Deep down, Skygnaw felt that the key to reaching the next level of power lay back on Cybertron.
The dream he had during his last major cold-cast upgrade kept echoing in his thoughts, reminding him of legendary tales from the later eras.
He used to think those stories were just fairy tales, but after everything he had survived, he knew anything was possible.
"Cybertron."
Skygnaw quietly turned the Matrix of Leadership over in his fingers. He couldn't quite decipher the blue light swirling inside, but it was undeniably a remarkably pure form of energy.
It felt even more refined than the raw power of the AllSpark itself.
"Maybe it really is time to plan a trip back home. If things go as expected, the next move should be..."
Suddenly, his thoughts paused and he quickly put the Matrix away.
---
Megatron had exited the ship.
Nobody knew what the warlord had been doing inside the crashed Autobot vessel for so long, but the Decepticons immediately swarmed around him.
Even though Megatron looked heavily battered, he was still a true leader. Nobody dared to challenge his rule.
Well, nobody except Skygnaw, who was just walking down the ramp of Blackarachnia's ship.
"Skygnaw, Blackarachnia," Megatron called out, singling out two of the three commanders on the field. "With me."
Skygnaw felt a flicker of suspicion, but he silently followed Megatron into Starscream's vessel.
"Skygnaw, I need you and Blackarachnia to return to Cybertron," Megatron commanded once they were inside. "You will coordinate with Shockwave to wipe out the remaining Autobot resistance."
Return to Cybertron?
Skygnaw was genuinely surprised. Talk about perfect timing.
He had just been wondering when he could make a trip back home, and now Megatron was handing him the order on a silver platter.
Still, it was strange. Why was Megatron suddenly so obsessed with clearing out the remaining Autobots, completely changing his usual hands-off policy?
Did the constant defeats on Earth make him want to shift the battlefield back to Cybertron to secure a quick win? Or did this have something to do with Sentinel Prime?
If anyone tried to tell Skygnaw that Megatron had spent all that time inside the Ark just to admire the architecture, he wouldn't believe a word of it.
"Shockwave already knows you are coming," Megatron continued.
"You and Blackarachnia depart immediately. The only major threat left among the Autobots on Cybertron is Ultra Magnus, and he is merely a commander. I need you to destroy them as quickly as possible."
"I will stay here on Earth to keep Optimus Prime pinned down. I expect good news."
"Yes, Lord Megatron," Skygnaw replied, accepting the assignment.
Inwardly, he still found Megatron's visible haste deeply bizarre. The warlord seemed to be in an incredible rush.
Skygnaw knew the current situation on Cybertron quite well, having viewed Blackout's old files and spoken with Onslaught before.
The remaining Autobot forces were nothing more than a minor nuisance. They were so small and scattered that the resources required to hunt them down far outweighed any tactical reward.
That was the exact reason the Decepticons had left them alone for so long. Wiping them out completely was not something that could be done overnight.
---
Blackarachnia's ship took off once again. Unlike their arrival, the only passengers on board this time were Skygnaw and Dirge's crew of five.
Blackarachnia handled the controls in the cockpit while Skygnaw stayed in the main quarters with his men. Even though it was a private vessel, there was more than enough room for the six of them.
Heading to a ruined world where he had no established footing meant he absolutely needed to bring his own loyal squad. If things went sideways with Shockwave, he wouldn't be caught empty-handed.
In the old history records, Shockwave was a quiet type who rarely showed his hand, but anyone who could run military operations for the Decepticons was bound to be a viper.
Nobody liked having their authority challenged, and Skygnaw preferred to prepare for the worst.
Megatron never cared if his lieutenants got along. Starscream, Soundwave, and Shockwave had been at each other's throats for eons, and the warlord actively encouraged the internal rivalry.
It was a typical trait of tyrants, since divided subordinates were far less likely to unite against the throne.
---
As their ship cleared the edge of the solar system, a massive political shift was taking place on the blue planet behind them.
Just as Skygnaw had anticipated, President Mitchell was finally forced to pay the price for the total destruction of Central Command. Losing an entire regional headquarters like that went far beyond a simple blunder.
It was an unmitigated disaster, a catastrophic defeat completely unheard of in modern history. The fallout was too massive for a single department or a few scapegoats to carry.
