Body evolution requires divine intervention.
Or at least, a divine artifact like the AllSpark.
Nathan suppressed the thrill of his new upgrades. He needed to test them.
Click-whirrr.
At his mental command, his right forearm split. The three barrels of the 12.6mm Rotary Cannon spun up with a menacing hum.
Simultaneously, the armor on his left shoulder slid back. The Multi-Pod Launcher rose from its housing, four dark tubes locking onto imaginary targets.
"Hey! Watch it!"
Scalpel screeched, shielding the newly coded Information Chip with his body.
"This lab cost me a fortune! If you misfire and blow up my equipment, I will dismantle you while you're still online!"
"My apologies, Lord Scalpel," Nathan said, retracting the weapons. "Just a systems check."
He glanced at the chip Scalpel was holding. It was larger than a human laptop, glowing with complex circuitry.
"So, that's the code?"
"Of course."
"You finished it fast. I didn't even see you write—"
HISSS.
The heavy blast doors groaned open.
Nathan immediately shut up and lowered his head.
Starscream strode in. He looked exactly as he had three days ago—impatient, arrogant, and radiating menace.
"Time is up, Scalpel. Where is the chip?"
"Right here," Scalpel said, presenting the device. "Ze-ze~ Check it yourself."
Starscream snatched the chip. His optics projected a red scanning beam over the surface.
"Hmph. Adequate."
He turned to look at Nathan, who was doing his best impression of a statue.
"Let's go, T-22."
Starscream spun on his heel and marched out.
"Yes, Lord Starscream."
Nathan hurried after him, shooting a quick wink at Scalpel behind Starscream's back.
Scalpel tapped his temple with a claw. Remember the mission.
Nathan nodded slightly. I got it. Find the spider, watch the boss.
...
Outside the lab, T-19 was waiting.
"Lord Starscream," the drone saluted.
"T-22, go with T-19. He will brief you on your duties," Starscream ordered without stopping. He clutched the chip and transformed into his F-22 Raptor mode, blasting down the oversized corridor with a deafening roar.
Nathan stood in the wash of jet exhaust, confused.
That's it?
No debriefing? No 'what did Scalpel do'? No secret meeting?
Did he forget I was supposed to be spying? Or does he just not care?
Maybe Starscream was just posturing. Maybe he knew Scalpel was up to something but lacked the political capital to execute his Chief Medical Officer without proof.
"T-22. Follow me."
T-19's voice was flat, emotionless. The voice of a programmed soldier.
"Sure thing, brother," Nathan replied, falling into step.
As they walked, Nathan observed the base. It was massive. The corridors were wide enough for tanks to drive two-abreast.
Cybertronian architecture is impressive. Starscream dug this whole complex by himself?
They passed a room labeled [ MATERIAL EXTRACTION ].
Small, wheeled drones—not sentient Cybertronians, just dumb labor bots—were scurrying in and out. They carried baskets of raw ore.
"Local minerals," T-19 explained, noticing Nathan's gaze. "We mine deep beneath the surface. The ore is refined into Energon."
T-19 sighed, a very human gesture for a robot. "But the yield is terrible. It takes tons of ore to fill one cube."
"I see..."
Nathan nodded. Resource scarcity. The classic Decepticon problem.
But his mind was working on the geography.
Deep mining. Desert terrain. Ore processing.
Scalpel had shown him the map coordinates earlier.
The Great Basin Desert, Nevada.
Diller Mountains. Connors Canyon.
Nathan did the math.
We are in Nevada. The Silver State.
Hoover Dam is on the border of Nevada and Arizona.
Distance: Approx. 400 kilometers.
For a human, that was a long drive.
For a Cybertronian jet? It was a ten-minute flight.
I am practically neighbors with Megatron and the AllSpark.
If Starscream knew how close he was to his missing leader, he would either be terrified or ecstatic.
As they walked past the mining drones, the small bots stopped and pressed themselves against the walls, bowing to the superior warriors.
Nathan looked at them. They were tools.
T-19 looked at them. He saw nothing.
Hierarchy, Nathan thought. Even among machines, there are masters and slaves.
I need to make sure I stay a master.