Title:Transformers Shadow of the Day
Genre: Action/Romance, Drama/Friendship
Rating: T for language, violence, some sexual reference, and crude humor
Short Summary:The Third Chapter; With The Fallen gone, and Unicron's delayed arrival, the unity of Autobots and Decepticons work with Earth to shut down the dreaded Department for good.
Chapter One
Department Raid
Mt Pleasant, Utah
Time: 12:35 A.M
It was a very strange sight to see as a convoy of military vehicles and sports vehicles driving through the mountain roads of Sanpete County, Utah. Many people driving through the mountain roads had slowed down to a halt just watch as they went by. No one really understood why the entire valley had been evacuated or put on a curfew in such a quiet manner. All they knew was there was something going on that the military wasn't telling them. And with good reason. But it didn't mean that the people of Sanpete didn't like it.
There had been quite a few protests on the matter by many Ranchers and Farmers but the Military and the Local Law Enforcements had insisted that it be done.
Still, it was very odd to see Army men and women driving down the roads on motorcycles and military ATVs. And it was strange to see massive trucks like two huge Semi Trucks, a Monster Truck and a huge Communication Mobile Command vehicle driving in between two police vehicles, six motorcycles, two Emergency Search and Rescue vehicles and a few sports cars.
That is...until they saw the strange robotic insignias on their sides. That was when they knew what was going on. Or they had an inkling of the situation. Their new Cybertronian residents were en-route. The Autobots and the Decepticons were in Sanpete County.
It was suppose to be quiet of their arrival. And for the most part, it was. The local Law Enforcers of Sanpete County were working with the Military group, The NEST to keeping the alien robots' arrival quiet. Anyone who refused to leave their homes were on a curfew until this whole thing was over. They swore that nothing would be destroyed and if they did, the United States would compensate for the damages.
There was definitely something going down. The thing was, no one would be awake when it went down.
Until the fight started.
The Sanpete County Sheriff was waiting patiently at a recently deserted air field here the military would be meeting up together. He and his deputies were rather anxious to get this over with. He was just as excited to see the Cybertronians, himself. But not with the situation that had came up. The only information he had gotten from the Head Of NEST, Tom Banachek was that the operation was a serious one and they needed to keep a low profile as much as possible. They didn't want any casualties at all. That was why the entire city of Mount Pleasant, Ephraim and Manti had been put on lock down and under curfew, taking any personal belongings and animals they didn't want harmed in future possible battles that might take place. It was to be as confidential as possible.
However, seeing the massive vehicles driving their way had all of the police officers a little edgy. They knew the Cybertronians were going to be big but they didn't expect this big.
A few Army officers on military ATVs drove right up to the Sheriff and stopped near them, turning off their off road vehicles. The obvious leader climbed off, taking off his helmet to reveal the face of well known Will Lennox. He took one look at the Sheriff before offering his hand in greeting. "Sheriff Blackham?" He asked with a slight uncertainty.
Sheriff Blackham nodded as he shook Lennox's hand, keeping an eye on the massive vehicles lingering behind all of the Army Soldiers. "I am guessing you are General William Lennox, the Leader of this entire Hive Operation, correct?" He asked sounding uncertain himself.
"It's NEST, actually. But same dif." A tall Black Soldier said as he joined them, smiling a mouth full of white teeth at the Sheriff. Commanding Major Robert Epps, the Sheriff remembered he was named.
Lennox gave his best friend and closest ally a look before nodding to the Sheriff. "Thank you for your cooperation, Sheriff. We, the NEST and our Cybertronian Allies appreciate it." He told him.
Sheriff Blackham merely shrugged as he spared a glance at the huge red and blue flamed Semi truck still sitting innocently behind the Soldiers. "Anything to help, sir. I gotta say, when we got the call from Mister Banachek, we thought it was a prank call. It took a call from SecDef Keller to make us actually cooperate." He then nodded to the huge truck. "Is that really him? The Big Guy everyone has been talking about?" He asked politely.
