Chapter 896: Plunder Fleet

In a certain part of the starry sky in the Orion Arm.

Hundreds of warships of various sizes are currently engaged in a fierce battle.

In the command cabin of a massive warship over two thousand meters long, a giant, one-eyed mechanical titan stands coldly before the window, watching the battle outside.

And he is none other than the military commander of the Decepticon Legion—Shockwave.

At this moment, surrounding the massive warship where Shockwave is located, thousands of small combat airships and drones are engaged in intense crossfire and dogfights.

From time to time, a small combat airship or a drone is destroyed, and the light from the explosions illuminates the starry sky around the warships.

"……Commander, the 17th and 51st squadrons have suffered heavy losses; we request to withdraw for repairs!"

"Tell them to choose between the battlefield and the laboratory as their final resting place!"

"……Yes!"

Several Decepticon Legion commanders also stand within the command cabin; in the face of such deep-space combat, even Cybertronians of the Elite Warrior level cannot play much of a role.

Well, unless they possess a flight mode.

"I didn't expect the Quintessons to still exist, and it seems their strength has recovered quite a bit as well!"

The one speaking is the Decepticon—Skywarp, who is also a veteran Decepticon.

Back in the days of the Cybertronian Elder Council, Skywarp served as a Senior Researcher at a well-known spaceship Yanjiu Zhongxin on Cybertron, and he was targeted by Megatron because his close friend Thundercracker defected to him.

Because the Elder Council rejected his body modification proposal, Skywarp eventually turned to Megatron, and with his strong support, he completed the body modifications for many members of the Cybertronian Air Force—the Guerrilla Force—the majority of whose main force had already defected to Megatron at the time.

However, although the main force of the Decepticon Legion's air force underwent their initial modifications at the hands of Skywarp.

This guy did not occupy a seat in the high command of the Decepticon Legion after it was established.

Because unlike the vast majority of Decepticons, Skywarp does not care at all about "external things" like power or honor.

He has strict personality flaws; only when doing scientific research can he display sufficient wisdom and rationality, while at other times, Skywarp is more like a standard Decepticon, muddle-headed for the vast majority of the time, and only when researching the scientific topics he is interested in can he display superior wisdom.

Therefore, he was kicked to Shockwave by Megatron with great peace of mind to serve as his adjutant.

And this adjutant of Shockwave has indeed lived up to expectations; in addition to making contributions to some of Shockwave's scientific research projects, he also participated in many military operations initiated by Shockwave, using every means from sneak attacks to ambushes, and even carried out dozens of massacres and acts of abuse against Autobot civilians.

Consequently, Autobots who hated Skywarp to the core pinned the title of 'the most despicable Decepticon' on his forehead.

Shockwave's scarlet single eye shows no emotional fluctuations.

However, his unique, cold tone rang out: "Not long ago, I received an encrypted communication sent by His Majesty from the Solar System; they discovered traces on Earth that the Quintesson Planet Transformation Force had once visited!"

The Triple Changer—Octopunch, standing to the side, could not help but tremble slightly upon hearing this.

Known by Shockwave as his most failed creation, he possesses combat power far exceeding that of a Normal Elite Warrior.

Yet, because of his cowardly personality, having been a deserter on the battlefield many times, Octopunch was long ago kicked out of the center of power and is now only used by Shockwave as a transport Captain.

However, before being abandoned, Octopunch was once entrusted with leading the Decepticon Legion's army to hunt down the Quintessons.

His current cowardly personality was caused precisely by that group of crazed Quintessons back then.

The Quintessons never considered ordinary Quintessons to be their own kin; after all, strictly speaking, only the Quintessons are the original Quintessons.

The rest of the Quintessons are basically all soldiers that the Quintessons created to serve them after conquering certain planets and civilizations, using plundered slaves and subjecting them to a series of cruel experimental modifications.

Although to facilitate their own rule, the Quintessons implemented a strictly hierarchical aristocratic system within the Quintessa Civilization, the proportion of nobles within the Quintessa Civilization is not even one-tenth of this interstellar civilization.

The vast majority of Quintessons are merely the lowliest slaves, and having been modified and brainwashed, in order to climb to higher positions and enjoy better lives, they can only be described as fearless of death when they fight.

For example, this Quintesson Plunder Fleet that encountered the Decepticon fleet led by Shockwave in the universe, despite their numbers being less than one-tenth of the Decepticon fleet, performed with extreme ferocity.

Not only did they take the initiative to attack the Decepticon fleet, but upon discovering that the battle situation was developing in an unfavorable direction for their side, they brazenly dispatched soldiers to pilot small combat airships to carry out fearless, suicidal attacks on the Decepticon fleet.

Through the window, Shockwave quietly watched as one after another of his own ships in the starry sky outside the warship were damaged by the Quintessons' suicidal attacks.

And he, from beginning to end, had no change in expression on his face.

The absolute gap in strength is far from something that can be made up for by courage.

The battle, which had been deadlocked for nearly a day, was soon approaching its end.

The explosions of one drone after another did not affect the victory of the Decepticon fleet.

Relying on their absolute advantage in scale and strength, they began the final encirclement and annihilation of this Quintesson Plunder Fleet.

One after another, the small combat airships and interstellar warships of the Quintesson Plunder Fleet exploded in the starry sky under the attacks of the Decepticon fleet, turning into brilliant fireworks.

However, stimulated by death, the counterattacks of the Quintessons also began to cause the losses on the Decepticon fleet's side to increase sharply.

Finally, as several warships of the Plunder Fleet fearlessly rammed into the Decepticon fleet warships that were surrounding them.

A gap was opened, and at the same time, an interstellar warship of the Quintesson Plunder Fleet broke through the encirclement and, disregarding the danger, suddenly activated its Warp Engine to flee.

Inside the flagship, Shockwave, who had coldly commanded the fleet to encircle and attack this Quintesson Plunder Fleet and had not changed a single order throughout the entire process, finally showed a trace of emotional fluctuation on his face.

"A fish has slipped through the net!"

His cold gaze looked toward the starry sky, at the Quintesson warship that could no longer be seen.

After a moment of contemplation, he issued an order: "Adjust the course and pursue!"

The Quintessons are a very vengeful race, not to mention that the Cybertronian civilization has a blood feud with them.

In the engagement just now, both sides exposed some things to each other.

Shockwave is very clear that once they cannot cut the weeds and dig up the roots, what will greet them next will likely be a continuous stream of Quintesson fleets arriving from other star sectors.