Tails had transferred control of the gateway to the MSS-Enterprise. There were now five ships on a journey to Vorton. Optimus and his family took up positions on the Autobot Flagship, the Ark. Jazz joined in the fun and Optimus’ right-hand bot, Goldbug Magnus, was already in position with his wife, Arcee, and their daughter, Glyph, assuming their posts. The Nebulans were in one of the guest quarters. “All hands ready,” reported Goldbug.
“Now we wait for the others,” replied Optimus.
Because of the nature of the mission, Shockwave and her Mini-cons, Laserbeak, Ravage, and Frenzy (once Soundwave’s), took up positions on the Nemesis. “All decks report ready,” said Megatron as he took up the comms position while Galvatron sat in the Captain’s Chair. “The Ark’s standing by too.”
“Captain, there’s a space bridge opening near us,” reported Ravage. “Small one bearing 2-1-0 Mark 1-7-5.”
“Source?” asked Galvatron.
“It’s from Cybertron,” replied Megatron as he got Ravage’s readings. “The Bridge Passenger is hailing all ships.”
“Open a channel.” Megatron dutifully did so.
“This is Thundercracker Korrug, Leader of the Seekers,” came the call. Shockwave ran a Spark Check. “I heard that there was a fleet gathering around Mobius for a rescue mission. Nemesis, permission to board?”
“Spark Check confirmed,” reported Shockwave. “It’s Thundercracker.”
“Permission granted, Thundercracker,” said Galvatron. “Welcome aboard. Meet us on the bridge.”
While Thundercracker boarded the Nemesis, the Enterprise was awaiting its readiness update. Sira and her family were onboard, as were Sonic and his family and Shadow’s family. Rouge and Knuckles also joined them Tails and Cosmo worked on the gateway controls. “All decks report ready,” reported Shadow’s tactical officer.
“Gateway controls are locked in,” said Tails.
“We open the gateway on Optimus and the Faker’s command,” declared Shadow.
“That’s right, Faker,” chuckled Sonic. The tactical officer just rolled their eyes.
On the Glanthelantir, Glanthel was in awe. “I never thought I’d be out among the stars,” he remarked.
“It’s exciting for us all,” replied his CMO.
“All decks ready,” reported the tactical officer.
“We await the final checks,” directed Glanthel.
“I can’t believe I became a Mechanica AFTER this kind of experience!” Endea giggled. “And I still work in space!”
“It’s exhilarating, isn’t it?” asked Arsha. “Being among what was once forbidden to us.”
“Maybe we should start a space program ourselves,” mused Bashoon.
“All decks standing by,” came the tactical officer’s report.
“Signal our readiness to the fleet,” ordered Endea.
“Fleet’s reporting ready,” said Shadow’s comms officer.
“Let’s do it to it!” cheered Sonic. Shadow groaned at that phrase.
“Enterprise is ready,” said Goldbug.
“Let’s roll out!” declared Optimus.
A massive dimensional rift opened in front of the fleet. Once it was opened, all ships flew in.
Several rocks in space floated silently. They were connected by various scaffolds and tubes. In the center of it all was a rock with a massive gateway and five different shields with different patterns on them. This was the Main Vorton Gateway, the last of the Great Gateways of the Vortonian people. Right now, four people and a robot stood by it. One was a woman wearing orange pants and a white tank top advertising Aperture Laboratories. This was Chell of Portal. The second one was a woman dressed like a Dalek, complete with gunstick and plunger in her forearms. This was Rusty, a former Dalek. The third was a green-skinned woman dressed in black and wearing a witch’s hat. This was Elphaba Thropp, the former Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. The last person was a Cyberman without his helmet, revealing a man with gray hair and a moustache. This was Sir Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, the Brigadier. The robot, identifying as female, had one eye, an antenna on each side of the head, pincer claws, and a hover skirt. This was Portal Operator Omega, known as POmega. “Fleet’s on its way,” reported POmega.
“Open the other end,” directed Elphaba. A fleet-sized dimensional rift opened, and the fleet arrived in orbit around Vorton. Once the rift closed, Arsha, Bashoon, Delselii, Geltar, Farmee, Yufantel, Hejema, Torya, Optimus, Megatron, Sky Runner, Firestorm, Galvatron, Goldbug, Arcee, Glyph, Sira, Sandy, Sonic, Silver, Daniel, Shadow, Maria, Trema, Llyra, Galen, Kong, Hot Rod, and Override beamed down. The ones who came to Vorton before looked as the new arrivals goggled at the place in wonder.
“So this is where the magic happened!” chuckled Delselii.
“Awesome, isn’t it?” asked Arsha.
“Daddy, you never said how amazing this place was!” Glyph said to Goldbug.
“It was something you needed to see for yourself,” replied Goldbug.
“Welcome to Vorton, everyone,” greeted the Brigadier. “I trust the trip was comfortable.”
“It was fine, Brigadier,” replied Optimus. “Now, let’s get to work. We gotta get back into contact with Beyond City. Perhaps gain some allies.”
“First off,” suggested Shade, “we should probably gain some intel. Can we send some sort of probe to this Beyond City?”