Even though Mitchell had very little to do with the actual battle, since he couldn't exactly control the Decepticons, it had happened on his watch. He couldn't escape the blame.
The shadow syndicates and military brass completely abandoned him, causing his approval ratings to tank overnight.
The public didn't know the exact details of the war in Egypt, but turning the masses against a sitting leader was the easiest trick in the book.
Mitchell's dreams of re-election evaporated instantly. Meanwhile, the front-runner for the seat, Hammond, who happened to be Clarice's husband, had already locked down the position.
Hammond's campaign slogan was simple and powerful: Make America Great Again. And it worked beautifully.
The voters didn't care if a politician actually delivered on a promise, they only cared if the slogan sounded good on television. A politician who couldn't put on a show was a failure from the start.
---
Once Hammond's victory became a certainty, Clarice had tried to contact Skygnaw directly. Her goal was simple: she wanted to rebuild their old arrangement.
Seeing the incredible destructive power of the railgun on the USS Kidd had given her a taste of what alien technology could do.
That was how the world worked, especially when it came to global factions. Their alliances were completely fickle.
One minute they were trying to kill each other, and the next they were sharing a toast. The history books were filled with examples of nations fighting wars while secretly trading resources.
Unfortunately for Clarice, no matter how hard she tried to reach out, even attempting to contact Alice, she got nothing but radio silence. She eventually had to give up.
In reality, Alice had received the calls but simply ignored them. Skygnaw had left Earth, but he made sure Alice was heavily protected.
Before retreating from the border states to Egypt, he had used what little time he had to construct a specialized Pretender unit to serve her.
Although the panther had reached the level of a high-tier warrior, its beast form couldn't exactly blend into human society, so it remained hidden to act as her final line of defense.
Interestingly, the Karl Group hadn't been dismantled or absorbed by rivals. It simply gained a new owner, while operations continued as normal.
Even though the corporation was a massive juggernaut, its foundations were too shallow. With Alice gone, they were completely leaderless. Faced with a government machine determined to seize its assets, the company couldn't put up a fight.
However, by pure coincidence, a massive fire broke out at the luxury villa of the new Chief Executive sent by the White House.
Fortunately for him, unlike his two predecessors who ended up dead or missing, this manager actually managed to escape with his life.
---
Inside the private ship, Skygnaw took the time to test out his newly acquired capability, the Space Bridge.
The Alpha Centauri system was significantly closer to Earth than their previous destination of Brahaspati, but Blackarachnia's ship was small, and its engines were standard. It took over two weeks of continuous flight before the stars of Alpha Centauri finally filled their viewports.
Skygnaw hadn't wasted a single day of the journey. Aside from studying the Matrix, he had spent his time completely dismantling Jetfire's severed arm.
Strictly speaking, Jetfire's ability to tear through space wasn't an ordinary weapon system.
After cutting it open, Skygnaw discovered that this localized Space Bridge was a masterpiece of ancient science. It utilized an unknown energy field to envelop a target, triggering an instantaneous spatial leap.
The genius lay entirely within the physical modification of the arm itself. This made things incredibly easy for Skygnaw, since he didn't have to choose which of his existing weapons to uninstall.
Even though his right hand's electromagnetic pulse cannon and the Extraction Staff had overlapping crowd-control effects, he had no intention of scrapping the cannon. The EMP function was still incredibly useful for jamming enemy communications.
Because he chose to integrate the tech alongside his existing gear rather than replacing it, the modification process took ten full days of work, even with Scourge assisting him.
"Since Jetfire used to serve under The Fallen, it's highly likely his Space Bridge was reverse-engineered from the tyrant's personal teleportation ability," Skygnaw mused.
He raised his right arm, which was now noticeably thicker and heavier than before. The design felt remarkably similar to the crimson lightning leaps he had witnessed during the desert war.
The only drawback was that it required a brief window to charge the energy field, meaning he couldn't flash across the field instantly like The Fallen did.
"Let's see if this works."
Skygnaw raised his right hand, targeting the pile of metallic scrap left over from Jetfire's dismantled limb.
*Swish.*
Without a single sound or warning signal, Skygnaw vanished from the workshop, reappearing instantly inside the ship's cockpit.
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