Chương 32: LOG-030.

The forest was quiet, with the exception of the heavy footfalls of well over three dozen cybertronians marching through the area. Some of the predacons flew, of course. But most had seemingly elected to remain on the ground, with me. I had managed to effectively activate every one of my creations, and as a result, I was now left with a small army's worth of curious and incredibly powerful mechs and femmes following in my wake.

Adam had spent a solid three minutes just staring at the groundbridge in wonder before a pair of Zakus were able to prod him through. Our purpose in the forest we now found ourselves in? Training. Of a sort. The predacons did not require training in the traditional sense, thankfully. We wouldn't have had time for such a thing considering the timetable we were operating off of. No, they were already born killers. We just needed to awaken those instincts in them.

I'd left Indomina in charge of that particular endeavor. I would merely be staying with the group for observation and to provide emergency medical aid if needed. However, I did have another project I'd been working on. Just a small one. A... test, of my new internal fabricator's capabilities. So as the predacons all grouped up into sparring pairs under Indomina's proud direction, I sat down on a fallen tree log, careful to balance my weight, before turning my own attention inward and focusing.

The excited chatter of the predacons faded away, replaced with a strut deep silence. I offlined my optic, imagining the fabricator nestled within my servo. And then, I ordered the release of it's payload. The nanolathe firing up and directing a stream of green mist backwards, towards my own systems. Namely, my comm unit. It wasn't the Forge. It wouldn't provide me with ideas and schematics on how to improve the unit. But I didn't need that.

I could plan my own upgrades just fine, thank you very much, and that's exactly what I did, beginning the metamorphosis of my comm unit into something more... complex. It was just a proof of concept of course. I didn't have nearly enough power to support the long, vast ranges I was designing my new communicator for. But if it worked on me... well. Once I figured out a way to boost the Nemesis' onboard communications array... I might just be able to start contacting other cybertronians, wherever they might be.

Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. In turn, I finally might get a chance to start bringing our lost people back together. I just needed to defeat a god first. No big deal.

"Does this count as like, a training montage or something?" Adam's question was ignored by Umbra as she lashed out with a kick, aiming to skewer the mech with her pede's sharp heel. Thankfully, for his helm's integrity that is, he managed to duck with a yelp just in the nick of time. The femme backed off, shrugging.

"Dunno. I've watched a few clips on youtube and it kinda implies learning stuff from a mentor figure or something? This feels more like-ngh!" She grunted, crossing her arms in a forward block as Adam slammed a fist into a suddenly present shield barrier.

"-more like rediscovering something that was always there, you know?" Her sparring partner nodded, briefly pausing as a screaming Airazor was whirled around and thrown into a tree by a happily buzzing Wasp.

"Yeah, I guess so."

Zombie patrol was, in Brawl's humble opinion, very relaxing. His assigned squad of vehicons didn't seem to think so, a few of them whipping their visors (and blasters) around at even the slightest noise as they advanced through the swampy terrain they'd found themselves in. But hey, that was their opinion. He reckoned it was a superior way to spend their time, better than rusting in place on garrison duty, at least.

All the noise generated from the massive mining operation got his circuits buzzing and his audio receptors aching something fierce. Pausing as they reached the designated rally point, the group of Decepticons took on a standard defensive formation, waiting. It was only a little while before figures began to make their way out from the heavy, unnatural looking mist that had sprung up practically overnight, reducing visibility to near zero. The Destroyer's influence, according to his superiors.

The evil being was emitting large pockets of gas as they dug deeper, presumably to either make the work harder or to allow for more ambushes. Thankfully, this wasn't yet another surprise attack by rusted corpses. Two pairs of blue optics pierced through the mist as the Autobots approached, a smaller blue femme and the black and yellow scout. Stepping forward, Brawl inclined his helm.

"Brawl, scour team three. All designated quadrants are secure." The femme nodded, and that's when Brawl noticed a hint of purple on one of her servos.

"Had some resistance on our end, but we managed to deal with them without too much fuss." She paused, looking away for a moment.

"More ancient cybertronians. Autobot and Decepticon alike. We think they've been moving underground somehow, maybe using Unicron's own internal network to get past the crust and pop out over here but we can't be sure until we get an actual look." She rolled her shoulders for a moment, shifting her servo into a blade and shaking it in order to flick some of the corrupted energon off of her arm.

"As for the ones we tangled with, they'll need a proper disposal team to offline them permanently, but they won't be wandering off from their positions any time soon. No limbs left to shamble around with and all that." Brawl nodded, already reporting the details over to the command post that had been set up at the breach point. Dreadwing would likely be glad to know about possible subterranean interference, and the disposal teams would arrive shortly.

The zombies, as Shockwave had been quick to name them, didn't die in the traditional sense. Despite literally catastrophic damage, they continued moving until the disturbing antisparks powering them were removed and evaporated entirely. As a result, removing their limbs had become standard procedure, preparing them for transport and termination. The fact that they only really seemed to pop up in small packs definitely made things a lot easier.

Brawl remembered the old report of the horde Megatron had tried to enact control of. That entire period felt like a distant memory, despite not actually being that long ago. As the upgraded mech continued coordinating with the breach point's garrison, a vehicon stepped forward, glancing around warily.

"Any signs of recently converted bots?" At that, the scout shook his helm, warbling a negative to the trooper's obvious relief. Brawl was glad for it too. It wasn't nice, having to put down mechs you'd considered comrades in arms just a few cycles ago. The femme glanced at the group for a moment, before awkwardly pointing a digit towards the mist.

"Well... we'll be going then. Gonna check over the tertiary perimeter." Brawl nodded.

"Of course. Stay safe you two." She paused at that, before slowly nodding back at him.

"You as well." And just like that, the two turned around, transforming into a pair of human-based vehicles and roaring off into the mist. Brawl idly sent a message to Shockwave, for the Commander's later perusal. Relations with the Autobots were steadily increasing. All according to plan.