Chapter 64: The Touch Part 24
"If my calculations are correct, and they always are, this should be the location of the Predacon graveyard." Shockwave approached a rock full of Energon shards embedded in the wall. "Driller, destroy that wall."
Without hesitation, Driller obeyed his master's command, using his powerful rotating jaws with teeth capable of penetrating even a Titan's armor with the same ease with which he dug vast tunnels. Using his more than 300 meters of length, he creates a gigantic hole, opening a passageway for the cold, emotionless scientist.
Shockwave walked carelessly through the darkness, maintaining a steady pace for ten minutes, following the great Cybertronian beast as it devoured everything before it, until suddenly Driller made an irritated grunt, as if he had bitten something hard enough to make his jaw throb with pain.
Shockwave was not surprised, he knew that the deepest layers of Cybertron were extremely hard as they approached the core, which would be a problem even for him to advance, but since he had made a point of taming such a creature for his purposes, nothing could stop their merciless advance.
*CRASSSSSHH!!!*
The Driller broke through a thick barrier of rock, making him grunt with pride, as if he had found something. He pulled his head out of the hole, allowing Shockwave to see a large lake of pure Energon, revealing a large temple of weathered metal with a large dragon sculpture above the cavern.
The temple had no walls, only columns decorating the place, but what caught the most attention was a large and imposing throne intended to be used by a large Transformer, but now that imposing throne was being used by a Cybertronian woman at least 4.5 meters tall, surrounded by hundreds of 8 or 10 meter tall Insecticons and eggs everywhere, as if they were using the vast amount of Energon available from the lake to create this private army.
The Insecticon Queen had black armor with white accents on her beautiful form, and two insect-like wings with a span that could expand to allow her to fly at high speed regardless of where she was.
"Insecticons, a 70% chance of finding them here, a prediction in line with my expectations." Shockwave looked at the Insecticon queen, indifferent to her beauty, seeing her only as a valuable guinea pig, knowing that this species had rare and unusual characteristics from a common cybertronian.
The Insecticon queen was terrified when the Driller repeatedly destroyed one of the walls and invaded her territory. She couldn't help but be frightened by the Driller's abnormal size, something that was easily three times larger than the base species. However, her fear was directed at the one-eyed robot, who had no normal face, as it seemed he had tamed such a monstrous creature, and she felt his gaze on her, as if he was belittling her.
"A worm from the surface, I didn't expect so much audacity in my temple." Hiding her nervousness, the Insecticon queen crossed her legs to show off her beauty, gazing at Shockwave with her four purple eyes as over 100 Insecticons roared in menace to protect her from this intruder.
Shockwave subtly motioned for Driller to use one of his tentacles as a platform, allowing him to descend from the hole to the ground, where he had a perfect path to reach the queen.
"It's pretty arrogant to claim someone else's temple as your own, but I can't blame you for your ignorance." Shockwave walked toward the queen, ignoring the murderous snarls of the Insecticons at his side. He knew it would be foolish to fight them all directly, not even he would survive unscathed, so he had to play his cards to the best of his ability.
The Insecticon queen gritted her teeth at the way she was being treated, her eyes narrowed and her clawed hands scratched at the arm of the throne. "You undisciplined bastard, do you know who you're talking to?"
"I don't see any reason for you to be upset, I'm just stating the obvious facts. If you had dared to sit on this throne when the king was present in ancient times, we would not be having this conversation." Shockwave continued to approach, wanting to be at the distance necessary to use one of his experimental weapons to wipe out the Insecticons. "You should know by now that this temple belonged to the Predacons, especially the King of All Beasts."
"I don't care who or what these Predacons are, this place is mine!" The queen said, wanting to keep this place under her control because of the vast amount of Energon available to her hive.
"The extinction of the Predacons in the Great Cataclysm made you Insecticons more ignorant, but that was obvious." Shockwave drew a gun from his hip, a pistol-like weapon with a large, wide barrel that seemed unthreatening compared to a military weapon capable of greater damage. "Without a natural predator to keep your species alert, you wouldn't be irresponsible enough to let me get close enough."
A ten-meter Insecticon acted quickly, standing in front of his queen, using his own body as a shield to protect her, with unwavering confidence even with the weapon pointed at him. He was sure that such a small weapon couldn't even scratch his armor.
"You idiot, a weapon like that will never scratch my soldier's armor." The Insecticon Queen smiled, wanting Shockwave to try for no reason, only to order her soldiers to tear him apart later.
"If you knew who I was, you would already know that you have lost." Shockwave said coldly, firing a single shot at the Insecticon in front of him, hitting his target's armor and releasing a small brown and black vapor.
Shockwave's shot was so pathetic in the queen's eyes, something so disappointing, that she felt stupid for even thinking for a moment that he was a threat to her. "How pathetic, I was not expecting something so disappointing... kill him!" The Insecticon Queen ordered, disappointed in her eyes at such a waste of time.
The stricken Insecticon raised its arm to attack Shockwave with its claws, but in an instant, without any explanation to the Queen or the other Insecticons, except for Shockwave, of course. The Insecticon's arm, ready to rip the scientist's head off, fell to the ground in pieces, appearing to be in a grotesque state of decomposition, as if it had rusted in seconds.
The Insecticon began to grunt in pain and slowly disintegrated, its body consumed by a terrifying rust that caused the queen to rise from her throne in surprise. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!" The Insecticon queen screamed, her eyes unable to comprehend what had just happened before her.
"Whether you know it now or not makes no difference, everyone here is going to die." Shockwave tucked his gun back into his waistband, knowing that his cyber-biological weapon was activated at that moment.
"WHAT ARE YOU..." The queen stopped speaking as she looked at her right hand and saw it being taken over by a rust that was slowly taking over her body, making her feel an excruciating pain as if she was slowly being devoured. "WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME?!"
She watched as her Insecticon servants became covered in the rust, some falling to the ground as their legs were destroyed.
When the Insecticon queen saw that Shockwave was virtually unharmed, without a single blemish on his body, she understood that only he could stop what was happening, but just as she was about to demand that it stop, her legs collapsed to the ground, each of her affected limbs being consumed until they were reduced to small grains of metal.
"NO, NO, NO, NO, THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME!!!" The queen tried to crawl to the ground in search of mercy, fearing death itself.
"The cosmic rust mutagenic agent has proven to be a complete success, in fact it was a good plan that took decades of work to program what types of targets to affect." Shockwave made a personal note in his mind, ignoring how the Insecticon queen died, her arm outstretched in supplication until she was completely destroyed along with her swarm of Insecticons. He pressed a button on a device hidden beneath his wrist between the joints of his armor, deactivating the Cosmic Rust forever. "It's a shame that there were no bodies left for in-depth study, I really wanted to study the biology of the queens, but I can work on that later when I finish my main project." He walked through the temple, ignoring the fact that the Driller was drinking the Energon in the huge cave lake, which could give him more than enough energy to keep him going for years.
It didn't take more than 2 minutes before he finally reached his main target, hidden behind the temple, and saw a large armored door with the Predacon symbol in the center, which was the image of a metal dragon's head, representing strength, ferocity and honor. Something Shockwave didn't even care about, as he had long ago decided to dedicate his life to science, and in his opinion, one should not be bound by moral values to take a step towards evolution.