Chapter 658: New Iacon (Second Update)

Optimus Prime had not yet completely broken ties with the Autobot Council, so he did not want to say much regarding the matters of Shoutiancheng and Hot Rod.

"The fall of Iacon and the uncertain fate of my teacher, Sentinel Prime, have indeed caused many Autobots to lose confidence in resisting the Decepticons."

Looking at Wheeljack, he said softly in consolation: "You have come at just the right time. We have established a base on this planet and intend to use it as a foundation to rebuild a new Iacon; this requires a great deal of machinery and equipment."

Wheeljack looked at him in surprise, "Leader, this should be a life-bearing planet, right?"

Although during the reign of Sentinel Prime, there were many hawkish Autobots among the Autobots who were just as cold and ruthless as the Decepticons.

However, Optimus Prime could be considered an anomaly among them; while his gentleness and humility gave Optimus Prime a high status among the Autobot civilians, many in the military and the Old Aristocracy despised him.

If this were in the past, Optimus Prime would never have agreed to establish a new home for the Autobots on a life-bearing planet that already had indigenous inhabitants.

But now he had convinced himself, "Because the Decepticons have also come to Earth, this is also the reason why I summoned more Autobots to Earth! We cannot let the Decepticons occupy this planet and then destroy it."

In the early stages of the Cybertronian Civil War, strictly speaking, although Megatron's Decepticon Legion caught the Autobots off guard, until the middle of the First Civil War, the true strength of the two sides was actually not much different.

Because the King of Primes, Sentinel Prime, joined the Autobot faction, many moderate old aristocrats from the Council of Ancients period also threw themselves into the Autobot camp, which is why the two sides were still able to reach a stalemate when the First Civil War ended.

But with the Decepticon Legion's destructive mining and extraction of resources within the territories they occupied, by the time of the Second Civil War, the gap in strength between the Autobots and the Decepticon Legion widened rapidly.

The Autobots still had reservations because Cybertron was their home planet, but the Decepticon Legion did not care about such things.

Once the open-pit mines were exhausted, they dug deeper; when there was no more coal, oil, or uranium, they extracted energy from the planet's core.

Relying on the frantic plundering of the planet Cybertron, the Decepticon Legion's soldiers and equipment expanded rapidly and were constantly updated, winning one war after another, and eventually completely occupying Cybertron.

Even though what they obtained was only a planet whose resources had been hollowed out and was already on the verge of death.

Yet, how many Decepticons would care? If resources were insufficient, they would go and seize them; if Cybertron was gone, they would go to other planets to continue mining.

Therefore, the moment Optimus Prime mentioned that the Decepticons had come to Earth, Wheeljack and the two other newly arrived Autobots all changed their expressions in unison.

"Those damn warmongers, invaders..."

Wheeljack looked at Optimus Prime and nodded heavily: "The tragedy of Cybertron must not be repeated. Please rest assured, Leader, we will win the victory in this war."

"I'm counting on you!"

The arrival of Wheeljack made Optimus Prime and the others happy for several days.

As those comrades who had died in battle were rescued and re-Awakened, the Autobots had withdrawn entirely from within the United States and were currently basically staying within Soli in Africa.

Under the command of Optimus Prime, they had already begun construction around the new base.

However, with the arrival of Wheeljack, the construction of the temporary base located within Soli also came to a halt.

"Forgive my bluntness, Leader. This place might be suitable as a sub-base, but it is not suitable for building the new Iacon. This Gobi terrain is too flat; once the Decepticons attack, our civilians will have no defenses to rely on, and the Decepticon Legion's air power could even drive straight in!"

Wheeljack and the others followed Optimus Prime's group of Autobots and soon arrived at the new base located in Soli.

However, when he saw the new base that had already taken shape, Wheeljack frowned and approached Optimus Prime to advise him.

It was not that he felt the temporary base in Soli was crude, although it was indeed very crude.

But as more and more Autobots came to Earth and joined in the construction, this temporary base, which was originally located in the Gobi and built relying on an underground Warehouse, covering an area of only tens of thousands of square meters, had now expanded in scale by more than dozens of times.

The Autobots had not only expanded the underground building sections by more than ten times but had also reinforced them.

They had even built more than a dozen sentry posts on the surface for surveillance, some other defensive facilities, barracks for patrol teams, and surface warehouses for storing supplies.

It could be said that, except for the lack of the sturdy high walls common to military bases on the planet Cybertron, the temporary base in Soli already had the embryonic form of what an Autobot military base should be.

Optimus Prime nodded. Wheeljack had also experienced the civil war, and even during the most dangerous decisive battle of the Second Civil War, he, like the vast majority of Autobot civilians, had picked up weapons to engage in brief skirmishes with the Decepticons to defend Iacon.

"You are right, the new Iacon should not be built here! Not to mention the Decepticons, even those satellites the humans have in the sky, I believe it won't be long before they discover us!"

Regarding the site selection for the new Iacon, in fact, before Wheeljack raised his opinion, his adjutant—Ironhide—had already reacted to it first.

Optimus Prime also expressed his agreement with this and had already sent Ironhide out to find a suitable location for the construction of the new Iacon.

Currently, Ironhide was still leading people to survey the terrain. Because Optimus Prime had decided to choose a place far from human habitation within Africa to build it, the locations available for them to choose from were much fewer.

Added to the fact that Ironhide and the others also hoped that the area near the new Iacon would have rich mineral deposits, this undoubtedly further reduced the regions available for them to choose from.

Ever since he rescued his girlfriend Lia, not long after the group of Autobots returned to Soli, Optimus Prime had sent out Ironhide, who had caused many explosions in the United States due to his rage, resulting in heavy losses for the American side.

Accompanying him were Mudflap and Skids, whose personalities had become much more steady after dying once; these two guys had also been re-Awakened by Optimus Prime using the Matrix of Leadership.

After all, as the leader of the Autobots, he had to treat everyone equally, although the cost of doing so meant that the energy within the Matrix of Leadership had been used up quite a bit more.

He explained in detail to Wheeljack that his adjutant Ironhide had already set off first to find a more suitable location for the new Iacon.

After Wheeljack no longer had any objections, he also threw himself into the construction of the temporary base.

He was one of the top Scientists in the Autobot camp, and accompanying him were two assistants who were also his students.

Under the efforts of the three of them, many advanced pieces of equipment quickly appeared in the temporary base, most of which were advanced equipment for air defense and surveillance.

And just when Optimus Prime was happy because the Autobots' temporary base was changing every day due to the arrival of Wheeljack and the others.

After being silent for many days, a familiar drone flew into Soli, causing the air defense warning system that Wheeljack and the others had just installed to blare with alarms.