To anyone who is reading this..as I'm working on a time limit I think it's at this point it starts getting a little shaky and possibly losing its way a little. I kind of know where I'm going with this, but as I joined nano last minute I'm writing this entirely off the cuff and am pretty amazed it's made as much sense as it has so far.
As a reminder, I am posting this here for my own ease of reading (the text and page layout hurts my eyes less than other sites/word), so if you want to help out my editing by pointing out flaws/repetitiveness then the suggestions are most welcome.
Hound and Sideswipe had managed to get back to the ship with no interruptions, of which Hound was thankful. He helped Sideswipe carry Hot Rod onto the Anaxagorus. Ignoring the relieved greetings from Hoist and Perceptor, he ordered Sideswipe to recharge, Hoist to take care of Hot Rod, Perceptor to do what he could to hide the ship from sensors and himself to recharge and rest.
Walking to the recharge chambers, Sideswipe broke the silence. "We need to get back in there."
Hound felt torn. "I know they need us, but we barely got out of there this time. We'll take the Secutor up, put some distance between us. It'll buy us some time."
"We're going to just leave them there?"
"No, but we can't just storm in there again. Besides, an EM bomb isn't going to work again. We need something else, and I need time to analyse all the information I've got from them."
Sideswipe nodded though clearly not satisfied and picked up his pace, reaching the recharge chambers a good few kliks before Hound.
laying in the recharge chamber feeling the energy slowly returning to his drained limbs., Hound tried to shut off a little to clear his mind, but his optics kept reactivating. He looked over at Sideswipe in the next recharge chamber, optics dimmed. He could see from where he was the mark across Sideswipe's face where his self repair system still hadn't fully repaired the damage to the faceplate.
He almost felt a pang of guilt, until he remembered that it was probably Sideswipe kicking the door of Starscream's cell open that brought the attention of their unknown captors to them. Then he realised that this was unfair. The lift had already stopped before that happened. Then thinking about it, did the lift automatically stop where it had? That made no sense, it would have stopped so the door would have opened into the hidden hallway. Something didn't add up, but he was too low on energy to think properly. Letting his mind wander, he shut off his optics and relaxed to the familiar sound of the ships systems.
The small reprieve he had didn't last. "There's nothing wrong with a tactical retreat, Sideswipe." They were on the bridge of the Anaxagorus, Perceptor and Hoist were over to one side trying to ignore the argument going on right next to them.
"Tactical retreat? It's not a tactical retreat, Hound if we're running away!"
"Oh for the…I'm not going through this again with you." Frustration wore at the usually calm features. "If we move one of the ships to Algol Three or the other moon, we can work from there."
Sideswipe gestured expansively to the viewscreen at the front of the bridge. "We can work from here. We're shielded from sensors and closer."
Hound sat down in the command chair, a subconscious move on his part but not one missed by Sideswipe. "I know Prime placed you in charge, but I still think you're wrong." He resisted the urge to mutter 'again'.
"Sideswipe, I know how you feel but Perceptor's work on shielding us from prying sensors was only to buy us some time, not a permanent solution. It works, but it has flaws and we've got less chance of being discovered if we relocate somewhere else nearby."
"Let me go back. I've got to at least try to get them."
Hound stood back up and placed a hand on Sideswipe's shoulder. "I don't know what's eating you, Sides, but you will follow orders. Do I make myself clear?" The tone was calm and quiet but there was a hard edge to it.
"Yes, sir." Sideswipe spoke tersely, emphasising the sir to more of an insult than a sign of respect, glared at him and walked to the nearest working console, looking like he was more likely to smash it than work.
Trying to ignore the unnamed gnawing on his neural processor he turned away from Sideswipe. "How's your patient?"
"In a bad way, Hound. I've done what I can for him and will continue to do so. He took a lot of damage and the EM bomb didn't help in his weakened state."
"I didn't really have any choice with that one, Hoist."
"I know you didn't. Don't blame yourself." Hoist looked sympathetic, then slightly affronted at Sideswipe's sneering grunt.
Hound internally shook his head. He needed to have a word with Sideswipe, but not now. "Thank you. Any idea when he'll regain consciousness?"
