"Piper Lindley, after being held captive by the Decepticons, escapes with her life. Finally free again, the only thing she wants to do is to go home and have the happy civilian life that she was almost denied. However, when she finds herself in the custody of the Autobots and her own government, Piper will have to decide what it's worth to forget the past and try to be the girl she once was, if she even can." Slight SidesXOC, M for language, slight AU.
Hello! This is my first ever Transformers Fic. I've been in love with the series since I was a kid, and I'm so thrilled to be writing this! Please let me know how you like the beginning of my story-there is more to come! No Autobot action in this chapter, but it'll happen eventually. Also, I don't own the series or any of the characters-'cept the OC's, o'course. Enjoy!
Piper crouched low to the ground, her shoulder pressed against a boulder as she heard the sirens echoing through the night air. The sound was shrill, and seemed to be stressing the importance of their capture even to Piper's ears. Her eyes darted quickly over the frightened faces around her, the rag-tag team of men, women and children who had managed to escape the base with her. Their expressions were illuminated briefly by a light that swept over the surface of the boulder they hid beneath, and it was clear that it was now or never.
As soon as the light had passed them, Piper shifted the load she carried on her shoulder and signaled to the group. They darted forward into an open stretch of moor, parting through the expanse of tall grass that lay between them and the shadowy silhouette of what Piper knew to be a dense forest of trees beyond. It looked closer from the base, Piper thought, her lungs already beginning to burn.
By now, they could all hear the engines turning in the distance behind them, snarling angrily as the Decepticon soldiers began organizing their search. It seemed that they had not discovered exactly which way the humans had fled, however, and were fanning out in every direction. Despite this stroke of good luck that she had been counting on for their escape, Piper knew that it was still much too early to celebrate. Even one of those monsters could easily take her exhausted, terrified group and turn them to ash before they could put up a fight.
Under the sound of the single roaring engine that seemed to grow ever louder behind them, she could just make out the gasps and clumsy steps of the group around her as they trampled through the dark over frosted, uneven earth. Even she could feel herself beginning to grow weary as each step she took became heavier than the last, the load on her shoulder slowing her even more. Just a little further, she thought desperately, fear driving her legs forward even as her body seemed ready to drop.
The thick, twisted growth of trees ahead had just come into clarity when the area around her was bathed in light. The headlights of a Decepticon's alt form had broken through the wall of tall grass, revealing their forms to him. No! She thought, panic-stricken. I won't go back there, I'm not going back…!—and then a loud bang shook her bones, and a woman known as Sharen fell not far off. The little girl who had been running ahead of her paused to look back, and Piper grasped her arm and yanked her forward, continuing their sprint. The girl cried out in protest, and Piper vaguely wondered if the woman had been her mother, or simply someone who had looked after her while they were in captivity. Either way, nothing could be done for her now.
The area darkened for a few moments, and the little girl, Katie, struggled briefly until light once again fell upon them and another shot rang out. A man fell this time—Al, his name was—and to the horror of the others, he began to wail. She did not need to tell the rest to keep running, however. All of this had been discussed beforehand.
The sickening sound of Al's increasingly terrified and agonized shouts would have chilled Piper to the bone had she not already been freezing. She had known Al—they had been companions, and had led this plan into motion together. She knew that the echoes of his screams would remain in her head and in her nightmares, with so many others. But she could only continue forward, still gripping Katie's small hand, leading her desperate, horrified team to the trees. Luckily, there had been no sound from Sharen.
Piper cursed as the earth beneath her feet seemed to give with each step, the frozen sludge sucking at her shoes and sliding from beneath her soles, giving her very little traction. Several times she had to support Katie from falling and drag her forwards as well. However, to their luck, the terrain seemed to be causing the Decepticon behind them just as much trouble. Not only that, Piper realized, but he seemed to fall behind slightly at each attempt to shoot at them, the light fading and then reappearing behind them with every fire of his weapon.
