Transformers: Retribution by David J. Williams, Mark Williams Read Free Book Online

Perceptor. “You would think that it would have given us a hint—”
    “Since it hasn’t said much, I can only assume we’re still on the right track,” Optimus interrupted, maybe a little too sharply. “Perhaps this planet isn’t important to finding the AllSpark. But if nothing else it could be a place where we can make some repairs. And its inhabitants might have information that can help us in our quest.” He turned to the Ark’s pilot. “Sideswipe, put us in orbit.”
    “Aye, aye,” said Sideswipe. As the ship vectored into a polar orbit, Optimus studied the screens and came to a decision.
    “Get an away team together,” he said.
    “You got it,” said Jazz.

Chapter Six
    CYBERTRON
    I ACON WAS A BELEAGUERED CITY .
    There were no besieging forces. No assault lines surrounding the capital. No attackers in sight. But that didn’t mean that the city wasn’t under constant pressure, for the Autobot Wreckers dominated the countryside. Only the largest Decepticon forces ventured beyond Iacon’s massive walls without fear of ambush. Indeed, the war for Cybertron was proceeding as anyone familiar with the patterns of guerrilla warfare might have anticipated, with the stronger force dominating the cities all across the planet while the areas between those cities were subject to assault at any time by fast-moving Autobots who hit hard and then ran for their lives before the Decepticon commanders could concentrate their strength. Those commanders found the situation frustrating, to say the least.
    Still, they couldn’t complain about the big picture. Ever since Optimus Prime had left the planet, the Decepticons had had the upper hand. In the wake of the Ark’s departure, the remaining Autobot strongholds had fallen quickly. For a while it looked like Iacon would be the site of the Autobots’ final stand. But just as the Decepticons were bringing up their reserves for an all-out assault, Ultra Magnus and the Wreckers had decided that it was better to live to fight another day; they’d withdrawnovernight, retreating across the north pole and into the border regions. From there, they scattered to embark upon the insurgency they’d conducted with such vigor ever since.
    But that success had its limits. Guerrilla warfare is by definition the recourse of a force that dare not engage the other in open battle, and that was certainly true for the few Autobots left on the planet. Yet they held on nonetheless, a thorn in the Decepticons’ side. The countryside had become a no-man’s-land; the population had retreated back into the cities. This was partially because of the martial law the Decepticons had implemented: All able-bodied Cybertronians had to report to the factories to meet the production quotas. But the emptying of the countryside was also an inevitable response to the constant skirmishes, the unceasing Autobot attempts to cut the cities off from one another.
    Iacon itself appeared to be relatively untouched by war. The skyline looked almost the same as it had the day the Ark thundered out into deep space. But the city had changed dramatically nonetheless. For one thing, there was hardly any activity visible on the streets and overpasses. They were all inside, counting their blessings and—like the majority of people in any civil war anywhere—hoping they could survive until it was all over.
    But it was at night that the real difference became apparent, for Iacon was a mere shadow of its prewar glory. Where once it had had a panoply of shimmering lights to rival the Milky Way itself, now it was virtually dark. The power was rationed, diverted to military bases and those directly involved in the war effort. Yet there were those who whispered that there was more to it than that—that in the face of constant conflict, the Energon reserves of the Decepticons were running low—that they hadn’t just cut power to all nonessential areas, they had beenforced to deprive even some of their active fighting units