Disclaimer: They will never be mine but I can dream.

Author Notes: Second installment of Flying Through Turbulent Skies. This story is heavily based on the Rust Sea from Fall of Cybertron game with more than a few added embellishments of my own design.

Wasteland

Chapter One: Supply Run

His wing itched but Skydive didn't dare move. He was mostly buried in the fine rust sand that gave the Rust Sea its name. The Sea didn't actually start until they went over the ridge to the east but the strong westerly winds had blown the sand over the ridge and left large deposits of it scattered about the slightly mountainous region between the Rust Sea and Vos. Likewise, when the wind shifted seeds from the Vos gardens would blow up into the mountains. The cyberdandreon that hid what little of himself that wasn't buried in the sand had most likely come from the Vos botanical gardens since that was the only place he could think of that such a rare plant seed could have come from.

It was hard to believe that the Vos he knew was gone now.

Their flight from the city hadn't even been five cycles ago yet it seemed like vorns had passed since then. It had been one cycle of pure chaos, constantly running from one area to the next in a mad scramble to escape and survive. Skydive was still under the opinion that it had been pure luck that they had managed to escape the city at all. He hadn't expected them to make it half as far considering the city had completely come apart at the seams.

Of course, that wasn't to say they had gotten away from the city completely unscathed.

Slingshot was the worse off and his injuries were bad. They needed to either find an energon processor that would work for him or a medic that could fix him. Until then, Slingshot was totally dependent on the rest of them to stay functioning and all of them could tell it grated his nerves every time one of them picked him up or connected with him to give him a transfusion. He could barely pull himself across the ground with his arms or even sit up without it seemingly taking all of his energy. Too bad it didn't seem to affect his mouth, Slingshot threw insults around like they were energon goodies.

Skydive didn't like to admit it but his shoulder wasn't doing much better. At least the pulse had hit it and not the center of his back. That would have offlined him. He had a limited range of mobility with his left arm and transforming into his alt was painful but tolerable. The leaking had stopped and, when they settled down for the night cycle, Air Raid was trying to work on fabricating him something to help cover the hole that went through his shoulder that wouldn't mess with his transformation sequence. Slingshot was rather helpful as he gave ideas and occasionally advice to Air Raid as he worked his way through his self-appointed project, even with some of his more colorful language coming into play. Air Raid and Slingshot seemed to have some kind of ongoing insult game that they would both fall into periodically.

It also helped that he could still hold and aim a rifle. Luckily it had been his no dominant shoulder that had been hit. If he processed it, Skydive knew he didn't like violence. He didn't like shooting at other mechs. He would much rather be sitting back at the youth center, reading and readying himself for flight tests so he could pass with high enough marks to get a tryout with the Flight Academy's Practice Squad. Too bad that was never going to happen now and he wouldn't leave the others like this regardless if he had to take another mechs spark again.

That was why he was laying under a bush, buried in the sand, with a high powered rifle pointing at Slingshot where he sat back against a large piece of raw metal alloy about twenty astrofeet away.

They had been all gung-ho and ready to cross the Rust Sea until they had actually reached the edge of it. Staring out over the large expanse of rust colored sand that stretched as far as any of them could see had them all balking at their chosen path. Saying and doing where two completely different things and now that they were ready to go through with it the plan seemed even more insane then they had originally processed and agreed to it.

It typically took a ground pounder about forty cycles to drive right through the middle of the Rush Sea. Since all of them were old enough to have transformation cogs installed –well Slingshot was going to end up hitching a ride, strapped to Silverbolt's back for obvious reasons- their ability to fly would cut the journey in half even with them staying low to make them harder to detect. Between the survival pack that Silverbolt had and what he and Air Raid had swiped before the youth center had collapsed, there was enough energon to see them to the other side of the Rust Sea provided they were on quarter cube rations, which was barely enough for their core functions to work. Flying was out of the picture.

