TF:The Calm before the Storm 1

Transformers: The Calm before the Storm

----------Prologue: Some Intelligent Conversations_----------

1244 Hours_
24 June_
Year 2010 A.D._
United States of America_
The White House_
10 Days ago_

  The room in which this specific conversation was held in was large, but it was so cavernous and spacious that it has enough room to spare for the President’s table, bookshelves, storage file cupboards, chairs and sofas, glass tables, expensive glass designs and sculptures, lavish-looking windows and seats, as well as a complex computer workstation and large plasma television screens for the President of the United States himself. Every file located in those storage shelves contain sensitive information that were discussed both publicly and privately, and filed away under fifty years of Official Secrets Act, and were constantly kept under lock and key, because if they were leaked, these information can cause the immediate downfall of a Superpower Nation. Books containing thousands of year’s worth of knowledge by the greatest minds in human history were stacked neatly in vertical rows in perfect alphabetical letters and numbers on the bookshelves, waiting for their chance to be put into use by him. Each plasma television screen is energy saving and multi-coloured, and were displaying live news feed from BBC, CNN, CNA, Fox News, National Geographic Channel and more 24/7, reporting the latest news around Earth for the President to view at his own pleasure.
  Chairs with especially soft padding for high ranking visitors were positioned around the room, artifacts and sculptures worth many thousands, if not millions of dollars, were placed on small tables and on top of cupboards. Large portraits of previous presidents were placed on the walls of the room in chronological order, and their faces were of unshakable determination and countless years of wisdom lay in each and every one of them, determined to bring peace and prosperity to America, or die trying. The large windows at the end of the room, which displays the large city of Washington D.C. in its full glory, were auto-darken glass panels and ultra-violet sunlight resistant, and bulletproof and bombproof as well. They were covered by curtains with the stars and colours of the American Flag, signifying the total absolute power of the President over the country. (which in this case is President Whitemore)
  There were large stacks of classified paperwork and confidential files, ranging from war to economics, in addition to the various intelligence information gathered by many intelligence agencies such as NRO, DND, and DGSE from around the world on President Whitemore’s desk, but he has carelessly left them aside as if they were not important at all, intent on focusing his attention on more essential matters at hand, and now he had managed to get the person he wanted to meet, and so he wanted this particular meeting to make it count.
  “Let me get this straight, you want me to look into or capture a Transformer in order for you to win the war in Iraq?” Doctor Victor Keys answered after President Whitemore broke his so-called “Foolproof” war ending plan to him. To Whitemore, if someone can keep a lot of secrets and be silent about it, it would have to be Victor Keys himself.
  “Yes, that is precisely my plan. The pervious president started this conflict and I want to be the one to finish it. Too many American lives have been lost already, in the best interest of the world we need to silence the terrorist nations and finally gain democracy over them.” replied Whitemore as he pointed to one of the television screens displaying the latest causalities and news on the Iraq war and the Middle East Conflicts. It was no surprise that the news headlines every day scream about war and conflicts, due to the difference over ideologies and resources, these conflicts were incredibly hard to win, and were taking their toll on the nations involved, especially the western nations. Especially America. America has been involved in many wars during the 21st century, ranging from the physical wars in the Middle East to the political wars with the various superpower nations such as China and Russia, and now she is paying the price in terms of military power, political power and economic manpower. Until the wars were stopped, America is gradually dying a slow death. And that’s exactly what’s Whitemore going to do.
  Victor Keys leaned back on his seat, tapped a few buttons on his personal laptop computer, and said, “You do realize that all of my dealings with you have to remain secret, as I am currently keeping a low profile, and I wouldn’t want my good name to be used in political gain even if it involves keeping the world safe.” He glanced across the table at Whitemore, only to find that he was pouring some green tea into two porcelain cups. “Yes, Doctor Keys, I do quite understand your current position. I am pleased to inform you that you will be meeting with General McAlister over this ‘particular’ matter.” Answered Whitemore as he added some sugar and milk to the tea cups and stirred them with a small silver spoon. He emphasized on the word “particular” as though there was a hidden meaning behind it, and to Victor Keys, the word seems a bit too suspicious to his brilliant intellectual mind. He silently kept a mental note on it for the future, which is cloaked in darkness even to him.
