Before departure, Setsuna and the shipgirls conducted a thorough analysis of the overall combat strength in the Transformers world.
The conclusion was that, aside from a few outliers like Unicron and the original Primes serving as background figures, the expeditionary fleet should be unbeatable in this universe.
In terms of both offense and defense, the starships far exceeded the capabilities of Earth's natives and the Cybertronians.
The only minor shortcoming was their lack of mobility—they hadn't yet unlocked faster-than-light travel or teleportation technology.
But that issue would likely be resolved soon after obtaining the Transwarp Key.
With the two primary objectives settled, everyone's attention naturally shifted to the background figures of this world.
"So you're saying Unicron's combat strength isn't as terrifying as we imagined?"
Setsuna listened with interest as Observer laid out her reasoning and conclusions.
She had mentioned more than once upon arrival that Unicron, in this universe, was far from the omnipotent godlike being often portrayed in lore.
"Yes, I believe it's possible to completely defeat Unicron in this universe, Commander."
Observer nodded seriously, her tentacle-equipped rigging behind her echoing the gesture.
"Huh?"
The watching Autobots were stunned.
"That's impossible. I know you're strong, but Unicron... he's in a whole different league. He's on par with the original Primes—a god."
Optimus Prime said in a low voice.
On Cybertron, Unicron was regarded as a dark deity—a legend. Almost no one had seen his true power, only inferred it from the might of his minions.
Such as Scourge, Terrorcons, and some Decepticon elites.
Their combat power far exceeded that of standard Cybertronians. In a one-on-one fight, neither Optimus nor Primal stood a chance against Scourge.
"No, no, no, hear me out, Commander. Let me take a look at the Transwarp Key."
The loli reached out, and Setsuna tossed the key to her.
Observer examined the Transwarp Key carefully, then nodded and looked to the group.
"Unicron wants to use the Transwarp Key to reach this universe and devour Earth and other planets, right?"
"Mm."
Primal agreed. His homeworld had been devoured by Unicron.
"I don't know how powerful Unicron's true form is. Let's go with your version—that he's some kind of god of destruction and chaos, a conceptual deity."
"But based on the current situation, that orb-shaped entity devouring planets everywhere is merely a fragment or projection of Unicron."
"And that projection isn't as powerful as you think. That's the conclusion I came to after thoroughly studying Scourge and the Terrorcons."
Observer projected a large volume of data in front of them.
It was mostly a reverse analysis of Unicron's strength based on residual energy found on Scourge and the Terrorcons.
Unfortunately, apart from Purifier, no one else could make sense of it.
"..."
Seeing everyone's confused faces, the loli switched to a simpler analogy:
"If Unicron were really on the level of, say, the Outer Gods—a being so ridiculously overpowered—why would he need to rely on the Transwarp Key to cross universes?"
"As his subordinate, Scourge should've received his power or support in order to secure the key, right? Yet he couldn't even last three moves against Gudako."
"If Unicron were truly omnipotent, why not just upgrade Scourge into an ultra-super-cool Transformer and have him slap us all to death with one hit?"
"He didn't because he couldn't, okay~"
The loli fiddled with Scourge' wreckage.
Setsuna, the shipgirls, and the Autobots fell into deep thought.
Indeed, they had fought Scourge and the Terrorcon army twice.
The first time could be chalked up to overconfidence—Unicron hadn't anticipated the sheer power of Gundams and starships from another world.
The second time Scourge appeared, Unicron was fully aware of the situation he was facing. To ensure Scourge could complete his mission, Unicron granted him even more power.
The result...
Scourge became a bit stronger—just a bit. He managed to endure a few more punches from Gudako.
The only thing worth noting was the overwhelming horde of Terrorcons. If left unchecked, they really could've wiped out the Autobots, Maximals, and Eagle Union troops.
Unfortunately, against angeloids and Gundams, they were nothing more than ants.
"Looking at it this way... Unicron in this world is kind of weak..."
Setsuna stroked his chin in thought.
Even in the original Transformers 7 storyline, Unicron was far from the ridiculously overpowered god of destruction he was hyped up to be.
