Project Icegate, Project One
Chapter 1; A Visit to Earth

Writers note: This story is to be read as if told to the reader by someone told a full account of the events.

"Are your ears open? Good, I'll begin." The man clears his throat, "this is a story about a war that started before time began on earth, A young woman, a beautiful car, a group of visitors, and a few angry machines..."

The stars around Earth were shining brightly, though none in New york could see them as the day was reaching noon. Jack was almost glad he had a vacation coming up. And to spend it with some visitors from Alesia made it even more fun, having to explain the best parts of the world. So far the Alesians in question had visited China and Egypt. But nowhere else.

Then there was that weird attack on Chicago, one that drove jack crazy as he had no idea what had gone on then, as he was off world at the time visiting with Jacob on Minnesota Two, by time he got back everything had been set to rights. Mostly. But now he was in New York. Not exactly the Windy City, but it would do.

He was at the airport. Awaiting his guests, eight of them in total, four men, five women. Three of them soldiers, Most of them basic doctor types that Jack never really got the hang of, Like Feldger, those that never saw combat. Either way they wanted to learn and explore New York, and Jack planned on taking them to the best parts of the city. Though he warned them about traffic was nuts in New York. Nothing really moved much. Which was why the man never rented a car, and used public transportation instead. Not that it truly mattered, much.

The plane arrived, the eight stepped off, a good group, nice and to the point, though jack could tell the soldiers did not want to be there, He could see they were young men, new to battle, possibly f=giving this as a mission to test them out with. Well, at least they are good men, they look it. Jack thought to himself. He stepped forwards to greet the leader of the group, an older man. Possibly older then Jack, but appeared the same age,. "Welcome to New York, one of America's better cities" He said holding out his hand to shake. "I'm general Jack O'Neill, I was asked to be your guide, its my vacation time anyhow so I figured, at least it'll give me something to do. And Jacob's busy with his mom...'

"Thank you General." the leader of the small group replied shaking jacks outstretched hand, "My name is Max, this is Dr Vasnitra, Mirerith, Reavia and my wife Martha, and sergeants Vali, and Gaius, and Captain Mark." Max pointed out each in turn, all were pretty nice appearing for as earth like as possible, no business suits as Jack wasn't good with the type. He himself wore loose fitting shirt and jeans with a pair of work boots on his feet. The nine Alesians were the same, all with clothing that would pass off as normal to the naked eye, but Jack to tell they had a weapon on them somewhere But he did not voice it.

"So, you guys ready for a vacation?" jack asked, trey all nodded, "Good good, lets get going. There's lots to see, and lots to eat!" Was he planning on filling them up or what?

the two weeks blew by fast, and it was just one more day and night before the Alesians and jack were to go back to the SGC and then the Alesians to home. And jack back to Washington. Not that he wanted the vacation to end, so far the Alesians were nice people. The one doctor. Reavia, expressed interest in several earth animals, one of them a cute haveness puppy, and several adorable kittens.

But now the group was at a fancy restaurant to eat. The place was a upscale dining establishment, Sometimes Jack went there for private meetings with top brass like Hammond or the president. Or similar people. But it did not mean that Jack went there normally.. The meal was ordered, each ordered something worth tasting.

The front door opened and two people entered to sit down to eat, right behind them as the door was closing a little blue and silver RC truck toy zoomed into the restaurant as well. Heading first under one table, then to another before coming to a halt under Jacks own table. Wheelie then transformed swiftly, just as he felt the vibrations from Swallowtail, yeah he was safe, he clicked his attenae to let the larger Autobot know that he was safe. The Mutticon was gone, or should have been.

It was then that the aroma of cooked meat filled what the tiny scrap drone had for a nose, and whatever it had that passed for a stomach also rumbled slightly, thankfully at the same time as something rumbled outside as Swallowtail roared to a halt. A woman stepped out of the car and the car sped off as the woman went towards an alleyway.

Jack looked up at the noise outside, not many people in New York owned that loud of a car, wait, why were the streets oddly clear? At this time of day they were jammed with cars and people! Max spoke up when he too noticed the oddly cleared street outside, "Something going on outside?" He asked.