As the trees that held their sanctuary neared, Piper began to feel hope in her stomach. Crossing the moor had been the final and most dangerous step of her escape plan—and it was almost over. Perhaps a hundred yards more—she thought. Just a football field's distance, and—and then her wristwatch began to chirp. At first, Piper did not hear it. She charged forward in the fading headlights of their pursuer as the whoosh of another attack shot close overhead, Katie's hand clutching tightly at her own. The chirping continued, and for a moment its presence confused her. When the sound finally registered in her ears, a new wave of dread washed over her. She took her eyes away from the harsh terrain underfoot momentarily to scan the skyline. Not yet, she prayed. Just a little bit longer—
And then, two things happened simultaneously. She heard the unmistakable sound of a jet engine as it appeared over the tops of the trees, hovering there against the horizon, and Piper, who was staring upwards, tripped and fell—bringing Katie down with her into a wet, freezing puddle of sludge. As gunfire flew from overhead, Piper realized that this was likely the right move. She quickly began to squirm about, sinking further into the hole and gathering it onto her face and hair. Piper tried to yell at the others to go down, but all that came out was a winded croak. Katie pressed close to Piper as the jet rained fire down on the moor. As Piper began shoveling mud onto the smaller girl in an attempt to camouflage her, the sound of terrified screams could be heard even over the jet wind that howled in her ears.
As she heard her companions dying around her, the most horrible sound her heart could imagine, Piper felt the hope in her heart die to be replaced by sorrow and fear and guilt. They hadn't made it to the trees before Starscream had returned from patrol. I gave everyone false hope, she thought despairingly.
The shrieks of her companions continued to ring out all around them even though she could not see them above the grass from her position in the mud. She wondered vaguely if any of them had made it to the forest. Wondered if it was all for nothing, if she had just lead them all to their death. But we were so close, she thought despairingly, so fucking close.
Piper clenched her teeth, trying to control her thoughts as waves of fear and guilt and self-pity continued to wash over her. Glancing at Katie, the little girl was lying on her stomach, shoulder-deep in mud and staring straight ahead. Piper squeezed her hand, and Katie looked at her, a glazed look of fear and shock over her features. Neither of them could say a word, even as the attack ceased. Piper placed her forehead on her hands above the surface of the watery mud hole, and together they lay in silence as the jet neared their location.
Ignoring the freeze that had reformed over the top of the slush and was beginning to form over them as well, they lay in complete stillness, petrified from the fear and perhaps the cold. The jet was slowly moving forward, scanning the moor, no doubt looking for any more signs of life to snuff out. Please don't notice us, don't notice us, don't notice…she chanted in her head like a mantra. Piper held her breath as it passed over them, and Katie was gripping her hand almost painfully under the surface of the slush. She wasn't sure how long they remained in that position, but they did not attempt to move until the world around them had silenced completely. As Piper began to sit up from her lying position, the thin layer of ice and frozen muck on her body crackled. For a few more moments, she waited and listened. When there was still no sign of Decepticon activity, a small spark of hope ran through her painfully frost-bitten limbs. Perhaps we weren't seen...?
Too frightened to stand, the duo crawled painfully slowly toward the trees, attempting to disturb the grass as little as possible as they went. The load on Piper's shoulder dragged periodically, the scraping noise loud in her ears, and her progress halted each time it happened in fear that she had been heard. Katie was now visibly shivering, and the occasional and unintentional chatter of her teeth made Piper wince. At one point, Piper's hand came down upon something soft, and she quickly recoiled from it. Squinting her eyes, she realized in horror that it was a hand – the hand of a human body that was lying next to Piper. Averting her eyes even in the dark, she continued crawling.
After what seemed like hours, they had at last reached the threshold where the forest met the moor. Crawling safely under the canopy of leaves, Piper stood, helping Katie up after her. She could not believe that they were the only two who had made it. All of the others, the children…their faces flashed through her mind momentarily. The crushing weight of her apparent situation was something she could not afford to process at that moment, however—not if she wanted to survive. For her sake and for Katie's, Piper knew she needed to keep her head and decide what to do from here. She and Al's escape plan had only extended as far as the forest. She had even told the other prisoners that whatever came after the forest, assuming they made it that far, would have to be improvised.
The two of them wandered into the trees, hand in hand. It was a twisted, dense wood—the trees were probably ancient. This was why it was perfect. The Decepticons would not be able to easily see them from above or go in after them at any speed above a crawl. As humans, this was their advantage—why her escape plan hand ended up here.
