Transformers: Rise of the Decepticon

"Rest assured," Skygnaw said, locking his optics onto Yinm. "You will soon witness a display of power far beyond your imagination."

Why side with the local civilization rather than the Sharkborn invaders?

Skygnaw had calculated the variables carefully.

Aiding the weaker party carried immense political weight, turning a simple intervention into an unforgettable debt that yielded far greater returns.

Aligning with the dominant force offered diminished profits at best, assuming they even appreciated the gesture.

The Sharkborn were clearly not the type to play nice, and adding icing to a cake required the owner's permission in the first place.

Besides, both he and the invaders lusted after the resources of Planet Kugrage, making them natural competitors.

As for the risk involved, Skygnaw viewed the local civilization and the invaders as a tiger and a lion.

And he was a heavy tank designed to crush them both.

The moment he realized the planetary siege was still underway, Skygnaw abandoned his original plan of raw conquest and adopted this strategic salvation approach instead.

After all, acting as a savior sounded infinitely more pleasing than being labeled a cold invader.

Having finalized the arrangement, Skygnaw vanished in a flash of warped space, leaving the hall as abruptly as he had arrived.

Even though Yinm had witnessed the instantaneous movement before, the sight still filled him with awe and deepened his caution toward these alien giants.

The stranger knew every detail of the empire's internal situation, yet Yinm knew virtually nothing about them in return.

In truth, Yinm had considered opening peace talks with the Sharkborn, but could anyone negotiate with an enemy that launched a war without even offering a pretext?

The invaders had clearly come to eradicate his species.

Back aboard the Nemesis, Skygnaw immediately summoned Blackarachnia, Predaking, and the Inquisition cell.

To avoid detection by the enemy fleet, the flagship maintained a stealth orbit on the dark side of Planet Kugrage.

"What is the plan, Skygnaw?" Blackarachnia asked as she stepped onto the bridge tower, followed closely by Dirge and Razorclaw.

"I have met with the Mindborn Emperor," Skygnaw said simply, skipping the minor details. "We reached an agreement. I will destroy the Sharkborn fleet for him."

Blackarachnia nodded without prying into the terms.

Dirge and Razorclaw remained silent, knowing better than to interrupt a high-level briefing between commanders.

"Blackarachnia, I need you to lead our forces..."

Skygnaw laid out his operational plan. She would command the Predacons, the Inquisition, and a detachment of the Aerospace Force to launch a surprise strike on the main fleet still hovering in deep space.

Though the Nemesis was a terrifying warship, it was still a solitary vessel, and Skygnaw intended to pilot it personally to crush the enemy flagship.

To ensure total eradication without leaving stray survivors, no ship could be allowed to escape. With the enemy flagship drawn down to the surface, Blackarachnia's combined strike force possessed more than enough firepower to clean up the orbital fleet.

"Understood. Leave the main fleet to me," Blackarachnia agreed smoothly after a brief pause.

In Tas City, inside the central command headquarters.

"Wala, you will remain here under light supervision for now," General Silae stated.

After careful thought, Silae decided to consult his staff before taking further action, though he restored Wala's freedom of movement within the city and returned his personal guards.

Just as Wala prepared to leave, Silae's lieutenant burst through the doors in a panic.

"General! Terrible news!"

Silae's heart sank, and he stood up abruptly. "Speak! What happened?"

Had the final defensive ring outside the city failed?

"No, sir," the lieutenant gasped, his face pale. "Our scout fighters report that the massive flagship of the enemy fleet is heading straight for us!"

Silae turned pale. This was far worse than losing the outer ring.

If the fifth ring fell, they still had the city walls, but if that cosmic leviathan arrived overhead, all defenses would be meaningless.

"Scramble every available fighter! Intercept that ship before it reaches the city!"

Silae did not dare dream of shooting down the massive vessel, but even then, he severely overestimated his air wing.

"General..." the lieutenant said with a bitter expression. "Our top fighter squadrons have already engaged the target, but their energy weapons are completely deflected by a heavy shield around the ship."

