Back on Earth, at Nellis Airforce base, matters proceeded as usual for Captain Michael Bowman. He was checking in with various departments before calling the Autobot base. With Trent still not back among them, logistics had taken a little blow. DeMarco was simply good and no matter how many assistants he employed, there was no replacing his knack for getting what they needed without much bureaucratic fuss. The tension over the loss of communication with the Ghost-2 was showing in the way everyone behaved and Mike knew that if something bad had happened, things would get ugly.
Leaving his office, Bowman took a short cut between two buildings to get to the parking lot where his jeep was waiting. Walking briskly through the empty alley that looked no different from any city alley he knew, he mentally went through his list of Things to Do for today. He knew he could get a condensed schedule if he asked WiFi, but the little mech was recharging in his pocket. He didn't want to disturb his friend.
Something moved in the shadows.
Bowman's attention was suddenly on the shadowed area, his training kicking in. He might no longer be a pilot, was more like a bureaucrat nowadays, but he had the instincts and the skills, and he took care of keeping fit.
Red optics glowed, a vague shape forming, and he tensed.
Holy shit…
He tapped a hand against his pocket and felt WiFi wake. The little mech warbled something, making it sound like a question as he peeked out of the pocket.
Then his optics fell on the clearly mechanoid creature now stalking toward them.
He shrilled.
"Call help," Bowman hissed, then turned on his heels and ran.
It might be a stupid thing to do, but right now he didn't want this thing out in the open or in the more populated areas. He took an open door and ran into one of the buildings, a warehouse, and wove his way through the piles of stored goods.
The creature followed. Almost at a leisurely pace it chased him around, cut off his path, then prowled closer until Bowman ran again and it gave chase once more.
It was playing.
Something crashed down on his back with the force of an eighteen-wheeler and he was knocked to the ground, winded. Bowman thought he heard something break, but the need for air overruled any other pain he might be feeling.
There was gun fire. Voices yelled orders. Something exploded not far from him, the heat washing over him. Bowman stayed low, making himself as small a target as possible, still gasping. Something grabbed him, too big to be humans hands, and he twisted away, hissing as pain lanced through his arm. There was angry shrilling, then the sound of WiFi's tiny gun. Whatever was attacking them, Bowman doubted the little mech had a chance to even scratch it.
Something loomed over him, vicious looking, red optics glowing, and Bowman stared at the serrated teeth in a huge maw. Claws descended toward him and panic gave him another boost of adrenaline. The claws flung him aside and he hit his head somewhere, lights exploding in front of his eyes.
WiFi screeched in fury and through a curtain of blood running freely from a head wound he saw the Nokia jump toward the much larger attacker – which was about the size of a human horse – and his breath froze. WiFi seemed to know no fear as he clung to one optic, jabbing viciously at it.
And it gave.
To Bowman's amazement the transparent cover over the left red optic broke and WiFi jammed one claw into the socket, releasing another round of gun fire.
The creature screamed and tried to shake off the tiny bug-like mechanoid.
"Captain!"
Bowman was grabbed and pulled away, his legs refusing to work, his shoulder and arm screaming fire. He didn't think he had a concussion, but he was bleeding profusely, as head wounds tended to do.
"Sir, are you all right?"
"Yeah," he replied shakily, though it wasn't the truth. Anyone could see that.
He watched as men in protective gear, carrying what looked like oversized fire extinguishers, swarmed the warehouse. They stayed as far away from the raging thing as possible, letting those with guns wear it down first. By now the armor was riddled with cracks.
And then a volley of sabot rounds hit the creature.
It screeched in pain and Bowman yelled at WiFi to let go. The tiny mech did, flying through the air as the mechanoid shook its head, and he bounced over the floor. The soldiers with the deep-freeze advanced and liberally sprayed the intruder until it was no longer able to move a single digit.
By now the warehouse was swarming with military and Bowman wouldn't be too surprised to hear that the Autobots were on their way. Someone pushed him back to lay on the ground, but Bowman fought him.
"I'm fine," he repeated. "What is that thing?"
"I don't know, sir, but we need to get you checked out. I think you dislocated your shoulder."
Bowman frowned. Well, it did hurt, but considering he was still in the Golden Hour, he knew it was small compared to the pain that could hit him soon. Hissing sounds emanated from the frozen mechanoid and the red optics glowed with anger and fury, but it couldn't move. WiFi scurried up his pant leg and chirped softly. He looked banged up and one of his wing-like back structures was bent completely out of shape. One of the pincers looked half-scrapped, too.
Bowman sighed a little in relief. At least WiFi was okay. He had been scared shitless to see his tiny friend attack this large robot.
"Optimus Prime is coming in, sir," one of the soldiers announced.
Bowman nodded and forced himself to his feet. WiFi warbled and clung to his jacket. He pushed him up to his shoulder.
"Unable to transform?" he asked quietly.
It got him a twip-twip of confirmation.
"Ratchet can look at you. Sam's not here," Bowman added.
WiFi didn't look happy. Ratchet scared him.
Walking more or less steadily over to the frozen attacker, Bowman finally had the time to look at the thing. It was even larger than a normal horse, about two meters of shoulder height alone, and it was a quadruped. The front legs were heavily clawed, the back legs looked powerful and strong. It had no tail, but the body of a predator. The head was short, the maw filled with long, vicious teeth, and the optics were still glaring at them.
The soldiers who had taken care of the intruder were those hand-picked by Lennox and himself. They were the few men and women at Nellis who knew the whole truth about the alien mechanoids among them.
WiFi chattered softly in his ear, sounding disturbed, almost frightened. For such a little guy he had been immensely courageous. If he was human, Bowman would say the adrenaline was wearing off and he was suddenly aware what he had done. The captain gave his companion a tired smile.
