Pheonix Essay, Research Paper

Transformers : The Phoenix War

story by M Sipher

Part One

“Deception, Subterfuge, Treachery and Other Methods of Getting Your Way”

or

“(Since You Joined) The Corporation”

**********

“We have red alert! We have red alert!” Klaxons wailed throughout

Mining Station 48. The planetoid was a valuable source of numerous metals

used in Cybertronian armor plating… metals mined by what was politely

referred to as “Non-Wage-Earning Labor.” Otherwise known as “slaves”. The

stocky, humanoid mine workers came from the planet Juliwa, and were

perfectly suited for backbreaking labor in the planetoid’s thin

atmosphere… valuable resources. The guards at the mouth of the mine

shaft tried desperately to keep the workers from swarming out… with

very limited success. A missile streaked towards the mine, slamming into

one of the guards, the force of the explosion knocking another to the ground.

“This is not a drill! Invaders attacking mine entrance…”

Windrazor stepped up behind the intercom officer. While numerous

Cybertronian troops scrambled frantically in near-panic, Windrazor kept

his air of cool confidence and unshakable calm. As the second-in-command

to Governor Strahl’s Cybertronian Power Corporation, the SkyScorcher

commander had arrived a few breems ago on an inspection tour. The base’s

commander groaned and shook his head. This would *not* look good in his

review….

“Status report.”

The comm. officer looked at several screens briefly, then turned.

“An Autobot raiding party has landed just outside the base’s defense

perimeter. So far, there’s only been damage to the outer defenses…”

“How many intruders?” Windrazor ignored the whimpers of the base

commander. *Pathetic office jockey.*

“Count ten. Five aerial, five ground troops. One of each guarding

the dropship.”

Windrazor leaned closer, his single optic studying the video

screens. Watching the Autobots’ advance… the airborne Autobots were

doing little more than covering the ground troops… who were headed for

the asteroid’s mine entrance. “Deploy as many air units as you can

spare… and have them guard the mine. Be sure to order them to avoid

killing workers… they’re not easily replaceable.”

The commander finally looked up at Windrazor in fear. “But… but

what about the main base? If the Autobots were to attack us here…”

“Despite the inexperience of your troops… this base is in no

danger. The Autobot’s target is the mine.” He watched the screen : a fire

engine, loaded down with workers, bolted towards the Autobots’ dropship.

“Order the troops to leave their dropship alone. The Autos are here

merely to free workers and escape quickly… if we destroy their escape

route, then they’re going to change that objective… to destroying

everything they can before we finish them off.” He checked another

screen… the airborne Autobots were ripping through the first wave of

Cybertronian Thunderjets.

Windrazor simply watched in stony silence as the comm. officer

repeated the orders.

*Excellent.*

**********

“You know, I was never really impressed with the Cybertronian

troopers…” Powerglide mused as he corkscrewed through yet another

Thunderjet formation, “But this is downright pathetic!”

“Tell me about it.” Dunebuster replied, as she ramped a blast

crater in her dune buggy mode. She reached a pair of the green-skinned

Juliwan miners and screeched to a halt. The two clambered in, desperate

to get away from the Decepticon guards. Dunebuster u-turned and peeled

out, narrowly dodging blaster fire. She’d made it to the mines and back

to the dropship five times now… without a scratch. Of course, the air

cover helped….

“Now you see why I insist on rigid training procedures!!”

Scattershot barked out, sending another jet screaming into the ground.

“Technobots, keep it tight!! Inferno, Dunebuster, one last run… it

looks like they’re beginning to get organized!! Cosmos, Dogfight,

Strafe… return to the dropship!! Hup hup hup!!”

The larger Juliwan in Dunebuster’s seat turned his head back

towards the mine and yelled desperately in his native language. “Huh?

What? I can’t understand-” then Dunebuster saw. Using her rearview

optics, she checked about a mile back… a much younger Juliwan ran

desperately after her, as a Thunderjet sprayed laser fire around it,

merely for sport.