Lennox and Epps both smiled knowingly before looking at the huge truck, just as the doors opened and two men hopped out. One with dark hair and one with shaggy brown hair and both dressed very much like Soldiers, their selves.
"Yep, that's him." Epps said before high fiving the ma with brown hair.
"Sheriff, may I introduce you to Optimus Prime, the Leader of the Autobots. Optimus, this is Sheriff Blackham of Sanpete County." Lennox said motioning in between the two dark haired men.
Optimus, in his holoform, nodded respectfully to the Sheriff. "Sheriff Blackham, it is a pleasure to meet you. And I am grateful to your help with this mission." He said in his powerful but gentle voice. Sheriff Blackham gaped at him for a moment before blinking out of his stupor. "Pleasure is all ours, Optimus Prime. A lot of the folks around here have been wanting to meet you and your robots for some time now. So this is a real honor to us. If only under different circumstances." He added quietly though.
Optimus offered a light smile of apology. "I wish it could be different, myself." He then motioned to the man beside him when he cleared his throat. "Allow me to introduce my human partner, Reno Banes. Reno, Sheriff Blackham." He said politely.
Reno and the Sheriff shook hands. "Sheriff." He said in greeting.
"Mister Banes." The Sheriff greeted politely in return.
"All right. Sorry to break up the intros, but we do have a schedule to keep up." Lennox said apologetically. He looked at the Sheriff, now down to business like. "The operation we are doing is to be strictly confidential. We, unfortunately, can't give you any information for your own safety but we will be grateful if you can give us as much information as you can. Our objective is the Sanpete County Crusher Mines. What can you tell us about them?"
Sheriff Blackham frowned before motioning to one of his deputies. "I am afraid not much. The Sanpete County Crusher Mine is located just outside of Manti. It used to be a gravel and sand mine. Some said there's gold up there too but it's off limits. No one is allowed to venture on up the canyon to get there. It's been closed off for a number of years. So I don't know why you want to head up that way." He said before giving his deputy a look as he approached. "But I did get word that there's been some activity up there. No one can tell us diddily squat thought. Hey, Yearsley, where's the map?"
The deputy grimaced. "We...er...forgot it back at the department, Sheriff." He said sheepishly.
Sheriff Blackham did not look happy. He even took off his cowboy hat and slapped his deputy upside the head with it. "You, renob! I told you to grab it." He snapped.
"It's all right, Sheriff." Optimus quickly saved the deputy from a beating with a hat. "We can actually have a satellite holo-map created." He looked around his large truck form at the massive Mobile Command vehicle. "Soundwave, can you upload a satellite feed on the general area?"
The large Mobile vehicle hummed before a series of clicks followed and the head lights flashed on, a deep red as a holographic map flickered to life all around everyone and amazing the Sanpete police officers. "Affirmative, Optimus Prime. Satellite feedback of Sanpete County Crusher mine running." A deep monotonous voice rumbled from the giant vehicle before there came a dissatisfied grunt. "Optimus Prime. There is an Electromagnetic interference with the
Satellite scans. Cannot complete full scan of geographical image of the mines. Energy wave interference interrupting full scan."
"Okay, what does that mean?" The Sheriff asked frowning in confusion.
Lennox and Optimus shared a glance before nodding as if they came up with the same conclusion. There could only be one reason why Soundwave couldn't get the full scan of the mines. It meant that Department EMP disablers were in use. The General whirled a finger just as Optimus shut off his holoform and rumbled his real body to life. "It means they really are here. We need to move in ASAP." He said already hopping on his ATV.
"General Lennox, what is going on? What is happening up at the mines?" Sheriff Blackham asked tense as a drum string.
Lennox shook his head as his kicked on his ATV. "That is one thing we can't tell you, Sheriff. I am sorry. How stable are the mines?" He asked seriously.
"Not stable at all, General. At least that's what I thought. That's why no one goes up there. Either way, what can you tell us? Don't you think we have a right to know what is going on? We can help!" Sheriff Blackham argued.