After much debating, some complaining and Slingshot telling all of them they were 'fragging idiots' more than once, they decided to ambush several of the two man patrols that periodically moved through the area while the Decepticons worked at getting Vos' security grid back up to par. They could then raid their subspaces and hopefully could get the supplies they needed to cross the sea. This of course all hinged on the five of them being able to take down two, fully trained, Decepticon guards who were under orders to kill them on sight.

They already knew that taking them by surprise was the key to their success. In a straight fight they wouldn't be able to match the Decepticons full combat capabilities. Silverbolt had described his frantic fight with the two 'Cons over Slingshot and it was easy to see that if he hadn't taken out the first one with one shot or managed to shoot the other one in the helmet when he did that neither he nor Slingshot would have made it.

Fireflight made it his mission that night to cuddle both of them whenever possible.

Taking what they had learned from that they applied it to this ambush scenario that had come up with and had successfully proven effective twice already. As long as this ambush yielded at least four more cubes they could make it across the Rust Sea in twenty cycles on half rations. Air Raid had initially argued tried to go for enough supplies to get them on a three quarter cube ration but after their first successful ambush there was a noticeable increase in patrols. Even more so when they took out the other guards less than two cycles later. Realistically this was going to have to be their last ambush regardless of how many cubes they got. Anymore patrols in the area and they would be ambushing one when the other was coming up on them.

The set up was fairly simple. Slingshot was bait -which none of them really liked but it helped to make Slingshot feel useful and let him contribute- mostly to get the 'Cons close to Air Raid and Silverbolt and to make them hold still long enough for Skydive to line up and take a perfect shot. After he took the shot, and while the partner was still turning towards his suddenly offlined partner, Air Raid and Silverbolt would spring out of the sand they were completely buried in on either side of Slingshot and attack. Air Raid had one of his long knives at ready that he would stab under the Con's shoulder joint and straight through his chest into his spark while Silverbolt crushed the mech's throat and tear out his vocalizer which would destroy his communication array in the process. Fireflight acted as their lookout, perched high up on the side of the ridge with his back towards the Sea, and acted as Air Raid's and Silverbolt's optics, giving them a play by play so they had an idea of what was happening being completely blind and deaf as they were buried in the sand.

Skydive was certain he would have panicked if he was in that position.

As it was, his wing was still itching, and he was only partially buried.

:Two incoming. South by south west. They'll be passing Skydive's bush by about ten astrofeet to the left in about five astroseconds.:

Skydive had already locked his servos and joints in place so he was ready and waiting in a firing stance but, as Fireflight spoke, he dimmed his optics and shut one completely so that he was looking through his guns scope now instead. Slingshot filled the scope's view. He had dimmed his own optics a bit so that he looked barely conscious but defiantly online. He was laying partially on his side and stomach which hid the extent of his injuries from a causal glance. He looked so weak and helpless that Skydive found himself wanting to rush over and grab him, pulling him into cover but that would give them all away. He had to wait and watch and try hard not to think of Firestorm.

Just like the first two times, a mantra started up in the back of his processor as Skydive patiently waited to act. Slingshot won't be another Firestorm. Slingshot won't be another Firestorm. Slingshot won't be another Firestorm. Slingshot won't be another Firestorm. He processed over and over again watching Slingshot as he waited to hear Fireflight's next set of instructions.

:They're coming up on the bush now,: Skydive could hear their voices as they were talking about some recent femme they had both had a chance to interface with, the sounds of their peds stomping across sand and metal adding a counterpoint to their lecherous conversation. :Scanning the area and they've seen Slingshot and are heading over to get a better look.:

"The frag is he doing out here?" One of the mechs said as they walked passed his hiding spot. "Little guy was lucky to get this far from the youth center."

"He one of the missing jetlings?" the other one said sounding bored as the two of them came into view. The one talking was a deep blue with yellow highlights and looked like he changed into a hover car. He was also all most three times the size of the silver and black mech he was with that looked like he turned into a two wheeled roadster. "Let's just shot him and get going."

"Hold your engines. Let me get a confirmation on his signature. Fragging metal deposits up here make it hard to read anything and the boss will want a definite answer not a 'I think so'."

