Disclaimer; Transformers don't belong to me or any human characters in this story don't belong to me except for Strobe and Beth.
Prologue
The fight of their life.
Strobe was an eighteent foot Autobot, she was jade green in colour except for her arms and legs which were black. She was loyal to the Autobot cause, Jazz, her team and Optimus Prime. The femme worked hard on Jazz's team to gather intelligence from the Decepticons in whatever way she could. The saboteur knew her ways were not always orthodox but he turned a blind eye to that. The cons wouldn't think twice about torturing an Autobot. She was also on the Decepticon's most wanted list but she was never caught by them which earned her the nickname of slippery fish in Cybertronian. Most Decepticons avoided being caught by her, her methods of extracting information from informants were something even Soundwave himself would be proud of using.
Strobe stumbled across a sinister plan between Megatron and Sentinel Prime and needed to get to Optimus Prime as quickly as possible. She took some data pads from the Decepticon base as evidence and raced back to her shuttle. The femme spy had to be quick so she activated her hover jets and sped through the streets of Diacon. Above her the war was raging and she kept having to swerve to avoid the hits from incoming missiles. Behind her were Decepticons who realised who she was and went in pursuit after her.
Her radar picked up a Decepticon border control, "That's strange," she thought, "It wasn't there yesterday." It was in her way and she needed to get through it if she was to reach Iacon safely. Strobe activated her battle computer and waited for it to provide a solution,
"Anytime now," she growled.
Finally her solution to getting past border control came and Strobe activated the systems needed to take the evasive action. Boosted power rockets emerged from her feet and she flew above the border control shooting the guards in the process, before flying on to her shuttle which was hidden amongst wreckage from the civil war. The shuttle was activated only by Strobe's signature ad when she neared it the doors opened automatically. Strobe jumped into the seat and interacted with the shuttle, the engine whirred and she was gone before any Decepticon could register what she'd done.
Strobe flew across the expanse between the Decepticon base and Iacon but she was attacked on the way knocking her shuttle off its trajectory and hitting the ship's main power supply. Bolts of electricity moved through the ships power cables and overloaded the femme's systems knocking out her navigation system and putting her into stasis. The shuttle was floated through universe upon universe until it eventually crash landed on earth.
The jade green and black femme was now locked in a human laboratory somewhere on earth, she'd been there for quite some time but she had no reference point so it was hard to tell for how long. She was suspended from the ceiling held by cuffs attached to her wrist and ankles; it was a way for the humans to control her should she try anything, which up to this point was not necessary.
When the humans powered up the cuffs they inadvertently brought her back online. Strobe watched the reports on her HUD as her systems came back online except her navigation system which was still offline. That didn't worry her much but what really worried her was the lack of energon running through her systems. If she didn't have some soon she'd go into stasis and eventually die. The Autobot femme looked around the room, she noticed she was in some sort of a box with the metal cuffs wrapped around her wrists and ankles. It was quiet in the box apart from the hum of machines and the bleep of a monitor which was reading her spark pulse and cpu activity. Outside of the box were several desks and machines, one of which was attached to the box where strobe was. The femme could feel probes attached to her chest and head, she shook her head to try to get the probes off but they were firmly fixed in place. Strobe struggled against the cuffs wrapped around her wrists and ankles but that only electrocuted her further damaging her systems and overloading her spark. Strobe felt it pulsating rapidly and wished she was in the safety of Ratchet's med bay.
A man sat at a consul in the lab where she was being held, he looked at his screen but it wasn't showing any activity coming from her through the connections they'd placed on her cpu. He looked at her and then at the screen in front of him, there was a single green line moving across the screen suggesting there was no activity from her. He fiddled with some knobs and switches not realising that he was giving the femme access to earth's languages and other vital information she would find useful,
"What are you?" he said as he looked up at Strobe, "Are you friend or foe?"
A blond man in his mid fifties with a weathered tanned face and thick rimmed rectangle spectacles walked in,
"Anything yet?" he asked,
"No sir, nothing" the analyst replied
"Hmmm have you tried to communicate with it?" the blonde man replied,
"No sir," the young man replied.