Lennox shook his head with a deep sigh. "Not unless you want to endanger your people, Sheriff. All I can say, you have terrorists up in the hills and we are taking them out. Do not attempt to butt in. Because you will just get yourself and your officers killed. If you can, just put road blocks at the end of the road of the mine. Anyone but us tries to leave, you shoot out their their tires or hold them off as long as you can without getting yourselves hurt or killed. No questions asked whatsoever until one of us clears them. I hate to do this to you, guys. But that's the only thing you can do to help. Everyone, let's roll. We will stop and regroup just outside of Manti." He ordered before taking off on the ATV.
And therefore, the many vehicles rolled.
Just outside of Manti, they met up again, all vehicles immediately going quiet so not to catch unwanted attention.
"All right. We need to make this quick as possible but quiet. We also need to make sure they are really up there." Lennox said before looking up at Soundwave. "Soundwave, send in your subunits. Cheetor, you too. Get up to the main entrance and check it out. Send the visuals to Soundwave." He ordered.
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, there were a series of clicks and the subunits were immediately deployed.
From within a side compartment of Soundwave, the black pantherbot, Ravage was already booking it at a run, soon to be joined by the yellow and black spotted Maximal, Cheetor. They ran side by side and were quickly out of sight as they ran into the bushes. Two swooping bird like bots, Laserbeak and
Buzzsaw were in the air, flying high as they soon were out of sight. The last two, Rumble and Frenzy were soon scampering after their two feline counter parts a second later.
"All right, while they are scoping out the area in the mine's main entrance, let's make sure there aren't scouts guarding this area." Lennox said before pointing at the violent purple RX-8. "Mirage, go camo and search the area. If you find anything, radio in. Comm links only. We don't know if they have hacking radio transmission waves set up. We don't want this to be like what happened in Canada."
The large black Top Kick truck sitting beside three Ducati motorbikes huffed his engine, a sound that was clearly full of grief and the air surrounding everyone soon changed the same. "Yeah. We don't wanna lose any more mechs like we did with Quick Change. Poor slagger. I told him to slow down and think but he didn't listen." The Autobot Weapons Specialist grunted softly.
"What happened to Quick Change wasn't anyone's fault, Ironhide. Quick Change was a good bot but he needed to learn to be patient. It was his own error that deactivated him." The lime green Autobot, Ratchet said softly from where he sat beside the yellowish orange Emergency vehicle, whom was well know as Groundhog.
"How's Shuttershot doing, Ratch? He recovered yet?" Epps asked looking up at the lime green Autobot.
An air break sigh escaped from Ratchet and he would have shook his head if he was in mech mode. "I am afraid Shuttershot's injuries are still at a critical. Jolt and Red Alert is working on him but, I am afraid it is his loss of Quick Change that has hit him the hardest. Those two had been together for a very long time. Losing Quick Change has been very hard on Shuttershot. He will not be the same mech as he was before." He explained.
Epps sighed, shaking his head. "Poor guy. I feel bad for him. But it wasn't his fault. The Department guys blindsided them." He said gravely.
"Indeed, they did. But it was still Quick Change who ran in without looking and not following Ironhide's orders when he should have. He always did have a problem with just running into without looking or asking if it was clear." Ratchet said in a low voice.
"Okay, I hate to do this, guys. But let's have silence until this is over or it gets wild." Lennox said, apologetically.
"Lennox is right. Stand by silence for now." Optimus spoke up. And everyone soon listened.
Cheetor and Ravage raced through the trees and up the hills with graceful leaps into the air. They stayed rather silent for large metallic felines, making no noise but soft pads of their peds and claws.
Finally they came to the main building of the mine where they stopped beyond a rocky hill and carefully peered over the top towards the building. It was rather dark inside, as if no one was inside. Bit switching to infrared night vision, they caught heat signatures all right. There was definitely someone in there.
Three someones, actually. And they were pacing back and forth through the room, pausing now and then to look out the windows into the darkness.
