A/N: Here is the next part up like I promised. Here is Jazz and a very odd situation.

Part Four

Transforming, Jazz turned to his team behind him, motioning that they keep quiet. They were nearing the target site and needed the element of surprise. The lack of any movement on the opposite side of the field proved that Prowl had also exercised appropriate caution.

He wished he could radio out to the others, but knew he couldn't risk it. Soundwave was out there and any transmissions would be caught within nanoclicks. Their cover would be blown, shooting the whole mission to hell.

As the special ops officer took a look at their surroundings, he felt Mirage come to his side silently. Had Jazz not been so in tune with his environment, he'd never even known the spy was there.

Mirage looked questioningly at his superior. What now?

Jazz only grinned and knelt down, the rest of the team following suit. We wait.

And wait they did. The plan was for 3 teams, led by Prime, Prowl, and Jazz to surround the Decepticons in the field before moving in. The beginning of the ambush would be signaled by Prime's group charging in. Until then, orders were to stand by.

Those poor Decepticon saps, they would never know what hit them. Prowl was a genius when it came to strategies and the saboteur had every bit of faith in his friend's plan.

10 minutes later they were still waiting. No one was really concerned at this. There had most likely been a slight delay with one of the groups getting into place. Jazz smiled to himself; old Ironhide's joints were probably acting up again.

Ah, there it was! Prowl said he would reflect sunlight toward his position when he was ready. True to his word, there was a sudden shine of sun against metal. He signaled back and crouched into position once more.

30 minutes after this, he began to get a bit itchy to start the fight. It wasn't that he was impatient. In his line of work, patience was what saved or killed you. No, he could wait all day if need be. But the others weren't trained like he was.

Sideswipe was visibly getting bored now, and a bored Sides was a very bad thing. Especially without the buffer his brother made. Sunny had been assigned to Prime's group and was not around to reign in his stir-crazy other half. If that wasn't enough, Tracks was getting testy at the harm crouching in the dirt was doing to his sacred paintjob. Hound was spacing out as he appreciated the surrounding foliage. Bluestreak started fidgeting, looking more worried by the nanoclick and muttering to himself. Even Mirage looked to be at the end of his proverbial rope as he shimmered into and out of sight to keep himself occupied

If this attack didn't start soon, Jazz feared all-out anarchy. Not to mention the 'Cons may just up and leave.

Out of the corner of his visor, Jazz caught Cliffjumper tossing rocks and sticks at Sideswipe who was getting more and more stir-crazy. Oh Primus, now one of his mini-bots was feeling suicidal. Just what he needed…

"Jazz!" a cry came through the communicator making everyone jump. As he struggled to dislodge his spark from his throat, the saboteur recognized the voice of Prowl. "Jazz, respond!"

"What's up?" he asked, eyeing Soundwave in the distance, watching for any sudden moves. If the Decepeticon communications officer caught this…

"Where are you? We're under heavy fire and require your assistance." It seemed that even in the middle of battle, he didn't break his composure. In the back of his mind, Jazz wondered if he'd ever been truly upset a day of his life. The front of his mind, however, was more concerned with the extreme lack of battle going on in front of him.

"Um… are you sure?" he ventured, not knowing how else to word it.

"Jazz, I have no time for your…" and then the line went silent.

Oh slag it all, Soundwave seemed to have caught them at last. There were only two things to do at this point. Ambush or be ambushed.

"Autobots, attack!" he cried suddenly, coming to the more obvious conclusion.

The look Sideswipe sent his way was a creepy mixture of extreme impatience and how a femme might gaze upon her true love. The others, mercifully, only whooped in excitement and charged the field. Honestly, that kid scared him sometimes…

The Decepticons, only partially forewarned by Soundwave, scrambled to counter-attack. It seemed that they too were unaware of a fight with Prowl. Nevertheless, despite their state of unreadiness, the Decepticons hopelessly outnumbered the Autobots two to one.

Looking behind him briefly as he led the charge, Jazz was surprised, and yet not so, to see neither Prowl nor Prime leap to his aid. What in the name of Primus was going on?

"Jazz!" Hound called from his position behind some brush. He ducked quickly as a spray of bullets flew by. "Where is everyone?"

The group leader had no idea what to tell him. By all accounts this should be a quick and easy victory. Well it still was, but for the wrong side. With Soundwave jamming all transmissions, there was no way to find the missing 'bots either. Slag, where was Blaster when you needed him?

Shrugging in response to Hound, the bewildered Porsche pushed on doggedly, unwilling to be beaten so easily. He could see where this battle was leading, but knew it was still too early to call a retreat. As Prowl said to him once: 'Primus protects fools, fledglings, and the crew of the ship called Ark.' And Jazz did have rather good karma.

