The guards escorted me down the stairs, and they weren't very cheery about it. The stasis cuffs, even at low power, were a little too bulky for my liking. I suppose the guards appreciated them, kept me from doing anything crazy.
Not that I would. I've had my allotment of crazy since they decided to put me away for doing my job.

"Hey hey," the leering Decepticon in one of the cells said, holding his arm out to me, "Come bring that little blue one closer."

The guard closest to this scrapper could have batted his hands back into the cell, but I darted forward and put all my weight against his arm, bending it back but not breaking it. Still enough to get a scream out of the creeper. The guards than took a tight hold of me under my arms and than lifted me. Kind of embarrassing, but hey, the Con did want me closer.
The guards hurriedly carried me to a cell and got me inside before I could do anymore damage to the precious P.O.W.'s. With all I've seen, with all they've done, we were being too kind. But anyway, the guards got me into the cell, removed the stasis cuffs and locked me in. I had originally thought it was a cell to myself, lower chance of breaking things, but one look to my right proved me wrong.
There was a large Autobot lying on a slab against the wall. The bot was bright red, the spikes and horns on his helm, five in total, all went upwards in seemingly random directions as though they were all damaged at some point. With the hints of yellow in it, it made me think of a fire. He was definitely taller than I was and packed subtle muscle in his frame, with scratches in his paint here and there, especially the scaring of his fists, it all signified one thing. He was a brawler, and a good one.

I took the slab on the other end of the room, trying to wrap my head around what had gotten me in here. It was ridiculous the more I thought about it. Insubordination was a heavy charge, but there was a standing order I was much more willing to follow. Might have been because I liked my actual commanding officer more than the temp, but also because Ultra Magnus doesn't really like when the facts change and the rest of us are willing to change with them and he isn't.

"Hiya," a voice said. I looked up and saw my cell mate was awake and sitting up. He had bright blue optics, very startling compared to his red shell. And he was smiling, "How're you?"

He's seriously just asking me that like we met on the street? I thought to myself.

"Not too well, I'd guess," he continued, "I mean, we're both in the brig. Well at least we're not in the field. Fine by me, I need the rest." Sweet Primus he's insane. "'N the way these Wreckers fight, I'm very glad for the time off. What do you think?"

"I think the inactivity will drive me nuts."

"You only just got here."

"And I'm stuck in a cell with some crazy bot."

"Crazy?" he said, smiling, "Maybe. Who isn't, in their own way?"

"Uh… Me."

He laughed at that, quiet and genuine. "Of course, sorry to doubt you. Name's Spitfire."

"Torrent," I said. Briskly.

"Nice to meet ya, Torrent. Though the circumstances could be better," Spitfire said, "'N I guess that leaves one question."

"What got us in here, right?"

"Yeah. I can go first, if-"

"No. I kind of want to talk about it, but… I don't want to burden you with my issues."

"We're trading them, Torrent," Spitfire said, "Unless you murdered someone."

"Tempted as I have been at the idea recently, I don't think I ever could," I stopped, thinking about how I was fighting in a war and what I had done. "Well, not the premeditated kind. Killing someone out of combat or without them slighting me in a really bad way, that's not me. Not to mention these Wreckers have crazy loyalty to someone who doesn't so much plan as plow."

"You don't like Ultra Magnus, then," Spitfire said, more than asked.

"No, I damn well don't.

-

This mess all started about seven days ago. First three of them were boring, the transfer to the Wreckers, all the talk about how so little a bot could be such trouble. All the standard scrap. But four cycles ago, command ordered me to check out what was supposed to be an abandoned energon well. Supposed to have gone dry before the war even started. But the Decepticons were giving it another shot and the Wreckers wanted to know why before they eventually came to their cure all decision.

Kill it with plasma grenades?

How'd you ever guess? But the scouting was more of how many grenades would be needed. I think the plan was to take out the Decepticons at the facility and use the well for ourselves. I was on a purely recon mission, no enemy engagement unless they shot first. And being a Wrecker, they gave me a couple of grenades for no reason, especially for what they wanted to be pure recon. Silly rules and giving us the tools to break them. Not exactly my speed but I could play along. So I got dropped off and I made my way through the growing wasteland that surrounded this well.
When I got there, the Decepticons had dug in well for an assault. Gun towers backed by a sniper, with heavy armored brutes outside the front door. Patrols of drones coming and going in the standard five bot formation. Didn't take long to see a pattern and a way inside. Bit of climbing and I could make a good jump.

Jump where?

Into the sniper's nest. Trick is to land quietly enough to avoid notice but hard enough to take out the gunner. But when you've practiced it as much as I have, you get it down to a science. After a nice solid thud and disabling the Con's weapons, I headed into the makeshift base. If the Decepticons were here long, then they had spent most of the time fortifying the perimeter. The machinery that was abandoned here was in terrible shape, everything was so corroded there was no chance of repairing or using it. Fortunately the rafters fared better and I could walk on those in relative silence. Security was much more lax as well, only the occasional floor walker, more focused on their task than a security sweep. That said, they were heavily armed and armored for doing what looked like menial tasks. Almost looked like a special guard compared to the ones outside. About half an hour of sneaking around I found out why the wanderers seem so much more than the usual suspects. They were working for Shockwave.

That one-eyed scientist?