The blond man walked closer to the box, "Who...are...you?" he asked slowly.
Strobe glared at him menacingly, "I understand you, don't you insult me insect," she spat.
The blond man wasn't expecting the response in English and jumped back with shock. The coffee in his mug spilling over the side and onto the cuffs of his new white shirt. The younger man's fingers frantically flying across the keyboard to catch the signals coming from her cpu.
A news flash came up on the T V screen behind them showing devastation in Chicago. The older man looked at the screen, "What the…" he said as he moved toward the t.v. The younger man turned around and looked at the screen, he saw the images of battling robots on the screen and then looked back at Strobe. The femme was also looking at the screen, she instantly recognised Bumblebee and it resonated within her spark causing the lines across the computer screen to react and spike. The computer bleeped which took the younger man's attention from the screen. He rushed up to the screen,
"Uhm…sir?" he said uncertainly.
The older man walked up behind the young analyst and saw the spike's. Strobe started to get frantic and pulled against her restraints, whining and growling. Alarms were going off everywhere and the whole system was beginning to destabilise,
"What's happening?" screamed the young analyst as he frantically tried to bring everything back under control,
"I don't know," the blond man replied.
Strobe continued to fight against the cuffs which were starting to arc and smoke,
"I've got to get out, they need my help. Strobe to Optimus Prime do you read?"
The spike's turned into blue and pink fuzzy lines and the signals went through the roof,
"It's communicating," the younger man said,
"Stop the signal," the blond replied,
"How do I do that?"
"I don't know! Do what you can, kill it!" screamed the blond man.
He raced to a lever on a consul on the front desk and yanked it down. A surge of power made its way through the wires connected to the cuffs. Strobe shuttered her optics and concentrated her spark energy so that she glowed blue, the electric current hit the force field she'd produced and moved back through the wiring overloading the system. Strobe's cuffs released and an explosion destroyed the box she was held in. She was free. She fell from where she was suspended, rolled and towered above the two men, her blue optics glared at them menacingly. They backed away and then ran to the door. The younger man tried to key in the code to open the door but he was not quick enough. Strobe picked him up and held him tightly, she saw fear in his hazel eyes and he was shaking,
"Please don't hurt me," he begged, "I have a wife and two childre,,"
Strobe looked at him with understanding, an image of sparklings running around Cybertron in peace time just before the war entered her processors. Ever so gently she put the younger man down and went after the older blond man. The young analyst fainted in the spot. Strobe pinned the older man into a corner,
"You wanted to kill me," she growled, "For that I should kill you, but I won't. I'm Autobot and sworn not to harm anything sentient, besides you insignificant insect I have more pressing things to deal with,"
The blond man stared at her, wondering how she managed to learn their language in such a short amount of time. Guards burst through the door and fired rounds at her, the femme stopped and turned around,
"No don't, let her go," the blond haired man yelled.
She accessed her battle computer and aimed her weapons at the guards,
"I'd listen to him if I were you, I can cause you more damage then you can cause me,"
Strobe blasted a hole in the wall, sending a cloud of rubble and dust over the guards and activating the alarms,
"Warning security breach shut down commences in five four three two one seconds," an emotionless female voice said.
Heavy security doors closed shutting the humans into separate compartments. Strobe looked back and waved her hands dismissively before walking out into bright warm sunshine. She looked around at the various vehicles parked in the car park, her optics falling upon an SUV Nissan. A ray shot out of Strobe's optic and an identical vehicle in jade green sped away.
Beth slowly came around under the remains of the aircraft which crash landed with her in it, her head was pounding and her whole body ached. She looked up and saw the lifeless body of the pilot hanging above her, she coughed and moaned as pain grabbed her rib cage and moved through her body. Beth felt her limbs to see if they were trapped, they weren't but she did have a wet patch on her left thigh and when she lifted her hand there was blood on her fingers. Almost immediately her body registered the injury and her leg started to throb. Beth could hear the sounds of the battle still raging around her and she could hear a whir of transforming gears nearby but it was hard to tell if it was a Decepticon or Autobot. She didn't have a chance to register much more as fuzzy blackness closed in on her again.
