2. Beginning Of A New Chapter

Location Unit E, Three Years After Unicron's Capture

I ran into the main communication center of the base, Ratchet right behind me and all of the humans who had been members of Team Prime and two Unit E fire teams already inside as the Medic-bot said "Raphael, what is the situation?"

Raphael looked up and adjusted his glasses as he said "Ten minutes ago we picked up an emergency broadcast from an Autobot prisoner ship, listen to this." He hit a button on the computer he was sitting in front of and the group heard "Mayday, mayday. Cybertron control, if you can hear me, this is Maximum Security Prison Ship Alchemor. We have crashed on an unknown planet. Many of the containment pods were disengaged, but the one I can see still appears to be intact so I'm hopeful none of the prisoners have…uh control, updating that last report, it seems there's a good chance the prisoners have escaped, please send immediate help to these coordinates."

Raph brought up a map where the coordinates were and he said "The coordinates are practically right by a place called Crown City. I've already forwarded the message to Cybertron but I get the feeling it'll take them time to get a response team here. The Cybertronian I spoke to seemed to be under the impression there was already a team of Autobots here due to the use of the Space Bridge to contact them though they seemed surprised that there was an Autobot presence on this planet at all."

"Which means we're most likely on our own for the next few hours to maybe a few days, if not even longer." I said with a frown.

"Regardless of how long it takes for Cybertron to send back up, we need to move quickly. Raphael, open a bridge, let's roll out." Ratchet said and Raphael nodded before he made a quick set of key strokes before hopping out of his seat, his armor forming even as he ran to a nearby ladder and slid down it, the techno whiz joining his teammates as the three human teams followed Ratchet and me through the now open Ground Bridge.

Scene Change: Alchemor's Crash Site

The three fire teams minus Raphael wasted no time in setting up a perimeter, their armor's com systems kept open so that they could be kept in the loop while at the same time keeping the ones talking safe. The minicon stared at the armored humans in surprise for a moment before Raphael, Ratchet, and I approached him and he stared for a whole other reason as Ratchet and I shrunk down to our human sizes and Ratchet said "We got your message Minicon, name, position, and report if you'd please."

The Minicon saluted and said "Helmsman Fixit sir, I've reconned the crash site and we're missing most of the stasis cells, several nearby have ruptured, their inmates are presumably at large."

"Do we have an exact number?" I asked.

"Two hundred and sixteen at last co-con-cone, COUNT I believe." Fixit said, flubbing one of the words before he wacked himself and got the proper word out.

"Well that's not good." Raphael said and Ratchet and I both nodded even as Ratchet scanned Fixit before pulling out his Mini-Forge and tapped Fixit with it, the mini con glowing white for an instant before returning to normal, no obvious changes on the outside meaning Ratchet's focus had been the inside.

"Wow, I feel a lot more efficient. Whatever you did, I thank you." Fixit said before he shook his head and pointed at one of the nearby stasis chambers and said "In fact this is the only pod still intact!" The stasis pod chose that time to start rolling around as the occupant inside began banging at it and he continued "And its cryo-stasis mechanism may be a wee bit damaged too."

"Right then, let's get to work people." I said before I grew to my bigger size and pointed at each group as I said "Fixit, you and Raphael try to repair as many of the stasis pods as you can, if that intact pod will remain intact then wait until you've got a few other pods ready before you start on it. Alpha Team, I want two members to stay here to guard them. The rest of you will be on over watch air patrol. Bravo Team, you have the west while Charlie Team has the East. Split up into teams of two and track down those prisoners, and if they don't surrender peacefully lethal force is authorized. Make sure you tag any intact stasis pods you find for later pick up. Ratchet, you take the North and I'll take the South."

The Teams all gave their confirmations before everyone barring Jack and June shot up into the air using their Armors' Flight tech and Ratchet nodded his own approval of the plan before he took a large leap into the air before transforming into his helicopter mode. I shot up after him and shifted into an Apache gun ship before the two of us split up to track down our escaped prisoners.

Time Skip: Forty Five Minutes

It was becoming increasingly clear that the only Decepticons who hadn't high tailed it away from the crash site as fast as possible were the stupid ones. Bravo team had tagged two while Charlie had gotten three. Ratchet had gotten one while I had got five so far. All of them were the 'muscle bound punch the problem until it's no longer a problem' type and so had chosen to make a stand. The rest were unfortunately quickly out of our sensors' reach. I was tracking the last signal I had on my scanners and landed in a quarry where I transformed to track him down by foot.

