Transformers: Survival of Defective Products

The faint sound in the communication had disappeared, leaving only jumbled electrical current.

The sound waves simultaneously scanned the area where Megatron was located.

Communication isolation persists. A brief signal leak was detected.

The vector frowned: "Not recovered?"

【no. 】

The data provided by the sound waves showed that the area never regained normal contact with the outside world.

Just now, for a brief moment, someone deliberately opened a crack in the previously completely blocked signal, letting out a little sound before closing it again.

"Unicron did it on purpose."

The ambulance driver, still anxious about the extent of her infection, looked up upon hearing this.

"He wants me to hear." The vector instantly guessed His thoughts.

He knew she was here, that she was connected to Megatron, and that he knew that if even the slightest sound was leaked, she couldn't pretend it hadn't happened.

The vector immediately shifted to AZ: "Can you pinpoint Megatron's last coordinates?"

"Yes, but there's no real-time location available right now."

AZ's attempt to build a land bridge was interrupted, and the blue-green corridor collapsed on its own.

The wasteland where the landing site was originally located was covered by newly raised rock layers, and there were also continuously forming manifestations of the Cosmic Emperor nearby. The spatial positioning signals in the vicinity were also affected by energy interference.

AZ shook his head: "If we go now, we'll either get stuck in the ground or be killed by Unicron."

Yin Vector managed to stand up, and just as he was about to say something, his right leg suddenly lost its support, causing the whole machine to sway. Fortunately, he managed to stabilize himself in time and didn't fall.

The ambulance driver grabbed her and said, "Sit down!!!"

He pressed the vector back into place and stopped arguing.

-

Unicron's mental assault on Megatron hasn't stopped yet.

After several impacts, Megatron was completely squeezed into the mountain wall by the giant hand.

What changed his expression wasn't the pain, but the fact that his knees started to bend on their own, even though he didn't want to.

He tried to stand up straight, but his right leg was still pressing down, and Unicron forcibly took over his movements, bypassing his consciousness.

Megatron suddenly tightened the hydraulic pressure in his legs, and the metal joints emitted a piercing, agonizing scream as they were unable to bear the strain.

Immediately afterwards, the power of the Cosmic Emperor struck down from above.

He slammed one knee heavily to the ground.

The Cosmic Emperor looked down at him.

"You will eventually kneel before me."

Megatron, supporting himself on his other leg, forced out the words through gritted teeth: "You did this!"

The dark purple energy flashed brightly for a moment, and Megatron's Fusion Cannon went out.

Megatron's mask looks terrible no longer just because of pain.

The Cosmic Emperor was very pleased with this change.

"You have made countless lives subject to your will."

"How are you feeling now?"

Megatron did not answer, but tried to restart the Fusion Cannon, but was blocked by a dark purple power.

"Your body, your strength, and your will all belong to beings more powerful than you."

The voice of the Cosmic Emperor was slow and leisurely, as if he could control everything and look down on this weak being who considered himself strong.

Megatron gritted his teeth; those words brought back too many memories.

Mines, gladiatorial arenas, parliament, and him who instigated the civil war.

He hated it most when others decided his fate, but later he spent a long time applying the same thing to other lives.

Now that it's his turn, he has to admit it's absolutely disgusting.

Megatron forced a smile: "So your power is just to stab others in the back?"

Unicron is simply tightening control once again.

Megatron's head was being controlled by something, trying to force him to bow his head.

-

The sound waves suddenly pulled all the global movement data of manifest objects onto a single map.

There are many red dots; some are entangled with the Autobots, some are being held back by the Decepticons, and some have just emerged from the ground.

As time went by, the routes began to show a pattern.

After the movement trajectory of the manifested entity is curved and extended, it all points to the same position.

The target movement trend is consistent.

Tongtianxiao immediately looked at the coordinates.

[Expected convergence point: Earth Justice Temporary Liaison Point.]

Bumblebee had just destroyed a normal-sized manifestation when it almost got hit by another one while looking at the map.

