Same Side

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AN: Mudflap and Skids happen to be two of my favorite Autobots from the movieverse…thus, they will get a debut in this story like no other. I'm aware of the 'controversy', but I believe none of it applies. They are cool. This is truth.

And I'm running out of movie titles…

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Chapter Four: Galaxy Quest

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The Compound was not as aptly named as would have been convenient. The SGC was a compound. Usually the word 'compound' insinuated something with multiple parts, a collaboration of rooms or separate entities that formed a whole. Well, the Compound was barely more than a modified warehouse and motel.

The hangar with the Stargate was divided into the main holding area, with the command center inside the loft, and a section for the engineering crew to work—which happened to be one of the most heavily defended parts of the old military base. Those weapons and turrets had to be controlled from somewhere. The security system kept the Compound safe, and the system had to be protected.

As it turned out, they were staying in a group of 'upgraded' storage bunkers for the more highly volatile explosives they developed back in the 70's. They'd been assured that they had been fully cleared for traces of radiation or other potentially deadly threats caused by the bunkers' previous occupants, which was about as comforting as it would get. After the Genii, Sheppard could have cared less if he ended up sleeping on top of a live nuclear reactor. In a radiation suit, of course.

Other than that, there was another warehouse—a smaller one, much emptier inside but just as fortified by guys with guns and more modified turrets. And snipers. And more than a dozen surveillance cameras. This is where the Autobots were staying for the duration of their involvement in the Compound. For world security reasons, they wouldn't reveal how many Autobots were actually allied with NEST, but Optimus had made it clear that many would stay behind in Diego Garcia 'just in case' there was an incident on Earth, not to mention that there were other NEST operations going on in other places around the world.

Sheppard stood outside the bunkers, ignoring the sheets of dust that flew into the air and brushed against his skin (this wasn't exactly normal Georgia weather, but what the hell). He glanced up at the sun and then checked his watch: seven fifteen A.M. Rodney was 'helping' the technicians inside Compound 1 prep the 'gate for its first new location startup, which still left him short a team member. Where the heck was Ronon, anyway?

As if on cue, the sound of a muffled crash and distorted bickering voices came from the depths Autobots' abode. His sixth sense told him that of all places, that that one he hadn't checked yet was probably where Ronon went.

The colonel jogged across the pavement toward the open warehouse door. Ignoring the thirteen different barrels pointed at him (in a non-threatening way) as he entered, he slowed to a stop to observe.

Ironhide, in his bipedal form, was standing near the wall to his left, looking down on the mixture of flesh and dust in front of him. Ronon was locked in heated hand-to-hand fists-only combat with Sergeant Epps. And behind them were two more Autobots, quite a bit smaller than the dubious weapons specialist. Even though he'd known there were more of these guys being flown in the night before, Sheppard felt caught…well, off guard. They were identical to each other—almost—except for colour. The bright green one was boxing the red one around, trying to push him towards Ironhide. And the red one was shoving back, which explained the crunching and bashing of metal Sheppard had heard earlier.

"Mudflap, you betta take that back! That's discrimination!"

"I'm not takin' nothin' back, you crazy green scrapheap! You was askin' for it, talkin' trash about my skills."

"Your skills, huh? If I ain't been there half the time you get hit, you'd be dead, motha—ey!" When Epps was side-tackled by Ronon and thrown over his shoulder, the sergeant happened to land on Skids' foot. The Autobot stood on one leg and let the soldier roll off of him. "Ya'll askin' to put an eye out on my servos, foo! Then Optimus'd kick all our afts."

Lennox also happened to be there, standing on the sidelines with Ironhide. Sheppard walked towards the commotion with a raised eyebrow, but no one seemed to notice him. Ronon and Epps went back to exchanging heavily pulled blows.

"You two," Ironhide interrupted the Twins' bickering, glaring at the two. "Are becoming increasingly difficult to babysit. As your ranking officer, I am ordering you both to transform and shut up."

"Aw, man, Ironhide, but he's the—" Skids started to complain, but Ironhide leaned in close.

"Before I get angry."

