Chapter 4

"...definitely have themselves a new home base." Agent Darby was saying as Amy and Airazor entered the ship's bridge. "Their attacks have been getting too organized again for the 'Bots and their forces to still be constantly mobile."

"Then that just begs the question, where?" Airachnid placed her servos on her hips, pink eyes narrowing at the screen.

"It is possible they've gone underground in the literal sense - the Insectibot swarm would be more than capable of digging out a cavern system for them to use." Shockwave suggested.

"They've tried that before, though, when Ratchet was working through his experiments with Dark energon." Starscream pointed out. "And after the spectacular explosion when we collapsed the caves..."

"It would seem unlikely that the Autobots would chose such a type of base again." Megatron finished for him.

"They might have gone to the Arcturus." All the Decepticons glanced down to see Amy standing by their pedes. "Didn't Smokescreen use it when he was on the outs with the other 'Bots?"

"She's right. That old wreck is still intact enough for the Autobots to make a decent base inside, especially if they had the Insectibots make a hive in the mountain behind it." Airachnid said grimly.

"Then we shall have to investigate it as a possible-" The Decepticon leader's words were cut off from an alert on another console. Soundwave immediately checked it, his long, tapered digits tapping away over the keys in a flurry of motion.

"What's going on?" Agent Darby asked over her comm line. All the woman could see on her screen was the various Con officers turning away with worried looks on their faceplates.

"That's the incoming spacecraft alarm," Starscream told her. "The last time it went off was when Ultra Magnus and his warship arrived with Autobot reinforcements."

Darby let out a frustrated hiss. "Well, is this another 'Bot, or do we actually have some allies of our own about to touch down?"

"About to crash, more like." Amy muttered as Airazor gave her a lift to the top of the console where Soundwave was furiously attempting to get a proper reading on the inbound vessel. "If these vectors are right, they're going down hard and fast in Montana."

"Craft: too small for proper ship," the communications officer intoned. "Analysis: escape pod of Class 3-B prison ship."

"That is a model most often used by the Autobots back in the early days of the War." Shockwave murmured.

"Then it is entirely possible we have an escaped Decepticon about to join us." Starscream started to look relieved, until Megatron corrected him.

"It could still be an Autobot, merely escaping from the destruction of one such ship. Soundwave, prepare to open a groundbridge to the pod's location as soon as it lands - I will be going personally. Starscream, fetch the twins, we may have need of their battle prowess in case the Autobots decide to investigate as well. Airachnid, you will be accompanying us as well."

The femme nodded her assent as the Seeker sent a private comm to his two biggest flyers. "If it is an Autobot, will we try to take them prisoner?"

"Yes. We cannot have the enemy's ranks swelled anymore than they have been by recent developments."

"Dreadwing is on his way, but Knockout is insistent that Skyquake remain in the medbay for the time being." Starscream said sourly as he re-entered the conversation, casting a glance over at Airazor. "Apparently the Predlings have begun to develop their weapons systems."

The other Cons' optic-ridges shot up in surprise. "Already?" Airachnid asked as Shockwave merely sighed.

"It is not unexpected," the scientist explained. "Predacons of old had to be ready to fight for dominance and survival even as sparklings."

"Not unexpected to you, perhaps, but 'Quake certainly was ready to be caught by fireballs of three different types. Knockout was complaining quite heartily about removing and replacing several melted plates of armor on his lower legs."

"Then instead of Skyquake," Megatron jumped in smoothly to prevent an outright argument between his second in command and head scientist. "Shockwave, would you ask Predaking to join our group?"

"Of course, sir."

-PP:SC-

System warning: critically low fuel levels.

Well, of course. She hadn't had a full ration of energon since Primus knew when.

Electrical systems undergoing cascading failure.

Also not surprising. Her armor had been stripped away ages ago on that forsaken prison ship, wires left torn and exposed.

Self-repair functions non-operational.

And there was three for three. Self-repair was practically the first thing the 'Bots removed upon catching her, along with her weapons systems.

Green optics flickered to life, hazily taking in the interior of the pod she'd managed to drag herself to when the Willbreaker was, well, breaking up. Lacking the strength of processor to input any actual coordinates, the best she'd been able to do was set the escape pod to seek out the largest collection of Decepticon signals it could track.

Now, it would seem, she'd finally landed.

Reaching up a mangled servo, the femme carefully deactivated the seals keeping the pod shut. Air rushed in as the lid lifted away, and her HUD was flooded with new warnings of organic contaminants. Ignoring them, she started to slowly haul herself out, dropping to the ground outside with a static-filled whimper of pain.

Distantly, but growing louder, she could detect the sound of buzzing wings, and eerie, high-pitched wails. Insectibots. Great.

Disregarding all the internal alarms directing her not to do so, the femme began to drag her tortured frame away from the escape pod and towards the nearby shelter of several tall, thin organic structures.