  Keys sipped the warm green tea, finding it satisfying, and said “Yes, he and me hope that we can get an Autobot to be a subject, but if we cannot get a test subject, we can always go with the alternative.” Whitemore raised an eyebrow and asked a question that anyone would have asked, “Which is?” “A Decepticon, to put it plainly, Mr President.” replied Victor Keys simply as he placed a number of Transformers’ pictures on the glass table. Whitemore tilted backward on his chair and glanced at the scattered pictures of known Decepticons operating on Earth, while placing a few fingers on his chin, deep in thought. “My sources in the military and recon teams have spotted many Decepticon sightings around the world, but so far we haven’t been able to capture one back for study. They excel in both firepower and strength than the Autobots, and are incredibly cunning and powerful to boot. I might remind you a Decepticon known as Blackout easily decimated a SOCCENT military base like a child destroying a city of Lego.” Whitemore said as he picked up a picture of a transforming jet fighter, with a single word “Starscream” stamped under the photograph.
  “It’s perfectly fine to capture a Transformer as long as you have the right weaponry and information on its weaknesses, as well as the right moment to intercept it.” Victor Keys said as he watched a video of the SOCCENT Forward Operations Base attack in Qatar by Blackout on his laptop and pausing at the scene when Blackout’s face was revealed in the smoke. Whitemore drank his tea in a few gulps and said “I am still not sure if that is a good idea. We would have to make sure it is completely offline to prevent unwanted trouble. I don’t want another scene like Megatron’s breakout from Hoover Dam. It caused damn lot of trouble for me, in both military and political matters, and I am running out of excuses to stall the United Nations and other superpower nations in the dark.” “Yes, yes it would. But hopefully we can get an Autobot to play along as a test subject. I just hope that all of this goes according to plan. Last thing we need is to have the entire Decepticon faction up in arms and against us. They have remained very silent in the past few months and that is how I would like it to stay. Personally, I feel that the other countries won’t be in the dark any longer. The reports of Transformers sightings have doubled after the Allspark incident and it will be a matter of time before the other nations noticed the Transformers.” replied Victor keys as he continued to watch the video of Blackout’s attack.
  President Whitemore picked up a file on the Transfomers and read through the latest report on Decepticons’ activities. “Well then, we should beat them to it won’t we? As long as we prevent anyone else from acquiring Cybertronian technology while we make our Transformer army, it will be a smooth flow from then on. I have my military teams spying on them already, and so they won’t be a problem unless they acquired a Transfomer.” Keys looked at Whitemore in the eye and said, “I certainly hope we won’t have to come to that situation. It would be bleeding World War Three in a matter of hours if not minutes on that day, I must honestly say.” Whitemore paused and took a look at another photo with the named stamped “Bonecrusher” before saying “I understand that scenario perfectly, Doctor Keys, and so we must use caution when dealing with Transformers.” Keys nodded his head in return to Whitemore’s statement, while watching him circle a particular name on the Transformer List.
  “Oh yes, and there is a matter of the funding.” Doctor Keys minimized the Transformers videos playing on his laptop before closing the lid with a soft click that echoed around the room. President Whitemore put down the pictures of the Transformers, smiled and said “You help to end the war, and you will never have to worry about funding ever again. My development agencies will cover your funding costs. In that way, you can pursue any scientific project you want at any time.” Evidently grateful, Victor Keys thanked him and asked about any other conditions required, which is nothing else except helping to end the Iraq war as quickly as possible.
  “You will be given full access powers to not only the inner workings of the White House but also the inner circle of the Pentagon itself. You will only have to answer to either me or general McAlister.” He said to Victor Keys before handling the files on the Transfomers to him. “Wonderful, it looks like I get to meet two great leaders this week.” Keys smiled as he tucked the files into his laptop bag. “Well, I have to go and do a press release with my staff; it was indeed a pleasure to have an interesting conversation with you, Doctor Keys. Thank you for your help.” Whitemore said as he shook Key’s hand in appreciation. “You are welcome Mr President, and take care.” said Victor Keys as he winked at Whitemore and tipped his hat before closing the door with a soft clack and shutting off Whitemore’s view of him.

