Location:Subsurface ruins, beneath Night City – 2075
It began with a hum.
A soft, alien vibration thrumming deep beneath the pavement of Santo Domingo. Bee felt it through his boots, like the heartbeat of something ancient stirring below the earth. The shard Rogue had given them now pulsed blue, no longer dormant it was a key, and something in the undercity wanted it used.
Lucy stood beside him, adjusting the strap on her Militech-modified netrunner rig. "We're near the mark. Old Corpo infrastructure from the 2020s abandoned, supposedly. You ready?"
Bee gave her a nod, his optics flickering with anticipation. His voice was steady. "Let's open the door."
Beneath the City
They descended through broken storm drains and buried data bunkers, the darkness thick with humidity and echoes. Lucy guided them using a ping from the shard, now displaying Cybertronian glyphs across its surface. Bee recognized them instinctively.
"Spark Lock. Guardian's Gate. Warning: Contact awakens the Echo."
Lucy paused. "That last part… not ominous at all."
At the bottom of the ruins, they found it a circular steel hatch, covered in strange, half-organic metal Cybertronian alloy twisted with human tech. It hadn't been opened in decades… maybe centuries.
Bee pressed his palm to the center. The glyphs responded instantly.
ACCESS GRANTED: DESIGNATION - AUTOBOT MESSENGER: B-127
With a low rumble, the hatch split and slid open revealing a narrow descent lined with glowing blue veins. The air was sterile… and alien.
They stepped inside.
The Relic
In the chamber below sat a massive Cybertronian obelisk, half the height of a city block, embedded in a power grid. Strange, dormant drones clung to its surface like sleeping insects.
Lucy scanned the area. "This… this isn't a weapon. It's a transmitter. A beacon."
Bee placed a hand on the obelisk.
And it answered.
WELCOME, MESSENGER.AUTOBOT OUTPOST EPSILON SIGNAL READY FOR BROADCAST.
INITIATE RESONANCE PULSE? Y/N
Before Bee could react, the pulse triggered on its own.
A deep, thrumming vibration flooded the chamber. The obelisk sent out a frequency beyond human hearing one Bee could feel in every servo and sensor.
Somewhere in the Net, data began to shift.
Elsewhere – A Slum Apartment in Heywood
A child's broken drone, long dead, suddenly twitched and activated.
Its plastic eyes glowed blue. A voice, buried in static, whispered from it:
"...Optimus…"
Then the drone exploded.
Back in the Ruins
Lucy staggered as her interface overloaded. Bee caught her just in time. Her eyes pulsed white for a second she'd seen something too.
"What… was that?" she gasped.
"I think I called something," Bee said. "Or… someone."
The walls around them shifted. Metal plating groaned.
Then movement.
From behind the obelisk, a hunter drone emerged tall, spindly, plated in obsidian black. It didn't belong to Earth's military. It wasn't from Night City. It was Cybertronian.
Its single crimson optic flared.
"Unauthorized Autobot activity detected.""Directive: Eliminate."
Bee pushed Lucy behind him.
He raised his blade.
🎥 [Soundbite: "You'll have to go through me."]
The drone launched.
Fight in the Depths
The hunter was fast fast enough to match Bee's reflexes. Its limbs became weapons blades, plasma spikes, even a railgun burst that scorched the ceiling.
Bee moved like lightning, flipping between strikes, blade singing in the tight chamber. He took a hit to the side but rebounded with a spinning slash that tore through the drone's armor.
Lucy joined the fray hacking into the system, disabling the drone's optic targeting.
Bee surged forward and rammed the drone into the obelisk, plunging his hidden blade deep into its core.
"For Cybertron."
The drone spasmed and went still.
Aftermath
The chamber dimmed. The beacon now pulsed gently, like a resting heart.
Bee stood over the shattered drone, breathing heavily. His armor sparked from the damage. Lucy limped toward him, bruised but smiling.
"We're not alone anymore," she said.
"No," Bee agreed. "And that means it's only going to get harder."
They looked up at the beacon still broadcasting. Somewhere, far beyond Night City… someone heard it.
Final Scene – Space
In the blackness between stars, a massive vessel drifted.
A shape stirred inside. Massive. Metal. Scarred.
Its optic flared red.
"Autobot signal detected.""At last."
Soundwave began his descent.