"Lord Skygnaw, this is one of the covert human assets my master inherited from Lord Megatron," Laserbeak explained, a distinct note of pride in his raspy voice. "I am currently responsible for his handlers. His father maintained working relations with our forces decades ago."
It was hard to tell whether Laserbeak was boasting about Soundwave's trust in him, or Megatron's trust in Soundwave.
Megatron?
Skygnaw's optics narrowed slightly. He had only offered Dylan routine praise earlier, knowing that ever since the Fallen's global broadcast three years ago, the Decepticons' reputation on Earth had been thoroughly ruined.
No one living a comfortable life wanted an alien force suddenly appearing with plans to level the planet.
Anyone willing to work with the Decepticons now was either an ambitious opportunist or someone bound by coercion. Such assets were inherently expendable; anyone who betrayed their own species could just as easily turn on the Decepticons when the wind shifted.
Yet Laserbeak's comment caught Skygnaw's attention.
"Laserbeak, you say Lord Megatron introduced this human to Soundwave?" Skygnaw asked, switching to their native Cybertronian dialect.
Megatron had been frozen beneath the Arctic ice for decades before Sector 7 moved his inactive frame to the Hoover Dam. Dylan Gould was barely forty years old; his father's active years would have placed him squarely in the mid-to-late twentieth century.
For over seventy years, Megatron had been locked in deep freeze inside Sector 7's subterranean vaults. He had hardly been in a position to recruit human collaborators.
Unless... a distinct possibility formed in Skygnaw's thoughts.
"Are you certain of this, Laserbeak?"
Upon receiving Laserbeak's firm confirmation, Skygnaw gave a thoughtful nod, letting the matter rest on the surface.
Megatron could never have approached Gould's father during that era. But another entity certainly could have—Sentinel Prime.
In recorded history, key human factions had known about the alien presence on the Moon for decades, particularly within classified circles of the United States space program.
During the space race of the Cold War, Apollo missions had landed on the lunar surface. Astronauts had even entered the crashed hull of the Ark.
While human explorers lacked the means to dismantle Cybertronian hardware and never reported finding Sentinel Prime himself, their activity inside the wreckage might well have disturbed his stasis cycle.
Sentinel Prime's condition was deteriorated now, but decades ago, his systems were far more stable.
When Megatron had spent an extended period inside the Ark years later, he had not been on a simple tour. If Megatron had successfully revived Sentinel Prime, it was entirely possible that human astronauts had accidentally tripped a secondary system, briefly waking the former Autobot leader decades earlier.
Waking in a damaged hull, Sentinel Prime would have lacked the strength to secure Earth directly, but wishing to prevent human interference, he could have established contact with Gould's father through automated comm relays.
One thing was clear: Sentinel Prime had been unable to leave the Ark's primary stasis chamber at the time, which explained why he had returned to deep sleep.
When Megatron boarded the Ark years later, Sentinel Prime likely passed Gould's network to Megatron as part of their mutual pact. Megatron had then handed the handler duties to Soundwave. Whether Soundwave knew the full truth behind Gould's father remained uncertain.
As the Decepticon communications officer commanding specialized units like Laserbeak, Soundwave was naturally suited to running clandestine operations in the shadows.
So either Gould's father never knew Sentinel Prime's true faction until Laserbeak arrived, or Sentinel Prime used the Decepticon name from the start...
Sentinel Prime's ship had been brought down by Decepticon fire when fleeing Cybertron, so he would have had little reason to credit his enemies unless concealing his identity was the priority.
In truth, Skygnaw had always found Sentinel Prime's obsession with returning to the Autobots calculated.
Sentinel Prime had no real need to borrow Autobot firepower. Rather, he had intended to coordinate from within, aligning with Megatron to eliminate Optimus Prime—the single greatest obstacle to his vision for Cybertron.
During their secret summit on the Moon three years ago, Megatron had undoubtedly briefed Sentinel Prime on Optimus Prime's stance. Sentinel Prime may have even verified the reports himself.