Outside the White House_
15 Minutes later_

  Once Victor Keys left the White House through its main gates, he pulled out a mobile phone from his pocket and dialed a number. Minutes later, a Lamborghini Reventon pulled up beside him and the side window slid down, revealing the smiling face of Sebastian Calgar, Victor Keys’s personal butler and loyal bodyguard. Calgar has been Victor Keys’s bodyguard since the day he was born, and he has been a faithful guardian throughout the years, as his predecessors have been serving the Keys Family for years. “You have been expecting for me, Sir?” he said in a calm and even tone that could put a door-to-door businessman to shame. “Of course I am, Calgar. What do you think I am expecting? A bodyguard on a horse carriage?” said Keys, with his voice dripping with sarcasm as he slide into the seat beside Sebastian.
  “So where next Sir?” Sebestian gave a small chuckle before his iconic smile kick in again. Victor Keys remained silent and instead opened his personal PDA (personal Digital Assistant) and passed it to Sebastian, who read the text on the PDA’s screen and immediately his face turned grim, as the text spoke for itself. He silently passed the PDA back to Keys, and said, “So, you have been given a new assignment by the president and a pretty interesting one at that, I must say.” never losing his sense of humour, except his smile. “Victor Keys fastened his seatbelt and said, “Send an encoded transmission to the FSOF teams, looks like we need to move on to the next step of our plans, as it is progressing far more faster than I expected it to be. Let’s go, I am on a tight schedule.” Sebestian acknowledged it with a nod, stamped on the accelerator and the Lamborghini was off down the street with a roar and a cloud of dust.

Nearby_
At the same time_

  Unknown to both men in the Lamborghini, another car at the bend corner of a derelict building was observing them closely. This black car look like any other ordinary car in the streets on the outside, all the way down to the polished sheen, car number and bright headlights, but inside the car was a totally different story. Within were all sleek metallic sheen, servos, wires, chips, processors, optics, projectile and beam weaponry and then some, all alien technology. Or more specifically, cybertronian technology. If anyone managed looked past the darkened screens and holographic driver, they may immediately know this was no ordinary car.
  The Decepticon named Runabout listened closely to the two men conversing inside the Lamborghini through his audio receptors from an external antenna, while recording it down in his secondary processors. In mere nano-kliks, he ran an infra-database search while his external optics scrutinize the picture of Victor Keys he has taken earlier outside the White House. “Mapping Verification in progress…Vector locked. Target acquisition complete.” chimed his own search sub-system in his central processor, it was indeed Victor Keys. When he finally saw the Lamborghini sped off down the street, he let out a sigh and began grumble on his lowly spying job, given to him by his self-proclaimed “brilliant” superior, Starscream.
  Ever since Starscream gave him this little job on spying on Victor Keys, Runabout has tracked him all over America, while at the same time trying to gather clues on what this particular human is doing. Runamuck, his fellow partner has been reassigned to gather information on other influential humans, while Runabout has been stuck with this lowly spying job for the last few weeks.
  Runabout was even given an order through a secret pulsewave from the higher echelons of Decepticon Command that should Victor Keys be a hindrance to their plans, he must be eliminated at all costs. But to Runabout, Keys is just another human to him, and it didn’t even matter if he was a bio-engineer or he was influential in politics and military fields, Runabout didn’t give a frag about it. He just wanted to get into some action, like battling Autobots, steal energon or attacking humans, just to name a few.
  Attaching the audio file and latest pictures to a pulsewave message, he hit the “Send” button for the message to be sent to his superiors onboard the Nemesis, and then catch a long, well earned stasis sleep. Spying on Keys would have to wait for another time, as his stasis nap comes first…