"Not for another few cycles, though I could probably bring him round sooner."
"I hate to do it, but I need what he knows." Hound said.
"Most sensible thing you've said for a while." Sideswipe walked towards the door. "I'll get the Secutor ready to go, shall I?" He left before he got an answer.
Hound joined Hoist to go to the med bay. "We've never seen optic to optic, but just when I think we might at least be starting to understand each other a little better, he proves me wrong."
They entered the medbay. "From what I heard, the war changed Sideswipe a lot. Though if that's true, it takes very little to make him revert." Hoist started fussing over the supports connected to Hot Rod.
Hound felt another need to sigh, but didn't. "I don't know. I think there's something more going on. I know he's a bit prickly when he's got nothing to do, but he's a long way from where he started. I'm pretty certain it's something connected to Sunstreaker."
"Sunstreaker? I know those two are close, well, their concept of close, but they work fine without each other."
"No, it's more than that. Me and Sideswipe were assigned together before, when Sunstreaker went missing. He pretty much made my existence the Pit then too. I know Sunstreaker was finally rescued, but I never asked Sideswipe exactly what happened."
"Did Sideswipe rescue him then?"
"I don't know. Not at that point." Hound looked thoughtful, trying to recall what happened. "He'd spent mega-cycles going on about it, finally got to Earth and not long after triggered his orbital jump recall and joined us again. He wasn't there long enough."
"He was allowed to leave the detail?"
"You know Sideswipe. There was a battle and to be honest, we really weren't going to stop him."
"I…" Hoist was interrupted by a groan of pain from Hot Rod. "I think he's coming back to us."
Optics flickered weakly, the tiny mechanisms of the optic could be seen moving underneath the broken optical covering. Hot Rod groaned again. "S..Slagging…glitches." An arm lashed out weakly
Hoist gently held Hot Rod's arm down. "Careful, I've only just fixed that arm." He checked the newly fixed connective cables. "Take it easy, you're among friends."
Hot Rod's optics darted fitfully as he scanned the room and its occupants. "Hoist? Hound?"
"Yeah, it's us." Hound stood next to him.
"Good. Help me up." Hot Rod tried standing, unsuccessfully.
"Don't rush it." Hound steadied him. "It's going to take a little while to get your equilibrium, you've sustained a lot of damage."
"Don't I know it. Slag it, there's not a sensor in me that's not complaining." He shifted gingerly onto his feet with Hound and Hoist's help. "Look, I can't stay here. It's important I get going. Thanks for the help guys, it's been fun but I'll catch you later."
"How are you planning on getting anywhere like that?"
Hot Rod grinned. "Where there's a will there's a way."
Hound smiled back. "It's going to take you more will than you can muster right now. Sit down for a minute." He waited until Hot Rod sat down heavily. "You might want to start by noticing you're hooked up."
Hot Rod noticed for the first time the wires and then cables coming from him. "Wha…?"
"Whatever got you, got you pretty bad. Hoist's supporting a lot of your systems and dampening your damage receptors at the moment. Without that support you're out like a light. Barely a few inches from stasis lock. You're lucky most of the extensive damage is superficial."
Hot Rod looked down to see scoring from a weapon blast and other damage to his torso plate. "Ouch." He said simply. "I take you brought me round for a reason?"
"I need to know everything you know about that underground bunker and the alien ship."
Hot Rod tried to clear his mind and get a better picture of what had happened. Realising how drained he felt, he went back to laying on the med table. "It's a bit of a long story. He shut off his optics, one to automatically conserve energy and also in a vain attempt to ignore his injuries, he was in more pain than he cared to admit. "The Senate tried to disband the Wreckers. Saying we were outdated and no longer necessary."
Hound resisted asking him when he'd joined their ranks.
Hot Rod continued "Obviously, we didn't agree. There are still small groups of 'cons around, small but active. That's ignoring all the rest of the slag the universe can throw at you." He fell silent for a while causing Hound to think he'd gone under again. Hoist's reassuring nod told him that everything was okay.
