Author's notes: A big thank-you to everyone who reviewed/subscribed/favorited this story! This is a filler chapter…kind of but not really. Setting up for Knock Out and Silasdown shenanigans next chapter.
Knock Out continued drilling the empty air, occasionally pressing the tool to the operating table just to see if the human would flinch. He always reacted in the same manner, Knock Out noted in a dry, detached way, as if he didn't realize by now his processing functions would be damaged by the activity.
He stopped and looked up as the doors hissed open and Dreadwing limped in, dragging his left leg behind him.
The human perked up at the new, obviously injured visitor.
"Dreadwing? What happened to you?"
"Yes. What…did happen?"
Knock Out glared, but the human paid him no attention. The human was strangely fascinated with the exposed wiring and plating, so he hurried to get the Seeker out of his range of vision, settling him down on one of the spare operating tables.
"The raid was…unsuccessful. The Autobots discovered our decoy and moved too quickly to take the real relic." Dreadwing grimaced as Knock Out lifted his leg and placed it on the table and began attaching Spark sensors to his chest. "There were many casualties."
"Well there's nothing I can do about that." Finished with the preliminary preparations, Knock Out injected the Seeker with a numbing agent. It shouldn't be enough to put him out completely, Knock Out reasoned, unless Dreadwing's fuel tanks were empty. "What about injured?"
Dreadwing blinked slowly. "Lots."
Knock Out sighed.
"Could we get a specific number here? Do I have time to patch up your leg before I need to prepare the sickbay for triage?"
Dreadwing looked down at his leg.
"Maybe…ten. When I was there last."
Knock Out grabbed wire mesh and pressed it into the Seeker's leg.
"Hold it there."
Dreadwing nodded slowly, though Knock Out doubted he would be online long enough for it to do any good.
With one final look at the human in Breakdown's body, Knock Out began organizing tools and rearranging the materials in the space he had to work with. With two operating tables occupied, unless two other officers were injured, per table, he would have space to put two injured drones side by side. But the only officers left were Soundwave and Megatron, and it wasn't likely that they were injured. It was even less likely they had participated.
Knock Out turned to Dreadwing for confirmation. The question died in his mouth as he saw the Seeker had fallen into stasis.
The human chuckled.
"I suppose no one bothered to tell you about this excursion?"
Knock Out forced a smirk onto his faceplates as he stacked sheeting on an easy-to-reach countertop.
"Perhaps I was too busy learning how your processor works to pay attention."
The human fell silent, allowing him to concentrate solely on his work for a few minutes. Knock Out was in the middle of deciding where exactly to put the sedatives if he couldn't ask Breakdown to hand him them when the human spoke again.
"I must say, medic, it will be a very enjoyable experience watching you practice your techniques on someone other than myself."
"I don't recall ever saying I would allow you to watch." He glanced around the sickbay. Everything was as ordered as it could be. Only time would tell if this system worked or not. If it didn't…
The door hissed open and two Vehicons ran in, one missing an arm. The other one looked fine. He hesitated as Knock Out directed the injured trooper to the operating table.
"If you're not injured get out," Knock Out said shortly, and the Vehicon scurried out. "How many more are there?"
The Vehicon sucked in a huge breath of air as Knock Out wrapped the wire mesh around the stump. "Most of us are dead, sir. But-"
"How many are injured?"
"I – I don't know."
The door hissed open again. Knock Out grabbed the trooper's remaining hand and pressed it to the mesh.
"Hold it there until the Energon stops."
The Vehicon nodded.
Three more troopers ran in, two supporting a squadmate whose legs had been blown off. Energon followed their path in a bright blue trail and in a faraway corner of his mind Knock Out began to worry about someone slipping in the mess.
"Put him on the operating table." He waved the amputee off and grabbed a sedative. As he approached the injured Vehicon the trooper began panicking, damaged voice box emitting bursts of static as he tried to get away. Knock Out paid no attention and plunged the device into a patch of exposed protoform. Almost immediately the Vehicon stopped struggling and the Energon stopped flowing so readily.
Knock Out turned to the Vehicon's squadmates. One of them had an obvious head wound and the other had taken a shot to the chest. He made the decision in half an astrosecond.
"Keep out of the way," Knock Out snapped, shoving past them to examine the stasis-locked trooper. If he got to him quickly enough he would live. He had plenty of spare parts, after all. The other amputee and the two with minor injuries could wait, and as long as Dreadwing didn't online and decide to demand his leg be fixed or a more seriously wounded drone wandered in, he could deal with this problem right now.
"Why don't you let me go and I'll give you a hand, doc?"
Knock Out cringed. He had forgotten about the human.
"Why don't you be silent and let the real robot work, little human, and maybe I won't accidentally cut your voice box out?" Knock Out grabbed the welder and waved it in the human's face before moving back to the Vehicon.
He bent over what remained of the trooper's legs and began trying to reroute the bleeding, directing it back to primary functions instead of simply dripping onto the floor. Simply put: welding the smaller Energon lines shut until he could attach new legs.
The sickbay was silent for a few moments. The two slightly-injured Vehicons hesitated, reluctant to disrupt the peace, before going over to the stores of wire mesh and sheeting and began patching themselves up.
Knock Out was halfway done when the door hissed open again and several pairs of pedes stormed in, accompanied by panicked shouting, choked screaming and Energon splattering to the floor.
Without turning around, he slammed the welder down, glad that his patient was in stasis. Out of the corner of his optic he was sure he saw Laserbeak flying in circles around the room.
"I don't care if Lord Megatron himself is at death's door right now," he said, turning as he spoke. "I certainly-"
"I certainly hope that if you are willing to let me bleed out on the operating table, Knock Out," Megatron said in a voice that sent Knock Out back several steps and his head down, away from the warlord's optics to quite possibly the only being Megatron would deign to hold in one arm. "You would make an exception for one of your fellow officers."
With his free hand he beckoned Knock Out forward. The medic stepped closer, realizing the human and every Vehicon was staring at them.
When Knock Out was close enough, Megatron deposited the not-quite half-alive body of their communications chief into his arms.
