BigRedRemo
Before the outbreak consumes the Eclipse, Long Haul is already breaking down under endless labor, anxiety, and deepening depression. The Decepticon prison ship feels wrong-corridors go silent too long, prisoners vanish, and distant screams echo through the lower decks. Long Haul tries to ignore it, but the fear keeps building.
He secretly sends a coded distress signal to Zeta, the only bot he trusts. Years earlier, Zeta had been severely injured during a battle with Superion and left for dead by the Decepticons. Long Haul found her wrecked afterward and repaired her in secret, helping her escape and ultimately change sides. That hidden bond is the reason she would risk everything for him now.
Zeta is already on the way with a small Autobot strike team-but space travel will take time.
Before she can arrive, the prison scientist takes Long Haul for one final experiment. Seeing his unstable mind and extreme durability, the scientist forces him into Project Nemesis, fusing experimental armor and black energon into his frame to create a perfect weapon. The process is agonizing and nearly destroys him.
Then the infection escapes across the Eclipse.
In the chaos, Long Haul is locked inside solitary confinement beneath the ship. While the infection ravages corridors above-turning crew and prisoners into violent, corrupted husks-he is forced to listen helplessly to the ship dying around him.
But something is wrong.
Despite everything, the infection does not fully take him. Whether it's the modifications of Project Nemesis or something deeper in his system, Long Haul appears resistant-changed, but not consumed.
Trapped alone in the dark, he begins to shift into something else entirely: stronger, unstable, and increasingly dangerous. His depression and anxiety twist into paranoia and rage, but one thought keeps him anchored-
Zeta is coming.
And he has to survive long enough for her to reach the Eclipse before whatever he's becoming fully takes over.