Transformers: Retribution (35 page)

That was when the ground below his battle craft began to shake and splinter open; a titanic rocket poked out of the growing hole, followed by what appeared to be a number of rail tracks that folded and converted into a huge hand that grabbed the front of Tyrannicon’s ship, twisting the entire vessel and pulling it downward. Tyrannicon was thrown clear, but most of his crewmen
were crushed as the ship smashed into the bottom of the gully. Simultaneously, high-altitude Decepticons began dropping smoke bombs onto the fleet; in short order, visibility dropped toward near zero. Tyrannicon heard terrible rending noises as his ships struck one another. But he knew that the real target wasn’t his fleet.

It was him.

The Cybertronians were going to do their best to kill him in the confusion. It was a sound plan; in fact, it was exactly what he would have done. He wasn’t surprised when a huge shape shambled out of the smoke and loomed before him.

“Who dares defy General Tyrannicon?” the Sharkticon general yelled.

“THE MIGHT OF OMEGA SUPREME!” The bot’s voice was so loud that it practically shattered Tyrannicon’s sensors. He quickly searched his database. The lumbering giant in front of him was one of the last of the ancient Guardian robots. A true challenge if ever there was one. But maybe it was possible to win the bot over with reason. Or at least confuse it.

“Omega Supreme,” Tyrannicon said. “You are no Decepticon. There is no need for you to defend this city.”

“I AM CYBERTRONIAN. THAT IS ENOUGH.”

Sharkticons appeared at the edge of the canyon and opened fire on the Autobot behemoth. It was like watching peashooters in action against a brick wall. Omega Supreme stood there, absorbing the damage, and then he swung his rocket cannon up and disintegrated the enemy forces with a single devastating blast before turning back to Tyrannicon.

“LET’S GET THIS OVER WITH,” he bellowed.

F
ROM THE ROOF OF HIS TOWER
, S
HOCKWAVE TRAINED
his telescope on the unfolding carnage outside Iacon.
What was taking place was so far away that it wasn’t even visible from the walls; it was beyond the horizon of every structure in Iacon except the very summit of the tower. Shockwave stood there alone, letting the wind whip across his face. Through the barrage of smoke bombs, he could see plumes of fire where the Sharkticon ships had collided with one another. The exact extent of the damage was impossible to determine. All he knew was what he was picking up from the intercepted chatter on the Sharkticon com-links: that the Sharkticon fleet was in disarray, that Tyrannicon and Omega Supreme were battling for supremacy out there, that everything hung in the balance …

O
MEGA
S
UPREME SMASHED HIS FIST DOWN
,
JUST MISSING
Tyrannicon, but the sheer force of the impact against the ground was enough to send the Sharkticon leader flying against the wall of the gully. For a moment, all Tyrannicon could see was static. His systems were so overloaded that he couldn’t even think. He shook his head, clearing his vision. To his surprise, he wasn’t dead.

Just very angry.

“You’re the best Cybertron has?” he said. “No wonder we’re winning so easily.”

Omega Supreme raised the giant blaster on his left hand and fired, but Tyrannicon had already leaped to the side. Omega Supreme changed the beam setting to wide burst and tried to reacquire the smaller target, but the wily Sharkticon general apparently had ducked behind some nearby boulders. Omega Supreme advanced on them.

“THERE IS NO ESCAPE!”

“Who said anything about trying to escape?”

Omega Supreme turned to see that Tyrannicon had skittered up the rock face and was staring him right in the eye.
The laser cannon on Omega’s head swiveled, but Tyrannicon thrust his battle trident straight into the weapon’s power supply, detonating the gun and sending Omega Supreme staggering backward. Tyrannicon leaped onto Omega Supreme’s shoulder and yanked his trident free. Omega Supreme tried to swat Tyrannicon off like he was an annoying insect, but Tyrannicon vaulted deftly over Omega Supreme’s head, straight onto his other shoulder; as he did so, he thrust the trident into Omega Supreme’s right optic, penetrating his neural circuitry. There was a terrible crackling noise; sparks flew everywhere; the huge bot staggered and then started to fall. Tyrannicon rode his toppling adversary all the way down, sliding down the massive chest, stabbing it over and over with his trident. Omega Supreme hit the ground with a boom that reverberated all the way to Iacon. Sharkticons peered over the edge to see their general standing atop Omega Supreme’s chest.

