Dim Today, Bright Tomorrow
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AN: Raise curtains! Enigma!
Chapter Seven: Amen
October in Arizona, somewhere in the middle of a desert, fifty miles from the nearest sign of civilization—this was it. This was where the off-the-charts RAD readings had led him and his team.
Lennox expected certain things while tracking down Decepticons. His friends the Autobots taught him one thing, especially one thing that mattered the most when dealing with ruthless aliens with advanced weaponry, and that was to never underestimate them. Or their potential for destruction, for that matter.
There had been a political hiccup when dealing with this particular mission; the White House, under the scrupulous advice of Mr. Galloway, had decided that the Autobots should not engage in search-and-rescue operations where concerning their missing teammates. Now fighting Decepticons, that was another story. If he'd been Optimus, Lennox would have happily told Galloway where he could stick his gear stick, but that just proved how he and the big guy had their subtle differences.
Now they stood on the edge of what appeared to be a former research complex of some kind: two large buildings with an array of satellite dishes on top and a warehouse. At least, what used to be a warehouse. It had been turned into swiss cheese and left on the frying pan too long. Four vehicles pulled up behind the NEST leader, two of which transformed into bipedal Autobots and stood up to survey the debacle. Sixteen of his most experienced strike team members unloaded from the remaining jeeps, splitting the dust with their boots as they landed on the ground.
"Something chewed up that building and spat it out the other end," Epps muttered, stepping into place next to Major Lennox. "Whatever it was, whoever it was, I hope that it's long gone."
"We need to figure out what the Decepticons wanted from this place so badly," the major replied, looking up at their escorts. Ironhide and Optimus were looking out over the grouped buildings, clearly unconvinced that the enemy presence was gone. "Any ideas, you two?"
"This is not an energy-producing facility," observed the commander of the Autobots. "It appears the warehouse was their main target, which leads me to believe that intelligence was not their goal."
"Pity," remarked Ironhide, loading his right-hand cannon. "If there is one thing the Decepticons lack, it is intelligence."
"All right, listen up!" shouted Lennox, turning to face the gathered NEST team. "Air support reported strong radioactive activity in the area surrounding the warehouse. That means it's possible that there are Decepticons laying in ambush. Ironhide's team will hit the east end, circle around and meet Prime team back here in one hour. That means no bathroom breaks, no sightseeing, and constant radio contact."
"Uh, yes sir; sir, I gots a question?" said one of the sergeants who had come with them, Sergeant Prentice, raising a hand in the air. "What do we do if we see a Decepticon, sir?"
"Very funny, Sergeant," replied Lennox, half-grinning as he took his favourite carbine from a soldier standing nearby. He checked the clip, then cocked the gun. "Move out!"
The autumn sun glared down on them, not particularly hot though the air was dry and smokey. It was a cooler day in the south, tribute to the swiftly declining weather across the United States. Rolls of dust billowed underneath the wheels of the two Autobots as they pulled out in their truck guises; both teams of ten men and women backed by four helicopters and F-15's on standby split apart and took their positions on either side of their robot counterparts. Lennox and Optimus' group made a beeline for the caved-in front end of the warehouse while Ironhide gave it a wide berth, running for a wider approach from the opposite side.
The first thing he noticed was the bodies. Men in non-standard military grab—mercs, he decided—lay strewn all over the field of debris. Some corpses were intact, crushed by concrete, punctured with shrapnel or just riddled with bullets. Others were barely recognizable. The soldiers didn't bat an eye at the carnage, while Optimus respectfully avoided driving over top of the odd arm or leg; sometimes one of Lennox's men stepped in to nudge or roll a body aside to give their Autobot teammate a clear path. Less often, a teammate stopped to check some of the bodies for signs of life, but it was out of courtesy for the dead rather than in hope for the living.
Civilians. There were signs that some of the remains had once been unarmed engineers or scientists, which irritated the hell out of the major. These poor bastards probably didn't even know what hit them when the Decepticons attacked.
"Major, we've got med evac inbound," came Second Lieutenant Combry's voice over his radio. "We're clearing a safe zone for survivors, sir. It should be ready in about ten."
Lennox put a hand on his radio, trying not to grimace. "I don't think there's many survivors, lieutenant. Set down and wait, just in case we get lucky."
He carefully stepped over the mutilated concrete and rebar that lay scattered around the demolished north wall of the warehouse. All smoke and fires had died out since the attack, but the wind was blowing the dust cloud from Prime's wheels right in their eyes, making for poor visibility. As a well-coordinated group, his eight men inhaled the same acidic air as they climbed through the gaping hole and into the (hopefully) empty storage building.
Glass crackled under his boots. Lennox looked down to find a whole blanket of broken shards of it in front of him, which led his eyes to the large, concrete structure standing about fifty feet from the collapsed section of the warehouse. There was a smashed-up wall of glass dividing them from its whitewashed interior, and though it stretched all the way to the ceiling, the top half seemed to have been made with steel plates rather than concrete.
"Some kind of holding cell, sir," said Private Jennings, moments after the team cleared the surrounding area. More mercenary bodies lay on the ground in various positions, most of which had probably been burnt by the same explosion that took down the north wall. "Whatever was inside it, looks like it got out."
"We're about to live out America's worst horror movie of all time," said Prentice in a husky voice. "You know, the one where the monster gets out of its cage, kills everyone in the facility, then escapes to terrorize the citizens of the nearest big city before they drop a nuke on it."