“As a matter of fact, we can,” replied POmega. “We just wondered if that was a good idea given that it can’t be hidden all that easily.”
“If we can somehow make it so that the probe is cloaked, we can easily get the intel we need,” decided Shade.
“That’s my girl!” chuckled Shadow as he ruffled her quills.
“But where are we gonna get the tech needed to cloak it?” asked Bashoon. “It’s not exactly cheap OR legal tech in my world.”
“Leave that to me,” replied Megatron. “Shockwave’s been developing cloaking technology. I’m sure this would be a perfect test for it.” Just then, they heard a couple talking as they approached.
“I’m telling you, we gotta get help!” urged a Scottish man.
“And I’m telling you to have faith!” replied a woman’s voice. Arsha’s ears flicked.
“I know that voice,” she muttered. A Naga woman with a red tail then slithered in with a dark-skinned man.
“Palma, there’s no way-!” The couple stopped when they caught sight of everyone. “…Ah, so that’s the game, eh?” asked the man.
“Arsha?” asked the Naga.
“Palmarta?” asked Arsha.
“By the Ones, it IS you!” The two women then hugged one another. “It’s been too long, I thought I’d never see you again after…well…” The Naga, Palmarta, faltered.
“Your nephews and nieces got out of there,” assured Arsha. “They formed the Palmarta School for Singers during Reconstruction.”
“Reconstruction?! Then…we won?!”
“We won! Dr. Borg drained Oyed and the Divine Ones of their Divine Mana and made them mortal, so we took that opportunity to get rid of Oyed and then we stopped Dr. Borg’s experiment to make herself and her fellow Councilors the new Divine Ones thanks to the Divine Mana they drained. Now they’re dead and me and my lovers got married and we’re ruling the-!” Palmarta hugged Arsha again.
“Your Hi…Your Majesty, you have no idea how much I worried about that! I kept having nightmares and screamed myself awake! …And woke up Liam in the process.” She gestured to the man she came in with.
“I promise you,” assured Liam as he stroked her back, “it really was no bother. Anything for my wife.”
“Wife?” asked Arsha. “You’re married?!”
“It was such a romantic first date!” sighed Palmarta happily. “It was during an After Academy Prom. Our eyes drifted to each other, and we silently came together and danced the night away, all in bliss!”
“That was the second time we met, you numpty!” called Liam. “The first time we met, you were drunk off your scaled arse!”
“Okay, so I didn’t have a good coping mechanism for post-death!”
“I appreciate seeing the truth come to light,” rumbled Megatron, “but we have business concerning your home, Mr McIntyre.” Liam recognized that voice.
“Megatron!” he hissed.
“He’s here at my request,” said Optimus. “Sonic and I visited the Realms, then Arsha visited us, then we tried to raise Beyond City only to be met with interrupted communications, so we had to come here to assess the situation and possibly find a solution.”
“We’re thinking of sending a cloaked probe,” explained Arsha. “Apparently, Shockwave’s got the cloaking tech.”
“Well, as long as Ms. One-Eye doesn’t think of dissecting me or Palmarta, we’ll help her make the probe.
The cloaked probe was constructed. “Cloaking device functions within expected parameters,” Shockwave reported.
“Uploading last known dimensional coordinates to probe computer,” said Rusty. “…Coordinates uploaded. Launching probe and opening a rift.” She pressed the launch button, and the probe flew into a rift.
“All we do is wait,” muttered Optimus as he drummed his fingers. Farmee amused himself by making cloud balls and arranging them in various patterns.
“You know, having fought in a war,” remarked Arsha, “I figured I’d get used to it during peacetime. Guess not.”
“I don’t think you need to wait that long,” replied Maria.
“Why’s that?” asked Optimus.
“We’re getting a visual.” A holographic display of After Academy in its current state appeared in front of everyone.
“Are…are those…shield walls?” asked Optimus.
“That’s part of the Siege System,” replied Liam.
“I take it that’s not something the average student thinks they would see,” guessed Megatron.
“Aye, so if that system’s up, After Academy’s in deep shite. It blocks all normal communications channels and severs us from the rest of the multiverse.”
“That explains why we couldn’t get to Beyond City,” mused Optimus.
“But what kind of enemy would warrant that?” asked Farmee. “Would they really be that dangerous?”
“The fighting needs to be contained,” replied Arsha. “In that instance, Beyond City was smart. But that still leaves the identity of the enemy.”
“Hold up, the probe’s detecting a vessel,” said Maria. “Pulling up visual now.” She keyed in a few commands and got the image of the vessel, a gray cube with circuitry on its hull and green light coming from inside. The instant Optimus saw it, his internal Energon nearly froze.
“Oh no,” he breathed. Megatron arched an eyebrow.
“That’s not what I think it is, I trust?” he asked.
“Given that the F.N.S knew a Klingon Dahar Master,” replied Optimus, “I think it is.”
“What’s wrong?” asked Farmee.
“That cube,” explained Optimus, “is the standard patrol vessel of the most malevolent enemy to the United Federation of Planets. It takes technology and people and assimilates them into a collective mind of cyborgs, suppressing any and all individuality.”
“Does this collective have a name?” Optimus growled as he said the name.
“The Borg!”