"Cheetor to Big Boss and Con Commune, we have visuals. There is definitely humans up here." The Autobot spoke quietly before zeroing his scans on the three. "And they are packing some heavy stuff. And I don't mean sand or rocks. Looks like they have those EMP generated power rifles like the one that
Department aftpipe used on Quick Change."
"Acknowledged, Cheetor. How can close can you get without being discovered?" Optimus' voice came over the links.
Ravage and Cheetor frowned as they searched the area before their red and blue optics fell on some odd looking devices with lines trailing from hidden posts in bushes and trees.
"We are unable to get too close with setting off the Energon Read lines they have set up. It looks like they have a thin wire fence trailed all around the main building." Ravage was the one to hiss. "It is thirteen feet high. We can jump them if we get enough velocity and height. But..." he paused as he eyed some odd looking dark splotches all over the ground just outside the building.
"Looks like they have some Electromagnetic mines as traps, sir." Cheetor finished for him. He switched his scanner to a deep ground scan to get a better look. "Can't see them very well at all on Geometric scan. It's the minerals here. They are blocking clear views. It looks like they have wires connected to them, leading up to the building inside that room."
"Optimus Prime, sir, Mirage reporting. I am ten yards away from Cheetor and Ravage's position. I am currently running the same scans. I have a better view from here." The Autobot Camo Specialist spoke up. "I see what they are talking about. They are trip mines. If an electronic being steps on those mines, they will detonate and sound an alarm within the building. None of us is getting in there by ground."
"But by air..." came a hissy chuckle as Laserbeak and Buzzsaw swooped over above.
There was a pause before Soundwave's deep monotonous voice cut in. "Laserbeak and Buzzsaw: initiate drop off. Pick up Frenzy and Rumble. Designation: op of building. Frenzy and Rumble: mission cut off control systems. Infiltrate and detain human agents." He ordered.
"And for the love of Primus, do not severely harm them this time." Optimus said in a dead panned sort of way.
"Got it!" All four Decepticons chimed.
Buzzsaw and Laserbeak swooped out of view from Cheetor and Ravage into trees and seconds later came back carrying Rumble and Frenzy, waving at the two felines.
Cheetor huffed but chuckled as he looked at his counterpart. "Cheeky, aren't they?" He asked as he watched the four small bots dive over to the building and landing carefully and quietly on top of it.
"More like annoying." Ravage growled, watching as Frenzy and Rumble scrambled across the roof for a ventilation shaft. "Let us just hope they do not make a mess like last time. I'd hate to see Soundwave upset again."
Cheetor frowned as he glanced at Ravage, questionably. "That was him being upset? I thought he was always like that." He remarked before grimacing. "Now that I think about it, he has been kind of crabbier than lately. What's going on with him?"
Ravage looked away moodily. He obviously knew what was up with Soundwave and he wasn't happy about it. He knew he couldn't say it to Cheetor. Only a select few knew why his master was in such a bad mood. "Why he is moody doesn't matter to you. He is just...a little stressed out right now." He explained quietly.
The yellow and black feline Autobot stared at him. "Wanna elaborate?" He asked skeptically.
Ravage only looked away. "Not really my place to. Let us just say that...Soundwave is feeling guilty for something he did and now he can never apologize for doing it." He said in a low voice.
"Who was...?" Cheetor was asking.
Ravage hissed impatiently as he looked at him. "We do not have time for talking about Soundwave's personal life, Cheetor. If you have not noticed, we are in the middle of a mission. Now shut up." He growled, his ears pressed down to his head.
Cheetor grimaced but shushed, waiting for the next stage of the mission. He hated waiting but it was all they could do right now.
Frenzy and Rumble slid down the vent shaft as quietly as they could, even though it was not easy for them to do. So far, they managed to do it. Once they reached a vent grate, they carefully peered out and found it was a darkened room but not empty. It had three humans roaming around and muttering about something about nothing. They were actually just bored out of their minds really.
"Can you believe that we are stuck here, in the middle of nowhere? It is so boring here." One guard grumbled.