Needless to say, the attack did not go as well as they had hoped and not even rather good karma could prevent a total defeat. Jazz had a sharp mind and knew how to use it in a battle situation without their Vice to direct things. However, not even Prowl could out-maneuver this doomed endeavor let alone a poor special operations agent who generally worked alone. Sparing a glance at Sideswipe, he finally made the call to retreat. If even the melee fighter, who made the battlefield his natural habitat, looked like warmed-over slag then enough was enough.

"Fall back!" he sent over their short distance radio waves as Soundwave was still jamming all long-range communicators. "Everyone, fall back!"

The Autobots under his command needed little encouragement. With one final hurrah, they shot all they had to cover their retreat and fled like no one ever fled before. The Decepticons seemed too preoccupied with what they were actually supposed to be doing that they didn't bother pursuing them. It was obvious the Autobots had had enough and Megatron wouldn't appreciate any more delays.

When they finally reached the sanctuary of the Ark, the little sadistic side of Jazz that rarely reared its ugly head had to grin. The two other teams had already returned and looked nearly worse off than his own. Someone had messed up royally and he knew for sure it wasn't him.

"Where were you guys?" Sideswipe demanded of Sunstreaker and his teammates. "We got our afts kicked and you weren't there to back us up!"

"Us!" the battered yellow warrior cried out in indignation. "What about you? Where were you when Ramjet decided to use me as a battering target?"

"Where were either of you when the 'Cons beat the living tar out of us?" Gears snapped.

As the troops argued weakly back and forth, the three battered mechs in charge of the mission discussed what went wrong. In the end, it was a rather silly, but entirely avoidable error on their part.

The scouts had given the senior officers the location of the Decepticons. A place known to the humans as Lamb's Plateau.

Optimus Prime had read the location, in Hound's messy scrawl, as Lambo's Flat. A well-known location for the more… rambunctious of the Ark's crew to race each other.

Jazz thought they had meant Loose Ore, though neither Prime nor Prowl could understand why, and decided the location was by the mine shafts up north that were known for dangerous cave-ins.

Only Prowl, of the three, had the correct location as he was used to reading their head scout's handwriting by now. A fact that he felt rather smug about, though he would never rub it in… well, too much anyway. Only his door panels that were raised a few inches higher than normal revealed the confidence he felt in himself. At least up until the point that Jazz reminded him that since none of them had actually checked with each other ahead of time, they were all equally guilty.

The fact that Jazz had seen a glint of metal and taken it for a symbol, as well as the presence of Decepticons in all three places, appeared to be a freak coincidence.

They came to a unanimous conclusion that the fact that they all messed up royally needn't be leaked to the general populace. Already the troops had come to the conclusion that their 'fearless leaders' had slagged it up big time and needed no more fuel to fan the flames of mutiny.

Murphy's Law of Warfare: Never underestimate the ability of the brass to foul things up. (fyi: Brass officers)

A/N: I've definitely had days like that where my brain just won't work properly. I think I still need to work on pacing though. It feels choppy to me, what do you think? Anyway, thanks for all you comments and keep those ideas and requests coming!

MariaShadow: Thank you, I had hoped I did him alright. I think that was actually the first time I really tried to get into his head. I doubt Sideswipe will be forgetting that lesson too quickly as well : ) Well, I didn't leave enough bruises unfortunately. It was mostly the Marine that kicked us all in our collective butts. Marines are nuts I tell you! I did get a few good shots in though and I was able to practice playing berserker on my fellow cadets.

Trueborn Chaos: Lol, I don't think he's a coward at all actually, that's just how he feels. I'd be scared too if I were in his position. Omega? I have just the thing for him actually. Grimlock… ok, I think I know a good one for him too. I was only going to do Autobots, but I may change my mind. Why? Got any good ideas? My hotmail account is rather large too, so send what you want. I'll get my list together and send it before I leave.

Tiamat1972: That's the problem, I think, of having so many characters at once. There's never enough screen time for them all. I love Bluestreak too, he's such a cutie in my opinion : ) I don't remember that line… oh well, that's just an excuse for me to go watch it again! Lol, I would have liked to see their faces too. I bet they weren't expecting it one bit though. I will update all those, the first two are coming slowly but surely. I was on a real role with both of them, and for some reason, they just tried up. Grrrrr… I will try to stay sane and I'll miss you guys too! I'll find a good one for Trailbreaker. I need to read his profile again so I can get the feel of him. It's been a while since I've looked at him.