Chapter 2

Concern

"She has been damaged badly again," Scourge quietly informed Cyclonus.

The Commander nodded, a thoughtful look spreading across his stern visage. "The troops are telling me she no longer backs down and uses tact during battle."

"Yes, she's just going straight in, without an ounce of fear or concern for her own survival;" Scourge nodded.

"This is not typical of her." Cyclonus was becoming very concerned, he had fought by her side for centuries, and throughout that time she had always been cool and levelheaded during battle.

The Sweep agreed; "she's changed since she came back. She seems to be driven, the battle lust becoming so strong that it blinds her."

"Maybe we need to consider taking her off the front lines. Perhaps she needs time to cool down." He looked at Scourge for his opinion.

The hulking Mech's optics widened slightly. "You know she would never allow that! And I would hate to be the Mech in her way."

"Yes, you do have a point."

"Perhaps, if we send her to investigate a different sector, it might keep her busy long enough to calm down;" Scourge mused.

"Yes, that's an intriguing idea." Cyclonus rubbed his chin in thought.

"Why don't we put her old squadron together, send them out for some sabotage. Then Raptor would have to return to her old ways of planning and stalking."

"Yes, we'll just do that;" Cyclonus decided.For Scourge's idea and logic made perfect sense.

Ghost Squadron

Thrust and Ramjet were more than happy to rejoin their old squadron. They both enjoyed the hit-and-run type of destruction that the Ghost Squadron was notorious for.

Raptor wasn't as thrilled. She had learned to crave the excitement and danger of frontal assault, but no matter how she argued with Cyclonus, he had not relented. Since he was the military Commander, she had to obey his orders, for the sake of Alliance Doctrine.

Stomping into the ship's Magazine, she sullenly transformed and taxied up to her wing mates. All three of them waited patiently as the munitions officers, fully armed them with missiles.

"It'll be fun! Getting to blow up everything in our path!" Ramjet tried to cheer her up.

She snorted derisively. "Not as fun as dogfighting!"

"Look at it this way, we blow them up and don't have to worry about our tails getting damaged!" Thrust liked any conflict where he didn't have to worry about getting damaged himself.

Ramjet snickered. "If you want to keep damaging yourself, don't use your missiles, and just ram the targets."

"Like you do?" sarcasm dripped off her every word.

At this, Thrust snickered his agreement. Ramjet was notorious for coming back damaged, because he seemed to believe his name was the way he should fight.

"Hey, it works, so what;" came the cynical reply. "At least I'm not scared of damage!"

Raptor could sense Thrust bristle. Afraid that the petty argument would soon erupt in missile fire, and blow up the entire ship, she decided she'd just have to swallow the pill that Cyclonus had given her, and actually take command of her squadron. "Alright you two sloggers, just shut up and follow orders!"

Grumbling came from both sides of her, but they both silenced their voice processors.

Quintesson Plans

"Raptor and her squadron have been spotted in operations along the Gamma 3 sector;" the Quintesson leader stated, his red face shifting to his more dynamic multi-colored façade.

"It is just the three of them?" his cohort asked.

"Affirmative. They have been steadily destroying our supply depots throughout that sector."

"Is it a predictable path?"

"Affirmative, we can predict which one they will most likely target next, with ninety percent accuracy."

His cohort's tentacles wiggled in muted excitement. "Then we can ambush them and terminate her?"

The leader shifted his face to the one of death. "Yes, it seems it is the perfect opportunity to assassinate the Alliance's link."

Matching his leader's death face with his own, the cohort chuckled. "It is time to break the Alliance and make them return to civil war."

"And we will again regain what was stolen from us."

"Cybertron.."

They cackled together at the mere thought of their plan's completion.

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