It was a day like any other on the base of Earth where the Autobots dwell when not out in the world. Well almost like any other, there had been a transmission that there were more Autobots heading towards earth that morning. It was estimated that they would arrive that night. Which was all well as they could land and seem like meteors, hopefully better than they had landed themselves. Tension greased the air as they were impatient to see who it was who had sent the transmission.
Ironhide paced around the room, his broken ankle clanking slightly, his working optic was plastered to the floor before him. With a growl he demanded, "Can't they hurry up!?" It was Ratchet who answered him.
"Be reasonable, look how long it took us to arrive. They are at least two joors from arriving here on Earth." Ironhide looked at the reasonable transformer with a one optic glare. Frustrated he spat at Ratchet, "Can't you fix my optic, or my lower leg joint? It has been several orns since last you even looked at them."
It wasn't unusual for Ironhide to be short and blunt, but to ask something specific of the medic was odd indeed. It seemed he was worried about something, what it was Ratchet did not know, instead he nodded, "Very well." He lead the battle prone comrade to his place of operations and told him to lay upon the table . Ironhide did so and with out warning Ratchet shorted his circuits making him unconscious. It was at least a joor before his systems came back online. He shuttered his optic tight and sat up cursing under his exhaust at the medic, "He didn't have to do that…." He opened his optics and found his right one partly working. With this new found ability he rotated his ankle finding his armor at least didn't clang. "Well, its a start…" he muttered still not liking the fact he had been shocked so. He was sure Ratchet would avoid him for the rest of the day, expecting to be shot at. With a groan of his gears he moved from the room and looked about, minimum sight capacity being odd since it had been so long when last his right optic had been in use.
It was Bumblebee who he first ran upon, it was an excited array of static and radio exclamations that greeted his audio receptors. He grabbed the smaller Autobot by the arms lifting him up to his optics, "Can it. Cool your out going ports and try again." Bumblebee was caught off guard by the sudden flight that Ironhide gave him. It took him a moment to compose his vocalizations.
"Message from fleet Capitan……arriving today… …it's time! You must come! Can't Wait!! Can't wait!" he exclaimed trying to animate the fragments, but Ironhide had his arms pinned to his sides. The battle prone Autobot dropped the small robot and turned to walk down the hall, leaving Bumblebee sitting on the ground slightly dazed. Out into the main area he wandered his thoughts bringing up reminders. It was confirmed, all of them were deemed dead. He glared at anything and everything in his path, whether it moved or no. When he came upon Jazz he growled lowly, "I don't wish to speak…" before he had even opened his mouth. It was odd, the giant usually at least allowed a 'Hello' but to deny even that there must be something throwing him into a state of self battery. Jazz muttered under his breath as Ironhide left, "Geeze, what crawled up his tail pipe?"
The lieutenant took his concern to their leader. Optimus listened and gained more knowledge after asking the others how his trigger happy friend had been acting that day. By the end of it he had a fairly good idea of what it was that was bothering him. Leaving Ratchet in his hiding place the leader went in search of Ironhide. Seeing Jazz had stuck to him he asked him, "If you are coming you can not say anything to him about what happened, Understand?"
He shifted a shoulder, "You know I got your back." Being a yes from the colorful word using 'bot. With a confirmed nod Optimus lead the way to Ironhide's quarters. A knock on the door gained no reply, so the door was opened. Empty... they headed to the armor room to see if he was trying to distract himself with weapons.
They didn't find him there either. After giving all the likely places he would be a sweep they went outside. They picked their way around finding a large fresh trail through the growth that had not been there previously. Following it they came to a baron cliff, at it's edge stood Ironhide. The wind was buffeting him gently though he didn't notice. Nor did he see the brilliant sunset, his optics were fixed on a far off place in the sky on another world entirely.
Before either of the unnoticed visitors could drag Ironhide from his dreaming state a large ball of fire in the sky did it for them. Not far behind the one there were three more. All three of the grounded robots followed them for a moment. Turning to go track them down, Ironhide was surprised to see his commanding officers there. Though he didn't bother asking why, that wasn't important any longer. They all raced to the road transforming into their vehicle disguises to continue their journey.