First Mission

My first mission as a soldier was interesting to say the least. Especially as I had just bonded with the twins, so now they were super protective of me. I mean, if another soldier decided to be witty, one if not both of the twins would be there to stake their claim. I just rolled my eyes, after my father had explained that their protocols were in high-gear right now.

So, of course, it had been a week since we had bonded, when we were called out on a mission. This mission was in Arizona, where apparently there was a large Energon read out in the middle of the Painted Desert. I suited up and went to join Epps, Lennox, Fig, and Graham on the plane.

"What's our mission, sir?" I asked Lennox, as I seat belted myself into the large plane. Lennox looked over at me and smirked.

"We need to capture and contain." Lennox replied. I rolled my eyes. Yeah, like I'm about to go capture and contain a huge, murderous Decepticon; that is if I could anyway. "That is where you will come into effect. As our saboteur, we need you to get as close to the reading as you can. See if you can figure out where it's coming from and then report back to us."

"Understood, sir," I nodded to my commanding officer. "And if it happens to be an online Decepticon?" Epps smirked at me.

"Then yell really loudly over the speaker!" Epps snickered. I wanted to punch him so badly, it wasn't funny.

"That was really funny, Epps!" I snapped back to him, frowning at the Lieutenant. He just smiled at me.

Finally we made it to Arizona, where we all prepared to land via parachutes. I was light and quick on my feet, so the whole thing was easy for me. Some of the other newer recruits weren't as lucky. One of them suffered a broken leg. I winced, but was grateful that I wasn't considered a field medic. I probably wouldn't be able to sleep at all during the night.

I readied myself, by orienting my position using the device Epps handed me once we had all been cut out of our parachutes. The Autobots would be landing in a few moments, so in order for me to avoid the twins I needed to get moving. I made sure that I had all my weapons, enough ammo, a flashlight, as well as the non-glare pad that Epps handed me, before moving out.

I crept along in the black stillness of the night. I could hear my own heart beating, and I slowed my breathing down so that it wasn't as detectable. Looking down at the datapad, I still had a couple of miles to go, before I would even be in the vicinity of the potential Decepticon.

The moon was nonvisible, under the new moon, so the whole desert was bathed in darkness. This boded well for me, as my shadow wouldn't be visible. But it didn't bode well for the whole datapad thing, so once I was sure that I was on the correct path, I clicked it off and began to follow the darkness towards the unknown energy reading.

I was counting my footsteps in my head, starting over the count once I would hit five hundred, give or take a few steps. Then I would start all over again. Ratchet had told me once, that this was due to my OCD that stress and PTSD brought about. I didn't really care; it helped me focus my thoughts on something, and not on all the random, rampant thoughts floating around in my brain. I had reached three hundred and seventy one, when my whole body went taut with anticipation.

I knew I had reached the right spot. The reason why we were in this Godforsaken desert in the first place; because of an Energon reading from this exact location. I couldn't see anything in front of me, but the way that the hairs on my body were standing up; I knew I had found what I was searching for.

I crept forward, slowing my breathing even more, not even allowing myself the chance to think. The darkness granted my cover, but I knew that if this was a Cybertronian, then it didn't need any kind of light in order to detect a human coming up upon it. And for once in my life I was right.

With a groan and twist of metal, the thing shot up from underneath my feet. I screamed and scampered away, having fallen on my butt and using my hands and feet to move away from the Cybertronian. I fumbled along my ear, but I couldn't get my hands to cooperate. Finally the Decepticon, from the glowing red eyes, threw its hands down beside me onto the sand.

"Who are you fleshling?" It growled/demanded of me, it's piercing red eyes gazing into my shadowed ones.

"Uh," I stumbled, my throat was sort of frozen. It sniffed into the air.

"Why do you smell like a Cybertronian?" He demanded, I decided mentally that it must be a male. The Cybertronian's voice was much too deep to be considered a female or femme.

