Chapter 219: Zelan Shipyard

As Gamo and Kuna whispered among themselves, neither noticed several dark specks appearing on the distant horizon, growing larger with every second.

It was only when the shadows stretched across Tas Square that the assembled ranks looked up, discovering a group of heavy structures hovering directly overhead.

"Aren't those Sharkborn transports?" Gamo asked, his voice caught between uncertainty and realization.

"They are," Kuna replied, a look of awe crossing his face. "Though they don't hold a candle to that massive warship we saw the other day."

"You have no idea, back then I..."

After Blackarachnia's strike force had broken the enemy lines, the surviving secondary vessels had been claimed as battlefield prizes.

While these captured ships provided immediate transport assets, their internal compartments were never designed for Cybertronian frames. The tight corridors made them impractical for Decepticon warriors to operate directly in combat, leaving them suited primarily for logistical work.

Much like the task at hand.

The transports descended smoothly onto the open square. A menacing Decepticon lieutenant jumped down onto the stone paving, followed by four junior soldiers.

A few Mindborn military administrators stepped down from the boarding ramp shortly after.

"Is everyone assembled?"

An administrator walked toward the four waiting engineer regiments. Spotting the official, even Kuna and Gamo fell silent.

"All units are accounted for," a regimental officer replied.

The four regiment leaders did not recognize the new face from headquarters, but the high-level insignia pinned to the officer's collar was genuine.

The official offered no pleasantries. Once confirmed, he turned to exchange a brief nod with his colleagues before facing the troops. "Board the ships."

The concise, direct tone caught the officers off guard, a sharp departure from typical bureaucratic procedure. Remembering their orders, the regiment leaders quickly relayed the command down the line.

The four commanders exchanged glances, but none asked where their units were being sent.

The visiting officials volunteered no extra information, and the supervising Decepticon squad clearly considered speaking with local troops beneath them.

The Decepticon lieutenant stood by the boarding ramp, his red optics sweeping over the passing soldiers without bother to hide his disdain.

Had it not been for Skygnaw's explicit orders to keep order, he would have gladly tested his claws on the marchers.

The four engineer regiments filed into the transports in turn, one full regiment assigned to each ship.

"My Lord, all personnel are aboard," the administrator reported, approaching the Decepticon lieutenant with a low bow.

Unlike his distant demeanor toward the native officers, the official's posture was entirely humble.

Within the Decepticon aerial fleet, a mid-tier officer ranked only slightly above standard infantry. Yet here on Planet Kugrage, even the most basic Decepticon held absolute authority, and no native dared show disrespect.

While such dynamics were familiar to Skygnaw, as long as the Decepticons refrained from pointless destruction or unnecessary slaughter, he saw no reason to interfere in daily interactions between the two groups.

Position and perspective dictated how one viewed the world.

Expecting a ruler to worry about a beggar's next meal, or a beggar to fret over royal court politics, was entirely unrealistic.

For all practical purposes, Planet Kugrage operated under Skygnaw's singular authority.

In his eyes, both the local populace and the Decepticons fell under his command.

Though neither group matched the absolute devotion of officers like Dirge, there was no need to enforce artificial equality between them.

Who held higher standing on the ground was secondary.

In the end, all assets belonged to the same domain.

Whether one group received better treatment while another scrambled for scraps was irrelevant to the broader goal.

The operation moved swiftly.

Bright thruster fire burst from the sterns of the four transports, lifting the heavy hulls smoothly into the upper atmosphere.

Once their transport duties were complete, these captured vessels would not sit idle; they were scheduled for full breakdown and industrial repurposing.

Inside the hold, Gamo and Kuna filed into crowded seating rows. Despite the ship rising rapidly into the clouds, the ride remained steady, without a hint of turbulence.

Shortly after takeoff, the four transports separated. One banked sharply away from Gamo's vessel, while the remaining two gradually slowed, drifting toward different landing zones until they faded into the distance.

As time dragged on, silence settled over the packed troop bay.

