"Skygnaw, what are you doing?" Blackarachnia gasped, visibly startled.
"Relax, I am simply testing out a new capability."
Blackarachnia gave him a long, measuring look but chose to drop the subject.
Teleportation was a rare power reserved for ancient legends like The Fallen, and she had no idea where Skygnaw had managed to acquire it. The bot was becoming more difficult to read by the day.
Skygnaw looked down at his right hand as the residual energy field slowly dissolved into the air. After this successful trial, he had a solid grasp of his new Space Bridge ability.
Its localized range couldn't compare to an orbital terminal network or a full planetary Space Bridge system, as its reach was strictly limited to a planetary scale.
Of course, if he chose to pour unlimited AllSpark energy into the transformation, he could bridge immense distances across space.
However, the raw power consumption would far outweigh a standard leap, and it came with a severe, unavoidable physical drawback: disorientation.
Attempting to instantly flash behind an active opponent to land a surprise ambush was out of the question.
Charging the local energy field required a noticeable window of time, meaning a wary enemy would spot the build-up immediately. Furthermore, long-range jumps left a warrior dizzy and off-balance, which amounted to delivering yourself to the enemy on a silver platter.
Truthfully, Skygnaw didn't fully understand the underlying science of the Space Bridge yet.
This wasn't due to a lack of effort on his part, but rather a complete lack of technical data and theoretical blueprints.
The archives stored on Sentinel Prime's flagship were vast, but they held no detailed records regarding this ancient technology. It was like knowing a bird could fly because it possessed wings, without understanding the actual physics of flight.
Even though they belonged to the same advanced civilization, the relics forged during Cybertron's ancient golden age always felt light-years ahead of current technology. The contrast between the old world and the new was night and day.
---
"Blackarachnia, how far are we from Cybertron?"
Since he was already standing in the cockpit, Skygnaw figured he would check their arrival time.
"You timed that perfectly. Look ahead," Blackarachnia said with a confident smile.
Skygnaw looked through the main viewscreen at the dark void ahead and frowned, seeing nothing but empty space.
Noticing his confusion, Blackarachnia reached out and pressed a large red command button on the primary console.
*Hummm.*
A massive, rusted metallic planet suddenly filled the visual feed.
In this universe, the Alpha Centauri system was a binary star network, meaning it was anchored by two distinct suns.
Even though Cybertronian civilization was incredibly advanced, the home world was still bound by the fundamental laws of the universe.
The two stars orbited one another, while Cybertron, flanked by its single moon, orbited the larger main-sequence sun. Aside from the home world, the Alpha Centauri system held no other planets.
A few barren exoplanets drifted further out in the deep cold, but they were dead rocks entirely devoid of life or mineral resources. To a Cybertronian, spending time looking at them was a complete waste of processing power.
---
Blackarachnia carefully guided the compact scout ship closer to the high metallic atmosphere.
The moment they breached the outer orbital sector, a Decepticon patrol fleet flagged their approaching signature.
Fortunately, the ship displayed a prominent Decepticon insignia on its hull. Even though the patrol hadn't received formal word of any returning vessels, they held their fire.
"Unidentified vessel, transmit your clearance codes," a sharp demand crackled through the comm channel.
A small wing of Decepticon fighters closed in fast, flanking the scout ship and locking into a tight escort formation to box them in.
"Unidentified vessel, state your business immediately."
Receiving no response to his initial broadcast, the patrol leader repeated the demand with an icy tone. If the ship remained silent for another second, he would order his squad to blow it out of the sky.
Those were Shockwave's explicit orders, and no one dared to cross the master logician.
If they failed to enforce security and Shockwave found out, the entire squad would be reassigned to the deep labor camps. The mere thought of what happened to miners made his internal systems run cold.
On other worlds, mining might just mean operating heavy machinery, but on Cybertron, it meant manual labor, breaking hard metal with your bare hands.
---
*Hiss—*
The scout ship suddenly decelerated, its thrusters firing as it hovered dead in space, and the main entry hatch ground open.
Just as the patrol leader was about to give the command to fire, a tall, imposing figure stepped out into the vacuum.
"Commander... Commander Skygnaw?" the patrol fighters stammered, their thrusters sputtering as they stared in absolute shock.
"Oh?" Skygnaw said, narrowing his eyes slightly. "You know who I am?"
"You're joking, Commander. There isn't a Decepticon alive who doesn't know your name," the patrol leader said, transforming into his warrior form and bowing deeply.