Beth was a new recruit to the NEST base and took to the Autobots like she'd known them for most of her life. She'd only been with them for two weeks when Sentinel Prime arrived and once again NEST was thrown into a cataclysmic battle to save the earth from devastation. The smell of aviation fuel flooded the young soldier's nostrils as she came back into consciousness. Her brain registered the danger she was in and adrenalin surged through her body preparing her fight or flight instinct,
"Got to get out of here," she rasped as she looked around for something to hold onto so that she could haul herself out of the aircraft.
Hanging above her was a piece wreckage, Beth yanked at it to see if it would take her weight, her rib cage complained at the movement causing the young soldier to suck in air through her teeth. She could hear the sound of metal groaning and stopped for a brief second holding her breath, that's when she noticed the noises from the battle had ended. Beth once again grabbed hold of the wreckage and ignoring the pain she slowly hauled herself up and out through the hole in the fuselage caused by an explosion from Starscream and other Decepticons.
She welcomed the sight of sunlight as her chocolate brown eyes squinted, before they got used to the light. She looked around, the carnage was devastating and she wondered how many people had survived. Her question was soon answered when a human crawled out of a wrecked building, his clothes torn, stained and dirty and his face ashen.
He saw Beth trying to crawl out of the wreckage and immediately ran over to help her,
"Are you okay soldier?" he asked,
She looked at him grateful that somebody could help her, "Yeah, help me out of this please sir," she replied.
He was a young man of approximately 24 with red hair which was dirty and blood stained from a gash across his scalp, he wore a wedding ring which looked fairly new; Beth assumed he'd recently become married. He placed his hands under her arms and hauled her out of the plane. Beth let out a strangled cry as the wreckage gave way and allowed her to escape,
"Where is the rest of your unit?" he asked,
"I don't know," she replied, "I need to find them,"
"I've seen them," another voice called out, "We'll get you to them,"
They looked in the direction of the other voice and saw a middle aged man standing there with thinning grey hair. He was quite plump and dressed in jeans, a torn shirt and cowboy boots. He climbed the wreckage and supported Beth from the other side. The two men helped Beth to get to Major Lennox who was now walking toward the Autobots. The first man to help her saw Optimus Prime, he let out a strangled cry and let her go to ran away as fast as he could. She yelped as her leg took her weight but buckled under her. The second man who'd come to help her looked behind him,
"What are you doing? They're the good guys," he yelled,
"I don't know that," the younger man yelled back,
Beth looked at the older man strangely, "You're very trusting," she said, he just shrugged,
"Got to trust somebody," he replied matter of factly,
Beth was a Christian woman, brought up in a Christian family, and smiled at him when he said that. Her family freaked when they found out she was joining the army. Beth and the gentleman who she found out was named Simon walked as far as they could towards the huddle of humans and Autobots who were preparing to leave. In front of them was a mangled heap of cars and wrecked buildings which Simon knew Beth would never be able to clamber over. He sat Beth down on a car,
"What's your Officer's name?" he asked,
"Major Lennox," she replied and winced as his movement jogged a vehicle she was resting against,
He crouched in front of her concern written all over his face, "Ooohhhh sorry," and stood up, "Oi, Major Lennox, we need your help,"
William and Robert turned around at the cry for help. Simon looked down at Beth again, "What's your name,"
"Beth Amersham, Private Beth Amersham,"
"I have a Private Beth Amersham here, she's in need of help,"
Major Lennox, Robert Epps and Sam raced over to Simon. Will looked down at Beth, her face was ashen and she was grimacing with pain at every breath. Will turned around,
"Medic," he yelled.