No one knew their final destination, and the presence of Decepticons made the fresh recruits visibly anxious, fearful they were being marched to an unknown front.

Following the siege, all four engineer regiments had been hastily refilled with new recruits, which explained the many unfamiliar faces Gamo had noticed earlier.

Thud.

Just as the oppressive quiet was becoming unbearable, the transport lurched to a halt, followed immediately by a sharp voice echoing through the cabin.

"Form up! Prepare to disembark!"

The pilot—whether a native driver or a Decepticon operator—handled the landing with little delicacy. The transport wobbled slightly on descent before striking solid ground with a heavy shudder.

Hiss...

The bay doors hissed open, and Gamo followed Kuna out into the open air.

The first thing that caught his eye was a city in total ruin.

Hardly a single structure stood intact across the settlement, the remaining walls scarred by heavy plasma fire.

Yet directly in the center of the ruins stood a massive, newly erected industrial framework. Hundreds of construction crews were already moving around the site, while heavy machinery types Gamo had never seen before rolled through the shattered city gates.

Farther out, along the perimeter walls, several towering Decepticon sentries stood watch, their massive frames overlooking the entire sector.

"Is this Zelan City?" Gamo murmured, recognizing the layout.

Situated at the southern edge of the empire, Zelan City was isolated for hundreds of miles. Known for its rich deposits of bismuth, platinum-iron, and lead-steel, the region served as a crucial industrial hub.

It had once been heavily fortified, though those defenses had clearly proven useless against the invasion.

Without the Decepticons' intervention, Tas City would likely have shared the exact same fate.

"All units, listen up!"

Before Kuna could answer, the new regiment commander's voice cut across the noise.

The commander shouted over the roar of construction machinery: "Starting today, your unit will assist with..."

The heavy noise drowned out parts of the speech, but Gamo caught the essential details.

He finally understood why their regiment had been deployed here so urgently. Just as Kuna had rumored, they were here to build a heavy shipyard capable of producing spacefaring vessels.

A shipyard built for real warships.

A strange sense of pride stirred within Gamo. Even though the facility was clearly beyond local engineering, he felt a spark of satisfaction seeing such power take shape for his people.

Submitting to Lord Skygnaw had proven to be a wise decision. Otherwise, how could his people ever possess a facility so vast and imposing?

For a brief moment, Gamo recalled ancient records of indentured laborers serving noble houses, but he brushed the thought aside.

They were a recognized vassal state, not mere servants.

According to Emperor Wala's speeches, their people enjoyed the protection of the Decepticons while retaining internal governance—a true step toward lasting strength.

An ancient servant might take pride in the lavish jewelry bought by his master's family, but Gamo knew his pride came from something far greater.

Standing tall among his unit, Gamo had no idea that the figure responsible for his newfound hope was standing on the ruined wall nearby, his gaze sweeping over the construction zone.

Skygnaw looked down at the expanding framework with keen interest.

The industrial output of an entire world, once directed properly, was truly formidable.

In just a few days, the foundations of their first major shipyard were already rising from the dust.

Megatron and Sentinel Prime were undoubtedly weaving their own schemes back on Cybertron. The sooner Skygnaw completed his fleet, the sooner he could return to the main theater with absolute leverage.

The facility was enormous, so vast that Skygnaw felt no need to step down and inspect the ground details personally.

Still, the scale did not surprise him. Building starships was fundamentally different from constructing planetary shelters.

It required scale, structural integrity, and vast material reserves.

With the entire planet serving as his resource base, material costs were a non-issue.

After a brief rest, the engineering units marched into the central construction zone.

With the First Engineer Regiment joining the workforce, the building process accelerated dramatically.

Using local stone and heavy metal alloys extracted straight from nearby mines, raw materials flowed into the site without interruption.

Day by day, the Zelan Shipyard took shape at a visible pace.

At the same time, across several other industrial sectors on Planet Kugrage, similar deep-space shipyards were rising from the earth, built by hundreds of thousands of native workers under Decepticon direction.

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