"Um," I swallowed thickly, feeling as though I had a hundred pounds of weight placed upon my chest.

"SPEAK!" It roared, the voice echoing all around us. I felt a wave of relief at that, maybe the mechs would have heard it.

"Obviously, you're race isn't very intelligent." It finally said, before picking me up in its great servo. My earpiece suddenly crackled, signaling that it on.

"Gemma!" Epps voice came over the earpiece. "Come in. Talk to us girl!"

"Gemma is facing this unknown threat?" I heard Sunny growl through the earpiece.

"Uh, I'm currently dangling from its servo!" I screamed, just as the Decepticon held me in front of its face. Two roars were heard, before engines revved. He stared at me, before rolling his eyes and beginning to squeeze me tighter once he picked up the other signatures racing my way. I heard a popping noise, and it was getting a little harder to breath.

I screamed, feeling the pain sear throughout my body. The Decepticon stiffened and looked at me. Then he shrugged and turned. He was running from my rescuers! I would have screamed, had I had the breath to do so.

As the Decepticon ran, he squeezed my body tighter and tighter. I closed my eyes, before accepting that this might be my last night on earth. It certainly felt like it, until I heard the familiar revving of two engines. I couldn't wait until those two saved me. Then I could kiss them, wash them, and wax them, anything they wanted as thanks for getting me out of here.

"Let go of our femme, you slagger!" Sideswipe growled, shooting forward and facing the Decepticon. Sunny wasn't too far behind, his swords out and at the ready. The Decepticon stopped, and looked at them for a moment.

"This fragile organic is yours?" He sounded incredulous. He shook me a little. I closed my eyes, feeling the nausea as well as the pain. Maybe the nausea was from the pain. I had no clue, but by now from the shaking, I probably had Shaken Person Syndrome, if there was such a thing.

"Yes," Sunny said darkly, his voice promising a slow offlining to this mech.

"Ha! I see now, she is just a pet." His voice was mocking, as he stared at my twins.

"Motormaster let her go." Sideswipe said, his voice low, almost on the verge of a growl. The mech holding me, Motormaster, just chuckled darkly.

"I think not. Now that I know that she gets this kind of response from you two annoying, pit-spawned Autoscum, I think I will keep her." Motormaster replied. I closed my eyes, feeling a sort of weird floaty feeling come over me.

"Let her go. NOW!" Sideswipe roared. Motormaster chuckled, before flinging me to the side.

"Why don't you two fight me like grown mechs?" Motormaster said, watching in amusement as each of the twins twitched when he let me go. I flew across the desert, only to land harshly on the sand. I groaned and held my breath in pain. Finally I closed my eyes, and just let myself fall asleep, not really caring what happened to me. Let me be trampled, it might end the agony of whatever Motormaster did to me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~Sideswipe POV~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I looked on in horror as I took in the scene in front of me. Motormaster, one of the most feared Decepticon's held Sunny and my mate in his servos. She appeared to be in pain, and as I narrowed in on what he was doing to her, I finally figured out why she was in such pain. He was squeezing her, tightly, in his servos. She was much smaller and more fragile than he is, so he was damaging her more than anyone would think.

*Sunny - *

*I see it Sideswipe. He's going to pay.* My brother promised darkly. I shivered, knowing from experience that when he went into that programming, heads were literally gonna roll. His gladiator protocols were booting up, mine were probably just a nanoklik behind. This is why Sunny was one of the most feared opponents to come across on the battlefield.

The last time we were in battle, Sunny took down a Decepticon three times larger than him. That earned him a good title of being feared, as well as ensuring that Cybertronian's gave him a wide berth. Everyone knew that if Sunny protected you and if they messed with the person under his protection, Sunny would come after them. And no one wanted that.

I felt my systems begin to boot up, and a cold indifference came over my frame. All I knew was that I had to fight to win. And the winning prize was the human being held tightly, too tightly, in Motormaster's servos. The human, my mate, I thought, back to my primal instincts.