"Well hurry up. Sooner we're done here the sooner we can finish our route and head back. I could use some more high grade while I clean all the fragging rust dust out of my seams."

:One target closing in on Slingshot. Just entered kill zone. Skydive the other is all yours. Silverbolt, Air Raid on my mark.:

Skydive had been tracking the larger of the two Decepticons as soon as they came into his line of fire. Slingshot won't be another Firestorm. As soon as he opened fire Fireflight would have the other two launch their attack. Slingshot won't be another Firestorm. He just wanted him to stop moving-

Slingshot won't be another Firestorm.

The rifle kicked back hard into his good shoulder, the silencer on it keeping the noise of the pulse discharge down, and the whole bush above him jolted with his frame at the recoil. The high powered rifle that they had grabbed from the illegal stores at the youth center was definitely not designed for a youngling to use. Had he been standing up, Skydive knew he would have been blown right off his peds.

He double checked to make sure that his target was down before checking on the others. He had heard Fireflight give the other two the go ahead but he was too preoccupied with his shot to see what had happened. He didn't have to worry. Air Raid was already checking an annoyed looking Slingshot who took a weak and shaky swing at him while Silverbolt was working on ripping open the smaller mech's chassis. Every mech they took out, Air Raid had 'Bolt rip open the mech's chassis on the off chance that they found a working energon converter that was compatible with Slingshot's systems. So far they had struck out but the two wheeler might have one small enough to work.

:Area still clear.: Fireflight was still on watch and would be until they were ready to move out. Now that they had their catch they didn't need another patrol to surprise them.

Skydive pulled himself free from the sand and crawled out from under the bush heading for the big mech. He pulled a medical cable from his subspace and jacked into the offlined Con's medical port. The worm program he had created was similar to the hack he had used to grant them access to their subspaces. Except this one forced a mech's subspace to dump its contents next to their chassis. Skydive unplugged himself from the mech and scoped up all the gear that the 'Con had been carrying with him and his rifle. They could go through the supplies when they weren't out in the open.

Skydive turned and went over to the others, pulling his preferred and less powerful rifle from his subspace. At least this one wouldn't knock him over while firing it and he switch it from single shot to semiautomatic function as well. Silverbolt was just plugging into the other mechs medical port to upload the worm program while Air Raid was carefully cutting away at his internals. "Is it going work?" Skydive said as he came over to them, dropping into a crouch with his rifle brought up to cover them if need be.

"Well, it's the right size," Air Raid said as he continued to cut carefully with a laser scalpel. Skydive made a point not to look to closely at what he was doing, he didn't have the tank for medical work. "But the connectors are in the wrong places, he's going to need an adaptor. Still the best fit I've found so far and it'll give me something to do when we settle in for the night once I'm done with your shoulder armor."

:Guys we have movement in the northwest. Grounders, come in fast.:

Silverbolt quickly swept the rest of the supplies into his subspace and went for Slingshot. The jetling didn't even protest it when he scooped him up in one arm and cuddled him to his chest plate before ducking behind some more raw metal heading east. Air Raid continued to carefully cut away at the Con's internals. "Raider, get going," Skydive said watching in the direction that Fireflight had called out.

"Almost done, just a few more cuts."

"Raid, we don't have time, we got go."

"Just another astrosecond."

:Guys, what are you doing? Get going!:

:Air Raid. Skydive. What's going on? What's the delay?:

:Keep going Bolt, we can hide easier than you big guy!: Air Raid said over the comms as he moved to lean over the Con more. Skydive could hear the engines of the approaching guards. :'Dive you too. Get behind the metal. I'm almost done.:

:Yes you are!: Without looking Skydive reached into the Con's body cavity grabbed a hold of something and pulled. There was a loud crunch and a pop as the whole thing torn free in his grip and Air Raid swore at him. He ignored him and shoved whatever he had torn free into his subspace. :Now go!:

:Fraggit Skydive! You could have damaged it!: Air Raid grouched but went with the shove as Skydive propelled him toward the raw metal. Skydive didn't bother responding as the two of them rushed to get under cover. They both leapt over the metal and ducked into the spiky bushes where they stayed low and shuffled through carefully to avoid the stalks from waving about wildly and giving away their position.