"Always gettin' up in ou' grills on mission day, you cheap-aft son-of-a—" Whatever the green Autobot had to say was cut off when he quickly shifted into his Chevrolet Beat, alongside his transformed brother. Half a second later, Mudflap opened his driver-side door and smacked the car next to him. "Hey, you can't do that! Tha's a low blow, mo-fo!"

"Well, I'm glad to see everyone's getting along," Sheppard spoke up, approaching Lennox and Ironhide from the left side of the imaginary boxing ring. "So what happened?"

"The so-called 'alien' comrade of yours proposed a challenge to Sergeant Epps," Ironhide explained with an obvious undertone of critique. "While a test of marksmanship would have provided more entertainment, this is still rather fun to watch."

"Only they've been going at it for an hour now," Lennox put in, looking at his own watch. "I made a bet with Ironhide that I think I'm about to lose."

"Ah, you bet against Ronon." Sheppard crossed his arms and watched the sparring continue. "This guy kicks the crap out of me twice a week. I only came close to beating him once. I was pumped full of alien insect DNA."

Epps, who apparently heard this through his competition, made an audible sound of disapproval. "Man, why didn't someone tell me that before I put my money on this?"

"I don't know, Epps. Maybe you should fix that little gambling problem of yours." Major Lennox looked like he was enjoying himself. "Come on, just let him win. He's not even breaking a sweat."

"Are you serious?" Epps made the mistake of getting distracted, and found himself laying flat on his back a second later. Groaning, he turned over and put his hands underneath him as Ronon waltzed over.

"Need a hand?" he offered. Looking annoyed, but not angry, the sergeant got to his feet after grabbing the offered appendage. He put a hand on his back and grimaced. "Where the hell did you learn those moves?"

"In training. When I was five," came the honest reply. "You fight better than most soldiers I've met before."

Sheppard smiled sarcastically. "Thanks."

"Pay up." Ironhide lowered one of his large hands in front of Lennox, looking for all purposes, smug. "This bet is mine."

Lennox begrudgingly took out his wallet, as did Epps (from his left cheek pocket). Both placed a crisp twenty-dollar bill on the metal palm and put their stashes away again. "Last time I gamble with a robot. Seriously this time," Epps muttered.

"Not to be rude, but…what exactly do you need money for, anyway?" Sheppard questioned, looking up at the weapons specialist.

"Bargaining tools. Humans are much easier to deal with when presented with bits of paper of imaginary economic value."

"He buys favours from the soldiers around NEST Headquarters, he means," said Lennox with a wry smile. "'Imaginary', my ass. Tell that to the guy who writes my lousy government-issue paychecks."

"Mind if I ask who they are?" asked Sheppard, looking between the now silent Trax and Beat cars.

"These guys," Lennox said with a wry grin, slapping the top of the red one. The annoyed Autobot's 'Don't touch me, I'm mad at choo!' went ignored. "Are the Twins. Red is Mudflap, green, Skids. Believe it or not, their specialty is infiltration. And distractions."

"Distract—" Mudflaps offended voice came from the speakers. "Aww, thats mean. We owned that big-aft robot monkey. Didn' we, Skids?"

"Yeah, until you went an' shot me in the face!" the green Autobot shot back.

Shaking his head, Ironhide stepped back to make the unrushed transformation back into his alternate mode. Then he opened both of his doors. "It is getting late. I will take you to the Compound so that we may get this mission started, while there's a chance I might retain my sanity."

"Don't choo count on it," Mudflap quipped, and his passenger door shot open. "A'ight, fluffball. You an' dreads get in. We'll make ou' own team right back up in the 'Kick yo ass' club, where we the only V.I.P."

Lennox, halfway into Ironhide's cab, raised his brow at Sheppard and Ronon. "Whatever you do, don't agree with anything they say." He looked at his watch, climbed in, and shut the door. The colonel watched the truck roll away, leaving himself and Ronon alone with the Twins.

"I've got a feeling he doesn't like me," he told his other teammate, looking at the interior of the Autobot with a wary glance before getting in. Ronon ungracefully sat down in the back and leaned forward to put his arms on the shoulders of the two front seats.

"He doesn't."

"Right. And I suppose he likes you."

"You want me to beat him up?"

Sheppard half-rolled his eyes. "Maybe later."