"Let go of our femme, you slagger!" I shouted at Motormaster, coming into view to face him. My twin was flanking me, letting me know that he was with me all the way. However, we were both in this together, and Sunny was more the muscle and most dangerous one of the both of us. Sunny had his swords out and to the ready, waiting for the moment to strike. I was more subtle, my swords were slid out a little bit, but they were at the ready as well.

"This fragile organic is yours?" Motormaster asked, incredulous at the both of us. He began to shake Gemma, our mate, and the both of us shook as well. Although it was not with the force of being shaken by another mech, but with anger.

"Yes." Sunny said darkly, causing my own body to react to his voice. My swords slid out a little more, and over our bond I felt the lust for the battle and rage overcome my own emotions.

*He's so dead.* Sunny promised over our bond.

*I understand. We'll do this together.*

"Ha! I see now, she is just a pet." His voice was mocking, as he stared at the both of us. Sunny's rage flared, and my own emotions mingled together, until we couldn't tell which emotion was our own.

"Motormaster let her go." I nearly growled, keeping my voice low. Motormaster just chuckled darkly not affected by my gladiator protocols. Sunny scowled, taking a half-step forward when Motormaster called her our pet.

"I think not. Now that I know that she gets this kind of response from you two annoying, pit-spawned Autoscum, I think I will keep her." Motormaster replied sounding like he was amused. I looked in concern at Gemma, who was closing her optics.

"Let her go. NOW!" I roared. Motormaster chuckled, before flinging Gemma to the side. Our optics looked on in horror as we watched her sail through the air. I desperately wanted to grab her, bring her back to me, but we had to fight Motormaster.

"Why don't you two fight me like grown mechs?" Motormaster said. The both of us let out deafening roars before we charged Motormaster. We were too lost to our programming to even think about what we were going to do. We just saw Motormaster, and saw red as the human's would say.

We slashed, punched, kicked, and even bit whatever we could of this Decepticon. Never mind the fact that he towered over us, we had to take him down. He did a disservice to our mate, he hurt our mate, and there was no way in the pit that we could let him forget this.

Finally the other mechs were there, and they pulled us off of Motormaster. He was a pile of scrap, Energon pooling on the sandy floor, by the time that we were through. I watched with satisfaction, feeling Sunny's through the bond, as his spark died. Then we both turned and rushed to the side of our mate.

Lennox and Epps were sitting beside her, when we came over. They both stepped back, letting us pick up our hurt mate and cradle her in our servos. She was badly injured; anybot could see that with their bare optics. I snarled, still under the influence of the gladiatorial programming. Sunny growled at Mirage, who walked a little too close to us. He put his hands in the air and backed away, assuring us that he was no threat.

All of a sudden, a large lime green mech was there. He sighed and approached us with his hands in the air. We both snarled at this mech, but something about him seemed different from the rest of the mechs in the vicinity. Something I couldn't place, but somehow we both understood that he wasn't as big a threat as some of the others.

"Opiluk." With this Cybertronian word we both stopped our growling and snarling and let him approach our mate. He began to hum as he activated his holoform and knelt beside her. He fiddled with some of her injuries, before he began to patch her up to the best of his ability while in the field.

"We need to get her back to base as soon as possible." The lime green mech sighed, before looking at us for permission to pick her up. Sunny nodded and then snarled as one of the humans got too close to her. "Meet us back at base. Sunny, Sides, follow me."

"OW! Hatchet!" I heard Sideswipe's voice exclaim loudly. Then a thud and another "OW!" followed.

"Shut up you irritating mech!" Ratchet shushed my mate. "She needs to rest!"

"Yeah, Sideswipe." Sunny's voice was much closer to my body. "And with your caterwauling how in the pit will our femme be able to have a peaceful recharge?"

I moaned, feeling the pain hit me like a ton of bricks. All the voices went quiet.

