“Located near the intersection between Missouri and Illinois.“ Gando muttered to himself while looking at a map. “Judging by the locating system you gave me, this place should be St. Louis. The city was razed by the Decepticons long before and rebuilt into a steel fortress. Everything from the ground to buildings are made of metal. Four steel towers hundreds of meters tall stood on the city’s four sides.”

“Area?” Xuan frowned.

Gando shook his head. “Haven’t examined its size yet. Judging by the scope, the fortress isn’t huge. Smaller than the original St. Louis. Ruins of the original city have been cleared. However, a swarm of robots marched out as soon as I went near the fortress. Their numbers covered the whole ground and sky. Most robots weren’t able to transform but the missiles coming from the ground alone were threatening enough. Luckily I was still several hundred meters up in the air. The Dragonshard necklace also shined and saved me from being blasted into pieces. That was when I realized it’s the main base of the Decepticons.

"And then hundreds of flying vehicles rose from the ground. Helicopters, fighter jets, and even a few space shuttles transformed from the Decepticons. These flying vehicles were much more powerful. The first round of fire consisted of energy balls the size of basketballs. They exploded violently on the barrier and dropped the Valkyrie’s energy reserve down to half in just a second. I escaped by activating the electric jet system. The Valkyrie only has less than 20% energy remaining now.” Gando was thankful to have escaped and also exclaimed.

The rest of the team here frowned. Zheng said. “Are there that many Transformers? The original movie only has several actual Decepticons. The number doesn’t reach high even after they summoned their people from space. Hundreds that could transform into flying vehicles?”

The original Decepticons differed from those that turned into robots on Earth from the power of the AllSpark. They were composed of a different metal and possessed different weapons. Robots turned on Earth used weapons that existed on Earth such as Gatling machine guns and anti-tank missiles. Original Decepticons used energy weapons and more advanced missiles. Their transforming ability bestowed them increased agility. An original Decepticon could take on dozens of normal robots.

HongLu shook his head. “Not surprising. How should I explain? Let’s start from the origin of the Autobots and Decepticons based on the movie, not the animation, since we are in the movie’s world. The Transformers came into existence from the effect of the AllSpark. The AllSpark’s power could turn mechanical objects in Earth to robots. How are they different from the robots formed in Cybertron? Why are the robots from Earth weaker than the ones from Cybertron in the movie? Is it solely due to the metal compositions? That would only contribute to the difference in their armor and weapons and doesn’t explain why they couldn’t transform. My view is... the robots’ power is directly proportional how much contact they have with the AllSpark’s power. The longer they are in close proximity with the AllSpark, the more powerful they become. It’s only a speculation but this hypothesis answered the question of the difference in power, and also why so many transforming robots came into existence. The Decepticons have possessed the AllSpark for some time now, enough to evolve some robots.”

Evolution. Just like how humans evolve after unlocking the genetic constraint, the robots were undergoing the same process. Although they relied on an external force for their evolution, it was still shocking to learn. If the situation remained, the AllSpark would create millions of Transformers as time went on or perhaps super Transformers. There was no way of winning at that point.

Zheng sighed. “The same old God. Placing us into seemingly safe circumstances much like during the Alien movie. Back then if we rode the starship back to Earth, the Aliens would reproduce and swarm in a few years. Likewise, if we settled down here and trained, I might reach Xiuzhen stage in twenty years but the Decepticons would reach unimaginable numbers and who knows how far their core robots could evolve?”

Most of the team had the same thoughts. God did not give them any time limit for this world but the situation was clear that the longer they stayed, the more dangerous it became. A few more months down the road, and who could know how many high level robots would come into being? Their priority was to nuke the Decepticons and enact the bait plan when their numbers were still low.

Now that the goal was set, the Decepticons’ main base was found, and the password control to the nuclear arsenal was in hand, there was no point to delay any further while the Decepticons grow. Team China departed with the American government. Zheng informed the location to the government under Xuan’s sign then bit farewell to Optimus Prime and Bumblebee with respect. He actually wanted to repair the two Autobots but the feat was out of his abilities.

“No sacrifice, no victory... but the sacrifices are sometimes too sad. How good would it be if victories come without the cost of sacrifices.” Zheng muttered to himself as he left.

The strength of the Decepticons were overwhelming. The hundreds of transforming robots alone were difficult enough, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of regular robots. The survival rate even with the Dragonshard was extremely low. They needed a complete plan before attempting any attacks.

“We can stop here. A hundred kilometers away from the fortress. Not more than a few minutes using the Sky Stick’s jet system. Now the basic situation is HongLu’s group head to west of the fortress. You will lure most of the robots out then keep flying west. We will wait at east of the fortress. Once most robots are going, we will take care of the rest.” Xuan said to HongLu.

HongLu twirled the hair in front of his forehead and carefully asked. “The time? What time are you going to carry out the plan? Within how many days must I accomplish it?”

“No set time. The nuclear arsenal password changes every five days. I am not going to activate the virus for five days. After five days, you should be on stand by. You must enter the bombed site and initiate attack within six hours of dropping the three hydrogen bombs. Hydrogen bombs have less radiation than atomic bombs and even if you get affected by the radiation, you can heal in God’s dimension. There’s no need to worry too much about radiation. Here are the Charms of the Three Pure Ones just in case. Put them on when you enter the site.” Xuan said as if he was placing orders.

HongLu picked Kampa and YinKong. They covered close and long range, magical and sci-fi weapons. HongLu also unlocked the genetic constraint with the help of the prototype T virus, so he could pilot the Sky Stick. Once Kampa and YinKong enacted the bait plan, he could take them away with the Sky Stick.

He nodded to Xuan without saying anything more. Then twirled his hair and pondered.

(The U.S. president should have received my message and signal by now. Which means the army will surround it in at most a week. And then using the backdoor left by Xuan’s plan, my plan will proceed smoothly following the nuclear attack. We will complete this movie without any loss. And you will know I am not weak!) HongLu smiled. He looked at Xuan then at the steel tower far in the distance... Just a few more days and everything would come to a closure.