Jack waved him off, "Nah, just the typical day in New York" He said turning to his steak... which was an empty plate. What the hell ? "Where'd my steak go?" He asked, he called to a waiter, asking about the missing item, the waiter said in reply "I just placed it on your table sir. You must have eaten very quickly." Jack shook his head and ordered a second one "I'll bring it right out sir."

A few police sirens went past as Jack sat down, there was a crashing noise heard as well from outside, as well as shooting. But it was a oddly metallic voice that spoke up at his elbow. "They call this a posh Restaurant? Ha! There's no Oil in the food!" The owner of the voice was one very disgusted little blue and silver robot, his mouth was in the shape of a very familiar oval clear colored optics stared out at the world with a hint of red. About thigh high at Jacks left elbow. Jack stared. Martha spoke up as her husband placed a hand on Marks arm and shook his head, Mark let go of the plasma pistol."What is it?"

Jack stared, Wheelie noticed him, picking at his teeth Wheelie said, "Hi, ya lugs got any oil up there?" He asked the people at the table, nine in all. Four women, five men. All dressed as basic New York residents.

Mark snarled, "I do not care what it is, it does not belong here, let me kill it!" He looked to Max, who looked curious more then anything, for his orders. Earth technology was interesting to say in the least.

Said Max, who was staring at Wheelie in fascination, "Amazing little creature. I was not aware your people had come so far in technology." At the Alesians words, Wheelie did his best to appear nice and neat, which was actually impossible to do because he was all bone, silver in color and bits of blue metal that made up the rest of the RC toys structure and body. With two wheeles for his shoulders, and two for his ankles, Wheelie looked a bit bizarre.

It was then that several things happened at once, People screamed outside, glass shattered and the front window exploded inwards as a car was hurled at the building. Mark lifted out his pistol and fired at the exact instant the glass shattered. Wheelie ducked and screamed like a lunatic, "I'm not supposed to be here! Don't shoot! I'm just a scrap drone!.. I'm..." Wheelie halted when his nose picked up a heavenly scent. Oil!

He spotted it,, oil was pooling at the front of the restaurant from mthe thrown Volvo sedan! "AHA!" Wheelie said pointing at the oil all giddy like and starting to wheel forwards before a pair of snaps where heard and he found himself snowshoeing forwards. He stopped when he found himself slowed down by the mouse traps, "Aw great! Stuck again! Where's my Warrior Empress when ya need her?" his attention focused on the pooling oil. He once more started snowshoeing his way to the oil pooling at the front door to the posh building.

Jack started yelling the instant the car came into view, "Get everyone to the back of the restaurant and away from the flying glass. Quick!" Of all the rotten luck, Jack thought seeing the car come sailing at the front of the building. He had to act quickly and get the people to safety. Max stood as Jack did, With people screaming Mark was ignored for the moment.

Marks scooped up the snowshoeing RC truck as it scampered as fast as it could for the oil near the door, Jack came over to the pair as Wheelie noticed he wasn't moving any closer to the oil, and noticed Mark holding him with a rather mean intent clear in his eyes. "Uh hi! Ya mind giving me a toss to the oil over there?" Wheelie asked, pointing to the pooling oil near the front of the room. "Y'see, its kinda hard when one's got his wheels stuck in mouse traps." He pointed to his feet, trying to smile as Mark just gave him a 'what the freck are you?' look.

Jack spoke up then when he got close enough to get a good look at Wheelie, "When did the Japanese make such an advanced robot?" He asked, Max even came over to the two men, curiosity clear on his face

"No" Mark said, as Wheelie struggled in his iron grip, going so far as to pull back but one finger, "It is not from Earth, your world is not this advanced to make a fully sentient robot"

Wheelie then stopped moving, "Japanese? I'm not Japanese!"He snickered thunking his chestplate that said clearly FORD within an oval with a three fingered and thumbed fist, ontop of it was a small little faceplate of some kind. The Autobot symbol. "I'm Cybertronian!" He asked his hand picking at his teeth, "What are Japanese? That is not a planet I am aware of?" He would have said more but there came a horrendus crash and something crashed into Mark, sending him, Wheelie and whoever crashed into them to the floor.

