It was the third incident of this kind already.

The first one had been an ambush on an artifact transport between the Iacon archives and the Macron Gamma base. It had been obvious, that either a traitor or an as of yet undiscovered spy had leaked vital intelligence to the Decepticons. Not so obvious had been where to search for said leak. The Autobots in the Iacon Archives section had spent the following orns answering a lot of painful questions. And security had been running background check after background check on all involved personnel, while a specialist from high command had taken the security footage and the communications logs apart for any hints of who had been responsible. Surprise inspections in the quarters had only brought a lot of illegally brewed highgrade, and a few contraband items to the light of the day. But now it seemed that the culprit had never been hiding in Iacon in the first place.

The second incident had been a prison break, rendering an entire cell block of the Macron Gamma base unusable. And now, not even a decaorn later, four Autobots had been killed during an attack on a supply convoy returning to the Macron Gamma base with building materials meant to repair the damaged prison.

Three incidents, and all of them were connected to the Macron Gamma base. This was the reason why a mostly white mech with a yellowish helm and a few blue highlights now stepped out of the troop-transporter into the shuttle bay of the Macron Gamma base – after being ambushed the last time he had visited driving by altmode, Counter Balance was not going to risk a repeat performance. Besides this time he was not on a secret transport mission so his arrival could be more official. In fact a small welcome committee from the base was already waiting to greet him.

General Quasar, whom Counter Balance knew back from his days at the Iacon's Military Academy, was as always shiny and polished to the point that his aegean-blue armor could be used as a mirror. Next to him stood the Master Tactician, an elder mech with a crafty-looking faceplate. Some bots were calling him the Old Turbo-fox since his clever strategies had saved the orn for the Autobot troops more than one time in the past. A step behind him waited his assistant – a young and promising officer named Outride. This one had started his military career just recently, and yet he had shown some bravery in the battle at the Sonic Canyons. Two low-ranked soldiers were the escort, one of them being a femme actually.

Counter gave a small sigh. To let a femme guard the base's elite? Who could have been this irresponsible? And from the rank insignia… She was not low ranked as he had first assumed at all, she was actually an officer - the chief of security? Counter inwardly groaned. He hated having to work with femmes. It really wasn't helpful that his most incompetent ops team consisted entirely out of femmes. He still wasn't sure how that team had managed to actually save his aft from the Cons.

And this thought brought him back to the here and now. Someone on this base had told the Decepticons that he had been picking up an artifact to take back to the archives and that he, a spec ops commander would transport it personally. The Cons had wasted no time to capture him, which left him at the non-existing mercy of Shockwave. His rescue had nothing to do with any loyalty of his team to him. Alpha Trion had ordered his extraction, had it not been for that he'd now been an empty armor-shell with a wiped processor. So whoever the traitor was, this betrayal was personal.

As soon as Counter walked over to the Autobots who had awaited him the lower-ranked soldiers saluted to him in the usual fashion. He nodded toward them dismissively but not before greeting General Quasar.

"I'm happy to see you again, Counter," the general said, shaking his servo. "Especially after what you have been through since your last visit. It's good to have you back in my base."

"There was a time when I thought I would never be able to return, General, but looks like I still have a few duties to fulfill. So how are the repairs coming along?"

"Slowly, we are still not sure why the Cons targeted that supply convoy. We have doubled the guards to pick up the next delivery but they didn't even get to see the wingtip of an Eradicon."

"I'm sure we can work something out with setting up more surveillance along the transport route. We will have this base in perfect condition in no time."

"Didn't you bring your assistant today?"

"No, Neon is still on monitor duty as punishment for the last stunt he pulled. "

"How did he even manage to insult Ultra Magnus of all mecha?"

And so on it went. The other officers behind the General were already getting twitchy. However the exchange of empty platitudes was necessary, unfortunately. General Quasar knew of course, that Counter was not here to inspect the repairs of the prison level, nor was he here to coordinate the supply transports between bases. But the rank and file didn't need to know about the investigation, maybe then they would be freer to share what bits of information they had.