"We tried to explain to the Senate, well, Prime and Magnus did, that we were still needed. You know what political types are like, they don't listen. It made little difference to us, we decided if they weren't prepared to protect Cybertron, then we would, with or without their permission." A small hint of defiance in his voice and the slight grin gave away how Hot Rod felt about that. Apart from that Hot Rod was far more personable, Hound was reminded for an astrosecond of Sideswipe.
It happened that we were heading this way, got wind of a group of 'cons heading out here. I was closest, personal business, but I was supposed to meet Springer and the others."
"There were Decepticons here?" Hound asked.
Hot Rod brought his optics back online and looked at Hound. "Not right here. We wouldn't of bothered with any of them, small fry really. But we had it on good authority Starscream was leading them."
"That would explain why Starscream's there too."
Hot Rod looked surprised. "Screamer's there as well? I thought he'd cleared out of the system. As I said, I was over this way to hook up with Springer and the guys when I got waylaid by a distress signal. I found Skids and Jetfire, so we started fixing up their old rust bucket. I don't remember much after that." Hound turned his head, staring blankly at the ceiling. "Not until I came round again anyway. I remember quite a bit then. Most of it involving pain and questioning." Hot Rod gave a strangled chuckle, dismissing the severity of what he'd just said.
Hound balked at the idea for a second. All the horrors of the war had never been forgotten, but he'd hoped that they'd finally got past them. Then composing his thoughts he tentatively addressed the subject. "Look, Hot Rod, I know this might be hard, but I need as much information as possible. What did they ask you?"
"It's okay, Hound. Really. I'm made of sterner stuff than that. They asked mainly about Cybertron's defences. I kept telling them I was Cybertron's defences, but apparently they didn't believe me. The weird thing though," Hot Rod said after thinking for an astrosecond or two, "is that they kept telling me what Cybertron's defences were. If they knew so much, why ask to start with?"
"Curious."
"Isn't it? Slag I'm tired. Not as tired as I get listening to Kup, mind you." Chuckling to himself Hot Rod started mumbling, the words coming from his vocal processor slurred and faint.
Hoist turned from the support read out. "I'm losing it, Hound. He needs to rest. Much longer and all the support systems in the universe won't help, he'll be lucky if he only goes into stasis lock."
Hound leant over, looking into Hot Rod's now unseeing optics. "Hot Rod, you need to rest, but first, where's Springer?"
There was no answer. Hound tried again. "Where's Springer, Hot Rod?"
The reply was barely above a whisper. "Algol 3."
"Thank you." Hound stood straight. "Do what you can for him, Hoist."
Hoist's nodded, reassuringly. "Don't worry, he'll pull through."
Hound was on edge. Everyone's tempers were starting to wear thin. Between the inability to really get out from under each others feet and the constant threat of discovery by an enemy they wasn't prepared to face, and the biggest problem of the lot, boredom.
There was, for Perceptor and Hoist, a lot to get on with but even they needed a break. Hound tried to keep as occupied as possible, now that plans to move the ship were temporarily on hold until Hot Rod came around again. Sideswipe, while temporarily contented they weren't leaving, was now griping about delays. Hound sympathised to a degree but it had still ended in a heated argument with Hound demanding Sideswipe to explain to him what is was he expected him to do.
In the meta-cycle since Hound's conversation with Hot Rod, Hoist finally gave them some good news. Hot Rod, though still far from optimal, was now functional enough to move about. Perceptor also had reported that with the information Hound had given him, he could now modify scanners to pick up energy readings from the sentries though the bad news with this was the power levels Hound had recorded from the one they'd watched. Perceptor was quite adamant that it would probably fry every component in an Transformers body simultaneously.
Hound mulled the information over and went to talk to Hot Rod. He found him on the Secutor's bridge. "Nice little ship you've got here." Hot Rod said as Hound walked in.
"I can't take credit for her, but she does the job." Hound walked up to him. "I need some help."
"I know. If you want my advice, take the ship to Algol 3. Springer and the guys should be there by now, chances are they're probably going to start looking for me."