He struggled just to devour Earth, sent a massive wave of Terrorcons to attack the protagonists, and ultimately got banished back to the Dark Universe.
Honestly, if the Eagle Union or the five permanent members had been fully prepared, they could have repelled the Terrorcons.
Of course, you could argue that Unicron had been in the Dark Universe for too long, hadn't consumed any planets, hadn't replenished his energy, and had severely weakened as a result...
Plenty of excuses could be made.
But judging by his displayed strength, he really wasn't that impressive.
"You guys seriously want to go after Unicron?!"
The Autobots were dumbfounded.
"To be precise, we're going after a projection of Unicron in this universe."
Observer corrected their statement.
"We can find a way to summon it and take it down. If we can bring back its core or some other part for research, that would be great."
"That's valuable data!"
"..."
The Autobots were floored by the Siren girl.
The Maximals had gone to great lengths to protect the Transwarp Key precisely to prevent Unicron from descending upon this world.
Yet these people, after obtaining the key, were now considering summoning Unicron to beat him up?!
I don't get it, but I'm deeply shaken.jpg.
After discussing the Unicron issue for a while, Setsuna made the final call.
He instructed Purifier and Observer to run further feasibility analysis. If everything checked out, they would find a remote star system, drag Unicron there, and give him a solid thrashing to farm his loot.
It would also conveniently eliminate a looming threat from this world once and for all—no more surprise Terrorcon raids every few days.
Next, they moved on to another topic:
Modifying the Autobots.
The Autobots were to manage Cybertron in the future and expand territory in this universe.
To ensure they had enough power to unify Cybertron—and as a show of good faith for the collaboration—
After all, Prime had entrusted the AllSpark to him.
Setsuna decided to perform a full upgrade on Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Mirage, and the others.
...
Whrrr—
The Eternal Snowfall, carrying the Autobots and Maximals, descended into the southern jungles of Peru.
The area was full of primordial forest, sparsely inhabited except for a few local tribes.
Primal and the other Maximals had lived here for thousands of years and knew the terrain like the back of their hands.
Optimus Primal led the group deep into the forest.
"...There's a strong energy presence here."
Soon after entering, Bumblebee spread his arms wide like he was taking a deep breath.
"Yes. That's why we chose to live here back then."
Primal pointed to a stone bed in a clearing.
"This is where we draw our energy from."
"Oh."
Setsuna and the Siren girls became intrigued.
They could sense an unusual energy in the air—similar to the Wisdom Cubes or spiritual power, yet subtly different.
Transformers operated entirely on "energy," and Cybertronians consumed energon cubes.
While Earth had a lower energy concentration compared to Cybertron, it was still sufficient.
In the movie, Bumblebee was revived using this very energy bed after being killed by Scourge.
This made it the perfect place for modification and for researching the local power system.
"Then let's use local resources. We can even modify Megatron and his crew while we're at it."
Purifier dumped a pile of Decepticon parts from her rigging, forming a small metallic mountain in the forest.
She genuinely felt it was a shame to let the Decepticons go to waste. Better to modify and reuse them.
Combiners like Predaking, Starscream, and Devastator were still pretty fun to play with.
"...Try not to go overboard."
Primal initially wanted to warn the Siren girls not to get too creative.
Then he reconsidered. Even if the Decepticons were revived, they wouldn't survive a single round against Setsuna and his crew.
"Do we have enough people for this?"
"Bro, are we going to scavenge materials from the humans?"
Bumblebee glanced around. Setsuna had only brought a dozen or so shipgirls with him.
It clearly wasn't enough to handle upgrades on this scale, and they didn't exactly look like engineers.
"Just lie back and relax."
Setsuna pulled out a dimensional anchor and locked it in place before him.
Shhh—
A holographic interface popped up:
[Secondary Node Established]
[Integrated into Primary Node Transmission Network]
[Node 12: Transformers]
"Already the 12th world, huh..."
Setsuna mused briefly, then opened communications with the capital.
"Send in two squads of Bulins with materials. We've got some big guys to upgrade."
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