Piper had only just begun to search for a place to rest when, in the dim light of approaching dawn, she noticed something on the forest floor. Among the frosted pine needles was a fresh footprint—a human footprint. Katie, wide-eyed, glanced up at Piper, and Piper nodded, trying to control her emotions. Following the prints as far as they could, they ended abruptly on the gravelly shore of a river. Scanning the area around her, she could just make out the trees around them, but could not see any sign of other humans.
Katie tugged on Piper's hand, and she glanced down at her. "Should we call?" Katie asked in a whisper. Piper considered this for a moment, her anxiety no less than Katie's. However, it became unnecessary when Piper heard a harsh whisper to her left.
"Over here!" came the voice. Katie and Piper's heads turned sharply to see a small group of three people squatting huddled together under a makeshift shelter. They were holding opened, probably cold cans of food, but it did not seem like they were eating them. Standing near them was a man, the one who had called out to them. Although the man seemed happy to see the pair, his eyes were dull and filled with grief. The three under the tree—Piper identified as two men and a woman—held similar expressions. But when the woman's eyes fell onto Katie, she seemed to become more alert. Recognition must have dawned on Katie, and the girl ran to her, quickly becoming wrapped in the woman's outstretched arms.
Feeling like her heart was welling up in her throat, the relief that things had not gone as badly as she had previously thought washing over her. But it did not last. Initially, she had hoped for more success—she had hoped for much more than this. And now, looking at them, she wondered if they could manage to survive out here. The nights were cold, but they couldn't afford to build a fire. They had only been thinking about escape, but they were not prepared to survive this wilderness.
"Are there any others?" Piper whispered. The three still under the shelter did not respond, as if they had not heard her, the woman still holding Katie and stroking her hair. But the man shook his head.
"Didn't make it," he said simply, his face a mask of pain. Piper recognized him as one of the people who had been in captivity for a long time, around four months if she could guess. He probably knew as many of the people who had died as she did. Piper felt guilt gnaw at her stomach. They had left the Decepticon base with 26 people total. When they hid at the boulder, there had been 17 remaining. Of those only the 6 of them had made it to the forest, made it to "freedom".
"We've got to get out of these mountains," Piper said suddenly, clearing her throat. Right now, she reasoned that it was most important that she put her energy into surviving the next leg of the journey. For these last 6 prisoners, for Al, and for herself. After all, I have the rest of my life to relive the horror of today, she thought sardonically.
The man simply nodded, and began to open another can of food.
Hello all! There is the first chapter, more to come. I may go back and make some changes. I know that despite the length there wasn't a whole lot of information given, but for now I'm focused more on Piper's struggle to escape. She'll have plenty of time to reflect later on, plenty of opportunities to reveal (slowly) everything that's occurred. But for the moment, we are both living in the 'now' with this first part, just launching right into it ;)
I've looked into plenty of "lore" at this point, through wiki mostly. It details a lot of events that happen in the comics and other versions of the Transformers universe, etc. that I've never seen before (I've watched all of Armada, some of Cybertron, some of...that one 3Dish one that's on Netflix, and all of Bayverse). All the locations I'm using/going to use are true to the lore, along with all of the references to Cybertron wildlife and terminology (except maybe the curse words...I haven't looked them up, but I'm relying on the knowledge of other Transformer FF writers who have taught me that the bots use terms like "slag" and "frag" and that's a thing). However, not everything I include will be consistent with any one universe...sorry. Bits and pieces my friends, I'm making my own universe with only the best parts :)
As for the other characters...I don't intend on making them important to this story in any way. What that means is none of them are going to be major characters, or at least it isn't currently in the plan. That includes little Katie. Sorry if you liked them :/ Somehow, writing children is terribly difficult for me! Let me know if any part (of anything, really) seems unrealistic or takes away from the story at all.
Lastly, thank you all so much for reading, and any reviews! I have enough finished to upload the next 2 or 3 chapters, and they should be long...at least, they FEEL long when I write them. Sometimes I look back at a few hours' work and think, "That's it?!" Hahaha but really. I'm trying to keep writing while I have my momentum going on this story. It's been almost 5 years since I've made an entry on the only other FF I've written. ಠ益ಠ Oh shit son.
Anyway, here's hoping you guys have a wonderful week, be it school or work or whatever else :)
-PK