"I…"
He was interrupted by Hot Rod. "Look, the Wreckers are on the wanted list, but the media are controlled by the Senate. They want us to look bad in the hope that someone will turn us in to answer for our 'crimes'." Hot Rod's voice was full of contempt. "You know us, Hound. Autobots to the laser core. The smart thing would be for us to work together on this."
"To be honest, your reputation hadn't reached my audios. I don't get to keep up with the latest happenings on Cybertron any more. Regular broadcasts on Cybertronian matters don't exactly make hot topic news on Earth." Hound ignored Hot Rod's surprised look. "I was going to say that maybe we should work together on this, if Springer is willing. I have conditions, but nothing demanding."
Hot Rod grinned. "Hey, help's help."
"In that case, can you take the Anaxagorus with Hoist to Algol 3?"
Hot Rod looked quizzically at him. "What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to take the Secutor to AT1 and work from there. I'll give you all the data I have, and I'll stay in contact over an encrypted channel." Hound handed a data pad to him. "Give this to Springer. I want Hoist out of the way, we need someone to serve as a medical officer and he's the closest we have to one. I'm only willing to take Perceptor with me on the basis that he can hold his own in a fight."
Hot Rod shrugged. "I think you'd be better off coming with us, but do what you gotta do. I'll take the Anaxagorus. I can't say Springer won't be radioing you to get your posterior plates to Algol."
"He can ask, but as he's not my superior officer, I don't have to listen."
Hound's statement was so matter of fact, the lack of any attitude in it made Hot Rod laugh. "You know, Hound, there might be some hope for you."
"You never know."
Sideswipe entered the bridge. "What are you doing here?" It was directed at Hot Rod.
"I'm stealing your commander here. And I could ask the same of you."
"I'm on vacation. You?"
Hot Rod replied to the sarcasm with his own. "Same, Algol's fantastic at this time of solar cycle."
Hound looked at them both, bristling with barely contained contempt. Both with aggressive stances that said that one wrong word from one or the other would result in a fight. He took the opportunity to cut in before Hot Rod ended back in the med bay, and chances being good that Sideswipe would end up there too. "Hot Rod, can you go and give Hoist and Perceptor a run down of what's happening?"
Hot Rod glared at Sideswipe. "Sure."
Hound waited until the door gently whirred shut then turned to Sideswipe. "What is your problem?"
"Nothing." Sideswipe scowled.
Hound could feel the last shreds of his near infinite patience finally give out. "Slag it, Sideswipe. You honestly think I'm going to buy that?"
"You wouldn't understand."
"Try me."
If it was possible to Sideswipe to scowl harder, he managed it. "No. It's personal. Okay?"
Hound calmed instantly. "No, Sideswipe. It's not okay." His voice was soft. "We need to be able to work together on this. If you're going to let your personal feelings get in the way then you're no good to us."
"I'm sorry."
It was barely above a mumble so Hound thought for a moment his audios had glitched. Sideswipe noticed the unsure look and repeated it. "I'm sorry, alright. I'll keep my problems to myself."
"You know, I'd rather you didn't. But if you're not going to talk about it, well, I can hardly make you." Hound sat down. "I need to get some supplies together, I also want to set up on AT1 a way of using the solar wind, we need a sustainable energy source, which is why I need Perceptor. Hopefully Springer has enough supplies so we only need to worry about us three." Hound went on to explain what he'd discussed with Hot Rod.
"Why?"
"What do you mean, 'why'?"
"I mean why not just work with Springer and the others?"
"To be honest, the Wreckers have nothing but my utmost respect. But they're not here to rescue our guys. I'm not sure why they are here as Hot Rod only said they were here chasing Decepticons. It's not that I don't believe them, I do. The problem I've got with them is they're the heavy guns. I don't want anything to happen that could endanger those we're supposed to be rescuing. Prime entrusted me with this, I'm not going to let him down."
Sideswipe's expression visibly softened. "We'll get them back, and in one piece. You know I'm with you on this one."
"Thank you," Hound said quietly. "I just hope I'm doing the right thing."
"I think you're a bit foolhardy for not joining the others," Sideswipe grinned broadly. "But as it's coming from me, hey, when have I been one for doing what's sensible?"
