"You wished to see me?" Skywarp asked.

"Yes, I did," Thrust replied. "I have recently learned that there are some pirates in the area who may pose a threat to us. I want you to take Hammerhead and a team out there to deal with them. The co-ordinates are on the data screen there."

Skywarp paused. "I believe that is the outpost that Rattletrap is currently in charge of."

"It is. Earlier this morning I contacted him to ask him to join us; not only does he have his own forces, but a handful of stragglers and pirates as well. Not only did the fool refuse, but he also challenged my right to take command of the Decepticons in this part. He has even gone so far as to declare his forces to be the Neo-Decepticon Army."

"Shall I use one of the Tidal Wave units?"

"Not just yet; there's a chance that the Autobots will spot it. But you may have whatever else you so choose to take."

"Very well then. I will be off."

*****

"And that's all there is to it," Desmond stated. "The will left behind by your parents, Alexis, was last drawn up almost three years ago; it does not reflect the loss of your parents' company or your being legally disowned."

"So what is there to do?" Hilde asked, watching Alexis' reaction. They all had gathered in the living room to listen to Desmond as he went over the legal aspects of it all. Bishop White, Derek, her, Alexis, Sara, James, Sally, Fiona, Carlos, and some of the mini-cons.

Alexis, it turns out, had an uncle - specifically, an older brother to her mother. For whatever reason, her parents had never introduced them; there was an entire branch of her family that they didn't know about. She had talked with him briefly, but that was it. Too much stuff was going on elsewhere.

She was able to find out that his name was Alan Jones, and that he was a chemistry professor at a community college in Maine. His wife, Lia, was one of the music teachers on campus. They had three children - her cousins. The eldest, Alan junior, was in his mid-twenties and was finishing up a master's in physics. There was also a pair of twins named James and John; the two were about three years older than her and were both in training to be airline pilots. Alan junior was seeing an undergrad named Miranda, but her other two cousins weren't involved.

"I've talked with your uncle as well, Alexis," Desmond went on. "You're eighteen, so he has no intentions of challenging the will per se. However, he has stated that he wishes to hold the remaining family assets in trust until you graduate and are either married or financially stable. Arrangements are being made for him and a family lawyer to fly here for a few days to work the matter out. His family will be joining him shortly for the funeral - the arrangements for which he has promised me he'll take care of."

"How does that sound?" Derek asked Alexis, gently.

She paused, trying to come up with the words. "I guess that will do. What about Rad?"

"He's right in the middle of that spree of testing," Derek replied. "can't interrupt it until we know for sure when the funeral itself will take place. Even with my connections, it might simply be impossible to have him back here. However, I've gotten in contact with Rad's parents, and they've been able to reach his brother. Kurt - Rad's brother - is in Milan on a business trip, but he promised to make it back as soon as he could."

"Thanks," Alexis said as she reached for some more tissues. "Saturday..... could you please take me over to the house so I can sort through what's there? I don't know if my key will still work."

"If it's popping locks," Jimmy replied, "I can do that easily. Part of the job is learning how to do minor lockpicking."

"Thanks. Thanks a lot."

*****

"What's going on?!" Rattletrap demanded.

"We're under attack!" a random comms worker replied. "Looks like Thrust tried to jump us!"

"May he burn in the inferno," Rattletrap muttered. "What's going on?!"

"Our ships are forming a defensive screen, but at lest two landing craft have found holes and have landed. The crew of one is pinned down; we aren't getting any response from the team sent to deal with the second one."

"Have Devastator mop up the first craft, and then go over to check on the second one."

"Understood!"

*****

Hammerhead went along the ground in shark mode, blasting apart everyone and everything in sight. He loved to destroy. The team sent out to stop him had fallen effortlessly; now it was just him taking out targets of opportunity. That solar power collection device blew up nicely. And the radar station had all sorts of pretty sparks shoot out of it when he blasted it. Sadly, he was having problems finding things to destroy. He would have to look harder.

*****

Skywarp watched from his position as a few more landing craft managed to make their way down to the surface of the planetoid where he was. From his position, he could see the fighting at the first landing craft. For now, it was equally matched. But off in the distance, he saw a Neo-Decepticon tank roll up. It was the same chassis type as Megatron's crony Demolishor, but was moving a little slower than it should be. A quick scan showed him that the Neo-Decepticon was, indeed, far more heavily armed than was normal. The Neo-Decepticon wasn't even close to the landing craft when he began to fire off his missiles. Even at that range, they had deadly accuracy. He warped out, heading onto his destination. There was nothing more for him to see here; it was a foregone conclusion what would happen.

*****

"Now how goes it?" Rattletrap demanded.

"Devastator has finished off the Decepticons at the first landing craft, and is moving to engage the two that have just landed."

"What about the second one?"

"Still no contact from the team we sent after it. We've also lost contact with some of the facilities around it, and the radar net for that area is down. Most likely, that craft had some commandos on it."

