Chapter 761: War on the Dark Side of the Moon (Part 2)

"This raid operation has failed!"

Ironhide carried an Autobot Warrior whose lower abdomen had been pierced by a sharp blade and gently placed him on the ground.

Looking at the more than thirty Autobot Warriors already lying down within this relatively safe crater, his expression was somewhat gloomy.

"It is my negligence!"

Optimus Prime sighed, summoned the 【Matrix of Leadership】 again to begin treating the Warrior, and simultaneously reflected on himself with guilt: "After the war ended, over a hundred years of peace made me almost forget how cruel war is!"

As the victors of the civil war, the Decepticon Legion's strength was originally above that of the Autobots.

More than a year ago, after Optimus Prime led a portion of the Autobots to Earth, although they managed to kill Megatron with the help of the Earthlings and dealt with quite a few Decepticons in succession.

But if one looks closely, aside from Megatron and Blackout, most of the Decepticons who died at the hands of the Autobots were merely clone warriors, and the two Devastators they encountered were both only defeated after being dragged until their Spark energy was exhausted.

Things going too smoothly is not a good sign, especially since the Autobots, knowing that the 【Matrix of Leadership】 held by their Leader Optimus Prime possessed the ability to resurrect, became more valiant in their battles against the Decepticons, but also began to grow somewhat arrogant.

Optimus Prime and Ironhide both noticed that many Autobots should not have been injured by those clone warriors of the Decepticon Legion, yet they were injured, and some even lost their lives because of it.

The reason, precisely, was because they knew the 【Matrix of Leadership】 could heal or resurrect them.

Just as Optimus Prime was reflecting on himself, a communications soldier lying in a corner of the crater suddenly spoke up, "Leader, the Aerialbots are asking again, is it permitted for them to transform into Superion?"

Whether for Autobots or Decepticons, transforming into a Giant Combiner is not without a price.

When the first generation of Devastators appeared, the technology was still immature, and there were even cases where the Constructicons could not reverse the process once they combined.

By the time Menasor and Superion were born, the combination technology was relatively mature, and the situation where it was irreversible after combining no longer existed, but some problems could never be solved.

Ironhide looked at Optimus Prime: "Leader, if the battle remains deadlocked like this, our raid operation has basically failed. Why not let Superion try to see if they can break through the Decepticon encirclement; we are less than sixty kilometers away from their Base on the Moon."

Optimus Prime frowned and pondered the pros and cons; as the leader of the Autobots, he knew far more about the shortcomings of Giant Combiners than ordinary officers.

For example, the Superion formed by the combination of the Aerialbots, while its power is terrifying, its energy consumption is even more terrifying; once combined, it can last for at most a few hours.

Moreover, in high-intensity combat, the time Superion can maintain its form is even shorter.

Once the energy within the Spark drops below a certain warning line, it will trigger Superion's forced separation mechanism.

However, after the Aerialbots separate, they will fall into a period of exhaustion due to the excessive energy consumed by the previous combination; they need to replenish energy in time and rest for a period before they can be committed to the next battle.

Optimus Prime had not expected there to be so many Decepticons on the Dark Side of the Moon.

One clone warrior is not terrifying, but when a hundred, a thousand, or even more clone warriors gather, these beasts, trained by Starscream to be fearless of death, do not care about sacrificing ten or even dozens of lives to trade for one high-ranking or Elite Warrior of the Autobots.

Before the Aerialbots combine, each of them is an Elite Warrior.

But once they combine and fail to achieve satisfactory results during the combination period, they will completely lose their combat effectiveness after the combination time ends.

By then, the Autobots will not only lose several Elite Warriors but also lose their most important aerial power.

Optimus Prime was all too clear about the terrifying consequences of losing air superiority.

During the two Cybertronian Civil Wars, one very important reason the Autobots lost to the Decepticons in many key battles was that the Decepticons' aerial power was simply too powerful.

After thinking for a moment, Optimus Prime finally nodded.

"Pass the order down, permit the Aerialbots to transform into Superion!"

In the end, he still could not let go of his teacher and Bumblebee; furthermore, the front line had already been pushed to within dozens of kilometers of the Decepticon Moon Base—it would be strange if Optimus Prime could accept giving up now.

……

Dozens of kilometers away, inside the Moon Base.

Starscream stood before a light wall with great interest, watching the battlefield ahead displayed on the light wall; his hideous face, which always wore a sinister smile, was even colder than usual.

"The Autobots cannot break through our defensive line, but they have caught us off guard! It's really annoying, one of my trump cards has been exposed!"

As he grinned, a mouthful of sharp, shark-like fangs made Starscream look even more vicious and hideous.

Barricade had not been committed to the battlefield; he stood a few meters behind Starscream, also looking at the sky on the light screen.

There, several warriors from the Autobot faction were entangled with the Decepticon fighter jets.

"Wasn't this within your expectations... When Prowl escorted Bumblebee to the base, you knew this day would come sooner or later!"

Starscream chuckled, but there was not a hint of warmth in his laughter.

"It's just a Moon Base that has been operating for a hundred years, how many soldiers are left in the base..."

Starscream had never given up on overthrowing Megatron and seizing the position of commander of the Decepticon Legion.

The failure of two rebellions had made him appear very low-key for the past few million years, but in secret, he had accumulated even more trump cards, just waiting for the day to reveal them and give all his opponents a big surprise.

Just as he said, it was merely a Moon Base, with only a hundred years of operation.

Time meant nothing to the highly patient Starscream; he could spend millions of years fawning over Megatron—in a way that even he found disgusting—after his second failed rebellion, so how could he care about this little bit of time?

"Soldiers" was the term the high-ranking members of the Decepticon Legion used for clone warriors; they had many other derogatory names for them, such as Cannon Fodder.

Barricade was silent for a moment, as if communicating with something.

Ten seconds later, he replied: "There are still over one thousand seven hundred!"

After finishing his sentence, Barricade noticed that Starscream was not listening; he had been drawn to the front-line battle situation displayed on the light wall in front of him.

Barricade followed his gaze and saw that on the light wall, which provided real-time feedback on the front-line battlefield dozens of kilometers away, several Autobots suddenly approached rapidly, and their entire bodies lit up with blinding light.

"Superion!"

A whisper rang out, followed by a burst of gloomy laughter.

"According to the plan, send out Devastator and lure the Autobots toward Sentinel Prime's ship!"

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