CHAPTER 3

{{At Autobot HQ}}

When the Autobots assembled the next morning, Optimus and Sunburst debriefed them on what was uncovered the previous night, how the Matrix of Leadership had shown Sunburst who she was and why she was sent to Earth. The bots were a little in awe that they were in the presence of a direct descendent of a Prime.

Then Optimus announced that Sunburst would need their help to obtain a set of coordinates which could only be found in a data core on the Decepticon ship.

"You know as well as I do that it's nearly impossible to locate the Nemesis," said Ratchet, "Their ship has cloaking technology and is shrouded from detection."

"That does not matter," Sunburst explained, "Since last night, an internal homing sensor has been activated within me that is locked onto the location of the coordinate data I need. And if that data is on the Nemesis, which I believe it is, then that is where it will take me."

"So your homing device works the way the Vector Sigma Key helped us find Vector Sigma?" asked Arcee.

Sunburst nodded.

"Then why doesn't the homing device lock onto the actual coordinates themselves?" Arcee wondered.

"I'm not sure," admitted Sunburst, "Maybe it was too risky for me to know the coordinates, in case I was captured. Perhaps my pod should have taken me there but something glitched along the way."

"So Plan B kicked in," Arcee said, "The Primes think of everything."

Sunburst nodded and continued, "Once onboard, I'll need your team's help in covering for me so I can get to the ship's databanks."

Sunburst went on to explain that while searching for the war ship, she'd turn off her signal beacon to avoid Decepticon detection. But as soon as she found her way onto the Nemesis, she would comm-link the rest of the team so they could bridge to her coordinates.

Bee buzzed the question that everyone was thinking.

"Yeah, how ARE you going to get on the Nemesis?" ask Bulkhead.

In reply, Sunburst jumped in the air and gracefully transformed into an X-wing fighter. The X-wing hovered for just a moment before her jet thrusters fired up and shot her out of the base.

"Another form?!" Bulk exclaimed, "Are you serious?!"

"At this point, I'm no longer surprised," Ratchet said, shaking his head.

The Autobots gathered around the green monitors watching and waiting for what felt like eons.


{{On the Nemesis}}

After weaving her way across the country, relying on her internal sensor to guide her, Sunburst finally located the Nemesis and made her descent.

She landed on the Nemesis' empty upper hull clutching her side in pain. She took some comfort in knowing that it wouldn't be too long before she'd never have to experience that pain again.

When the pain finally subsided a few kliks later, Sunburst radioed Autobot headquarters. Shortly after, the groundbridge opened near her and the bots emerged onto the empty deck.

"So, uhh, after this mission, you wanna join Team Prime?" asked Bulk grinning, "We could sure use someone who knows where the Nemesis is. And your lobbing ain't bad either."

"I'd like to, but I can't" Sunburst replied with a sad smile.

The Nemesis alarms went off at that moment and the bots knew they'd been detected. Undeterred, the team ran toward the jetway entrance shooting the doors down.

As the doors exploded, a group of Decepticon drones appeared in the entranceway firing back. The Autobots fought their way past the drones and into the ship.

Despite being able to transform into weapons, Sunburst didn't have weapons of her own, so the bots had to form a protective wall around her. They shot their way through the corridors relying on Sunburst to point them in the right direction.

They made their way toward the Energon storage vault. Just past the vault was a second door.

It was a door to the room containing the data workstation that, unknown to all of them, was the same room where Orion Pax had been during his stay on the Nemesis.

Sunburst ran inside and closed it while the rest of the Autobots stayed outside shooting down the oncoming cons.


{{Inside the data room}}

Sunburst pulled up the most recent files, finding most of them encrypted. After typing furiously, she pulled up the three most recent unencrypted coordinates, the same ones Orion Pax had deciphered.

Sumburst was so focused on finding the data that she didn't realize she wasn't alone in the room.

Knockout jammed his Energon prod into the neck of this new femme sending electrical bolts all over her. She let out a yelp and fell over, nearly passing out.

"Well, well, well," Knockout stood over her smirking, "What have we here?"

Knockout wondered what the scrap this femme could want with those coordinates, she clearly wasn't an Autobot. But it didn't matter, he thought to himself, because her spark was about to be snuffed.


{{Outside the data room}}

Optimus' chest plate began pulsing rapidly. He knew Sunburst was in trouble.

"Stay here and defend!" he commanded the bots. Optimus pressed the door pad and jumped inside the room as the door closed behind him.


{{Inside the data room}}

Knockout raised his arms, getting ready to plunge the prod into the femme's chest when an Energon blast hit his arm, throwing him off balance. A second Energon blast blew past him shooting a large hole in the data core monitor. While Knockout was still flailing about, Optimus Prime leapt at him, swinging a mighty punch that solidly connected to Knockout's face. Knockout got knocked out.

Optimus knelt down to gather Sunburst's weak body in his arms. "Are you okay?" he asked with deep concern. Then glancing at the now-broken monitor, he added, "Did you get the coordinates?"

Sunburst gathered the last of her strength. "Yes. I've found the coordinates and I've got to get there soon…" Sunburst trailed off.

"…before you can no longer transform," Optimus finished.

She nodded.

Optimus paused thoughtfully before continuing, "Sunburst, if things had been different…" He fell silent even though he had much more to say.

Sunburst raised a hand up to him and Optimus eagerly retracted his faceplate so that she could stroke his face.

"I know," she said, "I'd have been honored to be your sparkmate."

Optimus smiled, squeezed her hand, and backed away to give her room. He reached over and hit the door pad to re-open it. Sunburst jumped up, transformed into X-wing form and shot out of the room, above the heads of both the bots and cons. The X-wing made its way down the corridors and out of the Decepticon ship.

Optimus hit his comm-link, "Ratchet, send a bridge to our coordinates."

The bridge opened inside the data room behind them and all of the Autobots jumped through, relieved that their mission had been accomplished.


{{Somewhere}}

The X-wing flew over snowy mountaintops until she found the one she was looking for, the one that was leveled off near the top. Upon finding it, she flew straight upward for several kliks. Then she did a nosedive straight down toward her target at breakneck speed. Just moments before impact, she made her next and final transformation into a giant hammer. THE giant hammer.

The daughter of Solus Prime, now the Forge of Solus Prime slammed into the mountaintop, causing explosions of boulders. The rocks that shot toward the sky finally fell to the ground littering the mountaintop, dirtying the light snow. Many of the rocks fell on top of the Forge, burying her underneath.

It was there that she laid, waiting to be found.

THE END