"Emergency! Emergency! Ship's hull compromised!" the alarm system's voice droned over the loudspeaker. Decepticons ran all around, desperately trying to figure out exactly what had compromised the ship's hull. Not a single one of them cared about the cargo that they'd been ordered to defend with their lives; a single stasis pod, taken from the wreckage of an Autobot vessel that they'd attacked and destroyed. Their thoughts, however, were true; if they figured out what had compromised their ship, the Decepticons could then take it out, patch the hole in their ship's hull, and keep the stasis pod in their hands until they got to their lord and master, Megatron.

Another explosion wracked the ship, and a shout rang out. Something in front of the ship opened – a Space Bridge – just as it was hit again, and there was many a cry before the ship plummeted through the portal… and broke apart in the atmosphere of the blue planet below where they'd appeared. There were cries of horror, and then everything went silent as the part with the stasis pod in it plummeted to the planet's surface, slamming hard into a rock wall and killing or seriously injuring everyone on board.

About an hour later, those who had been gravely wounded succumbed to energon loss, leaving absolutely no survivors… except for the person in the stasis pod, who had not been troubled at all during the crash. Inside the pod, a scarlet and silver femme rested inside, her eyes closed and her face peaceful. On her left shoulder was a shiny symbol, one that was different to the symbols on the Decepticons. It marked her as a prisoner of war.

The femme inside the stasis pod was an Autobot.

Unbeknownst to her, she'd also been found by a small group of Cybertronians, each one bearing the same symbol as her, which marked them as fellow Autobots. However, they were not alone. Three humans – a sixteen year old boy, a fifteen year old girl, and a twelve year old boy – were sitting on the shoulders of their respective guardians (except for the older boy, who was standing next to his), each looking at the stasis pod in curiosity.

The girl suddenly jumped from the shoulder of her guardian, then walked over to the stasis pod and crossed her arms. Then she looked back at the group of Autobots and said, "So… what is it?"

Her guardian frowned. "Miko, it's a stasis pod."

Miko grinned. "Then can you guys open it?" she asked as the younger boy jumped off of the shoulders of his guardian, the yellow and black Autobot, and walked over, followed by the older boy. "I mean, it's an Autobot stasis pod, yes?" she asked, looking at the tallest Autobot, who simply did nothing but stare at the stasis pod grimly.

Miko's guardian nodded. "Yes, but…" He looked over at the Autobot leader and frowned. "Are we actually going to open it?"

The Autobot leader nodded. "We have no choice. The one contained within may have some information about the Decepticons."

Miko grinned. "Cool!" she said, extremely jovial. "So, when are we going to open it?" She looked at all of the Autobots around, her face falling when she saw that each one of them was still wearing a monotone expression, except for her guardian, who had a nervous expression on his face instead. "Uh… we're not opening it here, are we?" she asked, scratching the back of her head.

The Autobots' medic shook his head. "No. We need to make sure that the bot inside is in a safe, Decepticon-free location," he said, sounding quite grumpy as he spoke. Then again, he was almost always grumpy. He was, however, a good person, and the best medic the Autobots had. He was cherished among them, as a friend and as family.

"So," the only female Autobot said suddenly, walking over and kneeling down next to the stasis pod. "Who's going to carry it?"

Miko looked back at her guardian. "Bulkhead?" she asked, just as everyone else looked over at him. Nervously the bot scratched his head, but sighed and agreed to carry it. After all, they were only going to the Autobot base, which was merely a Ground Bridge away.

Bulkhead picked the stasis pod up, then the medic pulled out a remote. He'd only recently developed a remote control for the Ground Bridge, but this was the first time he was ever putting it to use, so he was nervous (although he would neither show nor admit it). However, the remote worked perfectly; when he pressed the button, a Ground Bridge leading back to the Autobot base opened, and the group walked into it, only to find themselves back in familiar surroundings. As soon as he could, Bulkhead put the pod down, making sure that none of the medic's equipment was lying around; otherwise he would get chewed out for breaking something.

"So!" Miko said as she ran over to the stasis pod and banged on it, much to the disgruntlement of the others. "How do we open this thing?"

The Autobot leader stepped forward and knelt down, looking closely at the pod. His eyes – a vibrant turquoise – took in every single detail of the pod before he finally reached forward and pressed an unseen button. Immediately a hissing noise filled the air, and the Autobot leader gently pushed Miko back a few paces as the stasis pod opened, revealing the sleeping femme inside. There was a collective gasp from everyone as they looked at the femme, who was almost the exact same colour as one of their enemies – a Decepticon medic known as Knockout.

"Woah," the older of the human boys said as he walked over and observed the sleeping femme. However, whatever he was about to say next was never spoken, for it was the Autobot medic who noticed the tear in her side. His eyes widened in horror as he, along with all the others, realised that the femme had been injured immediately before she'd been put into stasis.

"By the Allspark," the medic hissed, his optics blazing with fury, "Why did they not bother to treat her?" He looked at his fellow Autobots and the three human kids. "I mean, if they were taking her to Megatron…"

He was cut off when Bulkhead huffed, "I doubt he cares if she is injured or not. He probably just wants her for information." He looked over at the medic. "Can you patch her up, Ratchet?"

Ratchet looked absolutely offended. "Of course!" he scoffed, unamused by Bulkhead's lack of faith in his ability as a medic. Then he sighed and shook his head. "But we're dangerously low on energon… I may not be able to restore what she has lost."

