Chapter 5

Spire, Rust, and Hail walk around another region of the station.

"What the heck is that you've got their freak?" Hail asked Spire.

"It's an energy displacement reader" Spire responded. "The book has its own energy signature that I’m going to lock onto!"

"Do you know the energy signature?" Rust asked.

Spire thought for a moment. "Nope."

Rust was about to reply but Hail stopped her. "It's not worth the trouble."

Spire went on unaffected by their discussion. To them, he was just as he appeared a shell of what used to be a Cybertronian. He was very intelligent, but his twisted spark sometimes confused him enough to make him skip a few important details. Most of the time however, they were just in his explanation of things. He had made a case study of energy signatures of living creatures, and those of energized objects. It would only take his devise, a little deductive reasoning, and a lot of patients to find his target.

The unwitting trio walked into a crowd on the space station and disappeared.

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"Boss! We've located the Doom Gaze!" Slipstream reported.

"Excellent. All crew members, prepare for battle!" Waitstate shouted.

"No go, we can't do that boss" Shadowpaw reported. "The Doom Gaze is docked at a space station. As you know, a battle there would be putting innocent lives in danger.

"It's great to see you've finally developed some sort of a back bone, too bad it won't get a chance to shine" Artifice commented.

"Yes, I know." Waitstate turned to Artifice. "If we did that, we would be just as bad as Spectral Death eh?" Grow up Artifice. That's a pointless philosophy if we all end up dead because of it. PLEASE! Help me see through this zeal that blinds me to reality. Perhaps you have an idea you'd like to input?" Waitstate was a bit uneasy enough with the situation as it were, but Artifice's off beat comments were getting very irritating.

"Oh, sarcasm too! You are a noble leader indeed!" Artifice replied.

Fed up with Artifice, Waitstate turned to Cirrus. "Cirrus, I want you to dock us at the station. Stardrive and Trilana, I want you to make sure we've got no open comm links or anything else that will make us more visible to Spectral Death. I want them to know as little as possible about our presence here.

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Konggra was roaming around with her fellow Huntercons in panther mode, looking for any sign of an anomalous energy trail.

"I keep telling you, I'm not a search dog" Konggra growled.

"You're the closest thing we have" Jupitor snapped.

Konggra transformed to robot mode. "This is ridiculous, I say we just start picking off space station goers until we find what we're looking for."

"That would be a waste of energy" Hirog replied. "There is far too much space station to cover. Besides, we won't want to risk damaging the goods."

"At least this isn't as boring as half of the other assignments we've gotten" Guardor commented.

Kaybajib nodded. "Yeah, and we'll get to shred whoever has the book."

"We'll not get anywhere if you keep yapping!" Jupitor scowled.

Suddenly, their ISDC (Internal Spectral Death Communications) units were activated. "Everyone, attention. Computerscream reports the presence of LONAC here at the station. Long Drop and the other disks have been sent out for further information. Be warned, they're probably after the same thing we are. Our mission will continue, but be prepared to engage in battle. Xaraxus out."

"We'll finally get to crush someone!" Kaybajib shouted excitedly.

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On the opposite end of the space station, the LSS Freedom docked.

"Send out the drones first" Waitstate yelled as he stood in the air lock.

Three small drones emerged from the ship lead by a somewhat larger one.

Waitstate nodded as soon as they were out of the way. "Shadowstrike, I want you to take team one. Admiral, I want you to take team two. The rest of you, come with me."

"While the others circle around the space station, we're going to send the drones straight to the Doom Gaze's air lock. If their systems are anything like ours, they won't be detected. While they're there, they'll crack the hull and infiltrate the ship. This should lead the rats right into our trap. Any questions?" Waitstate turned optimistically to his group.