Mark got back to his feet, His gun out and pointed at the woman in scarlet red, her face uncovered as was her fire red hair, black streaks were in the hair of the woman. She stank of oil and other stuff, blood most likely. "Who are you?" Mark asked, his pistol at the womans nose.

"Move that!" The woman snarled in a strong accent, reaching her hand upwards as if to pull herself to her feet using Marks gun as a handhold. Wheelie however was going crazy, "Not good!" He recognised the woman right away. "Let me outta here I want out!" He shouted as a shrill voice screamed from outside.

"Pitful fleshbag!" It was Starscream. The massive Decepticon looked around, he kicked over a car and fired a rocket at the policemen that were trying to detain him. Another explosion sent a second car crashing into the front of the building where the other one was as the Mutticon took off into the sewers below.

Mark ignored the sounds from outside as Jack went to make sure everyone was safe in the back part of the building. Mark spoke as he powered up the pistol, "You will tell us who you are , now"

Lake just looked at him, then his weapon, which was between her hands, and powered up, she let go of the tihng and fell once more to the floor, flat on her back. "I can't exactly tell you that."

Another car crashed into the side of the building, sending dust everywhere. Lakes radio was just out of her reach, inbetweren Max's legs, She saw that Wheelie was caught, He was pretty much motioning to her "A little help here Warrior Empress." Mark snickered and shook his head, "Speak!" he commanded.

"Orders is orders, " Lake replied, Withdrawing, fast as lightning, a strange weapon, "let go, Wheelie." She commanded, she was the one that gave orders in places like this. Basically she meant for the man to let go of the tiny ex-Decepticon.

Mark shook his head, "Tell me who you are, and maybe, I'll let him go." He said, Wheelie started mubmling under his breath, flipping the bird at the man, though Marks attention was focused on the woman in red that laid on her back holding a weird weapon towards him.

Lake would have replied, but the dust cloud from the car getting wrenched away and a shrill voice screeching "Where are you weakling worm!" Starscream yelled as he threw the car aside, the car crashed into a bus, which by then was empty as was most of the street.

"You might want to run" Lake said, as she spotted Starscreams angry horrifying mug in the front windows of the resturant. However she was not the only one that the massive 'Con regocnised. "YOU! Scrap drone!"

Wheelie screamed "I'm not here!" And transformed into his RC truck form... mostly, since his neck was held tightly by Mark at the time, his lower halh transformed into a perfect RC toy truck, the front bumper and grille guard however didn't quite mesh. At least until Mark out of pure shock alone let go of Wheelie as Lake clawed her way to a a overturned table, screaming into a radio, Wheelie scampered off as fast as he could, "I'm not here! Ah!" The wall ahead of him exploded into fragments, Wheelie made a U-Turn and took off screaming like a lunatic, repeating "I'm not here!" over and over.

Lake screamed into her radio, "Swallowtail, Draw him off, do something, distraction, anything, get Starscream out of here before he blows the whole place up!" The eight other people also dove for cover, taking out their plasma pistols and opening fire with them

"On it! Papa bear is incoming!" Came the robotrical sounding reply as gunshots where fired at the massive evil appearing robot, something fell off the thing in a heap, briefly large then condensing in size. Frenzy had a new mission to do.

Jack stared at the massive robot. Ok, what the hell was going on? Starscream looked ready to reach in and grab random patrons who ran off screaming like crazy to get away, litteraly climbing over each other to get away, the m assive hands of the robot smashed tables and otherwise around him before something outside distracted him. Jack stared as the small Mustang, must have been a collectors car, roared into view, on its doors, and hood from what Jack could see there was strange writing all over it, The car got close enough to the freaky robot and transformed into a massive creature, smaller, though faster. Firing what appeared to be a handheld railgun at the massive 'Con. The weapon rang, and the charge connected, Starscream shrieked and returned fire., the smaller 'Bot dove out of the path of the incoming fire and fired again. There had to be help coming. There just had to be,

And help was coming indeed in the form of a yellow medical hummer, Ratchet had arrived. The Hummer transformed then and opened fire with his handcanon. Starscream shouted something and returned fire before taking to the sky, better to get an attack from above. "get ready! Swallowtail get the humans to safety!" Ratchet called to the Mustang.

