Author's Notes: I can't do 'Jazz-talk' very well either. My apologies.

Many thanks to Bumblebee's Girl for reviewing, and to all those who have added this story to your Favourites and Alerts! Hope you guys will enjoy this next chapter.

I do not own Transformers.


Connections

Chapter 2

"Wheeljack! Now!"

At the push of a button, Wheeljack activated the small device he held in his hands: a force field generator. A light blue hemispherical dome formed over them, its transparency allowing those inside it to find out the fate of their surroundings. Even with the Autobot forces huddled closely together, the shield barely managed to cover and protect them all.

The deadly purple energy from above pounded forcefully on the dome with a resounding thud on impact, causing several inside it to flinch slightly as they braced themselves. Among them, in the midst of a triumphant cheer ("It works!"), Wheeljack huffed at their lack of confidence in him. Did they think the shield was going to break?

"Well, at least it didn't blow up," he said smugly.

That statement earned more incredulous and exasperated looks and fearful and wide-optics stares (in contemplation of what would have happened if the device did blow up).

Outside and around them, the purple energy that had pummelled onto the shield raced down and onto its surroundings, scorching the land and sending bolts of lightning energy dancing on the ground. The cackle of thunder could be heard, though muted by the force field. It was hard to distinguish it from the aftershock explosions from the already destroyed machine, which had also been exposed to the energy beam and had its condition further deteriorated.

The only thing there was left to do at the moment was to wait out the attack (and for Ironhide, subdue the remaining Decepticons, who really, did not even attempt to resist). After helping Avalanche to settle Trailbreaker, Swift made her way over to Elita and Chromia, who were talking with Jazz.

"– already completed, but how did you know?"asked the blue femme.

"Jammer intercepted a transmission, said it was heavily encrypted and all, but he managed ta decode some commands for an attack at our location," explained Jazz.

"I see… So this means that the machine is remotely operated. Megatron must be giving orders from one of his bases," realised the femme Commander. "This weapon is powerful and a huge asset. Why didn't he defend this one?"

"Probably because his strategy for this round was to draw in our forces at the sacrifice of a small fraction of his troops in order to deal a huge blow to us," rationalised Swift, moving into their circle and discussion. Jazz turned towards her.

Facing him, Elita introduced the black and silver femme. "Jazz, I would like to introduce you to Swift. She's a strategist and one of the newest additions to our military unit."

"Swift," Elita turned towards her with a strange smile on her faceplates. "This is Jazz, Head of Special Ops and Third in Command under Optimus Prime."

Jazz smiled at her as she nodded her head in respect.

Keeping her face clear of emotion, Swift listened on as the three returned to their discussion. As tempting as it was to drop everything and hug him then and there, she knew the dangers of exposing her identity at that moment in time. If Jammer found out, he would definitely find a way to eliminate her as he had tried to do so the last time.

It was hard enough to control her spark's utter need to reach out to its bonded. She could not afford to leak any feelings through their bond lest Jammer discovers her presence. Even with the emotional centre installed together with her battle computer in her CPU, it was no easy task.

"Good thing we got 'Jack ta bring a shield in case tha' machine was workin', eh?" Jazz grinned at Swift, causing her to falter for a moment. Primus, how she had missed that smile…

"Y-yes. It was a good precautionary measure," she managed to get the words out.

At that moment, there was dead silence and the shadow of dark purplish-blue faded to soft light blue as the energy beam subsided. Optics looked up to find Wheeljack's shield intact and the sight of a clear sky. With the danger passed, another loud cheer escaped the Autobots and the inventor, taking it as his cue, deactivated the force field. Swift turned to Jazz.

"Would you please excuse us for a moment?" she asked politely.

"Why o' course, ladies." Still grinning, the saboteur bowed slightly and disappeared into the crowd. Swift looked at the ruins of the machine.

"I would like to commission Skyfire, Perceptor and Wheeljack to study whatever's left of that machine," she said.

"What are you hoping to find?" asked Chromia.

"Something I can use to expose Jammer. At this rate, I'm willing to investigate almost anything to get a lead. I have a feeling he knew about the ambush..." Swift frowned.

"Very well. I'll make sure they get on it," assured Elita. "In the meantime, why don't you return to base with the others? We'll take care of things here."


With the knowledge that another such targeting system exists, it was of little surprise that the Femme Division made the decision to stay with the main forces of the Autobot army so as to assist in locating the weapon (the Decepticon prisoners in the brig have not been helpful at all). This also meant that Ratchet and First Aid were able to share the job of tending to the wounded with the femme medics.

Currently, Swift and Avalanche were in one of the isolation wards, the latter tampering with the security camera attached to the ceiling. Swift sat on one of the berths, watching her quietly. Finished with securing their privacy, Avalanche got down from standing on a berth at the same time the silence was broken by a soft whooshing sound. As Elita and Chromia entered, Avalanche saluted in greeting.

"At ease," said Elita. Turning to the other femme, she remarked, "Looks like your suspicions paid off. We've got something."

Taking the silence as their cue to continue, Chromia did so. "From examining what was left, Skyfire, Perceptor and Wheeljack have concluded that the machine was manually operated. Of course, we cannot assume that the other one at large is an identical copy to this one, but we took the liberty of cross-checking with Blaster, who confirmed that there were absolutely no transmissions from the Decepticons' side. He and Jammer were working together at the communications console during the battle."

"Jammer claims that the transmission was too encoded to be detected and recorded, and that it was only due to his skills that he was able to intercept it and decode the commands. He has only his words to back himself up, but no one doubts them since he was right about the ambush," explained Elita.

Swift thought the information over carefully. "I see… I believe that there was no transmission at all. Jammer was aware of the already completed weapon, and probably realised the Decepticons' strategy before contacting Jazz to warn him. The question is: how did he know about it?"

"I'm afraid we do not have enough evidence to answer that question now. We'll have to work harder, it seems," sighed Elita.

"Ma'am, I'm ready with the programme," reported Avalanche.

"Good work. We'll send in Bluestreak now."


Extra Scene

As the doors of the isolation ward slid shut after the grey gunner had entered, Chromia trotted off to the brig to meet Ironhide (and join him in an interrogation session with the captured 'Cons) while Elita headed towards the berth in the furthest corner of the medbay.

She smiled softly at the sight of her bondmate lying quietly in recharge (Primus knew he needed it) and reached up to stroke his helm. Digits trailing down his face and onto his broad chassis, the femme Commander frowned at the berth Optimus rested on. It was not entirely flat: there were several dents at the edges where his hands were, as if he had crushed them in a tight grip, some parts seemed to have buckled slightly, and the area around his aft was –

"Couldn't get the slagger to lie still. Kept trying to get off the berth to join the others," grumbled Ratchet, coming up behind her to check on his Commander.

"So you decided to weld his aft to the berth?" An optic ridge rose with the question and one corner of her lips curled up slightly.

"I did warn him. And even after that he still tried to get up. So I decided to go one step further…"

Elita suddenly grinned at the CMO's smirk. "Let me guess. Sedation?"

Ratchet's looks said it all.

"A bit of an overkill, don't you think?"

"Not at all. Welding and sedation combined appears to be quite the effective method. Especially when dealing with Optimus." Putting down the data pad he had picked up from the foot of Optimus's berth, he turned to leave. "He'll be up and about by the next joor."

"Thank you Ratchet."


Author's Notes 2: Hope you liked that added bonus at the last part. Couldn't think of a way to insert it in into the story.

Reviews and/or criticisms (preferably constructive ones) are welcome. Thank you.

Refracted Imagination, logging off.