The leader of the Autobots shook his head slowly. "Aid her as much as you can," he ordered. His words seemed normal; his tone was one of monotony, something that was perfectly ordinary for him. But Ratchet couldn't help but wonder if something else had just driven his old friend to speak those words… But he decided that it was better not to ask. Whatever it had been that had caused the Autobot leader to say that, it was something that Ratchet would figure out in good time.

"Alright, Optimus, I'll do it," Ratchet declared, and Optimus nodded as he stood and walked away, the others watching him as he walked away. It was then that the medic realised that he was not the only one to have noticed that something was off with Optimus' words. "Arcee, Bumblebee, Bulkhead," the doctor barked, in an effort to divert their attention off of Optimus. It worked; the three turned to look at him, their expressions confused. "Take the kids and get them home," he said nonchalantly, not alluding to what Optimus had said.

Arcee nodded, then cast an eye over to the femme who was still under stasis. "What about her?"

Ratchet shook his head. "You don't worry about her!" he growled, and Arcee nodded curtly before transforming into her alternate mode, a blue motorcycle, and telling the older boy to hop on. He took one more look at the sleeping femme before donning his motorcycle helmet and getting on Arcee, only for her to drive off before he was ready. Bulkhead and Bumblebee did the same thing, with Miko and the younger boy hopping into the passenger seat of their respective guardians before both bots drove off.

When they were finally gone, Ratchet gave a relieved sigh; he could finally work in peace. He turned around then to grab some tools he could use to patch the femme up, only to receive the shock of his life when he turned around to repair her…

Only to find that her eyes were open, staring right at him.

"You… are an Autobot, are you not?" the femme asked, her cyan optics piercing into his very spark. He couldn't remember the last time he'd encountered such chilling eyes, especially on a femme. "Where am I?" the femme asked, not giving Ratchet any time to answer her previous question.

"Hold it," he said, frowning at her as she opened her mouth to ask yet another question. She immediately fell quiet, allowing Ratchet to say, "My name is Ratchet. I'm an Autobot field medic."

The femme nodded. "I am Vesper." Then she frowned. "If I am not a prisoner of Megatron… does that mean you and your companions rescued me?" She looked at Ratchet, cocking her head to the side, awaiting his answer.

Ratchet rubbed his servo and looked away. "Well… not quite," he said. Vesper frowned and went to stand, only to cringe and whimper as pain shot though her side. Ratchet immediately tut-tutted her, waggling his finger. "You shouldn't move, I haven't repaired you yet!" he chastised, holding up the tool he'd grabbed earlier. Vesper looked at it, her face filled with hardness; it was clear that she was extremely wary. Then her face softened.

"Thank you, sir," she said. Ratchet blinked, not used to being called sir, but shrugged it off and went to repairing her. Soon enough Vesper was fighting fit, but Ratchet told her to not do anything too strenuous until he authorised it, which she was happy enough to accept. Ratchet, secretly, was relieved that she was compliant enough to listen to the doctor's orders. "By the way, sir," Vesper said after a few moments of walking around, "You never explained who rescued me."

Ratchet sighed. "Truth be told, Vesper," he said, looking away from her as he put his operating tools on a nearby bench, "You weren't rescued."

Vesper's cyan optics widened. "Then… what happened? How did I end up here?"

Ratchet sighed, but before he could answer, a familiar voice said, "The Decepticon vessel you were on crash-landed, and we recovered your stasis pod from it." Both Ratchet and Vesper turned to see Optimus standing there, his face completely neutral. Ratchet could, however, tell that Optimus was strained, but the medic wisely said nothing.

"Ah, that clears some things up," Vesper said, her voice light and cheerful. Then she looked at Optimus with a frown on her face. "Is something wrong, sir?" she asked.

Optimus shook his head a little too fast. "No," he stated bluntly before turning on his heel and hurrying away. Ratchet frowned and stroked his chin, confused with Optimus' odd behaviour. However, he said nothing about it. Instead, he looked over at Vesper and told her that he would assign her a room.

"Is there something wrong with your leader?" Vesper asked as they walked down the hallway that lead to each Autobot's sleeping quarters. Ratchet said nothing, so Vesper sighed. "Doctor, I used to work in Iacon as a data analyst. I—"

"Did you work with a bot called Orion Pax?" Ratchet blurted out, immediately regretting it.

Vesper looked at him curiously, then shook her head. "No, I did not. However, Alpha Trion always held Orion in high esteem. He was the head data clerk, after all, even though he was only my age."

Ratchet looked at her and frowned. "You speak as if he's one with the Allspark."

Vesper sighed. "As far as anyone is concerned, Orion Pax is dead."

Ratchet was surprised by Vesper's bluntness. However, he said nothing as he finally reached an empty room. "This will be your room," he said, a small smile on his face. "Make yourself comfortable, and I'll introduce you to the others when they return."

"One question," Vesper asked just as Ratchet returned to leave. He looked back over his shoulder at the femme, who rubbed her upper arm. "Why are the others not here?"

Ratchet shook his head. "They're on curb-side duty."

Vesper cocked her head to the side, not understanding, but she said nothing. Instead she nodded, and Ratchet let her be as the door closed. Then he turned around and walked down the hall, stopping at a door that was a few metres around the hall. He raised his hand to knock, but then he stopped. A sigh escaped his lips, and then his hand fell to his side as he turned away. He walked towards his own room, stopping in front of the door as it slid open. He looked back at the door he'd wanted to knock on briefly before shaking his head and walking into his room, his door closing behind him.