Standing behind the Master Tactician, officer Outride did his best to catch and remember every word that the commander of Special Operations forces was saying. The big, white-framed mech seemed to know General Quasar, as they had an almost friendly conversation, which was quite unexpected in the case of a strict and serious mech like Quasar. This was unfortunate though, Outride had really hoped to overhear some valuable information, but so far there had only been rumors of how Counter Balance had got saved by his best team of special-agents. The stories were as unbelievable as the one about the bot who had stolen the intel with the attack plans on Crystal City. And to be honest, Outride didn't believe in super-agents, no – he believed in the sleeper agents and spies that both factions had for sure. After all he was one of them and he knew how a small action could affect the fate of many lives. The fact that Commander Counter Balance was still functioning must have been the work of some deep-cover agent among Shockwave's troops, no doubt. All of his hard work had been wasted. This mech was not supposed to be here, he was not even supposed to be online anymore.

His commanding officer's voice brought him back to reality.

"Outride will show you your quarters, Counter."

Hearing his own name mentioned, the tactician's assistant straightened up and got ready to play the helpful and dutiful soldier as he always did.

"This way, sir!" He gestured in the south-wing direction, waiting for Counter Balance to follow him.

They walked down the corridors silently, only Counter Balance as the newcomer getting a few curious glances from mechas who were hurrying to their shifts. So Outride actually startled when the other suddenly spoke: "I heard you survived the attack on the supply convoy."

This topic was not entirely unexpected, so Outride had an answer prepared. He had had to answer a lot of questions after his 'rescue' already after all.

"I am still not sure how. One of the guards said they spotted something unusual and then suddenly those seekers were on us out of nowhere. Almost a decaorn in the medbay and I was the lucky one who survived."

"Very lucky, indeed." And with that the silent march went on until Outride could drop the Intelligence officer at his temporary quarters.

Counter locked the door behind himself and cast a casual look around in the small and empty room before he went over to the utilitarian berth. A sweep for monitoring and listening devices would probably be necessary later, for now he wanted to catch up on some recharge.
But recharge was elusive and he couldn't help but to chew on what he knew about the last incident once more.

It had been a very strange 'raid', as nothing had been stolen. It didn't even look like the seekers had touched the supplies. Had they been in the area to accomplish something different and the convoy had just interrupted them? Or had this been an act of revenge? He would have to grill this mech Outride for more information, but also that so called security femme.

oOo

Meanwhile Outride went back to his workplace to help the Master Tactician with filing the reports. The old cycle-former was looking for some data-discs, trying to reach the box with them from the highest shelf. His assistant, being taller, handed it to his boss without a problem. Then he sat down at the desk and looked at all the datapads with a flat expression.

"Is something bothering you, Outride?" The Master Tactician asked polity, apparently noticing the change in his usually energetic and motivated attitude.

"No, Sir, it's nothing," the younger mech assured his boss but the Old Turbo-fox was not that easily deceived.

"Was it something that commander Counter Balance told you? That mech is not exactly an expert at small-talk, you know."

Outride ex-vented loudly, while silently cursing himself for letting his superior see a glimpse of his mind.

"The commander just asked me about that Cons' ambush. He said I was very lucky. And I was, wasn't I?"

The old mech patted him on the shoulder plate in a reassuring gesture.

"Even we tacticians make mistakes sometimes, mistakes that have heavy consequences. But there's no point in dwelling on the past. Learn from it, yes, but don't let it overshadow your present."

Outride thought about that for a moment. Maybe it was a mistake indeed to kill off those convoy members just to talk to the Con femme who he barely knew and cared for very little. And what did she give him in return? Just a thrilling memory mixed with the bitter feeling of dissatisfaction. Now he had a spec. ops. commander sniffing around, asking about those events. But at least the Master Tactician seemed to feel sorry for him, Outride was sure that the old mech liked him enough to take his side in case of Counter Balance trying to blame the supply mission failure on him.

"Thank you, Sir," he replied bringing a small smile to his face-plate, "I won't dwell on it, I promise."

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Author's note:

Ok, guys, this is gonna be a thrilling (hopefully) spy story about the Spec Ops. Commander called Counter Balance and his investigation at the Macron Gamma military base. Most of the main character are OCs but the canon character will be either mentioned or appearing in later chapters.

I'll try to update every weekend. Please, leave your reviews!

This story is also a sort-of a sequel to my other story to "Through the Bars" which you might (but you don't have to) read too.