"Right!" Swallowtail replied, transforming quickly into her alt form and began herding the humans to safer places, for the moment following orders given by a ranking officer so to speak. It was even broadcasted over Lakes radio, though Ratchet merely said Swallowtail to do it, so lake too knew she was to help her autobot. She climbed ot her feet to look around the remains of the gutted resturant. So far, Starscream had left a good mark. Now where was...

CRACK!

Lake sank to the floor, Wheelie didn't notice, but, Mark did, Jack had had enough, too many secrets, and he thought the 'gate was a secret that none knew about. It turned out he was dead wrong. Mark just stared at the general, "What are you doing?" He asked as jack took a piece of rope and bound Lake with it.

"I'll explain later, get my laptop case will you. I got questions that need answers." He said, Mark was ready to just up asnd shoot the woman due to her actions towards the Captain, but apparently it wasn't know that lake was also a Cacptain, and according to Optimus Prime, pretty much a Prime for the humans. However her full rank was of Major. In terms of NEST, Lake was more then a Major, Lake was... well.. L.A.K.E.

Mark and Jack half dragged half carried Lake through the back of the restruant and put her into the back of a puddlejumper that Mark had called for, when he did so jack did not know, but it didn't matter, it was the fastest way to the SGC. Mark got into the pilots seat as the rest of the group filed onboard. Jack tied down the woman who was out like a light, a trickle of blood trailed down her forehead from under the scarlet red viel that covered her from head to foot. Jack was half tempted to check to even so much as see if the woman was wearing any kind of footware.

Jack sat down in the copilots chair after making sure their guest was cared for, "How soon until we get to the SGC?" He asked.

"About a half hour, give or take, Here, use this, it'll stun her" He produced a Alesian made zat type weapon. Jack took it

"I'll keep it handy for now. Get us to the SGC, if she starts to wake up I'll sat her once." Jack said thoughtfully, wondering who exactly the woman was, and more of wondering what those robot thing were and why they were in New York. "Now that you mention it" jack said thoughtfully, bringing up a search system on the front screen, "You mgiht be right about that little robot."

"I am right" Mark said as the Jumper lifted off from behind the building. "Terra is not advanced enough to make a fully senient robot life form." He said, clearly disgusted that he was unable to fry the tiny thing when he had the chance. "NABIS, system search, Senient Robots" Mark commanded, items scrolled across the front viewport. Nothing stood out.

"What did that little robot call himself," Jack wondered aloud before saying simply, "Cybertronian" NABIS picked up the words that Jack spoke and data scrolled across the screen. However even that turned up empty. Well that was that.

In the ruins of the resturant Wheelie finally stopped screaming like a lunatic when he spotted Swallowtail in her Prentender Unit form digging through the damaged buildings calling out a name, None answered, Wheelie scarambled over the debris until he ran headlong into Swallowtails leg. "Wheelie, where's Lake, where is your Primary Innocent?" Swallowtail asked as she picked up the little Traxxas Tmaxx RC truck, which transformed in her hands, Wheelie looked scared as if he was about to get clocked by the larger Autobot,

"It wasn't my fault, The humans they took the Warrior Empress, Frenzy's with them!" Wheelie all but screamed, he pointed towards where the jumper had been only minutes ago before the connection between Frenzy and Wheelie had been cut. He even pointed to the place Lake was last before they got seperated. Swallowtail, still carrying the tiny scrap drone went ot the location and found something that she was not happy about.

Blood, and according to the scan, it was Lakes blood. Damnit! It was possibly the first time that Wheelie saw Swallowtail angery. And was now more then a little scared. Just then a deep voice rumbled, "Ratchet, Report." It was Optimus, he'd just pulled into view, minus his trailer for the moment, as it was currently in use by NEST as a temp hiding place at a storage area.

"Starscream attacked while Lake and Swallowtail where hunting a few of Soundwave's pets." ratchet replied calmly, "And if the intel is correct Starscream fled when you arrived, also, something else fled as well, according to the scrap drone, Lake's been taken prisoner by the humans that Wheelie ran into while looking for food."

"Not just taken prisoner." Swallowtail said all but stomping from the remains of the restruant, Not that it fully mattered to the female Autobot. But her driver was in trouble, possibly badly hurt. "Lake was injured, apparently she was hit somewhere that allowed her to get taken prisoner by some humans." She recived a radio comm, it was ironhide. "What is it?"