----------Section 0: Problematic Tribulations_----------

1524 Hours_
25 June_
Year 2010 A.D._
United States of America_
The Pentagon_
General McAlister’s Personal Office _
9 Days ago_

  “WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY? ANOTHER FAILURE?” thundered General McAlister as he spat the words out at the Nobel Prize winner scientist named Yoshiro and tore up yet another scientific report on the Transformers from that said scientist. Dr Yoshiro swallowed hard in his throat as he watched General McAlister threw his report into the recycle bin. The one thousand, eight hundred and fifty-four paged report, consisting of Yoshiro’s many years of hard work and research, was gone in a space of a few seconds. He fought to regain his calm composure said, “General, this is an extremely complex problem. Although my scientific team has been proceeding with the compatible test subjects and the latest experiments have been done with the resources we have, but it is extremely hard for us to create an army of “Transformers”. Might I remind you that we have crashed approximately twenty five test models in the past month, and each experiment is worse than the last one. This can’t go on sir, if we continue, we will end up losing more men and valuable resources in vain.” He looked imploringly at the general’s fuming face, hoping him to see sense at last.
  General McAlister, patently less angry after hearing Yoshiro’s answer, sat down on his seat and poured himself some wine from a wine bottle on his table. He drank it in a single gulp and said in an aggressive voice, “Spare me your scientific explainations and tell me this: Is there ANY WAY to salvage the Stormbringer Project?” Yoshiro knew that this was a lifeline thrown to him. If he answered this correctly, he would have some more time to live. If not, he would have to face the serious consequences, which were too terrible even for him to describe. He would be demoted to a lowly job, or even killed because he knows too much about the Stormbringer Project. In actual fact, he was living on borrowed time all this while. His next sentence would either save his life or damn him forever. He silently hoped it would be the former.
  “Yes sir, at this stage, the Stormbringer Project is currently salvageable. All we need now is a live Transformer as a test subject, and then by using that cybertronian as a subject matter, we would stand a better chance of creating an army of Transformers.” Dr Yoshiro answered in a calm tone, while inside he was shaking like a leaf in the autumn wind. If any God was listening, he would be praying to that God keep his life. By sheer instinct of his mind, he held onto the golden luck charm pendant in his left coat pocket, given to him by his wife.
  Minutes passed…and each second that passed slowly made it seem like an hour. Finally General McAlister’s anger disappeared. He knotted the fingers on his hands and said, “Fine then, I will put this project on hold until I can find a suitable cybertronian subject to create an army of Transformers. Keep me updated on the latest project happenings and reports on the newest test subjects. Looks like I have no chance but to consult Dr. Victor Keys for the problems on this matter. Dr Yoshiro, you are dismissed for now, and don’t fail me next time.” He glared at Yoshiro with a face that would have made the dead look like child’s play.
  “Yes Sir, I would never fail you sir.” Dr Yoshiro bowed as he gathered up his relatively intact files and speedily walked out of General McAlister’s Personal Office, silently cursing McAlister under his breath and the day he accepted McAlister’s offer in the Stormbringer project before returning to his scientific workplace.
  In the past few years, Victor Keys and General McAlister has been collaborating on a project codenamed “STORMBRINGER”, which is an attempt to create a transformable army of machines like the Transformers that can adapt to any battlefield conditions and respond to a single military commander with unwavering loyalty. This project was so secretive that less than ten people know about the existence of the project, with the exception of Victor Keys and McAlister themselves. However, the hitch in their project development plans were that they cannot create a perfect transformable subject, as the transformable phase was extremely complex and tedious, despite having the best minds of science and technology at their disposal. The experiments went horribly wrong with each test subject, and thus all of them were destroyed to prevent further repercussions in the political and military fields. Now, it would be a blessing in disguise if they could just get a live Transformer to be their test subject, and then their development plans would be perfect and flawless in an instant. But then there was yet another problem: Victor Keys. He knew that the president would not authorize any scientific plans without first going to Victor Keys. That also hampered his plans further, but he dared not kill Keys as his usefulness was too invaluable to be lost, and if he died, the secrets he keeps would die along with him. But when Keys outlived his usefulness, he would not spare a single thought to eliminate Keys once and for all.
  General McAlister walked to the window of his office and stared at the buildings in the distance and the bustling streets below. His plans of world domination were already in motion, but what he needs now is an army of mindless Transformers drones to do his bidding. Without that cybernetic army, it would take years to accomplish his plan. All he needs is one more person, and he will be meeting that person in a few days’ time. After that, his plans of world conquest would be accelerated in no time, and sooner or later he would have a world that obeys his every word and action. “Soon…” he mouthed silently to himself with a maniacal grin on his face. “Soon…”

