Chương 38: LOG-035.

The air was still as our mixed force continued to navigate it's way through the darkness, low-light sensors mixing with the illumination of our optics to provide a decent view of our surroundings. We'd been picking up more and more transmissions, both from the vanguard and garrison forces as all three groups continued to get closer and break through the anti-bodies blocking their path, but that was an idle thought at best. No, what mattered was that we weren't alone in this particular tunnel.

"Do you feel it?" I nodded as Backbite leaned forward, blaster scanning our peripherals. Airazor frowned from atop the reformatted mech's shoulders.

"Feel what?" Waving my Zakus closer with a servo, I answered the Predacon's uncertain question.

"We are being observed. Ready yourselves, I anticipate an atta-" That's when the sound of cracking and shifting dirt surrounded us, dust and rock being thrown into the air. And then? Figures dragging themselves out of the newly made holes, the sickly purple light erupting from their rusted frames conveniently illuminating their forms just enough that I could properly observe them. Terrorcons. Dozens of them.

One of the stumbling monsters made to leap forward, jagged claws outstretched and shattered maw agape and filled with crude excuses for denta, only to be sent flying back as an orange blast of energy slammed into it's chest, forcing it into a wall. The terrorcon didn't get up after sliding down from it's position, though I couldn't really blame it considering the massive freshly made hole in it's chest, alongside the fact that the purple glow of it's antispark had ceased as well.

Backbite's alpha strike was met with an unending cacophony as the undead horde began to barrel towards us. Levelling my AstroMag cannon, I shouted over the almost painful noise.

"Aim for limbs or center mass! Fire!" I put word to action, knocking a few of the monsters down with my own blasts even as my creations closed ranks around me, raising their weapons and unleashing a barrage of shots that were quickly sent downrange, physically pushing the swarm of undead creatures back for a moment through sheer weight of fire. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. That's when Adam stepped forward, transforming into his alt mode.

A vaguely draconic looking creature, one that quickly opened it's sharp maw and unleashed a wave of fire that promptly set a solid portion of the terrorcons alight. The rusted cybertronians' reactions to the napalm-like substance sticking to their frames was as varied as it was interesting.

Some fell to the ground, rolling around in a desperate attempt to shake the liquid fire off of themselves even as others charged at us even faster in an attempt to get in claw range before the flames could seep through the numerous cracks in their armour. Nonetheless, the final outcome was always inevitably the same. Their shattered sparkchambers failed to protect them from the heat, igniting their anti-sparks.

Their screams somehow got even louder as the inner light hidden beneath their corrupted, warped frames began to glow a violent mix between purple and yellow, before finally exploding into scattered, smoking pieces. Of course, for every ten terrorcons we managed to destroy, one managed to make it through our metaphorical and quite literal wave of fire.

That's where the Zakus came in, the production model mechs holstering their rifles and equipping their heat-axes, lunging forward to meet their undead enemies in a vicious melee. I thanked my past self for my decision in implementing that particular design choice. I'd mostly done it for aesthetic reasons back then, but the melee weapons were proving themselves more than effective now.

My Zakus swung, chopped and slashed, their weapons digging into and then through the fractured armour of the terrorcons with the hissing, crackling and popping sounds of metal being forced to give way to sharper, hotter and more durable metal. Finally, the heated weapons breached the terrorcons' sparkchambers, igniting the antisparks within.

As the creatures began to glow and scream, my troops either kicked them back into the still burning swarm or forcibly lifted them, before throwing the now shrieking bombs back the way they came. Despite the fight having felt longer, my internal chronometer noted we'd only been fending off the seemingly overwhelming numbers for a little under three minutes before the horde began to wane, before finally stopping altogether.

In the aftermath, all that was left were still screaming figures stuck to the floor, their joints melted, or slow moving crawlers that feebly attempted to drag their way towards us on barely functional limbs. Airazor hopped off of Backbite's shoulders, walking forward with an upraised blaster and slowly taking aim at one of the crawling terrorcons. The femme looked up as a servo landed on her shoulder, her reformatted brother shaking his helm and gesturing to the determined anklebiter.

"It's a waste of ammunition. Just do this instead." Then the transformed Predacon promptly lifted a pede, before slamming it down atop the undead abomination, caving the creature's back in and snuffing it's antispark out for good. Airazor uttered a quiet 'oh', before glancing my way. I nodded my helm, stepping forward and raising one of my own pedes to begin eliminating the stragglers.

"Standard Decepticon procedure on battlegrounds that lack an abundance in energon. Dispatching downed enemies through melee is a perfectly viable strategy for conserving ammunition." Crunch. Backbite piped up as he stomped down on another quietly growling terrorcon, the creature's dark energy seemingly spent after being quite effectively melded to the floor.

"Indeed. Don't bother shooting them. Just stomp them flat." Airazor spared Adam a glance, the two siblings turning to stare as the Zakus joined us in either chopping the terrorcons apart with their axes, or merely smashing them to pieces with their pedes. The two shrugged to themselves, Adam transforming back into his root mode and striding over to stand beside me, even as Airazor followed along behind Backbite, her smaller pedes digging sharp holes through the frames of the zombots she targeted.

As we made our way out of the tunnel, we left a fairly large trail of dark energon coated footprints while making our way onto a familiar sight for my human memories. A titanic series of intercrossing bridges. We were getting close to our objective. That's when we heard the sound of blaster fire in the distance. Venting air, I gestured to the direction of the echoing sounds with a servo.

"I believe we've found the vanguard force. Everyone advance at speed." Shifting into our respective alt modes, the interesting sight of a trio of mechanical creatures surrounded by a column of alien tanks steadily began to make it's way through the long bridge we'd found ourselves on, heading towards the next fight. With luck and a hefty amount of firepower, this would all be over relatively soon.... I'd still destroy anything remotely important looking I came across though.

One could never be too careful after all.