“Allright, slaghead, *now* I’m upset!” Dunebuster turned hard,

nearly throwing her passengers out her left side. Her rollcage-mounted

photon rifle trained on the jet and let loose a barrage of energy,

throwing the Cybertronian off-target.

It took Powerglide a few seconds to realize his partner wasn’t

following him anymore.

The female Juliwan leaned out the right side of Dunebuster’s seat

and grabbed the young one before they had even come to a stop. The

Thunderjet snarled to himself, turned, and fired a rapid stream of laser

fire, barely missing the foursome as Dunebuster hit the accelerator back

to the dropship.

“Embrace oblivion, Autobot scrap!” The jet turned hard, and

brought his weapons to bear… only to slam headfirst into a stream of

laser fire from Powerglide. He watched the Thunderjet’s cockpit explode

into a mass of twisted and scarred metal, then got bored with the sight

and turned back to the dropship. “The flying knight in shining armor,” he

laughed, “has saved the day again. Thenk yew, thenk yew…”

“Uh hunh… ” Dunebuster snickered. “Thank you, Sir Bites-A-Lot.”

“Any time, Beautiful… now let’s concentrate on getting the frak

outta here.”

**********

“*How* many miners did we lose?”

“Fifty-six, Sir… five of which were killed by our own troops.”

“And how many troops did we lose?”

“Thirty-eight. Mostly grunt troops… ”

Governor Strahl stood up, slamming a large fist on his desk.

“Dammit, Windrazor, those troops *cost*! Those miners *cost*! *Plus*

we’re losing credibility with several of our business contacts… if

these raids continue, it will look like we can’t even hold on to our own

territories!”

Windrazor took Strahl’s ranting calmly. “If you remember, Sir, I

have been stressing that we improve the military training we put our

guards through…”

“Increased training is not going to repair the damage done by

this latest attack by a hot-shot Autobot blitz-gang!”

“Perhaps it would if we linked such training to retaliating to

the latest incident….”

Strahl paused a for a moment… he had never really cared for

combat, preferring the power of material wealth… but he had to do

something to stop the raids. “What kind of retaliation?”

Windrazor crossed his arms, striking a pose of concentration.

“Say we find a planet the Autobots inhabit… something lightly guarded,

and with a fair degree of human life… nothing highly important in the

grand scheme. We simply let the troops have at this planet… give them a

chance to improve their skills, get a better feel for battle. Pull out,

and than make a general announcement stating something to the effect of

‘This is what we shall do to another planet if the raids continue blah

blah blah’… that should help us establish that we simply will not sit

back and take losses from Autobot terrorists… and has a more profound

effect than simply imposing economic sanctions to Primus-Knows-Where.”

Strahl stood silently (much to Windrazor’s relief), mulling over

the costs of such an operation. “This would be a low-risk military

objective?”

“Of course. I even have a plan on how to get inside city limits

without being detected. And to reduce losses of our more inexperienced

troops, I know where I can get some more… hardened forces. At a low

cost, too… several of them have been inactive for a few years, and are

dying to take some anti-Autobot action.”

“This is not an anti-Autobot action!!! We would take these same

measures against *any* who would threaten our holdings!!!”

“Of course… I merely used that phrase to describe the

anxiousness of those forces in question.” That seemed to placate Strahl

some. Time for the clincher… “And just think of the image our business

partners will have of our company… a force truly to be reckoned with…

especially if you were to take command of the operation.”

The room got *very* quiet. Strahl had stopped moving, his optics

opened wide in suprise. Without turning, barely audible, he gasped “If…

*I* lead the operation?” Windrazor could see equal parts fear and greed

in that statement. Just perfect.

“Of course, Sir. Your personal involvement in this would only

strengthen your image as a leader in the eyes of both the business world,

and our own troops. I know that there are several bands of Transformers

throughout the galaxy who would join any group that showed powerful

leadership.”