"Sweetspark, are you alright?" I heard Sides' voice ask, closer to me than before. I struggled against the feelings of lead in all my limbs. I moaned again, moving my hand a little, just a little twitch. I tried desperately to lift my eyelids but it felt like they weighed two hundred pounds. I just couldn't.

"Are you in pain, sparkling?" I heard my guardian say. I merely groaned a little. I wish I could convey to them that my body felt too thick, too heavy to do or say anything. "I'm going to give you some more pain killers. You'll drift back off to sleep, but this is normal and good. You need to rest in order to heal properly."

I felt a watery sensation run up my arm after he said that. I figured that this was him administering the pain killers so I didn't fight the drugs running through my body. I hoped fervently that when I awoke I would be more conscious of my surroundings, and hopefully able to move my body a little bit.

"When will she wake up?" Sunny asked, running his fingers through my long brown hair. I felt my whole body relaxing due to his ministrations, and I almost fell back asleep again.

"I'm not sure Sunstreaker. We all know she was damaged most extensively at the hands of Motormaster." Ratchet said. "The Allspark has helped her heal somewhat faster, though it will probably be a few more weeks before she is up and around."

"Sun – ee." I mumbled, just relaxing my body a little more, with each stroke his hand made. His hand stilled for a moment, before he continued.

"Sweet? How are you?" I groaned, pain hitting me full force. It felt like I was having a hard time breathing, sharp stabbing pains went through my body with every breath I tried to take.

"Sparkling?" Ratchet asked, sounding worried. I moaned in pain. "Are you in pain?"

"Ye-ah." I breathed. He hissed and left for a moment.

"Sweet, I'm so sorry." Sunny breathed at me. My father came back and injected something into the IV line in my arm. I had the same feeling that happened the last time and welcomed the darkness that engulfed my whole body.

"When do you think she'll be alright?" I heard Lennox say; the next time I grasped consciousness.

"She had extensive internal injuries William." Ratchet said. "I cannot say when she'll be alright. She has had too much internal damage. I'm surprised she managed to heal this far. Not to mention what she has been through with him throwing her. She has a concussion, and her broken bones are now fractures due to the Allsparks power."

"That's good then." Lennox breathed. I sighed, and opened my eyes for the first time. I heard a footstep and then Ratchet was looming over top of me.

"Sparkling. You are awake." He looked surprised. I couldn't nod my head, but I kind of smiled. "Let me inform the others."

I just looked up at the ceiling. I was in much too pain to even attempt to move my head. It wasn't worth the effort. Within ten minutes Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were there. My two mechs held my hand and kept stroking my hair.

"How is she?" Sides asked seriously. Ratchet did a scan and looked at it.

"She's doing better than I expected. The scans have shown that now she just has to heal her superficial injuries like her bruising and other injuries. She's going to ok." I heard four sighs of relief. I just hissed in pain.

"Are you in pain, sweetspark?" Sides asked me. Then he didn't wait for an answer. "Ratchet she's in pain!"

"That's normal. To be expected. She will be in pain for a while. But let me get you a painkiller." I tried to shake my head no.

"No." I managed to say. Ratchet stopped and looked at me.

"You don't want to go back to sleep again do you?" I smirked. "Sleep is the natural remedy to heal your body."

"No." I echoed, but Ratchet quickly injected something into my IV line. I tried to protest but already the drug was taking effect and I found myself falling into the darkness.

"Sunny?" I mumbled, feeling as though my mouth was full of cotton. I heard a flurry of movement beside my bed and then someone was pressing my hand.

"How are you doing, sweet?" Sunny asked his voice rough from emotion and lack of sleep. I managed a tired smile.

"Water." Sunny quickly eased a cup to my mouth and helped me take a couple of swallows.

"Easy now, Gems. Don't drink too much, too fast or else you will just be sick." Sunny said, and then he took the glass back. I made a displeased sound, but let Sunny ease me back onto the bed.

