The trio looked up at the sky as two black airships and a helicopter came down. The helicopter was a small one, looking like it could only fit the pilots and a couple of passengers. The airships were well sized and could carry about eight in each one with the pilots. The three vehicles descended down on to the one clearing large enough for them, the helicopter being the closest to them. Swindle could fell the wind generated by the helicopter very well and he could see Dedan's jacket billowing from it as well. The wind deaden when the helicopter landed on the floor and the door opened up to let two individual out of it. The first being one who looked like Kuji being completely covered in the combat armor, although a bit shorter and thinner with a symbol of a knife on their right breast that matched the one hanging off their waist that was sheathed, but looked very long. The other person was another bipedal lizard with a light-blue skin and pink eyes. Both of them wore the black combat armor, with the lizard keeping his head exposed, and both of them had ballistic rifles in the hands, the former having it slinged on their back while the latter let it rest on his shoulders. As they were walking towards them, the airships opened up and let the soldiers out, letting them wait at .

"Oh, shit…," Swindle heard Kuji muttered from right behind him as the two stopped in front of him.

"Hey, Dedan," the lizard said curtly before giving a wry grin, "and hello, Kuji. How you've been?"

"Why are you here?" Kuji questioned him, annoyed.

"Got orders, of course. What else?" he replied as he looked at the one unknown. "And who the hell is this?"

"This is Swindle," Dedan immediately said. "He's a criminal trying to repay his debt to society."

"So you're the new punching bag," the other person said, speaking in a heavily modulated female voice.

"Yeah, although I'm finding him pretty useful," he told them, which earned a soured look from him.

"So ex-con, what were you busted for?" she asked him.

"I hid weapons on one of your moons and some assholes jacked it," he told them.

"Weapons. Hey, didn't Novus get a sudden increase in armaments?" the lizard asked them, his face serious.

"Yes. This moron is the reason why their gear has gotten better," Dedan confirmed, crossing his arms and glaring at Swindle with one of his eyes before speaking again. "However, as he said, they stole it from him."

"Still store it in one of our moons, which I'm sure qualifies as smuggling," the woman said.

"Of course, but not enough to convict me on arms dealing," he pointed out.

"Hmph, right, anyway, what do you want us to do?" she asked Dedan.

"Uh, what's your name?" Swindle asked them.

"Oh, we didn't say our names, didn't we?" the lizard muttered, tapping our chins, before he spoke up. "I'm Terix and this is Cairn. We're located at the other base, over to the north while you guys are down south."

"Right, now that we're done with pleasantries, let's get down to business," Dedan told them. "As you must've heard, our base got bombed to hell and we're dealing with a mole. We know that this harbor is where the bomb came from and we've found evidence of some of Novus being here and running away through the sewers. We have eight of our soldier quarantine back at base as we're trying to figure out which one of them is the mole."

"Hmm, interesting," Cairn muttered. "You're hoping this place will have information?"

"We've found the hard drives and power console, but they're broken. Going to have to take it back to base," Kuji told them.

"Really, now? Do you need help with that?" Terix asked in a flirting matter.

"No… now shut the hell up," he told him angrily before speaking again calmly. "Shouldn't take me more than three hours to fix one."

"While you're doing that, I'll see if I can whip our soldiers into a hunting frenzy and comb the sewers for the missing enemies," Cairn said confidently.

"Wouldn't expect any less," Dedan nodded.

"Let me guess, with Kuji bust fixing the computers, you want be to look around the area for any more clues," Terix said.

"Exactly. You're the best detective I know," Dedan nodded.

"I would argue against that," Kuji said, jealous. "They sent me to investigate the bombing, not you."

"Yep, and it was only a matter of time before they send me along to make up for your shortcomings," he mocked, having a sadistic grin.

"It's been less than a day, you jack-off," he angrily replied, clenching his fist.

"I know. Speaks loudly about your incompetence, even though we're at separate bases" he chuckled.

"Urg…."

"Uh, what am I here to do?" Swindle interrupted, wanting to hurry it up.

"Don't know. Got anything that can help?" Dedan asked.

"Well, I know weapons really well. Funs, explosives, the works," he replied.

"Hmm… how well do you know explosives?" Dedan questioned him.

"Very well. Why are you asking about that in particular?" he wondered, intrigued.

"Use your head!" he yelled, making Swindle flinched. "The bomb at the airfield. We've figure out that it was a hyper-explosive."

"Hyper-explosive? Damn, that's some powerful stuff," Swindle remarked. "Must've been a small amount that caused the damage to the airfield."

"Exactly. Kuji, transfer your data over to him," he ordered.

"Right," Kuji nodded, pressing a couple of buttons on his armor. "Alright, do you know how to sync up to me, Swindle?"

"Uh, how do I do that?" Swindle asked, unsure.

"Alright, since you're a robotic organism, you don't have to wear the armor, so just press your finger on the center of your tattoo," he said. Swindle was confused on how this will work before he did so. Almost immediately, his HUD lit up with things to do with the tattoo, which surprised him.

"Damn… this is cool," Swindle complimented.

"Yeah, whatever, just look for the sync option and activate it," he told him. Swindle nodded and found it at the bottom-right corner of it and activate it.

"Got it."

"Right. I'm synced up and sending the files I found to you," he told him and Swindle noticed several things in his inbox. "Also, I went ahead and figured out nearby experimental weapons facility for you to go check out and see if they lost their samples. There's one in the city you can check out in walking distance and one on the outskirts."