Hound smiled broadly back. "I don't know, Sideswipe. Even you've had your moments."
They made all the preparations quickly, Hoist took the news that he was joining the Wrecker's group with good grace, if anything a little excited to be joining, even if only temporarily, with a group with such an well known reputation. Hot Rod had been in contact with Springer and had confirmed they were currently holed up on Algol 3.
Just before they were due to disconnect the ships completely, Hot Rod pulled Hound to one side. "I've updated Springer on the situation. He's not happy that you're not joining us, but he's told me to give you this, it's the frequency we're using." He passed Hound a small data pad. "Now I've had permission, I can fill you in on the rest.."
"The rest?" Not that Hound felt surprised.
"Yeah. I didn't mention it before, as it was confidential intel." He moved his shoulder joint working some stiffness out of the rotators. "We were chasing Decepticon's over this way, but it was some time back now. It was passing through on the way back after some of them had given us the slip that we noticed the strange readings, or lack of them in some places coming from AT2. We've been watching it for a while now, it's not been easy, this place isn't easy to stake out for deca-cycles.
There's not much more intel on the place on that data pad than you know already, but you might be interested to know the high speed winds? They're a bit of a new one. Something big is going on here. Have you ever heard of the Quints?"
Hound narrowed an optic, the name stirred something, but nothing he could quite place a digit on. "Quints?"
"Quintessons. I had a run in with them a good few vorns ago, they nearly deactivated me that time too." He shrugged. "Obviously they can't keep a good 'bot down. Well, we intercepted and managed to decode a message coming from AT2, and though we can't be definite, we are pretty certain it's a Quint encryption code."
"I take it this is not good news." Life just seemed to get more complicated by the klik.
"Not for an astrosecond. They're a nasty bunch. The last time I dealt with them they were a bunch of slaggers and time hasn't improved them."
Hound was going to ask how Hot Rod had managed to get mixed up with them, then thought better of it. A lot of Hot Rod's past was pretty colourful at times and even though in the pecking order that was once Autobot military ranks, Hot Rod's standing hadn't been higher than his own, he still had respect for the short time Hot Rod stood before them as Prime. That he was once chosen by the Matrix meant something to Hound, though judging by what was happening, it would seem the Senate didn't agree with him. Instead he settled for asking for what he might need to know when it came to dealing with them.
Hot Rod was loaded with information on various Quintessons, which he passed onto Hound as quickly as possible. "We'd better get moving. Watch your back, Hound. If it's them we could be in for a rough ride."
They walked back toward the direction of the bridge of the Anaxagorus together. At the walkway between the two ships Hound stopped and offered Hot Rod a hand. Shaking the hand Hot Rod offered back, he placed the other one on Hot Rod's arm. "Good luck with your mission. We'll keep you updated as best as possible."
"You too, Hound. If you do manage to get word back to Cybertron, tell Prime I said it's about time he got out of that office and kicked some Senator tailpipes."
Hound laughed. "Will do."
He stepped back as Hot Rod walked down the walkway, the hull door sliding closed behind him. Hound returned to the rec room of the Secutor where Perceptor and Sideswipe were waiting for him.
As he walked in, he noticed that for once it was good to see no one was arguing. There was a slight air of anticipation, now things were moving again it was like a weight had been lifted from everyone. Hound took a seat and told them everything Hot Rod had told him.
"This is most unfortunate." Perceptor said, looking concerned. "I've never personally dealt with them myself, but I've heard accounts of them from those who have. They're quite an elusive species so say the least. But highly dangerous. I would suggest we proceed with extreme caution."
"That was the script I recognised," Sideswipe said. "It was more vorns ago than I care to remember, I was detailed on some obscure planet - can't remember which one - some mudball, and we ran into it there on some old ruins. I don't remember ever seeing anything there though other than the Deceptions we were turning to slag."
"We haven't got much to go on apart from Hot Rod's first hand account." Hound noticed Sideswipe bristle slightly at the mention of Hot Rod's name. He ignored it and carried on. "I agree with Perceptor, caution is needed." He turned to Perceptor. "What exactly do we know about this moon?"