"Sunny." I muttered, feeling the sleep take over my body once again. Unfortunately I tried to fight it, wanting to spend some time with my mechs.

"Don't fight this Gem. Sideswipe and I will be here when you wake up." Sunny promised me and then began to run his warm and slightly electric feeling hand through my hair. I fell into a light sleep.

BANG! I jumped awake and looked around startled at what was happening around me. I looked around and saw that Mirage was on the floor with a dent in his processor. Sideswipe was laughing at him and I shot my mate a disapproving glance. He stilled when he noticed that I was awake.

"Gemma!" Sideswipe grinned crazily at me. I rolled my eyes as he activated his holoform and brought me into a tight hug.

"Move aside Sideswipe!" My father growled at my mate. I rolled my eyes as my father rushed to my side and began to scan me. I hiccupped as the strange feeling of having a laser go through my body enveloped me. "Well you seem to be doing well. How do you feel sweetspark?" My father asked anxiously. I cautiously stretched out my limbs.

"A lot better than I remember feeling previously." I muttered, still moving my limbs nervously. I did have a slight burn if I stretched them too far, but other than that I felt fine.

"I still want you to spend tonight and tomorrow here in my medbay." My father growled, and then his expression softened when he looked at me. "You nearly gave me a spark attack, sparkling."

"Sorry Opi." I said. His optics grew suspiciously moist at that term. I looked down at the berth in embarrassment as the whole medbay grew quiet.

"My sparkling!" I let out a yelp as I was suddenly lifted off the berth and into my father's arms. I clung to him for dear life. I didn't mind heights; I just didn't like to be suddenly plucked from land to be held hundreds of feet off the ground. Ratchet was just content to nuzzle me and he made his odd purring noise as he did so.

"Daddy!" I whined as I kept kicking the air. He had his digits wrapped gently around my torso, but my legs were suspended in the air. He seemed to realize and brought me onto his other servo and held me close to his chassis. I could hear his spark humming comfortingly as he purred to me as well. Finally after a few moments Ratchet set me back down on the berth.

"Sweetspark," Sides hugged me gently as he activated his holoform. Sunstreaker did the same. We were like one big happy family.

The next day Daddy released me from his medbay, with the promises that I would let one of the twin's comm him as soon as something went wrong. He wanted to know if I sneezed, etc. If I felt any kind of pain at all I was to come directly to the medbay. I wanted to roll my eyes at his overprotectiveness, but I could understand it in the same way. The twins' were acting more protective of me than usual, but with their bond protocols on high drive and the fact that I was just severely injured it made sense, so I didn't make too much of a fuss.

So I did complain a little, but after two full weeks of everyone treating me like glass about to shatter, I didn't have any choice. I did blow up, and the twins' and my father bore the brunt of that little incident. They finally let me alone, but they all kept a close optic on me whenever they were near. It was a little disconcerting at first, but eventually we all fell into a routine.

And then about two months after the whole Motormaster incident I was free of all the looks. I was actually able to relax for the first time in a few months. I was free of any pain or lasting effects that battling Decepticons had left on me. The twins and my father both gave me a little more room to breathe, though the twins were desperately protective of me. But I didn't mind. In fact I relished this aspect of our relationship and was actually content to let Sunny and Sides take the reins when it came to everything.

I know feminists all over the world will yell at me, but some days I just didn't want to be in control. I didn't want to have to make the hard decisions. I found it more calming to just let the twins take complete control of everything, but I did make my displeasure known on more than one occasion when they did something I didn't agree with or even like. So I wasn't without a voice, and they were always considerate when making a decision, but we all had our roles to play in the relationship. And they were the dominant, strong mechs who would keep me protected. If, for some reason they couldn't, then my father or Jazz would do so. I was lucky to be in such a family. After all I had come to cherish family after not having had any for the majority of my childhood. And then the whole debacle with Divison, I was familial starved. But I didn't have to worry once I found a home with the Autobots. I always knew that they would have an optic on my back. No matter what.