-PP:SC-

Clown car joke from Dreadwing aside, Airachnid knew that their situation was getting grimmer by the second. Upon arriving close to the sight of the downed pod, she and the other Cons were immediately set upon by an airborne horde of Insectibots. Despite having an innate connection to the creatures, she was unable to access their hive mind, courtesy of a specialized telepathic block developed by that sadistic Autobot Ratchet. What burned the most was that he'd only been able to develop the block after studying her in one of his laboratories back on Cybertron for several solar cycles, until a team of Decepticons were able to rescue the femme.

Drakonis, at least, was making himself twice as useful as any of the others. In his dragon form, the Predacon king tore through the Insectibot ranks, ripping apart any who came within his reach, and blasting others with his massive fireballs. But even so, there were more than enough of the creatures around to overwhelm the Decepticons, as for each one they brought down another was ready to take its place.

And then, the fight was unexpectedly over.

The escape pod, sitting innocently in its crater the entire time, suddenly exploded, taking out the couple dozen Insectibots that had been hovering close by. At the dramatic loss of troops, the rest of the Autobot forces began to pull back, streaming away from the area as fast as their wings could carry them.

"Huh," was all Airachnid had to say. "That was helpful."

"Indeed." Megatron rumbled, coming up to stand beside her as his cannon powered down. The other Cons also allowed themselves to relax, all wondering what, exactly, had just happened.

Transforming back to bipedal mode, Drakonis was the only one looking to the tree rather than the fleeing horde. "Sir, there is a wounded Cybertronian in those trees. I believe she is the one responsible for the pod self-destructing." Optics shuttering in surprise and curiosity, Megatron headed over, trailed by the others. The sight that they came across was hardly an expected one.

There was indeed a wounded femme sitting slumped against one of the aspen trees, but wounded was not nearly descriptive enough of a term. Practically armorless, her protoform plating was entirely exposed to the elements, covered in messily-done repair welds and open gashes that sluggishly leaked energon. Signs of half-healed injuries from energon whips to laser scalpels and everything in-between trekked up her ravaged frame, making the Decepticons wonder how exactly the femme had managed to drag herself to her current position.

Then dark green optics flickered on to stare up at them, and Airachnid felt more than heard herself let out a keen of distress. Before any of the startled mechs could stop her, the pink and white femme darted forward, carefully taking the newcomer's helm in her servos.

"No, no no no, 'Fly, what did those monsters do to you, sparklet?" Airachnid whispered painfully. The younger femme's lip components twitched into a small smile as she studied the worried faceplates before her. A burst of static came out of her damaged vocalizer, but aside from that she made no attempt to answer.

"Airachnid...?" Drakonis carefully shuffled forward, crouching down by the pair. "Do you know her?"

She nodded shakily, never taking her optics off of the other femme. "This, Drak, is my little sister, Dragonfly."

-PP:SC-

After getting over their shock, the Decepticons were quick to call for Knockout and Breakdown to join them through the groundbridge. Both the medic and his assistant, upon arriving, were equally horrified by the sight of the mangled femme. They swiftly got to work, making sure her systems were stabilized before the trip back to Trypticon's medical bay.

When the portal opened again, Dreadwing ended up being the one to scoop up and carry Dragonfly through. He was one of the few Cons to remember both Airachnid and her sister from when they'd first been brought to Headquarters in Kaon. While the elder femme had always held herself proudly, dedicating her time fully to training for the War, the younger was such a fun, bubbly youngling, always ready to cheer up anyone who needed it.

To see her like this was beyond disconcerting. Dreadwing had to swallow back his rage and desire to purge upon first lifting the broken femme and realizing that her wings had been removed as well.

Aboard Trypticon once more, everyone else had gathered to catch a glimpse of the newcomer, despite the warnings of her dire state. Bill ended up seeing her before his daughter did, and immediately turned Amy's head into his side, ignoring the girl's protests. Vince looked ill at the sight of all the damage, while Sierra was hard pressed not to run and vomit. The six Predlings all bunched together for comfort as Dreadwing walked past, and didn't resist in the slightest as Drakonis wrapped himself around them in dragon form.

Her hurt bad, Snicktooth chirped unhappily. Why?

Evil ones do. Drakonis growled in answer, pulling his tail a little more tightly around the sparklings.

Bad! All three of Triple's heads snapped together.

We hurt back? Moltenwing's feathers clinked together in anger.

I and others. The massive dragon reassured her. You too small.

Are not! All the little ones squeaked as one, setting their leader to release an amused rumble.

Are too. For now.

A/N: Sorry about the delay folks, I've been running myself into the ground for finals week. Two down, two to go, and then I'll have a nice long winter break for writing - after I make the thousand mile drive back to my home, that is. Eh heh...

Anyway, we'll be getting an explanation of Dragonfly next chapter, as well as a proper look at the Autobot roster and some other things too, since she'll need to be brought up to date about the War on Earth and where the different factions stand.

Until next time,

-Triscribe