"To be brutally truthful, very little I'm afraid. I've been analysing the alloy sample you brought me but can conclude no more than the two metals it contains are unknown to us. With what little I've had to work with I've been able to determine I've never seen anything like it. It has enormous tensile strength, its melting point is quite impressive too, I'm not sure if it could withstand the temperatures of the smelting pools, but I cannot melt it by any means available to me here.
I can only conclude that as the metals are not naturally occurring, and there has been no activity in this system, these Quintessons, if they are here, have been here for a very long time. As you know, the natural velocity of the wind is quite significantly and consistently higher then you would expect to find on a moon of this type, yet the regular acceleration is precisely that. I cannot determine at this time precisely what the function this acceleration serves. Though if the metal is not naturally occurring and there is a need to recycle materials and remain undetected, ii would be feasibly possible to use an acceleration of wind to pick up the scrap filings to blow them into some sort of collection point for future use.
It would also explain the warmth of the wind. Very high temperatures are needed to melt the metals down, I would surmise in an underground facility the heat would be of uncomfortable levels for any being. Incorporating a cooling system that served two functions would be very energy efficient." Perceptor looked at the two sets of optics staring at him. "This is purely conjecture, I might add."
Taking in all Perceptor had said, Hound relaxed back into his seat slightly. "I feel more confident in your guesses than a lot of peoples facts, Perceptor."
"I do my best, Hound. But I have little to work with."
"I've got a feeling, Perceptor, if this goes the way I fear it will, I'll have more need of your skill as a warrior than a scientist." He stood. "Get some recharge, I want to leave for AT1 in three cycles at the latest. I know Jetfire said they won't be killed, but I'd rather not trust to luck."
When Hound left, Perceptor stood, turning to Sideswipe he spoke. "He wears the mantle of leadership quite well these days. Though I fear he still feels command doesn't fit as comfortably as he would need."
"He doesn't do a bad job." Sideswipe grumbled.
"He needs your support, Sideswipe. It would be in all our interests if you would stop antagonising him."
"Hey, I'm not antagonising him. It's not my fault he makes lousy decisions at times."
"And you never do?" With that, Perceptor left to recharge and leave Sideswipe to think over his words.
On the bridge of the Secutor, all three 'bots were at their stations finalising the last preparations. "Take us up, Sideswipe."
"I suggest we take a route that is less than direct. Though I've hidden our signature, I can't fully disguise all signs we are here. If we circle around the northern hemisphere of Algol 3 we can use the planet to completely mask our approach. to AT1."
"Good suggestion. Sideswipe, follow Perceptor's flight path."
Sideswipe took note of the flight plan that was sent to his console and made the necessary adjustments. "ETA to AT1 on our current course is a breem. I don't want to get us there any quicker as we've got more chance of being spotted."
Perceptor looked up from his station. "I've just received word from Hot Rod. He and Hoist have successfully met up with Springer and the others. Oh, Sideswipe? Apparently Twin Twist says if you're in the way when he decides to blow up that moon, he's scrapping you along with it."
Sideswipe laughed. "In his dreams. You can tell him he'll be lucky if I only blow him to slag first."
Perceptor looked mildly perturbed. "I think the communications function is…"
Something's coming up fas.." Sideswipe started to shout. Before he could finish the ship shook violently throwing them forward in their seats.
"What the frag..?" Sideswipe cursed as he straightened up, though it was drowned out by the sound of an alarm. He turned to look at Hound. "Bring back memories?"
"Yeah, someone else coming to attempt to wipe the floor with us."
Sideswipe armed himself. "Time to go kick their aft too." He didn't have to go anywhere, at that moment unseen assailants burst through the bridge door, Sideswipe managed to get off a few shots, barely having time to notice Hound and Perceptor open fire before he was hit by an energy burst instantly crippling all his systems. Stasis lock warnings were the last thing he was aware of before it all went blank.
Broadside looked up from his station and motioned to Springer. "I've not received a reply from the Secutor."
"I wouldn't worry too much. Keeping minimal communications makes sense. Right lads, you guys ready to have some fun?"
