Chương 50: INTERCEPTED DATA-005. ZERO.

"We are leaving for Cybertron. You are not." In the immense darkness of the chamber housing what was once Unicron's core, Zero pondered his creator's command, propped up against one of the many machines left behind by the garrison squad that had previously occupied this space. The Nemesis had long since left communication's range, travelling through the concealed spacebridge in order to embark on its journey. With its absence, most of the forces present on the Earth's surface had been recalled. Most. But not all.

Squad black had consisted of a fairly small group of Vehicons that could be trusted to keep quiet about delicate matters, alongside a few Zakus. And Brawl, of course. Nearly all of them were gone now. Leaving just Zero and his original brothers. Just four Zakus, left behind to 'investigate a hypothesis.' Any normal Cybertronian would likely have felt irritation. Possibly even betrayal, at being left behind. At being denied the opportunity to witness their homeworld's restoration. Zero knew better.

So did Z-1, Z-2, and Z-3. The Creator had left them behind because they could be trusted. Without question and without hesitation. They may have been forged upon the ruins of Cybertron, but they held no loyalty to the planet. Only to Shockwave. They didn't really care about the dead world being revived. Just that their Creator cared.

And thus, when the scientist had ordered that they remain behind, they had obeyed those orders and waited quietly in the depths of Unicron's transformation locked frame, allowing everyone else to leave. Unaware that the four of them were missing from the ship's roster. When he had directly downloaded several small information-modules into Zero's processor, the Zaku had merely requested further orders. And when those orders had been to wait a while, then crack Unicron's core open to take a quick look inside? Well.

They had obeyed, of course. Waiting patiently once more for the ship, and everyone on it, to leave Earth, and the Sol system entirely. That had been about two Earth solar cycles ago. Sufficient time to ensure that the Nemesis was well and truly gone. Now Zero stood, silently standing vigil as two of his brothers carefully operated an industrial mining apparatus left behind by squad black. All while the last member of their little group tapped away at a datapad.

The sound of high energy particles sizzling through layers upon layers of derelict metal continued for the next few hours. In that time, little to no conversation was shared between the four constructs. Most Cybertronians always sought some form of communication. The original Zakus merely contented themselves with being in each other's respective company. They needed little else. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.

Up until Z-3 glanced up from the data slate clutched close to his helm, waving a servo towards the rapidly expanding fault within the core's deactivated form.

"Structural breach due in t-minus fifteen seconds. Brace for potential collapse." Z-1 and Z-2 nodded silently in response, quickly stepping back and allowing the apparatus to continue uninterrupted. Precisely fifteen seconds later, the machine was crushed to pieces as several large shards of rusted metal chipped away from the increasingly large crack splintering the side of the core, the fragments slamming down upon both apparatus and earth with a screech of metal and an ominous rumble.

For the next few moments, the Zakus remained motionless as dust spread throughout the chamber, before finally settling at their pedes.

"Advancing through the breach." Routing additional power to his mono-optic, Zero allowed the red light erupting from his helm to guide him forward past the hole they'd effectively seared into the core. The air within had likely been still for longer than even the Creator had been online, only now being disturbed as chamber particles and other foreign material poured in just behind Zero.

"Status?" Z-2's question lingered for a moment as Zero paused, looking up. And up.

"Anomaly detected. Potentially matches the description given to us by the Creator." Even with the light from his optic forcing parts of it into view, the vast majority of the unknown construct remained shrouded in shadow. All his carefully estimated thirteen meters of it. Its frame was humanoid. At least, in the most technical sense. Four limbs and bipedal. That was... somewhat close. It looked like an almost primitive version of them. Lacking all of the complex features inherent to Cybertronian life.

It had no neck, its helm seemingly built into its torso, bearing a singular, offline mono-optic. Its shoulders seemed more like convenient missile platforms than anything else. Its pedes shared more resemblance to large structural stabilisers than actual pedes, and it most definitely wasn't as manouverable as any of them. In a word? Blocky. The large thing was blocky. Yes, blocky described it quite well. Brutally so. Its creators had clearly been more interested in function rather than form.

The Creator would likely approve. Somewhat. Even he liked to occasionally make things look a bit nicer. It all just looked bulky. If very much heavily armoured.... And yet Zero's optic couldn't quite tear itself away from its arms. From its utter lack of servos, or even basic manipulators. Just two gargantuan weapons platforms.

One very clearly a cannon of some sort, the other almost sharing a mild resemblance to some of the prototype nanolathe deployment barrels Zero had seen while occasionally present within the Creator's lab. Each apparatus held a shield of sorts strapped to its side. Whether for mere decoration or aesthetics, or for a more practical purpose, was something that remained entirely unknown to the Zaku. Its design made the anomaly's purpose very much clear, however. It was a machine, obviously.

One that had been purpose built for war. Zero could relate. He had been constructed for combat as well. Albeit to a likely far lesser degree than this thing had. Compared to the rest of Unicron's core, and even his general shell, the construct remained utterly untouched. There was no rust. No dust. No hint of metal fatigue or even any sort of stain upon its dull red and grey paintjob.

"... I am exiting the core. Prepare a sealing charge. Follow procedure." Z-1 gave Zero a quiet affirmative as the Zaku began to back away. Though the machine appeared inert, and Shockwave had theorised that anything beneath the Earth's crust would remain that way without Unicron's returning to control them, it never hurt to be careful about things. The Creator had been sure to explain that concept to them, and now Zero truly understood why. Yes, it never hurt to be careful about things.

Because the construct remained utterly untouched, bare for one exception. The immense rigging wrapped around it would appear to be some form of complicated maintenance gantry to the oblivious, or the uninformed. To one who had seen some of the Creator's notes on how to restrain a Cybertronian, a member of an incredibly varied species that could potentially bare a near limitless amount of variations in their respective forms, the pieces fell together all too quickly. The core was not some form of central processor.

It was not a sparkchamber, either. For all the talk of the Autobots and Predacons taking Unicron's essence from his antispark and sealing it into the Reliquary, Zero very much could tell that the core held no antispark. Just the machine. The restrained machine. The core was a cage. One built to contain whatever this construct truly was.

As Zero finally stepped out of the breach entirely, and allowed his brothers to pass by him with welders and sealing charges clenched in their servos, he crossed his arms and watched as the core was sealed back up. It was to the sound of sizzling metal that the green mech pondered just what the Creator would do with what he could only presume was the now vacant frame of one of Cybertron's ancient Gods.