:Guys? Were you seen?: Silverbolt said of the comms after another moments of silence. :Fireflight?:

:They're both hover mechs. When they came into the area their jets blew away all the tracks you guys made. They're arguing with each other right now. Doesn't look like they saw either Skydive or Air Raid.:

Skydive quickly released a ventilation that had been stuck in his intakes. That had been to close.

:Alright, keep and optic on them for a bit longer. Air Raid, Skydive don't do that again.: They came out of the stalks and started east, staying close to the base of a ridge as they head for one of the numerous passes in the ridge that would take them out into the Rust Sea. It was easy to tell where Silverbolt was as he crouched low behind some raw metal up ahead. His wings stuck up over the top of it.

:At least we got it.: Air Raid sounded way too cheerful for almost getting caught. :Hopefully Skydive didn't damage it too badly ripping it out like that.:

:You'll fix.: Skydive said with only some forced confidence as they joined up with and fell into formation with Silverbolt. Skydive brought up the rear as Air Raid moved to cover point keeping Silverbolt and Slingshot in between them.

:We have a lot of activity guys, in every direction. We need to go.:

:Get off the ridge Fireflight. Come down the back side and meet up with us at point four two. We'll charge out into the Sea and get as much distance between us and them as we can.: The three of them hurried from cover to cover, staying low and scan the area around them. Skydive kept the majority of the attention to their flank. If they would have any company it was going to be coming from that direction.

The three of them reached the rendezvous and bunkered down for a bit. Slingshot was being especially quiet and Air Raid took the moment to check over him. The weak growl reassured all of them the Slingshot was quiet alright and his normal prickly self. Skydive was starting to think that that was his perpetual emotional state.

Fireflight joined them, seemingly popping out of nowhere next to Skydive and causing both him and Air Raid to start. Silverbolt hardly reacted but Skydive suspected that the only reason he hadn't jumped too was because of his communication's network had alerted him to Fireflight's approach. No matter how many times he asked Fireflight not to sneak up on them, the other jetling would seemingly forget that he shouldn't do it between cycles. However, it was really hard, nearly impossible, to stay mad at Fireflight so it usually turned into a gentle reminder that had to be repeated every time he snuck up on them.

"Fireflight, any seekers in the area?" Silverbolt asked as he shifted Slingshot about to carry him more easily. Since they were going to be using their engines to essentially sprint put across the sand, Silverbolt couldn't carry Slingshot on his back. Not without a high risk of overheating the injured youngling or even burning him.

'No, not yet anyways. From what I saw it was just all the nearby patrols converging on that spot. Mostly grounders." As he spoke, Fireflight shifted forward and bent down enough to look at Slingshot's optics. He gave him a bright smile and a small wave, completely unbothered by the annoyed look he got in return.

"They must've had some kind of program installed to send out an alert if they went offline." Probably similar to the transmitter thing that Silverbolt had going. If the receiver failed then someone who was monitoring all the communications could just redirect everybot in the area on that location.

"Alright, let's move out but quietly. Keep your engines offline for now. We'll double time it to that first dune. Provided that it's low enough we'll sprint from there. That'll help bounce the noise away from the Cons." As Silverbolt spoke he kept glancing at them, as if expecting one of them to speak up and say something. He still wasn't sure of himself as the defacto leader of their little group and though he looked hesitant and waited for someone else to interrupt him, he at least managed to keep the questioning tone out of his voice. This time.

Skydive gave him a nod and a small smile. Young and inexperienced as he was, Silverbolt was definitely trying to take his unofficial role seriously. Being the oldest of the five of them gave him a bit of an advantage because the rest of them naturally looked towards him. Yes, there were some things he overlooked or just didn't think of and most of them were relatively minor items. It was just as easy for him to come up behind Silverbolt and sweep those issues aside only to tell him privately about whatever he had missed later.