"Are we finally going to kick some Quint aft?" Twin Twist turned to Top Spin. "Do they actually have afts?"
"Shut up, Twist."
Hoist was feeling less than comfortable with some of his companions. "Do you require anything of me?" He felt less comfortable at the sound of a snigger, though he wasn't sure who it came from.
"We need you here, Hoist. Doing what you do best. Patching us up when we come back." Springer said kindly like he was compensating for the rudeness of his group. He turned to the others. "We'll wait for word from Hound, get the low down on what he discovers, and if I'm right about it being the Quints, we move in. Cybertron might need saving from itself, but it's never going to get the chance if the Quints get a foothold anywhere."
His audios came back online first. He lay there unable to see or feel anything. He felt like a disconnected consciousness, not what he'd expected it to be like after deactivation. Then he realised that if it was true that they returned to the matrix, or some place where the spark joined the others, it shouldn't sound like electrical circuitry shorting out and sparking. His train of thought followed through to the logical conclusion that he was in fact, not dead. He wasn't sure whether to be relieved by this realisation or not. After what seemed like an age, signals, faintly at first started sending signals up to his processor. He hoped the signals didn't suddenly pick up and flood in, he wasn't sure his neural net would cope. The he hoped they would, unconsciousness was looking like a good option as he started taking notice of how much everything hurt.
It seemed like another age passed. Frustration had set in some time back and was now set at a steady ebb and flow. Every attempt at movement resulted in pain. He tentatively tried internal systems to assess the damage, everything told him all was functional, self repair systems were healing only minor damage. His optics gradually became operational again. He found himself staring at ceiling of the bridge. Definitely not dead then. He was mildly diverted at the thought. Suddenly everything that had happened came flooding back. He tried his vocal processor and was relieved to find he could speak. "Sideswipe? Perceptor?"
There was no reply. Hound didn't worry immediately. Maybe they were in the same condition as him, but couldn't talk. He tried a radio signal. Still nothing. He tried moving again and was rewarded with a twitch of a digit. He mentally flinched at the pain it still caused, over sensitised sensors firing at the slightest provocation though it was less than before. Mentally steeling himself for what he was about to feel, he moved. He let out an involuntary yelp of pain. Ignoring it, he pushed on until he was sat upright. He waited a second for his optics to clear, the excess sensory input interfering temporarily with their function. He gingerly turned his head to see Sideswipe, optics dimmed, laying a short way from him.
"Sideswipe!" Hound gritted his dental plates and scrambled over to Sideswipe's side. Sideswipe's faint but steady pulse of fuel lines reassured Hound that Sideswipe was alive. He looked around but there was no sign of Perceptor. He turned back to Sideswipe, talking to him in the hope he would get a response. He didn't get one, and with a lot of his own systems still feeling fuzzy he was at a loss for what to do. Feeling weak, he lay down where he was. He knew he should try and get up, try and get himself and Sideswipe to the Secutor's tiny med bay, but though the mind was willing, his body wouldn't respond.
It was two breems later, if his internal chronometer was correct, that he heard a faint voice. "Hound?"
"Sideswipe?"
"Why are your feet in my faceplates?"
Hound gave a weak laugh and forced himself into a sitting position. "Sorry, I just kind of collapsed there."
Sideswipe grunted in pain as he pushed himself round onto his side and propped himself up on his forearm. "That was painful." He looked round. "Where's Perceptor?"
Hound shook his head. "He's not on the bridge. I'm worried about him. As soon as I can, I'll search the rest of the ship for him. Do you remember what happened?"
"I remember it hurting a lot, whatever it was. Something sneaked up on us?" Sideswipe shook his head in an effort to remember, then instantly regretted it. "Something came on the bridge? That was it."
Ah good. You remember the same as me, but everything's so glitched at the moment I needed to make sure I could trust what I remembered."
Sideswipe cursed. "I don't think I can get up."
"Give it a while, not like you have any choice. Whatever they hit us with it may not kill us, but it's effective."
"You know," Sideswipe's expression darkened. "That raises the question of why didn't they kill us?"
Hound sighed. "Not necessarily an easy question to answer."
