to follow close behind.

   "Why? Okay, it may be a Con ship, but it's totally abandoned."

   "This is different," I fished for my phone, popping out the USB I kept in the back of my case, and then used my powers to melt through the metal at the base of the computer, exposing the wires behind it. I grabbing onto the wires and created a makeshift USB port, allowing the information to flow from the computer to the USB. "Raf, connect to my USB through my network and upload this information into the database," I said quickly, hoping that the tech expert was listening. "And I need it done fast. Flood the system."

   "On it," Raf's voice was distant, but there and determined as ever.

   "A!" Miko grabbed my shoulder. "What's going on? Why are we running all of a sudden?"

   I shook my head. "There's only one ship this could be, Miko. Tempest's. And she is the single Con who killed at least 10 Champions of Cleona that I can remember off the top of my head. When I say this Con is seriously bad news, it would be an understatement. We need to get this info, decode everything, and figure out where she went before something bad happens." As I spoke, I took out my phone, monitoring the progress of the upload. "Raf, this is too slow."

   "I'm working on it, A," his voice was distracted, but determined. "I need to take down some firewalls first-"

   "Finn, use your password to take down those firewalls." I chewed my lip, becoming anxious. The line fell silent, everyone clearly at work to rush this upload, and I opened my mouth to ask for progress when Miko tapped my shoulder.

   "A?" She whispered, and I looked up to see her eyes glued on the hall we had come from. "Did you hear that?"

   I immediately reached out with my powers, closing my eyes to see it flowing through the ship, not finding anything until-

   "Oh scrap," My eyes snapped open. "One Cybertronian, heading this way. Raf, I need you to-"

   "Done!" He exclaimed. "Your system is a mess now, but it's all here!"

   My hand shot out to grab the USB, tucking it into my pocket as I walked away from the computer, Miko hot on my heels. "Ratchet, we need a ground bridge."