Chương 30: LOG-028.

The lab had been suffused with a tense air ever since Skyquake had been brought aboard, which in and of itself had been a complicated process. Well... no. That would be a lie. We'd simply had Soundwave open up a groundbridge and led the crawling zombie into the lab aboard the Nemesis, where it was promptly manhandled and restrained to a spare operating berth by Brawl and Indomina respectively.

The two large warriors had attempted to remain within the lab for 'my own safety' but I'd swiftly ordered the pair outside for the extra space, on the condition that they be allowed to wait just outside the door in case of emergency. Didn't need one of them getting twitchy and accidentally blowing the subject's helm off after it twitched too much, after all. Besides, Skyquake wasn't going anywhere anytime soon, that was for sure.

The energon restraints had been adjusted to their max durability settings, and had been locked around his torso, neck, servos and remaining leg respectively.

"Can he not even have peace?" I turned my helm silently, staring at Dreadwing's still form. The mech's servos had balled up into fists, firmly held at his sides. His tense posture didn't manage to hide the sound of his hands rattling however.

"My brother. A proud, loyal Decepticon. And he's been reduced to this..." I watched Knockout shift slightly, leaning back against a nearby wall with his arms crossed. The red medic's faceplate was unusually blank, even if his attentive posture betrayed his slight curiosity at Skyquake's condition as the reanimated cybertronian continued to thrash within his restraints, letting out pained sounding moans as his dazed purple optics continued to dart between the three of us.

At the very least, the crimson racer was smart enough to avoid making any stupid comments. Stepping forward, I allowed a single digit to shift into an alternate configuration, pressing a small probe with an injector attached to it against Skyquake's right optic, letting it run a diagnostic on the small trickle of dark energon leaking out of it. It almost looked like he was crying, honestly.

Which was an odd (and somewhat disturbing) sight considering cybertronians didn't even have anything resembling human tear ducts.

"Skyquake's condition is... deplorable, yes. But at the very least he can help the cause one last time." The zombie groaned as I continued to slowly push the probe past his optic, reaching deeper into his helm. Almost there... just a little bit more before I had access to his processor.

"What are you doing to him, Shockwave?" Slowly easing the probe past a tightly bound cluster of circuitry, I bypassed the secondary node, aiming for the main processor.

"I'm attempting to decipher whether there's anything left of Skyquake, other than his chassis of course." Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators! The Seeker mumbled some sort of response, but his words were lost to me as the probe reported a positive connection. [PHYSICAL CONNECTION: ESTABLISHED.] [DEPLOYING NANOLATHE SYSTEM.] Unseen by my fellow Decepticons, the small fabricator I had successfully reverse engineered and installed into my lone servo activated, flooding the interior of Skyquake's processor with a light green mist. It was still an extremely primitive (and limited) copy when compared to something like the Forge, only truly being able to scan things and at best make minor modifications, but it was tangible proof that a mystical relic of legend could eventually be replicated. That was enough for me. For now.

And more relevant to the moment, it allowed the sub-processor I'd installed at the base of my spinal-strut to link to the nanomachines infiltrating the thrashing zombie's heavily damaged mind. It could be compared to a cortical psychic patch, but only in the most technical of ways. Where as the patch linked two separate processors, allowing one to invade the other and observe it's internal data in a sort of dream, this method involved physically inspecting the processor, and altering it if needed. Coding included.

The optics simply presented an easy entry point, of course. Now, let's see if I could... aha! [DEACTIVATING TARGET MOTOR SYSTEMS.] And just like that, Skyquake was no longer thrashing, his hungering consciousness trapped within his own body. Dreadwing had taken a step back, even as Knockout leaned forward.

"Did you do that?" I nodded, continuing to pour over the data streaming in from the undead mech's barely intact processor.

"Yes. His anti-virus protocols are practically non-existent and even if they were still available, he clearly lacks the mental faculties to use them. I've simply disabled his motor functions for now." Tilting my helm forward to inspect the probe's entry point, I continued to go through Skyquake's heavily damaged psyche with a fine toothed comb.

"Hm." Now that was interesting. Dreadwing sounded even less pleased now that I was rooting around his resurrected brother's brainpan, his denta practically grinding against each other as he ground out his next question.

"What? What is it?" I gestured to the motionless terrorcon with my cannon's barrel, shrugging my shoulder plates slightly.

"Despite the incredibly large amount of corruption present in nearly all levels of his processor's internal code, fragments of his original state appear to be scattered throughout various sub-systems, locked in a state of quarantine." Dreadwing growled.

"In plain cybertronian, Shockwave. What does that mean?" I grunted, slowly extracting my digit from the mech's now heavily damaged optic.

"It means that small parts of Skyquake's personality may still be in there-" I quickly raised a servo, cutting off the flurry of questions I knew Dreadwing would throw at me.

"-but don't take that as his survival. It is merely a set of pieces belonging to a long dead greater whole. I haven't even seen the state of his spark and t-cog yet." At that, the hope in Dreadwing's optics died out a great deal, the mech going from hopeful to sullen in less than a second. It was Knockout who eventually spoke up, tapping a clawed digit against his hip.

"But there is something in there. Surely you of all mechs could perform some sort of salvage?" I paused, considering the idea.

"... Perhaps. It will require further study, and I still have to keep continous tabs on project Predacon to avoid possible accidents but... I will look into it." I tilted my helm towards the door as I reached for a nearby plasmasaw. I'd need the high-energy tool if I was going to get access to Skyquake's innards anytime soon.

"Now leave me be. The rest still need to be informed and a search party sent to recover the corpses of our lost patrol. For all we know, they could be compromised as well. Go. Before this becomes any more of a mess than it already is." At my warning, Dreadwing nodded seriously, casting one last glance at his altered brother before striding outside with purpose in his pedesteps. Knockout remained behind for a moment, staring at me.

"You've already informed Soundwave of the situation, haven't you? And Ultra Magnus knows as well..." I paused in my powering of the saw as the medic smirked slightly.

"You did that for Dreadwing's benefit, didn't you?" I turned to look at the medic for a moment, then shrugged in a mostly noncommittal fashion.

"It's only optimal that he have a solid goal in mind. Leaving him to his own devices could result in any number of issues." Knockout nodded, even as his smirk widened into an only somewhat incredulous looking smile.

"Sure, sure. Just nice to see that you care somewhat. In your own way." The mech turned around, preparing to leave. He stopped as I called out.

"Someone has to pay heed to the mental health of our forces. You already have your servos full with the physical aspects." At that, Knockout let out a chuckle, before exiting the boundary of my lab. Leaving me to see what I could save from the silent husk strapped to my berth. Just another day as a scientist, I supposed. Mm.