-

Riding with the Twins was fun…especially since they decided to have a race halfway across the paved lot. They arrived inside the Compound in a screech of rubber, the sound of the energy barrier crackling as its scanned them all at once, and the slam of a car door as Sheppard and Ronon barely made it out of Mudlap's cab before he transformed. The Twins were on each other again, wrestling across the open hangar floor, as human workers rushed to get out of the way.

"Autobots," Optimus' voice rang out over the sounds of the scuffle. The two brothers paused instantly, both with an oversized hand gripping each other's chest plates. "Behave."

They let go and mumbled apologies to the Autobot leader standing near the Stargate and its preparatory crew.

"McKay, what's going on around here?" Sheppard asked, brushing off the reckless moment he'd just shared with Ronon. Rodney happened to be tapping away at one of the laptops hooked up to the temporary power system that fed the Stargate, and he barely looked up when spoke to.

"Technically? Nothing," the astrophysicist replied, switching to the laptop behind him. He hit a single button before turning back. "Ran several diagnostics, did a test-start by dialing the Alpha site, and surprisingly there are no glitches that would make us…say, want to run away screaming in terror, such as the Stargate suddenly exploding…hypothetically."

For a moment, the colonel stared at him. "You didn't."

"Didn't? Didn't what?" Overly dramatic and fake innocent came over McKay's face.

"You did." Sheppard's voice raised slightly. "You stayed up all night working on the Stargate! Rodney, these guys had months to make sure it's in working condition, couldn't you just give them the benefit of the doubt?"

"Hey, I slept," Rodney defended, then added a little quieter as he went back to work, "A little."

"We'll talk about that later. We're supposed to be getting briefed right now, so I was kind of hoping you'd tell me if you got a memo I didn't."

"Unfortunately, we don't have time for the scheduled briefing, Colonel," Woolsey said, appearing from behind. He wedged his way between two scientists and stood next to them. "We just got word that our advance team is under heavy fire from the Wraith. They got cut off from the Stargate and couldn't dial-in to warn us about the cruiser landing on P2M-436 a little earlier than was expected. We sent SG4 through to assist them, but there is heavy Dart activity all over the safety zone."

Cold went through Sheppard's veins. "What? This whole thing was about the element of surprise!"

"Well, they seemed to know we were coming, Colonel Sheppard." In contrast to yesterday, Woolsey looked anxious and out of place. "The Stargate on their end is already active and we've got another five minutes before the cut-off. When we establish a connection, I want your team to go through immediately. Maybe, just maybe we'll get our men out of there before we suffer any serious casualties."

Not for the first time, the colonel cursed himself for not having his radio turned on since he'd woken up this morning. Technically he wasn't even on duty until eight o'lock, which was nine minutes from now. But getting mixed up in giant alien robot business was a poor excuse for not being ready for a Wraith ambush. He glared at McKay. "Rodney."

"I know, I know, I'm ready. Just…talk to the robots or something, okay? I've got the computer spam-dialing their Stargate, and I want to make sure it doesn't fry this crappy Pentium processor they've got running the—just gimme a minute!"

Sheppard glanced over his shoulder to see Major Lennox and Epps approaching. "Listen—"

"Heard everything, Colonel," the Nest command said. "Just tell me what to expect when we get there and my people'll take care of themselves."

"Alright, then. We're going in under the assumption that the Stargate is under Wraith control," the colonel began, raising his voice loud enough for the Autobots and whoever else might be joining them in just a few minutes. "These guys don't play around. Now if you're human, you gotta watch out for their stun weapons, because they'll exploit every chance they get to knock you down and feed on you. Don't quite know if those weapons'll work on you Autobots, but just the same. Be careful. Take down any ground units guarding the 'gate and any Darts—that's their aircraft—that come in range. Don't stand under them. They have beams that'll suck you into their ships, and there's a real slim chance you'll come out of that alive."

"Colonel Sheppard," Optimus spoke, slowly stepping towards the ramp that led to the Stargate. "Allow me to go through the portal first. I guarantee that any Wraith standing in my way will not pose pose a threat to this team for very long."

