Deep Cover.
Chapter One.
One week after the Battle of Mission City.
The Army base had officially been closed since the late Eighties, but had in fact played host to a variety of 'black' Army projects and secret meetings and manoeuvres until relatively recently. As they now had other purpose-built places in which to perform further such operations, it was not a great loss to the Military to empty the Base of what they needed, fill some of the buildings with items they thought would benefit the new tenants, and publicly make a gift of the Base to their Autobot allies.
It was in one of the medium-sized buildings that Optimus called a meeting of the four functional Autobots plus three humans. Ratchet had refused to rule out the possibility that something of Jazz's Spark had survived, and had placed the body in stasis until he had the time to concentrate on checking all possibilities. Personally, Optimus had little hope, but Ratchet had refused to accept Jazz was gone forever until he had run all possible checks.
Optimus knew that Ratchet took the loss of any patient under his care personally, and would not declare anyone dead until all possibilities were exhausted. It was bad for morale when somebody died, and he knew the mood would be sombre. That, however, was not the purpose of this meeting. He had two things to speak of, one piece of news he knew would be received well, and hopefully raise spirits, the other less so.
He stood, and all optics (and three sets of organic eyes) in the room turned to look at him.
"I have called this meeting because I have news to impart to you and a mission to outline." He said. "I have received several responses to the call I sent off into space the day after the battle." There was a small flurry of movement as everyone looked at each other.
"May I ask who, sir?" asked Bumblebee, who was holding Sam in his hands and had Mikaela perched on his shoulder.
Optimus gave a gentle smile: everyone else obviously wanted to ask the same information.
"Not everybody will be landing at the same time as they are different distances from the planet and approaching from different directions, but within an orn we should expect Bluestreak, Hound, Cliffjumper, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Brawn, Mirage, Powerglide, First Aid, Red Alert, Wheeljack, Smokescreen, Tracks, and Inferno."
Another flurry of looks was exchanged, and Optimus waited for it to die down, raising a hand to indicate he had not yet finished. As they subsided, he continued.
"I have also received a communication from Elita-One, who has stated that she and five others will be arriving together."
Ironhide had been counting on his digits and said "Twenty reinforcements?" That'll be a help, but we'll need to find room for them all."
"Well, as long as we can get eight recharge points functional, we can rotate." said Ratchet. "We don't have to have quarters, we didn't even have a Base till yesterday."
"I think that can be arranged." Will said. He was sat comfortably on one of Ironhide's big cannons, feet wedged into the narrow area where arm and weapon met. "The American public is still grateful, Mission City is still very much uppermost in the minds of the Military top brass, and we have warned them that Starscream has left to get reinforcements. If we tell them we have Autobot reinforcements arriving but need more buildings, the army has prefab building slabs available and can raise a structure within a week, and have a permanent Base accommodation block built within three months. Remember what the Secretary of Defence told you? 'Anything you need that is within our power to provide, ask me and within reason, you'll get?' Well, he's a man of his word and such a request is well within reason, seeing as you saved the collective asses of the American people, if not the world."
"Very well. I will make the request." Optimus stated. "However, once we have reinforcements, we will still have a mission to perform, one that will reduce the Decepticon forces by one and gain us another ally. It will not be an easy mission, and our ally does not at this time realise that he is such, but once Ratchet has worked on him, he will do so."
The silence inside the building was almost touchable as the humans and Autobots assimilated the words that Optimus had just used.
"Optimus, if you're talking about what I think you're talking about, firstly, you've left it very late, and secondly, your choice of words leaves much to be decided and is wide open to misinterpretation."
Ratchet commented.
Ironhide spoke up.
"Yeh' gonna catch one of the 'Cons and reprogram them to be an Autobot? I wouldn't have thought it of yer, Ratchet."
