"Take cover! Take cover!"
Lennox scrambled across the rubble, rolling clear just as a reinforced support wall caved in behind him. Looking up through the haze, his heart sank as a massive silhouette emerged from the dust.
"Humans... you truly are my lucky stars. I spent days turning this sector upside down, and you lead me straight to it the moment you arrive."
A raspy, commanding voice echoed through the ruined chamber. Twin crimson optics flared through the rising smoke, followed by the heavy, deliberate tread of a towering Decepticon.
Catching sight of the scarred armor and the dark silhouette, Lennox's expression twisted beneath his protective visor. "It's you... Skygnaw!"
Skygnaw cast a cold glance at the surviving human soldiers scrambling through the debris, entirely unmoved by their panic.
He stepped toward the console, reaching down to reclaim the starship engine component he had personally planted there earlier.
HOOOOONK—
A deafening air horn blasted through the ruins, sharp and piercing as a marine siren.
The sound reverberated off the cracked concrete, but to Lennox and his squad, it was the sweetest sound on Earth.
Right on cue, Skygnaw thought, turning his helm toward the shattered ceiling as if looking through the ruined concrete at the world outside.
He already knew who had arrived.
Beyond the perimeter, the red and blue Peterbilt truck was tearing down the access road at full throttle.
Optimus Prime had remained on standby outside to avoid spooking their quarry, but the moment Lennox's distress call crackled over the radio, he had charged straight into the complex.
Sensing a massive energy signature comparable to his own, Optimus felt a surge of grim validation.
It was fortunate he had led this mission personally. If the Wreckers or a regular patrol had stumbled into Megatron alone, the outcome would have been catastrophic.
"Wait... this isn't Megatron?"
"Skygnaw? It's you?"
Crashing through the outer perimeter, Optimus caught sight of the figure rising above the rubble, realizing his initial assumption had been wrong.
The Decepticon waiting in Chernobyl was not Megatron, but the long-absent Skygnaw.
THUD.
"Optimus Prime. It has been quite a while," Skygnaw called out across the clearing, offering a faint, mocking greeting.
Much had changed since their last encounter. Three full years had passed since he had walked this world.
In the past, encountering Optimus might have called for a tactical withdrawal, but now...
SWOOSH—
Shoulder-mounted heat-seeking pods flipped open, launching a salvo of spiraling missiles into the air. Skygnaw chose to strike first.
His combat systems were eager for a test. As a fellow Prime-level warrior, Optimus Prime was the ultimate benchmark.
Only a battle against an equal could truly sharpen a warrior's edge; crushing lesser foes was easy, but it offered no real satisfaction.
On the other side of the yard, Lennox hauled the surviving wounded up through the collapsed ground floor.
Just as they broke into the daylight, a stray missile detonated against a nearby pillar, sending shrapnel whistling past their heads.
BOOM!
"Cough... dammit!" Lennox ripped off his cracked, cumbersome helmet. They had missed total annihilation by inches.
With his hazmat suit torn to shreds, radiation exposure was the least of his immediate worries.
"Fall back! Everyone fall back!"
"Clear the combat zone!"
They were living through the brutal reality of what happened when titans clashed and ordinary mortals were caught in the crossfire.
Without heavy armor or air wings, infantry units were completely outmatched.
Questions raced through Lennox's mind—what was that strange alien artifact, why were the Decepticons hunting for it, and why was Skygnaw back on Earth when intelligence claimed he had returned to Cybertron?
Yet none of those questions mattered more than keeping his men breathing.
Operating covertly in Ukrainian airspace meant they could not call down precision airstrikes or cruise missiles, leaving their tactical effectiveness crippled.
A sovereign military power would hardly tolerate foreign cruise missiles flying through its airspace without a diplomatic nightmare.
"Skygnaw! Silverbolt's report was accurate—you truly have attained the rank of a Prime!"
Optimus swerved hard to dodge the missile impacts, braking into a sharp drift before transforming smoothly into his towering robot mode.
"Surprised, Optimus?"
Skygnaw showed no surprise that Optimus knew of his ascension. The Ark had been orbiting Earth for years; he and Shockwave had spotted its silhouette upon entering the system.
Thinking of the Ark, Skygnaw found the Autobots' tactical choices somewhat baffling.
With a deep-space flagship at their disposal, why had they never considered setting up a forward post on the Moon? Was it truly a case of missing what was right under their noses?
In truth, Skygnaw was judging the situation with hindsight.
The Autobots kept the Ark hidden to preserve their fragile partnership with human governments. Optimus had no desire to upset the hard-won stability they currently maintained.
The near side of the Moon was under constant human astronomical surveillance. Landing the Ark there would trigger immediate geopolitical panic.