All of them had slid rather easily into unspoken roles. Silverbolt acted as their leader while he covered for anything he missed and offering anything he felt would help from all the datapads he read back at the Youth Center. Fireflight was their scout and lookout, able to sneak around without drawing attention to himself and he had a sharp pair of optics even without any upgrades. Air Raid was the medic, self-trained more out of boredom than out of any real desire to learn. Slingshot, though he couldn't move well, seemed to know a lot for a youngling his age. He was the one who pointed out and then talked all of them through how to clean out their guns of choice and how to knock out a bad clip if the charge suddenly went bad or the energy pack jammed.

Between him knowing about guns and Fireflight's knowledge of bombs and door hacks, Skydive found himself a bit curious as to what their lives had been like up until they met up. It was hard to think of either of them as tunnel brats.

"Okay follow my lead guys, stay close." Skydive set that process aside, all that really mattered was that the two of them had that kind of knowledge which had only help in aiding their escape. He would satisfy his curiosity later when it seemed appropriate to ask. If it ever became appropriate to ask. Right now he had more important things to worry about.

They stayed close to Silverbolt as he started off moving at a quick lope with Slingshot carefully cradled to his chest. Air Raid staying right at Silverbolt's heels, optics focused on the rust sand before them, while Skydive and Fireflight hung back a few steps. They took turns turning and watching behind them and the sides. They weren't too worried about above them. Seeker engines had a fairly distinct whine to them. They would hear Decepticon air support before they saw them and hopefully that would give them enough time to hide. Not that there was really anything out here for them to hide behind.

They made it down to the raise without any sign of pursuit however the dune didn't lead as far down as they had hope. The noise their engines would make would definitely alert the Cons to their presence. "Okay, lets head further in." Silverbolt gestured to several dunes further down from where they were on a fairly wide ledge between the dune Silverbolt had picked and a sloped incline. The pitch was enough that they were going to have to dig in with their peds, possibly even slide down it to reach the bottom. "Let's head for that one next."

"Bolt we're going to leave a really easy to spot trail heading down there." Air Raid pointed out.

"But we really don't have a choice," Fireflight pointed out as all of them looked of the landscape before them. The slope seemed to run as far as their optics could see. "No matter what, we're going to have to go down this."

Skydive brought up what he had in his data banks on the Rust Sea. He hadn't kept much of the information that he had scanned over what seemed like vorns ago but it did have what he was looking for. "It's known as the Metal Shelf," he gestured to the ridge behind them. "This ridge starts up in the north western corner of the Rust Sea and curls all the way down around the western side of the Sea before carrying on to the south of it. It's why Vos is so much higher in elevation than Nexus. Unless we want to go several hundred thousand of mechnometers out of our way we have to go down this. Not to mention that our supplies would have long since run out before we found and easier place to cross."

"So fragged if we do and fragged if we don't huh?" Air Raid asked with a wry smile on his face.

"No, we just need to process this through and come up with a way," Silverbolt said as he looked over the distance again. "Skydive, give me an assessment." He was staring intently out over the expanse of sand below them. "Do you think we can glide down there?"

Skydive rebooted his optics at that unusual question and thought for a moment. Their altmodes and root modes all had varying differences based on the frame designs their carriers and sparkers gave them but in essence they were all the same. While seeker frame types typically had thrusters on their peds and the wings folded against their backs to spread out behind their shoulders and stick out on either side, aerial frame types had their engines resting along the backs with their wings jutting almost straight out behind them. The altmodes were designed for flying but the breeze blowing towards them wasn't strong enough to provide them with enough lift. Especially for whoever –probably Silverbolt, he always stayed close and carried him seemingly everywhere- was carrying Slingshot.

He shook his helmet, "We won't have enough lift to just glide down, we would have to touch off our engines." He sent a private comm over their network :Why did you ask? It should have been fairly obvious.:

:I was hoping that I was wrong.: Came back the earnest reply as the largest member of their group continued to look over the natural obstacle in their way.