"They cannot even slow it down!"

"Curse them!" Silae swore through gritted teeth. Pitting light atmospheric fighters against an interstellar flagship was like ants trying to push a mountain. He desperately searched for a way to counter the threat.

Standing nearby, Wala listened quietly until he grasped the situation, his eyes narrowing as he slipped out of the room unnoticed.

Silae was too consumed by the crisis to pay attention to the young noble's departure.

Outside the city, eleven Sharkborn legion chiefs gathered in the hills.

They had halted their assault a few minutes prior, pulling their troops back to create a wide safety perimeter around Tas City.

"A shame we couldn't break the final line ourselves," one chief grumbled. "Now Lord Trifang has to intervene personally."

"Hmph! Blame Razergill for wasting his elite flight wing for nothing."

"Razergill failed, but your heavy armor division didn't accomplish much either!"

"What did you say? Do you want to settle this right now?"

"Stop arguing!" a stern voice cut through the quarrel.

As the other chiefs turned toward the speaker, the officer pointed up toward the heavy clouds above Tas City. "Lord Trifang has arrived."

The squabbling ceased instantly as every chief looked up in awe.

Under their watchful eyes, a colossal warship cast a wide shadow over the landscape, descending slowly through the atmosphere like a floating fortress.

It was the Abyssal Lord. Silae's air forces had failed to slow its path by even a single second.

Panic erupted across the streets of Tas City.

"By the gods, what is that thing?"

Countless citizens and soldiers poured out of buildings, staring up at the sky in sheer horror.

Silae rushed out of the command center, his heart sinking as he beheld the massive hull glowing with a faint energy field directly above them.

He barked orders into his communicator: "Where are our drone swarms? Deploy every available Devil-bird and breach that ship's shields!"

The Abyssal Lord resembled a massive alien predator stripped of its fins, its thick hull radiating a heavy, oppressive presence.

Its primary dorsal armament featured a high-yield laser cannon capable of vaporizing targeted structures in an instant.

The ventral hull housed heavy magnetic rails and automated torpedo bays loaded with proton torpedoes designed to burrow deep into enemy hulls before detonating internally.

At Silae's command, thousands of Devil-bird drones swarmed into the sky toward the warship, buzzing like angry insects.

Yet their suicidal dives proved completely useless, causing harmless ripples across the ship's invisible energy barrier like eggs thrown against a stone wall.

Atmospheric fighters darted around the leviathan like tiny birds, hurling themselves recklessly against the shield grid in a desperate effort to clear a path for the drone swarms.

Unbothered by the tiny attacks, the Abyssal Lord descended steadily until it hovered just a few hundred meters above the city center.

Inside the bridge, Silas Trifang looked down at the sprawling city on his main display, a cold, cruel grin spreading across his face as he reached for a control panel.

"Die, pathetic insects!"

Knowing this primitive world possessed no weapons capable of scratching his hull, he lowered his ship without fear.

A brilliant glow began to build along the ship's ventral array as its primary weapon charged. Below, the citizens watched in utter despair, knowing devastation was seconds away.

"It's coming!"

Outside the city, the Sharkborn chiefs watched with cruel excitement, eager to witness the familiar spectacle of total annihilation.

Whenever Lord Trifang brought the Abyssal Lord down to a world's surface, the campaign was effectively over. They had lost count of how many civilizations had burned under this exact display.

As hundreds of thousands of Mindborn citizens closed their eyes in despair, the ventral cannon reached peak charge.

At that exact millisecond, a dark red beam pierced the sky from the distant horizon.

Zing!

The shot was timed with terrifying precision, striking the Abyssal Lord's aft section just as its main shields dropped momentarily to vent heat for the main cannon.

The beam burned clean through the rear armor, blowing a massive hole through the propulsion housing and instantly disrupting the weapon's power draw.

Warning! Warning!

Thruster Three critical failure! System malfunction!

Alarms blared across the bridge, and Silas Trifang let out a furious roar, turning his head sharply to glare out the viewport toward the source of the attack.

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