DISCLAIMER: Don't own don't sue
Verse: Filling the Ranks (G1)
Rating: K+
Verse Summary: The best kept secret of the the Autobots is how some of their own gained the red symbol.
It had been a bit of a shock when they first got the order. They were a unit for the front lines, not some little convoy unit that ran around delivering mail and supplies to different bases. Orders, however, were orders and so he gathered his small team and set out for the coordinates into the middle of nowhere.
The package however seemed to make up for the almost boring trip to the little black rock. Seeing Optimus Prime's weapon's specialist guarding two stasis locked and bound Decepticons through his entire team into a loop when Ironhide refused to answer any questions. Just gruff orders to get them on board and that they could not lose them or harm them in anyway from there to Iacon. A simple enough mission if confusing considering the 'items' they were to protect with their very sparks for the next few solar cycles. A task many did not look forward to since they were supposed to fight Decepticons not protect and ferry them around like they were a crate of energon.
Simplicity of the mission in ones cpu however was far from what really happened during that mad flight to Iacon, most of his team dead or seriously wounded as the two cons were bundled up and given to the awaiting science bots to some unknown place instead of the brig or interrogation rooms. Where he believed those two deserved to be in if he couldn't have them dead in a ditch somewhere for everything that happened.
The cold red optics of Prowl as he watched impassively as Switchback's men were gunned down would remain deep in his memory files alongside that flashing red optic band and off balance giggling of Red Alert for as long as he lived. Like a promise that those two Decepticons would pay for the lives lost for their sake.
By Primus or the Unmaker however, that promise was short lived as Switchback died in battle a mere orn before Optimus Prime chose a new second in command and security director by designations that would have had his energon tubes run cold at the implications of what he had help accomplish for the greater good.