****

1500 Hours_
26 June_
Year 2010 A.D._
United States of America_
The Nevada Desert _
US Army Base Alpha-51 Codenamed “The Rig”_
8 Days ago_

  The straight line of eleven SUVs sped through the desert in the afternoon light of the sun, sending waves of dust tumbling over the dry desert landscape, while making their way as fast as possible to the Army Base known as Alpha-51, or more commonly known as “The Rig” among the members of the US Military High Command. Less than a hundred military officers knew about the existence of this secret military base, and less than thirty have ever been inside the base, let alone know what secrets were hidden inside it. It was even a rumour that this base could be a replacement of Area 51, but there have been no evidence to confirm or deny that rumour. On the outside, this military base looks no difference from the rest of the many large military bases scattered around America, but from the inside, it was a totally different story.
  The eleven SUVs roared into the military base, sending soldiers and mechanics diving out of its way while they hurried on with their work. The SUVs only skidded to a halt at the interior doors of the military base, which a window opened on the side door to flash a shiny silverish keycard to an awaiting computer scanner. After a few seconds of intrusive and all the way through laser scanning, the satisfied computer security system flashed up the following words:

Alpha-51 Base Security System:
Level X Authorisation Confirmed and Verified.
Max Clearance Detected and Verified.
Identity Confirmed.
Access Granted.