Setting up a lunar redoubt seemed unnecessary when Megatron was believed to be hiding on Earth anyway.
Vroom—
As Skygnaw and Optimus faced off, the other Autobots who had been holding the perimeter breached the inner compound.
The Wreckers, Bumblebee, and Sideswipe moved in rapidly, taking up flanking positions.
"Skygnaw! You're back!"
The newcomers were just as stunned as their leader. Roadbuster stepped forward, his weapons humming with live charge as he barked:
"What are you doing here, Skygnaw? What kind of twisted plot are you Decepticons running now?!"
Roadbuster's optics burned with fury. He had never forgotten the ambush on Cybertron where his squadmates Twin Twist and Impactor had fallen to Skygnaw and Blackarachnia.
Old blood demanded payment.
"Hmph." Skygnaw scoffed dismissively, not even bothering to look at Roadbuster.
He had long forgotten the subordinate who had fled the battlefield back then.
Keeping his gaze fixed on Optimus Prime, Skygnaw remarked calmly, "Is this how the Autobots operate now? The commander stands back while the grunts bark?"
The standoff was stark: Skygnaw stood solitary against a tightening ring of Autobot veterans, anchored by Optimus Prime himself.
"Skygnaw, whatever brought you back to this world, taking Cybertron was not enough for your faction. You will not conquer Earth while we stand. I will not allow it!"
Optimus delivered his ultimatum with righteous conviction.
Skygnaw inwardly rolled his optics at the grand declaration. When had he ever declared an ambition to conquer Earth?
Those grand campaigns had belonged to the Fallen and Megatron.
Back then, he had simply been an operative following deployment orders. Now that he had returned on his own terms, he had no interest in shouldering blame for past wars.
"Autobots, engage! Do not let him escape!"
"Outnumbering me, are we?"
Skygnaw looked down at the surrounding Autobots. Though tactically isolated, his composure remained unshaken, projecting an aura that suggested everything was going according to plan.
His next words confirmed their worst fears:
"Optimus... who told you I came here alone?"
Before the sentence fully settled, the ground beneath their pedes convulsed violently. The cracked concrete fractured open, and a massive mechanical maw lined with tiered, grinding alloy teeth burst from the earth.
ROAAAR—
The spinning, multi-layered drills surged upward, threatening to swallow the entire Autobot vanguard whole.
"Scatter!"
Bumblebee and Sideswipe leaped clear with practiced agility. Mid-air, Sideswipe timed his throw perfectly, hurling an experimental liquid explosive directly into the churning maw.
BOOM!
A fiery detonation erupted amid showers of pulverized earth. The strike stung the subterranean leviathan, driving it into a blind, thrashing fury.
As the dust settled, the Autobots found themselves staring at a titanic mechanical worm coiled across the ruins.
Standing proudly atop the creature's armored crest was a solitary, cycloptic commander.
"The Driller!"
"Shockwave!"
Leadfoot and Topspin shouted in alarm, instantly recognizing the beast and the calculating Decepticon perched upon its spine.
"Both of you..." Optimus Prime's tone grew heavy with tension, his earlier confidence vanishing.
Holding off Skygnaw alone had been a manageable tactical scenario. But facing both Skygnaw and Shockwave backed by a subterranean siege beast altered the battlefield balance entirely.
"Autobots, cover me!"
Optimus roared, sprinting toward the white trailer he had left by the perimeter.
Before the Decepticons could intercept, Optimus struck a release panel on the container's chassis.
CLACK.
With a cascade of mechanical shifts, the trailer unfolded, deploying into a massive, freestanding weapons ring.
Mounted across the ring were specialized heavy armaments—blades, energy shields, and advanced ordnance.
Among them was a dark, ornate lance that made Skygnaw's optics narrow sharply the moment he caught sight of it.
Are you kidding me?
A wave of disbelief washed over Skygnaw.
He should have anticipated this.
He recognized the weapon immediately: the Requiem Blaster lance, the signature relic wielded by the Fallen.
The rest of the arsenal was just as formidable.
Even now, the heavy propulsion unit separating from the rack and locking onto Optimus Prime's back was the flight apparatus salvaged from Jetfire's frame.
Unbelievable.
Skygnaw felt a sudden flash of annoyance at the unintended charity left behind by the Fallen and Jetfire. That lance was a devastating ancient relic.
He was not entirely confident his Prime-tier chassis could take a direct piercing strike from that weapon unscathed. He had witnessed Optimus impale the Fallen with that very lance during the desert campaign.
Optimus was naturally skilled with heavy blades, and martial proficiency translated seamlessly across melee weapons. An expert swordsman was just as lethal with a spear.
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