"Hey, wait, wait, wait a minute!" said Sam "What do you mean, 'reprogram'? You're going to forcibly recruit and tinker with the mind of one of the others? What happened to the noble Autobot cause and your great belief in freedom?" On Bumblebee's shoulder, Mikaela was glaring at Ratchet, and Bumblebee's optics were fixed wide open and staring at Ratchet.
"You do that? And you call yourself a medic?" cried Mikaela in outrage.
Ratchet gave Optimus a look, then turned back to face his accusers.
"I have the skill to do such, all medics must have a basic knowledge of the functioning of the processors and how code is written and translated. Processor and coding errors can and do occur, someone has to be able to fix them. Before the war there were specialist processor doctors who could cure almost any problem related to damaged processors, or coding that was either bad or had degraded," he explained.
"However, I find forcibly changing the mind of a mech or femme ethically abhorrent." He stated. "In other words, I could do forced reprogramming, extensive and detailed recoding, but I won't." he stated. "As you have pointed out, Mikaela, no medic worthy of the title would change the mind of another against their will." He looked over the assembled group.
"But - Prime said the mission would reduce the Decepticon forces while gaining us an ally after you, Ratchet, had worked on him!" Ironhide said.
Ratchet sighed and turned to the silent Optimus. "I told you your wording was open to misinterpretation." He turned back to everyone else. "No, what I am speaking of is deprogramming – that is, restoring the memories and personalities of a mech from our side who has been reprogrammed.
"Oh, that's different," stated Ironhide happily. "Which mech are we talking about?"
"You know him now as Barricade, but knew him previously as Prowl." Optimus explained.
Sam yelped.
"That hell-spawned mech is an Autobot?" he cried.
"Prowl!" said Bumblebee. "I wondered what had happened to him, all you said is he had another mission. I guess he got caught, and the Decepticons reprogrammed and remodelled him? Those Pit-Sparked, glitch-headed rejects of the scrapheap!" Bumblebee said, optics glowing hotly with anger.
"Not exactly, Bumblebee, the Decepticons did not capture or reprogram him to our knowledge." Optimus told the agitated little scout.
"If not the Decepticons, then who?" Bumblebee said. "Who else would do such a thing?"
Ratchet raised a hand to get Bumblebee's attention.
"Actually, that would be me." He said calmly.
A strange, staticky noise came from Bumblebee's vocal processor, and for a moment Ratchet thought the repairs he'd performed on it had broken down again, but then the scout spoke, confusion evident in his optics.
"But – you just said you wouldn't – but you would to one of our own? You said you wouldn't forcibly change anyone's mind, but you changed Prowl into Barricade? I – I don't understand, you're contradicting yourself!" Ironhide nodded, laying a hand in the little scout's unoccupied shoulder.
"No, let me explain." Ratchet said. "The important word here is 'forcibly'. I changed Prowl into Barricade, body and processors, because Prowl asked me to."
The silence after Ratchet's statement was so thick it was almost visible.
"Prowl – asked you to? But why would he want that?" asked Bumblebee, the shutters of his optics clicking rapidly open and closed, a sign of the scout's growing distress and confusion.
"Because Prowl decided that the Autobots would benefit from a deep-cover spy in the Decepticon ranks." Ratchet explained. "He told me to remodel him physically so it would not be obvious who he used to be. He requested that I take his original memory chips and hold them in safety to be replaced in his head upon his return, and to build him a false memory and life – one that would pass casual inspection.
He and I sat for orns and orns before starting anything, drafting questions and details he may need to know, experiences he should have false memories of, to make his character believable and functioning. I checked all the recycled and old memory chips I could find, looking for fragments of memories from mechs long gone and rusted, and with permission – although not explaining what for – took memory-copies from as many mechs from as many walks of life as I could. Using fragments of these, and where we did not have suitable memories, using our imagination to fabricate them, we created a whole new identity for Prowl, and Prowl suggested the personality of this mech be almost the opposite of his own to again throw off any suspicion of his true identity." Ratchet paused and surveyed the faces in front of him, then continued.