"Pinky just reported a strange vessel flying overhead, It wasn't Starscream, he doesn't have a cloaking device on him, this is something different." Came the calm voice of the weapons speicalist.

"Anything else?" Optimus cut in as Swallowtail was too angery with herself at the moment to think clearly as she gently set Wheelie on her car frame's hood, the scrap drone transformed into his alt mode in order to keep from scratching the mustants paint job.

"Yes, there was a brief communications connection from Frenzy, a text message" Ironhide replied

"What message?" Swallowtail asked then, all of a sudden concerned

"It reads thus, 'On strange vessel with Warrior Empress, and other humans, something fishy. Not normal. Destination, Norad Mountain. Will contact when arrived' that's it" Came the reply.

Swallowtail looked to Optimus, who at the moment remained in his truck form as Ratchet moved a demolished truck to the side to get it off someone gently. Several soldiers from NEST also arrived. The look on Swallowtails facehowever said evereything. As soon as Frenzy made contact, they'd head in that direction, until then, Lake was on her own.

The jumper landed, Lake had started to wake up before Jack zatted her, knocking her out a second time, two soldiers came in and dragged her off the jumper and to a cell in the brig. Jack meanwhile set his laptop case in his office and went ot get a cup of coffee. Mark was pacing, and Max was trying to get him to calm down. "I know you wanted to destroy the little thing, but for us to find out more about these, Cybertronians, was it?" Mark nodded. "If it was destroyed, how would we know more about them?"

"You treat them like people, are you mad?" Mark asked, now staring at his group leader, since he was only in charge of himself, Gais and Vali, and max oversaw the rest, he normally in situations like this had to hand over command to Max, who was more diplomatical in areas such as this.

Max nodded, "yes I call them people, just like us. They deserve to get looked into. General, do you have any idea what those things were and why they were fighting?" Jack shook his head, he had no idea.

In Jacks office, unseen by anyone the laptop poked a pair of icewhite optics around as if looking around to see what was going on around it. Good none where near, A simple broadcast was made, "Frenzy location lock" Was all Frenzy said. The little maniac of a drone scampered from Jacks desk and into the hallway fast as possible, hacking into the security system in almost a heartbeat, tapping onto a keyboard quickly as Wheelies voice filled Frenzy's head, "Find Warrior Empress! Don't worry about anything els,e if you worry about any thing else I'll have so many Autobots on your butt!"

"Shut it scrapdrone! " Frenzy chattered back, "Lake Located, Cell codex unidentified, let me worry about my job now stupid."

"What are you Brains or a laptop, get me a wireframe map uplink!" Came Swalllowtail's calm voice. Frenzy did as instructed. "Wheelie, work on that codex, after all, Lake is your Warrior Empress, so it is about time you do something for her other then scream and make confetti bombs."

There came a grumbling of Wheelie before a german accent broke in, "Allow me to be of assistance Scout Swallowtail." It was Brains

Within a nearby hotel Wheelie uplinked through Brains to connect into the firewall system set up by the Humans to get to Lakes cell and get her free, apparently they thought that resetting their systems and adapting to the virus that Frenzy had uploaded, using it as a firewall preventor. Things were moving quickly then, too quickly for the Autbots to like.

Within the Pentagons, War Room, computer screens were littered around the massive room, Several signal analysts were working round the clock to reset their system and get it back to proper levels. It took a lot of doing, but after a week and help from Sector Seven, things got back to normal and the anyalists were working the signal that was used to hack into the defence grid. It was not until Frenzy activated his link from NORAD Mountian did they once again take notice.

"Are you getting this?" One analyst asked his fellow, The man nodded and activated the diagnotics system, a screen apepared, "oh my, its just like the other two signals." It was an exact match to the signals used on Air Force One and the attack on Quatar. "an exact match to the first two."

"Are you detecting anything in particular ?" the second man asked, the first shook his head, "nope, other then the signal itself, nothing is different" Well, that meant little for them, the first analyst got on the radio and called for a sneior analyst and they went over the thing a second time. "Some files are being accessed through NORAD. There's nothing there other then a weapon testing zone, nothing more then that., so why would files be accessed down there, its a mile below ground."

