Prime Blood: Heart Wrenched Chapter 1
Damned Space Bridge! Ratchet curses as he breaks through the electrical field. The next thing he sees is a field of corn. But before he can react, Wham! Impact.
His head is ringing. The ground is rumbling. He curses again. Standard Earth procedure, turn to vehicle mode. As fast as he can, he tries to change. Something has gone wrong. He can't get his right arm to fold up. The rumbling is getting louder and closer. Where am I? He tries again and again to engage the arm to fold. Then he sees the damage. It just isn't going to happen. He can see the crops are being harvested. Once again he curses. He can't transform, he doesn't know where he is and he has to stay concealed until he can figure this out. He laughs to himself. This isn't the first time he has done this, yet hopes it isn't his last.
He can see the top of the very small combine coming his way. He better move it! Ratchet manages to stay low and limps his way just ahead of the combine. He starts to pour on the speed in order to break away, then he sees his refuge up ahead. A barn. Keeping low and hopes the farmer won't spot him as he dashes across the open space startling some cows and hides behind the barn.
He hears the combine stop. Peeping around the corner and watches the farmer climb out looking confused. The farmer sees his crops ahead of the combine have be mashed down. There's a large impact spot too. The farmer removes his hat and scratches his head. Then he looks down at his red combine. He lifts the hood and starts tinkering around.
Ratchet could swear he saw the smoke stack turn in his direction. Ratchet pulls back behind the barn. The combine starts back up and continues down the field. Ratchet sinks down behind the barn and starts poking around for his tools.
By dusk he has gotten himself together and concealed as a rescue vehicle. Ratchet drives himself behind the silo when the combine comes to the equipment shed for the night. The farmer looks the combine over carefully and then secures the door. He meets his wife on the porch and gives her a peck on the cheek. They sit down on the porch swing.
"Strangest thing happened in the field today. I could swear it looked like a meteor hit the south corn field in broad day light. The corn is smashed down like a large truck went rolling out of there. And just then the combine just stopped. I poke around and it just started up again. Weird. Very peculiar. How was your day?" the farmer mentions pulling his boots off.
"Radio went on the blink while I was mending your pants, but nothing else. Local news said it looked like a solar flare today," the wife says.
Ratchet has got the feeling he is not alone. Is another Autobot in the area? No, he can feel it: Decepticon? He's getting confused readings. Maybe both are here. Maybe I'm on the blink. What happened to Bumble Bee and Prowl? Solar flare? Could it be? They were getting a lot of solar activity where they were, too.
Just when he is about to send a signal to Optimus he cancels that plan. If a Decepticon is in the area, he certainly doesn't want his transmission intercepted. He better do a little recon first. Where on Earth am I? again he ponders.
Scanning intensely, the medic is getting a reading from the equipment shed. He paces around the shed carefully. No need to instigate trouble if he can help it. The reading is certainly getting stronger. Carefully he opens the door, then steps back waiting for a reaction. Nothing. So he folds up and rolls himself inside. He rolls very slowly in front of each vehicle. A Case tractor. A John Deere harvester. Another tractor. A couple feed trailers. But the red combine. He backs up to the tractor. Then he sees it, the exhaust pipe on the combine turns in his direction again. It's got to be the littlest combine he ever saw, but perfect for this small farm.
The warrior in Ratchet leaps to his offensive mode and grabs the combine by the blades impeding it from unfolding and using them on him.
"Please don't hurt me," it pleads with a lady's southern drawl. Ratchet jumps back. That was the last thing he expected.
"Show yourself," he orders.
"I…. I … can't." it almost cries.
"Why?" he is wary of trusting the machine with the Decepticon dog on it's nose. The machine doesn't answer. Ratchet cocks his machine gun in warning to answer.
"Please wait!" it pleads again, "I have done no harm here. I beg of you, leave me in peace."
"Peace?" he growls. He moves his gun-arm and crosses it over his chest but still cocked, "Explain."
"Who are you?" she asks quietly. She backs away from him. But she is now against the shed and can retreat no further.
"No, you first," he takes the offensive approach forward again.
"Conbeana," she answers softly.
"Connie?" he gasps.
