Transformers: The Wastelands

The Wastelands… Cybertron’s dumping grounds, where failed experiments from both Autobot and Decepticon scientists are left to rust. Also the place where some disgruntled Transformers go to loose themselves…

“Dread!”

The voice echoed for miles, bouncing off the rusting metal and sliding round walls to finally arrive in the audio sensors of the Decepticon Triocon, Dread.

“You know I’ll find you eventually!”

Dread sat there, listening to Starscream’s voice, taunting him. It was a mystery to all Decepticons how Starscream had defeated and killed both Scorponok and Galvatron, but killed them he had, and he’d kept their heads as souvenirs. So now Starscream led the Decepticons, much to Cyclonus’ annoyance.

But Starscream had grown reckless, he was trying to hold too tightly onto the leadership, and Decepticons like Dread were slipping through his fingers which just spurred Starscream to go round and try to destroy what he deemed deserters.

Without standing up, Dread split into his three component parts, a truck cab, a VW bug and an ATV and took off in three different directions, not really expecting to get away, just hoping to delay the inevitable.

“You coward!” Starscream cried as he shifted into his jet mode and took off after the truck cab.

In the shadows a figure watched them both, a figure that knew all too well that Dread wasn’t the real coward.

“Soon Starscream, soon you’ll pay…” the figure moved out of the shadows, “So swears Megatron!”

Megatron was a nightmare, mixed parts, exposed exoskeleton and wiring, but the face was the worst, it held a manic grin of exposed metal plates and the eyes were exposed completely, none of the normal transparent exoplastic that covers Transformer eyes. The wires making up the cheeks had slipped slightly, causing the face to look a little melted.

“You stole my head Starscream, but I should thank you, you gave me back my life!” Megatron snarled, which on his ruined face looked more like a grimace, “And I will thank you, in kind!”

*`*`*`*`*

As Starscream flew over The Wastelands he tried to shake the feeling that he was being watched, he figured it was probably just some stray experiment or other, a dumb terminal probably.

Although if he admitted it, deep within his central processor he knew the feeling, he’d had it so often back when he’d been just Megatron’s right hand man, be he’d put an end to that when he’d ripped Galvatron’s head from his lifeless body… Hadn’t he?

His onboard sensors detected a trace, a trail, the path part of Dread had taken, which part he was no longer sure, somehow Dread had crisscrossed his own path so many times Starscream was certain he was lost.

“Emperor Starscream!” his onboard comms echoed with Cyclonus’ voice.

“What is it?”

“We have a problem with Trypticon…”

“That walking dinosaur is nothing but a problem! What is it now?”

“He’s refusing to transform into city mode and there are Decepticons inside him.”

“And you can’t handle that?!”

“Your standing orders my liege, no-one is to offer anything to Trypticon to get him to transform…”

“Gah! Fools and idiots!” Starscream cut off the communication and ignited his thrusters, blasting out of the thin atmosphere of Cybertron heading for Char.

*`*`*`*`*

“He’s gone Decepticon!” Megatron called out into The Wastelands. Turning he watched as Dread transformed into his robot mode.

Dread looked at the ruin of a being, “Who are you?”

Megatron grinned, “I am Megatron!”

“No…” Dread’s eyes widened, “You… You’re dead…”

“I was dead, I got better… What’s your name warrior?”

“They call me Dread.”

“Well Dread, tell me about the status of the Decepticon forces…”

“Starscream rules from Char, his forces are pretty localized, he likes to feel in control…”

Dread spent the next few astrocycles laying out the state of the Decepticons.

At the end Megatron leaned back, “A disgrace, an utter disgrace, the Decepticon Empire once threatened the galaxy and now… Now thanks to Starscream we’re a joke!”

“Sounds about right…”

“It’s time for things to change… Can you bring the Constructicons here?”

“I guess… But why?”

“I need a new body, and they can give it to me…”

*`*`*`*`*

Scrapper looked up from his console, “Dread, what do you want?”

Hook turned to see the Triocon enter the workstation, “Starscream’s still after you, you know.”

“Yeah, but I need you guys to help me with something important…”

The other four Constructicons gathered round, Long Haul looking weary, “What with?”

“With something that will get Starscream off all our backs for good…” Dread went on to fill the other Decepticons in on Megatron’s orders.

Scrapper looked his former leader up and down, “Good lord, what happened Lord Megatron?”

“Build me a new body and I shall tell you,” Megatron smiled.

“I’ll make you a new face first thanks…” If transformers could throw up, Scrapper looked like he would soon.

“Watch it my friend, I can still crush you in an instant.”

“Yes Lord Megatron…”

*`*`*`*`*

Galvatron knelt down on the surface of the asteroid, before him stood Scorponok, a smirk on his huge face, “The mighty Galvatron, kneels before the mightier Scorponok!”

The Decepticon leader was in bad shape, his particle accelerator cannon had been ripped from his arm, it lay crushed and bent a few meters away, his exoskeleton on his chest and left leg had been torn off, wires and circuits hung out of the holes in his armor and lubricant dripped from a tear on his right cheek.

Scorponok was better off, but even he had parts of his armor missing and a few wires coming loose.

The two Decepticon commanders had been battling each other now for nearly twelve hours, yet neither one was willing to give up, both believed they were the rightful ruler of the Decepticon Empire.

But while Galvatron had put up a good fight, his power reserves were running out. Scorponok being much larger had nearly unlimited power reserves.

From behind a nearby mountain area, Starscream watched the two fight, in the back of his mind he knew that his time would come soon, as soon as Scorponok won he’d set his plan into motion, a plan that would have only one outcome, Emperor Starscream, Tyrant of the Firmament!

*`*`*`*`*

“The traitorous mechanoid had planted Energon explosives throughout Scorponok while he was in city mode,” Megatron snarled.

“Hold still,” Scrapper told the Decepticon, “I’m about to fuse the last few microlatches into place.”

There was a hissing sound and the smell of hot metal. Inside the faceplate latches barely five millimeters in length locked into place, self connecting wires reached out to interface with the circuitry in Megatron’s face, and the transparent exoplastic eye covers locked into the grooves around his eyes.

“Yes!” Megatron’s voice held the elation that was surging through his electrical system, he had a face again, a proper face, for the first time in nearly five Earth years, “A mirror, show me!”

Scavenger held out a reflective sheet. Megatron took a breath and held it up so he could look at his face.

His new facial plating was different to how he remembered his original, but yet it still held the same look around the eyes, hard, cold and calculating. While he found he missed the metallic grey he was used to, the new rust colored helmet and silver colored faceplate seemed to sit well on him.

“Good Scrapper, very good,” his new eye coverings blazed fire red, “Now you just need to make me a new body!”

*`*`*`*`*

Scorponok’s foot came crashing down onto Galvatron’s lower body, effectively severing the electro-nerves that enabled him to walk.

“And now, now we end this once and for all,” came Lord Zarak’s through the speakers in Scorponok’s head.