The giant doors of the interior levels opened slowly to reveal several tunnels leading downwards into the depths of the armed forces base. Without further ado, the SUVs shot down the tunnel in the middle like a child swallowing a gummy bear. For those who didn’t know, that’s pretty fast. The giant reinforced doors slid horizontally noiselessly shut behind them.
  Eventually the tunnel opened up to a cavernous yawning room, which displays various vehicles and weaponry of the armed forces, all armed with sabot rounds and laser targeting systems. Soldiers were running throughout the room, checking their weapons and carrying boxes that contain the latest weapons in the American Army’s arsenal. Tanks, dropships and humvees were parked in orderly rows, while mechanics checked the operating status of the weapons and the vehicles while test driving them and upgrading various military hardware. Large cranes carrying tons of cargo and ammunition were seen all over the ceiling, delivering those loads to their respective destinations. Warthogs and trucks were seen passing through the routes, carrying their freight to various parts of the base. Even as the SUVs passed through these locations, only a few heads turned to see the passing SUVs before returning to their assigned work.
  The line of SUVs finally stopped at the last door with the letters and numbers X888-956A, and the passengers alighted from them. These passengers were the higher echelons of the military command and the White Hourse, and they include several military generals, admirals, politicians and lastly, the leading bio-engineer in the world, Victor Keys. Accompanying them were several secret service security guards and American soldiers armed with M16 rifles and extra artificial armour, as the VIPs protection was of the highest priority of the armed forces.
  “So what is this place? A secret facility none of us hear about?” asked one of the lower ranking generals as he glanced at the metallic sheen of the gigantic doors in front of them. Victor Keys turned and looked at all the powerful and influential people behind him with a serious face and said, “This is of utmost importance, what you see here is definitely going shock you for some time. However, I believe this will answer your questions why we need our own countermeasures against this “Transformer” race.” The serious look on Key’s face was enough to silence them all, as they all know when Keys was serious; it was mostly a matter of life or death for humanity. There has been a talk among them that if Key’s words were untrue, the humanity would not live to see another day. The Transformer race was an entirely new subject to the human military, and it was time to disclose the secret of Alpha-51 to all of them. Either way, they would know sooner or later, but it just depends by then whether humanity is alive or dead for that matter.
  Victor Keys pulled out his allspark charged keycard and inserted it into the interface system, which immediately churned away security locks and bypassed all clearances in a matter of milliseconds. The keycard was charged by the Allspark in an experiment in the past, and it has the same function as Sari’s keycard by default, with some extra abilities that have not been discovered yet. Keys, however, refused to reveal where he acquired the keycard, and that adds to deepen the mystery of his Allspark keycard. A few seconds later, the words “Access Granted” appeared on the interface system and Keys hit the “ENTER” button. “Gentlemen, please follow me. Your questions will be answered later.” Victor Keys said before he disappeared down the corridor. The generals and politicians looked at each other with a puzzled look, before following him briskly.
  The entire group of men emerged into a room at the upper floors, which they looked at the spacious chamber below. The entire room was filled with thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of vehicles of every shape and size. Some of the vehicles have sprouted arms and legs, and some of them resemble transformers without sparks, while others were either stuck in a mid-transformation phase or otherwise restrained with cables and iron chains. Armed soldiers with sabot rounds were working inside the chamber, while the cranes hauled some of the mangled metal remains of dead transformers away for smelting. A few soldiers could be seen putting down a sparkless transformer body with sabot rounds as it twitched and moved for a few seconds.
  The room was as silent as a tomb as the group of important persons gazed at the view in front of them. All of them have their eyes bulged wide, and their jaws opened. “Oh my God…these are the vehicles that have been infected with the allspark at Mission City?” someone managed to ask, with his mouth gaped wide. Victor Keys turned from the glass panel and said, “All these vehicles have been exposed to the Allspark during the Mission City incident, and these “transformations” happened only mere minutes or hours after the exposure to allspark energy. None of them are suitable for a test subject, as they are malfunctioning or extremely hostile to human contact. Although the public wants them to be destroyed, but it would take lots of time to destroy them all. Well, we can’t exactly dump them into the ocean can’t we?” A cold chuckle came from a five star general on the right, and he said “Well, damn me if I am wrong, but that could very well be a good option. Dump them into the ocean with a tactical nuclear bomb and boom, instant solution. Pure, plain and simple.” Turning to the smirking general, Victor Keys folded his arms and said, “General, on that area, I think you will need a bigger bomb to blow all these bots to oblivion, as they cannot even be harmed by small yield nukes.” The general’s smile immediately vanished and slammed his mouth shut, after being taken aback by the bio-engineer’s answer.
  Turning to place a hand on the glass panel and continuing his talk, Keys said “…and my theory on the Transformers’ weapons is that they create their weapons like we shed our nails and hair. We continuously regenerate those parts of our body, and they must do the same. Not exactly fair, if you ask me. Hence the reason why the Decepticons can take on our armies and win effortlessly, as their weapons never run out of ammo…and they can conquer our world in a week, if we are lucky. We have luck on our side when the Autobots managed to helped us in the battle,” After hearing all the details Victor Keys put forward, even those people, who have faced external and internal enemies of the state for many years were all shocked and speechless. “God damn, these sentient machines can conquer the Earth in a matter of days. I think we need countermeasures, and we need them quickly, or otherwise humanity will not live to regret it!” exclaimed one of the politicians as he palmed his face with one hand. The rest nodded their heads solemnly in agreement.
  Victor Keys turned and stared at the offline machines in the chamber and said “I hope we better made our move soon, as these “Transformers” are not lying idle, and there is no telling how many of them are currently active on Earth already. They are smart, and thus we need to be smarter than them. Now tell me this: will you support my project to help humanity defend against these machines?” There was a few moments of silence, before all the important men in the control room said only three words in unison, “yes, we will.”
  Upon hearing this, Victor Key’s mouth began to progress into a grin. The first phase of his plan has worked well, and it was time to initiate the next phase of his plan.