The second guard groaned before looking at the first in irritation. He was getting tired of all of the squandering that his partner was doing. "Dude, just be lucky that we don't have to be down in the labs. Those stupid things that the Department techs created give me the creeps. That really big one kept looking at me when I was making my rounds." He remarked with a groan.
Frenzy and Rumble frowned at one another, wondering what in the name of Primus these humans were talking about. There must have been something pretty big in these labs. Possibly Cybertronians that were being experimented on. The Department sure seemed to be doing that a lot lately.
"Puh-lease, Stanson. It's not like they can get out." The third Agent asked.
The other two shook their heads. "Actually, they broke out a few times. They sure are a wild bunch. They're like wild animals. If they get out again, I think we should just destroy them. Who friggen cares? I just can't wait til shift change. I am dying for a cup of coffee right about now."
*Soundwave to Frenzy and Rumble: Acknowledge. Situation?*
Frenzy reached up and tapped his head to activate his comlink. *Fr-Frenzy to Boss. We ju-just arrived through the ventalilation shaft. Permission to initiate and immobilize human guards?* he sent back.
*Permission granted. Immobilize only, Frenzy. Do not harm the humans.* It was Optimus who spoke through.
Frenzy rolled his optics but nodded as he shifted his arm into a small needle gun loaded with darts. *Ye-yeah, yeah, Prime. We know.* He remarked before nodding to Rumble, who had done the same.
Both of the Decepticons nodded to one another as they readied their selves. They both counted to three before jumping and crashing through the grate, making the three humans jump and look around while raising their guns.
Before they could even raise them and fire at the two intruders, Frenzy and Rumble fired their darts, which struck the humans in the neck. And down they went.
Frenzy nodded sharply before scampering over to the darkened desk and computer, plugging in his I/O ports into the computer mainframe. He immediately set to work on deactivating the Energon Read Lines and mines. He skimmed through the bypass codes easily before the computers clicked and a small box popped up on the screen. "Bo-boss, Ener-Energon Read Lines and mines deactivated." He stammered over his words.
"Ready for an up close and personal engagement, Boss Bot!" Rumble added to Frenzy's words.
*Soundwave and Autobot allies acknowledges and responds. ETA: 1200 seconds. Stand by for arrival.* The Decepticon Communications officer stated.
Rumble and Frenzy nodded as if Soundwave could see them before looking over to see Ravage and Cheetor carefully crawling under the fences and treading
carefully across the open area towards the buildings.
"I...I...I thi-think I will snoop around for a minute." Frenzy said hacking back into the computer to snoop.
Rumble frowned as he watched his twin with disapproval. He didn't think it was a good idea. Who knows what would happen? He could easily...
A blaring alarm went off, deafening their audios and making them yelp.
"Slaggit, Frenzy! What did you do?!" Rumble yelled over the deafening alarm.
Frenzy covered his audios, shaking his head at a rapid speed. He hadn't done anything yet! He hadn't even touched anything on the computer yet! "I-i-it...it wasn't me! I di-di-didn't do anything!" He cried loudly.
Both jerked around when they heard clawing at the wall and they turned to see the two felines scrambling inside. "Slaggit! Who did it?! Who set off the alarm?!" Ravage snarled as he glared at his fellow subunits.
Rumble and Frenzy pointed at one another, not really sure who to blame.
*Frenzy! Rumble! Report! What happened?!* Soundwave's demanding powerfully voice snapped over the links.
"Frenzy did it!" Rumble yelped, pointing both servos at his twin now.
"Di-di-did not! I di-didn't do anything! Yet! Wh-whatever it is, I di-didn't do it!" Frenzy defended himself.
*Scatter and search for reasoning of the alarms! Do not get caught! If you engage with the Department agents, immobilize only! Do not terminate!* Soundwave ordered them.
*Got it!* All of the subunits and Cheetor called over before looking at one another and nodding. They immediately scattered, rushing in different directions to begin their search.
Cheetor slinked quickly and silently through the halls, ducking into doorways when he saw signs of movement. He saw only brief glances of Department
agents running, but...it seemed strange. A lot of them seemed that they were running away from something. He would have rushed some of them, knocking them down and out but something of interest was what stopped him.