"Well, whatever they are after, they're only accessing it, no downloads are being done." Said one of the analysts. A list of files blinked across the screen rapidly, eacah one on the screen for a few seconds before replaced by another. Finally it halted on a few for extended periods of time. "What is 'Project Icegate?'" One analyst asked, "Who is Captain One?" asked another. All these questions and more were being raised as something was going on.

"Who ever is doing this is accessing these files through a terminal in NORAD." one analyst said, he turned to his fellow and higher ranking general, "Sir, permission to look into the files found?" The general looked thoughtful before nodding,

"Look into all files labeled Captain One, and project Icegate, I want everything found printed and on my desk by morning. Get to it gentlmen, I have to contact the president." The general then left, as he did so he said "Get in touch with NORAd and inforem them they have a security breach." The techie nodded and got on the radio to the SGC.

In the SGC Jack was seated at the brefing room table with Max and one of the other Alesian technical people as Jack never really cared for that stuff trying to find out through NABIS and also the Ancient database what the little robot called himself was, and how many more there were. Jack was ready to call it a day when Walter arrived, "yes Walt?"

"Sir, We recived a call from t he Pentagon, something about a security breach coming from here." Walter replied.

"And?" jack asked looking up somewhat boredly.

"Well, the signal traced is the same signal that was used in two other attacks, one on the miltary base in Quatar three years ago, and the other from Air Force One around the same time. Both times files were accessed and downloaded, the second time had a virius uploaded, took down the defence communication grid for two weeks."

Jack nodded, he remembered that 'vacation', unexpected too. Perfect time to campig you asked him. "Well, Inform the teams, we might have us a mole, check all terminals, levels everything... and get me some fresh coffee, this stuffs getting old." Jack said motioning to his cup as he stood up to go back to his office.

On the level of the power system Frenzy was hard at work typing into a screen and with two hardrvies bays open was typing and franctically looking for files and everything, several files blinked into exisitance before he found what he needed, with a cackle he disconnected and shut down the system,

Wheelies voice came over his comm system, "Ok, Lakes cell codex broken, unlocking now! Warrior Empress free whoo!" Wheelie made some funny chattering noises as if happy for something important as Lakes celldoor clicked open. He even started singing "I get to die, another day, get to die, another day..." horribly offkey as well. He never was good singer.

Frenzy sent back a reply "Project Icegate found, uploading file source, Am in NORAD mountain at the moment will begin searching for the Icegate now..." He seemed to ask over the internal commlink he had.

Optimus replied, "Confirmed, find the Icegate. If it is anything like the Spacebridges, we can connect to Cybertroni Prime's own Icegate and hope for help, or an easy fallback point."

"Roger roger." Came the exicitble voice of Frenzy as two voices broke in, "We're on power level 33, nothing wrong here, all clear so far." Frenzy made a slight hiss and shifted into his radio form set upon a storage box near the computer terminal, which was not set to look as if he hadn't touched it, the two drive bays were out.

Siler arrived then, pistol ready as he walked through. "All clear in the storage rooms... Wait, someones tampered with the Database mainframe." Frenzy made no move as he listened and broadcasted everything he heard to Optimus. Apparently all thses humans liked their secrets, what was this database they spoke up.

Down in the brig a door clicked open, within the only occupied cell a single woman dressed in scarlet laid on t he floor in a heap. Slowly waking up, what was she hit with. Her vision stung briefly. She put a hand to her head and pulled it away, it was sticky with dried blood, she rolled her eyes, what more was a l ittle bleeding. She got to her feet, her weapons had been taken and from what she could see only two men stood outside the door, and both seemed asleep, or dead.

Either one worked for her. Upon closer examination, she noticed a pair of cut marks, looked like Frenzy had been by there, his CDs were the only weapon she knew of that made such deep marks. She policed the two bodies of their weapons, two pistols, amunition for both, and also two larger weaponsas, one of them a P90, strange weapon. The woman in red thought upon viewing the weapon, discarding the thing she picked up the more familiar M14 the other soldier carried.

It was time to find Frenzy, and get out of there, whereever there was.