Or at least that was the plan. Unfortunately, just after I took my first step, I heard the sound of loose rock moving and I spun around with my right gun drawn. Seeing only rocks, I used my full range of sensors before I let out an explosive sigh and lowered my gun as I said "That'll teach me to only scan for Cybertronian life forms while on a mission near a populated area. Come on out kid, I'm not going to hurt you."

There was a moment where nothing changed before a kid about thirteen years old stepped out from behind a rock near the end of the quarry. He slowly walked towards me as he said "What are you?"

Smirking behind my face shield at actually being able to say a version of this famous line, I said "I am Tac, an autonomous robotic organism from the planet Cybertron." I narrowed my eyes and said "And right now, I'm hunting down an escaped prisoner that's in the direct vicinity of this place so it's not safe for you to be here."

"You got that right Autobot." Said prisoner said as he entered the quarry with a growl.

I turned around and took in the sight of the dog like prisoner and as Starscream's memories provided a classification for it, my expression fell flat as I said "Oh great, a Chompazoid."

"Heh, heh, that's right. The name's Underbite, have ya heard of me?" Said metal eater asked as he walked further into the quarry towards us.

Starscream's memories once more provided the needed info as I said "You're the reason Nuon City's no longer shown on any maps."

"That's right, and after the long trip I've had I'm feeling a bit puckish. An Autobot ought to solve that problem nicely don'cha think?" The Chompazoid said as it continued to stalk towards us.

"Maybe, but I'm curious about something, did you eat the sound the city made as well?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Wha-?" Underbite started to ask in confusion only to be blasted away with a yell by my Resonance Blaster. However, I could only shoot a quick burst at him before the human gave a loud shout of pain and I spun around to see him on his knees with his hands clapped over his ears. I frowned in concern at him before moving my eyes around and let out a tsking sound as I said "The rocks of the quarry are echoing the sound too much for organic hearing to handle." I turned back to face Underbite as my sonic weapon dropped back down into my right arm and I narrowed my optics as I said "The sonic blowback of a missile detonating would cause the same problem. Looks like I've got to deal with you old school style." I drew my right pistol and my left sword as I finished speaking.

"Now see, that's the difference between you Autobots and we Decepticons, we just don't care about who gets hurt in our fights!" Underbite said as he rolled over onto his feet and charged us.

I fired a single shot before my sensors picking up a new contact heading for us fast had my head jerking up just in time to see a familiar jet shooting down before it turned into another Cybertronian who let out a yell as he drew a pair of swords off its back. The Decepticon only had enough time to look up in confusion before the other guy was on top of him and then rolling towards me and the kid into a crouch, the Chompazoid's body falling to the ground as its head bounced away a couple of times.

The other figure stood up from its crouch and sheathed its swords at the same time as his face mask retracted. Smirking at me, he said "Hey kid, been a while."

"Wheeljack!" I called happily as my own face shield retracted and I stowed my weapons as I ran over the few steps separating us and gave him a quick hug as I said "What are you doing here?"

"You didn't think the rest of the team would stay on Cybertron when we heard you guys had trouble brewing would you?" The Wrecker asked with a grin before looking past me and towards the human as he said "So who's the kid?"

"No idea, we just met." I said as I turned around to look at him as well.

"Uh, I'm Russel." The kid said still staring at us, his eyes briefly glancing at the headless chompazoid before quickly looking back at us, not that I could blame the kid.

"Well then Russel, you're going to have to join us for a little bit. We're supposed to bring any human who sees us to one of the human members of Unit E so that they can properly explain things and have you sign nondisclosure papers."

"You mean like what they do for the Stargate Program?" Russel asked with wide eyes.

"Good analogy." I said with a nod even as I took a couple of steps and kneeled down while offering my hand to him. Russel quickly scrabbled onto my hand and I lifted him up. I took only long enough to call in for a ground bridge directly under the Chompazoid's body which brought it to Unit E's disposal area before Wheeljack and I shifted into our YF-12 forms and shot back towards the Alchemor's crash site. It was time for a reunion.

Scene Change: The Alchemor's Crash Site

Wheeljack and I did a quick flyby over the crash site and I was mentally smirking at the woah the sight drew from Russel. We came in low and transformed mid-air, our boot thrusters gently dropping us and I gently placed Russel down on the ground before giving some of the other Autobots there a grin and said "My, aren't you guys a sight for sore eyes."