"You know me?" she is scared and begins to shake.
"I have heard rumors about you. You were a Decepticon aid."
"Yes. Until is was found out that I betrayed them. Shockwave dropped me here. He placed a restraining bolt on me that confines me to this disguise. My punishment is to be a slave to the humans and never see another of my kind ever again." She sighs heavily.
"And how has your punishment been?" Ratchet doesn't move.
"Better than my service to the Decepticons. I beg of you, leave me alone. I have caused no harm to these humans. You are an Autobot, I can see. The Decepticon bondage will keep me from doing harm to the humans or Autobots. There are no Decepticons out here. Megatron would never travel to this remote area. No technology worth his time here. As you can probably feel, there is no Energon here either. Please just go."
The front door on the house is heard opening. "Who goes there?" The farmer calls out to the shed cocking a rifle.
Connie pulls forward and she whispers, "Quickly, behind me. Don't let him see you." Ratchet can hear the farmer's foot steps coming their way. Ratchet does as Connie suggested.
The farmer comes in and looks around. Connie has her radio on. The farmer climbs in and shuts the talk station radio off. He scratches his head again.
"I could have sworn I secured everything before I went in. I must be loosing it." He shuts the equipment door and locks it gain. Connie sighs and so does Ratchet.
"That was close," they both say. Ratchet can't help but chuckle a little.
"Who are you?" she ask again but with a different tone to her question.
"Do you know who I am?" he can sense something about her.
"Yes, I think so," she says it ever so softly. He can see her face carefully emerge as she painfully bends the combines so he can see her tawny optics. It reminds him of a child peeking her head from beneath the blankets. "You are Ratchet. Optimus Prime's chief medical officer." She smiles up at him tentatively.
He smiles at her too. She drops the combine blades. His smile confirms it. "Where am I?" he softly asks. Then settles himself into a sitting position against a beam and shutting down his weapons.
It's good to hear her voice be friendly, "You are in Kansas. Just about the middle of nowhere but tornado alley and crops. Why are you here?"
"I don't know myself," he grumbles. Now it's her turn to laugh. He gives her a not so amused look. "I have to get back," he reminds her of his duty.
"I'm sorry, I meant no offense," she sounds so genuine. They sit and ponder the situation. "What will you do about me, when you get back? Will you tell Optimus?"
"I don't know," he rests his chin on his fist. "Can I even get back?"
"How did you get here?" she asks. He turns to her extremely curious.
"How long have you been here?" He is careful with his answers.
"Ah, let me think." She is silent for a long while. "Well, I got moved from Georgia to Kansas. I was sold. Then I was left sitting in a field for a very long time. I actually put myself into hibernation for awhile. When I came to, I noticed some of the equipment had changed, so I managed to modify myself. They were going to stick me in a museum and I knew I would go stir crazy. So I managed to get my self upgraded when they dragged me to a convention with new and old equipment. So I'm going to guess I've been here over hundred fifty years, maybe two hundred."
Ratchet stares at her, "You don't sound bitter or angry. You sound happy."
She smiles again, "I am, Ratchet. I really am. I'm actually doing something useful. I'm not destroying things. Well, okay, I'm cutting crops for harvest to provide for the humans. But you know what I was doing before, right?"
Ratchet nods his head sadly, "Harvesting Decepticon parts from dead or dieing being to create more powerful ones."
"Who went on to more destruction," she finishes. "I betrayed them by harvesting poison that I infected all the modified ones… and anyone who came into contact with them. It made Shockwave very sick until he cut off his own arm to safe himself. The first thing he did when he got a new arm was to remove mine."
Ratchet shakes his head and shutters. "So brutal. You Decepticons are barbarians."
"Before you judge, you must remember history. Even Optimus was betrayed. And, I did not chose to be a Decepticon. It was chosen for me."Ratchet knows he should not be talking with the enemy. He knows the power of mind control. Megatron was the master of deception. He was the king of twists and turns to his words. Shockwave was even worse. Ratchet knows Connie could be lying. He knows better than to believe anything she says. He will only listen like it is a story. Do not believe her words… he constantly reminds himself. She tells him her story….