Optimus had transformed into his full height, and luckily managed to stand up inside the hangar without scraping his head. His optics flickered over the containment unit with uncertainty. "They were here," he announced with restrained gravity. "My hunch was correct. The owner of this facility was holding the Twins in this cell until very recently."
"Wait, wait," Lennox said, peering up at his large cohort. "You can tell that kind of thing? Why not a Decepticon? That would explain why this place was attacked; they could have been rescuing one of their own."
"Because, Major Lennox," said Optimus, turning his head to look down at him and adding, "A Decepticon would not leave this behind." Pointing at the center of the empty cell, the Autobot commander drew up a holographic image which essentially magnified something scored into the painted concrete: a charred Autobot symbol.
Lennox stared for a moment before draggind a hand over his face. "Okay, so, mystery solved. Assuming you're right, they're clearly long gone by now. Which leads us to the question—did, or did the Decepticons not attack—"
"Major!" called a somewhat alarmed voice. Prentice and two other of his unit were staring at something just around the other side of the cell, and they had their weapons aimed at whatever it was. Strafing to stand between two of just juniors, the major preceded Optimus as he went to investigate.
He let out a low whistle as he observed the devastation in front of him. There were just a few piles of debris here and there, most of which came from a gaping hole in the ceiling, but what he didn't expect to find were the splintered, broken remains of a dark blue Decepticon littered across the ground like so many bits of Lego. It had been ripped apart by something. One, two, three...there were eight pieces in total, and quite a lot of metal scraps.
"Just who, or what in God's name did that?" Prentice asked out loud, once again unaware that he was speaking his mind. It may have been a Decepticon, but witnessing one that had been chewed up like a stuffed gorilla was not a rare occurrence.
Lennox look over to Optimus for answers, but the Autbot looked on with no visible sense of recognition. "I have no recollection of this one's identity," he admitted. "Though it appears he was young, perhaps as young as Bumblebee. He would have been raised on Cybertron long after we left."
"It's a Decepticon. Or it was a Decepticon," Jennings said matter-of-factly, lowering his carbine just slightly. "He's dead. That's all I care about. Did Skids and Mudflap do that? I'm sorry, sir, but that just doesn't seem like...you know...possible."
"No," Optimus confirmed. "This goes far beyond their capabilities. This level of mutilation would suggest another Decepticon was the cause."
"Doesn't explain where the Twins went, or how they managed to escape his fate," said Lennox. "Start searching for possible remains. Maybe they got out before the Decepticons arrived, or maybe they're mixed in with the debris outside. Either way, it'd be nice to know if Megatron targeted this place because he knew, or for some other reason we haven't figure out yet."
Prentice stooped down to pick something up off the floor—a plastic plate, and under the tightly clinging plastic wrap, an assortment of brand name cookies. "This has got to be the weirdest thing I'd expect to find in a place like this. Look, it's got those fuzzy animal stickers all over it. My niece loves these things."
"It's not a souvenir, Sergeant," Lennox reminded him. He did a double-take and rounded on the younger soldier to look at him again, and froze. "Prentice...whatever you do, don't...move."
At first, the look the sergeant gave him was of mocking disbelief; he wasn't the type to take everything seriously, and his mind was still on fuzzy stickers. He never noticed the tiny, metal critter clinging to his sleeve, blinking an ominous, yellow-orange light. When he caught a glimpse of it, he jolted backwards with a sharp inhale of breath. "Holy shit!"
"Don't move!" Lennox barked, louder this time. Prentice, partially satisfied that the thing wasn't going to attack him, tried to keep as still as possible as every occupant of the warehouse—Optimus included—followed suit. "We don't know what it is. We don't know where it came from. It might be dangerous."
"You think?" Prentice's voice was strained with pain and his fist tightened. "Major, it's...it's digging into my arm—oh shit, it's got claws or something...and it's vibrating. It feels like Satan's cell phone, sir...aghh, dammit!"
"It doesn't like movement," Lennox half-whispered. Thinking quickly, he backed up and tapped Optimus on the top of his nearest foot. "What the hell is that, big guy? Is that your kind of bug?"
"It is not of Cybertronian origin," replied the Autobot. "If it seeks out movement, then it is likely also attracted to heat. Sergeant, you must calm down."
"Calm down? Calm down?" Prentice almost squeaked. "I've got a blinking metal bug sticking its pincers into my flesh! I'm bleeding, man—you calm down!"
"This is going nowhere," the leader of the Autobots observed. Then, without any further warning, he raised an arm whilst forming a long, narrow barrel from moving parts above his hand. A second later, he fired a small missile into the ground dozens of meters away, which consequently exploded in a mid-sized fireball.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" cried Major Lennox, only a moment before Prentice gave a yelp. The scorpion-like machine thrust itself away from his arm, leaving behind a dark red splotch as it skittered madly across the ground and headed towards the place where the explosion had been.
Optimus aimed at the tiny machine, seconds away from destroying it with a well-aimed shot, when it suddenly leapt into the air and self-destructed. The resulting blast and eruption of flame shook the air and knocked four of Lennox's men clear off their feet. It left everyone in a state of shock and disorientation as the massive detonation became a decent sized crater in the ground, surrounded by half-melted Decepticon parts.
As bits and pieces of concrete and metal rained down around his head, Lennox stood up from where he had barricaded himself, staring in mild bewilderment at what could have been Sergeant Prentice, had the device not been diverted in time. "Alright," he said, a little too stupified to form a thought that made much sense. "If anyone...sees any more of those things...run like hell back to the safe zone. That's an order."
Sergeant Prentice, gripping his oozing forearm with his free hand, shook his head and muttered, "Amen."
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TBC