680 metres away from Base Alpha-51_
At the same time_

  Barricade the Decepticon, from his hiding spot on the mountain ridge, was spying on the group of humans with his enhanced antennas while they talked. He carefully recorded the conversation in his processors, while collecting information on the humans present there. After he got what he needed the most on the conversation, he snapped a few pictures with his optics of the unusually large military base and retracted all his antennas. Now he has all the information he needed to report back to his superiors on board the nemesis in a few cycles, and they would want to know what the humans were doing at the other side of the desert. Megatron would be pleased with his work, and all these juicy information may get him a promotion in the Decepticon ranks, if he was lucky. Then in a blink of an eye, the now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t police car vanished, leaving only small clouds of dust in his wake, and no eye witnesses to see it vanish, except for the birds that were soaring in the sky.

----------Section 1: The Next Step _----------

172.5 Cycles a.k.a. 1432 Hours_
25 June_
Year 2010 A.D._
United States of America_
State of Colorado, Area designated 101_
Autobot City Command Hub (a.k.a. A.C.C.B.)_
Conflict Command Room_
9 Days ago_

  Autobot City Command Hub, known to the crew of the Ark as ACCB, was a miracle of Cybertronian and human architecture. It was like a huge city located in a forest like region of the United States (officially designed Area 101), made up of polished steel and concrete, as well as many other metals and other materials. Large Buildings stood tall in the glaring sunlight, casting huge shadows over the landscape, and the shinning steel and glass reflected the light of the sun and formed many different kaleidoscope-like patterns on the reinforced steel foundations of the ACCB. Weapons such as large gunnery turrets, laser defenses, missile launchers, railguns, SAM sites and Particle Accelerator Cannons dotted the entire Command Hub, all hidden from view and are only revealed when the Hub was under attack. With such high tech weaponry at their disposal, the ACCB was anything from defenseless. Another was the massive spaceport it boasts, that can accommodate many cybertronian and human spaceships at once, and enough for several Autobot Strike Teams to land and reinforce Earth. In the hangars of the spaceport, The Ark was under extensive repairs as Wheeljack and Perceptor were busying themselves with the wide-ranging amount of damaged equipment and shattered hull of the Ark, as most of the Ark’s systems and equipment were beyond repair. To accelerate the emergency repair efforts, even the Turbocharger Transformers were activated and were currently helping them to repair the broken spaceship. However, even with Sari’s Key, it was going to be quite a long time before the Autobots are ready to leave Earth, as they must find a way to save their dying homeworld and defeat the Decepticons that were stationed on Earth.
  This place was created with the help of the US government in a Human-Autobot Treaty that in exchange for human help and unlimited resources, the Autobots will establish a defensive perimeter on Earth and its neighboring system to further reinforce it from further Decepticon invasions. And thus the ACCB was born, a Command Center, a Spaceport, a Planetside Fortress and most importantly, a home for the Autobots as well as the humans that also interacted with them. However today, the base was as silent as a tomb, due to the fact that there was some bad news and it was a pretty grim situation.
  The talk inside War Room One was short, but it contains a great concern, as the fate of two species hangs on the balance. Or more specifically, Human and Cybertronian, ever since Earth got dragged into the Autobot-Decepticon Conflict. After hearing Prime’s short talk, the entire room of Autobots curved their heads in the direction of Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots, each evidently shocked and surprised at his reply. Servos clicked and wires twisted as each Autobot swiveled their mechanical heads like tank turrets to face Optimus Prime and acknowledge the severity of the situation.