"You know that's really distracting."
"What is?" Hound looked puzzled.
"The way you cycle air like that."
Hound chuckled softly. "Sighing? A human thing to do, I admit. It's something I picked up from them, but I can see why they do it. There's actually something quite satisfying about the expression."
Sideswipe's somewhat ambiguous facial expression told Hound Sideswipe didn't quite see what Hound was getting at. Hound just smiled, other Transformers not getting his love of Earth was commonplace. It was one of the reasons he chose to stay behind. Pushing himself, with difficulty, to his feet, Hound informed Sideswipe to stay where he was and went to attempt to find Perceptor.
The search was slow and painful, but he was determined to keep it up now he could move. Every room brought disappointment and a rising sense of worry. There was no sign of his science officer anywhere. Finally getting to the end of the ship he entered the shuttle bay. He was greeted by the sight of cold space. The only thing keeping the shuttle bay intact was the emergency shielding covering the large hole blown into what had been the bay doors. Searching the larger room thoroughly, he was left with no option but to go back to the bridge and tell Sideswipe.
Reaching the bridge he found Sideswipe had managed to get himself to his feet and was at the ship's helm. He didn't even bother to turn when Hound entered the room. "We're drifting. We have some emergency power, but the engines are dead."
To add more bad news, Hound just said dully, "Perceptor's gone."
"Gone?" Sideswipe stood and walked over to him. "Gone as in..dead?"
"I don't know, Sideswipe. Gone as in not here." Anger and hurt etched his voice. There was a bitter edge to it too. He slumped back into his command chair and laughed. There was no mirth in it. "Frag it. I couldn't have messed this up more if I'd set out to screw up." He brought his fist down on the side panel of the chair denting the metal. "And now Perceptor's been lost too, dead, captured…who knows."
Sideswipe awkwardly placed a hand on Hound's shoulder. "It's not your fault," He said quietly.
Hound looked away dismissively. He stood up shrugging off Sideswipe's hand and walked over to stare blankly out of the view screen.
Undeterred, Sideswipe walked over and stood next to him. "It's not your fault, Hound."
"Isn't it?"
Hound spoke so quietly Sideswipe had to strain his audio sensors to hear him. "No, Hound. It's not. You couldn't have foreseen this, it was supposed to really be just a straightforward rescue mission."
Hound remained silent. Sideswipe tried again. "Look, I'm not the best 'bot for this, I've all the tact of a wrecking ball at times, I know that. But I'm being honest here."
"Optimus should have chose someone else."
Sideswipe's limited patience ran out. "Oh shut it, Hound. Stop talking slag. Optimus asked you to lead this mission because he knows you can do it. Okay, it turned out much bigger than we thought it would be, it happens. And none of us have seen active duty for how long now? Let's face it, you've been on Earth, I've been stuck on a peaceful Cybertron trying to get business up and running and…"He trailed off, unwilling to finish the sentence. "Either way," he said recovering quickly. "It adds up to a whole lot of lack of blame. If I'd been running the show, we'd have probably ended out worse. There's a reason Prime uses your level head over my rush in ask questions later tactics."
Hound slowly turned his head to look at Sideswipe, slightly taken aback at Sideswipe's sudden honesty. He couldn't think of a time Sideswipe had ever openly spoken like this. Sideswipe noticed the look in Hound's optics. "What? I'm not perfect but you think I'm going to stay that pain in the aft rookie I started out as forever?"
"I…" Hound couldn't think of anything to say. Then as Sideswipe placed his hands on Hound's shoulders and rested his head gently on Hound's cranial casing, Hound found surprise was the only thing he felt at that moment; close physical contact was not in Sideswipe's repertoire, so he only just made out Sideswipe was talking.
"Recharge. The ship has some power. We rest and when we can think straight again, we work out what we're going to do next. You will do your job and lead the remainder of your team to finish what we came here to do." Sideswipe moved back, looking slightly surprised at himself.
Hound thought he could see a twinge of awkwardness there too, but if it was there, Sideswipe didn't let it stop him from all but frogmarching Hound to the recharge chamber.