"They've all passed away?!"

Arcee shielded him from the creature with a shot: "Watch where you're going!"

Red Spider had just flown out of the encirclement of a bunch of manifested beings when he saw this and started cursing nonstop:

"Why does trouble always seem to find its way to us?!"

-

The vector also saw that diagram.

She possesses a dark super-energy body, and the Blade of Time is also within her. It makes no sense for the Cosmic Emperor to have chased after her all the way, but this is simply too much of a fuss.

Magnus adjusts the surface battle zone: "Establish the main defensive line near the contact points, block giant and medium-sized manifestations, and prevent them from getting close to buildings."

"Next, deal with the breached units, and ensure that judicial personnel leave room for human evacuation and medical transport."

Alita's steady voice came in from another area:

"The last group of civilians has left. I'm taking heavy firepower over there."

Bumblebee responded twice, clearly already on its way, and Arcee transformed into a motorcycle to follow.

Jazz interrupted the communication, and the occasional sound of gunfire came through: "I've cleared out the south side."

Nine-Seven was leading the Knights of Law to clear the collapsed road when they saw the dispatch order and quickly divided into groups.

"Second team, continue escorting the humans. The rest of you, follow me back to the contact point!"

"receive!"

A knight of justice pointed into the distance: "They've come out again over there!"

In the distance, the ground cracked open, and a manifestation the size of an ordinary Cybertronian human rose from the earth.

97 turned around and fired a shot: "Did I let you out?!"

-

Chong Yunxiao was the first to return to the perimeter of the judicial liaison point.

The colossal, ferocious form swept past beneath the clouds, its shadow sweeping across the ground, as several medium-sized manifestations approaching the communication point simultaneously looked up.

The next second, flames poured down from the sky, and several manifested forms gradually melted away in the flames.

It swooped down from the sky and landed, its giant claws pressing down on the emanation that had narrowly escaped, tearing it in two.

Red Spider and Bumblebee arrived at the perimeter of the contact point one after the other.

Red Spider glanced at the ever-increasing number of targets from the air.

"I really miss the days a few years ago when all we had to worry about was the weather for humans."

Bumblebee transforms back into robot form: "You were complaining back then too!"

Arcee walked by and said, "And you're complaining while you're fighting."

"Damn Autobots! You have a problem with this?!"

Before he could finish speaking, several manifested forms rushed towards Bumblebee and Arcee.

Starscream instantly fired several missiles, while Bumblebee passed between the two and turned to fire both cannons simultaneously.

Arcee ducked and dodged the oncoming punch with a drift.

She held her weapon against the man's waist.

Bang! The dark purple node exploded.

The three machines continued their journey toward the contact point; the next batch of manifested entities had arrived.

-

When Tong Tianxiao rushed back, the main defense line outside the liaison point was basically in place.

Alita's heavy artillery was positioned at a high point, and the sound waves continuously marked the movement path of the manifested entities for all members.

In the distance, the once calm horizon is slowly beginning to bulge.

"Soaring into the clouds."

The giant monster turned its head in mid-air and roared.

"The big one is yours."

Soaring into the clouds without complaint, he flapped his wings and flew toward the massive army-like formation of manifested beings.

-

Yin Vector leaned back in his chair, adjusting his strategic deployment from time to time.

Now, the gray-black patterns have climbed up to the vectoring shoulder and neck, following the armor upwards little by little, crossing the jaw and climbing up to the cheek.

The ambulance was the first to find her. They didn't say anything, but just used a scanner to check her left eyeglasses.

The infection lines have spread to the outer edge of the optical lens.

I had actually sensed it earlier; my field of vision had been a bit blurry since just now.

If the right optical lens is closed, leaving only the infected eye exposed, the entire medical area instantly becomes a blurry mass of light.

The outline of the ambulance was still discernible, but the words on the screen were barely legible.

She reopened her right eye, said nothing, and raised her hand to increase the font size of the tactical interface in front of her.

The ambulance saw it and only made a short gasp after turning its back to it.