“Well, don’t just stand there,” Tyrannicon said. “We’ve got a planet to conquer.”

T
HE WALLS OF THE
H
ALL OF
J
USTICE SHUDDERED BENEATH
the impact of the Sharkticon guns. Most of the Autobots and Decepticons had taken up positions around the perimeter and were firing back at any Sharkticon that stuck its head out. Yet even as the bombardment intensified, Starscream and Jazz were engaged in a heated argument that was increasing in volume rapidly. No doubt about it, the uneasy alliance between the recently freed prisoners was starting to fray. But from the noise of the guns outside, if they didn’t get a plan together soon, it wasn’t going to matter.

“I’ll have you know my rank is
air commander
,” hissed Starscream, practically spitting in Jazz’s face. “That means I outrank you.”

“I’ve got news for you,” Jazz shot back. “You’re not in the air anymore. And we don’t need anybody to be in charge; we just need to cooperate. See the difference?”

From the expression on Starscream’s face, he didn’t. “So what are you proposing?”

Jazz gestured at the pit into which the Quintessons had tossed their victims. “We have to go down into the undercity and look for Optimus.”

“I’m not sending any of my people down into that death trap! And certainly not to search for the leader who led you into this mess!”

“It’s not just Optimus,” Prowl yelled. “
Megatron’s
down there, too.”

“He’s a big bot. I’m sure he’ll be able to find his way back here. But if you Autobots want to get down there and take a look, be my guest.”

“And here I was thinking we were supposed to be working together,” Perceptor said.

“We are!” Starscream said. “We’ll stay up here and guard the high ground while you Autobots go dig our leaders out of the rubble. Seems pretty straightforward to me.”

“What’s straightforward is you’re a coward,” Prowl told him.

“Say that again,” Starscream said. “Go on, say it—”

Jazz stepped between the two.

“Listen, Starscream, we need you to send at least
some
of your troopers with us. We’ve got no idea what’s down there.”

“Exactly why I’m not sending anybody. For all we know, you could be trying to send us into a trap. Divide us and then pick us off one by one.”

Perceptor’s face went red. “Unlike you Decepticons, we Autobots keep our word!”

“You dare to insult the honor of the Decepticons?”

“You mean to say you have honor?” Before Starscream could react, Jazz suddenly saw movement in the bottom of the pit. For a moment, he thought that it was Optimus and Megatron, that they had returned.

But then he realized otherwise.

“Sharkticons!” he yelled even as the Sharkticons who had entered the bottom of the pit started firing upward. Simultaneously, explosive charges went off beneath the Hall of Justice, ripping away part of the floor. The next moment, Sharkticons began pouring from the smoking hole, swinging their mace tails and firing lasers from their shoulder-mounted weapon packs.

“They’re inside the perimeter!” Ironhide bellowed as he grabbed a nearby Sharkticon, tore its mace tail clean off its body, and proceeded to use that mace to smash another Sharkticon to bits. Hand-to-hand combat broke out everywhere.

“We’ll finish this later!” Starscream snarled at Jazz, and then: “Decepticons to me! Decepticons to me!” But none of the Decepticons were paying much attention; they were too busy fighting for their lives. In normal circumstances, Starscream immediately would have ordered his jet troopers into the air, but he was wary of the still-active ground-to-air defenses out there; anybody who decided to take off would be an easy target. That meant he was trapped on the ground, fighting side by side with Autobots against impossible odds. He heard more shooting as a second wave of Sharkticons rushed the building from the streets outside.

“Here they come!” said Prowl. He and Jazz and Ratchet were falling back into one of the corners of the Hall of Justice, trying to hold on. Meanwhile, Sunstreaker, Hubcap, and their strike force were coalescing in an arrowhead formation, advancing on the pit, shoving the Sharkticons that were coming out of it back in. As their opponents tumbled to their doom, Sunstreaker whirled around and let loose a barrage of rockets that blasted the Sharkticons emerging from the rift in the floor.

“Hubcap!” he yelled. “Find us a way out of here!”

But Hubcap already had consulted his datapad. “There may not be one! They’re coming in from the undercity! That means we’re trapped!”