A brunette man raced toward Beth and crouched down, "Alright soldier," he said as he produced a syringe and injected morphine into her arm. He then started to work on her leg to curb the bleeding. Beth felt the pain subside and then come back in waves, each pain free period lasting longer than the last. Will was kneeled beside her and noticed she was fighting to stay awake, he took her hand,
"Let go Amersham," he said gently, "You're in safe hands,"
Ratchet walked up to the small group of humans standing over Beth. The medic looked at Will,
"She's ready to be moved," he said,
"I'll take her back to the NEST base," Ratchet offered as he transformed into his vehicle mode.
Beth was loaded into the back of Ratchet while Wheeljack was loaded into Prime's trailer and the human and alien convoy left Chicago for NEST.
Charlotte sat at the desk in the command centre and buried her head in her hands. This was very messy and she had a lot of explaining to do. Simmons wheeled himself up to her and patted her shoulder, she looked up at him and smiled.
The ex sector seven agent couldn't offer any words of comfort, he knew only too well what it meant to be wrong in this instance and how deadly this foe was. Charlotte and Simmons left the Kennedy space centre together and Seymour wheeled up to the awaiting vehicle. Dutch opened the door and helped Seymour into the vehicle, much to his resentment. Charlotte watched as Simmons belted himself in, maybe Dutch wasn't much company but at least Seymour had someone to speak to. Charlotte was going back to an empty house with nobody and she wasn't looking forward to it. Dutch looked across at Charlotte,
"Vere are you going?" he asked,
"I'm going home," she replied,
"Jump in, I'll take you," he said,
"No, it's okay thanks," Charlotte replied nervously and smiled briefly, "My car is over there,"
The director of National Intelligence looked around her, the sun was shining brightly deceiving the near devastation that took place over the last forty eight hours. She got in her car and drove along the freeway which would take her home. As she drove along the leafy street a familiar black Mustang was sat in front of her house. She drove into the drive and stopped the engine. Simmons was pushed up to her door and he opened it,
"I thought you might appreciate some company and someone to talk to," Charlotte smiled again and looked down.
The familiar tune on her mobile phone rang and when she looked down the number was withheld. Right now Charlotte didn't want to deal with anymore people of any kind, just a middle aged man who'd offered her friendship so she switched her phone off not knowing it was the blond man who wanted to alert her to a another potential problem which involved an alien femme Autobot who had escaped.
Strobe continued to head towards Chicago, there was a massive battle there between Decepticons and Autobots so she assumed that was the first place to go to in her search for Optimus Prime. A warning message crossed her HUD; energon levels dangerously low. Shut down imminent. Strobe switched on an emergency beacon which could only be heard on the Autobot frequency. She stopped in a layby and tried once more to get through to Optimus Prime before she went into stasis and then hid in a densely wooded area as one by one she shut down unneeded systems so that she could preserve the remainder of her energon.
Optimus Prime was laying quietly on the berth while Ratchet repaired his shoulder and prepared it for the replacement of his arm,
"How is the female soldier?" Prime asked him,
"The human medical team are operating on her now," he replied without looking up at him,
Optimus Prime cycled air through his vents, he knew the medic's mind was on other things. Ratchet always took it hard when they lost a friend, the burden almost got too hard for him to bear,
"There was nothing you could've done for him," Prime said quietly,
"I know," Ratchet replied, "But it doesn't stop the pain, I've lost two very good friends today and I need to grieve their loss,"
"I understand my friend," Optimus replied warmly.
Ratchet suddenly stopped what he was doing, a red flashing light had shown up on his HUD. A red flashing light which told him an Autobot was in trouble..but who? All Autobots dead and alive were accounted for. He looked around at Optimus Prime whose optics were dimmed,
"Prime have you just received a transmission,"
"I have," he replied, "From Strobe,"
Ratchet turned around, "Strobe? Wasn't she…,"
"One of Jazz's informants? I don't know, Jazz never told me. Question is where is she?"
"I have an emergency beacon flashing on my HUD, it could be from her and she could be in trouble because it's on the Autobot emergency frequency. Optimus we need to find her before the Decepticons or humans do,"
"And so we shall," Prime replied with resolve.
This is the end of the prologue to my new story. The chapters will be longer. I hope you enjoy it.
