No one really expected the Empties to become more of nuisances than they were. The scientists of Cybertron never truly bothered to put much study into them because it wasn’t a high priority. There were so few of them at first and the ones that were being turned weren’t from the ‘good’ neighborhoods so the Senate turned their optics elsewhere.
That was the first mistake of course. There should have been more than just a handful of medical and scientific graduates looking into the matter to try to fix the problem. Now the planet was in ruins, the people were broken down into factions and things were infinitely more dangerous than they were originally. Some of the scientists had managed to make some formulas before things got too bad. Shockwave, for example, had manufactured a synthetic matter that would stop the turning process, but it had to be injected every twenty four cycles.
Rung was going through the old grocery store, looking for some sort of supplies that he could use, hoping that he would find something better than canned food to get him by. The soft growling alerted him that he wasn’t alone anymore and he turned towards Tacitus, his guard bug that he had trained to scent out any nearby Empties. The Insecticon was hissing in a low tone and Rung patted his arm before motioning for him to follow. They’d try a different store, obviously this one wasn’t safe anymore.
He still had an hour before the solution would begin to lose its effect. Plenty of time to raid one store and circle back to their hide-out. Worst case, you get caught out on your own and die outside of the camp, far away from the rest of us. What a shame that would be~. Starscream’s words echoed in his helm. As irritatingly happy about his eventual demise as the seeker was, he was right. If anything happened, if the disease began to overtake him, he wouldn’t harm anyone. There was no one alive out here… or so he thought.
He ducked his helm around the corner for a moment and saw two forms, one small, and one very very large. The big one might give him trouble, and if he fired his canon, it would attract more… Slag. They were coming this way. He had no choice.
His weapon whirred to life, the only warning these monsters would have before he blasted them back to the Unmaker. Megatron pivoted around the corner, taking aim-
Blue optics, no rust. Megatron twisted his arm at the last second, firing a shot into the air beside them before raising his arms and letting the cannon wind down.
“Apologies! I shouldn’t have shot at you, I didn’t know…”
Megatron's back up 