That's the most lax description of the bot you could make. That arm of his that's a cannon is bigger than I am! Has no face to speak of, just the eye and he's taller and broader than any Autobot I've met. I bet it comes in handy to hide how smart he is.
Anyway, I hunkered down once I saw him, but he was busy using a computer, only turning to see one of his guards approaching.

"We have the latest data on the energon, my lord, and it is as you predicted."

"Excellent," Shockwave said in a cold, almost monotone voice if it weren't for the barest hints of a sinister glee, "I shall inform Lord Megatron upon verification. Any enemy units in the vicinity?"

"Aerial surveillance has reveled a Wrecker outpost. Conventional bombing is impossible and artillery would do little but damage the surrounding structures. The Autobots have chosen their position well, we would likely harm only the civilians with standard ordinance."

"Civilians?"

"Yes, Lord Shockwave," the guard said, bringing up a hologram of a map. The outpost I was working out of was in the center, "They have turned to the Autobots for protection. Optimus Prime himself ordered evacuation shuttles to arrive within the cycle."

"And who would expect such a small outpost to be attacked at all?" Shockwave asked aloud and I knew in my spark where he was going, "Begin preparations for bombing run. This tainted energon will kill anyone though a minimum of exposure. But to sway him, we must record the results and provide samples. Be sure those that retrieve the bodies are properly protected."

"Is Lord Megatron that hard to convince?"

"To pull his soldiers away from fighting to do work, yes. He is quite focused on war. Should the Autobots be destroyed, maintaining the built up aggression of his forces will prove problematic."

So if Shockwave doesn't like Megatron's ideas towards leadership, why work for him?

Getting there. So Shockwave continued, "If he seeks to make himself ruler of unruly individuals, individuals he has chosen for his army in some form of 'peace through tyranny' idealism, logic would dictate a new ruler will be inevitable."

"Indeed, Lord Shockwave," the soldier said with a great deal of gleeful malice. He went off and Shockwave went to a panel computer to type in numbers, leaving me with a refinery to destroy.

Destroy? Seems-

What else was there to do!? Go back to the Wreckers so they can do the same job? Let the scrapped up Cons get a new chemical weapon? No time to do anything but stop the plan before it started and make sure similar plans with the same tainted energon could never come to be. Would you sit back and wait for approval from base? For them to launch a full out assault?

I can honestly say no.

Thought so. No time to wait, no time to call for orders. Just knew in my spark I had to end this place. I snuck as quietly as I could towards the main storage of this energon. It was under the guard of two of Shockwave's personal troops. No obvious entrances besides the front door and the standard drones didn't come near it. I could handle two Cons, no matter how scary their boss.
I readied my swords, planed my attack and jumped. The idea was to get them both stabbed thought the head or neck so they'd fall quickly. Only the one to my left must have spotted me at the last second. He managed to get away from my ambush with little more than a slash across his chest plate. His partner wasn't so lucky, I all but decapitated him through a combination of my blade to his neck and the force of my landing on top of him.
His partner, clutching his chest with one hand and turning the other into a blaster took a couple of shots at me. I was already tumbling towards him, slashing at his leg near his knee. I don't know if I hit anything serious, but it got a cry out of him and he went down. He was still trying to shoot me though, turning to aim at me as quickly as he could. Close quarters combat doesn't seem to be a primary concern for these guys. I was already out of his field of vision, tackling him to the ground, pinning his blaster arm as I stabbed him in the back. He stopped resisting almost immediately after that, quite a lot of energon spilling out of the stab wound. With both guards dead, no alarm raised and a quick scan showing no Con's around, I was free to blow that place to hell.

Subtle. What about the bodies?

If an explosion doesn't let them know something's wrong, two corpses sure as hell won't. And while I complain about the grenades I was given but was told never to use, I was suddenly very grateful. Something in the back of my mind was making me think the standard Wrecker gear was doing nothing but slowing me down, getting rid of it and being productive towards the safety of my comrades seemed like a great plan. Two for one. Just needed a way of timing it. I wanted to be out of here before the refinery went up, especially if simple exposure to this stuff would kill me. Didn't plan on dying, so I'd have to put something together. If I could get away with a simple timer and hide the soon to be bomb, I should be good.

"Halt Autobot!" came a voice from behind me. 'Well scrap' went through my head as I darted into the refinery, locking the doors behind me in a rush, so it would only buy me a little time. Quick look around and I saw some facemasks, probably to help protect workers. I grabbed one and pulled it over my face before heading into the work area. There were vats of steaming energon everywhere with a small stockpile of cubes being managed by workers in masks like mine.

"Better get running fellas!" I shouted at them as I ran past, pulling two grenades off the belt clip, on in each hand, causing them to shout things at me. And of course the guard after me busts in at this point, shouting things like, "Stop her!" but I knew he wouldn't risk shooting, a shot at this distance had a better chance of hitting the vats than it did me, not that he was needed to start a chain reaction.
I primed the grenades and tossed them sideways as best as I could, transformed and drove as fast as possible.

One Spark-beat.
Two Spark-beats.
Three S-BamBamFFFRROOOM!

Primus it was loud and it did nothing but get louder. I started to scan around for anything getting me out into the open. An open top drainage ditch provided it. I jumped in and didn't look back. The ditch opened up several klicks away but I still kept moving. I veered off and headed for Autobot lines… aaaand when I finally got there I was promptly arrested for destruction of resources and disobeying orders. So that's my story. That's why I'm sitting here, getting to tell you all about the fun, fun, FUN.