The hologram of Earth rotated slowly. Scalpel pointed a claw at it.
"Little one, I need you to do something for me."
Here it comes, Nathan thought. There's no such thing as a free lunch.
"Lord Scalpel," Nathan began, trying to manage expectations. "I am but a humble Middle-Tier warrior. If the task is too dangerous..."
"Relax," Scalpel interrupted. "It's a search mission. Not a combat mission."
The hologram shifted. The globe zoomed in, then morphed into a wireframe model of a Cybertronian spacecraft. Beside it, a symbol appeared: A purple spider with eight legs.
"I need you to find a Decepticon ship that crashed on this planet. It bears this insignia."
A spider?
Nathan studied the symbol. It wasn't standard Decepticon heraldry.
Purple spider... Blackarachnia? Airachnid?
In the Bayverse, these characters didn't officially exist on screen. But this was a real universe, filling in the gaps. Scalpel, a doctor, looking for a spider-themed Decepticon? It fit.
"Find the ship, and you find the Decepticon inside," Scalpel said.
"Is the pilot... dormant?" Nathan asked.
"Likely in stasis lock," Scalpel confirmed. "If she were awake, she would have contacted me."
"She?" Nathan noted the pronoun. Definitely Blackarachnia.
"However," Scalpel added, his tone darkening. "It is possible the humans found the ship first. If Sector 7 or some other military organization has it..."
Nathan winced. That's the worst-case scenario.
If humans had it, it was in a bunker somewhere, being reverse-engineered. Breaking into a human military base was suicidal for a lone Trooper.
"If humans have it, I can't promise retrieval," Nathan said carefully.
"Just find it," Scalpel replied. "I don't expect you to storm a fortress alone. Just locate the signal."
"And there is no time limit. Do it while you are on missions for Starscream. Just keep your sensors open."
No time limit? Perfect.
Nathan mentally accepted the quest. He could put it on the back burner while he focused on his own goals—like the AllSpark.
"Lord Scalpel," Nathan said, rubbing his hands together metaphorically. "This planet is dangerous. If I am to roam freely searching for your friend, I might encounter Autobots. Or humans with missiles..."
Scalpel rolled his optics. "Fine. What do you want?"
"My weapons," Nathan said shamelessly. "You promised an armor upgrade. Can you upgrade my firepower too?"
Scalpel groaned. "Greedy little glitches... Fine! I have enough materials to upgrade your blaster capacitors. But that's it!"
"Thank you, Lord Scalpel! You are most generous!"
Nathan bowed deeply. Armor and weapons. I'm leveling up before I even leave the tutorial.
"Now," Scalpel said, his voice dropping. "There is one more thing."
Another one?
"This relates to why I sabotaged the chip. I wanted a spy because I need to know what Starscream is doing."
Scalpel manipulated the hologram again. The globe spun, focusing on the continent of Africa. Red dots appeared, clustering in a specific region.
"These are Starscream's movements over the last month. He keeps returning to this area."
Nathan looked at the map.
Egypt.
Specifically, a cluster of coordinates southwest of Cairo.
"The Pyramids," Nathan whispered.
Scalpel nodded. "The Great Pyramids of Giza. According to my scans, those structures were built with Cybertronian assistance thousands of years ago."
"Starscream is obsessed with them. He spends days scanning the desert sands there."
Nathan's spark pulsed. He knew exactly what was there.
The Star Harvester.
The machine built by The Fallen to destroy the sun and harvest its energy for Energon. It was buried beneath one of the pyramids.
Starscream is looking for the Harvester.
Or maybe he's looking for the Matrix of Leadership to activate it.
No, the Matrix is in Petra, Jordan. So he's looking for the machine itself.
This confirmed the timeline. This was definitely pre-Revenge of the Fallen.
"Interesting," Nathan murmured. "Why would he care about piles of stone?"
"That is what you need to find out," Scalpel said. "If he finds something powerful out there, he might challenge Megatron. Or worse."
"I want you to keep your audio receptors open. If he mentions coordinates, artifacts, or 'The Sun,' you tell me."
"Understood," Nathan said.
Internally, his mind was racing.
The AllSpark is in Hoover Dam.
The Star Harvester is in Egypt.
Two god-tier artifacts on one planet.
If I play my cards right... I might get them both.