Chapter 26: A New War Begins

"I thought you said there would be thousands of alien ships in orbit," Scamp said in a rather critical tone.

"Maybe in my absence they landed on Minchiva's surface" Blackie replied.

"Hey, what happened to the Freedom?" Drill Master asked.

"We lost it somewhere in the gateway" Ruse informed him.

The crew of five waited patiently as the Victory Arrow descended upon the planet's surface. Once the ship landed, the five exited the ship.

Blackie looked emotionless, but inside he felt shear terror. "Gone . . . it's all gone."

The planet that was once Blackie's home was now a vast wasteland. Everything in site was quite literally leveled. He had never in his life experienced anything so shocking. His friends, his enemies, and all hope were lost. Blackie could do nothing but stare. Surely he hadn't been gone that long; the war couldn't be over yet.

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After a few minutes, the crew grew weary. "They're not here anymore, let's go" the female insisted.

Blackie simply ignored her. "Ship: drop the sub-terrainian drones."

At that command hundreds of drones began falling from the ship. Amongst them were hundreds of Transformers that had fallen in battle, many Cybertronian droids, and a few robots courtesy of his home planet. All of them, much like him had no life signs. They were all drones.

"That's it, he's gone crazy" Scamp said.

"I thought that about you two when I first met you" Ruse told Scamp and Drill Master.

Suddenly, a loud screech came over the horizon.

"Did you hear that?" Ruse asked.

As calmly as he could, Blackie said "They're here."

"Where?" Scamp asked.

"About a mile off" Blackie replied.

"Each one of you except for Drill Master follow me back to the drop shuttle" Blackie ordered them.

Drill Master transformed into his drill tank mode. "I know the score. Drill to science center and retrieve the cryo-data."

On that note, Drill Master began burrowing a tunnel underground along with a large portion of his drones. Scamp, Ruse, the female Transformer and Blackie headed back to the drop shuttle.

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"My drill is starting to over heat, I better take a break" Drill Master thought to himself. "We've got another half mile to go before we reach our destination."

Drill Master looked behind him. Further down the tunnel a few pieces of dirt fell. Then a few more fell. Finally, there was a massive cave in. Drill Master met with the alien menace for the first time.

"Everyone, full speed ahead" Drill Master ordered.

The creatures filled the tunnel, but there was nothing he or the drones could do. Being so small, the aliens were able to climb between the tunnel diggers towards the leader.

"They're all over me!" Drill Master shouted.

Drill Master drilled a hole above ground. He had made inside the main science center. The information given to him by Blackie ringed in his head "Not all of the cryogenic technology info reached the data registry, but all of it reached the Research and Development Headquarters. Retrieve the information and activate the satellite."

Drill Master transformed. "Good thing these creatures are small," he said to himself as he transformed. In an instant half a dozen little creatures covered him. Drones started emerging all around him to assist in battle. Drill Master shook the aliens off as best he could.

"Drones, follow me!" Drill Master shouted to them. The level of the building he needed to reach was a few levels up. "This is going to take me a while."

The whole building was festering with aliens. Drill Master pulled out his gun and began firing random shots at creatures. He made his way up to level six.

"This is Drill Master to the Victory arrow, I'm at the target location. I'm about to-"

The weight of the aliens and numerous shots fired within the building proved to be too stressful. The ceiling collapsed, burying Drill Master.