  “What did you just say? Reinforcements from Cybertron? That is completely unnecessary. We have more than enough Autobots and human help on Earth already, and with you around prime, I doubt we need reinforcements.” Prowl exclaimed as he leaned forward on his chair. The rest of the Autobots nodded their heads silently while keeping their faces in the direction of Prime. Optimus Prime was still adamant after hearing to Prowl’s reply, and he simply answered, “NO, I disagree. The situation on Earth has shifted from a small conflict to a full scale war. Recent reports have indicated that the Decepticons are sooner or later going to infiltrate human societies and integrate humans into their war machines. And there are also tensions between Earth’s major nations. One wrong step out of line here and the humans will have to pay a price in a war that they should never have been involved.”
  Despite hearing this answer from Prime, many Autobots voiced their protests, but Optimus continued, “It is already done. With Megatron and the Decepticons on Earth and the countries fighting for cybertronian technology, I have no choice but to call in the heavy hitters of the Autobot armies and draw resources from elsewhere. Several Autobot Strike Teams are already on their way to Earth as reinforcements. They will be arriving in a couple of days.” Silence descended across the entire table, as the Autobots pondered on the issue of what they were going to do, as there were recent reports that tensions between nations were rising due to the discovery of the Transformers. The logical way will be to leave Earth, but in the danger of Megatron and the Decepticons, and the severe damage the Ark has suffered before crashing on Earth, it would be quite a long time before the Autobots can leave Earth on their journey back to Cybertron.
  “What about the search for the Allspark? We should search for it first, as we will need that to save our world, without it our world and race is doomed to extinction!” Ironhide declared angrily. Optimus Prime’s face turned bleak, he rubbed his metallic face with a hand and said, “I would have to consult the humans on this one. Even as we speak, the human scientists and our cybertronian scientists are cooperating to make a replacement allspark while we search for the original one. Even with the replacement allspark, our world will only be saved for a short while. When it dies, our world will die along with it. Hence finding the original Allspark is the best solution.” The rest of the Autobots all nodded their heads in agreement; as this was the cold hard truth they all have to accept.
  An uneasy silence descended into the Conflict Command Room, and it was only broken when Jazz, the acting Autobot General, said, “So Prime, what’s our next step? We already have our problems, now we need action.” Prime closed off the holographic screens on the table, which were displaying reports of news happening around the world, and stood up from his command chair, immediately gave rapid fire orders, “Prowl, take a team of Autobots to the main human army base and see what else you can uncover from the Human’s military archive. Ironhide and Bluestreak, find and consult Captain Fanzone on the locations of the missing girl with the Allspark. Jazz, secure the humans named Maggie and Glen, we need them to help us in the later conflicts with the Decepticons. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, take another team of troops and go for a surveillance sweep for any Decepticons in the vicinity of America. Wheeljack and Perceptor, go back to your scientific exploits and find me any capable human scientists, we need all the help we can get to build a new Allspark. All members of the ACCH must report to landing pad 16 at 144.6 Cycles later this Mega-Cycle for the arrival of the humans and the Autobot Strike Teams’ arrival from space. There will be an emergency meeting later at 184.3 cycles. That will be all for today. Dismiss.”
  The Autobots immediately left the Conflict Command Room as quickly as they came with their given orders and assignments, while Prime turn back to his conversations with the Autobot troops’s commanders appearing on the 7 large screens of the CCR. As he watched the conflict rage across the galaxy on the screens, Prime sighed and muttered to himself, “I hope things won’t get much worse for us…”, and returned to his work, silently wishing that one day the conflict between Cybertronians would come to an end once and for all.
  Unfortunately for Optimus Prime, He was right about the first, and wrong about the second. Things were going to get much, much worse soon.