At least from three of the agents.
"God damn it! That god damn doctor!" One guard was yelling as he quickly checked a sub machine gun while running with two others. "What the hell was he on when he created those things?! All they keep doing is making trouble! When is he going to decide to send them to an incinerator?!"
The second guard shook his head as he ran with the other agents. "I don't know, Jones! I wish he would make up his mind about them too! I think he is just trying to think about just setting them loose and let the god damned US military and their pet robots take them out!" He yelled as he ran.
"Yeah right! I think even those damn aliens would have a hard time breaking these things! They sure are tough sons of bitches! How many adamantine cages has that been now?!" The third cried as his feet pounded against the ground.
"Twenty!" Both the first and second yelled as they went.
Hidden in a darkened corner, Cheetor looked around the corner, frowning in confusion. He had no idea what those humans had even talking about. What could possibly be tougher than adamantine? Even he and the other Cybertronians had a hard time breaking that stuff...
Suddenly there was a loud crash and the whole building seemed to shake, making Cheetor stiffen and his audio receptors laid flat against his head. "What the frag?!" He yelped, bracing himself as the building continued to shake.
"Cheetor!"
The yellow and black spotted Autobot turned his head to see Ravage, Rumble and Frenzy running up, looking quite alarmed.
"What was that?! Earthquake?!" Rumble asked, his optics very wide.
Just then, there came quite a distant but obviously loud roar that seemed to echo throughout the halls, followed by the distant sounds of gun fire.
All animalistic bots froze and stared in the direction it was coming from.
"Do I even want to know what that was?" Cheetor asked uneasily.
"Probably not. But let's go find out anyway." Ravage said just as uneasily as he took off running. Cheetor grimaced but followed with the twins following after them.
It was leaping down five flights of stairs and rapidly approaching loud gun fire as well as metal crashing bangs and metallic roars before the four came to the source of the sounds.
Running down very large metal walled halls until they hit what looked like a large lab, only then did the four bots freeze.
The room was as massive as most of the Department labs usually were. It looked like the Department had done some serious renovations in the mines, making the chambers much bigger and lacing very think steel and iron walls throughout the structure.
The lab that Cheetor, Ravage, Rumble and Frenzy came to, however, was a mess and it was still heading that way. The lab was completely destroyed like as if a massive storm had blown through and torn several machines apart. Department agents were all over, shooting at something in a very dark area of the lab, where something very big and metallic was ripping at what looked like a replica of the All Spark. Or a steel cage with no bars but metal walls.
Whatever it was, it was severely pissed off.
"God damn Hollander and his god damned ideas!" A nearby Guard yelled as he fired rapid rounds at the massive whatever it was.
"What do we do?! It's fucking tearing everything up! If we let it go at it, we have a damn base...!" Another was yelling.
"That is it! I am not playing Hollander's god damn games! This thing is tearing up the labs! Open the damn sky hatch and let the damn thing out!" A guard, probably the highest commanding one yelled.
"Are you crazy?! Let it out?! If it gets out, we will have a chaotic fight on our hands?!" One yelled as he continued to fire at the being.
"I do not fucking care! It's god damned rampages have destroyed our base! Seriously hurt several of our men! And it is pissing me off because it wants its god damned pals! Let it out! We will send the big guns after it once its outside!" The head guard yelled.
Hesitantly, a Department agent hurried over to a huge control panel and slapped a switch down. The ceiling of rumbled loudly before it began to roll away, allowing dirt and some bushes, as well as trees to fall over and into the hidden lab.
The giant metal whatever growled a strange sound before lifting its head and turning to look up at the sky light that was opening up. Flickering lab lights, added with moon light, however lit it up just barely and all four bots standing beyond the lab doors froze in alarm.
"Wh-what in the name of Primus?!" Cheetor yelped, his audios completely flat and his long tail curled in between his legs. "Is...is that...!?"
"A dinosaur?!" Rumble finished for him, completely stunned. "A real live, made out of metal dinosaur?!"