Said guys were Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Arcee, each of them with their human partners happily standing with them, and Smokescreen. Also counted with the new group of arrivals were an unknown pair of Cybertronians, a Predacon and a blue and white fem that seemed to be suffering from hero worship overload as she practically vibrated in place with an excited look in her optics.

"It's good to see you again as well Tac." Arcee said with a grin even as Bulkhead walked over and gave me a giant bear hug that had me oofing, much to the amusement of Wheeljack who chuckled at the sight. When Bulkhead finally dropped me, both Bumblebee and Smokescreen gave me a warrior's hand shake and I nodded to the other two and said "So who are the new guys?"

Bumblebee gestured the Fem over and said "Tac, this is Strongarm, she's the ride-along police cadet I've been training for the last month."

"It is such an honor to meet the Autobot who killed Megatron sir." Said policewoman in training said with a crisp salute earning a raised eyebrow motion from me even as I mirrored the salute.

The Predacon then walked forward and gave a fist over spark salute with a small respectful bow on top of that as he said "And I am called Steel Wing, Brother Tac. Skyrunner sends his regards and belief that I may offer you as much support as you shall need for this mission."

I nodded and said "Glad to have you Steel Wing." Looking at everyone, I said "I'm guessing Optimus and Ultra Magus aren't here because having a Prime and his second in command leave the planet so suddenly would cause quite a stir."

"Yep, the Boss and Commander are unfortunately stuck in bureaucratic sink holes right now so I'm afraid you'll have to get by with just us." Wheeljack said with a smirk.

"Oh trust me, with six more Cybertronians joining Unit E's field teams, and four of them who have spent time here already at that, I think we can manage." Agent Fowler said as he walked over. When he was beside me and Russel, he frowned and said "I'm not happy about having to deal with a civilian kid in our midst though. What were you doing so far from Crown City son?"

Russel nervously rubbed the back of his head as he said "Well you see, I'm staying with my dad who owns a scrap yard outside of the city while my mom's gone for work reasons. The news mentioned a meteor and I went searching for it."

"And wound up right at ground zero of the little dust up me and Wheeljack had with a Chompazoid Decepticon." I finished with a frown.

"Sounds familiar." Jack said also with a frown on his face.

"We're not putting another kid in danger, not like last time." Arcee said with a much more severe frown than either of ours on her face.

"Agreed, as useful as you kids were in the early days, that was before Unit E could field human agents along with our Cybertronian comrades thanks to our Armor suits. There is absolutely no reason to put a civilian in harm's way." Fowler said with crossed arms, June walking over to stand by her semi-boyfriend with a nod, her arms crossed as well.

"None of us are saying we should enlist the kid into Unit E's ranks." Bumblebee said soothingly with a hand raised before he glanced down at said kid and continued "Let's just make sure he knows not to talk about what he's seen and then make sure he gets back to his dad's place safely."

"Might be a good idea to see if his father would allow us to use the scrap yard as a staging area for any more operations we run in the area." A member of Charlie team offered. All of the Autobots and most of the humans around us shot the man incredulous looks. Seeing them, he said "What? Can you honestly tell me that we AREN'T going to have to run more ops in this area until we find all of the prisoners that are most likely going to go underground in the city? For all we know part of the prisoner ship could have broken off in entry and landed in the nearby bay and no one knows because it's cloaking system is still intact."

Everyone considered that and Agent Fowler sighed as he said "It really should but that would not surprise me if that turned out to be the case."

Rubbing my forehead, I glanced at Ratchet and said "You're the senior Bot here Ratchet, what do you think?"

Ratchet frowned and said "I would prefer not to get any more civilians involved in this but Agent Anderson is right, we most likely will have to continue operating in this area until we can ensure all of the prisoners have been recaptured. And basing out of a scrap yard rather than some-where in the city or bringing in prefab buildings would be more low key."

"Then it's decided, we'll see if the kid's dad is willing to let us hang out for a while." Miko said with a grin, the thought of taking a look around the scrap yard to see what interesting trinkets she could find making her excited.

Everyone looked around at the others but no one seemed to really have an objection so without further ado, all of the Autobots transformed into our land based vehicular modes, Steel Wing turning into a dragon that looked like a giant mech version of the Night Fury from the How To Train Your Dragon series, and all of the humans piled into the vehicles before heading out, Russel once more riding with me as he gave directions to the his dad's scrap yard. It was going to be an interesting conversation to be sure.