"Intolerable. Have the teams from the other landing craft pull back, and allow Devastator to engage the Decepticons at will. Have everyone else look for those commandos."

"Understood."

*****

Skywarp scanned the balcony above where he was. There was a large laser turret up there, most likely manned by at least one soldier. Next to the turret was a sharpshooter, scanning the ground just in case of infiltrators. Unless there were others up there he didn't know about, this would be easy.

He warped out, warping back in right behind the two Neo-Decepticons. With the same slash of his blade, he killed them both. He glanced around, and found that no one had noticed. He got in the operator's seat of the laser turret and began to reprogram it. He had ten astro-seconds to get out of there before the turret rotated around to the main radar array, overloaded, and fired. The blast, he hoped, would take out both the main radar array as well as the turret. Such an incident would surely provide a distraction.

He warped out, only to find himself coming out of it in the middle of a patrol getting re-armed. Without hesitation, he cut them all down as well as the armorer. Just as he did, the turret fired off. He felt the building shudder as the lights dimmed; red emergency lights came on in their place. It was absolutely perfect. From where he was now, it was just a short jaunt to Rattletrap's command room. He could easily warp into it, but he wanted to cause some chaos while he was at it.

He opened the door, and found himself face-to-face with a startled guard. Without mercy, Skywarp cut the guard in half top-to-bottom. He darted out, and caught sight of a pair of guards running down another corridor. He aimed his particle cannons, cutting them down with a shot to each.

"Intruder!" someone shouted. He reacted faster than the guard that saw him, and cut the guard down before the guard could ready his weapon. A squad appeared before him, and with his cannons he made short work of them. He realized that only an idiot wouldn't know what the sounds of weapons fire was, so he had to move quickly before too many guards came and he couldn't finish his mission.

He knew full well what was ahead of him. The main corridor leading to Rattletrap's chamber would be rigged with laser netting, and right in front of the door would be a squad of guards with a gatling laser emplacement. Then there was the door itself that he would have to get through - the door was actually a modified ship's bulkhead, meaning that it wouldn't be easy to go through; easy for most, that was.

He heard a few guards rushing up behind him, so he transformed into his jet mode. Between his natural speed and his phase ability, the lasers went right through him. Unfortunately for the guards who followed him - all Seekers - they were foolish enough to believe that they could do the same. He laughed as he heard them get cut down by the lasers.

Now for the squad with the gatling laser. He deployed a pair of missiles and fired them. He had been saving these missiles especially for this part right here. They were prototypes, with each one having the equivalent power of a ship's particle cannon. As he expected, they blew the squad and the gatling laser into a number of pieces, and the crater actually blew through the wall on both sides as well as the ceiling. But the door, although it was bowed, still stood. A blast from his particle cannons was enough to blow the door free of its moorings, sending it crashing to the ground. He snickered at the sounds of it crushing some mechs. With ease, he transformed into his robot mode and hacked apart those in the room.

As he had expected, Rattletrap had already gone down his emergency escape corridor. Even with Rattletrap's headstart, however, Skywarp was still faster in jet mode than Rattletrap was in helicopter mode. He easily made up the distance, and used the machine lasers mounted in the nose of his air frame to blow apart Rattletrap's rotors. Screaming in shock and pain, Rattletrap transformed before falling to the ground. Skywarp also transformed, and touched his feet to the ground. He walked slowly over towards Rattletrap, allowing the maximum psychological effect to be achieved before he actually drew his sword. "Thrust sends his regards," Skywarp said.

"Wait!" Rattletrap pleaded. "What if I agree to merge my forces with yours?!"

"By my estimates, you've already lost twenty percent of your total manpower as well as several ships; by comparison, I've only lost a few squads and some landing craft. Plus, you designed your citadel too well in regards to keeping out invaders; I imagine that you will lose more of your guard detail to your own traps than to fire. I would also estimate that in the time we've been talking, you've lost an additional three percent of your forces. What do you have to offer us?"

"This planetoid..... there's a small moon orbiting it; the moon's artificial; it's really a shipyard."

"Wait," Thrust's voice said audibly over Skywarp's comms. "Hello, Rattletrap. How large a shipyard are we talking about?"

"We currently have under construction a frigate and two corvettes. Both of the corvettes will be ready in a few more orns, with the frigate being complete in an astromonth."

Thrust paused. Not counting the Tidal Waves, his navy's center was a sole cruiser - his own. The rest of his ships were mainly corvettes and gunboats with the occasional destroyer thrown in. A frigate would be a major tactical advantage. "We have a deal," Thrust said. "But you will answer completely to me. Is that understood?"

Rattletrap paused. "All forces!" he said. "Cease firing at once! We have been given a truce offer, which I have accepted. You will receive further orders as things happen. Right now, withdraw and determine your total casualties."

"Excellent," Thrust replied. "I see we have an understanding."