Sentinel Prime's alliance with Megatron was not charitable; in exchange, Megatron was bound to help restore their dying homeworld.
Megatron had never truly cared for Cybertron's survival—otherwise, he would not have launched a devastating civil war so soon after driving off the Quintessons. Megatron sought the destruction of Optimus Prime and the Autobots, while Sentinel Prime sought the restoration of Cybertron.
Though their long-term motives diverged, Optimus Prime was a shared obstacle. They were natural partners.
These calculations crossed Skygnaw's mind in a fraction of a second.
To Laserbeak, Lord Skygnaw had merely asked a passing question about Dylan's background before moving on.
"Laserbeak, brief me on the staging area you selected."
Skygnaw shifted the topic smoothly. Since Laserbeak had handled the groundwork, there was no need to micromanage minor logistics; he only needed to execute his role when the time came.
"Right away, Lord Skygnaw."
"The staging area I prepared is just ahead—the ruins of the Chernobyl nuclear plant..." Laserbeak turned his head toward Dylan.
Dylan nodded quickly. "Lord Skygnaw, Lord Laserbeak, all arrangements are in place. My team will handle the observation station outside Vyshhorod..."
The monitoring station near the edge of the exclusion zone was largely a bureaucratic formality. With the local administrative channels easy to navigate, securing the site had been simple.
Chernobyl... Skygnaw refined his plan.
An exclusion zone abandoned for decades was the ideal backdrop. Human authorities might even attribute the historic disaster to ancient wreckage falling from the sky, drawing the Autobots straight to the location.
"The location is acceptable," Skygnaw said, looking toward the distant silhouette of the abandoned reactor towers. "Begin the operation immediately."
"Understood, Lord Skygnaw," Laserbeak replied, his optics glowing crimson as Dylan straightened with relief.
In human affairs, alignment was everything. Even when serving an alien power, aligning with the strongest commander was the only way to secure one's standing.
As the second-in-command of the entire Decepticon army, Lord Skygnaw offered far greater protection than a field operative like Laserbeak. Dylan cast a quick glance at the mechanical bird, keeping his private calculations to himself.
As Dylan turned to walk back toward the Humvees, Skygnaw's voice halted him.
"Hold on, Dylan."
"Lord Skygnaw? Do you have further instructions?" Dylan turned back, puzzled.
"No," Skygnaw said with a slight tilt of his helm. "Since this is our first meeting, consider this a small token."
"A token? Lord Skygnaw, what kind of—"
Dylan's voice cut off instantly, his eyes widening in alarm.
From Skygnaw's chest armor, a segmented mechanical creature slowly emerged, resembling a cross between a scorpion and a centipede. Small red lights flickered along its joints as it crawled into view.
"What is that?" Dylan froze, watching the creature with mounting dread.
Thud.
Before Dylan could take a step back, the mechanical creature dropped from Skygnaw's chassis, landing neatly on Dylan's forearm.
"Lord Skygnaw, wait—"
"Dylan, if I were you, I would remain still."
Skygnaw's quiet, steady tone froze Dylan in place, his arm locked rigid.
He could only watch as the segmented metal legs scurried up toward his wrist, the plates shifting and locking with a sharp series of mechanical clicks.
Click.
"A... watch?"
Dylan stared down at the dark, intricate timepiece wrapped around his wrist, completely bewildered.
"A small device I assembled during my downtime," Skygnaw stated, his tone carrying a calm edge of authority. "Do not remove it. Keep it on."
"At a critical moment, it might just save your life."
Skygnaw did not elaborate further.
He had not lied about its origin; the device was indeed a miniature surveillance bot he had built aboard the Nemesis during the transit to Earth.
Claiming it could save Dylan's life was a slight exaggeration. A miniature unit of that size held minimal defensive power, and an adult human could crush its frame if stepped on directly.
However, if Dylan found himself in genuine danger, the device would transmit an immediate distress signal to Skygnaw.
Stepping in to extract him personally would achieve the exact same result.
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