She couldn't tell if it was a suppressed sob or a sigh of despair.

The screen also displayed: [Estimated remaining time: Seventeen minutes.]

Looking at that number, her brain module would usually automatically calculate how long it could last and which tasks could be done first.

She has always preferred to let reason take over when it comes to important matters.

But this time, an unexpected and unwelcome question suddenly emerged.

What if we can't wait for the antidote?

She was stunned for a moment, then forcibly suppressed her thoughts.

She didn't want to think about it yet; the fighting was still going on outside, and she had other things to do.

-

The hammer could no longer move forward; the ion storm was expanding too rapidly, with large amounts of gravel and high-energy particles constantly rushing past.

An alarm sounded inside the spaceship, and the jacks had to be stopped in a safer location.

"It can't be opened anymore!"

Optimus Prime stood up beside him.

While stabilizing the spaceship, the jack turned around and asked, "What are you planning to do?"

Optimus Prime began installing the jetpack: "I'll go get it, the Mighty Pound is too big."

"So you, the smaller one, went to drill into an ion storm?!"

Optimus Prime fastened the last connection: "You stay on the outside."

Enraged, the jack shoved the control lever aside, dodging another piece of debris: "Shut up! The point is, you're coming back here!"

Optimus Prime opened the hatch, and the electric light outside illuminated the entire cabin.

He didn't look back, and then jumped out without hesitation.

The jetpack activated instantly, and Optimus Prime flew towards the AllSpark.

The storm was more violent than the scanned image showed; high-energy particles constantly bombarded the outer armor, and chunks of rapidly spinning gravel crashed into it.

He dodged to the side, drew the Star Sword from behind him, and slashed down with a blue light.

The pebbles split in two and flew past him on either side.

"The storm is still shrinking! Hurry up!" Jack shouted over the communicator, constantly checking the synchronized vector status on the main screen.

The ancient container floated amidst a large amount of rubble and high-energy light streams, and even through the constantly flashing ion storm, the light emanating from its interior could still be seen.

The AllSpark was right there. Optimus Prime sheathed his Starsword and, ignoring the occasional streaks of plasma, accelerated with all his might.

As the distance drew closer, finally just two meters away, Optimus Prime reached out and grabbed the container with all his might, causing the Matrix of Leadership to light up.

He tucked the container of the spark into his coat: "Got it."

At the same time, all alarms inside the spacecraft turned red.

Jack shouted, "Optimus Prime! The ion storm is closing in!!"

——Judicial Liaison Point——

The sound waves suddenly rose: [Megatron signal detected.]

Vector: "Connect".

The communication was slightly clearer this time than the last, starting with a low energy vibration, followed by Megatron's restrained breathing.

"Megatron," said Vector, struggling to keep his head from spinning.

no answer.

"Megatron, can you hear me?"

After a few seconds, there was finally some movement from the other side, Megatron's voice was hoarse:

"...I can hear you."

The vector control operator breathed a slight sigh of relief: "The sound waves are repositioning, AZ is calculating the safe landing point, you hold on—"

"Need not."

She stopped talking.

Unicron increased the force once more, and a heavy thud came through the communication, but Megatron remained silent.

The vector could hardly hide its anxiety: "What do you mean, 'don't want'?"

"No need to manage me."

The vector was stunned.

In the past, Megatron would probably have thought the exact opposite.

He would want her to know, he would want her to come, and he would want her to worry about him.

But now, Megatron could hear the medical alarms blaring around her, as well as the ambulances and the words "knocked down."

He knew exactly how badly she was doing, and the sounds of gunfire outside were deafening, but he didn't need to confirm anything from those things anymore.

Dark energy struck his nervous system once more, and Megatron managed to squeeze out his last sentence:

"You live first."

Communication was interrupted again.

The vector didn't have time to speak and started to feel weak.

Every machine was doing its job, and so was she.

But the problem that had just been forcibly suppressed has resurfaced on its own.

—What if we can't wait for the antidote?