“We’ve got to drive these creeps back! Follow me!” Sunstreaker leaped over a Sharkticon, shooting it with his electron-pulse blaster, and as he landed, he switched into vehicle mode and took off at full speed, smashing
through still more Sharkticons. Rodimus also shifted into vehicle form and got a good head of speed, running over Sharkticons while Bumblebee and Kup gave him covering fire. But more swarms just kept coming.

T
WO BLOCKS AWAY
, G
NAW WATCHED THE BATTLE ON THE
main monitor in his massive command tank. He was amazed how much of a fight the Cybertronians were putting up. Surely they had to realize they were outnumbered at least ten to one. That they were trapped like rats with no way out. But Gnaw understood that kind of thinking. If the situation had been reversed, he, too, would have chosen a fight to the death over an ignoble surrender. Why capitulate to an enemy without making him pay as high a price as possible?

The Cybertronians were certainly making this a costly battle. The Hall of Justice destroyed, thousands of Sharkticons knocked out of the action—and this was the extent of the bloodletting just on Aquatron. Gnaw could only guess what kind of resistance the general must be running into on Cybertron itself. But if the Cybertronians wanted annihilation, well, Gnaw was more than happy to oblige. The faces of his divisional commanders appeared on the screen.

“Report,” he said.

“Dorsal Division. All causeways have been cut. There is no way out of the city.”

“Incisor Division. We have secured the area beneath the Hall of Justice and are attempting to break out onto the surface.”

“Razor Division. Our second wave is meeting heavy resistance.”

“Claw Division. Our second wave is being forced back.”

Gnaw turned to an aide-de-camp. “And what of the remaining Cybertronian spaceship?”

“Currently five miles above the city, sir. If it comes in for another strafing run or attempts an evacuation, we won’t be caught napping.”

“Good.” He turned back to his division commanders. “I will personally lead the final assault on the Hall of Justice. But first I will attempt to make these Cybertronians see reason.”

The commanders saluted; the screens went blank.

Gnaw picked up his battle mace and switched channels to address his team of handpicked warriors packed into battle tanks behind his own. “Sharkticons, your hour of glory is here! We will strike at their weakest point and hold it as a beachhead for the other divisions. We will overwhelm and destroy them! Let no Cybertronian remain standing. Forward for victory!” The warriors shook their maces and growled in agreement. Gnaw slapped his helmsman’s shoulder.

“I want you to bring us right to the edge of their defenses. Turn on the speakers and broadcast this message on all channels.”

The helmsman obeyed; the battle tank ground toward the Hall of Justice. As it closed in, Gnaw started telling the Cybertronians what was what:

“Attention, worms; your fight is over. We have you surrounded. Even if you escape, you have nowhere to go. The city of Hydratron is cut off, and your planet is under assault by our mighty legions! I am giving you this one chance to surrender. You have ten seconds to reply.”

The reply came in far less time than that.

“Well?” Gnaw asked.

The communications technician looked puzzled. “They say … ‘bolts’ …?”

“Bolts? What does that mean?”

“I … I don’t know.”

Gnaw pulled his blaster and shot the communications technician dead on the spot.

“Begin the assault,” he said. “No prisoners.”

E
XPLOSIONS ROCKED THE HALL AS THE MAIN WAVE OF
Gnaw’s forces triangulated their firepower. Those Sharkticons who had already stormed forward suddenly found themselves caught between the Cybertronians and their own comrades. They went down like the cannon fodder they were. Ducking another round of blasts, Jazz switched off the com-link and turned to some of the Autobots huddled together under some wreckage.

“I guess he got the message,” he said.

Even Starscream seemed amused. “Well played, Autobot. Let them know none of us is going to roll over and make it easy for them.”

“It may not be that hard,” Jazz said wryly. “They’ve got us pinned down here, and there’s no way we can hold out for long under this firepower.” As if to punctuate the point, a near miss showered them with debris. “So if anybody has any bright ideas, now would be the time to propose ’em.”

“We should take cover in the
Nemesis
,” Starscream said, gesturing at the nose of the starship, which still protruded through the far wall.

“We’re not leaving Optimus!”

“Will you shut up about your precious Optimus?” Starscream said. “The
Nemesis crashed
. Meaning it
can’t fly
. But it’s got to be more defensible than what’s left of this building. A good place for a final stand.”