"When Lord Megatron named you our fourth high commander, Shockwave had Hardtop broadcast the news across the entire planet immediately."
"I knew it was only a matter of time before you returned home, so I made sure my boys memorized your profile."
"Is that so?" Skygnaw replied, giving a slight nod.
It seemed that the moment Megatron put him in charge of the Air Division, his reputation had spread across the globe. That worked out perfectly, saving him the trouble of introducing himself to the local garrisons.
Skygnaw took a closer look at the patrol leader. It was rare to find a bot this sharp and diplomatic among the lower-tier grunts, but it was a shame he was only a mid-tier warrior; otherwise, Skygnaw wouldn't have minded giving him a promotion.
After all, he still held the formal title of Air Commander. While that rank might be an empty title for some, he was a true powerhouse, and Shockwave would definitely have to show him proper respect.
"Which unit do you belong to?" Skygnaw asked.
"Commander, we serve under Lord Shockwave. We are the Forty-First Squadron of the Air Division, assigned to patrol this sector."
Skygnaw understood how the ranks worked. The Decepticon Air Division had never really held a unified structure.
Unlike the ground forces, which were unified under the Assault Corps, the fliers were disorganized because many squads still used titles from before the civil war. Some were remnants of the old Aerial Fortress Command, while others used to be the Iacon Elite Guard.
This left the naming conventions completely disorganized and the command chain entirely chaotic.
To make matters worse, Starscream had spent eons plotting to overthrow Megatron, completely ignoring his duties to organize the troops. Because of his neglect, the fliers operated with zero unity, essentially fighting their own private wars.
Fortunately, after thousands of years of brutal civil war, very few elite air squads were left standing. Most of the current fleet consisted of low-tier units designated only by numbers.
In short, the army was divided into the ground-based Assault Corps and the Air Division, and both branches retained a handful of elite, high-tier squads.
These included the Constructicons, the Skyraiders, and the Combaticons who had been deployed to Earth. Only these high-tier squads earned unique titles to separate them from the common cannon fodder, serving as both a badge of status and a testament to their strength.
Of course, not every elite warrior ran with a squad, as the strongest fighters often preferred to operate alone. The Decepticon ranks were always full of lone wolves.
Originally, the faction only recruited bots who could fly, but desperation for troops and Shockwave's Triple-Changer experiments eventually forced them to accept anyone.
Sorting through these thoughts, Skygnaw looked back down at the patrol squad staring up at him expectantly. The fact that they were securely patrolling the orbital sectors meant the home world was firmly under Decepticon control, which brought him a sense of relief.
"Take me to Shockwave," Skygnaw ordered quietly.
"Right away, Commander!" The patrol fighters exchanged thrilled glances.
A high commander was speaking directly to them. Usually, grunts like them were lucky to catch a distant glimpse of an elite, let alone receive direct orders.
As the Forty-First Squadron took the lead, Skygnaw stepped back inside Blackarachnia's ship. Traveling by ship was far more comfortable than flying solo through the vacuum, but more importantly, he wanted to keep his arrival a secret.
Specifically, he wanted to keep the remaining Autobots completely in the dark.
The sudden arrival of two high-tier commanders would catch the resistance completely off guard. If they planned this right, they could wipe out the last of the Autobots in a single strike.
"Skygnaw, you're going straight to Shockwave?" Blackarachnia asked. She hadn't bothered to step outside earlier, completely above interacting with low-tier grunts.
She had completely ignored the patrol's initial warning broadcasts, and Skygnaw had to tell her to pull the ship over.
"Yes. We need to touch base, and then we can coordinate the strategy to eliminate the Autobot resistance."
Skygnaw offered a cryptic smile, though his thoughts drifted to a completely different objective. He wondered if the Iacon archives held any hidden records regarding the true nature of the Matrix of Leadership.
The only issue was that Iacon was firmly under Shockwave's jurisdiction, and it remained to be seen how the logic-driven commander would treat him.
Skygnaw had never met Shockwave face-to-face, but he knew his file inside and out. Shockwave was the Decepticons' chief defense officer, serving as Megatron's right hand alongside Soundwave, who managed intelligence.
Shockwave had been left in absolute command of the home world for a reason, and his cold efficiency was legendary. Even with his knowledge of the original timeline, Skygnaw didn't assume he could easily outmaneuver the master strategist when it came to large-scale warfare.
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