Guard duty again. This is not what I signed up for.
Mach Alert sighed audibly and leaned up against an arm. He was sitting inside a small, cubicle guard post just outside the gate of the Iacon Detention Facility, one of the largest prisons on Cybertron, the Leavenworth of Transformers. Criminals of every caliber were quartered here, mechanoid and organic alike, including some of the worst in recent history. It was built like a fortress, with guard towers, thick walls made from the toughest alloys, and some of the strongest force fields ever developed. But walls and shields alone were no guarantee against an escape attempt, so guards were required to keep an eye for any sign of trouble, both inside and out.
Mach Alert had served in the Autobot services for fewer than two stellar cycles now, and held high hopes that he'd attain some bit of glory exploring the galaxy or leading strikes against raiders. That was the best any new recruit could hope for these days; the Great War between Autobots and Decepticons had ended nearly four vorns ago. Despite his dreams of adventure, he had not gone on any great mission of exploration, nor been assigned to crew any cruiser. Instead, he had been assigned the most mundane details imaginable, a long list of assignments he'd rather avoid doing. And now he had been picked to sit in a box outside the gates of a prison complex. He knew it wasn't a punishment for some indiscreet deed; it was simply his turn. But that didn't mean he had to like it.
What's the point of this? Mach Alert thought, looking out towards the roads beyond. No one's tried to escape this place since it was built! And who'd be stupid enough to break into a prison?
He stood and stretched his stiff servos as far as the cramped confines would allow; a result of all the mega-cycles of immobility. He looked back into the prison yard, deserted, a far cry from the morning's activities. Even if any one did try to escape, what good would it do? The facility had been built to house Decepticon war criminals, so an organic prisoner had little chance of making a successful break. Besides, the worst of the Transformer criminals were little more than sparks housed in a stasis chamber; they had even less of a chance than the organics.
Mach Alert glanced at the security monitors, checking the status. Just as he suspected; nothing. The streets leading up to and past the prison were deserted, and no one really expected anyone to pass through, especially at this late hour. He yawned, trying to stave off boredom.
This is ridiculous, he thought. They should be giving this job to those who don't care whether or not they see action, 'bots who have no ambition whatsoever. Better yet, give this job to the Maximals; they hardly ever do anything worthwhile anyway. All they ever do is go out, muck about the universe, and come back with these new 'organic' forms.
He sat back down, leaned back, and began to think about the history lesson he had received. No one's interested in a bunch of convicts. Who'd break them out? The Decepticons are scattered across the known galaxy, and the few that are left on Cybertron are either in prison or in retirement. The Predacons are too fractured to care one way or another. Besides, if they can't even reign in a few rogues like Cryotek or Magmatron, what makes anyone think they'd try anything here?
He glanced at the holoscreens in front of him again. Still nothing. He checked his internal chronometer and groaned. Two mega-cycles before I get off this slagging shift. Internal note; look into any openings on star cruisers once shift ends.
Mach Alert sat up straight, glanced at the monitors, grumbling, "Join the armed forces, see the galaxy, meet new beings. Fraggin' load of…"
Something outside caught his optics. He leaned forward, looking out the window and into the sky, straining a bit to get a good look. Even from his awkward position, he could see a faint glow of light moving across the night sky against the backdrop of stars. At first, he thought it merely a meteor, but a closer look revealed that it was moving too slowly and kept a constant altitude. He tried to determine what it was through his scanners, but it was too high to get an accurate reading.
Probably a starship or something, Macheye thought. Most likely heading for one of the spaceports in the area. Nothing to be concerned about. He leaned back and settled back into his dull routine.
His boredom was soon be alleviated again. As he stretched out again, he noticed the force field at the gate flicker.
That was odd, he thought, sitting up. It appeared that the electrical current to the field had been interrupted, albeit briefly. He watched for a moment, waiting to see if it would occur again. If so, he'd have to report it immediately. He waited a few cycles, but nothing happened.
He shrugged. "Probably just a glitch in the grid." He had heard that a new power station was coming online that evening, and there were bound to be bugs. Even though the prison had its own power supply, it was still sometimes affected by surges from other stations, if only briefly.
Suddenly, the lights all along the perimeter went out. Mach Alert didn't need them to see, but it was troubling nonetheless. He knew the systems had been checked a few solar-cycles ago, so the lights shouldn't have gone out. He became more alarmed when his security monitors flickered momentarily, then failed all together. He sat up straight, alert now, attempting to reboot his holoscreens, to no avail.
What's going on here? He thought it wise to notify his superiors about this and activated his communicator. "This is Gate 4D to control. I appear to experiencing an electrical outage in my sector. Please respond."
There was no answer. Mach Alert tried a couple more times before he came to the conclusion that communications was out. No matter, he figured. Certainly Control knew of the problems already and was working on it. But someone was going through a lot of trouble for this to be a simple prank. Just to be safe, he pulled his photon pistol from its holster in his leg.
He was glad he did, because at that very moment the gate's force field shut itself off. He quickly moved from the guardhouse to a position in front of the now wide open gate, facing the cityscape beyond the grounds. He was well aware that, at this hour, the prisoners would be in lockdown, and were probably shutdown for the evening, so it was unlikely that an attack would come from the prison itself. He placed himself outside the gate, ensuring he wasn't fried by the force field should it come back.
He waited, thinking grimly, Well, you wanted adventure. But this wasn't what he had in mind. But everything seemed quiet, a little too quiet for his tastes. He glanced up at the guard towers above him, noticed they were dark, too. Somebody is desperate to get in here, but why? Their processors must be on the fritz. Well, we'll soon teach them. They can't just shut everything down and expect someone not to notice.
His audio receptors picked up a sound coming from his right, and he turned quickly towards it, scanners on full now, pistol pointed in the direction of the noise. He didn't see anything, but he knew he had heard something. He kept his sensors on alert for anything, scanning from left to right and back again, determined that nothing would slip by him.
The attack came from behind.
Mach Alert felt something hard strike him in his back and he fell to the ground with an electronic yelp, his pistol flying out of his hand. Before he could recover, he was hit again, and this time he knew he'd been kicked. He rolled away and tried to stand to face his opponent.
He managed to get a glimpse of his attacker, a blur of a robotic form, but that's all he got before another blow landed on him, this time in his face. He fell backwards, stunned, and spitting mech fluid. Then he heard the sound of metal scrapping against metal and looked up.
He got a clear view of his attacker now. It was another Transformer, though he couldn't identify what faction through his cracked optics. He could see that it held a sleek, almost feminine form and was holding a long, thin, curved sword, similar to a type of weapon humans called a "katana". He couldn't see the face, nor tell what she transformed into.
But he could tell that he was in trouble, and he glanced around, looking for his pistol. He looked back up in time to see her slashing her sword at him. He managed to dodge the blow by rolling away and scrambled to his feet, seeing his pistol a few meters away. He ran to it, ducked down, and picked it up.
Before he could turn to face his attacker, his sensors registered a new problem. He felt something punch him in the back and then his front. He looked down to see the tip of a blade sticking out from his chest plate.
He'd been stabbed in the back and run through.
His opponent withdrew her sword from his exostructure and stood back. Mach Alert fell to his knees and could feel his systems locking up. She had hit something critical.
Warning: critical malfunction. Systems shut down in three-point-six nano-clicks.
"Computer…" Mach Alert slurred, but he couldn't get the rest of his command out. The last thing he saw before everything went dark was the ground rushing up to meet him.