"As we did not know who might be listening in, or what might be let slip, Prime, Prowl and I kept this to ourselves, except for Mirage and Wheeljack, whose assist we needed. It is not an indication that we did not trust any of you, more that it is true what they say, the less people who know a secret, the less likely it is that it is leaked. Even those of us who know have a dormant virus in our processors, to be activated if we are taken prisoner and are tortured, to delete the information in our processors, including that about Prowl, to keep the secret safe.
Then I remodelled Prowl in utter secrecy in a secret location – he went here once we told everyone he was going on a mission – where I physically remodelled him, took out his memory chips, and implanted the false memory chips. Then Mirage and I took him to downtown Kaon. I left, and Mirage re-onlined him and hid, watching as he was found by a Decepticon patrol and proved his worth to them, being accepted into their ranks."
Bumblebee stepped forwards, handing Sam to Optimus, and then giving Mikaela to Ironhide, then rounded on Ratchet.
"You let us all attack him, risked us all killing him, allowed us all to think he was an enemy without telling us?" he said. He rounded then on Prime. "And you let this happen, let us all shoot at a mech whom we had all known as a friend? How could you?"
"You are out of order, scout." Snapped Ratchet. As you were!"
"No, Ratchet, let him, he needs this, and he has asked some questions which I feel deserve answers, although they may not answer his questions the way he would want us to." Optimus said. He turned to the yellow Autobot, who was vibrating with checked emotion.
"Yes, we allowed you all to fight him unknowing because Prowl suggested it. He is my tactician, and he stated it as a tactical decision, and I take Prowl's tactical decisions seriously. Had you known who it was, you would probably have not fought him as hard as you did, a nicety his new personality would not have returned, he would have had no compunctions about killing you." He looked at Ironhide.
"If everyone else in the Autobot forces had known, many of them, too, would likely have held off their attacks, and this would have likely drawn the attention of the other Decepticons. They would have wondered why this was happening, and probably investigated, potentially finding him out and despatching him or using him against us to their advantage. Who better to send on an attack than someone you know won't be attacked at full force? That is why I did as Prowl asked, and kept the information available to people only on a need-to-know basis."
"Bumblebee, I also did the best I could to help him survive." Ratchet said. "I gave him triple-strengthened armour, downloaded all the memories I could find of arena fighting, frontlining, downright dirty fighting when I could find it. Sunstreaker's knowledge of arena-fighting? He's got it. Sideswipe's dirty tricks and feints? He knows them. I gave him knowledge of everything I could find to give him the greatest chance he could have in a fight – something that is now going to work against him in an attempt to capture him and restore him to himself."
"Why leave it so long?" asked Ironhide. "If he had any useful information, it is likely out of date by now."
"Because by the time he was likely to have gained enough trust and position to be privy to information that may be useful to us, the AllSpark had been launched, Megatron had left in pursuit of it, and everyone was scattered trying to find the AllSpark, Autobot and Decepticon alike." Optimus explained. "He disappeared off our radar soon after Megatron's departure, and our next reported sighting of him was from Bumblebee, on Earth. He may not have anything of tactical use any more, but I think we are all agreed that just having Prowl back is enough."
"However, we need more than the four of us, thanks to the knowledge I gave him," said Ratchet. "That is why Optimus suggested waiting for the reinforcements, and when they arrive, we will hold another meeting to tell them what we have told you."
"So, we're gonna try to get Prowl back, preferably before Starscream returns with Decepticon reinforcements, but as Barricade he will not make that at all easy." Ironhide stated. "Thus, the more of us there are, the more likely we are to get him?"
"Exactly." Stated Ratchet.
"Suggestions are appreciated, bring them to me." Optimus stated. "Until then, you are dismissed. You all have duties, please attend to them." He nodded, and smiled as the three mechs and three humans dissipated to all help make their new base habitable.