Hearing this, Lennox almost frowned openly. He wasn't a robot shrink. He didn't even know what went on inside the big guy's head half the time, but even since the meeting yesterday he'd had this burning itch to ask Prime about his decision. Optimus believed in freedom for all sentient beings, and these Wraith were obviously smart enough to build spaceships and traverse galaxies. It was almost as if Optimus's drive to help humanity was becoming more personal than a set standard of beliefs. What Optimus was doing was essentially choosing sides in a war brought about by humans. He definitely had to have a talk with him about it later.

"Look, I know what this sounds like," Sheppard said in response. A group of soldiers had already come by to bring him his gear—but the weapon felt a little odd. It was like a P-90, practically identical, but it felt heavier for some reason. He let it go. "I've got my team, and you've got yours. If you're certain you can handle this on your own, then by all means. But even if you've got a lot of weapons hidden in there somewhere, all it takes is one culling beam and you're out of the game."

There was a lapse of silence after that, and Optimus nodded his head once, slowly. "I understand."

"Thirty seconds!" McKay announced, finally abandoning the computer. He hesitantly grabbed the P-90 from his soldier supplier after wriggling into his flak jacket. Everyone's radio was on. They were armed. It was just a matter of seconds…

"Ironhide, on my six. Mudflap, Skids, you cover the humans' flank and make sure they do not get abducted," Optimus ordered, in a voice that was entirely different from his usual expression. The Autobot hastily transformed, and idled at the bottom of the ramp for a few strangling moments while his fellow robots did the same.

"Ten seconds! Fifth chevron encoded!" shouted the technician who had replaced McKay. McKay himself swallowed dryly as he stared at the empty space in the ring.

"Just like all the other times, Rodney," Sheppard reminded him.

Lennox gripped his gun firmly and side-glanced at the colonel. "Tell that to the guys who've never done this before. You're buying us drinks after this is over, Sheppard."

The colonel furled his brow. "Huh. I thought you didn't like me."

In response, the NEST commander grinned widely. Half a second later, the sevenths chevron locked and the Stargate unleashed a brilliant wave of liquid-like event horizon. Everyone set their eyes forward.

"Go! Go! Go!"

That was Sheppard, thought Optimus was already in motion. His cab, then his taillights vanished into the blue wall fearlessly, followed by Ironhide's black form. As a unit, Sheppard, McKay, Ronon, Lennox and Sergeant Epps charged forward, swept away in the turbulent mystery that was a space-bridging wormhole.

-

The instant the wormhole was established, the Wraith prepared to fire upon the humans that would undoubtedly come pouring through. It was likely they would all feast immensely that day, on the savory emotions of the long-hated Atlanteans who had been hiding on their home planet for far, far too long. Yes, they were very confident in their victory. Not even a hundred Ancient gate ships could inflict harm on them.

So when the strange blue-and-red machine appeared from the surface of the cerulean pool, they were confused. Confused, but battle trained for such things. In unison, the three dozen odd combatants opened fire on the oddly shaped weapon. Even as the energy blasts glanced off its hull, the vehicle began to change. Grow. Increase in size.

The Wraith stopped firing long enough to forget their training and stare at the mechanical being that looked down upon them with a smooth metal mask and piercing blue eyes.

Optimus raised his arms, unlocking the pulse cannons from their inner compartments. Though a twinge of guilt momentarily flickered through his spark, he knew that these creatures would prey upon the innocent human lives on Earth and devour them, as that one Wraith had to the young lieutenant on the video feed. Somehow, that was not meant to be. With this resolve, he armed the cannons and pointed them at the gathered bipeds. And fired.

To his surprise, the strange energy impacts across his armor felt heavy and numbing, as though his circuitry was becoming disconnected. Even as the ground erupted under the force of his weapons, sending the Wraith scattered, he felt another such blow behind his shoulder, and involuntarily jerked forward. Eighteen percent of his motor functions went offline in his left arm. Mildly irritated, he turned on the creature that had fired and blasted the ground beneath him. Despite his conviction, he would feel better off attempting to make them flee than killing them outright.

Ironhide had arrived behind him. His now second-in-command came out of the Stargate and transformed, cannons open, charged up and ready. The moment the first Wraith blaster was turned on him, the unfortunately creature holding it was atomized by the specialist's cannon discharge.