"Really now?" Dedan questioned, surprised.

"Yeah. Swindle can lead you there with the map I gave him and you can talk about what the city's is like while you're at it. Always a good thing to get to learn about the city," he recommended to him.

"Right, Swindle, you've got everything?" Dedan questioned.

"Yeah," he answered immediately.

"Great. Cairn, Terix, follow me to the secret entrance to the sewer tunnels. Give you a good idea of what it looks like so you can enter the sewer tunnels and give you an idea of what to look for more secret entrances," he told them, heading to the entrance.

"Understood," Cairn said curtly, following along.

"See you later, Kuji," Terix said before walking off. Kuji clenched his fists slightly before releasing.

"Why can't I stay away from you," he bemoaned.

"Got problems with him?" Swindle asked.

"Yeah, several," Kuji nodded.

"Rivals?"

"My ex," he answered.

"Oh." Swindle realized, rubbing the back of his head. "Eh, never had that problem. Had flings, but they were mostly for deals. What happened to you two?"

"He's a whore," Kuji answered bluntly. "The bastard cheated on me with at least seven different people and probably some more as well."

"Wow… how long did it take for you to realize he was cheating on you?" Swindle asked, intrigued. "Cheating with seven different people is hard to accomplish unnoticed."

"He used those detective skills of his to make sure I had no idea. Seriously, I didn't have a clue for several months until he got bored and deliberately left crumbs for me to follow, that dick!" he growled. "He treated our relationship like a game of cat and mouse and didn't take it remotely seriously, even though he acted the part."

"Wow… what a giant dick," Swindle had to admit, startled, before realizing something.

"Uh, you're different species, aren't you?" Swindle questioned him, looking behind him. "I don't see a tail."

"Oh, yeah, we are, but Pz-zazz is very liberal. There's a bunch of interspecies romance here. Not the only thing either. We may be a bit tight on smugglers, but things we sell are very diverse. Aside from the obvious, you know, like tanks and explosives, guns are pretty easy to buy and drugs are mostly legal. We got a few that are illegal, like krokodil and tentrape, but that's mostly because those are dangerous as all hell. Unfortunately, people are desperate and some drugs are expensive, so they'll go for the cheaper shit, even if it kills them," he explained to Swindle.

"Hmph, so it's a very free market," Swindle smiled, thinking of what he could do. "I can make some serious money from that."

"If you insist," Kuji shrugged. "Just remember, since you're working for us, your job is to keep the peace."

"I'll remember," Swindle nodded as Dedan came back out from the warehouse.

"Right, hey! Soldiers!" he yelled and the soldiers immediately came over to him, waiting for orders. "Right, three things. Half of you, go with Cairn and explore the tunnels carefully. Other half, load up the computers for Kuji to take back to base and maintain the area with Terix after you're done with that. Now move, you bastards!" the soldiers followed his orders, moving out quickly to help the search with Cairn or help Terix out.

"Right, best you two head on out to the weapons facility," Kuji told them, crossing his arm. "The weapons facility might close very soon."

"Excellent point. Swindle, got the map open?" Dedan questioned him.

"Yeah. Should be eight block away from here," Swindle told him, looking at the map on his HUD.

"Great, Kuji, I trust you and Terix can find something," Dedan told him.

"We will. They won't get away," Kuji promised. "Have fun at the weapon's facility."

"Right, let's head out."

Unicron was unsure of how to handle the situation. Yes, his sole goal is to keep Swindle alive is extremely simple, but considering he's being thrown against an army, it's bound to make things more difficult. Not to mention all the other creatures around who might want to kill his host. He normally wouldn't have to worry about them, but losing your massive size and most of your powers missing means you have to put things into perspective and realize he is vulnerable. This was something that he honestly struggled to come to terms with. Primus? He could handle Primus being capable of harming him. He was his brother, it would be like himself beating him. Primes? A small chance that shouldn't have happened, but it did anyway. Any other being? No. That was impossible.

And yet, here he was in this situation. Trapped in the shell of a vulnerable being that he would crush on any other day. It was an insidious, ironic insult to him. So, he had to make sure his symbiotic relationship with the creature. He boosted his ability to hear and if he sensed things, he would make sure Swindle would find it. Thankfully, the creature was capable in combat, which comforted Unicron. Although he has doubts about actually succeeding in completely taking over this being as his host, it was good that he can fight.

Speaking of the creature, he actually paid enough attention to learn its name: Swindle. How appropriate. Unicron didn't exactly like to pay attention to insignificant scum, but he had to make an exception just this once. He wasn't going to care about anyone else barring threat values. Examining his thoughts and his feelings, he was troubled, although what exactly, he wasn't sure of. Probably something to with his dream that he watched. A weird one, that was, but something that could help him figure this being out was always a positive. That said, the individual was going to be a bit difficult to parse out. Between his greed and his damaged past, it might be a bit difficult to make him behave. Might.

That being said, he felt something off. Not about Swindle, although even then, there was something odd about him. No, the thing that confused him was the planet itself. He had no idea why, but there was a strange energy with the planet. Not a god hiding at the core of it. That felt different and Primus composed Cybertron, not this planet. No, this was a extremely different feeling. Something about the energy of it struck as odd, out of this universal. Something that welcomed his arrival.

That genuinely worried him.