I hope this comes off as I intended. I really want to see this plot line through and I would love hearing your reactions/thoughts/suggestions. This chapter is just to set everything up and the action will start pretty soon.
Title: Already Gone
Chapter Rated: G
Characters: Sentinel Prime, Prowl, Jazz, mentions of Red Alert, unimportant OC
Summary: Sentinel created him for a purpose, the future of Cybertron.
Un'betaed, if there are mistakes or incongruities please let me know (:D)
Chapter 1: Commissions: it begins…kind of
Sentinel Prime was not chosen to be a Prime because he was soft, it was required that he keep a heavy hand to keep his people in a Golden Age. His position was not a popularity contest, nor was it in his programming to make it one. When Megatron began his bid for power the Matrix showed him that there was no way around the destruction of Cybertron.
It was a natural cycle from prosperity to desolation and it fell to him to ensure that threats to the future prosperity of his people would be addressed during the coming war. While much would be lost more would take its place, he had to look at the bigger picture. In the public eye he would play peacemaker, but in the shadows he would enflame greed and hatred so that it would be purged from the future of Cybertron.
With his understanding of the Matrix he foresaw that he would not be the Prime to lead his people into the next Golden Age and so he had an assistant commissioned. Pre-sparked bots were nearly unheard of but he would not be swayed. He had the mech fitted with advanced logic and tactical computers. It was important that the mech willingly aid him so that the cause would be continued after his demise.
The commission was put through basic military training and after he sat the unnamed mech in his office and gave him a choice: a full memory wipe and a position working in the security forces or to assist with the development of Cybertron's new era.
It only took an astrosecond for the commission to decide, the commission saw Prime's plan as logical and correct and consented to doing his part. Prime named his commission, Prowl. But he could take very little chance of betrayal from Prowl and so monitored his progress until he was certain Prowl would be true. During those first few vorns Prowl never wavered in his devoted to his Prime's cause, which was now his cause.
"Prowl, what is the status on Decpticon recruitment from the gladiatorial rings?"
"Nearing 75% Decpticon, sir. From my observations the combatants are willing except for a small pocket of slaves being forced to fight in the Kaon rings, sir."
"The advantages of pulling them out?"
"Minimal though it would bring the rings into more public attention…"
"No it is too soon, draw up a plan for their extraction and keep it updated; we need to wait until the ring owners are more confident in the illusion of their power."
"Yes, sir"
"Be sure to involve our official ops teams."
"Yes, sir. There is another matter of security division's investigation into the information leaks, they are coming close to our channels; how would you like to proceed?"
"How far have they gotten?"
"Undisclosed, they are being very vague with the details. There are signs that our Special Ops teams have taken it upon themselves to aid the security division's investigation."
"If I remember correctly that division has several new junior officers, use them to gain more details then determine the immediate danger. And I want to know exactly how involved the Special Ops Commander is."
"Yes, sir"
Jazz rounded the corner slowly with the gain on his audios on high trying to catch the trail of another mech. A contact of his had tipped him off that the owner of a gladiatorial ring was possibly meeting with the traitor in the Autobots.
Lately the information leaks to the Decepticons had put a lot of missions at risk and Cybertron was heading fast towards war. But slag this mech to the Pit if he wasn't the hardest mech Jazz had ever tried to track. Even now after two megacycles he had only a bare glimpse of the traitor. He wasn't about to give up since this was the most promising lead he had since the Special Ops Commander had assigned him to finding the leak.
Of course Jazz wasn't officially an Autobot yet but he'd cross that bridge when it came. For now it allowed him to operate outside of protocols and he wasn't too keen on swearing allegiance to a faction.
Tonight finding the traitor for the SOC was just another job to pull. When war did break out, and Jazz was sure that it would, he would most likely formally join the Autobots.
Prowl ducked quickly down another alleyway to keep out of sight. A mech had been following him for sometime and he couldn't risk being seen nor could he abandon his meeting. He needed to lose the mech and fast, his deadline was approaching.
Finally he spotted his chance and dropped into the shadows of an abandoned building and waited. It took some time for his pursuer to appear but even from his vantage point he didn't get a clear view. The only feature he could accurately describe was the light blue visor covering the mech's optics.
Any mech that had been able to follow him for this long was very skilled and worth researching but for now he had other matters to attend to.
"You came after all."
"Mind your voice capacitor Ringside or I will deactivate it."
The other mech growled but didn't retaliate.
Prowl pulled a datapad from subspace and began the negotiations for Ringside's newest shipment of warrior slaves.
"I have two that are battle ready from Kaon, twins."
Sentinel watched and listened to his aid across the desk from him carefully.
He was currently listening to the newest updates regarding his new Security Director's system upgrades and plans for future improvements.
"That's enough for now Prowl, get cleaned up and meet with the incoming unit from Ultra Magnus and de-brief them"
"Yes, sire do you require anything else before I go?"
"How far are you with gaining access to the Special Operations involvement with the security forces?"
"Not far, sir. They've outsourced the assignments which voids my direct access to the information but I am making progress with a few of the junior officers. I will inform you as soon as I find more relevant data"
"Good, dismissed"
Sentinel frowned as Prowl left; his aid was running systems on high for some reason. His Chief Medical Officer was upset with him feeling that the Prime was working his Senior Aid too much, something Sentinel knew to be untrue.
He knew exactly how much of a workload Prowl could handle and his assigned duties were not the cause of Prowl's current system stress and regardless Prowl's work had not slipped yet so Prime would keep him on regular duties until they became impaired then he would intervene.
Prowl encrypted his notes from his meeting with the Prime on his way to the command center. Digging information out of the security division without drawing attention was a challenge fortunately he was on good terms with a few mechs in file storage it was an avenue worth exploring at least. Everything was escalading according to plan but discrete manipulation was getting more difficult with the appointment of a new security director, Red Alert.
Prowl stood by his recommendation of Red Alert to the position, it may make his job a little harder but he would help ensure the safety of the Autobots as a whole.
Until now he had been overlooked by the security division as nothing more than a drone, making slipping in and out of the security grid easy. Red Alert, how ever, had set Prime's Senior Aid in his sights with his strong distrust for commissioned bots.
The new Security Director had closed off so many of the holes in the security grid that Prime was unable to make moves without Prowl's assistance now. Sentinel Prime had been prepared for such an event and within a few days Megatron would be launching his first attack under the official banner of Decepticon.
After that everything would be up to Prowl.