The Lord Ships were tougher nuts to crack, even with more ships joining the fray. The Imperium was launching small pyramids, the fighter pods of the Lords. Other ships launched drone fighters and other fighter craft, but our heroes were in a tough spot. Scorpainia called up Emily. “The enemy’s sent out attack fighters to harass our own,” she said.
“We’ll try to help,” replied Emily.
“With what?! Emily, we’re losing too many ships! We’ve got to turn the Lords’ left flank!”
“It’s too well protected, but their lines are spread pretty thin in the middle.”
“We’ll worry about the middle; you guys keep the attack fighters off us.” Scorpainia ended the call.
“The Hammer of Tarlax has already sustained heavy damage,” reported Hiroki. “She can’t take a direct assault in the middle.”
“It’s the best option we have,” replied Emily.
“What about Boulton?” asked Michael.
“He’s been deassimilated,” reminded Hiroki. “I know what you’re thinking of, but Picard’s ability to exploit a Borg Cube’s weakness was a fluke.”
“There’s also Seven of Nine!”
“Michael, the decision stands,” interjected Emily. “We can’t always rely on a former drone to get us out of Borg messes.”
“You can rely on this one!” called Boulton’s voice as he strode onto the bridge with Richard behind him.
“Boulton!” protested Emily.
“He said he has a means of destroying the Lord ships without sustaining more casualties,” explained Richard. “We need his expertise.”
“…Where?” decided Emily as she nodded for Hiroki to step aside. Boulton keyed in the coordinates.
“Their shields are on different rotational frequencies, but there’s a moment where the frequencies match on this one,” explained Boulton as he also keyed in the shield frequency.
“Hail all ships,” ordered Emily.
“Channel open,” replied Hiroki.
“This is Emily of the Virginia,” Emily said to the fleet. “Boulton has found a weakness. Target all weapons on the following coordinates at his command.”
“Emily, those don’t appear to be vital areas,” replied Rosadera.
“Trust me, Rosadera.” All ships kept up the appearance of a valiant effort against the ships.
“Wait for it…” said Boulton. “…Stand by. …NOW!” All ships fired, their weapons passing through the enemy shields and targeting the one spot on each ship. To put it simply…catastrophic systems failures across all parts of the enemy ships!
“ZIDDET! GET OUT OF THERE!” Sonavok called through the Collective.
“TRANSPORTERS ARE OFFLINE!” replied Ziddet. “I HAD TO STEAL A FIGHTER!” Sonavok then spotted a fighter.
“SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN! SEE YOU AT BASE!” Other drones followed the same idea and scrambled for the fighters. They escaped just in time.
“They’re getting away!” Scorpainia warned the fleet.
“That’s all the ships!” replied Emily. “Megumi, the enemy fleet’s beaten!”
“Now’s our chance!” cheered Megumi. “All hands, it’s time for the ground assault! Let’s end this!”
“Damn it all!” growled Kamen Rider Ex (Metaltron). “How did they beat the Lords?!”
“Ground assault forces detected within perimeter!” warned a Dalek.
“Metaltron,” called the Rift Controller, “we have only five more minutes!”
“We’ll hold them off as long as possible!” She then addressed Intrag and Nemesis Prime. “Split them up. We must have no glorious team-ups for them!”
“Lord Nemesis!” called Crystal Widow. “We just spotted Megatron carrying the Matrix around his neck.”
“…A steward, eh?” mused Nemesis. “Darling, you just gave me an idea!”
“All right, everyone,” said Megumi in her Rider persona of Kamen Rider Royal. “Remember the plan. We have to stick together.”
“Call me vengeful, but Nemesis is mine when he is sufficiently weakened,” said Megatron.
“Easy, Megs,” advised Richard in his Rider persona of Guard.
“Weakened, my dear Megatron?!” cackled Nemesis Prime’s voice. The Terrorcons then surrounded the group and separated the heroes so that Royal and her friends were on one side of a wall that came down while those of the Transformers and Sonic’s universe were on the other side with the Terrorcons!
“MEGATRON! MEGATRON!” called Royal as she banged on the wall!
“GO ON!” replied Megatron’s voice. “WE ANTICIPATED THIS, REMEMBER?!”
“…All right, meet us at the center of the place when you can!” decided Royal. She turned to her remaining friends. “Come on!” she said. Death, in her Rider persona of…well, Kamen Rider Death, then checked her watch. She then saw something.
“…Oh,” she whispered to herself. “So he IS still coming. …Good. We still have a shot.”
“Death?” asked Royal.
“Nothing, just a loose end wrapping itself up shortly.”
“…If you say so.” Royal then led the way.
The Terrorcons were fighting hard against their opponents. Hot Rod grappled with Sideways. “Cosmos and I trusted you!” he snarled. “You were better as Meteorfire!”
“I dunno,” replied Sideways, “I still made my distaste for Majips quite clear. Surely you Autobots don’t wanna associate with someone so racist.”
“Why you-!” Hot Rod fired his wrist blasters, but Sideways grabbed one of Hot Rod’s arms and bent it in an unnatural way.
“HOT ROD!” called Override when she saw Hot Rod cradling his broken arm. Sideways then turned into a blob of static and flew around her. He then solidified an arm and punched her torso hard enough to leak Energon. Override collapsed, gasping in pain.
“Oh, did I hurt the baby?” asked Sideways cruelly. She wasn’t pregnant, but anything to get his licks in. “GOOD!”
“Guys, this isn’t going so hot!” called Sonic. Amy swung her hammer into Deceptitran’s head, then Deceptitran caught it with his teeth.
“LET GO OF MY HAMMER!” she shouted. Deceptitran, instead, clamped down and bit the hammer’s head off. “MY HAMMER!” wailed Amy.
“My snack!” laughed Deceptitran. Amy then pulled another one out of nowhere. “WHAT THE?!” yelped Deceptitran. “YOU HAVE MORE HAMMERS THAN A HARDWARE STORE!”
“Wives, always getting the upper hand over their men, am I right?” laughed Nemesis. Megatron wasn’t listening. He was still swinging his concealed swords. “Oh, no bite? Still got revenge on the processor? You know, I liked you better when you were trying to kill Optimus.”
“Not kill, turn to my way of thinking!” argued Megatron.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake! You never WERE a Decepticon, were you?! Just an Autobot with red optic lenses! I’d say that’s proof you don’t deserve this thing!” Nemesis then summoned the Dark Saber and slashed Megatron’s arm off! Megatron howled in pain as Nemesis took the Matrix! “A nice little trophy.”
“YOU GIVE THAT BACK TO MEGATRON THIS INSTANT!” shouted Glyph as she leapt onto Nemesis.
“GET OFF!” roared Nemesis. Glyph was not making the fight easy for Nemesis. Sadly, Nemesis had more combat experience. He threw her to the floor, then wrapped his fingers around her throat! Glyph…was losing consciousness.