"Well," Air Raid said stepping back and resting his rifle over his shoulders as he looked to the rest of them. "Can we just transform and make a mad dash out into the Sea? Y'know, like, just out run them?"

"They've had their final upgrades, their engines are far superior to ours," Skydive said with a sigh as he wracked his processor for a solution. "Even if they were on the ground in root mode at the site of our last raid, they could transform and catch up to us by the time we reached that dune." He gestured to a dune slight further back that the one Silverbolt was talking about getting to.

Air Raid gave him an annoyed looked, "Wow, you are such a downer right now. Can you come up with an idea instead of just shooting everyone else's down?"

"I'm working-" Skydive started to say when a sound cause all of them to freeze, the distinct high pitched whine of a seeker's engines. If he listened hard enough he could make out three different pitches, a trine of seekers then. It was one of the most formidable fighting formations that he had read all about in the military texts. They would rip them apart. They couldn't outrun them and there was nowhere to hide.

"Sand," Slingshot suddenly spoke up, struggling slightly in Silverbolt's grip like he was trying to get out of it only to fall back with a pained hissed. "It'll hide our spark signatures. Dig into the sand. At the dune, use your wings, scope it up, and bury yourselves." Though his words were stinted with pain, they were released with a rapid fire almost normalcy that sent a shiver through Skydive's systems. How many times had Slingshot used this same trick before? What exactly was he hiding from anyway?

He didn't have any more time to dwell on that process as they turned as one and rushed back to the base of the dune. Air Raid was the first one to have reached the dune, unsurprising as it was very apparent he was the fastest out of all of them in both root –and the few times they had dared to use them- altmodes. He half tacked the sand, going in shoulder first and low, sinking his right wing into the mound deep and then sweeping it up and out of the way. He tucked himself into the pocket he had created quickly before the fine sand had a chance to refill it. The sand trembled where he had vanished slightly as he no doubt made himself as comfortable as possible but it looked remarkably undisturbed despite what he had done.

Silverbolt reached the pile next and it was only then that Skydive realized that Fireflight was unconsciously matching his speed as he ran over slower than the other two, both of them watching to make sure that Silverbolt could hide both his larger frame and Slingshot's before they hid themselves. They hadn't needed to worry. The hydraulics that Silverbolt's creators had insisted on did the trick, Silverbolt forcibly plowed his way deeper into the mound after shifting the sand out of the way, shoving the sand out of his way as much as sweeping it up above him. It was enough for both him and Slingshot to vanish in another cascade of sand.

Skydvie was surprised when Fireflight subspaced his gun and grabbed him pulling him closer. "Together on three," he said and it took a moment to process why Fireflight insisted on them burying themselves together. Both Sliverbolt's and Air Raid's wings were wider then their wings comparative to their size. It would be easier with their narrower wings to work together to shift the sand enough for them to hide.

"Three." They dipped low together and Skydive followed Fireflight's lead as they pushed into the pile so that their wings as well as their shoulders and backs had sand on them before shoving it up and out of the way. Gears protested as he force the sand up and out of the way. A lot of their momentum had been lost putting themselves so deep into the pile but with their combined strength they managed and with their more compact wings they didn't have to worry about them as much sticking out of the pile as Skydive found himself all but pinned between the sand and Fireflight facing deeper into the sand and not facing outwards like Air Raid and Silverbolt had been forced to bury themselves.

:Power down as much as you can.: Slingshot said over the comms, sounding calm despite the situation. :All non-vital systems except for Silverbolt your comm network and Flight your sensors. The composition of the sand should help disguise our spark signatures enough for a casual sweep but they'll pick up our systems if enough of them are online.:

It was just like during the initial attack at the youth center. Pinned, powering down almost all his systems to avoid detection, about the only difference was his location and that he was with live mechs this time. Not hiding amongst the dead. Not pretending he was deactivated like they were too. He couldn't help a shiver that went down his spinal strut as he did was he was told and shut down everything but his most vital systems.

He tried not to think of where he was and how he couldn't move as he settled in to wait.