"You wish to tangle with me, huh?" he barked, advancing through the gathering of defiant aliens. "I dare you all to try and take me! Come on, take your best shot!"

Sheppard and the human component of the team arrived just in time to listen to a Wraith dart come screaming past. It opened fire on Ironhide, the lethal energy blasts slamming into his shoulder and chest plating. It was enough to knock him back, almost back-kicking Sergeant Epps as he staggered to remain balanced. A few shards of damaged metal trickled from the glowing scour marks on Ironhide's chest, but the damage was far from crippling. In fact, it only served to make him much angrier.

"That was a mistake," he announced. His cannon whined as it powered up, and he spun around, aiming at the fleeing tail of the flying craft. The blast erupted the engines of the Wraith dart, splitting the craft into four pieces midair, sending smaller chunks of it raining down to the heavily forested planet below.

Sheppard pointed to the Wraith standing behind the 'gate and immediately hunkered down for cover. Lennox and Epps recognized the hand signals he waved to them and took positions behind the Stargate to shield them from some of the stunner blasts. McKay was crouched near the DHD, clasping his radio in an attempt to contact SG4 or the advance team that had gone ahead before them.

Mudflap and Skids came tearing through the Stargate, which closed behind them. They transformed in unison and also powered up their weapons, looking a lot scarier than they had in the Autobot hangar back at the Compound. "A'ight, which one of ya'll wants to play with us?" said Mudflap, pointing his missiles at the Wraith grunts behind the Stargate.

These added reinforcements were enough to break the Wraith's faith in victory. The commander in their midst hissed an order to the dozen or so remaining warriors, and took off like a shot towards the trees.

"Autobots, hold your fire!" Optimus ordered loudly, disarming his weapons as the alien creatures ceased their attack and began to flee. Ironhide let loose one last shot from his cannon, before complying with a begrudging grumble. The Twins looked disappointed, but obeyed.

Sheppard, on the other hand, gunned down the first three Wraith to turn their backs on him. He continued to fire until he couldn't see them anymore, and held up a hand to silently keep Ronon from chasing after them. Lennox glanced at him with a confused look, which Sheppard ignored darkly. He reached for his radio.

"Major Riley, are you there?" he said, and was greeted by static. "SG4, do you read me?"

"Nothing," McKay gasped, looking around at the woods with a wary glint in his eye. "No communications. They must have a jamming device nearby. Maybe even on their ship, which…which is bad."

"Yeah, well, Ronon'll find them." The colonel looked up at Ironhide, who was muttering something about the Wraith Dart that he had just blown up. Obviously the Darts had enough firepower to injure these guys, but with their crappy aim, it wasn't likely that one or two shots would do any more than slightly annoy them. Or royally piss them off.

"So," Lennox spoke up. "I take it those were Wraith."

"Yeah." Sheppard shook the dust from his hair, messing it up with his fingers. "I got the feeling most of the advance team didn't get very far. If the big guys here hadn't arrived first…well, we wouldn't be standing here right now."

"They turned and ran when it was just getting interesting," Ironhide lamented, narrowing his optics at the trees for some hint of a threat. "I was expecting something much more difficult."

"Then you'll be glad to know there's a couple thousand more waiting for us on their cruiser," the colonel told him. "And now that they know we're here, we're about to get a lot of company."

"Our first priority is to find this missing team of soldiers," said Major Lennox, adjusting and reloading his P90. "Then we switch to secondary objective one: destroy that alien cruiser so we have one less to deal with later on. Ironhide, you mostly functional?"

"Pah, you believe a weak tingle like that could stop me? I was certain you knew me better than that."

"That's what I thought. Optimus?"

The Autobot leader turned his optics downward. "I am detecting a large vessel approximately three miles from a nearby settlement. This city is teeming with an organic humanoid species I am not familiar with."

"Jaffa." McKay's answer was instant. "I think. I…didn't have time to research this planet, either.

"Sounds like we right about the Wraith culling en masse," Sheppard pointed out grimly. "At least that gives us a chance to get rid of them on the ground. If we head towards the city, we might run into Riley's team on the way."

"We must move quickly." Optimus was sounding more grave than usual, and it became apparent why. "For there is also a Decepticon energy reading amongst the humanoids. They are not alone."

-

TBC