"Sir?" the soldier to his right pressed once more.
"Who's in charge?" Bowman asked.
"Lieutenant Schmidt."
Bowman searched the cluster of soldiers and found Schmidt, a dark-haired woman with a no-nonsense attitude, who was currently barking orders at several of her team to secure the intruder. She suddenly turned and nodded at him, as if she had felt his gaze.
"Captain," she greeted the injured man, looking him up and down. "You should see a medic. We'll take care of this one. Any idea what it might be?"
"No. I heard Optimus Prime is already on his way. Secure the intruder and keep him in a safe room."
"That goes without saying." She frowned at the ice-covered creature. "Decepticon, I suspect."
"Most likely."
"We'll inform you of developments, Captain Bowman," she told him, firmly nodding at the soldier still hovering to Bowman's left to take the man to see a medic.
WiFi chirruped and awkwardly started his descent to Bowman's jacket pocket. The captain took the Nokia and helped him hide.
"Let's go," he told his 'bodyguard'.
His shoulder was by now killing him.
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Ravage stopped to scan for close-by enemy presence, but he found nothing. He was alone. Optimus Prime had left the base, as predicted, to head for Nellis. Now there were only two more guardians left, as well as several human soldiers. He wasn't worried about the humans. Their senses were limited, their weapons, though effective, no threat for his speed – unless he was pinned down or there were too many. Ravage had never made the mistake to think of the inhabitants of this world as inferior. They were dangerous in their own way.
A transmission came in from Soundwave and he answered it, relaying his position. Soundwave acknowledged and then vanished into the vast Net again, checking on his other spies.
Time was of the essence now. The Ghost-2 was delayed as planned, which meant three less Autobots to worry about. Howlback had given his freedom to ensure that at least one Autobot would go to Nellis airbase to check out what had happened there. Now it was up to him, Beastbox and Squawktalk to accomplish their mission, the most important of all.
Ravage stopped and scanned a closed air vent, which led from somewhere inside the Autobot base to the surface. This was his way in.
"Ravage in position," he told the other two symbiotes.
Squawktalk acknowledged.
It was time to draw the last of the enemy out of the base to get to their goal.
Seconds ticked by.
Then a loud explosion shook the ground and a building at the far end of the abandoned airfield blew up.
Ravage watched patiently as the alarm went off inside the main hangar, then, as not otherwise expected, the human soldiers poured out and headed for the explosion site.
"Distract them," he ordered the other symbiotes as he closed in on his target.
This would have to happen fast. The Autobots wouldn't be distracted for long and neither of the two Decepticon symbiotes were a match for the enemy. Ravage had no illusions about his own fate should Ironhide or Ratchet catch him.
"Enemy engaged," Beastbox sent and Ravage confirmed.
Using his previously acquired knowledge of the Autobot base he wound his way through stacks of containers, evading the few humans still inside. They had moved to safer ground anyway, and though they were armed, they weren't the problem.
And then he saw the target. Fascinated by the runes and glyphs clearly visible on the soft skin, the Decepticon spy watched the human. The runes moved lazily, like an intricate pattern no one could explain. Ravage was stunned by the beauty of the cosmic runes, by the power they expressed. He could read some of the glyphs, written in Cybertronian, but the rest was as mystical as the Allspark had always been.
Squawktalk told him to hurry it up as Beastbox had taken damage and the airborne symbiote wasn't far behind in losing massively against the firepower of the Autobots.
Ravage growled to them, then quickly checked the area – he was alone -- and jumped the target.
The human was surprised, but instead of screaming and going down, he fought back. Ravage had the human male pinned underneath him, but the skin suddenly darkened and then Ravage was caught in a blast of energy. It sizzled over his armor and he hissed, surprised. He jumped back, shaking his head. His systems complained loudly about the overload. Intel had told them that the human, while a hybrid and in possession of Allspark traits, would be easy to take down. He was human after all.
Apparently that had been wrong.
Lashing out with his tail, stingers aiming to cripple but not to kill, he managed to knock the man down, but he wouldn't give up. The no longer human skin was by now overrun with Allspark glyphs. His blow hadn't even broken the usually very soft skin!
He attacked again, but the human was faster now, moving quickly and efficiently, energy collecting between his fingers, and then it was unleashed toward the symbiote. Ravage scrambled back by instinct and yowled in surprise as the human took on the appearance of a protoform mech, eyes now ice blue optics. Not only had he changed his appearance, but also his size!
This hadn't been in the data! Nothing had!
"Wrong move," the creature said, ice blue optics glowing brightly.
He frantically called his fellow symbiotes, but Beastbox and Squawktalk didn't reply. He didn't get as much as a blip.
Firing at the metamorphed human, Ravage was briefly satisfied that his weapons did some damage, but just briefly.
The gun pointing at him had him disengage and run.
"Retreat!" he told the others. "Retreat!"
No reply.
Nothing.
He took the way he had come, trying to lose the other between the crate, but the human knew the base – and he wasn't scared of him at all! He was following him.
Something exploded to his right, throwing him aside, and he doubled his efforts. He lost several volleys from his hip-mounted canons and was pleased to see the hybrid was faltering, but he had no time to re-engage. He had to leave. Now! And he had to change tactics. Survival was his priority now, not the capture of the human.
More humans were around him, their surprise short and quickly transforming into defense and battle-readiness. Ravage howled in pain as a sabot round burned over his left hind leg, upsetting his balance. He slammed his tail into a rack of crates, making them topple, then jumped into the ventilation shaft that had led him here.
A few moments later he emerged into the open and accelerated to maximum speed, his body protesting as circuits were already over-taxed and muscle cables strained and threatening to rupture.
Ravage didn't care.
He had to survive.
tbc...
