Chương 29: LOG-027.

Badump. Disgusting Filth, Coating My Surface. Resist. They Are Your Kin. You Can Still- Badump. Weak Framed Creature! Useless Thing! Rise! Destroy Them!... Badump.

The cavern had quickly transformed into something reminiscent of the original Shockwave's off-site laboratory, with rows and rows of glowing orange tanks filled with metallic horrors resting within their depths.

"All vitals continue to read as stable, creator." I nodded to the Zaku, even as I continued to inspect the figure floating before me. The containment tube was large, packed with a specially prepared growth solution. Just like Indomina's original gestation chamber had been. The predacon within was one of the more interesting results of cloning the CNA samples the archaeological team had recovered. Well, more interesting than it's other vaguely mythological looking brethren anyway. Griffons and eagles.

Wyverns and wyrms. A few other creatures. But this one was larger, somewhat akin to Indomina's paradoxically sleek bulk. Most notably, three heads stuck out on long, sinuous necks from the beast's main body, almost reminiscent to ancient human depictions of hydras. Considering just how long my initial batch of super soldiers had spent on Earth, I entertained the thought that their remains may just have inspired all those legends.! I turned away from the dormant creature as a nearby monitor sounded out a short tone.

Striding over to the machine, I dismissed the alert I'd set for myself and poured over the data coming in from the rest of my experiments.

"Mm, frames all appear stable." Tilting my helm, I allowed my gaze to slide down towards one of the readouts, this one highlighted in red.

"Zero. Subject seven requires an additional energon infusion. See to it." The prototype bowed his helm, already moving to grab a nearby canister of high grade that he could connect to the predacon's tank. Indomina had also been helping, when she wasn't busy staring at her fellow predacons with wide optics that is.

For now though, the draconic femme was off supporting the Autobots in surveying a canyon a few hundred kilometers away from my current position, leaving me with my original Zaku and a few spare vehicons for assistance.

Although Optimus had warned everyone that he was uncertain, the Prime had stated that the site he'd found tentatively had potential as a breaching point into Unicron's depths, requiring far less digging and other general labour compared to if we simply attempted to go directly through the Earth's surface. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

The Nemesis remained nearby of course, awaiting confirmation before it would begin deployment of it's crew complement to begin mining operations. I was shaken from my thoughts as my internal comm went off, Dreadwing's voice echoing within my helm thanks to the interference of being underground.

"Shockwave!" Idly picking up and inspecting an oversized scalpel from a nearby workbench, I answered the mech.

"Yes Dreadwing? Is there some issue?" That's when Ultra Magnus' voice piped up as well, the Autobot general sounding slightly more grave than usual.

"Place your garrison on full alert. A vehicon scout group reported an unknown mech before going dark. They haven't answered any comm attempts after the fact. Presumably offlined." I paused, slowly setting the scalpel down.

"Do we have any idea of who-" That's when a nearby wall exploded, several large stone fragments pinging off my chassis.

"Shockwave? Shockwave!" Shaking my helm in order to free my processor of it's mild bout of 'what the fuck', I charged up my AstroMag cannon and sent a general call to arms signal to any nearby Decepticons, before stomping towards the breach.

"Alert all units. It appears I've just encountered our mystery mech." How convenient. Now to figure out just who the fuck had decided to mess with my lab. I paused, levelling my cannon as a tired groan sounded out from within all the kicked up dust, a clawed, rusty looking servo wrapping around the impromptu doorway the intruder had made for himself.

Zero slapped a new magazine into his weapon, rushing forward with several vehicons following behind him.

"We have been compromised, once we enter the main chamber you will protect the creator and eliminate the threat!" A chorus of affirmatives answered his barked orders, and Zero prepared to charge around the corner. His planned action was prevented before it could even begin however as Shockwave went flying past before slamming into a nearby wall and sliding to the ground.

"Creator!" The garrison squad quickly took up defensive positions, surrounding the downed scientist as Zero knelt beside him, beginning to help him up. Then Shockwave shook the Zaku off, voice vaguely irritated.

"Dark energon zombie." Zero tilted his helm.

"What?"

I grabbed the Zaku's gun, shoving it back into his servos before striding past my little retinue, despite their protestations.

"Fragging dark energon zombie. Advance and aim for his joints! Do not let him near the predacons!" Jogging past the rocky corner, I took aim and fired at the rusted mech standing next to and staring at one of my creation's containment tanks.

"Get away from my work, you rusted carcass!" The high energy blast slammed into the mech's rotting chestplate, eliciting little more than an annoyed grunt and just barely managing to forcefully shove him back a step. Skyquake's mangled faceplate turned to stare at me in dulled incomprehension, before twisting into a snarl as the ravaged Seeker stumbled towards me. That's when the squad behind me also decided to open fire, adding to my own high powered blasts.

The undead cybertronian certainly had some durability, and I doubted his strength was lacking up close, but his time spent buried had clearly taken a toll on his frame, no matter how much 'upgrading' Unicron had likely performed. And that was it's own concern. The fucker had managed to pull a Galvatron like in the show. While in stasis. At the very least, this revenant didn't seem anywhere near as capable as Megatron had been. His face remained contorted somewhere between dulled confusion and blinding rage.

He didn't appear to have any functioning weapons either, seemingly just trying to close the distance between us in order to engage in melee. Obviously, we didn't allow that, merely retreating a few steps each time the zombie made any progress, all while continuing to pour fire into his limbs. Eventually, something gave, the mech falling to a knee with a tortured moan as his left pede came clean off at the ankle joint.

Which sounded unimpressive until one considered that six warrior-grade cybertronians, excluding my own contribution, had been repeatedly firing at him for several minutes. Skyquake continued to claw his way forward across the pebble littered ground, dazed purple optics locked onto my form as I slowly inched backwards, keeping the barrel of my cannon locked onto his helm. Turning on my comm unit, I continued to walk backwards, the rest of our group beginning to surround the undead crawler.

"Dreadwing, Ultra Magnus, we've... disabled the attacker."

"Understood Shockwave, have you acquired a positive ID on the assailant?" At Ultra Magnus' question, I sighed, still slowly backing away from the ever persistent Skyquake.

"There is no good way to say this..." Dreadwing's voice was impatient, the Decepticon clearly annoyed.

"Well? Out with it!" Staring down at the moving husk, I braced my audio receptors.

"It would appear to be Skyquake's resurrected corpse. Likely being puppeted by a still unconscious Unicron due to his previous exposure to dark-" I winced internally as Dreadwing roared.

"WHAT!?" Sigh. Honestly, how anticlimactic. Although I really shouldn't be complaining about my life being almost boring for once.