*It’s at times like this that I’m glad I don’t have a humanoid’s

facial features. There’s no way I could keep a straight face through this.*

Strahl slowly smiled. “Yes… yes indeed. Prepare the attack,

Windrazor. How long will it take to contact these combat units you

mentioned?”

“Not long sir… we could be ready to start the operation in

under one Earthen week.”

“Very well. I leave the planning of this operation to you,

Windrazor… I fully trust your skill in these matters. Dismissed.”

“Yessir.”

**********

Eagle Eye, Afterburner and Terradive were waiting outside

Strahl’s office when Windrazor silently marched out. He walked by the

trio without a word, only barely acknowledging them. Afterburner shrugged

and followed, and the other two followed suit.

Afterburner almost started to speak when Windrazor turned towards

them. “Eagle Eye, contact the docking bay… I want our personal

transport ready by the time we get there.”

“So, then, I assume this means we’re going to pick up our reinforcements?”

“Correct. Now make the call, and then shut up. I want to think,

and I don’t need you three blathering behind me.”

The other three SkyScorchers stopped in their tracks. Windrazor

continued on without pause. “What’s up his tailpipe?” Afterburner growled.

“Really, ” Eagle Eye concurred. “I know he ain’t been real happy

these last couple months, but… I mean, what the hell did *we* do?”

Terradive stayed quiet. All he knew was his commander was not

happy with them… and if he was, there was probably a good reason for it.

Windrazor was, in fact, extremely upset with himself. A few years

ago, he would never have put up with Strahl’s pompousness. In fact, he

would have taken his reluctance to shoot down some Autobots as an act of

cowardess and treason… and had Strahl shot then and there. But he could

not act that way. For the moment, Strahl was his best chance at

re-forming the once-glorious Decepticon Empire… a truly depressing

concept. For a worthless pint-pusher to be pivotal in the formation of

the greatest regime ever….

Once the Liege Maximo’s Cybertronian Empire had been all but

destroyed, most of the surviving Transformers had taken to colonizing,

forming trading or construction companies… basically, abandoning their

design as warriors. So while most of the Decepticons were out playing

Pilgrims, Windrazor and the SkyScorchers were out looking for

opportunities to return to the glory days. After passing numerous tiny

“survivalist” paranoid groups, they finally found Strahl’s Cybertronian

Power Corporation. One of the only bastions of the Cybertronian Empire

not touched by the purge… a vast repository of energy and materials,

plus the business contacts to acquire even more… all of which could be

used to fuel the Decepticons’ return to power.

But there were two major problems. First of all, while Strahl had

a relatively large number of troops, without the Maximo’s mental link,

they were not the most ideal warriors… the fact that they were very

inactive for a century or two didn’t help either.

The second problem was Governor Strahl himself. Having been

mostly a corporate leader instead of a military leader most of his

existence, Strahl was more interested in material gain through corporate

strength than military conquest. Windrazor figured that there would be no

way to convince him to simply up and blow away the Autobots… so

Windrazor joined Strahl’s corporation, managed to work his way up to the

number-two position. From this position of power, Windrazor started to

formulate a plan… a plan to use the Corporation’s resources in his

fight against the Autobots. With or without Strahl.

And, a few months ago, Windrazor decided that the plan was to go

without Strahl.

**********

To be continued…

**********

Transformers are the property & copyright of Hasbro/Takara/Kenner, and

this fanfic (and the characters created by the author) are in no way

intended to infringe on this copyright. This fanfic and the characters in

it are considered free to use as one wishes, you are a child of the

universe, copyright infringement is your best entertainment value, it’s

just a post, you should really just relax, and all that jazz. So there.

Adam West is one of the coolest people on Earth.

M “Guilty! Guilty Guilty Guilty GuiltyGuiltyGuilty!!!” Sipher

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